Wilpon Owns Up

Fred Wilpon takes responsibility for the inept handling of the Willie Randolph firing:

"I said (to Omar Minaya) 'When are you going to do this?' He said 'After the game (Mets-Angels, June 16).' I wasn't smart enough to say, 'And cut the New York press out of it?' I didn't even think of it," Wilpon said. "I screwed up."

Wilpon said Minaya was concerned the story would leak out if he didn't tell Randolph after the game (the firing went public at 3:18 a.m. New York time).

"I should have said 'Let's balance,'" Wilpon said. "'Either it may leak or why not just do it the next morning? Do it in the morning.' "

The first spin on this was "why did they do it so late?!" The response was "relax, it was only midnight Pacific time." The point, though, that Wilpon seems to now understand, is not that it was rude to Randolph as such -- at least the time wasn't; he was still left to dangle in some important ways -- but that it was rude to fans and the public to do it in a way avoided the press in such a calculated, or at least seemingly calculated way.

I'm not suggesting that teams have some fiduciary responsibility to the press itself, and yes I know they're a private business, but given how much support they get from the people of New York, I think they do have some kind of, I dunno, moral obligation to operate as transparently as possible or at least be straight up with the fans. Firing the field manager is a matter of great public interest to the folks who keep that ballclub afloat, and it just seems right to avoid the kind of secretive nonsense that went down in connection with the Randolph firing.

Following the Marlins' Stadium Battle

I've been pretty negligent following the litigation regarding the Florida Marlins' new stadium going on in Miami right now. Thankfully, there's a guy like Jorge Costales, a Miami CPA who knows it backwards, forwards, and sideways. His blog about it all is here, and if you want detail, he's got it.

I've not gotten through all of it, but I think the best takeaway from it -- even if you don't care about the minutiae -- is Costales' assessment of where this should end up: compromise. In this particular case it makes so much sense for everyone. More generally, however, is the fact that a compromise along the lines Costales advocates (i.e. increasing public access to the facility, some modest increase in public-private revenue sharing, and greater disclosure regarding the nuts and bolts of cost allocation) would set a great precedent for these kinds of projects going forward.

Look, I hate public financing and wish it never happened. People who think like me have largely lost that battle, however, and it's probably time to accept that stadium and arena projects are almost always going to have a large public component. But local governments don't have to bend over like they so often do, and if Norman Braman's lawsuit forces the Miami government to stand up to and demand a bit more from the Marlins in this case, maybe other governments will do so in the future.

Again, check out Costales' blog. He's a great example of what's great about blogs in that he's a smart guy with an extreme depth of knowledge about a particular subject and is willing and able to share it with the rest of us. Schmuck generalists like me and MSM columnists will never be able to match that kind of thing, and without him, no one outside of some die hards would ever know what goes on in this world.

(thanks to Pete Toms -- a guy who should totally be blogging but won't let himself because he's a fraidy cat -- for the link)

Pine Tar

Tyler Kepner looks back at the Pine Tar incident:

Twenty-five years later, it remains one of baseball’s most riveting images: George Brett, eyes bulging with rage, bolting out of the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium, intent on enacting a most primal impulse. He wanted to kill the ump.

The object of Brett’s fury, a quarter-century ago on Thursday, was back in the Bronx this week. It was Tim McClelland, then working his first series at Yankee Stadium and now a respected crew chief. McClelland was the umpire who tried to nullify a crucial home run because Brett had too much pine tar on his bat.

McClelland is a commanding figure, at 6 feet 6 inches, and he said he was not afraid of a rampaging future Hall of Famer.

“I knew he really wasn’t going to hit me or run over me,” McClelland said Wednesday before working third base in the Yankees’ game with Minnesota. “If he did, I’d probably own the Kansas City Royals right now.”

For those of you who are under 30 and don't remember it, I can't overstate just how awesome this incident was at the time it happened. It was replayed constantly on local and national newscasts. People who didn't care a lick about baseball talked about it. And not just the blowup -- they talked about pine tar and the rules and the Royals' protest, and all of it. It was beyond riveting.

I can only imagine what the coverage of this sort of thing would be if it happened today. As it is, SportsCenter and its ilk blow up the littlest stories to outlandish proportions, repeating even the most pedestrian video a hundred times before lunch. Can you imagine what it would be like if, say, Albert Pujols tried to kill Hunter Wendelstedt after Lou Piniella convinced him to take a home run off the board because of an equipment violation?

I think the Internets would asplode.

Teixeira Rumblings

Rosenthal, though admitting it's a long shot, is beating the drum for the Braves to trade Teixeira to the Dbacks in a deal involving Conor Jackson as the main player coming back. That would be great for the Braves -- they simply have no one at first to replace Teixeira going forward -- but they'd have to add stuff for Arizona to give up a really good player whom they control for a while in exchange for a Teixeira rental. But let's face it: the Dbacks are barely treading water in the West, and an addition like Teixeira could end that race before it truly gets going. Stranger things have happened.

