The Middle Innings

What Is Money Supposed To Buy?

2009-04-03T00:39:00.006-04:00

The age old gripe by Everyday Joe: "Gee, I wish I could get paid millions of dollars to play a game for a living." We all think it at one time or another, despite the fact that most of us know how cliche it is.

However, of late, I've encountered a different gripe. Why is it that the coaching staff has become responsible for hand-holding? At what point did multimillion dollar deals not inherently require some level of personal accountability?

As a Mets fan, I think their pitching coach, Dan Warthen, did a great job last year, and I think the staff seems to like what he brings to the club. But a couple things he has said in the past two weeks have been a bit unsettling for the overall voice of the game.

Oliver Perez came back from his appearance with Team Mexico in the WBC overweight and underconditioned. Instead of directly blaming Perez, Warthen said the following.

"He came into camp in good shape. I thought he was throwing the ball well when he left, but I was a little bit reticent when he left here, and my worries have come to fruition," Warthen said. "I think he needs the camaraderie of people that push him.

Personally, I think the $36 million deal he just signed should be good enough motivation. But what do I know? On Saturday's exhibition broadcast between the Mets and Red Sox, Gary Cohen mentioned that Perez attempted to call Mexico's pitching coach, Teddy Higuera, about maintaining his training regimen, but Higuera was unreachable. Cohen called the situation unacceptable on Higuera's part, but I just can't agree. Perez knew what he had to do. He didn't need Higuera's blessing to continue his Spring Training work. Make no excuses; do what you know is required of you.

Another quote from Warthen about how he treats the staff:

“We don’t use the word don’t,” Warthen said. “It’s more like, ‘This is what you’re going to do, this is how you’re going to do it, this is why you’re going to do it.’ ”

Okay so this one might be a little picky, but it just reeks of yuppy parenting. "I don't ever tell my child 'no;' I find a compromise we can both be happy with." These guys are here to do a job. Warthen is there to tell them how to do their job better. Part of getting better is eliminating deficiencies. Warthen's the boss and as such, if he says not to do something, don't do it. If I asked my boss to give me a reason for every task I was assigned, I would've been let go long ago.

During this past Thursday's White Sox-Brewers game on CSN, Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone brought the point up from a different, yet equally disappointing angle when talking about Twins head coach, Ron Gardenhire.

SS: One of the things I like about him is - he doesn't ask his team to do something, he pretty much tells them how he wants them to do it and then works them out until they get to the point where they can do it and that's why Minnesota is one of the great executing teams in baseball.
KH: That's one reason that I like what Kenny and Ozzie are doing here with the White Sox. They're not asking guys to buy into what they're trying describe to them. They're telling them. They're telling them, 'You need to buy into it. And it is indeed our way or the highway - one of the two.'

This should not be an admirable trait. This should be a usual trait of a manager on any level. Is this the effect of "me first" America? Has baseball just let high profile guys get away with it and set a terrible precedence? Organizations need to man up and put a stop to this before major leaguers become more spoiled than Suri Cruise.

For bonus entertainment, the conversation rambled on from there:

SS: And it starts when they put on a White Sox uniform at the lowest level of the minor leagues as soon as they come into the organization and it remains consistent all the way up to the Major Leagues.
KH: That's when I knew Kenny Williams was going to be an outstanding general manager - was when he was farm director for the White Sox. He called a meeting one day and he had all the minor leaguers come over where they used to eat out there in the tent behind the clubhouse. And they're all standing there and Kenny starts talking and all of the sudden there was a big kid - big strong stud, left handed hitter from New Jersey. And he looked at him and he says 'Get your you-know-what up, get in there and get your stuff and get your you-know-what out of here. You're released.' The guy says, 'What?' He says, 'You heard me.' ...And the kid happened to be one of the best prospects that we had. But he had been giving everybody trouble - he had been giving the coaches trouble, other players trouble. Kenny says 'Get out of here right now.' And the kid left. No longer to be seen. And right there I said to myself this is going to be one heck of a general manager.

Ok, what?

