Written by Bill Bumgarner, NewOrleans.Com Prep Sports Contributor
| Monday, 09 November 2009 12:36
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Pro Baseball News
Two of the most influential people behind my personal allegiance to the Bronx pinstripers who claimed the World Series on Nov. 4 were my late father Leo, who passed away in 1991, and my 6th-grade teacher Mary Puissegur.
As far back as my failing memory serves me, my father and I spent every Saturday morning engaged in yard work -- mowing, edging and raking -- before we would retire to our den for lunch and the Saturday Game of the Week, one featuring the comical Hall of Fame pair, Dizzy Dean and his sidekick Pee Wee Reese on CBS. The NBC Game of the Week showcased the hilarious Joe Garagiola. One felt fortunate to have two Saturday games being broadcast in those days. Ditto for a Sunday game.
Every season, on the eve of the first game, Dizzy would ask Reese, "Pee Wee, you do you like in the National League?" He didn't bother with the American League as its fate was all but determined.
My devoted-Yankee-fan father pulled for Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford. Like every other young hero worshipper, I pulled for Mickey Mantle and, for some unknown reason, a smallish lefthander named Bobby Schantz.
To show how baseball was woven deep into the fabric of America in the 1960's, my teacher at Metairie Grammar allowed the boys in class to retire to the back of the classroom during the World Series where we either watched the afternoon games via black and white television or listened on the radio. The girls, meanwhile, continued with their regular classroom activities. Had Helen Gurly Brown heard about this disparity in treatment, she likely would have belted Ms. Puissegur with a rolled up copy of Cosmopolitan magazine.
After the Yankees dispensed with the pesky Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Times rated all 27 championship teams, dividing them into six categories, from "Pretenders" to the "Greatest Ever" (The 1927 Yankees were No. 1). The recent champions garnered placement under "Strong Showing" and were rated No.12 of the 27 Series victors.
Personally, I thought this was one of the least capable Yankee teams of all time for two primary reasons that the otherwise excellent Fox broadcast team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver never semed to grasp. The Yankees could not hit with runners in scoring position and their pitchers could rarely get ahead in the count, with the exception of reliever Mariano Rivera.
Regardless of what statistics Fox or the Elias Sports Bureau provided, those numbers were usually based on 162 games which means they are skewed because all hitters have the opportunity to face the pitching dregs of the league, many of whom belong in the minors.
Accomplished hitters are those who perform in clutch situations, with runners on base, against quality teams, against quality pitchers, in crucial games.
For all of their offensive contributions, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher could have stayed home, athough Teixeira was brilliant afield with his glove. And consider this: the final game ended with the Yankees sporting an outfield of Swisher, Jerry Hairston, Jr. and Brett Gardner, hardly Murderer's Row.
The Yankees prevailed because the Minnesota Twins were but an average team. The California Angels certainly had the capabilities to eliminate New York but the Angels were undone by shoddy fielding and baserunning. And the Phillies lacked pitching depth overall and offensive production from lefty slugger Ryan Howard who had to face lefties CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte, a problem that never seemed to bother Phillies teammate Chase Utley.
When Rivera appropriately retired the final out in Game 6, the annual hue and cry of another "bought" World Series began immediately.
That makes me chuckle. After all, did not the Yankees' payroll run into countless millions the past nine seasons (See Carl Pavano), a span that netted them no titles?
And so we are to believe that other teams in the major leagues, given a fan base in the U.S. and around the world that numbers in the tens of millions, a team whose championship heritage dates back to the 1920's, a team with its own television station, a team whose 'NY' logo appears on millions of caps and shirts, should sit idly by every year and rely on the draft and minor leagues for personnel, doing nothing to take advantage of these opportunities?
Would baseball benefit by more parity? Certainly. But look back at the small-market World Series champion Florida Marlins who disbanded that team before the champagne had dried. The Yankees do what the Red Sox, the Mets, the White Sox, the Cubs, the Braves, the Angels, the Cardinals and the Dodgers do monetarily toward free agents, which is what every other team would emulate if it could. But those other teams do not have fans willing to fork over $2,000 for a one-game ticket and jam Yankee Stadium on a regular basis at ridiculously high turnstile prices?
And by the way, did the Lakers draft Shaq? Did the Celtics draft Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen? Did the Red Sox draft Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez?
And didn't that formerly forlorn pro football team that performs on Poydras Street fork over $60 million to a physically-questionable quarterback from San Diego? Where would the Saints be today without free agent Drew Brees? Ever hear of owner Tom Benson being accused of "buying" a championship?
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Just a thought: Despite the heated animosity that exists between the Yankees and Red Sox fans, what Boston fan could dislike Lou Gehrig and Derek Jeter, and what Yankees fan could dislike Yaz and Ted Williams? Maybe this mellowing comes with advanced age.
