Weather beaten face, lines that had lines, a tan definitely not acquired at the beach. "Well, there's a little to work with here, but not much. It's going to cost you. You're George's boy, right? Should be good for it."
Hank had money. That wasn't the question.
"You keepin' this ARod?
Hank nodded. "Cost me $275 million. I think so."
"Don't say, don't say. You ever been to town before you got takin' there boy?" The old man laughed the kind of laugh that felt like it was made of concertina wire.
"What about the Giambi?"
The old man just shook his head. "I can't do anything what that. Rotted right through. The Damon over there is busted up. Looks OK from the outside but darn near worthless. And watch this."
The contractor took a level out and placed it face up so Hank Steinbrenner could see the bubble. Then he rolled a ball across the main room. It kept going out the door and down to the street.
"See that, your catcher is just about gone."
"But what about the Posada?"
"Didn't you hear me boy, it's shot. Look, this trap isn't going to pass inspection if you fill it up with a bunch of antique equipment ain't up to code. The Jeter is old but serviceable and I'll bring some gas from down at the truck. Maybe we can get the Cano restarted and find something to do with that Cabrera. Say, somebody told me they offered you an almost new Santana for that Cabrera and the Hughes you got on blocks down to the shed. That true?"
Hank's face reddened. "I'd rather not talk about that. Get on with it."
"Looks good over there in your neighbors driveway." Vernon grinned. George hated it when Vernon grinned.
"And even though you got slickered on the Matsui I guess we can keep that. You need to just chuck the Abreu, though. Might be next week, might be next year, but it ain't pulling any power. Just a waste of your money to keep it going. I'll be needin' to see the pitching."
This was what Hank had been dreading.
"Boy, howdy, look at this ####! A Petitte, a Mussina, and son tell me that ain't no LaTroy Hawkins?"
Hank slid his foot over to flip a rug over the David Wells he just bought. It didn't quite cover the massive Wells. It never did.
"Now that's a fine Chamberlin you got, but you gotta remember they's made to be used. Looks like you been keeping this one in the garage. Take it out and fire it up, they're meant to be pitched. That's a fine Wang you got, and that old Rivera will probably keep running for years. Most of the rest of this stuff you can....wait a minute, I don't believe it. I'd heard about this, that's a..."
Steinbrenner wasn't used to being laughed at, even though he had been getting plenty of practice lately. "It's a @##%$ Pavano. Could you just give me an estimate and let's get on with this?"
Vernon was over in the corner, holding his side with tears rolling down his cheeks. Laughing so hard he could barely breathe his words came out in gaps.
"Just, just a minute, I'll be fine. I'm sure sorry, I didn't mean any disrespect. Wait, is that an Igawa?"
It was on again. Five minutes of Vernon slapping his palm on the table and pointing and laughing. Sure Hank's dad had let Cashman, the old family retainer, make some stupid acquisitions, but the Steinbrenner name meant something before and it would again.
Quietly, and with a resolution nobody had seen since he let old Torre go, Hank got out his checkbook. "Mr. Farley, give me a list of what you'll require. Haul off what you don't need and go to town for the rest."
"Well, I can get my cousin Jake to haul that GIrardi down off the roof. That's a start. I'll be needing a new first baseman. The Texeira is on the market. Pure quality and power to spare."
"Do it."
"We'll fix up the Cano, keep the Jeter. You sure about the ARod?"
"I'm sure."
"Then we'll take the Damon and the Abreu down to the dump, leave the Matsui and Cabrera there but keep an eye on them in case they start breaking down. I'll have a Dunn shipped in from Cincinnati. I know somebody who's got an option on a Guerrero. If he doesn't pick it up we need to jump all over that."
"Agreed."
Vernon shook his head. "Now, the pitching is where we need invest. You got a bad foundation the whole shee#### can cave in you."
"How well I know."
"It's going to cost us, but I'd go for Sabathia AND Sheets. You might as well just give the Mussina and Pettite to Good Will. The Kennedy and Hughes we can get running. And don't forget what I said. That Chamberlin needs to be used. We'll pick up a Lidge just in case the Rivera gives out, a maybe a Fuentes and a Ayala."
"Here's the check. Cashman will give you a lift back to town."
Vernon squinted hard at the zeroes on the check. "You good for this? Cause if you ain't I know where you live."
Joba Chamberlin isn't claiming the right, but he is firmly establishing his big goof credentials. When you've got a 100 mph fastball I suppose you can pump your fist over outs and scream and yell on the mound. After all, does a hitter really want to anger someone with a 100 mph fastball?
David Delucci of the Indians sounds like he might. Here's what he had to say after Chamberlin struck him out late in Thursday's game after giving up a pinch hit homer to him on Tuesday.
"If he wants to yell and scream after a strikeout and dance around the
mound, that's what gets him going," Dellucci said. "My home run was in
a much bigger situation, a much more key part of the game, but I didn't
dance around and scream."
American League baseball is softball on steroids so you can't really apply the normal rules of the game. AL pitchers can get away with anything on the mound, knowing they don't have to come to the plate. But even in the American League, there is a simple means of stopping the Joba Chamberlin show.
Throw at a Yankee. Not randomly, but soon after Chamberlin's show is over. And not just any Yankee, but Jeter or ARod.
Now Major League Baseball would say that is wrong. and suspend the pitcher who decked a Yankee. But with 12 man pitching staffs you probably have some reliever just up from Podunk you wouldn't miss for a couple of weeks if the ball happened to "slip out." In the meantime Jeter might decide this was an appropriate time to exert a stabilizing influence on Chamberlin, presuming he wasn't too sore to inhale or exhale.
But Chamberlin is just being himself, right? Joe Girardi, the Yankee manager went so far as to say "I can understand if you don't know a player's heart and you're not in
the clubhouse -- you don't always understand," Girardi said. "You're
not sure -- 'Are they showing me up or are they not?' I don't believe
Joba is ever showing anyone up. I think that's Joba's emotion."
Substances emitted from the hindquarters of cattle.
This isn't Dr. Phil. This isn't the dancing circus of the NFL. This isn't basketball where college players pull on their jerseys for hitting a jumper which a retired insurance salesman can nail three out of four tries.
This is baseball and what Chamberlin is doing isn't baseball.
For one thing, would anyone put up with his showing up opponents if his ERA was 4.27? And what is going to happen when hitters start strutting the bases after home runs like so many roosters on parade?
Don't get me wrong. Chamberlin is a great pitcher and a pleasure to watch. But the act wears thin. If you let him get away with it other young pitchers will start up down the road, hitters are going to strut their way around the bases, and the next thing you know you've got worse fights and some serious throwing at hitters.
As the great philosopher Bernard P. Fife once said, "Nip it. Nip it in the bud." After all, a ball is just a ball, but a pitch can serve a purpose.
Baseball is an acquired taste. Best to have an older relative who knows the game and introduces you to it when you're young. Otherwise you don't learn to appreciate the subtle joy. The hidden moments that make it a game of the mind as well as the body.
