The Franklin-to-USC rumors are back. Is now the time to wonder?
Got this email this morning, and I think it might be worthwhile to address it while the rumors heat up again that James Franklin might ultimately take another job outside of the one he has, on the other side of the country, for a program with a lot of history and much more potential:
Morning Donnie… Happy Wednesday!
I am perturbed this morning. It’s particularly directed towards the firing of USC Head Coach Clay Helton. Our Lions have a game of enormous importance this week and don’t need distractions involving James Franklin’s employment status for 2022.
It’s difficult to ignore innuendo because it is everywhere. I’ve done my best “Lennie Briscoe” impersonation and have a very difficult time believing that a man with eight seasons under his belt and the top recruiting class in America (As of right now…) would bolt for a Southern California Wildfire.
On second thought, James fits the Hollywood personna perfectly. Fumi cried when they left Nashville… NASHVILLE to come to Pennsyltucky. His daughters (who I admit I don’t even know their names) would likely also prefer the Hollywood Hills and palm trees to the Frost Museum and grilled stickies. Yes, I am aware that he first needs to be offered, and that won’t be for several months. Still, after turning down the likes of Miami, Texas A&M, Florida State, Texas, and ironically Auburn in the past you have to wonder: Is State College truly James Franklin’s final destination or has there been a real “dream job” he’s been concealing from everyone for some time? I suppose we’ll find out soon.
Soon enough, anyway.
I really like this email, and it’s from someone who emails me often, and whose opinions and insight I respect quite a bit. It also kind of details some of the things that are going to go into a decision like this, assuming Franklin does end up on USC’s short list.
So, lets get at them…
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
Abyssinia, Penn State depth chart
Major, earth-shattering news came out of Penn State this week, when the strategic communications office announced Monday that — and I don’t know how I’m even going to type these words without tearing up — the Nittany Lions football program will not be releasing a weekly depth chart leading into games this season.
James Franklin confirmed the shocking development during his press conference on Tuesday, taking time to address it before any question was asked, because he knew — just knew — some enterprising reporter was going to ask him about the decision to rid Happy Valley of one of the “local media’s” most cherished weekly talking points, damn the internet message boards.
“For us, we’ve always released a depth chart,” Franklin said. “I really don’t have a strong opinion either way. There have been multiple schools in the conference that haven’t been releasing it for a number of years. This year we found out that Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State and Purdue either were not releasing it, or thinking about not releasing it. It just didn’t make sense for us to do it if others weren’t.
“I know on Saturdays or Sundays, when we’re breaking down the next opponent, that’s already out there. It saves some work. It saves some time. I want to make sure we take care of the local media as much as we can. You’re at enough practices, you know what’s what anyway.”
Appreciative as the “local media” might be, can we take a moment to address the unquestioned integrity of the college football depth chart? It’s out there, for sure. And chock full of semi-valuable information.
Information like, “Who started at quarterback last week?” Or, “The starting Mike linebacker is going to be the five-star freshman we spent thousands of hours recruiting ‘OR’ the third-year walk-on who is close to winning a scholarship and deserves a shot because he has worked super hard with the scout team.” Like, “Who is the backup long snapper?”
However will we discover this information without you, depth chart? What can we trust, if we can’t trust the bulletproof information you used to provide, like “Hey, Micah Parsons is going to return kickoffs!”? What will those members of the media — local or otherwise — who have put Biblical stock into that weekly list of players overanalyze now that they don’t have this glorified roster in their clutches?
Speaking of rosters, why release those? There’s an idea! If a depth chart provides an opponent a competitive advantage, imagine what kind of gains a team can make if it simply doesn’t release a list of its own players!
REPORTER: “Coach Day, how does the Ohio State defense plan to stop Penn State’s running attack this week?”
RYAN DAY: “Beats me. We don’t even know who they have at running back. We don’t have a roster.”
Wow. Genuis!
And why stop there?
Let’s just keep the schedule in-house, too. What better way to surprise an opponent than by showing up on gameday…when they don’t even KNOW it’s gameday.
REPORTER: “Coach Harbaugh, why didn’t you show up for your big game with Penn State today?”
JIM HARBAUGH: “We had a big game with Penn State today? How were we to know, without a schedule?”
(Actually, not a good idea to plant this plan in Harbaugh’s head. I apologize.)
