Seams to Me

Some Pirate thoughts

2009-09-03T17:15:00.002-04:00

Ryan Doumit's temper tantrum last week is inexcusable for a team that is in a rebuilding mode. Depending on what you believe, Doumit is unhappy because he either misses his friends, who were traded away in the latest organizational shakeup, or is frustrated from a miserable season. A wrist injury is the culprit for his poor numbers. Doumit was supposed to be one of the leaders on the team. It's looking more like he'll be one of the traded commodities in the rebuilding, especially if he has a strong September.

Speaking of which, I got into a discussion with one of my friends about whether a strong September really means anything. He believes it does; I believes it doesn't matter at all. Suppose the Pirates win their last 10 games of the season, then go on a nearly five-month break before spring training begins. How does that carry over? I don't think it does. Winning the last 10 games of September means that you had a nice winning streak at the end of the season. Period.

The more I watch Charlie Morton pitch, the more I wonder whether he will contribute to the Pirates next season. He just isn't very effective right now. Maybe playing winter ball might help.

If you were looking for some positives about the organizations this year, then consider this: The Pirates now have players in their minor league system who could replace someone who falters with the big league. If, for example, Andy LaRoche falters at third base, Pedro Alvarez or Neil Walker could take his place. In the outfield, Jose Tabata is an option. That, at least, is a sign of improvement.

Strasburg signs, now the disappointment comes

2009-08-18T09:37:00.002-04:00

The Washington Nationals signed ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg to a $15.1 million deal at the draft deadline Monday. Now, they have to keep their fingers crossed. He is almost sure to disappoint, that is, if history keeps pace.

Thomas Boswell points out in his column:

Since 1965, when the draft began, only one pitcher taken in the top 18 spots in the first round has ever won 200 or more games (Kevin Brown). All-time greats? There's not one out of more than 300 such selections. Based on the history of high picks, Strasburg should be viewed as having a good chance to become a very good pitcher. But not more. No pitcher taken in the first four overall picks has ever won a Cy Young Award or made more than two all-star teams. Worst of all, major health concerns, such as the elbow surgery that top Nats prospect Jordan Zimmermann now needs, demonstrate the fragility of pitchers,

Mark Prior's name came up during the negotiations but that was a mistake. Prior was a bust, ravaged up by injuries. It was a waste of the $10.5 million deal he signed in 2001.

Today, Washington players and fans can celebrate the Strasburg signing. The organization has a pitcher who might be something special. History says no, but one can always hope.

BTW, the threats of Strasburg not signing and sitting out the season were bogus. When Washington announced an offer past Prior's $10.5 million, Strasburg had to sign. Had he turned down the offer, it would have been one of the most stupid economic decisions in the history of America.

Why?

Because he had nowhere else to go. Forget the Independent leagues, forget Japan. Strasburg would have lost millions and would have awoken every day knowing an injury would make that money go away.

Also, Washington couldn't take Strasburg next year, unless he agreed to be drafted the Nats. So either Kansas City, Pittsburgh or San Diego would have probably drafted him. The Lerner family, which owns the Nats, is one of baseball's wealthiest and can afford to gamble on this deal. The other teams could not.

Whatever team drafted Strasburg next year would have a huge negotiating advantage. He could sit out a second season but now he would possibly be losing money - tens of millions - when he hit free agency in his early 30s instead of late 20s. He would have had no other option, except accepting the deal.

When it goes wrong

2009-08-16T14:28:00.002-04:00

Here is the link to a great story about a pitching prospect who made the wrong choices in negotiations.

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/05/12/the-curious-case-of-matt-harrington

The price you pay

2009-08-15T11:04:00.003-04:00

The Chicago Cubs handed the Pirates one of the worst losses in franchise history Friday, 17-2. It was 14-0 after two innings and the Pirates played like an amateur team. Starting pitcher Charlie Morton could not have been worse, unless he threw underhanded. The offense stunk again.

Welcome to the post-trade Pirates.

The big question is how many of you can take the rebuilding process if there are more games like this one? You see, that is the problem with rebuilding. Even if you agree with the way Neal Huntington traded away major league talent for future victories, the price you pay are games like the one with the Cubs.

Other rebuilding plans went awry because the pressure to get a win, any win, was so great that the plans were scrapped before they had time to flourish. General managers, fearing for their jobs, dove into the free-agent market, overpaying for players they hoped would add to the win total.

It didn't work.

So this is what you have to put up with in a rebuilding era, games such as this. Whether Huntington has the guts to stay with it for another two or three years will determine whether the Pirates actually have a chance to be competitive.

Thoughts on the Pirates

2009-08-07T11:40:00.004-04:00

Watched a feature on Pirates top prospect Pedro Alvarez (left) and was surprised to see that he appears to have gained some weight. He has a pear-shaped body and a large backside. While the extra weight has not seemed to bother Alvarez's hitting or fielding, the Pirates should get him on a weight plan this winter.

The Pirates should be concerned that Kevin Hart did not meet with the media following his Pittsburgh debut. According to the John Perrotto of Piratesreport.com, Hart avoided talking to the press after the game. So what, you say? So this. The Pirates are at the bottom of the league in attendance and as football season intensifies, the crowds will shrink. The Pirates need all the exposure they can get with these new players and Hart not talking to the media makes fans upset and makes Hart look like he has an attitude problem.

This season is shaping as an important one for manager John Russell. The Pirates could lose 100 games this season, the locker room is filled with inexperienced players and most might not be sure exactly how to conduct themselves on and off the field. I won't judge Russell on wins and losses. I will judge him on how the Pirates respond to his coaching and how hard they play. It's the only legitimate way to evaluate Russell.

The Pirates' bullpen is aweful. One of the ways this team can improve next season is to rebuild the bullpen, most likely through free agency because the minors don't appear to have anyone ready to make the next step.

Giving up the ghost

2009-07-30T08:25:00.002-04:00

Steelers open camp Friday.
That is good news for the Pirates organization, which hoisted the white flag on the season Wednesday by trading away shortstop Jack Wilson and second baseman Freddy Sanchez. The purge is probably complete as eight starters (not including pitchers) from the opening day lineup are gone.
These last moves assured a 17th consecutive losing season, the longest for any North American professional sports organization in history.
Well, at lest the Pirates are No. 1 in something.
The trades have left the Pirates in shambles. It is an awful team, maybe even worse the the Washington Nationals. I didn't think that was possible. It's difficult to lose 100 games in a major league season but the Pirates now have the pieces in place to do so.
Maybe you can defend these moves as a way to build a winner, except the Pirates are incredibly inept at developing talent. Quick, name one player this organization has drafted and developed into a star, or even a top-notch major leaguer.
Can't do it, can you?
So it's easy to see why Pirates fans have little or no faith in this organization's ability to build a quality team. It's a reputation that has been earned.
Just look at pitcher Ian Snell, a 20th-round selection who appeared to be the exception to this organization's dismal ability to handle players. He is in Seattle now, dumped there after a tumultuous year.
Why should Pittsburgh fans believe it will be any different with the players the Pirates received in return for this summer selloff?
Last season's trades of Jason Bay and Xavier Nady brought new faces, but none of them shows star potential. And some, such as outfielder Brandon Moss, are apalling inept. Even the success stories from those deals - pitchers Ross Ohlendorf and Charlie Morton, and third baseman Andy LaRoche - are no more than above-average players.
The Pirates have insured a losing season for this and most likely the next three seasons. Their payroll, post trades, is just above $30 million so there is money available for free agent signings.
But who would want to play here?
The remainder of this season will be depressingly similary to next, and maybe the next, a continual string of losing that might be stopped if the organization can develop talent.
General manager Neal Huntington is gambling his job that these moves will turn the team around. If he is right, then he will be considered a hero in the eyes of long-suffering fans.
If he fails, then the next five-year plan will go into place with a new general manager. It's the Pirates' way.

Sanchez traded to Giants

2009-07-29T19:57:00.001-04:00

SAN FRANCISCO - The Giants announce they have acquired second baseman Freddy Sanchez from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Minor League pitcher Tim Alderson.

For Sanchez, joining the Giants was a matter of walking from one clubhouse to the other. San Francisco completed a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh with a 1-0 victory Wednesday.

Sanchez, a three-time All-Star and the National League's 2006 batting champion, didn't play in the series due to a sore left knee. That reportedly threatened to scuttle the deal, but Giants management obviously decided to go ahead with the move.

The Giants parted with right-hander Tim Alderson, one of their top pitching prospects, in the deal.

Alderson, 20, has compiled a 6-1 record with 3.47 ERA in 13 starts for Double-A Connecticut this season. In 72 2/3 innings, he has allowed 76 runs while walking 14 and striking out 46.

Wilson, Snell traded to Mariners

2009-07-29T17:52:00.002-04:00

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners acquired shortstop Jack Wilson (above) and pitcher Ian Snell from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday for shortstop Ronny Cedeno, Triple-A catcher Jeff Clement and three minor league pitchers.

The 31-year-old Wilson, an All-Star in 2004, becomes Seattle's third everyday shortstop this season.

"This was an opportunity for us to acquire a veteran shortstop, a former All-Star player, with leadership qualities and above-average defensive skills," Mariners general manager Jack Zdurienick said. "As we move forward over the next few years it is nice to know that we have solidified the shortstop position."

The Mariners also think Snell can restart his stalled career. The 27-year-old Snell had a 0.96 ERA in six starts with Triple-A Indianapolis, after starting the season 2-8 with a 5.36 ERA in 15 starts for Pittsburgh.

Zdurienick called Snell "a talented pitcher with major league experience who now has an opportunity restart his career after a very successful reassignment in Indianapolis."

Seattle had acquired Cedeno in the offseason from the Chicago Cubs. He struggled after the Mariners gave him their shortstop job this month by trading Yuniesky Betancourt to Kansas City. Cedeno is hitless in his last 26 at bats and is batting .167 in 59 games. The 26-year-old's contract ends after this season.

In Clement, the Pirates are getting the third overall draft pick in 2005 who has shown impressive power but has been unable to catch consistently. He has played first base while being primary a DH at Triple A. Clement, who turns 26 next month, batted .237 with seven home runs in 75 games for Seattle in 2007 and '08. He was batting .288 with 14 home runs and 68 RBIs in 92 games for Tacoma this season.

The Pirates also get minor league right-handed pitchers Nathan Adcock, Brett Lorin and Aaron Pribanic.

Strasburg a Pirate? Might happen

2009-07-26T12:39:00.004-04:00

Pirates fans know how difficult it can be watching an organization deal with Scott Boras. The Pedro Alvarez signing was proof of that. But Boras' antics just might allow the Pirates to draft Stephen Strasburg in next year's draft. Here's how it could happen.

1. Washington, which made the right-handed power pitcher with a 100 mph fastball the No. 1 pick in the draft, must sign Strasburg by the Aug. 17 deadline. With Boras as his agen, er, advisor, that's not a sure thing. Boras was asking for a $50 million deal and reports have it down to $20 million.

2. If Washington does not sign Strasburg, he goes back into the draft. Here's the catch with that. Even though Washington has the worst record in baseball and is probably a lock for the No. 1 pick in 2010, Strasburg would have to agree to be redrafted by Washington. Can't see that happening if he doesn't sign by Aug. 17.

3. The next worst record would draft after Washington in 2010. Heading into Sunday's games, here is the order.

San Diego 38-59, .392
Kansas City 38-58 .396
Cleveland 40-58 .408
Arizona 41-56 .423
Baltimore 41-55 .427
Oakland 41-55 .427
Pittsburgh 43-53 .448

So Pittsburgh is 5 1/2 games off the pace. By Aug. 18, the league will know whether Strasburg will be available. Then, it's a game of what team can lose the most, and the Pirates are pretty good at that.

La Roche deal a good one

2009-07-23T18:07:00.003-04:00

The trading of first baseman Adam La Roche was a good one for the Pirates, even if the minor league prospects don't pan out. Getting rid of La Roche's $7 million contract, or at least what was left this year, is worth it. La Roche came to Pittsburgh with the hope that he would be the power hitter who could carry the offense.

But he couldn't live up to those expectations. La Roche was a decent first baseman, not a $7 million a year player but a so-so power guy with a good glove. He went into maddening slumps to start each season in Pgh., and he never really took advantage of the short right-field wall at PNC Park. He should have been what Garrett Jones is now, a feared power threat in the lineup. Most of La Roche's home runs came when they mattered least, mainly late in the season when the Pirates were long out of the race.

He wasn't the type of player the Pirates need now, even in a power-starved lineup. And if the savings on his salary helps sign Jack Wilson, then it's a plus.

LaRoche traded

2009-07-22T18:05:00.000-04:00

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Boston Red Sox added one of the Pirates' middle-of-the-order hitters for the second time in as many seasons, acquiring first baseman Adam LaRoche on Wednesday for two midlevel prospects.

The trade, possibly the first of several involving the last-place Pirates before the July 31 deadline for trading without waivers, follows up last July's three-team deal that sent All-Star outfielder Jason Bay to Boston.

The Pirates, who have traded five starting position players since last July, will receive Double-A shortstop Argenis Diaz and Class-A right-hander Hunter Strickland, an 18th-round draft pick two years ago.

The Red Sox lost their fourth consecutive game Tuesday night to fall out of first place in the AL East, a game behind the New York Yankees. Boston had been one of the teams pursuing Toronto starter Roy Halladay, but a bat turned into the bigger priority for a team that is hitting .236 since June 17 and has scored 12 runs in five games since the All-Star break.

LaRoche, eligible for free agency after this season, has been a disappointment to the Pirates, hitting .247 with 12 homers, 40 RBIs and 81 strikeouts in 87 games. He has been slumping since July 4, going 5 for 46 (.109) with one RBI and 16 strikeouts. LaRoche was hitless in 22 at-bats during the slide.

The 29-year-old LaRoche was expected to supply a much-needed left-handed power bat when the Pirates dealt left-handed reliever Mike Gonzalez to Atlanta for him in January 2007, but he hasn't hit better than .272 in two-plus seasons and had poor starts in 2007 and 2008.

LaRoche hit 32 homers for Atlanta in 2006, but his best season with Pittsburgh was 25 homers and 85 RBIs a year ago.

Likely trade bait

2009-07-22T11:26:00.002-04:00

With the trade deadline fast approaching, I thought I would lit the Pirates I believe will be traded in the order of their value to other teams. So here goes:

1. Zach Duke, SP: This is the only player the Pirates would be willing to trade who will bring back greater value than they would give up. The contending teams in the majors would be interested in offering top prospects to land him. Pulling the trigger on him would be difficult because of the PR hit the organization will take.

2. Robinzon Diaz, C: The Pirates have depth at this position and Diaz could bring a couple prospects. The question is do the Pirates believe Ryan Doumit can stay healthy for the remainder of the season.

3. Freddy Sanchez, 2B: The problem with trading Sanchez is his salary, $8 million. That is too high for a player of his ability: good hit, good field, no power, not enough speed. If Sanchez is traded, the Pirates would probably have to pick up some of his salary for next season.

4. Jack Wilson, SS: If it will be hard to trade Sanchez because of his salary, then it will be almost impossible to trade Wilson, who is making nearly $8 million. The best scenario for the Pirates is to let Sanchez and Wilson finish the season in Pgh., then see what other teams offer. If it's reasonable, then match it.

5. Adam LaRoche, 1B: With Garrett Jones emerging, LaRoche won't be back with the Pirates next season. But who wants to trade for him now? He's hit just 12 home runs this season in a homer-friendly PNC Park for lefties. Heck, even baseball Fantasy owners don't like him (only in 78 percent of the leagues on ESPN).

6. John Grabow, RP: He walks too many (24 in 43 inn.) but is a decent set-up man. Minnesota is interested. He will be a free agent at the end of the season. I can't see any team knocking the Pirates over with an offer for him.

Who is this guy?

2009-07-18T09:39:00.002-04:00

Since PNC Park opened, the Pirates have been trying to find a left-handed power hitter who could take advantage of the short right field wall. Jeremy Burnitz was a bust, so was Adam LaRoche.

Enter Garrett Jones, a 29-year-old rookie, stands 6-4 and weighs 245, has been the surprise of the season. He cracked his fifth home run in the last four games and has seven in his first 12 games since being recalled from the minors. His two home runs against San Francisco Friday night were all the runs the Pirates scored. He homered in the first inning and won it with a one-hopper into the river in the 14th.

Jones spent most of his career in the Minnesota Twins organization and landed in Pittsburgh after Minnesota released him. He was a 14th-round pick by the Atlanta Braves in 1999 but was released three years later.

The nice thing about Jones is that he can play first base, too. LaRoche is plodding along with another unremarkable season (12 HR, 39 RBI, .246 ave.) and has to be considered trade bait before the deadline at the end of the month.

Jones probably won't continue at this pace, but he just needs to provide consistent power and hit .260 or .270 to remain in the lineup. At least he has more promise than Steve Pearce and is providing a much-needed spark to this team.

We've seen this before

2009-06-30T17:28:00.003-04:00

Last year, it was Xavier Nady and Jason Bay.
This year, it's Nyjer Morgan and Nate McLouth.
The annual summer Garage Sale the Pirates hold got under way in June with the trading of two-thirds of their starting outfield. McLouth was traded to Atlanta for prospects and a starting pitcher in Charlie Morton who looks very, well, average.
Tuesday's deal sent Morgan and reliever Sean Burnett to the Washington Nationals for reliever Joel Hanrahan and outfielder Lastings Milledge.
Of course, general manager Neal Huntington says these trades are for the betterment of an organization that is bereft of minor league talent. In Morgan, the Pirates had a speedy outfield who personified the workman-like ethic Pittsburghers like in their athletes.
What they get in return for Morgan is a flake. Milledge, a first-round pick of the New York Mets, is on his third team in four seasons. He failed to hold the starting center field job with the Nationals, the worst team in the league, but lasted seven games. He hit .167, walked once in 24 at-bats and played a poor outfield. He has more power than Morgan - who doesn't - and that's what seems to intrigue the Pirates.
Milledge made a stir in his rookie year with the Mets when he high-fived the fans along his route to the outfielder after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants.
In May of his second season, it was reported that Milledge appeared in a rap song, "Bend Ya Knees," by Manny D, a childhood friend. The song contained the usual description of women in rap. The Mets distanced themselves from Milledge's actions and after the season traded him to Washington for outfielder Ryan Church and catcher Brian Schneider.
This trade didn't go over well in the Pirates clubhouse as Huntington begins the annual fire sale. Shortstop Jack Wilson told the Associated Pressc:
“What’s so shocking is we’re (six) games out and we’ve lost three of our everyday players. It’s tough for the guys who’ve been here and have seen these trades happen and absolutely do nothing. I’ve seen these trades two or three times a year and we still haven’t had a winning season.”
Good point.
Of course, Wilson won't have to worry about it much longer. He will either be traded before the deadline or leave as a free agent after the season. So will second baseman Freddy Sanchez and first baseman Adam La Roche.
It's just the Pirates way.

