Baseball
Karma
I’ve been
trying to remember which year the Cardinals fans started yelling
“no” whenever the manager started warming up the bullpen. I thought
it was 1978 or 1979, but a statistical search doesn’t yield a clear
indication. The team actually won fewer games in 1980. At some point
in that era, the fans had a sufficiently low opinion of the relievers
to want to shout out advice. The naysaying had to be discouraging
for the relief corps, but fans understood the frustration of losing
a game that should have been won. Bob Lemon said in 1981, “I've
come to the conclusion that the two most important things in life
are good friends and a good bullpen.”
Houston Astros Manager Jimmy Williams apparently had
neither. He was fired right after the 2004 All-Star game in Houston,
a game which saw Houston fans boo his introduction as one of the
National League coaches.
The gulf is a wide one between trying to change a
manager’s pitching strategy and using a cheap shot to embarrass
a man among his professional peers.
Houston fans are in for another dose of karma. The
44 and 44 record that saw Williams exit could have squared their
account, but by kicking a man while he was down, they have certainly
called for more. These are the same fans who complained about Larry
Dierker, who managed the team to a division championship in four
of his five years before giving way to Williams. Dierker’s teams
were never able to win a playoff series. In Houston, Williams never
reached a playoff series.
Williams maybe should have won. The Astros loaded
up with talent for the 2004 season. Clearly the fans thought he
should have won. Equally clearly, I should have been baseball commissioner
by now, too, but we don’t always follow the narrow paths.
Phil Garner, Williams’s replacement, has a reputation
as a hard nosed player and manager. E-5 booted 23 balls in 222 chances
in 1986, the last time he played much infield for the Astros, but
fans have forgiven. After all, Garner always had the grace to look
genuinely anguished when he kicked another ball.
Dierker's unwillingness to hide the notion that he
may have known more than the fans probably sealed his prospects.
Dierker was vocal that year about his unhappiness when the fans
wanted him to pitch to Barry Bonds, who was going for a record at
the same time Dierker was trying to win a game. He was testy again
after questions about the first loss in the playoff series, and
by the last loss, he was militant. Behind by four and down to a
final out, Dierker’s last act as manager was to use a light hitting
catcher as a pinch hitter, an act of defiance that received remarkably
little attention other than some knowing smirks in the dugout.
If there is one quality know-it-all fans cannot tolerate,
it’s the idea that a professional baseball player may be better
at his job than they are. That’s why I’m running for baseball commissioner.
The job qualifications and expectations are so obviously low.
Garner proved his ability to tolerate fans in his
several years at the head of the Milwaukee Brewers. He might do
well in Houston. However, he won’t win any playoff games. The team
is aging and spent, and besides the ingratitude for a winner and
the booing for a professional, someone in Houston still has to pay
for that 315-foot home run distance in Minute (pronounce min-yoot)
Maid Park.
Meanwhile, the Cubs fans, generally thought of as
the most loyal and forgiving, having stored away decades of good
karma, could any day now see the beginning of a Cubs dynasty as
the cosmic and karmic reward for their good behavior.
Naaah.
Jeff Cox, would-be baseball commissioner
