The Wonderful World of FHFS

No-hitters come in all kinds of ways, shapes, forms

2005-11-21T23:06:00.000-06:00

By Tim Kurkjian
ESPN The Magazine

No-hitters make no sense. Bud Smith has thrown a no-hitter, and Roger Clemens hasn't? Tommy Greene did, Steve Carlton didn't. Charlie Lea did, Greg Maddux hasn't. Mike Warren has more no-hitters than the Padres. Juan Nieves has more than the Mets. And six Astros pitchers -- in one game -- have taken part in as many no-hitters as Tom Seaver and Jim Palmer.

It's really hard to throw a no-hitter, which makes Johnny Vander Meer's back-to-back no-hitters in 1938 so remarkable. In the 12 seasons before his double dip, there were a total of two no-hitters in the National League. From 1916 through 1943, the only year in which two no-hitters were thrown in the NL was the year of Vander Meer's double no-hitter.

But if it's so hard, how could the White Sox's Joe Cowley throw one? His came in 1986. He walked seven in a 7-1 win over the Angels.

"He was so bad,'' Doug Rader, then a White Sox coach, said half-jokingly years later, "I didn't even shake his hand after the game.''

How could Bobo Holloman throw one? He was a bad relief pitcher on his way to the minor leagues, but before being sent down, the St. Louis Browns gave him his first major-league start on May 6, 1953. He threw a no-hitter. They couldn't send him to the minor leagues after that, so he stuck around, won two more games in his career, never threw another complete game and finished with an ERA of 5.21. The 1953 season was his only one in the major leagues.

If it's so hard to throw a no-hitter, how could it happen on consecutive days? On Sept. 17, 1968, the Giants' Gaylord Perry no-hit the Cardinals. On Sept. 18, the Cardinals' Ray Washburn no-hit the Giants. In 1990, there were seven no-hitters.

A no-hitter happens when great stuff intersects with good luck. Or, good stuff with great luck. And you only have to be great for a few hours, which explains how some truly ordinary pitchers have accomplished one extraordinary feat.

Great defense also helps. In Nieves' no-hitter in 1987, the final out came on a diving catch by center fielder Robin Yount on a drive by Eddie Murray. A forgiving official scorer also helps. Three pitchers in history recorded no-hitters when the official scorer changed a hit to an error after the game: Jeff Tesreau in 1912, Ernie Koob in 1917 and Virgil Trucks in 1952.

There have been 211 nine-inning no-hitters in history, seven by the incomparable Nolan Ryan, who threw his last one at age 44. Bob Feller pitched a no-hitter on Opening Day of the 1940 season, providing the answer to this conundrum: How it is possible for every hitter on a team to finish a game with the exact batting average as when they started?

With all the great pitchers in Mets history, it's hard to believe that no Met has thrown a no-hitter. Pat Zachry came close, and it's just as well he didn't get it. The story, originally told to Marty Noble of Newsday, goes this way. In 1982, Zachry had a no-hitter going with two outs in the eighth inning. He then gave up a hit to Bob Molinaro.

After the game, Zachry told Noble that he thought the eighth inning was actually the ninth inning. So, if he had gotten the last out of the eighth without giving up a hit, he would have leaped in the air, and perhaps into the arms of his catcher -- one inning early. How embarrassing would that have been?

In his book, "The Man Who Stole First Base," Craig Wright details a strange no-hitter. In 1923, Boston's Howard Ehmke threw a no-hitter against the Philadelphia A's. With two outs in the sixth, A's pitcher Slim Harris, an .060 hitter, doubled to left-center, but he missed first base. The Red Sox appealed, and Harris was called out at first -- nullifying the hit.

In Ehmke's next start, four days later at Yankee Stadium, he gave up a hit to the leadoff man, Whitey Witt, in the first inning. It was a highly questionable call, and everyone in the ballpark just assumed it was an error. But in 1923, the scoreboard gave only the run total, and there was no public address system.

When Ehmke got the final out in the ninth inning, the 15,000 fans cheered wildly, thinking that Ehmke had become the first man in history to throw back-to-back no-hitters. As it turned out, it was only a one-hitter.

Fifteen years later, Vander Meer did it for real. And that time, everyone knew it.

Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and a regular contributor to Baseball Tonight. E-mail tim.kurkjian@espnmag.com.

Baseblogs

2005-11-09T15:15:00.000-06:00

Obsessive fans track the national pastime on the Web
By. Josh Levin, Assistant Editor, Slate Magazine

Baseball and blogging are a perfect match. Each day of the 162-game season brings a new torrent of information—another round of at-bats, boneheaded managerial moves, minor-league games, and scoreboard dot races—that requires instant analysis. There's also a huge body of baseball knowledge on the Web, ready to be mined for cross-referential links: local papers, statistical encyclopedias, analytical clearinghouses, other baseblogs. For fans living far from their favorite team, and without the time or inclination to order MLB Extra Innings, a dedicated blogger is local color—a friend who can't help but complain about the local TV announcers and a beat writer who doesn't lard his copy with boring player quotes.

On the most popular sites in the baseblogosphere, game recaps and scapegoat-bashing transcend team affiliation. In the hands of the best basebloggers, the parochial becomes universal. Fans of the national pastime are united by our compulsive love of miscellany. You don't have to gnash your teeth over the results of Miguel Asencio's MRI to hit refresh on the obsessive Kansas City Royals blog written by hometown fans Rany Jazayerli and ESPN.com baseball columnist Rob Neyer. As true fans, we have our own Miguel Asencios, and we understand.

Like the political blogosphere, the same sites—Redbird Nation (St. Louis Cardinals), the Big Red C (Chicago Cubs), and U.S.S. Mariner (Seattle Mariners)—show up in blog roll after blog roll. But no matter which team you root for, even if it's the Milwaukee Brewers or the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, there's a beat blogger working hard to keep you up to date. If you're looking for a blog that covers your favorite team, BaseballBlogs.org is the best place to start.

Minnesota Twins fans, for instance, can follow every hangnail and torn meniscus on no fewer than five Twins-centric Weblogs. In the third inning of the Minnesota Twins' second game, local-boy-turned-super-prospect Joe Mauer tore cartilage in his right knee while chasing after a foul ball. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune's beat writer wrote with a kind of composed distress—"What Mauer and the Twins must be concerned about is the prospect of a 20-year-old catcher suffering an injury that could lead to chronic arthritis"—but the paper's in-house fan blogger, Twins Geek, took the news a little harder. "What does this mean for a catcher who relies so much on his knees??!!?? What about a 20-year-old??!!?? Does it mean we'll have to start thinking about moving him to a new position?!? WILL THINGS EVER BE THE SAME????"

Despite Twins Geek's tone, the Twins blogs aren't the screeds of brainless rooters who reflexively beat the drum for the home team. As part of a nearly 2,000-word post on last Tuesday's 15-inning game, Seth Stohs pondered whether the stickiness of the Metrodome's new turf contributed to the recent spate of Twins injuries. On his Twins page, Will Young pored through nine years of transactions to see if General Manager Terry Ryan deserves his reputation as a master executive. And Aaron Gleeman keeps fans up-to-date on the not-so-high-profile negotiations to get Victory Sports, the Twins' version of the YES Network, onto local cable systems.

The baseblogosphere isn't just a way for fans to follow specific teams, though. There are plenty of sites for baseball generalists, especially those with a post-Moneyball hankering for the Bill James-ian side of the game. (Check out Bronx Banter for an interview with the legend himself.) In the week since Opening Day, the site Sabernomics has featured posts on whether putting in a defensive replacement is a good strategic gambit and a new study that shows that labor strikes haven't affected attendance. Mike's Baseball Rants, one of the 10 excellent blogs hosted by the domain all-baseball.com, includes a review of what the leading minds in baseball analysis think about competitive balance and a list of the best Japanese players who've yet to play in the major leagues.

Some sites come in especially handy when you're trying to win an argument with a baseball nerd. On his business of baseball page, Doug Pappas, a lawyer who has chaired SABR's business of baseball committee for 10 years, offers salary data going back to 1977 and ticket prices to 1950. At On Deck Baseball Prospects, the obsessive Scott Rex ranks the top 500 prospects in minor league baseball. The Transaction Guy stays on top of every roster move, and the Baseball News Blog offers links to the top stories of the day.

Then there are the oddball outliers. The Score Bard pens limericks about wayward outfielders: "Such talent, the young Milton Bradley!/ It seems he can sometimes play Vladly./ But he's brittle and lame/ And his last childish game/ Got him fired for acting so badly." The Baseball Widow pines for a wayward husband: "I love my husband. My husband loves baseball. Welcome to our coping mechanism." And perhaps the oddest of them all, Management by Baseball, dispenses a daily business lesson learned from observation of the national pastime: "If you've managed in enough groups, sooner or later you're bound to run into what I call a Mike Moore situation."

If nothing else, baseblogs increase your rate of baseball digestion. Even though the season has just begun, I've already filled up on a couple lifetimes' worth of trivia. Over the past couple of days, I've learned that Jeff Weaver's little brother Jered has a 1.13 ERA for Long Beach State, that Brewers reliever Jeff Bennett doesn't curve the bill of his cap "so he can check runners on base," and that the 5-1 Detroit Tigers were 3-25 at one point last year. Once Detroit's inevitable slide begins, the team's fans can take comfort in the fact that they can still turn to Tiger Blog for game-by-game updates—on the progress of the World Series champion 1984 Tigers.

