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If A-Rod Is Role Model, Hall Is Reachable

Jay Mariotti — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- He has found peace to purge his demons, love when all he had was Madonna and madams and, most importantly, truth when his past was so fake and sleazy. No matter what we once thought of Alex Rodriguez, it's difficult to hold a grudge when he has achieved joy and reward the right way. In fact, allow me to propose the ultimate happy ending, something unimaginable only a few months ago but perhaps attainable if he continues to be a model citizen, a fine teammate, a grounded human being and the greatest ballplayer alive.

That would be a place in Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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It will take more, of course, than one spectacular postseason and World Series championship ride. If the writers were voting today, Rodriguez would fall far short of the necessary 75 percent for induction. The stench of his steroids admission is too recent and wretched to simply dismiss, despite delivering the monster autumn hits we've long demanded. Yet unlike other marquee-name juicers whose careers have been disgraced by performance-enhancing drugs -- Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro among them -- A-Rod isn't vanishing into oblivion. Remarkably, at 34, he still has eight seasons left on a $275-million contract that expires in 2017. It gives him plenty of time to amass a continuing body of extraordinary work that, in the end, could leave him with the all-time home-run record and more championships and MVP trophies.

The numbers and hardware certainly will be there -- first-ballot worthy. Now, to turn enough voters his way, he must use the next eight years to be a high-profile role model in the fight against steroids. So far, Rodriguez has had one press conference in which he told the truth, part of the truth but not the whole truth. We need to hear much more, the full story. Then, he must meet with President Obama and volunteer to lead a federal anti-steroids campaign, complete with appearances, public-service announcements and exhaustive work that showcases his transparency and commitment to youth. Rather than bury the mistake and hope everyone forgets about it -- when we won't -- A-Rod should turn the biggest negative of his career into a positive and set an example of post-steroids reform.

If he does so, he'd have my Hall vote.

"That's up to you guys, I'm not the judge or the jury," Rodriguez said when asked if his legacy has been rescued. "I'm just happy to be part of a team and contribute."

Cliche as it sounds, his response fits the new requirements. This year, he finally dropped the narcissism, stopped staring into mirrors for magazine profiles and decided not to take himself so seriously, some concession for a guy who reportedly used to hang a portrait of a centaur over his bed -- half-Alex, half horse. Know why I think his renaissance is real and not a temporary departure from A-Fraud hell? Because he stood in the Yankess clubhouse long after midnight Thursday, his body drenched in Moet & Chandon, and spoke at length about the dramatic changes in his life. Kate Hudson might be a nice girl and calming influence, but her involvement is only part of this personal turnaround. Seems Rodriguez had lunch with friends a few weeks after his painful public acknowledgment that he used steroids. And this time, his pals weren't with him just to sample the salmon salad.

"They told me a lot of things I needed to hear," he told reporters. "I listened and I humbled myself. I looked in the mirror and I was honest with myself -- I didn't like what I saw."

The end result? "I'm a team guy now," he said. "I don't worry about anything individual. There's nothing you do individually that compares to team accomplishments."

Not to suggest any endorsement of steroids use, of course, but in a way, the best thing to happen to Rodriguez was getting busted. When a nation was treating him like a pariah last spring, he realized for the first time that he had teammates who cared about him. The Yankees were smart. Starting at the top with general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi, they stressed the need for players to support A-Rod and not snipe at him in the media. Other than Derek Jeter's necessary reminder that not every player uses steroids, the Yankees stood staunchly behind their embattled slugger, knowing they were going nowhere without him. As it was, he had a hip problem that seemingly threatened his future. Why exacerbate his troubles by piling on? The surge of unity worked wonders. Feeling love in the clubhouse, Rodriguez homered in Baltimore in his first plate appearance after returning from the disabled list. His thunder bat was back. His hip was better than anyone expected. And the Yankees dominated the majors from May until November.

"Look, a lot of people were running the other way and my teammates and coaches and organization stood right next to me," he said. "Now we stand together as world champs, and I couldn't be prouder or happier. I just think that's the way things happen sometimes. I knew when I had 25 guys standing next to me, and the organization and my general manager, it meant the world to me. I said that day that this is going to turn out to be, maybe, one of the most special years of our lives. And it sure has. This is even better than you can imagine."

"He's exorcised a lot of demons. He's done it all now."
-- Yankees GM
Brian Cashman So good that his resurgence has me thinking. With the Yankees expected to use him more as a designated hitter in coming seasons -- one reason why they're still expected to cut loose Hideki Matsui after his spectacular show in the Game 6 clincher -- he should be able to prolong his career even if the hip and other injuries bother him. In eight seasons, he conceivably could put up statistics beyond belief. And if he does so without steroids, which we may never know until Major League Baseball tests for Human Growth Hormone (and other designer 'roids we don't even know about yet), he'll have a chance in that period to distance himself from his 2009 admission and steroids use earlier in the decade. If he retires in 2017, and the Hall vote comes five years later, induction is possible.

"He's exorcised a lot of demons. He's done it all now," Cashman said. "I think the rest of his career, now he can just write history. He doesn't have anything that he has to answer for anymore. He obviously has to produce, there's no doubt about that. But he doesn't have to be told he can't do anything. So now, he can sit back, and his work ethic and his play will take him just wherever it'll take him. He's one of the greatest players of all time."

"He's an amazing player," Girardi said, "and I'm extremely happy for him."

"I'm happy for him. He's a big reason why we won," said Jeter, who years ago was feuding with A-Rod but was beside him on the post-game party train, along with Hudson and Jeter's significant other, actress Minka Kelly. "It's nice to see everything come together for us."

"Perhaps the greatest player of our generation," teammate Johnny Damon said. "He deserves to have a ring."

Yes, he deserves the championship, as New York will show him during Friday's parade. Whether he deserves the Hall of Fame or not, the next eight years will tell. Girardi is the good Samaritan around here, adding to his good-man rep by rushing across a busy Cross County Parkway three hours after the clincher to help a female motorist who had crashed into a wall. We're not asking Alex Rodriguez to be Superman or Spiderman.

But as the reigning king of New York, he needs to do more than swing a huge bat and romance an actress. We'll be watching and waiting, Hall of Fame votes in our hands.

If A-Rod Is Role Model, Hall Is Reachable originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not the American Dream, but Give Yankees Props

Jay Mariotti — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:05:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- There is something arrogantly American about it, I know. The $210-million Yankees have won a World Series amid a destructive recession, doing it for Boss George Steinbrenner in the first season of their $1.5-billion edifice of excess, where a $275-million lightning rod just happened to overcome a steroids crisis and finally deliver the postseason we've long demanded. None of those elements are universally endearing to the masses, yet all converged on a festive, rocking November night when Championship No. 27 wasn't welcomed by the pinstripe haters as much as force-fed into them like skunk oil.

Look, President Obama might say, "This is corporate America at its bloated, ignorant worst. The White Sox have a better business plan."

"We're supposed to win," said Yankees manager, Joe Girardi. "We know that every day we come to work."

That said, even the bashers have to rise up and give the Yankees props. They came. They spent. They conquered. This time, they didn't spend a fortune and fall short, as they did eight consecutive years since their last championship in 2000. You might say they are supposed to win when their payroll is almost twice as much as anyone else's and eight times higher than that of the Florida Marlins. But unlike other years, they identified the right players to make wealthy. Along the way, their most expensive and problematic player, Alex Rodriguez, found a woman who wasn't Madonna, wasn't a madam but was a good-luck charm and soothing soul, and how fitting that Kate Hudson -- she of the .800-plus winning percentage when attending Yankees games -- partied with the rest of them Wednesday night like the groupie she was in "Almost Famous."

Nothing is almost famous about this franchise, of course. The Yankees, again, are the most celebrated and polarizing team in American sports, if not all the world, finally living up to the highest payroll in baseball and dethroning the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3, in Game 6. Of all the sluggers to dominate the final game, few would have guessed Hideki Matsui, who could have been playing his last game with the Yankees. Godzilla, as they call him, launched the party with a two-run homer and wound up with six RBIs in an epic performance. Is this the way he wants to say sayonara?

"It's unbelievable. I surprised myself," Matsui said through an interpreter during the on-field celebration. "I hope it works out that way that I can stay. I love New York, I love the fans. I feel so great."

Give the man a two-year contract. How can you cut loose the World Series MVP, the first full-time designated hitter to win that trophy? By night's end, as the fans shrieked and police ringed the field, A.J. Burnett had to nail one last triumphant victim with a victory pie. Would it be Matsui? Nada.

It was Girardi, who pulled together several multi-million-dollar corporations and turned the Yankees into a genuine cohesive group.

"A.J. promised me one by the end of the year," he said.

As Sinatra's epic "New York, New York" -- apparently, Jay-Z isn't the new Sinatra just yet -- blasted off the $2,000 cushioned seats, the various theme restaurants and bars, the replicated frieze that lines the roof and the 50,000 worshippers who wouldn't have missed this in a tsunami, it was clear that the Yankees are back to where they ought to be. For eight years, no team in pro sports spent more money with less reward. The Steinbrenner clan and their general manager, Brian Cashman, spent nearly $2 billion in salaries since their dynasty officially ended in 2001, when they were toppled by Arizona upstarts. But at long last, management watched the paid help, one by one, live up to their massive contracts and satsify The Boss, who has been ill for some time and couldn't make it to the new Stadium to see his seventh championship since he purchased the team.

"Dad, I know you're watching at home with mom. This one is for you," said his son, Hal, who has been more front and center in running the club this year than his brother, the combustible Hank. "I think this means everything to him. It's been a while, nine years, and he's proud. This team just fights and fights and fights. They deserve this, for sure."
"This is a dream, an amazing dream, and I waited a long time for it. Twenty-five guys bought into Joe Girardi's system, and I couldn't be prouder."
-- Alex Rodriguez
They finish the decade with as many World Series titles -- two -- as the Boston Red Sox. Some would say that gives the edge to the Red Sox, seeing how they haven't spent nearly as much money. If so, the Yankees could take some satisfaction in beating up a mouthy Red Sox mainstay in 2004, the one who dared to diss the Bambino and may have contributed to ending the curse. Who can forget Game 7 that year, when the Yankees were about to complete an all-time choke job in a silent Stadium and the Red Sox rubbed it in by bringing in Pedro Martinez, the nemesis? Well, there was Pedro again, reincarnated in a Phillies uniform, taking his lumps You thought it was surreal seeing him five years later? So did Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte, who opposed Martinez on the mound. "Me and Derek were talking about it in the clubhouse, just how strange this is after all the battles with him being in Boston," Pettitte said.

Anyone who thought Pedro was going to throw more voodoo, at 38, doesn't understand the physics of the Yankee universe. It became clear in May, when Rodriguez returned with a healthier hip and an unclouded head, that this was their year. It became clearer when the Red Sox faded and the Angels couldn't hang. Only the Phillies had a shot, but when Ryan Howard morphed into Jared from the Subway commercial and was done in by sliders, you knew the defending champs couldn't do it only with "Ut-Lee'' -- a combination of Chase Utley and Cliff Lee, two magnificent performers who made history in this Series but needed help from teammates who rarely showed up.

It was the year when Rodriguez, admittedly at "rock bottom" after he was forced to reveal his steroids use, decided to stop thinking, to stop trying to craft a public image that America loathed and simply relied on the enormous talents with which he was blessed. "With all the stuff I've been through, you have nothing to lose," he said of his approach this season. "For the first time in my career, I've felt like an underdog." Now he is a champion, having shed the awful numbers in his previous three postseasons combined -- .159, one homer, one RBI -- to carry his team with six homers and a franchise-record-tying 15 RBIs. Remember all the stories in the past about the rancor between A-Rod and the captain, Jeter? I watched them hug in the infield for about 15 seconds.

"This is a dream, an amazing dream, and I waited a long time for it," Rodriguez said. "Twenty-five guys bought into Joe Girardi's system, and I couldn't be prouder. A lot of people were running the other way from me this year. My teammates and the manager and the coaches were right there next to me the whole way. Now, we're standing here right now as world champions. And we're gonna enjoy this and we're gonna party!"

It was the year when the starting rotation, such a mess in recent season, was fixed by talent and savvy. Oh, sure, it was easy enough to throw $423.5 million at CC Sabathia and Burnett, but both produced when necessary, particularly Carsten Charles, a workhorse who rarely didn't keep the Yankees in the game and often was dominant. They said Pettitte wouldn't survive on three days' rest in Game 6, but he was the only one hung up on the fatigue issue. He showed why he's the all-time winningest pitcher in postseason history, notching his 18th victory and sixth that ended a series, both all-time records. He was the starter in all three clinching games of the Yankees postseason. Like his former friend, Roger Clemens, Pettitte was nabbed as a juicer in the steroids scandal. Unlike Clemens, he apologized from the heart and was accepted back by the New York crowds. He won't make the Hall of Fame and shouldn't be forgiven for his sins, but there's no questioning his heart.

It was the year when Girardi shut up the critics, including some in his own front office, who accused him of not communicating well enough with the players and overmanaging with his Northwestern engineering degree, his ThinkPad laptop and a big, blue, 200-plus-page binder with every imaginable statistic. The New York media jumped him when he tried to play a game of cerebral chess in the American League championship series with Mike Scioscia, the revered Angels manager. But in the end, didn't Girardi win the series? Against the Phillies, he dared to go with a three-man rotation, an old-school device that hasn't been used in a World Series since the Twins in 1991. When Burnett was rocked in Game 5, the Joe-bashers were back. But his strategy made perfect sense: If you're going to pay big money for Sabathia and Burnett, and if you have the all-time postseason winner in Pettitte, why not pitch them on short rest in the final three games and let it all hang out? If the Yankees couldn't win one of those three, then they didn't deserve to be champions anyway.

They did win one of them. And when the critics chided him for using Mariano Rivera in two-inning save situations, guess what? He survived that gamble, too -- to the point RIvera, not Matsui, should have been the Series MVP. Laugh all you want at the binder, but when he was pondering the postseason roster, Girardi noticed that reliever Damaso Marte -- he of the 9.45 ERA in the regular season -- had three strikeouts in three at-bats against Howard. It wasn't the only reason he made the roster, but Girardi looks quite sharp now that Marte has been a revelation the last three weeks. Joe Torre was a god among Yankees fans. His former catcher, Girardi, not only has overcome that shadow but proved he could manage his emotions better after his embarrassing dismissal by the Marlins in 2007, a year after he was voted Manager of the Year.

"I think it would have been somewhat difficult for any manager to do, because he was here for so long -- the relationships he had with the players, the media, with everyone involved. Obviously, I understood that going in," Girardi said of Torre. "It wasn't going to be easy to replace him. I never tried to replace him. I just tried to be myself."

Torre had to deal with the daily meddling of Boss George. Girardi has avoided that burden thanks to Cashman and Steinbrenner's sons, who let the manager manage. "I think for me, pressures always came from within, because I want it really bad," said Girardi, who wore No. 27 all year in hopes it would help inspire title No. 27. "I want it for the organization, I want it for Mr. Steinbrenner and his family, and I want it for the guys in that room."

It also was a year when these spectacular-priced stars, who didn't have to like each other, genuinely formed a bond of love. Girardi was ridiculed early in spring training when he hired a bus one night to take the team to a Tampa pool hall. But these are human beings, believe it or not, and Girardi helped succeed in melding personalities. A-Rod used to be a loner. Now, he hangs out with the guys -- when Kate isn't around, of course. The chemistry was reflected in how they won games. When Mark Teixeira was cold in the postseason, A-Rod picked him up. When A-Rod was sidelined early, Jeter and Johnny Damon carried the club. Yes, the Yankees are the Best Team Money Can Buy. But the Core Four, as they're called -- Jeter, Pettitte, Rivera and Jorge Posada -- formed a foundation that is almost unheard of in modern sports. They've been around for 13 years and five championships, and Jeter and Rivera will be first-ballot Hall of Famers. This team could have gone south after Rodriguez's turbulent spring, but the veteran leadership refused to let A-Rod sulk through the season and bring down the cause. The culture helped him immensely. Because they carried him emotionally, he carried them with his bat. They are not dummies, these Yankees.

There was a sense in the Bronx air, after midnight, that the inevitable finally happened after a nine-year delay. "When you add the top three free agents," Damon said of Sabathia, Teixiera and Burnett, "you should get better." Still, the Yankees never fail to give us intrigue, conversation pieces, controversy and, for the first time since 2004, good TV ratings in the postseason. America needs this franchise playing in the autumn, for love or hate purposes, and it's good to see they're back.

Even if the payroll is hideous and a watered-down beer costs $10.

Not the American Dream, but Give Yankees Props originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tastykake Soft, Hamels Can't Do Game 7

Jay Mariotti — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:10:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

PHILADELPHIA -- This is where they booed Santa Claus but gave a standing ovation to a dog killer named Michael Vick. This is where they taunted Mike Schmidt, maybe the best third baseman ever. This is where Donovan McNabb is viewed as an emotional dishrag, where MIchael Irvin was cheered when he lay motionless on the field, where I saw a woman in an UTLEY jersey tell a guy to "stop being a (p----)," where men are men unless someone wonders otherwise, which means your life is screwed.

It is in this Yuengling-and-cheesesteak culture that Cole Hamels, a California pretty boy not blessed with the Bruno/Rocco/Angelo first name like many Philly tough guys, decided to commit parochial suicide. Shelled again in Game 3 of the World Series, he emotionally unraveled afterward, suggesting very strongly that he wanted his season to end right then and there. In any town, such an acknowledgment would be viewed as a breach of cowardice. In Philly, where the home team trailed only 2-1 at the time, Hamels is being called a sulker, quitter, crybaby, wimp and (p----) of the worst ilk.

More: Hamels Earns Manuel's Trust for Possible Game 7

"I can't wait for it to end," Hamels said famously. "It's been mentally draining. At year's end, you just can't wait for a fresh start."

If Rocky Balboa embraced such a thought process, there never would have been a movie, a statue or even an Adrian. These are comments best left unthought, much less unsaid, particularly by a pitcher who so ruled the postseason a year ago that he was named MVP of the World Series and National League championship series. The Phillies, losers of more than 10,000 games in a mostly futile existence, finally have settled into a championship era and are trying to become the first NL team to repeat as Series champs in 33 years. And here is Hamels, the presence who defined them last autumn, shrinking into the antithesis of all things Philly and, when you think about, all things proud and noble in athletic competition. So he's pitching poorly, as he has much of the season, going 1-2 with a 7.58 ERA this postseason after a 10-11 regular season. To be so self-absorbed to talk about quitting, when his teammates are known for their heart and resilience, is insulting to the human spirit.

After Game 5, when the Phillies saved their season and sent the Series back to Yankee Stadium, Hamels tried to backtrack and explain what he "really" meant. "Sometimes I might not say the best things or the smartest things, but I've learned and am learning," he said. "I wasn't able to sleep the past couple of nights because of it." He also sought a meeting with manager Charlie Manuel, who had expressed surprise that Hamels would say such dangerous things.

"I went to Charlie to talk to him because that's who I am, and I think he understands that," Hamels said. "I just wanted to tell him my true thoughts -- I'll never ever quit. I want to play this game until somebody takes it away from me. I think Charlie knows me. He has managed me for quite a few years. I think the only doubt it left in people's minds were the fans, and you know, it hurts. I love the city of Philadelphia, I play as hard as I possibly can. I might not necessarily have the results that they hope (for), but I know that if I go out there, and do everything I possibly can, and in the end they see (that), then I think they can respect that."

Too bad it was the third time of late that Hamels has had to explain controversial moments. He launched the postseason with a rip job on why Major League Baseball and the TV networks insist on so many night games. Then he embarrassed second baseman Chase Utley, the new Babe Ruth, by staring him down after a throwing error during the NLCS. Now there is Quitgate, which officially turned Hamels into a distraction at the absolute wrong time. Not only has it dominated the psycho babble on the local sports-talk stations, it has become a major story in the Phillies clubhouse, where teammate Brett Myers walked past Hamels' locker early Tuesday morning and, according to Yahoo! Sports, fired a shot.

"What are you doing here? I thought you quit," Myers said.

Hamels fired back with an obscenity, said the Web site's source, adding that Phillies communications official Greg Casterioto promptly led Myers away from the locker. Later Tuesday, the Phillies were spinning the story thusly: Myers was being a character in the Manny Ramirez vein and meant no harm. "First of all, they're friends, and that was more of Brett being -- when you say 'Manny being Manny' or something like that, well, Brett was being Brett," Manuel said. "Brett likes to throw that jab at you, and sometimes it doesn't matter who's around, and I think people when they hear that sometimes, they don't know how to take it. So they kind of put it where they want it to be or take it as they're looking to take it. And I think that's what happened. I think that was just actually Brett playing around, messing with him.''

True or b.s, it's not what Manuel needed to address on the off day. With his team down 3-2 and facing Andy Pettitte and, most likely, a big dose of Mariano RIvera in Game 6, the Phillies need to focus on the most difficult assignment of their two-year run. Talking about Hamels is an exercise in counterproductivity. Manuel did anyway Tuesday.

"He came in and talked to me last night, and we sat there probably 10, 15 minutes and we talked about some of the things that were said, and I felt very good about it, really,'' Manuel said. "I know Hamels. I've been a Hamels guy ever since I first came to work here. I want you to listen to this -- I never, ever questioned his mental toughness, because he's just as tough as anybody on our team. And I mean that. That part I've never, ever doubted.

"There's definitely no quit in him, and I know he shows emotions at times, and he's had like a freakish year and he's going through a bad time. But at the same time, he'll get through it, and he'll be the pitcher that you saw last year. That pitcher you've been seeing for the last couple years, that's who Hamels is. He is a gamer and he's a fighter. I can't say enough about him, really. And when I talk to him, I can tell everything about him, that he definitely wants to win and he wants us to win the World Series, and he definitely wants to play a big part in it. As a matter of fact, he might be wanting to play too big a part in it."

Well, then Hamels should say so and emphasize the point. We know about the heart of Pedro Martinez, the perseverance of Pettitte, the big-game will of CC Sabathia, the steel-trap competitiveness of Rivera. All we know about Hamels right now is that he melts down at the slightest sign of trouble, such as the situation in Game 3 when he didn't get a 3-2 call against Mark Teixeira. After retiring 10 of the first 11 batters, Hamels imploded and allowed the two-run homer to Alex Rodriguez off the TV camera. Before you knew it, he was out of the game.

