Hurt no more

The last Major League baseball player I rooted for recently announced his retirement. Frank Thomas, aptly nicknamed the Big Hurt, will not suit up any more. With him dies one of the last of the big men without the shroud of steroid-abuse tainting their legacy. If anything, for years, Thomas has been very, well, frank about the need for steroid testing in baseball.

The $10,000 arms

Two Indian men, plucked from the obscurity of "rural India" are set to make their MLB debut in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system. I am not too sure they will be able to crack the highest tier, simply because in terms of baseball skills they are true rookies, but the fact that they are even within sniffing distance must be worth the adventure.

Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, their two India-born pitchers who had never seen a baseball game before being the top two finishers in a TV reality show designed to find potential Major League Baseball arms, are nearly ready to make their professional debuts.

Neither had picked up a baseball, much less thrown one, until little more than a year ago. Aspiring cricket players, they had no idea that American athletes could make so much money playing a sport they knew nothing about.

Now, after a busy year crowded with TV show appearances, basic baseball instruction, fitness workouts, constant throwing and adjusting to a pro athlete's life in a new country, they are about to take the mound for the Bradenton Pirates of the rookie-level Gulf Coast League.

(Link courtesy of JAN, an unabashed fan of M&M; not the rapper but the Sri Lankan bowlers).

Slippery slope

A few weeks ago, the baseball world was shaken with the news that the poster child of the league, the man most likely to break several hallowed batting records, was guilty of taking steroids in the years before a drug testing policy was officially in place for Major League Baseball. Alex Rodriguez is on a slippery slope, and he is digging a bigger hole with every interview he has given since that news broke. To me it appears that he is clearly lying about the extent of his "dabbling" with steroids. As time goes by, I expect the hole to get deeper and deeper and totally consume his legacy. Too bad, because he was one of the most talented player to ever play baseball.

Jayson Stark of ESPN raises some very valid points about A-Rod's mea culpa and comes away unsatisfied with what he has heard so far.

The bigger you are, the harder you fall. Shame on you, Alex. You should have come completely clean when you had the chance.

A statistical medley for baseball lovers

Of all the sports that I have followed, the one that keeps the most copious stats for the players is baseball (Major League Baseball). And the record-keeping is so exhaustive that people with a lot of time on their hands can bring up some incredible compilations. Here's Jayson Stark of ESPN with the strange but true occurrings in MLB 2008.

For example:

LOST CONTACT DEPT.: Nationals pitcher Jason Bergmann blew away the two most esoteric records of the year. He made it to the plate 42 times -- and failed to reach base via a hit or walk in ANY of them. He broke two exalted records in the process -- (1) most plate appearances without a hit or walk (previously set by Vicente Palacio, 36, in 1994) and (2) most official walkless and hitless at-bats (previously set by Hackin' Hal Finney, 35, in 1936).

LET'S PLAY 18 DEPT.: Every once in a while, there's a game that seems as if it's played only for the sake of us Strange But True historians. This 18-inning May 25 whopper between the Reds and Padres was one of them. The Reds used FOUR members of their starting rotation just in this game. One of those starters, Aaron Harang, piled up more strikeouts in his four innings out of the 'pen (nine) than he racked up in any of his 29 starts this year. The Reds blew more saves just between the eighth and 11th innings (three) than they'd blown all season before that (two). The Padres had a different pitcher on the mound to start every inning between the sixth and 11th. The Reds managed to do something they hadn't done in almost 60 years -- get 21 hits in one game and lose. (Last time they did that: June 8, 1949.) And just for fun, Adrian Gonzalez ended it all with the National League's first 18th-inning walk-off since 1989.

Quietly fades the don

2008 is turning out to be a sad year for me. Earlier this year Graeme Hick retired (I think I've mentioned this once or twice!) and now news filters in that Greg Maddux is on his way out, too.

Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated has penned a perfect tribute to the man who made me follow the scoreboard once every five days during the baseball season.

The magic show is over. I dislike absolutes, but of this I am sure: Greg Maddux is the most fascinating interview, the smartest baseball player and the most highly formed baseball player I have encountered in 27 years covering major league baseball. There is no one alive who ever practiced the craft of pitching better than Maddux.

(...) Maddux was the genuine article, a ballplayer evolved to the highest form. It is fitting that he is the winningest pitcher alive, an honor he should keep up to his very last breath. This appreciation, not by accident, made no mention of any career statistic of Maddux, no more than you would cite records sold to describe the voice of Sinatra. Maddux is synonymous with the art of pitching. He was that good. Never again will we see, or hear, anyone quite like him.

Not to be outdone, Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com has a different way of paying tribute, too. Just as interesting to read, nevertheless.

In 1996, just before Maddux and the Atlanta Braves faced the New York Yankees in the World Series, pitching coach Leo Mazzone met with his starters and relievers and read them the detailed scouting reports. Maddux raised his hand after Mazzone read the report on Yankees slugger Bernie Williams.
"That report is not correct," Maddux said. "I've been watching film of Williams for two weeks, and that report is not correct."
"Did everybody hear that?" Mazzone said.
The Braves pitchers nodded.
"Well, then the hell with this report," Mazzone said. "We go with what Mad Dog says."
Williams hit .167 in the Series.

