THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Thursday, August 17, 2006

America, Baseball, and Apple Pie

Whenever I listen to commentators, I always look for two things: does this person believe that America is the center of the universe, and is this person a loonie.

I see this headline, expecting both, and I found them:

Yanks making a monumental mistake

Bud Selig was the commentator in question:

“(Yankee Stadium) is indisputably the most famous stadium in the country, if not the world,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said, “an American monument that has endured for 84 years.”

Wow, 84 years!  They sure build them better than they used to.  I wonder how many residents of Rome have heard of Yankee Stadium?  I think they probably have a more famous stadium.  And what about Wembley? 

The writer of the article says this, seemingly not getting it, even though at the end, he should get it:

They’re going to tear down Yankee Stadium, demolish part of the soul of this city, bulldoze a place 4 million fans will visit this season alone, destroy a shrine that has seen the biggest moments in the sport’s history, and so few people seem to care.

See?  So few people seem to care, he says.  And he’s right!  Yankee Stadium is not any part of the soul of New York.  Maybe The Bronx.  (Who would know though, since it’s every single person can’t wait to leave the place once the game is over.) But, certainly not the soul of New York.  As for four million fans, there’s alot of double-counting in there.  I don’t know how many individual fans go to Yankee Stadium, but my guess is well under a million.

In any case, this is not the Colosseum.  In Montreal, we had a similar situation with the Montreal Forum, with an equally-storied franchise.  And in our case, Le Forum was right in downtown (just on the edge).  And in Montreal, everything is downtown: offices, restaurants, business, malls, and Le Forum.  They replaced it with a terrible arena, which is now practically at the center of downtown, just a hop, skip, and jump from where everything revolves around Montreal (Chez Paree).  If anything concrete could have been called a soul in North America, it was Le Forum.  Montreal is still standing, and thriving. 

Baseball is not history.  It’s a sport, a wonderful game, drama at its finest.  Historical?  In three hundred years, The Colosseum will still be visited.  Right around the time Yankee Stadium VII will open.