There are a lot of things I want to get to, some from the news, some from an overflowing mailbag, so let’s just jump right in: Derek Bell and "Operation Shutdown" Reporters salivate over a guy like Derek Bell. In case you’re the one person who missed it, Pirates outfielder Bell threatened to instigate something…
When we dealt Keith Law to the Blue Jays for a player to be named (hey, J.P., you getting on that?), we lost a key member of our staff. Oh, Keith was great on economic issues, and a significant contributor to the book, and always good for a batch of brownies when we had bake…
As an Extra Innings subscriber, I get this promotional magazine every few months from DirecTV. The content isn’t anything to write home about, but I do leaf through the thing when it arrives.
The latest edition arrived at my house last week, and inside it was a baseball season preview. Six national writers, all of whom you’d recognize, provided their top five teams and answered an assortment of other questions about the upcoming season. What surprised me was that four of them picked the Cardinals as the best NL team, and five of them picked the Redbirds to go to the World Series.
Spring training transactions recap for the past week
As an Extra Innings subscriber, I get this promotional magazine every few months from DirecTV. The content isn’t anything to write home about, but I do leaf through the thing when it arrives. The latest edition arrived at my house last week, and inside it was a baseball season preview. Six national writers, all of…
Yesterday’s column about rookies wasn’t up two minutes when I got my first e-mail about it. The note was polite, informative, and caused me to bang my head quite violently upon my desk.
I’d left out Hank Blalock.
The second week of March may have marked a permanent change in Commissioner Bud Selig’s status. He’s no longer simply an incompetent, lying, permanently conflicted embarrassment to an office once held by judges and senators. Unless the owners who hired him wake up in time to stop him, Czar Bud will have become an active threat to their own wallets and a walking advertisement for the repeal of MLB’s anti-trust exemption.
Yesterday’s column about rookies wasn’t up two minutes when I got my first e-mail about it. The note was polite, informative, and caused me to bang my head quite violently upon my desk. I’d left out Hank Blalock. Look, I’d love to claim I have some inside information that tells me Blalock can’t be AL…
The second week of March may have marked a permanent change in Commissioner Bud Selig’s status. He’s no longer simply an incompetent, lying, permanently conflicted embarrassment to an office once held by judges and senators. Unless the owners who hired him wake up in time to stop him, Czar Bud will have become an active…
Perhaps the question I get the most this time of year is “Who will win the Rookie of the Year Awards?” It’s a tough one, because winning the award isn’t just about being the top prospect in the game. Opportunity plays a huge role, as does age. All else being equal, a 24-year-old rookie has a better chance to win the award than a 21-year-old, even though the 21-year-old is the more valuable property. Rookies of the Year, in fact, are often older players having the best year of their career, while younger players who barely register in the voting go on to have the most success.
The 11th hour has begun. That, in itself, is a good sign. The Royals never got to the 11th hour with Johnny Damon. Jermaine Dye was shipped out of town at the slightest hint of urgency. But Mike Sweeney, whose contract expires with the 2002 season, is still in a Royals uniform. Sweeney represents the…
Perhaps the question I get the most this time of year is "Who will win the Rookie of the Year Awards?" It’s a tough one, because winning the award isn’t just about being the top prospect in the game. Opportunity plays a huge role, as does age. All else being equal, a 24-year-old rookie has…
A recap of the funniest and most poignant quotes in baseball over the course of the last two weeks
NOOOOOOOOOOO "He would always say, `Why are you letting that guy throw the pitch right down the middle?’ It didn’t matter if I got three hits. If I let one go right down the middle, he’d just want to go home. It bugged him the worst." —Nick Johnson, Yankees infielder, on his grandfather "There are…