This post gives our readers some more history about my career and about "organized" baseball as a whole. 

Please read and let me know your thoughts! 

Continuation...

Having been placed on the 40-man roster in the off-season meant an invitation to Major League Spring Training in 2003.  The Chicago Cubs had hired a new manager—Dusty Baker.  Dusty Baker is one of the finest gentlemen I ever met in baseball and was thrilled to play for him.  In the past Cubs management had suggested I was a racist or a clubhouse cancer. These lies were started to further isolate me from teammates and coaches.  It was refreshing to have a manager who would evaluate a player for who he really was rather than simply believing what management had told him.  Evidently Manager Baker had similar untrue statements made about him during his career and he wanted to get to know the players himself.  Manager Baker served in the military and I grew up in a military family so you just understood a person doesn’t last very long or get very far in life if you are racist or not a team player.  Needless to say, I greatly respect the man, coach, and manager that is Dusty Baker.  He was also kind enough to sign a photo for my father which reads “To: Papa Bru – you did a great job!  Very good son. Dusty Baker 03”

In late July 2003 I was included in the trade which sent Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton of the Pirates over to the Cubs.  While at AAA Nashville I had only four starts before the Pirates took me off their 40-man roster (even though they had room on the roster). The San Diego Padres picked me up, kept me on their 40-man roster and I finished the season playing for the AAA Portland Beavers with a 2.61 ERA.

 In January 2004 the Padres sent me to Rookie Career Development in Washington DC.  This is a course for future major league players.  During this seminar players were advised to call Major League Baseball contacts rather than the local police should they run into any problems.  Why would Major League Baseball have their own police/security force in cities with Major League Baseball teams?  Is this part of their control to ensure negative stories don’t get out or get told the way they want?  During one of their group sessions I asked why we shouldn’t contact local authorities (other players also questioned the instructions) and the seminar handlers began taking copious notes and never really did answer the question.  Within two weeks of attending the seminar I was designated for assignment (Feb 5, 2004) by the Padres and no other Major League Baseball club claimed me.  Designated for assignment means I was taken off the 40 man roster and no other club picked me up.  Was I being punished for questioning baseball?  Why would a team take a player off the 40 man roster after sending him to an elite player development seminar? This move doesn’t make any sense unless you are the Cubs.

Although not on the 40-man roster, the Padres invited me to Major League Spring Training.  In the meantime, the Cubs had not protected Jason Zuminski on the 40-man roster and the Padres selected him in the December Rule 5 Draft.  Normally, a club (in this case the Cubs) would accept a minor leaguer in trade from the Padres so the Padres would not have to place Zuminski on the 25-man Major League roster to start the season.  This is highly unusual as the option for the Padres, if they believed Zuminski was not ready for the Major Leagues, would have to send him back to the Cubs.  This would place Zuminski in an untenable position and I respect the decision by the Padres, but the Cubs could have avoided the rush of Zuminski to the Major Leagues by accepting a trade. Why would the Chicago Cubs not accept a trade when that is the established solution in these cases?  Was it because of how successful I was during major league spring training?   Despite having a Major League Spring Training ERA of 1.83 there was no roster room and I was assigned to AAA Portland.  Not making the Major Leagues with such a stellar ERA shook my confidence and I didn’t play well for Portland and was released shortly thereafter and made a free agent.

Several weeks later I was contacted by the Baltimore Orioles and offered a contract and completed the season at their AA club in Bowie, MD.  Interestingly, the President of the Orioles was Andy MacPhail, who was the General Manager of the Cubs when I was signed by the Cubs.  Coincidence or was something being covered up?

In the off-season of 2004 I received a call from David Elson, who had been my agent.  He gave me a contact in the Atlanta Braves organization to call about a contract.  David begged me to take the offer immediately so I called the Braves and was offered a contract but asked for a day to think about it.  The Braves representative told me that would be okay so I called David to tell him I’d call Atlanta the following morning.  When I called to accept the offer by the Braves, the representative told me they were withdrawing the offer.  Asked why and was told it was because I was a “cancer in the clubhouse.”  Where had they heard such a lie and why wouldn’t they divulge the information when I asked?  Did my ex-agent have to contact the Cubs about the offer since his business partner had recently become a paid consultant for the Cubs?  Did the Cubs tamper yet again by telling lies to the Braves?  Why would Atlanta offer a contract and the next day withdraw the offer?

Several weeks later I was offered, and accepted, anther contract with the Baltimore Orioles organization.  After Spring Training I was assigned to the Orioles AAA affiliate in Ottawa, Canada as a long reliever.  Early in the 2005 season I dominated in this role.  Unfortunately, the Ottawa Lynx had me go 11 games without throwing an inning despite many opportunities to use me.  As a long reliever, you don’t have typical bullpen sessions to pitch and keep sharp because you never know when the club might need you in a game that night.  After such a long layoff I lost the sharpness needed to pitch effectively and began struggling.

After being sent down to the Bowie Baysox I bounced between being used as a starter and relief pitcher.  During one of the starts I had the pleasure of having Javy Lopez as my catcher.   After the game Javy asked me why I wasn’t in the major leagues... I told him that was a good question, but his guess was as good as mine.  He told me he was wondering why he was placed on the major league disabled list and sent to Bowie since he wasn’t hurt.  So why would the Orioles lie about a player being hurt?  Is a roster spot really that important?  What could being sent down to open a roster spot do to a players confidence?  In Javy’s last season he hit a combined career major league low of .235.  Was major league baseball sending Javy a message?

