I was going to take Rossi's suggestion and write about the current changes taking place for next years NCAA Tournament, Mark Cuban's apparent initiative towards making David Stern actually do his job by investigating the Heat for Tampering, and the Feds Investigating Fraud and Doping charges against (F*ck) Lance Armstrong, but the death of "The Boss" officially took place today - even though he's been practically dead for years now- and that death is prompting me to shift in another direction for today's post.
My focus today is going to center on my annoyance and overall displeasure on the use of death as a way to re-write someones history. New York Yankee Owner George Steinbrenner died today at the age of 80, and last week former NHL tough guy Bob Probert kicked the bucket as well at the age of 45. What I'm surprised and kind of shocked about is people's reactions to their respective deaths. I was under the impression that it was well known and accepted that both of these men were absolute jerks to many people they encountered during their time on earth. Probert was far more of a jerk that Steinbrenner obviously since his overall behavior put people's lives in danger, but I'll touch more on that in a moment.
Let's start with Steinbrenner. OK, I get that in many ways Steinbrenner has done some amazing things as an owner. He's never been shy about spending money to make money, which in terms of the history of owners in sports, is actually very maverick and cavalier. Where he also scored points as an owner is his commitment to winning no matter what. Put it this way, who would you rather have owning your team as a fan, George Steinbrenner or Donald Sterling? The answer is obviously Steinbrenner.
That's where my list of positives ends with The Boss. On the flip side of the coin, Steinbrenner was a convicted felon, as he plead guilty for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon and to an obstruction of justice charge. That earned him his first suspension in baseball. His second suspension was the result of what he did to Dave Winfield. After making Winfield the highest paid player in the game, George decided to stiff his contractually obligated donations to Winfield's Charity for which Winfield sued Steinbrenner 3 different times to get Steinbrenner to donate! He also paid Howard Spira $40,000 to "dig up dirt" on Winfield. This, as well as the hiring and firings of Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, and other mistreatment of Yankee sacred cows lead to Commissioner Fay Vincent banning Steinbrenner from baseball for life. Obviously that ended once the owners voted Vincent out as commissioner, and Jerry Reinsdorf got Bud Selig to reinstate his old buddy Steinbrenner in 1993. The other part about Steinbrenner that gets missed is just how awful he treated his employees. I'm not referring to his baseball team, or managers, but rather front office employees and people who reported to him. His mistreatment of the "little people" was infamous among Yankee employees, and that ultimately is his legacy in my eyes - he was nothing more than a bully, plain and simple.
As for Bob Probert, it's actually a much darker animal to deal with than Steinbrenner. Probert was beloved in some hockey circles because he was "old time hockey tough"...which from what I understand means he just beat the hell out of people on the ice. I have no problem with appreciating a hockey goon. Goon's are a part of the game, better or worse, but the part that really makes it frustrating about Probert was that he actually was a talented defense man, who CHOSE to be a goon rather than develop his game. Probert also had a looooong history of drug and alcohol abuse. This lead to Probert being arrested at the U.S.-Canadian border with 14 grams of cocaine for which he served 3 months in federal prison. Probert then crashed his motorcycle while having three times the legal limit of alcohol and trace amounts of cocaine in his system. He was also arrested twice more after his playing days were done, including one time where he was tasered by the police. So I think it's safe to say the Probert's ultimate legacy is that while he had "demons", he still managed to put innocent people in harms way by driving drunk, in addition to being a convicted felon. Not exactly a "sweetheart" as he's been described by ex-teammates.
Which leads me to my moral outrage. I have seen the media handle both Probert and Steinbrenner with nothing but oven mitts since their deaths. All of a sudden, both of these convicted felons were "misunderstood", "sweethearts", and "did so much for the community". It's as if their deaths has given both of them character in people's eyes, and it's really sad if that's the case. A wise old man told me a long time ago, that true character shines when people are up against it, and too often when Steinbrenner and Probert were up against it, they failed over and over again.
So please stop telling me that Steinbrenner and Probert were good guys who just made mistakes, let alone try to tell me that they could have given Mother Theresa a run for her money because it's simply not true. They were abusive, tyrannical, and in some cases life threatening to be around. Here's the other truth people need to understand as well, Steinbrenner and Probert never cared about you, and wouldn't pee on you even if you were on fire. Knowing that, do they still deserve the adulation they are currently receiving?
Nice guys indeed...
Steinbrenner will also be known as the first owner of his generation who helped casue the Willfully Ignorant Era of Major League Baseball. That is, the league has adopted so many get-rich-quick policies that have slowly chipped away at the competitive legitimacy of MLB.
ReplyDeleteIt all comes down to his advocacy of a "free market" approach to governing the league's salary structure. Any attempt baseball has made at leveling the playing field will always be undermined by the Yankees. And, when you're in fierce labor negotiations, you're not going to go very far when the most important partner loves the status quo.
So, runaway salaries over the last thirty years have caused baseball to be a lot more expensive. Here's some of the effects of this situation.
- Competitive imbalance.
- Massive construction of new stadiums, which have been built by putting a gun to the head of local residents. See the Field of Schemes blog for more coverage. Taxpayers have been ripped off for HUGE subsidies, and what have they received in return? What did New Yorkers get for paying for Yankee Stadium II? Absurd ticket prices. What about Pittsburgh or San Diego fans? Those teams have really opened up the checkbooks for free agents since getting new ballparks.
