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Dave Zirin: More Than a Sportswriter: Lester "Red" Rodney: 1911-2009

2009-12-23T01:26:04Z

It didn't make SportsCenter, but one of history's most influential sportswriters died this week at the age of 98. His name was Lester Rodney. Lester was one of the first people to write about a young Negro League prospect named Jackie Robinson. He was the last living journalist to cover the famous 1938 fight at Yankee Stadium between "The Brown Bomber" Joe Louis and Hitler favorite, Max Schmeling. He crusaded against baseball's color line when almost every other journalist pretended it didn't exist. He edited a political sports page that engaged his audience in how to fight for a more just sports world. His writing, which could describe the beauty of a well-turned double play in one sentence and blast injustice in the next, is still bracing and ahead of its time. He should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Instead he was largely erased from the books.

If you have never heard of Lester Rodney, there is a very simple reason why: the newspaper he worked at from 1936-1958 was the Daily Worker, the party press of the U.S. Communist Party. Lester used his paper to launch the first campaign to end the color line in Major League Baseball. I spoke to Lester about this in 2004 and he said to me, "It's amazing. You go back and you read the great newspapers in the thirties, you'll find no editorials saying, 'What's going on here? This is America, land of the free and people with the wrong pigmentation of skin can't play baseball?' Nothing like that. No challenges to the league, to the commissioner, no talking about Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, who were obviously of superstar caliber. So it was this tremendous vacuum waiting."

The campaign was integrated into the Party's anti-racist work of the 1930s: "I spoke to the leaders of the YCL [the Young Communist League]. We talked about circulating the paper [at ballparks]. It just evolved as we talked about the color line and some kids in the YCL suggested, 'Why don't we go to the ballparks-to Yankee Stadium, Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds-with petitions?' We wound up with at least a million and a half signatures that we delivered straight to the desk of [baseball commissioner] Judge Landis."

As Lester fought to end the Color Ban, he also never stopped highlighting and covering the Negro League teams, giving them press at a time when they invisible men outside of the African American press. But it was Jackie Robinson who captured Lester's imagination. Armed with a press pass to the Ebbets Field locker room, he saw up close the way Robinson was told to "just shut up and play" despite the constant harassment during his inaugural 1947 campaign. "Jackie was suppressing his very being, his personality," said Lester. "He was a fiercely intelligent man. He knew his role and he accepted it. And the black players who followed him knew what he meant too."

Lester saw the way their play -- and their courage -- helped inspire the struggle for Civil Rights, especially in the South. Lester told me about a dramatic exhibition game in Atlanta where all the dynamics of the Black Freedom Struggle were on display. "This exhibition game wound up with the Black fans being allowed in because they had overflowed the segregated stands, they had poured in from outlying districts to see the first integrated game in Georgia history. The Klan had said, 'This must not happen.' That night there was this tremendous sight of Robinson, [Dodgers African American players] Don Newcombe, and Roy Campanella coming out and the black fans behind the ropes and in the stands standing and roaring their greeting. A large sector of whites were just sitting and booing. Then other white people, hesitantly at first, stood up and consciously differentiated themselves from the booers and clapped. This was an amazing spectacle. This was the Deep South many years before the words civil rights were widely known. So it had its impact... Roy Campanella, once said to me something like, 'Without the Brooklyn Dodgers you don't have Brown v. Board of Education.' I laughed, I thought he was joking but he was stubborn. He said, 'All I know is we were the first ones on the trains, we were the first ones down South not to go around the back of the restaurant, first ones in the hotels.' He said, 'We were like the teachers of the whole integration thing.'"

Lester would still become emotional when he recalls Jackie Robinson and his impact. "There are very few people of whom you can say with certainty that they made this a somewhat better country. Without doubt you can say that about Jackie Robinson. His legacy was not, 'Hooray, we did it,' but 'Buddy, there's still unfinished work out there' He was a continuing militant, and that's why the Dodgers never considered this brilliant baseball man as a manager or coach. It's because he was outspoken and unafraid. That's the kind of person he was. In fact, the first time he was asked to play at an old-timers' game at Yankee Stadium, he said "I must sorrowfully refuse until I see more progress being made off the playing field on the coaching lines and in the managerial departments." He made people uncomfortable. In fact it was that very quality which made him something special. He always made you feel that 'Buddy, there's still unfinished work out there.'" We can absolutely say the same about Lester Rodney, albeit with a twist. Yes, Lester made you feel like there was unfinished work out there. But he also made you feel like the great fun in life was in trying to get it done. That and seeing a perfectly turned 6-4-3 double play.

[For more on Lester Rodney, read Press Box Red by Irwin Silber]

Arn Tellem: Godzilla Rocks Southern California

2009-12-16T12:29:27Z

There's a line about Godzilla in the 1998 Hollywood remake that goes: "He's not some monster trying to evade you... If you find what he wants, then he'll come to you." This week baseball's Godzilla found the contract he wanted in Los Angeles, which means he'll be coming to the Angels next season to rock the American League West. The agreement ends his seven-year run with the New York Yankees that culminated last month in a World Series Most Valuable Player award. The decision to leave the Bronx was a difficult one for Hideki, who had hoped to finish his career in pinstripes. He has great admiration for his former teammates, particularly Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte. He has great affection for New York, a city that embraced him as a native son.

In the weeks since the Series victory, it became abundantly clear that resigning Hideki was not one of the Yankees' priorities. Hideki's overriding concerns have always been winning and playing for a quality organization. Over his 17 seasons in pro ball, his only two teams have been the Yankees and the Yomiuri Giants. Each is the premier franchise in its respective league. Beyond the Yanks, his preferences were the Angels and the Boston Red Sox, two dominating franchises with superb players, coaches and management. But with David Ortiz entrenched as Boston's everyday designated hitter, the Red Sox were never a real option. When Angels DH Vladimir Guerrero filed for free-agency, L.A. became even more attractive to Hideki.

Hideki takes special pride in being a complete player -- at the plate and in the outfield -- and from the start of negotiations, the Angels made every effort to accommodate him. On Sunday, during a meeting with team officials at my home, manager Mike Scioscia offered Hideki the chance to show that he can still play the field. Hideki is a longtime fan of Scioscia, and the lunch cemented his desire to play for him. Scioscia's current plan is to have Hideki test his knees and mobility in spring training. Ideally, Hideki would start in left at least once or twice a week. The rest of the time, he'd DH.

In the end, Hideki chose to accept Angel's offer rather than wait for Yankees to decide whether they wanted to bring him back. Failure to act quickly might have caused L.A. to withdraw its offer and forced Hideki to sign with a weaker team, thus forfeiting a shot at another World Series. Conflicted, Hideki stayed up all Sunday night mulling his final move in this limited game of musical free-agent chairs. He didn't want to be left standing.

Happily, the Yankees' 2010 home opener is against the Angels on April 13. Hideki will be on hand --- kusuri-yubi (index finger) extended -- for the ring ceremony.

Brad Kurtzberg: Congress Can Help College Football

2009-12-16T11:24:36Z

Some members of Congress are now threatening to force a playoff system on NCAA Football to replace the existing BCS format.

Let's face facts: a playoff is logical, necessary and would provide for plenty of exciting football. Major college football remains the only sport I know of that doesn't legitimately settle matters on the field of play with a playoff. If there's a high school sport out there that nobody has ever even heard of, rest assured there's a playoff to determine a league, county or state champion. But college football avoids a legitimate playoff. The sport allows a relatively anonymous group of "experts" to determine which two teams have a chance at the mythical national championship. In reality, there should be no "C" in "BCS".

No other sport would tolerate such a system. Imagine if after each NFL team played 16 games, a group of team owners and/or writers got together and picked one NFC team and one AFC team to play in the Super Bowl. What if the Saints and Vikings both finished with 14-2 records and didn't play each other during the regular season, but the pollsters decided New Orleans was a better team because they played in a tougher division. Sorry, Vikings fans, you have no chance of winning a championship.

In baseball, what if the Yankees and Angels had the same record after playing 162 games, won their respective divisions and split their season series? According to the BCS, pollsters are the best way to determine who plays the National League champion in the World Series. Let's face facts: having "experts" decide which team goes to the World Series is even less logical than having the winner of the All Star Game determine home field advantage in the Fall Classic.

People rightly argue that Congress has plenty of bigger issues to deal with than how the NCAA determines who the best college football team in the country is. We have ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, double digit unemployment, a health care crisis, the budget deficit and the ongoing battle against radical Islamic terrorists.

But the opponents overlook one important thing. Sometimes the threat of government intervention is the only way to get the parties to move on an issue and reach a workable solution. The biggest motivator is actually fear. Sports owners and players are afraid that the government will impose a solution on them that is unfavorable to their side in a negotiation or even one that they feel they cannot live with.

Some recent examples include baseball's owners and players finally agreeing on a stricter policy on performance enhancing drugs and the NFL taking more action on the long term problems associated with concussions and other brain injuries. Before Congress threatened to get involved, the baseball owners and players couldn't agree on what color a blue bird is. But when the government threatened to re-examine baseball's anti-trust exemption and impose a solution on the parties, they quickly joined hands and sang Kumbaya.

While the new policy on PEDs is not perfect, it was a major improvement over the original policy which provided only a minor slap on the wrist for cheating players. The changes were also implemented in between normal collective bargaining sessions so the agreement got done years before it would have without the threat of government action.

College football has several arguments against a playoff system but all of them are flawed and full of empty excuses. It's time for the champion of college football to be determined on the football field by a legitimate playoff system. If it takes the threat of Congressional intervention to make that a reality, so be it. The big winner in the long run will be college football fans. Imagine if the champion of college football was no longer mythical. Maybe, with a little "encouragement" from Congress, we can restore the "C" to "BCS".

David Roher: The Iverson Gap: Why Valuing Players Is Even Harder Than You Think

2009-12-14T11:58:40Z

The value of Allen Iverson is one of the most contentious topics in the world of basketball statistics. HuffPost's own Dave Berri is well known for thinking that Iverson is heavily overrated, and is decidedly unenthusiastic about his return to the Philadelphia 76ers. Other statisticians have publicly disagreed. There's some great back-and-forth about this issue, and reading more about Iverson's case provides a great introduction into advanced basketball metrics.

But as complicated as Iverson's value already was, his return to Philly adds yet another dimension to the debate.

Iverson's court presence during his debut wasn't bad, but it was hardly dominating -- he scored 11 points on 4-11 shooting and dished out six assists. But the most important number was 20,664 -- the sellout crowd that watched him Monday night. Philly's average home attendance before Monday's game was 11,966. That difference is over 40% of the stadium's seats. If those seats averaged the same price as the Wachovia Center's overall average, then Philly made around $350,000 more than average from ticket prices alone -- in a single night.

Granted, it's unlikely that Iverson's presence will result in a continued attendance spike unless the 76ers start to win again. But Iverson has a non-guaranteed contract at the veteran's minimum, and the 76ers paid for 35% of it from just ticket sales in one night. It's possible that when we figure in additional merchandise sales and in-game purchases, Philly has already paid for his deal in under a week. They've capitalized on the fact that Iverson was far more valuable to them than he would have been to any other organization.

