SFBG: Boo-yah! Johnnie LeMaster returns

Boo Harvey, Boo Dilicious and Boo-Boo Hoff got nothing on the great Boo LeMaster!

So without informing the higher ups in the San Francisco front office, LeMaster had his name plate removed from the back of his No. 10 Giants jersey and replaced simply with a three letter word: “Boo.”

“It really caught everyone off guard, in fact when I walked to the plate that night I could hear manager Joe Altobelli say, ‘Why does John have “Bob” on the back of his uniform?’ “That stunt cost me a $500 fine, but it was worth every penny. It won over some of the media and the fans really got a kick out of it,” said LeMaster who was honored by the Giants last weekend as part of the club’s season long 50th San Francisco Anniversary celebration.

...Though the lithe LeMaster batted just .222 with 22 career home runs in a dozen big league campaigns -11 spent in Orange & Black - he went yard in his first major league at bat with San Francisco, slashing a rare inside the park home run against future Hall of Famer Don Sutton of the Dodgers on Sept. 2, 1975.

“I was a 21-year-old kid and I hit a line drive that hit a seam on the old astro turf at Candlestick Park and it bounced over the center fielders head,” LeMaster recalled in his southern lilt. “I just took off running and running. That’s the fastest I ever ran and the scariest I’d ever been. It’s a memory that will be etched in my mind forever unless I get Alzheimer’s or something like that. And hopefully that won’t happen.”

Gossage takes emotional tour in Cooperstown

Goose Gossage: Kooler than Kuklinski tossing bodies into a squirming rat-filled cave...to be eaten alive.

Gossage, that famous mustache now gray, claims to have hit only three batters intentionally in his major league career: Ron Gant, Al Bumbry and Andres Galarraga.

“They had it coming,” he said.

Well, maybe not Galarraga. He was on a hot streak for the Montreal Expos in 1988 and Gossage, who was with the Cubs that season, said manager Don Zimmer warned the staff not to let Galarraga beat them.

“I’m in the eighth inning, Galarraga’s up, first base is open, the game’s on the line with two guys on, and I’m thinking back to the meeting before the game,” Gossage said with an impish grin. “I was in my delivery when I thought, ‘I’m not taking any chances.’

“Boom! I wasn’t going to put him on, so I saved four pitches and drilled him as good as I can drill them. Right in the ribcage. You could hear the air go out. It was beautiful.”

FOX Sports: Perry: Young backstops will stack up with past greats

(drowsy Madden-speak ahead) BAH!...These catchers today ain’t a dalrymple on the…

It so happens that right now we’re blessed with a number of catchers who meet all those requirements and then some. In fact, it’s worth pondering whether baseball is on the cusp of a new “golden age” of catchers. The 1920s and ‘30s gave us Mickey Cochrane, Bill Dickey, Gabby Hartnett and Ernie Lombardi. The ‘50s gave us Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella. The ‘70s gave us Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Thurman Munson, and Gene Tenace. The ‘90s gave us Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Piazza.

These days, of course, the names and styles are different, but the current era, by the time it draws to a close, may compare favorably to any other period in baseball history when it comes to excellence at the catcher position.

Brian McCann: The 24-year-old McCann has a career SLG of .496, and this season he’s slugging .540 and on pace for 83 extra-base hits. Offensively, he’s got the most upside of any active catcher. Also, if you look at Similarity Scores, which measure statistical likenesses among hitters, you’ll find that McCann’s most similar hitter through age 23 is none other than Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri.

Geovany Soto: You saw Soto touted in this space as the Rookie of the Year favorite in the NL. He’s lived up to that and then some. His power is for real, and he’s wasted no time in adapting to the highest level. At this writing, Soto is hitting .349 AVG/.442 OBP/.651 SLG and is on target for 31 homers and 67 doubles. Obviously, he’s not likely to maintain such a pace, but he could still find himself in the NL MVP discussion this season. Soto’s the real thing.

TSN: Justice: Putting Berkman’s hot start in perspective

Of all the sneaky valsalva maneuvers...Lance Berkman and the HOF?

Lance Berkman is a prototype for what every professional athlete should be in the way he lives his life and plays the game.

He’s a great hitter in every sense of the word. He just turned 32 years old and has a .303 career batting average with 271 home runs and 890 RBIs. His career OBP is .414.

By the time he’s done playing, he may be knocking on the doors of Cooperstown. In the steroids era, he’s completely untainted except for an occasional extra slice of chocolate cake.