Pirates trade Morgan, Hinske, get Milledge

2009-06-30T17:22:00.001-04:00

The Pittsburgh Pirates, swapping outfielders at a rapid rate for the second successive season, sent starting left fielder Njyer Morgan to the Washington Nationals in a four-player deal involving outfielder Lastings Milledge and also shipped backup Eric Hinske to the Yankees on Tuesday.
The Pirates, who have pushed to restock a thin farm system by making numerous trades over the last year, get Milledge and reliever Joel Hanrahan from the Nationals for the fleet Morgan and left-hander Sean Burnett, a former first-round draft pick.
Earlier, they sent 2002 AL Rookie of the Year Hinske to the Yankees for minor-league right-hander Casey Erickson and outfielder Eric Fryer. The Yankees also get some cash to help pay Hinske’s $1.5 million salary.

You decide

2009-06-28T09:18:00.006-04:00

Which of these two players were thought to be using performance-enhancing drugs? Barry Bonds or Darryl Strawberry.

Donald Fehr: A legacy derailed

2009-06-23T12:28:00.003-04:00

At one point, Donald Fehr was the most powerful man in Major League Baseball. He might have been the most powerful leader of any labor movement in the United States. But when Fehr announced Monday that he would retire from his post, the legacy he had carved out early in his career had been siginificantly tarnished.

As head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, Fehr brought great riches to the players while keeping team owners and the commissioner at arm's length. Under Fehr, there was unprecedented growth, not only in contract money but in the popularity of the sport. In the late 1990s, baseball was actually making a run to overtake the National Football League as this country's most popular sport.

But Fehr ran the union with little regard to the game. That's why the average salary went from about $300,000 to $3 million in his 25 years of leadership. His negotiation tactics were born from a bullheadedness that was almost totally backed by the players. Not even a work stoppage that forced the postponement of the 1994 World Series seemed to slow him or his influence.

But performance-enhancing drugs did. When the use of steroids and other PED was finally revealed in the early part of this decade, Fehr suddenly seemed more like a co-conspirator of a gang of cheaters than the leader of a great union.

The figure who testified before Congress on steroid use did not look like the crusading leader that bouyed baseball and its players. One by one, the players who helped Fehr elevate interest in the sport, now looked pathetic as they also were called to testify. These immortals who were once sure-shot Hall of Famers now sparked debate about whether they should even be considered.

Fehr's influence in the game can't be underestimated. He was a moving force in propelling baseball to where it is today. But it's your view of how it got there that will determine how this man is judged.

Alvarez promoted

2009-06-22T12:21:00.002-04:00

It's always interesting to watch the way organizations handle the minor league talent. In the case of Pedro Alvarez, the Pirates seem to have a plan in mind and won't let little things such as batting average and defense get in the way. He was moved to Class AA Altoona and will play his first game Tuesday.

Most people hope Alvarez rapidly progresses through the minors. It's no secret the Pirates need him to prosper for a number of different reasons. The Nutting Family won't look so cheap if he becomes a star, the minor league scouting won't look like incompetent boobs if he becomes a star, and the fans won't be so distracted by the losing if he becomes a star.

Here is what director of player development Kyle Stark told the Post-Gazette.

"Pedro has demonstrated to us that he is ready for the challenge. People typically focus on performance when it comes time for promotions, but we focus on the process and the specific things we're trying to accomplish at each level. Pedro has accomplished those things, in our minds. Plus, the performance actually has been better than the superficial numbers have shown for a while now."

In other words, yeah, his numbers are not so great for a college-aged player in high Class A baseball, but we don't care.

The 22-year-old Alvarez was hitting .247 with 14 home runs and 55 RBI. He has struck out 70 times in 243 at-bats. He has 13 errors in 66 games.

It's unlikely Alvarez will get a September call-up. Remember, he spent an entire summer sitting on his backside while his agent Scott Boras negotiated his contract so he missed nearly a year of organized ball. That also delayed his development in the Pirates' system.

Alvarez probably will become an outstanding player. How he reacts to Class AA ball will give us of indication of when that might happen.

Around the League

2009-06-21T10:45:00.002-04:00

In the history of Major League Baseball, there have been only 20 games in which brother played against brother. No. 21 took place Saturday night when Jeff Weaver started against brother Jered when the Dodgers took on the Angels in an interleague game. The Elias Sports Bureau did the research from nearly 200,000 games. One of the coolest parts of the game was that their parents attended the game with mixed stitched uniforms. Dad wore a baseball shirt that said Do-Gels on the front and mom had one that said An-Dgers on the front. Dodgers won 6-4, Jered took the loss, and Jeff the win.

Kerry Wood has finally been able to help out the Chicago Cubs. The prized selection in the 1995 draft - the Cubs took him fourth - had been an underachieving, oft-injured and finally unwanted part of the Cubs machine. But over the weekend, Wood, now the closer for the Cleveland Indians, was scorched on back-to-back nights by the Cubs. He blew a save Friday and allowed the winning run on a wild pitch Saturday. In true unprofessional fashion, he refused comment following Saturday's game.

Jose Canseco is at it again. The former slugger wrote a tell-all book about steroid use in 2005 that led to the exposure of a number of high-profile players in the league. Now, he's suing Major League Baseball and the player's association because he believes the book release is causing him to be blackballed and his entry into the hall of fame blocked. That's pretty funny. But it might also be a legal first. Canseco is suing over a situation that he helped create. Can't wait to see who he calls as a witness.

When Jim Leyland, Detroit's manager, benched outfielder Magglio Ordonez for a few games because he is in a massive hitting slump, it angered Ordonez ... and his agent Scott Boroas. Boras believes the benching has to do with an option that pays Ordonez $15 million in 2010 if he reaches 540 at-bats. Leyland said the benching is because Ordonez stinks at the plate right now: 2 home runs and 22 RBI. He hasn't homered since April 27 and it's just possbile the 35-year-old Ordonez is finished. But baseball matters mean nothing to Boras, who is only concerned about the contract. It only makes himself more of a pariah to the game, not that Boras cares.

Say it ain't So-sa

2009-06-17T08:56:00.002-04:00

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the name of Sammy Sosa was on a confidential list of Major League Baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Wait a moment, I need a chance to compose myself at this totally unexpected news.

OK, I was being facetious.

Most of the evidence against players such as Sosa has been anecdotal. Sosa was not an extremely powerful hitter when he came up with the Texas Rangers but in a span of four seasons, he broke Roger Maris' single-season home run mark of 61 three times. In two of those seasons - 1999 and 2001 - he didn't even lead the league in home runs.

Most fans couldn't care less about this issue but it is vitally important to baseball because so much of the comparison of players is based on numbers. In no other sports do numbers play such a role. Mention the number 714 and you know it's Babe Ruth's home run total, 56 (Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak), 511 (Cy Young's win total), etc.

Who is the NFL's leading rusher and what is his total? (Answer at the end)

Performance-enhancing drugs have turned slap hitters into power mongers. One suspected example was former Baltimore Outfielder Brady Anderson, who cracked 50 home runs in 1996. His previous best was 21 in 1992.

Cheating in baseball is nothing new. Players have done it throughout the game's history. But this era is different in that steroids allowed players to develop unnatural strength. Their numbers wiped away cherished records under suspicious circumstances.

Sosa's alleged cheating should keep him, and other like him, from being voted into the Hall of Fame, simply because we don't know what his career would have been had he not allegedly taken performance-enhancing drugs.

Oh, the answer is Emmit Smith, 18,355 yards. I had to look up the total.

Pirates tidbits

2009-06-16T08:29:00.002-04:00

Dejan Kovacevic of the Post-Gazette reports that the Boston Red Sox have inquired about trade for shortstop Jack Wilson. Talks are reportedly only in the early stages but the Pirates have made it clear they do not intend to pick up the $8.4 million option next season.

Outfielder Andrew McCutchen is off to a sparkling start with the Pirates. The 11th pick in the 2005 draft, McCutchen has shown the potential to be a special player. In 49 at-bats through Sunday, he is hitting .327 with seven RBI and two stolen bases. More important, he is a player whose at-bats are a must-see for Pirates fans. They have not had many of those types of players.

Watching Detroit pitcher Dontrelle Willis struggle with control in a 6-3 loss to the Pirates was like watching a car wreck. It was hard to look away. Willis walked eight and gaveup six runs in three innings. More telling, as TV color man Bob Walk pointed out, was the Pirates helping Willis out by swinging at pitches early in the at-bat. Walk was right. The Pirates could have provided a first-inning knockout had they been more patient. It shows how little the Pirates players understand about game management.

Maybe I'm just drinking the kool-aid but I tend to agree with the Pirates drafting Tony Sanchez because he was signable. . . if the Pirates do what they say and use the savings to sign their higher selections. There was no Pedro Alvarez-type player available to them, so this strategy seems to make sense because there is still not a lot of talent in the minor leagues.

Best PR move of the season came in Sunday's game against Detroit, when the Pirates introduced members of the Penguins, fresh from a Stanley Cup championship, before the game. It was a classy move, even though the two organizations battle for ad dollars, attendance and better play in the newspapers.

The five worst No. 1 draft picks

2009-06-10T23:57:00.002-04:00

Stephen Strasburg will become a very rich man this year, thanks to being picked No. 1 by Washington in this year's major league draft. But those riches do not always produce a productive player. The following is one writer's view of the five worst No. 1 picks in the draft's history.

1. Brien Taylor, LHP, N.Y. Yankees, 1991 - After being taken first out of Beaufort (N.C.) High School, Taylor held out for what was then the largest signing bonus is the sport's history: $1.5 million. In 1992 he was 6-8 for Fort Lauderdale, with a 2.57 ERA and 187 strikeouts in 161 innings. The next year, he tore his labrum in an offseason fight in Beaufort and was never the same. He was out of baseball by 1998 and became a brick layer.

2. Steve Chilcott, C, N.Y. Mets, 1966 - He was selected ahead of Reggie Jackson, among others, so you understand why the Mets struggled so much. Injuries derailed his career. A catcher from Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, California, Chilcott is notable in that he and Taylor were the only No. 1 picks to not play a game in the major leagues.

3. Bryan Bullington, RHP, Pirates, 2002 – The Pirates were penny-pinching and not willing to go after the bigger names and better players in the draft, including BJ Upton, Prince Fielder, Scott Kazmir, Nick Swisher, and Cole Hamels. Because of injuries and inconsistent pitching, Bullington has logged just 18 innings in the majors through 2008.

4. David Clyde, LHP, Texas Rangers, 1973 - Clyde stands as a living testament to the perils of rushing a pitcher to the majors. He was taken first out of Westchester High School in Houston and was supposed to head to the minors. But his contract called for two major league starts. He won the first start and pitched well in the second. Rangers' owner Bob Short kept him in the rotation more as a way to draw fans and he finished with a 4-8 record and 5.01 ERA. He developed arm problems and was out of the league by 1981.

5. Shawn Abner, OF, N.Y. Mets, 1984 - He was taken first in the 1984 draft out of Mechanicsburg High School in Pennsylvania but never played a major league game for the Mets. The Mets passed on Mark McGwire, Cory Snyder, Terry Mulholland, and Jay Bell. Abner, an outfielder, struggled in the minors and was traded in 1986 to Houston. His best year was 1992 when he hit .279 batting in 97 games with the White Sox. His career ended in 1995 because of injuries.

Pirates draft strategy

2009-06-10T09:35:00.002-04:00

The selection of Tony Sanchez, a 21-year-old catcher from Boston College, on the first day of the major league draft, marked a different strategy for the Pirates from last season. In 2008, the organization spent most of its budget on first-rounder Pedro Alvarez, a power-hitting third baseman from Vanderbilt. He hasn't disappointed but is still a year away, at least, from the majors.

Sanchez was the top-rated catcher but predicted by most to be a mid- to late-first round selection. Drafts are never a perfect science but many of the prognosticators felt after pitcher Stephen Strasburg, the players ranked in the top 20 were nearly equal in ability at their positions.

So the Pirates choice to pick Sanchez, and have him signed, was important because it allowed them to spread more of the budget on their selections at the top of the draft.

The Pirates selected pitcher Victor Black of Dallas Baptist University at No. 49, pitcher Brooks Pounders of Temecula (Calif.) Valley High at No. 52 and center fielder Evan Chambers, 20, of Hillsborough (Fla.) Community College at 84.

The strategy seems sound. The Pirates minor league system was a mess when Neal Huntington was named GM and needs an infusion of talent. If the strategy works, Pittsburgh might have three or four above average players for the price paid to Alvarez last year.

One thing that struck me was that Sanchez's position, catcher, is the same as Ryan Doumit's. A position switch - first base, outfield? - seems to be coming for Doumit. Stay tuned.

Pirates take catcher

2009-06-09T20:13:00.003-04:00

The Pirates made Tony Sanchez, a 21-year-old from Boston College, the No. 4 pick in the draft. The Pirates have already signed Sanchez, who was rated the top catcher in a pitcher-heavy draft. He was named a first team All-ACC player last season and led Boston College with a .355 average. He hit 14 home runs and drove in 53.

With the No. 4 pick in the draft, the Pirates . . .

2009-06-08T17:20:00.002-04:00

will probably choose one of three pitchers. But a fourth is an intriguing wild card.

The guess here is that the Pirates will take Aaron Crow, a right-handed pitcher who was selected with the No. 9 pick in last year's Major League Baseball draft by the Washington Nationals. When the two sides could not agree on a contract, Crow spent the year pitching for the Fort Worth Cats of the American Association of Independent Baseball. He's 6-3, has a good fastball but struggles with control.

The Pirates could also go for Alex White, a right-handed pitcher from the University of North Carolina. He's 6-3, hits the mid-90s with his fastball, and has a nasty slider.

Tyler Matzek is a left-handed pitcher from Capastrano High School in California. He's 6-3, throws his fastball in the low-90s, and also possesses a curve, slider and change.

The most intriguing candidate is Tanner Scheppers, who was the Pirates second-round pick last season. Scheppers did not sign with the Pirates and spent the season with the independent St. Paul Saints. Last year, he did not pitch for Fresno State in the NCAA playoffs because of an injury. But he appears to be healthy now but his injury problems from last year will probably cause him to drop to the mid and late first round.

McLouth deal from the other side

2009-06-04T10:02:00.002-04:00

Here is the link to the Atlanta Journal Constitution coverage on the Nate McLouth trade.

www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/index.html

McLouth is gone, and so are the Pirates hopes

2009-06-03T20:21:00.003-04:00

Remember this little tidbit when it comes to judging whether people are telling you the truth. Do their actions match their words. In the Pirates world, they do not, at least not this year.

When the Pirates dealt All-Star outfielder Nate McLouth, arguably their most consistent hitter, to the Atlanta Braves for three prospects Thursday, it went against what president Frank Coonelly and GM Neal Huntington had said about this season: that they were not writing off the year.

There is no attempt to win when you trade your best hitter. McLouth, only 27, hit .276 average last season with 26 homers and 94 RBI. He signed a three-year, $15.75 million deal in Feburary. This move is eerily similar to the ones last year, when the Pirates traded away Xavier Nady and Jason Bay. The season went down the drain after that.

Now that McLouth is gone, well, a record 17th-consecutive losing season is probably all but certain. The prospects the Pirates received for McLouth are, well, just that, prospects. Atlanta sent pitcher Charlie Morton, outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, and pitcher Jeff Locke to the Pirates. Who knows how good they will be. Locke and Hernandez are each 21 and Morton is 25. You will find out a few years from now.

Meanwhile, the Pirates will fill McLouth's spot with Andrew McCutchen, giving them one of the least powerful outfields in the majors.

If the Pirates are thinking about the future instead of the present, then make the move and tear up this team. Trade Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez and Adam LaRoche before the deadline and go from there.

Just be honest about it.

Beating up on . . . Gatorade?

2009-06-03T00:11:00.002-04:00

The Chicago Cubs either can't control their emotions in the dugout or they really dislike Gatorade. The club installed a new machine for the season, a dispenser of the soothing liquid on the hot days in Chicago. But now, the dispenser is being removed after suffering two attacks in the span of a week.

First, pitcher Ryan Dempster sent a forearm shiver into the machine after being pulled from a game against the Pirates. The blow dislodged the front plate that showed what type of Gatorade was available. A few days later, pitcher Carlos Zambrano took a bat to the machine after being ejected from a game, again against the Pirates. The machine has been leaking liquid ever since.

Fits of rage are nothing new to baseball. Heck, former Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon had one that was reshown again and again by ESPN when he removed a base from the ground and took it with him to the dugout, making him the first manager to steal a base without getting a hit.

As for the Chicago massacre, Dempster seemed genuinely disappointed the machine was being removed.

Dempster told the LA. Times: "It would have been more entertaining [to keep it], that's for sure. I'm going to miss it. It's part of our team. I gave it a big hug."

Now word yet on what will take its place.

How about a nice water fountain, made out of quarter-inch steel plating?

A major-league city?

2009-06-02T18:08:00.001-04:00

Altoona is home to the Curve, the Class AA affiliate of the Pirates.

But the Blair County city once had a major-league team.

The year was 1884, and a new league, christened the Union Association, was ready to challenge the other two established major leagues, the National League and American Association.

The UA had seven members and wanted an even eighth, so league founder Henry Lucas allowed Altoona's team, known collectively as the Mountain City, to be admitted. Lucas promptly scheduled eight of Altoona's first 11 games against his own St. Louis Maroons.

According to David Nemec in his book "The Beer and Whisky League," Altoona lost all of those games to St. Louis on the way to opening the season 0-11. After 25 games, the Mountain City called it quits at 6-19.

