East Windup Chronicle: Japanese Sports Dailies — A Scoop of News, A Scoop of Nonsense

Mac takes a look at “Japanese Sports daily newspapers and the way they cover baseball.”

I am not nearly old enough to remember what things were like in the United States fifty years ago, but if the Max Mercys and flashbulbs in the movies and the colorful prose of old articles are any indication, it was very similar to the current situation in Japan.

At least one reporter and one photographer from each of the national sports dailies is at every baseball event, including team practices, individual workouts, and tryouts. For example, Sports Nippon sics nine reporters on the Hanshin Tigers. They dance around topics and ask the same question a few different ways in order to exhaust every angle of anything resembling news. They race not to the pay phone with a roll of dimes but to their tiny typepads to fire off the latest scoop before someone else does.

Ideally, this is what reporters the world over should do with newsworthy items. However, the nature of Japanese sports publications demands that the writers have something to write about every single day at press time. The pressure to have something better and more interesting than the other reporters is very heavy and very real.

This leads to a watered-down product that is full of filler stories, wild speculation, gossip, and nonsense. There are some great stories within these papers, but one must sift through the debris that clutters page after page.

MASN: Willie Harris tries to lead by example

Aside from being a leader on the field, Harris is trying to teach some of the younger players how to reach their potential, especially Lastings Milledge and Elijah Dukes.

“I try to rub off on a few guys. Work ethic doesn’t come over night. You have to have a goal and a dream of what you want to accomplish. Now that I have my 2-year deal, that’s not going to slow me down. I want more. I want Milledge to Milledge; I want Dukes to be Dukes. Those guys have all the potential in the world and if I can get Milledge in that weight room and help him to understand what he has to do, the sky’s the limit for those guys. If I can keep Dukes out of trouble because that’s what he’s known for, but I don’t think he’s a trouble maker. He’s a fun guy but he’s presumed the wrong way and a lot of people don’t understand him. We all know if Dukes plays 130 games, he would be amazing.”

Dukes, “a fun guy”? Well...Richard “The Mad Biter” Macek was known to have “good manners” as a youth.

Lauber: Manuel believes Phils’ offense can improve

It’s no wonder, then, that manager Charlie Manuel believes the Phillies can be even better in 2009 if only their offense can exhibit more consistency.

“I look for our offense to be a lot better,” Manuel said last week. “[Chase] Utley can be better. [Jimmy] Rollins can be better. He was more consistent the last two years than he was last year. [Ryan] Howard proved three years ago he could hit .300, and if he does that, he’s going to hit anywhere from 45 to 60 home runs. And we’ve got to get better at the bottom of our lineup. At times, that really hurt us.

“We definitely can improve from an offensive standpoint. I like our team. Our team is solid, and I look for us to be better than we were last year. Really, I do. I know we can.”

Thanks to Philly, Stake Barnald.

Ex-MLB Star Wally Joyner To Host Live Video Stream At Chocolate Bravo

I hope Xocaipark has a cool Reese’s Xtreme Cup Challenge-style ride!

Watch live over the internet as if you were there when ex-major league baseball star Wally Joyner hosts a healthy chocolate party live at Cafe Bravo in Temecula, CA February 12th 2009.

...When asked why he got involved with this healthy chocolate company called Xocai when he doesn’t need the money, Mr. Joyner’s answer was two fold.

“I am very concerned about my nutrition and the nutritional habits of others. Since everyone already loves chocolate, everyone eats chocolate; by teaching them to substitute the bad chocolate for the good healthy chocolate I can change people’s lives”

Mr Joyner continued, “The compensation provided by this company is amazing. I know dozens of very wealthy entrepreneurs, investors, physicians and more all jumping aboard.

Why? Because when they see a good financial opportunity, they jump on it. Xocai is an incredible financial opportunity and should not be looked upon lightly”

Goold: St. Louis Cardinals keep prospects on the move

More importantly...will Brett Wallace be on CDM’s master list?

