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| Monday, August 12 Baker's Dozen: The week in preview By Jim Baker ESPN Insider |
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1: Best Matchup of the Week Have you ever stopped to consider that one of the reasons unions have lost their prestige in the United States is because the most visible union is that of the major-league players? The percentage of people who belong to unions continually gets smaller and the population at large, when asked for their take on the concept, usually says something along the lines of, "They had a definite purpose at one time but have gone too far now." I believe some of that attitude can be traced to the antics of baseball players, men who are threatening to quit work once again in spite of average salaries the size of public school bond issues. It is very hard to make a direct connection between these men and those who were attacked by strike-busting management goons hired by the Ford Motor Company in the famous "Battle of the Overpass" on May 26, 1937. That pivotal event in American union history is so far removed from the petty squabbles of the men who play and run the highest levels of our national game that they almost cannot be classified as being part of the same timeline. If this were a live-action show instead of an internet column, what would follow next is a parody rendition of "Joe Hill," the old union song, rendered by ballplayers found in hot tubs, limousines, home entertainment centers and other luxury surroundings. Naturally, they would be flashing lots of gold and looking righteously indignant. Picture it and be amused ... or disgusted.
2: The Haves Versus the Haves Who Do More With It Matchup
of the Week So, Donald Fehr is no Walter Reuther. Conversely, the captains of the baseball industry don't make us recall any great names in American business either. I found this on the Texas Rangers page at ESPN.com: "Owner Tom Hicks says that if players strike, owners might retreat from compromise and push for baseball to have a salary cap. 'I think a majority of owners, including me, would probably like to have even stronger cost-containment than we're talking about right now,' Hicks was quoted as saying in the Aug. 17 editions of The Dallas Morning News. 'If they do choose to go on strike, I'm confident ownership will not allow a repeat of 1994. We need to fix baseball and not just have another Band-Aid solution.' Hicks, speaking from his yacht off San Diego, called the setting of the Aug. 30 strike date Friday 'a maneuver for the benefit of public relations and not substance.'" OK. Two things: First, here's a tip for anybody who owns a company and wants to talk about cutting or limiting employee earnings: do not make such pronouncements while aboard personal luxury sea craft. I cannot emphasize this enough. It really undercuts the message that expenses must be curbed. Secondly, if there was a salary cap, you can bet that Tom Hicks would cheat on it. Salary caps act pretty much like drinking age limitations. A law that limits drinking to those 21 and older probably isn't too effective at keeping 20-year-olds from drinking, but it does a good job of keeping 16- and 17-year-olds from buying liquor -- unlike when the threshold was 18. A $75 million salary cap wouldn't keep Hicks from spending $90 million, but it would keep him from spending $110 or $120 million. The other owner in this series, George Steinbrenner, has said he is sick of propping up failing franchises. Those who defend his rationale use the argument that Microsoft doesn't subsidize Apple and General Motors wouldn't prop up Chrysler -- but those analogies fail. Baseball teams need one another or they, simply put, don't have a schedule to play. Unless Steinbrenner wants to have a schedule consisting of games against Seton Hall University and some baseball equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters' favorite patsy, the Washington Generals, he had best keep that in mind.
3: The Biggest Mismatchup of the Week For whom should the Most Valuable Player be reserved: The player having the best season in the league? The player who provides the largest percentage of his team's attack? The player having the best season for a team in contention? This is a long and arduous debate, the answer to which should be codified at some point. Personally, I've always leaned toward the first choice. When we look back at history, the subtleties of selections like Willie Stargell, Dick Groat and Terry Pendleton become obscured with the passage of time. I'd like to know who tore it up more than anyone else while holding down their fair share of defense. To this end, it would make sense that Alex Rodriguez would be my choice. Playing devils' advocate to myself, however, let's look at this list of the top 15 American League leaders in OPS. However, let's rearrange them based on how they do in that category while on the road. The second number is the difference by which that number differs from their home figure in the same category:
Magglio Ordonez 1.020 (+84) Olerud, Soriano and Ordonez are getting killed at home while Thome, A-Rod, Palmeiro and Hunter are thriving in their places of business. I still say it's hard for me to believe a shortstop who wins two-thirds of the Triple Crown is not the MVP, but Rodriguez is getting a serious boost playing at the Ballpark at Arlington. And what of John Olerud: how will history remember him? He's not going to get to the Hall of Fame, but he's definitely in that second tier that sits just outside the door, lacking one or two things required for admission. Speed has never been a part of his game, but he has only slugged over .500 twice in his career. That's not enough for a first baseman in a hitter's era. Everything else about his game is Cooperstown caliber.