Let’s not lose focus on what’s of utmost importance, and I know that’s the depth chart, because so much time today — during the Penn State head coach’s press conference leading up to a huge Big Ten opener on the road against a nationally ranked team, absolutely a measuring-stick for a Penn State team aspiring to show 2020 was a fluke — was devoted to talking about why depth charts have gone the way of the fullback in this program. But like fullbacks, depth charts have been of questionable importance, and there are far better things to talk about than a list of players the coaching staff is under no obligation to follow come gameday anyway.
Rest in peace, anyway, to a college football institution, the game’s ultimate red herring: The depth chart. We won’t soon forget what you meant to us. (Unless a few minutes is considered “soon.”)
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
PSU receiver prospect goes the baseball route
Lonnie White Jr. won’t factor into Penn State’s wideout rotation this fall, after all. And, maybe, that’s as expected.
The two-sport standout head coach James Franklin lauded as the Nittany Lions’ version of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders on signing day last December is no longer going to play for the Nittany Lions this fall; he has elected to turn pro, signing a contract to start his professional baseball career with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.
White was the No. 64 overall pick in the MLB amateur draft earlier this month, and the Pirates lobbed over-slot bonus money at him to sign him away from Penn State and, as it turns out, football.
Source: Lonnie White Jr. gets $1.5 million. Slotted value for that pick was $1,050,300.
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) July 26, 2021
Certainly, this is not stunning news. When a college football prospect is chosen that high in the baseball draft…well, anyone who has spent any time around baseball knows a few things: 1.) The organization thinks that player is sign-able, and 2.) You have to be a much, much better football prospect to consider turning down life-changing money.
Question now is, what does all of this mean for the Penn State receiving corps that was likely counting on White to be a bigger contributor this fall? On one hand, he’d have been nice to have as a compliment to starters Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington and among the other guys fighting for playing time, like Daniel George, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Malick Meiga and some of the other incoming freshmen. On the other hand, how can you miss what you never really had?
In short, Penn State will certainly go to the “next man up” standby. Who that is right now, we’ll start to find out when camp opens next weekend.
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
PSU product Nassib first openly gay NFL player
When Penn State and its fans got to know Carl Nassib back in 2015, it was clear he was a pretty courageous guy. Takes some courage, after all, just to walk on at Penn State when you never started a game in high school. Takes some courage to think that, someday, you were going to take the field. Takes some courage to put together one of the single most dominant seasons in the history of a storied college program.
Nassib had another courageous moment on Monday, when he announced in a video posted to his instagram account that he is gay. Many media outlets are calling the current Las Vegas Raiders defensive end the first openly gay player in the NFL, and hopefully that doesn’t diminish what Michael Sam meant for the gay community when, in 2014, the St. Louis Rams drafted him and he attempted to become the first openly gay man to make an NFL regular-season roster.
This much can be said about Nassib: He’ll very likely become the first openly gay man to play in an NFL game this fall. He started five games after signing a three-year contract with the Raiders heading into the 2020 season, and he has 20.5 career sacks in the NFL.
.@Raiders DE Carl Nassib announced today that he’s gay. He also shared he's donating $100,000 to the @TrevorProject, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth.
The NFL family is proud of you, Carl. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/HXbcBuLg2X
— NFL (@NFL) June 21, 2021
Nassib also announced that he’s donating $100,000 to The Trevor Project, a group that provides suicide prevention services to the LGBTQ community.
“Young LGBTQ kids are more than 5x more likely than their straight friends to consider suicide,” Nassib wrote on his instagram post. “For someone like me, who has been so lucky and cherishes every day, it brings me incredible sadness to think that our LGBTQ youth are at such an elevated risk for suicide. I feel an immense responsibility to help in any way I can — and you can too.
“Studies have shown that all it takes is one accepting adult to decrease the risk of an LGBTQ kid attempting suicide by 40%. Whether you’re a friend, a parent, a coach or a teammate — you can be that person.”
You won’t have to look very far to find someone commenting on social media or on one of the many stories written about Nassib since his announcement to find someone who is going to ask — rhetorically — “Who cares if he’s gay?”
Well, Nassib answered that question above pretty well.
Really proud of Carl Nassib. The first active football player to ever do so. I played with several guys who never were comfortable enough to go public. They were great teammates, & obviously very talented.
