Glad tidings of great joy?

Today should see the resolution of the Deal That Never Was.

As for me, I'm off tomorrow to spend the holidays in the UK and may be in an Internet-free zone until early in the New Year (depending on whether I can hook up to the Web at my folks' place). So, if I don't get back on here between now and then, best wishes to all those who are interested enough in my random ramblings to visit the site on a regular basis. I'll be back early in January, eagerly counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report!

Baseball, the Internet & me (Part VI)

Once I'd got over the novelty value of the whole thing (weird fetish sites, discovering that you're not the only Del Amitri fan outside Scotland, looking up cult movies on IMDB, ...) it dawned on me that - since the Internet was such a treasure-trove (or should it be trash-ure trove?) of information - it was the ideal medium for me to renew my acquaintance with the sport of baseball. And so, from the start of the 2000 season onwards, I became a regular visitor on baseball sites - suddenly I went from having next-to-no information to having all the information I could possibly need: news, box scores, trades, stats, team histories, player bios, ballpark details...

Of course, it was fabulous - like finally seeing a talking picture after years of silent movies - but it was also only the beginning. Once I'd grasped the basics, I realised that I could also listen to games live on MLB Radio, which was something I hadn't be able to do since tuning into the Armed Forces Network in Cambridge 10 years before. I had to deal with the 6- / 7- / 8-hour time difference (which meant that I pretty much only got to listen to weekend games from the East Coast ), but I loved it. I was so hooked that I even managed organise my work / sleep schedule to follow the online audio broadcasts of the World Series. OK, so in an age of cable television and digital communication, getting all excited about audio broadcasts of the Subway Series makes me sound like a Back to the Future time-traveller, but I loved it - it was a real, live, real-time link with the sport of baseball. What more could I want? Well, as with any addiction, the answer was "lots"...

Fortunately, downloadable music wasn't the only thing that was developing rapidly on the Internet. The powers-that-be at Major League Baseball realised that the medium was perfectly suited to the type of content that they had available - streaming audio, video highlights, vintage radio broadcasts - and more and more content became available as time went on. I still only had a 56k modem connection at home, so information was pretty much limited to box-scores, photographs and radio feeds, but my Internet connection at work allowed me to take advantage of the video that was online.

And then, with broadband becoming much more widespread, MLB.com decided to create an offer that, to me, looked like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one: MLB.TV. If you're reading this from the other side of the Atlantic, where baseball is available for six months a year (and more, if you have ESPN Classic) at the push of a remote-control button, it might be hard to understand my enthusiasm, but you have to remember that there's a reason this blog is called The Baseball Desert, and that is that I have no "regular" access to the sport. MLB.TV, however - whether it's live (which is rare, as, contrary to what you might think, I do have a life and a job...) or archived - gives me the same kind of access most US baseball fans take for granted. For all that I yell and curse when the connection doesn't work properly (see post of Oct 3), I couldn't live without that daily dose of baseball. I often feel like Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, when he looks around at the baseball field that farmer Ray Kinsella [Kevin Costner] has built in his Iowa cornfield and asks: "Is this heaven?" Had that been me asking the question, Kevin Costner would have replied: "No, it's MLB.com"...

Baseball, the Internet & me (Part V)

I’ve explained how I got interested on baseball and I’ve also explained the reasons why my interest in the sport continued, so the final part of the story is really concerned with how I finally got to the point I’m at today.

As I explained in Parts I (see post of Nov 17) and II (Nov 18), I was pretty much hooked on baseball right from the word go, and the more I learned about the game, the more I grew to love it. The problem is that I really was ‘hooked’, and like any addiction, you need a regular dose of your particular drug just to keep you going. Baseball coverage on UK television turned out to be a temporary thing, and so I was left out in the wilderness, trying to follow the sport from 4,000 miles away, with almost no regular media coverage. I signed up for a weekly newsletter put together by a British baseball fan in Cambridge who was even crazier than I was and who would compile the week’s scores and news into a user-friendly newsletter format. Although it was a welcome lifeline to the sport that I loved, that particular endeavour did serve to remind me that part of baseball’s charm is the fact that it is played almost every day for six months a year, and there is a real reward to be had from studying the box-scores every morning, and following the natural rhythm of the game itself. However, a once-a-week newsletter makes it difficult to capture that rhythm, and it always felt like I was drowning in a sea of information when I tried to get my head around the box scores and reports of maybe a hundred games at a time. I tried, because I really wanted to follow what was going on, but it really sometimes felt like a huge effort, despite my intense love of the game. I occasionally splashed out on a copy of USA Today – a real luxury on my limited student budget – which gave me a much more ‘real’ sense of the game and had the added benefit of actual photographs (because the newsletter was text-only…), but it was still very hard going.

