Oh, baseball. Such a grand game, yet one in such conflict with itself.
As is the case with the NFL, MLB finds itself re-examining its essence. In pro football, the issue is the game's violent nature, the one The Shield used to market itself to a an eager nation of fans starting in the 50's and 60's as it got TV traction. Hey, it said, isn't fun watching bones snap and heads come off every Sunday after church? Pay no attention to the attrition rate or what happens to these guys after they hobble off the gridiron. Bring on the fresh meat and hey, there's another game Sunday!
Baseball is in conflict with its past as it tries to sell itself to the future. “Unwritten rules” that made it quaint to fans and sacred to the guys who played it now run in contrast to what fans supposedly want to see. An industry that policed itself against show-boaters and others deemed “bigger than the game” is having to cope with ratings issues and increased competition for eyeballs, so much so that there's a push to rid the pasttime of what some deem its arcane ways.
Until, of course, today's baseball's practitioners revert to old-school ways.
That's what happened a few days ago in Chicago when White Sox hitter Tim Anderson celebrated a prodigious home run with an equally energetic flip of his bat toward the Pale Hose dugout. The same K.C. pitcher he took yard was there to greet Anderson's next at-bat with a plunking of the slugger's tuckus. Anderson took predictable umbridge, benches predicatbly cleared, gums predictably flapped, combatants went through the tired old “boy-you're-lucky-my-teammates-are-holding-me-back” posturing. Making this scrum unique was the jawing between the respective skippers which added extra sauce.Â
And, what happened to Anderson afterward. MLB suspended him for a game. Some found that egregious, their thinking being that he got busted for having the audacity to flip a bat, or that he got sat down because he did what anyone else would do after getting drilled his next time up.  New ESPN reporting suggests his sit-down is the result of something else. If true, it could add a fresh layer to what happened. As it is, the incident points to an inconsistency in what MLB is marketing and what players on the feel are executing.
“Let The Kids Play” ads suggest baseball's embrace of new ways including bat flips and smack talk, its disengagement with “unwritten rules” and the spewing of cliches. Oh, cliches. Anyone who ever schlepped a notepad or mike around an MLB locker room in days of yore knows you could almost write down post-game quotes BEFORE you penned your day-after recap, with players reactions as predictable as the forthcoming sunrise. Don't give the others guys “bulletin board” material, the thinking went.
Do clubhouses even HAVE bulletin boards anymore in the age of social media where smack talk moves at the speed of light, not at the pushing of a thumb tack?Â
Remember the grief the Brewers got after Prince Fielder's epic home run celebration ten years ago? Or the crap they got from the game's self-appointed overlords, the St.Louis Cardinals, for having the audacity to un-tuck their jerseys after a win? Nver mind Ozzie's back-flips to shortstop before every game in the 80's. THAT was fine in Redbird nation, but gawd forbid someone else have fun when the Cards aren't.Â
We digress.
Chicago would suggst the kids themselves don't want to play by the new rules. Royals pitcher Brad Keller did his best Dizzy Dean imitation that day, reverting to the unwritten rule that dictates he who shows me up gets plunked his next time up. Or, worse yet, the guy who follows him in the batting order, making the offender's teammate an unwitting victim of his collegue's braggadocio. Are today's players–all of them–willing to abandon the old ways? Do today's fans want that? Do they dig on the old ways, or do they want to see the bat flips, crotch grabs and dig-me 'tudes marketers say baseball needs to draw attract younger eyes. Or, do the folks in the seats want it both ways–gimme that old school enforcement/new era approach and let's see what happens when the two collide!Â
To its credit, baseball is selling its stars, dating back to the “Chicks Dig Longball” campaign of the post-strike era. Too bad the times were fueled by juice.Â
Oops.
The NFL keeps struggling with fun–it allows the Lambeau Leap and is grudgingly accepting other post TD celebrations but dammit, keep that helmet on as you shimmy in the end zone lest it cost you big dollars. The NBA is an Associaton BUILT on stars and has been since the only game you could see on TV was the Celtics every Sunday afternoon–in black and white. It worked for pro hoop just fine for quite a while–forget that stretch in the late 70's when the NBA couldn't even get it's title games in network prime time–and still sells today, to the point where MLB would like its taste.
It may happen, but first the game and its players have to come to terms with just what the term “Let The Kids Play” means, what the definition of “fun” is and who's allowed to have it. Until then, those fancy ads are just an added 30 seconds to a game some think already runs too long on a nightly basis.
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