Sometimes managers out think themselves. Both managers in the Yankees/Red Sox game did so tonight in a game the Yankees were fortunate to win and the Red Sox were unfortunate to lose. Let's break down the two decisions.

First you have the top half of the ninth inning. Mike Mussina has pitched a heck of a game and is up 5-1. He's only thrown 102 pitches at this point. Okay. If you want to use your closer, Mariano Rivera, the time to bring him in is at the start of the inning. Who cares if it's a save situation! You want to win the game. These closers are a rare breed and I've watched hundreds of games pitched by closers. These guys are much more effective if they start the inning and nobody is on base. When you bring them in with base runners, you're asking for trouble.

Mussina, to his detriment, starts off the inning with a walk. Mussina never walks anyone. It was just one of those fluky things that should have had nothing to do with him being tired. The next batter gets a single and you now have first and second. The unspoken rule in baseball is that you only leave your starter in the game late until there is no way for him to lose. Mussina had two more base runners before he was in that situation. If you were going to start Mussina in the inning, you could have gone two more batters before you yanked him and then go with matchups (lefty-lefty).

Instead, Mussina gets yanked and Rivera comes into a situation that is uncomfortable for him and the inning blows up. The Yankees are very fortunate for the athletic ability of both Jeter (to snag a line drive and get an out) and Soriano who had the presence of mind to stop a ricochet with his bare hand and then throw the runner out at home to keep it a tie game. Now a 5-1 win is a 5-5 tie all because Torre out-thought himself.

Now it's Grady Little's turn. The Red Sox closer, Lyon, is still in the game and easily gets Jeter to start the inning on a ground out. The next batter is Matsui who lines one over Manny Ramirez' head. Manny, who is usually a good fielder, must have gotten turned around picking up the ball because he threw the ball in where nobody could catch it and Matsui ended up on third. The Yankees now have the winning run on third with one out and Soriano up next.

This is where Little out-thought himself. First, he walks Soriano. Good call. The man has been the Yankees best hitter and is very dangerous. Giambi has called himself the "designated out" most of this season and he's pretty much correct. He is slow and has pounded an awful lot of balls to second base. The play here is to keep the corners in and keep the middle going for the double play.

But Little walks Giambi too to load the bases! Gosh! That's asking an awful lot of your young closer. Why do that? I can see it on the one hand because Soriano can steal second and there goes your double play. But you can at least try it. What have you got to lose? Even if Soriano steals second, face Giambi, who hasn't hit anything, and see if you can get a popup or something. Then you have two outs and can play it straight for the third out.

Instead, you have bases loaded with a very patient batter at the plate who has been in pressure situations his whole career. The count goes 2-2 with a couple of fouls. There is a close fastball inside that is called ball three. The Red Sox thought that pitch cost them the game and the post game NESN announcers were outright indignant that the ump robbed the Sox. The pitch looked inside to me. But none of it matters. Grady Little should never have loaded the bases to force this issue and it never would have happened. In a comeback, exciting game, you should never put yourself in the position to lose the game with a walk.

Of course, the Red Sox Nation will curse their bad luck and bad umpiring and bad karma and the special treatment that the Yankees receive by the umpires but the truth here is that the Yankees almost blundered into a loss because of Torre's decisions and then lost because of Grady Little's decisions. The game sure is easy from the comfort of a rocking chair isn't it?

No mercy. That's what has struck me about the last couple of nights watching the Red Sox/Yankee series. Last night, there was no mercy for Roger Clemens going for his 300th win. Tonight, a pitcher named Matt White was making his major league debut for the Red Sox and the Yankees banged him around for six runs. No mercy. And I guess that's the way it should be.

I remember a long time ago when Denny McLain supposedly gave Mickey Mantle a grooved pitch to hit at the end of Mantle's career because McLain had always been a fan. Now this shows my weakness, but I thought it was a nice thing to do. But McLain got tarred and feathered by baseball writers and his peers at the time as there is no place for mercy in baseball.

The only way I have experienced that in my life was when I was bowling competitively. Oh man, I'm going to tarnish my image forever telling you that! Anyway, I was very good back in the 80's and had a 198 average and won most of the tournaments for a period of time in New Hampshire. Usually, whatever I'm playing, I'm happier to lose because that makes the other person happier and I like making people happy. But not in bowling. In bowling, it was about winning because winning meant money and I wanted it. I played mind games, I pyched my enemies out. I did all I could to stomp on the other person. So a part of me understands this no mercy concept.

But think of this poor Matt White's family. Their son/brother/wife/whatever is finally going to fulfil a lifelong dream and pitch in the major leagues. The time finally comes and he is from Massachusetts and NESN is carrying the game. They most certainly were all watching. The kid comes in the game and the whole family is whooping and hollering and as each hit gets pushed past the infield, their hearts are sinking a little more and a little more until by the end of the inning, they are all wondering to themselves just what they are going to say to the poor kid the next time they talk to him. No mercy in baseball. None at all.


Wow...Denny McLain. I haven't thought about him in a long time. Denny McLain, for those of you who were born in the post baby boomer era, is the major leagues last 30 game winner. You never hear about that do you? You heard about Roger Maris until McGwire came about. You heard about Ted Williams as the last .400 hitter. But you never heard about the last 30 game winner did you? You may wonder why you never heard about that. The answer is that McLain was the Darryl Strawberry of his time. He was the great talent that squandered it away and ended up in jail and broke...disgraced and dropped by baseball like hamburger from a mad cow.

Consider that for a five year period, McLain was one of the best pitchers of the last fifty years. From 1965 to 1969, McLain won 108 games and lost 51. In 1968, he was a big reason that the Tigers had one of their best years in franchise history as he won 31 games while only losing six. He pitched 336 innings and gave up just over 300 baserunners (walks plus hits). His ERA that season was 1.96. McLain won the Cy Young award and the MVP award that year. To me, the most amazing stat from those two years is that he started 82 games in those two years (wow!) and 51 of them were complete games!

The season following 1968, he won 24 games while only losing 9. Yes, that's a record of 55-15 in two years! He was that good. McLain was a good-ole boy who liked to have a good time. Those good times ended up catching up with him after the 1969 season. He was found to be associating with the wrong people and was suspended for a good chunk of time. It was a very big scandal at the time. Today it would have been a blip on the radar screen. But back then, it was big news.

He was never the same after that and became a parody of himself by losing 22 games for the Washington Senators in 1971 (that club that year is another great story that maybe I'll tell tomorrow). A year later he was out of baseball and it wasn't long after that and McLain was in jail. For a great history lesson (and life lesson), I recommend the following Web page: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/20030228armour.shtml

Denny McLain...no mercy. None needed.


Hold your head up, Matt White. There will be another chance. And if not, you still beat the odds.

Oh man. What a crappy day to be a Yankee fan. And I am, after all, a fan. Today I wanted Clemens to get his 300th probably as much as he wanted it. And little things happened to add to a big loss. Mondesi hitting the ball on the ground with the bases loaded and one out with the Yankees only down by two. Rivera not making a good throw to third when Marabelli ran to third on the hit and run. A good throw makes the third out and no runs for Clemens that inning. It all just sucked.

The worst part was having to watch the game on NESN. ESPN was carrying the game nationally, but since NESN reaches up to this area, and since NESN was carrying the game, ESPN was blacked out up here in Maine. Jerry Remy is one of NESN's announcers and a former Red Sox second baseman. Normally, I like his work and his acerbic wit. But he must have some sort of grudge towards Clemens because he took absolute glee in watching Clemens labor and lose. That made it doubly bad. Sure, you are a home announcer and want your home town team to win, but he should also have had more respect and acknowledged what Clemens had done for the Red Sox and what his career has accomplished. It was a very low-ball, uncouth and unprofessional broadcast.

Remember that I am also a Red Sox fan and have no problem with this being the Red Sox year. Hell, they deserve it to be their year. But I sure wanted Roger to get that 300th in style and against the team that he did so much for. Remy has no legs to stand on. Clemens didn't give up on the Red Sox. The Red Sox gave up on him.

NESN was promoting a contest where you could win a trip to the "Grand Old Parks of Baseball." If you won, you would be able to go to Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and...umm...Camden Yards. Huh? Since when is Camden Yards a great old park? But that does point out that there are no more grand old parks besides those three. I hope adding the extra seats to Fenway saves it for a few more years. Fenway Park is baseball at its best.

Oh well, Roger. I was living and dying for you there. Maybe next time...

I wasn't a fan of Bobby Valentine as a manager and I certainly wasn't in favor of him becoming part of Baseball Tonight (on ESPN) once he was fired as the Mets manager, but I have become a fan of his honesty and by what he says on the shows.

Maybe it's because I agree with him so often that I like him in an egotistical way which is ironic since part of the reason I never liked him was because of what I perceived was his big ego. But no matter, if you have the courage to tell it like it is, then I'm right there with you.

Tonight's honest tirade from Bobby Vee was his answer to the clips showing Greg Maddux and Curt Schilling upset about not getting strike calls. Valentine's answer was to say to both pitchers: "If you want strike calls, throw strikes just like rookie pitchers have to throw." I almost stood and cheered the man.

The strike zone in MLB has been a joke for a long time now and every fan who watches the games with today's centerfield cameras know it. For those who say there isn't a problem, just the fact that the powers that be in baseball are calling for a better strike zone standard speaks volumes that there is a problem. Those of you who know the Flagrant Fan knows that I am not a fan of the Atlanta Braves. In fact, you know that I am an anti-Braves fan. Glavine, Smoltz and Maddux have been great pitchers (the Fan says through his teeth) but part of their greatness has been to exploit the bizarre state of the major league strike zone.

Fans watched for years and years as pitches thrown five to ten inches outside were called strike routinely, especially for pitchers of high stature. No pitch above the belt was considered a strike. The inside strike did not exist. A couple of years ago, MLB acknowledged the problem and asked the umpires to call the strike zone as the rules state it to be. An effort has been made to call more high strikes and to stop giving the outside pitch such a wide zone.

