Least surprising news ever

So, Sammy Sosa tested positive back in 2003 along with Alex Rodriguez. The news of this comes out only a few short weeks after Sosa went public, lobbying for his place in the Hall of Fame.

In an interview with ESPN Deportes at the beginning of June, Sosa said,

"Everything I achieved, I did it thanks to my perseverance, which is why I never had any long, difficult moments [as a baseball player]. If you have a bad day in baseball, and start thinking about it, you will have 10 more," Sosa said in his first public comments in months.

"I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don't I have the numbers to be inducted?"

...

"I always played with love and responsibility, and I assure you that I will not answer nor listen to rumors," Sosa said. "If anything ugly comes up in the future, we will confront it immediately, but with all our strength, because I will not allow anybody to tarnish what I did in the field."

Coincidence that his name gets leaked three weeks after he begins to lobby for the Hall? I think not.

The only two places this could be coming from are either the Union, or the Justice Department which forced baseball to turn over the list. My guess is that it's being leaked by someone in Justice.

At this point he can pretty much kiss the Hall goodbye as he definitively has joined the ranks of McGwire, Palmeiro, Clemens, and A-Rod as players whose artificially inflated numbers are being viewed with either increased or overwhelming skepticism.

Typically, I'm not big on comparing players from different eras in baseball, but this is different. Everything is skewed from about 1990ish on. Some players used PEDs, some didn't. But it should change how players are viewed, and this most recent era almost demands we consider how these players would have done in earlier eras. And I don't think they would hold up well.

We have lived through an era that should make anyone who knows the history of the game appreciate those who came before much more. Appreciate Roger Maris and Hank Aaron, Ted Williams and Babe Ruth all the more for knowing they did it not only without things like steroids and HGh, but without the diluted pitching that sluggers have faced for the last two decades.

Does anyone really believe that without steroids and facing the likes of Sandy Koufax, or Tom Seaver, or Don Drysdale in their primes that Jason Giambi would have anywhere near the same number of career homers? Barry Bonds? Alex Rodriguez?

We live in an era where pitchers average only about six innings per outing, in spite of the fact that they get an extra day of rest from the five man rotation as opposed to the four man rotation that was popular 40 and 50 years ago. As recently as the 1970's and early 80's a horse was a pitcher who threw 250 to 300 innings in a season. Now if a pitcher hits 200 innings he's the horse of a rotation.

At one point the Orioles had four 20 game winners in one season. There were four in all of baseball last season. That staff (1971 Orioles) also accounted for 70 complete games. Last season it took 21 pitchers to combine for that many complete games.

On a lighter note -

David Ortiz is actually hitting over .300 for the month of June and has raised his batting average by 22 points. I'm still a little skeptical given the fact that he has always hit the Yankees well for his career and he's currently facing the Marlins after facing the Tigers and Rangers. The only one of those teams with decent pitching is Detroit. Otherwise, the Yankees are 26th, the Marlins 22nd, and the Rangers are 17th in team ERA.

I'm not saying that I'm not happy about this streak, I'm just saying that I'm hoping it's not just a streak. I will feel a whole lot better if Ortiz can get that batting average up to around .240, particularly given the fact that I sincerely believe that Varitek will go into his usual cool down mode as summer heats up.

It is possible that facing the weak pitching is exactly what Big Papi needs to break him out of his funk, but give it to the All-Star Break before you get too excited. In other words, be happy for now, but if he takes a hard left turn back to where he was, don't be surprised. I'm hoping he doesn't - call it cautious optimism.

As for the potential of the Sox going to a 6 man rotation - it's something I think might help Daisuke Matsuzaka given that he pitched in a 6 man rotation in Japan. Otherwise, I don't know how beneficial this will be to the rest of the staff given the fact that it looks like everyone else has begun to hit a rhythm.

Final note - The Australian football team on which I play, the Baltimore/Washington Eagles kicked off their season with a 105-15 win over the Columbus (OH) Jackaroos. This upcoming weekend is an off-week before we head on up to New York to play the Magpies in Yonkers.

