8502120851
DETROIT FREE PRESS
851023
Wednesday, October 23, 1985
METRO FINAL
1D
Photo
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1985, Detroit Free Press
ONLY A RIDICULOUS RULE KEEPS MCRAE ON BENCH
ST. LOUIS -- How would you feel if your boss suddenly said you could keep
your job but not do any work?
Quit cheering. It's a hypothetical question.
Except in baseball.
Consider Hal McRae, age 39. Occupation: Designated hitter, Kansas City
Royals. Job Performance: Excellent. Experience: First rate. Priority to team:
Highest.
Starting Role in World Series: None.
Reason: Rules.
Yes, here we are, in the Promised Land of baseball, and Hal McRae is
suddenly playing Moses, an aging leader who helped his team to glory, who is
now forced to survey the scene from Mount Dugout, forbidden by the rules to
enter except in the rare role of pinch hitter.
Heaven help him. This is ridiculous.
As you know, since the American and National leagues can't agree on one way
to play the game, baseball alternates the World Series every year, one year
DH, next year, no DH. Kind of like giving each of your kids a chance to ride
in the front seat.
This year the DH is benched. Calendar says so.
And so McRae -- the team's third-highest RBI man -- must sit, too. As the
DH, he's as much responsible for his team's being here as anyone. But after
each game he returns to the clubhouse wearing a uniform as crispy clean as
when he went out for batting practice.
This is the Royals' week in history. And he's all but locked out.
Ridiculous.
He sits and watches from afar On Monday a group of reporters was talking
with McRae during a workout. He was wearing his glove, even though he hasn't
played in the field in years. He kept slapping it, rolling a fist inside it,
as if warming up for something. It was obvious. Playing a position would be
the only way back into this Series.
"If I was asked, yeah, I'd play the field again, " he said. He slowly
worked his arm through a make-believe throw to the infield. His eyes had a
far-away look. Then he stopped. Blinked. Who is he kidding? He's 39 and has a
pulled side muscle. "No, I really can't throw too well. I haven't played a
position since I don't know, '82 or '81. Let's face it. It's not going to
happen."
No, it's not. Royals manager Dick Howser has already declared that no
matter how badly he needs offense in his lineup in this World Series -- only
as badly as Custer needed reinforcements -- he won't put McRae in the field.
"You'll never see it," Howser said.
So McRae sits.
Don't blame the manager. He wants that bat as much as anyone. For with
McRae in the cleanup spot, not only do the Royals have a clutch hitter, but
pitchers won't pitch around George Brett (who bats third) so often. McRae is a
catalyst, has been all year. When he got hot, the Royals got hot.
And this is his reward. Time off for good behavior.
"I won't complain," McRae said in a measured tone. "We knew the rules
coming in here."
But that can't make them any easier to swallow. This is McRae's fourth try
at a World Series ring. Everyone knows this could be his last hurrah. True,
the Royals are hardly sitting pretty against St. Louis. But a man would
almost always rather join a fight and lose than watch his team's defeat from
afar. At least a man like McRae.
"It's funny,' he said, taking in all the notepads around him. "All you guys
here, asking me all these questions and . . . I'm not even playing."
Everyone laughed. What a joke.
What a pity.
DH should be used full time One of the reasons the DH was instituted in
the first place was to help keep older players like McRae in the game longer.
It has paid off for the Royals, who will all tell you that without McRae, they
would not be here.
Why then must they be without him now?
Plain and simple, because this a stupid system. If the two leagues are
going to continue to part company on the DH, the least they could do is agree
to use it full time in the World Series, since it's becoming painfully clear
that a team minus its regular DH suffers more than a team suddenly forced to
use one.
McRae and players like him deserve their dessert as much as the others. And
those who say it violates the "tradition of the game" should wake up. Baseball
already is using the DH half the time. What does that leave you? Partial
tradition? You can argue for partial tradition about as easily as you can for
partial virginity.
"I accept the rule," McRae said, nobly. But a guy doesn't work all year
long just so he can reach the World Series and take a seat. This shouldn't be
happening. McRae deserves better.
If I remember correctly, Moses died on the mountaintop after getting a
glimpse of the Promised Land. Baseball should take a twist on that. Let the
DH live. Kill the rule instead.
BASEBALL;CRITICISM