What's the beef about ?

 

Well, it's been awhile since I have written anything. It's the heat, it has wilted me.

But a burst of energy has invigorated me, I found a topic.

With Gary Bettman's acknowledgement that in early June, a training camp will emerge, I am thrilled that some NHL games will be played.  Playoffs ?  Yup, playoffs.

While in Portland, Oregon, Damian Lilliard's attitude towards the return on the NBA goes off the rails, I mean he's right, Portland does not have much of chance to make the playoffs.

But, he's wrong in that it does not mean anything, it does. 

It means that arena workers get paid, it means concessions workers get paid, it means parking attendants get paid. THEY GET PAID.

Damian Lilliard should go back, if it's safe to do so, but the moment it goes sideways, he has the right to opt out. But not if th league makes it safe to play.
If it's safe to play, then play, because it's not only that you get paid, it's the guy or gal making minimum wage serving cokes and hot dogs, the kids in the parking lots, the maintenance workers getting the courts, the ice ready for NBA and NHL rinks and arenas ready and prepped to field their respective stars.

The Natural

Roy Hobbs homers into the lights, 1939

And there was also a statement by the baseball commissioner. “If this alleged report is true, that is the last of Roy Hobbs in organized baseball. He will be excluded from the game and all his records forever destroyed.”

Roy handed the paper back to the kid.

“Say it ain’t true, Roy.”

When Roy looked into the boy’s eyes he wanted to say it wasn’t but couldn’t, and he lifted his hands to his face and wept many bitter tears.

That Bernard Malamud — what a card! A few years ago, I read a series of notes he wrote about “The Natural,” his first novel. Malamud went on to become one of the most admired and respected writers in the world. He twice won the National Book Award for Fiction. He was called America’s greatest short story writer by Flannery O’Connor herself.

There’s a strange irony about Malamud though: In the literary community, for the most part, “The Natural,” is written off. None of the hardcore critics seemed to love it. They saw it as an earnest but flawed beginning to a brilliant career.

And yet, “The Natural,” is by far the most famous of Malamud’s work because of the movie it inspired. And the movie, as you might know, is very different from the book.

In any case, in these notes, Malamud forcefully made the point that “The Natural” isn’t about baseball at all. He bit back at the critics he believed missed the point. He wrote on and on about the symbolism of the book*, about the larger significance of the story and its relationship to morality, and about Sigmund Freud, who apparently plays an important part. Play ball!

*The bat was apparently a phallic symbol — I didn’t need to know that. Malamud might have been a fun date at a literary soirée, but you probably wouldn’t have wanted him sitting next to you in the Wrigley bleachers.

There are many people who prefer Malamud’s haunting and depressing ending — no spoilers, but as you can see from the top, the book ending isn’t exactly happy —  to the corny and joyous ending of the movie “The Natural.”

I mean no offense to these people as they undoubtedly contain depths that I lack but … are you kidding me?

---

The thing that I find so wonderful about “The Natural” — the 1984 movie, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford — is that it gets baseball. I mean, yes, it’s true, it has a million baseball flaws in it. I’ll go through a few of them; this assuming that you’ve seen “The Natural.” If you have not, please, take a couple of hours to watch it now. I’ll wait.

OK, a few of those flaws:

1. In Hobbs’ final at-bat, it’s not entirely clear that the umpire called the first pitch a ball. The pitch clearly is a ball, but the umpire sounds like he’s saying “strike.” In fact, on the original subtitles, it has the umpire saying “Strike.” (The current subtitles, I just checked, don’t have the umpire saying anything at all.) If he really had called it a strike, the whole scene would have been ruined because Hobbs would have struck out.*

*OK, I’ll spoil it for you: Hobbs does strike out in the book version. So maybe having the umpire say “strike” on that first pitch was Levinson’s homage to the book. I should ask him about that.

2. In the scene in Chicago where Hobbs’ homer hits the clock and destroys it, the movie makes it look like everybody started leaving — like that was a walk-off home run. But because Hobbs was on the visiting team, it could not have been a walk-off, they still had to play the bottom of the ninth.*

*There are those who point out that before 1950, the home team had the option to bat first. This happened now and again in the very early 1900s (the first Yankees game, when they were still the Highlanders, they batted last on the road) but by 1939, it was unheard of for a home team to purposely bat first.

3. The reliever who came in to face Hobbs in the crucial at-bat did not take any warm-up pitches.
4. When Pop Fisher, the manager, thinks that Hobbs won’t play, he simply crosses Hobbs’ name out of the lineup and puts a scrub into the No. 3 spot in the lineup. You would hope no big-league manager would do it that way.
5. When the Knights and Pirates tie for the pennant at the end of the season, a one-game playoff is set up. But that’s not how it worked in 1939 — it would have been a three-game playoff, like the one the Giants and Dodgers had in 1951.
6. For the last at-bat, the pitcher goes into a full windup with the tying run on first base. You don’t do that. And yet the runner does not steal second to move into scoring position.

Beyond that, generally speaking, only a handful of the players look like they belong on a baseball team — a panning of the Knights’ dugout looks like an orthodontist’s convention.*

*Though, if you look very carefully you might see former rookie sensation Super Joe Charboneau in the movie. He was supposed to have a bigger part but apparently because of his size (6-foot-2), he dwarfed Redford, which obviously didn’t work.

But even with all the slightly off-key baseball things, I think “The Natural” captures the romantic spirit of baseball — what it feels like to lose, what it feels like to win, the possibility of the impossible, the sudden burst of magic that just suddenly happens in a game — as well as a movie possibly can.

