Super Bowl Thoughts

The drinks are chilling in the beer fridge. The wing sauce is ready to go. And the snacks are piled high for Sunday's Super Bowl. That can mean only one thing: baseball is just around the corner.

Baseball, once the nation's pastime, has taken a back seat to NFL football as the sports fan's object of desire in the U.S. While over 100,000 people will be in Texas to watch the game in person on Sunday, hundreds of millions of others will watch it on television. In fact, with outsized ticket prices the NFL has become essentially television programming. Like Bones or Mad Men.

Really, when you come down to it, the only difference between Ben Roethlisberger or Aaron Rodgers on one hand and Jon Hamm or January Jones on the other is that the latter two have better tans.

When you compare football and baseball you get the impression, largely driven by Midwestern sports writers, that football is the more egalitarian, American sport, where each season every team has a chance to make the playoffs. Where on "any given Sunday," as the saying goes, a last place team can beat a first place team. This is because the NFL is the master of corporate socialism, where all teams essentially share in the same pot of money.

Baseball, on the other hand, is more like capitalism run amok, the land of the haves and have nots. A sport populated by the hated Yankees, the terminally trendy Red Sox, the uber-hip Dodgers and the lovable Cubs, who have made more money losing over the years than the Washington Generals.

Unlike in football, when the 2011 baseball season opens in six weeks teams like the Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals and probably six others will take the field knowing the season is already lost. Those same Midwestern sportswriters will intone gravely on SportsCenter that Major League Baseball is hopelessly flawed because of this dichotomy. Oh, why can't they be more like the socialist NFL and redistribute their wealth better so everyone gets a medal at the end of the season, they'll say.

But will that be true?

MLB writer Anthony Castrovince has a nice piece posted on MLB.com showing it's not true. That when it comes to "parity" baseball and football are, well, on par. And in some cases, baseball exceeds the forced equality of the more socialist NFL.

When it comes to Super Bowls and World Series over the last decade, for example, baseball and football have the exact same number of teams - 14 - compete for their sport's championship.

Since 1967, when Super Bowl I was contested, the NFL has crowned 18 different champions. But during the same period, baseball has had 20 separate teams make the ticker-tape parade.

[And forget about basketball. Over the last 30 years the NBA, which practices NFL-style wage controls, has seen an oligarchy of eight teams rotate the championship among themselves. Compare that to baseball. Eight teams have won the championship in the last nine years!]

"Yea," Royals and Pirates fans say. "But it's not all about championships. We'd be happy if our teams could just make the playoffs. But they can't because of those damn Yankees, trendy Red Sox and too-cool-for-school Dodgers."

Time to correct another misconception. Actually, the two sports are about equal when it comes to playoff opportunities. Over the last five years 75% of NFL teams have qualified for the playoffs. During that same period about 73% of baseball's teams have played in October - about the same percentage.

And, it's worth noting, that baseball has a better record when it comes to fresh faces being asked to the big dance. Since 2006 only 37.5% of playoff teams were able to make the baseball playoffs two years in a row. During the same period nearly half of football playoff teams were able to make it back to the tournament - a virtual hegemony.

And when you look at repeat playoff appearances over the last two years the two sports are virtually identical.

"But we're small market teams," whine the Royals and Pirates fans. "Why can't we have revenue sharing and wage controls like the NFL and NBA? We can possibly compete for players like the moneyed swells in New York or Boston or Los Angeles." Well, that's not exactly correct, either. Consider that:

• Eleven of the last 12 World Series slots have gone to different clubs
• Only two of the top nine spenders (in terms of Opening Day payroll) in 2010 reached the playoffs last fall
• And, more importantly, three of the bottom 12 teams in terms of payroll made it to October last season while their rich cousins watched them on TV

Baseball will never be football for one simple reason: 162 games vs. 16. In the NFL weaker teams from the previous year have their failure rewarded with weaker schedules. In a 16-game schedule it's conceivable that some of them sneak into the playoffs. Baseball, on the other hand, plays a 162 game schedule over a full half year. A death march that only the strong survive. Few teams can get by on luck for this long. By August the weak have been killed and eaten.

Thanks to Mr. Castrovince for these numbers. If you live in Pittsburgh or Kansas City, have hope.   If your teams manage smartly and trade wisely, they, too, will be in the playoffs. Look at Tampa Bay. All the money in the world can't make up for poor player personnel decisions, bonehead trades and unstable management.

Meanwhile, leave the difference between baseball and football to George Carlin.

Just thought you might like to know.

2722

With a right elbow tucked closely to his body and a quick flick of his wrists, Derek Jeter last night pushed a ball into right field--his trademark--and broke a baseball record that had stood for 72 years. With that hit Jeter has become the all-time hit leader of the New York Yankees--no mean feat on a 106-year old team that's known a hitter or two over that time period.

