February 7, 2006

To Retire or Not To Retire

There is a developing controversy that involves two of baseball’s most royal families. Sharon Robinson, the daughter of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, does not want to see Major League Baseball retire the uniform number of Roberto Clemente for all teams, as was done for her father. Members of the Clemente family, including his two oldest sons, see it differently. While they respect the views of Sharon Robinson, they feel that their father’s number should be retired universally as a tribute to the way he fought for the rights of Latino players during a humanitarian life that was cut short by tragedy. The controversy hasn’t become ugly yet, but has the potential to create resentment between African-American and Latino baseball fans.

Let’s hope that it doesn’t reach that stage. Other than the Clemente family itself, I’m probably as big a fan of Clemente as anybody; I’ve written a number of articles and a full-length book about Clemente, who was simply my favorite player growing up. Yet, I don’t think that Clemente’s number should be retired across the board. There is a fundamental difference in the cases between Clemente and Robinson. Clemente was not the first Latino to play in the major leagues—or even the first black Latino—while Robinson was the first African-American to cross the color barrier in the 20th century. Robinson’s status as a pioneer was clearly one of the main reasons why baseball chose to retire his uniform universally in 1997. 

I think this kind of thing—this retiring of uniform numbers for every team—can easily be overdone, and I believe would be in the case of Clemente. As much as Clemente means to Latino players of many generations, his social impact on the game was not the same as Jackie Robinson, whose accomplishments played a part in spurring the civil rights movement in the 1950s. No one in baseball has had that kind of effect, either before or since. That’s not an insult to Clemente; it’s simply a tribute to the impact that Robinson had from the 1940s until his premature death in 1972. 

There may be another reason not to retire Clemente’s number in the way that it has been done for Robinson. A number of contemporary Latino players, such as Sammy Sosa, wear Clemente’s number as a sign of respect. Even though many of these younger Latinos never saw Clemente play, they still have great regard for his accomplishments. Wearing the same number is a nice touch; I like the gesture, which would be lost if Clemente’s number were permanently retired. 

Like Robinson, Clemente has already been honored in a number of ways. The Pirates have long since retired his number 21 and also feature a beautiful bronze statue of “The Great One” outside of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Major League Baseball annually bestows a humanitarian award in Clemente’s honor. In addition, countless schools and parks across the country—and in Puerto Rico—have been named after Roberto. In my mind, those honors are sufficient to pay homage to one of the game’s greatest players and most admirable humanitarians. With all due respect to the man I consider my baseball hero, it is simply not necessary or appropriate to require that every major league team retire his uniform number. 

Glory Road Meets Minaya’s Mets and the All-Black Lineup

On the one hand, the Texas Western Miners of 1965-66 are celebrated for being the first national championship team in college basketball to field an all-black starting lineup. On the other hand, the Mets of Omar Minaya, who have 15 Latino players on their 40-man roster, are questioned by some for what they perceive as unfairly overloading their roster with Spanish-speaking players. And then there are the 1971 Pirates—the subject of an upcoming book by yours truly—who continue to be overlooked for fielding the first and only all-black lineup in major league history. 

For me, it all comes down to the quality of players. If players on my team can play, I don’t pay much attention to who’s black, who’s white, and who’s from a foreign land. Now I might think about it during a quiet moment, after the game or after the season, but rarely during the heat of a game. I think it comes down to this: in an ideal world, if you can win, and win with a representative and balanced cross-section of white, black, and Latino players, then that’s the best possible scenario. It shows that a team’s management is color blind when it comes to finding the best players to comprise a team. It also serves as a way of proving to the racial naysayers that teams can win with fully integrated rosters, with players of differing ethnic backgrounds playing well on the field and meshing well off the field. It can be done, as evidenced by Texas Western, which defied the odds to win the college championship of 1966, and the Pirates, who also overcame predictions of gloom to win the World Series in 1971. 

This issue raises several questions. Does it matter to you what the racial composition of your team happens to be? Should we, as I believe we should, celebrate championship teams that win with a large degree of ethnic diversity and balance, as a real-life lesson about how people of different races can come together and achieve a united goal? Or should we not pay attention to the breakdowns of these rosters for fear that it will only serve to make people more divisive when it comes to the issue of race?

These aren’t easy questions. The answers aren’t any less difficult.

