Raposa & Roth: To Live and Die in Three Rivers Stadium, Or: The Face of Michael Cimino

And here I thought Richard Meltzer and Zoo World had folded up their giant DuPont plastic circus tent.

David Roth: I wish William Friedkin would make a gritty, rainy-looking movie about the greenie-soaked MLB clubhouses of the 1970s. Gene Hackman wearing a hat and a cheap suit with Sanka stains on it. Interrogating Bake McBride about something.

David Raposa: To Live and Die in Three Rivers Stadium.

David Roth: Roy Schneider is miscast as John Candelaria, but does his best.

David Raposa: John Cazale would be a brilliant Kent Tekulve.

David Roth: Doomed, vulnerable, wearing sunglasses in the shower. It is good casting. There’d be a dangerous-seeming chase scene with bullpen golf carts. And in the end Dave Kingman somehow gets away with it, because that’s the way it works in the big city.

David Raposa: I like movies that make you think while making you side against Dave Kingman. And it’s a good thing you picked Billy Friedkin; imagine the budget if Cimino was behind the camera?  While I’d love to see a Russian Roulette sequence featuring Bert Blyleven in his “I [HEART] TO FART” tee, I would also like to not cause a double-dip recession in the process.

David Roth: Harmon Killebrew yelling things at him in Vietnamese. It would be harrowing, but not as harrowing as photos of Michael Cimino himself. He looks like Linda Hunt playing David Bowie.

St. Louisian Don Mueller, former big-league star, dies

Don Mueller...

St. Louis native Don Mueller, who led the majors in hits in 1954 and roamed the outfield with Willie Mays of the New York Giants, died on Wednesday. He was 84.

Mueller, who played at CBC, was signed by the Giants in 1944 and made his big-league debut four years later.

At age 23, he became a starter for the Giants in right field and hit .291 in his first full season.

...A career .296 hitter, Mueller became known as “Mandrake the Magician.” He finished his career with two seasons with the White Sox in 1958 and 59.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-30-2011

Pittsburgh Press, December 30, 1911:

McGraw says Cubans won’t be real fans until they quit betting on games…

Connie Mack diplomatically refused to pick the “greatest twenty.” Mack has less trouble than any other manager in the world, and doesn’t purpose borrowing any.

Ty Cobb denies there was friction between him and George Moriarity last season, but adds Moriarity overestimated himself as captain. If there wasn’t friction there may be after that.

The mind boggles at the thought of the conversations Mack and Cobb had when Ty was an Athletic.

Daily Herald: Our writers cast their Hall of Fame votes

Eagle-Eye Imrem strikes again!

Mike Imrem:...So only once have I not voted for a player and then changed my mind. That was Gary Carter, who happened to get in the Hall the year I flipped on him. Glad I could help, Gary.

Sometimes you see the light, or at least see a player in a different light.

This is a long way around to saying I didn’t vote for Jeff Bagwell last year but did this year. Why? Because a closer look at his body of work convinced me that he is a Hall of Famer.

To be honest, I don’t even remember Bagwell being on the ballot in 2010. However, the information packet the Hall of Fame sends out insists he was.

So, my check marks on this year’s ballot went like this:

•Jeff Bagwell

•Mark McGwire

•Jack Morris

•Lee Smith

(Raises hand).

Former long-time Oriole Melvin Mora announces retirement

Melvin’s salud of a thousand delights!

According to a report out of Venezuela, former long-time Oriole Melvin Mora announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Thursday while in his home country.

Mora, who will turn 40 in February, was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks last June after hitting .228 in 127 at-bats for the Diamondbacks. He said earlier this winter that he wanted to play again if he could find the right opportunity, but apparently that did not happen.

Mora was traded to the Orioles by the New York Mets in July 2000 as part of then-GM Syd Thrift’s fire sale. He played for the Orioles for the next 9 ½ seasons spanning 1,256 of his 1,556 career games. He made two all-star teams for the Orioles and, in 2004, batted .340 with 27 homers and won a Silver Slugger and Most Valuable Oriole honors.

