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Okay, let's reboot. No more talking about the former Left Fielder for My San Francisco Giants. Let's talk about baseball as if it really mattered.

So, where's A-Rod going to go? And for how much? Boras (emphasis on the last syllable - always) is trying the old collusion card to guarantee his boy a large contract. I think all of the baseball owners should have to play an A-ROD luxury tax and give it to like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to sign this guy and then have him sit on the bench for three years or until he dumps Boras as his agent. I think that might make the point about the whole collusion thing.

So, beyond the seamy side of Baseball, what player do you hope your team signs in the off-season? What are your hopes for next season?

Let's get this new off-season started off right, shall we?!

Somebody Else's Problem

The first time I saw Barry Bonds play was in the home opener of the 1993 season at Candlestick. I'd heard so many bad things about the guy. The press clearly hated him. But when he came to the plate, you could feel the anticipation in the stadium. It was as palpable as the fog on a Monday night game. And fwack! He hit a homerun in his first at-bat at home. He did that a lot. Saving his most memorable swats for home games. Is it any wonder that Giants fans are so rabid about the guy?

Well, he's somebody else's problem now. Who can deny that he's been a distraction? Who can deny that baseball in San Francisco has become the Barry Bonds show? I love the baseball player that Barry Bonds was, is, and might still become - but the guy? Whether he did or didn't do steroids is almost not the issue - whether he pissed off the media, is not really the issue either. Even though he can be personable to Giants fans and a great community person, that's not the issue at all. Its what he's meant for the Giants as a team that is the issue. And in that case, he's over stayed his welcome by about three years.

Oh sure, there was the record, and all those homeruns. But as self-serving as that became, it really started to lose its luster around 715 homeruns. Not because the media intensity increased, and not because of the questions surrounding the validity of the record, merely because baseball became the sideshow here in San Francisco.

When I found out Barry was leaving, I discovered that I was actually relieved. And then I started to remember what Baseball had been like in San Francisco years ago - when I used to enjoy talking about things like the bullpen, and the new rookie at third base, and what our chances were like against the Dodgers. But somewhere along the way those questions morphed into, Do you think Barry will break the record this year? Will he make it to the end of the season before he's indicted? Should we resign him next season? Those questions have all been answered now. I'm looking forward to asking new questions about new players. I'm really looking forward to life post-Barry Bonds.

He'll always be a hall of famer to me. He'll always be one of the greatest to ever play the game. But, quite frankly, I'm glad he's somebody else's problem now. The Giants need to move on.

A RECORD IS BROKEN

WOW! A-Rod set the record for the fastest person to ever hit 500 home runs. Finally someone has set a record this year!!!!

Anymore that anyone knows of?

Is anyone alive in SanFran?

My Top Five Baseball Moments - Number Three

Baseball Trip 2000! That's what I was calling it. I had been wanting to visit other parks for a long, long time, but had never really managed to get around it. I asked my Dad to create an itinerary for me so that I could tweak it and find a really good baseball trip, but when he presented me with the itinerary, I couldn't change a single thing. It was a beautiful trip.

We went to PACBELL park on a Friday night and watched the Giants play, but left about the 7th inning to catch our flight to Chicago (the red eye). It was my first trip to Chicago since I had flown through O'Hare while in the Navy and really the first trip where I would ever see more than just the environs around O'Hare. We spent three days in Chicago, but alas, the Cubbies were not in town and we didn't really know our way around enough to visit Comiskey. So, after three days we left Chicago and drove to Detroit for an overnight stay.

In Detroit, the hotel manager found out about our baseball trip and asked if we had tickets for the Tigers game that night. We said that the tickets online had been sold out for months. As it turned out, the place was practically empty. We took a cab over to the park and walked right in with excellent lower box seats right by first base. Good food, good times, funky new ballpark.

The next day we left Detroit and the United States and drove to Toronto. I had tickets for the Blue Jays in the SkyDome for the second night of our stay. We were both feeling a little under the weather by then, but we went to the game anyway. When we arrived, the dome was open and we had a gorgeous view of the giant CN Tower above us (we went up it the next day and could see all the way to Niagara Falls from the top). About the second inning, though, they closed the dome. It was cool. Stadium looked, felt, and played like a warehouse however. Definitely not baseball. Still I really enjoyed my time in Toronto. I wish I had a reason to go back.

