On the face of it, Manny Ramirez hiring Scott Boras is like President Bush hiring a campaign manager. Really, what's the use? Has all of Major League Baseball (both players and team ownership) decided to get together and drive Boras insane? A-Rod won't talk to him, Sheffield calls him a bad person, and now Manny wants his representation. But for what exactly? And why now?
The Red Sox hold team options on Manny -- $20 million per year in 2009 and 2010 -- so he can't opt out like A-Rod did last year. Meanwhile, Theo Epstein has said the Sox will wait until after the season before making a decision about Manny's 2009 option. He didn't, however, say the team would be unwilling to consider a new deal altogether. And really, when it comes down to it, why else would Ramirez need a negotiator like Boras?
Consider this: Ramirez has no chance of making $20 million a year anywhere else, so perhaps the two sides will agree to a three-year deal in the neighborhood of $15 million per season -- more total money than Ramirez would get if the Sox exercised the 2009 and 2010 options, more security for the player, but less per season on the Sox. As a fan, perhaps that's wishful thinking. But frankly, I can't think of any other reason why Ramirez would need to switch agents and bring in a negotiator like Boras. Unless, of course, he simply wants to drive the guy crazy with his eccentric demands. As a baseball fan, I'd be happy with that result too.
* The Red Sox are visiting the White House on Wednesday. Side bet: Larry Lucchino will be standing closer to President Bush than Theo Epstein when the press pool photo is released.
* I read that the Sox were taking Terry Francona out to dinner this week to discuss a contact extension. And by the Sox, I mean the entire management group, of course. According to the story, Francona is going to have dinner with Epstein, John Henry, Lucchino AND Tom Werner. The Sox initially wanted a table for 7, but Sen. George Mitchell and Bill James aren't able to make it. Listen, I know the Sox have won two titles in the last four years, and as a fan I shouldn't complain. But still I have to ask: "What the hell does Tom Werner do?"
* Veteran players have various reasons to return for "one more season." They're driven by a desire to win that elusive World Series, or perhaps reach a milestone, or perhaps make money after their ex takes half. These are the usual reasons. Mike Timlin has a new one: A desire to not look like a steroid cheat.
Timlin revealed to ESPN Radio’s Mike Salk that one of the reasons he decided to come back for another season was to make sure there were no questions regarding his injuries from last year, according to a story reported in the Boston Herald. His fear, he said, was that after a fairly injury-free career, the steroid whispers that have encompassed baseball might come his way.
“I’ve had a healthy career for the most part. I’ve been generally dependable and strong for most of my career,” Timlin said. “Now, as things are cleaning themselves up in baseball, I break down, and I don’t want to be associated with having injuries and breaking down at the same time things are disappearing out of baseball. I have never done that stuff, but I don’t want (it) to be speculated that I have.”
* The following players are members of my 2008 Tail-Off Team, which I'll be outlining in additional detail at bugsandcranks.com. (Please, contain your enthusiasm.) These are the guys who won't be matching their 2007 outputs, either because they got paid and won't be nearly as motivated (Jorge Posada and Mike Lowell), their catcher thinks they're a liar (Andy Pettitte), or they simply don't pass the sniff test. You don't want any of these guys on your fantasy team, mostly because you'll have to overpay for their services. Ya know, provided they actually play this year.
Posada Lowell Roger Clemens Barry Bonds Magglio Ordonez Carlos Pena Edgar Renteria Jeff Francoeur Reggie Willits Brandon Phillips Andy Pettitte Joe Blanton Ben Sheets Rich Harden Barry Zito Dontrelle Willis Gil Meche
* Apropos of nothing: I appreciate spring training so much more when there's snow on the ground in New England.
* Apropos of something: The whole A-Rod opt out/Cashman won't negotiate with him/Yankees lost face and look like wienies - story hasn't gotten much ink lately. Probably because the Bronx Bombers spent most of the winter not landing Johan Santana.
NFL: Given that the NFL is a league of copycats, we can rest assured that homeless-looking cheaters will soon become the new norm in NFL head coaches. After all, the Associated Press just voted Bill Belichick coach of the year, thereby condoning infidelity, cheating and bad sartorial choices.
