Baseball and 9/11

Jose Reyes wore a first-responder cap
before the Mets game on  Sunday.

I'm not a Bud Selig hater. Without him there would be no team in Milwaukee, and while I don't like many of his decisions, I think he does love the game and is doing what he believes is the right thing. But his reaction to the flap over the New York Mets wardrobe choice for Sunday's game on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks has me mystified.

For whatever reason, Major League Baseball decided that teams had to wear their own caps with an American flag sewn on the side. This presented a problem for the Mets. The team famously hosted the first sporting event in New York after the attacks. Players wore hats representing many of the first responders—firefighters, police, EMS etc.—and were lionized for the gesture.

This year, Mets players wanted to repeat the gesture. But MLB said no. Joe Torre, now a member of the league office, explained that baseball wanted all the teams to do the same thing. Although that sounds more like the NFL than MLB, apparently the league has the authority to make that call.

The Mets weren't happy about it but complied under protest. The strange thing is that Selig is upset that the Mets went public with the dispute and "embarrassed" the league. Did he really think no one notice the Mets were wearing their regular caps or that no reporter would ask about it? And if Selig thought it was the right decision why is he embarrassed that it became public?

It seems obvious that in hindsight Selig knows the decision was wrong. No harm would have been done if the Mets had worn the special caps. The controversy was predictable and avoidable.

By the way, even the NFL allowed coaches to wear FDNY and other such hats on the sidelines of its game over the weekend.

A Run on Bobbleheads

Bobbleheads have become the top ballpark giveaway. It's been that way for a while. But the Minnesota Twins might have taken the dolls to a new level. The team offered a set of 25 of the collectibles representing the 1991 World Series winners.

The cost for was $391. One thousand sets were offered. They sold out quickly. That's nearly 400 grand in sales. The Twins say the net profits will go to its community fund. Of course, some of the buyers immediately put them for sale on eBay, looking for a profit.

I'm ambivalent about the bobbleheads. I have a shelf full of New York Mets lookalikes (well, some of them sort of look like their alter egos). The top giveaway when I was a kid was the common wood baseball bat. I used my Darrell Porter model till it the paint was worn off and the handle was chipped.

I understand they probably stopped giving out bats for fear of liability problems. And it's doubtful any kid today would be allowed to use a wood bat. I suppose the baseball giveaway was ended when one too many ended up being thrown onto the field during play.

It's interesting that almost none of the giveaways these days involve equipment that can be used to play the game. The only items that even come close are caps, wristbands and a water bottle. And the latter item is a stretch. We never had water bottles on the playground back in the day.

Added to my shelf this year have been Mr. Met (my wife, a lifelong Mets fan, calls it the evil Mr. Mets because of changes to his eyebrows) and Ike Davis, who was obtained last night. They join Johann Santana and Frankie Rodriguez, among others. Strangely, Most of the Mets honorees have been injured when their likeness was handed out. Although Mr. Met did appear at Opening Day this season on his special day.

I can't imagine any kid has as much fun with a bobblehead as I did with my bat, batting gloves and plastic helmet. But then there wouldn't be much a market on eBay for those items.

Baseball's Sweet Soundtrack

Ruth Roberts was honored at Shea Stadium in 1996.

Baseball has a long history of songs. Most of them are novelties and not great, but many of them are memorable. Some tunes have stuck with me over the years. "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame," "I Love Mickey" and "Meet the Mets" all share a middle of the road sounds and lyrics that are corny, but evocative.

I never realized they all shared the same songwriters: Ruth Roberts, who died yesterday, and Bill Katz who passed away in 1988. I had never connected the songs before, but when I heard the same team had written all three songs, it made sense.

"Beautiful Day" will always trigger memories of my youthful "blue period" when I indiscriminately was a fan of the Chicago Cubs. Although New York Mets' announcer Ron Darling noted during the broadcast tonight that the song is used by the Los Angeles Dodgers, WGN used it in the 1970s to open Cubs' broadcasts. Who can resist a line like, "It's a beautiful day for a home run, but even a triple's okay?"

