RUN, DAMNIT! Legendary sports columnist Dick Young (inset) would find current major league players such as Alfonso Soriano (above) dogging it out of the box on home runs a foreign concept, Phil Mushnick writes. (
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A midsummer’s night baseball dream:
In 1915, as abused miners and other laborers began to organize, unionize and often radicalize, a perceived martyr to the cause was Swedish immigrant Joe Hill, executed by firing squad at 36.
In 1930, a poem was introduced, then set to music and popularized: “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night.”
Well, at the risk of committing luna-cide, I dreamed I saw Dick Young last night.
Young died in August 1987, although his death shouldn’t be measured in years, but in the baseball seasons — 27 of them — played out since his death. As a local newspaper columnist, Young, in one paragraph, would write his fearless version of the truth more succinctly than others could in a three-part series.
And what I had to tell him, last night, well …
“Big leaguers, they don’t run the bases, anymore, Dick.”
“What!?”
“It has become optional, a matter of personal choice. Reaching the next base, starting with first, even reasonably quickly is no longer mandatory. Playing winning baseball is no longer a professional obligation. In fact, uninterested base-running is now indulged, even excused.”
“When? Where?”
“Everywhere, regardless of circumstances, including pennant races. It’s not a pennant race, it’s more of a jog.”
“Gimme examples.”
“On Tuesday the Mets at the Marlins, tie game, bottom of the eighth, two out, none on. Miami’s Adeiny Hechavarria hit a sinking liner to center, Juan Lagares got a glove on it, but it fell and rolled behind him. Hechavarria, with nothing left to do the moment he hit the ball except run, jogged to first, just watching.”
“Watching what? He should’ve been running hard, if anything, watching the first base coach.”
“I know. Tie game, late, two out. He belonged on second, Dick, but had to stop at first.
“Then Ron Darling, a Mets TV analyst who usually gets it and should have screamed bloody scandal, seemed resigned to what he saw. ‘Hechavarria kinda stopped there instead of running full bore,’ was all he said. A tape showed Hechavarria kissing his fingers, then pointing to the sky in some grateful spiritual salute, as if he had done something good.
“Oh, and the next batter was out and the Mets won in 10.
“Dick, so help me, a few minutes later, bottom of the first in Yankees-Dodgers — that’s a long story in itself, but all New York teams now play lotsa games, even Sunday home games, while New Yorkers are asleep — Yasiel Puig hit one deep, flipped the bat away with a self-smitten flourish, then began to jog.
“But the ball hit off the top of the fence. Puig had to turn it on, sliding into second when he should have been rounding it. And Yankees TV announcer Michael Kay, who moments before declared that Puig ‘has an engine that does not stop,’ hollered Puig ‘hustles into second!’ He didn’t mention Puig chose not to run to first.
“Dick, the Yankees just reacquired Alfonso Soriano, who ticked off his first Yankees manager, Joe Torre, for indifferent base running. Sunday, with the Yankees down, 4-3, Soriano hit a high fly to deep right, stylishly flipped his bat, then jogged. The ball just cleared the right fielder’s mitt.
“By the time the ball landed, Soriano had not yet reached first! But not even over tape of such senseless, counter-productive base-running did either Yankees TV guy, Kay or David Cone, mention it!
“Dick, Dodgers star Matt Kemp has been on the DL because of this: With the bases loaded, two out, Kemp, who was on third, presumed a slow grounder toward first — he didn’t consider it would be a tough play — would have nothing to do with him. So he jogged toward the plate, thus the first baseman threw home for the force. Kemp, too late, turned it on, then, in an awkward semi-slide, hurt his ankle.
“Another: Although widely ignored by management and TV and radio announcers, Yankees ‘superstar’ Robinson Cano regularly demonstrates he’s too cool to run to first. Season after season, game after game, Cano’s premature base-surrendering has been revolting to watch.
“And, get this, Dick: He’s named for one of your favorites — Jackie Robinson!
“Yet, there’s this promising kid in the Twins’ system, Miguel Sano, who claims Cano has mentored him on how to be a big league. ‘He told me you have to play hard all the time.’ Sano told the Hartford Courant.
“Recently, Sano’s Eastern League team benched him. After hitting one deep (it was a homer) he flipped away his bat with exaggerated immodesty, jogged toward first, then, with more me-time to milk, took forever to circle the bases — the kind of excessive self-regard that triggers next-time brawls.”
“Jeez, what the hell has happened to my game, The Game? But at least this kid’s minor league bosses won’t stand for that garbage.”
“That’s the problem, Dick. These days the only place where that kind of baseball is allowed is in the majors.”
Waiting for Bud to blow Yankees’ Mo tribute
Why do I get the rotten feeling the Yankees’ game against the Giants on Sunday, Sept. 22, following a ceremony to honor Mariano Rivera, will be switched from 1 p.m. — as per the sale of tickets — to 8 p.m., for ESPN money?
After all, kindly Bud Selig allowed the last game played in old Yankee Stadium — Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008 — to be moved from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. for ESPN. Take it from Uncle Bud, folks: Brush your teeth, say good night and go to hell.
* If CBS and its cable networks are too expensive for Time Warner Cable to keep, how much will Time Warner rebate its millions of customers if it drops CBS and its cable siblings? Or will Time Warner add a Home Shoplifting Channel and call it even?
* More spitting into the hurricane: Yankees radio remains insufferable. Derek Jeter’s back-from-injury, first-pitch home run Sunday was hit into the lower deck in right-center. John Sterling told listeners it landed in the bleachers.
* If ESPN’s Mike Greenberg deplores the use of steroids, HGH and other banned performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball — and over the last 20-plus years — how can he claim to “admire and respect” Bud Selig?
* Now I get it. Judging from her latest publicity shots, Erin Andrews, first with ESPN, now with Fox, still wants to be regarded as a serious journalist — who dresses like a casino cocktail waitress.