August 1, 2006: Another
Fake Record
By White Russian
In
a marketing gimmick to raise awareness of Buck O’Neil’s exclusion
from the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, the independent Kansas City T-Bones
signed O’Neil to a one-day contract so he could play in the Northern
League All-Star game on July 18th. At age 94, O’Neil, perhaps the most
famous Negro League player not in the Hall, may have become the oldest player
to play in a professional baseball game. While it is being reported that O’Neil
is now the oldest to play, the Schaumburg Flyers, also of the Northern League,
allowed another Negro League immortal, Ted Radcliffe, to pitch in a game in
1999 at the age of 96. He threw one pitch, underscoring the absurdity of the
record.
Trotting out old timers is just another promotion for teams in the independent leagues. Just a couple of weeks ago an 83 year-old man, Jim Eriotes, led off a game for the Sioux Falls Canaries. While it was just a joke to everyone else and, at the time, supposedly made him the oldest to play professional baseball, Eriotes was serious as he took four swings and struck out after fouling one off. Three years ago, Minnie Minoso, perhaps the second most famous Negro League player not in the Hall of Fame, became the first player to play professional baseball in seven different decades in an equally embarrassing marketing gimmick.
For
O’Neil, the ridiculous series of events went like this. Before the game,
O’Neil was traded to the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks so he could lead off
the All-Star game. After drawing the obligatory walk, O’Neil came out
for a pinch runner. After the end of the top of the first, Kansas City traded
back for O’Neil so he could lead off the bottom of the first. Naturally,
he was walked again and pinch run for again. It should be noted that O’Neil
played in jeans and wore a Kansas City Monarchs jersey, instead of a full
uniform, and that his second walk was on ball five, not ball four.
A full game log does not seem to be available, but from the box score it appears that in the bottom of the first O’Neil pinch hit for the starting second baseman, Rob Watson. This should mean that Watson was out of the game after playing defense in the top of the first. Watson, however, had an at bat and scored a run in the third inning. In the news article detailing the events of the game, Jay Pecci hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first, which brings up the question of what happened to the runner who came in for O’Neil? Was the game further manipulated so that the obligatory walk to O’Neil was somehow erased in terms of scoring? Did the pinch runner allow himself to be picked off or thrown out in some way so that the O’Neil walk would not affect the game? Either way, it did affect the game. If one team walks him, then they open the game with no out and a runner on. If the other team runs into an out to erase the walk, then they have a first inning with only two outs. If O’Neil is walked and someone hits a home run, then both runners should score. This is the type of stuff that belongs in a celebrity softball game where the rules don’t matter and the players are just goofing off.
The All-Star game may be an exhibition, but as we have seen with the Major League All-Star game, treating it in such ways is a bad idea. In 2002 the All-Star game ended in a tie because both teams ran out of pitchers and Bud Selig didn’t know what to do. MLB has been trying to make the game mean something ever since.
This Northern League All-Star game was a close one, as the East came from behind in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the game. Would it have been different had there been a real lead off batter in each half of the first inning? That is something we truly will never know, as the league decided to make a mockery of their game by promoting the T-Bones’ disappointment that O’Neil didn’t get into the Hall of Fame. The T-Bones also have a petition going to get O’Neil into the Hall, as well as a drive to raise money for the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center.
The BMTG has no problem with Buck O’Neil. He is a fine man who has done a great deal for the game of baseball and may very well deserve to be in the Hall, even though 17 others were voted in and he wasn’t. The BMTG does have a problem, however, with misguided marketing attempts that make a mockery of the game and taint the record books. The record for oldest player to play in a professional game in any sport should go to a player who is legitimately playing for a team because he is good enough and that team wants him. Someone like 47 year-old Julio Franco of the New York Mets, who may not be a starter, but is still a solid player off the bench, is a perfect example of a legitimate old timer.
To be legitimate, a record should happen naturally and not be manufactured. That is what makes the record mean something significant. Whether it is doing something that is seemingly harmless, such as allowing a 94 year-old to get one at bat in a game, or it is more serious, such as Brett Favre (pronounced "fawv-ruh") laying down for Michael Strahan so he could get his single season sack record, it is still wrong. It was just as wrong in 1997, when a 69 year-old Gordie Howe was given a one-game contract by the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League so he could take the ice and become the only person to play professional hockey in six different decades.
And it was just as wrong in 1998, when University of Connecticut basketball star Nykesha Sales was given an uncontested basket in the final game of the season to become UCON's all-time leading scorer. She had been injured in the game before, ending her college career one point shy of the record. Instead of letting it be, the coaches got together before the last game of the season and allowed her to break the record right after tip-off. To make things even, UCON gave the other team, Villanova, an uncontested basket and then the real game started with the score tied at 2 and the record tarnished. Sales getting injured and being stopped short of the record is part of the game and illustrates just one of many things that can happen to prevent a record. Would she have broken the record if she had not been injured? Probably, but she did get injured and that should have been the end of it.
So
whether it is Buck O’Neil or Ted Radcliffe or some 100 year-old that
will be dragged out there in the future, the record for oldest player is just
a manufactured, promotional gimmick and all it does is further denigrate the
integrity of all record books.