— Warren Moon (@WMoon1) June 22, 2021
The NFL has been around more than a century. It’s very safe to say, as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the league tweeted (see above), that Carl Nassib is not the first gay man who has worn a Raiders uniform, or any NFL uniform, for that matter. The fact he felt comfortable enough to say it publicly is a pretty good sign of progress, but it’s also an indication we have a ways to go before everyone can feel comfortable living as their true selves in athletic arenas all over the world.
Who cares? Certainly, that kid who is not as accepted as Nassib, who may be thinking the worst about himself or herself, about the future. The first step toward being comfortable and safe is knowing you’re not alone, and now, no other NFL player who happens to also be gay will be. That’s a heck of a legacy for Carl Nassib, and a huge deal for the sport.
I was proud of Carl when he led the nation in sacks, but I'm even more proud of him now. #WeArehttps://t.co/W4T9Arx6S6 pic.twitter.com/KkcvDh3cAe
— James Franklin (@coachjfranklin) June 22, 2021
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
Lions add receiver to talented ’22 class
Things are getting somewhat back to normal on the recruiting front for Penn State, at least when it comes to being able to host camps and targets on campus. Last weekend was one of the first big ones in a while for the Nittany Lions, and it turns out, their 2022 recruiting class added a solid prospect because of it.
Penn State got a verbal commitment from Virginia receiver Tyler Johnson on Monday, making him the third true receiver who is slated to join the program come signing day in December.
As far as Johnson as a prospect, he’s extremely interesting. Rivals.com recently rated him as a three-star prospect; 247sports didn’t have him rated at all. He only had a few Power 5 offers outside of the one he had from the Nittany Lions, with Virginia Tech. Wake Forest, Maryland and Syracuse probably his biggest and best. And frankly, looking at the video of his junior season — which you can do here — you can see some reasons why.
He doesn’t burn past defenders on fly patterns. He has good size, but not elite size. He doesn’t show off the entire route tree. Things like that.
But man, is he productive.
He played four games during his junior season at Magna Vista High School, which was played in the spring. He caught 13 touchdown passes in those four games and almost reached 1,000 receiving yards. Which is astonishing, considering he plays in a pretty good high school league.
He lists himself at 6-foot-2, 175 pounds, and he lists his 40-yard dash after his weekend at Penn State at 4.47 seconds and his shuttle at 4.1 seconds. Johnson is quick and strong, and you can see him developing well in the Penn State system, given what they’d done for plenty of prospects in the weight room.
In the end, Johnson is moldable clay, and probably a bit of a late bloomer. But what does that matter, really? Look at his film, see what he does especially when he’s working out of the slot, and it’s clear to see his future is pretty bright.
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
Another Lackawanna standout heading to Penn State
Penn State sure is leaning on Lackawanna College to fill in some gaps on the football field.
Outside linebacker Zymir Cobbs, a former Imhotep Charter star who was a freshman on the Falcons team that played this spring, announced via his social media accounts that he committed to Penn State.
Excited to Announce I’ll be continuing my Education and Football career at Penn State University! So grateful for the opportunity, thank you to everyone who has helped me get to this point! #WeAre🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/YGDyoWmu4t
— Z.Cobbs (@zymircobbs_) June 10, 2021
Cobbs confirmed to The Times-Tribune that he’ll have four seasons of eligibility to spend at Penn State, and that he’ll be arriving on campus by the end of June.
Here’s some good video of Cobbs from his high school days.
Here’s some more from this spring with Lackawanna.
Lackawanna was excited about Cobbs last fall, but the season got postponed, and they were able to play just two games in the spring. He got into one of them, registering a tackle.
He is an interesting prospect, though. He has good size, at 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, and he has played that outside linebacker/defensive end spot in the past, which gives him some good versatility.
Cobbs also continues the pipeline between Scranton and Happy Valley that only looks to be getting stronger.
In the fall, Penn State will have four scholarship players — safeties Jaquan Brisker and Ji’Ayir Brown, guard Anthony Whigan and receiver Norval Black — along with Cobbs and punter Bradley King out of Lackawanna. Falcons safety Tyrece Mills, who is considered one of the most gifted junior college prospects in the nation, has already committed to join Penn State’s 2022 recruiting class, and the Nittany Lions have recently offered 6-foot-6, 310-pound Falcons tackle J.B. Nelson a scholarship.
