Tag: Yankees

I hate Jackie Robinson

~ Jim Eltringham ~ 1 Comment

Major League Baseball is honoring Jackie Robinson today by having all players wear his number, 42.  I honor Jackie Robinson differently: I hate him.

And yes, it has everything to do with color: blue.

Jackie Robinson was a Dodger.  As a Yankee fan, mentioning Robinson conjures thoughts of the 1955 World Series – including the blown call on his steal of home and his team beating the Yankees in seven games.  Was I alive for it?  Not even close.  But as a fan, it stings, and so Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Johnny Podres, and especially Sandy [expletive] Amoros are forever enemies.

One could argue either way whether being the first black major league baseball player was enough to make someone a Hall of Famer; Robinson’s on-field achievements made the point moot.  He didn’t ask for grudging respect from fans or peers, his play demanded it.

Robinson was a ballplayer first and foremost.

So yeah, I hate Jackie Robinson.  I hate him the way I hate David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, Edgar Martinez, Luis Gonzalez, Sandy Alomar, Alex Gonzales, Bob Gibson, the 1976 Reds, the 1993 Blue Jays, and of course Pedro Martinez.  It’s not a personal hatred – I wouldn’t throw a D-cell at him – but on the baseball field I’d sure love for him to strike out four or five times.

Would Jackie Robinson have wanted it any other way?

3 Up: Nancy Pelosi, the Yankees, and GOP messages

~ Jim Eltringham ~ 1 Comment

Joel Sherman – who, despite growing up a Cincinnati Reds fan, does a better job than anyone of giving a voice to New York baseball – called out Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio in his daily blog for Our Nation’s Newspaper of Record.

Attanasio, who is trying to lock up franchise cornerstone Prince Fielder to a long-term contract,  complained that the Yankees spent a lot of money to pay their players. Sherman rightly observes that Attanasio uses the Yankees as a convenient straw man, much like a politician devoid of a message:

Look, I get it, we live in talk-radio world now. If you are failing your constituency then don’t take any personal responsibility just demonize an easy bogeyman. The Democrats do it to the Republicans, the Republicans do it to the Democrats, and in baseball, when you have no other answers blame the Yankees.  …[P]ulling the Yankees into the Fielder discussion is either the act of a lazy mind or the act of an owner who wants to rile up his fan base so nobody notices his own failings.

At TechRepublican, Wesley Donahue makes a similar case against the “Fire Nancy Pelosi” messaging of many Republicans:

Last week I went to a “Listen and Learn” event in Charleston with S.C. Republican Party chairwoman Karen Floyd. What I heard was exactly what I’m hearing through emails and blog comments to all my clients. People want more than “No.” They want alternative plans.

Both baseball teams and politicians rely on a base of people whose support isn’t entirely rational.  In politics, Candidates like Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama with pleasant personalities are able to gloss over policy differences.  Sports fans will change their behavior to avoid jinxing their team.*

But in neither case is affection blind.  The most diehard sports fans can endure losing seasons, if there’s some reason to hope their favorite team can either build a winner or at least be competitive (Redskins fans understand this, especially this week).  But fans bases – and voters – lose interest when teams are stuck in the mud and going nowhere.

Nancy Pelosi and the Yankees are both easy targets.  That doesn’t make them good long-term targets, though.

*Fun story: during the baseball playoffs last year, I texted disparaging, negative comments about the Yankees to both of my brothers during the games; each time I did, the Yankees came back to win.  I even sent a text when one of my brothers was sitting in the same room, watching Game 3 of the World Series with me.  My phone should have been named World Series MVP.

Sadly, the tactic proved ineffective for the New York Giants.

Happy Birthday for two TV revolutions

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

March 19 marks two big media birthdays.  Though both are cable television networks, they are significant for different reasons.

The elder is C-SPAN, which was created on this date in the great year of 1979.  C-SPAN made news this week by making its entire video archive available online, which is a natural extension of the network’s mission: to shine sunlight on the workings of the American government.

