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14
Thoughts on Mark McGwire by guest blogger E.J. Wolborsky
0 Comments | Posted by Bill in Posts by Guests
On July 17, 1998, just past the middle of one of the most magical and captivating seasons in recent baseball memory, I saw one of the two
Mark McGwire '53 (Topps style) ltd ed litho
heroes of that season — the titanic, ginger-haired slugger Mark McGwire — hit two home runs in a home game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Having grown up a Cardinals fan in Little Rock, Arkansas, and, as such, having made many trips to St. Louis and the friendly confines of the second Busch Stadium, I was naturally very excited to be on hand to witness not just a 4-1 victory for my team, but also a striking individual accomplishment by the season’s main headline-grabber (with all due respect to Sammy Sosa, of course).
It was a hot, dry night at The House That Beer Built, now carpeted with real grass in place of the hard, dangerous AstroTurf of yore. The Dodgers looked a formidable team coming into that four-game series; they had brought up five straight NL Rookies of the Year from 1992 to ’96, and had finished at .500 or better every year from 1993 through that very 1998 season, when they would eventually end up with the same 83-79 record as the Cardinals. In contrast to the Dodgers’ youthful exuberance, the Cards were a team led by power-hitting veterans like McGwire and the outfield trio of Ray Lankford, Brian Jordan, and Ron Gant (though the 1998 season would see them introduce Placido Polanco and the highly-touted J.D. Drew, as well as trade for the promising young third baseman Fernando Tatis).
The Cardinals’ starting pitcher, Juan Acevedo, began the game with a 1-2-3 inning, and Dodgers starter Brian Bohanon looked as though he might do the same when he struck out the first two Cards batters in the bottom of the first. But when the hulking McGwire strode into the batters’ box, he was ready for whatever Bohanon could throw at him; he took Bohanon’s first pitch deep to left field — an absolute moon shot. The ball’s accelerating descent carried it into Big Mac Land, a porch on the third deck of the left-field stands that was specially built prior the 1998 season, after St. Louis’ 1997 trading-deadline deal to acquire McGwire from the Oakland A’s. Big Mac Land was not just a constant corporate tie-in promotion for the ballpark, the fans, McDonald’s (who offered up a free Big Mac to anyone with a ticket stub from that section for any game in which a Cardinals player hit a home run there), and, of course, McGwire. Though he was personally unaffiliated with McDonald’s, “Big Mac” was the redheaded righty’s nickname, and nobody bequeathed more burgers to the citizens of St. Lou that year than McGwire.
McGwire would go on to hit another homer, this time off reliever Antonio Osuna, in the bottom of the eighth. His final line: 2-2 with two walks and two solo home runs — a more or less typical McGwire outing for a season in which he ended up with 70 HR, 147 RBI, 152 hits, 155 strikeouts, and 162 walks in 155 games, all of which contributed to his gargantuan OPS of 1.222. That home run tally, of course, set a new single-season record, shattering Roger Maris’ previous mark of 61 and cementing McGwire’s legend as the greatest slugger of his generation (at least until Barry Bonds bashed 73 dingers in 2001, Mac’s final season in the majors). It also tied McGwire’s name inextricably to that of the St. Louis Cardinals, despite it being his first full season with the ball club. McGwire would retire as a redbird in 2001, after just over four seasons with the team, the final two being blighted by injury. But the relative brevity of his tenure with the team did nothing to diminish the heroic status he enjoyed among the Cards’ fans. Simply by virtue of the fairytale 1998 season — one which reconfirmed baseball’s mantle as America’s Pastime after a decade of labor strife, franchise expansion, and aging ballparks threatened to consign baseball to the lower rungs of the American sporting hierarchy — McGwire will forever be remembered as a Cardinal, in spite of the fact that he played his first 11-plus seasons in Oakland. McGwire walked away from the Cardinals organization, but Big Mac Land remained, even being transported to the third incarnation of Busch Stadium when it opened in 2006, as a constant reminder of McGwire’s deftness with the deep ball.
