CSN: Beltway Baseball: Jim Riggleman’s Week Out

Spell Kasten...the Nats way.

While this is the first NatsFest for Riggleman as a manager in Washington, he’s been down this road before. He has also coached the San Diego Padres, the Chicago Cubs, and the Seattle Mariners (as interim manager).  But even with past experience, Riggleman was asked some questions that seemed to take him by surprise.

At the Hot Stove Luncheon last Friday, Nats TV analyst Rob Dibble asked the skipper about his awareness and involvement with steroids in the late 1990s. Riggleman was manager of the Cubs during Sammy Sosa’s chase of the single season home-run record. He began his answer by responding lightheartedly with “thanks a lot.” After the crowd reacted, team president Stan Kasten remarked in jest about Dibble’s television contract security and looked displeased as Riggleman began to speak.

Riggleman explained that he had not been asked a question about that topic. While Tony La Russa has been scrutinized about Mark McGwire, no one had yet questioned Riggleman about it. He said that he had been anticipating it, but thought the topic may have passed on.

He continued to describe managing in the Steroid Era: “It’s hard to believe, but we were really naive about it.  When you’re there, you kind of just don’t even really think about it. You see the guy getting bigger and you’re thinking ‘Man, he’s working hard.’ We all missed it.”

NYT: Steve Phillips to Appear on ‘Today’

The Gentle Path? Wasn’t that the title of the 12th or 13th sub-worthless Mylon LeFevre LP?

Steve Phillips, who was fired by ESPN last year as a baseball analyst after his affair with a network production assistant became public knowledge, will be interviewed Monday by Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” show.

His agent, Steve Lefkowitz, said in an interview that Phillips spent 45 days in Hattiesburg, Miss., at the Gentle Path sex addiction clinic, the same one that Tiger Woods reportedly attended. Phillips, a former Mets’ general manager, is attending after-care therapy. His wife, Marni, is also in therapy in Arizona, Lefkowitz said.

“He’s coming back with hat in hand, and he’s trying to fix his marriage,” Lefkowitz said.

He added that Phillips expects to discuss the affair, his therapy and his perspective on Woods’s infidelities.

“He’s not scared, but he’s apprehensive,” Lefkowitz said. “But I told him, ‘If you want to get back into the media, you have to talk to the media.

Kotaku: Olbermann, Ripping Me Softly For This Column

Flak! Incoming!

Keith Olbermann has called me down to the union hall to surrender my liberal card. The MSNBC commentator disagrees with Saturday’s Stick Jockey, about replacement players from the 1995 baseball strike being denied an appearance in video games.

...So, he argues, scab players pay a justifiable and largely symbolic penalty for empowering an ownership hellbent on busting the union, even to the point of taking a wrecking ball to the game of baseball. Fair enough. But I do think Olbermann’s kicker is a little over the top: “If you feel your video game is incomplete without Brendan Donnelly, you may be a little too into video games.” Donnelly may not be an all-star, but ask a Sox gamer how he feels about seeing Millar, a beloved member of the 2004 World Series championship team, represented in the 2005 video games as a black man with a blond goatee.

Finally, I’m a bit hurt Keith refers to me as “the Kotaku.com writer” and not by name. After all, the sister of the wife of my father’s half-brother went to prep school with him. (Literally true.) It’s how I got his seats at Yankee Stadium the night Pedro Martinez struck out 17, faced one over the minimum and one-hit the Pinstripes in 1999. But apparently family ties mean nothing - nothing! - to Keith.

MLB: Longtime voice Lurie heads across Bay to Giants

Longtime A’s radio host and baseball aficionado Marty Lurie confirmed Thursday that he’s taking his wildly popular pregame show to the other side of the bridge, where he will be heard on KNBR’s pre- and postgame Giants programming.

For 12 years, most recently on KTRB, Lurie presented fans with “Right Off The Bat”—a unique show that celebrates the game’s history through interviews with old-timers, national writers, club executives, scouts and the like.

