The Texas Rangers have announced that they have hired the ageless Nolan Ryan as president of the club, reporting to owner Tom Hicks.
What has yet to be determined is whether Ryan will have oversight responsibilities over the club’s baseball operation… Rangers owner Tom Hicks had set up his power structure to have both the general manager and president report directly to him, but kept their responsibilities separate.
But really, it’s just an excuse to take another look at the then 40-something Ryan fending himself from the foolish charge of Robin Ventura (video below). The beatdown is legendary and smile-evoking. I’d imagine any dissenting vote against one of Ryan’s ideas will be met with the same fate, or at least I’d like to believe it would.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKRQyS1gIJE&rel=1]
Looks like the sports books and odds-makers in Vegas got crushed when the Giants won. They got some ‘splainin’ to do.
whoops.
SI.com’s Tom Verducci has been espousing his “Year After Effect”, or YAE, about the handling of young pitchers as they progress to the Majors. His article yesterday was his latest on this theory, which I think is certainly worth mentioning. He highlighted seven pitchers who, if not used correctly, could be in line for a breakdown or steep decline in performance. Clearly, the old-school theory of “pitch, pitch, pitch” is well in our rearview mirror.
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Looks like Topps, which will be issuing cards of the top political candidates, has chosen to mock Rudy‘s flip-flopping from a lifelong Yankees fan to a RedSox fan (“rooting for the AL”, yeah right you butt-kisser). As any honest RSN or Yanks fan will attest, pick a side and stick to it. If nothing else, we respect the other side for being true to their fandom. Nothing’s worse than kowtowing for approval. No one respects that. For better or for worse, thru wins and losses. Pandering to an electoral base by switching lifelong allegiances shows a terrible precedent. Who wants a leader to say whatever he THINKS the people want to hear? Have some conviction in your beliefs and stick to them.
The only think Topps is missing to really stick it to Rudy would be have a “We will never forget” banner, tying in his unrelenting 9/11 schtick with the Yanks fans never forgetting his endorsement of the Sox. (personal note: as one who was in NYC that awful day, I think Rudy’s incessant discussion of that day for his own personal political campaign was sickening. End of political discussion. I promise. For now.)
“We read about Rudy rooting for the Red Sox and we thought – why not put him in the middle of the celebration,” said Clay Luraschi, baseball brand manager for Topps.
Congrats, Rudy. Maybe you and Drew Barrymore can get a pink had and sit front row taking pictures of Jeter’s ass. We can’t wait to have you back at the Stadium.
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UNRELATED: Again, my apologies for the lack of entries the last few days. Earnings season prep is nearly behind me and I’ll have a bit more time shortly. Thanks for your continued readership!
Looks like a Time-out Tuesday for me as work’s got me buried. I will try my best to get some stuff up here later this afternoon or tonite as my schedule allows. Thanks for understanding!
UPDATE #1: Note to self: don’t cross ESPN’s baseball analyst/scout extraordinaire Keith Law. He can really dish it (pardon the pun on the name of his blog) once he gets away from Big Daddy ESPN. To wit…(as usual, emphasis mine)
And every year, I’d root for an NFL team to go undefeated. There was just something so appealing about that zero in the “L” column – it hadn’t been done since before I was born, and to a kid who liked math, there was something beautiful in the idea of a team going 16-0. (And, yes, in a team going 0-16, although now I have a harder time rooting for anyone to fail to that degree. Well, except the Cowboys.) And every year, I’d get my hopes up, and some time in November, the last undefeated team would fall, and I’d see those idiots from the ’72 Dolphins with their champagne, celebrating someone else’s defeat. So the Patriots going 16-0 this year fulfilled that little wish I had as a sports-nut kid, and I’d love to see them finish it off today with a victory – and, since they’re already on Mercury Morris’ front lawn, to see them urinate in his flower bed and take a dump in his fish tank while they’re at it. Celebrating someone else’s failure is bad enough, but the way the mainstream media celebrates these jackasses’ annual celebration really rubs me the wrong way.
Just posting one ad from yesterday’s game:
I’ve been on record commenting that I applaud Clemens’ approach on defending his innocence, if indeed he IS innocent. He’s done all the things we, the fans, have wanted our heroes to do if wrongly accused. He didn’t crawl in a hole, he didn’t blame anyone else, he didn’t use the word “unknowingly”, etc. He fought back with all the power and aggression he could have.
Except now, we’ve seen Pettitte and Knoblauch come forward and corroborate McNamee’s story. And now we hear from Clemens’ agent, good ole Rusty Hardin, that Clemens is not worried about whatever Pettitte might say when he testifies, well, I think that’s just false bravado. There’s a fine line between being bold/aggressive and stupid. I think Clemens & Co. are crossing the line. Why even make the statements. Just keep quiet until required to talk. They’ve talked enough. No need to say any more.
Clemens’s lawyer said Pettitte would help, not hurt, his former teammate.
“We have nothing to fear about what Andy may testify to,” Rusty Hardin, Clemens’s lawyer in Houston, said in a telephone interview. “Everyone says Andy is honest; we have no reason to believe he will lie.”
