Aside from the fumble-replay controversy at the end of the Super Bowl, the big news in sports this week seems to be yesterday’s release (finally!) of former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre’s book, “The Yankee Years.” The book chronicles those perfect falls in the Bronx when the Bombers’ appeared (outwardly) to effortlessly win their 23rd through 26th World Series titles in five seasons at the end of the 20th century. I think baseball fans of all shapes and sizes can agree that these — now seemingly prelapsarian — years marked a peak in America’s Pastime. More important for this column, Luis Gonzalez’s bloop single to end the 2001 World Series cut through the heart of the Yankee infield and the Yankee soul, and began a seven-season funk in which the Yankees have fallen further from those golden years. I would like to note, however, this is only the third-longest stretch since 1923 during which the Yankees have failed to win a World Series. The longest? From 1978 to 1996, almost three times as long as the current drought.
This mini-history discussion, when thought of in terms of Torre’s book, brought to mind a question a dear friend of mine (who unfortunately attends Notre Dame) asked a few weeks ago: What is the future of baseball? The short answer is we can’t really tell — because of the immense depth of such a question — but I would like to comment on several aspects of the game that seem pertinent for the upcoming season.
The publication of Torre’s book, which he co-authored with Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci, has created a buzz around “non-disparagement clauses” in manager contracts. These clauses are similar to “confidentiality” and “nondisclosure” agreements that corporations, and celebrities, have with employees situated at the crossroads of decision-making — and the dirty details of their personal lives. The Mets may or may not have put a similar clause in manager Willie Randolph’s contract, but, more importantly, precedents abound outside the sport. The contract discussion highlights the economic nature of professional baseball teams and the fact that fans can expect their teams to be run more like the modern American ‘business’ corporation, and less like your Little League team. (Sorry, Albert Pujols. Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak, and therefore, the Cardinals organization, just doesn’t want Manny Ramirez, as much as we would all love to watch you two break all kinds of offensive records hitting back-to-back.)
While some people may call ‘Censorship!’, the fact remains that as long as the parties to said contract are reasonably seen as equals, Americans can contract away almost anything. As a section of the sports industry that earned more than $6 billion in revenue in 2007, I would not expect any major structural changes in the near future.
That being said, one fundamental difference between baseball corporations and Wal-Mart is brought up in the MasterCard spot in which Peyton Manning cheers on ‘ordinary’ people doing ‘ordinary things’: stocking groceries, serving coffee, changing oil. In the terms of a consequence-based business model, Peyton Manning and that grocery clerk are non-managerial employees trading physical labor for financial compensation. The difference, as the commercial points out, between the two comes down to the fact that the better part of 300 million people know who Peyton Manning is, while the better part of, say, 100 people know the grocery clerk. As long as fans pack the stands (as ticket prices do not keep rising dramatically and teams do not keep expecting taxpayer-funded, billion-dollar advertising stadium-homages to the CitiWellsStanleyWaterhouse Families’ Trust Bank), the profit-based corporate model will dominate professional baseball.
Something that emerged last season that reflects the corporate desire for measurable results and minimizing agency error will provoke debate, particularly if MLB commissioner Bud Selig continues to oppose it: instant replay. Baseball’s use of instant replay — while behind the NFL, its archrival as America’s sport — should not prove problematic because it reflects the sport’s discrete nature — baseball’s rhythm of stop-and-start varies radically from lacrosse and soccer. In a country fixated on defining the self, instant replay also corresponds to its observers’ obsessions with statistics, and, despite the sports’ insistence on ‘tradition,’ I think instant replay will contribute to an overall aura of accountability to counter the effects of the steroids controversy.
Finally, as a member of the media, I cannot ignore how 24-hour television and Internet coverage will continue to shape the landscape of professional baseball. This facet of the sports industry certainly plays into the game plan of the corporate structure, by increasing the ease of ticket and merchandise sales, broadening advertising opportunities and solidifying fan bases flung across America and the globe. To return to Torre’s book, the Internet also disseminates information at a fairly democratic and sometimes alarming rate, a fact that may be most troubling for corporate executives who want to keep their clubhouse strategies and tactics — and blunders — from their competitors and critics.
What, then, can we say about the future of baseball? I think a quote — probably incorrectly — attributed to the American Bard Walt Whitman still says it best: “I see great things in baseball. It will ... repair those losses and be a blessing to us.”
Read More
Virginia annihilated 41-14 in a must-win contest versus North Carolina
By Peter Kriebel | 3 hours agoJust about everything that could have gone wrong for Virginia football went wrong.
No. 24 women’s soccer not to be denied in late win over Clemson
By Sam Chun | 8 hours agoThe Cavaliers topped Clemson 1-0 in front of a packed out Klöckner Stadium.
Men’s soccer, totally discombobulated, capitulates early to No. 5 Pittsburgh
By Michael Liebermann | 10 hours agoPittsburgh set a program record for the quickest cluster of three goals.