And though the plot, in general, is silly, it’s silly in recognizable baseball ways. Guys like Hobbs do show up out of nowhere and become a sensation — think Kevin Maas or Mark Fidrych. Dave Parker once did knock the cover off a ball. Shoeless Joe Jackson did have a special bat with a special name; he called it Black Betsy. More than one big-league star did learn how to pitch by throwing fastballs against the barn. The most famous was Bob Feller.

And the final home run, the crescendo of all crescendos in baseball movies, well, sure, it seems a bit ludicrous if you think too much about it. I mean, you get a pitching phenom who gets shot by a woman who wants to kill the greatest sports stars in the country, he disappears for more than a decade, shows up as a hitter to play for a last-place team with all sorts of chemistry issues, he goes on a tear like the game has never seen, goes into a horrendous slump by dating the manager’s niece, he comes out of the slump when his childhood sweetheart stands up in the crowd, he goes on an even greater tear than the first one, he leads the team to the brink of the pennant, he gets poisoned (?) and has to go the hospital where he has the bullet he was shot with taken out (looking shiny as ever), he shows up for the final game against the advice of doctors and after turning down a gambler’s money, he has two strikes against him against a left-handed fireballer* and then this stirring music starts playing and he hits a home run into the lights to win the pennant.

Yeah, OK, it seems a bit unlikely.

But honestly, is it any more unlikely than Kirk Gibson’s home run in ’88?

*To me the least likely part of the whole scenario was that left-hitting Redford could have pulled the ball against a lefty who threw that hard, especially with two strikes on him.

Anyway, the final home run gets me every time. Sure, it’s syrupy nonsense but every now and again, when we get lucky, so is baseball. That’s the whole point. We sit through all the 4-3 groundouts and pointless throws to first base and 3-0 fastballs that are taken for a strike because sometimes the stars align and then Hobbs hits one into the lights and they explode into fireworks. Because baseball can make us believe that’s a real thing that can happen.

---

One final point about “The Natural”: Do you remember when Hobbs shows up for the final game? Fisher was shaving and muttering about how he should have bought a farm, which is true: He was a decent fellow but a lousy manager. In any case, he was muttering about farming and Roy showed up and talked about how great life is on a farm.

“You know, my mother told me I ought to be a farmer,” Pop said.

“My dad wanted me to be a baseball player,” Roy said.

“Well, you’re better than anyone I ever had,” Pop said. “And you’re the best-goddamned hitter I ever saw.”

So, that sentence has always vexed me. What did he mean? Why was Hobbs the best player he ever coached but the best hitter he ever saw? Was he saying that Hobbs wasn’t the best player he ever saw? Was that because he thought Hobbs was a lousy outfielder?

But more to the point: If not Hobbs, who did Fisher think was better? This was 1939, remember, so this was before Willie Mays before Henry Aaron, before Mike Trout. Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams were only just beginning. Was Fisher saying that Babe Ruth was better because he also pitched? Maybe, but you know, Hobbs was a pitcher, too.

Was he saying Ty Cobb was better? Nah. If Hobbs was a better hitter than Cobb he had to be a better player than Cobb, no? Cobb was a great baserunner and an OK outfielder, but his game was hitting.

So who?  Tris Speaker? Honus Wagner?

Tell you what I’d like to believe — I’d like to believe that Fisher was thinking Oscar Charelston was better. That would give me a whole new level of respect for Pop.

---

Covid Reality and Baseball

 

 

 

 

 

 

Increased testing

The document calls for on-field personnel and essential personnel to be tested for the virus “multiple times a week.” Angels superstar Mike Trout, however, told ESPN, “I don’t see us playing without testing every day.” One of the executives agreed, saying if the league cannot arrange for daily testing, “maybe we can’t play yet.” And when the game's best player says it, accept it as factual.

As stated “Experts agree that the most important element in avoiding an outbreak will be diagnostic testing. A robust and consistent testing program would allow baseball to identify and isolate infected individuals before the virus can infiltrate the clubhouse, dugout or team plane.”

Daily testing, however, might not be available by early July, when MLB intends to begin play. The potential drain on public resources is a sensitive topic, and the league is trying to avoid criticism by paying to produce its own tests through the conversion of a lab in Utah it previously used for minor-league drug testing. The league also promises to add to the public supply by making testing available to healthcare workers and first-responders in each home city.

Greater consistency between the protocols when players are at their home facility and when they are away from the park

The players pushed back against the so-called “Arizona Plan,” in which all 30 teams would have played under strict quarantine in the Phoenix area. The league’s current preference is to start the season in as many home parks as possible, giving players more freedom but increasing their risk of exposure to the virus.

The players would face tight restrictions at the field, which one executive likened to a “protective cocoon.” Spitting, high-fiving and using smokeless tobacco or sunflower seeds would be prohibited. Social distancing and wearing masks, except while on the field, would be required.

Away from the field, however, players essentially would be on their own.

The document says players should avoid using any communal areas – restaurants/bars, fitness centers/health clubs, etc. But whether at spring training or during their regular season, they seemingly would be free to move around as they normally would, and teams would face little choice but to trust them to act responsibly.

“That’s why you need an over-abundance of testing,” another executive said. “We should test a ton and then lighten some of the restrictions at the field.”

Fewer restrictions on players at hotels

While players would face no restrictions away from the park at home, they practically would be quarantined on the road.
“Members of the traveling party may not leave the club’s hotel, and should not congregate in public areas of the hotel, for any reason unless approved in advance by appropriate club personnel,” the league’s document says.
One executive said restricting players in such fashion would be “really difficult to accomplish,” adding that teams should simply encourage them to follow the same practices they do at the park – wearing masks, washing hands frequently, practicing social distancing, etc.

