New Steroid Agreement

Reports are coming in about a new drug-testing agreement. I'll have more on this later tonight, but it seems for now that this is a victory for Bud Selig. But will it placate Congress?

Wiping Mike Morse's stats out of the record books

Reaching deep into his bag of inanity, Bud Selig has finally decided the record books may or may not need revising.

"The whole record thing is on table. After we get this cleaned up, we can look at that," he said. "I'm not saying we will do anything because there doesn't seem to be a practical way of doing anything about it."

We can look at that, folks. Bud Selig is going to sit down a look at the record books. He'll pull it off his shelf, throw it on his desk, and stare at it.

There it will sit, forever unchanged, because once you start changing the record books, you open up a whole new can of worms. Take away Barry Bonds' home runs. Take away Mark McGwire's home runs. Is Roger Maris then the single-season home run champ? Well, there's that whole 161 games vs. 154 games thing going on. What about the Babe? Should we restore his crown?

While we're at it, let's wipe every record from the expansion era out of that huge tome Selig keeps in his office. Bad pitching, small ballparks, it's all part of the game now. It wasn't before. That's an unfair edge.

In fact, let's just top it off with this one: Home runs hit in Coors Field no longer count. That'll solve all of our problems.

Of course, a few hours after making his initial statement today at the GM meetings, Bud changed his mind. Stay the course, Bud. Stay the course. And don't sell the Nationals while they still have time to put a plan in place for competing next season either.

You know there are problems when Australians start writing about baseball

Short post tonight because I'm a little short on time. Soon, I'll begin a look back at the 2002 negotiations that led to the current CBA, the contentions issues from the CBA (and the last three seasons), and some critiques of Bud Selig's term as commissioner.

Tonight, I want to focus on the steroid issue. Steroids in baseball seems to be a very divisive issue. For the mainstream media (a term I hate, by the way) and many bloggers, the steroid scandal has given us many reasons to be self-righteous about the game. We may have cheered Mark and Sammy in 1998, but in 2005, they were the immoral enemies of the game! For others sick of the hypocrisy and unclear just how the drugs affect the game, steroids are just another over-blown, over-played story the media is using to sell papers.

No matter how you personally look it, it's hard to ignore though that there is a problem and something must be done. Whether that something comes from Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and his drive toward the presidency efforts at ensuring federally-mandated drug penalties in sports or if that something comes from Bud Selig and players' union representative Donald Fehr (um, yeah, right), something is going to happen.

Meanwhile, as nothing happens, and Donald Fehr's promise of a new agreement by the end of the World Series slowly fades from memory, new stories are surfacing in this week's issue of ESPN: The Magazine that suggest maybe those in charge of the game knew about the steroid problem for much longer than we've been led to believe.

It seems that back in 1991, when baseball still had Fay Vincent, the last impartial commissioner, Vincent knew about and tried to ban steroids from the game. The Australian News summarizes ESPN's reporting:

ESPN's Who Knew? story found that MLB tried to banish steroids as early as 1991 and again in 1997, long before record-setting home run levels by star sluggers that sceptics now see as tainted by drugs.

The report said that in 1991, a steroid supplier claims to have had as many as 20 baseball clients and former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent wrote about the growing problem and what had to be done.

I plan on blogging more about the ESPN reports as it relates to Selig's effectiveness as commissioner once I have time to read the articles. Right now, the demands of a real job have kept me fairly busy. But if an Australian newspaper finds the MLB steroid scandal newsworthy enough to print a story fraught with enough cross-cultural references to make it nearly comical, I think it's time for those in charge in baseball, both from Selig's office and from the Players' Union to step up and take charge.

At the very least, fans deserve the facts. We should know which players have long been setting bad examples as drug-using role models for the millions of children who have desired to be in their shoes. Self-righteous indignation or not, the game must be purged. If the Commissioner's office cannot reach out to the Players' Association, it's time for someone else to do so. Is that a failing of Selig's? That really depends upon if he knew years ago about steroids and did nothing to stop the spread of the drugs because it would have cut down on the game's popularity and revenue stream in the years following the 1994-1995 work stoppage. But for now, MLB must solve this problem. We can point fingers later.

Ng intrvws fr Ddgr GM spt

For seven seasons, Kim Ng has been second in command. Now, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the franchise that broke Major League Baseball's color barrier, may be ready to bridge one of baseball's more malleable gaps, that of gender.

Ng is one of the game's longest tenured and most respected Assistant General Managers. For the last four seasons, Ng has worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers. For four years before that, she was Brian Cashman's understudy in New York City. Now that the Dodgers don't have an official General Manager, Ng is serving as the Assistant to, well, no one, and the Dodgers may be willing to finally promote one of the most deserving people in the game.

