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6/26/2008
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
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Top of the 1st
JACKIE AND ROBERTO AND ART
I was thinking about Jackie Robinson today.
The Hall of Fame introduced a new plaque that pays tribute to the cultural impact he had on the game and the country as the first black player in the major leagues. The new plaque adds "Jackie" under his full name, Jack Roosevelt Robinson, and the inscription reads:
"A player of extraordinary ability renowned for his electrifying style of play. Over 10 seasons hit .311, scored more than 100 runs six times, named to six All-Star teams and led Brooklyn to six pennants and its only World Series title, in 1955. The 1947 Rookie of the Year, and the 1949 N.L. MVP when he hit a league-best .342 with 37 steals. Led second basemen in double plays four times and stole home 19 times. Displayed tremendous courage and poise in 1947 when he integrated the modern major leagues in the face of intense adversity."
The old plaque read:
“Jack Roosevelt Robinson
Brooklyn NL, 1947 to 1956
Leading N.L. batter in 1949. Holds fielding mark for second basemen playing in 150 or more games with .992. Led N.L. in stolen bases in 1947 and 1949. Most Valuable Player in 1949. Lifetime batting average .311. Joint record holder for most double plays by second baseman, 137 in 1951. Led second basemen in double plays 1949-50-51-52.”
"Jackie asked the writers to base his career on performance alone," Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark said. "He told them that when considering his candidacy for the Hall of Fame, they should only consider his playing ability, what his impact was on the playing field and please not consider anything but that. When his plaque was written in 1962, it reflected his wishes. It only recounted his magnificent career.
Hall President Jeff Idelson said the idea of a revised plaque came from Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan, who is also the Hall's vice chairman. Morgan met with Rachel Robinson in January who agreed that the 35th anniversary of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which Rachel Robinson established in 1973 to perpetuate her husband's legacy was ideal timing for the new plaque.
I was thinking about Roberto Clemente today.
Clemente is a hero to the Yankees’ five-time All-Star catcher Jorge Posada. According to the New York Times, while in Pittsburgh to play the Pirates, Posada Tuesday visited a museum honoring Roberto Clemente. Posada grew up in Puerto Rico, as did Clemente, and he was a year old when Clemente died in a plane crash in 1972. Posada went with his teammate José Molina, also a catcher from Puerto Rico.
While he was visiting the museum, Jorge cellphone pictures of classic Clemente photographs. One is a posed shot of a young Clemente leaping to make a catch, with clouds in the background seeming to form wings on his shoulders. Posada ordered an enlargement of the picture for his home.
Posada said he knows Clemente’s widow, Vera, and he learned a lot at his tour of the museum. “Little things, not only baseball stuff,” Posada said. “They wanted him to be in ‘The Odd Couple,’ but he was going to have to hit into a triple play. He wouldn’t do it. He said, ‘I’m never going to hit into a triple play.’ ” Bill Mazeroski took Clemente’s place.
Posada has a sticker in his home locker supporting the movement to retire Clemente’s No. 21 throughout the majors. On the way to the clubhouse to the dugout at PNC Park there is a Clement quote that reads: “Whenever I put on my uniform, I am the proudest man on Earth.”
I was thinking about Art Pennington today.
Art “Superman” Pennington (http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/history/players/pennington.html) starred in the Negro Leagues and hit .359 for the Chicago American Giants of the Negro Leagues as a 20-year-old in 1945. He spent most of the 1940s in the Negro Leagues and had a lifetime batting average of .337. He homered off Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean in an off-season exhibition game. He never made it to the majors. Pennington wound up his playing days in minor-league towns like Keokuk and Cedar Rapids, where he settled after he stopped playing.
He’s 85 years old now and the house he had lived in since 1960, on the 900 block of Fifth Street SE in Cedar Rapids, was wrecked by the recent flooding. In his retirement, he turned his collection of memorabilia into a home-based museum dedicated to the Negro Leagues and his career.
"All that insurance, it didn't pay," Pennington said. "I didn't have flood insurance, so I don't get a dime."
Now he’s living with a friend who set up a MySpace site hoping to get donations to help Pennington get back on his feet - http://www.myspace.com/artpenningtonnegroleagueallstar194062.
I know what Jackie and Roberto would do if they were still alive. Let’s see what MLB and which major leaguers truly have learned from their legacy.