Permission for players to shower at the park

The league’s document discourages showering at club facilities, creating the possibility that players would leave the park in uniform as if they were back in Little League.
The idea apparently is to prevent players from showering in close proximity to one another. One executive said it would be more logical for players to shower in shifts – say, three at a time, depending upon the size of the shower area.

Allowing players to use hydrotherapy pools at club facilities

One executive said this suggested prohibition would be far more problematic than a ban on showers.
“Not having hot and cold therapy will be a problem for players,” the exec said. “It’s such an important part of their maintenance routine.”
Here, too, a simple revision might reflect common sense.
Pools are opening around the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no evidence the virus spreads through water in pools, hot tubs, spas or water play areas, and that proper operation and maintenance, including disinfection with chlorine and bromine, should kill the virus in the water.
Hydrotherapy pools usually are chlorinated, and many of those pools at club facilities are large enough to accommodate several players at a time at safe distances from one another.

Keeping indoor batting cages open

The league states a preference for teams to conduct as many pre-game activities as possible outdoors, and discourages the use of indoor cages when hitting outside is an option.
In warmer weather, however, air-conditioned indoor cages hold particular appeal. Players can sit in comfortable chairs as they await their turns, and hit off pitching machines.
Teams can move the machines outdoors, but as with showers and hydrotherapy pools, they also could enforce new standards by limiting the number of players in any one area at a given time.
The above suggestions are just some of the ideas clubs might propose, and each would be applicable league-wide. Teams also might make specific recommendations for their own parks, and government officials might further shape plans.
The number of potential revisions means the league’s 67-page proposal is likely to grow even longer, and change considerably. The original draft was a starting point, nothing more. Consider it a living document, subject to continual edits and updates.


I just hope the medicals and the scientists are on speed dial, because if this blows up and people get this virus, all hell is going to break out.
 

Go home Snell you later !

Rays Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell said the risk of returning to play this season is “just not worth it” — at least not for significantly less than his original $7 million salary.

With league and union officials discussing a plan to start a pandemic-delayed and abbreviated season in July with players getting reduced pay, Snell responded Wednesday to a question streaming channel with a two-minute answer about how it was not worth risking his life for a lesser reward.

Most pointedly:

“Y’all gotta understand, man, for me to go, for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof. It’s a shorter season, less pay. I gotta get my money. I’m not playing unless I get mine, okay? And that’s just the way it is for me.

 "Like, I’m sorry you guys think differently, but the risk is way the hell higher and the amount of money I’m making is way lower. Why would I think about doing that? Like, you know, I’m just, I’m sorry.”

In later text messages with the Tampa Bay Times, Snell said he knows people will view his comments as greedy but “that’s not the case at all,” and his concerns are rooted more in health and safety issues.

“I mean, honestly, it’s just scary to risk my life to get COVID-19 (the disease caused by the coronavirus) as well as not knowing and spreading it to others,” he said via text. “I just want everyone to be healthy and get back to our normal lives, ’cause I know I miss mine!”

Also, the owners’ attempts to further reduce player salaries “is super frustrating because we have way more risk.”

Snell, 27, signed a five-year, $50 million contract last spring. He said he is concerned about the long-term risks of being infected by the coronavirus and at this point is preparing for the possibility of playing next in 2021.

Players agreed in March to get paid this year on a prorated basis. If the plan for an 82-game season is approved — and that season is played, assuming all health and safety issues are resolved — Snell would get roughly half his salary. Owners are seeking a further reduction in salaries because games will likely be played without fans, a request reportedly based on splitting all revenues with the players.

While adamant that the current options are not viable, Snell seemed to have some of the details wrong.

Among other points, no set figure has been disclosed regarding how much further salaries would be reduced. It is unclear how much Snell would make under the plan, though it would be more than if the season is not played. In that case, he’d get only about $300,000 total.

Plus, the league is proposing teams play in their home ballparks where possible, so players wouldn’t necessarily be isolated.

Snell also told the Times that he would consider sitting out the season even if the union accepted a deal to start play.

“I honestly think I would see what my peers did and talk to my loved ones before I made a decision, because I really do wanna play baseball and be around the family we have built here in Tampa. It’s just a hard time with a lot going on to make it even harder.”

Snell said he left St. Petersburg for his Seattle-area home so he would have more equipment available and options to work out because “if a season happens, I want to be ready.”

Asked if he’d be OK playing for his full salary, Snell said, “That’s because I feel like when I signed my deal, I owed them for that $7 million, (and) I personally feel like I have to come through on that.”

Rays officials were aware of Snell’s comments Wednesday night and planned to talk with him Thursday, but on Thursday they said the matter was being handled internally and they had no comment. Snell’s agents said they had no plans for additional comment.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said on a previously scheduled media call Thursday morning he didn’t want to get into the specifics of Snell’s comments but acknowledged other players may have similar concerns.

"To answer your question, (are) there players that feel that way? I would imagine that there are players that ... have concerns about their specific health and the health of their families and teammates,'' Cash said. "And I think that’s fair. We all should to a degree.''

He also addressed the overall risk issue Snell raised:

"Health and safety is the No. 1 priority right now for myself, our organization, MLB, of our players, our staff, our fans and our specific communities. I guess we all have a right to say what we want to say and believe and feel what we want to believe. But I can assure you that that stance of prioritization of health and safety among everybody affiliated with baseball, and certainly our fans and our communities and all of the first responders that have been out there working currently through this rough time, we support and will continue to support.''

Here is a full transcription of Snell’s comments on Twitch, which were heard, recorded and posted to

"I’m not splitting no revenue, I want all mine.