Josh Levin is a Slate assistant editor.

Jones born to play the game

2005-10-26T22:05:00.000-05:00

By Tim Kurkjian
ESPN The Magazine

The people in DeLand, Fla., knew Chipper Jones was going to be a big leaguer when he was about 12 years old. He had enormous ability, but he also had that look. So there was upheaval in a town that expected state championships when Chipper's father took him out of public school and sent him 90 miles up the road to a private school because his father thought teachers were giving his son preferential treatment. "I still have some people in town,'' Larry Jones said many years later, "who won't speak to me.''

The first time Braves scouting director Paul Snyder saw Jones play in high school, he was dazzled. Others in the organization wanted to draft Todd Van Poppel, but Snyder won, taking Jones with the No. 1 pick in 1990. The contract negotiations took about 30 minutes. The Braves made an offer. Chipper, who didn't have an agent, agreed to it. Larry Jones took his son upstairs in their house and told him "you can get a lot more than this.'' Chipper said, "I don't care. I want to play right away.'' Chipper said he knew he didn't need to get rich with the first contract -- the really big money was to come later.

The first time Braves manager Bobby Cox saw Jones, he knew he was going to be a star. "That face,'' Cox said. "He has that face.'' It is the face of a baseball lifer, a guy who was born to play the game. A baseball lifer doesn't necessarily mean playing until you're 45, then managing or coaching the rest of your life. It also means playing the game properly, doing what you're told, doing what's best for the team, adjusting constantly and, of course, winning.

Jones was born to play shortstop, but an injury to his left knee cost him the 1994 season, and his career as a shortstop. The next year when he came to spring training, Cox put him at third base and in the third spot in the order. Jones' first year was terrific. He finished second to Hideo Nomo for the National League Rookie of the Year. He had a marvelous postseason, which ended in the first, and only, World Series title for the Braves during their amazing run. After the season, Jones received an autographed baseball from his baseball hero, Cal Ripken, a baseball lifer whose early career was similar to Jones'. Ripken congratulated Jones on his success his first year, then wrote, "now comes the hard part.''

Jones has made it look easy on his way to the Hall of Fame. Cooperstown is short on third basemen (there are 10, fewest of any position) and switch-hitters; Jones excels at both. Jones' .304 lifetime average is the second highest in history among switch-hitters, trailing only Frankie Frisch (.316). Jones is the only switch-hitter with a .300 average and 300 homers. The only Hall of Fame third baseman with a .300 average and 300 homers is George Brett. He is one of 21 players of all time (minimum of 5,000 plate appearances) with a .300 average, .400 on-base percentage and a .500 slugging percentage -- 13 of those are in the Hall (Joe Jackson is No. 14) and seven are active.

But with Jones, it's so much more than the numbers. It's not being overwhelmed when the manager puts you in the No. 3 hole as a rookie on a team that had won three division titles in a row. It's having a Hall of Fame career going as a third baseman, then moving to left field for a year, without complaint, for the good of the team -- then moving back to third base for the good of the team. It's about being one of guys, a team spokesman through good times and bad.

And through it all, the expression on Chipper Jones' face has never changed. It is a look of complete calm, of utter confidence, the look of a player who always knows where he's going and how he's going to get there. Jones is already there, and at age 33, he is far from done accomplishing things. Leading the Dodgers' through the thick of a divisional race Jones is positioning himself for a MVP race and no doubt, there are more 100-RBI/100-run seasons to be had; there is a run at 500 home runs and more division titles to be won. And when Jones is inducted into the Hall of Fame in, say, 2016, the people in DeLand, Fla., will say that they saw it coming 30 years earlier.

Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.

San Francisco Midseason Report

2005-10-10T19:42:00.000-05:00

By. Matthew Minton, FHFS Contributing Writer

In a move that shouldn't surprise anyone, the theme to the first half of the San Francisco Giants season has been turnover. After all, this is the same club that dealt it's three best players (Jason Schmidt, Zach Day and Alex Rodriguez, among others) after a season that saw them fall a game short of reaching the World Series.

After falling as many as ten games under .500 early in the season, a flury of midseason trades has brought some optimism back to the former stomping grounds of Barry Bonds. Three trades have helped to bring that about.

The first came with the Florida Marlins, seeing the shipping of incumbent #5 starting pitcher Josh Towers and two prospects, including Brad Hennessey, for outfielder Jay Gibbons and starting pitcher John Lackey. While Lackey isn't expected to contribute fully until next season, Gibbons has made a big difference in the depth of the team.

"While Jeromy [Burnitz] was doing a nice job patrolling left field, it was clear he was a shadow of his former self," Giants VP and General Manager Matt Minton said. "Jay is a younger version with good power potential, and a guy we can rely on to put the bat on the ball fairly often, something this team has missed in the past.

The Giants have been open to adding another outfielder in an attempt to add more power to the lineup, but are more than happy to have Gibbons on board.

"Jay knows his role, certainly," Minton added. "He's not going to hit 40 HR and drive in 135 runs or anything, but on a team that really needed help anywhere, he's a valuable player."

The second trade was the true blockbuster that appears to have changed the fortunes of the Giants season around. Robert Person, having grossly underperformed and having been grossly overpaid, and also having been acquired earlier this season in a big deal that saw Greg Miller and Charles Johnson leave town, was shipped along with Fernando Lunar, Justin Morneau, Erik Bedard, Jason Arnold and John-Ford Griffin to the St. Louis Cardinals for starters Eric Milton and Chan Ho Park, prospect Conor Jackson and catcher Eddie Taubensee.

Milton (8-4, 4.98 ERA, 1.29 WHIP) and Park (5-7, 3.32 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) immediately bring a stability that was lacking earlier in the season.

"We were really excited to add these two guys," Minton claimed. "We feel both are middle of the rotation starters making good money for what they're capable of doing. With Kevin (Millwood), Randy (Wolf) and Mark (Buerhle) with them, and all but Kevin signed long-term, we feel we're in fantastic shape now, with pitching able to carry us."

"And, obviously, we hope to sit down with Kevin and hammer something out soon."

The last trade saw a daring move with the division rival Arizona Diamondbacks that brought youngsters Michael Restovich, a catcher, and Jason Romano, a utility man, to San Francisco for infielder Antonio Perez and three prospects, including outfielder Brad Nelson and starter Kirk Saarloos.

The key to that deal is the upgrade at catcher, according to Minton.

"Restovich is a guy who we think is our future at catcher, and we're really excited to have him for the long haul," he said. "With Taubensee, Restovich and Lawrence back there, we believe we have enough depth there to be competitive. In fact, if we do continue to improve, it will be because of our depth everywhere."

As evidence, Minton pointed to the fact that his bench, against righties, features proven bats such as Aaron Rowand, Dee Brown, Eddie Taubensee and D'Angelo Jimenez, as well as Romano and Joe Lawrence. Additionally, he claimed Park as one of the best fifth starters in baseball, and claimed the bullpen, featuring a back end of Kyle Farnsworth, Brad Lidge, Julio Mateo and BJ Ryan, as one of the best in the league.

"We've been written off because of a poor start and a team that lacks stars, but I'm not giving up on us just yet, and if I had a message for other GM's, I'd suggest doing the same," he closed.

Best In Show

2005-07-10T17:25:00.000-05:00

Mays over Mantle in center

By Rob Neyer
ESPN Insider

Here is my all-time lineup: the greatest players at each position, presented in the form of a batting order (though with these guys, it doesn't matter much where they reside in the lineup; they're going to score plenty of runs no matter what).

-------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Joe Morgan, 2B
I'm not sure if people realize just how great Joe Morgan was. He won the National League's MVP Award in both 1975 and '76, deservedly so. But he could also have won the award in 1972, 1973, and 1974. And as you might guess, the list of players who were the best (or even arguably the best) in their league for five consecutive years is awfully short.

2. Honus Wagner, SS
Some will say that Wagner, who played a century ago and was built like a blockhouse with bowlegs, doesn't belong on any team with "modern" players. Perhaps. But Cal Ripken wasn't anybody's idea of a prototypical shortstop, and he did all right. How great was Wagner? Even in his late 30s, he ranked as one of the very best players in the game. And before you tell me this "proves" that baseball during the Dead Ball Era couldn't have been all that good, remember how much credit Barry Bonds has gotten for doing exactly what Wagner did -- 90 years earlier.

3. Ted Williams, LF
Williams. Musial. Aaron. Choosing between them is neither easy nor fun. And no, Williams wasn't a particularly good baserunner or fielder (mostly because after a few years he stopped caring much about either skill). But the most important statistic in baseball is on-base percentage, and if not for World War II, the Korean War, and a couple of injuries, Williams would probably have led the American League in that category for 19 straight seasons (1940-1958). In 1960, the season in which he turned 42, Williams finished with a .454 OBP and a .645 slugging percentage, both of which would have been No. 1 in the league if he'd played enough to qualify (he fell roughly 20 games short).

4. Babe Ruth, RF
Ruth's claim on the title, Greatest Player Ever, is predicated, in part, on his three-season run as one of the game's top pitchers. That doesn't get him any extra points here, of course (if we need a reliever, we'll sign Mariano Rivera, or perhaps Lefty Grove). Ruth does get extra points, though, for fundamentally changing his chosen profession. Oh, he wasn't the sole reason for baseball's reinvention in the 1920s. But in 1920, Ruth outhomered every other American League team (and all but one National League team), and it's hard to believe that nobody was paying attention. With the exception of 1925, when he was sick, Ruth was the best hitter in the majors every season from 1918 through 1931.

