Fathers and Footes (One Sixty-Two: Day 59)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Fifty-Nine: Omar Vizquel, Chicago White Sox

They popped up from behind the couch, with a “Happy Father’s Day” and a gift bag in hand. The girls gave me their homemade cards, a really cool fitness watch, and a ball that’s made for catches on the beach (“Bounces on water!” the box reads). As I thanked the girls and their mom for each of these gifts, I noticed one more small package in the gift bag.

The silver wrapping looked about the size of a baseball card – and, wouldn’t you know it, it was a pack of baseball cards. It’s been about 20 years since I’ve held a brand-new pack of cards in my hand, and I know the pack would probably be more valuable if I never opened it. But after 20 years, I still remembered that anticipation of what might be inside. I tore open the wrapper.

It wasn’t a bad pack, either, with Manny Ramirez, Cole Hamels and Jonathan Papelbon cards inside, as well as a rookie card for Giants prospect Madison Bumgarner. The most enjoyable card in the pack for me was White Sox shortstop Omar Vizquel, as the back of his card required Topps to cram 21 years worth of statistics onto one tiny surface. The point size for Vizquel’s statistics was in the low single digits, and I remembered fondly some of the similar cards I’d had as a youngster – players such as Tim McCarver and Jim Kaat, who had played in the big leagues for more than 20 years and whose numbers seemed to require a magnifying glass to read them.

The package stated that there would be 12 cards inside – unless you were lucky enough to be a winner. This year, Topps is running a contest it calls the “Million Card Giveaway,” in which the company is sending lucky winners an original baseball card from years gone by. “We’re giving you back the cards your mom threw out!” the slogan reads.

If you’ve won a card, then your pack features a replica of an old card (not the real one), along with another card featuring a special code on it. When you register on-line, you type in this code and find out which old card Topps is willing to send you.

The relic card I received was a 1955 Duke Snider, which is not a card that my mother threw out – but, most assuredly, a card that my father’s mother threw out. I looked at the young Snider following through on his swing and thought of my dad, who was enjoying a day at the beach today. The Duke was my dad’s childhood sports hero, and 1955 was the year in which Snider and Co. finally claimed that elusive world championship by defeating the rival Yankees. What daydreams my father must have had, holding this card in his 12-year-old hands and thinking of No. 4 hitting another one out of Ebbets Field.

As I said, the Snider card was just a replica. But this second card had a code on it, with an original waiting for me if I just chose to register on-line and type in the code. I knew I was setting myself up for about 500 e-mails from Topps, but with the Snider card staring me in the face I had to do it. What if this card they’ll send me really is a ’55 Snider? That would definitely provide an excuse for the late Father’s Day gift, wouldn’t it?

And so I logged on, registered, and typed in all the letters and numbers. My heart skipped a beat as I clicked submit, and … and … it was a 1980 Barry Foote.

Indeed, I was awarded the card of a weak-hitting catcher who spent most of his career as a backup. Foote looks ever the sportsman on the card, all right, with his thick mustache and his wavy brown hair spilling out from beneath a blue Cubs helmet. Back in 1970, when Foote was a first-round draft pick, he inspired a lot of excitement in the baseball world. And he certainly played the game far better than I ever did. But today, as I “unlocked” his old card from Topps, I was definitely underwhelmed. Especially considering that I have the card in my house, along with the rest of the 1980 collection that I completed the old-fashioned way, one pack at a time. So when Topps offered to send me the card for $3 in shipping, I balked.

Had it been a Duke Snider card, that’s another story. Oh, well – maybe next time, Dad. I hope you enjoyed the rest of your Father’s Day, and you know I love you. Sorry I couldn’t get you that card your mother threw out, but there are far worse things in this world.

And hey – the Topps site does say we can trade the cards we’ve gotten through this giveaway. So if any of you out there have a Barry Foote fetish, let’s do business. I’m awaiting your request.

Diligence, Mischief & Funk (One Sixty-Two: Day 54)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Fifty-Four: Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles Dodgers

“Daddy, does my hair look funky?” Chelsea asked.

I hesitated. Does a 5-year-old want her hair to look funky? Or was she looking to make sure it was un-funky? And if you’re settling into bed, as Chelsea was when she asked this, why does it matter?

Ah, the mysteries of life. Take the innocence of a preschooler, mix it with some Disney Channel exposure, toss in an impending summer solstice, and life becomes a bit funkier than usual. At least Chelsea’s sister, lying above her, was more focused on the book she was reading than on her bedtime appearance.

Katie’s attention was on the task at hand – read a story, learn something new, then doze off to sleep. Chelsea was more of a Tigger tonight – bouncing around her bed while talking about her hair and the fact that she had no water bottle. It was an interesting contrast in bedtime behavior.

It’s hard sometimes to balance what you want to do with what you need to do. Manny Ramirez is one of the most talented baseball players ever to walk the earth. He has hit 551 home runs since his first big-league appearance 17 years ago. He’s driven in more than 1,800 runs, compiled a .313 career batting average, claimed a pair of World Series titles and led 11 different teams to the playoffs. Astounding success and skills.

Manny knows how to get the job done, no doubt. But the man can also veer off the straight and narrow. He can zone out in the field, offer curious quotes to reporters, upset the occasional teammate, and even put a substance in his body that’s a bit more illicit than Chelsea’s water. And the hair – most definitely funky. Manny Being Manny – it’s sort of like panning out to a side view of the girls’ bunk bed, and seeing diligence and mischief together in one frame.

Chelsea was still bouncing and squirming by 9:00. So I told her a story, about a starfish who washes ashore and panics that he’ll dry up on the sand. But then a heroic crab waddles onto the beach, shimmies beneath the starfish, and carries his friend back into the water.

