The Hardball Times -- Paul Francis Sullivan

The Hardball Times -- Paul Francis Sullivan http://www.hardballtimes.com/main Baseball. Insight. Daily. en studes@hardballtimes.com Copyright 2013 2013-06-19T08:32:15+00:00 Five questions:  Miami Marlins http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/five-questions-miami-marlins1/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/five-questions-miami-marlins1/#When:07:04:15 Ozzie Guillen and superstars taking their talents to South Beach.

The epoch of Miami glory was over by July. Between then and November, the Marlins had shed a dozen solid major league players:

{exp:list_maker}Hanley Ramirez and Randy Choate went to the Dodgers.
Edward Mujica went to the Cardinals.
Gaby Sanchez became a Pirate.
Anibal Sanchez was gone to Detroit for the pennant run. Omar Infante went to the Tigers, too.
Erswhile closer Heath Bell will set up for Arizona this season.
And in the blockbuster contract dump, Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio made the Toronto Blue Jays an American League East favorite.
{/exp:list_maker}

And now feelings are so bad for the Marlins that writers are accusing the owners of fraud, the owners are writing open letters to the fans and people feel pity for the players who remain.

Perhaps it is appropriate that there are five questions for the Marlins season asked here. That would be one question for everyone in line for season tickets in a picture taken for the Palm Beach Post with one question to spare.

1. Will owner Jeffrey Loria be able to show his face in public?

Loria has once again stripped the Marlins down to their bare bones and the team will resemble a Triple-A team. He is not exactly the most popular person in Florida and the fan base has little reason to trust that he will keep any familiar faces around.

As he tried to defend himself in his ill-advised open letter to the fans, Loria was correct in saying it was not wise to throw good money after bad and the expensive Marlins did indeed lose 93 games in 2012. They will be younger and hungrier in 2013.

If the Marlins turn into a winner in the next few years with a cast of young kids, he will look like a smart, long-term thinking owner. There is precedent—the World Series-winning Marlins of 1997 (pre-Loria) were torn down postseason and won just 54 games the next year. By 2003, they were world champs again.

Besides, if he wants to hide from Marlins fans, probably the safest place for him to be would be Marlins Park. Very few fans are going there this year.

2. Will Giancarlo Stanton be traded?

The former Mike Stanton is 23 years old and entering his fourth big league season. That makes him the grizzled old veteran of the team. He hit the majors' longest home run of 2012 and has averaged 40 homers per 162 games in his three-year big-league career. He is the team’s MVP candidate and no doubt will make the All Star team as the Marlins’ representative.

That is assuming he will be a Marlin in July.

The right-handed slugging star would be one of the most coveted trade chips in baseball. He is Justin Upton without the baggage. And he is not happy that most of the team was traded from underneath him. He told the world that after the big Toronto trade,

Mets rumors are already swirling about him. Most teams would give up a top prospect to get his prime years. He would be under a team’s control until the end of the 2017 season. He should be the face of the Marlins and this rebuilding. But the chances of him being dealt away are enormous.

3. When will Ricky Nolasco be traded?

Notice the question is “When will” and not “Will he be”. Every team needs pitching. Nolasco will be entering his eighth season, as a 30-year-old, in 2013. He will make $11 million this year, his last before free agency.

Keeping him for the season does not make sense for the Marlins. He will clearly depart in the next offseason, but Kyle Lohse has taught teams a vital lesson about the value of free agent pitchers.

The Marlins will not get to collect a first-round pick for Nolasco if he doesn’t sign with a team. And if teams would not sacrifice their pick for Lohse, what chance would an inconsistent Nolasco have?

Wait for a contender to be hammered with injuries and Nolasco will be packing his bags.

4. Will Mike Redmond last as manager?

Redmond seems like a solid baseball man and could very well make a terrific big league manager. And the Marlins will be giving him his first taste of being a major league skipper before he inevitably is fired and joins another team.

Think that prediction is harsh? Take a look at the franchise’s history. The team was formed in 1993. This will be its 21st season. Mike Redmond is the 13th Marlins manager. Contrast that with the Dodgers, who have had nine managers since 1954.

Including interim manager Brandon Hyde, he is the sixth manager for the Marlins since the start of the 2010 season. Management saw Joe Girardi and Fredi Gonzalez do magnificent jobs with miniscule payrolls and rewarded them with pink slips.

Learn the trade, Mike Redmond, and make your rookie mistakes. According to the averages, in 1.61 seasons, you will be relieved of your duties in Miami.

5. How fast can Jose Fernandez and Christian Yelich get to Miami?

The Marlins do indeed have two of the best young players in the minor leagues. Their arrival could give Miami its answer to Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg. The problem is they are 21 and 20 years old and have yet to play above Single-A.

The two were teammates in Jupiter in 2012. They will probably play most of 2013 in Double-A Jacksonville. They could both make cameos in Miami at the end of the season.

By then the big league team, which looks to be a combination of washed-up veterans like Placido Polanco and Juan Pierre and unproven minor leaguers like Adeiny Hechavarria and Henderson Alvarez (part of the return from Toronto) will need a shot of excitement.

And then Marlins fans can rejoice in seeing two homegrown stars make their debut. Then in four years they will watch them traded for more prospects. And the cycle for the Marlins will continue.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2013-03-15T07:04:15+00:00 Five questions: Los Angeles Dodgers http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/five-questions-los-angeles-dodgers7/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/five-questions-los-angeles-dodgers7/#When:09:04:15 Who is going to run the team?
This is the proverbial elephant in the room. There isn't a single question regarding the team that can be given a definitive answer, from "Who is leading off?" to "What brand of mustard will be available to put on the Dodger Dogs?" that can be answered with any certainty. Frank McCourt won't be running the team. Neither will Joe Torre, Mark Cuban nor me. Whoever does take the reins of the team will certainly leave his thumbprint on the team. But what direction will that be?

New owners tend to mean new management. Does that mean the end of Ned Colletti's term as general manager? How does that affect manager Don Mattingly?

Mattingly: bringing some stability to an unstable situation.

Will the new management want to slash payroll? Or will it try to win over fans with a big crowd-pleasing trade for the likes of a Justin Upton or excite Hideo Nomo's old fans by importing Ichiro Suzuki?

None of these questions can be answered because we don't know who the participants are. Trying to come up with answers on this topic is as futile as Little Orphan Annie openly wondering what her parents were really like. There is a lot of emotion, but none of it is based on any facts. And yet, the other four questions in the article can't be addressed properly without figuring out this one.

In many ways, the 2011 Dodgers showed the perils of analyzing baseball solely by statistics. In 20 years or so, a young person might take a look at the 2011 season
and think it was a positive one in Chavez Ravine.

The team won more games than the previous year, had a new young manager, and featured an electrifying Cy Young season from Clayton Kershaw and an MVP-caliber performance from Matt Kemp. Andre Ethier went on a 23-game hitting streak, and Dee Gordon emerged as an exciting sparkplug at shortstop. That person reading the numbers would come to the conclusion that Dodgers fans had fun and were optimistic in 2011.

But stats do not mention things like "bitter divorce" and "misused funds" and "bankruptcy" and "ownership taken over by the league" and "possibly missing payroll" and "Bryan Stowe's beating." Dodger fans stayed away in droves and were angry most of the season, with good reason. The team that should be a powerhouse in the National League and one of the most glamorous franchises was a source of ridicule and humiliation.

The team will go in a different direction in 2012. But which way? Using a Ouija board might be a good way to find out now.

On to the other four questions. Inevitably the management issue will come up again.

Will Kershaw and Billingsley be a great 1-2 punch?

The great Dodger tradition of Cy Young Award winners continued with Kershaw last year. In a league that features Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum as well as a surprising year from Ian Kennedy, Kershaw's award was well deserved no matter what pitching criteria you use. He won the pitching triple crown, leading the league in wins (21), ERA (2.28) and strikeouts (248).

For people who like cooler new stats, he was second in WAR for pitchers (7.0), had the best WHIP (0.977) and did this while logging 233.1 innings and winning a Gold Glove. Starting the 24-year-old Kershaw every five days is a good start.

As Kershaw had his breakout year last year, the Dodgers are hoping Chad Billingsley will improve. In 2008, the 23-year-old Billingsley was a 200-inning pitcher, striking out 2.51 for every walk with an ERA+ of 133. And he won 16 games with an ERA of 3.14, for those of you who still care about that.

Three years later, his innings and strikeout totals are down and his ERA+ is at 88. At one point, the 2009 All-Star looked like he was on the fast track to being an ace. Now he is at a crossroads. Will be turn it around and be a right-handed compliment to Kershaw or just a good No. 4 starter?

The rest of the rotation will be rounded out by steady, if unspectacular, veterans. Ted Lilly is about as exciting as a plate of croutons, but the left-hander has been cashing big-league checks for more than a dozen seasons for a reason. He logs 190-some innings, maintains an ERA under 4.00 and keeps his team in the ballgame.

Former Padre Aaron Harang had a solid season in Petco while Chris Capuano was mediocre for the Mets. They both let up their share of homers, but spacious Dodger Stadium (as well as many starts in pitcher-friendly San Francisco and San Diego) should help them and the Dodgers make up for the loss of Hiroki Kuroda. Also, young Nate Eovaldi could emerge as an effective arm for the club.

But this rotation is the Kershaw and Billingsley show. And how far they will go depends on how much Billingsley can catch up to his counterpart's production.

What is the fate of Andre Ethier?

The remarkably talented if sometimes enigmatic Ethier should be part of the best outfield in the National League. Kemp's MVP credentials were solid with or without a positive PED test for Ryan Braun. The durable, dynamic, power-hitting Gold Glove center fielder was so valuable that a team in bankruptcy court signed him to an eight-year, $160 million contract extension.

Ethier, however, is a free agent at the end of the season, and he best personifies the unknown future of the team. On the one hand, he is a Gold Glove-winning, power-hitting, walk-off hit-slugging star. On the other hand he is injury-prone. And Ethier did not exactly endear himself to Mattingly by publicly saying he was being made to play hurt for most of 2011. He backed down from the statement but was shut down for the rest of the season. He had knee surgery in the offseason and has been a dour figure in spring training.

