THE LIST? Are these the real 103?

Shysterball and Jay from FackYouk clued me into a Tim Marchman article that identifies the "alleged" 103 names who tested positive in 2003. Craig downplayed the significance of the names ("there are maybe 2-3 names on it that will raise an eyebrow"); I firmly disagree. I think there are more big names than I expected.

I am not going to post the names until I get a confirmation. But if this list is legit, we got a whopper coming. You can follow those links to get it yourself. It's a fake.

Stay tuned; as soon as there's a confirmation, I will post it. After all, more than 60% of you wanted this list released, so this might be your chance.


UPDATE: The list is bogus, a fake, fraudulent, a sham, spurious, a con, faux, ersatz... Please resume your daily duties with no further chest-beating.

Stubborn or stupid? Or both?

Make of this what you will:

Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP, Red Sox - The most surprising thing was his lack of conditioning, and that he didn’t feel he had to do any of the shoulder strengthening program all Sox pitchers are on. According to a major league source, Matsuzaka appeared convinced that a Japanese shoulder is different from an American shoulder. Head-scratcher. In the end, he realized it wasn’t true. One thing the Sox have him convinced of now: He will be on the program next offseason. They may send medical or training staff to Japan, or Matsuzaka will have to make periodic trips to the US to get checked out. The Sox see a Sept. 1 return.

Two things jump out at me:

1. He actually believed that a Japanese shoulder structure is different than an American one.
2. He's out until 9/1. That's a long time.

Congrats to Mo! How sweep it is!

Huge congrats to Mo on his 500th save. Getting it against the Mets, after getting his first career RBI was especially fun.

It was Rivera's first career RBI Sunday night that really captured his imagination, coming on the same evening that the 39-year-old closer became the second member of baseball's most prestigious club for closers by recording the final four outs of a 4-2 Yankees victory over the Mets at Citi Field.

"The RBI is the best," Rivera said. "It was my first RBI. It was my 500th save."

Of course, this 500th save came to close out the 3 game sweep against the team that we used to know as the Mets. Now, they look like a minor league affiliate wearing big league laundry.

I almost feel bad for my Mets fans friends, who have to slog thru a terribly injury-riddled stretch. This team is just no good. Errors, mistakes, mediocre pitching, little offense. More errors. The best part of it for me was watching it with my older son, who even said at one point: "We make errors like that in my league". He's nine. Yep, your New York Mets.

As for the sweep, it was certainly nice and fun, but I won't get overly giddy about it. Clearly, this team, as currently constituted, is a mess fundamentally. They have trouble catching and throwing, knowing situations, etc. In other words, a team the Yanks SHOULD sweep. Just as they should have swept the Nationals (but lost 2 of 3). The Mets are, to me, like a kid brother, six years younger than you. Annoying, not a serious threat, wanting to be all tough and cool like you (think you) are, something you can brush aside, yet someone you root for when they face a team you really dislike. I don't hate the Mets. I want them to do well, only if the Yanks aren't, if only to keep the morale around the metro area higher. But, when we sweep them, I delight in the suffering of my Mets fans friends. They take it so personally, so emotionally.

It's wholly different than the RedSox. With the Sox, a sweep is golden. Euphoric. And getting swept is reason to not watch/listen to sports talk radio for a few days. The Sox are the team I take seriously, not the Mets. Losing to the Mets is aggrivating, but losing to the Sox hurts.

Good to get the sweep. Makes Monday a bit more palatable.

Rolling the Dice

Have the Sox come up snake-eyes with Dice-K? Bob Ryan seems to think so:

There's a lot of financial craziness out there in modern professional sport, but we have not yet reached the point where a third or fourth (and in this case, fifth) starter is worth a total investment of $102 million for six years.

There's really not going to be any kind of debate about this, is there?
[...]
He’s not what he was supposed to be; this much we know. He was billed as a superpitcher, a guy who threw in the mid-to-high 90s and who augmented this uberheater with as many as five auxiliary pitches, all, as they say, in the “plus’’ category. (We won’t go anywhere near that gyroball nonsense.)

We’ve never seen that guy.

What we’ve seen at his best is a guy who throws in the low 90s and who has decent auxiliary stuff. We have seen that, in common with pitchers in his basic category, he needs to hit spots to be effective. He has got to locate that fastball on the corners. If he can do that, everything else has a chance to work.

In other words, he’s like a hundred other guys.

Pretty honest review, Bob.

The Sox are in a wonderful position to withstand the loss of Dice-K for any period of time. Penny, Smoltz, Masterson, Buchholz, Bowden... not to mention the financial might to absorb dead money on the books. The Sox are more than able to withstand this loss, no matter how long he's out. And given that Dice-K's annual salary (averages $9M for the next 4 years) is not extraordinary, the Sox would likely have no problem finding a suitor should they put him on the market (though he does have a full no-trade clause). First they have to get him healthy.

Before we blame the WBC, Dice-K was already established as a major league nibbler, frustrating everyone. So what happened? Failure to live up to the hype, the unreachable levels predicted for him? Pressure? The cumulative effects of all those pitches in Japan (and in the Koshien Tournament)? Or maybe he's just hurt?

Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci pointed out earlier this year there is an eerie pattern of Japanese pitchers losing it during their third year in America. At the time, the Sox rejected this as a reason for Dice-K’s problems, saying he was physically sound and citing the fact he was 26 when they signed him. With the exception of Hideo Nomo, the Japanese pitchers who broke down did so in their early 30s. They insisted Dice-K was physically sound. But now he’s going on the DL, citing shoulder woes? Something doesn’t add up.

Verducci's article, published 4/21/09, looks awfully prescient right now.

