ESPN.com welcomes aboard Jayson Stark as its senior writer for baseball. Jayson covered baseball at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 21 years and wrote his widely acclaimed "Week in Review" notebook for the past 17 years. That column now appears each Friday on ESPN.com. Jayson also enters his second season as an analyst for ESPN's "Baseball Tonight," making his 2000 debut next week.
In baseball, it doesn't take long to remind us that nothing is more
irrelevant than the good old days -- in other words, last year.
Don't believe us? Take a look at all these entries, just in from our It's
A New Year Dept.:
|
Triviality
|
|
Mike Morgan set a record this week by playing for the Diamondbacks, his 13th big-league franchise. Which active player has played for the next-most teams?
(Answer at bottom)
|
The Dodgers never scored 10 runs in back-to-back games at any point last
year. They did it in their first two games this year.
Mike Hampton lost two of his final 23 starts last season. He lost twice in
his first two starts this season.
Counting the postseason, Mariano Rivera finished 1999 with 36 appearances, 40 innings and
153 hitters faced without giving up a run. It took him one
appearance, two-thirds of an inning and five batters to give up his first run
this year. (Of course, it turned out he had a stomach virus.)
The Reds placed no position players on the disabled list all last season.
They topped that on Opening Day this year when Sean Casey went on the DL.
The Dodgers hit no Opening Day grand slams in their 100 opening days in the
1900s. They then hit a slam -- by Eric Karros -- in their first opener of
the 2000s.
Opponents hit .313 against Darryl Kile in his home career in Colorado.
After the first start of his home career in St. Louis, they're hitting .105.
Junior Griffey started his Reds career by going 0 for his first 10. He
started last season by going 5 for his first 10.
|
List of the week
|
|
Rico Brogna became just the sixth left-handed hitter to start against
Randy Johnson on Opening Day. Here is how those six have done, courtesy of
Stats Inc.'s Jim Henzler:
Rafael Palmeiro, 1992:
0-for-3 (2 pop-ups, 1 groundout)
Kenny Lofton, 1994:
0-for-3 (1 BB, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 1 flyout)
Robin Ventura, 1996:
0-for3 (2 K, 1 groundout)
Ozzie Guillen, 1996:
1-for-2 (1 popup, 1 ground-ball single)
Kenny Lofton, 1998L
0-for-3 (1 BB, 1 pop-up, 1 K, 1 groundout)
Rico Brogna, 2000:
0-for-4 (2 K, 1 lineout, 1 groundout)
Your terrifying totals: .056 avg (1-for-18), .056 slugging percentage, .150
on-base percentage, 1 ground-ball single, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts, 1
double-play ball, 1 flyout, 4 groundouts, 4 pop-ups, 1 line drive, 2 balls
out of the infield.
The good news for Brogna: He hit the only line drive (to the second
baseman). The bad news: Jay Bell was playing him right where he hit it.
"How can they ever play me to pull the Unit," Brogna wondered, "when the only
ball I made contact with against him last year was a foul ball over their
dugout?"
|
Roberto Hernandez didn't blow a save opportunity last year until June 20.
He blew his first save opportunity this year.
Mike Morgan made 268 appearances in the '90s and had one save. It took him
exactly one appearance in the 2000s to record his first save.
Last year, Scott Williamson didn't give up three runs in any game
until Sept. 21 -- his 59th game of the year. He gave up three in his first
appearance this year.
Jeff Zimmerman allowed five runs in his first 43 games of 1999. He gave up four just in the ninth inning of his second appearance this year.
Counting the postseason, Rey Ordonez didn't make an error over his final 110
games last year. He made one in his second game this year.
The Twins won one game in which they trailed after eight innings all last
season. Their first win this season was a game in which they trailed after
eight innings.
And last year, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and that Griffey guy combined for
176 home runs. This year, Mike Bordick, Orlando Cabrera, Kevin Stocker, Tom
Goodwin, Dave Hansen, Craig Paquette and Frank Menechino all homered before
any of them.