NFL: ESPN.com has a headline that reads, “Titans down second offensive threat for playoffs,” and it took me several minutes to even think of one Titans offensive threat. Apparently in Tennessee you qualify as a threat simply if your name is Bo (Scaife).
Oh, and the first offensive weapon? Roydell Williams...
ESPN: Who's the genius who devised that Buy or Sell component on "Around the Horn"? It's nonsensical, contradictory, and it gives me a freakin' headache.
MLB: Billy Beane, who admits his “#### doesn’t work in the post-season," apparently wants to be consistent throughout the season, because no matter how you slice it, trading Dan Haren and Nick Swisher is conceding defeat. It’s commendable, I guess, that Beane can rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic every few years, but the fact is, the A’s still always sink well before they reach New York.
MLB: You know you’ve ticked off your editor when your assignment is, “Write the story about Shawon Dunston's Hall of Fame candidacy,” which is what happened to Carrie Muskat at MLB.com.
Between now and January 9th, when the Baseball Hall of Fame announces its induction class for 2007, a lot of sportswriters and editorial writers will weigh in on the candidacy of former St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire, whose prodigious on-field accomplishments – 583 career home runs, including 70 in 1998 – have been tainted by allegations of steroid use, most notably by former teammate Jose Canseco, who claims he and McGwire used to inject each other with the performance-enhancing drugs. When a Congressional committee investigating steroid use in Major League Baseball asked him about this, McGwire repeatedly replied, “I’m not here to talk about the past,” which rankled a lot of people, particularly the sanctimonious types who said his actions were dishonorable, that he was a bad role model for children, and that redheads are always up to no good.
Now, for the first time, McGwire is eligible for Cooperstown, and baseball purists are lining up against him. With former greats like Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. up for induction too, the holier-than-thou people say McGwire doesn’t deserve the honor of standing on the dais alongside the 8-time batting champ and the Iron Man of Baltimore, both of whom are locks for induction. “It’ll be a travesty!” they say. “The hallowed halls will be tainted forever!”
Well, to guarantee that Ripken, who promulgated the silly notion that working every day was somehow admirable, doesn’t have to share the stage with a guy who took shortcuts, I propose a simple solution: Don’t elect Ripken to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
A quick history lesson: The hall of fame in Cooperstown was started in 1935, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of baseball, which was supposedly invented in that small New York village by Abner Doubleday. During the Depression, the town was reeling from unemployment and lost businesses and villagers hoped the creation of a baseball museum would bring money and interest to the area. As part of the new museum, baseball executives proposed the enshrinement of certain players, and they called on baseball writers to elect an inaugural class. Writers selected Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson. When the museum doors officially opened in 1939, it was the first hall of fame of any kind, anywhere. That’s right, it was the progenitor of the Football Hall of Fame, the Fairfield County Hall of Fame, The Explorers Hall of Fame, The International Tennis Hall of Fame, The Cowgirls Hall of Fame, The Bowling Hall of Fame, The Volleyball Hall of Fame, The National Amateur Softball Hall of Fame, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The County Music Hall of Fame, The Paralympic Hall of Fame, The Pinball Hall of Fame, The National Toy Hall of Fame, The Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame (I think).
In theory, these are great institutions, since they promote the study, understanding, and appreciation of sports, music, hobbies, inventions, and Tyne Daly. In practice, however, every hall of fame has unfortunate ancillary baggage. Namely, the induction of individuals and all the stupidity that entails.
Every induction process – from cowgirls to country music – is rife with prejudice, favoritism, and sanctimony. Phil Rizzuto is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson are not. UConn coach Jim Calhoun is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, but Adrian Dantley is still waiting. Joe Namath, who had 47 more interceptions than touchdowns in his career, was basically elected to the Football Hall of Fame on the merits of one game (Super Bowl III), while it took a quarter century for John Madden to be elected, even though his video game set the standard for 15 years. Do you care about these respective injustices? Probably not. And your knee-jerk reaction to the McGwire case is probably, “Who freakin’ cares?”