If he’s not careful, though, he’s going to end up being a household name because Lance Berkman is doing things that have very seldom been done before.

Seamheads: Talkin’ Baseball, Steroids and “The Code” With Author Ross Bernstein

It takes more than math to figure out the code!

BJ: On Sunday, I watched the Phils and Giants and in the game, a Giants’ player crushed Carlos Ruiz at the plate and later in the game, it looked like Giants’ first baseman Rich Aurilia was upset that Shane Victorino might have spiked him at first base. After the game, Victorino commented on the play at the plate and that he thought it was unnecessary. After reading “The Code” it made me wonder if maybe Victorino spiked Aurilia on purpose.

RB: Exactly! If you pick up those things and now with the rule changes and what umpires can do, teams have to retaliate different. Intimidation, fear and retaliation are a huge part of professional sports. Rob Dibble said he would try to be “effectively wild.” He might throw over a guy’s head on his first pitch just to scare the #### out of him and then get everyone on the bench talking. They’d think he was nuts. That guy might not dig in as hard at the plate and might not reach for the outside pitch. He might be a little bit afraid of getting a 100-mph fastball in the neck. That’s a huge advantage because now you got guys wondering what are they going to do? I think it’s a tactic and this book celebrates that.

BJ: And there’s Don Zimmer who climbed a light pole after being ejected to flash his signs… do you have a favorite story?

RB: Mike Marshall had some great stories. The guy was nuts. He used to love to drill guys. Plus, he’s such an intellectual guy, I had no idea. He’s got a PhD in Kinesiology and studies the stuff non-stop. He was funny as hell. Bert Blyleven, too… I loved Bert. I don’t know, I’m just an old school guy. I loved when the guys talked about beaning guys for the love of it. It’s like in hockey, some people hate it but I love it. I’m not one of those freaks on hockeyfights.com watching them constantly but I appreciate when there’s a good fight. It’s like that in baseball, too. Everyone has a role. If not, it’s like the Ozzie Guillen chapter about sending down Sean Tracey for not drilling a guy. Hey, if you’re not going to do your job and drill a guy, get the f*ck out.

Bronx Banter: Markusen: Roy White: The Forgotten Yankee

Or as Alex Belth (see you at 6, Al!) sez in the comments..."I will never take a program like Yankeeography seriously until they do shows on Yankees like Roy White.”

As overlooked as White was for most of his career, the view of his worth as a player has undergone a stark revision. Historians and analysts now recognize him as one of the finer multi-talented players of the 1970s. Durable and dependable, he featured speed (stealing an average of over 15 bases a season over a 15-year career), a modicum of power (160 home runs, including a high of 22 in 1970), and an excellent glove in left field, skilled enough to handle the challenging dimensions of Death Valley of Yankee Stadium. White also fared well in the postseason, particularly in League Championship Series play. No less an authority than Bill James (who is ironically now a Boston Red Sox employee) has become one of White’s biggest champions, going so far as to claim that White was a better ballplayer than his Red Sox’ left field counterpart, Jim Rice. That’s especially noteworthy given that Rice undergoes an annual dalliance with the BBWAA, which has come within a whisker of electing him to the Hall of Fame. Rice is expected to win election next January, while White fell off the writers’ ballot after one inglorious campaign in 1985. White received no votes (while far lesser players like Don Kessinger and Jesus Alou garnered two and one, respectively), thereby dropping off the ballot immediately.

Micah Owings in Context

But it’s more fun to take him out of context.

Highest Career OPS (min 75 PA):

Babe Ruth 1.164
Ted Williams 1.116
Lou Gehrig 1.079
Micah Owings 1.056
Barry Bonds 1.051
Albert Pujols 1.041

While this isn’t necessarily a candidate for inclusion in the next edition of How to Lie With Statistics, setting the bar at 75 PA is just the tiniest bit misleading. Still, that’s pretty heady company, and there’s no denying that Owings is an excellent hitting pitcher. With the help of the amazing BaseballReference.com Play Index, I pulled up a couple of other charts that put Owings’ accomplishments in a bit more context:

N.Y. Sun: Barra: In Rare Case, Jim Bouton Finds Life After Sports

From Bulldog Bouton to Bulldog Drummond…

On the subject of the building of the new Yankee Stadium and the fate of the old — don’t get him started. “The whole thing is just outrageous,” he told the audience at Film Forum. “It’s a total disgrace, and a perfect example of the failure of democracy. Why did we need a new Yankee Stadium if, with the old one, the Yankees were leading the league in attendance?