Defending The WBC

Some of the criticisms of the upcoming World Baseball Classic just don’t make sense. The newly organized tournament, which will debut this March, has been attacked on several fronts. Yet, none of the three major criticisms hold much water. 

The World Baseball Classic can’t be taken seriously because all of the pitchers will be on pitch counts. Well, on this issue, we’ve got news for you: major league pitchers are on pitch counts in every regular season game--and in every postseason game, including the World Series, and that includes both starters and relievers. So in a general sense, there’s very little difference. In today’s game, most starters are held to a limit of 100-120 pitches, and relievers are usually maxed out at 30 to 40 pitchers, with closers being held to a tighter leash. Now it’s true that the pitch counts in the World Baseball Classic will be smaller (ranging from 65 to 80 to 95 pitches, depending on the round), but teams will be able to balance off that problem by carrying larger numbers of pitchers on the active roster. And it’s unlikely that we’ll see an All-Star Game approach, with pitching changes annoyingly made every inning. The number of games in the tournament simply won’t allow that. 

With so many American-born players either questionable for the Classic, or dropping out altogether, the U.S. team won’t be the powerhouse that some envision. Given the depth of American talent currently playing in the major leagues, there will be no shortage of quality players on the U.S. team. As an example, consider the situation at third base, where arguably the game’s best player, Alex Rodriguez, continues to vacillate on whether he will play. Even without A-Rod, the U.S. is stacked with several quality third basemen: Eric Chavez, Morgan Ensberg, and David Wright. All have been All-Star players, with Chavez firmly established as the American League’s best defensive third baseman and Wright seemingly destined for stardom in the nation’s largest market. They may not have A-Rod’s marquee value—at least not yet—but it’s not like these are middling third basemen, scraped from the barrel of mediocrity. A poll of today’s scouts would have Chavez and Wright ranked among the game’s top five third basemen, with Ensberg ranked somewhere in the upper 10 to 12. 

The Classic will have trouble garnering media coverage because it is being played at the same time as the NCAA basketball tournament. To this criticism I ask, “What’s the alternative?” If the games were played during the summer, baseball’s regular season would have to be shut down for several weeks, causing games to be missed and interrupting the ebb and flow of the various pennant races. Major league teams already have a three-day break supplied by the All-Star Game; they simply don’t need another mid-season vacation, one that would last several weeks, at a time when the major leagues should be capitalizing on the fact that the three other major team sports—the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL—are all out of season. Another possibility that has been suggested would have the World Baseball Classic played in November, just after the World Series. Well, there are more problems with that. Coming on the heels of the World Series, the Classic would be considered a letdown, with the final results paling in comparison with those of major league baseball’s postseason. Then there’s also the problem of player fatigue. By November, most players are exhausted, ready to take some relaxing time off at the start of the winter. They’re simply not apt to be in prime condition--either mentally or physically--for another rigorous series of competitive games. 

Furthermore, the conflict with the NCAA tournament in the spring may not be as large an obstacle as foreseen. Other than the championship game, which takes place on a Monday night, all of the NCAA basketball games take place from Thursday through Sunday. That leaves three full days each week—Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday—for the Classic to grab its share of newspaper and SportsCenter headlines. The Classic can take advantage of the weekly lull by scheduling some of the premier matchups during those open pockets of days off. 

Once again, baseball is facing criticism for daring to do something different, just as it did with three-division formats and wild cards. Why do I get the feeling that if the NFL were to try something like this, the national media would be eating it up like candy? Yet, for some reason, baseball is held to a different standard, a standard that simply won’t allow the acceptance of anything that is new and different. 

Why not let this thing develop and unfold, allowing the best baseball-playing countries in the world to show off their national pride in what could very well be a spirited international tournament? Before we condemn it for all sorts of questionable reasons, just give this thing a chance.
The Rumor Mill

It’s inevitable that that the Red Sox will trade David “Boomer” Wells—but not until spring training. The Red Sox have shopped the hefty lefty all winter, but haven’t been overwhelmed with offers thus far. That’s because most interested teams would like to see Wells work off the mound this spring after undergoing off-season knee surgery. The Mets have expressed recent interest (now that they’ve shed Kris Benson’s contract), but the Padres remain the favorites to land Wells. Still, San Diego will probably have to surrender more than Dave Roberts in return. Now that Coco Crisp has been secured to play in between Manny Ramirez and Trot Nixon, the Red Sox don’t have a need for a starting outfielder, just for some outfield depth. Theo Epstein and Company aren’t likely to give up an effective starter like Wells straight-up for a fourth outfielder; they’ll probably insist on having a reliever or a minor league prospect added to the package…