And talking about quitting.

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World Series 2009

The Philadelphia Phillies celebrate after beating the New York Yankees 8-6 in Game 5 of the Major League Baseball World Series Monday, Nov. 2, 2009, in Philadelphia. The series goes back to New York with the Yankees leading 3-2. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

World Series

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, right, laughs as Freddy Guzman chases down a ball hit to him during a team workout at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009, in New York. The Yankees are scheduled to face the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 of Major League Baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York Yankees special adviser Reggie Jackson, left, listens to first baseman Mark Teixeira by the batting cage during a team workout at Yankee Stadium Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 in New York. The Yankees are scheduled to face the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 of Major League Baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi speaks to the media during a news conference before his team worked out at Yankee Stadium, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009, in New York. The Yankees are scheduled to face the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 of Major League Baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter throws long toss from behind the batting cage during a team workout at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009, in New York. The Yankees are scheduled to play the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 of Major League Baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel listens to reporters' questions during a news conference at Yankee Stadium Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 in New York. The Phillies will face the New York Yankees in Game 6 of the World Series Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia stretches his legs during a team workout at Yankee Stadium Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 in New York. The Yankees are scheduled to play the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 of Major League Baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 03: Manager Charlie Manuel of the Philadelphia Phillies speaks to the media during a press conference at Yankee Stadium on November 3, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Charlie Manuel

Getty Images

NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 03: Pedro Martinez #45 of the Philadelphia Phillies speaks to the media during a press conference at Yankee Stadium on November 3, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Pedro Martinez

Getty Images

It goes without saying, then, that he is not in the frame of mind to start a Game 7, even though the Phillies have no one else remotely ready for the role. Begin with the rookie, J.A. Happ. Follow for a few innings with Cliff Lee, who would be starting the game had Manuel not blundered and chosen to start him in Game 4, not 5. All hands can be on deck except the left hand of Hamels. When Mitch (Wild Thing) Williams, a baseball analyst these days after a long career as an adventurous reliever, says Hamels isn't emotionally stable enough to start Game 7, well, that says it all.

Then again, the Phillies have to win Wednesday night before they can ponder a seventh game. Martinez returns to Yankee Stadium for another Broadway show, not worn down by flu symptoms as he was in last week's quality start. He again was in rare emotional form on game's eve, mixing serious comments about his future with high comedy and flicking away questions about the fans' "Who's Your Daddy?" chant. Last we heard him, Pedro was tweaking the media about our obsession with him.

"It took me a while to realize that anything I say, everything I do, has a meaning to you,'' Martinez said. "I hope that when I need you for the community work and other things that I'm going to need to help people, that you guys actually bring the message across because that will give me help for all those things that I have in mind for after I retire. But I'm pretty sure that my name will be mentioned. I don't know in which way. Maybe after I retire, because normally when you die, people tend to actually give you props about the good things. But that's after you die. So I'm hoping to get it before I die. I don't want to die and then hear everybody say, 'Oh, there goes one of the best players ever.' If you're going to give me props, just give them to me right now.

"I hope that you guys realize that I'm a human being that really likes to help, that really likes to do things in the community, that's a fun human being and a great competitor. That's probably my legacy. I don't want to just leave a legacy in baseball and be a (expletive deleted) human being. I'm sorry about the word. I hope I can be remembered more as a human being to take his clothes off to probably give it to a man down the street. I don't mind doing that any time."

Sounds like he's running for political office. It may well be that a rested Martinez outpitches a fatigued Pettitte. But anyone who saw Ryan Madson sweat and struggle to close down the Yankees in Game 5, while Brad Lidge watched from the bullpen, realizes that Rivera becomes the focal point of the Series. Alex Rodriguez has been a big-hit monster, but clearly, Rivera is the MVP of this series. One last save Wednesday night might be a silver lining for the enigma that is Cole Hamels.

That way, he can go home and avoid the Game 7 megapressure, just as he wanted it all along.

Tastykake Soft, Hamels Can't Do Game 7 originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Phils Give Chase, Lee Strategy Hurts

Jay Mariotti — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:37:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

PHILADELPHIA -- They have nothing in common but history. Chase Utley is a southern California dude with gel in his hair who speaks in cliches and has all the pizzazz of a resin bag. Reggie Jackson was the portrait of flamboyance, the straw that stirred the drink, the problem child who jarred the equilibrium. But today, they are joined in baseball lore by the five home runs each hit in a single World Series, with Utley's latest two shots propelling the Phillies to an 8-6 victory in Game 5 and renewed life for a repeat title.

"It's pretty cool. It's pretty surreal," Utley said with typical nonchalance. "I'm glad we got the win. It was a do-or-die game."

And how about being linked with Reggie, the original Mr. October, as the all-time solo Series slugger? Does that qualify Utley, given the late date, as Mr. November? "Obviously, it's great company. At some point, not right now, maybe I'll look back on it and see what kind of special moment it is," he said. "But right now our goal is to win two more games."

His manager, Charlie Manuel, was left to shrug. "Sometimes, I don't even like to talk about him because he don't want me to," he said. "Actually, he don't like for you [the media] to say a whole lot of things about him. But he's one of the most prepared and dedicated players I've ever been around. He has the most desire and passion to play the game that I've ever been around."

If only Manuel's pitching rotation was as locked in as Utley.

Now the conversation in offices across America -- those not run by Steve Carell, that is -- involves pitchers and rest. It's not a riveting topic, not that baseball is a sexy sport, but this is the new fulcrum upon which the World Series pivots. It's an old school vs. new school debate, and what's curious is, young-guy Joe Girardi represents the old way for the Yankees while old-dude Manuel embraces the new way for the Phillies.

Three days or four days between starts?

That is the question.

Monday night, Cliff Lee didn't dominate the Yankees as much as he survived them, allowing five runs in seven innings and gutting out a win. Not as deceptive with his breaking stuff as he was in the Series opener, he had enough to withstand a white-knuckle bullpen stint by a scuffling Ryan Madson -- no Brad Lidge, wisely -- and put the Phillies in Rocky Balboa mode as they head to New York down 3-2. Lee, of course, was held out of Game 4 because Manuel didn't trust his lack of experience on three days' rest. The Phillies opted for the inferior Joe Blanton, and they lost to the Yankees, who used CC Sabathia successfully on three days' rest. Advantage, Girardi, who is having no problem summoning the $161-million Sabathia twice, the $82.5-million A.J. Burnett and 15-year veteran Andy Pettitte each on three days' rest over the final four games of baseball's championship event.

"Well, I mean, this is the World Series," Girardi rationalized. "There is no baseball after the World Series for four or five months, so there will be plenty of time to rest."

I very much agree with the man, even if Burnett, operating on short rest, was ripped apart by the Phillies in a two-inning massacre. Utley, keeping his team alive, hit his fourth homer of the Series, a three-run shot in the first that propelled a potent lineup to a five-run lead over Burnett, who allowed six runs, four hits and four walks. Utley added another in the seventh, a solo shot off Phil Coke. The option for Burnett would have been journeyman Chad Gaudin, and anyone asking "Who's he?" is answering the question of why Girardi made the right call with three-day-rest urgency. If the Yankees can't squeeze one victory out of Burnett, Pettitte and Sabathia in the final three games, they don't deserve to win the Series. My guess is, this will end in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium when Alex Rodriguez follows fate's script, hits a monster home run off Pedro Martinez and gives Pettitte enough juice -- oops, considering he's a former 'roider, let's say support -- to build the bridge to Mariano Rivera.

"No, I don't think there was any correlation," Girardi said of Burnett on short rest. "He just lacked command to night similar to what he did in Anaheim. But he was able to recover better there. Tonight he just wasn't able to get it going."

Nor will Burnett's rough start affect Girardi's decision on Pettitte. "We're going to check with Andy [Tuesday] when we work out at 4 p.m., and then I'll announce it then," he said. "Physically I've got to see how he is. He threw a side [session on Monday] and felt good."

Besides, hasn't Manuel already played the wrong hand in this poker game? Despite Burnett's issues, and the possibility of a fatigued Pettitte encountering his own troubles Wednesday against a rested Martinez, the sense remains strong that Manuel may have blown the Series by refusing to start Lee in Game 4. If for no other reason, the Phillies' ace would have been available to start, with one extra day of rest, in a Game 7. Now, Lee only can be part of a relief free-for-all Thursday night with only two days' rest after his 112-pitch stint, forcing Manuel to likely start a soft, mentally wrecked Cole Hamels if there is a deciding game in the Bronx.

Gulp.

And to think the Philadelphia Inquirer had to apologize for running a Macy's ad that congratulated the Phillies for winning back-to-back titles. Obviously, Macy's hasn't watched Hamels. A lethal force last autumn as MVP of the World Series and National League Championship Series, the 25-year-old lefty has turned into the newest snack food in the Tastykake bakery empire. Take your pick, Kandy Kakes or Krimpets. Hamels is mushier than anything on the convenience-store shelves. It's disconcerting enough that he is 1-2 with a 7.58 ERA in his four postseason starts, a total reversal from his 4-1, 1.80 ERA brilliance of 2008. What's worse is his attitude, which falls somewhere between a moper and a quitter. There isn't much in the way of toughness, such as in Game 3, when he retired 10 of the first 11 batters, then melted down when he didn't get a call on 3-2 pitch to Mark Teixeira. Next thing you knew, Rodriguez was blasting his double-ruled-homer off the Fox camera in right field, and Hamels would depart quickly after another failed start. Afterward, he alarmed his Phillies bosses by uttering words that no major-leaguer should say after Game 3 of a World Series -- or, really, ever.

"I can't wait for it to end," Hamels said of his 2009, which included a 10-11 record and 4.32 ERA in the regular season. "It's been mentally draining. At year's end, you just can't wait for a fresh start."

Said Manuel: "I was totally surprised with what he said. I don't know exactly what he meant by that. But at the same time, I understand his frustration. When I look at him sometimes, he was the MVP of the World Series last year. If you stop and look at it, he's been a top-rated pitcher ever since he's come up. This year has been tough on him. He's kind of had a weird year. What he's going through right now, it's going to be an experience, because he's going through the part where he's failed.

"I would never question his mental toughness. I think at times he gets a little upset with himself, but as far as his mental toughness, this guy, he's mentally tough. I still think all that [quality stuff] is there, and he'll get back there [to being a top-notch pitcher]. And I think this is something new to him. Every guy goes through it."

After the game, Hamels sought to clarify his remarks. In the NL playoffs, he had to do a similar about-face after shooting a dirty look at Utley, who had committed a throwing error. "Sometimes I might not say the best things or the smartest things, but I've learned and am learning," Hamels said. "I wasn't able to sleep the past couple of nights because of it."

Can he retrieve his lost grit in two days? "I really do hope I have that opportunity," Hamels said of Game 7. "It's one of those games where you can redeem yourself."

"I wouldn't be hesitant to start him, but we'll see how the series goes," Manuel said. "He showed you for three innings that he can pitch. I look at that. If he can do it for three innings, why can't he keep going? That's kind of how I look at it."

What happened to Hamels? He hasn't developed a effective curveball to augment his fastball and changeup, a weakness the hitters have figured out. He also had a sore elbow in spring training that probably has bothered him since, at least more than he has let on. Still, the Phillies expected more from his heart. "I think he had a short winter. I think he was very active last winter as far as going around and receiving awards, going and doing things," Manuel said. "And then all of a sudden this year, he struggles. It's been a big change for him in how people look at him or his status and things like that and people's demands of him. This winter, he needs to get a clear head and come back with the ideal of thinking more about baseball and really concentrate and stay focused on his pitching. This guy was one of the most focused guys that I've seen in a long time, and he's still got that same ability. There's no reason why he can't be the same pitcher that we project, and I'm sure he will be."

But for now, he is a head case. It's something Manuel should have weighed heavily when he made the call to save Lee and leave Game 4 for Blanton, who allowed four runs in six innings and put pressure on uptight teammates who made fundamental blunders and struggled to score off Sabathia. Manuel was hesitant because Lee never has started on three days' rest, has arm woes two years ago and, at 6-3 and 190 pounds, doesn't have the body strength of the 6-7, 300-pound Sabathia. "We're going to experiment with Cliff Lee in the World Series?" Manuel said. "Also, his workload and everything and his routine. I'll throw a pitcher out there during the season, and if I don't have him in his role or something like that, like you guys ask me about that all the time -- what about if I start messing with Cliff Lee and take him out of his routine and his days' rest and everything?

"I've seen it both ways. I've seen it work, and I've seen it not work. If we would have pitched Lee [on Sunday] and he would have won, we'd still need to win [Monday]. And who's to say who's to say he might not pitch again."

But only an inning or two -- as opposed to multiple innings. Girardi would have Sabathia and ride him into the sixth or seventh. This doesn't necessarily mean Girardi is outmanaging the country fellow; it means he is taking advantage of the best pitching rotation money can buy. What Manuel has done is blow a wonderful opportunity to match Girardi's rotation the best he can, with a pitcher delivering an all-time performance.

"What's that old saying, 'Spahn and Sain, pray for rain?' Got an off-day tomorrow, maybe it'll rain the next day," Manuel said, wryly. "I can get Lee in on three days, like you guys are talking about. No, I look at it as the seventh game would be on his day to throw in the bullpen, and I'll see what goes on from there. I'll talk to him about what he thinks about if he can pitch at all or something."

"As for my availability, I'm available," said Lee, who has said all along that he's up for any situation. "I think I'll be fine. You're going to have to talk to Charlie. I don't know what his plans are. I'll be ready to pitch whenever they want me to."

Point is, Lee feels fine. As Girardi said, "I think the important thing on short rest is you have to know how your pitcher physically is feeling." Girardi went with the three-day hunch. Manuel did not.

Remember that if -- and when -- than Yankees are celebrating another World Series championship. And when the Phillies are relinquishing theirs.

As Phils Give Chase, Lee Strategy Hurts originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:37:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yankees Again Pedro Martinez's Daddy

Jay Mariotti — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:16:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- He didn't want to relinquish the ball, not with the fans ready to bombard him, not when they were preparing a final triumphant round of "Who's Your Daddy!" chants. But it was time for Pedro Martinez to depart nonetheless, perhaps forever from a stage that is 110 streets north of midtown Manhattan but always has felt like pure Broadway every time he has performed there.

Thursday night at Yankee Stadium was no exception. Nicked by the home team for three runs in six-plus innings, on a night when the Phillies had few answers for the vicious breaking stuff of A.J. Burnett and a two-inning dose of Mariano Rivera, Martinez handed the ball to manager Charlie Manuel, absorbed the rude serenade as he left the mound, pointed to his father in the sky and then, as he neared the visitors' dugout, broke into a grin that had to make you laugh even if you were a Philadelphia fan sensing defeat.

Yes, the Yankees were Pedro's "Daddy" again in Game 2 of the World Series, the latest twist in a magnificent duel that has been fairly even through the years. But while Martinez allowed a fourth-inning home run to Mark Teixiera that finally got a slumping lineup off the schneid, then yielded a golf-shot homer by Hideki Matsui that gave the Yankees a cushion in a 3-1 victory, trust me when I say Pedro was no one's fool or pinata. He pitched his 37-year-old butt off, and if Yankees fans enjoyed resurrecting a chant inspired late in the 2004 regular season -- when Martinez suffered an 11-1 loss and mumbled offhandedly, "I just tip my cap and call the Yankees my Daddy," -- they also had to respect a classic villain who had done his job as usual.

Which explained his grin.

"I've always been a competitor. They love the fact I compete," he said. "If I played for the Yankees, I would be their King."

"I've always been a competitor. They love the fact I compete. If I played for the Yankees, I would be their King."
-- Pedro Martinez It also explained why he would have pitched all night long if possible, even if he was fighting the flu and hadn't eaten well or slept much in recent days. Twice, manager Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee talked to him in the dugout about how he felt. Twice, Martinez told them that he was fine. And twice, he got his way and stayed in the game. "I wasn't going to give anybody the opportunity to take me out, regardless of how much I coughed and how much my chest hurt," he said. "There was something I had in mind when I chose this team, and it was to pitch in the World Series with this team. I can say I finally got it. I'm extremely happy to have that opportunity tonight. I was the loser, but I'm extremely proud that I was able to compete against a real good team and put my team in position to win that game."

The reason the Yankees tied the series at 1-1 was Burnett, who earned his $82.5-million contract days after a bad start against the Angels in the American League Championship Series. Blessed with some of the best stuff in the sport, he was aggressive and efficient with his fastball, which set up his killer curveball and slider. As it is, the Game 1 winner has won 11 of the last dozen World Series. So imagine the predicament of the Yankees had they taken an 0-2 deficit into Citizens Bank Ballpark. It was extremely important that Burnett pitch well. He pitched brilliantly in allowing a run and four hits and striking out nine over seven innings -- so brilliantly that Joe Girardi over-managed (again) in summoning Rivera for another two-inning save, increasing the risk of burning him out in what looks like a very long Series.

"It was extremely important that he pitch well," Girardi said. "We're playing a very good baseball team, and you don't want to spot them two games when it's best of seven."

"It's a terrible cliche, but it was a must-win," Teixeira said. "You don't want to go 0-2 into Philly. They're so tough at home, and they're fans are going to be all over us."

Burnett would have become a pariah in New York if he lost. Impressively, he wasn't fazed by the magnitude of his first World Series start. "I wanted to come out and attack, feed off the crowd and not just be calm. I had to come out with fire," said Burnett, who said he also gained inspiration from watching the post-Game 1 interview of a very confident Cliff Lee, who has dominated the Phillies' postseason. "I didn't feel the pressure, no lie. I knew it was the biggest game I've ever thrown, but you can't let that affect you. I knew I had a task ahead of me with Pedro on the mound, so I went at him pitch for pitch."

And won, which was no small feat given the way Martinez fed off the same crowd, as always. One fan in particular drew his interest. "It's the new Yankee Stadium, but the fans remain the fans," he said. "One guy in the front row had his daughter in one hand and a couple of beers in the other hand, and he was saying all kinds of nasty stuff. I told him, 'You're a father, and right beside you is your little girl. It's a game.' I had to stop and tell him he's a father. How can you be so dumb in front of a child? What kind of an example are you setting?"

He said this on a night when he was setting an example himself: how to return from arm and hip surgeries and revive his career with guile and cunning. While his fastball was smoking as high as 91 mph, this isn't the Pedro who used to throw 98. It felt like another stop on his Farewell Tour, just as it did two weeks ago when he pitched seven scoreless innings against the Dodgers, his former team, in Los Angeles. But he left the door open to returning next season, unless the Phillies win. "If we win the World Series, I suggest you come to the Domincan (Republic) and ask me," he said. "But it we don't, I'll probably give it another shot. I'm perfectly healthy. I threw more than 100 pitches, and I feel totally fresh, real good."

The Yankees won even though Alex Rodriguez is back to being a postseason stink bomb. After being hailed as a New York "hero" and "role model for kids" in the tabloids amid his hitting tear in the first two playoff series, A-Rod is 0-for-8 with six strikeouts against the Phillies. It's a good thing the Yankees won. Or he'd be A-Fraud again around here. "The fact that I'm 0-for-the-series and we're 1-1 and the guys picked me up today makes me feel really good about going into Game 3," he said. "It's eight at-bats. I'm not concerned at all."

"I know he'll bounce back," Girardi said. "Obviously, you want him to continue on the torrid pace that he was on, but he'll bounce back and we'll get it going in Philly."

Said Teixiera: "I'll bet on it."

We also can bet on bad umpiring continuing to infect October ... and November. Thursday night's star was first-base ump Brian Gorman. In the seventh, with two on and one out, Johnny Damon lined a ball that first baseman Ryan Howard gloved on a short hop. Gorman called Damon out, which resulted in a double play. Later, Chase Utley was called out by Gorman at first, for a double play, when a replay clearly showed he was safe.

"Utley was safe," Manuel said. "But I'm not saying nothing about the umpiring. I'm just saying he was safe."

Yet there was commissioner Bud Selig, continuing to dismiss the idea of expanded replay because he's worried about slowing down the pace of games. The same man who allows TV to push the Series to Nov. 5 -- the same man who allows the Angels to wait 21 days to play nine games -- is worried about pace? Such a hypocrite.

"I understand that we've had some incidents that were most unfortunate," Selig said before the game. "I think there are other ways we can make corrections. During the offseason we'll review everything. I'm not afraid of change. but you have to be very careful when you tamper with the sport."

If the umpiring has reeked, the competition has been terrific and the pitching great. This smacks of a wonderful World Series. Pedro Martinez, one bad Daddy himself, left a lasting memory.

Yankees Again Pedro Martinez's Daddy originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:16:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Another Epic Performance, Cliff Lee Is Dr. October

Jay Mariotti — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:10:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- Ever seen a crowd in this city so quiet, so wet, so stupefied? This was to have been the beginning of another pinstripe coronation, the first in a series of Win One For The Boss vignettes in the House That Ruthlessness Built. Instead, all the puffy hubris was silenced on a rainy, windy Wednesday night by Cliff Lee, who began the year in woeful Cleveland and may end it in a pitching pantheon.

It wouldn't be wise to dismiss the Phillies as unworthy of these Yankees and this World Series backdrop. With Lee outdueling his best pal in baseball, CC Sabathia, consider Game 1 a firm reminder that the Phillies are the defending champions and not the least bit intimidated by the mammoth city to the north, a Taj Mahal ballpark in the Bronx and the massive payroll and talent of the Yankees. We winced when Jimmy Rollins, the mouthy leadoff man, boosted Jay Leno's sickly ratings when he went on the show and forecast another Philadelphia championship. "Of course, we're going to win," he chirped. "If we're nice, we'll let it go six, but I'm thinking five -- close it out at home."

More: Moore: Yankees Yuck | Fletcher: Utley Show | Price: CC's Heavy Load

As long as Lee is breathing, walking, working his gum, throwing wicked cheese and dazzling us with behind-the-back fielding magic -- followed by a facial shrug reminiscent of Michael Jordan after his flurry of three-pointers -- the chances of a repeat are plausible. Stunning as it is to recall he was shipped to the minors two years ago, lacking confidence and efficiency, Lee was a profile in October dominance against the sport's most potent lineup. He continued his amazing postseason run with a complete-game, 10-strikeout, six-hit masterpiece, winning 6-1 while supported by Chase Utley's two solo home runs off Sabathia and a put-away two-run single by Raul Ibanez.