MLB's Money-Making Scheme

Would you pay just for the chance to buy these?

NOTE: My friend Jim Lynch is an actuary and wrote a blog post explaining how this works and why it can be a good opportunity for fans. I don't know if I totally agree with MLB doing this, but check out his blog.

Major League Baseball evidently subscribes to the theory that there's a sucker born every minute. And it's hard to dispute that assumption based on the MLB postseason reservations auction.

Fans are given the "opportunity" to purchase "reservations" for playoff games that their favorite team might play in. In other words, they get to pay money for the chance to buy the actual tickets. Oh, and if your team doesn't make the playoffs? Well, that's too bad. No refunds.

For years I have been disgusted by the ridiculous "handling fees" teams add to the price of each ticket. One year when the New York Mets added the fee (a few dollars per ticket) to playoff tickets, I called up the ticket office to complain. I was told that it was a lot of work to get the ducats sorted and sent out. I pointed out that I thought that was what the ticket office was for. Got nowhere with that bit of logic.

Then there's Stubhub.com, a fine service that allows fans with extra tickets to sell easily. And the buyers are given guarantees. But even Stubhub can't resist gouging consumers. If you choose to print the tickets out on your own printer (with your own ink and paper) you have to pay an extra fee. I haven't met anyone who thinks that sounds fair.

But I may have to rethink all this. If MLB can get fans to pay them, just for the chance to maybe get tickets later, it makes me wonder why they bother playing the games at all. If they work at it I bet they could get some fans to just hand over the money. They could save a bundle by not paying players or needing stadiums.

They might as well try. After all Bernie Madoff got the Mets' owners and others to fork over millions for nothing. At least he pretended to be selling something.

The Return of Davey Johnson

Davey Johnson's most recent managerial stop
was with Team USA.

Davey Johnson is back as a manager. The Washington National turned to him after Jim Riggleman walked out on his team in the midst of a hot streak.

Johnson has an interesting history as a skipper. During 14 years at the helm of the New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers, his teams team finished lower than second place only twice. And one of those was a team he took over during the season.

Despite that, the former Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves second baseman is not always considered among the top rank of managers of his era. A lot of that stems from his days in New York. The Mets were the most talented team at the time. They broke through in '86 with their wild World Series win over the Boston Red Sox. On the field, I always thought they won despite sloppy play.

But from the title year it was down hill. The Mets continued to contend, but were dogged by undisciplined behavior. I always thought they were sloppy in the field (although Keith Hernandez was a superb first baseman). Off the field, the team caroused and made headlines for unruly escapades. Johnson's tenure ended with many saying the team should have won more championships.

After the Mets, Johnson was out of baseball for a couple years. Talk radio was awash with rumors that Johnson had been blackballed. But no evidence was found that it was true.

Johnson finally got another job Baltimore, but ended up in a feud with owner Peter Angelos (although he's not exactly the easiest man to get along with). Jobs in L.A. and Cincy produced typical Johnson records: fine teams but no titles.

Now Johnson is back in the dugout leading another young team. I expect the team will continue to progress, but how far he can take them this season will be interesting to watch.

Rain Delays Without Rain

I sat down to watch some baseball tonight and was encountered by a modern phenomenon: games delayed by rain with no precipitation falling. The games in question were in Atlanta, where the New York Mets were to play the Braves, and Chicago, where the Milwaukee Brewers were to take on the Cubs.

To be fair, the skies in Atlanta looked foreboding and there were severe storms in the area (and the storms did roll over the stadium). But in Chicago a gray sky wasn't particularly threatening. In fact, Brewers' TV color commentator Bill Schroeder said it hadn't rained in an hour.

A shot of the Chicago radar showed light green patches coming through Chicago. Schroeder observed, "Radar is the worst thing that's happened to baseball." He added that when he played for the Brewers the heads groundskeeper, Harry Gill, didn't use radar. Gill would "call Madison and see if it's raining. Then he'd call Waukesha and ask if it's raining. No? Good, let's go."

