ESPN reports this morning that Nomar Gaciaparra will sign with the Dodgers:
Garciaparra, who still needs to take a physical and finalize contract details, will likely play first base for the Dodgers. The deal has a base salary of $6 million and could be worth as much as $8 million, the New York Post reported.
Phone calls from Joe Torre and Jason Giambi proved fruitless for the Yanks, as it appears that home is where the heart is for Nomar.
Though he has yet to make a decision, ESPN reports that Nomar Garciaparra is leaning towards accepting a one-year deal to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Our Dodger voice at Baseball Toaster, Jon Weisman, doesn’t think Nomar would be desirable option to play first base in L.A. next year.
His humor was so much larger than the comedy today. Today’s comedy is all about divisiveness. But as edgy and scathing and biting as he was, he was never oppresive. The laughter came from that interior recognition.
…Richard was okay not being on top of it all. Pain, sweetness, rage–when he came on stage, you felt his essence. there are some people who are just…open. And he was open.
Lily Tomlin
Just a few last thoughts on Richard Pryor, who passed away last weekend. There was a nice appreciation of the legendary comedian by Jesse McKinley in the Times earlier this week (I don’t have the link but it appeared in Tuesday’s paper), and Jerry Seinfeld of all people had some insightful comments:
Jerry Seinfeld, for example, who worked the same clubs as Mr. Pryor in the late 1970’s and early 80’s, said he distinctly recalled nights when Mr. Pryor would “walk the room,” comedian lingo for driving patrons out into the streets.
“I remember people talking, saying Richard bombed last night,” Mr. Seinfeld said. “Guys with reputations like that, they stay to the tried and true. You risk a little bit, but Richard risked everything all the time. He was the ultimate bullfighter on stage. He never let his instinct for self-preservation get in the way.”
…”He started with what he knew and brought you to it,” Mr. Seinfeld said. “He made you fall in love with him. And he did it so that you would relate to things you didn’t think you could relate to.”
Pryor hosted an early Saturday Night Live and it remains one of the show’s best broadcasts.
“The truth was an incredibly hot commodity in 1974-75,” said [SNL creator, Lorne] Michaels, who watched as Mr. Pryor did two long monologues that night, exactly 30 years ago today. “The distrust of authority was at its absolute peak, with Watergate and the war, and he caught the wave.”
The Yankees traded minor leaguer Ben Julinel to the Marlins in exchange for left-handed relief pitcher, Ron Villone. This is the sixth time Villone has been traded and the ninth team he’s been on since he broke into the Majors in 1995.
Nothing stirs up a good debate like discussing who belongs in the Hall of Fame. I’ve got a column over at SI.com about some of the best players not enshrined up in Cooperstown. Would you believe I had the nerve to go with Mex Hernandez over our own Donnie Baseball? Well, head on over and give it a look. Then come back and let the arguments begin!
According to George King in The New York Post, Alex Rodriguez will not participate in the WBC games for either the U.S. or the Dominican Republic. Rodriguez told King, in part:
“When faced with the decision to choose between my country, the United States of America, and my Dominican heritage, I decided that I will not dishonor either.”
Classic Rodriguez, not wanting to offend anyone. But honestly I couldn’t care less about about his reasoning. As far as I’m concerned the fewer Yankees playing in this cockamamie tournament the better. It’s not that I’m against the idea of the WBC in theory, but it feels almost inevitable that someone, somehow is going to get injured during the course of the games, and brother, I sure don’t want it to be anyone on the Yanks. Can you relate?
While Joe Torre vacations in Italy–he carried the Olympic torch for 400 yards in Florence yesterday–his first baseman Jason Giambi reached out to Nomar Garciaparra according to Sam Borden in The Daily News. Giambi and Garciaparra share the same agent. Nomar is said to have narrowed his choices down to four teams and is expected to make a decision shortly. Tyler Kepner reports that “if Garciaparra signs with the Yankees, he would probably receive a one-year contract with a base salary of $5 million or $6 million and incentives.”