Well, the thing is, this is America, land of the dead, beaten horse; and this is baseball, the national pastime, so you won’t be able to avoid this news story, which is not going away – ever. You’ll be forced, perhaps subconsciously, to have an opinion, because McGwire’s candidacy, and the candidacy of every other player from the so-called Steroids Era, will be called into question, every year from now until the Rapture.
Now, did McGwire use juice? I don’t know, but he certainly quacked like a duck to Congress, so I’m willing to believe he did. Does that mean he doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame? Well, if you’ve actually been to the Hall of Fame, you’ll know that he’s already in there. So, too, are Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Their records are there, and their names are listed for everyone to see. “Hold it,” you say, “they don’t have individual plaques.”
That’s true. And I don’t think anyone else should either.
Baseball should get rid of individual Hall of Fame plaques. The hall is a museum, a catalog of accomplishments, and individual plaques add nothing. For instance, they won’t tell you anything you don’t already know about Babe Ruth or Eppa Rixey (if you actually know about Eppa Rixey). I mean, ya know what it says on the Babe’s slab? We’re talking about the Sultan of Swat, the greatest baseball player in the history of the game, and he’s immortalized by this paragraph:
“Greatest drawing card in history of baseball. Holder of many home run and other batting records. Gathered 714 home runs in addition to fifteen in World Series.”
That’s it. Beyond the shoddy way in which it’s worded (he “gathered” 714 home runs? What are they, apples?), the plaque adds little to our collective knowledge of Ruth. Ask a 12-year-old about the Babe, and he (or she) would probably be able to tell you a lot more than that – even if it’s only that garbage about the Curse of the Bambino.
If Ripken gets elected, his plaque will no doubt mention his consecutive-games streak, and maybe his two MVP awards. But if he didn’t have a plaque, would this information somehow be lost to history? No. The only thing lost by the elimination of individual plaques and induction ceremonies is one more opportunity to kiss the butt of a world-class athlete, a guy who got to play a children’s game for a living. I mean, do retired players, who’ve had sunshine blown up their keisters since high school, really need more adulation? Conversely, do great players like Dale Murphy, Jim Rice, and Goose Gossage – some of the best players of my youth – deserve the ignominy of spending their twilights fielding “compliments” from fans who say, “It’s a travesty. You should be in the Hall of Fame”? Sure, fans mean it as a pat on the back, but after about 15 years, how can a player not start feeling like a failure? And that’s just wrong. Rice and Murphy don’t deserve that (though Gossage does, that baby).
Kidding.
I’ve been to two induction ceremonies: in 1999, for former Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk, whose acceptance speech was so I long I nearly got sunstroke; and in 1996, for former Baltimore Orioles manager Ned Hanlon, my great-great-grandfather, whose acceptance speech was short, because he died in 1937. These yearly events are fun and a boon to the Cooperstown economy, but the hall won’t exactly suffer without these marketing vehicles. I mean, ya ever been to the Hall of Fame during the summer? It’s packed all day long.
While I’d like to see the end of individual plaques, I’m not holding my breath. The players certainly don’t want to end this process, and baseball writers certainly don’t want to relinquish their powerful voting rights, though some employers are now making them.
Between now and Dec. 31, when ballots must be postmarked, approximately 575 sportswriters will decide whether Mark McGwire should be honored alongside Cal Ripken Jr. Early indications say McGwire won’t get the 75 percent of votes necessary for induction, and so we’ll have to revisit his candidacy again next year, and the year after that, ad nauseum.
Soon enough, Rafael Palmeiro will become eligible for induction. And then Sammy Sosa, and then Barry Bonds, and then Roger Clemens, and many other players accused of steroid use. Will they gather enough votes? Will they get individual plaques like Ken Griffey Jr. or Derek Jeter or Greg Maddux or other players who, to this point anyway, have escaped accusation? I don’t know. But if I had a vote, I wouldn’t vote for any of them. These players don’t need another day in the sun, and we don’t need to hear the same regurgitated news stories for the rest of our lives.
Cameron Martin. Finalist in Fox Sports Next Great Sportswriter contest. I cover the Red Sox for Comcast SportsNet New England and Major League Baseball for
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