I’m not the biggest proponent of our local newspaper (The Sacramento Bee), but since it’s the only paper we have, I pick it up or go online and read it every now and then. I’m also not the biggest fan of their sports page either. For us long-time Sacramentians, when you think about all of the now famous sports writers who started their careers at the Sacramento Bee that have since moved on to bigger and better gigs, it makes you wonder how good this paper and sports section really used to be. Reporters like Damon Hack and Sam Amik now write for Sports Illustrated, Scott Howard-Cooper writes for NBA.com, Mark Kriedler has a morning sports radio show and guest writes for ESPN.com, and who can forget Marty Mac, all once wrote columns and articles for the Sac Bee.
I’m not here to slam every sports reporter currently at the Sac Bee. I like Jason Jones a lot and his coverage of the Kings. I enjoy Matt Barrows and his coverage of the 49ers. And for the most part, I read columns by Marcos Breton. He has kind of branched off from just covering sports and now writes on all aspects of Sacramento news, but once in a while, he’ll pop off about something sports related, and half the time, I’ll agree with him. However, the piece below that he wrote is phenomenal in my opinion. Not that I want to use my blog to re-post other people’s work, but this I felt I had to share, not only because I agree with him and feel it’s a good read, but it’s also validation for a piece that I wrote a while back. My man, The Professor, and I engaged in a good debate about this very topic.
I wrote a piece called “I Might Be In The Minority, But I See Where Brian Sabean Was Coming From” and it focused on the Posey/Cousins collision at home plate and Giants General Manager, Brian Sabean’s comments that followed. At the time, I was excused of being a “Homer” for calling out Cousin’s for his actions, calling for a rule change, and defending Sabean’s point of view for his comments. The column below I think furthers my points. Or maybe I guess I just like seeing I’m not alone.
Mr. Armchair Speaking
Marcos Breton: Marlins' fortunes turned after Posey collision
Published Friday, Jun. 17, 2011
Call it the curse of baseball ignorance.
Ever since Scott Cousins slammed into Giants catcher Buster Posey, breaking Posey's leg and ending his season, Cousins' Florida Marlins have plunged into the toilet. On Thursday, they lost their seventh straight after starting June with an eight-game skid.
The Marlins' sudden demise has the feel of deserved karma. For many reasons, it seems right that it is the Marlins and not the Giants who are suffering in the standings in the wake of Cousins-Posey.
It feels good, too, for those of us who think baseball should protect catchers from needless collisions.
The Giants remain in first place despite losing one of the brightest stars in baseball in Posey, and second baseman Freddy Sanchez as well.
But the Marlins? They would be 0-16 in June but for a 6-4 win over Arizona June 10. When they left San Francisco on May 26, Florida was 29-19 and only a game behind the Philadelphia Phillies for tops in the National League East.
They've gone 3-19 since and have lost six consecutive series since sweeping the Giants in three games. The Marlins have plunged to 11 1/2 games behind a Phillies team that completed a four-game sweep of Florida on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Cousins is on the disabled list.
Some would dismiss this reversal of fortune as coincidence. The Marlins are young. They have a rookie manager and have been without ace Josh Johnson and star Hanley Ramírez for long spells. They've gotten terrible pitching.
Whatever.
The Marlins' meltdown is satisfying because it makes you stop and think – and stopping and thinking have been in short supply in baseball since the Cousins-Posey collision.
The national discussion was so disappointing in the wake of that fateful play May 25. Anyone who questioned whether baseball should consider rules to protect catchers was labeled a wimp. The Giants were cast as emotional whiners for expressing frustration at losing a 24-year-old star with the tools to be a once-in-a-generation talent.
In the national media, Cousins was portrayed as a victim who was only "playing the game the right way" when he lowered his shoulder into Posey and shattered his left leg and ankle ligaments.
I read tweets and comments from writers who referred to Posey as a villain for declining to speak with Cousins when the 26-year-old Marlins bench player called Posey to apologize.
And when Giants general manager Brian Sabean made coarse comments about Cousins on live radio, Sabean was destroyed in the national press.
We in the media say we want baseball people to tell the truth. But when they do, we crush them.
Baseball is a thinking person's game, but the culture of the game sometimes discourages thought – as in the classic line in "Bull Durham" when Kevin Costner says, "Don't think, just throw."
In this case, it was, "Don't stop to consider a better way of protecting players. Cling instead to century-old ideas of machismo."
Cousins had room to slide and score but chose to go through Posey to win a game. Many – myself included – initially played it off as: "Just baseball."
But why?
Why do those of us who love baseball cling to old attitudes as Catholic bishops cling to canon law?
All changes in baseball – integration, free agency, interleague play, the wild card and steroid testing – were initially viewed with disdain by many in the baseball press and public.
When Steve Wilstein of the Associated Press found now-banned performance-enhancing substances in Mark McGwire's locker at the height of McGwire's fame and wrote about it, Wilstein was slammed by the public and even some colleagues in the press.
How do we feel about McGwire and performance-enhancing substances now?
Many of us rushed to the conclusion that Cousins meant no harm when that wasn't the salient point.
What matters is that his collision with Posey was unnecessary. Yet in current baseball rules, players such as Cousins can be reckless, thoughtless and legal.
That's dumb.
What would be lost if, like in college baseball, catchers weren't allowed to block the plate and runners weren't allowed to destroy catchers?
Not much.
Maybe now that the emotion of Cousins-Posey has subsided we can think about the issue rationally.
In late May, the thinking was that the Giants were in trouble while the Marlins were rising.
According to published accounts, the young Marlins celebrated sweeping the Giants by feasting on In-N-Out burgers as they left San Francisco with heavy recriminations in their wake.
They've fallen apart since then, while the Giants have persevered.
It makes you think.
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