Like a 1-0 game.
You don't see these anymore. Nine inch pitching mounds, the DH, and obsessive compulsive managers have just about driven them out. But now and again, if you're really lucky....
Sunday in Cleveland. The Yankees come to town and the tumblers fall into place. Two number one starters, Chien-Ming Wang and C.C. Sabathia, both on their game.
Yankees up first get two on. Damon on a single and Rodriquez with a walk. Here's the problem for the Yankees. Sabathia has no need to pitch to Rodriquez with Shelly Duncan hitting behind him. Plus, Sabathia's stuff is impressive. Five foul balls, an early sign the hitters can't get around.
Delluci gets a hit to start the Indians half, Hafner walks, Garko can't come close to Wang's slider. The tipoff. Five batters and five looking strikes on the first pitch. It's a Money Ball game, but seriously, sometimes the first pitch is the best to hit.
The second passes, 3 up and down both sides. Garko, having one of those days, puts Damon on with an error in the third. No problem, Sabathia puts down Jeter and Abreu. Michaels doubles and goes to third on a passed ball by Molina. Molina is wearing sunglasses under his mask and looks like the warning label on some industrial chemical. Hafner, a lifetime .300 hitter batting .226, leaves Michaels at third when he can't get the ball out of the infield.
The Indians get a runner on in their half of the fourth, then Wang strikes out the side on 14 pitches. Wang has heavy stuff, mainly a slider with bite, that he spots low. As he throws more pitches he actually gets better because the ball stays down.
You go into the 5th thinking the Indians will break through and score. Sabathia has given up only one hit, and that to open the game. Robinson Cannot (Cano) is up, hitting a robust .157. He gets kind of sort of infield hit, immediately realizes what he has done and gets picked off. And then comes Melky Cabrera.
Cabrera is fate's way of having a laugh at the Yankees expense. New York could have acquired Johan Santana but no, Cashman would part with Cabrera or Hughes but not both. So fate is sitting in the stands in Cleveland out in left field, working on its tan and enjoying a glorious sunny day and starts feeling bad about Cano, bad about the Mets having Santana, bad about an AL East with the Orioles in first. What the heck, give them a home run.
Cano broke the rhythm. That's all I can figure. Sabathia is confused by Cano getting on base. Cano is confused by Cano getting on base. Then the pickoff. Time stops to ponder absurdity. So Sabathia grooves a fastball that Cabrera deposits in the left field bleachers. Being neither drunks nor buffoons, the well mannered Indian fans keep the ball. 1-0 Yankees.
So that's the play of the game? No. This is. Last of the 5th, Gutierrez singles to left. Tight game, Wang is pitching well, the Indians decide to have Michaels bunt the man over. Runner on second, one out, a fair exchange. Then Girardi, or Molina, wins the game. The first pitch is high and tight and backs Michaels out. And just that easy, the Indians get the idea they won't get a pitch to bunt and put the hit sign back on.
But there is still the matter of second base. Wedge sends Gutierrez, who is thrown out. Michaels strikes out, Delluci walks. Now take that inside pitch away. You'd now have two on, one out. Instead, two out one one. Cabrera (2nd base, Indians) goes down swinging.
Sabathia awakes. After Jeter opens the Yankee 6th with a double and Abreu (a lefty) hits the ball to the right side to move him over, Rodriquez and Duncan give a neighborly wave before quietly exiting. Garko gets hit in the Indians half of the inning but no damage. Still 1-0.
The seventh passes with 1-2-3 innings on both sides. Wang is at 113 pitches, but has an inning left if required. After the Yankees politely bow to Sabathia in the 8th, Girardi has a decision. But not much of one. Joba Chamberlain is in for Wang.
Overmatched is overused. A major league hitter should seldom be overmatched. The Indians were. Delucci fouled out. Why Cabrera even brought a bat with him to the plate is a subject for conjecture (three pitch strikeout). Hafner does his best imitation of a road sign watching a Mercedes roar past and is down looking.
Ninth inning. The Indians bring in Kobayashi (not the competitive eater, the pitcher). Abreu, Rodriquez, Duncan all place the ball in the air in some tepid form. Death to flying things and on to the last of the 9th.
Rivera is in and the announcers drone on about all the leads he has protected. Shakespeare said there is nothing good or bad that thinking does not make it so. The expectation of failure hung in the air. Maybe Rivera is that good, maybe teams expect to lose when he comes in.
Martinez goes all in and flys to right on the first pitch. Garko strikes out looking, although for what it is unclear. Peralta fouls three off and as much in resignation as contemplation leaves his bat on his shoulder for a third strike.
There was just one run and that was enough.
New York 0-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0 1 4 0 Cleveland 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0 4 1
The sports media is having a field day criticizing Hank Steinbrenner for saying Joba Chamberlain should be in the Yankees rotation. Speculation has already begun on where Brian Cashman will end up after he quits the Bombers in righteous indignation over little Stein's meddling.
Nonsense.
First off, baseball is the family business. A business the senior Steinbrenner managed fairly well for a number of years. Was George wrong and rash and rude? Sometimes all at the same time. But there is a fair amount of hardware in the trophy case thanks to his spending and maybe just a little because he wasn't afraid to shake things up.
So now Hank can't follow in his dad's footsteps? Cashman is beyond criticism? Joe Girardi should have a lifetime contract free of suggestions from the big guy?
The media would portray Cashman and Girardi as modern day versions of Scarlett O'Hara. "Why, ah declair, ah must lie down. Mistah Steinbrenner has spoken most unkindly to me and ah believe ah have the vapors."
These guys are being paid to take orders, and they are also paid to have enough backbone to push back when the advice they are being offered is bad. Somehow I think the Yankee management team will survive.
And consider this. Hank Steinbrenner ended the Joe Torre years in the Bronx. It wasn't popular, it wasn't what the media wanted, but it was time and it needed to be done. And Hank did it. At this point last season New York was having similar pitching woes and imploded while the ever serene Torre took no risks.
It's April 2008 and the Yankees are 11-10. The professionals say Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy deserve patience while they struggle to bring their ERA's under 8.00. Steinbrenner says put Chamberlain in the rotation.
Why not?
The RedSox are 15-7, the Yankees 3 1/2 back. How far does New York fall behind while "the plan" for Chamberlain rocks along? 7 games? Ten games? Until you make the inevitable move and then listen to the same media types proclaim it is a sign of panic?
But what about the 8th inning? The 8th inning is just that. One inning. An inning you are either ahead or behind in. An inning that takes care of itself at 90% of the time no matter who the reliever is.
Why is it starters go seven, setup men bridge the 8th, and closers must be brought in during the 9th? Because mind numb managers have been programmed to repeat the formula by rote until they end up believing it. Which is one more reason why managers, including Joe Torre, seldom have any impact on the outcome of pennant races.