All of this hinges, of course, on whether the Braves think they're sellers. I desperately want them to be at this point, though it's not at all clear that the front office feels that way. It goes against every ethical consideration in all of fandom, but I'm sorta hoping that Chipper's hamstring and Hudson's elbow, while not turning out to be serious injuries, keep them on the shelf long enough to make Wren throw in the towel and start trading folks.

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength

Mariners' manager Jim Riggleman, on his DH, Jose Vidro:

Most American League teams use the designated hitter position to stick a little more pop in their lineup. David Ortiz of the visiting Boston Red Sox would be a prime example. But that's not the way the Seattle Mariners approach that part of their team.

"I'm just kind of using it just to try to have some contact in that spot, and maybe be able to move some runners and hit and run and that kind of stuff, get some at-bats for some guys," interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "It's not a classic DH spot where we're looking for our DH to give us 25 to 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, that's just not what we are. So I'm fine with it the way it is."

And what's "the way it is?" Vidro is currently at .229/.274/.333. And what's worse is that he's on pace for 500 at bats this year, so those numbers, such as they are, are solid. What say you, Jim?

"I'm astonished to tell you the truth when I look up and I see Vidro's average is what it is, because I feel like every time he goes up there I'm very confident that he's going to give us a good at-bat," Riggleman said. "And for the at-bats that he has, he's knocked in quite a few runs ... he's been fairly effective in the way we want to use him.

I have no words. Neither does Zumsteg, actually, but he lets his commenters fire away. And frankly, there ought to be laws against the size of the gun FJM is using to shoot these particular fish in this particular barrel.

I think the most perplexing thing about this is why he's saying anything about Vidro, especially considering that the PI is reporting that the Mariners are shopping him. I mean, sure, maybe you want to polish that turd you have in order to enhance any scintilla of value he may retain, but at some point even the used car dealer is gonna level with you.

Cuban Gets Closer?

These things are complicated and the situation changes all the time, but at least out of the gate, Bud Selig's favored bidders for the Cubs aren't cutting the mustard:

Tribune Co. informed would-be buyers of the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field today whether they would be invited to continue in the auction based on last week's initial bids, with at least one previous front-runner seemingly on the outs -- at least for now.

A group led by John Canning, chairman of Chicago private-equity firm Madison Dearborn, valued the Cubs, Wrigley and the team's stake in Comcast SportsNet at far less than the $1 billion or more that the four or five groups team owner Tribune Co. deemed satisfactory to continue, a source with knowledge of the process said.

Canning declined comment.

Sam Zell is no dummy, and he's not going to get sued by shareholders for taking anything other than the highest bid simply because it would make Bud and Co. happy. No word on how Mark Cuban is faring, but you can bet that if his bid wasn't up to snuff we'd know about it.

As for me, though it would be bad for the Cubs and everyone else in the short term, I would love nothing more than a fishy bid process that throws the whole thing into court and eventually torpedoes baseball's antitrust exemption.

Ain't gonna happen, but a boy can dream, can't he?

(Thanks to Chris H. for the link)

And That Happened

Yankees 5, Twins 1: At the Reds game on Tuesday night, there was a trivia question on the board that went "name the four post-1900 pitchers whose last name started with the letter M and who notched 250+ wins." I got Maddux and Mathewson quickly, and after a few seconds I got Morris, but I'll be damned if I couldn't come up with Mussina before they flashed the answer on the board. Which is crazy, actually, considering that (a) he's active; (b) his team is on national TV all the damn time; and (c) he's having something of a renaissance a year after being left for dead, both by me and many others. Moose is 13-6 with a 3.26 ERA. He's got 263 career wins now, and for some reason he still seems to fly under the radar.

Brewers 3, Cardinals 0: CC Sabathia is doing his 1998 Randy Johnson impression, shutting out the cards on three hits over 106 pitches and lowering his post-trade ERA to 1.36. He's simply a beast. My dream matchup this year would be the Sunday, September 28th battle between the Cubs and Brewers with the teams tied for first place and Sabathia facing Zambrano for all of the marbles. Goosebumps, baby! Oh wait, it's almost certain that the loser of such a matchup would win the Wild Card anyway, and depending on how the first round pairings worked out, one team may decide to simply rest everyone, making it one of the most anticlimactic games of the year. DAMN YOU WILD CARD!!

