If we could all channel our inner Adam Sandler and “click” the rewind button back 2 ½ months, would we do anything different?
Would the Rebels have cut Ryan Theriot during Winter Waiver? No, dear god, no, no, no. Not when the alternative ended up being Jamey Carroll.
Would the Splinters have bid .12 on De Aza? We can only hope so. Certainly as columnist and editor for the Monroe Doctrine it has worked out great. De Aza has provided the one consistent piece throughout the year. And it wasn’t the bid amount (.12) that made De Aza the hit of the season. It was Teddy’s preamble to the bid and then his increased consternation when everyone else passed – and throughout the remainder of the draft. Turns out it was the best Draft Day experience since the Brett Barberie Incident.
Would the Picts still spend .55 on Pujols (.359, 18 runs, 23 rbi, 66 TB)? Yeah, that will probably work out.
Would the Ruffins have traded Vizquel (.283, 17 R, 12 RBI, 3 SB, 42 TB) to the Copperfields for Heilman (3.78, 4H, 3.33K/BB, 1.02 WHIP) during spring? Most assuredly. The Ruffins had a glut of MI and had to move one of them. Renteria is hot as a firecracker right now and Vizquel is showing his age. But since he’s on the Copperfields, I have no doubt that Vizquel will magically perform like he is 15 years younger.
Would the DoorMatts have had their best friend place 20 bucks while in Vegas on the Cubs to win the pennant? Why not? It’s only 20 bucks. And if the Cubs actually won the pennant the tough decision would be whether to cash in the ticket or have it framed.
Would the Rebels have traded David Weathers for Carlos Zambrano? Zambrano just finished up a week for the Rebels in which EACH of their starting pitchers gave up at least seven runs. It is the wrong time to be asking THAT question.
Would the Lambchops have decided to go back to their good luck charm, John Lemon and dump current GM Paul Mahlan? No way, PM is quality. The Chops are just in a drought right now.
Would the DoorMatts have decided to sign Pujols for an extra year? (ok, this exceeds the three month look back) Shoot, I would suggest he sign him for two extra years. This might have prevented the Matts from acquiring Jorge Julio.
Would Da Paul’s Meisters have decided on a different plan of attack than drafting (and keeping) really old ballplayers and former American Leaguers? Nah, that’s Paul’s MO. If he’s cool with it, who are we to judge?
Would the Stones decide on a different Draft Plan? (He admitted his 2007 Draft Plan was “not to blink”) Can’t judge that one. Steve’s won one more CFCL title than I have in the last ten years.
Would the Rebels have bid .17 on Angel Pagan? Two things regarding that. 1) It depends what is revealed in this week’s Report regarding the next highest bid, and 2) I came thisclose to claiming him on waivers earlier in the season!! Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Would the Picts (currently 11th place) have decided to not return to the CFCL this season? We certainly hope not. As one of the 12 beating hearts of the league and a big part of its soul, Nick would be a near irreplaceable cog in the CFCL machine.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
You're Either In Or You're Out, Right Now
I am sick and tired (“The worst beating I ever got was when my mom said ‘I am sick’ and I said ‘and tired.’ I don’t remember anything else that day.” – gratuitous Cosby reference) of Roger Clemens and his ilk. For at least the second year in a row he has kept baseball and at least three teams on edge with “Will I or Won’t I” retire. He is asked about it after each season and he says he won’t make a decision until late spring of the following year, allowing the spotlight to shine on him while he is doing nothing.
He decided that he wants to sporadically play baseball this year for the Yankees. It’s not enough to make that decision, but he has to take the microphone and announce it during the seventh inning stretch from Boy George’s suite. Roger’s ego is officially larger than his ass, which is appropriate because that’s what he’s acting like. After negotiating with the Yankees to not only get more money for doing less work (did Roger have dinner with Pat Hughes the night before the announcement?) but also be able to disappear for family time whenever he wants, he couldn’t hold a press conference after the game. No, he had to make the announcement during the game. I’m sure Steinbrenner had something to do with it, but instead of trying to fit in with the team, Roger had to take the focus off of the field and put it on himself.
Now I’m sure Yankee Stadium was electric when he announced his intentions and the place went up for grabs, but I’m sick of the athletes that have to have the glow of the fans adoration and the TV lights in their eyes and do anything to get it.