“Who wanted Yankee Stadium torn down? Not the fans who buy the tickets, and not the taxpayers, who are going to foot much of the bill just so they can pay higher ticket prices for the fewer seats that are available. I think it was said best by one of the main culprits in all of it, Rudolph Giuliani. When someone asked him ‘Why aren’t the fans allowed to vote for this new stadium?’ he said, ‘Because they’d vote against it.’”

Aren’t you afraid, an audience member wanted to know, that mouthing off about the new Yankee Stadium will get you banished all over again? “Oh, heck,” he said with a wave of his hand, “let the chips fall.”

Buffalo News: Accountant makes Elias the source

A look at the most important man in Bill Madden’s life (well, outside of James “Prexy” Petrillo, that is)...Seymour Siwoff and his Elias Sports Bureau.

“You can’t talk to the computer in the English language,” said Siwoff, the company president. “From the very first day I realized, ‘Oh my God. You’ve got to learn the nomenclature of how to talk to this machine.’ That’s the key. We talk to it. And in many [search] cases you have to stop and think, ‘What’s a better way to approach this?’ ”

Siwoff and a staff of more than 30 have historical perspective at their fingertips and it regularly ends up on the lips of SportsCenter’s anchors, or tucked into newspaper notes columns. Quite often the facts they unearth aren’t nearly as impressive as their ability to unearth them, and with virtual immediacy. Usually Elias is providing the answer before the question’s been asked.

...“The difference between us and Google and Yahoo is, we put the stuff in the machine,” Siwoff said. “They brought us files already there. We spent a lifetime doing this. . . . To this very day we’re researching mistakes of the past in the sports we do, incredible as it is. In fairness to our previous generation, they didn’t have any computers. There was a casual approach to keeping statistics.”

“We like the sports themselves,” Siwoff said. “We just don’t like numbers, for example. We like the games. That’s more important than anything. There’s a romance to sports.”

MLB to ‘draft’ Negro Leaguers

I wonder if the Red Sox will draft Willie Mays....

Jimmie Lee Solomon sees professional baseball going more global each day, but as one of the game’s top executives, Solomon is mindful of the game’s past, which for nearly half of the 20th century did not include black ballplayers in the Major Leagues.

“You can’t really go and plot out your future if you don’t look around over your shoulder and see where you’ve come from,” said Solomon, executive vice president of Major League Baseball.

Solomon and others took a look at that past, and they decided the sport needed to find yet another way to remember those surviving Negro League players who had been excluded from the Majors.

As part of its 2008 First-Year Player Draft next month, Major League Baseball will hold a ceremonial selection of players from the Negro Leagues. Participation in the draft is voluntary, but most of the 30 clubs are expected to take part as baseball continues its efforts to keep alive the history of the Negro Leagues.

...Under the initiative, teams will “draft” surviving Negro League players, he said. The individuals selected will represent all the black ballplayers that were denied a chance to play in the Majors because of their skin color.

Joe Posnanski Blog: Keltnerizing Fred Lynn

And I’m sure he got hurt in the process…

Then there’s Lynn. Because Fred Lynn was so good, so young, lots of people have a tendency to look at what his career could have been or should have been and maybe even would have been had it not been for the injuries and getting traded away from Fenway Park and all that. He got about 1,100 fewer career plate appearances than Rice, and because of this his counting numbers are not as good*, though his OPS+ is actually the best of the three at 129.

Interestingly enough, though, I think Lynn might have the most compelling Hall of Fame case of the three. Again — I’m using the word compelling.* Rice has better numbers and a big reputation. Evans has better numbers and an all-around game. But Lynn … well, I’ve been thinking a lot about him lately. I think he’s sort of a combination of the two. He was charismatic and respected like Rice, but he was a great all-around player like Dewey. He was the one guy of the three who I think was, in fact, the very best player in baseball for a stretch of time. Plus, he was the centerfielder.

Yaz, Feller linked by historic jersey

Well...this certainly trumps my greasy Stack O’ Jacks napkin signed by Big Ben Davidson.

If not for Rodley Redd, a batboy for the Raleigh Caps in 1959, a little bit of baseball history would have landed in the trash. Instead, a jersey worn by Bob Feller and Carl Yastrzemski—likely the only one ever used in games by two different baseball Hall of Famers—is a family heirloom and a piece of living history.

