It's a typical day in paradise. We had a sunny morning and I alternated with swimming in the pool to reading the Florida papers about the Marlins' latest five inning win.

The rain shortened win is another example of the trouble with Florida baseball. To really make MLB viable down here, you will need to have a domed stadium. You can't ask the fans to shoot dice to determine if they will get wet watching the game or whether they will get to watch a game at all.

In any case, the Marlins won again and so did Willis, the young pitcher from the Fan's post yesterday. He really seems like the real deal and is now 7-1.

After I was done reading the paper and the boxscores, I was able to turn to my other reading. Vacations have always been a time for me to catch up on reading, one of the true pleasures in life. My days at the Jersey shore in the summer were always times to read and I have a fairly ecclectic selection of tastes. Even then I would read anything from Tolkien to Mickey Spillane.

And there was always a sports book thrown in that mix. I liked biographies especially which earlier in my life were of the heroic variety. Books about Connie Mack or Lou Gehrig were typical. Later, the books got grittier and more gossip-like. "Ball Four" of course, was the big breakthrough of that ilk. Bouton's book captured my imagination when I was in junior high and gave me a new appreciation for baseball players.

The funny thing was that he was vilified because it was thought that his honest look at baseball and its players would eat away at the reverence fans had for players. But that wasn't the case for me and Mantle was my idol too. Bouton's book actually made Mantle more appealing and approachable as an idol.

One funny memory of that book was a execration that impressed my juvenile mind as the coolest I'd ever heard. If you've read the book, Bouton had a manager who often said, "horseshit." I remember trying to find the right circumstance to use what I had learned.

The occasion came later at a junior high basketball game I attended and watched with interest. One of the refs in the game made a call I totally disagreed with and I shouted my newly learned swear phrase at the top of my lungs. I was unnerved when all action stopped and the entire population in the gym were staring at me. I quickly learned that the results weren't as cool as I had hoped.

Another great read was the series of books written by Ron Luciano, the clownish umpire. Luciano's books were hilarious and if you can find copies on Ebay or someplace, I recommend them highly.

So far, on this trip, I have read a book by Mike Shannon called "Tales From The BallPark." At first I had thought that Shannon was the same one who played for the Cardinals back in the 60's and 70's. Shannon was one of my favorite Stratomatic players of that time. "Tales" is somewhat entertaining as Shannon gives 225 pages of one page snippets of true things that happened in MLB. I was somewhat disappointed by the books lack of depth but it was an okay read.

Now I am reading a very engaging history of ESPN written by Michael Freeman. A rags to riches story, ESPN is not without its blemishes, particularly sexual harrassment, throughout its fascinating history.

Of course, that kind of thing needs to be examined so that it doesn't repeat itself but the book also fairly represents ESPN's affect on American sports culture. Sports fans never had it so good.

The book mentions Fox Sports as being an able rival and Keith Olbermann as being the best reporter there is (a form ESPN star). That's crap as nearly all of the ESPN achors are more entertaining and more likeable. I'll never switch.

I'll be very interested to read about Chris Berman as he's always been my favorite. I wonder what dirt we'll learn about him! It won't matter of course, which goes back to the point made during my discussion of Bouton's book. He's still great and you know what? I'm not perfect either.

See you down by the pool.

The Flagrant Fan is in sunny Florida. I don't know why I do everything the opposite of everyone else. I go to Florida in the summer and freeze to death in Maine in the winter. Strange. To top it off, I'm at my mom's place for a week and she's 76 with an old Gateway with Windows 95 and a dialup modem. I feel like I've gone back twenty years. It's funny how spoiled we get.

The big news in Florida is the debut of Miguel Cabrera, the Marlins' 20 year old phenom whose first hit was a walk off homerun against the Devil Rays last night. Granted, he was only 1 for 5 on the night, but still, what a way to start your career.

Cabrera is the Marlins' best prospect and was hitting .365 in the minors. He is also a third baseman which leads all the Florida papers down here to speculate that Cabrera will take over for Mike Lowell when Lowell is traded. Cabrera played left field last night and played it flawlessly.

I would hate to see Lowell traded. He is the franchise player and it would be similar to Kansas City trading Mike Sweeney. Both are fan favorites and in cities struggling to recover their fan base, it seems stupid to trade them away.

The Marlins have already done that once when they traded Jeff Conine to Baltimore. Conine was a fixture down here and a big fan favorite. He has proved to be the same in Baltimore. It hurts a franchise beyond repair when such moves are made for the money element. It says to the fans that the owners don't care about the fans and who they like to root for.

Lowell has been an inspirational story from the beginning with his testicular cancer and the battle he won just playing in the major leagues. Now he is a star with 21 homers and 60 RBI. The Marlins should keep him and continue to play Cabrera in Left.

The other big story down here is Dontrelle Willis, their rookie Vida Blue-like pitcher. Willis is now 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA along with 51 strikeouts in 51 plus innings.

The Vida Blue comparison comes from the fact that the throws from the left side and has the same high leg kick that Blue was famous for. In a nice story, Blue, who works for Giants, said he's like to meet Willis and Willis is very excited about that prospect.

Willis seems to be a great kid and also seems to have a great future ahead of him.

That's all from Florida. I have to...umm...go swim in a pool now. What a bummer huh?

Baseball fights are fun. There I said it and I admit it. As much as we admire Star Trek, we haven't yet become as civilized as we'd like to think. We gawk at accidents. We watch hockey hoping the gloves will come off. We shout when a big hit happens in football. And yes, we are very interested when baseball players fight. This time the fight involved two pitchers. Now that is very cool. Don't let the little leaguers hear that, but pitchers fighting is almost as much fun as when Brent Favre starts mixing it up with a 320 pound defensive lineman.

