{"id":31069,"date":"2016-09-09T13:43:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T17:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/?p=31069"},"modified":"2016-09-16T15:57:05","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T19:57:05","slug":"why-the-mets-signing-tebow-pisses-on-the-idea-of-fairness-in-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/09\/why-the-mets-signing-tebow-pisses-on-the-idea-of-fairness-in-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Mets Signing Tebow Pisses on the Idea of Fairness in Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the best reads in baseball is not a sports article but a 1975 law review article entitled \u201cCommon Law Origins of the Infield Fly Rule<\/a>” by William S. Stevens.\u00a0 He connects the dots between common law and morality to baseball\u2019s evolutionary attempts to be fair, evidenced with the 1890 infield fly rule preventing an infielder from having an advantage through deception.\u00a0 The rule was needed to preserve the integrity of the game, and because of the eroding affect on baseball over time if left unaddressed by rule. \u00a0This excerpt sums it up well:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs baseball grew, so did the influence of values that saw winning, rather than exercise, as the purpose of the game. Victory was to be pursued by any means possible within the language of the rules, regardless of whether the tactic violated the spirit of the rules. The written rules had to be made more and more specific, in order to preserve the spirit of the game.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What does this have to do with the Mets signing of Tim Tebow?<\/p>\n

With appreciation that the Mets still may have bottom line challenges—or even if it\u2019s a pure marketing ploy to grow the top line—the Mets joke of a signing goes against the idea of fairness in the game.\u00a0 Sure, some players make 100s of millions more than others, and it\u2019s not fair guys in AAA can\u2019t pay bills, but the reason for free agency in the first place was for the continued attempt for equity in performance and pay.\u00a0 And no question it\u2019s not fair that Armando Galarraga isn\u2019t on the list of pitchers with a Perfect Game, but that was one of the motivations to introduce instant replay.<\/p>\n

The Tebow signing isn\u2019t fair to the players or the farm ecosystems, to the scouts, to the fans and most especially to the game. It\u2019s not based on merit. Or talent. Or Tebow\u2019s love of the game. It\u2019s a cynical marketing ploy, pure and simple.\u00a0 He\u2019s a 29-year-old (considered beyond the bell curve) taking a spot from a guy out there somewhere who worked day and night, all his life, just for a chance \u00a0 Tebow just showed up.\u00a0 That\u2019s not just unfair, it\u2019s criminal, baseball-wise.<\/p>\n

And for those who equate it to Jordan beware:\u00a0 at least Michael went to Birmingham and tried.\u00a0 He rode the bus, played all season in the minors. Tried very hard too if you believe Tito Francona. Tebow isn\u2019t even trying to frame that expectation:\u00a0 he\u2019ll be splitting his time in Spring Training—relearning a game he hasn\u2019t played since Coldplay\u2019s first and only good CD in 2003—and a college football broadcasting gig.\u00a0 Can you imagine anyone on a spring training roster getting away with that?\u00a0 Or wanting to?<\/p>\n

I won’t be one of the inevitable hoards of people at the Arizona Fall League or Spring Training there to see Tim Tebow.\u00a0 As a former NY’er I lived through the Tebow years and know first hand he’s no blessing to sports fans.\u00a0 He’s a distraction, a\u00a0charlatan\u00a0and now along with the Mets, an accomplice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the best reads in baseball is not a sports article but a 1975 law review article entitled \u201cCommon Law Origins of the Infield Fly Rule” by William S. Stevens.\u00a0 He connects the dots between common law and morality to baseball\u2019s evolutionary attempts to be fair, evidenced with the 1890 infield fly rule preventing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1867,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-top-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1867"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}