Imagine it is 1938. The Indians have a wild right hander named Bob Feller who can occasionally hit either side of 100 mph. What did they do with the 19 year old? They pitched him. And pitched him again until he struck out 240, walked 208, and somehow managed to learn what the game was about.
In 2008 a 22 year old is treated like a piece of porcelain. A pitcher who struck out 169 batters in 113 professional innings last season is reserved for portions of the game which do not determine the outcome. It is what 99% of GM's would do. It's what 95% of managers would do. And it is wrong, unnecessary, and ultimately will push back Chamberlain's progress as what everyone envisions him to be.
A starter.
If you go to the pond there's two things you can do. Fish or cut bait. Hank Steinbrenner wants to fish. And I'm alright with that.
“There were years Jeter would get hit every day, it seemed, for no
reason — and certainly A-Rod would be in that same position — and
nothing was ever done about it,”-Hank Steinbrenner
We're getting to know Hank Steinbrenner and hopefully someday we'll dislike him the way we disliked his dad. Which is to say, oddly enough, that we'll enjoy and even come to like him as a character in the great play that is baseball.
In the last few years something has been missing in the Bronx. Listening to Hank talk I realize what it was. "The Godfather" attitude. From "the boys (re consigliaris) in Tampa", to "Torpedo Joe" Girardi, to clueless Shelley Duncan ("You want I should spike him, boss?") the arrogance is returning.
Which brings us to Joe Girardi, but more pointedly to Joe Torre. Steinbrenner's quote about Yankee batters getting hit without retaliation is the clearest single expression of why a four time world championship manager no longer has a place in the Yankee dugout.
Forget about any public discussion of wanting to bring Torre back. Steinbrenner wanted him gone. "Big time".
So what about the chin music? Casey Stengel, another long running Yankee manager, used to say "You can look it up." So I did.
Over the last four years, when the Yankees failed to get to the World Series, they had 40 more hit batsmen than Yankee pitchers hit. Outside of Randy Johnson and Javier Vazquez, no Yankee pitchers hit as many as 10 batters in a season. And yes, Derek Jeter usually got hit about a dozen times a season.
Does this mean Torre took the cannoli and left the gun?
Some things you must consider. Alex Rodriquez and Derek Jeter are new school hitters. Strap on the body armor and lean over the plate. Between them, they will get hit 40 times a season. In the bygone days of Billy Martin that Hank Steinbrenner often references as the rationale for Joe Girardi taking over the family operation, they would have been hit even more.
If you're playing CSI HBP you'll also have a hard time proving motive with Randy Johnson. This is a guy who once killed a bird with a pitch. Was Johnson backing up Yankee hitters or just throwing very hard with movement?
Flip side of this arguement is the Messina-Pettitte corollary. In 17 years Mussina has hit only 52 batters, Pettitte 37 in 13. If the HBP deficit makes Torre a milquetoast then what about Mussina and Pettitte? When they took the mound after seeing Yankee hitters knocked down why didn't they do something about it? And will they now under Girardi?
When Torre won three world championships and five pennants in six seasons, Yankee batters got hit 52 more times than their opponents. Roger Clemens was good for double digit retribution and David Cone before him. But their were many unpaid debts during the glory days.
I don't think Joe Torre is lacking in nerve. Then again, he was never exactly Mr. Excitement. Torre had the horses to phone in a division championship and he managed that way. When the RedSox arrived on the scene the AL East changed. Torre didn't and now he's a Dodger.
So what does it all mean? Will there be war in the Bronx?
The easy thing to do is be rational and think this is all just talk. But the "New" York Yankees under Hank Steinbrenner and Joe Girardi have a chip on their shoulder. When Derek Jeter or ARod goes down, someone will pay. And when the RedSox come to town they may pay twice.
The best pitcher in baseball is going to be traded, and it won't be to Pittsburgh. If you guessed New York, the Bronx area in particular, you're probably getting warm to the point of combustion. Just in case you are faint of heart, laying a little side money on the RedSox isn't a bad idea.
Money talks and right about now it is screaming the name Johan Santana. The Twins and their owner, Carl Polhad, don't want to lay out $13 million next season. They are afraid Santana will walk away as a free agent in 2009. Also that they might miss out on the opportunity to not pay that $13 million. You see the Twins are operating on the highly successful Pittsburgh Pirates model. Get the saps to buy you a new ball park, rid the roster of veterans, and raise the cost of parking and hot dogs.
The Yankees have come calling for Santana, bearing a lovely fruit basket with a selection that includes Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera. The Twins, like a lovestruck teenage girl who runs to the curb when the horn blows, can be had for dinner. At McDonald's. From the drive thru.
Think hard before answering. You can have another season of a pitcher who has gone 93-44 with the Twins, struck out 235 in 219 innings, and has a four to one strikeout to walk ratio. On the other hand you have a rookie with a 4.46 ERA and a center fielder with less power than could be generated on a hamster wheel. What would you do?
What the Twins will do is take the Yankees offer, or a similar one from the RedSox. Not because Santana is going to leave in 09', not to have a foundation to build on, not because it's the best thing for the team. Simply because Carl Polhad, one of the 100 wealthiest men in America, could care less. This is the same Carl Polhad who enthusiastically embraced the idea a few years back of letting the team go out of business. The only reason there is still baseball in the Twin Cities is that Donald Fehr and the Player's Union stood firm against contraction.
On some level it is futile to even think about. Fans will come to the new stadium and watch AAAA baseball. Bud Selig won't stop a one-sided deal. And here on December 2, 2007 I can already tell you the RedSox and Yankees will be in the playoffs next season and the Orioles, Rays, and Blue Jays have already been financially and mathematically eliminated.
It's perplexing. Owners can't stop free agents from taking the Yankees money, but can't they summon enough gumption to stop giving players away to New York? Steinbrenner & Son have already priced most of them out of ever competing for the pennant. Doesn't that make them a little angry? Doesn't that make them want never to do business with New York again?
Make deals with terrorists. Negotiate with the Mafia. Take money from a political action committee. Subscribe to the Dish Network to get the NFL Network. You can be forgiven for those.
But deal with the Yankees? Just so no. Somebody has to.
"I love being the highest-paid
player in the game. It's pretty cool. I like making that money," he
said. "You get crushed, but you know what? It's pretty cool I enjoy it."-Alex Rodriquez
OK, I'll give you that one.
But does greed outweigh performance? Does an obnoxious agent negate fifty plus home runs a season? Do we reserve admiration for a player's skills if we know we wouldn't want him marrying into our family? How do we separate the music from the noise?
When Scott Boras leaked that Alex Rodriquez was opting out of his Yankee contract, on the same day the RedSox won the World Series, you would have thought he rolled an orphan in front of a bus.
Bud Selig was "appalled at the lack of respect shown the game by the selfish and self-centered announcement of Scott Boras last evening." Writers and broadcasters shed rhetorical tears that poor little Dustin Pedroia had been robbed of his fifteen minutes of fame. Even Boras eventually got around to an apology.
Spare me.