"Bro, y’all gotta understand too, cause y’all gonna be like, ‘Bro, Blake, play for the love of the game, man! What’s wrong with you, bro? Money should not be a thing.’

"Bro, I’m risking my life, what do you mean it should not be a thing, it should a hundred percent be a thing. If I’m gonna play I should be getting the money I signed to be getting paid. I should not be getting half of what I’m getting paid because the season’s cut in half, on top of a 33% cut of the half that’s already there — so I’m really getting, like, 25% — on top of of that, it’s getting taxed.

"So, imagine how much I’m actually making to play, you know what I’m saying?

"Like, I ain’t making s---. and on top of that — so, all that money’s gone, and now I play risking my life. And if I get the ‘rona — on top of that, if I get the ‘rona — guess what happens with that? Oh yeah, that stays, that’s in my body forever. That damage is not gonna be like — the damage that was done to my body? That’s gonna be there forever.

"So, now I gotta play with that, on top of that. Y’all gotta understand man, for me to go, for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof, it’s a shorter season, less pay.

"No, I gotta get my money. I’m not playing unless I get mine, okay? And that’s just the way it is for me. Like, I’m sorry you guys think differently, but the risk is way the hell higher and the amount of money I’m making is way lower, why would I think about doing that? Like you know, I’m just, I’m sorry.

"So, in my head, I’m preparing for next season. Well, I’m actually preparing for right now, but as if I’m preparing for next season. Like, it’s super weird, man. ...

"But guys, I’m just saying, it doesn’t make sense for me to lose all of that money and then go play. And then be on lockdown, not around my family, not around the people I love, and getting paid way the hell less. And then the risk of injury runs every time I step on the field.

“So it’s just not worth it. It’s not. I love baseball to death, it’s just not worth it. If it’s a pay cut. If it’s no pay cut, I get mine, we could talk. I want to play.”

Snell also said “the owners are loaded, I don’t know why they want a pay cut,” and that they generally “are greedy and they’re trying to play the athletes because they’re like, ‘We’re smarter than them.’”

He did praise Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg, saying Sternberg is the best and he is “lucky” to get to play for him. “I love our owner,” Snell said. “He’s always there, always showing love. I’ve got nothing but love for him. He’s so dope.”

“I think the media kind of hypes up the coronavirus,” Snell said in Port Charlotte. "If they want to look out for our health, that’s cool. But I’m not too worried about it. If I get it, I get it. If I don’t, I don’t. Either way, it was meant to be.”

Let's see who's going first ?

1. Tigers: Spencer Torkelson, 1B, Arizona State
The Tigers haven't finalized any decisions yet, but most clubs would be surprised if they don't pick Torkelson, who might be the best all-around college bat (hitting ability plus power) since Mark Teixeira in 2001.

 2. Orioles: Austin Martin, OF/3B, Vanderbilt
Martin is the Draft's top pure hitter, but there are some questions about his arm and defensive home, so this is less certain than Torkelson going No. 1 overall. There's a school of thought that the Orioles could cut a deal with similarly skilled New Mexico State middle infielder Nick Gonzales to save money to go big at picks 30 and/or 39 (perhaps with Pennsylvania prep righty Nick Bitsko). They also could just take Texas A&M left-hander Asa Lacy, the best pitcher available, though the depth of college arms may make it more prudent to take a hitter here.

3. Marlins: Asa Lacy, LHP, Texas A&M
The Marlins' choice could simply come down to whichever of Torkelson, Martin and Lacy remains on the board at No. 3.

4. Royals: Emerson Hancock, RHP, Georgia
The Royals are quite pleased with the early returns from taking three college pitchers (Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch) in 2018's first round, and Hancock would give them MLB Pipeline's preseason No. 1 prospect. There's talk that Hancock could slide because analytically minded teams think his career strikeout rate (9.7 per nine innings) isn't dominant enough, but that feels like a stretch.

5. Blue Jays: Zac Veen, OF, Spruce Creek HS (Port Orange, Fla.)
The best all-around hitter in the prep crop, Veen is a lock to be first high schooler taken with the Pirates, Padres and Rockies lining up behind the Blue Jays. Toronto also could be tempted by a college arm such as Hancock or Minnesota right-hander Max Meyer.

6. Mariners: Nick Gonzales, SS/2B, New Mexico State
Gonzales sandwiched leading NCAA Division I in batting (.432) last spring and homers (12 in 16 games) this year around winning Cape Cod League MVP honors in the summer. The Mariners also could consider the same college arms as the Blue Jays, in addition to Louisville left-hander Reid Detmers.

7. Pirates: Heston Kjerstad, OF, Arkansas
Word is the Pirates are hunting college bats, which would leave them perusing Kjerstad (the best lefty power in his class), UCLA outfielder Garrett Mitchell (the best all-around tools) and North Carolina State catcher Patrick Bailey (the top backstop)
.
8. Padres: Max Meyer, RHP, Minnesota
Meyer has arguably the best pitch (his wipeout slider) and the most electric arsenal available, and his athleticism trumps his 6-foot build in the starter versus reliever debate. The Padres also are looking at many of the college names mentioned above. This is probably the earliest a high school pitcher could go, with Oregon prep righty Mick Abel a possibility.

9. Rockies: Reid Detmers, LHP, Louisville
If the Rockies don't get a shot at Veen or Kjerstad, they should wind up with either the overpowering Meyer or the polished Detmers.

10. Angels: Robert Hassell, OF, Independence HS (Thompson's Station, Tenn.)
After using first-round picks in 2017 and 2018 on outfielders Jo Adell and Jordyn Adams, the Angels are linked to more outfielders: Kjerstad, Mitchell, Hassell (the best pure high school hitter) and Pennsylvania prepster Austin Hendrick (the top high school slugger). Any of the college arms above would make sense if they fell to No. 10.

