Bud Selig, and all the powers that be over there at Major League Baseball, need to stop messing around and ruining what was once THEE summer institution in this country. This Opening Week I’ve seen yet another severe lapse in judgment by Major League Baseball to go with a long list of bad moves. Why in the world are we ever playing games in cold weather cities during the 1st 2 weeks of the season? There is absolutely no reason for this to happen. As it stands right now, there are 8 teams in the AL that either play in a warm weather city, or an indoor stadium. In the NL, there are 9. Why is there baseball in Cleveland, NY, Philly, and Boston before April 15th? There is no need for it. Do you know that they are calling for snow in the northeast this week? Why would you even attempt to play baseball in this weather? Players hate it. Fans going to the stadium hate it. And honestly watching baseball in the sleet, or snow, or freezing- cold is cool for like an inning or 2 and then it’s just shitty baseball. Look, there is no home field advantage in April, or anything lost by the Yankees being on the road for 10 days early in the season. If anything, it will give those teams a guaranteed 10 game home stand in like August or September, when you really want one. I would be pissed if I was the Phillies and have Roy Halladay get shelled in an early start because he can’t grip the ball in sub-freezing temperatures and a driving sleet storm, you know? Here’s a baffling fact, the Anaheim Angels play their first 8 games away from home. WTF!? It is forecasted to be between 73 and 90 for the next 10 years in Anaheim, and you take the Angels and put them in other warm weather cities like Tampa. That’s a waste of space. There are enough warm weather cities or indoor stadiums to facilitate this request. It doesn’t sound hard. Here’s what opening day should look like next year:AL
Yanks @ Tampa
Red Sox @ Toronto (Indoor)
White Sox @ Texas
Twins @ Anaheim
Cleveland @ Kansas City
Detroit @ Seattle (Indoor retractable)
Baltimore @ Oakland
*And Baltimore is a borderline warm city. The coldest it’s been there in 2 weeks is 53 degrees. Way better than the 35 degrees it was at Yankee Stadium on Opening Day.
NL
Phils @ Braves
Mets @ Marlins
Cubs @ Giants (BTW, another outrage, the Gigantes started the season with 6 games in LA and San Diego, WTF?)
Pirates @ San Diego
Reds @ LA Dodgers
Rockies @ Brewers (Indoor)
Nats @ Arizona
Cards @ Astros
Now that was not that hard. And then for the 2nd and/or 3rd series of the year, you can still move these teams along to the other warm places. By April 15th or so, the wintery weather is usually relegated to an occasional cold gusty wind, or a chilly rain shower, and not the full out Nor’easter you are more likely to see on April 1st. Being a transplanted easterner, I’m very familiar with the shocked feeling you get when the annual end of winter Nor’easter bell is rung, and you get a day and a half’s worth of snow/sleet and freezing rain. Then usually, within a week, you are also shocked when the warmth finally gets here, like it does every April 10th or so. So let’s stop being shocked that we are playing baseball in the snow on April 2nd in Cleveland, and move the first 2 weeks of baseball to the warm weather cities across this great land of ours. The quality of baseball will go up, and I would venture to guess that all these early season injuries would go down as well. I would guarantee if the players were polled off the record, they would support this idea, no doubt. I can’t see any viable reason why this is a bad idea. And as a trade, you can help out the Texas Rangers, the Houston Astros, the Florida Marlins, the Atlanta Braves and all the other teams that play in cities where the heat is so oppressive, by playing 2 weeks’ worth of games in New York, Philly and Boston where even though it’s hot, it’s not THAT hot.
It seems that Bud Selig is purposefully driving baseball into the ground. That’s the only theory I can come up with. If Major League Baseball isn’t careful, and the NFL, or the NBA, who are both savvy enough, launches any kind of summer league, it’s over for baseball. OVER! It’s things like their inability to see that a salary cap, a few scheduled doubleheaders, and a World Series game or 2 that is guaranteed to end on the same day it began on the east coast, would vastly improve the standing of this remarkable pastime called baseball that any man over the age of 25 holds very dear to their heart. Ask most men over the age of 25 about baseball and they will have a profound memory or 2 about the boys of summer. Now the game of summer seems to be more about NFL and NBA draft picks, NFL training camps and the countdown to NFL preseason. You see, Major League Baseball has a very unique opportunity this summer. The NFL is entrenched in a deep labor dispute that threatens to delay the September start of its season. Similar story in the NBA as labor strife is brewing on the hardwood. So you may have only baseball to count on come September. And if you look at what’s on the horizon, and what is GOOD about the league right now, you can see a resurgence taking place if they will let it. The Giants with their great pitching and young stars like Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson. The Phillies and there Brave-like run of dominance in the NL. The Braves rebuilding with tremendous young talent like Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman. The ever present evil empire of the New York Yankees and there aging stars AROD, Jeter and Mariano, and with the Bonds’ trial so close to being over, maybe the steroid mess will go away for a bit (as I’m writing this, Manny Ramirez just tested positive again, so this may be wishful thinking).So many great stories to talk about, but unfortunately the league will never do what is necessary to make this sport great again.
