When Baseball is More Than a Game

From time to time, we are reminded that baseball, like all sports, is more than just a game.  Sports can take a hold of person, fans and players alike, and rule their emotions.  We have all experienced, at some point, the pure, overwhelming joy of seeing your team win and the heavy, pressing sadness that comes after a hard loss.  Typically, these emotions are fleeting.  Over time, the feelings subside and you get back to the daily routine of simply being a fan.  

For some, however, the investment in one particular team is greater than even the most impassioned fan can understand.  Such appears to be be the case with Orioles pitching star and Cy Young winner Mike Flanagan.  The circumstances surrounding his suicide are surely more complicated than we know right now.  But the thought that it had anything at all to do with being “despondent over what he considered a false perception from a community he loved of his role in the team's prolonged failure” is heartbreaking.  Many of those close to the Orioles great, including ESPN’s Tim Kirkjian in a piece that made me laugh through the tears, agreed that Flanny seemed different in recent years--more subdued and introspective, less jokey.  He took responsibility, after years in the front office, broadcast booth, and as the O’s pitching coach, for the steady downward trajectory of the once-great Orioles franchise since the late 90s.

Sometimes it’s important, for all of us, to take a step back.  I would never say that baseball is just a game.  Or football.  Or any other sport.  They can all be so much more than that to those that truly love them.  The devastating loss of a man who gave so much to the game and cared so deeply about his team, whatever the cause, reminds me to take a step back and appreciate all the the game has given to me.  Remember that success, and failure, comes in cycles.  Remember to be grateful for being part of something larger and longer lasting than ourselves.  Yes, the Orioles are in a down time now.  But they won’t always be.  And it’s people like Adam Jones, who always walks down to take a look at Camden Yards after returning from a road trip, that keep the honor and tradition of a great franchise alive through those dark times, knowing that someday, someway, they will be back.

P.S.  Peter Angelos, get the hell out of there already.  It’s time.

Ochocinco Tweets his Dad...Roger Goodell

Chad Ochocinco has been hogging the spotlight for as long as he could get a hold of it, both on and off the field.  His recent move to the New England Patriots seems to have done relatively little to change this.  Most recently, the outspoken wide receiver has taken to Twitter to let Commissioner Roger Goodell know that he does not agree with the $20,000 penalty levied against Bucaneer linebacker Mason Foster for unnecessary roughness in a hit on Ochocinco himself during a preseason game a week ago.  In fact, the Patriot said, he plans to reimburse Foster for the fine.  He tweeted, in full, “@nflcommish Dad no disrespect but I don't agree with @mason_foster fine n I'll be reimbursing him personally.Please feel free to contact me”  At least he doesn’t mean any disrespect.  And how generous to make himself available to talk, should Goodell wish to contact him to discuss the matter.

This is not the first time Ochocinco has taken to social media to let the Commish know of his beef with the uptick in penalties resulting from stricter rules across the NFL over the past few years.  Last fall, in a very bizarre series of tweets, he criticized the league for fining James Harrison.  He quickly recanted his statements though, claiming his account had been hacked.  Check out the full series below:

Perhaps most bizarre, though all of this, is that Ochocinco refers to Goodell as “dad,” and appears to have done so for some time now--at least since last November.  You gotta wonder what the patriarch of the NFL himself thinks of all this.  But such is the beauty of social media in sports.  It brings together athletes, fans, media, and, now, commissioners like never before. 

LoMo’s back?!

Self-proclaimed Twittaholic and recently demoted Marlins outfielder has just announced via, of course, Twitter:

As discussed previously on this blog, many within the Marlins organization insinuated that Morrison’s demotion to Triple-A was due in large part, if not exclusively, to his prolific tweeting.  Has this brief jaunt down to the Minor made an impact on LoMo?  How much has matured in over the past week and a half?  Based on his Twitter output since being sent down -- 31 tweets on topics ranging from yoga to trailer park girls to secular humanism -- it doesn’t seem like much has changed.  I think it was crazy in the first place for the Marlins to use demotion to the minors to punish Morrison for tweeting too much.  But, if you’re going to try to teach the guy a lesson, you need to stick to your guns.  So well done, LoMo.  It certainly seems like you’ve won this round.  Welcome back and keep tweeting!

Update: While writing this post, I saw Sport Center report that Chris Johnson would be flying to Tennessee to meet with his agent, Joel Segal, and Titans GM Mike Reinfeldt to discuss his pre-seaon holdout.  The most interesting part of this story: this news was not broken by a beat writer or agent. Instead, it came exclusively from Johnson’s Twitter account.  The medium is inescapable.  In terms of reaching out to fans and media, it’s immediacy and directness is unparalleled.  It seems like it’s only a matter of time before press releases are a thing of the past and all news is announced via a that ubiquitous little blue bird.  The MLB and other sports professionals better get on board or risk being left in the digital dust.

The NFL is just toying with our emotions. And we’re all falling for it.

The Lockout is long gone.  Football is back.  And in case you didn’t know that already, the NFL is going to remind you.  Again.  And Again.  And again.

