Baseball

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

Wasn't Phil Hughes good last year? Isn't he the same guy who almost tossed a no-hitter in his second start and then was the Yankees best pitcher in September and October? Is this the same guy? Sure doesn't look that way. As of May 2, Hughes is 0-4 with an ERA of 9.00. He's throwing too many pitches, walking too many guys, and just not hitting his spots. The Yankees are talking about sending him down to AAA. They shouldn't. They should stick with the program. If it's still thi sbad by the All-Star break, then re-evaluate. Sam thing goes for Ian Kennedy. These guys are kids. Let them work it out in the bigs.

I picked Robinson cano as my choice for A.L. MVP. That call ain't looking to good right now.

I was at the Phillies game the other night and Chase Utley hit a 434 foot bullet of a homer off the upper deck facing. That guy is great.

My prediction fro breakout player of the year, Nate McClouth, is playing great.

Pat "The Bat" Burrell has been a fantasy steal.

If you don't like Torii Hunter, watch the newest "Real Sports" with Bryant Gumbel. You will fall in love with Hunter. He is a great human being. He really seems like a hell of a guy.

Go Baseball!

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

This month, I am gonna try something new. A series of articles about baseball's biggest scandalmakers. Baseball's bad guys. Well, they're not all bad guys. Most of them had many redeeming personality traits and virtually all of them were superb ballplayers or coaches. But they all sinned against the game, more than the game would tolerate. As a result of their transgressions, some were suspended for years on ended, some were banned for life, and a few even ended up in the big house.

This week's article examines the career of Hal Chase. Prince Hal, as he was known to fans in the early 20th century, was a great defensive first baseman. Some folks, like Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson, thought he was the best who ever played the position. He was also a fine hitter who once won a batting crown and also captured a home run title. But Hal Chase had a dark side.

He was a gambler, and a fixer of his own team's games. On many occasions, he threw games by striking out in a crucial spot, or booting an easy grounder on a key play. His story is pretty good.

Upcoming articles in this series will include pieces on Denny McLain, Pete Rose, the Pittsburgh Cocaine Trials, Charlie Comiskey, Tom Yawkey, and Ty Cobb.

Check 'em out.

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

I love baseball. Always have. Always will. But the past fifteen years have really started to turn me off to the Major League version of the game. The 1994 strike took away the World Series and my favorite player's best shot at a championship. Baseball's amazing post-strike home run resurgence, highlighted by the feats of Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, turned out to be a steroid-fueled, decade-long slugfest that called into question not just their records, and not just the all-time records, but the very manner in which we measure intergenerational greatness among players.

The Roger Clemens scandal is still bumming me out. But not as much as the willful blindness that team executives, baseball writers and league officials engaged in to allow such great players to do such harm to the game.

the prices I I'm also none too pleased about the outrageous prices I just paid for some good Phillies seats and some really bad Yankee seats.

So now I am turning to minor league baseball for a while. And the team that I am going to focus on this season are the Harrisburg Senators. The Senators were recently purchased by Michael Reinsdorf, son of White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Reinsdorf is bringing a professional approach to minor league ownership and will also provide the majority of funding for the $30 million in stadium renovations to Commerece Bank Ball Park on City Island in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

I am looking forward to the team, the season, and the new stadium. GO Senators!

And, hopefully, a lot more fun and a lot less controversy.

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

I just read that Bobby Murcer's brain cancer may be back. In a letter from his wife to fans and friends, Kaye Nurcer explained that Murcer, who was first diagnosed with brain cancer in December 2006 but has been in remission fo the past eight months, may have a recurrence. Today he will undergo a brain biopsy to explore what she asi was "an area of concern" from Bobby's doctors. My thoughts and prayers go out to Bobby and tot he Murcer family. He is a class act, a great, fun braodcaster and not a bad ballplayer.

He came to the Yankees in 1965, just as Mantle and Maris and Ford were headed out the door. Because he was a switch-hotting center fielder from Oklahoma, he was immeditely compared to the great Mickey mantle. Although Murcer never rose to the level of immortailty experienced by his predecessor and his close friend, he did prove to be on ehell of a baseball player. He made five straight all-star teams from 1971 through 1975, topped 20 homers seven times, knocked in 90 or more runs five times and finished as high as seventh in MVP voting.

His most memorable performance may have come on August 6, 1979, which was the day he buried Yankee captain and best friend Thurman Munson. In the emotional game that evening in Yankee Stadium, Murcer honored his fallen comrade by hitting a three run homer in the seventh inning, and then winning the contest with a walk-off two RBI single in the bottom of the ninth.

That's the kind of guy Bobby Murcer is. A class act, a good friend, and a fighter.

