Brooke Hundley

For Love or Money

// February 28th, 2011 // No Comments » // Baseball, General, Sports

*As published in the Xenia Gazette 12/24/10*

They’re numbers the average American doesn’t see everyday: $142 million, $126 million, $120 million. Numbers that conjure images of a spectacular mansion, a private island getaway, or perhaps a luxury aircraft only the wealthiest could afford. Yet if I were to reveal that these numbers were actually the purchase prices for a 29-year-old major league outfielder, a 31-year-old outfielder and a 32-year-old pitcher, many wouldn’t even bat an eye. Every off-season since the birth of free agency and the long lost days when a team could pay a top player whatever they wanted the same banter can be heard among baseball fans: “The richest of the rich in baseball buy the best players, while the rest of the teams struggle to compete.”

When the Red Sox locked down multi-million dollar contracts on Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Bobby Jenks, and a rumor erupted that maybe momentarily the Red Sox payroll was slightly higher than the Yankees, I watched with surprised as fans of the team defended their purchases not by acknowledging they had simply spent to improve their club, but instead placing the blame on the Yankees for forcing them to spend to remain competitive.

When Cliff Lee took a pay cut to return to Philadelphia over New York or Texas, I witnessed the same phenomenon that had presented itself in my Red Sox friends dominating Phillies fans. Lee had taken less, but in reality was hardly going to a small market franchise, the Phillies had laid down $120 million for him over five years, a team that had a payroll last year ranking fourth in the major leagues at just shy of $143 million, including paying pitcher Roy Halladay $15.75 million a year. Yet one Phillies friend after another remarked on how Lee had come to a park that didn’t spend wildly and “didn’t buy championships.”

It seems as time has gone on more and more fans are finding themselves caught in a catch-22, wanting to have the best without earning the name of a money-grubbing “evil empire.” When aging players Derek Jeter and Edgar Renteria made complaints that the million-dollar offers their hometown franchises made were a “disgrace,” it fell on deaf ears with many viewing them as greedy and selfish. And as I watch rookies like Troy Tulowitzki and Jay Bruce sign contract extensions long before free agency, announcing their devotion to the small market fans of Denver and Cincinnati, and even Cliff Lee refusing more money for the first plane back to Philly, it almost seems that what’s cool again is to take less and simply enjoy the game.

In a down economy where many Americans are out of work and MLB clubs still earn $7 billion in revenues, it’s refreshing to find players remembering why they first became ballplayers. At the end of the day commissioner Bud Selig will likely continue to pretend that the worst teams in baseball don’t have extensive revenues they should be spending instead of lining their pockets with, and that a luxury tax on the rich isn’t doing little to inhibit spending. So maybe it’s up to the fans to remind and praise the players who already know that it’s not about million dollar deals, but an appreciation of a pastime that’s as homegrown as apple pie. A sport where kids spend their summers practicing their swings and racing to get autographs from their favorite stars, and maintain a thirst for the game that gifted players never grow out of. Like Pete Rose who said it best, “I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.”

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Ask Brooke

// January 12th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Baseball, General, Sports

I get a lot of various emails and facebook messages asking me about my take on various baseball and football topics. I hoped to answer some of the baseball trade talk questions last Saturday on a radio appearance, but some technical difficulties prevented me from going on. So I decided to post some of the questions and my answers to them over time here.

Q: Losers and Winners in the Baseball Offseason?

There are a few teams that could be in contention for this one including the Indians and Padres who both hired new GMs and who have each made a whopping one next to nothing trade this offseason. I’m going to give first bidding to the Los Angeles Dodgers though thanks in part to their huge inactivity as well as their front office soap opera that continues to play out. It’s not just who they’re not getting, but also who they’re letting walk out of their franchise. Randy Wolf wins 11 games last year with a 3.2 ERA and they don’t even both offering him arbitration to get the 2 draft picks for him. They also lose Orlando Hudson, Vicente Padilla, and Jon Garland, and who have they added to fill in the missing holes? A utility player by the name of Jamie Carroll, instead of putting that money into a desperately needed pitcher. I understand they’re going through an ugly divorce, which means budget slashing, but they have no cheap players ready to step in. The Dodgers were able to win consecutive division crowns by graduating and trading so many prospects that the upper levels of their farm system are completely thin and they are still in desperate need of two starting pitchers. They dealt Juan Pierre in what can be effectively seen as yet another salary dump by the team not for an established starting pitcher, but rather two minor league prospects, they’ve offered a handful after handful of minor league contracts to older guys hoping someone will catch on during Spring Training. They have fallen short the last 2 years mainly because they lack a front of the rotation starter. They should have gone after Lackey when they had the chance to be their number 1 starter. Instead they are hoping Chad Billingsly can step up and handle the top spot and admit they still remain focused on adding a starting pitcher, second baseman and bench players. When do you plan on getting around to solving those problems?

