NEWSLETTER
The problem with bourbon barrel beers is that they taste so good, but they are like 11% alcohol. So it becomes a little too easy to have too many on a random Thursday night … anyway, good morning!
• I mentioned the Cubs fan survey a couple days ago, but The Athletic also conducted a general MLB fan survey here. There really aren’t many huge surprises in there, except for the one about whether fans want a salary cap/floor system. Nearly 60% of fans said yes. I wonder what the thinking is there – a desire for a floor being strong enough to permit the cap? A belief that a cap would improve them game somehow? No judgment here, I just really don’t know what went into folks’ answers.
• Generally, I’m not in favor of a cap system, but I will say this: having a salary cap/floor system allows your sport to do a clear and predictable revenue-share between the players and the owners (i.e., ensuring that players get 50%, owners get 50%), which then better incentivizes the sides to work together long-term to keep growing the pie (since that’s the only way you’re going to make more). The current system in MLB, as we’ve CLEARLY seen, keeps making things a fight about how much of the pie you get. So, I guess that is to say, I can envision a cap/floor system that would work in MLB, I’m not sure it will ever happen.
• I’ve been wrong before about macro trends in sports, but this just seems … incorrect:
Sternberg: "Partial seasons are going to be the wave of the future in professional sports."
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) January 20, 2022
• If he’d left it at just the first part, I could see it: maybe a lot of teams will have a “sister city” – particularly internationally in some sports – where they go once a year to play a series or two. Could totally see that. Could totally like that. But an actual SPLIT city team? Like what the Rays were trying to do with Montreal and Tampa? That being the norm? I just can’t see it. The fan and community investment you need to really prop up a successful sports team (especially one that already doesn’t have some kind of sprawling fan base) feels like it has to be tied to a single city. Am I missing something here?
• If the Cubs did have a sister city, where should it be? Somewhere lush, right?
• And of his 999 career walks, almost 20% of them were INTENTIONAL:
Greg Maddux is the only pitcher in MLB history with:
• 300+ wins
• 3,000+ strikeouts
• Less than 1,000 walkshttps://t.co/DmmUTLh0uu— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) January 19, 2022
• Greg Maddux had a season (1997) where he threw 232.2 innings and issues just 14 unintentional walks. Last year, there were – lol – 424 pitchers in MLB who issued at least 14 unintentional walks. The game was different then, sure, but also he was just different. (And the Cubs let him walk in his prime … )
• Big sale today at the MLB Shop, worth a look around:
Heads up to a one-day sale at the MLB Shop – tons of stuff to peruse (and that top left hoodie is calling out to me … ): https://t.co/ohd7ZWfd1r pic.twitter.com/OesfGUjRje
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) January 21, 2022
• Hack Wilson was such a unique player, though his life story is really wild and really sad. If you’re unfamiliar, you should read:
191 RBIs in 1930, built like a beer keg with size 6 shoes & size 18 neck. That was 5-ft-6, 200-lb Hack Wilson w @Cubs, the Hall of Famer, who led the NL in HRs 4 of 5 yrs, inc '30 w 56. Read more in the @sabr BioProject https://t.co/TKqik09Cpr pic.twitter.com/CVLVukIY4W
— SABR BioProject (@SABRbioproject) January 21, 2022
• Among the Wilson anecdotes in the article – things that are more or less impossible to imagine happening today:
During his first year with the club, Hack got stuck in a window trying to escape a police raid on a Capone speakeasy — for which he was fined one dollar, only one of many incidents involving Wilson, cops, and Demon Rum. Hack and his drinking buddy pitcher Pat Malone proved to be a source of endless trouble. The center fielder had never, from his earliest days, ducked a fight, and his time in Chicago was punctuated by several celebrated ones. He charged into the stands once and pummeled a foul-mouthed heckler, and later survived a retaliatory lawsuit. During the second game of a July 4 doubleheader at Wrigley Field in 1929, he raged into the Cincinnati Reds dugout after pitcher Ray Kolp called him a “bastard” several times (a particularly sensitive slur for Hack). Later that evening and connected to the same incident, he decked another Reds pitcher, Pete Donohue, on a railroad platform, knocking him out, splitting his lip, and earning a three-day suspension and $100 fine from the league.
• Since we just keep going down memory lane, I saw this on Twitter this morning and I was reminded that I really liked Ryan Klesko’s swing (not that it was a GOOD swing – I just remember really liking watching him go all out):
10/24/1995: Ryan Klesko hit his first #postseason homer in Game 3 of the #WorldSeries, and his bat flip screams “It’s about damn time.”#Braves #ForTheA (via MLB) @TalkingChop @1990sBaseball pic.twitter.com/b3mhkddklO
— MLB Daily Dingers (@MLBDailyDingers) January 21, 2022
• A physical location a couple blocks from Wrigley Field is coming for our friends at Obvious Shirts:
👀🔥Coming Soon! 2 blocks north of Wrigley Field! #ObviousShirtsStore pic.twitter.com/B7bHs171gt
— OBVIOUS SHIRTS® (@obvious_shirts) January 20, 2022
