jeffreymark

RANGERS ARE IN

I've waited most of my life for some Texas team to get into the World Series. It finally happened. Credit Nolan Ryan's purchase of the team in August and the acquisition of ace lefty Cliff Lee  for saving this franchise. Read more here.

OBAMA AIN'T NO GEORGE BUSH

When it comes to manliness George Bush wins the debate over President Obama hands down. Tonight the Prez threw out the first pitch in the 2009 MLB All Star game. He threw a floater to St. Louis Cardinal's great Albert Pujols and hitting his glove in front of the plate. President Bush, on the other hand, always got the ball over the plate with plenty of steam. On a side note, noticeable boo birds came out during President Obama's appearance. Hey, you may not like the guy, but you ought to respect him in a public event like that because he does represent the Presidency of the greatest nation on earth. Debate him in the legislative halls, challenge him at press conferences, and show him respect during an entertainment event.

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE MICKEY MANTLE

Mickey Mantle became perhaps the most beloved baseball player of all time, not because he played better than Joltin' Joe or Ted Williams, (the disease osteomyelitis made sure of that) but because he fell into the hands of a new medium sure to make him king. Television brought an image of a player bigger than life itself into our living rooms almost every weekend during the baseball season. To us, because of television, he became a national hero. After Mantle left the scene his successor, Bobby Murcer trotted out into centerfield and took over the reigns from immortals Joltin' Joe and the Mick. Even though Murcer never produced the prolific numbers of his predecessors he made a good showing. Following the Mick, however, set him up for disaster no matter the depth of his skills.

Murcer died yesterday after a brief bout with brain cancer. Unlike Mantle, Murcer excelled in character, as the AP reminds us:

Always a fan favorite in New York and known for his folksy manner as a broadcaster, Murcer won three Emmy Awards for live sports coverage. His most dramatic words came during his time as a player on one of the saddest days in Yankees history. Murcer delivered one of the eulogies in Ohio after captain Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash in August 1979. The team flew home after the funeral and, that night, Murcer hit a three-run homer and then a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth to beat Baltimore 5-4. A tearful Murcer fell into the arms of teammate Lou Piniella after the game and gave his bat to Munson's wife. "There is no way to explain what happened," Murcer said. "We used every ounce of strength to go out and play that game. We won it for Thurman." The Yankees learned of Murcer's death Saturday after a 9-4 victory in Toronto. Visibly upset, players such as Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte spoke softly about how much Murcer meant to them. "He touched everybody," Rivera said. "One of the greatest Yankees of all-time," Alex Rodriguez added. "One of the greatest human beings I ever met."

Indeed baseball misses Joltin' Joe and Mickey Mantle. But, America in general mourns deeply when it loses one of Murcer's stature. God bless his family and may he rest in peace.

BASEBALL'S COVETED TRIPLE CROWN

Carl Yastrzemski was the last to win the triple crown in 1967. Stan Olson of the Charlotte Observer ponders the possibilities of another triple crown:

Last week, we talked about trying to hit .400, so call this Part II of a series, because it's almost as difficult to win baseball's Triple Crown.

The Triple Crown goes to a player who leads his league in batting average, home runs and RBIs in the same season. No one has done that since 1967, when Boston's Carl Yastrzemski topped the American league with 44 homers, 121 RBIs and a .326 average.

Winning the Triple Crown is easier than hitting .400, but that doesn't make it easy.

There has been just one .400 hitter – Ted Williams in 1941 – since 1930, but the Triple Crown has been won seven times since then. And how about this? Two of those seven were accomplished by Williams, lending credence to those who think he was the best hitter ever.

In fact, Williams missed winning a third TC by one hit.

After accomplishing the feat in 1942 and '47, Williams led the AL with 43 home runs and 159 RBIs in '49. He was also ahead in batting average going into the season's final day, but went hitless to lose that title to Detroit third baseman George Kell.

Both hitters finished at a rounded-off .343, but by carrying their marks out to a fourth digit, Kell won, .3429 to .3427.

Think about that; Williams almost turned the trick three times, and no one in baseball has done it even a single time in more than four decades.

One reason is that many power hitters swing so hard to generate power that they pile up more strikeouts than hits. And many high-average players are considered “contact hitters” – they concentrate more on consistently connecting with the pitch than on driving it for distance.

It's the difference between, say, Cincinnati bopper Adam Dunn and Seattle hitting machine Ichiro Suzuki.

In every generation, though, there are a special few that can hit for both power and average. Williams was the model, and current examples include Atlanta's Chipper Jones, Philadelphia's Chase Utley and Detroit's Magglio Ordonez.

But the guy with the best chance to win the TC this year – at least in the National League – is probably Houston's Lance Berkman. He's currently among the league's top five in all three categories.

The AL has an even longer shot – because this is only his second full season – in Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton. But Hamilton, a North Carolina native, is an amazing talent; he leads all of baseball in RBIs and has spent much of the year topping the league home-run list. While his batting average is in the lower .300s, nobody in the league is all that far ahead of him.

If he has a strong September, he could conceivably finish at .325 or even .330, and if his power numbers hold, he could become the first TC winner since Yaz.

And in the process, join a group that is almost as exclusive as the .400 club.

Interesting how in today's steroid driven game sheer power trumps refined skills. I don't keep up with the sport anymore. The last time I followed the sport religiously Griffey Junior was the only complete, skilled player in the game. Some of us old timers long for another Yaz or Griffey. Until that happens I will not tune into the game of the week.

