8th? BBTF Central Park Softball Game: July 25

Let’s start planning for this year’s game. First questions:

1. Who is submitting the permit request? (Answer: Hysterical & Useless)

2. What dates should we aim for? (Answer: July 25)

3. Where is the post-game destination?

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-1-2020

Pittsburgh Press, June 1, 1920:

Babe Ruth is nine home runs ahead of his 1919 mark up until May 31.

When the “Big Bambino” crashed out his twelfth homer off Walter Johnson Monday he quadrupled his 1919 output for up to June 7 of last year he had registered but three circuit smashes.

The people of 1920 hadn’t seen anything yet.

Judge: Len Dykstra’s reputation is so bad it’s legally impossible to libel him

Now the suit has been dismissed. And it has been dismissed in entertaining fashion, with the judge agreeing with Darling’s claim that Len Dykstra has such a crappy reputation that it’s virtually impossible to libel him.

Really. From the court’s opinion, which you can read in its entirety here:

Based on the papers submitted on this motion, prior to the publication of the book, Dykstra was infamous for being, among other things, racist, misogynist, and anti-gay, as well as a sexual predator, a drug-abuser, a thief, and an embezzler. Further, Dykstra had a reputation—largely due to his autobiography—of being willing to do anything to benefit himself and his team, including using steroids and blackmailing umpires . . . Considering ...

Roy Steele, the A’s ‘Voice of God,’ dies

Roy Steele, who worked as the A’s public address announcer at the Oakland Coliseum for close to 40 years, died Thursday at his home in Auburn.

“We mourn the loss of “The Voice of God,” Roy Steele, who passed away today at his home,” the A’s said in a statement. “As the PA voice of the A’s for nearly four decades, his booming baritone filled the Coliseum from the Mustache Gang to Billy Ball, the Bash Brothers and Moneyball. Beloved by all, he touched the lives of generations of A’s fans. We send our heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones.”

Nationals’ Max Scherzer signals union’s rejection of MLB’s proposed salary cuts

“ The Major League Baseball Players Association plans to reject the league’s proposed salary cuts — and will suggest a longer regular season — when it makes a counterproposal, as the sport reaches a critical juncture in its efforts to start the 2020 season amid a global pandemic.
In a social media post late Wednesday night, Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the union’s executive subcommittee, wrote that players had “no reason to engage with MLB” over pay cuts, and challenged the league to open its books if it wants to justify that proposal.
“There’s no justification to accept a 2nd pay cut based upon the current information the union has received,” Scherzer wrote. “I’m glad to hear other players ...

Son of Agassi, Graf could be a future ace

Oh, he’s dabbled in the sport associated with his world-famous parents, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. But that usually just results in Jaden smacking the ball as hard as he can, with no regard for the rules or the lines.

His mom and dad can have their 30 combined Grand Slam singles titles. Jaden just wants to hit grand slams.

“I love baseball,” he says. “I love the teammates, surviving and fighting with your brothers. Every game comes with a new set of challenges, and I really love figuring those out.”

The 18-year-old Agassi is following that love and forging his own athletic path. He’s a home-schooled third baseman and right-handed pitcher in the home stretch of his rehab from Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow. And ...

Not in Missouri anymore: Royals move legal home to Delaware

The Kansas City Royals of Delaware.

The Kansas City Royals have moved—not actually, but legally.

The Royals changed their legal home from Missouri to Delaware last fall during the process of the team’s sale from David Glass to a group headed by John Sherman. The switch was mentioned Monday in a filing with the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals by Major League Baseball’s law firm in its defense of a lawsuit by minor leaguers claiming they are not being paid minimum wage.

Kansas City Royals Baseball Corp., a Missouri corporation, had been a defendant in the suit, which was filed in 2014. That company filed a certificate of conversion with the Missouri secretary of state on Nov. 19 to convert to Kansas City Royals Baseball Club Inc., a ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-29-2020

Perth Amboy Evening News, May 29, 1920:

There is a funny little streak of human nature cropping out around the ball parks this year. It’s the stealing of baseballs for souvenirs…Fellows, who, in the ordinary grind of life, are too “New England” honest to take a single thing that doesn’t belong to them, pocket baseballs with enthusiasm at a ball game.

So many balls are being lost this year that managers are actually worrying over the expense of the thing as well as the nuisance of trying to have a supply on hand to keep the game going.

If they had a time machine and watched Brandon Belt’s 16 foul ball, 21-pitch at-bat, all the souvenirs would have melted their brains.

Venezuelan Ballplayers Are Stranded In Dominican Academies

The players who were unable to leave the Dominican are almost all from Venezuela, which has banned almost all flights into the country and now is instituting curfews along its land borders to try to stop the virus in its tracks. Venezuela has had only 1,245 total confirmed cases, a rate of 39 per million people, but in the past 10 days has seen a spike in new cases, twice exceeding 100 in a day.