Taking five between freelance

I'm in the middle of an editing assignment after cranking through deadlines for an article on an upcoming blues festival and one for my usual gig with the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, both of which were due on Tuesday. Right now I'm editing a press release for a DC area financial firm, and I needed five or ten minutes to decompress from the financial terms and occasional government speak that permeate the piece I'm working on.

So, just some quick observations -

• Were the Twins pitchers aware that they were not throwing batting practice? Sox hitters, overall for that final game of the series, batted .500. The only Sox player without a hit was rookie Jeff Bailey who was pinch ran and took over in left field (take Bailey's one at bat out of the equation and the Sox hit .511 and the next worst in-game average is Brandon Moss' 1 for 5, .200 performance). At the other end of the spectrum was Jacoby Ellsbury who hit a gaudy .667, leading a contingent of players that include Kevin Youkilis, Manny Ramirez (way to bust that slump), and Sean Casey, who hit at least .600 for the game.
• Making the 23-hit assault even more amazing for the Sox is the fact that Twins pitchers walked only two during the game and the Sox only left seven men on base. The Twins, on the other hand, left 12 men on base.
• If someone had told be before this homestand that both Jon Lester and Josh Beckett were going to give up five earned a piece, I would have said the Sox were going to lose at least one of those.
• The Red Sox now stand only two games behind the Rays. With the Rays on the road tonight, and emulating the Sox "great at home, suck on the road model," there's every chance that the Sox will be starting their series against the Orioles only one-and-a-half back.
• Speaking of the Rays, their final game of the two-game set against the Yankees in the Bronx was Mustache Day, with the Bombers giving away porn-staches to their patrons in honor of their best offensive force - Jason Giambi. I can't help wondering if with the 'staches, they gave away little vials marked, "steroids."
• On an off-the field note, letters to writers like the majority of these tend to sadden me, and sometimes anger me. A quick background - Yahoo! writer Tim Brown wrote a piece on Kim Ng and her chances at a GM position. Some of his responses were like this -

Of course, she played shortstop all those years in Montreal and the outfield for the Marlins, sure she’s qualified. As soon as she can play in AA she can make those decisions. She has just as much an idea as I do what it’s like to play in majors. Please, as a Diamondbacks fan, I hope the Dodgers give her the job next week!

Scott
Los Angeles

As a Diamondbacks fan, you probably also know your GM (Josh Byrnes, who is one of the bright and creative minds in the business) didn’t play professional baseball.

For my money, I don't give a rats ass if my team's GM is male, female, a multi-sexual alien from the planet Playtex, a former hooker, or a handicapped, left-handed monkey with libertarian leanings and communist parents. Hell, I'll even live with one whose last name is Steinbrenner, as long as they can evaluate talent and put together a winning team. Anyone that puts any weight on any other factor than the concept, "can the person put together a winning team," is a moron.

And the idea that they had to play on a professional level like this idiot intimated, is beyond the pale. Theo Epstein, Brian Cashman, Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, Bill Parcells, Jerry Jones, Bill Polian, and Rays GM Andrew Friedman never got paid to play their respective sports professionally. And that's just a small segment of talent evaluators that never drew a paycheck to play the sports they're involved in. Then there's the flipside - Kevin McHale, Isiah Thomas, Matt Millen - all Hall-Of-Fame players, with only McHale coming close to putting together a contender as GM's (and he's put together six of thirteen seasons of teams that went .500 or worse).

Four thoughts about recent events

With the exception of Matsuzaka, the pitching and defense remained a problem for the Red Sox in their three game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. That said, the hitting has come around - Hell, David Ortiz has heated up, and last among the regulars with a .250 batting average.
Here are some numbers for the rest of the American League to consider - the Sox lead the majors with a .295 team batting average, hits (472) and a .461 slugging percentage, and lead the AL in On Base Percentage (.366), Runs Batted In (228), and Runs (239). If the bullpen solidifies and the rest of the pitching staff solidifies, it's going to be a long season for the challengers in the AL East.

