Brent Mayne

A Dead Ringer

Tis the season for the Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer TV special. I think I watched it as a kid and now my kids are watching it. Anyway, we’re all hunkered down in front of the TV and there it is! Could it be? Is it possible? Yes it is! Somebody tell Kevin Youkilis I found his long lost brother. You be the judge. To me it’s an obvious separated at birth story. They even sound the same…Yukon Cornelius – Kevin Youkilis. Weird.

                                       P.S.      Thanks for the tip-off Cherokee!

Dollars and Cents

As well as celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever, it seems like a custom this time of year to grumble about money and baseball. Maybe this year more so than others because the economy is what it is. That being said, I guess it might be an appropriate time to throw my two cents into the ring (no pun intended). 

So here’s where I’m coming from…and as usual, take it with a grain of salt. You are reading a blog from an ex-pro player after all. First off, these are the best baseball players on planet earth. The most skilled 700 people in the game. The fact is, if you happen to be one of the best 700 people from ANY field (unless you’re a trash collector or teacher) you’re probably making a ton of dough. The second thing is, this is the entertainment business baby! I don’t hear anyone bitching about how much Madonna or Jagger or Bono or Springsteen or Pitt or Simon Cowell made last year. Geez even Larry the Cable Guy made a billion dollars last season, and he’s not even funny. I’ll bet you Kat Von D made a ton of dough last year and…well…alright, you got me there, she’s pretty hot. The point is, if Barry Manilow can make about 100 million a year, I think Frankie Rodriquez (arguably THE BEST at what he does) might just be a bargain at a little over 10 mil a season.

Thirdly, the guys that own baseball teams are some of the brightest and best business men in the world. I know it doesn’t seem like it, and they would love to have you believe they’re bleeding money and can’t fly private anymore, but these teams are toys for them. A drop in the bucket. A tax write off. The KC Royals to Wall Mart…come on. These men are not losing money. They know how to make a buck. They fully understand the simple rule in America that something is worth whatever people will pay for it. Simple. If people won’t buy it, it’s not worth anything and it’s time to move on to something else. The simple fact is, people love baseball. They love the entertainment and are willing to pay for the baseball package on the internet, buy the newspaper to check the box score, buy the video game, wear the hat, flip on the TV, and even splurge for the season tickets. Say what you will, but there’s a lot of revenue streams in baseball and you can’t have any of it unless you’ve got some kid taking a huge risk and devoting his life to becoming one of the best in the world. The game is driven by those 700 players. Nobody’s gonna flip on the TV to watch Joe the Plumber play. The players are worth every dime. They’re worth whatever someone will pay. Period.

Lastly, the high ticket prices. Let’s make it simple. If you don’t like it, don’t go! Simple as that. Either go or don’t go. The beautiful thing is that the guys that own teams will listen to you. They really don’t care THAT much about the game. Their game and their skill is in making money and if they don’t make money they don’t likey. They will continue to charge $90 for a ticket to a spring training game if they continue to put butts in the seats. And they will continue to blame the salaries of the players for making them do it when in reality they just really like the extra money. If you don’t go and they can’t fill the seats, they’ll lower the price to $80 dollars a seat and throw in a free hot dog. Honest they will. Remember the rule…something is worth what people will pay for it. Maybe you can rationalize it this way. Go to a game with your son or daughter or dad or best friend. Sit there and see what happens. Generally, it’s a beautiful thing and a very rare experience. You see, when you go to a ball game, you’re pretty locked in for a few hours with the person sitting next to you. You almost have to communicate. Imagine that….talking to your son or dad for 3 hours. Or maybe not even really talking to your son or dad but just being near him…simply enjoying the sounds of the game together. Pretty cool. Where else can you do such a thing? That alone might be worth the $200 you spend once in a while. It’s probably WAY cheaper than counseling! Cheers.

The right field wall at Ebbets

As you already know, I love the photography of Neil Leifer and his book “Ballet in the Dirt”. Every time I browse through it I stop and goon out on this one image he took of the right field wall at the old Ebbets Field. It’s amazing. There are so many angles and corners to the wall and the scoreboard that it makes me dizzy. My first thought is that I would’ve had about 10 inside the park homers if that was my home field – and that’s with my speed (don’t laugh, I really DO have a couple inside the parkers). My second thought is for Brooklyn Dodger right fielder Carl Furrillo. I wonder how he played that sucker. After doing a little research, apparently he did a photo essay with Collier’s magazine demonstrating the 14 different ways the ball could bounce off the scoreboard. Being a left handed hitter, Duke Snider must’ve loved it (and the fact that it wasn’t even 300 feet). I’ll bet Ted Williams loved hitting there. I read a piece that said Pee Wee Reese once legged out an inside the parker while the ball bobbled around on a ledge of the right field wall. 