"It's surreal. It's what you dream of as a kid, being on this stage," Lee said. "I'm here in the World Series, and I'm having success. And it feels great."

Success? That's understating matters. Whether it was his three strikeouts of Alex Rodriguez, one on a drop-dead 3-2 changeup, or shutting down Johnny Damon, Mark Teixiera and A-Rod to the tune of 1-for-12, Lee delivered one of the memorable postseason performances. The question becomes whether manager Charlie Manuel would dare start him in Game 4 on only three days' rest, which would allow him to pitch in a Game 7. Whatever the decision, Lee's monster postseason -- 3-0, an all-time low ERA of 0.54 -- changes the tenor of this competition. For all the star power on both sides, he is the centerpiece of this series, this month and this idea of the Phillies becoming the first National League team to repeat since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds.

He was the model of cool, too, very much looking and feeling the part of the invincible man. The behind-the-back stab of a one-hopper was sheer athleticism. But his nonchalant basket catch of a popup? This was showboat material. "He pulled a Willie Mays," grumbled Manuel, who wasn't fond of it.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool," said Lee, smiling. "Fifteen feet in the air, came right to me, a simple catch. Whatever. I caught it. He was out."

Can he be that cool? No nerves at all in the biggest start of his life? That's his story, and there's no reason to doubt him. "To be successful at this level, you've got to be confident," Lee said in his soft Arkansas drawl. "You've got to believe you're gonna get everyone out. I definitely think that. I try not to be over the edge and be cocky, but I have confidence. I've always been that way. It's the same game I've been playing my whole life. This is the stage I've wanted to be on, and now that I'm here, I've already put all the work in and done everything I could to prepare. So what's the point of being nervous? I've never been nervous in the big leagues, not once. Game time is the time to go out, have fun, execute and let your skills take over."

Yep, that simple, even against the scary likes of A-Rod, who was hitting .438 in the postseason with five homers and 12 RBI before Lee silenced him. "I don't know if there's any one way to get him out or this lineup out," Lee said. "You've got to be unpredictable, show them things they haven't seen before. Mix speeds and locations, don't get into patterns. That offense is so potent, and if they get a clue in terms of what you're doing, you're gonna get hurt."

And to think Lee wasn't the first choice of the Phillies when general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. sought big-time pitching help in July. The original target was Toronto's Roy Halladay, but the deal fell through when J.P. Ricciardi, the Blue Jays' since-deposed general manager, demanded too much in return. Amaro didn't have to relinquish nearly as much for Lee, and as good as Halladay is, there's little chance he would have performed in the postseason as well as Lee. Really, who else would?

"When we got him, we knew he was good. But to tell you the truth, I didn't know he was as good as he has been," Manuel said. "He had all his pitches going tonight -- fastball, cutter, curveball, changeup -- and he used them all up, effective on all of them. He went right through a tremendous lineup."

So, will he start three times? Manuel didn't say no. "We'll see how it goes. We'll see where we're at," he said. "We've got time."

Cliff? "That's a better question for Charlie. I'm ready to pitch whenever they'll let me," he said.

Over the last two postseasons, the Philies are 17-4, the best run in NL history. They win at home. They win on the road. They win in the rain and cold. They win in domes. "We're not intimidated by anything," said Utley, who overcame his hitting and throwing woes in the NL Championship Series with a bust-out Game 1. "We have a lot of confidence that we can play with the best of them."

"When we got [Lee], we knew he was good. But to tell you the truth, I didn't know he was as good as he has been."
-- Phillies manager Charlie Manuel It could be the Phillies remain the best of them all. Maybe we've been underestimating their chances against the Yankees, who were dealt a psychological blow when Sabathia took two killer shots from Utley in his much-anticipated duel with Lee. CC and Cliff have been friends since their Cleveland days -- imagine being a fan there with the dreadful Browns, lowly Indians, LeBron James eight months from his possible departure and, now, two Cy Young Award winners pitching elsewhere. After they faced each other here in April, they went to Sabathia's house and dined with Jordan, CC's friend. They've been texting each other all season and have been close for years, with Sabathia providing emotional support for Lee when the Indians demoted him to Buffalo.

More than anything, Lee's story is one of perseverance. A lot of pitchers have dominated in October, but few have ever done so with their career waning in the bush leagues just two years earlier. As much as Lee struts his stuff, he's also humble. "Sure, I want to pitch until the game's over. That's my competitive nature, me expecting to be successful," he said "Every game I pitch, I want to go nine innings and put up all zeroes. That's not reality, but that's what I expect from myself.

"I also know I still have work to do. I'm not about to start patting myself on the back and thinking I have it all figured out. It's not over 'til it's over. Whenever you think you've got it all figured out, that's when it's gonna blow up in your face. No way I'm saying, 'Wow, this has been an easy postseason.' I'll keep doing all my work, and if I do that, there's no reason I shouldn't be successful. I'll pat myself on the back when it's over, hopefully. Until then, I'll just keep grinding."

The Yankees are dazed. If they face Lee twice more, they know there's a chance they'll lose both games. Do the math. "You've got to tip your cap to him. He was outstanding," Derek Jeter said.

"He was great," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "He kept us off balance, got us to chase some pitches, used his cutter and curveball very well. We know he's very good. But the one thing is, he can't pitch every day. As far as being frustrated, I'm confident our guys will grind it out."

But the Phillies definitely have taken fizz out of the pinstriped soda pop. "The fans were pretty rowdy early on in the game," Utley said. "Toward the end, I noticed some people leaving, and it was a little quieter in here." That's because a New York crowd recognizes an epic performer when it sees one.

"Getting the first one out of the way is big," Lee said. "At worst, we split in New York, and we go home with the home-field advantage. Now we have a chance to take both and go into Philly in a real good spot."

That's the only thing he got wrong all night. Seems they're already in a real good spot.

With Another Epic Performance, Cliff Lee Is Dr. October originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Selig's New Blunder: November Baseball

Jay Mariotti — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:20:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- The lords of baseball don't realize it, probably because they're old and stubborn and semi-senile. But their showcase event, the World Series, never has seemed more irrelevant in American life. I say it even as the New York Yankees, a world-famous brand name with gaudy stars and Hollywood girlfriends, return for the first time in six years to play the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies in what should be a compelling matchup of monstrous talent and East Coast psychosis.

The problem? Look at the calendar, stupid. The Series is starting later than ever, on Oct. 28, and potentially could finish with a Game 7 in what very possibly would be a frigid, blustery Yankee Stadium on November the friggin' fi-fi-fi-fifth. That means the Boys of Summer are perilously close to becoming the Icecubes of Winter, which is not the smart way to determine a champion in a game of intellectual nuance and patient, incremental drama. Though so many of these postseason contests have been cool to watch, I've also found myself thinking at times, "Can we please finish all this?" instead of sitting back and enjoying the action.

I can hear my body clock ticking, knowing Game 3 of the Series will be played on Halloween night -- what if Pedro Martinez dressed up as Don Zimmer during his start? -- and that Thanksgiving and Christmas aren't too far away. Pitchers and catchers reported to spring training almost nine months ago. The regular season launched seven months ago, with teams playing just about every day. Then, when the postseason arrived, the games suddenly stopped and started, with awkward and unnecessary off days dropped in because the FOX and TBS networks demanded the first two rounds be placed in advantageous evening time slots.

Consequently, whatever theater they've been trying to develop lost its momentum and ability to maintain a captive audience. It's a pathetic strategy by any measure but particularly when baseball is competing against King Football, whose pace is more conducive to a world that is getting faster in the 21st century. In the process, Major League Baseball is allowing financial greed to interrupt the integrity of its entire season, beginning to end. Such harsh thoughts are not only mine. They're shared by one of the game's most respected managers, Mike Scioscia of the Angels, who fired some much-needed shots at the commissioner's office before his team was eliminated from the American League Championship Series Sunday night by the Yankees. Exhibit A of what's wrong with the scheduling format: The Angels needed 22 days to play nine playoff games.

"We should never have three days off after the season. You shouldn't even have two days off after the season. It just takes an advantage away for a deep team, which everybody feels very strongly is an asset."
-- Angels manager Mike Scioscia "Ridiculous. I don't know, can I say it any clearer than that?" Scioscia said. "We should have never had a day off last Wednesday. We should never have three days off after the season. You shouldn't even have two days off after the season. It just takes an advantage away for a deep team, which everybody feels very strongly is an asset. It takes that advantage away, and I think that's something that Major League Baseball hopefully will consider looking at."

When asked to elaborate, Scioscia looked over at one of commissioner Bud Selig's longtime trusted aides, Phyllis Merhige, who was running the news conference. "Do you think I can answer this, Phyllis?" he said, knowing the territory was delicate. And off he went again, saying, "I stand by that comment 100 percent. I think that [the first] eight games in 21 days -- you lose a lot of the integrity of what the season means when you have three days off at the end of the season to let other teams maybe reset their starting rotation, which is an advantage of clinching early. That's negated when any team can do it just by getting to the playoffs.

"Some of it could be trimmed up. I think that it's something that eventually is going to have to be addressed. I think you can't control the weather to a certain extent, but the earlier you can schedule these to get them in, the better chance you have of finishing this in weather that is, I think, conducive to the outstanding level of play that is going to be on any playoff baseball field. And I think that it does have an impact. I don't know if it has an impact so much on who wins or loses, but it has an impact on the quality of play. And I think that's very, very important to the integrity of our game. It's just something that seems like it's gotten away a little. I can't say it any clearer: Eight games in 21 days is something you never expect in a season. I think that's the wrong template for baseball."

By extending the postseason, Selig and his peeps not only have turned off the masses beyond New York and Philly but increased the likelihood of inclement weather wreaking havoc. Remember earlier this month in the Bronx, when the Yankees and Angels played in a heavy rainstorm in the wee hours of Sunday? The early forecast for Game 1 Wednesday predicts showers and temperatures in the low 50s, with the possibility of lighter rain for Game 2 Thursday. They're expecting pleasant temperatures in Philly for the weekend games, yet showers are forecast for Saturday. Rain causes delays, which chases viewers to other channels and bogs down the competition. Few can recall how the Phillies beat Tampa Bay in last year's Series because the weather was the predominant story, including Selig's make-up-rules-as-you-go declaration that a team couldn't clinch a Series in a weather-shortened game.

That one was a farce, with one game starting past 10 PM in the East. This one could be, too, complete with Dri-Fit tights, hand warmers, thermal hats with earflaps and space heaters. The waiting, as Tom Petty noted, is the hardest part. "The worst part of it is just the wait. This was the longest day ever," Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte said Saturday, when his start was delayed until the next night by rain. "And I was just about to start getting in my routine and they come walking in there and tell me it got canceled. You realize it's a rainout. Get ready to do it tomorrow. But it's just frustrating from the standpoint it's just such a long day, when you're so ready and so anxious to get the game going."

Baseball very dearly needs a memorable World Series. The last five have lasted five or fewer games, including sweeps by the White Sox in 2005 and the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007. Did the Tigers even show up in 2006, hitting .199 with eight errors as the Cardinals won in five? This one certainly has firepower -- according to STATS LLC, it's the first time since 1926 that the two best power-hitting teams played in the Series. For the largest cities on the East Coast, it's classic stuff. The Phillies even took an Amtrak train to Manhattan's Penn Station Monday afternoon, representing the underdog, Rocky Balboa town playing the behemoth with the $210-million payroll.

"People want to talk about the money they give out," Phillies manager/character Charlie Manuel said. "But the Yankees have 26 banners flying over their stadium and they got those for a reason -- because they want to win. When you beat them, there's a lot of satisfaction there."

Yet beyond the I-95 corridor, you wonder how many fans will watch. It's football season, pro and college, and when baseball stretches into mid-fall, it's vulnerable to becoming a national nuisance. As it is, Selig faces the problem of bad umpiring continuing to muddle games, as it has throughout the postseason. But he can control the calls with expanded instant replay, assuming he ever gets it through his thick skull.

When the World Series is starting closer to New Year's Eve than the July trade deadline, in two cold-weather cities, there's nothing an inept commissioner can do but hope he isn't embarrassed again. Chances are, he will be.

Selig's New Blunder: November Baseball originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally, Yankees Earn Their Pinstripes

Jay Mariotti — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:15:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

NEW YORK -- On a pleasant, Doppler-free evening made for bare, brawny forearms, Alex Rodriguez continued his postseason awakening without even swinging a bat. This was in the fourth inning, when the Angels were unable to employ their desired intentional walk because the bases were loaded. So as 50,000 fans stood and shrieked and awaited magic in the new Stadium -- all except Kate Hudson, who sat like she was waiting for Matt Dillon in You, Me and Dupree -- A-Rod stepped in and sought a pitch to rip into the galaxy.

The fat one never came. Joe Saunders walked him, forcing in the Yankees' third run when it was apparent that the Angels wouldn't score more than that off two Doctor Octobers, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. All that awaited were the police to ring their field, and when they arrived nearly at the stroke of midnight, the Yankees were celebrating their 40th American League pennant and first World Series trip in six years, which in these parts is an eternity.

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It's no coincidence that their return to the Fall Classic, as the Best Team Money Can Buy, arrives with Rodriguez's autumn surge as The Best Mercenary The Steinbrenners Can Splurge On. Finally, he has shed the feeble, ghastly memories of playoffs past -- the wimpy swat of Bronson Arroyo's glove, his 0-for-20 rut with runners in scoring position the last three postseasons -- and become a force worthy of a $275-million contract and Hollywood starlet girlfriend. With five home runs, 12 RBI and a .438 batting average in nine playoff games, A-Rod has transformed the Yankees from the biggest annual bust in sports, the franchise that got the least bang for its buck, into the favorites to win their 27th world championship. After spending billions of dollars on payrolls and another billion and a half on an immaculate ballpark where the hot-dog mustard is pumped from crystal fountains -- think I'm kidding? -- the Yankees finally are where they're supposed to be in sport and life.

As is he.

"I've been dreaming about this since I was 5 years old. Now, it's not a dream anymore. We're in the World Series with 24 of the greatest guys you could ever play with," a grinning Rodriguez said after the 5-2 victory in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series, which assured a classic I-95 matchup against the Phillies. "I couldn't be more excited right now. I feel like a kid."

It's a dream for many of the Yankees, even as a cynical America wonders how a team with a $210-million payroll can embrace storybook ambitions. For Joe Girardi, it's proof that he truly can manage this operation when he didn't make the playoffs last year and was ripped for making too many pitching decisions earlier in the ALCS. For Derek Jeter, Game 6 winner Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada -- the "Core Four" who have been around since the glory days started in the mid-1990s -- it's a chance to win a fifth title after so many disappointments. For general manager Brian Cashman and the Steinbrenner boys, Hal and Hank, it justifies spending $423.5 million on ALCS MVP CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. And though he wasn't in the house that Ruthlessness Built, it is a dream for George Steinbrenner, whose spend-and-win spirit remains alive and well amid a poor American economy and remains the inspirational focus for everyone involved.

"I spoke to him this morning," said Hal Steinbrenner, clutching the new trophy in the neon-blue-lit clubhouse. "Everyone feels like we're doing this for him. We want to win the whole thing for him."

"We're trying to do this for Pops," Girardi said. "Mr. Steinbrenner deserves another championship, and that's why I wear the number I do."

It was the Boss, of course, who bought into the A-Rod monster and brought him to New York, even when Rodriguez's immaturity and penchant for controversy suggested he'd be a tabloid nightmare. Not until now has the grand idea paid off. "What he's been able to in this postseason has been really pretty incredible," Girardi said. "You know, it's just not the home runs, it's just not the RBI. He's a great baserunner. And his defense has been exceptional. I think his leadership has been exceptional. It's more than just the numbers sometimes what Alex does. He's been as good as anyone I can remember."

Let's also be sure to keep his surge in perspective. Joe Buck, the FOX play-by-play man, described Rodriguez as a "hero" on the Game 6 broadcast. A-Rod is no hero. What we're watching is a man who needlessly took steroids -- cheated -- when he was blessed with more physical gifts than any baseball player alive. At last, I presume, the man is clean and allowing his abilities to circumvent his mental baggage to dominate a postseason for the first time, in part because he has found romantic peace with an actress who is cuter than the Rally Monkey, much younger than Madonna and more reputable than that Manhattan madam.

Hero? Nope, just another flawed human being who figured out life.

"I certainly feel free and liberated," he said. "It's the happiest I've been in a long time."

Happy and healthy, with a surgically repaired hip that remarkably isn't bothering him in the least, Rodriguez is the difference between the Yankees flopping again and hosting Game 1 this Wednesday. Oh, it helps to have Sabathia pitching three times in the Series, not to mention Andy Pettitte as the winningest postseason pitcher ever, with his 16th victory quelling pre-game silliness that his start would backfire on Girardi. It also helps to have the greatest closer ever in Rivera, who shockingly was nicked for a run in the eighth, and a batting order that has only one weakness in Nick Swisher. But for all the star power that goes to work in the world's gaudiest clubhouse -- a hot tub for 12, dark tiling in the bathrooms, frosted glass partitions dividing the lockers, ThinkPad computers, a climate-controlled bat room -- make no mistake: The 2009 Yankees are an A-Rod spectacular.

Which is powerful stuff, considering where he was eight months ago. That is when he was caught in the big lie, having to acknowledge steroids use after denying it often in the past. He was an American pariah, no longer known for his accomplishments -- closing in on 600 home runs, 12 All-Star Games, 10 Silver Slugger Awards, three AL MVPs -- as much as his infamy. To compound matters, he was fighting hip problems that required surgery and seemed capable of eventually sabotaging his career. He marriage was ruined. His image was trashed. His new nickname was A-Fraud, straight from the mouths of teammates.

"I think it's fair to say I hit rock bottom this spring, between the embarrassment of the press conference and my career being threatened with my hip injury," Rodriguez said. "My life and my career were at a crossroads, and I was either going to stay at the bottom or I was going to bounce back."

At 34, he chose redemption. From his first game back after surgery in May, when he homered in Baltimore on his first at-bat, to his month-long assault on Angels and Twins pitching, Rodriguez has been the epicenter of baseball's biggest ongoing story. For once, we needn't try to figure out A-Rod. We simply can enjoy him. "Mentally? I'm not a psychologist, man. You need to ask him," said Derek Jeter, his longtime nemesis and now-trusted teammate. "He just seems comfortable. I don't know what he's thinking, I don't want to know. Just leave him alone, that's the biggest thing. He seems like he was comfortable pretty much the whole end of the year and just carried it into the playoffs. I ain't trying to figure it out, man."

"I don't think I've ever seen a guy go through a stretch like this, especially in the postseason," Teixeira said. "You know the other team is trying everything they can to get him out, but he's not missing pitches and he's not swinging at bad pitches. Alex is one of the greatest hitters of all time and he's showing it now."

"I don't think I've ever seen a guy go through a stretch like this, especially in the postseason. ... Alex is one of the greatest hitters of all time and he's showing it now."
-- Mark Teixeira The word you hear in the new Stadium is "comfortable." When A-Rod is comfortable, he makes everyone else comfortable. And vice versa. For decades, the Steinbrenner circus has been a pressure cooker like no other in sports, a place where insanely paid players unravel in the big-media glare. But in Girardi, they found a leader who could keep the ship calm, having learned his lessons about anger management after his firing in Florida. They were ready to zing him again if Pettitte failed, but, please, why would Pettitte fail when he has thrived so often in October? "This is why I came back. I feel blessed," said Pettitte, who has distanced himself from his own steroids admission and dirt-dishing on Roger Clemens. Girardi also handled A-Rod's tender psyche better than most professional shrinks could have, and he made the transition smooth for Sabathia, Burnett and Teixiera. Naturally, he deflected the attention from himself to the players. "The difference was, we had big players play big for us," Girardi said. "CC was huge. Alex was huge. Mariano. It all started with Alex, with his home runs in the seventh, ninth and 11th [inning]. We've had big players do big things. That's why we have a chance to go to the World Series."

Translated, extraordinarily paid players are earning their money, which isn't usually the case in cash-grab situations. That's what is different about this team: In times when Americans don't want to hear about stinking-rich athletes, the Yankees are earning their keep and their pinstripes. "We came in with the goal of winning a championship, and we're one step closer," Sabathia said. "It's really not a surprise that we are here. I don't want to say it that way, but this is a real good team of guys who blend in well together."

No one symbolizes the breakthrough more than A-Rod, who always has been the wild card in the puzzle. Which Alex are you getting day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year? Now there's a thread of dominance for the greater body of work. OK, so there's a story circulating that his girlfriend, Hudson, has been using her Buddhist upbringing to help her man in prayer at games. Better it be Buddhism, apparently, than Madonna's Kabbalah.

"He's doing something different," Angels outfielder Torii Hunter. "I think he's shorter with his swing and being patient, a lot more patient. He looks different at the plate. He definitely wants it. You can tell by the way he's swinging. That guy's a bad guy, man. I wish he was on my team."

For the first time, the Yankees are happy that he is on their team.

Finally, Yankees Earn Their Pinstripes originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yanks Reveal Cracks, Make Life Harder

Jay Mariotti — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:51:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- "This is mine! Come on, Scioscia! This is MINE!" John Lackey shouted at his manager on the mound, scowling at him, then inserting a spicy word or two. Mike Scioscia, long respected as one of the game's wisest tacticians, didn't agree with his pitcher's assessment. He asked for the baseball and told Lackey to leave, even though he owned a 4-0 lead over the Yankees, had just retired the second out of the seventh inning, was burned on a ball-strike call to Jorge Posada -- now there's a shock, more bad umpiring -- and wanted very much to face Mark Teixiera and end a based-loaded rally.

For a time Thursday night, this stood as one of the most embarrassing managerial decisions in recent playoff history. Rather than stick with his best and gutsiest starter, Scioscia out-strategized himself and summoned veteran lefty Darren Oliver to face Teixiera, who was hitting .133 for the postseason when a wild night began near Disneyland. Teixeira promptly ripped a shot out by the rock pile and fountains at Angel Stadium, clearing the bases with a double. When Scioscia followed by intentionally walking Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui made him pay again with a game-tying single. Scioscia made another move, going to young righty Kevin Jepsen. You know what was next: Robinson Cano said hello with a triple, driving in two runs for a 6-4 lead.

