An Overlooked Anniversary

Enshrined writer Leonard Koppet has an enlightening piece about a key rule change which just passed its 100th anniversary. As of the American League's season opener on April 20, 1903, the first two foul balls hit by a batter counted as strikes. The National League had adopted the foul-strike rule in 1901, but the AL, which was born that year, still clung to the old fouls-don't-count rule, and it skewed results so much that Nap Lajoie led the league with a .426 batting average. The AL's adoption of the foul-strike rule was part of its peace agreement with the NL, in which the two leagues agreed to honor each other's player contracts, coordinate schedules and hold a World Series between the two league champions.

Koppet calls the foul-strike rule "the last fundamental playing rule change baseball made, after many evolutionary changes in the preceding 25 years... the true birth of baseball as we know it." There's more:

Changes did come later, like the designated hitter, but that's a lineup rule, not a playing rule. Adjustments were made about ground-rule doubles and homers, and the height of the mound, and other things of such secondary nature.

But the foul strike -- made universal in 1903 -- was the final step in completing the truly basic rules of play: nine men, three outs to an inning, three strikes you're out, four balls for a walk, 90 feet between bases, the 60-foot, 6-inch pitching distance, the size and weight of the ball, nine innings for a complete game and over the fence is a home run.

While many would quibble with Koppet's classification of the designated hitter (which just saw its own 30th anniversary) as non-fundamental, it's interesting to view the foul-strike change as sort of a Golden Spike which not only unified the two leagues but also the game of a century ago with the one we know today. But then, that's why Koppet has earned his tag as "The Thinking Fan."

• • •

Speaking of great old writers still teaching the kids new tricks, Newsday catches up with 82-year-old Roger Angell, who has a new anthology out called Game Time. The book packages some (but, sadly, not all) of his recent work with pieces dating all the way back toThe Summer Game (1962), including a piece on the writer's first trip to spring training from which I drew inspiration recently.

The most sorely overlooked Angell piece, in my opinion, is his one following the 1995 postseason, in which he discusses the Mariners' Randy Johnson coming out of the bullpen in Game Five of the AL Divisional Series against the Yankees (a moment which sitll gives me goosebumps to think about), Orel Hershiser doing the same for the Dodgers in the 1988 NL Championship Series (exponentially more goosebumps there) and the consequences of such heroism on the pitchers' careers, with the post-rotator cuff surgery phase of Hershiser's career as illustration.

If there's anybody out there reading this who clips and files Angell's New Yorker pieces (like I've been doing since '97 or so) and has that one, I'll trade you a Futility Infielder T-shirt (which I'll soon be unveiling) for a copy in either electronic or paper form.

--posted by Jay Jaffe at 4:57 PM Link

The One and Olney

When we're not fantasizing about rebuilding a downtrodden franchise as its GM or replacing a skipper who should be run out of town, we seam-headed bloggers spend plenty of time pondering the life of a ballclub's beat reporter. It sounds like a sweet deal: you get to see all the games, travel to all the ballparks in the league, spend hours talking to players, coaches and the manager, and generally glimpse behind the curtain at how a team works. You're talkin' baseball all day long, and they PAY you to do it. A bad day at the ballpark beats a good day in a fluorescently-lit cubicle.

Bronx Banter's Alex Belth has a lengthy and fascinating interview with Buster Olney, the reporter for the New York Times who covered the Yankee beat from 1998 to 2001 --a pretty good run which saw the team reach four World Series and come within an inning of winning all four. Prior to that, Olney covered the Mets, the Orioles (when they were good), and the Padres (when they weren't); now he's traded in the horsehide for the pigskin, covering the NY Giants because the travel demands are less intensive.

In addition to offering a less rosy view of the beat life and its effect on a person, Olney's got *plenty* to dish about the inner workings of the recent Yankee and Met clubhouses and about the game in general. Essential reading for fans of either team, not to mention just about everybody else.

• • •

The latest on Yankee reliever Steve Karsay is that Dr. James Andrews examined his shoulder on Tuesday and found no rotator cuff damage, but gave him two cortisone shots. The aforementioned Mr. Belth emailed Baseball Prospectus injury guru Will Carroll about Karsay's woes. Here's what Carroll had to say:

[Karsay] needed relief in two distinct areas. NEVER a good sign and one that they're already thinking he's at significant risk. Still, it's just inflammation and not something surgical so there's still a chance he'll come back. Give him a week's rest and he can pick up his rehab again. Chance of recurrence? 100%.