A longtime lawyer with an even longer love for baseball, Lurie has bought and sold his own time slots each year. This offseason, though, he never quite landed on the same page as KTRB, which recently agreed to a long-term contract to broadcast A’s games through 2019.

“Each year I would negotiate to make sure I had a spot for the next season,” Lurie said Thursday morning. “Toward the end of September, I started contacting KTRB but couldn’t get answers to any of my e-mails or phone calls as to what the plans were for this next season. It went into late November when I found out that they were looking into different programming.”

Thanks to Iggy.

NESN: Edwards: Bruins Would Do Well to Take Page Out of Legend Carl Yastrzemski’s Book

In Game 1 of the 1967 World Series, AL Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski took the collar against the immortal Bob Gibson: 0-for-4.

It’s odd how certain images stick with you through the millions we observe (or have forced upon us in an ever more dense media age).

After Game 1, after Fenway had cleared out, after the Back Bay had calmed down following its first postseason game in 21 years, Yaz was still at the ballpark and still partly in uniform. He went back from the clubhouse through the tunnel to the dugout and grabbed his bat. He trudged up the steps and into the vacated green expanse. Back to home plate, where the grounds crew—at his request—had hauled out the batting cage. And, in the gloaming, after a confidence-challenging day during which he had failed not in the cover and chaos of 10 men skating 30 miles per hour but rather alone at the focal point of 32,000 worshiping fans, he went back to work. The potato farmer’s son from the eastern tip of Long Island probably figured that either he could figure out how to get his stroke back or that blistered-to-bloody hands couldn’t do any worse in Game 2 than they had done that afternoon.

But no matter what the future held, he was going to control what he could control—and that meant he wasn’t going to get outworked.

It’s a black-and-white photo that I think I first saw in Yaz’s ghost-written autobiography that winter (the book flew off the shelves as quickly as “Yaz Bread” got scarfed off the grocery displays and Ken Coleman’s baseball Iliad, “The Impossible Dream,” vanished from record racks). The photo of Yaz, in the twilight, alone in the cage. And baseballs sprayed all over Fenway Park. No fans to see it. No teammates at the park. No one even left around to shag.

Yastrzemski hit two homers in Game 2 to give one-hit author Jim Lonborg more than enough to even the Series. The next time Yaz faced Gibson in the series, he had two hits.

Funny, but Yastrzemski never won a World Series. Yet the first thought that comes to mind when people mention his name is “Champion.”

Golly...if only Yaz would have shagged some midnight fly balls while wearing a studded E collar. Think of all the championships!

Library Journal: Spring Baseball Roundup

Lots of interesting-looking baseball books reviewed in the link. Anybody read anything good lately?

Former Vandy great David Price is living the high life but vowing to avoid the traps into which many

He accepts all the responsibilities as well as the trappings that go along with his current state of affairs — such as the guy in the black, hooded sweatshirt.

“Last year when we were in Philadelphia, a teammate and I were going to Ruth’s Chris and two guys ran after our cab for about three miles,” Price says. “Then one of the guys tried to sit with us at our table. The manager came up and asked, ‘Are you expecting a third to your party?’ I was like, ‘No.’ He said, ‘I didn’t think so.’ When he went back up there the guy had already run out the door.

“He was in black sweatpants and a black hoodie and he just wanted to get my autograph. ... That was a little weird.”

Baseball Player to the Bench After Failed Home Stealing

Despite leading the game 2-1, Villa Clara manager Eduardo Martin was not too pleased when in the third inning, his first batsman decided to score based only in his speed and the surprise.

Seconds after the umpired had called the out, Martin decreed the very same, sending the risk-taker to warm the bench for the rest of the match.

In an exclusive interview to ACN news agency, Leonys said that: “I was looking at the catcher for several pitches; I thought it was the right time and went for it. If he (the catcher) would have returned the baseball to the pitcher as I had foreseen, I had stolen home even without sliding”

Bet he didn’t get any ice cream after the game, either.

