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It’s Time, National League!!!
Major League Baseball’s MLB new collective bargaining agreement included several groundbreaking changes, including expanded playoffs, HGH testing and the relocation of the Houston Astros from the National League to the American League in 2013. One item the players and owners overlooked but immediately should address: the use of the designated hitter in both leagues at all times beginning in MLB 2013.
Consider it a celebration of the 40-year anniversary of the DH.
Lance Berkman may not like the idea, but it’s time for the NL to adopt the designated hitter. (AP Photo)
This might be the move that pushes purists from the brink over the edge. But it is time to come to grips with the fact that this isn’t 1930. The game already has had several rounds of expansion and realignment, and radical changes such as interleague play and the wild card(s) have been huge successes. They even play at night now!
Since 1973, the two leagues have operated with one glaring disparity: NL pitchers have to bat, and AL pitchers don’t. The fact that such a drastic difference existed for even one season is ridiculous; that it somehow managed to survive nearly four decades is downright miraculous.
RELATED: Fielder, Nationals talking deal
Logistically, implementing the DH full-time in both leagues by the 2013 season will be tough. But perhaps this can move to the top of commissioner Bud Selig’s agenda once he agrees to his new contract extension. The players (with the exception of the few pitchers who think it is cool to hit) would be in favor of it, and a strong enough case can be made to sway the owners.
Three reasons this proposal should become reality in 2013:
1. Continuous interleague play
Hall of Fame Voters Should Not Be Responsible To Clean Up The MLB’s Steroid Mess
I’m still three years away from being eligible, as a 10-year member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, to vote for the MLB Hall of Fame. Which isn’t too bad, since the way things sound right now—after Barry Larkin was voted in Monday—the biggest names on next year’s ballot still will be around.
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa? The odds are good that none will get the required 75 percent in the next two votes. Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro? Even less of a chance.
Major League Baseball MLB embraced the 1998 home run chase of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. (AP Photo)
That’s a shame. Because I’d vote for all of them.
It might not make a dent in what’s already a pattern of denial for the public faces of the Needle-Ball Era. McGwire got 112 votes this year, Palmeiro 72. Those who voted for them likely didn’t do so for the same reasons. Neither did all the voters who left them off, nor did the nine voters who submitted blank ballots.
The Time Is Now
While it is true that the Nationals will have a full MLB season from Stephen Strasburg and possibly an extra wild card berth to shoot for, they also play in the loaded NL East, which houses the Philadelphia Phillies’ dominant starting rotation, the Atlanta Braves’ strong pitching staff and the Miami Marlins’ revamped roster.
That clearly didn’t scare away Washington general manager Mike Rizzo, who sent three of the organization’s top nine prospects (per Baseball America’s rankings) and another minor league pitcher to the Oakland A’s for lefthander Gio Gonzalez, a frontline starter who won 16 games, had a 3.12 ERA and averaged 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings in an All-Star season in 2011.
Gonzalez, 26, adds another strong starter to a rotation that already had plenty of promise with Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann at the top.
Those three will have to carry the team to that MLB wild card spot, because the offense is still lacking—the Nationals were 13th out of 16 NL teams in on-base percentage (.309), 11th in slugging (.383) and 12th in OPS (.691). The lineup has a young core with Ryan Zimmerman, Danny Espinosa, Mike Morse and Wilson Ramos, but there doesn’t seem to be a Batman to the super-expensive Robin that is Jayson Werth and his 97 OPS+, although Zimmerman and Morse could develop their utility belts soon.
There is also the question of when the team will call up the game’s top prospect, Bryce Harper. It probably won’t be until June because of new Super Two arbitration rules, but it’s likely Harper won’t be that game-changing slugger immediately.
The lack of an imposing middle-of-the-order presence and the fact that Rizzo has money to spend has led to plenty of speculation that the Nationals could be in on the Prince Fielder bidding. Putting a bat like his with some of those others could make that lineup much more forceful, and because Washington’s strong pitching is coming relatively cheap, signing Fielder is not out of the question.
MLB “How to Retire” for Good: Customize Your Favorite Team With Any Name and Number at www.onthefield.com
Major League Baseball MLB and its participating clubs have retired various uniform numbers over the course of time, ensuring that those numbers will always be associated with particular players or managers of note. The use of numbers on uniforms to better identify one player from another, and hence to boost sales of scorecards, was tried briefly by the Cleveland Indians of 1916, and the St. Louis Cardinals of 1923. The first team to permanently adopt the practice was the New York Yankees of 1929. By 1932, all sixteen major league clubs were issuing numbers, and by 1937, the leagues passed rules requiring it.
