Negrodamus

Check out the post on May 4th. I have to give myself a pat on the back for that one.

http://lupicasucks.blogspot.com/2006/05/its-drag.html

Made To Be Broken

The saying goes that records are made to be broken. ESPN had a poll today about the best baseball records. There are times when I think that baseball was created just so that we would have a million different numbers to rehash. Of course any real baseball fan will tell you that the numbers make the game fun. It allows you to compare players across the decades. They start countless and ultimately futile arguments between friends and foes alike. Anyway, the folks at ESPN decided that Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak is the ultimate baseball record. I happen to disagree.

I'm not saying that Joe's streak wasn't a great accomplishment, but the best of all time? I don't think it's even close. A hitting streak is a vastly over rated statistic. Why should we celebrate someone getting one hit a game. Isn't the goal to get as many hits as possible in a game? Over the same 56 period that Joe Dimaggio was on his hitting streak, Ted Williams had a higher batting average, drove in more runs and hit more home runs than Joe. So why exactly is the hitting streak the most celebrated record in the game? Obviously Joe played in New York and the Yankees won all the time and he was the most famous player in the game. If a player for the St. Louis Browns had hit in 56 straight, it wouldn't be the most famous record in the game. And I'm absolutely positive that it would not top this list. Joe Dimaggio, who was a great player, has managed to become mythical since his retirement. In the Sixties, he was voted the greatest living ballplayer in a poll by the American public. Amazingly, Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Musial, and Williams were all alive and well at the time. Dimaggio took the title seriously and would not show up to old timers day at Yankee stadium unless he was introduced last and introduced as "the greatest living ball player". He wasn't and in fact at no point during his lifetime was he the greatest living ball player. Hitting streaks are fine but as far as records go, but I'll take the consecutive home run streak (which is 8 games in a row), any day of the week.

Cal Ripken's streak is another one that doesn't impress me. There were lots of times when he played with injuries and hurt his team instead of taking a day or days off. There were times when he was in a slump and hurting his team but he refused to take a day off. Let's get this straight, Cal Ripken was no Lou Gehrig. Gehrig was as dynamic an offensive force as the game has ever seen. Ripken could have and by all rights should have taken time off, but "the streak" became everything to him. He even sacrificed the good of the team for his almighty streak. People like to look at "the streak" as the ultimate act of a great teammate, but for the most part, even great teammates need a rest sometimes and trust me Ripken could have used a few.

So now that I've ripped two of the most sacred "records" in baseball, it's time to get to some that deserve more attention. First off there's Hack Wilson and his 191 RBI's in one season. It's an amazing record that has stood much longer than Ruth's home run record, but it simply gets no press. Even knowledgeable baseball fans would be hard pressed to come up with the holder of the record. It's a shame really. If he played in NY, 191 would actually mean something.

There are certain single season feats that I don't think will happen again anytime soon. A pitcher winning 30 games seems unlikely given the current reliance on the 5 man rotation. A pitcher would have almost no margin for error to reach that number. In fact most starting pitchers don't end up with 30 decisions, much less 30 wins. The last time it happened was 1968 and the mound was lowered after that. Unless there's a radical shift in pitching strategy, I think the 30 game winner is lost to history.

Rickey Henderson stole 130 bases in one season as a member of the Oakland A's. Last year the A's stole 31 as a team. Once again, as with pitching strategy, the game has changed and the stolen base is no longer of the importance that it used be. With home runs flying out the park at a record pace, the stolen base seems like an unnecessary risk. Why would you want to have a runner thrown out trying to steal when he can simply jog around the bases after a home run? It doesn't make sense. No one has come within spitting distance of Rickey since the 80's and it doesn't look like things will change anytime soon. His career record of 1,406 is also very safe. The closest active player is a little over 1/3 of the way there and he's already 38 years old. You can go to sleep in peace, Rickey. No one is breaking your records for a long, long time.

Ted Williams hit .406 in the same year that Joe Dimaggio hit in 56 straight and I certainly think that it was the more impressive feat. It was the last time that a hitter has reached the magical .400 level. George Brett, Rod Carew and Tony Gwynn all came up short in their attempt. Tony was beaten by the strike of '94. In fact in the 162 games from the start of '94 to the middle of '95 he did in fact hit .400, but it doesn't count as a .400 season. The fact that people have come close leads me to believe that there will be a .400 hitter again. It's just a matter of time and circumstance. Colorado seems as likely a place as any for that to happen. In fact, I'll make a prediction that the next .400 hitter will play for the Rockies. I don't know who that might be, but check back in a few years.