The team's best player in its brief existence was George "Germany" Smith, who hit .315 and went on to play 15 seasons in the majors, albeit finishing with a lifetime .243 average. He was the starting shortstop on two pennant-winning teams, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (later Dodgers) of 1889 in the American Association and 1890 in the National League.

By the way, baseball statistics-history guru Bill James heavily disputes the Union Association's standing as a major league, contending that no one considered it as such until decades after the fact.

For now, though, Altoona can call itself a major-league city ... old-school.

Random Pirates thoughts

2009-05-29T04:37:00.002-04:00

Ian Snell is struggling and that might be good news for Brad Lincoln. Snell, who was supposed to be one of the cornerstones of the Pirates pitching staff, has been so bad that a move to long relief so he can work out his problems might be the next step. If so, Lincoln would probably get the call. He is 1-2 with a 2.05 ERA with the Altoona Curve. Most impressive: He has allowed just 42 hits in 52 2/3 inings.

At Class A Lynchburg, Pedro Alvarez is slowly raising his average. He was hitting just above .200 a month ago but is now at .242. He has nine home runs and 41 RBI. Maybe the best stat is that he has not made an error over the past two weeks.

I would like to see more of Delwyn Young, who has replaced Freddy Sanchez at second base and played in the outfield. Young is hitting .294 in 51 at-bats and has made only one error in 73 career chances.

Catcher Ryan Doumit is on track to return a couple weeks early from a fractured wrist suffered last month. His two replacements - Jason Jaramillo and Robinson Diaz - have done a good job defensively and are hitting well. Diaz is at .327 and Jaramillo .271. The two have not replaced Doumit's run-producing ability as they have combined for one home run and 11 RBI.

Tim Neverett has been a solid play-by-play man since taking over for Lanny Frattare. He doesn't get lost in discribing the action and knows how to use his voice to reflect the ups and down of a game. What also strikes me is that he sounds a little like Bob Uecker, the Milwaukee Brewers play-by-play guy.

A real gem for stats nuts

2009-05-25T13:13:00.001-04:00

I remembered going to a Cleveland Indians game when I was 12 and seeing Sam McDowell pitch against the Yankees. I remembered he struck out 12 batters - don't know why but that number stuck with me. Well, one day at work I told me friend about the game, how much of an impression it made on me because of my great seats and how I loved Sam McDowell. I could not remember much else about the game, outside of the fact that no matter how many times I yelled for McDowell, my favorite Indians player at the time, he never looked up to see me in my seats behind the dugout.

After searching the Web for a few minutes, my friend told me that game was held June 27, 1969, and Cleveland scored four runs in the seventh and eighth innings to win it, 5-1. Oh, and a future Atlanta Braves manager was in the Yankees' lineup and Art Frantz was the home plate umpire.

How did he know this?

Retrosheet.org, that's how.

It's the most complete and easiest to use Web site for stat geeks like myself. This site has every game every played documented. I know, for example, that in 1871, the Cleveland Forest City's finished seventh in their division with a 10-19 record. And they were managed by Charlie Pabor, and pitcher Al Pratt started 28 of the 29 games.

All this information is available at no cost.

BTW, the former Braves manager who played third base against Cleveland the day I was there was Bobby Cox and he was hitless in four at-bats.

Ups and downs

2009-05-18T07:06:00.003-04:00

Scoring double-digit runs in one inning doesn't happen every day. So Pirates fans had a big reason to celebrate Sunday, as the team erupted for a 10-spot against Colorado, taking advantage of some very shoddy defense.

The 11-4 victory gave Pittsburgh two wins in the weekend's three-game series, and it could have been a sweep had closer Matt Capps not melted down in the ninth inning Friday. The Pirates finished 4-2 in a short homestand before heading to the District of Columbia.

More in the category of good news: Zach Duke, who's been trying to live up to the hype he generated by his 8-2, 1.81 ERA debut in 2005, finally seems to be pitching somewhat decently again. He improved to 5-3 this season with a fine 2.84 ERA, and if he continues in that vein, he could receive consideration as the Pirates' token representative on the National League All-Star team.

Down: The Pirates still are in last place in the NL Central with a 16-21 record. They'll have to go 66-59 the rest of the way to avoid that record 17th straight losing season. Some more double-digit innings definitely would help.

Up: The three division leaders in the American League are Toronto, Detroit and Texas. That means no New York, no Boston, no Chicago and no Los Angeles.

It's not even Memorial Day yet, but it's good to see some different teams at the top of the standings.

The Rangers seem to have captured particular attention in a division that's been dominated by the high-payroll Angels in recent years. Texas' problem usually is pitching, which must be mortifying for the team president, Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan.

But this year, under the tutelage of pitching coach Mike Maddux (Greg's older brother), the moundsmen are putting up respectable numbers. According to By Gil LeBreton of the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph: "Before Sunday’s shutout [3-0 win over the Angels], Rangers starting pitchers had averaged 6.24 innings per start, most in the American League. Their 4.37 ERA as starters ranked fifth in the AL, and their .258 batting average allowed was fourth. The teams ranked behind the Rangers’ starters include the Yankees, White Sox, Red Sox and last year’s AL champions, the Tampa Bay Rays."

The good start has revitalized a team that, since it arrived from D.C. in 1972, has played in the shadow of the Dallas Cowboys. Sunday's game had more than 30,000 walk-up ticket sales.

See what some winning baseball can do?

Down: The statistics caught up with the Mets' Mike Pelfrey on Sunday.

Pelfrey started the season with a 4-0 record, despite a 4.89 ERA. He took his first loss last night in San Francisco, giving up just two runs, but New York failed to score.

The Giants scored both their runs in large part because of two balks by Pelfrey. He ended up with three balks for the game, the first time that's happened in 15 years.

“I think maybe when I get on national TV I like making a fool of myself,” the Associated Press quoted Pelfrey as saying. “It seemed like I almost had the yips. It was like I was fighting myself to come set because my mind kept telling me to pick the guy off. I went back and watched replays and I balked.”

This is the major leagues, Mike. Get a grip.

Up: Matt Cain was on the receiving end of the Giants' victory Sunday, even though he struggled at times. Cain walked the bases loaded in the second, but San Francisco first baseman Travis Ishikawa made a nifty play on Jeremy Reed's grounder for a 3-2-3 double play that preserved the shutout.

The win gave Cain a 4-1 record this year, which represents quite a turnaround from previous seasons. He came into 2009 with a 30-43 lifetime record, despite an ERA well under 4. That's because he has received the lowest run support of any active pitcher with more than 100 lifetime starts.

Those two runs last night didn't help that statistic, but they were good enough.

Down: My PC, after about six years of heavy use, finally seems to have bitten the dust. I'll have to dig out the hard drives and see if I can order a new computer that still has Windows XP.

Trivia #19: What was the highest-scoring World Series of all time?

Sanchez, by the numbers

2009-05-17T09:12:00.002-04:00

The Nutting family has shown, ahem, frugality in some of its dealings with the Pirates payroll since taking over the team. Others might label it as being cheap. But the situation with Freddy Sanchez's contract can't be construed as that.

Speculation rose last week that Sanchez was being "rested" early on so he would not hit a clause in his contract that kicks in an $8.5 million option fror next season if he makes 635 plate appearances or if he makes 600 plate appearance and is picked for the All-Star Game.

Sanchez and shortstop Jack Wilson will become free agents after the season and it would cost the Pirates a combined $16 million to bring the duo back. That's not going to happen. The most pressing need is at shortstop but not at such a steep price.

Sanchez played in a career-high 156 games in 2006 and led the league with a .344 batting average. Since then, his production has slipped each season, .304 in 2007, and .274 last season. He's hitting .314 in 33 games this season. He's 31 and probably is not in the team's long-term rebuilding plans.

If the Pirates don't want to pay Sanchez, then the easy solution is to trade him before the deadline.

Downs and ups

2009-05-16T11:16:00.003-04:00

I haven't picked on the Pirates recently. They have enough problems.

But after watching last nights game vs. Colorado, I felt I had to break my silence.

Once again, a starting pitcher was throwing a gem of a game. And once again, he had to leave the mound.

Paul Maholm rebounded from a series of mediocre starts by tossing seven scoreless innings Friday, giving up just five hits and one walk. The Pirates weren't doing much better against journeyman Rockies pitcher Jorge de la Rosa, but they had managed to scratch out a run.

Tyler Yates and John Grabow managed to contain Colorado in the eighth, but there might have been a collective groan around PNC Park when Matt Capps walked to the mound to being the ninth.

Sure enough, Ian Stewart led off the inning by bouncing a ball over the fence, then Brad Hawpe put one in the seats. (The photo above is Capps after the home run.) The Rockies tacked on an insurance run, then Colorado closer Houston Street struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth.

Capps now is 0-3 with an 8.18 ERA. Next time manager John Russell brings him in to close a game, he'll have some 'splainin' to do!

De la Rosa, by the way, has put up a stellar 3.16 ERA so far, but has an 0-3 record to show for it. For all the Coors Field effect, the Rockies aren't the bombers they used to be.

Up: You might not know to much about Zack Greinke, seeing as how he pitches for the Kansas City Royals. You might not even have known they still have a team in Kansas City. The Royals haven't made the playoffs since winning the 1985 World Series.

But the emergence of Greinke as the American League's best pitcher has sports commentators mentioning KC and baseball in the same sentence once again.

Greinke was loaded with potential when he arrived in the majors at age 20 in 2004. He put up respectable numbers as a rookie, and entered '05 with plenty of expectations.

What resulted was a 5-17 season and some personal issues that shelved Greinke for most of 2006. He came back in '07 to split time between the bullpen and rotation, and last year he put up some spectacular numbers for a Royal: 13-10, 3.47 ERA and 183 strikeouts in 202 1/3 innings.

Last night, Greinke beat Baltimore, 8-1. The run was earned, the fourth he's surrendered this season. In 60 innings. That gives him an ERA of 0.60.

His record went to 7-1 (his only loss, of course, was 1-0). So far, he's struck out 65 batters and walked 10. He has yet to give up a home run.

Anything can happen between now and October, but if Greinke remains healthy, Kansas City just might continue to play baseball longer this season than they have in the past 24 years.

Down: I stopped rooting for the Red Sox when they started paying out semi-Yankee-esque payrolls, but I always kind of liked David Ortiz.

So I'm sad to see Big Papi hit what looks to be the end of the road.

Sox manager Terry Francona reluctantly benched Ortiz after he took an 0-for-7 collar and left an incredible 12 runners stranded during a 12-inning loss to the Angels on Thursday.

That performance left Papi with a .208 batting average for the season. He has yet to hit a home run in 130 at bats.

Ortiz is 33, which on the surface doesn't seem that old. But his statistics have declined so precipitously since the middle of 2008 that observers can't help but wonder if he'll ever be more than a spot player again. He already is a designated hitter, and there's really no room in a starting lineup for a DH who can't hit.

The excuse usually given on Ortiz's behalf is that he doesn't have Manny Ramirez in the lineup to protect him anymore. But should that really be enough for Papi to lose his power stroke totally? For crying out loud, the man hit 142 home runs in the span of three seasons to become one of the most feared hitters in baseball.

There's been conjeture, considering Manny's recent problems ... well, you're not going to read it here.

Perhaps after a rest on the bench, Ortiz will get back on track. But that will come as a surprise.

Up: The San Diego Padres play in one of the worst ballparks for hitters, but that hasn't fazed Adrian Gonzalez.

The Padres' first baseman cracked his 15th homer of the season last night, in a 5-3 win over the Reds, extending his major-league lead in that department. Baseball fans love to extrapolate, so he's on a pace to hit 67 bombs for the season and make San Diego fans forget all about Nate Colbert.

Predictably, Gonzalez has done most of his damage on the road, hitting 11 home runs in just 21 games. If he played his home games in, say, Cincinnati's Great American Bandbox, he might be making baseball fans in general forget all about B. Lamar Bonds.

We'd sure like someone to do so!

All about the Deacon

2009-05-15T10:33:00.003-04:00

Dean Phillippi, originally from Washington, Pa., and now living in Jacksonville, Fla., was kind enough to send us this writeup about his relative, Charles Louis "Deacon" Phillippe, one of the greatest pitchers in Pirates history and a man who has received serious Hall of Fame consideration.

Charles Louis "Deacon" Phillippe was the winner of the first game of the first World Series in 1903 against Cy Young. Deacon set iron-man marks in the Series by pitching 44 innings of the eight game series and completing five games. Twice, he started consecutive games and he is the only pitcher in baseball to win three series games for a losing team.

In 1969, Pittsburgh fans voted Deacon Pittsburgh's all-time right-handed pitcher. Incredibly, Deacon never had a losing season in his 13 years of Major League Baseball (1899 with Louisville; 1900-11 with Pittsburgh).

He was born Charles Louis Phillippi near the small rural town of Rural Retreat in Wythe County, Virginia, on May 23, 1872, a son of Andrew Jackson and Margaret Jane (Hackler) Phillippi.

Career highlights

Lifetime record of 189-109 with a 2.59 ERA

Five seasons with 20 or more wins

Completed 242 of the 288 games he started over his career, while striking out 929

His best ERA was in 1902, when he posted a 2.05 mark to go with a 20-9 record.

Over a four-year period (1900-1903), he pitched 1136 1/3 innings.

He is near the top of the Pirates' all-time pitching list in innings pitched, wins, strikeouts, shutouts and completed games.

Best year: In 1903, he was 24-7 with a 2.43 ERA. He struck out 123, walked only 29 and gave up 265 hits in 289 innings.

Note: Information for this story below was compiled by Tom Bralley of Wytheville. Bralley is a vice president and branch manager at Premier Bank and is a baseball historian.

Rural Retreat man pitched in the very first World Series

There have been a lot of excellent athletes who have come from Rural Retreat. Many residents of Rural Retreat and Wythe County are no doubt aware of people who have done well at the high school level and gone on to achieve notoriety in college sports.

But probably few people are aware that one of the greatest Major League baseball players in history was born in Rural Retreat. Charles Louis Phillippe was born May 23, 1872, in Rural Retreat. Phillippe pitched for 13 years in the Major Leagues. Perhaps the highlight of his career was pitching in the first World Series in 1903. In that Series, Phillippe, who was nicknamed "Deacon" because of his mastery over batters, and his family would not let him play baseball on Sundays as well. In the World Series, he pitched five complete games and won three for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Phillippe died in 1952, but in 1969 Pittsburgh fans voted him Pittsburgh's all-time right-handed pitcher.

Phillippe signed his first professional baseball contract in 1897 with a team in Minneapolis. He was drafted into the National League by Louisville in 1898. The next year, he finished the season with a 20-17 record which included a no-hitter against New York.

Phillippe joined the Pittsburgh team in 1900 and was one of its leading pitchers for the next 11 years. He led the Pirates to pennants (league championships) in 1901, 1903 and 1909. Probably his most successful season came in 1910, when he finished at 14-2 and had a 7-1 record as a relief pitcher.

But his moment in the spotlight was the 1903 World Series when he carried the team that had an injured and decimated pitching staff. Although Pittsburgh eventually lost the Series to Boston, Phillippe won his first three games (the Series then was the best-out-of-nine games) which prompted a local newspaper to write in a headline: "Deacon Phillippe has the American League Champions at his mercy."

Phillippe completed all five games he pitched in the Series, but lost the last two mostly because of pitching with very little rest. And a definite lack of support at the plate from his teammates.

He finished his career with an overall record of 186 wins [Harry's note: Baseball-Reference.com credits Phillipe with 189 victories] and 108 losses. He finished with an ERA of 2.59 over 372 games and 2,607 innings.

While Phillippe's complete game mark was noteworthy, pitchers back then were expected to pitch more. According to Abby Mendelson in "The Birth of a Classic, "a pitcher was "expected to last nine innings - not because he was stronger, but simply because he wasn't supposed to overpower a hitter. By and large, pitches were meant to go over the plate so that a batter could hit the ball and put it in play. Therefore, a 1903-style moundsman threw more easily and less often in a game (which consequently made a contest shorter than we're used to)."

"On top of that, new balls were rarely brought into a game, and the pitcher worked with a scuffed and welted ball. That he made it dip and slide with less arm exertion than today is an understatement," he continued. "Pitching, in short, was much like tossing batting practice today. Pitchers, from their looks in old photographs, threw standing fairly straight, using only a short step and a lot of arm movement to get the ball humming."

Two of the hitting leaders for that 1903 Pittsburgh team were the great shortstop Honus Wagner and left fielder-manager Fred Clarke. Both ended up in the baseball Hall of Fame.

Wagner finished the season with a .355 batting average; it was one of eight years in which he won that title. Clarke finished the year batting .351.

Wagner said that Phillippe was always eager to pitch. "He wanted to hurl against the other team's best pitcher and often worked out of turn to do it."

The first game of the 1903 Series was played in Boston. Phillippe pitched the entire game as Pittsburgh won 7-3. "Much of the credit belongs to Phillippe," said Clarke. "The steady man had delivery that was most difficult to solve ... The Deacon was never in better condition, the way he cuts loose with his benders is a caution."

And the Boston manager [future Hall of Famer Jimmy Collins] also praised the Deacon. "Phillippe pitched in masterly style."

And the Boston pitcher who lost the game was none other than the immortal Cy Young.

Boston came back and won the second game 3-0.

Phillippe returned to pitch the third game with only one day's rest and led the Pirates to a 10-3 victory. Manager Clarke told Phillippe, "You stood them on their heads the last time, Deacon, you can do it again."

The Pirates went back to Pittsburgh with a 2-1 game lead. When the train pulled into the station, however, Phillippe was not on it. Anticipating the huge crowd gathered there, the shy man got off the train at a previous stop and took a street car to his home.

Phillippe also pitched game four and won, 5-4. According to Mendelson, "Phillippe allowed only four hits in the first eight innings, but was touched up for five more in the ninth. A newspaper account of the game reported that the Deacon "never turned a hair and finished without a tremor." Phillippe also wowed the crowd, said Mendelson, "with some fancy base running, scoring a tally himself."

In the fifth game, Boston came back with Cy (short for "Cyclone," because fastballs were called that then) Young and Boston won to close the gap to 3-2. Boston also won the next game to even the Series at 3-3. Phillippe was back on the mound for game seven. He was matched again with Cy Young. Boston won 7-3 to take a one-game lead. Young was called "invincible" by a newspaper.

