Brian Wilson

This interview with the Giants' closer is pleasantly strange.

Service Time Shenanigans?

Yesterday Neyer wondered aloud why the Twins were keeping Francisco Liriano down on the farm despite 5.44 good reasons to call him up. Today Lirano's agent thinks he has an answer:

The agent for Francisco Liriano has reportedly gotten the players' union to agree to investigate whether the Twins have violated the collective bargaining agreement by keeping Liriano at Triple-A Rochester . . .

. . . One of the primary factors in the investigation is the possible adverse effect the delayed callup may have had on Liriano's service time. Liriano currently has two years and 45 days of Major League service time. To quality for arbitration, a player needs three years of service time. But the top 17 percent of players with between two and three years of service will also quality for arbitration as "Super Twos."

Bill Smith, the Twins GM, responded by saying that if they were interested in messin' with Liriano's service time, they wouldn't have had him on the big club back in April. Smith also cites other examples (e.g. Joe Mauer) when, according to Smith, they didn't pay attention to service time concerns when they very easily could have. "[W]e're trying to win baseball games, that's always been our goal," Smith said.

The "we're trying to win" thing would be way more compelling if they weren't running Livan Hernandez -- a guy who Gleeman points out has "more or less turned every hitter who's stepped to the plate against him into Morneau" -- out there every fifth day.

Still, if this thing ever got in front of an arbitrator, I think the Twins would prevail absent some bombshell document coming to light or someone turning stoolie or something. For starters, the Twins could point to their excellent play of late and say they don't want to mess with a good thing. The fact that it would be a better thing if they had Liriano instead of Hernandez would probably be overlooked because people tend not to see what hasn't happened as much as they see what has.

Second, though you and I may understand sunk costs, most folks don't, and the Twins, if pressed on their insistence on pitching Hernandez, might convince some arbitrator that they just have to keep running him out there in order to realize some kind of return on their $5M investment.

Are they messin' with Liriano's service time? I have no clue about that. If they aren't, however, it means that the only explanation for him being down in Rochester is that the Twins have no clue about anything.

Cleaning Out His Closet

If you sent a fan letter to Doug Glanville back in the mid-to-late 90s and never heard back, a response may very well be on the way.

And That Happened

Mets 10, Reds 8: I'll admit that I was paying no attention to anything last night. I was at a firm outing with the firm picking up the drinks, and things got sort of blurry and sideways come about 11PM. What I do remember, however, was drinking ugly rail drinks at the Velvet Dog circa late, and seeing a TV showing the ESPN feed comparing Adam Dunn to Ted Williams at this point in their careers. No sound, of course, so I couldn't tell if there was a lick of sense to any of it, but based on what I was seeing there was nothing to it other than a home run total. Who knows what they were trying to show? Whatever it was, it wasn't convincing back there at the Velvet Dog. In any event, way to go, Francisco Cordero! A big blown save leads to the Mets' 10th straight win.

Cardinals 4, Padres 3: Solo shots and Kyle Lohse goodness seal the deal. Need I remind people once again just how totally available Lohse was to any team who wanted him back in February? OK, good.

Tigers 6, Orioles 5: Leyland probably won't complain about this game, even if it is on Thursday night.

Rockies 5, Pirates 3: Clint Hurdle is happy that he is no longer managing Billy Wagner and Dan Uggla.

A real schedule resumes tonight. Thank the creator.

Another Kind of Slow Day

Apologies again for another slowish day in these parts. I'm up in Cleveland at a law firm function and hiding out in my hotel room typing away all afternoon isn't much of a possibility. Tomorrow may be much of the same, I'm afraid, but I will certainly be recapping tonight's meager schedule of games.

Besides, you should all be in line to see The Dark Knight right now anyway.

Later,

Craig

Nationals' Stadium

If you've been hanging around here for any length of time you know how I feel about publicly funded stadiums, but in case you forgot I link approvingly to this WSJ piece outlining how little the D.C. taxpayers are getting for their money.

(link from honorary chairman of the ShysterBall Subcommittee for Sports Business News, Pete Toms)

Trading Ichiro

The P-I's Jim Moore thinks the Mariners should trade Ichiro:

Nothing against Ichiro, but isn't it time to blow this thing up and start over? Realizing they had no shot at an NBA championship, the Sonics dealt Ray Allen to Boston and began a process that will someday turn Oklahoma City into a perennial contender.

When you blow things up, you don't hang on to your best player, especially one who will be 35 in October. You don't let the player's popularity get in the way. If you're truly serious about winning, you forget about the marketing consequences, understanding that a successful team is more essential to long-term fan appeal.

I think Moore's probably right. Ichiro isn't going to be around the next time the Mariners have their shit together, so it's probably a good idea to move him while he still retains a lot of value.

Not that it's a slam dunk, of course. Indeed, Moore runs a lot of quotes from Dave Cameron* over at U.S.S. Mariner who makes the case that, if for no other reason than fan confidence, the team needs to keep its biggest star (not that that's the only reason Cameron cites).

Regular reporters and columnists almost always go to experts to get added insight for their pieces, but you very rarely see it happening in the sports pages. Nine times out of ten this kind of piece would have been given the "I think the local team should trade player X, and there is no dispute about it" treatment. Moore is obviously capable of forming his own opinions about trading Ichiro here, but it's really nice to see him go to Cameron -- a guy who probably knows more about the Mariners than anyone on the planet -- for a dissenting voice, added flavor, or whatever. I'd like to see more of this.

