Did you see this?
Our weekly look at some of the best and most interesting things I've seen over the last 7 days
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEKEND
The Marlins won their 2nd National League pennant 20 years ago tonight, beating the Cubs, 9-6, in Game 7 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field.
That makes yesterday the 20th anniversary of Game 6, remembered by most as “The Bartman Game.” Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune wrote about how, despite his fame, Steve Bartman has remained entirely out of the public eye for 2 decades.
Sully’s column also included one particular nugget that may be of interest to Marlins fans.
Remember early this season when the Marlins promoted Steve Bartman Appreciation Weekend when the Cubs were coming to town in April then canceled the event, absurdly claiming it was never planned and a promotional graphic was created and emailed out entirely by mistake?
I wrote about this crazy caper at the time.
In his column yesterday, Sullivan shared the previously unreported fact that Cubs President of Business Operations Crane Kenney contacted the Marlins to voice his displeasure with the idea. That’s why the Marlins called off the event they’ve told us was never even planned.
CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
The culture of major league clubhouses has evolved dramatically over the years. Frankly, clubhouses were more relaxed and much more welcoming to writers and broadcasters when I began spending time in them as part of my daily work in the 1990s.
As the number of credentialed media members with access has increased—and fewer of them are 1) seasoned and 2) among the handful of familiar faces that are with the team throughout the season—the tolerance level of some players for members of the media having a limited amount of access before and after games has decreased.
That’s not a positive development for anyone.
Just like the players, writers and broadcasters have jobs to do, and it’s that time in the clubhouse that enables them to gather the information that informs fans and helps grow the game.
Every now and then, something happens that challenges the “We’ve both got jobs to do” understanding that exists among most members of the media and most (but not all) players. Monday night was one of those occurrences, when Braves players took offense to something being reported that was said in their clubhouse in front of dozens of members of the media following Game 2 of Atlanta’s NLDS against the Phillies.
Stephanie Apstein of SI.com did a nice job recapping what happened and explaining the media’s role, rights and responsibilities. This piece peels back the curtain a bit for fans and should be required reading for every ML player.
As club communications staffs have gotten younger (read: cheaper) and less experienced in many markets over the last 10 years or so because not all owners and club presidents understand the enormous value brought by a seasoned communications executive, players with some clubs are not receiving meaningful media training or even receiving a simple explanation of the role the media plays in the game.
That leads to situations like what we saw in Atlanta Monday night, and situations like that are bad for Baseball.
CRACKING THE CODE
For all the talk about 100-win teams that have flopped this postseason, Jayson Stark of The Athletic looks at 2 teams that continue to show they know how to win in October.
THE LONE STAR GREAT
ESPN.com’s Tim Keown wrote a terrific feature about Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. In his first season in Texas, the future Hall of Famer has the Rangers in the ALCS after beating the AL’s 2 winningest teams—the Rays and Orioles—in the Wild Card series and ALDS.
ICYMI
In case you didn’t check out VFTB daily, here’s some of what you may have missed this past week:
In part 3 of our 10 Burning Questions series as we look ahead to the 2024 Marlins, we looked at the possibility of Jorge Soler and Josh Bell opting out of the final year of their contracts.
Our latest VFTB Playoff Notebook.
An around-the-horn look at the costliest busts in Major League Baseball in 2023.
While you’re here…
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Should be called the Moises Alou is a bully game...