Larry Wayne's revenge

Somewhere in Atlanta, there a tiny baby thanking his lucky stars that his dad didn't hit his first major-league home run in San Diego. "Hi - I'm Chipper Jones and this is my son Petco..."

Georgia on no-one's mind

The Braves had a walk-off victory against the Giants last night and look to be heading for yet another division title, but what caught David Pinto's eye were the empty seats at Turner Field. Richard, over at Pearly Gates, suggests that the Atlanta fans are purely and simply bored with success. As mad as that makes Richard, it is understandable - you can tire of pretty much anything. You can that "you can have too much of a good thing" is a cliché, but clichés become clichés because, generally, they're true, and I think it is entirely possible for baseball fans to be blasé about their team's nth division title.

I was thinking about this the other day, in the context of the Yankees / Red Sox rivalry. It must be great to have been a fan of the Yankees over the last few years, with all the success they have had, but the downside of winning four World Series titles in five years is that there's only one way to go from there - down. Yankee fans and the Yankee organsiation (for Yankee organisation read "George Steinbrenner") are often criticised for appearing to think that the American League / World Series title is some kind of birthright, but I don't see it quite that way.

Success breeds a certain level of expectancy, and once your team has that kind of success it's only natural that management and players and fans hope that it continues. However, when the success is repeated over a period of time, the hope is slowly transformed into expectancy. In some cases, the expectancy is coupled with an unpleasant arrogance, but in most cases I would venture to suggest that it's a natural human reaction - if you see something happen four times out of five, there's a good chance that you're expecting it to happen the sixth time around too. If it does, that's great, but at the same time it creates yet more pressure on the team (and on the fans who live and die with the team).

I'm not saying that losing is preferable to winning, and I'm sure that any fan / team in their right mind would sell their soul for the Yankees 26 World Series or the Braves' 12 consecutive division titles, but you're then in a situation where you're living under constant pressure rather than in constant hope. A pop genius once sang

"They say it's better to be travelling than to arrive"

and that's exactly what this is. The Red Sox live in hope that this year will be the year, whilst the Yankees and the Braves and other successful sports teams live in fear of the moment when this is no longer the year. The French have a saying - "l'espoir fait vivre" - which translates roughly as "hope keeps you alive": on that basis I think we can probably pronounce a large chunk of the Braves' fanbase D.O.A.

Jab...uppercut...

Watching Boston's deadly three-four punch of Manny Ramirez & David Ortiz yesterday, I was reminded me of the '88 Oakland A's "Bash Brothers", Canseco and McGwire. As a pitcher, you wouldn't want to see either of these guys coming up to the plate, but getting them back-to-back? Ouch!

Job opportunity?

Having had very little vacation time this year and with a busy period looming, it's hard to drag my feet into work right now, so I'm considering a change of direction. I thought it might be nice to try to combine this fresh orientation with my new-found passion for the Red Sox, so I've decided to apply for the position of Red Sox third-base coach.

Dale Sveum's shortcomings as a third-base coach have been well documented by Red Sox Nation, and even if Sveum is not a regular reader of baseball blogs, you're not going to tell me he hasn't heard the boos that have greeted some of his rasher decisions to send runners home. And yet, despite that, Sveum continues to astonish and amaze - last night, it was David Ortiz's turn to undertake the kamaikaze mission of going from third to home with absolutely no chance of being safe. Ortiz is a great hitter, but on the basepaths he makes even me look like Speedy Gonzalez, so I'm still trying to work out why Sveum sent him home in the middle of the Red Sox's fifth-inning rally when even the fastest of runners would have had trouble getting to the plate in time. What makes things worse is that Ortiz, in making a truly valiant attempt to avoid the tag by Brandon Inge, fell hard on his right shoulder and could have seriously injured himself. After his slide (actually, it was more of a collapse) he spent an inning or so flexing his shoulder and I was worried that he had done some serious damage, but it would appear that he's OK (as are the Red Sox, who swept Detroit and gained a precious game on the Yankees).

I've always tried to match my potential job applications with my many and varied talents, but the job of third-base coach for the Red Sox doesn't seem to require any talent at all - it appears to consist mainly of waving your arms about wildly, making ill-advised baserunning calls and patting Manny Ramirez on the rear as he finishes his home-run trot, so I think I'm the man for the job. I'm going to update my CV right away - does anyone have Theo Epstein's e-mail address??

Rays of hope

It's been pointed out to me by a fellow inhabitant of the baseball desert that all this focus on the big East Coast rivalry means that I'm missing out on what's happening in the Pacific Northwest. I guess that the Mariners' collapse this season, coupled with the 9-hour time difference that makes following any team from the West Coast a tough job for me, has had me looking elsewhere for captivating baseball, but two good stories surfaced this weekend: the first is the Mariners' fourth straight win, all of them comback victories; the second is the historic season that Ichiro is having.

Individual brilliance in the midst of mediocrity (whether it's Ichiro or Walter Johnson's 25-win season on a Washington team that went 64-90 in 1911) always seems like such a waste when placed in the bigger picture, but at the same time I'm grateful for the rare opportunity to focus on the individual outside of the team context. Now that I've been called to order I'll try to keep a closer eye on Ichiro and the Mariners between now and the end of the season.

