Still Americas Pastime

A trend that seems to have been sweeping sports these past few years is the firing of coaches and managers in the middle of a season.  I’m not talking about when a manager is in the last year of his contract and at the All-Star Break, the team decides to announce he won’t be back next year.  That’s fine.  In fact, it helps keep the manager and players focused on the game because there aren’t a bunch of rumors sweeping around.  No, what I’m sick and tired of is owners handing a manager walking papers and naming an interim manager.

The latest instance of this that got me really fired up was when the Milwaukee Brewers fired Ned Yost.  Here was a manager that that was with the team as they changed from a perennial bottom feeder to a playoff contender.  He helped break Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun into the big leagues.  Then he gets canned.

Why?  Because apparently having 1 1/2 sub-par Septembers in a row is reason to get the axe.  In the 2007 season, the Brewers were leading their division in September.   Unfortunately, they ended up losing the division to the Cubs and not making the playoffs.  This is obviously Ned Yost’s fault.  It couldn’t have been the fact that it was a team made up of budding young stars, and it most certainly couldn’t have been the pressure on these young men to bring their team back to the playoffs in decades.

Then this past season, as the season was winding down, with only 12 games left, the Brewers fired Ned Yost.  They felt he was going to betray them again.  Well, the ploy seemed to work, as the Brewers did indeed capture the Wild Card and make the playoffs. 

This was obviously because they rid themselves of Yost.  The Mets (a team that ironically also switched managers mid-season) second consecutive last-season collapse had nothing to do with that.  It’s all the manager’s fault.  Get a new one, and you’ll win games.

I’m not saying that there’s no reason to fire a manager mid-season.  If he doesn’t have the respect of the players, he doesn’t show up and do his job, he bets on the game, go for it, fire him and with conviction.  But because the team isn’t winning enough games?  Don’t fire one man because it’s easier than trading 25 players.

Until next time, I’m hittin’ the showers.

As I was visiting my girlfriend last weekend, I picked up the college newspaper (for those of you wondering, no I’m not a creeper, I graduated from the same school this May).  Inside was an article entitled “Professional athletes or overpaid infants?”  This intrigued me, as I have always been interested in how people viewed ballplayer’s salaries.  Add to that our economic slump, and I felt it would prove to be a good read.  However, after I was done, I was confused.

The writer’s title led me to believe that it would be a rant against the athletes themselves.  Instead, it seemed to be more of a critique of society’s willingness to pay entertainers a huge sum of money than an outburst against the athletes themselves.  Which is more where I stand anyway.  I have a big problem with people who say, as this writer did, after spending most of the article saying that there is no way he could do what the athletes do, “If they want to stay so true to the game then they should give up the money and get back to the roots of it all.  When it was about the game rather than the money.”

Now, I will agree that for some people, it is more about the money than the game.  But for most people to put the time and effort into becoming a Major Leaguer there has to be a love of the game.

So, with all that on the table, here is my defense for the players not giving up all the money.  In the beginning, baseball players didn’t make enough money to sit at home during the offseason.  They had to get jobs during the offseason to make ends meet.  Spring Training wasn’t for a tune-up to get some innings in for the veterans and for youngsters to try to make the team; it was for the players to get back in shape after having done nothing baseball related for the past three months or so.

Then baseball players formed a union, and baseball started becoming more profitable and it paid to win.  Teams were less willing to allow their great players to get hurt working during the offseason, and so they paid their players enough that they wouldn’t have to work.

Next, add free agency, where players can negotiate their contracts and have teams bid on their services.  This is just supply and demand.  As the revenue available to teams grew, so did the contracts given to desirable players.

Today, there are plenty of players making huge piles of cash.  There are also many who are paid a minimum salary (which is still pretty good money).  But all of these players spent some time in the minors, making the type of money that requires an offseason job.  They persevered through this to make it up to the big leagues.

Should we fault a player for opting to be paid $20 million by that team instead of $19 million by another?  It really isn’t different from choosing to be paid $20/hour by Staples instead of $19/hour by Office Depot.  Do you really think they don’t care about the game because they make an extra million a year?

Disagree with me?  Want to voice your opinion?  Leave a comment. 

Until next time, I’m hittin’ the showers.

Today at 2:00, MLB announced the AL MVP.  Dustin Pedroia, the second baseman of the Boston Red Sox, won the award, finishing a comfortable 60 points ahead of the Twin’s Justin Morneau.

