Baseball Stew wish list: Stop the hype

It’s just about that time of year to get your Christmas wish lists in order. With that in mind, here is my fervent wish: that the greatest game on Earth (and the people in the media who cover the sports) can work on an irritating flaw – too much hype. How I wish we could just stop all the hype.

First of all, while baseball doesn’t feature as many gaudy displays of flash or engage in as much exaggeration as, say, the NBA, there is room for improvement. Start with the media and how, for example, they seem to have a need to label things and/or people as the “greatest,” even though many times what/who they select today as the “greatest” is showed aside by a new “greatest” when it becomes convenient for them to tout something new.

Both the electronic and print media detest a vacuum – they are painfully aware that they have to fill up space and/or time. This, in part, leads to their need to argue over who is the best this or the top that and to hype whatever is is that’s on their minds at any given time.

For instance, before this year’s World Series commentators on the MLB Network posed the question: With Derek Jeter gone, who is the face of the game now?

First of all, the game doesn’t need a “face” and one many rarely symbolizes the game as a whole. Not Jeter. No Cal Ripken Jr. Not Willie Mays. The cluster of stars in baseball at any given time and the game itself makes it almost impossible for one man to be the face of the sport normally. Not the normally there. One rare exception could certainly be made for Babe Ruth, who dominated the game and largely dwarfed everyone else around him.

I suspect that when the announcers concluded that Buster Posey would be the new face of the game, they did so to hype the upcoming World Series. His poor offensive showing during the postseason is immaterial (with zero extra base hits, had had batting averages and slugging percentages of .200 in NLCS and .154 in the World Series). The point is there is no need to discuss who the new face of baseball should be.

In addition, I suspect that if Mike Trout had been headed to the World Series this year they would have ordained him as the new face of the game. After all, take away Miguel Cabrera and Trout would have won three straight MVP Awards in his first three full seasons in the majors. That’s a pretty distinctive face for your sport.

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Players today are guilty of their own version of hype – I call it the “Look at Me” syndrome (perhaps this all began with Muhammad Ali?). It is as if these guys have never grown up from their childhood days, wanting everyone to see what they did. Baseball used to be devoid of overt chest thumping and the “me, me, me” mentality being put before the team concept. Now when a player displays his exuberance, it’s all too often orchestrated and totally unnecessary. It’s against the values of how baseball behavior should be conducted.

One display I’ll never forget came when Prince Fielder, then with the Milwaukee Brewers, homered. By the team he’d reached the plate, his teammates were clustered around it, falling to the ground like exploding bowling pins when he stomped on the plate. Ostentatious and orchestrated.

Now, do I really believe that the above issues will be remedied? No. I did specify this was a wish list, didn’t I?