Matsuzaka was 26 when he joined the big leagues, the same age as when Hideo Nomo made his jump. The other relevant comparisons are Kaz Ishii (28 when he joined MLB), Hideki Irabu (28) and Masato Yoshii (33).

Nomo, Ishii, Irabu and Yoshii all had initial success. But the third and fourth seasons became treacherous. Nomo was much worse in his third year and released by the Dodgers in his fourth year. Ishii was done after his fourth year. Irabu made only five more starts after his fourth year. Yoshii was released after his third year.

In every case, the third year was a pothole. Their ERAs soared and, in all but one case, their strikeout rate dropped. Nomo did recover to post two good seasons with the Dodgers later in his career, but otherwise he was mostly ordinary after the initial burst.

The biggest concern for such a track record is the difference in how pitchers are used in Japan and in the majors. Matsuzaka pitched every sixth or seventh day in Japan in a shorter season, but his individual pitch counts wouldn't be allowed in America. He threw, for instance, 250 pitches in a high school game, 189 pitches on Opening Day 2003, 160 pitches in his second start of 2005 and 145 pitches in his penultimate start before signing with Boston. Perhaps most ominously, Matsuzaka threw 588 innings as a pro in Japan as a teenager.

Papelbon: If not in Boston, then NY?

Heard yesterday on MLB on XM:

Jody McDonald: “If you couldn’t work out a contract with the Red Sox before free agency comes up and you eventually become a free agent (after the 2011 season), is the Bronx ever a possibility?”

Jonathan Papelbon: “Oh, of course. I mean, I think if we can’t come to an agreement on terms here in a Red Sox uniform, I mean, I think that’s pretty much the writing on the wall. If they can’t come to terms with you they’re letting you know that, ‘Hey you know what? We can go somewhere else.’ And I think it’s the same way on the other side, ‘Hey if ya’ll can’t come to an agreement with me then I can go somewhere else.’ Not only in the Bronx, but anywhere. I think anywhere is a possibility. You always have to keep that in the back of your mind because you can’t just be one-sided and think that, ‘Oh I’m going to be in a Red Sox uniform my entire career.’ Because nowadays that is very, very rare and hopefully we can because there’s no question I would love to stay in a Boston Red Sox uniform but I have to do what’s best for me and play in an atmosphere where I’m wanted and play on a team where I’m wanted and that’s all I can really say about that, you know?”

Sounds like a "I'll play for whoever pays me the money I want", but who knows... I still can't see Papelbon joining the Yanks. Then again...

Thanks to the good guys at XM for getting me that quote. Sorry, no audio, however.

IIATMS Interview: "The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live"

Over the last nearly 18 months, I've been lucky enough to conduct interviews with some insiders within the game. From an agent (Matt Sosnick), players (Darryl Rasner, Eric Hacker), a former manager/player (Mike Hargrove), a professional writer (Jeff Pearlman), to a current assistant GM (Paul DePodesta). My goal is to bring you interesting perspectives from those in and around the game, people who you might not hear from every day. As always, I hope to continue to be so lucky to do more of these types of interviews.

My latest interview is with Robert Tuchman, founder and president of New York-based TSE Sports & Entertainment, a global leader in sports and entertainment promotion. He's also the Executive VP of the corporate division. In addition to being the leader of an organization responsible for corporate sponsorships and outings, Robert somehow found the time to write the book "The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live". Click here for the website.

I choose Robert not merely because he wrote a book about the best sporting events to see live, but also because of his story about making it in the sports and entertainment industry.

About Robert Tuchman:

When Robert Tuchman graduated from college, Tuchman was quickly forced to abandon his dream of becoming a sports reporter. Applications to sports programs across the country were ignored and eventually he accepted a position as an investment advisor at Lehman Brothers in New York, followed by a stint Paine Webber.

Still wanting to break into the sports industry, he joined Sports Profiles after reading about them in Entrepreneur, working out of his apartment selling sports magazine advertisements. Quickly realizing that everyone to whom he sold ads wanted the perks (tickets to games or luxury trips to events) more then the ads, he decided to start a business that catered to this niche called Tuchman Sports Enterprises (TSE).

Within two years of working out of that tiny one-bedroom Upper East Side apartment, with one phone and a fax machine, his company was named to the annual Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing privately held companies and as one of the top 100 promotion agencies by Promo Magazine.

He started TSE with no money and no investors and ended up selling it for millions of dollars to Premiere Global Sports. Last year PGS earned over $70 million dollars in sales. Robert Tuchman now serves as President of that division, still guiding his company in its new form.

So if you are curious about getting started in the sports & entertainment industry, which baseball game is the best event to see live, whether Wrigley is a better experience than Fenway, and dog owners who buy books, please read on and enjoy:

Background questions

• It's About The Money, Stupid: Tell us how you got started in the corporate events business?
  
  Robert Tuchman: I always wanted to work in sports. I left Lehman Brothers after six months on the job after graduating school to follow my passion. Funny enough at the time this move was considered renegade and Lehman was the safe route. Well we all know what happened there!
  


• IIATMS: How did you handle the fears and risks of starting your own business?
  
  RT: I tried to use the energy from those emotions to feed my desire to continue going even when things got very tough. I also realized that I had to get over those fears if I wanted to go after my dreams.
  


• IIATMS: What’s the best lesson you can share?
  
  RT: Persistence is extremely important when starting a business. It’s a marathon so try and take a step forward each day. When you get knocked down, pick yourself off the mat and start again.
  


• IIATMS: What advice could you offer for anyone interested in getting into your line of work?
  
  RT: Try and get in the door anywhere you can in the industry. Even if that means starting as an intern. We have hired many interns over the years. You will also get to see what is going on from the inside and determine where you want to be.
  


• IIATMS: What sort of background would someone ideally like/need to have in order to be successful at your company?
  
