Spahn and Sain and pray for rain

I recently came across a sports person on the radio who said that there is a “conspiracy theory” about that claimed that the LA Dodgers had tanked the baseball National League championship series to allow the Milwaukee Brewers to go to the World Series.  The reasoning behind it is that there is going to be a baseball strike in December, and stadiums may be closed to any games for a long period thereafter. Behind that looming strike is a dysfunctional game behind which a few wealthy teams dominate the sport while the rest subsist – not in poverty- but in minor league status. They only exist to allow the wealthy teams competition during the regular season prior to the fall extravaganza. What better way to counter that argument than to have two small-market teams in the 2026 Series!

Indeed, I am told, 2015 was the last time that a small market teams made the World Series, the Kansas City Royals. I had to look that up. I do remember the 2016 World Series, where the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians, and I and others here have written quite a bit about scripted sports. To me, that series appeared to have been rigged.

A team deliberately tanking? A baseball game rigged? People imagine that a game that appears to be given over to random chance can’t be controlled. But it can be and is rigged. Just as football can be controlled by missed tackles and bad referee calls, baseball too can be fixed. It only takes a few players. For baseball, there must be an understanding between pitcher and batter that a certain pitch is to be delivered … a curve, fastball, slider … and the batters, who are so very good at their trade that they will connect, will take it to the next county. It does not matter if it is 100 mph – if the batter knows it is coming, there’s a good chance he will hit it. Time and again in the 2016 series I saw late-inning dramatics as the Cubs ended a 108 year drought, and thought fake, fake, fake. The batters knew what pitch was coming, possibly even the location.

If baseball were not fixed, it would be like British cricket … crickets. Pitchers are too good, and batters, no matter their amazing talent, only occasionally rarely see something to hit. That’s why anyone batting 300 is considered very good – imagine, 70% failure in any other business called “success”. If you like a 1-0 pitchers dual, you’re a true fan, and God Bless You, but the game cannot exist without dramatics, home runs, line drives up the alley, and sterling defensive plays. I have, even in my twenties when I paid attention, thought that our best athletes are baseball players. Football players are also gifted, but most tend to be more one dimensional, which is why when the ball changes hands, eleven players leave the field and eleven new players come in. The original rules of the game allowed only substitution of one player per play. Ergo, offensive players had to switch and play defense. I don’t know when that changed but know now that a football team has fifty-three players to cover 22 slots.

Growing up in Billings, Montana, we were aware of big league baseball, and I was a fan of the Milwaukee Braves. One time I remember that a baseball game was on TV at our neighbors house, and the Milwaukee Braves were playing. Hank Aaron came to bat, and grounded out, and I said “I thought he was supposed to be good.” So I must have been preschool at the time. We did not have a TV, and would not get one until 1956, when I was six.

I had cousins in Wisconsin, where we occasionally visited. I even got to attend a couple of games in old County Stadium. Milwaukee was and is a great baseball town, so that in 1966 when the team owner, Bill Bartholomay, moved the team to Atlanta, it was a kick in the groin for the city. There was no good financial reason for the move other than he wanted a bigger market, and Milwaukee was not enough. He jumped ship no matter the amazing support given the team in all of Wisconsin. It was a statewide franchise. It was a real asshole move, not unlike Bob Irsay in 1984 moving the Baltimore Colts Indianapolis in the middle of the night.

The city of Seattle has a baseball franchise, the Mariners, that has taken hold and has good support. But back in the 1969 when baseball was trying to expand, they miscalculated and put a franchise there, the Pilots, that languished in a place called Sicks Stadium.  Ex-New York Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton was on the team for one year, and wrote the 1970 book Ball Four, delightful, about that year. The New York Public Library selected it as one of the greatest books published in the 20th century – a baseball book written by a player! Toward the end  (I’m going on memory), he laments that the city of Seattle seemed more interested in classical music and operas than baseball. (That is, to be charitable to Mr. Bouton, a big misstatement. Seattle now, maybe not then, is sports crazy.)

The franchise was moved to Milwaukee in 1970, to fill that vacuum left by the Braves, and was renamed the Brewers. It thrived, but Milwaukee was always at heart a National League town even as the Brewers were American League. When  Jim Crane sold the Houston Astros franchise he allowed that in 2013 the Astros would move to the American League. That left two unbalanced leagues with 13 teams in one and 15 in the other. In 1998, when the Tampa Bay and Arizona were granted franchises, the Brewers were allowed to jump to the National League to balance everything out at 15 teams each. The city of Milwaukee once again had an NL franchise, and all was right with the world.

I was unaware of baseball this year. I noticed last week on a You Tube video that the Brewers fans had packed what was once called Miller Park, which had replaced the old County Stadium where I attended games. They were wild as the Brew Crew played the Dodgers, and then I noticed that the game was being played in Los Angeles! The Brewers fans were watching on the giant screen, and still, it was a full house!