In the Red second fight of the week (putting them high on the uncivilized-yet-fun list), pitcher Paul Wilson was trying to bunt. Kyle Farnsworth, who throws 200 MPH, threw his fastball up around Wilson's chest. Wilson apparently didn't like that because he whirled around and shouted at Farnsworth. Farnsworth, who must not like hearing that his mother wears army boots, actually rushed towards home to take on Wilson. Wilson took up the gauntlet and threw his bat down and met Farnsworth a quarter of the way to the mound. That was his big mistake as Farnsworth piledrived him into the turf with his shoulder. Wilson was seen leaving the field with a busted up nose and blood spatter on his jersey.

Can you say, "Suspension"? The only question is whether the Red players who brawled in two games will all serve their suspensions together.


It's time to look at the Flagrant Fan's favorite boxscore players and their last seven days:
- Hank Blalock. It's not been a good week for Blalock as he hit .227 for the week with only one homer and two RBI. His average has dropped from the .350s down to .333.
- Mark Teixeira. Blalock's teammate hasn't done better as he hit .208 for the week with a homer and three RBI. Teixeira is now batting .234.
- Sean Burroughs. Jeff's son had a good week as he batted .321 with a couple of RBI. Burroughs' average for the year is up to .297 and though the power is not there yet, it will be.
- Rocco Baldelli. Rocco also didn't fare well this week as he only batted .250 with no homers or RBI. He did walk three times which in one week gave him a quarter of his yearly total. That stat makes you wonder if he has started listening to his critics who complain that he is too much of a free swinger. It's funny that no one has every criticized Vladimir Guerrero for that. Guerrero's OBP improved every year and Baldelli's will too. Just have fun, Rocco. It will be cool.
- Pat Burrell. Burrell, who is still down in the .209 range for the year (ugh!) is starting to hit a little. He batted .333 for the week though with no power. Personally, I think Abreu should bat third, Burrell in cleanup and Thome in the five slot. Then Burrell will get more fastballs.
- Turk Wendell. The crazy ex-Met didn't give up any runs this week and so his ERA is down to .076!
- Alfonso Soriano. Soriano has had a poor week, only hitting .194 for the week. But he did bloop the winning hit in the 12 inning, 1-0 win.
- Mike Lowell. Mike only hit .234 for the week for the Marlins. But he did hit three homers to lift is amazing yearly total to 21. He also had six RBI to raise his yearly total to 57.
- Ken Griffey. Junior sat out a game or two with soreness in his right shoulder but apppears to be fine. He did manage to get three hits in twelve at bats with two RBI.
- Adam Dunn is still doing the Dave Kingman thing as he is batted .150 for the week. But two of this three hits were homers so now he has 22 homers to go with his flashy .202 batting average.
- Larry Walker. I've always loved Walker and his personality. He's starting to hit now and batted .333 for the week with a homer and four RBI. He's up to .282 for the year.
- Shane Spencer. Spencer only batted six times but did get three hits to bat .500 for the week.
- Coco Crisp. My new favorite batted .238 for the week but is OBP wasn't too bad at .333. He did score four runs and stole two bases.

Some quick thoughts:
The infield of Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada are batting .249 and .221 respectively for the year and both were under .200 for the past week. There is no way the A's are going to make the playoffs this year unless the Red Sox and Toronto both fold.

Greg Maddux is still only 5-6 with a 4.44 ERA. That doesn't look very good for $14 million dollars.

Speaking of the Braves, in what seems like reality warping, Mike Hampton pitched his second great game in a row and Smoltz blew the save and lost the game!

There are two no-hitters in the works as the Fan writes this. Both Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood have no-hitters into the sixth innings of their respective games. The Yankees haven't scored yet for Clemens but Sammy Sosa has hit his first homer in more than a month to put Wood up by three runs. The last time I wrote that two no-hitters were underway, the Astros no-hit the Yankees. So we'll see what happens.


The National League AllStar Pitchers should be:
- Kevin Brown. A no doubter as he is 10-1 with a 1.97 ERA. The NL is only batting .209 against him and he has only given up 76 hits in 100+ innings.
- Hideo Nomo. His record is only 7-6 but he has a 2.66 ERA and has only given up 74 hits in 109 innings! He has already thrown two shutouts and if it weren't for walks, the guy would be nearly perfect this season.
- Woody Williams. While his teammate, Morris, has been hurt by the homerun, Williams has only given up 5 homers and has a 2.66 ERA along with his 8-2 record.
- Jason Schmidt. Schmidt's record with the Giants is only 5-3 despite his 13 starts. His record and the quick hook they have in San Francisco is the best argument for Clemens being one of the last to win 300 games. Schmidt has struck out 100 in his 91 innings.
- Mark Prior. Prior and Kerry Wood have been dominant at times but Wood just can't seem to get away from that .500 record he always has. Prior on the other hand is 8-2 with a 2.77 ERA. Prior has struck out 106 in 96+ innings.
- Randy Wolf. Wolf has only pitched 90 innings in his 14 starts as Larry Bowa also has a quick hook. But in his 90 innings, Wolf has only given up 64 hits as the competition is only hitting .198 against him (the best for starters in the NL). His ERA is a little high at 3.30, but he is 8-3 and you can't beat success.
- Shawn Chacon. Chacon has an ERA of 4.21, but consider that stat is from pitching in Coors Field in Denver. He is 9-3 and is having a great season.

For my setup men and closers, I'm going to break my own rule stated in my post concerning the AL pitching Allstars. Two setup men and two closers are so clearly having overpowering and unbelievable years, all of them deserve to go. The set up men are both from the same team:
- Octavio Dotel. 6-2 with 2 saves, a 1.59 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 39 plus innings show you how dominant he has been.
- Brad Lidge. Right behind Dotel (or right in front!), Astros teammate Lidge is 4-0 with a save and a 1.49 ERA. He has only given up seven earned runs in 42 innings.

