Poor Murray Chass

He's not what he used to be:

http://www.murraychass.com/?p=755

Ridiculous column. The Braves owe Glavine a couple million dollars worth of sentiment?

I know Murray is locked into the idea of the owners as the villains from his years of covering the labor situation, but this premise makes no sense at all.

With the way our business is going, along with so many other businesses, I don't see how Glavine is getting "shafted."

 

"Get out of my chair, Selena Roberts!"

 

Seriously, I don't know Murray Chass from a hole in the ground, so I don't know how he "used to be," but he does kind of ramble here.

I think the argument he wants to make is that the Braves should have at least activated Glavine and given him a chance, but they didn't do that in order to save money. But he doesn't even seem particularly convinced of that premise, given how quickly he then shifts into apologist mode:

Should the Braves have given Glavine two or three starts to show unequivocally whether he could still get major league hitters out? It’s easy for us to say yes, but the Braves are playing for a playoff spot and feel they can get more help from a younger, though inexperienced, pitcher.

So what is the point?

Who knows?

 

It's not a blog.

 

In today's world, how the fuck is anybody supposed to feel sorry for a multimillionaire who didn't get more millions? That is indeed a ridiculous column.

 

I'm not Murray and I don't necessarily defend his column completely, but allow me to take a couple swipes here.

Atlanta certainly isn't throwing in the towel with these moves (the Braves wouldn't have dealt for Nate McLouth), and I especially understand them calling up Tommy Hanson, although you could have done this in April.

Where this hurts the Braves is the PR department. You've got enough fans that remember the magic days of Glavine, Smoltz and Maddux who might be pissed off at the treatment Glavine got, and they may choose to vote on that decision with their wallets (not go to games, for example).

Atlanta's front office knows it fucked up -- not necessarily by releasing Glavine, but how it was handled. Hell, John Schuerholz himself apologized Friday!

I think if Atlanta wins later this summer the fans will start coming out. Turner Field won't sell out, because the fans there are quite fickle (that and there's nothing around Turner to draw people in... lol) and there will be some who remember.

Myself? Wouldn't keep me away.

 

Another who thinks it's a big league franchise's sworn obligation to provide the rough equivalent of Section 8 to a multi-gazultamillionaire.

 

He puts it in perspective in the third graph: "The Braves released Tom Glavine this week to save themselves a couple of million dollars. In the context of the real world and the millions of workers who are losing their jobs, a couple of million would represent a lifetime of earnings. In baseball, however, the amount barely reaches the average player salary."

I think Chass' point is valid -- that no matter what you've done in your career, teams will cast you aside if they believe they can save what is, in MLB terms, a pittance. Given what happened with Smoltz (who apparently is pitching well in Class AAA), it don't think it's an unfair column. The hed is harsher than the actual column, but then Chass obviously never developed that skill.

 

One million bucks is a lot of money. It always has been a lot of money. It always will be a lot of money. Count to a million and see how long it takes, seriously. Ponder what kind of things a real-life human Earth dweller can do with this. The whole damned thing -- from athlete salaries to the bailouts -- is so far out of whack that we're supposed to remove the honest-to-God, real-life value of it and go on thinking it's all just chump change. No can do. I don't care what it means to Tom Glavine.

 

how long does it take? seriously

 

Once a union man , always a union man.