(...) He wasn't unprofessional enough. Maddux probably could have squeezed another season and paycheck out of that 42-year-old right arm of his. Others would have taken the money. But not Mr. Integrity.
Nope. Won't miss him at all.
Until spring training 2009.

My last reason to follow baseball is gone. Quietly. Just the way he pitched games.

Mad Dog to the rescue

On the day I heard the sad news about Graeme Hick, I needed a pick-me-up. My other 42 year-old idol, Greg Maddux, gave me just the pep-up I needed!

By winning his seventh game of the season, he tied He Who Must Not Be Named for the most wins by an "active" player. Greg Maddux has about 4 or 5 starts left this season. I hope he is able to reach double digits in wins.

And then I shall dread opening the "newspaper" every day in the off-season as he may announce his retirement and I will be left with very few folks to root for.

The riddle

Ichiro Suzuki, the only player in Major League Baseball who has his first name on his jersey, is an enigma. In spite of being the most successful, and most followed, Japanese import to the US sports scene, very little is known about his private dealings. Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle attempts to demystify the growing legend of Ichiro.

Mad Dog and glory

In continuing with what seems to be the theme of some recent blog posts – another of my all-time favourites – Greg Maddux – continues to simply go about his job with a minimum of fuss and notches up another milestone.

This milestone, becoming the first player to win at least 10 games in 20 consecutive MLB seasons, is a testament not only to his longevity but also his ability to keep up a high standard year after year. Oh, by the way, he is on pace to win a 17th Gold Glove award.

And not only that, there are many other less-heralded achievements of his that are starting to get noticed. My favourite bit in the article is this:

Maddux has made up five career wins on Clemens this year, and now trails him by 10 (353-343). It's not difficult to imagine Maddux pitching like this for two more seasons. So it's entirely possible that Maddux can supplant Clemens as The Winningest Pitcher Alive. And that's a title that will be held by either man for a long, long, long time.

Hurting in the shadows

Regular readers of my blog would know by now who my favourite baseball player is. I shall write more about him in a couple of days.

Today I want to focus on the person who is second in my esteem. The Big Hurt, as Frank Thomas is also known, had the misfortune of having his best years overlap with another Chicago sports figure (Michael Jordan). Now many years later, in the autumn of his career, Thomas is having a resurgence that is bringing him back into the limelight.

In the late 1990's I watched him play at Comiskey Park (as it was then called) and even from a distance his size (6'5", 250+ pounds) stood out. For years he has been a vocal presence in asking for rigorous steroid testing in baseball. Many of his exceptional deeds on the baseball diamond have been overlooked because they paled in comparison to the behemoth numbers put up by suspiciously large individuals.

Breaking down his many accomplishments, Andy Behrens of ESPN.com makes a case that Thomas's fans have had the previlege of watching, arguably, one of the (if not the) greatest hitters the game of baseball has ever seen.

The efficient engine that could

Greg Maddux has had a resurgence in his pitching since he was traded to the LA Dodgers. Here is an article that dissects his most recent performance - an 8 inning, 68 pitch, no result mini-masterpiece - and checks how it stacks up with the best of them, and finds that it comes out quite favourable, actually.

(Cautionary note: if you do not follow baseball, the article is not for you).

Turning 40

"Mad Dog" turned 40 on Friday (14th April), joining a fairly eclectic bunch of personalities who have turned 40 this year (as a fellow blogger pointed out). Not surprisingly, there were many articles in the media written in praise of Greg Maddux. The one I liked most was this one by Tim Kurkjian of ESPN.com.

Mad Dog once more!

My favourite non-cricketer is back for his 21st season!

A few of our cricketers would do well to learn from his longevity and also the way he conducts himself on and off the field.

The South Siders get there first

After decades of futility, the Chicago White Sox are the Major League Baseball champions of 2005. They did this without any superstars and with very little fanfare and hardly any support outside the midwest.

Here are some interesting facts about this year's Chicago White Sox that I picked up from an article on ESPN by Jayson Stark:

• They won their final eight games in a row -- tying the 2004 Red Sox for the longest winning streak any team has had in a single postseason.

• They went 11-1 in their 12 postseason games -- tying the '99 Yankees for the best postseason record of the 11-season wild-card era.

• They played six road games in this postseason -- against teams (Boston, Anaheim and Houston) that finished a combined 69 games over.500 at home this season -- and won all six.

• They became just the third team in history to sweep a World Series after a season in which they were in first place every day of the season. Those other two teams were the 1990 Reds and the fabled '27 Yankees.

• This was a team that, amazingly, won 15 games in which it scored one run or two -- the most by any team since the '69 Mets.

• And this was a team that, including the postseason, went an insane 68-35 in games decided by one run or two -- the best record in baseball.

• They outscored the Astros by only six runs over the entire World Series and still managed to sweep it -- tied with the 1950 Yankees for the smallest margin by any sweepers in history. And how fitting was it that the grand finale was one last 1-0 game?

• How fitting was it that the White Sox wound up sweeping a World Series in which they never led by more than two runs at any point in any game?