Good morning, all and happy Sunday!
For many baseball fans it is not a happy Sunday, as their worst fears have been realized. The two-time defending World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers for three minor league players.
What apparently is disappointing to many of those who are not Dodgers fans is that LA did not have to part with their top prospects to land him. The Dodgers traded their number five, seven and 17th ranked prospects, and that kind of a deal has set off a conspiracy theory on social media.
Fans and pundits are claiming the Tigers purposely asked more for Skubal from other potential trading partners so that the Dodgers could give up less to land him. How’s that?
The thought process is, if the Dodgers three-peat by continuing to buy players, the fans will clamor loudly for a salary cap, something the owners are demanding and the MLBPA is opposing in current labor negotiations. With a salary cap there is no way the Dodgers could buy their roster.
There is no question the Dodgers have already succeeded in achieving one goal in their obsession to overtake the Yankees in nationwide popularity- they have surpassed them in becoming MLB’s most-hated team. (Yankees haters, of which there are millions, do not like to read this, but the Yankees on national TV games still get the highest ratings, even higher than the Dodgers.)
As for my above video commentary, it was recorded, obviously, before the trade. The Yankees are not going scorched earth. But my comments about the Red Sox are more relevant than ever, now that they beat those hated Dodgers for a second straight night and are 5-1 on this road trip.
As for the Skubal trade, we will learn soon whether his being dealt will open the floodgates on other trades or teams will be reluctant to deal because of the potential labor strife on the horizon.
Thurman Munson
For New York Yankees fans of a certain age, this is a sad day. On Aug. 2, 1979 their MVP catcher, Thurman Munson, died in an airplane crash. The Yankees had an off day and Munson was home in Akron, OH, practicing touch-and-go landings in his new Cessna Citation twin-engine jet. Munson, a licensed pilot, hated to be away from his family in Ohio, and many times after Yankees home games would fly home to spend the night with his wife and children.
I was working at a local radio station (Torrington, CT), when the news about Munson broke, preparing to go on the air with my nightly talkshow at 6:00. There was no internet, no social media, no smart phones 47 years ago. Our news was received via an AP teletype machine. When a bulletin came across the wires, three bells would ring. Just before airtime, the three bells went off and I ran back to the machine. I could not believe what I was reading. The night before, following a radio station function in a local hotel, many of us gathered in the lobby, where the Yankees-White Sox game was on TV. There was Munson batting in the New York road grays, the familiar No. 15 on his back. Little did we know, we were watching him play his last game. The subsequent days, following the tragedy, were very emotional. Never forget Thurman Munson.
Times have changed
Yes, times have changed since Thurman Munson donned Yankee pinstripes. As we approach the MLB trade deadline, teams are not even making any secret about which player might be on the trade block. Check out this post yesterday from the Los Angeles Angels:
It will now be a story if Soriano is pitching for the Angels, after Monday!
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for subscribing and I hope you have a splendid Sunday!
DAN
