Let's Go Kansas State!

I still can't name a single player on the Kansas State Wildcats basketball team... yet I am still rooting for them.

And after their double overtime win against Xavier last night a wonderful thing happened for K-State fans:

They are now favorites to go to the Final Four.

With Butler's win over top ranked Syracuse (two other teams that I don't know the starting 5 for), Kansas State is now the top ranked school in the West Region.

Now I am sure Syracuse thought they were going to beat Butler, so K-State can't take them lightly... but if a #2 seed can beat a #5 seed then my Schadenfreude fueled scenario would come true.

Kansas State would be a Final Four Team while Kansas, the #1 team in the country, couldn't even make the Sweet Sixteen.

And if they make the Final Four, they wouldn't have to face a #1 seed from the Midwest as Kansas has been knocked off... so it isn't outlandish to see Kansas State in the Championship game...

And if they can beat Kentucky or Duke...

OK, I am getting ahead of myself. BUT for all of you Kansas State fans out there, savor this. This could be YOUR 2004... that year where your team was better than the big bad "always better than you and you are sick of hearing of it" powerhouse.

Unleash the prick within!

Joe Mauer better not be Vernon Wells

An unlikely team opened up their wallets and signed their All Star potential Free Agent to a long term deal.

And the deal is called great for baseball.
No doubt on the open market this All Star would sniff New York or Boston's offers.

And a home grown star, someone who is one of the good guys in the sport, would have been lost.

Instead competitive balance was restored... and a fan base who saw glory under the dome the 1980s and 1990s including a pair of World Series titles FINALLY got a sense of continuity with their favorite star.

Who am I talking about?
Joe Mauer?
Vernon Wells?

Wells signed the mongo 7 year $126 million contract after the 2006 season. The Blue Jays, who finished second that season, looked like they were getting ready to make a move on the AL East.

They did alright... they moved down.
And Vernon Wells has slumped and is a shell of his former self.

And you have to wonder if they didn't have such a backloaded albatross of a contract with Wells if the Blue Jays would have been able to keep Roy Halladay.

The only way to move Wells would be to take on another albatross, as I suggested earlier this year.

Remember how A-Rod's contract prevented the Rangers from getting better?
Remember how Ken Griffey Jr's contracted prevented the Reds from getting better?

What I am saying is... I hope Joe Mauer stays healthy and doesn't slump.

Catchers wear down faster than center fielders

I'd hate for this contract to be a burden 5, 6, 7 or 8 years from now

I think I am going to root for Kansas State to get to the Final Four

Yup... Sully Baseball will endorse Kansas State to win big.

Now let me make it perfectly clear, I can't name a single player on the Kansas State team.

I have no financial stake in them making the Final Four because I didn't fill out a bracket this year.

Up until 2 minutes ago, I didn't even know they were called the Wildcats.

And as I type this sentence, I am not sure where the school physically exists in Kansas.

So why do I want them to win?

Because here's a little thing you need to know about your pal Sully: I can be a bit of a prick sports wise.

Oh I am a hell of a nice guy in real life. I am a good friend, a thoughtful neighbor who is involved with the community, a caring father, a faithful husband and a dependable coworker.

But in sports, I love a little Schadenfreude. It's not enough to win... you have to stick it in the eye of someone else.

Maybe it was all of those years seeing the Red Sox flop a la Wile E. Coyote and hearing it from Yankee fans, but I have developed a taste for watching other fan bases squirm.

Which brings us to the Kansas State Wildcats. They are a good team evidently. They are a 2 seed in the tournament and ranked #7 in both the AP and USA Today/ESPN polls (a fact I did not know when I started writing this post.)

So it isn't like I am pulling for Northern Iowa to go all the way. Kansas State has a shot. And I am positive the fans at KSU (do they call themselves that?) would be thrilled for further victories.

But as of right now, they can rub another fan base's nose in it. The #1 team in the country is Kansas. And they didn't make the Sweet 16... and Kansas State did.

I am sure Jayhawk fans have rubbed it into Wildcat fans' noses for quite some time.

The Jayhawks have made 13 Final Four appearances and won their conference 53 times. They've made it to the title game 8 times (including 2 in the 2000s) and won three National Titles including 2008.