Ethier could negotiate for a new contract once the new management arrives. Or the new management could turn around and trade him away while he still has value. (Injury-prone players entering their 30s no longer have as much value since other ways of recovery have been cut off by testing.)

Kemp and Ethier should be a wonderful 1-2 combo if they are both healthy. But if Ethier isn't, they should change direction. Until new management arrives, this question is up in the air.

Can Guerra and Jansen anchor the bullpen?

In April of last season, Javy Guerra was in Double-A Chattanooga, his eighth year in the minors without a single game in Triple-A. This year he enters training camp as the closer of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He saved 21 games to a 2.31 ERA and an ERA+ of 162. He struck out 2.11 for every walk and gave up only two homers.

However, he only pitched 46.2 innings and faced just 195 batters. Is he for real or will batters make adjustments in his sophomore season? He still hasn't pitched in Triple-A as he jumped straight from Chattanooga. If he plays in the minors this year, that would be bad news.

The other surprising star in the 2011 Dodgers bullpen was Kenley Jansen. In 2010, he held batters to a 0.67 ERA over 27 innings. It was a warm-up to last year, his official rookie season. His 96 strikeouts in 53.2 innings set a major-league record with 16.1 strikeouts per nine innings. He only finished 13 of his 51 games last year (saving five of them) but would certainly be a candidate to close if Guerra falters.

Scott Elbert and Josh Lindblom both were effective out of the pen last year, and Todd Coffey was brought in for depth. But the late innings look to be split between Guerra and Jansen.

Will the real James Loney please stand up?

James Loney was supposed to be one of the Dodgers' home-grown stars along with Kershaw and Kemp. But he has yet to put together the solid all-around season he hinted at in his 2007 rookie year.

His average, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS+ and WAR are all thoroughly mediocre. Throw in a shady traffic accident in the offseason, and there are a lot of eyes on the Dodger's first baseman. He seemed like a candidate for non-tender in the offseason, but he is back.

And there are some reasons to hope. Eight of his 12 homers were hit after the All-Star break, when he slugged an impressive .534. Plus, batting second in front of Kemp could help him see more pitches. If Loney and young shortstop Gordon can get on base for Kemp and Ethier, the Dodgers might score enough runs for Kershaw and company on the mound.

If Loney falters again, maybe Ethier could move to first and young Alfredo Silverio might fit into the outfield. Of all the positions on the diamond, the easiest to find a replacement is first base. Loney needs to hit like he did in the second half, or he will be on the outside looking in. Then again, Loney's fate is also tied to management.

Maybe the 2012 Dodgers should be the first team to have their season preview written after the season has started.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2012-03-21T09:04:15+00:00 Dave Duncan, the 1982 Mariners and lost glory http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/dave-duncan-the-82-mariners-and-lost-glory/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/dave-duncan-the-82-mariners-and-lost-glory/#When:09:43:15 Dave Duncan has stepped down from his position with the St. Louis Cardinals. Chances are he has coached his last game, leaving as a world champion. But he’s been more than a great pitching coach. He has left in his wake a multitude of pitchers who turned their careers around, tapped into their potential, and had their best seasons under his tutelage.

In his time as a coach for the White Sox, A’s and Cardinals, four different pitchers won Cy Young Awards. (LaMarr Hoyt, Bob Welch, Dennis Eckersley and Chris Carpenter.) He turned a journeyman into one of the best postseason aces of all time (Dave Stewart.) He made a Hall of Famer out of one washed-up starter-turned-reliever (Eckersley) and a top setup man out of another (Rick Honeycutt.) And he transformed a reliever into a 20-win, Cy Young-contending starter (Adam Wainwright).

Pitchers like Storm Davis, Jeff Weaver, Jeff Suppan, Matt Morris and Joel Pineiro all became millionaires many times over after reviving their careers under Duncan’s watch. Twenty times one of his pitchers received Cy Young consideration. He has a remarkable resume of success with three different playoff-bound franchises (and world championships in both leagues.)

And to think, the team that could have benefitted from this wisdom was the Seattle Mariners.

The potential turning point of 1982

In 1982, Duncan spent his first and only season as pitching coach for Seattle. At the time, the Mariners had played five seasons and had lost 100 games in two of them.

Managers Darrell Johnson and Maury Wills couldn’t turn the team into a .500 club, let alone a contender. But when manager Rene Lachemann brought Duncan onto his coaching staff, things began to turn around.

The Mariners were contending at the All-Star break and had a winning record going into August before tailing off. But their 76-86 record was by far their best season to date.

The main reason for the turnaround was the pitching. With Duncan in charge of the staff, Seattle led the league in strikeouts and finished second in saves and shutouts.

Seattle’s 1982 season was best remembered for an ancient Mariner. Gaylord Perry earned his 300th win (and cemented his Hall of Fame resume) in the Kingdome that year. But it was their young pitchers that gave the team hope.

Twenty-seven-year-old Floyd Bannister was starting to fulfill his talent. Jim Beattie already had World Series experience and success but was also only 27 and pitched to a good 3.34 ERA. Twenty-five-year-old Bill Caudill was the bullpen ace, winning 12 and saving 26 with a 2.35 ERA.

Left-handers Bryan Clark and Ed Vande Berg were both excellent that year out of the pen. And a trio of youngsters, Edwin Nunez, Mike Moore and Gene Nelson, all struggled but showed promise. Moore, at age 22, was the elder statesman of the three. Jerry Don Gleaton and Larry Andersen, both of whom would pitch for many years to come, were also on the staff.

The staff that could have been

What if Duncan were allowed to mold this group? Picture the same coach who transformed so many careers using his wisdom and turning around the franchise.

Moore would spend years being agonizingly inconsistent in Seattle before becoming an ace after joining the A’s (and Duncan’s supervision.) Nunez never quite put it together in his career, shuttling between the rotation and the bullpen before bouncing around as a mop-up man for the next 12 seasons. Perhaps Duncan could have been his anchor.

Meanwhile, the Mariners farm system included future ace Mark Langston and the talented, but inconsistent, Matt Young.

Imagine the Mariners pitching in the mid 1980s with Duncan on the coaching staff. As history actually unfolded, neither Moore nor Langston could synchronize their solid seasons. One was always off when the other was on. Could Duncan have made them the devastating 1-2 punch in the AL West?

Along with Bannister and Young in the rotation and Caudill, Gleaton, Nunez and Andersen in the bullpen, the team could have had the best pitching staff in the division. Nelson would become an effective pitcher under Duncan in Oakland. Why not in Seattle?

Remove Duncan’s influence from the 1983 White Sox and the 1988-1992 A’s, and the AL West would have been a very winnable division.

No team other than the LaRussa/Duncan White Sox had even a winning record in the West in 1983. The 84-win Royals were the lone winning AL West team in 1984, and 91 wins were enough for the Royals to win in 1985. The Twins won the AL West (and eventually the World Series) with just 85 wins. And then the LaRussa/Duncan juggernaut went to Oakland.

Sure, this change in history would have meant that Ken Griffey, Jr. would have been drafted by another team, but the foundation of a good offense was there as well.

Big leaguers Dave Henderson, Julio Cruz and Todd Cruz were all on the 1982 squad. Future major leaguers like Spike Owen, Phil Bradley, Harold Reynolds, Alvin Davis and Jim Presley were already in the Mariners system. And Danny Tartabull was acquired between the 1982 and 1983 seasons.

None of those players were superstars, but they could have given Seattle a good infield and a powerful outfield to compliment their deep pitching.

A great pitching staff could have finished in first one of those years. The franchise that had 15 of 16 losing years to begin their existence could have found the postseason around the same time as their partner in expansion, the Toronto Blue Jays, did in the mid 1980s.

The ugly truth

Alas, that didn’t happen. Mariners owner George Argyros was notoriously cheap and wouldn’t give Duncan more than a one-year contract. Duncan went to the White Sox in 1983 in time for their first postseason berth since 1959. The Mariners regressed to a 100-loss team and even Dick Williams couldn’t turn the squad around.

As Duncan collaborated with LaRussa on 14 playoff teams, six pennant winners and three world champions, the city of Seattle remains the only current big-league city never to have hosted a World Series.

(The Nationals/Expos franchise has never won a pennant, either. But the city of Washington was host to the 1924, 1925 and 1933 World Series, and Montreal is no longer a big-league city.)

Could the Mariners have won in the mediocre West of the 1980s? Nobody will know for sure. But it is safe to guess that a pitching coach who could win a World Series starting Jeff Weaver, Jeff Suppan and Anthony Reyes could have done a good job Mike Moore and Mark Langston in their primes.

Alas, more reasons to cry in Seattle’s coffee.

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Ruth was the most popular player in all of baseball, let alone New York. The Yankees, once the irrelevant Highlanders, would surpass the Giants at the box office. And while the Giants would continue to win pennants (including four in a row between 1921 and 1924), they would see their place as the dominant team in New York fade as the Yankees became a juggernaut. The Yankees' dominance would remain almost uninterrupted from the early 1920s until the mid 1960s. By then the Giants had moved across country to San Francisco. And most people point to the arrival of Ruth as the beginning of the Yankees' stranglehold on the World Series (and maybe even the Red Sox's eight decades of World Series futility!).

However, Ruth's connection to the Giants could have been more direct than a charity game. And perhaps if a few factors had been slightly different, the Giants would remain the toast of New York and had their rightful place as the most dominant team in baseball.

John McGraw, the Federal League and the Baltimore connection

Babe Ruth's legend began at St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore, where he had lived since his early childhood. He developed into a top baseball prospect within the school's walls and caught the attention of Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles. Dunn felt so strongly that Ruth could make it as a ballplayer that he not only signed him, but adopted him. Legally, the 19-year-old Ruth needed to be adopted to be released from the school. Imagine a first-round pick needing to sign adoption papers today.

His relationship with Dunn made his Orioles teammates to call him "Dunn's Babe" and the name Babe Ruth stuck. So did Ruth's abilities; he shone as a hitter and a pitcher for the Orioles. The problem for Dunn was not on the field but across town. A third major league, the Federal League, put big league talent in cities that had no National or American League teams. That meant the Baltimore Terrapins started playing literally across the street from the Orioles. Babe Ruth would be playing in front of crowds of 100 or less and Dunn knew he had to sell some of his players to pay back his debts.

