Some sad news out of Chicago: Long time Cubs player/legend/announcer Ron Santo has died.
Friends of Santo’s family said the North Side icon lapsed into a coma on Wednesday before dying Thursday. Santo died of complications from bladder cancer, WGN-AM 720 reported.
“He absolutely loved the Cubs,” said Santo’s broadcast partner, Pat Hughes. “The Cubs have lost their biggest fan.”
Hughes noted that with all the medical problems Santo had–including diabetes with resulting leg amputations, heart disease and bladder cancer–”he never complained. He wanted to have fun. He wanted to talk baseball.”
Ron was seemingly forever on the cusp of HOF election but never made it over the hump. Seems fitting that his career numbers most closely resemble Dale Murphy, another player perpetually “on the bubble” of HOF election. His numbers were damn good, regardless.
The Charleston RiverDogs will look to improve in 2011, after they finished 65-74 overall, ahead of just Rome in the South Atlantic League’s Southern Division. They finished the 2010 season twelve games behind division winner, the Greenville Drive, despite some solid pitching performances.
As a team, the RiverDogs were mediocre at the plate and problematic in the field, though their pitching often provided some bright spots for the Yankees Class A affiliate. As a team, the RiverDogs hit .258/.324/.380/.704. They found themselves in the middle of the South Atlantic League for most offensive categories. When they got on base, the RiverDogs stole 133 bases, but they were thrown out 78 times. They connected with 84 homeruns, tying them for fifth in the SAL.
This will be great news for a few of us, but if you’re one of us, celebrate! And I’ll see you there!
Syracuse is headed to the inaugural New Era Pinstripe Bowl, FanHouse has learned. [...]
The New Era Pinstripe Bowl will be played at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 30.
Who’s with me? Evidently lotsa you might be:
“This is a fabulous opportunity for our institution, as many alums live in the area and our fans can descend upon New York City for the holidays,” Dr. Daryl Gross, Syracuse’s athletics director, said in a statement. “We continue to want to represent as New York’s college team as we are the only B.C.S. school in the state of New York and plan to paint the city orange.”
This bothers me a bit:
Although the Jeter negotiations have taken longer and been messier than many expected, a source said Major League Baseball was pleased the Yankees have chosen not to give Jeter a huge above-market deal just because of his iconic status.
Why would MLB care? Clearly the Jeter contract –Yankee For Life® — would represent a ‘special case’ and not ‘business as usual’. The Troy Tulowitzki deal is likely more representative of valuations for premium players in their prime than whatever Jeter signs for. I can’t imagine any agent taking the (eventual) Jeter contract into a negotiation and trying to use it as an analog for another client. Both sides would have to simply ignore it due to its extenuating circumstances.
So why is MLB “pleased”? More Yankee spending equals more luxury tax payments, right?
The Yanks senior leadership team met with Derek Jeter and agent Casey Close the other day. Despite my hopes, Randy Levine was there, but it also seems that Hank Steinbrenner was told to wait in the car.
“Everyone was professional and the tenor of the meeting was great,” said the source, who confirmed that owner Hal Steinbrenner, general manager Brian Cashman and team president Randy Levine attended the meeting along with Jeter, Close and an unidentified lawyer for CAA, Close’s agency. Hank Steinbrenner was not involved in the meeting but was briefed on it by his brother afterward. [...]
“The way it left off was, both sides are going to go back and think about what was discussed, and when someone has a brainstorm, they’ll get together again,” the source said, adding, “Hey, anyone can pick up a telephone at any time.”
Still no smoke from the chimney but this is a good sign that we’re going to get some productive discussions happening.
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Related from the NY Times: Maybe Jeter Should Leave and Expand His Horizons. I’d rather not see it get to this, personally:
Jeter does not want to make a fool of himself by joining the wrong team in the wrong uniform at the wrong time, but where is it written that an athlete must finish his career where he started? Is Jeter so limited that he must attach himself to the Yankees for life, like a living mascot?
Of course not, but it’s no secret that being a Yankee For Life® adds a caché to Jeter’s legacy. It’s not written anywhere that athletes must finish where they started but given the rarity of the event, particularly with a Hall Of Famer, it just means more. Ask Padres fans about Gwynn, Brewers fans about Yount, Royals fans about Brett (not Ken), etc.
I imagine some people will find this counter-intuitive, but it makes a lot of sense to me. The problem with a cap, from the perspective of a small market team, is that it inevitably comes with a floor, and a salary floor limits your ability to cut costs in order to increase profitability if you’re a lower revenue team. That’s ok in theory if you have robust revenue sharing, but of course larger revenue teams don’t want to give up their money. On the other end of the spectrum, larger revenue teams have the benefit of having their labor costs artificially capped, allowing them to avoid the inflationary issues a team like the Yankees has to deal with when it comes to dealing with players like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and C.C. Sabathia and thereby pocket sky-high profits.
(click “view full post” to read more)
Since I’m somewhat fond of giving the business to mainstream writers from time to time, and I don’t want to look biased, let me (mildly) train my fire on the interwebs for a second, because I’ve seen a lot of comments like this one from Craig Calcaterra on a variety of topics on a semi-regular baseball:
Kudos to Passan and others — even some whose employers have an even more obvious incentive to milk money out of the playoffs than most — who have attacked this cynical idea, calling it out for exactly what it is. They are to be commended for doing what the Commissioner, the owners, the MLBPA and the players are supposed to do in looking after the best interests of the game as opposed to the best interests of those who profit from it.
(click “view full post” to read more)
Sorry I missed this stuff late last night. First the always-impressive Moshe at TYU:
@TheYankeeU: I heard 3 years, 51M, with 4th year option with a high buyout near 6M to effectively push Jeter to the same AAV he had on last deal.
Followed up by Jon Heyman:
@SI_JonHeyman: once source indicates #yankees might bump offer to #jeter to $51 mil and possibly add a 4th yr option. another source: “nothing imminent”
All of this follows up the report that Jeter and Close had met yesterday. If this offer is indeed true, especially Moshe’s part about the high buyout as a fancy going-away present, that would be a nice face-saving move for both sides. Unless, of course, Jeter wants way more per year than an in-the-prime Tulo just got. If that’s the case, all bets are off.
For all of the Jeter+contract stuff we all love to hate, click here.