I cannot sit through a game anymore, where once I could. I am not a “baseball” fan, but I do like the city of Milwaukee, and am delighted that they have their team, their idols (“Spahn and Sain and pray for rain” was once their chant”, Warren and Johnny, in the 50s and 60s). I hope they win this series against the Tampa Bay Rays … what? Who are they? This is a team initially named the Devil Rays that had to drop the word Devil due to religious objections to that name in their small market. They, like the Brewers, have been granted a seat in the SHOW this year due to the impending strike.

So yeah, I believe the conspiracy theory. The Dodgers, who spend more in luxury tax than many teams spend in total salary, have orchestrated this year’s Series, probably along with the Yankees, Mets, Astros, Red and White Sox, Cubs, and all of the other wealthy franchises. They want to pretend baseball is not princes and paupers.

I m going to enjoy the strike, and hope that baseball fixes their broken game.

36 thoughts on “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain”

  2. They didn’t drop devil from the name. They got smoked tonite by the small ball brewers.still on their jersey. First world series I’ve paid attention to in 25 years. Both teams are playing ole school. It’s beautiful . I attended a few world series games when I was a kid. My uncle started one of those games. A game seven. He wasn’t in on shite but everything lined up the whole season. He told my dad they were gonna win it all in August of that year. Crazy shite is it was agent that told him he was gonna win it all. The narrative may guide a season on its own. I’ve no idea. I watched that game 7 a hundred times with my uncle on vhs.He wasn’t in on it. Oh. You can know what a tom seaver is throwing at you. And most real stick guys still cannot hit it.

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      1. Both have songs named after them? (A rock band in the 70s were named after Babe Ruth too.)

        Funnily enough, I watched an early episode of Hawaii 5-0 the other day that was titled ‘To Hell with Babe Ruth’. Pat McGarrett (in the episode) explains this is what the Zero pilots screamed over their radios before dropping the bombs (at Pearl Harbor). Did the Japs follow baseball then?

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        1. were they both unanimous for Hall of Fame selection? Which is unusual if not the only ones (im not cheating by looking it up)

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        2. You’re right, but not what I was after, which is boneheaded simple, as befits my baseball expertise. Both share the same first name: George. George Herman Ruth, George Thomas Seaver.

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      3. You’re right, but not what I was after, which is boneheaded simple, as befits my baseball expertise. Both share the same first name: George. George Herman Ruth, George Thomas Seaver.

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  5. I think they will punt the entire ‘27 season because the only thing left for these billionaires to do is kill the one union that will still stand up to them. I’m sure the baseball owners when they get together to smoke cigars and drink brandy at their various lodges have to hear shit from the other members for still having to treat these employees like human beings and not chattel. The only people left for these ghouls to steal from are the millionaires and they will steal from them by any means necessary. Us former fans can watch games but with the same frame of mind as watching scripted drama. I will admit that most of these players are very good actors, but sometimes they blow their lines.

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    1. Good call Tyrone.

      Thanks for picking a topic right in my wheelhouse Mark. I went to Red Sox spring training camp 1979-81 for a week in late March in Winter Haven Florida when I was 9-11 years old. It was heaven, we would go on the road and i got to see a majority of the other teams up close so i got Autographs for many if the star players of the era, like Seaver, Ryan , Yaz like 20 times at the hotel bar, Eckersley too I have a stack of stuff from him.

      Plus i have about 100,000 baseball cards and other sports memorabilia in my collection. Considering i used to memorize listss of baseball statistics as a kid im pretty sure i can still beat 99% of the population at baseball trivia.

      And i mentioned in an email to you i think Theo Epstein could have written the script in 2004 for the Red Sox comeback along with the Cubs victory in 2016 when he went to Chicago- his grandfather abd great uncle wrote Casablanca for chrissakes. And his father is a novelist.

      SMJ who is your uncle? Oddly enough my Italian great uncle who was a semi-wise guy – he looked like Abe Vigoda with 3 fingers blown off his right hand froma cherry bomb – told me as a kid baseball was fixed, which is why he didn’t bet on it and wasn’t interested in it. I didn’t believe him at the time but now lean in that direction.

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              1. Thats great, I remember him. Great pitcher, and I may have met him in Bradenton, I remember going to a Pirates spring training game when he was on the team in 79 or 80 when we were there.

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                  1. I bet. Those players in the 70s were as friendly as can be to a 10 year old fan. I particularly remember having conversations with Dusty Baker and Tony Pena, and getting multiple pictures – both of whom ended up as managers.

                    The only player that was a jerk and refused to give me an autograph from that era was Fred Lynn- I can remember it like it was yesterday – he was the only Sox player I didn’t have an autograph of. I think it was April 1, 1981 – he was jogging around the field. “Mr Lynn can I have your autograph?”. Answer: “Sorry kid, we’re on strike” – the first baseball strike.