1) I understand that the name was omitted to protect the innocent, but who is this? If he was one of the best prospects they had, should've been news, right?
2) I get that the story shows Williams' willingness to shoot from the hip, but does a farm director have the ability to fire someone?
3) If I were Williams, I wouldn't want a broadcaster telling this story because it sounds incredibly unprofessional. All the kids were just eating lunch and Williams fires this guy right in front of them? Presumably swearing?
4) Why does Harrelson think being confident in layoffs is a good determining factor managing an entire baseball organization's roster?

The whole thing just sounded like one of those vague stories your dad tells that you can only imagine was either a delightful embellishment or a fabrication he knows you wouldn't be able to call him on.

Newsflash.

2009-03-26T00:04:00.006-04:00

The Nationals are still awful.

Earlier I mentioned the silver lining to the storm cloud in the form of Teddy. Now that we're into ballgames, a second of three silver linings has presented itself (Screech is a story totally unto itself) -- broadcasters finding new and inventive reasons to excuse poor play.

With the visiting Braves batting in the top of the 5th, pitcher Kenshin Kawakami hit a lazy fly to Elijah Dukes. Oops. Someone explain to me what it wasn't Dukes' fault. Bob Carpenter and Rob Dibble?

BC: Elijah just...there was something about the way he approached that ball...kind of like in basketball when you see a rhythm shooter. He was just out of rhythm on that thing. Something was not right.
RB: It's plays like that. It's losing your concentration for a split second...very windy.

Later on, following Debbi Taylor's interview of Joel Hanrahan and his experience with Team USA, Rob Dibble said this:

Hopefully he gets a heck of a lot of opportunities and breaks that 62 save record held by a New York Met reliever, K-Rod.

He then segued straight into Adam Dunn's impact without expounding any further on what he had just said. Call me jaded, but what a ridiculous thing to hope for. Might want to keep that an "inside thought." The Nationals had 59 wins last year, nonetheless 28 total saves for the club. The 2009 Nationals are basically the 2008 Nationals plus Adam Dunn. Be reasonable.

Not to keep bashing on Nasty Boy, but he also said "We've hit some bullets today, Bob," during the inning. We? He was just demoted from Fox Sports to the vapid wasteland of MASN (whose ratings were worst in the MLB last year, less than a third of the viewership in next-to-last Kansas City. Wow.) and already he's part of the club? It's not like he could even play the legacy card, having pitched nearly all of his career with Cincinnati. Add a touch of irony with the fact that he interviewed for this very job and obviously didn't make the cut. Dibble's take on it:

Remember, for some of the people in the room that forget that four years ago, before I did “The Best Damn Sports Show” job, I interviewed for this position. At the time, it didn’t feel right.

To spite my point, Elijah Dukes drove in two in the 6th and the Nationals won the game 6-3. I'm okay with that, if for no other reason, because the game didn't represent anything more than a warmup for some new "my dog ate my homework" excuses for '09. I'm looking at you, Dibble.

Spring Training Bidding War

2009-03-20T18:32:00.000-04:00

I tuned in to last night's Red Sox-Reds game care of Fox Sports Ohio. During the bottom of the 5th, George Grande straight up broke one of the cardinal rules of announcing. He started his profile of Cincinnati's spring training home not only with two out, but prior to a 3-2 pitch. Busch league. Lucky for him and Chris Welsh, the inning continued and we got to hear a bit about the westward migration of Spring Training homes.

The Reds thought they had a deal to stay here, [but] it did not materialize. The Reds will move to Arizona, Goodyear, next year, and share a facility with the Indians. It's a beautiful facility; we've talked to some of the Indians folks and they say everything is going great.

There's a lot of remorse going around right here, George, including the city fathers and committee members who all voted the Reds down at the time. Now they wish the Reds could break the contract in Arizona. They would do anything they could to get them to stay in Sarasota. They'll be left without a Major League team for the first time in decades, the city of Sarasota.

That seems like a bit of an overstatement. In a cursory search on the interweb-nets, I found no reference to lawmakers showing remorse. It was more just a vibe of, "Well crap. Now we have to get a different team to come here." Anyway, as Welsh finishes up on the subject:

The Red Sox will move [to Fort Myers] after the facility is completed. The Reds will move next year, which will mean 15 teams in Arizona and 15 teams in Florida - meaning that on any given day one team will have a day off. So there's pressure right now for both states to try to get another team to move.