Piece of cake

OK, so all my stuff about being able to take or leave the Red Sox was not entirely true - there are a bunch of games available to me on MLB.TV, but it was a no-brainer: Detroit vs. Boston at Fenway, and as luck would have it, Tim Wakefield is pitching. I love watching this guy pitch, because he makes it look so easy with that knuckleball of his. When I watch Wakefield play, baseball returns to an almost human scale - there are no 97mph heaters, no 500-foot home runs, just that fluttering knuckleball. It's so effortless that a wild, fleeting thought always crosses my mind as I sit in front of my computer: "Hey, I could do that!"

Yeah, right, dream on...

My man Johan

The Angels' winning streak ran into a brick wall yesterday in the shape of Johan Santana, who pitched yet another gem to help the Twins beat the Angels.

I've still not seen Santana pitch this season (last night I got caught up in the Clemens vs. Zambrano matchup), but I really should try to do so whilst he is still in Cy Young mode:

Santana, who is now 15-6, has won his last seven starts and his last eight decisions, going 13-2 since June 9 with a 1.66 ERA. Since then he has almost twice as many strikeouts (152) as hits and walks allowed (60 and 24 for a total of 84). He leads the American League in strikeouts with 213.

Niiiiice...

Thank you, Boston

After watching the Astros-Cubs game on MLB.TV last night I got a little caught up in Red Sox fever - it was Friday night, so I figured there was no harm in catching a couple of innings of the Tigers-Red Sox game (a 1:05am start over here) before hitting the sack. A couple of inning turned into four or five and before I knew it, it was the 7th-inning stretch, the clock had ticked on past 3:15am and I figured I might as well watch the whole game.

I was worried that the Red Sox might not win, especially with Manny leaving the game and Foulke not available, but I should have known better. A game during which Ricky Gutierrez - who has played in only 35 games this season - went 3-for-4, with 2 RBIs and a stolen base, was clearly a game where the baseball gods were smiling on Boston. And so it turned out, as the Red Sox won 5-3, to stay 5 1/2 games behind the victorious Yankees in the AL East, and a 1/2 game ahead of the red-hot Angels in the AL Wild Card race.

As Ed points out, it's somewhat of a surprise to learn that there are only 36 games left to play - less than a quarter of the season - but I'm not going to get depressed about the days getting shorter and summer coming to a close. Instead, I'm going to enjoy the next couple of months of baseball and hopefully store up as many great memories as last season to keep me warm over the winter.

Starting over

Baseball is back at Shallow Center, along with Tom's thoughts on other important issues of the day.

Wall of Fame

For someone like myself who is physically far-removed from the game, baseball can easily become a sport of big names and personalities. As much as I try to appreciate what is going on on the field and keep tabs on all thirty teams, there are certain names that tend to dominate: A-Rod, Pedro, Bonds, Sheffield, Clemens, Pudge, Vlad, etc.

However, having watched the highlight reels for a couple of years now, the journeyman once-a-week outfielder inside me would like to turn the spotlight on a few guys who get the job done 300 feet from home plate day after day, with little fuss or fanfare, so I've created the Baseball Desert 'Wall of Fame'. The pictures hanging on the wall may change from time to time, but if you want to see some great defense, check out the three guys on the right.

Out of character

Are my eyes playing tricks or me, or is there really a buoyant sense of optimism washing over Red Sox Nation right now?

Since harbingers of good fortune are not restricted to card-carrying members of RSN, I thought I'd chip in with my own omen from earlier this week: for months I've been desperately scanning the shelves of my local supermarket, hoping for the return of one of my favourite beverages, which they'd stopped stocking, but to no avail. And then on Monday, for no apparent reason, Samuel Adams was back. Could the spontaneous re-appearance of Boston Lager in my local suburban French supermarket right around the time the Red Sox start winning again be a mere coincidence? I think not. Years from now Red Sox Nation will look back and remember this day as "The Day Sam Adams Won The Series"...

Goin' nuts

The Indians' recent horrendous nine-game losing streak got me thinking about another bunch of Cleveland players who just couldn't get things together on the field, and it would seem that I'm not the only person who had that great Randy Newman song going around in his head.

Cleveland finally managed to stop the streak last night with a victory against the Yankees, and once again, Coco Crisp was in the thick of the action. Having dropped a fly ball in the seventh inning which allowed Kenny Lofton to reach base safely (and subsequently tie the game on a double by Bernie Williams), Coco redeemed himself by laying down a perfect bunt with two men out in the eighth inning and a runner on third - the bunt took everyone by surprise and Coco raced up the first-base line, slid headfirst into the base, beating the throw and plating the winning run.

I don't know if the win will be enough to turn the Indians' season around - they're 8 games behind the Twins and 9 1/2 games back in the Wild Card race - but it was nice to see them break their losing streak. I like these guys, I like the way they play, and if I were seriously in the market for a team to root for on a regular basis, they would be high on my list. Still, maybe they don't need my remote support, because now they have a new secret weapon: The Rally Squirrel!