I've read about a lot of different things done to bust out of a slump, but I never needed to know about Jason Giambi and his gold thong. What's more, I never needed to know that Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter have worn his thong.
That's right, the Yankees have shared underwear that is essentially butt-floss. Even by my standards...ew.

Staying on the Yankees, as always, the team was a popular choice to win the AL East. They were picked along with the Tigers and Mariners by some. All three are dead last in their respective divisions, and the best of them (record-wise), the Yanks, would remain in last even if they swapped divisions with the last place team in any other division in baseball.
The flip side for the Yankees - they're at 20-24 through 44 games this season...exactly where they were this time last year. Unfortunately, their pitching is no better than it was this time last year either.

The Bengals released Odell Thurman. Not a big surprise, the team has finally decided to do some house cleaning, getting rid of troubled wide-out Chris Henry, and now Thurman who just came off a two year suspension.
Thurman will likely get one last shot, probably on a team like the Raiders and at the veteran minimum, bit the veteran linebacker has effectively destroyed any of the real market value of his talent by being a complete butt-head off the field.
When the Bengals are cleaning house, it is, in essence, a new day in the NFL, and boneheads like Henry, Thurman, and Adam Jones need to pay attention because all that money they thought they were going to have is going to evaporate in a hurry.

Halfway to the post-season

After 82 games the Boston Red Sox are 51-31 and on a pace for 102 wins this season. At the writing of this, the Angels (51-31) were losing to Texas and the Indians (50-32) were locked in a tie with Detroit. If the score remains the same in the Angels game and no matter the result of the Indians, then the Sox retake the mantle of having the best record in baseball.

The Sox owe this to two things, being in the top six in hitting in spite of carrying the light hitting Julio Lugo (.191), and players like JD Drew, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz hitting below their career averages. The other - their pitching. Currently they're tied for fourth in team ERA at a 3.71 (not including tonight's game). After tonight's win, Daisuke Matsuzaka is the team's second ten game winner, joining Josh Beckett (11-2), and the team has three pitchers with at least eight wins (Tim Wakefield at 8-8).

With their ten game cushion, and an injury to the recently surging Coco Crisp, the Sox have been able to audition prospect Jacoby Ellsbury at the major league level. With David Murphy available at Pawtucket, one has to question why Ellsbury was promoted.

Was it with the idea to increase his trade value in order to make a big splash before the trade deadline?

Was it to audition him for the majors in order to see how expendable Crisp is?

If it's the former, then the Sox can expect flak for that trade given the play he made on the passed ball against Texas. If it's the latter, then the Sox are acknowledging that the future is now in their quest for a second World Series title this decade.

Considering the way the offense has sputtered lately, the latter might not be a bad thing. Ellsbury may very well provide the Sox the spark they have been needing as well as the true lead-off hitter they have been missing. He may even succeed in taking the pressure on Lugo, which in turn might allow Lugo to get back on track.

201 - looking back and looking forward...

Well, I had hoped to run an interview here with Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley about Drew Bledsoe's place in NFL and Patriots history. We have corresponded on the subject several times, and I am still hoping that he will be able to do the interview. That said, I have a Q&A I did with Steve Sabol a couple of years ago hidden away somewhere on a cassette in my hard files that - should I find it, I will transcribe it and post it here.

Let's see - let's do the quick hits before looking back...

*The aging Schilling is continuing his Jeckyll and Hyde-like season, following a good outing with a bad one. However, it is encouraging that it looks like Wakefield might have turned the corner and be on the verge of one of his streaks.

*What has happened to Red Sox hitting over the last week? A pitching deficient team like the Rockies (team leader in ERA 3.81, team ERA 4.51) comes to town and holds the Sox (BA .374) to a combined four runs in two games? Are you kidding me?

*I realize that Coco Crisp played much of last year injured, but this is Crisp's fifth year in the bigs, and it appears that he is going backwards. Maybe he just can't stand the pressure of playing in front of the frenzied throngs at Fenway a la Edgar Renteria, but the one thing that is becoming obvious - Crisp is just not an everyday player for the Sox.