This is the real point at hand. With six teams having fled to the desert in the last 10 years and one more on the way, it's officially an even split. With the odd numbers in both states (unless you're counting split squads), something's going to have to give.

Florida, whatcha got?

On Big League Stew, David Brown presents Governor Crist's argument:

Crist has brought back the governor's baseball dinner...which featured a few Hall of Famers, commissioner Bud Selig, managers Charlie Manuel and Joe Maddon, plus reps from each of the 16 teams still training here — [which] is a way of reminding baseball how much Florida wants its business. "All the more important to have this dinner to thank the ones that are here," said Crist, who could give George Hamilton a tan for his money. "We’re going to keep fighting to get them back. It breaks my heart. We need ‘em."

And according to his press release, “Spring training alone generates more than $450 million a year in Florida.” Guess that's kind of a big deal too.

Hey, Arizona, how 'bout you guys?

Former Tigers closer Todd Jones weighs in:

Arizona is set up better for a baseball fan. You can see the most teams in the shortest amount of time without having to travel too far. A few teams share complexes, so you can even get two teams for the price of one. That's a good thing for a few reasons. One is you always know that at that complex you can catch a game, because one team will be playing. Plus, in the morning, you can see both teams go through drills and work out.

Russell over at his blog, Arizona via Slough, tracks down an internal e-mail from Arizona to Major League clubs. Okay, not really, but it's hilarious and worth a look. One of its finer pitches:

Friendly Umpires- Don't let your star pitcher lose confidence. If you commit to Spring Training in Arizona before the All-Star Break we will guarantee a "bonus strike" for every batter faced.

I can see it now. 'Full count, three balls, three strikes. And here's the pitch."

Double Dip

2009-03-17T23:41:00.007-04:00

Tonight, prior to USA's dramatic comeback, MLB network's crew was settling into the ebb and flow of things in the bottom of the 3rd inning. After Kevin Youklis crushed a solo home run to right, Matt Vasgersian, Harold Reynolds, and Al Leiter got pleasantly chippy.

Harold Reynolds: He got a fastball in and, well, the swing speaks for itself. He got all of that one. You can tell that was a Fenway Park home run swing. That's hard to do. You have to get an arc on your swing and he's perfected that.
Al Leiter: You know, yesterday you talked about his unusual stance and that you said he never saw it or looked at it on video and I kind of questioned that. It's hard to believe he didn't know before. I talked to him about it and he said "That's right, you know, I didn't realize I was that exaggerated."
HR: Just following up on me?
AL: I said, "So you don't look at video?" He said, "No, I look at video for my swing. All I'm trying to be is short and make sure that I'm not pulling my front side out." Talking about that Fenway Park swing - that's his key - keeping the front side in and be very short on his front leg.
HR: How about that, Matt, he's checking up on me.
Matt Vasgersian: You got right hander Nelson Figueroa warming up in the bullpen.
HR: I'm bringing in a little conversation from the batting cage and he's following up on me.
AL: It's not follow up, I found it hard to believe. I even said it to you, that I thought it was unusual.
HR: It's okay, I'm joking. It's alright.
MV: You've had two months at the MLB Network, Harold, of nobody calling you out on anything. Like you and Larkin got all over Rickey Henderson for talking about his elbows on opening week of the network.
HR: [crude imitation of Rickey Henderson mumbling something about elbows]

Granted, they were laughing about it at the end, but it was kind of uncomfortable laugher.

During yesterday's spring training affair in which the White Sox hosted the Cardinals, Albert Pujols came up to the plate with a runner on 3rd and one out in the bottom of the 4th inning, prompting Jim Leyland to move his infielders in. Al Hrabosky treated us to this little tidbit.

I won't forget [what] my broadcast partner Dan McLaughlin [said]. One time [they] brought the infield in with Albert and he goes, "Aww I can't believe how close those guys are.' And I said, "Will you look at the pitcher? He's a little bit closer." He's ending up about 55 feet away when he makes that pitch. You learn to "charge" line drives.

You know, charge line drives like this. Yikes.