Night and day

If you're looking for the polar opposite of Coco's great defensive play (see below), then look no further than the Portland Beavers, whose ineptitude in the field was kindly pointed out by Paul at Nice Guys Finish Third:

Speaking of defensive inefficiency and knowing your job, Bucky [Jacobsen]'s got nothing on the Portland Beavers, after last night. Baseball Fundamentals Quiz time, kids: As a defensive unit, how should you handle a routine ground ball? Not, I would posit, like this:

"... Jeremy Reed's soft single up the middle tied it 2-2 with two outs in the third, and that was only the start of the damage. Reed proceeded to embarrass the Beavers infielders, trotting into an unoccupied second base as the ball was lobbed in from center field. And while the crowd was in mid-groan, Reed then took third,
which also was left vacant by Portland infielders. Fortunately for the Beavers, catcher Yamid Haad was standing near home plate."

Ball-scratchin' baseball

For someone like me, who has a tendency to "wax poetic and lyrical about "the beautiful game"", Beth's post on yesterday's Red Sox game is a timely reminder that the game is not played in A. Bartlett Giamatti's "Green Fields of the Mind" but on a real baseball diamond:

[...] for people who want to see nasty, sweaty, snarling, chaw-spittin', ball-scratchin' baseball every once in a while, tonight's game was an instant Redneck Classic.

It reminded me of a chapter from one of Thomas Boswell's books which, if I remember correctly, is entitled "It Wasn't Pretty But It Sure Was Fun".

The Yankees maintained their 6 1/2 game lead in the AL East with a 5-4 win over the Indians. Baseball Desert favourite Coco Crisp made a fantastic catch to rob Kenny Lofton of his 2,000th career hit. It was one of those vicious line drives that looks sure to fall in safe, but Crisp dived to his right and made a great back-handed catch. It wasn't enough to keep the Indians in the game, but it was a priceless play, if only because it shut Michael Kay up for a second: "Aaaaaand there it is....Noooo, what a play by Crisp!"

Back to reality

I'm back, after a short week's vacation up in the mountains. The weather wasn't great - more clouds and rain than sunshine - but it was great to get away from Paris for a while and to be able to get up in the morning and not worry about having to go to work. Don't get me wrong: I like my job, much more than a bunch of other jobs I've done, but I also like not having to do it occasionally...

I went pretty much a full week without any Internet access / baseball scores, so I guess my actions on firing up the computer speaking volumes about my subconscious baseball interests and affinities. I was away for six days, and thirty baseball teams played something like a hundred games over that period, but when I logged on to MLB.com, the first thing I did - with apologies to those fans of other teams who are reading this - was check out the respective performances and of the Yankees and the Red Sox.

I guess it's like an old flame that you just can't let go of - you spend time away and think that things might have changed, but when you end up in a room with a bunch of other people, you only have eyes for that one person. I wouldn't classify myself as a fan of either team (although I will admit to having a soft spot for the Red Sox), but I think this shows how much the Sox-Yankees rivalry can mark 'fans of the game'. There's a lot of good stuff going on elsewhere in the majors - Scott Kazmir pitching in, and winning, his major league debut, the Angels and the A's slugging it out in the AL West - and some ugly stuff too, such as the sky falling in on the Indians, but what provides a rhythm to this English baseball fan's summer is the eternal struggle between those two East Coast rivals.

So, what's the state of play? Well, it was nice to see that the Red Sox had made up ground on the Yankees: they were 5 1/2 games back when I logged on yesterday and 6 1/2 games back as of this morning, thanks to Ted Lilly's stellar 13-strikeout shutout and Gary Sheffield's clutch home run. Yankee fans are still happy about the 6 1/2-game lead, whilst Red Sox Nation still believes...

The one down-side to all this is that thoughts of the rivaly and the possibly huge matchups that could be in store in September (I know, it's a big "could", but as I said, I lean more towards the Sox than the Yanks....) make the fact that I am unlikely to be able to go to the Sep 19 game I have tickets for a touch bittersweet. Before I'm inundated with generous requests to take the tix off my hands I should add that because it's an international order, I need to pick them up at the "Will Call" window at Yankee Stadium, armed with the credit card I used to make the purchase, so the end result is that two upper-deck seats will be unoccupied on that Sunday afternoon. For the fourth straight year I have tickets to a ballgame I won't see. Just for the record, I had tickets to Sox-Yankees in 2001, Sox-Yankees in 2002, Twins-Yankees in 2003 and Sox-Yankees this year. Some of you might notice a trend here, but it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: I don't know which came first - my interest in the rivalry or the tickets to the games. Anyway, the upshot is that I have adpoted that "Keep the Faith" billboard as my new motto - not my faith in the Red Sox' ability to overcome their deficit (and the Yankees), but my belief that one day I will finally get to see a game of major league baseball. Failing that, I guess I could write to Guinness World Records and see if I can't get included with my new "Number Of Red Sox-Yankees Tickets Bought Without Ever Managing To Set Foot In Yankee Stadium" record...