5. Willie Mays, CF
Mays or Mantle. Mantle or Mays. One's preference is largely a matter of taste, as compelling statistical and anecdotal arguments can be made for both. I wind up with Mays because he essentially has no flaws, while Mantle's reliability/availability is always a question mark, even if it's buried far back in your mind. Also, with Williams and Ruth playing the corner outfield positions, it's probably a good idea to have Say Hey in the middle.

6. Lou Gehrig, 1B
Gehrig's life has been romanticized, of course, and he certainly wasn't the perfect player; he didn't run all that well, and wasn't a great fielder. That said, there are two or three excellent seasons separating Gehrig from his nearest competition -- Jimmie Foxx, Jeff Bagwell, Eddie Murray -- and that's with Gehrig's losing three or four (or more) seasons to the disease that would take both his life and his name.

7. Mike Schmidt, 3B
Schmidt, still underrated in some quarters, ranks just behind Joe Morgan among the greatest players of the 1970s. Here are the only three things you need to know about Mike Schmidt: He led the National League in home runs seven times; he led his league in walks four times; and he won (and for the most part earned) 10 Gold Gloves. The only thing Schmidt couldn't (or perhaps wouldn't) do was hit for average -- he topped .300 only once in 18 season -- but if his batting average didn't bother his on-base or slugging percentages, why should it bother us?

8. Josh Gibson, C
Roy Campanella was one of the five or six greatest catchers in major league history. And yet Branch Rickey, as fine a judge of baseball talent as ever lived, once said, "You know what I feel about Campanella" -- who starred for Rickey's Dodgers -- "but whatever Roy can do, Josh could do better." We don't have reliable stats for Gibson, whose career ended before Jackie Robinson broke the color line. We do have the eyewitness accounts, though. In 1939, Walter Johnson saw Gibson play, and afterward remarked, "There is a catcher that any big league club would like to buy for $200,000. I've heard of him before. His name is Gibson. He can do everything. He hits that ball a mile. And he catches so easy he might as well be in a rocking chair. Throws like a rifle. Bill Dickey isn't as good a catcher. Too bad this Gibson is a colored fellow."

9. Roger Clemens, Pitcher

Perhaps we've not been kind enough to the "modern" player -- with his personal trainer, his year-round conditioning program, and his better living through chemistry. So let Roger Clemens carry the banner of the 21st century superstars. A few years ago, we could argue about who was greater, Clemens or Maddux, but this season Clemens has settled that debate. Now in his 22nd season, Clemens looks like he just might pitch forever. And unlike the great moundsmen of yesteryear, Clemens has rarely been able to coast; in his era, even the shortstops and second basemen are capable of hitting the ball over the fence, which makes for a different style of pitching than that employed by Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. There are other pitchers you might want for a single game -- Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson come to mind -- but for the ultimate combination of dominance and durability, you just can't go wrong with the Rocket.

***********

I don't suppose it's the most productive lineup ever, but the Big Red Machine in 1975 and '76 might have been the most balanced lineup -- and they weren't exactly light on production, either. With four Hall of Fame-caliber players (including Pete Rose) and three others (Dave Concepcion, Ken Griffey, George Foster) who enjoyed long and productive careers, this lineup essentially had no weakness except center fielder Cesar Geronimo … and Geronimo was a four-time Gold Glove winner. Here's the most common lineup used in those two seasons:

1. Pete Rose (3B)
2. Ken Griffey (RF)
3. Joe Morgan (2B)
4. Johnny Bench (C)
5. Tony Perez (1B)
6. George Foster (LF)
7. Dave Concepcion (SS)
8. Cesar Geronimo (CF)

Including postseason play, this exact lineup was used 87 times from its inception through the 1976 World Series. In those 87 games, the Reds went 69-18.

Senior writer Rob Neyer writes for Insider two or three times per week during the season. To offer criticism, praise or anything in-between, send an e-mail to rob.neyer@dig.com.

D.C. Reformation

2005-03-31T01:01:00.000-06:00

National Pasttime Belongs in Nation's Capital
by Tim Kurkjian

Frank Howard, one of the greatest Washington Senators of all time, was the subject of a story recently in The Washington Post. He was discussing the good old days, including 1969 when Ted Williams managed the team. The Senators won 86 games to break a streak of 15 consecutive losing seasons and, Howard added emphatically, drew 900,000 fans.

Nine hundred thousand fans ... and he was thrilled. In 1969-70, the Senators outdrew eight franchises, but Washington's attendance those two years combined was roughly the same as what the 2005 defending world champion Devil Rays will draw by June. That, as much as anything else, shows how dramatically baseball has changed since 1971, the final year of the Washington Senators. The 1950s and 1960s was not the golden age of baseball; now is the golden age of baseball, at least when it comes to attendance, fan interest, marketing, etc. This time, the Washington Nationals finally have a real chance to flourish.

"This has a chance to be special and unique," Nationals president Tony Tavares said. Ryan Carver, the Nats' general manager, said, "This place has a chance to be a gold mine."

Only nine cities have played host to more major league games than Washington, D.C., even going without baseball for 33 years. Now, it is back. The game returns to a widely changed region, one that is significantly larger than the one it left. Washington is the sixth largest metropolitan area in America; it was the largest without a major league baseball team. It has the most highly educated work force in America; its average household income is the second largest in the nation. Virginia, from which the Washington Redskins and Wizards draw their largest percentage of fans, is the second fastest growing state in the country, and nearby Loudoun County, Va., is the fastest growing county in the United States. A subway system, one of the best in the country, delivers fans to the Nationals' home, RFK Stadium. If the Senators had had a subway in 1971, they might not have left.

Everything is different now in Washington, and in baseball. This is the era of marketing in MLB, one reason that the major leagues and minor leagues set attendance records last year. There was no marketing in 1971, at least in Washington. You couldn't buy a decent Senators cap anywhere; today, even without a full marketing staff given the lateness of their move from Montreal, the Nationals are near the top in the major leagues in merchandise sales. In 1971, the closest thing to marketing for the Senators was a sign on RFK that said "Game Tonight."

The Senators didn't even offer season tickets to their fans until 1957; then-owner Calvin Griffith didn't believe in them. The Nationals have over 20,000 season tickets, which works out to nearly 1.8 million fans. In the 71-year history of baseball in Washington, a history that is richer than most people think, a history that includes the greatest pitcher of all time, Walter Johnson, no Senators or Nationals team ever drew 1.8 million fans in one season.

Washington, despite having a large African-American population, was one of the last franchises to sign an African-American player; now, the Nationals have a diverse roster with Frank Robinson as their manager. Washington is one of the most diverse and cultural cities in America, and the Nationals have players from eight countries, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.

All that's the same in Washington is RFK Stadium, which will serve as the Nationals' home for three years. When it opened for baseball in 1962, it was a state-of-the-art park. With its wavy roof, it looked like a space ship. It is antiquated now, of course, but it holds 50,000 people, its measurements are fair to pitchers and hitters and, with recent renovations and improvements, its clubhouses and dugouts will be on par with many in baseball. The longest any ballpark has gone between playing host to a major league game is 12 years. The longest span between regularly scheduled games is five years. RFK's gap will be 34 years.

In April 2008, RFK is scheduled to be replaced by a 41,500-seat ballpark in Southeast Washington, on the Anacostia River. The new park is expected to overlook downtown Washington, including the Capitol and Washington Monument. The plan is to revitalize that Southeast area with shops and restaurants – and with the ballpark as the center of activity.

So much as changed in Washington, and in baseball, since the Senators last played. In 1971, Richard Nixon was the president; there were 24 major league teams, not the 30 we have today; there was no DH; Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente were active; and only three current Nationals players were alive. Back then, it was said, erroneously in many cases, Washington was first in war, first in peace and last in the American League. There is no chance Washington might finish last in the National League East this year, though a World Championship may be out of grasp. But it won't be long before the city holds such a title. If the team flounders, ownership will be expected to bring in lots of money and more change.

And all of that change in Washington, and in baseball, is for the better.

Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and a regular contributor to Baseball Tonight.

Can the Royals Afford Not to Sign Weaver?

2005-03-10T14:49:00.001-06:00

Kansas City Star, MO - Jered Weaver has not thrown a competitive pitch since June. No balls, no strikes, no scouts, no new reports.

He’s the same guy the Royals chose with the number one overall pick in the 2004 FHFS Amateur Draft. He has the same agent he did then, and that agent, Scott Boras, has the same expectations he did then.

Not only have the Royals not signed Weaver, they have truncated negotiations and are prepared to let Weaver re-enter the draft and go to another team in the ‘05 dispersal. Instead they would take a “sandwich” pick, between the first and second rounds.

A baloney sandwich, according to Boras.

“What I’m trying to figure out is why they would pick this player,” Boras said. “They’ve been irregular in their maneuverings.”

The Royals respond that they’ve offered Weaver a $6.0 million bonus, which would make him the highest-paid player in the '03 and '04 drafts. Weaver would get a few dimes more than Jeff Niemann and Philip Humber, the Rice pitchers who signed with Philadelphia and Chicago respectively, as the second and third picks.

