Kudos MLB, kudos

We like to give credit where credit is due even if it’s to a entity that seems to enjoy bad press, bad decisions and sticking it to its best customers and fans. But when Major League Baseball decided that it would allow any player (one per team, though) who wishes to wear No. 42 in tribute to Jackie Robinson on the 60th anniversary of his debut on April 15 (as well as the 10th anniversary of the league-wide retirement of the number), it was a great move and a smart decision.

For the Phillies, Jimmy Rollins will wear No. 42, which makes sense. Rollins has always been a big proponent of the old Negro Leagues, its history and lore.

But for as smart as MLB was in allowing players to pay tribute to Jackie Robinson, don’t expect too much more of it – especially in the NFL. According to The Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon, who appeared on ESPN Radio with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann this week, the NFL does not want to celebrate its history as it relates to individuals.

Said Wilbon:
“Baseball gets it right. Baseball understands individuality. Football understands it, too – football doesn’t want it. Football wants not to have it. That’s how they can trot out replacement players, because if there is no individuality, players can never have strength. They can never be equal (because) the team is always greater. The jersey is the greatest thing that football offers. Major League Baseball does understand this and I’m glad they have relented and will allow any person who wants to wear No. 42 on April 15 to wear it. … The NFL doesn’t want to pay tribute to anybody.”

There certainly are a lot of examples of how the NFL beats down on any type of individuality rearing its head. Remember when Peyton Manning wanted to wear black high tops as a tribute to Johnny Unitas or when Jake Plummer wanted to wear a small No. 40 on his helmet as a tribute to Pat Tillman? The NFL warned the players that if they strayed beyond the vanilla ordinances of the league’s bylaws by the slightest centimeter they risked fines, suspension or no recess.

Baseball surely has screwed up royally in this regard, too, but at least they recognize (like the NBA) that the players are the best public relations they have.

Down go the Phillies

The Phillies have the odds stacked against them and, no, that has nothing to do with the fact that they are two games behind the Dodgers in the wild-card race with three games left in the season. Obviously, that doesn't help, but it appears as if the hill is too steep to climb.

For starters, the team was still waiting in buses to go to the airport when I walked out of RFK at a shade past 3 a.m. this morning. Though they went through security clearance at the ballpark and the buses will drive right on to the tarmac so that the players can hop get on their chartered flight to Florida, a best-case scenario has the team getting into the air at 4 a.m. at the very earliest.

And that depends upon if they went to National, BWI or Dulles.

There's more, too. It was 2:30 a.m. when I walked into the tight and cramped visitor's clubhouse at RFK where the first person I saw was Jamie Moyer, tonight's starting pitcher, sitting in his locker waiting to head to the airport. Moyer had the option of flying ahead so that he could be properly rested for tonight's important game, but the veteran thought it would be better to wait the night out with his teammates.

Make no mistake about it -- Moyer was going to wait. According to sources and Charlie Manuel, the Phillies were going to play the game against the Nationals no matter what. It would not have mattered if the rain finally stopped at 2:07 a.m. (which is when the game ultimately ended); the game was going to be played before the Phillies left for Miami. That, they say, was the edict from MLB in New York. Apparently, they did not leave themselves any wiggle room in next week's playoff schedule, which seems to be their M.O.

No wiggle room on performance-enhancing drugs and no wiggle room on the TV schedule. Way to go, MLB!

Nevertheless, the Phillies clubhouse was as quiet as a crowded room could be. Forget that it was 2:30 a.m. and there was another ballgame looming after they arrived in Florida as the sun was rising. The Phillies, it seems, see the graffiti on the wall.

"I'd say [the team's mood] is down, yeah," Manuel said at 2:24 a.m., standing against some dungeon-like corridor wall in the bowels of RFK. "But when you don't hit and don't play real well, I don't know what you can do about it. That's the way baseball is sometimes. But it's hard to live with it."

Sometimes it's hard to live without, too. That seems like the way it will be for another October in Philadelphia.