An article by Steve Marantz in The Sporting News back in 1998 went a bit more in depth into the unavoidable problems presented by this positioning.

If the ball doesn't come out of the umpire, you don't see it," Orioles manager Ray Miller says. "It's especially bad during day games. I've had infielders come in and complain. What's a pitcher going to do, 54 feet from the batter, standing on one foot, leaning forward?

Finally, the following part of the aforementioned article is not funny, so don't laugh.

Sometimes courage isn't enough. Reliever Josias Manzanillo had a testicle removed after being hit by a liner while pitching for Seattle last season. He never regained his effectiveness and eventually was released.

*snicker*

A Simpler Time

2009-03-12T22:16:00.001-04:00

The WBC has consumed basically all of my baseball watching for the last week. While the games have been, at best, baseball drama at its finest, and at worst, largely entertaining, the announcers don't really find time to "shoot the poop" (if you will) during the broadcasts. With the subsequent dearth of tidbits to report, I stumbled upon this image courtesy of Let's Go Mets and felt a tangent coming on:

Some might say advertising has come a long way since the 1950's, but I tend to disagree. There was a straightforwardness about it all; it almost bordered on blunt.

Hey you. Hank Aaron says, "Buy this." So do it. Did you not hear him? Buy it.

In a time when ballplayers had to supplement their on-field income to make an adequate living, it didn't matter what the product was as long as they were making a couple extra bucks. Do you think Duke Snider was really passionate about wearing his Brookfield suit? I'm not calling him out, I just have my doubts. I will, on the other hand, guarantee that Babe Ruth did not eat his Wheaties.

The message (or lack thereof) only represented half the wondrous simplicity of the era. More often than not, the advertisers themselves showed little to no effort to integrate the shiller with the product. "Jello. Here's a picture of Mickey Mantle. You like him right? Buy Jello." Another opportunity was simply letting the marketing department go to town with an artist's rendering of the ballplayer holding their product. Johnny Baseball put his name on the dotted line, never worried about it again, and collected a nice little paycheck. Not a bad day's work.

All idiosyncrasies of baseball marketing of the time aside, the images are timeless and emit pure nostalgia. I can only wish I was around during the dog days of 1952. I'd pick up a fresh issue of Sport magazine to read "Durocher's Dugout Secrets" and turn the page to find Allie Reynolds "telling" me to chew some Beech-Nut gum.

Anyone got a stick?

A few old school ads to peruse...

What Would Life Be Without Rules?

2009-03-06T19:49:00.000-05:00

The World Baseball Classic has begun! When I read the stat line for Japan's starter in the opener, Yu Darvish, I instantly remembered why he pitched only 4 innings: the WBC imposed pitch limit. This instantly got me to the Rules and Regulations page for the WBC to check on the specifics. The pitch count rules are pretty straight forward, but some of the other rules are worth mentioning.

My favorite is the extra inning rule that I first saw noticed in the Olympics' rulebook.

For any inning beginning with the 13th inning, the Team at bat shall begin the inning with runners on first and second base. The batter who leads off an inning shall continue to be the batter who would lead off the inning in the absence of this extra-innings rule.

It's like a shootout, baseball-style. I can wait to see this rule in practice. It had been more complicated in the Olympics due to giving the managers the choice of where in the order he wanted to start the extra innings situation. Bonus obscurity for those of you scoring at home:

For purposes of calculating earned runs under the Official Baseball Rule 10.16(b), the runners who begin an inning on first and second base pursuant to this rule each shall be deemed to be runners who have reached first base because of a fielding error, but no error shall be charged to the opposing Team or to any player.

Another thing that caught my eye was the following:

WBCI will not approve a player's participation in the Tournament if such participation would cause a Major League Club to have more than 14 players from its organization...unless the Major League Club informs WBCI in writing that it has no objection to allowing additional players to participate.

If one takes a look at this post on Metsblog.com, the rule actually has a precedent:

According to Newsday, ‘Fernando Tatis has agreed to be the replacement for Alex Rodriguez on the Dominican Republic team for the WBC.’

The Mets now have more players in the World Baseball Classic, 16, than any other team in MLB.

Bit of a curious rule to follow.