I think the most impressive records are Pete Rose's all time hits record and Nolan Ryan's all time strikeout record. They both seem practically untouchable to me. Derek Jeter at his current rate of production would have to play until he was 44 to catch Pete Rose. Pete had the luxury of being his own manager for the last couple of years of his playing career, so he could put himself in the lineup every day. First of all, today's players make so much money that I can't imagine someone being motivated enough to stick around the break the record and the circumstances would have to be perfect for it to happen. A player would have to break into the majors at 19 or 20 and remain relatively injury free and remarkably productive for about 22 years. The same could be said of Nolan Ryan's all time strikeout record. Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens, who are fair strikeout pitchers themselves, aren't within 1,200 of Ryan's total. Ryan leads second place (Clemens) by a remarkable 22%. That would equate to Hank Aaron having about 900 home runs if Bonds trailed him by the same percentage. Once again it would take a pitcher averaging nearly 300 strikeouts a year for about 20 years. Seemingly impossible to reach.

The point is though, that records are made to be broken, so hopefully there are players out there or players yet to born who will dream the impossible dream and catch them. I can't say that the odds are very good, but then again the odds weren't very good that anyone would ever catch Ty Cobb.

Punch Drunk Love

I'm going to do something that I never thought I would do. What is that you wonder?I'm going to long for the good old days. It always sounded like sour grapes when some old guy would talk about how much better sports were when they were young. I always thought that because athletes have gotten stronger and faster as time has gone on, that they were clearly superior to the ones who had come before. Therefore the quality of the games being played today were better. I still believe that the athletes of today are superior to those of the past, but that won't stop me from lamenting the demise of big time boxing.

Boxing is called the sweet science. Now, I was never sure what science had to do with beating the hell out of somebody, but there's certainly no sweetness in the sport. I'm not here to talk about Don King or Bob Arum or any other of the big time promoters and their underhanded dealings. Boxing has always had it's share of crooked deals and fixed fights. For example, Joe Louis had to give away a portion of his earnings as heavyweight champion to James J. Braddock in order to get a shot at the title. Braddock built a house and started a business based off of Louis' hard earned victories for ten years. Like I said, unsavory characters and deals have always been a part of the sport.

What I miss is the drama of the sport. I miss being able to turn on the TV on the weekends and see big fights for free. I miss the charismatic figure that can make people listen to what he says. Of course I miss Ali, but it's not just him. I miss George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and a host of others. There was a time when even the casual sports fan knew about the kings of ring. Today, you'd be hard pressed to find people who know who the heavyweight champion of the world is (It's kind of a trick question because I believe there about 10 of them and nine of them are from the former Soviet Union).

There was a time when the Heavyweight championship was the most coveted title in sport. The unofficial "baddest man on the planet". Like the title of "world's fastest man" it meant something special. It really doesn't mean anything anymore. Mike Tyson is a punchline, Evander Holyfield is punch drunk and outside of Oscar De La Hoya, there isn't a boxer who can really capture the imagination of the public. Perhaps this is all cyclical and the next Olympic games will produce a group of great fighters that will become household names, just like the '76 games did with the Spinks brothers and Ray Leonard.

Great fights still take place, it's just that there is no anticipation leading up to them and there is no rooting interest in the outcome. Frazier - Ali divided a nation. Liberals and Conservatives, young and old, black and white. It was one of the defining moments of the Vietnam era. I'm not sure that there will ever be a sporting event that captures that attention of this nation as that one did. You would have to go back to Joe Louis defeating Max Schmelling to find a sporting event that equaled the anticipation and social impact of first Ali - Frazier fight. Louis winning to avenge his only loss and striking a blow against the rising Nazi power in Germany was a polarizing moment around the coutry. There was no middle ground in those fights and everyone took a side. While the great fights that followed couldn't live up to the social significance of those two, they were still great sporting spectacles. Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Aaron Pryor, Alexis Arguello and Larry Holmes created magic moments in the 80's. Tyson, Holyfield, Chavez and Foreman made the 90's a great decade.

The thrill of a fight night in Vegas is still fantastic, but the only place that magic is felt is in Vegas. People used to pay money to go to movie theaters to watch big fights. Of course we have pay per view today, but can you imagine how motivated someone would have to be to actually pay to go to a theater to watch a fight? Most don't even order fights that they can watch in their own homes. The magic of a big Ali fight could draw people to a theater back in the 70's, whether it was to watch him pull of a miracle and beat George Foreman or lose a classic battle to Joe Frazier. It was thrilling, but for now the thrill is gone, the thrill has gone away.

