One of theses days we’ll all welcome Picasner back from the 19th century when men were men and pitchers pitched 40 complete games in a season. In the meantime, we’re all stuck in 2009 while Picasner plays interminable reruns of “Back to the Future” and moans nostalgically for the good old days that never were. (Ouch! Only teasing because I know you can take it and, more likely, ignore it.)
I can tell you from years of experience, the only time Picasner has ever accused me of “arbitrary” negativity was when I failed to remind him to bring enough beer to a party or if I had an opinion that differed from one of his formed in, and unmodified since, 1954.
Picasner sets up the straw man “…I suppose if EVERYONE does it…” and then erroneously blames one instance of a strategy not producing a win. The problem was not that Papelbon failed but rather that the Red Soxs did not score in the bottom of the 9th. I find the opinions of Joe Torre, Terry Francona, Joe Madden and other successful major league managers more compelling logically and in their ability to achieve intended outcomes than Picasner’s harkening to discarded strategies of yesteryear. There’s less than a six pack of Yankees still playing with World Series rings from the late, great teams, and all of those teams had great relievers, you know who they are, specifically for the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings, and a long reliever – a couple three innings – when necessary. When you manage in New York, Boston, LA, and many other cities, you manage to win, today, everyday. If you don’t, you’re gone. Right, Willy?
Picasner asks, “In this day and age, when 'elite' closers are coddled and protected, why use him in that situation?” I do hope that Picasner someday has the opportunity to ask Mariano Rivera how he feels about being coddled and the answer is, it gives you the best chance of winning today. Final Answer.
Picasner continues, “Of course this is a business. That doesn't make it right to prostitute a whole special event in pursuit of the dollar. It happens in a lot of cases, like the World Series schedule.” I might remind our idealistic friend that even Newt Gingrich, that scion of Republican roll-your-own, f__k-your-buddy apologists, has written that “Where business prevails, ethics always suffer.” Owners run their organizations to maximize profit. If that means playing a game at 12:10 am on Nov. 1st, so be it. Tilt at all the windmills you like. Your righteous indignation (Is there any other kind?) is duly noted and series games will start 22 minutes earlier this year. Feel better?
“…advocating the sport…”? Since day one when a player asked for more money, “Baseball is a game, and money should never sully our sport.”, replied the owners. When players complained they were no more than indentured servants bound by the reserve clause, “Play for me or no one else, because it’s a business and we need to be protected.”, said the owners. That was the dark side, Picasner.
It’s religion. Major league baseball is, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, a business. And in the case of the Yankees, the team is one of several production companies that supplies entertainment to YES for commercial distribution. Amen.
“I believe the original intent was…”, if you complete that phrase with anything other than …to make money, you’re 1) naïve 2) dreaming 3) wrong 4) all of the above. Owners throughout baseball history have been among the most nefarious monopolists in our history. George Will and his ilk love to revel in the appointment of Judge Kenisaw Mountain Landis as Commissioner was a selfless act on the part of the owners that “saved the national pastime.” Landis’ major contributions were institutionalizing the servitude of players and pushing players of color out of major league baseball and keeping them out, a tradition upheld until Jackie Robinson was “allowed” to play. Ah, for the good old days.
Picasner and I share a common background. Our formative ideas of “baseball” developed in the 1950’s when we were kids unable and with no need to separate our sport, sandlot baseball, from the business of major league baseball. When we were 12 in 1956 growing up in Oswego, New York, what did we know about the reserve clause, racism in baseball or in any other aspect of American culture? Little or nothing. Did we know Mickey Mantle as a mortally damaged alcoholic or an idol to admire? What we knew is that if you played on a team that had a sponsor who provided hats and shirts, that was fat city.
Romanticizing the past prevents us from honestly assessing current events, and no generation may be guiltier of that self-delusion than we early boomers.
Spend some time talking to middle teens playing ball on summer traveling teams. They’ll tell you how they started their “careers” in Little League, played in Babe Ruth, got recruited to play on traveling teams with budgets for equipment, buses, hotels, and meals, recruited by college coaches with promises of partial or full rides. These kids know intimately that baseball is a business. You don’t need to look farther than your local Little League to find players that are protected and coddled.
Please, no more nostalgic laments about the game losing its innocence and that we shouldn’t …”passively sit by like we don't notice.” The game of baseball, the sport, lost its innocence with the passing of sandlot ball. Major league baseball was born out of desire for money and power. It never had any innocence to lose.
So…watch the Home Run Derby tonight and enjoy it. Watch the game Tuesday, or not. If you do, you’re likely to see pitchers who paint corners, fielders with great range and shot gun arms, or, in the case of Derek Jeter, a player who is so much more than the sum of his parts, and hitters that can center pitches that astonish mortal men. And following the game, just like the owners, the players will slide into their limos and fly private jets to mansions all over a country in the throes of the greatest economic upheaval since the Great Depression.
How sweet it is.
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