Dodging The Elephant
History is greater than tradition
They smiled and laughed on cue, shook his hand and presented him with a #47 jersey, representing the chronological order of his presidency. But for the man hosting the World Champions, the irony was likely lost of the real significance of that number.
The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers made history – a history that Donald Trump’s administration attempted to partially erase when his Department of Defense removed the story of Jackie Robinson’s military service as part of a “DEI purge” before embarrassingly reinstating it without apology.
In that context, the Dodgers’ visit to the White House ahead of a series at the Washington Nationals – of which more later – was always going to be controversial. Gustavo Arellano wrote at the Los Angeles Times that the team should go, but “should all wear #42 jerseys.”
“Going to the White House does not normalize Trump — it’s a reminder that the place is ours, not his.
“The Dodgers can’t possibly think that just posing for photos and handing Trump a commemorative jersey qualifies as time well spent. Or maybe it’s all wishful thinking on my part. For all the hype about being there for fans and reflecting L.A. at all times, the Dodgers have historically cared only about one thing: the Dodgers.”
Dave Zirin wrote at The Nation that the visit was “a disgrace” and “feeds the Dodgers into Trump’s propaganda machine.”
“Instead of saying no, the Dodgers have made the coward’s choices. The team is acting furtively, with no one on the team saying if there was even a discussion as to whether to decline the White House invite. No player will respond to questions about the insult to Robinson’s legacy or if they are concerned about the dangers of the ICE kidnappings. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in 2019 that he’d never visit a Trump White House. Now Roberts says, “It’s certainly a huge honor to get the invitation to the White House. To my understanding, every World Series champion gets that honor, so it’s a great honor for all of us.” He said “honor” three times. One only does that under duress. Someone check Roberts’s eye blinks for Morse code.”
But, as we’ve seen with some heavy-hitting law firms recently, moral argument tends to get lost in a trite narrative as knees are bent. Even NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, who famously were no-shows after their Super Bowl victory in 2017, have reversed themselves, citing “tradition” and saying they will visit the White House on April 28.
While Dodger stars tried to downplay the political symbolism their host couldn’t resist, saying “We have a couple of senators here that I don’t particularly like so I won’t introduce them” as part of typically odd remarks, including something about the price of eggs and his analysis of the team’s championship rotation.
“When you ran out the healthy arms — you ran out of really healthy — they had great arms, but they ran out. It’s called sports. It’s called baseball in particular. And pitchers, I guess you could say, and really particular.”
(And the average price of a dozen large eggs increased in March, incidentally).
But putting Trump’s meanderings in context, Kevin Blackistone wrote at The Washington Post:
“It is this president whose executive order attacking diversity just the other day resulted in the removal of 381 books from the Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library, including Matthew Delmont’s “Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad.” Robinson was a part of that Black American World War II fighting force while having to defend himself against a court-martial for rightfully refusing to relinquish a bus seat deemed reserved for Whites.
“I have argued before that there is nothing congruous between Trumpism and the principles of sports. Not regard for meritocracy. Not deference to rules. Not adherence to fair play as arbitrated by impartial observers or the participants themselves. Not gracious acceptance of losing.”
Next Tuesday is Jackie Robinson Day. Sadly, as Mitchell Nathanson reminded us this week, “we haven’t come as far as we like to think we have.”
(You might also enjoy ‘Circus Peanuts’ – a Q&A I did with Prof Chris Lamb, a longtime Robinson researcher and author.)
***
Money men
Talking of Q&As, Michael Schmidt of the New York Times had a good one with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred that covered a lot of grass; from torpedo bats and robot umpires to the changing economics of the game and the structural relationship between money and competitiveness. Manfred said:
“I’m sympathetic to fans in smaller markets who go into the season feeling like they don’t have a chance in the world to win. I think our game turns on fans having hope when you enter the season. I think it’s a really important issue that we need to pay attention to.
“Having said that, there is a cyclical nature to this, right? Sometimes it’s more important from a business perspective than it is from a competitive perspective in terms of the outcome of the field.”
The Toronto Blue Jays this week tied up a “monumental” deal with Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s 14-year, $500m extension, with 65 per cent of the contract being paid upfront in a signing bonus. Maybe in light of the current economic situation Vladdy may be thinking that Canadian Dollars might be a better bet…
Former GM Jim Bowden runs through the best and worst recent contract extensions for The Athletic, concluding that the best potential deal for a team could turn out to be the Padres’ $135million, nine-year extension for Jackson Merrill.
