Jewelry A Hit On The Baseball Diamond: Are Pearls A Player’s Best Friend?

It’s October, which can only mean one thing. Well, perhaps two. Halloween, when everyone enjoys dressing up, comes at the end of the month. October’s also MLB playoff time. Baseball players are getting all spiffed up to go to the ball park so they can slide around in the dirt and grass to try to win a championship. While they must wear a regulation uniform, players can show off some individual style with their impressive jewelry. Yes, diamonds, as well as gold and pearls, can be spotted on the baseball diamond.

Why on earth would a ball player need to wear expensive jewelry while on the field? And sometimes players are literally on the field if they slide or try to make a diving catch. Three reasons have been suggested for this head-scratching behavior. First, a religious conviction may prompt the wearing of jewelry. Cross necklaces, for example, can be worn to express one’s faith. This accessory is often accompanied by chest pounding and pointing skyward after a great play or crossing oneself before batting.

Style is a second reason to wear expensive, perhaps even gaudy, jewelry while engaging in athletics. A player wants to make a fashion statement. His uniform looks exactly like that of all the other members of the team, but he can stand out by being bedecked with bling.

Superstition could be the third reason for putting on glitzy jewelry for a game. Baseball players are well-known for being superstitious. Some won’t change socks or shave while they have a hitting or winning streak going; former Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs would only eat chicken before a game. Athletes may view a necklace as a good luck charm. Fans in the stands, however, are more likely to equate fancy jewelry with dollar signs and could be blinded by the light reflecting off that rope hanging around Mr. Pro Athlete’s neck.

The 2021 Official Rules of Major League Baseball are extremely detailed; yet, jewelry wearing by players is not addressed in Rule 3 about Equipment and Uniforms. While I did read Rule 3, I confess I had neither the time nor the inclination to read all 191 pages of the Official Rules; however, a quick review of the table of contents failed to reveal a section on diamonds on the diamond, pearls on the playing field, or gold behind the glove.

Since jewelry apparently isn’t banned, high profile baseball players often display shiny accessories. Take Los Angeles Dodgers’ right fielder Mookie Betts (whose initials spell MLB), for example. As if the nickname “Mookie” (short for Markus) didn’t make him stand out, Betts wears a sizeable gold chain to catch your eye. So the story goes, he got the necklace from a fan during a spring training game for the Boston Red Sox, his former team, in 2018. What a well-heeled fan!

But wearing expensive jewelry during a game comes with perils. The accessory can break right there on the field. In 2018 N.Y. Mets player Yoenis Cespedes broke his diamond necklace while sliding into second base. Umpires and players alike were finding diamonds in the infield (not the sky) as the game continued at Citi Field in New York. During a 2017 ALCS game between Houston and the Yankees, Astros pitcher Lance McCullers, Jr. broke his black diamond necklace requiring him to dig around in the dirt on the mound to locate the pieces.

But in 2021, the big news regarding baseball players wearing jewelry comes during the playoffs and involves Joc Pederson of the Atlanta Braves. Although just traded to the Braves from the Cubs back in July, Joc has endeared himself to Braves fans who are enjoying what they have dubbed “Joctober.” Aside from his hot bat, Joc is attracting attention for the string of pearls he first sported during a pinch hitting appearance on September 29th. Previously having worn black and gold chains, Joc probably figured something more elegant was required at this elite and elevated playing level.

What’s the reaction to Joc’s accessory? His fashion choice has hit it out of the park. When his solo homer provided the only run scored by the Braves in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Brewers, social media attributed Joc’s success to his wearing the pearls. Joc, of course, continued to wear the pearls and tweeted a photo of himself wearing them in Game 3 of that series where he hit the go-ahead homer. He captioned his picture “pearl JAM.” When the Braves clinched a NLCS spot, Joc celebrated by spraying champagne, holding a cigar in his mouth, and wearing his pearls, which he has confirmed to reporters are real.

