Paying Too Much Tribute?

Baseball did a wonderful thing eleven years ago (can it really be eleven years ago?! It seems like only a few years.) They retired Jackie Robinson’s uniform number 42 for all baseball teams. Either that year or a few years later they decided to allow some players wear the number 42 on April 15 as a tribute to Robinson. Then it was expanded where entire teams wear the number 42.

This past April 15th, I was watching a number of games (via Extra Innings) and saw that most teams were wearing the number 42 in tribute. It got me to thinking. “Has this become an overdone production?” Certainly at the 50th anniversary it was a worthy event. But so was having celebrities sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at Wrigley the year Harry Caray died. Now it’s just stupid. What they should have done at Wrigley is have the parade of stars pay tribute to Harry in 1998 and then starting in 1999 play an audio tape of Harry singing. But instead we have a bunch of people just promoting their latest movie or accomplishment.

Wearing Jackie’s number made sense back in 1997. But now it seems overdone. First of all you have players wearing the number 42 but have no idea who Robinson was. But since the whole team is wearing 42, they have to. The first year it was a nice tribute. Now they should just make a speech from someone who played with or against him before the game or run a video highlight tribute so that the education of what Robinson did could continue.

And selfishly, as a viewer it’s confusing. I believe every team this year had their players wear 42, but no name on the back (which makes sense). But unless you have intimate knowledge of the players, you don’t know who you are watching. Certainly here in Chicago we knew who the players were even without their names on the back. Zambrano, Lee, Ramirez are all pretty identifiable. But as I watched the St. Louis/Milwaukee game, other than Pujols, Fielder and a few others, I had no idea who the players were. That got me to thinking. Do the umpires know each player? What if a weak hitting infielder was due up in a critical moment and the manager sends up another “number 42” to the plate to bat instead? Would anyone know it? Oh I’m sure someone somewhere would figure it out, but could the team get away with it?

Even the announcers were clueless. As the St. Louis broadcast team said of the new Milwaukee pitcher “The new pitcher for Milwaukee is Hanrahan. And the reason we know this is because that’s what we were told.”

And then THAT got me to thinking about owning a Fantasy League Team. I get all excited during the winter preparing for the draft (ok, who am I kidding? My draft prep doesn’t start in earnest until mid-Spring.) I see names of guys that could have their breakout year, and if I’m fortunate enough I acquire one of them at the draft. Then the season starts and I see a game that player is in and suddenly I realize (somewhat embarrassed) I know nothing about the guy. “He’s that tall and thin? He’s white/black? He’s lefthanded?”

Whether we are paying tribute to Jackie Robinson or drafting a Fantasy Team, Abbott and Costello were right. I Don’t Know really is on third.