Sports

Feeling Forgotten as Baseball Gets Back to Business

Published

3 years ago

March 16, 2022

Feeling Forgotten as Baseball Gets Back to Business

Each spring for the previous a number of years, Aaron Pointer has climbed his steep driveway, taken a brief stroll down the road and opened his mailbox to discover a letter from Main League Baseball. Every time, as he walks again to his dwelling, with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge peeking out over the water, he displays on the lengthy battle for this small recognition. After which he tears into the envelope, revealing a examine for about $900 and a letter explaining how this cost shouldn’t be assured to proceed subsequent 12 months.

In 1961, Pointer grew to become the final participant to hit higher than .400 for a full season in affiliated baseball. Sixty-one years later, that is his pension from M.L.B.

“I simply snort after I see the examine,” Pointer, 79, stated in a telephone interview from his dwelling in Tacoma, Wash. “No less than Main League Baseball acknowledges that we exist now, however my pension involves lower than $100 a month with taxes. It’s barely sufficient to exit to dinner.”

In 1972, Pointer retired from skilled baseball after a 12-season profession, by which he performed 40 video games over three seasons on the main league stage. On the time he retired, M.L.B. gamers wanted 4 years of service to qualify for a pension. In 1980, after a quick strike that didn’t lead to any missed video games, a brand new labor deal lowered that threshold considerably. Since then, gamers have change into eligible for well being care advantages after enjoying one recreation within the majors, and so they qualify for a pension after 43 days on a significant league roster.

However these new advantages for retirees didn’t apply retroactively. A gaggle of greater than 600 gamers — Pointer amongst them — was left behind for greater than three a long time.

In 2011, the commissioner’s workplace and the Main League Baseball Gamers Affiliation agreed to use a pension method to those beforehand excluded gamers. The gamers may qualify for a most of $10,000 yearly. For his contributions to baseball, Pointer’s pension involves $1,200 a 12 months — earlier than taxes.

He’s spent latest months questioning whether or not that examine will arrive in any respect. In December, M.L.B. homeowners voted unanimously to lock out the gamers after the 2016 collective bargaining settlement expired. Pointer watched a number of the protection on TV — with the homeowners having requested for an expanded postseason, and the gamers having requested for an elevated portion of the league’s income — however he tended to show it off after just some moments. He by no means hears anybody voicing concern for retired gamers like him, and he wonders in the event that they’ve been forgotten — once more.

“I hope the gamers are pondering of us,” he stated. “In my expertise, it’s the folks in Main League Baseball, those who’ve management of purse strings, who’re the issue. They appear to suppose that they don’t have the cash for us, however that’s not true. They might afford it — in the event that they cared.”

On Thursday, after 99 days of capricious negotiations, the homeowners and the gamers’ union agreed to a brand new C.B.A. The deal is claimed to incorporate improved pay for youthful gamers, incentives for elevated competitors amongst groups and an expanded playoff, amongst different provisions. Two sources, who requested anonymity due to the tentative nature of the settlement, instructed The New York Occasions that the funds for this group of pre-1980 gamers have been elevated by 15 p.c and can proceed for one more 5 years.

“We’re happy to hitch the M.L.B.P.A. in persevering with to help these retired gamers,” M.L.B. stated in a press release.

When knowledgeable of the deal, Pointer was ambivalent. He appreciated that gamers like him have been thought of, however he questioned why it took so lengthy. “That’s an excellent transfer, and I’m glad they remembered us,” he stated. “Though it may have occurred earlier, and it ought to have occurred earlier. Plenty of guys who’ve handed gained’t profit, but it surely does assist the blokes who’re nonetheless alive. It’s only a disgrace: It ought to have occurred years in the past.”

For Pointer, the protracted battle has soured a lot of his fondest reminiscences from enjoying baseball.

