And That Happened -- All-Star Game Liveblog Edition

AL 4, NL 3: Since I'm posting this after the game has ended, I shouldn't really call this a live blog. It's more of a "filmed in front of a live studio audience" blog. Rest assured, however, that I typed all of this as events unfolded and didn't go back and change anything.

INTRO

James Earl Jones? Man, they're not kidding around with this Yankee Stadium Is Really Important stuff.

RED CARPET PARADE

Why I watched this silliness I have no idea, but I did.

Dennis Eckersley: still rocking the mullet after all of these years. That's gutsy. I like it.

Whitey Ford: I hope he was pulling Grace's leg when he said that he couldn't remember the 1960 World Series ("How'd we make out?"), but I'm not entirely sure.

A-Rod: Completely incapable of banter. And he stole Jeter's line about not wanting to say what he's going to take from Yankee stadium because he planned to steal it. He's such a great player that I so want to like him, but he just makes it impossible.

The baseball luminaries are riding in 100 Chevy Silverados. Baseball's carbon footprint is taking a beating this evening.

This thing reminds me of the Macy's parade. I hope I didn't tune in too late to see the David Wells balloon.

Reggie Jackson: Do people in Oakland get mad that Reggie never seems to acknowledge his time with the A's? It's always New York, New York, New York. Dude won three rings in Oakland. What gives?

Adam Rubin, the "Take Me Out the Ballgame" contest winner gave what was perhaps the worst rendition of the song I have ever heard. My son does a version of it making nothing but fart noises and it sounded better than that.

Mike Schmidt: He's talking about the "National League dominance" of the All-Star game back when he played and his desire for it to return, and he sounds quite serious. What has happened to this game? Back then it allegedly didn't count, so why doesn't anyone seem to care all that much about it anymore?

Ernie Banks holding Fukudome's baby daughter is probably the Cubs picture of the year.

Mars Blackmon has put on a bit of weight over the past 20 years, hasn't he?

PREGAME

All of the Hall of Famers from the parade assembled out in left field before the game. Fun Fact: If a bomb went off in left right now, Cookie Rojas would officially be The Greatest Living Baseball Player.

Holy cow, does Gaylord Perry look bad. Bob Feller looks younger than he does. Seriously kids, stay away from the spitballs, they'll suck your life force away.

I'm a bit surprised at how tepid the applause for Steinbrenner-on-the-golf-cart was. Sure, there's a lot of reason to hate the guy, but isn't that pretty much water under the bridge at this point? Especially in New York? The only guy I know who still holds anything against Big Stein is Repoz.

THE GAME

Starts at 8:47pm. I think they needed to add a few more Hall of Famers to make the pregame an even hour. Sheesh.

First Inning

Cliff Lee strikes out Ramirez and Utley. If he gets Foxx, Simmons, and Cronin next he'll make history. Berkman flies out. Oh well.

Jeter steals second after getting a man-sized jump off Ben Sheets. Someone should tell Ben that this game counts.

Second Inning

A-Rod's white shoes are a bold choice, but it is before Labor Day, so they're fair game I suppose.

Sheets drops an F-bomb after walking Milton Bradley. I take it back. He does care.

Milton Bradley steals second. That's surprising, especially given the ACL and everything. Is Francona turning them loose or are they freelancing?

Ned Yost is at home watching Ben Sheets throw 42 pitches and not enjoying it one bit.

Third Inning

Japanese characters for Fukudome's name and stat graphics. Cute.

Yogi Berra just called Joe Buck "Jack." Yogi seems lucid, so it can't be a medical condition, but Lord help me, I can't think of what else would cause anyone to confuse such disparate talents like that.

Ichiro doesn't get the Japanese characters. I guess you're no longer a racial novelty if you've been around eight years.

Joe Buck on Hamilton: "Three years ago he was a drug addict, smoking crack, taking pills, drinking booze, has all the tattoos on his arm . . . twenty-six of 'em, he regrets every one of 'em." The drug stuff is obviously awful, but given how much Buck overreacts and moralizes about silly things, I can't help but think he believes the tattoos are every bit as bad as the crack. Whatever the case, you have to wonder how many times we'll see Hamilton play on a national broadcast before they start talking more about his baseball abilities and career than his drug use.

Fourth Inning

Ichiro nails Pujols trying to stretch a double! Wait! Replay! Actually, I think Pujols beat the tag. Still a great throw. And let's be fair: for as much crap as we all give the Fox telecasts, that was good camera work, both in the outfield and at the bag.

Zambrano loops a slow curve over Manny's head. I'd love to see him put the helmet on backwards a la Larry Walker v. Randy Johnson back in the day.

Milton Bradley picked off first after reaching on an error to end the inning. At this rate there's a non-trivial chance that the game will be shorter than the combined red carpet/pregame stuff.

Fifth Inning

Francona goes with the second Angels pitcher in a row, first Saunders, now Santana. I'm guessing that Francona knows that the Sox are likely to meet the Angels in the ALCS and is trying to wear out their pitchers' arms.

Matt Holliday belts a dinger off of Ervin Santana. Mets blogs immediately come to life, begging Omar to trade for him.

Danny Haren (neck beard) v. Kevin Youkilis (dead badger on chin) has to be the worst facial hair matchup in an All-Star Game since at least the 70s.

Speaking of the 70s, I feel like I'm in them right now, what with three stolen bases and everything, this one from Ian Kinsler.

First Jeter grounds into a double play, and now he bounces to the mound with a runner on second. Clutch. God.

Sixth Inning

Some hit and run action with Ramirez in motion and a Chase Utley hit to right, followed by Berkman flying out long to center, Ramirez tagging up, and its now 2-0 NL.. I can't remember the last time I saw a low-scoring, strategy-oriented game in Yankee Stadium. If this was a Yanks-Sox game we'd still be in the second inning.

Justin Duchscherer is the first guy to come in and not be throwing bullets. I have this vague feeling that Chipper is going to get an extra base hit here. Let's watch . . .

. . . Ok, maybe not. He strikes out Jones and gets Holliday to fly out, trouble over. Don't look at me like that. I said it was a vague feeling.

Josh Hamilton steals second for the fourth SB of the night for the AL. You wonder if Francona's running strategy here isn't some form of acting out against Theo Epstein and Bill James and those sabermetric guys back at Sox HQ.

Seventh Inning

1-2-3 for the NL in the top of the inning, and here comes "God Bless America." Man, I wish we could get past this somehow. But wait -- where's that tenor the Yankees always send out there? If you're ever going to get people (like me) to quit complaining about that song taking the place of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" you're going to have to at least keep some consistency about it all.

Dioner Navarro pinch hits for Jason Varitek, and somehow Francona is now down to one bench player. How on Earth did that happen? Aren't the managers usually struggling to figure out how to get everyone in?

J.D. Drew jacks one out to right. Tie game. If this one goes extras, will Francona wish he had some more players available?

Eighth Inning

Papelbon is getting the jeering of the night from the New York crowd. All of this over a stupid Daily News story which, from the sound of it, was a mountain out of a molehill kind of a thing. You always hear about how smart Yankee fans are, but if they're so smart, why can't they ever see through their tabloids' garbage?

Tejada steals second base and takes third on a bad throw by Navarro, and then he scores the go-ahead run on a shallow fly from Adrian Gonzalez. The crowd boos Papelbon as though he walked the bases loaded and the run in. Whatever.

Billy Wagner comes in for the NL. Clint Hurdle must be getting a cut of the extra-inning commercial revenue.

Sizemore singles, steals second, Longoria hits a double, and yep, it's tied. I swear on the life of my children that I wrote that previous comment before the hit happened.

Ninth Inning

Francona substitutes a Yankee in/out in the middle of the inning for the third time, this time Rivera. Pretty classy move on Tito's part, ya know?

Strike-em-out-throw-em-out. Bottom of the ninth, here we come! It strikes me that the NL just doesn't have the arms left that the AL does. I have a feeling this game is going to end really soon.

I'm wrong for about the zillionth time tonight: the AL goes quietly. Extra innings.

Tenth Inning

Martin and Tejada reach with one out and now there are runners on the corners with Dan Uggla coming up. Maybe Papelbon should have been closing . . .

Uggla grounds into a double play.

Uggla boots a grounder.

Uggla lets one go through the wickets.

Ken Rosenthal shows up on cue to remind everyone how important it was to Uggla's father that Uggla play this game in Yankee Stadium.

