Washington Nationals hit it out of the park (10 highlights)

Take me out to the ballgame. I feel a rush of happiness every time I enter a big league ballpark and get a glimpse of the field. Suddenly you see the game’s best baseball players loosening up and feel the chills go up and down your spine. 

Last Friday, Aug 25 I had the good fortune to catch a game at National’s Park in Washington DC– the Washington Nationals vs. New York Mets-- on Players Weekend. The Nationals Stadium is open air. The excitement was palpable. Vendors sold baseball caps, beer and bottles of water at discount prices as you approached the stadium. A stage for rock bands near the stadium’s entrance gets the party started early. The Washington Nationals organizations does many things right. The fun atmosphere continued throughout the game.

The Players Weekend agenda included colorful uniforms for both teams. The bright sleeves on the jerseys, orange for the Mets and red for the Nats, contrasted with the more traditional blue color of the jersey. Players wearing the traditional high stocking leggings, provided a playful visual treat, brightly colored stripes in a near-psychedelic cacophony of colors. 

The Players Weekend concept was a homage to the source of all sports—childhood joy.  Printing the players’ nicknames on the backs of the shirts did this effectively. For example: “Chamo” (Adrian Sanchez), “Mikey T” (Michael Taylor), and “El Lindo” (Wilmer Difo) for the Nats, and “Jake” (Jacob deGrom) and “Chiquitín” (Asdrubal Cabrera) and “Lil D” (Travis d’Arnaud) for the Mets.

Washington Nationals Ballpark Highlights:

1)  “Rally video” on the ballpark scoreboard used the humming scene from “Wolf of Wall Street” film, featuring Leonardo Di Caprio and Matthew McConaughey. The two actors thump their chests in the hysterically funny. Before long the Nats fans were laughing, smiling and thumping chests in response. 

2) DeGrominator—it’s tough to get hits off of Jacob (“Jake”) deGrom and the Mets eventually won the game. Jake’s other nickname, “the DeGrominator”, seemed to hold forth this evening with deGrom earning 10 strikeouts against the Nats.

3)  Liked the presidential mascots race around the ballpark outfield. Appropriately enough, George Washington crossed the finish line #1.

4)  Ordered the Greek salad at the Budweiser Brewhouse, located high above centerfield. Very impressive for the quality of the food, but had trouble with the kale chopped into the salad. Kale in a Greek salad?

5)  This was a glorious night at Nationals Stadium. The intrusion of commercial messages was kept to a minimum.

6)  I actually felt the drama of a well-played ballgame, not a single error occurred. I could perceive the grace of Michael Taylor (Mikey T) playing center field for the Nats and “Jake” deGrom’s pitching power and impeccable rhythm. 

7)  I found a Washington ball cap on the ground—with the cool, scripted “W”—and it fit me. No embarrassment here, I love the free, now recycled, baseball cap.

8)  Baseball, not corporate profits, was at the heart of the Players Weekend ballgame at National’s Park. 

9)  The fans enjoyed the national pastime, inhaled the cool night air, observed the sunset along with the vision of great athletic skill performed on the greenest of lawns. 

10)  All this entertainment happened in the company of a bunch of like-minded baseball-crazy fans in the nation’s capital.

New York Yankees sluggers: Mantle, Maris, Jackson and Judge

I asked my 22 year old nephew, a Long Island college student, what he thought were the biggest New York sports stories of recent years. He mentioned "Lin-sanity", Jeremy Lin's remarkable debut with the New York Knicks in 2012. Lin was unstoppable in his first 12 games and electrified the long-suffering New York basketball world. I said, "how about right now?" My nephew answered, "Judge." Aaron Judge, New York Yankees new arrival in right field. Judge at 6'7" has the dimensions to be a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. He has already stunned the hearts and minds of the most cynical New Yorker by hitting 30 home runs in his rookie year before the All-Star game. Judge broke Joe DiMaggio's home run's by a rookie record and it only took him half a season! Aaron Judge struggles now with a slump, but already set the tone for kicking Yankee baseball and New York sports to a higher level of excitement.

So, just how do you become a New York Yankee legend? The best way is by belting home runs-- long home runs, hitting clutch home runs and doing so year-after-year in a New York uniform. After the heroic Babe Ruth, the template for transcendent sluggers, you get Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggion brings us to Post WWII era, the modern era of sports.

Top 3 Modern Sluggers creating Yankee history:

Mickey Mantle-- 18 years with Yankees (competition with Roger Maris-- 1961)
Roger Maris-- 7 years with Yankees (broke Ruth's record-- 61 homers in 1961)
Reggie Jackson-- 5 years (Mr. October, World Series champions 1977&1978)

Certainly other great power hitters have come down the pike for the New York Yankees. Alex Rodriguez arrived on the scene in 2004 and brought high hopes. His home run production happened mainly during the regular season and was marred by poor post-season performance and steroid use.