11. White Sox: Patrick Bailey, C, North Carolina State
The White Sox might also like a crack at the Hancock/Meyer/Detmers group but in this scenario they wind up with Bailey. Chicago could be the high-water mark for Texas high school right-hander Jared Kelley.

12. Reds: Austin Hendrick, OF, West Allegheny HS (Imperial, Pa.)
This choice could come down to high school bats (Hassell, Hendrick, Illinois prep shortstop Ed Howard) versus college arms (Detmers, Oklahoma right-hander Cade Cavalli).

13. Giants: Garrett Mitchell, OF, UCLA
Mitchell is the biggest wild card among position players because while he has five-tool potential, he also has Type 1 diabetes and just six homers in 121 college games. Some teams believe he could drop into the 20s. If the Giants pass, they could opt for a high school position player such as Hendrick or a pair of Californians, catcher Tyler Soderstrom or outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. San Francisco popped Soderstrom's father Steve with the No. 6 overall choice in 1993.

14. Rangers: Garrett Crochet, LHP, Tennessee
Another wild card, Crochet saw his stuff take a leap from top-two-rounds quality to top-10-picks material in the fall, but he missed the first three weeks this spring as a precaution with shoulder soreness and worked just 3 1/3 innings. If the Rangers want less risk, they could go with Cavalli. They might be the first team that would select Bitsko, who reclassified from 2021 to 2020 in January and never got to pitch in a game this spring.

15. Phillies: Cade Cavalli, RHP, Oklahoma
The Phillies hope one of the better college position players gets to 15, but Cavalli's explosive fastball/curveball combination would be a nice consolation prize if that doesn't happen.

16. Cubs: Tyler Soderstrom, C, Turlock (Calif.) HS
The Cubs need pitching but have had much more success drafting and developing hitting, especially in the first round. The track record of high school catchers in the first round is lousy -- the last two to stay behind the plate and accrue even 5 WAR are Joe Mauer (No. 1 overall in 2001) and Jason Kendall (No. 23 in 1992) -- but Soderstrom has a quality bat and the athleticism to profile at third base or on an outfield corner.

17. Red Sox: Mick Abel, RHP, Jesuit HS (Portland, Ore.)
High school catchers and right-handers are the Draft's scariest demographics, and this scenario would be the lowest the first prep arm got taken since ... way back in 2019, when the Pirates selected Quinn Priester at No. 18. The Red Sox don't appear to be going conservative despite losing their second-round choice for sign stealing, because they're also in on Crow-Armstrong and Howard.

18. Diamondbacks: Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF Harvard-Westlake School (Studio City, Calif.)
Crow-Armstrong entered last summer as the top-rated high school prospect, and while he had an uneven performance on the showcase circuit, he rebounded this spring and could be a plus hitter, runner and center fielder. He fits the smaller but sweet-swinging mold of recent D-backs prep outfielder picks Alek Thomas (second round, 2018) and Corbin Carroll (first, 2019).

19. Mets: Carmen Mlodzinski, RHP, South Carolina
A slew of right-handers from the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences will go from the late first round through the early second round: Mlodzinski, Cole Wilcox (Georgia), Slade Cecconi (Miami), Tanner Burns (Auburn), Bobby Miller (Louisville), Bryce Jarvis (Duke), Chris McMahon (Miami), C.J. Van Eyk (Florida State) and Cole Henry (Louisiana State). Mlodzinski was the most impressive pitching prospect in the Cape Cod League last summer.

20. Brewers: Cole Wilcox, RHP, Georgia
Wilcox also drew first-round interest as a Georgia high schooler two years ago, and he did a better job of harnessing an arsenal with the potential for three plus pitches as a sophomore this spring.

21. Cardinals: Ed Howard, SS, Mount Carmel HS (Chicago)
The best true shortstop in the Draft, Howard has a high floor for a prepster as a reliable performer with the chance for solid tools across the board. He probably shouldn't last this long.

22. Nationals: Slade Cecconi, RHP, Miami
The Nationals are known for taking Boras Corp. clients and Tommy John repairs in the first round, so it would be too easy to give them Mississippi State right-hander J.T. Ginn here. With Ginn's signability in question, we'll give them a healthier college right arm with similar stuff in Cecconi.

23. Indians: Dillon Dingler, C, Ohio State
After taking last summer off to recover from a broken hamate, Dingler has shot up draft boards this spring by taking a step forward offensively. A center fielder as a freshman, he's more athletic and has more arm strength than most catchers.

24. Rays: Jared Kelley, RHP, Refugio (Texas) HS
The only one of the top three high school arms to pitch in an actual game this spring, Kelley wasn't as dynamic as he was last August at the Area Code Games. The Rays have an affinity for developing prep pitchers, so this could be a steal.

25. Braves: Tanner Burns, RHP, Auburn
Burns combines solid stuff with strike-throwing ability and a track record of performance in the SEC, and he could be one of the first college starters to reach the big leagues. The Braves also have interest in Bitsko, but their $4,127,800 bonus pool would make him a difficult financial fit.

26. Athletics: Bobby Miller, RHP, Louisville
A power righty complement to Detmers' lefty polish at Louisville, Miller pairs a mid-90s fastball with a mid-80s slider and keeps getting better as he gets more acclimated to starting.

27. Twins: Nick Loftin, SS, Baylor
The steady Loftin is one of the best contact hitters in the Draft and would give the Twins three first-round shortstops in four years, following Royce Lewis (2017) and Keoni Cavaco (2019).