I know boxing is a brutal sport, and at it's worst, it's absolutely unwatchable. I just long for the days of the BIG FIGHT. Perhaps they'll come back, or perhaps we've just moved on as a society. I can't say for sure and don't really have any important social commentary to make on the subject. I just miss the good old days.

Knuckle Sandwich

The Knuckleball is the strangest pitch ever invented. It perfoms like the five D's of Dodgeball; dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge (I know dodge is in there twice, but I'm just quoting the movie). It always amazes me when someone can become a successful pitcher throwing a pitch that is for all intents and purposes, uncontrollable. It's basically a freak pitch that baffles the people trying to hit it, catch it and often times, the people who are throwing it. Watching Tim Wakefield last night and the adventures of his catcher was quite amusing at times. He actually gave a run without giving up a hit, thanks to three passed balls in one inning. He actually struck out Arod, but he reached on a passed ball (which is, by the way, one of the seven ways to reach first base without a hit). Arod then advanced to second on a passed ball and then scored from third on a passed ball.

The Knuckleball, in it's current incarnation, is not thrown with the knuckles but with the fingertips. The basic idea is to impart as little spin as possible and let the ball to float to home plate on the wings of fate. The knuckleball has been thrown with the knuckles in the past and I'm sure there are pitchers somewhere who still do it that way, but recently, at the major league level at least, it's been all about the fingertips. I'm not sure why the more recent crop only uses the fingertips but perhaps it has something to do with the success enjoyed by Phil Neikro or perhaps Hoyt Wilhelm or Wilbur Wood. I can't say for sure. Neikro and Wilhelm are both in the Hall of Fame and Wood won 20 games a season for four years in a row in the seventies, so clearly the fingertip grip worked very well for them.

There is definitely a bias against knuckle ball pitchers. No knuckleballer has ever won the Cy Young award although Wood and Phil Neikro certainly had seasons in which they were worthy. Baseball scouts would probably dismiss most prospects who relied too heavily on the pitch. Today it's all about making the radar gun light up and the knuckleball is never going to do that. The most likely scenario of a pitcher reaching the majors as a knuckleballer would involve an arm injury to a prospect who then converts to throwing the knuckleball in order to salvage his career. A team that has invested money would be willing to give that pitcher a chance to show that he can still be effective. However, a college or high school pitcher who throws it, would probably never get signed in the first place.

There are pitchers who use a variations of the knuckleball to great effect. Mike Mussina is the most famous proponent of the knuckle curve and the knuckle change. Once again he uses his fingertips, but with only one finger. The other finger is used in a conventional style. His pitches have neither the movement nor the randomness of the regular knuckleball. In fact he can throw them with pinpoint control. They have the same movement that one would associate with a normally thrown curveball or change up. It seems that the knuckle portion of these pitches doesn't really add much too them. Mussina would never have made it off the campus of Stanford if he relied on a conventional knuckleball.

Knuckle ball pitchers are a rare breed. In fact Tim Wakefield is in fact the only major league pitcher who uses it almost exclusively. Steve Sparks was a knuckleballer as well, but he's not pitching in the majors this year and it would be a stretch of the imagination to call him successful. Clearly the pitch is difficult to master but it can lead to a very long career. The pitch is rarely thrown at speeds above a batting practice fastball. Phil and Joe Niekro along with Hoyt Wilhelm pitched effectively well into their forties using the Knuckleball as their primary weapon. Wakefield has enjoyed a long career relying on the pitch. He came up as a 25 year old and immediately went 8-1 with a 2.15 ERA. The following year he 6-11 with a 5.61 ERA. The year after that, he was back in the minors and then released by the Pirates. The year after that he resurfaced with the Red Sox and went 16-8 with a 2.95 ERA. That is what makes the knuckleball so frustrating. It can be just as big a mystery to the people who throw it as it is to the people trying to hit it.

It's not hard to imagine a day when there will be no knuckleballers in major league baseball. At this point there is only one knuckleball pitcher who is enjoying success in the minors and Wakefield is holding up the tent in the majors all by himself. He is 38 years old, but if past successful knuckleballers are any indicator, he probably has at least 5 years left in his tank. Hopefully the pitch doesn't go the way of the dinosaurs. It would be a shame if the pitch were lost to major league baseball forever. The pitch is fairly simple to throw and does not require great arm strength (Wilbur Wood actually pitched both ends of a double header in the seventies), so I can always imagine the day when some kid or some almost senior citizen out of nowhere makes it to the majors by learning to harness the magic and mystery that is the knuckleball.

Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil

Larry Brown returned to work for the NY Knicks yesterday and actually had a conversation with Isiah Thomas. Brown was at the Knicks workout facility putting potential draftees through their paces. Brown will have his Waterloo with Jim Dolan shortly and the immediate future of the Knicks will be decided. The press reaction to the potential dismissal of Brown has been swift and negative, but I can't imagine that Dolan is phased in anyway by the criticism. Practically every move he has made has been criticized in the press, except for the hiring of Brown. I certainly hope that given the time that has passed since this story first broke, he has had a chance to reconsider his position. Brown is clearly in the best position to help the Knicks improve on this years dismal record.

The only potential benefit to Brown's dismissal would be the ultimate failure and then firing of Isiah Thomas. Isiah has never shown himself to be a great coach and he would ultimately fail in that role allowing Dolan to then fire him. I'm not sure what he's waiting for at this point. There is one move that I'm not going to criticize Isiah for and that was trading the Knicks #1 pick this year for Eddie Curry. It doesn't appear that there is a franchise type player available in this years draft and for all his apparent lack of intensity, I would still bet that Curry has more potential than any player available at the top of this years draft. Of course there may be a Dwayne Wade type flying under the radar at this point, but I have no doubt that if the Knicks had indeed ended up with the top pick, they would have chosen another under performing guard (J.J. Redick?) to join the 20 they already have on the roster.

The Knicks have two first round picks (20 & 29) and hopefully they will choose wisely. Perhaps they could package the picks to move up to get a power forward or trade them for a power forward. I know it seems a radical move to actually try and get someone who actually might fill a need on the team, but hell, they've surprised me before. Steve Francis, Jalen Rose??? Supplies!!!

Anyway, now that the Knicks and Larry Brown are at least playing nice in public, it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. At this point they are like the wise three Monkeys. Larry Brown sees no evil, Isiah hears no evil and Dolan speaks no evil. Someone is going to blink. I'm just not sure which one it will be. My money is on Dolan. I'm sure his meeting with Brown is not going to be a love fest and that may just provide enough motivation for Brown to accept a buy out and move on to his next job.

Stay tuned kids. It's about to get exciting.

We Are The World

I was reading an article recently that referred to Barry Bonds as the most famous athlete in the world. Now clearly that's a laughable statement and I wish I could remember where I read it because I would be thrilled to give the author full credit. That statement is as ridiculous as the oft repeated stat that the Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event in the world. Why do American reporters feel the need to make global claims about sporting events and people that generate little interest in the rest of the world? The Superbowl is viewed by about 90 million people here in America and about 10 to 20 million in the rest of the world. Barry Bonds isn't even the most famous athlete in America much less the world. He may be the most infamous, but I digress.

The World Cup is almost upon us and it truly is a global event. It is Soccer that is the world game. Not Baseball or Football or Basketball. While the American made sports are played in many parts of the world, Soccer is played in every part of the world. The viewing audience for the World Cup final will top one billion. That's billion with a B. The viewing audience for the entire World Cup will reach into the multiple Billions.

It's not a big deal that Soccer isn't a big time sport in America. After all it wasn't started here. We Americans are nothing if not fans of us. So we don't have to bow down at the alter of the World Cup just because the rest of the world is. Yet we must recognize that the majority of the world doesn't care that the Pittsburgh Steelers won their record tying fifth Super Bowl in January. The simply don't care that Barry Bonds took steroids. And that's okay. America can care enough for the rest of the world. So next time you read something about an American athlete or sport being the world's favorite or most watched you'll know better (the only American who could actually make that claim would be Muhammad Ali).

So this summer when our attention is turned to baseball and NFL training camps and who is dating Paris Hilton, the rest of the world will be focused on Germany (which
is a good thing, because you never know what those Germans are up to). The World Cup is the most watched event in the world, but you just wouldn't know it in America.

Unit - ty!

The New York papers are filled with articles heralding the demise of "The Big Unit". Apparently Randy Johnson is done according to the New York press. He's been smacked around in his last four starts and abused by the likes of Mark Loretta and so the Yankees (who owe him approximately $28 million over the next two years), appear to be stuck with an ace who has lost his stuff.

There a couple of things to consider when it comes to Randy. First of all he's almost 43 years old. Most premiere athletes lose their dominant ability in their late thirties. He had managed to maintain that ability into his forties. Secondly, he's clearly been blessed with almost supernatural ability. Most normal humans cannot throw the ball 100 MPH and certainly most of us cannot throw that hard into our middle aged years. Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens are pretty much the only people that come to mind.