Dunn was borrowing money from his former partner, Joe Lannin, who by 1914 owned the Providence Grays, a minor league team with connections to the Boston Red Sox. Dunn knew that Lannin could afford to purchase Ruth's contract. But there was another interested party.

The Giants' legendary manager, John McGraw, who had played for the Orioles when they were part of the National League, was friends with Dunn. McGraw had seen Ruth play when the Orioles played Newark and offered Dunn $5,000 for him.

However, the Orioles were about to return home and the home town hero Ruth was beginning to draw more customers into the park. Dunn told McGraw that he wouldn't sell Ruth just yet.

Dunn then contacted Lannin and offered catcher Ben Eagan, pitcher Ernie Shore and Ruth for the total of $8,500. Eagan, who had big league experience, was the biggest prospect in the package, being worth $3,500. He would finish as a .165 hitter in 122 games over four seasons. Ruth was worth $2,900 in the deal.

McGraw read of the deal and was enraged that not only did he not acquire Ruth, but that he offered more than what the Orioles finally got for him.

When Ruth's impact on the league became clear, Dunn tried to appease McGraw by selling him pitcher Jack Bentley, who flamed out after a few seasons. Later Dunn offered another pitcher to the Giants but McGraw was no longer speaking to him. The pitcher he was offered was future Hall of Famer Lefty Grove, who went to the Philadelphia Athletics.

Had Babe been a Giant

Had Ruth gone to the Giants, the impact on baseball history would have been seismic. Ruth would have arrived in the Polo Grounds in either 1914 or 1915, just as the Giants were on the heels of three straight pennants between 1911 and 1913. He would have been teammates with future Hall of Famers Christy Mathewson, Rube Marquard, High Pockets Kelly and Ross Youngs. And the wild Ruth, whose behavior eventually helped push him out of Boston, would have found his match in New York with McGraw. Like Ruth, McGraw was a tough Irishman from Baltimore. And no doubt he would have imposed his will on Ruth as well harnessed his many talents.

Under McGraw, Ruth probably would have remained a pitcher as well as an outfielder on his off days. McGraw would have seen the value of the dominant left hander on the mound every five days and the home run power into the short right field porch the other four days.

As the Mathewson era ended with World War I, it would be Ruth in the Polo Grounds who would become the biggest draw in New York. Even if the Yankees poached all of the other Red Sox stars after the 1918 World Series, Ruth and the Giants would reign supreme. Without Ruth, the Giants won five pennants in eight years between 1917 and 1924. With Ruth the gap would have been closed even further.

By the mid 1920s, as Ruth would enter his greatest years, imagine pairing him with Hall of Famers Bill Terry, Frankie Frisch and even Rogers Hornsby for the 1927 season.

As Ruth's career waned in the early 1930s, the hitting torch would be passed to Terry, Travis Jackson and Mel Ott and the title of pitching ace would transfer to Carl Hubbell. The transition of dominance of the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s would continue through the 1930s. The Giants won the 1933 World Series as well as the 1936 and 1937 pennants. The 30s might have been even more dominant.

The Yankees played in New York?

But the chances of a Yankees dynasty without the drawing power of Ruth would have been diminished. Without the drawing power of Ruth, chances are the Yankees would have been a second class citizen in New York. Much like the Braves in Boston or the Browns in St. Louis, the Yankees would probably have had the little brother quality. Perhaps they would have won a pennant here or there. But the ability to buy the best prospects and not have to sell off their best players during the 1930s and 1940s would have been remote.

If the Giants had continued their dominance into the 1940s, it might have been the Yankees who looked west for brighter prospects. By the 1950s, it was clear that the push of the population out of the cities and into the suburbs and the west had made two franchises in most cities unrealistic. The Giants' move was a foregone conclusion by the mid 1950s. Had they been the main attraction of the city, it would have been the Yankees flirting with Minneapolis and San Francisco for a relocation.

Maybe the expansion Mets would have been an American League team to replace the San Francisco Yankees. Perhaps New York fans would be crowing about the Giants' 27 titles. Maybe the greatest baseball debate would have been "Who was the greatest Giant? Babe Ruth or Willie Mays?"

Maybe Ruth would have had his 714 homers and 300 wins.

These are a lot of maybes that could have been answered had Jack Dunn sold Babe Ruth's contract to the Giants for $5,000.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2011-09-23T09:24:15+00:00 Paul Sorrento and the fortune teller http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/paul-sorrento-and-the-fortune-teller/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/paul-sorrento-and-the-fortune-teller/#When:05:05:15

The setting is Portland, Oregon. The time is just before the 1991 baseball season.

Paul Sorrento, a top prospect for the Minnesota Twins, is sent down to start the season at Triple-A Portland despite having a tremendous season there in 1990. Depressed that he couldn't make the roster of the last-place Twins, he goes to a fortune teller.

SORRENTO: I need to know, am I going to finish this season in the majors?

The Fortune Teller looks into her ball.

FORTUNE TELLER: I see...I see you in a very strange place in the fall.

SORRENTO: Where?

FORTUNE TELLER: It is a building. It has a canvas roof and something that looks like a blue trash bag covering up folded up seats.

SORRENTO: The Metrodome! So I am going to be in Minnesota. When?

FORTUNE TELLER: It looks like the fall.

Sorrento shakes his head.

SORRENTO: Man, I have to wait to be a September call-up?

FORTUNE TELLER: No. Not September. It is October.

SORRENTO: October? That's impossible, the Twins were in last place last year.

FORTUNE TELLER: But I hear people saying a phrase over and over again. "Worst to first." And "Fall Classic."

Sorrento's jaw drops.

SORRENTO: The Twins are going to the World Series?

FORTUNE TELLER: Yes. And you are there.

SORRENTO: What happens?

FORTUNE TELLER: I hear people say it is amazing series. Maybe the best ever.

SORRENTO: Do the Twins win?

FORTUNE TELLER: I see...I see a celebration. Someone has won the game for them.

SORRENTO: Did the Twins win?

FORTUNE TELLER: I see a crowd waving handkerchiefs indoors.

SORRENTO: Holy Crap! That's a Twins win!

FORTUNE TELLER: Yes. I hear the two words: "Game" and "Seven."

SORRENTO: Wow.

FORTUNE TELLER: And "series-ending pinch hit".

SORRENTO: Who? Who is it?

FORTUNE TELLER: It is all unclear. There are no names on the back of the Twins' uniforms. The numbers are hazy.

SORRENTO: What do you SEE?

FORTUNE TELLER: I see someone throwing a ball. Then he is walking away. He looks sad. He has a name on his back.

SORRENTO: That's the pitcher. What is his name?

FORTUNE TELLER: Peña.

SORRENTO: Peña. Who got the hit?

FORTUNE TELLER: He is standing on the left side.

SORRENTO: Yes?

FORTUNE TELLER: It is very unclear. I hear a phrase. "Seldom-used first baseman."

Sorrento covers his mouth.

SORRENTO: Oh my God. Tell me more!

FORTUNE TELLER: What does "playing time blocked by Hrbek" mean?

SORRENTO: It means me! Tell me anything more!

FORTUNE TELLER: I'm losing the image. I hear fragments. "Unlikely hero." "Game Seven." "Pinch hitting for the pinch runner." "Series-ending pinch hit." "Native Northeasterner."

SORRENTO: That's me! I was born in Somerville, Massachusetts! I'm a native Northeasterner! I hit on the left side of the plate! I'm a first baseman whose playing time is blocked by Kent Hrbek! I'm going to win the World Series on a hit off of Peña! That must be Alejandro Peña of the Mets.

FORTUNE TELLER: Mets... I don't hear Mets. Perhaps Atlanta?

SORRENTO: Atlanta? That's not likely. One last-place team going to the World Series is one thing. Two?

FORTUNE TELLER: Once again. It is cloudy.

Sorrento leaves and finds it amusing, but stops believing once the opponent is revealed to be Atlanta.

During the year, the Twins surprise everyone and surge past Oakland into first place. On July 1, Sorrento is called up to the bigs. But his playing time is blocked by Hrbek, and he is sent back down. On Aug. 28, the surprising Atlanta Braves acquire Alejandro Peña to be their bullpen closer for the stretch run. This catches Sorrento's attention. Was the fortune teller onto something?

Sorrento was recalled for the stretch run and added to the playoff roster. Sitting on the bench, he kept wondering, "Would I come up against Alejandro Peña with the World Series on the line?" But he brushed it aside as coincidence. Who can believe a fortune teller?

He struck out as a pinch hitter in Game Three of the ALCS against Toronto and celebrated with the team two days later as they clinched the pennant. He looked around at all the veterans on the team. Puckett, Hrbek, Pagliarulo, Gagne, Davis, Harper and Gladden... could SORRENTO become the biggest hero of them all? When Atlanta became their National League opponent, Sorrento got spooked. Peña was the closer. Was it all coming together?

Sorrento made two pinch-hit appearances in the World Series but wasn't a factor in the first six games. Then came Game Seven. Hrbek got the start. Sorrento looked around. Hankies waving. Could this be what the fortune teller saw?

The game was scoreless through six, then seven. After eight innings, it was clear that the Twins could only win with a game-ending hit. Mike Stanton had relieved John Smoltz. There was no way Sorrento, a left-handed hitter, would pinch hit against Stanton.

The ninth inning began with a leadoff hit by Chili Davis. The run that would win the 1991 World Series was on base. Whomever could knock in that run, represented by pinch runner Jarvis Brown, would be the hero.

Brian Harper bunted off Stanton, who injured himself on the play. Bobby Cox replaced Stanton with Alejandro Peña. Sorrento froze. There were too many coincidences. His moment of glory could be coming.

Shane Mack hit into a double play and third baseman Mike Pagliarulo was walked to pitch to Al Newman, who had pinch run for Randy Bush in the eighth.

Minnesota manager Tom Kelly looked down the bench and called, "Sorrento! You're batting for Newman!"

Sorrento had the biggest grin in Minnesota. He knew what was going to happen. It was foretold.