You might notice that I left Iverson's actual basketball value as an afterthought. That's because it is. As of this writing, John Hollinger is giving the 5-18 Sixers a 10.6% chance of making the playoffs. I don't like those odds.

The truth is that the traditional currency of a player's value, the win, is fairly unimportant in a situation like this. If Iverson is interfering with the development of future players, that's one thing. But do you think fans care about the difference between a 23-win team and a 25-win team? Wins matter to the bottom line primarily when playoff contention and seed is at stake. And we can't forget the possibility that 76ers brass could reinvest all this cash flow into meaningfully good players.

This isn't an issue that ends with Iverson. The gap between a player's perceived value and his "actual" value has real consequences. Here's an example from another sport: Derek Jeter's fielding, a topic even more contentious than Iverson's value. Scouts tend to rate Jeter's fielding as above average, while statisticians usually put it near the bottom of the barrel (except for 2009, where he was universally considered above average). At its largest point, the gap between these two views could be as many as three or four wins -- $15-20 million in free agent dollars, according to Fangraphs' system.

The reality is that this issue isn't really that important when we only talk about revenue. Jeter is the most marketable player in the game of baseball, and his signature jump-and-throw is an indelible part of his image. And that's just it -- the image of his fielding is what drives revenue more than its actual quality. Sure, if Jeter's fielding is actually terrible, the Yankees will lose a few more games and lose out on some revenue. But the idea that Jeter's fielding is worth $15-20 million less is a big stretch.

All this is to say that considering a player's marketability hand-in-hand with his production is going to be a big step in sports analysis. I'm sure that teams are doing it, but the media and the statistical community tend to keep business and production separate. By combining the two, we can close the Iverson Gap and create a comprehensive figure for a player's value -- far from including every intangible, sure, but a huge step nonetheless.

Brian Ross: Is Major League Baseball Going Broke? Why American Needle Makes Sports Leagues Nervous

2009-12-12T11:44:24Z

Major League Baseball (MLB) appears to be hurting financially. The signs were there, or more correctly, not there, from the time that we landed at the airport in Indianapolis, site of this year's Baseball Winter Meetings, which concluded on Thursday.

As I reported at the MAJOR BLOGS of Minor League News this week in "Indy MiLB/MLB Winter Meetings Goes Meeting Lite" gone were the huge airport banners welcoming Baseball's big winter event to town. In their place? Rowdie, the mascot of the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians holding up a white board with "Welcome to Indianapolis" scrawled on it.

Two points for Rowdie as good will ambassador.

The number of meetings were down this year. The number of side events and parties too. The money that MLB supplies to other organizations for side events was either slashed or cut out altogether.

MLB teams cut back on staff attending the event.

The plush premiums bearing the Winter Meetings logo, hats, shirts, and bags, were scaled down to lower quality gear.

The Rule V Draft, the big close to the meetings on Thursday, which MLB had been hyped up in past years with projection screens flashing video shows crowing about the MLB Network and the highlights of the past season. They were gone this year.

It was a dead event for trades and free agent signings this week.

It was as if MLB, which has been known for its excesses, turned over its operation to a guild of frugal Scottish farmers for the week. It could be because of my gig working on the minor league side, and being a wearer of many hats, that I was having the Sixth Sense moments on the business side of the meetings that something more profound was going on.

Our major league kin, the MLB writers, who, along with their editors and producers, have been Pavlovianly conditioned by MLB to pay attention only to the shiny object trades and free agent signings dangling in front of them, leaving owners free to have the rest of their business meetings, missed the big needle in the haystack:

American Needle v. NFL, to be specific.

In the meeting rooms, both major and minor, it was a much larger topic of conversation. Owners and people from the clubs' front offices are worried for good reason. American Needle is the most significant court case in sports history, bigger than the Flood case that shapes the current labor negotiations of MLB.

The case, making its way to the Supreme Court, may bust wide open MLB's vaunted federal antitrust exemptions that allow them to do all kinds of things in business and labor negotiations that would be ruled as collusion for any other business.

In a nutshell, American Needle, a logo merchandise manufacturer, is suing the NFL claiming that they violate the Sherman Antitust Act by forcing licensees to go to one collective licensing entity for the whole league, rather than being able to strike deals with the individual NFL teams themselves.

The case revisits issues of collusion which have been brought against baseball in decades past. This is not the Bush years. The Obama flavor of the United States Justice Department is back prosecuting antitrust cases. There is no bigger ground for collusion cases than professional sports.

The Majors fear that many of their limited partnership entities could be ruled to be in violation of Sherman, affecting, between the big four pro sports, billions in annual revenues from these ventures.

The big leagues are backing the NFL. The players' unions, and all of the companies who have played major league Three-Card-Monte seeking deals, will file Friend-of-the-Court briefs for American Needle.

Stan Brand, MiLB's Vice President and watchdog in Washington, sermonized quite rightly that American Needle could spell the end of affiliated Minor League Baseball as we know it, as reported to you earlier this week.

Beyond the unhinging of large money streams, though, MLB, once the National Pastime, continues to stare extinction in the face.

They have tried the World Baseball Classic. They have tried the Civil Rights Game angle to lure in fans. Gone are the prohibitions and stereotypes about international players. The Japanese apparently can hit over the deeper fences of an MLB park. Guys from Australia, China and South Koreacan bang bombs right along with us good ol' Amuricans.

MLB even built, a decade or so late, their own television network and Internet empire, trying to convert news "content" into MLB gold, rather than allow that bounty to go to the independent broadcasters and news organizations.

Still, the audience at Spring Training, and at major league parks, grows a little older, and a little smaller, each year.

In a totally unscientific survey, I polled more than two hundred people around Indianapolis' downtown area, from restaurants and bars to the guy in the taxi. Some go to an Indianapolis Indians game, but the vast majority were fans of the NFL or the NBA. Not surprising in a town without Major League Baseball. In town after town though, from Miami and Tampa to Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, you hear the same mantra:

"MLB is too expensive. Too many games to go to at that price."

The game that your father, or your grandfather, took you to for a dollar or two, the game where you followed your immigrant Brooklyn neighborhood to watch guys called "Bums" play to raucous crowds and a blaring band, is no more.

Other than the steroids-tainted Bonds chase of Aaron's record, and the McGwire-Sosa dinger-fest, Minor League Baseball (MiLB) attendance has been on the upswing, and MLB attendance has been flat to foundering.

At these meetings, MLB keeps searching for answers to what will bring people back to the game. They blame the 1994 strike, but the skys-the-limit greed of both MLB owners and players has pumped prices phenomenally, driving away people from the major league parks.

New stadiums costing hundreds of millions to the Yankees' rumored billion dolllar Bronx burrow are a novelty for only so long.

The minors continue to expand while the majors contract, because of demographic shifts in population brought about by the Internet, and because the minors huge growth audience is in families, read more women and children.

Baseball needs to reign in costs. Diversity, preached throughout the Winter Meetings, is a fine idea. MLB needs to reconnect with the African American and Hispanic communities.

Most of all though, if the hide-bound powers-that-be want to expand their audience in a historic way that meets the new growth demographics for the sport in the minors, they need to bring women into the game of professional baseball. They are the growth market in the minors, and they can easily be the engine of prosperity for baseball.

Mamie "Peanut" Johnson proved that women can play the men's game by pitching in the Negro Leagues in the 1950s and pitching well. Only Jackie Robinson's implosion of the color line ended her career. Joan Joyce pitched a softball so fast that Ted Williams could not get a piece of it at several exhibition games.

The next Joan Joyce will be to women what Jackie Robinson was to African-Americans. The game has been sanitized and padded by multi-million dollar investments in arms and legs. There is nothing "unsafe" about the game for women playing alongside men.

If baseball cannot find a new, resonant market for its wares, I fear that we writers and fans who love the game may have seen its brightest days in the rearview mirror.

When you see them nickel-and-dimeing the Winter Meetings to spare cash, you have to wonder how well MLB is really doing.

Billy Altman: The Good Sheppard of Yankee Stadium

2009-12-08T09:34:19Z

By now, most sports fans, especially those in the New York area, have no doubt heard the news that Bob Sheppard, the longtime Yankee Stadium Public Address announcer whose resonant, lordly tones led Reggie Jackson to dub him "The Voice of God," has let it be known that he was officially retiring -- at the remarkable age of 99 -- from a career that saw him behind the microphone for well over half a century of Yankee home baseball games (not to mention fifty years of Giants football games along the way, too.)

Working as I have since 2004 as an occasional official scorer for Major League Baseball at Yankee and Met games played in New York, I have been one of the fortunate people who've been allowed to dwell a bit within Bob Sheppard's air space, via the internal press box and radio and TV broadcast booths over which official scorers make their announcements throughout a ball game. People think all you do as official scorer is decide whether it's a hit or an error on questionable plays, but as the recording secretary of the game you are also responsible for formally announcing everything out of the "ordinary" -- i.e., sacrifices, stolen bases, double plays -- as well as the finished pitching lines (hits, runs, earned runs, walks, strikeouts, etc.) for every hurler who appears. And with so many relief pitchers used these days that can mean an announcement every five minutes throughout the last three or four innings of any given game.

In any event, if there's one thing you learn early on in the scoring business, it's that you never, ever step on the PA announcer's voice when he's talking, and as such you need to quickly become attuned to the individual rhythms of different stadium announcers. With Bob Sheppard, of course, that always meant waiting for that little signature addendum repeating a player's number after their name ("Now batting, the shortstop, number two, Derek Jeter...number two"). And, although seated in the press box as we are, the official scorers don't really have much in-game contact with the PA announcer in his booth, there is a small but palpable sense of kinship. And you better believe one of the great rewards of working Yankee games over the last few years before the good Sheppard stopped doing them in late 2007 was feeling, however faintly, that bound-in-tradition kinship.

I last worked a game announced by Bob Sheppard in July 2007, about a month or so before increasing health problems prevented him from finishing the season -- and thus missing his first Yankee playoffs since his very first year on the job, all the way back in 1951. It was Saturday, July 21, and I scored the afternoon game of a day-night doubleheader against Tampa Bay. After I'd finished filling out the hard copy box score (another of the official scorer's duties, by the way) and had turned it over to the Yankees to get faxed into the Elias Sports Bureau statistical office, I went down to the press dining room on the basement floor of the old Stadium to unwind a bit before heading home. Ordinarily, Sheppard would be out the door almost immediately after the final out of a game -- the Yankees always kept an elevator ready for him so he could quickly catch the car waiting downstairs to take him home to Long Island -- but since there was another contest coming up in just a few hours, there he was in the dining room getting some food when I arrived. I went over and said hello to the ever so gaunt but still stately-looking Sheppard and told him that I'd been scoring the game. "I thought I heard a different voice today," he said, extending his hand. "You did a fine job, young man."

I can still hear him.