They are one of the marquee programs. Even I know that!

Kansas State has made a grand total of 4 Final Four appearances. They went 12 years between NCAA Tournament appearances between 1996 and 2008.

They will never be THE team in Kansas... except maybe this year.

Maybe, just maybe, in a year where the Jayhawks were supposed to make it to Indianapolis to play for the title, the Wildcats fans will have something to cheer about.

And trust me, Wildcat fans would love a National Title and also love that their cross state superiors face planted in the second round.

That is, if their fans are as big pricks as I am.

Do people REALLY root for Cinderella in the NCAA tourney?

I am not going to claim to be an NCAA Men's Basketball expert. I can't name the starting 5 of a single team in the tournament.

But I find the 64 team bracket to be fascinating, much like I find the US Open in Flushing and the Masters to be compelling even though I am not a tennis nor a golf fan.

One prevailing notion (or myth) of the NCAA tourney is that the Cinderella team has a shot to win it all. You could be Arkansas Pine Bluff, or ITT Technical Institute or DeVry and have a chance to win the National Title... provided you go on a doozy of a 6 game winning streak.

And this year you have an Ivy League school (Cornell), a 9 seed that I have no clue where they play except that I am guessing it is in the Northern part of Iowa (Northern Iowa), and a couple of more double digit seeds (Washington and St. Mary's.) One of those programs could win it all.

It won't happen. The closest you will get is a George Mason making the Final Four, but in the end there will be two elite programs in the final.

The real question is "do people WANT to see upsets?"

In theory, yes. In theory sports fans love to see the little guy triumph. But I can tell you CBS sure doesn't want a Northern Iowa vs. Cornell final! As cool as it sounds, the TV interest will be close to nothing except true die hard fans. They want programs like Duke and Syracuse in the finals... colleges with a storied basketball past and lots of alumni scattered across the country.

I also think most sports fans would rather see the best teams face off for the title. You couldn't get a more unlikely underdog story than the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, who finished ahead of the Yankees and knocked off the defending champion Red Sox to make it to the World Series.

Yet nobody watched.

This year's Super Bowl pitted each conference's #1 seed... and it scored bigger than the last M*A*S*H.

The 2008 World Series barely beat After MASH.

Also let's face it, as cool as the Northern Iowa win over Kansas was, I am sure it got a lot of fans furious. Let's just say a lot of people looked at their brackets and threw them out in disgust.

I actually would like to see a Cornell/Northern Iowa final... but then again I don't work for CBS and I didn't fill out a bracket this year!

Welcome back Alan Embree

I've always been fascinated with Alan Embree's career. Actually one of these days I'd like to make a documentary about his career because... well... he has played everywhere and for almost every significant team in the post 1994 strike era of baseball.

But that is for another post.


Today, let me warmly welcome back the man who had the highlight so many Red Sox fans dreamed about for generations... getting the final out to stick it in the hearts of the Yankees and their fans.

A lot has changed since 2004... but that image still gives me chills.

Welcome back.

Oh dear... it is beginning for Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley got ejected during yesterday's spring training game against Cincinnati.

At least he is showing his hot head days are behind him... oh wait.

Exactly how p*ssed off do you have to be to get tossed from a spring training game?

Hey Milton! It's a practice game! THEY DON'T COUNT!!!

Seriously, if you wanted out of the game, just hold on for an inning or two. By the 5th inning, your spot in the lineup will be taken by someone destined to play for the Clinton Lumber Kings with #94 on his back.

At this rate, Bradley will beat the crap out of the Mariner Moose on opening day.

Although maybe this is an omen for the Mariners this year. With Cliff Lee getting tossed and Milton Bradley showing that he remains a total lunatic... maybe the Mariners will be a brawling and scrapping team.

I wonder if around this time, Carlos Silva and his 6 something ERA is starting to look better.

Maybe there is a reason that a super talented former All Star is now on his 8th organization in 11 years.

I don't know how this season is going to end for Milton Bradley (actually I do... he'll be cut and top prospect Michael Saunders will take his place.) But one thing I DO know is the Mariners have to make sure they keep the coffee away from Milton... he's wound up enough!