It's getting Uggla.

After an intentional walk to load the bases, Grady Sizemore steps in to face Aaron Cook as the clock strikes midnight. Yeah, I got a shiver. Sue me.

Sizemore hits it straight to Uggla! Oh, he made the play, runner out at home. Bases are still loaded with one out, though. Evan Longoria is up.

Another short grounder, another out at the plate. Man!

Grounder to Tejada, great play! Uggla is off the hook. He's going to buy Aaron cook a beer after this one is over.

11th Inning

Nothin' doin' for the NL. Lots of talk by Buck and McCarver about teams running out of pitchers and tie games and stuff. I'll be honest: I'm gettin' scared.

Kinsler reaches, tries to steal and is called out despite Tejada failing to get the tag on him. Don't the umpires realize that this game needs to end at some point?

Navarro reaches, Drew singles. Runners on first and second with one out for Michael Young. With Navarro on second and no pinch runners available, Young is going to need a double, I would think.

Yep. Young hits a single and Navarro is thrown out at home. Again, I swear I wrote that before it happened. It's up to Carlos Quentin now. If he doesn't get a hit, it's gonna get really scary in the Selig box.

And we're on to the 12th. My alarm is set to go off in less than five hours. I'm totally loving this game, but I'm going to be totally hating life tomorrow morning.

12th Inning

Kinsler lollygags on a bunt by McLouth, and then Morneau fields a bunt that would have gone foul to put runners on second and third with one out. Intentional walk, and now it's Uggla time again.

Remember that stuff about this being a short game? Well, we're at 3:43 now. I blame the presence of Texas Rangers' players.

Uggla strikes out on three pitches. He'd probably like to forget this game.

All Star George Sherrill is on to pitch, and given that the only one left for the AL is Scott Kazmir -- who wasn't supposed to pitch tonight -- you have to figure that this is Sherrill's game to win or lose.

Bottom of the 12th, and Carlos Guillen almost hits it out to left. Sizemore moves him over to third on a fielder's choice, however, and we're one long out away from sleep, er, I mean the ending of an exciting All-Star game . . .

Longoria strikes out . . .Morneau is walked . . .and Kinsler grounds out. No one on the AL can hit the damn ball out of the infield tonight. I have to admit, we're approaching a decisionmaking point here re: whether I need to pull the ripcord on this game.

Screw it. I can sleep during my drive up to Cleveland tomorrow. Sure, I'm driving alone, but I-71 is a pretty straight freeway.

13th Inning

I've been up for nearly 20 straight hours and I'm forcing myself to watch (a) All-Star George Sherrill pitch; and (b) listen to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver broadcast. I must be truly ill. The NL does nothing in the 13th. Here's hoping for a quick tater by the AL in the bottom half. Given that we're facing the 17th Dioner Navarro at bat of the game, however, I am not optimistic.

Navarro grounds out, but then Drew reaches on yet another Dan Uggla error. This guy can't have that many lives left, can he? This one is going to have to come back to haunt him, right?

Nope. It won't. Christ. This is getting kinda awful.

14th Inning

The NL is smarter than me. They've gone to sleep.

The Diamondbacks brass have to be happy about seeing Brandon Webb go on one day's rest. Doesn't seem to phase him though, as he strikes out two and gets another on a liner to short. Those sinkerballers don't need no rest, I tells ya! Me neither! I'll never sleep again!

15th Inning

Kazmir is in now. He's also on one day's rest. Rosenthal is a beast. He texted the Rays' GM during the game to get what sounded like a pretty disapproving comment from him re: Scotty pitching in this one. Wanna make the second half interesting Terry Francona? Blow Kazmir's elbow out and go on to win the Al East by a game or two over the Rays!

The good thing about the length of the game is that all of the Hall of Famers from the red carpet show will soon be waking up and will be able to see the end of it over their shredded wheat and prune juice. Someone's gonna have to tell Banks that they didn't play two; they just never finished one.

Brad Lidge is pitching now. Quick -- someone trade Pujols to an AL team so we can end this game.

Great catch of a sinking liner by Ryan Ludwick. I am ashamed to admit that I was hoping it would scoot through and roll to the wall. This game hasn't quite beaten my love of baseball out of me, however, so I can still appreciate that it was a damn good catch.

Terry Francona looks like he's about to barf up a lung. J.D. Drew walks to load the bases with one out. If form holds, Michael Young will chop one to short . . .

Shallow fly to right! Morneau scores!! Ballgame!!! AL wins again!!!!

I'd wrap this up with something pithy, but I got nothin'.

Night folks.

Ty Cobb: Cleveland Indian?

That nugget -- and accompanying pic -- is well worth the price of admission for Paul Lukas' All-Star Game edition of UniWatch.

Sold! To the Gentleman In The Front Row With Way Too Much Money

At an auction yesterday, Babe Ruth's Old Era nabbed more than the market value of my house:

A baseball cap worn by New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth has been auctioned for
a record $328,000 on Monday.

The sweat-stained cap from around the 1920s sold at an auction of Yankees memorabilia in New York. Hunt Auctions says the cap is one of only three Yankees hats in existence worn by Ruth during games. It says a hat used by a player had never sold for more than $100,000.

Of course, given the market right now, one of Sixto Lezcano's stirrup socks would probably go for more than my house.

Aaron's Rib

A look at the extremely cool medical procedure which saved Aaron Cook's baseball career, and maybe his life.

Has the Shadow Been Lifted?

The LAT's Bill Shaikin thinks so:

Barry Bonds is back home in Los Angeles, unemployed and unwanted in the sport he dominated for two decades. Baseball is throwing itself a party here, a coming-out party for a new wave of stars, a huge and happy step away from the steroid shadows that dogged the sport last year . . .

. . . "You've got great stories -- Josh Hamilton, Ryan Braun -- going into their first All-Star experience," New York Mets third baseman David Wright said. "I see the new generation of players coming through as pretty special. There's no negatives surrounding the All-Star game. All the stories are positive. The baseball purists can just sit down and enjoy the baseball."

The Mitchell Report linked 21 active players with the use of performance-enhancing substances. The rosters for tonight's All-Star game at Yankee Stadium include just one of those 21 -- Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros. An All-Star game with rosters dotted with Mitchell Report alumni would be "like when Amy Winehouse won the Grammys after getting arrested," Hall of Famer Paul Molitor said.

I think it's interesting that part of this renewal, or whatever you want to call it, is led by Josh Hamilton -- a guy with a serious drug history -- and the article's money quote comes from Paul Molitor -- another guy with a serious drug history. Interesting in that it shows that baseball is a sport that gives guys second, or third, or in Hamilton's case eighth chances. I like that about baseball because, to me anyway, it implies that the sport considers the individual in ways that the larger War on Drugs does not. There's a basic humanity at work in letting a guy like Josh Hamilton work his way back when it would have been so much easier to install a mindless zero tolerance or three strikes rule and be done with it. As last night's fireworks indicate, it's an approach that has resulted in good things for both Hamilton and the game.

Will we ever see this kind of rapprochement with respect to players linked to performance enhancing drugs? I seriously doubt it, and I think the whole shaming, pariah-creating dynamic of the past couple of years may be one of the hardest things for me about the whole steroids business. It's just not what has been done historically, and I have a hard time casting the vast majority of the George Mitchell All-Stars into the dustbin the way we seem to be doing.

Stinky Stadium

The players won't miss Yankee Stadium. Especially its malodorous bouquet.

And That Happened

Justin Morneau 5, Josh Hamilton 3: You think MLB isn't a little irked at its Home Run Derby format this morning? Josh Hamilton put forth a legend-making performance last night, smacking dinger after dinger in the first round, energizing a packed Yankee Stadium to the point where they were chanting his name Rocky-style . . . but he lost. To the guy who wrongfully beat hometown hero Derek Jeter out for the MVP a couple of years ago. And if you think the folks in Yankee Stadium weren't aware of that last fact as it was happening, you're crazy.

What's to blame for this? The multi-round system which, from what I can tell, was designed to maximize the length of the thing, which in turn maximizes the number of commercials. At the risk of appearing as though I care about the Home Run Derby (dear God, I don't) I'll suggest that, in the future, MLB limit it to a single round avec tiebreaker round if necessary. To make up for the lost time, increase the number of participants. Indeed, if they only stand to hit for a single round, more players may want to participate.