The fellas over at NoMaas believe inking Nomar would be a steal for the Bombers. Here is how they envision him in pinstripes:
Give Sheffield 20 games at DH and stick Nomar in RF. Give Matsui 15 games at DH and stick him in LF. Give Giambi 50 games at DH and stick Nomar at first. Give Rodriguez 10 games off at DH and stick Nomar at third, Give Jeter 10 games off at SS and stick Nomar at short. Give Cano 10 games off and stick Nomar at second. That’s 115 games in the field.
I’m still skeptical that it’ll happen, but if Garciaparra comes to New York, it sure will be something to write about.
So far Joe Torre is 1-3 in his recruiting phone calls this winter (Farnsworth, check; Giles, Eyre, nope). Torre told reporters yesterday that he had a general conversation with free agent Nomar Garciaparra. Newsday is reporting that Torre also spoke with Johnny Damon. I don’t expect either of ’em to end up in New York, do you?
Meanwhile, the Bombers aren’t thrilled about Chien-Ming Wang pitching the WBC this spring, but they may not have a cherce in the matter.
As the Red Sox front office soap opera continues, all remains relatively quiet in the Bronx, where it is brick cold this morning. Oh, Brian Cashman, who maintains that he has no interest in dealing Carl Pavano, reportedly took in a meal with relief pitcher Julian Tavarez yesterday up in Washington Heights (insert snide remark here), but that’s not exactly a banner headline. What did make the back page of the New York Post today is a rumor that the Yankees have made an offer to free agent Nomar Garciaparra to play first base in New York. George King writes that the Bombers are one of several teams that have inquired about Nomar. Nothing more specific is available at this time. Meanwhile, Newsday’s Jon Heyman, who has a habit of writing about Scott Boras’ clients, reports that if Johnny Damon considers a four-year deal, the Yankees will be in the mix.
There has been no official word yet about Bernie Williams’ return next season, though I assume he’ll be the team’s fourth outfielder. In a recent chat over at Baseball Prospectus, Joe Sheehan opined:
As frustrating as it is to watch Williams play center field, I don’t think the team currently listing Bubba Crosby as its #1 center fielder has much room to complain about the marginal HoFer with fourth-outfielder skills wanting to stick around.
Evaluate Bernie against fourth outfielders and you’ll see that he can still help a team. If the money is right, he’d be a good fit for the Yankees next year, and for 20 or so other teams.
Phil Allard and Larry Mahnken see things differently.
Round the Web
Rich Lederer has been making the case for Bert Blyleven: Hall of Famer for some time now. He’s both committed and convincing. This year, he’s pulled out all the stops, hosting a Bert Blyleven Week over at The Baseball Analysts. Rich kicked it off yesterday while Rob Neyer guest stars today. Dayn Perry is up tomorrow. By the end of the week, you too will be persuaded–if you aren’t already–that Blyleven belongs in the Hall of Fame.
Also, for a touching non-baseball story, please slide on over to Catfish Stew and dig the latest from our own Ken Arneson. A lyrical piece accompanied by some great images.
Miguel Tejada kept pipe dreams warm from Boston to Chicago to Queens this weekend. (The Sox and Yanks have also reached out to Roger Clemens’ agents too.) After all, who wouldn’t love to add Miggy to their team? But for now, it’s just fodder, as the Orioles seem intent on keeping their star shortstop.
Meanwhile, in a bit of in-house intrigue, according to an ESPN report, the Yankees will not permit catcher Jorge Posada to play in the World Baseball Classic this spring. Steve Lombardi thinks this is fishy:
It’s a three week tournament being played the same time as Spring Training. I don’t see how it’s OK for Jeter, Cano and A-Rod to take on this work, but, it’s an extra hardship for Jorge.
Every once in a while I hear whispers about how some in the Yankees front office do not like Posada. I’m not sure why and/or over what. But, because I have heard this more than once, I have to wonder if this objection is a way to give Jorge some grief. If so, it’s a story that I hope gets told someday. It would be interesting to know.