  RT: Anyone who brings good energy and a can-do attitude is 95% there.
  


• IIATMS: What’s the greatest misconception about your job?
  
  RT: That I get to hang out at the Super Bowl and the Final Four and have a blast. It's more work then fun, but I do get to have at least a little fun, so I can't really complain.
  


• IIATMS: How many days a year are you on the road? More or less than prior years?
  
  RT: About the same. I would say a week out of the month is on the road.
  


• IIATMS: Has the economy had a major impact on companies’ desires to use frontline sporting events as major schmoozing/relationship-building opportunities?
  
  RT: Certainly. We were hit pretty hard for a few months, but the business is starting to come back, which is nice to see.

Book-related questions

• IIATMS: Have you personally attended every one of the events listed in “The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live”? How long did it take for you to see them all?
  
  RT: I wish. I am only at about 38. The most I have heard was Lesley Visser and her husband Dick Stockton with around 50. Also Harvey Schiller had close to 50.
  


• IIATMS: If you haven't been to them all, how did you get to your final ranking?
  
  RT: A lot of research and speaking with people who have been to the events. Really just talking with those who have been or worked the events.
  


• IIATMS: It’s difficult not to be a spoiler, but the Masters are your #1 event to see live in our lifetime. What if I am not into golf, watching golf, being around golfing fans wearing visors, etc.?
  
  RT: Funny thing is I am not a big golfer myself. This one is strictly about the venue and its beauty. Its really a magical place.
  
  [IIATMS edit: If anyone from Augusta National happens to wander on by, I'd love to come to the Masters. I just need tickets and access and I'll write up the whole thing. I'm serious. Hootie, email me!]
  


• IIATMS: Number 9 on your list is Redsox/Yanks, at Yankee Stadium. As a Yankee fan, I understand this, but why “at Yankee Stadium”? Why not “at Fenway”? Would this change now given there’s a new Yankee Stadium? [As a parallel, the same goes for #30 Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs at Toronto , but not “at Montreal"]
  
  RT: Yankee fans [IIATMS edit: Don't blame me, Sox fans.]
  


• IIATMS: Number 14 is any Cubs game at Wrigley. Is that really better than the Final Four or The Daytona 500? I haven’t been to all three of these, but it seems the drama of the other two would outweigh “any game” at Wrigley.
  
  RT: Without a doubt there is more energy and excitement at those events but a game at Wrigley sends you back in time. It's an incredible experience.
  


• IIATMS: Speaking of both Fenway and Wrigley, is seeing a game at Wrigley (#14 overall) that much better than seeing a game at Fenway (#55)? Even as a Yankee fan, I love the Fenway experience. And if you have seats on the Monster (which I have had before), that’s about as good an experience as you can get.
  
  RT: Fenway is special. I actually worked there as a security guard one summer so I have been around the park many times. I have not had a chance to sit on the Monster, that seems like an awesome experience.
  
  The Wrigley experience though is more of a time machine event. You really feel like your back at the turn of the century watching baseball. It's as pure to the roots of the sport that I have gotten at the major league level.
  


• IIATMS: Getting back to golf, the US Open sits at #64 on your list. I would have expected it to be higher, given that there tends to be a rowdiness factor that you don’t get at the British Open.
  
  RT: That is true but the British Open, especially when it is played on some of the older European courses is pretty cool. Plus, I had the Masters as number one so I had to give the Europeans something.
  


• IIATMS: Could #1 overall be “Any golf event with Tiger in the Top 5 on Sunday”?
  
  RT: Funny enough, with out a doubt. Tiger has elevated golf and interest in the sport, especially at the Masters, more then anyone. In fact, without Tiger, I don’t think I would have selected the Masters number one.
  


• IIATMS: Westminster Dog Show? At #93? Ahead of Men’s Lacrosse Championship (#95), the College Baseball World Series (#96)? Really?
  
  RT: It's amazing how many people love dogs, and they like to buy books.

About attending any of these events

• IIATMS: What are the best tricks to landing tickets to any of these events if you a) aren’t flush with money, b) not getting tickets from your employer, c) not well connected?
  
  RT: Box office day of is always a possibility. Tickets get held back sometimes or released late so you never know. Companies like gotickets.com are good to buy market value tickets.
  


• IIATMS: What’s the best event to attend if you are: a) looking for rowdiness, b) not looking for rowdiness, c) looking for a unique experience, d) looking to impress a client/partner?
  
  RT:
  a) Hong Kong Sevens
  b) Little League World Series
  c) Nathans Hot Dog Eating Contest
  d) Super Bowl
  


• IIATMS: What are the most accessible events in the US ? Meaning: ease of getting there, ease of getting a ticket, etc.? (Perhaps by region of the US : NorthEast, SouthEast, West, South)
  
  RT:
  NorthEast: Head of the Charles Regatta
  SouthEast: Bayou Classic
  West: UCLA/USC @ Pauley Pavilion
  Midwest: Little 500

Bonus Question:

• IIATMS: Are you hiring? How can someone break into the business with your Company?
  
  RT: Not right now with the downturn, but we will be I am sure pretty soon. Internships are a great way to get your foot in the door.

Please visit Amazon if you are interested in buy the book. It's not merely a ranking; it's also a great travel guide for each of the events. {Disclaimer: I do not make any commission off any sales of the book}

Each Ranked Event contains the following sub-sections: Where, When, Significance, Who attends, History, Notable Athletes/MVPs, Records, Things to know before you go, How to get there, Tickets, Accomodations, On-Site hospitality, Travel packages, Dining.

Thanks again to Robert Tuchman for his time.

And the MSM has the nerve to bash the blogosphere?