Monte Poole: The Oakland A’s are a travesty

This is quite the strongly worded article. How prominent a Bay Area media voice is this Monte Poole?

Wolff, who along with John Fisher bought the team in 2005, has numerous real estate holdings in San Jose and longs for the support of the corporate base that exists in the South Bay. Even as he talked about a future in Oakland, he already was on record—before being hired by the team—saying he would move the A’s to San Jose.

So there never has been any confusion about his desires or intentions. And there isn’t any now. Wolff and Fisher even bought off team president Michael Crowley and general manager Billy Beane, giving each a fraction of ownership. All four are rowing one way, beautifully in sync.

The iceberg in the water, however, is the Giants, who own territorial rights to San Jose. This alone makes movement a daunting endeavor, for Selig is big on ownership consensus. And that simply doesn’t exist between the Wolff-Fisher A’s and platoon of Giants owners represented by CEO Larry Baer.

Consider these moves an A’s shortcut, their intent to drive their plan over the few curly hairs remaining atop Baer’s head. Few men in baseball can force an issue as vehemently as Beane, and Selig and Baer and all of us can see he’s on a mission.

So Bailey had to go, just as Cahill and Gonzalez did. Billy the Part-Owner is better served by moving them, even if we all know Billy the G.M. likes their talent.

The A’s will say they are fiscally barren and competitively invalid, that they were forced into these actions.

But they’ll offer no apology about abandoning their loyal but dwindling clientele. They don’t want you visiting their shabby little yard, no matter how long you’ve cared, so they’re informing everyone their shop is closed—even though the doors are wide open.

Your move, MLB.

Rosenthal: Steroid Era complicates Hall balloting

(beep) The Robothal ballot…

Of course, it’s impossible to sort out who did what, and to what extent. Many of my colleagues, rather than try to calculate the incalculable, dismiss the steroid question entirely and simply vote on players’ numbers. I get their point. I’m tempted to adopt their approach. But to me, it’s a cop-out.

That’s not to say that I know what the answer is; the candidacies of Bonds and Clemens, both of whom become eligible for the Hall next year, will be the most difficult yet. If voters reject most confirmed or suspected users, they will risk eliminating an entire generation of players — a notion that bothers me almost as much as embracing the entire generation without pause.

For now, all I know is one thing: I’m not withholding votes based on hearsay and innuendo.

I voted for Bagwell. Easiest decision in a while.

Jeff Bagwell
Barry Larkin
Edgar Martinez
Fred McGriff
Tim Raines
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell

Doctor who treated A-Rod: I can cure arthritis

This better have nothing to do with me waiting on my “Phlegm-scented Invisible Cement” patent!

The doctor that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez traveled to Germany to see for his aching knee and shoulder is a former physician for Pope John Paul II who claims to be a miracle worker when it comes to reversing arthritis.

A long list of Hollywood stars and pro athletes have travelled to Dusseldorf to seek treatment from Peter Wehling, a brash molecular scientist with a taste for celebrity. His website shows him arm and arm with patient Nick Nolte. Golfer Fred Couples wrote an introduction to Wehling’s recent book, The End of Pain. But it took the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, who sought help for his ailing right knee this summer, to get A-Rod interested in Wehling’s pioneering treatments.

...In an interview with ESPN The Magazine, Wehling claimed to have a 90 percent success rate by genetically screening his patients to personalize their serums.

“I am the only one to have found a way to cure arthritis,” he said.

...But MLB’s medical director, Gary Green, told ESPN New York that the league did not give the Yankees any green light.

“We don’t have a mechanism for a medical approval process,” he said. “We just tell the teams to make sure their players follow state and local laws.”

Bronx Banter: Kimball: Fighting and Drinking with the Rats at Yankee Stadium

Alex Belth explains…“Here’s something to keep you warm on a cold winter day, the late George Kimball’s essay from our book Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories. It’s all about the old ballpark, Billy Martin, finks and phonies, brawling, and, of course, drinking with Bill Lee.”

