HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

Could this be the final 10-year deal for a player who will reach his 40s during the term?  Probably not!  Two days ago, the Detroit Tigers signed Miguel Cabrera to an eight-year extension giving Miguel a complete 10-year contract collectively worth $292 million.  That total value currently exceeds all other MLB multi-year contracts, including these:
 
Alex Rodriguez/$275 million/10 years/Yankees
Albert Pujols/$240 million/10 years/Angels
Robinson Cano/$240 million/10 years/Mariners
Joey Votto/$225 million/10 years/Reds
Clayton Kershaw/$215/7 years/Dodgers
Prince Fielder/$214 million/9 years/Rangers (but, was with the Tigers the first few seasons during the contract)
Michael Trout/$144.5 million/6 years (extension)/Angels

The last player from the list above (Michael Trout) just received his contract extension today.  That extension brings him to the age of 29, which is still considered young in baseball.  He and Clayton Kershaw are the only 2 players of the 7 that will not be anywhere near or over the age of 40 like the rest.  Simply put, both of their contracts make sense to me; but, the others are ridiculous.

What’s even worse is that all baseball fans, owners, general managers, and just about everyone who reads a newspaper or watches the news just finished experiencing the ramifications of what everyone had characterized as the worst sports contract of all time - the contract of Alex Rodriguez.  As he rounded near the age of 40, his health and offensive numbers proved to diminish - even with the aid of Biogenesis drugs.  The Yankees will still be stuck with his contract through 2017.

Getting back to the Tigers - they seemingly realized the original mistake they made a few years ago when they signed Prince Fielder to a $214 million contact by recently trading him to the Rangers; but, within just a few months of dumping his salary, they went ballistic by overspending on Cabrera.  Not only will he be in his 40s, but they already had him contracted for 2 more years.  Hence, they clearly bid against themselves with such a high amount at this stage of Cabrera’s career.  They also lessened their spending abilities towards extending the contract of their soon-to-be free agent, Max Scherzer.  He’s younger and had an expiring contract, which required more immediate attention!  Somebody in Detroit, either their owner (Mike Ilitch) or their General Manager (Dave Dombrowski) just made a “costly” mistake!!

Will they or any of the other owners (who claim to have spending restrictions) ever prove to have learned their lessons?  Will players such as Cabrera, Pujols, Cano, Votto, and Fielder show their worth as they get near the end of their contracts?  Will some of them end up like A-Rod in relation to cheating?

Of course some of the questions above will ultimately have the answer “Yes” because of one main reason (one that most baseball team owners haven’t learned yet):  history repeats itself.

INSTANT REPLAY…INSTANT REPLAY

I am ecstatic that MLB, along with its teams, players, owners, and the Players' Union have all agreed to implement instant replays beyond just the homerun calls this upcoming season.  Some baseball purists are against it, but I believe that they shouldn't deny the usage of today’s available technologies.  In fact, by utilizing these technologies, we can actually have the “purest” results because instant replays will help alleviate human error and enable the game to gain more integrity for its history and fans.  We all know people make mistakes and that’s what makes us human; but, why do we have to continually consent to avoidable mistakes when there is technology that “people” made to reduce them?  Besides, ironically most of the umpires encourage its usage, as they want their own calls to be correct!

Like the majority of today’s baseball fans, I have been frustrated with many erroneous calls by umpires over the years.  We’ve had too many (probably thousands) of such calls that have caused games and changed baseball history.  Here are just three that involved New York and one standout that involved Detroit:

1955 World Series - Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson supposedly stole home and Yogi Berra went ballistic.  This play is still argued in today’s era.  (Umpire Bill Summers)

1996 ALCS - Yankees’ Derek Jeter’s called homerun with Jeffrey Maier reaching over the wall & coercing the ball into his grasp.  (Umpire Rich Garcia)

2010 Non-Perfect Game - Tigers’ Armando Galarraga seemingly achieves a perfect game on the last supposed out of the game with a standard groundout to first baseman Miguel Cabrera and the throw to Armando with the runner out by at least a foot.  (Umpire Jim Joyce - who later apologized & admitted he made a mistake)

2012 Mets’ 1^st No-Hitter - Mets’ Johan Santana gives the team its first no-hitter in over 50 years, although a missed call in the 6^th inning whereby a ball hit by ex-Met Carlos Beltran clearly hit the leftfield chalk, as the chalk chopped into the air.  (Umpire Adrian Johnson)

Umpires' miscalls have stood out even more in recent years because of today's TV technologies.  Slow motion from numerous angles has visually magnified most miscalls.  This has given TV viewers an advantage over fans physically at the games, while also emphasizing umpires' mistakes.  I know, for me, it usually causes such frustrations (especially when the call is against the Yankees) that I end up screaming at my television set, almost believing the umpire can hear me through the television!