A few random facts about the place. Ebbets Field was designed by Clarence Randall Van Buskirk (obviously not a ball player) and was finished in 1913 for a cost of $750,000. It sat 25,000 when it opened and housed the Dodgers until 1957. Ebbets Field was the sight of the first televised game in 1939. Sadly, all that’s left of the place is a plaque on the side of an apartment building. Oh well, all in the name of progress…right?

Dr. Ken Ravizza

Lots on the agenda lately. I’ve been getting ready for the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) convention the beginning of January. I’m speaking on Monday and have a little booth to sell my book and make connections throughout the weekend. For the speech, I’m working on a powerpoint type presentation with pictures, outline, etc. For the booth I don’t really know what the heck I’m doing so I’m going super low tech with a table, beach chair, and my book. It will undoubtedly get the award for worst booth in show. What I really need is to hire a hot girl to wear a bikini and sell the book for me. 

I went up to Cal State Fullerton today and interviewed Dr. Ken Ravizza for a future podcast. Dr. Ravizza is a professor at CSUF and has been a sport psychology consultant for the U.S. Olympic Field Hockey, Water Polo, and Baseball teams as well as for the Dodgers, Angels, Arizona State, CSUF, and LB State. He also works with a number of pro baseball players on an individual basis. He wrote the book “Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time.” I had Dr. Ken as a professor when I was a student there – he’s a great guy and has a lot to offer for the aspiring ball player or coach. One really interesting thing that happened while I was there was I met one of his teaching assistants. This guy was sent to Ken from West Point of all places. Turns out the Army is using sports psychology to boost the performance of their soldiers in Iraq. It totally makes sense. A soldier obviously needs the same sharp focus and intense concentration that an athlete needs – especially in the topsy turvy Iraq arena. Split second decisions need to be made as to who’s trying to kill you and who’s an innocent civilian. Obviously a soldier who is keenly focused and “in the zone” so to speak is a safer and more efficient soldier. The Army somehow found out that Ken, through all his work with elite athletes, knows the in’s and out’s of the mental game and the zone experience. Fascinating. It totally supports my theory that the elite from any field – be it athletics, business, health, war, art, or even lawn maintenance – share a similar mental state. They all know how to be in the moment. All for now, I’ll edit the talk and get it up as soon as possible.

Lee Arthur Smith

When I was instructing last summer at MLB’s Euro Academy in Italy, I had the pleasure to work with Big Lee Smith. Despite having faced him numerous times over the years and hearing a lot about him, this was my first face to face encounter. He’s huge, he’s a great guy, when he grips a baseball in his hand it looks like a golf ball, he’s super funny, you can’t understand but maybe half of what he says, he’s a good instructor, when he throws BP he can still be unhittable, and he is one of the true characters of the game. Lee Arthur was one of the greatest closers of all time and the rumors of his sleeping habits were legendary. Naturally, when I finally met him, this was the first thing I asked him about. To make a long story short, apparently Big Lee would get to the ballpark, go through BP and all the pre game junk, then when the game started he would curl up somewhere and go to sleep. He’d tell the trainer to wake him up in the 7th inning or so if there was any possibility of him going in. Other than that, he said just let him sleep. Classic. Big Lee spent many a year playing for the Cubbies and he told me that there were numerous occasions when he knocked off at the beginning of a game only to wake up to find the stadium empty and no one left in the clubhouse. He had slept soundly through the whole thing! It was so funny to hear him tell me this and to recall him lumbering across the field towards the bullpen in the 7th or 8th inning of a game. I remember always thinking that he looked like a bear just out of hibernation….turns out I wasn’t that far off. The last thing that I’ll add about Big Lee is that he ought to be in the Hall of Fame. I’m mystified that he’s not. He’s got like 460 something saves (2nd all time), was an all-star many times, was a great teammate, was pleasant and kind to the press, and was/is a great ambassador for the game of baseball. What are they waiting for?