The two best closers in baseball are so far in front of everyone else, you have to take both:
- Eric Gagne. Gagne is having the most unbelievable season by a reliever. The season rivals one that Goose Gossage had years ago. Just 15 hits given up in 37 innings, a WHIP of 0.64 and 67 strikeouts in 37 innings are surreal numbers. They look more like stratomatic numbers.
- John Smoltz doesn't strike out as many (though more than one an inning). He is one save behind Gagne and has an ERA of 0.72. That number may not even make sense to you. Let me put it another way: Smoltz has given up only three runs in 37.2 innings. Unbelievable.

If the American League is behind going into the seventh inning, the game is over.


Clemens gave up his first hit in the eigth inning so the no-hit bid is over. The game is still scoreless and it looks like Clemens won't get #301. Wood's no-hit bid in Chicago just ended in the seventh inning. He is still leading the Reds, 4 to 1.

John Olerud notched his 2000th hit tonight. The hit got some play at the baseball sites. It wasn't big news and Olerud's career won't be considered big news either. He had one "career" season in 1993 when he flirted with .400 for a large part of the year and ended up hitting .363 with 54 doubles, 24 homeruns and a .476 OBP. The rest of his career (except for 1998 when he hit .354) has been what people would call, "steady." There would be little mention of him as a potential Hall of Famer.

But Olerud is one of those unsung players. A few stats can't tell the full picture. Sure, he has a lifetime batting average of .299 and a remarkable lifetime OBP of .403. You have to put all of his stats together to get the picture that Olerud has always done one simple thing: He's always made his team better.

One way he's done that is with his fielding. He doesn't make the highlight shows with flashy diving stops (though he'll make a few). What he does is make all of his infielding teammates better. Back in his Toronto days, when they had Tony Fernandez at shortstop, Fernandez was the whiz kid and a sensation. Olerud helped make that happen. I know as I watched nearly all of those games. Fernandez never duplicated those days, though he was a good player.

Olerud then went to the Mets and the last year that he was there, the Mets set a major league record for the fewest errors. Olerud somehow gives his infielders confidence that whatever they throw over there, he'll find a way to catch. The biggest telling factor for those Mets is how badly their infield defense collapsed when Olerud went to Seattle and Zeile took over as Mets first baseman (no knock on Zeile).

Now he is with Seattle and it's not an accident that the Mariners are touted for their first class, high powered defense. What a surprise that the defense is anchored by John Olerud at first base.


I'll give you my National League AllStar pitchers tomorrow. You can already mark down that Kevin Brown is going to be on my list.

I just finished reading Peter Gammans column on ESPN.com. The man just flat out can write baseball. Every time I read his stuff, I wonder why I'm playing around with this. I play and he performs. The funny thing is now that he has been on Baseball Tonight for a few years, when I read his column, I read it in his voice! Peter Gammans reads his column to me personally. Pretty cool stuff.


I have poured over the MLB stats and have come up with my AllStar pitchers. First of all, let me say that I totally disagree with recent year selections where Torre and Cox (or whomever is the National League manager) select four or five closers. Closers pitch an inning. They can throw as hard as they need to because they only throw an inning. The AllStars should be those starters who pitch six to eight innings better than most of their rivals. Then pick one closer (the one with the hottest hand) and one setup man.

Okay, now that I have blown that off, here is my list of American League pitchers (how many can I pick anyway??):

- Estaban Loaiza. What a great start now that he's 9-2 with a 2.24 ERA. Only Mike Mussina has a better WHIP (walks+hits per innings pitched).
- Kyle Lohse. He has the second lowest ERA in the AL and the third best WHIP.
- Jamie Moyer. 40 years old and 10-3 with the league's third best ERA.
- Mike Mussina. He's been a bit streaky, but he is 9-4 and leads all AL starters with a .99 WHIP aided by his lack of walking people. One of only four AL starters with an ERA under 3.00. He leads AL pitchers in strikeouts.
- Barry Zito. Leads AL starters with the AL hitters only batting .198 against him. Only walks keep his ERA and WHIP up a little and that might be more a result of umpires giving up on the curve more than any other reason.
- Tim Hudson. Zito's teammate is right behind him in most pitching stats. Okay...one more starter...
- Gil Meche. Meche would have made it with his 9-3 record but outpitching Greg Maddux and beating the Braves lands him on MY team!

We need a closer...and my winner is?
- Eddie Guardado. Surprise! But he shouldn't be. He leads the AL in saves, has a WHIP of an incredible 0.94 and has only walked four batters in 28 innings! Supurb.

My setup man is:
- Brendan Donnelly. The Anaheim Angel pitcher has been unbelievable and leads all relievers with a WHIP of 0.87. His ERA is 0.24 and he has struck out 41 batters in 34.2 innings! The league is batting a rediculous .153 against him.

And my emotional pick would be Roger Clemens. He isn't far from deserving it. The forty year old has struck out 97 batters in 89 innings. He has only pitched poorly in 2 of his 14 starts and his 3.73 ERA is greatly inflated by relief pitchers bringing in Clemens' inherited baserunners.

That's my American League pitching staff. I'll go through the National League tomorrow.

I've already decided that I made one AllStar vote mistake but I think I've covered my bases (pun intended) pretty well on the rest of my selections.

Starting in the National League, I went with Richie Sexson of the Brewers as my first baseman. There really wasn't anyone else to select. Bagwell has too few RBI. Thome has good power numbers but is batting .248. Helton is having a good year but I can't justify anyone who plays half their year in Colorado. Sexson has 21 homers and 47 RBI. Great numbers.

Second base goes to Jeff Kent. He makes the Astros better and has the most RBI of anyone at his position. The only other contender (and I hope he makes the team) is Aaron Boone (the non-arrogant Boone) who is having a very good year.