“When you look at the age at which the best players in baseball reach the big leagues, it’s younger than most people think,” Luhnow said. “The Scott Rolens, the Jim Edmondses, the Yadier Molinas — all of those players — they make it to the big leagues at 21, 22 or 23. So, that has to factor into it a bit. What it means more importantly is we’re drafting younger players, we’re developing them ourselves. And, we’re pushing them aggressively through the system.”

“Young is good,” Luhnow continued. “There is no doubt. (Players) who make it in their late 20s are often serviceable guys, a bench guy, a late bloomer, but stars tend to make it young. ... We differentiate ourselves as a system if we’re producing stars at the big-league level — average to above-average performers, and those guys tend to be younger guys when they get here.”

..."My thinking was Brett Wallace would start at Double-A (in 2009) and then see what happens from there,” Luhnow said. “That’s still the plan, but the plan with Brett Wallace is you cannot set a plan. You let him tell you when he’s ready to move. This spring, we may be talking about Memphis or something else. ... You cannot just promote if they don’t produce, and we’ve got a lot of upward mobility in our system.”

Greeley Tribune: Lasorda, Buckner thrill fans at Friends of Baseball breakfast

Go 54” waist, young man.

Tanner Moser of La Salle got a gift from Tommy Lasorda on Saturday.

The Hall of Fame manager, who served as skipper of the Los Angeles Dodgers for 20 years until 1996, gave the mop-haired 13-year old $12 with a request to get a haircut.

“Hey Billy,” Lasorda said to Bill Buckner, one of Lasorda’s former players in the minor leagues. “Could you have played for me with the kind of haircut?”

“Nope,” Buckner responded.

L.A.Times: Dodgers host second annual Jackie Robinson Legacy Day

Approximately 200 local elementary and middle school students were at Dodger Stadium today to celebrate what would’ve been Jackie Robinson’s 90th birthday and listened to stories from Don Newcombe, Tommy Davis and “Sweet” Lou Johnson. The brainchild of Charles Steinberg, Dodgers executive vice president, the event fell on the eve of Black History Month.

Robinson not only opened doors for Newdombe but the man who broke the color barrier in baseball also taught Newcombe how to play the game properly, citing a game he pitched in 1949 in Pittsburgh as an example. The Dodgers were up 11-1 early in the game and Newcombe, losing focus, walked the bases loaded. With Ralph Kiner about to hit, Robinson called time from his post at second base and walked to the mound.

“Why don’t you go in the clubhouse and take that uniform off?” Newcombe recalled being told by Robinson.

Newcombe said that Robinson told him that he was about to give up a home run to Kiner, which would result in Newcombe being pulled and not getting a win because he hadn’t pitched five innings.

“If you don’t like what I’m saying to you, we can go in the clubhouse and settle it,” Robinson told him.

“I wasn’t about to fight Jackie Roosevelt Robinson,” Newcombe said, laughing.

O.C. Register: He throws a strike at Angels

On the greatest day of his life, Matt McCarthy took a call from a Major League baseball scout named Byron, who told him he had been drafted to play baseball for the Angels.

“Now, you went to Yale,” Byron told him, “so I’m sure you’re a smart kid. But please don’t do anything stupid once you get out there. Don’t make me look bad.”

“Of course,” McCarthy told him.

At least, that’s the account in McCarthy’s book, “Odd Man Out.” It’s a tell-all of his year in the Angels’ farm system, from the racial divide in the clubhouse to the oversized sex toy players touched for good luck; from players making fun of handicapped kids to guys using steroids.

It comes out next month and it’s a book that, if we’re honest about it, makes Byron and the Angels look bad. “I’m sure there will be a defamation of character lawsuit filed by someone, as well there should be,” a former teammate, Heath Luther says.

Thanks to Shysterball for the link.

NYT: The National Pastime(s)

One could be forgiven for thinking the N.F.L. was openly coveting the title of “national pastime” — applied to baseball for the last 150 years and presumably coveted by the N.B.A., as well. While such muscle-flexing seems rather gauche in a time of recession (especially as the N.F.L. was preparing to lay off more than 10 percent of its staff), the question remains: Which is it? Football, baseball or basketball?