I realize that Ichiro may be a special case in terms of marketing, but at the end of the day the Mariners need to run themselves like a baseball team. If I'm running that team I put him back in centerfield to maximize his value, start shopping, and take the best offer that comes my way.

You're not gonna believe this, but . . .

. . . Mike Hampton hurt himself again:

Mike Hampton left his minor-league rehabilitation start with Class AA Mississippi on Wednesday night after only two innings, having tweaked his groin. "He didn't want to take any chances with it," said Nick Skinner, PR director for the Mississippi Braves. "He said his arm felt great."

I do hope no one was suffering from the delusion that Hampton was actually going to pitch for the Braves again.

And That Happened

PCL 6, IL 5: No, I'm not going to pretend I watched it and I'm not going to pretend I care. I used to watch it, though, almost every year in fact.

But there's a limit to how much minor league ball a guy who doesn't really care for minor league ball can watch, and the fact is that the Futures Game really steals the thunder from the AAA All-Star game these days. It features prospects we recognize and who, in reality, are far more likely to make an impact on the big club than anyone in the AAA game. The Futures Game had Matt LaPorta. He even got his own ESPN feature story. The AAA game had Mike Hessman and Gino Espinelli. Great guys, I'm sure, but no one who we'll one day watch tearing up the bigs as we say "I remember him from back in the day."

The disparate treatment of the two games -- one gets a big stage in New York, the other is in Louisville -- reflects the overall decline of AAA baseball. Not a financial or structural decline necessarily, but a decline as a talent repository. Big league teams are now parking major prospects at AA, often promoting them directly to the big club from there. To the extent they get time in AAA it's brief. Hold them there any longer and teams risk infecting them with the bitterness of the guys who think that they're good enough to be in the majors but aren't and the desperation of the guys who know they aren't good enough but soldier on anyway. At least that's how the story goes when you talk to front office people.

I'm sure there's an element of that on AAA clubs, but does an environment of desperation and bitterness really pose a risk to our fragile eggshell prospects? Color me skeptical. In fact, I can't help but think that it would be a good environment in which to dip a phenom for a bit. Make him realize how fine a line there is between success and failure. Make him realize how fortunate he is to be on the fast track while so many others are spinning their wheels. Give them that "there but for the grace of God go I" feeling that motivates so many of us.

And for our purposes, make the AAA all-star game relevant again.

The Cognitive Dissonance of Murray Chass

Tee-hee.

Programming Note

Due to a noon deadline on something fairly major, followed by a drive up to Cleveland for something very minor, there may not be much doin' around here for much of the day. Look back mid-to-late afternoon for some possible updates, but until then, talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic:

The All-Star managers should simply tell the vast majority of the reserves that they're not playing and manage the thing like a real game, thereby providing (a) better roster flexibility; and (b) more realistic game play.

Obviously everything worked out OK last night, and you can't bank on 15 inning games every year, but it would have been a far more interesting game in my mind if the batters weren't forced to face fresh-armed fireballers each and every inning.

Apologies for the slow day,

Craig

And That Happened -- All-Star Game Liveblog Edition

AL 4, NL 3: Since I'm posting this after the game has ended, I shouldn't really call this a live blog. It's more of a "filmed in front of a live studio audience" blog. Rest assured, however, that I typed all of this as events unfolded and didn't go back and change anything.

INTRO

James Earl Jones? Man, they're not kidding around with this Yankee Stadium Is Really Important stuff.

RED CARPET PARADE

Why I watched this silliness I have no idea, but I did.

Dennis Eckersley: still rocking the mullet after all of these years. That's gutsy. I like it.

Whitey Ford: I hope he was pulling Grace's leg when he said that he couldn't remember the 1960 World Series ("How'd we make out?"), but I'm not entirely sure.

A-Rod: Completely incapable of banter. And he stole Jeter's line about not wanting to say what he's going to take from Yankee stadium because he planned to steal it. He's such a great player that I so want to like him, but he just makes it impossible.

The baseball luminaries are riding in 100 Chevy Silverados. Baseball's carbon footprint is taking a beating this evening.

This thing reminds me of the Macy's parade. I hope I didn't tune in too late to see the David Wells balloon.

Reggie Jackson: Do people in Oakland get mad that Reggie never seems to acknowledge his time with the A's? It's always New York, New York, New York. Dude won three rings in Oakland. What gives?

Adam Rubin, the "Take Me Out the Ballgame" contest winner gave what was perhaps the worst rendition of the song I have ever heard. My son does a version of it making nothing but fart noises and it sounded better than that.

Mike Schmidt: He's talking about the "National League dominance" of the All-Star game back when he played and his desire for it to return, and he sounds quite serious. What has happened to this game? Back then it allegedly didn't count, so why doesn't anyone seem to care all that much about it anymore?

Ernie Banks holding Fukudome's baby daughter is probably the Cubs picture of the year.

Mars Blackmon has put on a bit of weight over the past 20 years, hasn't he?

PREGAME

All of the Hall of Famers from the parade assembled out in left field before the game. Fun Fact: If a bomb went off in left right now, Cookie Rojas would officially be The Greatest Living Baseball Player.

Holy cow, does Gaylord Perry look bad. Bob Feller looks younger than he does. Seriously kids, stay away from the spitballs, they'll suck your life force away.

I'm a bit surprised at how tepid the applause for Steinbrenner-on-the-golf-cart was. Sure, there's a lot of reason to hate the guy, but isn't that pretty much water under the bridge at this point? Especially in New York? The only guy I know who still holds anything against Big Stein is Repoz.

THE GAME

Starts at 8:47pm. I think they needed to add a few more Hall of Famers to make the pregame an even hour. Sheesh.

