The Fashion of Baseball

In hockey, a goalie’s equipment is what distinguishes himself from all the other goalies in the league. Not just colors—all their designs are different and usually have some meaning to them. Some college goaltenders have pads that, when put together, they form their team symbols. A hockey goalie is one of the only positions in sports where a regular player can look different from the rest of the team. But there is one other: baseball catchers. And yet, they adorn themselves like their off to some dinner party: plain, conservative designs, one or two colors (max), and several catchers have the exact same equipment! How lame is that? It’s not like Easton or TPX can’t customize their pads for professional catchers. For the past few years, Jason Varitek has worn festive equipment on certain holidays: camouflage on Memorial Day, and today, he was decked out in some red white and blue pads with several stars around the neck. He even raffles off his equipment and donates the money once he’s used it on that single occasion. I don’t see why he doesn’t wear unique equipment more often. It would add a little something to the sometimes tedious event of watching baseball. He could even change it up depending on the occasion…

“Yankee Hater” when we face NY
A big picture of a clenched fist (knuckles) for Wakefield
“Wally the Green Monster”
A pipe (“right down the pipe!”)
The Earth for Earth Day (April 15)
Georgia Tech logo (his alma mater)

Plus, I know Varitek has been a big help to the Jimmy Fund, raising tons of money through countless fundraisers. What better way to make an everyday statement than to have its slogan “Because it takes more than courage to beat cancer” imprinted right where millions of viewers can see it on an every day basis?

Fines for Philanthropy

Here’s a little known fact for you: all that money professional athletes get fined for bad-mouthing refs, on-field violence, obscene gestures, etc. doesn’t just make its way into the pockets of league executives. It goes to charity. Here’s a question for you: what has this world come to that donating a fraction of one’s salary to charity has become a punishment? Let me get this straight, if Chad Ochocinco has to donate $5,000 to charity, he has to make it worth his while and putt the football with the pylon? Now, I understand that taking away a greedy player’s money is one of the only ways to punish the player himself without punishing his whole team (i.e. don’t suspend him). And I guess it makes sense that league officials don’t tell fans where the money is going. Then superstars wouldn’t feel so bad about their poor conduct. (“Yeah, I gave the entire stadium the middle finger, but I did it for UNICEF!”) That’s the last thing we want to hear.

Here’s an idea: make certain fineable acts out to be some sort of contest, and whoever wins—by doing the most creative touchdown dance, by dishing out the best trash talk, whatever—will have the biggest portion of their salary donated to charity. Superstar athletes should be setting aside part of their salary for charity anyway—this is simply a way to make it more public and more interesting. Then, Ochocinco wouldn’t really be viewed as a cocky jerk, out to make himself look good with his post-TD cavorting; we could appreciate his showboating both for its pure entertainment, and because it will end up benefiting some foundation. (Notice that not included in the ways to “win” is who can be most disrespectful to the referees, or who can charge the mound the most often; these acts are either offensive or set a poor example for children who look up to professional athletes as role models.) Now, some might say that excessive celebrations give children the wrong idea about sportsmanship. But I think that, until they actually get to take part in this altruistic competition, it’s up to youth coaches to steer young athletes in the right direction; to explain that, while dancing in the end zone, T.O. wasn’t just expressing himself, he was being the humanitarian all athletes should be; and unless this enthusiastic Pop Warner kid wants to hand over his wallet to his coach so he can drop it off at the local hospital, he better cut out his skylarking. As long as this idea doesn’t interfere with the way the game is played, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Professional sports is entertainment. There’s no disputing that. Wouldn’t this philanthropic play contribute to making watching sports more entertaining?

Which Laker I Could See In Beantown

The LA Lakers claim that they will not resign Trevor Ariza, now that free agent signing season has begun. The Celtics ought to take a look at this guy. Out of UCLA, he's only 24 years old, and can give the Celtic's defense a huge boost. His offensive game has room for improvement, but with his athleticism and Boston's phenomenal supporting cast, it wouldn't be unheard of for him to score 12+ points a game. In the 2009 playoffs, he shot almost 50% in FG% and from three point range, allthewhile scoring over 11 points per game. It would be new for him to be able to actually carry some responsibility on offense after playing with Kobe for the past two seasons. After suffering a broken foot in the 2007-2008 season, he played all 82 games for the Lakers last year, and after last year, we need some reliable starters. It doesn't look like Leon Powe will return with the Celtics, and with Cleveland's acquisition of Shaq, Jason Kidd going to Orlando, and the Piston's offseason overhaul, the Celts must be looking for a possible deal this offseason. Other big(ger) names that are being thrown around are Rasheed Wallace and Amare Stoudemire. While these would be great pickups, they'd probably cost the Celtics a lot more than an unproven Trevor Ariza. Plus, there would be no better way to stick it to the Lakers next season than beating them with a player they were too cheap and potential-blind to sign.