Football and Basketball aren’t used as metaphors for how far one has gone sexually with someone else. Also, it is “ballpark figure”, not “stadium figure”. And people throw you a curve, not “fake a punt”. There are three-strike laws, not four-down laws. And when success happens, even with, say, a big touchdown run, it is said that someone has “hit a home run”.

Now I may be misunderstanding linguistics, but I believe that Sapir-Whorf is saying Baseball wins.

MLB: Rays add lefty Shouse to bullpen mix

but not to cocktail mix? Strange.

The Tampa Bay Rays have agreed to a two-year deal with reliever Brian Shouse, according to ESPN.com. The deal is pending a physical.

Shouse was 5-1 with a 2.81 ERA in 69 games for the Brewers in 2008. Left-handed hitters batted .180 off him, with a .192 on-base percentage.

Shouse, 40, is a sidearming left-hander who is entering his 10th season in the Major Leagues. He has made 422 Major League appearances.

NYT: Kepner: Still Jobless, Abreu Awaits Right Offer in a Slow Market (RR)

From the people who brought you Finding Nemo and Ratatouille...it’s E·WALL.

“Bobby’s a very even-keeled person, and he’s been very patient,” Greenberg said. “But he’s disappointed. Perplexed might be a good word. He had a good year last year, and from the offers we’re receiving, he’s very surprised — and surprised the Yankees didn’t make any effort to retain him in any way, shape or form.”

Abreu, who turns 35 in March, initially hoped for a multiyear deal at a salary close to what he made last year. After Raúl Ibáñez signed with the Phillies for three years and $31.5 million and Milton Bradley signed with the Chicago Cubs for three years and $30 million, it was clear Abreu would not get what he wanted.

These are Abreu’s current options: He could accept a one-year deal and plunge back into the market next winter or continue to wait for the situations of teams to change. Greenberg said there were six or seven teams interested, but that number rises and falls.

“It’s hard to say we’re narrowing it down, because it kind of changes on a daily basis,” Greenberg said. “Some teams say they need to make a deal to open up room to sign him. We’ll see. We’re going to have to decide over the next week or so.”

Baseball America: Dodgers top 10 prospects

1.  Andrew Lambo, of
2.  James McDonald, rhp
3.  Ethan Martin, rhp
4.  Josh Lindblom, rhp
5.  Scott Elbert, lhp
6.  Ivan DeJesus Jr., ss
7.  Devaris Gordon, ss
8.  Josh Bell, 3b
9.  Chris Withrow, rhp
10.  Nathan Eovaldi, rhp

Flushing Flashback: Valentine remembers ‘99 (Video)

It took almost a decade to get the backstory on why former Mets manager Bobby Valentine went “undercover” after being thrown out of the game …

According to Valentine, then Mets third baseman Robin Ventura was his accomplice …

… but it’s not completely accurate …

1. The game was at Shea Stadium, not Toronto

2. He was wearing a Mets t-shirt, not a Led Zeppelin t-shirt

“Ten years gone, holdin’ on, ten years gone”

Flushing University: Himelfarb: No Bailout for Thee

(Tosses rubbishy Ronnie-I fueled 45’s around in search of “No Bailout for Thee” by Lil Isidore & The InQuisitors...he thinks)

Fred Wilpon got owned.

Despite lacking any baseball acuteness whatsoever, Freddy is a cunning businessman. Unless he’s an Israeli spy or that Paul Giamatti look alike heading the Department of Homeland security, however, he has about as much influence on Washington these days as Nancy Shevell has on Paul McCartney’s decision to marry her.

Sure, you can’t fault him for a poor man’s effort to stop the bleeding; he tried paying tribute to President Obama with his “I’m the Democrats #####”, ahem, “Baracklyn Cyclones” scheme. His Excellency responded promptly by boarding Citi Banks private jets and crashing into Mets fans audacious hopes. Left with $20 million less to spend, Ohio Mets fans can now begin to plot Dennis Kucinich’s political destruction, while I personally spearhead the crusade to acquire outfielder Val Pascucci from the Dodgers.