In 2006 I was sent back to Bowie to pitch which was around the same time the steroids use in Major League Baseball had become a hot topic. After a month or so into the season a local Baltimore TV reporter was planning a live interview with me about the sensory aid I created called the Balance Pro SportBelt.  Before the interview the reporter told me he wanted to do a live broadcast but the club had told him the interview would be recorded instead.  Why is a reporter taking orders from a private industry?  Does Major League Baseball really own the media?  During the interview I was asked a few questions about the belt I developed but was also asked if I would take the side of baseball or Congress in the steroid controversy.  I told the reporter Congress was responsible for the laws and, therefore, I would side with Congress.  The next day I was scheduled to visit a children’s hospital in Annapolis and planned on making this visit on my own without any of the clubs media relations staff.  When the media relations staff found this out I was immediately sent down to Frederick, the Orioles High A level affiliate, which is where I finish the season and my organized baseball career.  The last thing my Frederick pitching coach told me was “I should take what I learned from baseball and apply it to the real world.”  What did he mean?  One of my AAA managers was interviewed and asked how he had made it so far in baseball, his response was... “To keep your head down and mouth shut”.   Was this the pitching coach’s message?  Not to evaluate, not to speak up, not to challenge authority?  The Orioles never contacted me again.   Why would Major League Baseball be concerned if a player respects Congress (or did at the time)?  Was Major League Baseball afraid of losing their antitrust exemption because it had not banned the use of steroids?  Or were they really just testing me to see if I would keep my head down and mouth shut about the way I had been treated?

Control is an essential element of Major League Baseball.  It begins with controlling young players out of high school and college and continues throughout a player’s professional career.  Once a player signs with a club, the club “owns” the player for six years.  These are the prime development years which determine the outcome of all the effort put in by a player.  In what other industry does an employer own the rights to an employee for 6 years… or for any amount of time for that matter?  This is modern day slavery and the only reason it still goes on today is because we are raised from little boys to love a game and give our all to be the best we can be and the reality is it doesn’t matter because once management makes up their mind your future is locked and your mouth better be sealed or else… you may get a visit from someone you know within the organization who might just try to push you over the edge, “Matt, you’re looking kind of slender there aren’t you” said Joe Housey.  This time I responded, “Why would you say that Joe, why would you really say that?” 

Random fact:  The Cubs had me fill out a psychological evaluation before I signed.  Did they use this against me during my career?  No doubt about it!

Since baseball is a game of statistics, as revealed in the book and movie Moneyball, it is relatively easy to influence player statistics and even the outcome of games.  To understand the effects of this control you have to know how the system works.  Scorekeepers for minor league games work for the club, not the league.  Therefore, there is the opportunity for the employer (a club) to influence player statistics.  The most control includes what plays are categorized as hits and errors.  Fielding statistics, batting averages, and earned run averages are all determined by how a play is statistically entered by a scorekeeper.   Managers are even known to contact scorekeepers to make changes after a game.  While with Daytona I even had an imaginary run added to game statistics and clear errors characterized as hits.  Over time this has a negative effect on statistics (or positive effect for the chosen players). 

Another tactic to greatly influence statistics is the decision to play or not play certain players or put them in unfamiliar positions where easy outs become hits and batting order shuffles decrease run production.  Some lineup shuffling is to be expected, but some are highly questionable.  One example is a game I pitched where the regular 3^rd Baseman (who had just started to play Left Field) was moved to Right Field, the regular Centerfielder (big hitter) was out of the lineup, the 2^nd Baseman was moved to 3^rd Base, the regular 1^st Baseman (another big hitter) was out of the game, the replacement 3^rd Baseman played 1^st base, and the replacement 3^rd Baseman was playing 2^nd base.  Confusing eh?  All this was one in one game.  Also, run production is controlled through batting orders where good hitting players are lowered in the batting order to reduce run production.

When watching a baseball game, look at how long a pitcher is left in.  The “prospect” pitchers will be pulled quickly when they get into a jam and if they leave with runners in scoring position, you will see the best relievers put in.  Other pitchers will be left out on the mound, no matter how much they are struggling and when they leave the game the relief pitcher sent out invariably isn’t the ace from the bullpen.  Just an observation but why would a manager make these decisions or are these decisions coming from the top?  Management knows a lineup directly affects player statistics.

Also, there is control on the fan message boards.  If you look at comments objectively on the message boards you will almost always see one or two “apologists” for management decisions, regardless of how such decisions negatively affect the team or outcome of a game.  In fact, I have tried to post my story about helping children with sensory disorders only to have the posts quickly removed and banned from further posting.  Recently, the Orioles Hangout message board took my post down and then reinstated the post after I uploaded a picture to Facebook which showed the link to the board and an empty page saying no thread specified.  Find it interesting a guy by the name of kirchhousen posted of the board to point out a negative about me not being in the big leagues with the Orioles.  Was this guy a plant from the Orioles?  Why point out something so trivial?  It's a story about a ball player who gave up his baseball career to help special needs children.  Why would Major League Baseball not want to share a positive story about a former player who is helping children with developmental disabilities?  Do you see the trend?

More to come…