And they pump out worthless drivel like this*:

The big deal is that the Sox and Yankees don't play each other again until Aug. 6. So New York can win every game for the next eight weeks; the Yankees can win 40 in a row or more. But no matter what they do, they're going to be constantly reminded that they are 0-8 against the Red Sox.

It's pretty terrific when you think about it.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Boston Globe. What's the matter, Dan, no more "Curse" books to write?

And the truth is, from one Yanks fan: Losing to the Sox always sucks. Eight in a row is really painful. And I lost not one wink of sleep over it the past few nights. I give a ton of credit to the Sox for doing it everyway possible and for being a very smart organization.

But can the MSM stop with the blogger bashing when they are tossing this horsesh*t out there as "professional content" that you can only learn in a classroom taught by Geoff Baker?


* Thanks to my bro for bringing this to my attention

A reasonable voice in Boston

Boy, after yesterday's whining, I was happy to read something refreshingly honest and reasonable from Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe today. Of course, the Boston faithful are sick of hearing it, though.

Given the resources with which the Red Sox operate, we all know that they forever will have options, and Theo Epstein rarely fails to have an alternative plan for virtually every scenario. So long as the Sox have a big payroll and a productive farm system – kudos to the baseball operations department for this – they will have wherewithal to enhance the big-league roster with signings and trades. Still, given the amount of dead money the Sox now have on the roster -- Ortiz, Lugo and Drew will earn a combined average of $36 million per season, this year and next -- it now seems downright silly that the Sox may have lost out on Teixeira for as little as $2 million a year, especially when Teixeira would not have required a forfeiture of talent like that they sacrificed in, say, the Josh Beckett deal (Hanley Ramirez).

Many of us don’t regret the Beckett move and never will. But the point is that the Red Sox might have had Teixeira for nothing more than money, which now seems like an even better deal at a time when the Sox have some wasted money on their payroll.

Maybe Teix was never really interested in Boston other than as a stalking horse for the Yanks. Maybe he was sincerely torn. We'll never know, unless he shares his thoughts once his playing days are over.

But Mazz's comments are true; the only cost for a free agent is money (and a draft pick) and for a team with the financial prowess like Boston, falling $2M short given their other expenditures seemed shortsighted. True, the Yanks might have upped their offer again, but that's another thing we won't ever know for sure.

But, I'm happy to let this stuff pass under the bridge at this point. Whining doesn't help. Enough of the handwringing.

Sox fans, you guys are 6-0 against the Yanks so far this season after the 7-0 shutdown last night. Yet your beat writers are still obsessing about Teix as the 'one that got away'. Strange, no?

Whining taken to a new level

For some reason, I thought this sorta whining coming from the Boston media was done, that somehow we were beyond this (note the subtitle: "Yanks buy first place and perhaps a title"). Guess not.

There was nothing particularly savvy or skillful about it, of course. They were dealing with Scott Boras, so they knew that honor and integrity would play no part in the process.

Just money. Lots and lots of money.

In other words, it was a New York Yankees kind of deal right from the start, a chance for them to buy the biggest house on the block and act like they built it with their bare hands.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman didn’t even have to travel to Mark Teixiera’s home to grovel. All he had to do was sit back, checkbook in hand, and let Boras do his thing. In the end, the slimy superagent did not let him down.

Awwwwww. That's so sad. Boo hoo. Boston was $10m "short" in their efforts to buy first place, Mr. Callahan. Don't act so one-sided, looking down on the Yanks for doing exactly what you were prepared to do.

Even though they already had a pretty good first baseman and third baseman, the Sox didn’t try to hide their affection for the best free agent on the market. They pounced on Teixeira like Brian Williams on Barack Obama. They made a bold offer of about $170 million over eight years.
[...]
Cashman did as he was told. He topped the Sox by a sizable margin. Final number: $180 million over eight years with a full no-trade clause.

And don't dare call that difference "sizable", because it represented just 6% of their total offer and that's not material by any stretch when you're whalehunting. That's close enough for the Sox ownership to call Boras and say, "call" and get Teix if he wanted to come to Boston for the same money as NY.

The Yanks do what they always do; use their financial might. And with some $80m+ coming off their payroll last year, all they did is backfill (with the best players available).

Mr. Callahan, you can hate on Boras all you wish. Makes no difference to me. He was only doing his job. And doing it damn well. If you think Boras would somehow treat the Sox differently than any other team, you're a fool. He's an agent with a singular mission: securing the largest deal for his clients. To think that he'd play favorites with Boston merely because they had worked well together in the past is either naive or dumb.

Also, don't try to portray Boston as some small market club, innocently being clubbed by the big, bad Yanks. As you noted, Mr. Callahan:

It is easy to say the Red Sox should have known better, but after lavishing outrageous contracts on other Boras clients, including J.D. Drew and Daisuke Matsuzaka, maybe the Sox thought Boras would give them a fair shake. They thought wrong, and they got burned.

Pot, kettle? Not quite, I know. But close.

Just quit the whining. The Sox are an incredibly run organization with great talent up and down, and plenty more on the come. Whining is not something the organization does; they react and fix things as well as any other club. Why aren't you, Mr. Callahan, lauding your team for being only a game out of first despite a sinkhole at DH and slow starts by Beckett and Lester (though obviously both have come on like gangbusters lately, especially Lester), rather than whining about the Yanks' spending. It's not a new story.


UPDATE (6/9/09, 11:15am): Deadspin's take on the transfer fees being paid in soccer and how it might related to MLB:

Perhaps someone with a more secure grasp of international sports could explain why U.S. sports don't try this transfer fee stuff. When teams like Milwaukee and Oakland and Minnesota watch their best players waltz away for big bucks contracts (or maybe get pennies on the dollar in a trade), would it help if Boston and New York had to dump big piles of cash on their old desks to take the talent? Or would it just give the small teams even more incentive to hoard money and stay terrible? The agents would certainly love to get in on that action.

