With Wise Advise For All of Us,Players Union Head Donald Fehr met with the Minnesota Twins yesterday and advised them to hold on to their money, warning that the owners could call for a work stoppage at any time during the season because of the ongoing collective bargaining dispute.
youre not going to hear me talking too much about the ongoing collective bargaining dispute because i think writing about millionares arguing about millions of dollars is boring, and i think writing about millionares losing millions of dollars is stupid.
if i wanted to write about stupid millionares arguing about how to lose millions of dollars foolishly and greedilly, i would dedicate myself to covering the day-to-day operations of Tribune Corp., the billion dollar conglomorate who purchased the Chicago Cubs as a novelty and treats them as they're pets, I would have named this Tribune Corp Today.
But I didn't.
I named this Baseball Blog 2002.
Because where else are you going to learn that Rafael Furcal is 23 and not 21?
But I still don't think he'll steal over 30 bases.
easy on the elbow pads says Bob Watson, baseball's new vice president for field operations.
With the number of batters being hit by pitches (or leaning into the ball as Watson seems to be saying) rising 17 per cent from last year, the rule that body armor (such as elbow pads) can only be 10 inches in length is actually going to be enforced this year, the former slugger promised.
This will take a bite out of Barry Bonds' numbers, one would imagine. Bonds, like Mo Vaughn (pictured), and Craig Biggio love to wear the super long elbow/arm pads as protection as they crowd the plate, taking away the outside corner from the pitcher.
And regardless of what the esteemed Max Power has been told, Bonds is an ass.
I sold hot dogs and chablis and peanuts and garlic fries in section 3 at the 'Stick for the entire '97 season. The same section that Bonds would look towards to spy his wife and kids and wave and then strut to the plate and fail to advance the runner, or run out a grounder, or help his team do much.
Sure they won the division that year but I credit their pitching staff and manager, Dusty Baker, who performed some miracles that had them in first place for much of the year.
Here's an example of how unliked this future Hall of Famer is/was:
The Giants led their division for most of that year, yet they only had three sellouts in '97 - Opening Day, one game against the Dodgers, and one Friday night game when they were poised to clinch the title. This tells you that even the fans hated Barry. - Tony Pierce Secret Diary 10/15/97
People will want to say that it is because the 'Stick was a pit that the fans didnt attend the games there. Big lie.
The very same people who followed the 49ers, even after Montana and Young were gone, still filled that stadium for mediocre football, and it was just as windy and cold - on cold nights - for football as it was for baseball.
People hated Candlestick, but they hated Barry more.
And by the way, I worked many many nights at the 'Stick, very few were miserable. Most were pleasant and a little windy in the parking lot, but not nearly as bad as Outsiders would have you believe.
The good people of the Bay Area understood that they weren't living in Palm Springs and would attend a game at that park regardless of the conditions. There were plenty of real fans who were serious Giants fans, they weren't avoiding the stadium, they were avoiding their Queen.
I say Barry won't hit even 60 this year thanks to Bob Watson's announcement yesterday. Barry will be forced to step back a few inches from the plate, and he might even take a curveball in an unprotected part of his arm and be out for a month or two. My prediction: he hits 51 and pouts more than youve ever seen.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez doesnt take shit from anyone. While in Caracas last month he told the Foreign Press Association that what the world needed was a blog about baseball like no other. One that would be both funny and informative, serious, yet subdued.
A bleeding heart liberal, Chavez poo-pooed arguements by dissident military officers and state oil firm employees and said his three-year-old leftist crusade to help Venezuela's poor would not be halted by opposition "riffraff." Venezuela produces 1/4 of all the crude oil that Americans use.
All Stars like Freddy Garcia and Magglio Ordonez both hail from Venezuela, where many minor and big-league players tune up in during the winter, bucking the trend of heading to dreary Mexico.
And even though his people protest and complain, Chavez reminds them that they are far better off than many of their neighbors in Latin America, and the point isnt to make the rich get richer, but indeed to spread the wealth so that baseball and oil dont become the only ways for Venezualians to make it big.
Unless, of course, they can throw a 90 mile-an-hour slider, left handed, as pictured.
Freddy Garcia, is a man, by the way. 6'4" of muscle throwing at Safeco. He led the stacked Mariner's pitching staff with a 3.05 ERA, 4 complete games, and 3 shutouts. Incredible control, striking out 163 batters last year and walking only 69. Definately one of the main reasons why the M's won a MLB record 116 games.
I'd write about Magglio, but he's a White Sox guy and you know us Cub fans try to ignore the South Siders whenever possible.
Moron Rivera: Reading ESPN.com today you get to see why Jim Caple is a Senior Writer, and why Eric Karabell is not.
Jim attacks a new story, that of the mediocre millionaire outfielder more interested in a quick $2,500 than solidying a starting spot with the Bombers, with humor, insight and a little more humor.
Eric chooses to go over the Cubs chances this year like a highschooler riding the bus home thinking about how cool it would be for him to write a few pages about every single MLB team in his Trapper Keeper so he could pull it out at the end of the season and see how close he was.
