History Lesson # 1 - The Christian Gentleman

I think that it is time for me to offer brief history lessons on players, and managers, and the game in general, in hopes that for the folks that read this blog will have a better understanding of the building blocks, and where the game has been.

The Christian Gentleman

So I thought for sometime about a point to start out on, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Pete Rose, who ?

I decided to let people in on a little known secret, about this guy who pitched in the dead ball era. His name was Christy Matheson, and he was better know in his day as the Christian Gentleman, and he pitched for the New York Giants. John McGraw's favourite player, he said, of all time.


Matheson was one pitcher, if was said, kept a book on many hitters, which was unheard of.  Cy Young of the Bostons, said  I just throw it hard, and I don't a damn who's at bat.  Matheson recorded what pitches that Honus Wagner handled easily, and he noted what arm angle, speed and follow through worked effectively. Wagner it was said did the same of pitchers, and so a constant battle raged, both players adjusting.

Christy reported through 8 different pitches, fade aways, drop balls, and rise balls, now commonly referred as fork balls, sliders and cut fastballs.  He had Greg Maddux's plate coverage, Saberhagen's change of speeds, and Koufax's ability to find " that extra spark " or giddy up.

Many of Matty's records stood in the National League for years. Walter Johnson held most American League, and what neither of them held, weren't worth holding, according to Ring Lardner.

I won't trivialize him with recanting his stats, I leave that to the geeks, and sabrmetricians of the world. Just let's say that for 20 years he was in National League without a peer. But for many a child growing in the 1900's he was their idol. 

Parents who hated their boys playing this game were pleased to let their sons comb their hair, eat the some food and pattern their baseball delivery after Matheson. His wife said he was a good man, but he was no goody goody.

He won 373 games, and finished up with a career ERA of 2.13. Admittedly the era ( 1910's ) was not a hitters era, but many parks had no fences, just roped off areas where fans would stand behind.

His final game was in 1916, and Christy entered World War I , and suffered from mustard gas in France, and he eventually died at 45 in 1925.  He was pretty bad shape in 25', and he told his wife that nothing can be done, so if you want to go out and have a cry, do not make it a long one.

Matheson was also credited as one of the whistle blowers of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. He was along side the reporters, and kept a note book of suspicious plays. He then wrote the commissioners office and sent in his notes, which were used in the trial.

He appeared in 4 World Series only winning once but limiting the opposition to a 0.97 earned run average.

He is to be remembered, and I gladly kick off this summer of baseball history.

Finding Faith

If we are to assume that the Jays are in the race, despite a wonky bullpen, spotty offense, leading the AL in errors, and just plain blowing chances against inferior opponents, then the fact that more people are watching the Jays, in the seats or on TV should be considered a sign.

Funny that many of the scribes and media are not on the GM to make the team better with bolder moves. As I follow the twitter world, the blogs, the web sites and the newspapers, I am amazed that no one save myself, Bob McCown, maybe a couple of guys in the office are throwing up their hands in frustration.

Why in the name of the baby Jesus ( quoting the Bobcat ) can we not sacrifce some A and AA talent and improve the team. Maybe this Drew Hutchinson experiment was cute in the beginning, but it is downright awful now. Drabez, and Morrow are going pretty good, but Romero & Alvarez are very shaky, and the best thing I can say about the bullpen, is that for 2 weeks, Casey Jannsen has performed admirably.