After Toronto we traveled further north to Montreal. The Expos were still there though I think that was the first season they experimented with playing some games in Puerto Rico. We did take the Olympic Stadium tour, however, and walked out on the turf all the way to second place. Since the roof of the enclosed stadium had never been opened (the mechanism had failed before they'd ever opened it) the place smelled like a men's locker room that hadn't been aired out in 30 years. Definitely glad I didn't have to watch home games there. I'm also glad that they moved the team since that stadium really sucked.

After that we headed south, and on our way to Syracuse, we stopped at Cooperstown. If you've never been, you have no right to change your name to Mohammed. Seriously, this place is the Mecca of Baseball. A pilgrimmage is required for all real baseball fans.

We wasted our next two days in Syracuse, Rochester, and Niagara Falls, before arriving in another one of those overnight stopover places - Cleveland - on our way back to Chicago. But this is where my Number Three Baseball Moment begins.

We arrived in Cleveland at the tail end of a long trip. We were tired. We were baseballed out. We were about ready to head home. And Dave broke the trunk on the rental car (long story involving normal brotherly squabbling... but funny, I guess). We were able to drive out to the Cleveland airport and exchange cars, no real problem.

The next day, we got up and went to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame - it was a block and a half away. Not expecting much there, I was actually blown away about how cool that place was. It put me into a good mood all day. Later, as we returned to our hotel, we found out that not only were the Indians in town that night, but they were facing a Boston Red Sox team with Pedro Martinez pitching at the height of his success.

We were bitten once more with the baseball bug and we decided to head up to the stadium to see if we could get some tickets. We found a scalper outside the stadium who was disappointed to sell us Bleacher tickets (we really wanted to sit in the bleachers with the "real" fans). Then we went into the stadium and just goggled. I may be extremely partial to PACBELL Park, but I have to say that Jacob's Field would be my second choice as favorite stadium. We had excellent hot dogs, excellent beers. We bought hats and jackets and scorecards. Damn it! We were the perfect Indians tourists. But the stadium and the team and the city just gave off that vibe.

We made our way out into the bleachers. It was mid September (Labor Day was two weeks behind us) and the season was coming to an end - both the Summer season and the Baseball season. There was a fine mist over the stadium and nobody moved. People filled the stands with excitement and energy. When the game finally started, we could sense a vibe that I have rarely felt in San Francisco - everyone was in to the game. There were no yahoos talking on cell phones, reading the paper, or tapping away on their laptops. These were baseball fans and they were there to watch a baseball game. And not only that, they actually seemed to understand what they were watching. When the perfect game was finally broken up in the fourth inning by a walk from Pedro, the crowd erupted in a huge cheer. They understood that Pedro's bid had just ended and they didn't need anyone prompting them to cheer or root for their team.

However, it was the end of our trip and the fine mist had turned into a light, but steady, downpour. Dave and I were both ready to head home. We waited until the end of the Fifth inning, and then we slowly walked back to our hotel (about ten blocks away). It had been a brief experience, but a memorable one. To this day, my Cleveland hat is still one of my favorites because to me it represents true fandom.

Our trip ended a few days later as we passed back through Chicago and then flew home. It had been a great experience and I hope to do it again someday.

My Top Five Baseball Moments - Number Four

This is the quintessential Candlestick trip from the 1990's. But first a little (okay, a lot) backstory...

As many of you may remember, in 1992 it was announced that the Giants had been bought by an ownership group in Tampa Bay and that they would move in to Tropicana Field for the 1993 season. Many Giants fans, myself included, were distraught. But, lo and behold, San Francisco fought back. They formed an ownership group led by Peter Magowan of Safeway and they challenged baseball to refuse the sale to Tampa Bay and let the San Francisco group buy the team. Baseball stepped up and the owners (including those dudes down south who's name gets trashed here rather regularly - we still owe you one) denied the sale and move to Tampa Bay and Peter Magowan, etc... found themselves owners of the San Francisco Giants.