Has it worked? Let us say that it's a start. The great curve ball pitchers of the last couple of years have been a benefit of the effort to get back to the rules. Pitchers like Glavine and Maddux that don't have the great fastballs and lived by guile and the generous outside strike zone have struggled as they should. Power pitchers have the high strikeout pitch back.

But it has to go further. The high and outside strike is now there, but the high and inside strike is still not called. Umpires are still too inconsistent and still revert back to calling pitchers outside the strike zone a strike late in the game. Far too many umpires give up on the curveball and are almost as fooled by them as the batters are. I still watch way too many games and shake my head at the strike zones of the umps behind the plate.

Valentine wasn't done tonight and strengthened his argument by stating that umpires in Japan practice during batting practice. What a simple and great idea. The umps not behind the plate that day could do that so that the one crouching all game doesn't have extra duty. Why not have baseball officials working with the umpires during the practice to work with them on their strike zones.

In my mind, NBA basketball has been ruined by a softening of the rules. Watching players take three and four steps--traveling at will while there is no such thing as a pivot foot or up and down just ruined the game so that it's not a sport anymore. It's a dunking circus. MLB of all games promotes tradition and history. Fine then. Don't go down the NBA route and call the game the way it is written to be called.

And I'll use harsher words than Bobby Valentine. Those pitchers who have lived by a bad strike zone for years should take it like men when the game reverts back to the way it should be called. Just shut up and pitch.

"Oh woe is me," says the Flagrant Fan. Another loss for the Yankees. Now they are a game an a half behind the Red Sox and they look terrible. I told you that the loss of Nick Johnson was going to be a major loss. Bernie Williams is an important loss too. The Yankee attack is woeful. Giambi is still stuck in goo. Matsui is down in the .250's. Jeter is doing okay since he got back and Soriano is still Soriano, but this club isn't working right now and it's hard to know if it's a temporary lag or if this is the shape of the season to come.

The Red Sox really seem to have a chip on their shoulder and their attitude could take them to the show just the same way that it did for the Angels. It's amazing how far this team has come spiritually since Grady Little took over as manager. He has a team full of scrappers and they have gotten rid of all the malcontents (no matter how good they are doing in Texas). Now, if Lowe can figure it out on the road and Fossum could steady out the rest of the season, this is a powerful and deep team.

Mueller and Todd Walker and Kevin Millar have been huge pickups for the Red Sox and eventually, Ortiz and Jeremy Giambi will hit as they have in their history. Who would you rather throw in a game to give a starter a day off, Kevin Millar or Enrique Wilson?

Eric Gagne has become an amazing closer. He, Wagner in Houston and Smoltz in Atlanta are the best in the National League and may be the best in baseball (along with Rivera). Gagne has saved 18 games already (tied with Smoltz) and has struck out 45 batters in 25 innings! The league is batting .120 against him and he is averaging .64 baserunners per inning. Those are fantastic numbers.

Smoltz, who also has 18 saves has an even better ERA than Gagne (1.05! vs 1.88) but other than ERA, Gagne has Smoltz in every other pitching category. And Gagne has better stats in every category than Billy Wagner, who is having a great season. Probably the most unbelievable stat so far for Gagne is that his strikeout to walk ratio is 9 to 1. Wow!

Gagne is from Montreal and his name is mispronounced wherever he goes. Announcers anglo his name to "Gag-knee" but in french, the name is closer to "Gone-yay." Montreal is about six hours from here and I can't imagine how any player from up there can make the major leagues. Heck, it doesn't warm up until after school is out!


Mike Lowell is having a monster year in Florida. While the team has struggled and Lowell will probably end up getting traded (which is terrible for that franchise), he already has fifteen homers and thirty-nine RBI. What makes those numbers look so good is that his average hasn't changed. He's still hitting his normal high .270. He has carried that offense along with Louis Castillo and Alex Gonzalez while Ivan Rodriguez hasn't really gotten started yet.

I hope Lowell doesn't get traded. Owners like to blame cities for not supporting their teams but what happens when the emotional link between the fans and the team is constantly broken when the team trades it's most identifiable players? Oakland will eventually pay for the same thing as they lost Giambi and now have already said they will lose Tejada. The Twins also went through years like that.

I'm a fan and I know what fans like. We like to pick a player we can identify with and root that player on loyally for a long time. I still remember when the Yankees traded Bobby Murcer and I never got over it. The Marlins want to do that every time they unload the latest good, but high priced player. They give their fans a punch on the kisser. No wonder the fans would rather go to the beach.

Lowell's fast power numbers could mean that he has fully recovered from his bout with cancer. It was unbelievable what he was able to do considering that he went through chemotherapy at the same time.

Good for you, Mike Lowell. The Flagrant Fan is rooting for you.

The National League East is far from over. I know that sounds like wishful thinking because you know how much I hate the Braves. But the Expos are playing fantastic and the Phillies really haven't started to hit yet.

The Expos pitching has been terrific. Javier Vazquez is leads the staff with a 4-2 record and he has been very dominating. Vazquez has avoided injury to this point and has struck out 75 in 62 innings! His strikeout to walk ratio is 7.5 to 1. That's amazing!

The Expos aren't hitting that great though Vlad and Vidro are tearing it up as usual.

Hmm...I'm sitting at my desk and I am falling asleep. I guess since I usually take Thursday off and since I wrote a blog last night, I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight and sweet dreams!

The following are the top six homerun hitters in the National League:

Adam Dunn - 17
Richie Sexton - 15
Mike Lowell - 14
Austin Kearns - 13
Albert Pujols - 13
Aaron Boone - 13

For the first time in many years, there isn't a Bonds, McGwire or Sosa in the group. Of course, Bonds could change that as he has twelve homers at the moment. But the point is that the guard is changing. Dunn, Sexton, Pujols and Kearns are among the top young hitters in the game. Boone is a surprise as is Lowell and those two would be a surprise to stay there.

The possibilities of the Cincinnati Reds outfield are amazing. Dunn, Kearns and Griffey is an unbelievable outfield and could be for years to come. Kearns looks like the best hitter of the three with Dunn the Dudley DoRight of the three. It's great to see Griffey ranging freely out in centerfield again. I still hope he has a great year.

And now with Aaron Boone having a great year, the Reds are suddenly in the middle of the NL Central race. That race has become really exciting as the Cubs are still in front by a game and a half and Houston, Cincinnati and St. Louis are all tied for second place. Each team has pros and cons. The Cubs have great pitching but an up and down lineup (especially without Sammy). Houston is having injury problems in their starting pitching, but have a great bullpen and hit well. The Reds can mash and play good defense but have trouble with pitching. The Cardinals are hitting really well but are having trouble with their pitching. This is a fun race worth watching.

If you want something really different, let's look at the top five in the National League in hits:

Rafael Furcal - 65
Edgar Rentaria - 61
Jimmy Rollins - 58
Juan Pierre - 58
Luis Castillo - 58

The only non-surprise on that list is Luis Castillo, who has shown glimpses of hitting production in the past (long hitting streaks, etc.). The big surprise is Rentaria who is batting .357 with 32 RBI a quarter of the way through the season. Furcal is finally playing to the potential that everyone predicted for him. Rollins' stat is misleading as he leads off for the Phillies but is batting only .293. His OBP is only .346 which is barely adequate for a leadoff hitter. Juan Pierre is similar to Rollins in that they both have burning speed but can't get on base enough to really qualify for the leadoff position.


It will be interesting to see what the Yankees do to get through Bernie Williams' four to six week injury. It would be great if Juan Rivera could get the shot to play every day for the Yankees like Almonte did at short when Jeter was out. The Yankees found out that Almonte has shortcomings that will not make him a major leaguer but Rivera looked good last year in a brief September call up. Most likely, the Yankees will make a trade for someone like Shannon Stewart.

Number 299 is in the book. It wasn't the prettiest win Roger Clemens has ever pitched. There aren't many times in Clemens' career where he has given up more hits than innings pitched (tonight 9 hits in six innings). But he hung in there and only gave up two runs and he did strike out seven in his six innings. He pitched damn well for a guy going against a very good...well...they're great...hitting team in the Red Sox.

I have watched Clemens for his entire career. I was in New Hampshire when he broke in with the Red Sox and watched the games on affiliates of Channel 38 out of Boston. I moved to Maine by the time he went to Toronto and was able to watch his games there on Canada's Channel 6 (CBC). And now, through the power of the Internet, I can watch him pitch for the Yankees. In all the times that I have ever watched him pitch, I have never once seen him look comfortable doing so.

I watch other great pitchers: Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, and they always look comfortable and in control. They look like pitchers that know what they are doing. Clemens fidgits and tugs at places and hitches and pulls at his uniform and sniffs and makes faces. He just has never looked like he enjoyed pitching or looked like he was in control. And yet, he is one of the best ever. Who knows, maybe it hasn't made the batters too comfortable to see him so uncomfortable.

One more win. Just one more and I think this will become a more balanced place to read about baseball. I'm wrapped up in this story and I can't let it go until Clemens' conclusion to his odyssey as a player is the same as mine as a fan.

I just finished watching American Idol on Fox. I know. I know. Some of you are going to roll your eyes. Some others are going to wonder what that has to do with a baseball blog. On American Idol, I just watched two guys who have dreamed since they were little kids of entertaining people and singing for a living. Now they've been through all the challenges and tonight, the audience is going to choose which one wins. And no matter how it comes out, their dreams have come true. That is what is so compelling about the show and the competition...people riding their talent as far as it will take them.

You're still wondering what that has to do with a baseball blog. If I am the typical American and in many ways I am, I grew up with baseball all around my me. I played it. I watched it. I traveled to Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium to watch it live. I played simulation games when I couldn't get baseball any other way. And you know what? I dreamed and wished that I had the talent to do what I loved more than anything else.

I'm no different than millions of others. That same exact wish and dream has touched countless people. And some 600+ of them at a time have that dream come true. As we watch them perform, we are aware of how they got there. We went through part of it ourselves. We might have seen some of them. They were the pitchers who were too fast for us to hit in Pony League. They were the ones who always seemed to have the big hit in the tournaments we played in. We identify with them. They have reached the dream that we had for most of our lives.