“I don’t care how much it is worth,” Redd said. “I like having it where I can look at it and touch it. I don’t want it locked up somewhere.”

...Feller wore it when he helped pitch the Cleveland Indians to the 1954 World Series, where they lost to the New York Giants. Five years later, Yastrzemski began his professional baseball career in it with the Raleigh Caps after the jersey had been sold by the Burlington Alamance Indians to the Raleigh minor league team.

Yastrzemski and Feller each have authenticated the jersey and have signed it, although Feller’s autograph has faded.

“It is the only known dual Hall of Famer game-worn jersey in existence,” said Jim Gutierrez of Heritage Galleries in Dallas.

YESNetwork: Pepe: Yanks missing Posada

Why Take Less When Pepesi’s Best!

No doubt the Yankees are weakened by the absence of Alex Rodriguez. They miss his potent bat, his run production, and his presence in the middle of the lineup.

But they might miss Jorge Posada even more.

With Posada, the Yankees have won five pennants and three World Series.

With A-Rod, they have won no pennants and no World Series.

The undeniable fact is that the Yankees have won 39 pennants and 26 World Series with power (Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson) and pitching (Bob Shawkey, Herb Pennock, Waite Hoyt, Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, Whitey Ford, Ron Guidry, Goose Gossage, Mariano Rivera). But, the case can be made that the real reason behind the Yankees’ unprecedented success has been the man behind the plate.

Simply put, you don’t win championships without a superior catcher, and the Yankees have had their fair share of dominant, superior catchers. Six backstops (including two Hall of Famers), have held down the vital position and have accounted for 33 pennants and 22 World Series championships in an 83-year span, from 1921 to 2003.

Deadspin: Even Joe Posnanski Gets Yelled At

In coincidental timing with David Weathers’ storming at the media, Poz takes his turn in the “Dark Side Of The Locker Room” section by recounting a (kind of) dark encounter with Jeff Montgomery, the face of the 90s Royals.

Now, I’m not going to tell you I’m the bravest guy around, because I’m not. I’m a bald, chubby-to-fat sportswriter. At first, I had that, “Damn, I’m going to have a fight with Jeff Montgomery and he’s going to pound on me like Sonny pounded Carlo,” feeling in my stomach. But after a couple of minutes, I realize he really isn’t going to hit me, there isn’t going to be a one-sided fight, and then it’s like I have one of those out of body experiences. Suddenly it’s like I’m looking down on the scene, and I’m thinking, “WOW, this guy is mad. Look at him. He’s really, really mad. He’s like crazy mad. Look at this guy, pacing around, stomping around, that towel wrapped around his hand, he’s really mad. I mean, this guy is mad.”

And then, it becomes sort of a mini-struggle not to laugh. Well, I don’t know that I was every close to laughing, but he WAS mad.

My favorite part was when the thing ended, and Jeff says, “Do we understand each other?” and he stomps off. The PR guy turned to me and in a shaken voice whispers: “I just want to thank you for allowing me to be a part of that.”

Dugout Central: Caimano: Ker-Pronk! - Indians Fans Be Warned

Pronk: Part Jim Gentile Project...Part Dick Stuart Donkey.

Cleveland Indians management and fans are becoming more concerned with each passing day with the struggles of Travis “Pronk” Hafner. They should be. In fact, they’re getting worried a little bit late. Hafner’s sharp drop-off at that plate shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody because players of his type (tall, thick, defensively challenged power hitters) have a history of not aging well. This point has been demonstrated many times, but every time a new behemoth begins swatting balls all over a major league ballpark the local citizenry needs to be reminded.

...There are four basic individual skills that go into being a major league baseball player: hitting for power, hitting for average, speed and defense. The key to longevity is to be above average at as many of those skills as possible. The problem with players like Travis Hafner is that all of their talent is concentrated into one or two areas. In Hafner’s case, hitting for power and, to a lesser extent, hitting for average. As those skills degrade, Hafner can’t fall back on speed or defense to maintain his value. Unless he rediscovers his power in a hurry the Indians are in trouble this year and for the foreseeable future. History is not on his side. Are you watching Phillie fans?

It’s been 10 years since Kerry Wood set baseball ablaze with 20 Ks

He struck out 20 Astros that day - tying Roger Clemens’ record for most K’s in a game - while tossing a one-hit shutout.

