MAGIC NUMBER IS 91

The Yankees have snuck into second place...
But hopefully that magic number can be cut to 89 by the end of Sunday night.

Not a bad prediction by yours truly

I predicted 5 innings and 3 earned runs for Clemens
Off by an inning!

I also predicted Suzyn (sic) Waldman and John Sterling would be unbearable.

OK, that was like predicting the sun rising.

Not a bad start.
Thankfully Julian Tavarez had the exact same numbers tonight for the Sox... and for a lot less money as well.

It's savior time

So the 4th annual ROGER CLEMENS COMING BACK FROM RETIREMENT day has arrived.

And what more dramatic stage to have it than an interleague game with the Pirates!

My prediction:

5 innings pitched, 3 earned runs and at least one over the top statement by John Sterling like "This is one of the great moments in Yankee history!"

Did you feel a draft?

So the baseball draft was this week.
Did you watch it?

OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T!
Why would you?

I've already made my feelings about the NFL Draft and its coverage known.

Well, as silly as the football draft coverage is, the baseball draft is 10,000 times more riddiculous to televise.
At least in college, you have most of the players competing in the comparable setting of Division 1 NCAA football.

When they draft a hitter out of high school, who knows what level of talent they were playing against?
Some guy hit 35 homers in 40 games with a 4.821 OPS?

Fantastic!
Unfortunately a Girl Scout was pitching.

And making projections from the draft is equally insane.

The Braves did not draft high school phenom Todd Van Poppel in 1989 and they were chastised.
So instead of choosing a guy who would have 2 servicable seasons as a middle reliever, they were stuck drafting Chipper Jones... a potential Hall of Famer who won an MVP and help lead the Braves to 3 pennants and a World Series title.

Tough break for Atlanta.

I also remember how Baseball America riddiculed the White Sox for drafting the one dimensional Frank Thomas

The White Sox were fooling passing up the opportunity to draft the multitalented sure fire star Earl Cunningham.



Frank Thomas became the greatest hitter in White Sox history while Earl Cunningham has appeared in as many games in the majors as me.

What's sadder?
The fact that the draft is televised or that some A's games aren't?

Um, isn't Oakland a Major League city?

Let me just double check something.
The Oakland A's are a major league team, right?

Thus, by definition, Oakland is a major league city right?

As a rabid Red Sox fan living in the Bay Area, I wanted to watch the A's/Red Sox afternoon game this Thursday.
It had added significance because I learned Curt
Schilling was throwing a no hitter.

So you would think catching one of the local major league teams on TV would be an easy thing to do, this being 2007 and all.

Nope.
No TV.

Not that I didn't get the channel... there was no TV crew dispatched to Oakland today.
What was on Fox Sports Bay Area?

Either a countdown show listing the craziest Terrell Owens moments or the finals of the Hungry Hungry Hippos championship.



(Can you imaine the outrage in New York if the Yankees decided to not show a game? Or the Mets? Or in Boston with the Sox? In Oakland they don't even care.)

Fine.
I'll listen to it on the radio.

Now here in the Bay Area there are two 24 hour sports radio stations.
Guess which one was playing the only live Major League game going on in the Bay Area?

RIGHT!
NEITHER!

One had Ralph Barberi still complaining about Benitez and the other had Chris Myers talking about NFL training camps.

No, the A's have their games broadcast on another station that must be a one watt radio station.



Seriously, you have to sit in the station parking lot in order to get the signal clearly.

A guy broadcasting from his dormroom sticking a coathanger out the window would get a wider audience.

COME ON, A'S!

You want to build a stronger fan base?
START BY SHOWING THE GAMES!

And sign a deal with a radio station that doesn't say "10-4, Over" at the end of the broadcast.

I'll Admit... That One Stung

Yeah tonight's loss stung.
Especially having BOTH Okajima and Papelbon both let up runs...
And a 2 out homer in the 9th to A-Rod of all people.

