Two Mets (Angel Pagan, Mike Piazza), a Yankee (Nick Swisher), a Net (Devin Harris) — and a champion figure skater (Evan Lysacek) — were today named winners of the Thurman Munson Award, to be presented at the 31st annual dinner on Feb. 1 in New York. I’ll be there and will get some photos, quotes, etc.
The LoHud Yankees Blog and many others have the details…
This is without looking at any stats, except Barry Larkin’s and Larry Walker’s, who for some reason I felt like I needed to take a look.
I like that the minimum requirements mean that Bobby Higginson and Lenny Harris get on the ballot. Cool.
I remember the tongue-in-cheek “One man, one vote” campaign that Jim Deshaies waged in “support” of his 2001 candidacy. He got his one vote.
My thoughts are below on who SHOULD/SHOULDN’T and who WILL/WONT get in in 2010.
Further posts on this to follow, with some explanations and a bit more analysis…
Roberto Alomar, SHOULD, WILL
Carlos Baerga, SHOULDNT, WONT
Jeff Bagwell, SHOULD, WILL
Harold Baines, SHOULDNT, WONT
Bert Blyleven, SHOULD, WONT
Bret Boone, SHOULDNT, WONT
Kevin Brown, SHOULDNT, WONT
John Franco, SHOULDNT, WONT
Juan Gonzalez, SHOULDNT, WONT
Marquis Grissom, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Lenny Harris, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Bobby Higginson, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Charles Johnson, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Barry Larkin, SHOULD, WILL
Al Leiter, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Edgar Martinez, SHOULD, WONT
Tino Martinez, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Don Mattingly, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Fred McGriff, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Mark McGwire, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Raul Mondesi, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Jack Morris, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Dale Murphy, SHOULDNT, WONT
John Olerud, SHOULDNT, WONT
Rafael Palmeiro, SHOULD’NT, WONT
Dave Parker, SHOULD’NT, WONT
Tim Raines, SHOULD, WONT
Kirk Rueter, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Benito Santiago, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Lee Smith, SHOULDN’T, WONT
B.J. Surhoff, SHOULDN’T, WONT
Alan Trammell, SHOULD, WONT
Larry Walker. SHOULDN’T, WONT
Oct 12
Out-of-my-price-range Charity Auction of the day: the one-of-a-kind autographed copy of the Official MLB Opus signed by the 2010 AL and NL All-Star Teams, at MLB Auctions. The book itself is a 20-inch square, 75-pound, 790-page behemoth which “tells the epic story of baseball’s heritage on a scale unmatched in the history of illustrated publishing.”
Only 1,000 of the book were printed, which is a shame, since its $3,000 price therefore limits it to the coffee tables of owners, players and other billionaires and millionaires. Apparently a scaled-down version is available for $295. Presumably that edition is bound.
Good news on the auction of the super-duper-deluxe version is that proceeds will benefit RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) and the Players Trust. Bad news is that, as of 10:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, 10/12, the reserve has not yet been met, with $7,000 as the current bid.
A few weeks back I stumbled upon a Mets Yearbook film on SNY. It was from the late 70s, chronicling one mediocre-or-worse Mets squad, but with an optimism and hopefulness that the coming year would be better.
I immediately went to the search function on my DVR and programmed in dates and times for future airings of other years’ films.
I don’t remember these in their original run — and though I’m more a Mets hater than fan, I just love these films. The 1963 film has great footage of the last breaths of the Polo Grounds, and ‘64 touted the opening of the marvelous Shea Stadium, universally hailed as the great modern multi-purpose park.
The films are a treasure trove of footage, from stars like Seaver and Mays all the way to “the next big things” like Mike Vail, Steve Henderson and John Milner.
Opening Day always got a disproportionate amount of screen time devoted to it, probably because even in their worst years, the Mets managed to win their lid-lifter. Events like Banner Day, Helmet Day and Old Timer’s Day — yes, the Mets had them then, and there were even Yankees (gasp!) invited
The films were always forward-looking, even though they recounted the title year — so guys who didn’t figure in the 1979 plans were nowhere to be found in the ‘78 video.
I particularly enjoyed a featurette in one of the shows on Dave Kingman, trying to humanize the famously surly slugger, showing him talking to camp kids in addition to his prodigious homers.
It’s not really fair to have BaseballReference.com open, clicking on players as they are mentioned in the series, but it certainly is fun to look back 40+ years in some cases and see what happened to those guys.
If the Yankees did such a video series, I’ve seen only a ‘77 season recap and a WPIX feature called “It Don’t Come Easy” reviewing 1978. I think films of those mediocre and poor CBS Yanks teams would be great as well, and I hope that if YES Network has those somewhere, and rights to use them, that they’d consider putting them on.
But that might be a bit to ask for the Undefeated Yankees Classics network.
Jul 20
Yesterday’s death of James Gammon, best known — to me, at least — as Lou Brown, the crusty manager of the Indians in the 1989 film Major League, made me think first of the funny lines he had, from “You may run like Hayes, but you hit like shit,” to “Get in front of the damn ball, don’t give me this “olé” bullshit.”