Baseball only recently banned doing business during the World Series. For most of the last 100 years players were traded, managers fired and hired, and rumors flew as GM's used their week together to wheel and deal. Somehow we noticed Don Larson's no hitter. Somehow Carlton Fisk's homerun got reported. Somehow Reggie Jackson's three home runs were noticed.
Alex Rodriquez and Scott Boras took nothing away from what was a lackluster series. And here's a newsflash. It is 2007, and November at that, and most sportswriters are more interested in AP polls and the Patriots than baseball. The RedSox story was big news in Boston and a big yawn most everywhere else. Message to the Commissioner-any publicity is good publicity.
Major League Baseball has diluted it's premier event and prolonged the season beyond interest and reason. Bud Selig doesn't notice such things, but he does keep track of Scott Boras. Or more importantly, the money Boras gets for his clients.
The rest of us take note of ARod's greed, his fondness for strip clubs, his arrogance. But first and foremost we notice (or should), 10 straight 100 RBI seasons. A .306 lifetime average. A monster line for 2007 reading 54-156-.314. There is a story in those numbers. A story more historic, and more interesting, than whether ARod gets 30 million a year. Which he won't.
Babe Ruth made more money than the President of the United States. "I had a better year than he did", Ruth famously quipped. Mickey Mantle was a womanizer. Gil Hodges didn't hit in October. But we don't remember Ruth's salary today, don't care that Mantle enjoyed the nightlife, or put a bad World Series at the top of Hodges' biography. So why do we ride those same dead horses so hard when it comes to Alex Rodriquez?
What Boras is about to pull off is hardly news. He will set an outrageous price for teams to get into the bidding, imply that teams who haven't shown interest in ARod have made contact, leak bids that haven't been made, and maybe even throw in the old line about it being "not about the money" for a laugh. Toward the end there will be one mark that is getting strung along to run up the bids, and one bidding against itself and not knowing it. And Rodriquez will sign for $200 million or so over seven years with an option.
Why do we care? ARod is greedy. Who isn't? Boras is a manipulative liar? I'm shocked. Baseball owners have sawdust for brains? Already got that newsflash. Fans grumble then pay higher ticket costs? Somehow I figured that one out on my own.
I want to know where the best player in baseball is going. I want to know how he impacts his new team's lineup. I want to know how the Yankees replace an irreplaceable part of their lineup. If they really don't intend to bring him back, which is debatable. Somehow I think Rodriquez ends up back in the Bronx, because the Steinbashers may be the only team who can afford him.
The rest is noise.
For now I'll go back to cursing the Patriots and watching the NBA work itself into shape. I'll spend November figuring out why Ohio State is ranked #1 and Kansas #4. I'll enjoy the autumn air and watch the leaves change. But I won't worry about ARod.
I'm not a big Steinbrenner fan, but then who is? The man has driven baseball salaries (and the cost of a ticket, hot dog, and parking space) through the roof. He has bought an annual playoff spot in the AL East with his largesse. And Steinbrenner is going to tear down "The House that Ruth Built" in 2008, leaving in its place a monument to his enormous ego.
Unlike most businessmen who go into sports "Big Stein" was never in it as a hobby. He believes you can take business principles of production and accountability, and adapt them to a world that is often shaped by a quarter inch break on a thrown baseball.
King George has demanded his own alternate reality. One in which his pep talks and intimidation count for something. That baseball doesn't work that way, has never worked that way, and will never work that way escapes the Bronx Bombers owner.
His money? That matters. It can bring Alex Rodriquez to New York, lure Roger Clemens from retirement, or bring forth Hideki Matsui from Japan. So, it's also a bug light that attracts the likes of Carl Pavano, Kyle Farnsworth, and Jaret Wright? Who cares? In production work there is wastage. The cost of doing business.
Which brings us to Joe Torre. A man who this week has enjoyed the unique experience of hearing his obituary read while still alive. Everywhere you turn some manager or player is talking about Torre's managerial skill, professionalism, and basic human decency.
To which I, like George Michael Steinbrenner the Third say, "so what?"
Take it as a given, and Steinbrenner does, $189,000,000 in payroll buys you a playoff spot. It stands to reason then, it his checkbook that gets New York to Round 1. If you claim credit for Torre, it has to be in where the team goes after the regular season. And, for the last three years, that has been nowhere.
Sometimes it seems Torre is like global warming. Everything is attributed to him. The team starts off 22-29? Ah, the wise Torre has guided the ship back from the rocks. There are never any fights in the clubhouse, any public outbursts, any backup catchers injecting heroin in some dank corner of the locker room. Why, that's good old Joe, steady at the helm. Of course, he's a great manager. Ask any of the players who lost in the first round for him the past three seasons.
The truth is that all those things, and none of them, are reality. Did Torre bring the team back from 22-29? Yes, but who was the jockey who lead them to a stumbling start out of the shoot? Are the players content? Yes, but so are some cows. And has that contentment bred post season success? No, it has not. Is Torre a competent manager and good human being? Yes, by all accounts he is a great guy, and there is no evidence of managerial incompetence on his part.
And there is the rub. How do you judge the impact of a manager?
I'll make an heretical statement. No, make that two. First off, you could take the $8 million the Yankees spent on Torre last season, spend $7 million on improving concessions and restroom facilities, and still have $1 million left over to pay a manager who could have guided the team to 94 wins and a quick exit from the playoffs. For the record, Willie Randolph got paid $750,000 to manage the Mets last season to comparable results.
What the heck, let's walk out on the ledge and jump. In November of 1961, a chimp named Enos flew on the Mercury MA-5 space ship into orbit. An New York Yankees manager, working with the mindless American League DH rule and a $189,000,000 payroll, is about as essential to the team's success as the chimp was to manned space flight.
The Manager of the Class A Winston-Salem Warthogs (yes, there is such a team) is Tim Blackwell. I submit that if you took Torre out of New York and replaced him with Blackwell, he would make almost the exact same in-game decisions as Torre or any other manager. So Joe Torre feels insulted at $5 million? Get me the number of Blackwell, and see if that chimp is still alive.
Am I exaggerating for effect? Naturally, this is a blog, not a scientific journal. But it doesn't take away from the central fact-managers rarely matter. Sometimes a mid-season change takes pressure off a team, sometimes players need a well administered kick to their lower regions, but most days a manager is background noise.
In the National League with the Braves, Mets, and Cardinals Torre's managerial record was 894-1043. It seems that, like the man in the Holiday Inn commercials, Joe Torre became a much smarter manager after sleeping next to George Steinbrenner's vault.
Someone, presumably Don Mattingly, will take up Torre's position for the odd $3 or $4 million and incentives. It won't make any difference, but it will save a few million and allow Steinbrenner to feel that he is making a difference. Just like in the old days when he drove Billy Martin nuts coming into the clubhouse giving pep talks nobody listened to.
As for Torre, a return to St. Louis if Tony LaRussa goes off to take Torre's place in New York is not out of the question. He will do a workman like job, be praised by the players, fawned over by the press and probably finish in third place.