Mendelson said, "The Sunday Post ran a photo of Phillippe with the accompanying comment that he 'went to the rubber too often.' The game, according to the paper, was 'sad, chilly and tedious.' Both teams were exhausted, players slid all over the muddy field, and the stalwarts on both sides committed a total of seven errors. It was, in short, a disaster."

One of the few positive notes for Pittsburgh came in the third inning, when Phillippe came to the plate. A fan walked up and gave him a diamond horseshoe stickpin, paid for by the fans, as a token of their appreciation.

Phillippe thanked the fans and then belted a clean single off of a Cy Young fastball. News accounts said the ovation was deafening.

The Deacon was called on one more time, but his arm didn't have much left. Boston won the game 3-0 and thereby won the Series, five games to three. But the Pirate fans gave the team a warm welcome on its return home. Manager Clarke received a raise to make him the highest paid player-manager at that time. Phillippe was given 10 shares of stock in a nearby business.

After he retired from baseball, Phillippe worked in a Pittsburgh steel mill and then as a bailiff in a local court.

Phillippe died at the age of 79 in 1952. Mendelson described Phillippe as a shy man who stood over six feet tall and weighed a muscular 180 pounds. "He avoided the limelight because of modesty. A handsome man, Phillippe had a sturdy oval face, lantern jaw, and dark hair parted a shade left of center."

Mendelson prefers to remember Phillippe after he won his third game in the 1903 World Series. "This, after all, is one of the great tales of World Series heroism," he wrote. "A story of a man who pitched because he had to. The image that best sticks in the mind of the quiet man with the bewildering curveballs is from the victory celebration after Game four. After Phillippe's first home victory, and his third straight, the crowd hoisted the sweating pitcher to its shoulders and carried him all around Exposition Park. Deposited in the Clubhouse, Deacon proceeded to shake hands with everyone in sight.

"Let us remember him that way, joyful, flushed with victory, confident in his team's future and surrounded by a host of Pittsburgh fans in the early autumn of 1903."

Not quite psychic

2009-05-14T17:44:00.003-04:00

While watching the MLB Channel, Brant Newman of View on the News fame heard an announcer's prediction during a "vintage" rebroadcast of the Orioles-Royals 1990 season opener:

"A lot of people feel that in the '90s, Craig Worthington will replace Gary Gaetti as the best third baseman in the American League."

Hmmm ... let's hope the announcer in question didn't wager on Worthington.

We looked it up, and the "third baseman of the '90s" was coming off a 1989 campaign in which he hit .247 with 15 home runs, 70 runs batted in and a stolen base at age 24, earning him fourth place in the Rookie of the Year balloting.

All those numbers turned out to be career highs, although he did tie his steals mark.

Craig did go 1-for-5 to start 1990, and that pretty much set the tone for the season. He hiked his average up to .262 on April 22, but that was his high-water mark. Worthington ended up at .226 with 8 homers and 44 RBI. And one more stolen base.

Manager Frank Robinson gave Craig a chance to redeem himself in 1991. But around the time Robinson was fired in late May and Johnny Oates took over, Worthington was shipped out to Rochester, never to appear in an Orioles uniform again. His replacement at third base for Baltimore: Leo Gomez.

Worthington appeared in a handful of games for the Indians in '92 before surfacing three years later to put in a pair of partial seasons with the Reds and Rangers.

Let's hope he never has to hear that Opening Day '90 commentary.

Trivia #18: Who won the American League's Most Valuable Player award for a team with only 67 victories that season?

Cooperstown bound

2009-05-13T20:13:00.004-04:00

With all the talk these days about whether to vote "steroid era" players into the Hall of Fame, I did as I usually do: peruse an encyclopedia to remind myself of the sport's rich history.

And I asked the question: In which season did the most future Hall of Famers participate?

I made an educated guess of 1928, which was Ty Cobb's final year in the majors. Whether that's true, I haven't ascertained, but plenty of men who played and/or managed that year ended up in Cooperstown. Here we go:

New York Yankees (10): Earle Combs, Stan Coveleski, Bill Dickey, Leo Durocher, Lou Gehrig, Waite Hoyt, Miller Huggins, Tony Lazzeri, Herb Pennock, Babe Ruth

Philadelphia Athletics (8): Cobb, Mickey Cochrane, Eddie Collins, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Connie Mack, Al Simmons, Tris Speaker

St. Louis Browns: Heinie Manush

Washington Senators (4): Joe Cronin, Goose Goslin, Bucky Harris, Sam Rice

Chicago White Sox (3): Red Faber, Ted Lyons, Ray Schalk

Detroit Tigers: Harry Heilmann

Boston Red Sox: Red Ruffing

St. Louis Cardinals (6): Grover Cleveland Alexander, Jim Bottomley, Frankie Frisch, Jesse Haines, Rabbit Maranville, Bill McKechnie

New York Giants (7): Carl Hubbell, Travis Jackson, Fred Lindstrom, John McGraw, Mel Ott, Edd Roush, Bill Terry

Chicago Cubs (4): Kiki Cuyler, Gabby Hartnett, Joe McCarthy, Hack Wilson

Pittsburgh Pirates (4): Burleigh Grimes, Pie Traynor, Lloyd Waner, Paul Waner

Cincinnati Reds: Eppa Rixey

Brooklyn Dodgers (4): Max Carey, Al Lopez, Wilbert Robinson, Dazzy Vance

Boston Braves (2): Rogers Hornsby, George Sisler

Philadelphia Phillies: Chuck Klein

That's 57 future Hall of Famers on 15 teams (only Cleveland failed to make the list). Extrapolating to today's 30 teams, that would mean 106 current players or managers would be Cooperstown bound.

I don't see that happening.

Giants roamed the earth in those days, and they didn't all play in New York. (But 21 men playing or managing in New York in 1928 are in the Hall of Fame. And they say there isn't a Big Apple bias!)

Two losses, 0.00 ERA

2009-05-12T14:45:00.003-04:00

Once again, today's top baseball story took place off the field. And once again, it involves performance-enhancing substances.

But let's forget about Roger Clemens and the book that just came out about him to dwell on what's happening on the diamond.

Here's an interesting number: 0.78. That's Johan Santana's earned-run average so far this season. He has a 4-2 record for the New York Mets.

Here's another number: 5.46. That's teammate Mike Pelfrey's ERA. Pelfrey is 4-0.

Santana has continued his extraordinary pitching after arriving in the Big Apple from the Twin Cities, where he twice was the Cy Young Award winner. As a Met, he has a 2.25 ERA in 41 starts. His record is 20-9 for a season and a quarter, which is pretty darned good. But it should be a whole lot better.

Last night, for example, Santana surrendered an unearned run to the Braves in the first inning and went into the seventh with the scored tied 1-1. With one out and with his 108th pitch, he gave up a single to Kelly Johnson.

With Santana's pitch count that far over the century mark, Mets manager Jerry Manuel made the obligatory call for a reliever.

Now, the Mets' bullpen generally gets the blame for the team's failures the past few seasons, but it was supposed to be vastly improved this year. At least, that's what Pirates announcers Bob Walk and Greg Brown were saying over the weekend. Then again, all pitching staffs tend to look pretty good against Pittsburgh.

At any rate, the Braves proceeded to pound the Mets' arson squad for nine hits over the last 2 2/3 innings, turning the game into an 8-3 blowout. An error by New York shortstop Jose Reyes that would have ended the seventh didn't help matters as Santana ended up with the loss on two unearned runs.

What would have happened had Manuel left him in the game is up for conjecture.

In Santana's other loss this season, 2-1 to Florida, both the runs also were unearned. Outfielder Danny Murphy's error was the culprit on that occasion.

Let's go back to 2008. Santana logged a stellar 16-7 record. But at least once a month, he was victimized by lack of run support and/or poor relief pitching:

April 6: The Braves score once off Santana in his seven innings, but that's one more than John Smoltz surrenders on way to a 3-1 Atlanta victory.

May 4: The Diamondbacks score once off Santana in his six innings, but the Mets can muster only a tie to that point. Finally, New York scores three runs in the ninth for the win.

June 12: Santana has the Diamondbacks shut out 4-0 through seven innings, but he's thrown 116 pitches. Joe Smith opens the eighth and gives up two runs, then Billy Wagner surrenders two more in the ninth. Arizona goes on to win 5-4 in 10.

July 22: With the Mets leading 5-2 in the eighth inning, Manuel sends Argenis Reyes in to pinch hit for Santana. Reyes hits a weak grounder. Duaner Sanchez, Smith and Pedro Feliciano contrive to give up sixth runs in the ninth.

Aug. 7: Santana gives up a single to open the eighth with a 3-1 lead over the Padres. Five Mets relieves give up two runs to tie the game before David Wright wins it with a walk-off homer.

Sept. 13: Manuel yanks Santana with a 2-0 lead after consecutive singles by the Braves to open the seventh. In come four relievers in that very inning alone to cause a 3-2 Mets loss.

Santana is earning his massive paycheck for the Mets so far, and if he starts running into some better luck, an NL Cy Young Award probably will be headed his way.

RIP

2009-05-08T12:26:00.003-04:00

He's better than his brother Joe …

So went the rhyme around Boston, which ended with Dominic DiMaggio.

Neither the remembrances of old-timers nor the statistical legacy bears that out, but the onetime Red Sox outfielder was quite the ballplayer in his own right, even if no one from New York was willing to acknowledge it.

Dominic, the last survivor of the three DiMaggio brothers who played in the majors, died today at 92. Preceding him were Joseph in 1999 and Vincent in 1986. Each had Paul as his middle name.

His brothers already were entrenched in the big leagues when Dom debuted in 1940, hitting .301 for the Red Sox on his way to a .298 career average. He lacked the power of Joe and Vince - Dom hit 87 home runs in 11 seasons - but he was an integral part of a feared lineup that included Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr.

Dom was named to seven American League All-Star teams and drew Most Valuable Player consideration in six seasons. His best statistical year was in 1950, when he led the league in runs scored with 131, triples with 11 and stolen bases with a whopping 15, the lowest top total in history. He also hit a career-best .328.

According to the Associated Press, "DiMaggio hit safely in 34 consecutive games in 1949. The streak was broken on Aug. 9 when his big brother caught a sinking line drive in the eighth inning of a 6-3 Red Sox win over the New York Yankees. The younger DiMaggio also had a 27-game hitting streak in 1951, which still ranks as the fifth'longest in Red Sox history."

Joe, of course, had that epic 56-game streak that stands as one of baseball's probably unbeatable records.

Word was received Thursday of the death of Danny Ozark at age 85. His name probably isn't recognizable outside of Philadelphia, where he managed the Phillies during the better part of the 1970s.

Phillies fans back then had a tendency to gripe about Ozark, despite his leading the team to three consecutive National League East titles. He also makes a strong case for being the most successful manager in team history, a contention that reflects more on the Phillies' perpetually losing ways than Ozark's skills.

At any rate, Philadelphia general manager Paul Owens used a poor start in 1979 to can Ozark and put Dallas Green in charge, and the team won its first World Series the following season, with poor Danny probably watching on television, if at all.

Some information has come out of the Manny Ramirez case that could help kids stay away from steroids.

Reports have Ramirez testing positive for human chorionic gonadotropin, a female fertility drug that apparently is used as part of the "cycle" of taking steroids.

Young men, do want that kind of stuff in your system? Didn't think so!

Trivia #17: Who is the last active player on the last Pirates team to finish above .500? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

Another one bites the dust

2009-05-07T15:38:00.003-04:00

Manny Ramirez has given the baseball world plenty of reason to shake its collective head over the years.

His often unconventional behavior led to the coining of the phrase "Manny being Manny." And he apparently slacked off last summer until he was traded out of Boston, in a deal that involved the Pirates giving up Jason Bay.

Once he arrived in Los Angeles, Ramirez went on a tear, earning him MVP consideration although he spent less than half the season for the Dodgers.

Through it all, Manny seemed to be one of the heavy hitters who escaped being linked to the steroids-banned substance scandal that's pretty much dominated conversation about the sport in the past several years.

The benefit of the doubt for Ramirez, of course, has disappeared with Thursday's announcement that he'd been suspended for 50 games for testing positive for one of those banned substances.

He now joins the likes of Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, Palmeiro, Giambi and several of the biggest baseball luminaries of this generation of the persona-non-grata list.

Good luck, future Hall of Fame voters. You're going to need it.

Well, maybe not. I think most of us will be long gone by the time you see any of the above names on Cooperstown plaques.

Read more about Manny's dilemma.

Trivia #16: What two future Hall of Famers were implicated in 1926 for a game-fixing scheme that allegedly occurred in 1919?

A legend in their minds

2009-05-07T07:24:00.003-04:00

Jim Waugh, who was 18 years old when he debuted in 1952, was the youngest player for the Pirates since the start of the 20th century. Click on the title to read about him in my Observer-Reporter column.

The Great Drought

2009-05-06T22:35:00.013-04:00

The Pirates' 17th straight loss to Milwaukee eerily coincides with the 17th straight sub-.500 season Pittsburgh is about to suffer.

As the 82nd loss inevitably approaches, growing mention will be made of the team the Pirates will supplant in the record book: the 1933-48 Phillies.

What might not be so widely reported is that the Phillies of that era preceded their losing-season streak with a single year in which the team registered a 78-76 record. Prior to that had been 14 consecutive under-.500 seasons.

That makes 30 out of 31 losing seasons. Can even the Pirates ever approach that sustained level of futility?

Perhaps this will make the remaining Pirates fans feel a bit better: Let's take a look at the Great Drought that afflicted National League baseball in Philadelphia for three decades.

It begins

Grover Cleveland Alexander already was a star pitcher when he went on a three-year period of absolute domination. From 1915-17, the man known as "Pete" won 94 games for the Phillies. In 1915, he pitched 16 complete-game shutouts to spearhead the team to its first NL pennant. He also earned the only World Series victory for the team until 1980.

After the 1917 season, Phillies owner William Baker took a look at Pete's salary and, using the specter of World War I as an excuse, traded Alexander to the Cubs, getting a couple of marginal players and $55,000 cold cash in return. Alexander went into the service in 1918 after pitching just three games, so it would appear that Baker got the better end of the deal ... except that Philadelphia tumbled from second place all the way to sixth.

Manager Pat Moran jumped ship to Cincinnati for 1919, leading the Reds to the pennant, while his former team plunged into the basement for the first time in 15 years. It was going to be a long stay.

The '20s

The Phils began the new decade with no less than three players who now have plaques in Cooperstown: Dave Bancroft, Eppa Rixey and Casey Stengel. But in 1920, Bancroft was traded to the Giants after driving in just five runs in 42 games; Rixey went an abysmal 11-22 on the mound; and Stengel wouldn't earn his Hall of Fame credentials for another 35 years. And the Phillies finished last again.

The team also began the decade by going through a dizzying array of managers: Gavvy Cravath, Bill Donovan, Kaiser Wilhelm, Art Fletcher and Stuffy McGinnis all manned the helm between 1920-27. Only Fletcher managed to bring the Phillies home as high as sixth place.

McGinnis, a former mainstay at first base for the crosstown Athletics, compiled a 51-103 record in 1927, his only season. His replacement was former St. Louis (Browns and Cardinals) outfielder Burt Shotton, who did even worse: The '28 Phils bottomed out at 43-109. One bright spot was the debut of a 23-year-old Indianapolis native named Chuck Klein, who hit .360 with 11 home runs in 64 games.

In 1929, Klein was joined in the outfield by a failed pitcher, Francis "Lefty" O'Doul, who not only hit .398 but set an NL record with 254 hits. Klein didn't do badly, himself, leading the league with 43 home runs, edging out Mel Ott of the New York Giants. To ensure Klein's title, Philadelphia pitchers walked Ott intentionally each time he came to the plate in the season finale.

Best of all for long-suffering Phillies fans, the team won 71 games and managed to creep into fifth place. With Klein, O'Doul and fellow offensive threats Don Hurst and Pinky Whitney in the lineup, there seemed to be reason for optimism as a new decade dawned.

The '30s

In 1930, Phillies' batters set an NL record by belting out 1,783 hits, as the team hit a collective .315 and scored 944 runs.

And the team finished last.

Writer Jack Orr summed it up when he titled his 1953 article for Sport magazine "The Pitchless Wonders." For example:

"The Phils played in the old Baker Bowl, with its famous [just 280 feet from home plate] right-field fence. Often, the story went, young infielders would pick up grounders and throw to Klein in right instead of Hurst at first. And though the Philly thunderers were rocking the opposition pitching at the remarkable clip of 6.8 runs and 11.4 hits a game, Philly pitchers set a record which probably will never be broken: they gave up 1,199 runs, a breathtaking 7.7 a game. ... Opposing hitters smaked the right-field wall as if it were a gong and Klein, who had his work cut out for him, set a record that still stands, 44 assists by an outfielder."

More about the Phillies of that era was written by former pitcher Kirby Higbe in "The High Hard One":

"The man who owned the ball club, a Mr. Baker, had died [in 1930] and left the club to his secretary, but he didn't leave any money to run it with. So Gerry Nugent, the husband of the secretary, sold promising players every year to stay in business. ... When a good player went to the Phillies, he would hustle and bear down in the hope he would be sold to a good ball club."

Somewhere in there, the team managed that 1932 season above .500, riding the success of Hurst, who drove in a league-leading 143 runs, and Klein, who was voted the league's Most Valuable Player after topping the loop in hits, runs scored, home runs and, believe it or not, stolen bases. The pitching staff wasn't particularly stellar, but it did feature six double-digit winners.

Klein hit his pinnacle the following year, winning the next-to-last NL Triple Crown. But with the Phillies sliding back into seventh place, he finished second to Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell in the MVP voting. Then he was gone to Chicago, with the Nugents getting $65,000 and three warm bodies in return.

Other stars emerged in Klein's place. Dolph Camilli hit 80 homers in a three-year span before he fetched $45,000 from Brooklyn, where he won an MVP award. Bucky Walters successfully converted from the infield to pitcher's mound, then brought $50,000 from Cincinnati ... where he won an MVP award. Higbe eventually went to the Dodgers for a cool hundred grand.