Born in Oakland, Calif., to a pair of pastors, Pointer performed basketball on the College of San Francisco earlier than his highschool baseball coach related him with a brand new M.L.B. staff in Houston — the Colt .45s. (He and his siblings grew up singing within the church choir, and his sisters — the Pointer Sisters — grew to become a chart-topping, Grammy Award-winning R&B group.)

Houston gave the 19-year-old Pointer a $10,000 signing bonus earlier than transport him to North Carolina to play for the Class D Salisbury Braves. He was the one Black participant on the staff.

Within the Deep South, Pointer endured discrimination like he’d by no means skilled — he was compelled to sleep in separate motels and to eat in separate eating places from his white teammates. It was the identical summer time that the Freedom Riders started their demonstrations for integration, and Pointer felt the facility of the motion intimately.

In a 12 months when the league batting common was .256, Pointer constructed his as much as .402. All these years later, nobody else at any stage of American skilled baseball has been capable of match him in a full season. (Gary Redus hit .462 for the Billings Mustangs in a brief season of rookie ball within the Pioneer League in 1978, and a number of other gamers have hit higher than .400 within the AAA Mexican League.)

“I nonetheless get calls about my baseball profession,” Pointer stated, “and I’m nonetheless very pleased with all that I achieved. However I don’t talk about hitting .400 anymore. With the whole lot that’s occurred between me and Main League Baseball, it’s simply one thing I’d slightly keep away from if I can. It’s unlucky that I really feel this manner, however that’s how it’s.”

After retiring from baseball, Pointer discovered steadier footing in one other nook {of professional} sports activities — soccer officiating. In 1978, he grew to become the primary Black referee within the Pac-10 convention, and he labored as a head N.F.L. linesman from 1987 to 2003. He as soon as officiated a recreation after his sisters sang the nationwide anthem. In 1994, he was engaged on the sphere when his son Deron made his first N.F.L. catch in a preseason recreation in Pittsburgh. After the completion, Deron popped up off the sphere and handed the ball to his father.

For his 17 years of N.F.L. officiating, Pointer stated he collects about $50,000 a 12 months in retirement advantages. Below the brand new M.L.B. method, Pointer stands to obtain about $1,380 a 12 months (earlier than taxes). Though he understands that his N.F.L. profession lasted 4 occasions longer than his M.L.B. profession, he doesn’t perceive how that equates to just about 40 occasions the annual profit.

However he joked that at the least now he may take his spouse, Leona, out to dinner as soon as extra every year. “We gained’t have the ability to afford to deliver any friends, however at the least Leona and I can exit,” he stated, and laughed. “That’s some progress.”

For Pointer, there’s one different change in plans for this 12 months’s examine: He’s going to drive to gather it. “It’s not a straightforward stroll anymore for a man who’s virtually 80 years previous,” he stated. “I’ll in all probability simply hop in my automobile, choose it up, put it within the financial institution and transfer on with my life.”

Sports

Is Yankees’ Aaron Judge facing kryptonite in Royals’ Michael Wacha in ALDS Game 1?

Published

4 hours ago

October 5, 2024

Press Room

Is Yankees’ Aaron Judge facing kryptonite in Royals’ Michael Wacha in ALDS Game 1?

If Aaron Judge is the New York Yankees’ Superman, the Kansas City Royals may believe that they have his kryptonite in Michael Wacha, their Game 1 starter in the American League Division Series.

Judge has just one hit (a single) in 18 career at-bats (.056) vs. Wacha, a righty veteran. It’s Judge’s lowest career batting average vs. any pitcher he’s faced at least that many times.

Over that span, Judge has nabbed three walks but has also recorded 11 strikeouts. His only hit against Wacha came last season when Wacha was pitching for the San Diego Padres in a game at Yankee Stadium. Judge crushed a 114.1 mph line drive to left field in a 2-1 count on a 91-mph fastball left dangling over the heart of the plate.

What’s the deal with Wacha getting the better of Judge to date?

The Yankees don’t see it as that big of a problem.

