Olympic Baseball's Two-Week Wake
Watching Olympic baseball in 2008 feels like a deathbed vigil for a friendless relative. Only here, the seats are harder. The ballpark, a long bus ride from the Olympic Green's architectural fireworks, is built of sheet metal covered with netting in army-camp khaki. Inside, it's a naked latticework of temporary stands: no Bird's Nest, no Water Cube, no permanence. As soon as these Games are over, the whole thing will be unbolted and trucked away.
It isn't quite what Brandon Knight had hoped for in the place where he has reached the peak of a long trudge through the American minor leagues. He is almost 33 years old, in his 15th season of pro ball. Back in 2001 and 2002, for under a year all-told, he pitched for the Yankees. Now, Mr. Knight is with a New York Mets farm club in New Orleans.
The Mets, in a pinch, called him up earlier this season to pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals at Shea Stadium. At the end of that one game, they shipped him back to the minors. But this time a demotion was his lucky break: By Baseball Major League rules, it let him seize the chance for a trip to Beijing instead.
"So unexpected!" he said Tuesday night. "Thirty-two years old. I was going to retire. I thought about getting into insurance." He stood in front of the U.S. dugout, surveying the Olympic grandeur. "This is better than Yankee Stadium," he said. "This is the highlight of my career. This is something."
Thanks to the Olympics, baseball isn't through with Brandon Knight. But there's one thing that he and the rest of the eight teams here are trying to put out of their minds: The Olympics are through with baseball. The International Olympic Committee voted it off the program for 2012 in London. It has a chance to make the Olympic show in 2016; so does softball, also axed this year. But golf, rugby, squash and karate are all out to prove themselves worthier of those two slots. Unless Major League Baseball gives in and lets major leaguers play, the only position baseball will play at the 2016 Games is going to be left-out. As the end nears, there isn't much joy at Wukesong Baseball Field. In the early rounds the atmosphere was sepulchral. One game, between South Korea and China, pulled in fewer than 1,000 fans.
On Tuesday, about 6,000 showed up to watch the team from the place usually known as Taiwan (Chinese Taipei here) play the U.S. Paying customers were stuck in the outfield. Infield seats were reserved for the press and the "Olympic Family," both in near-complete non-attendance. The loudspeakers were loud enough, emitting the same seat-banging sound effects inescapable at U.S. ballparks. A blessing of baseball at past Olympics has been a commercial-free calm. But when the sound effects stop at Wukesong, the stands are sometimes struck dumb.
It wasn't so bad Tuesday, when Mr. Knight, a right hander, started his second game for the U.S. His first was painful: He gave up six runs and threw a wild pitch. The U.S. lost to Korea 8-7. On Tuesday, he pitched scoreless ball until the fifth, then allowed a double and a run. He stayed in until the seventh, when Mike Koplove, who has spent parts of seven seasons in the majors, relieved him and retired the side.
"Take Me Out to the Ballgame" played. The crowd remained mute, though somebody in right field held up an American flag. In the ninth, with the U.S. ahead 4-2, Kevin Jepsen came in (along with a cloud of grasshoppers) and wrapped it up. Mr. Knight got the win. It put him in a hopeful mood. "There's going to be baseball in the Olympics again," he said after the game. "I guarantee it."
In case he was wrong, it might have been nice for a sentimental fan to take home a souvenir: a last-ever Olympics baseball. But there weren't any baseballs on sale at Wukesong Field. "They should've thought of that," said a man on his way out. He had a Major League Baseball tag on his backpack. "Could've sold them for 45 bucks apiece."
Maybe next time.
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Free Barry Bonds
I miss Barry Bonds. Maybe I am the only person outside of San Francisco that does but I do. Sunday's unexpected return of Bonds to AT and T Park was received with a thunderous ovation and chants of "Barry, Barry!" from the Giants' faithful. Unfortunately, it was just a 50th Anniversary Reunion of Giants' outfielders and not Bonds' return to the National Pastime.