Fun idea.

Remember Foulke? He hates Newark

Can't say that I blame him though I am digging his honesty:

"I'm not hoping to lead the Atlantic League in saves," he says. "I hope the phone rings today and it's the Diamondbacks and I can pack my stuff and get out of here."

Foulke lives in the Phoenix area but says he would play pretty much anywhere.

"Any big league city is better than being here," he says. "I'd even play for the Yankees. I still think I have something to offer."
[...]
Big league scouts sitting behind home plate give him mixed reviews.

"Minor league hitters can't touch him," says one. "It's only a matter of time before he gets a call, but not as a closer."

But another was less optimistic.

"He's succeeding with fringe stuff," said that scout. "An 84-mile-per-hour fastball. Any mistake he makes will be hammered up there."

If Percival can retire and come back... Izzy's trying a comeback (from injury)... why not Foulke?

Slump or done?

When you're 25, it's a slump. When you're 33, 34, 35... you might be done. Papi, Magglio, Abreu, this might relate to you:

"I know people talk about the steroid issue (throughout baseball), but this thing happens to the best of them," former hitting coach Merv Rettenmund says. "One year, a guy is the best hitter in the game. The next, he has trouble hitting the ball out in batting practice."

George Foster, whose production plummeted from 52 homers to 13 in a five-year span, is one of many illustrious sluggers whose careers deteriorated in their early 30s. Cecil Fielder hit 95 homers from 1990 to 1991 but had 13 at 33. Jim Rice hit 39 homers at 30 and never more than 15 after reaching 34.

This is a fascinating topic and one, to me, needs to be explored deeper and further. I wish the author, the esteemed Bob Nightingale from USA Today took it further (but hey, it is USA Today, an economy of words).

If time permits, I'll try to get some data on sluggers' performance during their mid-30's.

Best and worst owners in baseball

From SI.com, the best and worst owners in MLB:

Top 5
1. Henry/Werner/Lucchino, Boston Redsox
2. Arturo Moreno, LA Angels
3. William DeWitt, St. Louis Cardinals
4. Steinbrenner Family, NY Yankees
5. Stuart Sternberg, Tampa Bay Rays


Bottom 5
26. Ted Lerner, Washington Nationals
27. Jeffrey Loria, Florida Marlins
28. David Glass, KC Royals
29. Tom Hicks, Texas Rangers
30. Peter Angelos, Baltimore Orioles

I don't have much of a problem with the top 5. Sternberg gets a nice bump because the team he inherited sucked for so many years and all those #1 picks paid off. Good drafting, great development. Moreno, the Boston trio, DeWitt....all well-deserved. I'd have them ranked pretty much the same way. The Steinbrenner family... I guess you have to, whether you like 'em or not. They sure have figured out ways to maximize revenue streams.

There's one name in the bottom 5 that really surprised me. Jeffrey Loria. Sure, he's not the most warm and cuddly guy and he torpedoed the Montreal franchise, but as the owner of the Marlins, he did reign over one WS title, which is vastly superior to most other owners. Including DeWitt, Moreno and Sternberg in the top 5. He also bullied his way into a new stadium on the horizon.

Ted Lerner's legacy is too short to really warrant his ranking, and SI seems to put the bonus skimming scheme that was lead by Jim Bowden squarely around the neck of Lerner. Yes, the team hasn't done much at all since being reborn in DC, but I don't think a tenure that began in only 2006 can be defined so quickly.

Glass is interesting in that he's a notorious tightwad, and while I root for a team that sweats hundred dollar bills, I can't say that fact in and of itself makes him a bad owner. He's a businessman with a Walmart pedigree, so he knows a thing or two about the income statement. His teams have made a boatload of money over the years despite not doing much (read: anything at all) on the field. As fans, we want our owners to be 'one of us', investing as we think we would if we were in their shoes. There's only one team that really does that. Glass operates his business with a firm grasp on margins and it shows. The Royals have been perennial cellar-dwellers for eons: The team has averaged 96 losses during Glass' 16 year tenure. Ninety-six. And they haven't made the playoffs in 24 years.

Aside from hoping that the Sox fall on their collective face, few things in baseball make me happier than watching Peter Angelos fail. An ultra-successful lawyer, Angelos took over in 1993 and proceeded to polish the lustre of the franchise with coarse sandpaper. Says SI.com: "Then Angelos began his notorious meddling, firing popular manager Davey Johnson, burning through another five managers, killing trades proposed by his GMs and stripping down one of baseball's proudest franchises. The O's haven't finished above .500 in 11 seasons since their last playoff appearance."

Your thoughts?

Doctors advised the Sox on how to use PEDs

Thanks to BostonDirtDogs (via IIH,IIF), Lou Merloni shed some light on the earlier PED days, with a special peek into the Sox lockerroom:

Sat. May 9, 2009, Lou Merloni, who did not specify the year the meeting with the doctor took place, on Comcast SportsNet's The Baseball Show: "I'm in spring training, and I got an 8:30-9:00 meeting in the morning. I walk into that office, and this happened while I was with the Boston Red Sox before this last regime, I'm sitting in the meeting. There's a doctor up there and he's talking about steroids, and everyone was like 'here we go, we're gonna sit here and get the whole thing -- they're bad for you.' No. He spins it and says 'you know what, if you take steroids and sit on the couch all winter long, you can actually get stronger than someone who works out clean, if you're going to take steroids, one cycle won't hurt you, abusing steroids it will.' He sat there for one hour and told us how to properly use steroids while I'm with the Boston Red Sox, sitting there with the rest of the organization, and after this I said 'what the heck was that?' And everybody on the team was like 'what was that?' And the response we got was 'well, we know guys are taking it, so we want to make sure they're taking it the right way'... Where did that come from? That didn't come from the Players Association."