Oh, just one other thing: if on that Sunday afternoon I hear Michael Kay or any of the other YES announcers say "It's a beautiful day here in the Bronx and there isn't an empty seat in the house", I swear that you will be able to hear me yelling from 4,000 miles away. You have been warned.

Long overdue

I'm going to trade in this view:

for this one:

for a few days, so I won't be posting on here for the next week or so. For those of you who can feel the crushing weight of disappointment starting to bear down, the good news is that radio silence on The Baseball Desert means more time to peruse the excellent blogs listed on the right.

One of the blogs recently added to the list is Balls, Sticks & Stuff - if you're looking for some good stuff on the trials and tribulations of the Phillies, check it out.

Baseball à la française

I'm sat watching the Cubs and the Dodgers (great move, Iain - you lose Torborg at the Phillies game only to find McCarver doing the Cubs game!), and instead of the classic baseball fare of a 'dog and a beer, I'm enjoying shrimps with garlic mayonnaise and a nice glass of chilled Cabernet d'Anjou. Am I breaking some kind of cardinal baseball rule here? Answers to the usual address please ;-)

Headline news

It was going to be Giants / Phillies, but Fox analyst Jeff Torborg managed to say "This guy [Phillies pitcher Eric Milton] knows how to pitch" three times before the first picth was thrown. It's a stupid thing to say about a major league pitcher even if you just say it once, but three times??!! Thanks for nothing, Jeff. I hope he enjoys his evening in Philly - I'm off to watch the Cubs and the Dodgers again.

Help!!

I'm worried - last night I dreamt that I was playing in a pickup baseball game in the back garden of my parents' house with Moisés Alou, which of course is one of those ridiculous 'never gonna happen' kind of dreams because it's obvious that their garden:

is way too small to play baseball in without treading on the flowers...;-)

However, I think the dream does reveal that it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and that I'm watching too much baseball, generally - and too many Cubs games, specifically - right now. The reason for the Cubs overload is simple: they still play a lot of day games, even on days like yesterday when all the other games are night games, so when I fire up the computer around 8 or 9 in the evening, there they are, sporting those classic pinstripes and playing in that great ballpark.

Last night the Cubs played good baseball (let's call it 'The Corey Patterson Show') and held the Dodgers to a one-run lead up until the ninth inning, at which point it all went horribly pear-shaped. Moises dropped a fly ball which should have been the first out of the inning and that spelled the beginning of the end for Chicago. Glendon Rusch and Kyle Farnsworth then both gave up three runs each without retiring a single batter and the Cubs were done for the day, as was I, since it was well past midnight.

I'm going to try to be reasonable today and maybe catch just one game, but I fear I'm hooked. I look at the schedule and see "1:20pm SF @ PHI, 4:05pm KC @ OAK" and my eyes light up at the prospect of back-to-back baseball games. Oh well, it's probably best not to fight it, especially as I'll be on vacation next week, far from baseball and the Internet, so let's say those two games today, Twins / Indians and Yankees / Mariners tomorrow and then I should be able to make it through to the 23rd...

Signs of the times

Since we're on the subject of the 'invisible' side of the game, there was another article that caught my eye - on ESPN.com - this time on signs: giving them and stealing them.

I love the story about former Pirates manager Jim Leyland, because it reminds me a little of our baseball team, as we're not always great at getting the signs from the coaches. We were thinking of getting some big hand-written signs made up, just so that there's no confusion out on the field, but Leyland's method was even simpler:

[...] Leyland tells a story about one of favorite players he managed in the minor leagues, Kirby Farrell. Leyland gave Farrell the bunt sign three times, and each time, Farrell missed the sign. Finally, Leyland cupped his hands and yelled "Bunt!'' Farrell cupped his hands and yelled "What?''

We'll just have to hope that our hearing is better than our sight...

Falling in glove

For me, the sport of baseball is not just about what I see on the field - I also enjoy delving into all the stuff that surrounds the game, whether it's the history, the strategy or even the equipment. My inquisitive mind is always there with questions about what's going on (How does it work? Where does it come from? Why do we do that?) and so it was nice to come across a good piece yesterday on one of the things that make up the 'invisible' part of the game.

The article in question was an MLB.com one on baseball gloves. For me, the glove is the symbol of baseball par excellence, simply because it's so different to other sports equipment I was familiar with growing up. Baseball has a lot of similarities to cricket, and the equipment is no excpetion - they may not look quite the same, but the two sports use bats, balls with strange stitching and caps / helmets. However, only one player on a cricket team wears a glove, and it looks nothing like the gloves used in baseball (well, modern-day baseball, at least - it is sort of similar to the kind of gloves Shoeless Joe Jackson used to wear):


So, the baseball glove, with its webbing and deep pocket, has always symbolised this exotic sport we call baseball. I watched highlights of the '86 World Series and thought "How cool would it be to have a baseball glove?". Well, I bought a cheap synthetic glove (in tasteful Day-Glo orange!) a couple of years later, and then realised that I hadn't factored in the other part of the question, which was: "How silly would I look using this thing in a public park in the middle of England?"

