Yesterday and Today

A couple of years ago in this spot, it was mentioned that we are living in the best time to be a fan of Major League Baseball. With instant access to games, statistics, analysis and commentary, everything is right there for the Fan. But is it really better? Let's take a look at some major areas and compare eras.

The Game: It would be easy to say that the game was more pure in the past. There wasn't the big money. The players were less athletic and so on. Money was just as much a part of the game in the 60's as it is now. The teams with more money then could keep their great players. Those without the money traded their second tier stars to keep one or two franchise players. The Senators didn't have money. Other teams did.

The top athletes of the 60's rival those of today. Cesar Tovar was as athletic as Alfonso Soriano. Injuries occurred then as now with no less frequency. The one major difference is that pitchers can get Tommy John surgery when they blow out their elbows. That allows pitchers to hang on longer than in the past.

Other than that, the game is mostly the same. There are still nine innings and the game's strategy ebbs and flows just like before. The biggest changes since Harmon Killebrew played are:

1. The closer. A starting pitcher was expected to pitch nine innings then. Advantage today? Not really. The starter was a better pitcher in those days than anyone in the bullpen. The bullpen was full of guys that weren't good enough to start. Now they have blow-them-away-for-three-outs specialists. The results are the same: The losing team makes a comeback, or doesn't. It's a wash.

2. The Designated Hitter. It's been quite a while now since Ron Bloomberg (Yankees) collected the first hit by a designated hitter. Before the DH, there was a weak hitter in the eight hole who barely got anything to hit and then the pitcher. The pitcher, if a good hitter, might have a batting average of .167 and would either strike out or lay down a sacrifice bunt.

Now, there is an extra bomber in there swinging the bat, meaning higher run production and careers for those all hit and no field kind of players. "Purists" will claim that the DH is unnatural and removes strategy. That may be so, but the Fan's 45+ years of watching baseball qualifies him as a "purist" and the Fan would much rather watch David Ortiz rattle a baseball off a wall than watch the manager go out to the mound, pull the pitcher, remove the left fielder, sacrifice bunt, pinch hit and all the other semi-boring "strategies" the DH nay sayers enjoy so much.

Advantage to the present.

3. The Umpires. The umpires are much more aggressive now and will show up a player and instigate arguments. That never happened in the past. Plus, the strike zone is more like the twilight zone. Today's strike is from the top of the knees to the top of the belt and from two inches off the outside of the plate and two inches in from the inside edge. The strike zone is terrible and it has changed the game. In order to prevent a walk, a pitcher has no choice but to put the ball in most player's happy zone. As a Fan watching...as a "purist," the strike zone is not enforced correctly.

Advantage: The past, which makes the game a wash.


Television: ESPN has changed the landscape. The highlight shows in the evening are a godsend for the happy fan. At first it was good enough to get baseball game highlights in between the other sports on SportCenter. Now, there is Baseball Tonight with highlights, lively banter and commentary.

Plus, you can watch three or four games a week on ESPN, four or five from TBS and, if your cable company still gets WGN, four or five Cub games. This is great except, if you are a fan of a home town team, free television used to carry every game of the season. WPIX in New York showed every Yankee game from the start of the season to the finish. That's gone with the advent of cable. You can pretty much watch a team's every game, but it's going to cost you.

Camera angles and instant replay from several angles have been major improvements. The biggest improvement? Color television. Oh come on. Some of you watched the games in black and white.

The broadcasters seemed to be a bit better back then. Phil Rizzuto wasn't polished, but he was much more fun than the slick and secure Mr. Buck on Fox broadcasts. The analysts are better prepared now and seem much less hokey than the old days of retired players collecting easy paychecks.

Advantage: Today.

The Writers: There are good writers today. Peter Gammons is the star among stars. The Internet gives you instant access to many baseball writers but there doesn't seem to be the substance there used to be. All the writers are either trying to find some statistical analysis made possible by mass databases, or they are trying to be flashy and cute.

There was nothing like getting the Sporting News on a Friday and spending three hours reading the best writers in the country. They talked about the game and the players and what it all meant in personal terms and with exciting depth. Gammons is the only one today who comes close. His new blog means he is writing more and that's manna from heaven.

On the other spectrum, Buster Olney fills his blogs with links to other articles all over the Web. Who wants to click here and there and resize the window to read someone else's small article. What do YOU think, Buster? That's what we want to read. It was better to turn the page.

It was also better when some of the dirt was left under the rug. The writers respected the player's privacy and wrote about the game. Now, there is the infernal rush to be first to expose a star to shame. Thanks, but that isn't fun for the Fan. But you can't blame today's writers. Watergate opened that floodgate.

Advantage: The past.

Statistics: The Internet is such a huge factor for the statistical junkie. Up to the minute statistics are at the fingertips at bat by at bat. With a few clicks, you can sort leaders for hits, doubles, RBI, ERA, BA, slugging, OBP, saves, wins and many others by player, by position or by team. How good is that!

In the past, you had to wait until the Sunday paper, or the Friday arrival of the Sporting News. But there was something fun about following those long lists of stats in the paper as one looked for favorite players. Maybe it's hindsight, but it seemed a bit more magical then.

Advantage: Today (you just can't beat having all that information instantly)


Going to the Game: First of all, going to the ballpark was a safer experience back in the 60's. There was crime, but not the fear that is walking today's city streets. Plus, for $3.75, you could get in the bleachers and buy a soda and snack. That made for an everybody type of crowd. Blue collar, white collar, blacks, whites, urban and suburban, we all became one at the ballpark.

Today's prices have closed out the game to most of the middle and lower classes. Going to the game is more of an event or a privilege and not the experience gained by the everyman. There were no cell phones. The ballpark wasn't filled with only the Docker crowd and SUVs. The ballpark was a bonding experience. Now it is more of an experience the more well to do can experience.

Of course, once you are there, the experience is the same, with the stir and the excitement. There is still the anticipation, batting practice, watching the infield dampened and raked. It's still pretty darn special.

Advantage: The past.


The Ballparks: MLB has done a great job at going back to making distinct and wonderful ballparks. The trend of the past toward cookie-cutter, astro-turfed and sterilized parks is going away for good. There is much concern about losing older parks such as Tiger Stadium and soon, Yankee Stadium.

Advantage: The present.

The Players: For those of us who have to work for a living, the players needed more say in their careers and their future. The ownership of the past were slave laborers and revenue sharing should be somewhat equal between ownership and the product.

As the players have become richer, however, it is harder to identify with them as those of us who had dreams of youth that came true. They aren't us anymore. They are more like movie stars with pimped up rides and fancy clothes.

Since so much money is at stake, the players are more concerned with their conditioning and that had the side effect of the steroid issue. After all, the temptation to take steroids are much greater if it can mean a five year, $40 million dollar contract.

It seems that ownership and labor have gotten the message and are working together at cleaning up the game. Once accomplished, the fans will have more faith and trust in the product they are watching.

But still, it all comes back to the money, which means that the average fan can no longer relate to the players they are rooting for.

Advantage: A wash.

Let's tally the score. There were a couple of washes, a couple of the pasts and three votes for today. The final analysis is that today's Major League Baseball is a slightly better product than in the past.

Take Five

This is a great time of year. It's not as great as when the real games actually start. Think of a hungry man anticipating a night at a new restaurant. To actually eat will be the bomb. But to anticipate what might be on the menu gets the blood pumping before dining. In the spirit of anticipation, here are some lists of what might be on the menu.

Five AL players who could have breakout seasons:
1. Jorge Cantu - Tampa Bay: In reality, he already broke out last season with 28 homers and 117 RBI. But few noticed. If he does it again or picks it up another notch. He will be noticed.

2. Robinson Cano - New York: Cano got his feet wet and Torre ran him out there every day. He's had a season to learn what he can do. Now he can become a star.

3. Joe Mauer - Minnesota: He knows his strike zone, puts the ball in play and now in his third year, could break out to be a big star. His 61 walks with only 64 strikeouts bode well for his future.

4. Jhonny Peralta - Cleveland: If he can cut down on his strikeouts and put the ball in play more, he will greatly improve his decent .342 on-base percentage and 24 homers as the newest power shortstop.

5. Dan Johnson - Oakland: In Johnson's first big chance last year, he walked 50 times in 375 at bats to go with 15 homers and 58 RBI. If he gets the playing time, Johnson can be the next big star.

Five AL stars who could slip to age this season:
1. Jorge Posada - Yankees: Posada's on-base percentage, slugging percentage and RBI were at their lowest levels last year since 1999. He's 35 now, which is long in the catching tooth.

2. Mike Timlin - Boston: Timlin's season last year was deceiving. He did have an E.R.A of only 2.24. For the first time in several years, he gave up more hits than innings pitched. And his WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched was his highest since 2001. He is 38 this year.

3. Jeff Conine - Orioles: Conine has been a personal favorite for a long time, but the man is 38 and has always played hard. He may be a role player at best for the Orioles after a fine .304 season last season.

4. Garret Anderson - Angels: Anderson has had a nice career. He hasn't reached a hundred RBI for the last two seasons after four in a row previously. It just seems that he has slipped.

5. Eddie Guardado - Seattle: Everyday Eddie is 36 and though he had 36 saves last year, he had his lowest strikeout to innings pitched ratio in several years. Look for him to slip further this year.

Five most important AL players to their team's success:
1. David Ortiz - Boston
2. Mariano Rivera - Yankees
3. Vladimir Guerrero - Angels
4. Michael Young - Texas
5. Travis Hafner - Cleveland

Five biggest AL question marks:
1. Hank Blalock - What happened to this once promising career?
2. Mike Lowell - Is he really done as a player?
3. Darin Erstad - Was that one year a fluke?
4. Adrian Beltre - Seattle must be scratching its head.
5. Vernon Wells - This once budding star has had some aphid problems.

Devil Rays Could Be Maddoning

If the Devil Rays can get any pitching at all, Joe Maddon's Devil Rays could drive some teams (like the Yankees) crazy. Maddon brings more fun to the Devil Rays than the taciturn Lou Piniella and is intent on running the Devil Rays all over the league--and the Devil Rays have the legs to do it.

The image is still painted painfully of Game 5 of that fateful League Championship Series with the Yankees up 3-0 with a one run lead and six outs to go. Dave Roberts is up first against the great Mariano Rivera. He walked. That single walk led to a stolen base, a single and a tie score. The Fan knew the series was over with that walk. That's what speed does to teams like the Yankees. It was the secret weapon.