My pick at shortstop has been one of the best fielders for many years. Now he knows how to hit too. His name? Edgar Renteria. Renteria is among the NL leaders in batting and leads his position in RBI. Alex Gonzalez of the Marlins and Rafael Furcal of the Braves are both having good years but they come short of Renteria.

Mike Lowell is my easy choice for third base. He is having a tremendous year and gets the nod over Scott Rolen who is has good numbers too.

The NL catcher should be Javey Lopez who is having a career year and seems all the way back from his dark last couple of years. His only competition is Lo Duca of the Dodgers.

The NL outfield seems pretty easy to pick this year as Sheffield of the Braves, Pujols of the Cardinals and Andruw Jones of the Braves stand out against the rest of the league's outfielders. If I could have chosen five outfielders, I would have chosen Bonds--who is coming on fast--and Austin Kearns.

The American League is a little closer at several positions and is where I made my one mistake (No I will not vote twice--even if they let you). My first basement in the AL has to be Carlos Delgado. He already has a bazillion RBI and lifted that team up to great things. He is also the first legit contender for the triple crown baseball has seen for a long time.

Nomar Garciaparra easily surpasses Alex Rodriguez of the Rangers this year. The stats are no comparison. The worth to their respective teams is enormous, but Nomar is having an MVP year. Today alone, Garciaparra hit three doubles and a triple. He then laid down a sacrifice bunt that set up the winning run. I haven't seen him play lately. Is he still trying to pull everything? His average has risen sharply since I wrote that observation weeks ago.

Oh yes, second base. A tough call here. I took Boone over Soriano because he has more RBI and is a better fielder. But Boone is better this year and Soriano had the better year last year. Boone's RBI this year are also helped by him batting third whereas Soriano has batted first all year (except for three games). Boone's a jerk too so that certainly entered my thoughts as I was voting. Well, I gave it to Boone this one last time. Soriano will be there for the rest of his career.

Third base was easy for me and I went with Hank Blalock. He is still among the leaders in batting, has a lot of RBI and it would be exciting to see him at the AllStar game. He is going to be a great player for a long time.

My mistake, I think, was in selecting Jorge Posada at catcher. He leads all catchers in RBI and is having a better defensive season and I believe him to be one of the best clutch hitters in the game. But the Twins A.J. Pierzynski is having a great year and easily beats Posada in average while only being five RBI behind Posada. He is also one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. My bad. I made the wrong choice here.

The outfield was difficult as more of the AL outfielders are bunched up. I ended up going with Manny Ramirez, Garrett Anderson and Vernon Wells. All three are solid picks and all of their stats are right up there with everyone else's.

Edgar Martinez is the easy pick for the DH, though it's weird that the AL gets this pick while the NL does not.

So there you have it: The Flagrant Fan's AllStars. I'll pick my AllStar pitchers tomorrow.

Much to my relief, amazement and joy, Roger Clemens finally won his 300th game (along with obtaining his 4000th strikeout) in grand style by striking out ten hitters against a great hitting team and holding the Cardinals to two runs. The relief pitchers did their job as did the Yankee hitters and it's finally over. Congratulations Roger. I know it was your personal victory and was an accomplishment performed from your hard work over the years. But it was my victory too as I have watched at least two hundred of those victories. You are one of the best ever and I am honored that I was able to watch you.

My prediction is that now that this milestone is finally met, the Yankees will go on a tear and today brought that out as they mauled the Cardinals' best pitcher and exploded for thirteen runs. Giambi is officially hot and is up to 17 homers and 46 RBI. Matsui is hot as well and is up to 44 RBI. Sierra has produced in his few games and Andy Petitte threw well today. Look out American League, the Yanks are past walking the tightrope and will be stridently walking your way soon.


In two of the best matchups in this interleague weekend, the Braves and Mariners have split two games in what is the battle of this year's two best teams. And the Cubs and Blue Jays have split two games as two of the better teams in the majors squared off. Mark Prior won again today and has looked really sharp his last two games.

Carlos Delgado and Adam Dunn both hit their MLB leading 22nd homers tonight. Dunn was involved in a major brawl last night against the Phillies after getting brushed back twice. It seems that the Phillies weren't too happy that Dunn crashed into Philly catcher, Mike Lieberthal with the Reds winning the game at the time 10-0. I understand that to degree, but as Tim McGarver aptly pointed out recently, these days, a 10-0 lead isn't safe and you have to score all the runs you can. Dunn is a football mentality anyway and a big man. I'm sure he was just playing hard. To his credit, Lieberthal didn't think it was a bad play on Dunn's part. I'm sure you will see lots of suspensions from that game.


It was quite ironic last night. I wanted to record my feelings for the Clemens milestone and was looking forward to writing my post. But I changed the hub on my network yesterday and couldn't get the network to recognize the cable from Road Runner. Finally, I went to bed giving up on it for the night. My wife got it working while I was sleeping. How is that for a good woman huh?


The Red Sox just came back to tie the Astros 2-2 in another great interleague matchup. The Red Sox are amazing in that they never give up and their hitters just expect to pull the games out at the end. You don't beat the Red Sox, they just run out of outs. Ramirez and Garciaparra are both up to .325


The Dodgers have won five straight and are now just two and a half games behind the Giants in the NL West. Ashby even won a game for them. They have great pitching and the league's best closer. I had thought for a while that the Giants were going to run away with it, but I no longer believe that.


It's a real shame that the Cubs have lost Sammy Sosa for seven games right after his coming back from injury. June has always been Sosa's get hot month and the season is getting to be a wash for him. His Pepsi commercial buddy, Junior Griffey, continues to pound the ball since his return which makes this fan a very happy guy.


I just filled out my AllStar ballot. I'll fill you in tomorrow!

