A Reflection on the Game of Baseball

As a fan of baseball and specifically the Kansas City Royals, the past few days have been generally disappointing. Scott Elarton was a member of Royals up until today. Elarton pitched much of last season for the Royals, but severely injured his shoulder and spent most of his offseason rehabbing. Because of the rules of baseball and the veteran status of Elarton (he's old for baseball), there was not much time for him to get game experience at the minor league level. So sure enough, just a few months ago, there is Elarton pitching in a major league game when everyone watching knew that he was not capable of competing at the major league level. Few things are guaranteed in sport, but it honestly felt like the team wanted to lose.

After a few poor attempts, a high ERA and a handful of losses, Elarton was placed on the disabled list. Many commentators suspected that it was a phantom injury that could buy him some more time, because an injured player is permitted a certain number of rehab appearances in the minors without actually being optioned to the minor league team. Basically it is a way to let him to practice without injuring his pride. The injury/rehab came and went, and for the past week we have been anticipating Elarton's return against the Yankees on Tuesday. Talk about a foregone conclusion. Elarton barely made it 1 & 2/3rd innings. He was taken out after giving up 7 runs.

Elarton was released from the team today, something that fans have been demanding for weeks, myself included (in spirit). There was no justifiable reason to keep running him out there. And yet the Royal's organization persisted. Again, it was almost like they wanted to lose.

Well, after hearing the news of Elarton's release today, I got to thinking. Perhaps this thing that frustrates me so as a fan, is actually a redeeming quality of baseball. I can't imagine another profession where Elarton's performance would have inspired his employer to give him so many opportunities. He would have been gone months ago. He wasn't producing results. He was old. He was in the way of the team's youth movement.

But he is also a human being. He had worked hard to rehabilitate his shoulder. He wanted to get back to help the team. He was assisting the younger players on the side with his experience. The team's manager, Buddy Bell, said, "It's really hard to release a guy that has that much character and cares that much about the organization, but at the same time, guys like that make it easier for you. . . ." The team gave this man of character every possible opportunity to turn things around. And to me there might just be something noble about that. Even though in the end it turned out just as we thought it would and, as Bell said, "[Releasing Elarton] is something that had to be done."

Baseball is clearly a business, but there are moments when you can see past the dollar sign. Letting Elarton go was a business decision, because ultimately what baseball values most is winning. But maybe this was a case where baseball valued virtue too. Perhaps I'm trying to not get too worked up over a sport, or perhaps I'm trying to force a justification, but it is at least possible that the Royals did something just by valuing Elarton by more than his ERA and wins & losses.

I guess a part of me (the weak part of course) wishes that I could have spent the past year in a similar environment. Even if I would have ultimately failed, I would have been treated justly, and in the end I would only have myself to blame. So, as always, I wish that the rest of life looked more like baseball (except for the whole looking the other way during a really bad call thing), and I wish that I wouldn't have wished so hard for the team to let Elarton go weeks ago.