All-Star Snubs

As of this writing, the 2007 All-Star selections have not yet been revealed. We're still a day away from the announcements, but I have a bad feeling already about the prospects of Hideki Okajima making this team. You know player's chances are not good when ESPN.com's main page article on the "Deserving All-Stars" doesn't even mention his name. Even the Boston Herald has the same premonition.

Every year a lot of deserving players are left out of the Midsummer Classic, and it sparks endless debate about who deserved to be selected and who didn't (and I'm sure by this evening there will be many articles bemoaning those players left off the '07 roster). Every year the same case gets rehashed over and over--that the rule stating that one player from each team must be selected is antiquated, unnecessary, and forces deserving players to stay home while less deserving players make the team to fulfill their team's roster spot (for instance, Fred McGriff making the 2000 team over Frank Thomas--that one particularly stands out in my mind). But Okajima's case is more disconcerting. His likely ommission will be due to the perceived unimportance of the middle reliever in contrast to that of the starters and closers who make the most headlines.

Okajima's numbers speak for themselves: four earned runs in 39 innings pitched so far--that's an ERA of only 0.92. He's notched four saves in five opportunities when Papelbon or Timlin haven't been available, sports a 2-0 record, and has only allowed one home run all year: that was to the first batter he faced of the season (Kansas City's John Buck) on his first major league pitch. Anyone who follows the Sox knows how lights-out Okajima has been; anyone who understands baseball knows that a good middle-relief corps is the glue of the pitching staff and an essential part of a championship-caliber team. It's hard to ignore the best of all, but I'm eager to see if Okajima gets his just due.

AAA Player Tosses a Perfect Game

It might not be the MLB, but any time anyone at any level pitches a perfect game, it's a huge accomplishment: Manny Parra of the Nashville Sounds threw one on Monday night against the Round Rock Express in Round Rock, Texas.

"My Wish"

Enough cynicism for the day. Stories like this are nice to read. It's great when baseball players, who are really fortunate folks, go out of their way for children who are given a bad lot in life. Many players do a lot for charity. I'd like to see them do even more.

CHARRRGE!

A drunk and disgruntled fan charged the mound at Wrigley Field Monday night, trying to get a piece of Chicago Cubs pitcher Bobby Howry.



Dey love to fight dere in da Windy City, eh Bob? Polish sausage...Ditka... If they're not fighting one another or taking it out on the media at the post-game conference (see also: Lou McBoozy Piniella), the fans go apeshit on their own players. I love that team, that park, and those fans. We're seeing nearly 100 years of frustration finally boiling over. Didn't Milton Bradley just get released by the A's? They should pick him up. Barry Bonds trade rumors? Bring him to town! I'm sure Jose Guillen could be picked up from the floundering Mariners. Maybe Earl Weaver could serve as bench coach. Let's dig up Billy Martin's bones and see how far we can push the envelope. The funniest part of Monday's fan "interaction" is that I saw this clip on the TV at the gym last night--with the sound turned off. I saw a guy in a white shirt (and not Colorado black and purple) rush the mound and for a few minutes I thought perhaps the Cubs became the first team in history to charge the mound to get at one of their own. There's still a lot of season left though, so let's not rule it out yet.

P.S. Props to Comcast for actually broadcasting the guy running on the field! Forget all those people with their "concerns" that broadcasting fans running on the field "encourages" others to follow suit. Those people are dumb!

Manny Being Amazing

Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest defensive play in baseball history: Fenway Park, July 21, 2004.

Countdown to the Final Death of the "Circle Stadium"

"I stand at the plate in the Vet and I don't honestly know whether I'm in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis or Philly. They all look alike." -Richie Hebner

They're rarely missed when they go, and the awareness of their final demise will likely escape even the most diehard baseball fans, but believe it or not, the end of the 2007 baseball season will see the last pitch thrown in a circle stadium (see also: "concrete donut," "cookie cutter stadium," "multipurpose sporting venue").