Extra Baseball Everywhere

Robin Ventura celebrated his game-winning HR,
preventing him from completing his trip around the bases.

If it seems like there are a lot extra-inning games this year, it's because there are. Baseball is on a pace to have 261 such games this season, which far surpass the pervious high.

Thank god MLB has not seen fit to change the rules like hockey has to make sure tied games don't take all night (sometimes they last to another day if curfews are reached). Even a sloppily played game can seem like a classic if it stretches on into bonus panels as my sports editor friend Jerry call them.

I've written about a couple of my favorite extra-inning games already: A Gaylord Perry gem (he lost) against the Milwaukee Brewers, and a wild game between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves.

The most tense such game I ever witnessed in person was the "Robin Ventura Grand Slam Single" game. The setting was Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS. The Atlanta Braves were leading the series, 3-1. The Mets' season looked like it was coming to an end in the 15th inning when the visitors took a 3-2 lead.

But the Mets came back to ties on a bases loaded walk in the bottom half of the frame. Through a steady rain Ventura launched a 1-1 pitch over the right-field fence. The Mets and the fans began the celebration. After touching first, Ventura failed to round the bases. A walk-off grand slam became a single in the scorebook.

Turns out two other grand slams have met similar scoring fates. One was by Dalton Jones of the Detroit Tigers on July 9, 1970; the other when Tim McCarver passed a runner on July 4, 1976.

Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves lost his May 16, 1959, home run in a game in which his hit beat the greatest mound performance ever. His lost round-tripper happened during Harvey Haddix's 12-inning perfect game in May 1959. The game was scoreless until the 13th. Haddix still on the mound lost his perfect game when Felix Mantilla was safe on an error. A sacrifice and an intentional walk to Hank Aaron set the stage.

Remember, Haddix still hadn't allowed a hit. Adcock hit one out, but Aaron head to the clubhouse after touching second. An odd ending to an amazing night.

What Inning Is it Anyway?

Nyjer Morgan finally realizes he hit the game-winner.

Baseball seasons are long and every so often a player's mind wanders and a boneheaded play results. Benny Agbayani flipping the ball into the stands with only two outs comes to mind. The errant toss let two San Francisco Giant's runners score in the August 2000 game. The Mets managed to win anyway.

Rarely do such brain locks result in anything positive for the player of his team. The most famous mistake by a player, Fred Merkle, has forever been known as Merkle's Boner, in which the New York Giants' player forgot to touch second base at the end of a key 1908 game. (The ruling led to the Chicago Cubs last World Series winning team.) Although Merkle was following common practice, he was still called out on the play.

Nyjer Morgan of the Milwaukee Brewers just have might have pulled off such a feat last night. The center fielder came to bat in the bottom of the ninth with a runner on second and the score tied. Morgan lashed a double down the right field line. Morgan's teammates streamed out to second base to congratulate him.

Morgan was confused. Turns out he thought it was the eighth inning and admitted he might have been more relaxed because of his mistake. Maybe the folks who run the Miller Park scoreboard will just misnumber the innings in similar situations in the future; call it a new kind of home field advantage.

Can't Escape Prince Rumors

Rumors of Prince Fielder's next destination
 are hard to avoid.

The last month or so has been a great time be a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers. After a listless start, the Crew has gone 19-6, the best record in baseball since May 9. The off-season moves to shore up the pitching are paying dividends and the hitting stars Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder are off to great starts.

But all is not tranquil. The rumors are already starting about where Fielder, a free agent after the season, will wind up in 2012. It's the archrival Chicago Cubs (that would be galling!) one day, the Baltimore Orioles the next. Or maybe the New York Mets. I hope somehow the big man remains a fixture at Miller Park, but it seems highly unlikely.

It's a sad fact of baseball that free agency often casts a shadow over a current season. The first time I remember it happening was during the 1991 World Series. Jack Morris pitched the Minnesota Twins to a World Series Victory. In the postgame show after Game 7, speculation was rampant about who Morris would sign with for 1992 (it was the Toronto Blue Jays.). So much for basking in a victory.