So we don't have a lot of history to fall back on as to whether he has hit some kind of wall or not. Nolan Ryan was throwing as hard in his forties as he was in his twenties. His demise came from injuries to his legs. His arm never gave out. In fact, I'm sure that Nolan Ryan could throw 90 today even though he's pushing 60. Roger had one of his best years in 2005 and I'm sure the batters he faced would say that he hadn't lost anything off his fastball. He had added a split fingered fastball to his arsenal over the years and that allowed him to be just as effective as he had been in his younger years.

So what's the answer for Randy? His arm is clearly sound (The Yankees gave him an MRI after his last start to prove that to him), he still throws in the mid nineties and I'm sure can still touch 100 on a good day. Does he have to come up with another pitch, like Clemens? I think it's a little too late for him to start experimenting with another pitch (and he already throws a split fingered fastball; just not with the success that Clemens does). The truth is that I don't know what the answer is. I just know that his arm still posses more ability than 95% of pitchers in the major leagues.

The Yankees pitching coach, Ron Guidry, is working with Randy to try and correct the problem. I'm fairly confident that they will be able to make him into a successful pitcher again. Will he be the dominant, intimidating pitcher that he once was? I don't know, but I don't think that's necessary for him to be successful. He has to learn to trust his stuff again. I was at Yankee stadium when Tom seaver won his 300th game. He wasn't the power pitcher he used to be, but that didn't matter. He knew how to get hitters out. Randy is more than capable of making that transition. Perhaps he'll never strike out 20 in a game or throw a perfect game again, but remember you heard it here first; He will be an effective starter again.

Of course this may just be all wishful thinking on my part, but honestly, I really don't think so.

Fire Sale

The Knicks are back in the headlines which is pretty amazing considering their season has been over for weeks. The news out of the Garden these days is that the Knicks are looking to get rid of Larry Brown after arguably the worst season in Knicks history. Heckle and Jeckle also known as James Dolan and Isiah Thomas have apparently decided that the major problem with the team is the coach.

Larry Brown and the Knicks have been a match made in hell to this point. Brown, who went through a messy (and lucrative) divorce with the Pistons last year, said that the Knicks were his dream job. He never realized what a nightmare this season would become. The Knicks roster was filled with rookies, underachievers and over paid shooters with no conscience. Larry Brown is first and foremost a defensive coach. He should have known that this team would never be able to fit that style of play. Brown is partly to blame for the Knicks performance this year. He should have tried to adapt his style to the players that he had, not the other way around. He made certain concessions when he coached Alan Iverson, but for some reason seemed unwilling to do that here. Perhaps he's just getting more stubborn with age.

With all that being said, Larry Brown still undoubtedly knows how to coach. He is the only person in history to win a NCAA and NBA championship. He is only one season removed from being a few points away from celebrating back to back championships. Heckle and Jeckle have no such resume to fall back on. Isiah did win as a player in college and the pros, but I don't remember that being a prerequisite to success as an executive. Dolan has turned the Knicks from perennial contender into laughing stock of the league. Now, who is in a better position to turn the Knicks around? Don't worry, it's a rhetorical question.

The Knicks are about to take a sad song and make it much, much worse. The reports are that Isaiah would take over as coach. Isiah has never proven that he has the ability to be a great coach. His Pacer teams never reached an NBA final and what makes him think that the malcontents on the Knicks would be willing to listen to him? They didn't listen to Larry Brown, but apparently Isiah speaks their language. After all, he did draft, sign or trade for every player on the team. The fact that Dolan is willing to turn this team over to Isiah is just another example of an owner without a clue.

There are lots of people around the country who hate George Steinbrenner, and with good reason, but at least he has brought a winning team to the city. Dolan only embodies the worst qualities of George; meddling, spending, bad decision making. He needs some good "basketball people" around him to help him with some of these decisions. Unfortunately the last two, Scott Layden and Thomas, have led the Knicks to this current state of affairs. And his answer to this quagmire? Fire the only person on the staff who has actually shown the ability to lead a team to a championship. Genius, pure genius. And George is supposed to be the crazy one.

ESBN?!!?

When did ESPN become the all-Bonds-all-the-time network? They are supposed to be an unbiased sports network. Not since Fox News became the "conservatives are us" network have I seen such shameful self serving promotion passed of as news. ESPN now see fit to cut into it's programming to show every Bonds at bat. I'm not sure if they've noticed but the majority of the country isn't particularly enamored of Bonds at the moment. It's as if they blinders on to what everyone in the country is thinking.

