Whatever goes around comes around, I guess. Tony LaRussa blew off a Stones concert in San Francisco last month to try to court AJ Burnett into signing with the Cardinals. Didn't happen, so then they ask Matt Morris to give the Cardinals a "home team discount" and sign with them. How 2 faced can you get? So Morris signs with....San Francisco!!!
I don't think the Cardinals will win 100 games in 2006.
hey don't worry hiway... Sandy Jr will be a fine back up catcher... because he can still swing the bat and is good in "the room"... he did fine in that capacity here last year...
Looks like the Dodgers are trying to rebuild the '03 Red Sox---
I'd like to see Nomar have a comeback year and make a big splash myself, it seems so recent to me when he was the "new Joe Dimaggio" " a surefire first ballot hall of famer' and the "next man to hit.400", things change quick in this game and almost never like you think.
He always seemed like a sun and beach sort of guy. I hope the climate of Chavez ravine and reuniting with old friends helps him out. This seems to me like it is a crucial year for him--- is he going to rebound into the player he can be (.320 lifetime) , or turn into a guy who rides his career out as a utility player bouncing around from team to team?
I for one hope he regains that infectious enthusiasm that he used to have and hits about .357.
He was probably the most exciting young player I had seen since ...well...ever really
I'm hoping for a big year for Nomar also, but am not counting my chickens. Dodger stadium has a way of sapping the life out of a player who isn't self motivated. I don't think Nomar fits that description, and if he's healthy he'll love playing here, and the town will go nuts over him.
Now the Dodgers only need an outfield, a catcher and a few pitchers-and alot of luck to keep Nomar and Muellar healthy. Still-they're already miles ahead of where they were last year. Might even make the new pastel seats tolerable.
For my money, the most exciting young player was Jeter, but six of one and all that.
Dang..get up at 2AM and it sorta feels like Jesus sold his soul to Satan---Johnny D. going crewcutted and pinstriped---damn --they are going to have one formidable outfield down there with Matsui-Damon-Sheffield...
Thanks for fun times, hardplayin baseball and great memories, I'd say good luck to him but under the circumstances....
I agree that it's a sick amount of money. Outside of salary caps, which won't happen, or MLB operating as a socialist organization, there's not much you can do about it.
The Sox aren't exactly pinching pennies, since they were the second highest paid team in baseball last year.
It will be weird to see Damon in pinstripes with his hair cut, and shaved. Still-I'm an ex long haired hippy who loved Oscar Gamble's giant afro-especially with a batting helmet squeezed over it-but I think Damon looked kinda ridiculous last couple seasons.
Dodgerville is ecstatic because they now have some players you've actually heard of. IF Nomar regains his former form, IF Muellar can stay healthy, IF Kenny Lofton can play to his potential-I wonder how hes managed to be on about 8 teams in 5 years, then the Dodgers might be respectable next year.
The median age seems to be about 38 though-ok I'm exaggerating, but the philosophy seems to be to plug in old veterans until all the 'phenoms' in the minors come up.
I've been hearing about these phenoms for years-somehow they're always a year or 2 away.
Thanks for the Oscar Gamble visual, that image made me chuckle.
The phenoms are always two years away aren't they? There are two or three new ones ever year-who you never hear of again--The last one I actually remember living up to anything was Nomar
I gotta ask you guys what you think of this guns for hire, mercenery way baseball is run these days. I know it is part of the way the business end is run but imo it doesn't do alot to enhance my experience of baseball. I think its a loss that there are very few Ron Santo's or Don Drysdale's or Carl Yastrzemskis or players that you can identify with year after year as being faces of their team. Its mostly a year or two or four and down the road they go. You end up rooting for the laundry. Players never have a chance to be remembered as, or even compared to the teams all time great players-just someone who made a quick stop.
Maybe this is all a reaction to the Johnny Damon thing-I just have to wonder in 20 -25 years if, even though he ws amazing while he was here for 4 years, if people will drop him off the memory map-simply because he wasn't here any longer than Mike Andrews
I don't like it---It hit me yesterday when a friends son who is about 8 was crushed when Johnny Damon defected. The kid really loved watching him and he decided that he didn't want to be a Red Sox fan anymore....in a way I could understand what his young mind was going through...even though I know it was business-it left him with
a sense of betrayal or maybe loss is abetter word..
