WASHINGTON — Union head Tony Clark and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred engaged in their annual one-hour-each, All-Star day press conference with baseball writers. Which is to say their yearly 120-minute itemizing of the sport’s ills.
The leaders merely amplify the soundtrack of the year. For MLB more than any sports league marinates in its shortcomings. Labor strife. Shifts. Homers and strikeouts on the rise. Attendance on the decline.
Manfred acknowledged, “The commentary about the game runs negative” because “those who care about it so much don’t want to see something bad happen to an American institution” and, therefore, hold stewards such as Manfred to a greater account.
But it feels institutional. At the first All-Star Game I covered in 1989 in Anaheim, Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register wrote a column in which former players lamented that the current successors were more interested in making money than anything else and stole bases up six runs against the unwritten rules and spent too much time on the DL. Yep, it has been on endless loop throughout the game’s history.
An Angel broadcaster at that time said: “I’m not one of those who’s always talking about the old days, but it would be hard for me to say the players weren’t better back then.” That was Joe Torre.
Whicker shunned the never-ending noise and cited that the Glory Days are now. He ended the piece: “There hasn’t been another Clemente. But the only Ozzie Smith who ever lived is here tonight.”
I agree. We glorify the past and fret the future so much that we miss a present in which the only Mookie Betts who ever lived was at Nationals Park on Tuesday night.
We have nostalgists who still tuck a Mickey Mantle card in a wallet. Yet, his most logical heir is playing. Now. And Mike Trout is embracing teammates and fans, not a highball glass of Cutty Sark.
In 1998 — 20 years ago — Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were chasing Roger Maris and the Yankees were en route to 114 regular-season wins. At that Coors Field All-Star Game there were 13 future Hall of Famers (14 when Derek Jeter joins in two years). But there also was a brewing stain with McGwire, Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro and Alex Rodriguez.
Were another 13 or 14 Hall of Famers at Nationals Park on Tuesday — minus the stain?
Chris Sale started his third straight All-Star Game and was arcing toward a seventh straight Cy Young top-six finish. For the second consecutive Midsummer Classic he opposed Max Scherzer, who might win his third straight Cy Young and fourth overall to join Clemens, Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux — who also started for the NL in that 1998 game.
Jose Altuve is a speedy, humble Pete Rose — a shift-defying hit machine. Buster Posey is Jeter’s winning and Gary Carter’s workman-like excellence. Nolan Arenado is Brooks Robinson on defense and Mike Schmidt on offense. And if you wondered what Wade Boggs with power looks like, do a deep dive on Joey Votto.
Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper did as much for the past two Home Run Derbies as any NBA dunk champion did for that event. It is a failure of the league and its union that the NBA wins the popularity contest so easily over its MLB contemporaries.
Because Lorenzo Cain is Draymond Green — a Swiss Army knife who helps win games in every way, every day. Jose Ramirez is Victor Oladipo — disrupting evaluations by blossoming into a star. Javy Baez is Kawhi Leonard — a defensive stalwart whose offensive game grows. And Francisco Lindor is Russell Westbrook — an energetic uber-athlete who redefines the possible within a game.
Sure there are too many strikeouts, but we can still appreciate Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman for whiffing the greatest percentage of hitters ever. Jon Lester is today’s Ron Guidry and Justin Verlander today’s John Smoltz. Freddie Freeman and Paul Goldschmidt are on the under-recognized metronome of greatness that starts here and may end in Cooperstown.
J.D. Martinez is Big Papi without the nickname yet — a Yoda-like figure who spins wisdom and big hits for the Red Sox. Jacob deGrom and Corey Kluber started late, but boy have they played catch up the past few years. And Manny Machado — shortstop, third base, Miami home — is having a season that would look just fine next to his shortstop, third base, Miami home idol A-Rod.
None of these guys were playing in 1989 or 1998 (an All-Star Game that included Bartolo Colon, by the way). But they were part of the Glory Days and the All-Star Game at Nationals Park on Tuesday night. So was the only Yadier Molina who has ever lived.