Before the steroid allegations there were sponsors lined up to be a part of the home run chase. MasterCard had an advertising campaign that was going to build around Bonds, but that all went away once the allegations in "Game of Shadows" came to light. Interrupting their own programming to show Bonds' at bats is not their worst offense. They also have a show under their entertainment branch entitled "Bonds on Bonds". The show consists of ESPN cameras following Bonds around as he goes about the business of baseball and also shows him with his family. This was an attempt by Bonds to try and change his image. He even went so far as to dress up as Paula Abdul in spring training to show just how much fun he has with his teammates.

He cries in front of the camera, he hugs his kids, he talks about how misunderstood he is and that the people just don't know the real him. There are a lot of athletes whose public persona is different from the actual person, but Bonds is not one of those people. What you see is what you get. He's arrogant, boorish, and unapologetically. I wonder what his family thinks about the allegations made by his ex-mistress? I'm not sure what his excuse was for that, but knowing him he probably decided that he didn't need to give his family one. He's Barry Bonds after all.

I don't know why ESPN decided to play along with this charade, but it makes them look terrible. I'm sure that the announcers who are forced to play along cannot be very happy about this. ESPN does have some Bonds apologists, Joe Morgan being primary among those, but I'm sure the majority of them feel the way the rest of America feels. Bonds is a slimy character who really should be left to his own devices. The best that we could do to Bonds is to ignore him. As much as he claims he hates the spotlight, I know that if reporters stopped asking questions and the fans stopped reacting to him, it would drive him insane. Perhaps his unnaturally large head would just explode.

Why is ESPN paying this much attention to someone that we know cheated. He wouldn't be there without the steroids. I don't want to hear arguments about the fact that he was the best hitter in baseball before the steroids. He was, but he would not have been able to maintain that through his late thirties and early forties. Pujols should sue because he finished second in the MVP race twice to Bonds. He should by all rights be a three time MVP by this point.

I wonder what ESPN will do next year when Bonds is chasing Aaron? Perhaps they will just officially turn the network over to him.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It

The Yankees and Boston are in the middle of their first series at the stadium. It's really amazing to me to listen to the sports commentary that accompanies these games. I have never heard so many definitive statements made based on less evidence than when these two teams get together. Yesterday, the Red Sox hammered the Yanks and the headlines were screaming about Randy being done and Arod not being able to hit against the Sox and the Yankees not having enough pitching to compete over the season. Of course the Yankees won tonight and they hammered Curt Schilling and Arod hit a mammoth home run, so I'm sure the headlines in Boston tomorrow will question whether Schilling is really back to form and whether the Red Sox can compete if their supposed ace doesn't pitch up to the expected level.

The Yankees and Red Sox will play each other 19 times this year. They still have 16 more games to go against each other and 120 against the rest of league. These games are always intense and there is a playoff type atmosphere, but the truth is that it's not October, it's actually May. There are no season long conclusions to be drawn from one series in May.

It's fun to speculate with baseball fans about what will happen for the remainder of the season and I'm as guilty of that as anyone else. The difference is that I don't jump off a building whenever the Yankees have a bad game. Everything should be kept in perspective. I guess perspective doesn't sell papers or make the phone ring on sports radio, but it's a long season. And by the way, the Yankees and Red Sox are tied for first place. I don't think either has a reason to panic. The Yankees were 11-18 at this point last year and they were battling the Devil Rays for last place in the division. There was definitely panic in the air, but there was real reason for concern.

Everyone should just keep in mind that we have a long way to go and it's going to be fun. Just keep your hands and feet inside the car, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Every Party has a Pooper

Barry Bonds is about to tie and pass Babe Ruth on the all time home run list. Major League baseball has decided that they will not have any special celebration when he passes the Babe's mark. This has been a point of some contention. The commissioner's office has said that the record is 755 and that they would have a celebration of some sort if that record is broken. They have said that they are not in habit of celebrating players reaching second place on any all time list. They cite examples from the past and they would be correct.

The thing is that if this were anyone other than Barry Bonds, baseball would have been throwing a season long party to celebrate this event. If there's one thing that baseball is good at doing, it's celebrating its past. Baseball is woven together through the tapestry of the past. Players have always been compared across decades, across the century and a half of baseball history, but steroids have destroyed that. Barry Bonds isn't the only culprit of course, but he's just the most visible. He's the poster boy for all that is wrong with the game. His traveling circus this season has lead to fans becoming fairly creative with their signs; "Move your head, Barry. I can't see", "Bonds hitting home run number 715, worthless", and the most simple "*".

