I’m tired of this story, but at this point I don’t know how the sports media can stop talking about this. The revelations keep coming out in little dribs and drabs, which is unfortunate. Listen to some of the things that Gammons says might be coming out soon. As he said, it’s not going to stop.

I wish there was a way to get all 103 names out for the players that failed tests alongside Alex Rodriguez in that first, “anonymous” test. Right now, this story is turning into a morality play about Rodriguez even though he’s not the only guy that did this stuff.

It’s also unfortunate if it turns out that ARod lied about substantial things in his confession. Some of the issues, like whether the drug in question is legal in the DR, don’t seem that significant (if it’s in a pharmacy, it’s “legal” even if it isn’t legal). However, if he was using longer, or was involved with the trainer that was banned from the sport, that seems like a substantial omission to me.

So, I just noticed it is possible that Arizona (or the Dodgers) could make the playoffs, but have the 8th best record in the National League (behind the Mets, Philly, Florida, Cubs, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Houston). Right now, Arizona has a “one-game” lead over Houston and is tied with Florida, but it seems possible that by the end of the season Arizona could end up ranked 8 out of 16 out of all National League teams and win the West!!

I’ve found the perfect baby shower present. I’m trying to decide if pairing it with this would be too obnoxious. Just need to be careful and make sure the baby doesn’t grow up to be a construction worker.

I want to watch the Phillies game, but don’t want to spend $200+ on DirectTV’s MLB package or $120 on MLB.tv’s package. So, it’s MLB.com’s radio player instead. Not quite the same as being able to watch any game, any time at my desk.

Especially since he is now backing the Red Sox!

Another World Series appearance for the Sox… Boston is living the high life right now in sports. I’d be happier if they were facing the Phillies, but I’ll take what I can get.

I feel obligated to point out that the Red Sox look to be smarter than the Yankees front office at this point. Over the past 5 years or so (the Theo Epstein era), the Red Sox have managed to spend much smarter than the Yankees. Looking back at the different teams, Boston put their money on mid-reputation players with upside and focused their big money on pitching. The Yankees, on the other hand, have paid for a LOT of expensive bats and thrown together pitching almost haphazardly. Injuries have been a big part of the picture, too, but it’s hard to say that Brian Cashman (and Steinbrenner, however much he participates in personnel decisions ) have really shown good baseball sense since their last World Series championship in 2000.

And really, if not for Grady Little, the Yankees probably don’t make the Series in 2003, either. It’s a pretty amazing run the Yankees have had, but this year they lost the division, lost in the first round, and lost their best hope for future success, Joe Torre. I thought maybe it was time for him to move on, but looking back, he’s clearly not the problem. They don’t have the arms to compete. Torre is just a convenient fall guy…

ESPN’s piece on Phil Rizzuto’s career. The Yankees still suck, but Scooter was a class act by all accounts. Sad to see a baseball legend pass away.

At $18M per, he’s way overpriced. I like Barry Zito, but here are his stats for 2003-2006:

YEAR    G    IP     W   L   ERA   K/9
2003    35  231.2   14  12  3.30  5.67
2004    34  213.0   11  11  4.48  6.89
2005    35  228.1   14  13  3.86  6.74
2006    34  221.0   16  10  3.83  6.15

Yes, he has good numbers, but those numbers make him about 20th or so for K/9 and 10th for ERA. He’s a decent top tier pitcher, but this contract makes him the owner of the largest contract for a pitcher, ever. If he’s worth this, and he basically has had some awful postseason games, I don’t know what this does for Johan Santana and the hot youngsters when they come up to their free agent years. Alex Rodriguez may get a big weight taken off his shoulders soon, I think…

Did you know Bill Buckner was wearing a Cubs batting glove under his mitt? Apparently, neither did anyone else. Nice find, Sean.

mighty A-Rod has struck out.

Go Tigers!

I finally saw a Phillies game in their new park on Saturday. Not only that, but it was a big game. The Phillies were playing the Reds who happen to be the team holding on to the NL Wild Card. The Phillies were only two games back, so winning Saturday and Sunday would’ve brought them to a tie for the Wild Card. Unfortunately, the Phils lost after Tom Gordon gave up three runs late and a 9th inning rally fizzled with Howard at the plate.

