In my conversations about Joe West and his inappropriate comments I am hearing a lot of “I agree with him.”
But that misses the point of my post on why Joe should be suspended. The point isn’t whether or not we agree with Joe, the point is that MLB has had a long standing policy of not allowing players or managers to talk badly about umpires, even when everyone including the umpires end up agreeing with them. Managers have been fined and suspended for much less. This isn’t about whether or not anyone thinks the games need to be faster (personally, I think that idea is laughable and very reactionary) but whether or not anyone can make disparaging remarks about other members of the MLB fraternity. To this point, MLB home office has said no.
Even if you do agree with Joe, here’s some reasons why you and he are wrong:
- Pitches Taken: The Yankees lead the league in pitches taken almost every year. The Red Sox are often in the top 3. Doesn’t it make sense that when two teams that perennially in the top 3 in this category get together that the game will take longer?
- Runs Scored: The Yankees led the league in runs scored last year. The Red Sox are often one of the top scoring teams in the league. Of course a game that is 7-6 with a lot of 3-2 counts is going to last longer than most other games.
- On Base Percentage: If you don’t see where this is going by now, then just stop reading and head on over to your favorite NFL blog. Last year, the team that put the most players on won 83% of the time. Guess which two teams were in the top of that category?
- Situational Pitching: When the Yankees and the Red Sox get together there is a lot of situational pitching. Bringing in pitchers takes time.
- Home Runs: Yep, guess which two teams are almost always in the top when it comes to Home Runs. Again, that takes time.
- Rhythm and Nature: The nature of baseball is rhythm and messing up the other guy’s rhythm. That only happens when you can call time in the box and on the mound.
- Every Game Matters: Every game matters. There is millions and billions of dollars at stake.. It makes sense that players would want to make sure they have the next pitch mapped out exactly the way they want it in order to give themselves a chance to win.
- This obsession with time mars the beauty of the game: The beauty of baseball is that there is no such thing as running out the clock.
- The Entire Idea is laughable: The entire idea of a time limited game is laughable. It’s reactionary and reactionary policies are almost always bad. In his ridiculous rant, West states that “They’re two of the best teams in baseball. Why are they playing the slowest?” Maybe Mr. West, one of the reasons that they are two of the best is because they are playing the slowest.
Why do we have an obsession with faster. Who gets to decide what is a good time limit for a game? Maybe we should start a speed league where games only last thirty minutes. I bet it doesn’t succeed.
The bottom line is even if you disagree with these reasons on why Mr. West was wrong, I have yet to hear a cogent argument on why it is OK for him to say them in public. If a manager/player criticized his strike zone or a blown call, they would be fined and suspended. The same needs to happen to the wrong Mr. West.
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