"Sammy and Mac" ltd ed litho
Unlike so many recently retired star athletes, who either move into punditry or otherwise attempt to parlay their fame into a second career in the public eye (Jim Bunning, anyone?), McGwire has spent the past eight years in relative seclusion, demanding a high degree of privacy and thereby adding to the mystique and intrigue surrounding his accomplishments. Next season, though, Cards fans won’t have to look toward left field for a memento of McGwire; in fact, they won’t have to look past the dugout, where Big Mac will be sitting with his mentor, Tony La Russa, serving as the team’s new hitting coach. Despite having been hired for the position nearly two months ago, McGwire has yet to be formally introduced by St. Louis, nor has he addressed the media in any capacity. This conspicuous silence and lack of fanfare at the prospect of bringing a Cardinals legend back into the fold smacks of “something to hide,” just like McGwire’s 2005 appearance at a Congressional hearing on steroid abuse in Major League Baseball — a televised hearing in which McGwire told members of the U.S. House of Representatives that he was “not here to talk about the past.” (What, pray tell, did Mac think they wanted to speak with him about? Golf? Foreign policy?)
Interviewed last week at MLB’s winter meetings, La Russa weighed in rather unofficially on McGwire’s reticence, saying that his former player had not yet spoken on the record because he didn’t want to interfere with or overshadow the World Series or baseball’s end-of-season awards. If that’s true, then we can applaud McGwire’s class and reluctance to steal anyone’s spotlight. But La Russa was quick to deflect any question of a date for McGwire’s official introduction to the press, opting instead to tout McGwire’s skills as a hitting instructor and the seriousness with which he’s taking the job. La Russa also claimed that, once spring training begins, whatever McGwire does say to the media is “going to be about coaching.” That’s an unlikely scenario, to be sure, and one which would do nothing to dampen the suspicions that McGwire’s impressive hitting accomplishments were the result of steroid use.
While it is unclear where public opinion comes down on the did-he-or-didn’t-he questions surrounding McGwire’s use of performance-enhancing drugs, the Baseball Writers Association of America has made their stance apparent in light of McGwire’s paltry tally of Hall of Fame votes. While it is unlikely that disgraced sluggers Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco will ever be seriously considered for Hall of Fame induction, it is perhaps even less likely that McGwire will be forgiven for any transgressions — even those which are unconfirmed suspicions — until he publicly addresses them. Big Mac should take a lesson from players like Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez, who, having been exposed ex post facto as cheaters, accepted the blame for their actions, lending further credence to the public perception that PED use has been so widespread in professional baseball in recent decades that it’s hardly even a competitive advantage, but rather more of a status quo practice. Giambi, A-Rod, and other active Major Leaguers who have admitted to PED use have more or less enjoyed the public’s forgiveness in light of their confessions, and there is no reason to believe that the same forgiveness shouldn’t be extended to the likes of McGwire and Sosa, whose magnetic personalities and nice-guy public images imparted the magic on that 1998 season every bit as much as their bats did.
Finally, all the hub-bub over McGwire’s hire begs the question: where is MLB in all this? If there is any lingering suspicion that a former player used steroids, and that player refuses to cooperate in any investigation or probe into that topic, why would the commissioner’s office, the owners, or the player’s union want to allow that player to return as a coach? Is the potential perpetuation of PED use not clear to everyone in that scenario? Coaches should be required to prove they are clean and drug-free just like players, in an ongoing effort to keep PEDs out of clubhouses and out of the sport as a whole. Anything MLB does short of that would only be paying lip service to the problem, and McGwire’s attempts to avoid the questions should be scrutinized more heavily by a league looking to restore its image. -E.J. Wolborsky
About 10 years ago, there he was, wearing his signature white suit, standing in the paddock of Churchill Downs. LeRoy Neiman. Sports art icon from the ABC Sports Olympic broadcast in 1976 in Montreal. The creator of Playboy’s femlin. I hadn’t seen him in 15 years or so. I walked right up to him and said, “Hi, LeRoy” He responded “Hi, Bill, nice to see you again.” I asked him how he was and he replied, “I’m quite famous you know!” That was LeRoy, artist as art object. Andy Warhol got it right.
I had known LeRoy briefly in the late 70′s, after I had opened what I believe to be the world’s first sports art gallery on Manhattan’s 57th Street Gallery Row and I invited LeRoy to participate in some of my sports themed group exhibitions. I didn’t care much for his paintings or serigraphs (except the marketing of them), but I loved his caricatures. Frank Gifford once asked LeRoy if a pizza factory exploded in his studio.