It’s pearl pandemonium for Braves fans who were seen at Truist Field in Games 1 and 2 of the NLCS wearing replica pearls. Hey, if it’s good enough for Joc to wear to the game, it’s good enough for them to wear while cheering Atlanta on. The ever astute Braves marketing team arranged for $5 replica pearls to be available for fans to purchase at the park. To absolutely no one’s surprise, all 5,000 on hand were sold out after Sunday’s game. Yes, Joc is not only a major league ball player, but a jewelry trendsetter as well.

Why does Joc wear pearls? Is he superstitious? Is he making a style statement? Joc answered the question simply: “I like it. It looks good.” But Joc and his fellow Braves will need to do more than look good for him to sport the pearls during the World Series. They must also play well to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers and advance. Even if Joc’s team goes down in defeat, he’ll look smashing as the Braves’ hopes of winning the World Series are smashed.

WONDER-ing Woman:

Have you been watching the MLB playoffs? Should athletes be allowed to wear jewelry of any kind while on the playing field? Does Joc’s wearing a string of pearls detract from the game or add to the fun?

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MLB Sign-Stealing Scandal — Playing Fair Strikes Out

With the impeachment trial in full swing, wouldn’t it be more pleasant to think about another type of swing? How about the swing of a bat in America’s pastime? Or not. Just as accusations are being tossed about in our nation’s capital, so are accusations being hurled in major league baseball, particularly in Houston and Boston. A sign-stealing scandal has erupted on the sports scene leading fans to believe playing fair has struck out.

A familiar verse in Ecclesiastes notes that there’s nothing new under the sun. Cheating and baseball go way back. Approximately 100 years ago, the 1919 “Black Sox Scandal” took place. Eight White Sox players were alleged to have intentionally thrown the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds for a payoff. An investigation determined the accusations were true and banned the players from baseball. It also eventually led to the 1988 film, “Eight Men Out.”

Fast forward to 2020. Much time has elapsed, but Americans are still faced with allegations of cheating during baseball games. No, the players aren’t supposedly throwing games now, they are throwing a monkey wrench into the game’s integrity by the use of high tech devices–and apparently low threshold morals. Specifically, claims have been made that baseball players and coaches are illicitly using electronics to steal signs from the opposing team’s catcher.

But isn’t stealing a part of the game? Well, stealing a base is, and it is entirely permissible. Attempting to steal signs from the other team’s catcher is a long-standing baseball practice. The practice is allowed as long as a sign is stolen by using one’s wits, i.e., watching the other team and detecting patterns or sequences. Using extraneous equipment like binoculars, cameras, etc. to do so is not permitted though. Bottom line? The old-fashioned way of using your head is OK; using electronics is not.

Non-baseball fans may be scratching their heads wondering why a catcher’s sign is such a big deal. The catcher signs to the pitcher what to throw. If the batter knows what’s coming, he has a major advantage in being prepared to hit it. And by what’s coming, I’m not talking about a baseball. How the ball is getting to the plate is the key information. What type of pitch will be thrown? A fastball? Breaking ball?

Some MLB teams apparently do not adhere to the saying, “It’s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game.” They want to win. And with winning comes big bucks. The temptation to engage in high tech sign-stealing is too great for them. In 2017 MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred fined the Boston Red Sox an undisclosed amount for “sending electronic communications from their video replay room to an athletic trainer in the dugout.” He also warned all MLB teams against utilizing electronic sign-stealing. But did they listen?

Well, the Houston Astros sure didn’t listen–or at least they heard but didn’t heed the commissioner’s warning. In November Mike Fiers, a former Astros pitcher who had been with the team from 2015 -2017, sang like a bird about the Astros’ sign-stealing. An in-depth investigation by MLB into allegations that the Astros had illicitly used electronics to steal signs during their 2017 World Series Championship season and in the 2018 season ensued. This investigation upheld the accusations. It wasn’t baseballs rolling as a result but heads.

