Category: Baseball

Valentine’s Day

. . . is one of the great days of the year — the day when pitchers and catchers reported to spring training.

Today is an even greater day.

It’s the day when I report to spring training.

Angels and D’backs tomorrow. Rockies and White Sox Thursday. Giants and Dodgers or Cubs and Reds Friday.

Scottsdale temp forecast to be in the 80s all three afternoons.

Who needs cable?

I’m not watching a movie tonight. I saw Amadeus: The Director’s Cut last night free via Amazon Prime. It was three hours, so tonight I’m viewing just a slide show of photos — 3 seconds apiece. (Hey, I just looked up and saw the teacher all four of my children had for second grade, Mrs. Radcliffe.)

My experience with director’s cuts by the way is that they are a good demonstration of why films have editors.

The $99 Apple TV got a software update today. Much to my surprise they’ve added Major League Baseball and the NBA. I don’t care about the latter, but I am interested in the baseball package — $99 for the whole season, most games of all 30 teams, except for national and regional blackouts. Alas, that means my favorites the regional Colorado Rockies won’t be included, but the World Champion Giants will. The Apple TV Netflix package is pretty nice, too.

All this streaming, of course, is to one of my TVs — I don’t watch too many movies or ballgames on the computer or iPhone, though I have. There are several ways you can stream, if you’re not already. Roger Ebert gives it a pretty good run down for movies in Stream a little stream with me, posted on his blog 90 minutes ago or so.

Ebert has a nice rant about Facebook too, and they’re always fun.

The slide show continues, Gene Vincent singing “Be Bop a Lula” in the background, and lots and lots of Sweeties in large screen glory.

The Willie Mays Hall of Fame

Bob [Costas] did not go into details, but many people do — ALL THE TIME. I cannot tell you how many times in my life, much less in the last month, I have received emails that basically say something like: “Willie Mays — now THAT is a Hall of Famer. That is who I have in mind when I think of the Hall of Fame not (Player X) who you wrote about.”

So, that’s my mission here — to create The Willie Mays Hall of Fame.

A great post on the Baseball Hall of Fame from, who else, Joe Posnanski.

Best line of the day

“I’m very, very happy for him. It’s overdue. I’m not going to comment on why he didn’t get elected the first time. But I forgave him. Maybe the rest of the world has.”

Umpire john Hirschbeck reacting to the election of Roberto Alomar to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his second year of eligibility. Alomar spit in the face of Hirschbeck during an infamous 1996 incident.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Joe Posnanski continues his discussion of the Baseball Hall of Fame. His latest post includes this:

Ed is exactly right, when he says the Hall of Fame is an honor not a right. But you know what this part of the Baseball Hall of Fame really is? It’s a room in the baseball museum in Cooperstown where they put the plaques of the greatest players in baseball history. It’s a tourist attraction. It’s a place where fans go and remember their childhood, reminisce about the game, consider their connections. It’s so easy to get high and mighty about this thing, so easy to lose the whole point. I’m not sure how the Hall of Fame became about innocent and guilty in the first place. It’s a room overflowing with cheaters and liars and gamblers and fools. It’s a room overflowing with heroes and devoted fathers and good neighbors and nice men. But, really, it’s a room with the greatest baseball players ever along with some very good players along with some good players who had powerful lobbyists.

Hall of Fame Week

Albuquerque Isotope and NewMexiKen favorite Chin-lung Hu was traded from the Dodgers to the Mets yesterday. No more “Hu’s on first.”

Joe Posnanski is writing about the Baseball Hall of Fame this week — ballots are due Friday.

His first installment is here.

Today’s is here.

I thought this excerpt from today’s essay was thought-provoking. We forget I think how good you have to be to make “the show.”

For instance, last year Todd Zeile was on the Hall of Fame ballot. Todd Zeile? He did not receive a vote, to no one’s surprise.

But you know what? Todd Zeile was a good player. He got 2,000 hits in the Major Leagues. He drove in 90-plus runs five times. He played five positions, and even pitched a couple of innings.

He was not a Hall of Famer, not close to a Hall of Famer, but that’s precisely the point, isn’t it? To play 10 years of Major League Baseball — a qualification just to get on the ballot — means you must be one of the very best baseball players on earth .

You are better and more determined than all those players whose baseball lives stopped in little league, all those good enough to make their high school teams but no more, all those who went on to play college at some small school, all those good enough to go to a Division I school but were not drafted, all those promising and resolved young players drafted or signed outside of North America who stalled in the low end of the minor leagues, all those who topped out low Class A, in high Class A, in Class AA, in Class AAA, all those who made it through it all to get to a cup of coffee in the big leagues, all those who worked their way up to a small and temporary role in the big leagues, all those who endured and became regulars in the big leagues for two or three or four years before being retired.