But no one really pretends Weaver wasn’t the best player in the draft and, despite concerns with signability, attitude and other cheaper alternatives, he managed to avoid drifting beyond the top selection.

The truth is, whenever you negotiate with Mr. Boras, he establishes a theorem and demands that the talks be conducted on the basis of that theorem. This time, the theorem was that Weaver is as lock-sure a prospect as Mark Prior was.

Prior got nearly a $6.5 million bonus from the Diamondbacks- he also was the No. 1 pick in his draft - and Boras based everything on that, eventually dropping his request to $6 million because Weaver is eager to play pro ball, having gotten a taste of The Show the past two summers in extended visits to his brother in Philadelphia.

But if you know Borasis the agent, and if you’ve dealt with him before (see: Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran, J.D. Drew, etc.), you should understand the game. And perhaps you shouldn’t draft Jered Weaver unless, after all the gymnastics, you know you’re going to sign him.

“I’ve represented 55 first-round picks,” Boras said. “I don’t want the Royals to lose their first-round pick. I like the Royals. And I’m still open to any sort of negotiation. There’s all kinds of things we can do with this contract.

“But I also think there are two categories of first-round picks. Guys like Prior and Mark Teixiera and J.D. Drew are in a different category, because they have the ability to go to the major leagues quickly. Jered was the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy winner in college baseball last year.”

Heisman winners. ... Eric Crouch, Gino Torretta, Danny Wuerffel, Chris Weinke, Rashaan Salaam?! ... OK, bad example.

But Weaver was 15-1 with 213 strikeouts in 144 innings and a 1.62 ERA at Long Beach State. And the list of Baseball America Players of the Year is pretty strong - Prior, Teixiera, Drew, Todd Helton, Jason Varitek, Phil Nevin, John Olerud and Kris Benson, among others. And a quick way to go broke is to bet against Boras’ scouting instincts. In short, the Weaver show is indeed cool and eminently watchable.

The true divergence between Boras and the Royals is over the bonus. If Weaver signs a major-league contract and gets promoted to the Royals, he loses part of that bonus, which is spread over the life of the term. The Royals counter that Weaver’s arbitration “clock” would also start earlier, and he would be in line for bigger bucks at a younger age. Boras says that’s a separate issue and Weaver should get the full bonus anyway. The Royals say Weaver doesn’t have the right to double-dip.

Brett Tomko, the team ace, managed a 3-30 record, while earning nearly $7 million, while three other starters lost 22 or more games. Last time I checked, those were not very good numbers. Unless Garret Nakagawa is confident the Royals can score nine or ten runs every time they pitch, I think the Royals are seriously overestimating the “depth” of their pitching staff, which allows them the arrogance to demand 48-hour signing ultimatums to a young pitcher who in a year or two could easily be their best starter.

Even without Weaver, however, they Royals are touting three of the best young arms in all of the minors: Jeremy Bonderman, John Danks, and Chad Billingsley. Moreover, the team has brought in veterans John Smoltz, Brian Bohanon, and Brad Radke to take pressure of the kids. The more pressing issue is the 4 through 5 starters, unless you believe Jose Mercedes, Kris Wilson, or Justin Thompson will be effective in any of their starts.

One suspects the conversation has not ended. There is plenty of time between now and May 28, plenty of room between $5 million and $6 million, no reason for Jered Weaver to wear a sandwich board, at least not yet.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status of Drew Remains Uncertain: With negotiations having collapsed last week between the Royals and Weaver, where does that leave the Phillies with shortstop Stephen Drew, the only other remaining unsigned first-rounder from the 2004 draft?

Team officials were non-committal on all fronts Friday.

However, reports out of Clearwater is that the Phillies have made signing Drew the club's top priority. Boras also represents J.D. Drew, Stephen's older brother, who also spurned Philadelphia after being the second overall pick in 1997 and re-entered the draft in 1998, when he was picked by St. Louis.

Hank Blalock’s about to become the toast of the town...Or at least the toast of the Texas Rangers organization.

2005-01-30T23:53:00.000-06:00

by Kevin Agee, FHFS Contributing Writer

Although the 2005 Rangers will carry more than a few veterans with youth on their side – Andruw Jones, J.D. Drew, Bruce Chen, and Carlos Guillen to name a few – none of them are entering the new season with the expectations that have been placed on their younger teammate. The departures of stars such as Alex Rodriguez and Rick Ankiel have made the 24-year-old Blalock the centerpiece of the team and the face of the franchise.

It’s easy to see why. Fans have a tendency to fall for homegrown talents, and Blalock’s no exception. After completing a stellar baseball career at Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego, Calif. (the same school that also produced top pitching prospect Cole Hamels), the Rangers drafted Blalock with their third round selection in the 1999 draft. He zoomed through the minor leagues and, in three seasons, was brought up to the majors at age 21. It was through hard work and a desire to learn (and some talent, too) that he was able to out-perform pitchers who were significantly older than he was at Double- and Triple-A. It was his willingness to do those two things that caught general manager Kevin Agee’s eye.

"Obviously, we liked Hank from the get-go because he displayed an unusual knowledge of the strike zone for a hitter his age, and he understood the importance of controlling the at-bat," Agee said. "But what impressed us more than the talent was his willingness to adjust when the league made an adjustment to him.

"So many older hitters don’t do that, and here’s a 21-year-old who already studies each plate appearance and tries to get better."

Apparently the hard work paid off, especially the work and adjustments Blalock made in the 2003 offseason. Despite maintaining a .300 batting average in ’03, Blalock hit just a lone home run, and had a desire to do more.

"I think I had on ‘okay’ season in 2003, but ‘okay’ isn’t good enough for me," Blalock said. "Third base is a position where your team expects power, and I didn’t provide that. Coming into 2004, I made a concerted effort to hit the ball in the air more, and I think my numbers were better for it."

Better they were. Last season, Blalock had his best season to date, hitting .294/.363/.464 with 16 home runs and 87 RBI. Second on the team to Andruw Jones in games played (158) , his durability and play-at-all-costs mentality impressed Rangers fans, Agee, and teammates.

"Man, I’ll tell you what – Hank Blalock’s a grinder," first baseman Mike Sweeney said. "Herbert Perry’s a more-than-capable third baseman, but if Hank wouldn’t have been in there for all those games, there’s no way we would’ve won 98 ballgames last year."

"He’s a throwback, a real George Brett-type of guy when it comes to playing baseball," said Agee. "The phrase, ‘I’m playing unless my leg’s fractured’ has become cliched over the years, but that’s exactly the kind of player Blalock is."

However, it won’t be enough to just take the field six days a week in 2005. Although the Rangers were 34 games over .500, they missed the playoffs, and in 2005 Blalock will be a guy who's looked on to produce bigger and better things. Missing postseason won’t be okay for a second straight season. Agee said that the organization is going to put a lot on his young shoulders, making him perhaps the team’s most important player heading into this coming season. Blalock says he’s ready for the challenge.

"I talked to Kevin yesterday, and it was nice to hear how important I am to this team," Blalock said. "I’m not running from the challenge. I’m going to do my best to take my game to an even higher level, and hopefully help this club get to the World Series."

Jeter, the Man Who Made Yanks Good

2005-01-09T17:43:00.000-06:00

“He’d been summoned by the baseball gods; to carry the torch, to help save the team and the stadium and maybe even the game of baseball itself.”

by. Peter Richmond, GQ
with a forward by Ron Rucker, FHFS editor-in-chief & die-hard Yankee Fan

It was pointed out, some months back, that these Yankees were different. This roster, it was said, had accomplished little.

The four World Series titles, the five pennants, the praise of a nation? Those were mostly the work of other players, long gone. To Paul O’Neill, to Scott Brosius, to Tino Martinez, to David Cone. Most of the new Yankees had done little to deserve such accolades.

That was Derek Jeter’s opinion.

Now, it no longer is his legacy. Jeter, who was the link between the Yankees of past and present, is no longer a part of the team’s future.

This is no longer Jeter’s team. Now, it’s the high-priced names that have been brought aboard, hitters with bigger stats who will forge the Yankee future. These mercenaries, these cogs in the wheel will be expected to lift them where Jeter hadn’t take them in four seasons: the playoffs.

Depite that failure, it is more important to remember that it was Jeter who drove this team. It was his mix of passion and cool. His excellence reaches far beyond the white chalk that lines the field. When his teammates see him go balls out, literally, in a regular season game, get a few hours sleep, and do it again the next night, they’ve got to be thinking about whether or not they’re earning their lunch money. You didn’t see a lot of Yankees jog down the first base line or let balls drop in front of them. There’s no way they’d would have been able to walk past Jeter’s locker after a game and look themselves in the mirror.

At 30, his life is a fairy tale. Jeter dumps Mariah Carey and trades up. He squabbles with The Boss and turns it into a commercial endorsement. He has not come close to the numbers of his replacement Alex Rodriguez or even those of Nomar Garciaparra and there is no reason to believe he ever will.

Yet Jeter is considered their contemporary. In some ways, he is larger than either of them. It is Jeter who represents the best of baseball. Not the pumped-up statistics of the modern game. Not the flash of the game’s biggest contract. We often hear about the surly pro athletes who care only about themselves and money. Jeter is the opposite. “He cares about everything -- on the field and off the field,” Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said before the game. “He would be the poster child of what’s right with baseball and what people should look to and point to.”