“Teams realize they now need to lock up their young players earlier in order to control them longer, and more importantly, to save money in an industry where contracts go up year after year.”
Aaron Judge, who signed a nine-year, $360million contract with the New York Yankees in December 2022, this week played his 1,000th game, hitting his sixth home run of the season to tie Babe Ruth’s mark of 321 in a thousand games. The Yankees are 139-38 since 2020 when Judge goes deep. Earlier in the week, Yankee fans had the chance to randomly practise airing their opinion of their former star Juan Soto, ahead of his first return to the Bronx next month.
One guy who won’t be playing anywhere for the next while, though, is Jurickson Profar, whose 80-game PED suspension gave the Atlanta Braves a headache.
***
Freedom’s fastball
Marc Fogel, the American teacher brought home from jail in Russia in February, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Pittsburgh Pirates’ home opener, low and outside to Paul Skenes.
Throughout the Bucs’ first homestands this week though, there were fan protests urging owner Bob Nutting to “sell the team”. For Skenes’ first start of the season, there were 30,000 empty seats as part of a ticket boycott.
Meanwhile, a bad week for the organization was made worse by an angry row over the legacy of Roberto Clemente, and the apparent misuse of commemorative bricks.
Fifty-two years ago this week, the Pirates retired Clemente’s number 21.
**
Finally, a tragic roof collapse at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic claimed the lives of around 200 people, including MLB reliever Octavio Dotel, who played for 13 different teams between 1999 and 2013, winning a World Series with the Cardinals in 2011. He was also part of the Dominican team that won the World Baseball Classic in 2013. Dotel was 51.
Another former major leaguer was also killed in the collapse. Tony Blanco played in 56 games for the Washington Nationals in 2005. It was reported he had saved the life of his friend and ex-teammate Esteban Germán before losing his own.
***
Game Notes
I only got to one game this week because I was on jury duty*, so had to miss the Orioles-Red Sox getaway day game. It was probably just as well…
*This was the first time – on either side of the Atlantic – I had served on a jury. The two previous times I’d been summoned, in Baltimore last year and a decade ago when I lived in Brooklyn, I’d been in the juror pool but ended up being dismissed both times. Giving up a few days a year seems perfectly reasonable to make sure the legal system has the community buy-in it needs to function.
Long story short, if I ever find myself on the other side of the equation I’d want my fate in the hands of the jury I served with. It was reassuring – especially at a time of so much institutional unpredictability – to be among people who took their responsibility so seriously and so meticulously, making us all stronger as a result.
*
Wednesday 9 April – Washington Nationals vs Los Angeles Dodgers, Nationals Park, Washington DC.
It was 20 years ago this week that the Nationals played their first game in DC after 36 years as the Montreal Expos. That first team finished last in the NL East, with an 81-81 record. The Nats organization is marking part of its history all season, at a time when it has maybe more reason for optimism than in recent years.
Wednesday’s game against the World Champion Dodgers came after the Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s NHL scoring record at the weekend, so there has been an understandable and noticeable surge in the city’s sporting pride. The Nats’ starter was Jake Irvin, a Minnesota native and fan of the Wild.
And he was a little wild to begin the game, giving up four runs in the first including a homer to Teoscar Hernández. But the Nats scratched back with three in the bottom of the frame and in an entertaining game went up 5-4, before the bullpen slipped in the seventh to let the Dodgers take it 6-5.
Los Angeles came to town having started the season 8-0, prompting some to suggest that they’re “bad for the game”. That’s going to be an interesting argument to follow as the still-young season unfolds.
For current standings via MLB.com, click here.
Going into this week, the other undefeated team, the 7-0 San Diego Padres, ran into the rusty buzzsaw that is the Chicago Cubs, who took their home opener 3-1 in front of a Canada goose nesting in the Wrigley Field bleachers, requiring some seats to be closed off.
Obviously, Obvious Shirts has you covered…
*
The Game Notes from last week are here…
Thanks as always for reading. I’ll be back with some politics stuff this weekend, although like the financial markets, the story fluctuates every day and, like our 401(k)s, everyone’s just exhausted.
***