Oh sure some of them get really really successful and rise to the top like the A-Rods and the Jeters and Garciaparras and then they get the money that we'll never see in our lifetimes and we take pleasure in finding out their weaknesses and their follies. America likes to build up the dreamer and then knock them off the pedestal. But for those rookies...the new players who are just reaching their dreams, we root for them. It's always a sweet thing when a new player gets their first MLB base hit or win or save. We all smile and feel like a part of that story. We just witnessed the culmination of what we were a part of until we realized we weren't going to get there and got real jobs.

Yeah. American Idol has a lot in common with rookies in baseball. Sure, they have more talent than the ordinary joes among us. But they didn't out-dream us or out-wish us. They just reached a place that we wanted to go. And so we root for them and we cheer them on because they were once like us and we want what they are now receiving. A dream come true is always a compelling story whether it's Hank Blalock, Rocco Baldelli or Rueben Studdard and Clay Aiken. And we are cheering for you and for us.

You'll have to forgive the Flagrant Fan as this is holy week. The Yankees are playing the Red Sox and a MLB fan just has to watch a series like that. So this won't be the usual post tonight.

Two moments in the game stand out to me and make me wonder if I am smarter than those who manage and play or if I just get lucky with my guesses. That sounds egocentric but it's not really. Let me explain:

I'm watching the game and David Wells (who just throws strikes and gets more outs than he gives up hits) pitch against Nomar Garciaparra. It's getting late in the game and one more out for Wells will give the Yankee pen a perfect hold/save setup for the eigth and ninth innings. The first pitch is a great change up down and away and Nomar wasn't even close to hitting it. The second was a fastball up and in and it looked like Nomar guessed wrong. In my thinking, Nomar is set up perfectly for another down and away change up. Instead, Posada calls a curve and Wells delivers the pitch that Nomar seemed to be looking for and crushes a single to left. The curve was definitely the wrong call and it got Wells the hook.

A similar situation developed between the Red Sox reliever and Derek Jeter with the bases loaded. I can't remember the kid pitcher's name (Price?). Anyway, the kid throws Jeter 1-0 fastball that the umpire called a strike (it was definitely low and away). At 1-1, the kid throws a terrific slider that bends out of the strike zone and Jeter can't hold himself up. Now it's 1-2. A high fastball and Jeter fouls it off. I know from watching Jeter for years that with two strikes, he fights off inside and covers outside to right field. I would have busted Jeter inside and hard in that situation (especially with the just healed left wing). But Mirabelli, the Sox catcher, and the kid try another slider down and away and Jeter spanks it to right field.

The two sequences above really show how smart pitchers like Maddux and Pedro Martinez are. They always out think and out plan the batter. The only time they get beat is if the batter hits a terrific pitch or if Maddux or Martinez miss over the plate.


A look at the top hitters in the American League show Blalock at number one and Baldelli at number two. Both are still hitting over .350...which again goes to show why this is the greatest of all games and always the most entertaining. And Peter Gammons is still the best at entertaining in his baseball writing. Check out his latest columns on ESPN.com!

Game two tomorrow with Pedro on the mound. I'll concede that one to the Sox...

The Texas Rangers' pitching staff continued to look like the best in the game as the Rangers swept the Yankees at home. Ouch. Mr. Steinbrenner must be restless somewhere. In the meantime, the Red Sox won and are now tied for first as the two teams get ready for their big series. I mentioned here early that when Jeter came back, it could mess up what was a good fluid lineup and I also mentioned here that losing Nick Johnson would hurt the Yankees hitting attack tremendously.

You cannot overestimate the affect a high on base hitter has on a team. I still believe that Barry Bonds 198 walks were the number one reason why the Giants came in first last year. And the managers who kept walking him never got it. I think they have this year as he is ot walking nearly as much. That's why the Yankees miss Nick Johnson so much.

Jason Giambi needs to get going. His slow start is becoming very painful as it is not just the start anymore. I also think that Juan Acevado shouldn't pitch again until he is sent to the minors to figure out why he is throwing beach balls right now. Can you imagine if the Yankees still had Jeff Nelson?

In what was a lot of fun to watch tonight, Pat Burrell hit a long fly up the hill in the centerfield configuration of Minute Maid (formerly Enron) Park in Houston. Biggio was chasing it, hit the hill and crashed to the ground like a train wreck. Very funny to watch.

Speaking of that hill in Houston, the biggest difference in baseball from my youth to now is the change in MLB stadiums. You still have (and hopefully always will have) classics like Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. But the new parks are such a big improvement over the ones that were built when I was young. There was the non-golden era when the Pirates, the Reds and the Phillies all built horrible ball parks all with identical dimensions, astroturf and functional-boring decor. Then you had the awful Olympic Stadium built in Montreal and the hideous dome in Minneapolis. Just as we have a whole generation that can't write, spell or compose a sentence, that must have been a bad era for architects.

Since then we've had wonderfully different parks being built all over baseball. The ballpark in Houston is so distinctive that you can close your eyes and picture the hill in centerfield and the train track in left. Camdon Yarks started the trend and is still a beautiful example of what you should do in building a stadium. San Francisco's park is probably the best of them all with McCovey Cove and how you can walk around the park and watch the game.

Super Stadiums are all over the country: Cincinnati, Houston, Seattle, Milwaukee, Baltimore and Detroit are just a few that have been built with their own identity and quirks and that's great. The biggest change to an old park was the installation of seats to the Green Monster at Fenway. What a great idea! And it wasn't detrimental to the team or the stadium. I'd love to be one of those people who spent a summer visiting all the ballparks in baseball. What a cool idea and a great thing to do. Maybe someday...

It's funny how a team can get totally wiped out like the Rangers were by the Red Sox during the week only to have the Rangers turn around and look like World Series champs a few days later against the Yankees. Valdez comes off the disabled list after not being able to get anyone out early in the year and mows the Yanks down. The Texas relievers, who haven't pitched well all year and are the worst in the league, don't give up any runs against the Yanks in ten innings of relief so far this series. I know, I'm bordering on whining here so I'll move on.

One great thing about the series was to get a chance to watch Blalock play. I don't see any holes in his offensive game at all. He's a pure hitter who knows what he is doing at a young age. He is taking the game by storm much as Albert Pujols did a couple of years ago. Pujols is going to be a Hall of Famer some day too.

In the feeling good category, the Brewers had a walk off homerun today. That doesn't happen very often!

In the feel bad category, Mike Piazza went down today with severe muscle pull and will be out for a while. Hasn't it been sad to see the ends of the careers for Piazza, Mo and Alomar? They look cooked and there doesn't seem to be any turning back for them.

In the whoops category, Trot Nixon, a very sound fundamental baseball guy and a really hard working player caught what he thought was the last out today and threw the ball in the stands. The only trouble was that it wasn't the last out and runners were on base. That has to be embarrassing! That is the equivalent of a football player running the wrong way, a basketball player shooting at the wrong basket or a hockey player rapping the puck in his own net. In baseball, Nixon will never hear the end of it from his teammates, the fans nor the other team. I hope he can just laugh about it but he always seems so intense I wonder.


Looking at the standings today, all three AL divisions have good races going as does the NL East and Central. The only blowout might be the Giants although they haven't been playing well lately either. As I started this column saying, it turns fast so lookout all you teams going well right now!

The Cubbies are playing extremely well especially with Sosa out. Their pitching is the key and Prior, Woods and friends have been lights out. Pitching doesn't slump nearly as much as batting does. As big a Yankee fan as I am, a Red Sox/Cubs World Series would be awesome. One of the teams would break their long cursed spell.

Well...I was hoping for a good night at the Stadium tonight as the struggling Rangers were next on Roger Clemens list. But he's down 4-1 and the young kid he is facing seems right on top of his game.

The Yankees got what I think is a big blow today as Nick Johnson will be out four to six weeks with a fractured hand. Johnson isn't the Yankees' best player but he is leading the majors in walks with 33. That's a lot of clogging the bases that certainly propels the offense. I think the Yankees are going through a really tough stretch that will test them for the kind of year they are going to have.

The Red Sox on the other hand are playing really good baseball. Nomar Garciaparra is getting hot and Trot Nixon is having a good year. Pedro is where he needs to be and Wakefield is pitching well. If the Sox can get Derek Lowe going, they will be dangerous.

Hank Blalock is an amazing young hitter. With the bases loaded against Clemens, Blalock took Clemens offering to the opposite field and missed a grand slam by inches. You can easily see why the young player is hitting .380+. Another great young Ranger player is Young whose name describes his age but not his discipline at the plate. He's had two great at bats against Clemens tonight and turned them both into singles.

And yes, ::grumble::: badass Carl Everett is having a great year. He seems impossible to get out these days and as a leadoff hitter is one or two away from leading the league in RBI. If this Ranger team could only get some pitching.

Buck Showalter managed a good Yankee team and was fired in 1996. The Yanks that year went on to win the World Series. Showalter then went on to the Diamondbacks and did a great job there, was fired and the Diamondbacks won the World Series. I don't believe there is a coincidence there. The guy gets his players to play good fundementals and disciplined baseball. Watch him do the same thing for this Ranger team. I still believe the Rangers will finish at the bottom of their division. But they will be fun to watch.

Speaking of the Diamondbacks and the bottom of the division. that's where the Arizona team will end up...at the bottom. They are old, they lost too much pitching and they don't hit. That's a formula for failure.

Man...Clemens has great stuff...eight strikeouts in four innings, but he's walked five and given up five runs. Tonight is just not going to be his night. Maybe 299 will come in Boston instead of 300.

The Flagrant Fan takes one night of rest on Thursday nights. See you all tomorrow!

I just have to laugh when I read a story like that. On the MLB sports page of Yahoo.com is a story about Jose Guillen and his demand to be traded from the Cincinnati Reds because Griffey is back and that puts Guillen on the pines. Yeah, he's a guy I'd want on MY team. Uh huh!