Joe Torre must have given a good speech last night because the Yankees came from behind and won tonight for the first time all year. In a spectacularly poor statistic, they were 0-20 in games where they were behind after the sixth inning. That doesn't show a lot of fire and vinegar. But tonight was different and the same pitchers who made them look terrible last night in that six pitcher no hitter were spanked for the loss and blown save tonight.

Across town, the Mets fired General Manager Steve Phillips a half a year after they fired Bobby Valentine. It's hard to know how much blame to assign to a GM when a team fails. He just couldn't seem to catch these older players correctly. Robbie Alomar seemed like the best second baseman that ever lived until he became a Met. Now he doesn't seem any better than Horace Clarke. Jeremy Burnitz hit dozens of homers for the lowly Brewers and was one of the league's premier power hitters until he became a Met. Last year, he looked like Rich Gedman after he got all fouled up by the Charlie Lau swing.

It's hard to know which side of the career Tom Glavine was on. Was there a reason why Atlanta let him walk? Did they know something Phillips didn't? The statistics don't show any slippage in Glavine's performance from 2001 to 2002. He was typically great. Who would figure that this year he would be injured so often and so ineffective because of it.

It was easy to see that Piazza was slipping year to year. Every year his stats came down bit by bit. He will rank, if he moves to first or elsewhere, as the best hitting catcher ever. But his best years are gone. That wasn't Phillips fault. Mo Vaughan was his fault. Mo had slowed down by the time he hit Anaheim and then lost a year to injury. It is much easier for pitchers to miss that much time than it is for hitters. Mo was short for Molasses and that's how slow his swing was with the Mets.

The Mets just seemed off the last couple of years and every thing they tried just seemed to fall apart on them. I guess you can blame the GM or the manager before him. But I guess my blame would fall with the players. But I guess you can't fire a whole team.

Two no-hitters are underway tonight. The Yankees have been no-hit through six by four different Astros pitchers. Oswalt started, but had to leave early with a leg injury. A few years ago, the major leagues reconsidered what was a no-hitter and combined and short inning no hitters no longer count. I don't agree with that at all. Whether it's a team that does it or just one pitcher, a no hitter is a no hitter.

In the San Francisco/Chicago White Sox game, terrific rookie pitcher, Jesse Foppert, has no hit the White Sox through four innings while striking out six. Whether the no hitter stands or not, the White Sox are moribund and I believe that the Sox need to make a change at manager. He's had a long tenure there and things are getting worse instead of better. The players don't seem to have any fire and that is the manager's responsibility.

Coco Crisp has had a tough start for the Indians as he's gone 1 for 9 in his first two games. Mets rookie, Jose Reyas, went 2 for 4 in his first MLB game. He's 0 for 1 so far tonight.

Oops. The White Sox got a hit on Foppert, but only one and the Giants are up 8-0. Bonds hit another homer and is starting to catch fire. His is up to 17 homers and 39 RBI. Don't count out another 50 homer season.

Pedro Martinez pitched three innings of shutout ball in his first outing back from his injury. John Burkett has pitched very well in relief and that is a good sign for the Red Sox as they are up big over the Cardinals.

One of my favorite players in all of baseball went on the disabled list today. I've watched Ellis Burks since he broke in with the Red Sox as a hard swinging centerfielder. He could hit, throw, run and has been a solid player for a long time. I always thought his knees would end his career, but his career threatening injury is to his elbow as a pinched nerve is causing the muscles in his hand to atrophy.

Burks has 351 career homers and over 1200 runs scored and RBI during stints in Boston, Colorado, San Francisco and now Cleveland. He always seemed like a class act and his "act" was real as he has been credited with great leadership skills everywhere he has gone. The Fan knows he's been around a long time when players reach the end of their career and the Fan remembers the beginning. Age isn't any fun.

Burks was replaced on the Indian's roster with one of the great names in baseball history: Coco Crisp. Coco is currently 0 for 4 in his first game up. It looks like I have a new player to keep track of in the box scores!

Well...part of me feels vindicated and part of me feels badly tonight. Juan Acevado was released by the Yankees just three days after blowing Clemens bid for 300. The very next day, his throwing error gave the Cubs some extra runs that decided the game in the end. I feel bad because I hoped he would be released and now he is. It's not as bad as wishing someone dead, but it's close. I'm sure he'll end up somewhere and resume his career.

The Mets brought up their next great player (supposedly) tonight in the person of Jose Reyas. He'll play shortstop for two weeks while Ray Sanchez heals. He batted last in the Mets/Rangers game tonight and singled in his first major league at bat. How cool is that! Way to go, Jose, and welcome to MLB!

It's another one of those blah Monday's when virtually all of MLB has the night off. The only game scheduled is a late game between the Phillies and the Angels. The Phillies beat Oakland in two games of their double-header yesterday while the Seattle Mariners won both games of their double-header against the Mets. That's a four game swing in the standings and seems to state rather convincingly that Seattle is going wire to wire in the AL West.

Interleague play is where the Athletics have started their runs in recent years. Their great pitching led them to the best interleague record in the majors. But they are only 5-5 in their last ten interleague games while Seattle has had a 9-1 run. In fact, Seattle is one of only two teams in the entire American League that has a winning record in the last ten games of interleague play. The Angels are the other at 7-3. Oakland is now a half a game behind the Yankees for the wildcard as well.

I don't know if it is a sign of parity or just plain mediocrity, but nobody in the American League East or Central had a better than .500 record. It's like all the teams are just spinning around in some kind of crazy orbit waiting for something to break out.

The top division during interleague play has been the National League Central. Four teams (including Milwaukee!) are above .500 in the last ten games and the Astros are as hot as the Mariners with a 9-1 run. It's funny how the Astros look great and then terrible...then great...then terrible. I guess it's the old cliche' where they will be as good as their pitching takes them. Since they have a potentially great starting staff and arguably the best bullpen, pitching could take them a long way. The NL Central race is going to be a good one to watch all year, especially if Sammy Sosa ever gets going.