The other loser award I’d have to hand out to the Houston Astros, who work daily under the guidance of Ed Wade to distinguish themselves as the worst team in baseball, driven by a train-wreck of an offseason. At least the Indians and Padres know no trade is better than a bad trade. The Astros lose both free agents Jose Valverde, who has 25 saves with a 2.3 ERA and LaTroy Hawkins, who has 11 saves and a 2.17 ERA, their 2 best relievers are gone just like that. And who do they replace them with? Brandon Lyon, by far the worst free agent signing of the offseason at 3 years, $15 mil. Yes it’s a depressed market for relievers, but Wade should have had known better than to sign an unspectacular reliever in Lyon, who’s been wildly inconsistent throughout his career, and has proven time and time again that he’s not a closer. The Astros are willing to gamble that Lyon will get lucky next 3 years, when they could have just used that kind of money to give Jose Valverde, who is a much better reliever than Lyon, a multi-year deal. They traded for Matt Lindstrom of the Marlins who’s ERA is almost 6, granted he required no prospects of note in return, but he’s arbitration eligible and because of his terrible ’09 season, he’s likely to receive only a modest bump in salary at best. They sign 35-year-old Pedro Feliz for 3rd base who only managed 12 home runs in Philly’s park. In a team with payroll limitations, contracts like Lyon’s can be crippling. $15 mil is more than almost every team’s draft budget, and instead of investing in guys like Lyons, the Astros could have used that money, even at $5 mil a year to bolster their farm system and improve their future. Instead they’re left with a barren farm system & a team with serious offensive problems, and little help on the way.

As for winners, obviously the Phillies got a true ace by signing the best current pitcher in baseball in Roy Halladay at a guaranteed 4-5 years, and receiving solid prospects and $6 mil in return.  But I’m going to put the Yankees at 2^nd just head of them. Last year Cashmen built the club through free agency bringing in Sabathia, Texiera, and Burnett, and this year they’ve made substantial trade moves and that have all been excellent. Trading for Curtis Granderson, created a defensive upgrade in center field and added more athleticism.  Not only did they get younger, but his left-handed bat and power to right field will play perfect in Yankee Stadium, as he should continue to hit 20-30 homers a year. They also resigned Pettite, and added nick Johnson at DH, who is an OBP monster, works the count well, and excels against left-handers.  Then they add in a final surprise pick by trading for Javier Vasquez who’s handed out out 10 straight years of 190 innings or more and 10 wins or more, and is coming off his best year in Atlanta with 15 wins, and a 2.8 ERA.  He’ll be the Yankees 4^th starter, where in some places, like say Citi Field, he’d be the number two guy.

Have to put Seattle at the ultimate top of the winner’s block this offseason.  Their solid, forward-looking GM has, in under 2 years, turned the Mariners from the bottom of the scrap heap to a legitimate contender for the AL West in 2010. Obviously anytime you get a player like Cliff Lee you’re going to improve your club. At best Lee leads Seattle to a division crown, gets to play in a pitchers park with great defense behind him, and potentially signs a long term deal.  At worst, he plays for a year, the Mariners don’t make it into the postseason, but they get 2 first round picks as compensation when he leaves.  Hard to find a downside to the deal. And the Mariners will now have a one-two punch in the top of their starting rotation in Felix Hernandez and Lee that can really shut down teams. Last year Seattle finished last in OBP in the AL, so they picked up speedy Shawn Figgins.  A guy who leads the AL in walks last year, and creates a top two in the lineup with Ichiro that combines two of the best leadoff hitters in the AL, minus Jeter. And in case they weren’t doing well enough Seattle trades Carlos Silva and $9 mil to the Cubs in exchange for Milton Bradley.  Effectively dumping a terrible pitcher, whose contract was a sunk cost as they were planning to release him anyway come spring training, for a few million and a couple years to see if Milton Bradley can keep his anger in check and his bat in the lineup.  If he doesn’t work out who cares they just release him, but he may be worth the gamble considering he is only a year removed from 22 home runs and 77 RBIs for the Rangers and unlike the Cubs, the Mariners have a DH spot to keep him healthy. Add in some defensive additions in the forms of Casey Kotchman at 1^st, and Frank Guiterrez at center field and anyway you look at it, this will be a true race in the west between the Angels who have done little this offseason, the Rangers who have some talented young pitchers, and the Mariners who could take the whole divison.

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NEW VIDEO

// January 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // General, Sports

Check out a bit of my College Football Highlights reel from the 2008 season at ESPN.