The park is beautiful and our seats were pretty good. Here’s the view from our seats in left (click the picture for a larger version):

The park has good food, though we didn’t sample any of it. My favorite was the Peace A Pizza located in center:

Another first that night, Heidi actually scored (most of) the ballgame:

I was surprised when she asked for the scorecard, but she did a good job. Although, she seemed really fixated on knowing all the players’ first names.

I love sports. Black, white, Asian or whatever, all of us can be fans and all of us can root for our team. Sports goes beyond language and beyond culture. Only through sport could I understand how a Ghanian, a Frenchman, and an Brazilian all feel. Victory, defeat, frustration at those pesky officials, sport is universal.

This week’s P.O.V. showed how sport can also allow you to explore culture and uniqueness. Kokoyakyu shows the intense world of high school baseball in Japan, where over 4200 teams vie for 49 spots at Koshien. Through baseball, we see the traditions of an entire culture as we follow two teams, a public high school and a vaunted private academy as they try to get to Koshien.

P.O.V. usually only airs shortened versions of documentaries and this is one that I’m looking forward to watching all of. I wish American baseball games were like this. It resembles a raucous high school football game more than anything else.

You can watch the trailer at the link to the movie above. PBS has a ton of great resources and extras at the P.O.V. site for Kokoyakyu, and, as always, Wikipedia is a great place to start.

I knew this was possible, but I've never, ever seen it. Until now, that is:

That's a legit play. And, it was the game winning run. Amazing.

One thing I try to do whenever I travel is visit a baseball game in town if the city has an MLB team. I don’t have time on all of my trips, but if I do I try to make it over. While in Seattle, I did make a Mariners game, my first at Safeco field. While there, I tried to come up with the list of all the parks I’ve been to. Here it is:

Retired stadiums:

• Veterans Stadium – Philadelphia
• Fulton County Stadium – Atlanta

Been in, but didn’t see a game:

• Skydome – Toronto (may have seen a game, can’t remember)
• Olympic Stadium – Montreal

Current Stadiums:

• Camden Yards – Baltimore
• Fenway Park – Boston
• SBC Park – San Francisco
• Edison Field – Anaheim
• Yankee Stadium – New York
• Safeco Field – Seattle

That’s my list. I hope to add the new Phillies stadium very soon.

Feel free to post your list in the comments or leave a trackback if you blog it.

It’s a little known fact that companies like ESPN.com, Yahoo.com, and Sportsline.com have to pay royalties to the various players association and/or the leagues in order to run their fantasy games for the public. The cost is often significant, amounting to significant portions of a game’s gross revenue. You can tell games that pay the fee because they’ll have the players association logos plus the league logos on some or all of the pages for the game.At ESPN.com, for example, you’ll find the NFLPA logo at the bottom of our fantasy football pages (example).

Anyway, apparently a company out there is taking one of the leagues to court to argue against the fees as they’re set up now. The company is taking MLB, which bought the exclusive rights to distribute player statistics from the MLBPA, to court to argue that the statistics, once the game is over, are historical fact and therefore shouldn’t require a license. It’s going to be an interesting case that will have some interesting repercussions regardless of who wins.

The leagues exercise pretty significant control over anything they can to make money. The trend over the last few years has been to partner exclusively with a partner to get the big check from one source. You can see it with the deals the NFL made with EA and MLB made with Take2. It hasn’t happened in the fantasy sports world yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone hasn’t thought of that idea.

David Pinto at Baseball Musings has it right, I think when he argues that MLB and the leagues are making a mistake if they limit the number of licenses. Fantasy sports are a feeder into other merchandising and ticket sales. I own one more jersey than I would’ve and I watch WAY more football and baseball than I otherwise would’ve if I didn’t play fantasy sports. We’ll see how it pans out, I guess.

(Usual disclaimer: I speak for myself here and not for ESPN.com or ESPN or Disney.)

Gary Sheffield came out today against participating in the World Baseball Classic because he doesn’t want to take a chance on an injury during an offseason exhibition game.

He might have a point, but the guy is so combative that it’s hard to feel any sort of sympathy for him. It’s like reading articles defending how Barry Bonds is really a nice guy deep down inside his otherwise childlike and troubled soul. Whatever. He’s still on my all-pity team, the guys that look at themselves as martyrs or victims of some media or league or fan conspiracy. Inaugural members of this group across all sports include: Gary Sheffield, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Carl Everett, Terrell Owens, Allen Iverson, Karl Malone, and Alexei Yashin (had to throw in a hockey guy). Can’t forget John McEnroe or Ted Williams.

