Fenway
03-28-2004, 08:38 PM
While it may be difficult for a man paying his utility infielders millions of dollars for summer work to comprehend why the merry lads should need a union, to imply that their organization is un-American bespeaks an exquisitely uninformed view of US (as in American) labor history in general as well as an ignorance the rules prevailing during the first three-quarters of a century of Major League Baseball, wherein management's contempt for the players was thorough and, according to the owners' pals in Congress, right and proper as well. In his windy, winter contention, Henry sounded more like a contemporary of Charles Comiskey, the White Sox owner whose penuriousness helped provoke the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, than a 21st-century mogul who's already on his third team. Henry, like any number US presidents and CEOs, may not like unions, but to suggest that, as "an American," he can't understand the presence, necessity, and function of the Players Association merely demonstrates that Henry doesn't understand what Steinbrenner has no trouble comprehending, namely that if you want a player badly enough, you pay the going rate for the guy.
http://cache.boston.com/globe/magazine/images/2004/0328sox1.jpg
Manager Grady Little's decision to leave Pedro Martinez in against the Yankees led to his dismissal by Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino and general manager Theo Epstein.
What if we actually win? As the host of NPR's Only a Game writes, Red Sox fans would be lost. (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/03/28/fever_pitch/)
In a city where every pitch last October seemed to suck one more breath of life out of Red Sox fans, it seemed only appropriate to have the popular host of radio's Only a Game write this week's cover story.
Bill Littlefield, who has coached his own daughters for years on soccer and basketball teams and is the author of both novels and sports books, is best known for his voice on his Saturday-morning National Public Radio show. And it's that same voice that comes out in his essay on the pain and joy of being a Sox fan.
Just don't ask him for a season prediction.
"The problem with predictions," he says, "is you cannot factor in the one sure thing in baseball: the element of surprise.
Somebody's going to have the season of a lifetime.
Somebody's going to get hurt. Somebody's going to go into a funk." As for the ups and downs of nabbing Curt Schilling but losing out on A-Rod, Littlefield says, "I think people are much more excited about the acquisitions than the disappointment of not getting A-Rod — even with the Yankees getting him."
http://cache.boston.com/globe/magazine/images/2004/0328sox1.jpg
Manager Grady Little's decision to leave Pedro Martinez in against the Yankees led to his dismissal by Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino and general manager Theo Epstein.
What if we actually win? As the host of NPR's Only a Game writes, Red Sox fans would be lost. (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/03/28/fever_pitch/)
In a city where every pitch last October seemed to suck one more breath of life out of Red Sox fans, it seemed only appropriate to have the popular host of radio's Only a Game write this week's cover story.
Bill Littlefield, who has coached his own daughters for years on soccer and basketball teams and is the author of both novels and sports books, is best known for his voice on his Saturday-morning National Public Radio show. And it's that same voice that comes out in his essay on the pain and joy of being a Sox fan.
Just don't ask him for a season prediction.
"The problem with predictions," he says, "is you cannot factor in the one sure thing in baseball: the element of surprise.
Somebody's going to have the season of a lifetime.
Somebody's going to get hurt. Somebody's going to go into a funk." As for the ups and downs of nabbing Curt Schilling but losing out on A-Rod, Littlefield says, "I think people are much more excited about the acquisitions than the disappointment of not getting A-Rod — even with the Yankees getting him."