The NFL has launched a “Back to Football” campaign to make sure we, the fans, know that we are supposed to be extra excited about football this year.  We’re supposed to forget that not much more than a month ago we were all cursing the NFL -- the greedy owners, the greedy players.  All that greed.  All at our expense.  We were worried we might not have any football at all this year.  Some said we should show our disappointment, dare I say anger, over the whole ordeal by not to going to games.  We shouldn’t feed the juggernaut with our hard earned cash.  

But we all knew we weren’t really going to do that, didn’t we?  Football is far too tempting a mistress to forsake just because of a little thing like a labor dispute.  And--here’s the ugly part--the NFL knew this, too.  They knew this all along.  They don’t have to win back our trust or our love.  They had it all along.  They merely need to tug on the heartstrings a bit with a few sepia-toned, indie-music-scored commercials and we’re over it.  We’re dressing up our dogs up in jerseys and loading up the fanbulance just like the good old days.  Just a brief look at the search results for the NFL-sponsored #BackToFootball hashtag reveals the enthusiasm for the season.  Even the players are over it.  They’re “totally psyched” to be back, too!  They were on an emotional roller coaster...just like us!

So, ultimately, no matter how upset the fans feel about the lockout, how jerked around and taken for granted we felt for the past half a year, we’ll be back.  We’ll always be back.  So, NFL owners, players, and executives, we know you’ve just been toying with our emotions all along.  And we’re OK with it.  The NFL season is just around the corner and we can’t wait. 

Twitter Should Not Be Logan Morrison's Downfall

I knew Logan Morrison’s Twitter name (@LoMoMarlins), well before I knew what position he played (left field).  And maybe that’s the problem. 
 
This past weekend, Florida Marlins outfielder Logan Morrison was demoted to Triple-A New Orleans.  Yes, his performance has taken a downturn recently.   After hitting .283 in his rookie season last year, Morrison has been hitting just .200 since the All-Star break.  Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said Sunday, "I never thought we'd see Logan hitting in the .240s.  He's a much better hitter than he has showed."

This is not all of the story, however.  Morrison still ranks second on the team with 17 home runs.  He is tied for the most RBIs in the month of July in the MLB with 26.  It’s hard to believe that his on the field performance alone, on a team with a 56-65 record and virtually no chance of making the playoffs, is enough to warrant being sent down to the minors.


This is where Twitter comes in.  

The Marlins brass, including the coaching staff and veteran players, have been fairly vocal about their disapproval of Morrison’s use of Twitter.  Manager Jack McKeon has said, “You've got to leave your distractions at the door.  Too many young guys come into the game today and think they've got it made. They're the darlings of the media and they want to run their mouth instead of tending to business. The record books are full of one- and two-year phenoms."  John Buck, Mariners’ catcher, has gone on the record advising Morrison, “He just needs to be LoMo and play the game, and not let the other stuff get in the way.”

So who’s in the right here?  Sure, Morrison tweets a lot.  But so does Lady Gaga.  And no one has suggested that has gotten in the way of her music.  Oprah Winfrey has 7,067,048 followers.  More than SEVEN MILLION followers.  Despite all that, the Oprah empire appears to be flourishing under her watchful eye.  Why is it that in sports, unlike in many other similarly public professions, social media holds such a stigma?  

Players are confronted with a great many distractions off the field/court/rink that can impact their play--parties, women, money, etc.  Players often place a high premium on being in peak mental condition in order to before to their peak physically.  Undoubtedly, these distractions can have a very negative impact on performance.  Just look at affair-era Tiger.  Earlier this summer, many blamed LeBron’s poor playoff performance on rumors about his girlfriend’s infidelities.  No question, players need to be extremely focused in the high stress, all-or-nothing world of professional sports.  But what is the true danger of Twitter?  How much time do you think it took Morrison to tweet out a quote from the movie Dodgeball?  Or say thanks to a fan who complimented him on a good season and said he had LoMo on his fantasy team?  45 seconds?  If that?  Could that really have been the cause of a drop in hit production significant enough to drive someone out of the majors?

The MLB is notoriously bad at social media.  They tear down YouTube videos of baseball games as soon as they're posted.  Their Facebook page doesn't link to their Twitter account (and vice versa).  They fail to highlight individual players as well as other leagues, most notably the NBA, do.  Social media is here to stay.  Private citizens are tweeting the most mundane details of their lives out to the Twitter-verse for public consumption.  Why should we expect any less of professional sports figures?  There may very well be more to the Logan Morrison story that we know about right now.  He did skip a team event for season ticket holders on Sunday.  Earlier in the season he wrote a tweet disagreeing with the firing of Marlins hitting coach John Mallee.  Nevertheless, the use of Twitter in and of itself should no longer be considered a danger to professional sports players.  If done properly, it is a means for fans to connect with big leaguers in a way that was never possible before.  Fans can have actual, albeit digital, conversations with players who are willing to respond.  They can be kept up to date and provided a behind the scenes look at their favorite clubs and players.  Teams, and leagues, can use the medium to manage their brand in constant, incremental ways, day in and day out.  When used properly, social media can change the very position of sports in our culture.

Not until LoMo is standing out in left field, iPhone in hand, tapping out a 140-character update of the game, will I believe that it truly has had a negative impact on his performance.