Monday is the 10th anniversary of that gem, and folks around the game still marvel at what Wood, a rookie making his fifth big-league start, did on May 6, 1998. That day, Billy Williams and Ron Santo, two former Cub greats who were on the team that Sandy Koufax threw a perfect game against in 1965, both told then-Cubs manager Jim Riggleman, “As great as Sandy’s day was, Kerry was more dominating,” Riggleman recalls.

Baseball Crank: McLaughlin: Making An Entrance

“Johan Santana’s Start in Perspective‏”...or holy crap Mickey Lolich got jobbed!

Yesterday’s start by Johan Santana reversed his usual pattern; whereas he has thus far, except for his beating at the hands of the Brewers, basically had stretches of dominance interrupted only by too-frequent home runs, yesterday he was laboring with a lot of men on base but muddled through to allow just a single run and leave with a lead the bullpen then gave away.

Now that we are 7 starts in to the Johan Santana Era, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the first 7 appearances by prior mid-career arrivals to the Mets rotation. I tried to limit this list to guys who were slotted comfortably into the rotation, and left off guys who were not yet established starters (other than Rick Reed), guys who were obvious reclamation projects (Pete Harnisch, Randy Jones, Don Cardwell, Ray Burris), guys who started off in the pen (George Stone posted an 0.60 ERA in 7 relief appearances in 1973 to force his way into the rotation), guys who went down for the year with injuries before making it through 7 starts (Vic Zambrano), guys who came straight from Japan (Masato Yoshii) and guys who started with the team in its expansion years. Here, in ascending order of ERA, you can see the great, the hideous, and everything in between (Seaver is listed here for his 1983 encore). One or two of these guys made a few relief appearances in here, but they all started at least 5 of the 7 games.

Piniella compares Soriano to Bobby Bonds (RR)

Lou Piniella...desperately trying to have his own chapter in Neyer’s follow-up book.

“I played with Bobby Bonds in New York, and we traded for him from the Giants for Bobby Murcer,” Piniella told Joe Morgan. “And we put him in the 4 hole, and boy, he floundered. And all of a sudden, two months into the season, we put him back where he was familiar in that 1 hole and he really, really flourished and just had 40-40 (steals and home runs) and over 100 RBIs and was the great player he always was.

“I think Soriano is the same type of player as Bobby Bonds, so I like him in the 1 hole. He feels comfortable there.”

Piniella was referring to Bonds’ 1975 season in New York, though his memory was a little off. Bonds was moved to the No. 3 hole, where he hit .190 with a .301 on-base percentage, not the 4 hole, where he received only four at-bats. In the leadoff spot, Bonds hit .303 that year with a .408 on-base percentage and 25 home runs. And Bonds actually was a 30-30 man in ‘75, not 40-40. He finished with 32 homers, 30 steals and 85 RBIs.

AHP: Leshanski: Hitting 500 Home Runs Isn’t that Special

You’ve got to be crazy if you think that 500 home runs means anything anymore.  Between steroids and 20 plus year careers it doesn’t take special talent to reach that plateau any longer.  In recent years Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, A-Rod, Frank Thomas, and Jim Thome have reached that mark and Manny Ramirez and Gary Sheffield are within sniffing distance of that number.

I’m not even sure that surpassing 600 home runs means all that much anymore when the two players who have accomplished the feat in recent years are Sammy Sosa and Barry “Bulked Up” Bonds - both known as cheaters between corked bats and steroids.  Sure it has to count for something but less than a decade ago there were only fourteen 500 home run guys and those names were pretty legendary.  Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Frank Robinson, Killebrew, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Jimmy Foxx, Willie McCovey, Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Mel Ott, and Eddie Murray, that’s it.  Fourteen names that managed that feat in the first 12 decades of organized baseball.

Yet 11 players, possibly even 12 who have been active in the last seven years will enter that 500 home run club.  How do you feel about Gary Sheffield?  Jim Thome?  Sammy Sosa?  They have been great players and fun to watch, but can you really mention them in the same breath as Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays?  No, not with a straight face.

As punkcious Donna Forego once sang..."Funny face, I love you. Funny face...I needle you up with bad gravy”

Dan Weisman, Baseball Investigator: One Degree of “Dr. Strangeglove”—The Jack Cust Story

Yes, the greatest baseball investigator since Philo Kvetch roamed the grimy bowels of Yankee Stadium...is back!