Jeter recently told Rodriguez, who will now inherit the Yankee throne, that the ghosts always come out for New York on October nights. There were no ghosts Friday night as Jeter exited Yankee stadium. Just a leader. The last stand of the last real Yankee.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We’ve had a quarter century of George now, and to anyone paying close attention to the chaos of his unseemly reign, one constant has emerged: Each modern generation of New York Yankees has featured one humble, homegrown baseball player possessed of enough grace to save the franchise’s dignity in the face of the Cleveland shipbuilder’s unending assault -- men of no self-strut at all, but endowed with an innate sense of style that they’ve carried for their appointed terms and then passed on to the next bearer of the torch. If the outsized personae of the Reggies and the Winfields have defined the Yankees on the field, as Ruth’s did the ancients, then the quiet Yankees have defined the Yankees’ soul, as Gehrig once did.

But how, I’ve wondered over the course of my thirty-five years of watching from the upper deck of Yankee Stadium, do they do it, exactly? How did the spirit of quiet Mel Stottlemyre, the first Steinbrenner-era saint, pass into the body of stoic Roy White, the silent outfielder? How did White will the energy to Ron Guidry, whose astounding slider managed, for a time, to mute George’s blather? And how did Guidry get it into Don Mattingly, Citizen Baseball himself?

How has each quiet Yankee been able first to inherit and then to bequeath something that’s so obvious to the true fan but to which each of the players was almost certainly oblivious? I’d interviewed them all and divined nothing of their secret. If there was a question to be asked that would solve the mystery, I had not been able to find it.

It turned out that only when I stopped looking for the answer could it, Zen-riddlishly, reveal itself -- something that did not happen by design but by chance, when I stopped asking impolite questions of Derek Jeter, the latest in this mystical line, and let him talk about baseball. He’s quite reserved, Derek Jeter, and the few minutes of conversation about personal topics over lunch before the food arrived felt like a stone skipping off the surface of a still pond, each successive splash growing smaller and smaller.

Eventually, we just talked baseball, which is the only thing he generally wants to talk about -- naturally enough, because playing it is all he’s ever done. He has this quiet, lower-register Dean Martin voice, where the words blend into one another, as if his voice itself were shy; but when he’s talking about baseball, his words are crisp and clear. Imagine an astronomer sitting with his astronomer friends over a couple of beers and saying something like “Can you imagine the magnitude of the bang behind a Type Ia supernova? No wonder the light travels 6 trillion miles a year!” That’s how Jeter looks when he says something like “Third base is dangerous, man. Can you imagine playing third base with Mark McGwire hitting? On turf?” and he gets this distant look as he imagines what it would be like, and his face takes on this bleep-eating grin, because he doesn’t swear.

So I gave up asking the personal questions about whether, when they were still dating, he’d really taken Mariah Carey to a strip joint (“It didn’t happen,” and then, a cloud of anger shadowing the face, “Of course it didn’t happen”) and settled back and let his baseball reel unspool. We got to the story of his first big-league spring training at the old Yankee complex in Fort Lauderdale, in 1994, when he was just out of high school and he suddenly found himself sharing an infield with his idols.

And that’s when he gave up the secret. Of how he got the torch. Even though, of course, he doesn’t know he has it.

“I’m 19, and I’m throwing to Don Mattingly. I’m going from Kalamazoo Central High School -- with a friend of mine at third and another friend of mine at first -- and here I am at spring training, with Wade Boggs to my right, and I’m throwing to Don Mattingly. I couldn’t believe it! Here’s a story about Don Mattingly I’ll never forget,” he said, and he hunched forward a little to tell it. He’s all limbs, like a colt, but he was relaxed now; his eyes, at rest, were heavy lidded.

“We were on one of the back fields working out. We were done running our sprints. Me and Mattingly happened to be finished at the same time. We had to cross the main field to get to the clubhouse. There’s nobody there -- no fans, not even the grounds crew. So we were walking. And Mattingly tells me we’d better run, because you never know who’s watching. This is Don Mattingly! Who’s going to tell him he has to run? We’ve already done our work!”

He paused, waiting for it to sink in for me: No one around, and still Don Mattingly doesn’t let himself dog it. Because dogging it is not what a true Yankee does, because there’s a responsibility that comes with the uniform. And here he was letting the kid in on it.

“I’ll never forget that story,” Jeter said, smiling. “He probably doesn’t even remember it. Don Mattingly! Running across the field! Mind if I eat this? I eat a lot,” and he reached for his Caesar salad just as it hit me: That’s how they do it. When they pass on the Rules of Yankeedom, they pass on the spirit. Or the energy. Or whatever the hell it is.

For didn’t Mattingly retire on the last day of ‘95? And on Opening Day ‘96, didn’t Jeter, who had hit a total of two home runs his entire previous season in triple-A in Columbus, Ohio, hit a home run? And didn’t he go on that year to win the World Series ring Mattingly never got to wear?

From that day on, didn’t Derek Jeter look as if he’d been playing his position for a lot longer than he really had? As if his baseball soul had been around, well, forever?

Maybe something passed between them that no one could see, as if Wim Wenders had made a Yankee movie and this little gray archangel cloud passed from one guy to the next, from one chosen Yankee to the next, until now, when we need a real Yankee like we’ve never needed one before. A time when the depth of Steinbrenner’s greed threatens to sink the most famous athletic stadium in the land.

The DiNoto Bakery sign beyond center field has already disappeared. It had been visible from the upper deck since the ‘50s, painted on the side of a brick apartment building. It was bright green and red and white not long ago, so bright you could almost smell the bread baking -- a beacon of greeting from the Bronx that signified the compact, the contract between the team and the borough. No matter how much Steinbrenner pretended, Trump-like, that he knew what was good for New York even though he didn’t have a clue; no matter how often he fired great men like Dick Howser, who did stuff like win 103 games in a season, and hired Billy Martin, who did stuff like get his ear nearly cut off in a fight in an alley behind a topless bar, and who would have been hired eleven or twelve more times by now if he hadn’t died in a drunken wreck one Christmas day; no matter how much George chipped away at the team’s luster, the DiNoto sign said there was something bigger and immutable at stake: the relationship between the ballpark and the Bronx, between cityscape and all the baseball history that came before. As long as the Yankees and the Bronx were one, the DiNoto sign stood as a bastion against the greedy train wreck of a sport baseball was threatening to become.

But the DiNoto sign has disappeared beneath a coat of fresh white paint, which can only mean -- if we’re looking for cosmic signs here -- that the darkest days are upon us. For now George is threatening to shutter the Stadium in favor of a midtown-Manhattan palace, to be built at a cost of a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money.

He could support the idea of renovating the Stadium and expanding the parking. He could move the team’s offices back north from Tampa and market the team to the Bronx’s Hispanic population instead of crying wolf about the attendance while he’s drawing 50,000 to the games that count. He could help revitalize the Bronx at a time when the rest of the city is reclaiming itself, from Hell’s Kitchen to Coney Island. He could stop the madness of owners burgling their cities for fancier domains.

When pigs fly, he will. For what George hopes to do is abandon baseball’s Parthenon and extort a new, faux-old ballpark from the city by getting into bed with a megalomaniacal mayor, leading us boldly into a future where cities from San Diego to Boston to Miami get new theme-park parks and ticket prices soar while the pitching descends to triple-A quality curveballs. A future where the game becomes, finally and irrevocably, nothing but another piece of sellable, Disneyed entertainment on the carnival-America landscape.

Which is why the first time I saw Derek Jeter and the way he owns his position and the way he hadn’t sought stardom but stardom had sought him, and then saw how he doesn’t swear and how he gives to charity and loves his parents and, finally, saw how sweetly he signs autographs for the teenage girls with his name painted on their foreheads and hearts painted on their cheeks, I knew why he’d been summoned by the baseball gods: to carry the torch, to help save the team and the Stadium and maybe even the game of baseball itself.

That’s what I was trying to suggest to him, anyway, over lunch in the generic restaurant down the road from the Ballpark at Arlington, even though Arlington, Texas, was nowhere to be seen. I told him he was the latest in the long line of those chosen to do battle with the dark prince.

He had no idea that I was talking about, of course, but this only proved my point. And, being a dutiful Yankee, he certainly wasn’t going to allow himself to be dragged into a stadium debate by some ranting idealist.

“Yankee Stadium is my favorite stadium; I’m not going to lie to you,” he said over the generic chicken Marsala, after he’d eaten the Caesar salad in six seconds. “There’s a certain feel you get in Yankee Stadium.”

Exactly! Can you describe the magic?

“Well, the playing surface, infieldwise, is the best in the league,” he said, chewing. “They keep it wet, so balls stay down.”

All right. Maybe I was reading too much into it. Maybe Derek Jeter is just a good baseball player, a kid who grew up in Kalamazoo, with a Dave Winfield poster on his wall, dreaming of playing for the Yankees and following in the footsteps of his father (who hit a home run in his first game as a college-freshman shortstop but wasn’t good enough to make the majors, so he earned a Ph.D. instead); a kid who started a foundation for troubled kids after his first year in the majors and hired his father to run it; a kid who has good manners and bright, twinkly eyes. When someone like that shows up in pinstripes, it’s only natural to enlist him in the good fight, isn’t it? And when you ask that someone why he hasn’t let success swell his head and he gets a look of stunned confusion on his face and says, “I wouldn’t be able to go home; if I want to go home, I can’t do that” -- well, could you be faulted for wanting to glorify him?