Bad news for the Mariners, Marlins and Brewers

I have a hunch that there will baseball played in Seattle, Florida and Milwaukee after October 3rd this year.

I feel the Angels have taken a big step backwards and the Mariners have the best 1-2 punch in the division and possibly the AL with King Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee. And Milton Bradley will be cut by June, so he won't be a distraction.

The Marlins have some dynamite arms in Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Chris Volstad and maybe even former phenom Andrew Miller. Plus they have the dynamic middle of the infield combo with Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla plus defending Rookie of the Year Chris Coghlan.

The Brewers line up should be outstanding as Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun lead the way. And the addition of Randy Wolf to the rotation with Yovani Gallardo should be a big improvement as I think St. Louis overachieved in 2009.

I have not made my official picks yet, but I am leaning to picking the Mariners to win the West, the Marlins to be the NL Wild Card and the Brewers to win the NL Central.

Now my hunches aren't always right, which is why I might be dooming these three teams by picking them.

Remember last year? I picked both the A's and the Reds to not only win their division but to face off in the World Series.

Whoops.

Then again all of my other post season picks were right (including NOT picking the Cubs and predicting the Cardinals would be a playoff team.)

But my collective hunches should be sending shivers down the spines of Mariners, Marlins and Brewers fans everywhere.

One question about the whole Ron Washington thing

So Ron Washington tested positive for cocaine... and evidently he did coke at Augusta. (Way to take cover behind the Tiger Woods scandal.)

I admire that Washington didn't try to deny it and I also admire the Rangers didn't show him the door. He's supposedly a good baseball man and shouldn't be put out to pasture for a mistake. The organization has Josh Hamilton on their payroll, so they know a thing or two about giving people a second chance. (No pressure trying to win this season, Ron.)

But what caught my eye is his quote "This was the only time I used this drug."

Wow. That is some rotten luck. You get caught 100% of the times you use a drug!

That brought up my main question:
How people START cocaine at age 57?

Did he look at his "bucket list" and say "Wow, I've never crossed off Act more like Tony Montana"?

Strikes me as a strange time to begin a bad addiction.

Oh what do I know?

It just goes to show you another thing... remember how shocking the cocaine scandals of the 1980s were?

I guess after a decade of sluggers injecting horse hormones into their butt and Manny Ramirez using female birth control, cocaine just seems kind of quaint.

Oh well... let's play ball.

Sully Baseball Honors THE AWESOMENESS THAT IS STEVE SOMERS

There was a time in my life when I was as big a fan of WFAN as you will ever meet. I listened to Joe Beningo, Mike and the Mad Dog, Suzyn Waldman, Sid Rosenberg, Jody McDonald and even, God help me, Russ Salzberg.

I would call in from time to time and it was a staple on my radio dial and I would for years fall asleep with WFAN playing on the radio.

But nobody was better than the Schmoozer. Steve Somers had the perfect voice, the perfect sarcasm, knew exactly which buttons to press with each caller and could be so condescending in such a friendly way.

Well, when I was looking for a clip to use in my Ryan Howard/Albert Pujols post, I stumbled across this gem.

It was when Somers was in Sacramento (or as he called it later, Sacratomato.) As the sports anchor on KOVR Newwatch 13 in 1982, the future Schmoozer shows the many talents that have made that Bay Area native a mainstay in New York sports talk.

The sarcasm (throwing in a "ho hum" while listing the Cincinnati/Houston score), the admitting he is annoying some of the people listening to him (especially L.A. Dodger fans), the strong opinions (especially regarding Robin Yount's MVP candidacy) and a flair for the smirking dramatic (the "Fan held hostage" graphic is classic Somers.)

Plus watch the video... besides the amazing late '70s/early '80s afro, there are two other awesome elements to this video.

First is how the clips are set up. The score is told first, as opposed to being held to the end. I forgot that is how they did it.

Secondly, look at how cool the Giants looked with the orange top, orange cap bill and cursive writing on the jerseys.

The Schoomzer has always been king... I can say that as Sully here and YOU there!

5 Reasons why the Pujols for Howard trade is a good thing

1. It's a good old fashioned blockbuster deal that will put a spark in Spring Training!

Seriously, is this a Fantasy Baseball trade? I mean this is a deal I would make in June when the Fantasy League is getting stale and I think "Heck, let's shake this up!"

