I Didn't Think It Was THIS Bad!
As much as I have tried not to bother with the ongoing issues messing up baseball, labor or otherwise, it's gotten to the point where I HAVE to weigh in on all of this. Sure, everyone has given their two cents over the ridiculous All-Star Game tie, but let's go ahead and recap everything...
The All-Star Game is played in Milwaukee, hometown of commissioner Bud Selig, who owns, errrr, used to own the Brewers. They're playing at Miller Park, crown jewel of Selig's master plan to hold up taxpayers everywhere for new stadiums, where the roof doesn't close right without screeching and squealing loud enough to be heard in Green Bay and the stadium wound up costing tons more than anyone expected. On the night of the Home Run Derby, the threat of rain closed the roof, causing the competition to take place in stifling indoor humidity. So this thing's already off to a bad start, and should I mention that we now know that the owners "asked" the players not to set a strike date on All-Star Monday?
The following night, they play the All-Star Game, and in a nervous attempt to get everyone in the game, Joe Torre and Bob Brenly leave themselves with one pitcher each when the game goes to extra innings. By the middle of the 11th, they decide they don't want their precious pitchers getting hurt, so they ask Selig for guidance. The Commish literally throws his hands up and says it ends as a tie if the National League doesn't score in the bottom of the 11th. So, the PA announcer lets everyone know the game's going to be a tie, and bedlam ensues. It gets worse when the NL fails to score in the 11th, and the fans go Cleveland Browns on Selig's pride and joy of a stadium, tossing garbage and beer bottles onto the field. Selig, meanwhile, escapes for the safety of the dugout, where he promptly stiffs Fox Television for a postgame explanation of what happened and runs off to do a press conference. And after all the pre-game tributes to Ted Williams, they don't give the newly named Ted Williams Award for the game MVP out to ANYONE.
Here's a simple solution to this mess for future All-Star Games, and it doesn't requiring expanding rosters or thinking up cutesy little tie-breakers: NO MORE PUTTING GUYS IN JUST SO THEY PLAYED!!! Think about it, you get your All-Star bonus whether you play or not. Unfortunately, Orioles fans made such a stink over Mike Mussina not getting in the All-Star Game at Camden Yards a few years back that now managers are afraid not to put guys in. Back in the 50s and 60s, the living legends of the game (Williams, Mays, Aaron) played all 9 innings; the same should be expected today with Bonds, Pudge Rodriguez, and Giambi. I understand we can't expect Derek Jeter or Nomar Garciaparra to play most of the game since they play the same position, and that is part of the problem; some positions are so deep that you have to get multiple stars in at one position, but at least leave a good supply of available bench players for the possibility of extra innings. That way, you won't have an embarrassment like this one.
Then, to add insult to injury, Selig announces the next day that one team won't make payroll the following Monday and another team will probably fold by the end of the season, but he won't say who. He then is forced to backtrack when his own COO says that the team (the Detroit Tigers, by the way, who play in a brand new taxpayer-financed stadium) will make payroll. However, when it comes to the threat of teams folding, the players union claims the commissioner is bluffing and go back to the business of trying to set a strike date. Depending on who you believe, they will either strike in late August just like in '94, or they will strike on September 16, so as to avoid walking the picket lines (with limousines in tow) on the anniversary of 9-11.
So, to review, the entire All-Star Break was a joke, the nation blames Bud Selig for that joke, Fox is THIS CLOSE to killing their TV contract with MLB, especially if the players strike, there's the threat of two teams not making it through the season, and none of this matters anyway, because as I have been telling you since last October, the players WILL strike and there WILL NOT be a World Series.
Oh, and also Baseball Weekly is reporting that despite the feel-good story that is the Minnesota Twins escaping from the brink of extinction to cruise to a division title and possible World Series run, owner Carl Pohlad STILL wants to close up shop, take the $150 million and contract the team!!! If there is a World Series this year (which there won't be), and the Twins somehow win it, the ring ceremony next year may well take place in the parking lot of the Mall of America, with 25 players wearing new uniforms.