When a pitcher warming up in the bullpen has been designated to the umpire-in-chief as a relief pitcher, at the call of the umpire, the pitcher must take a position on the pitching plate promptly. Any extra pitches thrown in the bullpen may be subtracted from the eight permissible from the mound.

So it appears that not only is a relief pitcher permitted eight and only eight warmup pitches on the mound, but if he throws any pitches in the bullpen after being called, they'll dock him. Seems unnecessarily strict.

The succeeding batter must occupy and kneel in the spot designated as the on-deck circle.

I find it hard to believe this rule will be followed or enforced for that matter. Conveniently, no penalty for squatting or standing is listed.

Mascots are not permitted on the field once a game has started, except when the infield is being dragged in the 5th inning or if there is a rain delay. Mascots must leave the field no later than 1 minute and 40 seconds into the fifth inning break to permit the public address announcer to call the first batter of the next half-inning.

Geez. This seems pretty harsh. Though I suspect I won't be able to find out, I'm really curious as to whether mascots are aware of their 1 minute and 40 seconds of fame and if they've prepared a routine accordingly or not.

Finally, my second favorite set of rules set out for the Classic involve replays and the videoboard in general. I'm relatively sure these rules mimic MLB's regulations, but a cursory glance in the Official Rules netted me nothing. There's a lot to be covered here so let's go point by point.

The following plays may not be shown:
Replays showing balls and strikes (unless the image is from a prior game, and only then if the context of the highlights clearly demonstrates that criticism of umpires or incitement of the crowd is not the purpose of the display);

Touchy, touchy. You never see any highlights from previous games of great plate discipline resulting in ball 4. Why is that?

Double plays and forceouts originating at second base;

The clear implication here is that the replay would reveal more neighborhood plays than overseers would ever want to deal with.

Brushback pitches; and

I understand this one - you don't want to incite the crowd, and there's really no substantiative reason for replaying a brushback.

Any instance where an umpire has clearly made an incorrect call.

Whereas the intent, again, is to avoid inciting the crowd, I disagree with this one. I think paying patrons have a right to know what really happened. If you think about it, the unintentional implication being made is that a close call that isn't shown on the videoscreen must be an errant call.

Exciting plays, such as spectacular catches or players circling the bases after home runs, may be shown more than once, but close plays may be shown only once, and none of the close plays may be shown in slow motion.

Again, anyone who reads this now knows that if a replay is shown only once, and not shown in slow motion, there's a good chance it could've been an errant call. Seems like these kinds of rules don't need to be, or perhaps even shouldn't be revealed to the public.

...No episode or event that would embarrass or denigrate an umpire, Team member, Team official or official scorer may be shown. The likeness of an umpire may not be shown nor may an umpire's name be used in a way to embarrass an umpire.

This one just makes me laugh a little. I've prepared a visual for what I believe were actual videoscreen situations that led to these lines being included in the rules. Enjoy.

Disappointed, Mate

2009-03-04T23:27:00.009-05:00

I tuned into the spring contest between the Mariners and WBC Team Australia this evening. One might ask, "Of all WBC teams to take a look at, why Australia?" Well the obvious answer would be for the novelty of it. The other reason would be lack of options on MLB.tv. But MLB.tv is another story for another day.

I picked up the action in the bottom of the 4th. For the nearly the entire broadcast, our friends at Fox Northwest (I'm talking to you Dave Simms, Mike Blowers, Dave Niehaus, and Rick Rizzs) said zero things about Team Australia. Aside from recalling stat lines from the night's action, nothing was said about the visiting team or its players. No information on home ballclub, possible minor league affiliation, favorite ice cream flavor, no nothing.

As Mariners announcers, I can understand a deficiency of information about the opponent. This could be especially deficient due to the obscurity of the international team. But not one thing? Even I know, as a casual baseball fan that both Grant Balfour of the Rays and Ryan Rowland-Smith of the Seattle Mariners are sitting out for the Aussies.

Finally in the top of the 7th, there's hope! The guys in the booth interview aforementioned Aussie Ryan Rowland-Smith. After one softball question about how tough it is to be watching the game from the sidelines (to which the announcers tell him he made the right decision...what?!), they go straight into last season with the Mariners and what we can expect from him this year.

