Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Time to pull the starter? No Glory team may let fans decide
By Bennett Richardson, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
SILICON VALLEY — At Microsoft.Park@Silicon.Valley.com, baseball fans may soon get a way to tell a struggling pitcher to hit the showers that is far more effective than yelling at the TV.
Devotees of the Autoexec.Batsmen could soon decide whether to dump a pitcher through an online voting system that would display results on a stadium's center screen. For many A.B fans, this comes years too late after watching Russ Ortiz and Kevin Millwood for several seasons.
And the AL No Guts Wookies may allow viewers to watch players off-field in the dugout, the bullpen, or the locker room, simply through a click of the mouse as part of plans to Webcast games live. This would likely lessen the pain of watching them on the field.
Such gimmicks may appear to be a minor diversion from the serious business of pro ball. But these attempts to make the game more appealing are bold bids by Jeff Skilton, one of a new class of team owners, to reverse a sharp decline in the No Glory league's popularity since reversing the decline in his team's wins has not gone so well.
The idea of online voting to replace pitchers comes from Jeff's 5-year old son, Derek "Fletcher" Skilton. He made waves in baseball circles recently by saying that while coaches ought to get the final say in selecting which players to use, they should also consider the fans' wishes, which could be conveyed by online polls shown on computers in dugouts. He also recited the Gettysburg Address.
Whether such a system will be introduced remains uncertain, but the suggestion has created a buzz in the conservative world of No Glory baseball. David Cuccaro, another team owner and former parking attendant, scoffs at the plan. "That idea is nonsense," he says. "I finally figured out how to use my com-pu-ter to show up to the draft. Now I have to use one to manage my team? I hope they don't put beer in a com-pu-ter."
But he doesn't deny that No Glory baseball has slipped from the lofty mantle it occupied when he was "on" the field in the 1990s. "Young people are leaving baseball because the actual games played at stadiums have lost excitement," he says. "The tempo of games somehow needs to be sped up. I've suggested a pitch clock to the commissioner for years and years. But does he listen? No. He only talks to me when he wants to trade me Dante Bichette for Bobby Abreu. I HATE DANTE BICHETTE!!!"
Indeed, some fans point out that online voting would only slow things down more. Diehard fan Tony Cuccaro says the idea is a weak marketing ploy that wouldn't make the game more interesting. "In the end, coaches wouldn't listen to what the fans want anyway," he says. "Nobody ever listens to what I want. So I spit at them. Yorry Yake."
Professor Carl Zimring, fellow No Glory owner and an expert on the sociology of baseball fans at Oberlin College in Ohio, is also skeptical. "While new ideas are effective as an advertisement" for the game, he says, viewer voting to replace pitchers would be extremely difficult to regulate properly. "Still, it would have been amusing when Burninator's manager Grady Little strode out to the mound in last year's AL No Guts Game 6 to pull Johan Santana in the 6th if the
entire scoreboard flashed, 'NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!'"
But some welcome the radical move. "It would be a very interesting idea if they could actually implement it," says fellow owner Matt Streeter, adding that he can recall a number of instances when a pitcher in bad form should have been sent off earlier. "I would probably take part if they introduced it," he says. "Like right after I drafted half my pitchers."
These ideas come amid hard times for the No Glory League's popularity. Baseball's popularity has fallen as other sports, like soccer, which kicked off here in 1993, draw more fans. "Oh yeah!"
said Lou Hall, the No Glory Soccer League's only team owner. "Come to papa!"
"Considering its long history both before and after the Gulf War, its power of influence has become relatively small because of a multiplication of (other types of) entertainment," says Professor Zimring. "And small market teams like the Batsmen have suffered the most."
As Skilton's top homegrown talent like John Smoltz and Michael Barrett have moved on to winning teams, empty stadium seats have become more obvious. While Smoltz has won acclaim with the Gas House Gang, his old team, the Batsmen, recorded last year their worst average TV ratings since the league's beginning in 1995. The Batsmen's top average TV ratings would routinely kick butt on the Les Howard Entertainment Showcase on Public Access but those days are long gone.
