How self important are the Wealthy in America?!

Just a quick observation on the contrast between sporting appreciation in America and other sports around the world.

This year we have seen an ecstatic Andrew Strauss lift the hallowed little urn of the Ashes, the captain of Man Utd lift whatever cups they won this year and never did we see any owners or Chairmen anywhere near the podium. Imagine the feeling of the English public if the often vilified chairman of the English Cricket Board, Giles Clarke, was front and centre to accept the Urn on behalf of the players who had fought and sacrificed the wellness of their bodies to win that prize! But having witnessed this weekend, the victory of the New York Yankees over the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, the huge trophy wasn’t handed over, to be held aloft, to the club captain Derek Jeter or to other senior players such as Mariano Rivera or the ever present Jorge Posada, but it was handed over by the Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig to none other than Mark? Steinbrenner, son of Yankee’s owner George Steinbrenner (who was at home recovering from illness). Did he play 170+ games during the season? Did he hit home runs out of many of the ball parks in the United States? Did he turn any double plays? Did he break any bats pitching the final innings to close tight games? NO! He sat in a corporate box in the billion dollar stadium financed by his father, eating the finest food financed by his father, drinking the fine wines financed by his father.

Surely there should be some humility here, owners meet and congratulate the players in the dressing room afterwards, be interviewed by the rabid press afterwards. Let the players (who do all the work on the field) have the ultimate glory. It is their faces and exploits that will live in the fans memories for years to come. We don’t remember who owned the Yankees when Babe Ruth set records, we don’t know who the selectors were when Don Bradman spent his career homing in on an Test average of 99, we don’t remember who owned Man Utd at the beginning of the Ferguson era. We only remember the players and sometimes exemplary coaches who delighted us with skill, stories and success on the field of play. Is it not about time that American team owners gave the limelight to the players in their time of victory, not accept all the plaudits in front of them because they’d bankrolled the whole operation?!

Or maybe that’s just the fairytale views of a humble Englishman not something that applies in the real world.