And where was Lackey? Oh, walking disgustedly through the dugout and disappearing into the tunnel, where I wouldn't have wanted to be a water fountain, card table or flat-screen TV. As baseball's next super-rich pitching free agent, Lackey may have been wondering if Boston, Chicago or even Texas made more sense than re-upping with a dope like Scioscia.

But what we learned in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series is that the Yankees are hardly infallible. As the National League-champion Phillies nursed hangovers and planned their rotation so a well-rested Cliff Lee can start in Game 1, the Best Team Money Can Buy couldn't hold a two-run lead with an overpaid pitcher, $82.5-million A.J. Burnett, and a bullpen that left a creaky bridge to Mariano Rivera. The plan was to bury the Angels, who came in hitting .202 in the ALCS with two stolen bases and a .138 average with runners in scoring position. That way, the Yankees could have five days to rest themselves, prepare CC Sabathia for the Game 1 duel with Lee and let America salivate over the hottest (and coldest) World Series matchup in years.

They couldn't close the deal, though, which complicates matters more than they think. Not only have the Yankees handed the Phillies an early psychological edge, they now must return home and face the Angels in Game 6 on what is forecast to be a Saturday night of heavy rain at new Yankee Stadium. Andy Pettitte lives for those moments, but should the Yankees lose, they'll face Game 7 and a fatigue factor entering the Series -- assuming they enter the Series at all. You don't want to give the Phillies any more confidence, considering they're 18-5 the last two postseasons and have outscored foes 55-31, out-homered them 14-8 and out-walked them 48-22 in their current playoff run. But by losing 7-6 as the Rally Monkey and 45,000 Thunderstix-clacking fans celebrated, the Yankees have done exactly that.

They've made the Phillies think they're vulnerable. They've made their own lives tougher. They've given those Angels, a dangerously pesky team with persistent tendencies, a dose of life when they seemed dead. And, oh yes, they're triggering memories of 2004, when they held a 3-0 lead over the Red Sox and were swept out in an all-time choke job.

"Yeah, any time you have a chance to close out a series and you don't win, no matter what the score is, it's a missed opportunity," manager Joe Girardi said. "But we get a chance to go to our ballpark where we've played extremely well. You know, we've had a lot of come-from-behind wins there. So, yeah, it's a missed opportunity, but we still have another game. We've bounced back from tough losses all year long. We've had it happen to us before and been able to get off the carpet."

The pressure clearly is on the Yankees, the team with the $210 million payroll, the team that has spent billions of dollars in payrolls the last nine years trying to win a World Series trophy they haven't owned since 2000. Torii Hunter seconds the motion. "Yeah, anything's possible, man. This is baseball. Baseball is a crazy game, man," said the Angels center fielder and designated spokesman. "You see some crazy things. Every time you come to the game, you've probably been to 1,000 games and you see something different every year. My hair is falling out, man. We came out kicking, scratching, punching."

Just so you know, Hunter shaves his head. But you get his drift. "We're excited about this. I mean, we're going out there to win," he said. "We've got Pettitte on Saturday, we're going to take it one game at a time. That's all we can do. We can't think about Game 7 or CC, or anything like that of the we're just going to take it one game at a time and be ready to go. And that's what we did today. I mean, the pressure's not on us, definitely."

Only six teams have erased a 3-1 deficit to win a League Championship Series. But only the Angels have the Rally Monkey. They also have Scioscia, who is allowed a goof-up every so often, seeing how his moves usually work.

"Maybe John still looked like he maybe had a little bit left. In making that move, I said with my heart, 'Hey, leave John in.' But my head said, 'Let's try to turn Tex around [as a switch-hitter] and get out of that inning right there,'" Scioscia said. "I think I just have a lot of confidence in John. He might have had enough to get in there and get Tex out, but I thought to turn him around at that point was the move. Obviously, it didn't work."

Said catcher Jeff Mathis, who continues to rip the Yankees with six straight hits after batting .210 in the regular season: "I'm not going to repeat [what Lackey told Scioscia], but, you know, it's just how he is. Any time he's getting taken out of the game, he doesn't want to come out. That's just him. That's how he is. And, you know, he's a bulldog, man."

"I felt like I got to the point in the game where I should have been able to determine it," Lackey said. The bulldog only wants to win, which means he was fine by game's end. Whether he remains in Anaheim next season is another story, but for now, Lackey and the Angels got what they wanted: a return trip to New York.

"Oh, this is going to be a good trip, and we still have a huge challenge in front of us. But, you know, you're still in the game," Scioscia said. "You know, we're going to come out and hopefully have a good game Saturday and, you know, we'll just take it one step at a time, obviously."

Of course, it couldn't have been a night of postseason baseball without more umpiring snafus. If it's Thursday, it must be the first-base umpire. There was Johnny Damon of the Yankees, ripping a hard groundball in the third inning. Kendry Morales, the Angels first baseman, fielded the ball and flipped it late to a charging Lackey. The replay -- that would be the video recording played back on TV, in case commissioner Bud Selig didn't know -- showed that Damon was safe. Dale Scott, the first-base ump, naturally called him out. It was merely the third out of a 1-2-3 inning for Lackey, but a wickedly missed call is a wickedly missed call for the men in black and blue, all of whom qualify for LensCrafters commercials assuming they pass the eye exams.

And we weren't done. In the Yankees' six-run seventh, Lackey should have had the second out earlier when a replay showed that he struck out Jorge Posada. But the call was ball four, which contributed to Lackey being pulled and the Yankees extending the inning.

Shall we call it an epidemic, a crisis, a tragicomedy? How about all of the above? What should be a memorable postseason for all its drama -- 11 games decided by one run, six won by walk-off hits, Alex Rodriguez dressing up for Halloween as Reggie Jackson, Lee and Sabathia all but unhittable and not missing Cleveland for a nanosecond -- continues to be overwhelmed by clownish umpiring. Even after Selig stuck his bifocals in the mess Thursday and ruled with his minions that only the best and most experienced umpires will work the World Series, it occurred to us that Scott has been a major league ump for 23 years. And that Tim McClelland, who botched both the Nick Swisher third-base tag play and the Cano double-play-that-wasn't in a now-infamous ALCS Game 4, is a 28-year veteran considered one of the finest and classiest in his profession. I ached for McClelland when he said of the two gaffes, "The first one, with Swisher leaving too soon, in my heart I thought he left too soon. On the play with Cano and Posada, I was waiting for two players to be on the base. When he tagged Cano, I thought Cano was on the base." Cano wasn't anywhere near the base, sadly.

Swisher and Teixeira didn't ache for McClelland at all. They were laughing about his comment. "In my heart ..." Teixeira muttered as he walked through the clubhouse. "That's funny. That's a good one."

Selig's solution, according to the Associated Press, is to use longtime crew chiefs at the Series: Joe West, Dana DeMuth, Gerry Davis. They'll be joined by Brian Gorman, Jeff Nelson and Mike Everitt. This time, Major League Baseball will forgo its regular practice of allowing a first-time umpire work its showcase event, figuring the climate is too risky and the public too angry to gamble on newcomers. C.B. Bucknor was supposed to work his first Series, but he apparently blew his shot with two bungled calls in Game 1 of the Angels-Red Sox Division Series. And none of the umps who've humiliated themselves in the ALCS will be working the Series, including McClelland.

"I'm just out there trying to do my job and do it the best I can," McClelland said. "And, unfortunately, there was, by instant replay, two missed calls."

Of course, it couldn't have been a night of postseason baseball without more umpiring snafus.
Consider it the defining quote of a month of mishaps. If a universally respected umpire can blow two calls in a night, as revealed by replay, then I repeat my longstanding cry for expanded replay -- beyond the current use for home-run calls only. Selig should realize by now that umps of all experience levels can screw up. To truly get the calls right and stop making a mockery of an otherwise terrific month, the 75-year-old commissioner needs to grasp that it's 2009, TV technology never has been better and that viewers at home know more about the umpiring decisions -- right or wrong? -- than the umps themselves. Selig is throwing these men into a hot pit and humiliating them on a nightly basis. So why not give them help?

The solution is easy. Position an "eye in the sky," another umpire or league observer to simply watch the replays on the clearest TV screen possible. When a call is blatantly wrong, as so many have been, the man in the booth quickly buzzes down to the crew chief and says, "Cano was clearly out at third, too." And the crew chief calls Cano out.

Selig is worried such situations will be too time-consuming. "Baseball is a game that has a flow, and it's the pace I worry about," he told USA Today earlier this month. "We don't want constant interruptions. That said, nobody is more sad about [bad calls] than I am. Fortunately, they haven't happened very often. We made the change to review home runs because the new ballparks offered up new challenges to the umpires. I'm really satisfied where we are now. Once you start opening up Pandora's box, there's no way to stop it. I believe that would be a disservice to the game."

Sorry, Bud. Wrong again. What's happening now, every evening, is a disservice to great baseball. And as commissioner, it's your job to tweak the game so we see it at its best in October. Anything less means you're lazy and shouldn't be the commish. Of course, we knew that long ago, when Selig dawdled during the Steroids Era.

My concern is that we'll have a wonderful World Series, game after game, night after cold night. And that in Game 7, another ump will make another bad call and mortify us all.

Or, maybe it will happen in Game 7 of this series. As the Phillies grin and wait and rest.

Yanks Reveal Cracks, Make Life Harder originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:51:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unlike Dodgers' Dope on a Rope, Phillies Have Heart

Jay Mariotti — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:15:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

PHILADELPHIA -- They wear red for a reason. The Phillies have become the lifeblood of successive Octobers, a team with a heart bigger than Rocky Balboa, a gang with an edge like south Philly, a cause that doesn't crack like the Liberty Bell or Donovan McNabb, all managed by a country savant who sounds a bit like Ricky Bobby. Bruce Springsteen played across the street the other night, and when the folks discovered that Dodgers manager Joe Torre was watching a fellow sixty-something rock the house, they busted into a "Beat L.A.!" chant that could have drowned out Jungleland.

There is much to love in Citizens Bank Park, a warm and cozy yard in a hard, crusty town. There was much less to admire in the National League Championship Series about the Dodgers, feeding directly into why the Phillies completed a 4-games-to-1 romp Wednesday night, this while rowdies tried to climb greased lightpoles and frothed to finally resolve a lifelong inferiority complex against New York in the World Series. All you need to know about the Phillies is that every player crowded on the top step of the dugout when it mattered most, symbolizing the unity and camaraderie of the first team to win a repeat NL pennant in 13 years.

"We have one more step," said Ryan Howard, the series MVP. "Then we got action."

"What an amazing group of people," said general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., pointing at the players as they surrounded a makeshift stage after the 10-4 slaughter. "You guys in this city deserve to have this group of great, great people."

"I'm not standing here without those men right there," said Charlie Manuel, the manager, who was serenaded with "Charlie! Charlie!" chants from fans who originally didn't know what to make of him or his drawl. "I can get used to it. We got one more to go -- and we're going to get it!"

And all you need to know about Manny Ramirez, the fast-fading star of Mannywood? Oh, he was taking a shower when it mattered most.

"I feel great. I feel like I accomplished all I wanted to accomplish," Manny said early this morning after the Diodgers were eliminated feebly and he had done little to prevent that fate -- in the year of his steroids bust.

We'll have several days to explain why Phillies vs. Yankees might be the hottest (and coldest) Series in years, a matchup between the bloated Bronx behemoths and the defending Series champions from the Pennsylvania shadows. What needs to be performed today is the burial of Ramirez, the steroids fraud who has shrunk into an ordinary hitter since his 50-game suspension and officially needs to remove himself from our baseball lives. The only reason we tolerated his petulant, goofy, self-absorbed act -- all that Manny Being Manny garbage -- is because he was one of the greatest hitters of our lives, the all-time leader in postseason home runs, a clutch slugging machine. But his legend has turned to mush this autumn, just as it had started to over the summer, and he departed the stage he once owned with some very puny numbers in these playoffs: in 32 at-bats, he had one homer, four RBI and six strikeouts. In the NLCS, he hit .263 and had one extra-base hit.

Which is why his failure to stay in uniform and watch his teammates in the dugout late in Game 4, when the Dodgers were blowing the series in the ninth inning, is all the more galling. When Torre removed him for defensive purposes for the bottom of the ninth, Ramirez should have realized this was the defining moment of his team's season. If Jonathan Broxton retired the Phillies, the series would be tied. If not, the Dodgers would be down 1-3. Wouldn't Manny want to be with his teammates, sweating it out with them, willing them with his dreadlocked presence?

Nope. He preferred to retreat to the clubhouse, strip down and take a shower, making him just another dope with soap on a rope. He didn't see any of the drama, as he recounted to the media, presumably shampooing while Jimmy Rollins was slashing a liner into the right-center gap and turning a 4-3 Dodgers lead into the killer blow.

"I come out of the game early, I take a shower," Manny explained.

So you didn't see the Rollins hit live?

"No, I was in the shower," he said.

You didn't even see it on TV?

"I caught the highlights," he said. "Everybody started coming in and they turned the television off. After a loss like that, it was quiet in here. But everybody got over it. It's baseball, you know. The Philadelphia Phillies are playing better, what can you do. Jimmy Rollins is one of my favorite players. I love him. He's small, but he can play. I'm not surprised he was the one who got it done. They play great, they're pitching good and they're getting the key hits at the right moment.

"You can't bring it back."

Therein lies the problem: Manny doesn't love the game; he only loves himself.
Nor can you bring back the moment of being there, in the core of the fray, something cherished by every player who loves the game. Therein lies the problem: Manny doesn't love the game; he only loves himself. It was painful enough earlier that night when he did one of his half-hearted jogs toward a ball hit against the left-field wall, the sort of laziness that got him run out of Boston. Now he was showing himself to be less than a good teammate, pulling the kind of stunt that not even Barry Bonds would pull in a postseason game. Torre, at least publicly, had no choice but to defend him, knowing anything less than stated support might prompt Ramirez to stage a wildcat strike. "I think the way it turned out, it probably doesn't look good," Torre said. "But it's nothing different than he has done before. When we get a lead late in the game, and I've taken him out, whether it be for defense or we have a big lead, when we go up to shake hands after the game, he's in his street clothes. So it's really nothing different than he's done before. I don't think it's disrespect or anything."

So what exactly is it, then? Where he was going at midnight in Philly on a Monday night? "He's a cool customer. As we say, Manny is Manny," Torre said. Let me speak for a sports nation in declaring that phrase as stale and passe. Manny Being Manny no longer works when he lacks the bat speed to get around on an inside fastball. You had to laugh when the Philly fans in left field, who had been chanting "YOU TOOK STEROIDS!" at him all three nights, changed their tune with a lopsided lead:

"TAKE A SHOWER! TAKE A SHOWER!"

He did just that, like all the Dodgers after their second straight NLCS loss to the Phillies. And now that Ramirez has been exposed as another scandalous juicer, it's time the Dodgers cut ties with him entirely, as the Giants did successfully with Bonds. It won't be as easy as saying goodbye: He has the option to make $20 million with them next season, with $10 million coming in 2010 and the rest spread out over three years. But if he thinks he can make more elsewhere -- and he and his agent, Scott Boras, are just egomaniacal enough to try -- Ramirez can void the contract and become a free agent. The Dodgers should do everything in their power to point him to the American League, where he'd be a nice, aging designated hitter in a town that needs a gate attraction (Cleveland).

They were better in his suspended absence with Juan Pierre, who hit .318 with 21 stolen bases and 21 RBI. When Pierre was in the starting lineup, the Dodgers were 46-30, far better than after Ramirez returned to the lineup July 3. With the sudden uncertainty of a uniquely Californian ownership mess -- Frank and Jamie McCourt have separated, with the husband claiming he owns the team outright and the wife claiming she owns 50 percent -- the Dodgers won't be in the mood to have a broken-down 38-year-old around. His shower scene pretty much confirms that he doesn't care about championships. Remember what he said in his last LCS in Boston, when the Red Sox trailed 3-1? "It doesn't happen, so who cares?" Ramirez said. "There's always next year. It's not like it's the end of the world."

Just what a diehard fan wants to hear in his moment of agony, huh?

It's difficult to forget such comments upon watching Ramirez fail in the fifth. After the Dodgers had chased starter Cole Hamels, Manny came to bat with a 6-3 deficit, two out and runners on second and first. If he hits his 30th career postseason homer, it's a tie game and the series perhaps returns to Dodger Stadium for Game 6. But Ramirez grounded out to the pitcher, Chad Durbin, and the fans mocked him a little more.

They now can move on to tormenting Alex Rodriguez and Kate Hudson, assuming the Yankees dispose of the Angels. It could be a classic Series, from a possible Cliff Lee vs. CC Sabathia collision in Game 1 to the fun fact that the Phillies led the NL in come-from-behind wins while the Yankees led the AL in the same category -- and, of course, walk-off wins. You'd never know that this franchise has lost more than 10,000 games, more than the Chicago Cubs. The Phillies are flying so high, with 18 wins in their last 23 postseason games, it's possible they'll become the first repeat Series champions since the Yankees three-peated from 1998 to 2000. Can they trump the pinstripes, prevent the Yanks from winning their 27th title? The Phillies have the same potent lineup. With Lee, their critical midseason acquisition, they have a dominant starter, which is vital if Hamels continues to struggle. In the end, you're way much more comfortable with the great Mariano RIvera as your closer, though Brad Lidge has regained confidence and has yet to blow a save this postseason.

"They have a flair for the dramatic, we have a flair for the dramatic," Greg Dobbs said. "They don't give up, we don't give up. More often than not, they've come out on top and more often than not, we've come out on top, too."

But the Phillies really don't want to talk about the Yankees. "I don't ever try to compare ourselves to anybody else, you know what I mean?" said Shane Victorino, who homered and had three RBI. "Definitely, you pay attention to what they're doing, but we have to worry about us and not worry about anyone else. I think that's what we do so well. We only worry about the Phillies."

"Big games call for big times," said ex-Dodger Jayson Werth, who homered twice. "Hopefully, we can keep it going. We've got four more games to win."

Rarely have we seen a team enjoy itself so much. The bliss was etched on their faces during a clubhouse party that was fun but restrained. After all, they already know the feeling of winning it all. "I love everything about it," Manuel said. "There was a time when I was a kid, I used to like to hunt and fish and things like that -- I'd give up all that for this."

He tried to explain his leadership motto. Tell me if it makes any sense. "To be totally relaxed, you've got to stay focused, and it gets back to excellence over success," Manuel said. "If you strive to be the best, then the success will be there. And baseball is a long season, and if you do your best, and we play for that one day -- and we're going to play today to win the game tonight. That's what we came to the ballpark for."

Oooo .... kayyyyy. "We've got players who buy into that," he said. "We've got guys who like to have fun. We've got guys who every now and then, they might tick you off a little. But for some reason, between the players and my coaching staff and myself, we all buy into which way we want to go, and I give them all the credit in the world -- the players."

That makes much more sense. The Phillies ache to win. They love each other, love the game, love being at the park every day, love coming from behind to win (as they have 44 times), love walk-off victories (19 times) and are loving life. "If we were a car, we would be, right now, probably in trouble with the law," said Pedro Martinez, the shrewd late-season pickup whose latest battle with the Yankees will be a sight to see. "Because this team really speeds up, and never slows down. We're more of a NASCAR-type of team -- we're in the driver's seat."

Manny Ramirez? He abandoned the L.A. joyride and took a shower. "They were better than us," he said afterward. "You saw what they were capable of doing." We also saw what Manny was capable of not doing -- being a leader, a force, a man.

He'll have an entire winter to wash off the grime of a very dirty season. This was the year when Manny Being Manny became uncool.

Unlike Dodgers' Dope on a Rope, Phillies Have Heart originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All That Awaits Phillies Is Chilled Bubbly

Jay Mariotti — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:50:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

PHILADELPHIA -- The radar-gun readings were frightening, like something from an I-95 speed chase between the cops and a fugitive. Take this 101-mile-per-hour fastball, said Jonathan Broxton. Or how about this smoke at a mere 99? Or 98, 96, a slider at 93? The man goes 6-foot-4 and 290 pounds, give or take an In-N-Out Burger, and the question seemed not how the Dodgers closer would retire the Phillies in the ninth inning but with how much heat.

Yet sometimes, Broxton loses his control. This was not the time to do so, near midnight in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series. The Phillies were down to their final two outs when the big man walked pinch-hitter Matt Stairs, then grazed the elbow of Carlos Ruiz. Greg Dobbs lined out for the second out, but the raucous Philly crowd was undaunted, knowing Jimmy Rollins was up next, knowing he produced two big hits off Huston Street in the Division Series, knowing he can get around on the meanest fastball and knowing he's the closest thing to a Hollywood hot dog in a blue-collar town.

"A good matchup for us, really. He can explode on a fastball," said his manager, Charlie Manuel. "He likes the big moment, he wants to be there. He can control the adrenaline and handle the moment. Jimmy is about the big stage, he likes the mike and likes to talk. Everything about him is personality, and I love everything about it. When he goes to the plate, he wants to be part of the big moment of the game."

Late Monday night, Rollins was part of another benchmark in Phillies history. He slashed a double into the gap between center field and right, driving in two runs and giving the Phillies a dramatic 5-4 victory over Broxton and the Dodgers. What appeared to be a series-evening victory for Los Angeles became a dagger for the Phillies, who lead 3-1 and have no chance of failure as long as Cliff Lee, the best pitcher of the postseason, isn't kidnapped in the coming days.

"It doesn't get any bigger than this moment. Last at-bat, big victory for the Phillies. This has to be at the top by far," said Rollins, wearing a Red Bull cap. "I wasn't afraid of him; I'd faced him a number of times. He has pretty much thrown me all fastballs. He's the closer, and he throws 100 miles per hour. He's gonna give it his best. If he loses, he's gonna lose with his best."

"Jimmy is about the big stage, he likes the mike and likes to talk. Everything about him is personality, and I love everything about it. When he goes to the plate, he wants to be part of the big moment of the game."
- Phillies manager Charlie Manuel He makes it sound so easy, hitting a ball traveling faster than Usain Bolt. "Sixty feet is a long way to see a fastball, even at 100 miles per hour," Rollins said. "He threw it right where I was looking for it. RIght before he threw it, I said, 'Hit it in the gap between right and center.' I caught it. I was able to beat him."