4: The Biggest National League Mismatchup of the Week Much is being made of the Padres having used 32 pitchers. By way of contrast, the Pirates used that many in a five-season span from 1901-05. It should not come as any surprise that a team has sent that many hurlers to the mound. When you throw injuries and ineffectiveness into the existing mix of starters going five or six innings, specialty relievers, closers and rosters comprised nearly 50 percent moundsmen, then it is likely that 32 pitchers in a season will become less than uncommon. And no, you shouldn't feel guilty that you've never heard of Ben Howard, Eric Cyr, J.J. Trujillo and Kevin Pickford. Join the club. And while we're on the subject of too many damn pitchers, will somebody please cool the ardor over the save totals of John Smoltz? People act like the Braves would have lost all 43 games that he has saved, which is preposterous. Atlanta would be just about where they are with or without Smoltz -- running away with the division and girding their loins for the postseason. If owners want to cut costs in baseball, here's one place they can start: getting rid of the closer concept. Leads were protected in late innings before they came along and they'll be protected after they're gone. If they feel they have to have a go-to guy in the bullpen, then make him more of a fireman who comes in when the furs flying, regardless of the inning or the potential for a save.
5: The Mystery Matchup of the Week Team A: Took its name from baseball's antiquity and hasn't hosted an All-Star Game in a sea turtle's age Team B: Its per-game attendance has gone down for the sixth straight year in 2002. Its town was once a minor-league affiliate of the Yankees. Last week's matchup: Baltimore vs. Minnesota. The Twins were swept twice by the O's in 1969-70 in the first two ALCS ever. Their 1987 World Championship team won the whole thing on the strength of an 85-win season, lowest total ever for a champion in a season not shortened by a strike or a war. The Orioles were over .500 from 1968 to 1985. They are the third major-league team to be called the Orioles of Baltimore. The current rendition came over from St. Louis in 1955. The previous incarnation was around for two years (1901-02) before moving to New York and becoming the franchise we now know as the Yankees. The first manifestation was born in 1882 and survived a jump to the National League from the American Association but not the contraction fever that swept the league in 1900.
6: The You'll Be Back Matchup of the Week One of the reasons players and owners don't really worry about work stoppages is they don't believe you when you say you're going to give up on the game. You may even be serious when you say it and you might really mean it at the moment. But the trouble is, when the games does return, your firm resolve will melt away and you'll be drawn back in. I'm not blaming you. Baseball is a wonderful game and it is at its most wonderful at the major league level. By illustration, consider this: 1971 marked the end of an era. Do you know what era that was? That's right -- the Strike-Free Era. Since 1972 there's been a work stoppage of one sort or another every three or four years on average. The team that drew the most in 1971 was the New York Mets. Their total attendance that year would place them just fifth in 2002. The second-best 1971 team, the Dodgers, would be 10th overall. Here's the kicker to that, however: their placement among those 2002 attendances aren't projected, they're through Saturday. If the 2002 attendances were prorated for a full season, the 1971 Mets would topple to 17th place. Even the modern-day Expos, filling their stadium at just a 22 percent clip, have already outdrawn the '71 Padres and Indians. (On an unrelated note, one thing about the 1971 attendances: you can kind of see why the American League hit the panic button and came up with the designated hitter because it must have guessed it had to do something to boost the gate. The Padres were the sole NL team under a million while only four AL teams finished over a million.)
7: The This Time He Brought a Friend Matchup of the Week So named because the Reds have to face the Diamondbacks, who swept Cincinnati last week but this time around they'll have to face both Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. This could be a bad week for Cincinnati, already trailing St. Louis by 5.5 games, because ...
8: The Not These Guys Again Matchup of the Week So named because the Cardinals went into PNC Park last week and ate the Pirates for lunch, brunch, breakfast, dinner, supper, high tea and in-between meal snacks, outscoring them 37-19 in the process. This could be the week the Cardinals really put the spurs to it and kiss the Reds goodbye for good. More fortune smiles upon St. Louis at the end of the week when Houston and Cincinnati get into an intra-division scrap while they are hosting the Phillies. A 5-2 (or better) week would go a long way toward establishing the beginning of the end of the Central Division race. Or has that phase already passed? As an aside, is talking like this some form of deep denial? Should we all remain calm and act as though we are not all riding in a Winnebago with no brakes that is headed for a washed out bridge that used to span a 500-foot chasm?