But Sox fans... try not to get carried away.
The Red Sox STILL have a double digit lead IN JUNE!

My fellow Sox fans are carrying on like the Yankees have caught us!
They haven't even caught them in the season series (7-5 in favor of the Sox)

The Sox STILL have the best record in baseball and the Yankees are still a losing team.

Calllllllllm down.

If they get to within a week of the Sox, THEN worry.

MAGIC NUMBER IS 99

It's June 1 and the Magic Number to win the division is in double digits.
Mind you, that's any number of Red Sox wins and BALTIMORE losses that equal 99 will win the Division.

As for eliminating the Yankees? The magic number is 97.

But there is no regional chain of restaurants in New England called 97.

My thoughts on the two most recent A-Rod controversies

A few people have e mailed me privately wondering why I haven't commented on A-Rod's infidelity nor his yelling "hey!" during a pop up distracting the Blue Jays' third baseman the other day.

Could it be that I don't care about either?

CONTROVERSY ONE
Alex Rodriguez is an unfaithful husband.

Wow, I don't think even Razor could have predicted that!

You mean a famous, handsome, athletic, rich ego maniac who spends weeks at a time on the road in fancy hotels was unfaithful?

IT MUST BE A FIRST!

Now there is a slight ripple effect to this controversy.
First of all, someone at the Post got a bonus for the STRAY ROD headline.
And I'm sure Joe Torre is so happy that all of this is happening on the eve of another Red Sox/Yankees series.

I'm sure the Boston media will let it blow over.

So will the fans, no doubt. They overlook details like that in Fenway.

But I really don't care.
I know ballplayers run around on their wives. Not all of them, but a lot do.

And while that stinks, it also doesn't affect my life one bit.

Yankee fans should be concerned about how he plays on the field and that's it.

I cheer for Curt Schilling
even though he is a right wing Christian coalition blow hard.

I don't care about his politics. I care that he can throw a little horse hide ball past grown men swinging a bat. And that's all. And if being a blowhard makes him a better pitcher than so be it!

Being a lousy husband didn't hurt Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle.

In fact I think finding morality can hurt a player. When Gary Gaetti was a hellraiser, he was an All
Star and won the ALCS MVP in 1987.

He found God and also found a .226 average.

He should have gone back to drinking.

It's irrelevant. We should know by now to not expect these guys to be beacons of morality.

Of course, for a guy as obsessed about his image as A-Rod is, he may have thought about separate cabs. I know cab fare can be expensive, but Cynthia might be getting a lot of that $250 million contract now!

Again, a nasty divorce and faces all over the tabloids might be the last straw before he opts out.

Hell, if the Yankees fall any further in the standings (if that's possible) why not consider trading him?

Also, for a guy who wants to emulate Jeter, he missed a
crucial lesson from the captain.

If you want to run around with lots of very hot women and cash in your "I'm a horny handsome athletic world famous millionaire" card for some string free sex... don't get married!

Very simple. No scandals around Derek Jeter. Just a huge smile and 4 World Series rings.

Also he didn't write a crappy children's book.











CONTROVERSY TWO

A-Rod yelled and distracted a Blue Jays infielder during a pop up.

Um, OK.
So what?

I didn't realize baseball stadiums were supposed to be as quiet as Wimbledon now.

How is that any different than pulling a decoy play?

Besides, the Yankees needed a win any way possible and A-Rod would do anything short of slapping the ball out of someones glove.



So, this extensive post not withstanding... I don't care.

Red Sox/Yankees tomorrow.
THAT'S what I care about.

Meet Razor... a.k.a. Nostrodamus

I saw this clip on YouTube today...



A Mets fan by the name of "Razor" (named after St. Razor no doubt) is obviously pumped after the final nail in the coffin of Armando Benitez' Giants career.

Good for him. Clearly a good Mets fan.
But then he turns to the camera to say "I called that!"