When I was young you had more or less the same players every year so you grew attached to them and cared about them..you got to watch how they worked year after year after year....It was a time when you could be interested in personalities. Every kid copied batting stances and styles from his hometown idol --in a way I think that was healthy. Year after year you could look forward to your favorites, or at least most of them, returning because they were the team.
That is becoming more and more a thing of the past as todays hometown hero may be tomorrows nemesis. If you are a fan of a certain team anymore you dont have the luxury of getting too attached to players as being 'one of ours'...so you end up rooting for the laundry, the hat, and whatever Rent -a- player is filling in that week or season.
I know that is 'just the way it is' but a dimension of the game that I grew up with has changed ( yea i know it had to change) but dont think it is necessarily for the better---maybe it is just a reflection of society in that long term relationships are fewer and more disposable than they used to be.
Maybe Im just waxing nostalgic in that I 'd like to see at least one guy from the beginning until the end --(something that I haven't seen since Carl Yastrzemki), and say i was there and I watched the whole thing, but I doubt that I ever will again
I have to share your sentiments,mStar....While the game itself hasn't changed a whole lot in our lifetime,the overall approach to it by MLB certainly has....It's no longer our national pastime,it's a 'product'....Fans are chided for being 'fair weather',but it's perfectly acceptable for players to jump ship for more money....Teams and owners expect a fan base,but don't deliver us a player base that we can attach our loyalties to...Baseball keeps getting more and more de-personalized...What happened to the Crosley Fields,the Comiskey Parks,the Connie Mack Stadiums?...I followed the White Sox throughout the World Series,and if I was on 'Jeopardy' right now,I couldn't name their ballpark....
Baseball has played into the American psyche,...we want to win and we want to win NOW!....Forget the developing of young players and building of a team..Owners srew over players,players screw over teams...and the fans keep showing up....I don't get it...Merry Christmas to you all and how many days until pichers and catchers report to camp?..
Noone likes the rent a player of today. I just don't know what you're going to do about it. Unless baseball imposes a salary cap-which will never happen-we're reaping the fruits of the free agent market.
It's important to remember that the days of team loyalty and stability were largely due to the teams owning the players, who had no options.
The stadiums have become corporate owned and named , due to the pressure of funding, luxury boxes and other perks in this big money sports world. Football and basketball have many of the same problems, but are kept somewhat in check by salary caps. If I want to see the Lakers I still have to go to the Staples Center though.
I miss identifying players with teams. Oddly, 2 names that come to mind of players that are 'old school' are Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter of the Yankees. They just signed Bernie to another year, based largely on his years of service and popularity. They don't even know what role he'll play, but it was a good move to keep him. I can't imagine Jeter in anything but a Yankee uniform, but never say never in baseball.
I want to take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and a vesting option for 2010.
Kevin Millwood has agreed to terms with the Texas Rangers.
Happy Holidays, sports fans! I just got back from 10 days in Calif. visiting and playing :) But my very favorite day was when my uncle and cousin took me to San Francisco (hadn't been in about 5 years) to drive around. My cousin is buying property with a partner in an area under redevelopment right near the Giants' new SBC Stadium which I had not seen yet.
So I had to get out and look around cuz the last time I went to a Giants' game was when they played at Candlestick. So who do I see bronzed and bigger than life outside the stadium???? My own childhood baseball heros - - Howard Willie Mays, Jr. - - Willy McCovey - - Juan Marichel!!!!!! My uncle and I got out and took pics, which if I ever download them from my phone camera to my computer I'll post for you to see. It was very cool and nostalgic.
Wow - - I guess I'm really dating myself by even knowing those three names, eh????? ;)
dating yourself? Thats when ballplayers were ballplayers, and stayed with teams long enough to be identified with them----
I wonder who the next generation will build statues of since those stick around guys aren't around anymore...
Sounds like a cool trip Jardi-I'll look forward to the pics.......what I wouldn't give to see Willie losing his hat as he rounds second or Juan Marichal with that kick that reached to the skies just one more time....
O.K. Let's see if I can do this. Here's me and Juan, my uncle and I in front of SBC Park, Willie Mays bottom and top (couldn't fit it all in my camera view).
Gee, thanks, Andy It was really a lot of fun to see those statues - - my cousin must have the shot we took of McCovey - - I'll get that one too.