Mr. Guillen, let's take a look at the facts here. You are having a fine season. You are batting .327 with seven homeruns and 21 RBI in 98 at bats. Good stats as is your .622 Slugging Percentage. But let's take a closer look around you. Austin (Powers) Kearns has 13 homers and 35 RBI, a .629 Slugging Percentage and an OPS of 1.051. Oh yeah, and his On Base Percentage sits at .423 compared to your .362. There is no dice there, sir.

Okay, let's look the other way. At first glance, you might feel the nod over Adam Dunn. After all, Dunn is only hitting .240 and his OBP is only .338. He does have 13 homers and 28 RBI. But in his last seven games, Dunn is batting .368 and his OBP is .429 with four homers and nine RBI! Excuse me, but you're only hitting .292 in your last seven games. If I was your manager, I'd sit down your hottest player in favor of you too.

Oh, and you're most upset because Junior Griffey is back from the disabled list and is going to play over you. Who is he to take your place? He may have hit 469 homers in his career, but what has he done for anyone lately? His seven seasons over forty or more homers is old news. Let's forget about his 1300 RBI by the age of 31. You're a better player than him, right?

Mr. Guillen is a part of the entitlement generation. I am who I am so I am entitled to be a starting player. I spilled coffee on my leg and I'm entitled to a hundred million dollars. I developed a bad back in the army so I'm entitled to receive 50% disability the rest of my life. I've worked here a year so I'm entitled to a two dollar raise even though I haven't grown any in my ability or energy level. The entitlement generation believes that other people are just a hindrance to what is MINE, what *I* deserve, what *I'M* entitled to.

Jose Guillen is a part of this generation who doesn't see that his team has come back from the dead to be just two games out of the lead in the NL Central and is surrounded by some of the most amazing talent in the league. Shut up, stupid, and sit on the bench and root for your teammates and be ready when your number is called. If that isn't good enough for you, I have a $9 an hour job answering tech support phone calls for you.

Okay, I got that out of my system...


Curt Schilling pitched his second consecutive shutout today in the Diamondback's game with the Phillies. He only gave up two hits and has a 1.97 ERA in his last three starts with a 3-0 record. Not a bad rebound from getting his appendix out eh? He seems to be a man with a heart as big as his talent.


The Yankees lost again to the Angels, 5-3. The team's great attack has fizzled of late and as I mentioned yesterday, getting Jeter back is great, but moving some in the lineup changes things and not necessarily for the better. ESPN.com predicted a run for the Yanks now that Jeter is back, but I don't see it and fear just the opposite.

The big stories tonight are Jeter and Griffey's return and that MLB is investigating the Florida Marlins for hiring McKean. Jeter and Griffey's returns are great for baseball and for them as they both went down hard with similar injuries. We all feared the worst, but it's great that we didn't get the worst.

The Florida Marlins story is part of life, folks. Get used to it. I totally agree that baseball needs to do all it can to make sure all people have access and chances for leadership positions in baseball. I have no argument there, especially if the managerial or front office decisions are being made in the off-season. But when you are in a mid-season situation and you need a quick fix or shot in the arm, shouldn't a team have the ability to choose someone they had in mind from the start? Now what happens to that quick fix? The quick fix gets thrown in limbo as controversy surrounds the move. It's a shame we are not yet quite as enlightened as we will be.

I still think that moving Nick Johnson to the bottom of the lineup with the return of Jeter is a big mistake. I think it changes the threat of having people on base in front of the big guys. My thought is that you would keep Johnson up in the second spot, you bat Jeter sixth and mollify him for now that he is working his way back to shape. Once Jeter is firing again on regular gas, then move him to third. I believe that Matsui is struggling and should move down in the order and Mondesi moves up. My Yankee lineup looks like this: Soriana, Johnson, Williams, Giambi, Posada, Jeter, Ventura, Mondesi, Matsui. Hmm...looking over my creation. Yes. I like it. Right, left, switch, left, switch, right, left, right, left. Perfect. How do I know the current idea is wrong? On their first game with the new lineup, they are no hit for six innings.

In the Cincinnati/St. Louis game tonight, Pujols, Kearns and Dunn have homers. Are those three of the brightest young stars in the league right now? They are at least up there with the brightest. Speaking of bright, Hank Blalock is batting .380 and hit a homerun tonight. What a great story. And Teixeira is up to .238. Texas is going to be a force if they ever find some pitching.

The Rockies are falling like a rock. What a landslide as they have lost eight of their last ten. They have the worst road record in baseball (yes, even worse than the Tigers). The Rockies are 11-4 at home and 6-16 on the road. They will never be contenders until they figure out how to play down the difference of home versus the road.

The White Sox look comatose too. Can you blame Frank Thomas? I think you can. The guy always seems to stir a bunch of emotions. David Wells was dead wrong a couple of years ago for mouthing off about Thomas not playing. Thomas was later learned to have a serious arm injury. But the point never made at the time was that those kinds of comments don't start if the whispers hadn't already been there. Reports are that Thomas' bat speed has slowed tremendously. The White Sox should have cut their losses and let him walk at the end of the last season.

I have to be honest here. I wrote off the Reds for dead a couple of weeks ago. They are certainly alive and have have won seven of ten to pull to .500 baseball. They are only two and a half games behind the Cubbies.

Wasn't that a great story the other night when Steve Avery pitched a scoreless inning for the Tigers the other night? It was his first MLB appearance since 1999. That's hard work and the refusal to lie down and die. Good for him!

Derek Jeter comes back tomorrow night for the Yankees and they immediately become a better team. But what do they do about the lineup? Johnson has become one of the best number two hitters in the game since Jeter was out. Do you bat Jeter third and move everyone else down one? What a lineup that would be! Do you bat Jeter at the top and move Soriano and his power to third? Johnson hitting second makes it happen because he takes so many pitches and has an on base percentage well over .400.

Well, I was right about Jeff Torborg although I don't feel good about it. It really is an organizational problem but a change in managers can change a team's outlook. For proof of that, look no further than Tony Pena in Kansas City. McKean is a stand up guy and the players there should play for him. Lord knows, it can't get much worse.

The Cubs look strong even without Sosa and that is a very good sign. What isn't a good sign is that though they are winning tonight, Prior is getting cuffed around a little bit by the Brewers. Fortunately for the Cubs and unfortunately for the Brewers, Milwaukee's pitching is so bad, they make Prior's bad night look spectacular.

This makes me sick to admit it, but the Braves look suddenly unstoppable. I don't see them getting caught any time soon. The good news for the rest of the National League East is that with the dogfight in the NL Central and the weakness of the NL West (with the exception of the Giants), it looks like the runner up to the Braves should get the wildcard.

Thirty-six years ago on Mothers Day, 1967, my Mom took "her kids" to the Emerson Restaurant in Bergen County, New Jersey. The Emerson was always "our" place and our only place to go out to eat. They had the best slice steak sandwiches and my Mom always made sure she gave me half of hers. Moms do those kinds of things and my Mom wasn't any different. It was an especially tough time since my father had died the previous year. We had to leave our beloved house for a crummy apartment. My mom had to work and was struggling along to make ends meet and we had my poor sister taking care of us two boys.

A source of comfort and survival was baseball. We played it, we watched it, we lived it. As I mentioned earlier, the Yankees were awful by then and between Mel Stottlemyre and a hobbled, broken down Mickey Mantle, there wasn't much else to root for. For many reasons that have already been covered by Billy Crystal, Mantle was every kid's ideal. Of course we all know now that Mantle wasn't perfect but that doesn't matter, he was our hero.

On this Mothers Day in 1967, Mantle was stuck on 499 career homeruns. It looked like it took an act of will for him to even step on the field at that point and so we wondered how long it would take. So we were at the Emerson and I heard someone say that Mantle was going to be up next and I could hear the game on in the bar section of the building. I asked my Mom if I could go and watch him bat. Now she could have been strict and told me to sit down and eat my dinner, but she didn't and told me to come right back after.

So I walked to the bar section and ignored all the cigarette smoke and looked up at the TV to see Mantle walking up to the plate. For some reason, I just knew it was the moment and everyone else in the bar must have too because it was eerily quiet in there. And then he hit it and the bar erupted and people were shaking hands. Some guy grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me in his happiness. I just stood there and smiled from ear to ear as Mickey ran around the bases with that charming limping gait. My hero had finished his quest.

I don't remember anything much else about that dinner but I'll always remember watching that homerun and I feel so fortunate to have done so since there wasn't any such thing as Baseball Tonight back then.

The point of this whole discussion is that here we are in the year 2003 and on another Mothers Day, Rafael Palmeiro hit his 500th homerun and I saw his mother watching and I felt good. But I was also taken back to that other Mothers Day so many years ago. The homer was typical of his career. It wasn't a perfect pitch to hit as it was inside and a little bit up. But he's been so steady the last ten years and he's just plain learned what to do with those kinds of pitches and he got just enough of it to put the ball in about the tenth row of the right field bleachers.

I am in a constant state of disbelief at those who have been writing or spewing on TV that Palmeiro doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame. What are they crazy? The man has hit 38 or more homers for eight straight years. Nobody has ever done that before. Don't give me that crap about his playing in the age that we live in. Is Rafael Furcal going to hit 500 homeruns? I hardly think so. Players of Palmeiro's ability and steadiness don't come around very often.

The argument is that he wasn't the best player of his generation. Was Billy Williams? Was Willie McCovey? Was Yogi Berra? Was Harmon Killebrew? Was Eddie Matthews? No. No. No. No. And no. That is a stupid argument. Let me use the following analogy:

As a young adult, I worked in a tannery, which is where they get raw hides and turn them into leather for shoes and handbags. The job I worked was piecework and I always made the most money in the factory. Nobody could figure it out because it never looked like I was working hard. There were others doing my job who were flashier and faster...for a while. But my secret was in my steadiness. I never stopped. I never quit. I never took breaks. I just worked at a steady pace for a long period of time. And because of that, I came out on top even though nobody would have ever voted me as the hardest worker in the place.

