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I love baseball. But if the Cardinals are out of it I no longer care who wins.
I’ve always been first and foremost a Cardinals fan, then generally speaking the National League. Then somebody came along and created four divisions, then six, and then interleague play. Finally they created something called “wild cards” so it isn’t necessary to win anything at all to get into the postseason.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who love this setup, especially if you happen to own one of these franchises, and I still watch as often as I can via MLB-TV because it’s a terrific game. But if it ain’t the Cards I don’t give a fig who wins.
Sign me Curmudgeon
Most likely a lot of us who grew up before the big money era feel that the big time sports was better in the past. I used to be a big college football fan, having attended the University of Wyoming and U of Colorado. My dad grew up in Nebraska and football Saturday’s were a big deal in our house.
The Big Eight conference was special. But now with the money involved, conferences have become a joke. It is really one big massive league where teams will shoot for the tournament. Back in the day I remember my dad talking about the bowl games, and sometimes it was like (as an example), “If Wisconsin can beat USC in the Rose Bowl, and Texas can beat Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl, Nebraska might end up number one if they beat Auburn in the Orange Bowl.”
I don’t know – that stuff was really fun. So like many, I am torn as I still love the games and sports, but don’t like what the big money has done. On the one hand, instead of listening to Cardinal games on a crackling, and sometimes fading in and out KMOX broadcast out here in the mountain west, I enjoy crystal clear color television broadcasts, almost like being at the park. And as jnevel said, it has given the athletes the financial freedom to focus on being 100% dedicated to their game, and work at it year ’round. Reading Jordan Walker’s off-season routine was impressive. It used to be guys had to work off-season jobs to make ends meet. There are plusses and minuses about the financial changes.
One last comment on the changes – years ago I got Bill Werber’s book “Circling the Bases”. Werber played in the ’30s and ’40s and wrote the book about his career in baseball. He talked about retiring, which was in the mid ’40s, and going into the insurance business. He said, “I made a lot more money my first year selling insurance than I ever did in baseball.” Times have certainly changed.
Bike Mike your mention of Wyoming and baseball players with second jobs got me thinking about the early 1970s when I was working in Cheyenne. I was up in Dubois one day when I ran into Woodie Held (remember him?) a retired infielder with half a dozen teams in the 50s and 60s. We ended up spending an afternoon sitting around talking baseball. Turns out he went from playing ball to running a snowmobile business in a tiny northwestern Wyoming town among the elk and the grizzlies. I try to imagine any of today’s millionaires greasing snowmobiles and filling out rental forms.
Very cool, CIF. Yeah, Woodie Held had a ranch up around the Dubois area. My dad would go hunting around there.
I also spent a little time with Woodie Held as I had lunch with him one time. It was here in Denver, at a local SABR get-together where we brought all these former Denver Bears players in to speak and reminisce about their careers. The Bears were a Yankee farm team in the 1950s and we had maybe 7 or 8 of those guys in for a panel discussion and lunch.
I asked Ralph Terry, another guest, if they considered walking Willie McCovey in the bottom of the ninth of game 7 in the 1962 World Series, so he could go righty-righty against Orlando Cepeda, or if they considered bringing in a lefty to face McCovey. He said there was no consideration given to bringing anyone else in (quite a change from today) – it was his game to win or lose. They did not strongly consider walking McCovey either because at the time, Cepeda was thought of as the more dangerous hitter. So he faced McCovey and the rest is history.
Odds from betonline.ag:
Next MLB Commissioner
Theo Epstein 4/1
Dan Halem 5/1
Chris Marinak 5/1
Noah Garden 6/1
Morgan Sword 7/1
Tom Werner 8/1
Nick Khan 10/1
Dave Checketts 12/1
Barack Obama 15/1
Don Garber 15/1
Ryan Howard 20/1
Cal Ripken 22/1
Greg Sankey 25/1
Tony Clark 25/1
Sam Kennedy 28/1
Brett Yormark 30/1
Steve Garvey 33/1
Doug Glanville 33/1
Casey Wasserman 40/1
Bob Iger 40/1
Mark Attanasio 45/1
Paul Beeston 50/1
Bob Costas 66/1
Tony Petitti 66/1
Jayson Stark 75/1
Tim Kurkjian 100/1
Jeff Passan 100/1
Derek Jeter 100/1
Chris Russo 150/1One thing to keep in mind is what age will they be in five years. Obama is now in his 60s, just 2 or 3 years younger than Manfred, so I dismiss that possibility. I had thought of Mark Lamping but he’s about the same age as Manfred.
I think Chris Marinak has the inside track since he holds the job Manfred had before becoming Commissioner. He’s now in his mid 40s so that works.
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