The first thing they did was sign a left fielder from Pittsburgh by the name of Barry Bonds. As far as Giants fans were concerned, that was just a bonus. The fact was, our team was saved. In 1993 with Bonds and new skipper Dusty Baker, the Giants took off and won 103 games (ultimately losing out of the playoffs by 1 game to the Braves in the very last year without expansion and the wild card). The next year was the strike shortened year of 1994 (and who remembers that Matt Williams was on pace to break Maris's record back then before the strike ended his attempt). As I recall, 1995 was a very bad year for the team, but Magowan was already looking ahead. The announcement of a new stadium to be built downtown was greeted with great enthusiasm. We'd gone in just a few years from nearly losing our team to getting a verifiable super star and a new stadium. We were in 7th Heaven.

But Candlestick still held the Giants all the way through the 1999 season. And during that final stretch their were games that were, shall we say it, poorly attended. Talkshow Host always used to say that the worst draw in Bay Area Sports was a Monday Night game at Candlestick against the woeful Montreal Expos.

In 1995, Magowan started to make some changes to the 'Stick to put some butts in the seats. He added a new concession area and more food options. He removed the bleecher section and added a new bleecher section that literally was right on top of the action (the left field Bonds Squad). And a year later, in 1996, he added a Right Field Bleacher section as well. Andy and I were there on the first day of the Right Field Bleachers and as we sat there, Peter Magowan himself came out to the new bleecher section to see them for himself. He asked Andy and I to sit in front of him so that he could check out the leg room. We were only too happy to comply (and get an autograph as well ;).

Okay, compared to all the backstory, my actual moment isn't nearly so awe inspiring. It was 1997, early in the season, and on a Monday night, Montreal was in town. My friend Jay had yet to try out the right field bleachers, so I suggested going to the Stick early and getting some bleacher seats and watching batting practice.

We got there early, but the Giants BP was already over. However, the Expos were taking BP just as we sat down in the right field bleachers - all by ourselves. We leaned over the fence and started jawwing good naturedly with the guys catching shag flies out in deep right/center field and then... WHABOOM! A baseball landed two feet away in the bleachers, right next to us. In my entire life, I'd never gotten a free baseball at a ballgame. I'd come close before on Opening Day, 1993, but I'd never actually got a ball. It was BP, so it probably didn't count, but I was ecstatic anyway. I picked up the ball and my friend Jay was jealous for all of about two minutes. FWABOOM! The second ball caroomed off the right field bleacher seats about ten feet away. Jay ran over and picked up his own souvenir.

I was waiting for the fans in the other bleacher sections to come join us... but nobody did. Another ball landed in the bleachers and we scooped it up. It was an embarrasment of riches. THEN the guys shagging balls got into the act. They started tossing every ball that came their way up to us. By the time BP was over we had 8 balls between us. And only then did another fan finally show up in the right field bleachers.

I kept some and gave some to kids who'd never had a ball before. I have no idea who hit any of them, and I really didn't care. As for the game, it was a tight 1-1 affair that ended up in extra innings. In the end, only Jay and I were left in the Right Field Bleachers and we turned our caps around for rally time and used our mojo and magic to will the Giants to a 2-1 victory in the 11th Inning. We went home completely happy and satisfied.

I can honestly say that I've never had a more fulfilling complete game experience at a baseball game. It was just one of those games that sticks with you despite the fact that nothing really extraordinary happened. But on a cold lonely Monday night at the Stick, I had the fourth best baseball moment of my life.

My Top Five Baseball Moments - Number Five

These lazy days of summer when I enjoy just sitting in the stands with a dog and a beer and watching baseball - doesn't really matter who is playing - makes me think of my long life with baseball, starting from when I was a kid and going all the way to now when I am a much older kid. Watching the T-Ball kids run the bases with baseball legends looking on and hearing things like Andy's son saying that it was the best day of his life reminds me of all the wonderful things baseball has done for me over the years. I decided that in this uncertain time for sports where allegations of criminal activites seem to be surfacing about different stars every day, that it might be nice instead to dwell on the things that attracted us to the sport in the first place.