Anyway, here's hoping that the derailing of The Story of The All-Star Game leads to some sort of change.

All-Star Diversion

I vaguely understand that Josh Hamilton is pulling a Superman act at the Home Run Derby. That's great. I guess so, anyway. Actually, I can't really be bothered to care. It's basically batting practice with a Chris Berman soundtrack.

Besides, Batman is way better than Superman (anyone suggesting otherwise in the comments would risk being banned if I could figure out how to ban people). To that end, I offer you a handy-dandy guide on how to become Batman:

What have comic books and movies told us about Batman's physical abilities?

There's a quote from Neal Adams, the great Batman illustrator, who said Batman would win place or show in every event in the Olympics. Probably if I were Batman's handler, I'd put him in the decathlon. Although Batman is shown in the comics as being the fastest and the strongest and all these other things, in reality you can't actually be all of that at once. To be Batman properly, what you really need to do is be exceptionally good at many different things. It's when you take all the pieces and put them together that you get the Batman . . .

Do you think Batman would take steroids to heal faster?

No. There is one comic where he did go on steroids. He went a little crazy and he went off them again.

How many of us do you think could become a Batman?

If you found the percentage of billionaires and multiply that by the percentage of people who become Olympic decathletes, you could probably get a close estimate.

Damn. I was kinda hoping I could be Batman.

All Hail Yankee Stadium

Russ Smith is having none of it, however, mostly on egalitarian grounds, as the old ballpark becomes a place to network on an expense account as opposed to toss back beers and jeer:

There’s nothing sinister or modern about conducting business at a ballgame: salesmen making pitches to potential clients who happen to be sports fans makes a lot of sense. In fact, when I owned the weekly New York Press, we sprung for season tickets and the investment—about $15,000—was recouped by the successful wooing of new advertisers by the end of May, a most pleasant set of circumstances. Yet one of the glories of Yankee Stadium, even in the 1990s, was the congregation of a legitimate mixture of people from all sorts of backgrounds. You’d see, all in one section, guys in suits trying not to get mustard on their ties along with wholesome families, bare-chested youths with “Jeter Rules” painted on their bodies and older New Yorkers, scorecards in hand, who might engage in conversation about seeing Joe DiMaggio’s graceful defense in center field or seeing Phil Rizzuto on the subway before a game.

Maybe this is alarmism run amok, but if the reports about outrageous ticket prices are correct, it’s possible that in the future Yankee Stadium will be populated by the elite alone, which pretty much sucks. And, just like the Boston fans who’ve been priced out of Fenway Park and flock to other stadiums to see the Sox play, displaced Yankee diehards will be on the move as well.

He's right. It's a battle already long lost, but he's right.

Fields of Dreams

The K.C. Star's Sam Mellinger had a nice stadiums piece over the weekend, focusing on how fans form a connection to their ballparks. Or at least used to back when the ballparks were unique. Two telling quotes, the first from the head of HOK's design team:

“I call it the spirit of the place,” says Earl Santee, heading HOK Sport’s design team for Kauffman Stadium’s renovations, new Yankee Stadium and others. “You want people to sense they’re at someplace different than any other place they can be in that city. While it’s about baseball, it’s kind of about the place, too.”

Note the use of the phrase "in that city." Wasn't there a time when the period could have come after the word "be" in that sentence?

Setting aside the astroturfed cookie cutters in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Philly, there was once a time when a lot us could be shown a picture of any stadium in baseball and identify it in a milisecond. I like a lot of the HOK stadiums, but it's not always as easy now. In some ways it's good that we can't, because some of those old-school design flourishes were actually pretty annoying. But there is no escaping a certain sameness among the new parks. I suppose on some level this is simply a matter of form following function -- we've finally figured out what makes for a pleasant game-viewing experience, so it's understandable that those things will make their way to multiple places -- but that lack of quirkiness does detract from the sort of personal connection Mellinger is talking about in the article.

Second quote, this one from Bob Wood, author of Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks, a stadium tour-book written back in the 80s:

Wood jokes that he couldn’t do his book today, because all the stadiums would
receive A’s.

If everyone is getting an A, doesn't that mean that an A is average?

IIATMS at FanFest

Jason at IIATM is cooler than you. Why? Because he hangs out with a better class of people than you. So do his kids (second pic).

Those pics take me back to a custom auto show my dad took my brother and I to back in the late 70s. Catherine Bach -- Daisy Duke to the ignorant among you -- was signing autographs. The old man took a picture of my brother and I with her. We were a bit young to be too excited about it, but we flashed our polite smiles, hoping it would be over soon so we could go ogle what we really wanted to see: The General Lee.

Then dad had his picture taken with Daisy. The joy on his face -- much like the joy on Jason's in that first pic -- was beyond obvious.

I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing Jason has taken a vow never to wash his right shoulder again.

Randy Smith to the Mariners?

Danny Knobler is reporting that ex-Tigers and Padres GM Randy Smith is a candidate for the Mariners' GM job:

Then there's that other name that circulated through the baseball world this week: Randy Smith.

Smith hasn't been heard from much since he was fired six years ago after a mostly unsuccessful run in Detroit. He's impressed people with his international scouting work with the Padres, particularly with this month's signing of five top young Dominican prospects.

And now his name is out there again.

If there's any juice to that rumor, Mariners fans had better hope that Smith was the only one responsible for those Dominican signings, because nothing else on his CV provides reason for hope.

It's hard to blame a GM for the records of his teams because, generally speaking, a GM is hired because the cupboard is bare. The longer he's there, however, the more ownership he has over the performance of his club. By that measure, Smith may be one of the worst GMs in history, as the final product of his seven year term in Detroit was a 55-106 record, which got even worse the year after he left. Overall his teams in San Diego and Detroit posted a .419 winning percentage. Between his awful drafts, awful free agent signings, and awful trades, Smith simply destroyed the Detroit Tigers.

I suppose everyone deserves a second chance, but this would be Smith's third, and I can't really see any basis for giving it to him.

A-Rod and the Home Run Derby

Ken Rosenthal thinks A-Rod needs to be in the home run derby:

Barry Bonds was heavily criticized for declining to participate in last year's Derby at his home park. A-Rod deserves the same heat for the same offense, and let's not hear about how the Derby might disrupt his precious swing.

Yes, several recent Derby participants — Bobby Abreu, David Wright, Alex Rios — had their home-run production decline after they competed in the event. But those dropoffs might have occurred anyway. These are the best hitters in the game. They can't adjust?

I'm not following. Abreu, pre-derby, was considered one of the best hitters in the game. Wright and Rios are certainly still thought of that way. All three had power problems following the derby. Is Rosenthal saying that they simply chose not to adjust? Because obviously they didn't, and right or wrong, people attribute that to the derby.

And what's with the sarcasm on the "precious swing" line? It is precious. The Yankees are relying on it like they're relying on nothin' else to get back in the race. If Rodriguez were to do the derby and started out on a 3-29 slump in the second half, don't you think he'd catch hell for it?

I have no idea if the derby actually does cause problems for its participants, but to believe that it does is something more than mere superstition. It's simply not natural or typical for a guy to take power hacks at 100 (or however many) BP pitches in the space of an hour or two. I get tired just watching it, and I'm sure the players get tired doing it. If I'm a Yankees fan, I have no problem not seeing A-Rod taking his hacks tonight.

And That Happened

I hate the All-Star Break. The home run derby always bores me, the game itself usually does too, and the lack of real live competitive baseball is simply depressing. If I ran the world, there would be a cable channel running wall-to-wall rebroadcasts of old games, preferably from the 70s and 80s, and preferably not famous ones, so that we may actually enjoy them in ignorance of their outcomes like we would real, current ballgames. Alas, that won't happen, however, because MLB knows that a random Cardinals-Mets game from the mid-80s would hold people's interest way better than that spectacle they're having up in the Bronx, and that's simply unacceptable.

The lack of baseball between now and Thursday evening is going to suck eggs, but at least we have each other, and we'll find a way to get through this madness somehow.

Indians 5, Rays 2: The Rays certainly cured what ailed the Indians! Wait, that's not true, because the Indians will still probably stink after the break. How about this: the Indians certainly infected the Rays!