Disagree? I bet you do. Major League Baseball has done a great job of throwing it's superstars from the "Juiced" era under the bus including Barry Bonds, 2008's persona non grata throughout the Majors. You remember the "Juiced" era, right? It came right after the 1994 work stoppage that earned Major League Baseball the dubious distinction of becoming the first professional sport to lose an entire postseason because of a labor dispute.
If you're still a little fuzzy on it. The "Juiced" era brought us the much celebrated Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa chase of Roger Maris's single season home run mark of 61, which was shattered by both McGwire and Sosa and later destroyed by Mr. Bonds.
Somehow baseball gets credit for taking the high road by leaving the game's home run king on the sideline this season. Bonds, 44, hit .276 with 28 home runs and 66 RBI in 126 games last season with the Giants but a youth movement in San Francisco sent the 22-year veteran into free agency where he sits and waits for his phone to ring. There is a small squadron of teams in need of a corner outfielder and a few teams that could have used a designated hitter but no one willing to touch Bonds and his baggage.
Bonds is the poster boy for performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. Lost in the shuffle are the number of active players, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Gary Bennett, Jack Cust, Ryan Franklin, Eric Gagne, Jerry Hairston, Jr., Matt Herges, Paul Lo Duca, Andy Pettitte, Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada, Ron Villone and Gregg Zaun to name a few, that are still gainfully employed by Major League Baseball teams with performance-enhancing drug allegations on their records. Bonds does have the additional strike against him of federal charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
Last time I checked, Bonds continually claims innocence on all criminal charges. Last time I checked, this is America. In America, our citizens are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, the executives around baseball have already weighed in with their verdict by washing their hands of one of the greatest players to ever play the game of baseball, performance-enhancing drugs or not. While I am not naive enough to think that Bonds never used performance-enhancing drugs, I still believe in due process.
One argument that was thrown out the window was baseball's slow eradication of those tied to performance-enhancing drugs by not signing players whenever the situations arose. First, there was the signing of Jay Gibbons to a Minor League contract by the Milwaukee Brewers last month. Then, last Friday, the Florida Marlins signed Paul Lo Duca to a Minor League contract as a backup plan should they need a backup catcher. Two guys tied to performance-enhancing drugs, both able to gain employment with Major League Baseball. Why not Bonds?
That's easy for the Bonds' haters. In their eyes, Bonds "cheated" and he is not the nicest guy in the world to the media. They ignore the work he's done in the community with the Bonds Family Foundation and the UCSF Children's Hospital. They also ignore the fact that Andy Pettitte "cheated" and he's still gainfully employed and in some circles celebrated for finally admitting the use. They even choose to ignore that when most players allegedly used performance-enhancing drugs, they were not even against the Major League Baseball's rules. You know who you are.
Criticize me if you must but one more chance to see Bonds play would sell me a ticket. Maybe it is because I think smaller ballparks, better equipment and a drop-off in pitching which traditionally occurs along with expansion had a bigger effect on the home run boom than performance-enhancing drugs. Maybe it is because I am not naive enough to believe that performance-enhancing drugs are not completely gone from the game. In the last 30 days, at least six Minor Leaguers received suspensions for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Amazingly, no one in the Majors has this year. It does not even seem possible.
Besides, home runs are at an average of 1.004 per game this season, down from the 1.019 per game of 2007. I guess that is due to baseball's amazing job of wiping their league clean and not due to the emergence of Tim Lincecum, Jair Jurrjens, Joba Chamberlain, Edinson Volquez or a number of other young pitchers leading the pitching renaissance. In the past 12 months, unemployment in the United States has increased by 1.6 million. At an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent, it is the highest it has been in more than four years. If Bonds would have done what many of his haters wanted him to do when he showed up on Sunday and said he was officially retired, he could have been moved out of the ranks of the unemployed and drifted off into the sunset with a chorus of cheers from his adoring fans in San Francisco. Instead, the man who was once a lock for the Hall of Fame before anyone even thought he would break the home run record, is a statistic thanks to the owners and general managers who refuse to give Barry Bonds one more chance.
"I'm not retired. Thank you!" said Bonds in closing to the grateful fans of San Francisco who enjoyed most of Bonds' blasts. I speak for the minority of fans who miss your amazing hitting, Barry, when I say, "No, Barry, thank you!"