It's a great sport. Isn't it?
Nine innings over Tokyo
Opening Day in Japan may not be conveniently located. And if Opening Day in
Japan means 5 a.m. start times on the East Coast, it may lead to Katie Couric doing
play-by-play. But Opening Day in Japan is a whole 'nother world. So here,
with a full report, is our travel correspondent, Cubs utility spokesman Jeff
Huson.
The Trip: It was just another nice, leisurely, 23-hour, 13,000-air-mile
day for the Cubs. They were up at 4 a.m., Arizona time, on Friday, March
24 and reported to the ballpark at 5:45 a.m. They then bused to the
airport, flew to San Francisco, had a two-hour layover, then flew 12 more
hours to Japan. That was followed by a 2½, 50-mile bus ride through
classic Saturday gridlock to get to their hotel in Tokyo, 23 hours after they
awoke.
Then came the final challenge: They were told not to go to sleep for another
three hours -- making this the first reverse curfew in baseball history.
"That's the first time," Huson said, "that I ever heard that: 'OK, boys. STAY
UP.' "
The Perks: This important travel note: In answer to your most pressing
question, yes, these men did get frequent-flier miles. They flew commercial.
So they're now halfway to a free flight to Des Moines.
The Cinema: If you're going to fly 13,000 miles to play baseball, you'd
better be entertained. And Huson reports the Cubs got three movies on their
journey. So now, he gets to make his film-critic debut by rating them, on a
scale of 25 thumbs up:
"Mystery, Alaska" -- "It was a hockey movie, and I like hockey. So I'll give it
18 thumbs up."
"Anywhere But Here" -- "Nah, that was a chick flick. So I only give that one
10 thumbs up."
"Can't Remember the Title" -- This exciting motion picture was about a guy who
posed as a cop. And despite liking the movie and seeing it both on the trip
to Japan and the trip back, Huson couldn't recall the name of it. So he was
forced to invoke a three-thumb penalty. "I'd like to give it 18 thumbs up.
But I can't give it an 18 if I can't remember the name. So I guess it's only
a 15."
The Reception: -- After an off-day workout on Sunday, March 26, to get the
cobwebs out, the Cubs and Mets were invited to a big-time reception, featuring many
important Japanese dignitaries.
"My neck got sore from bowing because I had to bow so much," Huson said. "I'm
not used to that, you know. I don't get many curtain calls."
The Exhibition Games: The highlight of the two exhibition games Monday and
Tuesday was the trip back from Saitama-ken after a game against the Seibu
Lions on Tuesday.
The Cubs took a bus out there and, like all Japanese bus rides, that took over two hours. So after the game, they were advised that if
they took a train and subway back to Tokyo, it would take only about an hour.
Virtually the entire team volunteered. So "we all walked out of the stadium
to the train station," Huson reported. "And everybody knew it was us. So
people were taking our pictures and being very polite. Then the doors of the
train opened, and it was like sharks on fish. It was wall-to-wall people. You
couldn't have slipped a piece of paper in between us."
If you're monitoring Japanese public-transit efficiency at home, you'll be
happy to know this trip took 65 minutes. Guides accompanied the Cubs to make
sure they got on the proper trains and didn't take any unexpected detours to,
say, the Philippines.
The International Incident: Huson would have seemed a far less likely
candidate to cause an international incident than Rickey Henderson. But Huson
managed to cause one, anyway, when Don Baylor inadvertently forgot to write
his name on the lineup card.
As you may have heard someplace, that caused a big-time tiff between Baylor
and Bobby Valentine, after Valentine burst out of the dugout to protest the
first game of the season -- with the Mets one strike away from losing.
Huson had just gone into the game at shortstop. So as soon as Valentine came
out, he thought: "This has to involve me, somehow, some way, because I was
the only guy who just went in."
