by David Beck, EEEEEE! Contributing Editor
"What is that you're saying, Dave?" says Joe Most Utterly Typical Fan, "The baseball season of 1998 disastrous? You mean as in, 'bad'? As in, 'not good'? As in, 'really not good'? How could that possibly be? There was McGwire! There was Sosa! There was the Yankees! There was Ripken and a whole bunch of other cool stuff, I'm sure!"
Caw-caw.
First and foremost, if the Giants do not romp to a World Series title, the season was a disaster. Certainly some seasons are less disastrous that others, like the one in 1997, probably the least-felt disastrous year of them all because the Giants played with such heart and pride. But it was still substantially disastrous considering how Devon White beat us with his bat and Alex Fernandez beat us with a rotator-cuff damaged arm.
The fact is that no team's fans have any more right to the most true, genuine, deserved misery than fans of the San Francisco Giants. Fans of the Cubs, the Red Sox, the Indians, the Astros, the Expos, and all the other non-World Series winners? They don't come close. Those team's miseries get much more press, but they all take their place as media darlings at one time or another, especially the Cubs and the Red Sox.
The fact is this: among current franchises (i.e., teams in their current venues) that have never won a World Series, the one that has gone the longest without ever winning one is -- by far -- the San Francisco Giants.
The Cubs? They have a World Series title, even though it was in 1908. Same with the Red Sox in 1918. Those teams can still raise World Championship banners in their ballparks.
What about the Astros? Started playing in 1962. The Giants began their days in San Francisco in 1958.
What about the Giants' time as the New York Giants? 'Scuse me, but that was New York. Not San Francisco. Certainly I take a little bit of pride in the McGraw teams and the Mays-catch series of '54, only because they are part of the "Giants lore." But it still wasn't San Francisco.
Sorry guys. It's now 41 years and still counting. Still waiting for even one. And the fact is, with the disastrous situation that free agency hath wrought still wreaking its havoc upon the game of baseball, Giants fans can continue to wait a good while longer.
"Oh, but what about baseball?" Joe Fan gleefully inquires, as he rattles off the litany of pseudo-achievements in the game during 1998.
Joe Sports Pundit cannot stop blithering about how the whole home run derby thing has revitalized the game, has saved the game, indeed it went so far as to wipe out all the bad memories of 1994. He does so, however, only because it is in his best interest to talk up the game in any way he can. If Chuck Knoblauch had set a record by belching 26 times in one inning, Joe Pundit would have an orgasm.
Because Joe Fan buys into it is one of the reasons this season was as disastrous as it was. As Joe Fan is so shamelessly led into the land of pseudo-euphoria, he continues to be oblivious to the fact that all the stuff that went so bad in 1994 has never changed.
The players are still wrenching millions of dollars from fans who get a show, not baseball. Their demands will protract the escalation of the cost of tickets and all that comes with seeing a ballgame, and fans will still be bombarded by advertising anywhere they can possibly stick a logo, a trademark, a billboard, an entire commercial. The worst of it is that the zero-sum law continues to be mocked whenever Joe Pundit says, "Hey! Now that our team has bit the bag, the only way we are going to compete is if Joe 'Tightwad' Owner breaks the bank so we can be the team that wins!"
So it is preeminently incumbent upon me to take on the extraordinarily needed role of the one who must blast all those delusions into the deepest parts of oblivion. For every item that makes Joe Pundit climax, I counter with the correct and true counterargument. Because Joe Fan will continue to fork over $50 a ticket to see the pap that passes for baseball today, it is my duty to be Mr. Baseball Consumer Guide, essentially to be...
A recent Sports Illustrated issue featured a big picture of Mark McGwire on the cover (yeah, which one this year hasn't) and the tease was "What a season!" spliced into the very title of the publication itself. Inside the magazine, the accompanying article was titled, "The Greatest Season Ever." Please, give me a break.
Around Mark on the cover were six of the so-called "wonderful" things that made this season so special. Let's look at each, and you will clearly see how Joe Fan wasted his hard earned money for illusory pleasure:
The main reason this whole thing is worth far less than everyone thinks is because he did not hit them for the Giants. He not only did not hit them for the Giants, but he did not lead them to the World Series title doing so. What a wangbone.
But for those misled folks who have yet to see the light and are not Giants fans, the reasons abound for why McGwire's "feat" deserves much fewer accolades than it has received.
One, where did McGwire's team go with this thing? Third place. Sure the rest of the Cardinals sucked, to sincerely take nothing away from McGwire. But he said himself midway through the season that if he broke the Maris mark, he'd have nothing really left to play for. Oh? Not for, say, love of the game? Winning for the team?