It's a shame really. The now tainted McGwire - Sosa home run chase of '98 brought so much positive attention to the game. Most of America watched with awe as the balls flew out of the park that summer. The same thing would be happening now if not for the fact that Barry Bonds is viewed as such a despicable character. He brought this upon himself, so we can't feel too bad for him. It's just unfortunate that what should have been a great moment will now feel so hollow. The moment will be celebrated in San Francisco, but there will be no feeling of joy anywhere else in the country. It'll be just like Mudville after the mighty Casey struck out.

I'm not going to blame the Commissioner or the owners or the sports writers or TV and Radio announcers today or even the public, for this mess. I just wanted to say how disappointing this all is. I guess we can only hope that Arod stays healthy and interested long enough to eventually break the home run record, whatever it may be. As a baseball fan, these opportunities really don't come along very often. Babe owned the all time HR record by the mid twenties, Aaron broke the record in the mid seventies and here we are in the mid '00's and we are on the threshold of another record. It should be a great thing but it's not.

Only three men in the long and storied history of the game have reached the 700 home run plateau. We actually have the privilege of watching one of those men every day. It should be a joy, but unfortunately there is no joy in Mudville, because the Mighty Casey was shooting up.

Here Today...

Here's the last update on the Greg Maddux/Randy Johnson article from a couple of weeks ago. Gregg Maddux in his last two starts: 0-2, 13 earned runs in 8.2 innings, an ERA of 13.2. Where are all the articles talking about how Maddux is done?

Just curious.

It's a Floor Wax, It's a Dessert Toping...

The annual “Run for the Roses” also known as the Kentucky Derby, took place last week. As usual it was billed as the most exciting two minutes in sports. The question that I have every year is whether Horse Racing qualifies as a sport. There a lot of leisure events these days that seem to qualify as pseudo-sports. ESPN has turned poker in to a national obsession. They are now even showing paintball and obstacle course events. These events clearly fall under the entertainment arm of ESPN which has become like the original orange peg in Trivial Pursuit. That category was sports & leisure. The problem was that when you were expecting a question about baseball, you invariably ended up getting a question about croquet or cards. I don’t particularly have a problem with these events being on TV, but they clearly are not sporting events.

Does an animal running around a track with a man or woman hitting him with a whip qualify as a sport? Does someone driving a car around a track as fast as possible qualify as a sport? Well, let’s see. Driving a car that fast requires great hand/eye coordination, good reflexes, good endurance and good concentration. It clearly requires athletic skills, but is it a sport? I don’t think so. It’s not a sport anymore than flying a jet plane is a sport. The question becomes what is the definition of sport. Does a sport require athletic skill or is it simply the act of competition? If it’s simply the act of competition, then practically everything would qualify as a sport. If it also requires athletic skill then the field becomes somewhat narrowed, so that leads us two our second question. Does the athlete have to rely on his own physical gifts or can the competition be won by superior “machinery”? Clearly in auto sports or horse racing, a superior “machine” can win the day. The best horse/car doesn’t always win, but having the best one certainly doesn’t hurt. So if a car doesn’t qualify as an athlete, why should a horse?

So if horses running around a track doesn’t qualify as a sport and horses aren’t athletes, the other question is, are jockeys athletes? They’re in good shape and they have all the usual assets of athletes, but in reality, they are just holding on. Having athletic ability does not make you an athlete. (It takes a lot of strength to work a jackhammer, but I don’t see those guys competing on TV, although I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before “the Ocho” gets to it). There’s lots of strategy in horse racing. Where to place the horse in the pack, when to make your move, when to use the whip, but at the end of the day, it’s the horse doing all the work. If the jockeys were to get off the horses and run themselves then I guess that would be a sporting event. The only sporting event that takes place at a race track is at the betting window. Have you ever seen people throw away tickets after a loss or jump for joy and sprint to the ticket window after a win? Trust me when I say that there are some Olympian efforts in that group.

I don’t know what the most exciting two minutes in sports are. I guess that depends on your favorite sport. The last two minutes of the close game in the NCAA basketball finals are pretty exciting. So are the last two minutes of a close Super Bowl or NCAA football championship. The last two minutes of any Yankees World Series win are pretty hard to match as far as I’m concerned. The Kentucky Derby has great pomp and circumstance and a wonderful history, but horse racing is just not a sport.

Sorry.