It's not a salary dump... it's not a Johan Santana like "deal away a superstar for spare parts" fiasco. It's not a "We need to get Manny Ramirez off the team" trade. It's a pair of contenders swapping former MVPs, former NLCS MVPs and guys who have delivered a World Series title to their home towns. We don't see enough of these trades.


2. It kind of makes sense baseball wise

The Phillies have too much left handed hittting... throw Pujols into that line up and not only will it be more balanced, but he'll see quite a few more fastballs.

Put Howard in St. Louis with Matt Holliday batting behind him and you'll have the deadliest lefty/righty combo in baseball.


3. It will add a nice plot turn in Albert Pujols' legend

As I wrote the other week, Pujols doesn't owe the Cardinals nor their fans anything. They've had MVPs, playoff heroics and a World Series title with Albert in the lead. He could play the next 10-11 seasons in St. Louis, pile up numbers and work on his Cooperstown speech.

OR he can bring his act to a new city and give him some new challenges. Maybe it will be like when Pete Rose came to the Phillies... or Mike Piazza, seemingly a Dodger for life, brought his legend to Queens (by way of the Marlins) and will probably go into Cooperstown with a Mets hat.

Sure Pujols can be a Cardinal forever and be fawned over by the passionate yet friendly Cardinals fans... or he can jump into the cauldron of the Northeastern baseball and be loved in two different cities.


4. It is an ideal place for Ryan Howard

Ryan was born in St. Louis.
He grew up rooting for the Cardinals.
He went to High School at Lafayette High in St. Louis County.
He went to college at Missouri State University.

He was born to play for the Cardinals. And yes, he is replacing a beloved legend... but Cardinal fans are loving fans (just ask Mark McGwire.) And a few bombs into the right field seats will have Cardinal fans saying "Welcome home!"


5. It will embolden every yahoo calling up WFAN and XM Radio with trade theories

You know those guys who call up, especially late at night, to sports talk stations? They usually have outrageous trade proposals. Usually it is something like "I think the Mets should trade for Derek Jeter... maybe we can send them Luis Castillo, Daniel Murphy and some prospects."

And then Steve Somers would shoot them down.

But now whenever someone has a crazy trade proposal that is dismissable, they can reply "Hey! You never would have thought the Pujols for Howard trade would have happened!"

Yes, it is a good thing to give those looneys some ammo... it makes listening sports talk radio so much more interesting!


Now this trade is probably not going to happen. For what I understand it was an internal conversation among Phillies scouts... and who knows? Maybe some scouts left a spring training game and wandered over to Meg O'Malley's bar in Melbourne Florida, and got hammered.

And one of the scouts just blurted out "Heck, why don't we just trade Ryan Howard for Albert Pujols?"

Next thing you know it is front page news.

It isn't going to happen.
But it would be cool if it did.

Hey Yankees… just trade Joba Chamberlain

Seriously, it is the only merciful thing to do at this point.

Joba burst onto the scene in 2007 as the next dynamic pitcher in the Bronx.

And every single year since, people have been wringing their hands debating about whether he should start or relieve.

And now 3 seasons later… he’s been transformed into a potential #5 starter after having a rough post season as a reliever.

As I wrote when I compared him to Matthew McConaughey, his stats show he puts up great numbers as a reliever and mediocre numbers as a starter. If, after 2 and a half seasons, Joba was even decent in the rotation, he’d be at least a #4 starter at this point.

Instead we have more hand wringing.

Remember when people were saying Joba was an ace in the making?
Remember when the “keep Joba in the rotation” crowd kept saying how the bullpen was wasting his talent?

People were saying he could win a Cy Young.

Now I’m not even sure he could win a Dennis DeYoung!

This blogger wrote the wonderful sentence “The only people who want Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen are the people who have very little knowledge of baseball.”

I fancy myself having a little knowledge of baseball. And I think that using 90 innings at his full potential is better than 200 innings of mediocre pitching.

It is clear as 1990s Pepsi that he should be the bullpen closer in waiting… like Steve Young waiting to take over for Joe Montana.

But alas, the Yankees are doing everything short of hiring Jeff Gillooly to destroy Joba’s career and put him back in the rotation.

