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6/17/2008
Billy-Ball Daily
Bill Chuck (Billy-Ball his own self)
Billy-Ball - From the diamond to your desktop…
By Baseball Newstalgist, Bill Chuck
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The only spin here is on my screwball
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Top of the 1st
WILLARY IS FINALLY GONE
Waiting for Willie Randolph to finally be asked to leave as manager of the New York Mets has been like waiting for Hillary Cinton to finally be asked to leave the Democratic race for president. It really got to the point where I started to refer to Randolph as “Willary.”
Well, last night Willie finally got the axe, the axe, the axe, and like everything the Mets have done in this agonizing process, they even made the firing awkward and painful. The Supreme Court would be within its purview to regard this as cruel and unusual punishment.
The Mets completed a homestand on Sunday defeating the Texas Rangers in the second game of a doubleheader (ahh, the joys of interleague play). They then headed out to Anaheim to play the Angels. They then defeated the Angels, 9-6 last night. And no, if you if you thought you missed the firing, you didn’t.
Only after the Mets cross-country trip, only after their victory over the AL West leading Angels, only then did GM Omar Minaya (who is more than a little complicit in the horrible make-up of this team) call Randolph in and fire him. The time on the press announcement that I received says “3:14 AM.”
Buster Olney of ESPN.com on his blog (http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3448037&name=olney_buster) writes that earlier on Monday, Minaya and his assistant, Tony Bernazard, walked around the lobby of the team hotel "like grim reapers." He adds, “And after weeks of leak-fed speculation and board room back-stabbing and indecision, they did their bidding, fired manager Willie Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first-base coach Tom Nieto.
Even the writers of "The Sopranos" could not have invented a more recklessly handled hit.”
Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post (http://www.nypost.com/seven/06172008/sports/mets/ready_____aim_____hold_your_fire__115840.htm) called it an “Amazin’ Act of Cowardice.” He writes, “What a crowd, these bums are, all of them, from the Wilpons at the top to Omar Minaya down below, all of them who conspired to botch this firing worse than any firing has ever been botched. Ever. You wouldn't trust these guys to run a 7-11, let alone a National League baseball team. What a joke. What a cowardly, dastardly joke.
A midnight massacre.
A 3 a.m. thrashing.
Disgraceful. Utterly, completely, disgraceful.”
He’s right, well all except the part of dissin’ 7-11.
Jim Baumbach of Newsday (http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spjim061808,0,6882530.column) is equally disgusted with the ways this was handled and speculates about the Mets distorted rationale for the cowardly act, “Here's the sick part: By announcing at 3 a.m., the Mets undoubtedly figured they'd just miss the last deadlines for New York City newspapers, meaning there would be another 24 hours before the next day's newspaper is published. So this way maybe something else can happen in the world and they won't have to see their manager's firing plastered all over the back pages, because it's day-old news.”
Please understand, that nobody is disagreeing with the decision to fire Randolph. Even though Randolph, the 18th manager in the team’s history (it began as a joke with Casey Stengel at the helm), had the second best winning percentage in franchise history (Randolph was 302-253 .544, only Davey Johnson’s .588 was better), he was clearly struggling to motivate his team. And everyone, including the managers themselves, understand that managers are hired to be fired and after the great collapse of ’07 and the lackluster play this season, Randolph was ripe, in fact, over-ripe. It’s just the way this was handled that makes it so transparent that the problems that exist with the New York Mets run from the field upward, way past the manager. But as everyone knows, you can’t fire the players and you can’t fire the owners.
So good luck to bench coach Jerry Manuel who has been named the team's interim manager, and to Ken Oberkfell, Dan Warthen and Luis Aguayo, who will join the staff to replace pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto, who were also let go in the wee hours of the night, you guys are going to need it. This Mets team might respond to Manuel and, in this parity season, the Mets are still only 6.5 games out in the NL East and only 7 games back in the Wild Card hunt, this team can still make some noise.
We know the Mets certainly have the talent to be in first place, but the only thing this team leads the league in is in lack of class.
Good luck, Willary.
Top of the 2nd
WANG GONE
Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang is gone probably for the season after injuring his foot running the bases. Wang partially tore a tendon and sprained his right foot Sunday during the Yankees' 13-0 interleague win at Houston. He will be on crutches and wear a protective boot for a minimum of six weeks.
While it may sound like sour grapes, club co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner is furious his team was put in this position. "This is always a concern of American League teams when their pitchers have to run the bases and they're not used to doing it," Steinbrenner said. "It's not just us. It's everybody. It probably should be a concern for National League owners, general managers and managers when their pitchers run the bases. Pitchers have enough to do without having to do that."
Mike Mussina pointed out the problem that AL pitchers face at NL parks, "We don't hit, we don't run the bases," Mussina said. "You get four or five at-bats a year at most, and if you happen to get on base once or twice, you never know. We run in straight lines most of the time. Turning corners, you just don't do that."
"My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century," Steinbrenner said in Tampa, Fla. "They need to grow up and join the 21st century.
Then again maybe this is just another reason why interleague play doesn’t work.
