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Meaningless numbers Baseball's juiced-up record book should be junkedPosted: Wednesday March 13, 2002 2:21 PM
While hanging out at a spring training site a couple of weeks ago, I engaged in a lengthy chat with a minor league position player thisclose to sticking with the big club. Under the shadows of a dim stadium hallway, we discussed groupies, the hit-and-run, Florida's senior citizen drivers and, finally, the dreaded S-word -- steroids. Although the world of baseball is run by intelligent folk, no one seems to want to address the substance that is killing the game's beautiful history. To Bud Selig, steroids don't exist. Same goes for Donald Fehr and for every umpire, player rep, popcorn salesman and -- for the most part -- journalist. It's the muscular pink elephant in the locker room. Yet according to said player, at least 60% of minor leaguers are experimenting with steroids. "It's everywhere," he told me. "Guys think it can help them make the next big step. And maybe it can." Hence, my (completely unrealistic) idea: Until Major League Baseball and the Players Association develop a way to test its troops, new records should no longer count. Call it the "if it seems too good to be true, it definitely is" clause. Too many times these days, we hear how some scrawny second baseman has magically gained 25 pounds of muscle in the offseason. We hear how, at age 38, so-and-so is bigger and stronger than ever before. It's complete b.s. Players are cheating, and the records of honest men -- as well as baseball's integrity -- are falling with ease. Do you think Hank Aaron was juiced at the end of his career? How about Babe Ruth? Or Ty Cobb? Baseball's record book is now a joke. On with the questions ...
Pearlie, you are no less weird then when we first met, following two women
around the University of Delaware's scenic Christina Towers. I have no idea
where the women went, but I am glad to have found the only person who was happy
enough to attend a Michael Jackson concert with me. After Delaware, I headed out
west. Tell me something positive about my beloved Seattle Mariners. Will they be
able to get past the ghosts of Yankee Stadium this year?
Ahhh ... Ryan. So many memories. Chillin' with the honeys at good ol' UD. Listening to that Free Willy song over and over and over, me in my ankle-high parachute pants, you in that silly white glove, dancing like a couple o' fools, giggling like schoolgirls high on Elmer's glue. As for your Mariners, there are many positives -- Ichiro with a year under his belt, the addition of Ruben Sierra , Jeff Cirillo at third -- but it's hard to envision Jamie Moyer again winning 20 games, and I'm not sold on James Baldwin's (surgically repaired) right shoulder. By midseason, you might be singing the blues over the departure of Aaron Sele. One question: Who the hell are you?
Hey, Jeff, whatever happened to Ken Griffey Jr.? For a while it seemed like
he was a shoo-in to break Hank Aaron's home run record, but after a couple of
seemingly destructive seasons, nobody even mentions Griffey anymore; it's all
Sosa and Bonds when it comes to who can hit 755. Do you think Griffey will pick
it up and regain his title as one of the games' best young
sluggers?
Griffey wasn't mentioned among the game's elite last year because he was hobbled by a major hamstring injury that limited him to 111 games and turned him into something of a shell of his former self. Will he bounce back? Hard to tell. At age 32, he's no longer even eligible for the tag "game's best young slugger" and in Cincinnati he's surrounded by a Grade-C lineup. How interestedhow focused on the home-run race will he be in August, when the Reds are 45 games out of first? But the guy has oodles and oodles of talent, and there's something to the "I'm gonna prove you people wrong" motivation. Will he break Aaron's record? Probably not. Can he still hit 50 dingers? Yes.
Why are the Atlanta Braves moving Chipper Jones to the outfield? Vinny
Castilla is way past his prime already. Why don't the Braves just trade for a
good, young left
fielder?
Oh, I'm sorry Robby. I didn't know there were so many good, young left fielders available. Who would you suggest? The Braves are moving Chipper because, in the course of two seasons, he had become very erratic defensively at third. Bobby Cox is tired of balls slipping past Jones, who's a good enough athlete to jump to the outfield without much difficulty. Although I'm not a huge Castilla fan, it's hard to argue with his Houston numbers (23 homers, 82 RBIs in just 445 at-bats). If he can continue to produce, the Jones-Sheffield-Castilla Braves will be tough.
