Buster Posey, Remarkable Talent And Is Done For The Year…Should Baseball Change The Rule To Protect Catchers?

Basically what happened in baseball – Buster Posey, a remarkable talent for San Francisco, he leads them in batting average, RBI’s …you know, he’s just a tremendously gifted kid, rookie catcher who came up late last year and guided them to a World Series behind the dish, remarkably smart and talented. They gave him a $6 million dollar bonus outta college, I think that was the largest bonus ever…at the time.

So he gets hurt – run over by a player, it’s a legal play. So now the question is: Should baseball change rules to protect catchers? The NFL did change rules to protect QB’s. Now, I wouldn’t change the rule – and I’ll just tell you why I wouldn’t, because in football it’s different. Every pass and every pass attempt, a QB is vulnerable to a blindside hit from a 265 lb defensive end who bench’s 440 and runs a 4.6…and on every play, that’s a real danger! In baseball, twice a year your catcher gets run over, your catcher is wearing gear, the guy who hits him isn’t, he’s getting run over by a smaller athlete and it’s not blindside.

So, let’s just think about this – big picture. In baseball, it’s a super rare event and the physical repercussions are limited. Asteroids occasionally hit the Earth, I’m not buying asteroid insurance…it just doesn’t happen enough. But yet for something in society that is a common danger, a regular occurrence like driving on the road and getting hit, death on the highway….yes! I’ll enact laws and legislation; I would change society and rules to protect a large number of people, who are in danger at any second!

In football, the dangers are greater – guys have been paralyzed! In football, the dangers are more prevalent, it happens on every play! But in baseball, the danger is what? Torn ligaments? And the regularity almost never happens – it’s like when you use to go buy a car and they try to sell you rust proofing. I’m sorry; it doesn’t happen enough in order to buy protection for it…so that’s my feeling on it.

Joe Torre was on The Herd with Colin Cowherd last Friday and Colin asked Joe Torre straight out, should MLB change rules? “No! I’d have to say that even at 2^nd base, when your turning a double play…you’re in harm’s way. But we teach you to get in there and knock the ball out of his glove if you’re talking about a catcher or 2^nd base or try to knock the 2^nd baseman over. That doesn’t mean you want him to be hurt, you just want to keep him from throwing to 1^st base” Torre didn’t even hesitate!

Now, let me take the other side – and I get the other side, there is more money at stake! You’re paying catchers big money. Now Posey had not signed a big deal yet, but he got a $6 million dollar signing bonus. Joe Mauer you pay $180 million bucks to – and like a QB, you want some assurances. Money alone changes all sorts of industries. I mean Progressive Insurance, year ago, when they came out with classic cars that are now worth millions of dollars, insurance didn’t cover that, they had to come out with specialty insurances….money changes everything folks!

Don’t forget, the NFL owners went to Roger Goodell and said “hey, we gotta change these QB rules. I’m paying $55 million for a QB. In the 70’s they paid them $300,000 dollars, now it’s like half the worth of their rosters and if they blow out a knee, they’re team now stinks!” So the NFL owners went to the commissioner and said “We have got to protect the QB!”

So, there is another side to this…that the NFL changed rules to protect their #1 asset. Now, baseball as a sport is not great at adapting. So that’s why I don’t believe there will be a change – I mean, asking MLB to be progressive is like asking my grandmother (82 years old) to open up a twitter account…it’s just not going to happen!

But I get both sides…its one of the most exciting plays in baseball – we’re massively overeating, it almost never happens and the repercussions are what? A twisted ankle and torn ligaments? What happen to Posey is incredibly rare.

The NFL Officially Admits They’re Losing Some Of Their Biggest Real Estate….You!

The NFL coaching association is now backing the players and their legal fight to end the lockout. Basically now, coaches and the players are in the same spot because teams throughout the league are starting to cut coaches salaries…and I gotta tell you something about the NFL.

Basically Roger Goodell is the commissioner and he’s in a tough spot. He’s basically in a really pricey divorce and he is the attorney for the rich guy – the owner. He is going up against a less rich person, the players, being the woman. There is no question that Goodell, as commissioner, needs the rich guy – who he’s representing. But he can’t ultimately control him and so Roger Goodell has got no vote on this thing. He is paid for and hired by the owners, so every commissioner in the history of sports – when you think of Bud Selig, don’t you think he’s tied to the owners first? Of course! Don’t you think David Stern is tied to the owners first? Of course! You have to be as a commissioner…that’s not a debate.

But Roger Goodell admitted last week that there is now proof the NFL is losing some of you! “It’s clearly had an impact on our fans already. You see that in our various metrics we have, whether their ratings or traffic on NFL.com, there are also financial consequences to that. I don’t think you can ever underestimate, because the fans are still going through difficult financial challenges, just in the general economy here. Those challenges continue to impact on their decisions and rightfully so.” TV ratings….down 4 million people for the draft, NFL.com traffic….down, ticket sales….down!

People forget that one of the great things the NFL did – and MLB has lost this because they have no salary cap, so the hotstove league is really just New York/Boston league. It’s more of a microwave, than a hotstove….there’s only two evolved and it’s very fast, there’s one guy out there and they bid on him. So the off-season for baseball is not nearly as interesting as it use to be. Frankly, we take baseball off for 4 or 5 months…even in baseball crazy cities!

But the NFL, over the last 3 years, look at the off-season stories…its become a 12 month sport! Vick controversy/imprisonment, Favre to the Jets, Favre to the Vikings and Big Ben controversy. The NFL, in my lifetime, has become the only sport to become an 11 to 12 month sport. This year, their giving prime real estate back to the NBA, MLB and NHL. In Japan, they had an economy called “the lost decade” this has been the “lost off-season” They’ve given all that beach front real estate right to MLB and NBA. Now, the NBA is better than MLB at creating headlines – it has been, since David Stern took it over.

You have to realize that newspapers no longer dominate sports – sports radio is much bigger and more popular than newspapers. Jim Rome, Colin Cowherd and Jason Smith have more radio listeners than any columnist could have for their writings – those days are just over. Right now, I’d be ranting about football…and I’m not! The metrics numbers are showing up! NFL.com…down! Tickets…down! Ratings….down! They gave it up! I’m not saying it’s a “lost decade” but it’s for sure a “lost off-season”

Now, maybe they get it back – they do surveys at places like ESPN, Fox Sports, Sportingsnew.com, SI.com etc. Almost 100% of sports fans listen to sports radio, when you think about it….do you know how much advertising they gave football over the past couple of years in the months of June and July? The controversies were actually good for business…they talked about the NFL! It wasn’t good for the Steelers during that Big Ben saga, but it was great for the league…It was great business! The media loves urgency and urgency sells, controversy, urgency, hate…they all sell! This is a business; these are not “.org’s” nor “non-profits”.

So baseball doesn’t give you a ton of urgency, the NBA gives you some in the playoffs, the NFL was giving us more urgency than any place else!