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.

Souhan: Red Sox don’t have to be loved, but they should be admired

Souhan Souhan...now staying at at the Boston Ambassador Hotel.

Gardenhire noticed that, before the bunt, Youkilis and Pedroia signaled each other that Youkilis would charge and Pedroia would cover first. That sounds routine, but it’s not. “Youkilis is like a shortstop playing first base,” Gardenhire said. “He’s unbelievable. That reminded me of Knoblauch and Kent Hrbek—they’d talk during the game like that. You like to see the game played that way.”

And we have yet to mention Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, the convalescing Curt Schilling or Jonathan Papelbon.

“They’re very professional, a lot of gamers,” Gardenhire said. “I think that right side of the infield is as good as any two guys who play together. That’s fun to watch.”

Gardenhire smiled and said what baseball fans everywhere should be saying about The Nation.

“I mean, I hate watching them,” he said. “But that’s pretty good baseball.”

Dodgers lose no-hit bid, then game

A hitless effort over 6 2/3 innings by Kuroda was quickly forgotten when the bullpen fell apart and allowed six runs in the top of the eighth for a 8-5 loss to Houston at Dodger Stadium. The loss was the fourth straight for Los Angeles and completed a three-game sweep in front of 40,217 on Mother’s Day.

It was Hunter Pence, the No. 6 hitter, who saved the Astros from being on the wrong side of history, breaking up the no-hit bid with a rip to left field. After the two-out hit by Pence and a walk to Ty Wiggington, Kuroda was replaced by Joe Beimel. Kuroda had a career-high five strikeouts and he walked three.

Pen fails, Cubs sweep D-Backs

The Diamondbacks bullpen handed over a late-inning lead for the second day in a row as the Chicago Cubs rallied for two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to complete a three-game sweep with a 6-4 win on Sunday at a cold and windy Wrigley Field.

Some regression to the mean was expected for this bullpen, but does it have to come all in one weekend? (AZ pen gave up 11 ER in the 3 game series)

The Biz of Baseball: Brown: “[Your Business] At Wrigley Field” Still Being Considered

Or as Maury sez..."Can’t find a business with this name, but what if “4 out of 5 Dentists” got deal?”

One thing that was not mentioned, possibly due to the hot-button nature of it, has been the possible selling of naming rights to The Friendly Confines. As Kurt Hunzeker and I noted in The Curse of the Ex-Wrigley Field, any company looking to purchase the secondary naming rights for Wrigley would find it nearly impossible for anyone to think of Wrigley Field as, well, anything other than “Wrigley Field”. While secondary naming deals have been able to get out from under the original name’s recognition (best example would be the short-lived Enron Field which is now Minute Maid Park), Wrigley would nearly impossible. As we wrote in Curse, “Hyatt Field?  Gatorade Field?  State Farm Field?  Blue Cross Blue Shield Field? None of them work.”

Beyond the financial implications (based upon Hunzeker’s research, using the Mets Citigroup naming deal as a barometer, a secondary naming deal for Wrigley would run -276 percent of value based on Wrigley’s longstanding history as a name), the political realities of those immersed in the purist and traditional world that baseball, and more importantly, the Cubs hold, show that a complete renaming of Wrigley Field would create a backlash the likes of which the Cubs may have never seen before.

DePodesta: It Might Be Dangerous… You Go First

Plaschke was right!

I began thinking about hosting a blog about a year ago, and back in January I took the first big step by starting an internal blog for employees of the Padres. The idea all along was to someday create an external blog to engage in a direct dialogue with our fans. Well, given the events of the past few weeks, that “someday” is now.

...Nevertheless, hopefully you’ll find it useful to have some unfiltered access to our internal conversations and feelings. We’ll have to figure out the rules as we go since I won’t be able to share everything, but I think it’s important to open this avenue right now.

So, I’m here, and I’d like to be a part of the conversation. I’ll do my best to reply to comments/questions, though I can’t promise punctual responses or regular posts. After all, just like everyone else out there, I already have a job. :-)

Hit me with whatever you have and let’s get out of this slump together.

Thanks to Can’t Stop the Bleeding.