All right, I thought. Maybe I’m reading a little too much into it. Maybe I should just sit back, forget the symbolism and watch the guy play ball. So I did. That night in Texas. But even his batting practice was mystical. I’ve seen hundreds of batting practices, but none like this. Jeter was in a threesome with Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill, certified home-run hitters. He’d already missed half of infield practice because he’d been signing autographs down the left-field line. He was in something of a slump at the time, but in the first few rounds of batting practice (each player takes about a dozen swings, steps out, lets the other two guys go, then steps back in for rounds of fewer and fewer swings, until, finally, one last swing), he cuffed a few home runs, the clock of the ball rocketing off the bat, echoing all over the Ballpark, which borrows design features from about five different parks, as well as from a French Quarter whorehouse.

O’Neill began to take note of Jeter’s home runs, although O’Neill is generally so lost in fine-tuning his own swing that you could fire a bazooka next to him and he wouldn’t flinch. On another round, Jeter hit two more. When O’Neill stepped into the cage, he hit one. Then Jeter stepped back in and hit three in a row, all of them propelled by the snap of his wrists. None were titanic, but they were all home runs.

From one side of the cage, the implacable Martinez watched the flight of this last bunch of Jeter home runs and said, “Jeez, Jeet,” which represented lengthy and rambling oratory coming from Tino Martinez.

They were down to the second-to-last round, by now running in and out of the cage. Jeter hit two home runs with his two swings. As O’Neill watched the second one fly out of the park, he said, simply, “Stop it.”

Jeter ran back into the cage for his last swing. He practice-swung the bat once, then he hit the last ball high and long, and it settled five rows deep in the right-center-field bleachers.

O’Neill and Martinez were silent. Jeter had hit something like twelve or fourteen home runs. He was smiling a little smile, but a smile, nonetheless.

Chuck Knoblauch opened the game for the Yankees with a double against an old Ranger warhorse named John Burkett. Jeter stepped in. I expected him to swing for the fences. Instead, he took a pitch and then, hiding his intent until Burkett had thrown the ball, choked halfway up on the bat and pushed a perfect bunt single between Burkett and first baseman Will Clark. A glimmer of frustration twisted its way through Burkett’s features, and two pitches later O’Neill lined the ball down the right-field line for a three-run home run. All the air left the Ballpark at once. The crowd could have gone home right then and there. The Yankees won the game going away.

“The thing that impressed me most about Jeter,” Joe Torre had told me before the game, “was the way he either started or finished every rally we had in ‘96.”

Torre had started the conversation about his shortstop by saying, “Jeter is the next leader of this ball club.” Torre likes Jeter because of the way he plays the game off the field. He likes to talk about the things Jeter does that young players aren’t supposed to do. Like the time Jeter snuffed a rally by getting thrown out trying to steal third for no reason and Torre was livid but decided he’d wait for the right moment and not bawl the kid out in front of everyone. But then Jeter sat down next to him, silently volunteering for the lecture he knew he deserved. Torre cuffed him on the back of the head and sent him out to the field.

Or the time Jeter made a bonehead throwing error during a play-off game against the Rangers in ‘96. Jeter sometimes drops by the manager’s office after games and says to Torre, “Get some sleep tonight,” but on this night the media pack wanted to know if Torre was going to reprimand the rookie. Torre was saying he might do it the next day, and just then Jeter’s head appeared in Torre’s doorway.

“Get some sleep tonight,” Jeter said and disappeared.

“A lot of kids would have buried themselves,” Torre said. “He didn’t.”

That was another way of Joe Torre’s saying that Jeter plays beyond his years, and sometimes it’s true that Derek Jeter sounds way beyond his years, and not only because he houses the Yankee ghosts. Because he had to grow up very fast.

“It’s overwhelming at times,” Jeter said over dessert when I asked him what it feels like to know that kids have his poster on their walls now. This was my first and last glimpse of a wistfulness I saw about him. He talked about how much easier it had been in Little League. And how because he was always away from home, sluicing up through various minor leagues, he had missed his little sister’s growing up.

“It’s like everything happened so fast,” he said. “My first year, everything happened. We won the World Series, the Rookie of the Year; everything came so quick. It was like everything’s been in fast-forward. It’s overwhelming.”

When Derek Jeter talks about his age, he says he’s only 19, because he decided to start counting backward when he turned 21. It’s odd to hear a 23-year-old say he wants to be younger, unless he missed his childhood because he took baseball so seriously, and then it makes perfect sense.

“I don’t want to grow older,” he said. “After you turn 21, what birthday do you look forward to? I’m not saying I don’t want the future to come. But I wouldn’t mind staying 23.

“Of course,” he said, because he didn’t want it to sound as if he were complaining, “I wouldn’t change anything; I have the greatest job in the world. Only one person can have it. You have shortstops on other teams -- I’m not knocking other teams -- but there;s only one shortstop on the Yankees.”

His eyes were half closed; he was back to relaxed and mellow at the thought of it, his great station in life. Or maybe it was because the dessert tasted so good. I hadn’t even seen him eat it. It just sort of disappeared.

I found tall Mel Stottlemyre reading a boating magazine in the cramped visiting coaches’ locker room before the next game, while the Yankees were next door sitting on plush couches watching Liar, Liar on a giant television screen.

“He’s like someone who’s 30, 31, 32, a guy who’s played eight, nine years,” Stottlemyre said. “He’s been like that a couple of years now.”

Stottlemyre, himself a torchbearer and a five-time all-star, does not know that in the Yankee mythology I have created he was the original archangel to Steinbrenner’s Antichrist or that he inherited his aura from the great Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson. Nor does he know that Derek Jeter is the latest recipient of the magic.

All Mel knows is hunting and fishing and boating and baseball. When he was a Yankee and he came home from road trips, Mel’s three sons would not even give him time to take off his coat and tie before making him play catch with them, and so he did, and one of them, Todd, became a major league star.

After he stopped pitching, Mel was a coach for the Houston Astros and then the New York Mets, where he helped the team win a World Series, which is what he’s doing now for the Yankees. Like all the torchbearers, Mel is a man of few words. So we spoke for ten minutes or so, and not much was said. I thanked him for his time, and we headed into the Yankee locker room.

“You can see he enjoys playing the game,” Stottlemyre said as he walked away from me. “That’s a treat.”

Then he stopped and said it again, smiling. “That’s a treat.”

I agreed, and he started to walk away again, and then he stopped and looked back at me one more time and smiled widely and said, “You know what I mean.”

I still don’t know what to make of that. Maybe he meant that he and I had been around long enough to know that players these days don’t enjoy the game enough. But maybe he was telling me I was right. About the torch.

Jeter and I were supposed to have another interview that day, but there he was -- sitting on one of the big, comfortable couches with the other Yankees, watching Jim Carrey, laughing loudly. He looked so happy I decided to leave him there. Taking a break from the weight of his responsibility. Enjoying childhood. Gathering his strength for the battle ahead.

Reds Look to the Past and Future

2005-01-05T16:44:00.000-06:00

by. FHFS contributing writer Jacob Henry

When the off-season kicked off in late November, Reds GM Jacob Henry was still reminiscing about the young Reds past season, and how they had somehow overcame all the critics’ predictions of being a cellar team and finished in the middle of the NL Central. "Going into the year, many people wrote us off as battling it out with a few teams for the first overall pick, but I knew by seasons’ end this team would have made some noise and turned some heads."

And turn heads they did, with a team bursting with young talent, and a system loaded with some of the minors top prospects, the Reds went from FHFS pretender to a potential FHFS contender. With young superstars such as Mark Prior, Rafael Soriano, and Adam Dunn leading the charge, the Reds hoped to strike fear into their NL Central counterparts. "We knew that we had a potentially good club, and overachieving like we did this year did nothing but give us a more positive outlook than we had in the past."

And then came the off-season, Henry decided early on that he really didn't want to mess with his ball club too much, maybe pick up a role player here or there, maybe an arm in free agency, "However," Henry is quick to add, "At no time did we have thoughts about going after Pedro Martinez." So, with those plans in mind, he received a call from NL powerhouse Pittsburgh Pirates GM John Rayman about the availability of pitcher Mark Prior. "We knew Rayman loved Prior, and had tried last off-season with a package of Brian Giles to get him, but, we resisted." However, plans change, and Henry finally gave in to a package of Wade Miller, Angel Berroa, Rob Mackowiak, Pittsburgh's 1st Rd pick, and what Henry called "The key to the whole deal," outfielder Jason Bay.

"We felt this deal was a must for us because while Wade is not on Prior's level, he does fit the role of an ideal #2 behind Colon, who we are hoping can go out this year and act like the #1 we thought we got last off-season, and Angel Berroa, and Rob Mackowiak where able to land us our other big acquisitions of the off-season besides Jason Bay, so overall we felt this was a must do deal.

The other big trade coming out of Cincinnati this year involved the acquisition of one of the premier young players in the major leaguers, 3rd baseman Albert Pujols. "Picking up Pujols we felt was a coup for us, this was the ideal guy to fit in a lineup with Dunn and Bay, we should be able to put some runs on the board this year." With the Reds sending along recently acquired Angel Berroa, and Rob Mackowiak, along with 2nd baseman Marcus Giles, and top prospect Andy Marte for Albert Pujols, and shortstop Jimmy Rollins, the Reds where able to fly under the radar of most of the teams and pick up the third baseman. "We knew we had what they would want for him, and when presented the deal they loved it, so we got it done fairly quickly and surprisingly easy considering the impact of it."