I have to say that I’ve got very little interest in the WBC tournament. That could change, of course, but right now, I’m most concerned about a star player hurting themselves, and subsequently gumming-up the works for his Major League team as a result.
With little to nothing cooking with the Yanks this weekend, please indulge me in remembering Richard Pryor. (And if you aren’t interested, that’s cool, check back tomorrow.)
“I’ve been trying to figure out the analogies to what Richard Pryor meant, and the closest I can come to is Miles Davis,” said Reginald Hudlin, the film and TV director and president of entertainment for Black Entertainment Television. “There’s music before Miles Davis, and there’s music after Miles Davis. And Richard Pryor is that same kind of person.
“Every new piece kind of transformed the game,” Hudlin said. “He was a culturally transcendent hero. His influence is bigger than black comedy; it’s bigger than comedy. He was a cultural giant.”
(L.A. Times)
Kudos to Mel Watkins at the New York Times for a fine obituary on Richard Pryor today.
Here are some of the highlights:
“Comedy,” [Pryor] said, “is when you are driving along and see a couple of dudes and one is in trouble with the others and he’s trying to talk his way out of it. You say, ‘Oh boy, they got him,’ and you laugh. I cannot tell jokes. My comedy is not comedy as society has defined it.”
On his mid-career change of direction:
“I made a lot of money being Bill Cosby,” he recalled, “but I was hiding my personality. I just wanted to be in show business so bad I didn’t care how. It started bothering me – I was being a robot comic, repeating the same lines, getting the same laughs for the same jokes. The repetition was killing me.”
…”There was a world of junkies and winos, pool hustlers and prostitutes, women and family screaming inside my head, trying to be heard. The longer I kept them bottled up, the harder they tried to escape. The pressure built till I went nuts.”
I like Watkins’ take on Pryor’s masterpiece:
Mr. Pryor probably reached the pinnacle of his career in 1979 with his first concert film, “Richard Pryor, Live in Concert,” a movie, filmed during an appearance in Long Beach, Calif., that more than a quarter of a century later remains the standard by which other movies of live comedy performances are judged.
The film, which was to inspire others to make their own comic performance movies, caught Mr. Pryor at peak form. He reflected often about his own tumultuous life, with monologues about a domestic quarrel in which he shot his wife’s car, the death of his pet monkeys and a near-fatal heart attack, which ended with: “I woke up in the ambulance, right? And there was nothin’ but white people starin’ at me. I say . . . I done died and wound up in the wrong heaven. Now I gotta listen to Lawrence Welk the rest of my days.”
I’m sure we’ll see a bunch of Pryor’s movies, and hopefully, “Live in Concert” pop up on cable in the coming weeks and months.
Richard Pryor, one of the most famous and influential comedians of them all, died today of a heart attack. He was 65. Pryor suffered from MS for years now. Considering the kind of hard living and abuse he put his body through over the course of time, the news of his passing doesn’t exactly come as a shock. Still, it is a sad moment because Pryor took the art of stand-up comedy and elevated it to a level of social commentary and personal vulnerability that few, if any, performers have ever reached. I think he the natural heir to Lenny Bruce, but he remains in a category of his own. In his prime, during the late 1970s, he was arguably the greatest comedian of all-time. All the black comedians who have come after him–Eddie Murphy, the Wayans brothers, Bernie Mac, Dave Chappelle, are in a sense, his children. He is to stand-up what Bob Dylan was to rock and roll.
After the crossover hit “Silver Streak,” and then his rousing concert film “Live in Concert,” Pryor became the first black actor to be the number one box office draw ever. It was capped off by his second feature with Gene Wilder, “Stir Crazy,” in 1980. But Pryor’s moment on top would be fleeting, as his struggles with cocaine overwhelmed him. In a free-basing accident not long after “Stir Crazy” had been released, Pryor set fire to himself, and in some ways, his career never recovered.