Let’s go back to the 1976 Montreal Olympics for a minute. I was a Pop Art print dealer and my wife was a lawyer at ABC Sports (the first female sports executive ever at any network). She was working the Olympics and I was a guest. We had all access passes and were running free in the studio. And there it was: the painting that LeRoy was painting live, on air representing his impressions of the Games. By the way, to watch Roone Arledge line-produce an Olympics from the production truck (which I did) was an unparalleled treat of seeing the inner machinations of a genius at work.
I had an epiphany there. I knew on the spot that I was forever to be a sports art dealer, gallery owner and publisher. Roone made it clear, by having this painting painted on live TV, that sports art is on its way. Popular culture propagated by TV (sound familiar?) And serendipity would soon have its way with me. Shortly after the Olympics we were having dinner in NYC with Jay Michaels (Al’s father) and Howard Katz (later of ESPN and now NFL Films). Jay was President of IMG Mark McCormack’s TWI which held the rights to Wimbledon. Howard was his lieutenant.
Jay had this crazy idea about engaging some of the world’s best known artists to create a tennis art portfolio of limited edition prints celebrating 100 years of Wimbledon. He needed someone in the art business to spearhead the project. Was I interested? Was I interested! I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was all I wanted to do.
When I later presented Jay with my proposal he said the numbers didn’t work and he immediately lost interest. On to the next for him. But not me. When I soon came to the realization that I couldn’t privately finance the project, I looked at my the results of my efforts to date- a file full of extant tennis art- and thought to myself, “I have enough work here to stage an exhibition.”
Not everybody has a mother with an art gallery in the Hamptons, but I did. I approached her with my idea of having a tennis art exhibition in season, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Wimbledon using the art of some really good, well-respect artists. Game on. That’s when the fun began. As I reached out to the art community digging for tennis art for my show, all sorts of other sports art surfaced. It was viral. “Hey, there is this guy (me) looking for sports art. Got anything in your studio relating to sports?” Things started coming out of the woodwork. I built a file of art on many different sports. And that is when I realized I had to rent a gallery space and start staging exhibitions. It would be 2 years later that I would begin publishing.
24
Greatest Athletic Feat I Have Ever Seen
0 Comments | Posted by Bill in Goodsportsart Bill Goff, Inc
On September 4, 1993 I took my son (then age 9) to what I consider to be the greatest athletic feat I have ever seen. It was the Yankees versus the Indians at Yankee
Yankee Stadium Matinee, ltd ed litho
Stadium and Jim Abbott, born with one arm, pitched a no-hitter against one of the best hitting teams in baseball. Nobody ever seems to talk about it.
As a hoot in about the 4th inning I said to my son, “Abbott hasn’t allowed a hit yet, but let’s not jinx him.” So instead of talking about it I suggested we wink every time he got an out. Wink wink wink wink wink wink wink wink… When Carlos Baerga, who hit .321 that year, grounded out to short to end the game, the place went nuts. When we got home, my wife said to our son, “I don’t ever want to hear you say, ‘I can’t.’”
It was the second no-hitter I attended. On my 18th birthday, June 4, 1964, I went with
Dodger Thirty-Two, ltd ed litho
a friend to Connie Mack Stadium to see my beloved Phillies play the Dodgers. Sandy Koufax against Chris Short (remember the 1964 Phillies: Short and Bunning and then start running- collapse). Koufax was damn near perfect that day. He faced the minimum. He walked Dick Allen who was promptly erased by a double play, and he never allowed another runner.
Someone else shared both of those no-hitters with me, Frank Howard. Howard had won the game for Koufax with a 3 run homer in the 6th, the only runs of the game. He was also the the first base coach for the Yankees in 1993. Me and Frank Howard. Frank Howard and me. However, back to Jim Abbott.
Does anyone care to comment on a greater athletic feat than Jim Abbott’s no-hitter?
| No Hitter Box Score June 4, 1964 Connie Mack Stadium |
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Hitting & Fielding Notes Doubles: Tracewski, Parker. |
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Topps Baseball Cards and Bubblegum
0 Comments | Posted by Kevin in Goodsportsart Bill Goff, Inc, Postings from Kevin
Three of a Kind (Topps Combo), ltd ed litho
Baseball cards. Topps and Fleer. That was it for brand availability when I began buying them in 1962. My newspaper route took me past the 3 neighborhood stores that sold the cards. A nickel a pack, a penny a card, and a stick of bubblegum included. Topps broke their 600 or so cards down into seven series of cards released at intervals throughout the season. Fleer, a small company based in Philadelphia, couldn’t compete with Topps for an every year product so they made special sets.