The younger is eight years old today: the YES Network, or Yankees Entertainment and Sports (which has an excellent website in addition to an excellent television network).  YES was born because the New York Yankees were unsatisfied with annual $70 million payments for their television rights from Madison Square Garden Network, another New York City-based regional sports network (or RSN).  The Yankees figured they could do better, and built their own television network to play their games and satisfy the content needs of rabid Yankee fans, who would actually watch the Yankeeography of Danny Tartabull.

When you’re the most famous sports franchise in the world, building your own media empire is much easier than if you’re a grassroots activist organization.  But the principal is the same whether you’re launching a YouTube channel or a cable channel: the Yankees knew their audience was out there, and they found their own path to that audience.

The Felix and Oscar of DC sports

~ Jim Eltringham ~ 1 Comment

The NHL’s trade deadline passed yesterday, and the Washington Capitals acquired four new players to add depth to a team that already has the best record in hockey.  A few weeks back, the NBA trade deadline saw the Caps’ roommates, the Washington Wizards, dumping their best players, waving the white flag in an effort to get better next season.

If you would have asked a Washington sports fan to imagine that scenario just a few years ago, they might have required heavy hallucinogenic help.  The Wizards were a playoff-caliber team, though never a serious championship contender; the Capitals had a half-full arena, the fans were lackadaisical, and the only place to see playoff hockey inside the beltway was on a TV screen.

In the background of these two teams going in different directions, Caps owner Ted Leonsis is trying to buy out the Pollin family for control of the Wizards.  Though the deal has hit stumbling blocks over how each side values the team, sports fans in Your Nation’s Capital should be eager for it to go through.

Having been a Yankee fan for 31 years and nine months tomorrow, I’ve been spoiled in many ways by George Steinbrenner.  The once-mercurial owner has taken on a gradually lessened role in the pure baseball decisions and has relinquished much of the control of the team to his sons, but has never wavered in the Yankees’ larger organizational goal of winning championships.  That means that at baseball’s trade deadline, if the Yankees need a player, they’re going to be buyers and not sellers.

Caps fans are getting a taste of that this year.  How many owners, sitting on the NHL’s best record, would sit on their hands and count their money from ticket sales?  Leonsis has told the DC hockey faithful loud and clear that he’s going for a championship.  It’s the right way to run a sports team.  And, as the richest team in baseball can attest, excellence is good for business.

The Year in Google

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Google has released their 2009 Zeitgeist report – a summary of popular search trends along various topics.  Lists like this are usually predictable – the most-searched-for baseball team was the Yankees; the alphabet soup of AIG, GM, and TARP led bailout-related searches.

But search results can also give a good concept of popular thinking on key news topics.  For instance, the top term used in healthcare-related searches is “Obama.”  That seems to indicate that, for better or worse, people are closely identifying the President with the health care reform issue.  Also interesting is that the Heritage Foundation was the #5 search term in this category – which could mean that Americans are open to hearing alternatives to what has been circulating on Capitol Hill.

Google also looks at localized search topics for several major cities.  Movie theaters and school websites dominated the results, especially colleges.  In DC, the top term was “fcps blackboard” – the portal for the Fairfax County public school system.  This actually says a lot about the Washington, DC workforce and commuting patterns.  (I knew I had company on my daily commutes into and out of Your Nation’s Capital from Merrifield, but had no idea it was enough to alter search results; Metro clearly needs more trains.)

That education websites are so popular also notes another trend.  Around the Thanksgiving table this year, my soon-to-be brother and sister in law commented that they hadn’t seen their daughter’s recent report card, despite the marking period having ended.  They explained that they just check her grades online.

Pollsters can call voters, ask questions, track answers, and get a pretty good idea of what folks are thinking.  Still, there’s an element of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in that method – that the very act of measuring could affect the responses to poll questions.  Internet searches are somewhat anonymous.

As the old saying goes, you are who you are when no one is watching.

It takes more than a blog post to take down The Sandman

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Joel Sherman, baseball columnist for the New York Post (Our Nation’s Newspaper of Record), fears that Mariano Rivera’s reputation will be unfairly tarnished because an Angels Blog, Halos Heaven, posted the video above and speculated that it shows one of the greatest players ever throwing a Gaylord Perry Special:

In this age, a stellar reputation built over years can turn to spit in a few clicks of a mouse… In the few hours in between film clip posting and absolution by MLB, every save in Rivera’s illustrious career was put in question.