According to reports out of Los Angeles, Ng was the first candidate formally interviewed for LA's open GM job. It seems that she is also a candidate for vacancy in Boston.

I say, it's about time. Baseball has long been the boy's club. From the front office to the press box, females in baseball are seemingly a rare breed. Bud Selig's high level executives are all men. Most owners, the infamous exception being Marge Schott, are men, and every General Manager in the history of the game has been male.

Lately, we've seen women making some strides in the game. Suzyn Waldman, for better or for worse, became the first female color commentator as she joined John Sterling in the Yankee radio booth. Ria Cortesio, the only female umpire in professional baseball, has been invited back to her mid-level minor league job.

But with Ng, the Dodgers, Red Sox, anyone who interviews her really have no excuse. She has more experience as the Assistant General Manager than, as far as I know, anyone else in the game. She's well-respected among her peers, the game's other General Managers. Now would be as ideal a time as any for a team to anoint her as the General Manager. She wouldn't be a female General Manager. Rather, she would be just another General Manager who happens to be female.

The Dodgers, long known for the firsts, could make history again. They could be the team to hire the first female General Manager and the first General Manager with no vowels in her last name in one swoop.

The Fallout from Theo

Before delving into Bud Selig's time as commissioner, I thought I would recap the Theo Epstein saga that has since led me to create this blog. The saga started a whole week ago when, on Monday morning, after a weekend of reports that the Red Sox and Epstein were about to reach an agreement, Theo resigned as the General Manager of the Red Sox.

Boston fans, a group of which I am not a part, were outraged at the news. Many view Theo as the savior of the franchise and one of the key architects behind their first World Series victory since 1918. Furthermore, tales of a conflict between Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino and the young GM have since left many Red Sox fans wondering if there is now a worse boss in Major League Baseball than George Steinbrenner. An article from today's New York Daily News offers a comprehensive summary of what went down when and why. The main thrust is as follows:

As his contract expired this season, Epstein was deeply insulted by Red Sox offers that just doubled or tripled his $450,000-a year salary, believing he had accomplished management's three prime objectives - winning a title, making the team an annual contender and restocking the farm system - and was entitled to be baseball's best-paid GM.

An article in the Boston Globe last Sunday that was unflattering to Epstein and seemed sourced from the Lucchino camp appeared to be the last straw.

From this resignation emerged a wide variety of feelings from Red Sox Nation. Boston bloggers were despondent. Evan over at Firebrand, one of the premiere Red Sox blogs, offered his views in a fairly rational and well-written piece:

After my initial hatred of Dan Shaughnessy for apparently cementing Epstein's belief that he would not return to the Red Sox, that has dissapated somewhat. His column yesterday in the Boston Globe (in which he mentioned to feel free to run him out of town) was a very well-written article in my opinion and he makes the great point that Theo has got to be more mature and sensible than what we'’re saying he is. If he is running out of town because of a paragraph in a Shaughnessy article, it never was going to work out anyways.

That'’s not to say there aren'’t issues between Epstein and Lucchino - there are, and it was a contributing factor. But see, there were lots and lots of contributing factors to this decision.

Others weren't as forgiving or even-keeled about it. David Gassko over The Hardball Times had bitter words for the Red Sox ownership:

There was no reason to let the negotiations with Theo Epstein go this far. He should have been re-signed a long time ago. Let him name a number, and give it to him. That's smart business.

Unfortunately, we've come to learn who was driving all the smart business being done by the Sox, and that man is now one of millions unemployed. That's what Larry Lucchino and John Henry relegated him to. One of millions...This is the worst ownership group Boston has ever seen. At least Howard Frazee made some money from selling the Babe.

I wouldn't go so far in the critique as Gassko did. Sure, there are problems with the way Larry Lucchino approached the negotiations. Sure, John Henry probably should have stepped in sooner. But a certain level of sabermetric sentimentality combined with Red Sox fanaticism seems to have led Gassko to paint a black-and-white picture of the negotiations when shades of gray would be more appropriate.

At Baseball Prospectus, Theo's greatest supporters were not happy with the outcome either. Joe Sheehan in Prospectus Today from November 3 (Registration required.) noted that Theo is one of the best GMs in the game and the Red Sox are "worse today than they were a few days ago." He rejudgmentdgement on Lucchino and Henry, but it's hard to disagree with Sheehan's assessment. Over at Baseball Toaster, Will Carroll explored the sabermetric/Moneyball backlash in a rather lengthy piece. An addendum the next day bemoaned Theo's fate.