Like the rest of the U.S.S.A., the other estimated eight million Mets fans in the New York area are undoubtedly getting fleeced in the name of the common good. To what extent the Mets off-season expenditures will be curtailed, though, is unknown. Is ownership just playing a ploy and are willing to spend $35 million if it rings in the champagne? Or can we expect them to plug $5-$8 million for another starter and call it quits?

S.I.: Belth: The story behind The Yankee Years: Verducci Interview

This could be Belth’s biggest snag...since Alex glommed us a choice luncheonette spot at an SRO SABR/BPro Collosium event!

SI.com: One of my favorite parts of the book is David Cone winding George Steinbrenner up and making him crazy just to get a laugh. That wasn’t something you could imagine a player doing back in the Bronx Zoo days. How influential was Cone on those teams?

Verducci: We all have known how important Cone was to the success of the Yankees. But in reporting the book I gained an even greater appreciation for his role. He was the de facto captain before Derek Jeter. At every turn—whether it was keeping David Wells in check, counseling Chuck Knoblauch on his playoff gaffe against the Indians, stepping up during the key 1998 clubhouse meeting, knowing how to push the buttons of everybody from George Steinbrenner to Paul O’Neill—Cone was the single most influential player in that clubhouse. I was fascinated when Mussina talked so often about how much those teams missed Cone—and Mussina didn’t even play with Cone. But Cone was so important to those teams that Mussina understood it just by his absence. In fact, I view and structured Cone and Mussina as parallel characters in the book. Each emerges as a voice of the distinct micro-eras within the era: when the Yankees won and when they didn’t. Each has a profound ability to see beyond himself and understand team dynamics and the human condition. They also have the ability to smartly share such observations. That Mussina moved into Cone’s locker and place in the rotation immediately upon Cone leaving the Yankees only reinforces the sort of shared role they have in the book. I like to think of it as Cone and Mussina playing the Greek chorus—only not together, but Cone taking you through 2000, then leaving the stage and handing the role over to Mussina.

MLB: Mets: Pedro says he’s received offers

The availability of Pedro Martinez as a free agent has prompted interest among big league clubs, according to the veteran right-hander. With less than three weeks remaining before the beginning of Spring Training, the 37-year-old pitcher has received offers, though not from the Mets, the club he said he’d prefer to return to.

Martinez said, “I’ve received various formal offers from various clubs who have a lot of interest in me,” though he didn’t identify them. He said his priorities were “my comfort and [maintaining] my health.”

..."I know I had a bad year in 2008,” Martinez said. “And understand that my value has dropped a little, but I will not go to the ridiculous either.”

Ok...so the Nationals are out.

Rosenthal: Fehr: ‘Heightened’ concern about free-agent market

Amazing alternating tripod gait from Robothal!

Around the horn

Fehr did not dismiss the possibility of the union setting up a training camp for unemployed players in Florida or Arizona. “We’re considering all options,” Fehr said, “and that certainly is one.” The union arranged such a camp in Homestead, Fla., for the large number of free agents who were looking for work after the players’ strike ended in 1995 ...

The Rays are making a strong run at free-agent left-hander Brian Shouse, whose performance against left-handed hitters last season was nothing short of spectacular. Shouse, 40, held left-handed hitters to a batting average/on-base/slugging line of .180/.196/.290 while pitching in relief for the Brewers, striking out 28 and issuing only two walks in 104 plate appearances against him ...

The acquisition of Cubs left-hander Rich Hill would be a worthy gamble for the Orioles, who likely would give up only a lower-level prospect in return. Hill, however, has shown little progress in his attempt to recover from severe control problems. “We saw him three times in Venezuela and he was awful all three times,” one rival GM said.

NY Daily News: Bouton: No MLB clubhouse ‘sanctity’

Did Joe Torre’s book violate the sanctity of the Yankee clubhouse, particularly with his criticism of Alex Rodriguez? The man who pioneered the candid sports memoir is amused by the question.