This MVP award will undoubtedly go into Pedrioa’s trophy case next to the Rookie of the Year award he received after bursting onto the scene last year.  Pedrioa is one of three players to have followed up a Rookie of the Year win with the MVP.  The other two are Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and Phillies’ cleanup hitter Ryan Howard.

If that company wasn’t elite enough, he became only the fifth second baseman to hit at least 200 hits, 50 doubles, 15 home runs, and score at least 100 runs in the same season.  The others?  Charlie Gehringer, Craig Biggio, Jose Vidro, and Alfonso Soriano.

Albert Pujols has just collected his second National League Most Valuable Player Award.

This comes as a slight surprise to me, as there was a bunch of talk about Manny Ramirez winning it after joining the NL at the trade deadline and the Phillies winning the World Series.  Not that I’m disappointed.  I don’t think you can crown any player MVP for only spending August and September in the league.  And while Ryan Howard might have seemed like a good pick since the Phillies won the World Series, he had a lot more help than Pujols did.

Congratulations Albert Pujols, and good selection MVP voters.

Last time I talked to you about understanding the nature of the offseason beast.  This segment deals with another component to avoiding the offseason blues: Hope.

Hope is a quintessential part to the baseball offseason and every fan of the game should have it.  There are many kinds of offseason hope and it is possible for us baseball fans to have one, two, or all of these as the offseason continues.

Hope for your team to get that one or two players that will turn them back into a contender.

Hope that your team will start or continue its dominance over its division.

Hope that the AL will discontinue it’s misguided ways and drop the DH rule (or for you DH fans out there, I guess you could hope the NL picks it up.)

Hope that a prospect playing well in the Fall and Winter Leagues gets noticed by your team and invited to Spring Training.

These hopes don’t have to be limited to MLB though.

Hope that your kid’s team, be it Select, Little League, Knothole, or some other type of league, recognizes his/her talent and spirit next year.

Hope that your town starts some sort of baseball program that will revitalize interest in the sport in your area.

Hope that your significant other re-categorizes your love of baseball from an unhealthy obsession and character flaw to a display of loyalty, devotion, and passion that mark you as a true romantic.

Hope that your baseball blog receives 1,000,000 page hits daily and you never have to work another day of your life.

So that last one might be a bit autobiographical, but hey, it could happen.

Stay tuned for our exciting conclusion to Offseason Blues.

-Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel

Today marks the beginning of the serious part of the offseason’s Free Agency period.  After the end of the World Series, teams have a 15 day window to exclusively talk to their players who declare Free Agency.  While there are loopholes and strategies for circumventing that window, the bottom line is that until the 15 day window is over, the team the player ended last season with has an advantage to resign the free agent.  Starting today, all teams are able to negotiate with any free agent, and that leads us to today’s term: “Free Agent”

Free Agent: A player that has no contractual obligations to a team and therefore is eligible to negotiate with any team.

Players can become free agents by being undrafted in the amateur draft, being released by their team, or by having their current contract expire without renewing it.

Well, to my devoted readers, I am sorry it’s been so long since I posted.  It seems like right after I started thinking to myself that I was doing a great job taking time to post every day, I stopped.

But rest assured, the lapse was only temporary and there are many more posts to come.  Tomorrow will see the first Baseball Terms 101, this weekend will bring Offseason Blues Pt. 2, and I’ve decided that I have more than enough material for there to be an I Call ‘Em as I See ‘Em post every other Monday through the rest of the year. 

Finally, there will be more non-MLB information posted in the near future.

No, this post isn’t a day late.  There are more opportunities to exercise your right to vote.  For those of you happy you played a part in electing the first African-American President-Elect (no offense to anyone, but he isn’t the President yet), here’s a chance to keep up your voting excitement.  For those of you upset that you voted for someone who didn’t win, here’s your chance to try again.  And for all of you who didn’t vote for any reason, here’s your chance to get out and vote.

What’s left to vote for?  Why only the This Year in Baseball Awards.  And you don’t have to go anywhere to do it.  Just get online and go to the MLB website and you can vote.

Here are the categories: Top Hitter, Starter, Rookie, Manager, Closer, Setup Man, Defense, Performance, Play, Moment, Oddity, Executive, and Postseason Moment.

These Polls are open for another month, so log on and Rock the Vote!!!

There are three big components to avoiding the offseason blues.  The first is understanding.  I’m not talking about understanding the necessity of the offseason, but understanding what the offseason really is. 

1)  The offseason lasts from the end of the World Series until pitchers and catchers report in early February.  This means there is only about 13 weeks or so of the offseason.  And you’ve got Thanksgiving, Christmas/Kwanzaa/Chanukah, and New Years in there to keep you busy.  It’s not that terrible that the MLB takes 13 weeks off.  That gives you time to make up all that stuff you didn’t do during the 39 weeks of the past season. 