There are things you learned about the old Yankee Stadium once it became your place of work that never would have occurred to you as a kid going to watch a game there. Making your way from the visiting- to the home-team dugout, or to the pressroom where they fed us and the adjacent quarters where we wrote our stories after games, involved negotiating an elaborate system of labyrinthine tunnels that could have been a large-scale Skinner box. A dim-witted scribe could spend hours trying to find his way around down there, but once he did figure it out, he’d be rewarded with supper, or maybe a beer after the game.

And since we only made two or three trips a year to New York, we were always making wrong turns, ones that inevitably brought us face-to-face with one of New York’s finest on a security detail. Some of the cops had been drawing this plum assignment for years. Others, newer to the job, couldn’t tell you how to get from A to B any better than another sportswriter could. They should have handed out road maps with the press credentials.

But the overriding memory of all those hours spent wandering around beneath the House That Ruth Built remains the smell. If you grew up in suburbia, it wouldn’t have meant much to you at all, but if you’d spent much time in a big-city tenement or in the stockroom of a grocery store or ever wandered beneath street level in a restaurant that abuts a subway line, the permeating odor of Decon, the rat poison, would have been familiar.

“Luis Guzman”...slowly I turn…

WTOP.com | Nationals signs Mark DeRosa to a 1-year contract

The Washington Nationals have signed free-agent utility player Mark DeRosa to a one-year contact.

Mark DeRosa

Rosenthal: ESPN’s Keith Law: On the move again?

Oh, Lisa…

Keith Law, a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com, interviewed last week for a number of front-office roles with the Houston Astros, including the job of scouting director, according to major-league sources.

Law met with both new club president George Postolos and general manager Jeff Luhnow, but the team has yet to offer him a position, sources say.

In his current job, Law oversees ESPN’s scouting-related content. Prior to joining ESPN in 2006, he spent 4½ years as a special assistant with the Toronto Blue Jays. Prior to that, he was a free-lance writer for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN.

Sickels: Chicago White Sox Top 20 Prospects for 2012

“The horror. . .the horror.”

1) Nestor Molina, RHP, Grade B+: Acquired from the Blue Jays for Sergio Santos, and immediately became Chicago’s first or second-best prospect. I think he can remain a starter. Molina was a big topic of discussion earlier this month.

2) Addison Reed, RHP, Grade B+: The best closer prospect in baseball thanks to superior command of 93-97 MPH fastball and devastating slider. You can make a case to rank him ahead of Molina, if you think Molina will be a reliever.

3) Tyler Saladino, SS, Grade C+: 2010 seventh round pick out of Oral Roberts developed from draft sleeper into solid prospect. Good power for a middle infielder, and has some idea about the strike zone, scouts like his work ethic. Main issue now is if he can stick at shortstop, and I think he has a decent chance to do so.

4) Trayce Thompson, OF, Grade C+: Highest-ceiling bat in system, tapping into his power now and making good progress on defense. Kills lefties but has serious contact problems against right-handed pitching. Struck out 172 times while repeating Low-A. Has the tools to be a star slugger but also carries a high risk of failure.

5) Hector Santiago, LHP, Grade C+: Came out of nowhere to reach the majors (briefly) in 2011 thanks to development of a new screwball to go with 90-95 MPH fastball. Third pitch still needs work and it is unclear if he starts or relieves in the long run, although recent rumors indicate the Sox will continue to start him. Projects as number three/four starter if third pitch develops, or a power relief arm.

Images of 2011: Caption This! Ichiro and Jack Wilson

Caption this image:

Creative Commons by Keith Allison

MLB Dirt: Historically Underrated: John Olerud

I know it is today…but the Jonathan C. Mitchell /John Olerud/Jim Rice argument is timeless.

The comparisons are close but there is a better player. While Rice definitely wins in the power department he loses in almost every other category of the game to Olerud.