Give Cust credit for he probably never heard of Stuart. But Lawdy, Miss Clawdy, he did the greatest Dr. Strangeglove impression possible. First, he looked up to see the routine fly ball drift ever so graciously to Left Field. Ever confident—and nobody looked more confident than Stuart right before each next gaffe—Cust held up his glove awaiting the expected result.

Hosanna and look out below, the ball fell flush on a closed glove, bounced about 20 yards away and resulted in disaster, Angels flying around the basepaths. What Cust had done was cover his eyes with his glove. He never stood a chance.

But Cust is a playa, if not a fieldah, per se. Almost nonchalantly, he retrieved the ball, missed the cut-off man—perfect, if this were Superman’s Bizarro World, but here not so much—and eventually departed the field at inning’s end.

Cust’s no love for Mr. Glove did Stuart even prouder then. As Stuart often did, Cust went the distance and then some. Made up for it all with a ringing home run sparking an eight-run Fifth Inning that won the A’s the game. So imperfect in the damn field, Cust was perfect at the plate going four for four, walking twice and scoring three runs.

I am not too proud to say this: When I focused on the enormity of the effort, the Dr. Strangeglove resurrection in reflection, I got a little misty-eyed.

Deadspin: Sadly, Julio Franco Cannot Play Forever

Julio Franco retiring?...I just looked it up and the night Franco broke in (Friday, April 23, 1982) I was at Maxwell’s contortin’ to The Love Tractors and The Raybeats...and due to lethal grogsumtion, I don’t recall either event.

One wouldn’t think that this would be classified as “news,” necessarily, but we still find it noteworthy, and kind of sad: Julio Franco has officially announced his retirement.

Well, we think so, anyway; the story has only been reported by the official site of the Mexican League, where Franco had been peddling his wares. And it’s all in Spanish. We tried translating it through Babelfish, but that wasn’t much help.

This Wednesday at the end of the second game of the series of Tigers in front of Oil tankers, the Dominican Frank Julio definitively announced to the feline director his retirement to him like active player.

After analyzing the situation with the family, the Dominican one ends a trajectory of 26 years like player in where it harvested I title of batting with the Rangers of Texas, more valuable player of American Liga in the 90, three star games and two titles of batting in Mexico.

The Biz of Baseball: Brown: Remembering Buzzie

Maury Brown and baseball loses a friend…

Buzzie, wherever you are right now, the world is a different place without you. Yes, you were part of the “old-guard”, but you saw so much, and lived more than anyone that I’ve ever met.

...The great thing about Buzzie was he kind of flew in the face of conventional wisdom of what an “old guy” was supposed to be like. For one, he had an email account, and checked it often (Bud Selig reportedly doesn’t have a compter, but here’s 92-year-old Buzzie surfing the web). And so, for the past 3 years I have been in contact with him regularly, asking him to weigh in on a variety of topics for The Biz of Baseball, as well as for Baseball Prospectus.

He answered every question I ever had of him. Well, all but one.

When I asked him to add to a compilation of comments on Barry Bonds, shortly after he was indicted, he declined.

“I prefer waiting before making a comment,” he said. “Barry could be guilty or innocent. Would be glad to make a statement at a later date.”

Sadly, that later date won’t be coming.

TSN: Deveney: 2013 Hall field could be most crowded — ever

We can say for sure that Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux, Martinez, Schilling and Johnson will be in the Hall of Fame. But it’s a virtual certainty that all six will not get in en masse in 2013.

The writers who vote for the Hall of Fame tend to be judicious with the first-ballot thing. There are only 38 players who have been voted into the Hall on their first try, and only once—in 1999, when George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Robin Yount made it—were there more than two first-timers elected.

So, three, or possibly more, of those six pitchers wouldn’t make the first-ballot cut if they all retire together. When it comes to the Hall of Fame, you never know. But voting probably would shape up this way:

2. Glavine. No question, 300 wins get you in. But not necessarily as a first-timer, as Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton, Phil Niekro and Early Wynn can attest. Glavine is, of course, much better than those guys. Though he was not quite on Maddux’s level, Glavine was close. He made 10 All-Star appearances, put up five 20-win seasons and has won 60.2 percent of decisions.

Is Glavine really “much better” than Perry and Niekro?

Yahoo: Andy Van Slyke talks slugging Bonds, coaching first

Here comes Van Slyke! Here’s the punch to the nose! He is...naff!  Van Slyke wins! Van Slyke wins! Van Slyke wins!  Van Slyke wins!...Van Slyke wins!