“What’s the big deal? It isn’t as if Joe Torre is revealing things that people didn’t know,” former Yankee Jim Bouton told the Daily News Friday. “There was no doubt that A-Rod wasn’t a team guy; that’s been known for a while.”

“It is almost 40 years later,” he said. “Why in the world anyone is still talking about the sanctity of the clubhouse is beyond me. Baseball and the Yankees should feel lucky that this book is generating so much attention in January… there is no job hitting a ball with a stick unless a lot of people are convinced it’s important.”

Bouton was also amused that any player would feel violated by the book. “These guys have voluntarily gone into a business where people know that everything that they do or say is subject to being written about. They act as if they’re surprised when somebody tells what they do. Roger Maris always wanted to be a private person. Well, get into the shoe business if that’s what you want.”

Unless, of course...you belong to the mirthful Joseph Kallinger & Son Tonguewaggers troupe.

Yahoo Sports Blogs: 50 Worst Announcers in Sports

Some baseball guys make the list. 

Recondite Baseball: Sean Casey: So Close Yet So Far

I bet the Kalin-Galarrag Misse b Thi Muc fan club got a kick out of this.

I was looking up his career stats and noticed something interesting. In 1999, Casey had a career high in RBI with 99. He matched that total during the 2004 campaign. This makes him one of only five players in all of major league history to put up two seasons of exactly 99 RBI. The others were Kirby Puckett, Lee May, Bibb Falk, and Ty Cobb. If you don’t feel like clicking all those links, he’s the only player of the five who didn’t ever reach 100 RBI in a season during his career.

...I know that RBI isn’t a very good way to measure a player’s ability. It’s more a reflection of lineup spot, teammates, blah blah blah. Still, 100 RBI is a benchmark season in a player’s career. If you drive in 100 runs, you get the important run-producer label. It’s got to be tough to get so close to that mark and never clear the barrier.

Bay Bridge Baseball: David Forst answers your questions

Why didn’t you tape the Byrnes?

I’d like to know a little more about the kids from AAA (Trevor Cahill, Vin Mazzaro, Brett Anderson). What type of pitchers are they? Who would they be compared to? I know they’re there I just don’t know much about them.

They’re each unique. It’s nice that potentially down the road we can have three different looks from such talented guys. Anderson is a lefty with outstanding fastball command and a changeup. He’s fearless. Doesn’t mind pitching in. He’s a competitor. He’s one of the best pitching prospects in the game, as a lefty. Trevor’s ball is as heavy as any minor leaguer’s we’ve seen. He gets a ton of sink on the fastball, gets a lot of ground balls. He has a hard slider, and he’s working on his changeup, but his go-to pitch is his sinker. He’s going to break a lot of bats. Vinny is similar to Trevor, with more velocity, pitching 92-93. He has hard breaking stuff, a bigger breaking ball than Trevor. Vinny is the quietest of the three, but he probably had as good a year as the other guys, just didn’t get the recognition. It will be exciting to see them all in spring training and the possibility of three kids giving you all different looks is something we’re looking forward to.

Recently Bob Geren mentioned that the starting rotation would likely include Justin Duchscherer, Dana Eveland, Sean Gallagher and Dallas Braden. Assuming that the fifth starter is either Gio Gonzalez or Josh Outman, would the loser of that fifth starter competition most likely end up in the bullpen as a long reliever or at AAA in order to get regular innings?

Both are possibilities. It depends on the individual and the makeup of the bullpen as we break camp. We’ve discussed a seven-man bullpen that does include the so-called sixth starter and we’ve also discussed scenarios in which it’s better for that guy to be in Triple A, stretched out and ready to come up and start when it’s inevitably needed.

AP source: McNamee’s syringes at UCLA lab for test

Reporting from my mother’s “dark, dusty basement”...the latest.

The country’s leading doping lab is testing syringes and vials Roger Clemens’ former personal trainer gave federal investigators to determine whether the items contain traces of performance-enhancing drugs, a person close to the case told The Associated Press.