Arn Tellem: Mr. Kannerstein's Opus

2009-12-08T00:30:46Z

In a 1956 episode of "The Phil Silvers Show", master sergeant Ernest G. Bilko tried to get even with a bookie by placing a football bet on tiny Schmill College. In its 12 previous games with Notre Dame, Schmill had not scored, and the Fighting Irish had not scored less than 100 points. Bilko wagered that Schmill could beat the 100-point spread. And after he taught Schmill's players a demoralizing hum to chant in the huddle, they "held" Notre Dame to 99 points.

That same year in real-life college sports, Haverford defeated archrival Swarthmore in tennis by a score of 5-4. The result turned out to be equally historic in that the Fords would not beat the Garnet again until 2008. Last year's 5-4 victory -- in the first round of the Centennial Conference playoffs -- was the sporting highlight of Greg Kannerstein's five-decade career at Haverford

Kannerstein, who entered the Main Line college as a freshman in 1959, died last month at 67 of complications from mesothelioma. A gentleman of exquisite sensibility, he worked at the college in almost every capacity -- teacher, dean, baseball coach, director of athletics, historian -- earning the title "Mr. Haverford." The beloved and benevolent Kannerstein had reached that enviable state in life in which one can do pretty much as he pleases. Even more happily, what he wanted to do had worth. And, perhaps best of all, he was very good at what he did. I've never known anyone more devoted to Haverford, its mission and its students. Over the last half-century Kannerstein touched thousands of students' lives -- not in a superficial way, but in an enduring one.

In his 1993 book, The Man In the Dugout, baseball historian Leonard Koppett proposed the "family tree analysis" of major-league managers. All modern skippers, he argued, are descended from three epic figures -- John McGraw, Connie Mack and Branch Rickey. At Haverford, a school more known for its Quaker values than its athletics department, Kannerstein was at the center of the sporting nexus. Like the great North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, he involved himself in all aspects of his students' lives, offering counsel and support. He was fascinated with the careers of alumni, and kept tabs on as many graduates as he could.

The ideals Kannerstein espoused continue to be reflected in his disciples, of whom I, class of 1976, am just one of many. Among the others: Josh Byrnes '92, the general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks; Thad Levine '94, the assistant GM of the Texas Rangers; San Diego Padres executive Ryan Isaac '98; sports agent Ron Shapiro '64; and MLB Network president Tony Petitti '83. All six of us will be wheeling and dealing this week at baseball's Winter Meetings in Indianapolis. Shapiro will explore a long-term extension for his client Joe Mauer with the Minnesota Twins. I'll field offers for 12 of my clients, including Randy Wolf, Hideki Matsui and Rich Harden. Byrnes, Levine and Isaacs will talk trades and free agency, while Petitti's cable channel will broadcast shows on the proceedings. We owe our success, at least in part, to our education at Haverford. Considering the size of the school, its impact on the business of baseball is truly astonishing.

Baseball was always the second love of Mr. Haverford. After graduating with an English degree in 1963, Kannerstein found work as a rewrite man for the now defunct Philadelphia Bulletin. His tenure was curtailed by a headline he wrote for a dispatch about some late-inning heroics by Jesus Alou, an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants. It read: JESUS SAVES GIANTS. "Apparently," Kannerstein once told me, "some readers didn't think the headline was as funny as I did." After quitting the paper, he went back to the classroom, earning a master's degree from Penn in English and folklore, and a doctorate from Harvard's Graduate School of Education, where he wrote his thesis on the desegregation of black and white colleges in several cities. In 1968, Haverford named Kannerstein an assistant dean of students. He never left.

A decade ago ago, Phillies' owner Dave Montgomery and I inaugurated an annual event in Philadelphia that benefited Philly Futures, an organization that helps inner-city youth attend college. Kannerstein was a huge supporter, and championed a partnership with Haverford. He recognized that the Haverford community extended beyond its suburban campus, and that the school had a responsibility to provide opportunities for Philadelphia teens. Over the last 10 years, a dozen kids from the program have enrolled at Haverford. Nine have graduated and two are currently matriculating. One even took a class with Kannerstein this semester.

Somehow -- while lecturing, watching every Haverford sporting event and every Phillies telecast -- he found time to teach his four-year-old granddaughter, Edie, how to hit a baseball. His "crazy dream" was that she would be the first female big-leaguer. To Kannerstein -- who had waited 52 years to see Haverford beat Swarthmore in tennis -- nothing was impossible.

Bob Sheppard, Yankees Announcer, Retiring

2009-11-27T11:28:49Z

NEW YORK — Bob Sheppard has no intentions of returning to his longtime job as the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium, MLB.com reported Thursday.

Sheppard, who is 99, hasn't worked a game since late in the 2007 season due to illness.

Arn Tellem: After the Flood

2009-11-18T19:21:51Z

It's been 40 years since Curt Flood started the machinery of free agency and inadvertently sabotaged his baseball career. On Christmas Eve in 1969, the 31-year-old centerfielder sent a fateful letter to the commissioner of the big leagues, Bowie Kuhn. A seven-time Gold Glove Award winner who had played for St. Louis in three World Series, Flood had just been traded to Philadelphia. "After 12 years in the major leagues," he wrote, "I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes."

After refusing to report to Philly, Flood sued baseball for $1 million. He ultimately lost his case -- at trial and on appeal to the Supreme Court--but set in motion the legal battle that would topple the reserve clause, which bound a player for life to a particular team.

I was in 10th grade when "Rembrandt" defied baseball and challenged the unfairness of the system. As a Phillies fan -- Southwest Philly-born, Penn Valley-bred -- I was infuriated by Flood's chutzpah. Only years later did I realize how courageous and selfless he had been. Flood opened the gates to free agency at great personal cost: A lifetime .293 hitter still in his relative prime, he forfeited a lucrative $100,000 contract to sit out the entire 1970 campaign. Traded to Washington at the end of that year, he appeared in only 13 games for the Senators before retiring. Flood went bankrupt, smoked and drank heavily, and was a largely forgotten figure when he died of throat cancer in 1997.

It's now been 20 years since pitcher Mark Langston -- my first marquee client -- played out his contract with the Montreal Expos and filed for free agency, the most cherished right ballplayers enjoy. After years of indentured servitude in the minors, contract renewal and salary arbitration, free agency is the only opportunity players get to have a real say over their future and realize their true market value. (It also allows a ballclub to improve without having to break up its nucleus). Injury, age and team economics keep many players from ever reaching this hard-won status. Typically, they don't qualify before their late 20s, and often later.

Langston was 28 when he became eligible. Having led the American League in strikeouts three times, the southpaw was, in November of 1989, the most sought-after free agent in the game. In those days, no one was quite sure how much the top free agents would fetch on the open market. Arbitrators had ruled that during the off-seasons of 1985, 1986 and 1987, management had colluded to keep players in their places and their salaries in check by declining to sign the free agents on other teams. The owners agreed to pay the players a $280 million settlement.

As it turned out, the bidding for Langston was brisk. After more than two weeks of cross-country romancing by six teams, the suitors were narrowed to the Chicago Cubs, the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers and Angels. But the Cubs balked at giving Langston a five-year deal and the Dodgers resisted a no-trade provision, which left the Yankees and Angels. In the end, Langston, a California kid, decided he would be more comfortable in his home state. The $16 million deal that I negotiated --- briefly, very briefly, the highest outlay ever made for a player -- propelled my career as a sports agent. This month 12 of my clients are testing the waters.

In pro basketball, the labor wars of the last decade have effectively eliminated free agency. The NBA system has been devised to keep great players with their teams, regardless of market size. In baseball, on the other hand, free agency has generally worked to the great advantage of the players. Every so often, the market suddenly -- suspiciously -- evaporates, perhaps never as dramatically as last year. Sluggers Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn, both coming off huge contracts, signed for a great deal less than anyone had anticipated. Manny Ramirez, one of baseball's best hitters, sought a four-year deal for $100 million, but settled for a two-year, $45 million pact from the Dodgers. In the freewheeling world of baseball free agency, it was a startling concession to what the owners called "changing times." But is this phrase really just a euphemism for a new era of collusion?

The owners were quick to blame the shrinking economy. Sure, they say, baseball generated $6.5 billion in gross revenue last year (up from $3.5 billion in 2001) and marquee franchises like the Yankees, for whom free agency has been a way to flex financial muscle, are still flush, filling seats and, despite the recession, making generous offers to free agents. (During the previous off-season, the Yanks committed $432.5 million alone to C.C. Sabathia, Marx Teixeira and A.J. Burnett). But due in small part to decreased capacity in two new New York ballparks and in large part to economic turbulence, total attendance dipped 6.58 percent. Twenty-two of the 30 clubs had fewer fans at home games. The differential was especially pronounced in Toronto, Washington and San Diego, where attendance declined more than 20 percent. In the battered Rust Belt, Cleveland was down 17.6 percent; Cincinnati, 15.1 percent; and Detroit, where the Tigers nearly won a division title, 19.9 percent.

The Downturn, say the owners, caused even the Bronx Bombers to nosedive slightly. Sales of premium seats in the Yanks' new stadium - which filled to only 87.8 of capacity (4.5 percent lower than in 2008) and saw only two regular-season sellouts -- were so sluggish that a Manhattan real estate brokerage was hired to market unsold club seats and luxury boxes. General Motors-- once baseball's biggest corporate sponsor--declined to renew its deal with the team, while bailout-infused Bank of America pulled out of talks for long-term sponsorship, extending its contract for a single year.

No sport is recession resistant, much less recession-proof. And in every sport, smaller-market teams that were scraping along are now in economic retreat. Pro basketball's Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings are struggling, as are the pro hockey franchises in Phoenix, Nashville, Miami, Atlanta and Tampa. Some owners are so overwhelmed by debt that they say they can no longer afford high player salaries. In April, Tom Hicks, whose company owns baseball's Texas Rangers as well as the National Hockey League's Dallas Stars, defaulted on about $525 million in loans--a move he claimed to have made intentionally to help his negotiations with banks. Other franchises that rely heavily on credit to finance long-term contracts acted much more frugally last off-season; this year, numerous general managers continue to wrestle with payroll restrictions.

No doubt times are tough. On the other hand, the owners have a history of collusive practices. Three years ago, in a settlement over allegations following the 2002 and 2003 seasons, they agreed to pay the players $12 million from so-called "luxury tax" revenue sharing funds. Given past practices, the Major League Players Association has an obligation to scrutinize the behavior of management in the current free agent market. Legitimate financial issues must not be used as a cover to illegally drive down salaries.

As the economy shows signs of improving, I remain optimistic that so too will the bidding for free agents. Now, more than ever, baseball's Rembrandt deserves thanks for opening the Floodgates.

Daniel Adler: Moneyball: Dead, Alive, or on Life Support?

2009-11-17T03:44:51Z

This summer, much was made of the end of Moneyball. The teams with the five highest win totals—the Yankees, Angels, Dodgers, Red Sox, Phillies—rank 1^st, 6^th, 9^th, 4^th, and 7^th
in opening day pay roll. Most of those teams took on even more salary
during the season, so their final payroll ranks may even be higher.