*At least one thing I read about the Patriots training camp this past weekend concerns me about Randy Moss. There has been a lot of fanfare trumpeting his arrival at the Razor, but it seems that some writers have noted that Moss is consistently the last one in his group (the receivers) to finish drills - the last in sprints, and seldom showed anything in practice (but when he did, many members of the press oohed and ahhed accordingly).

If this is what Moss thinks will fly in New England, we have a very interesting game of chicken that's about to start between him and the Patriots brain trust.

*Anybody else curious about what Roger Goodell told Pacman Jones in the meeting that preceded Jones dropping his appeal? I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.

* Speaking of problem children - is it just me, or does it sound like things are about to either heat up, or fall apart in the federal quest for an indictment of Barry Bonds, heat up for Michael Vick, and am I the only one that heard about Bud Selig maybe considering possibly suspending Jason Giambi if he doesn't cooperate with the Mitchell investigation and thought, "wow, Hell of a backbone you're showing there Mr. Commissioner."

Anyone else think that Selig is the sort of guy at a restaurant that orders one thing, then as he hands the menu back, tells the waiter, "uh...no, how about" something else, and then gives yet another order before the server manages to walk away? Just me?

A quick look back...

I graduated from Emerson College in Boston's Back Bay in the early 1990's with a degree in writing and a minor in film. What does one do with a writing degree?

Well, for a year I worked for the City of Boston's Public Facilities Department in the first time home buyers program. I then moved on to approximately four years working in marketing, moved to Philadelphia where I spent five years teaching (while getting freelance writing and editing gigs, including a gig as the interim assistant sports editor of one of the suburban weeklies just outside of Philly), and eventually ended up in Maryland as the business writer for the Frederick Gazette, a subsidiary of the Washington Post.

I was never fond of business writing and have since moved on from that (I currently am the Maryland columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, and the Media Relations manager for the United States Australian Football League), and at the time had been offered a chance to come on board as a sports writer (which I turned down due to the evening hours combined with the fact that I wanted to be able to see my then two-year old daughter grow up). Rather than go through my blog to identify pieces I'm particularly fond of here which I did in post 150, I thought it might be more interesting to cover some of the articles that got into the various papers.

Here are a handful of articles that I am particularly proud of (all of which in my mind bear some sort of blemish, but I think we're always hardest on our own work), and all are sports related -

1. Coverage of the Rick Block Classic memorial basketball game.

2. The first day I was working at the South Philly Review, I was asked to do a story on a school closing, this is what I ended up with. It was not exactly the easiest first day in the world, but still better for me than for the subject. I hope the family and friends are healing.

3. Not my best writing, but I have always liked this piece I wrote about the Philadelphia Liberty Belles women's football team.

4. This time last year, the local bicyclers were heady over the prospect of Floyd Landis challenging in the Tour de France due partially to the fact that Frederick County, MD was where Landis cut his teeth as a mountain biker when younger. It's interesting to watch the way everyone interested in cycling is waiting with great anticipation to see how everything turns out.

5. A rant that I wrote for the folks over at Bitterfans about Hall of Fame voting in the NFL.

There are others I could have posted, some of which, for whatever reason never made it onto the web (I always liked my preview of the Red Sox 1996 season that I did for the now defunct Boston Chronicle, however far off I might have been), but these are some of the ones I am particularly fond of.

As readers may have noticed, I have been much more prolific this year than in past years as I might approach 200 posts in this year alone, not counting my other blogs Gibbering Idiot Press (entertainment, comics, sci-fi, horror), WiredFrederick (local interest to where I live), and In The Ruck (Australian football in the US). If I ever find the tape I made of the interview with Steve Sabol, I will make sure it gets posted...couching it in the year that the interview actually happened (which might have been in 2002).

Peace.