And the Devil Rays drove the Yankees crazy last year. The Rays will be even better this year. Rocco Baldelli is back after being injured all of last year. Carl Crawford becomes more and more of a star each year. Julio Lugo knows how to get on base with a .369 on-base percentage. Jorge Cantu burst on the scene last year. And all kinds of talented young players are on the way.

Aubrey Huff needs to stop his downward trend the last three years where his statistics in every category have fallen. If he can get back to where he was in 2003, the Rays will be even more dangerous.

And then there is Maddon himself. The Fan loves Lou Piniella and has since he awkwardly played right field in New York and hit the cover off the ball to all fields. But the man seemed in pain the last couple of years. He is such a competitive and impatient man that the losing seasons weren't part of building something. It was more of a bitter taste for him. But Maddon has a sense of humor that will connect with his players, with the fans and with the media.

The Devil Rays may be a year or two away from contending, but they will make stodgy teams like the Red Sox and Yankees nuts.

Doesn't Ring a Bell

The Kansas City Royals hired another new manager this year. David Gus "Buddy" Bell became the Royals' fourteenth manager in their young history. Forgive the Fan if Bell's management history (with his 345-462 career managing record) doesn't give much optimism for the Royals.

Perhaps this is an emotional reaction. The Fan had a drunk of a stepfather nicknamed, "Buddy." That must be it. Or maybe it's just the name, "Buddy," that is the problem. The name invokes a good old boy. Could you report to a boss named, "Buddy"?

It's never easy to understand the relationship between the manager and the team's bottom line performance. Is Joe Torre a great manager, or has he just benefited from having the best players money can buy? Did Casey Stengel suddenly get great when he joined the Yankees and then get really terrible when he finished with the Mets?

So one has to give Mr. Bell the benefit of the doubt. So what does he have to work with? He has a few good players, a few question marks and a whole lot of young people.

Of course there is Mike Sweeney, one of the good guys of the game. Sweeney wants to stay with the Royals in the worst way, and he deserves that distinction. He's been a great player for a long time and being 33, it would be easy to understand wanting to finish where he started. But there is one question to ask here.

Does Sweeney stay because it is comfortable and if so, does that make him a winner? It reminds the Fan of a worker who stays in a decent job and turns down promotions because it feels safer to stay where he is. If Sweeney has endured ten years of losing, does that make losing okay? And now he has a manager that is used to losing. Hmm...

Emil Brown was one of the best surprises of 2005. But few are aware of it. Here is a guy drafted by the Athletics eleven years ago. In five years, Brown batted 404 times in the major leagues with 81 hits for an even .200 batting average. From 2001 through 2004, Brown didn't get any major league at bats. Then he got a job for the Royals.

Brown played 150 games for the Royals and batted .286 with 17 homers, 86 RBI, ten stolen bases in eleven attempts and finished with an on-base percentage of .349. What a great story! Here's for rooting for a repeat performance! Go Emil!

The Royals actually signed a few free agents over the winter that people heard of! Reggie Sanders, most recently of the Cardinals, will provide great fielding and occasional pop with his bat. Sanders is now 37 and is seven homers shy of 300 for his career. Kansas City is a hard place to hit homers though and Sanders could have warning track power there.

Sanders can also run the bases and even at the age of 36, stole 14 bases in 15 attempts. He is just three shy of 300 in that area as well and will easily join the 300/300 club.

The Royals also acquired Mark Grudzielanek and Doug Mientkiewicz to play second and first respectively and respectfully. Mientkiewicz is a wonderful first baseman of questionable hitting prowess. But great fielding first basemen are vastly underrated in helping a team win ball games. The Fan just feels sorry for the equipment guy who has to sew those names on the uniforms.

John Buck, behind the plate, is a decent player who could improve greatly by being more patient when batting. He only walked 23 times in 400 at bats last year. Between Ivan Rodriguez and Buck, the two A.L. Central catchers had less than 40 walks between them!

David DeJesus is another young player that had a good year last year. The home-grown Royal batted .293 with a .359 on-base percentage.

The pitching is where the Royals get dicey. The combined record of newcomers Joe Mays (formerly of Minnesota) and Mark Redman (of just about every other team in the majors), along with K.C. hurler, Runelvys Hernandez was 19-39. Ouch.

Scott Elarton was a nice pickup. He had an 11-9 record with the Indians last year and could flourish further in pitcher friendly Kansas City. But the Royals didn't help themselves at all in the bullpen with just Mike MacDougal the only bright spot out there.

The Fan hopes that Zack Greinke can sort out things and return to his career. He has a job that most of us can only dream about. It would be great if he could learn to enjoy it.

After reading back this post for edit, is it the Fan, or do the Royals have the strangest player names in baseball? And they lead the league in players with names ending in the letter "O" (Paul Bako, Andres Blanko and Andrew Sisco).

Names not-withstanding, Buddy Bell will have to hope the pitching staff gives him something to work with or his career .428 winning percentage will dive further south.

Tracy Not a Swashbuckler

The Fan doesn't know much about Jim Tracy. Public records show that he played unspectacularly for the Cubs, managed in the minors for years and then took over the Dodgers and had four very good years and one bad one. Since Tracy's Dodgers always played on the opposite coast, there isn't much empirical data to add to the record.

The few times that the Dodgers did manage to make it to ESPN or worse, TBS, against the Braves, watching those few games were fairly boring. Tracy seemed stoic and stiff. He never seemed overly animated. What is remembered is that the Dodgers always seemed to have the pitcher batting with one out and a runner on first or second. The pitcher always tried to bunt.

There is a trend with Major League Baseball, for managers to be fired and replaced by an opposite. The Fan, again, doesn't have enough observed data to know if Lloyd McClendon was a good or a bad manager. The results certainly weren't there. But evidence seems to indicate that McClendon was a fiery kind of guy. ESPN's Baseball Tonight always seemed to have a clip of the former Pirate manager getting tossed from a game after screaming at the umpire.

From most accounts, the Pirates weren't very good with fundamentals either. Tracy is the polar opposite and preaches small ball and fundamentals and seems to stay pretty low key--which could be a quiet intensity.

Tracy did have a commendable record in Los Angeles including a division championship in 2004. Last year's poor season seems more related to the Dodgers losing Beltre to Seattle and Green to Arizona and the injury to Gagne. But does he have anything to work with in Pittsburgh--perennial losers since the end of the "We Are Family" days?

Tracy's Pirates should have a pretty good offensive team. Jason Bay is a true superstar and as such, improves his stats every year. New acquisition, Sean Casey, won't kill you with power, but is a clog-the-bases kind of player with a high average and on-base percentage. Randa and Burnitz are both turning 37 this season, but may help with the bat and with leadership.

Two offensive keys are the spectacular fielding duo of Jack Wilson at short and Jose Castillo at second. Castillo needs to improve his on-base percentage and should start to do that as he enters only his third full season. Is Jack Wilson the .300 hitter he was in 2004 or the .250 hitter he was in 2003 and 2005?

A wildcard in the mix is Craig Wilson. Two years ago, Wilson was a rising star who hit 29 homers to go along with 35 doubles. Last year, wrist injuries limited him to 59 games and cost him his starting job. Wilson is learning to catch and could be one of those 400-at-bat-play-him-anywhere kind of guys. Though a good on-base percentage guy, Wilson needs to cut down his strikeout ratio (nearly one strikeout for every three at bats).

Like every other team in baseball, the Pirates will live and die with pitching. The Pirates don't have any stars on their pitching staff. They do have some fascinating possibilities. Zach Duke came up last year and went 8-2. Ryan Vogelsong shows flashes. Oliver Perez could pitch like he did in 2004 instead of like he did in 2005. Paul Maholm went 3-1 after his call up last year with a 2.18 E.R.A.

The bullpen could be decent with the ageless Roberto Hernandez, Salomon Torres and the exciting addition of Damaso Marte. Marte is nasty and could develop into the next great relief pitcher. The Pirates also have a proven arm in Mike Gonzalez.

Tracy has a proven track record and good reports are coming from his players. He may appear boring to this Fan, but the Pirates don't need a swashbuckler. They need a winner. They may have one.

Dodgers Go Old School

Grady Little (or is it William Grady?) doesn't fit with the trend in MLB. In fact, his manage-from-the-hip style cost him his job in Boston after two very successful years. Leadership in Boston is enamored with the Billy Beane school of baseball with its statistics and probabilities. Little never fit that mold, but he won. The Dodgers will take that chance because they need to win.

Jim Tracy seems like a heck of a guy. But he seemed kind of nondescript. The Dodgers have see-sawed back and forth between the staid and the homespun. They went from the quiet Walter Alston to the flamboyant Tommy Lasorda to the staid Tracy and now to the folksy Little.

The Fan has been in New England for 30 years and Grady Little was entertaining to watch. He was kind of the mischievous uncle that had the twinkle in the eyes and seemed to know more than he was telling. And he knew a great deal.

When Little joined the Red Sox, they were a mess. There was discord and inconsistent results on the field. Jimy Williams was fired and Little took over and there was an immediate drive to the team.

And then he made his big mistake in AL Championship Series. It's game seven and the Red Sox are up 5-2 over the dreaded Yankees with six outs to go. Little went against the modern game.

Pedro Martinez, the American League's best pitcher, had pitched his 100 pitches. He got the Red Sox to the eighth inning. Modern baseball dictates that you go to the bullpen. There was one problem. Grady Little is old school. He felt that his best pitcher was on the mound and that's the call he made.

We all know the rest of the story. The Yankees tied the game, and go on to win in the 11th inning with the famous Aaron Boone homer against Tim Wakefield. Red Sox Nation was crushed and Grady Little was the scapegoat and paid for his gut with his job.

His mistake is only a mistake in hindsight. If you had the best pitcher on the mound and needed six more outs, what would you do? He got paid to make the call, and a month later, faded out of view.

The announcement that the Dodgers hired Little was a surprise. Wherever Little was, it was low key and he had sunk from the radar. And now here he is. He also has a few old friends around him.

Bill Mueller, Nomar and Derek Lowe all played for Little in Boston. To hear Lowe's excitement at the Dodgers' choice speaks volumes. And the Dodgers have some talent.

In fact, the Dodgers have the makings of a great infield. Big free agent acquisition, Rafael Furcal, will bring excitement and a tradition of winning. Just 28, Furcal should be coming into his prime years and give the Dodgers a major boost.