He’s 24 now… and he could have a break out season… or he could be yanked back and forth again and the debate (and moronic Joba rules) could rage while he is 25… then 26…


He’s won a ring in New York and had a few big highlights in the Bronx. But if they are going to ruin his career, they might as well deal him to another team.

The Phillies could use a closer… Hell a good closer could clinch the NL Pennant for them!

The Angels, the Marlins, the Cubs or the Giants could all use an upgrade in the closer position.

The Brewers have the only pitcher in history with more saves than Mariano Rivera in Trevor Hoffman… Joba could be groomed to be the next Trevor.

And those teams might pay through the nose to get him. The Yankees could get the next corner outfielder, solid infielder or pitcher to groom in exchange for Joba.

Joba could get some peace of mind with a fresh start, a steady role and oh yeah… a media that doesn’t put the race for the #5 starter on the backpage of the newspaper!

And oh yeah, when Joba has developed into a tremendous closer and Mariano Rivera ultimately retires… the Yankees can just sign Joba as a free agent.

See? It’s the circle of life.

And in honor of Dennis DeYoung, enjoy this…

Get well, Ryan Westmoreland

Ryan Westmoreland seemed like he had the commuter lane to being the next legend of Fenway Park. He's a 5 tool hitter who also happens to be a native New Englander who was destined to be a left handed terror going into the new decade.

But a cavernous malformation of the brain has put that on hold... for the time being.

Now let's all hope that Ryan makes in through fine.

Whether you play another game of baseball or not, I think I speak for all fans when I say get through this Ryan. We're all rooting for you.


(Not for nothing, John Olerud had brain surgery when he was in college and he went on to win a batting title, play 16+ seasons in the bigs, get two World Series rings and have one of the sweetest left handed swings in the game. But first thing is first... get better, man.)

Sully carefully writes about Torii Hunter

I love you, my dear readers… but some of you really need to think before sending me an e mail.

Case in point: I’ve received a bunch of e mails asking me “when are you going to write about the Torii Hunter comment?” or saying “Man, you must be chomping at the bit to write about Torii Hunter!”

Um… NO! NO I AM NOT!
First of all it is a racial issue, and unless the topic is “Explain why the Yawkeys were scumbags” I tend to shy away from race.

It’s a lightning rod that nobody can look good for bringing it up.

For those of you who don’t know, Torii Hunter was asked about race in a USA Today article and said the perceived rise of African American players in the bigs is misleading. Most of the players of color are Latino and not African American and he called them “imposters.”

And at that point Torii Hunter, one of the good guys in baseball and supposedly a great teammate, was painted with the broad brush of racially insensitive.

And you lunatic readers want to hear the point of view of a white guy who grew up in a well off family in the suburbs of Boston and San Francisco?

OK, fine. I’ll say my thoughts… and I will walk more carefully than Indiana Jones in that temple at the beginning of Raiders where the wrong step meant a dart in the ankle.

Was “imposters” the wrong word choice? Probably.

But can’t we take two nanoseconds to think about what he said. I would imagine the experiences of being an African American in this day and age would be different than being Latino. And someone like Torii Hunter has been at the forefront of trying to get baseball more involved with the inner cities and an African American communities.

And (Sully steps carefully) equating the signing of black players from the Domincan Republic (where baseball is already king and the big leagues mean a ticket to America) with recruiting African American players from the inner cities (where basketball and football dwarf baseball in popularity and relevance) can be disingenuous. And maybe baseball should ramp up their efforts, like RBI, to become a presence in the inner cities the way they have embraced Latin America.

Everyone has their racial Spidey sense turned up to 11 that even the genuine racists in this country resort to code words like “birth certificate” these days.

And frankly I think racial sensitivity can be a positive thing… but also think of the context of people’s comments.

Do you really think Torii Hunter disrespected Vlad Guerrero, Johan Santana, Bobby Abreu and any other Latino teammate he has had?

So yeah, the word “imposter” wasn’t the best use of words… but he’s Torii Hunter, not William Jennings Bryan. Cut him some slack.

And yes, an African American talking about African American issues should have more slack than a white kid from the affluent suburbs of Boston and San Francisco.