First Inning

Cliff Lee strikes out Ramirez and Utley. If he gets Foxx, Simmons, and Cronin next he'll make history. Berkman flies out. Oh well.

Jeter steals second after getting a man-sized jump off Ben Sheets. Someone should tell Ben that this game counts.

Second Inning

A-Rod's white shoes are a bold choice, but it is before Labor Day, so they're fair game I suppose.

Sheets drops an F-bomb after walking Milton Bradley. I take it back. He does care.

Milton Bradley steals second. That's surprising, especially given the ACL and everything. Is Francona turning them loose or are they freelancing?

Ned Yost is at home watching Ben Sheets throw 42 pitches and not enjoying it one bit.

Third Inning

Japanese characters for Fukudome's name and stat graphics. Cute.

Yogi Berra just called Joe Buck "Jack." Yogi seems lucid, so it can't be a medical condition, but Lord help me, I can't think of what else would cause anyone to confuse such disparate talents like that.

Ichiro doesn't get the Japanese characters. I guess you're no longer a racial novelty if you've been around eight years.

Joe Buck on Hamilton: "Three years ago he was a drug addict, smoking crack, taking pills, drinking booze, has all the tattoos on his arm . . . twenty-six of 'em, he regrets every one of 'em." The drug stuff is obviously awful, but given how much Buck overreacts and moralizes about silly things, I can't help but think he believes the tattoos are every bit as bad as the crack. Whatever the case, you have to wonder how many times we'll see Hamilton play on a national broadcast before they start talking more about his baseball abilities and career than his drug use.

Fourth Inning

Ichiro nails Pujols trying to stretch a double! Wait! Replay! Actually, I think Pujols beat the tag. Still a great throw. And let's be fair: for as much crap as we all give the Fox telecasts, that was good camera work, both in the outfield and at the bag.

Zambrano loops a slow curve over Manny's head. I'd love to see him put the helmet on backwards a la Larry Walker v. Randy Johnson back in the day.

Milton Bradley picked off first after reaching on an error to end the inning. At this rate there's a non-trivial chance that the game will be shorter than the combined red carpet/pregame stuff.

Fifth Inning

Francona goes with the second Angels pitcher in a row, first Saunders, now Santana. I'm guessing that Francona knows that the Sox are likely to meet the Angels in the ALCS and is trying to wear out their pitchers' arms.

Matt Holliday belts a dinger off of Ervin Santana. Mets blogs immediately come to life, begging Omar to trade for him.

Danny Haren (neck beard) v. Kevin Youkilis (dead badger on chin) has to be the worst facial hair matchup in an All-Star Game since at least the 70s.

Speaking of the 70s, I feel like I'm in them right now, what with three stolen bases and everything, this one from Ian Kinsler.

First Jeter grounds into a double play, and now he bounces to the mound with a runner on second. Clutch. God.

Sixth Inning

Some hit and run action with Ramirez in motion and a Chase Utley hit to right, followed by Berkman flying out long to center, Ramirez tagging up, and its now 2-0 NL.. I can't remember the last time I saw a low-scoring, strategy-oriented game in Yankee Stadium. If this was a Yanks-Sox game we'd still be in the second inning.

Justin Duchscherer is the first guy to come in and not be throwing bullets. I have this vague feeling that Chipper is going to get an extra base hit here. Let's watch . . .

. . . Ok, maybe not. He strikes out Jones and gets Holliday to fly out, trouble over. Don't look at me like that. I said it was a vague feeling.

Josh Hamilton steals second for the fourth SB of the night for the AL. You wonder if Francona's running strategy here isn't some form of acting out against Theo Epstein and Bill James and those sabermetric guys back at Sox HQ.

Seventh Inning

1-2-3 for the NL in the top of the inning, and here comes "God Bless America." Man, I wish we could get past this somehow. But wait -- where's that tenor the Yankees always send out there? If you're ever going to get people (like me) to quit complaining about that song taking the place of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" you're going to have to at least keep some consistency about it all.

Dioner Navarro pinch hits for Jason Varitek, and somehow Francona is now down to one bench player. How on Earth did that happen? Aren't the managers usually struggling to figure out how to get everyone in?

J.D. Drew jacks one out to right. Tie game. If this one goes extras, will Francona wish he had some more players available?

Eighth Inning

Papelbon is getting the jeering of the night from the New York crowd. All of this over a stupid Daily News story which, from the sound of it, was a mountain out of a molehill kind of a thing. You always hear about how smart Yankee fans are, but if they're so smart, why can't they ever see through their tabloids' garbage?

Tejada steals second base and takes third on a bad throw by Navarro, and then he scores the go-ahead run on a shallow fly from Adrian Gonzalez. The crowd boos Papelbon as though he walked the bases loaded and the run in. Whatever.

Billy Wagner comes in for the NL. Clint Hurdle must be getting a cut of the extra-inning commercial revenue.

Sizemore singles, steals second, Longoria hits a double, and yep, it's tied. I swear on the life of my children that I wrote that previous comment before the hit happened.

Ninth Inning

Francona substitutes a Yankee in/out in the middle of the inning for the third time, this time Rivera. Pretty classy move on Tito's part, ya know?

Strike-em-out-throw-em-out. Bottom of the ninth, here we come! It strikes me that the NL just doesn't have the arms left that the AL does. I have a feeling this game is going to end really soon.

I'm wrong for about the zillionth time tonight: the AL goes quietly. Extra innings.

