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Expos err in not moving series
Ego clearly got in the way this week of the Rockies' sensible offer to move a four-game series from Montreal to Denver. Colorado owner Jerry McMorris made the proposal, in part due to fear of traveling out of the country. The Rockies would have covered all the Expos' travel costs (plane, hotel, meals, etc.) and shared half of the gate receipts with the visitors. The remainder would have gone to various relief funds in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Faced with this mountain of logic, the Expos rejected the proposal. "What about our fans?," Montreal manager Jeff Torborg said. "We have our fans to consider. They are talking about the integrity of the season, and we have a schedule." Integrity of the season? Both clubs are in last place. Besides, the Mets and Pirates juggled their home-and-home series in the interest of safety. Fans? As one Rockies official said: "What fans? When we heard that, we were like, 'You've got to be kidding.' I guess they'd rather play in front of 1,000 people in Montreal than 45,000 at our place." The decision was even harder to understand given the strong New York ties of Expos owner Jeffrey Loria and executive vice president David Samson. Instead of doing something meaningful for the victims' families, the Expos have chosen to play four games at their mausoleum that figured to draw a combined 15,000, at most. The attendance for Thursday's opener with the Rockies? 3,037. In Denver the series could have drawn between 160,000 and 180,000.
Players still shaken by recent eventsIn the first few days of baseball's return from a six-day stoppage, it was clear many players' minds were elsewhere.For example, Twins catcher A.J. Pierzynski, clutching a strikeout pitch from Brad Radke, tried to leave the field after the second out of the inning. And Pirates first baseman Kevin Young, also losing track of the outs, flipped a live ball to an umpire. Several players were slow to take first base on ball four, having lost track of the count. Several umpires got tripped up as well. The Rockies made four errors in the first inning against Arizona on Tuesday. Gold Glove center fielder Andruw Jones dropped an easy fly ball in the late innings in Philadelphia. Even scouts, assigned to note every mental lapse by players they are constantly assessing and reassessing, find themselves grading more leniently. "With what just went on in our country, I know personally I could care less about baseball," one major league scout said. "I didn't lose anybody, although there were some near misses, but you sit and you watch what's going on and you say, "My gosh, how can that happen?' "I could see teams that are out of it just kind of mailing it in. Teams like the Pirates and Tigers and Reds. We're seeing a lot of mental mistakes, but you have to take everything into account." September results are misleading anyway, the scout said, tragedy or no tragedy. "I don't really put a lot of stock in what happens in September," he continued. "I think what matters more is what happens back in June, July and August. Those are the grind months, where the pretenders fall aside and the real contenders step up. The dog days are when guys show you what they're really made of."
Buying an MVPWith a little over two weeks left in the extended regular season, three of the leading candidates for American League Most Valuable Player (Bret Boone, Ichiro Suzuki and Juan Gonzalez) joined their respective clubs as free agents last winter.How rare is that? Well, it has never happened before, at least not in the AL. In fact, you have to go back to the 1984 Detroit Tigers and closer Willie Hernandez to find an AL MVP who was in his first year with a new club. Hernandez came over from the Phillies in a four-player trade that spring. Just five other AL MVPs were honored after coming aboard the previous winter (see chart). All were acquired through trades. So if the Mariners' remarkable run gets recognized with MVP hardware for either Boone or Suzuki, Seattle GM Pat Gillick should get credit for the best free-agent signing in league history. Same for Cleveland GM John Hart, who nabbed Gonzalez for a cut-rate, one-year deal with a mutual option last winter. Free agents have had better luck in the National League. Barry Bonds' last MVP award came in 1993, the year he jumped from Pittsburgh to San Francisco. Bonds' honor capped a seven-year span in which four free agents took NL top awards. Just one other NL player has been named MVP in his first year with a new club: Boston Braves third baseman Bob Elliott in 1947. Should Ichiro break through, he would almost certainly become the first player since Fred Lynn in 1975 to win top rookie and MVP honors in the same year. With seven homers through his first 634 at-bats, Ichiro also could become the first position player to win the MVP with single-digit homers since Pete Rose hit five in 1973. No AL MVP has had single-digit homers since White Sox second baseman Nellie Fox hit two in 1959.
Mike Berardino covers the baseball beat for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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