I'm not against free agency. Sure, it would be nice if team payrolls were more equal. But I doubt that will change. And even if Fielder leaves, the Brewers won't be an also-ran. They've done a good job locking up young players like Braun, Corey Hart, Rickie Weeks and Yovani Gallardo. Their starting rotation is locked up through at least next season.

So the future looks bright. But it sure would be nice to enjoy the present without having to consider the future without Prince.

The Mets and Fan Owners

A lot of owners say they care
about the fans, but But Bill Veeck
really seemed to mean it.

Major League Baseball has reportedly turned back a group of fans that wanted to buy a minority stake in the New York Mets. This word comes after Met's owner Fred Wilpon announced last week he had an investor lined up he tries to escape the mess the Madoff scam has made of his finances.

It's too bad that the fan-based group, buythemets.com, which was organized by business professionals, was so quickly turned down. I know baseball prefers its owners rich so they can spend their way out of financial jams (and maybe so they trade capitalism war stories at pricey restaurants). But that model has proven anything but rock solid.

From the Montreal Expos, which had to be taken over and moved to Washington, D.C., to the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, rich owners have had their problems in recent years. Maybe it's time to try another way.

Some point to the model of the Green Bay Packers, a team owned by community stockholders. Obviously, that model has looked pretty good the last few years with the Packers consistently winning. And the buythemets.com group would operate in a similar way.

There would be no guarantee, of course, that a community-owned team would win, as one blogger notes. But as we've seen there's no guarantee with the current model of rich owners.

Baseball for years barely tolerated Bill Veeck, probably the most populist owner ever. They never gave him a break. But fans adored him, whose autobiography, "Veeck--As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck," reveals him to be part baseball visionary and part P.T. Barnum, was never liked by the other owners.

Choosing the Best Ballparks

Miller Park is among my favorites, but maybe I am biased.

The New York Times has a new post rating the ballparks. Nate Silver, who famously used sophisticated formulas to predict the 2008 elections at his fivethirtyeight.com, used ratings from Yelp.com to determine how fans feel about major league stadiums.

It's not scientific, and Silver has no information regarding why PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, rates as the best stadium.

Silver speculates that teams that spent money for a retractable dome might regret it because those parks didn't rate well. But I bet if you asked fans at those ballparks on a cold or rainy day their ratings would skyrocket.

Silver's sole basis for his ratings is an analysis of yelp.com stadium ratings. Other than being good for bar (and blogger!) talk, I'm not sure Yelp's ratings are meaningful.

Wilpon Shoots From the Lip

Fred Wilpon and his Mets have had a tough year.

So the owners of the New York Mets decided honesty was the best policy when talking to about his "star" players to a reporter. His critique of David Wright, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran centered on a theme: They are overpaid or want to be.

Some commentators have compared Fred Wilpon's comments to the kind often made by the late George Steinbrenner of the Yankees, who was famous for bombastic diatribes aimed at his superstars. Others see the Mets' owner as a whiner, complaining about his mistakes.

The first thing I thought when I heard about his comments was money. Wilpon and the Mets have had a famously bad year. The ownership group took a financial beating because of their investments with Bernie Madoff. Then they were sued by the trustee trying to recover money for Madoff's investors. The trustee claims the Wilpons knew or should have known about the fraud.

Now, ticket sales have fallen and it's been reported the team will lose millions this season (although it's unclear how much money the profitable cable channel SNY brings in for the owners). All of that has forced the Wilpons to put a minority stake in the team up for sale. Is it any wonder Fred Wilpon has money on his mind?

Let's Stop the Violence

Players were injured in 1974 when Cleveland fans were sold
beer at 10 cents a cup (yes, that was really cheap, even then).

It's been reported that Los Angeles police arrested a suspect in the severe beating of a Giants' fan on opening day outside Dodger Stadium. Let's hope they have the right man, as well as anyone else involved in the ugly incident.

