About 10 years ago a baseball reporter for a New Jersey newspaper, Moss Klein, was talking to a man in a blue suit on the field before a game in Milwaukee. When he finished his conversation, which had been observed by other reporters covering the Yankees, one of the younger reporters broke from the group and approached Klein.

“Who was that you were talking to?” he asked Klein.

“Bud Selig,” Klein replied.

Selig had been the Brewers’ owner for nearly 20 years. Any reporter, old or young, should have recognized him. Not so with many owners today.

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Ken Singleton almost seemed outraged. His Yankees’ broadcast partner, Michael Kay, had just mentioned that Jerry Manuel, the Mets’ manager, had refered to his right fielder, Ryan Church, as “that guy” rather than use his name after he incomprehensibly missed third base in the 11th inning the night before and was called out instead of scoring the tie-breaking run.

“There should be a little more respect involved,” Singleton said, his ire seemingly rising. “You wouldn’t want the player saying ‘that manager.'” Then he added, “I’m serious. There’s a certain amount of respect on a ball club that you should have. You’re in this together for six months.”

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George Brett summed up his view of Zack Greinke’s 7-1 record and 0.60 earned run average this way: “You wouldn’t have thought it possible if you saw him pitch in spring training. He threw fastball/change, nothing else. He got hit around.”

Brett saw Greinke throw all those fastballs and changeups because he was in the Royals’ camp pitching batting practice and hitting fungoes. Greinke, it turned out, threw all of those changeups because he wanted to refine the pitch and he wanted to have a better change than fellow starter Kyle Davies.

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