I tried to compensate for the lack of information (and images) by hooking up with a local team whilst I was at college, in the hope of actually getting to play a bit of baseball myself, but I wasn’t around long enough during the summer months for the experience to have any chance of succeeding, so as my time at university came to an end, my passionate interest in baseball began to wane a little, simply because I wasn’t getting enough exposure. I still loved the game, but, like with any love affair, if you spend too much time away from the object of your affection, it’s hard to keep the flame burning bright.

After university, things became even more complicated, as I moved to France. Dealing with a new country, a new job and, basically, a whole new life, meant that I had even less time and energy to devote to the pursuit of baseball. I followed from a distance, keeping an eye on the standings now and again and checking out who won the World Series, but it was clear that baseball has taken a back seat to all the rest. Rather than being a passionate love-affair, it was more like the sort of relationship you have with a distant cousin – you meet at family parties, say hello, exchange news for about two minutes and then head on out to the kitchen to see if there’s any beer left in the fridge.

So what changed? How did the relationship go from distant-cousin-polite-and-friendly back to can’t-keep-our-hands-off-each-other hot? Well, if you’re sat in front of your computer screen reading this (and, since this is a weblog, there’s a fairly good chance that’s the case…), then you already have the answer. What changed was that, in 1999, after having heard everyone go on and on for months about the World Wide Web and how great it was, I finally purchased a PC and got hooked up to the Internet...

Part VI

Christmas gifts

The Biggest Deal In Baseball History™ is apparently not going to happen - well, not right now, anyway, but this is one of those deals that reminds me of Glenn Close at the end of Fatal Attraction - she's lying in the bath, under the water, but you know she's not quite done... Buster Olney reflects on what each of the interested parties might wish for in their Christmas stocking...

As far as the deal itself goes, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one puzzled by the Players' Association's stance. Curt Schilling had this to say:

"I'm [perturbed] that it's come to this I understand the ruling from the association in one way, that their goal is to not allow players to devalue their contracts because this is big business and I could imagine a scenario where a club blackmails a player to reducing their contract in one way or another. But you know what? This Alex Rodriguez case is so drastically out of the norm and so different from anything else that is ever going to happen that it upsets me.

"Let's not mistake this. Donald Fehr and Gene Orza and all of the people in the New York office, they work for us, they're looking out for our best interest. When I have a liability or a claim against the owners or some kind of grievance, I go to them. But for them to tell me that I can't go play somewhere for a salary that I want to play for, something is wrong. If they can stop that from happening, there's a problem. I understand the dynamics of the rule but this is not the case in this situation, in my opinion."

And so say all of us...

Dastardley deeds

The numbers being bandied around in the A-Rod / Manny / Nomar deal rumours mean that we sometimes lose sight of the fundamental things like the ethics behind such a deal. Jim Caple has an interesting take on the situation, not only regarding the ramifications for the teams involved, but also what his sees as A-Rod basically trying to steal Nomar's job:

That's what this deal comes down to, one player trying to steal another player's job. Which would be all right, if both played for the same team (this happens all the time -- it's called competition) or if both were unsigned and seeking a job. But this is a case where both players are under contract with different teams and one player is undermining the other's negotiating leverage.

In a sense, I think he has a point, but at the same time, you could also argue that the Red Sox - having seen Nomar apparently turn down their 4-year, $60 million offer in the spring and then Miguel Tejada sign a six-year blockbuster deal with the Orioles - were also maybe planning to shop Nomar around anyway. Who's to say that the rumoured Magglio Ordonez deal wouldn't have been examined at some point? It's a dangerous game that the Red Sox probably couldn't have afforded to play - trading away their star shortstop without any guarantee of being able to replace him - but if it had merely been mentioned a month ago, there wouldn't be a problem with trying to sign A-Rod as Nomar's replacement.

As it turns out, the deal has hit a huge brick wall - in the form of the Players' Association - and may not get done at all. Apparently, the ethics are not a big deal, but God forbid A-Rod should actually want to take less money in order to make the deal work! I understand that this is a matter of principle for the Players' Association, and that thye're opposed to such a move because of the precedent it might set for owners looking to make yet another quick buck by reducing players' salaries, but I do have a hard time getting my head around the idea in this particular case.