On a logistical note, the Phillies finally abandoned the half-century-old Baker Bowl in 1938 to become tenants at the A's Shibe Park, later Connie Mack Stadium. Everyone hoped the change of scenery might help.

The '40s

The Phillies entered another new decade hoping to avoid a third straight cellar finish, with Klein back in the fold. Unfortunately, he hit only .218 in 1940, and pitcher Hugh Mulcahy lived up to his nickname, "Losing Pitcher," by racking up 22 defeats. He subsequently become the first major-leaguer to be drafted for service in World War II, which he just might have counted as a blessing.

The team's story was the same in 1941, and even worse in '42. That year, Philadelphia went 42-109 and finished last in the league in, among others: runs, hits, home runs, stolen bases, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, total bases, earned-run average, complete games, shutouts, saves, runs against and fielding percentage. Klein, relegated to a pinch-hitting role, had exactly one hit in 14 at-bats.

After creeping into seventh the following year, the Phillies finished wartime baseball with two more cellar dwellings. With the exception of Vince DiMaggio, the least-remembered of the three famed baseball brothers, the team boasted little in the way of talent. About the most interesting occurrence was the acquisition of legendary slugger Jimmie Foxx in 1945; to draw some kind of fan interest, Foxx toed the rubber in nine games, winning his only decision while posting a 1.59 ERA.

There were a few signs of better days to come, though, including the first full season for catcher Andy Seminick and the debut of 18-year-old shortstop Wesley Garvin "Granny" Hamner. Joining the team the following season was outfielder Del Ennis. Pitcher Curt Simmons debuted in '47. And pitcher Jim Konstanty, third baseman Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones and two future Hall of Famers, Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn, came aboard in '48.

Those men formed the nucleus of the so-called Whiz Kids, the collection of talent that finally led the Phillies out of the wilderness and to the National League pennant in 1950, just a year after the team ended its record (for now) streak of consecutive sub-.500 seasons.

Aftermath

The Whiz Kids proved to be a one-hit wonder, and with the exception of the near-pennant of 1964, the Phillies never were really competitive until the likes of "Lefty" Steve Carlton and Michael Jack Schmidt took control in the '70s.

And the collective baseball world thought it never would see the likes of the 1918-48 Phillies.

Until now?

Can't buy a win

2009-05-06T08:19:00.003-04:00

No, this isn't about the Pirates losing 17 straight times to the Milwaukee Brewers.

It's about Arizona pitcher Max Scherzer, who was beaten by the Dodgers last night.

Scherzer dropped to 0-3 on the season and 0-7 in his short major-league career. That despite a lifetime earned-run average of 3.16, which is close to league-leading territory in this day and age. He also has struck out 90 batters in 82 2/3 innings, the kind of ratio that should ensure him some success.

The 24-year-old righthander seems to be shrugging off his goose-egg win total, but he has to be more than a little frustrated with his teammates in the batting order. The D-backs have scored a total of five runs in his past four starts.

The wins should come, but 0-7 with a 3.16 ERA is just plain ridiculous, even if this were the Dead Ball Era.

Changes

2009-05-05T19:52:00.001-04:00

In the free-agency era, it's relatively common for players in the peaks of their careers to skip from team to team to team.

Let's use the example of CC Sabathia: Cy Young Award for Cleveland in 2007; midseason trade to Milwaukee in 2008, pitching the Brewers into the playoffs; and a monumental payday to pitch for the Yankees this season (just 1-3 with a 4.85 ERA so far).

Or, going back to the dawn of free agency, there was Reggie Jackson. Fans might forget his one-year stint in Baltimore (1976), where he went in a blockbuster deal involving Ken Holtzman, Don Baylor and Mike Torrez, among others. Reggie led the league in slugging percentage his only year as an Oriole, then the Yankees came calling.

The Yankees, of course, also made the very first free-agent splash by signing the late Jim "Catfish" Hunter for an unimaginable amount of money at the time.

OK, this isn't supposed to be a whine-fest about the Yankees killing the sport with their spending. Rather, I'd like to point out that major-league stars of the 20th century didn't move around all that much before the '70s, unless they were near the beginning or end of their careers.

There were some exceptions, of course. Here are some involving future Hall of Famers:

Napoleon Lajoie. "Larry" jumped ship from the Phillies to the brand-new Philadelphia Athletics of the newly "major" American League in 1901. He went on to hit either .422 or .426, depending on the source, with the caveat that foul balls didn't count as strikes in the AL until 1903. At any rate, the Phillies got an injunction against him playing for the A's, but the action only was enforceable in Pennsylvania. Lajoie's contract was transferred to Cleveland, and when the Indians visited Philadelphia in 1902, Lajoie spent a few days relaxing in Atlantic City.

Eddie Collins, Frank Baker, Eddie Plank and Chief Bender. Popular belief has it that A's owner-manager Connie Mack was so distraught at his team being swept four straight in the 1914 World Series that he subsequently sold off his stars. Another version has Mack fearing the financial impact of the competing Federal League. Whatever the case, with four future Hall of Famers suddenly elsewhere, the A's dropped from 99 wins in '14 to a mere 43 in '15, a record that eclipses even the 1997-98 Marlins.

Tris Speaker. The Grey Eagle was the leading hitter by a wide margin for the World Champion 1915 Red Sox, and that includes a lad named George Herman Ruth (granted, he was a rookie pitcher that year). Speaker, realizing the Sox desperately needed his bat, tried for a pay raise and instead earned a trade to Cleveland. He proceeded to win the battle title in '16. As for the Red Sox ... well, even without Speaker, they managed to win the Series again, lefty Ruth contributing with a 14-inning, complete-game victory.

Babe Ruth. After clobbering 29 home runs in 1919 to set a new record, Ruth fetched a mighty dollar from the Yankees - wow, they were doing that before free agency! - when Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was desperate for money to finance his stage shows. "Frazee's Curse" denied the Sox another Series victory until 2004, or so New Englanders would believe.

Rogers Hornsby. The Rajah's nomadic ways would be extreme even in the age of free agency. After he won six straight National League batting titles, including a record .424 in 1924, Cardinals owner Sam Breadon promoted Hornsby to player-manager, and he was a success at that, too, guiding St. Louis to its first world's championship. So what did Breadon do? Shipped Hornsby off to the Giants, although another future Hall of Famer, Frank Frisch, came in return. Hornsby spent a season in New York, where he clashed with manager John McGraw. In 1928, Hornsby found himself banished, more or less, to the lowly Boston Braves. He won the battling title at .387, still a franchise record. The up-and-coming Chicago Cubs figured they could use Hornsby at second base, so they gave the Braves a bunch of bums named Bruce Cunningham, Percy Jones, Lou Legett, Freddie Maguire and Socks Seibold, plus $200,000. Hornsby helped the Cubs to the NL pennant in '29 and was named league MVP.

Al Simmons, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane and Lefty Grove. Mack strikes again. This time, supposedly, the Depression is to blame. At any rate, the A's went from three straight pennants in 1929-31 to not seriously contending for another 40 years, by which time Mack was long gone and the team was in Oakland (starring Jim Hunter and Reggie Jackson).

Frank Robinson. The 10-year veteran and 1961 MVP was shipped out of Cincinnati in what still is regarded as one of the very worst trades of all time. Robinson was just 30 when he landed in Baltimore in 1966, and he proceeded to win the next-to-last Triple Crown while guiding the Orioles to the championship.

Steve Carlton. "Lefty" lost 19 games for St. Louis in 1970 but rebounded to win 20 in '71. Cardinals owner Gussie Busch tended to dwell on the former during contract negotiations. Carlton objected and promptly was dealt to cellar-dwelling Philadelphia for that team's pitching ace, Rick Wise. In 1972, Carlton put together perhaps the greatest season in baseball history: 27 victories for a team that won only 59. No pitcher has surpassed that single-season win total since, and the way pitching staffs are formatted nowadays, no one is likely to do it in the future.

He's OK

2009-05-05T14:31:00.003-04:00

Rick Ankiel is OK.

He's out of the hospital, where he was taken after banging his head into the outfield wall against Philadelphia last night.

Rick Ankiel is OK on a whole other level, too.

He's a starter in the Cardinals outfield nearly a decade after breaking in with the team as a phenom pitcher, a nearly inconceivable transition in this era of sports specialization.

In 2000, Ankiel finished second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting and was a solid member of the St. Louis rotation heading into the playoffs.

He started against the Braves and future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who pitched uncharacteristically poorly and surrendered six runs in the first inning.

But Ankiel suddenly developed what's become known around baseball as "Steve Blass disease": He couldn't throw the ball over the plate. In the third inning, he recorded five wild pitches, something that hadn't happened in 110 years, let alone the postseason. Manager Tony La Russa was forced to relieve the rookie after 2 2/3 innings, during which he also walked six batters.

Despite Ankiel's problems, the Cardinals beat the Braves in the opening playoff series, advancing to face the Mets. La Russa opted to start Ankiel in the second game, but he walked twok threw a wild pitch and gave up two runs in just 2/3 of an inning.

La Russa used Ankiel again in mop-up duty as the Cardinals lost 7-0 to the Mets in the fifth and deciding game. According to Retrosheet, "Ankiel's last warm-up throw went to the backstop; during (Mike) Bordick's at bat the crowd chanted 'wild pitch' to Ankiel." The crowd was prophetic. Bordick walked, was sacrificed to second, and scored after two wild pitches. Ankiel then walked Edgardo Alfonzo and was relieved.

Ankiel won two more games in the majors, one each in 2001 and '04, but a series of injuries ended his pitching career. He announced he was going to switch to the outfield, but no one took that very seriously until he re-emerged in St. Louis in 2007.

Since then, he's hit 38 home runs in 666 at bats, not bad for a former hurler!

Here are some other players from way back when who made the switch from pitcher to batter:

George Herman Ruth (as if you didn't know). Keep in mind that Ruth was regarded as the best left-handed pitcher in the American League when he made the switch. In 1916, he hurled nine complete-game shutouts, still the AL record for lefties, later tied by Ron Guidry. And don't forget the 29 2/3-inning scoreless streak in the World Series.

George Sisler. The Hall of Fame first baseman always said his greatest thrill was, as a young pitcher, beating Walter Johnson twice. But Sisler's St. Louis Browns needed his bat more than his arm, and he compiled a lifetime record of 5-6 with a 2.35 ERA.

Francis "Lefty" O'Doul. The future batting champion, who still co-holds the National League record for hits in a season, was a marginal major-league pitcher with the Yankees and Red Sox in the early '20s, compiling a 1-1 record in 34 relief appearances. In 1923, he set a 20th-century record by allowing 13 runs in a single inning.

"Smokey Joe" Wood. Howard Ellsworth Wood was a pitcher of legendary prowess during the Dead Ball era, winning 81 games before he turned 23, including a 34-5 season for the Series-winning Red Sox in 1912. He hurt his arm the following spring, and despite leading the AL in earned run average in 1915, decided he was through pitching. He came back as an outfielder with Cleveland and played in the 1920 World Series.

James "Cy" Seymour. In his first two full seasons with the New York Giants, 1897-98, Seymour was a 20-game winner. In 1898, he struck out 239 batters, an extremely high total for the era. He also walked 213, eclipsing any single-season mark of the 20th century, and his career totals show 655 bases on balls in 1,043 innings. By 1905, he was a full-time outfielder with the Cincinnati Reds and nearly won the Triple Crown, posting a .377 batting average with 121 RBI and finishing second with eight home runs. He also led the NL in slugging, hits, doubles, triples and total bases.

Celebrating the greatest

2009-05-05T12:38:00.001-04:00

The greatest game ever pitched occurred May 26, 1959.

That's the contention of the Springfield/Clark County Baseball Hall of Fame, and it's difficult to argue the point.

On that evening in Milwaukee, Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix (1925-94) retired the first 36 Braves he faced for 12 perfect innings, one of those records that is extremely likely to stand forever. Unfortunately, he ended up losing the game, 1-0, in the 13th.

The folks in his hometown of Springfield, Ohio, are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the accomplishment with an event at the Heritage Center of Clark County. Scheduled speakers include members of the Haddix family, along with former major leaguers Bill Virdon, Jim O'Toole, Rick White and Galen Cisco.

To find out more about the proceedings in Springfield, which is about 3 1/2 hours from Washington, PA, call 937-324-0657.

Trivia #15: Whom did Harvey Haddix intentionally walk in the 13th inning on May 26, 1959? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

Enough with the pitch count!

2009-05-04T22:39:00.000-04:00

So, Paul Maholm is the Pirates' "ace." But once he's thrown near a hundred pitches, he's done for the evening. Don't want his arm to fall off.

So it's time for the relief corps. Tyler Yates holds everything together for one batter, but John Grabow comes in and allows the game-tying run.

That's OK, because on an uncharacteristically good offensive night, Andy (not Adam) LaRoche cracks a home run to put the Pirates back on top, 4-3.

So one comes closer Matt Capps, who's been effective ... Whoa! Was that just a three-run bomb hit by Rickie Weeks?

Yet another loss to the Brewers, who once were compared to the Pirates as far as their market and their ability to win. All those comparisons obviously have gone by the wayside.

So "Ace" Maholm ends up with a no-decision, his arm intact to pitch another day, but at the cost of the loss that probably sends the Pirates below .500 for the record-setting 17th straight season.

Draw your own conclusions, Pirates fans. Just remember that the complete game used to be a routine part of Major League Baseball.

Here we go again ... again

2009-05-04T13:13:00.003-04:00

Five games. Four losses, three of them by shutout. No home runs since April 26.

Everyone knew the Pirates' lineup was no murderers' row. But the bats have gone silent so quickly that we have to wonder if they'll ever wake up for any kind of sustained stretch.

The lineup that the Reds' Johnny Cueto (pictured in Associated Press photograph) mowed down on Sunday contained some names of note: Nyjer Morgan and Freddy Sanchez, both of whom still are hitting over .300; Nate McLouth, last year's token Pirates All-Star; and Adam LaRoche, who leads the team with five homers.

Then there was the lower half of the order: Brandon Moss, Andy LaRoche, Jason Jaramillo and Brian Bixler. Sounds like the core of a Triple-A roster.

Supposedly, Pirates manager John Russell has made comments to the effect that he's more impressed with the team's offensive output this season compared with last. That's because two legitimate big-league hitters, Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, were here then, and now they're not.

Injury has played a factor: catcher Ryan Doumit and shortstop Jack Wilson are on the disabled list. But even when they return, Pirates fans shouldn't expect a ton of runs to cross the plate.

Neither should they expect the Bucco pitching to keep up its impressive start. Even Pirates GM Neal Huntington admits that the staff's BABIP is very low and there might be some trouble once it starts to rise.

What's BABIP? That's batting average on balls in play, meaning that when a pitcher doesn't register a strikeout, he takes his chances with where the ball happens to land. In other words, a low BABIP means you're getting a lot of good luck, and the law of percentages tends to even those things out after a while.

And in other words, the Pirates' 11-7 start this year seems likely to have been an illusion. But the prospect of a 17th straight losing season is all too real.

Trivia #14: Prior to Sunday, when was the last time the Pirates were shut out three times in the span of four games? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

The youngest of 'em all

2009-05-04T12:17:00.004-04:00

He was 18 years, four months and 25 days old when he first pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, a post-1900 record as the team's youngest player.

Members of the Forbes Field chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research were fortunate to hear him speak on Saturday about his experiences with some of the sport's immortals.

Who is he? Find out in my column in Wednesday's Observer-Reporter.

Unbreakable

2009-05-03T22:55:00.003-04:00

Carl Crawford's six stolen bases on Sunday drew a lot of attention, seeing as how he's only the fourth player to do so since 1900. He still needs to do it again to tie Hall of Famer Eddie Collins, who did it twice. Still, with the comparative scarcity of stolen bases in this era, Crawford deserves a round of applause. His fantasy owners will sit up all night doing so ...

Crawford's performance prompted Alex Remington to post a blog entry on Yahoo!'s Big League Stew called "Baseball's most untouchable career record? Close, but not quite," in which he postulates that the career record for triples (variously cited at 309 and 312) set by Hall of Famer "Wahoo" Sam Crawford (no relation to Carl) is safer than Rickey Henderson's 1,406 steals.

I'm not sure that either of those records is remotely approachable, but I do know Remington's post set off a long series of comments that shows people, indeed, still know and care about the storied history of baseball.

I've always contended that the unbreakable Major League Baseball record was set by John Taylor, who pitched 1,727 consecutive innings without being relieved, a streak that was broken in 1906. Today, that's about 1,720 more innings than the typical starting pitcher would go without relief.

But pitching has evolved to the point where many records like that have absolutely no chance of being broken: Cy Young's 511 wins and 750 complete games, Walter Johnson's 110 shutouts and "Iron Man" Joe McGinnity's three complete-game doubleheader victories (that's two per day) in the same month come to mind.

As for batters, Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak usually is cited as the ultimate in unbreakable records. OK, they used to say that about Lou Gehrig's 2,130 consecutive games played, but ... at any rate, the conventional wisdom is that the pressure on a hitter nowadays to get within, say, 20 games of DiMaggio comes to be unbearable.

Just off the top of my head, here are a bunch more hitting records that should stand forever:

- Ty Cobb's .366 (or .367, by some calculations) lifetime batting average

- J. Owen Wilson's 36 triples in one season (no one else in the 20th century hit more than 26)

- Earl Webb's 67 doubles in one season

- Ted Williams' reaching base in 16 consecutive plate appearances

- Hack Wilson's 191 RBI (especially since that extra one was added half a century after his death)

- Rogers Hornsby's .424 batting average (unless you count the sources that had Nap Lajoie hitting .426 in 1901, when foul balls weren't counted as strikes)

- Tommy Holmes leading the league in home runs while striking out fewer than 10 times (28 home runs, 9 strikeouts), which might be the most impressive on this list

- Babe Ruth's career .690 slugging percentage

- Babe Ruth's career 1.164 OPS

- Babe Ruth out-homering every other team in the league (1927)

- Babe Ruth hitting 35 more home runs than the league runner-up

- Babe Ruth tying for the league lead in home runs while winning 13 games as a pitcher

- B. Lamar Bonds' 73 home runs (think about it), not to mention his career 500-plus homers / 500-plus stolen bases

All right, now that we're veering into Bonds territory, enough is enough. But it's good to see that baseball records still spark a lively debate.

