Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - June 25, 2013

Should fans combine their love for a team with the need to heal from a tragedy? Some fans do. Others don't. And both sides should respect the other.

That topic and more on today's episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.


Yasiel Puig, Jeremy Hellickson, Cliff Lee and Michael Brantley all owned baseball on June 24, 2013.


To see the up to date tally of "Who Owns Baseball?," click HERE.

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Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - June 25, 2013

Hats

Here's how long Mets owner Fred Wilpon conversation should have been with Bud Selig regarding September 11th first responder hats on the 10th anniversary.

WILPON: Mr. Commissioner. We want to wear hats honoring the NYPD, fire department and Port Authority on September 11th.

SELIG: During the game?

WILPON: Yes.

SELIG: Well all the teams are wearing special September 11th hats that day already. We don't like having teams wearing unofficial uniforms during a game.

WILPON: I understand, but we are a New York team and there will no doubt be fire fighters, police officers, rescue workers who were at the Towers that day at CitiField. And also relatives and friends of those who didn't make it. And we'd like to show a sign of solidarity on this 10th anniversary.

SELIG: What if we had every team change their hats on a whim?

WILPON: What other city had a September 11th? If the Nationals wanted to do something, they should. That's up to them. But September 11th was unique and this is the 10th anniversary and we are the only team playing in New York. I think an exception can be made.

SELIG: You aren't going to sell the hats or try any September 11th merchandise, are you?

WILPON: No. Certainly not.

SELIG: And it is JUST for September 11th, not the whole weekend?

WILPON: Just the Sunday night game.

SELIG: Well, I can't see how that's a problem. It's a nice gesture. Go ahead.

WILPON: Thank you Mr. Commissioner.


Boom!

All the bases covered.
That conversation would last, what? A minute? 90 seconds?

The fact that it WASN'T that simple and it has turned into a "He Said... She Said" spat involving rules that may or may not have been enforced, fines the Mets were worried they had to pay and Bud Selig was mad that it became public shows how incompetent the two parties.

Those parties of course being the Mets organization, who took every baseball advantage in the world and ran the team into the ground... and Bud Selig who every day finds new reasons to want to throw him out of office. How could Selig not see this was the right thing to do?

And of course Joe Torre was thrown into the middle of this, trying to destroy whatever good will is left for him in New York.

A simple thoughtful act of wearing a hat to honor the memories of brave men and women instead became a nice barometer of people who have lost perspective.

And frankly it is kind of fascinating.

Quite a night...

Well, call me crazy but the events of tonight have kind of distracted me from writing up my thoughts on the Indians latest win and the great game in Philadelphia.

It should be a night of reflection, some celebration, some sadness for those who are gone and some closure. I am feeling a little of all tonight.

I am sure I am not alone.

Don't make today worse

I usually stick to baseball and whatever silly obsession has my attention... but I can't let today just come and go.

Last year I wrote about how I hated this day on the calendar. I feel this day should be one for reflection and to not take things in life for granted.

And more importantly it is a day to remember that the worst events can bring out the best in people. As someone who lived in New York on that day, I saw how people reacted to an unspeakable tragedy with resolve, dignity and a compassion that made me realize that there is more good than bad in humanity.

However, I am seeing people using this date to bring out the worst in people... bigotry, ugly politics, paranoia, outlandish conspiracy theories, using the event to justify ignorance and xenophobia.

Knock it off!
Wasn't there enough REAL anger, REAL fear, REAL conspiracy and REAL hatred caused on that day to last a lifetime, let alone less than a decade?

Shouldn't the lesson of that day be that New York and by extension America is a place where, even under the worst adverse catastrophes, can overcome and work together no matter what your ancestry and no matter what God you pray to or whether or not you pray to one at all.

You want to send a middle finger to the thugs to forever altered the skyline I loved so much as a kid? Then show them that not only are we still strong, but we won't crumble to fear and paranoia.

Baseball played a huge part of healing after September 11th. And baseball is going to be the topic for the rest of my posts this month. But there has been enough pain for September 11.

Let's make it about healing and our resolve.

Give to The Children of September 11... or the Officer Down Memorial... or to your local police or fire departments.

Now back to baseball.