Money and another season are being wasted, and let me remind the faithful that the Yankees and Red Sox will not suck forever, at some point one or both will get healthy, and go on a run.  Tampa already looks solid, even if Matt Moore has not become the next super arm.  Where is Cuba Gooding ?  "Show me the money"  .....
Is this the blueprint ?  Another 80-83 win season while kids season like 10 year scotch. What is the plan for the June draft ?  Another crop of 18-20 fuzzy faced phenoms, tyr and sign another boatload.  Add more prospects to what is fast becoming a crowded house of potential.  If we reach July 31st, and we are NOT in 4rth place I will be shocked.  Adding a 40 year DH with no arm or leg skills to this roster is not going to change our fortunes, like Damon and Manny won't , or even Roy Oswalt.  Roy has been to more Texas Ranger games than many season ticket owners.  And yet, no contract, hmmm, is it possible Oswalt is demanding a multi year deal ?  Anyhow, back to adding on the potential that Vladdy brings, over playing Travis Snider, Adam Lind or Yan Gomes, is fool hardy.

If the team has given up on the first 2, well then who am I to argue. But if you need offense, is there no team so out of contention with a player with an expiring contract that can actually hit that we cannot attract with the offering of a couple of kids.

I like the Jays, don't get me wrong, but if we are going to wait until the 18 and 19 year olds start pushing Romero and Bautista out of the line up, that is too long. They have not played a meaningful game in September in more years than I can remember.

Good solid bats don't come cheap, neither does top 3 arms or closers, but we are spending pennies, when the paper money is required.



When is next year "the year" ?  What happens when we decide that we want to spend, and the Yanks and Red Soz, and Angels, etc decide the same thing ?

So far, the Rays have been twice to the post season after 8-9 last place in MLB, but no hardware to show for it.  I seem to remember a GM who said "when it is time, we will spend".  

What if the time has already past ?  Was our window this year, or last fall ?

C'mon guys, I want to keep the faith, but I am having a hard time finding the faith.

If you want to compete in the AL East you have 2 routes, the Rays suck for a decade route and the Sox/Yanks route. We have found a third route, the slow building infrastructure approach.

My faith is being tested.  Is yours ?

Are we ever getting any traction ?

Up 2, down 2, up 3, down 3.  Such is the slow ploding season to date.

A 19-16 record on May 14th and the next 4 games are against the Rays, and the Yanks. What would hope for, hell right now, I'd settle on splitting the 4 games. Perhaps that is what the Jays will do, but that will leave 3 games over .500 at roughly 25 % of the season played.

On average, we are getting decent pitching, marginal bullpen efforts, pretty fair defense, but terribly inconsistent offense. Bautista shows signs of breaking out. Some days so does Escobar, and Lawrie and Encarnacion have supplied the balance of the offense. This team has not hit, and therefore this team has had no extended win streaks. Win a series, lose a series.  In the most current road trip just concluded, they went 5-5, but they won the 1st 2 games against the struggling Angels, and split with the Twins, who still have the worst record in the majors. 

If I was Joihn Farrell I would send for my copy of Phsycic Baseball, or get myself to a palm reader to see if there was something to change the fortunes of the home squad.

Nothing he tries seems to work, no buttons are the right ones.  Adam Lind slides down to 8th, has one good game , and returns to his eventual slide out of town.  Has anyone been paying attention to David Cooper ?  Can we dare put a glove on Encarnacion other than a batting glove ?


This team had the city and fans in a tizzy after their spring triumphs in Florida, but boy not making hay over teams you expect to beat will put them in a very tough position after June.  Plus, it may well impact their position as buyer or seller.  They definitely before the 2-2 split in Minny were kicking tires in Philly over Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino, are they still doing so.  Hamels is just a rental, he's informed the Phils he expects to sign a deal for 7 years. Why not ?, he's only 28, has playoff success.  But he is a rental, and if the Jays don't act, the Dodgers or the other pseudo contenders will.

The Jays have a deep system, but perhaps they lack the will to make a bold in season move to add talent. Their big moves have come in the winter, moving Halladay and Marcum to re stock the shelf.  But the time will come when you either spend freely on free agents, or you swing a deal because you have a logjam of talented kids and they can't all play. 

Perhaps they suprise me and sweep the next 4 games against traditional foes, and sit 23-16, closer to the top than the middle.  Right now they remind me of a team with defective spark plugs, and with that, they have no traction.

