(1) Why do you love baseball?
In my best moments, as I flutter awake or asleep, I can feel it. Rolling through my body like high tide in a tsunami, the sensation is silent, colorless. Radiating across my form, I feel the impact of the ball on the bat. I recall those perfect instants when the two bodies remain in contact. I pause the world and allow the visceral grace to echo through me, exploding from my center to the top of my head and the tips of my fingers.
I’m 12 years old and the soft sunlight of a late summer Sunday has just begun to fade toward twilight. My father, having completed the lawn’s weekly manicure, stands, fungo bat in hand, as I crouch and stare in at him. The smell of the grass lingers on the periphery and I hear, in the distance, a child’s shrieking exclamations of joy. I tense my left hand, opening and closing the glove that has enveloped it and pound my throwing hand into the pocket. The crack is followed by a quick, sharp inhalation. Then my feet begin to move and I’m sprinting to meet the ball in mid-air.
There are moments in history that people recall with crystal clarity. They know where they were, what they were doing and how much change jingled in their pants pockets. Some recall this for the moon landing or the Miracle on Ice, other for less joyous occasions. For me it is October 26th, 1997. I pace. The mantra running through my head is “You gotta have faith. You gotta have faith.” The dorm’s kitchen holds a flickering television, the only one that I could get to, and I am bouncing a rubber ball. I am alone. On the screen Charles Nagy comes plateward with an 0-1 pitch to Edgar Renteria. The rest is merely history.
I love baseball because it embodies everything that I love about the world. A rare balance of intellect and physical skill, baseball is the ultimate fraternity. Each brief inning is a gift to be cherished, though the innings will run forever. There is always next year, always another ball to rub between calloused hands to get the grip just right. There will be another walk-off, another swinging third on a high hard one, another magical 8th inning when the midges descend off of Lake Erie and the unimaginable occurs. Perhaps not the last and therein we find the other side of the coin. Never again will the stars align to bring such an unlikely scenario to pass. Baseball is fantasy incarnate. Dreams come true on every pitched ball.
Regardless of whether I am sliding headfirst into third, screaming myself horse in the bleachers, arguing who should play left field or having a catch with my dad, baseball is simply good. Each February when the trucks roll out and the players report, it feels as if a weight has been lifted. My smiles are broader and my steps lighter because, once again, baseball has returned.(2) What will the biggest story of the 2011 MLB season?
Major League Baseball chooses to exist without the restriction of a salary cap. Thus, the team with the highest payroll (Yankees, $202 million) is able to spend almost five times as much as the team with the lowest (Padres, $44 million). While there are positions on either side of the salary cap issue, I shall take neither. More relevantly, the biggest MLB story of 2011 will be the New York Yankees, and their $200 million payroll, missing the playoffs. In a vastly improved AL East, the Steinbrenners’ aging roster will face a host of hurdles as spring summers to autumn.
I do not assert that the Bombers have a poor team. Their collection of offensive talent remains impressive and CC Sabathia is a top tier ace. The “shock and awe” factor, though, is gone from the Bronx. A perfect storm of age (Posada, Jeter, A-Rod), inconsistency (Burnett, Granderson, Chamberlain) and departure (Pettitte, Berkman, Wood) has exposed a severely depleted farm system. Given, also, the lack of any significant off-season acquisitions, the Yankees will be hard pressed to match 2010’s results.
The more serious issue is that their AL East fellows have become more formidable. The Red Sox’ upgrades (Gonzalez, Crawford, Jenks) are well documented. Boston is the pick of many experts to win the AL pennant. In addition, the Baltimore Orioles have infused a great deal of talent since season’s end. While the O’s are likely not in the mix for the wild card, if their young pitching (Arrietta, Matusz, Tillman) develops alongside the production of the new faces (Guerrero, Lee, Reynolds, Gregg, Hardy), Baltimore will take wins away from the Yankees. The unbalanced scheduling leaves New York particularly susceptible. Similarly, while they lost key offensive pieces, the Tampa Bay Rays’ rotation remains one of the best and they have retained, arguably, the most talented third baseman in the league. So, the Yankees are losing series instead of winning them, taking two of three rather than sweeping. All of this synthesizes to a season with too few wins.
The question becomes, “What can the Yankees do about it?” The answer is very little, outside of crossing their fingers. The aforementioned farm system offers little in the way of either trade bait or immediate assistance. Although they have an unprecedented three catchers (Jesus Montero, Gary Sanchez, Austin Romine) ranked in the Baseball America Top 100 prospects, at least one of them projects as a designated hitter and they need to keep another as their own backstop of the future. Outside of this bevy, the pickings are slim, limited to a handful of pitchers that the Yankees will hang onto unless they’re betting the farm on 2011. Hank and Hal will likely steer clear so early in their tenure.
Simply put, the Yanks could make the playoffs in 2011, but absolutely every card would have to fall their way. Barring such a turn of luck, the Yankees will be on the outside looking in for only the second time since the strike.
Cheers.
