Baseballhead:
To Beane Or Not To Beane

Michael Cox

It's an abbreviated version of the ol' Baseballhead this week, but not to fret because the Strikethree.com Baseball Awards are up and I'm guessing you haven't given them the ol' once-over yet.

Also, it's that doldrummy time of the baseball year, when the big-ticket free agents still haven't decided where they're going to end up (while all the New York tabloids say they're coming to New York), arbitration offerings haven't started, and no one knows for sure what their 25-man roster is so no one's making trades. Instead we get things like the Mariners re-signing Dan Wilson using the money they refused to pay Edgar Martinez (possibly even working in a "mwahahahahaaaaa" in the process).

Heck, even the end-of-season awards have been/are pretty much all locks this year, unless you think the writers are going to stiff A-Rod (a phrase which in and of itself should make sportswriters uncomfortable). The only recent anticipation involved which band t-shirt Barry Zito would wear to his press conference. (For the record, it was Ben Folds, likely prompting the middle-aged baseball writers to ask exactly what Ben could have been folding to warrant a t-shirt.)

The frustrating thing is that there's actually baseball going on right now, with a team of the best MLB position players (and whatever pitchers they could scrape up) facing the cream of Nippon Professional Baseball, including free agent slugger Hideki Matsui. But can you or I watch it? No sir. No live broadcasts (c'mon, it's only a 1 am PT start), no tape delays, no radio. Does all-star baseball really draw such low cable ratings that ESPN and FOX Sports Net would rather run repeats of "Bass Masters"?

In fact, the only way you can follow the games in a play-by-play manner is to purchase the MLB.com "Total Ticket" package, which in November is kind of like subscribing to a bikini-of-the-week club in, well, November. Even those of us who anted up for MLB's reasonably priced audio feeds don't get access. It's like they're trying to keep the series a secret.

Seriously -- am I the only one who really wants to be able to see this series? Is it just me being driven crazy that there are Japanese TV crews actually covering every one of these games, yet no one over here can take the time to grab a satellite feed and let a second-string commentator (hi there Thom Brennaman) describe the action? Okay, they'll have to do a PAL-to-NTSC video conversion, but geez.

I mean, c'mon! Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi went back-to-back twice in Game 1, and most of us found out about it by reading the USA Today a day later! How is this not worth televising, unless...er, unless perhaps MLB held out for too much money in rights fees, and the networks responded with the words "pound sand"?

No, the only thing resembling baseball excitement stateside is the management shuffle that has coaches flying like foreign objects in the Yankee Stadium bleachers. Most notable are one manager who's definitely leaving, and one GM who's definitely staying. Of course, I'm speaking of Dusty Baker and Billy Beane.

Baker and the Giants parted ways after an attempted reconciliation with owner Peter Magowan which may or may not have ended in fisticuffs. (Note that by saying "may or may not," I require no evidence at all! Hey, I could work for the New York Daily News!) So far the only team to have asked for an interview is the Cubs, with Mariners GM Pat Gillick stating Baker "is not a good fit for our ballclub." Unfortunately for Seattle fans, Gillick believes that Jim Riggleman and Buddy Bell are a good fit.

More exciting was the report that the Red Sox, possibly on the advice of recently hired statistician Bill James, had lured GM Billy Beane away from the A's in return for some form of compensation. However, mere hours later the report was reversed, with Beane having "left a very attractive [Red Sox] offer on the table," according to A's spokesman "Mighty" Jim Young.

There are two questions that come to mind: First, what did the Red Sox offer in compensation that would make the A's willing to part with the six years left on Beane's contract? Hey, the Boston fans have been souring on Manny Ramirez...

Second, what in DeNiro's name made Beane want to remain in Oakland? Actually, in a way that one might be easy to explain -- if the Red Sox bowed out in the first round three years running, fans would be outside Fenway with torches and pitchforks. In Oakland he has relative obscurity, few expectations, great co-workers (teams are already lining up to have a shot at assistant Paul DePodesta) and owners who are as freaked as anyone else that the team has been so good (and showed it by offering Beane a million-bazillion-year contract).

Add a family-related reason for the media, and stir. Tastes a lot like TheraFlu.

about the author

Michael Cox could never work in Boston, because his cat is in Seattle. Suggest he should perhaps get out a bit more at mc@strikethree.com.