Tigers 4, Twins 2: Last Wednesday, Leyland was complaining about the Tigers' All-Star break schedule because he and his guys didn't get the same amount of time off as everyone else. "I want everyone to write it and put it all over the airwaves. It's a joke. Silly is what it is," he said. This coming Wednesday, Leyland is among 50 baseball people invited as guests at a White House dinner, about which he said "I can't believe that I'm on the list, but it is going to be exciting to have dinner with President Bush. That's big time." Just to be clear, Jim Leyland complained about having to play a baseball game, but is thrilled about dinner with George Bush. Politics aside, wouldn't you rather be at the ballgame? Me too.

Astros 5, Nationals 0: There's been a lot of talk lately about putting the DH in the NL. I'm against it because I'm an NL guy and I like the pitcher batting. I can't really explain it any terms much more rational than that, and no one making the case for the DH in the NL has made much of a better argument than that which I can muster for my side. It's a political issue, really, and most political issues are kind of like that. Carlos Lee said something after this game, however, that could actually move the ball on this one in my mind a little bit. In response to Astros' pitcher Brandon Backe having a good game at the plate (2-3, 2B, 2 R), Lee said "We feel like we're playing with nine instead of eight." Do NL players really think of it in those terms? That they're playing with less than a full compliment of men somehow when pitchers bat? It wouldn't change my mind about the DH if they did, but it would make me think about it in slightly modified terms.

Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1: Peter Abraham spotted a great getaway day stat: "The Yankees had 32 plate appearances against A.J. Burnett and 25 of them were over in three pitches or fewer. Only four of those were strikeouts." Hey, when ya got somewhere to be, ya got somewhere to be.

Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 3: You're not livin' right when you rack up 14 hits and a walk and still only score three runs.

Red Sox 2, Orioles 1: Boston understands this whole it's-a-marathon-not-a-sprint thing. No one has been talking about them -- well, no one has been talking about them as much as they usually do -- but here they are, in first place at the break, just like they planned it all along. At the risk of channeling Bill Simmons, I'm going say that I think that the Ortiz injury, while certainly a negative, may have some positive byproducts inasmuch as a lot of guys are getting the kind of at bats and rest (when they fill the DH slot) they wouldn't have otherwise had if Papi wasn't hurt. The Sox may not have the firepower they need if Papi can't play or play effectively this year, but if he can, there are going to be a lot of guys who are fresher and sharper this fall than they might have been had he not gotten hurt in the first place.

Cardinals 11, Pirates 6: If the season ended today, the Cardinals would win the wild card, and I'm still not quite sure how that's possible. Many so-called experts were predicting that the Reds would be the frisky team in the NL Central this year and that the Cards would be keeping the Pirates company down south in the standard. Er, yeah.

Mariners 4, Royals 3: Seattle is 12-11 under Riggelman. Not bad considering they have about three major leaguers in their everyday lineup.

Brewers 3, Reds 2: CC goes the distance -- throwing 122 pitches and hitting a dinger in the process -- to beat the Reds. I didn't worry about his pitch count in this game too much because (1) CC has been a frickin' horse for the past month or two, looking stronger the longer he goes. It's as though he's just loosenin' up for the first 80 pitches; (2) he's gettin' a few days off; and (3) the Brewers need to win games against teams like the Reds on getaway days. Ned Yost can't really trust the back end of his bullpen, and if I'm him, I leave Sabathia in too.

Rangers 12, White Sox 11: Texas seems to play in these kinds of games every other day. It has to be hard on their fans. It's always in the mid 90s or hotter at game time, and the Rangers force them to sit through four hours of slow, turgid, bludgeonball. Ozzie Guillen: "This was the worst baseball game I've ever seen . . . The pitchers should look themselves in the mirror and be embarrassed." And I don't think he would have changed his assessment if the score was flip-flopped.

Giants 4, Cubs 2: All hail the Freak (8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 9K), who is on pace to go 17-3 for one of the worst teams in the league.

Angels 4, A's 3: Reggie Willits scored from second on an infield single in the ninth for the game winning run. Barton claimed that he would have had a play on him had the catcher been paying attention. Maybe so, but it's still pretty cool.

Braves 12, Padres 3: Atlanta breaks out the whuppin' sticks, and Bobby Cox says something like "that will make them feel good going into the break." Isn't it funny how teams that are doing poorly heading into the break always talk like the break will change their fortunes for the better once play resumes, while teams playing well at the break talk as though the good stuff will continue despite the upcoming days off? Can't poor play be maintained and can't good play be thrown off the rails by virtue of a break?

Dodgers 9, Marlins 1: Chad Billingsley (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 13K) dominates the Marlins. The Dodgers are the luckiest team in baseball. The Diamondbacks showed every sign of running away with the NL West and hiding back at the end of April, and here are the Dodgers, who haven't had a stretch of sustained good play all year, a single game behind the leaders. They're like the guys who never studied for the exams in law school but who still scored high enough to mess up the curve for the rest of us morons.

Mets 7, Rockies 0: When you're hot, you're hot. The Mets are hot. Do you think they're hot enough to score Jerry Manuel the permanent managers' job? No, I wouldn't give it to him if I were running the Mets, but there's a lot of idle time between now and Friday, and you know that the tabloids are going to be looking for something to go on about. I think the "Jerry Manuel contract extension" talk would be about as fun as anything else to fill up that time.

Going Deeper with the Columbus Dispatch

A week ago, I slammed the baseball coverage of my local paper -- The Columbus Dispatch -- as ranging from "intolerable to execrable." That was unfair because I forgot about Scott Priestle. Priestle, whose work I've commended in this space before, gets it. To show you just how much he gets it, I point you to his feature story this morning about how the stathead revolution has made its way to front offices and how it's changing the game:

Eric Wedge and Keith Woolner joined the Indians by way of Boston and an expansion team or two. Wedge was a catcher for the Red Sox and Colorado Rockies, then a minor-league manager for five seasons, his beliefs about baseball shaped amid the sweat and spit of a dugout. Woolner has two degrees from MIT, a master's from Stanford and nearly two decades working for start-up software companies, his beliefs about baseball shaped by years of research and statistical analysis.

For the past year, they have shared an employer and a goal: build the Indians into a World Series contender. Each has the ear of general manager Mark Shapiro.

Welcome to major league baseball in the 21st century. Statistical analysis is no longer a curiosity or a source of conflict within the game, but a growing pool that numerous teams are tapping.

In addition to Woolner, there are shoutouts and interviews with other former Baseball Prospectus authors James Click, Dan Fox, and the still-typing Joe Sheehan. Overall the article provides a nice overview of applied sabermetrics and the teams which are applying it.

Basic? Not for most of Priestle's audience. It's easy to forget when you get most of your sports coverage online, but the parchment reading masses are still not all too plugged in when it comes to sabermetrics, and this is especially true in a town where college football passion dwarfs baseball passion. Overall a great article by Priestle, and one I know many in this burg are happy to see.

Oh, and there's a sidebar story by someone you may know.

And He's Not Even Dominican

Here's the best story of phony age shenanigans you'll ever read. It's long, but everyone in this crowd has a good attention span, so it won't be a problem.

And I agree with Rich Pohle, the subject of the article, that it would make a good movie. You'd have to get the tone just right, though. If you take the typical baseball-as-religion or every-boy-wants-to-be-a-ballplayer tack, it will be terrible or, at the very least, shallow. Rather, you have to dig into the main character's life a bit more than this story does. Find out stuff about that failed first marriage and the first kid that goes unnamed and figure out what really makes this guy tick. All of the really good baseball movies are about people just as much as they're about the game, and as it stands, this story only gets you part of the way there. No huckster is truly carefree.

Tell the whole story of a fully-formed Rich Pohle, and you may have something.

Rename the Wizards

The Fort Wayne Wizards -- Midwest League (A) affiliate of the Padres -- is looking for a new name. As is usually the case with these things, they asked for submissions from the general public and got something like 2,500 suggestions. That usually ends the analysis, as someone from the team sifts through and picks the best (read: most marketable) choice from the submissions. Fort Wayne is taking it a step further, and asking citizens to weight four broad thematic categories of names:

Fort Wayne icons and/or prominent historical individuals;
Fort Wayne geography;
Fort Wayne's history as a center of innovation and invention; or
the "Old Fort" or similar military theme.

That's kind of cool in that it will weed out dumb 90s-era names like "Wizards" or "Magic" or what have you. For what it's worth, I voted for the first category, with the hope that they go with the "Mad Anthonys" in honor of the city's namesake.

And if they don't use it, I'll start a hardcore band under that name.