“I’ll chalk this up to small sample and I’ll take Aaron Judge against just about anyone on any day,” manager Aaron Boone said.

“He’s a good pitcher, right?” hitting coach James Rowson said. “He can mix it up. He’s got experience.”

Aaron Boone on the Royals. pic.twitter.com/eu8GC3Wot8
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) October 3, 2024

If the Yankees hope to reach their first World Series since 2009, they’re going to need a lot of help from Judge, who will likely run away with this year’s American League MVP award. He led the league in home runs (58), RBI (144), walks (133), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.701) and OPS (1.159). And he did it all while playing out of position in center field and leading a Yankees clubhouse in his second season as team captain.

Meanwhile, Wacha, 33, had another strong season. In 29 starts, he went 13-8 with a 3.35 ERA.

He didn’t face Judge this season, but Wacha surely knows he’s had Judge’s number.

“Probably luck,” Wacha said, laughing, according to a report from The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner in 2022. “I know he’s hit some balls hard off of me. He doesn’t have much to show for that.”

Wacha wasn’t wrong.

Of Judge’s 10 batted balls against Wacha, three of them have gone for more than 100 mph, including a 118.6 mph grounder that resulted in a double play. Judge has an average exit velocity of 94.5 mph against Wacha, just below his career average of 95.7 mph.

Wacha’s attack features one of the best changeups in the game. This season, it’s accounted for 32.2 percent of his pitches — more than any of the other five pitches he throws. Opponents had just a .169 average and a 34.1 percent whiff rate against his changeup. Judge, conversely, faced changeups 10.5 percent of the time and he had only a .229 average against them.(he still slugged .625 against the pitch).

Michael Wacha, Filthy 83mph Changeup. 😷 pic.twitter.com/lOP7rI39zR
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 24, 2024

Boone had high praise for Wacha.

“(He’s) a tough customer,” the manager said. “He’s always pitched us tough. We know we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Judge homered in five consecutive games before ending his regular season with a five-strikeout game against rookie Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game No. 161.

“I see him in a great spot,” Rowson said. “Anybody is going to have some tough days in this game, but I think this season speaks for itself. I think what he’s able to do this year is something that we haven’t seen from a right-handed hitter maybe in the history of the game in terms of what he’s been able to do. So I love where he’s at.”

And Rowson said he thinks Judge won’t take his past against Wacha into Saturday.

“I look at this matchup coming up like — it’s a different game,” the hitting coach said. “Now, it’s just one game at a time. There’s something to having a track record. Then there’s a statement of presence (and) staying in the moment that’s coming to us. I know that Judgey is going to be in the moment.”

(Photo: Luke Hales / Getty Images)

Sports

Yankees broadcaster rips team's fans who have been rooting for Mets during miraculous run: 'Please stop!'

Published

4 hours ago

October 5, 2024

Press Room

Yankees broadcaster rips team's fans who have been rooting for Mets during miraculous run: 'Please stop!'

The New York Yankees have not played since Sunday, giving many fans in the area a chance to turn the channel to their crosstown rivals.

And they’ve gotten quite a treat.

The New York Mets have had two miraculous wins this week, one in which they came back twice late to make the postseason and again Thursday, when Pete Alonso hit the first homer ever while a team was trailing in the ninth inning or later in a winner-take-all game in MLB history.

Despite the Yankees and Mets being rivals, there have been many Bronx Bombers fans who have, temporarily, been rooting for the Amazins this week.

New York Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay before a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium April 20, 2024, in New York, N.Y. (New York Yankees/Getty Images)

Apparently, it bothered Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay.

“Is fandom different now? Why are you rooting for the Mets if you’re a Yankee fan? Are you out of your minds? Are you out of your minds?” Kay said on his radio show Friday afternoon. “Like you don’t have enough good things to root for in the Bronx. Now, you’re going to root for the Queens players? It doesn’t make sense. It’s bizarro land.