Sherman’s fear of a rogue blogger making unfounded and senseless claims is understandable, especially given the fact that Major League Baseball at least payed lip service to the idea they were “investigating” the charges.  But Mariano Rivera’s reputation is not in danger.

Predictably, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi denied any chance that Rivera threw a spitter.  But so did Rivera’s former manager, Joe Torre – as well as fellow Dodgers coaches Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa, who coached Rivera in New York.  Even the opposing manager, Mike Scioscia, said he was surprised the idea had even been brought up.

Rivera has people standing up for him now because of his entire career – not for the success he’s enjoyed, but because of how he enjoyed it.  A recent Sports Illustrated article summed it up nicely.  David Ortiz and Jonathan Papelbon – from the Red Sox – gushed about their respect for his personality:

“I have respect for Mariano like I have for my father,” says Boston designated hitter David Ortiz. “Why? He’s just different. If you talk to him at an All-Star Game, it’s like talking to somebody who just got called up. To him, everybody else is good. I don’t get it. To him everybody else is the best. It’s unbelievable. And he is the greatest.”

Sure, coming from a steroid cheat that may seem tainted, but Ortiz isn’t the only one singing Rivera’s praises – or the only one whose respect Rivera has won.

Writer Tom Verducci reminded readers that Rivera taught Roy Halladay – a pitcher for a rival team – how to throw his signature pitch during the 2003 All Star Game.  While over the past 30 years, great closers like Dennis Eckersley and Francisco Rodriquez have celebrated strikeouts the way NFL players celebrate touchdowns, Rivera shows respect to every hitter he dominates.

It’s an important lesson in image management: for all the power of online communications, there is no substitute for genuine substance.  So when a blogger posts an accusation – with flimsy evidence – accusing Rivera of cheating, you can bet there’s a reputation at stake.

And it sure ain’t Mariano Rivera’s.

Borderline?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

The rumor broke late yesterday and hit the sports airwaves this morning: Mike Mussina is retiring. Mike and Mike called him a “borderline hall-of-famer” on ESPN Radio this morning, and Joel Sherman said the same in the New York Post.

I’d like to hear one compelling reason why Mussina does not belong in the Hall of Fame. The numbers say he belongs.

His 270 wins over 18 seasons is an average of 15 per year – and a scan of Mussina’s year-by-year stats show he was remarkably consistent. He won 16 games in a strike-shortened 1994 and 19 in a strike-shortened 1995. He pitched in a hitter’s park during a hitter’s era.

And he has the historic street cred. His stats compare very favorably to Juan Marichal, who had 27 fewer wins and 500 fewer strikeouts in two fewer seasons. Marichal’s career ERA was 2.89 while the league had a 3.55 ERA over the span of his career; Mussina posted 3.68 while the league put up 4.51. (If you do the math, the ratios are almost identical.) He has more wins than Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, and Mordecai “What happened to your hand” Brown, all Hall of Famers.

Mussina wasn’t a loudmouth who talked above his talent. He’s not a moody superstar. But he was, quietly, one of the most consistently good pitchers of the past thirty years. Hopefully he’ll get his spot in Cooperstown.

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The Last Game

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Today, I’m travelling to New York to see a baseball game – the last game at Yankee Stadium.

As you might expect, security will be on the lookout for people trying to carry out a piece of history, so I can’t bring you back a fun souvenir – like a toilet seat. But my cell phone is all charged up so I can make Twitter updates throughout the day. Please feel free to follow along, at least for as long as my cell battery holds out.

"Ground ball to short… Velarde… HE DID IT!!!"

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Today marks the 15th anniversary of Jim Abbott’s no-hitter for the New York Yankees over the Cleveland Indians. (The Indians lineup included Manny Ramirez hitting sixth and Jim Thome hitting eighth.)

Abbott was a left-handed pitcher by necessity, since he was born without a right hand. And while he wasn’t a great major league pitcher, he had a few bright spots in the early 1990s which warranted a cameo on Boy Meets World.

As the New York Times reports, Abbott is now supporting the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.