I’m putting the following players on the honorable mention list. They either weren’t “woe is me” enough or perhaps have a few more years of martyrdom to go before they qualify. Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez (if his teams never win the big one), Randy Moss, Ron Artest, Vince Carter, Mike Tyson, Warren Sapp, Dominic Hasek make that list.

Can you guys think of any others?

I think to make the All-Pity team, you have to not only have a career of constant defensiveness with the media or fans or the league but also a marquee incident. Think, “Practice? Practice?!” or perhaps Bonds’ whining that the press is trying to make him retire. Folks that can’t meet that high standard end up on the honorable mention list. Any professional sport is fair game, from football to figure skating.

Curious to see who I’ve missed.

Yankees team ERA as of this morning: 4.25.

Wait till the official stats come in tomorrow.

(Here’s what I’m hinting at)

Update: So, I did the math right after I wrote the post but had to run right after that. Anyway, the Yankees team ERA only goes up .25 or so to around 4.50 or so, I think. It definitely doesn’t go over 5. The bullpen ERA will probably go up significantly, but I haven’t run the numbers for that. Just goes to show how little one game means even this early in the season. The 17 earned runs goes into a pool of 200 or so runs over 430+ innings. It’s a significant number, but doesn’t really show up as much of anything.

1.) Even after the off-season, Tim McCarver still sucks as an announcer.

2.) Fox has improved their camera and on-screen imagery. I like the dual image of seeing live-time, who is on first (and what they’re doing) and the pitcher. Good job, guys! (now dump McCarver)

You must check out this new blog I found called Surviving Grady. Think Bill Simmons before he was BILL SIMMONS. Among my favorites are this post on identifying Red Sox beards. My favorite line so far:

This afternoon, we get Clement vs. Zito. And you wanna know just how good Clement is? Dude’s on the five dollar bill.

So far, this has been a pretty good Red Sox blog. (by the way, the site is new to me, not new as in just started… just FYI)

What the heck is up with the Yankees. Unless they can string together 7 runs in the next 2 innings, they’re going to lose again. I can’t believe that they have a losing record. I know it’s early, but wow, this is an unexpected start.

Team ERA: 5.01, 26th and that’s before today’s 8 runs. Team WHIP is a lovely 1.57 (29th – only team worse is Colorado). What’s gotta be even more frustrating is that they’re #1 for team OBP and 4th for team OPS. Absolutely amazing how important pitching is to a team.

Then again, Chan Ho Park just shut them down today…

I almost can’t believe I’m saying this, but all these Yankee/Red Sox games so early in the season are a complete waste of good baseball. I just can’t seem to consider it special so early in the season. It doesn’t matter yet because there’s still 150 games left to play. Especially after last year and the absolutely humiliating comeback that Boston had, it’s hard to get really excited about these games.

I still get excited if it’s actually a good baseball game, but that’s really about it. Right now, for example, I’m flipping between the Sox game, the Sixers game (Go Sixers!), and King of the Hill. That’s how excited I am about the Sox game.

What’s funny is that I bet they did this to give the April games some more “meaning” for the fans. It’s had the opposite effect, I think, for most fans. Granted, I still know folks at work who are making the trip out to Boston for tonight’s game, but I don’t think it has the urgency it usually has when the standings matter.

Nationals. In. First. Place.

Now, I know people are going to argue that this is a good team, and correct me if I’m wrong, but this is largely the same team that used to be called the Expos, right?

Oh, and in case any one cared, Detroit is holding the line (improbably) in last place. Go Tigers! Oh, wait…

Whenever they add more rows to Fenway to try and boost capacity, most of us think it’s a good thing. I never thought about what happens to season ticket holders when their front row seat suddenly becomes just another row, though. I can’t think of how the Dodgers could’ve done this better, honestly. To grandfather this guy in would’ve meant allowing everyone else to move into the new section, too. The real question, though, is whether the people that actually paid the $30,000 per seat are going to come to the game or whether those seats are going to be sold to ticket brokers or power brokers who probably won’t come themselves to the game. That’s kind of sad, but again, I don’t know what’s wrong with it.

(found via fark.com)