Tenth Inning

Martin and Tejada reach with one out and now there are runners on the corners with Dan Uggla coming up. Maybe Papelbon should have been closing . . .

Uggla grounds into a double play.

Uggla boots a grounder.

Uggla lets one go through the wickets.

Ken Rosenthal shows up on cue to remind everyone how important it was to Uggla's father that Uggla play this game in Yankee Stadium.

It's getting Uggla.

After an intentional walk to load the bases, Grady Sizemore steps in to face Aaron Cook as the clock strikes midnight. Yeah, I got a shiver. Sue me.

Sizemore hits it straight to Uggla! Oh, he made the play, runner out at home. Bases are still loaded with one out, though. Evan Longoria is up.

Another short grounder, another out at the plate. Man!

Grounder to Tejada, great play! Uggla is off the hook. He's going to buy Aaron cook a beer after this one is over.

11th Inning

Nothin' doin' for the NL. Lots of talk by Buck and McCarver about teams running out of pitchers and tie games and stuff. I'll be honest: I'm gettin' scared.

Kinsler reaches, tries to steal and is called out despite Tejada failing to get the tag on him. Don't the umpires realize that this game needs to end at some point?

Navarro reaches, Drew singles. Runners on first and second with one out for Michael Young. With Navarro on second and no pinch runners available, Young is going to need a double, I would think.

Yep. Young hits a single and Navarro is thrown out at home. Again, I swear I wrote that before it happened. It's up to Carlos Quentin now. If he doesn't get a hit, it's gonna get really scary in the Selig box.

And we're on to the 12th. My alarm is set to go off in less than five hours. I'm totally loving this game, but I'm going to be totally hating life tomorrow morning.

12th Inning

Kinsler lollygags on a bunt by McLouth, and then Morneau fields a bunt that would have gone foul to put runners on second and third with one out. Intentional walk, and now it's Uggla time again.

Remember that stuff about this being a short game? Well, we're at 3:43 now. I blame the presence of Texas Rangers' players.

Uggla strikes out on three pitches. He'd probably like to forget this game.

All Star George Sherrill is on to pitch, and given that the only one left for the AL is Scott Kazmir -- who wasn't supposed to pitch tonight -- you have to figure that this is Sherrill's game to win or lose.

Bottom of the 12th, and Carlos Guillen almost hits it out to left. Sizemore moves him over to third on a fielder's choice, however, and we're one long out away from sleep, er, I mean the ending of an exciting All-Star game . . .

Longoria strikes out . . .Morneau is walked . . .and Kinsler grounds out. No one on the AL can hit the damn ball out of the infield tonight. I have to admit, we're approaching a decisionmaking point here re: whether I need to pull the ripcord on this game.

Screw it. I can sleep during my drive up to Cleveland tomorrow. Sure, I'm driving alone, but I-71 is a pretty straight freeway.

13th Inning

I've been up for nearly 20 straight hours and I'm forcing myself to watch (a) All-Star George Sherrill pitch; and (b) listen to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver broadcast. I must be truly ill. The NL does nothing in the 13th. Here's hoping for a quick tater by the AL in the bottom half. Given that we're facing the 17th Dioner Navarro at bat of the game, however, I am not optimistic.

Navarro grounds out, but then Drew reaches on yet another Dan Uggla error. This guy can't have that many lives left, can he? This one is going to have to come back to haunt him, right?

Nope. It won't. Christ. This is getting kinda awful.

14th Inning

The NL is smarter than me. They've gone to sleep.

The Diamondbacks brass have to be happy about seeing Brandon Webb go on one day's rest. Doesn't seem to phase him though, as he strikes out two and gets another on a liner to short. Those sinkerballers don't need no rest, I tells ya! Me neither! I'll never sleep again!

15th Inning

Kazmir is in now. He's also on one day's rest. Rosenthal is a beast. He texted the Rays' GM during the game to get what sounded like a pretty disapproving comment from him re: Scotty pitching in this one. Wanna make the second half interesting Terry Francona? Blow Kazmir's elbow out and go on to win the Al East by a game or two over the Rays!

The good thing about the length of the game is that all of the Hall of Famers from the red carpet show will soon be waking up and will be able to see the end of it over their shredded wheat and prune juice. Someone's gonna have to tell Banks that they didn't play two; they just never finished one.

Brad Lidge is pitching now. Quick -- someone trade Pujols to an AL team so we can end this game.

Great catch of a sinking liner by Ryan Ludwick. I am ashamed to admit that I was hoping it would scoot through and roll to the wall. This game hasn't quite beaten my love of baseball out of me, however, so I can still appreciate that it was a damn good catch.

Terry Francona looks like he's about to barf up a lung. J.D. Drew walks to load the bases with one out. If form holds, Michael Young will chop one to short . . .

Shallow fly to right! Morneau scores!! Ballgame!!! AL wins again!!!!

I'd wrap this up with something pithy, but I got nothin'.

Night folks.

Ty Cobb: Cleveland Indian?

That nugget -- and accompanying pic -- is well worth the price of admission for Paul Lukas' All-Star Game edition of UniWatch.

Sold! To the Gentleman In The Front Row With Way Too Much Money

At an auction yesterday, Babe Ruth's Old Era nabbed more than the market value of my house:

A baseball cap worn by New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth has been auctioned for
a record $328,000 on Monday.

The sweat-stained cap from around the 1920s sold at an auction of Yankees memorabilia in New York. Hunt Auctions says the cap is one of only three Yankees hats in existence worn by Ruth during games. It says a hat used by a player had never sold for more than $100,000.

Of course, given the market right now, one of Sixto Lezcano's stirrup socks would probably go for more than my house.

