Seligman: Zambrano, Castro lead Cubs over Mets 5-3

Castro delivered again at the plate, raising his average to .321. He doubled and singled, scored a run and stole a base. It’s not clear exactly how long it had been since a Cubs rookie had six straight multi-hit games, since STATS Inc.’s records on that only go back to 1952.

I’m pretty sure we can deliver this little factoid.

Cubs’ Hendry, Sanberg meet for lunch

Boy, is Sandberg gonna be pissed.

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry says he had lunch with Ryne Sandberg but did not formally interview the Hall of Famer for the manager’s job.

They dined together this week in Albuquerque, where the Triple-A Iowa affiliate was playing. Sandberg, the legendary Cubs second baseman, manages the club and is a candidate to take over in Chicago after the season.

Hendry says the Cubs are “not in any rush to complete the interview processes.”

Lou Piniella announced in July that he planned to retire at the end of the season. But Piniella wound up stepping down on Aug. 22 because his mother was seriously ill.

Costly repair bills for new Cubs owners :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Cubs

One thing ownership won’t do, Ricketts said, is favor a managerial candidate for marketing and fan-draw value, such as Ryne Sandberg.

‘‘The fact is, it’s Jim’s job to decide which manager to bring in,’’ said Ricketts, who expects to get involved as part of the interview process once Hendry has a short list of finalists. ‘‘But it’s about winning, not about marketing.

‘‘I don’t think we need a marquee name to sell tickets. What we need is a team that produces on the field. That’s really what’s most important to us.’‘

The Onion:  Lou Piniella Immediately Wins World Series After Removing Cubs Uniform For Last Time

CHICAGO—Having finished saying goodbye to Cubs players and fans during his final game with the team, manager Lou Piniella won his second World Series Sunday night mere seconds after taking off his uniform. “This is a great way to end my career, no question,” a champagne-soaked Piniella told reporters, moments after winning the National League Central while removing his blue-pinstriped Cubs pants and the NLCS after tossing his Cubs hat to the team’s equipment manager. “Man, it feels good to finally be on top again.” The Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908.

McGrath: All Hail, His Samminess, Back in the Glare

His Clancyness, si. His Samminess, no.

The Tribune — where I was the sports editor at the time — chided “His Samminess” for his diva-like behavior, most notably his demands for a renegotiated contract, one commensurate with his status as baseball’s biggest star, despite the fact that he was already one of the highest-paid players in the game at more than $10 million a year. Or failing that, he wanted a trade, and never mind those proclamations of undying love for Chicago.

...Sosa splits his time between Miami and his native Dominican Republic these days and has pretty much left Chicago to fend for itself. Articles like the current one are just about a semiannual occurrence. He likes to be heard from occasionally, likes to remind us that he’s out there in all His Samminess, ready for and receptive to another standing ovation.

The frequency of Sammy sightings will increase as 2013 approaches. That’s when he’ll be eligible for the Hall of Fame, and he fully expects to get in, even if the steroid cloud continues to hover. People would be more sympathetic if he went the Andy Pettitte route and owned up, talked about his impoverished childhood, maybe, and how his desperation to escape it influenced his decisions.

Sammy is more likely to emulate Blago. He’ll invoke Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. and suggest he is the better man.

Former Major League Baseball player Cal McLish dies at 84

Farewell, Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish. Each and every one of you.

Cal McLish, an Anadarko native who played 15 seasons in the majors and had the longest full name in MLB history, died Thursday morning. He was 84.

His full name was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish, a name his father gave him when his mother told John McLish that he could name his son.

“There were eight kids in the family, and I was No. 7, and my dad didn’t get to name one of them before me. So he evidently tried to catch up,” McLish told The Oklahoman in 1999.

Miles: Sandberg’s managing style: Work hard, trust instincts

, confuse fan base.

The stats revolution: Many major-league front offices employ statistical analysts who have input into the procurement of players.

From there, it’s up to the manager to use those players. Most managers don’t throw around sabermetric terms such as VORP, WARP and fielding-independent pitching, but they usually know what they mean in different terms.

When former manager Lou Piniella was talking about a pitcher’s baserunners per inning one day, he was really talking about WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched).

“There are facts there,” Sandberg said. “There are stats there that mean something. What you can do with that is accumulate that type of information and relay that to the players, if necessary. You can have certain guys that you want to be aware of those type of things that that’s their job in the lineup, primarily at the top of the order, making the opposition work a little bit and making the pitcher work.

