Phillies

Major League Baseball Continues to be Run by a Bunch of Greedy, Out of Touch Jackasses

By Kyle Scott

Published: Sep 11th, 2011 · 11:09 PM EDT

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Photo via this Twitter account

Unbelievable. Just when you thought Major League Baseball couldn’t get any more ridiculous, we find out that the Mets were denied their request to wear NYPD and FDNY hats for Sunday night's game, even though they did something similar on September 21st, 2001. That day, they were also told by MLB not to wear the caps, but they did it anyway.

Today, they were strong-armed by the league: [NY Times]

“I think it’d be a nice gesture,” said Josh Thole, the Mets’ player representative. “What are they going to do, fine us? I don’t know.”

 

Minutes later, Thole walked back to reporters and said it was a no-go, MLB was pretty adamant about their ruling.

Ah yes, the ruling. Former Yankees manager and current MLB VP of Baseball Operations explained it to reporters: [Huffington Post]

"Certainly it's not a lack of respect," Torre said. "We just felt all the major leagues are honoring the same way with the American flag on the uniform and the cap. This is a unanimity thing."

 

Torre told reporters that he used his experience from the 2001 World Series to establish a precedent. That year, his players wore the hats during batting practice (like the Mets did tonight), but donned their regular hats during the games. It’s a unamimity and precedent setting thing, he said.

There are a few problems with that.

Torre was talking about the precedent set during the World Series. As much of a show of support it would have been to wear the caps during the World Series, it’s reasonable to expect a team to wear their full uniform during the league’s championship- merchandise sales, branding, recognition, etc. are all valid concerns since Major League Baseball is a business. But applying that precedent to the 10th anniversary of the tragedy for a meaningless game between two teams who have nothing – other than to provide a gathering location for the thousands most closely affected by the tragedy – to play for? Well, that’s ridiculous.

Few would argue the 10th anniversary of 9/11 sets a precedent… for anything. Obviously, a player can’t (and shouldn’t) wear hats supporting his favorite cause on just any given night, but wearing supportive hats on 9/11, in New York? Different story. There is not another event that elicits reflexive, near-unanimous emotions like 9/11 does. It’s a very special circumstance. The “they did it for 9/11” argument would work for almost nothing.

Since 2008, teams have worn their “Stars and Stripes” hats on September 11th, but this year the league decided on a subtle flag instead of the in-your-face design we see on Memorial Day and 4th of July. Perhaps that decision was made to avoid the type of criticism they just brought on themselves. After all, they sold those Stars and Stripes hats and donated an undisclosed portion of the proceeds to the “Welcome Back Veterans” committee. 

Portion stands for very little.

Having worked for the MLB Shop from 2008 to 2009, trust me when I say that it was likely a very small percentage of the sales. We were never told the amount, but the common perception among MLB buyers and our office was that it was hardly anything, much like the NFL and their sale of pink breast cancer gear…

Of course, this weekend, Roger Goodell made the very wise decision of allowing players to wear supportive gloves and spikes of their choosing. MLB should have mimicked the country’s most successful sports league.

Mets Blog and ESPN New York have more.