Losing Mo Mentum

As the story made the wire services prior to the Yankees Royals game, the fall out in the world of the pinstripers was immense.

Mo is down, and it looks bad, taken for the field on  a cart, smiling but the grimaces were notable. Mo was in pain. No idea of what it was, but colour commentator David Cone said it looked like a torn ACL.  Turns out Cone was not just speculating on what he had witnessed, he suffered a similar injury, and knew where of he spoke.

It has yet to be announced but the reality is his season is done, and perhaps so is his career, but let's not get too far ahead, and send those Yankee fans to jump off the George Washington bridge.  For the better part of almost 20 years, it seemes, he was either the heir apparent to John Wettleland, or the most widely known Yankee closer since The Goose or Sparky Lyle. Well Mo surpassed all of them, and is a first ballot HOF'er.

As a Yankee hater almost from birth, it is great, but not how I want to see legends leave the game. At 42, it is not impossible for return, but more improbable.  In the meantime, Cashman and Girardi will decide who is the next one. Not sure if Dave Robertson has the mental make up, so will put money on Soriano, as he has performed that role before, and it leaves Robertson in his true comfort zone.

OK so the Red Sox look fallable, the Yanks are brittle, is this a year and an opportunity for the Jays. They also have closer issues, but hope Santos is less than 3 weeks away, but strangely silent isn't it ?

So at least for 2012, they will not play " Enter Sandman" for a Mo appearance. 

We will also see if the lose mo-mentum as well.  Those Yankees had to grow old sooner or later...is the year when their toughest opponent is Father Time ?

Bottom of the barrel

As we approach the end of April, I have to think that the Red Sox are beginning to feel the desparation.
Micheal Bowden, a several time pitching prospect sent to the Cubs, another lovable loser, for Marlon Byrd. 
Byrd joins the team and will find time platooning with Ryan Sweeney or Darnell MacDonald, to bolster an offense not clicking on all cylinders.  But one that had a 9 run lead over the Yankees on Saturday.

So, I am sure the Sox are scouting this Keith Olbermann chap, perhaps he can help them get an 11 run lead, because nobody trusts the Sox bullpen, let alone the rotation.

Last weekend, if you remember, the Sox were 3 quarters the way to a series win over the Tampa Bay Rays, and by the end of the 3rd game, we suddenly watch them defending Kevin Youkilis for a rough start. Pedroia took issue at comments made by the current manager, Bobby Valentine. Bobby cast some doubts as to Youk's make up, this after the Bosoton's had taken 2 of the first 3 on the Rays.

Great timing coach !  By the end of this weekend, the bullpen is in tatters, Danny Bard is being sent from the rotation to the pen presumably to save their back sides.  The Sox, if you remember started poorly last year, Crawford couldn't hit, Pedroia was scuffling, Papi was okay but not mashing balls, the rotation had issues, Jenks blew saves, but it was a different feel.  Francona was there, and they would rebound, they had a playoff nucleus, with pedigree.  No one , save for Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe was really worried.

A win here or there, get some deeper starts from the starters, and guess what, everything got sorted out, well, until August 31st that is. Then troubles that even Francona could not identify tripped them up.
Hear this...it has not changed., not one bit. Life in Boston, Mass revolves around their icons, The Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins.
Right now, the Sox are coming up the rear, the Pats went to another Super Bowl, Bruins are defending a Stanle Cup and the Celts have at least secured a playoff berth, in a rebuilding year. The Sox have more pressure than all 3 put together, and they know it.

If you watched Saturday's game, it serves as a microcosm of where they are on baseball landscape. They have the bats to put up runs, in bunches.  Then their bats go dry, inexplicably as they did the last 4 innings. When they could have tallied more, they seemed to let up, and lost focus. The Yanks, bouyed by long relief keep trying to chip away, chip away.  Sox starter Felix Doubrant stiffled them over 6 plus innings, but then an innocent Mark Texiera big fly poked a hole in the Sox 100 year celebration balloon.

