At Home Plate - Channeling Bill Veeck to Help the Nationals

At Home Plate

Channeling Bill Veeck to Help the Nationals

Written by Jonathan Leshanski (Contact & Archive) on January 12, 2009

Occasionally I find myself channeling Bill Veeck. Bill last came visiting earlier last week with one of his typically crazy schemes, but one so crazy it might have worked. Actually with a few tweaks it still might work. Our topic of conversation was the moribund state of baseball in the capitol of the United States.

Still the showman after all these decades, Veeck came to me out of the blue and started our conversation with the line, “I know how to fix the Nationals.”

It was an intriguing opening and even though I was slightly afraid of what he was going to say I couldn’t help but reply, “Ok, tell me how.”

“Well,” he started, “baseball is about the business of putting fannies in the seats and building a following that lasts year after year. It’s something which should have a growing momentum. What the Nationals have is the opposite. Now that the novelty has worn off again, they need to change direction.”

“But Bill,” I interjected, “they’ve tried to change direction several times. They don’t have the depth in their farm system and the best free agents laugh in their face when the Nationals come calling.”

Then Bill flashed that big smile of his and said, “That’s because they aren’t thinking the right way. Teixeira may have put a handful of butts in the seat, but with the right game plan they could fill the seats and maybe be a pretty fair team too.”

“And you are just dying to tell me what you would do, aren’t you?”

Veeck grinned. “Yep. We’re gonna build an old fashioned barnstorming team.”

“Come on, I don’t think anyone has barnstormed since the Korean War ended.”

“Nor would we, but we’d steal their concept. A lot of the barnstormers were well past their prime when they hit the road and they sold out an awful lot of games everywhere they went. And that’s the concept we need to steal.

“You see,” Veeck continued, “sometimes it’s about putting on a good show, and if you can’t sign the top free agents and your farm isn’t ready to churn out solid talent. Look to the stars.”

“Astrology?”

“Nope, the Hall of Fame.” Once again Vecck grinned, “Do you realize how many legends of the game are available right now?” Not pausing for an answer he continued “What do you think of a pitching staff of Schilling, Pedro, Clemens, Maddux and Smoltz? Would have thrown in Randy Johnson if he hadn’t already signed with the Giants. Sure you’d have to lure a couple of them back for one more year, but don’t you think the fans would show up to watch these guys have their swan song?”

Rocket Return? If Bill Veeck were GM of the Nationals, Roger Clemens may be playing once more.
Photo courtesy of Bill Menzel Photography

“Well I sure would. A last chance to see some of the legends of the game.” I leaned back in my chair. “Actually I think a lot of people would come, and they’d bring their kids to witness the end of an era and root on those guys.”

“Right. Now, move past the pitchers and let’s talk about the offense. Bonds, Junior Griffey, and Andruw Jones in the outfield? They should be cheap enough at this point in their careers. And you can keep your young talent to apprentice with these guys, though you might want to keep them away from Barry and his trainers.” He winked.

“Jones?” I asked. “You’d consider him a legend of the game?”

“Not a chance, but he’d be cheap, and the only other option would be a very expensive Manny who’d be great if I thought we were a piece or two away from being championship team, but what Washington needs is credibility and fan base, not a huge payroll at this point. Besides we’d have to improvise at a few positions.”

I nodded. “First Base.”

“Yep.” Bill agreed. “I had thought maybe Jason Giambi, but maybe we could convince Pudge Rodriguez to play there.

“Not a bad idea, unless you want to gamble on Richie Sexson coming back”

“I think not,” he replied. “Pudge if we can convince him, then a platoon of Jeff Kent and Ray Durham at second.”

I arched an eyebrow, “Kent, Bonds, Clemens and Schilling in the same clubhouse. That will make for some interesting dynamics.”

Bill laughed. “Interesting isn’t bad. It will ensure some headlines at some point I’m sure, but it’ll work. As to the rest of the infield, we’ll keep Christian Guzman at short since we’ll need some tablesetters anyway, and Zimmerman at third since he’s their best player and there aren’t many third base legends available right now.”

“Ok, so who’s going to catch?”

Veeck looked me in the eye. “That’s easy, Jason Varitek, and he’s going to be the manager too.”

“A player manager. That is very old school.”

Bill nodded, “But a smart play too. There isn’t a legendary manager available to command the respect of these guys - unless you can channel Casey Stengal for a whole season?” He paused, “I actually thought about this a lot, Lou Pinella or Mike Scioscia could probably have done it, but they’re committed and this isn’t Jack McKeon’s style of ballclub, but Varitek is a sharp cookie who commands respect.”

“You know, Bill, this is crazy enough to actually work.”

Veeck laughed, “It’s not as crazy as you think, as always there is a method to my madness. While we’re filling seats and building a fan base these stars will be acting as mentors for the talented youngsters this team is going to have to rely on a year or two. After all any young pitcher who can’t learn from Maddux, Schilling, Smoltz or Pedro has no business playing baseball. And between Griffey, Kent and Durham you have your bench and hitting coaches.”

“Not bad, not bad at all, but I think you’ve forgotten the bullpen.”

He smiled. “No, not really, although the game has changed. I’d want all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman to close, but after that the bullpen will be the same as the rest of the team.”

“I’m not sure I understand where you are going with this.”

“Well, Jon, you see, none of these players, not Griffey, not Varitek, nor Schilling or any of these players should be asked to play a whole game anymore. No, we’re going to need some depth of bench and bullpen - and that’s where we are going to stash the best of the future Nationals. Let guys like Lasting Milledge substitute in the late innings for Junior. They’ll get seasoned and mentored at the same time. That will be especially true for the bullpen, I’d rather get 25-30 starts from each of these pitchers than ask them to go more than 5 or 6 innings and risk injury.”

“Very smart.”

“Wait, there’s more. Not only will fans come out to see this barnstorm inspired Hall of Fame team, but what young player wouldn’t want to come get a chance to play with guys who were probably their heroes growing up? It should help the Nats attract more top talent and considering the division, these older guys might even have a shot at contending, at the worst I’d think they’d be close to .500”

Veeck paced as he spoke, seemingly pondering each word before he continued. “As to cost it wouldn’t be too bad, since most of these guys aren’t drawing huge interest from other teams and we could structure contracts with good incentives, paying pitchers for certain plateaus in number of starts and hitters for enough at bats. It would save us some money if we only get 4 starts instead of 30 from a starter”

“Bill that makes too much sense. For the players, especially those who love the game it would be a chance for a last hurrah, to show that the oldsters still have something left to prove and to accomplish even as they mentor the future Nationals who come in as late inning replacements, injury reserves, and backups. It could open the door to the best staying on as coaches, and maybe even yielding some prospects to enrich the Nats farm system if they go trading vets near the deadline if the team fails to compete.

“It really is crazy enough to work.”

“Jon, I’d stop calling my ideas crazy.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well you’re the one thinking that you’re channeling the spirit of Bill Veeck.”

And with that he was gone again.

Note: Since this article was written, Trevor Hoffman and John Smoltz have agreed to terms with different teams.

What do you think of Veeck’s plan to turn around the Nationals? Let us know in the comments section below.

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