There is some symmetry attached to this Opening Day of baseball, the game of grinches.
The Cubs open at Wrigley Field against the New York Mets, who feature Dallas Green in the dugout. Ten years ago, while generally managing the Cubs, he traded for Rick Sutcliffe, who went 16-1 and the Cubs won for the first time since Japan lost in 1945.
Now the Cubs look to Anthony Young, who posted a 1-16 record last year. What’s amazing is that he could be 1-16 without being on the Cubs. But he has Cubs written all over him, so they obtain him from the Mets, and hold the laughter. Young has a live arm, and his 1993 earned-run average was better than any Cubs starter’s and about half a run per game lower than Chicago’s team yield. You never know, in this era of subdivided divisions, when half a run will come in handy.
The Cubs could use it already because, even before Hillary Rodham Clinton tosses out the ceremonial first pitch Monday, they are already a half-game out of first place in the NL Central. Cincinnati and St. Louis started Sunday night for, of all things, television-a medium that treats baseball like damaged goods. But it’s no time to panic for the Cubs, because business is good and has been for, oh, about 10 years.
Before Green arrived, the organization’s rigors reeked of mortis. He said he saw defeat even in the eyes of Wrigley Field ushers, which was understandable, because they had little to do. Not until 1984 did the Cubs draw 2 million spectators. Only once since have they failed. Green is trying to resurrect another corpse of a franchise, but until further notice, he represents the most important hire yet by Cubs ownership. A winner, Green put the Cubs back on the map.
Meanwhile, the White Sox, who are on the verge, debut in Toronto, where the American League pennant will be hoisted. The Sox want it so dearly they even examined basketball legends in spring training. Michael Jordan didn’t cut it, but before he rides the bus, he buys the bus. More importantly, the Sox have added by subtracting others. At SkyDome last October, the warm and personable George Bell preceded a playoff game by suggesting that “48 percent” of the Sox disliked manager Gene Lamont. As usual, Bell opened his mouth only to change feet.
Majority ruled, however, and Lamont survives, as does General Manager Ron Schueler. Their level approach guides the Sox through the maze of potential distractions, and pitching should carry the Sox to the World Series, if the union permits fans such a privilege. Pitching is still 80 percent of the game, even if 90 percent of the teams don’t have any. If you must rely on a guy to throw a strike, you give the ball to Donald Fehr.
But life is not always fair. Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding reap fortunes for Olympic disfigure skating escapades while Champaign’s Bonnie Blair, a real person and honest competitor, gets a free ticket to the Mets and Cubs. She’s in the wrong field. Then again, so is Hillary Rodham Clinton, if she can take $1,000 and roll it over into $99,537, plus a guest shot with Harry Pavarotti Caray, in his 50th year as the sound of summer. And we’ve entrusted Bud Selig to implement revenue sharing?
Selig, baseball’s commissioner pro tem, feels pressure to achieve peace and fend off accusations that the game’s power structure has shifted to the Midwest’s “Great Lakes Gang” of Jerry Reinsdorf, Stanton Cook, etc. The Eastern Establishment doubts whether we farmers can run this sport from our tractors. Well, it might not be politically correct to ask, but we’ll ask anyway: Who put baseball in its current mess?
Whatever, spring is here. When the Cubs traded for 1-16, you wondered whether they’d dealt Jose Vizcaino for the Dallas Mavericks. But, in this epoch of realignment, you just never know when that one victory, like half a run, will matter. Especially when you’re a half-game out on Opening Day.
Symmetry.