There are one or two things that bother me: firstly, A-Rod apparently understands the Association's position, on this deal, but at the same time, he is the one looking to restructure things in order to make the deal work - he seems to be OK with the idea, and, at the end of the day, it's his money...; secondly, this is not a major-league minimum salary we're talking about here (and even if it were, the league minimum is probably ten times what the average American takes home every year) - this is $252 million over ten years. Go on - do what you did when you first read the figure three years ago: repeat it slowly, try to comprehend it and then go get your calculator and figure out that it means A-Rod makes $2876 an hour (even when he's sleeping during the offseason)... It's Monopoly money, it really is. Don't get me wrong, as I've said before, A-Rod would have been a fool not to accept such an offer if it was out there, but he's not going to be lining up at a Salvation Army soup kitchen anytime soon, so if he wants to take less money, let him take less money. What happened to "land of the free"...?

In the bleak mid-winter

This time of year - mid-to-late December - is usually the toughest one for baseball fans, as it's the point in time which is the most distant from both the memories of baseball past (the World Series) and the promise of baseball to come (pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training in mid-February). However, this year feels a little different - the deals that have already been done and, more particularly, the huge potential deals that are being talked about, mean that I wake up every morning eager to log on to ESPN / MLB / SI.com to find out what bombshell has been dropped overnight.

However, I do think that this whole thing might becoming a little bit too much for me - it's one thing to wake up every morning wondering vaguely if Alex Rodriguez might be wearing a Red Sox uniform next season; it is, however, another thing entirely to wake up one morning and realise that you've actually dreamed about A-Rod, which is what happened to me this morning... I'm taking 10 days' vacation over Christmas, and I get the impression that they'll be most welcome!

Red and White Stockings at Christmas

Alex Belth points out that Newsday is reporting a Magglio Ordonez-Nomar Garciaparra trade in the pipeline between the Red Sox and the White Sox - the trade would happen if (or rather when) the A-Rod / Manny Ramirez deal is finalised later this week.

It looks like it's going to be a great Christmas in Boston...

A done deal

One oft-rumoured deal that actually got done - Gary Sheffield will be officially announced today as the newest member of the New York Yankees.

The bigger picture

Thomas Boswell has a good piece about the new and improved Orioles, who are spending hard and fast this offseason, whilst The New York Times' Jack Curry examines the whole AL East division, including the quietly-improving Toronto Blue Jays.

Don't give up

The Expos may have lost Javier Vazquez to the Yankees and Vladimir Guerrero to God-only-knows-who (Orioles? Marlins? Giants??), but they haven't given up all hope of being competitive next season, signing White Sox OF Carl Everett to a two-year deal yesterday. I like the signing - he isn't Vladimir Guerrero (but then, who is?), but he'll bolster the Expos' outfield and give them some much-needed power at the plate - and it shows Expo GM Omar Minaya's willingness to make the deals needed to try to ensure that his ballclub remains competitive, even after losing its two biggest stars.

No news is...well, who knows?

The A-Rod-for-Manny-Ramirez trade rumours just refuse to go away. Jayson Stark says that the deal is back on the cards once again - he says that there are many factors involved, including Miguel Tejada's deal with the Orioles (which meant that the Red Sox basically don't want to extend Nomar Garciaparra's contract and pay him more than what Tejada is getting).

Outside of the Nomar / Manny business, the Red Sox continued to strengthen their squad over the weekend, acquiring closer Keith Foulke from the A's. I'm not a baseball analyst of any kind - I'm just a enthusiastic spectator - but it seems to me that after years of playing in the shadow of the Yankees, the Red Sox seem to have finally decided that the time has come to step up and try to play on the same ballfield, at least in terms of the offseason deals being done. I know that they've already been accused of becoming a kind of Yankee clone in terms of the money they're spending, but as a neutral observer, I feel that they've not quite reached the 'if it moves, sign it' policy so beloved by the Yankees (for 'Yankees' read 'George Steinbrenner'). Time will tell if I'm right or wrong...

No news is good news

Roger Clemens hasn't said that he will come out of retirement to pitch for the Astros next season, but he hasn't said he won't, either. He's expected to make his decision known sometime in January - right now, he's going to stay in shape in order to be able to pitch batting practice to his son Koby's high-school baseball team. (What I wouldn't give to be on that particular team - we had team practice yesterday and we hit against a machine, but it must be pretty nice to turn up to practice and know that Roger Clemens is going to be on the mound...).

