 |
| |
|
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
National pastime takes center stage Posted: Monday June 16, 2003 12:23 PM
It's all baseball now. The NBA, finally, has finished. The NHL, if anyone noticed, is done, too. There are a couple of golf majors in the next several weeks, a tennis Grand Slam or two. There are a few other games to fill the airwaves and the space on the sports pages. It seems there always are. But summer is, officially, only a few days away now. And that's baseball time. Attendance is down, and ratings are weak, and Sammy Sosa corked his bat, for Pete's sake. The Yankees have too much money and the poor Royals don't have enough, and baseball players, as a group, make an average of a couple of million dollars a year just for playing a kid's game. Umpires, who have a bit of an attitude problem anyway, are upset at the computers that are being used to grade them. The World Series champs, the Anaheim Angels, can barely keep their heads above .500. The Montreal/San Juan Expos still have a few days left on a road trip worse than anything Chevy Chase ever endured.
This is not to get all nostalgic, to pine about the voice of a favorite announcer wafting from the transistor radio, filling the hot summer days while you and your dad bond over a game of catch in the backyard. Let's face it. Nostalgia can get in the way sometimes. It's so … yesterday. No, this is about now. About summer. For a lot of people, this is the time to finally turn their attention to baseball, to catch up for the first time this season. Roger Clemens, for instance, just won his 300th career game -- just struck out his 4,000th career batter, too -- and his Yankees are on a mini-roll. But The Boss is hot about their generally poor play the past several weeks, and manager Joe Torre is fed up with it, maybe looking to cash out on an early retirement. There's always something going on with the Yankees. The two best teams in baseball are the Atlanta Braves, in the National League, and the American League's Seattle Mariners. They just finished a fantastic interleague series over the weekend in Seattle. It was sold out. It was loud. It was like October. The Mariners won two of three, and all three of them were close. Some like to think of that series as a World Series preview. We could do a lot worse. The fluke freak start of the Kansas City Royals is done. They're just trying not to die too quickly in the heat of this summer. The incomparable Barry Bonds is still hammering away, even while dealing with the illness of his father, Bobby. So far, he's coping remarkably well. Bonds' team, the San Francisco Giants, is winning. The Giants lead the NL West. The New York Mets just fired their general manager. Stuck in the depths of the NL East, they're not going anywhere. But their interim GM, Jim Duquette is liable to hit the phones hard over the next couple of weeks. There are fewer than six weeks until the midseason trading deadline. There are fantastic seasons being had (Atlanta's Gary Sheffield and Toronto's Carlos Delgado, to name a couple) and disappointing ones, too. Both Arizona aces, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, are on the disabled list. Young so-called slugger Pat Burrell of the Philadelphia Phillies is hitting just .198. The All-Star Game is approaching. It's scheduled for July 15 at U.S. Cellular Field (nee Comiskey Park) in Chicago. Selig promises it won't be like last year's. Look, there's a lot going on in baseball. That's a good thing, because baseball is it right now. Some will cry about that, counting down the days to football season. Others will pay baseball only a passing glance in between trips to the beach. But for many, now is the time to reunite with the game. To check out the box scores, the standings and the leaders every morning. Maybe to tune into an inning or two. Maybe, just maybe, it's even time to break into the savings account, withdraw a few hundred dollars and head to the park. Think of it as a mini-vacation. There's a long, hot summer ahead. September, with the start of football season, is a ways off. But it's OK. Baseball has you covered.
• It's the Hall of Fame, not the Clemens of Fame. It's the Hall's pick, and it should be. The good folks at the Hall can look at this whole cap flap a little more objectively than the Rocket can. • If the whining umpires win in their assault on the system that is trying to get them to call a strike a strike, it will not be good for baseball. It will be ugly. Ugly. • The AL East's top three teams went 8-1 against the NL Central's top three this weekend. The lone win was a Cubs win over the Blue Jays. Otherwise, the Yankees swept the Cardinals, and the Red Sox did the same to the Astros. That doesn't bode well for the NL in the postseason. • Hey, purists: Tell me that weekend interleague series between the Mariners and Braves was somehow bad for baseball. The Mariners won two of three despite scoring only five runs in the three games (the Braves also scored only five). It was a wonderful series, well pitched and well played. And if those two teams meet in the World Series, will the just-completed set in Seattle take away from it? Naaah. It may make it even better.