The decline in baseball also stems from the public's weariness with the commissioner Mike Cuccaro's administrative organization, which is seen as stifling change. A number of bribery scandals have led to calls for reform of the draft system, for example the "Wagner Situation" of 1995, while problems with the free-agent system and inflated attendance figures at ballparks have also hurt the game's image.
But one unorthodox owner is determined to burnish that image. Unlike the railway firms or newspaper conglomerates that have dominated baseball here for the past 10 years, Skilton runs Internet companies. He is considered the new kid on the block by other club owners, but his entry has been welcomed by the public, eager to see their own teams pad their win totals.
Since Skilton and son have been admitted to the clubby status of team owner, they have pressed for reforms to the way professional baseball is run. "Fletcher" has urged stadiums to release actual attendance numbers while his team's attendance has urged him to release actual ballplayers. Last year, official figures, which include season tickets, showed that a crowd of 48,000 attended a game at the 32,000 capacity Homer Dome. Commissioner Cuccaro's number cooking was plain for all to see.
Legend has it that his brother Ralph Cuccaro, an American newspaper carrier on Long Island, introduced baseball and gambling to the league's founder and commissioner in about 1973. Owning baseball teams quickly became popular at the high school and college level, and the yearly national Yahoo tournament still rivals the NCAA Tournament as a gambling event. Commissioner Cuccaro's first team was formed in 1988 with J&J Sports, and by the 1990s, baseball was the dominant obsession in the family, developing a special place at holiday gatherings.
Purists say that an opportunity for fans to alter game play via the Internet not only flies in the face of tradition, but raises philosophical questions about the nature of sport in general.
One key element that would be lost, they say, is the idea that athletes must face their opponents alone, acting in the arena according to their own wits, without help from outsiders. Just like on Yu-gi-oh!
"This interesting facet of sports would be destroyed" if viewers were so directly involved, says Stacy Hoffman, editor of Ethnology, a journal of anthropology. "And believe me, we would have a mass murder on our hands if some 14-year old idiots with a mouse took out Johan Santana and put David Riske anywhere near a pitching mound for the Burninators."
Copyright 2005, The Christian Science Monitor
By Bennett Richardson, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
SILICON VALLEY — At Microsoft.Park@Silicon.Valley.com, baseball fans may soon get a way to tell a struggling pitcher to hit the showers that is far more effective than yelling at the TV.
Devotees of the Autoexec.Batsmen could soon decide whether to dump a pitcher through an online voting system that would display results on a stadium's center screen. For many A.B fans, this comes years too late after watching Russ Ortiz and Kevin Millwood for several seasons.
And the AL No Guts Wookies may allow viewers to watch players off-field in the dugout, the bullpen, or the locker room, simply through a click of the mouse as part of plans to Webcast games live. This would likely lessen the pain of watching them on the field.
Such gimmicks may appear to be a minor diversion from the serious business of pro ball. But these attempts to make the game more appealing are bold bids by Jeff Skilton, one of a new class of team owners, to reverse a sharp decline in the No Glory league's popularity since reversing the decline in his team's wins has not gone so well.
The idea of online voting to replace pitchers comes from Jeff's 5-year old son, Derek "Fletcher" Skilton. He made waves in baseball circles recently by saying that while coaches ought to get the final say in selecting which players to use, they should also consider the fans' wishes, which could be conveyed by online polls shown on computers in dugouts. He also recited the Gettysburg Address.
Whether such a system will be introduced remains uncertain, but the suggestion has created a buzz in the conservative world of No Glory baseball. David Cuccaro, another team owner and former parking attendant, scoffs at the plan. "That idea is nonsense," he says. "I finally figured out how to use my com-pu-ter to show up to the draft. Now I have to use one to manage my team? I hope they don't put beer in a com-pu-ter."
But he doesn't deny that No Glory baseball has slipped from the lofty mantle it occupied when he was "on" the field in the 1990s. "Young people are leaving baseball because the actual games played at stadiums have lost excitement," he says. "The tempo of games somehow needs to be sped up. I've suggested a pitch clock to the commissioner for years and years. But does he listen? No. He only talks to me when he wants to trade me Dante Bichette for Bobby Abreu. I HATE DANTE BICHETTE!!!"
