Valentine stands up for the game; Ortiz steps up as team leader

Manager Bobby Valentine’s ban on alcohol in the clubhouse and on flights back to Boston represented a major sea change for the Red Sox for two reasons:

1. He let the players know that the “laissez faire” Francona Era was over and the Bobby Valentine “I’m in charge here!” Era had begun.

2. David Ortiz stepped up as the new team leader with his comment: “We’re not here to drink…We’re here to play baseball.”

Noting that only 19 of the MLB clubs ban alcohol in the clubhouse, Valentine was unapologetic and said: “my question is what’s up with the other 11 teams?”

And, my questing is: where is the $22 million a year Commissioner of Baseball?

Oh, right, it was the BEER that “made Milwaukee famous;” a beer mogul owns the Cardinals…

The guys who wear the shirts with the city’s name on them have now become spoiled millionaires and part of the “One Percenter” elite. No one respects and appreciates the rare skill set that it requires to play professional baseball than your correspondent, but the huge fortunes they demand are obscene. We need a salary cap and we need to have a computer to calculate yearly salaries, based on past performance with the previous year weighted more heavily.

No one is more pro-union than your correspondent, but the Players’ Union needs to recognize that, by allowing greed to drive the salary structure, it will soon kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Already the average fans, who are now lucky to have a job, or, sadly, two minimum wage jobs, are turning to the Minor league games in droves. While the MLB clubs are primarily financed by advertising and cable revenues today, the declining interest of the “soccer generation” in the game of baseball and the new “austerity” economy will result in lower viewer ratings and ultimately lower cable contracts for the MLB teams.

Then what,  Bud?

The Game of Baseball will survive the greed of MLB; there will be enough fans to support the salaries of the Minor league players (who are vastly under-paid by comparison to the MLB players) and the day will come when MLB franchises will begin to fold, or discover that they have run out of “next cities” that are willing to take huge loses in their shrinking budgets.

The greed rampant in MLB is a disgrace to the Game of Baseball.

But, Alan “This Bud’s for You!” Selig hides in fear that he may be forced to make a decision or take a Bart Giamatti stand to rein in the new Corporate Con Game that MLB has become. Selig is a puppet of the owners who made him Commissioner for life; they apply a cynical “participatory management” approach, saying to their Commissioners: “You participate, we’ll manage.” Selig is regaled for his creative contributions to the game, which are all inspired by greed and the profit motive and not “the best interests of the game.”  When the owners allow you to offer an opinion, you subserviantly reply:  “This Bud’s for YOU!”

To many of us “99 Percenters,” who are on the outside of the circle of the elite millionaires, the Game of Baseball is a sacred trust. How can we be expected to support the greed of millionaires, while we are barely making a living? An independent Commissioner would chase these money mongers out of the Green Cathedrals of our game. A real Commissioner would have already banned alcohol from all the clubhouses.

But, this is not a temperance sermon; we just want to know why is it that the millionaires believe they can drink at their place of work and the rest of us can’t? When we are at our place of employment, we do not have the option of retiring to a clubhouse during our work day.

Why doesn’t the Commissioner require all players on the 25-man roster to be in the dugout during every game? If you are not playing, you can at least show that you support the efforts of your team mates.  There is no excuse for any player on the 25-man roster to be anywhere else during a game than in the dugout.

Do the members of the “Beer Pitchers Club” expect any sympathy from the rest of us who have to earn a living by showing up for work? And, it’s way too late to apologize for dogging it and letting your team down; you should all have been traded. It is obvious that your “lapses in judgment” were an indicator of your attitude and directly correlated to your performances that took your team from “best record in baseball” to “Champion Chokers” in just a month. This is called “professional” baseball and you did not behave like professionals. You behaved like your priority was not doing your best at your job. Your attitude directly determined the your team’s altitude in the standings. On behalf of those who respect and revere the Game of Baseball: Shame on you!

"The kids on my team, who played for free, understood the words on their t-shirts: “Play hard, or go home!”"

Bobby Valentine has put down his marker: players are expected “not to embarrass themselves or the team, the community, their teammates.”

David Ortiz has stepped up and accepted the roles as team leader: “This is an organization, a place that needs a lot of athleticism. Alcohol has nothing to do with that.”

These two guys showed some class and a respect for the Game of Baseball.

As for the rest of you clowns, the players, the owners, and the Commissioner:

You guys want a minimum of $3 million to play a game?
You guys want to run a Major League franchise?
You want to earn $22 million a year?

Then show up at your job like the rest of us!
Tell the players to “shape up, or ship out”!
Have some respect for the integrity of the Game of Baseball!

In the long run, if you do not, the Game of Baseball will not die; you will.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

For all the latest news and analysis from BoSox Injection, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or with our RSS feed.