Perhaps more importantly to most baseball fans, along the way Jeter has set records for style, class and grace. This at a time when some teammates, let's face it, we're exhibiting behavior more at home with the Oakland Raiders than the most storied franchise in sports history.

Jeter's hit broke a record that had been held since 1939 by the gifted Lou Gehrig, who had the misfortune for many years to play second violin in a baseball orchestra conducted by Babe Ruth. In many ways Jeter and Gehrig are alike:

• Each was named captain of the Yankees--more than an honorific when you consider the team
• Both came from solid families that typified their eras: Gehrig from German immigrant parents who had come to New York to seek a better life; Jeter from a dual-income family of professionals in the American Midwest.
• Like Gehrig, Jeter is a quiet man in public, giving reporters no wisp of scandal or bulletin board fodder to feed to opposing teams. Over the years this firm quietude hurt both men. 
• Each displayed a blend of professionalism and determination on the field that is rare in sports. 

One big difference: To their credit the Yankees from the start were determined to avoid the mistake the team made with Gehrig, who toiled through his prime in the very large shadow of Babe Ruth. Just a few years after Ruth was cut loose to chase his dream of becoming a big league manager, Gehrig was tragically cut down by ALS. There was no doubt from 1996, when the Yankees gave the second most important field position on a baseball team to the 20-year old rookie from Kalamazoo to the present time, that this would be "Jeter's team."

Players who failed to grasp that concept found themselves ex-Yankees. When the Yankees gilded the lily and acquired Alex Rodriguez, arguably the best shortstop of his generation, Rodriguez signed on knowing that it was no deal unless he agreed to move to third base. Like a sandlot pickup game, shortstop was taken.

The Yankees are loved or hated by baseball fans because of their overarching sense of tradition, in a sport that has turned tradition into a $6 billion business. Fans see their team's sense of history as destiny. Opponents and their fans see it as smugness or worse. For good or bad there is always a sense of what it is to be a "Yankee." They are the only team with an Alumni Association. 

The Yankees' 1992 scouting report on the 18-year old high school player from Kalamazoo was short and to the point: He's a five-tool player. He's a Yankee.

Lou Gehrig has be shorn of two durable records: his record for consecutive games played by Cal Ripken, and his team leadership in hits by Jeter. It is ironic because while Jeter has a lot in common with Gehrig, he also has a lot in common with his contemporary Ripken:

• Both have been respected in opposing clubhouses as much as they've been in their own.
• Both share the same passion for excellence in baseball
• Both serve as role models to young baseball players and kids
• Both had an unparalleled flair for the dramatic
• Both exhibited the same class and professionalism on and off the field
• Both played for owners who were at times boorish and insensitive to the two team leaders

Ripken and Jeter, along with Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra, redefined the role of a shortstop on a team. Prior to their appearance in the major leagues, shortstop was typically manned by players nicknamed Pee Wee, Scooter or Rabbit--short, quick magicians known more for their gloves than their bats. Ripken and Jeter showed that six-foot tall three-sport athletes could get down on a ground ball as well as anyone, and could drive an offense as well. 

Baseball fans cherish the memory of Cal Ripken hitting a home run in his last All Star Game--like Gary Cooper riding off into the sunset. Over a long career, Jeter has exhibited a similar flair for the dramatic:

• Running across the diamond to intercept an errant throw against Oakland in 2001 and flipping it in one motion like a basket ball player to his catcher Jorge Posada, preserving a desperately needed playoff win
• An extra inning walk-off home run against Arizona in 2001 to preserve the World Series hopes for New Yorkers still reeling from 9-11
• Recklessly diving into the stands for a foul pop up against Boston in 2004 while the two teams were locked yet again in another steel cage death match pennant race 

Despite these accomplishments, Jeter prefers to be better known as a philanthropist. His Turn 2 Foundation is dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles among youngsters. In New York, in Tampa and in Michigan, it has awarded over $10 million in grants for initiatives that promote its goals. 

Derek Jeter is a surefire Hall of Famer. But perhaps his greatest legacy may be his foundation work. 

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An epilogue: In passing Lou Gehrig last night, Jeter was very modest and respectful of Lou Gehrig--almost overwhelmed by the event. But despite being dispossessed of two of the more enduring records in the game, Gehrig still owns a record that I think will outlive the game itself. 

In 1938 Lou Gehrig was battling the full blown symptoms of ALS, the disease that would soon take his life. Yet despite the illness, the Iron Horse managed to play in 157 games. He amassed 170 hits--better than a hit a game. He did strike out 75 times, the second highest number of Ks in one season in his career. But he poled 29 home runs and drove in 114 runs. Incredibly, a man who could not dress himself without assistance from his teammates and had trouble walking, stole 6 bases! He ended the season hitting .295--his second lowest batting average of his career, but remarkable for a man who would be dead in a couple of years. .295, 29 homers and 170 RBIs gets players MVP consideration today. 

No wonder they called him the Iron Horse!

Just thought you might like to know.