Well, if you're looking for me to fill the rest of the column this week with solutions to these problems, I could do that, but I don't think anyone on either side of the labor negotiations is listening to reason or sanity, much less a fledgling Internet columnist. The owners have been pushing the correct solution to the financial problems of baseball all along with the luxury tax. The players call it a "de facto salary cap". You know what, if that's what it is, GOOD! I've said all along that baseball needs a salary cap to maintain competitive balance. It's a joke to watch the Yankees pick up Raul Mondesi and Jeff Weaver for nothing because the Blue Jays and Tigers are flat broke and the Yankees can afford to pay anyone anything. Nobody wants to see one team win all the time except for the fans of that one team. It might have been okay during baseball's "golden age", when there were only 15 other teams and players' salaries or teams' payrolls weren't an issue. Today, salaries are out of control, the Yankees are the only team that can afford to spend like they do, and there are 29 other groups of fans (well, okay, 28, no sense in assuming the Devil Rays HAVE fans) who can't stand it.
The "spend now to win now" attitude is precisely what I blame for my Mets being miserable failures this season. Mets GM Steve Phillips (who should be fired, IMHO) dealt away Todd Zeile and Robin Ventura for no other reason than they had one off year, and until recently, Mo Vaughn, Jeromy Burnitz, Robby Alomar, and Roger Cedeno COMBINED didn't have as many homers as Ventura had with the Yankees. Vaughn's now doing much better; it must have been the '86 Mets uniforms that they wore for a throwback series against the Marlins. Two thoughts: 1) maybe they should switch back to those uniforms full time; sure they're ugly, but we seem to hit better in them, and 2) the 80's are now considered "throwback"? God, I feel old.
But see, now I'm getting into the issues that concern my team and how we'll do down the stretch when we know darn well that there will not be a stretch to go down. The players had better check their egos at the door and realize that the world does not revolve around them, because if they are on strike on September 11, they'll get a very painful reminder of that.
The All-Star Game is played in Milwaukee, hometown of commissioner Bud Selig, who owns, errrr, used to own the Brewers. They're playing at Miller Park, crown jewel of Selig's master plan to hold up taxpayers everywhere for new stadiums, where the roof doesn't close right without screeching and squealing loud enough to be heard in Green Bay and the stadium wound up costing tons more than anyone expected. On the night of the Home Run Derby, the threat of rain closed the roof, causing the competition to take place in stifling indoor humidity. So this thing's already off to a bad start, and should I mention that we now know that the owners "asked" the players not to set a strike date on All-Star Monday?
The following night, they play the All-Star Game, and in a nervous attempt to get everyone in the game, Joe Torre and Bob Brenly leave themselves with one pitcher each when the game goes to extra innings. By the middle of the 11th, they decide they don't want their precious pitchers getting hurt, so they ask Selig for guidance. The Commish literally throws his hands up and says it ends as a tie if the National League doesn't score in the bottom of the 11th. So, the PA announcer lets everyone know the game's going to be a tie, and bedlam ensues. It gets worse when the NL fails to score in the 11th, and the fans go Cleveland Browns on Selig's pride and joy of a stadium, tossing garbage and beer bottles onto the field. Selig, meanwhile, escapes for the safety of the dugout, where he promptly stiffs Fox Television for a postgame explanation of what happened and runs off to do a press conference. And after all the pre-game tributes to Ted Williams, they don't give the newly named Ted Williams Award for the game MVP out to ANYONE.