Mets 6, Phillies 3: This is why I tend not to join in those freakout-fests along with everyone else following a game like Tuesday night's loss. The beautiful thing about baseball is that there are so many damn games that hardly a single one is important in and of itself. Big loss? Big deal! They suited up again 24 hours later, the Mets won, and all of the sound an fury in the press and the blogosphere on Wednesday is rendered moot. Query why everyone gets to worked up about thing like that in the first place. Those kinds of reactions should be limited to football where everyone sits around for a week with nothing to do except obsess about the last game. Football sucks, by the way.

Reds 9, Padres 5: I dunno, Greg. 350 is a nice round number. Maybe that's enough. Maybe you don't need these morons in the sand shirts to bring you down any longer. Maybe your career has been too spectacular for you to be expected to have to sit and sweat out another Cla Meredith outing, only to be forced to tell reporters that you don't want to throttle him and his bullpen buddies who keep leaving you with no-decisions. There's golf to be played. Pull a Schmidt and leave mid-season. It just ain't worth it.

Rays 4, A's 3: The A's walked one time in the game. Someone needs to talk to the hitters in this organization about the importance of the base on balls.

Tigers 7, Royals 1: I think that even the Royals fans were hoping that Detroit would put up a ten-spot in the eighth so that they'd get to see Tony Pena again.

White Sox 10, Rangers 8: It wasn't Everyday Eddie's day as Guardado -- with some help from his friends -- coughs up a four run lead late to give the pale hose the win.

Braves 9, Marlins 4: Atlanta beats the Marlins, but loses Chipper to a strained hammy and Hudson to elbow tightness. That sound you hear is Frank Wren finally realizing that it's over, reaching for his cell phone, and calling anyone who might be interested in Teixeira.

Rockies 5, Dodgers 3: Great Brian Fuentes quote regarding all of the trade rumors:

It's kind of like closing -- you've got to block out the external factors, the score, crowd, who's batting. When I'm out there, I don't think about those things. And when I'm not at the park, I'm not thinking about baseball.

If that's literally true -- if he's not thinking about the score or the batter on the mound and he doesn't think about baseball when he's not at the park -- doesn't that mean that he's never thinking about baseball?

Red Sox 6, Mariners 3: A day after Theo noted that, with respect to the bullpen, he was content to dance with the one what brung him, Boston's bullpen goes out puts up 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball. Slow and steady wins the race.

Pirates 8, Astros 7: That's no way to start that pennant run, Houston. Hmm, maybe they just need to trade for a few more veteran pitchers to really give a boost to that stretch run drive.

Cubs 10, Diamondbacks 6: Micah Owings came into a 4-3 game in the 8th inning, and left it 6-3 with the bases loaded. One Reed Johnson grand slam later and it was 10-3. Ladies and gentlemen, your first place Arizona Diamondbacks!

Giants 6, Nationals 4: Bengie Molina: "The beauty of the Western Division is that even though we've played so bad the last couple of weeks, we're still in it. Anything can happen. I've seen it before." Is it gonna happen? Nah. I just can't see it. But it would be perhaps the most awesomest thing ever if the Giants made a serious run at Arizona and L.A.. I think if that happened there would be serious talks about relegating the entire division to AAA in favor of the top five PCL teams or something.

Blue Jays 1, Orioles 1 [SUSPENDED]: I got suspended once. It happened after my buddy Brian Bailey and I thought it would be funny to sign up the VanDevender Jr. High School library up for a subscription to Playboy. I have no idea how we got busted. We only told like ten or twelve other 7th grade boys about it, and I'm sure none of them would have narced us out. I mean, we swore them to secrecy and everything.

Angels 14, Indians 11: Cleveland made the two point conversion but muffed the onside kick, so Phil Dawson never got the chance to tie it up and send it to sudden death. A shame, really.

OK, that kind of wisecrack about an Anaheim game usually causes commenter Daniel to pretend to be offended that I don't pay close attention his Angels. He may not say such a thing this time, however. At least not here, anyway, because Daniel has started his own blog. He's just getting started and it's not uncommon for original intentions to mutate into new things, but for now he's planning on it being mostly Angels' stuff. Daniel has been one of the most active commenters around here, and for keeping the conversations going like that, we should all throw some love his way. Click through and read a bit about how much he loves Howie Kendrick.

Welcome to the Boys' Club

The top sales exec for the worst network on television -- the CW -- has been hired by MLB:

The top sales executive for the limping CW television network -- Bill Morningstar -- is resigning to take a job with Major League Baseball, three people familiar with the situation said Tuesday . . .

. . . In his new role, Morningstar will head up ad sales for Major League Baseball's new cable channel, MLB Network, early next year. The service, which will initially be available in about 50 million homes, including on the digital basic tiers of DirecTV and Time Warner Cable, is scheduled to offer live games, highlights and original programming.