During his early days, in the mid 1960s, Pryor had made a name for himself on the talk show circut, essentially doing the kind of clean act that had made Bill Cosby a star. But by the end of the sixites, Pryor, like many other African Americans at the time, became increasingly politicized. He stopped doing his Cosby routine and went back to the drawing board. Over the next several years he developed a routine that was far more personal, and far more political. Pryor stopped doing jokes in the traditional sense and began acting out scenes and characters.
“Live and Smoking” is a concert film of these transitional years, and the material is often unfunny, with Pryor and the audience not quite sure what to make of his new approach. They are still feeling each other out. Yet is a fascinating recording when you consider the heights he would soon achive with his best work: “That Nigger’s Crazy,” “Is it Something I Said?” and “Wanted: Live in Concert.”
The film critic Pauline Kael wrote in 1982:
When Chaplin began to talk onscreen, he used a cultivated voice and high-flown words, and became a deeply unfunny man; if he had found the street language to match his lowlife, tramp movements, he might have been something like Richard Pryor, who’s all of a piece–a master of lyrical obscenity. Pryor is the only great poet satirist among our comics. His lyricism seems to come out of his thin-skinned nature; he’s so empathic he’s all wired up. His 1979 film “Richard Pryor Live in Concert” was a cosummation of his years as an entertainer, and then some. He had a lifetime of matieral at his fingertips, and he seemed to go beyond himself. He personified objects, animals, people, the warring parts of his own body, even thougts in the heads of men and women–black, white, Oriental–and he seeemed possessed by the spirits he pulled out of himself. To those of us who thougt it was one of the greatest performances we’d ever seen or ever would see, his new one-man show “Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip” may be disappointing yet emotionally stirring.
Pryor was raw but what distinguished him was his vulnerability. It was this quality that helped make him a terrific actor. He was mostly in crappy movies, but he had a great turn in “Lady Sings the Blues” and later in Paul Schrader’s “Blue Collar.” Pryor was too unhinged to sustain a steady career in movies. He also did a great turn for a Lily Tomlin TV special in the late 70s and his short-lived NBC variety show has its moments and is now available on DVD.
I highly reccommend “Live in Concert” and the three albums I mentnioned above. (Rhino has an excellent compilation “And it’s Deep Too,” which features all of his classic routines–Black Ben the Blacksmith, Wino and the Junkie, as well as his incomperable storyteller, Mudbone.) I know them all by heart and think they display a kind of brilliance–both moving and threatening, compassionate and hiliarous–that is unique.
Considering all the pain that Pryor experienced in his life, I hope he is in a calmer, more peaceful place now. He was one of the true legends of our time.
The Bronx is covered in snow this morning. As I trooped my way to the subway, a heavy snow was falling and everything was white. But the subways were still running on time (word to the MTA). When I arrived at 50th street and Broadway, things had gotten wetter. Maybe the streets are just hotter in midtown. Regardless, the slush-a-thon was in full-effect. But the snow was still falling–big, fat, raggeded flakes, as if someone up there tore open a pillow and all the feathers were falling out on our heads. Traffic is moving slightly more cautiously than usual, but only slightly. The snow is lining the trees and it all looks lovely.
The winter meetings came to a conlusion in Dallas yesterday. After trading Tony Womack (and $900,000) to the Reds yesterday, the Yankees signed southpaw reliever Mike Myers to a two-year deal believed to be worth $2.4 million (SG, over at the Replacement Level Yankees Blog considers how effective Myers will be). Tyler Kepner suggests the Womack trade demonstrates Brain Cashman’s newfound control over things:
The deal symbolized the changes in the Yankees’ front-office hierarchy.
Discuss the Postseason General Manager Brian Cashman did not want to sign Womack last December, but the move was forced on him by the Tampa, Fla., headquarters of George Steinbrenner, the principal owner. This December, Cashman, asserting himself in the first winter of his new three-year contract, essentially dispatched with a spare part to add a veteran left-handed reliever.
