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May 24, 2013
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Thursday, January 31, 201310th anniversary: New Comiskey becomes The CellTen years ago today, the White Sox got a new place to play. No wait, check that—they played in the same place, but they just started calling it something different. On Jan. 31, 2003, the White Sox sold the naming rights to their stadium to U.S. Cellular phone company. From this day forward, what had been known as Comiskey Park II would now be U.S. Cellular Field—The Cell for short. A team naming a field after a corporation was nothing new. The Cubs have long played in Wrigley Field, a stadium whose name has a not at all coincidental connection to the gum. But that’s different; the team was owned by the Wrigley family for decades and the stadium was named after the owner, not the company. Many stadiums were named after owners. I once heard that when the Busch family bought the Cardinals in the 1950s, they wanted to rename Sportsman’s Park after Budweiser, the main product their brewery made. However, baseball lords opposed it, thinking it too gauche. So instead the stadium was renamed Busch after the owner—and then a year or two later they came out with Busch beer for the first time. Times have changed. However, a new era began in the 1990s, when teams began selling the naming rights to long-existing places—and this time it was solely to raise more revenue for the clubs. In 1996, three National League teams changed their stadium names to gain corporate money. Thus Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium became Cinergy Field, San Francisco's horrible Candlestick Park became the horribly named 3Com Park, and Florida’s Joe Robbie Stadium became Pro Player Stadium. In many ways, this was an outgrowth of the new generation of stadiums. With places like Camden Yards pumping in tremendous tons of cash, those without new stadiums began looking for ways to make more money with their older stadiums. Of course, it didn’t have to be one or the other. You could have a new stadium and sell naming rights, too. In 1998, Arizona did just that with Bank One Ballpark. Two years later Houston did likewise with Enron Field. By the time the Sox changed the name of Comiskey to The Cell, naming rights were an established fact in major league baseball. In some ways the Sox have been fortunate. Unlike some teams, they’ve managed to keep the same corporate sponsor, and it’s one that hasn’t embarrassed the team. Houston ought to be jealous. First, its stadium is named after the most scandalous corporation of the 21st century (Enron) and the replacement sponsor has a name that just doesn’t sound right for a major league park: Minute Maid. Other places keep bouncing back from nickname to nickname. The new Giants stadium is already on its third sponsor: Pacific Bell, SBC, and now AT&T. (And that’s on top of 3Com naming their old stadium.) The Marlins' original stadium had five or six names in under 20 years: Joe Robbie, Pro Player, Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium (yes, they changed the stadium name to singular for some reason), Land Shark and Sun Life. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know the current incarnation of every stadium name. When it changes this much, it’s hardly worth the corporate dough, because when names are that transitory it’s too easy to forget them. But the South Side of Chicago has kept the U.S. Cellular name—and kept it for exactly 10 years now. Aside from that, many other baseball events today have their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something occurring X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim. Click for more... Wednesday, January 30, 201370th birthday: Davey JohnsonToday, one of baseball’s best managers has a birthday—Davey Johnson of the Nationals. In fact, he’s not only one of the best—he’s also the oldest. Today Davey Johnson turns 70. That seems surprising to me; the image in mind of Johnson is quite a bit younger. I always think of him as Mets manager in the 1986 World Series. But that was over a quarter-century ago. Sure he was middle-aged then, but that makes him older now. Johnson might seem younger because he was out of the public eye for so long. He managed four franchises from the mid-1980s until 2000, when he was in his 40s and 50s. He was 57 when the Dodgers sacked him and while that isn’t very young it also isn’t terribly old for a manager. Until the Nationals came calling, Johnson hadn’t managed since then. In fact, Johnson is barely a decade younger than his former manager Earl Weaver. That boggles the mind. Weaver’s Hall of Fame dugout career ended around the same time that Johnson’s lengthy career as skipper began. They seem like creatures from a different age. But Weaver just passed away