Aaron's Rib

A look at the extremely cool medical procedure which saved Aaron Cook's baseball career, and maybe his life.

Has the Shadow Been Lifted?

The LAT's Bill Shaikin thinks so:

Barry Bonds is back home in Los Angeles, unemployed and unwanted in the sport he dominated for two decades. Baseball is throwing itself a party here, a coming-out party for a new wave of stars, a huge and happy step away from the steroid shadows that dogged the sport last year . . .

. . . "You've got great stories -- Josh Hamilton, Ryan Braun -- going into their first All-Star experience," New York Mets third baseman David Wright said. "I see the new generation of players coming through as pretty special. There's no negatives surrounding the All-Star game. All the stories are positive. The baseball purists can just sit down and enjoy the baseball."

The Mitchell Report linked 21 active players with the use of performance-enhancing substances. The rosters for tonight's All-Star game at Yankee Stadium include just one of those 21 -- Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros. An All-Star game with rosters dotted with Mitchell Report alumni would be "like when Amy Winehouse won the Grammys after getting arrested," Hall of Famer Paul Molitor said.

I think it's interesting that part of this renewal, or whatever you want to call it, is led by Josh Hamilton -- a guy with a serious drug history -- and the article's money quote comes from Paul Molitor -- another guy with a serious drug history. Interesting in that it shows that baseball is a sport that gives guys second, or third, or in Hamilton's case eighth chances. I like that about baseball because, to me anyway, it implies that the sport considers the individual in ways that the larger War on Drugs does not. There's a basic humanity at work in letting a guy like Josh Hamilton work his way back when it would have been so much easier to install a mindless zero tolerance or three strikes rule and be done with it. As last night's fireworks indicate, it's an approach that has resulted in good things for both Hamilton and the game.

Will we ever see this kind of rapprochement with respect to players linked to performance enhancing drugs? I seriously doubt it, and I think the whole shaming, pariah-creating dynamic of the past couple of years may be one of the hardest things for me about the whole steroids business. It's just not what has been done historically, and I have a hard time casting the vast majority of the George Mitchell All-Stars into the dustbin the way we seem to be doing.

Stinky Stadium

The players won't miss Yankee Stadium. Especially its malodorous bouquet.

And That Happened

Justin Morneau 5, Josh Hamilton 3: You think MLB isn't a little irked at its Home Run Derby format this morning? Josh Hamilton put forth a legend-making performance last night, smacking dinger after dinger in the first round, energizing a packed Yankee Stadium to the point where they were chanting his name Rocky-style . . . but he lost. To the guy who wrongfully beat hometown hero Derek Jeter out for the MVP a couple of years ago. And if you think the folks in Yankee Stadium weren't aware of that last fact as it was happening, you're crazy.

What's to blame for this? The multi-round system which, from what I can tell, was designed to maximize the length of the thing, which in turn maximizes the number of commercials. At the risk of appearing as though I care about the Home Run Derby (dear God, I don't) I'll suggest that, in the future, MLB limit it to a single round avec tiebreaker round if necessary. To make up for the lost time, increase the number of participants. Indeed, if they only stand to hit for a single round, more players may want to participate.

Anyway, here's hoping that the derailing of The Story of The All-Star Game leads to some sort of change.

All-Star Diversion

I vaguely understand that Josh Hamilton is pulling a Superman act at the Home Run Derby. That's great. I guess so, anyway. Actually, I can't really be bothered to care. It's basically batting practice with a Chris Berman soundtrack.

Besides, Batman is way better than Superman (anyone suggesting otherwise in the comments would risk being banned if I could figure out how to ban people). To that end, I offer you a handy-dandy guide on how to become Batman:

What have comic books and movies told us about Batman's physical abilities?

There's a quote from Neal Adams, the great Batman illustrator, who said Batman would win place or show in every event in the Olympics. Probably if I were Batman's handler, I'd put him in the decathlon. Although Batman is shown in the comics as being the fastest and the strongest and all these other things, in reality you can't actually be all of that at once. To be Batman properly, what you really need to do is be exceptionally good at many different things. It's when you take all the pieces and put them together that you get the Batman . . .

Do you think Batman would take steroids to heal faster?

No. There is one comic where he did go on steroids. He went a little crazy and he went off them again.

How many of us do you think could become a Batman?

If you found the percentage of billionaires and multiply that by the percentage of people who become Olympic decathletes, you could probably get a close estimate.

Damn. I was kinda hoping I could be Batman.

All Hail Yankee Stadium

Russ Smith is having none of it, however, mostly on egalitarian grounds, as the old ballpark becomes a place to network on an expense account as opposed to toss back beers and jeer:

There’s nothing sinister or modern about conducting business at a ballgame: salesmen making pitches to potential clients who happen to be sports fans makes a lot of sense. In fact, when I owned the weekly New York Press, we sprung for season tickets and the investment—about $15,000—was recouped by the successful wooing of new advertisers by the end of May, a most pleasant set of circumstances. Yet one of the glories of Yankee Stadium, even in the 1990s, was the congregation of a legitimate mixture of people from all sorts of backgrounds. You’d see, all in one section, guys in suits trying not to get mustard on their ties along with wholesome families, bare-chested youths with “Jeter Rules” painted on their bodies and older New Yorkers, scorecards in hand, who might engage in conversation about seeing Joe DiMaggio’s graceful defense in center field or seeing Phil Rizzuto on the subway before a game.

