Commentary

Trade deadline brings some drama

Reality TV isn't really my thing.

I haven't watched any in years, at least since Cubs part-owner Todd Ricketts' failed attempt at selling hot dogs in "Undercover Boss."

But this year's trade deadline created some must-see reality TV, including one strange episode Wednesday night that had everything: a crying ballplayer, a Twitter catastrophe, player selfies, a trade that fell apart and evil genius Scott Boras to boot.

Plenty of big names were dealt last week, including Cole Hamels, Troy Tulowitzki, David Price, Johnny Cueto, Jonathan Papelbon and Carlos Gomez, while a few dozen prospects who may or may not turn out to be the real deal changed organizations as well.

And in the end, a new term emerged that probably will be part of the baseball lexicon for years to come: the reboot.

"The best word or term I saw was from [Tigers General Manager] Dave Dombrowski -- 'reboot,' " Reds GM Walt Jocketty told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "That's kind of what we're doing. We're rebooting or retooling. It's not a rebuild."

Yes, "rebuild" is now a pejorative, like "performance-enhancing" or "bush league." No one has the time for a rebuild, but everyone can wait for a reboot.

When you reboot your computer, you're just turning it off and then turning it back on. When you're rebooting a team, you're tuning out the season by making a move or two to tune in again next year.

The Tigers were the principal rebooters, opting to deal upcoming free agents Price and Yoenis Cespedes despite being only 31/2 games out of the second wild-card spot at the trade deadline. Back in 1997 when the White Sox sold off their stars in a similar situation, it was called "White Flagging it."

But when we reflect on the trade deadline of 2015, the story that long will be told was the drama that unfolded Wednesday night when various media outlets reported the Brewers had traded Gomez to the Mets for Wilmer Flores and Zack Wheeler.

Gomez sent out a smiling selfie from the Brewers' plane, basically verifying that he was happy to be going from a losing team to a contender. Then the twit hit the fans, and word spread through Citi Field that Flores had been traded.

Since the deal hadn't been made official because of the medicals, we were treated to the sight of Flores shedding tears as he took the field one inning.

That led to more tweets, and "Wilmer Flores" was soon trending on Twitter.

Mets Manager Terry Collins had an uproarious postgame news conference defending his decision to play the sobbing shortstop before Mets GM Sandy Alderson announced the trade was off because of Gomez's medicals.

Boras, who is Gomez's agent, defended the Brewers' medical records and made fun of the Mets, saying "apparently in New York it's viewed as cheesehead medicine."

Brewers GM Doug Melvin took his licks and then dealt Gomez to the Astros the next day. He told reporters that he had so many names in his head he accidentally told people, "We traded Counsell and [Mike] Fiers to Houston."

That would be Brewers Manager Craig Counsell, who was not traded anywhere.

In the end, it was a great week for baseball. Fans of almost every team had a new player or players to look forward to watching, whether it's this year or down the road in the next reboot.

Sports on 08/03/2015

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