Major League Baseball Blocks Mets From Wearing NYPD, NYFD Caps
Well this is just stupid and pointless. That Major League Baseball had former Yankees' manager Joe Torre deliver this wrong-headed move rather than commissioner Bud Selig is so typical of them.
The clip above is edited from 9/11 Baseball Remembers, with the first games in New York following the events of 9/11/2001. No doubt MLB lawyers will be calling in a few moments.
NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball denied the New York Mets' request to wear baseball caps Sunday night honoring New York emergency service departments for their game against the Chicago Cubs on the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Joe Torre, MLB's executive vice president for baseball operations, told The Associated Press in a phone interview the decision was made to keep policy consistent throughout baseball.
"Certainly it's not a lack of respect," Torre said. "We just felt all the major leagues are honoring the same way with the American flag on the uniform and the cap. This is a unanimity thing."
The Mets wanted to wear caps honoring police, firefighters and other first responders like the ones they wore on Sept. 21, 2001, in the first professional sporting event in New York after the World Trade Center collapsed 10 days earlier. And they spoke with Torre on several occasions over the course of the last month.
Keith Olbermann is pissed off about it.
Those bloodless MLB individuals have been down this path before. Ten years ago, Bud Selig’s initially ruled the Mets and Yankees could not wear the caps during games. The Mets ignored the threat, and MLB decided to give them a pass for a game or two, and then the Mets kept wearing them, and MLB wisely backed off their nonsensical decision. Tonight’s ruling reminded everybody that at the moment of the nation’s greatest grief, MLB’s money-making instinct was unhindered by the blood and destruction and fear.
At least in 2001 the sport was smart enough to shut up. Not this year. MLB first blocked the Washington Nationals from wearing military caps in tribute after a disaster in Afghanistan last month. Then came this decision, complete with in the kind of stupidity that would make a megalomaniac proud: they blamed it on MLB Vice President Joe Torre, the native New Yorker who wore these caps at the end of the 2001 season. So if it hadn’t been shameful already, pinning it on Torre made it doubly shameful.
They ought to wear hats that say "Up Yours Bud". Another anti-union effort.
then to reinstate the reserve clause.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
that's the trouble with major league sports in America...the people running the damn thing forget that it's just a game!
This is American pigheaded stupidity in action. and, sadly, it's not surprising
No one watches baseball anymore! No one cares about this crap!
Talk jobs!
JOBS JOBS JOBS!!!
Bud Selig on KO's worst person's list tonight? Damn good chance, methinks.
Activists demand action.
In other news, Keith Olbermann is pissed.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
I actually agree with this decision. Yes, the first responders are truly heroes, but enough is enough with the merchandising.
Full disclosure: the only thing I care less about than baseball is what baseball players wear.
i so agree with your comment.making a mountain out of a mole hill.as grandma used to say.this is sooooo not an issue.get a life
I don't understand what difference it makes what caps they are wearing. Unless it has mirrors on it to distract the other team by shining reflective light into their eyes, why would you or anyone else care what cap these grown up children are wearing? And why would you agree with a decision like this, you say on one hand you don't care what they wear but on the other you support them not being allowed to wear the cap - sounds about as illogical as the baseball commissions ruling in the first place.
but if a professional anything wants to support something or someone they believe in then let them do it!
No way the media isn't going to milk it for everything it's worth, I thought.
I'm glad I won't be here this weekend to be assaulted by tv personalities/reporteres/whores trying to get people to cry on camera. It makes a cheap mockery of the very real--and for some, still very raw--horror of that day. What monsters.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
To keep policy consistent my ass. The Mets should have done what they did ten years ago, and worn the hats in defiance of Selig's ruling. That would be consistency.
Sorry, but I have to say..."Don't wear a hat you didn't earn, you are not a policeman, you are not a fireman, you are not risking your life, so stop it. You are a child who wants to play Big Boy and thru the smallest of possible gestures, pretend that you are part of it. Now, take of the hat, and stick a ribbon on your car"
I am sick of empty gestures, and this is the emptiest. Glomming on to an emotion and pretending it isn't just marketing on tragedy is simply sad. All baseball players are multi-millionaires (or damn close) so take off the hat, fill it with cash, and go down to the hospital and pay the bills of those who are dying now because it was their job to wear that hat that day, and they had no choice.
Nobama 2012
I won't be back
a tempest in a tea pot but apparently you can. For those whose outrage eruptions have a hair trigger have at it. I choose not to be so easily manipulated.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
http://static3.channels.com/thumbnails/A-Comp...
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
In a truly free country, a few people tell everyone else how to think and act.
The coaches of both the NY Jets and Dallas Cowboys were wearing FDNY caps during their NFL game last night in NJ, at the MetLife Stadium in E. Rutherford, NJ.
I look out the window - what do I see
I see a golden calf pointing - back at me ~J.R. Robertson
anyway. Tony Romo will again be just the name on another rib joint in the Metroplex.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Bush was cheered.
Selig would have just looked the other way. Selig = worst commisioner ever.
@ Rich H
You are correct, but at the end of the day KO would still be doing his thing and Bud Selig would as well and the sun will come up tomorrow, and life will go on.
should be upset that the Zadroga Act does not cover cancer that it seems a lot of first responders are coming down with, instead of stupid conversations about what hat to wear or nor. I for one would have liked to see the Yankees and Mets wear their FDNY NYPD caps and tell the powers that be to STFU
I'm with MLB on this one. It would establish a slippery slope precedent, one that would permit every grandstanding owner or GM an excuse to ingratiate themselves with particular constituencies. Neither NYC, or the nation, has ever been neglectful in honoring the memory of the city's police and fire department personnel who lost their lives that terrible day (nor will they ever be). MLB's decision is in no way disrespectful of that collective remembrance, nor does it serve to diminish it. Needless to say, that would be impossible
For saying "no thanks" to the baldfaced pandering and faux-patriotism that blanketed the country over the weekend.
You know the difference between 9/11 and a cow? After 10 years, you stop milking the cow.
I wouldn't want the Mets wearing my organization's name on their caps either.
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