The MLB Commissioner suspended the Houston manager, AJ Hinch, and the Astro’s general manager, Jeff Luhnow, for a year. To add an exclamation point to the “No, no,” Houston team owner Jim Crane then fired both Hinch and Luhnow. The adverse report not only cost the Astros personnel, but it also hit them in the pocketbook; the team was fined $5 million, the maximum amount allowed by the MLB Constitution. But wait! There’s more! The Astros will also forfeit their first and second round amateur draft picks for the next two years. That stings worse than being hit by a pitch.

The repercussions were not limited to the Houston Astros though. The fallout from the MLB investigation led to two other teams losing their managers. Former Astros player Carlos Beltran lost his job as manager of the New York Mets, a position he’d held a mere 2 months and for whom he’d never even managed a single game. Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora left his manager’s position after the MLB report identified him as the ringleader of the scheme in Houston. Cora had served as the Astros’ bench coach in 2017.

Apparently it wasn’t American Express that Cora didn’t leave home without. He is accused of bringing his sign-stealing system with him to Boston. A separate investigation by MLB focuses on whether Cora installed a system similar to what he used in Houston in Beantown. The alleged sign-stealing under investigation occurred in 2018 when the Red Sox (coincidentally?) won the World Series.

So what was this ingenious but illicit sign-stealing scheme the Astros used? It was part high tech and part low tech. The high tech part was misusing video from a camera positioned in center field which was fixed on the catcher. That camera was supposed to be used to help the manager decide whether to challenge an umpire’s call. Cora told the replay room to provide information to a player who would share it with other team members. The info was relayed using the dugout phone or a cell phone. Eventually the Astros put a monitor displaying the video just outside the dugout in the tunnel leading to the clubhouse so players could watch it themselves. The low tech part of the scheme was using a nearby garbage can to signal to the player at bat what pitch was coming. No bang meant a fastball was to be served up; one or two bangs conveyed that an off-speed pitch was imminent.

Social media in part helped lead to the downfall of the sign-stealers. A shot of the garbage can nearby the Astros’ dugout was posted as well as numerous video clips of instances of garbage can banging by the Astros.  In fact, the Internet’s social media skills greatly reduced the time the league had to go through videos to find evidence. Social media users found it for them.

So now that the rule-breaking by the Astros and Red Sox has been uncovered and condemned, has baseball been cleansed from sign-stealing? Nope. The generally accepted belief is that the problem is pervasive in major league baseball. Everyone seems to be doing it, but that doesn’t make it right. Supposedly cheaters never prosper, so hopefully those tarnishing the iconic American game won’t prosper in the end. The only good thing to come out of this scandal? A possible movie idea. My suggested working title? “Bang The Garbage Can Slowly.”

Just WONDER-ing:

Do you enjoy watching baseball? Is your enjoyment lessened by knowing cheating is prevalent in the sport? Were the penalties meted out by the MLB Commissioner (suspensions, maximum fine, loss of two years’ #1 and #2 draft picks) too severe? Not harsh enough?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take Me Out To The October Ballgame

Just in time for Halloween, baseball season finally concluded on October 30th with the Washington Nationals winning Game 7 of the World Series. Personally, I don’t think of the end of October as baseball time; I’m more focused on SEC football at this point. Nevertheless, I tuned in to the Fall Classic to watch the best of the AL BAT-tle the best of the NL. I also had a BALL gathering information on the Series and its participants.

After a regular season of 162 games which began on March 20th, it all came down to a winner-take-all seventh game in the World Series. While a game 7 is exciting, it isn’t all that uncommon. A little over a third of the World Series match-ups have come down to a decisive game 7. In fact, a game seven was required when the Astros beat the Dodgers to win the 2017 World Series..

Speaking of sevens, the officiating crew for this year’s World Series consisted of seven umps. What? You could only count six on the field? Yup. There were only six present at the game live and in person. Number seven wasn’t even at the ballpark. He was the replay official assigned to MLB’s New York office. Well, that’s boring to sit in front of a monitor nowhere near the baseball stadium.