“It’s participation trophy era. ‘Oh, if the Mets win, it’s good for the city.’ Please stop!”

Kay then implored Yankees fans who have been rooting for the Mets to “grow up.”

Michael Kay during the 75th New York Yankees Old Timers Day Sept. 9, 2023, at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

METS NAME SURPRISING PITCHER AS GAME 1 STARTER AFTER HE WAS THOUGHT TO MISS REST OF SEASON

“Every single one of you. Because being a fan means something. You can’t root for both,” he added. “And the ones that are, they’re not real Yankee fans. If they’re just reveling in the Mets having a great win, they’re not real fans.”

Kay also pointed to the fact that Mets fans seldom root for the Yankees. However, it should be noted that the 121-year-old Yankees are often looked at as the “big brother” since the Mets joined as an expansion team in 1962.

Pete Alonso of the New York Mets celebrates after hitting a home run in the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers during Game 3 of a wild-card series at American Family Field Oct. 3, 2024, in Milwaukee. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

This marks the first time the Yankees and Mets are both in a division series since 2006. They met in the World Series six years before that.

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Sports

Inglewood rallies late to beat Leuzinger in a battle of unbeaten teams

Published

4 hours ago

October 5, 2024

Press Room

Inglewood rallies late to beat Leuzinger in a battle of unbeaten teams

Inglewood trailed Leuzinger by three with less than three minutes to go.

The Sentinels were once up 20, cruising in their Bay League opener between undefeated teams. But Leuzinger stormed back, using three Journee Tonga touchdowns to take a fourth-quarter lead.

Inglewood quarterback Kingston Tisdell would not, could not let that be the end of their undefeated run, he said.

“Inglewood, the energy is always there,” the senior said. “When we’re down, our hopes get a little down. But it takes — it takes leaders, to get your team back up, let them know that you know we’re still in this and we can make things happen.”

And lead he did. In the red zone, with 26 seconds left in the game, Tisdell dove into the end zone and roared. The Inglewood marching band — about 40 members strong — roared alongside their signal-caller, blasting music with their tubas and trumpets in victory as the Sentinels celebrated their 34-29 win Friday night.

“He’s a proven winner,” Inglewood coach Mil’Von James said of Tisdell. “He stayed the course, and what he did was he didn’t panic, he showed no flinch, and he let us in. Our quarterback led us to a victory.”

Tisdell completed 14 of 26 passes for 326 yards, tossing three touchdowns against the Olympians (5-1).

The Birmingham transfer showcased the glitz and glamour of the playbook for Inglewood (6-0) — with their red and green “City of Champions” uniforms to match — connecting with junior tight end Andre Nickerson on nearly identical first-quarter touchdown passes, the first for 55 yards and the second for 69.

The duo connected once more in the third quarter for a 16-yard touchdown to extend Inglewood’s lead to two scores.

“Our connection started in January, even before spring ball,” Tisdell said of his teammate. “He’s a great player and I know he’s gonna do big things for us this year.”

Leuzinger, on the other hand, couldn’t implement the same success it found in its upset victory over Santa Margarita a few weeks ago. But it came close. Tonga — who’d tallied 18 touchdowns and 196 yards per game entering the contest — rushed for less than 30 yards in the first half. But in the second half, he showed why he’s one of Southern California’s breakout performers.

He’s not imposing, standing at just 5 feet 8 and 170 pounds. But when Tonga’s in his No. 1 gray jersey and heading for the end zone, leaving defenders in the dust as he did Friday, his play speaks for itself. Tonga finished with 160 rushing yards and 88 receiving yards, leading the Olympians in all-purpose yardage.

As the final whistle blew, the passion of the back-and-forth contest led to a postgame scuffle. First-year Leuzinger coach Jason Miller and James still shook hands at midfield, as the latter remained complimentary of his new Bay League opposition.

“That was a good team,” James said. “They played well and did a good job running it. I’m [proud of] my kids for being resilient.”