Up he strode to the plate and looked up at the waving hankies and the baggie over the right field seats. Here he was, the Native Northeasterner seldom used first baseman who was blocked by Hrbek, in Game Seven pinch hitting for the pinch runner and facing Alejandro Pena. Now all that was left was to deliver the series-ending hit and become the unlikely hero. He was remarkably calm at the plate. Fate was going to deliver this hit.

The count got to 0-2, but there was a grin on his face. Pena threw the 0-2 pitch. Sorrento gave a mighty cut, the cut that would end the World Series and put his name among the great heroes of the game.

But he missed. It was a strikeout. The game went into extra innings.

Scott Leius went into shortstop. Sorrento's game and season were over. Slumped on the bench, he wondered, "What the hell happened? Everything was aligned perfectly." Looking up in the 10th inning, he saw the Twins rallying. With the bases loaded and Peña on the mound, it was Brown's turn to bat. He was the pinch runner from the earlier inning. Instead, Kelly called over to Gene Larkin to pinch hit.

Sorrento nodded. Larkin was a seldom-used first baseman. He was blocked by Hrbek. And here he was pinch hitting for the pinch runner in Game Seven against Alejandro Peña. On the first pitch, Larkin drove a ball to left field for the series-ending pinch hit to make him an unlikely World Series hero.

Sorrento celebrated with his teammates and made his way over to Larkin.

SORRENTO: Geno. I need to ask you something.

LARKIN: What?

SORRENTO: Where were you born?

LARKIN: What?

SORRENTO: I just need to know.

LARKIN: Flushing, Queens. I'm a Native Northeasterner. Why do you ask?

SORRENTO: I know a fortune teller in Portland that you should see.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2011-07-12T05:05:15+00:00 Vizquel’s unlikely quest for 3,000 hits http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/vizquels-unlikely-quest-for-3000-hits/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/vizquels-unlikely-quest-for-3000-hits/#When:10:53:15

Omar Vizquel's Hall of Fame credentials are becoming more and more valid as he hangs around the major leagues. Undeniably an elite defender and Gold Glove regular at shortstop, his hit total keeps climbing.

He already has more hits than Hall of Famers such as Andre Dawson, Tony Perez and Lou Gehrig. And he has long surpassed his fellow countryman Luis Aparicio.

Now of course, Vizquel was never an All-Star nor an elite player because of his bat; he has never had a 200-hit season (the closest being a 191- hit campaign in 1999). So his quest for 3,000 hits (he is currently 172 hits shy) would be without that magic number.

I assumed that if he reached that goal, he would be the lone 3,000-hit man without a 200-hit season. Besides, reaching 3,000 would mean averaging 150 hits over 20 seasons. And seeing that most hitters tail off toward the end of their careers, they would need some high hit totals to meet that average.

And a quick glance at the 3,000-hit club shows players who were regulars in the batting race and elite offensive players. So I actually began writing this piece with the premise that Vizquel's 3,000 hits would be unique.

It's a good thing I actually did some research. As of this writing, there are 27 players in the history of the major leagues who have 3,000 hits. Once Derek Jeter comes back and gets six singles, it will be 28.

Of those 28, five never had a 200 hit season. And their names caught me off guard.

Cap Anson

Cap Anson never had a 200-hit season, but nobody can hold that against him. Some of the seasons he played in were fewer than 70 games. He never had more than 500 plate appearances in a single season until he was 32. So the fact that he churned out 3,435 hits over 27 seasons was quite remarkable.

It is safe to say that he played in an a different era. He made his debut with the 1871 Rockford Forest Citys. That team played 25 games in a season just six years removed from the Civil War. I do not believe the team was integrated.

Carl Yastrzemski

This truly stunned me. When I was a kid growing up in Boston during the late 1970s and 1980s, Carl Yastrzemski was a demigod. He won multiple batting titles. He was the last Triple Crown winner. He had the league's best OPS and OPS+ four times (although none of us knew that then).

He was the first American Leaguer to get 3,000 hits and 400 home runs. And while he was a solid defender (he won seven Gold Gloves in his career) he was a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame because of his bat.

Yaz did indeed pile up hits, two times leading the league in hits, and he did so in a crazy pitchers' era. When he won the batting title in 1968, his average was .301! His career high in hits was 191 in 1962. Over 23 years he averaged 167 hits, good for 3,419 in his career.

Dave Winfield

Another Hall of Famer from my youth surprisingly never passed 200 hits in a season. One of the truly consistent power hitters of the 1980s, he contended for the 1984 batting title with teammate Don Mattingly. That was the year he reached a career high of 193 hits. Dave Winfield is one of the great talents in sports history. Drafted by the NBA, ABA and NFL, he went to the Padres and skipped the minor leagues to become a regular MVP candidate.

He did everything in the majors, winning Gold Gloves, making multiple All-Star teams, getting a World Series-clinching hit for Toronto and collecting 3,110 hits and 465 home runs on his way to Cooperstown. Somehow 200 hits eluded him.

Eddie Murray

Vizquel and Winfield's teammate on the 1995 American League Champion Cleveland Indians, Eddie Murray was a model of offensive consistency. His average always hovered around .300 during his prime. His home run total was always in the 20s and 30s. He would always drive in 90 to 100 runs. His nickname Steady Eddie seemed remarkably apt.

But I also remembered that he played 21 seasons, and many toward the end of his career were plagued with injuries that were normal for a 40-year-old slugger. I also remembered he had some subpar seasons with the Dodgers and the Mets. So to reach 3,255 hits and average 174 over 21 seasons, there must have been a few 200-hit seasons to balance everything out.

He never reached 200. Amazingly he never got 190 hits in a season. He just consistently got hit after hit, being a reliable force from his early 20s to his 40s. And along the way, he threw in some World Series heroics in three different decades.

Rickey Henderson

The greatest leadoff hitter of all time (there is no debate over this) scored more runs than any player in baseball history and stole 468 more bases than Lou Brock. No other player has 1,000 steals. Rickey Henderson has 1,406.

Only Barry Bonds was walked more often than Henderson and even that needs to be taken with a grain of salt when you consider how many intentional walks Bonds received. In other words, nobody got on base, moved over and scored better than Rickey. You may have rolled your eyes when he said "I am the greatest of all time," but was he wrong?

Rickey did a lot of hanging around at the end of his career but still managed to put up some good numbers. In 1998, his final season with the Oakland A's, he led league in walks and stolen bases at age 39. At age 42 he got his 3,000th hit with a double on the last day of the 2001 season. He played for two more seasons, one with the Red Sox and one with the Dodgers. (Raise your hand if you remember Rickey as a Red Sox or a Dodger.)

He led the American League in hits during the strike-shortened 1981 campaign with 135. His career high was 172 in 1985, his first season with the Yankees. But Rickey's game never seemed to about piling up hits. He just wanted to get on base and score. And that's what he did. And he was the greatest.

So what do those players all have in common? They were all considered to be elite offensively during their day and all made the Hall of Fame based on what they did with their bats.

If Omar Vizquel gets in, it will be based on his glove, but he would be able to join the 3,000 hit club with the elite hitters. No 200-hit season required.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2011-06-29T10:53:15+00:00 The franchise moves that almost happened http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-franchise-moves-that-almost-happened/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-franchise-moves-that-almost-happened/#When:06:57:15
But there have been many proposed moves and threats to relocate over the years that could have changed baseball.

What teams could have moved? What fan base could have been devastated?

And how could a fan base, a team and major league baseball have been different if these moves were made?

The Milwaukee Browns—1954

The city of St. Louis had two ball clubs and two very different owners during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Cardinals were run by Fred Saigh, who bought the team from Sam Breadon. The Redbirds could not match their success from the early and mid 1940s under Saigh’s leadership.

Meanwhile the Browns were run by Bill Veeck. He famously brought in midget Eddie Gaedel to bat in a Browns game. He brought in Satchel Paige to pitch. Plus he had the two greatest figures of Cardinals history on the Browns payroll. Rogers Hornsby managed the team and Dizzy Dean was the broadcaster. Veeck knew that St. Louis couldn’t support two teams and seemed determined to make that team the Browns. When Saigh was convicted on tax evasion charges during the 1952 season, out-of-town investors looked to buy the team and move it.

However, the Busch family bought the team and pumped Anheuser Busch money into the team. Veeck knew he couldn’t compete with Budweiser, so he looked to move the club to Milwaukee for the 1954 season. But the owners, who never cared for the theatrical Veeck, blocked the move. They also blocked his proposed move to Baltimore until he sold the team to Baltimore investors.

If Veeck had sold the team to a Milwaukee investor, the Browns would have returned to their original home. (They played as the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901 and 1902 before moving to St. Louis.) The Braves would have had to find a different home. Maybe they would have been the Baltimore Braves. And maybe the Seattle Pilots would have been given more than a year to survive before heading to Milwaukee.

The Los Angeles or San Francisco Senators—1956

The 1950s were a time when the population was shifting and teams were on the move to take advantage of new markets. And no team needed a change of scenery more than the Senators. The team stank for so long and the very prospect of winning pennant was so preposterous that it was the plot of "Damn Yankees" and involved a deal with the devil.

After the Browns became the Orioles in the mid 1950s, the Senators had to share the region. Around that time, non-stop cross country flights made the possibility of major league baseball in California a reality. With Senators patriarch Clark Griffith dead, his nephew took over the team and had images of West Coast glory, glamour and riches dancing in his head.

The city of Los Angeles began to court the Senators. The fastest-growing city in the country was going to be a Senators city. The West Coast would go crazy for them. And the courtship continued during the 1956 World Series in Brooklyn. However, when Walter O’Malley got wind that Los Angeles officials were in town, he let them know that his Dodgers would consider Los Angeles as an option in case their stadium proposal fell through.

Los Angeles officials saw that they had a chance to bring in a glamorous franchise with superstars. Instead of bringing in Senators like Herb Plews and Jim Lemon, they could import Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese.

When L.A.’s flirtation with the Dodgers intensified, the Senators set their gaze on San Francisco and Seals Stadium. But the Dodgers' move to California needed a second National League team to go west for approval. So the Giants were persuaded to abandon a move to Minneapolis and head to San Francisco.