Are the Nats Deadbeats?

The Nationals are withholding rent on their new ballpark:

More than midway through the baseball season, the Washington Nationals' owners have failed to pay $3.5 million in rent for the District's new ballpark, contending that the state-of-the-art stadium is still incomplete . . .

. . .The fight centers on whether the ballpark was "substantially complete" by March 1, when the city, which oversaw the construction, was contractually obligated to hand the keys to the Lerners. District officials said the city secured a certificate of occupancy, as well as an additional letter from the architects, that declared the building fit for business before the season began. Since March 29, when the Nationals faced the Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition, the team has played 48 regular-season games at the ballpark, selling an average of 29,000 tickets a game.

The article says that the District will hire a "Special Lawyer" to pursue the unpaid rent. I'm a special lawyer! Here's my special argument: it doesn't matter if the stadium is unfinished. Given how bad the Nats are, they aren't using half the seats, most of the light bulbs on the scoreboard, and the visitor's bullpen has been virtually untouched, so what's the problem if the place isn't done yet?

Who's On First? A Very Angry Jorge Posada.

Jorge Posada is none too pleased about not having caught for six games:

Posada was in the lineup as the Bombers' first baseman, but when asked about his lack of time behind the plate, Posada got testy and made it clear that he still considers himself a full-time backstop.

"I like to catch. Okay?" Posada said. "I'm in the lineup and I'm happy that I'm in the lineup, but I like to catch. I'm a catcher. I'm not a first baseman and I'm not a DH. I like to catch, so I'm looking forward to catching (today)."

I feel for Jorge. Unfortunately, he is an unwitting victim of baseball's recent decision to outsource all Major League catching jobs to Molinas.

On a more serious note, I don't envy Joe Girardi right now. Messing with Posada -- an original new-Dynasty Yankee -- isn't going to make him popular with the fans or the press. The fact is, however, that Posada hasn't been able to throw anyone out since he hurt his shoulder, and Molina is a damn fine defensive catcher. No, the running game isn't everything, but the longer Posada struggles and the more comfortable opponents feel running on him, the more significant his affliction becomes.

The Yankees are 6.5 games out right now, and they simply can't afford to throw games away. Literally or otherwise.

UPDATE: Jason at IIATMS makes a much broader, and much more important point about this: that one day the Yankees are going to go through this song and dance with Jeter, and Katie bar the door when that happens.

The Year in Frivolity Part II

The second part of my two part first-half review is up over at Baseball Analysts.

And That Happened

Brewers 11, Rockies 1: According to the game story, Corey Hart won the All-Star Game vote-off or whatever the hell it is, and was told of this by Yost "as he walked into the Miller Park interview room with his two young children . . . A couple minutes into his news conference, about a dozen of his teammates rushed into the room and sprayed Hart and his children with beer, loudly cheering the news." The parents out there may consider that to be simply awful, but the good people of Wisconsin have been baptizing babies in the stuff for hundreds of years.

Mets 7, Giants 3: Fernando Tatis (3-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI) continues to be the straw that stirs the drink for the Mets. He's kind of a bendy straw, maybe with one of those little scoopers on the end of it like you get in a Slurpee, but the important thing is that there is a drink involved, and he is definitely stirring it. Well, maybe he's not really stirring it. Maybe he's just moving up in down through the cup lid making that funny noise that kinda sounds like old school scratching. In McDonald's cups anyway. I don't think that happens with Wendy's cups. Sometimes they don't even give you a lid at Wendy's. Cheap bastards.

Pirates 4, Yankees 2: From Hell's heart I stab at thee! The AL clobbers the NL in interleague play this year, but the NL draws last blood.

Reds 12, Cubs 7: Take seven taters, 2 leeks, 2 carrots, a celery stalk, bullion, parsley, water, salt, and butter, and place in a four quart slow cooker on low for seven or eight hours. Stir in evaporated milk and chives, adding salt and pepper to taste. Et voila!

Blue Jays 6, Orioles 5: All-Star George Sherrill blows the save and loses the game in the ninth. Sucks for him, but if it weren't for the dumb every-team-needs-an-All-Star rule, I wouldn't have even had a comment for this came.

Indians 13, Rays 2: Just when the Rays had begun to build a lead, they drop four in a row. Casey Blake (2-5, 3 RBI) is starting audition season off nicely.

A's 3, Mariners 2: Nothin' I hate worse than to see the hard work of a knuckleballer go to waste. R.A. Dickey shuts the A's out through seven, only to watch Brandon Morrow blow it in the ninth and his team go on to lose it in 11. Dickey was in a jam in the early going, but he got out of it. What happened, R.A.? "The bullpen mound is in the opposite direction of the game mound and that makes a big difference for a knuckleballer. It took me an inning to get used to it." Makes perfect sense, but it's one of those things you'd never think about unless you threw a knuckleball.

Twins 7, Tigers 6: The bullpen bails Kevin Slowey out after a slowey start, and Justin Morneau's 5-5 day powers the Twins back from a four-run deficit.

Phillies 4, Cardinals 1: Ryan Howard is hotter than whoopee in woolens of late: .353 (18-for-51) with eight homers and 18 RBI over the course of his current 13-game hitting streak.

Royals 4, White Sox 1: If Kansas City could throw Greinke, Mahay, and Soria out there every game they'd be in business.

Diamondbacks 7, Nationals 5: Danny Haren gets jobbed out of a win after pitching eight strong innings, but the Dbacks rally in extras. Actually the game didn't truly get started until extra innings, when eight of the game's twelve runs were scored.

Marlins 5, Dodgers 4: Hanley Ramirez is a decent ballplayer (5-6, game winning home run in the 11th). The fact that he only had one RBI was a function of his punchless teammates.

Angels 11, Rangers 10: Lots and lots of crooked numbers. The Rangers were down 10-4, but came back to tie it up and send it to extras. K-Rod pitches for the second night. This time he doesn't blow the save, but it ain't all cream cheese either, as he walked a guy and committed a throwing error. He has 36 saves now. If you're keeping track of such things, you should know that that would have constituted the single-season record until 1972.

Lawyers Ruin Everything

Including Wiffle ball fields:

After three weeks of clearing brush and poison ivy, scrounging up plywood and green paint, digging holes and pouring concrete, Vincent, Justin and about a dozen friends did manage to build it — a tree-shaded Wiffle ball version of Fenway Park complete with a 12-foot-tall green monster in center field, American flag by the left-field foul pole and colorful signs for Taco Bell Frutista Freezes.

But, alas, they had no idea just who would come — youthful Wiffle ball players, yes, but also angry neighbors and their lawyer, the police, the town nuisance officer and tree warden and other officials in all shapes and sizes. It turns out that one kid’s field of dreams is an adult’s dangerous nuisance, liability nightmare, inappropriate usurpation of green space, unpermitted special use or drag on property values, and their Wiffle-ball Fenway has become the talk of Greenwich and a suburban Rorschach test about youthful summers past and present.

I've been a part of things like this (both as a kid and as a hired gun) and I know how it will end: the field will go down because land use laws in places like Greenwich are pretty draconian, and if script holds, the next thing that will happen is (a) sympathetic news coverage; (b) donations or pledges of some sort; leading to (c) a local park building a dedicated Whiffle ball field.

Except it will suck, because anything kids make themselves -- forts, fields, half-pipes, etc. -- are always ten times better than the government-approved, safety-inspected, sanitized replacements. I once built a fort out of jagged plywood with nails underneath it to keep out intruders (my brother and his friends, mostly, but I think I was concerned about Imperial Stormtroopers as well). That obviously didn't last much past the time my dad got home from work. When I relocated Fort Awesome to the neighborhood playground, the surrounding softwood mulch and padded corners made the place far less foreboding than I hoped it would be. So basically, enjoy your Faux Fenway, kids, but don't count on it lasting.

I'm actually glad to see this story, however. Despite everything written above (and everything I believed in when I was a kid), I somehow find myself living in a suburb that is about as close as you can get to Greenwich, Connecticut in the State of Ohio. While it's pretty and the people are generally friendly, it's very restricted and very uptight. I'm not going to say that they would prevent me from having a garage sale, putting up provocative political signs, or letting my lawn grow long in the first instance; I'm just sayin' that you may not hear from me ever again in the event that I did. I can't protest though, because I'm pretty sure I signed away my right to do so as part of the neighborhood association agreement. The things we do for a nice school district.