So here is my Number Five greatest Baseball moment in the countdown of my top five...

The competition for the five spot was rather exciting since there are many great, great moments from my life, but I decided ultimately to be completely representative and include at least one where I wasn't just a participant but an active competitor. The runner up to this story might very well be the time when video game baseball first came out and my Dad and I plugged about $20 in quarters into a machine in Las Vegas so that we could play a full 9 innings of head to head video game baseball, but that's not real athletic so I'll skip directly to my story.

It was my senior year in High School and though at the time I didn't realize it, I was somewhat of a jock. (To be fair, nerds and geeks never get labelled jocks even if they have more athletic accomplishments than most other jocks). As the end of the school year approached, my swimming coach/cross country coach decided to have a picnic for the athletes on his teams. We gathered after school outside the gym and ate hot dogs and hamburgers and what not while I made the rounds and spoke to all the members of the two teams. I was one of those guys that had friends in all strata of school hierarchies.

After eating about five hot dogs (I was skinnier than a rail back then) my coach suggested that we get a game of baseball going and selected me and one of the jocks as coaches. Now, while I did have more athletic points and higher accomplishments than any of the jocks on the team, I was considered an outsider by them. Basically, we got along, but we didn't like each other. So when it came time to pick teams, it was about four or five picks in before we both realized that the jock team was loaded with athletic talent and the geek team was not. I had naturally taken all the people I liked (the girls, the lesser athletes, the people who were nice, not good at sports, per se) and the jock captain had done the same - selecting all of the top athletes in the school. After that, I purposefully selected all those players that I knew the jocks would never select and he purposefully selected only the athletes. On paper, and in most opinions, we were going to get crushed. The jocks even appealed to our Swim coach to re-do the selections to make the teams more fair. But before he answered, I said, boldly, "I don't want any other team. I like the team I have. And, we're going to win." My Swim coach looked doubtful but he agreed not to interfere.

My team was a little less than enthusiastic. In fact, according to them we were going to be completely destroyed by the jock team. Half the guys on their side had actually played for the high school baseball team. But I told them not to worry, to have fun, and to just play to the best of their ability.

To make a long story short, we absolutely crushed the jock team. We had nothing to play for. Our pride wasn't on the line. We weren't expected to win. So we just relaxed, hit, ran, caught, pitched like it was a pick up game of baseball at an after school picnic. They, on the other hand, had to prove that they were better than us - being the athletes and all - and as we started to dominate them, they fell apart and started ripping on each other and each tried to become the star of the game. The I's got crushed by the We's. The final score was something like 16-4. I don't think we hit a single homerun. I'm fairly certain that every hit was a single. In one inning, we batted around twice.

I always remember this whenever anyone says, "That's why we play the game." There is more to the game of baseball than raw talent. Like golf, there is a humbleness that must be maintained for a player to reach the lofty and truly great heights of a superstar. As Jordan's commercial so eloquently pointed out, we fail more often that we succeed - but we keeping coming back for more. On this particular day, David beat Goliath because David was confident and loose. Almost 20 years later, that same combination of confidence and looseness finally brought a world series title to Boston after a long drought.

Baseball might not be everyone's life, but it is mine. Its ebb and flow marks my seasons and its highs and lows form my backdrop. If there is a more perfect game, I have yet to find it.

In Rod We Trusted...

It was the 9th inning of a tight game between the Giants and the Marlins in Florida. The Giants were up by a run and had brought in their closer, Rod Beck, to help preserve the victory. It was 1993 and the Giants were in a dogfight pennant race with the Braves where every game counted down the stretch. Beck had been banged up - had blown a couple of saves in the previous week. There was some concern that he might be too banged up to finish the season.

After striking out the first batter, the next Marlin singled solidly and Giants fans everywhere groaned inwardly. Would this be the start of another blown save? The next Marlin up was a feared power hitter. Beck looked in, let his arm dangle, and then blew a fastball right by the batter. A collective sigh of relief, Beck was doing okay. He'd strike this guy out and...