After a few years of increasing parity
in which we saw the A’s flourish, the Twins constantly competitive, the
Marlins win a World Series, and even the Rays win the American League,
disparity appeared to be on the rise this season. Harkening back to the
late-1990s and the environment that spawned the Blue Ribbon Panel,
this season seemed to be an extreme case of the haves versus the
have-nots. The small market clubs who had recently feasted on
undervalued players appear to have lost their competitive advantage
since the big spenders started to buy into the same philosophies—in
many cases hiring Ivy League stat geeks like ourselves. Michael Lewis’
concept of Moneyball was not about On-Base Percentage, but it
was rather about finding undervalued assets. Was this the year the big
market clubs finally started valuing assets correctly? Did money spent
play a bigger role this season than in recent years? Intuition (and the
Yankee World Series victory) says yes, but let’s take a look at the
numbers.

Methodology

Looking at opening day payroll and wins, we test to see which seasons
spending is the best predictor of wins. Since a team of replacement
level players (e.g. talent available for the league minimum) could win
49 games, we will consider the number of games a team wins above 49
(marginal wins). Also, we will consider only the money spent above the
minimum salary threshold (marginal dollars). This methodology,
popularized by Baseball Prospectus is very common. Payroll data is courtesy of USA Today's salary database.

Results

Running a simple regression trying to predict marginal wins as a function of marginal dollars spent, we will learn two things:

Was marginal spending a significant (i.e. non-random predictor) of
marginal wins? This is the p-value. The p-value represents the percent
chance that the predictor is random. If the p-value is .50, that means
there was a 50% chance it is random (spending does not impact wins). Lower p-value means spending was more important.

What percentage of variation in marginal wins can we predict if we know spending? This is called the r². A high r²means that we can predict more of the variation in wins based on spending. If r² were .05, that would mean we could predict 5% of the variance in wins if we knew spending. For r², higher means money spent was a greater predictor of wins.

First, let’s run a quick regression looking at all years since 1989.
To account for payroll inflation, I have brought everything up to
present value using a discount rate of 8% (the average rate of
inflation in recent seasons).

Unsurprisingly,
over the past 20 years, opening day marginal salary has been a
significant predictor of wins. This estimate is not very precise since
the 8% discount rate is an approximation and just allows us to consider
all years on the same graph. We will get a clearer picture looking at
each season individually.

As you can see, in the early 1990s, salary did not predict wins for
many of the years (high p-values). However, considering the full
seasons after the strike, we see that salary has always been a good
predictor (with 2008 being the only year p>.05).

This is where things get interesting. In the years leading up to the
strike (1990-1993), salary was a poor predictor of marginal wins.
Immediately after the strike, there was a series of years in which
marginal salary was a good predictor of marginal wins. This is when
parity hit its nadir and the Blue Ribbon panel was ordered. In 2000 and
2001 (both years in which the Yankees made the World Series), money was
a very poor predictor of wins. Since then, the r² has hovered in the .17-.29 range, with 2008 (the year of the Rays) being a notable outlier at .107.

Considering the past 8 seasons, this year was not particularly
notable in terms of payroll predicting success. However, the big market
clubs are spending smarter, particularly in the draft and on Latin
American teenagers, which is not reflected in opening day payrolls. The
margin for error for the little guys is razor thin and the window of
opportunity can be very short (see: Indians’ downfall after 2007 and
Rays’ slide after 2008). However, the data suggest that this year may
not have called for the alarmist musings
by some members of the media. Competitive balance is probably not what
it should be, but this year was hardly different from most other recent
seasons.

Here are some plots from a few recent seasons:

harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com

Ari Shapiro: Ladies and Gentlemen, Your 2009 NL Manager of the Year, Mr. Jim Tracy

2009-11-16T13:15:39Z

Major League Baseball will announce its 2009 National League Manager of the Year on Wednesday, and the way I see it, the only way Jim Tracy doesn't walk away with the award is if Clint Hurdle gets to cast all 32 votes. Of course, after Tracy is presented with the award, he will probably make some brief remarks to the media in which he will do what every other manager always does in his position -- he'll give all the credit to his players. "I couldn't have done it without them," he'll say. "A manager can only take the team so far," he'll say. "At the end of the day, it's up to the players to execute," he'll say.

But why? Why defer all of the attention to your players? I mean the fact of the matter is that next year, or the year after that, or whenever it is that the Rockies eventually go colder than Denver in January, Jim Tracy is the one that will take the blame, and Jim Tracy is the one that will be fired. So on Wednesday, if Jim Tracy gets the opportunity to bask in the glory of an inexplicably superb managerial season, why shouldn't he take some credit for what he's done? I'd say he's earned it.

To help make this easier for Jim, I decided to draft some remarks for him to use on Wednesday if things go well. After all, Jim Tracy may not be as good at self-promotion as I am (see the previous paragraph where I hyperlinked to one of my own posts), so I thought it would be nice to help him out.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 2009 National League Manager of the Year, Mr. Jim Tracy:

Thank you, thank you very much. It's truly an honor to receive this award. On this special occasion, I'd like to say a few words to all of the people that helped make this day possible.

First, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank myself for kicking some serious ass this year. Seriously Jim, congratulations on a job well done. Not a chance LaRussa or Torre could have done what you did this year. You rule.

Next, some words for my team: Guys, when I first took over as your manager six months ago, you were awful. I mean aw-ful. Seriously, you guys couldn't hit water if you fell out of a boat. Even the Nationals were starting to look like an upgrade.

Sure, you were a talented group of guys just two years removed from a World Series appearance, but since that World Series you guys were a collective 24 games under .500, so clearly you weren't that good, right? And it's not like that Hurdle fella was doing you any favors either. I mean, Clint Hurdle was so bad that he literally made me look like the Manager of the Year by comparison. Wow.

But of course, everything changed once Jim Tracy came to town. A 74-42 record, a wild card berth, and an NLDS run that gave the eventual National League Champion Phillies all they could handle. You think you guys could have done all of that without me? Not a chance.

Third, I'd like to send a shout out to the Rockies' General Manager, Mr. Dan O'Dowd. Hey Dan, remember that time I single-handedly resurrected the Rockies' season and totally saved your job in the process? 'Cause I do. I'm not gonna say you owe me one buddy, but let's just say that we've got a long Colorado winter ahead, and my driveway ain't gonna shovel itself. You feel me?

Also, to the Rockies' brass that hired me assuming I would be a complete failure and allow them to start fresh with a new manager and GM in 2010, I'd like to say the following:

2009 MANAGER OF THE YEAR MOTHER F&@%ERS!! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?!?

Seriously though, I'm sorry I spoiled that one for you guys. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, but as it turns out, the ol' Jimster is quite the manager.

And to the fans: thank you for believing. I couldn't have done it without all of your support. Well actually, to be more accurate, I couldn't have done it without all of your money. The gobs of cash you poured into this team over the past few years will eventually go to pay the exorbitant salary I will no doubt receive after the Rockies are forced to give me a contract extension, so I really appreciate the help. Two words fans: Ca. Ching.

And finally, in closing, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge all of the other National League managers that were up for this award. Congrats on a great season you guys. Unfortunately, you were just up against some impossible competition -- namely, me. But hey, there's always next year, right?

Again, thank you all so very much for this humbling award. God bless you, God bless America, and most importantly, God bless Jim Tracy.

J.C. Bradbury: Baseball's First Economist: Remembering Gerald Scully

2009-11-13T11:59:08Z

The National Baseball Hall of Fame recently released its list of non-player candidates being considered for enshrinement. The name that stands out on the list is Marvin Miller, the experienced union executive who turned the Major League Baseball's Players Association into sport's most powerful labor union. In the 1970s, his leadership was instrumental in removing the reserve clause which bound players to teams for life. It was a long and hard-fought battle, and some baseball insiders never forgave him, which is why Miller previously has been denied Hall enshrinement.

Now, I'm not someone who really cares too much about Hall of Fame debates. To me, we all have players and personalities that impacted the game in a special way. The debates over who gets in and who doesn't can be entertaining, but I've become bored with them -- what does it matter if Jim Rice is or isn't in the Hall? Let's keep the Hall of Fame as an inclusive museum to preserve as much baseball history as possible and be done with it. However, by the standards that have been used to select past members, Miller most certainly should be admitted.

But this isn't an article about Miller -- everyone knows of Miller's importance -- it's about a figure who played a role behind the scenes to highlight the exploitative working conditions for Major League Baseball players: economist Gerald Scully. Scully passed away quietly from pancreatic cancer this past May, but thankfully the New York Times felt his obituary was worthy of publication. Scully made many contributions to economics outside of baseball, but it was his work on baseball's labor market that generates his legacy.

Using economic theory as a guide, Scully viewed Major League Baseball as a monopolist employer -- the sole buyer of a very specialized type of labor. Being the only organization that purchased major-league baseball talent, players had little bargaining room to negotiate their pay. Team owners understood this and created the reserve clause, which bound players to their current teams. They received low wages and could be traded across the country on a whim. Like Miller, Scully understood that the impact of this relationship between teams and players meant that owners collected a large percentage of revenues that players generated by playing baseball. While Miller worked to undo the damage of the reserve clause, Scully sought to measure it.

Using estimates of team revenues and performance metrics, Scully calculated how much performance affected winning and how much winning affected revenue. The limited computing resources available at the time meant that this was no simple task. His estimates allowed him to generate dollar-value approximations of the revenue that players generate. When he compared the expected generated revenue to what players actually earned, the difference was striking. Players earned only 90-percent less than the revenue they generated through their play. It is easy to see why players were upset, owners were profiting from the low salaries of players.

The Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally cases in 1975 finally led to the repeal of the traditional reserve clause, and player wages rose accordingly. Free agency now requires teams to compete for players, driving salaries upwards to levels that approach players' revenue-generating potential.

Gerald Scully published his article "Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball" in 1974 in American Economic Review. In almost any history you read about the origin of free agency in baseball, Scully doesn't receive a mention. There is no doubt that once Scully's conclusions were published that the reserve clause would soon fall. Either a rogue league would enter the market to pay players higher wages or the courts or Congress would finally be convinced of the damage being done to players.

This off-season will be filled with announcements of new multi-million dollar free-agent contracts that will inevitably lead to complaints about excessive player salaries. But Scully revealed that players earn high salaries because they possess unique skills that fans pay to watch, which generates revenue for owners. While it is hard to sympathize with millionaire players, it is important to understand that what players don't get goes to the owners, who are a much wealthier cohort. Plus, let's not forget that Scully-estimates can be used to evaluate free agent contracts for fun -- a favorite pastime of mine.

I'd like to thank Gerald Scully for his contribution. He may not make it to Cooperstown, but he's in my personal Hall of Fame.

Eric Klinenberg: A Cubs Boy, in the Shadow of the Yankees

2009-11-12T21:17:12Z

Originally posted at NYMag.com

I grew up on the North Side of Chicago during the seventies and eighties and was raised to love the woeful Cubs. Spare me your pity. Sure, my team never came close to a pennant. (They still haven't.) But we adapted. My grandmother, for instance, had cheered the team for 60 years and never celebrated a World Series title. Finally, she discovered it was better to read the standings upside down.