“There are other guys you want to go up there, with a guy on base, you want them to be aggressive and swing the bat and make something happen. All that information you can use.”

N.Y. Times: Cheering on Your Favorite Team With Your Lawn

“Lawn Logo” is about to hit the market, and as the New Jersey-based company behind it touts, “suburbia may never look the same.”

Starting with 14 major league teams, do-it-yourself kits first will be sold for an unspecified introductory price on QVC on Aug. 31. They will be sold at select retailers, including True Value and Ace hardware stores, with a suggested retail price of $129.99.

The kits, officially licensed by Major League Baseball, include a 52-inch reusable stencil and enough spray paint, in the team’s official colors and designed for grass, for several applications. There is no guarantee, of course, that the kits will not be used to paint the sides of houses, abandoned buildings or subway cars.

According to the company’s website, the teams available first are: NYY, BOS, CWS, DET, MIN, LAA, TEX, ATL, NYM, PHI, CHC, CIN, STL, and LAD

Piniella to retire after Sunday’s game

CHICAGO—Cubs manager Lou Piniella says he is retiring after Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Braves.

ESPN’s Jay Mariotti arrested by L.A. police

Damn! This slipped by our Anti-Mariotti protection system.

ESPN personality and sports columnist Jay Mariotti was arrested overnight by Los Angeles police officers in the Pacific division.

He was booked on suspicion of a felony, but officials would not provide further details.

A source with knowledge of the case described it as a domestic disturbance charge involving his girlfriend. He was being held on $50,000 bail.

Mariotti is a well-known sports commentator who can be seen on the ESPN show “Around the Horn.” He also writes for a sports website called Fanhouse.com. Known for his outspoken views, he used to write a sports column for the Denver Post and the Chicago Sun-Times.

[Updated at 9:30 a.m.:] LAPD sources said Mariotti allegedly got into an argument with his girlfriend at a club in Santa Monica.

The argument continued at the couple’s apartment in Venice, where some type of physical altercation allegedly occurred. Police were called to the apartment, and Marioitti was arrested. He is currently being held at the 77th Street station.]

Chicago Mag: Sammy Sosa Comes Out Swinging Against the Cubs

“Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine
Draw thir own ruin who attempt the deed.”

Nearly six years after his acrimonious departure from the Chicago Cubs, Sammy Sosa remains bitter over the way his relationship with the team ended. “[The Cubs] threw me into the fire,” he says in an exclusive interview with Chicago magazine. “They made [people] think I’m a monster.”

Sosa, who last played baseball in 2007 and now lives for much of the year in Miami, has largely been quiet since a report surfaced last year alleging he had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. In his interview with Chicago, he addresses the steroid issue only indirectly, albeit defiantly, saying, “My numbers don’t lie.” Sosa finished his career with 609 home runs, sixth on baseball’s all-time list, and is the only player ever to have hit more than 60 home runs in a season three times. Those records, he declares, “are going to stay there forever.”

Sosa also claims that the Cubs continue to shun him, saying, for example, that the team refused last year to let him announce his retirement from baseball at Wrigley Field.

The article, “Sammy Agonistes,” traces Sosa’s rise to superstardom in Chicago and his subsequent fall from grace—and explores why the once-iconic slugger remains a pariah in the city whose affection he once owned.

Rosenthal: Cubs, Braves talking Derrek Lee trade

The Cubs are discussing a trade that would send Lee to Atlanta for prospects, according to a major-league source.

The Cubs’ poor play since the deadline could be one reason that Lee would approve a deal. Lee also has been hot of late, and may be seeking to enhance his value as he enters the free-agent market.

It is not clear what role Lee would play in Atlanta. Braves first baseman Troy Glaus has shown signs of pulling out of a prolonged slump, but left Tuesday night’s game after banging his knee. The extent of any injury to Glaus is not known.

The Braves, after losing third baseman Chipper Jones for the season, have been looking for help at second or third base. Martin Prado, who is proficient at both positions, played third after being activated from the disabled list on Tuesday night, with Omar Infante at second. Another possibility would be to put Glaus at third base.

Thanks to Brad.

USA Today: Why can’t Cubs win? Quirks at Wrigley Field among theories

As one of my druncles used to say…“They got Buzhardt’s luck!”