Choose Wisely

// December 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Football, General, Sports

Any hour can be our finest or our darkest; it’s our choice.  It’s a simple word with a lot of weight this idea of choice.  As a noun many of us find ourselves thankful to carry this option in our back pockets, as if it presents an inalienable right we possess to live our lives how we wish.  But when called upon in verb form, when any of us are asked to CHOOSE, it becomes a loaded gun that when engaged becomes so rife with outside opinions, inner anxiety and a plethora of criticism, negativity and judgment from every which way that many find themselves so afraid of the possibility of choosing incorrectly and incurring the subsequent punishment, they’d rather hideout from the prospect of having to choose at all.  The concept of choice has never been more prominently displayed than in college football this week where two highly prized coaches left their coveted positions one by choice, the other forcibly without choice, leaving the world to wonder what they will do at this new and unexpected juncture in life.

If one were to enter the home of any true sports fan while their team is playing on TV, you’ll find a unique phenomenon known as the armchair coach.  All sports fans do it, confined to the walls of our living room we find ourselves screaming at our players, coaching from our seats, demanding from our team a better output, whether it’s protecting the quarterback more effectively, being more accurate when turning a double play, or finding consistency when shooting outside the paint.   Yet we can yell and rant or cheer for our team, without the added pressure of our decisions weighing into the game, without the fear that precedes all choices, without the ridicule that comes from choosing incorrectly and facing your team’s defeat.  In every one of us is a coach waiting to break free, but it was growing up on the tennis courts that I’ve found the closest experience to that of the internal painful dilemma of coaching.

Tennis players often find themselves alone in their own world, talking and rallying themselves because the solitary confinement on the court prevents them from so much as speaking to their coaches and thus they are forced to become their own coaches, to internally strategize at all times, thinking 2 or 3 plays ahead of their opponent, trading blows without ever physically engaging, and forcing away the fear, the torment, that they might be making the wrong choice and falter.  They are forced to push aside all fears because every tennis player much like every coach knows that in the heat of battle indecision breeds defeat.

In the middle of a game decisions are made quickly and one is resigned to stand by them for better or worse, but when the competition is over and the teams retreat into their daily lives, at what point does this expectation of always choosing correctly and never faltering, never wavering, carry through to our personal?   Urban Meyer was praised and respected this week when he chose to leave his champion football program at Florida for a renewed focus on his deteriorating health and family time.  While many questioned his departure, no one questioned the choice that was made, it was a done deal and the world would have to be content with letting him fade away into seclusion.  But the moment Meyer returned with a change of heart, deciding to only take a leave of absence but in effect return to coach the team again, he was met with extreme skepticism, annoyance and critical opinions from the outside world, as if he had exposed human weakness in his indecision, a weakness the outside world demanded never to see, despite the fact that any human would find himself/herself in the same role struggling to let go of the now and enter into the unknown not knowing if his/her best days are over.  It’s as if we expect more than pure human weakness from our coaches and our players, as if we want our generals on the field to be as certain in their own lives as they are while in battle.

Mike Leach was removed from Texas Tech this week after complaints from a player about inhumane treatment at practice.  Without the ability to stand up for himself, and despite the outpouring of support from players and other coaches stating that that which was published in the media was sensationalized and unsubstantiated and should have remained a private matter within the organization, Leach was forced out due to the media onslaught.  He brought a football program out in one of the most remote sections of the country from an athletic wasteland to a respected, winning, recruiting machine that could compete with some of the best football programs in the country.  Yet the moment he made a choice that showed weakness, acting out on emotion whether out of anger or just utter annoyance due constant whining and complaining by an athlete, he was criticized, relieved of his duties and left to question what lies ahead.

Is it any wonder then when watching Urban Meyer’s or Brett Favre’s indecisiveness about their personal career decisions attacked with harsh criticism, doubt and negativity from the outside world, or Mike Leach’s insignificant (at least seemingly at the time), emotionally infused discipline choice at a practice derail his entire career and overshadow his accomplishments, that so many of us find ourselves wriggling in fear when presented with having to make a choice for ourselves?  It’s as if all of us must be born with an innate ability to always choose the right path, to never falter, never question, never be indecisive, but how can anyone live up to those standards when we are all error prone, when it is a standard of our very human nature to falter at times?  Maybe Leach should have never disciplined his player, maybe Meyer should have never updated the public on his deteriorating health and his daughter’s heartwarming hug, maybe Favre should have ignored his desires to return to the game and stuck by his choice to remain in retirement from the beginning.  But isn’t the beauty of each of us that we are given those choices to make, that we can choose our destinies, change our destinies, follow a less beaten path or a new adventure at any time in life?

At the end of the day it is not our critics or our judges or any outside force, but rather our internal apprehension that is the most dangerous to surrender to.  Fear exists like a gateway drug, you give into the small ones, let them eat away at you and soon you’re struggling in severe pain at the bigger ones, feeding an uncontrollable addiction as your fears mount and grow and your mind develops new and disturbing ways to view the negative ways in which the choices you make could harm you.  Still it’s a question we must ask as we enter this new year are we all simply slaves to fear, or can we resist the uneasiness over the strange and unfamiliar, the judgments, and the hypocrisy of those who seek to criticize our choices, but in retrospect hardly know what path they would choose in the same situation.  Instead of fearing choice, can we activate our self-confidence, our inner positive monologue, and learn to embrace this right to choose?