This post is not to say that John Olerud belongs in the Hall of Fame or to say Jim Rice does not belong but to point out that the career Olerud had, although slightly better than Hall-of-Famer Jim Rice’s, still only kept his name on the Hall of Fame ballot for one year and he is historically underrated for his on-field accomplishments.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-29-2011

Pittsburgh Press, December 29, 1911:

STRIPED UNIFORMS TO BE THE STYLE IN 1912

Stripes will be the rage in amateur baseball uniforms next season. Plain gray, white or blue uniforms will be work only by teams which find their 1911 suits good enough to wear again.

Along with the stripes, fashionable ballplayers will wear a hundred-dollar shine on a three dollar pair of shoes.

Ben Cherington talks Andrew Bailey, Daniel Bard and the Red Sox’ right field situation

Ben Cherington, of the Boston Cherington’s.

(How the Red Sox will approach right field)

Ryan Sweeney we expect to be a big part of our outfield mix. He can play right field. He’s a good defender. His versatility is kind of like Reddick, really, both of them can play both outfield spots and play them well. Sweeney has played in a big ballpark in Oakland and handled the defensive part of the game well. We also really like his offensive approach to Fenway. He’s got an opposite field approach. He’s a guy we tried to acquire in the past, and think he fits well with our team. So he’ll be a big part of our outfield mix. We still have Darnell McDonald on our roster, who has done a good job for us in the past and has hit left-handed pitching. Mike Aviles we sent to Puerto Rico not too long ago to get some experience in the outfield. We got good reports on him when he was in Puerto Rico. Obviously we like him as a hitter and as an offensive player. We think we have some internal solutions for right field and Sweeney is a big part of that.

(On if this will alter the Red Sox approach to the starting pitching market)

To some degree. I think that the starters that we’ve considered and talked about, and in some cases pursued, are a pretty broad range of pitching options. We’ve just felt, to this point, that the deals that we liked the best on the trade front were the Melancon deal and now this deal. We’re going to continue to work. We’re actively considering and looking at starting pitching options also, but we haven’t found one yet where we feel like the acquisition cost is the right one. That doesn’t mean that it won’t come. It just hasn’t come yet.

I do think our situation has been one where we can afford to be a little bit patient in the starting pitching market because of what we have at the front of the rotation. If we can find ways to build depth in the rotation, we will. We don’t feel like we’re forced into doing that. With what we have at the front of the rotation, and with Bard and [Alfredo] Aceves both coming to camp as starters and giving us options there, along with Andrew Miller and [Felix] Doubront and others who will be in camp showcasing their abilities as starters.

A Departing Q & A with George Vecsey

See ya, ol’ George! Gotta run…mom’s sending me down a righteous dish of escamoles!

Q. Was there any sports figure in particular that took issue with your column, enough to verbally abuse you; or threaten to harm you physically?

A: Really, only one. During the week of Watts in 1965, the Dodgers were pretty shook up, particularly African-American ones. A young pinch-runner named Willie Crawford missed 3B…costing a run, and, as I recall, a game. Afterward, in the clubhouse, we went to ask him about it. From the far end of the clubhouse, Willie Davis said (in the most gorgeous baritone), “Leave the kid alone.” I said, rather nicely, we had a job to do. Davis did not agree, and pretty quickly charged down the aisle of the clubhouse, looking like a man about to take a swing. From his own locker, John Roseboro stepped in and took the charge, as he did at home plate, saying, “Ummm, gentlemen, this is not the time or place for this.” (Or something like that, very calmly, in his own mellow voice.) Davis never got to me, for which I am grateful.

A day or two later, Roseboro got hit on the head by Marichal. Larry Fox of the Telly and I found Roseboro at the Dodger plane at the airport (we knew the clubhouse guy) and his bandages were covered by a Giant cap—Willie Mays’ cap. Willie was disgusted with what Marichal did. I tell this story often, to make the point of what a wonderful man Roseboro was. He should have been a manager.

...Q. How optimistic are you for the future of the U.S. Newspaper Industry?

A: Not. Newspapers are the engines that drive the Web. Without editors planning assignments and copy editors fixing mistakes, reporters quickly deteriorate into Underwear Guys writing blogs from their den. The sad thing is that everybody knows it—even politicians and business people know they need some source of actual information, even if they get whacked once in a while. But the economics and timidity of the newspaper business are working against that future. And the bloggers brag about knowing how things work from the sanctity of their dens.