Like a salary cap. Do you remember when the Royals and the Pirates were GREAT franchises? It was 20 years ago that the Pirates were on the cusp of being the dominant team of the ‘90’s. Unfortunately the Reds in ’90, the Braves in ’91 and Francisco Cabrera and his miracle hit to lift the Braves in ’92, shut the door on that Pirate team for the last time. It was nearly 30 years ago now that the Royals were at war with the Yankees on a yearly basis for AL supremacy, and it was 26 years ago that they actually won a World Series. These teams are nothing more than farm teams for the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Mets, Angels, Dodgers and all the other money teams in the game right now. Look at the Royals. In the past 10 to 15 years, they are responsible as an organization for many World Series contenders. Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, Zach Greinke, Jeff Suppan, and Raul Ibanez are just a few players they’ve had to let go that will or already have impacted other team’s chances for a World Series run. Why is that? The Yanks, Sox, Phils and others like them have way more money than the Royals or the Pirates. I get that the Twins are competitive every year, and the Giants won the World Series last year but take a deeper look. The Giants and the Twins spent nearly $100 million last year on players that ranks as 10th in Major League Baseball. The Pirates were dead last at $32 million while the Royals were in the high $60’s. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not blaming the Dodgers and the Yankees and the Red Sox for this. Hell I’m a fan of the New York Mets who rank 5th in highest payrolls, and they suck. These teams are playing by the rules that are put before them, so they should get theirs. I also understand that there are exceptions to the rule like the Padres last year who almost made the playoffs and the Rangers who were in the World Series last year. But those teams are just that, exceptions to the rule. The last exception to the rule that actually won the World Series were the 2003 Florida Marlins. And that team, like the 1997 Marlins, was basically dismantled the season after it won. Look at the players they couldn’t keep. Josh Beckett, Ivan Rodriguez, AJ Burnett, Brad Penny, Carl Pavano, Derrick Lee, Mike Lowell, Miguel Cabrera, Juan Encarnacion, and Juan Pierre were all shipped away within 3 years of winning this world series. Most of them immediately. This team had dynasty potential, if there was a salary cap. A lot of those players went on to play integral parts on other World Series winners. It’s long overdue. I’m not mad at the Yankees for spending $200 million on players, it’s the rules I’m mad at. I have no idea why this continues to happen. Look at what happened to the Rays this offseason. Their whole team has been looted like a scene out of a worn torn country. The “haves” swooped in from the north and lifted Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Jason Bartlett for nothing. 3 of the best players from a team that has competed for a World Series title 2 of the last 3 years, taken because the Rays can’t afford to keep them. With a salary cap, this couldn’t happen.
Here’s another thing. Why can’t we have 1 scheduled doubleheader, in each park, per month during the season? Are the owners taking that much of a hit on 5 games? 5 Twi-night doubleheaders per club, per park is not much to ask. Scratch that, let’s not ask too much. One doubleheader per team, per park. Just one. Hell, make it one Sunday in May, and one in August, and make an event out of it. It’s not for me necessarily. Honestly, unless it’s a playoff game, or the Mets, I have a hard time sitting for 9 innings let alone 18. But as a kid, my favorite ball park memory was going with my dad to a twi-night doubleheader at Shea against the Astros. First off, I saw Mike Scott and Nolan Ryan pitch that night, and that was sweet. Not to mention, this was back in ’86, so we all kind of knew that this could be a playoff preview. It was awesome I got to spend a whole day, with my dad at the ballpark. An added bonus was Game 2 went 16 innings. It was almost a triple header. Another perk that could just happen, you can’t really facilitate this so much, but in ’96 I went with Ant to a Yankee-Oriole doubleheader that wound up settling the division title. Of course both teams got in due to the Wild Card, but it was still amazing being in Yankee stadium for 18 intense, rivalry filled innings where the teams on the field were determining first place. Another side note, Ant and I nearly got into a brawl with some douche who called a very hot young lady wearing an Oriole hat a See You Next Tuesday. It was both hilarious, but very uncalled for, so we said something. I digress, scheduled doubleheaders used to happen on a regular basis back in the day. Now they are like an endangered species, or Yogi Berra, just not there at all.