But there's more work to be done. Unfortunately, violent behavior by fans happens all too often. It's not just limited to baseball, but the sport needs to do more to address the problem. Most of the problems that get publicized happen when fans intrude on the field.

The beating on opening day put the spotlight on the fans. I have followed my team to many stadiums. Most of the comments sent my way by opposing fans were good-natured. A couple times they were, at the least, disrespectful. Usually those fans were drinking copious amounts of beer.

I never felt personally threatened. But I was at a playoff game between the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals when things started to get out of hand. It started with a fan in a Cards' hat and jersey taking his seat. Comments and epithets were hurled his way. He took it in stride.

Baseball's 'Greatest Game' And Some Left Off the List

The Mets and Braves played an iconic game in 1985.

Major League Baseball has unveiled its choice for greatest game of the last 50 years: Game 6 of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds. The game produced the indelible image of catcher Carlton Fisk frantically trying to wave his game-winning home run fair as it sailed over Fenway's Green Monster.

I remember watching this game on TV as it stretched on toward four hours, an almost unheard of length at the time, even for a 12-inning game. I was pulling for the Sox (I always thought the Big Red Machine was more hype than substance) and was trying to will Fisk's ball fair from my bedroom in a Milwaukee suburb.

I have no quibble with this choice or most of the others on MLB's list of the top 20 games. I wonder, though, if there weren't games from before 1975 that deserved inclusion. It's also interesting that all but one of the games on the list are from the postseason (the 50-year cutoff left Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run to give the Pittsburgh Pirates the title over the New York Yankees in 1960 out in the cold).

There are two regular season games that stick out in my mind. One was the Fourth of July 1985 contest between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets. Thanks to TBS, which at the time beamed nearly every one of the team's games to a national audience I was able to watch it till the wee hours.

This game had everything: It lasted 19 innings, Keith Hernandez hit for the cycle, pitcher Rick Camp hit the only home run of his career to tie the game in the 18th inning, and that same pitcher was at the plate as the tying run when the game ended.

Buckner's Boston Return

Bill Buckner started out with the Dodgers.

Sometimes a fine career is defined by one bad moment. Such is the case for Bill Buckner, whose error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series allowed the New York Mets to win the game and ultimately best the Boston Red Sox in Game 7.

Tonight, Buckner returned to Boston to broadcast the BoSox game with the Chicago Cubs, their first visit since 1918. It's an interesting twist for Buckner, who played for both teams but it is remembered most for one missed ground ball.

Buckner had a career that was a notch below Hall of Fame caliber. When he retired in 1990, he had 2,715 hits and a .289 batting average. He appeared in the 1981 All-Star Game. He led the National League in fielding once and placed second twice. He ranks among the top 160 players all-time in several hitting categories.

That body of work, however, is seldom remembered. Instead, Billy Buck's career is defined by Mookie Wilson's grounder in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. It ended what seemed was a sure Series win for the BoSox, allowing the New York Mets to win the game and then take Game 7.

Baseball's Soggy Spring

Rick Dempsey entertains fans during a rain delay.

Baseball has endured a spring of rainouts. There were four more today and the number of games postponed has already eclipsed the total for 2010. For fans that miss out on games it's disappointing. For teams, it's at least inconvenient for the players and also could mean lost revenue for the front office.

Rainouts became more of a problem for baseball when teams started to sell a large percentage of the tickets available for each game. If fans wanted to use their rain checks at another game, there weren't enough seats available. More teams started playing split-admission doubleheaders. That puts pressure on pitching staffs. In the days when playing two on Sunday was common, starters went deeper into games and bullpens were not chewed up as quickly.

What the Fans Don't Know ...

David Wright played with a stress fracture.

For the last couple weeks, David Wright has been vilified by New York Mets fans and radio announcers. As his batting average plummeted the cries grew ever louder for the team to get rid of the third baseman. Mets fans know changes are coming to team. And many made their position clear.

Everyone figures Carlos Beltran, the oft-injured outfielder with an expiring contract, will be traded to a contender. What happens to shortstop Jose Reyes is up for debate. He'll demand big money as a free agent and it's unclear if the Mets and Sandy Alderson, the small-ball G.M., will want to pay his asking price.