Thanks to Lisa Swan.

Kawakami: Hall of Fame Ballot: Why I voted for Dale Murphy (and other 1980s-tinged decisions)

First-time voter Tim Kawakami’s ballot:

Dale Murphy
Jack Morris
Barry Larkin
Alan Trammell
Tim Raines
Jeff Bagwell

And, to me, Murphy defines the set of players (let’s add Don Mattingly, Ellis Burks, Will Clark, Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry here) who precisely did NOT gain longevity by taking PEDs, and are being penalized twice now.

1) They had their careers shortened or flattened out by the normal wear-and-tear–pre-wide-spread-PEDs;

2) Then their numbers were immediately dwarfed by the generation that came right after them, precisely when PEDs became generally available and careers were massively extended and power was exaggerated.

I’m voting for Dale Murphy as a representation of a lost generation. I’m also voting for him because he was a great, great player in his time… and that was also partly my time.

Kawakami wrote this article back in April, which was also linked here.

Bloom: My Hall of Fame Ballot for 2012

Bloom in love…with anspachwork numbers!

I voted for Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Rafael Palmeiro, Tim Raines, Lee Smith and Alan Trammell.

...And just a note on Jeff Bagwell: Rumors about possible steroid use don’t bother me. I just think he’s a very good player, but not of Hall of Fame caliber. His numbers are very similar to Steve Garvey — Bags .297 batting average to .294 for the Garv, 2,314 hits to 2,599, 449 homers to 272, 1,529 RBIs to 1,308 . But Garvey had two NL Championship Series MVPs, an NL MVP, an All-Star MVP, the longest consecutive game playing streak in NL history (1,207), one of the highest fielding percentages as a first baseman (.996) and an errorless season (1984). Garvey also played on five NL pennant winners and a World Series winner in ’81 with the Dodgers. Bagwell did almost none of this with the Astros. And Garvey didn’t get a sniff from the writers for the HOF.

That’s why I didn’t vote for Bagwell.

I blocked...but his steroidal message is clear.

Red Sox Acquire Closer Andrew Bailey From Athletics

The Boston Red Sox have acquired Oakland Athletics closer Andrew Bailey, according to a tweet from Buster Olney of ESPN.com.

  According to Olney, the Red Sox will send Josh Reddick to Oakland as part of the deal. The 24-year-old outfielder hit .280/.327/.457 with seven home runs and 28 RBI in 87 games for Boston last year.

Bailey, 27, has served as the Athletics closer over the past three seasons. In 2011 he posted a 3.24 ERA with 24 saves in 42 appearances. He boasts a career ERA of 2.07.

Thanks to Yank.

Images of 2011: Opening Day at Cit Field

Creative Commons by Paul Hadsall

Cybermetrics: Why Didn’t The Writers Vote Johnny Mize Into The Hall Of Fame?

Being that he saw his whole career…I once asked Madden the same exact thing.

He got in, via the Veterans Committee, in 1981. So it might seem a little late and silly to complain about it.

But he never he even got 50% of the vote from the writers (he topped out at 43.6% of the vote in 1971 and he got 41.3% in 1973, his last year of eligibility). If we went strictly by WAR, it seems like he should definitely be in. Even now, about 50 years from when he first became eligible, he is 55th in career WAR among position players with 70.2. He had 8 top 5 finishes and one first place. He was in the top 5 each year from 1937-40.

So he had very high career value and peak value. In Win Shares, he also had 8 top 5 finishes among position players, including 3 first places finishes. He was 104th through 2001 in career Win Shares (338) including pitchers. He also missed 3 seasons due to WW II. Bill James ranked him as the 6th best 1B man in the 2nd Historical Abstract.