Wow! Really bold prediction there, Razor!
You, a Mets fan who saw him blow lead after agonizing lead, predicted he would blow this game as well? Was it his two balks in the inning or more than a decade of late inning failures that gave you this premonition?

Tomorrow Razor will no doubt watch the sunrise and say "I called it! The sun was coming up! I CALLED THAT!"

Benitez, like his last pitch as a Giant, is long gone

How appropriate was it that the Giants purged themselves of Armando Benitez in Shea Stadium, the home of so many of his meltdowns?

When Bruce Bochy first joined the Giants, the first thought I had was "Wow! He's had Trevor Hoffman, a potential Hall of Fame closer, his entire managerial career. How long could he stand having Benitez blowing games for him?"

The answer turned out to be "less than two months."

And they got a 25 year old kid named Randy Messenger, who has a decent ERA!

After the other day, I would have traded him for an Arby's Super Roast Beef Sandwich and tickets to Hostel 2 (which I saw last night by the way. It is awesome.)

BEFORE his spectacular conclusion to his Mets career, he sensed the end was near and gave his thoughts to the Contra Costa Times.

Among his gem quotes includes this one:

"It wouldn't be the first time I've been traded. But it'd be a mistake."

No kidding.
It's ALWAYS been a mistake... for the other team.

Benitez is gone.
Someone else will have a chance to close.

Let's hear it, Giants fan.

FREEDOM!

THE GERBIL SPEAKS!

So Don Zimmer thinks it is too early to declare the Red Sox AL East champs but the other teams need to step up quick.

Gee Zim! Great insight!
Let me get this straight so I can keep up with your baseball genius...

It's still May... and the season ends in October... so yeah! It's kind of early. Nice pick up there.

But you think it would be tough to catch the Sox? Really! I guess an 11 1/2 game lead IS kind of tough!

Wow. I can see why people turn to you for your supreme baseball wisdom!

How about some more questions?
Let's say you are managing a team with lots of talented players on it... and you don't get along with some of them. What should you do?

Give those players away? Including a future Hall of Fame pitcher, a beloved All Star and Yankee Killer, a solid reliever and top pinch hitter?

OK.

Let's just say you have a future Hall of Fame catcher on that team with injury issues... how do you handle him?
Catch him 154 times until he breaks down? Interesting choice.

Let's say you have a third baseman whose elbow is falling apart, can't throw the ball and is costing your team games down the stretch? You'd keep him in? Nobody knows baseball like ZIM!

OK... final question... let's say you are facing, oh I don't know, your chief rival in a critical series.

You lose the first 3 games badly.
You need a win desperately.
You have three choices to start the game.

Do you chose
A) The Heart and Soul Ace of the Team
B) The Crafty Left Handed Yankee Killer
or
C) A Kid pitching the second game in his big league career

Really? You'd pick the kid!

Wow. Can I read such
wisdom in your TWO BOOKS?

I wonder if they have Cliffs Notes for his books.

Hey Pirates.... why not go all in?

OK, I have vowed to write at least one post about every team in the major leagues.

Obviously I have the Red Sox covered... and I have written probably too much about the Yankees.

I've talked about Benitez and Bonds, but I have a Giants post I am thinking up...

I've talked Devil Rays... because somebody has to.
And I tried to remind you that the power of the smiling bird will make the Orioles winners again.

So not counting the Giants that is 4 teams covered.. 26 to go.

Let's talk Pirates baseball!

When was the last time anyone said that?

Has anyone since Sid Bream slid across home plate to end the Pirates hope to go to the 1992 World Series?

Have the Pirates been relevant since Barry Bonds was skinny?

The answer is "no."
They haven't had a winning season since that same year, 1992.
And there is no excuse for that.

Or you will HEAR lots of excuses, but there are none that are relevant.

It used to be that they played in a lousy stadium.
And they did.
Three Rivers Stadium was a terrible place to see a ballgame. I went there in 1993 with my dad and it felt like the Steelers were graciously letting the Pirates play in their park.