That should be an interesting transition. To the extent the CW is still breathing, it's because of its almost exclusive focus on vapid women's programming. Suffice it to say that the MLB Network's audience will skew a bit more testosteroneful. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that the clients Morningstar will be courting for MLB -- erectile dysfunction manufacturers and beer companies, I presume -- do not overlap all that much with those who shilled on the CW.

Shut It Down, Jorge

Jorge Posada is going to try to rehab the shoulder and continue playing this year. This despite the fact that:

1. He won't be able to catch regardless;

2. The Yankees have a lot of DH/1B types;

3. He's doing this, he says, so he can help the team with his bat, but on the season that bat is posting a .268/.364/.411, which aren't the numbers of a 1B or DH on a playoff team;

4. Delaying the surgery -- I'm going to assume he will eventually need it -- could stretch his rehab into next spring training, thereby getting 2009 off on the wrong foot;

5. All of this is being done, according to the article, under the care of "New York Mets medical director Dr. David Altchek." No word on whether or not he was the one who cleared Ryan Church to play.

Look, I admire Jorge Posada's tenacity and desire, but he is no good to the Yankees unless he is healthy and catching, and based on what others are writing, neither of those things are likely to happen absent him shutting it down for the year.

The Football Bible

The Sporting News relaunch has gone live. Let's see:

• The cover story is about Michael Vick;
  
• The text is in a difficult-to-read and uncopy-and-pastable format, making it blogger unfriendly; and
  
• The football coverage outweighs the baseball coverage by about 2:1

Other than that, aces on the debut, Sporting News!

That's Gotta Hurt

Josh Fogg got an owie:

Josh Fogg will miss his next scheduled start for the Cincinnati Reds because of a split upper lip, suffered when he was hit in the face during batting practice.

The right-hander chipped a tooth and needed 30 stitches to close the wound on Tuesday night. He was playing catch in the outfield, warming up for his between-starts bullpen session, when he was hit by Joey Votto's batted ball. The lip was badly swollen on Wednesday morning, with sutures on a cut running from the lip toward his nose.

I really don't care about the Reds, but man. Their bullpen has been toasted since the break, they're playing a day game today following a night game that went 11, and now they're an arm down. Well, a lip down, anyway.

Sources Say

Jon Heyman has a piece about the potential teams in the CC Sabathia derby this winter. This part struck me:

Five executives who know Sabathia were asked whether they believe he will follow his heart or the money, and there's a split about how heavily he'll lean toward signing with a California team. Two executives opined that he's surely bound for California ("he isn't a New York guy,'' said one) and would be shocked to see him go to the Yankees or any other big-market East Coat team. But three others said some version of "money talks.''

A couple of those executives who think he'll follow the money do tab the Yankees, who have a whopping $88 million in contracts coming off the books, as the favorite to sign the Vallejo, Calif. product. The word from those three executives is that while Sabathia does indeed prefer California, he won't give the California teams a discount.

I take no issue with the analysis as such inasmuch as it is the standard, reasonable way people tend to assess these things. He's from Cali, he wants to stay in Cali. What's up with the hometown discount, etc.? There's really not much more you can do with it absent some kind of inside information from Sabathia or his people regarding his specific intentions.

I guess what vexes me most about the analysis is the decision in the first place to contact "five executives who know Sabathia" to obtain it. Am I crazy, or aren't "executives" precluded from talking about players under contract? Sure they're anonymous here, but it can't be that hard to figure out who the people were given that CC has spent all but a couple of weeks of his career with the Indians. Can't we assume that one of those executives is Shapiro? Maybe another is Melvin? Maybe Neal Huntington is one? Who else would "know him well,"and aren't all of them except for Melvin breaking some tampering rule?

I don't know that I care about that too much -- tampering rules that involve merely talking about a player in general terms seem pretty antiquated and silly to me -- but it does seem that this is the sort of thing GMs aren't supposed to be doing.

Sweet Suite

There's something very wrong about watching a baseball game in a luxury box. It's elitist. It's wasteful. It's actually kind of silly too, when you think about it. But I did it anyway last night, and you would too (and should, actually) if given the opportunity some day. Just don't make a habit of it, because I'm pretty sure it will sap your baseball soul.

My firm's summer law clerks make a trip to the luxury box each year. It's a sales pitch thing, really. Come join The Firm! Enjoy the perks of power! It's not until after they commit that we actually tell them that they'll rarely if ever see great tickets like these again, but that's just how legal recruiting rolls. I have no problem with it, really, because if they want to be good lawyers they will eventually have to learn how to recognize a snow job when they see it. I view this bait-and-switch as a valuable learning experience.

