MEMORANDUM
To: Mr. Bud Selig
Subject: WTF?
From: T Fab P and baseball fans everywhere
It may seem that I only write to you when you make a mistake, which is like once or twice a week now-a-days. Remember when I told you back in June 2010 how to handle that no hitter/not no hitter when umpire, Jim Joyce, made that mistake that cost Armando Galarraga a chance at no hitter immortality? I laid it all out for you so you could have been the hero of the situation, but did you listen? No. I wrote to you again this past June, about the rumors of realignment and changes in the baseball playoffs. I gave you a detailed plan, centered on what the fans want, what we really need. Did you listen then? No. So when I heard about this newest debacle related to uniforms and commemorating September 11th, I harbored no fantasy or expectation that you would actually listen because this is all about the money for you and the owners. But I will tell you anyway and hope you will do the right thing. Do I suspect you will listen? No. But here it is anyway.
When baseball resumed playing after the September 11th tragedy, both the Yankees and Mets, our New York teams, honored the bravest and finest, by wearing caps that saluted the 343 policemen and firemen and EMT’s and paramedics who gave their lives that day as well as the hundreds more who were first responders. This was a stirring tribute, one that to this day, still brings a tear to my eye. They honored them and they deserved every moment of remembrance that this brought.
So imagine how I felt, how the fans of baseball felt, when we heard that the Yankee and Met players were planning to wear those caps again, on the 10th anniversary of that tragedy, in memory. What a wonderful and fitting tribute, devoid of any reason other than altruism, one to be embraced, and respected and honored.
So did MLB do the right thing here? Did they grab this wonderful notion and hold it up for the entire world to see? Oh, come on now, you know the answer as well as I do. No, they did not. They banned the wearing of those caps. They threatened to fine any players significantly if they ignored the ban. Was the reasoning pure? Oh, come on now, you know the answer to that too. Baseball with you, former owner and current commissioner, was going to honor your favorite thing in all the world - money. You butchered this one up real good. Just like you have infringed in all matters of patriotism with your MLB "official caps" on the 4th of July or Memorial Day, you have produced the “OFFICIAL” September 11th baseball cap, complete with American Flag on the back, that we the fan, will have the opportunity to purchase for a mere $36.99. Yes, you said no to the memory, yes to the money and produced a cap that would be worn on only “one day” in order to make a killing on the deaths and sacrifices of these true heroes.
Well you know what Buddy Boy, you can take your patriotic clap trap and shove it up your and MLB’s ass. I wouldn’t want one of your caps if you gave them away for free. If I got my way, this will be the spark of an event that leads to you resigning in disgrace. This was unconscionable. This was bad PR, this was greedy and self important. This was a mistake.
You sir, are an idiot…
