Buying In to Old School in a Bear Market

I went home to visit the folks last week. It’s always good to get back to your roots, see the family and remember where you came from. One thing I got from the visit was an education in "old school". I always considered myself to be "old school". I still read the paper, prefer American products even if I have to pay a bit more and can easily be set off on a tangent if I hear an over paid, loudmouth athlete like Terrell Owens whine about not making what he’s worth. But that’s not "old school". I'm talking Ted Williams, leave baseball in the prime of your career to fight in a war for your country "old school".

Growing up in the city of Pittsburgh I found myself surrounded by tradition, loyalty and pride. Where did all those principles come from? The old school my friend. Plain and simple. People who grew up in mill towns, and believing in the American way. They buy American cars, refuse to bag products that say made in China and would rather be hung naked from the hot metal bridge than outsource what they can get right here at home. The "old school" won the "old school" way. They grew homegrown guys and cultivated them into the best players they could be, and the teams with the best farm systems won.

Loyalty, a concept as foreign as making steel in Pittsburgh these days has become the “old school” way of doing business. Players spent their entire careers with one team. The players were loyal to the team and the team was loyal to its players. These are all things that are far from the norm in a day where teams that have spent over 200 million dollars on free agents cannot make the playoffs. It is nothing to see small market teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Florida Marlins become little more than Triple-A farm-teams for the big spenders.

Yet, in the midst of “new school” despotism where the rich take and the poor give the “old school” has emerged once again showing us all the way home. The Tampa Bay Rays have the second lowest payroll in Major League Baseball ($43,820,598). Yet they managed to beat the Yankees who have the highest payroll in baseball ($209,081,579), and the Red Sox with the 4th largest payroll ($133,440,037) to win the AL East. They managed to wade through the American League Playoffs with little trouble up until a momentary snag late in the ALCS. Now the Rays are poised to take their “old school show” to the city of brotherly love for a good old-fashioned street fight.

How are they able to accomplish what other teams can’t? It’s quite simple really. They have spent the time accumulating and cultivating top draft picks into top-level talent. They have spent money on a few cheap free agents that can still play baseball and provide veteran leadership. Then they got them all to believe in this crazy concept called a team. From the top to the bottom of the roster everyone worked all season. When injuries hit the team (and they hit them hard) another guy stepped up and got the job done. They believed in something greater than personal interest. There’s another foreign concept, the realization that serving the greater good is truly serving every personal interest you could ever have. Every one of these guys has found greater stardom and more notoriety this season than anyone of them could have ever had looking out for number one.

Here’s the “BottomLine” sports fans. The Rays have taken “old school” principles and turned a city that could have cared less about baseball into a baseball town. They have captured the hearts of America and they accomplished everything they did without losing their shirts in the process. The ownership in Tampa Bay needs a monument built in their honor because they had the guts to do what other small market management rarely does. They had the intelligence to take the best value for the pick during the rough years. They put money in their farm system to develop those players. Then they spent the money it took to keep the players they developed even when the higher bidders were out there offering to take them away for a discount price in order for them to make money in a town where there was higher attendance at the neighborhood high-school football games. Who’s making the dough now boys? Here’s to the Tampa Bay Rays for buying in to "old school" in a bear market.

The Army of One Will Never Be Greater Than The Army of Many

Caleb Campbell is more than just a soldier. He’s an officer. As a second Lieutenant in the United States Army he spends most of his days doing an unusual job when you think of the military in a time of war. He roams the football field surrounded by piping whistles. Unfortunately for Campbell he is on the wrong football field, and the whistle is in his mouth instead of being blown at him.

The tale is somewhat of a feel-good story turned nightmare. A story that takes backroom politics to another level. If you haven’t heard by now Caleb Campbell was one of the better Safeties in Division I football just one year ago. A Cadet at the West Point Military Academy, Caleb finished his senior season with 97 tackles (finished top 10 all time at Army). He was selected to the East-West Shrine Game highlighting the nations best collegiate football players, and attended the NFL Scouting Combine where he ran the 40 in 4.5 seconds. He has the makings of a pro.

Due to the “Alternative Service Option” (ASO) (an Army policy that allows for an athlete at the academy to pursue a career in professional sports and serve as a recruiter rather than assuming traditional military duties upon graduation), Campbell was going to get to realize his dream of doing battle on the gridiron rather than on the war torn streets of Bagdad, if he got drafted. “If…” Such a powerful word for only two letters isn’t it?

Campbell signed with an agent (Jimmy Sexton) and made his way to New York City’s Radio City Music Hall for the draft. He was national news. The blue-collar kid from the small hometown was staying home from the war. The "war opposers" said we saved one. The soldiers past and present cheered for “one of their own” to be the first athlete drafted from West Point in over 10 years. It was a win-win situation and Caleb Campbell was the beneficiary.

When day two of the draft rolled around Campbell was sitting tight waiting to get a phone call. It would only take one call to change his life. Then, in the 7th and final round the phone rang and the end to every apprehension was over. The Detroit Lions had taken Caleb with the 218th overall pick. His future was clear. He would sign a contract with the Lions and serve as an Army recruiter in the Detroit area to make good on his four-year commitment to the United States Army.

Caleb went through mini-camp and turned some heads doing it. He showed up at training camp in Allen Park, Michigan with one thought on his mind; making an impression on the minds of the coaches. If he gets cut he is out of shoulder-pads and strapping up army boots quicker than you can whistle “The Army Goes Rolling Along.”

Then the phone rang a second time. It wasn’t supposed to ring a second time. Caleb Campbell heard his agent’s voice on the other end and the news was bad. The Army had changed the ASO policy. He was being called back into traditional military duty.

The policy changed. No explanation. But, some stuff went down behind closed doors that was backroom politics at its worst. An example was being made and it was being made of Caleb Campbell. Just like that Campbell went from being a Lion to a Soldier again.

So was Campbell the promising young officer put on the front lines of a combat zone to protect his country from terror? Was he stationed, deployed or otherwise sent off to do what he was trained for the last four years to do? Nope. He will serve this season as a graduate assistant football coach with Army. Instead of playing in the NFL and recruiting other young people to serve their country through the positive PR he was creating he is standing on a secluded football field as a graduate assistant doing his country a "greater good".

I love those Army commercials that talk about reaching your potential, being an army of one and gaining life experience that will prepare you for any job you want. Yep, Caleb is sure reaching his potential sitting and waiting for 2010 when he can request release from active duty.

Here is the bottom line. The army made a spectacle of Caleb Campbell to prove their power. The Army of one will never be greater than the army of many and don’t you forget it Caleb Campbell and anyone who was looking up to you. They sent a message loud and clear to every young man considering the military academy. You are meaningless to us. Your future, your well-being and the potential you possess are inconsequential. But we expect you to abandon all for the sake of this uniform.

The real thing that happened here is simple. The army gave themselves a black eye, and messed over Caleb Campbell in the process. Caleb still faces the chance of being put into combat, but says he plans to keep working and will be ready to play in 2010 if he gets the opportunity (Again with this word "if"). That is anything but easy to do, but I sure hope someone gives him that chance. You deserve it Caleb, and thank you for your service to our country even if they don’t deserve it sometimes.