Copyright 2008 Most Valuable Network, LLC.
Reds' Griffey Accepts Trade to White Sox, Fox Reports
Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. accepted a trade to the Chicago White Sox, FoxSports.com reported on its Web site.
The 13-time All-Star had the right to block the move under Major League Baseball rules because he has over 10 years of service, five with the same club.
Cincinnati will receive pitcher Nick Masset and minor- league infielder Danny Richar in return, ESPN reported. Reds spokesman Rob Butcher and White Sox spokesman Pat O'Connell declined to comment. Griffey's agent, Brian Goldberg, didn't immediately return a message for comment.
Cincinnati (51-58) is 13 1/2 games out of first place in the National League Central while the Chicago White Sox lead the American League Central by 1 1/2 games. Teams have until 4 p.m. New York time to trade players without them having to clear waivers. Griffey, 38, is batting .245 this season with 15 home runs and 53 runs batted in. He became the sixth major-league player with 600 career home runs on June 10 and now has 608. Masset, a 26-year-old right-hander, is 1-0 with a 4.63 earned run average in 32 games for the White Sox this season. Chicago already has Jermaine Dye, who has 24 home runs, in right field, the position where Griffey plays in Cincinnati. Center fielder Nick Swisher is batting .230 with 15 home runs and left fielder Carlos Quentin leads the White Sox with 28 home runs.
10 Gold Gloves
Griffey spent the his first 11 seasons with the Seattle Mariners where he won the 1997 American League Most Valuable Player award and all 10 of his Gold Gloves for defense. Seattle traded Griffey to Cincinnati in 2000 per his request to play for a team closer to his Florida home. He signed a nine-year, $112 million contract that expires at the end of this season. Griffey's tenure in Cincinnati was marred by a series of injuries. He missed about half the team's games from 2001-2004 with torn left and right hamstrings, a ruptured ankle tendon, a dislocated right kneecap, and a dislocated right shoulder.
The only player traded with more career home runs was Willie Mays in 1972. The San Francisco Giants traded the Hall- of-Fame outfielder, who had 646 home runs at the time, to the New York Mets. Mays played one more season before he retired.
2008 Bloomberg L.P
Hendry banking on fine being reduced by MLB
The Cubs are expected to be fined USD 500,000 by Major League Baseball this week for violating the rules of the amateur draft.
While the issue hasn't been fully resolved, the Cubs have not denied any rules violations. The club is hoping for leniency based on their clean record up to this incident.
"We've never violated the rules in the past," general manager Jim Hendry said. "Clearly we violated the rules of not reporting (two) signings before they were completed."
The two draft picks received "over-the-slot" signing bonuses, meaning they got more money than the MLB guidelines suggest for picks in their respective rounds of the draft.
But the team says the violation was procedural, not financial, and the Cubs know they will have to pay some penalty for the delay in reporting the signings to the league. The question is how much the penalty should be.
Hendry said the Cubs' mistake in reporting the signings was unintentional. He's enjoyed a good relationship with Commissioner Bud Selig, which could bode well for the Cubs. But MLB is a stickler for following procedural rules regarding the draft, so it may not matter in the long run.
Tribune Interactive, Inc.
No-hit win makes no sense, except in baseball
Baseball is the best game in part because every night you go to the ballpark, you might see something that you've never seen before. No other sport can say that like baseball can, and Saturday night at Dodger Stadium was just such a night, a night that made no sense. The Dodgers did not get a hit, but won the game. The Angels did not allow a hit, but lost the game. The final score was 1-0, marking the fifth time since 1900 that a team did not get a hit, but won the game. The losing pitcher was Jered Weaver, who threw six no-hit innings, but was taken out for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh inning after 98 pitches, but he was trailing, 1-0, thanks to an unearned run allowed in the fifth.
