DICK Young, who packed more into a paragraph than some sportswriters could pack into a three-part series, died 21 years ago this Monday. Geez, 21 years.
Funny, how those who loved him and those who despised him miss him about the same – a lot. He was impossible not to read.
And it’s hard to imagine Young would be particularly pleased with the condition of sports, from HGH to PSLs. But he would have liked Joe Maddon. Recently, after the Rays’ manager benched center fielder B.J. Upton for failure to run hard to first, Young might’ve demanded that we memorize Maddon’s explanation:
“You see how we’re playing right now. . . . You understand why we’re in the position we’re in right now, and about continuous effort.
“I can’t make it any more plain, simple, obvious, black and white, whatever. There are no gray areas. I can’t have Aki [Akinori Iwamura] run like he does and [Carlos] Pena and Cliff [Floyd], who’s got two bad knees, and then permit that. I can’t permit it.
“Furthermore, if we’re going to be a really good organization, it has to permeate the entire group. I’m not just talking about the major league team; I’m talking from rookie ball all the way up to Triple A. So, I hope that our minor leaguers read about all this tomorrow, because I want that message sent to them, too. That’s how we play.”
Tomorrow, for a second straight Saturday afternoon, the Rays were chosen for a Fox telecast (we’ll get Phillies-Cubs). In the club’s 10 years, Fox previously showed a game played by the then-Devil Rays a total of two times – and that was because of the other team, that was in spite of the Devil Rays.
Yeah, it’s hard to imagine that Young wouldn’t have been a big Maddon fan. And wonder what happened that all managers don’t manage that way.
At the same time, Young would be furious on behalf of those who bought tickets to next Sunday’s Phils-Mets – a kids’ promotional game, first 12,000 receive a Johan Santana bobble head – only to have MLB make it an 8:05 start for ESPN.
He would be equally infuriated that what now appears will be the last game ever played in this Yankee Stadium, a Sept. 21 Sunday afternoon game, was switched to 8:05 for ESPN money.
And he would demand to know why the rest of the media are so quiet on such issues, issues that should cause outrage.
Young likely would have written that Bud Selig should have no trouble declaring that 8:05 at night is a reasonable time to start Sunday games in the Eastern time zone. And that Selig should be similarly at ease declaring that 1 a.m. is a reasonable time for patrons to arrive home from nine-inning games that begin on Sundays – especially games sold as family come-ons.
This week, I tried to get someone from MLB to state, on the record, that MLB considers 8:05 on Sunday nights to be a reasonable time to start a game. But all I got was the run-around. You couldn’t run around Dick Young. You’d have to go through him. And you couldn’t do that, either.
Though there’s nothing instant about replay rules, people continue to refer to them as “instant replay.” Coming soon: The “instant replay walk-off homer” – 10 minutes after it was hit.
And what does happen when a team’s network is found to have withheld a replay that would have benefited the opponent? Or is word passed to all teams’ TV crews to become similarly selective? Or won’t that be necessary?
And the subjugation of evidence on behalf of a network’s team will happen, thus it becomes a matter of whether we find out. The flipside will show teams’ network personnel extra eager to find and display third-angle evidence that supports the team/network for which they work.
And what about the team’s TV crew that honestly was just too late finding evidence that would have benefited the opposing team? Should it be shown for public enlightenment, as it would have before “instant replay”? Or hidden from view rather than risk such high suspicion?
Will SNY and YES tape operators be forced to take oaths of allegiance to MLB? MLB can’t discipline non-employees for refusing to accept MLB’s unilateral appointment as umpires. Why put anyone other than an MLB umpire in a position to cost a team/network owner millions in postseason revenues, not to mention one’s own job?
The cure that MLB seeks will be worse than the disease. If left in the hands of MLB umpires, right or wrong, no nefarious outside activity, real or imagined, can enter the process of determining games. Let the umpires, and only the umpires, be the umpires.
I know; it’s about “getting it right.” But does “getting it right” mean sometimes? “See? It works!” Or does “getting it right” apply only to those times when the process isn’t rigged, when the motivation to get it right isn’t a matter of considering personal and professional consequences?
We shouldn’t even have to ask such questions. But we will.