Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Friday, January 23, 2009

The Old Home


My wife and I used to own a small but tidy little house in Columbus' Clintonville neighborhood. It was a great place. It was built in the 20s yet somehow no one over the ensuing decades pained over the wonderful woodwork, replaced the glass doorknobs, or ruined the floors with bad carpet or linoleum. Sure, the place needed some electrical work and I was never 100% confident that my basement would stay dry in bad weather, but I truly loved that old house.

Eventually, however, we had children and the place was just too small to suit the needs of our growing family. We put the old homestead on the market and it sold within five days, as we knew it would. The new owners -- a young, childless couple like we were when we bought the place -- seemed nice, and we actually had them over a couple of times to give them a longer look around before closing.

Like many soon-to-be-former homeowners, I had pangs of regret as I showed these new people my home. Though I would have no say in the matter after the money exchanged hands, I was concerned that they'd screw the place up. That they wouldn't take care of it like my wife and I did. That they would approach the necessary infrastructure renovations with a heavy hand and just ruin the charm of the place. In other words, I was a lot like the Tribune Company:

When Tribune Co. bought the last-place Cubs and Wrigley Field for $21.1 million in 1981, the park was antiquated and in a run-down neighborhood where fans sometimes were allowed to enter the bleachers free in the late innings.

It was a simpler time, when the Cubs were still a local phenomenon and Wrigley Field was no more than a half-empty ballpark with ivy-covered walls and a hand-operated scoreboard.

But change is on the horizon. The Ricketts family soon may be running a division-winning team with a $140 million payroll in an East Lakeview neighborhood that has gentrified into " Wrigleyville," one of the city's most desirable locales.

The ballpark on the other hand still needs substantial work.

If the Rickettses' bid that was selected over two others is ultimately successful, how will the new owner treat the 95-year-old park? Can they maintain it as an iconic structure while capitalizing on it as an outdoor cash machine?

Landmark ordinances will prohibit too many changes to Wrigley, but fans should expect some kind of face lift in the coming years.

Unlike my old place on Brevoort Ave., Wrigley Field is going to make the Cubs a lot of money going forward. Thankfully, there's a precedent in the form of what has happened to Fenway in the past few years, and the Ricketts family would do well to emulate what Henry and Werner did after taking over the Red Sox.

Some people will complain as the process goes forward. Renovations are disruptive and expensive, after all. But unless the Ricketts family truly bungles things, most folks will be pretty darn happy with the end result. After all, what's the alternative? Moving to a shiny new place in the suburbs? Listen folks, I've done that. And while it's awfully convenient and pleasant enough, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make the same decision if I had it to do over again.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:00am (7) Comments

Moving Day


The Yankees are moving their stuff today:

Friday is moving day in the Bronx and, no, the crates don't have pinstripes.

Eighty-six years after moving in, the New York Yankees are moving out.

The team's front office will move across the street Friday to the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium, which is nearing completion and scheduled to open in April.

Belongings will be moved in orange plastic crates — reusable, so as to be environmentally friendly, team spokesman Jason Latimer said Thursday.

I was part of an office move last summer. About a week before the move, they bring these big garbage bins and place them in the hallways to encourage you to really clean out your desk and file cabinets so as to make the move easier and to give you a fresh start in the new space. I got rid of all kinds of old and obsolete junk I wasn't using anymore, and I have to say, it was a truly liberating experience.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you're into dumpster diving you could do worse than hang around Yankee Stadium this weekend. You could get some interesting old files. Or some Yankee knickknacks. Or a Hideki Matsui or a Johnny Damon.

I mean, they're just going to be shredded or dumped anyway, so why shouldn't you have them?
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:25am (8) Comments

Never fear, George Mitchell is here!


Several people notified me of the following development yesterday:

President Obama moved swiftly to engage on the Middle East on Wednesday, calling Israeli and Arab leaders on his first morning in office and preparing to appoint a seasoned peace negotiator and former senator, George J. Mitchell, as his special emissary to the region . . .