Ramirez, Marlins close on 6 year, $70 million deal

“As we get closer to the stadium, those things will change,” owner Jeffrey Loria said in March.

Now it’s likely Ramirez will still be with the Marlins when they move into the new ballpark in 2011. His deal would be the most lucrative in franchise history, topping the $61 million, six-year contract Gary Sheffield signed in 1997.

So… he’ll get traded after the Marlins win the 2009 World Series?

N.Y. Times: Silver: For Griffey, the Roads Not Taken (RR)

The latest Keeping Score...as Nate Silver Pecotarates Griffey.

¶His career could have ended like Dawson’s, with a long and somewhat graceful decline, his skills diminishing by a tiny fraction each year, but with a big season or two along the way. Our system estimates that had Griffey followed the Dawson path (but adjusting for the friendly conditions of Griffey’s home ballpark), he would have finished with 725 homers.

¶It could have ended like Maris’s — not just slowed, but completely undermined by injury. Maris, a far better-rounded player at his peak than is remembered today, hit just 35 home runs after turning 30. Had Griffey followed the Maris path, he would have finished with 448 home runs.

¶Or it could have ended like Aaron’s, with Griffey indeed maintaining a 40- or 50-homer pace into his late 30s, and shattering all records along the way. Our system estimates that, had he followed the Aaron path, Griffey would have ended his career with 904 home runs.

Instead, Griffey has staked out his own path, somewhere between the Dawson and Maris trajectories. Aaron he will not be, but precisely what made Aaron such a special player is that he sustained his core abilities past a point when nearly every other players’ decline.

When we ask Pecota to project what is left of Griffey’s career based on his current level of ability, we have him finishing with 660 homers — the same total as Mays.

That outcome could be regarded as a disappointment only by someone with no sense for baseball’s history.

Teen dies after assault from another teen at Giants game

Argument over usage of Merkin Valdez spills into crowd. Fans wig out!

An 18-year-old man died from head injuries sustained during an assault from another teenager at a San Francisco Giants home game Friday night, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

The victim was assaulted by the suspect, also 18, around 10:30 p.m. towards the end of the baseball game at AT&T Park, police said.

The victim was transported to San Francisco General Hospital in critical condition. He was pronounced dead at about noon Saturday, according to police.

The suspect was arrested at the ballpark on charges of assault. The incident has since been changed to a homicide case and a murder charge will be added to the suspect, police said.

Klapisch: Goose tells Joba to act like a Yankee

(Attention, major self-serving, name dropping spot forthcoming) Hanging with Klap (and Belth, and the Lederer’s and Camillo the hairy-armed waiter) the other night he had mentioned Mount Gossage might be spewing...so here tis.

But Goose always has hated showboaters, past and especially present day, so when Dellucci told reporters he thought Chamberlain’s response was immature and “bush,” Gossage didn’t hesitate to say, “I’m on Dellucci’s side.

“That’s just not the Yankee way, what Joba did. Let everyone else do that stuff, but not a Yankee,” Gossage said by telephone on Saturday. “What I don’t understand is, the kid’s got the greatest mentor in the world in Mariano [Rivera]. He’s one of the leaders of the team, so you’d think it wouldn’t happen on that team.

“But there’s no one to pass the torch anymore, no one to teach the young kids how to act. The Mets did a lot of that [celebrating] last year, and look how it came back to haunt them.”

SF Gate: Harden off DL, will pitch today

“Pitch Today, Gone Tomorrow”

“Someone has to pay the price
Oh oh oh, oh oh oh”

Rich Harden is to be activated from his sixth career stop on the disabled list and pitch today’s series finale against the Rangers. Harden, who’s coming off a shoulder strain, showed exceptional command in two minor-league rehab appearances.

Pitching coach Curt Young said Harden’s pitch limit will be 80.

Like every other time Harden has returned to duty, the A’s hope he’s here to stay. He was limited to nine starts in 2006 and seven last year. He made two starts this year (1-0, 0.82 ERA) before being shelved. Emotionally, the A’s are pulling for their teammate to stay healthy. Professionally, they know they’re usually successful when he is.