The Yankees’ original approach was to simply assign the numbers 1 through 8 to the regular starting lineup in their normal batting order. Hence, Babe Ruth wore number 3 and Lou Gehrig number 4. The first major leaguer whose MLB number was retired was Gehrig, in January, 1940, following his retirement due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which became known popularly as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Since then, over 150 other MLB players have had their numbers retired. This includes managers and coaches, as Major League Baseball is the only one of the major North American professional leagues in which the coaching staff wear the same uniforms as players. Four numbers have been retired in honor of people not directly involved on the playing field—three for team executives, and one for a team’s fans. Some of the game’s early stars, such as Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson, retired before numbers came into usage. Teams often celebrate their retired numbers and other honored people by hanging banners with the numbers and names. Early stars, as well as honored non-players, will often have numberless banners hanging along with the retired numbers. Because fewer and fewer players stay with one team long enough to warrant their number being retired, some players believe that getting their number retired is a greater honor than going into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ron Santo, upon his number 10 being retired on the last day of the 2003 regular season, enthusiastically told the Wrigley Field crowd as his #10 flag was hoisted, “This is my Hall of Fame!”
Two teams (the Seattle Mariners, and the Colorado Rockies) have never retired a jersey number.
The Mariners have kept the following numbers out of circulation since the departure of a popular player who wore it: #11 (Edgar Read More >>
600 Home Run Club
When Jim Thome hits his 600th MLB home run, he’ll join a club that began in 1931. A chronological look at the MLB 600-home run club:
Aug. 21, 1931: Babe Ruth, New York Yankees (vs. George Blaeholder of the St. Louis Browns)
Sept. 22, 1969: Willie Mays, San Francisco Giants (vs. Mike Corkin of the San Diego Padres)
April 27, 1971: Hank Aaron, Atlanta Braves (vs. Gaylord Perry of the San Francisco Giants)
Aug. 8, 2002: Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants (vs. Kip Wells of the Pittsburgh Pirates)
June 20, 2007: Sammy Sosa, Texas Rangers (vs. Jason Marquis of the Chicago Cubs)
June 9, 2008: Ken Griffey, Cincinnati Reds (vs. Mark Hendrickson of the Florida Marlins)
Aug. 4, 2010: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees (vs. Frank Francisco of the Texas Rangers)
Source: baseballreference.com
Jeter Might Sit?
Derek Jeter might have to wait until Thursday to resume his pursuit of 3,000 career MLB hits.
The New York Yankees shortstop could get Wednesday off as New York completes a road series against the Cleveland Indians.
Derek Jeter is four hits shy of 3,000.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi has said he wants to give Jeter a breather sometime this week. Jeter has played four consecutive days, counting his two minor league rehab games, after missing 18 games with a calf strain.
Jeter Meter: The quest for 3,000
The Yankees are at home this weekend, and many observers believe the club wants to give Jeter an opportunity to reach the milestone in the Bronx. He is four hits away from 3,000 after going 2-for-6 on Tuesday.
Girardi insisted that location would have no bearing on when he sits Jeter.
Baseball’s Greatest Teams
No team has dominated the Fall Classic like the New York Yankees, who have won 27 MLB World Series titles—17 more than any other MLB franchise.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that five Yankees teams were voted among the top 10 baseball teams of all time by SN’s panel of experts. In the latest edition of SN’s great sports debates series, the 1927, 1939, 1953, 1961 and 1998 Yankees all made the top 10. And why not, with names such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Derek Jeter highlighting those rosters.
But here comes the hard part: Which Yankees team was best, and is there another all-time great team that can claim the title of best ever? Fans will get to submit their votes at sportingnews.com beginning Monday, July 4. Our top 10 teams will go head to head in a bracket-style elimination game. Will the fans’ champion match the experts’ pick?
Among the other contenders for the title of greatest baseball team: the 1942 St. Louis Cardinals, who won a franchise-record 106 games en route to a world title and featured a rookie left fielder named Stan Musial; and the 1948 Cleveland Indians, the last Indians team to capture a World Series championship; the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, who won the franchise’s first World Series after falling short in seven previous trips to the Fall Classic; the 1970 Baltimore Orioles, whose World Series-winning roster featured three Hall of Fame players, a Hall of Fame manager and three 20-game winners; and the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, the World Series-winning Big Red Machine squad that also featured four Hall of Famers, including manager Sparky Anderson. Read More >>
Unchartered Territory
Strike 1: Pujols problems
Albert Pujols is off to the worst start of his MLB career. (AP Photo)
No one doubts that St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols will finish the season hitting like Albert Pujols. As is the case with most opposing managers who come to town when Pujols is floundering, Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel wanted to get his team out of town before Pujols got hot.
When the Phillies visited Busch Stadium last season, Pujols was in a one-hit-in-three-games slide and, “He hit one over the bullpen that almost went over those bleacher seats,” Manuel says.