By the way, Charles "Ol' Hoss" Radbourne once won 60 games in a season, plus three more in the first World's Series. But that was way back in 1884 ... so can we be sure it really happened?

(There's way too much trivia in this post to ask a trivia question!)

The savior struggles

2009-05-01T09:20:00.002-04:00

When the Pirates managed to sign Pedro Alvarez last year after contentious negotiations with agent Scott Boras, most thought he would spend a little time in the minors and then be called when the rosters expanded in September.

Well, the savior is not off to such a hot start in Class A Lynchburg. In 21 games, he is hitting .219 with four home runs and a league-best 20 RBI. The latter number is a bit deceiving in that he drove in five runs on either sacrifice flies or groundouts. He's also made seven errors at third base.

This doesn't mean he's going to be a bust. Most players need a period of adjustment in the minors, and Alvarez is too talented not to thrive. What it does mean is that missing all that time last season while his agent played games with the Pirates (ignoring offers, not returning phone calls) delayed the process. Alvarez is 22 and has played three years of college ball at Vanderbilt. But he hasn't been in a competitive baseball game since last spring. The layoff after the draft has obviously affected him.

Why Wilson matters

2009-04-30T09:41:00.002-04:00

Jack Wilson was almost traded at last year's deadline, then again in the offseason but the Pirates should think about signing the shortstop to an extension. With Wilson out with an injury, we have gotten a look at what his replacement might be in the organization in Brian Bixler and Ramon Vazquez. It's obvious the Pirates do not have a shortstop ready for the majors now or in the near future.

Wilson was being shopped because of his salary - about $7 million this season - and that's a lot for a weak-hitting, good glove shortstop in the league. On the free-agent market, he won't get much interest.

After watching Bixler strike out four times in a game in Milwaukee and Vazquez limp along at a .171 pace, the Pirates should extend Wilson, obviously not at $7 mill per, but something workable in the budget. His contract is up after this season and he's 30, still young enough to play the position effectively for two or three more years.

Bixler is a stiff, who won't be anything more than a bench player and Vazquez is just an older version at 33.

The other intangible for Wilson is that the fans like him and he seems to like playing here. Now, that might change with the next offer but the Pirates should at least try to keep him.

Miller time (to lose)

2009-04-29T11:30:00.003-04:00

Unless you're a beer drinker, Milwaukee might not seem like the world's most exciting destination.

For the Pittsburgh Pirates, it's become a trip to dread. Big time.

With its 6-5 loss to the Brewers last night, Pittsburgh now has lost 17 games in a row at Milwaukee's Miller Park. That probably isn't a record – the old St. Louis Browns seem to have gone through most of the 1930s without winning a game at the original Yankee Stadium – but it adds one more item to the Pirates' long list of negatives.

The team has an opportunity to end the streak this afternoon before returning home Friday. And even if the Pirates lose, they're still one game above .500. So that's good, at least.

Miller Park wasn't always an automatic defeat for Pittsburgh. The Pirates won the first game they ever played there, with Jason Schmidt and two relievers combining for a 3-0 shutout on May 11, 2001.

And the following year, the Pirates swept the Brewers in an early-season three-game series, immediately after which Milwaukee fired manager Davey Lopes. And on the next visit to Miller Park, in July 2002, Pittsburgh won the first three games of a four-game series.

On July 9, 2003, then-Pirate Randall Simon whacked one of the Brewers' sausage mascots with a bat in what he thought was a humorous gesture. He ended up being arrested, fined and suspended.

That incident doesn't seem to have jinxed the Pirates, at least not right away. The team's Miller Park record after that was a decent 12-13 through the end of 2006.

On May 3, 2007, Tom Gorzelanny outdueled Dave Bush in a 4-2 Pirates victory. The next day, the Brewers won, 10-0, starting a losing streak that persists to this day.

At least, it persisted through yesterday. We'll see if the Miller Park curse ends today.

In the beginning: Allegheny

2009-04-27T16:29:00.002-04:00

References to the Pittsburgh Pirates usually have the franchise dating back to 1887, and if you recall, the team officially marked its centennial in 1987.

Technically, the history starts in 1882, making Pittsburgh tied with Cincinnati and St. Louis for the third-oldest continuous franchise in Major League Baseball.

Those first five seasons generally aren't recognized because the team played in the American Association, which operated as an acknowledged major league from 1882 through 1891, in competition with the National League. When the Association went out of business, its memory was submerged in the depths of baseball history, to be unearthed by researchers generations later.

Pittsburgh's first major-league team actually played in the city of Allegheny, now the North Side; hence its nickname, the Alleghenys. In fact, the American Association was founded during a meeting held in Pittsburgh.

For a squad that came together for the first time, the Alleghenys did well in 1882, winning 39 and losing the same number, good for fourth place in the six-team league.

The star of the team was outfielder Ed Swartwood, who, at 23, was the youngest regular. He led the Alleghenys in most offensive categories, including a .329 batting average, 107 hits and four home runs.

Pitcher Denny Driscoll, one of baseball's first successful lefthanders, had a 13-9 record with a stellar 1.21 earned-run average, the lowest ever in the Association. But that figure is purely retroactive; the concept of the earned run didn't develop until the early 20th century. Research has shown that a whopping 46 out of the 73 runs Driscoll gave up that year were unearned! Even in an era where teams averaged three or four errors per game, that's an unusally high percentage of unearned runs.

Whatever the case, Driscoll wasn't nearly as effective in 1883, slipping to 18-21 on a team that finished 31-67. Swartwood again led the way at the plate, with his .357 average nearly a hundred points higher than the next-best batter on the team.

The Alleghenys did even worse in 1884, with a 30-78 record in a league that had doubled in the number of teams from its inaugural year. Swartwood slipped to .288, but the next best mark among Allegheny hitters was just .231; as a whole, the team batted only .211. The top pitcher was Florence – yes, he was a man – Sullivan at 16-35.

In 1885, the Alleghenys righted the ship to finish 56-55, primarily through the efforts of pitcher Ed Morris. The 22-year-old lefty won 39 times in 63 starts, all complete games. Back then, management considered pitchers a disposable commodity, good for only a couple of years.

But a late arrival to Pittsburgh that season broke the mold: James "Pud" Galvin's career lasted 15 season, and he was the first pitcher in history to win 300 games. He also was the first future Hall of Famer to play in Pittsburgh.

Galvin and Morris led the way to the Alleghenys' most successful season: an 80-57 record, good for second place behind the St. Louis Browns, today's Cardinals. The tandem combined for 70 victories, while the team batting average of .241 wasn't that far off the league mark of .243. (On the other end of the spectrum, the Baltimore AA batters combined to hit .204, the lowest team average in history.)

Meanwhile, Allegheny management had developed a contentious relationship with the American Association hierarchy, and Pittsburgh jumped ship to the National League for the 1887 season. And that's where team history starts.

But there was a prehistoric version of what became the Pirates, even if the team didn't have all that much success in the American Association.

Trivia #13: Who was the second future Hall of Famer to play in Pittsburgh? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

Time for 'Bucco fever'

2009-04-27T14:16:00.003-04:00

An e-mail came from a friend today asking, "Anyone else have Bucco fever?"

That's what an 11-7 start will do for a victory-starved fandom.

The second-place Pirates will return to Pittsburgh Friday with an above-.500 record, even if they fail to win any of three games in Milwaukee. And the Brewers aren't exactly lighting it up so far, starting the season 8-10.

The Pirates' hot start is attributable mainly to a starting rotation that's been stellar so far. Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, Ross Ohlendorf, Ian Snell and Jeff Karstens have combined for a 10-5 record and a stingy 3.02 earned-run average. Duke, Maholm and Ohlendorf have particularly helped the cause by walking a cumulative 2.18 batters per nine innings.

Can the pitchers possibly sustain the good work?

Sabermetricians, as baseball-statistic geeks like to be known, come up with all kinds of numbers to explain the nuances of the game. One of the newer stats to catch on is BABIP, which stands for batting average for balls in play. It's meant to measure a "luck" factor for pitchers; in other words, whether batters who hit fair balls end up on base. A low BABIP usually means you've been getting a lot of breaks, and sooner or later those balls are going to start skirting between infielders or dropping in front of outfielders.

The way to avoid BABIP being a huge factor is to strike batters out, something the Pirate pitchers don't do as often as they should. Snell, at 6.1 strikeouts per nine innings, leads the starting staff by a wide margin; Maholm, Ohlendorf and Karstens all are under 4.

By comparison, the Cubs' Rich Harden has struck out 35 batters in just 21 innings, a National League-leading average of 15 per nine. The Pirates' starting five hurlers have fanned 55 in 113 1/3 innings, fewer than one for every two innings.

Read into those numbers what you'd like, but don't be surprised if the runs allowed start piling up as the season progresses.

But perhaps the Pittsburgh hitters will step it up, too, and "Bucco fever" will persist well into the summer.

Trivia #12: Name the player who, in his only season as a Pirate, hit 31 home runs and stole 15 bases. For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

I hate the Yankees

2009-04-25T09:35:00.002-04:00

Growing up in New Castle, the population was split between cheering for the Indians and the Pirates. I was in the former group, but I did like the Pirates. The arch enemy of the Indians were the Yankees, and I hated them, not just because they were always good but because they always beat the Indians.

So it is with some satisfaction that I have watched the Yankees and their $200 million payroll play like a mediocre team over the past few years. Their payroll drags up salaries for every player in the league.

The Yankees are old, slow and will be out of the playoffs again this year. One of their best players, Alex Roid-riguez, admitted to cheating and now is rehabbing an injury. But his presence in the lineup won't change the Yankees' fortunes. Their pitching stinks and defense is mediocre. Does Johnny Damon even have an arm connected to his shoulder to throw the ball.

They can't build a new stadium right. Their right-field fence is of Pony League dimensions, thanks to unexpected wind pattersn that their engineers did not take into account. But hey, they only spent $1.5 billion,

New York fans are not thrilled with the new edifice, leaving thousands of the best seats empty because of how expensive they are. On Friday night, they lost to the hated Red Sox, an organization that is far and away more intelligent than the Yankees.

It's so much fun watching that.

In the beginning

2009-04-24T19:35:00.003-04:00

My last post was about the troubles the Phillies are having this season. And even though the team won the World Series last year, the franchise is much better known for its losing ways than for winning.

Only a handful of teams have been around longer than Philadelphia's National League entry, which debuted back in 1883 and immediately set the bar awfully low, posting a miserable 17-81 record.

Back then, one pitcher would hurl a majority of games for a team. And the guy who drew the short straw for the Quakers ("Phillies" came a few years later) was 20-year-old John Coleman.

Opponents treated poor John like he was tossing batting practice. He managed to win a dozen games, but lost 48, surrendering 772 hits and 510 runs in the process. (Yes, you read that correctly.) And they stuck him in the outfield on the days when he wasn't pitching! It was a different game back then, but still ...

Actually, he wasn't even the worst pitcher on the team. Art Hagan, also 20, managed to give up 151 runs in just 17 games. That helps a great deal in explaining his 1-14 record.

Bob Ferguson, the team's first-ever manager, resigned from the top spot after a 4-13 start, but continued to play second base, hitting a respectable (it would seem) .258. Baseball historians tend to remember him best for his nickname, "Death to Flying Things." Sounds like a good name for a heavy-metal band ...

The Quakers fared somewhat better in 1884, when Hall of Fame manager Harry Wright came on board. Still, it took until 1915 for the franchise to win its first NL pennant and until 1980 to win its first World Series.

Champs' rough start

2009-04-24T19:11:00.003-04:00

People here in Pittsburgh tend to root against Philadelphia teams, particularly when the intrastate rivals are battling in an NHL playoff series.

In baseball, while the perennial doormat Pirates are off to a good start, the champion Phillies are struggling. They're 6-8, which certainly could be worse. But the manner in which they've compiled that .429 winning percentage so far is making history.

Philadelphia's opponents have hit at least one home run in every one of those 14 games, which the Elias Sports Bureau has determined to be a record for the beginning of a season.

Giving up the long ball is going to lead to a ton of runs on the other side of the ledger, and it took the Phils to Game 13 to hold the other team to fewer than three runs. They lost that one, 3-1, to Milwaukee, even though Brewers starter Braden Looper failed to strike out a batter in six innings.

That all adds up to a 6.31 team earned-run average and 31 home runs surrendered, which is on pace for 359 on the year. And the weather is just warming up at Citizens Bandbox Park!

Matt Stairs, who was born during the LBJ administration (albeit in Canada), is doing all right for the Phillies, with two home runs in his first 10 at-bats. That gives him 256 for his 17-year career. And 20 of those came during 2003, his only season in Pittsburgh.

Not bad for a guy who, according to some observers, looks like he should be playing in a beer softball league.

Another older Phillie, 37-year-old Raul Ibanez, is off to a good start as well, with five home runs and a .345 batting average.

Ibanez is one of those classic late bloomers. He was 30 before he got his first full-time major-league gig, in the Kansas City outfield in 2002. Since then, his driven in 89 or more runs each season. Four times he's topped 100 RBI, including the past three seasons with Seattle.

Money for nothin'

2009-04-22T11:57:00.003-04:00

Barry Zito is a good guitar player.

He used to be a good pitcher. Good enough, in fact, to have the San Francisco Giants offer him a $100 million-plus contract after the 2006 season.

That's about the time people could stop using "good" and "pitcher" in the same sentence when referring to him.

Zito, who's scheduled to start for the Giants today, has compiled a 21-30 record so far with the team. And it's not really a matter of no offensive support. His earned-run average in a San Francisco uniform stands at 4.95, in a home park that's supposed to favor pitchers.

So far this year, he's lost his first two starts giving up 10 earned runs in 9 innings. That must have Giants fans groaning: Here we go again …

In 2008, Zito, a former American League Cy Young Award winner, lost his first eight decisions. San Francisco management threatened to banish him to the bullpen, but he responded with a victory just in time, beating Florida on May 23.

From then on he wasn't so bad, but he did end up tying for the league lead in losses with 17.

Zito won't turn 31 for another couple of weeks, so he's not too old to turn his career back around. And since he throws with his left hand, he probably will be in demand for quite a few more seasons in one capacity or another.

But his performance so far as a Giant serves as a reminder that long-term contracts for pitchers might not be the wisest of baseball investments. Even if they play a mean guitar.

Trivia #11: Who signed with Colorado for what was the richest contract for a pitcher at the time, and compiled a 21-28 record for the Rockies? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

First game

2009-04-22T11:30:00.004-04:00

Baseball fans tend to have vivid memories of the first major-league games they attended, and I'm no different.

On Saturday, April 14, 1973, our dad drove my brother and me from home in Harrisburg to Veterans Stadium, to see the Phillies play the Mets. We picked that night because Steve Carlton, who was coming off a 27-win season for a 59-win team, was scheduled to pitch for Philadelphia.

I'd never seen a structure as immense as the Vet, which seated more than 60,000 at the time. As we walked toward the stadium, Dad pointed toward the columns at the top and joked, "Those are people standing up there because there aren't any seats."

We squinted to determine if those really were people and worried that, with Carlton on the mound, we might not be able to get tickets. Turns out the attendance that night was only 11,000-plus, so we were able to buy general admission, no problem. I think it cost a total of $7 for the three of us.

I remember the vendors walking around selling beer (I wasn't interested in that yet) and hot dogs, which they kept in portable heating units strapped to their necks and sold for what seemed like the unreasonably high price of a dollar apiece.

I remember the deep green of the Astroturf; the yellow, orange and red seats differentiating the various levels; and the striking symmetry of the Vet. Since I'd never been to a "traditional ballpark" like Forbes Field or Connie Mack Stadium, the newly designed stadiums that became known as "concrete ashtrays" were just fine with me.

I remember looking into center field and seeing the legendary Willie Mays. He might have been 42 years old, but his presence was a thrill for a little kid like me.

Most of all, I remember a couple of rookies who were available before the game to sign our yearbook. Their names were Bob Boone and Mike Schmidt. Boone went on to set the record for most games caught, since broken by Carlton Fisk. Schmidt, of course, went on to Cooperstown.

Boy, I wish I still had that yearbook.

As for the game, I remember the Phillies winning and Carlton pitching well. I looked it up, and he actually pitched a complete game in a 7-3 victory. I also remember that I'd never heard of his mound opponent, Jim McAndrew, before. It turned out that McAndrew, once a highly regarded prospect, was in his final season with the Mets and next-to-last in his career.

Things went much better for Carlton, who retired with 329 victories, second to Warren Spahn among lefthanders. But 1973 was far from his best season; he ended up losing 20 games as the Phils ended up in the basement again. The Mets went on to the World Series.

We attended several more games in '73, including one at Three Rivers Stadium, where we saw Willie Mays a final time. (Unfortunately, he fell down and hurt himself.) But the memories of those other games are lost in a haze compared with the first one.

Trivia #10: Which pitcher's team failed to score a single run for him in his first four major-league starts? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

I thought he was dead

2009-04-21T17:03:00.003-04:00

This short story caught my attention the other day.

"The Washington Nationals placed left-handed relief pitcher Joe Beimel on the 15-day disabled list and recalled right- hander Saul Rivera from Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday. Beimel is suffering from a strained left hip flexor muscle he sustained while making a defensive play in the team's 3-2 win against Atlanta on Monday. He has a 1.23 earned run average in eight games this season."

Most of you remember Beimel as a relief pitcher for the Pirates. But what's truly amazing about Beimel is that he is one of three current professional players who attended Duquesne University, my alma mater. I didn't think they had three professional athletes in the history of the university.

Can you name the other two?

Frustration … elsewhere, for a change

2009-04-21T14:06:00.004-04:00

One of the more promising young pitchers in the majors is Max Scherzer, a 24-year-old righthander for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

So far in his brief career, Scherzer has shown signs of living up to his potential. In 66 innings, he's struck out 73 batters while compiling a 3.14 earned run averages.

He also has five losses and has yet to earn his first major-league win.

The D-Backs haven't given him much offense. In his seven starts last year, Arizona scored a total of 16 runs. Scherzer's team did score seven runs in his first 2009 start, a victory over the Cardinals, but he was gone by the time the game was decided. And on Sunday, he lost when the Diamondbacks were blanked by the Giants, 2-0.

If he keeps pitching well, his luck is bound to change. But until he earns that first win, no one can blame him for feeling frustrated.