Could management really be so dumb to do this, back in the pre-Theo days?

Many Manny thoughts

{Pardon my delay in getting this out, but work was nuts and I am only now (9pm) getting to unwind --jnr}

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Like most of you, when I first heard the Manny news, I was stunned. I have been saying that no name would surprise me, but I guess I was surprised nonetheless. Not surprised that he was using something, something which reportedly is used to mask/help recover from using other, more serious things....but more surprised that he was dumb enough to get caught. I'm disappointed, just as I said I'd be.

I think the whole "Manny being Manny" schtick is/was cute and fun, but ask any Yanks fan and we all feared when this guy strolled to the plate. From everything I have heard and read, he took his craft very seriously. Which makes this positive test that much more surprising.

I heard (via MLB on XM) many well informed voices (doctors and such) elaborate on what Manny was caught taking: the female fertility drug human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG. According to one doctor interviewed, this is no Viagra-like performance enhancer, as one 'source close to Ramirez' claims. Sorry. If you need that sorta help, you're not taking hCG; you're taking one of the many choices available to men these days. Don't BS us. We're better and smarter than that.

Another physician with experience in international drug-testing said LH and HCG are occasionally prescribed for men “whose testicles have basically stopped functioning.”

The physician, who asked for anonymity because of his standing in the drug-testing community, said HCG is used to re-stimulate the testicles, primarily in men with a history of steroid use.

Ramirez tested positive for the substance during spring training, then had another portion of the same urine – a “B” sample – tested again more recently, and it also was positive. Major League Baseball notified Ramirez of the second positive test after Wednesday night’s Dodgers victory over the Washington Nationals.

"A history of steroid use". Let that sink in for a moment. This doesn't appear to be the "I took HGH a few times to get back on the field" excuse that Pettitte used, does it?

Let the fact that this has been hanging over Manny for at least 6 weeks also sink in.

I'm not the Yanks fan who is going to point at 2007 and 2004 and call those titles into question. The whole game, every team, was infected with this PED usage. I'd love to be ultra-hypocritical and jeer at the Sox, but the Yanks teams were littered with junkies, too. Everyone's guilty, even the innocent. Sure, there's a part of me that wonders how the Sox seem to be so skillfully coated in Teflon that none of this sticks to them, even though they are no cleaner than any other team.

Jose Canseco was on the radio today, chatting about this, as you might expect. He essentially confirmed that hCG is used to help restimulate testosterone growth after years of steroid usage sapped his body's ability to make it naturally.

HCG most recently made news when former major leaguer and admitted steroid user Jose Canseco was caught attempting to smuggle it into the U.S. from Mexico.

The Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement stated that Canseco admitted to bringing it across the border because “he is currently on a hormone therapy plan because his testosterone levels are extremely low due to his past steroid use.”

HCG and LH were added to the banned drug list by MLB a year ago. They have been banned for male athletes by the World Anti-Doping Agency since 1987.

"Since 1987". And MLB added this to the list last year. Bud, it again falls on you. Sure the Union was complicit, but you, as Commissioner had your head in the sand, either failing to see what was happening or failing to act. Frankly, I am not sure what's worse. Major drug enforcement organizations had banned this substance 22 FREAKIN' YEARS AGO, but MLB just got around to it. Any wonder why we're no closer to digging out of the "Steriod Era" than we ever thought we were? That Mitchell Report thing was pretty good ruse, eh? Stupid waste of money.

Speaking of which, Mitchell Report prime source Kirk Radomski had this to say about hCG:

"I have used hCG numerous times," Radomski told ESPN.com. "It works great. You feel great. After you come off a [steroid] cycle, your body doesn't crash. It turns your [testosterone] production back on. It gives you more energy. It makes you feel like you're still on a cycle.

"Typically, people who use hCG have abused drugs. Their bodies have shut down. A perfect example is Canseco. He went across the border to get it. He admitted that he abused his body. People who stay on long [steroid] cycles would have to take it. People who go on short cycles or don't use [steroids] that much can get away without having to use hCG."

I really don't want to hear the "unknowingly", blind support crap that might bubble up over the next few days. I want to know the truth, dammit. How long was he taking PEDs and where did he get them? Enough already. You're already sitting on a 50 game suspension with your reputation being shredded. Just fess up, and do it the right way, not a sorta/kinda truth like ARod gave us. But that won't happen. He'll backpedal on the "mistake" excuse and that's all we'll get. So we will be left to presume that he's been guilty for years, just like we did with Palmiero and the rest.

I can't help myself, but if I hear anyone trying to give Manny the pass on this, I might scream. From Shaun Assael at ESPN:

According to the man who until recently was the point person in the Albany, N.Y., investigation into anti-aging clinics, hCG, the drug that cost Manny Ramirez a 50-game suspension, is commonly sold as part of a "stack" of substances that includes performance enhancers.

Mark Haskins, formerly an investigator for the New York State Department of Health, said places such as the Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center routinely sent out hCG along with testosterone and Winstrol (stanozolol).

"I spent four years investigating this stuff, and 90 percent of the orders contained hCG," he said.

HCG is primarily a female fertility drug because it helps the body manufacture progesterone. When used by men, it spurs production of testosterone in the testes.