Here's a simple solution to this mess for future All-Star Games, and it doesn't requiring expanding rosters or thinking up cutesy little tie-breakers: NO MORE PUTTING GUYS IN JUST SO THEY PLAYED!!! Think about it, you get your All-Star bonus whether you play or not. Unfortunately, Orioles fans made such a stink over Mike Mussina not getting in the All-Star Game at Camden Yards a few years back that now managers are afraid not to put guys in. Back in the 50s and 60s, the living legends of the game (Williams, Mays, Aaron) played all 9 innings; the same should be expected today with Bonds, Pudge Rodriguez, and Giambi. I understand we can't expect Derek Jeter or Nomar Garciaparra to play most of the game since they play the same position, and that is part of the problem; some positions are so deep that you have to get multiple stars in at one position, but at least leave a good supply of available bench players for the possibility of extra innings. That way, you won't have an embarrassment like this one.
Then, to add insult to injury, Selig announces the next day that one team won't make payroll the following Monday and another team will probably fold by the end of the season, but he won't say who. He then is forced to backtrack when his own COO says that the team (the Detroit Tigers, by the way, who play in a brand new taxpayer-financed stadium) will make payroll. However, when it comes to the threat of teams folding, the players union claims the commissioner is bluffing and go back to the business of trying to set a strike date. Depending on who you believe, they will either strike in late August just like in '94, or they will strike on September 16, so as to avoid walking the picket lines (with limousines in tow) on the anniversary of 9-11.
So, to review, the entire All-Star Break was a joke, the nation blames Bud Selig for that joke, Fox is THIS CLOSE to killing their TV contract with MLB, especially if the players strike, there's the threat of two teams not making it through the season, and none of this matters anyway, because as I have been telling you since last October, the players WILL strike and there WILL NOT be a World Series.
Oh, and also Baseball Weekly is reporting that despite the feel-good story that is the Minnesota Twins escaping from the brink of extinction to cruise to a division title and possible World Series run, owner Carl Pohlad STILL wants to close up shop, take the $150 million and contract the team!!! If there is a World Series this year (which there won't be), and the Twins somehow win it, the ring ceremony next year may well take place in the parking lot of the Mall of America, with 25 players wearing new uniforms.
Well, if you're looking for me to fill the rest of the column this week with solutions to these problems, I could do that, but I don't think anyone on either side of the labor negotiations is listening to reason or sanity, much less a fledgling Internet columnist. The owners have been pushing the correct solution to the financial problems of baseball all along with the luxury tax. The players call it a "de facto salary cap". You know what, if that's what it is, GOOD! I've said all along that baseball needs a salary cap to maintain competitive balance. It's a joke to watch the Yankees pick up Raul Mondesi and Jeff Weaver for nothing because the Blue Jays and Tigers are flat broke and the Yankees can afford to pay anyone anything. Nobody wants to see one team win all the time except for the fans of that one team. It might have been okay during baseball's "golden age", when there were only 15 other teams and players' salaries or teams' payrolls weren't an issue. Today, salaries are out of control, the Yankees are the only team that can afford to spend like they do, and there are 29 other groups of fans (well, okay, 28, no sense in assuming the Devil Rays HAVE fans) who can't stand it.
The "spend now to win now" attitude is precisely what I blame for my Mets being miserable failures this season. Mets GM Steve Phillips (who should be fired, IMHO) dealt away Todd Zeile and Robin Ventura for no other reason than they had one off year, and until recently, Mo Vaughn, Jeromy Burnitz, Robby Alomar, and Roger Cedeno COMBINED didn't have as many homers as Ventura had with the Yankees. Vaughn's now doing much better; it must have been the '86 Mets uniforms that they wore for a throwback series against the Marlins. Two thoughts: 1) maybe they should switch back to those uniforms full time; sure they're ugly, but we seem to hit better in them, and 2) the 80's are now considered "throwback"? God, I feel old.
But see, now I'm getting into the issues that concern my team and how we'll do down the stretch when we know darn well that there will not be a stretch to go down. The players had better check their egos at the door and realize that the world does not revolve around them, because if they are on strike on September 11, they'll get a very painful reminder of that.
Labels: baseball
posted by Dave | 11:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home