There were benefits to being a Cubs fan. I got to spend my summer days at Wrigley Field, where $2.00 bought a children's general-admission ticket and a seat just off the first-base line. In those days, the ballpark was usually deserted. My friends and I would show up for batting practice to chase autographs and foul balls. We joined the official fan clubs, and I got to meet my heroes: Bobby Murcer, Bill Buckner, Bruce Sutter, and Dave Kingman. Their flaws never bothered me. Sure, every year I dreamed of a championship, and every year these dreams were dashed. But my team had perfected the art of failure, and I never expected anything more.

Now I live in New York City, and I have a 3-year-old son. Of course, I wanted him to fall for Chicago's lovable losers. A hometown team would be better, I knew. But I grew up in the shadow of the Miracle Mets of 1969, and I still resent them. The Yankees? God forbid. With 26 titles and the culture of entitlement that comes with them, the franchise offends those of us raised in Wrigleyville. So really, what choice did I have?

Also, I admit, I believed that my son might be the one we'd been waiting for, the guy who would turn the Cubs' luck around. And then something incredible happened. In 2007, his first full season, the Cubs made the playoffs. My grandmother bought him a cap and T-shirt. I persuaded my wife to let him stay up late to watch the games on TV. I'll confess that it hurt when the Diamondbacks swept us 3-0 in the first round. But we were off to a promising start.

The next year was better. The Cubs were sensational all season. They cruised into the playoffs with the best record in the National League and had home-field advantage against the Dodgers. Once again, I outfitted my boy in Cubs regalia and got him permission to stay up late to watch the games. I taught him to say Soriano, Lee, and, yes, Fukudome, to sing "root, root, root for the Cubbies" during the seventh-inning stretch.

But it didn't matter. The Cubs lost the first game of the NLDS badly, the second game worse. Then they went to Los Angeles and were swept again. I couldn't help asking: What was I doing to my child?

This year I vowed to do things differently. No, I didn't renounce the Cubs. But I didn't replace his Cubs cap when he lost it, either. In June I did the unthinkable: I bought him a Yankees hat, classic black, then another, in red. I got us tickets to see the Red Sox at the new ballpark. Gave him a baseball signed by all the Yankees and a plastic batting helmet filled with ice cream. We started reading the sports page together, cheering each time the Yankees triumphed. "I love the Yankees because they're the winners," he announced one day. And though I smiled, I also felt my heart sink.

Last week, the Yankees won their 27th World Series. Yes, those of us from Chicago are counting, too. My son was jubilant. He learned to say Matsui, made the Yankees symbol with Play-Doh, and asked if we could go to the parade.

Part of me wonders if I did the right thing. My son is now a Yankees fan, as is his birthright, and so he carries a burden. He may never be content in a second city. He may expect, even demand, a championship each year. He may not develop the character that comes from enduring disappointment, nor have faith that fidelity and suffering will be rewarded someday.

Then again, he has already experienced a World Series title, something neither my grandmother (now 91) nor I have done. I suppose I'm a bit envious, but mostly I'm enjoying his -- okay, our, November happiness.

Maybe next year I'll get my own Yankees cap. Then again, next year may belong to the Cubs.

Dave Cameron: Franchise Players

2009-11-12T00:37:26Z

Scott Boras says a lot of crazy things -- perhaps none quite as absurd as when he compared Oliver Perez to Sandy Koufax last winter -- when he's out stumping for a big contract for his clients. So, we shouldn't be overly surprised that Boras was willing to espouse platitudes about Matt Holliday to Jerry Crasnick, calling him a "franchise player" and comparing him to Mark Teixeira. In that comment, though, Boras claimed that there were "less than 30" franchise players, as he sought to put Holliday in that select company.

Setting aside that the phrase "franchise player" is vague and could mean different things to different people, I was curious to find out how many I thought there were in the game. So, let's take a look.

First off, there's the no argument tier. Regardless of what you think a franchise player is, pretty much everyone will agree that Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Chase Utley, Hanley Ramirez, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Grady Sizemore, Evan Longoria, David Wright, Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, Tim Lincecum, Dan Haren, and Zack Greinke qualify. Those 14 just shouldn't really elicit much debate, I don't think. They're franchise players by pretty much any definition.

Beyond those guys, though, there are some players who I could imagine will invoke some dissent. They all have a wart of some kind, making them great but not perfect. This group includes Derek Jeter, Dustin Pedroia, Prince Fielder, Kevin Youkilis, Carlos Beltran, Ichiro Suzuki, Josh Beckett, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez, and Cliff Lee. I'd vote yes for all 11 of these guys, but there's a nit to pick with each that could lead one to disagree.

We're already up to 25 names that I'd be comfortable slapping the franchise player tag on. And there's still another group that I think you could make a case for -- the talented-with-a-sketchy-track-record crowd. These guys have shown franchise player abilities, but may not have sustained that ability over the last few years. This group would include Jose Reyes, Adrian Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman, Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Justin Upton, Miguel Cabrera, Jon Lester, Javier Vazquez, Ubaldo Jimenez, Clayton Kershaw, and Johan Santana.

That's 13 more guys that I could see making a case for. We've already listed 38 names without mentioning Holliday. There's a lot of trimming to do to get down to Boras' "less than 30" estimate. I think I'd probably end up around 32 or 33.

This, obviously, is not particularly objective. Reasonable people can disagree on pretty much everyone in the last two groups, meaning that your number could probably be anywhere from 15 to 40 without being too controversial. But I did find the exercise interesting, and my final count was quite a bit higher than I thought it would be. I suspected I'd end up in the 20 range, but there's a really good crop of high end talent in the major leagues right now.

Oh, and as for Holliday, I think he fits in well with group two. I'd call him a franchise player too. This bit of propaganda from Boras is actually reasonable.

Ken Levine: The Dodgers Year-In-Review

2009-11-12T00:29:54Z

It's hard to believe they're no longer playing baseball. The season is so very short. It has been my pleasure this year to co-host Dodger Talk with Josh Suchon after every game on Talkradio 790 KABC. I kept a journal so I wouldn't forget all the unforgettable moments. This may differ from the "official" season-in-revue, but they miss the really important things.

February 24 - Arrive in Phoenix for Spring Training. Got a great deal on the rental car. Only $49 a day! But with state tax, airport concession fees, stadium tax, airport surcharge, and city tax it came to $250 a day.

March 12 - Dodgers beat Team Korea. There were more recognizable players on the Korean team.

March 13 - Manny Ramirez re-signs with the Dodgers for $45 million. Immediately pulls a hamstring.

March 14 - I do play-by-play on the Dodgers-Brewers game. My Valentino Pascucci home run call is one for the ages. Plans are made for Pascucciwood section of Dodger Stadium.

April 4 - Valentino Pascucci sent to the minors.

April 6 - Travel to San Diego for opening day. Padres celebrate their 40th anniversary with highlight film of the team's rich history. It lasts all of two minutes. Dodgers win 4-1. Hiroki Kuroda pitches great then pulls a muscle in his side and is out for several months.

April 13 - The home opener. All the local radio and TV sportscasters are there. I never see half of them again. Dodgers crush the Giants 11-1. Orlando Hudson hits for the cycle, prompting several of these sports directors and reporters to say, "Orlando Hudson is with the Dodgers?"

May 4 - It's Dodger magnetic calendar/Heimlich Maneuver chart night - just one of many great giveaways this season.

May 6 - The Dodgers win their record-setting 13th home game in a row. Nothing can stop them now!

May 7 - Manny Ramirez is suspended 50 games for failing a drug test. He took one of the few female fertility drugs not approved by Major League Baseball. Dodgers jump out to a 6-0 lead against Washington in the first inning. Everyone says they're making a statement. Not sure what that statement is because they lose 11-9.

May 12 - The Dodgers beat New York 3-2 moments after they were trailing 3-2. Mets' third baseman Ryan Church failed to touch third and instead of scoring a run was called out. The Mets commit 5 errors. Only 4 are costly.

May 22 - Every Friday is Fireworks night at Dodger Stadium. This week's stirring patriotic theme: the music of the Louisiana Purchase.

May 23 - The Dodgers triumph 5-3 over the Angels. It's a rare opportunity for Dodger fans to join the rest of the world in chanting "Beat L.A."

May 28 - The Dodgers sweep the Rockies in Colorado. Juan Pierre, filling in for Manny Remorseful is hitting about .400. And this is without any "help". Dodger fans are relieved to learn Pierre has no plans to start a family.

June 2 - Dodger fleece straightjacket night proves to be a big draw as they beat somebody 6-5.

June 13 - Interleague play finds the boys taking on their arch-rivals, the Texas Rangers in Arlington. Josh and I do two hours of mid-game "Dodger Light Malfunction Talk" as one of the light towers goes out and the Rangers have to call around for an electrician who (a) will work on a Saturday night, (b) isn't already plastered, and (c) has his own tools.

June 26 - Another big Fireworks Night. The Dodgers beat the Mariners 8-2 and the big crowd sticks around for spectacular pyrotechnics set to the music of Bjork.

July 3 - Travel with team to San Diego/New York/Milwaukee to cover the return of Manny Ramirez. In press conference he drops bombshell by revealing: "God is good and good is God".

July 4 - As patriotic gesture and ploy to sell more MLB merchandise, all teams asked to wear red caps. The Cardinals and Phillies refuse.

July 7 - In New York, ESPN's Erin Andrews hit with a foul ball.

July 11 - More big stars news: Ernest Borgnine throws out the first pitch in Milwaukee.

July 12 - Infielder Blake DeWitt sent down to Albuquerque... for the sixth time this season. Passes himself in the airport.

July 14 - All-Star Game. The National League loses for the 67th straight year. President Obama throws out the first pitch. Ernest Borgnine has a better arm. Erin Andrews attends unharmed.

July 16 - The second half begins with Manny's return to Dodger Stadium. Receives a warm reception. Juan Pierre gets standing ovation. Giveaway: Dodger eyeglass cleaning cloth night.

July 17 - Fireworks Night: A musical salute to the SAW film franchise.

July 22 - Manny Ramirez (now in his second trimester) socks pinch-hit grand slam against Cincinnati on Manny Ramirez bobblehead night. Juan Pierre gets standing ovation.

July 25 - The annual Hollywood Stars game. Got to emcee it. Interviewed the lead singer of Good Charlotte and asked how it was to be the lead singer of Creed. A gentle reminder that I'm 200 years old.

August 4 -- Milwaukee Brewer Prince Fielder tries to break into the Dodger clubhouse to beat the crap out of pitcher Guillermo Mota. Security guard alertly recognizes he is not a county census taker and denies entrance.

August 18 - the frozen yogurt machine in the press lounge is on the fritz. Didn't record whether the Dodgers won or lost. Too upset.

August 23 -- The annual media game. For the first time in six years Fox Sports' Ben Maller doesn't wind up in ICU. I do the play-by-play for KABC. It's the nadir of my sportscasting career.

August 31 - Major brush fires in Los Angeles. Dodgers lose 5-3 to Arizona. Matt Kemp seemingly hits a home run but the ball flies right into the teeth of the soot and stays in the park.