“The Royals academy in the DR is still housing 12 Venezuelan players that could not be sent home since the Venezuelan government closed their borders very early and are not allowing any flights into the country, except for humanitarian flights,” Fabio Herrera, Kansas City’s manager of international operations, told Deadspin in an email. ...

MLB teams release hundreds of minor league players, per report

With the sport paused indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MLB owners are searching for any possible way to keep their profit margins relatively stable and avoid taking losses this season. We’ve already heard plenty of news about organizations furloughing and laying off front office employees, and now some organizations are apparently resorting to sacrificing the future of the sport in order to cut marginal costs in the present.

As ESPN’s Jeff Passan and plenty of others reported Thursday, major league organizations are making mass minor league cuts, with more than 1,000 players in jeopardy of losing their jobs by the end of the cycle.\

Per The Score’s Robert Murray, the Mariners, Brewers, Reds, Mets, Nationals, Orioles, ...

MLB Network to celebrate Derek Jeter’s career with 64 consecutive hours of Jeter programming

Hasn’t this country suffered enough?

If you ever wanted to relive the career of New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter, now’s your chance. MLB Network is celebrating Jeter’s debut by airing 64 consecutive hours of Jeter programming.

The event will begin Friday at 6 a.m. ET on MLB Network. It will feature 13 games, many of which will include milestones like Jeter’s first hit and Jeter’s final game. In between those games, MLB Network will feature programming focused around Jeter and historic looks at the 1995 Major League Baseball season, as well as World Series highlights from the seasons Jeter’s Yankees won it all. Jeter’s final game will close out the event. It will air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.

While some have wondered whether ...

ESTEBAN LOAIZA’S WRONG TURN

Loaiza pleaded guilty to felony cocaine possession with the intent to distribute and was sentenced to three years in prison. Because he was a resident but not a citizen of the United States, the judge also ruled that upon his release, he would be deported to Mexico. At Loaiza’s sentencing, the prosecutor said the former pitcher claimed he was broke after making $44 million in his baseball career. Loaiza told the court he had four cars and zero properties.

Across the game, ex-teammates, rivals, executives and fans were stunned: How does a man’s path take him from the top of the baseball world one summer evening to a deserted stash house and the wrong side of the law almost 15 years later?

Eugene Freedman, baseball scribe and labor lawyer, on unionizing the minor leagues

So why would this pose an impediment to organizing the minor leagues? “By the time you have an NLRB petition for an election, and then the election takes place, the majority of that legally created bargaining unit would no longer be the same people,” Freedman explained. That’s because the process of unionizing takes time - a long time. “The signing of cards to request an election, challenging individual voters, and then the election, that usually takes six months to a year,” Freedman said. Six months is an entire baseball season - so by the time the NLRB has said the minors can hold an election, players could have been promoted out of the minors, or dropped from affiliated baseball completely. “In that time, there could be 100% ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-28-2020

New York Tribune, May 28, 1920:

Bob Shawkey In Fist Fight With Umpire

Shawkey and Umpire Hildebrand got into an altercation after the end of the fourth inning. Shawkey finally made a pass or two at the arbiter, who retaliated in kind with his mask, opening a nasty scalp wound.

This scrap was the climax of general protest on the part of the New York players over Hildebrand’s rulings on balls pitched to Wallie Schang. The catcher, up with the bases filled and two out, was finally given his base on balls, forcing in Boston’s only run and taking a chance for a shutout from Shawkey. Two of these pitches, the New York players insisted, were perfect strikes.

As Shawkey passed Hildebrand, on his way to the bench after he had fanned Harper for ...

Former Braves catcher Biff Pocoroba dies at 66

Former Atlanta Braves catcher Biff Pocoroba, an All-Star selection in 1978, has died at the age of 66, the team announced Wednesday.

No cause of death has been announced.

Pocoroba joined the Braves in 1975 and played all 10 of his major league seasons with the team, hitting 21 home runs with 172 RBIs and a .257 batting average in his career.

In addition to handling the pitching staff, Pocoroba was successful at nabbing runners on the basepaths—catching 34% of attempted base stealers in both 1976 (16-of-47) and 1977 (52-of-155) and 23% in 1978 (25-of-107).

Inside Roy Halladay’s struggle with pain, addiction

But by 2000, the Blue Jays’ first-round pick looked like a bust. Hitters were teeing off on his fastball, in large part because of the over-the-top delivery he’d learned as a young pitcher, which allowed them to pick up the ball early in his release. His 10.64 ERA during that year remains the highest for any MLB pitcher with at least 50 innings in a season. The next spring, the Blue Jays sent Halladay down to Class A ball—essentially one rung removed from being completely out of professional baseball.

“Personally and mentally, it crushed ‘Doc,’” Chris Carpenter, Halladay’s former Blue Jays teammate, recalls.