Yeah, those were the days growing up as a Giants' fan in the Bay Area with "Say hey, Willie Mays" and the gang. Then those rascally A's came to town and BART went right to the Coliseum, so that became our new team of choice (plus being an Oakland girl anyway). My MOM of all people, was the huge baseball fan in our family, so we went to A's games back in the day of Catfish Hunter, Reggie, Rollie - - and even that bad boy Rickey Henderson. It was huge fun (always is when your team is winning)
Tried to get into the Reds when I lived in Cincinnati, but just never could get behind any of their sorry teams. But here in Indy, we have a AAA team, the Indians, who have the coolest stadium (Victory Field)- - if you ever are in town - - it is a must visit here; and will take you right back to your childhood watching baseball. So the boy and I have really enjoyed going since we've been here.
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kimberly
I missed the LLWS. The boy had baseball practice 4-7. Playing in a USSSA tournament this coming weekend. The new season has just started. Can ya'll believe we are in September of the ML baseball s
mstar1
Dont scare me like that Bolsh--the way you posted I wasnt sure if it was a done deal--I had to go check....Im on the fence whether to go for Halliday or not---I'd love to have him but I'd hate to give
hiway29
I love those fan trades where players you don't care about, plus a 'prospect', are offered up for a major player. Yeah, the Jays will jump at that deal.
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johniam
Whatever goes around comes around, I guess. Tony LaRussa blew off a Stones concert in San Francisco last month to try to court AJ Burnett into signing with the Cardinals. Didn't happen, so then they ask Matt Morris to give the Cardinals a "home team discount" and sign with them. How 2 faced can you get? So Morris signs with....San Francisco!!!
I don't think the Cardinals will win 100 games in 2006.
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Tom Strange
hey don't worry hiway... Sandy Jr will be a fine back up catcher... because he can still swing the bat and is good in "the room"... he did fine in that capacity here last year...
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mstar1
Looks like the Dodgers are trying to rebuild the '03 Red Sox---
I'd like to see Nomar have a comeback year and make a big splash myself, it seems so recent to me when he was the "new Joe Dimaggio" " a surefire first ballot hall of famer' and the "next man to hit.400", things change quick in this game and almost never like you think.
He always seemed like a sun and beach sort of guy. I hope the climate of Chavez ravine and reuniting with old friends helps him out. This seems to me like it is a crucial year for him--- is he going to rebound into the player he can be (.320 lifetime) , or turn into a guy who rides his career out as a utility player bouncing around from team to team?
I for one hope he regains that infectious enthusiasm that he used to have and hits about .357.
He was probably the most exciting young player I had seen since ...well...ever really
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hiway29
I'm hoping for a big year for Nomar also, but am not counting my chickens. Dodger stadium has a way of sapping the life out of a player who isn't self motivated. I don't think Nomar fits that description, and if he's healthy he'll love playing here, and the town will go nuts over him.
Now the Dodgers only need an outfield, a catcher and a few pitchers-and alot of luck to keep Nomar and Muellar healthy. Still-they're already miles ahead of where they were last year. Might even make the new pastel seats tolerable.
For my money, the most exciting young player was Jeter, but six of one and all that.
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mstar1
Dang..get up at 2AM and it sorta feels like Jesus sold his soul to Satan---Johnny D. going crewcutted and pinstriped---damn --they are going to have one formidable outfield down there with Matsui-Damon-Sheffield...
Thanks for fun times, hardplayin baseball and great memories, I'd say good luck to him but under the circumstances....
ugggh this ain't good
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mstar1
I still can't believe he went to the Yankees----
*&%^&^%$
Here's one helluva lineup and one obnoxious amount of money
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hiway29
I agree that it's a sick amount of money. Outside of salary caps, which won't happen, or MLB operating as a socialist organization, there's not much you can do about it.
The Sox aren't exactly pinching pennies, since they were the second highest paid team in baseball last year.
It will be weird to see Damon in pinstripes with his hair cut, and shaved. Still-I'm an ex long haired hippy who loved Oscar Gamble's giant afro-especially with a batting helmet squeezed over it-but I think Damon looked kinda ridiculous last couple seasons.