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
Better late than never: PSU lands Class of ’21 JUCO prospect
And now for something completely different…
Penn State got a commitment on Tuesday night from an intriguing junior college defensive line prospect who will be joining the program immediately.
Jordan van den Berg, a native of South Africa who played a handful of games last fall at Iowa Western Community College, committed to the Nittany Lions on Tuesday and will be on the roster this fall. You can view some video of him playing here.
South Africa….. Atlanta……… HAPPY VALLEY #WeAre 🦁🔥 @coachjfranklin @CoachJScott_DL pic.twitter.com/Stp9EAvlKd
— Jordan van den Berg (@JordanvandenB12) June 9, 2021
Rarely do you see a junior college or high school prospect commit to a big-time program the June before the season starts, but that’s what’s going down here. And honestly, this is a bit of a coup for the Nittany Lions, who only got van den Berg on campus for the first time earlier this week.
van den Berg played in just five of the Rievers’ eight games last season, but he finished sixth on the team with 20 tackles, along with four tackles for loss and a sack. At 6-foot-3, 285 pounds and with some experience, van den Berg might be able to provide some quality depth at a Penn State defensive tackle spot that is a bit light on experience heading into the 2021 season. But, he also has four years of eligibility remaining, with enough raw talent to make him a really good project for defensive line coach John Scott.
Maybe the best part for Penn State: He had recently picked up offers from Iowa and Nebraska and was thought to be a likely lean toward the Hawkeyes, who scout and develop defensive line talent well. So, there’s likely quite a bit to work with here.
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
Penn State expecting full capacity at football this fall
Traffic jams, busy parking lots and crowded points of entry are coming back to Beaver Stadium on football Saturdays this fall.
Only, nobody is going to mind as much now as they did back in 2019.
Penn State announced Tuesday Beaver Stadium and other athletics venues on campus will return to full capacity for the 2021-22 academic year, meaning the Nittany Lions will likely play in front of more than 100,000 fans during their home opener against Ball State on Sept. 11.
The decision comes on the heels of updated guidance from Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf, who announced Sunday that COVID-19 mitigation orders lifted Monday morning would allow businesses, events and venues statewide to open at 100 percent capacity. It will mark the first time since the Big Ten suspended play in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that a game can be played on campus in front of a sold-out crowd.
Penn State played five football games at Beaver Stadium last fall, but attendance was strictly limited to players’ family members.
“We are excited to welcome our 107K strong back in Beaver Stadium and full capacity at our other athletics venues this fall with the adjustments in university, local, state and CDC guidance,” Penn State vice president for intercollegiate athletics Sandy Barbour said in a statement. “Our fans are a true home-field advantage for all of our teams, and the 2020-21 season was not the same without them in our venues.”
Traditional pregame festivities — the team’s arrival via bus and the gathering of fans to greet them, tailgating and, of course, the new traffic patters that were such a big story in 2019 — also make their return along with the full capacity crowds at Beaver Stadium this fall. But, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some changes.
In alignment with CDC guidance and Penn State policy, unvaccinated fans will be required to wear masks inside buildings at all times after June 28. Penn State also plans to convert to fully mobile ticketing, to limit contact points and promote improved delivery and management of tickets.
Football season ticket holders will be notified via email starting June 8 that their 2021 season ticket and non-refundable seat contribution invoices will be available online.
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
A serious question for baseball, and its fans
Is this where the game is heading, and are we all really OK with this:
He knew this ball was GONE 😤 @BRWalkoff
(via @wbu_baseball, @KingOzunaV) pic.twitter.com/TaYOEk9O88
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 9, 2021
I’m probably going to write a lot about this subject in this post, but I guarantee you one thing: I’m not here to answer the above question. It’s not some rhetorical musing on my part. I don’t know the answer. And even if I did, I couldn’t answer it myself. I have too much respect for the game to even try.
What I do know is that this video of a home run celebration has been circulating on social media over the weekend, and the hot takes have been flying on both sides. From some younger fans who want much, much more of this in baseball. To some older ones who think something like this is an affront to the way the game should be played.
