Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

The Death of John C. Odom

Bat Man" or "Bat Guy" or "Bat Boy" — that's what they called him.

Ask the most hard-core baseball fan about John C. Odom and most likely you'll get a blank stare. Yet millions of people have heard of the slender right-hander. He was the minor league player traded for 10 maple bats. It became a big joke last May, when word of the unusual swap jumped off the sports pages, and Odom went from pitcher to punch line . . . Six months after the trade, he was dead. The medical examiner said Odom's death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol . . .

. . . "I guarantee this trade thing really bothered him. That really worried me," said Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year on the Laredo Broncos of the United League. "I really believe, knowing his background, that this drove him back to the bottle, that it put him on the road to drugs again."

Strawberry on Steroids

"Hell yeah I would have used them," Strawberry said. "Are you kidding me? I mean, c'mon. Some things are part of what athletes go through and they happen ...We're competitive creatures, and we have tremendous drive, a high tolerance, all these things. I'm not saying that it was the right thing to do. But if that was going on in the 80s, that probably would have been in my system too."

The NIMBYs

You see, I live in the Hanchett Park neighborhood of San Jose, about a mile as a City Hall falcon flies, from the potential site of an A's ballpark next to the main Caltrain station.

And my neighborhood message group, usually sprinkled with tips on handymen or warnings of car break-ins, has buzzed about the potential downside of a stadium — traffic, lights, noise and the need for double-pane windows.

The whole debate is probably premature. The A's lack permission from Major League Baseball to invade the assumed territory of the Giants. Last week, A's managing partner Lew Wolff suggested everyone chill until he decides his next move.

Since it's my neighborhood, I'm still intrigued by the passionate difference between the brave few who welcome a ballpark — I counted three on my message group — and the majority who think it's the worst idea since Donald Rumsfeld.

One poster suggested the gulf was shaped by the like or dislike of baseball. I think it's a more classic NIMBY battle: The neighbors might like baseball in the abstract. Just not here. Not now. Not with their money.

In truth, the NIMBY people have raised searching questions. How does a baseball stadium fit with plans for high-speed rail at the same site? What about the lights and noise? What about the inadequate parking or the choked freeways?

Pedro’s Value

Pedro Martinez wants to pitch in the majors this season, but the three-time Cy Young winner prefers retiring to his fishing boat if the alternative is accepting a Tom Glavine-like contract. Glavine, Martinez's former teammate with the Mets, signed with the Braves for a base salary of $1 million.

"If I wanted to pitch that bad, I probably would," Martinez said about agreeing to a low guarantee comparable to Glavine's. "But I don't think I'm in that stage. I believe I'm very comfortable. I'm not going to let anybody disrespect my abilities or the way I am. I wouldn't say I would want to pitch that bad."

Martinez said he isn't annoyed that he's unemployed.

"No chip on my shoulder," he said. "I understand business, and I understand the ugly face of baseball, which is the business of baseball. Whether you like it or not, the last few years I'll be the first one to tell you I haven't been the Pedro Martinez that I'm used to being. If nobody takes a chance, well, I'll go fishing. If I'm healthy and I'm able to do the things that I used to do, I think a lot of people are going to probably regret not taking a chance."

Martinez said that he particularly holds no grudge toward Omar Minaya. The Mets GM signed Martinez to the four-year, $53 million contract that expired during the offseason, but has not moved to re-sign him.

"If I happen to stay out, it's not his fault," Martinez said.

Ducksnorts

The jet stream ain’t what it used to be

"You know all this [bleep] that’s going on around the world, weather-wise, well, we’re seeing it in Arlington. The jet stream at The Ballpark ain’t what it used to be. That’s changing. I think it’ll help our arms. It's true."

Sigi Schmid Appeal

The Seattle Sounders FC may be the upstarts on the local sports scene, but the new pro soccer team appears to be having little trouble attracting sponsors and ticket buyers . . . The Sounders have sold about 20,000 season tickets, which eclipses the number sold by the 32-year-old Mariners team, which estimates it will sell about 14,000 by the start of the season.

Bonds appeals dates set

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a filing today it’s expediting the government’s appeal of the ruling. The judge barred positive drug tests and other evidence unless they are supported by testimony from Greg Anderson, Bonds’s former trainer, who has refused to be a witness.

Government lawyers must file arguments for overturning the ruling by June 1. Bonds’s lawyers must respond by July 1. A hearing on the arguments and a decision are to follow.

Little Pieces

Matt McCarthy, a graduate of Yale and of Harvard Medical School now working as an intern in the residency program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital in New York, has gained national attention in recent weeks for “Odd Man Out,” his salacious memoir of his summer as an obscure minor league pitcher. He writes about playing with racist, steroids-taking teammates, pitching for a profane, unbalanced manager and observing obscene behavior and speech that in some ways reinforce the popular image of wild professional ballplayers.

But statistics from that season, transaction listings and interviews with his former teammates indicate that many portions of the book are incorrect, embellished or impossible . . . Several times in the book, which he devotes mostly to the antics of libidinous teammates and his manic manager, Tom Kotchman, McCarthy directly quotes people stating incorrect facts about their own lives and tells detailed (and mostly unflattering) stories about teammates who were in fact not on his team at the time. The book’s more outrageous scenes could not be independently corroborated or disproved; several teammates who were present said in interviews that they were exaggerated or simply untrue.

During the interview Monday, McCarthy said that the notebooks in which he wrote most nights that summer were very specific and “extremely detailed with regards to dialogue.” After being told of the many errors, he said several times that he strived to recollect events six years afterward.

“I think that there are a handful of details that I did my best to re-create,” said McCarthy, 28. “For the most part, it’s a detailed account of what was going on. If somebody comes out and says, ‘I would never have said that, therefore it’s not true,’ I can’t do anything about that.”

Today at THT