George Steinbrenner is 77. He should be allowed a few pleasures in life, a few late 8th inning rallies recalling the bygone glories. If he wanted to be rid of Joe Torre, let him be rid of Torre. The show will go on.
If you have to try and motivate a team in October, there are more problems than the manager. Maybe the baseball card collection known as the New York Yankees just isn't as good the baseball team doing business as the Cleveland Indians. A win tonight doesn't change that.
Understand this. Results in baseball don't increase in any linear way from the amount of money spent on payroll. A team spending $200 million a year isn't twice as good a team spending $100 million.
Your confusion is understandable. It is possible to buy your way into the playoffs every year by doing to the Orioles, Blue Jays, and Devil Rays what Reagan did to the Russians. Overwhelm them with resources and wait for them to crumble.
But once you get in the tournament (and let's be honest, even if it kills baseball purists this is every bit as much a tournament as the College World Series in Omaha) it's down to starting pitching. And you don't have it. The rotation is "Wang and Pettitte and then forget it."
You paid Rolling Stones money to see the Roger Clemens tenth annual farewell tour, and got festival seating for K.C. & The Sunshine Band. Clemens gets lit up in a big post season game and grabs his hamstring. How's that for a nostalgia act Astro fans?
Mike Mussina is good for once through the lineup, then hitters stop swinging at his reputation and start hitting his current stuff. You and the boys in Tampa let Ian Kennedy go off for the opening round and get married. He should have gotten Clemens' turn.
Then there are the nineteen pitchers your team used in relief. And here you have a point about Torre. He manages like a man who not only used nineteen relievers, but would try to use them all in one game if the roster was big enough to hold them all. At some point you have to look the pitcher in the eye and ask him if he can get the next man out, then believe in his heart enough to find out if he's lying. This season Torre managed scared.
The every day lineup is strong. Rodriquez is a gift basket with too many nut selections, but his bat makes it all worthwhile. Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada aren't just great players, they are all-time great Yankees. HIdeki Matsui is as reliable as Republicans calling for tax cuts. Robinson Cano and Melky Carbrera would be welcome on any team in baseball. Then there is about $40 million worth of toys nobody plays with, in case you need a pinch hitter.
But it wouldn't matter if you put the 27' Yankees on the field this season. This is 2007 and the other guys also have talent. And patience. Talent they paid $100 million less to assemble, and the patience to work out their pitching problems with the horses they rode in with.
Oh yeah, and the common sense not to accumulate a lineup so full of left handers. The NY nightly nine is maybe the strongest in baseball, but it is a lineup which can be pitched to.
So fire Torre. He isn't the reason you won when you won, and he won't be the reason you lost this year. "The problem", some guy down in A ball at Stratford on Avon once observed, "Lies not with our stars but with ourselves."
You'll have a whole winter to figure that one out.
In 1926 Gabe Paul went to work for the Rochester Red Wings. Forty-seven years later he became president and general manager of the New York Yankees. In his first four years in the Bronx the Yankees won two pennants and a World Series. And, a few months after the season ended, a young owner named George Steinbrenner pulled a power play that forced Paul out of the Bronx.
What's so important about Paul? He's the man who made the Yankees the Yankees again. Without him the Steinbrenner era may never have been. And one other thing. Paul brought in Billy Martin to manage and Reggie Jackson as a free agent right fielder. As those watching the ESPN series on the 1977 Yankees know, the Bronx was burning. Gabe Paul lit the match.
When Paul came to the Yankees from Cleveland in 1973 he inherited a tired collection of fossils and fizzles. Ralph Houk, the last link to the glory years, was the manager of a team with some reliable veteran pitchers and not much else. Paul gave Houk one more season before replacing him with Bill Virdon, and started to rebuild the team through trades. Here's a look at how Paul put together the 77' Yankees.
Holdovers-Thurman Munson, Sparky Lyle, Roy White, Fred "Chicken" Stanley, Graig Nettles and Lou Pinella (who came over in the last trades before the team was sold to the Steinbrenner group). Under the new regime Munson and Nettles went from solid regulars to stars. Lyle was already one of the game's best closers. Stanley a smart utility infielder whose shining moments always seemed to come with the game on the line. White was never a star but consistently contributed with his bat, glove, and on the bases. Pinella often platooned in left with White and could be penciled in for .315 over 300 at bats, mostly against left handers.
1974 Early in Paul's second season he packaged veteran pitchers Fritz Peterson and Steve Kline to the Indians for Chris Chambliss, #### Tidrow, and a minor league outfielder. Peterson was mainly known for swapping wives with another Yankee pitcher (Mike Kekich), but Chambliss was to become the Yankees first baseman and a valuable 17-90-.290 hitter. Tidrow was one of the best setup men in baseball.
1975 Paul made two critical moves in 75'. In the off season Steinbrenner and Paul angered the baseball establishment by giving a huge contract to free agent pitcher Catfish Hunter. Then Paul fired Virdon as manager and brought in Billy Martin for the last 56 games of the season. Dave Bergman, who would serve as Chambliss' fill-in at first, came to the team as a rookie. There was also a rookie reliever named Ron Guidry who made a very wild debut while showing flashes of "Louisiana Lightning".
1976 During the off season, Paul remade the team in Martin's image, getting better defensively and faster on the bases. It worked. The Yankees won the AL pennant, but lost the World Series.
The rebuilding started when Paul traded pitcher Doc Medich to the Pirates after the 75' season ended. Medich got his nickname by studying medicine (he became a doctor later), and had thrown alot of innings over three seasons in New York. Medich never amounted to much with the Pirates, but Willie Randolph came over and became a second baseman even the ever critical Martin could appreciate. The Yankees also got the controversial Doc Ellis, and Ken Brett (a pitcher and George Brett's brother).
Also in the Winter of 1975 the Yankees moved one of the most talented players in the game, Bobby Bonds, who had just put up a 30-30 season. Bonds (Barry's dad) went to the Angels for the Yankees new center fielder Mickey Rivers and dependable right handed starter, Ed Figueroa.
In June of 76', the Yankees pulled the sort of huge multi-player trade you no longer see in baseball. Ken Holtzman, a star left handed pitcher, came from the Orioles with reliever Grant Jackson, catcher Elrod Hendricks, reliever Doyle Alexander, and minor leaguer pitcher Jimmy Freeman. The Yankees gave up mostly young talent in Scott McGregor, Tippy Martinez, Rick Dempsey, Rudy May, and Dave Pagan. Holtzman would become an ace with the Yankees, while some of the players sent to the Orioles were part of later Baltimore championship teams. Doyle Alexander is famous for being the player traded to the Tigers for a young prospect named John Smoltz.
During the 1976 season New York also came up with a backup catcher for Munson, Fran Healy. Healy was brought over in a trade for left hander Larry Gura, who had made a mostly bad impression on Billy Martin in 1975. Gura went on to become a reliable 15 game winner for the Royals. Mickey Kluttz, the backup third baseman and pinch hitter, also came up in 76' as a rookie. Late in the year pinch hitting specialist Gene Locklear was acquired for a minor league pitcher.