September 12 - Join team in San Francisco. Giants have giveaway: Map of LA that show O.J. Simpson's house, the Bronco route, Phil Spector's house, streets to avoid when Halle Berry is driving, the site of the Rodney King incident, and the Spawn Ranch.

September 13 - Blake DeWitt called up for ninth time.

September 14 - Blake DeWitt flies back to Albuquerque just out of habit.

September 15 - Andre Either hits his 4th walk-off homer of the season but the Elias Sports Bureau won't recognize it because it was hit against the Pirates.

October 3 - Crowd is very loud. I question the wisdom of Dodger Leaf Blower Day. Team snaps 5 game losing streak to clinch the Division title.

October 10 - In St. Louis for celebration as Dodgers sweep Cardinals in the NLDS. There's no trophy because they haven't actually won anything.

October 21- Worse than the yogurt machine going out -- Dodgers lose the pennant to the Phightin' Phils. Long flight home on team plane. Players so upset not one spends $200,000 on items from the Sky Mall.

And that's it for 2009. Great times, great memories, and a great team (except at the end). Thanks to the Dodgers and KABC for a terrific year. Next season will be here before you know it. Pitchers and catchers due in February. Manny Ramirez due in January.

Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. He has been the head writer of MASH, producer of CHEERS, creative consultant of FRASIER and WINGS, co-creator of three series, voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, and San Diego Padres, and currently has a daily blog, www.byKenLevine.com. He is the host of the post-game Dodger Talk on KABC radio.

Eric Trager: The Mets Must Get Younger, Trade Beltran

2009-11-11T16:21:48Z

The first decade of the 21st century may go down as the most painful in New York Mets history.

Of course, it started with great promise: in 2000, the Mets made it to the playoffs for the second year in a row and won the National League championship. But it was all downhill from there: the Mets lost the World Series to the Yankees; hired Art Howe; shifted Jose Reyes to make room for Kaz Matsui; traded Scott Kazmir for Victor "I'm Not Even Related to Carlos" Zambrano; fell to the Cardinals in the 2006 NLCS; lost a seven-game lead to the Phillies with 17 games to play; lost another lead the following September; and spent all of 2009 reeling from injuries. The past decade also featured Willie Randolph's unsmiling tenure; Mike Piazza's sudden physical breakdown; Roberto Alomar's bizarre under-performance; and Mo Vaughn's weighty failure. Oh, and Mets owner Fred Wilpon reportedly lost millions of dollars in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Naturally, Mets fans hope that the worst has passed. But if the Amazin's aim to turn things around in the coming decade, they must avoid repeating their two most baneful blunders from the previous one.

First, the Mets need to stop paying top dollar for veterans who are well past their prime. Granted, this seems pretty obvious. Yet time after time during the 2000s, the Mets signed or traded for former stars who were already on the downward slope of their careers: Vaughn, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Jeromy Burnitz, Shawn Estes, Richard Hidalgo, Shawn Green, Moises Alou, Julio Franco, Luis Castillo, Gary Sheffield, and J.J. Putz. Moving ahead, Mets brass should resist free agents who, under the best of circumstances, might -- just might - repeat their performance from three seasons ago. Personnel moves should be based on up-to-date data, not wishful thinking.

Second, the Mets should part with their aging stars before it is too late -- preferably, by trading them away for younger, less expensive prospects. This would mark a shift from the sentimentality of the previous decade, which deterred the Mets from trading Mike Piazza once his decline became evident post-2002.

In this vein, the Mets should trade Carlos Beltran now, while they can still move his costly contract with relative ease. Beltran might be attractive to any team that sees itself as one good outfielder away from contending: he will be only 33 years-old next season; has two years left on his contract; and, despite his injury-plagued 2009 season, is still considered a perennial all-star. But he is no longer the franchise player around which a contender might be built, and his trade value is likely to decline precipitously after this off-season. Therefore, Beltran is most valuable to the Mets as immediate, prospect-attaining trade bait -- and least valuable as an expensive, decent player on an otherwise bad team.

At the moment, it is hard to imagine the Mets contending in 2010. After all, many players are returning from injury; the entire right side of the infield and much of the outfield need to be overhauled; and at least three other teams in the National League East look stronger. In turn, the Mets should build for the future by pursuing younger, cheaper prospects. Of course, this is hardly a new strategy -- but it is one that the Mets have long avoided to their peril.

Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories

2009-11-11T10:49:59Z

Happy Wednesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for November 11, 2009 from
www.ThatsSports.com.

1. Quick Hits

After all the botched umpire calls, baseball general managers don't
bother to discuss expanding the use of instant replay at their annual
meeting. I would have used replay to determine fair or foul down the
lines.

Don't you love the experts who proclaimed that Derek Jeter was among
the worst shortstops? Overrated, limited range. Yesterday he won the
Gold Glove for fielding.

Using the slower low-tech bathing suit, Michael Phelps fails to
qualify for 2 of the 3 finals at a Stockholm swim meet.

2. Crime and Punishment

Former top ranked tennis player Marat Safin says Andre Agassi should
give back the trophies and money he won by winning Grand Slam
tournaments after failing a drug test and lying about it. The tennis
people let Andre Agassi slide when he said, oops I didn't mean to do
it. Then again these same people bought Richard Gasquet's story that
he flunked a drug test because he kissed a girl who had been using
cocaine. And we know all about Serena Williams' slap on the wrist for
her behavior at the U.S. Open. If I ever break the rules, I want
tennis people as my judge and jury!

3. Role Models

On this Veterans Day, Top 5 subscriber Bill V. an Air Force veteran,
offers this poignant thought: "The Yankees championship parade up the
Canyon of Heroes on lower Broadway attracted thousands. It's a shame
that if the real heroes marched up that same canyon today very few
would come."

4. The Miracle on Ice

When I asked yesterday about which moment I might have ranked #1 in
my new kids' book The Greatest Moments in Sports, many of you correctly
guessed The Miracle on Ice. (Sorry no prizes.) I loved subscriber Phil
G.'s story.

"On that night in 1980 I was at MSG. Sha Na Na opened for Jay and the
Americans. The scoreboard kept giving updates and when they posted the
final score the place went nuts. Jay came out, did his opening song,
then said 'We haven't done this next song in years, but we just
decided to add it today because WE BEAT THOSE F***ING RUSSIANS!' They
then launched into a spirited version of "Only in America" and you can
imagine the reaction."

I guess Jay Black summed up so "eloquently" what most Americans were
thinking.

5. Code of Conduct

A New Mexico women's soccer player has been banned after punching,
kicking, and pulling the hair of a BYU player on the field. A girls
high school game in Rhode Island also degenerated into hair pulling
and brawling. That was tame compared with Australia. At a soccer game
there, police were called to quell a disturbance among the fans.
Nothing new in soccer. But some of the fans were wielding spears and
axes. What started it all? When one of the players was awarded a free
kick. They have a cheer in Australia that goes "Aussie, Aussie,
Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy."
They've got the oy part right.

Happy Birthday: Former Masters and U.S. Open champion Fuzzy Zoeller.
58.
Bonus Birthday: Actor Leonardo DiCaprio. 35.

Today in Sports: Now we're having fun. The New York Knicks played
their first game at the old Madison Square Garden. (Yes they lost.)
1946.

Bonus Event: On this date, the 11th hour, the 11th month, the 11th
day World War I effectively ended. 1918.
President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11th to be Armistice
Day. In 1954 President Eisenhower signed a bill honoring all veterans.

Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon Become Free Agents

2009-11-10T00:00:40Z

NEW YORK — World Series MVP Hideki Matsui became a free agent Monday along with New York Yankees teammates Johnny Damon, Eric Hinske, Jose Molina and Xavier Nady.

Matsui and Damon both said after the Yankees' six-game victory over Philadelphia last week that they would like to stay with New York. The Yankees said it was too early to address how they want to formulate their team for 2010.

Jerry Waxman: No, I'm Not Bitter...Really: A Phillies Fan Laments

2009-11-09T10:01:13Z

About the only thing that George Will and I do agree on is our undying, unyielding, unrequited love of baseball. We're also both at an age where the names in Dave Frishberg's hauntingly beautiful ode to the game, "Van Lingle Mungo," were instantly recognizable and, in some cases, still playing in the major leagues. These were the years just after WWII and prior to baseball's expansion. The Braves were still in Boston and the St. Louis Browns had not yet moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles. The Athletics were languishing in Philadelphia and New York had three major league teams. We Philadelphians hadn't had much to brag about in baseball for close to twenty years--until 1950. That was the year we surviving Philly natives have indelibly burned into our memories as though it were yesterday.

Phillies owner Bob Carpenter, a member of the DuPont family, had been building the team for several years and by 1950 had a good team in place, with three future Hall of Famers on the roster: Robin Roberts, Curt Simmons and Richie Ashburn. Through the farm system they had a good infield with Granny Hamner at shortstop and Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones at third base. Veterans included Eddie Waitkus at first base and Dick Sisler (son of Hall of Famer George Sisler) in left field. Waitkus was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud's novel, The Natural, having been shot in the chest by a deranged female fan in Chicago. Home grown power hitter Del Ennis was the right fielder. Ennis had the career stats to get into the Hall but never made it and today he is virtually unknown by the sports writers. Jim Konstanty, their ace relief pitcher, was so good that year he was voted the National League MVP.

The Whiz Kids were scrappy and were in first place for a large part of the season, but they started to sag in the last week of the season and blew a seven game lead to two games when they met the Dodgers. If the Dodgers took the last series there would be a tie for first place and there would be a three game playoff between them for the NL title. As good as the Phillies were they were facing guys named Don Newcomb, Carl Erskine, Carl Furillo, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson. These guys could hurt you at any time. In the final game the score was tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Cal Abrams represented the winning run for Brooklyn, but Center Fielder Richie Ashburn made the throw of his career and got Abrams out at home plate. In the top of the tenth inning Dick Sisler hit a three run home run and the Whiz Kids clinched the pennant. That meant the New York Yankees. If they thought the Dodgers were tough they were now facing Casey Stengel's guys: Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Billy Martin, Gene Woodling, Hank Bauer, Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Whitey Ford and others who could hurt you worse. To add another obstacle, Curt Simmons was called up into the military for a tour of duty in Korea and was unavailable for the series. Manager Eddie Sawyer had to put Konstanty into the starting rotation.

When you are eight years old and your team is in the World Series you are in heaven. My prized possessions were an autographed team ball and yearbook, as well as an official Phillies cap. I treasured the signatures, even the ones by Putsy Caballero, Milo Candini, Bill (Swish) Nicholson and Mike Goliat--names lost in the archives. The euphoria didn't last long because the Yankees won in four straight games. That's tragedy for an eight year old.

Watching Robin Roberts and Jim Bunning (yes, that Jim Bunning) throw ceremonial baseballs the other evening brought a lump to my throat and opened up a flood of memories. It's not easy to watch your team play so well and just not be able to beat the Yankees; not after 59 years waiting for your revenge. Here's the tough part. I can't hate the Yankee players from 1950 or 2009. They do their job and they do it well. You can't hate Yogi, or Rizzuto or DiMaggio. Actually, I got to spend some time with Joe DiMaggio as he was a frequent visitor to Downtown Hollywood, Florida and we hung out at the same restaurants in his declining years. He visited my theater on occasion and he was an absolute gentleman to the end. I don't have to like this year's Yankees but I certainly have to respect them.