The Dirty Dozen...and a half

Twelve reasons the Yankees are languishing behind the Red Sox

Currently the Red Sox are leading the AL East by 11.5 games over the Baltimore Orioles, 12 over the Toronto Blue Jays, and 12.5 over New York. As the Yankees were a chic pick to finish atop the AL East amongst many of the sports writers out there and the two teams have been inexorably linked since Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees, I want to address twelve reasons why the Bronx Bombers find themselves twelve-plus games back.

1. Keeping up with the Soxes: In order to keep up with Boston's personnel moves, George Steinbrenner mandated trading the farm for his own "OWGA" (Old White Guy Ace), in acquiring Randy Johnson (in order to keep up with the Schilling acquisition). Problem was, Schilling had more left than Johnson, and Brian Cashman worked hard to replenish the depleted farm system. Unfortunately, between injuries and youth, the now replenished farm system is not yet ready for prime time.

2. Health: This goes back to the OWGA's, and to the now fired strength and conditioning guy. The Bommahs have had injuries to key starters in the field and in the rotation - Johnny Damon, Jorge Posada, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang...the list goes on. While not all have gone on the DL, it has resulted in sub-par play, and sub-par starting pitching.

3. The Yankees Dirty Dozen: When Roger Clemens joins the rotation in about a week, it will make the twelfth starter the Yanks have had in the rotation this year. Of the Yankees' 22 wins on the season, only 14 have come from the starters (for perspective, the Red Sox' Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka combined have 14 wins). Their best starter has been Andy Pettitte against whom the AL is batting at a .268 clip. How long could his sub-3.00 ERA last if he's not fooling the batters.

4. Abreu being Abreu: Last year for two months after being acquired by the Phillies, Bobby Abreu had (arguably) the best two months of his career. Talk to Phillies fans...the real Bobby Abreu has just stood up.

5. The Bullpen stops here: If there has been one historical criticism of Joe Torre, even in the team's World Series years, it has been his handling of the pitching staff, particularly when and how to use his relievers. Unfortunately his starting pitching has been so bad that he has had to use his bullpen to excess.

6. The Rocket is the Answer: Never mind that Allen Iverson is the answer (and that I have no idea then what the question is), The Yankees answer to their pitching woes is to sign a 44 year old power pitcher who was barely able to maintain a 4.00 ERA during his last go-around in the AL, averaged only six innings per game in the weaker NL, and is two years older than the last time he pitched in the AL...well, you get where I'm going. I guess the bullpen will live by the "no rest for the wicked" credo.

7. Hideous No Mo: Ever since 2004 lights out closer Mo Rivera has been a crap shoot against the Red Sox, blowing saves in the early season series this year against the Sox who have a higher batting average as a team against Mariano than any other team in the majors.

8. Unity/Chemistry: Maybe a little overrated in baseball, but the fact of the matter is that Jeter doesn't like A-Rod, management is unhappy with Giambi, reliever Kyle Farnsworth doesn't like Clemens' special treatment...and those are just the situations we know. Steinbrenner went out and bought a lot of talented, shiny baubles that might not necessarily all fit together. He lacks that Alex Cora/Dave Roberts-type guy off the bench that becomes a fan favorite not because he's talented, but because he's the hard-nosed get my uniform dirty guy that makes things happen when he gets in the game.

9. The Sox Future Rotation: Right now the core of the Red Sox future is making the future the present...Matsuzaka and Beckett (the same number of wins as all Yankees starters combined) are the cornerstones of the future pitching staff, and right now the Sox have top rated pitching prospects in excess at AA and AAA ball. The Yankees have Wang who suddenly seems unsure of himself, and an injured Philip Hughes. Sure, Beckett is on the DL, but this season they will be getting Jonathan Lester as their fifth guy in the rotation, and will be faced with who to trade and who to keep amongst pitchers named Delcarmen, Buchholz, Gabbard, and at least two others that buzz is only now beginning to surface about.

10. Quality Starts: Even when the Sox starters are getting roughed up early as they have been lately, they are still making it into, and typically to at least the end of the sixth inning. The Yankees have only recently even raised the average number of innings from their starters to five innings per start.

