Beginning of the Season
by David Fleitz
Random thoughts on the beginning of the season:
Shouldn't somebody at least talk to Tony Phillips? Does he have to do his
crazy act in every single game? When Phillips got ejected again Monday, Ken
Harrelson on WGN said that "aggression is an important part of Tony's game."
Maybe, but he hurts the White Sox much more than he used to hurt the Tigers.
Maybe Sparky Anderson kept a better lid on him than Terry Bevington does.
Each new stadium that opens seems to be better than the last one. Too bad
the White Sox built theirs first, because they sure have a lot of empty seats.
I'm only going to say this once. The reason that World Series games are
no longer played during the day is that THE TV RATINGS WOULD BE TERRIBLE IF
THEY WERE. Times have changed, folks, so get used to it and stop whining.
Speaking of ratings, how come people make a big deal of baseball's lower
TV numbers, but hardly anyone mentioned that the NCAA tournament this year had
one of its lowest ratings in history? So did the Oscars. Ratings on the
networks, for sports and entertainment and news, will keep going down as long
as more channels are added to cable systems.
My obligatory Jackie Robinson story is this: There was a man in the town
where I grew up who loved talking about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and was once
the biggest baseball fan on earth. But, he said, he gave up baseball in April
1947 because the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, and he just couldn't bear
watching his beloved sport if it was no longer all white.
Just think of everything he missed, from Bobby Thompson's homer in 1951 to
Mantle and Maris, Hank Aaron's 715th, the Amazing Mets, the entire careers of
Mays, Clemente, and Griffey Jr., Ripken's 2131st game, Rose's winning run in
the 1970 All-Star Game, and any number of other great moments. That man was
too busy being a racist to pay any attention, and he missed all of it. What a
jerk.
The Reds are 6-15, the whole team hates Ray Knight, and they're trying to
get fan support for a new stadium. Do you think Sparky will be back before
the All-Star break?
Is Tommy Lasorda really going to stay retired? Wouldn't it be
embarrassing to elect him to the Hall of Fame and then see him come out of
retirement? Word from LA is that Tommy thinks Bill Russell shoved him out
the door, and the two men no longer speak.
I saw a Cubs game on WGN last week, and I hate to say this, but Harry's
gotta go. His voice is grating, and he makes too many mistakes to ignore
anymore. When the pitcher was up Harry said, "We may be looking for a bunt
now." There were two outs at the time.
At the same time, Detroit's Ernie Harwell is 79, is in his 50th year of
broadcasting and is as good as ever.
Getting Ozzie Smith to replace Mel Allen on "This Week in Baseball" is the
best idea that baseball's PR people have had in ages. Ozzie can get inside
the heads of the players (like he did with Albert Belle last week), and if
there's something baseball can use, it's a more friendly, human image for its
players. Finally, baseball does something right.
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Created: 10/21/96 Updated:
4/28/97