Q: There’s an urban legend in Pittsburgh that, from center field, you tried to wave Barry Bonds in to play more shallow in left before Francisco Cabrera’s famous game-winning hit in the 1992 NLCS.

AVS: That’s not a legend, that is not a rumor, that is an absolute, 100-percent, truth that I did.

Q: Was he just ignoring you?

AVS: I always felt that I got a sixth sense on the field that, as an outfielder, I had these premonitions that seemed to come true about half the time. I just felt, given when I saw, that Cabrera was going to hit the ball to left field and nowhere else. Based on scouting reports, based on the count, and that he had just ripped the ball down the left-field line foul when it was 2-0. I was trying to make Barry move in to not let the winning run score from second. He chose to ignore me. Now, if he had moved in two steps, I don’t know if it would have made a difference. I’ll never know that. It might have been a harder play for him because the ball was hit to his left a little.

Q: Maybe he could have trusted you?

AVS: Barry was a great player. It’s sort of like, dealing with Barry made me a greater player in center. But also, it was sort of like being a catcher with a pitcher. He made the last decision. He chose not to move. The unfortunate thing was, if the ball had been hit 10 more feet to his right, I have no question he would have thrown out Sid Bream.

...Q: Seriously, why didn’t Bonds just move in?

AVS: Because he’s a [bleeped by request].

Ask 14: Jim Rice: I Never Witnessed Racism at Fenway

But wait’ll I get elected next year...then you’ll hear some major guff!

Last week a story came out in which Torii Hunter remarked that he heard racist taunts while playing as a visitor at Fenway. Other people have made remarks to the media about racism at Fenway over the years and, though I can’t speak for what another player has experienced, in my 15+ years of playing in Boston, I never encountered this type of behavior directed at me, a teammate, or opposing player.

Actually, I never really heard of this type of behavior at any of the opposing ballparks that I played at. We always thought Yankee fans would be the worst but they’re just like any place else. Fans are gonna say “you suck” because you hurt their ball club. If you are just making outs and errors in the field, they won’t say a word. But when you do something to hurt their team such as hitting a home run, stealing a base, or throwing out a runner.

But as for racism, I NEVER had any experience like that. I think for a situation to escalate to that level, you have to do something to incite that type of behavior. If you talk about the fans or acknowledge their taunts by responding to them, that is when the situation can deteriorate into the type of behavior Torii alluded to. Again, I can’t say for certain what Torii experienced or what led up to it, you would have to ask him about that.

Baseball Library: Blyleven, Smoltzie and the Eck and the Road to the Hall of Fame

The latest from John Shiffert…

The numbers speak for themselves. While Smoltz does have a better Adjusted ERA, at this point, Eckersley has pitched in 350 more games than Smoltz (with almost the same number of innings), has only 13 fewer wins and way over twice as many saves. If you need any further proof of his unique status, check out the Similarity Scores on Eckersley’s page on baseball-reference.com. In “The Politics of Glory,” Bill James, who invented this metric, notes that a Similarity Score of 783 (out of 1000) makes the two players thus compared “vaguely similar.” What then are we to make of Eckersley, whose closest comp, Lindy McDaniel, scores at 722 (and who only has three other players above 700)? That’s easy, Eckersley is unique in baseball history, as unique in is own way as Babe Ruth, and shouldn’t be used as a Hall of Fame comparison for anybody. For instance, Eckersley and Smoltz WERE comparable at the age of 36 and 37 (around an 870 Similarity Score), but Eckersley then tacked on another half dozen years of top shelf relief, and Smoltz went back to starting, completely changing their career profiles.

Speaking of comps, of the 10 current closest comps to Smoltz in baseball history, only three, Jim Bunning, Catfish Hunter and Don Drysdale, are in the Hall. That doesn’t mean that Smoltz only has a 30 percent chance of getting elected, but it does mean that pitchers like Smoltz haven’t fared real well in the balloting. Smoltz’ closest comps are Kevin Brown, Curt Schilling, Bob Welch and Orel Hershiser. Having thus brought Schilling into the conversation, he and Smoltz are a pretty good match (an 880 Similarity Score), and are also exact contemporaries, and have many of the same Cooperstown Credentials. Do either of them belong in the Hall? And which one is better? Once again, Smoltz is second.

THT: Isleib: Candles in the wind (Part 1)

“Players who crammed their production before age 26”...Meh, Alexandra Quinn and Kristara Barrington crammed their production before age 18!