I’ll tell you the truth: I’m all for more emotion in the game. I want players to express themselves in a way that makes them more relatable to fans, and not less; more of an example of how much you can love the game, how much your time on the field is valued, how much it means to you as a player. Because that sort of stuff is what attracts young men and women to the game. And that’s not just baseball. That’s every sport.
But this whole thing still bothers me.
I will try, as we move along, to explain that feeling in greater detail. But really, this post shouldn’t be seen as an in-depth breakdown of one young man’s trip around the bases. It’s a look at where the game is as a whole, and where it’s going, and whether it should go there, and what it means for my generation to pass the game off to the next one.
And whether that’s really a good thing.
Some context
So, I had to do some digging on this for some reason, but I thought it was important to do the work. And, truthfully, it was.
Who is that sweet-swinging slugger? What did that game mean? Was that just one home run in a vacuum? Was there something more behind the celebration?
His name is Gregory Ozuna. He’s a shortstop at Wayland Baptist University, an NAIA program in Wayland, Texas. An argument can be made that he’s the best player in the Sooner Athletic Conference, too.
There are some things the video above doesn’t tell you about Ozuna or that swing.
First, this is a playoff game, and Wayland was hardly the favorite. The Pioneers were 25-23 heading into the game, a sixth-seed trying to stave off elimination, against a team that swept them in the regular season. They were also trailing 7-0 after a disastrous first and 8-0 after 2. But they fought back with five runs in the third and five more in the sixth, and the pitching kept them close enough to be within a run, 12-11, heading into the ninth.
There was a runner on and two out when Ozuna came to the plate. The batter before him, with one out and a runner on first, hit a slow roller to shortstop that the Oklahoma City shortstop bobbled just a bit, enabling them to get just the lead runner out at second. That one little foible may have kept the game alive for Ozuna.
So, in absolute fairness, on the “situations that could yield a raucous celebration” scale, this moment ranked pretty high.
Something else the video doesn’t show you: Ozuna was ejected before he ever reached first base. The home plate umpire was nearly hit with the bat when Ozuna threw it back — not fair to call it a bat flip, because he just turned and fired it toward…someone — and the ump chucked him from the game immediately. The game was actually delayed about four minutes while the umpires tried to calm the situation and decipher whether the run should have been allowed to score (which, they determined correctly, at least according to the major league baseball rule, he should).
Not to try to operate Ozuna’s mind, because who knows. But I don’t think he intentionally threw the bat at the umpire. Ump was walking out to where he needed to be to make sure the runners touched the plate. Ozuna threw the bat where he did, and they kind of just ended up in the same vicinity. The ejection was warranted because when you do something like that and someone can possibly get hurt, you’re taking that risk. But I don’t think there was any intent to potentially injure the umpire or even send a message to him. Ozuna, after all, hit the first pitch of the at-bat out, so it wasn’t like there was a blown strike call. And I didn’t notice another missed call that he obviously had a problem with earlier.
*Incidentally, if you want to watch the entire game, here’s the link. It was pretty wild.
Some perspective
This is a tough one. As over-the-top as all of that looked, Ozuna never seemed to say anything to the pitcher. Never had a staredown with an opposing infielder. Didn’t shout anything into the Oklahoma City dugout. Didn’t slow trot around the bases. The jump on home plate with the team yelling “Boom!” as he landed, 1.) is something they did on a few other home runs in the game, so it’s clearly a ritual for the team, and 2.) is an entertaining team celebration, something for fans to look forward to — and, yes, for opposing fans to despise — after home runs. Baseball needs MORE of that.
But remember Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart’s famous definition of obscenity?: “I know it when I see it.” That’s kind of how I feel about this one. Something just doesn’t sit right, and I don’t know how exactly to explain most of it. The bat throw is easy enough: That can injure someone. The umpire was in the area, obviously. So was the catcher. Perhaps the on-deck hitter too. Show all the emotion in the world, but you can’t put someone else at risk by doing it.
Shows of emotion are something baseball needs. I know this because we hear this every day from younger fans who for some reason are enthralled by the metrics of the ball hit into play and the one blown past a hitter out of the pitcher’s hand. They seem to find copious amounts of entertainment from bat flips, and I’ll be honest, I don’t get that. It’s not my thing, watching the bat twirl in the air after someone hits a home run. If it’s your thing, great. I don’t see how that’s remotely entertaining, why someone is going to pay $50 to get into a major league game to salivate over that. But I also don’t lose any sleep over them, either.
