MLB salary cap? Don't hold your breath
Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy knows a thing or two about our nation’s pastime. Tap into that knowledge by sending an email to halmccoy1@hotmail.com.
Q: Who is the greatest MLB manager who never won a World Series? — DAVE, Miamisburg/Centerville/Beavercreek
A: for me, You put that you, one a slam a tee
didn’t dunk? There are many. Gene Mauch. Buck Showalter. Bill Rigney. Art Howe. Al Lopez. Joe Cronin. Jimmy Dykes. The top of the list for me is Dusty Baker, who just lost his second World Series. Baker has been with five different teams and taken them all to the playoffs, but he still doesn’t own a World Series ring. But at least he got the Giants and Astros there and here’s hoping he gets another chance.
Q: Considering the big money some markets receive from TV contracts, do you ever see MLB having a (salary) cap like the NFL so small-market teams have a more level playing field? — SCOTT, Hattiesburg, Miss.
A: We’ll see what happens during current nego- tiations for a new contract. The players are adamant that there will be no salary cap. Why not? It puts limitations on those gargantuan con- tracts players are receiving. The MLBPA (Major League Baseball Players Association) could not care less about competitive balance. The only balance they care about is a player’s balance sheet.
Q: Do players in the World Series make more money if it goes seven games than if it only goes four? — STEVE, Piqua
A: To prevent skulduggery, players only share in receipts for the first four games, the minimum amount of games that can be played. That’s to prevent players from con
spiring to make the Series go seven games to sweeten the money pool. However, teams make more money if the Series goes seven games, which is why former Reds owner Marge Schott was angry when her Reds swept the A’s in 1990.
Q: Will any of the Astros from the 2017 cheating scandal be denied the Hall of Fame? — PAT, Columbus
A: That, of course, is up to each voting member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. But I doubt it. It was never revealed who participated, who knew and who didn’t know. It was more
like Team Disgrace. And it is something that most non-As- tros fans will never forget and will hold against the team forever.
Q: When the history of the Reds is written, what will be said about the Bob Castellini era? — SCOTT, Syracuse
A: It will be said that he promised fans a return to glory and failed. Castellini is too much of a fan and insid- ers say he meddled when it came to trades because he
and his wife had favorite play- ers he wanted to keep. His heart is in the right place, but not his head. Another insider said the team would be better off if Bob stepped aside and turned it over to his son, Phil, who runs the marketing and is highly competent. And if I said all this during the Marge Schott era my dining room privileges would be revoked.
Q: Yogi Berra hit the first pinch-hit home run in a World Series game. Did earlier teams not use pinch-hitters? —DICK, Hendersonville, Tenn.
A: That was in 1947 and he was known as Larry Berra. It was his rookie year and he had appeared in fewer than
100 games. His homer came off Brooklyn’s Ralph Branca (Yes, Bobby Thomson’s shot heard ’round the world) in Game 3. He later became
Yogi. Yes, pinch-hitters were rare. Pitchers went nine innings, win or lose, most of the time, and pinch-hit- ters were nearly unheard of. Now if a manager doesn’t use five pinch-hitters he is disciplined for dereliction of duty.
Q: The two World Series managers (Atlanta’s Brian Snitker, Houston’s Dusty Baker) were baseball lif- ers, not the new wave data analytical types, so will this lead to moving back away from the data scientists running the game? — JASON, Morrow, Ohio
A: Unfortunately, no.
While Snitker and Baker are old-schoolers, they are wise enough to appease the front office by at least reading the analytics and acting as if they use some of it. They probably do. What they do is perfect under current circumstances. They blend the analytics with how they feel in their guts. But analytics are here to stay.
Q: What is your feeling about the designated hitter coming to the National League? – JEFF, Kettering
A: I think it stinks and wish it would not be used in either league. They make baseball gloves for a reason and a player should be required to use both a bat and a glove. What it does is give older guys who can’t run any more a few extra years, but to me it takes so much strategy out of the manager’s hand, so much so that he becomes more of a spectator than a dictator.