To achieve so much … to reach the very height of your profession … it is an extraordinary thing to be a baseball player with 10 years of big league experience, an even more extraordinary thing to achieve enough to get on the Hall of Fame ballot. And then, you get there and it is STILL still miles and miles and miles to go before you get to the Hall of Famers. It is still the gap between Todd Zeile and Cooperstown.

The best ballplayers

Has Jeter been worth it? Absolutely. But it seems a bit bold to say that the Yankees have not already pay Jeter plenty for being an icon and a role model and a true Yankee and everything else. According to Baseball Reference’s WAR, Derek Jeter was the 10th most valuable player over the last 10 years:

1. Albert Pujols, 83.8 WAR
2. Alex Rodriguez, 64.8
3. Barry Bonds, 55.7 (despite only playing about six seasons)
4. Ichiro Suzuki, 55.2
5. Carlos Beltran, 51.1
6. Chipper Jones, 47.5
7. Scott Rolen, 46.6
8. Todd Helton, 44.7
9. Lance Berkman, 43.8
10. Derek Jeter, 43.1

That’s really good. That might even be $189 million good. But I don’t think I’d be sticking an “amount still due” bill under the Steinbrenners’ door. I’d say Jeter has been paid quite well for his efforts, tangible and intangible.

From a post by Joe Posnanski, who argues the Yankees’ offer of $45 million for three years is legit and no one else will offer Jeter more.

It ought to be a national holiday

Stan the Man is 90. He batted .331 lifetime.

After 22 years as a Cardinal, Stan Musial ranked at or near the top of baseball’s all-time lists in almost every batting category. The dead-armed Class C pitcher was transformed into a slugging outfielder who topped the .300 mark 17 times and won seven National League batting titles with his famed corkscrew stance and ringing line drives. A three-time MVP, he played in 24 All-Star games. He was nicknamed The Man by Dodgers fans for the havoc he wrought at Ebbets Field and was but one home run shy of capturing the National League Triple Crown in 1948.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Today is also the birthday

… of “That Girl” Marlo Thomas, now 73.

… of Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack, Jr. That’s Dr. John, in the right place, wrong time. He’s 70 today.

… of actress Juliet Mills. Hayley’s older sister and John’s older daughter is 69. Juliet Mills first appeared in a movie in 1942, when she played an infant.

… basketball hall-of-famer Earl Monroe. The Pearl is 66.

… of writer-director-actor Harold Ramis. He’s 66. Ramis co-wrote the screenplay and directed “Groundhog Day,” enough to make me a fan. He was the doctor in the film.

… of Goldie Hawn. Kate Hudson’s mom is 65.

… of the other Judy Garland daughter, Lorna Luft. She’s 58.

… of journalist and editor Tina Brown. She’s 57.

… of the not so desperate Nicollette Sheridan. She’s 47.

… of Björk. She’s 45.

… of football hall-of-famer Troy Aikman. He’s 44.

… of probable future baseball hall-of-famer Ken Griffey Jr. Junior is 41.

François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris on this date in 1694. We know him as Voltaire.

Best line proving you can be good and still be overrated

“Jeter committed six errors this season, his lowest total in 15 full seasons. But more advanced defensive measures showed his range to be well below average, as it has been nearly every season of his career.”

Jeter’s 5th Gold Glove an Error, Metric Says – NYTimes.com

One measure ranked Jeter 59th, i.e., last, among all Major League shortstops.

Update: Posnanski on Jeter. An excerpt:

The thing that annoys non-Yankees fans about Jeter, I think, has less to do with Jeter himself and more to do with the intense campaign to spin him into the perfect ballplayer. He is great enough as is. He’s been a terrific hitter — one of the three best, I think, to ever play shortstop — a durable player, a smart player, a leader, a good teammate, a credit to the game. He’s going to the Hall of Fame the first day he’s eligible, and I will be one of those people proudly voting for him.

Trouble is, when Jeter wins his fifth Gold Glove — like he did on Tuesday — even when the best statistical evidence suggests he has been a well-below average defender throughout his career, well, that’s the stuff that drives people nuts about Jeter.

Will it be two?

Only three major league franchises (of 30) have never been to a World Series. One of them, the Texas Rangers play the Yankees tonight in the first game of the American League Championship Series. Can the Rangers take the ALCS and advance to their first World Series?

Washington Senators/Texas Rangers (50 seasons)

Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals (42 seasons)

Seattle (Washington) Mariners (34 seasons)

What is it with franchises associated with Washington anyway?