I'm mad. I'm mad that my adult years of being a fan are being viewed as an utter farce. What do I look back on? Who are MY era's Mickey, Whitey, Hank and Willie? The legends my Dad idolized. Sure, I have Thurman and Graig and Goose and Guidry and Mr. October. But I was 7-8 when those guys were winning. My older son is now 9 and his favorites include Jeter and Mo and I can only hope against hope that those two remain Clorox clean. A decade ago, I fully expected to eventually tell my kids about the glory days of McGwire and Sosa, ARod and Manny, The Rocket, Cal and the Kid. Good thing I have baseballs signed by the last two.

I'm mad that I have to explain this stuff to my boys. I should be concerned with teaching them the infield fly rule (once I figure it out myself), throwing ahead of the runner and hitting behind one. And not stealing with a 5 run lead. And the rest of baseball's wonderful unwritten rules. And how to fill out a box score.

I'm mad that the man behind ARod and Manny, none other than Scott Boras himself, is nowhere to be seen or heard. Just in case you are wondering, here are the some of the Boras clients who have been tagged as users (though some may not have been clients at the time of their getting caught):

• Manny
• ARod
• Kevin Brown
• Canseco
• Pudge Rodriguez
• Eric Gagne
• Scott Schoeneweis
• Rick Ankiel
• Ron Villone
• Gary Sheffield

As noted in this 2007 Daily News article:

But after two Boras clients...showed up on the client list of Signature Pharmacy as having received human growth hormone, and, in Schoeneweis' case, steroids, several executives say they will look twice at a Boras client, no matter who it is.

"Absolutely," one GM says. "He talks about how involved he is with their lives - how could he not have known?"

I'm mad that one of the best pure hitters that I have ever seen is now forever tainted with the permanent stink of a positive PED test.

I'm mad that we're going to have to endure things like this and the ARod book every Spring, it seems. Who's next? C'mon down. Grab the next biggest name, do some investigating, write a book and make lotsa loot. (Come to think about it, I should do it.)

I'm mad that we have to keep talking about this.

I'm just mad.

Wishing Jerry Remy a full and speedy recovery

While Yanks fans and Sox fans generally like to hate each others' teams, I'd like to think that there's some semblance of decency and respect towards the people waging war.

So naturally, I want to extend my wishes to Jerry Remy a quick and full recovery as he takes time off to recover from lung cancer surgery. Let's hope his message gets heard by all:

“I hope that disclosing my bout with cancer will reinforce the dangers of smoking to every member of Red Sox Nation, especially children,” said Remy, the president of Red Sox Nation.

Amen.

Joba, the starter

I'll leave the plunking of Bay aside for a moment. Once he settled down after a rough first inning, Joba was flat out incredible. He finished with 12 K's, including 8 STRAIGHT at one point.

So can we please, finally, put the "Joba-should-be-an-8th-inning pitcher" crap to rest?

Pete Abe has some good live-blogging quotes:

• UPDATE, 8:20 p.m.: I’m sure the put-Joba-in-the-bullpen chuckleheads enjoyed the first inning. Meanwhile, he has struck out seven of the last 11 batters he has faced. This just in: He’s not going to be Bob Gibson every inning. He’s 23 and in his first full year as a big league starter. He’s figuring it all out. Give him a chance. He could be great. Not good, great.
  


• UPDATE, 8:40 p.m.: Witness and behold Joba Chamberlain, who is filthy as filthy can be these last four innings. He has fanned 10 of the last 16 batters he has faced, eight of them looking.
  
  Word around the league was that Chamberlain could not throw his slider for a strike and to lay off it. That is no longer the case.
  
  Anybody who wants to waste this kid in the bullpen is clinically stupid.



• UPDATE, 9:08 p.m: The last time a Yankee fanned 12 was Mike Mussina on May 7, 2007 at Seattle. The last Yankee to K 12 in the Boogie Down was Moose on Sept. 24, 2002.
  
  But by all means, let’s use him in the eighth inning. That way he can strike out three guys.

The drilling of Bay was certainly curious. Payback for "alleged" sign-stealing yesterday? Payback for Bay's monster HR in the first? Or just pitching inside? If you can say definitively, you are a fan of one team or the other, since there's no way to know for sure. He didn't stand on the hill and glare at Bay. He didn't walk towards Bay defiantly like Beckett did to Abreu earlier this year. He hit Bay in the ribs and spun off the mound.

I will note this, too, from my limited observations of the team this year: they do seem to be pitching on the inside half more than I have seen in prior years. An organizational committment to recapture that part of the zone, perhaps?

Where's the "desperation to win"?

I'm slowly slogging through the Verducci/Torre book for three reasons:

1. I'm a slow reader
2. I try to watch the games at night and that takes me away from reading
3. I'm finding the book depressing

One of the early chapters is called "a desperation to win" and in reading that last weekend, I was struck by the obviousness of it all, now, a decade later. It's precisely what I don't sense with the post-2000 teams. Verducci, in his SI.com interview with FOTB Alex Belth:

I think the teams that won generated that same kind of pressure internally, what the book calls "a desperation to win." It was internal for most of the players, and even for Steinbrenner, who I regard in the book as one of the franchise's most dynamic assets. It's very different when that pressure comes externally, especially now when you're talking about so many current Yankees who have no experience at winning in New York. They're reading the road map for the first time, and it's hard to figure out -- unlike anywhere else -- especially when you hear the constant drumbeat of frustration coming from fans and even the media that cover the team. The Yankees are the only one of 30 teams that write down as a failure any season that ends without a world championship. Individual stats don't matter with the Yankees. Putting up a "good season" means less with the Yankees than any other franchise. There are only two seasons for the Yankees: world championship ones and everything else.

I watched Mo blow the save Friday night and as painful as it was, I said "it happens". The Sox have seen this guy so many times, they have gotten used to his cutter and his skill. Just like we can solve Papelbon at times, so too can the Sox solve Mo. It happens. It hurts like hell but it happens. Of course, having bases loaded and coming away with nothing an inning earlier didn't help. And watching Teix chase the high heat of Papelbon with a man on first and third the next inning sure did stink.