With the West Coast options dried up (and the possibility of San Diego and Seattle found not viable) the Senators stayed in Washington until the 1961 season, when they moved to Minnesota and became the Twins.

But if O’Malley had not leaned that the Los Angeles officials were in town, Harmon Killebrew could have been L.A.’s first baseball superstar… and maybe the Dodgers would still be in Brooklyn.

The Minneapolis Giants—1957

Despite a glorious history, two recent pennants, a World Series title in 1954 and the presence of Willie Mays, the Giants' time in New York was coming to a close. Their attendance was sagging and the Polo Grounds was crumbling.

The most likely spot was to Minneapolis. The city was dying for a major league team and Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington just needed minor tweaks to be major league ready. And, along with an expected frenzied new fanbase, they were familiar with many of the players including Mays . The Minneapolis Millers were the Giants top farm team and many of the 1954 World Series winners had played in Minnesota.

However the Dodgers needed a second team in California to get their move west approved by the league. So with pressure from Walter O’Malley and San Francisco mayor George Christopher, the Giants forsook 10,000 lakes for the Bay Area and Seals Stadium.

Perhaps honoring their original intention of a Minnesota move could have blocked the Dodgers from leaving Brooklyn. Either way, the appeal from San Francisco prevented Willie Mays from being one of the most beloved figures in Minnesota sports history.

The Los Angeles Athletics – 1956

When the A’s left Philadelphia for Missouri, it was a doomed marriage from the start. Owner Arnold Johnson had many ties with the Yankees and the team became essentially a de facto farm club for the Bronx Bombers.

Not only did Johnson never have any intention of building a pennant winner, but he seemed ready to move the team almost from the moment it landed. His eyes were on Los Angeles and the potential to have a gigantic market for himself. If he had coordinated with the Griffith family, perhaps the Athletics would have had Los Angeles and the Senators could have ruled San Francisco.

Instead the Dodgers took off for Los Angeles. The A’s never got to be the L. A. A’s. Johnson died during 1960 spring training.

The Dallas-Louisville-Atlanta-San Diego-Seattle-Denver-New Orleans-Phoenix A’s—1960s and 1970s

After Charlie O. Finley took over from the Johnson family in 1960, he vowed to never move the team from Kansas City. Then he almost immediately began shopping the team around. By the end of the 1962 season, he tried to move the A’s to Dallas. The move was denied by his fellow owners.

Unfazed, at the end of the 1963 season he had a deal to return big league baseball to Louisville for the first time since the Colonels were disbanded in 1900. Once again, the owners rejected the move.

Every year there seemed to be a new landing place for the A’s. One minute he wanted to bring the team to Atlanta. Then San Diego and Seattle wanted a ballclub and had Finley’s ear.

And each time he wanted to move, he was rejected. Finally, in 1967, his proposed move to Oakland was approved after Kansas City passed funding for a new park and a replacement expansion team would be rewarded to the city.

Once in Oakland starting in 1968, the seeds of a great team were planted. The A’s made the playoffs each year from 1971 to 1975 and became the only team other than the Yankees to win three straight World Series in 1972, 1973 and 1974. But titles did not bring stability.

By 1978 the A’s were a shell of their former selves, decimated by bad trades and free agency. Finley once again began to look elsewhere.

In 1978 he courted Denver to move the A’s to Mile High Stadium. In 1979, New Orleans and the Superdome were brought into the mix. By the early 1980s, when Finley was going through a divorce, he tried to sell the team to an investor who would move the club to Denver. But when the Raiders announced they were leaving for Los Angeles, the city of Oakland acted quickly to not lose baseball and football at the same time. Oakland would not let Finley out of the Coliseum lease and ultimately forced Finley to sell part of the team.

He sold the team to Walter Haas, who kept the team in Oakland, even though he looked at Phoenix as a possible new home for the club. The A’s are currently looking to move out of Oakland again.

The Milwaukee White Sox—1968

When the Braves left Milwaukee for Atlanta before the 1966 season, Bud Selig led a group determined to bring a team back to Wisconsin. The most likely candidate was less than 100 miles away.

The White Sox played several “home games” in Milwaukee. The result was eye-popping. In just nine games, the Milwaukee schedule made up for nearly a third of the White Sox home attendance. The scenario seemed almost too perfect. The White Sox would travel just two hours north and be close enough to retain their fans in Chicago who were not about to become Cubs fans. And the baseball-starved fans in Milwaukee were eager to embrace a new team.

Selig and White Sox owner Arthur Allyn agreed to the deal but the move was blocked by American League owners, who felt it was bad for business to leave Chicago. Selig would later turn his attention to the expansion Pilots, who he turned into the Brewers in 1970. Evidently the American League owners weren’t so concerned about abandoning Seattle.

The Washington Padres—1974

The expansion of 1969 looked like it produced two duds. The Seattle Pilots lasted a single season before going to Milwaukee. The San Diego Padres didn’t look like they were going to fare much better. The team was rotten on the field and the initial excitement for the team died off after a couple of years.

After 1973, their fifth season, Padres owner C. Arnholt Smith was about to sell the team to Joseph Danzansky, who wanted to move it to Washington to replace the second Senators team, who moved and became the Rangers. It looked like a done deal and even Topps Baseball Cards were printed with members of the Padres playing for “Washington National League.”

But McDonald’s president Ray Kroc outbid Danzansky and took over the team, keeping the Padresin San Diego. Washington would have to wait another 31 years for a big league team to arrive. That would be from the other National League team that was part of the 1969 expansion, the Montreal Expos.

The Seattle White Sox and the Chicago A’s—1975

The abrupt move of the Pilots from Seattle to Milwaukee set up an odd chain of events that nearly disrupted the American League forever. Washington state attorney general Slade Gordon sued the American League for a breach of contract after the Pilots left. The suit expedited a return of big league baseball to the Northwest. But what team would fill the void and use the new multipurpose Kingdome as its home?

The White Sox, who still were failing to draw a crowd, looked like a prime candidate to move. But the American League wanted a presence in Chicago. A’s owner Finley, always looking for a new home, considered moving the A’s to Comiskey Park and allowing the White Sox to head for the Pacific Northwest. (Why didn't Finley just move the A’s north? I guess we’ll never know.

The move fell apart and a year later, the American League created the Seattle Mariners. The idea of Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers playing in Chicago will have to remain simply an idea.

The Toronto Giants—1976

The Giants' move to San Francisco had brought some of the greatest players in baseball history. They also played in one of the most unpleasant ballparks in the game on Candlestick Point. And by the mid 1970s, Mays, Gaylord Perry and even Willie McCovey were all long gone and the team was in near bankruptcy.

Giants owner Horace Stoneham was looking to sell and found a group of investors from the Labbtt’s Breweries. A Superior Court judge blocked the sale and Bob Lurie offered the Giants a new deal. It was for less money than the Canadians were offering, but part of the Labatt’s offer included buying out the lease for Candlestick Park. Such a buyout would not be needed if Lurie kept the team in San Francisco. They would not become Canada’s team.

The Giants stayed but Don McDougall, one of the head Labatt’s investors, made an apt observation. “Changing ownership is not going to put people in the ballpark and it’s not going to pay the bills.”

The next year the Blue Jays were formed in Toronto. And around the time they moved into the luxurious SkyDome, Bob Lurie would be looking to get out of Candlestick. There would be one more potential move for the Giants.

The Tampa Bay White Sox - 1989

During the mid 1980s, the White Sox again were looking to move. The Cubs had a national audience thanks to WGN cable. And after Wrigley Field finally was fitted with lights in 1988, they were clobbering the South Siders at the box office. A city that had superstars like Michael Jordan, Walter Payton and Andre Dawson just didn’t have enough room for a second baseball team in a crumbling stadium.

Hoping to lure a big league franchise to the Sun Coast, the city of St. Petersburg built the Suncoast Dome in 1986. The White Sox seemed like the most likely tenant as the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois did not want any part in building a new park on the South Side of Chicago. The White Sox looked ready to tap into a potentially lucrative Floridia market.

But lobbyists in Illinois pushed for ballpark funding and in 1989 the White Sox were officially going to get a new home. The park, originally called New Comiskey Park and now called U.S. Cellular Field, opened in 1991. It is kind of a bland ballpark compared to Camden Yards which opened the next year. Chicago built it just before the whole retropark craze began.

St. Pete remained without a team for almost another decade.

The Tampa Bay Giants—1993

After more than a decade and a half of uninspired baseball, the Giants won the 1987 division title and the 1989 National League pennant. But those triumphs could not mask the fact that Candlestick Park was an awful place to play and watch a game. Lurie may have saved the team from moving to Toronto a decade before, but the team's problems remained.

When ballot measures for a new stadium in San Francisco failed in the '80s and '90s and proposed sites in San Jose and Santa Clara also fell apart, it looked like the Giants were doomed in the Bay Area. Vince Naimoli led a group of Tampa Bay investors who wanted to put a major league team in the vacant Suncoast Dome (now Tropicana Field). The Giants move seemed all but certain for the 1993 season. A “Welcome Giants” rally was held in St. Petersburg and San Francisco fans were bringing “Don’t Go!” signs to the half empty Candlestick.

But when the National League owners didn’t approve the move, Lurie sold the team to Safeway CEO Peter Magowan, who vowed to keep the team in San Francisco. Magowan knew he needed to make a big move to appease the hurt San Francisco fans. So he opened up his checkbook and brought in free agent Barry Bonds and the 1993 Giants won 103 games.

Had the National League not blocked the move, the Giants would be stuck in a dome in Western Florida, the A’s would have the Bay Area all to themselves and China Basin would just be another place to row a boat. And who knows where Bonds would have ended up.

The North Carolina Twins—1997

When Twins owner Carl Pohlad could not get a new stadium built in Minneapolis, he looked to move on and sell the team to North Carolina businessman Don Beaver. Charlotte seemed like a ripe market in the 1990s to put a baseball team. The Hornets tested the waters for the NBA. The expansion Panthers were successful in the NFL and a proposed sports center would have included a baseball stadium.