Clemens and Brett Favre are two that come to mind that can’t seem to make a decision without having people chase them for months. You may feel more strongly against Favre (he is a Packer afterall) since he was holding one team hostage from making important personnel moves until Green Bay knew of Brett’s intentions, but the big picture is the same. These self-righteous guys are deciding that they are more important than the team.
Clemens started this whole thing when he actually MADE a decision to retire. Remember, he left the field during the playoffs against the Red Sox? Everyone rose and applauded a phenomenal (steroid filled?) career. The Red Sox even applauded when he was taken out of the game. The Yankees gave him a Longhorn burnt orange Hummer. Then during the following baseball season he decides that he wants to come back as an Astro.
He joined the likes of Michael Jordan, any professional boxer and Bobby Howry in deciding to retire and not making it stick. (Actually Howry’s problem was that he couldn’t retire any of the Phillies batters).
One argument that I’ve heard from the talking heads that like to play Devil’s Advocate (an interesting position during a discussion, but a lousy movie) is that Clemens (and Favre, et. al.) have earned the right to handle things this way.
The truly classy athlete (or individual for that matter) may have earned the right, but they would never exercise it.
He decided that he wants to sporadically play baseball this year for the Yankees. It’s not enough to make that decision, but he has to take the microphone and announce it during the seventh inning stretch from Boy George’s suite. Roger’s ego is officially larger than his ass, which is appropriate because that’s what he’s acting like. After negotiating with the Yankees to not only get more money for doing less work (did Roger have dinner with Pat Hughes the night before the announcement?) but also be able to disappear for family time whenever he wants, he couldn’t hold a press conference after the game. No, he had to make the announcement during the game. I’m sure Steinbrenner had something to do with it, but instead of trying to fit in with the team, Roger had to take the focus off of the field and put it on himself.
Now I’m sure Yankee Stadium was electric when he announced his intentions and the place went up for grabs, but I’m sick of the athletes that have to have the glow of the fans adoration and the TV lights in their eyes and do anything to get it.
Clemens and Brett Favre are two that come to mind that can’t seem to make a decision without having people chase them for months. You may feel more strongly against Favre (he is a Packer afterall) since he was holding one team hostage from making important personnel moves until Green Bay knew of Brett’s intentions, but the big picture is the same. These self-righteous guys are deciding that they are more important than the team.
Clemens started this whole thing when he actually MADE a decision to retire. Remember, he left the field during the playoffs against the Red Sox? Everyone rose and applauded a phenomenal (steroid filled?) career. The Red Sox even applauded when he was taken out of the game. The Yankees gave him a Longhorn burnt orange Hummer. Then during the following baseball season he decides that he wants to come back as an Astro.
He joined the likes of Michael Jordan, any professional boxer and Bobby Howry in deciding to retire and not making it stick. (Actually Howry’s problem was that he couldn’t retire any of the Phillies batters).
One argument that I’ve heard from the talking heads that like to play Devil’s Advocate (an interesting position during a discussion, but a lousy movie) is that Clemens (and Favre, et. al.) have earned the right to handle things this way.
The truly classy athlete (or individual for that matter) may have earned the right, but they would never exercise it.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
The best day of the summer, so far, occurred last Wednesday when I sat at Elfstrom Stadium in Geneva with two of my daughters to watch the Kane County Cougars play. First I have to do some parental bragging. The reason we went on Wednesday evening was that both Katelyn (age 10 yesterday) and Ally (age 7) read the required amount of minutes or books to be part of the Ozzie Reading Club. As a result, they each received a ticket to the game and I was only too happy to accompany them.
Before the game began, all the students and their parents were allowed to parade around the warning track of the field. I can’t speak for the girls, but being able to walk on a professional baseball field is awesome. The players are right there warming up, others are sitting in the dugout preparing for the game. Walking through the bullpen, ambling alongside the first and thirdbase lines made my mind wander to “What would have happened if I could have hit a curve ball?”
After the parade the girls grabbed a hotdog and we settled in our seats. Katelyn was intent on learning the game’s subtleties, and more than once pointed out to me that “the bases were loaded” [That’s my girl, yo!] Ally was consistently amazed at the sight of all of her friends and various teachers in the stands.