In just the same way, Palmeiro is a Hall of Famer. He has been steady and sure for a long time and that is what it takes to get the job done. He got the job done and deserves the honor. Well done Rafael Palmeiro and congratulations.

Win number 298 is in the bag. Roger Clemens outpitched Barry Zito today to bring his record to 5-2 and climb to within two wins of the magic 300 total. Clemens seems to be on a mission this year and though he has hinted that this year may be his last (or maybe because he has hinted that it's his last), he hasn't pitched one poor outing and very easily could be 7-0 and have the 300 already. His ERA is 2.35 in his eight starts. The American League is only hitting .225 against him. He has 50 strikeouts in 53.2 innings and has only given up 45 hits in those same innings. Not bad for a guy who is going to turn 41 soon. Watching him stretch out for this milestone has been most exciting.

A couple of other observations: Jorge Posada has stepped up his game. His defense is much better and his hitting has been very timely. With 29 RBI already this season, he is among the leaders. The one concern with Posada is that he always seems to have good numbers at the AllStar game and then seems to fade in the second half.

Oakland seems to have Soriano's number as he is 0 for the season against them now after five games. They bust him inside and since they have the heat and talent in their arms to pull that off, it is working. Other teams have tried that but he is too quick and a 90 MPH fastball is not going to get by him.

Besides Chavez, Tejada and the pitching staff, I'm not real impressed with the Athletics as a team. They win on good fundamental baseball and good pitching but they certainly don't have the best talent in the league. I would take Seattle's talent over Oakland's anyday.


Sammy Sosa is out 15 days because they removed the toenail on his foot. I've been there and a sore foot isn't fun. This will be a big test for the Cubs who are in a battle with the Cardinals and Astros in that division and will be all year. The Cubbies beat the Cardinals in extra innings today without Sammy. But Sammy is one of the most miraculous RBI man that has played the game in the last 40 years. The man has AVERAGED 140 RBI a season for the last five years. 700 RBI in five seasons! Wow! And that is on a team that has had no one around him or in front of him. He just got it done somehow. It will be tough for the Cubs not to slip a few games back without Sammy.


Okay, Okay. The Braves are going to be much better than I had predicted (or hoped) this year. I just hate those guys and I really didn't think their pitching would hold up. But they are getting great stuff from their makeshift staff and have had a great surge. A lot of that surge has to do with the hitting of the two Joneses...which I have to say through gnashed teeth as I hate Chipper Jones more than any other ballplayer.


I think the Yankees should keep Sterling Hitchcock this season. So far this season, Hitchcock has been well...sterling. He can keep the other team off balance for a few innings, that's for sure.

Mark on your Yankee calendar, Friday, June 13th as Interleague play will be in effect by then and Tino Martinez returns home to NY for a three game set. Tino had some great moments as a Yankee and was a truly class act. I hope the Yankee fans give him a superb welcome.

"This is ground control to Major Tom. There's something wrong. Your curcuit's dead. Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me Major Tom? - David Bowie

Well, it was fun while it lasted but some of the teams that started off hot are crashing back to earth as are some fast starters individually. The Pittsburgh Pirates opened up hot and looked to be a whole lot better than in previous years. They started 5-1 and then 7-3 and have gone 7-17 since. Granted, Giles went down with an injury, but still. You had to hope that the hot start was for real.

The Kansas City Royals started out of the gate at a 17-3 clip. Sure, no one thought they would stay at that pace. But some of us were hoping they wouldn't fall to 3-9 since. Their division lead, which was once as high as eight games is down to two and a half. And like the Pirates, they are losing really ugly by blowing leads in the late innings or getting blown out altogether.

Also in free-fall are the Padres, the Indians and the Marlins. The Padres were bravely facing their injury problems but have sunk hard and have lost nine of ten. We knew this was a rebuilding year for the Indians but their record now is only slightly better than the Tigers (only a game and a half ahead of them!) as the Indians have lost eight of ten.

The Marlins are a special case and it's time for their leadership to really think about how they got to where they are. We have been hearing for at least four years about their great young arms and those arms have never developed to potential. And so many of those arms have gotten hurt. What is going on down there with how they handle the pitchers. With the talent they had, they could have been like Oakland but those arms never got where they were supposed to go.

Whomever is in charge of pitching in the Marlins' organization should lose his job and I believe their manager should go too. There is no way that team should be as bad as they are playing and there has to be a good reason why so many good arms have gone so bad. The headline on ESPN.com have talked about the Marlins bad luck. I don't believe in bad luck. I do believe in poor planning and poor execution.


Most people will be rooting for John Rocker to fail now that he is back in the majors. Hell, he's an easy target and in many ways, deservedly so. But there is another truth here and that is he's worked hard and took his demotion and his fall from the majors and worked back up the hard way. Secondly, since he has come back with the Devil Rays, there is no pressure on a bad team to ruin things for everyone. I could flower under Lou Piniella since Lou doesn't take any guff.


I hate when the Yankees are on the West Coast. I can't stay up to watch them tonight as I'm beat from staying up the last two nights. Sixteen runs against the Mariners yesterday! Man! I wish they would have saved half of those for Clemens on Saturday.

Just a reminder that the Flagrant Fan takes a day of rest on Thursdays. I'll see you all tomorrow.

Have I already talked about how much I dislike this idea of the new AllStar game and how it will now determine which team is the home team in the World Series? If not, I'll be blunt. I think it's a travesty and I can't believe the players went for it. How can you have one event, an exhibition event at that, put that much spin on the outcome of the World Series. After all, the home team has a tremendous advantage.

The game is an exhibition. The fans want to see the game's best players just hanging out together and occasionally displaying some of the talent that got them to the game in the first place. Well, let me rephrase that because I'm not sure the fans want to see it at all. The ratings have slumped for years. There were so many good and solid suggestions on how to improve the game last year after it happened. Expanding the roster made the most sense. That way you'd have enough players no matter what happened. The other great idea was to do away with the idea of having to have a player from each team at the game. No disrespect to Randy Winn, but he was not an AllStar last year and the only reason he was there was because of the need to pick at least one player.

The homerun derby has been a great addition to the festivities and is almost as great as the celebrity softball game (that follows the homerun derby) is bad. That is pathetic and should be killed immediately.

Did the game ending in a tie last year bother me? No. Who cares who wins! It's an exhibition game for crying out loud. All I care about is whether my favorite hitters hit and my favorite pitchers pitch. The rest is just fun. My favorite part is the wide eyed wonder you can see in the players' faces when faced with so many of their star peers. That itself is worth the game.

Let's follow this logic...The Twins make it to the playoffs with the worst record among the division winners and have a worse record than even the wildcard. The Twins get hot and make it to the World Series. The Giants win 108 games and finish 20 ahead in their division. The American League wins the AllStar game and the Twins get home field advantage? That's a steal and an advantage to the Twins that they didn't earn. It just doesn't make sense.

For the players association to ratify the move goes to show just how much ownership has gained in the last few years. That's the cynical side of me. The optimistic side of me says that I'm glad the players are trying so hard to work with the owners. Isn't that nice for the game! But for crying out loud, players! This was a stupid move and it doesn't make sense at any level.

If you REALLY wanted to fix the AllStar game, put the choice of who plays back on the players and managers and away from the fans. I hate any thought of fans stuffing ballots and it tarnishes the game and those players who make the AllStar game.

There was a lot of talk as recently as Mark McGwire's homerun record year about how thin the talent is in MLB. I have listened closely and have not heard that kind of talk lately. The closest theme to that is the talk that 500 homeruns in a career didn't mean what it used to mean (which is baloney). The implied argument behind the 500 career homerun/Hall of Fame debate is difficult to pinpoint. The implication is either that the players are too strong now or that the talent is too thin. My take on the discussions is that the implications are with the former and not the latter. If it is so much easier to hit now, how come we still haven't had a .400 hitter in 50 years?

The same pundits who explain the supposed cheapness of 500 homers are the same who say that Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux (and maybe Glavine) will be the last 300 game winners in our lifetime. The arguments presented there are that starting pitchers only pitch every fifth day and that they only pitch six innings and too much can happen once they leave the game. Neither argument makes much sense. Pitchers still won twenty games last year (though there were less than in recent memory). 300 wins in a career would mean averaging 17 wins for 18 seasons. Not impossible with a few 23 to 25 win seasons thrown in there.

Hitting 500 homers seems just as improbable. To do so means to average 30 homers or more for 17 years and that's a lot of homers. I do believe there has been a convergence of talent in the past few years. McGwire, Sosa, Griffey Jr., Bonds and Palmeiro (and A-Rod up and coming) are and were extraordinary players. But so were Mays, Aaron, McCovey, Killebrew, Mantle from their era. Clumps of talent have happened before.

There are two major differences that do aid the modern ballplayer. First, the science of fitness has dramatically improved and so players now know how to take care of themselves better than ever. Secondly, sports medicine is dramatically improved. Clemens and Schilling have had major shoulder surgeries in their careers. Many others have had the Tommy John procedure. In the past, if the arm broke, it broke and that was the end of it. And so a Clemens can pitch 20 years. That fact alone means that the days of 300 wins are not over with him.

To get back to my original statement, I don't see a thinning of baseball talent. In every game I watch, several pitchers are throwing faster than 90 MPH. Players at every position are making diving stops and plays that make your eyes pop out. There is no shortage of talent to fill the drafts for every team every draft day. Big time college programs provide almost a minor league level of training for players. The whole world is a market for talent with players coming from Hispanola, the Orient, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Baseball talent isn't thinning. I believe it's a very exciting time to be a fan as great players are springing up everywhere. Excuse me while I go check what Blalock and Baldelli are doing tonight...

In the past two days, I have heard baseball announcers talk about Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa slow starts. Slow starts!? Sosa always heats it up in June and is ahead of where he usually is this time of year. The last time I watched Bonds play, he hit two homers. I'd take that slow start.

Another player who has also had a tough start is Ichiro Suzuki. But he had two big hits last night and could be on his way. I doubt Japan had the arms to consistently blast him inside like MLB pitchers have been doing to him. Both hits yesterday were in the middle of the plate. Suzuki will need to adjust. Last year wasn't as big a year for Ichiro as the year before and his impact seems less. There was talk of him dealing with injuries last year. Plus he is getting older.