This week, readers have some things -- a lot of things -- to say about the Sosa corking episode. And there are a couple of others in here, too, just to break things up … Cheating cannot be tolerated on any level. It sets a bad example for young people. If Sosa had hit a home run instead of breaking his bat and grounding out, do you think he would have come out and said, "Oops, sorry, guys. Better take that dinger back. I used the wrong bat! Corked. My mistake." When pigs fly and the Brewers take the NL pennant, I'll believe that one. I hope this is the last lame-brain comment on a dumb subject. -- Rick Mervis, L.A. Hope all you want, Rick. It's not going to happen. Your article on Sosa missed the strike zone. I've been a baseball fan all my life. I admit disappointment when the cork was found in Sosa's bat. However, all his bats passed inspection by Major League Baseball with flying colors. As a baseball fan and not one who is a Cubs or Sammy Sosa fan in particular, I accept the verdict and feel good for Sosa and baseball that one of its best was vindicated. For goodness sakes, regular guys make mistakes (ie: too many clubs in the bag on Sunday). Cut the man some slack and drop the rock. Baseball lives and so do Sosa's records and stature. -- Rob Hofmann, Plano, Texas I will say this: No more Sosa. Not after this round of e-mails, that is. Where is the love for Albert Pujols outside of St. Louis and my apartment in Louisville, Ky.? The guy is a brilliant -- BRILLIANT -- player. No, he doesn't have speed and he's not known for his leather, but I have never seen a hitter as consistent as this guy. He is a freak, a true freak, and yet only fourth among outfielders in All-Star voting? He's batting .389 and is on pace to hit 44 homers and strike out only 50 times! He's been playing hurt all year. He even climbed the wall the other night and nearly stole a homer. He's a true good guy if you know about his family situation and special-needs son whom he adopted. This is the first ballplayer I've ever felt deserved a long-term, big-time contract, and that's saying a lot. Oh well, I guess "Corky" Sosa and his six dingers deserve to be there more. -- Will Grapperhaus, Louisville What? A comment about … baseball? Hold on. Let me reconfigure. OK. OK. My thinking is that Pujols will be among the starters in the National League outfield before all is said and done. And you had to get that "Corky" crack in there, didn't you, Will? When my neighbor's dog craps on my lawn, I don't blame the dog. It is a dog's nature to poop wherever it needs to. Instead, I blame my idiot neighbor for letting his dog go on my lawn. That's pretty much how I feel whenever I hear Jose Canseco speak. The man's a moron; it is the nature of a moron to say stupid things, and thus you can't really hold the comment about the "racist media" against him. I instead choose to blame the networks that put a camera in front of his face. Of all the dumb things Canseco has done, corking a bat was not one of them, so why ask him about Sammy's corking? The answer is simple: The networks wanted him to say something stupid, something that they could replay over and over again (that and because of house arrest he's easier to find than other players). So they hand him a microphone, turn on the camera and we all have to watch the dog crap on our lawn. -- Chip Schrager, Mount Vernon, N.Y. Chip, we're guilty and you're dead-on right. Maybe a tad too colorful, but I get your point. There are a lot of so-called "celebrity athletes" who, really, we never need hear from again. Canseco. Mike Tyson. John Rocker. Many more. But it's up to the media. If we don't give these mouths a forum, it would save everybody a lot of grief. That said, there are several who agree with what Canseco, Pedro Martinez and Gary Sheffield had to say about Sammy's corking (see more letters, below). Why Canseco was given the platform in the first place … you're right. We're guilty. Sosa did explain that he used a corked bat in batting practice to put on a "show" for the fans. That would be like Mike Vanderjagt or Olindo Mare putting helium in footballs so they can kick 70-yard field goals in practice to impress NFL football fans. It does not impress anyone if you don't go it legitimately -- in the game or in practice. -- David Wong, Irving Think of the possibilities! Tiger Woods using a juiced-up ball on the range, just for the fans. Vince Carter putting flubber on his shoes for some pre-game high-flying jamming. Just for the fans. Andre Agassi warming up with a racket head the size of Argentina. Just to wow the fans. I am already sick to death of this Sammy Sosa controversy. I have read article after article on how he cheated, he's lying, he should have the book thrown at him, blah blah blah. What ever happened to the notion that ballplayers are (gasp!) human, too, and they make mistakes? Why is it so hard to believe that his story could be