Just an inning before, the Dodgers appeared ready to tie the series at 2-2. There was Ryan Howard, hotter than cheese and steak melting on a South Philly grill, holding his bat menacingly with his right hand and measuring up George Sherrill. Yes, George Sherrill, even though the Dodgers closer, Broxton, was ready in the bullpen and had these indomitable career numbers against the immovable force that is Howard in October: 0-for-10, six strikeouts. Joe Torre, L.A. manager and mad scientist, preferred a lefty-lefty matchup. This would be the same Torre who intentionally walked Albert Pujols whenever possible in the Dodgers' last series against St. Louis. I viewed it as a major insult to Howard, and I suspected he'd crush a Sherrill pitch to Passyunk, add a three-run homer to his bulging postseason resumé and push the Phillies within one win of another NL pennant.

And then, Howard swung mightily and missed for strike three.

A remarkably gutsy piece of managerial chess -- I might say insane -- enabled the Dodgers to survive another inning. But the next opponent, likely the Yankees, should be advised not to test Howard too often.

A silly, little Subway commercial? That's how he is best known to the masses, via a chit-chat with a long-passe Jared Fogle. The reason he isn't a bigger deal nationally is that he's a slugger thriving after the Steroids Era, the filthy period that turned baseball's credibility into crudibility and diluted the Once-Great American Home Run. We'd love to love Howard, a likeable lug who has given us no reason to think he's juiced up on more than just $5 Footlongs. But really, are we ready to trust anyone who hits a lot of homers? My gut sense is, we not only should trust Howard but treasure what he has become in October, the sport's judgment month.

As the Phillies continued their inevitable repeat march to the World Series, it was Howard who extracted more blood from the Dodgers. He set the tone with a two-run homer in the first, a laser-shot liner over the right-field fence that sent the red-jacketed, white-hankie-waving fans into a cocky delirium. It was yet another dent in the front door of baseball history, the eighth consecutive postseason game in which Howard has driven in at least a run, tying him with Lou Gehrig for the all-time record. Alex Rodriguez is garnering all the headlines for finally escaping his playoff sinkhole. I'd say it's time to laud Howard for his stunning consistency in a month when some of the game's greatest players, from A-Rod to Barry Bonds, have struggled. He is batting .379, with 14 RBI, and slugging .793 in these playoffs.

"I'm in a chill mode at the plate," he says.

The chill started during a hot summer, when Howard hit .305 with 23 homers and 74 RBI after the All-Star break. He also has reached base in 17 straight postseason games. You appreciate Howard even more when Manny Ramirez comes to the plate at Citizens Bank Park and the locals chant raucously, "You took steroids! You took steroids!" Or when the ad board behind home plate flashes this twist of irony while he's batting: "drugfree.org/playhealthy." When Ramirez and Rodriguez were nailed as juicers, it left the integrity of power-hitting to the likes of Howard and Pujols. If either ever ended up testing positive, I might just stop watching the game. Such is the thrill of the theater they're creating.

"He's a big-game player who thrives on big-game moments," said Jayson Werth, who hits behind Howard in the lineup and gets to watch the show up close. "One of the things about Ryan, you get to stand on deck while he's hitting. You get a pretty good seat, especially when he hits balls really far. When you're on deck and anyone else is hitting -- the ball doesn't come off the bat really like it comes off his. I find myself just kind of watching more as a fan sometimes."

Oddly, we're getting to watch Howard swing more than we should in the NLCS. Unlike their Pujols strategy, the Dodgers aren't consciously trying to avoid Howard. They thought he was vulnerable to pitches inside, but that isn't a wise strategy in the Phillies' cozy home ballpark. "We didn't come into the series saying we're going to walk Howard every chance we get," Torre said. "We're certainly not going to pitch to him with a base open. He's got a pretty good supporting cast around him, too. There's no easy out in that lineup."

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Dodgers-Phillies Photos

Philadelphia Phillies players celebrate after Carlos Ruiz (51) scored the wining run in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the National League Championship baseball series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009, in Philadelphia. The Phillies won 5-4 to take a 3-1 lead in the series. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Dodgers vs. Phillies

Los Angeles Dodgers' Jonathan Broxton pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the National League Championship baseball series Monday, Oct. 19, 2009, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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PHILADELPHIA - OCTOBER 19: Ryan Howard #6 the Philadelphia Phillies goes to pick up Jimmy Rollins #11 after Rollins hit a game-winning walkoff double to win 5-4 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Four of the NLCS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Citizens Bank Park on October 19, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Ryan Howard;Jimmy Rollins;Shane Victorino;Jayson Werth

Getty Images

PHILADELPHIA - OCTOBER 19: Jimmy Rollins #11 of the Philadelphia Phillies hits a game-winning walkoff 2-run double in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 5-4 against Jonathan Broxton #51 of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Four of the NLCS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Citizens Bank Park on October 19, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jimmy Rollins;Jonathan Broxton

Getty Images

PHILADELPHIA - OCTOBER 19: The Philadelphia Phillies pile on Jimmy Rollins #11 after Rollins hit a game-winning walkoff 2-run double in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 5-4 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Four of the NLCS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Citizens Bank Park on October 19, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jimmy Rollins

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PHILADELPHIA - OCTOBER 19: The Philadelphia Phillies celebrate after Carlos Ruiz scored the winning run on a walkoff 2-run double by Jimmy Rollins #11 in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 5-4 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Four of the NLCS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Citizens Bank Park on October 19, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Ryan Howard;Carlos Ruiz;Shane Victorino

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PHILADELPHIA - OCTOBER 19: Carlos Ruiz #51 (C) of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrates with his teammates after he scored the winning run on a walkoff 2-run double by Jimmy Rollins #11 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Four of the NLCS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Citizens Bank Park on October 19, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies won 5-4. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Carlos Ruiz;Shane Victorino;Chase Utley;Jayson Werth

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Yet in the first, with Rollins on first and two out, Randy Wolf left a delicious pitch over the plate. Howard turned on it, begging the question of why Torre pitched to him. As it is, the Dodgers manager rightfully is being hammered for starting Hiroki Kuroda -- making his first appearance since Sept. 28 because of a bulging disc -- in Game 3 instead of using a healthy, playoff-tested veteran such as Jon Garland or Jeff Weaver. Even Chad Billingsley, whose second-half freefall reduced the Dodgers to less-than-championship material, would have made more sense than Kuroda, who allowed six runs in 1 1/3 innings. In fairness to Torre, the Dodgers don't have a bona fide ace. But in Howard's case, he has options. The man is lethal, much more vocal at the plate than in the interview room.

"I don't know. I mean, I guess it just happened," he said of his three-month surge. "For some reason I just went up there and started seeing more pitches. Just told myself to relax and try and see as many pitches as I can and just wait for a mistake. I think it's just more plate discipline, just being more relaxed and just trying to work good at-bats, trying to wait for a good pitch, a mistake or what-not, and I'm trying to take advantage of it."

It helps to be a lineup in which Rollins, Shane Victorino and Utley hit in front of him and Werth and Raul Ibanez are behind him. Howard is a good teammate. He knows what to say, particuarly in October. "When you're hitting in this lineup, it makes things a lot easier," he said. "I think it's more just the experience that I've gained from last year to this year, just the entire feel of the playoffs and just kind of taking a step back and looking at last year, at what kind of happened last year, and just ways of maybe being able to change that going into this year. I just kind of gathered that experience of just being more relaxed, going up there and being loose and having fun playing."

Have you seen Howard in the on-deck circle, almost in a meditative trance as he awaits his performance on stage? "I think that's his way of focusing and basically getting ready," said Manuel, who originally made his baseball living as a hitting instructor. "I think that he's thinking about his at-bat and things that he has going for him."

In Howard, we're watching more than slugger. He's an athlete who was seen diving head-first into third on a triple in Game 3. "Full-out panic going around second base," he said. "It was a lot of fun. I saw where the ball was. I saw where [right fielder Andre] Ethier was. It was one of those things where I had to make my mind up if this is going to happen or not. So once I hit second, it was pretty much going full bore."

The Phillies are a full-bore operation, too. They never believe they're out of a game, which should make a World Series against the Yankees all the more compelling. "We always talk about it, 27 outs to finish a game. You stay 'til it's over, as Yogi said," said Manuel, the modern-day Yogi Berra. "Anytime we have a close game, we're always capable of winning it. Tonight, a walk, hit batsman and JayRo hits the gap."

"We have guys on this team who really believe in themselves, in a borderline extremely cocky way -- believe they can come back no matter who's pitching," said Brad Lidge, who recorded his first victory of the season and is a big-league reliever again, as opposed to a beleaguered reliever. "It's a lot of fun to watch. They never feel like they're out of the game. We feed off our intensity in the postseason."

After Rollins' knockout blow, the intensity extended to home plate, where the hero was buried by a mob of teammates. "The pileup and beatdown that happens, that can be dangerous," said Rollins, only half-kidding. "The one thing I didn't want to do was get crushed. I kind of went in the fetal position and started throwing punches. It was a lot of fun. It's how we celebrate."

They're used to it, after all.

All That Awaits Phillies Is Chilled Bubbly originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If Lidge Is Off Ledge, Phillies in Business

Jay Mariotti — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:20:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

LOS ANGELES -- What we want, of course, is the bi-coastal, large-market, grudge-wrapped passion play. We crave the Dodgers vs. the Yankees, Hollywood vs. New York, Dodger Blue vs. Pinstripes, Joe Torre vs. the Steinbrenners, a Toxic Twins clash between Alex (Primobolan) Rodriguez and Manny (Gonadotropin) Ramirez, Lousy Ratings Leno vs. Pants Down Letterman, Vinnie Chase Goes Home, a collision of our entertainment and financial epicenters. It's baseball's version of the Lakers and Celtics, and while no one in the PlayStation 3 Generation can relate, the sport never was greater and grander than when the Dodgers and Yankees were in the World Series.

Fletcher: Kershaw's Tough Lesson | More: Phillies 8, Dodgers 6 | Series Home

But on a wild Thursday night in Chavez Ravine, in a game described by the velvety Vin Scully as "a Disneyland roller coaster," the Phillies reminded America that they are the defending World Series champions and one of the best road teams in baseball history. They scored eight runs, six on three-run homers by Carlos Ruiz and Raul Ibanez, while letting their country-bumpkin manager -- just kidding there, Charlie Manuel -- continue his amazingly successful chess-game manueverings with a notoriously volatile bullpen. And in the end, four hours after the first pitch in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, who was locking down the last three outs and notching his third straight save this postseason?

That would be Brad (Bleeping) Lidge, as he's known in Philadelphia, the closer who blew a league-high 11 save opportunities in the regular season while finishing 0-8 with a 7.21 ERA. Because this was the same pitcher who converted all 48 save chances last season, seven in the postseason, Manuel resisted the urge to bury Lidge and, after briefly removing him from the closer's role, attempted instead to rescue him mentally. Old Charlie may not articulate as well as the media-savvy Torre, but that doesn't mean he isn't a shrewd baseball guy. It's still mid-October, with many late-inning scenarios ready to be sabotaged, but so far, Manuel's fine work with Lidge is the biggest development and best feel-good story of the playoffs.

"When I look at him the last couple of nights, he's been more relaxed," Manuel said. "His stuff is there. He's been a tremendous pitcher and, believe me, he'll still be as good as he ever was."

But knowing how torturous the Lidge Experience can be -- even in his ninth-inning glory, he allowed a leadoff single to Matt Kemp and walked James Loney and needed a gigantic double play to secure the 8-6 victory -- can Manuel really say with confidence that Lidge is his closer? "Tonight, Lidge was the guy. He was going in there," he said. "We're pinned down to one closer, and it's always been Lidge. When he was struggling a little bit, we needed to do something and give him a break. But he's going to be in there." This was in contrast to Manuel's comments the other day, when he said his closer would be "whoever you see walking out there." This should define how terrific Manuel is feeling about his team, knowing 14 of the last 17 teams to win Game 1 of the NLCS have advanced to the Series.

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Dodgers-Phillies Photos

Los Angeles Dodgers' Manny Ramirez is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run during the fifth inning of Game 1 of the National League Championship baseball series against the Philadelphia Phillies Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

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Dodgers vs. Phillies

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge celebrates with catcher Carlos Ruiz after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-6 in Game 1 of the National League Championship baseball series Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge, right, and catcher Carlos Ruiz celebrate an 8-6 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, Thursday, October 15, 2009. (Ron Cortes/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)

MCT

Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge pumps his fist after getting the final out of an 8-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, Thursday, October 15, 2009. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/MCT)

MCT

Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge works against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. The Phillies defeated the Dodgers, 8-6, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, Thursday, October 15, 2009. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/MCT)

MCT

The Los Angeles Dodgers' Manny Ramirez grounds out against the Philadelphia Phillies in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. The Phillies defeated the Dodgers, 8-6, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, Thursday, October 15, 2009. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/MCT)

MCT

Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz stops the base ball as the Los Angeles Dodgers' James Loney scores in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. The Phillies defeated the Dodgers, 8-6, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, Thursday, October 15, 2009. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/MCT)

MCT

EDITORS: Please be advised that the caption to this image incorrectly identified the pitcher who gave up the three-run homerun to Raul Ibanez of the Philadelphia Phillies. The pitcher, who is not shown in the image, is George Sherrill of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Caption should read as follows: LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 15: Raul Ibanez #29 of the Philadelphia Phillies gets congratulated by his teammates including, Jimmy Rollins #11, as he enters the dugout after hitting a three run home run in the eighth inning in Game One of the NLCS off of pitcher George Sherrill (not pictured) of the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Dodger Stadium on October 15, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) Getty Images regrets any inconvenience. *** Local Caption *** Jimmy Rollins;George Sherrill

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LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 15: Shane Victorino #8 of the Philadelphia Phillies high fives his teammates Shane Utley #26, Jimmy Rollins #11 and Ben Francisco #10 after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-6 in Game One of the NLCS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Dodger Stadium on October 15, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Shane Victorino;Shane Utley;Jimmy Rollins;Ben Francisco

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LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 15: Carlos Ruiz #51 and Raul Ibanez #29 of the Philadelphia Phillies get congratulated by their teammates including, Ryan Howard #6 as they enter the dugout following a three run home run in the fifth inning by, Ruiz, in Game One of the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Dodger Stadium on October 15, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Carlos Ruiz;Raul Ibanez;Ryan Howard

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Personally, I have more trust in 6-year-old Falcon Heene, who was hiding in his family's garage in Colorado and wasn't in that homemade helium balloon Thursday. But the ongoing drama of Lidge on the Ledge is part of what makes the Phillies a compelling story -- and why they're bidding to become the first NL team to repeat as Series champs since the 1975-76 Big Red Machine. There is no shortage of unity and good vibes in their clubhouse, and not throwing Lidge under the bus is consistent with their camaraderie. "We have the utmost confidence in Brad Lidge. He's been throwing real well, and we know he can get it done," Ibanez said. "This is an entire group of guys pulling in the same direction and pulling for each other. It's incredible."

To psychoanalyze Lidge's erratic career is to explain Britney Spears. In Houston, he was known as soft and brittle, recalling his meltdown after Albert Pujols belted a monstrous playoff homer off him. Then he became The Perfect Closer, piecing together a flawless season for the Phillies. This season, without a mechanical problem and just one health problem, a DL stint in June, he became the epitome of futility. Even in Philly, where they booed Santa Claus, they had initial problems booing Lidge because of his fine deeds last season. But as the season progressed, the boos were hurled. Some thought Manuel should keep him off the postseason roster. Which is why it's astonishing to see him back in his comfort zone, 3-for-3 when the pressure is most excruciating.

"Honestly, for some reason, I feel really locked in," said Lidge, whose 16 postseason saves place him second on the all-time list. "I feel real good mechanicaly and physically. I'm real comfortable. I feel like myself again and I'm very confident I can make the pitches when I need them."

Old Charlie may not articulate as well as the media-savvy Torre, but that doesn't mean he isn't a shrewd baseball guy. ... So far, Manuel's fine work with Lidge is the biggest development and best feel-good story of the playoffs.
When he entered in the ninth inning, in a ballpark where fans began to leave an inning before after Manny Ramirez dribbled out against a scuffling Ryan Madson with two runners on, the TV screen flashed his new ERA: 0.00. "There's no question that having a zero ERA next to your name is a lot nicer than the other one, whatever that was, and I haven't looked at that one in a while," Lidge said. "It definitely is nice to have that fresh start." It's also nice to have his lethal slider back in his arsenal, along with a recent addition: a cut fastball.

"Any time Brad Lidge gets people out, it breeds confidence," Manuel said. "In big moments, that's very big for this ballclub. He regrouped and regained himself."

"I really feel it's the Brad Lidge from last year, when he was so confident," said Ruiz, his battery-mate. "Now we're pitching. We tried to force it before, but now he's more relaxed."

The pitcher who wasn't so relaxed was Clayton Kershaw. At 21, he was the youngest pitcher to start Game 1 in a League Championship Series, and after early success, he unraveled in the fifth with a record three wild pitches. The Phillies lit him for five runs in the inning, which will bring criticism to Torre for starting the kid over veteran Randy Wolf. "It looked like he tried to overthrow the ball, got frustrated out there. Unfortunately, it got away from him quickly," Torre said. "As far as the pressure of the game, he certainly can handle it, but sometimes things get away from you."

The night's electric moment came in the fifth when Ramirez, who had hit one homer since Sept. 9, crushed a Cole Hamels pitch high into the left-field pavilion. The two-run shot trimmed the Philadelphia lead to 5-4, and 20 years after the Bay Area earthquake, I thought we were having another one on the fringes of downtown L.A. That's how much they still adore Manny, Mr. Steroids, despite the slump that brought September boos. They chanted his name, rocked the stands and demanded a curtain call that never came. He had a chance to be a hero twice more, but in the seventh, he grounded out against the amped-up Chan Ho Park with Andre Ethier on second base and left two runners stranged in the eighth with his weak groundout. Fact is, he can't get around on the inside fastball.

Not that the Dodgers or anyone else can match the Phillies when they're scoring eight runs. And when the Dodgers are walking seven hitters. "We do have the talent and just that sort of fight, that we're going to do everything we can to get those big hits in those big moments," Hamels said. "Our offense is really what's setting the tone." In the last series against St. Louis, Torre only had to worry about solving Albert Pujols. In this series, he must deal with 1-through-8 hell -- Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, Ibanez, Pedro Feliz, Ruiz.

"The Phillies are good. We certainly respect what they've done, what they did last year and what they continue to do this year," Torre said. "Tonight was a prizefight. We came up a little short."

My sense is that the Dodgers will come up short again in this series, as they did last autumn against the Phillies. Maybe this warm, cuddly L.A. story isn't so warm and cuddly, incidentally The ballpark buzz involved more than baseball: Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his wife, Jamie, announced they have separated. The problem? His attorney says he is the outright owner of the team, while her attorney says she owns 50 percent of the franchise. Stunningly enough, Torre had to answer pre-game questions about the bizarre situation.

"You know, it's a very private thing, and I respect that," he said. "I think we've all had -- not necessarily all of us, but there have been personal issues that should remain that way, and I respect that about the McCourts. It's not going to affect anything that we do. My players and myself, we have a job to do, and whatever is going on there is certainly not going to affect what we do here. As I say, it's unfortunate, and I feel badly, but it's one of those things that happens in life."

Torre also had to deny a report that he isn't happy with ownership, which purportedly is the reason he says 2010 will be his final season. "Don't know where that came from," he said.

The same can be said for Brad (Bleeping) Lidge. Where oh where did he come from? If his renaissance is for real, aren't the Phillies headed for another World Series, if not another World Series trophy? "We're going to find a way to get it done," he said. "Our guys don't just have the talent, but they believe in themselves, too. It could be a six-run deficit, and our guys still have the audacity to feel that we're going to come back."

Dodgers vs. Yankees would be the fun World Series.

Phillies vs. Yankees would be the best World Series.

If Lidge Is Off Ledge, Phillies in Business originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Save Your Sport, Commissioner; Expand Replay Now

Jay Mariotti — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:15:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

Let's hold hands and pray. Someday soon, when Bud Selig finally is removed from the commissioner's chair like a rotting tree, we can only hope his successor realizes October is waning. Pro and college football continue to tickle the American consciousness on every demographic level -- male and female, old and young, reality and fantasy -- and reduce our national past-its-time to secondary programming. And when we do see gripping story lines develop, from a possible Yankees-vs.-Joe Torre matchup in the World Series to the Angels and the inspiration they draw from the late Nick Adenhart, what gets in the way?

Wretched umpiring.

A day barely passes without another missed call influencing a playoff series and renewing widespread pleas for expanded instant replay. Just when we were recovering from the Phil Cuzzi gaffe in New York, where a ball that was fair by several inches was called foul and led to a national referendum on why six umps can't get a play right, we now have an even lamer sequence that had direct impact in determining a series winner. Late Sunday night in Denver, in weather more conducive to the Iditarod, Philadelphia's Chase Utley checked his swing in the ninth inning and fouled a ball off his right knee in the batter's box. Except the plate ump, Jerry Meals, didn't see the ball hit Utley and let the play resume. Unlike the preponderance of umpiring mistakes in recent days, this situation wasn't confined to one screw-up. As Utley advanced down the line, he was thrown out by Rockies closer Huston Street -- a replay confirms that first baseman Todd Helton dragged his leg across the bag for the out -- but first-base ump Ron Kulpa called Utley safe. You know the rest: Jimmy Rollins scored the winning run on a Ryan Howard sacrifice fly in a 6-5 victory, and when the Rockies blew a two-run lead in the ninth Monday evening and lost their National League divisional scrum to the Phillies, some might say this series was lost the previous game by two clueless umps.

A day barely passes without another missed call influencing a playoff series and renewing widespread pleas for expanded instant replay.
"Yeah, the ball came up and grazed off his leg and continued rolling up the line," Meals told the Associated Press after viewing a replay. "No. 1, it wasn't seen by myself or anybody. If you look at it, you'll be able to see it. Off the front leg, got him up in the knee-thigh area. It just grazed him and the ball continued to roll the way it was rolling. I just saw a ball hit and rolling out there and that's it. Utley took off like it was nothing. He gave no indication to us that it hit him. Whatever percent of the time, you're going to get a guy that's going to stop if it hits him."

Uh, not when you're a clever gamer like Utley and trying to win a playoff series. How dare this umpire try to blame Utley for his own oversight. "The ball might have caught me," said the Phillies second baseman, playing coy a day later. "Nobody said anything, so I ran hard. I check swung. The ball checked up in front of me. It might have hit my leg. But nobody made a call."