Maybe this is alarmism run amok, but if the reports about outrageous ticket prices are correct, it’s possible that in the future Yankee Stadium will be populated by the elite alone, which pretty much sucks. And, just like the Boston fans who’ve been priced out of Fenway Park and flock to other stadiums to see the Sox play, displaced Yankee diehards will be on the move as well.

He's right. It's a battle already long lost, but he's right.

Fields of Dreams

The K.C. Star's Sam Mellinger had a nice stadiums piece over the weekend, focusing on how fans form a connection to their ballparks. Or at least used to back when the ballparks were unique. Two telling quotes, the first from the head of HOK's design team:

“I call it the spirit of the place,” says Earl Santee, heading HOK Sport’s design team for Kauffman Stadium’s renovations, new Yankee Stadium and others. “You want people to sense they’re at someplace different than any other place they can be in that city. While it’s about baseball, it’s kind of about the place, too.”

Note the use of the phrase "in that city." Wasn't there a time when the period could have come after the word "be" in that sentence?

Setting aside the astroturfed cookie cutters in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Philly, there was once a time when a lot us could be shown a picture of any stadium in baseball and identify it in a milisecond. I like a lot of the HOK stadiums, but it's not always as easy now. In some ways it's good that we can't, because some of those old-school design flourishes were actually pretty annoying. But there is no escaping a certain sameness among the new parks. I suppose on some level this is simply a matter of form following function -- we've finally figured out what makes for a pleasant game-viewing experience, so it's understandable that those things will make their way to multiple places -- but that lack of quirkiness does detract from the sort of personal connection Mellinger is talking about in the article.

Second quote, this one from Bob Wood, author of Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks, a stadium tour-book written back in the 80s:

Wood jokes that he couldn’t do his book today, because all the stadiums would
receive A’s.

If everyone is getting an A, doesn't that mean that an A is average?

IIATMS at FanFest

Jason at IIATM is cooler than you. Why? Because he hangs out with a better class of people than you. So do his kids (second pic).

Those pics take me back to a custom auto show my dad took my brother and I to back in the late 70s. Catherine Bach -- Daisy Duke to the ignorant among you -- was signing autographs. The old man took a picture of my brother and I with her. We were a bit young to be too excited about it, but we flashed our polite smiles, hoping it would be over soon so we could go ogle what we really wanted to see: The General Lee.

Then dad had his picture taken with Daisy. The joy on his face -- much like the joy on Jason's in that first pic -- was beyond obvious.

I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing Jason has taken a vow never to wash his right shoulder again.

Randy Smith to the Mariners?

Danny Knobler is reporting that ex-Tigers and Padres GM Randy Smith is a candidate for the Mariners' GM job:

Then there's that other name that circulated through the baseball world this week: Randy Smith.

Smith hasn't been heard from much since he was fired six years ago after a mostly unsuccessful run in Detroit. He's impressed people with his international scouting work with the Padres, particularly with this month's signing of five top young Dominican prospects.

And now his name is out there again.

If there's any juice to that rumor, Mariners fans had better hope that Smith was the only one responsible for those Dominican signings, because nothing else on his CV provides reason for hope.

It's hard to blame a GM for the records of his teams because, generally speaking, a GM is hired because the cupboard is bare. The longer he's there, however, the more ownership he has over the performance of his club. By that measure, Smith may be one of the worst GMs in history, as the final product of his seven year term in Detroit was a 55-106 record, which got even worse the year after he left. Overall his teams in San Diego and Detroit posted a .419 winning percentage. Between his awful drafts, awful free agent signings, and awful trades, Smith simply destroyed the Detroit Tigers.

I suppose everyone deserves a second chance, but this would be Smith's third, and I can't really see any basis for giving it to him.

A-Rod and the Home Run Derby

Ken Rosenthal thinks A-Rod needs to be in the home run derby:

Barry Bonds was heavily criticized for declining to participate in last year's Derby at his home park. A-Rod deserves the same heat for the same offense, and let's not hear about how the Derby might disrupt his precious swing.

Yes, several recent Derby participants — Bobby Abreu, David Wright, Alex Rios — had their home-run production decline after they competed in the event. But those dropoffs might have occurred anyway. These are the best hitters in the game. They can't adjust?

I'm not following. Abreu, pre-derby, was considered one of the best hitters in the game. Wright and Rios are certainly still thought of that way. All three had power problems following the derby. Is Rosenthal saying that they simply chose not to adjust? Because obviously they didn't, and right or wrong, people attribute that to the derby.

And what's with the sarcasm on the "precious swing" line? It is precious. The Yankees are relying on it like they're relying on nothin' else to get back in the race. If Rodriguez were to do the derby and started out on a 3-29 slump in the second half, don't you think he'd catch hell for it?

I have no idea if the derby actually does cause problems for its participants, but to believe that it does is something more than mere superstition. It's simply not natural or typical for a guy to take power hacks at 100 (or however many) BP pitches in the space of an hour or two. I get tired just watching it, and I'm sure the players get tired doing it. If I'm a Yankees fan, I have no problem not seeing A-Rod taking his hacks tonight.

And That Happened

I hate the All-Star Break. The home run derby always bores me, the game itself usually does too, and the lack of real live competitive baseball is simply depressing. If I ran the world, there would be a cable channel running wall-to-wall rebroadcasts of old games, preferably from the 70s and 80s, and preferably not famous ones, so that we may actually enjoy them in ignorance of their outcomes like we would real, current ballgames. Alas, that won't happen, however, because MLB knows that a random Cardinals-Mets game from the mid-80s would hold people's interest way better than that spectacle they're having up in the Bronx, and that's simply unacceptable.