“It’s no secret if Rich is healthy and he’s out there, he makes us on the day he pitches one of the best teams in the league,” Young said. “When Rich starts and goes deep in the games, eight out of 10 we’re winning. He can dominate a game, and not too many pitchers have better stuff.”

Bradford: Diamond comes full circle in Lowell’s life journey

Excerpts from Mike Lowell and Primer-pal Rob Bradford’s new book...Deep Drive: A Long Journey to Finding the Champion Within. Good stuff.

After the 1-0 win, the Puerto Rican team was getting ready to load onto its bus when Fidel Castro requested to shake the hands of all the players in his private box. One Puerto Rican player, my father, chose to wait behind for the rest of his team on the bus. He was not about to acknowledge the man who spearheaded a government that persecuted my father’s family and friends and committed unspeakable atrocities. Shaking the hand of this man would have been another black cloud among the memories my father’s family were so desperately trying to put behind them.

That refusal to shake Castro’s hand has always stayed with me. My father stood up for what he believed in, and because of it I have always tried to do the same.

Dad got another crack at exacting a measure of revenge against Castro in ’72 when he went back to Cuba to pitch in a tournament called, ironically enough, the Friendly Series. This time my father went face-to-face against his former countrymen, the Cuban National Team. He went seven innings, leaving with a 5-1 lead, having scored the fifth run to complement his extraordinary pitching performance. That final run would prove to be the winning run in what ended up as a 5-4 Puerto Rico victory. My father had become the first Cuban to ever come back and beat the Cuban National Team.

Mushnick: YANKEE COLLECTIBLES CERTIFIABLY RIDICULOUS (RR)

Wow!...This gunk blows away the 10-spot I still have that Monoman pulled out of his wharf rat underwear!

Steiner Sports, contracted collectibles dealer for MLB, the Mets and Yanks, is now selling the following “Bronx Game-Used Equipment” from Yankee Stadium:

“2005 Opening Day Batter’s Box Dirt Collage” for $120 (call me cynical, but the dirt looks suspiciously similar to 2006 Opening Day batter’s box dirt). Ian Kennedy’s “Yankees Clubhouse Locker Room Name Plate” is selling for $500 (how a locker name plate was used in a game escapes us, but Shelley Duncan’s is a steal at $300).

For $250, you can own Jose Veras’ alleged “game-used” Yankee duffel bag (I can’t recall Veras using that duffel bag in a game, either, but that’s the beauty of the hidden duffel bag trick).

But wait! There’s more! Kyle Farnsworth’s “Yankee Spring Training Game Used Locker Room Name Plate” for $100 (this game-used Yankee Stadium item was neither used in a game nor in Yankee Stadium), something called a “Joe DiMaggio Mini Dirt Collage” for $60 and other bric-a-brac that could be unscrewed, pried free, pocketed, stuffed into a game-used duffel bag or scooped up.

Madden: No Santana, no problem, as Minnesota tops American League Central

Hey Bill...your crispy Oreste & His Queensland Orchestra 78 is skipping again.

This is probably not going to be much consolation for Hank Steinbrenner, but if he hasn’t noticed, the Minnesota Twins without Johan Santana presently have a better record than the Yankees without Johan Santana. So what exactly are we to make of this?

Well, for one thing, it is far too early - five years too early, if you ask the Twins - to start assessing the Santana trade to the Mets, although Son-of-Boss Hank has been more than willing to assess the non-trade of Santana to the Yankees. The immediate residue of that is Phil Hughes on the disabled list at least until July and Melky Cabrera gradually continuing to emerge as a better-than-average everyday center fielder.

Even if the latter development proves to be a stroke of fortune for the Yankees, should they fail to make the playoffs, one suspects we’ll be hearing how they could have gotten along just as well with Brett Gardner in center field while going all the way to the World Series with a rotation of Santana, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina and Joba Chamberlain.

L.A. Times: Simers: Dodgers didn’t get a care package with Andruw Jones (RR)

This is not going to go over well with Joe Sixpack of Vielle Bon Secours in Los Angeles!