Rangers catching prospect out for the year

Rangers catching prospect Tomas Telis, who made his U.S. debut last year at the age of 17, is expected to miss all of 2010 after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.

GM Jon Daniels said Telis, ranked No. 26 among the Rangers prospects by Baseball America magazine, recently had the surgery and is expected to miss the full year.

The Rangers’ backstop curse claims another victim.

The best shape ever

Here’s a guarantee: Several times within the next month, you will consume a news story—not even counting this blog post—asserting that a particular baseball player is Reporting to Spring Training in the Best Shape of His Life. Chances are, you will read several of these stories, because they are a rite of the baseball calendar, and because certain players do bust their butts during the offseason. When they reemerge into the public eye, ready for workouts, everybody notices the difference.

The invention of spring training stories about fitness coincided, best as I can tell, with the invention of February itself. Not that the accounts have always been positive. A 1932 story in the Post about aging “big moundsman” Fred Marberry included several quotes from team president Clark Griffith, who said, “[H]e is getting older, and takes on fat over his shoulders and around his stomach, and has trouble not only getting it off but keeping it off. Why, he gains a few pounds when he has two or three off-days. And this excess fat also prevents him from getting all of his stuff on the ball.”

The Best Shape of His Life article is in the best shape of its life.

A Manufacturer’s Debt to Haiti

Nearly 20 years ago, Rawlings Sporting Goods closed its baseball assembly plant in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and completed a move to its other factory in Costa Rica. Rawlings cited Haiti’s political instability for idling about 1,000 workers.

Now, almost a month after the earthquake that caused innumerable deaths and widespread suffering and devastation, does Rawlings have a duty to send some business back to Haiti?

SNY: Salfino: How do Sox, Yankees stack up in 2010?

“Additions of Vazquez, Lackey make for close race”. Salfino, latest.

Granderson replaces Damon and has tremendous power upside in Yankee Stadium, where Damon hit 17 of his 24 homers last year. Granderson hit 20 homers on the road, so it’s not crazy to expect him to hit 40 this year with 30 as the floor. He will drive you crazy with the strikeouts (141 last year, 174 in 2006). Also, he wasn’t close to Damon last year on the bases. According to the Bill James Handbook, Damon was plus-18 mostly due to his great stolen base efficiency (12-for-12) while Granderson was just plus-four (he took only 10 bases on hits vs. 20 for Damon).

Winn replaces Cabrera as an extra outfielder, but could be thrust into a bigger role if/when Johnson gets hurt. Winn’s decline at the plate last year (he’s 36 in June) was alarming, with a .671 OPS and just two homers in 538 at-bats.

Vazquez is the key addition, coming off a dominant season in the National League (238 strikeouts vs. 44 walks). He can be lights out when he’s on and, in a testament to New York’s depth, opens the year as the Yankees’ No. 4 starter. Yes, he spit the bit before in New York, but there are all kinds of sample-size problems in the bad second half way back in 2004.

Figure that the Yankees gain an expected win or two from last year and conservatively assume the baseline is their Pythagorean total (95). So that’s 96.5 wins as an over/under. The Red Sox seem much better off but are taking on a lot more risk. Their offense will also be hurt by having to play Victor Martinez at catcher (he hits much better as a first baseman), which also subtracts from their defensive gains elsewhere. Boston at the plate loses most of what Lackey gives them on the mound. So the Red Sox are only plus one or two expected wins, too, and—using their Pythagorean total from last year—get only to an expected win total of 94.5. Close, yes, but no cigar.

Biz of Baseball: MLB on FOX Unveils 2010 Broadcast Schedule, Includes Two Games in Prime-Time

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y.... NIGHT!

MLB on FOX today unveils its 15th FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL GAME OF THE WEEK schedule, and with it, fans will see not one, but two prime time contests this season.

MLB on FOX has never scheduled two prime time regular season games in the same season, and these are the first on national broadcast television since April 2004.