Speaking of the NL Central, I don't know if the Yankees are just that bad now, but the Cubs look really tough. Their pitchers aren't afraid of anything and they can bring it game after game after game.

Okay, I've been avoiding this topic, but a true fan has to admit that the Atlanta Braves are one amazing franchise. How in the world do you dismantle the best bullpen in the league from last year, ignore signing Glavine and Millwood and still end up tied for the best record in MLB? Every year us Braves haters wait like buzzards for them to fall as all empires must but they don't and won't. They even won the battle of the cable teams. In the early days of cable, you could watch every Braves game on TBS, every Cubs game on WGN and every Mets game on WOR. The Braves are the only one left. They are an amazing organization and as a fan, you have to give it to them.

It's time for me to look at my favorite players to check on a daily basis:
- Sean Burroughs of the Padres is hitting .409 in his last seven days and is now up to .293 for the season. Not much for power, but that will come in time.
- (sigh) Pat Burrell is still stuck in a terrible slump and only hit .176 for the week which leaves his season average below the Mendoza line at .199. Ugh!
- (more sighs) Shane Spencer has wore out his attempt to start in Cleveland and only played in two games the last seven days and went 1 for 8. His season average is down to .226.
- Ken Griffey hit .308 the last week and has his average up to .277. His Slugging percentage is up over .600 and his OPS is over 1.000! Yeah!
- Adam Dunn is beginning to look a lot like Dave Kingman with 20 homers for the season and a .211 batting average.
- Rocco Baldelli only hit .263 for the week which brought him down to .329 for the year. But he still has 80 hits already!
- The Devil Rays' other phenem, Jason Tyner, hit .500 for the week and is hitting .394 in limited action.
- My man, Hank Blalock chugs along, hitting .360 for the week with 7 more RBI (40 total) and is hitting .353 for the year.
- His young teammate, Mark Teixeira, hit .294 for the week and is up to .244.

Don't ask me why I am so interested in those players above. I don't know other than that some were old favorites and some just captured my imagination along the way.

Ugh! Road Runner went down last night for one of the few times in years of my memory. My apologies as I was unable to post. I'll see you folks tonight.

The Flagrant Fan is as flagrantly angry with a manager as he was with John McNamara back in 1986 when he single-handedly lost the Red Sox the World Series. As soon as I saw Joe Torre walking toward the mound in today's seventh inning game, I started screaming at my TV: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!" Talk about the dumbest move in the history of managing.

First of all, if Clemens cannot lose with the baserunners on base, that's fine, take him out IF he is gassed. But when the winning run is on base, at least give the guy a chance to win or lose his own damn game. Clemens had only thrown 84 pitches and had at least 30 more in him. Secondly, there is nobody in the Yankee bullpen who has as good or better stuff than Clemens. So who has the best chance of getting out of the inning other than Clemens? Next, Klesko looked stupid striking out against Clemens a few innings earlier. And the kicker was to bring in Juan ("Gasoline") Acevado.

I said to my wife as I was screaming at the TV: "You watch, the first pitch from this lousy pitcher and the game will be over." Sure enough, BOOM! Game over. Clemens gets the loss. Torre looks sad and glum. My fury is working up again as I write this. You over-managed Joe. You should have sat on your ass and let Clemens lose or win his own game. Stupid. Really, really stupid.

This Acevado guy has to go. He has an ERA of 7.99. The Yankees are struggling along at reliever and they finally made a move...they picked up a hitter with a long swing, Ruben Sierra. Well, he has a good arm. Maybe he can pitch.

What makes me so sick about this lost chance at a milestone is turning the computer on and having Explorer start on Yahoo (I'm old-fashioned) and the headline there reads, "Clemens Loses Bid for 300. I got news for you copywriters, that should read, "Torre and Acevado lose Clemens 300 bid."

Stupid.

The hammer came down on Sammy Sosa today as he was given an eight game suspension for his corked bat. All of his other bats were scanned and no cork was found which tends to lead credence to his statements that he grabbed the wrong bat. One of my colleagues at work mentioned that his bats in the Hall of Fame were also checked. I haven't seen confirmation of that but I would agree with my colleague who had a great thought: Why don't they check all of the bats in the Hall of Fame. Wouldn't that be an uproar if they found a tampered bat in the Hall of Fame! That almost seems as much fun as raising Jesse James' grave to see if it's really him.

I was looking at box scores tonight and saw that Toronto was pouncing on the Reds and the box score brought a couple of thoughts to mind. One was looking at Delgado with 64 RBI (in June!!) and Vernon Wells with 58. Those are amazing numbers. Delgado just didn't seem himself the last couple of years, but he's back in a mighty way and is a legit Triple Crown candidate. Wells came out of no where last year with a hundred RBI and it looks like it was not a fluke.

The boxscore also showed Adam Dunn for the Reds having a 2-2 night with a walk and a homerun. I checked below the boxes and saw that he now has 18 homers and 44 RBI and my first thought was: "Why would a guy with 18 homers and 44 RBI be leading off?" And then I remembered that those were the same numbers as Soriano. It's a weird time in baseball as shortstops are the best hitters on many teams and sluggers lead off.

Some MLB team should sign me up, don't you think? I told you that Matsui needed to get his hands back to start hitting. According to the broadcast last night, Jorge Posada told him just that and he got four hits last night.

Well...It's attempt number three for Roger Clemens on Saturday. I really hope he gets it. I really really really hope he gets it.

Seattle finally lost today to the Mets (of all people). I never thought they were going to lose again. They are going to run away with that division I think. The Braves are running away with theirs . The Red Sox are tied with Oakland for the wildcard race. Believe it or not, the Expos would be the wildcard if the year ended tonight.