“I believe there hasn’t been a whole lot of people that have run that team that truly understand the ballpark,” Steve Stone says of the Cubs. “Because the bleachers are so low in comparison to (other parks), the wind and the wind direction has an inordinate effect on a fly ball.”

Wrigley is a Jekyll and Hyde park, he says, a hitter’s paradise in the warm weather and when the wind blows out but a pitcher’s haven in the chilly months and when the wind blows in. He says the Cubs historically have loaded their lineup with slow-footed sluggers instead of balancing it with speed and players who can scratch out runs.

“It works real well when the wind blows out. ... It’s on to Waveland (Avenue), it’s on to Sheffield (Avenue), everybody’s happy,” says Stone, now an analyst on White Sox games. “But the next two games the wind blows in, and you lose two of three at home.”

...“The day games do make it harder. Most of the guys are swing-shift, 3-to-11 type people,” says former Cubs manager Dusty Baker, now manager of the Reds. At Wrigley, “It helps to have a team with guys married with families so they go home.”

EVT: Scottsdale baseball bar memorabilia heads for auction

The former owner of a popular Scottsdale steakhouse once known as “The Best Baseball Bar in America” is ready to let go of many items that once covered its walls and paid homage to legends of the national pastime who frequented the spot.

Gwen Briley, whose late husband Charlie Briley owned the Pink Pony Steakhouse and Saloon in Old Town Scottsdale for 60 years, has sold the business, liquidating its contents.

...

Among the items featured in the auction: watercolor caricatures of the players, baseball personalities and Scottsdale’s early residents who were regulars inside “The Pony,” rendered by Walt Disney artist Don Barclay. There’s also vintage and autographed photographs, a Chicago Cubs jacket that broadcaster Harry Caray gave to Charlie and Gwen Briley, a San Francisco Giants jacket given to the Brileys by former Giants owner Horace Stoneham, a game-worn Randy Johnson Arizona Diamondbacks jersey, the wooden wine barrels once inside the bar and a copper moonshine still Charlie Briley brought from Scottsville, Ky., where he was born.

Farewell, Pink Pony.

Wrigleyville’s Newest Bar! The Curse’s Official Press Release

Chicago, IL, August 9, 2010 – The Curse, a unique sports bar that pays tribute to different sports-related curses through gourmet brats and themed drinks, will be celebrating their Grand Opening on Friday, August 20, 2010.

Inspired by the different curses to plague sports teams, Premium Themes, Inc., owners of Red Ivy, announce the grand opening of their newest concept, The Curse, a sports bar in Wrigleyville, located at 3517 N. Clark Street.

The Curse is a unique concept that pays tribute to different sports curses throughout history, with a fun, tongue-and-cheek approach. Every small detail in the bar has been constructed to represent the superstitions behind sports curses. A huge timeline adorns the wall and highlights some of the more memorable curses in history. Curses on the timeline include, the Curse of the Bambino, the Madden Curse, and of course, the Curse of the Billy Goat.

Best known for their gourmet brats, the menu was crafted by creating unique brats and naming them after the athletes or curses that somehow seem to represent the ingredients in the specific brat. Some of the staff’s favorites include, The Curse of the Billy Goat (a delicious goat and beef brat served with shitake cream sauce on an onion hoagie), and The Zambrano (a chicken brat with a temper on it! Sweet cinnamon apples and American cheese with a peppery kick of chutney glaze). There is also The Tiger Woods brat (just like Tiger, this brat has a new flavor each week).

I’d like a Rocky Colavito and a Mummy sandwich.

SportTicker: Giants acquire infielder Fontenot from Cubs

The San Francisco Giants looked only as far as the visitor’s clubhouse to add infield depth, acquiring Mike Fontenot from the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.

Fontenot was still in Cubs gear just more than two hours before game time, ready to make the short walk across the ballpark - all of about 500 feet. He was available for the Giants off the bench.

San Francisco sent speedy Class-A center fielder Evan Crawford to the Cubs, who weren’t sure yet at which level Crawford would play.

MLB.com: Giants pick up infielder Fontenot from Cubs

Crawford, 22, was the Giants’ ninth-round selection in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft. He was hitting .255 with four home runs, 29 RBIs and 24 stolen bases in 109 games for San Francisco’s Class A Augusta affiliate.

Kazoo record at Cubs game turns out to be a dud

Kazoophony, indeed.