Without the fans, I said, there’s no reason for you to be here in Los Angeles playing baseball and no way you’re getting paid $36 million over the next two years.

“I don’t care,” he said. “You play for the team, you don’t play for the fans. The fans never played the game. They don’t know.”

..."Look at your belly hanging out of your shirt,” Jones said. “You’re probably going to die tomorrow.”

“Not before I write this column,” I said.

...As for his play on the field, the Tubbo has one home run, and so far it looks as if he has only warning-track power, which suggests he has lost something.

“If you think that’s what I’ve got, warning-track power, then write it down,” Jones said, and it always helps when I have a player’s permission to criticize him. “I lost my power, I suck, I should retire.”

MSN: 8 Reasons Baseball is Lame and Boring

MSN Quick Vomit Launch...all just one dick away.

In just about every U.S. city, if you’re not a fan of baseball, you might as well not be American. Harboring an aversion to the sport is equivalent to burning Old Glory—especially here in Boston, where I live. What? You don’t know Big Papi’s slugging percentage? That’s an immediate flogging. Tell anyone you’d rather walk along the Charles River than spend an afternoon at Fenway Park? You’re looking at five years in Guantanamo Bay, pal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some kind of a namby-pamby anti-sports guy. Football is a part of my DNA and most of my shirts growing up were the color of blood. But let’s face it: Baseball is lame and boring. At the risk of being cuffed and detained by Homeland Security (which, by the way, is why I’m writing this article under a pseudonym), here are eight reasons why.

Statistics

If I want a lesson in mathematics, I’ll walk through the halls of MIT, not the turnstiles of Yawkey Way. We’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves, aren’t we? On-base percentages, opponent on-base plus slugging percentages, sabermetrics … Alan Greenspan might enjoy crunching the numbers, but for those of us who’d rather leave our brains at work, the cold-beverage-intake-to-bladder-outflow ratio makes a whole lot more sense.

Padre bullpen fails in second bid to blow Maddux’s 350th win

Greg Maddux became the ninth pitcher in big league history to win 350 games, reaching the plateau in his fifth try and leading the San Diego Padres to a 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night.

MLB: Statisticians try to keep up with Berkman

SABR vs the Elias Sports Bureau...in a mega Statistical Info War-Off! (SIWOFF)

Lance Berkman has been on four All-Star teams, so clearly, he has had his fair share of quick starts.

But never has he produced such eye-popping numbers at such a frenetic pace as he has through the first 36 games this year. The first baseman is on a historical run, according to several stats experts who have been carefully scouring the record books to figure out exactly where Berkman’s offensive tear ranks among the best ever.

According to Trent McCotter of the Society For American Baseball Research (SABR), Berkman is one of only two players in the last 50 years to have 19 hits in 25 at-bats, which Berkman accomplished by doubling in his second plate appearance against the Dodgers on Saturday. Albert Pujols did the same from May 30-June 7, 2003.

Berkman also is the fourth player since 1957 with 16 hits in 20 at-bats. He also set a franchise record with 18 hits over a five-game span. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the previous record was 17, accomplished by Derek Bell in August 1999 and Julio Lugo in September 2000.

MLB: Prior experiencing shoulder discomfort

What doofs...MLB.com misspelled Pavano.

Pitcher Mark Prior is returning to San Diego on Sunday, though it won’t be to pitch for the Padres.

Prior experienced discomfort in his surgically repaired right shoulder during a throwing session on Saturday. He will be examined by team doctors on Sunday.

“I think you can call it a setback,” San Diego manager Bud Black said, “but we’ll know more [Sunday].”

MLB: Tigers waiting for Miquel Cabrera to bust out

Uhh...Not from that Gypsona-flaking full body cast he seems to be running in...Hghly unlikely!

So what does Tigers manager Jim Leyland think about Cabrera these days?

“I think he’s going to relax here shortly and go on a tear is what I think,” Leyland said. “I think he’s getting ready, close, and I don’t know if I’m right or not, but I just kind of smell like he’s getting close to going on a tear.”