And that brings us to Wright. An all-star player who sometimes has fielding lapses, Wright came up through the Mets farm system and was an instant fan favorite. But being the star on a team that had two spectacular September collapses and is now fighting to be mediocre has dimmed his star power.

It's an odd rule of sports that the best players on a bad team become lightning rods for the wrath of the paying public. Wright has been dealing with this syndrome for a season or two now. He started to strike out more often. And then his slump began.

Nothing Left to Say?

Mike Francesa

I was listening to WFAN in New York today and I heard a comment that just might prove people have run out of things to say on sports talk radio.

A listener called up host Mike Francesa to talk about who might buy the New York Mets. Informed that the current owners seem likely to sell only a piece of the team, the caller wondered if the Steinbrenners might take a minority stake in the team.

So, one of those sophisticated New York fans thought it was a fine idea for the owners of the hated rival Yankees to own part of another team. I guess the competitive problems this would cause were lost on him.

Fortunately, Francesa set him straight.

Happy Birthday, Willie Mays

Willie Mays turned 80 yesterday. It's hard to believe the "Say Hey Kid," frozen in time making the most famous catch ever has reached that milestone.

To a lot of fans, Mays is the greatest player ever. The image of his cap flying off as he chased down an impossible-to-catch fly ball proof of his superior ability. No doubt Mays is among the greatest ever; he is even celebrated wit the immortal refrain "Willie, Mickey and the Duke" in Terry Cashman's ode to baseball, "Talkin' Baseball."

I find Mays career fascinating for the way it played out over two decades. Last year, I read "Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend" and I came away with two overall thoughts about Mays.

First, there were three distinct periods to Mays' career. In part one, he was the young kid who came from nowhere to make Gotham's Nation League team a champion. Then, in part two, the team moved west to San Francisco. It took the fans there years to warm up to Mays (which shows just how fickle sports fans can be: How do you give a cold shoulder to the "Say Hey Kid?").

Finally, part three, the final act of his career. Mays is traded to the Mets so he can have a triumphal return to New York. Instead of being joyous, the farewell tour has left many New Yorkers with a bad taste. They often lament that it's a shame Mays' career had to end the way it did.

But I think they have selective memory. Yes, the aging hero did lose a ball in the sun during the seventh inning of Game 2 of the 1973 World Series against the Oakland A's. And yes he did look bad stumbling and falling. But, after that, in the 12th inning, Mays drove in the last run of his career. It gave the Mets a lead they wouldn't relinquish. In other words, the last RBI of Mays' career was a World Series game winner. I've never heard anyone mentions this. All they remember from his Mets' days is one lousy missed fly ball.

The other image I formed of Mays was of a man whose entire life was baseball. The account in the book is of a man who in retirement never really found something to spark his interest the way being the "Say Hey Kid" had.

But for a black kid from Alabama who was born before Jackie Robinson broke into the majors, it's quite an accomplishment to be the man many consider the best ever. For him, the first act was so large it's possible that no second act could live up to it.

Happy Birthday, Willie Mays.

Infield Shift, Part II

In an earlier post on the expanded use of the infield shift, I questioned why more hitters don't just hit the ball the other way. One factor I didn't consider was mentioned by my Dad: Hurlers try to make sure they pitch to spots that make it harder for batters to defeat the shift. That makes a lot of sense.

Interestingly, I found an article about Cy Williams which mentions that managers used a "Ted Williams Shift" against him in the outfield. The name is a bit of a misnomer: Cy's career ended in 1930, so the strategy pre-dated Ted's major league career, which began in 1939.

Jim Rice, the Boston Red Sox slugger of the 1970s, faced an unusual shift: four outfielders. were arrayed against him. I have to admit that this maneuver has faded from my memory. And it turns out New York Mets Manager Gil Hodges employed a similar alignment in the 1969 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. And it also was used against Willie McCovey.

In baseball, it often seems that a great new strategy turns out to have its roots in distant decades.