Remembering Bryan Harvey

It is fitting that Derek Jeter is probably going to pass Lou Gehrig to become the Yankees All Time hits leader in Yankee Stadium on September 11th.

Jeter means as much to New York as any person in the past decade.
Gehrig was the native New Yorker who brought dignity and class to the Yankees.
And this date will of course always be linked with the city.

It has the potential of being one of the great Yankee moments and as usual, Jeter gets it.

“I’m happy that I was able to do it here at home,” Jeter said. “We had so many special moments across the street. Hopefully this is the first of many memorable moments here at the new stadium.”

He is a true Yankee legend, cementing his place in the team’s lore (as if he needed it.)

So why am I thinking about Bryan Harvey?

You remember Bryan Harvey, don’t you?

He was darn good closer for the Angels and the Marlins in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He got Cy Young votes in 1991 and 1993 and won the Rolaids Relief Award in 1991.

Currently he is the pitching coach for the Tulsa Dillers in the Rockies organization and his son is a pitching prospect.

According to Derek Jeter’s interview with Michael Kay on CenterStage, as a minor leaguer he was almost traded to the Florida Marlins for Bryan Harvey.

The trade would have made sense seeing that the Yankees desperately needed a closer and Jeter was a few years away from making the team.

It was one of those trades that used to be made all of the time in Yankee land. A young player is shipped off for a recognizable player… and soon former Yankee farm hands like Doug Drabek, Willie McGee, Greg Gagne, Jose Rijo and Jay Buhner star for other teams while the veterans break down in the Bronx.

Of course injuries ended Harvey’s career after one game in the 1995 season. Jeter was called up later that year where he backed up veteran Tony Fernandez.

An injury to Fernandez opened up the shortstop position for Jeter and he won Rookie of the Year and played a big part in the 1996 World Series title… and then the 98 title and the 99 title and the 2000 title and the 2001 and 2003 pennants…

He became bigger than any superstar that George imported.

He became the most loved home grown Yankee since Thurman Munson.

And to think he could have been a Marlin… and inevitably been traded elsewhere when he asked for a bigger contract.

Or he could have been fit in with a smaller team and become like Michael Young… a star player that nobody had heard of.

Perhaps he would never have been a star!
Some people just click in right environment.

Dave Stewart was a mediocre spot starter and middle reliever bouncing between the Dodgers, Phillies and Rangers. He went to Oakland and became a Cy Young candidate and World Series MVP.

Of course there are critics of Jeter who say he is overrated and start blathering stats… obviously not watching all of the big rallys he contributes to and all the big plays he’s made over the years.

Others say “Well if the Yankees had Nomar or Tejada or Vizquel or A-Rod instead of Jeter, they would have won just as many titles.”

How do they know that?
Don’t they see the number of teams that think they can slap together stars to win instantly… only to see the teams fall on their face. (Go look at the team in Queens if you don’t know what I mean.)

And who knows what makes the perfect combination for a winning team? Those Yankees championship teams won year in and year out during the steroid era without a single player hitting more than 30 homers. They did it without an MVP or a Cy Young winner in the title years. And statistically you could find better players at every position…

Yet somehow they had the right combination to win.

Take Jeter out and replace him with someone else, you may not have the right mix.

It’s like saying “The Godfather” would have been as good if Harvey Keitel played Tom Hagen instead of Robert Duvall. Heck he’s not the main character and Keitel is good!

Yeah, but would it mess up the balance of the movie? Would the scenes with Sonny work as well? Would the scenes telling the Don about Sonny’s death have worked as well?

We’ll never know if another shortstop could have done the job as well as Jeter. What we DO know is that it worked in a spectacular manner.

And I also know that Yankee fans would have been denied this night if Bryan Harvey became a Yankee in 1994.

I hate this day

I am not going to get morbid. This is a fun blog and there are writers much more able than me who are writing profound things about this day.

But as one of the millions who were in New York that day, this date will never just be another day on the calendar. And it is worth taking a moment to stop and remember all of the emotions that we felt that morning and the days, months and years afterward.

Support groups like Families of September 11 and The Officer Down Memorial Page... and cherish the things that are truly important to you.

I'll go back to writing goofy baseball posts... 

But I would be remiss if I didn't take this time today.