The special prime time windows are Saturday May 22 and Saturday June 26, and they are two of MLB on FOX’s four interleague dates this season. The match-ups on both dates have coverage beginning at 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT. May 22 features a four game slate:

Yankees v Mets
Red Sox v Phillies
Cubs v Rangers
Tigers head v Dodgers
Then on June 26, the Dodgers host the Yankees for the first time at Dodger Stadium since 2004, the Red Sox travel to San Francisco to face the Giants while the White Sox host the Cubs.

...

The 2009 NL Champion Phillies make the team maximum nine MLB on FOX appearances. The World Champion Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Mets and Cardinals are scheduled to appear eight times. The season’s schedule also boasts nine appearances by the Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins, seven dates for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants and five for the Tampa Bay Rays and the Chicago White Sox.

Woah, what happened FOX? Twins, Mariners and Braves appear more than Yankees, Sox, Cubs and Mets? I can only assume that it is a trap.

Baseball Picture of the Day: Hall of Fame Theater

T-Minus 14 days! Just TWO weeks!

Today’s image is again one from the hall of fame- as voted on yesterday. Since many people from outside the Northeast haven’t ever visited the Hall itself, this, like the previous Cooperstown images, will give them a idea of what they are missing.

I HIGHLY suggest you go to the larger size image. And please, I’ve wondered this since the first time I visited Cooperstown: is that a real scoreboard scenario that showed up once, and if so when?

Basically, when you enter the museum itself, the first thing they recommend you do is go watch a little movie first in this theatre (I believe the setup of the theatre itself has changed a bit since this image was taken, but not immensely- I believe they change sponsors a bit and add more recent footage and such, nothing major). It’s your average corny “gee ain’t Baseball all great” puff piece, more existing to control the flow of people going through the Museum and such. Still, neat how they made the theater a replica of old Comiskey.

Creative Commons:

Tomorrow: Another Vote- Dodger Stadium or Camden Yards?

Billboards tout the 61 in ‘61 clubbed by Roger Maris

until some punk wiseass tags “0 SB, 0 IBB in ‘61...and Bobby Richardson sucked!” over it.

A North Dakota billboard company has erected a pair of signs in Fargo honoring local hero Roger Maris, whose record 61 home runs in 1961 have long been clouded with an asterisk.

Because he clubbed the homers in more games than Babe Ruth’s record 60, the baseball Hall of Fame has never recognized his feat, much less admitted him to Cooperstown.

And the “61 in ‘61” (his epitaph in a Fargo cemetery) accomplishment was eclipsed in 1998 when McGwire hit 70 dingers.

Owners of Newman Outdoor Advertising decided to rectify what they see as a historical disservice to Maris, a Hibbing native who died in 1985.

“He’s our boy—Fargo’s golden boy,” said company executive Russ Newman, who got to know Maris in the early 1980s “and became really enamored of him. He was such a gentleman.”

The billboards feature a picture of Maris during his days as a New York Yankee and the slogan, “Fargo’s Maris ‘Legitimate’ Home Run King.”

Newman said he decided to erect the billboards in the wake of McGwire’s recent admission that he used steroids during his home run binge. “With all these players coming out of the closet about steroids, when McGwire admitted it, it really pushed me over the edge to do this,” he said.

Coleman: Should the Astros make a move for Willy Taveras? A Response

and my little dog, Fallas…

As I was contemplating what to write today’s article on, I stumbled across this blog post by the Chronicle’s new Astros beat writer Bernardo Fallas. It was entitled ‘Should the Astros make a move for Willy Taveras?’ I chuckled to myself, thinking this was a tongue-in-cheek headline. After all, the Astros already have a centerfielder that does everything Taveras does and more, a full bench with bats more potent than his and prospects to take their place for cheaper if needed.

Why on earth would the Astros want Taveras?

Well, friends, Fallas was being serious. He laid out his argument for Taveras, saying he owns a home here and works out with his former teammates. While the idea was ridiculous to me on the surface, I gave Fallas the benefit of the doubt. That is, until I came to this:

Also, if healthy, he can put up decent numbers - his career high for stolen bases is 68 in 2008. He is a career .276 batter with a .321 OBP.

