What Johnny Did...

As old time readers of my column no doubt know, I used to be a huge Johnny Damon fan. Despite my obvious scorn for all things Red Sox, the maxim WWJDD (What Would Johnny Damon Do) often served as the catalyst in my life’s most important decisions, but then Johnny went and made a decision that I just could not subscribe to. He went to play for the enemy, the only team that draws more derision from me than the Red Sox, the dreaded Yankees of New York. As any Red Sox fan should, I understood that Johnny might leave as a free agent, but to go to the Yankees made him a Roger Clemens class traitor. This I could not support, suddenly What Johnny Damon Would Do, was NOT what I would do. My whole maxim for life shot, I was devastated. Could he not have just taken the home team discount like good old Bronson Arroyo? The guitar playing pitcher left money on the table from other teams to continue playing for the Red Sox he had come to love. Isn’t that what Damon should have done? Well, apparently not, because earlier this week the Red Sox traded their hometown discount boy to the Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Willy Mo Pena. I’m not saying the move wasn’t a good one for the Red Sox from a baseball point of view, it was, but it also showed that Damon made the right decision. I don’t have the numbers right in front of me, but in choosing Boston over New York, Damon would have left something close to 14 million on the table and since Boston never gives “no trade” clauses, his reward for such a move might just have been a move to Baseball purgatory. Sure they wouldn’t have moved him this year, but in sending Arroyo to Cincinnati, the Sox showed themselves to be equally as ruthless. Once again it goes to show that sports fans should quit harping on players for taking the most money they can get. Forgetting for an instant how hypocritical it is for people to chastise athletes for doing what they themselves would do, it is simple that the player must decide what the best decision is for him and his family. While I never would have moved from Boston to the Yankees (too much sense of tradition), I cannot fault Damon for taking the Yankees money, just as I don’t fault Brian Giles for taking less to keep his family rooted in San Diego. If the team you sign for is going to treat you like a commodity, trading you to at the first opportunity, then conversely you should ensure that you receive all the compensation you can, lest you end up pitching away your prime in Cincinnati. Of course, having said all of that, I still cannot support a cleanly shorn Johnny Damon, it just isn’t natural…

Reviewing the World Baseball Classic

The WBC was universally seen as a success and even had it not been would have gone ahead in 2009 regardless. As predicted here --- and by anyone who has watched their recent basketball experience --- the Americans flamed out and thus, all of their famous dropouts will reconsider playing the next time around. For the future success of the event there likely could not have been a better final than Japan – Cuba, which only reinforces what Olympic baseball (without Major Leaguers) already shows: that those two nations play exceptional baseball. Still, I would make three major changes to 2009, which might make a repeat final slightly more challenging. One, I’d move the event from Spring training, where an injury to Johan Santana could destroy Minnesota’s season, to November where the same injury would have five months to rehabilitate. Opponents to this switch complain that players would not want to give up the start of their offseason. Except that this is only true of the American players. It’s American writers who offer this opposition and it points to their bubble protected view of sports. When the World Cup kicks off in Germany this June, it will mark the exact middle of every footballers' offseason, yet you wont hear of any big name player missing out for any reason other than debilitating injury. The reason of course is the same that Rugby players give up their offseasons to play in the Rugby World Cup, and why Hockey players report a month earlier than usual to play in the World Cup of Hockey, because the opportunity to play for your country matters to people. If you don’t think that the Cubans, Japanese, Dominicans, Venezuelans, and Puerto Ricans would jump just as quickly at the opportunity to represent their country in November, December, January, or February as they did in March, well then you must be from the United States, because for all of their bravado about being from the U.S. of A, the Americans are the only country whose stars might consider skipping the opportunity to represent their country because they want their offseason to begin. Moving the tournament to November would allow the WBC to adjust those ridiculous pitch limits they had for this tournament. I still believe that pitch limits would be necessary, nobody wants to see Ben Sheets throwing 145 pitches, but they could begin at 90 for the opening rounds and grow to 120 for the final. The second major switch I’d make, would be to fix that absurd second round the tournament had. How do teams face each other in the first group and then again in the second grouping? That was idiotic. Puerto Rico and Cuba survive pool C and then they meet up with pool D survivors, Venezuela and the Dominican, huh? Then the Dominicans as the winners of this pool get to face… the Cubans again? What? Huh, there is no polite way to put this, that was the stupidest system I’ve ever seen. Absolutely, mind numbingly dumb. How about we change that to the pool A winner and the pool B runner up are in a group with the pool C winner and the pool D runner up, then whoever wins that pool plays the runner up of the other pool, I know, a novel system, one which should be implemented in every other international tournament of this kind, oh no wait… IT ALREADY IS! The third adjustment I’d make, would be to have the semi-finals and final be best of threes. I’m not suggesting that Cuba and Japan wouldn’t have made the final this year had they been best of three, but I think that baseball, even more than say NCAA basketball, can produce fluke winners on any given day. One hot pitcher, the bats just not swinging well, whatever. Having to win two gives the winner a little more legitimacy. Still, the tournament was a great success and everybody from Bud Selig to the US State Department should give themselves a little pat on the back.

To Play... Left, or Not to Play... Left

The Alfonso Soriano – Washington Nationals situation is turning uglier by the day. Acquired in December by the Nationals, Soriano is refusing to shift from his “natural” position at second to left field where the Nationals feel his services will best be suited. Feelings on the subject are divided, some feel that the Nationals should have broached the switch with Soriano prior to acquiring him, while others feel that Soriano should move wherever the team paying him 10 million asks. We here at Achanceyougottatake Sports fall in the latter category. The Nationals need not have contacted Soriano in advance (a move which, of course, is illegal anyhow), for they knew how he would react. He has always been vocal about not moving from second base, despite being universally regarded as the worst fielding everyday second baseman in baseball. Why would the Nationals have gotten a different response? What they really should have done, is not made the trade in the first place. But, deciding that they needed Soriano, then there was no reason to contact him in advance, they knew he wouldn’t want to move. All the same, move he must. There is no doubt that his offensive output is more valuable as a second baseman than a left fielder, but Washington already has a great second baseman, they need power from the corners, as a man earning a substantial salary, and a man in his contract year, Soriano needs to adjust his personal goals for the good of the team. It’s as simple as that.