I just think there’s a big difference between showmanship and emotion. And that difference is something this particular highlight of a home run in an NAIA game has really got me thinking about.
Some honesty
Someone once told me, I apologize because I forget exactly who, that boring people find baseball boring.
I totally think that’s the case. There’s a beauty to this game that I never saw in others. I always appreciated the fact that you could help the team by getting yourself out, with a well-placed bunt or by looking for a pitch you can hit on the ground to advance a runner in a big situation. They call it a sacrifice, and there’s nothing better you can do for your team than sacrifice.
It doesn’t have to be played the way it always was. I’m not a big “unwritten rules” guy. But I was always taught to be a “respect your opponent and the game” kind of person, too.
Let me take you back almost 26 years, to a game that I watched live at the time and happened to watch again on DVD a few days ago with my 9-year-old son. Because the way the game is played today, I can’t go too long without watching Don Mattingly play baseball without losing my mind.
It was Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS between the Mariners and Yankees at Yankee Stadium. There were two moments from the bottom of the sixth inning that really stood out to me, watching the broadcast of that game all these years later.
First, the Ruben Sierra home run trot. Which, can you imagine that being a thing today? We’ve actually come a long, LONG way when it comes to understanding that ballplayers aren’t robots. Some outward emotion when you do something good is not a bad thing, and celebrating a big moment with your team is never a bad thing.
To think both announcers thought Sierra’s trip around the bases — in the moments after he tied a playoff game in the major leagues — was notable and worth mentioning is kind of eye-opening today.
But the Mattingly home run that followed is the one I want to focus on a bit, because it was as emotional a moment as you’ll ever see in sports. And I’m not talking about a moment just for fans, who waited 13 years to see the Captain in a playoff game, and there he was, hitting a go-ahead home run.
Players who were there that night will tell you that was the loudest they had ever heard Yankee Stadium, that it ranks among the most emotional moments they had every experienced on a ball field. Mattingly didn’t go into a home run trot. Didn’t do a bat flip. And yet, I think you can see the emotion out of him as he rounded the bases. You could see what that moment meant to the guy. He said he always wanted to play in one playoff series, just to see if he could rise to the occasion. And he did.
Is that “boring?”
Should he have tried a bat flip there? Would that have made you, as a fan, feel more into that moment?
Should he have yelled and screamed as he rounded the bases? Should he have found a camera and pointed into it? Should he have flexed his biceps? Should he have jumped with both feet onto home plate? What? What would have made that moment any better, any more timeless? I’ll never not get goosebumps thinking of that home run, never mind watching it.
And let’s be real here: “Showing emotion” has always been part of the game. Kirk Gibson pumping his arm as he ran around the bases at Dodger Stadium. The Carlton Fisk homer in 1975? Joe Carter’s in 1993? Derek Jeter after the Mr. November homer in 2001? Any of Reggie Jackson’s in 1977? Dennis Eckersley after he struck out…anybody, ever?
Emotion has always been part of the game. It’s the open trash-talking, taunting, desperate spotlight grabs that haven’t been. So when anyone says “the game is boring, it needs more emotion,” I tend to see through that and conclude that what they really want more of is the trash-talking, taunting, and things of that nature.
Does that make the game more interesting? Indisputably.
Does it make it better? Is it what we really want? Those are better questions.
Some things to consider
What we have here is more than just one home run celebration, in fairness to and with no offense intended for Gregory Ozuna, This is just a really good example of the chasm between the game’s past and what many younger fans would like to see for the future.
Former major league second baseman Jeff Frye has long been one of my favorite follows on Twitter, mostly because I really liked the way he played the game during his career. He was a clutch hitter, could play multiple positions, give you really good at-bats consistently, didn’t strike out a ton…my kind of player, anybody who knows me will tell you. He was 5-foot-9, and told a million times by a million different people in the game he’d never make it, and he ended up spending eight years in the bigs.
But, he also calls out a lot of garbage. Like, the over-emphasis on metrics. Bad umpiring. The “strikeouts aren’t bad” culture. Mostly, gimmick devices and techniques “hitting gurus” are trying to sell off to young players and unsuspecting parents as a “must-have” tool to get better. He’s a pronounced critic of the launch-angle swing and the youth travel showcases that, trust me, are way more a money-grab at the higher levels than many parents choose to believe.