Brandy says the team had sent Halladay to counseling to help him cope with failure, and because of his heavy alcohol use. A ...

Griffey a Pirate? Chipper a Tiger? The MLB draft rule that changed history

What if I told you that, if not for a now-defunct MLB draft rule, Ken Griffey Jr. would be wearing a Pirates cap on his Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown?

And that Alex Rodriguez never would have been a Mariner, either?

And that Chipper Jones would’ve gone to Detroit, not Atlanta?...

All of that is due in part to a small yet significant draft rule retired 15 years ago. It stipulated that the No. 1 pick alternate each year between leagues. The NL drafted first in even years; the AL was first in odd years. Take Griffey’s draft, for example. The NL had drafted first in 1986 — Pittsburgh took Jeff King — and the top pick ping-ponged back to the AL in 1987. The lucky losers? The Mariners, despite having a better record than the ...

A’s Tell Minor Leaguers They Won’t Be Paid for the Remainder of the Season

The A’s informed their minor league players on Tuesday that they will not continue to pay them after May 31, according to an email obtained by Sports Illustrated. This means the next paycheck these players receive will come next April.

Under the terms of their contracts, major and minor league players only get paid during the season. The coronavirus pandemic suspended baseball during spring training, a period during which players receive only their daily meal money. (Minor leaguers are poorly compensated at the best of times: Minimum salary ranges from $290 per week for rookie leaguers—$3,480 for a three-month season—to $500 per week for players at Triple A—$10,000 for a five-month season.) On March 31, the 30 teams decided to pay ...

Baseball Reliquary: 2020 Hilda Award Recipient: Jeff Boujoukos

Jeff began by collecting the players he knew and, after finding those, he decided to set a goal of collecting a game-used bat of each Red Sox non-pitcher who had an at-bat for the Sox from 1960 to the present. Why 1960? Because that was the last year for Ted Williams, and 1961 would be the first year for Carl Yastrzemski, his favorite player. “It was an undertaking that I frankly never thought I would complete and as of today amounts to over 525 different players,” Jeff remarked. “With the advent of eBay and networking with a number of fantastic collectors, and with the support of players, I have been able to collect a bat from every player except one, Ken Poulsen.” The bats can be viewed on Jeff’s Boston Game Used Web site.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-27-2020

Toledo News-Bee, May 27, 1920:

Pat Duncan pulled a prize stunt Wednesday. As a result the Reds lost to the Cards 10 to 8.

Cincinnati tied the score in the first of the eighth. The Cards came in in their half, and Stock tripled. Hornsby singled to left and the ball got away from Duncan. Instead of chasing it, Pat must have thought it was the last of the ninth, and dashed for the club house, thinking the game over.

They had to chase after Pat and call him back to finish the game.

I couldn’t believe this actually happened, but it sure seems like it did. From the BBRef play-by-play:STL Rogers Hornsby Hod Eller Single to LF; Stock Scores; Hornsby Scores/Adv on E7/No RBI

Single and a three-base error, presumably. As far as I know, there’s no ...

MLB owners sending latest plan to MLBPA that includes sliding pay scale for players

The plan, three persons with knowledge of the proposal told USA TODAY Sports, does not include the same 50-50 revenue-sharing split the owners agreed on two weeks ago that was never submitted to the union. The three people spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak publicly due to ongoing negotiations.

The proposal instead includes a sliding scale of compensation, with players earning the most taking the biggest cuts and those earning the least receiving most of their guaranteed salaries.

It remains uncertain how much money the players will be yielding in this proposal, based on no fans in attendance for an 82-game season, after already agreeing to be paid on a pro-rated basis, ...

“Is MLB Going to Be Able to Pull This Back?” Health Experts Break Down Baseball’s Plan

One thing baseball has going for it compared to other major team sports—football, basketball, and so on—is that the actual gameplay isn’t particularly conducive to COVID-19 transmission. “An outdoor sport like baseball where [players are] not breathing heavily in each other’s faces seems like a good candidate for a sport that can return,” says Laura Albert, an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin whose research includes the optimization of emergency and public health systems.

While Albert isn’t worried as much about the in-game component of MLB’s plan to return in July, though, she has other concerns. Namely, even if the league prohibits sunflower seeds, tobacco, and ...

How Johnson, Pedro could have starred in same rotation

So it was well known that Langston was a trade candidate, with Seattle yet to enjoy a .500 season. At multiple points, it appeared the Mets would land Langston, only for Argyros to veto the deal, which supposedly would also have sent Jay Buhner to New York, and Howard Johnson, Sid Fernandez and Kevin Tapani to Seattle.

“We were about as close as you can come to making the deal on a number of occasions,” Mets vice president Joe McIlvaine said.

