We're wrapping up our vacation on the Oregon Coast with the Rucka/Van Meter clan. One thing that's happened over the last year is that Dashiell Rucka has become a baseball fan. She's 5 years old and watches League Of Their Own over and over again (skipping the "boring" parts so she can just watch the baseball action) and lists her favorite teams as the Chicago Cubs and the Rockford Peaches (see the afore-mentioned film to understand that second choice).
Now, anyone who knows me knows that baseball is in my blood. I love the game, even though (in this day and age) I really shouldn't. I love the New York Yankees, even though (in this day and age) that's almost impossible.
I can't quite let my love of the great game go. But these are terrible times for baseball. The excesses of the recent (read: steroid) era are coming crashing down on the sport. Whether it's home run records, or multi-Cy-Young wins, everything is tainted. And the arrogant denials of the Roger Clemenses and Barry Bondses of the baseball world compound the problem. They cheated, they lied, and when caught, they actually get angry at the fans and the media for finally waking up and realizing that cheating the National Pastime might (gasp) have been wrong.
It's like a bully who took your lunch money and pretended to be your friend getting angry at you when you finally say "enough." Sure, you could (and should) have realized how wrong it was before. But the actual wrongdoing was theirs, not yours. But Barry and Roger don't get that. They think they get to act indignant.
Which brings me to today's news.
This may not seem like a crime or a misdemeanor to some. But it's a high crime, treason even, for me.
Mike Mussina is 39 years old. He's been an All-Star before. He's won 261 games in his career, and has a career ERA (earned run average for you non-fans, which measures about how many runs he'd give up in an average 9 inning game) of 3.70.
And he did all of this during the steroid era without a whiff of scandal.
He's a smart pitcher, one who has always brought thought and strategy to the mound with him. Hell, he even fields his position well (he's a 5 time Gold Glove winner).
And last year, his ERA ballooned to over 5. And the Yankee faithful turned on him. He was too old. His fastball had no gas left (partially true as he lost about 5 mph on his fastball, which was never a blazing one to begin with). Generally a healthy pitcher who'd give you a whole season's worth of work, he'd finally started to succumb to injuries, and the Yankee fans decided the old man should be run out of town.
This season started and he had a pretty bad spring, and started off pretty poorly for his first few starts. And again, the "faithful" wanted the Yankees to cut him loose.
Then an amazing thing happened.
Mike Mussina showed us what a man of 39, with no steroid or HGH enhancements to boost his fastball past the 39-year-old range, can do when he pitches smart. He locates his pitches. He changes pitch speeds. He fools hitters into bad swings, and while he'll sometimes dance in and out of trouble, he has for the most part been dominant.
He has 11 wins this year going into the All-Star break and an ERA lower than his (already impressive) lifetime average.
He is as successful as he's ever been, at an increased age, with decreased velocity.
(At this point, I must also note with some sadness, that many Yankee fans don't even appreciate this - they think the time is right to trade him, while his value is high. They talk about his 'inevitable' comedown, when they should just be impressed)
For a sport reeling from the revelations about the actions some players have taken to defy age and normal physical limits, he is a GREAT story. For a team that has Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte each playing out a personal mea-culpa-post-performance-enhancing-drugs rehab tour of shame (as well as the perennially stellar but asinine Alex Rodriguez), he is a GREAT figure.
For an All-Star Game that is being played for the last time at Yankee Stadium (which should never have been designated for the scrap heap simply to build a similar, less historic stadium with more luxury boxes), he is a perfect pick to add to the many young studs in the American League's pitching staff.
But he's left off the list.
What does it say for this sport that the man who shows us the virtues of embracing your age, playing smart, and playing clean is left off the last All-Star Game in the Stadium he's made his home for the last 8 years?
It says baseball is all about young studs and power arms.
And when those power arms get old?
Well, I guess there will be new performance enhancing drugs to help those aging stars maintain their velocity and stats. Because clearly, if they shift to the Mussina method - pitch smart, act your age - baseball will ignore them.
As I said, a crime.
I have no illusions that Mike Mussina will read this blog. But in the fantasy world where he does: Mike, I tip my cap to you. You're an All-Star in my book, and I hope the Yankees re-sign you so that you can get to career win 300 in pinstripes and retire a Yankee (and wear a Yankee cap into the Hall of Fame, where you already belong).
You are an
inspiration baseball needs right now. And, typically, the sport has failed to grasp that.
(Author's confession. I also like Mike Mussina because when
he pitches from the stretch, he bends way down low and when he comes up, he looks a bit like a vampire. Very cool)
posted by Nunzio DeFilippis #
4:35 PM 