Mickey Mantle had many transcendent moments in his career-long tenure with the Yankees, including a Triple Crown season in 1956. Longtime Yankee fans will never his mano-a-mano competition with Roger Maris to reach or surpass Babe Ruth's record on 60 homers. Though Mantle came in second, with 54 homers that year, the drama playing out between two teammates to enter the rarefied air of Babe Ruth kept fans transfixed to the scene unfolding in Yankee stadium. The sustained drama, covering an entire season, makes Mantle the most legendary home run hero of the modern era. Roger Maris's relatively short stay with the Yankees, along with the fall-off in production in every other year with the Yanks, leaves him behind "The Mick." Maris will forever be honored as a pioneer, the first player willing to dare tread on the legacy of the Bambino.

Reggie Jackson may be the greatest clutch hitter of all-time, certainly the greatest clutch home run hitter of all-time. His nickname, "Mr. October," says it all and maybe that's the best nickname every bestowed upon an active player. Reggie lead the team to two world championship in 5 short years, along with a third World Series appearance. Jackson's amazing feat of hitting 3 home runs in game 6 of the 1977 World Series stands as a transcendent moment, never to be forgotten by the Yankee faithful. Jackson had a flair for the dramatic off the field-- and his charged relationship to manager Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner adds fuel to Jackson's charged baseball reputation in the Big Apple. Reggie could handle pressure of all types and the big moment appealed him to him, the spotlight pulled the best out of Mr. October.

Aaron Judge stunned the baseball world with an amazing Home Run Derby this season-- poking 57 home runs out of the park. The achievement seemed to throw him off. He created his own monster in terms of expectations for future performance. He immediately slipped into a hitting funk. Judge has the admiration of his fellow players and fans. This differentiates him from Alex Rodriguez. Mickey Mantle had a self-deprecating, country boy,.... "aw shucks" sense of humor about himself. Mickey kept a sense of balance despite the New York pressure cooker. Alcohol was Mickey's demon, maybe his way to decompress. Somehow, heavy drinking and all, he kept the New York Yankees in good competitive stead and grew his legend through it all.

NBA and Comish Adam Silver: “Breaking Greedy” with Jersey Ads

The NBA (National Basketball Association) has decided to institute a new marketing concept, jersey patches on uniforms advertising corporations who pay for the rental space.

Soon your Boston Celtics will be the GE Boston Celtics. General Electric has won the right to put the GE logo on the green and white Boston uniforms. General Electric wraps its corporate arms around the legacy of Bob Cousy’s and his behind-the-back passes. Instead of thinking about Bill Russell’s 11 championships and his titanic battles with Wilt Chamberlain you are forced to try and wash the GE logo out of your mind as the players dash down the court.

Memo to Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner:

Basketball is not NASCAR. Men driving high-powered automobiles around a track cannot compare to guys in gym shorts and undershirts creating magic with a basketball.

James Naismith invented basketball at the Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA in 1891 with a peach basket placed exactly ten feet above the ground and 13 rules. The rule book has expanded but the game remains essentially the same. Basketball did get re-invented by kids in the urban playgrounds of America. African-American players increased the speed of the game and moved much of the action “above-the-rim.” The static set shot was replaced by the jump shot. The game has benefited from these changes.

NBA teams represent a geographical entity—New York, LA, Philadelphia, San Antonio, etc. and usually have a second name related to the location of the team—Knicks, Lakers, 76ers, Spurs, etc..  The jersey ads add a third identity.  In Philadelphia’s case the corporate connection is StubHub. Fans, no doubt, will get a warm feeling inside, seeing a StubHub patch added to their uniforms. Most amazing—these teams are whoring out their enterprises out for a mere $15-20 million per year and the league stands to wring an additional $100 million to their coffers. The teams can compete to pay their millionaire players even more money.

I’ve heard the rationale that the patches are small and really don’t make that much of a difference.  The fans do not seem enthusiastic about the change. Mr. Silver, please consider going even further and eliminate the jersey patch concept altogether.

The negative impact of the jersey patch, though invisible, is profound. Basketball, a child’s game developed into an art form, should be left intact and pure as invented and re-invented. Corporations played no role in making basketball the magnificent game we see today —epitomized by the graceful, magical dance of a Steph Curry drive to the basket or a flick of the wrist jump shot.

The NBA swims in so much capital that second level players have been signed to huge contracts.  We are forced to wonder why the untold millions already being raked in by this very popular sport had to be raised to a higher level of profit… Maybe it’s just a case of too much is just never enough.