(Sully looks around… sees if the temple is collapsing around him.)

A slow motion car wreck in Flushing, Queens

Did you ever have a tooth ache that you couldn't resist poking at with your tongue?

Ever have the urge to taste something that you know will be terrible?

I am sure some of you clicked on "Two Girls One Cup" knowing full well it was going to be gross.

Sometimes we are drawn to things that we KNOW are going to suck. Hell, I remember when I saw the trailer for Lady in the Water I remember thinking "Oh man, I HAVE to see it." And it didn't disappoint in its transcendent awfulness.

Well folks that's what is going to be happening with the Mets this season.

It is going to be ugly... it is going to be squirm in your seat awkward... and I personally won't be able to take my eyes off of the carnage.

This isn't exactly a new stance for me. I've been calling for the Mets to dismantle since January.

The Carlos Beltran knee fiasco and the bringing in of Gary Matthews Jr and Kelvim Escobar (not to mention the parade of players who said "thanks but no thanks" to the Mets offers) made me realize this injury plagued veteran team is going into 2010 with MORE veterans who are injury prone.

Met fans who disagreed with me said they still have Reyes, Santana and Wright and that's not a bad foundation.

That was before this whole bizarre thyroid condition that could keep Jose Reyes out for a while.

Oh yeah we are being told that it is only 2 to 8 weeks.

After the whole Carlos Beltran knee fiasco, the Mets are clearly a good source for guessing recovery times.


And Johan Santana got rocked in his first game back from injury. Now yes, it is a spring training game and normally I don't put much stock in what is essentially a practice game.

But he is coming back from injury... and what if this is the beginning of a decline?

He's had 6 great seasons, a pair of Cy Young awards and looked like he was Hall of Fame bound... and he very well might be.

But what if he is a Bret Saberhagen, Frank Viola, Orel Hershiser, Fernando Valenzuela, Dave Stewart or David Cone type. A guy who dominated for a stretch but not long enough for a Cooperstown career.

As Santana goes into his 30s, if he is anything less than dominant, then the Mets rotation will be 5 question marks.

And David Wright showed that CitiField wasn't exactly the best place in the world for a right handed power hitter to play (something Jason Bay probably should have looked into.)

And without Beltran, Reyes nor Delgado in the lineup, why on Earth would he see a fat pitch to hit all year?


Toss in the fact that the front office is in perpetual turmoil, management that is still counting their pennies after Bernie Madoff made his way with the owners, a manager that just seems happy to be employed and having the biggest baddest baseball team in the world across town.

Forget playoffs... does any team really see this as a .500 team now?

They have no shot at the Division title. That is Philadelphia's to lose.
As for the Wild Card, would you honestly pick the Mets over the Marlins? The Brewers? The Dodgers? The Rockies? The Diamondbacks? The Giants?

Remember this is not a team that just missed the postseason last year... this is a 92 loss team that got WORSE!

They are more likely to lose 100 games in an empty CitiField.

This team reminds me of the post Messier Rangers and the Isiah Thomas era Knicks. Both teams got old, but the front office kept signing big priced players because "New York needs stars and won't tolerate a loser."

In came Fleury, Lindros, Kovalev, Jagr and Holik to the Rangers. They were expensive, the Blue Shirts missed the playoffs every year, Madison Square Garden was empty and nobody cared.

And of course the Knicks brought in Marbury, Curry, Rose and Francis... and the team became the laughing stock of basketball.

Ask any Ranger fan or Knick fan of that era if they would rather have seen young players miss the playoffs or old expensive players miss the playoffs!

Ask the MSG network how their ad revenue was during that era. I am guessing not that good.

The Rangers didn't get to be relevant again until they decided "heck, let's just play young guys."

The Knicks are nowhere near relevant and their sole plan seems to be "Hey! We'll sign LeBron James!" (If King James stays in Cleveland, there is no plan B at the corner of 34th street and 7th Avenue.)

So that's where the Mets are headed. They already are old expensive and irrelevant. But they are on the express track to being that gruesome YouTube video that you dare your friends to watch.

I would say "blow the team up" but the problem is it already has blown up... the Mets just don't know it yet.

