This is the moment
That quibble aside, these are good times to be a baseball fan. Even as inequality of wealth increasingly divides American society, baseball’s have-nots are more than holding their own. The sport’s fabulously rich teams — the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Red Sox, to name but three — are hardly dominating on the field, while more modestly endowed teams in places such as Kansas City, Toronto, Pittsburgh and Houston are thriving between the lines. Of course, baseball recognized the importance of sharing the wealth as long ago as 1996, when revenue-sharing was introduced in the name of promoting competitive balance between big- and small-market teams. A so-called luxury tax on high spending teams was added in 2002, and, by all indications, the system has worked pretty much as intended, Overall, the game is much healthier for it, to the tune of about $9.5 billion in gross revenue last year. Readers are invited to draw their own conclusions about the applicability of baseball’s approach to the larger political sphere.
Fans will be getting some additional protection at the ballpark this season from balls and bats that fly into the stands, as many teams follow the recommendation of Major League Baseball and extend the protective netting that already exists behind home plate down the first and third base lines, with the idea of covering any seat within 70 feet of home plate. We are mindful that interaction between fan and player is one of baseball’s charms, but there have been too many scary incidents in recent years in which fans have been injured, or could have been, to ignore the problem.
Those who find the pace of baseball too slow (and even many die-hard fans do) will be encouraged to learn that measures to speed up the game instituted last year shaved more than 6 minutes off the average game. This season, in the same vein, coaches and managers will be limited to 30-second consultations with pitchers on the mound.
On the field, the game is studded with bright young stars, including the prodigiously talented outfielders Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels and Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals, who seem destined to duel for many years for the title of baseball’s best player. We have not seen Harper play all that often, but familiarity with Trout’s all-around game inspires awe. He’s the closest thing to a young, healthy Mickey Mantle that has come on the scene in many a year.
And then there are the Mets, with four — or is it five? — young, flame-throwing aces in their starting rotation, evoking memories of . . . well, let’s not go there. The history of baseball is full of stories of promising pitching staffs all too quickly worn down and used up by the extraordinary demands that the game places on young pitching arms. After all, what other sport has a singular surgical procedure named after one of its former players (Tommy John)? Let’s hope this group stays together and succeeds together.
The Red Sox, coming off their third last-place finish in four years, have some reason for optimism in their own right this season, having paid top dollar in the offseason for a top-flight starting pitcher in David Price. He will complement a roster replete with talented youngsters, among whom shortstop Xander Bogaerts and outfielder Mookie Betts stand out as already on the brink of stardom. The new season marks a shift in management philosophy in Boston as well. Principal owner John Henry acknowledged in February that he thought the team had relied too heavily on statistical analysis in making decisions in recent years, which may explain in part why he brought in old-school executive and old friend Dave Dombrowski to run the Sox in place of Ben Cherington, pride of the Upper Valley, who has a World Series championship to his credit as well as a couple of disappointing seasons.
Nonetheless, analytics are now an ingrained part of baseball, as witnessed by a multi-year deal recently struck between Apple and Major League baseball that will equip every team’s coaching staff with iPad Pro tablets on which they can use proprietary data to help make dugout decisions in real time. We can’t help but wonder whether Apple is prepared to replace the tablets when an outraged manager blows a gasket over an umpire’s call and slams down his new digital helper on the concrete floor of the dugout. Think of it as old school meets new.