Captain Obvious

“...But Andruw Jones didn’t decline. He collapsed. Andruw Jones got hurt, got fat, and fell off a cliff at the age of 31. The best center fielder to ever grace a ball field was relegated to DH and spot starts in left. It was like watching Jimi Hendrix play Creed covers at a local bar.”

Barry Bonds throws Dave Roberts’ Dodgers hat during Bruce Bochy ceremony

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts spent the final four seasons of his playing career with Bruce Bochy in San Diego and San Francisco.

So, when the Giants honored Bochy after his final game as manager Sunday, Roberts emerged from the visitor’s dugout at Oracle Park. But before embracing Bochy, Roberts ran out to greet his old Giants teammates from the 2007 through 2009 seasons.

After first, they welcomed him with open arms. Then they noticed he still was wearing his Dodgers hat.

With a career Rfield of 175, Bonds’ arm being strong should have been of no surprise…..

A retrospective on the lost 1994 season

Twenty-five years ago today, the baseball season abruptly ended as the players went on strike, protesting a major overreach by ownership which attempted to consolidate too much power in the hands of the commissioner. Ownership really wanted to implement a salary cap, which then-union executive director Donald Fehr correctly said would come with no benefit to the players. It wasn’t just about that, though. Ownership had been deceitful many times in years past, so the union was distrustful and resentment festered.

There were no playoffs, no World Series in 1994. Awards were given out, but it was little solace for some of the players and teams in the midst of outstanding, potentially career- or franchise-altering seasons. Let’s take a look at exactly who those teams and players were.

A commentary on the statistical consequences of the 1994 strike- see if you can spot the major calculating error in this piece.

For Some Players, Not Reaching the Hall Just Brings More Fame

Baseball has kept certain players at arm’s length because of scandals and accusations, but that often has bolstered the players’ popularity.

“It’s the law of unintended consequences,” John Thorn, the official M.L.B. historian, said in an interview, “that if you want to remove or restrict a man’s eligibility for official fame, you may accord him an unofficial fame that’s even greater.”

The moral argument for keeping Barry Bonds out of Cooperstown doesn’t hold up

How can Major League Baseball, which proudly celebrates Robinson’s legacy every season, continue to keep Anson in its most hallowed halls while Bonds remains a pariah? Segregation was far more destructive than performance-enhancing drugs in regards to evaluating talent in baseball. This much is irrefutable. Baseball history would be completely different if players such as Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige had been given the opportunity to suit up against Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

“If you’re going to have an asterisk in baseball at all — and the commissioners have already ruled you should not,” Thorn said, regarding the assertion that Bonds’ records should be recognized as tainted, “then that asterisk might more easily apply to every white player prior to 1947 because those players did not face the best possible competition. From my standpoint, moralism ought not to enter into it. You’ve got some very dubious characters already with bronze plaques. It’s a little late to close the barn door, because those cows have already left. If you’ve got Cap Anson in there, then I think your moral barometer is very difficult to keep high.”