1977 During the off season everyone knew Steinbrenner and Paul would spend big to get over the hump and win the World Championship. What they didn't know was that he would bring in not just the best hitter on the market (Reggie Jackson), but also the best free agent pitcher, Don Gullett. It was a deadly combination. Also during the winter, New York got ace defensive outfielder Paul Blair from Baltimore for Elliot Maddox and Rick Bladt.
Not quite as important, but vital nonetheless, Paul found a shortstop to team with Randolph. Bucky Dent came from the WhiteSox at a high price (outfielder Oscar Gamble, pitcher LaMarr Hoyt, and minor leaguer Bob Polinsky). In late April, still not satisfied with the rotation, Paul traded Dock Ellis, Mary Perez, and Larry Murray for Mike Torrez. DH Carlos May also came over from the WhiteSox in May in exchange for Ken Brett and Rich Coggins and powerful DH/Catcher Cliff Johnson was acquired in June from the Astros for Mike Fischlin, Randy Neimann, and Bergman.
Five rookies came up in 77' to make valuable contributions. Gil Patterson, Ken Clay, and Larry McCall filled in the blanks in middle relief, but were seldom needed because the great Yankee rotation pitched 52 complete games. George Zeber filled in around the infield, and Dell Alston the outfield.
There were a number of veteran cameo appearances, most notably by Dave Kingman (4 home runs in 8 September games) and Jim Wynn. Stan Thomas came over from Seattle in a minor trade and pitched in three games.
What a team! It is hard to imagine anyone putting this team together in 2007. If you look at what Paul gave up, it was seldom anything that couldn't be replaced. Signing Hunter, Jackson, and Gullett as free agents made it easier, as did the emergence of Munson and Guidry as stars. But acquistions like Randolph, Dent, Chambliss, Rivers, Torrez, Holtzman, Figueroa, Tidrow, and May can't be overlooked.
The brains of Billy Martin, the money and hubris of Steinbrenner, and the trades of Gabe Paul set the Bronx on fire in 77'. After the season Steinbrenner and Paul parted ways when Al Rosen, the former great Indians third baseman, was brought in to work closely with The Boss. When Paul left the team to go back to Cleveland, the renaissance was over and the Steinbrenner Yankees were in full bloom. And baseball was never the same again.
What baseball player is worth $18,000,000 for 4 months work? Michaelangelo wouldn't get 18 mil for a year today, even if he held out.
Intangible answer? The Yankees were at 9 1/2 back when Clemens made his first start. They are 6 back today. Was there some emotional shift in favor of the Yankees? Did the RedSox look up from their newspapers is a panic when Clemens signed on? Are the Yankee players winning one for the Clemmer?
No, no, and no.
Baseball is not a game of inspiration, unless the inspiration is a shared hatred. Irritable managers, bombastic owners, and detested opponents can cause a team to focus. The lift provided by a 44 year old pitcher is, at best, minimal.
Players, especially the jaded professionals on the Yankees roster, are not driven by emotion. The season is too long to rise and fall with every passing event or pull at the heart strings.
Picture ARod rallying the guys around and saying, "Hold on, boys, Roger Clemens is coming. Now there is hope!" It doesn't ring true. Johnny Damon tearing himself away from his mirror long enough to get excited about a change to 1/5th of the pitching rotation? Hard to imagine. Abreu begins hitting because of the Dayton Flyer? Sorry, I just don't buy it.
Then is Clemens making a difference when he takes the mound? Here is a stat for you. 5-8. That is the Yankee record with the Rocket on the mound. We don't have lift off.
To be fair, with a little luck along the way, the Bombers could have won 8 of those 13 game. But that is with every break going their way. Baseball fans know the game doesn't play out that way.
Ask the question another way. Could New York have won 8 of 13 with some other pitcher on the mound? Maybe not. But they could have won 7. And is one additional win worth the cost?
4-5 4.00 72 IP 71 H 49K 19 BB.
A 1.25 WHP in the hitter happy American League. It puts you in the top tier of the league's starting pitchers. But not the Top 5. Maybe not even the Top 10.
Along the way there have been some forgettable starts. A no strikeout 4-0 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. Let that sink in. The Baltimore Orioles. An inning and two thirds, nine run, debacle against the WhiteSox.
Three starts have been very good. Six innings of two hit ball against Toronto in Clemens last start. Back to back 8 inning, 1 run outings against Minnesota and Anaheim. But no big strikeout games. Alot of solid major league pitcher efforts, but no magic. No Roger Clemens games.
Baseball is about history and it's all been done before. Clemens in 2007 is Walter Johnson in 1925. The "Big Train" was still very good. 20-7 3.07. But in the World Series against the Pirates the fastball wasn't there, just the guile that came with 19 seasons.
It was cold, wet, and dreary at Forbes Field when Johnson went to the mound in Game 7 on October 15. And the newspaper accounts of the 9-7 Pittsburgh win grow even gloomier when they describe the valiant old war horse laboring against time and young bats. And losing.
Maybe none of this is the point. Maybe George Steinbrenner wanted Clemens to keep the Yankees at the top of the newspaper fold with the Mets. Maybe it was a knee jerk reaction to the RedSox signing Matsuzaki. Maybe it was just something to do when nothing else seemed to be working.
So Clemens wasn't worth it? Ninety-nine percent of you says no. But there is one percent that says wait. Wait until October. Wait until all the votes are in, the standings finalized, the playoffs set. Wait until the World Series. Wait until the last out.
The Yankees win the Series, Clemens wins two games, and it was all worth it. Anything less and the cost was too high. It's a desperate gamble, but it's Clemens and the Yankees to win. A fool's errand or a hero's grand finale.
One blog leads to another. My entry on Cal Ripken Jr. brought alot of comments. Some took exception to my remark that Ripken was no Lou Gehrig, with one pointing out that it was well known that Gehrig kept his streak going by occasionally making a token appearance and taking the rest of the day off.
I had not heard these stories and believed that most likely Gehrig didn't even know he was close to a consecutive game record when he set it. Turns out the people who thought Gehrig made frequent cameo appearances were wrong. (Note-Maybe not, see Moynahan's comment below). I can live with that. But it also turns out I was wrong about Gehrig knowing about the consecutive game streak. I don't feel so good about that, because it means my streak of consecutive blogs without errors is back to one, which is also my all-time high.
Casey Stengel once said "You can look it up", so I did. I wanted to know who else played first base during Gehrig's streak, how often they played, and for how long. Also, who had the old consecutive game record before Gehrig and was it noticed at the time. Here's what I found out:
Gehrig knew about the consecutive game record. In fact, he played with the old record holder, Everett Scott, in Gehrig's rookie season. That was the year Yankee manager Miller Huggins broke Scott's streak by sitting him after he started the year hitting poorly. There was no big announcement, Huggins just called Scott over and said, "Wanninger is playing".