The Mets, as stated earlier, beat Seattle 3-2. Jae Weong Seo started and won for the Mets. That gives him eleven quality starts out of eleven. Eleven quality starts and his record is only 3-2. He could easily be 11-0 and a candidate for the All-Star team. Cliff Floyd hit his 11th homer for the Mets and is finally having a good year again.

On the other side of that fence is Pat Burrell of the Phillies. Wow! What is going on there!? He mashed the ball last year but he's still hitting only .194 two months into the season. The Phillies and their fans gotta hope that Burrell snaps out of that soon. Giambi finally has as Jason is all the way up to the .230's now.

The Rangers Teixeira hit another homer today and has his average up to .247. I'm cheering! Hank Blalock is still above .350 and Tampa's Baldelli is still up to .336. This is fun isn't it? Oh! And another player I've been tracking is San Diego's Sean Burroughs who is now up to .291 with an OBP of .347. Burroughs, you might remember, was the number one draft pick a couple of years ago and got hurt last year after starting off the year batting .271. He had 52 hits when he got hurt. Yesterday, he was hit on the wrist with a pitch and is sitting out some games. Guess how many hits he has so far this year? That's right...52.

Good evening baseball fans. The Flagrant Fan takes Thursday nights off. Have a great night and I'll see you tomorrow.

The ESPN Wednesday Night Game was the Yankees and Reds and of course I watched and I again jinxed the Yankees. When I turned the television on, the Yanks were ahead 2-1 in the fourth inning. From that point on, of course, the Reds started pounding Mussina and the Yankees couldn't get another hit.

Anyway, on Wednesday nights, ESPN has begun a "legends" series where they bring back famous broadcasters to work the games. Curt Gowdy did the game last time (which I unfortunately missed) and tonight it was longtime Reds broadcaster, Marty Brennaman. First, it is odd and heartbreaking to a degree that he started 37 yearas ago and I was eight at the time so his career spans my life. I didn't express that well. What I mean is that these famous, longtime people started within my lifetime. Famous, longtime people used to start before my life started. I also note that I wasn't real impressed with Brennaman. But I did not grow up listening to him and I know the entire midwest lives and dies by the guy. It's probably a matter of style.

I will enjoy when they bring in Bob Uecker. I am not looking forward to Keith Jackson (I always considered him emotionless and therefore, non-entertaining). It's probably too bad that my favorite, Phil Rizzuto, is probably too old to do the broadcast. He was so much fun to listen to. I cherish those memories of him on Channel 11 in New York or on ABC radio on our transisters.

It looked like Griffey hurt himself again swinging the bat. I sure hope it's not serious. Man! He just got going again too.

I thought that Joe Morgan had a great observation about the Yankees Matsui not being able to hit a MLB fastball and the inside pitch. I have observed the same thing. What I wasn't aware of was Morgan's point that in Japan, they receive mostly breaking balls so he's never really dealt with live 90+ MPH fastballs. Ichiro adjusted easier because he can just slap at the pitch. Ichiro's stance also allows his swing to get through the hitting zone faster. Masui's hands are right in front of his chest and his bat is straight up and down. He needs to make a major league adjustment and bring his hands back and the bat more level to the ground. I am surprised that his hitting coach hasn't talked to him about that.

I am not going to comment further on the Sammy Sosa controversy. For one thing, it's all over the place now and what could I add to what's been written? To me, he said what he needed to say, he was contrite and apologetic. It's time to move on. It will be talked about until the next big story. But the talk about this tainting his career is rediculous. You still have to hit the ball to hit all those homers. Sheesh. I still said more than I intended.

Just one more strange note. Shea Hillenbrand had only seven walks with the Red Sox in 35 games. He as already walked twice in his first three games with his new team. Kim won for the Red Sox tonight so it looks like both teams are getting what they wanted.

The Yankees are playing like the Bad News Bears again as all of the Reds runs in the game are unearned. So far there have been two Soriano muffs that led to a run. There has been an overun of a base by Raul Mondesi that cost the Yankees a big inning. And just now, the Reds scored two runs and tied the game on two wild pitches and an error. Sheesh.

It is fun to watch the Reds though. The whole Cincinnati team seem like descendents of Goliath. Adam Dunn was on first next to Jason Giambi and Giambi isn't a small guy but he looked like a child next to Dunn. There is Dunn and Kearns and LaRue and Wily Mo Pena and on and on they come to the plate. It looks like an NFL softball team.

It is still easy to see how good Ken Griffey is. Remember when we played ball as kids and there was always one kid who stood out as being the best athlete. He walked different. He wasn't afraid of anything. He always seemed to be faster, hit the ball harder, throw the ball faster and do just about everything smoother and better than anyone else. It's clear that Griffey is the best player on the field. And right now, there seems to be no way to pitch to him. He hits the ball with authority wherever it's pitched.

Paul O'Neal, the former Yankee outfielder now lives in Cincinnati and was in the broadcast booth with the Yankee announcers. I was very surprised to hear how good he is at commentary and he seems to be a natural. As a player he always seemed to be so taciturn but in commentary he is loose and funny. The Yankees should sign him up!

I always check the Texas Rangers' boxscore now as they are such a fun team to follow. Juan Gonzalez hit his 18th homer and now has 40 RBI. Blalock is 1-3 and is still hitting in the .350's. Mark Teixeira is now up to .246 and tonight is 1-1 with two walks which means that he is very comfortable and knows what he is doing. He has 26 RBI. So much credit for how those two young players are doing has to go to their manager who has let them play despite the critics.