The Giants attempted a Guinness World Record on Monday with 7,000 kazoo-playing fans performing “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” during the Seventh Inning Stretch.

The idea was hatched in conjunction with Jerry Garcia Tribute Night on the 15th anniversary of the death of the Grateful Dead frontman. Celebrity Deadhead Bill Walton led the effort, along with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, who were perched atop of the Cubs dugout.

The promotion turned out to be a dud, since the only kazoos anyone could hear were the ones from Walton and Hart, who played theirs into microphones.

TIME: Baseball Dreams: Striking Out in the Dominican Republic

An interesting take on the development of Dominican ballplayers with different arguments made concerning whether the system should be changed or not.

To its supporters, the buscón system offers hope to many who have none. After all, in a country where even doctors and lawyers often make little money, why go to school? To critics, that kind of thinking is a cop-out that lowers the country’s expectations to dangerous levels. “In some ways, it’s like human trafficking,”
...
Most teams require only basic English classes for their prospects. But if the Pirates, a small-market team with the lowest payroll in the majors, can afford to offer real schooling to the Dominican players, why can’t everybody else? In their novel approach, the Pirates have partnered with a local education provider, and all players are required to be in the classroom for four hours a day, five days a week. In total, the Pirates’ education initiative cost them $75,000 this year. That’s a rounding error, even for Pittsburgh.

SI.com: Rushin: In Sports Urinalism, Older Is Better

This may produce a stream of comments:

To a great many Cub fans, the troughs were sacred. The Chicago Tribune wistfully noted: “Generations of male Cub fans have stood side-by-side at the troughs.” Channel 2 news in Chicago reported: “Some people consider them as integral a part of the Wrigley experience as Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” And so a Cubs spokesperson had to reassure the public that the troughs would survive the Wrigley renovation.
[snip]
My favorite piece of sports urinalism is my colleague Jeff Pearlman’s account of interviewing Lou Piniella while the latter stood before a urinal in the Mariners’ clubhouse—a smoldering cigarette in one hand, a hoagie sandwich in the other.

Silva taken to hospital, heart condition’s improving

Carlos Silva was hospitalized Sunday afternoon after having trouble breathing in the high altitude and experiencing an abnormally high heart rate.

The Cubs pitcher’s condition was corrected on the way to Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, where he will be monitored overnight. Silva is said to be feeling back to normal, but he will not travel with the team.

The 31-year-old hasn’t disclosed a history of these episodes to the organization’s staff and will be evaluated by a cardiologist when he returns to Chicago. 

It took only 11 pitches before assistant athletic trainer Ed Halbur and pitching coach Larry Rothschild had to visit the mound during Sunday’s 8-7 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

...“I’ll keep him in my prayers,” said Carlos Zambrano, Silva’s friend since they were teenagers in Venezuela. “Any time you’re in Colorado and something happens with a heart problem, you don’t mess with that.”

Thanks to Coggy.

Cubs Trade Lilly And Theriot To Dodgers For DeWitt

Theriot on Sunset Strip is a happening!

Via various sources, including MLB Network and this tweet from Jayson Stark, two key parts of the Cubs’ 2007 and 2008 playoff club are now members of the Los Angeles Dodgers:

  Deal done. #Cubs sending Lilly & Theriot to Cubs for Blake DeWitt & minor lgers Brett Walch & Kyle Smit. LA also gets $2.5M. #trades

I don’t know much about the minor leaguers; DeWitt likely gets installed as the Cubs’ starting second baseman, and this also likely means Carlos Zambrano heads back to the rotation, and I’d guess Jeff Samardizja comes back from Iowa to the bullpen for the rest of the year.

Cubs’ Derrek Lee rejected a trade to the Angels

According to a major league source, Lee vetoed the trade seven to 10 days ago. The Angels then turned their sights to Kansas City, acquiring Royals third baseman Alberto Callespo for two minor league pitchers on July 22.

Anything to keep Mike Napoli from playing every day.

Minihane: Dewey more deserving than Dawson

Using the psychrosabermetric chart…Minihane calculates the Dewey point.

I’m not suggesting that Dwight Evans should be in the Hall of Fame (I’d need to see Raines, Ron Santo and Bert Blyleven in first). But what confuses me is this: How does Andre Dawson spend nine years on the ballot, never receiving less than 200 votes (he got 420 votes in his election year) and Dwight Evans only spend three years on the ballot, never receiving more than 49 votes? How does that work?