Fare thee well, Nomar

So Nomar did indeed call it quits, and I am glad he did it in someways on his terms.

Sure I bet he still wants to play... but at least he doesn't spend the rest of 2010 and 2011 going from team to team, breaking down more and more.

So he gets to retire as a member of the Red Sox... which is how he should be remembered.

I saluted Nomar this offseason and I stand by praise.

So good luck No-Mah! The memories of the great years should overshadow any negative episodes towards the end.

Now good luck on ESPN.

Albert Pujols doesn’t owe St. Louis anything… including an extension

I have a feeling that I am not going to make any new friends in St. Louis with this post, but I hope that you can at least hear me out.

Albert Pujols is signed for 2010 and has a club option for 2011. I am going to go out on a crazy limb here and say the Cardinals will probably pick up that option.

After that… who knows? Clearly the Cardinals want to sign him to a long term deal. According to an interview last October he is leaving the contract issues “in God’s hands.”

If by “God” he means his agent Dan Lozano, then he is theologically correct.

Call it a hunch, but I think Pujols is going to stay in St. Louis.

But, if the Cardinals don’t pony up the cash, and Pujols skedaddles after the 2011 season and becomes a Yankee, or a Red Sox, or a Dodgers (assuming the McCourt divorce is over), or an Angel, or a Ranger (assuming Tom Hicks took over the team again and thinks an MVP slugger is the commuter lane to the World Series) or a Pirate (assuming it is snowing in Hell)… then I don’t want to hear ANY complaining from Cardinals fans.

Harsh?

Maybe.

But the truth can be harsh.

In this era of free agency and players not being associated with a single team, Albert will give Cardinal fans 11 years… and of his first 9 seasons, he finished in the top 10 of the MVP vote each year, in the top 5 for 8 seasons and won the award 3 times.

He’s been a home run king, batting champ and has led the league in OPS 3 of the last 4 seasons. He has 13 homers in 56 post season games with a career .322 October batting average and 1.009 OPS in the playoffs.

He’s been a playoff MVP and nearly destroyed Brad Lidge’s career the next season. He helped deliver a pennant in 2004, a World Series title in 2006 and led the Cardinals to 6 post season berths.

And he has put up eye popping numbers without being caught injecting something.

Now I am phrasing that carefully because who can be stunned anymore? But if he never tests positive, then he may already have a Hall of Fame resume.

And that plaque will have him wearing a Cardinals hat.
And #5 will be retired.
And Cardinals fans will have more than a decade of continuity.

In this day and age, asking for more than 10 seasons from a player is being greedy. He already signed one mongo 7 year deal with St. Louis, foregoing free agency. Asking him to do it twice might be too much to ask.

Would you?
If you were the best offensive force in the game and a sure fire Hall of Famer, would you pass up on making literally hundreds of millions of dollars?

What I am saying is I WANT HIM IN FENWAY!

I want Pujols mashing balls over the Green Monster… just for 5 years… enough time to win another World Series and sell some hats.

I can be greedy.

But if he does indeed stay in St. Louis, you can thank God for that… and by God I STILL mean Dan Lozano.

Thrown for Looper

So Joe Nathan is hurt and could possibly miss the 2010 season?

Isn't that a fine "Good Morning" for Twins fans every where. Nathan has given the Twins 7 terrific seasons, but closers (with the exception of the Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffmans of the world) tend to flame out after... well... 7 or 8 years.

You can look it up.

So here are the Twins, going into their new park and hoping to sign Joe Mauer to an extension and win another Division Title with their highest payroll in franchise history... and $11 million of their payroll might be in the trainers room.

Sure they have Jesse Crain, Jose Mijares and Matt Guerrier in their bullpen... and who knows? Maybe one of them can take over the 9th the same way Nathan replaced Everyday Eddie Guardado.

But why not sign Braden Looper?

He is supposedly close to resigning to the Brewers... but he hasn't yet. And he's still available and at THIS point, he probably isn't going to be that expensive.

I am sure he wants to be a starter and he went 14-7 last year with Milwaukee.

But he also led the league in earned runs, home runs and had a nice fat 5.22 ERA to show for his troubles.

He has some closer experience, has a pair of World Series rings and I am sure wouldn't mind pitching for a contender in 2010.