My father was a baseball nut, loved the game from a both an amateur players standpoint and a fans standpoint. Baseball cards were always around the house, as far
Ted Williams, ltd ed litho
back as I can remember. Being a Red Sox fan, he had collected the entire set of Ted Williams cards that Fleer produced for 1959 and went to pains to explain to me how Williams represented everything great about America, as both a patriot and a ballplayer. And that began my love of cardboard pictures of players and the stats that defined their careers.
The 1st cards I remember purchasing were the ’62 Topps, the set with that wooden grained border that looked like the picture was peeling up in the bottom right corner
Roger Maris' 61st Home Run, ltd ed litho
to reveal the players name and team. Series 1 featured Roger Maris as card number 1, a fitting spot for the new home run king. Sandy Koufax was card number 5 and “Bob” Clemente was number 10. (“Bob” Clemente?) Ernie Banks was #20, Casey Stengel, manager of the Mets (!) was #29, Eddie Matthews #30. But for every one of these star cards, I’d end up with 5 Norm Larkers and 3 Johnny Temples along with several Vada Pinsons and a handful of Hobie Landruth cards . Players that changed teams would be shown with the logos painted out of their hats or hatless and, in the earliest series, rookies were given their own cards with a star in the top corner, announcing them as stars of the future. Howie Bedell? Ted Savage? League leaders were always a part of Series 1, in ’62 they were disembodied heads placed on colored backdrops with their names and stats below. Series 2 featured a Babe Ruth set of 10 cards, from his childhood in Baltimore to his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium. Series 3 featured the ‘61 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Yankees. Series 4
'61 World Series, ltd ed litho
had the action cards, multiple panel cards such as “Ford Tosses A Curve”, “The Switch Hitter Connects” and “Spahn Shows No-Hit Form”. Series 5 had the National League Sporting News All Stars and Series 6 had the American League version. Series 7 had the “Rookie Parade” another set of bodyless heads, 4 or 5 to a card, that featured rookies that had played their way onto the Major League rosters in Spring Training and had not been a part of the original set (Bob Uecker, Jim Bouton, Sam McDowell and Rod Kanehl among 37 players). Certain Hall of Famers and players that led the leagues in different categories were given the “rounded numbers”, Stan Musial was 50, Warren Spahn was 100, Al Kaline 150, Mickey Mantle 200, Norm Cash 250, Willie Mays was 300, Frank Robinson 350, Elston Howard 400, Jim O’Toole 450, Duke Snider 500.
Multiple player cards, some from different teams, were popular, too. How come I have 15 Cuno Barragan cards and can’t get a single “Managers Dream” (Mantle and Mays) card? Or an “AL and NL Homer Kings? (Maris and Orlando Cepeda)? What the heck is this? “Redbird Rippers” – Lindy McDaniel and Larry Jackson? Huh? ” Tribe Trio” – Barry Latman, Dick Stigman and Jim Perry? Why? “Pride Of The A’s” – Norm Siebern, Hank Bauer and Jerry Lumpe? What’s this, a Yankees retrospective? They were scattered among the different series along with team cards and managers cards.
I spent quite a bit of my paper route cash collecting these cards and ended up with a full set eventually. And I’d continue to do so throughout the succeeding years. But, in addition to investing my hard earned money, I invested my heart and soul into this wonderful game of baseball through collecting these cardboard icons.
And then, like a lot of other people, after moving out of the house in my early twenties and leaving my childhood toys behind, my mother threw them away! Just the cards, not the memories.
19
Present the Gift Idea of Sports art Baseball Ballpark Calendar
0 Comments | Posted by Bill in Goodsportsart Bill Goff, Inc
2010 Hallowed Ground Ballparks Calendar
Sand Lot Baseball, limited edition litho
When it is time to come up big with that special gift for that important occasion (Birthday, Fathers Day, Christmas-perhaps a baseball calendar-, Hannukah), consider the gift of sports art. Everyone has a favorite baseball team (how about the NY Yankees, the team everyone either loves or loves to hate), favorite player or ballpark. What better way to solve a gift problem that with the gift of baseball art lithographs, postcard type art card sets or posters or maybe golf art lithographs from Bill Goff Inc / goodsportsart.com.