It turns out one of them couldn't make it yesterday, so there was an extra ticket. The woman in charge of organizing the outing could have given it to anyone, but she knows that I am exactly the kind of guy who would drop all of his real responsibilities without a second thought, drive 100 miles, and take in a game. I got the call mid-afternoon and said I'd go. The only barrier to overcome was Mrs. Shyster. She's great of course, and almost always lets me do last minute stuff like this, but blowing off the rest of the day and leaving her to feed, bathe, and put the kids to sleep by herself is never an easy sell because, let's face it, they're monsters. The call always goes like this:

Me: Hi, honey, it's me.

Her: [sound of kids screaming and destroying things in the background] What? What do you want? I can't hear you. KIDS! I AM ON THE PHONE!! OK, go ahead.

Me: Wow, they sound a little jacked up today.

Her: [weary] that's every day. Now what do you want?

Me: [gathering courage]: Um, did you get those errands done you were talking about?

Her: Yes, but the kids have now gotten us banned from every store in the county. Is that online grocery store still in business?

Me: Uh, I dunno. [Going for broke and lying a little] Hey, I need to go to the game tonight down in Cincy. Not my choice, of course. Recruiting thing. Must be responsible and all. The firm expects it. I assume that's cool, right?

Her: [Icy, angry silence. Even the kids are scared speechless].

Me: [Going passive-aggressive because I'm a shameless slimeball] Look, if you don't want me to do this, just say so. I'll call them right now and tell all of those people counting on me to be a responsible mentor and an ambassador for the firm that I simply can't make it.

Her: [probably dialing the divorce lawyer with the other phone]: No, that's fine. [the tone on "fine" is roughly equivalent to an icicle being shoved in your eardrum]

Me: [thinking that I should probably back out at this point; to be a responsible father and husband; to come home like normal that night and be with my family]: Great! I'll run by to grab some clothes and then book it to the game! Thanks for being so understanding! Smell you later! [click].

Don't look at me like that. You'd handle it the same way.

I got hung up at the office for a while, and by the time I was on the road I was really cutting it close. If I hauled ass, though, I stood a puncher's chance of making the first pitch. Things went smoothly until I hit Cincy, where I ran into a big, soul-sucking traffic jam at I-71 and I-275. It was the kind of traffic jam you sit in and think "man, there had BETTER be some dead bodies on the pavement up there, or else I'm gonna be really pissed." Again, I'm not proud of thinking things like that, but admit it, you've had that thought before yourself. At any rate, there were no dead bodies. There wasn't even an accident. The jam just magically disappeared, having lasted just long enough to ensure that I'd miss at least the top of the 1st inning.

But that was OK, because listening to a Reds radio broadcast on WLW is always fun for me. I've covered this before, but Marty Brennaman is so openly hostile to the Reds anymore that it borders on the sublime. Part of me wants to feel sorry for him -- the guy spent the 70s doing play-by-play for the best team in our lifetimes and now he has to cover a squad that includes Corey Patterson in a prominent role -- but the fact is he's just bitter.

Marty didn't disappoint last night. During the pregame he made prominent mention of the fact that Johnny Cueto needs to control his emotions on the mound if he ever wants to be a good pitcher. And Marty's right about that. But you could tell by the tone of his voice that he takes it personally. He's disgusted that Cueto doesn't act like Jack Billingham or Tom Browning or someone, and that he may even lose sleep over it. As if it were scripted, Cueto started the first with two quick strikeouts, and then walked Brian Giles. This apparently upset Cueto who, according to Marty, jumped up and down a couple of times in frustration following the walk. Marty pounced, spittle flying: "That's EXACTLY what I was talking about! That is NOT the kind of emotion this guy needs to be showing if he ever hopes to figure it out. MAN!" Boothmate Thom Brennaman -- who normally piles on along with his old man -- actually came to Cueto's defense. I don't think Thom even really disagreed with his pop as much as he knew it was only the first inning and someone needed to reign in Marty lest he have a coronary.

I made downtown during the bottom of the first, found a garage, and hiked over to the stadium. My firm owns box 109, which is in the "World Series Suites" section, right along the third baseline. I'm not gonna lie to you: it's a sweet suite. Guys hold the door open for you when you enter, and there's a nice spread once you get inside. Hot dogs, hamburgers, salads, barbecue from the Montgomery Inn, cookies, popcorn, peanuts, chips, beer, wine, soda, bottled water, and just about anything else you could imagine wanting during a game. And in case you're too lazy or important to walk the literally six feet over to the setup to grab your own dog and brew, there is a wonderful woman who comes by every five minutes or so to ask what, if anything, she could get for us.

This created obvious mixed feelings on my part. First impulse: "wow, what service!" Second impulse: "wow, how sad that anyone thinks that they need such service!" I actually asked the woman -- nicely and respectfully, mind you -- if people are so lazy that they can't get off their duff and get their own beer. She was a total diplomat and a total pro, noting just how much people enjoy baseball, and how sad it is to have to take one's attention away from the game when she was perfectly willing to assist them in any way she could. If anyone from the Reds organization is reading this, I highly recommend that you give the woman covering Suite 109 last night a hefty raise, because she's totally awesome.

