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Monday, November 2, 2009 02:36 PM
No rush for this Series to end
So. Reggie Jackson walks by my pal Howard Bryant of ESPN early Monday morning after the Yankees beat the Phillies and says to Bryant: “Tell the Phillies the varsity are in town.”
Indeed. By now, you’ve probably read about the Philadelphia Inquirer’s mistaken ad celebrating the Phillies' back-to-back World Series titles. It’s a funny little mistake that happens. No autopsy, no foul. It’s not even the funniest thing I’ve seen this week. When the Yankees beat the Phillies in Game 2, the Philadelphia Daily News’ front page read: “Yankees Avert Sweep.” That’s pretty cheeky.
Looking forward to seeing A.J. Burnett and Cliff Lee hook up Monday night. I had a chance to talk to Burnett for about 10 minutes Friday to see how his dad was doing. His father underwent triple-bypass heart surgery late in the season. Burnett said he was doing fine but that he was bitter about not being able to come down to New York to see his son pitch.
We reporters are a whiny lot, but this is one of the few series I’ve covered in recent years where there isn’t a mass hankering for the thing to end. Deep down, I think most of us would like to see this go back to New York and maybe see the Yankees win it at home in Game 6 with Andy Pettitte on the mound. Seems like a waste winning it here when there’s a perfectly good new ballpark sitting there in the Bronx just dying for some history.
Link to this postSaturday, October 31, 2009 03:47 PM
Jays coaching moves make sense
It was Brad Arnsberg’s move to the Houston Astros that forced the Toronto Blue Jays to announce an overhaul of their coaching staff on the dinner hour Friday night.
And while I would be happier if Cito Gaston’s move into senior advisorhood was happening right now instead of after next year – because despite the spin being put on the end of season turmoil, the fact is that Gaston lost most of the influential players in the Blue Jays clubhouse weeks before – I’ll give new general manager Alex Anthopoulos the benefit of the doubt.
If it takes him a year to find the right guy to manage this team, he should take it. Suggesting publicly that Brian Butterfield might have a chance to manage the team after 2010 effectively limits the power of Gaston and Nick Leyva, his trusted lieutenant, although deep down I have a hard time seeing Butterfield getting the job. Want a long-shot? How about Paul Molitor?
At any rate, the Blue Jays 2011 manager is, I believe, currently employed elsewhere.
As for the other moves? I like the promotion of Rick Langford to bullpen coach. He’s done good work with those young arms in the minors. And Bruce Walton's work ethic was deservedly rewarded with a promotion to pitching coach.
Dwayne Murphy was a strong choice to replace Gene Tenace, since I’m told to begin with the Aaron Hills and Adam Linds of the world paid more attention to Murphy than Tenace.
So Friday was a good day for Blue Jays fans – could have been better but, hell, we’ll take what we can get, right?
Saturday, October 31, 2009 10:54 AM
Pinch-hitting for Torre: Manuel
Charlie Manuel is the new Joe Torre. OK, stylistically the two are as different as Sinatra and Hank Williams. But Manuel, the Philadelphia Phillies manager, has replaced Torre as the guy whose interview sessions are can’t miss.
I’d moved Manuel into my Top 5 managers during last year’s World Series. But Friday, in taking a not very thinly veiled shot at Tim McCarver, he’s cemented his place – because anybody who takes a shot at McCarver is, as far as I’m considered, automatically granted sainthood.
McCarver droned on ad nauseum in Game 2 after Manuel didn’t start the runners in a double play by Chase Utley that ended the eighth inning and effectively killed the Phillies chances.
Credit Jeter for making a tough throw, but the fact is that Utley was clearly safe at first base.
Manuel rankled slightly after the game when he was questioned about it. Friday, he revisited it with a vengeance. This is what I love about Manuel: second-guessing doesn’t bother him but keep your head up if you give him any logical opening.
“You know what: that’s bad baseball if Utley strikes out and (Jimmy) Rollins gets thrown out at third base. Or if we hit a line-drive double play and we run into a double play, we’ve got one of the best hitters in baseball standing on deck. Between Utley and Howard we’ve got 80 home runs. We’ve got over 200 runs batted in and things like that right there. That’s our game standing there, right in front of us."