28. Yankees: Austin Wells, C, Arizona
The Yankees put more premium on a catcher's offense than most teams, and Wells fits that profile with hittability, power and plate discipline, though he may wind up at first base or in left field.

29. Dodgers: Justin Foscue, 2B, Mississippi State
Los Angeles grabbed a pair of offensive-minded college infielders (Kody Hoese, Michael Busch) in 2019's first round and could do so again this June. Multiple clubs have wondered if Bitsko might make his way to the Dodgers, though the Orioles (who pick again at 30 and have the largest bonus pool at $13,894,300) appear to be in the best position to pay him.

Well that's the first round, you'd have to be a gypsy to predict the second round , let alone the  first round, well I had a little help from Gentleman Jim Callis.

A trade for the ages

"It started as a joke ", Susan Kekich said. "It was an accident. After a while, we couldn't stop it" So, on October 1st, 1972, Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich, a couple of of lefthanded Yankee pitchers, and their wives, Marilyn and Susan decided to trade mates.
 "It wasn't a wife swap, " Mike Kekich said. "It was a life swap." Actually, it was only the baseball players themselves who were traded. Their wives stayed in their respective homes, with their own children ( two each ) , and their family dogs. One of the conditions of this major league trade was that it would immediately be called off if any of the four players changed their minds.
  "It was all so beautiful, so romantic, so perfect for all of us " Susan Kekich recalled. "We seemed to have found perfect mates". However, after two months , the deal was cancelled and the players went back to their original wives. It seems the problems had arisen between Mike Kekich and Marilyn Peterson. "We started to butt heads", Mike remembers. "She worried about being divorced and it became too much for her."

    On the other hand, Fritz Peterson and Susan Kekich, despite the difficulties, were doing quite well. "I had never been sadder and never happier in my life, " Susan said, "I ran the gamut of every possible emotion ".
   "Marilyn ultimately got divorced from Fritz and Susan Kekich renewed their contract and are still together.

Now, Fritz is a born again Christian. Go figure.

A new kind of ball game

Jalen Brown

As the NBA desperately tries to save its season, whether by Magic Kingdom or MGM, they’re making some major, longterm moves within the current crisis. There’s the massive tech deal with Microsoft, intended to reform League Pass and create a new sports betting culture.


 Perhaps the more revolutionary development, though, is the NBA’s professional pathway program, a G League initiative that gives elite prospects six-figure contracts, in addition to providing them a development program. Top high school prospect Jalen Green announced his G League commitment on April 16, setting a trend. After the announcement, elite prospects Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix followed suit and joined the professional pathway. This is a new trend, one that threatens NCAA basketball, which is now feverishly reforming itself to keep up.
While some in the media have cheered the trend, others, with a more traditional perspective, spoke out against it. I have some sympathy for arguments that the NBA has sometimes rejected tradition at its peril. It appears, for example, that increased player movement has turned a lot of people off, regardless of how many times fans are lectured about how wonderful it is that today’s players so freely seek their own bliss. In this case, however, I believe the upholders of tradition are in the wrong, and not just because the NCAA rules are a moral blight. The NBA had to do this or something like it, for the good of the sport and health of its business.
First, this was a necessary maneuver to outflank Australia’s NBL, whose similar program allowed it to host top prospects LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton this past season. Both players appeared to do fine reputation-wise for their Australia adventure, which meant that many more might have eschewed college ball for the NBL route this year. The NBA didn’t see the point in allowing young players to draw fans and viewers to a league across the world when it had the power to keep all these prospects in-house.

Second, and I believe this often gets misunderstood, the NBA’s relationship with the NCAA isn’t mutually beneficial. The NCAA is often referred to as a “free farm system” for the NBA. In one sense, yes, the NBA doesn’t literally pay the NCAA’s players. In another sense, the NCAA farm system is quite costly. College football has a nice deal with the NFL, where the former’s games are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and the latter’s games are mostly on Sundays, so the two leagues don’t overlap. The NBA has no such deal with the NCAA. Prime-time college basketball games often run concurrently with prime-time NBA games. When March Madness happens, it overshadows everything in the NBA universe. So this is not a “free” farm system as much as it is a competing business, one that seeks eyeballs and ticket revenue at the NBA’s expense. In theory, it’s a business’ prerogative to crush a competitor, not sustain it with ceded talent.

The counter-argument, long advocated by those who wish for a copacetic arrangement between college and pro ball, is that the NCAA games help brand the stars of tomorrow. While it’s theoretically possible that the NBA draws some benefit from these players getting famous in college, it’s not like Kemba Walker’s massive collegiate stardom at Connecticut helped the NBA when Walker played professionally in Charlotte. Anthony Davis went from college basketball’s most famous freshman to relative anonymity as an elite player in New Orleans. You can cite Steph Curry and Carmelo Anthony as guys whose fame was augmented by college ball, but it’s also possible that these players would have eventually achieved the same level of fame regardless. In Steph’s case, yes, the legend started at Davidson, but being the greatest shooter ever, a two-time MVP and three-time champion probably accounts for 99 percent of his current renown.

The most persuasive example for the NCAA is probably the most recent one. I cannot deny that Zion Williamson’s Pelicans games draw more interest because of what he did at Duke. Why this is true of him as opposed to, say, early-career Kyrie Irving, speaks to the odd alchemy that is athletic celebrity. Zion is a unique force and people started to notice that when he was playing for college basketball’s most famous program.
At the same time, it’s not where you start in the NBA, it’s where you end up. Kobe Bryant didn’t need college basketball branding to become a megastar. Neither did LeBron James. NBA superstardom isn’t forged in March. It comes from what happens in May and June. It’s questionable as to whether the minor early-career bump of college basketball branding is worth all that the NBA loses from helping to sustain a competing league.

