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American Morning
Spring Training Interesting This Year, Off the Field
Aired March 18, 2002 - 08:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: If we talk about March Madness, and you're a sports fan, your mind would automatically go to the NCAA basketball tournament, right? And it is now down to the Sweet 16, and, of course, that is March Madness, but this morning, we got a different kind of March Madness.
We are going to talk about some of the wacky things that have actually made baseball's spring training a little extraordinary this year. Here to fill us in on the latest, CNN Contributor Keith Olbermann. Good morning.
KEITH OLBERMANN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning. When you said -- when you were talking about March Madness, I thought you were referring to me.
CAFFERTY: Well, no, no. Mad as a hatter, perhaps?
OLBERMANN: Something along those lines.
CAFFERTY: Last week, we were talking about Ruben Rivera, and he snatched a bat and a glove from Derek Jeter, which is breaking the golden rule of baseball, and he was summarily shown the door, tossed out, eliminated, given the heave-ho, as it were.
OLBERMANN: Right. The gangster of glove. He may, in fact, be back, but it is very confusing. He may have talked himself out of another job, Jack. The New Jersey newspaper, "The Bergen Record," which is a pretty good baseball paper, reported yesterday that he had agreed to terms with the Cleveland Indians. The two Cleveland papers, "The Plain Dealer" and the "Akron Beacon Journal" are reporting today an executive from the Indians who says the deal is not off because It was not a good fit for us. They didn't have enough -- we already had enough thieves, or something along those lines.
CAFFERTY: Yeah, right.
OLBERMANN: But last night, after those quotes would have been given to the Cleveland papers, a spokesman for the Indians told me it's not decided, it is not official yet. So Ruben Rivera might wind up in Cleveland, he might still wind up in Texas. There is something for a bidding war for a man who a week ago was thrown off a team for stealing his teammate's glove and bat.
CAFFERTY: All right. So that is to be continued. Now, there was a team meeting at the Yankees before they dismissed Mr. Rivera, and a relative of his, who is, maybe, the greatest relief pitcher in the game today, Mariano, had a role in that. What did you find out about that?
OLBERMANN: Well, there was some -- if you remember, the story was last week that Ruben Rivera had been voted off the Yankee team in an official vote by the players. It didn't work out quite like that. Joe Torre, number 6 on your program and your video here, the manager, assembled his veterans, including Mariano Rivera, who is Ruben Rivera's cousin, and the star reliever of the Yankees, and said, What do we do about Ruben?
And one of the things Mariano did was stand up and apologize to his teammates, and say, he couldn't figure it out, I'm embarrassed -- this is from a quote from a Yankee player speaking to me under the proverbial condition of anonymity -- "if he needed money, I would have given him whatever he wanted." Of course, it is not the money that was the issue here.
CAFFERTY: What was the issue, what would prompt a guy to do this?
OLBERMANN: Well, you work backwards. If it makes no sense whatsoever, and you know you're going to get thrown off the team, presumably you do it at some deep-rooted psychological level to get thrown off the team. He has done a lot of other things throughout his career that suggest maybe he doesn't want to be a ballplayer.
CAFFERTY: All right. Last week, you broke a story, Paul Beeston, the president of baseball, resigning. And you got some -- for want of a better way to say it, some positive reaction to that statement.
OLBERMANN: Kind of positive.
CAFFERTY: Sort of.
OLBERMANN: What I had said was that Beeston had quit because had quit because his boss, Bud Selig, had pulled a potential deal that would have saved baseball from the next strike, or the next lock-out, whatever, off the table, and Beeston just said, I can't work under those circumstances, I'm out. The "L.A. Times" reported, essentially, the same thing yesterday. That's interesting by itself. What is more interesting is I got an e-mail Friday from the Rob Manfred, who is the executive vice president of baseball labor relations. Very nice e- mail, introduced himself. Then he wrote, about me, "I've been something of a fan because an autographed picture of you hangs in Sal's barber shop in Irvington, NY..." formerly Sal's of Hastings.
CAFFERTY: All right.
OLBERMANN: I'm ungrateful to Mr. Manfred because now I know that Sal took that picture with him when he moved the shop.
CAFFERTY: You might get a knock off on the next trim if you stop by Sal's. OLBERMANN: Well, if you look carefully at my hair, obviously I already have.
CAFFERTY: All right. And last, but not least, certainly, the value of stick to it-tividness (ph).
OLBERMANN: This is where the Ruben Riveras of this world drive you nuts. 13 years ago, there was a catcher, all-American catcher at Arizona named Alan Zinter, who was drafted by the Mets first round. 24th player chosen overall. He got to spring training with the Mets for the first time in 1992, he got cut, they sent him back to the minors. '93 he got cut, sent him back to the minors. '94 with the Mets, he got sent back to the minors, '95 with the Tigers he got sent back to the minors, '96 with the Red Sox, '97 with the A's, '98, '99, 2000 with the Cubs, last year with the Astros. He has never played a single Major League game, he is still trying. Remember "Bull Durham," the movie, this is Crash Davis. This is the guy, he is 34 in June, and he has a perfect quote about what it's like, since he knows real well to get sent to the minors. "You're going from playing before 40,000 screaming people to hearing nothing but the crickets in the trees." He is in camp again with the Astros, Jack. He pinch hit yesterday. Maybe he makes it this year. If not, it is back to New Orleans or somewhere.
CAFFERTY: Well, somebody ought to just put the guy on the Major League team for no other reason than by default, he's earned a shot, you know, it is like, enough already.
OLBERMANN: And he can counsel -- as a rookie, he can counsel all the veterans, he's old enough.
CAFFERTY: And people ask him, why do you do this stuff? It's like, I don't know how to do anything else. I guess, that speaks, maybe, volumes about this guy. Thank you. Who is going to will the tournament, by the way?
OLBERMANN: The basketball tournament?
CAFFERTY: Yeah, the NCAA situation.
OLBERMANN: Well, what the heck, they did it yesterday, let's say UCLA.
CAFFERTY: Boy, that was some upset -- some game, double overtime.
OLBERMANN: It was a great game. I'm not sure it's was an upset, because that has been a good program waiting to do something good for a few years.
CAFFERTY: All right. Good to see you.
OLBERMANN: My pleasure, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Talk to you soon. Keith Olbermann.
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