Bill Meuller, if healthy, is a great third baseman and he brings a high on base percentage and is a former batting champion. Jeff Kent is a year or two away from cementing his Hall of Fame career. Last year, Kent drove in 100 runs for the eighth time in the last nine years. Garciaparra showed flashes of his former skills last year and will learn first base. He is a good athlete and will be just fine over there.

As solid as the infield appears, the outfield seems just as unsettled. Two of the three spots are taken by enigmas. And the other to an aging speedster.

J.D. Drew and Jose Cruz Jr., came into the league as can't miss prospects. Drew has been in the game seven seasons now and has reached 500 at bats once. He is an on base machine and if he wants to excel, still has time to do so.

Cruz Jr. just can't seem to climb out of the need to swing and miss. He has played nine years and has struck out 1019 times in 4196 at bats. He only has 30 more hits in his career than strikeouts. It's hard to believe that he can change at this stage of his career.

And then there is 39-year-old Kenny Lofton. Lofton did manage to hit .335 last year with the Phillies in 110 games and he still managed to steal 22 bases in 25 at bats. Does he have another year in him? Ricky Ledee provides capable back up, but there is little else to turn to if these three question marks falter.

Starting pitching is another question mark for Little. The stable of Lowe, Seo, Brad Penny, Odalis Perez and Brett Tompko all have the potential to win 15 to 17 games. They have just as much potential to lose that many. If they pitch to their talent, it could be exciting days in a pitcher's park. Relief pitching is solid, especially if Eric Gagne returns to form.

The Dodgers could be really good or they could be mediocre. Grady Little is a winner (despite the one inning he is known for) and could get the most out of an enigmatic team. The National League West is not a strong division and so anything can happen.

One thing is sure, the Los Angeles press will enjoy Grady Little's interviews a lot more that Jim Tracy's.

Last Word on Barry Bonds

The Fan really didn't want to talk about Barry Bonds. The best player of our generation has been defended in this space many, many times. And in fact, he was already a Hall of Famer before the 73 homer season.

The Fan isn't overly bothered by the steroid history in baseball. If a high percentage of players were using, and if MLB wasn't smart enough to ban it earlier, then it is what it is. You still have to hit the ball and throw strikes.

What was really troublesome was the revelation that Bonds went the steroid route out of jealousy for McGwire and Sammy Sosa. If that were indeed true, then a lot of respect is lost. It would be a truly shameful way to end a career of the ages.

Jim Leyland Managing the Tiger?

"Tiger's manager, Jim Leyland," just doesn't sound right. In fact, it doesn't sound any better than, "Rockies' manager, Jim Leyland," which was Leyland's last managing post. Of course, Tiger fans should be thrilled.

There are several questions here. First, Leyland has been away from managing since 1999. There is precedent for success in that situation. Frank Robinson was in the front office a long time between managing assignments, and he has done wonders with the Expos/Nationals considering the upheaval of that situation. And Leyland knows what he is doing and has a track record.

Leyland's success in the past well documented. His Pittsburgh teams in the early 90's won an average of 95 games for three years in a row. And then he won the World Series in Florida.

But a good manager won't succeed without a good team. Leyland endured terrible times in Florida after the "fire sale." And his teams had terrible years in Pittsburgh and Colorado. Consider that the highest batting average on the Tigers last year was .277. Twenty-one homers led the team! The best E.R.A on the team was 4.48

And the only significant addition in the off season was an elderly Kenny Rogers, whose off-field temper has tainted a pretty successful career. Will he have anything left?

And what of Ivan Rodriguez? I-Rod was a superstar just a few short seasons ago and was the cornerstone of the Marlins' World Series team. He had a good season in 2004, his first season with the Tigers. But last year was a disaster.

Rodriguez, who had never struck out 90 times in the first twelve seasons of his career has done so the last three years. Last year's 93 strikeouts were the highest of his career. What's worse, he only walked eleven times. Eleven! He batted .250 and had an on-base percentage of .290. Ouch!

If reduced production was the only concern with Rodriguez, that would be concern enough, but stories filtered out of Detroit the last two seasons of Rodriguez having the ear of the owner and circumventing his manager. It would be hard to imagine Leyland standing for that kind of behavior.

Leyland is a great manager of good players and an ordinary manager of lowly players. He has a 42 year old starter, a 38 year old closer (Todd Jones), a questionable star catcher who may have left his best days behind him and then a lot of other piece players who may or may not respond to their new manager.

Leyland says his fire is back. It will be interesting to see if he can keep it stoked if the Tigers get off to a terrible start.

You Just Never Know...

Kirby Puckett died today at the age of 44. His death comes 22 years after he burst on the scene with the Minnesota Twins in 1984. Nothing in Puckett's life was expected. His death, like his retirement in 1995 came suddenly and with much sadness.

There was no fade in or fade out for Kirby Puckett. He didn't have any cups of coffee before sticking full time in 1984 with 557 at bats. He used the Metrodome carpet and slapped the ball to all parts of the ballpark. He didn't hit any home runs his first year and only four the year after in 691 at bats!

The following year, twenty years ago...Puckett listened to some good advice that he should attack the ball instead of slapping at it. The results were stunning. Not only did his average improve, but Puckett hit 31 homers and raised his slugging percentage a hundred and fifty points. Kirby became a star, an All Star and a Hall of Famer.

And he did all those things with such exuberance. Always hustling, always smiling, crashing into walls to make spectacular catches at historic moments and pumping his fists all the way to the dugout. He exuberance was a large part of two world championships for the usually-lowly Twins.

Pucket played twelve years and averaged 190-plus hits a year along with 90-plus runs scored and runs batted in. Despite his slow power start, Puckett averaged over 56 extra-base hits a year. And he made crashing into the baggie famous long before Torii Hunter.

And then in 1996, at the age of 34, the stunning news came that Puckett was finished. An eye condition took away his vision and that was it. No fade out. He was gone.

It was a surprise when Puckett was elected to the Hall of Fame five years later. Lack of longevity would have presumed that Puckett wouldn't have enough time played to qualify. But he was special and he was in and it seemed right.

Puckett seemed to drift out of our consciousness after his election. A couple of disturbing news reports here and there, a rare appearance once in a while, but that was it. And then suddenly the news came yesterday that he suffered a stroke. Emergency surgery was performed, but it was too late. He was gone.

Kirby Puckett was not the kind of superstar that was like a comet. We didn't see him arc into view and slowly drift away. He was more the shooting star that suddenly flashed, thrilled us with it's light and then burned out quickly leaving nothing but wonderment at the moment we just witnessed.

Perhaps it is better this way. You just never know. And like all the other events of his life, we never saw this coming.

Some Old Dogs and Two New Kids

Six managers are managing their teams for the first time this year. Four of them are old friends and the other two are getting their first managing shots. The next series of posts will focus on the new jobs for Sam Perlozzo, Jim Leyland, Buddy Bell, Joe Madden, Grady Little and Jim Tracy.

Perlozzo, who had two cups of coffee in the major leagues, finished the year for the Orioles last year after being the bench coach. The dreaded "interim" has been removed from his title. Many of the problems from last year have also been removed.

Gone are Rafael Palmiero, Sammy Sosa and Sidney Ponson. Those kinds of headaches were what probably gave Perlozzo his job. But that doesn't mean that the Orioles are without question marks.

First on the list is Miguel Tejada. His earlier demand to be traded has to leave an uneasiness in Baltimore. Statistics from last year look pretty good for Tejada, but he never seemed like the force he was the year before. If the team starts slowly, will he lose the fire that seems to define his play?

Starting pitching seems questionable. The Orioles picked up Kris Benson, the most acclaimed pitcher who has never done anything. Perhaps Benson will finally grow into his billing. But just as perhaps not.

The other starters are interesting as well. Erik Bedard and Daniel Cabrera could be a real stars. If they can find the strike zone more often, they can sure make batters swing and miss. Rodrigo Lopez is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He can look brilliant and terrible within the same week. Finally, Bruce Chen gives the Orioles solid innings and can win 15 to 17 games.

The Oriole core of hitting is pretty much intact. The familiar names of Mora, Matos, Gibbons and Roberts join Tejada in giving the Orioles some run producting capability.

Javy Lopez was a dissapointment last year and it's possible that his career year in Atlanta was a last hurrah. Lopez is now 36 and nearing the end of his career.

Also joining the Orioles are Corey Patterson and Kevin Millar. Millar, the leader of the "idiots" in Boston became unfunny after his third straight season with declining power numbers there. Likewise, the Cubs gave up on Patterson, who was touted with such promise and has proven an enigma. Perhaps they can revive their careers in Baltimore.

For the last two years, the Orioles showed flashes of outhitting their opposition and flashes of futility. After years of poor pitching, the Orioles have a chance to be respectable in that department this year.

It doesn't seem likely that the Orioles can threaten for the top of the division this year, and though Perlozzo has a chance to put his own stamp on this team, the questions seem to outnumber the possibilities.

Baseball, the Beatles and Hobbits

The Fan was going to write about teams with new managers this year, but maybe that will wait until tomorrow. Why is baseball such a defining sport in some people? The Fan has to consider that other sports may hold the same passion for others that is baseball here at heart. All that can be said is that there are three defining themes that underline life for this author: Baseball, the Beatles and Hobbits.

To some, there is the belief that we all long for Eden. The heart yearns for the simple, the beautiful and the fulfilling. But we've been kicked out of the garden and the simple always turns to complex. At first, we accept the complex and believe that it's an evolutionary necessity. We are mistaken of course and find whatever we can that brings us back a bit to the garden.

Baseball was and is such a haven. From childhood to having a giddyup when crossing the street, baseball is a trip back to the garden no matter how crazy, sad and messed up life can become. Even the ball parks are these emerald green islands in the middle of grey cities.

That's not to say that baseball is always stress free--and not just with drama and close games. Between labor issues, drugs, corked bats, hold outs, lock outs and the Chicago Black Sox, there have always been threats to the game.

And there is evolution with the emphasis on conditioning, statistics, specialists and technology. But take the game back to the field and it's simplicity itself. It's the same simplicity that some find tedious. No matter how evolutionary, as the commercial says: "It's still 90 feet from third to home."

This isn't the space to delve into the place in the soul held by the Beatles and Hobbits, but these are Edens for the Fan and so is baseball.

The Body Fails Us

The Fan has a bum knee. It hurts so badly that the simple act of kicking off a pair of slip-on shoes sends shards of pain throughout the body. The situation has led to reflections of athletes who prematurely faced the breakdown of their bodies. There is an appreciation for the desire to at least attempt what is now beyond reach. The reflection gives new appreciation for why Jeff Bagwell is in Spring Training.