at age 82, only a dozen years older than Johnson. Though Johnson played for him in Baltimore, Weaver was a young manager—just 38 when he began—and Johnson was a veteran player. Jim Leyland has always looked old, even when he was in his 40s, but he’s actually a tick younger than Johnson. Tony LaRussa managed forever, but he’s a few years junior to Johnson. Johnson is a little younger than Bobby Cox, and Joe Torre, but then again those guys retired a few years ago. Johnson is actually older than Cox was when he filled out his final lineup card. On Opening Day 2013, Johnson will be almost the exact same age Torre was in his final game—actually, a tad older. A half-century ago the Yankees fired Casey Stengel after the 1960 World Series, saying he’d become too old to do the job. You know how old the popular image of Stengel is? Stengel was 70 years and three months old when the Yankees fired him—the same age Johnson is now. It can be exhausting managing a team. It’s an every-day job, with lots of pressure, which requires considerable focus for each three-hour game, and forces tons of travel. It can wear on someone, and many in their 70s wouldn’t have the wherewithal to deal with it. Some men have managed in their 70s. Stengel did with the Mets, but that was a complete disaster. Felipe Alou managed the Giants at age 70 but he retired at age 71. Connie Mack famously lasted until he was 87. That’s a weird case, though. He also owned the team and by the end was more caretaker than manager. Still, at age 70 Mack was still the skipper and the A’s had a nice winning season. (It proved to be their last for a while as Mack had to sell off talent in the hostile economic environment of the Great Depression.) The outstanding success story for a geriatric manager is Jack McKeon. He didn’t manage at age 70, but shortly after then became Marlins manager, and at age 72 won a world title. He managed a little longer before retiring—and then made the very unexpected return to the dugout in 2011 on an interim basis at age 80. Still, that’s it. Those are all the people who managed in the majors in their 70s. Johnson could do a good job this year, but you shouldn’t expect him to last too much longer. Regardless, he’s still on the job and still doing well—and he’s still doing it 70 years after his birth. Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something occurring X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better items in bold if you’d prefer to skim. Click for more... Tuesday, January 29, 2013Vote for your favorite articles of the yearIn preparation for its analytic conference to be held in early March, SABR is asking you to vote for your favorite articles of 2012. There are five nominated articles in three different categories: Historical Analysis/Commentary, Contemporary Baseball Commentary and Contemporary Baseball Analysis. Nominees include articles from the best baseball sites on the Internet, including Baseball Prospectus, Fangraphs, Beyond the Boxscore and, ahem, the Hardball Times. Please help SABR select the appropriate winners by going to this page, reading the articles and selecting your favorites. Thanks for voting! A tribute to Chuck HintonChuck Hinton was a lost opportunity for me. Several years ago, he visited Cooperstown to play in a celebrity golf tournament at the Leatherstocking Golf Course. I saw him near the first hole, wearing his trademark black hat that made him look like something out of The Big Valley, but I was there to secure an interview with Mudcat Grant. When Mudcat came by, I asked him some questions. As usual, Mudcat was great to talk to, but by the time our chat had ended, Chuck Hinton was nowhere to be found. My chance to talk some baseball with him had been lost. Hinton, who died on Sunday at the age of 78, had a fascinating career, first as a ballplayer, then as a college coach, and then as one of the movers and shakers in the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association. His professional career began with the Orioles organization, but it was almost immediately interrupted by two years of military service. He started out as a fast catcher, an early version of Craig Biggio, but Baltimore thought his talents lay elsewhere. Wanting to better use his standout speed, the Orioles moved him to the outfield. Hinton never actually made it to Charm City. That’s because major league expansion provided the twist that altered his career permanently. Legendary writer Shirley Povich, authoring a piece in the Washington Post, told an amusing story about Hinton’s transition from Baltimore to Washington. It involved Hinton playing in the Arizona Winter League in 1960.  