“And it’s also an out elimination process. We have five outs left in the game, we’ve got our biggest offensive threat standing at the plate. Those guys have to hit for me. I’ll do that as long as I live. Actually, I get upset when somebody asks me that because that’s not baseball. I don’t give a damn who’s played 20 years or 50 years and think they know; that’s not the right way to play the game.”
Game 2 was a second-guesser’s delight. And it wasn’t just Manuel who received broadcast criticism. Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was skewered for striking out in the seventh inning when he tried to drop a bunt with runners on first and second.
Manager Joe Girardi took the bunt sign off but Jeter – who appeared frustrated at times when facing Pedro Martinez and who has been coughing noticeably all week – tried it again on his own.
He called it a “stupid” play but said Friday he considered it to be more a matter of “stupid execution,” than stupid strategy. After answering a series of questions, he turned to Eric Hinske in an adjacent locker and said: “Man, imagine if we’d lost the game!”
Monday, October 26, 2009 03:50 PM
Doc dines with Beeston
Roy Halladay is mulling over his future with the Toronto Blue Jays after a dinner meeting in Florida last week with Blue Jays interim president and chief executive officer Paul Beeston.
Brandi Halladay, the wife of the Blue Jays ace pitcher, and Halladay’s agent Greg Landry were all involved in the meeting. Alex Anthopoulos, the Blue Jays general manager, did not attend because he developed the flu. But he has spoken to Halladay by telephone. There has been no change in Halladay’s status: he is under contract for another year and Beeston made clear that the Blue Jays want him to be a part of the team. Sources say that if Halladay is open to a contract extension with the team, money will not be an issue.
But there has been a distinct change in the way the team is handling the situation.
Neither Halladay or Landry would respond to interview requests. Anthopoulos, meanwhile, said he would have no comment “out of respect for Doc’s (Halladay’s) privacy.” Anthopoulos’s predecessor, J.P. Ricciardi, was criticized in some circles for the open manner in which he handled Halladay’s status at the July 31 trade deadline. Halladay has maintained publicy that his first preference would be to win a World Series title with the Toronto Blue Jays. That thirst will likely only be ratcheted up Wednesday night when the pitcher the Philadelphia Phillies acquired instead of Halladay - Cliff Lee - starts Game 1 of the World Series.
“It’s one of those things where you need to have a first meeting in order to have the second meeting,” Beeston said Monday. “The first meeting isn’t always meaningful but without it you don’t have the second. It was kind of a love-in.”
Beeston said that the Blue Jays could be in a position to announce their new president during the World Series – “I don’t think Bud (Selig, the baseball commissioner) would mind,” he said with a chuckle when asked about Selig’s preference that teams do not make major announcements during the Series – amid repeated suggestions that Beeston himself remains the preferred choice of ownership.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:11 PM
Tough night for men in blue
I’ll have a lot to say about the lousy umpiring in Major League Baseball’s postseason in tomorrow’s Globe – yes, I am still against increased use of video replay and I'll admit I have a lot of time for their fraternity – but for now here’s some lunch-time stuff to mull over as a result of Tim McClelland and Dale Scott’s brutal work in Game 4 of the ALCS.
If an umpiring controversy erupts during a regular-season game, a pool reporter is often designated to interview the umpires afterward – but there are instances where more than one reporter will track down an umpire. Normally, it depends on the the umpire as to whether or not the interview request succeeds – from personal experience, I can tell you that 90 per cent of them will clear things up on or off the record and some, like Joe West or Alfonso Marquez, will take great pains to do so.
(This year, I had the pleasure of watching Jonathon Sanchez’s no-hitter in a bar in Baltimore with the Sun’s Dan Connelly and umpire Ron Kulpa, who had second base in a game that night between the Blue Jays and Orioles. Pretty cool seeing the final three innings pitch by pitch through the eyes of an umpire.)
In the post-season, however, umpires or an umpire supervisor are often brought into the interview room (in 2006, supervisor Steve Palermo handled questions after the now-infamous “smudge-gate” incident in which television showed Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers with what appeared to be pine tar on his uniform pants.)
McClelland’s no stranger to this stuff. He had home plate during the infamous George Brett pine tar incident in 1983 (McClelland misinterpreted a rule) and – get this – was in left field during the Rogers incident.
Here’s the transcript from McClelland’s appearance at the podium after Tuesday’s game in Anaheim:
THE MODERATOR: Tim, whatever you want to say.