The voters can’t get past the obvious, that’s why. Homers and RBI. Remember, these are some of the same guys that voted Dawson MVP in 1987. Why? Because he lead the league with 137 RBI. Never mind that the Cubs finished in last place, or that Dawson had an OBP of .328, or his OPS was 159 points lower than Jack Clark’s (who played for a Cardinals team that won 97 games), or that Dawson had a road OBP of .288 (about the same as Eric Patterson’s OBP this year). No, the man drove in runs! And that had nothing to do with the fact that he batted third all year with Dave Martinez (.372 OBP) hitting leadoff and Sandberg (.367 OBP) second. No sir. It was about character, of course. Voters actually believe that stuff, or believe that they should believe it.

...Things are starting to change. If both were in their prime today and putting up the same numbers people would look at Evans as the better player. Billy Beane and Bill James and Theo Epstein have hammered the importance of OBP into our heads. But the one place it hasn’t yet stuck is with the HOF voters. Of the 19 eligible candidates on the HOF ballot in 2010 Andre Dawson ranked 19th in career OBP. That’s behind guys likeTodd Zeile and Eric Karros. Dawson was 14th in OPS among the same group. Dwight Evans would have been four in OBP and sixth in OPS.

Jeff Ma: Why Bobby Valentine Should Stick to Sandwiches

Jeff, I said Google, not Bobby Valentine’s Sports Gallery Cafe.

Valentine obviously knows a ton about baseball having experienced success as both a player and manager, however neither of those roles has made him qualified to be a broadcaster.

The pinnacle of his stupidity highlights an epidemic that I write about in my new book, The House Advantage . In chapter six, I coin a term called “pseudo-statistic”, defined roughly as a number used in mainstream media that lies. After a very well executed sacrifice bunt by Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster, Valentine spews out a pseudo-statistic, commenting that a pitcher who bunts well can improve his record by four games—“changing a 8-8 record into 12-6”.

First off, this math doesn’t work out. And this isn’t calculus—it’s subtraction. 8-8 record changed four games would be come to either a 10-6 or 12-4 record depending on how you look at it. 12-6 doesn’t make any sense.

Secondly, how in the world does he even make this statement to begin with. The difference between a successfully executed sacrifice bunt and a failed one is marginal at best. The most extreme case is when men on are on 1st and 2nd with no outs and a successful bunt would result in men on 2nd and 3rd with one out versus men still on 1st and 2nd with one out. In this extreme case the difference in run expectancy is almost 0.5 runs. But this situation is an extreme and in most cases the successful bunt only adds about 0.2 runs over the unsuccessful bunt. Over the course of 16 games (Valentine’s hypothetical situation), the additional runs caused by successful bunting (using this formula) would add at most one win (this is using the extreme case of an extra .5 runs per game).

In fact to validate Valentine’s ridiculous claim, a pitcher’s successful sacrifice bunting would need to add almost a full run and a half per game to their team’s scoring expectation. That would seem ludicrous even to Valentine.

Cubs job interests Bobby Valentine

The ESPN analyst and former New York Mets and Texas Rangers manager says he’s interested in taking over for the retiring Lou Piniella after this season.

Valentine, who led the Mets to the pennant in 2000 and managed the Texas Rangers, calls the Cubs job “one of the most coveted positions in all of sports” and adds “anybody who thinks of himself as a manager would love to be considered as one of the people who might take his place.”

Valentine spoke before Sunday’s game between the Cubs and Cardinals.

He returned to ESPN during the 2009 playoffs after his second stint as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Pacific League. He says he won’t leave the network “unless something very special came up,” and the Cubs job “falls in the category of very special.”

Thanks to Sandy Rapp.

AP: Torre not ruling out move to Cubs

Torre’s name has emerged as a possible candidate to replace Lou Piniella, who is retiring as Cubs manager at season’s end.

“I don’t want to rule anything out, but at this point in time I’m certainly not thinking of going anywhere else,” he said Wednesday.

The man must be a masochist.

Brenly’s hat in ring; Trammell biding time

Sandberg pencils-in Jeff Baker more playing time.

Whether that opens the door wide enough for guys like 2006 candidate Bob Brenly to get a more serious look, Hendry wasn’t saying.

But the Cubs television analyst and former World Series-winning manager in Arizona made it clear he wants to be considered.

