Commentary
Major League teams aren’t done changing managers PITTSBURGH – News and comment for the first day of May:
-News: Tony Muser of the Kansas City Royals becomes the fourth major league manager fired in April.
-Comment: The stakes have never been higher in Major League Baseball. When a team that’s been losing gets off to another slow start, it has to do something.
The Royals – like the other clubs that made managerial changes – are looking at five more months of tough ticket sales.
Changing managers probably won’t have any tangible effect on the fortunes of the team. But it does change things enough to let fans know that the team is doing something.
The major league teams aren’t done yet. Bet that there are at least two more managerial changes in the works before the All-Star break.
It’s never been tougher to manage. Baseball’s class system dooms some teams to failure from the start and owners can no longer afford to be patient.
Two pieces of advice for any prospective manager: Don’t get too attached to the city where you’re working. Make sure the money is guaranteed.
– n –
-News: Pitt’s Antonio Bryant blames the news media for his falling stock in the NFL draft.
-Comment: That’s exactly the kind of immaturity that caused Bryant to drop in the draft rankings.
Bryant was one of many talented receivers available in the draft. In those circumstances, the tiebreaker can be things like perception of character.
Bryant feuded with the coaching staff and teammates during his time at Pitt. You can call it “intensity” but a lot of NFL teams aren’t buying that kind of emotion.
Bryant is misguided if he thinks the media is the root of his problem. When teams investigate potential first-rounders who require millions of dollars, they’re not going to take anyone’s word for it. Pro teams are too wise to the ways of the media to accept that information as gospel.
They’ll look into it themselves, checking with the college coaching staff and other people with an inside connection.
The fact that so many teams seeking a receiver opted against drafting Bryant shows there was a considerable negative reaction to him.
And it didn’t have anything to do with the media.
– n –
-News: The NHL playoffs turn brutal.
-Comment: What did they expect?
The stakes are high and hockey is a rough game. The rink is too small for today’s players, which means collisions are inevitable. Collisions motivated by a desire to injure are a byproduct of those factors.
Hockey is a violent game under any circumstances. That’s part of its appeal.
The scoreboard video screens regularly show a compilation of big hits. Body contact is a selling point. Big hits are factored into the realistic video games that the NHL licenses.
As long as the NHL insists on a playing surface the players have outgrown, the kind of violence seen in this year’s playoffs won’t just continue. It will escalate.
– n –
-News: Pirates attendance is down.
-Comment: Why should anyone be surprised? If everything went well last season, there would probably be a decline just because the first-year novelty of the new park was gone.
The team lost 100 games and raised prices. The Pirates started this season better than anyone expected but the most important month for ticket sales is January, not April.
TV ratings are strong, which proves people are interested. They’re just disinclined to purchase expensive tickets to sit in lousy weather to attend a game.
Attendance will pick up because the weekends in the warm weather month always do well.
The overall decline should be enough to convince the front office to study some basic business practices before they think about increasing prices again.
– n –
John Mehno can be reached at: jmehno@timesnet.net.