As for decor, there are big comfy leather chairs and flat screen TVs. The main room is air-conditioned, but outside of the glass are 12 or 15 regular stadium seats so you can enjoy the game in open air. If you're wavering on where to watch the game, the fact that they pipe in Marty's play by play in the air-conditioned room tips the balance in favor of going outside.

Not that everyone goes outside. Have you seen that new Miller High Life commercial where the delivery guy comes to confiscate the Champagne of Beers from the luxury box, berating the people for watching the game on TV inside when the real live stadium is just on the other side of the glass? That's pretty damn accurate, actually. Not so much in our suite -- the law students and I haven't been corrupted yet so we mostly watched outside as God intended -- but there were groups gathered around the plasmas inside all of the other suites I could see. Chatting away, sorta-kinda-not-really paying attention to the game. These people, it should be noted, will be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.

I guess the most general lesson I can take from watching a game in a luxury box is that, obviously, where you sit colors your impressions of a stadium. I've been critical of Great American Ballpark in the past, but I came away last night with a much better feeling. This is not to say I liked it merely because I was being spoiled. After all, anyone would give great reviews to a park based on their luxury box experience. Rather, the non-seating-specific things that have always bugged me about the place -- its orientation towards the river instead of the skyline; the riverboat motif in center; the comical over saturation of ads on the outfield walls; the rather bland, cheap, and likely focus-grouped architecture -- didn't really bug me last night. OK, maybe being spoiled did have a lot to do with it. I mean, it's pretty easy to turn a blind eye to the faults of the place when you're sitting above third base drinking free beer. Point is that I'm feeling better towards GAB this morning.

Other highlights:

-- Pete Rose was in the house. He was sitting directly behind home plate, about seven rows up. Someone in the box pointed him out to me. At first I thought he was trying to be low key, as he was wearing shades and a khaki ballcap, but when a stadium camera caught him in fourth inning he stood up, tipped his cap and waved to the crowd. Everone went wild. They absolutely adore that guy in Cincinnati, and I totally understand why. I'm not entirely clear on the parameters of his ban, but my sense is that he should be allowed to do fan ambassador stuff for the team, because it would be great for everyone involved. Maybe MLB could couch at as some community service, work-your-way-back program specifically tailored for Charlie Hustle;

-- Jay Bruce comes to the plate to ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down." That song came out eight years before he was born, so I have no idea why he chose it. If I was a ballplayer and did that I'd be coming up to "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas or something. Damn I feel old;

-- Oh, the game itself? Kinda blah. Johnny Cueto threw over 120 pitches -- striking out ten guys -- but got a no-decision. Peavy was strong for a while, but ran out of gas. After the starters were gone every hitter forgot what they'd ever been taught and just hacked at absolutely everything. In total there were 31 strikeouts in the game, sixteen of which came courtesy of the bullpens. There was a stretch late in the game where seven Reds batters struck out in a row. Stepping inside for a moment I heard Thom Brennaman on the play by play loudly wondering why players aren't ashamed of striking out like they used to be back in the old days. Thom Brennaman is 45. The old days for him were Reggie Jackson, and I don't think he cared all that much. Anyway, all was forgiven when Jeff Keppinger drove in Jay Bruce with a double in the bottom of the 11th to end the game.

In closing, the suite was nice, but it was wrong in some very important ways. For as comfortable as it is, baseball just isn't baseball if you're not trying to flag down a beer guy. Or fighting for arm rest space. Or listening to some yahoo three seats down explaining to everyone that Adam Dunn should "take what the defense gives him" and try to take balls the opposite way. Watching baseball shouldn't be that easy, and at the risk of trafficking in kneejerk populism, I can't help but think that the experience of watching a game should simply be more democratic. I don't feel comfortable being an elite up their in my skybox, even if I enjoyed almost every second of it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go schmooze the managing partner for more suite seats.

And That Happened

But I missed it all.

No recaps this morning folks, because I had something better to do last night: go to a ballgame. The Reds-Padres game to be sure, and I got to sit in a luxury box and everything. Between the 11 innings, the free beer, hot dogs and cookies, and the hour and a half drive back home last night, there's no way I'm going to be able to break down box scores for you in anything approaching an effective manner this morning. In fact, I probably won't be seeing straight for much of the day.

But all is not lost. I expect to have an otherwise normal posting schedule today, so tune back in later this morning. One of the day's posts will be a recap of my experience at the Reds game. All 31 strikeouts of it (man, you should have heard Marty Brennaman bitching about that!). I didn't bring a pad of paper or anything, but I did scribble notes on a cocktail napkin (really), which just goes to show you how pathetic a blogger I have become.