We will all stand at a crossroads at some point in our lives, forced to choose a path to take in our journey.  But our biggest danger is not the unknown, but our own lack of self-confidence.  As we stand choosing our fates we must breed hope, encourage our own success, visualize prosperity and face the outside negativity, making our decisions based upon what we hope and desire most for ourselves.  I hope for anyone finding their crossroads in life that they are merely setting themselves on a new journey filled with success.  For Leach I hope he finds a new rewarding opportunity in college football and gains another chance to lead a program and build champion athletes.  For Meyer I hope he is able to find a balance between work and life, one in which his family and his health are cared for first, and in effect any job he has in the athletic world is subsequently strengthened by it.  For Favre I wish for him to play football until he simply no longer has the passion or the physical desire to play anymore and then I hope he will find other avenues to share his talent with gifted athletes.  And for all of you out there, I hope when you face a road in life requiring a choice to be made, you find calmness and inner peace where many feel fear and darkness, and you willingly take that leap into the unknown, face the negativity and the skepticism with a fighting spirit, and learn and grow from this challenge.  For those who walk proudly down that unpaved road I know you will someday find the fortune that awaits you.

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Oh Come All Ye Faithful

// December 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Football, General, Sports

The other night I agreed to be on a live podcast for someone who had been persistent, but nice about putting to use my desire to talk sports on the air.  It was a fun opportunity to calm the nerves of the on-air talent over the latest Yankee trade and break down the Broncos deteriorating offense, but it was the very last question that I found myself contemplating long after the interview ended.  I had been asked if it was time already to move on from the dog fighting scandal that had defined Michael Vick the past year, to give him the opportunity to continue on in life without carrying around this negative label.

Before the past few months I might have been quick to answer that with a rash judgment, to say actions speak louder than words and that no one deserves a second chance after choosing to hurt another living thing.  But as time has gone by and assumptions have been made about who I am as a person by those far removed from my personal situation, I started to question if the greatest gift we could give to anyone who has been dealt a hard lesson learned is the simple gift of our faith.

When you divulge yourself into this idea of faith it’s easy to see that it isn’t so strictly cornered on the market by religious doctrine or spiritual shrines, but rather a concept existing and thriving in our everyday lives.  Whether it’s faith in a new relationship to go the distance, faith in a career path to bring you future success, or simply faith that this year will be the winning year for your “always the bridesmaid never the bride” sports team, faith is an ever fluid characteristic of our very human nature.  So why when presented with someone who has made blunders in life, but wants to reform, do we find it to be such a hard gift to give?  Are we fearful that by placing our faith in others who have stumbled we will only find ourselves regretting our decision later when they fall back to their old pattern?

Or is it a matter of not wanting to stand behind something so unstable, so uncertain, so downright risky as the potential of another person to do well with their life and to learn from their mistakes that we’d feel safer leaving them to rot behind bars or at the very least so far from their former successful lives that we won’t be forced to chose between helping or hindering them?  The sad part is that the easier option, to look the other way, to close the door on all opportunity, is more likely to put that person back into their former bad patterns as they give in to believing that that is simply their destiny.  While the option of getting past our own insecurities and defending another by giving them the outward support, guidance and faith that they can and will succeed, puts the odds as much more likely to prevail, but at a much higher gamble.

Someone once asked me what good is a lesson learned in life if you never have a second chance.  It’s a question that has stayed with me through the last few months and one I often find myself asking when those who once offered support now won’t return my phone calls.  As the holidays roll in and many ponder their resolutions for next year I find myself most hopeful for new opportunities, opportunities to improve and better myself, opportunities that will only exist because of the faith of others.

Maybe this idea of faith is only viewed so fearfully because we make it into something bigger than itself, fearing we will have to invest time, energy, and so much of ourselves, when in reality all that is being asked for is an open mind and possibility.  This simplified idea of faith is not lost on the Eagles, as Michael Vick’s teammates unanimously agreed to award him the Ed Block Courage award.  Some may question whether he deserves it for the path he’s taken and the road he’s traveled to this point, but to me it’s not about the past, it’s an award given to say we have faith in you as a player and as a man that you CAN overcome, that you WILL better yourself, and prove yourself deserving of the world’s respect again.  And that’s all the faith a person could ask for.  So this holiday I hope we all take a cue from the Eagles’s playbook and learn to show a little faith and give it a little more freely.  After all we’re all human, we all make mistakes, we all fall off the wagon, and we all deserve a chance, a little faith, that we will get back into the game of life and prove we’ve earned our place in the lineup.

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