I believe the proper term for that is double-ouch.

• • •

In a whole new league for recurring ouches is ESPN's disaster timeline for Montreal's Olympic Stadium. I'm not sure whether "comical if it weren't so sad" or "sad if it weren't so comical" is the proper description of the Big Owe, which hosted what is likely its final home opener on Tuesday. But I do know that a million drunken monkeys at a million drafting tables couldn't come up with a worse design for that roof than stadium designer Roger Taillibert did.

And the monkeys who designed the roof at Milwaukee's Miller Park didn't do such a hot job either.

--posted by Jay Jaffe at 8:58 PM Link

Karsay It Ain't So

The New York Times is reporting that Yankee reliever Steve Karsay, who cut short a Monday bullpen session after just 11 pitches, is probably out for the season. Karsay's currently suffering from bursitis in his shoulder, and its believed that his back woes contributed to it by altering his mechanics and/or disrupting his conditioning. He's off to see orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama, and that's rarely good news.

It's tough to nitpick a 16-3 juggernaut, but thus far the Yankee bullpen has been the team's sore spot, posting a 5.35 ERA and 1.84 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning) in their first 19 games. A slew of factors have contributed to that, including the incredible effectiveness of the starting five (a record 14-0 thus far, a collective 2.46 ERA, and almost 7 innings per start), injuries to Karsay and closer Mariano Rivera which have the Yankees relying on a new and relatively undistinguished cast of characters, and a complete cipher in Sterling Hitchcock, who's pitched only 2.1 innings despite gobbling up a roster spot and $6 million of the Yankee payroll.

This laundry list doesn't even include Jose Contreras, who in addition to being an expensive bust thus far out of the pen (10.80 ERA in 5 gruesome innings) is now the organization's number one distraction based on his demotion/exile. It should also be pointed out that the Yankee defense has thoroughly let the relievers down: opponents are batting .429 (51-for-119) on balls in play against the pen (the team's Defensive Efficiency Rating as a whole is .673, second-worst in all of the majors and about 39 points below the AL average).

There are some bright spots, however. The pen as a whole is striking men out (9.1 per 9 innings) and has allowed only one homer, Antonio Osuna (1.74 ERA) and Chris Hammond (2.16) have settled down after some first-week jitters, and Rivera should return later this week. But the loss of Karsay leaves the Yanks without any of last year's three setup men, though it's arguable whether or not Ramiro Mendoza (a gasoline-soaked 12.60 ERA for the Red Sox) is still on the Yankee payroll. Osuna, Hammond, and Juan Acevedo have Jeff Nelson-sized shoes to fill in earning Joe Torre's trust and bridging the gap between the starters and the increasingly fragile Rivera. Contreras, Columbus shuttler Randy Choate, or green rookie Jason Anderson will need to step forward, or Brian Cashman may find himself dealing what few prospects the Yanks still have in exchange for more live arms.

More than anything this does makes the flyer the Yanks took on Acevedo look pretty smart. Though his ERA sits at an unsightly 6.43, the pudgy reliever is 3-for-3 in save opportunities and looks anything but lost out there. If Torre can use him to take the occasional load off of Rivera, that may be the best $900,000 the Yanks spend this season.

--posted by Jay Jaffe at 1:06 AM Link

Who Said Tino Couldn't Hit Anymore?

I haven't seen any video of this, but it sounds and looks quite comical. Cardinals first baseman Tino Martinez was hit on the shoulder by the world's worst poet, Diamondbacks pitcher Miguel Batista, and they jawed and glared at each other. Tino took his base and was then forced out on a grounder. As he was trotting off the field, he charged after Batista, who threw a ball at him from very close range -- and missed. Punches were thrown, benches cleared, managers put the cheese in machismo, etc. Here's a photo just before Batista threw the ball at Martinez when he charged. But this photo just makes it look like two girls having a slap fight.

Oh, and lest anybody think I'm encouraging this kind of behavior (I'll cop only to "not discouraging it"), I'll point out that this is as good an opportunity as any to marvel at Martinez's .865 OPS this season. It's all downhill from here for Tino.