Jeff Bagwell has hit 959 extra base hits in his career. 449 of them were homers. Remember that most of his career was played in the Astrodome...one of the worst hitting parks ever. He has a lifetime on base percentage of .408. Between runs scored and runs batted in, Bagwell has contributed to 3046 runs for the Houston Astros.

He has been an All Star and a heralded player for a dozen years. He is the worst front office mistake made by the Boston Red Sox since Babe Ruth.

But several years ago, Bagwell's shoulder deteriorated to the point where he couldn't even throw the ball. Remember that Bagwell is not old by baseball standards. He is only 36 and it is certainly understandable that Bagwell wants to do what he's done his whole life.

The Fan's reflection led to memories of other players over the years who struggled the same way with youthful desires to do things their bodies no longer had the ability to fulfill. Some had some success in the attempt. Others tried and couldn't make it happen. Here are a few of those memories:

Rico Carty
Rico Carty came up as an outfielder with the (then) Milwaukee Braves and hit well over .300 for five of his first six years with the team. Carty's last two years with the (now) Atlanta Braves were spectacular with batting averages of .342 and .366.

Carty then began a series of lost years as chronic injuries derailed his promising career. The advent of the designated hitter in the American League allowed Carty to hit, and though it was painful to watch him limp around the bases, he did some damage for the Indians, A's and Blue Jays. Although Carty had some good batting years, particularly for the Indians, he was never the player he could have been.

Don Mattingly
Don Mattingly had a four year run rarely seen in the history of MLB. Besides being a perennial gold glove first baseman, Mattingly averaged 46 doubles, 30 homers, 121 RBI, and 210 hits. His batting average during those years: .343, .324, .355 and .327. He was widely held to be the best player in the game. He was the Pujols of his time.

Back problems short circuited his career and he couldn't muster 20 home runs for the last six years in his career. He finally retired after only 13 years.

Tony Conigliaro
Tony Conigliaro, or "Tony C" as his passionate fans used to call him, led the American League in homers at the age of 20. Two years later, after 95 games, Conigliaro was beaned by a Jack Hamilton fastball and never fully regained the full vision in his damaged eye.

Tony C missed all of 1968 but returned in 1969 and received the Comeback Player of the Year award as he came back to hit 20 homers. He hit 36 the following year, but his vision plagued him and, at the age of 27, was finished as a ball player. Tragically, he had a major heart attack ten years later and died at the age of 55.

Tony Oliva
The same year that Tony Conigliaro hit the scene in 1964, he battled another Tony for Rookie of the Year and might have won if he hadn't broken his arm in August. The other Tony...Tony Oliva, ended up winning the award as he hit 32 homers and batted .323.

For the next eight years, Oliva was one of the most exciting players in baseball. But Oliva blew out his knee and lost all of 1972. The injury was so severe that Oliva's career would have been over. But he also benefited from the new designated hitter rule and was able to prolong his career as a DH for three more years, but never to the effect of his earlier years.

He played long enough for the Fan to remember his limp, even more pronounced than Carty's.

Frank Tanana
Frank Tanana could throw the ball through a wall when he first came up for the California Angels in 1974. He struck out 269 batters in his second year (in 257 innings!) and in the following year, struck out 262 while winning 19 games. He also led the league in E.R.A. that season.

But after a few years, Frank Tanana blew out his arm. The story is similar to dozens of other players over the year. But Tanana loved baseball and adapted to become one of the best and most crafty pitchers for another 15 years. Tanana won 158 more games after blowing his arm out and ended up with 240 career wins.

Frank Tanana is a good place to end this retrospective. His win for the Tigers on the final day of 1987 put them in the playoffs. Tanana's unique tenacity makes him overlooked for the Hall of Fame, where he belongs.

With this throbbing knee, the Fan is rooting for Jeff Bagwell.

Who Are Those Marlins?

You can tell the Florida Marlins had another "cleansing" this off-season when, behind Miguel Cabrera, Wes Helms and Pokey Reese, their most experienced batter is probably Dontrelle Willis. If Florida's fans like young players, this year should be their nirvana.

The Fan has to wonder how the loss of all those experienced players will affect Cabrera. The young star has improved every year in homers, runs batted it, average, on-base percentage and slugging and last year blossomed into a full-fledged star. Will anyone pitch to him this year? And if not, will Cabrera lose the patience that he has steadily gained over the past two years?

The Marlins have an incredible 17 rookies on their 40 man roster and eight others have three years of major league service or less. Two of those eight are viable stars in Willis and Cabrera. The rest are a collection of young players that are unproven. It could be a fun year for Marlin fans...or it could be a very long one.

Nasty Stuff?

There was an article on ESPN.com today about Derek Lowe that got the Fan thinking of pitchers labeled in recent years with "nasty stuff." The three that come to mind are Lowe, Jeff Weaver and A.J. Burnett. Far too often, nasty stuff for these three has meant stinging hands for the winning team.

Lowe is the only one of the three who has won more than 50% of his games. And that, in large part, is due to his one brilliant 21-7 year with Boston. Lowe also has the advantage of seizing a big game and making himself part of something special. He has been the hero.

The rest of the time, Lowe has only been so-so with a lifetime E.R.A. of 3.84. Last year's so-so year has been explained by off-field problems. Okay, let's see what happens then. Lowe does have the advantage of pitching half his games in Los Angeles, a good pitcher's park.

Weaver has always had nasty stuff. In watching several of his games over the years, what you see is the story of his career: two nasty slider strikes and then a double in the gap. Weaver has a career earned run average of 4.44 with a sub-.500 lifetime record. In Detroit, he looked like an up and coming star. And then he hit New York.

Unlike Lowe in Boston, Weaver folded in New York like a bad American Idol contestant. He has put together two unremarkable years for the Dodgers. His stats show the enigma he is. His WHIP (walks plus hits compared to innings pitched) was terrific at 1.17. But he gave up 35 homers and lost 12 games to his 14 wins. And though he won his last four decisions, he only pitched well in one of them.

A.J. Burnett is the younger of the three and as such, garnered a big contract in free agency this off-season. But is a big contract of merit to someone who has a career record of 49-50? Like Weaver, Burnett had some pretty impressive stats last year. He struck out 198 batters in 209 innings. But he was still 12-12.

Burnett finished with three straight wins, but by then, the Marlins were out of it. When they were still in the race, he lost seven straight.

Now Toronto has pinned part of its hopes on the 49-50 star. Like Lowe and Weaver, sooner or later, Burnett's "nasty stuff" has to translate into more wins than losses.

No Other Game

There is no other game like this. There is no game with the history, the subtleties, the nuances, the speculation, the expectation, the statistics and the aura. And there is no other time of year like this one. The winter has been long, but after months of rain and snow and freeze and thaw, baseball is alive again. Spring Training is here.

We have the Olympics out of the way. Football is speculating on the draft. Major League Baseball blooms like the first crocus of spring and like the first flowers, you never know what to expect or what range of colors will appear this year.

Major League Baseball is this rich continuing book that writes a new, fresh chapter every year and gives as much anticipation as the next Harry Potter book.

Will Clemens pitch again? Will Damon put the Yankees over the top? Will Pedro help resurrect the Mets? Will Toronto be a force again after a dramatic off-season? Will Mike Lowell return to greatness and have a big season in Boston? Will the White Sox repeat? Contend? Will Soriano play left field? Will Bonds come close to Aaron? Will Griffey stay healthy? Will Texas get enough pitching? Can the Pirates or Royals ever get to .500? Who will be the breakout star? Who will have a career year? Whose career will crash and burn?

Last year's breakout stars were Derrek and Carlos Lee. How many of us saw that coming? After the previous year and a half, who would have wagered that Andy Pettitte would win 17 games and have the best second half in baseball? Who saw Bob Wickman saving 45 games?

And so we start fresh. Forget about steroids. Everyone is watching now and no one wants to have to bow out like Palmiero. Forget about labor issues. The two sides never were more cooperative or more fearful of a work stoppage. Baseball has always had side issues. But they still have to play the games and no one knows how they will turn out.

Football has overtaken baseball as the sport of the day, but that's all it is: A day a week. It's an exciting day, it's true. But MLB is a 162 game adventure where we are sure to see things we've never seen before, even though we've watched with interest for decades. The Fan loves football. But MLB is the PASSION.

And this is the time of year where the passion takes hold and a thousand memories are rekindled and expectation is rampant for the start of something new and exciting. Here we go, fans. Our new garden of delight is about to bloom again.

The New Yankee Stadium

A recent spate of news articles announced that the New York Yankees have agreed with the city to build a new $800 million stadium across the street from the present site. Why does the Fan have the same feeling as the announcement several years ago of New Coke? It may have been touted as a good thing, but the Pepsi-like soda couldn't replace Coca-Cola Classic.

Information on the new park (for more information, click here) mentions that the new field will have the same dimensions as the original. Dirt from the original will be brought to the new park. The new facade will duplicate the original. The truth culled from this news implies the truth: It won't be the original.

Well...even the original isn't the original. Three decades ago, the original original was renovated and the Yankees spent two (or was it three?) long years in Shea Stadium. The renovation prettied up the old park and left enough of the original to at least remind fans of the old place. But besides ending Bobby Murcer's Yankee career, it wasn't the same place.

The right field corner was fifteen feet further back. The death valley that was center field and left-center was shortened with a new fence (though they left the old fence back there and created monument park behind the new one). The monuments that used to be in play in Center were no longer.

But at least it was still on hallowed ground. Now the ghosts of Yankee glory will have to find their way across the street. It could have been worse. The Yankees were seriously tempted to find a new home across the bridge in New Jersey.

Part of the Yankee mystique is their ballpark. When teams come to play the Yankees, the House that Ruth Built is a big part of what happens. The Fan remembers the Horace Clarke days too well to call Yankee Stadium a weapon. A bad team will still play bad there and the Red Sox comeback took part in the Yank's ball yard. But it does give the Yankees something that no one else has: the history of more than two dozen championships.

The good news is that Steinbrenner's team will have a brand new home in 2009 that will at least have the feel of the old park. It won't be New Jersey. The bad news is that once accomplished, unlike with Coca-Cola, there is no turning back.

Real Questions

What happens when a superstar finds himself with diminished physical abilities due to injuries and wear and tear and is faced with trying to regain former glory. Junior Griffey thrilled us all with a resurrection last season before he again went down. This year other stars are faced with the question if there is anything left.