. . . Mr. Mitchell’s appointment, which could be announced as soon as Thursday, underscores the central role that the Middle East has assumed in the Obama administration.

A former Senate majority leader who helped broker a peace deal in Northern Ireland, Mr. Mitchell also led a commission searching for ways to stop violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

He is viewed as a diplomatic heavyweight who may bring more balance to Washington’s relationships in the region.

“He’s neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel and an adviser to the Clinton administration. “He’s, in a sense, neutral.”

Yes, Mr. Mitchell served with distinction in the Senate and did wonderful work in Northern Ireland. Those of us who ply our trade in the world of baseball, however, have more recent data points with respect to the good Senator's work. If his work for Major League Baseball is any indication of how he'll handle Mideast diplomacy, be on the lookout for the following developments in his new position:

  • Despite pronouncements of his neutrality, soon after he begins work, it will be reported that he is a board member of Hamas;


  • Ignoring decades if not centuries of political and social conflict in the region, Mitchell will approach his work with the assumption that all of the trouble began with Arafat, because a lot of people hated him to begin with;


  • Rather than work on the root causes of strife in the region, Mitchell will simply publish a list of 80 or 90 guys he is told have fired rockets or built illegal settlements and hope that speaks for itself;


  • Mitchell will defend his work by saying that he had little buy-in from either the Israelis or the Palestinians. He will not mention, however, that before meeting with them, he explained to them that if their participation in talks was later deemed unsatisfactory, their countries would be bombed into oblivion by the United States;


  • Finally, after 18 months of work, Mitchell will return to the United States, declare that a lasting peace has been achieved in the Middle East, and be hailed as a hero. While people in the Middle East will continue to die and institutions will continue to grow unstable, the world will no longer blame the United States for its role in the region. Beyond a couple of show trials, no one will expect the United States to concern itself with the matter any longer.


    • I don't know about you, but I feel safer already.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 8:00am (12) Comments

    New York BBWAA Dinner


    If you're like me, you can't bring yourself to pay 50 cents for a copy of the rags they write for, so I'm having trouble getting my mind around paying $225 to have dinner with them:

    Tickets remain on sale for this Sunday's New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America dinner at the Hilton at 6 p.m. The cost is $225, and may be obtained by calling 212-586-7000.

    To be fair, there are going to be a bunch of ballplayers too, as Pujols, Pedroia, Lee, Lincecum, Soto, and Longoria receive their postseason award hardware. But that's not all! Check out these local awards the New York Chapter gives out:

    Sid Mercer-Dick Young Player of the Year: Brad Lidge
    Ben Epstein-Dan Castellano Good Guy: Johnny Damon
    William J. Slocum-Jack Lang Long and Meritorious Service: Greg Maddux
    Casey Stengel You Can Look It Up: Mike Mussina
    Joe DiMaggio Toast of the Town: Johan Santana
    Milton Richman You Gotta Have Heart: Bob Klapisch
    Willie, Mickey and the Duke: Bernie Williams and Ed Kranepool
    Babe Ruth World Series MVP: Cole Hamels
    Joan Payson Community Service: David Wright

    Great. Now here comes the firestorm of articles about how the Casey Stengel You Can Look it Up Award never goes to the guy who is really the most lookiest up player.

    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 7:11am (5) Comments

    Waivers


    Everything you ever wanted to know about waivers but were afraid to ask.

    Well, not everything, but an awful lot for a mainstream news article.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 6:30am (1) Comments

    Today at THT


    Things to to read as you ponder the disconnect between the nice things people say about you after you die and the occasionally nasty person you were while you were alive:

  • In This Annotated Week in Baseball History, Richard Barbieri uses Alan Benes' birthday as an excuse to look at "the other brother" of great pitching families. What, no Tom and Pat Underwood?!


  • Greg Rybarczyk recently got to take his Hit Tracker to the Third Annual International High School Power Showcase Home Run Derby, which is pretty much what it sounds like. Best part: no Chris Berman and his "back back backs."


    • As for me, I don't have any regrets. They can talk about me plenty when I'm gone.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:30am (0) Comments