...In his first year of eligibility, 1960, he got only 16.7% of the vote. Click here to see the voting that year at Baseball Reference. Twelve guys got more votes than he did that year and he had more WAR than all of them. He beat 8 of them buy 20 or more WAR. Edd Roush, Sam Rice and Eppa Rixy all got over 50% of the vote that year, a level Mize never achieved. None of them had even 52 WAR (Mize had 70.2). All but one of the 12 got in before Mize (except Lazzeri). Most were by the Veterans Committee. So they too, did not give Mize the credit he deserved.

I think the writers, and to a lesser extent the Veterans Committee, did a poor job in evaluating Mize. I hope the writers have been, and are getting, better. But when I see the voting for guys like Raines and Bagwell, not to mention Lou Whitaker being gone after just one year on the ballot, I am not sure.

Davidoff: Why even an illegal PED confession shouldn’t be relevant to the Hall of Fame

Predictably, what there was of the negative feedback concerned my feelings about illegal PEDs. Much about aiding and abetting cheaters, and the like.

I know the sentiment. I used to feel precisely that way. That’s why I did not vote for Mark McGwire my first three years as a voter, which were also his first three years on the ballot. And shoot, this was before his public confession. This was just based on what came out of his apearance at the infamous 2005 House hearings.

So what changed for me? An appreciation of history, fairness and consistency.

I think the Hall of Fame ballot is about something else. It’s about judging a player’s performance against his contemporaries, and it’s about considering and understanding the times in which they played.

Like it or not, the times in which all players played were quite imperfect. They probably are now, too. It’s life. We’re human. Better to deal with the known, in my estimation, than to rail against the unknown.

MLB: Marlins’ new home to feature aquatic theme

Weeki Wachee your freakin’ head!

This is part of an MLB.com/Marlins.com exclusive series with team president David Samson, chronicling the progress and developments of the new retractable-roof stadium that is opening in 2012.

...Last Friday, two 450-gallon fish tanks were installed inside the wall behind the home-plate wall. They are positioned on the first- and third-base sides, and currently they are not filled with water.

The fish will be protected by shatter-proof glass, and the team has been ensured the fish will be safe.

“The reason this has never been done before, is not that it can’t be done,” Marlins president David Samson said. “It’s because no one thought to do it.”

...The aquariums will provide the fish with a home at the ballpark that is safe from crowd and stadium sound-system noises. And the glass is shatter-proof if it were to be struck by a baseball.

“As far as the fish are concerned, all I can tell you is we are working with people who work with fish for a living,” Samson said. “If we thought for one minute that the fish were in danger in any way, we wouldn’t have done it.”

...“In other ballparks, behind home plate, there was a lot of brick and limestone, or just green padding,” Samson said. “We just sat down and said, ‘What can we do with this part of the ballpark that’s never been done?’ And we just came up with the idea, ‘How about an aquarium, is that even possible?’”

Bob Smizik: Voting for the Hall of Fame

It’s a little known fact…but Siegel and Shuster originally wanted to call that dizzy imp from the fifth dimension, Mister Smizik.

* Unlike many voters, I do not eliminate players tainted by or actually found guilty of using performance enhancing drugs. My stance on their eligibility is quite simple: If MLB does not want a player in the Hall of Fame, it should do what it did with Pete Rose and ban him from eligibility. It’s my job to vote on enshrinement, not determine eligibility. When a player has worthy credentials, I vote based on his ability. Yes, Mark McGwire used PEDs. But maybe half or more of the pitchers throwing to him also did? There are players I suspect of using PEDs who couldn’t hit .250.

* I will not vote for a players because he’s better than someone in the Hall. I may think, for example, Jack Morris is better than Bert Blyleven, who was voted in last year. But I didn’t vote for Blyleven and I don’t think he belongs. I will not allow him to be a barometer.

Barry Larkin (62 percent): My Cincinnati friends swear by him. An outstanding offensive shortstop with three Gold Gloves.  No to Larkin.

Tim Raines (38 percent): He’s getting a lot of support as a Rickey Henderson clone. But, sorry, Tim, you’re no Rickey—not in stolen bases, not in power, not in on-base percentage. An outstanding leadoff hitter, but not a Hall of Famer. No to Raines.

