INSIDE THE GAME: No chanting, no more retired numbers, please – MyWebTimes.com

Its all a matter of taste.

I have many friends and acquaintances, and among them, for every person who thinks of me as this nice, amiable person who tries to be a ray of sunshine wherever he goes, theres another who knows that at times I can make Clint Eastwoods Get off my lawn character in Gran Torino seem like Mary Poppins on Valium.

I dont like to offend people, but what I have to say might, on occasion. Here go a couple of thoughts I hope will be food for discussion, not food for dissent.

As I related inour Tweet of the Day on the front of The Times Sports section this week, in all my time playing, watching and covering baseball in my 50-some years on this planet, I dont remember anyone in a dugout chanting hes a SLUG-ger, hes a SLUG-ger when it was Anthony Rizzos turn to bat, or hit a HOME run, hit a HOME run whenever Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton got in the box, and they CERTAINLY never did anything like num-BER SEV-en, num-BER SEV-en when Mickey Mantle stepped to the plate. Wow, that last one sent a cold shiver down my spine.

Saw Bull Durham the other day and Im more in line with Robert Wuhls character, Larry Hockett, when he spit out rapid-fire through a mouthful of seeds, Cmon, baby, you got this, you got this, its you, baby, its you, cmon, baby to Bulls on the field or at the plate.

I know Little Leaguers are not supposed to yell Swing! at the batter anymore, but what happened to the old standard hes no batter, hes no batter, aaAAaaAA and other encouragement to a pitcher? Please just something not near as mind-numbingly annoying as the rhythmic nonsense being spewed the last few years. I might expect that from softball, but in baseball? No thanks.

It deserves a place in the baseball dumpster along with The Wave, the White Soxs uniform shorts and Chris Bermans calls of the Home Run Derby.

Try this: No MORE CHAN-ting, no MORE CHAN-ting.

Roberto Clementes number

Im going to tread lightly here because my opinion might offend some who are sensitive to matters of race. Believe me, it has nothing to do with race, gender or religious beliefs. It has to do only with my view of the game.

I do not believe Roberto Clemente should have his number 21 retired through all of MLB the way Jackie Robinsons 42 is.

I know what a tremendous player Clemente was, having seen him many times in action against my Cubs on WGN back in the day and in the national broadcasts of the World Series the Pirates played in. Hes an all-time great, in addition to being a generous, caring individual who died while delivering humanitarian aidto storm victims in Nicaragua.

No doubt, no question, he deserves to be the icon to the Hispanic community that he is.

But I personally don't feel the challenges he overcame on his way to the majors are at the same level of those traversed by Robinson when he broke the MLB color barrier in 1947.

Looking at it another way, if Clemente deserves that honor, why not Hank Greenberg or Sandy Koufax for being the greatest Jewish players of all time? Why not Honus Wagner as the hero of Americas extensive, generations-deep German population? Why not Joe DiMaggio for all those fans of Italian descent?

This is opening a can of worms with so many arguments, some of them so politically incorrect that I wont go there.

I didnt agree with Robinsons 42 being retired across the leagues when it happened. Like Clemente, Robinson is an incredibly talented figure in the game and a man of immense character, patience and tolerance. His impact on the game is undeniable. I just dont see Clementes impact being as significant in the history of baseball.

OK, all that now said, I add the immortal words of comedian Dennis Miller: Of course, thats just my opinion. I could be wrong.

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INSIDE THE GAME: No chanting, no more retired numbers, please - MyWebTimes.com