Marian Hossa Leaves Hockeytown

Today, NHL star Marian Hossa decided not to resign with the 2009 Stanley Cup runner-ups, the Detroit Red Wings. Instead, he will play for the Chicago Blackhawks, who better prepare themselves to be Stanley Cup runer-ups--the past two seasons, Hossa has led his team to the Stanley Cup finals, but both times, he has lost. Since 2004, Hossa has been a journeyman, playing on four teams: during the 2004-2005 NHL lockout, he played in Europe for Slovakia; from 2005-2007, he played for the Atlanta Thrashers; at the trade deadline of 2008, he was traded to the Stanley Cup-ready Pittsburgh Penguins, with whom he finsihed the season by losing in the Stanley Cup finals to the Red Wings; then, a free agent at the end of the 2008 season, he signed a one-year deal with Detroit, only to be defeated once again in the Stanley Cup finals, this time by his former team, ending consecutive seasons as the 2nd place team. Now, he hopes that his new team, the Chicago Blackhawks will be the team that gets him his first Stanley Cup victory. And if Chicago doesn't perform, he can just about forget about ever hoisting that silver trophy over his head. He signed a 12-year deal worth $62.8 million with the Blackhawks today. It will be weird seeing Hossa with one team for such a long time! (A twelve year contract may seem ridiculously long: if he gets hurt, then what? Well, like the NFL, if a player is unable to play, the franchise does not have to pay his salary. This is different from professional baseball, where 100% of a player's contract is guarenteed.) Nevertheless,the Blackhawks better hope Hossa keeps scoring goals and stays healthy, or else this could go down as one of the biggest flops in the history of hockey. Keep in mind, he did go down after suffering a neck injury this March (motionless for several minutes), and who knows whether anything is still lingering.

At the same time, Hossa better hope that the Blackhawks continue to progress as a team: Chicago has improved its 2005-2006 record from 26-43 to 2008-2009's 46-24, which culminated in a Western Conference finals appearance. Although the Blackhawks have the longest active Stanley Cup draught in all of hockey (48 years), its next several years seem awfully promising, and Hossa seems to be in a good situation. Chicago's 2006 and 2007 first round draft picks, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were each finalists for the 2007 rookie of the year award, and are sure to improve over the next few years. Toews is 21 and Kane is only 20. In all likelihood, Detroit probably probably made the decision for him, lacking salary cap space after giving Henrik Zetterburg a 12 year contract extension this offseason, however, I think Hossa will find that Chicago will actually be the better team in years to come, and will once and for all get that Stanley Cup that has eluded him since his debut with the Ottawa Senators eleven years ago. He will be 42 years old when his contract expires, and probably won't land another deal at that age, so this is it for Hossa. He's really putting all his eggs into one basket, a basket that might someday become a heavy silver one with his name engraved on the side.

Captain Jason

Last night, the Red Sox lost to the Baltimore Orioles, who are last place in the AL East, with a record of 35-42. The loss itself isn't so dissapointing as how we lost. John Smoltz made his second start of the season and went 4 innings, giving up just one run. Then, the rains came. and I'm not being metaphorical. A 71-minute rain delay took Smoltz out of the game earlier than expected. No problem, right? Bosten lead the O's 9-1 at this point, and the Sox bullpen leads the MLB with a combined ERA of under 2.90. However, something happened when play resumed that didn't seem too significant at the time: it wasn't the early departure of Smoltz; but instead, with the game seemingly in the hands of the Red Sox, backup catcher George Kottaras replaced Jason Varitek. 'Tek had to wait over an hour between innings, something catchers aren't accustomed to doing. He had fallen out of rhythm, and Kottaras's BA is basically identical to the Captain's, so it wouldn't be too bad to put the 26-year-old in the game, right? However, Jason Varitek knows the game of baseball better than anyone on the team, and calls the best game behind the plate in all of baseball. So, how did Baltimore become the the first last place team to come back from a 9-run deficit in the 7th inning to defeat a first place team? George Kottaras isn't Jason Varitek. No catcher is. Varitek has caught more no-hitters (4) than any catcher who has ever played the game of baseball, and that's not because he's caught for Cy Young-winning pitchers. Let's look at the no-hitters he's called: Hideo Nomo's, Derek Lowe's, Clay Buchholz', and Jon Lester's. Other than Lester, none of these pitchers have really gone on to have that much success in the Major Leagues. Pitchers get better with Varitek behind the plate. It's that simple. Our bullpen has average stuff, and without Varitek calling their game, they would be average (at best) pitchers. When Kottaras replaced Varitek after the rain delay last night, they became below average pitchers. Masterson, Okajima, and Saito gave up a total of 10 runs in two innings. That never happens! It seems totally out of whack for what we have come to expect out of our spectacular bullpen. The fact of the matter is, they're spectacular when Jason Varitek calls their game. When Varitek retires and is no longer calling games for the Red Sox, we're going to need a panacea of epic proportions to keep keep the team afloat. So, when 'Tek retires from playing catcher, Boston shouldn't let him retire from baseball alltogether. They should bring him back as some sort of coach--bench coach, catching coach, manager, it doesn't matter. Although his numbers might not show it, and although his number might not get retired by the Red Sox, and although he won't be inducted to the Hall of Fame, Jason Varitek is the most valuable player on the Red Sox roster.