It was this book that cultivated my fascination with pre-season predictions, individual statistics and biographical details of the players. I can still remember the bio of Detroit Tigers catcher Lance Parrish which noted he had been a bodyguard for Tina Turner. I also learned about free agency and trades such as the Tigers trading speedster and former state prison inmate Ron LeFlore to the Montreal Expos for southpaw pitcher Dan Schatzeder. Growing in Thunder Bay, Ontario, I saw a lot of Expos games on TV and many of LeFlore's National League leading 97 stolen bases in 1980.
On the front cover of The Complete Handbook of Baseball was Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie "Pops" Stargell, the 1979 National League Co-MVP (along with St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez) fresh off leading the "We Are Family" Pirates to a World Series title against the Baltimore Orioles. On the back cover was Orioles ace Mike Flanagan finishing his wind up with a high leg kick. Flanagan's league leading 23 wins and five shutouts earned him the American League Cy Young Award in 1979.
In the intervening years, my Dad regaled me with stories of meeting Stan Musial and several other members of the St. Louis Cardinals at the Polo Grounds, taught me how to keep score of games and had me assist with his academic research. When looking at pitchers who had played in the 20th century, had thrown a minimum of 800 innings and were dead, Dad found a co-relation between life expectancy and a lower walks-to-innings pitched ratio and would present this paper at a number of academic conferences in Canada, the U.S. and even in Europe. (Alas I did not partake in these proceedings).
In adulthood, I moved from Canada to the U.S. settling in Boston within walking distance from Fenway Park and would be on hand to witness the Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years and then win two more titles. (I moved to New York City in September 2018 and could not bear to watch the Red Sox's World Series victory parade and, as it turned out, for good reason).
Baseball has given my life considerable joy, but I am struggling to find any in the upcoming, abbreviated 2020 MLB season. For me, the 2020 MLB season already has three strikes against it.
The first strike is COVID-19. Notwithstanding Dr. Anthony Fauci throwing out the first pitch in D.C. when the World Series champion Washington Nationals face the New York Yankees on Thursday night, I do believe there is a substantial risk for COVID-19 to spread. Unlike the NBA which is conducting its post-season in a bubble in Orlando and the NHL which has concentrated its playoffs in Toronto and Edmonton, MLB has an extensive travel schedule ahead of it. Although travel has been limited geographically (i.e. AL East vs NL East teams) there is much travel in and out of COVID-19 hot spots such as Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona and California comprising the home base of 11 out of MLB's 30 teams.
Then there is the question of where the Toronto Blue Jays call home this season. After the Government of Canada would not grant them exemption from self-quarantining when returning from the U.S., there is speculation the Jays might have to play home games at their spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida, their Triple-AAA affiliate in Buffalo or even share a big league park with the Pittsburgh Pirates only to have it nixed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Considering the number of cancellations of team workouts as a result in delays of COVID-19 testing one cannot help but wonder if these delays will result in the postponement or cancellation of regular season games. All of this is an invitation to chaos.
The second strike is a fundamental change in the way the game is played. The most egregious example of which concerns extra inning games. If a game goes into extra innings a runner will automatically be placed on second base. I hated it when a similar rule was implemented during the 2017 World Baseball Classic (in which extra innings would start with runners on first and second.) The rationale behind it is that MLB doesn't want to keep players on the field for too long. But if the game cannot be played under its normal rules then why play it at all?
Which brings me back to Mike Flanagan. During his early days with the Orioles, manager Earl Weaver didn't like how Flanagan was holding runners on base. One day while Flanagan was pitching a side session, Weaver suddenly came running out of the dugout and slid into second base. The short sized and short-tempered Weaver shouted, “I just stole second on you.” Flanagan, known for his dry wit, retorted, “How’d you ever get on base?”
Sadly, Flanagan took his own life in 2011. Yet I cannot help but think had Flanagan been still with us and saw how extra innings would work in 2020 that he would react as he reacted to Weaver stealing second when he hadn't earned his way on base.