This leads to the second reason I think the whole thing is a joke. Let me just put it this way:
Side camera angle of McGwire at the plate in Florida's ballpark -- whatever it is they call it -- oh yeah, "Pro Player Stadium" -- igg. He is preparing to belt one to Orlando.
"McGwire swings, and there it goes, a home run! Number 55!" (Or something like that.) What disgusted me was all the Marlins fans, every one to the last peanut vendor, got on their feet and cheered till they nearly retched their Cracker Jacks.
"But Dave!" I hear Joe Pundit say, "They can cheer for whatever they want! They paid their money! And my gosh, what do Marlins fans have to cheer about anyway! Don't be such a party pooper. What is the big deal?"
The big deal is that now, it is a show. It is not a baseball game, that in any other circumstance can stand on its own as complete enjoyment for the fan, home runs and all. I am 100 percent against the way that the game has become entertainment as a show and not as baseball. I know I am in the minority on this -- I may even be a minority of one -- but I'm right in a sea of wrong: a sea made up of people who want to see it as show and don't care that baseball is pushed as show. As such it loses more and more of the pure unadulterated quality that makes its value what it had always been. I mean that in an actual, real-life sense, not just a my-own-personal-perception sense.
The actual real-life part? Trust me, the game will be manipulated so much that what the fans want as entertainment dictates what happens on the field. It is happening already, simply through what free agency has done. Free agency has raised the costs so stratospherically high that only the game's presentation as show will guarantee the best returns. Look at the whole home-run chase thing.
Please note that I am not saying the game should not be entertaining. King Lear can be very entertaining within the boundaries of what drama can do, just like the game is entertaining within the boundaries of what baseball can do. They don't put an elaborate Las Vegas-style cabaret number in the middle of King Lear to make it entertaining. They don't because it would make the play bad -- it wouldn't work, to say the least; indeed, it would be wrong. The marketing manipulation of the game of baseball today is wrong.
What about the competition within baseball itself? Sure it may be great that the most expensive teams are in the Championship Series -- as of this writing: the Yankees, the Indians, the Braves, and the Dodgers-South -- er -- Padres. Joe Fan says, "Yeah! The best matchups, these teams -- with the best players -- are the best of 'em all, by far, so that's great!" Great for postseason, but wretched for the regular season and for those fans who are genuine fans of teams for genuine reasons who don't realize they don't have a prayer to get to the promised land because of the way the game can be manipulated.
I will emphasize this again. Free agency now is a manipulation tool that severely and irreparably damages of the game of baseball and the principles of honor and integrity inherent within it.
Bob Costas comes as close as anyone to articulating this truth. If you were watching the third game of the AL Championship Series -- third inning, Manny Ramirez facing Andy Pettitte -- sure enough, Costas was making his unbelievably astute observations about the condition of the game. He made the standard gratuitous remarks about how fabulous the season was with McGwire et al., then pointed out that of the 14 teams that had payrolls under $40 million, none had a winning record. He went on to say, "Until that economic disparity is addressed, the game will not be completely healthy."
I ran a correlation at the end of the year comparing all the teams ranked by payroll with their rankings by final records at the end of year. The result? A correlation of 0.745, which is strikingly significant. That is, you can say with reasonable certainty that there is a distinct relationship between payroll and season record. If you have a high payroll, you are going to have a good record. If you have a low one, you will suck.
Remember my predictions at the beginning of the year? Of course you do. I based them almost entirely on payroll ranking. The final results were teams that I picked to "shine" (Braves, Indians, Orioles, Yankees) finished a cumulative 115 games ahead of teams that were picked to suck (Brewers, Expos, Pirates, Tigers).
Whoa! How'd we get there, all the way from talking about Mark McGwire?
Point is, McGwire as a player should be honored as one who earned a tremendous achievement. I don't fault him at all for it. Earnest lauding well deserved.
The travesty is when he becomes the main spectacle of the home run circus, when he is peddled, marketed, promoted, merchandised, packaged and wrapped up with a ribbon, and hocked by the guy with the greased hair, capped teeth, and checkered sports jacket. That is what is abjectly reprehensible. And when this happens -- and it did in a big way during this whole thing -- what follows?
We already know McGwire had the help of some kind of body-enhancing steroid substance that in many other sports is illegal. What else could have happened? Lighter, perhaps even cork-filled bats? Sure it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but who will ever know? It's the show that counts anyway. Pitchers grooving pitches in order to be a part of the show? Don't tell me for two seconds that those Expos pitchers in St. Louis that last weekend were really pitching McGwire to win the game. What would have happened if they walked him every time he came to the plate? They would have needed the police bomb squad to open their mail every day for a month.