Old Lou (turns out he wasn’t so old after all, as Gammon was just 49 when the movie was released) was just what you would want in a manager. Firm and direct, demanding the best from his players. And clearly not taking any bullshit. But compassionate as well, as we saw when he had to explain to Ricky Vaughn why he was being passed over for the final start of the season.
So Brown was a great movie manager. But was he the best? Here are some of my favorites, and my pick for the one I’d want to manage my fictional team.
Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), A League of Their Own
Dugan clearly had no interest in the position coaching “a bunch of girls” but gradually grew into the job. Of course, he delivered maybe the most famous managerial line in movie history, asserting that their is “no crying in baseball…” But as an ex-Big Leaguer, when motivated, he knew his stuff and helped lead the Rockford Peaches to the championship game.
Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), The Bad News Bears
Also a reluctant skipper forced into a situation he neither wanted nor was ready for, Buttermaker was worn down by his troops and, in the end, did the right thing. His biggest strategical decision — having Kelly Leak catch everything he could — turned out to be a morale-killing disaster, but he later redeemed himself in the eyes of the team and his pitcher-daughter.
Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley), The Natural
Pop wanted to manage his team, moribund as it was, he just didn’t want his new, old right fielder. Another in the line of cranky movie skippers, he was a less prominent but still important character in the movie.
Uchiyama (Ken Takakura), Mr. Baseball
I’ve always thought that Mr. Baseball is very underrated as a baseball movie. Maybe people are scared off by the Japanese theme, but Tom Selleck can really swing the bat, and Uchiyama as both his hold-the-line, hold-your-tongue manager and father of Jack Elliot’s love interest sets a great tone of conflict that drives the film. Uchiyama is so set in his ways and dedicated to the old ways, but they eventually find common ground.
Dutch Schnell (Vincent Gardenia), Bang the Drum Slowly
This is such a hauntingly sad movie and so focused on the Henry Wiggen-Bruce Pearson relationship that the Dutch Schnell character’s drive to find answers, to meddle even, goes overlooked. But Gardenia nails it, and injects much-needed humor into the proceedings.
Len Sickles (William Frawley), Rhubarb
William Frawley played in a few baseball films of the 1940s and early ’50s, before his more popular role as Fred Mertz in “I Love Lucy.” He was well-suited for all of them, and in a farce of a movie gets to play the straight guy again, not unlike Fred and his other baseball roles.
Those are my favorites. As to the one I’d want to lead my team, I think I’d go with Brown, especially If my squad had a cast of characters as disparate as his rags-to-riches Tribe.
I’d hope he’d turn and say, “My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team.”
Fernando Tatis
Been a busy couple of weeks, and haven’t been particularly inspired by the transactions, though I have been interviewing some author and Hall of Fame shortstop and TV executive types for some stories on BaseballDigest.com and NewJerseyNewsroom.com, so feel free to check those out if you wish… My favorite was the author of a new book about Joe Black, it’s a quick and easy read from a guy with a unique perspective on Mr. Black. Highly recommended.
METS – Placed INF/OF Fernando Tatis on the 15-day DL.
Tatis reminds me, in a way, of Ruben Sierra. Sierra all but disappeared from the baseball scene, then re-emerged in the Independent Leagues before hooking back up with Texas and eventually re-inventing his image as a “good guy” after some years of a selfish persona.
Tatis’s first dismissal from the game was, by all accounts, not related to attitude issues, but strictly performance. He also emerged with revived pep after a three-year hiatus in 2006 with Baltimore — it only seemed like it was longer than that because his last three MLB seasons were in Montreal from ‘01-’03.
But even after it seemed the Baltimore experiment was to fail (Tatis went .250/.313/.500 in 64 AB’s with the O’s), Tatis didn’t give up, signing with the Mets and playing the whole ‘07 season in the minors before coming back up for good in ‘08, playing a much larger role the past two seasons than most Met fans (and maybe Tatis himself) could imagine.
Hitting just .185 so far this year, the D.L. assignment could be a precursor to release, especially if the Mets, as expected, get aggressive at the end of the month and try to add a bat or two to the lineup. This kind of fade-away season, not uncommon for 35-year-old players living on borrowed time, would be a sad end, if that’s the case.
I, for one, am rooting for Tatis to find his way, against all the odds, back to a Major League field.
He’s done it before.
DETROIT TIGERS — Optioned RHP Rick Porcello to Toledo (IL)
TORONTO BLUE JAYS — Optioned 3B Edwin Encarnacion to Las Vegas (PCL)
METS — Sent RHP Jenrry Mejia to Binghamton (EL).
Three demotions of interest here, including two young players who have bright futures and one six-year veteran who may be at the end of the line.
For Porcello, 2010 has been a major disappointment. After a stellar rookie year, the Morristown, N.J., native has slid down the Tigers rotation and now out to Toledo. It seems like hitters have adjusted the second and third time around the league and now Porcello needs to regroup and readjust. His minor league track record suggests that he’ll be able to do it, but the list of second-year MLB flameouts is long.