Hinton agreed to carry out the charade. During a pregame workout, Hinton caught fungoes in the outfield. On a deep fly ball, Hinton ran back to the fence and intentionally bumped into it. Grabbing his shoulder, he fell to the ground, shrieking in pain. When a teammate attempted to help him off the field, Hinton yelled, “Don’t touch it, it hurts!” Hinton’s acting fooled a reporter for The Sporting News. Reports of the alleged injury made a subsequent edition of the “Bible of Baseball.” Well, apparently members of the Senators’ front office didn’t read The Sporting News. Washington selected Hinton in the expansion draft, paying the Orioles $75,000 as compensation. The move to Washington turned out to be the biggest break of Hinton’s career. The Senators, who needed plenty of help in the talent department, put him at Triple-A to start the 1961 season but brought him up in May, allowing him to make his big league debut at the age of 27, and made him one of their outfield regulars. After struggling as a rookie outfielder, Hinton developed into a top-flight player in 1962. He hit 17 home runs, stole 28 bases, ran up an OPS of .834. He batted .310, becoming the first member of the expansion Senators to achieve a .300-plus average. Hinton also showed tremendous versatility, playing five positions. In addition to manning all three outfield spots with excellent range, he filled in at second base and shortstop, making himself extremely valuable as a jack-of-all-trades. Hinton remained a productive player for Washington over the next two seasons, and qualified for the All-Star team in 1964, but he never quite matched his 1962 level. Furthermore, he ran afoul of manager Gil Hodges late in 1964, when he caught a fly ball, forgot the number of outs, and allowed a runner to score easily without a throw. Hodges never forgot the incident, apparently because he considered it a sign that Hinton was not living up to his enormous potential. That winter, the Senators traded Hinton to the Indians for first baseman Bob Chance and veteran outfielder/infielder Woodie Held. Hinton continued to flash power and speed for the Tribe, but his overall numbers declined from his first to his third season in Cleveland. After the 1967 season, the Indians dealt Hinton to the Angels for a young Jose Cardenal. When the Angels acquired Hinton, he enthusiastically embraced the role planned for him by manager Bill Rigney. “I’m the ideal man for Rig. He likes to make the moves and, baby, I can move anywhere,” Hinton told The Sporting News. Although Hinton embraced the role of super-utility man, he flopped at the plate. He hit a career-low .195 and slugged a personal worst of .333. It was a struggle from start to finish in Anaheim. In spite of the troubles, Hinton’s intelligence, outgoing personality, and upbeat nature continued to make him popular with teammates. One of them was starting left fielder Rick Reichardt. “The Senators, in the aggregate, were the most intelligent team I played on,” says Reichardt. “Chuck was in that mode, too. Always a ready smile.” Hinton went to spring training with the Angels in 1969, but did not survive the cutdown to Opening Day. In early April, the Angels sent Hinton back to the Indians, this time for veteran outfielder Lou Johnson. Hinton finished out his career with three years as a utility man in Cleveland. The Indians even used him as a catcher, a position that Hinton had not played since his minor league days with the Orioles. By putting in time behind the plate, Hinton could now boast of having played every position except pitcher. His second tenure in Cleveland included a small dust-up with manager Alvin Dark, who was known for his old school ways. During the spring of 1971, Dark felt that Hinton had allowed his Afro to grow too large. “Get it cut, or get it braided,” Dark curtly told Hinton. So Hinton decided to have some fun and have his hair braided. But the braided hairdo lasted only a day. Having had a laugh with the offbeat look, he went to the barber the next day and had the extra locks chopped off. The 1971 season turned out to be the last of Hinton’s 11 as a player, but he wasn’t done with baseball. He turned to coaching almost immediately, becoming the head coach of Howard University. With his smarts and motivational skills, Hinton found a home in coaching. He remained at Howard for 28 seasons, winning more games than any baseball coach in school history. Yet, there was more work to do in baseball. In the early 1980s, Howard came in contact with members of an NFL alumni association. His experience with the NFL alumni convinced him that a similar organization was needed for retired baseball players. One of the first people Hinton contacted was his friend, the late Red Sox pitcher Walt Masterson. “I was in on the ground floor of the operation,” Masterson told me several years ago.” I was coaching at George Mason University when Chuck Hinton contacted me. He had talked to the Washington Redskins, who had already started a group for retired players. Chuck told me, ‘It’s a good idea to start an alumni association. Why don’t we start one?’ We had about 15 to 20 guys involved at the start. Half of them were in Baltimore and half were in Washington.” With people like Hinton, Masterson and former Senators pitcher Jim Hannan leading the way, the MLB Players Alumni Association has grown from a grass-roots organization into a national network of retired players that travels the country. Through old-timers games, instruction clinics and celebrity golf tournaments, the alumni association provides work for former major leaguers while raising money for charity. It’s a well-run organization, and few were more instrumental in developing it than Hinton. Hinton’s work with the alumni and his record at Howard were impressive. But let’s not forget that he was a pretty good player, too. He finished his career with more than 100 home runs and over 100 stolen bases. When you can reach the century mark in those two categories, you have made an impact. As a player, coach, and organizer, Chuck Hinton certainly did. 25th anniversary: Kirk Gibson signs with Dodgers25 years ago today, one of the biggest and best examples of an immediate gratification free agency signing occurred. On Jan. 29, 1988, the Dodgers signed star Tigers outfielder Kirk Gibson. Yeah, this turned out to be a good move. Behind Gibson, the Dodgers would win the 1988 world title—still the last one in franchise history. Gibson had become a free agent under unusual circumstances. By “unusual circumstances” I mean collusion. In the 1980s, owners conspired to keep salaries down by refusing to bid for free agents. Only if a team didn’t want their veteran player would other franchises make a play on him. Only under extreme circumstances did someone switch teams. Most notably, Andre Dawson was so desperate to leave Montreal’s turf field behind him to save what was left of his knees, that he offered the Cubs a blank check. Name their price, and he’d play for them in 1987. The problem for baseball was that collusion was rather blatant. When even established stars like Dawson couldn’t find any takers, it was clear that the free market wasn’t so free. The players’ union took legal action and repeatedly won. The collusion cases finally came to a head in the 1987-88. During that period, several star players were awarded status as free agents even though they were still technically in the midst of their signed contracts. Those contracts, however, were considered to be unfairly low salaries due to collusion. The players could agree to stay with their old teams, or they could move elsewhere. One of the players given this special free agency was Kirk Gibson. Off he went to Los Angeles. Gibson had a mighty fine year, winning the NL MVP. Going by the numbers, Gibson’s award is an odd one. Not only is he lacking in sabermetric-friendly numbers, but he also doesn’t have the big numbers in traditional counting stats that MVPs typically have. He hit .290 with 25 homers and 76 RBIs. All nice numbers but not what you’d expect from an MVP. Gibson won as much for his demeanor as his numbers. We can all have a nice debate on how much intangibles matter and what role leadership actually plays, but in this case the BBWAA voters clearly thought it mattered. After all, as much as sportswriters like to talk about those things, they don’t typically give a guy an MVP with those Triple Crown numbers. The story people loved to tell about Gibson in 1988 came from spring training. Early in the preseason, someone played a harmless joke on Gibson, putting shoe black in his cap. Typical locker room stuff. Gibson didn’t have the typical attitude, though. Infuriated, he stormed out and blasted the team for its lack of professionalism. Put up or shut up time—Gibson became the team’s leader after that. They’d finished in fourth place the year before with their second straight 73-89 record. With Gibson, the underachievers became overachievers and won the pennant. Well, that pennant had more to do with the bullpen than any shoe-blacked cap. But what can’t be denied was Gibson’s World Series performance. He only came to the plate once, but my golly was it ever a memorable once. He famously hit a pinch-hit homer off Dennis Eckersley allowing the Dodgers to win Game One. That keyed an unlikely October upset. Gibson had nothing to do with what happened on the field in the other three wins, but he was the star of the World Series anyway. Just like the regular season, Gibson got plenty of credit, more than you’d think if all you knew were the numbers. So plenty of Dodger fans were mighty happy Gibson came to their team in 1988—and they still are, 25 years later. Aside from that, many other baseball items today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim. Click for more... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||