After the game ended, he walked in to shake hands, reached Baylor and asked:
"What was that about?" Baylor told him, jokingly: "It's all your fault." It
wasn't actually, of course. But the Baylor-Valentine fireworks erupted for
the rest of the trip. And Huson will always be remembered -- by us, anyway --
as an international troublemaker.
"They'll probably never let me go anywhere again," he said. "I think I had to
turn my passport in when I got back in the country."
The Reception (part 2): Before the second game, the Cubs were invited to a bash
at the U.S. embassy, which Huson described as an awesome building with "a
cool library." And what was in that library?
"I didn't see any baseball books," he said. "But I did see a book about
Idaho. Don't ask me what that was about."
The Home Game: The second game of the season was considered the Cubs'
first home game at a ballpark other than Wrigley Field since 1915. But no
attempts were made to make the Tokyo Dome look more like Wrigley so they
could feel more at home.
"There were no Sosa-meters, no fake ivy, anything like that," Huson said.
"They did put fake grass in, though."
The Economy: Now, an up-to-the-minute Japanese cost-of-living report:
The cost of breakfast ("I like to say it in yen, because it makes it sound so
much better"): two eggs, toast, bacon and coffee for Huson and his wife,
Wendy: 6,500 yen (about $65). "At the Waffle House, that would be $3.99," he said.
The cost of lunch: two chicken sandwiches, with cokes and fries: 9,800 yen
($98). The cost of dinner: two steaks, baked potatoes and bottles of beer: 27,600
yen ($276). "When the bill came and I saw that '27,600,' I was saying please
have a yen sign, not a dollar sign," Huson reminisced.
The Trip Home: The most spectacular aspect of the journey back to Chicago,
aside from the fact United showed the same three movies the team had already seen
on the way to Japan, was that, through the miracle of time zones, the Cubs
arrived 15 minutes before they left. They departed their hotel at 3:15 p.m.,
Tokyo time. They flew for 11 hours. And they still managed to land in Chicago
at 3 p.m. the same day.
"I would have loved to have known what happened in the stock market in those
15 minutes," Huson said. "I'd have bought all the options."
Vegas vacation of the week
It appears to be the goal of America's fastest-growing 24-hour
metropolis, Las Vegas, to become the Port Charlotte of the next millennium.
Vegas wants six teams to move there for spring training. So last weekend, the
Phillies, Rockies, White Sox , Mariners, A's and Diamondbacks all played
spring-training games there.
"Someone misinformed me that we were going to play on an extra-large
roulette wheel," Phillies center fielder Doug Glanville reported. "I was told
fans would place their bets, based on where they thought the ball would land.
But it didn't happen."
No, that wouldn't be proper. But baseball in Vegas could still be, well,
different. Would teams gamble more on the bases? Would managers feel free to
play all their cards? Would 21.00 suddenly be considered a good ERA?
"I know one thing," Rockies coach Rich Donnelly said,. "if you had a team
there, you'd need 48 players -- because there's no way 24 of them would show
up every night. But the good thing is, you'd have somebody big to throw out
the first ball every game -- Seigfried one night, Roy the next."
And one thing Bud Selig would love about Vegas: Plenty of revenue-sharing.
"Tough place to play," Donnelly said. "You'd have a lot of losing
streaks."
Wild pitches
Box score line of the week
The resemblance between Pedro Martinez and
his big brother, Ramon, ended with their last name this week in Seattle. Ramon's line Wednesday at Un-Safeco Field: 1 1/3 IP, 3 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 4 BB, 1
K, 1 HBP, 1 HR. The night before, Pedro faced 25 hitters and only four reached
base. One-third of an inning into the next game, Ramon had faced six hitters -- and five had reached base.