Brenly, who sidestepped questions Tuesday, told WSCR-AM on Wednesday that he’s interested and later told the Sun-Times: ‘‘I interviewed for the job the last time, and I would be interested in the job this time if given the opportunity.’‘

Alan Trammell, the Cubs’ bench coach and former Detroit manager, also spoke to the media Wednesday but didn’t say much beyond indicating an interest.

‘‘I’m very appreciative of the fact my name is even being considered, but down the road is the time to talk about it more,’’ he said. ‘‘At this point I’m not even thinking about it. I know [Tuesday] I downplayed it because I thought it was Lou’s day, out of respect.’‘

ESPN Chicago: Sandberg on Cubs job: I’m ready

As my old boss at the bar used to say…“Show him the door before we open up.”

One day after Lou Piniella announced he would retire as Chicago Cubs manager following this season, Ryne Sandberg made sure there was no ambiguity about his desire and confidence to replace Piniella next year.

“I am ready,” Sandberg said Wednesday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “I sure am.”

Sandberg, who forged his Hall of Fame career as a second baseman with the Cubs, is in his fourth season managing in the Cubs organization. He currently has Triple-A Iowa in first place.

“[After] four years of managing at the minor league level, I’m ready for a major league job, and I’m ready to win,” Sandberg said. “The reason I went this route was to manage, not to coach.

“There is a lot to managing, and with almost four years under my belt, I believe I’m ready. I’m not interested in on-the-job learning or on-the-job training. At this point, I’m interested in winning ballgames at the major league level.”

S.I.: Sheehan: Why Lou Piniella is a Hall of Famer

Piniella’s 1826 - 1691 record isn’t as impressive as the .519 winning percentage it carries with it.

Piniella may not feel like a Hall of Famer to some people, the same ones who argue that Tim Raines or Alan Trammell or John Smoltz don’t feel like immortals. Piniella, like those players, suffers in part by having contemporaries who were among the very best who ever lived. Smoltz pitched in the same era as Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson, pitchers who broke the curve for mound greatness in the waning days of the 20th century. Similarly, Piniella’s managerial contemporaries included Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre, three men who will unquestionably be inducted not long after their retirements and who are 3-4-5 on the all-time wins list and, have 16 pennants and seven world championships among them. That’s not the standard and it never has been, and Piniella shouldn’t be held to that. Piniella is Smoltz, or Tom Glavine or Mike Mussina, an all-time great never quite appreciated as such due to context. Like La Russa and Cox, Piniella succeeded in different places in both leagues with different types of teams, and adapted along with the game over a quarter-century.

It’s entirely possible that the story changes, that Piniella leads a furious Cubs charge to the NL Central crown or that he comes back in two years to helm the A’s to a pennant. He doesn’t need those markers, though. Since 1986, Lou Piniella has been making his teams better, and that kind of track record deserves not just our acknowledgment and our appreciation today, but the highest honor baseball can confer upon him: Hall of Famer.

Henson: Marlon Byrd’s All-Star season is aided by a controversial supplements guru.

Supreme ZuPreem with ooomph!

Victor Conte instructed Byrd to take an extra dose of a product called ZMA-5 before bed because it contains zinc and, Conte said, “It is widely known that zinc helps speed up the healing process of bruises and plays a major role in tissue repair.” ZMA-5, billed as a rapid anabolic sleep enhancer, is one of a dozen or so of Conte’s supplements the Chicago Cubs center fielder unfailingly ingests each day. Call it Byrd food.

None of the stuff packs nearly the wallop of the Cream or the Clear, but, hey, times have changed since Conte was dealing boutique steroid concoctions to the likes of Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery. Conte hasn’t run afoul of the law since BALCO blew up in 2003 and no athlete is known to have tested positive from any of his current products. Yet 30 months after adopting the regimen, Byrd is still the only MLB player known to use Conte’s supplements. Conte’s clients also include several prominent boxers, and a smattering of NFL players – whom Conte says don’t want to be identified – and track and field athletes.

“Nobody I know uses it,” Byrd said. “And I’ve recommended it to all my teammates. I recommend it to everyone. Everyone is always searching. I know what works for me and I try to pass that on. But they are reluctant.”

...“The keys for me are food, supplements and sleep,” Byrd said. “Stay on the same schedule of food every day and you are going to be a better player. Even if it is a placebo. Wade Boggs ate chicken every day. That was his thing. Me, I believe in taking supplements before games.”