..."The defendants will undoubtedly claim it was tampered with. But the jury will decide whether that’s true or not,” one of McNamee’s lawyers, Richard Emery, said in a telephone interview Friday. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that it’ll be admitted in the case, assuming that it reveals that Clemens’ DNA is mixed with steroids or HGH.”

McNamee and his lawyers have given DNA samples to federal investigators. It’s not clear whether federal authorities have a DNA sample from Clemens.

Asked to comment on the UCLA lab’s role, Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said through a spokesman: “We’re happy that they’re using such great resources, but it doesn’t matter. Because at the end of the day, this is just a bunch of junk that was put together in a dark, dusty basement years ago by McNamee.”

YESNetwork: Goldman: Foresight proved 20-20 with Torre

At that point, Torre enabled the Verducci story, which then waited like a time bomb for Rodriguez to emerge from his slump and enter the playoffs. It went off just in time to kneecap A-Rod at the most important moment of the season.

With this helpful stab in the back, Rodriguez was “motivated” right back into his slump. Not satisfied, Torre then jerked the future Hall of Famer up and down the lineup throughout the short series. Where a player hits over the course of four games isn’t all that important, but the psychological impact of those moves is. Rather than leave Rodriguez alone, and minimize the stress on his player, Torre did everything he could to make him the story.

If Torre wasn’t an Xs and O’s manager, if he couldn’t get young players into the lineup, and he was unable to communicate with the players the GM was giving him, no matter how difficult, then what did he bring to the table besides an increasingly illusory and irrelevant gravitas? Again, not having read the book as of yet, I cannot draw any firm conclusions, but from A-Rod to his bitterness about not getting Bernie Williams back in 2007 (another example of hideously poor judgment, one he apparently tries to excuse by character-assassinating Carlos Beltran, the player who would have displaced the beloved Bernie) this tome seems to be one of the greatest examples one can think of a man doing all he can to destroy his own reputation, the myth of his own greatness. Instead of proving his indispensability to the Yankees, Torre has made a persuasive case for why they had to let him go.

Thanks to Ruined Arledge.

Varitek, Sox agree to deal

Squatter’s rights!

Jason Varitek and the Red Sox have agreed to a one-year contract with an option, a baseball source confirmed to the Globe’s Tony Massarotti.

Varitek will earn $5 million in 2009, with the club holding a $5 million option for 2010. If the Red Sox do not pick up that option, Varitek has the choice of remaining with the club on a $3 million deal. In ‘10, he can earn another $2 million in incentives based on playing time, beginning at 80 games started.

Thus, the potential total value of the deal increases from $8 million-$10 million to $10 million-$12 million. The incentives apply to both the team and player options for 2010.

Miles: A Gabor (not Zsa Zsa) and Rich Hill, too

Includes dahlink to Baltimore Sun…

With spring training just two weeks away (that sounds good), the Cubs are adding a couple of late-winter touches. I expect them to sign free agent catcher Gabor Paul Bako, who goes by Paul Bako, any time now. Gabor, er Paul, has played for about as many teams as Zsa Zsa Gabor has had husbands: Tigers, Astros (twice), Braves (twice), Marlins, Brewers, Cubs (2003-04), Dodgers, Royals, Orioles and Reds.

Also a report out of Baltimore has the Cubs sending lefty Rich Hill to the Orioles for a player to be named later:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-sp.orioles30jan30,0,9269…

Apparently, the O’s are trying to create space on the 40-man for Hill. In the meantime, word leaked to the Baltimore press. That’s not O’s boss Andy MacPhail’s style, or at least it wasn’t when he was with the Cubs, but the shooting-star-like quality of Rich Hill’s career with the Cubs looks as good as over. Hill walked nary a batter in spring training 2007 and then went 11-8 with a 3.92 ERA during the season, walking 63 and striking out 183 in 195 innings. But the plate moved around on Hill all last spring _ in fact, you could see from the opening days of spring training, before the games started, that he wasn’t the same. He lasted until early May before getting sent to the minors and never returning. He walked 18 in 19 and two-thirds innings during the regular season before going to Iowa, where he struggled. Nice kid. I’ll miss him.