TIM McCLELLAND: As far as the two calls that I had at third base. The first one with Swisher leaving too soon. In my heart I thought he left too soon.
On the play with Cano and Posada, I thought Cano was on the base. I was waiting for two players to be on the base, and when there was never the situation where both of them were on the base at the same time. When he tagged Cano, I thought Cano was on the base, and when Jorge touched the base and continued and tagged Posada out, I thought Posada was out.
After looking at replays, I'm not sure I believe the replay of the first one. I said in my heart I thought he left too soon. But the replay showed that he didn't. We go in and watch replays regularly after every game, even during the regular season. That's part of our procedures.
Then the second one it showed that Cano was off the bag when he was tagged. I did not see that for whatever reason. So obviously there were two missed calls. Obviously, or not obviously, but there were two missed calls. And I'm just out there trying to do my job and do it the best I can. And unfortunately there was by instant replay, there were two missed calls.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Tim. Thank you for coming up.
Here’s the video clip, courtesy ESPN. Note the body language – and Jim Caple’s attached commentary.
Bob Raissman rips Tim McCarver and Joe Buck for their silence on the matter. Good point, considering Fox keeps blathering on about how it has miked up umpires. Beyond that, though, it’s a major issue I have with McCarver in particular: he gets caught up in the minutiae of the game and prattles on about big-picture matters that ceased being issues weeks ago but he overlooks the more immediate big picture.
Later ….
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:53 PM
Phillies dig the long ABs
Two things are apparent so far this MLB post-season:
1. as always, the championship series provides better baseball than the World Series and;
2. if the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies meet in the World Series get ready for the longest games in post-season history. The Phillies lineup is the closest thing I’ve seen to an American League lineup in terms of “length” – the ability to grind out at-bats and have productive outs from top to bottom (pitchers excluded, of course.)
Monday’s games were a study in post-season managing and it’s interesting how Mike Scioscia suddenly went from obstinate to patient with one swing of Vladimir Guerrero’s bat. The Yankees' Joe Girardi has made something like 41 player/pitcher moves so far this post-season and fair play to Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record and Fox Sports for wondering if he isn’t overplaying his hand. Funny, because people I know with the Florida Marlins say one of the reasons Girardi was fired after winning manager of the year is his players, coaches and front office became tired of his micro-managing. This is the guy who removed the candy from the Yankees spring training clubhouse and ordered the team to chew sugarless gum only ….
Couple of other nooner items:
* I’d put nothing past the IOC, but all I can say is if the details alleged in a book by retired sports minister and president of the Chinese Olympic Committee Yuan Weimin are true … and that Beijing made a backroom deal to derail Toronto’s bid for the 2008 Olympics … all I can say is, thank god. If a city can’t fix its roads, put in a real subway system, take care of the homeless and figure out how to take the garbage it has no business pretending to be an Olympic city. Canadian taxpayers owe a hearty thanks to Mr. Weimin or whoever else was involved;
* If Manny Acta doesn’t get the Cleveland Indians managing job, I wouldn’t be surprised if he figures in any reworking of the Toronto Blue Jays coaching staff. Never mind that new Jays assistant GM Dana Brown worked with Acta in Montreal and with the Washington Nationals; Acta is also known to Alex Anthopoulos and Tony LaCava;
* The Colorado Avalanche are making the right move in keeping Matt Duchene in the NHL, based on what I saw in person against the Maple Leafs and from TV. He has a better awareness of what’s going on around him right now than Leafs pick Nazem Kadri showed, in terms of self-preservation. Kadri just wasn’t ready for the physical rigours of the NHL … but he will be next season, and none too soon;
* Finally, I have to respectfully disagree with friend Jeff Passan’s analysis of Joe Torre’s managing but ain’t nothin’ a few Pabst Blue Ribbons won’t settle ….
Monday, October 19, 2009 12:46 PM
Time for a Vlad shakeup?
We’re getting worked up for another day of post-season baseball and wondering whether Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia has the stones to drop Vladimir Guerrero out of the cleanup spot.