true? Sammy Sosa is being made to pay for every baseball crime since Joe DiMaggio, and (dare I say it?) it's not fair! I understand that, mistake or no, he must be punished. I'm not saying he should get off scot-free. But, gee whiz, fellas, do you have to destroy my image of him, not to mention his career? What will you accomplish by burning him at the stake? Yes! I believe Sammy. I believe him because I WANT to believe him, because I have no reason NOT to believe him. He gave his explanation, apologized profusely, and his other bats have all checked out. Yet most of the articles I have read are still trying to crucify him. Why? Leave the man alone, for Pete's sake. Forgiveness anyone? Anyone? -- Leigh Pearce It's a fact of life among pro athletes that they are either deified or demonized. A lot of times, there's just not a whole lot of middle ground. Some of this is the fault of the media, some is the fault of the fans, some is the result of how these athletes promote (or, sometimes, demote) themselves. Sosa has enjoyed many highs in this game. Now he's going through a low. Why can't the media give the athletes more credit and respect before they rush out and damage a person, his family, friends and fans or at least point out the positives while doing the same with the negatives? -- Andre Thomas, Waldorf, Md. C'mon, Andre. As I said to Leigh, above, athletes get credit and respect from the media and fans all the time. We all should get so much respect in the workplace. Ask Sammy Sosa and I'd bet he'd tell you that, by and large, the media and fans have been very good to him over the course of his career. One comment on the Sosa article: You say he was cheating, whether intentional or not. I disagree. Cheating is an intentional offense. You cannot "unintentionally" cheat. You can unintentionally break the rules. At best, this is what Sammy did. -- Richard W. Thelin, New Bern, N.C. A fine point. He either willfully cheated, which he says he didn't do, or he unintentionally broke the rules. Very good point. I'm writing in response to a letter in the mailbag by Dave Lane from South River, N.J. -- the 15-year-old kid. Unless the good folks at SI.com are editing the e-mails, this kid really knows how to write (A well-educated 15-year-old in America? I thought they were extinct decades ago.) Either that or he is a 40-year-old account executive at Merrill Lynch. I'm hoping it's the former -- and he is a baseball fan, too! Wow, maybe our country does have a future. -- Scott DeMasi I know. What about that? E-mails in The Pitch may be edited for length and spelling, once in a while for some grammar and clarity, but they remain as intact as possible. What young Mr. Lane had to say was all him. If, indeed, he's young Mr. Lane. No way of telling that, unfortunately. OK, maybe this is a dumb question, but I don’t understand why a player would drill a hole in a bat and fill it with cork to make it lighter. Can’t you just use a lighter bat? Is there a rule that states how long or heavy you bat has to be? If not, then why not use a lighter/heavier bat, as opposed to doctoring up your own? -- Terence, Vancouver, B.C. Makes sense to me. But corkers aren't always clear thinkers. As far as the rules, here are some portions of Rule 1.10: The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2 3/4 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood … An indentation in the end of the bat up to one inch in depth is permitted and may be no wider than two inches and no less than one inch in diameter. The indentation must be curved with no foreign substance added. The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from its end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance, which extends past the 18-inch limitation, shall cause the bat to be removed from the game. There you go, Terence. Hey, John. Just wanted to voice a thought on interleague play that people seem to be missing out on. I also consider myself to be a baseball purist, and for the longest time swore interleague play was jsut going to be another nail in the coffin of the era of baseball that I grew up loving. But then I moved to Milwaukee and began working for the Brewers. Having worked through nights this season with the stadium not even a quarter full (10,000 and some change against the Padres comes to mind), it was exhilarating to see the stadium come alive and be filled with people. This past series against Boston, I made my peace with interleague play. Interleague baseball is for the fans, and anything baseball does for the fans is good. Count me as an interleague convert. -- Joe Behlmann, Milwaukee Welcome to the dark side, Joe, and prepare to be mocked by purists. When did we become so downright cynical? We're not a country of skeptics, we've become a country of hardcore cynics! Or our journalists have, anyway. This episode not only reflects negatively on Sammy, I think it says more for