The big story this week is the return to Spring Traing for Jeff Bagwell. In what has to be a difficult and uncomfortable story, the Astros want Bagwell to hang it up and he wants a chance to earn the paycheck he is going to get either way.

The Astros are in the most uncomfortable position as they can recoup their loss on Bagwell's salary if he is physically unable to play. Their insurance policy on him will kick in and the Astros can get much needed funds for other players.

At the same time, Bagwell has been a warrior for the franchise and they have to walk a fine line for him and their fans that have appreciated and loved Bagwell over the years. It has to be a bad business situation when you want to open your arms to your long time star while at the same time hoping he isn't capable of playing.

It will be interesting to find out how this all plays out and if Bagwell has anything left.


In a much less awkward situation, Jim Thome will try to revive his career with the White Sox. Thome--in all reality--lost the entire year last year due to back and elbow injuries.

Thome is one of those big guys and is now 35 years old. Please refer back to a previous blog entry that makes the case that big guys like Thome only have an eight to ten year shelf life. Thome has had his ten years and is working on the twelfth. Can he defy history and be close to the player (and hitter) he was? The odds are against him.


The one player who can defy the odds is Barry Bonds. Bonds is just plain bigger than life and will, by his inner force, have one last historic year. If he does, he'll put the steroid talk away forever. There has never been a smarter hitter, nor a more determined one.

Bonds may or may not catch Aaron this year, and he may or may not play beyond this year, but he will go out with a bang, and when he does, no matter how much he is disliked, the fact will remain that he is the greatest player of this generation.

One has to wonder if the people of Babe Ruth's day recognized the history they were watching. Do the people of our time appreciate Ruth's significance more than they did at the time? Will the same be true for Bonds?

Whether it's because of race or because of the negative perception concerning his personality, Bonds is not appreciated for his greatness. Bonds is among one of the three best Major League Baseball players of all time.

The Plight of the Marlins

Nine years ago, the Fan spent his fortieth birthday watching a Marlin home game. This was before the championships and the subsequent fire sales. The Marlins were a new franchise and there was a good crowd in the stands.

The Marlins were the new kids and there was some magic in the park. Lots of kids filled the stands and it had a wholesome and family feel to it all.

There was the magic of watching the game with a young friend with the same name as Chipper Jones' ex-wife. She loved baseball and the Fan taught her how to keep score. It was a joy to teach this baseball fanatic who had such passion for life, something new and special about the game.

These magic memories include a homer by then hero, Jeff Conine, that won the game. It wasn't like a childhood spent in Yankee Stadium, but it was pretty darn close.

It has been painful watching the franchise sink to a point when even a playoff-contending team can only draw six or seven thousand fans. What other franchise has won two championships in its first decade? How could something that special languish like it has.

Part of the problem, of course, is the ballpark. Though pretty and homey inside when watching, it doesn't suit the climate when the combination of 90 degree heat combines with 90 percent humidity, not to mention the downpours that can appear in a matter of minutes.

It seems ironic that an area that boasts multi-million-dollar condo expansions everywhere one looks, can't support a new ballpark for a professional team that brings in 25 wealthy athletes.

The lack of support, whether it be the ballpark, the weather, or all the other things to do in the area, has left the owners no choice but to sell off talent twice in the past six years. That compounds the problem of attendance as loyalty takes a hit whenever the sell off happens.

Now the Marlins are listening to offers from other cities that would love to have them. It's a sad scene. It would be hard not to have a future pilgrimage possible to remember that memorable birthday with that memorable, passionate, and lovely girl who left her team and this world far too soon.

Sorry Soriano

So Alfonso Soriano doesn't want to play left field. The Fan bleeds for him. If you gave the Fan $10 million in hard cash, he's cook the hotdogs, mow the outfield, and catch batting practice.

It is hard for the average Joe watching from the inner city, suburbia or the cornfields of Kansas to identify with a man living out our dreams and making money we'll never dream about, refusing to play a position out of his comfort zone.

Let's face it, Soriano never looked comfortable at second base either. He always looked awkward and it's hard to imagine him looking any less awkward anywhere else. Jose Vidro is a great second baseman, and before his injuries, an All Star caliber player. Get real, Alfonso.

There are so many stories to root for this year. Can Griffey bring it back like the second half of last year? Will Giambi continue his resurrection? Can Nomar play first base in Los Angeles and hit like the Nomar of old? How close will Bonds get to Aaron in this his final year?

With all these great stories, the true Fan can only hope Soriano sits on the bench or is released. He is the anti-Jeter...the anti-Schilling of baseball and doesn't deserve his good fortune.

The Flagrant Fan is Back

After a two year hiatus, and inspired by Peter Gammons getting into the blog environment, it's time to get the Fan back to the game. What has happened between two years off and the Fan's 284 previous blogs? The steroid scandal, another Yankee post season loss, the decline of Sammy Sosa, the World Baseball Classic, the White Sox winning the World Series (??!!) and an ERA win for the Fan's favorite pitcher--Roger Clemens.

Let's start with the World Baseball Classic. I'm a fan of Major League Baseball. The WBC means nothing to the Fan. I understand conceptually and empiracally about the desire to celebrate the world with baseball. But to a MLB fan, the whole thing is just a distraction.

You see, the Fan doesn't have a desire to see Roger Clemens pitch for the last time against South Africa or Jamaica. The Fan doesn't want to see one of the best players in the game get hurt in a game that doesn't count. And maybe, just maybe--if the Fan was honest--there is the fear that the WBC will give Cuba one more chance to shine.

The commissioner speaks of the WBC in glowing terms of globalizing the game. Players on rosters such as: Wang, Ichiro, Godzilla, Seo, Rodriguez and others don't already do that? A significant percentage of MLB rosters already include players born outside of the United States. The point has already been made and the reality already exists. If you want a worldwide tournament, wait for the Olympics.


The Fan applauds the Red Sox for their trend of signing young emerging players such as Beckett and Crisp. The strategy is less expensive and has a greater chance at being a great move for years to come. Contrast this with New York's strategy the last few years.

When is the last time the Yankees lured a superstar who was less than 32 years old? I believe this trend has led to the breakdowns we have seen in the last three post-seasons. I just read Peter Gammons' blog where he stated that 43-year old, Randy Johnson, was the key to the season. Isn't that a bit like making a '69 Cutlass the key to successfully making a cross country trip? A '69 Cutlass is a great car, but it's expensive to maintain and its best days are behind it.


It saddens the Fan that Sammy Sosa has turned down the National's offer to play in Washington this season. The Fan appreciates that Sosa doesn't want to play if he is no longer good enough to be Sammy. But Sammy Sosa was fun and explosive and a bit of a primadonna, but he wasn't boring. The Fan--remembering the bombs off of Sosa's bat in the Home Run Derby--will miss him.

Mike Lowell was the forgotten man during last year's Marlin championship run. Lowell had been the steady rock earlier in the Marlins' season belting 32 homers and knocking in 105 runs. His numbers would have been much higher but Lowell broke his hand. Ivan Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera, great young pitching and an old timer manager led the Marlins to the Series title. Lowell had bit parts in the post season including one heroic hit, but his earlier season was largely forgotten.

Ivan Rodriguez is now gone and Cabrera is appearing to seem human after all. Mike Lowell has come to the fore as the leader of the Marlins offense and has helped the not-so-surprising team to the top of the NL East. Tonight's game against Houston is a perfect example.

Luis Castillo led off the game with a single and took third on Pierre's single. Castillo then scored on a wild pitch. But then Pierre got thrown out trying to steal. That could have ended a potentially big inning with only one run. But then Lowell came up and hit his twelfth homer of the season.

In the fifth inning, with the Marlins up 3-1, Lowell was pitched around and walked and came in to score on a Lenny Harris double.

On Lowell's next at bat, after the Astros had scored a run in the top of the seventh to cut the Marlins' lead to 5-2, Lowell responded in the bottom of the seventh with his thirteenth homer to put the nail in the game.

Lowell now has 13 homers in 38 games and is on pace to hit 54. He is also batting .349, with a slugging percentage near .700 and an OPS over 1.110. In short, he is having a monster year and is continuing his pattern of getting better every year, increasing his production while increasing his walks and lowering his strikeouts.

And Lowell has become one of the best fielding first baseman in the league. Scott Rolen may be the best fielding third baseman in the National League, but Lowell, right now, is the best third baseman in that league.

The thing about Major League Baseball is that life is mirrored on the field. Similar to an crime movie, problems are solved in two to three hours. There are good guys and bad guys and depending on the movie, either one could win. For the Fan, Randy Johnson has always been one of the bad guys. The bad guys won big last night.

Randy Johnson has always portrayed this scowling, oppressive presence on the mound. He is unlovely, gangly and uncouth to look at. He showed his bad guy presence during the All-Star game when he buzzed John Kruk to prove a point. And, worst of all, Johnson had the temerity to consistently challenge Nolan Ryan's single season strikeout record while also threatening Roger Clemens' record for Cy Young awards.

And then the bad guy beat the good guys in the deciding game of the 2001 World Series. The fan's teeth gnash when the bad guy is as good as Randy Johnson has been. From the second half of 1998, when Johnson was traded to Houston, until the end of 2002, Johnson won 91 games and lost 28. Johnson is now 234-118 in his career with 3952 strikeouts in 3185 career innings. Incredible.

The bad guy seemed finished last year. His velocity down, his back aching, Johnson limped through last year and ended up with a 6-8 record. More telling was that for the first time in his career, Randy Johnson gave up more hits than innings pitched. The Fan tried to avoid feelings of satisfaction.

And then there is the concerted effort in the past few years to make the bad guy look almost human. He appeared on baseball shows attempting to hit a baseball. He is shown gracefully bowling a beautiful left hook in a commercial. A sporting magazine showed him as a driven man and a family man. The Fan almost gave in to taking Johnson off the bad guy list. Almost.

Last night, at the age of forty, Randy Johnson did something Roger Clemens has never done: a perfect game. His last fastball was 97 MPH after only hitting 92 last year. The perfect game wasn't against any run of the mill team. The gem beat the Atlanta Braves. Granted, the Braves aren't what they were, but they are still the Braves. The bad guy made it look easy.

Sometimes, the admission has to be made that the bad guy is one of the best to ever work his craft. Sometimes, a true Fan has to acknowledge the bad guy with a tip of the cap. That was an awesome performance, Randy Johnson.