Outside of the stat community, two ESPN were less pessimistic. Jim Caple mocked the canonization of St. Theo:

Yes, Theo is an intelligent guy who did an excellent job as the general manager and he can probably do many other things very well in life. But he still was a baseball general manager for crying out loud, not the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs, the director of Habitat for Humanity or the guy who developed Google. I mean, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams just accomplished the exact same thing as Theo and with a much smaller payroll. And I don't see anyone anointing Williams as an irreplaceable genius.

Personally, I agree with a friend who thinks Epstein was simply smart enough to get out while he was still revered. With a questionable pitching staff, yet another Manny trade demand ("And this time I really mean it!") and a probable team makeover that does not involve Carson Kressley, the likeliest short-term direction for the Red Sox is down. Perhaps Theo shrewdly decided to leave now as a saint rather than wait until talk radio started complaining that he was a moron.

Bill Simmons, in a looong piece, looks at the overrated in-his-opinion Theo Epstein and decides life will go on.

Meanwhile, as life is going on, Theo says he'll be a general manager by this time next year. Does that mean he'll be one by this time next week? It's tough to tell. But I do think that means our dreams of Theo being the Commissioner may not come to fruition. Meanwhile, the Red Sox, according to Curt Schilling, will miss Theo Epstein. But while Lucchino and Henry may not have their Boy Wonder GM to fall back on, odds are against these two giving up completely on the sabermetric/traditional scouting meld they worked to develop in Boston. They have a farm system ready to give birth to young talent; they have a good enough crop of Major Leaguers and deep enough pockets to remain ever competitive atop the American League East.

As night falls on the Theo Epstein Era in Boston, it's hard to see the Red Sox getting that much worse as Gassko or even Sheehan proclaim. Someone else will step in and step up. The sun will rise on Red Sox Nation and the team will once again be ready to fight the Yankees (and Blue Jays in 2006) for the American League East crown.

Setting An Agenda

Since David Pinto was kind enough to link me in a post yesterday, I just wanted to welcome anyone visiting from Baseball Musings. Thanks for stopping by and make sure you check back regularly. Now that I've had more time to reflect on what it is I want to do with this blog, I thought I would share it with you, my readers.

Next season promises to be a big one for baseball. On the political front, Major League Baseball faces the prospects of a federally-mandated drug testing program complete with harsh penalties for violators. Off the field, the owners and the players are fast reaching the end of the last Collective Bargaining Agreement. On December 19, 2006, the current Basic Agreement Between the 30 Major League Clubs and Major League Baseball Players Association will expire. So this season, we'll be hearing all about the negotiations and issues that crop up. Finally, in front offices across the country, general manager turnover is garnering more attention that usually. Sabermetrics-minded GMs such as Theo Epstein and Paul DePodesta have recently found themselves out of jobs. Epstein's situation proved that maybe, just maybe, there's someone worse as a boss than George Steinbrenner.

So I thought maybe Theo (or Paul or someone other than Bud Selig) should be Commissioner. Why not? He's bright. He's young. He's energetic. And he brings an outsider's persona to the office. No more Bud and the owner's cabal. Theo comes from no union background; he comes from no owner's background. He would be as impartial a commissioner as we could hope. He knows the game; he knows business and law. Why not?

This blog will not necessarily always be an explanation of why Theo should be the Commissioner. Rather, it will be my efforts to keep up with Bud and the politics of the game as it heads into what promises to be something of a tumultuous year. I'll be checking up on Theo too. Because, hey, we fans can dream that maybe one day, the commissioner will be someone qualified to lead an impartial office, and that someone just might be Theo Epstein.

Theo For Commissioner

A few comments over at the popular Baseball Musings got me thinking. Baseball has suffered under Bud Selig long enough. And now that the ex-Red Sox Boy Wonder General Manager Theo Epstein is out of a job, why not make him commissioner? He isn't part of the owner's cabal. He's young and clearly talented. He's seemingly everything Bud Selig isn't.

So as Theo Epstein faces the prospects of a career away from baseball (or at least the northeast rivalry) and Bud Selig faces the prospects of a collective bargaining nightmare in 2006, I'll be chronicling the two. Just who would be a better commission: the guy who helped construct a team that brought the Boston Red Sox their first World Series ever(edit: Ever is wrong. I knew that. In my haste to get this up, I didn't proofread) since 1918 and Boston's glory days of the 1910's or the guy who once declared the All Star game a tie after 11 innings?