Matsui As A Reflection of Our Priorities

I am not a rabid baseball fan, though I'm exposed to them on a regular basis. My guy is a Braves fan. (Condolence cards are indeed appropriate.) My son is a lifelong Yankees fan. My dad liked the Mets as a sad substitute for the Brooklyn Dodgers and his beloved Ebbets Field. I used to own an autographed picture of Jerry Koosman.

For this particular World Series, this family was rooting for the Yankees. It was a no-brainer for son, of course. And he was an emotional mess throughout the series.

"I'm taking every single pitch personally," he told me. "I was a total wreck in game 5."

It reminded me of how I used to feel during his Little League career, when he'd deliberately get the bases loaded when he was on the mound because it was so much fun to shut the other team down as he suddenly started throwing rockets. Why I didn't have ulcers I don't know.

For my guy, the Yankees were the better alternative to a Philly team that he dislikes intensely. He normally feels the same way about the Yankees, but this year he saw a team that, for the first time in a long time, seemed to be having fun. He liked that. He was a pitcher, too. I'm surrounded.

And we have a houseguest, my stepson-equivalent, who was forced the watch the game with us as a wave of sadness emanated from his Red Sox slippers and tee shirts. I think his Red Sox baseball cap spontaneously combusted after game six.

But here's the thing: as Hideki Matsui single handedly carried the Yankees to a World Series victory in game six, the announcers were talking about the fact that the team will probably let him go. In fact, perhaps it's already happened.

"It's either Damon or Matsui," Joe Buck said. "The team needs younger players and it looks like they'll be letting Matsui go."

I became a Hideki Matsui fan at that moment. I've read a little about him now, just enough to like him even better. He's got class. Not only did he play his heart out while having the sword of Damocles hanging over his neck, but he's given a small fortune to charity. He lives his life outside of the limelight - nobody's even sure who it is he married in 2008.

He broke his wrist in 2006 game against the Red Sox. He missed a catch. He grabbed the ball and threw it back - with a broken wrist. A broken bone didn't stop him from doing his job, particularly as he'd made a mistake. Even his nickname, Godzilla, tells you something about him. According to Wikipedia (I'll have to guess they're right), the nickname was first given to Matsui in Japan because of a skin condition he had. It was derisive.

Matsui has become such a monster at the plate, such a force, that the nickname stuck as a description of his ability, as a compliment. He just kept his head down and kept playing. Classy.

So here's a guy who's the MVP of game six facing the likelihood that the team will be letting him go. It's a business decision - too many aging players, no room for a DH heading into the downside of his thirties.

I'm not arguing with whatever the Yankees have to do. Their job is to maximize the odds of another series win. They pay Matsui, he does the job. Yet it strikes me as sad. This is what sports is. This is what the world is. Excel, do everything you're paid for and more, and see yourself let go because you don't fit an organization's future plans.

I'm just going to be a staunch Matsui fan. I'll root for him wherever he goes. The guy's an example of doing things right.

Economy Hits Sports, Too

Thanks to Handsome Significant Other for this one:

It didn't take long for the recession to spread its effects into one of the most overpaid segments of the economy - sports.

The release of Joe Torre's tell all Yankees book came along with revelations that Yankees pitcher Andy Pettite ran into the "New Economy" head on. The team offered the veteran 10 million dollars to re-sign. Nope, said Pettite. He was looking for 15 million. And after shopping around, discovering nobody, just nobody, was going to pay him that amount of money, he came back to the Yankees and said okay. He'd accept 10 million. The Yankees said no go. The offer was now 5 million. And he took it.

It's not so much a reflection of Pettite's skills, though he is certainly not a young buck anymore. It's the economy. Even the legendarily generous NY team is tightening up the spending for most players.

There are 30 free agents in major league baseball, all looking for new teams. Being a free agent used to be the holy grail - once you reached that status, you were pretty well assured of a mind-bogglingly large salary after a heated bidding war among MLB teams. Not this year.

Manny Ramirez, for instance, never expected to still be without a home this late in the winter. And he's got an agent who's considered a master of the negotiating game. But so far, only the Dodgers are playing - everyone else would love to have him, but the salary he would command is a luxury now.

The economy is bound to hit the teams where it hurts - in the wallet - and they know it. The rising costs of ticket prices have put a day at the ballpark well beyond the comfort level of most fans. Boston, the most expensive ticket in baseball, had an average fan cost index in 2008 of $321. That's the estimated cost of a day at the park for a family of four, according to the Team Marketing Report.

Sixteen of the thirty teams are freezing or cutting ticket prices in 2009. They are anticipating trouble.

The Super Bowl isn't immune - secondary ticket prices are down almost 40%.

So what's next? Movies? Films, during the Depression, were one of the few things that saw a steady business. We loves us our escapism when times are tough. But movies aren't cheap to make, actors are remarkably overpaid, and the prices at the ticket counter have risen steadily. And they're not the only game in town now. We've got DVDs, we've got BluRay, we've got television and we've got Hulu.com.

Marketers in every sector are responding to the new national mood - Allstate encourages us to insure what we've got with a company we can trust - Walmart is positioning itself as the place to save money and downsize. It's a new world. And indications are it's going to be around for awhile.

Maybe stickball is going to make a comeback.







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