It makes sense to me... which is probably why it won't happen.

I miss the Houston Astros

I really do… I wish the Astros were still around.

But alas the Astros are no more and probably never coming back.

Now wait a second Sully, you might be saying. The Houston Astros are still here! Yeah they had a disappointing season last year, but they have a new manager in Brad Mills and play in a winnable division.

Heck, the Astros are celebrating their 45th anniversary! They aren’t going away.

Yes, there is a team called the Houston Astros still playing… but they aren’t THE ASTROS!

You can miss something that hasn’t really gone away.

I miss Harrison Ford. I know he’s still alive and making movies, but I miss the cool “Han Solo/Indiana Jones/John Book/Rick Deckard/Dr. Richard Kimble” star who I haven’t seen in over a decade.

The Astros used to be one of the truly unique teams in baseball… and I would argue that their unique identity is long long gone.

They were an antidote to baseball tradition.

Teams like the Yankees/Red Sox/Cubs and Tigers were teams of the past. They embraced tradition when I was growing up. They played in traditional ballparks, wore the same uniforms that they had in the 1930s and had deep roots in their fan base.

The Astros looked to the future.

Once they changed their name from Colt .45s to the Astros, they turned their back on the wild west and became the outer space team.

Their logo was other worldly.





Their stadium looked like a UFO (or maybe the ship from Lost in Space.)

Even the grass they played on was other worldly.

(It’s not called Reds-turf or Pirate-turf.)


And of course there were the uniforms… the bad ass orange uniforms.

I personally loved them, but even if you hated them, there was no mistaking who was playing.

You would never turn on the game of the week and think “Which team with bright orange uniforms are playing?”

Besides the aesthetics there was a certain style to Astros baseball. They were not a slugging team. Save for the occasional Bob Watson or Glenn Davis, they lacked a masher and survived with line drive hitters like Jose Cruz.

But they were a pitching team.

Growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s who was more intimidating than J. R. Richard or Nolan Ryan on the mound?

They were a futuristic, other worldly, innovative bad ass pitching franchise.

And they were super cool.

And now what the hell are they?

Do they have cool futuristic uniforms anymore?

No, they have generic looking uniforms... with both script AND pinstripes.

Come on, Stros!

Pick either pinstripes or script.

Both pinstripes and cursive script looks silly.

And the Orange motif is gone! Their alternate uniform is RED!

Oh that's original.

They play in the same division as the Reds and Cardinals... way to pick a color that sticks out.

And they have moved out of their old dome into a new stadium which seems designed to create a phony aura of tradition about it.

The quirks are so forced and fraudulent that it is appropriate that the place was originally called Enron Field!

When baseball fields have quirks and irregularities, it should be because the park is adapting to its neighborhood.

The Green Monster is in left field at Fenway because Lansdowne Street is right behind the wall.

The houses on Waveland existed in Chicago before Wrigley Field was built.

Even in the new ballparks, the strange angles and features are there because of geography, whether it be the boats in McCovey Cove or the warehouse beyond Camden Yards.

But the quirks of the former Enron Field are all forced.


Is the slope in center field (AKA Tal's Hill) and the flagpole in play necessary?






Is there any reason for an old fashioned train carrying oranges to come across the left field wall?







Do the left field "Crawford Boxes" jut out for any particular reason?

Not really, and they have turned Houston into a hitter's haven and no longer a place for great pitchers!





And doesn't the free floating Citgo sign over the left field wall seem like an attempt to create a "Fenway" type atmosphere?








I find all of this forced traditionalism by the Astros to be sad. It is as if they are screaming "Look at us! We're an old school team too!"

No you are not! The Astros had an identity and I think it made them a truly unique team.

And I miss that team.

And I don't think I am alone.

This weekend, my wife, parents and other members of our family went to Knott's Berry Farm for my twin sons' 5th birthday. In the parking lot, I saw a guy with a Houston Astros hat. I asked him if he was a fan and he said "Big time."

We talked a little about the 2010 prospects for the team (which we both felt were grim.) At the end of our chat I asked "Do you wish they went back to the orange uniforms?"

He responded "You bet. Those were the REAL Astros uniforms!"

I bet he misses the Astros too.