She liked the story, and began to calm down. It was time to rest that hair on the pillow and dream of heroes. Crabs carrying their friends in the summer; Manny carrying his team in the fall. No more talk of funk; just some good sleep in the bunk.

The Madness & Fantasy of March

So it’s that time of year when millions of men and women put aside those stories about economic depressions and international crises and health-care reform, only to take out the sports section, study the experts’ predictions, and make their own picks.

It is, of course, the time of year we call “March Madness.” But in 2009, that term doesn’t apply solely to the NCAA basketball tournaments. No, this third month of the year has come to be known for much more in the world of sports. As fantasy sports continue to grow exponentially, March has also become the season for fantasy baseball drafts. For some, this means selecting players on a computer for two hours on a Saturday morning. For others, it means sitting in a living room for an entire day drafting players in a league auction.

Many people call either of these options a grand waste of time, and they are most certainly entitled to that opinion. But the fantasy craze is not going anywhere, and it has quickly developed into one of our national pastimes. I have found that when it’s given a small compartment in my life, fantasy baseball can be a blast – a wonderful way to unwind for 30 minutes. When given a larger place in my life – say, the master suite – it becomes a complete hindrance between me and the life I’d genuinely like to live.

I’ll give it a try this year, for the fifth time in my adult life. But as I think about which players to draft, I’ll do so with an eye glued to that other March competition – the one involving real athletes in lose-and-go-home contests. The NCAA Tournaments – men’s and women’s – are a true sports fantasy, as they feature more drama and intensity than anything this side of the Olympics. I can’t wait.

As I’m watching those first-round games next week, I’ll likely have my Sporting News fantasy-baseball guidebook on my lap to read during commercials. If I’m getting tired, I might find myself drifting off into some sort of March Mixture. Such as …

The Sweet 16 of Sluggers. Best hitter on the planet, folks, and just 16 players left in the regional semifinals. The matchups:
Top seed Alex Rodriguez vs. 16th-seed Lance Berkman.
Albert Pujols (2) vs. Mark Teixeira (15).
Hanley Ramirez (3) vs. Carlos Beltran (14).
David Wright (4) vs. Manny Ramirez (13).
Matt Holliday (5) vs. Chase Utley (12).
Grady Sizemore (6) vs. Miguel Cabrera (11).
Josh Hamilton (7) vs. Ryan Braun (10).
And Jose Reyes (8) vs. Ryan Howard (9).

Who makes it to the Elite Eight in your pool? I’m going with A-Rod, Pujols, Hanley, Manny, Holliday, Cabrera, Hamilton and Howard. That brings us to quite a final eight. A-Rod versus Howard? I’ll take Rodriguez. Pujols against Hamilton? Sticking with Albert. Hanley against Cabrera? Sorry, kid, but I’ll take Miguel. Manny against Holliday? Manny in a romp.

Your Final Four – A-Rod against Manny. Pujols against Cabrera.

I’ll leave that selection up to you. Just in case you were wondering, though, my champion plays in a West Coast offense.

Manny Being Mannered

I don’t spend my time in baseball locker rooms, so I can’t speak to the character of any player in Major League baseball. I don’t know what they’re really like, only what I get through the filter of news media outlets. Many reporters are superb at what they do, but their medium does not have the space to tell us everything about the athletes they cover. Skepticism should be a natural instinct we carry with us when following coverage of such “heroes” whom we have never had the chance to speak with in person.

So I can’t say that Manny Ramirez is a jerk any more than I can say that he’s a prince of a guy. I have absolutely no concrete evidence on which to support either statement. For every off-hand comment he makes, he may be giving tons of money to charity for all I know. One thing I can say for sure is that he’s interesting. And I’d love to chat with him sometime and see what he’s like one-on-one.

But from a distance, there are still some lessons I think I can pass along to my kids from watching Manny Ramirez play ball and talk to the media. He is giving a clinic on workplace behavior right now, in the midst of the cameras and the doubles off the wall. The lessons are plentiful. Here are a few:

1. Burning bridges has a price: No matter what your employer may have done to slight you, there is a cost to leaving them on bad terms. Saying that you’d rather play ball in Iraq when that employer has paid you more than $150 million is going to leave a sour taste in the mouths of many, no matter what led you to that place of anger. You never know where you’ll meet that employer again, and there’s no reason to make life more uncomfortable than it already is.

2. Hustle, always: There is never an excuse for jogging to first base on a ground ball, just as there’s never an excuse for “mailing in” a day’s work in any field. There are always people watching you and learning from your body language. Most important, there are young people who can learn something from you about the importance of giving your best and feeling pride in yourself.

3. Dress well: Tuck in your shirt. Wear pants that fit your body. Model a sense of self-worth and maturity to those who are looking up to you and those looking out for you.

4. Show humility in public: No matter how good you are at what you do, it’s so important to speak with gratitude for what you’ve been given and with humility about the things you’ve accomplished. There are too many people suffering in this world, and for every star athlete who spends a ton of time talking about himself, there is inevitably less media coverage being given to those in need. Athletes would do well to spend more time ducking the spotlight, for that is often the best way to earn respect.

5. Love what you do: Find a career that lights you up, and enjoy it every day. Find a job that makes you smile, and relish the chance to do what you love. I list this final point not as a criticism of Manny Ramirez, but as a compliment. No matter what the situation, he always seems to be hugging a teammate and having fun.

I will not miss the unnecessary “Manny’s Moody” headlines that covered far too much of the media in recent days. But I will miss watching Manny Ramirez play ball on a regular basis. I last saw him live in April, at Yankee Stadium. He crushed two home runs with effortless grace, his instincts finding that perfect place where bat meets ball in the sweet spot. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a better pure hitter than this man. He is a master of his art. I hope one day he can find a way to use the news media well and become a better ambassador of the game he loves so much.