"Chase probably felt it but he said, 'Hey, I'm going to take off, nobody is saying anything,' " said Shane Victorino, Utley's teammate. "And it turned into a pivotal play in the game."

If not the entire 2009 postseason, which finds the Phillies trying to make history as the first NL team to repeat as World Series champions since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds.

So when history is being altered by human error, isn't it the ultimate no-brainer to expand replay? At the moment, videos are reviewed only on potential home-run calls, but as long as MLB is adopting technology for its slow and backward sport, Selig and the old farts should immediately extend replay -- preferably before the two League Championship Series, but more realistically for next season -- to include fair/foul calls and even tag plays. It's not healthy for the sport's future when playoff drama is haunted by perpetual anxiety over the next umpiring blunder. If baseball wants high credibility, not the current crudibility, Selig and his men will act swiftly for a change and recognize their crisis at hand. Even Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, a purist who fought the concept of replay when it was implemented last year, now thinks it needs to involve more than debatable home run calls.

"I mean, they've been missing calls ever since baseball has been 100-something-years-old or whatever. They've been missing them that long," Manuel said. "But at the same time, if they want to get them right, then getting it right is getting them right."

Thank you, Yogi Berra. No matter how he voices his concerns, he's correct. So is Torre, the Dodgers manager, who is more eloquent in his pro-replay argument. "The fair-foul thing I think could be expanded. For plays where maybe umpires are blocked out, they're human," he said. "Am I saying they're making more wrong calls now than they did years and years ago? I think we have more ways to scrutinize and look at it now than we did then, so I can't say that. In terms of where [an umpire] may be blocked by the call, something like that it may be the future."

Replay works in the NFL in a wide assortment of ways. Replay works in the NBA, which expanded it recently to include shot-clock situations and, in the final two minutes of regulation and overtime, which player touches the ball before it goes out of bounds. Replay works in the NHL. It works in tennis. And it would work in expanded form in baseball, a sport that has clung too long to a traditional refrain that human beings make mistakes. "I think the first thing I ever said was that the absence of replays would not bother me. I've been around too long," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, whose team wasn't burned by anything but its own ineptness in being swept by the Dodgers. "Part of the game is umpires making their best calls. I mean, you watch us play, you watch me manage, nobody's perfect."

Look, it's 2009, gentlemen. Getting plays right in the computer age is much more sensible, progressive and responsible. Very simply, you position another umpire/league observer in the press box with a high-definition, big-screen TV in front of him -- hopefully, someone fairly young with sharp vision -- and have him buzz down to the crew chief when it's obvious on replay that Cuzzi misses a play. Or Meals and Kulpa miss their plays. It needn't be a long, time-consuming ordeal. As quickly as a viewer sees a mistake on a replay, the man in the booth can inspect the same video and react instantly. Agree to place TVs in both dugouts so managers can view the same plays and don't feel the need to spend five minutes arguing. The last thing I want to do, as one bothered by the dreadful length of games and post-midnight finishes, is turn replay into an agonizing exercise. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who was victimized by Cuzzi's call but also benefited in the divisional tiebreaker game when umpires didn't see when Detroit's Brandon Inge was grazed by a pitch, wants to wave a red flag. That won't work.

"I didn't see the [Cuzzi] play, so I would have had to have coaches up in the booth calling into my ear on my headset," Gardenhire said. "Give me a headset and give me a red flag and we can fix this stuff, but I would have to have somebody calling me saying, 'Throw your flag, let's question this call. If you use it and you're wrong, you don't get to use it the rest of the game. If you use it and you're right, you get your red flag back, and that would save a lot of money [for ejections]."

In total disagreement is Yankees manager Joe Girardi, whose team might be good enough this postseason to overcome any umpiring mess. "That might be dangerous with that red flag. I just think it really breaks the rhythm of the game," he said. "You know, during the course of the year, everything is going to balance out. In the playoffs, it's different, and how many red flags would you be allowed to throw? The rhythm is important to your pitchers, and I just think it would really hurt that."

I propose a compromise: One man in the booth, one minute to make a complete judgment, one minute for the crew chief to make a correction. Now how hard is that, people?

The Cuzzi scenario revealed a problem with umpires down the left- and right-field lines, the fifth and sixth men in an expanded postseason rotation that started in 1947. "We're not used to playing that far down the line," Cuzzi told the Newark Star-Ledger, his hometown paper in a state across the Hudson River from Yankee Stadium. "The instant the ball is hit, we usually start running. I think I may have been looking too closely at it. I never had a feel for where the left fielder was on the play. There is no excuse. I missed the play. It's a terrible feeling. As badly as many people on that field may have felt [Friday], I don't think any of them had a worse night's sleep than I did."

Funny how we never heard umps complaining about monitoring the postseason foul lines in the '90s, '80s, '70s and '60s. "The challenges in working the foul line: No. 1 is we don't do it a lot. It's a tough one to practice," said Tim Tschida, chief of the crew on the night Cuzzi erred. "Your first movement is always to get out of the way because we're not accustomed to having fielders come from the side."

Fellas, that's why you make the medium-sized bucks. Deal with it, have seminars, do simulated situations, whatever it takes to get the calls right. Or get out of the business. Too much is at stake.

When asked about expanding replay by FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal, Selig offered up one of his pseudo-intellectual, no-action responses. "Baseball is not the kind of game that can have interminable delays," he said. As usual, Bud Light is dismissing something out of hand instead of looking into it, just like steroids in the mid-'90s. I hope the owners urge him to join the 21st century, with the rest of us, and rectify the latest problem ravaging his slowly dying game.

It's October. We're supposed to be having fun.

We're not.

Save Your Sport, Commissioner; Expand Replay Now originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Between Rodriguez and Fate, Yankees Can't Lose

Jay Mariotti — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:55:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

MINNEAPOLIS -- It isn't enough, apparently, to have a $210-million payroll, a $423.5-million offseason boost, a $1.5-billion monument to recession-be-damned greed and a steroid-free (presumably) megastar who finally resembles Mr. October while his actress girlfriend coos at him in the front row beside Jay-Z. No, above and beyond all their built-in advantages in life, the Yankees have to get the friggin' baserunning and bad-umpiring breaks, too.

Which suggests that their pain and professional embarrassment of the last eight years -- the last five in particular, since their infamous choke job against the Red Sox -- is about to fade into another dominant postseason. Sorry to disappoint the legions of pinstripe-haters on our planet, but no one is beating the Yankees this fall. Not Torii Hunter's swagger. Not the inspiration of the late Nick Adenhart. Not Joe Torre, their former manager, or Manny Ramirez, their former nemesis. Not the defending World Series champions, the Phillies, and not even the snow and freezing temperatures in Denver. You might say that the only ones who can topple the Yankees are the Yankees themselves, and you know what? That's not happening, either.

I know this because I'm watching the traditional self-saboteur, Alex Rodriguez, staring down his playoff demons and becoming a beast now that he's been hypnotized into a relaxed mental state by Kate Hudson and teammates who appear to accept him. You know his digits coming into the divisional series with Minnesota: one RBI in his previous 59 postseason at-bats, 0 for his last 27 at-bats with runners on base, 0 for his last 18 with runners in scoring position. Quicker than you can say "The Slugger's Wife'' -- a ghastly 1980s movie in which the ballplayer hits flurries of home runs only when his wife is around and not touring as a singer -- A-Rod punished Twins pitchers for two homers, six RBIs and a .455 batting average in the three-game sweep. Spectacular as his two-run shot was in tying Game 2 in the ninth inning and shaking the new Yankee Stadium from its core, his game-tying solo homer in the seventh Sunday night showed his mates that they could solve the sharp Carl Pavano, who never had pitched so well in stealing $40 million from the Yankees. Not only was Rodriguez grinning after the 4-1 victory, he was speaking like a new man, a revelation for those of us who've been nauseated by him for years.

"I think going back to spring training, I knew I couldn't change all the 0-for-4's and 0-for-5's and all the guys I left on base,'' he said of his postseason woes, which included only three RBIs in his previous 17 games. "I knew I couldn't change that, so, you know, I'm content right now, both on and off the field. And I also knew that I was 34, not 44, and I have an opportunity to do things right both on and off the field.''

He also was sounding like a team guy prepared to deflect all credit, at least publicly, which is a stunning, refreshing metamorphosis from the narcissistic A-Rod who once chased Madonna and posed for weird magazine portraits. "People can say whatever they want about home runs and big hits. I mean, if you don't pitch and you don't defend, you are not going to win,'' he said. "The story of this series was (starting pitchers) CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte, and all three of them were fantastic. You can throw in some good at-bats and throw in some big clutch hits at the end, but only because of their great performances did we have an opportunity to do well.''

Said manager Joe Girardi, whose psychological work with A-Rod in his post-steroids, post-hip-injury period might make him worthier of a Nobel Peace Price than President Obama: "Without Alex, we are not in this situation right now. When players are extremely talented and not pressing, they can do a lot of great things in this game. I know it has been documented and people have talked about Alex's struggles. But I've said all along, I think he's in a great place this year. I really do."

The other reason the Yankees can't lose is because they're getting too much help. They are the last team that needs outside influences in their favor, but as if the baseball gods are having mercy on them, the "Cuzzi Doozy'' of Game 2 was followed by the "Punto Don't Know'' in the series clincher. We saw how the Yankees benefited from a bad call by umpire Phil Cuzzi, who negated a ground-rule double by Joe Mauer by calling the ball foul -- even though it landed safely in fair territory by several inches. While Mauer would single, he'd have scored the go-ahead run when the next two batters followed with singles. Instead, the Twins loaded the bases, only to earn nothing from the rally and hand-feed a story line for Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira, who won the game in the 12th with a screeching home run that was clocked at 110 mph and cleared the left-field fence in 2.88 seconds (yes, people keep track of such things). During Game 3, the record crowd of 54,735 -- showing up for the final baseball game at the quirk-daffy Metrodome -- booed every close play and tense ball-strike call. But in the end, one of their own grinding heroes turned out to be his own worst enemy.

Nick Punto is a card-carrying member of the "Piranhas,'' a team nickname coined by Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, of all people. With the Twins trailing 2-1, Punto opened the eighth with a double. The next batter, Denard Span, chopped a ball up the middle that Punto assumed -- never, ever assume -- would get past shortstop Derek Jeter. It didn't, and as Punto was hauling butt around third base, he missed the visual pleas of third-base coach Scott Ullger and kept running. Jeter, born with three eyes, noticed Punto literally sliding on the artificial turf to try to do a quick U-turn. So the Yankees captain threw home to catcher Jorge Posada, who caught Punto in a rundown and flipped the ball to Rodriguez, who made the tag that effectively ended the fun story of the overachieving Twins.

"All I heard was 55,000 people screaming, so I felt like the ball got through," Punto said. "I wanted to dig a hole, crawl inside it and hide. It's embarrassing. That can't happen."

"I wanted to dig a hole, crawl inside it and hide. It's embarrassing. That can't happen."
- Nick Punto "It's very disappointing right now in the clubhouse, as it should be. Nick Punto, no one felt worse than him,'' manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He thought it was a base hit, he didn't pick up Scott, he had his head down -- he just didn't pick up Scotty rounding third -- and Jeter makes a play, and there you have it. Nicky was flying and put his head down and was running -- and you've got to keep your head up, and that's what happens, so he feels pretty bad about it.''

They couldn't blame the ump this time, as they had Friday. The Cuzzi blunder launched a barrage of media calls for expanded use of instant replay, which currently only is used to determine homers. I agree: Expand replay, immediately. Certainly, it should be used on fair-foul calls, especially when umps complain that it's sometimes hard to differentiate on bang-bang plays down the line. Paging Bud Selig, Clueless Bud Selig! "It's not the (question) that I really want to get into at this point," crew chief Tim Tschida said. Gardenhire has introduced the idea of a manager throwing a red flag, similar to the process used by NFL coaches, when he wants to challenge a ruling.

"I've said all along that I want a red flag," he said. "If you use it and you're wrong, you don't get to use it the rest of the game. If you use it and you're right, you get your red flag back and that would save a lot of money (for ejections)."

When asked about the red flag, Girardi responded like a man who had benefited from a bad call. "That might be dangerous with that red flag. I just think it really breaks the rhythm of the game,'' he said. "You know, during the course of the year, everything is usually going to balance out. In the playoffs it's different, and how many red flags would you be allowed to throw? The rhythm is important to your pitchers, and I just think it would really hurt that.''

Keep in mind that the Twins did plenty to blow Game 2 on their own. They stranded 17 runners. They had the bases loaded with none out after the Cuzzi Doozy and couldn't score. Their closer, Joe Nathan, blew a lead. "There's a guy sitting over in the umpires dressing room right now that feels terrible," Tschida said Friday night. He shouldn't. The Twins lost this series on their own between Punto and Carlos Gomez, whose baserunning blunder also hurt the cause.

When gifts are being handed to The Franchise That Has Everything, tell me: Who's going to beat them? How are the Yankees going to lose this time, a year after missing the postseason as the rest of baseball chuckled? In spending $243.5 million on Sabathia and Burnett, Hank and Hal Steinbrenner successfully shored up a starting rotation that had broken down in recent years. In Mariano Rivera, they have a closer for the ages who shows few signs of deteriorating at 39 and picked up his eighth career postseason-series-clinching save -- this on the day that closer Jonathan Papelbon blew a series for the Red Sox against the rampaging Angels. And the 1-through-9 batting order? "Up and down, there's no room to breathe," Twins first baseman Michael Cuddyer said. "That's why they spent all that money in the offseason, for this time of the year.''

Their series with the Angels will be fun in that it matches the two best teams in baseball. Having shed their losing ways against the Red Sox, who had knocked them out of the playoffs the last four times the teams had met, the Halos at least can dream of returning to the World Series for the first time since winning it in 2002. Perhaps they can be competitive, extend the American League championship series to six games. But with an unreliable closer in Brian Fuentes and without the relentless clout of the Yankees lineup, the Angels won't be going to Disneyland next month, even if Hunter is smelling blood. "I told you guys earlier: It's going to be a different scene this time," the team leader said after an unexpected sweep.

The series may be short if manager Mike Scioscia and his staff don't find a way to slow down A-Rod the way, say, Torre and the Dodgers slowed down Albert Pujols. But if you intentionally walk him, you have to face Hideki Matsui and then Posada, who homered for the go-ahead run Sunday after whining about Girardi's decision to use Jose Molina as Burnett's personal catcher in Game 2. "It doesn't change the way I think about the moves. I am happy that I was in there and we got it done today,'' said Posada, who triggered a rare controversy in a remarkably calm season in the Bronx.

I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot more of A-Rod crossing home plate, which means we'll be seeing a lot more of Kate Hudson. "It's exciting," Rodriguez said. "We were very disappointed last year when we went home, but ownership got us some good players. We came out and played like a team, like a group of brothers."

Said teammate Nick Swisher, scolding the media: "Maybe this will put all that other (expletive) to rest. You guys should write an awful lot of good things about him tomorrow morning.''

We are. About A-Rod and the Yankees.

"I know a lot of things get said about their payroll and all that stuff, but the bottom line is, they're just great baseball players,'' Gardenhire said. "And aside from all the other stuff, they are very, very talented. That's why they make a lot of money, because they deserve it because they've played the game for a long time and they get it done and know how to get it done. And they play with class. So I tip my hat to them. They know how to finish people off.''

They'll finish off the Angels and Dodgers, too. Like it or not, it's their year to win the World Series, as it was 26 times before. That's not to say the rest of us have to like it, of course.

Between Rodriguez and Fate, Yankees Can't Lose originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:55:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twins Deserve to Party, Miguel Cabrera Does Not

Jay Mariotti — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:15:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

MINNEAPOLIS -- You don't have to be from Minnesota to adore the Twins. So much in baseball is loathable in the 21st century, but on a glorious Tuesday night in a diabolical dome, they showed why they're lovable and worthy of America's collective October heart. Prince? Brett Favre? Garrison Keillor? The Pillsbury Doughboy? As local icons, they're mere sideshows to the astonishing comeback of a ballclub that has one player known to the masses -- the great Joe Mauer -- and a whole lot of crunchers, muckers, grinders, survivors and who-the-heck-are-theys.

"Let me say something," said one of the better muckers, slugger Michael Cuddyer, climbing onto a podium to address his teammates in a rocking, champagne-stained clubhouse. "The game ball today goes to everyone, every single one of you. This was a total team championship, and you all deserve it."

Perfect.

The Twins don't throw megamillions at free agents like the Yankees. They don't feed off a fabled ballpark like the Red Sox. They don't amass a wealth of talent like the Phillies and Angels and they don't flaunt a regal tradition like the Cardinals and Dodgers. All they do, almost every season, is maximize what they do have, accept what they no longer can afford in a smaller market (Johan Santana, Torii Hunter) and follow the shrewd, inspirational, fundamentally solid guidance of manager Ron Gardenhire to another date with autumn.

Only this triumph was their most amazing yet. On Sept. 6, the Twins were seven games behind the first place Detroit Tigers. As recently as last Thursday morning, they were three games behind the Tigers with only four to play. "Every day was Game 7 for us: one loss and we're done," Mauer said. And every day since, they managed to survive the gauntlet, pressuring a Tigers team torn by turmoil and distraction and forcing a division-title tiebreaker in a 163rd game that became a 164th game. On and on they played, in what could have been the final baseball event in the maddeningly quirky Metrodome, but as the teams spilled into a 12th inning and a fifth hour, you sensed there was no way the Twins could lose now after winning 16 of their previous 20 without slugger Justin Morneau, the former American League MVP.

Sure enough, they completed their thrilling mission with a typical ending: Alexi Casilla, hitting .202 and fighting all season to stick in the major leagues, using his monstrous 5-foot-9, 174-pound frame to single in the winning run in a 6-5 victory that kept the Dome open for baseball for at least one more game. In winning their fifth AL Central title in eight years under Gardenhire, the Twins drew a first-round postseason series with the Yankees, who spent $423.5 million on three free agents last winter and finally look capable of their first World Series title since 2000. This would seem to be a classic slaughter waiting for the brooms: The Twins were 0-7 against the Yankees this season, hitting .232 and averaging 3.6 runs a game while the opponents were pummeling them for 5.9 runs a game and a .300 batting average. During Gardenhire's reign, the Twins have lost 23 of 26 regular-season games in the Bronx and are 14-41 overall against the Yankees. I'd compare it to King Kong sweeping Mary Tyler Moore off the Nicollet Mall and squeezing her in his palm.

But isn't that what is so endearing about the Twins? And why we'll watch and root for them to somehow beat the behemoths? "We're not afraid, I can guarantee that," Gardenhire said. They didn't have long to party because Game 1 of the Yankees series was about 20 hours away in a destination that required a three-hour flight. Consider it another screw-up by Major League Baseball, which should have let the Red Sox and Angels start Wednesday instead of Thursday and given the Yankees and Twins the Thursday start.

"We'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow," right fielder Jason Kubel said. "We'll live for this moment right here. This is awesome. We've always been like that -- never quit -- and the way we won was a perfect example. We fell behind a couple of times, but kept coming back. We could have rolled over, but we don't have it in us."

"This is the most unbelievable game I've ever seen or ever played in," said shortstop Orlando Cabrera, whose two-run homer in the seventh gave the Twins a 4-3 lead. "These guys are unbelievable. Not once did I think we were going to lose that game. Not once."

Given the magnitude and the stakes, the game can be considered an all-time classic, quick as we sometimes are to throw such bouquets at chilling sports drama. When it appeared 20-year-old Rick Porcello might pitch the Tigers out of Chokeville, he gave up a run on his throwing error and allowed a solo homer to Kubel in the sixth. Then came Cabrera's shot, which shook the sellout crowd from its nervous slumber and got the famed Homer Hankies going in a swirling whiteout. Magglio Ordonez tied the game for the Tigers at 4-4 with a solo home in the eighth, and in the 10th, the teams traded runs again. They also traded bang-bang plays at home plate, with Casilla thrown out by Detroit left fielder Ryan Raburn to end the 10th -- um, why did the third-base coach send him? -- and Twins second baseman Nick Punto nailing a runner at home in the 12th. In the same inning, the Tigers appeared to take a lead when a pitch grazed Brandon Inge's uniform, as a TV replay showed. But plate umpire Randy Marsh ruled otherwise.

It set up the finish for Casilla, who drove in Carlos Gomez with the winning run. Raucous as the Dome was for Favre's rousing performance the night before in a Vikings victory over rival Green Bay, the din may have been five times louder as the Twins piled atop each other. "The season's not over yet. The Metrodome is still open for business," said catcher Mike Redmond, noting that the big bubble will gave way to Target Field, a much-needed outdoor ballpark opening next April about 12 blocks away. "We did it for these fans. We fed off them."

"I am just amazed at the way this team plays the game," said pitcher Carl Pavano, who was injured and useless in four Yankees season but has revived his lagging career in Minnesota. "It's so intense, the way we live and die through these games. But here we are, and it has been so much fun. We need to soak this up because we worked so hard to get this far. We use everyone on this team. We need everyone."

We can declare now, definitively, that the Tigers did choke. When you become the first team in major league history to blow a three-game lead with four games left, you belong in the Hall of Shame. "No matter what we did, it seems like it wasn't meant to be. This is the best game, by far, that I've ever played in no matter the outcome," Inge said. To a man, the Twins agreed about it being the best game. But they can say that and feel proud. The Tigers will be miserable for months. You feel for most of them, including manager Jim Leyland, but not all of them.

Miguel Cabrera didn't deserve to drink bubbly Tuesday night. He had way too much to drink in the wee hours of last Saturday, when he got home just before dawn with a blood-alcohol content of 0.26, more than three times above the legal driving limit in Michigan. If the quantity of his liquor consumption wasn't staggering enough, Cabrera picked the worst imaginable time as a so-called professional in the second year of an eight-year, $152.3 million contract. On a weekend when the Tigers needed him desperately to clinch a division title, Cabrera got plastered knowing he had a ballgame the next evening. If he wasn't still drunk Saturday night, when he went 0-for-4 and stranded six runners in a 5-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox, then he certainly was very hungover. Who wouldn't be?