• • •

Speaking of not being too outraged at irresponsible behavior, is anybody else having a tough time working up sympathy for Texas Rangers rightfielder Carl Everett, who got hit in the head by an errant cell phone thrown by a fan? I mean, yes, it would have been terrible if a vaguely human entity had been hurt by something a fan had thrown onto the field. But the last ballplayer anybody wants to come to the defense of, with the possible exception of John Rocker, is Everett. The problem, as most right-thinking baseball fans see it, isn't that some fan hit Everett with a cell phone, or that the fan was stupid enough to use as a weapon (a deadly weapon, according to the charges filed by the D.A.) something which bore his identity. It's that the fan didn't hit that rage-addled, dinosaur-doubting child neglector (he plea-bargained his way down from child abuse back in '97, recall) with something that really would have put him out of our misery. Everett stayed in the ballgame? Better luck with your next toss, pal.

Our good friends over at Elephants in Oakland were at Saturday's ballgame when Everett was hit, and they (to stay in the "royal we" mode for a moment) have a lengthy description of the physics-defying toss and all of the other fallout surrounding it. They were also, so far as I know, the first ones to point out that when Everett picked up the cell phone and threw it off the field, HE hit somebody as well -- a stadium employee. Note that while Everett plans to press charges against the fan, noboby is pressing charges against Everett.

Taken with the latest incident of a fan running onto the U.S. Cellular Field (formerly Comiskey Park II) to attack umpire Laz Diaz, the Everett incident is sure to provoke plenty of hand-wringing in the mainstream media and in MLB's head office over how to protect those on the field, and plenty of pseudointellectual commentary as to how this proves the further decline of western civilization. Count me out of all of this, as I have no answers to offer, and no interest in trying. Hell in a handbasket, folks, just like this blog entry. Now excuse me while I go egg some taxicabs...

Postscript: Loathe him though I obviously do, I coudn't pass up the opportunity to pick up the AL's Player of the Week for my fantasy team. That ought to cool him off.

--posted by Jay Jaffe at 9:50 PM Link

Have You Heard the News?

It's come to my attention that one of my favorite blogs is back in the batter's box. Pete Sommers' Baseball News Blog went into hibernation at the end of the World Series, but it's now up and running again, with Pete's concise excerpts of news and blogs from around the game, and a great collection of links. That site has done a hell of a lot to put this weblog in front of readers, so I'm elated to see it return. Welcome back, Pete!

BNB has called my attention to some team-specific blogs you should check out:

• Edward Cossette's Bambino's Curse has been around for awhile, though not quite as long as the Curse itself. It offers a fresh and often funny perspective on the Red Sox. Edward's got some insight into the Bosox fans' reception of Pedro Martinez, their collapsable bullpen, and why obnoxious fans can't resist booing or even running onto the field:

Some people are not satisfied watching the game on the field — They want to be part of the action. By booing they attempt to be somebody, to insert themselves into the game any way possible, even if their actions are shameful (booing) or downright heinous (running onto the field to attack an umpire).

It's not just baseball, though, our whole culture is currently obsessed with being in the spotlight. How else does one explain the popularity of reality TV?

And before I get into the realm of the proverbial kettle calling the pot black, I'm not immune from such emotions myself. Wanting to be part of the game on a level higher than mere passive spectator helps explain in part why I post to this weblog every day.

The line, then, between acting like an ass and booing Pedro after one bad outing and writing a baseball blog is a blurry one.

• U.S.S. Mariner is an M's related blog by Baseball Prospectus' Derek Zumsteg and a couple of guys from the excellent, if often overlooked, Strike Three website. Right now the guys are keeping an eye on the M's top prospects, sweating some of new manager Bob Melvin's moves and figuring out new ways of knocking a few back while watching the M's.

• The Eddie Kranepool Society is a Mets-themed blog, named after the man who saw the lowest of lows and the highest of highs from the Polo Grounds to Flushing Meadows.

• Fish or Cut Bait is, as you'd expect, a blog devoted to those woefully mismanaged Florida Marlins and "their lives, their loves, their incredibly dumb dumbness." Writer Erik has a running tally of the Fish's statistical gains from their aggressive base-stealing and looks to spend a lot of time bemoaning manager Jeff Torborg's torture of his young starters.

• I'm not so hot about that lavendar (lavendar???) color scheme, but Jon Weisman's Dodger Thoughts looks like a promising way to follow the boys in white, red and blue. Like the rest of us in the free world, Jon's got issues about Ron Coomer. Jon goes to A LOT of games and likes to point out that he's a positive influence on the team: their winning percentage over the past 12 seasons is 14 points higher with him at Chavez Ravine (.559) than not (.545). Maybe I ought to chip in for a few tix...

--posted by Jay Jaffe at 10:02 AM Link