As an added treat, the girls each received an Ozzie Reading Club T-Shirt and the tradition has become that all the kids sign each others shirts with a Sharpie (both girls were able to snag Ozzie’s autograph as well). Some fortunate kids in Katelyn’s class even received my autograph which went thusly: “Mr. B. Derrek Lee is a stud! Cubs.” I had trouble concentrating on the game for the long line of autograph hounds.
The game itself had a little bit of everything. Amazing defensive plays, poor defensive plays [at one point in the game, the Cougars line score resembled a druken man’s vision of Hank Aaron’s uniform: 4 4 4] and a building no-hitter. The home town Cougars were being no hit until the 5th inning. The crowd really came to life in the 5th, not when the Cougars erupted for four runs, but when the P.A. system blared “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” And the crowd yelled back “SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!”
During the seventh inning stretch we all rose and sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and when the line came to “root, root, root for the Cougars” Katelyn looked at me and said “Why did they say Cougars? They were supposed to say ‘Cubs’”, I just smiled the smile of a father who knows he’s done his job well.
The lower 40 degree temperature and wind gusting in from centerfield eventually did us in by the 8th inning, but a good time was had by the girls and an incredible time was had by their dad. Oh yeah, the Cougars ended up winning 5-3.
Before the game began, all the students and their parents were allowed to parade around the warning track of the field. I can’t speak for the girls, but being able to walk on a professional baseball field is awesome. The players are right there warming up, others are sitting in the dugout preparing for the game. Walking through the bullpen, ambling alongside the first and thirdbase lines made my mind wander to “What would have happened if I could have hit a curve ball?”
After the parade the girls grabbed a hotdog and we settled in our seats. Katelyn was intent on learning the game’s subtleties, and more than once pointed out to me that “the bases were loaded” [That’s my girl, yo!] Ally was consistently amazed at the sight of all of her friends and various teachers in the stands.
As an added treat, the girls each received an Ozzie Reading Club T-Shirt and the tradition has become that all the kids sign each others shirts with a Sharpie (both girls were able to snag Ozzie’s autograph as well). Some fortunate kids in Katelyn’s class even received my autograph which went thusly: “Mr. B. Derrek Lee is a stud! Cubs.” I had trouble concentrating on the game for the long line of autograph hounds.
The game itself had a little bit of everything. Amazing defensive plays, poor defensive plays [at one point in the game, the Cougars line score resembled a druken man’s vision of Hank Aaron’s uniform: 4 4 4] and a building no-hitter. The home town Cougars were being no hit until the 5th inning. The crowd really came to life in the 5th, not when the Cougars erupted for four runs, but when the P.A. system blared “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” And the crowd yelled back “SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!”
During the seventh inning stretch we all rose and sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and when the line came to “root, root, root for the Cougars” Katelyn looked at me and said “Why did they say Cougars? They were supposed to say ‘Cubs’”, I just smiled the smile of a father who knows he’s done his job well.
The lower 40 degree temperature and wind gusting in from centerfield eventually did us in by the 8th inning, but a good time was had by the girls and an incredible time was had by their dad. Oh yeah, the Cougars ended up winning 5-3.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Baseball History
I recently listened to Ken Burns’ Baseball Documentary on tape. Going through the history of baseball is always fascinating. But the thing that struck me, the way the tape was narrated, was the changes that baseball made and how ridiculous the changes before or after seem.
For example: in 1973 the designated hitter was adopted in the American League, blemishing baseball. The way the narration went was “and from this point forward baseball would be played by two sets of rules”. When I heard those words, my first thought was “Who would ever agree to that?” What sense does it make to have played baseball for over 100 years with everyone following the same rules and then decide that there would be two sets of rules from now on? It doesn’t. It’s stupid.
In 1961 an amazing race was on between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Maris, as we all know, eventually won the race over Mantle to surpass Ruth’s single season homerun record. But Commissioner Happy Chandler decided that an asterisk should be used to denote the fact that Maris needed eight more games in a regular season to reach 61. Funny, but no one ever considered the need to put an asterisk next to Cy Young’s name even though the rules allowed him (or made him) pitch underhand, putting less stress on his arm.
Another stupid factor is (and I know baseball wasn’t only at fault here, it was the whole country) that only white ballplayers could play in the major leagues until 1947. Interesting note from the Baseball tapes: During the off-season it was common for the Negro League ballplayers to barnstorm against the Major Leaguers. In fact they played against each other over 300 times. The Negro League teams won over 200 of those contests.