And what about probably the most prominent example of the manipulation of the game that I firmly believe helped McGwire the most? It is one of the most obvious: the inconsistent, pea-sized strike zone. Not only is every umpire's different, but each umpire has a different strike zone for each pitch. In the times I have watched a game on television, I have witnessed two different pitches thrown in exactly the same location, one time it was called a ball, and another time a strike -- to the same batter. The inconsistency with which umpires call the outside pitch is ridiculous. I don't care if they call 'em outside a bit, but it is a joke the way it is. And then there is the overall size of the strike zone. Pea size. How many times have you watched a pitch that sears the heart of the plate called a ball? Batters can simply wait for their pitch in the exact location they want and hammer away.
Some will say that umpires are messing with all our minds because it is the only way they make their case: While ballplayers are making gidzillion of dollars, they are making beans.
Ahhhh... Something having to do with free agency, perhaps? Could it be?
Furthermore, do you think that the fact is lost on umpires that Mark McGwire has been ordained the game's savior, and that they are a part of the liturgy? That entire scene revolving around the umpire who tossed McGwire after he argued balls and strikes was completely absurd. Whether the ump was right or wrong, for him to have to offer any kind of explanation was farcical. How many Cardinals fans -- or any fans for that matter -- actually engaged in the correct, proper thinking: "Not a smart move by that Mark McGwire. That was not very smart because he should know that if he argues about ball and strike calls, he will get ejected because the rules clearly state that if you argue about ball and strike calls, you will get ejected. Now, we'll just have to root on our team without him and hope that we win, win, WIN!"
This ties in with the worst excess of the McGwire thing, and that is the whole sycophantic attitude people have had toward him. Those Marlins fans? How many of them actually went to the ballpark that night proudly declaring that they were there to see their favorite player, Edgar Renteria? Worse, how many of them actually would have responded about the player who was merely the World Series hero from the year before, "Who's that? If he's not Mark McGwire, who cares?"
Yes, I know I am giving the fans short shrift. Somewhere in my mind is the idea that most fans are merely toadying bandwagon jumpers, a lot certainly are. It is hard for me to believe that there are any other Giants fans who feel the way that I do, the way that Gregg also has expressed he feels, that anything that impedes the success of the Giants is, for all intents and purposes, accursed. Mark McGwire hits ten home runs in a single game in defeating the Giants at Candlestick? -- are there any other fans at the park who would be as disappointed as I would be? Or would most walk away going, "Ooo-wee, that was neat!"
Call me obsessed, call me disturbed if you will, it is just that loyalty to your team should be the dominant factor in any sports team involvement, and devotion to the Giants' cause is the preeminent one of all. I accept that this is my opinion. I accept that many willingly pay big bucks just to "see a good game," or to "see that one special player." I accept that many are given over to the "Boo, different shirt!" mockery creed of Jerry Seinfeld.
It is just my perception that as free agency becomes more and more entrenched in professional sports, the battle lines will be drawn between those who root for the teams and those who root for the players. If you root for a particular team -- win or lose -- then free agency is not for you or your best interests. If you root for the players, then by all means, allow free agency to march on unchecked, because it won't matter that the Yankees will win every single World Series for the next fifty years, either they will have already bought the most popular players, or you will have already seen all your favorite players do their best in the regular season -- such as Mark McGwire and his 70 homers -- and it won't matter whether they are in postseason play or not.
When they do these supposedly terrific statistics of the year, how come they never offset them with the other important statistics? Like 190 RBIs, which was Hack Wilson's record total that no one reached this year in spite of the fact that Juan Gonzalez was supposed to reach it easily and failed big-time. What'd he have, 183 RBIs by the end of May?
This is almost like they all said, whether it was just the people at SI or those among the media powers-that-be, "Well, Gonzalez bit the bag on that one, but let's try to sell Sosa's mark as this really big deal." Is Joe Fan really buying it?
Well, they failed. They did not get to 116 wins. They didn't even get to 115 wins. What a bunch of losers.
Speaking of losers, how come they never made mention of the most notorious number of the them all: 108?
As in 108 losses for the World Champion Florida Marlins. What is the deal with that? No mention, because they don't want anyone to know that the reason they went from penthouse to outhouse is because of -- what was that thing again? -- oh yeah! Free agency. Joe Fan will say, "Well, they could have paid for their players!" They did pay them. They just wanted more after winning.