11. Bench contributions: See some of what was written under the heading Unity, but also consider the following: The Red Sox and the Yankees are currently tied with a .277 team batting average. The Yankees have Posada, Jeter and A-Rod among the top five in hitting. A-Rod is showcasing his power like never before for his contract opt-out. The Red Sox still haven't seen a hot Manny Ramirez, JD Drew is struggling with a batting average hovering around .220, their lead-off guy, Julio Lugo, is struggling as much this year as Coco Crisp was last year...yet their offense right now is keeping pace with the Yankees offense.

12. One Full Run: The Yankees team ERA is more than one full run higher than the Red Sox. The Sox are in the top five in the league in team ERA, the Yankees are in the bottom five. It doesn't matter how good your offense is if your pitching can't hold a lead.

More quick hits

In the news for all the wrong reasons...again
It seems my favorite Atlanta Falcon punching bag, the highly over-rated quarterback Michael Vick appears to have run afoul of the law...again, this time he has been implicated in a drug probe which has revealed, at the very least, some sort of indirect support of the illegal practice of dog fighting at a home Vick owns in Virginia. Currently a 26-year old relative who was being investigated as a drug dealer in a narcotics probe lives at the home.

According to the report, "more than 60 dogs were found in three buildings. Some appeared malnourished, scarred and injured, officials said."

Unfortunately, since Vick was not there...and I don't believe this would be his primary residence, I have a hunch that this will provide him with plausible deniability, allowing him to walk away from this dog fighting and what is yet another drug-related scandal unscathed.

I think it's interesting that trouble always seems to be hovering around this guy - whether it's as Ron Mexico, flipping off the fans, or being detained at an airport...not to mention the MySpace photos with a girlfriend and the marijuana use comments contained therein. Sure, to be fair one has to ask, "is he an innocent target?" or, "is he somebody that keeps putting himself in position to be a target?"

Just plain sloppy...
Orioles announcer and Maine native son Gary Thorne screwed up...bad. Assuming he heard Doug Mirabelli right and Mirabelli did actually say that it was paint on Schilling's sock, as someone who has worked professionally as a journalist for over a decade, here are the questions I have -

If the story is true...
1. When he first heard this, as he claims, two years ago (to the best of his recollection), as a journalist why didn't he follow up on this and get confirmation? There were plenty of potential sources to confirm -

A. First baseman Doug Mankiewicz who had a very acrimonious departure from the Red Sox.

B. Former Sox center fielder Johnny Damon.

C. Former Sox first baseman Kevin Millar.

D. The doctor, Bill Morgan, who performed the procedure and later was fired by the Red Sox.

Those are the ones off the top of my head. Keith Foulke comes to mind as well.

2. Mirabelli has a reputation as a practical joker - always has had that reputation. Wouldn't that make it more important to a reporter to confirm a story?

3. Most importantly, why would any reporter sit on a story like this for two years?

Red Sox fan or no, as a journalist I know that's something I'm working on getting out quickly and I'm making sure I have corroboration for my story. This was just sloppy and irresponsible.

28th and wondering where to go...
Right now the Red Sox are third in the majors in ERA (3.21), the Yankees 27th (4.83), the Yankees are 4th in batting average (.275), the Sox are 13th (.259). However, from the 7th inning on the Sox are 5th (.277), and the Yanks are 8th (.263) in batting and the Sox are tied for 2nd in ERA (1.83) while the Yanks are 28th (5.03). All of this has translated into the best record in baseball for the Red Sox heading into the final weekend of April. For the Yankees? A better record than only the Royals, Rangers, Nationals, and Cubs. Technically, that leaves them in 28th overall in the bigs.

How loud will the thus far quiet George Steinbrenner become if the Yankees extend their losing streak against the Red Sox this weekend? If they are swept again? If they lose two of three?

It could get really ugly really soon in the Bronx.

I know that the Yankees started like this last year, but last year they had a deeper bench and the Red Sox pitching wasn't as good as it is this year. They can turn it around. The question is, will they in time?