Guess what?They blew it up!

And they replaced it with a beautiful new tax payer subsidized stadium.

Try again, apologists!

Oh the payroll is too high!
They can't afford the players.

Who are the big spenders in that division? The penny pinching Cardinals? The notoriously cheap Cubs? The Astros? The Brewers? The Reds? Seriously, it's not like they have the Red Sox and Yankees devouring all the players in that division!

Plus players who come up through the farm aren't that expensive!
Just look at the two reigning MVPs, Ryan Howard and Justin Morneau make less than $800,000 COMBINED

We're trying to rebuild!

They'd be better off rebuilding Three Rivers Stadium.
How long will this rebuilding go on?
Let me put it to you this way...
When the Pirates were last good (1992), the Marlins didn't exist yet.

Since then they were formed (1993), built a World Champion (1997), tore it down (1998), built another World Champion (2003), tore it down (2006) and have a brand new core of young talent.

And note that they STILL play in an ugly football stadium... and they can pull it off.

So do the Oakland A's! My god they have the worst stadium in baseball and 1/3 of their games aren't even on TV! Yet they are in the playoffs almost every year.

Same with the Twins who play in a gigantic cream puff and were about to be contracted!

Heck even the Montreal Expos had winning seasons in 2002 and 2003... AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE AN OWNER!

So here we are... kids who were born the same year Cabrera's single went into left field will be getting their driver's license next year. The Pirates have been completely irrelevant their whole 15 year lives.

And what do we have now in their division?
The Brewers (also 15 years since their last winner) is in first place, but starting to sink.

The Cardinals are a sad sad mess.
The Cubs pitching staff resembles the waiting room in Beetlejuice.
The Reds stink and the Astros just lost 10 in a row.

So, Pirates... why not make a run at it?
You've got Jason Bay and Freddie Sanchez and Xavier Nady.
You've got Gorezelanny and Snell in the rotation and Duke might turn it around.
Torres, Caps, Marte and Chacon all have some ability in the bullpen.

Why not trade away some prospects and get a bat? Mark Teixeira is available... make an offer!
Get another starter. Freddie Garcia is available too. See what they want!

The Pirates are only 5 1/2 games back a sinking Brewers team.
You've got a whole generation of kids in Pittsburgh who have never seen a winner, let alone a playoff series.

Come on! Cue up "We Are Family", make some deals and make a run!
I saw what the Warriors run did for Bay Area basketball fans. It was electric. It was as if the fans said "I didn't know I could feel this way about the Warriors!"

Make a run before you deal away Jason Bay for prospects who will grow up and get traded for more prospects.

You've got the stadium and the winnable division.
You've had 15 seasons to rebuild.

Make a run or those kids will get their drivers licenses and never drive to PNC Park.

This was bad... even for Benitez

2 balks in the 12th inning?
Worse yet... a game tying 2 out balk?

Benitez is finding ways to blow leads I have never dared dream of.

I told the Giants to trade him when he got his first save knowing his value would never be higher.

I openly questioned what his job description was.
But this is just getting sad because it is no longer shocking.

When he allowed Reyes to score the tying run (thus invalidating a gutty effort by the Giants to come back in the 7th, hold off the Mets in extra innings and move ahead in the 12th) my dad stopped watching.

Now keep in mind my dad NEVER leaves a Giants game. He watches or listens to them right through the post game show on KNBR.

But Benitez balked, Reyes scored and my dad stood up to play with his grandchildren.

He missed DelGado ending the game with a home run the next pitch.
But I guess saying he missed it isn't accurate.

I went outside and he was playing with my two sons.
At one point amidst the laughter my dad turned to me.
"Home run?" He asked.
I nodded.

No need to even watch.

BONUS BENITEZ

I can't wait to hear from my Mets fan friends tomorrow.
Benitez is FINALLY contributing to a Mets victory.

