The end of the season - a departure from politics for a change.

The fictitious Chico Escuela  said "Baseball has been berry berry good to me".  And it is sad that the season is almost at an end.  By the time you read this, the Wild Card playoff games will be over, as will be the first (and maybe second) round of playoffs. 

Given how long the baseball season is now, MLB has to make some hard long term decisions regarding the sport.  For example, if we're going to keep the 162 game season, future stadiums may all need domes in order to deal with November baseball. Of course, they could cut the season back to 154 games. But this reduces revenue, and I doubt this will happen. The owners could go back to a two division, two league format - but they are addicted to the money of having multiple levels of playoffs.  In short, the owners have to consider reducing short term profits for the long term survival of the national pastime. 

The current playoff structure insures that luck, more than skill, determines who wins the World Series.  Over a 162 game season, the best teams generally have the best records. But when short playoff rounds are introduced with teams of nearly equal skill level, luck plays a greater factor in who advances to the World Series.  Having more teams in the playoffs keeps more people interested in the sport late in the season. But does it make sense, when baseball needs more fans who love the sport throughout the full season - especially with teams who have usually posted mediocre records, like the Chicago Cubs.

I love the history of baseball as a sport.  Yet, I am not a fan of the game, as I don't want to get my heart broken when a team I support loses.  (With 30 teams in Major League Baseball, there has to be 29 losers. There is no way around that hard fact.)  What would be even worse, would be for me to love a team, and then have it move away - as the Giants, Dodgers, Braves, and others have done.  MLB has no loyalty to any city or community. The only thing it cares about is money.

When I was a child, Baseball was THE national pastime.  Now, the NFL has a more enthusiastic fan base for American Football than MLB has for Baseball. Even Soccer is gaining a foothold now.  Baseball may be a dying sport.  Why might you ask?  Soccer is the game most immigrants are familiar with.  They stay loyal to the sports they may have played in childhood. Now look at football.  This game is vicarious violence with rules.  It oozes testosterone.  In Texas,  there is a $50 Million Football stadium being built.  Males love this kind of competition.  How does Baseball stack up against these two sports?  Not that well.  I don't see Little League games attract the youth of the nation as they once did. Baseball is no longer accessible to our youth, and the sport is now associated with late middle aged males with money.  Football and Soccer have better outreach programs to America's children.

Hopefully, this will change, and we'll see a Renaissance in Baseball. If this doesn't happen, it will be the people who own the major leagues to be to blame....

The boys of October

If I could change one (of many) things in history, this ball park would be standing and the one in Chavez Ravine would never have been built.  Alas, history never follows a script. And if it could, there would be too many ad-libs.

This season, at least, both New York baseball teams have been scheduled for post-season play - as happened many times in the past, when there were three major league teams in the five boroughs.  By the time this entry is made public, there is a high likelihood that one (or both) of them will be eliminated from eligibility to play in the World Series.

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For many generations, Baseball has been the one sport that has reflected the ethos of America - for better and worse.  It has reflected corruption in both players (Chicago Black Sox) and owners (Charlie Cominsky).  It has reflected the racial prejudices of this country with segregated baseball teams and leagues.  It has reflected unrestrained greed.  But yet, it has also reflected what is best in America - a nation with a cultural language which has been shared by almost all as they assimilate into the larger whole.

I grew up when New York City baseball was at a nadir.  The Dodgers and Giants had already departed for the West Coast, leaving the New York region with a single baseball franchise, the Yankees, which was being treated like a cash cow by its owners.  By the time CBS took over the franchise, the Yankees were heading for a last place finish - for the first time since before Babe Ruth joined the team. And CBS had no clue about what it could do with the team.  (Contrast this with Ted Turner, who made the Braves a centerpiece of his entertainment empire about 25 years later.)  The Mets were a joke - a group of has-beens and never-will-bes that couldn't win - even if the other team didn't show up.  

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The nature of the game of baseball is virtually unique among sports.  It doesn't follow a clock, save the interruptions mandated by modern day advertising. It is both an individual sport and a team sport - where a batter is opposed by the nine other players on the field. An individual may sacrifice his chance to be on-base in order to advance a runner to a better position - much like in real life, where someone might "fall on his sword" to protect someone else.  It is a game where both the individual and team is celebrated, and as such unusual among sports.  (Yes, we may think of Quarterbacks in American Football. But in many ways, they are simply hands-on field managers, and not much more than that in an overall view of the game.)

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Baseball idioms have infused themselves into almost every part of American life - even sex. When people differ in what "first base" and "second base" refers to, they do have an idea of how "far" one got (or how much was achieved) when in the act of "love making".  Many decades after the poem was written, people still understand why there is no joy in Mudville. And in my generation, many still knew of Baseball's Sad Lexicon - where bear cubs could make a giant hit into a double - long after the Giants departed the Polo Grounds, and long after Tinker, Evers and Chance have passed away.

Since the month of October will be Baseball's last hurrah before football season takes hold, I'd like to leave you with the immortal poem by Franklin Pierce Adams....

These are the saddest of possible words:

"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,

Tinker and Evers and Chance.

Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,

Making a Giant hit into a double –

Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:

"Tinker to Evers to Chance."