It has been a holiday tradition in This Space, but for some reason, it’s been overlooked for two of the last three years. It is the annual column devoted to readers’ responses to various columns, the readers’ Christmas gift to the columnist — or, as I refer to it internally, the Easiest Column of the Year.
(But no, this doesn’t mean I’m choosing from three years worth of emails. I’m a little more selective than that.)
As always, I thank you for reading, and for responding — even when you disagree — but the ground rules remain the same as always: The columnist always reserves the right to have the last word.
• The recent idea, floated (and then deflated) by baseball commissioner Rob Manfred of a “golden at-bat,” one-plate appearance where the offensive team could send whoever it wanted to the plate regardless of the batting order, brought lots of reaction.
“How about adding an out for every pitching change?” asked frequent (and sometimes argumentative) correspondent Bob Munson of Newbury Park. “This will force managers to keep their pitchers in the game. The pitchers will throw more strikes so they can get to the latter innings. The result? More balls batted and more action. The game loses me when the pitcher strikes out a batter with no one on and then is replaced.”
Rodger Clarke of Santa Ana added this observation: “Is the commish on some new meds? He needs to focus on other matters such as taking care of some of the older retired players.”
Janet Cerswell of Alta Loma noted that she had “finally come to terms with the changes baseball has made — universal DH, pitcher time clocks, etc. I do like the anti-shift idea, but I hate the stupid ghost runner in extra innings. The Commissioner seems to want to make baseball into some kind of video game, to try to get the games down to about an hour and a half, probably to try to entice youngsters with short attention spans.
Manfred really has no understanding about what makes baseball so unique. We just had a fantastic World Series, with all the excitement and drama you could ask for. Please, no more changes!”
And, she added, “to reward an ownership that ran a franchise into the ground, like he did with the Oakland A’s, is a perfect example of his so-called leadership.”
Can’t disagree with that. (And, as an aside, I’m still convinced the A’s proposed move to Las Vegas is somehow going to fall through.)
• The Dodgers’ World Series championship brought plenty of comment, as you might have expected — much of it regarding payroll disparities, deferred money, etc.
“The Dodgers should be grateful that the Federal Government no longer enforces the Sherman Anti Trust Law,” wrote Dan Ford of Encino. “They shouldn’t be allowed to own both the team and the (almost) lone broadcast outlet.” (Remember, though, that if they’re in violation so are the Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox, just to name three.)
And, Ford added, “Don’t worry about Blake Snell. As soon as he signs the contract and cashes his check, like all Dodger pitchers, he will go straight to the injured reserve list. ... Besides, even in the unlikely event he’s healthy, they will let him pitch 3 or 4 innings per game.”
John Reifer discussed what he saw as one byproduct of the Dodgers’ willingness to spend: “Last few years watching the Dodgers I don’t get excited, I see an all-star team that should win every night. Honestly, this (postseason he) found myself pulling for Padres in playoffs. Think I would have favored another American League team in the World Series if it wasn’t the Yankees.”
But how can we say it was preordained when the Dodgers went through 40 pitchers overall, used 17 different starters, and had only one of their projected starters available for the postseason?
Don Heilbrun of Anaheim wrote: “So, the Dodgers bought themselves a World Series. It just goes to show you what a farce Major League Baseball is. If you want to become really famous write about how the top 10 teams’ average payroll is around $235 million while the bottom 20 teams’ average payroll is roughly $116 million. A couple of small market teams have about as good a chance of winning the lotto than winning the World Series. Major League Baseball needs a players/owner’s contract that is similar to the National Football League and the National Hockey League.”
There’s a good reason why the MLBPA resists to the death when a salary cap is proposed: It benefits the billionaire owners at the expense of the millionaire players, and in a lot of cases those teams in the bottom tier can spend more but choose not to. (And, often, they also pinch pennies in scouting, player development, etc.) This is a billion-dollar industry, and the bulk of the revenue-sharing mechanism is funded by the teams at the top of the payroll list — including the Dodgers — and when owners who receive that money don’t spend to improve their teams, whose fault is that?
Mike Zmudzinski, responding to the signing of Snell — whose last two teams were the Padres and Giants — noted that in years past the Dodgers acquired former Giants (i.e. villains) Juan Marichal and Sal Maglie, adding: “So don’t be surprised that LA will sign anybody that can contribute, even players from the REAL evil empire, SF.”
• Oh, and Dave Roberts is always a lightning rod. Even after two World Series championships in five seasons, the critics still criticize. To that, Ron Epstein offered this rebuttal: “He’s been one of my favorites for all the reasons you mentioned, namely how well he communicates with players. Such an important skill. ... Dave is a mixture of all that is good with managers. He played, so he knows what it’s like. He was a hustler/grinder, never a star, so he knows the importance of treating everyone with respect. And he’s a team builder. No easy task. One more thing: He’s receptive to, and uses analytics.
“I shake my head when I hear/read people criticize Dave. He’s a super talented guy, succeeding in a very difficult job.”
• The other teams in this market that tend to drive conversations, the Lakers and USC football, have given their fans plenty to grouse about in recent seasons. So it’s business as usual there.
This, from Tom Egan of Temecula, after USC’s victory over UCLA in November assured the Trojans of bowl eligibility: “The hard, cold facts, for an 82-year-old fan like me, is SC’s football program has been barely average for several years. I’m from the McKay, Robinson, and Carroll timeframes. And thus, very spoiled and very demanding.”
You aren’t alone. Bowl eligibility at USC should be a floor, not a ceiling.
And a correspondent identifying himself only as “Steve from Chino” took the Lakers organization to task in a pair of emails.
“I can’t wait for your worst and best sports franchises in SoCal” list, he wrote, calling the Lakers a “disaster” and zeroing in on owner Jeanie Buss and what he termed a “clueless” hierarchy. “...Somewhere in the chain of command there is poor scouting or something. ... Can you say disarray?”
That was on Nov. 26, when the Lakers were 10-7 and had just been blitzed in Phoenix. A week and a half later, responding to my note that Chick Hearn’s legendary criticism, “The Lakers are STANDING,” would be just as true today, Steve From Chino added: “I can also make reference to Chick Hearn’s call of a ‘Matador defense with El Toro charging through.’ So much need for improvement in so many areas.”
Yes, Laker fans’ expectations are demanding and sometimes harsh. But I think it’s a pretty solid consensus that the accountability here needs to start from the top.
• And one last item, from Tom Diefendorf: “I was disappointed to stumble upon the news of the death of Al Jury in the LA Times while finding no mention of him in the SB Sun, his hometown newspaper (at least his name does not come up in search results — if I somehow missed it I apologize). His name was mentioned many times in the Sun during the years he was active as an NFL referee and I feel news of his passing should be mentioned.”
Al Jury passed away last month at the age of 83, and most who remember him celebrate his 26 years as an NFL official — including five Super Bowl assignments and the Art McNally Award, presented by the league for career excellence — as well as his 28 years as a California Highway Patrol officer. I vividly remember his days as a high school and college official in the Inland Empire, as a guy who controlled a game as well as anyone I’d ever seen at that level. He joined the then Pac-8 football officiating staff in 1972 and was hired by the NFL six years later.
• And here’s the columnist’s absolute last word: Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice or Festivus (and if that’s the case I hope you were cautious with those Feats of Strength), may your holiday season be joyous, peaceful and safe.
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