Top of the 2nd
QUICK HITS
Greg Maddux's winless streak reached nine starts, the second-longest of his career, when the Minnesota Twins beat the San Diego Padres 9-3 for their eighth straight victory. Maddux had a 2.70 ERA in his previous eight starts. Maddux's longest winless stretch is 13 starts from May 11 to July 14, 1990, with the Chicago Cubs.
Joba Chamberlain picked up his first major league win as a starter as the Yankees beat up on the Pittsburgh Pirates,10-0. Chamerlain regularly hit 99 mph on the radar gun while striking out seven and walking one in 6 2/3 innings. He threw 114 pitches. The Yankees have won nine of 12 and 14 of 20 overall.
"Just a bad day for the Fish," said Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez referring to their 15-3 defeat at the hand of the Rays. Tampa Bay scored 10 times in the 5th inning. Florida has lost eight of its last 12 games. Carl Crawford had a pair of homers and career-high five RBIs.
The starting pitchers had a combined age of 86 years, 252 days, the trouble for the Diamondbacks is that Randy Johnson pitched like he was 65 and Boston’s Tim Wakefield pitched like he was 20 as the Red Sox won, 5-0. Wake threw seven innings, giving up two hits and struck out six, walked one and has allowed three runs or fewer in at least seven innings in six straight starts. Johnson was effective but only lasted six innings giving up eights hits, two runs, and two walks while striking out five. Johnson has lost five straight and has an ERA of 6.53 during that streak.
Eric Stults earned his first complete game in nine major league starts and the Dodgers defeated the AL Central leading White Sox, 5-0 victory.
Barry Zito (3-11) got his first interleague win for the Giants with a 4-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland lost for the sixth time in eight games and fell into last place this late in a season for the first time since the AL Central was formed in 1994. Cleveland had not been last this late since it was in seventh place in the AL East on June 25, 1993. Zito came in 0-6 with a 9.32 ERA in interleague play since signing with the Giants before the 2007 season. He had gone 0-8 since his previous interleague win, June 16, 2006, against the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was with Oakland.
Gar Sheffield hit a walkoff RBI single to give Detroit an 8-7 win against the St. Louis Cardinals in a game that included a nearly 2½-hour rain delay. Sheffield is hitting .234 with four home runs and 15 RBI in 41 games.
The Reds beat the Jays, 6-5 as Junior Griffey hit his 602nd home run, his 35th career homer against the Blue Jays and his first since 1999. Every Reds starter had a hit, but none had more than one. The Blue Jays have lost eight of their last 10 games overall.
Jim Edmonds homered and walked three times and Geovany Soto had three RBIs and reached base four times as the Cubs defeated the Orioles, 7-4. Right fielder Kosuke Fukudome was a late scratch with a tight left calf and since the Cubs have two outfielders, Alfonso Soriano and Reed Johnson, already on the disabled list, the Cubs used infielder Eric Patterson in left and starting second baseman Mark DeRosa in right. Orioles pitchers were clearly befuddled and walked 10.
The Royals defeated the Rockies, swept the series and improved the majors' best interleague record to 12-3. Kansas City has won 10 of 11, all against National League teams.
The Philadelphia Phillies ended a season-worst, six-game losing streak with a 4-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics. The Phillies recorded their fifth shutout, matching their total of last year.
Top of the 3rd
IN HIS HEAD…
In the Astros’ Shawn Chacon’s head it probably went something like this –
“Okay, I’ll go over to the General Manager Ed Wade and have a pleasant conversation with him. I’ll explain how it would be advantageous for the team, and for my career, to keep me in the starting rotation and that a move to the bullpen at this time is probably not the best thing for everyone concerned. Ed will respond that he is grateful for the talk and that I made some very good points and I’ll be starting this weekend against the Red Sox. Case closed.”
It came out this way –
Wade saw Chacon in the dining room before the game against Texas. Wade wanted to meet with Chacon in manager Cecil Cooper’s office, the pitcher said.
“I sat down to eat and Ed Wade came to me and very sternly said, ‘You need to come with me to the office,’ ” Chacon said. “I said ‘For what?’ I said ‘I don’t want to go to the office with you and Cooper.’ And I said, ‘You can tell me whatever you got to tell me right here.’
“He’s like, ‘Oh, you want me to tell you right here?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ I’m not yelling. I’m calm.”
“He started yelling and cussing,” Chacon said of Wade, according to a story on the Houston Chronicle’s Web site. “I’m sitting there and I said to him very calmly, ‘Ed, you need to stop yelling at me.’ Then I stood up and said, ‘You better stop yelling at me.’ I stood up. He continued and was basically yelling.”