When looking ahead to the rest of the off-season, the excited Henry points to the first day of free agency as the top thing on his agenda. "We are now hoping to turn a few heads with the guys we will go after, and with some cap room to play with, I fully expect us to come out winners after it's all said and done."

And as far as next season goes, Henry can only point to last year’s standings and hope. "I fully expect to be a contender not only in the Central, but in the National League as well." And with a lineup loaded with young talents such as Carl Crawford, Jason Bay, Adam Dunn, and Albert Pujols, who’s to argue against it?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note: Rumor has it Mr. Henry will be the subject of a featured profile by ESPN.com. Stay tuned!

All Business: Rangers Welcome New Faces Into The Fold

2005-01-02T21:47:00.000-06:00

By FHFS contributing writer & all-around good guy Kevin Agee

Even though J.D. Drew was a lone ranger at Sunday’s press conference that introduced him as the newest member of the Texas Rangers, he won’t be a forgotten man at Ameriquest Field this season.

Drew, who was acquired from San Diego with catcher Paul LoDuca and pitcher Josh Beckett weeks ago for pitcher Rick Ankiel and outfielder Milton Bradley, will undoubtedly play an important role for his new team this season. He’s been given the task of replacing Ellis Burks, who retired after the 2004 season and entered the Hall of Fame.

“That might actually be the least of my concerns coming in here,” Drew said, laughing. “There are a lot of things I’ll have to adjust to. This is a new league for me with new pitchers, a new clubhouse, a new manager, and a new outfield to learn.”

General manager Kevin Agee, who engineered the deal with Padres executive David Haller, spoke highly of what Drew, LoDuca, and Beckett would bring to the club in 2005.

“This is a very significant and exciting day for the Texas Rangers organization,” Agee said. “We think we’ve added three players who are among the very best at their respective positions, two of which we viewed as upgrade priorities coming into this offseason.

“I think anytime you have the opportunity to acquire three guys like this, you have to make the deal. This is a better baseball team now than it was the day after the season ended.”

LoDuca and Beckett couldn’t attend the conference for personal reasons, but both were reached by phone afterwards.

“I had a great situation in San Diego,” Beckett said, “but if any player’s going to be traded, he wants it to be to from one quality organization to another. I’m just excited to be a part of a team that won 98 ballgames a year ago.”

“Having Josh alongside will make the adjustment period a little bit easier,” LoDuca said. “But I can’t wait to start working with Bruce Chen and guys like that, and gain an understanding of what they like to throw and when.”

All three players had solid 2004 seasons. Drew, who will start in right field and likely hit third, hit .316 with 23 home runs and 75 RBI in 592 at-bats. LoDuca (.275, 19, 53) was one of the better hitting catchers in the league, and Beckett won 13 games with a 3.36 ERA in 206 innings. Agee hopes the production the trio provides will offset the losses of Ankiel, Bradley, and second baseman Keith Ginter.

“J.D. and Paul are both guys who know the strike zone, and that’s a very important element of our attack on offense. They’re smart hitters who do a good job of getting on base. That’s what initially drew us to them,” Agee said. “I think Beckett’s going to develop into a reliable guy who not only gives you innings, but gives you top-of-the-rotation caliber innings. We’re going to ask a lot of him this year, to take that next step towards becoming a staff leader.”

That word – leader – applies not only to Beckett, but to Drew and LoDuca as well. But Drew’s relishing the opportunity to take the knowledge he acquired in San Diego and pass it on to the younger players in Texas.

“It’s something I’m really looking forward to, being able to lead by example,” Drew said. “I learned a lot about how to conduct yourself as a professional from guys like Matt Stairs, and I’m ready to apply that knowledge here.”

Mr. Arod Goes to New York

2004-12-28T16:42:00.000-06:00

by. Some Yankee Fan

Something fairly stunning happened in the world of sports yesterday: Alex Rodriguez, the best shortstop in baseball, one of the best shortstops of all time, and a yearly MVP threat, was traded to the New York Yankees. The Yankees already had one of the highest payrolls in baseball; they have shed a few contracts (namley Darren Dreifort), but also have acquired and resigned several expensive players, such as Alfonso Soriano (the Yankees' MVP last year) and Nick Johnson. Now they'll be adding ARod, the Quarter-Billion Dollar Man, the player with the richest contract in professional sports.

In the wake of an unconsumated deal with the downtrodden Kansas City Royals, it doesn't seem so amazing to consider that the Giants would give up on such a transcendant, once in a generation talent as A-Rod. The Giants are happy to do it, in fact, so they can save money, and also save themselves having to deal with a player who had been semi-secretly lobbying for a trade back to the AL and a smaller stadium.

Incidentally, you'll hear some people saying that this is a bad idea for the Yankees because A-Rod and his contract will be an albatross, and prevent the team from adding other, complementary players that they need to make a winning nucleus. You will hear it, though, about the Giants and Rangers- that A-Rod prevented them from winning, because his greed kept them from adding the other players they needed. That's nonsense. The Giants' payroll last season, minus what they paid to A-Rod, was equal, if not more, to the average payroll in all of baseball - and well over the payroll for some playoff teams. What's more, having chose and managed carefully, both squads managed to field playoff teams plus the best shortstop in the world.

Oddly, the press reports that the Yankees' current plan is to move A-Rod to third, even though he's a much better defensive shortstop than Derek Jeter, who currently mans that spot for the the Bronx Bombers. Bill Rhoden at the New York Times thinks that this move is really all about George Steinbrenner's desire to motivate Jeter to improve his own game. Bill! Dude! This is Alex Rodriguez - they're adding him because they can, at least for the immediate furtue! A-Rod is worth about three players on just about any other team, Yankees included. If you want to spur Jeter to improve, you hire a cheap but effective replacement, and suggest that Jeter will be platooned or moved to second. When A-Rod's available, and you've got a little bit of salary cap money, you take him, and worry about the rest later. Derek Jeter and his $189 million contract can cry each other to sleep at night for all you care.

Royal FANS have every right to be mad. The Royal organization does not have that right. The Royals, who have one of the lowest payrolls in Major League Baseball, did not have the competence to accept A-Rod’s deal that would have sent him to the Giants in exchange for chemistry-killing extraordinaire Manny Ramirez, and some minor league talent. The deal that was supposed to happen was nixed by the Royals because A-Rod wasn't seen as the Franchise Cornerstone worth a quarter-of-a-billion investment. Royal management could not come up with a plan to justly compensate the Giants and mainatin A-Rod’s contract. Oops. Matthew Minton didn’t know what to do.

So what happens? The Yankees, the evil empire, take A-Rod and his monster salary off San Frans’ hands and, in exchange, give up Shawn Green and two utility men. San Fran will eat up absoutley none of the remaining $179 million left on Rodriguez’s contract, and let the Yankees handle the math, according to ESPN.com.

This deal was a coup for both teams. Now San Francisco finally has economic breathing room and also got one of the finest right fielders in the league right now in Green. The Yankees stuck it to the AL East…again, and did so without relinquishing one of the top young shortstops in the game: Khalil Greene. It is not outlandish to say that this is the second coming of Boston’s selling of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Alex Rodriguez is, without a doubt, one of, if not THE best player in the game right now (and possibly ever). It’s very possible that A-Rod knocks his 700th home run into the Yankee Stadium bleachers.

With all that said…here are my thoughts.

I will not deny that I am happy to have the best player in the game in an infield with Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano. I will not deny that I am happy the Yankees made the AL East pay. I will not deny that I am happy Steinbrenner wants to win more than anything.

However, I don’t feel like these are “my” Yankees anymore. Let’s go back in time…all the way back to 1996…

Tino Martinez manned first base with defensive precision and offensive pop. Derek Jeter was in his first full year at shortstop. Mariano Duncan silently lit a fire in the batting order. Homegrown Andy Pettitte, in his second season as a starter, put up Cy Young numbers, going 21-8 with a 3.87 ERA. And the kicker…the team payroll that year: $52,189,370.

(sigh)

This Yankees team of 1996 was not “evil.” They were not corrupting baseball. This team consisted of a bunch of solid all-around ballplayers that played the game fundamentally. This was a likable group of guys. In fact, one of the great things about this team was that they were so good without really having a true superstar on the roster. Mariano Rivera was SETTING UP John Wettleland for crying out loud. Mariano Duncan led the team with a .340 batting average!

This was a cohesive unit. This was a team. Now here in 2005, the Yankees will be fielding Alfonso Soriano, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Victor Martinez, and Khalil Greene, along with Ryan Dempster and Scott Williamson on the mound. The New York Yankees have lost their identity, plain and simple. According to ESPN.com, Alex Rodriguez is making $14,403 per INNING. The projected team payroll will push it to cap limits and certainly continue to be one of the highest for the forseeable future. Am I supposed to get excited when A-Rod booms a 400 foot blast or am I supposed to calmly say, “That’s why we pay him $20 mill a year?” I just don’t know.

As a Yankee fan, I will still be rooting for the 2005 version of the New York Yankees. But no longer do I feel connected to the team.

Bernie Williams quarterbacked the outfield for nearly ten years. And now, Marcus Thames, who is undoubtedly a great player, enters his third year with that job and has become a regular on the trade wires - with the homegrown Williams now patrolling center for the White Sox.