Scott was aware of his streak and took pride in it. It was nearly broken one season when he came down with boils. Luckily for him (as if luck and boils can be mentioned together) the game was rained out. Another time on a trip to Chicago, Scott took a train to Fort Wayne where he had a bowling alley, and was delayed by a train wreck trying to catch up to the team. He hiked across country, flagged down a car which he rented, got to Comiskey Park in the 7th inning and got into the game to keep the streak alive.
The Yankees thought enough of Scott, and enough about the streak, to invite him to be the team's guest at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis when Gehrig broke the record. So, it does appear Gehrig knew about the old mark. I was, well, something sort of the opposite of right.
Did Gehrig's backups play substantial innings after The Iron Horse put in token appearances to keep the streak alive? I don't see any evidence of that. Gehrig's backups usually played a handful of games a season, maybe twenty innings at most: The myth of Gehrig running up the streak by showing up and then coming out of the game is just that. A myth.
Here is a list of Gehrig's fill-ins:
Babe Ruth gets in a half game at first base in five seasons. He also goes to the mound as a pitcher five times with the Yankees, but that's another story for another day.
Fred Merkle. If you think you've heard the name Merkle, you probably have. As a rookie in 1908 he failed to run out a hit at the end of the game and was forced out in the "Merkle ####" that cost the Giants the pennant. Long out of the game, he somehow found his way to the Yankees for a few games in 1926 and 1927.
Cedric Durst. Durst was a solid hitter in the minors and had the misfortune of getting stuck behind George Sisler at first base in St. Louis with the Browns and Babe Ruth with the Yankees. Only played a handful of games at first with New York. He later managed the San Diego Padres of the old Pacific Coast League.
George Burns. No, not that George Burns. This one played mainly with Detroit and hit 62 doubles one year before his skills deserted him and he drifted to New York for part of a season.
Harry Rice. An outfielder, and a good one, with the old St. Louis Browns. Hit .359 one year. Only had 17 chances in his short time as Gehrig's backup.
Tony Lazzeri. The Yankees second baseman in the Ruth era and a deadly RBI producer. In 1930 he got in for one game and handled three chances without error.
Lynn Lary. Lary was a shortstop who once had a 100 RBI season with New York. He than began enjoying the nightlife a little too much, earning himself the nickname "'Broadway".
Merril Hoag. Played one game in relief of Gehrig during the streak. Never had a full season of stats, but somehow played thirteen seasons as a mostly backup outfielder. Once went six for six in a game, all singles, and was noted for having unusually small feet.
Doc Farrell. A career utility infielder who got into a couple of games in the early 30's.
Don Heffner. Only got into a few innings of one game in relief of Gehrig. Nothing special, he spent most of his career with the Browns, resurfacing for one forgettable season as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1966.
Jack Saltzinger. Got into the most games as Gehrig's backup, toward the end of his career. By then, Gehrig had the consecutive game streak and in any case never played more than 6 games in a season at first for the Yankees.
Babe Dahlgren. The year before disease ended Gehrig's career, his successor Babe Dahlgren came on in six games. Dahlgren had power, but didn't last long in New York after Gehrig left the team.
There you have it. Enough trivia to settle a dozen bar bets. But sometimes it's fun just to look back at the grand old game. There's a reason they call it that, because it is. And there's a reason they called Gehrig the Iron Horse. Because he was.
At 84 Yankee Stadium is the stage of life where pain is constant companion. Each night it suffers as a wealthy man's baseball card collection takes the field. Where once great teams pulled together to create history, the 2007 Yankees stumble into irrelevance.
This summer and the next will pass and death will come, the grand old structure blown apart by carefully sequenced explosions. Sometime in the Fall of 2008 the remains will carted off for burial beneath the soft earth of New Jersey landfills.
Someone famously wrote that there would always be an England. Maybe so, but there will never be another Churchill. In 2009 there will be a New Yankee Stadium but no Ruth, DiMaggio, or Mantle to roam it's outfield. Those days are past.
Greed is good. It fills bank accounts and egos and gives us George Steinbrenner, Alex Rodriquez, Scott Boras, Roger Clemens, and 22-29. But it isn't Thurman Munson wiping off the dust and purposefully heading to the mound to lay down the law. It isn't Reggie Jackson standing at home plate watching a home run arc into the stands. And it surely isn't Lou Gehrig, dying young, standing at a microphone and calling himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. And meaning it.
There was once joy in the "House that Ruth Built". Today there is apathy. New Yorkers may care about the Yankees. Some may even care about the way the game is played. Today's Yankees? They care in the way mercenary armies throughout history have cared about countries whose flag they marched under for pieces of silver. A house is not a home without a family, a stadium is not a home without a team. The 2007 Yankees are not a team.
In years to come they will talk of Kubek and Richardson, tell stories of Lefty Gomez, talk of the pride and glory that was the New York Yankees. One hundred years from now Steinbrenner will be gone and remembered only as an historical footnote. His greatest tribute to himself, the new stadium, will gone by then. But still they will remember Joe DiMaggio "the Yankee Clipper". There is justice in that.
When Yankee teams took the field under Casey Stengel in the 50's they swaggered onto it as rulers of the baseball universe. Hank Bauer talked, in his later years, about seeing teams watch Yankee batting practice and knowing the game was over before it begun. What do opponents feel today when they watch Johnny Damon, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Bobby Abreu in the cage? Pity?
The old stadium once saw great captains leading the Yankees. Miller Huggins, a small man with a watch works mind, made an uneasy alliance with Ruth and hoisted pennant flags in center field on opening day. Joe McCarthy retired with a .614 winning percentage and the respect of his players. Stengel laughed at himself all the way to the World Series each fall, and Billy Martin lived like a man running a step in front of death. Which he was.
In 2007 the Yankees are managed by Joe Torre, a man of careful words and cautious nature. The man who said he needed a 12th pitcher and didn't need Bernie Williams. A National League manager who sold his baseball soul for a "sure thing" that surely has gone bad.
Does Roger Clemens care for Yankee Stadium, feel pride to put on the pinstripes, stop to look around and think of who came before? Or is it just a grand Gotham stage for his ego to strut across six innings at a time? When Alex Rodriquez stands at third base is he thinking about taking the Yankees to the World Series, or some blonde to a high dollar strip club?
Tom Hanks said there is "no crying in baseball". But there is sentiment, and it requires the Yankees to leave Yankee Stadium in 2008 the way they entered in 1923. As world champions, as a team, as Yankees.
This season is history. Write it off. Let Clemens go home to Texas for good in September. Send Alex Rodriquez out to a get a lap dance and change the locks while he is gone. Send Torre home to the National League, buy Johnny Damon a mirror to watch himself in and send he and it to the West Coast. Give Bobby Abreu the news that it's over.