Undeterred by the strange looks I got from people, I would head out to the park with my brother and, armed with the two baseballs I owned and the Wade Boggs Louisville Slugger bat I bought, we would play baseball (I'm using the phrase 'play baseball' in the broadest possible sense, a little like Americans who say they 'play soccer' ;-)) .

It was only recently - when I started playing baseball here in Paris - that I actually bought a real glove and learned how to use it. Fortunately, as much as I've remained a big kid at heart as far as all things baseball are concerned, I've managed to get past the glove worship stage, and now it's just something I use to try to catch those towering fly balls in center field. It hasn't lost its symbolism, though, and when, in the depths of winter, I want to conjure up images of warm and sunny Sunday afternoons at the ballpark, I'll dig it out and see if it still fits. And it does - like a glove...

RSN Classic

There was a great game at Fenway tonight, as Pedro threw his first shutout since the 2000 season. I don't know if it was simply because I was just listening more carefully than usual, but there seemed to be an enthusiastic energy emanating from the crowd at Fenway - maybe it was due to the Red Sox' 14-4 blowout of the Devil Rays last night, maybe it was the enthusiasm generated by Pedro going the distance. Whatever the reason, Pedro and the Red Sox sent a message with this game. Sure, it's the Devil Rays in August and not the Yankees in October, but that's precisley why Francona's decision to leave Pedro in the game was not insignificant - it was a way of saying: "OK - I know I could bring in someone from the bullpen, but Pedro is looking and feeling good and energising the home crowd, so let's try to keep this momentum we've created going...". At the end of the day (or at the end of September), it might not mean an awful lot, but you have to give the Sox credit for trying.

Of course, the good Red Sox vibrations wouldn't be complete without a classic Fenway moment. Today's came in the bottom of the 6th inning, when the alert-but-ever-so-slightly-cynical Boston crowd gave 3rd base coach Dale Sveum a standing ovation for finally holding a runner at third, after two consecutive runners had been gunned down at the plate by the Rays' Rocco Baldelli in the previous inning. Say what you will about the sometimes over-intense passion of Red Sox fans, but you can never say that they're not aware of exactly what's going on on the field...

Dale Sveum Update: I somehow missed this great Dale Sveum-related post on Surviving Grady last week. Classic stuff!

Too good to be true

The Cincinnati Reds announced yesterday that Ken Griffey, Jr. will be out for the rest of the season. Griffey will have surgery next week to repair a torn right hamstring, and that will be followed by "rigorous rehabilitation". The hope is that he will be ready in time for Spring Training 2005.

This is not good for Griffey and it's certainly not good for baseball. It looked like we were seeing the return of the old Junior earlier this season, and it was great to watch him get closer and closer to the 500-HR milestone. However, 'old' seems to be the operative word here - or at least 'fragile'.

As a fan, I'll be disappointed not to see him play out the rest of the season with the Reds. I can only imagine how crushed Griffey must be to see yet another season ended by injury, and the question that runs through my mind is: will there come a point at which Griffey decides that his body has given up on him and that it's no longer feasible to keep trying to come back from these serious injuries? The baseball fan in me hopes not, but the baseball player in me also knows how tough it is to come back and play even after the most minor of injuries and even at the lowest levels of the game.

Bonus

When I looked over the MLB.TV schedule for this week, there were no broadcasts scheduled for tonight, but something seems to have changed, so I get to see the Tigers play on a sunny afternoon in Oakland. If there's one thing better than watching baseball, it's watching baseball when you expected to be doing something else a lot less fun.

In a strange twist of fate, the game means that I'll also get to see Wilfredo Ledezma, who I so cruelly spurned last week. What goes around comes around, (or something)...

Update: It's officially now a double bonus - the broadcast is one of those TV-pictures-with-the-radio-feed deals (which are commercial-free and which also allow you to see the picther warming up between innings) and in the middle of the third inning they played a great cover version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" by Social Distortion. The question is: can the day get any better?

Milton: Paradise Regained?

Since Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley was the recent recipient of one of The Baseball Desert's occasional awards I thought it was only fair to link to an ESPN.com Q&A with Bradley, conducted by Baseball America writer and author Alan Schwarz. As Bradley himself says, there's a lot of cockiness and swagger in his attitude, but he feels that it can be a positive thing for the Dodgers after losing clubhouse leader Paul Lo Duca.

"I'm flashy, cocky, whatever. That's all part of my game -- go out there with a swagger. [...] Not to show anybody up. Not to be outrageous. But you have to go out there and play with confidence and a way about yourself that other teams see, "Hey, we've got a task on our hands."

Now and again there's a touch of Pete Rose's whiny chip-on-the-shoulder pleading in some of what Bradley says ("But I'm a good person. People don't know that. If you see me constantly doing that, of course you're not going to think I'm a good person. I don't want anybody else to be seen the same way people look at me."), but the very fact that he was willing to go out onto the field to prevent a teammate doing exactly the same thing that he did only a few weeks ago is maybe proof that he's realised that it really is "time to grow up".