Here's what bugged me: Saturday's game. I didn't watch much of this until the very end as I was out enjoying the nice weather and my sons' games. It was only when we got to our friends' house for a BBQ later that I watched the Yanks blow and re-blow the game. I thought I was noticing that desperation to win with the comebacks, but the pitching was just terrible. I'm glad I missed Burnett getting torched. Remember those fancy stats vs. Boston that I was so happy about:

Versus BOS:

• 8 games
• ERA: 2.56
• 56.1 IP, avg 7+ IP/start
• 53 K's, nearly 1 K/IP
• WHIP of 1.179 (including IBB)

Watching Ellsbury just totally pants the Yanks made this lack of "desperation to win" so evident. Or maybe it's just that the Sox have that desperation and I'm jealous because I know what it's like to have it and how utterly wonderful it is, as a fan, to root for a team with that dynamic.

For the Yankees, it was symbolic of a weekend in which they were beaten in the cruelest of ways, three losses that leave you wondering if they are as tough as the Red Sox anymore. Is it possible that years of first-round playoff exits and then an empty October in 2008 have stolen whatever grit remained from the Joe Torre glory years?

The Yanks have played 18 games to a .500 record. It's not a statistically significant number yet, but it sure gives us a pretty good view of what this team might be.... good, but not special. One of the things I remember from my early stats classes is that you need a sample size of about 30 before you can made conclusions from the data. We'll be there right about when ARod returns.

I'm not ready to heave Girardi over the edge either just yet, but if this team continues to wander in a fog, I might lose patience sooner than later.

What if: ARod landed with Boston

I love little fantasies like this: What if the ARod trade to the Sox really happened? Well naturally, if it's written by a Boston writer, ARod becomes a hero and beloved, clutch when it counts.

The Yankees, blindsided by the season-ending knee injury third baseman Aaron Boone suffered while playing basketball in his driveway, never recovered. The Red Sox, their offense scoring over 1,000 runs, won the division going away, then ran the table in the postseason, winning their first World Series in 86 years. A-Rod was named MVP. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, appalled that his team had missed out on both Schilling and A-Rod, fired GM Brian Cashman, who could have had Schilling but didn't want to trade Nick Johnson.
[...]
It came as a shock this spring when Selena Roberts reported that A-Rod had used steroids while in Texas, but after the press conference in which A-Rod tearfully spoke of how sorry he was and vowed that for every home run he would hit, he would make a donation to the Taylor Hooton fund, Red Sox fans gave him a standing ovation on opening day.

Back to reality!

Though, there is a really good T/F "quiz" at the bottom of this article that is pretty cool, such as:

• Alex Rodriguez was willing to send cash back to Texas owner Tom Hicks to make the deal to the Red Sox happen.
  
  True. But good luck ever getting anyone to admit it.

When "very good" isn't good enough

Commish Selig tries to make a fair point about the Yanks (and Mets) seating "issues":

"They're off to a very good attendance start. One team is averaging 44,000 -- the Yankees are at 44 -- and the Metsies are averaging 37,000," he said. "So it would be hard if I went to Pittsburgh or somewhere today and tell them, gee, you know, those two New York clubs are really struggling."

In a vacuum, 44K fans on average is indeed very good. Some teams would KILL for that sorta attendance number. Hell, Fenway doesn't even hold that many (max capacity: 37.4k). Except this is a brand new stadium in New York, capable of holding 52,325 easy-going, mild-mannered fans. Not packing the Stadium more than 84% is flat out embarrassing. A shame. This tribute to excess should be sold out. Given the demand for seats last year, the last season in the Old Stadium, this season appears to be a sharp contrast.

Now, most of those empty, hyper-expensive seats have been paid for. Not all, but most. So the empties will only really impact the Yanks in terms of lost concessions and parking revenues. The unsold seats, on the other hand, will sting a bit more.

I don't think this is a "house of cards" scenario, where a big decline in gate revenues will hurt the team's ability to pay for the on-field talent resulting in a major collapse. After all, this recession/depression will, at some point, be behind us. And then, the big-wigs and movers-and-shakers will back, clamoring to be seen up front. Fox will stuff those seats with "stars" they want to promote who have no business otherwise being there. Politicians will wear the interlocking NY to curry favor. All will be right in the Yanks world.

And Randy Levine will be somewhere in the park, likely in the deep recesses sitting in a huge leather chair with a dozen monitors at his fingertips, rubbing his hands with an evil grin, chortling under his breath "I told you so, you mindless sheep. I told you everyone would be back". Bwaaaaa-haaaa-haaaaa!

Bad Ideas: WBC

The WBC was fun and all, but I am quite certain the RedSox organization (and their fans) are none too happy with the effects that it's had on Dice-K:

Not only did the club drop its sixth game in eight tries with a 6-5, 12-inning loss to the A’s, but it also lost starter Daisuke Matsuzaka to “general soreness and fatigue’’ in his shoulder.

The fatigue and poor results – Matsuzaka left his second start of the season after only one inning, in which he allowed five runs on 43 pitches – could result in a visit to the disabled list in order to rest the shoulder. Or, he could see his next start pushed back a few days.

Whatever the course of action, the Sox believe Matsuzaka’s fatigue is tied to his participation in March’s World Baseball Classic. Based on comments Matsuzaka has made since returning from the WBC late last month and after his bullpen session in Anaheim last weekend, club officials believe the righty pushed himself too hard, too early at the WBC.

I can't blame everything on the WBC --that's too easy and too lazy-- but one HAS to be concerned, particularly the Sox.

Though the Sox are 2-6, so I can't be that upset, can I?