Take a tip from the Fan: Never move during baseball season if you love the game. This very good season churned on while the Fan was blacked out like the old days before the Internet and Baseball Tonight. I apologize to my loyal readers for the absence. The move was very much like this MLB season, full of surprises, good and bad, at the same time predictable. And the fun continues.

The season is nearly a fourth over (or, for the optimist, three fourths to go) and the surprises equal the predictable. The Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Marlins, Astros and Cubs are as good as expected. The Orioles are as improved as expected.

The Angels in particular are playing as well as expected, but in an unexpected way. The team has had terrible injuries to several of its stars, but they still roll along winning seven out of their last ten. The latest terrible injury is to Troy Glaus with a shoulder injury. Glaus was placed on the 60-day disabled list, which is a shame as he was off to a great start after being injured much of last year. Glaus had already homered eleven times this season after only reaching sixteen last year.

The real surprises so far this season are many. Nobody expected the Devil Rays to win the AL East, but most thought they would be vastly improved. On the contrary, they have only won ten games in thirty-six attempts and have lost nine of their last ten. Old Piniella must be coughing up blood at this point.

Nobody expected the Reds to 20-17 at this point in the season. Adam Dunn has an on-base percentage of .490 to go along with his eleven homers. Sean Casey is batting .374 with 15 doubles. Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. are contributing. The pitching isn't spectacular, but has been better than expected with Paul Wilson and Aaron Harang leading the starters. Danny Graves isn't unhittable, but he has saved seventeen of the Reds' wins.

A surprise on the negative side has been the Royals. The ugly ducklings turned swans last year have been abysmal to this point. The pitching staff in particular is scary with a staff 5.28 ERA. The pitchers have given up 467 base runners in 305 innings. Ugh!

The Seattle Mariners have fallen on similar hard times. The Mariners pitch alright--although Hasegawa and Pineiro have had horrible starts to their season. The Mariners hit for a decent team average as well. Consider though that the Mariners have only hit 24 homers in 36 games. Bret Boone, Edgar Martinez and John Olerud are all batting in the high .240's and have collectively seemed to get old all at once. The manager is taking the heat, but this is a team that was kept together for two seasons too long.

Just about every team in the AL Central is a surprise. The Royals have been discussed already for their sour season. But the Twins are above expectations, as are the White Sox, Indians and even the Tigers. While the Tigers don't seem capable of maintaining their .500 record, the other three seem to be ready to battle it out the rest of the season.

The Twins seem to be doing well with mirrors. Lew Ford is a blossoming and unexpected new star and Christian Guzman is off to a good start. The relief pitching has been sublime so far as unlikely heroes like 85 year old, Terry Mulholland is contributing well along with unexpected closing success by Joe Nathan. Nathan's ERA is down to 1.37 and has struck out 26 batters in 19.2 innings pitched. It seems hard to believe that the Twins can hold on, but they haven't cracked yet.

The White Sox and Indians are good, but seem no better than .500 teams, but neither does the Twins. The winner of this division may end up with 85-90 wins.

The most fun surprise so far this season has been the Rangers and the Brewers. The Rangers have a chance to stay in contention in the AL West while the Brewers won't win a division any time soon, but they've turned into a fun team to follow.

Lyle Overbay has blown open the league so far this season. The Brewers have a pitcher who hits...or is that a hitter who pitches? Scott Podsednik has already scored 30 runs and has stolen 20 bases without being caught. And recently, Ben Sheets is starting to live up to his potential as he recently struck out 18 batters. Sheets is 4-2 with a 2.90 ERA. There is a fun story everywhere you look on this team.

Overbay has been amazing. Batting .369 this season, Overbay already has 21 doubles to go along with five homers and 38 RBI. Overbay is on pace to hit sixty doubles and a 150 RBI.

Brooks Kieschnick is batting .368 as a pinch hitter and has a 1.47 ERA in twelve pitching performances. Now that is fun stuff.

The Rangers are just as fun to watch as they have several young stars that have gelled under Buck Showalter. Soriano, Blalock, Young, Texeira, Nix and Mench have to be entertaining for the Rangers' fans night after night. Playing nearly .600 baseball is by far the number one team surprise of the year.

The Texas Rangers are 16-9 and in first place in the AL West after sweeping the seemingly unstoppable Boston Red Sox. It's hard to believe that is the truth. The Rangers have had Ivan Rodriguez and never won. They had Juan Gonzalez and never won. They had Rafael Palmeiro and never won. They had Alex Rodriguez and never won. But after watching the Rangers finish the sweep of the Red Sox, this team seems to have something really good going.

And how can you not give credit to Buck Showalter for the turnaround? Showalter has a track record of taking struggling teams and making them better. Showalter took over a bad Yankee team in the early 90's and was on the way to 100 wins in 1994 before the strike shortened the season. The Yankees struggled the following season and came in second and Showalter was gone. Joe Torre came to manage New York the following season and the Yankees won it all.

Showalter then was hired as the first manager of the new Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998. But he didn't start his job in 1998. Showalter helped set up that franchise and he did it well. The first year of their existance, the Diamondbacks lost 97 games. The following season, Showalter took them to a 100 win season. What an accomplishment for the second year in a franchise history.

Again, as did the Yankees, the Diamondbacks struggled after their 100 win season and they only won 85 the following year and came in third. Showalter was fired. The following year, just as in New York, the Diamondbacks won it all.

How much of those championships for the Yankees and Diamondbacks were because Showalter was no longer the manager? How much was because he had set them up so well? The Fan truly believes that Showalter is the biggest single factor as to why those two champions came to be.

Championship teams are usually very good fundamental teams who take care of the small details, play the game correctly and win close games. Showalter has sometimes been criticized as too tough. That's funny, because that's the same thing Bill Parcells is praised about. And is it any coincidence that both Parcells and Showalter have such good track records in turning bad teams around?

And now look at the job Showalter has done with the Rangers. The Rangers have been terrible for a long time. Despite the superstars they have had on their team, they have been terrible. Showalter came on board last year and they lost 91 games. But he did something fantastic. He introduced six or seven really good young players to the majors and played them, not just in mop up games. They played regularly.

Blalock was slated to be a star and his playing time was expected. You can say the same thing about Teixeira. But Showalter played Nix and Young and Mench and R.A. Dickey. That experience is paying of this year as that core of players is leading the team to better times. And Soriano, who showed a stubborn side to being coached on the Yankees, looks like a better player this year at the plate and in the field. You have to give that credit to Showalter.

The 2004 Texas Rangers are fun to watch and you can see the buzz in the crowds that are starting to build at their games. And the Rangers are for real. They pound the ball. They throw strikes and they field very well. Let's hope that Showalter's history doesn't repeat itself and that they win it all this year so Showalter doesn't have to get fired and leave the genesis of another great team to someone else who will take his team to the next level.

They are having a wild and wooly one in San Francisco. The Marlins scored four runs in the first. Dontrelle Willis gave two of those back in the bottom of the first. The Marlins scored five more in the top of the second which included a double and a run scored by Willis. After two innings, Miguel Cabrera had the unique batting line of: 0 0 0 2, thanks to two sacrifice flies. That gave the Marlins a 9-2 lead and the start of a laugher, right? Wrong.

Willis couldn't get anyone out in the bottom of the second and was sent to the showers. His relief, Tommy Phelps could only get one out. Nate Bump relieved him and walked in a run before ending the inning. By then, seven runs had scored and now after two innings, it's a 9-9 game.

Between the two teams, they have given up 18 runs in two innings on 16 hits and 8 walks. It's going to be a long, long night in San Francisco. Oh yes, Barry Bonds has already walked twice in that game. The Fan has said it before and will say it again, the walking of Bonds is a travesty and an embarrassment. And many times, it backfires on the opposing team as baserunners leads to rallies and rallies score far more runs than a one run homer by Bonds.

With the poor start by the Giants, if it continues, the unthinkable could happen...the Giants could trade Bonds to an American League team for the pennant run. The Fan just has a feeling...


Speaking of weird games, the Cubs sent their best pitcher to the mound tonight against the Cardinals. Kerry pitched eight innings and struck out 10, but didn't factor in the decision. The Cardinals had last at bats and came up to hit in the bottom of the ninth. But they didn't get a chance to hit. Cub's pitchers: Kyle Farnsworth, Kent Mercker and LaTroy Hawkins walked four batters to give the Cardinals the win. What a lousy way to lose a game...four walks in the bottom of the ninth.


The Yankees won their fourth game in a row to finish April with a winning record, the thirteenth straight time in a row they have done that--an American League record.

Javier Vasquez got the win and has pitched well in four of his five starts. Jeter had a hit and an RBI and now has a modest two game hitting streak after going 32 straight at bats without a hit.


And the top story of the night? Roger Clemens won his fifth straight decision and has started the season with a 5-0 record with a 1.95 ERA. How's that for a 41 year old retired pitcher? Clemens actually walked in a run in the first inning but settled down and pitched six innings, giving up only one run as he struck out six. What an amazing story.

Baseball is a lot like a perennial flower bed. Now where else are you going to hear a comparison like that? Many perennials have really showy years, off years and so-so years. Every year is different and every year is most interesting. Baseball is again blooming despite hints of scandals and a vagabond team in the NL East. Let's look at the garden for some interesting stories so far this year.

Brooks Kieschnick is one of the most interesting stories in baseball. In 1993, Kieschnick was the tenth player picked overall in the draft. The Cubs drafted him as an outfielder, although Kieschnick was a top pitching prospect as well. It was a struggle for Kieschnick as he bounced around and played for eleven different minor league clubs with a few cups of coffee with the Cubs and then the Reds.

Then the Milwaukee Brewers had/have a budget crunch and needed some versatile players who wouldn't cost a lot of money. They had an interesting idea: Why not give Kieschnick a chance as both a relief pitcher and a pinch hitter. Why not? Two players for the price of one. The experiment was partially successful last year. Kieschnick batted well, hitting .300 with five homers and nine RBI in 64 at bats. He had a nifty .618 slugging percentage.

But Kieschnick struggled pitching and ended up with a 5.26 ERA in 42 appearances. The thirty-two year old wasn't assured of a job when he came to spring training. Manager Ned Yost was quoted several times as saying that if Kieschnick didn't make the team as a pitcher, he wouldn't make it at all. Kieschnick had a decent spring and then Yost was quoted as saying that Kieschnick was only going to be a pitcher. Yeah, right.