The pro level isn’t just sacrificing eyeballs to the NCAA either. The fact that the two leagues use different rules has major implications for pro development. The cleave between the NBA (24-second shot clock, maximum 3-point line distance of 23 feet, 9 inches) and college (30-second shot clock, maximum 3-point line distance of 20 feet, 9 inches), isn’t just some minor detail. A game’s rules are defining, and practicing for one set of rules means unlearning habits when you must succeed with another set. This difference between leagues almost certainly messes with the pro development of players.

Nix

Increasingly, I hear from NBA scouts that they prefer players out of Europe going forward, because the games are similar to the NBA style of play. NBA coaches have been pilfering European tactics. Or, to put it more generously, Jazz coach Quin Snyder hosts a yearly Las Vegas symposium, where European coaches teach NBA coaches and vice versa. Through this cultural exchange, NBA and Euro styles are merging, as the NCAA game putters on, locked into an older era. 

 It used to be that Euro prospects carried this scary aura of mystery versus the tried-and-true NCAA guys. Now, with the great NBA/Euro convergence, that dynamic is getting flipped.
To summarize, the NCAA game competes with the NBA game for relevance and temporarily locks future NBA players into a style of play they’ll have to later unlearn. Since this less-than-beneficial dynamic is fairly obvious, you might have expected NBA owners to have long ago tried NCAA-undermining measures.
  That they didn’t might speak to how many owners have considerations beyond pure profit and business sense. Quite a few of these power brokers are megadonors to their alma maters. This older, richer cohort fits right smack dab in the college ball fan demographic. And, yes, they wear their school’s sweater and cheer like crazy during March. To help the NBA’s future in a time of global crisis though, these owners might have to hurt something close to their hearts. You can thank Australia’s NBL for forcing them to finally make the right choice.
 No matter what happens, the NCCA was too slow and too greedy and the NBA swooped in and grabbed the opprortunity.

Swish !

The doctor is in

The bet was made in the spring of 1974, while the Pittsburgh Pirates took batting practice in Bradenton, Fla. Kurt Bevacqua was shagging in the outfield when Dock Ellis jogged past. Ellis stopped to offer a wager. The stakes revolved around a steak.
“Hey rook,” Ellis told Bevacqua, “I bet you a Chateaubriand I don’t get out of the first inning when I face the Reds.”
Bevacqua was not exactly sure what Ellis was talking about, or why Ellis thought he was still a rookie (he wasn’t). Ellis didn’t give his new teammate much time to consider the terms. He went back to running. Bevacqua turned to the coaches. Details become blurry when legends are being made, but Bevacqua can still recall his bewilderment.
“What the fuck is it with this guy?” Bevacqua asked.
There wasn’t an easy answer. Ellis lived a kaleidoscopic life. Most remember him for the day in 1970 when he dropped acid and threw a no-hitter. He did a lot more than that. He railed against the prejudice black men faced in his sport. He advocated for the rights of athletes. He lobbied Congress to fund research into sickle-cell anemia. Later in life, he kicked drugs and drinking. He counseled addicts and inmates before he died in 2008. He did big things that resounded in American culture and little things that reshaped lives.
Here is another thing he did:
In the spring of 1974, Dock Ellis decided he was sick of the Cincinnati Reds’ shit. The Big Red Machine was ascending. Three years removed from a World Series, the Pirates were on the decline. Ellis couldn’t abide by how his teammates handled the paradigm shift. When he saw the Reds, he vowed to send a message. On the first day of May, he got his chance.

---

Forty-six years later, the voice of Pirates catcher Manny Sanguillen boomed over the phone. He was a couple of weeks away from his 76th birthday. The passage of time hadn’t dimmed his memory of May 1, 1974. Had he known what Dock was up to? Of course, Sanguillen cackled.
“He said to everybody, ‘I’m going to hit every single one of them who comes up to hit today,'” Sanguillen said. “We knew what was going to happen.”
Ellis had been talking about this for a while. He told some teammates. He told his agent, Tom Reich. He even talked about it with a writer named Donald Hall, who would later become the poet laureate of the United States, at a party a week before the game. Ellis was tired of the Reds, and how he felt the Pirates would cower when facing Pete Rose and Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench and Tony Perez and the other cogs in the Machine.
“Spring training had just begun, and I say, ‘You are scared of Cincinnati,” Ellis later told Hall for a book they collaborated on. “That’s what I told my teammates. ‘You are always scared of Cincinnati.’ I’ve watched us lose games against Cincinnati and it’s ridiculous.”
At the start of the 1970s, the two clubs jockeyed for control of the National League. The Pirates ruled the East. Located a five-hour drive away, the Reds ran the West. Cincinnati bounced Pittsburgh from the playoffs in 1970 and 1972. In between, the Pirates captured their fourth world championship.
Something about the 1972 National League Championship Series stuck with Ellis, he would explain later. The Reds won Game 5 when Bench homered in the ninth to tie the game; minutes later, George Foster dashed home with two outs when Bob Moose lost a wild pitch. As the Reds sprayed champagne, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported, Pirates outfielder Al Oliver visited the victors. “You’re still No. 1,” Perez told Oliver.