It's a Drag

Apparently the race is now on to see who can sign Roger Clemens to a contract for the second half of the season. The Astros, Yankee, Red Sox and Rangers are all going to make their pitch (excuse the pun) to Clemens over the next week or so. Roger, who was not eligible to sign with the Astros until May, 1 can now make his choice between all his suitors. He has pretty much said that he wants to play for the team that gives him the best chance to win a World Series. The other consideration of course is proximity to his family. The Astros offer him the best of both worlds. They were in the series last year and have gotten off to a surprising start, due to an amazing offensive output, this year. He lives in Houston, he doesn't have to even go the park if he's not pitching. He doesn't have to go on road trips if his spot in the rotation isn't going to come up and he gets home a few minutes after games are finished. It's a perfect situation for him.

So what exactly could Roger's motivation be for going through this four team bidding war? Could it really all be about money and ego? He says that he wants to play for a contender, well all of his potential teams are in first place (Houston is 1/2 a game out, but let's not nitpick). The problem with this requirement is that is in first in May is not necessarily the team that wins in September. Both the Yankees and Astros were below .500 for much of the first half of the season last year and obviously both ended up in the playoffs. Would he really pick the Texas Rangers if they end up being the team with the biggest lead in their division by the end of the month? I don't think so.

I don't believe that he's going to end up anywhere other than the Astros. There is no real reason to play anywhere else. It's not like he hasn't won a World Series before. He won twice with the Yankees and he's been in the Series on four other occasions. In fact he's done everything that there is to do in the sport. There's nothing left for him to prove. The question at this point should not be which team he's going to pitch for, but whether he pitches for the Astros or retires. That really is the only decision he has to make. Do I think that the Yankees are going to make an obscene offer (probably a million dollar a start)? Yes, but in the end I think that the offer from Houston will be driven up enough by the bidding from the other teams that he'll be able to take it.

It would be a shame if Roger never pitches again. He's an all time great and we may never see his like again, but he isn't being fair to the Astros at this point. According to Baseball-reference.com, Roger has made approximately $121 million in on the field salary ($53 million in the last five years alone). If he wants to play, he should just tell the Astros that he'll be ready on June, 15th and that he wants $10 million for half a season. That should be simple enough, but I think he enjoys the circus that is the Roger Clemens traveling show. He enjoys the daily speculation about where he's going to play and whether he's going to play. He enjoys being the center of attention.

I guess some athletes never want to relinquish the spotlight. In Roger's case however, he is managing to maintain the spotlight by not pitching. It may be the first time in history that a baseball player has been able to do that. Boxers with their constant retirement/unretirement can also do this sort of thing, but baseball players usually hang on until they absolutely can't perform any more. While, I'm sure the attention is fun for Roger, I am really beginning to believe that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment for the Astros. It's time for him to make a decision and let them off the hook.

Come on Roger, give the Astros a break.

Tie one on

The Yankees and Red Sox renew their rivalry tonight in Fenway park. They play the first of a two game series which will signal the opening salvo in a season long war. The Yankees and Sox have played to virtual standstill over the past four seasons. This season has the added flavor of the former Red Sox icon Johnny Damon now wearing the pinstripes. The fans in Boston will be very unkind to Johnny as they were to Roger Clemens when he showed up in a Yankee uniform. Yankee fans were equally unkind to one of their former favorites, David Wells, when he appeared in a Red Sox uniform.

The papers in New York are in mid season form as I'm sure the Boston papers are as well. I think there have been about one thousand stories about how Johnny Damon has brought so much fun to the Yankee clubhouse and how he's handling New York so well. I'm sick of hearing about that already. Now they head up to Boston and the stories will continue ad nauseum. The Yankees and Red Sox will end up with basically the same record. The winner of the division will be decided basically by who gets the most breaks. I'm sure most writers would like to attribute the difference to some intangible element like character or chemistry, but it mostly will come down to luck. The teams are equally talented and they both have flaws. It really will just come down to whether a short fly ball down the right field line is fair of foul or whether a ball bounces in the stands for a ground rule double or not, or whether an umpire misses a call.

As a Yankee fan, I'd love to think that Johnny Damon has brought some magic to the clubhouse that will allow them to win the division and advance to the World Series, but I know that's simply not true. He's a good player, but he's a centerfielder whose arm is actually worse than Bernie Willams' and he's not as good a lead off hitter as Derek Jeter is. He will make the Yankees offense better, but as we all know, offense alone cannot win a championship.

So all the press will be about Johnny Damon's return to Boston, but the winner of the game and ultimately the division is going to be the team that pitches better and gets the breaks. That's just the way baseball works.