Baseball's Labor Unrest Risks Fierce Fan Reaction
ALSO: RECOLLECTIONS OF A LIFELONG HANK AARON FAN
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The 2021 World Series between the Braves and Astros was the first to feature both clubs that lost a League Championship Series the year before . . .
The ‘21 World Series had 20 foreign-born players from six different countries . . .
Dusty Baker was the ninth manager to win pennants in both leagues, joining Yogi Berra, Sparky Anderson, Tony LaRussa, Dick Williams, Joe McCarthy, Joe Maddon?, Jim Leyland, Al Dark . . .
Baker won division crowns with a record five different clubs — the Cubs, Giants, Reds, Nationals, and Astros — but won pennants only in 2002 (San Francisco) and 2021 (Houston) . . .
David Ortiz, Carl Yastzemski, Wade Boggs, Ted Williams, Jim Rice, Nomar Garciaparra, Fred Lynn, and Carlton Fisk never got four extra-base hits in a playoff game but Enrique Hernandez has — and he got a fifth hit (a single) too.
Leading Off
Warning: Nuclear Winter Will Have Half-Life
By Dan Schlossberg
My long-time friend Kevin Barnes, a fellow Jersey guy who now lives in Atlanta, sent me the most appropriate holiday card I received this winter.
His hand-written message at the end read, “When the season starts in June, hope to see you again at the World Series in December.”
Say it ain’t so, Kevin.
Unfortunately, he may be on to something.
Not only are the owners and players unable to hammer out a new Basic Agreement, the document that governs the game, but they’re also unable to agree on when, where, or even whether to meet.
With pitchers and catchers due to report in less than six weeks, it’s time, guys.
In fact, it’s time Rob Manfred, Tony Clark, Max Scherzer, and the others with vested financial interests in this situation take a suite in the Tower of London — or some equally dingy place without distrations — and stay there until they reconcile.
The problem is they can’t live with each other or without each other. Kind of reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Or maybe Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Neither side is willing to concede, or even to give an inch.
At least the sale of Topps baseball cards to Fanatics proves that big baseball transactions can indeed take place in January. Fanatics paid $500 million for the sports arm of the former bubble-gum company and got the right to start stamping its own logo on cardboard images of major-league players.
Even Scherzer didn’t get that much from the vault of Steve Cohen, the new owner of the Mets.
Owners don’t want to miss the revenue they derive from spring training games and players don’t want to miss any of the 162-game regular season, since that’s when their checks start.
But the problem is that baseball people never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
With baseball a cash cow again after the Covid crisis, the people who run the game may have milked the game for all it is worth.
Their inflexible, intolerant attitude indicates they care only about lining their pockets and strangling the public they need to provide critical game-day revenue.
How soon they forget what it was like to have cardboard cutouts in the stands and live attendance totals of zero every night.
Fans are already exasperated and are about to show it with their wallets — as they did after the 232-day player strike of 1994-95. If things keep up, this will be a shortened season marked by empty seats and spectator protests.
That’s no way to run America’s national pastime but a great way to ruin it.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 40 baseball books. He covers the game for forbes.com, Latino Sports, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Ball Nine, and many others. E.mail him at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
What It Was Like Rooting For Hank Aaron From Jersey
By Dan Schlossberg
As a kid growing up in Northern New Jersey, I was such a Hank Aaron fan that my classmates called me “Hank.”
I became a fan of the then-Milwaukee Braves in 1957, when they beat the Yankees in the World Series. The Dodgers and Giants were leaving New York for California, the Mets didn’t exist, and all my friends rooted for the Yankees (which I thought was like rooting for U.S. Steel).
Aaron won his only MVP award in ‘57, when he hit the homer that clinched the pennant against an otherwise-forgotten Cardinals pitcher named Billy Muffett.
But he should have won many more.
Sidelined only by a broken leg suffered near the end of his rookie year in 1954, Henry Louis Aaron made the All-Star team 25 times in 23 seasons (the leagues played two games for four years to raise money for the players’ pension fund).
He also hit more home runs, knocked in more runs, and collected more total bases than anyone else — at least until a certain Barry Bonds came along.
Originally a second baseman who batted cross-handed, Aaron moved to left field when Bobby Thomson — yes, THAT Bobby Thomson — broke his leg during 1954 spring training. He wore No. 5 that season, then switched to 44 a year later because he believed a double-digit number would bring good luck.
Apparently, it did.
He led his league in home runs, slugging, and runs batted in four times each, runs scored three times, and batting twice. By the time he retired after the 1976 season, the soft-spoken outfielder had a .305 batting average, 755 home runs, 2,297 runs batted in, and 6,856 total bases — a figure that separates him from the pack by leaps and bounds.
Aaron also won three Gold Gloves and had a 30/30 season (that many steals and homers in the same season). He had six home runs, including three in the ‘57 Series, in post-season play.
But because he didn’t play in New York, Aaron never got the recognition he deserved. In fact, nine voters left his name off their 10-man Hall of Fame ballots in 1982. He was an easy first-ballot winner anyway but he should have been a unanimous selection.
Never suspended or even suspected of cheating, Aaron trained his sights on Babe Ruth’s home run record the minute he laid eyes on Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, a ballpark nicknamed “the Launching Pad” by Braves pitcher Pat Jarvis. Rather than spraying hits around the field, as he did during a .355 season for the 1959 Milwaukee Braves, Aaron began to pull — with predictable results.
He and Eddie Mathews, another Hall of Famer, combined for 863 home runs, a record for teammates. He and Tommie Aaron, his younger brother, combined for 768, a record for brothers. Hank and Tommie even homered in the same inning once, with the elder Aaron connecting with the bases loaded after T-Bone led off with a solo shot as a pinch-hitter.
Hank Aaron started and ended his illustrious career in the same city, with the Milwaukee Braves in 1954 and Milwaukee Brewers in 1976. Don Drysdale, for one, was glad to see him retire; Aaron hit more home runs against him (17) than anyone else.
It was Drysdale and fellow Dodger standout Sandy Koufax who gave Aaron his “Bad Henry” nickname. “He was so good that he was bad,” Drysdale explained.
Forget Willie, Mickey, and The Duke. Hank Aaron had them all beat.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ interviewed Hank Aaron many times and did a book on him called Hammerin’ Hank: the Henry Aaron Story. He is also the author of 39 other baseball books. E.mail him at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Pitchers who finished a postseason game and started the next day: Brad Peacock in 2019, Firpo Marberry in 1924, Three Finger Brown in 1910, and Doc White in 1906 . . .
No National League team in 2020, when the designated hitter was expanded to both leagues as a one-year experiment, started the same DH in two-thirds of its games . . .
The only P to throw at least four scoreless IP in their first three postseason starts were Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander and 2021 rookie Ian Anderson . . .
The only team to get at least 17 hits and lose a World Series game was the 1979 Pirates, who eventually became that year’s world champions . . .
Celebrated pitching coach Mike Maddux beat odds of 67 million to 1 when he made two holes-in-one playing golf at the Army-Navy Country Club three years ago.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Brian Harl [bchrom831@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.