‘Decent numbers’ revolve around a solid batting average and stolen bases, apparently. I mean, he wasn’t referring to a .320 OBP as decent, right? When the league average was .333, anything below that has to be considered something other than decent, right? But, maybe I’m being to harsh on him. After all, Mr. Fallas just moved over from the soccer beat. He may just not have had the time to read all the wonderful articles about sabermetric thinking yet. Heck, I’m sure he hasn’t even had time to read about Moneyball or how Branch Rickey used to emphasize OBP back with the Dodgers.

MASN: Wood: Another view of Orlando Hudson

I believe it was noted philologist turned pinch-hitter deluxe, Friedrich Nietzscheinblum, that said...“The best weapon against an enemy ballplayer is another enemy ballplayer”

However, there are some in the game who feel that Hudson’s year with the Dodgers - while solid statistically from all indications - is not beyond criticism. I spoke at length today with a prominent National League pro scout who knows Hudson quite well.

“Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good player,” he said, “but I know the Dodgers were bothered by his constant fraternization with players on other teams. Joe Torre is kind of old school in that regard, and Hudson was always hanging out with opposing players before games.”

But couldn’t something like that be overlooked if the player puts up the numbers?

“Maybe, but Hudson’s offense really slipped in the second half,” he continued. “No one expected he’d hit .330 all season [Hudson batted about .332 in April and May], but his average dropped about 30 points the second half of the season.”

Doing some basic math, from April through June Hudson hit .297; from July through the end of the season he hit .270.

Murray Chass on Baseball: MEET THE MESS

Leave the labor and carting to us!

The agents who spoke about the Mets all spoke off the record, except the one agent who wouldn’t say anything on or off the record. They chose not to be quoted by name because they expect to do business with the Mets in the future and didn’t want to alienate them.

But more than one agent cited the Mets’ inability to deal with more than one free agent at a time as the primary reason they lost out on free agents. “We’re interested in your guy,” more than one agent recalled the Mets saying, “but we have to deal with this other guy first.”

In one instance, the Mets were a player’s first choice, an agent said, but he was one or two down on the Mets’ pecking order – a phrase used by another agent – and the player and the agent weren’t going to wait for the Mets to deal with them. They went elsewhere.

Another agent said that Omar Minaya, the Mets’ general manager, told him at the winter meetings in December that the Mets would address their catching need in January. “How can they wait and be sure what will be there?” the agent asked.

Another agent called the process frustrating. I have other names for it: foolish, wasteful, destructive, irresponsible, to suggest a few. Surely, a general manager is capable of talking to more than one agent simultaneously, working on parallel tracks, even if one signing depends on another.

WEEI: Bradford: A day in the life of Dustin Pedroia

Dragged a combo across my head…

“Let’s go merck!” — Dustin Pedroia

PHOENIX — The words from the Red Sox second baseman — directed at Baltimore minor leaguer Brett Bordes — for all intent and purposes punctuated Pedroia’s Monday.

The suggestion to “merck” (defined by the Urban Dictionary as “To destroy. Derived from the word ‘mercenary’”) unofficially ended another day of preparing for the 2010 baseball season, allowing the focus to change over to a video game (Call Of Duty, to be exact) showdown at Pedroia’s house.

...Ethier might not look like the 5-foot-7 Pedroia, but there’s a reason they are best friends.

“Andre is the ring leader of his circus. He’s the guy who is screaming and yelling after a set, looking in the mirror for the next 20 minutes,” explains Pedroia. “I feed him just to get him fired up.”

For example …

Upon bench-pressing a few reps of weight most major leaguers only dream of lifting, Ethier is being fed by Pedroia. “You see that? That’s how you get it done,” the second baseman yells at the nearby video camera documenting the workout, “Send that tape to Theo!” (It is no secret the Red Sox star would like to somehow play with his former ASU teammate once more.)