Top of the 3rd
THE PHILS DELIVER A MESSAGE
"I believe we're destined to play each other in the World Series," starting and winning pitcher Cole Hamels said. "We can compete with them any day of the week."
Well the Phils certainly can compete with the Boston Red Sox on a Monday night. They showed that last night as Ryan Howard homered twice and Jimmy Rollins also went deep as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Red Sox, 8-2. Hamels (7-4) allowed two runs and seven hits in seven-plus innings. Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew hit consecutive homers for Boston. Red Sox starter Bartolo Colon (4-2) gave up four runs and six hits in four innings before leaving with back stiffness.
Howard now is tied for second in the NL with 19 homers and he's in a three-way tie with teammate Chase Utley and Adrian Gonzalez for first in RBI with 62. The 2006 NL MVP is batting just .224.
Howard also chugged around the bases to hit a triple as did the Phillies left fielder Pat Burrell, who hit his first triple since Aug. 11, 2006. It was Howard’s second triple of the season. In a combined 5,956 at bats these two big men now have a total of 17 triples.
Top of the 4th
READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK
Check out an excerpt “Walkoffs, Last Licks and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so grand) Finales” on SI.com: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/06/16/lastlicks.excerpt/index.html then head over to www.Billy-Ball.com to buy it.
Top of the 5th
EVERYBODY SHOULD BE IN THIS KIND OF SLUMP
Chipper Jones entered the Braves game against the Rockies last night mired in a 2-for-15 slump which lowered his average to a disgraceful .402. Then, after striking out in the 3rd, his average stood at .400. But by the time the game was over Chipper had gone 2-for-4, raising his average to .403 and the Braves beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-1. Jair Jurrjens won for the seventh time this season, tops among rookies in the major leagues. He struck out seven and allowed eight hits in a career-high 7 2/3 innings.
Top of the 6th
BILLY-BALL-SITE-OF-THE-DAY
This site is so cool you won’t need air-conditioning.
BaseballRace.com is the creation of Christopher J. Falvey. It is an online application that allows you to view any Major League Baseball season, split by league or division (even wild card races), as an animated, date-by-date race between the various teams you choose. With BaseballRace.com, you can experience an entire season "live." The data goes back to 1901, and includes every game of every season up through yesterday (6/12/2008).
http://www.baseballrace.com/default.asp
Top of the 7th
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Astros (Brandon Backe) at Orioles (Garrett Olson), 7:05
Padres (Randy Wolf) at Yankees (Andy Pettitte), 7:05
Red Sox (Jon Lester) at Phillies (Jamie Moyer), 7:05
Cubs (Ryan Dempster) at Rays (Scott Kazmir), 7:10
Dodgers (Chad Billingsley) at Reds (Johnny Cueto), 7:10
Braves (Tim Hudson) at Rangers (Vicente Padilla), 8:05
Blue Jays (Dustin McGowan) at Brewers (Manny Parra), 8:05
Nationals (John Lannan) at Twins (Livan Hernandez), 8:10
Pirates (Ian Snell) at White Sox (Javier Vazquez), 8:11
Royals (Kyle Davies) at Cardinals (Braden Looper), 9:05
Indians (Paul Byrd) at Rockies (Greg Reynolds), 9:05
A's (Justin Duchscherer) at Diamondbacks (Brandon Webb), 9:40
Mets (Johan Santana) at Angels (John Lackey), 10:05
Marlins (Scott Olsen) at Mariners (Felix Hernandez), 10:10
Tigers (Kenny Rogers) at Giants (Jonathan Sanchez), 10:15
Top of the 8th
DID YOU KNOW?
The major league record for steals by a rookie is 110, set by the Cardinals' Vince Coleman in 1985. The BoSox rookie Jacoby Ellsbury leads the majors with 33 steals.
Top of the 9th
BAVASI FIRED BY M’S
GM Bill Bavasi was fired Monday morning (in the daylight) by the Seattle Mariners. Seattle’s record of 24-45 is the worst in the majors and the Mariners and their $117 million payroll are hoping to avoid becoming the first team with a $100 million payroll and 100 losses. Interim GM Lee Pelekoudas has been given the responsibility of helping the M’s avoid their worst season in franchise history.
Only once in his five years did Bavasi turn out a club that finished with a wining record. That was last year when Seattle won a surprising 88 games. Bavasi was hired after the 2003 season, replacing Pat Gillick.
Bottom of the 9th
BUY THE BOOK
Bill Chuck is the creator of Billy-Ball.com and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales,” with a Foreword by Jon Miller available now from ACTA Sports.
Autographed first editions are available by contacting, Bill@billy-ball.com or order directly from Acta Sports, http://www.actasports.com/detail.html?&id=3427 or from your favorite bookstore worldwide.
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Information provided in Billy-Ball has been gathered from A.P. reports, espn.com, sportsline.com, mlb.com and numerous other e-sources. Opinions expressed in Billy-Ball are obviously solely the opinions of the author of Billy-Ball and do not reflect those of source material no matter how off the wall they may be.
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