CRACK!

The next pitch came in a little too fat. The Marlin jumped all over it. It sailed far and deep into the night - easily the farthest hit ball of the night - and as it disappeared into the gloom of the darkness of the stadium only one thing kept the Giants fans from committing mass suicide... it had been foul.

Beck got the next pitch down and the batter drove it into an inning ending double play and the Giants got off the field and Beck had another save.

What sticks in my mind about this particular play on this particular night is not that Rod Beck was pitching, or that he was particularly dominant. We all loved Rod Beck. He was old school. He was tough, intimidating, and he just kept coming after batters like the Terminator. But he wasn't especially gifted as a pitcher. He just exuded attitude. He had the look and the feel of a closer - often an overlooked element in what make a closer so intimidating. Even with his crappy stuff working, 9/10ths of his job as closer was to make the batter feel that it was going to be REALLY hard to get a hit off this guy. That was the feeling Beck gave out. It wasn't the pitching so much as it was the attitude. What sticks out in my mind about this particular night was the attitude Rod Beck displayed about being the Giants closer.

When asked in the post game conference what Rod Beck had thought about the 0-1 pitch that had ended up deep in the bleachers, barely foul, he replied, "Strike Two".

Rod, we will miss you. You died too young at 38 this weekend.

Our prayers for your family and friends as they go through these troubling times.

For Whom To Root?

This weekend provides us with the first opportunity since 1912 to see the Giants and Red Sox play each other. I grew up a Giants fan and have rooted for them all my life. However, the only professional team I have ever worked for has been the Red Sox - albeit on the lowest possible level (T-Ball ;). In my inner heart there is a struggle to decide which team is more deserving of my loyalty.

On the one hand, the Red Sox have been playing fairly decent baseball - sliding off a little in recent weeks after an incredibly hot start. But the dreaded Yankees are now coming on strong behind them and if I want my Red Sox to continue to do well, it might be good to have them beat up on the Giants. I have the jersey and the hat to wear and Fenway is an American classic.

On the other hand, I am now and always shall be a Giants fan. They are the team that I grew up with and have died with on many, many occassions. I sat through fog soaked nights with them where I couldn't see the field. I ate chocolate malts in 40 minus degrees whether to help start a 9th Inning rally. I stayed all the way through a Monday night extra innings game against Montreal that ended 2-1 in the 14th. I was there for the final game at Candlestick and for the first game at PACBELL. I stopped collecting autographs when all my favorite players and managers were being traded after I'd got them to sign something. I have pleaded, cajoled, wheedled, and otherwise browbeaten God again and again and again to let my home town nine win just one more game, just one more series, just one more playoff, just four more outs! I guess I've become invested in their success.

I can't decide. I like the Red Sox, but I love the Giants. It'll be hard for me to decide which way to root. But I think ultimately, I'll probably default to the Giants. Either way, this is bound to make for one hell of a good series!

Has Free Agency Made The Playoffs Obsolete?

There should be little surprise that the NBA Playoffs - the pinnacle of the Basketball year according to the NBA - is drawing less viewers than Professional Wrestling. I mean, honestly, who cares? Its the same old teams as last year and there are no players that anybody could care less about. Besides, whether we watch or not, these players will, with any financial sense in their bodies at all, be set for life. Our watching will not change that, and quite frankly, we all have more important things to do.

Such an attitude can't be far behind for Baseball and Football. It already infects NBA Basketball and NHL Hockey. The fact of the matter is, from year to year, a team changes its stripes so often that there is little reason to root for your home team anymore, and even less reason to root for a sport in general. The money that is thrown around these sports puts the athletes in the unenviable position of having to defend such huge salaries for what is, in essence, a child's game. For the Michael Jordan's of the game, this is pretty easy to do. For the rest of the athletes, its a no-win situation. Add any sort of negative press to an already troubled sport, and the viewers begin to turn away in droves.