Lastly, can we please start these playoff and World Series games at a reasonable time? Look, without younger fans, this sport is going to die. I’m lucky that I moved out to the west coast. When I lived in NY, my 10 year old son never watched baseball. I thought he wasn’t interested. Maybe it wasn’t his thing? Maybe it was because the games that matter most don’t begin until 8:30pm on the east coast. WTF? Baseball is supposed be played in the sun. I say I’m lucky to move out west because due to the time change, and the San Francisco Giants playing in and winning the World Series last year, my boy got to watch every inning, and agonized with every pitch. The reason he got to watch it, because it started at 5:30pm out here. Perfect time for a kid, to watch a baseball game with his dad, and now he is a rabid Giants fan. You see, I think these smart business types have no soul. They don’t see us as fans, or kids, or families, they see us as dollars. I’m not a millionaire, nor am I “business savvy.” But I do know what I see. I see a sport that may see ticket sales go up every year, advertising revenue at a sustainable rate, and TV viewership going down. “So what, we still have the advertising and a game of the week on FOX, so what if the ratings stink.” I also know that if you take a real close look at those stands, they’re filled with men who are 25+ years of age, and not many kids. At least not nearly as many as there used to be. You see, if you don’t recycle your fans, your sport will die. I live in a pretty diverse neighborhood out here in the San Francisco Bay Area in age, ethnicity and sex. There are a lot of boys and girls who hang out and play at my house with my kids. And I have to say that it is striking to me the lack of baseball gear I see. There are 2 big time ball clubs out here, the Giants and the A’s. There was a surge of Giants gear obviously at the end of their championship run last fall, but that seems to have gone and been replaced by 49ers gear. The 49ers? A team that didn’t make the playoffs. A team that hasn’t had a snap since December? A team that may not see the field for a long time, and this is what I’m seeing on the opening week of the Giants title defense. This is it!? Even from a fashion standpoint, black and orange are more agreeable colors than red and gold. But if I look at these kids dads, they have their Giants and A’s paraphernalia on in force. They are watching the games, and going to the park. Oh the kids will go to the games for sure. It’s still fun to go to a game, but that’s not where your fandom is built. See as I said above, one of my favorite memories was going to that doubleheader with my dad, but it wasn’t about the baseball. It was about my dad, the place, the hot dogs and all of that. Your fandom is galvanized when you follow every pitch, every game, every blissful victory and every bitter defeat. Watching your team go on the road for 10 games, that’s where your fans come from. So let’s bring this around, and let’s say you do get some kids to watch these teams in NY. Young, burgeoning, 10 year old Yankee fans follow them all the way to the World Series and they are amped to watch that Game 1 from hallowed Yankee stadium. “Dad, Dad, please can we go?” “ Sure son, after I remortgage the house to be able to afford the tickets, sure, what time is the game?” “It starts at 8:30.” A little math for you here – 8:37 start time + 3 hours for a normal length game + an extra 1 hour for the playoff drama, commercial timeouts, and other variables + 1 more hour because it’s the Yankees and that’s what they do. 8:37+3:00+1:00+1:00= “1:37am, HELL NO! I HAVE WORK IN THE MORNING, YOU HAVE SCHOOL!” and that’s if there are no long innings, or extras. Oh by the way, just from experience, your 10 year old isn’t staying up until 1:30 am anyway. So what is the harm in starting at 7pm? At the very least, it keeps it on the same day that the game began. And maybe make a Game 2 and 3 be a daytime game. I just don’t understand why you can’t have a World Series game start at 4pm on a Sunday. Church is long over, it’s October 20th or so, so unless you get the freak 75 degree fall day in NY, it’s not gorgeous out. The sun is beginning to go down anyway, what an awesome time to sit and watch a World Series game with your boy on a Sunday evening.
This won’t happen. Neither will the salary cap, or the double headers, not until it’s too late. It seems that baseball has this stubborn approach to change. They were ok with changing it to the way it is now, but at the risk of possibly admitting fault, they won’t go back to how it was when baseball was the #1 sport in America. I noticed the other day that the term “National Pastime” doesn’t get thrown around nearly as much as it used to. The definition of National Pastime is a national sport that you do in your spare time because it’s fun or you are interested in it. Well, that might explain why it’s not used anymore, no one is interested in it anymore. I have my final prediction for this baseball season. Major League Baseball has a very unique opportunity this summer to seize the fans love again, and restore itself to its’ rightful place as our “National Pastime” in the traditional sense, but it will fail to do so. I think I have a new definition for the term “National Pastime.”
Baseball as America’s National Pastime – A sport whose time has passed.
fin
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