Mejia didn’t figure into the Mets’ plans until his sizzling spring demanded that he break camp with the big club. Comparisons to Mariano Rivera may have been premature, however, as he struggled with his command once the regular season bell rang, and this move to AA has him back on the original track, to build up starters’ endurance .
I always thought Encarnacion was a curious choice to replace Scott Rolen at third. His free-swinging ways and merely adequate defense were bound to be exposed eventually, and this demotion seems to indicate that the Jays have given up on him.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Recalled 3B Pedro Alvarez from Indianapolis (IL). Designated INF Aki Iwamura for assignment.
A list of the highest paid players on each team in 2010 would include such luminous names as Alex Rodriguez, Johan Santana and Ryan Howard. Perceived underachievers like Carlos Lee, Alfonso Soriano and Barry Zito are there as well.
But Aki Iwamura? His $4.85 million salary, which would rate in the bottom half of many teams’ rosters, topped the lowly (and low-paying) Pittsburgh Pirates, and the expectation was that the 31-year-old would recapture some of his 2008 form and anchor the young Bucs’ infield.
A .181/.292/.267 line through the first 54 games doomed that idea, and with Pedro Alvarez on the way up and Andy Laroche moving to a utility role at five years younger and 1/10 the salary, Iwamura’s roster spot became the one tabbed for Alvarez.
The Pirates, like other teams in their payroll range (only San Diego, at $37.8 million, is within $15 million of Pittsburgh’s MLB-low $34.9 opening day mark), can’t afford mistakes like this one. But rather than compounding the error by keeping Iwamura out there, the Pirates have chosen to move Iwamura, either through a trade, or if no one claims him, back to the minors. Teams are less willing to keep unproductive, higher-salaried players around, even bottom-10 payroll organizations like the Rays (Pat Burrell) and Nationals (Brian Bruney).
Jun 16
The transactions listings have always been one of my favorite parts of the Sports section. They are direct, just-the-facts-ma’am, no one listing more prominent than the other. But of course there are stories behind every one, some more complex and interesting than others, some involving other moves which may or may not appear there.
I sometimes see the news of a hiring and imagine that there must be much joy in that household.
From today:
UNLV-Promoted Jennifer Klein to women’s soccer coach.
Is this the culmination of a lifelong dream for Ms. Klein? Is she ready to be the head coach? Does she have the same doubts that most new coaches have? Is she getting congratulatory emails and Facebook wall posts and calls?
And when I see that a player has been released or designated, I wonder what is going through his mind. “Is this the end of the road?” “What will I do next?”
Since I look through them daily, I’m going to try to pick one or two of the baseball items that initiate a thought or two in what I hope will be a new feature, “Tracking The Transations,” or TTT.
Today’s TTT:
SEATTLE MARINERS–Designated RHP Ian Snell for assignment.
Okay, I could leave this one up to Tom, but I’ll take a crack. Snell, fans may recall, broke in pretty strongly with the Pirates a couple of years back., winning 14 games in 2006. But after signing a fairly sizable contract extension, he struggled in ‘08 and ‘09 and famously requested a demotion to AAA, citing “too much negativity” in Pittsburgh. After pitching extremely well for Indianapolis, he was later included in a deal with Jack Wilson to the Mariners.
That Snell regressed this year may be related to the issues that came to the front in Pittsburgh. He is in the last year of that contract extension, and he’s just 28, so the going-nowhere M’s must really think he’s done.
My guess is that we haven’t seen the last of Snell. Some team will try to make a reclamation project out of him and the arm that was firing 95 mph fastballs not too long ago, especially with another team footing the bill.
In recent years, Major League Baseball has ventured further into its “look” in support of marketing and charitable initiatives as well as historic celebrations. Some, like the pink bats for Mother’s Day and universal wearing of 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, have met with mostly favorable response. Spiderman on the bases? Not quite.
Which brings me to the commemorative Memorial Day caps teams sported in yesterday’s games. Last year, the Yankees were forced to wear hideous red caps which looked terrible against their road grays and home pinstripes.
Yesterday’s white caps fit the uniform quite a bit better (even if Brett Gardner, as noted in today’s Star-Ledger, noted that it was worse than his Little League cap). I suppose I had put the red cap disaster out of my mind, forgetting about the new Memorial Day “tradition,” but of course immediately noticed the white lids when the team began stretching. To me, it recalled the look of some of the very early Yankees teams. To others, it might have recalled the Good Humor man, an apt connection on such a hot day in the Bronx.
I like that the Yankees don’t have alternate jerseys, Sunday jerseys, or other alterations to their uniforms, even though I enjoy seeing teams wearing “throwback” or Negro Leagues jerseys from time to time. I recall only one game that the Yankees wore Negro League jerseys, I believe it was at Detroit in 1996 when they donned N.Y. Black Yankees uniforms. I think once a year, maybe Old Timer’s Day or another weekend game, or even a road game against a classic rival, I wouldn’t mind seeing them in a Highlanders jersey (say, 1911 next year) or revive the Black Yankees, since they played at the Stadium on occasion.
My three favorite on-field alterations:
- Jackie Robinson 42’s (but one day only, please)
- pink bats, sweatbands for Memorial Day
- occasional throwback jerseys