Here's the difference. The 1950 Whiz Kids never again approached the level of play that they had in that season. It would be 14 agonizing years before the Phillies, with Jim Bunning, would come close only to blow a six game lead in the last week of the season because of Gene Mauch's stupid decision to use Bunning and Chris Short every other start. The Cardinals, with Curt Simmons, went to the series that year. This time the Phillies were the series champs last year and they are going to be a great team for a long time. Wait til next year.

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Leslie Grossman: Learning Leadership From the New York Yankees

2009-11-09T08:19:08Z

I'm in ecstasy. My New York Yankees won the World Series. And they clinched it 9 minutes
before my birthday. I got the best birthday gift money can't buy. My happiness caused me to reflect about why I love the Yankees so much. The answer popped into my head - because of their leadership. Okay, I am a leadership fanatic, maybe not as much as a Yankee fanatic, but, I am obsessed with always looking at why and how people lead. Small businesses and corporations alike might consider looking at the success of the Yankees and ask the same questions.

So here's my assessment on why I believe the NY Yankee team, management, and yes, even, the ownership, show the following leadership abilities:

1. Passion - The New York Yankees have a passion for the game of baseball and for their own teammates. You can see it on their faces, in their enthusiasm and in the fun they have on the field. Their leader Joe Girardi shared a clear vision by choosing the #27 and wearing it boldly on his back for all to see the clear common goal - win the Yankees' 27th World Series. And so they achieved the goal set by the manager within 2 years of his taking on the job as manager.

2. Courage - The Yankees never give up. I'm not one for stats, but how many times have we watched the game and they were down. Suddenly they turned the score around in the last few innings, including a record number of walk off runs (9 in 2009).

3. Development of Self and Others - The Yankees are big on self-improvement. Derek Jeter's ability seemed to be down in 2008, but he worked hard and upped his own performance in 2009. Look at how A-Rod transformed himself from the weakest link psychologically a year ago to the complete player he is today - mind, body and spirit. The Yankees give their young players every opportunity to develop, sending them back to the farm team, working with the coaches and then finally giving them the chance to contribute, i.e. Phil Hughes.

4. Inclusiveness. The Yankee team is as diverse as it gets with players from all over the globe, who like each other and support each other. NY Yankees are from Panama, Venezuela, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico and U.S. They are black, white, Asian and in between. They represent all of us and they appear to respect each other. The core four, Jeter, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte are the best of friends and the mutual admiration is evident when you see them together.

5. Communication - They listen to each other, they acknowledge each other for their contributions and they are sensitive to each others needs to be effective in their jobs.
You see it on the field and hear it in the post-game interviews.

I'm proud to be a New Yorker with a team that inspires me and New York's citizens. We can all learn from them. No wonder 2 million people came out in the cold to NY's financial district Nov. 6th to celebrate the Yankees winning the 2009 World Series. Hooray for leadership!

Chris Campbell: The World Series and Barry Sanders

2009-11-06T11:57:49Z

I've always admired athletes who can call it quits while still in their prime. When Barry Sanders stepped away from the NFL at the height of his talent and within striking distance of one of the games most esteemed records, the sporting world was completely perplexed. How could he leave? He was about to break the all-time rushing record? He was only 30? It rarely occurs to fans that these players have lives outside of the game: family obligations, other passions, fatigue and a slew of other things that may play into such a decision. That said, it's incredibly rare that a player, especially of Sanders' caliber, can bid farewell when there appears to be so much in front of him or her. But some do it.

I first attended a ballgame at Yankee Stadium in 1976 at the age of three. I've probably seen close to 100 games since. I sat through many of the dreaded games of the 1980s. Journeymen such as Toby Harrah, Mel Hall, Dennis Rasmussen and Butch Wynegar are as etched into my baseball mind as firmly as those now holding multiple championship rings. I was born into the Yankees and it's been a love affair that I've followed game-to-game for over 30 years. I sat high up in the upper deck when David Wells hurled a perfect game. I was deep in the right field bleachers when Tino Martinez hit an unthinkable bomb against Arizona in the 2001 World Series. I was about thirty yards from Charlie Hayes when he gloved the final out of the 1996 World Series.

I had a similar love for college basketball in the 1980s. Louisville was my team. I won my first bet ($5) when they upset Duke to win the championship in 1986. But then the college game changed drastically. Any player with an inkling of NBA potential was jumping ship or skipping the level altogether. I lost interest. When my beloved Knicks were taken over by one of the greediest and most narrow-minded dolts in professional sports, I couldn't take it anymore. I followed their evolution from Rory Sparrow and Louis Orr through to Charles Oakley, John Starks and Patrick Ewing. But then the Dolans and a former Detroit Piston star blanketed the team with controversy, stupidity, avarice and a lack of even the slightest vision. I was done. I couldn't stand beside a team that now lacked even a sliver of integrity.

But I still had the Yankees. Like almost all fans of the pinstripes, I've had to defend my ballclub from the never-ending calls that they "buy championships." When they shelled out $450 million in the offseason for three players I cowered a bit and skirted the shouts from my friends who stand with Boston or Philadelphia or Oakland. I knew it was extreme, but nothing could break my bond with them. The Yankees were being ingrained into me before I could talk. I would stick with them no matter what. And then came the steroids: Clemens, Pettitte, A-Rod. "Oh, probably half the league is culpable," I shot back. And then came word of the absolutely unfathomable ticket prices. I was having a hard time with that one.

This week the Yankees wrapped up their 27th World Championship. I watched every pitch throughout the entire playoffs. I spent over 13 hours on the road a few weeks back driving to-and-from Anaheim to catch the Yankees and the Angels in the ALCS. I blew off all plans for nearly a month to watch my team. As the World Series neared its completion, with two outs in the ninth inning and the Yanks with a safe four-run lead, my hands were still shaking from nerves. And then Robbie Cano fired the ball to Tex and the Yanks secured another championship. I sat and let it soak in. The text messages were arriving at a furious pace. Hideki accepted the MVP trophy. The team thanked George. They hoisted another trophy and I felt the same pride I felt as a kid when they were awful. Because the Yankees were my team.

When my excitement finally dissipated a bit, for some unknown reason, my mind went to Barry Sanders. No, I wasn't thinking about him in terms of Yankee players who could potentially step away. I was thinking of him in relation to my love for the New York Yankees. Even the greatest loves of our lives can come to an end at some point. With the disparity between the rich and poor in baseball almost mirroring what's happening to the citizens of this country, I sensed a rising emotion to call it a day. The Yankees clearly have many, many great years ahead of them, and likely will for generations to come. But the game just doesn't feel the same anymore. There's just too much money and corporate interest. And man, who can stomach the buffoons on FOX who cover the most important games. So like Barry, maybe it's time to walk away. In his final season he ran for over 1,400 yards. In what could be my final season, I got to once again watch Mariano close out another Series.

Robert E. Murphy: At Season's End, Withering Thoughts on November Baseball, Interleague Play and the Designated Hitter

2009-11-05T20:10:24Z

The temperature in New York is 48 degrees as I begin to write this, three hours before the start of the sixth game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, and the second game of scheduled November evening baseball -- not accidental November baseball, as we experienced after the September 11th attacks delayed the 2001 season.

I am looking forward to this crucial game between two excellent ballclubs, the Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies, whose well-contested series has, in New York, followed a dramatic playoff between the Yanks and an also distinguished squad of Los Angeles Angels. Baseball is still a great game despite what the men who manage and play it have done over the past few decades to diminish it.

I have written here about the corrupting effects of steroid-use and exorbitant salaries and ticket-prices on the elegant sport that is our national game -- and the spectacle of frigid, and possibly damp, November action, following intraleague series that were stretched out to comply with TV scheduling, can be added to the ways that filthy lucre compromises baseball. In my last blog I saluted the old Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek, who walked away from a broadcasting career when he could no longer tolerate the way that money was dominating the sport. Today I raise my glass to Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, who, without fear of whom he might be disturbing, described a scheduled three-day break between the first and second round of league playoffs as "ridiculous."

"Can I say it any clearer than that?", he asked with admirable frankness. "We should have never had a day off last Wednesday. We should never have three days off after the season. You shouldn't even have two days off after the season. It just takes an advantage away for a deep team, which everybody feels very strongly is an asset. It takes that advantage away and I think that's something that Major League Baseball hopefully will consider looking at."

Good luck on that, Mike, for fairness is no longer an abiding principle in baseball. If the game were fair, smaller-market teams from Seattle to Pittsburgh would not be, in effect, serving as feeder squads for the rich organizations. The initial starting pitchers in this year's World Series, Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia, would still be toiling for the Cleveland Indians, as they were just over a year ago. And the Pirates of Pittsburgh, a storied franchise in one of this country's most attractive cities, would not just have set a professional-sports record by toting up their 17th consecutive losing season. Moreover, if the people who run the game were sincerely concerned about insuring pennant-races that were fairly contested in each division, they would not have opted for the cheap thrill of interleague play that requires those teams to play uneven schedules, matching them during parts of a season against teams of differing quality in the other league. So the LA Dodgers, for example, might face three games against a tough Angel outfit while the San Francisco Giants take on a weak group of Oakland A's.

This is a particularly sore point for fans of the New York Mets, of which I'm one, because the glossy media and financial attraction of intracity play in baseball-mad New York dictates that they must play six games each year against the Yankees, who are always very good and sometimes great. Meanwhile the Mets' division rivals, such as the Phillies, might have three games scheduled against the Kansas City Royals and three against the Indians. Insignificant? Please note that in both 2007 and 2008 the Mets lost the division championship to Philadelphia on the last day of the season. (Yes, in 2009, it was insignificant.) And it is very likely that interleague-scheduling inequities have influenced the out come of other pennant-races.

One more thing about interleague play: I concede the appeal of games between two teams in the same city and (sometimes) in the same state. But where is the added value of the Florida Marlins playing the Minnesota Twins, or the Arizona Diamondbacks versus the Toronto Blue Jays? In my view, the inclusion of such games on a team's schedule is more likely to have the negative effect of eroding rivalries within a league, as well as fans' familiarity with the players in that league. Again I speak from my own rooting-perch. The arrival of the Dodgers and Giants in New York to engage the Mets has always, because of the New York history of those teams, been a significant event. The fans also look forward to seeing the Chicago Cubs. But each of those teams now plays three games a year here, and in the last two seasons the Cubbies made their only visit in late September. I don't think I'm the only Met fan who admits that he is not nearly as well-acquainted as he once was with the rosters of these teams.