That leads to a point that I want to make with as much diplomacy as I can. I think MLB should model society and be as much a melted society as possible, but asian players have already been through many of their best years before they think about coming here. That limits the amount of quality years an asian player has in him in the majors. I just don't see any long term success stories out there.

Hideo Nomo has been a solid starter and has won 101 games since he arrived here. He had a great year last year and is off to a pretty good start this year. How many other asian players can you name besides Nomo who have played more than five years? Chan Ho Park? Uhh...nope. Hidecki Arabu? Puhleeze!

The same can be said to recent Cuban refugees who have signed with MLB clubs with much ballyhoo. There hasn't been one durable and effective pitcher who has defected. I don't count Livan Hernandez as he really doesn't seem to have much drive to succeed and has done little to improve his pitching. Orlando Hernandez? For two years maybe.


A sad, sad statement, but for the first time ever, I would rather play for the Florida Marlins than the New York Mets. The Mets are really the New York Mess. Steve Phillips can't be very comfortable sleeping at night.

Speaking of leadership not sleeping, Jeff Torborg is a dinosaur and needs to be replaced. The same can be said for Bob Boone in Cincinnati. It's time for a change on both teams. The other poor teams are at least playing hard. And you can't ask for more than that. Speaking of poor teams, it looks like the Tigers are going to win two in a row for the first time this year.

Ack! OOOOOOOooooooooooooooo! Clemens lost again even though he pitched great. Barry Zito pitched even better and the Yankees made two baserunning blunders that cost them dearly. Both teams only managed four hits and one of Clemens' runs given up was unearned. The old man pitched great but at a bad time. I wonder how many times that has happened in his career. So...he is STILL at 297 and three from the magic number.

Bartolo Colon looks to be about 25 pounds overweight. Now, I can't say anything personally since I am MORE overweight than that. But I am not a ballplayer and I'm not paid a gazillion dollars to perform at my peak using my body. He is and he should be taking care of that body for the best results.

I have heard the other arguments before from overweight pitchers and how they do just fine with the extra weight. The Red Sox had a HUGE pitcher for a couple of years. His name escapes me at the moment except that they called him El Guappo or something like that. Yes, he did have one really good year but he was not the same after that and I believe he is out of baseball now. Denny McClain was great and then gained weight and also got in big trouble but he was never the same either.

I used to bowl competitively and made good money doing so. There is no doubt in my mind that my best seasons were when I was at my thinnest and most fit. When you are regularly exercising and taking care of your weight, for some reason you are just more aware of your body and can make it listen to your mind. The last time I tried to bowl, I pulled a hamstring. See!?

Colon has some of the best stuff in baseball (or at least he did). He topped out tonight at 96 MPH but most of his fastballs were of the 90 and 91 MPH category. I won't question him and his willingness to win, but he just doesn't seem to have much passion when he pitches. And it's always seemed that way with him.


The Tigers scored seven runs today and won! Wow!


Some of the colder players in April are starting to show some life: Jason Giambi won the game yesterday with a homer. Junior Spivey had three homers this weekend. Ichiro had a homer and a double tonight. Slow starts should never panic with those types of players with that kind of experience. They will end up where they always end up.

The Detroit Tigers finally scored six runs today. Unfortunately, they blew the game anyway and lost to Tampa Bay. Not only did the loss bring their record to 3-25, but they lost on a base hit by Damon Easley, the player they cut even though they are still paying him $14 million this year. So...let's run through that one more time in case you missed it. The Tigers lost to have their record sink to 3 wins to 25 losses even though they scored six runs and to add insult, a player they are still paying $14 million beat them with a single. That's a tough day.

Oh...and the Tigers run explosion lifted their team batting average to .189.

I saw an article on ESPN.com in which the writer cast some doubt on whether or not Rafael Palmeiro would make it to the Hall of Fame. Geez! What is the writer nuts? Okay, Palmeiro has never excited anyone. There have been whispers that he was a mercenary type player who only cared about his stats. The argument is that he's never been the best first baseman in his league. Another argument is that he's only led the league in any category three times. But the arguments all fall flat. Just LOOK at the man's statistics:

- 1593 RBI - 27th All Time! That's more than Mickey Mantle, Harmen Killebrew, Rogers Hornsby, Al Kaline, Willie McCovey, Willie Stargell, Billy Williams and many others...
- 498 Homers - That number will be pushed well over 500 before he is done.
- 1000+ extra base hits - That's more than Mark McGwire, Mickey Mantle and many others
- 2660 hits - If he plays two more seasons, he'll hit 3000.
- 140+ RBI in a season...TWICE! - Not many people have done that.
- 24th All Time in Total Bases - More than Ernie Banks, Robin Yount, Harold Baines, Roberto Clemente, etc.

Enough said. The man is a Hall of Famer.

I'm really tired of this argument that since this is an offensive era, then the standards for making the Hall of Fame should change. Baloney! You still have to hit the ball. There are still only a few players that are going to make these magic numbers. We just happen to have quite a few happening right now.

Roger Clemens tries again tomorrow for number 298. I'm going to be on Maalox until it's over. Mariano Rivera sure makes a difference in the Yankee bullpen, but this Acevedo is starting to fall apart. He's looked VERY hittable lately and blew another game for the Yanks today.

We have heard a lot about Derek Jeter's progress but nothing at all about Ken Griffey. Why is there no news of him? I sure hope he can come back and play well.

Pedro Martinez is still the best pitcher in baseball. The man is amazing.

Rocco Baldelli and Hank Blalock have had amazing Aprils in their first full years in the majors. Baldelli hit is first homerun yesterday and hit a triple today and is hitting around .360. He broke the record for rookie hits in April with 40. He never walks but he doesn't strike out that often either. And unlike Blalock, does not benefit from having great hitters around him. I have been following him and he is a tremendously exciting player.

Blalock, unlike Baldelli, has dealt with high expectations since he was the number one draft choice. He has settled down within that Texas lineup and is also hitting in the .360 range. When teams like Texas and Tampa struggle, it has to be exciting to follow new players. In Texas, they can also follow Mark Teixeira who is starting to hit now.

I have been thrilled so far with how many of my predictions are coming true. But I can't get too cocky about it since the season is a long one. The team that I believed in the most, the Chicago Cubs, look great and I don't see any reason why they shouldn't win that division.

The Red Sox must be thinking now that whenever they are behind, they are right where they want to be. Three come from behind wins against the Royals and tonight they came back from six runs down to tie the Twins before the Twins then erupted again and won the game. Even so, the Sox must never think they are out of any game.

It has not been a good season for former Oakland Athletic players. Jason Giambi is the only Yankee not hitting and is below the Mendoza Line. His brother is currently batting .134 for the Red Sox. And Jermaine Dye hurt his leg again and is on the disabled list. Weird. To complete the picture, Miguel Tejada is doing just as poorly and seems to be in a huge funk since the A's said they wouldn't try to sign him after the season.

Mendoza Line? You might not know what the Mendoza Line is about. Mario Mendoza played for parts of nine seasons in the major leagues from 1974 to 1982. He was a pretty slick fielding shortstop but it's hard to figure out how a player could play five of his nine years with a batting average below .200 and continue in the majors for that long?

Although Mario Mendoza batted .180 in 1975 and .185 in 1976, his two years of batting .198 established forever the now famous Mendoza Line. George Brett and/or Tom Paciorek are usually given credit for creating the line. It is said that every Sunday, Brett would search the stats in the paper to see who was hitting "below the Mendoza Line."

I don't think I could be a major league manager. I was watching the Yankee/Seattle game and the Yankees are comfortably ahead 5-1 in the eigth inning. The Yankees bring in Jose Acevedo who I know they hope will fill the eigth inning role to lead into Rivera (who looked great tonight). The first batter, Brett Boone gets a meatball and hits it out. Of course the little prig flipped his bat. Okay. You threw a strike and he hit it. Acevedo then walks the next two batters. If I had a gun and was Joe Torre, I would have shot him. You know those two walks would score and they did.

I remember hearing some obscene statistic that over 50% of leadoff walks end up scoring. Right from our early days of little league, the coach is yelling, "Just let them hit the ball and let your fielders do the rest." Well, the guys I'm watching are making over a $1 million a year and can't "just let them hit the ball"?

The Red Sox and Royals played tonight and it was a great game for 8.5 innings. The high-flying Royals had their closer in the game and guess what? No, he didn't walk anyone but Royals closer (MacDougal) hit two batters and had a wild pitch. The pitcher that took MacDougal's place after all that hit another batter! When is the last time you saw three HBP in the same inning!? "Just let them hit the ball!"

Why does David Wells win every year and have one of the best winning percentages in the history of MLB and yet have a fairly high career ERA? You could make an argument that he has always played for good teams. But I counter that he keeps himself in the game and keeps his team in the game by throwing strikes. Wells has pitched five games so far this year and has given up ONE walk. One!! Oh, and he's 3-0.

Wells has averaged more than nine hits per nine innings in his career and yet he wins. The reason he wins is that he throws strikes. Tommy John was the same way. He didn't "THROW" a lot of strikes, but he sure never gave up many walks.

Let's take it one step further and compare the careers of Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Here are two remarkably successful pitchers. But Maddux has won far more Cy Young awards and has a career ERA that is a half a run better than Glavine's. To me, the stuff is about even and the only difference is the amount of walks given up by Glavine. Maddux has averaged 1.92 walks per nine innings in his career. Glavine has averaged 3.01 walks per nine innings. That is one more walk a game. And the one walk scored fifty percent of the time!

The most amazing game ever pitched was Roger Clemen's first 20 strikeout game against the Mariners. Roger not only hit the catcher's target nearly every pitch, but he didn't walk a batter. That's remarkable.

I'll make one more argument for pitchers who throw strikes: Pretty much everyone in baseball agrees that Mariano Rivera is one of the best closers in the history of the game. Rivera's first full year was backing up then closer John Wettland. That was the year that Rivera recorded his best strikeout per nine inning ratio. Since he's been a closer, his strikeouts are down per nine innings but so are his walks. "Just let them hit the ball."