Indeed, some fans point out that online voting would only slow things down more. Diehard fan Tony Cuccaro says the idea is a weak marketing ploy that wouldn't make the game more interesting. "In the end, coaches wouldn't listen to what the fans want anyway," he says. "Nobody ever listens to what I want. So I spit at them. Yorry Yake."
Professor Carl Zimring, fellow No Glory owner and an expert on the sociology of baseball fans at Oberlin College in Ohio, is also skeptical. "While new ideas are effective as an advertisement" for the game, he says, viewer voting to replace pitchers would be extremely difficult to regulate properly. "Still, it would have been amusing when Burninator's manager Grady Little strode out to the mound in last year's AL No Guts Game 6 to pull Johan Santana in the 6th if the
entire scoreboard flashed, 'NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!'"
But some welcome the radical move. "It would be a very interesting idea if they could actually implement it," says fellow owner Matt Streeter, adding that he can recall a number of instances when a pitcher in bad form should have been sent off earlier. "I would probably take part if they introduced it," he says. "Like right after I drafted half my pitchers."
These ideas come amid hard times for the No Glory League's popularity. Baseball's popularity has fallen as other sports, like soccer, which kicked off here in 1993, draw more fans. "Oh yeah!"
said Lou Hall, the No Glory Soccer League's only team owner. "Come to papa!"
"Considering its long history both before and after the Gulf War, its power of influence has become relatively small because of a multiplication of (other types of) entertainment," says Professor Zimring. "And small market teams like the Batsmen have suffered the most."
As Skilton's top homegrown talent like John Smoltz and Michael Barrett have moved on to winning teams, empty stadium seats have become more obvious. While Smoltz has won acclaim with the Gas House Gang, his old team, the Batsmen, recorded last year their worst average TV ratings since the league's beginning in 1995. The Batsmen's top average TV ratings would routinely kick butt on the Les Howard Entertainment Showcase on Public Access but those days are long gone.
The decline in baseball also stems from the public's weariness with the commissioner Mike Cuccaro's administrative organization, which is seen as stifling change. A number of bribery scandals have led to calls for reform of the draft system, for example the "Wagner Situation" of 1995, while problems with the free-agent system and inflated attendance figures at ballparks have also hurt the game's image.
But one unorthodox owner is determined to burnish that image. Unlike the railway firms or newspaper conglomerates that have dominated baseball here for the past 10 years, Skilton runs Internet companies. He is considered the new kid on the block by other club owners, but his entry has been welcomed by the public, eager to see their own teams pad their win totals.
Since Skilton and son have been admitted to the clubby status of team owner, they have pressed for reforms to the way professional baseball is run. "Fletcher" has urged stadiums to release actual attendance numbers while his team's attendance has urged him to release actual ballplayers. Last year, official figures, which include season tickets, showed that a crowd of 48,000 attended a game at the 32,000 capacity Homer Dome. Commissioner Cuccaro's number cooking was plain for all to see.
Legend has it that his brother Ralph Cuccaro, an American newspaper carrier on Long Island, introduced baseball and gambling to the league's founder and commissioner in about 1973. Owning baseball teams quickly became popular at the high school and college level, and the yearly national Yahoo tournament still rivals the NCAA Tournament as a gambling event. Commissioner Cuccaro's first team was formed in 1988 with J&J Sports, and by the 1990s, baseball was the dominant obsession in the family, developing a special place at holiday gatherings.
Purists say that an opportunity for fans to alter game play via the Internet not only flies in the face of tradition, but raises philosophical questions about the nature of sport in general.
One key element that would be lost, they say, is the idea that athletes must face their opponents alone, acting in the arena according to their own wits, without help from outsiders. Just like on Yu-gi-oh!
"This interesting facet of sports would be destroyed" if viewers were so directly involved, says Stacy Hoffman, editor of Ethnology, a journal of anthropology. "And believe me, we would have a mass murder on our hands if some 14-year old idiots with a mouse took out Johan Santana and put David Riske anywhere near a pitching mound for the Burninators."
Copyright 2005, The Christian Science Monitor
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