I had a blog at my previous gig, and I liked to have a regular Friday feature. It’s Friday, you know?
One Friday feature I’d like to carry over is “Friday Five,” because it’s simple. It’s a list, usually tied into some weekend event. One that might even generate some discussion.
Since Sunday is Jackie Robinson Day, marking the 65th anniversary of Robinson’s breaking baseball’s color barrier, let’s rank the five players who made the greatest impact on the game’s history.
1. Babe Ruth. Consider that in 1918, Ruth tied Tillie Walker of the Philadelphia Athletics for the major-league high of 11 home runs. And that was with Ruth as a full-time starting pitcher, playing outfield on his off days. The Babe lifted his homer total to 29 in 1919, as he transitioned away from pitching, and then 54 in 1920 with the Yankees.
Home runs. Celebrity. Money. Marketing. The whole notion of a sports superstar, really.
When you look at the game today – everything about it, on and off the field – no one deserves more credit (or blame) than The Babe.
2. Jackie Robinson. We’ll never know how history would have played out if Robinson, the chosen man for Branch Rickey’s great experiment, hadn’t thrived. Surely other African-American players eventually would have received opportunities. There’s no disputing, though, that Robinson’s success expedited the integration of African-Americans into Major League Baseball. Particularly in the National League.
The MLB folks now like to salute themselves for being ahead of society at large when it came to eradicating institutional racism, and sure, they earned it. But they might not have this on their resume if not for Rickey’s vision and Robinson’s resilience.
3. Roberto Clemente. After Robinson paved the way for players of color, it was Clemente who served as a trailblazer for Latino players. As you can read on Wikipedia, Clemente , a Puerto Rico native, was the first Latino player to win a World Series as a starting player (1960), the first to win a Most Valuable Player award (1966) and the first to win a World Series MVP honor (1971).
Furthermore, Clemente’s commitment to helping others set the bar for the player community, which is why the Roberto Clemente Award is one of the game’s most prestigious honors. That commitment also led , sadly, to Clemente’s early death.
4. (tie) Curt Flood, Catfish Hunter, Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith. This one gets shared by the four players who did the most to make free agency a reality. Flood, refusing to report to the Phillies after being traded there by the Cardinals for the 1970 season, sued baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn. The lawsuit failed, but it got players’ attention in their desire to have real free agency.
Hunter attained free agency in December 1974 because A’s owner Charlie Finley violated a clause in the contract, and when George Steinbrenner agreed to pay Hunter $3.35 million over five years to join the Yankees, it showed the players just how lucrative the open market could be.
McNally and Messersmith worked together with union chief Marvin Miller (talk about impactful) to attain free agency after 1975. When some appeals by the owners failed, the teams formally signed off on the notion of free agency for players with six years’ service time, following the 1976 season.
5. Jose Canseco. Yeah, that’s right. Where would baseball’s drug-testing program be without the contributions of Canseco? Nowhere close to where it is now.
It was Canseco’s 2005 book, “Juiced,” that caught the attention of Congress. And it was Congress that pushed MLB and the Players Association to make dramatic changes in their drug-testing agreement.
Bud Selig can take as much credit as he desires for producing the most comprehensive drug-testing program in professional sports. It’s too bad he never thanks Canseco for his role.
Have a great day.