There are homers and then there are homers. Don't get me wrong, it's going to take a lot to unseat Mark Grace and his pom-poms, but this was pretty silly. If they won't talk about the land down under, let's see what MLB.com has to say about the one of the guys in action tonight.

Naylor, who could be one of the top starters for Australia, combined to go 8-10 with a 3.86 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 165 1/3 innings last summer between Lakewood and Class A Advanced Clearwater. He ranked 11th in the Minors in strikeouts and also had three complete games in his first full season.
Signed in 2004, he pitched in his home country's sanctioned league for two seasons before making his American debut in '06. He has combined for a 3.78 ERA in those three summers.
The 22-year-old throws a fastball that sits around 90 mph and is offset by a good curveball, which has become an out pitch, and a fast-developing changeup.
"Drew's very tall and lanky and when he first came to us his secondary pitches were just OK," recalled Steve Noworyta, the Phillies' Minor League director. "But the next year he came in and became a man. He just matured and got stronger, and his secondary pitches had him blossom to where he is today."
For Naylor, the key to making the next logical jump will simply be the two big "Cs" of pitching, command and consistency.

We couldn't find time for any of this during the broadcast? Did we really need to watch Rick Rizzs awkwardly stare down Adrian Beltre in the dugout instead? I could sense by Beltre's lack of eye contact that he felt there were some personal boundaries issues. The whole thing just looked uncomfortable. But I digress.

It's now the top of the 8th, and we've just had out first and second actual pieces of information outside of Rowland-Smith in quick succession - Australia won the bronze in the Athens summer games in 2004 and our starting pitcher this evening, Travis Blackley, was a former Mariner (I give this one half credit).

**EDIT** Reader majorleaguebaseball has pointed out that Australia won the silver medal in Athens, not the bronze. Full credit has been deducted from the Mariners homers, leaving them half a credit for recognizing a guy who used to be on their own team. For shame, gentlemen, for shame.

Ironically, the MLB.com otherwise informative article started out with the following.

Forget about the blooming onions at Outback Steakhouse. The Philadelphia Phillies have a few blooming Australians of their own.

Frankly I'm shocked the boys at Fox Northwest didn't go this route.

"Naughton hits one high and deep! And Naughton says 'No rules, just right!'"
"Risinger with a drive to left...the dinger ate my baby!"
"Roneberg makes a diving stop! Roneberg, Australian for 'leather!'"

I should stop.

...Crocodile Hunter.

Nationals Postscript

2009-03-02T00:07:00.005-05:00

The timing of my previous post proved to be ominous with the big news of today.

I'm just really pleased with Yahoo! Sports' obviously intentional photographic journalism.

Just how many Nationals fans do you think wish that baseball was one tenth of a second from smashing into his skull? He doesn't even look to be aware of his fate; he's just going to get a blindside cold cock.

When the picture is clicked to enlarge it, his hand is revealed to be simply flipping the ball up in the air. How convenient a crop job, Yahoo. Kudos for capturing the ire for a man previously considered fire-proof.

Campaigning for Roosevelt '09

2009-02-28T11:54:00.001-05:00

Sometimes events in history line up and cause the perfect storm. In this case, the result is actually the ray of sunshine in an otherwise ugly storm.

In 2005, the Montreal Expos moved south and became the Washington Nationals. As you'll see in any ballpark across America, the Nationals had a CGI "race" on the jumbotron in which different seating levels "competed against" each other. This in-between-innings crowd occupier was as innocuous as any awkward guy rocking out to Bon Jovi.

In 2006, Ted Lerner bought the Nationals and immediately implemented some enhancements to add to the fan experience. The Presidents Race was ramped up into verison of Milwaukee's Sausage Race. The running gag from the very beginning was Teddy Roosevelt's inability to win a single race, which continues to be the case to this day. On a personal note, as a resident of Northern Virginia, outside of the new amazingly vibrant gigantic jumbotron, watching Teddy's hijinks are reason enough to head to Nationals Park.

The imergence of the Presidents Race led to the inception of the blog, Presidents Race: Let Teddy Win!, devoted to tracking season and historical standings, facts about the race, and posting of videos. Courtesy of Let Teddy Win comes this offseason gem:

Strangely, this race took place in Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, NY on Presidents Day. The Islanders played the Washington Capitols, right? No. Pittsburg Penguins. Huh.