Then in the spring of 2008 put together a team of real ball players around Jeter and Posada who will ask for, and give, no quarter. Find eleven pitchers who want the ball and give it to them. Find players who play the first inning like the ninth. Give them a manager with brains and guts. And for one last season, let the stadium in the Bronx be home to real Yankees.
I once met a man whose great grandmother remembered hearing the rumble of the Civil War battle of Stones River in Tennessee as a child. Nearly a century later, seeing film of the Hiroshima mushroom cloud, she said it looked just like the column of gunsmoke and dust that rose above the barren trees outside Murfreesboro on New Year's Eve in 1862.
History is funny that way. It seems so far in the past, but is only a few connections away from the present. The passing at 84 of Hank Bauer, the New York Yankee outfielder and Oriole manager, underlines that point.
Bauer was a twelve year old kid in Saint Louis when the Gas House Gang of Dizzy Dean, Frankie Frisch, Pepper Martin, Leo Durocher, and Joe Medwick beat the Detroit Tigers to take the World Series in 1934. He admired that hard nosed style of baseball and carried it with him through American Legion ball and his first pro contract with Oskosh in 1941.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Bauer didn't wait long to join the Marines. It takes a special type to be a Marine, and Hank Bauer was that type. Three years as a combat platoon leader, two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts. He took shrapnel at Guam and Okinawa, and suffered 24 attacks of malaria. Enough action and physical suffering to draw alot of men up short. Not Bauer. He came home, became a pipe fitter, got a lucky break when a scout remembered him, and finally got through the minors and up to the New York Yankees as a 26 year old rookie.
These were the Casey Stengel Yankees who routinely punched the World Series clock every October. Bauer was there between DiMaggio and Mantle. Not nearly so talented, but enough of a hitter to put together a 17 game World Series hit streak and knock out four home runs in 1958 against the Braves. Late in his career he went to Kansas City in the Roger Maris deal and became the A's manager in 1961.
Bauer found his way to the Orioles and in 1966 took them to their first World Championship. They were supposed to roll over for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Koufax and Drysdale, but managed to sweep them 4-0. A big part of that Orioles was another hard nosed right fielder named Frank Robinson.
That Robinson played hard before coming to Baltimore from the Reds is not in question. But he found a kindred spirit in Bauer, who once pinned Whitey Ford to the dugout wall for overindulging the night before he pitched, telling him "Don't mess with my money." That's the way the "Greatest Generation" was. They grew up hard, survived World War II physically and emotionally, and didn't expect or give easy rides.
If you saw Pepper Martin come in hard to wipe out a second baseman for the Cards back in the 30's, you were seeing what Hank Bauer did on the bases with New York in the 50's. And if you saw Frank Robinson hunting down middle infielders in the 60's and 70's you saw Bauer. I suspect that Ryan Zimmerman, who Frank Robinson managed last year with the Washington Nationals is going to carry on the tradition.
Those connections make baseball different from any other sport. Not better, necessarily, but more enduring in ways that matter. The World Series has been eclispsed by the Super Bowl, but as long as parents take children to baseball games then watch them grow into adults who head for the ball park with their kids, baseball will be OK. Pepper Martin, Hank Bauer, and Frank Robinson wouldn't have it any other way.
Scott Boras is a great agent. He has a legal obligation to represent his clients to the best of his abilities. There are no grainy surveillance films of Boras in a stocking mask sticking a gun to the head of the owner of the Texas Rangers and forcing him to sign a 10 year, $250 million contract with Alex Rodriquez. Logically I know all this.
Illogically, I'm disgusted. Without reason I resent Boras and what he represents. The ethics of a pool hustler, the steel trap mind of a jewel thief, the empathy of a loan shark. There is no law against playing hardball in contract negotiations, no rational reason to hold Boras in contempt. On a normal day I can accept all that. Not today. Today Boras has made the opening gambit in the biggest extortion scheme of all time. Alex Rodriquez may opt out of his Yankee contract at the end of the season. Because he may be undervalued in this market.
"Obviously when Alex's contract was done, the revenues of the game were
around $3 billion," Boras said. "Now they are around $6 billion. The
elite position player has not been really graded in this new revenue
stream we've seen."
Now $25 million a season is likely enough for Rodriquez, and he's said many times he wants to stay in New York. His no trade clause may be the only reason he wasn't shipped out of the Bronx after a dismal post season that saw Joe Torre drop him to 8th in the batting order. Maybe he just wants to put New York's fans on notice that he has options. Maybe he resents Torre's treatment of him. Then again, maybe Boras is Edgar Bergen and Rodriquez Charlie McCarthy.
It is a singular characteristic of bank robbers that a big score emboldens them to try an even bigger heist using the same exact modus operandi. Boras recently took J.D. Drew, who claimed to be a happy camper in Los Angeles and 'just wanted to win' and opted out of his contract to sign with the RedSox for more money. Now Rodriquez is saying he and Boras haven't even discussed opting out at the end of the season. The impressive thing is you can't even see Boras move his lips as ARod speaks. Maybe Boras will play to the crowd and begin drinking water while Rodriquez talks about how badly he wants to bring the title home to New York.
To Boras, Rodriquez is a couple of million shares of futures options on a commodities market. It doesn't matter what Rodriquez wants, or what is fair, it matters only that "the elite position player" is "properly graded in this new revenue stream." If Rodriquez goes to $32 million a year, every elite player Boras represents just became at least $5 million a year more expensive. It won't just be the free agents. Rodriquez' new contract will be the gold standard arbitrators use to decide Jason Bay is worth $15 million a year or Jose Reyes $20 million.
You might be saying, "So what, it's capitalism", and you'd be right. But it's also suicide for baseball and the dim lights who run it. Because once Boras gets his big score and the market readjusts, every single player in baseball just got more expensive. And so, not coincidentally, every ticket sold to a major league game.
Unlike football, where there are only 8 home games a year and plenty of corporate interests to pay for tickets baseball has to fill 70% of it's seats 81 times a year. The Yankees can move 50,000 seats a game at prices starting at $19 and quickly rising as high as $180 to $400 for the best seats. Pittsburgh can't. Minnesota can't. Kansas City can't. And if player salaries shoot up again, pretty soon there will be a whole additional layer of teams who can't compete. At that point the World Series will definitely come back to New York, most every season in fact, because the competition will be priced out of the game.
If Alex Rodriquez thought he had an image problem last year, just wait until he spends a summer in New York City dancing at the end of Boras' strings. The fans, not exactly enamored of him to begin with, will make his life as a baseball player miserable. The shame is Rodriquez is at a turning point in his career and needs to build his confidence. None of this helps, and none of it seems to concern Boras. Don't assume Boras just happened by a signing for Rodriquez' new children's book. This is orchestrated and not one instrument will sound before Boras raises his baton.
So raise a glass to Scott Boras. The winner. Alex Rodriquez, the fans, the teams and players that will be negatively impacted? Just collateral damage in the next frontier of baseball's money wars. This isn't what baseball, or Alex Rodriquez needs.