 Team                                           Sponsor

Philadelphia 76ers                      StubHub

Minnesota Timberwolves         Fitbit

Orlando Magic                            Disney

Brooklyn Nets                             Infor (software)

Sacramento Kings                      Blue Diamond Almonds

Utah Jazz                                     Qualtrics

                                                      (5 for the Fight Foundation)

Boston Celtics                              GE

Cleveland Cavaliers                    Goodyear

Toronto Raptors                         Sun Life

Milwaukee Bucks                       Harley Davidson

Detroit Pistons                            Flagstar Bank

Denver Nuggets                          Western Union

Friday Night Lights: George H.W. Bush vs. Michael Dukakis

The passage below, from Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger’s excellent book on high school football in West Texas, reveals much about the American heartland voter in the 1988 Presidential election. Bissinger’s insights to the blue collar voter in the election between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis could just as easily be applied to Donald  Trump vs. Hillary Clinton (2016).

Friday Night Lights

by: H.G Bissinger

Da Capo Press, 2000

(p.177)

When George Bush came to Midland-Odessa he didn’t go quite that far, but it was the family and school prayer and allegiance to the flag that he highlighted  over and over. As historian Garry Wills pointed out he seemed as closely linked to Pat Robertson as he did to Ronald Reagan, and it was a strategy that worked brilliantly.

Dukakis forces thought they could win the state on the basis of the economy. They thought that the issue of gun control and the Pledge of Allegiance were fads that would quickly die out. They never thought that Bush’s rhetoric, a kinder, gentler version of the “Morton Downey Show” would have much lasting effect. They patiently waited for the campaign to get back to the greater good of forging practical solutions to massive problems, but that shift never took place.

Perhaps just once Dukakis should have left the rarefied atmosphere of Boston and Harvard that seemed to entrap him wherever he was, hopped in a car by himself, and taken a drive to one of those lonely, flat-as-a-pancake roads to the gleaming lights of a Friday night football game. As in ancient Rome, any road he took would have gotten him there. He could have pulled down his tie and unbuttoned his collar. He could have gone to the concession stand to eat a frito pie and a chili dog and then wash it down with one of those dill pickles that came carefully wrapped in silver foil. Instead of keeping track of the score, he could have sat in a corner of the stands to listen to the conversations around him as well as take note of the prayers both before and after the game. He could have seen what people were wearing, observed how they interacted with their children, listened to the songs the bands were playing, watched those balloons float into the air like doves of peace and let the perfume of the Pepettes and the Golden Girls flow sweetly into his nostrils. He could have counted how many blacks were there, and how many Hispanics.

There was a heartbeat in those stands that dotted the Friday nights of Texas and Oklahoma and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida and all of America like a galaxy of stars, a giant, lurking heartbeat.

Michael Dukakis never heard that sound, and, even if he had he would probably dismissed it as some silly tribal rite practiced in the American boondocks by people who made no difference. But his opponent didn’t make the same mistake. He had been down the lonely road to those games, where the heartbeat had resonated more spectacularly than in the healthiest newborn. He knew it was still strong as ever. He knew what kind of values these people had.

Trump, New York City and the Tabloids

New York City is the city of a million stories. The

tabloids help explain the rise of Donald Trump: pages full of celebrity gossip, divorce, crime, sex scandals, and scantily clad Page Six girls. Tabloids speak very directly. Like Trump, they have strong opinions, pull no punches but are sometimes sketchy on the details. They go for emotions. Large print headlines jump off the page and many photos stimulate the reader.

We are not talking NY Times, the paper of record. Too intellectual. Trump calls them the “failing New York Times” but secretly wants their approval. Trump rises from the NYC tabloids--the conservative New York Post and the liberal New York Daily News. If it bleeds it leads.

Credit Donald Trump with one sign of genius, his decision to stick with New York City. New York struggled in the 1970s when things looked bleakest—gangs, graffiti, and unemployment. Why did he stay? Trump is a sucker for a story and Gotham thrives on stories. And New York City has many celebrities of various stripes. Trump loves celebrities, more than almost anything else.

And then New York made a comeback. Ironically, immigrants played a big role in invigorating the city. Creative young people returned to the Big Apple, especially Brooklyn. Gentrification followed. Crime decreased. Wall Street’s massive profits trickled down across the city. The Big Apple was back. Trump Tower stood proudly in the middle of the renaissance.

Trump learned from the tabloids. It’s all about exposure and building a brand. All publicity is good publicity. And Trump got a regular gig on television—The Apprentice.

When it came time to run for President, Trump figured out the cable news game better than Hillary. Say outrageous things and arouse emotion. Tabloid newspapers influenced cable TV with its confrontational style. Donald Trump’s oxygen became cable TV. He loves being the performer and the watcher. He digests CNN programs  and reacts. As President, he sealed the deal by mastering Twitter. Trump’s tweets became his own media outlet.

We usually get the President who figures out the media environment more accurately than his/her competition. Trump wanted to be the most famous man in the world. Mission accomplished. Trump now controls the news cycle—24/7. He cannot be moved off of Page One.