Speaking of frustration, let's take a look at the Washington Nationals. They've played a dozen games and have two wins to show for it.

And few people expect the situation to improve much throughout a long summer in D.C.

On paper, the Nationals don't look that bad, especially at the plate. Nick Johnson, Adam Dunn, Elijah Dukes, Austin Kearns and Ryan Zimmerman all have shown ability to hit, and all are 30 or younger. Another Nat who's currently in the minors, Lastings Milledge, is supposed to be pretty good, too.

As for the pitching … well, that's what usually builds winning teams, and Washington looks to be suffering. Heralded 23-year-old righty Jordan Zimmermann provided a bright spot by beating the Braves Monday in his major-leage debut. But beyond him, the pickings look rather slim, even with ex-Pirates Joe Beimel and Kip Wells in the bullpen.

Frustrating for certain New Yorkers, but not for the rest of us, are the travails of the Yankees in their new stadium.

Aided and abetted the team's 22-4 pasting at the hands of Cleveland on Saturday, the New York pitching staff is putting up some truly ugly numbers: 6.53 earned-run average, lowlighted by ex-Pirate Damaso Marte (21.00 ERA), formerly reliable Chien-Ming Wang (34.50) and Anthony Claggett (43.20), whose only career appearance to date was mopping up in that Indian massacre.

Some of the pitching problems have been caused by the large number (so far) of what looks like routine fly balls landing in the stands. Engineers who designed the new stadium have been consulted about why this is occurring, but the totals are in the books: four games, 11 homers surrendered by New York pitching. At that pace, opponents would hit 223 home runs at Yankee Stadium this year.

Also frustrating for the Steinbrenner clan are attendance figures, with more than 5,000 seats not sold for Sunday's game. TV cameras are showing plenty of emptiness, especially in the areas where tickets are going for hundreds of bucks per seat.

Couldn't happen to a better team …

Trivia #9: What pitcher lost the most consecutive games at the start of his career? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

Who are those guys?

2009-04-21T13:23:00.005-04:00

Let's take a look back at the 2008 season, specifically the performances of the Pirates pitchers.

As a whole, the team compiled a 5.10 earned-run average, which ranked last in the National League by almost a quarter of a run. And the second-worst team was the Colorado Rockies, where pitchers still are susceptible to getting crushed despite the baseballs being stored in humidors.

Between hits and walks, the Pirates allowed more than a baserunner and a half per inning. They walked 657 batters, the most in the league, and struck out 963, just six more than St. Louis, which ranked last in the category.

With a few exceptions - Paul Maholm, Matt Capps, John Grabow and Damaso Marte, before he was traded to the Yankees – Pittsburgh's hurlers were substandard by just about any measure.

Tom Gorzelanny posted a 6.66 ERA, which earned him a trip to Purgatory (also known as the minor leagues). Franquelis Osoria and Denny Bautista both posted ERAs over 6 while pitching in 35 or more games. Matt Morris earned an eight-figure salary while posting a 9.67 ERA in five starts before management had sense enough to cut bait.

And onetime top draft pick John Van Benschoten managed to win a game but topped out at 10.48, giving him an historically awful 9.20 ERA for his 90-inning Major League career.

OK, enough of 2008. How about Pirates pitching in '09?

If you've caught some baseball in between hockey playoffs and NFL draft talk, you may have noticed that Pittsburgh leads the majors with four shutouts already, including three in the past four games. Zach Duke blanked Houston while going the distance, only the fourth time he's done that in more than 100 career starts. Maholm so far has shown that his decent '08 season was no fluke, with a record so far of 2-0 with an 0.87 ERA. Even Ross Ross Ohlendorf has shown that last year's trade with the Yankees might pay some dividends, as his ERA is 3.00.

Meanwhile, the Pirates are leading the league in earned-run average while playing over .500.

Who are those guys?

Yeah, I know. It's early.

But Pittsburgh baseball is so starved for good news, we'll take it, even if we're still in April.

Trivia #8: What was the first team to finish in last place despite leading the league in earned-run average? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

'Chicks dig the long ball' ... but will HOF voters?

2009-04-20T06:46:00.003-04:00

With the count at 3-0 and the game in the ninth inning, my friend and I figured we'd have to come back on Sunday.

We'd been at Three Rivers Stadium Friday night, too, and witnessed the 499th home run hit by Michael Jack Schmidt, our favorite player while we were growing up in Harrisburg in the '70s.

The outlook didn't look so good for Saturday, April 18, 1987. Schmidt started 0-for-3, and in what we were assuming was his last at-bat of the day, Pirates pitcher Don Robinson had thrown three straight balls. With Pittsburgh winning 6-5 and two runners on base, it seemed like Robinson would have been wise to waste a pitch and take his chances with the next man in the lineup, rookie Chris James.

Instead, Robinson's pitch sailed into Schmidt comfort zone, and he launched it into the stands for home run No. 500 (and won the game for the Phils in the process). His feat was celebrated not only in Philadelphia, but throughout the baseball world, with the possible exception of Pittsburgh.

Twenty-two years ago, baseball enthusiasts could rattle off the legendary names in the 500-homer club, from Ott and Banks and Mathews to the trio at the top, Aaron, Ruth and Mays. Each and every one of the men who had reached that plateau had been enshrined, or eventually would be, in the Hall of Fame.

The other day, Gary Sheffield hit his 500th career home run as a pinch-hitter for the Mets. Did you know? Did you care?

Sheffield is yet another product of the era of the prevalent home run, when circumstances conspired to make baseballs sail out of parks with a frequency never seen before. Blame steroids; blame loaded balls; blame lousy pitching, as I do. Whatever the case, 500 home runs is no guarantee of immortality.

Heck, I remember when 400 homers ensured a trip to Cooperstown, until Dave Kingman came along. However many long balls you hit, a .236 career batting average isn't going to cut it.

Here are the players who have reached at least the 400 mark in the years since Schmidt hit his 500th: Chipper Jones, Mike Piazza, Cal Ripken Jr., Juan Gonzalez, Andre Dawson, Jeff Bagwell, Jose Canseco, Dave Winfield, Carlos Delgado, Fred McGriff, Sheffield, Eddie Murray, Frank Thomas, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds.

Ripken, Winfield and Murray already have been voted into the Hall of Fame. But how many of those other guys are going to make it to Cooperstown?

Piazza is a shoo-in as probably the best-hitting catcher in history. Jones has a very good shot as a mainstay of all those Braves' division-winning teams, and Griffey has had a long, productive career despite losing significant time to injury.

As for the rest of them, Dawson has been received a good many votes, but so far, no good. Bagwell and Thomas probably will get serious consideration. And A-Rod's numbers eventually might be too much to ignore, despite his recent steroid-related issues.

Voters already have made it clear that McGwire and Canseco are persona non grata in Cooperstown, and they'll probably do the same for Palmeiro and Sosa. And even the all-time leader, Bonds.

That leaves Thome, McGriff, Delgado and Gonzalez. Wonderful players, all. But eventual Hall of Famers?

Stay tuned.

Trivia #7: Which non-pitcher whose career started after 1900 has the fewest career home runs among Hall of Famers? Scroll down and look to the right for the answer

Oh, happy day!

2009-04-18T22:05:00.004-04:00

As they say, it's only April. There's a long way to go in the 2009 season.

But Saturday was about as fun as baseball gets.

A television happened to be tuned to the Cleveland-New York game at the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium. The Yankees took a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Then ...

I watched the Indians go to work on Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang, who already was off to a rough start this season, giving up 15 runs in his first two starts. Shin-Soo Choo belted a three-run homer to give Cleveland the lead, then came a bunch more hits to make it 9-2, with the bases loaded. Up stepped Asdrubal Cabrera, who made his first home run of the year a grand slam. Grady Sizemore followed Cabrera's blast with one of his own, before Mark DeRosa finally made the third out. That was OK; DeRosa ended up with six RBI on the day in the Indians' 22-4 win.

Poor Wang. The guy's numbers now look like this for '09: three starts, six innings, 23 hits against, six walks, two strikeouts, and 23 earned runs. That gives him an ERA of 34.50, meaning he's pretty much ruined the season already for anyone who drafted him in a fantasy league.

Relieving Wang was a pitcher named Anthony Paul Claggett, a 24-year-old righty making his Major League debut. The kid probably wishes he'd stayed in Scranton after the pasting the Indians gave him: eight earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. That's an ERA of 43.20.

Whatever the case, it was great to see the Yankees and their zillion-dollar payroll get pounded into the dust in their brand-spanking-new ballpark, where the average seat costs $73. The New Yorkers who anted up on Saturday sure got their money's worth!!!

And while the Bronx Bombers were getting bombed, the good ol' Pirates were winning their second straight shutout over the Braves, this time 10-0.

Come October, the Yankees probably will be in the playoffs, and the Pirates long since will have gone home. But we always can look back on April 18, 2009, and smile.

Trivia #6: What team scored the most runs in one inning (post-1900)? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.

Return of the complete game?

2009-04-17T11:21:00.000-04:00

Longtime broadcaster and former catcher Tim McCarver was talking on EPSN's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" about yesterday's opening game at the new Yankee Stadium.

To the delight of Yankee haters everywhere, Cleveland smacked the Bronx Bombers around, 10-2. McCarver blamed middle-relief meltdown for New York's loss, then said it's about time to return to the days when starting pitchers lasted more than five or six innings per game.

The problem, he said, is that pitchers are brought along too gingerly in the minor leagues, and by the time they reach the majors, their arms can't hold up too, say, 200 innings in a season.

He did admit that he'd probably be long gone when (if?) baseball returns to the tradition of pitchers going the distance being the norm again.

McCarver cited Toronto's Roy Halladay as the prime example of the type of pitcher who throws nine innings. Indeed, Halladay led the American League in complete games last year, with nine, a huge total for these days.

During McCarver's playing career (1959-80), the story was much different.

For example, McCarver caught Bob Gibson for several years during the Hall of Famer's heyday. Between 1965 and 1972, Gibson logged 20 or more complete games seven out of eight seasons, including two years with 28 CGs in each. And the only year he missed the 20 mark, he missed a a month and a half after Roberto Clemente lined a ball off Gibson's leg and broke it (July 15, 1967).

For the record, here are the last pitchers to reach the following complete-game milestones:

10 – Randy Johnson, Diamondbacks, 1999 (12)

15 – Curt Schilling, Phillies, 1998

20 – Fernando Valenzuela, Dodgers, 1986

25 – Rick Langford, A's, 1980 (28)

30 – Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Yankees, 1975

By the way, Zach Duke already has pitched a complete game for the Pirates this season. The team as a whole logged a total of three in 2008.

Show me the money

2009-04-16T18:42:00.002-04:00

It was only a few years ago that the debate raged in Major League Baseball about why black children were not playing baseball anymore. Polls were taken, data collected and analysis made on why these children were abandoning the sport for basketball and football. One of the reasons offered was that the other two sports offered better salaries.

Well, consider this: The top 10 paid players in Major Leage Baseball for 2009:

1. Alex Rodriguez, NYY $28,000,000
2. Jason Giambi, NYY $23,428,571
3. Derek Jeter, NYY $21,600,000
4. Manny Ramirez, BOS $18,929,923
5. Carlos Beltran, NYM $18,622,810
6. Ichiro Suzuki, SEA $17,102,149
7. Johan Santana, NYM $16,984,216
8. Todd Helton, COL $16,600,000
9. Torii Hunter, ANA $16,500,000
10t. Bobby Abreu, NYY $16,000,000
10t. Carlos Delgado, NYM $16,000,000
10t. Andy Pettitte, NYY $16,000,000
10t. Carlos Zambrano, CHC $16,000,000

Three players - Mark Teixeira, Mike Lowell and Carlos Lee - were tied for 50th at $12.5 million. At 150 on the list is New York shortstop Jose Reyes at $6.1 million.

I'm not sure why this debate began in the first place but looking at these numbers, it's obvious that salary should have little to do with why fewer blacks are playing baseball.

Man of many talents

2009-04-15T13:19:00.002-04:00

We'd all love to be able to say we excel in one high-profile field of endeavor.

For Bernie Williams, make that two.

Unlike many athletes, the longtime Yankeee center fielder had another career waiting for him once his playing days ended. Then again, he's still playing, guitar instead of baseball.

I'd caught Williams performing occasionally on TV shows and thought, man, I'd love to play like that! And I heard him once again this morning on ESPN's "Mike & Mike in the Morning," finger-picking a jazzy version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Bernie was promoting his second CD, "Moving Forward," which was released Tuesday on Reform Records. According to his Web site:

"The Puerto Rico native and five-time All Star is a classically trained musician who developed his love for playing guitar alongside baseball, while listening to salsa, merengue and '80s rock. 'Moving Forward' embraces those early influences, while also reflecting a unique mixture of classical and jazz guitar topped-off with additional Latin rhythms."

One of the CD tracks is a live performance featuring Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Springsteen, who, being from Jersey, probably have some affinity for the Yankees.

I can't stand 'em personally, but I love Williams' guitar playing and am willing to overlook his tenure in pinstripes!

In a previous post, I mentioned several candidates to have their major-league careers span four decades, the 1980s through the 2010s.

Among them was Tom Glavine, the Braves' lefty who joined the 300-win club last year and was targeted to be in Atlanta's starting rotation this season.

But as Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend." CBSSports.com reports:

"Tom Glavine may retire if his sore left shoulder doesn't improve in two weeks. Glavine was told Tuesday he must rest for at least two weeks after inflammation was found in his left rotator cuff. The 43-year-old had an MRI and was examined by Dr. James Andrews, who advised treatment and rest."

If we've seen the last of Glavine on the pitcher's mound, here's a tip of the baseball cap to one stellar career.

Today, Pittsburgh acquired switch-hitting outfielder Delwyn Young from the Dodgers for two minor league players or for cash. Didn't they learn their lesson when Andy LaRoche came over from LA?

The skinny on Young: a .267 average in 110 games over three major league seasons; 14 pinch-hits for the Dodgers last season while hitting .246 with one home run and seven RBI in 126 at-bats.

He'll turn 27 in June, and that sometimes marks the point when hitters start reaching their potential. Let's see if he's still in Pittsburgh by then.

The Bird is dead at 54

2009-04-13T18:13:00.002-04:00

BOSTON (AP) — Former All-Star pitcher Mark “the Bird” Fidrych was found dead Monday in an apparent accident at his farm. He was 54.
Worcester County district attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. saids a family friend found Fidrych about 2:30 p.m. Monday beneath a pickup truck at his Northborough, Mass., farm. He appeared to be working on the truck, Early said.
The colorful right-hander was the American League rookie of the year in 1976 when he went 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA. He spent all five of his major league seasons with the Detroit Tigers, compiling a 29-19 record and a 3.10 ERA.
His career was cut short by injuries.
Fidrych attempted a comeback in 1983 with the Boston Red Sox and went to their Triple A team in Pawtucket, R.I. But he never pitched in the majors after 1980 and retired in 1983.
The Worcester, Mass., native later owned a trucking business.
Fidrych acquired the nickname “the Bird” because of his resemblance to the Big Bird character on the Sesame Street television show. During games, he would bend down and groom the mound with his hands, appear to talk to the baseball and slap high fives with teammates in the middle of the diamond.
He started the 1976 All-Star game after opening the season with seven wins in eight decisions. He finished that season with 24 complete games.
But he tore knee cartilage during spring training the following year and was placed on the disabled list until May 24. He sustained a shoulder injury in July 1977 and ended up pitching in just 58 games during his major league career.
State police detectives are investigating the circumstances of his death, Early said.

Goodbye, Harry

2009-04-13T14:27:00.002-04:00

They're all gone now.

When I became a baseball fan in the early 1970s, it was of the Philadelphia Phillies. My dad's family came from Philly, and where we lived in Harrisburg, we received the Phils' broadcasts and telecasts.

So the first voices of the game I heard were those of Phillies announcers Byrum Saam, Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas.

Saam, I'd soon learn, had been broadcasting for the team since 1939, the year after the Phillies moved out of the decrepit 19th-century playing venue known as the Baker Bowl. Ashburn had starred for those same Phillies when they suddenly turned into National League pennant winners in 1950, known to history as the Whiz Kids.

Kalas was the new kid on the block, in his 30s when he joined the broadcast team in 1971. But what a voice he had. I soon heard it on National Football League broadcasts in the off-season, and narrating NFL Films for posterity.

Richie was the first to go, suffering a fatal heart attack after a road game against the Mets in 1997. By lived until 2000, passing away at 85 after enjoying his retirement from broadcasting.

And today, we learn that Harry collapsed prior to the Phillies game scheduled in Washington, D.C., and died shortly afterward. He was 73.

Goodbye, Harry. Thanks for the memories.

A younger generation of researchers

2009-04-12T21:06:00.005-04:00

They say the “younger generation” has no interest in baseball anymore, especially people who have grown up around Pittsburgh.

There’s at least one exception, though. My oldest son has the vaguest of memories of the last time the Pirates played winning ball. But he’s a big fan of the sport in general, including its storied (and not-so-storied) history.

Last weekend, after a couple of hours of helping me with yard work while we listened to the Buccos lose another one, he said he was going to do a bit of research. He emerged with a list that I found so interesting, I’d love to share it with you. ...

... and I will, in my column in Wednesday's Observer-Reporter. Pick up a copy at your local newsstand!

Trivia #5: Besides Willie Stargell, who is the last Pirate to hit 40 or more home runs in a season? (For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.)

Reds' bunch o' bums

2009-04-12T20:34:00.002-04:00

In Pittsburgh, it's fashionable to bash the Pirates, and for good reason. But after their series in Cincinnati, it seems as if Pittsburgh is going to finish ahead of anyone in the NL Central, it's the Reds.

I've heard some talk on sports radio that Cincinnati might make some noise this year, with "young talent" and "good pitching." Well, if they watched Aaron Harang shut out the Pirates on Sunday, that type of reasoning might hold some merit.

Judging by the "talent" in the latter half of the Reds' lineup, their pitchers are going to have to put up a lot of zeroes for the team to have any kind of success this year.

On Sunday, hitting fifth through eighth for Cincinnati were Jay Bruce, Edwin Encarnacion, Ramon Hernandez and Alex Gonzalez. They went a combined 2-for-13 against Ian Snell and three relievers. Encarnacion got one of those hits, but he also hit into a rare triple play.