But I can move, and the more stories like these I read, the less I want my kids to grow up in Stepford, Ohio. The market sucks now, but don't be surprised if, sometime in the next year or two, this blog starts being transmitted to you from a fortified compound in the West Virginia hills.

Only La Russa Can Help La Russa

Headline: "La Russa is seeking help now, not later."

That's great news. Please pray with me everyone: "God, grant Tony La Russa the serenity to accept the things he cannot change, the courage to change the things he can, and the wisdom to know the difference . . ."

Wait, what?

Oh, never mind. He's just bitchin' about needing pitching help.

Shyster Guest Posting At Baseball Analysts

The esteemed Rich Lederer asked if I'd be willing to do a guest post over at Baseball Analysts. I said sure, but (1) he must not make be analyze anything; and (2) I want two posts, because I lack the ability to edit myself. Rich, to the great detriment of the quality of his site, agreed.

Here's Part I of the two-part series. As you can see, I hijacked a ShysterBall title cliche for the post. That's how invasive species work, really. They get a toehold like that and before you know it, they've taken over.

Shhh! Don't tell Rich!

Can Mark Shapiro Interest You In A Corner Utilityman?

The Indians are shopping Casey Blake, the most bearded member of the Time's Arrow All-Stars. For my own sense of self-worth, I hope be brings actual value as opposed to a phantom PTBNL, but I realize that this is just wishcasting. The article says that his ability to play third, first, and both corners in the outfield could be valuable on a contender, but given that those skills have never been truly valuable on the Indians, I'm not sure that's as much analysis as it is politeness. Still, he does have a .354 OBP this year and is posting one of his better overall seasons.

As for what the Indians will do for a third baseman, it seems that they have no choice other than to plug in Andy Marte and give him his last best chance at sticking in the majors. As Neyer noted in his SABR post yesterday (Insider only), Mark Shapiro regrets not having given Brandon Phillips enough time to develop when he was with the Indians. I would assume that he's not willing to make the same mistake with Marte. Given how out of it the Tribe is right, now what's the harm in the Indians giving him the final 72 games of the season to sink or swim?

And That Happened

Yankees 2, Rays 1: Did you know that Sidney Ponson was made a knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 2003? It's true! I find that no less plausible than the fact that he has an ERA under 4.00 at the All-Star break. More fun than Sidney Ponson: the Yankees provided fans and employees fake mustaches to wear (see Mike Mussina wearing his on the right) on the same day the tabloids reported that A-Rod was in the habit of wearing fake mustaches in order to sneak into Madonna's house. AWK-ward!

Red Sox 18, Twins 5: It wasn't really sporting for the Sox to go for that two point conversion following the second touchdown, now was it?

Marlins 5, Padres 2: The only good thing about a team playing as poorly as San Diego is right now is the quality of their message boards. Go to a Red Sox blog anytime in the past two or three years and everyone's so goddamn serious. Go to a Padres blog right now and you find 15 straight posters speculating -- in excessive detail -- about the exact nature of the compromising photos of Bud Black possessed by Khalil Greene which are enabling him to stay in the lineup.

Tigers 8, Indians 6: Remember, fans, Thursday is Die Hard Night. Free admission for anyone who was actually alive the last time the Indians won a ballgame.

Astros 6, Pirates 4: The Pirates spotted the Astros four runs, then tied it up, than gave up two more to blow the game. As a fan, I always find losses like that to be the worst kind. At least with a blowout you can turn your TV off in the third inning and go for a walk in the neighborhood or something.

Nationals 5, Diamondbacks 0: Last year David Pinto proposed a new stat called the "short shutout." The idea is that since hard pitch counts have become the rule, no one gets real shutouts anymore, so Pinto suggests giving a gold star -- a short shutout -- to anyone who goes six innings or more without allowing any runs. By that rationale, John Lannan (6 IP, 0 ER) gets a short shutout in this game. Personally, however, I don't think Pinto is going far enough. What about the relievers who aren't even given a chance to get a shutout? They should have something too! Under my new scoring system, Joel Hanrahan (1 IP, 0 ER), Luis Ayala (1 IP, 0 ER), and Jon Rauch (1 IP, 0 ER) all get short-short shutouts for the Nats. Tomorrow: I'll explain the concept of "meta-hits."

Mets 5, Giants 0: Johan picks up his first win since June 1st. Yeah, it's been a rougher than expected first half for him, but there he is, his ERA under 3.00 and his team knocking on the door. Given the recent reversal of the Mets' and Phillies' fortunes, there's no reason to think that the Mets can't win this thing and that Santana won't be carrying them on his back to the finish line. If that happens, all of the recent "what's wrong with Santana" articles will have been forgotten.

Blue Jays 9, Orioles 8: A.J. Burnett picks up one of the weaker wins you'll see this year: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 7 ER.

Cubs 5, Reds 1: Rich Harden is nice to have around, but Cubs fans know that Big Z is The Man, and he delivered last night (8 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 5K 0 BB).

Rockies 8, Brewers 3: CC Sabathia is nice to have around, but Brewers fans know that Ben Sheets is The Man, but he didn't deliver last night. OK, that's a lie in service of pointless symmetry. He delivered pretty darn respectably (6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 11K), keeping his team in the game until Guillermo Mota came in and took a dump all over the box score (1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER).

Phillies 4, Cardinals 2: Mark Mulder left in the first inning with shoulder soreness. He is on record saying that if the doctors tell him he needs more shoulder surgery, he is simply going to retire, because it ain't worth it. So what I'm saying is, we may have just seen the end of Mark Mulder's career.

White Sox 7, Royals 6: Like the Indians earlier in the evening, the Royals jumped out to a big lead, only to fritter it away. Maybe "fritter" isn't the right word given Carlos Quentin's two two-run homers off of Brian Bannister. It was more like they had a lead, only to get bashed in the back of the head and have it ripped from their hands.

Rangers 5, Angels 4: You don't see K-Rod get slapped around like this very often (.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, BB, blown save), but this sort of thing is bound to happen every once in a while when you face guys like Josh Hamilton.

Dodgers 2, Braves 1: Two days after letting Kuroda take a perfect game into the eighth, Derek Lowe takes a perfect game into the seventh. The Braves have either caught the Dodgers' pitching staff at its best this year, or else they're simply making them look good through their own ineptness. I have a theory.

Mariners 6, A's 4: And the funny thing about it is that going into the season, Joe Blanton (6 IP, 9 H, 6 ER) was supposed to be the big chit should Billy Beane decide to get all tradey.

And The Walls Came Down

As a companion piece to the previous post, I'll note that the destruction of Tiger Stadium, hinted at last week, has begun in earnest this morning:

But today, the dismantling of the park where Cobb, Greenberg, Kaline and Purn Goldy played is truly, noisily, sadly, under way.

Ferocious-looking stadium-demolishing machines are ripping apart the wall and everything behind it on the north side of the stadium, near the Fisher Freeway service drive, along what used to be called Kaline Drive . . .

. . . You can look into the fortress-like stadium now for the first time since the outfield upper deck went up before World War II. You can see the orange and blue seats at the other end of the park, along the right-field line.

You can also see the machines grinding up the stadium’s innards: Orange doors are hanging at odd angles at the third-floor level, and the white tiles of rest rooms are visible for a few minutes, until the teeth of the machines move in for another bite.

You can even smell the stadium, as its dust scatters in the morning breeze.

This is brutal. Why couldn't they have imploded the place like they did so many other stadiums?

Kitchy Komerica

As a worshipper at the alter that was Tiger Stadium, I boycotted Comerica Park for a couple of years after it opened. Once I gave in to the inevitable and got over my mad, I was simply too busy with work and kids and stuff to make the drive up to Detroit to check out the new digs. I still haven't made it there, though I was hoping to get a shot before this season was out.

SpliceToday's Andrew Sargus Klein, however, is making me reassess:

I’ve experienced over half a dozen ballparks—not an astounding amount, I realize—and Comerica is, without a doubt, the worst example of a baseball stadium I have ever seen.

Any sports stadium has two main motifs from which to draw a visual narrative: the sport itself and the team name. In the case of Comerica, we have baseball and tigers. The resulting visual assault is most similar to a balls-out amusement park. Massive, massive baseball bats and tigers flank the main entrance; along the curving sides there are tiger heads gripping baseballs in their mouth (a la pigs with apples) and wavy claw marks. Altogether the stadium has all the subtlety of a foul ball to the forehead. It is kitsch—offensively ugly kitsch . . .