It’s hard enough to commit approximately 3 hours to watch a game, without having to see unjust calls change the outcome in many cases.  It’s become way too frustrating over time - even the umpires are humiliated, especially later when others definitively point out their flaws with televised replays as supporting proof.  That's one of the reasons why most of the umpires are in favor of the utilization of instant replay being used at the ballparks.  In the end, it lessens their chances of being called many names including "blind" and "idiot" - just a couple of the clean common adjectives used.

It is refreshing to know that MLB is persistent towards improving the integrity of the game that I love so much.  Game-used instant replay usage clearly demonstrates that to me.  This first phase of most instant replays will begin in just a couple of weeks.  Spring training games have already included the testing of it and helped prove that it's a very useful tool, without much disruption to the game's time.  As the season progresses, MLB will continually evaluate possible enhancements – another sign of common sense demonstrated by MLB.

Here's an outline of this whole new instant replay incentive:

Each manager can request for one obligatory instant replay per game within the first 6 innings, but must dispute the call quickly and before the next official game occurrence, while emphasizing the portion of the evidence he wants reviewed.  Additionally, each manager can earn just one other appeal within the first 6 innings if their first requested appeal was an overturned call – proving that he was right.  From the 7^th inning on, the umpires can still utilize the replay system if they, themselves, are in doubt or if a manager disputes it, but the umpires are no longer obligated in either instance. 

All applicable replay requests will be reviewed by a dedicated umpire in MLB’s New York Command Center.  If that umpire feels that the replay conclusively shows the original call as being incorrect, he will then communicate the irrefutable change or retained call to the on-field crew chief umpire to officially declare.  The umpire in the Command Center will also advise of any repositioning of applicable base-runners.  The same video replays will be available to the home team's stadium personnel and can separately be communicated to both teams' managers via the dugout phone.  Replays are also allowed to be shown on the stadium's monitor to the fans (close plays were forbidden to be shown in the past).  The Command Center's decisions are considered final.

Umpire calls that can be disputed with a replay to conclude:

Homeruns (which were already implemented in 2008); outfield trapped balls; ground-rule doubles; outfield fair/foul balls; batters hit-by-pitch; timing plays such as tag-ups versus the ball’s official catch; runners touching a base (with an appeal throw); trailing runners passing other lead runners; tag plays; fan interference; force plays (other than a double plays’ portion at second base); stadium’s boundary determinations; and any record-keeping, such as total strikes/balls.

Umpire calls that cannot be disputed with a replay:

Strike zone (balls & strikes); checked swings; second base outs via double play attempts (a.k.a. neighborhood plays); and potential trapped balls within the infield; or interference calls (such as a catcher's glove touching the batter's swinging bat).

Each dispute is expected to take less than 90 seconds collectively to review and declare.

SELECTIVE DYSLEXIA?

This past week, the Mets General Manager, Sandy Alderson predicted that the Mets should win 90 games this season - this is not a misprint on my part!  Now, I certainly know he couldn’t have accidently reversed the numbers from 09 (zero-nine) from his notes because even the Mets have never won that few during a season - although they still own the MLB record for least amount of wins (42) in a season.

Presuming he has some common sense, he must have a brain disorder I’m calling, “Selective Dyslexia” whereby he’s reading a 2014 notation with the standard two columns showing wins/losses.  That is logical because most folks with common sense know the 2014 Mets could win 72 games and lose 90.  I happen to like Sandy and am choosing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he couldn’t possibly be so gullible.

On the other hand, when the Mets owner, Fred Wilpon followed with, “We better win 90.” I had no doubt there wasn’t any form of Dyslexia from his statement - just pure brain stupidity and harshness towards blaming others.  After all, Fred was the owner who argued with (then) partnering owner Nelson Doubleday against acquiring Mike Piazza.  At that time he continuously blamed his partner for the Mets’ failures.  It’s a shame that the Mets’ ownership split up with wrong owner leaving the organization.

Years later, Fred was also the one who supposedly believed that Bernie Madoff was the only person in America who could produce investment returns of $300 million, with very little to invest and at a time in America when no one was profiting much at all from any investments.  Fred still enjoys enough profits to sit tight without much investment in his team.  He’s truly proved to be an arrogant owner who selfishly cares about himself well beyond caring about any of the dedicated Mets’ fans.  With that, how dare he throw such a threat to the media when he is the main culprit for blockading such a hope of winning 90 when they’d be lucky to even win 80!

So, for now, I am not choosing to hold Sandy accountable as some ailments are forgivingly unavoidable.  So, I’ll just claim he has Selective Dyslexia.  As for the Mets’ owner, I just hope Fred (or as Sandy calls him, “Derf”) speedily chooses to sell the team to possibly and finally soon offer a 90-win season the only way he can offer it, selfishly collecting money for himself through a sale, not an honest investment.