According to Gammons’ reporting, Argyros later killed a three-way trade that would have included Langston going to Toronto, George Bell to Atlanta and Al Leiter to Seattle. There was talk of other trade discussions as well, involving the Dodgers, Red Sox and Royals.

But in the end, it came ...

Ex-Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang suspended one year by KBO for past DUIs

Former Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang was suspended for one year by the Korea Baseball Organization on Monday for multiple drunken driving offenses.

Kang, 33, also was ordered to complete 300 hours of community service during Monday’s hearing, which he did not attend because he is in the United States. Attorney Kim Sun-woong represented Kang, telling the Yonhap News Agency that his client is “extremely sorry to have caused trouble and that he would keep giving back to the community.”

His suspension will begin once he signs with a KBO team. The Kiwoom Heroes, for whom he played during his last season in the league in 2014 when they were the Nexen Heroes, still own his rights. A team official told the Yonhap News Agency that it ...

Batting .400? A sub-1.00 ERA? Here are the MLB records that could be threatened in an 82-game season

Breaking any of these records is going to be difficult, but we’ve actually seen a few players flirt with .400 over a half season in recent years. Seattle Mariners great Ichiro Suzuki hit .429 in 76 games after the All-Star break in 2004. Joey Votto hit .408 in 72 games in the second half in 2016. If you pretended Suzuki and Votto’s final 82 games those years were “full seasons” then both players would have posted batting averages over .400. Votto would have barely made it at .401. Suzuki hit .423 in the back half of 2004.

Those are the only two players to hit over .400 in a half season since 2000. Many others have come close, though. Chris Coghlan, Chipper Jones, Derrek Lee and Joe Mauer have all hit .370 or higher during a half ...

NPB can play ball in Japan from June 19, but minus fans

The Nippon Professional Baseball season, which has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, will begin June 19, the league announced on Monday.

The decision comes after the government’s advisory panel approved the plan to end Japan’s nationwide state of emergency for the five prefectures still under the order, including Tokyo and Hokkaido, earlier in the day.

The 2020 campaign will begin without fans in attendance, though the league will continue to monitor the situation in hopes of allowing spectators into ballparks later in the summer.

Opening day was originally scheduled for March 20 before being postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Noah Syndergaard offers fiery response to landlord’s lawsuit: ‘See you in court pal’

Noah Syndergaard has responded a lawsuit filed by a New York City landlord claiming the Mets pitcher owes him unpaid rent.

The lawsuit, according to the New York Daily News, claims Syndergaard signed a lease in February covering March through November for a total of $225,000, plus a $17,000 broker’s commission. In the lawsuit, Syndergaard is accused of treating “the binding lease like an option.” The lawsuit also claims the apartment remains vacant and the company who owns the building is seeking damages in excess of $250,000.

“So let me get this straight. I fairly, and in good faith offered to pay 2 months rent (over 50K) to a landlord for a place I was never going to step foot in due to a global pandemic that took a severe toll upon ...

Gregg Jefferies complicated Mets’ failure looks different now

If the term did not exist, then Jefferies could pioneer the concept of “wrong place, wrong time.”

Wrong place? In 1988 where would be the worst location to send a 19-year-old who was lacking in self-awareness, who was bathed in self-interest, who was insular yet familial and a bit aw-shucks and was hailed as the next great player at a time when the sport did not love the concept of who is next as much as it was threatened by it?

Sending Gregg Jefferies to the 1988 New York Mets was like sending a choirboy to Sing Sing. The team had mainly been together for five years, played hard, lived harder, fought among each other but fought outsiders with more ferocity. The infighting, if anything, strangely strengthened the internal loyalty….

...

Pensacola Blue Wahoos list stadium for Airbnb rentals

The team, the Double-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, has listed Blue Wahoos Stadium in Pensacola, Florida, on Airbnb. The Blue Wahoos say it is the first time that a baseball stadium is available on the rental service.

For $1,500 per night (plus fees), up to 10 guests are granted access to the stadium, which includes use of the team’s clubhouse, batting cage and field, along with a batting practice setup.

“Guests are welcome to hit from home plate, play catch in the outfield, run the bases, enjoy a picnic in the outfield, or find other creative uses for the field!” the listing reads.

The bedroom next to the clubhouse sleeps 10, and a staff member will stay on site for security and to answer questions.

Angels will furlough non-playing employees on June 1

The Los Angeles Angels have informed non-playing employees of furloughs that will be implemented at the start of June and will affect nearly every department of the organization. Members of the front office, analytics department, scouting staff, and the vast majority of those involved with their minor league system—including coaches, coordinators and player-development support staff—will be impacted.

The Angels say they have not instituted any layoffs and will be paying for employees’ health care through either the end of the year or the end of their contracts, the latter situation applying to Uniform Employee Contracts that were set to expire this October. The team also set up an assistance fund, which is currently at $1 million, in ...