…”Talking to Brian, it’s noticeable that when you ask him, ‘What about this, what about that?’ you get a much quicker response,” said Kevin Towers, the San Diego Padres’ general manager. “It doesn’t seem like you have to run it up two or three different flagpoles.”
Robinson Cano, who visited with cancer patients yesterday at Sloane-Kettering, said he’s happy that he’s still a Yankee:
“I don’t care, I just want to play every day…If it has to be center field, that’s OK,” Cano said with a smile at a midtown press conference to announce his endorsement deal [with Spalding]. “If they ask me, I’ll do it.”
Brain MacMillian links to a rumor that would send Sean Henn and Taynon Sturtze to the Phillies for center fielder Jason Michaels, while Steve Lombardi looks at what Bernie Williams’ 2006 could be like.
As expected, the Rocket rumors are keeping writers warm as they return east. In his latest column, Bob Klapisch writes:
A.J. Burnett said this week that Pavano is “miserable” pitching in New York, and has told a number of friends – including Burnett, his former teammate in Florida – he wants to be traded. Clemens’ presence would make Pavano expendable, assuming someone would actually pay $10 million for an injured sinkerballer with diminished velocity.
If Cashman can pull off a deal for Pavano, he deserves early consideration for Executive of the Year. But the Yankees clearly need a pitching response to the Red Sox and Blue Jays, both of whom are now stronger at the front of the rotation.
Clemens and Randy Johnson are obviously fragile fortysomethings, but The Rocket was arguably the National League’s best pitcher in 2005. If healthy, he would create a match for Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett, as well as Roy Halladay and Burnett.
Clemens would give the Yankees a boost in the clubhouse, where he’s still popular two years since his departure. The Rocket stays in touch with Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, who e-mailed him advice about pitching to the White Sox during the World Series.
My hunch is that Clemens is done, and even if he isn’t, he won’t return to New York. But what do I know? Hope everyone in the tri-state area stays safe and enjoys the snow today.
The Yankees have officially announced the trade that will at long last send Tony Womack hurtling into the sun, or at least Cincinnati. It’s a minor deal, with the Yankees unloading an unwanted, unproductive player for a pair of minor leaguers, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a minor miracle.
Not only have the Reds agreed to take Womack and his $2 million salary off the Yankees hands for 2006, but they’ve sent, not one, but two able-bodied young men back to the Bronx for the privilege. Were these kids ticket takers or pretzel vendors (seriously, the Stadium is in dire need of more pretzel vendors, I can never get a pretzel without having to retreat into the concourses) it would have been a steal, but they can actually play baseball.
The lesser player, outfielder Ben Himes, is too old for his league, having failed to advance beyond A-ball at the age of 24. But he did hit .320/.372/.533 for Sarasota in the Florida State League last year. Himes is a fourth outfielder at best, but given that strong showing and the fact that he got a late start (he was drafted out of college in 2003), there’s no reason to write him off just yet.
Kevin Howard, meanwhile, was ranked by both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America as the top player available in today’s Rule 5 draft. A 24-year-old, lefty-hitting second baseman who spent all of 2005 in double-A, Howard doesn’t have a whole lot of power, but gets his hits and knows how to draw a walk (his .296/.346/.428 line in Chattanooga last year is fairly representative of his abilities at the plate). Howard played 3B in college and returned there in October in the Arizona Fall League where he crushed to the tune of .409/.475/.557, winning the AFL batting crown. A left-handed hitter, Howard’s never had a great defensive reputation, but his offensive skills and ability to play multiple positions (it’s thought he could also be used in the outfield) could make him a useful utility player as soon as the latter half of this year, which means he’s probably already more valuable than Womack. Best of all, the Yankees got him without having to keep him on the 25-man roster all year.