On the subject of Schwarz, Futility Infielder has a great review of Schwarz's new book, "The Numbers Game". As you probably know, I'm not a great stat-freak, but Jay Jaffe's post makes me want to go out and buy the book (and maybe "Moneyball" too) and see what all the fuss is about.

Speed reading

I know the Mariners are not having the best of years, but when I read this headline I thought it was the first time I'd ever come across major leaguers taking their team's performance so badly. Then it dawned on me that they were [tairz] and not [teerz]...

I think somebody needs a vacation.

Make mine a Bud

At first glance, it may look like something straight out of "Drug Dealing 101": Rule #1 - sell it cheap and get 'em hooked, but in this particular case, it's all in a good cause. In fact, the Commissioner's Office's latest initiatives are in two good causes: the first is getting kids back to the ballpark with an MLB-wide $1 ticket promotion from mid-August through early September; the second is using the money made from that to support two major charities (the Boys & Girls Club of America and CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation, which was brought to MLB's attention notably by Mets pitcher Tom Glavine). Glavine had this to say about the announcement:

"I am thrilled that Commissioner Selig designated CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation as a beneficiary of this program, and I encourage baseball fans all over the country to donate money to this wonderful cause and enjoy a day at the ballpark with the children they love."

And so say all of us...

Glavine unfortunately also made the news in other ways yesterday, as he was involved in a traffic accident. He wasn't seriously hurt (although he lost two teeth and had to have stitches in his lip) and the Mets are hopeful that he'll only have to miss his next scheduled start (tonight at Shea against the Astros).

The end is in sight

Mariners DH Edgar Martinez has announced that he plans to retire at the end of the season. Paul at Nice Guys Finish Third has been calling for this to happen all year, but there's no jubilation now that it's official. Instead, he offers up some thoughts (a "fulsome weepy tribute", as he calls it...) on Edgar's career and its place in both the Mariners' and Paul's own history.

Baseball Musings' Dave Pinto argues the case for Martinez being a Hall of Fame candidate, though if you read the comments on the post, you'll see that a lot of people feel either that the DH is not a 'real' position and thus not worthy for HOF consideration or, more simply, that Edgar just doesn't have the numbers (Frank Thomas is often cited as a more worthy candidate).

Hard times

Being a White Sox fan right now isn't easy - the team has lost 9 of its last 12 games (including two 2-run losses and six heartbraking 1-run losses). The frustration the team and its fans must be feeling can be seen on the face of manager Ozzie Guillen

who got ejected in the first inning of last night's game against the Indians for arguing a stolen-base call.

As a self-professed 'fan of the game' I take no delight in seeing any club's fans suffer, but sometimes that suffering, that living and dying with the team makes for a good blog, and so what if i smash it? - a White Sox blog - is just that and well worth taking the time out to read.

The meaning of life

Although Red Sox Nation does have a propensity for much wailing and gnashing of teeth as regards their beloved-but-cursed team, they are also aware that there are experiences out there can change your life and put baseball into its true perspective.

Long ball, short change

One of the beauties of watching baseball is that, no matter how many games you watch and no matter what kind of an insight you think that gives you on the sport, there will always be days when you don't know nothin'...

A case in point was last night's Red Sox / Tigers game, which saw the Tigers hit seven home runs and still lose the game. Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield had the dubious distinction of being the first Major League pitcher since 1940 to give up six home runs in a game, and the first pitcher to do so and win the game since the fabulously-named Sloppy Thurston did it for the Brooklyn Dodgers on August 13th 1932.

Tempting fate

It's a good thing Larry Walker didn't get traded to Boston - Red Sox Nation would have an apoplectic fit if they read that their new star signing had cancelled a planned October fishing trip because of the playoffs. However, the comment doesn't seem to have affected the Cards, who won a tight game against the Mets in dramatic fashion yesterday.

Kris Benson and Woody Williams each pitched seven great innings, and in the end it all came down to the bottom of the ninth. The Cardinals had runners on second and third with two outs, with pinch-hitter Larry Walker due up (Walker had made his first appearance in a Cardinals uniform in the seventh inning, getting a standing ovation both before and after striking out - welcome to a great baseball town, Larry!). Mets reliever Mike Stanton decided to walk Walker to get to rookie Yadier Molina. In the FOX booth Tim McCarver (who was starting to get on my nerves after nine innings) was saying that it was the wrong move, but it seemed to make sense to me. Molina swung at the first pitch from Stanton - shattering both his bat and my dreams of becoming a baseball analyst - and looped the game-winning RBI single into shallow left field. Like Maddux's effort in San Francisco, Molina's hit wasn't pretty, but it got the job done.

Great ballgame, great team. Larry was probably right about that fishing trip...

Mad Dog And Glory

It seems fitting that Greg Maddux should get his 300th career win with a performance that no-one could qualify as stellar. He didn't have his legendary pinpoint control - giving up 4 earned runs on 7 hits over 5 innings - but he got enough offensive support from his teammates to earn the historic win.