Remington: Can Granderson solve his lefty pitcher problems?

Future Waldling: “100 Granderson Bar now has 48 HR’s this season at Yankee Stadium! Isn’t that amazing, Suzyn!?”

Granderson will be 29 in a month, and is in his physical prime. The odds are good that he’ll have a field day with that short right field wall. He wasn’t overly lucky last year, according to Hit Tracker Online, which means that he’s not due for the kind of rude awakening Jimmy Rollins received after he hit 30 homers. He has legitimate 25-30 homer power in his bat and he’s moving to a park that will make it easier for him to hit them.

The Forecast for 2010: Last year, Granderson showed two things: he could murder right-handers and hit a ton of homers off them, and he couldn’t hit lefties if you gave him a bat the size of John Kruk. The new Yankee Stadium likely won’t help him hit lefties — the short porch in right field will only help him if he can pull the ball, and he can’t get around on lefties. What’s more, the Yankees have a homegrown solution to the problem: Brett Gardner is defensively similar to Granderson, and has an OPS over .700 against southpaws in the majors and in the minors. Any time a lefty’s on the mound, they can rest Granderson and let him lurk as a potent pinch-hitting weapon any time a right-handed reliever comes in. Granderson doesn’t seem like a platoon player, but the more often the Yankees realize it, the better.

The Baseball Analysts: Sullivan: Josh Beckett: To Extend or Not?

The first lesson here is that it’s critical to understand that there is a premium to be paid on the unrestricted free agent market, and that you have to recalibrate performance expectations. You might not get the late-aughts Beckett for his next contract, and it might feel like you’ve overpaid at times, but when you consider how much value Boston got in this last contract, it could all even out. Let’s take the John Lackey deal as an example and given Lackey’s similarities to Beckett, it’s not a bad proxy at all. If you believe Fangraphs free agent dollar values assigned to each win, all the Red Sox need from Lackey to make the deal worthwhile is output like Scott Baker or Carl Pavano produced in 2009, or Andy Sonnanstine in 2008. Can Beckett do that in his 31 to 35 seasons? Maybe.

The second lesson is that, given the odds of a 30-plus pitcher living up to his end of the deal, there are probably better areas to allocate your free agent spend. In Boston’s case, this is especially true given the commitment they have made to John Lackey this off-season. As a Red Sox fan, I am not ready to state explicitly that they should let Beckett walk but $35-$40 million committed to Lackey and Beckett annually from 2011-2014 has the potential to hamper Boston’s flexibility. As with anything else, this decision will come down to Boston’s ability to meld medical, scouting and performance analysis insight to generate an accurate projection of Beckett’s future output.

Now don’t mess it up!

Thanks to Wims.

MLB in Uganda

Jambo!  I am in Kampala this week and came across this in the local paper.

- Baseball coaching experts Pat Doyle and Tom Gillespie have recommended to the Major Baseball League headquarters that Uganda has what it takes to host June’s Middle East/Africa junior Baseball championships. Doyle and Gillespie were in Uganda to conduct a two-week clinic that climaxed last weekend at the Nakirebe complex. Over 80 participants from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Southern Sudan and hosts Uganda qualified as baseball coaches and umpires.

Baseball Musings: Fewer Pitchers

I thought this was an interesting take on the Joba-Hughes in the bullpen discussion. From David Pinto:

It strikes me that both in the pen could radically alter the Yankees roster. The Yankees would only need nine pitchers, maybe ten. The starting staff is more than capable of going six or seven innings, and in the case of Sabathia, eight. Joba and Hughes take turns going two innings when needed, so they build up a decent amount of innings during the season (both getting over 100). They’re not one-inning setup men, they’re in for however long it takes to get to the ninth. New York can then afford to carry a third catcher and a two slick fielding infielders to rest A-Rod and Jeter late in games. It would take some guts to rework a pen like that, but if the Yankees did, I’d be all for both young men pitching out of the bullpen.