Chacon said that after Wade told him he needed to “look in the mirror,” it got worse.
“So at that point I lost my cool and I grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. I jumped on top of him,” he said. “Words were exchanged.”
Chacon said players quickly came and separated the two.
“He is suspended pending final resolution of whatever move we end up making with him,” Wade said.
When asked if Chacon was disciplined because he physically accosted Wade, the GM said: “I’m not getting into any details of anything beyond what I just said.
"We can't have anarchy," owner Drayton McLane said that he told the players in a meeting after the incident. "You can't have rebellion. If (Chacon) disagreed with what Cecil wanted him to do, he should have had the courage to sit down and talk to him. He wouldn't come in Cecil's office."
McLane was adamant that Chacon will never return to the Astros.
"Absolutely not," McLane said. "If you shoved a policeman down or any other public servant, can you imagine shoving a principal in a school? It was in full view of several players. Players pulled Chacon and restrained him. There's absolutely no way. You can't defy authority. Even if he disagreed with what they wanted him to do, he should have had the courage to sit down and talk to him."
Texas beat Houston 3-2 last night in a game nobody cares about.
Top of the 4th
BIG PAPI WEEKS AWAY
Slugger David Ortiz is closer to returning but nothing is imminent. He tested his injured wrist by taking 25 soft swings off a batting tee on Tuesday, and while he called the session positive, he said he is still weeks away from returning to the Red Sox.
Ortiz said said his batting tee session at Fenway Park was "not a setback." He said he could not even hold a bat when he first got hurt, and is now at least able to swing slowly.
But Ortiz said it will be weeks before he can take full swings with a bat. He anticipates going on a rehab stint before rejoining the Red Sox. Outside of being bummed that he is not ready yet, Ortiz had few complaints.
“I am disappointed. I want to be playing, but there’s not too much I can do about it but wait,” said Ortiz. “Of course I want to be out there swinging like I usually do, but it’s a healing process.”
As I was told by my medical sources at the time of the injury, if everything keeps progressing, early August is a good bet for the return. Since Ortiz went on the DL June 1, the Sox are 15-8.
Top of the 5th
PILLOW TALK
You want to know what kind of season the Tigers are having? The Tigers have placed utility man Brandon Inge on the disabled list, retroactive to June 23, with a pulled oblique muscle. Inge said he aggravated the injury moving a pillow for his three-year-old Monday night. He said if not for that mishap, he probably would have tried to continue to play with the injury, which he said has bothered him since he suffered it on June 1 in Seattle.
Top of the 6th
BILLY-BALL-VIDEO-OF-THE-DAY
Take a look at this moving video of John Challis - http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=2521705&brand=null&videoId=3461339&n8pe6c=1
Challis is the 18-year-old from Freedom, Pa., whose battle with terminal liver cancer has become a national story. Challis, who had a single for his high school team this spring, had wanted to meet Derek Jeter. "You hate to see anybody going through something like that but he had a great attitude," Jeter said.
Top of the 7th
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Rays (Matt Garza) at Marlins (Mark Hendrickson), 12:10
Cardinals (Todd Wellemeyer) at Tigers (Nate Robertson), 1:05
Orioles (Radhames Liz) at Cubs (Jason Marquis), 2:20
White Sox (John Danks) at Dodgers (Clayton Kershaw), 3:10
Phillies (Adam Eaton) at A's (Rich Harden), 3:35
Twins (Scott Baker) at Padres (Josh Banks), 3:35
Giants (Matt Cain) at Indians (Cliff Lee), 7:05
Yankees (Mike Mussina) at Pirates (Paul Maholm), 7:05
Reds (Edinson Volquez) at Blue Jays (Jesse Litsch), 7:07
Rangers (Kevin Millwood) at Astros (Wandy Rodriguez), 8:05
Top of the 8th
DID YOU KNOW?
Congratulations to Fresno State, losers of 12 of their first 20 games season, and today, winners of the College World Series.
Top of the 9th
THE NEW iPHONE
Major League Baseball Advanced Media designed a custom application called MLB At Bat exclusively for the new iPhone 3G that will take advantage of MLB.com's popular Video Alerts infrastructure to offer fans game highlights just moments after plays happen at the ballpark. This app will be available to baseball fans with iPhones regardless of where they are anywhere in the world.
The new iPhone will be on sale starting July 11 for $199 (8GB) or $299 (16GB).
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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