For a franchise with dwindling attendance figures, a perennially awful big league team, an arguably worse farm system, and a general manager embattled in financial controversy, fans don't have a lot to look forward to in 2009. Maybe, just maybe, the perfect storm has formed. Maybe this is Teddy's year to beat George by a nose.

If you want to go see Adam Dunn draw a ridiculous amount of walks, go right ahead. I'll be there for the giant foam heads.

Nature Vs. Nuture

2009-02-26T23:01:00.002-05:00

A quick preliminary note - as previously alluded to in the mission statement, I am a die-hard Mets fan. I've already made a personal oath to broaden my horizons, committing to view as proportionate an amount of unrelated middle innings as Mets broadcasts. Still, the ratio of Mets to unrelated material along with my unavoidable partiality will still lead to a large portion of Mets miscellanea. So now that we have that out of the way...

Spring training is here at last! With it comes a "back to basics" approach by most coaching staffs: windsprints, infield drills, and bullhorns signaling rotation to the next training excercise. Mets skipper Jerry Manuel has instituted a hitting drill that has created a bit of buzz. As Marty Noble of Mets.com describes it:

Rookie Josh Thole stepped into the cage and was told by batting coach Howard Johnson, "swing at every pitch. Don't take anything." And it started, the batting practice equivalent of the sports bar free throw game "Pop-a-Shot." Pitch-swing, pitch-swing, pitch-swing.

The drill calls for a total of 80 pitches and subsequent swings and the whole process lasts about 6-8 minutes.

Manuel presents his rationale for the drill. "It's about bat control and learning to do what needs to be done when we've got a man on third and we've got to get him in. We don't need all that body movement. This pretty much forces you to use your hands." His point is to encourage shortening up one's swing, ensuring contact, and dumping a pitch into the opposite field.

I had pretty much taken this argument at face value until today's first Spring Training telecast between the Mets and Marlins on SNY.

Gary Cohen added another element in the drill's favor. "What Jerry talks about is the muscle memory, the almost turning off your brain so that all you're doing is swinging, swinging, swinging and getting that muscle memory of hitting the ball the other way."

Perhaps there's something to this. The tendency to overthink a swing and mechanics thereof seems to be the root of many a slump. The idea that you can induce an opposite field hit in such a Pavlovian manner is so out there, it might just work. Ryan Church said, of the 10 opposite field hits in the previous day's exhibition, he felt like it was a manifestation of the drill at work.

Keith Hernandez provided the first dissenting opinion I've seen yet. "I think that's too many pitches. That's not something I would want to do. ...My dad taught me how to hit along with my older brother. My dad wouldn't let us hit over fifteen, twenty minutes. He saw us getting tired in our hands and arms, he said 'That's where you get bad habits. Gary, come on in, you come hit, Keith you go shag.'" I can see the merit in this argument as well. If your swing works, you don't want to alter it by batting tired.

This argument has been proven several times in the form of pitchers trying to battle injuries. A delivery can be altered to compensate for a specific ailment, but usually for the worse. A guy injures his push-off foot, but pitches through it, losing the starting inertia he once had, and ultimately loses the velocity on his pitch. Another guy has a problem with his rotator cuff and his offspeed pitches have noticeably diminished break, which leads to a less effective fastball.

Solid arguments exist for both sides. I feel like there's more at play from the hitter's standpoint, but since all the hitters involved fall under the authority of Manuel, they're certainly not going to poo poo it. I hope more teams entertain the notion of this drill so that the debate can continue on a more national scale.

Call To The Junkyard

2009-02-25T20:57:00.004-05:00

Okay so I know this is not totally germane to the point and purpose at hand, but the question going into the 2009 season just needs to be asked...

When you absolutely must have a motor vehicle of any specific shape or size, who are you going to contact?

Maroone.

I, for one, will never tire of tuning in to FSN Florida to the sight of Rick VandenHurk trotting off the field having given up five earned, unable to escape the fourth inning. That can only mean one thing -- time for a cheap ripoff of the Ray Parker Jr's 80's classic.