For the first week of the season, those players had a cumulative 60 at-bats and 8 hits for a .133 batting average. Hernandez and Gonzalez were a combined 1-for-27.

It's not as if those guys haven't had success in the past. Encarnacion, Hernandez and Gonzalez all have had 20-homer seasons. Bruce broke into the majors with a bang last year, hitting .400 over his first 14 games and finishing fifth in National League Rookie of the Year balloting.

Yet everyone from Pirates announcer Bob Walk to Reds manager Dusty Baker has been commenting on how they all have looked lost at the plate so far this year.

Sure, it's early yet. But if Pittsburgh fans want to concentrate on the miseries of other teams, Cincinnati seems like a good place to look.

Trivia #4: Who was the second pitcher in history, after Grover Cleveland Alexander, to win a World Series game for the Philadelphia Phillies? (For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.)

Tragedy nothing new to baseball

2009-04-10T14:21:00.003-04:00

The baseball world will be reeling for quite a while following the death of Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart, who was one of three people killed after their vehicle was struck by a van Thursday.

Adenhart's death, unfortunately, is the latest in a long line of tragedies that have claimed the lives of active major-leaguers. Here as some that I remember occurring over the past few decades:

Josh Hancock, P, Cardinals, April 29, 2007. Hancock was 29 when he died in an auto accident in St. Louis. He compiled a 9-7 record in 102 games, most of them in relief, over six seasons.

Cory Lidle, P, Yankees, Oct. 11, 2006. The plane Lidle was flying crashed into a building in Manhattan during the League Championship Series, after his team had been eliminated from the playoffs. Lidle, 34, posted an 82-72 record in nine major-league seasons.

Lidle's father learned of his son's death on television.

Darryl Kile, P, Cardinals, June 22, 2002. Kile, 33, was found dead of a heart attack in his hotel room prior to a scheduled game in Chicago. He had won 36 games for the Cardinals during the previous two seasons. He won 133 games, including 19 in 1997 and 20 in 2000. In both those seasons, he finished fifth in Cy Young Award balloting.

Steve Olin and Tim Crews, P, Indians, March 22, 1993. Olin and Crews were joined by teammate Bob Ojeda on a Florida spring-training speedboat outing just before opening day. Their boat struck a pier in Little Lake Nellie. Olin died at the site, and Crews died at a hospital in Orlando.

Olin, 27, a submarine-style pitcher, saved 17 games after the 1991 All-Star break for a bad team, and followed that up by saving 29 games for a team that wasn't much better.

Crews had signed with the Indians in January 1992 after spending six seasons with the Dodgers. He was 11 days shy of his 32nd birthday at the time of his death.

Thurman Munson, C, Yankees, Aug. 2, 1979. The team captain was piloting an airplane that went down in Canton, Ohio. He was 32. Munson was the first catcher in American League history to win the Cy Young Award (1970) and followed that up with the Most Valuable Player award in 1976. At the time of his death, he probably had been best known besides his success on diamond for his running feud with teammate Reggie Jackson.

Despite a stellar career for a high-profile team, Munson has not received serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.

Lyman Bostock, OF, Angels, Sept. 23, 1978. Bostock was in the wrong place at the wrong time: He was visiting his uncle, Thomas Turner, in Gary, Ind., and they went to visit Joan Hawkins, a woman whom Bostock had tutored as a teenager, but had not seen for several years. After the visit, Turner agreed to give Hawkins and her sister, Barbara Smith, a ride to their cousin's house. Smith had been living with Hawkins while estranged from her husband, Leonard Smith.

As Turner's vehicle was stopped at a traffic signal, Smith's car pulled up alongside. Smith leaned out of his vehicle and fired a shotgun into the back seat of Turner's car. The blast struck Bostock in the right temple. He died two hours later at a Gary hospital, at age 27.

Four decades?

2009-04-10T11:43:00.003-04:00

Toward the close of each decade, baseball historians start keeping an eye out for veterans whose careers could extend long enough that they play in the majors in four different decades.

Some past players of note who have achieved the distinction include Hall of Famers Eddie Collins (1906-30), Ted Williams (1939-60), Early Wynn (1939-63), Willie McCovey (1959-80), Nolan Ryan (1966-93), Carlton Fisk (1969-93) and new inductee Rickey Henderson (1979-2003).

There's a possibility that 2010 could see up to half a dozen four-decade major-leaguers, which would be a record. They are:

Tom Glavine. The Atlanta Braves of the late 1980s were baseball's laughingstocks, known primarily for being visible to most of the nation for most of the season on TBS. With the development of players like Glavine, the Braves turned into the juggernaut that appeared in the playoffs every year for a decade and a half. Glavine debuted on Aug. 17, 1987, and since has racked up 305 wins. He opened 2009 on the disabled list for the Braves but is penciled in as part of the starting rotation.

Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey has returned to the Seattle Mariners, where he started his career as a 19-year-old, batting .264 with 16 home runs, 61 RBI and 16 stolen bases in 1989. This year, he homered off the Twins' Francisco Liriano on Opening Day, career blast No. 612.

Randy Johnson. The Big Unit was already was pushing age 25 when he debuted in 1988, but he's just five victories shy of 300 as a member of the San Francisco Giants' rotation this year. He lost his first start of the year Wednesday to Milwaukee.

Jamie Moyer. He's the last major-leaguer who's older than I am (46), but his contract with the Phillies runs through 2010. The lefty, who debuted with the Cubs in 1986, had 246 wins entering this season, including 82 after he turned 40!

Gary Sheffield. The Mets signed the guy who once used to make bad throws so the Brewers would trade him. Many fans hope his stay in New York will be a short one.

John Smoltz. A trivia favorite of mine involves Smoltz: The Tigers traded him (as a minor-leaguer) to the Braves for Doyle Alexander, who once was involved in a trade for Frank Robinson. That's more than half a century of baseball, right there! Smoltz opened the season on Boston's disabled list, but he's shown the tenacity to battle back from injury and wants to improve on his 210 wins thus far.

Two other players who were active in the '80s also might end up pitching in the majors in four decades: journeyman relievers Kent Mercker and Rudy Seanez. Both pitched in 2008, Seanez for the World Champion Phillis, but neither is on a big-league roster at the moment. You never know if they'll pop up somewhere this season and/or next.

And I wouldn't bet against some team giving Julio Franco a shot sometime in 2010. He played until he was 49, a record for a position player. And with his track record of physical fitness, he probably could get a hit or two at age 52. Hey, Minnie Minoso got a hit at age 53 when the White Sox made him a four-decader. (He didn't do the same at 57 when they made him one of two five-deacers in major-league history. But that's another story.)

Opening-day madness

2009-04-09T08:45:00.002-04:00

A 27-year-old man died after being involved in a fight on Opening Day at Angel Stadium. An Angels spokesman told the Associated Press that the fight occurred shortly after the game and that the man was pronounced dead at the hospital. Witnesses said the man was involved in a fight with another person, when a third man entered the fight and punched him in the head. The man fell and struck his head on a concrete step.

While this is extreme, opening days have always been full of outrageous and sometimes, dangerous, behavior in Pittsburgh. I recall seeing multiple fights in the stands at Pirates opener at Three Rivers Stadium, especially near the end of games. Maybe people just wanted to let off steam from a long winter, or that many of the fans who showed up didn't care much about baseball and just wanted to be part of the event. I am sure alcohol played a major role.

As security has tighten, it has gotten better over the years at PNC Park. But the only time I made sure I had my binoculars in my computer bag was when I covered the Pirates home-opener.

Time for an audit

2009-04-08T11:09:00.005-04:00

By Michael Jones

With it being tax season, I think it’s time the our Internal Revenue Service to launch an investigation into our pitiful Pittsburgh Pirates. And I’m not talking about how Bob Nutting spends his money.

Is Andy LaRoche really a baseball player? I’m sure he lists that as his primary occupation on his tax forms, but I think it’s time for an audit by the IRS. The man has yet to get a base hit in six at-bats and committed his third error on a routine pop-up. This is a guy who is supposed to provide some pop in the lineup and be the future after the Jason Bay trade last July. Does anyone else in Western Pennsylvania have the same kind of job security as LaRoche2.0? Not that the Pirates have a suitable replacement at third base, but management can’t let this circus sideshow go on much longer. It’s just another example of how spring training statistics are worthless.

Update 4:50 p.m. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat writer Dejan Kovacevic is reporting that LaRoche2.0 has been dropped from Wednesday night's lineup in favor of ... Ramon Vazquez? Now that is a slap in the face. It seems that the Pirates' management finally got a clue. Maybe it's time for LaRoche2.0 to do the same.

(AP Photo: Andy LaRoche drops a pop-up in Tuesday night's game)

Way to go Emilio

2009-04-06T20:01:00.003-04:00

MIAMI (AP) — Emilio Bonifacio has hit the first opening-day inside-the-park homer in the major leagues in 41 years.
The Florida Marlins’ new third baseman and leadoff batter hit a drive over the head of center fielder Lastings Milledge and circled the bases for a two-run homer in the fourth inning Monday against the Washington Nationals.
The last inside-the-park homer on opening day was by Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski on April 10, 1968.
Bonifacio earned a curtain call from the crowd of 34,323 for the homer, his first in the majors.

A good start

2009-04-06T19:36:00.000-04:00

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jack Wilson gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a dramatic opening-day victory.
With the Pirates down to their last strike, Wilson hit a three-run double to cap a four-run ninth inning off rookie closer Jason Motte, leading Pittsburgh over the St. Louis Cardinals 6-4 Monday.
In a game played in 41-degree chill, Ryan Ludwick broke a 2-2 tie with a leadoff homer in the eighth off Tyler Yates, and David Freese added a sacrifice fly off John Grabow (1-0) for a 4-2 lead.

It started already

2009-04-06T09:29:00.003-04:00

The first pitch of the regular season has yet to be thrown in Chicago, and already Carlos Zambrano is doing stupid stuff. The latest came after the Chicago Cubs pitcher was in New York to play in an exhibition game to christen the new Yankee Stadium.

Zambrano said an Associated Press story misquoted him in reporting that he coveted a replacement for Wrigley.

"I didn't say that," Zambrano said Sunday, according to the Chicago Tribune.

According to Saturday's story, Zambrano said "you wish that Chicago'd build a new stadium for the Cubs."

But Zambrano backed off his comments Sunday.

"I said anybody wants to have a new ballpark," the Cubs' ace said, according to the newspaper. "As a player, you feel like you're trying to be more comfortable. As a player, you want to have the greatest ballpark in the National League, or the big leagues. As a fan, we should stay there."

With today's technological advances, it is hard to believe Zambrano was misquoted. He also has a reputation of being emotional and fiery on the mound. Cubs fans will tolerate that because he is a winner. There is no faster way to draw the rath of Cubs fans than to criticize Wrigley Field.

Baseball in rebuttal

2009-04-02T11:01:00.001-04:00

By Michael Jones

I fully understand those who plan to stay away from PNC Park this year, and I don’t blame them. The thought of another dollar going into Bob Nutting’s pocket makes many Pirates fans cringe, but the man still will make millions regardless if we attend a few games or take our proverbial ball and go home. PNC Park is still a bargain since the $9 cheap seats are about the same price as an evening out at the movie. And wouldn’t you rather spend a night outdoors rather than inside a cramped and dark theater? So I have devised a plan over the years to limit the revenue streaming into Nutting’s coffers.

The easiest way to save a few bucks is to refuse to buy concessions at the game. That $8 beer and $5 hot dog are not conducive in a recession, so I instead go to Primanti’s in Market Square for a Capicola on rye while splitting a pitcher of Yuengling with friends.

Before walking across the Clemente Bridge, I’ll buy a bag of $2 peanuts and a $1 water bottle to hold me over while inside the stadium. Still without tickets, I go to the gate and purchase a $9 nosebleed seat I’ll never use and maybe flash my former WVU student ID card for an additional discount. I always buy my tickets at the gate rather than get raided by Ticketmaster and its ridiculous surcharges.

This is where things get interesting because I have no intentions of sitting in Section 399. By June, the Pirates will suck as usual, meaning there are at least 20,000 open seats from which to choose. Just stroll down to the lower deck and find a seat with a clustered population, because the ushers usually don’t check your stub if you can slip in behind other fans and blend into the crowd. At a game against St. Louis a few years ago, my father and I made our way to an open section near third base, only to be escorted out by an usher during the national anthem. But we found even better seats on the first-base side after a five-minute walk around the concourse. The key, that time, was moving into a populated section where we could hide.

Maybe this is stealing. But I think the reign of Bob Nutting (among others) has stolen more from us the past 16 years. I think the Pirates owe me a discounted seat every once in a while, don’t you?

Just say 'no!'

2009-03-31T14:28:00.001-04:00

By Brant Newman

I've been a Pirates fan since the 1960s. I went to sleep at nights with a transistor radio under my pillow, listening to the Gunner and Nellie King. When
the Pirates won the World Series in 1971, I ran through the streets of Claysville as if it were V-E Day. I've remained a faithful fan through the decades,in good times and, for the past 16 years, bad.

But at age 50, I have my doubts about whether I'll ever see another Pirates game in person again. The reason: I refuse to be played for a dupe, and that's what anyone who goes to PNC Park these days is. The Pirates' current ownership, led by the Nutting family, is charging major-league prices for Triple-A baseball.

They talk a good game about a new era, new leadership and prosperity being right around the corner, but they're sure not putting their money where their
mouths are. The Pirates are consistently among Major League Baseball's bottom feeders in terms of payroll. They have based draft picks on whether they could sign them on the cheap, and when they have signed veteran free agents, they've spent unwisely, for the most part.

The MLB business model, which allows teams like the Yankees to spend as much on two players (A-Rod and Derek Jeter) as the Pirates do on an entire roster, is part of the problem. But the Nuttings' refusal to spend money on quality free agents who could help the team is another.

Fans are growing tired of watching rebuilding plan after rebuilding plan. With the exception of a handful of players, the minor-league system is not exactly brimming with talent, and we've seen what the current roster of major-leaguers has accomplished the past couple of years.

I'll continue to watch as many Buccos games as I can, but until team owners show a true commitment to the fans, I'll be doing so from my easy chair, saving a lot of money by eating my own hot dogs and drinking my own beer.

Trivia #3: From which other team's farm system did the Pirates draft Roberto Clemente?

Tale of two rookies

2009-03-31T14:10:00.002-04:00

With the start of another baseball season, fans wonder which newcomers will shine and which will fade.

In 2001, two rookies made the St. Louis Cardinals' roster coming out of spring training, one a left-handed relief pitcher who was talked about as a potential closer, the other a multi-position player who was targeted to perhaps fill a hole at third base.

Neither impressed as the Cardinals were swept three straight in the season-opening series in Colorado. The hitter went 1-for-9, and the pitcher gave up two earned runs in 2 1/3 innings in a relief appearance.

The team traveled to Arizona, where the rookie hitter started opening eyes by putting a hurt on the Diamondbacks: 7-for-14 with 8 RBI in three games. That began a 13-game hitting streak, by the end of which he was hitting .393.

The pitcher, meanwhile, sat on the bench and watched. Finally, 10 days after his first appearance, he entered a game in the seventh inning with the Cardinals trailing Houston, 4-2. The lefty proceeded to walk Jeff Bagwell, hit Richard Hidalgo, walk Lance Berkman and walk Chris Truby. Manager Tony La Russa had seen enough.

Three days later, La Russa brought the pitcher in to relieve Dustin Hermanson, who was getting strafed, with the Cardinals trailing 8-1. The rookie prevented further damage by retiring Armando Reynoso and Tony Womack to end the inning.

But Arizona scored five runs in the fourth, capped by a David Dellucci home run. Tony Womack tripled to open the fifth, and another ex-Pirate, Jay Bell, followed with a homer.

La Russa walked out to the mound to take the ball, and that was it for Chad Hutchinson's Major League Baseball career. His numbers: 3 games, 4 innings, 9 hits, 11 earned runs, 6 walks, 2 strikeouts.

His rookie counterpart, meanwhile, went on to a .329-37-130 season, Rookie of the Year honors and what looks already to be a Hall of Fame career.

His name, of course, is Albert Pujols.

Trivia #2: Who was the last Pittsburgh Pirate to come to bat in the postseason (Oct. 14, 1992)?

It's time for fantasy baseball, too

2009-03-31T13:50:00.006-04:00

Fantasy baseball has its detractors, but considering it's been around for three decades now, it's safe to say that it has some appeal.

Here are some players without high-profile names who drew some interest in our National League-only Whiners Rotisserie League, which is embarking on its 21st season:

Jordan Schafer, OF, Atlanta. The Braves' starting outfield was a little murky, but with the trade of Josh Anderson to Detroit, Schafer looks like the favorite to start in center. Schafer, who has not played in the majors yet, posted double digits in both home runs and steals in the minors in 2007 and 2008.

Jason Motte, RP, St. Louis. With the departure of longtime closer Jason Isringhausen, the anchor spot in the Cardinals bullpen was up for grabs. It looks as if Motte goes into the season as the first choice for saves. He's a converted catcher, but he had an unreal strikeout ratio (15.1 per 9 innings) in the minors last season.

Adam Wainwright, SP, St. Louis. A finger injury cost Wainwright a substantial amount of time last season, but he put up some brilliant numbers when he was able to pitch. Plus, he's making his first regular-season start against the Pirates, so he should pay immediate dividends!

Matt Cain, SP, San Francisco. Cain has pitched well during his major-league career but has relatively few wins to show for it, as the Giants have struggled to score runs since Barry Bonds departed. A pitcher-friendly home park helps Cain in other categories.

Clint Barmes, 2B, Colorado. Coors Field isn't the pitcher's nightmare it once was, but batters still seem to have an advantage. Barmes put up double digits in homers and steals last year, a combination that always plays well in fantasy leagues.

Chris Dickerson, OF, Cincinnati. They call the Red's home park "Great American Bandbox," meaning hitters have tended to thrive there. Dickerson, who's about to turn 27, hit very well in a 102-at-bat audition in Cincinnati last year, and he's another who's shown the ability to hit the long ball while running well on the basepaths.

Trivia #1: Who is the only Pittsburgh Pirate to be voted National League Rookie of the Year?