I lied because I'll make one more argument: Not only is it important to throw strikes, it's important to throw them early in the count. I watched with interest (and some concern) the inning that Chris Hammond pitched for the Yankees. The batters that he got out all started with strikes and pitcher's counts. The walks and the hits came because he could not get the first three pitches over for strikes.

Walks are a killer and I think all pitcher contracts should have a walk clause stating that every walk was going to cost the pitcher $100.

Oh man! Clemens lost his bid for win # 298. He gave up four runs in six innings and gave up three gopher balls. Brett Boone should get plunked the next time he faces Clemens and swinging from his ass while hitting his homer in the first. His bat flip and other actions, for a guy who only has one great year in MLB, are arrogant and he needs some humble pie. Contrast that with the Yankee players who get their cue from Joe Torre and NEVER dig it into their opponent's back. ESPN.com reports that Derek Jeter will be back May 13th and Mariano Rivera was activated tonight. Good news on both counts.

The Red Sox beat the Royals as Wakefield (the most valuable pitcher in baseball) won again. The Red Sox are a very good team and will be in the race all the way until the end. Their relief pitching is coming around too.

The Cincinnati Reds are a mess. There is no doubt in my mind that Manager Bob Boone needs to go. They have way too much talent to be playing as bad as they are. With players like Dunn and Kearns and Boone (the non-arrogant one). Sean Casey is healthy again and mashing the ball. Felipe Lopez is the next great shortstop. They should playing with zest and winning their share of games. They look like at least a .500 team to me. Axe the manager! The team is painting by numbers right now.

Interesting matchup as Dusty Baker faces his former charges. The Giants have lost a little steam and I still think their offense will be a problem over the long run. The Cubs look good on both sides of the ball and should be solid all year. They're in the midst of a good pitching duel as Kerry Wood is dueling Kurt Reuter.

The death watch continues in Detroit as the Tigers lost again. Their team batting average is "up" to .182. Yeesh...

Since the games are really light tonight, I want to talk about something that is inside me and that I want you to think about. I want you to think about it because it's a problem that has brought MLB players down and could put you down if you let it. I want to talk about alcohol abuse.

This subject is important to me because I have faced the problems caused by alchohol and substance abuse all my life. My father hit a tree one night after being with a gal he should have been with and probably drinking what he shouldn't have been drinking. My mom remarried and stayed married for 29 years to a man who never knew when to stop. The drinking finally led to meanness and incoherence and my mom suffered a great deal before, in her mid-seventies, she had the courage to divorce him.

My former mother in law was a great woman with a big heart that I could tell my soul to and knew she would protect that exposed soul. She battled drinking and went to rehab three times and failed. It wasn't until her liver shut down on her and she miraculously recovered, that she decided she better kick the thing once and for all.

I have seen friends and coworker's lives slide down to oblivion because of drinking. These were good people who had good jobs and families and it cost them everything. Some are still out there battling it.

Baseball isn't immune. In recent months former players, Doc Gooden and Darren Daulton, were arrested for drinking and driving. Both arrests weren't the first time for these men who had too much to drink. Baseball has several traveling programs that were started by ex-players who were alcoholics and wanted to save today's players. One such player was Darrell Porter, whose excellent book, "Snap Me Perfect," went to the heart of his problem. Porter ended up dying at 50 and it was suspected at the time that his drinking had something to do with it.

Bad things happen to good people and sometimes you end up trapped in an addiction before you know it. If, in a lucid moment, you took a hard look, you would know whether you were an alcoholic or not. And if you aren't sure, there are plenty of places on-line that will tell you if you want to know. But don't even take their word for it. Ask your doctor and if your doctor thinks you have a problem, then let him help you seek help. Most employers want to see you get well and will stand by you if you want to get help. I know I would if I was your friend, family member or employer.

There is so much to celebrate in life. There are sunrises and sandy beaches and mountains in the distance. There are lakes and flower beds and sunny days and yeah, once in a while, a pitcher throws a no-hitter. Think about where you are and think about what it will take to help you to someday celebrate once again.

As could be predicted, the impossibly hot Giants, Royals and Yankees were all cooled off a bit today. There is no way that these teams are going to play .800 baseball this year. The six run blown lead by the Royals today will be a test of their new found success. Success depends a lot on the mental aspect of the team and its individuals. A game like that can really shake a team that isn't used to winning. We'll watch that one closely.

The Giants and the Yankees were stopped by unbelievable performances by top stars on their game. The Giants were no-hit by Kevin Millwood. The Yankees ran into Alex Rodriguez at his best as he went 5 for 5 with six RBI including a grand slam.

Millwood, who was given away by the Atlanta Braves in what had to be a cash saving measure, was brilliant. Millwood had one year of injury in 2001 that limited him to a 7-7 record. But that year was sandwiched around years where he won 17, 18 and 18 respectively. Why give up a pitcher like that? Today he displayed the kind of pitching that was very Brave-like by limiting the Giants to three walks and no hits. Without taking away from Millwood's performance, I am still not sure that these Giants will hit consistently. Besides Bonds, there isn't a single guy in that lineup who has a career of consistent production. All that said, you can't take away from what Millwood did today.

Alex Rodriguez is a guy who is going to erupt on you if you don't bring your best stuff to the mound. Jeff Weaver did not seem sharp and his good fastball wasn't there. There are a lot of teams where you can get away with less than your best stuff. But you are not going to get away with that in Texas. Between Gonzalez and Rodriguez and Palmeiro and Everett and now Blalock and Sierra, you have a lot of firepower. Don't bring your best and you're looking at a ten spot.

Rodriguez is one of those guys who seems to have the world figured out. He oozes this confidense that you can't miss. Jeter has the same thing. They don't swagger. They don't look arrogant. They just look comfortable in their surroundings. Even when A-Rod struck out to end the game the night before when the Yankees won their second game of the series, he didn't look like a guy who failed. He looked like a guy who would come back another day to beat you. And that's what he did today.


Speaking of guys who have that certain confidense, Pedro Martinez is pitching tonight on Sunday Night Baseball. He doesn't have the same velocity as consistently as a few years ago, but he just knows how to pitch better than anyone else I've ever watched. I have watched Martinez and Clemens a long time and Clemens has most of his career behind him now. Martinez will have to pitch as long as Clemens to be compared in the same sentence. But Clemens never looks comfortable. He is always twitching and fussing. His uniform always seems like his enemy and it never seems to sit on Clemens correctly. Martinez is in total control all the time. Tonight is another typical dominating night for Martinez. He always seems like he can put any pitch he throws anywhere he want to pitch it.

Pedro just struck out his tenth batter in six innings. Jon Williams just mentioned that it was hit 88th game with ten or more strikeouts. That seems awful low. Let's see...he's been involved in 264 starts and 88 out of 264 is one third of his starts. I guess that makes sense. It just seems like it would be more than that. But what seems even more unreal is what in the world were the Dodgers thinking when they let Pedro get away? The Expos were short on money. That's understandable. Sad, but understandable. But the Dodgers back when they were bringing 3 million people in the stands every year? Man, they blew it didn't they?

This is the greatest time in this history of being a fan of MLB. Do you want to follow your team 162 games a season? You can go to MLB.com and choose the MLB.tv option. For $80 a year, you can watch almost every game every day of the baseball season. I am watching the Yankee/Texas game right now in the background.

Or if you want to relive your childhood when the game filled your imagination on AM Radio, then choose the live radio option. Then during or after the game, you can go to any search engine's sports page and look at the game's box score with up to date statistics. You can click on the player's name in the box score to get that player's stats for this year or his career.

Or if you prefer, you can get a MLB subscription from your cable or satellite provider and watch all of your team's games in crystal clear digital signals. Then watch Baseball Tonight on ESPN for the highlights of every game as they are happening or after the game is over.

Hmm...maybe I shouldn't be watching. I haven't watched a Yankee game all year and as soon as I start, Texas scores four runs to tie the game and then the next half inning, throw out Posada at home to end the Yankee half. Am I a jinx?

Baseball fans, pinch yourselves because there has never been a better time to be a fan...flagrant or otherwise.

The Flagrant Fan is happy and impressed so far with his Yankees. The one fear is that they are peaking early instead of late and that's what happened last year. They started well and then the pitching broke down with drastic results in the Angels series. But this also feels a little like 1998 when they had the dominating year and you kept expecting them to cool off and they never did. Anyway, it's going to be scary at least until Clemens gets his 300th win. Once that happens, I'll settle down and accept whatever happens.


As mentioned before, I've been a MLB fan for 40 years and in 40 years, I've never seen anything like the start by the Detroit Tigers. Can you imagine how depressing it would be if your top hitter was batting .205. Let that sink in: The Detroit Tigers leading hitter after 20+ games is Bobby Higginson with a batting average of .205. The entire team for 2003 is hitting .177. That means that the Tigers get 18 hits for ever 102 at bats. The Tigers on-base percentage is .246. They have more strikeouts as a team than hits. They have hit seven homers in 20 games. And when they finally get on base, they can't stay there as they have tried to steal 11 times and have been caught 8! Their only batter with more than one homerun so far is Eric Munson and he is batting .158.

You have to feel big time for the Detroit Tiger fans. This is the worst nightmare one can imagine. What is especially tough is that the team is being led by a manager and coaching staff that is the cream of the Tigers great years. I have to hope the Tigers turn it around at least to respectability. No one can root for a team to be this bad.

Speaking of bad, why do the Expos have to play in Montreal at all? Hey, if only 5,000 fans are going to show up for a game, why not just bite the bullet and move the team to Puerto Rico. The Expos are a good young team who deserve loyal fans to root for them. The Expos had a hard blow this week though when young pitcher, Tony Armas Jr. went on the disabled list.

I wonder who is going to win the Chuck Finley stakes? Finley had a great second half last season and it's hard to figure out why he is where he is just collecting dust. My guess would be that he will sign with the Cardinals but that he could end up in Boston. He would be a big help to that team.