I look forward to hearing what my Mets fan friends Andres, Liam, Michael, Poppi and my cousin Dave Sullivan think about this poetic justice.

Don't get me wrong... I'm loving this...

But this is getting ridiculous!
14 1/2 game lead over the Yankees?
In May?

22 games ago, the Yankees were 5 back in the loss column and unveiled their new/old toy Roger Clemens.

And this inspired the Yankees so much that they dropped 9 games in the loss column in 21 games.

That's almost impossible!

If they keep falling like this, Clemens might be requesting a trade!

Mariano Rivera has 3 saves. THREE!
Hideki Okajima has 4 saves and he isn't even the main closer!

I mean it can't keep up like this, can it?
The Red Sox are on a pace to go 114-48
The Yankees are on a pace to go 68-94... with the Sox finishing 46 games ahead of them.

By the way, the magic number to eliminate the Yankees is 98.
And note thatISN'T the Magic number for the Division.

Pretty soon we Sox fans will have to stop checking on the Yankees and start scoreboard watching for the Orioles and Blue Jays.

Maybe in honor of Pat and Christin, we'll be checking the scores of the Devil Rays as well.

But the Red Sox CAN'T be this good.
The Yankees CAN'T POSSIBLY be this bad.

Can they?

What exactly IS Armando Benitez's job description?

So Armando Benitez came into a tie game in the 9th against the Rockies last night, let up 3 hits, 2 stolen bases and an intentional walk... the Rockies score twice and win the game.

Benitez responded as he did last year after a trademark Benitez meltdown in Washington.
He said "I did my job."



After years of high profile failures which we have covered before, I wondered how he could be so casual about it.

Then it hit me.
Has anyone actually read his contract?
Perhaps in every contract he signed since being with the Orioles, through his times with the Mets and now the Giants, his job has been clearly defined as fulfilling 9 simple goals.

1. If the game is tied in the 9th inning or extra innings, give up the go ahead run.
2. If the team has the lead in the 9th inning or extra innings, give up that lead with lightning speed.
3. When you blow a game, make sure it demoralizes the team after a scrappy come back that your ineptitude makes for naught.
4. Try to let up home runs to light hitting players.
5. Get your fan base to hate the very sight of you to the point that the moment you take your warm up jacket off in the bullpen, you get booed.
6. Become an endless focus on call in talk shows where the team's sanity is questioned for keeping you.
7. Demoralize not only a team but a loyal fan base who can trace the end of their team's pennant chances with your spectacular failures.
8. Despite your failures, insist that you are one of the elites in the game and take no responsibility.
9. Try to gain some weight.

If that is his job description, then I take back my criticism.
He did indeed do his job... and he did it quite well if I may add.

THE RED SOX MAGIC NUMBER

108

Any combination of Red Sox wins and Yankee losses equaling 108 gives the Sox the 2007 AL East crown.

Let's shave it to 106 tonight!

(Never too early to start counting!)

Who are you and what have you done with Julian Tavarez?

Who is this person in Julian Tavarez's body?
He was supposed to be a lousy #5 starter, biding time until Jon Lester came back from cancer.


He was the guy who broke his hand punching a phone during the '04 playoffs for the Cardinals and came back in time to cough up a game winning homer to Mark Bellhorn in the World Series.

He was the guy sports reporters laughed at when he said the Sox didn't need Roger Clemens.

And I grant you, his stats aren't exactly screaming Cy Young.

But have you noticed he's pitched well in 4 of his last 5 games?
And those 5 games include 2 wins against the Yankees!

That is shaving 4 off of the magic number by himself. (And no, it is never too early to try and figure out the magic number.

Oh yeah, the other win came against a red hot defending AL Champion Detroit Tiger team.

What I am saying is, whatever extra terrestrial has entered Tavarez's body the same way that bug lived in Vincent D'Onofrio in Men in Black... please don't go.

I like you better than the other Tavarez. Stick around awhile.