Oaktown Awesomer’s: Do the A’s take too many strike threes looking?

Barton’s 2008 struggles have been well documented, he had enough trouble as it was just making solid contact with the ball when he swung. Apparently the umps felt he should’ve been swinging more at balls inside yet out of the strikezone, because they rang him up 13 times on pitches more than an inch off the plate, some hugely so as the graph depicts. Considering he only had 35 Kc total, 13 is a whopping 37%.

And iamawesomer, points out..."A lot of the A’s, and probably LHB in general, have been getting a pretty unfair strikezone. Maybe lefties have to just accept that they’re going to get a lot of inside strikes called against them and adjust? I wonder if the pitchers know this as well.”

Sources: Sox’s deadline doesn’t exist

Varitek has until the next Quaternion Society meeting...and that’s it!

The Friday morning deadline for Jason Varitek to accept the Boston Red Sox’s “final” contract offer doesn’t actually exist, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

The Red Sox have told Varitek’s agent, Scott Boras, they wanted an answer Friday to their one-year, $5 million offer, which could also contain an option for 2010.

But the source referred to the 8:30 a.m. deadline—which has been characterized of late as being 8:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time; Boras’ headquarters are in California—as being “kind of a media creation.”

So the wait for Varitek to respond goes on, with no assurance the Red Sox will even get the answer they’ve asked for by the end of the day.

wezen-ball: Talkin’ Homer, Ozzie and the Straw

Uh-oh...Simpsons.

In the “Homer at the Bat” episode entry on Wikipedia, it notes that the episode first aired on February 20, 1992, putting it right in line with that spring’s preview guides. A Simpsons viewer watching the episode that night would have been in the same preseason mindset about these players - how good will he be? will he make the actual all-star team? - as the preview guides themselves. These quotes from the 1992 Sporting News preview guides are about as apt as possible then.

Rightfield: Darryl Strawberry (Harry Hooper)
“Strawberry is starting the second year of his five-year free-agent deal with the Dodgers. Last year, he had two seasons in one--the dismal first half (.229 average, eight homers and 30 RBIs) and the sparkling second half (.290, 20 homers and 69 RBIs).”

Of all the players to visit Springfield on Mr. Burns’ dime, it was Darryl Strawberry, who played Homer’s rightfield, who was able to keep things clean the entire time. I don’t know if that’s technically “ironic”, considering all of Strawberry’s other problems, but it certainly makes for one heckuva coincidence. That tear, though, after the chants of “Darr-yl! Darr-yl!”, always got to me. What if he was that sensitive? What kind of damage were we inflicting on the poor guy?

In honor of the Super Bowl: George Carlin’s Baseball/Football

Don’t worry, kiddies, he doesn’t swear in this one.

Schmuck: Orioles: Millar time is up

Cowboy Upper voltage’s struggle with independence…

“Yeah, the bottom line is, obviously, they want to go in a different direction,’’ Millar said from his home in Beaumont, Texas. “Now, what that means, I don’t know. Are they going to win games this year? No. Obviously we know that going in. You’ve got to be realistic.

“I told Dave Trembley (with Millar at right) a month and a half ago, ‘Listen, I’m 37 years old. I’m ready to make that transition and do whatever I can do to help the young guys. If that means playing against left-handers, coming off the bench, whatever.’ I told him I’m ready to do whatever I need to do. They decided to go in a different direction, which is surprising to me. I’m not talking about this to sell myself. I’m low risk. I’m a one-year deal. I haven’t been on the disabled list in awhile. I get along with everybody.

“To me, when a team says that, it’s a little frustrating. I mean, what direction are the Orioles going in differently? If they sign Ty Wigginton tomorrow, or they were talking about Richie Sexson early on ... those guys are great players, too, but you have a guy who’s already comfortable and knows the personnel inside, so what different direction would you go?