One thing lost in the Yankee loss last night was the two hit, no run ball pitched by Sterling Hitchcock over the last three innings. Hitchcock could still be a very useful pitcher in the course of the year. The Yankee starters are off to a great start but aren't exactly young. You can never have too many pitching options.

Thursday is the Flagrant Fan's day off. Have a great night and we'll see you tomorrow. Roger Clemens = 297. Go old man!

Adam Eaton outdueled Kerry Wood today to beat a very good Chicago Cubs team 2-0. Wood pitched great too, giving up only two runs in seven innings while striking out eleven. Eaton was just better tonight as he went seven innings also, giving up no runs while striking out twelve.

Adam Eaton broke on the scene for San Diego in the second half of 2000 and went 7-4. He was off to an 8-5 start in 2001 when his elbow gave out and that was it for the next season and a half. Eaton had what is now commonly known as Tommy John surgery.

Tommy John was the first to have Tommy John surgery...obviously. John started his career in 1963 with the Indians and then the Dodgers and had a fairly promising career going when after eleven years, he too felt something pop in his left elbow and had to shut it down. He was offered a radical new surgery by Frank Jobe where a tendon from the forearm is transplanted to the elbow to replace the ligament. John came back to pitch for fourteen more years!! and won 164 of his 288 wins AFTER the surgery. Hey! Why isn't Tommy John with 288 wins in the Hall of Fame?

The Sporting News claims that seventy-five current major leaguers had their careers saved by the procedure including Mariano Rivera, Matt Morris and Billy Koch. Most throw harder after the surgery and the Sporting News claims that Billy Koch could throw 108 MPH after the transplant and rehabilitation (http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/stan_mcneal/20020501.html). It really is amazing. Especially when you know people on the other side of the surgery.

Burt Barker was one of the best college pitchers of his time and outgunned many pitchers that went on to play pro ball. An elbow injury ended that dream for him just as WWII schrapnel ended his father's promising career (Yankee Minor Leagues). Burt has gone on to become one of the top Maine high school basketball coaches and is a school principal. Both of those are terrific accomplishments and important in the overall scheme of things. But you still have to wonder what Tommy John surgery could have done for Burt and what he could have done if he was a generation later.

I doubt Adam Eaton is going to give back his good fortune at having his injury in these days and times nor should he. Congratulations, Adam Eaton on your comeback and for being another success story to today's sports medicine.

Twenty-four year old Juan-Carlos Covarrubias-Serrano probably never knew that his few beers at a baseball game were going to forever affect his life. He was probably a regular fan just like you and me who went to the ballpark for the fun and the excitement. He got a little drunk, and in his stupor remembered that Carl Everett was a badass and has gotten away with it all his life. Everett has been a spoiled punk for all of his baseball career. He has disrespected umpires, players on the other team, his own players, his own managers, his team's top leadership and most of all the fans. His act was seen in Boston and it was one of the worst exhibits of player actions ever seen. His actions were shameful to his team, his sport and his family.

Juan-Carlos did a real stupid thing. He took that modern symbol of technology, the cell phone (probably each American's most prized possession), and threw it. What are the odds that a drunk man in the second deck would perfectly hit his target? Juan-Carlos tempted the odds and hit the target...the back of Carl Everett's head. The first irony of this story is that the weapon used, the cell phone, followed a story from a few days before where a fan tackled an umpire in...you guessed it...US Cellular Field in Chicago.

Who knows what happened. Maybe he had a fight with a girl on the phone and threw her and it away. Maybe he got a busy signal on a call and in frustration threw the phone. Hey, I've slammed mine down in anger for that reason before. Or maybe he wanted to plunk Everett. What a fluke that he was successful and finds himself in the position he is now. It was stupid. It was dangerous. But how many of us have this little scary, guilty feeling inside because of the time we drank eleven beers and drove home. Nothing happened. In my case, it was my first date with what would be my wife of 21 years. I was lucky not to hit anything and end up where Juan-Carlos is.

But I'm sure that someone else got caught or went off the road or god-forbid, even hit someone at about the same time that I pulled that stunt somewhere back in 1975. Juan-Carlos defied the incredible odds by finding his target. He also defied the odds of pulling his stupid trick a few days after the Chicago incident when the national eye was already blinking rapidly about the need to punish unruly fans more adequately. Juan-Carlos is one son-of-a-gun in trouble.

The fans in the stands rightly pointed him out. I have no problem with that. Carl Everett, the badass, wants to press charges. I have no problem with that. Sometimes in life, you have to pay for your mistakes whether you are sorry for them or not. That other fan that tried to tackle the umpire in Chicago is sorry too, but that doesn't end the consequences. It's too bad that these two young men have performed a tarnishing act in their lives.

What is the second irony of this whole story? And what perfectly tells us what is wrong with the elitism of successful athletes? The same man who said he would press charges was upset when he was hit by the phone. Carl Everett threw the phone back over the fence. The phone hit Daniel Sugayan, an Oakland Athletic staffer. Sugayan declined to press charges.

The Red Sox should do away with the Patriot's Day game. What is Patriot's day? It isn't about New England's football team. The holiday celebrates the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the rides of Paul Revere and Henry Dawes on April 19, 1775. Hey, what other baseball site will give you real history?

Anyway, Massachusetts and Maine are the only two states that celebrate this particular holiday. Why you ask? Maine was a part of Massachusetts until 1820 when it entered the union as its own state. Now you have history AND geography. The Boston Marathon is traditionally held on Patriot's Day and for many years, the Red Sox have played a game at some rediculous time like 10a.m.

In some ways, it's charming because the kids are off from school and can go see a game (at $45 a pop) and then have the rest of the day with the family. But the early time always means that the Red Sox will rest at least one of their stars. Garciaparra was that start today and the Red Sox got whacked by the Blue Jays. In a scene right out of The Natural, Toronto's Chris Woodward homered just as an F-15 fighter jet was flying over to start the marathon down the street.

Okay. the game and its start time are quaint, but if the Sox lose the wildcard by one game, blame it on Patriot's Day.



The Yankees, Royals and Giants have all started really strong, but one of the most surprising teams is the Colorado Rockies. At 12-7, they are still in waving distance of the Giants and are right in the hunt for the wildcard. It has become hip to believe that the Rockies will never be able to contend because of their ballpark and the atmosphere. But they have learned that power pitching and speed in the outfield helps enormously and they are playing well. They need to play better on the road and that is the other criticism of the team and where it plays. Statistics seem to bear it out too.

Larry Walker is amazing. Helton is great but Walker has been doing it a long time. If he could have stayed healthy in his career, there is no telling what he could have done. Even so he has 337 lifetime homers and 806 extra base hits in his career. His career average is .317, his career on-base average is close to .400 and he is a career slugger of .575. Listen to this streak of years he's put together from 1997 to 2002: .366, .363, .379 (he flirted with .400 all year along with Gwynn), .309 (an off year with terrible injuries), .350 and .338.

Walker has only played one year without extended time in recovery. In that remarkable year, it shows what he could have done if healthy his whole career. In that year, he .366 in 153 games with 208 hits with 99 of them of the extra base variety (46 doubles, 4 triples and 49 homeruns!). He scored 143 runs while driving in 130! Remarkable.

It will be interesting to see how he is ranked once he is finished. He is 37 so his time is running out. He has been a truly special player who probably won't have enough stats to make the Hall of Fame. And the best thing about him? He seems like one of those guys that it would be fun to go to a bar with.

The Fan will watch and see how long the Rockies stay in contention.

The suddenly pitching poor Atlanta Braves did what good teams (and lucky teams) always seem to do--They came up with a miracle in Shane Reynolds. It is easy to wonder what the Astros were thinking when they let him go, but I don't believe they were wrong. Reynolds was coming off an injury, his fastball was down in the low 80's and he was a fly ball pitcher for a team who plays home games in a field where fly balls are homeruns. No, the Astros did what was best for them although two straight losses to the Brewers would tend to make you wonder.

The miracle is that nobody else signed him. The Mets had a chance as Art Howe and Reynolds go back a long way. But it didn't happen. But where were the other teams? A guy who knows how to pitch (no matter what his velocity) would have worked for the Tigers, the Royals, the Giants and any other team that plays in pitchers parks. The Braves got him. And just when you would think they were down for the count and that this would be the year they would fade into the back regions of their division, he pitches two straight games without giving up an earned run and the Braves are on a roll. A funny game, this Major League Baseball.

Sammy Sosa was fortunate and it was good to see him glare at the pitcher after getting beaned in the ear by a pitch. Anyone who lived through the Tony Conigliaro days cringes whenever someone gets beaned. Speaking of such things, I wonder where the former Red Sox pitcher is that got nailed by that line drive a few years ago. I was watching that game too and that was one of the most sickening things I've ever seen. I don't have a strong stomach and tend to get worked up on such things. I'm glad I missed the Jason Kendell broken leg of a few years ago. Yuck.

Baseball Tonight was totally messed up by yet another Stanley Cup overtime game. I hate this time of year and can't wait until hockey is over. But there are so many teams playing in the Stanley Cup that the playoffs go forever. There is no doubt in my mind that 70% of Baseball Tonight telecasts will be delayed or lost altogether by the overtime hockey games. What a waste. Why do these hockey teams have to work so stinking hard to play their whole regulation game and maybe score a goal or two. What an exercise in futility. I think all hockey games should start out sudden death. That way, the first team that scores...wins. Then Baseball Tonight would never be lost again. At least the NBA is smart enough to have three point scoring events: the free throw, the two point shot and the three point shot. It sure prevents the overtime games.

What little the show was on was stunning from Bobby Valentine's extraordinarily sharp criticisms of umpire Joe Brinkman. That kind of REAL insider information has always seemed to be taboo. It gives Baseball Tonight even more credibility and raises its stature. It will be interesting to see how Valentine's comments play out with the league. If his comments concerning Brinkman are true, then baseball should take notices. There is a fine line where umpires have to run the game but remember that they are NOT the game. Some umpires provoke the players and that should never EVER happen.