Anyone who lies here will risk prosecution. The committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, could refer to the Department of Justice for investigation and possible criminal charges against witnesses he thinks did not tell the truth, as he did with Miguel Tejada. The possible penalty for lying to the committee or its lawyers is five years in prison.
I think Rusty should just keep quiet and stop trying to win the battle for the court of public opinion. That will be determined on February 13th.
What if 1) Everyone universally agrees that Pettitte IS honest and 2) He tells the truth and that contradicts everything Clemens has said? Then what, Rusty? An indictment, I guess. Or, are you going to accuse Pettitte of lying under oath?
I still think Clemens has the “unknowingly” phrase packed away, but ready to use when testifying. “I THOUGHT McNamee was giving me only B-12 and Lidocaine; if he gave me anything else, he did it without my knowledge or permission.” Yes, that’s how I see Clemens playing this out in 10 days.
Clearly, the YES Network, home of the Yankees, is pulling a Kevin Bacon in Animal House and giving all steroid coverage the “nothing to see here, no need to panic” effect.
In the article, during an interview with Phil Hughes, all follow-up questions and references to Clemens were kept steroids/PED-free. At one point in the story, Hughes says: “God-given ability can only get you so far, then it’s up to you to maximize that. Even if I can just take a little bit of what Roger did for us last year, (to) see the way he works out… see the way he goes about his business, it kind of gives you an idea of what you need to do to stay in this game as long as he did.” It seems the “idea” of what Clemens needed to do “to stay in this game as long as he did” is contained in Mitchell’s report. Or, at least, allegations of what Clemens did. If the Hughes feature was shot before the Mitchell Report came out, it would have been a good idea for YES – perhaps through “Hot Stove” host Bob Lorenz – to mention that fact. And if the Hughes interview was shot after the report was released, well, YES made the young pitcher look like a fool.
As a Yankee fan, I’d like to see YES not bury the story. But, I am sure they will continue to do so, for fear of Suzyn Waldman bursting into tears.
A pretty serious story about Corey Koskie’s struggles to return to ‘normalcy’ after continuing to suffer from Post Concussion Syndrome. Evidently, on this play (picture below) in 2006, Koskie slipped backwards and suffered whiplash and a concussion. He’s yet to play a game since then.
While concussions are commonplace in football, hockey, boxing and other “collision” sports, Koskie is part of a much smaller fraternity in baseball. It was like a bolt from the blue last year when catcher Mike Matheny, widely regarded as one of the game’s toughest customers, announced his retirement because of concussion-related issues.
Koskie, in contrast, is stuck in a sort of netherworld between acceptance and denial. He’s not so bereft of hope that he’s ready to call it quits, but he’s realistic enough to know what the future holds.
Look, the “genius” label gets tossed around way to often in terms of sports management. Billy Beane is often considered the brightest bulb in the bunch in recent years. Former Twins GM Terry Ryan has created a model of modest success despite historically tight budgets set by notorious tightwad Carl Pohlad. Theo Epstein is a virtual deity in New England, and rightfully so. Brian Cashman is universally respected by his peers.
Here’s the difference: it’s one thing to be smart, it’s entirely another to be smart AND have (virtually) unlimited resources. The Yanks and RedSox have built deep, powerful and impressive farm systems the last few years. How? Not just due to great scouting departments. It takes CASH, and a lot of it. With the MLB draft/slotting system irrevocably flawed (the link is dated but still relevant), big market teams, or teams with owners willing to go the extra few yards, can exploit this system to their benefit. The Yanks, Sox and Tigers are doing just that.
Pete Abraham of the LoHud Yankees blog dug these stats out of the BA Prospect Handbook:
Yanks spending on draft picks the last few years:
- 2007: $7.4 million
- 2006: $6.3 million
- 2005: $3.7 million
- 2004: $4.8 million
- 2003: $3.8 million
and the Red Sox:
- 2007: $3.5 million
- 2006: $6.8 million
- 2005: $6.2 million
- 2004: $1.8 million
- 2003: $5.1 million
I won’t even bring up the fact that endless resources allows a team to bury mistakes without crippling it’s chances long term. Pavano, Jaret Wright, Kei Igawa, Edgar Renteria, JD Drew, Coco Crisp, Eric Gagne…. Any of those on a small market team could naplam a team’s chances. But for the big guys, they can just write it off and that’s more than a tremendous advantage.
Just remember, it was the late Bill Veeck, owner of the Chicago White Sox, who said: ”It isn’t the high price of stars that’s expensive, it’s the high price of mediocrity.”
As we approach the 10th anniversary for Brian Cashman as GM of the Yanks -who woulda thunk it-, we can be nothing if not impressed with his resolve, his ability to withstand living in a pressure-filled bubble, his ability to hold firm on things he believed in. The NY Times takes a moment to dive into Cashman’s world, just a bit.
I feel the responsibility of millions of Yankee fans on my shoulders, fans who take this very seriously and for which every game is very important. I think of that every day. –Brian Cashman