However, a backlash from the city against public money for stadium construction halted any Charlotte ballpark in its tracks. Instead Beaver had his eyes set on what is known as The Piedmont Triad, which is the area that includes Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. (And close to Durham and the symbol of minor league baseball for many movie-goers.) The region had an NHL hockey team with the Hurricanes and the thought was that the area would support a baseball team and still get TV revenue from Charlotte.

The hope for a tax-funded stadium fell through, as did the hope of major league baseball in the Carolinas. Beaver did wind up buying the Charlotte Knights Triple-A team. The Twins remained in Minnesota and despite contraction and relocation rumors, they finally got their new ballpark, Target Field, in 2010.

The Charlotte-Monterrey-New Jersey-Portland-Northern Virginia-Norfolk Expos—2004

When the Expos escaped the specter of contraction, they still faced major problems. They had no owner, no money and no potential to stay in the disastrous Stade Olympique. Baseball could have thrived in Montreal, but the post-strike years and the Loria management destroyed any hope. Even as the Expos were contending for a wild card spot in 2002 and 2003 and posting winning records, they had to move.

The problem was there were few viable options. Actually there was only one: Washington, D.C. The nation’s capital had been without a team for more than 30 years and had a major league stadium sitting there unused in RFK. Everyone on the planet knew, starting in 2002 when Major League Baseball took over the Expos, that the team needed to move to Washington.

Keeping the move from happening was Orioles owner Peter Angelos. Much of the Orioles’ fan base came from D.C. and an interloper would cut into his revenues. He promised to sue baseball if the Expos encroached in his territory. Baseball had expanded by four teams since 1993 and never put a team in Washington.

So basically baseball put on a charade of other towns that could be considered. Portland offered a design that didn’t have a roof, a cinch for 40 rainouts a year in Oregon.

Monterrey, Mexico was insanely offered as a possibility. One of the chief problems that Montreal had was trying to lure players into a foreign market. If they didn’t want to go to Canada, why would they go to Mexico?

Baseball tried to work around the Baltimore problem and still draw D.C., fans by investigating Northern Virginia and Norfolk.

Ridiculously, the New Jersey Meadowlands was rumored to be an option. If the Orioles had the resources to sue, imagine what the Yankees and Mets would have at their disposal.

Finally the staring contest ended and a settlement was reached with the Angelos family. The Expos became the Washington Nationals in 2005. The deal could have been made three years earlier and saved baseball the humiliation of running a team in Montreal playing in front of nobody.

Had a factor here or there had gone differently, the whole structure of both leagues would have been different. Not better, but different.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2011-06-21T06:57:15+00:00 Draft day parallel universes http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/draft-day-parallel-universes/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/draft-day-parallel-universes/#When:09:03:15

The draft has taken place, and it is virtually impossible to accurately analyze who did well and who flopped. Time will make that clear.

But going back to drafts of the past, imagine how different a team's history could have been if the front office had picked one person over another in the draft. Imagine how a superstar’s trajectory could have been altered and baseball history could be rewritten had a team made another pick. These are possible scenarios, the “What ifs” of teams zigging instead of zagging.

Now keep in mind a few things. Each of these alternate realities is independent. Please don’t read one and say, “Wait a second, that doesn’t take into account the other draft pick you wrote about that didn’t really happen.”

Also I do realize that changing one thing of the past can unravel lots of little details. I have seen Back to the Future. I know how the space/time continuum works. So should you!

Let's theorize!

The Mets draft No. 1 in 1966 and pick Reggie Jackson instead of Steve Chilcott

The brash and charismatic Reggie Jackson takes New York by storm as the Mets suddenly piece together a World Series winner in 1969. With Tom Seaver leading the pitching staff, the over confident Reggie matches his big personality with his big homers. With protection from Cleon Jones, he becomes the biggest left-handed power hitter the National League had seen since Willie McCovey and Willie Stargell.

But the Mets management sabotages the team. First they traded Nolan Ryan. Then Reggie was sent to Baltimore. Finally, Seaver was shipped to Cincinnati. When free agency kicked in, Jackson returned to New York and led the Yankees to the 1977 World Series, making Jackson the first player to lead two New York teams to the top.

Meanwhile the talented A’s never quite got over the top. They have able players in their lineup, but without a superstar to stir the drink, they constantly fall just short in the American League West.

1982, the Blue Jays draft Dwight Gooden No. 2 instead of Augie Schmidt

The Blue Jays bring the talented Dwight Gooden north of the border and under the watchful eye of Bobby Cox, where Gooden harnesses his power arm and intelligence on the mound into the stuff that aces are made of. By 1984, the 19-year-old Gooden was an All-Star. By 1985, he was putting up Cy Young stuff and combined with Dave Steib for the best 1-2 punch you never heard of.

Away from the spotlight, media glare and temptations of a big market, Gooden became a steady and focused ace. The 1985 Blue Jays steamrolled over the inferior Royals and Cardinals for their first World Series title. Steib and Gooden later take pitchers like Jimmy Key, David Wells, Todd Stottlemyre, Duane Ward and others under their wings. The Blue Jays become a dynasty in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Gooden never wins the Cy Young. His defenders say, “If he played in New York, he’d have won a Cy Young.” Gooden shrugs and said, “If I were in New York, who knows what distractions would have been in the way?”

Realizing that Tim Belcher wouldn’t sign, the Twins draft Roger Clemens in 1983

Roger Clemens signs with Minnesota and teams up with Frank Viola and veteran Bert Blyleven to create one of the strangest, most unique 1-2-3 punches in American League history. The crafty lefthander from Long Island…the fireballer from Texas…the veteran curveball native Dutchman.

Match that starting staff with the Terminator Jeff Reardon in the bullpen and Kirby Puckett leading a beer league lineup with Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Tom Brunansky and Steve Lombardozzi. AL West teams didn’t stand a chance in the late 1980s. Not since the A’s of the 1970s had a more colorful team been constructed. Even their stadium, the quirky Metrodome, seemed out of a cartoon.

The Twins would win their share of division titles and a World Series championship. By the 1990s, Clemens left the Twins to return home to Houston, where he pitched well in the Astrodome. But his skills started to decline, and Clemens decided to step away. With Cy Young awards, millions in the bank, an easy road to Cooperstown and a World Series ring, he called it quits.

His Astros teammate Ken Caminiti offered him a new boost to his career, but the prideful Rocket said, “No, thanks. If I can’t do it with this body, I’m not doing it.”

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in the same year as his Twins teammate Kirby Puckett.

In 1984, the Mets avoid Shawn Abner and take a chance on Mark McGwire

New York was looking for raw power to insert into the lineup and a right-handed slugger to compliment Darryl Strawberry. Mark McGwire, the young third baseman from Southern Cal, entered the Mets clubhouse in 1987 and was right away a fish out of water. Replacing popular Kevin Mitchell as the right-handed power option, McGwire simply didn’t fit in with the crazy, drug-using, heavy-partying atmosphere of the defending World Champions.

Howard Johnson was entrenched at third. Keith Hernandez wasn’t going anywhere at first, and the outfield was already crowded with Kevin McReynolds, Mookie Wilson, Lenny Dykstra and Strawberry. McGwire fought for at-bats but was prone to striking out and became the victim of boo birds.

By 1989, the Mets started dropping many of their hell-raising players to have a more buttoned-down image. With Dykstra, Wilson, Backman, Hernandez and soon Strawberry out the door, the Mets tried to make McGwire the face of the new Mets along with Juan Samuel and Gregg Jefferies. Now the No. 1 target of disgruntled fans, the Mets mercifully ship McGwire off to Kansas City in the Bret Saberhagen deal.

McGwire would eventually land in Oakland as a part-time DH and is considered to be one of the biggest busts in baseball history. Then he would meet Jose Canseco who would ask, “Do you need a boost?”

Then McGwire would become the greatest home run hitter of all time and save baseball. And still be booed mercilessly whenever he came back to New York.

The White Sox draft Barry Bonds in 1985 instead of Kurt Brown

Barry Bonds arrived on the south side of Chicago in 1986 just as the awkward dismissal of Tony LaRussa simmered down. Ken Harrleson was running the team, and Jim Fregosi became the new manager. The team was a mess, and their uniforms were even uglier. But veterans like Carlton Fisk and Harold Baines took Bonds and 1985 Rookie of the Year Ozzie Guillen under their collective wings. There was a right way to play, and Bonds clearly was the biggest potential star.

The arrival of Jack McDowell and Frank Thomas alongside Bonds gave the White Sox star power like they had never seen before. The combination of Thomas and Bonds in their prime in the early 1990s was the most feared 1-2 punch in the game—other than McGwire and Canseco.

McGwire and Canseco got the publicity, but baseball purists saw that Bonds and Thomas were the better duo. In 1988, whispers started going around the league about Canseco and steroids, but these rumors went ignored. By the early 1990s, the White Sox overtook the A’s.

It all came together in 1993. Thomas and Bonds were co-MVPs, and Jack McDowell won the Cy Young award, while the White Sox won the World Series over the scrappy Phillies. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf saw that Thomas and Bonds were the baseball answer to Jordan and Pippen, and the parades kept rolling through Chicago.

When the steroid scandals exploded, Thomas and Bonds avoided the scrutiny as Canseco and McGwire’s exploits were considered to be a joke. Bonds, talents vindicated, says, “We did it the RIGHT way!” in his Hall of Fame speech.

In 1990, the Braves draft Todd Van Poppel No. 1 overall

The Braves had the No. 1 pick and EVERYONE knew that Todd Van Poppel was a can’t-miss phenom. He had the goods and the strong arm. But he was committed to the University of Texas. The Braves decided not to make a safe pick like Chipper Jones but go for the gold in Van Poppel. Ted Turner opened up the vault for him. Negotiations stalled when Van Poppel’s agent insisted on a major league contract that would keep him on the parent club. The Braves balked and threw in some more money to ease the tension.

The Tigers are left drafting Jones, who becomes Alan Trammell’s heir appearant. At the 14th pick, the A’s had hoped to draft Van Poppel. Instead, they drafted Stanford star Mike Mussina, who under Dave Duncan’s tutelage and Dave Stewart’s influence, became the A’s ace of the 1990s.

