Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Why I love Peter Gammons

The Reds have let teams know that they will wait and see whether they need to move Aaron Harang during the season. Harang is scheduled to make $12.5 million next season and $12.75 million with a $2 million buyout for 2011. After going 34-23 with a 3.68 ERA from the start of the 2006 season until he made his four-inning relief stint on two days' rest on May 15, 2008, he went 4-11, 5.88. "Aaron's been OK this spring, because he battles so hard," one scout said. "But the life on the ball he runs in on left-handed batters isn't the same."

Schilling Retires

Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling says he's retiring from baseball.

The right-hander who won World Series championships with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox announced on his blog Monday that he's leaving after 23 years with "zero regrets."

Seventeen Ballparks and Counting

Fenway Park. Surprisingly, I have mixed feelings about Fenway, despite a slavish allegiance to the Sox. I haven’t been there in several years—the prices are prohibitive for a family of four—and so have thankfully missed out on the bandwagon fans since the team broke their curse in ’04, but the myth of the “lyrical little bandbox” is a little rich for my blood. Until recently, the groundskeeping and drainage was awful, so much so that one June night in the late 90s, after a violent but short thunderstorm had flooded not only the field but the ground floor inside as well, the game was postponed even though the sun was suddenly shining at the schedule start time. In addition, the seats are cramped and not built for people who weigh over 150 lbs. The hardcore fans can be very nasty, even to fellow Sox partisans, and only in puritanical Boston would a 40-year-old have to show identification to buy an overpriced Coors Light beer. That said, the atmosphere both inside and outside Fenway is truly electric; no baseball icon, in my opinion, tops the Green Monster; and I’ll never forget the day Pedro Martinez, then in his prime, fawned over one of my sons, giving him a piece of Bazooka bubble gum.

Tragedy in Oakland

Two of the officers, Dunakin and Hege, often worked A's games at the Oakland Coliseum, according to David Rinetti, the team's vice president of stadium operations.

"It hit me hard," Rinetti said.

Hege spent years providing security in the Coliseum's West Side Club. More recently, Dunakin worked ballpark security and also provided escorts for players and umpires. Both men were well-known to employees throughout the Coliseum.

"You see those guys at the ballpark all the time, and you take it for granted," Rinetti said. "Now their presence isn't there anymore."

The A's sent out a public statement Sunday that read:

"Not only did we have a business relationship with some of these officers, but a personal one as well. They were fixtures working our games, and some also served as team escorts. Our hearts and prayers go out to their families. We appreciate the job that they did, as we do all members of the Oakland Police Department."

Super Poke the Marlins’ New Stadium

The most annoying Facebook gizmo in history appeared in December. Worse than Vampire Wars and the gifting of virtual beer, it inveigled users to write 25 Random Things About Me.

We learned that our girlfriend for three days in sixth grade likes cheese; that someone we know slightly still has a crush on that guy from Knight Rider, and that somebody else has a morbid fear of clowns.

Each alpha user annoyingly asked 25 friends to write 25 random things, too, and each of these friends' friends annoyingly asked 25 more, and so on, until this week, when the viral loop catapulted into the bizarro realm: 25 Random Things About Me, by Miami-Dade's Ballpark.

No. 2: ``None of the money used in my construction can go to other government services like education, police, public housing or parks. It's state law!''

No. 19: ``I'm ready for my close-up: I'll have some great views of the Miami skyline from the stands, which should be great for showing off the city during nationally televised games.''

No. 25: ``I'm beloved already.''

If this stadium were a person -- close-talking, unfunny, boastful but discomfitingly insecure -- you might de-friend.

Seeing the glass half full is one thing, but . . .

If San Diego's offense were a restaurant, it would be getting one-star reviews from some observers.

Scouts have generally been remarkably unimpressed by the Padres' lineup. Then, there was the GM of another National League West team who said anonymously that the Friars "look like a terrible team in terms of position players."

Pretty vicious, but the numbers tell a different story, despite San Diego's Cactus League record dipping to 4-15-3 with Sunday's 12-7 loss to Arizona. The Padres scored seven-plus for the ninth time in their last 16 exhibitions while banging out 15 hits . . .

. . . Eating crow is one of baseball's many traditions. Those who have dissed the San Diego offense may need to hone their appetite for that exotic dish.

CC the Leader

The Yankees lavished a $161 million contract on Sabathia to give their rotation an ace. As a bonus, they gained a team leader.

Sabathia has taken teammates to three Orlando Magic games, gone fishing with Brian Bruney and Nick Swisher, and taken the Toy Story Mania! ride at Disney World with Joba Chamberlain.

“I don’t know if I’m a leader,” Sabathia said. “I like to hang out with my teammates. I like to talk to my teammates, get to know them. It’s just my personality. Going to Magic games and going out to eat, doing different things, it’s just something I felt like guys on the same team should always do.”

Where’s the percentage?

What if blogs charged for their RSS feeds? It would be worth $1 a month to me to not have to go to a site and check for updates. I constantly hear people talking about the untapped taxable resource that marijuana represents, but it's not like the alcohol industry is dying out. With the foundation of the print media crumbling under our feet, I don't hear nearly enough people proposing ways to monetize the amazing amount of content being written out there on the Long Tail.

I'll put my money where my mouth is. Who wants my dollar per month? Craig, I've already told you I'd pay to read ShysterBall. River Ave. Blues, ditto. I would certainly have to pare down on the number of feeds I subscribe to, but the money those people would make from the subscription fees would make their content better. The best bloggers could make a living from writing and not have to work around a full-time job like many currently do.

The World Scouting Classic

But the off-the-field contest between the two most powerful ball-playing nations -- Japan and the U.S. -- is a subject that Japanese league administrators and team management, local liaisons, players' union representatives and tournament officials prefer to discuss without being named.

That's because the World Baseball Classic, billed as a springboard for further spreading the reach of America's "national pastime" is viewed by suspicious insiders as something else: a fishing expedition and trial expansion by Major League Baseball, the U.S. organizer of the event. One Japanese sports professor and team adviser wonders aloud whether the tournament "is for showing the best of baseball to the world -- or just making it easier for scouting the best that can be brought to America?"

Today at THT