2)  Just because MLB is not playing any games, it doesn’t mean that everyone is standing still.  General Managers are feverishly working to rebuild, revamp, or (if they’re lucky) merely reload their rosters.  Free agency has already started and so have the GM meetings.  Non-waiver trading resumed the day after the World Series ended, and some players have already heard they’re going to be wearing a different uniform come February. 

3)  There is plenty of baseball to be played outside of the MLB.  There are Fall Leagues and Winter Leagues in
Mexico and Central & South America.  Local TV or newspapers won’t cover these games, but with the internet, you can follow these seasons if you want.  Also, if a major prospect from your favorite team is playing in one of the leagues, there might be occasional updates on the parent club’s website. 

As you can see, just because it’s the offseason, it doesn’t mean baseball is dormant.  While it does require a little more effort on your part, you can get your daily baseball fix of MLB news.  Watch for part two of Offseason Blues coming soon.

This past postseason saw a lot of batters getting hit by the pitch (referred to in baseball stats as HBP).  Some of these were intentional and some of these were not.  Also, some of these situations where handled well by the umpiring crew and some were handled very poorly. 

Perhaps the most famous incident this postseason occurred during the National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies.  In Game 3, after having some teammates knocked down, or even had a pitch thrown behind them, Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda threw a pitch over Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino’s head.  A very upset Victorino repeatedly pointed to his head and then to his ribs before getting back in the batter’s box.  When he grounded out during that at-bat, Kuroda was running over to cover first and the two had some more words.  The benches cleared but as happens so often in baseball, the ensuing fight was more like a middle school dance, a whole lot of movement and noise, but no touching. 

This is the incident that I felt was handled very well by the umpiring crew.  The home plate umpire issued a warning to both teams after the benches cleared.  Later in the game, the Dodgers’ catcher Russell Martin has hit by a first-pitch curveball by Chad Durbin.  Recognizing that the pitch wasn’t intentionally aimed at Martin, Durbin was allowed to stay in the game.  The Dodgers didn’t argue with the decision and after the game, Martin said he didn’t think it was intentional.  Usually if you’re trying to hit someone, you do it with a fastball.  I think this was a great example umpires making the right call. 

However, there are a number of times that the umpires just screw it up.  Sure, umps might be a favorite target for angry fans, but when they mess up, they should know about it, especially when they don’t know/follow the rules.  Here’s what the official Major League Rulebook says about being hit by the pitch. 

6.08(b): The batter becomes a runner and is entitled to first base without liability to be put out (provided he advances to and touches first base) when — He is touched by a pitched ball which he is not attempting to hit unless (1) The ball is in the strike zone when it touches the batter, or (2) The batter makes no attempt to avoid being touched by the ball; If the ball is in the strike zone when it touches the batter, it shall be called a strike, whether or not the batter tries to avoid the ball. If the ball is outside the strike zone when it touches the batter, it shall be called a ball if he makes no attempt to avoid being touched.
APPROVED RULING: When the batter is touched by a pitched ball which does not entitle him to first base, the ball is dead and no runner may advance. 

The part to key in on is exception 2.  If the batter makes no attempt to avoid being touched by the ball, he is not awarded first.  In all my years of playing and watching baseball, I’m pretty sure I’ve only watched an umpire rule the batter that the batter didn’t try to avoid the ball ONCE. 

This postseason, during the American League Championship Series, Boston Red Sox pitcher threw a ball that ended up hitting Tampa Bay Rays player Jason Bartlett.  However,
Bartlett leaned into the pitch.  The rules state that this should have been called a ball.  However,
Bartlett was awarded first base.  I was upset, but not surprised.  Why aren’t umpires willing to make this call?  It’s already set up in the batter’s favor.  All he has to do is make the umpire think he attempted to avoid the ball.  Not making this call just rewards laziness in the game. 

I’ve played the game; there are a number of ways to “try” to avoid the ball.  I’ve used them.  If it’s coming at you, you can turn your back into it.  This both looks like an attempt avoid the ball, and you get first base.  A ball at your feet or bouncing in the dirt, you can leap over it, but time it so your back foot is still hit.  I’ve done both of these tricks, but at least you look like you’re trying to avoid the ball; and it requires at least a little effort.   

Is it so too much to ask for umpires to apply the rules?  I mean, if it weren’t for rules, we wouldn’t need umpires.