It was actually a pretty good ballgame - despite being down 3-0, the Cubs battled back with four 2-run innings to get the win and maintain their 2-game lead in the Wild Card race.

Heads-up play

One of the plays of the day yesterday was made by the Indians second baseman Ronnie Belliard.

It was one of those 'routine' plays that never cease to amaze me, because they reflect years of practice and conditioned reflexes. I put myself in that situation: on an exceptionally good day I might have had the presence of mind to look the runner back to third, but Belliard, running full tilt, faked the throw to first, causing the third-base coach to send Willie Harris home to try to tie the score, and then Belliard threw to the plate for the final out of the ballgame. Not spectacular, but great baseball.

Power surge

The already mighty Cardinals got even better last night with the acquisition of Colorado's Larry Walker. Walker has struggled with injury this season, but if he can stay healthy, his .324 average and formidable home-run power will make the Cardinals even harder to beat between now and October.

If Walker is in the lineup for today's game, I might have to add the Mets / Cardinals game to my 'wish list' for this evening.

Under the radar

Greg Maddux will pitch today at Wrigley Field against the Giants and make his second attempt to get career win #300. Since it's San Francisco that's in town, the focus is on the potential matchup with Barry Bonds, but Maddux, characteristically, is playing that down:

"You're trying to win," [Maddux] said. "If the game's on the line, yeah, you walk him. He's really easy to pitch to because, if it matters, you walk him. It's easier than trying to get him out."

As people finally start to make a big deal of Maddux's imminent milestone, ESPN.com's Mark Kreidler has a good article on why Maddux's quest for his 300th win has gone almost unnoticed.

With a time difference of 6-9 hours (depending on the time-zone of the game), the MLB schedule doesn't always work in my favour, but today it looks like it should work out perfectly for me, as the Cubs / Giants is a 4:05pm (ET) start, which is a very reasonable 10:05pm start over here in The Baseball Desert.

Update: The game isn't at Wrigley - it's in San Francisco - but all the rest still stands.

Off at a tangent

In what could easily be another installment of the series on "Baseball and...", Alex Belth has a great post on what the sight of John Olerud at the Yankees / A's game yesterday inspired in him.

He did it his way

If you're a regular reader of some of the blogs listed on the right (as any baseball fan in their right mind ought to be...) then it won't have escaped your notice that the world of baseball broadcasting (and Mets broadcasting, specifically) lost one of its best-loved voices this week, as Bob Murphy passed away at the age of 79. The Raindrops brings together a good selection of links to different tributes to Murphy.

However, it's The Eddie Kranepool Society that has my favourite link: a WFAN audio tribute, where some of Murphy's best-known calls are spliced in with audio clips of another instantly recognisable voice, that of Francis Albert Sinatra. This is the kind of thing you need to tuck away until those long cold winter nights when baseball is still months away - one click on the link and you're back with the boys of summer...

Big wheels keep on turnin'

Apparently these are the dog days of August, but they don't seem to have kicked in everywhere yet. Last night saw come-from-behind walk-off wins in New York and St Louis, which helped the teams maintain huge division leads (9 games and 9 1/2 games, respectively). I know it's a little early to be counting your chickens, but they both have to be pretty good candidates for some playoff action in October, and I for one certainly wouldn't mind seeing these two great baseball towns square off in the World Series, if it came to that.
In the meantime, I'll have to make do with the A's / Yankees game from the Bronx tonight. I was going to catch the Rangers and the Tigers in Detroit, because they are both ballclubs that I've taken a shine to over the past couple of months, but when I looked at the pitching matchups, somehow - and with all due respect to the players involved - Ryan Drese vs. Wilfredo Ledezma didn't quite appeal to me as much as Barry Zito vs. Kevin Brown. Then, if I'm feeling up to it, I might head on out to Coors Field to see just what Nomar looks like in a Cubs uniform.

One evening. Two ballgames. Six beers. Perfection.

Today's post is brought to you by the letter "B"

Whilst we're on the subject of beer, baseball and blogs, one of my all-time favourite beers gets a mention on Surviving Grady. I'm not sure I need another blog on my 'regular read' list, but after reading their profile, I couldn't really resist:

If you're looking for anything philosophical or insightful, or an exacting analysis of Mark Bellhorn's OBP with two outs and a left-handed hotdog vendor in the stands, you're gonna be disappointed. This is just two guys bitching and moaning, praising and obsessing. It's the life of a Sox fan, in convenient electronic format.

If you haven't already done so, go check out the site.

Meanwhile, there are changes afoot at Shallow Center - Tom is moving the baseball-related stuff to Poor Richard's Scorecard, on the Most Valuable Network. The move is great, because we now get two voices for the price of one, as Tom joins Jane Conroy, who's been writing there since April.

I've updated the link on the right, and although Shallow Center is no longer there, I'll still be stopping by there once in a while, if only to hear Tom spread the gospel according to Del Amitri...

Take me out to the ballgame

Ed Cossette reflects on the serious business of Nomar heading to Chicago, but also takes time out to bring us news of the Don Zimmer Mini Bobblehead:

My question to you is the following: Is there a bobblehead that bears a more uncanny resemblance to the actual person than the Don Zimmer Mini Bobblehead? Or perhaps that should be rephrased as, Is there a human being who more uncannily resembles a bobblehead than Don Zimmer?