That’s a hell of a take for a player who is almost guaranteed to cost the Reds both wins and a couple mil. Indeed, between this trade and the list of players not offered arbitration last night, the Yankees have drastically improved their ballclub in the last 15 hours simply by deleting deleterious players. Check out the dearly departed and their 2005 VORPs:
John Flaherty -9.6
Kevin Brown -9.5
Tony Womack -8.9
Darrell May -8.5
Tim Redding -5.4
Alan Embree -4.8
Matt Lawton -3.5
Ruben Sierra -2.3
Mark Bellhorn -1.0
Rey Sanchez -0.5
Mike Vento -0.5
Russ Johnson -0.3
No, those aren’t dashes, those are negative numbers. If the Yankees can replace those twelve men with replacement level players–the sort that can be acquired via the waiver wire or promoted from the minors–they stand to improve by nearly 55 runs in 2006, that’s five and a half wins. For example, John Flaherty’s replacement, Kelly Stinnett, had a VORP of 5.3 in 2005, that’s a net improvement of 14.9 runs, or a win and a half in the back-up catcher slot alone. Oh, Glorious Day!
Tony Woemack, or Mo-wack, or whatever the heck you like to call him, has been shipped out of New York on the Davey Collins express to the Reds for a minor league player. CBS Sportsline reports that the player is Kevin Howard, a second baseman.
One of the many reasons I love baseball more than any other sport is the strategy. Not that there isn’t strategy in other sports, but constant-action games such as basketball, hockey, soccer and tennis don’t provide moments of stasis in which the viewer can think along with the coach or the players. Football comes close, with the breaks between downs giving fans a chance to contemplate a run versus a pass, how to manage the clock, or what to do on forth down (which is why it’s my second favorite sport), but the playbooks are top secret and I can’t remember ever hearing a football fan scream in anguish “agh! They should have run a reverse there!” To oversimplify somewhat, it seems the only time football fans truly get to make the call is when the coach is deciding to kick or not to kick.
Baseball is different. The tuned in fan can call pitches, advise the batter on what to look for and whether or not to swing, position the fielders, send or hold the baserunners, get a reliever warmed up, make a pitching change or send in a pinch hitter or runner, issue an intentional walk, even choose where a fielder should throw a batted ball. It’s a game of constant contemplation, strategy, logic, discussion, and argument, which is exactly why it appeals so strongly to scholars and writers.
The offseason is no different. Take for example the events of last night and today. On their face, the arbitration deadline and the Rule 5 draft couldn’t be more boring, but when one considers the strategy involved in each, they suddenly become extremely compelling for the hardcore baseball fan.
Let’s look at the arbitration deadline first. Teams had until midnight last night to offer arbitration to their eligible free agents or lose the ability to re-sign them until May 1, a full month into the 2006 season. Given that statement alone, one would be tempted to say that teams should always offer their free agents arbitration so as to keep their options open. But it’s not that simple.
While Matt Cerrone is keeping steady tabs on all the hub bub down in Big D, our pal Steve Lombardi is killin’ it from the Yankees side of things. Head on over to Was Watching for the latest on Gary Matthews Jr (update: ESPN is reporting that Juan Pierre has been dealt to the Cubbies), Tony Womack, and players the Yanks could dangle as trade bait. Meanwhile, Brian MacMillian has a series of links detailing how the Bombers’ blue-chip prospect Eric Duncan won the MVP of the Arizona Fall League.
A bunch of things are brewing in Dallas. I caught ESPN last night and Peter Gammons expected a flurry of activity later today into tomorrow (winds light to variable). The question for us in the Bronx is will any of it involve the Yanks?
If the Yankees don’t offer Bernie Williams a new contract by midnight tonight, his career with the team will be over (they certainly have no plans to go to arbitration with him). Yankee general manager Brian Cashman will reportedly meet again with Williams’ agent Scott Boras today. If Williams were to return, it would presumably be in the kind of reserve role that Ruben Sierra has filled for the past several years. Mike Lupica, who is one of the Yankees’ most vocal critics, pays tribute to Williams today in the Daily News:
Nothing lasts forever. Joe DiMaggio limped away from center field at the Stadium at the age of 36, a year younger than Bernie is right now. Mickey Mantle limped away. If Williams leaves the Yankees today, he will leave in better shape than either one of them, even if he isn’t close to what he used to be. It doesn’t change that when you talk about all the center fielders in the history of the New York Yankees, there is DiMaggio, there is Mantle, there is Williams. It is not such a terrible way to run third.
