Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Pirates make a good move

The Pirates' red uniforms, which have drawn notable ire from the public since being introduced in 2007, will be no more.

The Pirates will introduce a new alternate uniform to the public at PirateFest on Friday, after unveiling it to local media at the organization's annual Hot Stove luncheon earlier in the afternoon.

For the last two seasons, the Pirates have worn red, sleeveless jerseys on select Friday home dates. Red had been part of the team's color scheme on and off through the decades and had been reintroduced into the Pirates' logo in 1997, but the color had not been on a team uniform since 1946.

Despite initial anticipation about the new color scheme, however, the uniforms were never widely embraced by fans or players.

The Pirates are not giving out any details on the new jersey before Friday's unveiling.

On the matter of compensation

“Now batting, Dwight Eisenhower . . . Eisenhower”

Charlie, the PR spokesman for the Washington Senators, got the inauguration gig because someone was impressed with the way he introduced President Eisenhower for the first pitch of the 1956 Senators home opener at Griffith Stadium. They kept using him when President Kennedy took office, and he has continued as the public address announcer for the parades. And it all started because of Washington baseball.

"I introduced President Eisenhower to throw out the first pitch in 1956," Charlie said. "In November I get a call from a woman from the White House. She said, you are the announcer who introduced President Eisenhower on Opening Day, and I said, yes I am. She said, you must have impressed somebody because I have been told to contact you to see if you would like to introduce the president again. I said, wow, what an honor. Just tell me where and when."

Ballpark News

The campaign to bring the Florida Marlins a new ballpark in South Florida has stalled again. Votes by Miami and Miami-Dade commissioners that could lead to the new stadium have been delayed, in part because of the holiday season and Tuesday's presidential inauguration. City and county officials are now expected to vote on the issue next month. When Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria began making plans for a new ballpark, the target opening date was 2005.

The city of Detroit has granted preliminary approval to a nonprofit group's plans to preserve the remaining portion of historic Tiger Stadium. The city's Economic Development Corp. approved a plan and budget by the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy in a letter to the group dated Friday . . . The conservancy must show by March 1 that it can provide the funding or the stadium will be completely demolished.

Nuts to caps

To make the Jason Kidd-to-Dallas deal work last year, the Mavericks had to re-sign Keith Van Horn, who was living in retirement with no intention on coming back, and send his contract to New Jersey (I think only his hat made the trip). Just the other day, a column on the Sports Illustrated Web site noted that "the Cavaliers possess two enormously attractive (trade) assets in swingman Wally Szczerbiak and forward Ben Wallace." You're thinking, what? Then you realize it's not about their talent, but their soon-to-be-expiring contracts.

NBA trades are all about expiring contracts. You're not trading for help, you're getting people you can't wait to unload. "Hey, did you see the guys we acquired to put in next summer's trash can?" The chemistry-tortured Detroit Pistons would probably do well to unload Rasheed Wallace before the February 19 deadline, but wait - if they keep him until summer, they clear some cap space. Come to think of it, the NBA is just barely being played in real time. In our minds, we're already well into 2010, when LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Steve Nash, Dwyane Wade and several more top free agents have chosen new teams.

Sign those kids!

A pair of 8-year-olds armed with baseball bats are being credited with stopping a man who had put a gun to a woman's face and threatened to kill her

The two boys came to the woman's rescue on Sunday shortly before 7 p.m. as the woman was leaving her home in the 1400 block of SE 2nd Avenue with her 8-year-old son and his 8-year old friend.

The woman and the boys told police that Bradley hit the woman on the back of the head with a handgun that was inside a black sock, then took the gun out of the sock.

The woman and the children told police the two boys "attacked the defendant with baseball bats, which stopped the attack." Bradley then left.

Commish for a day

Markakis’ Deal

The Orioles have reached a six-year, $66.1 million contract extension with right fielder Nick Markakis, according to baseball sources. He will be in Baltimore on Wednesday to take a physical and sign the contract.

The deal, pending the physical, will keep one of the organization's building blocks with the Orioles through at least the 2014 season. It will include standard incentive clauses, a limited no-trade clause -- in which he can block a deal to at least eight teams each year -- and a mutual option with an unspecified team buyout for the 2015 season, according to sources.

In terms of guaranteed money, it will be the second-most expensive contract in Orioles history, behind only the six-year, $72 million pact given to shortstop Miguel Tejada in December 2003.

Radomski Rites

In a portion of the book that is likely to attract attention, Radomski states that he was asked by Mitchell about a handful of major leaguers who were not among his dozens of customers and who did not end up being named in the Mitchell report. Radomski names this group of players in his book — several of them have been previously linked to performance-enhancing drugs in other books — and says that he told Mitchell that he had no firsthand knowledge about their possible use of drugs.

Mitchell, through a spokesman, disputed Radomski’s claim that he was asked about specific players who were not named in the report. “At no time did we raise the names of specific players who had not previously been identified to us by Mr. Radomski,” John Clarke, a spokesman for Mitchell, said in an e-mail message . . . “He said that he couldn’t remember the names of all the players he had dealt with, so after the first interview, we provided him with a list of all the players who were on major league rosters during the relevant time periods for him to review,” Clarke said.

Studeman Speaks