Van Poppel was brought up slowly through the system. By 1993, he was ready to come up for the stretch run. The Braves already had Tom Glavine, Steve Avery and newly-acquired Greg Maddux on the staff along with John Smoltz. Van Poppel was in good hands, and by 1994 he was a mainstay on the best staff baseball had seen in more than a generation.

Leo Mazzone made sure that injuries didn’t catch up with Van Poppel. By 1995, the Braves moved Smoltz to the closer role, where he flourished. With no bullpen issues and Van Poppel joining Glavine and Maddux (and later Denny Neagle and Kevin Millwood) in the rotation, the Braves would win the next five World Series titles in a row.

Jones played a long, productive career. Towards the end, he signed on to play in Atlanta. Tiger fans all felt it was strange seeing Chipper in a Braves uniform.

The Yankees use the No. 1 overall pick in 1991 on local product Manny Ramirez

With George Steinbrenner in exile, GM Gene Michael had the first pick in the draft as the first major step to revive the moribund Yankees franchise. The consensus was that Brien Taylor was the best pitcher available, and the Yankees needed an ace badly.

But soon, messages and dispatches started arriving in Michael’s office. They were anonymous or signed by manager Stump Merrill. But their author was undeniable.

“We need a local kid! Someone who will get the fans of New York going crazy! Local kid done good! I saw this kid Ramirez right across the river. George Washington High! Great story. Get him in pinstripes, or when I come back you'll need to find a new gig!”

To the amazement of the baseball world, the Yankees used the No. 1 pick on George Washington High School star Manny Ramirez. The baseball world rolls its eyes, knowing this has Steinbrenner’s fingerprints all over it. Taylor went No. 2 to the Braves and broke his arm in a bar fight.

Ramirez shot up through the farm system and arrived as a Yankee for good midway through the 1993 season. He electrified Yankee Stadium, sending tape-measure shots into the left field stands that were filled every night with screaming fans waving Dominican flags. And Ramirez’s bizarre, flaky personality may not have pleased the straight-and-narrow Buck Showalter, but he gave the Yankees their first box office draw in a generation.

During the 1995 season, Ramirez was joined by another first rounder, shortstop Derek Jeter. The combination of the extraordinarily talented, yet bizarre, Ramirez and the all-business, Yankee-tradition-adhering Jeter gave the team the most startling contrast of superstars since Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson.

The question, “Are you a Manny guy or a Jeter guy?” became a generational debate. Do you like the “look at me having fun” individualism of the 1990s in Manny or the respect for the game and tradition from Jeter. Players like David Wells and Jim Leyritz became “Manny guys” on the team. Low-key Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada were "Jeter guys."

The Yankees won titles, and new manager Joe Torre tried to keep an oddly divided clubhouse together and focused on the championship. But Manny’s days in New York came crashing to a halt after he got angry and pushed public address announcer Bob Sheppard to the ground. Manny is shipped off to Cleveland. He is a vagabond the rest of his career, arriving super happy at a place and then wearing out his welcome.

But for many, Ramirez will ALWAYS be the guy who made it fun to go to Yankee Stadium. And Steinbrenner would never forget to tell people, “He was MY idea! Mine!”

The Mariners use the No. 1 pick on Darren Dreifort; Alex Rodriguez goes No. 2 to the Dodgers

With Miami high school star Alex Rodriguez the consensus top pick, the Mariners looked like they were ready to pick a right-handed superstar to compliment Ken Griffey, Jr. But there was a problem in the Pacific Northwest. The player who would be known as A-Rod didn’t want to play in anonymity.

At 18, he already fancied himself a marquee player and wanted to play in a glamorous market. The Dodgers had the No. 2 pick, and Rodriguez wanted to join Tommy Lasorda and company in Chavez Ravine. He told the Mariners that if they drafted him, he would attend the University of Miami. (FYI, that part of the story is 100 percent true.)

The Mariners hem and haw and realize that the aggravation isn’t worth it. Seattle drafted Darren Dreifort, who shot through their system and for a few years gave the Mariners a nice 1-2 punch with Randy Johnson.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers used the No. 2 pick on Rodriguez, who did NOT disappoint. A-Rod became the National League Rookie of the Year in 1996, joining teammates Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi and Hideo Nomo as recent recipients of the award.

The combination of Piazza and Rodriguez gave the Dodgers the biggest pair of made-for-Hollywood stars since Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. And Lasorda was possibly putting together his greatest team of all time. Piazza and A-Rod bled Dodger blue. And when people complained that the team was too right-handed, Lasorda laughed. “Am I supposed to platoon Rodriguez? Karros? Piazza? Mondesi? I’d rather have eight great right-handed bats than three lousy left-handed bats!”

But Lasorda’s health cost him his job in 1996. Then, in 1998, Fox took over the Dodgers from the O’Malleys, and new GM Kevin Malone fancied himself an architect of a new team. He dealt away Piazza, and it looked like it was going to be A-Rod’s team. But free agency loomed, and Rodriguez, on his agent's advice, left the Dodgers for Texas and the biggest contract anyone had ever signed.

The Dodgers countered by signing Dreifort to a $55 million contract that was nothing short of a disaster.

In 2001, the Twins go with the consensus No. 1 Mark Prior, leaving Joe Mauer to the Cubs

Some sentiment in Minnesota suggested the Twins should draft local product Joe Mauer. But clearer heads prevailed. Mark Prior was the top college pitcher at USC and was looked upon as the next great ace.

The minor leagues were no challenge for Prior, and the temptation was strong to rush him to the majors. But his minor league pitching coach, Rick Anderson, preached patience. Anderson was promoted to the major league club. When Prior looked ready to make the leap to Minnesota in 2002 and 2003, Anderson convinced Twins management not to rush him, but instead to let Prior develop arm strength and become a complete pitcher.

By 2004, he was in the majors and looked ready to dominate. The Twins, three years removed from a contraction threat, had become a regular participant in the playoffs. Prior joined Johan Santana—who was on his way to his first Cy Young award—Brad Radke, Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse to form a devastating rotation. Anderson and manager Ron Gardenhire made sure not to wear down their filly. By 2006, Prior and Santana were the two best pitchers in the American League.

On the last weekend of the regular season the Twins passed the Tigers and stormed into the postseason. It was no contest as the Twins beat the A’s and the Tigers to get into the World Series where, like in 1987, they topped the Cardinals. Five years after the contraction threat, the Twins became a World Series winner in three straight decades. In the celebration, Anderson remarked, “Can you imagine if someone overused Prior's arm when he was younger? His career might have been OVER in 2006!”

Mauer became a solid-hitting catcher for the Cubs but jumped ship to the Yankees. What loyalty would a Minnesota kid have to the Cubs?

Padres draft Justin Verlander No. 1 in 2004

The Padres were struggling with what to do with the top pick. They didn’t want to pay the big draft bonus that the top choice would command but couldn’t squander their pick, either. Jered Weaver looked like a consensus top selection, while Stephen Drew looked like one of the top talents. Instead they chose Justin Verlander and gave him $3 million.

The gamble paid off. The Padres brought up Verlander in their 2005 division-winning season as a September call-up, and he pitched an inning in relief. But in 2006 he was the Rookie of the Year, showing off his durability and blazing fastball.

In 2007, he was second in the Cy Young vote to his teammate Jake Peavy. The two of them created a devastating 1-2 punch. Pitching in the cavernous PETCO Park, Verlander became a Cy Young contender each year, throwing two no-hitters.

The Padres would win three straight NL West division titles and the 2007 pennant. When injuries and a trade sent Peavy to Chicago, Verlander stayed with the club in 2010. With free agency looming for him and a trade of Adrian Gonzalez a foregone conclusion, the Padres made a surprising at for the pennant. Verlander led the way along with teammates Mat Latos, Clayton Richard and Wade LeBlanc to create a solid rotation.

The Padres beat the Giants on the last day of the season to clinch the West. They then beat the Braves, stunned the Phillies and made short work of the Rangers, with Verlander winning the clincher. San Diego had its first ever world championship.

During the celebration, members of the Padres front office saluted Verlander. One chuckled to himself, “Can you imagine if we had drafted Matt Bush with that No. 1 pick in 2004?”

They all laughed. That would have been absurd.

And finally remember, each of these scenarios is 100 percent plausible. There is nothing tongue in cheek about this article at all. And if you believe that one…

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2011-06-09T09:03:15+00:00 The young owner who may have saved the Phillies http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-young-owner-who-may-have-saved-the-phillies/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-young-owner-who-may-have-saved-the-phillies/#When:05:03:15

In the 1950s when the population of the United States was drifting away from the established Eastern and Midwestern cities, Major League Baseball saw the first movement of franchises since the early 20th century. Many major cities were unable to support two franchises and owners saw the advantage of being the only team in one town as opposed to fighting for a split fan base.

The teams that moved were the clear second choice for the city’s baseball fans. The Braves left Boston to the Red Sox as they headed off first to Milwaukee and later to Atlanta. St. Louis has always been a Cardinals city, so the Browns left for Baltimore. Even the passionate fan bases of the Giants and Dodgers were not as strong as the Yankees when they went west.

But in Philadelphia, the Athletics were the team with the richer history, the Hall of Fame legends and the championship pedigree when compared to the Phillies. When the A’s left for Kansas City for the 1954 season, they had eight pennants over four different decades and won the 1910, 1912, 1913, 1929 and 1930 World Series. Hall of Famers like Rube Waddell, Eddie Plank, Chief Bender, Home Run Baker, Al Simmons and Mickey Cochrane all won World Series titles in Philadelphia. And three of the biggest figures of their era were Athletics champions: Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx and Connie Mack.

By the same token by 1954 the Phillies had won a single World Series game. They were overmatched by the 1915 Red Sox and the 1950 Yankees in their only Fall Classic appearances. Their two greatest players were Pete Alexander, best remembered for his heroics with the Cardinals and Chuck Klein, whose home run totals have been downplayed because he played in the band box known as the Baker Bowl.

Why would the team with the rich history leave and the team that had accomplished so little stay in Philadelphia? The change of the baseball culture in Philadelphia and upending half a century of tradition began with the nine months of Phillies ownership by William D. Cox.