Another veteran starter who will almost certainly change uniforms in 2006 is Jose Contreras, though it’s likely to happen sometime during the season. With the winter acquisition of Javier Vasquez and the long-term commitment given to Jon Garland, Contreras could be made available in a late-season deal for some hitting. Although Contreras pitched splendidly in the second half of the 2005 season, the White Sox have concerns about his age—he may be older than his reported age of 34—and his delivery, which requires a high level of monitoring and maintenance. Several National League teams have already made inquiries into the right-hander’s availability, including the Astros and Phillies…

The Yankees are done with their major maneuvering of the winter, but they’re still considering some bits of fine-tuning between now and Opening Day. GM Brian Cashman remains open to adding a left-handed hitting first baseman who can either push Jason Giambi to the DH role or at the very least strengthen what has been a very weak bench in recent years. One player who intrigues the Yankees is Carlos Pena, who at one time was considered the first baseman of the future in Detroit, but played so poorly last year that he earned a mid-season demotion to the minor leagues. The Tigers would trade Pena for some pitching, which could translate into either Carl Pavano or a package featuring Aaron Small… If a Pavano-for-Pena trade were to transpire, it would not happen until spring training and only until Pavano shows himself to be completely healthy. Given that Pavano is only 30 years old and would be pitching at spacious Comerica Park, he would be a good fit for the Tigers…

Anderson Hernandez has been so impressive in winter ball, winning the Dominican League’s Rookie of the Year Award along the way, that the Mets have decided to stop pursuing second base alternatives via trade. They believe that Hernandez, a converted shortstop who played well at two levels in 2005, is now ready to make the transition to the major leagues. With Hernandez and Jeff Keppinger, the Mets have two minor leaguers capable of challenging the disappointing Kaz Matsui this spring. At $7 million, Matsui is likely to become the game’s most expensive utilityman. 

Pastime Passings

Jake Wade (Died on February 1 in Wildwood, North Carolina; age 93; long-term effects of a stroke): A left-handed pitcher who played in eight major league seasons, Wade saw his career interrupted by service in World War II. The well-traveled Wade forged a record of 27-40 with an ERA of 5.00 while pitching for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators, and New York Yankees during the 1930s and forties. Nicknamed “Whistling Jack,” Wade served in the military in 1945 before returning to the major leagues in 1946. After his playing days, he became an electronics repair technician for Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in Havelock, North Carolina. 

Carlos Martinez (Died on January 25 in Caracas, Venezuela; age 40; undisclosed disease): At one time a highly regarded teenaged shortstop prospect with the New York Yankees, Martinez spent seven seasons as a first baseman and third basemen with the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and California Angels. (He never actually played a single game at shortstop in the major leagues.) According to his wife, he was forced to retire from playing in 1998 because of the onset of the disease that eventually claimed his life. Nicknamed “Café” because of his love of Venezuelan coffee, Martinez batted .258 with 25 home runs, with one of his home runs gaining national notoriety because of unusual circumstances. Playing for the Indians at the time, Martinez lofted a fly ball to right field that bounced off of the head of Texas Rangers outfielder Jose Canseco for a home run. 

Mike Naymick (Died on Oct. 12, 2005 in Stockton, California; age 89): A six-foot, eight-inch right-hander, Naymick finished his career with a record of 5-7 and an ERA of 3.93 in just over 112 innings pitched. He made his debut in 1939 with the Cleveland Indians, with whom he spent the majority of his big league career. His best season came in 1943, when he posted an ERA of 3.10 in 29 games, split eight decisions, and notched two saves. He pitched in 29 games, including four starts, and finished with a 4-4 record, two saves, and a 3.10 ERA. His career ended in 1944, after a short stint with the St. Louis Browns. 

Bruce Markusen is the author of the forthcoming book, The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, which is scheduled for release in May by Westholme Publishing. Markusen can be heard periodically on ESPNews’ Hot List with Brian Kenny and every Wednesday morning at 11:00 am on WHAM Radio (1180 AM) in Rochester, New York, discussing the latest issues in baseball.