With Sammy Sosa, Fred McGriff and Moises Alou in the middle of the lineup,
and young, promising pitchers ready to step in and make an impact, do you think
the Cubs have a legitimate chance to win the NL Central and perhaps a playoff
series for the first time since 1945? Also, do you think the team should forget
about whether players such as Mark Prior and Corey Patterson are ready and just
let them play? The only way to see if they are major leaguers is to let them
play in the bigs.
Great question. Don Baylor insists that Patterson is his Opening Day center fielder, so the opportunity is there. As for Prior ... what's the rush? Last year he was pitching for USC. Whenever you think a team should push someone along, think back to David Clyde, the high school phenom who jumped straight from the preps to the Texas Rangers. Clyde had it all -- heat, a spin-slicing curve, command. Just not quite enough maturity to handle the major-league lifestyle. As for your Cubs, they're probably a notch below the loaded Cardinals, but there's certainly enough talent to make a run.
We all know it has to happen sometime -- Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine can't be
All-Stars forever. My question is, do you think this is the year their careers
take a downward turn or can Braves fans expect 20 wins and a 3.00 ERA again from
each pitcher
again?
Quite frankly, there's no reason to believe Maddux, 35, and Glavine, 36, can't continue to win 15-plus games per season for another two or three years. Both men keep themselves in tremendous physical condition and both still keep the ball down in the zone. Most important, Maddux and Glavine are intellectually superior to most batters. Before last season, the talk was how terrible the new high strike zone would be for two pitchers who pick at the corners of the plate. Wrong. Umpires continued to give both men the benefit of the doubt on close pitches.
Without a proven 20-game winner, do the Giants really stand a chance to make
it deep into the playoffs? How realistic is a trade for El Duque, and if the
Giants do get him, who'd be the odd man
out?
John, look around. Look around again. And again. How many teams have proven 20-game winners? Hell, how many 20-game winners exist? No, the Giants don't have Schilling and Johnson. But truly, the regular season is not only about two starters. San Francisco is blessed with a deep, talented rotation, especially if the enigmatic Jason Schmidt -- he of electric stuff -- pitches like he's capable of for an entire season . Russ Ortiz is the real deal, and Livan Hernandez is a very solid middle-of-the-rotation guy. I don't see the Yankees moving El Duque, what with the health issues of Andy Pettitte and the uncertainty of Sterling Hitchcock and David Wells . Sorry.
Every year Boston fans talk about how adding Joe Fourthstarter and Bob
Scrubcomingoffacareerseason to the rotation behind Pedro Martinez is going to
lift the Red Sox past the Yankees. Then Boston falls out of the race and the
preseason trash-talking turns into whining about payroll. When do you expect
this annual transformation to occur this year? In other words, how long will
Boston stay in the race?
With their new manager and slightly improved pitching and the full return of Nomar Garciaparra, the Sox should stick around for at least, oh, six days. Simply put, they are not in the Yankees' class.
I just read your Feb.
28 mailbag, and I don't understand why you didn't mention Seattle as an AL West
contender. You stated that Oakland was going to win the division because it has
three good starters, two solid relievers and an improved infield. What about
Seattle? The M's have improved their infield with the addition of a gold glove
third baseman and the outfield should also be improved with the addition of
Ruben Sierra. Seattle also has three 15-plus game winners from last year, and a
terrific bullpen. Why are you ignoring the
Mariners?
As I said to Crazy Ryan Coleman, the Mariners have some serious questions in their starting rotation -- the same spot where Oakland dominates. Can Moyer again win big with mediocre stuff and 85-mph heat? Can Baldwin be the aggressive bulldog who won 14 games in 2000? Is Ryan (Little Unit) Anderson ready to -- sooner than later -- fill in for Sele? Seattle remains a very, very good team. I just think the A's are a notch above.
Where does Barry Bonds rank as an all-time great? A friend refuses to accept
Barry's incredible numbers until he succeeds in the postseason. I say he belongs
up there with the best, regardless if his team wins it all or not. Your
respected and valued opinion will settle our argument once and for
all.
John, here's my respected and valued opinion. Greatness is not simply hitting a ball out of the park, or making superb catches at the wall. It has to do with class and dignity -- areas Bonds lacks in a huge way. Two seasons ago, I profiled Bonds near the end of the year. One of the common gripes against him was that he rarely shares info on the opposition with his Giants teammates. When I asked Bonds why, he explained that, one day, these players might be with other clubs, and then they could use the data against him. To me, that sums up Barry Bonds. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jeff Pearlman covers the baseball beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send Jeff a question. |