This is the third time in the expansion era (1961-on) that we had an eight-inning no-hitter: Boston's Matt Young threw one against Cleveland in 1992, and the Yankees' Andy Hawkins threw one against the White Sox in 1990. They were officially considered no-hitters at the time, but several years ago, the rule was changed. Now, according to major league rules, an official no-hitter is "when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings.'' So, the no-hitters by Young and Hawkins are no longer considered no-hitters, nor is the no-hitter thrown by Weaver and Jose Arredondo, who pitched the seventh and eighth innings Saturday night. So the Angels did not allow a hit, but did not throw a no-hitter.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia didn't have much of a choice but to remove Weaver. Weaver probably could have gone another inning or two, but the Angels were losing, they've had trouble scoring runs all season, they hadn't scored a run in the first 15 innings of series at Dodger Stadium, and Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley was dealing. Weaver can blame interleague play for his removal. On the same weekend that the record for RBIs in a game by a DH was set by a National League player (Met Carlos Delgado), an American League pitcher was pulled from a game for a pinch-hitter with a no-hitter after six innings. There was a questionable scoring call in the fifth inning. The Dodgers' Matt Kemp, who runs very well, hit a little grounder that was spinning furiously when Weaver reached it about 20 feet from first base. He took his eye off it briefly, then was unable to pick it up. Official scorer Don Hartack ruled it an error, which was the correct call. Some official scorers will tell you that the first hit of a game has to be a legitimate one just in case it is the only hit of the game.
Some may say that Kemp might have beaten out the ball had it been fielded cleanly, and therefore it should have been scored a hit. But imagine the uproar if Weaver had gotten a couple of runs, allowed no other hits for nine innings, and that play was scored a hit. It would have been viewed as a homer call for the Dodgers. In the divisional era (1969-on), there have been three no-hitters in which a run was scored by the losing team: Darryl Kile allowed one in his no-hitter in 1993, Joe Cowley in his in 1986, and Blue Moon Odom and Francisco Barrios in their combined no-hitter in 1976. (Cowley walked eight in his no-hitter. Then-White Sox coach Doug Rader jokingly said after the game that "Cowley pitched so badly, I didn't even shake his hand after the game.'').
The Angels have thrown eight no-hitters in franchise history, the last six have involved either Nolan Ryan (four) or Mike Witt, who threw a perfect game in 1984, then was involved in a combined no-hitter with Mark Langston on April 11, 1990. The last no-hitter at Dodger Stadium was by Kent Mercker of the Braves on April 8, 1994. But those are still in play because a no-hitter was not thrown Saturday night at Dodger Stadium even though the Dodgers didn't get a hit. This could only happen in baseball, the best game.
2008 ESPN Internet Ventures
Twins' Gardenhire fined by MLB
MINNEAPOLIS. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was fined an undisclosed amount of money after his team did not comply with Major League Baseball's pace of game regulations this past weekend, the league said in a release on Tuesday.
The fine comes after Gardenhire voiced his displeasure following Sunday's 4-2 loss in Milwaukee about a play involving shortstop Brendan Harris.
Harris had tried to call time during an at-bat in the eighth inning of the game. But while Harris was stepping back into the batter's box and looking down at the ground thinking he had been granted the timeout, Guillermo Mota threw an 85-mph slider into catcher Jason Kendall's glove for what home-plate umpire Brian Runge ruled a called third strike.
Gardenhire was upset that the pitch was allowed to be thrown with his player standing near the plate and his head down. But during Gardenhire's on-field protest, the skipper was told by Runge that he was just trying to do what he was told by the league and that's keep the game going.
Last month teams were asked by Major League Baseball to help enforce speed up rules already in place. It was an attempt to halt the recent trend of the length of games increasing each year.
"The speed up stuff, that's all good and fine, but if he gets hit in the head there with a pitch, not looking at it, what are we going to do then?" Gardenhire said after the game on Sunday. "It's gonna lead to bad things. It's gonna lead to somebody getting hurt."
The Twins had an off-day on Monday before returning to play against the Nationals on Tuesday. When asked again about his Sunday postgame comments before the series opener vs. Washington, Gardenhire said he could not talk about it. Gardenhire wasn't the only skipper targeted this weekend. Astros manager Cecil Cooper was also fined by the league for not following to follow the pace of the game regulations. Cooper and Gardenhire are the first two managers sanctioned under the new enforcement of those rules.