See you shortly.

Dave O'Brien Nails It

What does he nail? The fact that a Teixeira trade -- at least one that will benefit the Braves in any appreciable way -- is very, very unlikely this summer:

Some who’ve talked to Boras about it say he’s sent signals that he’ll ask for $22-23 mill a year in an eight-year deal for Tex. Good luck with that. Can’t see that happening. But if anybody is capable of getting him more than most of us believe Teixeira is worth, it’s certainly Boras, who plays one team against another team, or one offer against another supposed offer from a team that nobody can pin down and many observers will often doubt actually exists.

He’s turned that into art. Offseason art. Not the kind of thing you can pull off in midseason, which is why you don’t see Boras doing the window-to-work-out-a-contract-extension thing with his clients. By that I mean, if the Braves had a deal with, say, the Angels in place that depended upon the Angels first coming to an agreement on a long-term contract extension with Teixeira, well, I can’t see Boras agreeing to do that. Can’t see that at all.

Because what team would he use as leverage? What offer could he say he’s received from this team or that, in July?

That is certainly fits with previous things we've heard about Boras posturing with phantom offers. With no signing window as a trade contingency, the Braves won't get much value for Teixeira, and in that case they may as well let him walk and take the pics.

Assuming, that is, that Braves' management is finally over the Maddux anomaly of 2003 when, I'll be, a Boras client accepted arbitration. I can't see any reason on the planet why Teixeira would do that, so if the Braves don't offer arbitration, well, God help them.

UPDATE: Many of you have forwarded me the FJM post taking apart the very same Dave O'Brien column linked here. For the record, I don't disagree with much of anything they say there. To the extent O'Brien nails anything here, it's the analysis of Boras' m.o. In my opinion, his assessment of Teixeira the player -- he of no big hits and back carrying goodness -- is about as ridiculous as FJM says it is.

Consider the Orioles

Baltimorian Russ Smith knows why people aren't paying much attention to the Orioles' steady improvement -- they're a little boring and the better-than-expected role has been filled admirably by Tampa Bay this year -- but he wants folks to notice these guys all the same:

Although I’m a Bosox fan, I live in Baltimore, work with a few guys who favor the O’s and attend a lot of games at Camden Yards, and this is, in fact, a pretty interesting turnaround in what was expected to be a complete rebuilding season directed by the franchise’s impressive president Andy MacPhail.

. . . MacPhail doesn’t have an easy job trying to resurrect the franchise that aging owner Peter Angelos did his best to destroy, but he’s making more progress than anyone expected at this point in his tenure.

I lived in D.C. and made many trips to Camden Yards and the city at large back when I was in law school, and I can tell you that Baltimore is a great, great town that wants badly to love its baseball team again. To the extent MacPhail is making that possible -- and to the extent Angelos stays the hell out of the way and lets him -- it's a very very good thing indeed.

Baseball's WMDs

Two weeks ago I noted how MLB may very well be trying to overstate the impact of Dominican free agent bonus skimming in order to make the case for an international draft. The ever watchful Pete Toms points out that Selig is indeed beating that drum:

In the midst of a scandal involving scouts from multiple teams and other club officials "skimming" bonuses from Latin-American players, Selig said MLB continues to look into the possibility of a worldwide draft. The draft is currently confined to the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

"I don't think it's any secret that support for a worldwide draft is growing amongst all baseball people," Selig said. "I've had a lot of people, including a significant number of general managers, say to me in the last couple of months that they wish we had a worldwide draft. I think that's something we will discuss in the future."

As I noted before, the skim scandal bears no direct relationship to the imposition of a draft. The scandal is a criminal matter borne of careless accounting and communication practices. A draft is, ideally anyway, a mechanism for depressing salaries and bonuses. Teams can completely control and account for the bonuses being given to Dominican players absent a draft. Likewise, team officials could still skim bonus money even if those bonuses were handed out incident to a draft as opposed to a free agent signing. The issue is oversight, not structure.

My gut tells me that baseball was completely fine with whatever was happening down on the Island -- maybe even the skimming -- as long as the bonuses stayed low. Now they're not so low anymore, and thus baseball feels the need to do something about it. Simply imposing a draft on a straight-up basis would be unpopular and politically difficult, so baseball needs a hook. The skim is that hook. A red herring -- baseball's version of the WMDs -- given more play than is warranted so that baseball can say it is addressing criminal exploitation when, in reality, it's simply trying to prevent the next Michel Inoa from happening.

Will it work? If recent history has shown, Selig tends to get what he wants, so maybe we'll see such a Dominican draft sometime soon. Hopefully not too soon, however, because the Rule IV draft is itself rife with inefficiencies and problems. Indeed, if Selig isnt' careful he may, in the rush to prevent the next Michel Inoa, create many, many Rick Porcellos.

