It has been often said to describe our great game that “baseball is life” when explaining why we just love it so much. It’s a simplistic way of saying that the nuances of our every day life, the eliciting of every emotion, are so often replicated by the events that occur over the course of a major league baseball season. Today, making the heavy comparison can be done without much effort as Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright simultaneously retired. Although Wainwright was on a one year contract in Houston this season the two will forever be linked as the battery mates for nearly two decades in one of the cities where baseball is cherished without any reservations. While they haven’t acknowledged that the retirements were linked in anyway you can’t help but imagine that the game didn’t feel the same for one player without the other still active and doing their thing.
Wainwright and Molina were able to co-captain the Cardinals, a franchise draped in success, during a time when we still placed a premium on intangibles like leadership and gamesmanship. Teams and their executives league wide have consistently progressed towards differing to spreadsheets and computer projections but I have heard from quite a few of them, saying that maybe they have forgotten about “grit” and “heart” to their own peril.
Now obviously nobody is going to strip their analytics team down in a fit of nostalgia here in the near future but you can’t help but evaluate the health of the division leaders in comparison to their clubhouse culture. The unquestioned, cream of the crop, historic-paced Los Angeles Dodgers made one of the most underrated moves of the off-season when they decided to claim Troy Tulowitzki in the Rule-5 draft. I can tell you that some executives at the meetings literally laughed and it was the subject of jokes amongst General Manager. “What could the Dodgers be thinking?” “He has nothing left in the tank!”. As criticisms and jokes appeared, Dave Roberts simply smirked as his request to General Manager Michael was heard loud and clear. “Troy’s a leader”.
So as we say goodbye to Adam and Yadi, it isn’t only Cardinals fans that should be saying thank you. Anyone who appreciates this great game and it’s roots should appreciate guys like this who serve as reminders of where this game really came from, where it belongs and what truly will always remain the common element in a winning ballclub… true leadership.