volunteering with D.C.’s public libraries.
“I think it makes some of the work
that we’ve done more effective when
people see that some effort’s going in
on the back end,” Doolittle says.
He speaks up, too, on baseball’s
direction—from backing the union
workers who manufacture players’ ball
caps to questioning stingy front offices.
“If you’re in the big leagues, the
game has been so good to you that
you don’t want to see it fade away,”
Doolittle says. “You want to come out
every night to a stadium that’s packed.
You want every team to be competing
in free agency and making aggres-
sive trades....It’s all tied together.
If we’re acting in the best interests
of furthering the growth of the game
and engaging our fans, making our
game more accessible, we need to take
responsibility for the future.”
The five-year, $10.5 million deal
Doolittle signed with Oakland in ’14
runs out after this season, which will
make him a free agent for the first time.
As a pitcher “over the hill in baseball
years,” he knows he may face a soft
market. But that won’t quiet him. “You
can feel like there’s a target on your
back—but that makes it more important
to speak out. I think sometimes people
at the top might be banking on people
not wanting to share their opinions.”
Doolittle used some of his $382,000
World Series winner’s share to buy
signed first editions of the memoirs
of the MLB players’ union’s first leader,
Marvin Miller, and the game’s first free
agent, Curt Flood. (He had already readboth, but he felt this “was an appro-
priate way” to spend the money.) It
shouldn’t shock his teammates, who
already know him as a resource on
books and baseball labor.
“It was exciting having guys in
spring training talking to me about
Lords of the Realm,” Doolittle says,
referring to John Helyar’s 1994 work on
baseball as a business. “Talking about
Lords of the Realm while we’re warming
up before team stretch!”
For questions on any other subject,
just ask—Doolittle probably has a bookon it. (^) ¼
“That’s why I like sci-fi,” Doolittle
says. “It’s an alternate reality that
has nothing to do with baseball.”
20 FOR THE ’20S