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Vintage American League Ballparks
0 Comments | Posted by Kevin in Goodsportsart Bill Goff, Inc, Postings from Kevin
My maternal grandfather bought me a
Yankee Two Treasure, ltd ed litho
Yankee hat when I was about 3. He was a Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, dyed-in-the-pinstripe- wool, Yankee fan. That was the beginning of my baseball education and the start of a life-long love affair with the sport. I don’t exactly remember what happened immediately after the “hat incident” but it couldn’t have been pretty. My dad and his side of the family were diehard Red Sox fans. The lived and died (mostly died at that point in time) for the Boston team, Ted Williams in particular. My father, born in 1929, had come of age rooting for the Boston teams of the 40′s and 50′s. Johnny Pesky, Joe Cronin, Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Mel Parnell – those were some of the icons of his sporting past.
Growing up in western Connecticut, the easiest place to visit for a game was Yankee Stadium, Boston and Fenway being too long a trek in the early 60′s. I went to my initial game at the age of 7 or 8, seeing Yogi Berra hit 2 home runs during a Sunday doubleheader. My 1st sight of the field, coming up through the darkness of the ramps at old Yankee Stadium, to the main level, is something that is still very vivid in my mind 48 years later. The bright green grass, the rich brown dirt, the majestic sight of the monuments in center field. We’d eventually make the pilgrimage to Fenway, sitting in the left field rooftop box, which was equally impressive but my most memorable times in my formative years were spent going to games in the Bronx cathedral with my father, the Cub Scouts and my friends.
I have a lifelong friend, Claude, who’s dad would bring us to the Stadium some days when he was going to visit the ponies at Yonkers Raceway. He’d drop us off early on a Saturday morning, we’d get in the Stadium for batting practice (gates would open at 10 am back then for 1 pm Saturday matinees) and Mr Wallace would pick us up later, after the ponies ran and the ballgame was finished. Claude and I, with other friends, would go to many games over the years, ticking off the teams and players we’d see, trying to see all of the stars of the day. Watching batting practice was a treat. I’d always have my Willie Mays style glove with me, hoping to catch a foul ball. (Never did.) We’d get to see all the other teams stars and watch them as they prepared to play that day’s game. Al Kaline, Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito and the Detroit Tigers. Luis Aparacio, Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles. Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Conigliaro and Jim Lonborg with the Red Sox. Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and Camilo Pascual with the Minnesota Twins, just after they moved from Washington DC. The White Sox with ageless Hoyt Wilhelm, Tommy John and Nellie Fox. The Kansas City A’s, formerly the Philadelphia Athletics, with their roster of former and future Yankees. The new Washington Senators with crazy Jimmie Piersall and Minnie Minoso (once asked who was the greatest player in the game, he pointed to himself and said “me know so”). The Indians with Jim “Mudcat” Grant, “Sudden” Sam McDowell and Tito Francona. And the expansion Los Angeles Angels with Dean Chance, Bo Belinsky and “little” Albie Pearson. The New York Yankees, at the beginning of the 60′s, were an all star team - Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford, Yogi, the list goes on and on. At the end of the decade, they were a bottom of the standings team, featuring players like Jerry Kenney and Roger Repoz and the unforgettable Horace Clarke.
I did make 1 trip to New York with my dad to see the National League play. We went to see the New York Mets play the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Polo Grounds, 2 years before Shea Stadium opened. The Casey Stengel led Mets were the doormat of the NL back them, trying to thrive with former all stars such as Gil Hodges , who’d been a star with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Richie Ashburn, a Whiz Kid from Philadelphia and big Frank Thomas. The LA Dodgers, who’d become the World Champions the next year, were led by Sandy Koufax, Johnny Podres, Don Drysdale, stolen base champ Maury Wills and Duke Snider.
Baseball was a sport back then, something that these talented players did for 6 months each year before returning to their off season jobs and lives. We actually met many of these visiting players during batting practice, they’d come over to the stands and sign autographs or just talk to the kids that were there early. They didn’t “big-time” you, they actually took the time to speak to you, kid with you and make you happy that you played the same game that they excelled at.