Starting the ball rolling

The Orioles finally made a move yesterday with the signing of A's shortstop Miguel Tejada to the biggest deal in Baltimore history: six years, $72 million. The Sporting News' Ken Rosenthal says that this might be just the first of a series of blockbuster deals that the Orioles are interested in making. If either of the other deals he mentions goes through, the O's could be a team to watch this year.

The AL East promises to be an interesting division next season - even the Devil Rays are making moves to strengthen their squad. They're not exactly going to be challenging for the top spot, but it's a step in the right direction.

A farewell to arms?

We thought we'd said goodbye to Roger Clemens during the World Series, but, following his comments the other day that he was "99.9% sure" that he wasn't coming back, we now have this report from Texas, which floats the rumour that Clemens might be interested in pitching for the Houston Astros, alongside Andy Pettitte. The report would suggest that Clemens' is less than 99.9% sure now - maybe not a whole lot, but enough to make the idea intriguing...

Clemens has made more money in his career than he could spend in 10 lifetimes, so the Hummer is obviously not the issue, but Astros' GM Gerry Hunsicker - whilst remaining sceptical about the whole thing - does make a good point:

"How many times did Michael Jordan retire?" Hunsicker said. "Great athletes are great because they are driven by competition. Most great athletes will tell you, especially that first year, it's tough when you still have the competitive juices flowing. Every individual is different."

We'll see over the weekend whether this is just a wild rumour or whether it actually has some foundation. For my part, I like Clemens and would love to see him pitch for another season, regardless of which pinstripes he wears.

Pointing the finger

Rob Neyer's analysis notwithstanding, the New York sports press is well aware of the value of Pettitte to the Yankees (particularly in those crucial postseason games) and the papers are all up in arms about Pettitte's departure to the Astros: the Post, the Daily News and the Times are all pointing their fingers in the same direction...

Pettitte in perspective

ESPN's Rob Neyer has a very interesting analysis of the Pettitte move. Since he has all those impressive postseason wins, I'd never really taken the time to look at Pettitte's stats in any kind of depth, but Neyer contends not only that Pettitte is, at best, Houston's third starter, behind Roy Oswalt and Wade Miller, but also that he's not even as good a pitcher as the White Sox' Mark Buehrle, who also signed a three-year deal yesterday, (but, in his case, for a 'mere' $18 million).

"Houston? We have no problem..."

OK, so he's not going to be playing for the Astros for free, but Andy Pettitte's decision to accept Houston's 3-year $31.5 million offer showed that it's not always just about the money (I know - it's easy for it to be about other things than money when you make more in one month than most people make in five years, but still...). After nine years in New York, Pettitte decided that he'd like to play somewhere much closer to his Deer Park, Texas home, and the Astros were the perfect fit, even though their offer was way below what the Yankees (and the Red Sox too, apparently - surprise, surprise...!) were prepared to put on the table. From what I've seen and heard of Pettitte, it's not that much of a surprise that family issues came out ahead of money issues.

Buster Olney examines the effect that Pettitte's departure could have on the Yankee organisation as a whole.

After the announcement of Pettitte's departure, George Steinbrenner issued the following statement, which succeeds in being both honourable and ominous at the same time:

"We hate to lose Andy Pettitte. We want to thank him for his many contributions to the New York Yankees and we wish him the best of luck with his new team. He is a fine competitor and a gentleman. We know the fans may be disappointed but if you're counting us out next year, don't bet the house."

It didn't take the Yankees long to react to the loss of Pettitte - they've allegedly worked out a deal with the Dodgers which would bring Kevin Brown to New York and send Jeff Weaver to Los Angeles. The money-go-round is in full swing...

No more Nomar?

Peter Gammons has a good take on what could happen if the rumoured A-Rod / Nomar / Manny Ramirez (/ Miguel Tejada) deal were to fall through.

Meanwhile, Thomas Boswell has a good overview of the offseason so far (thanks to Wait 'Til Next Year for pointing me in the that direction). His article begs the question: can things get any crazier? My answer: God only knows - at this point in time, nothing would surprise me...

Going sour

It's not really in my nature to revel in other people's misery, but when the person in question is George $teinbrenner and the 'misery' is the possiblity that his winter deals are going to go pear-shaped, then I really have no qualms about the way I feel.

Reports are surfacing that not only might George's so-called #1 offseason priority - the signing of free agent Andy Pettitte - not happen, but also that the Gary Sheffield deal is not quite as 'done' as we have been led to believe.