Managerial debut of the week
After waiting all these years to make his
big-league managerial debut, Cleveland's Charlie Manuel hasn't wasted any
time. After three games, he'd been ejected from more games than he'd finished
(two to one). Ed Rapuano bounced him Wednesday. Bill Miller did the honors
Thursday. "I don't plan on getting thrown out of all our ballgames," said
Manuel, who was on a 108-ejection pace. "It's just the way things developed."
Inside-the-parker of the week
With slight assistance from Andruw Jones,
Tom Goodwin swatted the Rockies' first-ever inside-the-park home run at sea
level Wednesday -- and circled the bases in 13.6 seconds. (We timed him.) "He
looked like a runaway hub cap," said third-base coach Donnelly. "He was
turning."
Comeback of the week
One night after beating Devil Rays closer Roberto
Hernandez in the ninth, those pesky Twins erupted again Wednesday. They were
down 7-1 after seven innings. They scored six in the eighth to tie it. Then up
stepped Matt Lawton with two on in the ninth. Plate ump Al Clark asked
Lawton: "You bunting?" Lawton's reply: "I sure hope not. What do you want me
to do?" Clark: "Think you can win it?" Lawton: "Yeah." Clark: "All right.
Swing the bat, and hopefully something good will happen." Sure did. Lawton
then launched a game-winning walkoff homer off Rick White. "I'm glad for the
people who stayed," Tom Kelly said. "Actually, if you'd left, I wouldn't have
blamed you."
Four-hitter of the week
The Tigers threw a four-hitter to beat Oakland
on Opening Day. But the big news is that all four hits were home runs -- a
feat no team pulled off in any game in the '90s. "I've never seen that
before," said pitching coach Dan Warthen. "Nor will I ever see it again."
Last game in which a team gave up that many hits (or more) and all were
homers: June 24, 1989, when Charlie Hough and Kenny Rogers gave up six home runs
-- and no other hits -- to Cleveland.
|  | | Gabe Kapler was one of four players to homer in his first two at-bats of 2000. |
Useless information dept.
Mo Vaughn stole his first base since May 26, 1997 on Wednesday -- with a
headfirst slide yet. In between Mo's stolen bases, Tony Womack swiped 173.
The Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR home run historian David Vincent, reports
that Mike Sirotka was just the sixth pitcher in history to give up four
homers on Opening Day. The others: Kenny Rogers ('95), Mike Witt ('88), Warren
Spahn ('62), Pedro Ramos ('59) and George Grant ('25).
More from Vincent: Three guys hit slams on Opening Day this year (Fred
McGriff, Eric Karros, Richard Hidalgo). There were three Opening Day slams in
the '00s, '10s, '20s, '30s and '40s combined. Also, six men had Opening Day
multihomer games, blowing away the old record of four, in 1988 (George Bell,
Darryl Strawberry, Kevin McReynolds, Pete O'Brien).
Four players hit homers in their first two at-bats of the season this week --
Gabe Kapler, Ivan Rodriguez, Brian Daubach and J.D. Drew. Just four did it in
the 10 seasons in the '90s combined, according to Stats Inc.'s Jim Henzler --
the eclectic group of Matt Williams ('94), Ken Griffey ('97), Mark Lewis
('97) and Tuffy Rhodes (three straight bombs on Opening Day, '94).
It isn't every year you see a pitcher who was 8-18 the previous season
start on Opening Day. Last pitcher with that few wins and that many losses to
go out there for an opener, according to Stats Inc.: Tom Candiotti (7-18),
for the '88 Indians. And Darryl Kile's 6.61 ERA was the highest ERA by any
Opening Day starter in the last half-century.
Only once in the '90s did an Opening Day starter throw more pitches than
the 133 Randy Johnson delivered in the Diamondbacks' opener: 144, by Jack
Morris, for the '92 Blue Jays. By the way, Morris went 21-6 that year.
Thanks to a rainout Monday and Steelers weather Tuesday, the Pirates had
more no-shows for opening day (39,789) than they'll have seats in their new
park next year (about 38,000). They sold 54,399 tickets for the
opener. Only 14,610 showed up.