The Enquirer quoted a number of Reds displaying magnanimity toward the dethroned champs. Cincinnati manager Sparky Anderson told the Associated Press “there are two No. 1 teams in the National League.” Ellis remembered the scene somewhat differently. The Reds, he told Hall, “go on TV and say the Pirates ain’t nothing.” Several decades later, Ellis told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the Reds “called our team dumb.”
Whatever caused the slight, Ellis would not forget. There was no rematch the next year. Roberto Clemente died on Dec. 31, 1972. Pittsburgh won only 80 games in 1973 as a three-year stretch atop the East ended. As the Pirates assembled for 1974, most of their championship core was still around: Sanguillen behind the plate, Oliver and Willie Stargell in the outfield, Richie Hebner and Bob Robertson on the corners. Bevacqua came aboard as a utility man in a trade with Kansas City and found himself awed by their camaraderie: “What a bunch of crazy asses,” he thought.
“They were all-in on shenanigans, they were all-in on pranks,” Bevacqua said. “They were as street-hard as you could possibly get, but with a heart of gold. Boy, it was so much fun to play with those guys. And leading the pack was Dock.”
Ellis turned 29 that spring. He had been up in the majors since 1968. He was a good pitcher capable of reaching elevated heights. When he made the All-Star team in 1971, he started after daring Anderson to let him take the baseball against Athletics ace Vida Blue, because Major League Baseball would “never start two brothers against each other.” Ellis spoke his mind. He was never boring. His teammates adored him.
“Dock was a great human being,” Sanguillen said. “We were brothers.”

---

A little more than 8,000 fans gathered at Three Rivers Stadium as Ellis stared down the Reds lineup. There wasn’t much reason for optimism. The Pirates had lost the first six games of the season. It hadn’t got much better. So Ellis figured he could smite two birds with one stone, teaching the Reds a lesson while motivating his own mates. The proverbial stone would take the form of a series of wayward pitches.
The leadoff batter was Rose. Ellis considered Rose a friend, but one still worthy of targeting. Rose stood on the edge of the batter’s box as Ellis warmed up. Near the end of the ritual, Ellis flung a fastball in Rose’s direction. The actual pitches would come much closer. The first soared over Rose’s head. The next flew behind him. The third connected. Rose picked up the baseball and underhanded it to Ellis. The act left Ellis impressed.
“You have to be good, to be a hot dog,” he told Hall.
Still, Ellis was undeterred by Rose’s nonchalance. Morgan chuckled to Sanguillen that he would not meet the same fate as his teammate. He was wrong. Ellis drilled Morgan in the armpit with his next pitch. To the plate came Reds third baseman Dan Driessen. He also figured he was safe from retribution; no pitcher would plunk three men in a row. A fastball soon sizzled through the chilly air and smashed into his thigh.
“It’s not nice to hit a man when it’s cold out,” Driessen told The Dayton Daily News. “I don’t mind telling you it stung.”
By now, the secret was out. The message had been received. With the bases loaded, Perez stepped into the batter’s box. His feet did not stay there long. Perez ducked and dodged four pitches for a heart-pounding walk. “He was running like crazy,” Sanguillen said.
Perez prevented Ellis from making history; no pitcher has ever hit four batters in a row. With Bench up, Ellis tried to start a new streak. Bench followed the same script as Perez, providing a moving target that Ellis could not find. After two balls, Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh intervened. He took the baseball from Ellis and called to the bullpen.
“Sangy, what happened?” Murtaugh said to his catcher.
Murtaugh asked if Sanguillen had been calling the pitches. In the pregame meeting, Ellis had told Sanguillen not to worry about sequences. But the catcher protected his teammate. He professed ignorance.
One day this spring, Sanguillen roared with laughter when pondering how such a spectacle would play in 2020. He had just heard Commissioner Rob Manfred forbid pitchers from targeting the Astros. The 1970s were a long time ago.
“You’d be suspended for life,” Sanguillen said. “Even the catcher would be suspended! And the manager!”
There was no suspension in 1974. No fines. The benches didn’t even clear for a fight. In the immediate aftermath, Ellis blamed his wildness on an eight-day layoff. He was less coy with his teammates. On his way to the clubhouse, he grabbed his jacket in the dugout. Bevacqua was nearby. Ellis hadn’t forgotten about the bet.
“I’ll take it medium-rare,” Ellis said.

---

The Pirates lost that night. Their record fell to 6-13. If Ellis had expected an instant turnaround, he didn’t cause it. But Pittsburgh caught fire in August. They played .632 baseball in the second half and won their division. Cincinnati missed the playoffs in 1974 but won titles the next two seasons. The one-man protest from Ellis may not have altered the course of baseball history, but it did make for one hell of a story.
Bevacqua often played a role in the tale. The way Ellis told it, Bevacqua offered the Chateaubriand as a challenge to follow through on his promise to mow down the Reds. Bevacqua told another version. “I didn’t bet anything!” Bevacqua said. “It was more that I was the only one who had anything to lose, when I look back on it.”
Bevacqua paid up. Ellis made sure of it.

---

In 1978, Bevacqua, Ellis and fellow former Pirate Richie Zisk were reunited as teammates in Texas. Bevacqua and Zisk roomed together on the road. Near the end of the season, Ellis dropped a paper bag between them.
“That’s for you guys,” Ellis said.
Bevacqua was stumped. He opened the bag. Inside was a bundle of cash. Something like $2,700, Bevacqua recalled.
“Does he owe you money?” Bevacqua asked Zisk.
“No.”
“Well, he doesn’t owe me any money.”
The duo visited Ellis. What was going on? Ellis was beaming. He was paying his tab, he explained. He had been signing his room-service bills to Bevacqua and Zisk’s room for most of the season. Now they were even.
“Dock Ellis was a hell of a guy,” Bevacqua said. “As crazy as he was … you know what? He just did crazy shit. He really wasn’t that crazy.”