His post fits in nicely with a great feature on SI.com on the best and worst promotions in the majors. The Mets ice-cube tray gets a thumbs-down from SI, but I think it kind of fits in nicely with a team that seems to have already put their season into cold storage.

I'm not a big fan of giving stuff away to get people into the ballpark, but I understand the logic behind it. If I had to choose a giveaway (outside of the Don Zimmer bobblehead), I wouldn't mind having the Tigers' Negro League's Detroit Stars cap to add to my growing collection (though my new motto would have to be: "Too many caps - not enough heads"). However I have to admit that my eyes lit up when I read that the Rangers had a "1970s Concession Prices" promotion. What could be better than a couple of nice cold beers at, erm, Ameriquest Field in Arlington?

Mets, R.I.P.?

As you might expect, the New York press has a lot to say on the Mets' weekend trades and their 2004 season - the Times' Murray Chass draws a comparison between the Mets and the Red Sox, whilst Lee Jenkins outlines what he sees as the six defining days in July that led to the breakdown of the Mets' season.

Update
The view from 'inside' (i.e. Mets bloggers) is just as depressing, but at least it's told with a touch of sarcastic humour:

What can I say about Victor "The Wrong" Zambrano. He'll be 29 soon, and still has no idea where the ball he's about to throw is going. Apparently Rick Peterson is going to fix him up presto-neato in a matter of 10 minutes (what, from a #5 to a #4?). If Peterson can turn Zambrano into the star the Mets believe he can be, don't you have to ask a few obvious questions? For example, if the guru can fix Zambrano so easily, why couldn't he fix the very pitchers the Mets, after trading them away, are so down on? (As for current pitchers, Mike Cameron is just as responsible for Tom Glavine's bounce back.) If he can turn a pitcher with a 1.00+ WHBP (walks plus hit by pitch) per inning into something useful, why bother trading for major league pitchers. Why not just choose random people off the streets and turn them into Victor Zambrano?
(the raindrops)

July 25th Braves-The final step in giving up the season, the dreaded “Players Only Meeting”. Senator Al Leiter getting himself a little public speaking practice before going to the Republican National Convention, called the boys together to give them the old rah-rah speech. Showing that he is a true Republican, Senator Al’s words fall on deaf ears as the Mets lose to the Braves 4-3. You know the old chestnut about the only thing definite in life is death and taxes? I think you can put the Mets losing to the Braves in that category as well.
(The Eddie Kranepool Society)

Class act

John Olerud, who was released by the Mariners on July 23, has signed with the Yankees and will play first base in the absence of Jason Giambi, who is on the 15-day disabled list after being diagnosed with a benign tumour.

The 'class act' in all of this, however, is current first-base stand-in Tony Clark - thanks go to Alex over at Bronx Banter for pointing me in the direction of a New York Daily News article on Clark vacating his spot at first base in order to make place for Olerud. Clark's team-first philosophy can be summed up in one phrase:

"It's about winning ballgames. It's about being the last team standing. You can check your egos and your personal dreams at the door short of winning the World Series."

I'm not saying that Clark is the only player to have this kind of attitude, but it is the kind of thing that helps reconcile me now and again with the seemingly all-powerful 'Dark Side of the Pinstripe'.

Don't blink or you'll miss it

I left Paris early yesterday morning to take my kids down to the family vacation home about 350 miles from here (yeah - they're on vacation whilst I sit here sweltering in the office...) and drove back early this morning so that I could get into the office this afternoon. Since I went to bed early on Saturday, I missed the end of the trade deadline, so I thought I would check out what went down over the weekend. When I logged on to MLB.com, my initial thought was that the long drive had tired me out more than I thought, because the picture I saw was this one:



My brain sent out a message saying "Hey! You really do need some sleep - you know as well as I do that Nomar plays for the Boston Red Sox...".

Except, of course, that he doesn't anymore.

I guess it figures - if baseball teaches us anything on a daily basis, it's "expect the unexpected", so after weeks of focusing on whether Randy Johnson would be going to the Yankees or not, it shouldn't come as any real surprise that a deal like this came almost out of nowhere. It was one of those multi-club deals that happen every now and again and which I always find intriguing. As someone who grew up watching English soccer, the notion of a trade is a strange notion per se, since in soccer clubs just put their money on the table and buy players from other clubs, but it's all the more fascinating when it's a trade like the Nomar one, where the Cubs got Nomar, minor-league outfielder Matt Murton and cash from the Red Sox, but the Red Sox didn't trade anyone back directly. Instead, they got Orlando Cabrera from the Expos and Doug Mientkiewicz from the Twins. The Twins got minor-league left-hander Justin Jones from the Cubs, who in turn sent Alex Gonzalez and two minor-leaguers to Montreal.

The Globe's Dan Shaugnessy says it was time for Nomar to go, others have more mixed feelings, and then there are those who are too young to analyse and who are simply devastated.