The third strike is kneeling and politics. Upon learning that San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler had kneeled before the Star Spangled Banner along with several coaches and players including Mike Yastrzemski (grandson of Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame legend Carl Yastrzemski) prior to an exhibition game against the Oakland A's earlier this week, the first thing I wondered is if the Los Angeles Dodgers had similar plans as the Dodgers will host the Giants on Opening Night.
If they do then they risk losing both Vin Scully and Rick Monday. Although Scully retired from broadcasting Dodgers games in 2016 after 67 seasons, he remains synonymous with the team. In November 2017, after Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players began kneeling before the National Anthem, Scully publicly vowed never to watch another NFL game. I would hate to see the Dodgers move Scully to cut all ties with the team and with baseball.
Rick Monday is a current Dodgers broadcaster and former player. But he won the admiration of Dodgers fans when he was member of the Chicago Cubs. During an April 1976 game, Monday liberated the American flag from being burned during a game at Dodger Stadium. I cannot help but think that kneeling before the flag might be a bridge too far for Monday.
And for what? I honestly don't see what kneeling before the anthem accomplishes other than drawing attention to one's own supposed virtue while alienating your dwindling audience. This isn't to say the Giants, Dodgers and any other MLB team and its players cannot support Black Lives Matter if they wish. Yet I think it is something that is better done off the field as it distracts from the reason why we watch what's going on the field in the first place.
The actions of Kapler and the Giants prompted a #BoycottMLB hashtag on Twitter. I have to admit getting a kick out of a tweet from @Blue_Texas2020:
So baseball takes a knee and the Magas want to #BoycottMLB What do these people have left to watch, bowling?
I had to laugh. Because I was watching the PBA on FS1 for the past several days and watch it every chance I get. I watch it because I have developed a big passion for bowling over the past year. Since I am presently unable to play due to COVID-19 restrictions the next best thing to watch the pros like Anthony Simonsen, E.J. Tackett, Norm Duke, Sean Rash and Clara Guerrero among many others.
I also enjoy the PBA because it is a politics free zone. We are all too aware of the fact there is sickness, poverty, injustice and cruelty in this country and do not need to be reminded of it every minute of the day however egregious President Trump's behavior. There must be room for quiet pleasures. Aside from brief acknowledgements of masks, social distancing and raising money for COVID-19 victims, the PBA telecasts are all about bowling. As it stands now most MLB announcers don't pay attention to the game and kneeling before the Star-Spangled Banner won't help matters. At this point, if it's a choice between watching baseball and bowling, I'll pick bowling.
Despite all my pessimism, I don't think I'll join the MAGATs in their #BoycottMLB campaign. It'll be nice to see Daniel Bard pitch in the big leagues for the first time since 2013 having made the Colorado Rockies roster after years of struggling to throw strikes. I also hold out faint hope that in a 60-game schedule that someone could have a shot at surpassing Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak set in 1941. But I'm still not looking forward to it. As a sign of my lack of enthusiasm I shall not make any pre-season predictions as is my custom.
Chances are I will probably have a lot more satisfaction of finding a picture of Crosley Field or the Baker Bowl on Facebook or Twitter, guessing the date the game was played, finding the box score on Baseball-Reference.com and writing up a game summary ending with the Casey Stengel quote, "You can look it up." To paraphrase the great songwriter Lee Hazlewood, "If there's no tomorrow for baseball then I'll live yesterdays."
Despite all my pessimism, I don't think I'll join the MAGATs in their #BoycottMLB campaign. It'll be nice to see Daniel Bard pitch in the big leagues for the first time since 2013 having made the Colorado Rockies roster after years of struggling to throw strikes. I also hold out faint hope that in a 60-game schedule that someone could have a shot at surpassing Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak set in 1941. But I'm still not looking forward to it. As a sign of my lack of enthusiasm I shall not make any pre-season predictions as is my custom.
Chances are I will probably have a lot more satisfaction of finding a picture of Crosley Field or the Baker Bowl on Facebook or Twitter, guessing the date the game was played, finding the box score on Baseball-Reference.com and writing up a game summary ending with the Casey Stengel quote, "You can look it up." To paraphrase the great songwriter Lee Hazlewood, "If there's no tomorrow for baseball then I'll live yesterdays."
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