The lack of baseball between now and Thursday evening is going to suck eggs, but at least we have each other, and we'll find a way to get through this madness somehow.

Indians 5, Rays 2: The Rays certainly cured what ailed the Indians! Wait, that's not true, because the Indians will still probably stink after the break. How about this: the Indians certainly infected the Rays!

Tigers 4, Twins 2: Last Wednesday, Leyland was complaining about the Tigers' All-Star break schedule because he and his guys didn't get the same amount of time off as everyone else. "I want everyone to write it and put it all over the airwaves. It's a joke. Silly is what it is," he said. This coming Wednesday, Leyland is among 50 baseball people invited as guests at a White House dinner, about which he said "I can't believe that I'm on the list, but it is going to be exciting to have dinner with President Bush. That's big time." Just to be clear, Jim Leyland complained about having to play a baseball game, but is thrilled about dinner with George Bush. Politics aside, wouldn't you rather be at the ballgame? Me too.

Astros 5, Nationals 0: There's been a lot of talk lately about putting the DH in the NL. I'm against it because I'm an NL guy and I like the pitcher batting. I can't really explain it any terms much more rational than that, and no one making the case for the DH in the NL has made much of a better argument than that which I can muster for my side. It's a political issue, really, and most political issues are kind of like that. Carlos Lee said something after this game, however, that could actually move the ball on this one in my mind a little bit. In response to Astros' pitcher Brandon Backe having a good game at the plate (2-3, 2B, 2 R), Lee said "We feel like we're playing with nine instead of eight." Do NL players really think of it in those terms? That they're playing with less than a full compliment of men somehow when pitchers bat? It wouldn't change my mind about the DH if they did, but it would make me think about it in slightly modified terms.

Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1: Peter Abraham spotted a great getaway day stat: "The Yankees had 32 plate appearances against A.J. Burnett and 25 of them were over in three pitches or fewer. Only four of those were strikeouts." Hey, when ya got somewhere to be, ya got somewhere to be.

Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 3: You're not livin' right when you rack up 14 hits and a walk and still only score three runs.

Red Sox 2, Orioles 1: Boston understands this whole it's-a-marathon-not-a-sprint thing. No one has been talking about them -- well, no one has been talking about them as much as they usually do -- but here they are, in first place at the break, just like they planned it all along. At the risk of channeling Bill Simmons, I'm going say that I think that the Ortiz injury, while certainly a negative, may have some positive byproducts inasmuch as a lot of guys are getting the kind of at bats and rest (when they fill the DH slot) they wouldn't have otherwise had if Papi wasn't hurt. The Sox may not have the firepower they need if Papi can't play or play effectively this year, but if he can, there are going to be a lot of guys who are fresher and sharper this fall than they might have been had he not gotten hurt in the first place.

Cardinals 11, Pirates 6: If the season ended today, the Cardinals would win the wild card, and I'm still not quite sure how that's possible. Many so-called experts were predicting that the Reds would be the frisky team in the NL Central this year and that the Cards would be keeping the Pirates company down south in the standard. Er, yeah.

Mariners 4, Royals 3: Seattle is 12-11 under Riggelman. Not bad considering they have about three major leaguers in their everyday lineup.

Brewers 3, Reds 2: CC goes the distance -- throwing 122 pitches and hitting a dinger in the process -- to beat the Reds. I didn't worry about his pitch count in this game too much because (1) CC has been a frickin' horse for the past month or two, looking stronger the longer he goes. It's as though he's just loosenin' up for the first 80 pitches; (2) he's gettin' a few days off; and (3) the Brewers need to win games against teams like the Reds on getaway days. Ned Yost can't really trust the back end of his bullpen, and if I'm him, I leave Sabathia in too.

Rangers 12, White Sox 11: Texas seems to play in these kinds of games every other day. It has to be hard on their fans. It's always in the mid 90s or hotter at game time, and the Rangers force them to sit through four hours of slow, turgid, bludgeonball. Ozzie Guillen: "This was the worst baseball game I've ever seen . . . The pitchers should look themselves in the mirror and be embarrassed." And I don't think he would have changed his assessment if the score was flip-flopped.

Giants 4, Cubs 2: All hail the Freak (8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 9K), who is on pace to go 17-3 for one of the worst teams in the league.

Angels 4, A's 3: Reggie Willits scored from second on an infield single in the ninth for the game winning run. Barton claimed that he would have had a play on him had the catcher been paying attention. Maybe so, but it's still pretty cool.

Braves 12, Padres 3: Atlanta breaks out the whuppin' sticks, and Bobby Cox says something like "that will make them feel good going into the break." Isn't it funny how teams that are doing poorly heading into the break always talk like the break will change their fortunes for the better once play resumes, while teams playing well at the break talk as though the good stuff will continue despite the upcoming days off? Can't poor play be maintained and can't good play be thrown off the rails by virtue of a break?

Dodgers 9, Marlins 1: Chad Billingsley (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 13K) dominates the Marlins. The Dodgers are the luckiest team in baseball. The Diamondbacks showed every sign of running away with the NL West and hiding back at the end of April, and here are the Dodgers, who haven't had a stretch of sustained good play all year, a single game behind the leaders. They're like the guys who never studied for the exams in law school but who still scored high enough to mess up the curve for the rest of us morons.

Mets 7, Rockies 0: When you're hot, you're hot. The Mets are hot. Do you think they're hot enough to score Jerry Manuel the permanent managers' job? No, I wouldn't give it to him if I were running the Mets, but there's a lot of idle time between now and Friday, and you know that the tabloids are going to be looking for something to go on about. I think the "Jerry Manuel contract extension" talk would be about as fun as anything else to fill up that time.