the terrible state of journalism -- or what passes for journalism -- in the U.S. these days. Opinions are just that, opinions. However, once an opinion is supported by facts, it certainly carries a lot more weight. Nothing you have written to this point is supported by anything other than conjecture and supposition. Only you have the answers as to why you feel as you do. I'm not buying your flimsy "Sammy-knowingly-cheated-which-cheapens-everything-he's-done-to-this-point" argument. I believe that anyone who objectively looks at the facts, regardless of how you feel about Sammy personally, will eventually arrive at the same conclusion I did. Character assassination is relatively easy; approaching your job as a professional journalist seems far beyond your grasp. Someone once asked me why I got out of the news biz. My response was, "too many Geraldos, not enough Cronkites." Yes, Geraldo, I mean, John Donovan, your column is more proof that the Geraldos of the world hold sway and that affairs in the "Fourth Estate" will get a lot worse before they get better. Thanks for the reminder! -- Darrell Waller, South San Francisco Sorry I couldn't print the whole e-mail, Darrell. A couple of points: Do I believe Sammy's story? I don't know. Maybe. Sure. Why not? I'm perfectly willing to give him the benefit of doubt. It was a mistake. OK? Of course, it doesn’t matter what I think. You want to go by the facts? He used a corked bat. That's illegal. He deserved a suspension for it. Now, will I think about it every time he hits another home run (though I don't believe he'll ever use another corked bat again)? Yes. Sorry. Does that make me skeptical? Cynical? Maybe. But, yeah, I'll wonder. And many others will, too. The thing is, I never thought about Sammy cheating before the last week or so. And Sosa has no one to blame for that but himself. You, like all of the white media members, can downplay race all you want in the Sosa corked bat incident, but face it: The negative attention given to Sosa was much greater than when Mark McGwire admitted using Andro. I can't seem to remember a whole day devoted to McGwire supplement talk in 1998, can you? However, last week the all-sports network had a special on Sosa and his bats, even showing Buck Showalter demonstrating the technique to corking a bat. I don't recall any doctors, athletes or managers giving lectures on Andro back in 1998. I'm not one who blames the media constantly. However, in this instant case, only the media is hyping this up. There are the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup finals, French Open, an LPGA major, but all the talk was directed at Sosa. So, let me get this straight: Aa corked bat deserves all this attention over four major sporting events? Or does a black Latin player using a corked bat deserve all this attention? Take a look in the mirror and among your colleagues, who probably come from the same background as you, and you'll see where the real BS is coming from. -- Brian Pendleton I received a ton of mail chastising me for calling BS on the charges by Canseco, Martinez, Sheffield and others that the Sosa story was fueled by a racist media swarm looking to pull down a minority. Not to mention a ton of mail calling me a racist, in so many words (or not so many words). Listen, I'm not so naïve as to think that the media is devoid of racism. Is any profession, any section of society? But I still say that it is Sosa's stature as one of the most recognizable players in the game -- and not his race -- that prompted the media feeding frenzy. It's happened to white athletes, too. And it will continue to happen. As I said to Leigh, up above, we (American sports fans, not just the media) put them on pedestals and we knock them off. It's what we do. We have, by and large, loved Sammy for a long time. Now he's taking some lumps. Let's hope we're all through this soon. And, as I said before, with this portion of The Pitch, we're done with it now. Thanks for your contributions. John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.
Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
The Reds are a scrappy bunch, and Friday night it got them into trouble. Already leading the Phillies 10-0, Reds third base coach Tim Foli sent big Adam Dunn home on a Ken Griffey Jr. hit. Dunn bowled over catcher Mike Lieberthal -- slammed him with a 10-0 lead -- and, an inning later, the fight was on when the Phillies retaliated by throwing at Dunn. What do the Reds expect, trying to score already up 10-0? Foli shouldn't have sent Dunn, but once he did and Dunn saw the play was going to be close, he should have eased up on Lieberthal. It would have been the smartest, safest play for everyone. Instead, with the suspensions coming, everyone gets hurt. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
"I've played 20 years and worked my tail off. They're not going to tell me what hat I'm wearing."