Here’s a random thought on the whole Jackie Robinson celebration night. I get the fact that baseball wanted to honor Jackie Robinson and his accomplishment on the 60th anniversary of him breaking the color barrier. But if baseball decided to honor Jackie, doesn’t it make sense to honor him AS SOON AS POSSIBLE? By that I mean, someone thought of the idea and then baseball waited around how ever much time until the 60th anniversary rolled around. Blacks were made to wait an ungodly amount of time to join their white brothers and then there are more delays to honor Robinson simply because of a convenient round number (60).
If you’re celebrating an accomplishment (like a wedding anniversary or the CFCL’s 25th year in existence) it makes sense to wait until the appropriate date. But if you want to celebrate something long overdue, why wouldn’t you do it RIGHT AWAY?
Another thought from the tapes. Pete Rose, obviously, has been banned for life for betting on baseball. Pete even, finally, admitted betting on his own team. I don’t particularly care for Rose now or when he played, although he was a hell of a player who accomplished things with his hard work and talent – as opposed to McGwire, Bonds, Sosa and a host of others who had to use steroids and HGH to produce their gargantuan numbers. The thing with Rose is, he’s banned from baseball for betting on his own team, yet John McGraw, one of the greatest managers in baseball history, also was known to have bet on his team back in the day.
And yet with all the stupidity and inequity in baseball, after listening to the tapes and picturing Mays running down Vic Wertz’ deep fly ball, and Hank Aaron chasing Al Downing’s pitch over the left field wall and hearing about Fisk using his body english to make the ball hit the foul pole ----- Baseball is the greatest sport in the world.
For example: in 1973 the designated hitter was adopted in the American League, blemishing baseball. The way the narration went was “and from this point forward baseball would be played by two sets of rules”. When I heard those words, my first thought was “Who would ever agree to that?” What sense does it make to have played baseball for over 100 years with everyone following the same rules and then decide that there would be two sets of rules from now on? It doesn’t. It’s stupid.
In 1961 an amazing race was on between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Maris, as we all know, eventually won the race over Mantle to surpass Ruth’s single season homerun record. But Commissioner Happy Chandler decided that an asterisk should be used to denote the fact that Maris needed eight more games in a regular season to reach 61. Funny, but no one ever considered the need to put an asterisk next to Cy Young’s name even though the rules allowed him (or made him) pitch underhand, putting less stress on his arm.
Another stupid factor is (and I know baseball wasn’t only at fault here, it was the whole country) that only white ballplayers could play in the major leagues until 1947. Interesting note from the Baseball tapes: During the off-season it was common for the Negro League ballplayers to barnstorm against the Major Leaguers. In fact they played against each other over 300 times. The Negro League teams won over 200 of those contests.
Here’s a random thought on the whole Jackie Robinson celebration night. I get the fact that baseball wanted to honor Jackie Robinson and his accomplishment on the 60th anniversary of him breaking the color barrier. But if baseball decided to honor Jackie, doesn’t it make sense to honor him AS SOON AS POSSIBLE? By that I mean, someone thought of the idea and then baseball waited around how ever much time until the 60th anniversary rolled around. Blacks were made to wait an ungodly amount of time to join their white brothers and then there are more delays to honor Robinson simply because of a convenient round number (60).
If you’re celebrating an accomplishment (like a wedding anniversary or the CFCL’s 25th year in existence) it makes sense to wait until the appropriate date. But if you want to celebrate something long overdue, why wouldn’t you do it RIGHT AWAY?
Another thought from the tapes. Pete Rose, obviously, has been banned for life for betting on baseball. Pete even, finally, admitted betting on his own team. I don’t particularly care for Rose now or when he played, although he was a hell of a player who accomplished things with his hard work and talent – as opposed to McGwire, Bonds, Sosa and a host of others who had to use steroids and HGH to produce their gargantuan numbers. The thing with Rose is, he’s banned from baseball for betting on his own team, yet John McGraw, one of the greatest managers in baseball history, also was known to have bet on his team back in the day.
And yet with all the stupidity and inequity in baseball, after listening to the tapes and picturing Mays running down Vic Wertz’ deep fly ball, and Hank Aaron chasing Al Downing’s pitch over the left field wall and hearing about Fisk using his body english to make the ball hit the foul pole ----- Baseball is the greatest sport in the world.
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