Kieschnick already has 14 at bats (relief pitchers hardly EVER get at bats) and is batting .286 with a homer and three RBI. But the key stat is that he is pitching really well this year too. He pitched three scoreless innings tonight to lower his season ERA to 1.80 in six appearances.

You have to root for a player like Kieschnick. Now Ned Yost is saying that he'll DH Kieschnick in interleague games. It would be even sweeter if he started a game in the outfield and maybe came in to pitch an inning. Heck, after his inning, he could go right back out to the outfield. Real men love Kieschnick.

Derek Jeter extended his hitless streak to 32 at bats. Booed by the hometown fans during the Red Sox series, the Yankee fans rallied around him tonight and cheered and chanted during each of his at bats. It didn't help though as he still went 0 for 4. The streak is by far, Jeter's worst slump of his career.

The Fan can't understand how Jeter keeps getting blasted on his fielding. He has had no shoulder the past two years and last year also tore the ligament in his hand, all the while playing in pain every day and never letting it show. The respect Jeter has from his peers in baseball far outstrips the lack of it Jeter gets from some media circles.

One of the best fantasy league players this year is the one and only Mark Loretta. Who? Loretta has flown under the radar so far in his career, but the second baseman for the Padres has a .298 lifetime batting average. Last year, Loretta had a 185 hits on the way to hitting a very good .314. Loretta also had a career high 13 homers.

This year, Loretta is off to a .365 start with 4 homers and 14 RBI to go along with 15 runs scored. Loretta batted ninth for much of his career but is now batting second. Loretta doesn't strike out often (62 times in 589 at bats). Loretta is also a very good fielder with only 57 errors in his nine year career (.986 fielding percentage). This is a very good little player who may start getting his due.

Perhaps the Yankees aren't dead. They sure looked it after this past weekend getting swept by the Red Sox. The struggling team from the Bronx next had another tough team in the Oakland Athletics with ace Tim Hudson on the mound. Mike Mussina couldn't hold a four run lead as his pitching woes continued. Before you could say, "Mr. Steinbrenner," the Yankees had fallen behind 8-4 and it looked like their woes would continue. And then the Yankees batted in the bottom of the eighth.

By the time the dust settled, the Yankees had punished Jim Mecir and Roberto Rincon for six runs on five hits and three walks. Mecir and Rincon both had Earned Run Averages under 2.50. Mecir never did get anyone out and was charged with five of the six runs although Rincon didn't help him any by walking two and making sure all of Mecir's baserunners scored.

Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth inning for his sixth save (he now has a 0.75 ERA).

The win doesn't hide the problems. Mussina gave up eleven more baserunners in six innings and now has a 6.55 Earned Run Average. Derek Jeter went 0-3 with a sac bunt and an intentional walk to extend his hitless streak to 30 at bats. But the come from behind win has to breath some life into the moribund bunch and could help turn the season around.

The loss was especially tough for the A's, who have now lost four in a row and have fallen all the way to third place, two games off the pace.

Since it is a semi-slow night in Major League Baseball, it's time to re-introduce a regular feature of this site: The Fan's Box Score Favorites. The Fan has been nuts about box scores since childhood and it's only natural to see players that catch the eye. These players are followed more closely than the others. They may include favorites traded away from the favorite team. They could be exciting rookies. The box score favorites tend to evolve as the season rolls along (for example, if a player gets hurt, there is no reason to keep looking, right?). So here we go:

Alfonso Soriano/Texas Rangers - Of course you have to follow the guy traded for A-Rod. He was the goat of the post-season with his wild swinging and automatic strikeouts. So how is he doing the last seven days? Not bad. Soriano hasn't been hitting the ball over the fence this season, but he is batting a robust .338 and has seemed to cut down his strikeout ratio. Case in point is his last seven days where he has batted 21 times and only struck out twice. He has batted a respectable .286 this past week as his teammates have gone crazy around him. All that hitting will only help Soriano who bats third in the order.

Hank Blalock/Texas Rangers - In truth, the Fan could follow each and every young Texas Ranger. Unbelievably, the Rangers are in first place and are killing the ball. Blalock, like all his mates this year, is batting at a .325 clip. The past seven days, he's batted .308 with a homer, two doubles and six runs batted in. He now has 17 RBI for the season and is on pace to reach 125 by the end of the season.

Miguel Cabrera/Florida Marlins - Cabrera turned 21 this season and followed up his sensational debut last year with a fast start this year. He had six homers before the league caught up with him. He had a tough week though and only has batted .250 in his last seven to bring his season average down to .304 with no homers and only one double to go along with four runs batted in. He should bounce back and hit at least forty homers this season.

Derrek Lee/Chicago Cubs - The Fan is rooting so hard for the Cubs. This team just attracts those who root for underdogs. They sure aren't playing like underdogs so far. Derrek Lee is a great first baseman, but needs to hit too. He started slowly and is only batting .254 for the week. But he is heating up and batted .273 last week with seven RBI in only six games.

Manny Ramirez/Boston Red Sox - The Fan picked Ramirez as this year's AL MVP, so it makes sense that this feature has to follow his progress. And what progress it is! Ramirez batted .357 last week and lowered his average! Manny had two homers and two doubles last week and accounted for the only runs in Boston's 2-0 victory over the Yankees. Manny is on pace to bat .392 with 45 homers and 135 RBI. Sounds like the MVP is right on track.

Melvin Mora/Baltimore Orioles - Last year, Mora was having an outstanding, breakout season and the Orioles were batting really well only to see Mora go down with an injury. The Orioles and Mora never recovered. This year, the Orioles lineup doesn't depend so much on Mora but it's a happy thing to see Mora starting off this year like last year. Mora batted .348 last week to lift his season average up to .333. He had a double and a homer and drove in four runs. But the real contribution was the ten runs he scored last week in front of Palmeiro, Lopez, Tejada and others. Mora is on pace to drive in 114 runs and score 162!

Ken Griffey Jr./Cincinnati Reds - The Reds have been a major surprise this year and Griffey is playing full time again. Coincidence? Maybe. Griffey did have a tough week last week with a .217 average his last seven games, but golly, that man has only played a handful of games the last few years. And he is back to making the highlight reels with his fielding in centerfield. It's early yet and Griffey will heat up.

Adam Dunn/Cincinnati Reds - Two years ago, Dunn was a monster rookie. Last year, he looked overcoached and lost his edge for a very disappointing season. It's a shame when young players get overcoached. A decade or more ago, a catcher for the Red Sox came up a young player and hit the stuffing out of the ball. His name was Rich Gedman. Gedman had three great years where he averaged .288 with 20 homers and 80 RBI. Good numbers for a catcher! Then he came under the tutelage of Walter Hriniak (Wade Boggs' batting guru). Gedman's next five years: .258, .205, .231, .212 and .200. Rick Harden is having the same trouble with overcoaching in Oakland. Oh yeah, Dunn...

Dunn only batted .200 last week with one homer, but he did have five RBI. Dunn is still hitting .316 for the year with 8 homers and 15 RBI. He also has a .500 on base percentage so far this year.

Today was baseball day at the Fan's house. After watching Baseball Tonight on Sunday morning (Why don't they change the name for the day time?), it was time for watching the Yankees embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Red Sox. After watching the series, it's hard to tell if the Red Sox are that good or if the Yankees are that bad. There is definitely trouble in the Bronx and that team doesn't look like it's going anywhere. After a day of baseball which finished with the Braves beating the Marlins, the Fan couldn't help notice things that have changed in the Major Leagues during a lifetime of watching the games. Here is an unofficial and incomplete list of things that have changed in this Fan's lifetime:

- The umpires ignore batters who call time when digging into the batters box.

- The players use all kinds of armor and equipment when batting and running the bases. Old ball players never wore batting gloves.

- The bats are different. Each player uses different bats. There are red ones, white ones, black ones and bats with all kinds of writing and markings. Back in the old days, all the bats looked the same.

- If a pitcher bounces a pitch in the dirt, the umpire immediately throws that ball out of the game. That never happened five years ago and longer.

- In that same category, the fielder catching the last out always throws the ball in the stands. It used to be a game in a game to see which player could roll the ball to the mound and get it to stay there.

- The gloves all look different. Pedro used a red one. Jorge had a multi-colored catcher's mitt. What's with that?

- Catchers now wear what looks like hockey masks. The name of the MLB catcher who invented them is beyond memory.

- Umpires no longer have those bubble chest protectors behind the plate. And then never stand directly behind the catcher.

- Shortstops hit homers. Mark Belanger hit 20 homers in his career and had a lifetime slugging average of .280. Yet he started for 17 years. Tejada and A-Rod hit that many in two months.

- Catchers hit for average. Piazza and Posada are weapons. Rick Dempsey was never a weapon. Ray Fosse made the All Stars as a .256 hitter.

- Middle of the road pitchers used to have records like 16-15. Phil Niekro had a two year stretch where his records were 19-18 and 21-20. Now a middle of the road pitcher has a 10-10 record.

- Starters were expected to finish. Now managers are scolded for ruining young pitching careers if two games in a row involve 110 pitches. Mike Cuellar had 172 complete games out of 379 starts. Mel Stottlemyre completed 180 in ten years. Jim Kaat completed 180. Bartolo Colon is considered a "horse" and has completed 28 games in seven years. At that pace, he'll catch Stottlemyre in 45 years.

- Leo Durocher would never intentionally walk Willie Mays three times in a game. What is going on with Bonds should lead to a rule change of one intentional walk a game. It's disgraceful.

- Catchers never gave third-base-coach-like signals to the pitcher to call pitches with runners on second base. That is brand new in the last few years.

- And finally, for tonight at least, players used to shake teammate hands after a homer or a job well done. The high five, fist pump, wrist slam, low five, and jumping chest bumps were unknown 30 years ago.

Things change but it's still the best game there is.

The Yankees look lost. Watching them tonight against Boston, the most expensive team in sports can't seem to do anything right. They are getting shaky starting pitching. They aren't hitting. They missed two fly balls in the outfield. This looks very much like a .500 team right now.

The number one concern is starting pitching. Mike Mussina is 1-4 and has given up 55 baserunners in 28.1 innings. Yikes! Jose Contreras should not be starting as his two years in the majors shows that he doesn't have what he needs to start. He could be great in relief as he was last year in the playoffs, but he shouldn't start. But who else is there? Vazquez and Brown will be fine, but there is big trouble after that.

Key Yankee batters have started off very slowly. The entire team has started the season batting .229. Bernie Williams is batting .191. Derek Jeter is batting .209. Gary Sheffield is only batting .268. Jason Giambi is batting .227. Alex Rodriguez is batting .206. All of those players have proven track records and will bounce back and end up where they usually do.