When you need car
Truck or van
Who ya gonna call?
MAROONE!

Frankly, it would make a lot more sense to me if the dealership was named "Postruckers" such that someone thought, "Hey, that sounds like....Ghostbusters!" Wouldn't they have been better served with "Take On Me" by A-Ha? Or maybe "Mony Mony" by Billy Idol?

When it all comes down to it, you have to tip your cap to the ad men who worked their low-budget magic on this. Not only have I come to expect it, but I can sing the stupid words. Maybe they meant for it to be as cheesey as it is. Whatever the case may be, it works.

Now if only I could get that pesky Empire Carpet jingle out of my head...

America. If you don't like it, you can GIT OUT.

2009-02-22T11:52:00.002-05:00

Due to the nature of the material Middle Innings thrives on, opportunities will be plentiful during the season, slim during Spring Training, and strained until then. Not that I'm apologizing ahead of time - just explaining the inherent silliness of posts before April 5.

When I read this article on Yahoo Sports, I thought, "Perfect. Something, while not terribly topical, rather out there to sound off about."

To nutshell, the Mets' minor league affiliate, the Brooklyn Cyclones went with a little word play to promote their June 23rd affair against the Hudson Valley Renegades, morphing into the "Baracklyn Cyclones." The night is filled with political gimmicks, giveaways and slightly-better-than-high-school baseball.

Let's start out with my favorite two lines of this article:

[Cyclones GM] Cohen said he was struck by the similarity between “Barack” and “Brooklyn.”

I really appreciate that explanation. I should've just gone with [Deductive reasoning expert] Cohen. I'm regretting this decision now.

In addition, the first 1,000 fans get free Band-Aids as part of “Universal Health Care,” all fans named Barack get in for free, fans named McCain or Palin get free bleacher seats (“a bipartisan consolation prize”)...

I wish I had the patience to figure out the odds of someone named Barack taking advantage of this. Best I can do is establish that 'Barack' has never been in the top 1000 baby names according to the SSA...but that doesn't exactly say much. And I really wish they could've done something better with McCain and Palin. Like free obstructed view seats or something.

But then the ante got upped bigtime. The Cyclones not only put up a webpage, but produced this truly amazing YouTube clip.

Honestly, it speaks for itself; I really have no comment.

I don't know why I'm surprised by this, but a single A minor league team named for a roller coaster reports the following:

On the first day of ticket sales for the June 23rd "Baracklyn" Cyclones game, every ticket made available by the team -- nearly 2,500 total -- was sold, in less than 12 hours.

Land of the free and home of the Obama Bobblehead.

Mission Statement

2009-02-19T21:08:00.000-05:00

I've always felt as though there was a chasm in MLB reporting.

On one side you have the wonderful analyzation of the game from the likes of Peter Gammons, Tim Kurkjian and Keith Hernandez (okay, I'm a homer...but he's darn good). They break down the action, show you what you're missing. They provide insight on roster moves, gameplan against specific teams and players, and just generally bring things to another level of understanding.

On the other side, you have the presentation. Chris Berman. Joe Buck. Guys who don't really have anything of substance to say, just there to keep the general order. These guys are like morning show weather guys. They use big glossy graphics to illustrate simplistic points. Guys like Berman and Buck are good at what they do...it's just that they don't really do much.

The part of baseball that I most enjoy is the part that slips through the cracks. I like the guys who have been in and around baseball long enough to impart little nuggets of interest. The stories aren't always insightful or laugh out loud funny; they're just mildly interesting and largely inconsequential. I like the Major League miscellanea.

Every once in a while you'll find conventional articles via newspaper or internet media, but the purely poetic form can be found in the middle innings: after the announcing crew has gotten past their opening pleasantries, and finished off the dry "did you know's" prepared on their broadcast sheets, and before the dramatic close of the action when clutch performance trumps anecdotal color commentary. Mathematically, we're talking about innings four through six, but that's just what I'll argue to be the time of highest concentration.

The Middle Innings will aim to shed light on the story forgotten seconds after told or written, overlooked based on its lack of relevant content. The contention, however, is that its irrelevance is Americana at its finest, and bears a second look.