But, at least, during the regular season fans can watch their team's struggles and triumphs and hope that their team makes the playoffs. As the team's chances diminish, so do the crowds. As soon as the team is eliminated, so are the fans. 32 Sports teams fans become 16 become 8 become 4 become 2 (and the occassional event fan who watches the finals because they're the finals). By the time a championship game comes around, there might be almost nobody watching the sport.

In sports like Wrestling and NASCAR, each and every contest can produce a winner that was different than the previous week. There are no heroes who stay heroes and no villains who stay villains. Fans are encouraged to adopt a single competitor as their athlete. And they live and die by that athlete, knowing full well that next week the outcome might be completely different.

If we can't have true team sports - where a team remains constant from year to year to year, and we can't have a true athlete sport - where the athletes are the source of our hero worship, then we are stuck with some sort of inbetween compromise where we root for our team until they suck, and then we move on to another sport until next year.

For big time pro-sports, its all about the product they put on the field... but its also about our connecting to that product. Any obstacle that gets in the way of our connection ought to be removed or restricted.

Its time Baseball did something about its free agency problem. Its time Baseball put the Genie back in the bottle.

Bob L. Head

Check out this story at ESPN regarding an upcoming giveaway by the minor league Portland Beavers. Clever, creative, and unique. Bob L. Head's of the world...unite!

New Toys

More widget fun - note the new scoreboard in the sidebar - click on the menu to get MLB scores and today's action, in addition to NHL and NBA playoff scores...

We here at The 7th Inning Stretch are here for the fans and by the fans...

According to the polls...

75% of all Americans are sick and tired of hearing about steroids.
69% think that the constant coverage of star athletes and their alleged problems suck all the fun out of sports.
91% could care less whether Bonds breaks the home run record so long as the media stops harping on it and reminding everyone that he is the all time worst human being ever because he allegedly took steroids and that makes him a cheat and a liar and someone ought to send in the army and remove him from power (WMD's or no!).
5% of all Americans are stuck watching teams like the Devil Rays.
51% of all Americans elected George W. Bush despite evidence that he was a really lousy President.
85% believe that we ought to have a real commissioner.
100% of all real San Franciscan's hate the Dodgers.
115% of all real Bostonians hate the Yankees (some dead were reanimated for this poll).
99% of all Cubs fans agree that their team has no chance, but hope otherwise.
83% of all Braves fans are convinced that their team in the playoffs is a natural occurrance like rain falling.
21% of "fans" get their opinions on sports topics from polls like this one.
69% of NASCAR fans would rather be watching baseball... the way it used to be played.

All poll findings were done "scientifically" in much the same way ESPN conducts their "scientific" polls.

A short comment on this early season...

How does Pujols not score on a suicide squeeze in the 12th inning of a game when the catcher drops the ball? I didn't see the game, I was listening on the radio, so I can't comment directly, but is it possible Pujols was intimidated by the Giants catcher? I'm guessing he didn't really want to run the squeeze in the first place. He was just following orders.

Oh well... the Giants win!

Number 42

Sixty years ago, MLB broke the color barrier when number 42 stepped onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie Robinson made history as the first African-American ballplayer in Major League Baseball (yes, we could discuss the Negro Leagues at length, but I'm not headed in that direction today).

This weekend MLB will be celebrating that anniversary, and players from teams throughout MLB will wear, for one game, the number 42...which as most of you know, has been universally retired throughout the game (unless an active player still was wearing the number, as in the case of Mariano Rivera of the Yankees). You can see the list of players, coaches and managers who will be wearing the number here.

So as we head into this second weekend of the baseball season...here's to you, Mr. Robinson.

Please rearrange me when I'm sane...

My 2007 Predictions
or
You Will Mock Me!