I am all for body possession if it means a pennant.

ALSO ON TAVAREZ

I know this clip has been going around, but it needs be seen by every nitwit Red Sox fan who wants to see Manny Ramirez off of the team.

What other superstar in sports is this hilarious?
Seriously!

Name the superstar who is this funny.
You can't can you?

Please PLEASE resign Manny

Mussina might very well be toast

I know I shouldn't be piling on the Yankees... but it's too much fun.
Besides, after years of living in New York as a Red Sox fan, I never remembered much mercy coming from Yankee fans.

So here's another thing to ponder:

Mussina might be toast.
As in this might not be "a bad start."
Or "he's working through some stuff."

It might be over.

He's a 38 year old pitcher. Look at his baseball reference page. The pitchers whose career mirrors Mussina the most usually breakdown in their mid to late 30s. Bob Welch was done by 36. David Cone was done by age 37.

Granted, Welch lived harder than Mussina and it is safe to say Cone wasn't doing a crossword that night in the Shea Stadium Bullpen.

Even Bob Gibson was no longer the ace caliber pitcher by 39, his last year in the bigs.

What I am saying is a 38 year old pitcher with a losing record, only pitched into the 7th once this year (last night when he was shelled), has an ERA of 6.52 and can't keep his team in ballgames might not be going through a slump.

It might be it.
He's had a solid career... a borderline hall of fame career.

But there very well might be yet another hole in the Yankees pitching staff.

However, I will suggest to Joe Torre... LEAVE HIM IN!
Maybe he'll work through it!

I'm enjoying this too much.

Making the Orioles relevant again

Continuing my vow to write something about all 30 teams... today I take on the Baltimore Orioles.

What the heck happened to the Orioles?
Growing up, they were one of the best teams in baseball year in and year out.
They could hit, they could field and man could they pitch.

And they were consistent!
From 1960 to 1985, they had 2 losing seasons.
In that same stretch, even the mighty Yankees had 6 losing seasons.

That's 24 out of 26 seasons with a winner.
And 8 post season trips... before there was a wild card and a three round playoff.
6 trips to the World Series and 3 Titles.

And now... they are on their 10th straight season of irrelevant sub .500 ball.

What's to blame?
Is it the inconsistent ownership of Peter Angelos?
Is it the lack of a productive farm system or dreadful trades or free agent signings that backfired?
Should they never have moved out of Memorial Stadium into Camden Yards?

I say the downfall started in 1988 when the
team had their worst season in Baltimore (54-107) and they changed their hats.

They used to have the smiling, mocking Oriole on the cap.
And what did they change it to? A dull sideways orinthologically correct bird.

Where's the swagger in that? Where is the "We're so better that we're laughing at you" cockiness?
The bird isn't even looking at you!

The 1989 Orioles in the dull caps turned the season around and contended until the last weekend.. but it was an abberation.
In the 18 seasons with the lifeless caps, the Orioles have had only 6 winning seasons and only two playoff trips.

And the team, once one of the crown jewels of baseball, has turned into the place that agents tell their aging clients "Hey, I bet we trick them into one more big contract!"

Bring back the smiling bird!

There was nothing cooler in baseball than seeing Jim Palmer
, Mike Flanagan or Steve Stone mowing down batters with that Oriole grinning back at you.

Or scowling Eddie Murray staring down a pitcher with the bird almost mocking him. "Yup, my pal Eddie is going to take you deep!"

Brooks Robinson makes a great catch, and the bird loved it.
Earl Weaver argues with an up and that bird is almost shaking his head. "Your call was laughable!"




What does the sideways bird give us?
When Cal Ripken broke the record... he wasn't even watching.
When Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa did 'roids... he literally
looked away.

Who cares if he is orinthologically correct?
We're baseball fans! We don't need accuracy!
We spell "Socks" S-O-X!

Let the bird smile and maybe Baltimore will have something to smile about again