9: The Give Us A Boost, Willya? Matchup of the Week If it is indeed folly to talk of such matters, then here is more folly: Oakland is two games down on the division lead, and one game back from the Wild Card (I capitalize it to show how enamored I am with the concept). While Anaheim dukes it out with Boston (respectively, first and third in the Wild-Card race -- I capitalize it out of my undying respect for the practice) the A's are free to try to get over on hapless Detroit. The trouble is, Seattle beats them into town for four games. Eighty-five to 90 years ago, the A's and Tigers would have come to some sort of agreement (a case of new, collar-less shirts for dropping two games, the collars thrown in for allowing a sweep). Nowadays, players can afford their own shirts and don't have to let better teams have their way with them. The A's bats are capable of going strangely silent on the road and Comerica Park is just the sort of place that kind of thing can occur. Oakland is 12th out of 14 American League teams in road runs scored per game, while the Tigers have a somewhat respectable 4.00 ERA at home. Once again, though, is this stuff worth talking about? Are we rearranging deck chairs on the Mayflower? Wait -- they didn't have deck chairs on the Mayflower. And the Mayflower didn't sink, did it? Well, you know what I'm trying to say. If so, there's this:
"Love not Requited"
Once I had a true love
But my love was fickle
And me? I'd be so joyful
Then, at last, there came a day
10: The Alternate Universe Matchup of the Week In another universe, where money grows on trees and the streams run with delicious milk shakes and nobody worries about drinking from them because there is no diabetes, Darryl Strawberry would be closing out his Hall of Fame career as the Mets' part-time right fielder this season. He would have 500 home runs well in hand and, having stayed healthy and focused during the big-power '90s, he may well have been the fourth man to pass 600, not this week's opponent, Barry Bonds. Back here on planet Earth, however, it has all gone horribly awry as has been documented in one sensational headline after another over the last decade. According to a report in the Associated Press, Strawberry is in remission from his colon cancer and wants to return to baseball in a coaching capacity. While Strawberry had some incredible skills as a player, a lot of them are things one can't teach -- like bat speed. You either have bat speed like his or you don't. No, the best place for Strawberry is in some sort of classroom setting in a baseball academy, teaching rooms full of young hopefuls some of the finer points of being a big-league ballplayer via the following courses: Talent and How to Waste It The Art of Negotiating With Hookers Cocaine: Rock versus Powder Debate Undercover Cops Posing as Hookers = Entrapment! Five Ways to Show Your Wife You Love Her Second Chances and How to Milk Them The Art of Writing the Hypocritical Autobiography
11: The One-Two Punch Matchup of the Week As there was with Randy Johnson & Curt Schilling in 2001 (Schilling & Johnson, then flick the Ronson) there are similar "Spahn/Sain/Pray for Rain" poems floating around about Boston's heavy dependence on two aces this year. Martinez & Lowe/then pray for snow is the most common one I've heard. There are others that aren't as family friendly. If just one of the Red Sox' other starters could step up and go on a hot streak, the rhymes could be changed to these:
Martinez, Lowe & Burkett
Martinez, Lowe & Knuckles
Martinez, Lowe & Fossum
12: The Why I Don't Bet on Baseball Matchup of the Week Last week I wondered how many runs the Rockies would score in their three games in Atlanta Friday through Sunday. What led me to ponder this was the fact that they were scoring the fewest road runs in the league and Atlanta was allowing the fewest at home. In their previous four road series they had scored seven runs in Arizona, 11 in Milwaukee, 10 in Pittsburgh and seven in Chicago. So, naturally, I assumed they wouldn't fare well against the Braves' pitching staff. They stayed true to road form in Florida, scoring six in their three games there before coming to Atlanta where they unloaded for 16 runs in back-to-back games, including a right good roistering around of Greg Maddux. Let this be a lesson to all of us: the only thing we know for certain is that we don't know anything for certain.
13: The Worst Matchup of the Week
Check out ESPN Insider Jim Baker's 'Baker's Dozen' column appears on Mondays during the baseball season. He also writes Monday through Friday for ESPN Insider. He can be reached at jimbakerespn@yahoo.com. |
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about a certain one-man offense.