This is a big post-season for Vlad, who is eligible for free agency this winter and could have used a defining post-season to help alleviate ever so slightly the always-present injury issues. Vlad will get a contract, but in this cautious marketplace it will likely be with a big-market team that can afford to cover any losses. Baseball people have felt for some time it’s a slam-dunk that he would end up with the New York Mets and their general manager Omar Minaya, but a combination of Minaya’s lack of job security, the Mets recent record of injuries to big-time players and concerns about how much money the Wilpon family lost in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme no longer make that a certainty. One agent told me in the summer that the best Vlad could hope for would be “to be somebody’s Plan B or Plan C.”
Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times has neat piece on the “clutchness” of Derek Jeter vs. Vladimir Guerrero and Dave Waldstein of the New York Times composes on an article close to our heart – baseball’s unwritten rules, specifically as they relate to the “neighborhood play” on the double play.
Finally …. Did ya hear the one about the rabbi and the referee ?
After watching a game with replacement referees last week, the NBA’s labour dispute with its zebras can’t end soon enough.
Friday, October 16, 2009 01:33 PM
God bless Tynan's departure
Bad week for gasbags, wasn’t it? What with that insipid balloon nonsense in Colorado (honestly …. some people’s parents) and this latest bit of news that over-wrought, pretentious bag of wind Ronan Tynan won’t be committing audio assault during Yankees post-season games any more.
You can read the story here but the bottom line is that the freeloading, middling Irish tenor who glad-handed his way regularly into George Steinbrenner’s private box and became as tiresome a presence at Yankees games as Rudy Giuliani apparently dropped a few anti-Semitic comments recently.
It’s always nice when your suspicions about someone turn out to be accurate. Besides, the ‘God Bless America’ tripe is old. I’d rather watch another commercial than hearing some sap from ‘American Idol’ or some faux country blonde butcher the song.
Thursday, October 15, 2009 01:11 PM
Some friendly advice for Wilson
Dodge-ball? Here’s what I’d do if I was Ron Wilson and the Toronto Maple Leafs have a lousy first period Saturday night against the New York Rangers:
I’d keep them on the bench for the intermission.
OK, so it’s been done before. Sort of. Phil Brown, manager of Premiership side Hull City, was so pissed off at his club at one point last year he delivered his halftime team talk on the pitch (that’s on the field for most of you.) I dug up this YouTube footage which includes marvelous commentary on it from Paul Merson. Oh yeah … Hull City responded by continuing to stink.
At any rate, the heat on Wilson is nothing like the heat that was on Diego Maradona heading into Wednesday night’s World Cup qualifier win over Uruguay. Here’s the Guardian’s version of how Maradona reacted. There’s a ton of YouTube footage about it, and while I don’t know Spanish I’m pretty sure I caught the meaning of the one word.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 09:29 AM
Yankees switch up catching
A.J Burnett’s detractors probably feel the way Jorge Posada feels about being bumped out of the starting catcher’s spot for Game 2 of the ALDS: they could see it coming.
New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi confirmed Tuesday that Jose Molina will catch Burnett in the second game of the ALDS (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2009/news/story?id=4537038)because Burnett and Posada – part of the Yankees holy trinity along with Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera – had difficulty working together during the regular-season.
The difference in Burnett’s numbers with Posada and Molina are telling. One scout told me last month that the biggest issue he saw was not just the pitch calling between the two but than the fact Posada had difficulty handling the movement on Burnett’s pitches. The scout figured Posada was costing Burnett strikes because he was jumping around the plate so much while catching Burnett.
This is the biggest start of Burnett’s career, obviously, because of his reputation for unreliability.
Meanwhile, had a thought Tuesday night while watching the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers settle the AL Central Division. Could Orlando Cabrera end up with the Toronto Blue Jays? I’ve been on this hobby-horse for a while but Alex Anthopoulos, the new Blue Jays G.M., knows Cabrera from their time in Montreal. So does Tony LaCava, who is still with the Blue Jays.
Remember during spring training when the Blue Jays tried to get “creative” and swing what amounted to a sign-and-trade deal with the Chicago White Sox for Cabrera, who was still a free-agent? Guess who the point man was on that deal? Anthopoulos. Cabrera signed with the Oakland Athletics and was traded to the Twins and my guess is he’ll be part of the picture here if Marco Scutaro goes elsewhere. His range isn’t what it used to be but he can handle turf – and he’s a winner.
Unwritten Rules Contributors
Jeff Blair
Jeff Blair is a general sports columnist with the Globe and Mail and previously worked at the Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald and Winnipeg Free Press. You can also follow him on Twitter at @GloBlair.
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