He rambles, has no pizazz, and chooses to call Sammy Sosa a baby.
But he has a trivia question! So all's good, right?
Uh, no.
What I like about columns like Eric's is it shows all us bloggers that with the right amount of practice and an internship here or there, that you, too, can be writing for the same online site that hosts the likes of Matt Welch, Hunter S. Thompson, and my new favorite columnist Jim Caple.
And no, I'm not down with him just because he busted with a sweet column about the Cubbies last month. But it helps.
i've created a monster. the baseball blog has been around for one full day (publicly) and i have never received more letters of disapproval and fear than when i announced that i was going to be Geraldo's cameraman when he went to Afghanistan to cover the war.
Friends, family, chancellors, clergy, even Canadians wrote in saying that they loved the way things were with my main page and the Bus Blog and they didnt want Baseball Blog 2002 to get in the way of a good thing.
But fear not, good people, just like lots of folks, I hardly ever finish what I start and I doubt that I will be able to live this gangstas paradise of keeping up three creative projects, and have a life, and watch tv, and protect the mean streets of LA from crime and disease and spiritual bankruptcy, I'm just one man.
Plus I have a 20 year old "friend" who wants me to make a site all about her.
Baseball is our national pasttime, it's one of my true loves. But the main inspiration of this Blog was the fact that my good friend ran a marathon the other day and finished it despite her leg ripping to shreds and her chest chaffing off its skin and despite the heat and the smog and that little voice in all of our heads that just says "stop, you can't do this."
She pulled it off and shes a superstar, and i have always thought of myself as a bit of a superstar as well, and since im a competitve fool and since i dont like girls kicking my ass at everything, i figured i could do something equally ridiculous and equally rewarding - let's hope - when it's completed.
But back to the hate mail:
Since most of the pretty girls in Boston have moved to LA, some Masshole wrote in to defend his hometown:
Nice job at racebaiting in your post about the Red Sox hiring Grady Little. A little news for you. Felipe Alou turned down the job when it was offered to him last year. He's also 67 years old and slept on the bench at Montreal. The Red Sox asked for permission to interview Tony Pena but were denied by Houston. The Red Sox franchise was just sold this year and the new owners have had control for less than a month. They replaced the GM and the director of scouting and development. Grady Little was hired because he had been a very popular coach and minor league manager in the Red Sox organization and was supported by many of the players.
Two related points. Bostonians are about as likely to refer to Boston as Beantown as people in Los Angeles would be to refer to LA as 'Tacoville'. And it is about as well accepted. Secondly when Boston is rumored to be racist it's usually by hyper-sensitive guilt ridden liberals or by crybaby athletes of the Terry Glenn, Carl Everett type.
Steve
First off, Steve, you're emailing a man who has no guilt when it comes to saying that Blacks haven't had a fair shake in Beantown or lots of places in the coaching ranks or front office of MLB. I'm hyper-sensitive because I am Black, not because I am a liberal.
But the point is, pallie, it's very hard for me to believe that Baseball Blog 2002 is the first place that you've heard someone refer to your city as Beantown or offer the idea that it may not be the most welcoming place to people of color. But if it is, deal with it.
Just like the people of San Francisco, who have to deal with me calling their city Frisco or SF or San Fran or all the other nicknames that makes them bristle. I'm not sure what silly little nickname your people want the world to call Boston, but the freaks by the bay would just love it if everyone called their little cold village under the clouds "The City."
But that's not going to happen.
Just like how Buckner's not going to get that grounder. Or how Clemens isn't going to go into the Hall with a "B" on his cap. Or how Bucky Dent is going to ever be forgotten.
But keep writing emails to blogs defending the kindly older white gentleman hired by the Bosox and I'm sure you'll convince someone that your city is something bigger than a backdrop for Ally McBeal.
As for calling LA "Tacoville", call it anything you want. I call it 75 degrees with a 3 MPH wind and so many hot chicks that we couldnt care less that we dont have a football team.
P.P.S. I did get a nice letter from a Red Sox fan who isn't in complete denial and obviously reads something other than the Globe:
Re: baseball blog, Red Sox, racism Tony:
Came upon your baseball blog via Matt Welch's blog.
Your bit about the Red Sox overlooking Black manager candidates hits home, especially, as you pointed out, when one considers Boston's (both ballclub and city) problems with race over the years.
One of the things recently fired GM Duquette did to his credit during his maligned tenure was creating a much more racially mixed clubhouse. Certainly the past few years have featured a Red Sox roster far more varied than most of the years I've followed the team.
Guess we'll just have to wait and see if this continues under the new owners.
how much is Derek's Jeter's glove worth? Your million dollar job if you're Ruben Rivera.
Rivera was released from the Yankees yesterday when he stole a bat and glove from teammate Jeter's locker and sold it to a sports memorablia company for $2,500.
The crappy hitting center fielder, and cousin of Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, had a $1 million contract which was bought out for $200,000 when the team released him on Monday.