Even if the deals don't happen, it probably won't do much to change the bigger picture - Steinbrenner will just go out and get other big-name, big-money players to fill the spots, but it is nice to see, now and again, that all those dollars don't necessarily buy you a smooth ride. And who knows, George might even have to sit down and think a little before opening up his bottomless wallet... Now that would be a great Christmas present for all of us...

Dastardley deals

Anyone with an ounce of intelligence can work out that most baseball deals, especially during the Hot Stove season, are 100%, Jerry McGuire, "show me the money" deals - it's all business. But sometimes those deals bring about situations that the average fan - i.e. me - couldn't have imagined in his wildest dreams. After Boston lost that amazing ALCS Game 7 to the Yankees back in October, one suspected that there would be changes in the managerial team - and there have been - but I never imagined that, two months down the road, Curt Schilling would be wearing a Red Sox uniform, and that the Sox would be trying to pull off a deal to send Manny Ramirez to Texas, Nomar Garciaparra to California and bring the best all-round player in the game to Boston. Now that would be a hell of a deal (although I hate to think what the sight of A-Rod in a Boston uniform would do to Yankee owner George Steinbrenner...).

You want East Coast rivalry of the highest order? You got it...

Bloggers on writers on baseball

Just because everyone else is linking to it doesn't mean that I shouldn't. Alex Belth has a terrific interview with Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci over at Bronx Banter. Verducci comes across as that rarest of combinations - a thoughtful, intelligent writer who, first and foremost, just loves the game of baseball. It's no coincidence that he cites Roger Angell as one of the writers who has made the biggest impression on him over the years.

"Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away..."

It's a measure of baseball's ability to capture our attention - even in the offseason - that a week away from blogging feels more like a month. Even though not a single game has been played since I last posted on here, a lot has been going on in the baseball world. As I sat down and took a look at the major stories of the past week, it occurred to me that any roundup of the news should carry a special Sesame Street-style credit - "Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'S'...":

Spahn: baseball lost one of it's all-time greats last week, when Warren Spahn passed away at the age of 82. Being a) British and b) 33 years old, my knowledge and memories of Spahn are somewhat limited, but from footage and interviews I've seen and articles I've read, he was a remarkable pitcher and an exemplary human being. I could go on forever about his incredible stats (177 games won after the age of 35, 13 20-win seasons, ...) but others have done so better than me, so I will simply point you in the direction of Rich Lederer at Rich's Weekend Baseball BEAT and Thomas Boswell at the Washington Post.

Schilling and the Sox (Red): speaking of pitchers who are over the age of 35, Boston pulled off a huge trade this weekend with the signing of Curt Schilling, strengthening their rotation with a guy who is not only a great pitcher (something he has proved in big-game situations such as the 2001 World Series against, ironically, Boston's biggest rivals, the Yankees...), but also a workhorse who will be able to give the Red Sox a lot of innings over the course of a season. I know Schilling is outspoken and can easily rub people up the wrong way, but I like the guy - I like his work ethic, the seriousness with which he approaches not only the game of baseball as a whole but his own specific job in particular. Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe has an interview with Schilling which contains the following gem:

Fear of failure, he says, is a great motivator, and his pregame preparation reflects an attention to detail that very few pitchers approach. From [Atlanta pitcher Greg] Maddux, he said, he learned that the key to preparation is understanding when a hitter is going to swing at a pitch and when he is going to take one.

"Once you understand that," he said, "the key is throwing a strike when he's taking and a ball when he's swinging. It can be done. Hitters are creatures of habit. They do things on certain counts and in certain situations that they don't in other counts and in other situations. For a freakin' $13 million a year, is it too much to ask me to know when that is?"

Quick, get me a 2004 schedule - I want to see exactly when we might get to see Schilling and Pedro Martinez pitching on back-to-back starts in Yankee Stadium...

Steinbrenner: the Boss has always pulled the strings in New York, but Buster Olney contends that he's now doing so more than ever. Steinbrenner, not wanting to be outdone by the Red Sox signing Schilling, is on the verge of making a deal with Atlanta OF Gary Sheffield. As Thomas Boswell says, the Red Sox / Yankees rivalry is always big news, even in the middle of winter...


That's it as far as the big news goes (I didn't mention Richie Sexson going to the Diamondbacks, but that's because, frankly, it's not the sexiest piece of news out there...). I'll try to post the fifth (and final) episode of Baseball, the Internet & me on here sometime soon, so keep an eye on this space...