Why Leyland played him in the game is beyond me. Perhaps it was to embarrass him, though that wasn't the right time or place. The case only grew uglier over the last three days, when it was revealed by police in the posh Detroit suburb of Birmingham that Cabrera and his wife were involved in an altercation -- with their 4-year-old daughter awake in the house -- that left both with facial scratches. Seems Roseangel Cabrera was upset that he had been out all night, part of the time with White Sox friends at the team's hotel bar in Birmingham. She called 911 at 6:05 AM, and Cabrera was picked up by officers and taken to the police station, where he was very lucky that Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski was allowed to take him home. Cabrera easily could have been asked to sleep off his bender in the drunk tank. Maybe for all parties involved, including the Tigers and their disgusted fans, the cops should have let Cabrera rot there until Sunday.

We can declare now, definitively, that the Tigers did choke. When you become the first team in major league history to blow a three-game lead with four games left, you belong in the Hall of Shame."He was out late, came home and his spouse didn't appreciate that, I guess, and it got into an argument," Birmingham police chief Richard Patterson said. "We are not going to let you drive if a [breathalyzer] determines you're intoxicated. We gave him a ride to the police station and he was picked up by [Dombrowski at 7:30 AM] With a blood-alcohol level like that, he wouldn't be able to drive a car until 2 PM -- and he agreed. We aren't going to turn a guy loose so he can get in the car and hurt somebody."

Before the game Tuesday, Cabrera addressed the situation by his locker. When asked if he was drunk Saturday, he balked. "No, no, no. I was good," he said. "I was focused."

How could that be possible? "I want to focus on the game right now," said Cabrera, who apologized to his teammates for being a distraction. "This is a big game. Hopefully, we play good."

Leyland chided the media for "going for the gossip," not that blowing a 0.26 is gossip as much as pathetic reality. "If you want to talk about today's game, we'll talk about today's game," he said. "If you're talking about anything else, I'm walking right through that door and I'm leaving." So much for an explanation on why he would play Cabrera if there was any chance of his being drunk. And how about the report that Cabrera, at the same Birmingham hotel, recently taunted a 15-year-old boy for being overweight. Um, hasn't Cabrera had weight problems himself? And is it true a witness said Cabrera challenged the teen's friends to a fight at their table and suggested he was carrying a gun?

As Twins fans chanted "al-co-hol-ic!" before his at-bats, Cabrera came out smoking. He doubled to deep center in his first trip, then ripped a two-run homer off Scott Baker in the third to boost Porcello to a 3-0 lead. But as the game went on, it was clear the other Cabrera would have more impact. Not only did Orlando Cabrera hit the two-run homer, he started a sensational double play that ended a late Tigers threat and sprinted off the field like a crazed chicken.

The Good Cabrera is hitting over .400 with 21 runs and 16 RBI since Morneau was injured. The Good Cabrera, though he led all major league shortstops this season in errors, was a sweet July acquisition for the Twins, who gave up a prospect and cash considerations. The Good Cabrera is October gold, having helped the Red Sox to a World Series title in 2004. The best thing that happened to him was getting out of Chicago, where he feuded with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and once called the press box in an attempt to have errors overturned in his favor. He signed a one-year, $4 million deal with Oakland, then was traded to paradise.

"This is the most fun I've ever had," he said. "I want to be here forever. I want this moment to never end."

Chances are, it will in a few days. Until then, we'll all be drinking the Minnesota bubbly, admiring the Twins Way. This while The Bad Cabrera hopefully looks in the mirror, realizes he let down a devastated city that needs a sports championship more than most -- and maybe gets some help for his problems before it's too late. He celebrated a little too soon, a risk seized by a smarter, worthier and more sober group of champs.

Twins Deserve to Party, Miguel Cabrera Does Not originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hendry Must Go After Bradley Fiasco

Jay Mariotti — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:15:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

CHICAGO -- The simplest approach would be to dismiss Milton Bradley as a worthless, miserable, psychotic, no-good jerk who somehow would sour the happy vibes at a Boy Scouts meeting, all of which is inarguably true. But the bigger problem in Cubdom, which is experiencing a more acute depression than usual in its 101st consecutive season without a World Series title, is the brainiac who signed him last winter.

That would be Jim Hendry, the general manager. Once so driven by his job that he signed pitcher Ted Lilly to a $40 million contract while in his hospital bed following a heart procedure, Hendry overthought himself on Bradley to the point of wrecking a potentially historic team. He gambled that Bradley could be the offensive threat to push the Cubs past the first round of the postseason, ignoring the long, poisonous pattern of Bradley distracting or downright disrupting every team that has employed him. Rather than savor a healthy clubhouse chemistry mix, Hendry dumped the popular and versatile Mark DeRosa and replaced him with Bradley, the antithesis of good vibes, selflessness and 162-game peace.

Fletcher: Former Manager Would Welcome Bradley Back
More Coverage: Slugger Suspended for '09 | Cubs Will Try Moving Him

The result was a human implosion not often seen, even in the vat of hopelessness that is Wrigley Field. In a wicked five-month swoop, Bradley ripped Cubs fans as racists, engaged in a confrontation with manager Lou Piniella, threw a ball into the stands when there were only two outs in the inning, alienated himself from his teammates and, over the weekend, took a blowtorch to the entire franchise and was suspended for the remainder of the season. If Milton Bradley, the old board game company, had a game for Milton Bradley, the baseball malcontent, it surely would be Trouble.

"It's just not a positive environment," said Bradley, one of the most negative people on God's green earth, in an interview with a suburban Chicago newspaper called the Daily Herald. "I need a stable, healthy, enjoyable environment. There's too many people everywhere in your face with a microphone asking the same questions repeatedly. Everything is just bashing you. You go out there and you play harder than anybody on the field and never get credit for it. It's just negativity.

"And you understand why they haven't won in 100 years here, because it's negative. It's what it is."

If he wasn't such a troubled soul, I would LOL! Bradley needs a stable, healthy, enjoyable environment? Um, the Cubs needed a stable, healthy, enjoyable right fielder and instead got a mope. And if they're ever going to climb from their 101-year black hole, it's certainly won't be with 25 Milton Bradleys. What they must do, as soon as possible, is either cut him and eat the remaining $21 million on his contract or ship him to a team that at least will pay $3 million of the bill. The Cubs have done some real dumb things in their history, but considering their payroll was the third-highest in the majors and they're barely above .500 after a season of injuries and gross underachievement, the Bradley idea ranks among the worst.

"There are issues that we¹ve had throughout the year that in the last few days became too much for me to tolerate," Hendry said in announcing the suspension. "I'm certainly not going to let our great fans become an excuse. I'm not going to tolerate not being able to answer questions from the media respectfully. Whether you feel like talking or not, it's part of all of our jobs. There's a right way to do it and a wrong way. I'm not going to allow disrespect to other people in that locker room and uniformed personnel, and I'm certainly not going to let a player, as was mentioned in the article, [talk about] negativity of the organization."

Yet shouldn't Hendry (right) whose every offseason move backfired woefully, be sent on his way right behind Bradley? With a new owner finally in place in Tom Ricketts, who hopes to pare a $140 million payroll by $40 million and create some semblance of a farm system, the time is right for a new front-office boss with fresh ideas to tackle the toughest job in baseball. Jon Daniels, the young Texas GM who built a farm system and melded kids with veterans, might be ripe to leave with the Rangers fighting money and attendance issues. Same goes for Josh Byrnes, another youthful GM who could be pried from the Arizona Diamondbacks. If Ricketts wants to think real large, how about Theo Epstein, who might want a new challenge -- and an identity of his own -- after winning two World Series in Boston and having to share credit with his three bosses?

Chicago is a city of soft, homerish media who have allowed too many franchises to slide while busy brown-nosing management. From what I've seen, no one in the dying print media here has demanded Hendry's hide. But if he were working in New York and wasting money on Bradley -- not to mention his lavish overspending on Wrigleyville pariah Alfonso Soriano ($136 million), perpetual problem child Carlos Zambrano ($91.5 million), disappointing outfielder Kosuke Fukudome ($48 million), always-injured third baseman Aramis Ramirez ($75 million), inconsistent pitcher Ryan Dempster ($52 million) and former Notre Dame football player Jeff Samardzija ($10 million) -- they'd have run him out of town long ago.

Bradley should be the last straw. He wasn't the first to suggest echoes of racism in the stands; he could trade notes with former Cubs manager Dusty Baker, outfielder Jacque Jones and reliever LaTroy Hawkins, among others. "I'm talking about hatred, period," Bradley said. "I'm talking about when I go to eat at a restaurant, I have to listen to waiters bad-mouthing me at another table. Sitting in a restaurant, that's what I'm talking about -- everything." And what exactly happens in the Wrigley stands?

"You can't do nothing. You listen to them yell at you," he said of the alleged racial taunts. "All I'm saying is that I just pray the game is nine innings, so I can be out there the least amount of time as possible and go home. ... It's nothing brand-new. It's nothing that just started when Milton Bradley came here. It's the same stuff [the media] wrote about at the beginning of the year. It's not like it's a surprise or a shock or brand new to me or anyone else. That's the way it has been. It's not a brand new story. There's nothing new to write about."

Do understand that Cubs fans are equal-opportunity critics, having heaped abuse upon white flops such as Todd Hundley and Kent Mercker and all sorts of managers. I'm not saying a few idiots wouldn't drop an n-bomb or something similarly ignorant, but the problem isn't racism. The minute Bradley was signed, I predicted a dreadful season in which he'd feud with fans, fight with Piniella and not produce. How right I was -- .257 batting average, 12 home runs, 40 runs batted in, .378 on-base percentage. The year before in Texas, in a relaxed environment compared to defeat-scarred Wrigleyville, he hit .321 with 22 homers, 77 RBI and a dynamic .436 on-base percentage. Hendry fooled around and fell in love with Good Milton.

Bad Milton should cost him his job. His moods sucked the fun out of a ballpark that at least had hosted two postseason series the previous two autumns, however brief. His teammates can't wait to see him leave. "At the end of the day, he was provided a great opportunity to be part of a really great organization with a lot of really good guys," Dempster told beat reporters. "It just didn't seem to make him happy -- anything. Hopefully, this is a little bit of a wake-up call for him, and he'll realize how good of a gig you have. It probably became one of those things where you start saying things that you're putting the blame on everybody else. Sometimes, you've just got to look in the mirror and realize that maybe the biggest part of the problem is yourself."

"If you don't want to be here, send him home," Ramirez said.

"From our standpoint, nobody was making an effort to isolate him from groups," Reed Johnson said. "For the most part, that was his choice."

All of which was known about Milton Bradley during his volatile days with the Rangers, Padres, Athletics, Dodgers and Indians, all since 2002. There's always a general manager out there ready to play risk/reward, thinking he can solve the psychological puzzle and reap the benefits. Hendry played the game and whiffed badly.

"When you have high expectations, it's just the way the world is in professional sports," he said. "When you don't produce and there are high expectations on the club, individually, you're going to get some criticism. We all live in that world. There's more scrutiny in the world now."

Amid that scrutiny, someone has to pay for making poor decisions. The Cubs, entering Year No. 102 of an eternal rebuilding plan, should reboot a creaky, old system with a new boss.

Hendry Must Go After Bradley Fiasco originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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101 Years of Futility and Counting? Boycott, Cubs Fans

Jay Mariotti — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:45:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

CHICAGO -- Tuesday night, in keeping with masochistic tradition, 40,000 fans will file into an ancient ballpark, ignore the reality of the standings and root for the Cubs to beat the Washington Nationals. They'll do so even though the Nationals, I dare say, might be better than the Cubs these days. This would be the ideal evening to boycott the one sports team in America that never, ever gives its diehards a reward for their loyalty, a franchise headed toward a 101st consecutive season without a World Series title.

But they can't revolt. They don't have it in them. They're mad, sick and just delusional enough to think a victory will send the Cubs on a hot streak that leads to the October glory they know is just around the corner, one of these decades or centuries or eons. So don't you mock them, OK, when their boys steal a 4-3 win over those pesky Nats, allowing fans to launch into a rocking chorus of "Go, Cubs, go! Go, Cubs, go! Hey, Chicago, what do you say! The Cubs are gonna win today!"

This is what I've lived with for 17 years. This is what the natives have lived with for generations. But 2009 seems to carry a particular gloom, at least among Cubdom's scattered realists. Management spent a whopping $140 million on the payroll, most in team history and tops in the National League, only to see the more efficiently-run Cardinals carry an eight-game divisional lead while the Cubs struggle to stay over .500. Every offseason move made by general manager Jim Hendry has turned to manure, from the failings of closer Kevin Gregg to the trade of versatile leader Mark DeRosa to the ill behavior and shaky performances of Milton Bradley.

In fact, Hendry's blunders date back the last several years, when he paid $136 million for the now-feeble Alfonso Soriano, $48 million to overhyped Kosuke Fukudome, $10 million to a former Notre Dame wide receiver (Jeff Samardzija) who should have played in the NFL and $91.5 million to psycho pitcher Carlos Zambrano, who recently called himself "lazy" about working out between starts and should be traded to the first team that wants to inherit his contract. If you count $75 million for perpetually injured third baseman Aramis Ramirez and $52 million for Ryan Dempster, a 7-7 pitcher who missed a month when he broke a toe trying to jump over a dugout fence to celebrate a victory, well, this would be one of the ugliest dollar-for-dollar teams in baseball history. Worse, Hendry has had much trouble developing serious prospects at everyday positions, requiring him to overspend for veteran talent and ultimately underachieve.

I've said it before. I'll say it again. The Cubs will not win a World Series in any of our lifetimes, if anyone's lifetime at all.

"It does gets painful watching this," said manager Lou Piniella, the latest would-be Wrigleyville savior who eventually will depart in disappointment. "That's a good word for it: painful."

"It's hard to be out there playing sometimes," admitted shortstop Ryan Theriot, who, at $500,000, is one of the few players earning his salary.

While the Cardinals were fortifying another NL pennant run with terrific acquisitions -- Matt Holliday, John Smoltz and DeRosa (plunge the dagger) -- the Cubs couldn't do much of anything at the July trade deadline. Why? Oh, they were stuck in the spin cycle of a sale process that began almost 2 1/2 years ago and finally may have ended, emphasis on "may," last Friday. That is when the Tribune Co., which bought the Cubs for a mere $21.1 million in 1981, announced an agreement to sell 95 percent of the Cubs and Wrigley Field to the billionaire Ricketts family for $845 million. It's less than the $1 billion desired by Tribune boss Sam Zell but still established an all-time record for a major league transaction, beating the $700 million purchase of the Red Sox by John Henry's group in 2001.

The Ricketts clan, which founded online brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, should not be confused with Mark Cuban. The flamboyant owner of the Dallas Mavericks would have been a perfect win-and-party owner for the Wrigleyville scene, but commissioner Bud Selig wanted no part of him. Nor did White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, an old fart who didn't want to compete in Chicago against Cuban's youthful zeal and helped hand-pick a family from Omaha that will conform to Bud and Jerry's fuddy-duddy ways. At least Tom Ricketts, a forty-something who will run the team while daddy Joe pumps in the money, has a romantic history with Wrigley: He met his wife in the bleachers and once lived across from the park. But the question will be whether he knows any more about winning championships than the Tribsters, on their way to an 0-for-29 showing, or the Wrigley chewing-gum dynasty before them.

"Our family is thrilled to have reached an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in the Cubs, one of the most storied franchises in sports," Joe Ricketts said. "The Cubs have the greatest fans in the world, and we count our family among them."

They are fans no more, of course. What the real fans want to know is whether the family is prepared to fire Hendry, who happens to hail from Omaha. No, it wasn't his fault that his hands were tied at the trade deadline -- though, if they weren't, you wonder if he would have botched that, too. He has been too erratic throughout the decade, with no detectable improvement in the farm system, to warrant continued employment despite the four-year extension he signed last offseason. "I hope [he stays]," Ramirez told the Chicago Sun-Times. '"He's done a great job. We won the division back-to-back. We haven't played the way we'd like to in the playoffs, but that's not his fault. He's done his job." My first thought: Naturally, Ramirez wants him to stay after Hendry rescued him from Pittsburgh and handed him a fortune. And the little comment about not performing well in the playoffs? Um, two straight years, the Cubs played well in the regular season, only to be ousted in first-round sweeps in roughly 72 hours. That means the Cubs weren't built for playoff baseball. Which means Hendry has to go.

"We've had a high payroll the past few years," Hendry said. "The way we went about our business after '06, we spent a lot of money and signed a lot of good players to some high-end deals. Unless you're going to be the Yankees, you just can't do that every year."

My preference would be to steal Theo Epstein from the Red Sox. Or one of the young major league GMs who are faring well, such as Jon Daniels of the Rangers. Word is, Selig will push hard for one of his guys, Sandy Alderson, who is so 20 years ago and isn't the right answer. Cubdom must hope the Ricketts family trusts its own instinct and doesn't become a conduit for Selig's whims. And while they don't have to spend $140 million every year, Tom and Joe are the stewards of a major-market franchise with high ticket prices and fans obsessed to win a championship. They can't do this on the cheap -- and that includes spending as much as $500 million on building a new grandstand at Wrigley before the current one falls down.

"Hopefully, they are in this to win and not just to say they own the Cubs, and they're willing to keep the payroll the way it is and we can do what we need to do," first baseman Derrek Lee said.

If Laura Ricketts can produce a championship, hundreds of thousands of fans surely will show up for the next Gay and Lesbian Pride parade."Now we can go get Roy Halladay," Ramirez said.

Maybe, maybe not. But there is this twist: One of Joe Ricketts' kids, Laura, is a lesbian. Technically, then, she will be one of the Cubs owners. "If that's not enough of a reason to buy a bleacher seat to a Cubs game, I don't know what is," wrote Trish Bendix as part of her "L-Blog" page on Chicago Now, the Tribune's blog site.

At this point, Cubdom doesn't really care who owns the ballclub. If Laura Ricketts can produce a championship, hundreds of thousands of fans surely will show up for the next Gay and Lesbian Pride parade. All anyone knows is, the White Sox spend a lot less money and have more to show for it. You don't have to like Ken Williams, but the crosstown GM is embarrassing Hendry with his smart, efficient pickups (Gavin Floyd, John Danks, Carlos Quentin) and his scouting heists (Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez). And when it was time to spend, Williams convinced Reinsdorf to fork out a guaranteed $52 million for former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy and a guaranteed $59 million for outfielder Alex Rios.

Meanwhile, the Cubs quickly are becoming fat, complacent and old. "I really don't see it," protested Piniella, who will acknowledge run-scoring constipation. "I haven't seen resignation. We've just got to figure out a way to put runs on the board. [A comeback] can be done. We've dug ourselves a hole, but it can be done. You can see what Colorado did [in 2007]. So it can be done, but you've got to put together a winning streak now."

He says he's coming back in 2010. "I've said all along this is my last managing job. I'm going to go home and I'm going to enjoy my life [after this]," Piniella said. "But I'm still competitive. I still come to the ballpark, and the losses hurt. If the losses didn't hurt, then I know it would be time to leave. That's the biggest telling thing for me. If it wasn't painful, then I don't belong in this business."

Come to think of it, such is the definition of masochism: the enjoyment of what is painful and tiresome. If change is supposed to be a constant in the world, tell me: Why does life never change at Wrigley Field?

101 Years of Futility and Counting? Boycott, Cubs Fans originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Too Many Suds and Sobs: Wrigley Faithful Turn Angry

Jay Mariotti — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:17:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

CHICAGO -- Midwestern values? Sorry, I've never detected more common sense here than anywhere else, particularly during baseball season in the heartland capital. Chicago is where a father/son tag team, one with a knife falling from his pocket, tackled an enemy first-base coach who never has emotionally recovered. Chicago is where a bond trader attacked Cubs relief pitcher Randy Myers for allowing a home run. Chicago is where a fan stole the cap of Dodgers catcher Chad Kreuter, prompting his teammates to rush into the stands. Chicago is where a riot broke out and fires erupted on Disco Demolition Night.

Chicago is where psycho fans come to pillage and plunder, possibly a byproduct of having won only one World Series over the last 191 collective seasons -- soon to be 193 -- on both sides of town. Philadelphia boos Santa Claus? Cleveland throws batteries at helmeted, padded football players? New York, Boston, Detroit? Those places are mellow compared to Chi, the city that really should taser morons after Oakland introduced the idea last week, the city where so-called regional sensibilities don't always apply at the two ballparks.

To be fair, of course, we're only talking about a handful of creeps. But they always seem to surface in ways that draw national attention, such as Wednesday night at the supposedly friendly confines of Wrigley Field. With the free-falling Cubs trailing 12-1 in what is becoming a $140 million season of despair, Jake Fox lifted a fly ball to center field. As Philadelphia's Shane Victorino parked himself under the ball, he was doused with a beer dumped out of the bleachers, recalling the infamous scene during the 1959 World Series when White Sox outfielder Al Smith was soaked by a beer while trying to track down a fly ball.

This is a major city with serious crime problems. Along with the usual murders, sexual assaults and drug deals, a recent series of muggings has terrorized the affluent neighborhood of Lincoln Park, about a mile south of Wrigley. Yet that didn't stop Chicago police in joining the Cubs to launch an immediate investigation, which included a viewing of the WGN-TV tape of the episode. When security guards arrived in the bleachers, they targeted a fan, below right, who was taunting Victorino and assumed he was the beer-tosser. But when they viewed the replay in the holding area downstairs, the clothing didn't match. So he was released while the real villain got away through the thicket of drunken humanity that is the Wrigley bleachers, with no one caring to turn him in. The alleged beer-tosser turned himself into police Thursday evening, though of course there is no guarantee he's the actual culprit.

Should Chicago police be wasting manpower and resources on unruly fans? I say yes, definitely, because ballpark stupidity is becoming too big a part of this town's identity. These jerks must be prosecuted, one by one, to plant a civic seed that such behavior won't be tolerated here or, for that matter, anywhere else around the country. A city bidding for the world's most prestigious sports spectacle, the Summer Olympics, can't treat the relentless series of fan incidents with nonchalance. Nor can the Cubs, who have enough problems as the longest-running joke in American sports and made sure everyone from manager Lou Piniella to franchise chairman Crane Kenney apologized directly to Victorino and the Phillies.

"I said, 'Listen, sorry,'" Kenney said after his talk with Victorino. "It shouldn't have happened here. It's not a good reflection on our city or organization. We're going to do whatever we can to make sure that things are made right here. And he said, 'I know you are and I appreciate your help.' It was an assault. The obvious one is he threw some beer on him. But let's say the beer was in his eyes and he got hit in the head. Then, what's the next thing that gets thrown from the stands? It just can't happen for safety reasons, and it's just not right."