“I’ve seen it happen before, where guys go to new teams and sign big contracts and they put a little pressure on themselves for a while,” Leyland said. “I can understand that. Cabrera wants to compete. He knows he was signed to be ‘the guy,’ but sometimes, you got to let that play out a little bit and not get too excited. Sometimes, guys want to live up to their entire contract in two weeks or one week, and that’s not going to happen.”

..."I think Miguel Cabrera will be the first baseman for the Tigers for a long time,” Leyland said. “I think he’ll be a great first baseman and very productive. If he’s not, that means everybody in baseball is wrong. Everybody in baseball that I’ve talked to says he’s one of the top five, premier offensive forces in baseball—not just people with the Tigers, everybody in baseball. It’s not like they’re speculating. They can read the numbers.

SF Gate: Ratto: Rumor has it, Magowan may be a goin’

A solid rumor from Ray Ratto (insert joke here):

The rumors that Peter Magowan may be looking to end his tenure as managing general big shot of the Giants have been swirling for a few weeks now, but it wasn’t until the organization confirmed that the rumors have legs that they started to run.

Wouldn’t it be cool if this woman delegated control of this team to somebody named Smithers?

Sue Burns, the widow of Harmon Burns, who owned the largest single share of the team, could take control simply by virtue of holding the most stock.

WaPo: Boswell: Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz a showcase for great players who did it right

I think the Boswell Museum has kept its doors open a little tooooo long past its closing hour.

Eventually, your wins, like your sins, will find you out.

In San Diego tonight, Greg Maddux will try to win his 350th game. Later this year, he may pass Roger Clemens’s total of 354. But whether Maddux hits either number, the verdict is in. It arrived in the Mitchell report. The greatest right-handed pitcher since Walter Johnson is no longer the tainted Clemens but the mesmerizing Maddux.

Just as Barry Bonds’s 762 homers will always be a smaller number—arithmetic be damned—than Hank Aaron’s 755, so Maddux already has forever outdistanced Clemens.

Searching for silver linings in a steroid age is hard work. But there are some. Perhaps none is brighter than the realization that Maddux, and two of his former teammates, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, all of them presumptive Hall of Famers, will now be among those who move up most dramatically as we reevaluate the stars of the past 20 years.

N.Y. Times: Glanville: Hitting Curves (of All Sorts) (RR)

Doug Glanville’s latest gem.

The curveball reality hit me all at once. I thought I could race through the minor league system on quick hands and exceptional coordination. That was until I ran into Gregg Olson, a pitcher who at one time was a dominant force in the Baltimore Orioles bullpen. He was known for his knee-buckling curveball, and he didn’t disappoint. The first time I saw it, I thought, “This is not good.” That was the moment I became determined to learn how to hit a curveball for fear of ever again feeling like a frozen popsicle, the way I did when I first saw Olson’s Zeus-like hammer.

So, during an off-season instructional camp with the Chicago Cubs, I set up a pitching machine to send me the nastiest curveball it could throw. It took a while, but eventually I was able to carve the ball into right field and add to my skill set the ability to at least make decent contact with it.

What I found was that your approach doesn’t have to be any different from the one you use when dealing with — indulge me for a second — any other curveball life throws at you. We spend so much time cruising along, looking to hit the straight and dependable fastball, that the audacity of something different can cause us to forget any and every tactic that once gave us comfort and success.

Thanks to ShysterBall.

Jays’ Vernon Wells has broken wrist

It’s time to blow up the team and play the young guys.

N.Y. Daily News: Feinsand: Kei Igawa is completely clueless

Yes...but what about Feinsand?

Who knew that Kei Igawa was Japanese for Esteban Loaiza?

I never thought I would meet a pitcher more delusional than Loaiza, who would routinely tell us after his starts how well he thought he pitched. I remember one game when he gave up six runs in five innings, all of the runs coming on four homers. He said to us, “I pitched very well, I just made four bad pitches.” I guess he didn’t take into account that those four pitches traveled almost 2,000 feet.

Igawa was nearly as insane Friday night in discussing his abominable outing, telling us that all he has to do to improve is to strike out more batters.

“The result is part of baseball. It can happen in any game at any time,” Igawa said through his translator. “The next thing I would like to work on is getting more strikeouts.”