Still, Pujols never has struggled like this. However you slice the numbers, this has been the worst start of his career. He has grounded into a major league-high 13 double plays and has only 11 extra-base hits. He hasn’t homered since April 23 and has just three doubles in that 22-game stretch. Instead of smacking line drives to right-center, he has been rolling ground balls to the shortstop.
“He doesn’t look as balanced at the plate,” an MLB scout says.
“He trying to pull pitches he normally doesn’t try to pull,” says another.
Inter-League Play: Is Change In Order?
This MLB season, Sporting News writers will debate one key belief each week.
This week’s belief: It is time for Major League Baseball to change interleague play.
Starlin Castro and Juan Pierre meet at second base during a Cubs-White Sox game last year. Crosstown interleague rivalries are always popular. (AP Photo)
Skeptic: Stan McNeal
Why we don’t believe: As imperfect as the interleague schedule is, it is working as well as ever when judged by the most important factor: fan interest. Attendance for interleague games last year averaged 33,253, which was 17.8 percent greater than intraleague games to that point in the season. That means more than 5,000 additional fans per game, a significant number no matter how it is dissected. Since the inception of interleague play in 1997, interleague attendance is about 12 percent greater than the rest of the regular season.
We believe this instead: While Detroit Tigers fans likely are yawning about the team’s upcoming trip to play the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres fans surely aren’t going silly over another visit by the Seattle Mariners, interleague still provides scheduling gems. This weekend, the Chicago Cubs will play at Fenway Park for the first time since 1918. A World Series rematch between those two teams would be a bigger deal, but we might have to wait another 93 years. In 2010, the Cleveland Indians hosted phenom Stephen Strasburg’s second major league start, creating one of their most exciting days in an otherwise forgetful season.
Of course, the No. 1 thing that has made interleague play a hit is the creation of cross-town rivalries. Who doesn’t love hearing Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen complain about Wrigley Field? With interleague entering its 15th year, these geographical rivalries have become a tradition for young fans. For New York youth, doing away with New York Mets vs. New York Yankees would be like removing the Boston Red Sox from the schedule. Well, almost.
What else we believe: The major league schedule is the object of more complaints than gas prices. Players, managers and fans all have beefs—many of them legitimate—about their teams’ schedule. Regardless of how the interleague schedule could be changed, someone still would find fault. Changing a part of the season that attendance proves is a success would be a mistake.
In A-Rod’s $hadow
Baseball has two superstars whose identities have become inseparable from their MLB team’s identity.
And this offseason, both Albert Pujols and Derek Jeter went through contract negotiations with their franchises that left everyone, player and team, taking criticism.
We can blame the Steinbrenner brothers for both.
Hank and Hal are the ones who gave Alex Rodriguez — at age 32, after their general manager said he would not re-sign A-Rod if he opted out and he opted out anyway — a 10-year, $275 million deal.
Jeter, rightfully, could feel he had done more for the Yankees than A-Rod and thus deserved to be richly rewarded.
Pujols, rightfully, could feel he is, right now, a better player than A-Rod and deserves a richer contract.
The Cardinals on Wednesday announced they could not reach a deal for a contract extension with Pujols, and at Pujols’ request will cease “negotiations” — we put that in quotes because the Cardinals acknowledged having made just one offer, about six weeks ago — until after the season.
It’s an unsatisfactory position for the team, its fans and perhaps their favorite player. Cardinal Nation is left to choose sides, feeling either Pujols is greedy or the Cards aren’t taking care of their icon.
In a statement, agent Dan Lozano said, “While both parties were hopeful that an agreement could be reached, a difference of opinion in determining Albert’s value simply could not be resolved. Albert’s production over the last 10 years is nothing short of historic. He is not only the best player in baseball, and on his way to having a Hall of Fame career, but an iconic figure in sports. The expiration of today’s deadline does not eliminate the possibility of Albert returning to the Cardinals in 2012, but simply delays negotiations until the conclusion of the Cardinals’ season.”
Asked to compare the Pujols talks with Jeter’s, St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak said they have similar status in their cities but, “We’re not looking to position this in any way or start trying to negotiate points or sides via the media, so there’s a stark difference.”
Yes, at least this saga didn’t include a smear campaign by the team against the player, as the Yankees did with Jeter. But one element of the ugly back-and-forth between Jeter and the Yankees seems to apply here too: a taunt to test the open market.
Back in late November, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, knowing Jeter’s market value as a 36-year-old shortstop, told ESPNNewYork.com, “We’ve encouraged him to test the market and see if there’s something he would prefer other than this. If he can, fine. That’s the way it works.”
Pujols is closer to his prime, and St. Louis management has been more subtle.
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