14
Vintage National League Ballparks
0 Comments | Posted by Bill in Goodsportsart Bill Goff, Inc
Vintage NL Ballparks, poster
Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1950s as a pre-teen, I only had a chance to go to one of these ballparks, Connie Mack Stadium (aka Shibe Park). I must have gone 100 times, always trying see Robin Roberts pitch. The other big issue was who was in the starring cast of the road team.
I think I must have seen all of the stars of the day. The big question was, “Who is going to beat the Phillies this time?” I remember thinking, “Oh no, not Stan Musial again.” …or Willie Mays, or Duke Snider. Being the oldest of 10 grandchildren, my wise grandmother figured the way to her grandchildren’s heart could be through baseball, and the 2 of us went together all the time.
And as much as we loved the Phillies, it was always a thrill to see Roberto Clemente, Ernie Banks or Henry Aaron come to town. It was a great time to love baseball, and little did I know at the time I would have a career publishing ballpark art. -Bill Goff
12
On Building a Championship Team as Opposed to Buying One
0 Comments | Posted by Kevin in Goodsportsart Bill Goff, Inc, Postings from Kevin
Vintage Yankee Yarn, ltd ed litho
There’s been quite a bit of talk about the New York Yankees “buying” their championships over the years. 34 years worth of talk and it’s not going away. The complaints are so numerous and uniform and almost sound as if the Yankees are allowed to live by a different set of rules than the rest of the Major League Baseball teams. Ever since Mr Steinbrenner signed his first free agent, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, on New Years Eve 1974, fans and sportswriters have complained that the 27 time World Champions are throwing their money around at an unfair rate, stealing the best players every year.
Let’s do a “fer instance”.
Say you own a hamburger stand. Suppose that you serve a good product at a fair price and people come from near and far to sample your burgers. All of a sudden, you find yourself more profitable than your competition. Do you plow those profits back into your burger stand to make it better and more enjoyable for your customers or do you go with the status quo and pocket the additional profits? The smart businessman would try to enhance his business and make it grow, attract more customers and thereby create even more business and even more cash flow that can be invested back into his stand. The American way.
Okay, let’s step away from the burger stand for awhile.
Baseball ceased being a “sport” a long time ago. It’s now a business. The arbitrators that declared Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith free agents in 1973 made it that way. Until then, players were “owned” by the club that they played for, there was no player movement unless these “good-old-boys” that were the owners decided to make a trade. Players did not control their destiny in any way, shape, manner or form. Once the players were set free, a business developed from a sport. Once Charlie Finley decided to not pay the money he owed the Catfish, the best pitcher in baseball was allowed to field offers from all of the “new” business owners and decide where he wanted to set up shop.
Back to the burger stand.
Suppose that the owner of the above mentioned burger stand decided to take the excess profits and stick them in his pocket. His competition down the street, seeing that there was more money to be made by improving his stand, adopts a similar plan for his joint but decides to plow those profits back into his business. His brand grows and keeps growing because he keeps trying to stay ahead of the competition. By re-investing and making his business better, he’s increasing his revenues. All of a sudden, he’s hiring the best cooks, the best service people and promoting his business at a rate that was unheard of prior to that point. Is that an unfair business practice? No, that’s the American way.
Ok, back to baseball. The greasy fries are starting to get to me.
When Charlie O, the arrogant guy with the profitable team, the arrogant guy who’d won 3 consecutive Championships, decided that he didn’t want to plow those profits back into his club, didn’t want to pay what he, by contract, owed, the sport of baseball turned into the business of baseball. The Catfish was set free, as McNally and Messersmith had been, and the reserve clause was rendered null and void, as Curt Flood had attempted in 1970. Some of the competition, George Steinbrenner in particular, decided that he wanted to become the best and most profitable owner in the business and started paying the best players to come to work for him. Year after year, player after player, good choice or bad, Steinbrenner used the open marketplace to attempt to create the situation that would render the competition as also-rans. As any business owner would do that wanted to be the best. The American way. It paid immediate dividends, as the Yankees won the American League pennant in ’76, losing the Championship to the Cincinnati Reds, and the World Championship in ’77 and ’78, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers, due in no small part to the signing of Reggie
Reggie's Amazing Night, ltd ed litho
Jackson. Success breeds the need for more success, just as the smell of a good burger breeds feeling the need to eat. By creating the successful franchise, the Yankees began enjoying more and more profit. Instead of playing in front of empty seats, the Yankees were playing in front of packed stands. The profits grew. With all of the happy customers, sales of Yankees paraphernalia grew and profits grew even larger. Investment of those profits back into the business allowed the business owner to grow the business even more. The Yankees became a international brand, not just a local brand. That interlocking NY was soon found globally, on a the hat of a kid in England, a tee shirt in the Netherlands, a uniform in the Dominican Republic, a banner in Asia. And it brought that marketing possibility to all MLB teams, another way to grow the brands that had been long established in the United States.