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

American League MVP: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees

National League MVP: David Wright, New York Mets

American League Cy Young Award winner: J.J. Putz, Seattle Mariners

National League Cy Young Award winner: Johan Santana, New York Mets

American League Rookie of the Year: Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox

National League Rookie of the Year: Chase Headley, San Diego Padres

American League Manager of the Year: Joe Girardi, New Yrok Yankees

National League Manager of the Year: Lou Piniella, Chicago Cubs

American League Champion: Boston Red Sox

National League Champion: New York Mets

World Series Champion: Mets in 7

Now make sure you print this out, then go to one of those on-line gambling sites and bet your house that I am right on every single one. I think that is a good idea. Go get 'em!

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

I like Roger Clemens. I think he may be the best pitcher in the history of baseball. He works his ass off. He competes like a champion. He gives everything he's got every time he's on the mound. I've never seen what people disliked about that. But for some reason, they do. In fact, they dislike him so much, that baseball is more than happy to serve him up as a scapegoat for the whole steroid era. It pisses me off. Not just for Clemens, but for myself as a baseball fan.

Think about it: George Mitchell talked to two guys, and they gave him 80 names. Mitchell himself admits that his report is incomplete because he lacked the power to compel players to testify, and I think we all know that more than just Brian McNamee and Kirk Radomski were cashing in on baseball's love affair with the juice. Yet, Clemens is going to be the one that everybody remembers. He might lose his shot at the Hall of Fame, and it's obvious (to me at least) that he was set up for a perjury charge.

So he will pay, and he might pay heavily for the sins of hundreds of ballplayers and the willful blindness of the men in charge. And it makes me wanna puke.

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

Baseball's Smartest Players. A story about those players who also made their mark away from the baseball diamond. Albert Spalding and John Montgomery Ward come to mind as early baseball stars who later became titans of American business. Moe Berg, who was a reserve catcher for a number of tems thoughout his care, spoke seven languages and was used extensively by U.S. Intelligence forces to gather information on the Nazis during World War II. Tony LaRussa's a lawyer. Yogi Berra may be some type of a savant. There are many, many more "smart" players in the game's history.

What if there Were No Steroids? This article will assume that five of baseball's all-time greats took all of the performance-enhancing drugs for which they are accused, and will try to project what they would have accomplished had none of them ever met the needle.

The Great Upcoming 2008 Baseball Season

Joe Torre in La-La Land?

Why Congress Should Shut Up and Sit Down

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

The Yankees, Red Sox and Twins don't seem to understand that guys like me, who spend their days writing about baseball, need them to do something with baseball's best pitcher. It's not like there is a heckuva lot else going on in our National Pastime in mid-January. Nope, right now, it's all steroids, HGH, and a bunch of other stuff that is important, but very depressing. Congress calling Roger Clemens to the Hill to potentially ruin himself with sworn testimony? I don't get off on that. I like the game, the play on the field, the ballparks, the players. You know what I am talking about. I like baseball.

But that good stuff is still way, way off. So I need the Yankees or the Red Sox to pull the trigger and make the move for Santana now. The Twins had better be smart about this. They are demanding a lot for their two-time Cy Young award winner. If they don't trade him, they risk losing what has already been offered by Boston (Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, etc.) and and New York (Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, etc.). These are good offers. So will the Twins just pull the damn trigger so I will have something fun and positive to write about?

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

Oh, I wish it were spring. I wish for a warm May afternoon in a ballpark from the days of past. With the cigar smoke in the stands and the men still wearing their suits and hats, hiding from work and life's dreary responsibilities. Mean, scrappy players on the field in uniforms permanently and hopelessly dirty from just the first month of the season. At least one manager who is older than dirt.

A runner coming around third with menace in his heart.

A shortstop diving into the stands.

A 3-6-3 double play.

A few too many beers -- before, during and after the game. The sun beginning its decline in the late innings . . . the air starting to cool . . . the score tied . . . the batter hits a laser to center that the fielder stabs to end the inning.

The game continues . . .

Posted by James Lincoln Ray

I gotta tell ya, this federal government of ours is becoming a big joke. We're now nine trillion dollars on debt as a nation, sixty million people are without health care, we are bogged down in a war without reason, more than 4 million good jobs have left the country in the last seven years, and Pakistan is about to erupt. But the fine boys and girls on Capitol Hill have decided that all of that is not the real problem facing America. The real problem is whether or not Roger Clemens took a shot of HGH in the summer of 2001. I'm sorry, but it is absolutely ridiculous that Representatives Tom Davis and Henry Waxman are holding more baseball steroid hearings. It's nothing but grandstanding at this point.

And it's making me very angry.