This year’s World Series was the 115th World Series to have been played. The American League’s Houston Astros were heavy favorites, having attained the best record in baseball this year. Best is, of course a relative term. The Astros’ 107-55 won-loss record was only a .660 winning percentage. That kind of percentage would be a failing grade on a school test, but hey, this is sports. The National League’s Washington Nationals, who only made it to the playoffs as a wild card team, logged a 93-69 win-loss record, a winning percentage of a mere .574.

Pitted against each other in the role of skipper for the Series were two former Major League Baseball players. Houston’s A.J. Hinch, a catcher in his prior MLB playing career, opposed Washington’s Dave Martinez, who was a catcher in his playing days. Hinch, with a degree in psychology from Stanford, had the educational edge since baseball is such a game of strategy and a thinking man’s game. Since his team lost, perhaps Hinch should consider pursuing a master’s.

The first game of the 2019 World Series was played at Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston. The Astros secured home field advantage by being the pennant winner with the better regular season record. And just how many of the 41,168 seats in Minute Maid Park were filled with fans imbibing fruit juice? Somehow I think the majority were washing down their ballpark franks with beer rather than lemonade. The sea of orange seen in the stands was not orange juice but Astros’ fans sporting their team’s color.

After two games in Houston, the World Series action switched to our nation’s capital. Nationals Park, situated in the southeast quadrant of Washington, D.C., holds slightly more fans than does Minute Maid Park–171 to be exact. Home field was no advantage in this World Series though. In fact, the home team lost every single game of this series. Home wasn’t home, sweet home.

Even if you aren’t a sports fan and don’t care about the action on the field, people watching was fun during the World Series. What crazy get-ups were rabid fans wearing to draw the camera’s attention? Take, for example, the man who had his face painted like a giant baseball. There was also ne wearing a colorful ASTROnaut helmet. Nowhere to be seen was Houston Astros’ pitcher Justin Verlander’s wife a/k/a Kate Upton. Maybe she was cheering her hubby on incognito.

Even the people on the field were fun to observe. What was up with all that facial hair on the players? Marge Schott (former Cincinnati Reds’ owner who required Reds players to be clean-shaven) must have been turning over in her grave. Every time Anthony Rendon came up to bat I had a strong urge to go find a pair of scissors to trim that long hair on his chinny, chin chin. Not sporting facial hair was young Nationals outfielder Juan Soto. Soto not only had the thrill of playing in a World Series, but he got to play in a World Series game on his 21st birthday–October 25, 2019. Less thrilling was the fact that his team lost the game.

To the victor go the spoils. What are the spoils in the World Series? First of all, the winners get to brag that they are the best of the best. Second, they get a big payout; victors have earned a bonus just shy of $400,000 for winning the World Series. Of course, no players have to live off of food stamps playing professional baseball; the average baseball player earned a salary of approximately $4,000,000 in 2015. And then there’s some bling–a World Series Ring. Ever since the 1922 World Series, players on the winning team have each been gifted with a ring. Similar to a class ring, a World Series ring typically has a large stone with the team name and logo. In some instances, the ring is inscribed with the player’s name and number. Every MLB player wants to put a ring on it–his own finger.

The winning team receives the Commissioner’s Trophy. It is the only championship trophy of five major sports in North America not named for a person. (The NFL has the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and the NHL has the Stanley Cup.) Fortunately, the trophy looks way better than its name. At 24″ tall and 30 lbs. in weight, the award is made of sterling silver. Featured on the trophy are 30 gold-plated flags, one for each Major League team. Below the flags is a silver baseball covered with latitude and longitude lines, symbolizing the world. A new trophy is made each year, so the recipient doesn’t have to cough it up a year later to the winner of the next World Series.

The baseball season’s now officially over, but the party continues for the Washington Nationals, the World Series Champs. While each player on the winning team can truthfully say, “Baseball’s been very, very good to me,” we fans can all say that this year’s World Series, one that came down to the wire was very, very good to watch even if we had to wait until the end of October to see it.

JUST WONDER-ing:

Did you watch the World Series? If so, for which team were you rooting? Is the baseball season too long? Do you agree with the statement that baseball is a thinking man’s game?