Dodgerville is ecstatic because they now have some players you've actually heard of. IF Nomar regains his former form, IF Muellar can stay healthy, IF Kenny Lofton can play to his potential-I wonder how hes managed to be on about 8 teams in 5 years, then the Dodgers might be respectable next year.
The median age seems to be about 38 though-ok I'm exaggerating, but the philosophy seems to be to plug in old veterans until all the 'phenoms' in the minors come up.
I've been hearing about these phenoms for years-somehow they're always a year or 2 away.
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mstar1
Thanks for the Oscar Gamble visual, that image made me chuckle.
The phenoms are always two years away aren't they? There are two or three new ones ever year-who you never hear of again--The last one I actually remember living up to anything was Nomar
I gotta ask you guys what you think of this guns for hire, mercenery way baseball is run these days. I know it is part of the way the business end is run but imo it doesn't do alot to enhance my experience of baseball. I think its a loss that there are very few Ron Santo's or Don Drysdale's or Carl Yastrzemskis or players that you can identify with year after year as being faces of their team. Its mostly a year or two or four and down the road they go. You end up rooting for the laundry. Players never have a chance to be remembered as, or even compared to the teams all time great players-just someone who made a quick stop.
Maybe this is all a reaction to the Johnny Damon thing-I just have to wonder in 20 -25 years if, even though he ws amazing while he was here for 4 years, if people will drop him off the memory map-simply because he wasn't here any longer than Mike Andrews
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excathedra
what do you think mstar ?
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mstar1
I don't like it---It hit me yesterday when a friends son who is about 8 was crushed when Johnny Damon defected. The kid really loved watching him and he decided that he didn't want to be a Red Sox fan anymore....in a way I could understand what his young mind was going through...even though I know it was business-it left him with
a sense of betrayal or maybe loss is abetter word..
When I was young you had more or less the same players every year so you grew attached to them and cared about them..you got to watch how they worked year after year after year....It was a time when you could be interested in personalities. Every kid copied batting stances and styles from his hometown idol --in a way I think that was healthy. Year after year you could look forward to your favorites, or at least most of them, returning because they were the team.
That is becoming more and more a thing of the past as todays hometown hero may be tomorrows nemesis. If you are a fan of a certain team anymore you dont have the luxury of getting too attached to players as being 'one of ours'...so you end up rooting for the laundry, the hat, and whatever Rent -a- player is filling in that week or season.
I know that is 'just the way it is' but a dimension of the game that I grew up with has changed ( yea i know it had to change) but dont think it is necessarily for the better---maybe it is just a reflection of society in that long term relationships are fewer and more disposable than they used to be.
Maybe Im just waxing nostalgic in that I 'd like to see at least one guy from the beginning until the end --(something that I haven't seen since Carl Yastrzemki), and say i was there and I watched the whole thing, but I doubt that I ever will again
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excathedra
thanks mstar. i inadvertently hadn't read anything above my post to you
i know i wish things were different
(is it about money more than anything these days ?)
my son aches when anyone from his team (thinking hockey right now) goes to play on another team
also, when a player or coach retires, it really gets to him
do you think there will be good ol' sports in heaven ?
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mstar1
I dont know-that one dude rode a chariot-so maybe there is at least racing :)
o........ .and there was a war in heaven -so maybe there will be football and rugby which are warlike ---and the way hockey was pre 2004....
baseball ..if they have it...would have to change yet again-(dammit)--how could you steal a base ? or a sign?
If heavens there-there is probably no stealing of anything i would guess-which would water down the game yet again--
what a rip.
If heaven's there and I make it , and there is baseball-I'll probably still be pinin for the old days when the game was good ;)
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excathedra
you're so great and funny i love you
Will they have Johnny Damon in heaven
Dear Lord, we'd all like to know
Will they have Johnny Damon in heaven, Sweet Jesus
If they don't, who the hell wants to go.....
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mstar1
Love you too!
:)
Merry Christmas
Now if Santa can only bring a shortstop and a centerfielder and drop them off at Fenway....
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simonzelotes
I have to share your sentiments,mStar....While the game itself hasn't changed a whole lot in our lifetime,the overall approach to it by MLB certainly has....It's no longer our national pastime,it's a 'product'....Fans are chided for being 'fair weather',but it's perfectly acceptable for players to jump ship for more money....Teams and owners expect a fan base,but don't deliver us a player base that we can attach our loyalties to...Baseball keeps getting more and more de-personalized...What happened to the Crosley Fields,the Comiskey Parks,the Connie Mack Stadiums?...I followed the White Sox throughout the World Series,and if I was on 'Jeopardy' right now,I couldn't name their ballpark....