Kranepool is a fundamentally odd case even on these lists. Due to his being a Met, he came up ridiculously early and became their regular first baseman as a teenager. 1967 was the last year he would play more than 130 games in a season; he came into normal MLB age just as the Mets were getting better, which meant his services, better suited to a platoon role, were not needed quite as much. Had he come up at the normal time, I don’t think the tail end of his career would have changed in particular apart maybe from staying longer: 1968-1979 reflects what his playing time should have been all along, but the putrid condition of the early Mets alters his career shape quite a bit.

Pepitone is a famous case of hard living and early leaving. Perhaps surprisingly, he’s one of the very few position players of that lifestyle to make these lists; it happens more often with pitchers. Maybe if you have to play every day, having to show up in game condition keeps a tighter leash; maybe the sample size is too small. In any event, he could have stayed with the Yankees into the Steinbrenner era, which would have been entertaining with Billy Martin. They could have ganged up on that poor marshmallow salesman....

Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen: Lucy Marlow (with hubby Andy Carey)

This is the slickest thing I’ve seen...since I followed Jim Spencer and Rick Reichardt into a Detroit Go-Go bar!

Dec, 1955

The Careys are in the press with their “working agreement,” which carries a “no interference rule.” Under its terms, Andy refuses to appear on movie sound stages and she agrees not to interfere in baseball matters. “The closest Andy will come is the Studio Publicity Office, where they are seen together.”

Nov, 1957

In Alameda, California, her husband (Andy Carey) is reported catching one hubcap thief and helping police nab another. “His wife, movie starlet Lucy Marlow, saw two men taking hubcaps from cars while Carey was working on his speed boat. He struggled with Manuel Toffokla, 19, while Mrs. Carey called police, who captured Jimmy Bartlett, 19, with Carey’s help. Both youth pleaded guilty and face sentences. The Carey’s live in Malibu Beach, California, and were visiting there.

Bronx Banter: Belth: Ten Essential Baseball Books

Damn...Bob Bonner’s “Me and Him” is nowhere to be found.

Last month I received an e-mail from Chris Illuminati, the content editor of Phillyburbs.com. He told me he was asking different people for one baseball book that they’d consider essential. I picked “No Cheering From the Press Box,” Jerome Holtzman’s wonderful collection of interviews with old time sports writers, but sent Chris a list of ten essential books just for the fun of it. Shortly after the story ran I thought it’d be fun to ask a group of seamheads--historians, biographers, columnists, beat writers, screenwriters, novelists--for a list of their ten essential baseball books. Not the ten best books or even the ten most essential books just ten essential ones.

I deliberately rigged the question because there are more than just ten essential books in any self-respecting baseball libray. But I was more interested in lists that would reveal the quirks and personal tastes of each individual rather than trying to assemble an authoratative or comprehensive poll.

The top vote getters are interesting--though not particularly surprising--and because the lists are so subjective there are no consensus selections. “Ball Four” and “The Glory of Their Times” and “The Bill James Historical Abstract” were the top picks, though some people distinctly went with the original Historical Abstract while others chose the new one.  Bill James got more votes than any individual writer followed by Roger Angell (the most common difficulty for the contributors seemed to be which Angell compilation to go with).

Red Sox legend Tiant introduces name brand cigars to South Shore

El Tiante...looking to the sky as frilly tobacco-specific nitrosamines float about.

“Louis is known for two things, playing baseball and smoking cigars,” said Anderson, the company’s vice president and CFO. “There’s almost a built-in market for the cigar here.”

But that’s not to say the famed Sox hurler is resting on his name to sell the product. Instead the “23 Series,” the company’s introductory cigar named in honor of Tiant’s old number, was meticulously crafted and fashioned to Tiant’s liking. A mild cigar, the 23, like all other El Tiante brands, is hand crafted in Nicaragua and boasts its own unique flavor.

“It’s the kind of cigar I would like to smoke,” Tiant said. “I didn’t want to put my name to something that wasn’t a good product. It’s a good cigar.”

And if there is one thing Luis Tiant knows a thing or two about beyond baseball, it’s a good cigar. An avid cigar lover and smoker since he was 17, Tiant has always boasted cigars as his second love. “I think I had my first one in 1958,” he recalled. “I quit a few times, a year here or a few years there, but I always loved to smoke cigars. I never liked cigarettes, only cigars.”