You said it. Although the Yankees long expected great things from Williams, he was scrawny and a late-bloomer, and did not possess the kind of natural baseball instincts that Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter have. But when all was said and done, he was the team’s best offensive player during the team’s glory years (1996-00), and he put together a near Hall of Fame career. Not bad indeed.
Speaking of which, another unassuming but admirable player, John Olerud is retiring. Olerud was a wonderful first baseman and an excellent hitter. Alex Rodriguez has called him the best teammate he’s ever had. Olerud wasn’t a great player, but like Williams he was a very, very good one–one that you’d generally love to have on your team. Olerud had a reputation as a hard worker, but for a large man, he was remarkably fluid, from the way he played first, to his uncomplicated swing. In 17 big league seasons, Olerud had a lifetime .295 battting average, .398 on base percentage (1275 career walks to 1016 career whiffs), and .465 slugging percentage.
There was something serene, even removed about Olerud. He had a kind of quiet intensity that is easy to overlook. But I found that quality exceedingly appealing. Of course, he’ll probably be best remembered for wearing a batting helmet in the field, but I’ll always recall that far-away, but peaceful look he’d have on his face while sitting in the dugout. When I’d watch him like that I always wondered what he was thinking (he almost suggested a benign Travis Bickle at times). Sometimes, my brother once commented, he just looked content, like the wind blowing through his ears. Olerud seemed very comfortable in his own skin, so even though he gave the impression of being internal or distant, he always seemed so grounded and sure that it isn’t difficult to see why his teammates loved playing with him.
I loved how he embraced New York when he played for the Mets, even occasionally taking the 7 train to work. Hopefully, there will be some tributes to him around the ‘Net in the coming days. I’ll make a point of linking to them when they are up.
Nomar in New York? Don’t hold your breath. Manny movin’ on? M’ehh, could be. One thing is for sure: A.J. Burnett is now a Toronto Blue Jay. It is a high-risk deal, what with his injury history and all, but the guy can bring it. Don’t know if he can pitch, but he’s got dynamite stuff. The AL East just got more interesting.
Matt Cerrone is doing a bang-up job of updating all the latest from Dallas over at Metsblog.com. Check him out (again and again).
As I type this, my commuter train is rolling slowly past Riverfront Stadium, the home of the Newark Bears. The field and stands are covered in a thin layer of snow. There are trucks on the field, likely carrying workers there to prevent the snow from killing the sod, and thus there are some lights on in the park that give the field a cozy yellow glow. During the summer I often roll past the stadium as the players are taking batting practice or even as a game is starting. From my seat in the train, I can see the scoreboard, though I usually don’t have my glasses on and thus can’t read the name of the Bears player at bat. A couple of years ago, I used to look through the crack in the wall between the left field corner and the stands along the third base line and catch a glimpse of Rickey himself in his purple pinstripes accessorized with dark shades, his elongated outfielder’s glove twitching at his thigh waiting to snatch a fly ball out of the air. Tonight, while the outfield wall remains covered in advertisements, the scoreboard is dark and there’s not single a blade of grass visible through the snow.
Tonight I’m taking the train a few stops past my usual departure point because my mom has invited Becky and me over for dinner. In about an hour or so I’ll be stuffing my face with roast beef and brown gravy, home made mashed potatoes, biscuits and something green (to create the illusion of a healthy meal). Nothing like home cookin’ on a snowy winter’s day to compensate for the sight of a ballpark in hibernation.
Fortunately, while the fields on which they play may be in mid-winter slumber, the teams themselves are keeping busy by cooking up a feast of their own. Be they collecting hard-throwing nuts or coveting a choice cut of meat, the hot stove has come to a boil. I think it’s about time I sink my teeth into this offseason’s first few courses.
Soup’s On!