The Red Sox announcers mentioned that Kenny Lofton hasn't been a good fit in the Bronx. That is no surprise. He has never been a popular player and you have to wonder if Steinbrenner overruled someone to get an old centerfielder who is on the downward side of his career. Williams doesn't look physically healthy enough to play out there yet. Bubba Crosby should be given a shot despite his major gaff tonight.

You can bet that Mr. Steinbrenner is not a happy man.

In similar situations to the Yankees are the Phillies and the Angels. Both teams joined the Yankees in spending a lot of money in the off season and starting with high expectations. The Phillies are 5-9 and are already five and a half games behind the Marlins. The Angels are at .500 so far. The Phillies should be able to untrack a bit playing the Expos this weekend.

The standings have some surprises so far. The Twins lead the AL Central. The Reds are only a game back of the Cubs in the NL Central. The surprising Dodgers are on top of the NL West with the Padres right behind. The Giants and Diamondbacks are 6-10 and 5-10 respectively and look in deep trouble. It's going to be an interesting season.

The Fan is playing Fantasy Baseball for the first time this season. Being in New England, some of the folks at work thought it would be more challenging to be in a National League Only league. The Fan is enjoying the experience so far, but there is one problem. Sometimes there is hesitance to talk about some up and coming or surprising performances so far this season. My opponents in our fantasy league read this space and could get tips and use them. Hmmm... What's more important: Writing about what I love or winning a fantasy league? No question its the former.

One of those players is the Arizona third baseman, Matt Kata. He has opened the season batting .371 and is starting to get a lot of playing time. Mr. Kata might be one of this years box score heroes this year.

Barry Bonds is batting over .500 so far with 20 RBI. There is a lot of speculation why Bonds is getting more to hit this season and the most plausible reason seems to be that the Giants are playing poorly and have been behind early. There is less of a reason to walk Bonds if you are already ahead in the game. Bonds getting pitches to hit is good for baseball. Bonds walking three times a game is terrible for baseball.

The life of a Fan of Major League Baseball is hell during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Tonight is another case in point. Baseball Tonight was scheduled for 10 P.M. Eastern Time on ESPN and as sure as you can say, "icing," the hockey game has gone to overtime. And what series is this for the Stanley Cub chase? The semi-semi-semi-finals? Great! Only three more rounds to go.

This is how bad it gets: Last week, a few flips of the usual channels showed that hockey dominated the air waves. The last hope was NESN, the home network of the Boston Red Sox and sure enough there was a game on. And it was an exciting game too! The game was tied going into the 10th inning and Ortiz was batting.

The camera panned to the Boston dugout and...What!? Todd Walker was there. Did the Red Sox make a trade and get him back? He was off to a good start with the Cubs. A mental note was made to check on-line to read about the trade.

Anyway...back to Ortiz. One pitch and BAM! Ortiz hits it over the Green Monster and the Red Sox mob him at home plate. Man! That Ortiz is amazing. He always seems to win the game with a homer. At least one exciting baseball moment was available for that night.

But then the broadcast ended and the game had been a special highlight presentation of a game last year because the Red Sox game that night got rained out. Those are the kinds of things that happen when a Fan of Major League Baseball has to endure the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Hey! Wait! The overtime only lasted a few minutes and somebody scored (who cares which one). The game is over. That special music is playing. The Fan of Major League Baseball is back in business.

Wouldn't it be great for baseball if the Baltimore Orioles beat out both the Yankees and the Red Sox for the AL East? The Orioles have now won five straight and have been the first team other than the Yankees or the Red Sox in more than two years to lead the division. It was known that the Orioles had a great lineup, but the team is also getting just enough pitching to stay on top.

Javy Lopez is batting .463 and is showing people that last year was not a career year. Fellow newcomer, Miguel Tejada is batting .365. Melvin Mora is batting .320. Rafael Palmeiro is defying those who questioned his age by playing first base every day while batting .311 and leading the team in RBI. Diego Segui is also batting .333.

The funny thing is that they haven't yet started hitting for power. They have only hit thirteen homers in twelve games but have scored six runs a game. Just wait until they get their home run swings going. With the above average pitching they are seeing, the Orioles could be very surprising and very dangerous.

Whether the Orioles can hold on to the division lead remains to be seen. Although it seems unlikely, their vast improvement and improvements in the Tampa Bay and Toronto clubs, it seems unlikely that the wild card team will come from the AL East.


Dontrelle Willis showed he was human tonight. He won his third start in a row and still has a perfect 0.00 ERA, but he did go 0-3 batting to fall all the way down to .667 for his batting average. What a fantastic story. The fans in Florida really have exciting players to root for don't they?

There has been an ongoing crime in Major League Baseball. The crime has been perpetuated for two years now and is a major black eye on the game. The Fan isn't talking about the steroid controversy. The subject is the "Montreal" Expos.

The Expos had a heroic season last year. Imagine being a major league player and half of your "home" games are played in Puerto Rico in a park that is not up to MLB standards. The Expos played the other half of their "home" games in front of a few thousand "fans" in Montreal. Home games usually mean a chance to be with family and familiar surroundings. Not only do the Expos not have a home, both their pseudo-homes are outside of the continental United States.

This travesty has been allowed by an ineffective commissioner whose own team is under financial scrutiny and by the other owners in baseball who know they could squash the team if they snuck up on the division leaders like they did for a while last year.

This year, the Expos have started the season 2-11 and who can blame them? Can you blame Frank Robinson? They lost their best player in Vladimir Guerrero. They lost their best pitcher to the Yankees. Next year, they will lose Jose Vidro, one of the best infielders in the game.

You could blame the 2-11 start on losing Carl Everett and much anticipated Nick Johnson (lower back strain). You could blame their offense which boasts a .250 hitter as their top average this season. You could even blame the manager. But you would be amiss not to add the two year road trip the Expos have found themselves on.

This shouldn't have happened. There is no reason that a buyer couldn't have been found. There is no reason why the team couldn't have been folded. There could have been a number of solutions but there won't be a solution until at least next year.

The Expos exodus is a crime that is one of the darkest stories in baseball's long history.

What a great day in baseball. What a great day to prove that anything can happen in this game of baseball:
- Both Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa homered twice and were on the losing side.
- Both Philadelphia and San Diego won with walk off homeruns in come from behind victories.
- Atlanda finished their sweep of the Marlins on a ordinary fly ball that phenom, Miguel Cabrera, lost in the sun.
- The Yankees finally showed some life in their win over the Red Sox after two straight losses.
- Roger Clemens won his third straight start in continuing convincing fashion.

In the San Franciso game, Bonds' two homers were offset by the Dodgers' newcomer, Milton Bradley, who hit two himself. Bradley, who wore out his welcome in Cleveland, has been just what the formerly punchless Dodgers needed. The Dodgers are now in first place and Bradley gives them the kind of pop they desperately needed. Even so, Bonds is just unbelievable.

The Phillies did what they were supposed to do against the unexpectedly hapless Expos. The Expos don't look like they can win another game this season. They had the Phillies in this game until Jim Thome tied the game with a monster shot and then Glanville put the game away with a walk off homer. Billy Wagner hot the win in relief. Can someone tell me again why the Astros traded Wagner?

In San Diego, the highlights showed Ryan Klesko taking a defensive swing and slapping the ball just over the fence the opposite way. Excuse me, but that looks pretty good in the box score just the same. The Padres are holding their own and look solid this year.

The Braves showed the Fan and the world that they are not quite dead yet as they swept the Marlins just as it appeared the Marlins were going to run away with the division. The Braves did lose Chipper Jones to a severe hamstring injury, but had enough to finish out the sweep with the Marlins thanks directly to the lost fly ball. Cabrera doesn't wear sunglasses in the outfield and he certainly needed them to avoid losing the game for his team on his birthday.

Brad Penny pitched another great game for the Marlins but Mike Hampton matched him. Both team's bullpens pitched very well. Matt Perisho of the Marlins was the unfortunate victim of what should have been the last out of the inning.

The Cubs game was the second 11-10 game the Cubs have played in the last three days. They won the first one and lost the one today. Sosa did hit two homers to become the Cubs all time homer hitter. Moises Alou also hit his fifth homer in the last five games. Unfortunately, Greg Maddux pitched his third poor outing. Adam Dunn had two homers for the Reds as there were seven total homers hit in the game.

The Cubs have to be concerned about Maddux and he has not been his Hall of Fame self. The Fan has never been a fan of Maddux, but it is still uncomfortable when a future Hall of Famer can't seem to get anyone out. The pitcher's ERA is now almost nine runs per nine innings. Is this the end for the mighty Maddux?

The Yankees finally showed some life against the Red Sox as they used the opposite field for several of their hits to knock out starter, Derek Lowe. A-Rod really looks like he is pressing and almost looks like Soriano looked in last year's post-season. Soriano has started more like A-Rod in his early games in Texas.

The Yankees improved relief pitching won the game for them. The Red Sox had Yankee starter, Jose Contreras, on the ropes in the third inning and looked like they were going to climb back in the game after the Yankees had taken a 7-1 lead. Paul Quantrill, Gabe White, Tom Gordan and Mariano Rivera shut the door from there on out and the Yankees eventually won 7-3.

The Yankees starting pitching is struggling with the exception of Kevin Brown. It is also clear after watching the game, that the Yankees need a second baseman. Enrique Wilson is a good defensive replacement, but there is no way he is a starter in this league. He is very nearly an automatic out even if he got a hit and an RBI today.

One other item from the Yankee/Red Sox game. At one important juncture of the game, David Ortiz was at bat with men on base. Home plate umpire, Larry Young, made a questionable strike call and it looked like he looked back and said something. Larry Young immediately got in the big first baseman's face in a very aggressive manner. It was the kind of performance by an umpire that has disgraced the game for the past decade or more.

Since when should an umpire be aggressive in his approach to the players? How can MLB fine the players when they get in the umpire's face, but do nothing when an umpire acts so aggressively and gets in a player's face? From my view, Larry Young was way out of line, but in today's game, that is nothing new.

And finally, Roger Clemens did it again. He pitched another seven strong innings (he averaged six innings a game for the Yankees) as he struck out seven and gave up only four hits. In Clemens' three starts, he's given up just two runs for an ERA of 0.87. Can a 41 year old, formerly retired pitcher win the Cy Young Award? If it was held today, he's win. Clemens also had a hit and an RBI.