From 1981 to strike shortened 1994, the Yankees, even though Steinbrenner kept re-investing, were not winners. For 12 years, other teams made the playoffs, other teams won the pennant, won the World Championship. 5 different teams won in each of the two American League Divisions. The Blue Jays won the American League East 4 years in 5, the Red Sox 3 of 5. The Oakland A’s won the AL West 4 years in 5. There were 5 different winners in the NL East and 6 in the NL West in that same span of time. The Pirates won the NL East 3 consecutive years and the Braves did the same in the NL West. Most of these 21 different division winners won with the help of talent acquired through free agency. The problem is, not all owners grasped the concept, that they too could elevate the marketing of their teams by signing the best free agents at market price and becoming a more successful franchise and thereby enhance their revenues and create a more even field of competition. They wanted to keep their profits, not take that chance, not sign that free agent. So, they’d be complacent after winning, expecting to rake in the profits that come after winning and not be a player in the free agent market every year. When it became obvious that these franchises were falling behind, both in revenue and in competition, they blamed their small market status and claimed that that was the reason for consistent poor showing in the standing. The Yankees? Still signing free agents but making poor choices. Continuing to invest. But not continuing to win. Taking chances with the hope of making their business better. Then, for a while, signing with the Yankees meant having to constantly defend yourself in public spats with ownership, physical confrontations with the manager, the booing of the fans who expected a yearly winner. The Yankees became a disdainful destination for players but the players still used Yankee offers as a valuable bargaining chip. The problem then became one of collusion. Owners didn’t want to spend the big bucks that players were commanding. They stopped falling for the threat of Yankee offers. They knew that most players didn’t really want to go there, have to deal with that. They kept market prices down. The Yankees, meanwhile, retooled their front office. Retooled their leadership on the field. Refined their image. Steinbrenner’s suspension didn’t hurt. Other voices in the organization were heard and became the sound of better judgement. Player development became a more important part of the plan. They became a bit more of a desired destination for the players. Showed some success. Brought up players developed in their own organization. Made some important trades for quality players. Still worked the free agent market but became more of a home grown team, too. Then the ceiling fell in. The players went on strike during the 1994 season. Fans became former fans, to a much higher degree than in the strikes of ’72 and ’81. There was no postseason in ’94. No winner for the 1st time. Only losers. Owners, players and fans. Then a shortened season in ’95. Diminished attendance, diminished revenues.
The Yankees minor league system was starting to produce major league talent. Championship caliber talent. Bernie Williams first, in ’91. Then Andy Pettitte in ’95. After cups of coffee in ’95, Derek Jeter
Jeter Reaching Greatness, ltd ed litho
and Mariano Rivera
Yankee Stadium Finale, ltd ed litho
in ’96. Jorge Posada in ’97. The foundation for 4 World Championships in 5 years. Traded for Paul O’Neill prior to the ’93 season, David Cone and John Wetteland in ’95, Joe Girardi and Tino Martinez in ’96 season. All major plyers in the start of the Yankees run. Acquired the old fashioned way. Signed Jimmy Key in ’92, Wade Boggs in ’93, Kenny Rogers and Dwight Gooden prior to the ’96 season. All but Key were not major factors. All free agents. But still the Yankees were vilified for “buying” the Championships.