2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Baseball swings and misses at Supreme Court
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to wade into the argument that non-sanctioned, Internet fantasy leagues should be outlawed, meaning you won't go to jail if you emerge from the shadows long enough to add Eric Chavez to your roster. No, Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn't recuse herself because her fantasy team, the Reasonable Doubts, leads the Habeas Corpus League.
The Supremes simply decided to let stand a lower-court ruling that Major League Baseball and its players association don't own player statistics. This allows companies to operate fantasy leagues without the MLB stamp of approval. At issue is whether players and, by extension, their statistics are private property. It sounds absurd to think that numbers available from a thousand different outlets could be viewed as private property, but a major component of the argument pertains to money and licensing deals for pro athletes and sports. Baseball argued that billions of dollars potentially could be compromised, while the other side maintained in their suit against Major League Baseball that statistics are public domain and free to anyone. The 8th Circuit Court in St. Louis came down on the side of public domain.
Here's why that matters: Though baseball was the primary defendant, most other pro players associations piggybacked on top of the appeal, because if baseball cannot control the use and distribution of its stats, neither can any other league. Companies don't need permission to run NBA or NHL or NASCAR fantasy leagues and make a buck off of them.
The ruling also could have applications beyond sports. If a company decided to start, say, a Celebrity Arrest & Rehab Stint fantasy league, say hello to No. 1 draft pick Lindsay Lohan, those "statistics" are certainly in the public domain as well. Now, even if the circuit court had sided with baseball, or the Supremes had overturned the lower court's decision, it wouldn't have affected you and your buddies' fantasy leagues. It's about companies setting up their own leagues, charging fees and making a profit. Attorney Ted Frank, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributor to the legal watchdog Web site "Overlawyered.com," wrote in an e-mail response that the Supreme Court will review lower court decisions to reconsider constitutional precedent, correct application of the wrong legal standard, or reconcile courts that decide similar issues differently.
"Except MLBPA wasn't asking for a new constitutional rule," Frank wrote, "and acknowledged that the 8th (Circuit Court) applied the correct legal standard. They just wanted a different result, but the Supreme Court doesn't review that sort of factual dispute."
This concludes the legal portion of today's column, since you no more read the sports section for judicial explanations than you go to a steak house for the steamed carrots. In this particular food fight, it's tempting to view Commish Bud Selig and MLB as Henry Potter, the stone-hearted, ruthless banker in "It's a Wonderful Life," while the uncertified fantasy leagues are George Bailey's modest savings and loan. That wouldn't be quite accurate. The fantasy-league outfits are quite profitable, the plaintiff in this case, St. Louis-based CBC Distribution and Marketing, listed annual sales of USD 3.4 million in 2004 and '05. They obviously have capable attorneys, and they don't depend on the generosity of the participants to remain afloat.
Meanwhile, it's doubtful that Mr. Potter would have allowed himself to be held hostage by the players' association, presided over years of drug abuse by players or let the All-Star Game end in a tie. Were he called to testify before Congress, he might have made Henry Waxman or Christopher Shays cry. Baseball simply was trying to protect its investment and its partners. Several companies paid beaucoup dollars to run MLB-certified, for-profit fantasy leagues. Why pay for the horse, though, if the rest of the rodeo is free? ESPN, for example, opted out of a USD 20 million-per-year deal with MLB to run fantasy leagues and is certain to pay much less the next time around.
"I don't think it's great public policy for baseball to get to control speech about baseball," Frank responded, "but that's a different question than whether baseball is aggrieved. If baseball has the right to forbid fantasy leagues without baseball's permission," he continued, "then that's worth a lot of money to baseball, so they had a point about lost revenues, because monopoly control over fantasy baseball is worth a lot of money. I don't think baseball has that right, but one can't be surprised that they tried to say that they do."
Baseball overreached. Like them or not, fantasy leagues spurred interest in the game beyond the narrow loyalties of many traditional fans and helped create the great health and record revenue that Selig often touts. Obviously, there's plenty for everyone. Attorneys included.
Copyright 2008, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
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