Going Deeper with the Columbus Dispatch

A week ago, I slammed the baseball coverage of my local paper -- The Columbus Dispatch -- as ranging from "intolerable to execrable." That was unfair because I forgot about Scott Priestle. Priestle, whose work I've commended in this space before, gets it. To show you just how much he gets it, I point you to his feature story this morning about how the stathead revolution has made its way to front offices and how it's changing the game:

Eric Wedge and Keith Woolner joined the Indians by way of Boston and an expansion team or two. Wedge was a catcher for the Red Sox and Colorado Rockies, then a minor-league manager for five seasons, his beliefs about baseball shaped amid the sweat and spit of a dugout. Woolner has two degrees from MIT, a master's from Stanford and nearly two decades working for start-up software companies, his beliefs about baseball shaped by years of research and statistical analysis.

For the past year, they have shared an employer and a goal: build the Indians into a World Series contender. Each has the ear of general manager Mark Shapiro.

Welcome to major league baseball in the 21st century. Statistical analysis is no longer a curiosity or a source of conflict within the game, but a growing pool that numerous teams are tapping.

In addition to Woolner, there are shoutouts and interviews with other former Baseball Prospectus authors James Click, Dan Fox, and the still-typing Joe Sheehan. Overall the article provides a nice overview of applied sabermetrics and the teams which are applying it.

Basic? Not for most of Priestle's audience. It's easy to forget when you get most of your sports coverage online, but the parchment reading masses are still not all too plugged in when it comes to sabermetrics, and this is especially true in a town where college football passion dwarfs baseball passion. Overall a great article by Priestle, and one I know many in this burg are happy to see.

Oh, and there's a sidebar story by someone you may know.

And He's Not Even Dominican

Here's the best story of phony age shenanigans you'll ever read. It's long, but everyone in this crowd has a good attention span, so it won't be a problem.

And I agree with Rich Pohle, the subject of the article, that it would make a good movie. You'd have to get the tone just right, though. If you take the typical baseball-as-religion or every-boy-wants-to-be-a-ballplayer tack, it will be terrible or, at the very least, shallow. Rather, you have to dig into the main character's life a bit more than this story does. Find out stuff about that failed first marriage and the first kid that goes unnamed and figure out what really makes this guy tick. All of the really good baseball movies are about people just as much as they're about the game, and as it stands, this story only gets you part of the way there. No huckster is truly carefree.

Tell the whole story of a fully-formed Rich Pohle, and you may have something.

Rename the Wizards

The Fort Wayne Wizards -- Midwest League (A) affiliate of the Padres -- is looking for a new name. As is usually the case with these things, they asked for submissions from the general public and got something like 2,500 suggestions. That usually ends the analysis, as someone from the team sifts through and picks the best (read: most marketable) choice from the submissions. Fort Wayne is taking it a step further, and asking citizens to weight four broad thematic categories of names:

Fort Wayne icons and/or prominent historical individuals;
Fort Wayne geography;
Fort Wayne's history as a center of innovation and invention; or
the "Old Fort" or similar military theme.

That's kind of cool in that it will weed out dumb 90s-era names like "Wizards" or "Magic" or what have you. For what it's worth, I voted for the first category, with the hope that they go with the "Mad Anthonys" in honor of the city's namesake.

And if they don't use it, I'll start a hardcore band under that name.

Are the Nats Deadbeats?

The Nationals are withholding rent on their new ballpark:

More than midway through the baseball season, the Washington Nationals' owners have failed to pay $3.5 million in rent for the District's new ballpark, contending that the state-of-the-art stadium is still incomplete . . .

. . .The fight centers on whether the ballpark was "substantially complete" by March 1, when the city, which oversaw the construction, was contractually obligated to hand the keys to the Lerners. District officials said the city secured a certificate of occupancy, as well as an additional letter from the architects, that declared the building fit for business before the season began. Since March 29, when the Nationals faced the Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition, the team has played 48 regular-season games at the ballpark, selling an average of 29,000 tickets a game.

The article says that the District will hire a "Special Lawyer" to pursue the unpaid rent. I'm a special lawyer! Here's my special argument: it doesn't matter if the stadium is unfinished. Given how bad the Nats are, they aren't using half the seats, most of the light bulbs on the scoreboard, and the visitor's bullpen has been virtually untouched, so what's the problem if the place isn't done yet?

Who's On First? A Very Angry Jorge Posada.

Jorge Posada is none too pleased about not having caught for six games:

Posada was in the lineup as the Bombers' first baseman, but when asked about his lack of time behind the plate, Posada got testy and made it clear that he still considers himself a full-time backstop.

"I like to catch. Okay?" Posada said. "I'm in the lineup and I'm happy that I'm in the lineup, but I like to catch. I'm a catcher. I'm not a first baseman and I'm not a DH. I like to catch, so I'm looking forward to catching (today)."

I feel for Jorge. Unfortunately, he is an unwitting victim of baseball's recent decision to outsource all Major League catching jobs to Molinas.

On a more serious note, I don't envy Joe Girardi right now. Messing with Posada -- an original new-Dynasty Yankee -- isn't going to make him popular with the fans or the press. The fact is, however, that Posada hasn't been able to throw anyone out since he hurt his shoulder, and Molina is a damn fine defensive catcher. No, the running game isn't everything, but the longer Posada struggles and the more comfortable opponents feel running on him, the more significant his affliction becomes.

The Yankees are 6.5 games