'Uncooperative' Tony Clark's counter for Rob Manfred

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – You know, it’s possible Tony Clark is right about whatever it is everybody is mad about. It’s possible the boys on Park Avenue are running downhill a little too fast to keep their legs under them, and all Clark is trying to do is catch them before they fall, for everybody’s sake.

He leaned against a counter here on a rainy Wednesday morning, mere hours after the commissioner had deemed him “uncooperative” and accused him of having his “head in the sand,” then threatened to bypass the union on future pace-of-play legislation along with other in-game directives. He joked the rain had turned his hair frizzy. He is bald. He confirmed he’d spoken to the commissioner, Rob Manfred, just Wednesday morning, with a nod and an expression that promised life goes on. After the words, after the spittle, man, life goes on, and everybody goes back to work.

“I think our game’s fantastic,” he said.

He has a stake in this too, and their names are over the lockers in every room he’s visited this spring. Not every fight is for the sake of the fight, you know.

If there is a somewhat reasonable way to back into a conversation about faster baseball games, along with what comes of a disagreement between the commissioner and the union chief over how serious the problem is and, therefore, how profoundly the game must change, it is this:

On the occasional spirited dialogue between members of his union and the public, most notably the one recently between St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler and the public, Clark, the head of the union, on Wednesday morning said this:

“One of the things that I have always said and will continue to say is I encourage guys, if they have something they are willing to offer publicly, to offer it. It doesn’t mean that everyone is going to agree. It doesn’t mean that everyone is going to disagree. But before you are a ballplayer you are a man, you are a father, you are a husband. If there are concerns that are of interest to you while respecting the fact that you do have a uniform on and respecting the fact that you do have a platform that is a little bit different than most, if you feel strongly enough and your convictions are such that you want to offer it and generate conversation, then please feel free to do so.”

He continued, “And Dex, for anybody who knows Dex, knows and appreciates where his heart is. So the idea he offered what he offered is not a surprise. Unfortunately some of the feedback hasn’t been very positive, but he’s got a lot of people that support him. Starting with us right here at the Players Association.”

His responsibility is them. Says so right in his job title. And if they have held up their palms, asking for another moment to consider changes to the game before the strike zone is the size of a power strip, then that’s not uncooperative, that’s responsible.

Shaving a few seconds off a baseball game — or not — has its context. There’s a world out there that has little interest in what an intentional walk looks like, which doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a conversation about it. But maybe addresses what the conversation should sound like, and where it should be held.

It is important maybe in the realm of the game. It is also important that the game look like the game. That it feels like the game. And, so, important that when there are efforts to alter the game, in this case beyond the hustle-in, hustle-out edicts of the past couple seasons, there is someone to say, Hold on just a second there.

That’s the relationship, such as it is. Clark confirmed the union, “as part of a broader conversation,” had signed off on automatic intentional walks, which is a shame, but there we are. He said the union also had agreed to at least one other matter, presumably the tighter window for managers to challenge plays. Beyond that, he said he was open to further dialogue. He would not promise more than that. He would not be drawn into responding point by point to Manfred’s criticisms, beyond the previous evening’s statement that he believed the union had been cooperative, “Unless your definition of ‘cooperation’ is blanket approval.” He would only lean against that counter and fold his arms and be available for an examination of whatever comes.

“I don’t know if my response was aggressive,” he said. “My response was factual. My response was to the point. My commentary will continue to be factual and to the point. To the extent the commissioner wanted to offer what he offered, the public bantering back and forth, he offered what he offered for whatever reason he offered it. My commentary is not going to change in response or in reflection against the questions that are being asked on the same topic.”

If the commissioner’s points on Tuesday were what it sounds like when negotiations go south, Clark’s by Wednesday were what it sounds like when the weather warms again. You know, a little.

“My concern,” he said, “and player concern is that our fans and those who are going to hopefully become fans love and enjoy our game the way we love and enjoy our game. If there is a disconnect there, and if that disconnect means that the future of our game is in jeopardy, we’re willing to have that conversation.

“The challenge is appreciating how any one particular change is going to effect the play on the field and coincidentally — positively or negatively perhaps — an individual’s career. That’s always the sensitivity there. And you do your due diligence there. You do your homework against whatever the analytics say is going to happen and the experts say is going to happen, while also reflecting on what our history has been, while also reflecting and appreciating that careers are a part of the conversation. And then you try to take all of those things and determine where you can go and how quickly you can go or how slowly you have to go out of respect for everyone involved, the industry and its history. You will never hear me offer anything about our game and suggest, flippantly or otherwise, that it should move one way or the other and it’s going to be easy. … Everyone who is involved in our game, has some appreciation for that history. Has an appreciation for the climate that we are in. And I know everybody is trying to do the best they can to navigate what happens next.”

And then consider that maybe, just maybe, Clark is right.