The Atlanta Braves bolted from Fulton County Stadium after the 1997 season, and since then--mostly in the last six years--Three Rivers, Riverfront, Busch, Jack Murphy, and Veterans Stadiums have all been abandoned (and only "The Murph" has so far evaded demolition).

This just leaves Washington, DC's RFK Stadium. At the end of this season, the Nationals will move into another overpriced corporate-named HOK-designed "retro" park (or "field." Has anyone else noticed that every single new park built in the last decade is either "CORPORATE Park" or "CORPORATE Field?" Is "Stadium" a dirty word? If you can name a baseball facility after a beer or a mortgage company or delicious fresh-squeezed Florida orange juice, you should still be able to use the word stadium) and the era of the cookie cutter stadiums will officially end.

Fifteen years ago, Astroturf and massive concrete stadiums were everywhere. I was fascinated by them. I was a happy kid knowing I got to follow the old hometown team at a place like Fenway, but still...stadiums that hold TWICE as many people as Fenway Park? When you're 12 years old, Fenway is enormous. Twice that size is unfathomable.

And now I won't be able to take my future kids to a game at any such stadium. No big deal, really. I'm not losing sight of the fact that the real tragedy occurred in the '60s and '70s when these big coliseums replaced the classic stadiums like Forbes Field, Crosley Field, and Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium.

But still. Like the San Francisco Crab, "rainbow guts" uniforms, and the 1986 Mets, the circle stadiums are a somewhat ugly part of baseball lore entrenched awkwardly alongside Doubleday Field, the Green Monster, and Jackie Robinson.

So while you can, for what it's worth, get out and enjoy RFK, and take in the unique ambiance of watching baseball in a big donut. Because this is your last shot at it. And someday, when you're sitting in the stands at beautiful McNike Field, enjoying the ballgame, the extra-wide seats, and the setting sun over the city skyline, you can tell your little tyke what it was like back in the old days.

"I stand at the plate in Citizens Bank Park and I don't honestly know whether I'm in Comerica Park, Pacific Bell Park SBC Park AT&T Park, Safeco Field, Bank One Ball Park Chase Field, PETCO Park, or Enron Field Minute Maid Park. They all look alike." -Not Richie Hebner

Rod Beck Dead at 38

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that former reliever Rod Beck was found dead at his home in his Phoenix home at the age of 38.

As a young kid, I loved watching this guy on Sportscenter every morning when he was with San Francisco--the crazy hair, the intimidating stare, the way his arm dangled and swung like a pendulum before every pitch, hypnotizing the batter. I was psyched when the Sox signed him. He was one of my favorite guys to watch, and it was a blast to sit in the bleachers at Fenway and look down while he warmed up in the pen, heavily trudging around the mound and then exploding like a bull with each pitch.

His exploits in Iowa in 2003 are well known, but I'm going to link this article anyway.

Baseball needs more guys like Beck, now more than ever, I'm convinced. He was a one of a kind.

Buddy Bell's Bad News Bears

KansasCity.com posted an article last Saturday on Buddy Bell's 30+ years and record 3,555 games combined as a player and manager without a postseason appearance. (He has only made the postseason once, as a coach with Cleveland in 1995). Though the article hints that this might be a fact somewhat incumbent upon what Bell brings to the field, I am providing this link because it's an interesting and unfortunate position that someone has to hold, and it's too bad that it has to be a guy like Bell. Who knows, maybe his contract will get re-upped and the KC management will try and send the Royals down the same path as the Tigers (100+ losses to a World Series berth within three years). Or maybe when Ozzie Guillen's talentless ass gets booted out of Chicago after this season, Bell can get an opportunity to right that sinking ship.

Peanuts

Charles Schultz had some great baseball-themed "Peanuts" strips over the years. I think this one might be my favorite.

The 2007 Los Angeles Angels of Punk Rock

Belated, but still hilarious!

Wins Mean Nothing

I've been waiting for this article since 1990, when Bob Welch stole the Cy Young from Roger Clemens, Bobby Thigpen, Dave Stewart, and Dennis Eckersley.