Third base for the Yankees has always been held by a true third baseman who has been known to come up huge in crunch time (i.e. Scott Brosious against the Padres in ’98). Now, the Yankees have brought in the best player in baseball to play a position he has never played. Is that logical? It remains to be seen.

George Steinbrenner is a maniac. Don’t let Yankee fans say otherwise. With an insatiable thirst to win, he will not allow New York to fail once again. You cannot fault the guy for wanting to win so badly. But this time he has outdone himself.

FHFS Offseason- A look around the league

2004-12-23T15:09:00.000-06:00

by. Tim Johnson, FHFS Contributing Writer & Back-to-Back Wildcard Champion

It’s been a wild off season so far. Stars have swapped teams. The Padres aren’t recognizable. And to think Free Agency hasn’t even started yet. Here is a look at the some of the bigger trades so far, and how it should effect each team.

------------------------------------------------

.

Phillies Get:
Ivan Rodriguez (7.5 *Col paying 5 this year)
Armando Benitez (4.75)
Jayson Werth (0)
2 mil next year, 1 mil the following on Rodriguez.

Rockies Get:
Johnny Estrada (250k)
JC Romero (1.7 mil)
Ryan Madson (250k)
Marlon Byrd (250k)

Why the Phillies are happy:
Ivan Rodriguez turns what was a weakness into a strength. He is instantly their 2nd best hitter and gives the lineup strengthens the middle of the order. Benitez should rebound out of Coors and the Phillies could now have a top notch closer on their hands.

Why the Rockies are happy:
It was kind of greedy to keep arguably the two best catchers in Jason Kendall and Ivan Rodriguez. So it made sense to trade one of them to clear payroll and help out at other position. Pudge is 2 years older, so he made more sense to move. Benitez didn’t prove to be a good fit in Coors, and they managed to get two excellent RP in Romero and Madson who could each produce more zeroes for Colorado at a cheaper cost.

------------------------------------------------

NYM gets:
Aubrey Huff (250,000)
Bud Smith (3,000,000)
Brian Lawrence (3,000,000)

TB gets:
Edgardo Alfonzo (10,000,000)
Sidney Ponson (1,850,000)*
Orlando Palmiero (400,000)
Mark Teahen (Minors)
NYM 5th Round Pick

Why the Mets are happy:
Edgardo Alfonzo is probably the best 3B in the game. Trading someone like him is never easy. However, the Mets do have a decent stopgap in Wes Helms to man 3B until hot prospect Dallas McPherson is ready, which could be as soon as July. The Mets did get a nice package for Alfonzo, although it could be argued that they were better off keeping him. Huff had a solid 2004 season but some scouts expect bigger things from him this year. Bud Smith is an excellent young pitcher and Brian Lawrence is coming back from an injury shortened season, but should help stabilize the rotation.

Why the Devil Rays are happy:
Why wouldn’t they be? They just traded a bunch of guys they didn’t really need for the best 3B in the game, signed at a reasonable deal long-term. That’s no knock on Smith, Huff and Lawrence though. It just shows how much depth Tampa Bay has.

------------------------------------------------

Rangers get:
Josh Beckett (arbitration)
J.D. Drew ($10,400,000)*
Paul LoDuca (arbitration)

Padres get:
Rick Ankiel ($6,500,000)
Milton Bradley (5,000,000)

*Padres pay $1,000,000 of Drew's salary in 2005.

Why the Rangers are happy:
Rangers GM Kevin Agee went through this last off season. He had to traded one of the best players (A-Rod) in the game for a few quality, but not as good players. Josh Beckett as already established himself as a #1 pitcher, but unlike Ankiel the Rangers don’t have to worry about him being a FA after the year. Drew is an excellent hitter who should fill Burks’ shoes nicely, while LoDuca is a major upgrade over Brook Fordyce

Why the Padres are happy:
Rick Ankiel is great. The Padres can fully expect him to blossom into one a Pedro-type force over the next few years. The question is: will he be with San Diego? That is the big risk of the deal. Ankiel is a pending FA, and with his stuff, resume, and age he will command a huge contract. Milton Bradley is also a nice replacement for Drew.

------------------------------------------------

San Diego gets:
Rob Mackowiak: 250,000
Angel Berroa: 250,000
Andy Marte: Minors
Marcus Giles: Arby

Cincinatti gets:
Albert Pujols: 9,000,000
Jimmy Rollins: Arby

Why the Padres are happy:
With Pujols’ contract gone, they can now put their full attention to resigning Ankiel. This was a surprising deal though. Pujols is an excellent player, is young and locked up trough 2006 at a reasonable salary. San Diego did get a nice package for Pujols but it seems a little under whelming for someone in Pujols‘ position. Makes one wonder if they were too quick to move Pujols. If they had waited it out a little they might have got a better offer. That said, Marcus Giles is a pretty good 2B and Berroa and Mackowiak are nice players who sould contribute. Marte is the key for the Padres though. Some think he can develop into a Pujols-type player.

Why the Reds are happy:
Pujols is an excellent player, is young and locked up trough 2006 at a reasonable salary. The Reds were 11th in the NL in runs scored last year, Pujols should help increase that number.

------------------------------------------------

Mets get:
Jorge Posada (10mil) with STL paying 1.5mil in 05

Cardinals get:
Roger Cedeno (8mil, with SEA paying 3mil)
Matt Peterson
Colt Griffin
Byron Gettis
DETs 2nd round pick

Why the Mets are happy:
This allows them to move Mike Piazza to 1B, trading him is also an option now. Posada was one of the best catchers in the AL but his move to St Louis didn’t work out too well. His .355 SLG was by far the worst of his career. At 33, he’s probably starting to decline. So it is a bit risky for the Mets, especially with Posada’s big contract. But if Posada plays like he did with the Yankees, this will work out fine

Why the Cardinals are happy:
Jorge Posada was a bust in 2004. There’s no way to ignore that. He may return to his glory days, but the Cards didn’t want to take that chance with him being owed $30m in the next 3 years. The Cards can fully expect Roger Cedeno to hit better than Posada did last year, so from that point its an upgrade. Peterson, Griffin and Gettis are decent prospects too.

------------------------------------------------

Pitts deals:
Wade Miller (6.5)
Angel Berroa (250K)
Jason Bay (250K)
Rob Mackowiak (250K)
1st round pick

Cinci deals
Mark Prior (6.25)

Why the Pirates are happy:
Isn’t it obvious? This is Mark Prior! For those of you who aren’t paying attention, in 2003 23 year old Prior went 17-9 with a 3.42 ERA over 228 2/3 IP, he struck out 241 and walked only 94. He is soon going to become one of the top 5 pitchers in the game(if he isn‘t already). Pitssburgh GM John Rayman obviously likes him a lot(duh!), this is the 2nd time he has traded for Prior.

Why the Reds are happy:
It was surprising from the Reds point of view. After all, they already have a lot of good young players and look to be on the verge on the contention in the next year or so. You would think Prior is someone they would want to keep. Cincy is known for making a splash on the FA market so some speculated they may sign Pedro and have the sickest 1-2 punch in FHFS history. But they chose to go in another direction. They did get a nice batch of players that will add depth. Miller, while no Prior, is a pretty good replacement. Bay looks like a stud and Berroa helped bring Albert Pujols to Cincy.

------------------------------------------------

Milwaukee gets:
Miguel Tejada (10,250,000)

TB gets
Jack Cust (1,500,000)
Mike Adams (250,000)
Danny Kolb (250,000)

Why the Brewers are happy:
They badly needed a new SS after that sorry display Brian Roberts showed in 2004. Adams and Kolb hadn’t shown that they could do much in Milwaukee, and a 1B like Cust shouldn’t be too hard to replace.

Why the Devil Rays are happy:
They cleared up money so they could get a better player, Alfonzo. They didn’t do too bad in this deal either. Cust is a good young hitter, and Adams and Kolb gives Tampa even more depth in their bullpen.

------------------------------------------------

Giants get:
Mark Mulder $7m*
Jason Grabowski $250k
Dustin McGowan $0

Blue Jays get:
Jason Schmidt $7m**

*Blue Jays are paying $1.75m on Mulder for 2005
**Florida is paying $500k on Schmidt for 2005

Why the Giants are happy:
While the Giants didn’t save much money this year, Mulder won’t command the same kind of money Schmidt will when he hits FA after the year. So if they resign him, he is a cheaper option than Schmidt. And you have to worry about things like that when you have A-Rod eating ¼ of your payroll. Grabowski is a good infielder who could start on many teams. McGowan is coming off an injury but he is one of the elite pitching prospects when healthy.

Why the Blue Jays are happy:
They badly needed an elite pitcher to put in the rotation. Ok, they didn’t really need it, but if they want the Devil Rays to take them seriously this year, it had to be done.
------------------------------------------------

It is kind of unfair to judge these trades at this point though. One of these trades could be to help another trade that’s about to be completed…who knows? Some of these trades may have been with a plan of who a particular team plans to go after during free agency.

Of the free agents, Pedro Martinez is no doubt the crown jewel. He is the best player to hit the FA market in FHFS history and it will be interesting to see how the bidding works out.

One team to look at in FA is the lowly Kansas City Royals. They are rumored to have $40-45m to spend, and want to make a splash. After all, they have a lot of fans they need to win back.