"That shouldn't happen," Piniella said. "It's not good sportsmanship, not good behavior. We apologize to Victorino and the Phillies."

Said first baseman Derrek Lee: "They are free to yell and say whatever they want. But when they start throwing beer, especially in the middle of a play, it's not really showing good sportsmanship as a fan."

Where Kenney is wrong is when he says it's an isolated incident. For all the scary scenes on the South Side at U.S. Cellular Field, including the attack of Tom Gamboa by shirtless William Ligue Jr. and his 15-year-old son in 2002, fan episodes at Wrigley also are adding up to the point of alarm. I haven't even mentioned the remarkable story of Steve Bartman, the Cubs fan whose life never will be the same after reaching for a foul ball, interfering with left fielder Moises Alou and watching in horror with the rest of Cubdom as the Florida Marlins stormed back and won the 2003 National League championship series. Who can forget how police had to protect Bartman from fellow Cubs fans who seriously wanted to hurt him? That's only one reason why opposing players, for all the ballpark's beauty, have started worrying about safety. Kenney should keep listening to their concerns.

"We serve beer and people sit in the bleachers. If you think about how many years we've gone with no issues of any kind, including situations where our fans in some ways were animated about our own players or weren't favorable toward them, it's an isolated instance," Kenney said. "We handled it the right way, we think, with the police."

Victorino definitely did. He should be commended for filing a police report Thursday. "I just want to make sure that guy gets what's due," he said. "I think he needs to be held accountable." By filing the report, Victorino risks more fan abuse, which is why other players wouldn't file a report. But by doing so, he might contribute to stopping the madness.

"I just think he's probably sitting at home laughing and thinking he got away with it. I hope that he gets the understanding that you can't be doing things like that," Victorino said. "I don't think he'd be walking too far if something like that happened in the streets. It's just not something that you do. For the most part, in the big picture, this guy should be held accountable and something should be done."

The ground rules of ballpark behavior shouldn't be hard to comprehend. Yell and insult all you want, with cleverness preferred over vulgarity. Wave signs, flash gestures other than middle fingers, abuse the opponents all you want. But don't throw objects, including beer. "That really ticked me off, to be honest with you," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry told ESPN. "There's no place for it. The Phillies are a good ballclub, and Shane's an outstanding player. It wouldn't matter who it is. You're risking a very dangerous thing here, if the beer splatters in his face and he misjudges that ball and it hits him in the head and broke his nose.

"It doesn't speak well for that man's behavior. We have great fans who come to the ballpark every day with a lot of enthusiasm, but something like that is inexcusable. We let (manager) Charlie Manuel and Shane know after the game we didn't think that was appropriate and certainly would look into pursuing whatever you could to sanction that kind of behavior for that young man in the future."

Long after the Cubs were swept Thursday by the Phillies, giving then seven losses in their last eight games, the search continued for the culprit. On its Web site, the Chicago Tribune ran a photo of the fans sitting directly above Victorino after the splash. There is a man in a Cubs jersey, the one who was removed and let go. There was a Cubs security person in a white golf shirt and cap. And there was a kid in a black and white cap with shades dangling from the front of his t-shirt, identified by the Tribune as "possible beer-tosser." Odd how the three girls with them aren't identified at all. Nor are four other male fans who are sitting a bit too innocently, including one grinning guy who looks like Flea in the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

To say Wrigley Field has morphed into baseball's biggest wasteland would be unfair. There still is no more glorious sight than the walk from the concourse up the stairs behind home plate, where one's senses are assaulted by ivy, bleachers, the old-time scoreboard and a neighborhood panorama unmatched in sports. But every year, it seems, another dope dilutes the experience.

All of which only brings more attention to the woes of Cubdom. The club is fading away again, handcuffed by injuries to slugger Aramis Ramirez and key starting pitchers Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly. The bullpen is a sham, with Hendry signee Kevin Gregg continuing to blow save opportunities with gopher balls and one-time phenom Carlos Marmol unable to throw a strike. Alfonso Soriano might go down as the biggest bum, dollar for dollar, in Chicago sports history. Volatile Milton Bradley, another bad Hendry idea, is denying he flipped a middle finger at fans the other night. There also are reports that some players party too much for their own good.

In the middle of it all is Piniella, the latest victim of Wrigleyville. Like many good baseball men, he arrived thinking he could be the hero who won a World Series and pushed himself over the top for the Hall of Fame. And like the others, he's failing, having no idea what he got himself into. Hendry, who has spent too much money without enough return and might lose his job, finds himself defending Piniella against an onslaught of fan criticism.

"We're just going through a tough time," Hendry said. "Coming out of the break, everyone was applauding him for getting it turned around in the second half. We've lost a lot of games where we haven't knocked in runs with men in scoring position, and we've had a couple where we got kicked, and rightfully so. Some of the teams we're playing against like the Rockies and Phillies, are outstanding clubs.

"I think you see the same Lou. When you get beat and expectations aren't being met, you're going to get your share of criticism. We all go through it."

The Cubs go through it more than most. Which is why fans throw beer and will continue to throw beer until a World Series won, which probably won't happen in our lifetime. Or any lifetime.

Too Many Suds and Sobs: Wrigley Faithful Turn Angry originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:17:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Josh Hamilton's Triumphant Tale Too Special to Implode Now

Jay Mariotti — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:48:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

He could have used the Photoshop excuse. Or the blogs-have-no-credibility defense. Or the "I don't remember'' line. Or the staged-prank claim. Or the evil-cousin-looks-just-like-me explanation. Or the b.s. spin tried by every high-profile juicer who can't face steroids reality.

Instead, Josh Hamilton tried an approach rarely seen anymore when a famous sports figure is caught in a compromising position. He brought truth, honesty and directness -- his only chance to make us understand just why in the hell a young woman was fondling his crotch while he and more young women were taking turns licking whipped cream off each other's chests. Yes, he told us, the 12 Josh Gone Wild photos were real, shot last January in a bar near the Arizona State campus. Yes, he told us, it was the only time since Oct. 6, 2005 that he wasn't sober after his long, well-chronicled battle with alcohol and drugs. Yes, he told us, he is embarrassed, humiliated and pointing the finger at no one but himself.

He is an addict who relapsed. It happens. What doesn't happen very often is the addict confronting his demons, head on, just hours after the photos would surface on a blog site called Deadspin.com. Whether Hamilton wins the war with himself obviously remains unpredictable business, but anyone with a heart and a grasp of his disease should be impressed with his openness. Not only did he inform his wife, Major League Baseball and the team that employs him, the Texas Rangers, the day after his offseason romp, he was perfectly willing Saturday to stand by his locker in Anaheim, Calif., and address the situation with reporters.

It tells me he still has hope. And that's good, because the Josh Hamilton story has been too triumphant to implode now. Sport needs it. America needs it.

"I'm embarrassed about it. For the Rangers, I'm embarrassed about it. For my wife, my kids," Hamilton said. "I'm not perfect. It's an ongoing struggle, and it's real. I am human and I have struggles. It's one of those things that just reinforces about [the ills of] alcohol. Unfortunately, it happened. It just reinforces to me that if I'm out there getting ready for a season and taking focus off the most important thing in my recovery, which is my relationship with Christ, it's amazing how these things can creep back in.

"Honestly, I hate that this happened. But it is what it is. You deal with it."

And how many drinks did he have that night in the desert? "If I think I can have one drink, I think I can have two, and then it snowballs to 10 or 12,'' he said. "This guy I knew, he always used to joke, 'I'm allergic to alcohol. Every time I drink it, I break out in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs.' Some people it just doesn't mix with, and I'm one of those people.

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Internet Scandals in Sports

Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton apologized after photos surfaced of him partying at a bar before the 2009 season. "I'm embarrassed about it. For the Rangers, I'm embarrassed about it. For my wife, my kids," Hamilton said. Click through to see more web scandals from the sports world.

Lisa Blumenfeld, Getty Images

Sports Internet Scandals

Lisa Blumenfeld, Getty Images

While undressed in her hotel room, popular ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was videotaped through a peephole, and the resulting footage was posted on the Internet. Her lawyer vows that civil and criminal charges will be filed against the perpetrator(s).

Jamie Squire, Getty Images

Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios apologized after his profane exchange with a heckler was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube in early June. "That's not the person that I am," Rios said.

Mark Cunningham, MLB / Getty Images

Just days after British tabloid News of the World published a photo of Michael Phelps with a marijuana pipe, USA Swimming suspended the Olympic legend from competition for three months.

Martin Bureau, AFP / Getty Images

Max Mosley, the president of FIA (Federation Internationale de l' Automobile), had to fight to clear his name after News of the World obtained video footage which allegedly showed Mosley participating in a Nazi-style orgy with prostitutes. In June 2008, he won the vote of confidence at an extraordinary meeting of the FIA.

Francois Durand, Getty Images

In 2008, controversial Mavericks star Josh Howard was caught on video disrespecting the national anthem before Allen Iverson's charity flag football game. Facing the camera during the anthem, Howard said, "I don't celebrate this s--t. I'm black."

Roanld Martinez, Getty Images

Redskins tight end Chris Cooley revealed a little too much private information when he snapped a photo of himself with the team playbook on his lap. Underneath the playbook, Cooley's penis was visible, and he later had to offer up a public apology on his personal blog.

Win McNamee, Getty Images

In late January, Dallas Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett was reportedly fined $22,647 for a profane YouTube rap video in which he used derogatory terms for blacks and gays.

David Stluka, Getty Images

Shaquille O'Neal's dislike for former teammate Kobe Bryant was no secret. But after some quiet time between the two, Shaq brought the animosity back with a freestyle rap at a nightclub. In the video, Shaq takes profane shots at Kobe, and remarks "Kobe, tell me how my a-- tastes."

Johnny Nunez, WireImage

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart took a dip in some hot water, both figuratively and literally, when Web site TheDirty.com released a photo of him partying with four women in a hot tub. The photo was even featured on SportsCenter and drew the ire of head coach Ken Whisenhunt.

Matt York, AP

"As soon as it happened, I called my support staff -- Katie, the organization and MLB -- and told them what happened. I was open and honest about it. People with an addiction can make a mistake."

He slipped when no one was looking, relaxing weeks before spring training after a workout at the Arizona-based Athletes' Performance Institute. He wanted something to eat, but rather than choose a food-oriented restaurant, Hamilton opted for Maloney's in Tempe, a hangout and bar first and a burger place second. He started to drink and, before you knew it, his shirt was off and the girls were treating him like a Chippendales dancer. "I wasn't mentally fit to go in there, spiritually fit, and it just crossed my mind, 'Can I have a drink?' And, obviously, I can't," he said. "That was very well reinforced, and I can honestly say since that night I have not even had a thought of trying another one."

Some will scoff at that -- and perhaps rightfully so. Already revealed to be vulnerable, what stops Hamilton from relapsing again in some major league city where temptations are as close as the hotel lobby and bar? As he once said of his struggles, "I'd go five or six months without picking up a ball or swinging a bat. By then, I'd been in rehab five or six times -- on my way to eight -- and failed to get clean. I was a bad husband and a bad father, and I had no relationship with God. Baseball wasn't even on my mind." And isn't it hard to dispute those who call him a hypocrite of sorts? After all, he is selling a $23.99 book about his tale -- "Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back'' -- and he did an ESPN show, Homecoming, that profiled him as a conquering hero before a studio audience in his North Carolina hometown. Beyond Belief? Sadly, some would say Hamilton himself is beyond belief.

The Josh Hamilton story has been too triumphant to implode now. Sport needs it. America needs it."I don't feel like I'm a hypocrite. I feel like I'm human," he said. "I got away from the one thing that keeps me straightened out and moving in the right direction, and that was my relationship with the Lord. I always knew there would be a chance it would come out. I believe I got to the point where if you have alcohol in your system, your inhibitions go out the window. The details don't matter -- what kind of drink it was. It just put me in a bad situation.

"I thought, to be honest with you, that [the photos] already would have been out. I talked to Katie about it, about what happened that night, what I could remember, and tried to prepare her for what might come out. We talked early [Saturday]. Obviously, she's very disappointed, and I'm very embarrassed for her and the organization and my children. You can't completely prepare for it. We've been praying about it ever since."

Just last summer, I sat mesmerized in New York as Hamilton crushed batting-practice pitches all over the old Yankee Stadium. It was the Home Run Derby contest at the All-Star Game, but really, this was Hamilton's coming-out party from his self-inflicted darkness. He hit 28 in the first round alone, 13 in a row at one point, and the standing ovations were long and loud in the Bronx and around the country. Who didn't love the story of the gifted player who fell prey to drugs and almost died, then found the Lord and his family and reclaimed his talent?

That's why our hearts sank when the news circulated Saturday. It was as if one of our own sons had suffered a setback. I wasn't angry in the least. I was saddened and disappointed but, admittedly, not shocked. The only criticism I have is why Hamilton didn't have a chaperone in Arizona. During the regular season, he is watched closely by Rangers coach Johnny Narron, who stays in an adjoining room to Hamilton's on road trips. They eat together, pray together, play cards together. Narron guards his hotel room to make sure unwanted past influences stay away. Initially Saturday, Narron said he didn't believe the photos were authentic. But how would he know if he wasn't at Maloney's?

"It's not Johnny's fault," Hamilton said. "We have a good relationship, and we trust each other. Obviously, I breached that trust. I've asked for his forgiveness. We've done things to improve that and be on the same page even more.''

Meanwhile, the Rangers are saddled with baggage they don't need as they try to hang in the American League West race with the Angels. Hamilton has yet to fail a drug test -- he is mandated for three a week by MLB -- and there will be no disciplinary action because he isn't banned from drinking. But everywhere the Rangers go, a Hamilton cloud will lurk. "It's something you're always going to deal with," general manager Jon Daniels said. "We just have to help him make the best decisions we can. I'd hesitate to say it's something we're going to put behind us, but we're not going to allow this to become a distraction the rest of the season and we'll try to move on as best we can.''

Nor will there be a leave of absence. "That would be counterproductive," Daniels said. "We knew that going in when we acquired Josh. We know the risks of dealing with someone with substance abuse problems. Ultimately, he's a grown man and he has to make his own decisions. Nobody's here to babysit him, but we should help him make the right decisions and help him get through this."

It's a unique dilemma, if not unprecedented in baseball. Only because of his enormous ability is Hamilton being given a chance that other addicts wouldn't receive. Yet the Josh Gone Wild episode reminds us that a happy ending doesn't necessarily await. "This ongoing struggle -- battle -- it's very real,'' he said. "A lot of people don't understand how real it is."

I think we do now.

Josh Hamilton's Triumphant Tale Too Special to Implode Now originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:48:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Difficult to Believe Ortiz Sob Story

Jay Mariotti — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:15:00 EST

Filed under: MLB

So now, nine full days after his name was leaked as the latest villain of the Steroids Era, David Ortiz says he "never'' used or bought steroids. So now, after weeks and months and years of ugly revelations dripping into the public consciousness like poison from a syringe, Major League Baseball is asking media and fans to use "caution'' when judging certain players and whether they used steroids.

And we're supposed to absorb all of this and say, yeah, sure, absolutely, whatever you want, fellas?

"I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter -- legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter. But I never buy steroids or use steroids," Ortiz said Saturday at a news conference. "I never thought that by buying supplements and vitamins, it was going to hurt anybody's feelings."

"There are more names on the government list [104] than the maximum number of positives that were recorded under the 2003 program [96]," MLB said in a statement. "And, as the Mitchell report made clear, some of the 96 positives were contested by the union. Given the uncertainties inherent in the list, we urge the press and the public to use caution in reaching conclusions based on leaks of names, particularly from sources whose identities are not revealed."

Make me laugh. That lying little puppet, Pinocchio, has more credibility than MLB, the players union and the stars of the Steroids Era. How appalling that they take more than a week to make sure their stories are straight, then try to sugarcoat what continues to fester as the longest-running and most damaging scandal in American sports history. What we needed from Ortiz and the union were real answers. Instead, they gave us more spin and b.s. I'd like to believe the lovable, popular Big Papi when he says it's all about vitamins and supplements, when he points out that he has tested negative 15 times the last five years, when he sits before reporters with that kind, sincere voice and doesn't read from a prepared sheet of paper. But sorry, I simply can't believe him or anybody else from the era, not when the vast majority of steroids-related smoke has erupted into raging fires.

Even when the union takes a rare crack at transparency under boss-in-waiting Michael Weiner, who replaces the dark and secretive Donald Fehr, new details are revealed that make us more suspicious. Weiner said the 2003 survey tests involved two collections of samples, the first of which was random and unannounced and the second of which was taken seven days later -- with a heads-up alert to players to "cease taking supplements during the interim.'' This isn't the first time we've heard of such advance warnings, suggesting again that MLB was complicit in the process and more interested in protecting its image than policing the sport.

"Under the 2003 program, a test could be initially reported as 'positive,' but not treated as such by the bargaining parties on account of the second test," Weiner said.

And why wait until now, months after it was revealed that a 2003 list included 96 allegedly dirty names, to say that some players on the list never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs? And that 13 of the 96 positive tests are being disputed? Isn't this something -- assuming it's true -- that should have been said immediately?

It's easy for Ortiz to claim he's clean when the list is sealed by a court order. The union told him in 2004 that his name was on the list but that he didn't necessarily test positive. He still has no access to the list, so it's a matter of whether to take him at his word. "Accordingly, the presence of a player's name on any such list does not necessarily mean that the player used a prohibited substance or that the player tested positive under our collectively bargained program," Weiner said. The key word, of course, is necessarily. It also isn't necessarily true that Ortiz didn't test positive for steroids. So what was this dog-and-pony exercise about, anyway?

To save face? Mission unaccomplished.

"I'm not here to make excuses or anything," Ortiz said. "I want to apologize to the fans for the distraction, my teammates, my manager. We go into a situation now, it was a nightmare to me. I'm one of the guys, I think about the fans, it wouldn't be as good as it is without the fans. People look at me as a guy who hit the ball, but I try to do things the right way."

Not surprisingly, the Boston Red Sox fell right in line in defending their Big Papi. It's management's way of trying to scrub the idea that their 2004 and 2007 World Series championships have been tainted by the steroids grime of Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. "There are substantial uncertainties and ambiguity surrounding the list of 104 names," the team said in a statement. "David Ortiz is a team leader, and his contributions on the field and in the community have earned him respect and a special place in the hearts of Red Sox Nation." Shame on the Red Sox for using the "ambiguity'' to their benefit. Until we know definitively that Ortiz didn't test positive for steroids, we'd be naive to think otherwise. Don't let a staged stab at public relations make you stupid, much as Weiner tries to sway minds.

"A player [on the list] finds himself in an extremely unfair position,'' he said. "His reputation has been threatened by a violation of the court's orders, but respect for those orders now leaves him without access to the information that might permit him to restore his good name."

Might.

Consider it one more reason why the entire list should be released for public consumption. Baseball can't move on from the Steroids Era until the guilty are separated from the innocent, because, right now, the public thinks everyone is guilty. If the names keep leaking every few weeks for a couple of years, the game will be stuck in performance-enhancing hell. That's why Henry Aaron, the true and authentic all-time home run leader, is right when he says the names should be outed. "I wish for once and forever that we could come out and say we have 100 and some names, name them all and get it over and let baseball go on," Aaron told the Associated Press last week. "I don't know how they keep leaking out. I just wish that they would name them all and get it over with."

The release of all the names might require Supreme Court intervention. The union wants no part of such a public airing, which only hurts the players and the game's attempts to move past steroids. "Sure, there are some people who say 'Why don't we just get this story over with and get the list out?' '' Weiner said. "I think to do that would one, be illegal, and two, be wrong. It's illegal because it's covered by court order, and it would be wrong because a promise was made by the commissioner's office and the union to every player who was tested in 2003 that the results would be anonymous."

Ortiz agrees, which is odd. If he's innocent of using steroids, wouldn't he want that known? "I don't think that I would really like to see another player going through what I've been through this past week," he explained.

The ordeal has placed a dark cloud over Fenway Park, one of baseball's happier places. You can feel hearts breaking throughout New England as Ortiz struggles mightily in a 1-for-25 slump, which not coincidentally comes amid the Red Sox's worst stretch of the season. He was called out on strikes for the final out Saturday in a 5-0 loss to the Yankees, which followed a 15-inning, 2-0 loss Friday night. The Red Sox are in grave danger of falling out of the postseason race, unable to score runs and mired in the daily Ortiz soap opera. How embarrassing to call a Big Papi press conference in Yankee Stadium, home of the hated rivals? The Yankees are jelling at the right time, getting excellent pitching and looking like the American League's best team. The Sox are back in baseball-tragedy mode.

"This past week, I've been really confused and frustrated," said Ortiz, now hitting .219 for the season. "I started looking for answers, and nobody gives me an answer."

The answer is honesty. If he thinks he's telling the truth, so be it, but the only marquee player who has stepped forward and genuinely spilled the facts -- or at least some of them -- has been Alex Rodriguez. The fans love him again in New York, predictably, after his dramatic home run ended the marathon classic late Friday. Buoyed by that love, he opened up Saturday about Ortiz, baseball and life.

"David's a good friend," Rodriguez said. "I've been there, done that and lived it. Whatever he did, I hope he feels better about it, because I certainly did once I had my press conference. I'm so proud of the way things came out. I took a lot of things off my chest, and since that press conference, I feel like a new man. I feel like I've been embraced by not only the city of New York, but my teammates, my coaches and my manager. I feel liberated by the way I came out and did things.

"I think I'm able to play better in key situations because I'm at peace with myself and I'm freer. I'm enjoying the game at a level that I really haven't enjoyed it before, because it's simply 100 percent about my team and winning games. In the past, I was so consumed with trying to do special things, but now I'm only worried about one thing and that's winning. That's helped me go out and be an integral part of this team, make noise with big hits that I get and just helping the team win. Our team is playing well, there's music and there's apple pies, so the energy has changed on this team, too.''

There is no energy in Boston, just pain and suffering. Nothing that was said Saturday will change reality for David Ortiz. His is just another sob story that probably would flunk a lie-detector test.

Difficult to Believe Ortiz Sob Story originally appeared on Jay Mariotti FanHouse on Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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