Baseball has played into the American psyche,...we want to win and we want to win NOW!....Forget the developing of young players and building of a team..Owners srew over players,players screw over teams...and the fans keep showing up....I don't get it...Merry Christmas to you all and how many days until pichers and catchers report to camp?..
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hiway29
Noone likes the rent a player of today. I just don't know what you're going to do about it. Unless baseball imposes a salary cap-which will never happen-we're reaping the fruits of the free agent market.
It's important to remember that the days of team loyalty and stability were largely due to the teams owning the players, who had no options.
The stadiums have become corporate owned and named , due to the pressure of funding, luxury boxes and other perks in this big money sports world. Football and basketball have many of the same problems, but are kept somewhat in check by salary caps. If I want to see the Lakers I still have to go to the Staples Center though.
I miss identifying players with teams. Oddly, 2 names that come to mind of players that are 'old school' are Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter of the Yankees. They just signed Bernie to another year, based largely on his years of service and popularity. They don't even know what role he'll play, but it was a good move to keep him. I can't imagine Jeter in anything but a Yankee uniform, but never say never in baseball.
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Tom Strange
I want to take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and a vesting option for 2010.
Kevin Millwood has agreed to terms with the Texas Rangers.
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jardinero
Happy Holidays, sports fans! I just got back from 10 days in Calif. visiting and playing :) But my very favorite day was when my uncle and cousin took me to San Francisco (hadn't been in about 5 years) to drive around. My cousin is buying property with a partner in an area under redevelopment right near the Giants' new SBC Stadium which I had not seen yet.
So I had to get out and look around cuz the last time I went to a Giants' game was when they played at Candlestick. So who do I see bronzed and bigger than life outside the stadium???? My own childhood baseball heros - - Howard Willie Mays, Jr. - - Willy McCovey - - Juan Marichel!!!!!! My uncle and I got out and took pics, which if I ever download them from my phone camera to my computer I'll post for you to see. It was very cool and nostalgic.
Wow - - I guess I'm really dating myself by even knowing those three names, eh????? ;)
Carry on and Happy New Years to you all.
J.
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mstar1
dating yourself? Thats when ballplayers were ballplayers, and stayed with teams long enough to be identified with them----
I wonder who the next generation will build statues of since those stick around guys aren't around anymore...
Sounds like a cool trip Jardi-I'll look forward to the pics.......what I wouldn't give to see Willie losing his hat as he rounds second or Juan Marichal with that kick that reached to the skies just one more time....
Happy New Year to you too!
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jardinero
O.K. Let's see if I can do this. Here's me and Juan, my uncle and I in front of SBC Park, Willie Mays bottom and top (couldn't fit it all in my camera view).
J.
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Tom Strange
hooray for mi amiga jardi!
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hiway29
Thanks for the cool pics jard. You're hardly dating yourself. Alot of us love, or loved, major league baseball because of players like them.
You are so tiny in those pictures though, and you look so nice that day. You're more important than the statues !
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jardinero
Gee, thanks, Andy
It was really a lot of fun to see those statues - - my cousin must have the shot we took of McCovey - - I'll get that one too.
Yeah, those were the days growing up as a Giants' fan in the Bay Area with "Say hey, Willie Mays" and the gang. Then those rascally A's came to town and BART went right to the Coliseum, so that became our new team of choice (plus being an Oakland girl anyway). My MOM of all people, was the huge baseball fan in our family, so we went to A's games back in the day of Catfish Hunter, Reggie, Rollie - - and even that bad boy Rickey Henderson. It was huge fun (always is when your team is winning)
Tried to get into the Reds when I lived in Cincinnati, but just never could get behind any of their sorry teams. But here in Indy, we have a AAA team, the Indians, who have the coolest stadium (Victory Field)- - if you ever are in town - - it is a must visit here; and will take you right back to your childhood watching baseball. So the boy and I have really enjoyed going since we've been here.
J.
PS. Hola Tom
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Tom Strange
Hola Jardi!
I love minor league ball.. maybe next time I'm in New Harmony I'll cruise up there for a game...
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