Cox was a young entrepreneur who made a fortune in a strange variety of sources. He was an art dealer and owned a lumber business. He received government contracts to reinforce the Panama Canal during the build up to World War II and sold stamps featuring Disney characters to small Caribbean nations.

He was a rabid sports fan and owned two different pro football teams and created a pro soccer league. In 1943, the 33-year-old Cox spent $80,000 and bought the hapless Phillies. They had six 100-loss seasons in the previous seven years and not had a winning season since 1933 when they had a less-than-imposing 78-76 season.

Cox was intent on putting his thumb print on the team in many ways. He was a former baseball player at Yale and still thought of himself as an athlete. He worked out with the team and hired his former track coach to be supervise the team’s strength and conditioning.

And he brought in a successful manager, Bucky Harris, to run the team. A precursor to Charlie Finley and George Steinbrenner, Cox would constantly be in communication with the manager and often circumvent the skipper to give the team instructions.

Harris and Cox were constantly at loggerheads. Less than two months into the season with the Phillies still losing, Cox held a press conference where he announced that Bucky Harris had been fired. He had not told Harris ahead of time and he learned about his termination with the rest of the press corps. The team threatened to go on strike in support of their manager, but Harris discouraged them. Besides, Harris had a much more lethal bullet at his disposal.

The day after his dismissal, Harris spoke with reporters and began to insult his former boss. The reporters loved that Harris was firing back, but they were not expected his newest revelation.

Harris said “[Cox] is a fine guy to fire me, when he gambles on games his club plays.”

It was on record. Cox was gambling on games involving the Phillies. And now the office of Judge Landis, who became the commissioner based on his fighting the gambling element in baseball, were going to go after Cox with all of their resources.

Cox admitted he had made bets on the Phillies but maintained they were “sentimental” bets. He put the blame on a business associate who consistently bet on the team to win.

The hearings were disastrous for Cox. Bucky Harris testified that he heard Cox’s secretary making calls asking about the odds on individual games and seemed surprised when Harris didn’t know her boss bet on the Phillies.

The hearing also allowed the Phillies board of directors to lash out against their young and brash self-promoting boss. He was drawing a larger salary than was originally agreed to and kept the board in the dark as he made many business decisions involving Phillies money.

Cox resigned and was suspended for life by Judge Landis. He was the last person to receive a lifetime ban until Commissioner Giamatti suspended Pete Rose in 1989. Cox sold the team to the Carpenter family, who owned it through the Phillies first World Series title in 1980.

His only year running the team was tumultuous at best, but it also lay down the ground work for better days. The team still had a losing record in 1943 but they improved by nearly 20 games.

But more importantly, Cox wanted to build a winner in Philadelphia. Unlike the previous regime that allowed the team to wallow in 100 loss despair, Cox raised the payroll and invested money in the scouting department and farm system.

By 1949 the Phillies had a winner on the field and in 1950 they won their first pennant in 35 years. One of the stars on that team was Del Ennis, who was signed by the Phillies organization during Cox’s 1943 season. The revamped farm system developed Richie Ashburn starting in 1945 and Granny Hamner, Mike Goliat, Robin Roberts, Curt Simmons, Bob Miller, Bubba Church and Jackie Mayo, all of whom contributed to the surprise Whiz Kid pennant.

A farm system that had been barren for generations had developed a homegrown champion in the span of 7 years.

During the same time the A’s, still led by the aging Connie Mack hovered around .500 in most seasons with a smattering of 100 loss seasons thrown in but no contenders. By 1950, the Phillies were significantly outdrawing the Athletics in the stadium that would be named after Connie Mack! The NL Champion Whiz Kids drew 1.2 million while Mack’s Athletics brought in a mere 309,000. Mack retired after the 1950 season as the city became a Phillies first town.

By 1953, the Phillies were regularly drawing twice as many customers as their brothers in the City of Brotherly Love. If one team had to leave, it was the club with the deep tradition, which they did for Kansas City.

Today the A’s are struggling to find a new home in northern California and some have even whispered dreaded “Contraction” option. The have found success on the diamond in the East Bay with a total of 15 playoff appearances including four World Series titles. But that has not translated into box office at the gate nor television money.

Meanwhile the Phillies have become the top franchise of the National League. When Cliff Lee turned down the Yankees money, he was making the statement that Philadelphia was the franchise to play for if you want to win a title. With four straight division titles, two pennants and the 2008 World Championship, it is difficult to argue with Lee’s decision.

And the process that led to the Phillies staying in Philadelphia and the Athletics starting their nomadic journey began when a 33-year-old self promoter with a gambling problem decided to turn around the fortunes of a forgettable team.

Phillies fans should give William D. Cox a salute. Otherwise you’d be A’s fans.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2011-05-31T05:03:15+00:00 The trade deadline TV spectacular http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-mlb-trade-deadline-tv-spectacular/ http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-mlb-trade-deadline-tv-spectacular/#When:11:56:15
This week the NBA had one of those: The draft lottery. Essentially it is a dozen or so men sitting behind what looks like the NBA version of Match Game to find out how ping pong balls bounced in an off screen room. We don’t even get to see the balls bounce like a local lottery drawing. All but one of the men will remain silent the entire show. Presumably they all came with a makeshift uniform featuring the most coveted college or high school star’s name on it that will never be seen.

It is silly but riveting television. It gets people talking about basketball and its future. The NBA and NFL also share the crazy spectacle of their respective drafts. Fans actually attend the event where a giant clock counts down to the next pick. People in the crowd go crazy or boo based on their take on a college player that chances are they have never seen play live. And, incredibly, analysts break down the draft as it happens, as if anyone can know for sure which players are going to pan out and which players will be Greg Oden.

They are gigantic events in the NBA and NFL calendar year. And baseball does not have an equivalent. The winter meetings are covered on MLB Network and ESPN, but how compelling is that to watch? Basically you see a panel of experts talking while Ken Rosenthal runs around a hotel lobby like Charlton Heston at the end of Soylent Green trying to get a scoop.

Recently the amateur draft has been televised, but that is a monumental snore even for a baseball fan like me. Bud Selig walks up to the podium and announces a player's name. If he's are a high school player, there is no way to know what kind of competition he had to face. “He batted .750 with an OPS of 1.993 for his high school team.” Great. Who was pitching? Someone with a 50 mile per hour fastball?

College hitters put up gaudy numbers but will they adjust to a wood bat? And college pitchers will get people excited, but will be put on a regimen where they can throw only three pitches a month until they are 32.

Part of the reason the NBA and NFL drafts work is that fans have at least a passing knowledge of some of the big stars. The NCAA Tournament and the BCS bowls act as makeshift coming-out parties for the drafts' stars. And chances are the first-round picks will not only make the team but will be contributing the next season. In baseball the top picks will not see the majors for a few years, if at all.

Familiarity mixed with the spectacle is the key for any such sports special. Which is why the trade deadline has the best potential for a TV special.

As the trade deadline goes now, it is spread throughout the league with a ticker scrolling beneath an ESPN or MLB Network broadcast. Players are playing games, not knowing if they are going to be yanked out of a game. (Remember Jose Canseco being pulled from the on deck circle in the middle of a game to be told he was shipped off to Texas in 1992?)

Instead of the loose bits of information floating baseball, concentrate it. Rent out Radio City Music Hall or the theater at Madison Square Garden. Better yet, have it rotate from city to city each year. And have the teams have a day off. (In my previous post, I suggested having the All-Star Game at the start of the season, so perhaps this could be the needed respite for players midseason.)

On the Monday after the last weekend of July, all the general managers (and agents, scouts, managers and ubiquitous former players like Rollie Fingers) arrive at the city. There are autograph seekers, players honored and lots of rumors floating around. And in the middle of the venue there is a gigantic clock, counting down to the absolute trade deadline.

Cameras show GMs on their cell phones and going over to their respective “War Room” tables. Twitter rumors run rampant and the crowd buzzes as each rumor sounds more and more factual.

And when each trade is official, Bud Selig comes to the podium to announce the deal. Everyone hushes, Peter Gammons stops giving his commentary to hear what the deal is.

“The Seattle Mariners trade Cliff Lee to the Texas Rangers for Justin Smoak and a bunch of other people you’ve never heard of.”

The crowd cheers. The Yankee fans boo. Bobby Valentine can’t believe it. And each general manager is whisked into an interview room to talk about the trade.

A gigantic board keeps track of the trades and the rumors fly around. Teams wanting the big fish scramble to make a counter move. All the while the gigantic clock ticks down. As it gets into the final 15 minutes, a flurry of trades are made that are instantly broken down by the experts. Players reactions are heard on the phone. No doubt Curt Schilling will have something to say.

The crowd counts down the final 30 seconds and maybe a final deal or two are announced, but they have to be delivered to the commissioner before the clock strikes zero. Essentially it can create a flurry of activity that would be a combination of fantasy baseball and the finale of Trading Places.

The clock ticks down and that is it. And here is the newest wrinkle. That would not only be the waiver wire deadline for trades, but also the deadline to have players on the roster for the postseason.

As it is set up now, the confusing waiver wire deadline takes place in July. But teams have until the end of August to add players who are eligible for postseason play. But the trade deadline special would combine the two. Any outside help to patch holes on a roster must be made with two months to spare. That means picking up added depth. That means anticipating which players on the roster could break down.

And teams on the fence of contention would have to make a choice. Do they cut bait and build for the next year or realize that they can pull a 2007 Colorado Rockies and make a run for the pennant?

It would add a sense of urgency to the trades made and make the players on a postseason roster to have spent at least a third of the season with the club. Afterwards, players can still be traded and moved, but would not be able to play with the club in October.

Is that harsh? Perhaps. Would it give the deadline more pressure? Of course it would and make it more dramatic.

Think nobody would watch such an event? Remember when ESPN first offered to televise the NFL draft, the idea was considered nuts. Now it is considered to be one of the highlights of the sports calendar.

The trading deadline special would create a new celebration for baseball and its fans and would involve familiar players and the pressure of a pennant race.

It’s worth a shot. It could be a heck of a show.

Click here to learn about THT's download subscriptions.]]> Paul Francis Sullivan 2011-05-18T11:56:15+00:00