Home Is Where the Heart Is

408 days ago, Andy Pettite announced his retirement from the Yankees. After playing with the Yankees for 8 years, he briefly visited the Astros and then returned back to New York in 2007. Though his start date is ambiguous Pettite feels excited to be back playing with the team. He told reporters "Obviously, I think I could have probably considered other places and got a lot more money, but this is where my heart was, man. I had no desire to go anywhere else."


A few connections from class popped up in my mind regarding this story but mainly, the idea of "going home." Pettite retired from the game but after just over a year felt the urge to return. Pettite returned home with ease to the team he had abandoned; I find this case a little unusual but heart-wrenching all the same. Moneyball came to mind as I read this article, mostly in the sense of how Billy Beane would have handled Pettite. Since Pettite clearly had a reason to retire in the first place( age, fatigue, etc.) why would management want to reabsorb that kind of liability? Billy Beane values exploitable talent over loyalty and I just don't think he would have made the decision to give him a contract at all. 


His quote also raises the question of playing for the love of the game vs. the love of money. Most likely Pettite could play for another team besides the Yankees and make more money than his 1-year contract. By prioritizing the love of the game, Pettite reminds me of a kid playing baseball. Pettite is happy just to re-embraced by his home team that money is pointless. (Unless this is all a hopeful ploy to be picked up for a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract.) 

MLB DUI?

Every Sunday during Spring Training, the Mets get together and do a fun team activity. Last Sunday the activity was bowling, an event which celebrates drinking but doesn't require it. Though the manager said the event ended at 8:30, Eric Langill received a DUI at 11:30 pm. After crashing into a concrete fountain, Langill's car flipped and he attempted to flee the scene. Police detained him and said his breath smelled of strong alcohol and had very slurred speech. He said he'd had two to three drinks; no one believed him.

Eric Langill plays for the Mets as a bullpen catcher. Unlike the normal catcher, the bullpen catcher will rarely(if ever) take the field and serves to warm-up pitchers before and during games. The bullpen catcher is a glorified water-boy, a player whose name will most likely never be known to even the most intimate of fans. Despite his lack of notoriety until now, the press is still in outrage over his indiscretion. But why?

Since the early years of baseball, fans have glorified baseball players as just good old American boys; fans would rather ignore the fact that they are often drinking, misogynistic jerks. Up until Ball Four, most fans did not realize that ballplayers were actually just normal people who drank, smoked, had sex, and acted like everyone else. The Great American Novel showcases baseball's Puritanical attitudes when discussing Big John. All positions of authority reprimand John for his lack of teetotaling and love of playing baseball drunk. To General Oakhart, Big John defies the core morality of the game by his disdain for the most core rules of the game. When Big John takes Nickname to the Mommy-Houses this causes a huge scandal. Why? Because as baseball players, they are believed to be "above" that kind of behavior. 

In class on Monday, we discussed why we take baseball players advice on anything besides baseball and I think that's relevant here. Why do we hold baseball players to a higher level of morality? I think it's because the very symbol of baseball is as the "Great American Past-Time" and the idealized version of our own moralities is that we're a teetotaling, Christian nation. When the people who enact this symbolism defy it, we find ourselves at odds with ourselves and the mythologies we've created around our nation.