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Baseball blows big opportunity by snubbing Dontrelle Willis

JOHN MCGRATH; The News Tribune

 

Baseball fans ought to be proud. The two starting lineups they chose for the All-Star Game represented a victory of substance over style, performance over pizazz, box-score producers over household-name fixtures.

 

And the players, participants in the selection process for the first time since 1969, generally were up to the task. They're doing more in the dugout, it seems, than spinning yarns and spitting out the shells of sunflower seeds.

 

 

Unfortunately, the earnest work of fans and players was undone by National League manager Dusty Baker's inability to grasp the big picture.

 

 

Major League Baseball, which doesn't know the first thing about marketing its sport to youngsters, has been yearning for a fresh prince who connects with kids, who complements talent and determination with flair and spunk. Arriving on the scene like some care package dropped from a helicopter, baseball got all that this season in Dontrelle Willis, the Florida Marlins' left-handed pitching sensation.

 

 

Willis wears his cap cockeyed, and has developed a delivery as if his idea of an instructional video were to memorize every last detail of the "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings."

 

 

But he's more than a conversation piece. He's a legitimate stopper, owner of an 8-1 record and a 2.13 earned-run average on a team already working under its second manager this season.

 

 

Dontrelle Willis isn't the first

 

 

rookie pitcher who's stormed onto the scene and compelled the world to take notice. There was Vida Blue in 1971, Mark Fidrych in 1976, Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, Hideo Nomo in 1995. Every five or 15 years, a guy shows up to pump a little fresh air into a stagnant sport.

 

 

Blue started in the All-Star Game. So did Valenzuela, Fidrych and Nomo. And Willis? He not only won't start, he wasn't even asked to plan for the trip.

 

 

Extended a handful of appointments that had input from big league baseball, Baker, the ex-Giants manager, chose Atlanta's Russ Ortiz, who came to the Braves from San Francisco.

 

 

When injured Rockies pitcher Shawn Chacon was chosen by players, Baker subbed for him with Kerry Wood, one of his Cubs starters.

 

 

Neither Ortiz nor Wood has Willis' package of charm and charisma. Furthermore, neither has Willis' stats, either. (Ortiz is 11-4, with a 3.50 ERA; Wood is 8-6, with a 3.36 ERA.)

 

 

Asked to explain his reasoning Sunday on ESPN, Baker noted that Wood finished higher in the players' vote than Willis did. That's to be expected; players aren't inclined to be as fascinated by an unconventional pitching motion.

 

 

Ballplayers are stubborn that way. In their minds, anybody with the gall to reveal himself as original is a show-off punk who hasn't paid his dues.

 

 

Or maybe Willis' peers just weren't familiar with him. Willis didn't start turning heads until May; a few weeks later, the NL schedule was interrupted by its interleague phase. As Baker pointed out, his team has yet to face the Florida phenom.

 

 

Which makes Baker's failure to recognize Willis' All-Star portfolio even more maddening. Here was a chance to put a cult figure on the game's most celebrated stage. Here was a chance for baseball to reach out and touch millions of kids who rarely sit still in front of the TV.

 

 

I know, the consequences of the All-Star Game have been amped up this year, and the exhibition has to be approached as more than a marketing opportunity. But if the idea is to win, why not go with the pitcher who has won eight out of nine decisions?

 

 

Afterward, ESPN analyst Bobby Valentine offered how Willis will have other opportunities to pitch in the All-Star Game, in other summers. True. But he'll never again be a rookie, full of innocence and wonder and precocious fearlessness.

 

 

Willis wasn't the only omission that turned heads. The name of Roger Clemens, he of the 300 victories and 4,000 strikeouts, also was conspicuous by its absence. In fact, for the first time in eight years, no Yankees pitcher will be in the All-Star Game.

 

 

But the Yankees have nobody to blame but themselves: Half their team blew off the vote. If they were too busy to take the trouble to participate in the election, I'm too busy to feel sorry for them.

 

 

Otherwise, Selection Sunday went swimmingly for the Mariners. Ichiro Suzuki and Edgar Martinez are going to Chicago as fan favorites; Bret Boone and Jamie Moyer are going as players' choices, and Shigetoshi Hasegawa is going as a personal choice of Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia, his skipper when he played for the Angels. It helps to have friends in high places. Friends and, well, an 0.81 ERA.

 

 

Some Seattle fans might be disappointed that Gil Meche missed the cut, but let's not quibble. The only pitcher with glaring All-Star credentials who wasn't named to the All-Star team is Dontrelle Willis.

 

 

A home-field advantage for the World Series will be on the line next week, but the game already has established a clear loser.

 

 

Baseball.

Wish we were playing Cubs and Dusty Baker at Pro player tonight.

yeah... I can understand the theory that, well he hasn't really established himself over time yet, he could just be a 1/2 season wonder. But then what exactly does this All-Star game represent if not player performance? I realize some veterans seem to get penciled in year after year even if their stats drop off significantly, but Willis is such a marketable guy, such a fun kid to watch. And PLUS he has the stats to back it up.

 

Goldstein said it this morning on WQAM: You think the NBA would miss a chance to put this a kid like this in their All-Star Game? Nope. Because they understand how to market their game.

 

Thanks Orisha, great article.