Ah, it's only one run, but as the top of the 8th rolled around, some of the patrons were leaving, an 9-1 lead with 2 innings left.
Have the townsfolk forgotten the wonders that Fenway reveals, the sudden wind shifts, and the inviting left field wall, the nooks and crannies that serve to bounce a ball in two differnt directions, sending the outfielders in opposite directions.

Well, 14 more runs clammered home, while Bobby Valentine wore out his cleats making pitching changes, and one of the biggest swings had robbed the Sox of what would have been an important win.

Them Damn Yankees had one, and the Boston media begin the Valentine death watch. Rain killed the ESPN Sunday night, primetime game, and maybe that was a repreive for Boston.

I did very much predict a down fall year for Boston, and a 4rth place finish. Let's hope for them, the Orioles don't get their game together, or it's the basement for them.

Put a sock in it Ozzie

I am old enough to remember George Steinbrenner and some of his odd ball remarks, and also am reminded of Marge Schott , the owner of the Cincinnati Reds. I also watched a series on the game where Curt Flood spoke to Auggie Busch, who claimed all his players bunked in the finest hotels, which in the mid 60's was not even close to being right. That was ignorance and he was not aware, Schott was an uncouth as a Roseanne Barr appearance singing the national anthem, the grabbing her loins.

Georgie stumbled over the truth, and stretched it , and was bombastic as they come.

Ozzie Guillen has leat past them all.

In this day and age, there are always those that take offense to the slightest remark that is anti this or that, and there are media teams, and lawyers at the ready to spin the politically correct story, the vanilla and shallow story where no one is offended, just bored.

Ozzie's latest has offended the Miami community, many of whom are refugees from Cuba, and principally a Castro regime that was dictatorial , murderous, and oppresive. It's not that Ozzie's comments were not free speech, it's that this organisation is trying to attract the spanish community, I mean heavens, they hired a  Latin manager, brought in Reyes, kicked the tires on Cuban defectee Cespedes, and even signed that blob Zambrano.  Can anyone think of a worse environment.

Oh and they just opened a new swanky new ballpark, hoping the turnstiles would be bustly with activity.

I won't grace this blog with Guillen's likeness, nor a photo of Fidel, but ardently wish that the Marlins hire a guy to follow him around and at the slightest hint, stick a muzzle on him, or sedate him heavily.

A good first week of the season has been overshadowed by these comments, and also I had the over-under on 3 weeks before he'd get into hot water, so well done Ozzie.

Put a sock in it !

Opening Day

Life begins on Opening Day,. all teams have identical records, and hope springs eternal, and all that crap.

Life is not fair, teams are imbalanced, and the Pirates are hereby eliminated from post season because they choose to pocket there share of the pot, while not adding needed support players.

Well there it is, the Yankees will continue to win divisions, the rich will continue to increase their odds bolstered by their bank account, the big spenders win more than they El Cheapos, and teams that cannot decide make up the soft mushy middle ground.

The Rays eventually with success lessen the impact draftees, they will move stars before they command major salaries, and they will begin their slow slide back to reality.

Money makes good team great, great teams winners, and the poor well, they wait for transfer payments, and quite frankly the poor teams are not that poor, they just do not have motivation to spend more than they do.

But here we are 59 minutes from the Jays opener hoping our team has enough good fortune, and dough to compete against the spenders.

I am prediciting 87 wins, and a close shot at a wild card.

No matter how I see things, hope exists on Opening Day, and we should all be excited, I know Luke and Mike cannot stand the suspense, to the point of being annoying. Well that's Luke for you.

Oh, that is Mike there in the front in the striped shirt, Luke is yelling something, and poor Brad is stuck at ther back, saying "I just wanna see".


Me, I am watching on the couch with a cold one, and will be all long weekend.

Enjoy responsibly folks.