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                    2. Interestingly the strike didn’t begin until June 1981, but they probably had meetings and knew a strike was coming.

                      Lynn had a very disappointing career after that, and never reached his potential. I have seen him on TV recently and he looks very wizened and small compared to Fisk or Rice, who he was sitting next to. Supposedly he wanted to get out of Boston and to LA because his wife hated the Fresh Pond traffic circle in Cambridge – it is a fucking nightmare – and she had to drive through it every day.

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                  1. I only remember meeting Tony Pena clearly, I need to go through my photos and autographs this weekend to see who else I met. I may have met Stargell.

                    I was just thinking about how colorful the players, especially the pitchers were in the 1970s. Some I met that were especially interesting and eccentric were Luis Tiant, Bill Lee, Eckersley, Oil Can Boyd – he was quite talkative, Mark Fidrych.

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                    1. That’s awesome! I collect cards and memorabilia as well! I have so many autographs and still enjoy meeting the players.

                      I remember meeting Spahn and Sain when I was a kid, they were both very nice. And Fidrych was really nice as well!

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                  2. Did you ever play catch with your uncle, or major leaguers? Its hard to understand how hard these pitchers throw without catching it yourself. The best pitcher I ever played catch with was a former collegiate pitcher who had good stuff – he would throw his knuckleball and the damn thing was nearly uncatchable, dancing around like a butterfly with the seams not moving.

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                    1. We did some long tosses a few times. But when I was young he would hit fly balls in the backyard. It felt like they were up there for 5 minutes.

                      He hit 2 home runs in ’79.

                      When someone is throwing hard it’s the sound that is uncanny. It’s like going to a boxing match and hearing professionals hit each other in person.

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    2. I agree they will punt the entire ’27 season, and I will barely be aware of it.

      You would think that small market teams would want a better deal, seeing how basketball, hockey and football are thriving with better revenue distributions. But then, I remember when Jim Bowden was GM of the Reds, and how he kowtowed to the Yankees, saying publicly at a meeting or mock trial of some kind that he understood and agreed with the structure of the game, that is, Yankees were king, and all other teams formed a rivalry with them, occasionally knocking them off. In other words, the Reds were happy to be doormats, as this is what their role was meant to be. The team is worth in excess of $2 billion. I was just looking at the long list of World Series droughts in baseball, and it is extensive, with the shortest the Arizona DBacks at 24 yeas, Reds at 36, A’s at 35, Pirates at 42. The clinker – the Mets, a rich franchise with a long drought history. Seattle – never-neverville.

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  6. While I think it’s possible, I think the Dodgers were more interested in winning the 3rd Championship in a row to cement their dynasty. They spent tons on players who would peak for the postseason and traded for Skubal.

    They are still considered to be at an unfair advantage for many reasons, and they are in the mix every year. The theory would have more merit to me if they tanked and didn’t make the postseason.

    I am a huge Brewers fan, so maybe I can’t see clearly on this one! 🙂

    In any event, I went to Game One of the World Series in Milwaukee and got to see the first Brewers World Series win in 44 years! I am so happy that they won the whole thing! This month has been a dream come true for me and Brewer fans everywhere!!!

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        1. By the way, I have always loved the Brewers logo and uniforms. It has a very unique look that suits Milwaukee, like the yellow and green of the Packers.

          A friend and I were recently talking baseball and Lenn Sakata came up, he used to have one of those great 70s afros, unusual for an Asian. What I was very surprised was he was only the second Asian to play in MLB, from Hawaii. And he came up with the Brewers.

          Lenn Sakata – Wikipedia

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        2. I didn’t realize Fidrych was a local until now – local to me, as in Massachusetts. Born in Worcester, MA, died in Northboro, MA tragically very close to where I live. He’s one of the great what ifs of baseball – like what if he didn’t throw out his arm his first year. Just looked it up, 250 innings when he was 21 as a rookie! And one of the all time great seasons for a pitcher of any age, 19-9 with a 2.36 ERA. If they been more aware of pitch counts at the time he should have been a hall of famers.

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          1. It’s a great logo! The ball and glove with the sort of hidden M & B!

            Sad about The Bird. I agree, today he would not have thrown that many pitches! Who knows what he would have done! And gone too soon. Or maybe he will pop up in some of Mark’s work someday! 🙂

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            1. In 1976 Fidrych also threw 24 complete games of 31 started. I don’t know if thats a record for a rookie pitcher but no doubt that will never be repeated. The Bird was one of my earliest baseball memories. The Red Sox signed him in 1981 if memory serves correctly when his arm was done and they were giving him a minor league contract.

              This video shows how great baseball could be at its peak, at the old Tiger stadium. I never went there but loved the architecture.

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