The big news of the night is that Sammy Sosa was thrown out of his game tonight for having a corked bat. This situation will get a lot of play and I'm sure Sosa will be suspended. Since Sosa is such an icon, his image will get tarnished a bit. But he is just another in a long line of players who have tried to get a little edge. There have been spit pitches and sandpaper on the pitching side and cork and other things on the hitting side. It wasn't long ago when Albert Belle (one of the best hitters of his time) was caught doing the same thing as Sammy. The difference is that Belle was already a hated player and considered a bad apple so this was one more nod of the head to his badness. But Sammy has been a symbol for what is right with the game and this will hurt him for sure.

I hope he learns from history and just admits what he's done and takes responsibility. How many times in our recent history have we been disappointed in the character of those we admired because they just couldn't admit they did something wrong. If Sosa does so and says that he just started doing so, perhaps most will just wink and give Sosa the pass. But if he's been doing this for a long time and if he gets defensive about what has happened, his good image is going to be tarnished for a long time and his records will be looked at with a blemished eye. Sad.

Does blogging take over your life or does the hope that you are writing for a semi-loyal following convince you to slog on (or is that blog on?) day after day writing post after post. Well, I'll tell you how important my few loyal readers are to me: I bought a laptop today to take with me on vacation so that I could continue to post while I was gone. It's all your fault!

Tonight is one of those nights that baseball fans hate. There are only three games on the schedule and even Baseball Tonight wouldn't be worth watching. I don't like the schedules as they are currently and prefer what was available a few years ago. While I agree that division rivals should play each other often, nineteen times or whatever it is, gets a bit daft. And I don't like interleague games at all (I'm beginning to sound like Grouchy Smurf).

The argument can be made that rivals in a division should not only play each other often, but they should play the same schedule. What I mean by that is that it's not really fair for one team to get to play Milwaukee in the interleague games while another team gets the Braves. What if those same teams are division rivals and one of those rivals loses the division by two games because their interleague schedule was harder.

But then again, schedules have never been equal and this debate is much older than I am. My reasons for disliking interleague play have to do with the two leagues playing a different game. Pitchers in the National League, who look bad enough, are now looking great in comparison to pitchers in the American League whom are now asked to swing the bat in a pansy-fashion and make fools of themselves. Plus, interleague play gives the feeling or impression of Spring Training games instead of MLB games.

And then how balanced is a balanced schedule when American League West teams only have to play division rivals 57 times instead of 76 because there are only four teams in that division and National League Central teams have to play 95 division rival games because that division has six teams instead of five. That hardly seems balanced to me.

All I know is that I'm glad I don't have to make the schedules because with all those teams and all those games and with all those days off mandated by contract and flight times and pack up and tear down and all that goes with MLB, I would be a crazy mess.

I must be a jinx. The Yankees were flying high at the top of the division with a record of 20-5 when I purchased the right from MLB.com to watch the Yankees every day (a great deal by the way). Ever since, they have played like the Tigers. So I'm watching the Red Sox today on NESN and they are winning big against hated Toronto (If the Yankees don't win this thing--and it doesn't look like they will--the last team I want in there is the Blue Jays!). Somehow, the Red Sox blow up and the Blue Jays get a million dinks and it's 8-6!

I hear that the Yankees have gone up 7-1 on the Tigers and I figure I'll go to the computer to watch history and it's the bottom of the fifth. The first batter gets a hit and some guy from Aruba hits his first homerun of the year. No big deal. Now it's only 7-3. Then another single. No problem. Suddenly the Bad News Bears show up and take over for the Yankee infield and Jeter throws one away and then Soriano throws one away and before I can get a clear picture, it's 7-6. Okay, that was bad, but they can still win. I can still watch history.

Ziele then hits an opposite field homerun and Clemens is again up by two. He pitches a perfect sixth inning and waves his hat to the fans. Oh boy, it's time for the Yankee bullpen. I can't bear to watch after all and go downstairs and practice my karaoke (Yes, I can sing, "New York, New York"). I sing for a couple of hours and figure it should be safe to go upstairs and finish watching history.

Somehow it's the bottom of the tenth inning and it's a tie game 8-8! Oh man! What happened. I switch over to Yahoo to look at the box score and sure enough, Sterling Hitchcock, who has pitched well backing Clemens up in other wins this season blew the lead. Crap. It's over. Another chance wasted and still we go on waiting for history. I cannot believe that a bunch of pros can't raise the level of their game and get this done. Errors in the field and relief pitchers blowing the game...sheesh...if the team can't take the pressure of this type of situation, what are they going to do if they make the playoffs. This isn't the same team without O'Neal and Tino and those guys. This is a team that has no real backbone. The Flagrant Fan is steaming!


Taking a deep breath...at least I'm not a Diamondback fan. They get Hildenbrand to bolster their hitting attack and instead of sticking him at first, they release Matt Williams? What? Williams is the kind of hitter that can get hot and put ten over the fence in a hurry. He was fourth on the team in RBI and now they lose that production. You get a player like Hildenbrand to bolster your offense and then you release a guy with 378 career homeruns and end up losing more ground. I don't get it.


The Red Sox moving Johnny Damon to ninth in the order is a good move. Mueller is hot and his batting average is higher than Damon's OBP! But I don't agree with the Sox demoting Bruce Chen and keeping Rudy Seanez. For one thing, it would have been great for Kim to have Chen around for companionship and second, you can never have too many left arms on your team.

The Red Sox post game show is on in the background and it's sad when a pretty good player struggles. Again it's the no mercy thing. The fans are calling in and blasting Grady Little (who was a genius last week) for using Jeremy Giambi when he is struggling at .178. But I watched the game and Giambi looks great but has been unlucky. His first time up, he put the Blue Jays centerfielder on the warning track with a drive. He just didn't pull it enough. In the Red Sox big inning when they hit five doubles, it should have been six doubles. Giambi smoked one down the line but hit the bad and went right to Delgado for the out. That's bad luck.