. . . That Detroit is suffering commercially, and the stadium is over the top commercial, is the point. The intentions, I'm sure, are benevolent but the result borders on mocking.

As the years have gone on, I've heard fewer and fewer complaints about Comerica, but the overly-busy, kitschlike nature of the place identified by Klein were mentioned a lot circa 2000-2001. Maybe people have just gotten used to it, or maybe no one cares about this stuff other than Klein and me. And make no mistake, Klein's central premise -- that a ballpark should strive to reflect the city in which it sits -- is a tall order in the case of Comerica, because there is so much wrong with the city in which it sits.

But they still should have made the effort. Detroit has had so much of its rich, rich history ripped away from it over the past 20-30 years. It's a shame to see that extend to the ballpark as well.

Ten Weeks?

From the Nice Work if You Can Get It Department comes an announcement from ESPN Sports Guy Bill Simmons:

Quick announcement from Bill: ESPN was gracious enough to give me 10 weeks off to finish my second book. My column will return right before Week 1 of the NFL season, just in time for another year of crappy football picks! If you're a fan of the "B.S. Report," we're still doing weekly podcasts, but that's it. Enjoy the summer.

Am I insane, or didn't he take several weeks off last summer for the same stated reason? I can't criticize him too harshly -- I've been telling people I've been working on a book for a decade now -- but at least no one was paying me a lot of money to slack. Well, nobody not associated with the law firm anyway.

But I am reminded that guys like Jerry Crasnick, Rob Neyer, Jim Caple, and Buster Olney have all written books without requiring a sabbatical from ESPN, and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Hell, Curtis Granderson keeps up a more frequent posting schedule over there than Simmons has lately, and he's playing centerfield for a contender.

It's possible of course, that the Sports Guy isn't actually getting diva treatment. Rather, as others have suggested, this may be an instance of quiet discipline for his recent insubordination and fraternization with the enemy. If he is acting like a diva, I'd have hoped that ESPN wouldn't cave to it, because for all of Simmons' good qualities -- he's a good writer who does a great job and draws a big audience when he's committed -- Simmons is not as special as some say he is and he's certainly not irreplaceable (no one in the land of the Internet is). However, if he's being punished, it would be ironic indeed given that it is Simmons himself who has done more than anyone to popularize one of the most famous (alleged) instances of quiet discipline of all time.

Whatever the case, enjoy your time off Bill.

(link via Deadspin)

The Marlins Ballpark Lawsuit

Portland, Las Vegas, and a few other places are probably watching this pretty closely:

At its core, Braman v. Miami-Dade County, et al, is a straightforward civil matter over public money and voter intent. Yet when the lawsuit comes to Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Wednesday, the vision of a future Miami potentially hangs in the balance.

Will the $3 billion ''megaplan'' for Miami, approved last year at lightning speed, move forward -- bringing with it a new Florida Marlins baseball stadium, a rejuvenated Overtown and a renovated Bicentennial Park? Or will the plan's chief critic, auto dealer Norman Braman, stop the government in its tracks once more?

If Braman wins, the Marlins' plans for a new home by 2011 are toast, and the future of the team in Miami is cast into serious doubt. I don't know a lot about this particular case, but I'd guess that the city would have a much better chance of success if this were purely a stadium deal (i.e. one line item on a budget battle). This deal, however, is just one part of a hastily-passed, broad and complicated development plan. Those kinds of things tend to have a lot of devils in those details, thereby making it much easier for a court to find fault with the scheme.

Definitely worth watching.

(This was yet another link from the diabolical Pete Toms. Wait, he's Canadian, so he can't be diabolical. How about the Generally Polite but Occasionally Capable of Getting Slightly Huffy Pete Toms. There, that's better.)

BusconeBall

The FBI is now looking into allegations that former White Sox employees were skimming bonus money given to them by the team to sign Dominican players:

Federal agents, following up on baseball's own two-month investigation, have been interviewing representatives of all 30 major league teams after the White Sox fired senior personnel director David Wilder and two international scouts in May.

According to the Chicago Tribune, investigators are looking into whether Wilder may have pocketed portions of the bonuses the White Sox gave him to sign Dominican prospects. Ross Rice, a spokesman for the FBI office in Chicago, said no criminal charges have been filed. Wilder has said nothing publicly since his firing.

"The FBI's going to all the organizations . . . asking players if they received or gave money," said Clay Daniel, international scouting supervisor for the Angels, whose Dominican-based scouts have already been interviewed. "I'm sure they're looking into scouts, personnel, people like that that may have had a hand in it."

But the article doesn't end there. It goes on to cite other problems with Dominican scouting and signings, and tries to make the case that other bad stuff is happening that "has the potential to shake the game there to its core." What else is going on? Bad things come in threes, so in addition to the skimming, the article cites (1) the existence of buscones -- Dominican scouts or "searchers" are serving as defacto double agents, both finding players and then driving their prices up to competing clubs; and (2) escalating signing bonuses going to Dominican players which no one on the team's side likes.

The story's author as well as his many team-based anonymous sources go to great lengths to conflate all three of these problems in an effort to paint the Dominican market as some lawless, chaotic environment, but in reality, these are three separate phenomena, and not all of them are actually problems. At least not problems for anyone other than Major League teams who don't want to pay a lot of money for free agents.

The alleged bonus skimming is a legal problem, but it seems to be one of simple embezzlement by employees due in part, I would guess, to poor accounting controls on the part of teams. Sure the FBI is involved, but unless there's some grand conspiracy, as opposed to simple opportunism, isn't this mostly a tax/theft problem for a few people as opposed to a crisis that could "shake the league to its very core?"

The issue with the buscones -- which seems in no way to be linked to the skimming -- is troubling only insofar as these guys are taking advantage of Dominican teenagers, which they may very well be. This is a problem, but not one for the league. Indeed, as far as MLB is concerned, the most pressing problem the buscones pose is that they are representing players in a way that drives up their market price. Baseball may not like that, but they don't like American agents either, so we have to take its complaints about these guys with a grain of salt. I definitely worry about buscones exploiting kids. I don't worry about them brow beating MLB.

The final problem -- the escalation of signing bonuses to Dominican players -- rings pretty hollow as a potential threat to the game. Baseball has never liked paying players a lot of money, and hearing teams complain about it now sounds an awful lot like the squawking some teams do when a Major League free agent signs for big dollars. This is problem of fiscal discipline, not one of systemic failure unique to the DR.

So why are all of these issues mentioned in an article that, in the normal course, would simply be about an investigation into an alleged fraud? If I had my skeptical hat on, I'd suggest that baseball is trying to bootstrap a story of isolated malfeasance into one in which the whole DR system is a major mess, when in reality it's really a system of hyper-capitalism that (maybe) leads to some players being taken advantage of by buscones.

Why would MLB want to make this seem like a big global problem when it may not actually be one? My guess is to create an environment of panic and uncertainty about the DR which makes it easier to force the island into a draft of some kind, thereby (hopefully) driving down exploding bonus costs.

Of course given how much success MLB has had recently reigning in draft-related costs (i.e. none), I'm not sure they should be trying to push things in that direction.

(thanks to Pete Toms -- the Dean of ShysterBall commenters -- for the link)

And That Happened

Cubs 7, Reds 3: You wanna know how to win the NL Central? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue! That's the Chicago way!

Brewers 7, Rockies 3: CC makes his debut in a Brewers' uniform. He wasn't on top of his game (five hits and five walks in six innings) but it was enough for the win, and that's why he's there. Well, that and to stand next to Prince Fielder to make him seem skinny.

Mets 7, Giants 0: Mike Pelfrey (7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER) and Carlos Beltran (3-4, HR, 4 RBI) lead the Mets in a romp over San Francisco, and the Mets are now 1.5 back. That's five better than they were the day Willie was fired and six better than their low point this season.

Cardinals 2, Phillies 0: If it weren't for playing the Braves, the Phillies would be in third place right now.

Diamondbacks 2, Nationals 0: Sensing a pattern here? Did any team who lost last night not get shutout? The Nats placed Elijah Dukes on the DL. This interests me greatly, because that means there's a decent chance he'll get a rehab start here in Columbus some time towards the end of this month, and Columbus could use a little shakin' up.