American League East:
1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
2. Boston Red Sox
3. New York Yankees
4. Toronto Blue Jays
5. Baltimore Orioles

American League Central:
1. Cleveland Indians
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Chicago White Sox
4. Minnesota Twins
5. Kansas City Royals

American League West:
1. Oakland A's
2. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
3. Texas Rangers
4. Seattle Mariners

National League East:
1. Washington Nationals
2. New York Mets
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. Florida Marlins
5. Atlanta Braves

National League Central:
1. St. Louis Cardinals
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Cincinnati Reds
4. Houston Astros
5. Milwaukee Brewers
6. Pittsburgh Pirates

National League West:
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. San Diego Padres
3. San Francisco Giants
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
5. Colorado Rockies

AL Wild Card:
Detroit Tigers

NL Wild Card:
San Diego Padres

All Star Game:
National League over American League

ALDS:
Cleveland over A's, 5 games
Tampa Bay over Detroit, 3 games

NLDS:
LA over Cardinals, 5 games
Nationals over Padres, 3 games

FINAL FOUR

ALCS:
Cleveland (Ohio St.) over Tampa Bay (Florida), 6 games

NLCS:
Nationals (Georgetown) over Dodgers (UCLA), 4 games

World Series
Cleveland over Nationals, 6 games

(By the way, baseball doesn't start until after the NCAA Final Four, in case you haven't guessed by my picks ;)

Prognostications

It's time guys. Let's have it out...beginning today and through Sunday, let's post our season predictions.

Things to include:

Division winners.
Wild Card winners
All Star Game winner (to determine WS home field advantage)
Division Series matchups and winners
League Championship Series matchups and winners
World Series matchups and winner, including number of games it will take to win.

Then we shall mock each other's picks mercilessly.

Fantasy Baseball

It is that time of year.

The smell of the freshly cut grass. The aroma of the grilled hot dogs laden with sauerkraut and onions. The sound of the vendors yelling "Peanuts! Popcorn!" The crack of the bat. The roar of the crowd.

The mouse clicks at your desk at the office, early in the morning, adjusting your lineup, your starting rotation, and looking to see if anyone else noticed that the hot shot rookie prospect from AAA had been picked up by any of the other teams in your league yet.

Folks, you are invited to play Yahoo Fantasy Baseball. Shoot me an email to pagenandy at gmail dot com and I will give you the password and league ID. I know Donny's in....what about the rest of you?

The Opening Theme

I can hear that familiar chorus, sung by thousands of men this day every year. You know the song...

"HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!"

Pitchers and Catchers Report today.

Baseball is here!

Fitting Quote for this Time of Year

"People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." --Rogers Hornsby

Since we are in the middle of winter, I thought this quote speaks well for all of us. But, there is light at the end of the tunnel because Pitchers and Catchers report NEXT WEEK!!!

Smoke on the Water...

With the evidence presented today, I'd say that all of this talk about Barry Bonds has FINALLY gained some credibility. Though I have backed Bonds all of this time, I never once claimed that he was innocent - just that there was no proof of his guilt. I am a strong believer in the idea of being innocent until proven guilty. If you've ever been wrongly accused of a crime, you'd be a strong believer as well. With this latest news, however, that Bonds did indeed fail a drug test, there is now some credible evidence that Bonds has taken illegal drugs in the past. Bonds doesn't deny the test, why should I?

This certainly suggests now that there is smoke near Bonds, and smoke usually leads to fire. However, the drug in question was not a steroid and Bonds not only did not dispute the outcome of the test, but also agreed to voluntarily take 6 more random drug tests to prove the idea that this was a one time only abberation. Whether Bonds is innocent or guilty, this is the sort of behavior I'd expect from him considering the other circumstances.

While this admission clouds the future of this once great player, it also clarifies some of the Giants off-season moves - the acquisition of Ryan Klesko, for instance. Some may renew calls for Bonds to be removed from Baseball, but before we all go that far lets remember two things. One, Bonds has not failed any other drug test. And two, Bonds was not the only player to fail this drug test - in fact, he was only one of HUNDREDS of baseball players who failed this particular test. Amphetamine use in baseball is a true problem, not one fabricated by the government and media.

Clearly, Baseball needs to clean up its act once again. I'm guessing this would all be much easier if there was a strong commissioner in power. It seems as if the players are once again suffering from the lack of a strong, impartial, commissioner. But that's enough negativity for one day... its only about 60 days until pitchers and catchers report. That's really what its all about.