Joe Girardi and Chad Moeller both said Igawa’s biggest problem was a lack of command with his off-speed pitches. Igawa didn’t feel the same way. “I felt the changeup worked well in terms of control,” said the clueless pitcher. “In terms of the slider, I missed three pitches, one high. Besides that, I think they were pretty good.”

They were pretty good. If you were a Tigers fan, that is.

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.

Isringhausen Out as Closer

Izzy - you’ve been great.  Just not this season.

Franklin and Springer will split time in the 9th for now, where they can be no worse than the current situation.

How much does Rollins mean to this team?

Just got back upstairs from the Phillies clubhouse, and I’ve got to say, that place is positively giddy. I think a lot of times we as sports writers get a little too corny with our attempts to place unwarranted psychological significance on certain events. A lot of times in baseball, it simply comes down to: see ball, hit ball.

But I’m convinced that Jimmy Rollins is one of those rare athletes whose presence really can invigorate a team. It’s why I disagree with those who say he shouldn’t have been MVP last year. By now, I’m sure you all know he singled, doubled and homered in his first start in over a month. But beyond that, I’m convinced his presence made his teammates better. Not in a concious way. Jayson Werth and Greg Dobbs didn’t walk up to the plate thinking, “I’m going to single now because Jimmy Rollins is here.”

Q + W Jeff Luhnow

Pete Kozma wasn’t considered to be a “sexy” pick at the time he was drafted. A lot of different media outlets said that while he had solid tools across the board, other then power, he possessed no real standout tool. Yet so far Pete has been played extremely well. Are you surprised at how well Pete’s performed early?

If we wanted a “sexy” pick, we would read Baseball America, read Keith Law’s articles, and pick based on their opinions. But we don’t, and neither do any other clubs, because while the journalists are doing a good job of expressing their opinions based on the information they have, we have to live and die with our selections and the future of the organization is impacted by these picks. If the journalist is wrong, he just admits it (maybe) and keeps writing about the next guy or the next draft. They will still sell papers or get eyeballs. If we are wrong, we’ve missed a huge opportunity to make our organization better, and nobody wants to do that.

Pete’s performance is not a surprise to me or to our scouts. I’m happy he is doing well and I sure hope and expect he will keep it up. I know he will have his rough patches as he goes through our system, everybody except Albert does. By the way, a player with average tools across the board who plays a premium position is incredibly valuable! When we as scouts say “average”, we mean average at the major league level. Theoretically, he would be in the top 15 shortstops at the major league level if that were true. Those players get paid well because they are so valuable.

Federal Baseball: Chigliak: The Elijah Dukes “Story” Won’t Go Away

If I cement over my mail slot...will the mailman send my ESPN Magazine back?

What Dukes seems to be finding comfort in, the friendships, guidance and support provided to him by the Nationals, Mr. Jones sees, as he writes in the follow-up article, “Behind the Story: Elijah Dukes”, as, “All of these walls (that) have gone up around Dukes...the PR guy standing there...” during interviews, the “Supernanny” and the counseling, (which Mr. Jones claims, is, “...a subject so sensitive, no one on the Nats will talk about exactly what it entails,") which has left Mr. Jones feeling even more troubled, because:

“...here’s the strange thing: Some small part of me still feels sorry for him. Not for what he’s done—his mistakes are his and his alone—and not for his lost childhood—although it was almost unimaginably tragic, I don’t believe you’re bound by the sins of your father—but for how he’s being treated today.”

But, finally, I’m afraid that after having read the original article and the follow-up, and recognized, in my opinion, the intentional perpetuation of the portrayal, both in writing and visually, of Dukes as, “...The Most Menacing Player in Baseball,” and “...the awful stereotype of the angry black man,” I’m left with the impression that Mr. Jones ends up once again presenting Dukes in this manner because of the lack of access he was granted to Dukes due of the “walls” that Washington has placed around the outfielder, and I can’t help but wondering why Mr. Jones is so displeased with the franchises actions on Dukes’ behalf? Is it simply because it limited his desire for unfettered access to the subject of his story?