Yankees 5, Rays 0: Yet another shutout, eight innings of which were authored by Andy Pettitte (8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 5K). Quick -- somebody read this game story and tell me if I'm crazy for thinking that it was written by a Yankee blogger. From the Jeter love, to Pettitte's "determined" effort, to even the mention of this as the Yankees' "90th game" -- a counting convention many Yankees' blogs employ -- I got the feeling that I was reading an advocacy document instead of a reporting one.

Tigers 9, Indians 2: It's worth remembering that even as they've shaved five games off of their deficit, the Tigers still haven't gotten much from Miguel Cabrera this year. Last night he went 4-4 with a couple of homers and 3 RBI. If that's a sign that he's on the verge of asploding, the White Sox and Twins had better watch out. As for Cleveland, last night would have been CC Sabathia's turn in the rotation. The replacement -- Jeremy Sowers and his seven runs on ten hits in five and two-thirds -- did not exactly make Tribe fans forget the big guys' absence.

Blue Jays 7, Orioles 6: The game ended when Freddie Bynum couldn't corral a grounder to short in the bottom of the ninth. Freddie Bynum had entered the game that inning as a defensive replacement. It's like a black fly in your chardonnay.

Red Sox 6, Twins 5: Manny plays hero for the second night in a row, this time tying the game up in the eighth with a two-run bomb.

Rangers 3, Angels 2: According to the game story, Joe Saunders (8 IP, 6 H, 3 ER) pitched this game as his wife was back home in California, three days overdue for the birth of their first child. In contrast, Mrs. Shyster would not let me go out to the yard without two cell phones, a walkie-talkie, and a SkyPager within six weeks of the birth of ShysterDaughter.

White Sox 8, Royals 7: I'll turn this one over to Ozzie Guillen: "The only good thing about this game is we win. That's a pretty bad, a real bad game. Mistakes, bad pitching. For both sides, it was real poor game-playing."

Padres 10, Marlins 1: Why are none of these runs available when Greg Maddux is pitching?

Braves 9, Dodgers 3: Two Brian McCann homers and three RBI from Yunel Escobar help the Braves wash the bad taste of the previous night's one-hitter out of their mouths. Sign that I'm not following the Braves as closely as I used to: I hadn't noticed that they had signed Julian Tavarez for the pen. Sign that I don't particularly care that I'm not following the Braves as closely as I used to: I can't work up what would normally be the proper level of indignation at the signing of Julian Tavarez.

A's 2, Mariners 0: Harden? We ain't got no Harden. We don't need no Harden. I don't have to show you any stinkin' Harden. Justin Duchscherer (CG, 2 H, SHO) helps calm A's Nation after a most curious trade. Look, I don't like the trade on paper, but remember back when Beane traded Jeremy Giambi -- who believe it or not, people thought was gonna be real good, myself included -- for John Mabry? I'm pretty sure they're still rebuilding after the post-trade riots for that one. The point is that Beane was right. He knew something -- that Giambi was an overrated, drug-addled, head case of a player who had already reached his ceiling. Obviously Harden is a different deal, but one has to think that Beane again knows something we don't -- likely to do with Harden's health, which may make the Mulder trade the better analog -- that will make this trade look good for Oakland eventually. At the very least Beane has earned the benefit of the doubt here, hasn't he?

Pirates 4, Astros 3: Lotsa rain delays pushed this one late into the night. I'm not a big Astros fan, but I feel pretty bad for these guys. They played for 17 innings -- with a rain delay as well -- on Sunday, they took their necessary beating due to a lack of bullpen on Monday, and then they had a marathon of misery resulting in a loss last night. They have to be looking at the All-Star break like a drowning man looks at a life preserver right now.

Assigning Blame for Bluffton

The NTSB has finally come out with its report regarding the March 2007 bus crash that killed five Bluffton University baseball players, the bus' driver and his wife:

Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board say confusing highway signs, driver error and a lack of passenger safety features contributed to the deaths of five college baseball players in an Atlanta bus crash last year . . .

. . . Investigators said the bus driver thought he was getting on an HOV lane when he drove onto an elevated exit ramp, plowing through a stop sign at highway speed and hurtling from an overpass onto the interstate below . . .

. . . NTSB investigator Dave Rayburn said Georgia officials changed the layout of the signs after having trouble with their mounting. The change deviated from federal guidance about placement of certain exit signs to make them more clear, he said, but the change did not amount to a violation of federal regulations, which allow for some exceptions. Rayburn said nine accidents have occurred at the site between 1997 and 2007, including three fatal collisions. The drivers in all of the crashes were from outside the Atlanta area.

NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker called it "an accident that didn't have to happen."

Last year, after survivors and victims' families filed lawsuits over the crash, I waxed philosophical about the human need to assign blame in situations like these. I noted how our legal system, despite doing the best it can, is incapable of healing wounds, is hamfisted when it comes to punishing certain types of misdeeds, and is wholly incompetent in assigning meaning to life's tragedies. This is the case even when the wrongdoers are blatantly obvious, but it's especially true when blame is, at best, an ambiguous matter.

Which seems to be the case here. Based on the NTSB report, any number of things could have prevented this accident. The highway could have been marked better. The driver could have paid greater attention. The bus could have been made of stronger materials. It didn't happen that way, however, and seven people died.

Based on their statements, the families of the victims are still angry and still wounded and I can't say that I blame them. I'd probably feel the same way. I just hope that they're not expending all of their energy on litigation and investigation and remediation and all of the other 'ations which are part and parcel to our legal system. A legal system that, while it has ways of allocating damages in these situations, does so in a way that is wholly unsatisfying to just about everyone. The end of the 'ations in this instance will be unsatisfying as well, no matter how long they go on and which direction they ultimately lead.

Last year these thoughts led me to the conclusion that the problem isn't a system incapable of rationally addressing tragedy as much as it is our own problem for feeling like we can address tragedy rationally in the first place. I still feel the same way. Rationality plays little or no role when the death of a loved one is involved. Neither does the fantasy known as "closure."

It is my hope, therefore, that as the Bluffton survivors await the next deposition and next court date, as they await the next public hearing during which they can address the safety of bus windows or the proper marking of roads, they're taking the time to do less, well, rational things. I hope they are spending as much time as possible searching for the perspective necessary to accept life without their sons and brothers. I hope they aren't becoming consumed with punishing people for allegedly taking those sons away in the first place.

Ultimately it is my hope that as time goes on, they're moving forward more than they're looking back.

Post-CC Trade Detritus

The Day After, the shoulda, coulda, woulda, but didn'ta reports are coming out:

Phillies!

The Phillies placed Cy Young winner CC Sabathia atop their trade-deadline wish
list but fell short simply because they couldn't beat the package the Milwaukee
Brewers put together for him. The Brewers offered top prospect Matt LaPorta to
Cleveland, while the Phillies had nobody comparable in their system to persuade
the Indians to change their minds.

Yankees!

General manager Brian Cashman confirmed that the Yankees were interested in
trading for lefthander CC Sabathia but said the asking price ultimately was too
high. "We engaged the Indians on it but felt the price tag wasn't one we were
willing to pay for someone we couldn't guarantee would be with us for more than
three months," Cashman said yesterday.

Dodgers!

The Dodgers passed on Sabathia, opting once again to put their faith in a core
of young players nurtured for four years now. The Dodgers are in an awkward
spot, waiting for the kids to succeed, antsy for the kids to succeed. They
wouldn't trade Matt Kemp for Sabathia, the right call, and Kemp alone would not
have gotten the deal done . . . Ned Colletti, the Dodgers' general manager,
would not discuss specific players but said he could not have completed a deal
without disrupting the major league roster."We'd be filling one hole and
creating two others," Colletti said. "That's not something we're interested in
doing."

Oftentimes you hear disingenuous things coming out of the mouths of GMs in these situations, but all of this sounds pretty much accurate. The Phillies didn't have what it took to get him, and it was refreshing to hear Gillick say so rather than blow smoke up his fans' rears. The Yankees probably weren't pushing all that hard and likely figured Cleveland's asking price was too high. The Dodgers aren't in any position to be trading the young core on which they are clearly relying, even if the local press often enjoys criticizing them for relying on them.

I went back and forth on the Sabathia trade rumors a couple of times, originally thinking Milwaukee was the best bet, then thinking that maybe the Rays were. But after it was all said and done, there really wasn't a better fit out there.