(Sure, there have been many years where the BBWA have voted for the wrong guy to win the Cy Young Award--for instance, off the top of my head, the 1987 and 2004 NL Cy Young Award voting comes to mind--but I can't think of any year where there were four guys who deserved it more than the winner!)

Oil Can Boyd's Traveling All-Stars

I just discovered that Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd and Delino DeShields have put together a traveling all-star team that, in Boyd's words, "promotes the heritage of the great Negro League-style of baseball and the tradition of barnstorming." The roster of the team includes Marquis Grissom, Ken Ryan, Sam Horn, Derek Bell, and, of course, Bill Lee. The team lost tonight by a score of 9-1 to Team USA in what I believe was their first game, after their scheduled May 17th game in Nashua was rained out, but with a lineup full of great former players (many who I loved to watch as a kid in Boston and Montreal), I'm hoping that they are able to string together a solid schedule of games around the Northeast.

I haven't been able to find a schedule or much information at all about Oil Can Boyd's Traveling All-Stars (Oil Can's official website hasn't been updated since late 2006) but as soon as I do I'll post it here.

The Original Fantasy Baseball Player

Since this summer marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's On The Road, the original scroll manuscript is going "on tour." This past week the scroll made its first stop in Lowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac's hometown, where it will be on display until mid-September. The scroll will also be available for viewing from November through March 2008 at the Beatific Exhibition at the New York Public Library.

The New York Public Library already contains some excellent Kerouac paraphernalia, including correspondence and book contracts, as well as "two sets of more than one hundred handwritten cards, that allowed Kerouac to play a fantasy baseball game of his own invention, together with hundreds of pages that meticulously document and report on games he played between 1936 and 1965. The baseball game was originally conceived and played by Kerouac at the age of six or seven, when he spent many solitary hours in his room."

Nearly six years ago, when the New York Public Library acquired the archives, the Associated Press published an interesting article on Kerouac's fantasy baseball league, including many details of the league: "So detailed was Kerouac's league that he played each game in virtual real time, not just batter by batter, but pitch by pitch...He also published the newsletter 'Jack Lewis's Baseball Chatter,' and produced a broadsheet called the 'The Daily Ball,' in which he compiled standings and league leaders and offered summaries of the day's games."

Kerouac references his fantasy baseball world in both Dr. Sax and my personal favorite Kerouac novel, Desolation Angels.

If I Was a Woman...

...I would totally wear the shit out of this dress.

I don't know why but I almost feel compelled to buy one anyway.

Speaking of Baseball in Montreal

There is an excellent story today on ESPN.com by Jeff Pearlman explaining why, unfortunately, Tim Raines won't make the Hall of Fame.

Pearlman is right on target with this one. Raines, while worthy of first ballot induction, will likely not ever make the Hall.

Rather than breaking down and dissecting a player's statistics in relation to the history of the game, most members of the BBWA make biased judgments based on insufficient comparisons of a player to their contemporaries (i.e., Raines vs. Henderson), and, when it is convenient to them, passing judgment on a player's character for old transgressions (i.e., Raines' abuse of cocaine in his early days).

Character judgement is an easy scapegoat for when the call could hypothetically go either way. Surely, in many writers' minds, Raines is one such player who could go either way. They sit on the fence. Hall of Famer, or not? Maybe... But then again...that whole coke scandal...

So they leave him off the ballot. Let's face it, Raines is no Paul Molitor, pardoned for all sins. Three-thousand hits will buy you a lot of free passes, even when you bring troubles upon yourself. Molitor got past his coke addiction and became a team leader, a great guy to have in the clubhouse. So did Raines. But he didn't have 3,000 hits.

Sadly, Pearlman is right. Raines won't make the Hall. But then, there were two guys who didn't think Tony Gwynn is a Hall of Famer. To that point, nothing is shocking. Hopefully Raines won't take it personally when the idiots pass him by.

Two Things Missing In Baseball Today:

Baseball in Montreal, and "The Spaceman."