Fanhouse: Verlander Agrees to $80M Extension With Tigers

The Tigers and Justin Verlander have agreed to a five-year, $80 million extension, a source told the Associated Press. Though not officially announced, the deal is expected to be completed before the end of the week. The deal both avoids arbitration and keeps Verlander in Detroit three years into his free agency.

While the extension was being negotiated, it was expected that Verlander would use Felix Hernandez’s five-year, $78 million contract as a template for what he wanted from Detroit. In the end, the Tigers went beyond the deal Seattle gave to Hernandez by $2 million to lock their ace up long-term.

That’s really the most surprising aspect of the signing; Hernandez is younger than Verlander (24 compared to Verlander’s 27) with a slight edge in every career stat except for won-loss record and a dominant 2009 season by Hernandez that was better than any Verlander’s put up to this point in his career. If anything, it seemed likely that Verlander’s deal would come in just under the $78 million that the Mariners gave Hernandez.

Thanks to The Barfoot Contessa.

MLB: Bauman: Save the anthem at ballparks

Yowzer! Bowzer tackles the “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” has been trivialized, tortured and trampled upon at ballparks throughout America. Obviously, there are completely acceptable renditions of the anthem sung before baseball games, but too many alleged singers, given the privilege of singing the national anthem, are acting like they are singing torch songs in a lounge.

They are singing painfully elongated versions of the anthem, in which the meaning of the song is distorted, warped, lost. All that remains is these people trying to impress the world with their vocal chops. Instead, in regard to this anthem, they become something like Roseanne Barr.

You’ve heard it. You’ve seen it, You’ve known it. What can be done with these people? Well, they could be arrested. What would be the charge?

Treason.

You don’t have to be a super-patriot to be offended by what is being done to the national anthem of our Republic on a nightly basis. All you have to be is an American.

... The other version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that stands apart from all others would be the one delivered by Jimi Hendrix and his electric guitar at Woodstock in 1969. Hendrix was a guitar genius, but this rendition leaves no basis of comparison. Feedback, distortion, emotion and all, it went almost four minutes.

To cast this in baseball terms, many people want to put asterisks next to the records of players who have used performance-enhancing drugs. We can also put an asterisk by Hendrix’ anthem, because he was using performance-enhancing drugs. But Jimi lasted less than one year after this performance, dying at age 27. He was, at least, posthumously elected to a Hall of Fame.

L.A. Times:  ‘Ramirez Provision’ is banned

The “Ramirez Provision” is no more.

The Dodgers—and all other major league teams—cannot mandate that a player donate to club charities as part of his contract, the commissioner’s office and players’ union have agreed.

Michael Weiner, the executive director of the players’ union, said the agreement does not restrict players from making donations but ensures the choice is theirs.

“The goal here never has been to interfere with players making charitable contributions, which guys have a long history of doing,” Weiner said Wednesday.

As part of the $45-million contract he signed last March, Manny Ramirez agreed to donate $1 million to the Dodgers’ charitable foundation. Owner Frank McCourt said he would implement the “Ramirez Provision,” asking players to make a donation at an amount of their choosing as part of all future Dodgers contracts.

The union filed a grievance soon thereafter, alleging the Dodgers, Angels and 20 other teams had improperly mandated donations to club charities in the contracts of at least 109 players.

ESPN: Neyer: Who deserves to be bronzed?

What is that strange stretched out Dave Stieb statue?

With that in mind, let’s run through the other candidates for the statue-less ballparks.

What are the criteria? First, I think we’re looking for great player, either a Hall of Famer or just short (and yes, I’m happy to make an exception for home-town guys like Willie Horton and Frank White). And second, when you think of a player, you should think of this franchise (and yes, I’m happy to make exceptions for Ruth in Baltimore and Hank Aaron in Milwaukee). Can the Angels commission a Nolan Ryan statue? Sure. But he won a lot of games for the Astros and Rangers, too (and he’s got a statue in Arlington. Can the Diamondbacks erect a bronze version of Randy Johnson? Sure. He won four (straight!) Cy Youngs as a Diamondback. But he won more games as a Mariner.