Baseball's original surrender to the lure of the cheap thrill was the American League's adoption the designated-hitter rule in the 1970s. I happened to be living in Boston when the designated hitter arrived in that traditional baseball city, and I remember a Globe columnist - I believe Ray Fitzgerald -- gloomily remarking that the change had rendered the arriving baseball season as the least welcome of his life. I have since prayed, and have been almost astonished to have my prayers answered, that the National League has never fallen to the same temptation. And I say so even though it is now the day after Yankee DH Hideki Matsui has brought the national championship back to New York by driving in six runs against the Phillies. Bully for him; he seems an admirable fellow. Yet, though I understand quite well the claims in favor of the designated-hitter rule, they do not balance its violation of the organic unity that is essential to genuine baseball. The most interesting late innings of any post-season game that I saw this year occurred in Game 3 of the Yankees-Angels series, when New York Manager Joe Girardi gambled to bring in his nonpareil relief-pitcher Mariano Rivera in an uncustomary non-closing situation, then switched his DH, Jerry Hairston, Jr., to left field to replace Johnny Damon. This meant that Girardi had forfeited his designated hitter option, and that Rivera took a place in the batting order - forcing Girardi decide, as all National League managers must, whether to let Rivera bat for himself in order to stay in the game. He put up a pinch-hitter, and the Yanks lost. But the fans of both teams were treated to a rare glimpse of traditional strategic baseball.

I applauded not only the development of a pitcher's coming to bat, but also the manager's willingness to employ that pitcher in a way not dictated by current managerial policy. The general rigidity and predictability of that policy is another dimension of the modern game to which I object. But I see that once again I have not left room enough to work through my full list of complaints. Once again, then - to be continued.

Bruce Tenenbaum: Yanks Spending Money -- The American Way

2009-11-05T14:29:43Z

I was born a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. The first baseball game I ever saw was in The House That Ruth Built and another great Yankee hero, Mickey Mantle won it with a 9th inning home run. I became an instant New York Yankees fan.

Later in my childhood, I also became hooked on The Pittsburgh Pirates. Since the two teams never played each other, there was no conflict. Although, as a lone Pirates fan, surrounded by Yankee and Mets fans, my Pirates fever grew faster than my Yankee fever. If the Pirates did play the Yankees in the World Series, I would have rooted for The Pirates. But that did not occur.

Then something happened. Free agency took hold in baseball. NFL teams share broadcasting revenues with each other. Surprisingly, the tea baggers have yet to protest this little bit of socialism found in the heart of American life. The NFL is run by commies! But MLB is run the good old fashioned American way, the guy with the deepest pockets gets the best toys.

What this means is that a city like Green Bay can compete in football but a city like Pittsburgh has no business having a major league baseball team. They just don't have enough revenue to pay the top players. To be sure, on a rare occasion, a team from a smaller city can rise up and surprise everyone, but this is rare indeed. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, once regulars on the playoff scene, are all but extinct. The sport's other two smallest cities, Kansas City and Milwaukee have one postseason appearance between them in the last two decades. And, even if a small city team does make it to the top, they will never be able to stay there, as their newly discovered talent gets stripped away.

Fourteen years ago, I saw the light. The Pirates were up for sale and there was the possibility of them moving to a larger city, one that might possibly give them a chance. But they insisted on staying in Pittsburgh. That decision turned me on them. I felt they were turning their back on reality and, in essence, throwing in the towel. They had to know that by staying in Pittsburgh, they were going to remain uncompetitive. Or they were just plain stupid, and neither thought is a happy one. If they were going to turn their back on me, I happily turned my back on them. And, it turned out, to be a good decision. Forget about getting to the World Series, the Pirates have set a sports record with 17 consecutive years of losing more games than they've won.

Now, a fan can put up with a lot. Look at Cubs fans. They haven't won the World Series in 102 years! New York Ranger fans went half a century without a championship. Boston Red Sox fans went 86 years without one. I, myself, am a Miami Dolphins fan. They haven't won the Super Bowl for 35 years. But I stick with them. The point is, these teams try to win every year. And by at least trying, they earn the loyalty of their fans. The Pirates don't even try. The other teams are victims of poor management decisions, poor execution or bad luck. But they are not guilty of giving up. Every year the Pirates hold a fire sale and trade away their best players. The list of players they traded away or lost to free agency, over the years, could make up an all-star team. They are a team undeserving of its fans. Who wants to put their heart and soul into a team that has no heart and soul?

The Yankees, on the other hand, pay up for the best players money can buy. If they produce a Derek Jeter, they keep him. They go shopping every year and try and add the best talent to give them a shot at winning. This is not new. Back in 1919, they bought the best player in the history of baseball, Babe Ruth, for a whole lot of cash, too.

What is new is that people complain about it. People are up in arms. It's unfair! It's un-American. Quite the contrary. Business is the business of America. And the guys with the deepest pockets are best positioned to build their business. Read the sports pages today and you'll find a whole lot of jealous Yankee haters moaning and whining about the Yankees' payroll. Is Apple to be blamed for out-spending smaller computer companies and developing the iPhone? Fox spent $200 million dollars to make the film Titanic. Did people complain that that was unfair to smaller film companies?

Now, there are those of you who will say sports are different. Unlike other businesses, there should be an equal playing field. But that would ignore the reality that sports is still a business, with real economic considerations. MLB could easily have come up with a system like the NFL. But they didn't. To increase competition, a few years back, they put in a weak step sister version of revenue sharing. Teams that have huge payrolls, like The Yankees, pay into a fund and that money is supposed to go to the smaller city teams. But there's still no incentive for smaller town teams to actually use the extra money they get to compete. They can just pocket the cash and not give it to their players. Which is what they do. Unlike the NFL, there is no parity.

The Yankees are not to be chastised for building the "best team money can buy." They are to be praised for it. Here we have a family that is willing to part with its cash to give its fans the best show possible. They break no rules. They play within the rules. And they win by doing it. They are not the only teams playing this way. The Red Sox won a World Series by buying Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez. Do you think the Phillies will still be at the top in a few years if they don't pay Chase Utley and Ryan Howard?

I am thankful I grew up in the Bronx. I am thankful that borough is home to the greatest franchise in the history of sports. And I am mostly thankful that their ownership is willing to pay whatever it takes to make sure they have the best players. It doesn't guarantee that they'll win it all, but it guarantees they'll be in the mix. You can argue that Major League Baseball should change their structure. But until they do, you can't blame the Yankees for giving their fans the best show money can buy.

In Japan, Bush Expresses Regrets... For Baseball Decisions

2009-11-05T12:07:15Z

Over at Foreign Policy's blog, Joshua Keating reports that President George W. Bush was in Japan yesterday, throwing out the first pitch at game three of Japan's World Series and doing what he could to finally teach the Japanese to GET MOTIVATED! Along the way, he addressed a group of students, and offered them advice on how to run ~~a major world-power~~ a baseball franchise. Bush was the managing general partner of the Texas Rangers from 1989 until his ascension to the Texas governorship in 1994.

Bush's irony-rich advice included this tidbit:

Bush also said it was important to take responsibility for decisions, including bad ones - and referred to what he has acknowledged was one of his biggest mistakes with the Rangers: approving the 1989 trade that sent future home-run slugger Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox for designated hitter Harold Baines.

Ahh, the memories:

At any rate, of course you wouldn't make that trade today! 9/11 changed everything.

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Av Sinensky: Yankees Buy Another World Series Title

2009-11-05T09:12:00Z

Completing a week that featured a whirlwind of activity and intense negotiations, sources inside the New York Yankees organization revealed late last night that they will be holding a press conference this morning to announce that they have acquired the rights to the Florida Marlins' 2003 World Series Championship. This latest deal marks the latest in a series of acquisitions that now leaves the Yankees with 38 World Championships to their credit.

"Today is a tremendous day for the entire New York Yankees organization," said Yankees Senior Vice President Hank Steinbrenner. "To be able to provide another World Series title for our fans is really what it's all about and is what makes this job truly rewarding."

The deal is said to include a one-time payment of $30 million dollars, which combined with the money the Marlins anticipate they can raise from selling off their 2003 World Series rings, should be able to combat the high deficits the organization is dealing with in the face of a struggling economy. The Yankees, by contrast, believe that they can generate enough revenue from the sale of 2003 Yankees World Champions merchandise to offset a good portion of the payment. Correspondingly, the Marlins front office has issued a press release announcing a recall of all Marlins' championship paraphernalia from 2003.

This purchase is the twelfth such deal the Yankees have struck over the last few months as part of a new campaign to use their massive financial resources to buy World Championships. The idea was spawned in an off-season meeting when Steinbrenner, frustrated that his strategy of doling out hundreds of millions of dollars to sign top players kept backfiring, realized that it made more sense to spend money to secure championships in a way that wouldn't be left to risky propositions such as the bounce of a ball or the swing of a bat. After being turned down by the commissioner's office in their attempt to suspend the rest of the 2009 season and be declared World Champions in exchange for the sum of $150 million, the Yankees turned to past championships, which legally are considered the property of individual teams, who are therefore free to sell them.

The Yankees' spending spree has been met with much controversy across the baseball world. "We simply can't compete with them," said Kansas Royals General Manager Dayton Moore. "They have their own television network, a brand new state of the art stadium, and unparalleled resources with which to buy championships. A small-market team like us doesn't stand a chance."

Not surprisingly, most Yankees fans have lauded the organization's efforts. "My son turned fifteen this past winter. He was too young to remember the 2000 series, so he has had to endure eight insufferable seasons following this team without seeing them win a single championship. That's a tragedy," said Joe Bradley, a lifelong Yankees fan. "We are truly grateful to Mr. Steinbrenner, who with his passion for winning and commitment to spending has enabled my son to attend twelve ticker tape parades in the last 5 months." When asked if the current Yankees' policy was bad for baseball as a whole, Bradley responded, "Other teams are free to do the same thing and invest their money back in the team exactly the same way, but they're too cheap. That's why we have 38 championships and they don't."

The 2003 purchase means that the Yankees now won World Championships in a remarkable nine straight years from 1995-2003, having previously purchased the championships of the 1995 Braves, 1997 Marlins, 2001 Diamondbacks and 2002 Angels. It appears that they will come up empty in their quest for a streak of ten straight championships as the commissioner's office has been steadfast in their position that the Yankees could not be declared the champions of the strike-shortened 1994 season and the refusal of the Boston Red Sox to part with their 2004 title for any amount of money. According to Red Sox President and CEO Larry Lucchino, the 2004 championship was "one prize the Evil Empire will never get its tentacles around."

As part of its Yankees Classics series, the YES network will air the 2003 World Series, with its revised footage, in its entirety this week. "It means more work for me," said Yankees' play-by-play announcer John Sterling, "but that's what being a true Yankee is all about. We work just a little harder and go that extra mile in the spirit of the tremendous Yankee tradition. That's why we have 38 championships."

Still, others around the league are in denial about the Yankees' latest exploitation of their competitive advantage. "I don't care what anyone says. We won that championship," said Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett, who was a member of the 2003 Marlins. "They can buy all the championships they want, but they can't buy heart and they can't buy soul." Steinbrenner would not comment on a rumor that the Yankees were in negotiations to buy Beckett's heart and soul.

This article originally appeared at http://aviousavservations.blogspot.com/2009/04/yankees-buy-another-world-series-title.html