The Tigers have won three straight openers. But they're just 1-13 in their
last 14 games-after-the-opener. The only win came in 1996, the day Cecil
Fielder stole the first base of his career. Oh yeah. They've now also lost
seven straight years in their third game of the season.
Would you believe eight different pitchers gave up a home run to the first
hitter they faced this year? The Eight-Bagger Club: Ricky Bottalico, Jeff
Suppan, Brad Radke, David Cone, Esteban Loaiza, Hideki Irabu, Scott
Strickland and Wayne Gomes. Last to give up homers to the first two hitters
they faced in a season: Rich Garces and Doug Jones (both in '98).
Rumblings and grumblings
It's incredible how many people insist that the Indians continue to talk about trading Manny Ramirez. But that much-rumored trade that would send Ramirez to Montreal in a package deal involving Ugueth Urbina -- or perhaps to a bigger-budget club as part of a three-team trade -- seems increasingly unlikely.
"Cleveland still wants Urbina," one AL executives said. "So it's not dead. It may be on life support, but it's not totally dead."
So what's stopping it? For one thing, the Indians have a legitimate chance to win the World Series. For another, the Expos have no great reason to unload Urbina unless it's a monster package.
Beyond that, Ramirez is going to be a tough guy to sign whereever he's traded, but especially someplace like Montreal. And finally, his agent, Jeff Moorad, was promised by the Dolan brothers, Cleveland's new owners, that the Indians would at least make Ramirez an offer before they made any decisions about his future. So far, they have yet to make a formal proposal.
So nothing's impossible. But it's likely both sides will let this situation percolate for a while.
It now appears all but certain that owners won't take a vote on realignment at their April 17 owners' meetings in Houston. But with Jerry Colangelo giving up the fight on Arizona's relocation to the AL, it should all go down in June.
How often do you see a team in contention sending the man who led its outfielders in home runs to the minors in midseason? Almost never. But the Mets figure to do that this weekend, when they send out Benny Agbayani to make roster space for fifth starter Glendon Rusch. Agbayani was leading the team in RBI (with five) going into the weekend, by the way.
One scout's nomination for the bullpen surprise of the year: Sean Lowe of the White Sox (5 strikeouts in 3 2/3 IP in Texas). "His sinker's sinking great. He's throwing his breaking ball for strikes. Looks like he's finally figured it out."
The Phillies insisted all spring they weren't worried about those ominous medical reports on new closer Mike Jackson. Then Jackson went to warm up for the first time Thursday, couldn't go, and had to be disabled Friday with what is being described as a rear capsule strain. Jackson needs to make 40 appearances (and not be on the DL at the end of the year) to vest his $3 million option for next season. Then there's a $5.25 million option for 2002. So watch this situation very closely.
Best arm in baseball? It might not be attached to Pedro or Billy Wagner or Armando Benitez. How about Braves shortstop phenom Rafael Furcal? One scout swears Furcal threw a ball on a relay so hard the other night, he could actually hear it. Amazing tools on this kid.
One of the great trades of the winter was the Yankees sending Hideki Irabu to Montreal for three prospects -- two of whom are upper-tier arms Jake Westbrook and Ted Lilly. Lilly was supposedly hurt when the Yankees selected him last month as a player to be named later. But he has thrown so well in Tampa that he and Westbrook both have pitched themselves into the running to be recalled -- over Ed Yarnall -- when the Yankees need a fifth starter later this month.
That innovative hill in center field at Houston's new Enron Field, complete with a flagpole that's in play, is bound to cause trouble. Joe Torre told Bernie Williams not to even chase balls over his head when the Yankees visited last weekend. And after Phillies center fielder Doug Glanville checked it out Friday afternoon, he said: "It's certainly a new twist. What's next -- an alligator pit?"
Trivia answer
Mike Maddux with nine. | |
|