Yes to Bagwell, McGwire and Palmiero.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-28-2011

Milwaukee Journal, December 28. 1911:

[Red Sox manager] Jake Stahl says that he is sure he has no more dead players on his list. Since he discovered Lockwood, the dead Vancouver man on the list, he has been over it very carefully.

Cross him off, then.

Kobe advice sent Yanks’ A-Rod to Germany for treatment

Shiiiiit…I remember when we only had to travel to 42nd St. for treatment.

According to multiple sources, the Yankees third baseman recently followed a recommendation from Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers star, and traveled to Germany for an experimental therapy called Orthokine on his bothersome right knee.

...The innovative procedure was performed on Rodriguez — with the Yankees’ blessing — within the last month, according to one source. The Yankees first cleared the procedure with the commissioner’s office to avoid the appearance that Rodriguez might be receiving impermissible treatment.

Orthokine involves taking blood from the patient’s arm and spinning it in a centrifuge, a machine used in laboratories to spin objects around a fixed axis. The serum is then injected into the affected area — in this case, Rodriguez’s knee.

Bryant underwent the same treatment last summer to try to strengthen his right knee. He also reportedly had the procedure done in October to treat a chronic left ankle ailment.

It remains unclear if the procedure actually works long-term.

Remington: Happy Birthday Boy! Roy White turns 68 today

I know it was yesterday…but the Bill James/Roy White/Jim Rice argument is timeless.

These days, probably the most famous thing about Roy White is a single sentence Bill James wrote in 2001: “I may be the only person who rates Roy White ahead of Jim Rice, George Foster, Joe Carter, and several Hall of Famers.”

For the younger readers among us, White was a two-time All-Star who played 15 years for the Yankees and hit 160 homers with 758 RBIs. James wrote that in his New Historical Abstract, eight years before Rice’s election to the Hall of Fame (and one year before James was hired by Rice’s former employers, the Boston Red Sox), and it brought White the most publicity he’d had in years — perhaps ever.

...Roy White grew up in Compton, California, an understated man who won championships with the two biggest baseball teams in the world, in the World Series with the New York Yankees and in the Japan Series with the Yomiuri Giants. So why is he not remembered that well? It’s because the things he was good at were things that you wouldn’t necessarily notice. He walked a lot. He played good defense in left field in Yankee Stadium, which was so deep that it was known at the time as “Death Valley” — and, as a switch-hitter, White himself saw a lot of potential home runs turn into noisy outs in Death Valley. James highlighted White as an example of the extreme influence that home field can have in baseball: Jim Rice’s inflated offense was partly due to Fenway Park, a bandbox which turned every hitter into a star, while White’s relatively unimpressive offense was partly due to Yankee Stadium, which was death on right-handed sluggers.

...White’s name was often bandied about during the discussions of Jim Rice for the Hall of Fame. White himself didn’t receive a single Hall of Fame vote. Now that Rice is in, not many people write about the old Yankee left fielder that the Red Sox analyst thought was better. But it’s his birthday. He deserves it.

L.A. Times: Hedge-fund executive Steven Cohen is bidding for the Dodgers

Steven Cohen, a billionaire eight times over, is bidding for the Dodgers in a process tilted toward the high bidder.

However, the East Coast hedge-fund executive is not content to let his wealth speak for itself. He has engaged one of America’s notable sports architecture firms to propose renovations to Dodger Stadium, allied himself with one of baseball’s power brokers, secured the support of at least two prominent Angelenos and met with several major league owners.

He was joined in those meetings by Arn Tellem, an influential sports agent who could run the Dodgers if Cohen were to buy the team.

The developments were confirmed by several people familiar with the Dodgers sale process, each of whom said he could not comment publicly. Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for Cohen, declined to comment.

Images of 2011: Space Rocket over Spring Training

For the final days of 2011, a look at some of the best (creative commons licensed) photos on Flickr.

Today’s photo is of a rocket (not sure of what, probably a satellite) going through the sky during a early March night… and visible from the spring training stadium of the Washington Nationals. Talk about local color.

Creative Commons license, photo by tbridge.