It is the same thing that the Padres will face next year. As of this writing, the Padres may very well go to the World Series. Even win it all. But they are not the Yankees. They won't be. No matter what, they will be disbanded, at least to some extent. Kevin Brown, probably the sole reason they are where they are, has even said he'd like to play for the Braves -- even as they play the Braves in the NL Championship Series! -- and expect to get paid $10 to $15 million a year.
It doesn't stop, and never will until they chuck free agency. They won't do any such thing when everyone sees the Dodgers supplant the Padres next year as NL West emperors and Rupert and George can spend what they need to bring that swell ol' Dodger-Yankee World Series rivalry back to baseball.
I can almost bet you that while Joe Fan could name one of the two other pitchers who had 20 K's in a single game, he'd have to struggle to name the other one. He'd get Roger Clemens because he pitched for the American League equivalent to the Cubs, the Red Sox. That'd be easy, for that reason.
But who was that other guy... hmmm, let's see... could it be...
Roger Clemens? Pitching for the Blue Jays? Half the fans in this country probably don't even know he even pitches for the Blue Jays now. (Yeah, I know, there I go, not giving fans enough credit....)
I'll proclaim the obvious truth to the world again:
Cal Ripken's streak of consecutively played games ended on August 12, 1994. It was over then. Scheduled games were scheduled to be played in a very schedule-like way, and he did not show up to play. It doesn't matter if the Powers-That-Be decreed on the highest authority that any games in consecutive-games-played-streaks lost due to strike were not to be counted against said streaks -- I'm sure they had to have made some kind of pronouncement like this. They absolutely had to protect probably their chief selling point, one of their few chances to retain fan interest after the strike.
It would be nice to know whether or not anyone else sees this truth also. If there is no one, not a one, then I will continue to be a voice as a minority of one. And I understand that everyone else will continue to respond, "But Dave, it is really no big deal. Just let Ripken have his streak, and let us have our fun." Certainly, if they want to continue in their fantasy, it is no big deal to me. I thoroughly agree that there are a thousand other things that are a thousand times more important than whether or not Ripken's streak counts or not.
But when it comes to the ravaging effects of free agency, the vicious unwarranted strike that resulted, and the subsequent toadying adulation heaped upon a player who is clearly vocal about striking but earns gidzillions of dollars anyway, I just stand on principle and if it is as a minority of one, then so be it.
But the fact is, any number of players from the past could have done it easily. Willie Mays could have done it ten times if he wanted to. But Mays was not only a player with power and speed, but he was an amazingly intelligent ballplayer. One of the things he knew -- and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure this out -- is that when he got to first base and could easily steal second, he didn't, because if he did, with first base open the pitcher would then just walk the following hitter, Willie McCovey.
So how often are you going to hear about the player who could've easily gotten 40/40 but didn't because he didn't steal bases just to get numbers. The only time you are going to hear about a player doing 40/40 because fans think he does it for padding stats is when it is Barry Bonds. Canseco and A-Rod? Great players, all right, yeah-yeah, way to go. Bonds? What a selfish prick.
Inside the SI issue of which I write was a list of about a dozen other supposedly notable statistical feats accomplished over the course of this season. The selling point continues to be that this season was special, ostensibly so Joe Fan can get more interested in this thing that the Powers-That-Be desperately must sell. But the fact is that records of some kind or another are set every year, and in bunches.
Some records set by Giants players this year were among them. (Yay!)
Barry Bonds' career achievement of 400-plus home runs and 400-plus stolen bases was addressed, and even though I did mention that the 40/40 thing is not that big a deal, 400/400 is much more of an accomplishment, because it speaks more to the player's longevity and his exceptional play during that entire time. No other player is even close -- not even 350/350.
Jeff Kent's 120 RBIs for a second consecutive year was another one that merited mention, because he and Rogers Hornsby are the only second basemen to have done it. Hey, I'm proud of the guy. He's a Giant, one of Our Boys. But sorry, they're reaching on that one to make it a selling point.
One item glaringly missing from the list was Bond's record 15 consecutive times reaching base. Because Bonds gets to be everyone's whipping boy, any mention more than once in any piece is enough for him, certainly.
Thing is, even the greatest stats of the most successful Giants mean diddly if they don't win it all. Sour grapes? Nah. I'm not brooding or anything this year. The end of this year did not bring the agonizing disappointment of other years. The 9-2 run at the end of the year to force the playoff with Chicago was fun.
I just know that what I want, the only thing I want, is the ring. (Of course not for me, but for Our Boys.) And I know that it just ain't gonna happen with free agency. If by some miracle it does, then that would make the victory that much sweeter.
Until then, it's 41 years and counting and no one in the world can ever commiserate to the extent that true Giants fans can until we actually do win it.
At least we have that.