- Interleague play. Again, when you're desperate for revenue, you're willing to start compromising basic principles -- i.e. the competitive balance of the schedule. Unfortunately, interleague play has proven to be a moneymaker. The chaos this causes to the schedule has been discussed before, but, look at a quick example. You guys are excited about your White Sox, but take a look at the cake walk through the NL, (outside of Atlanta) that you were handed. (Cubs twice, Pirates, Nationals, Marlins.) And what's worse is there is no longer even a rhyme and reason to the scheduling. It's even worse than before when the only problem was that the Sox and Cubs, for instance, were forced to play each other while division rivals like Minnesota and St. Louis got off easy with the Brewers and Royals. I could complain about this for hours.
- Terrible TV contracts. This has really hurt the playoffs because Fox holds baseball hostage. Because of that, we've got World Series games being played in Big Ten Football weather at night. And, when you're desperate for revenue, you can't afford to leave money on the table by forcing a day World Series game so as to invest in the future by letting kids actually watch these games. How sick is it that these playoff games are regularly ending at 1am?
- The Schedule. To fix the World Series-games-in-November issue, the easy thing would be to shorten the schedule from 162 games (which is honestly over-the-top when you have three rounds of playoffs. More on this in a second.) But, these owners need 81 home dates. They've even added more as most teams are finishing spring training up north at major league parks. So, no schedule change will happen.
ReplyDelete- Roids. How eager was MLB to crack down on PEDs when they were making baseball so exciting? Again, when you're desperate, you're willing to compromise, and steroids have to be one of the best examples.
- No sane draft policy. So, let me get this straight. If a player grows up in North America, he has to go through the amateur draft process. But, if he's in Japan or the Caribbean, the richest teams can just sign him. Oh yea, that helps the big market teams so it remains the policy. Thanks, George.
- Bud Selig. It's funny how the position of baseball commissioner used to be held in the same regard as an elected official. Judge Landis, the first commish, was an actual judge! He was an honest broker looking out for the best interests of American's past-time. Bud Selig represents a new kind of commissioner. He basically embodies the owners interests versus the players' union. While this is more in line with the role played by other commissioners in other sports, the degradation of the position illustrates the degradation of baseball to being "just another sport." Selig has been allowed to run amok. The idiotic All-Star Game / home field advantage situation. The roids ignorance. Interleague Play. The best of five format in the first round. The contraction debacle. Reluctance to add replay. The inanity of the World Baseball Classic pushing the World Series to November. Selig really manages MLB like a little kid running a fantasy league where his hairbrained schemes usually become reality while glaring problems continue to go unaddressed. I can't wait for the competition committee to have all of their suggestions rejected by Bud.
So why has he been allowed to cheapen the brand of MLB? One reason: Cash. Interleague play is part of that, but there's one quality Bud has that's more important than any other -- his ability to extort cities for new stadiums. The ballpark is the most important piece to increasing revenue, and Bud absolutely delivered in this category. That's why his sins are forgiven. Meanwhile, I think the game, long-term, has been weakened. You can only build a new stadium once every thirty years. Now that we're basically done with the stadium boom (outside MAYBE Tampa or Oakland, but those situation aren't going well -- especially when most local governments are broke), where will the next big revenue blasts come from? Instead of investing in the long-term stability of the game (i.e. the product on the field), baseball has relied on new stadiums (stadia? i hate that word) to generate new cash.
I don't know. I can't blame Steinbrenner for all of it, but his attitude toward the greater good of the game was replicated quite a bit. And, in the end, it all comes down to the salaries. Whether or not they are justified, owners can always cry poor mouth when they are forced to give out contracts like they have the past 30 years. We'll see if this is part of the legacy of The Boss.
As usual, you supply a lot to chew on Mike. I'd love to get to all of it but I've got to get to bed. I'm with you on a lot of it, but I think you're giving Selig too much credit as an "idea man".
ReplyDeleteSelig is nothing more than the owners puppet/frontman. When he was named acting commissioner in 1992, the idea was that he would get RID of the position. Instead they came up with a better idea, which was to name him commissioner, but he has no power whatsoever to act on his own. Thusly, he's just a figurehead, and the ideas that have happened since he was installed are pretty much 90% driven by the owners.
Jesus Christ Mike you love detail. Here something to laugh about.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wgnradio.com/news/nationworld/sns-viral-steinbrenner-on-seinfeld-story,0,4293684.htmlstory
I agree that he's a puppet of the owners, but it seems to be that the All-Star Game crap, the WBC, and Interleague play are his brainchilds. At least that's what everyone in baseball says publically. But, we do know some of it has been manipulated by the owners -- i.e. the 6-game series between interleague rivals was manufactured by Reinsdorf.
ReplyDeleteLove the link, Rossi.
Oh bud has no issue about taking credit for it, but believe me they're not his ideas. The allstar game counting was fox sports president ed goren's idea.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the competitive balance argument is a ten year old argument that no longer holds water in the age of revenue sharimg abd tgere has also been eight different champions in nine years.