Here are my top candidates, after just a bit of research:

Orioles - Cal Ripken (why hasn’t this happened already?)
Mets - Tom Seaver (ditto)
Twins - Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, and someday probably Joe Mauer
Dodgers - Sandy Koufax, Sandy Koufax, and Sandy Koufax
Rockies - Todd Helton
Blue Jays - Dave Stieb (yeah, it’s a stretch)
Rays - Carl Crawford if they lock him up (and Evan Longoria if they don’t)
Marlins - Hanley Ramirez if they lock him up
Athletics - Rickey and Reggie both candidates, but played a lot for other teams
Angels - Garret Anderson? Tim Salmon? Brian Downing?
Diamondbacks - Randy Johnson, but only if they’re desperate

Schmuck: Bisciotti takes a swing at the Yankees

Major ventricina served from Bisciotti!

Clearly, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti is a proponent of the NFL salary cap, and took a light-hearted shot at the Yankees during today’s big news conference for their inability to totally dominate Major League Baseball with their huge revenue and payroll advantage over the other 29 teams.

“It certainly doesn’t show up in the standings,” Bisciotti said. “If I’m a Yankees fan, I’m upset we’re not winning 130 games with the roster that they have and the money that they pay out. I think it’s a disgrace they only beat the average team by 10 games in the standings with three times the money. I’d fire that GM. You don’t need a GM. All you have to do is buy the last Cy Young Award winner every year.”

That left me with no choice but to ask him afterward if he thought baseball should impose an NFL-style salary cap, something the baseball owners have wanted to do for decades, but have never been able to overcome union opposition.

“I think the genie’s out of the bottle,’’ Bisciotti said, pointing out that the huge value of the Yankees franchise is based on the current economic system and nobody is going to impose a new system that might damage the value of the top revenue-producing teams. “There’s just no way of solving it.”

BPro: Astros Top 11 Prospects

Four-Star Prospects
1. Jio Mier, SS
2. Jason Castro, C
Three-Star Prospects
3. Jordan Lyles, RHP
4. Tanner Bushue, RHP
5. Ross Seaton, RHP
6. Chia-Jen Lo, RHP
7. Tommy Manzella, SS
8. Samuel Gervacio, RHP
Two-Star Prospects
9. T.J. Steele, OF
10. Jon Gaston, OF
11. Koby Clemens, C

Four More:
12. Jay Austin, OF: It’s hard not to get excited about the tools, but he’s far from being a baseball player.
13. Henry Villar, RHP: This undersized righty doesn’t have a ton of stuff, but his command and control are outstanding.
14. Telvin Nash, OF: A 2009 third-rounder, Nash is beefy and has plenty of power, but he’s very raw.
15. Brian Bogusevic, OF: A converted pitcher, Bogusevic scuffled at Triple-A, but he could still end up as a fourth outfielder.

BPro: Marlins Top 11 Prospects

Five-Star Prospects
1. Mike Stanton, RF
2. Logan Morrison, 1B
Three-Star Prospects
3. Matt Dominguez, 3B
4. Chad James, LHP
5. Ryan Tucker, RHP
6. Jhan Marinez, RHP
7. Scout Cousins, OF
8. Marcell Ozuna, OF
9. Kyle Skipworth, C
10. Jake Smolinski, 3B
Two-Star Prospects
11. Tom Hickman, OF

Four More:
12. Ike Galloway, OF: Galloway did very little in his pro debut, but his tools remain impressive.
13. Gaby Sanchez, 1B: He has a good bat, but it’s not good enough to play every day, and he’s limited defensively.
14. Arquimedes Caminero, RHP: He has a massive arm with plus-plus velocity, but Caminero turns 23 in June and has yet to solve a full-season league.
15. Jose Ceda, RHP: Ceda could move way up if he can overcome shoulder issues.