It’s not him alone, either. He has been at the heart of what he calls the #shegone movement on Twitter, but plenty of really good players and better people who love the game that I’ve met throughout my career covering baseball — from big leaguers to career minor leaguers to scouts — back the guy.
He also is the one who first called out the Ozuna home run trot.
This makes me sad! We haven’t taught this generation how to behave on a baseball field. This is what we get. “Let the kids play” isn’t the message we should be sending obviously. #shegone @notgaetti @BobFile @twuench @RickWrona @GDBJr5 pic.twitter.com/qRye9RAcZF
— Jeff frye/ #shegone (@O3jfrye) May 9, 2021
I’ll let you read the responses to Jeff’s post. Many of them, I wouldn’t be able to post on a family sports blog. Basically it’s “pitcher doesn’t want to get shown up, throw a better pitch,” or “what’s wrong with celebrating,” or “young people aren’t watching baseball because it lacks passion.”
Let me address each of these quickly:
1.) Throw a better pitch? OK, but let’s be fair about that. A lot of hitters these days are up there swinging for the fences. Every swing. No matter the situation. No matter the count. Is hitting a home run somehow so impressive, when it’s your only goal in life at that moment, that you get to do whatever you want in the aftermath of actually accomplishing it once out of every 15-20 at-bats?
2.) What’s wrong with celebrating? Nothing! And most of what he did would constitute a pure celebration. But what’s wrong with throwing the bat recklessly toward an umpire and a catcher, staring into the camera, drawing attention to yourself? A good argument can be made that things like that are what legitimately raises the ire of the opposing team and leads, ultimately, to some of the things baseball doesn’t want.
3.) Young people aren’t watching baseball because it lacks passion? But…does it lack passion? You typically don’t have to look hard to find passionate players these days, and you honestly never did. But we shouldn’t confuse passion for contrived drama and needless controversy. Which, again, I think is what some fans want more of these days than true shows of emotion and passion. And, perhaps, not just in baseball.
I think there’s middle ground to be found on these issues, but neither side wants to concede any ground to the other. Frye and the older baseball people want to go back to the days when the unwritten rules were king, and they aren’t going to cave to a new generation of fans who, quite frankly, have minimized their accomplishments by arguing that metrically speaking, they wouldn’t be able to even compete as major leaguers in todays game.
They’re treaded like the game doesn’t want them, or need them, anymore.
And honestly, the game needs help. If it hasn’t lost its way, it is veering off track. Math majors preaching about the “three true outcomes” are making the game fairly unwatchable. There are more non-contact at-bats, and less hits, than ever before. The young fans will tell you that’s because pitchers throw harder than at any point in history (and on the whole, they’re probably right). But there have been four (really, five) no-hitters pitched this season. The last one was by Reds lefty Wade Miley, who has a career ERA over 4 and a fastball that averages less than 90 mph.
Pitching is getting better, as the approach to hitting those pitches is as bad as it has ever been.
This past weekend, the Yankees played three games against the Washington Nationals. On Saturday and Sunday combined, the Yankees didn’t make contact in 52.6 percent of their plate appearances. They won both games.
For the weekend, 40 percent of the players that came to the plate walked away from it without putting the ball in play.
Those are mind-boggling numbers. It’s a sign that there just isn’t enough action in baseball anymore. And it’s startling that so many fans insist this is the way the game should be played, and that anyone who disagrees obviously doesn’t love the sport.
Well, nobody loves baseball more than I do. It’s the reason I do what I do for a living. It has been my passion since the first time I hit a ball off a tee when I was 5. And when I ask “Is this the way the game is heading, and are we all OK with that?” it’s really a question that we all need to consider.
Because I miss the old way.
Because I dread the new way.
Because if we don’t find some sort of common ground between new school and old, I can’t honestly say whether the game will be in trouble or not.
But, I can confidently say I won’t stick around to see. And I won’t be alone.
Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT
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Donnie Collins has been a member of The Times-Tribune sports staff for nearly 20 years and has been the Penn State football beat writer for Times-Shamrock Newspapers since 2004. The Penn State Football Blog covers Nittany Lions, Big Ten and big-time college football news from Beaver Stadium to the practice field, the bowl game to National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Contact: dcollins@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5368; @DonnieCollinsTT