Fast forward to 2009. Pettitte, Posada, Jeter and Rivera are still the foundation. Add more homegrown talent – Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, Brett Gardner, Ramiro Pena, Alfredo Aceves, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Coke, Dave Robertson, Chien Ming Wang, Francisco Cervelli. Most are major contributors, some minor and some not at all. Make some trades – Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher, Damaso Marte, Xavier Nady, Chad Gauvin, Eric Hinske – some worked out, some didn’t. Throw in what’s left of the last 7 years of free agent signings – Hideki Matsui (’02), Johnny Damon(’06), Jose Molina (’08), CC Sabathia
Rebirth in the Bronx, ltd ed litho
, AJ Burnett and Mark Teixeira(’09) and you have this year’s World Champions. 4 of 9 starting offensive positions are manned by homegrown talent. 2 others came via trades. 3 in free agency. Starting staff is 3/5ths homegrown. 2 via free agency. Bullpen? Other than Marte, all homegrown.
So, my question is: Did the Yankees just build the better hamburger stand by investing back into it or did they buy it?
Derek Jeter, '53 (Topps Style)
Derek Jeter is a model athlete, team player and human being. Rolls up his sleeves and does his job. He is our personal MVP for the Yankees over the past 15 years. What a cool, calm, powerful and steadying influence during the 2009 World Series. While not the MLB World Series MVP, the Captain was a large part of the reason that the Yankees are World Champions again. Jeter batted .344 over the 15 games the Yankees played in the postseason, had 5 doubles and 3 home runs while walking 11 times and played exquisite defense as evidenced by yet another Jeter highlight film play, catching Bobby Abreu as he took too big of a turn around 2nd base in the ALCS. His calm leadership, coupled with his outstanding ability have made him baseball royalty without creating the “spoiled athlete” personna that many of the elite players carry.
Another reason that Derek is our MVP is the way he handles his success. Jeter
Jeter Reaching Greatness (ltd ed litho)
established his Turn 2 Foundation in 1996, and since then it has awarded more than $10 million in grants for programs that motivate kids to turn away from drugs and alcohol. Turn 2 is managed on a day-to-day basis by the Jeter family with Derek in a hands-on role as Founder. In addition to contributing his own funds, Jeter hosts the annual “Derek Jeter Celebrity Golf Classic” and the “Turn 2 Foundation Dinner” to raise funds needed to successfully continue programs.
Individual awards are many. Jeter began reaching greatness by winning the “Rookie Of The Year” in 1996, garnered both the All Star MVP and World Series MVP in the championship year of 2000, has 3 American League Gold Gloves (2004 – 2006) and 3 Silver Slugger awards (2006-2008) as the best hitting shortstop in the
Yankee Two Treasure (ltd ed litho)
American League. He’s been the A L recipient of the Hank Aaron Award, which recognizes the most outstanding offensive performer in each league, in both 2006 and 2009 and has received the Roberto Clemente Award,which recognizes the player who combines giving back to the community with superlative skill on the field, in 2009. He’s truly been a Yankee to treasure over the years and should be a lock to receive baseball’s ultimate award, Hall of Fame induction, as soon as he’s eligible.
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World Series moves back to New York
0 Comments | Posted by Bill in Goodsportsart Bill Goff, Inc
The Lee brothers, Cliff and Ut of Phil Lee’s branch of the family help the Phightins to take games one and 5 of the World Series! But before game 5, a Philadelphia paper erroneously(?) ran an ad congratulating the Phils for back to back World Championships. I am hoping it was prescient.
As a life long Philadelphia Phillies fan, it couldn’t be more gratifying that the cosmic tumblers might be clicking once again. I don’ think I’ve ever seen better clubhouse chemistry than with the 2009 Phils.
As a four year old, I first became aware of Phillies fever in 1950 when the Whiz Kids won the pennant. Let me jump off for a second here. The New Phillies could easily be called the Biz Kids as they always seem to take care of business; or maybe the Fizz Kids because they are popping a lot of champagne; or maybe the Sizz Kids because of the sizzle in their bats and arms. But enough of that. I have no specific memories of the 1950 season, but I remember vividly how disappointed I was 2 years later when my father came home with 2 tickets for the 1952 All-Star Game at Shibe Park (soon to be renamed Connie Mack Stadium)
- Connie Mack Stadium
and informed me that my mother, not at all a baseball fan, was going with him, not me. To this day I do not understand.
The Yankees swept the Phillies 4-0 in the 1950 World Series and I am hoping for a little payback– after 59 years. But first the Yankees put away the Angels, no easy task. I am a bit conflicted. As a marketer of NY Yankees lithographs, I want them to succeed. I certainly hoped they beat the Angels. When they get to the team of my childhood, loyalty trumps avarice. -Bill Goff