A lifetime .218 hitter with 58 homers and 185 RBIs in 562 games, Rivera was known for his glove. Able to cover most of the outfield and sure with his hands and a gun for an arm, Rivera was battling for the centerfield spot with Gerald Williams until he decided to gank Jeter's shit.
On a team that has supported the likes of Daryll Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, it's quite an accomplishment to get booted in such a ridiculous way. Adios Reuben, and bravo to the Yankees.
sammy and barry have kissed and made up and im so much happier, aren't you?
did you really want the two greatest home run hitters to hate each other?
of course you did, i did too.
the best part was how quickly Bonds made a point of "bumping into" Sammy at one of the fine restaurants in Arizona and quickly resolving whatever issue made Sammy tell the Sporting News that he can now see why everyone hates Barry's guts.
Sammy is one of the nicest players to ever pick up a wooden bat, he blows kisses to his mother, he builds hospitals, it must have been a geniune Barry Bonds moment to make Sammy say that the nasty things that Bonds' teammates on the Giants say are true.
Bonds can hit all the home runs he wants, he's still an ass. He hit 73 last year and will probably hit 60 this year if he doesnt trip on his dress, but Sammy doesnt need him saying crap like, "I want you to break my record."
Amazing record, yes, but average 60 homers over four years like Sammy did, and do it with a smile, and help your team win a few games, and then we'll talk.
Or do this: Have one person on your team like you. You play a kid's game with a ball. You get to run in the grass. BaseballBlog2002 is going to keep an eye on you, Barry Bonds and we're going to see if you can make one friend on your well-coached, decent team whose new stadium was built around your strengths.
Who really wants to be considered just another glorfied spoiled frat boy punk from a killer baseball family who nobody likes, not even Sammy, regardless of what he said at a Mexican restaurant in Mesa at a table filled with people who weren't looking for any drama?
The Red Sox got dissed by Tom Kelly on Saturday who said thanks, but no thanks.
And instead of hiring Felipe Alou, who did incredibly well for the Expos until they decided to not give a shit, they chose to go with Bench Coach Grady Little, instead of Third Base Coach (and Interim Manager) Mike Cubbage. Quite a blow to Cubbage, one would think.
And quite a task for Little who had been a minor league manager for 16 years who will have a very long year if Nomar and Pedro can't stay healthy.
Or maybe for Little, it will be a short season, if he's unlucky.
Maybe it should be said early here, that I get hyper-sensitive when Black manager candidates are overlooked, especially by cities who are rumored to be racist. I have never been to beantown, and the people that i have met from there seem to be some of the coolest people that i have ever met. but the Red Sox franchise is a steaming damn mess of crap and since that Raider game i only wish evil upon the New England sports community, which is to say i probably wont be rooting for Grady. Even though I loved his work on "Sanford and Son."
nothing personal, bro. Glad you get a shot at the big team after so many years in the minors.
and i do hope that Nomar and Pedro do well. but first i hope they struggle a bit so i can trade for them. then once they are on my fantasy teams, i hope they explode with some unbelieveable numbers.
Baseball Blog 2002 is born, happy birthday. this is going to be one of the hardest things i have ever tried to do. i will try to cover baseball six days a week in a fun and informative manner. baseball is my favorite sport, it's the only one that matters. there is a grace and a beauty to baseball, a finesse, a subtlety that you dont find in any other team sport.
but i wont be writing about any of that.
this isn't a bob costas nbc special.
i dont carry a mickey mantle baseball card in my wallet. i carry a bus pass and a condom.
i hate the yankees, the white sox, most of the american league, and the commisioner.
i think the dh rule was put there so that girls would watch, i think the players should boycott the allstar game, i think they should tear down the lights from Wrigley Field.
it's my opinion that Pete Rose should not only be put into the Hall of Fame, but they should name the town after him as well.
and finally, i think that if the Tribune Corp isn't interested in winning the World Series with the Cubs, they should sell the team to someone who gives a damn. alou and mcgriff are fine, but ... well, we'll have plenty of time to talk about the Cubs.
Players Union Head Donald Fehr met with the Minnesota Twins yesterday and advised them 
easy on the elbow pads says Bob Watson, baseball's new vice president for field operations. 
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez doesnt take shit from anyone. While in Caracas last month he told the Foreign Press Association that what the world needed was a blog about baseball like no other. One that would be both funny and informative, serious, yet subdued.
Moron Rivera: Reading ESPN.com today you get to see why 
i've created a monster. the baseball blog has been around for one full day (publicly) and i have never received more letters of disapproval and fear than when i announced that i was going to be Geraldo's cameraman when he went to Afghanistan to cover the war.
how much is Derek's Jeter's glove worth? Your million dollar job if you're Ruben Rivera.
sammy and barry have 
The Red Sox 
Baseball Blog 2002 is born, happy birthday. this is going to be one of the hardest things i have ever tried to do. i will try to cover baseball six days a week in a fun and informative manner. baseball is my favorite sport, it's the only one that matters. there is a grace and a beauty to baseball, a finesse, a subtlety that you dont find in any other team sport. 