Youse Guys Wanna Go Play Stickball?

Not as much sandlot baseball is being played these days:

Sandlot baseball, a slice of American life enjoyed for decades by boys from coast to coast, appears on the verge of extinction.

Many men over 40 remember those summer days when they headed to the park or vacant lot and played ball all day - or until Mom sent word that it was time for dinner.

Nowadays, most neighborhood ball fields sit empty on summer afternoons, the idea of unsupervised play having gone the way of the rotary-dial phones kids once used to round up the fellas for a game. The reasons for the sandlot's demise, baseball coaches and sociologists say, go back to the changing family structure, video games, parents' fear of crime, and the proliferation of organized and so-called "select" teams for more-talented kids.

One of the rules I live by is to be skeptical of any article that features the word "nowadays," as it is almost always a signal that there is some seriously sentimental bullshit ahead.

And there is some of that here. The cliché holding that there once was a time not too long ago when every kid played ball from sunup to sundown is pretty overplayed. Yeah, I suppose it happened, but in my experience (and my father's and even his father's) it wasn't quite so intense. Sure, pickup ballgames were played, but forts were built too. Water balloons were thrown. Piano lessons were endured. Kids went to the movies when it was hot and bummed around aimlessly just as much as kids today do, albeit in different ways. I'd be shocked if even your average baseball freak played more than a partial game most summer afternoons, simply because most kids don't tend to have that kind of attention span. The few who did turned into George Brett or Carlton Fisk or someone like that, and they were playing organized ball themselves even then.

But even if things ain't quite like they used to be (and probably never were), there probably is less sandlot ball being played today. Writers tend to get more articles greenlighted when they chalk such trends up to just how crazy modern life has become -- citing video games and overscheduled kids is a must -- but my guess is that the biggest thing at work here is the fact that people just aren't having as many kids as they used to. At least white middle class people aren't, and they are the only people who ever seem to matter to the authors of stories like these.

Baseball takes a lot of people to play properly. In my old neighborhood you could place a call to the Hogarths, the Freiheits, and the Byrnes, and that would give you like twelve kids. That was strange even for the 70s, but it's pretty much unheard of now. It's just easier to play basketball as you can do it with two people or even by yourself if you have to.

I'm a pretty big proponent of unstructured play, but part of me wonders what would've happened to me if I had the kinds of parents who obsessed about sports and put me in some hyped-up baseball program at a young age as opposed to letting me simply play with the Hogarths, Freiheits, and Byrnes. Maybe my swing wouldn't have sucked as bad as it did. Maybe I would have had better fielding instincts. Then again, maybe I would have topped out physically in exactly the same way I did and ended up as a bitter and disappointed kid as opposed to adopting the "oh well, let's try something new" attitude I took when I realized that a baseball career wasn't to be.

The point is, we can't know, and it's probably a good idea not to dwell too much on the wouldas, shouldas, and used to bes of life. Kids are doing different things today, sure, but their kids will be doing something else too, and on and on through history it will go, with each generation lamenting that the next doesn't spend its time properly.

(link via Pete Toms)

Do They Handle Direct-to-Video Distribution Too?

If he weren't hitting .319/.398/.592 some might wonder if A-Rod's head was in the game:

The William Morris Agency bolstered its sports management business Monday by signing Alex Rodriguez as a client. The New York Yankees star and frequent tabloid piñata will continue to use Scott Boras as his baseball agent and Guy Oseary as his manager.

The global talent agency, which represents Hollywood heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, will work to expand Mr. Rodriguez’s portfolio of corporate endorsements. Of particular interest to Mr. Rodriguez, who is not likely to seek another baseball contract, are foreign deals.

Foreign deals? For relaxing times, make it Suntory time!

Posada May Be Out For The Season

He's been a great catcher and he seems like a great guy -- and you know this killing him -- but this is the sort of thing you risk when you sign a 36 year-old catcher to a multi-year deal:

Jorge Posada, the proud Yankees catcher whose throwing has been obviously impaired by a labrum injury, said he is considering season-ending shoulder surgery. Posada will have a magnetic resonance imaging test on Tuesday to assess the extent of the damage to a shoulder problem that will not go away . . .

. . . Posada said this surgery would be more intensive than his last surgery, which occurred after the 2001 season. He was ready for spring training the next February, but he said the surgery this time could carry a six-month recovery period. Having surgery now could be Posada’s only option to start 2009 healthy.

I know everyone in Yankeeland would prefer this not to happen, but with Molina playing as well as he has been -- and with the team really needing a 100% Posada over the next couple of years of that deal -- it seems like a no-brainer to shut him down.