THE GEORGE PATTON OF BASEBALL

He was mean, tough, and hated losing. When a young high schooler decided to play for "Coach" and made the team, Coach sat 'em down before the season began and exclaimed, "We are winners, not losers!" He had a ruthless way of making a kid pay for mistakes. Sometimes he made kids run until they got the dry heaves. Then they ran some more. But, Coach also made a player and a man out of anyone willing to endure his discipline. Years later, when they grow up, former players often thank him and send him cards without really knowing why they do it. Coach's story is so compelling I'm posting the entire recent Lubbock centennial tribute to this phenomenal individual:

For four decades beginning in 1960, some of the best baseball in America was played in Lubbock. Maybe when he started out, Bobby Moegle didn’t think ahead far enough to picture 1,115 wins, 13 trips to the state tournament and four state championships.

But as he sized up his situation in the early 1960s, the new head coach of the Monterey Plainsmen thought there was not much standing in the way of someone who wanted to put together a winning program.

“I found out the kids had great work habits, they were really eager to learn, they had great parental support,’’ Moegle said recently. “I had good support out of the school, and I had just fallen into a great situation that wasn’t being taken advantage of. We had good kids, good facilities, good people to work for, so I just really had a good deal.’’

So good, in fact, that Moegle didn’t give up the job until he had put in 40 seasons, building a dynasty and becoming, at the time he retired, the winningest high school baseball coach in America.

The Plainsmen won state titles in 1972, 1974, 1981 and 1996. They lost in the state championship game in 1961, 1971, 1978 and 1997. Five other times — 1963, 1970, 1984, 1985 and 1994 — Moegle’s teams made it to Austin and the state semifinals.

Notably, as Moegle aged toward his mid-60s, the Plainsmen were still as serious a threat as they’d been when he took the job at 26.

Part of the reason, Moegle thinks, is that the system he put in place was sound enough to work from one generation to the next.

“Now somebody’s got to lead the system, and they give me credit for that,’’ said Moegle, who will turn 75 on June 30. “But the system that I installed, if a person would have come in and done it the way we did it starting off, the system would have carried them on.

“I did not try to change very much from the time I started until the time I quit. I increased more (practice) stations and did a few things, but the game was still played the same way. The intensity was always the same.

“I really pushed kids hard to reach a level that they didn’t think they could get to. That was the whole strength of my coaching in 40 years.’’

It paid off in other ways. Several of Moegle’s former players went on to be coaches. A few, such as pitchers Donnie Moore and Matt Miller, made it to the Major Leagues.
But also numbered among Moegle’s former players are judges (Rob Junell and Jim Bob Darnell), a Texas Tech regent (Mark Griffin, whose triple helped win the ’72 state championship game) and a Lubbock Fire Marshal (Marlin Hamilton, who batted leadoff on the ’74 title team).

The principles that he believed in in 1960 — teach youngsters the fundamentals of running, hitting, throwing and playing intelligently — are tenets with which a program can still be successful, Moegle believes.

It didn’t hurt that the coach who filled out almost 1,400 lineup cards had a solid baseball background. Moegle spent three years playing in the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league system. When he saw that his path to advancement was being blocked by more valued prospects, he put out the word that he was willing to start coaching.

He was doing graduate work then at the University of Texas and got a call from a former UT assistant — Lubbock ISD athletic director Eck Curtis — to come to Monterey.

Not much serious baseball was being played when he first drove up onto the Caprock in mid-August 1959. As he looked around West Texas in those early years, Moegle said he spotted only a few true-blue baseball men coaching the game — Deck Woldt in Pampa, Blackie Blackburn in Abilene, Julian Pressly in Odessa and Speedy Moffett in Snyder.

At many other places, baseball simply amounted to extra work for a football coach, at least as Moegle perceived it.

“I had an advantage,’’ he said. “I wasn’t married at the time. We didn’t have any rules. You could work all day long if you could stand it. So I worked the kids extremely hard, pushed them really to the limit. They were receptive to it. I never did have any problems. It was a great beginning.’’

After he’d been to the state tournament twice in the first four years, Moegle had a telephone interview about the Oklahoma State job, but legendary OSU coach Hank Iba told Moegle that they were staying within the OSU family. Moegle said he also was approached about the Texas Tech job at least twice, and an old college fraternity brother who was in charge at West Texas A&M asked him to start a program there.

Moegle said he would’ve had to take a significant pay cut to go to Tech and he would’ve had to build a baseball field before a program at WT. Neither thought appealed to him.

“And I think the Lord has a lot to do with it,’’ he said. “I went ahead and built a tradition and a legacy here in West Texas, changing the whole philosophy on baseball out here because baseball was a stepchild when I first came. There wasn’t anybody trying to play this game out here.’’

SEPARATING THE MEN FROM THE BOYS

It took me seven and a half years to figure out this W thing. His throwing out of the first pitch in the Washington Nationals' baseball game opened my eyes. Bush is a man's man. Those who booed him at this event are pussies; pantywaists; girlie men. Let's face it. Pussies hate W. He silently reminds them of their unmanly characteristics when he throws a baseball 60'6" with some heat on it. Watch the video below and weep for yourself if you are a girlie man.

Hey all you boo birds, are you tired of the W types kicking sand in your eyes and stealing your girlfriend? Surely you don't want to live the rest of your life in fear of W. My advice, take heed to the ad below. You sign up for a Charles Atlas program and who knows-you might at least get a ball to home plate from the little league mound. Girlie men, don't give up. I'm pulling for you.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

Gary Varvel

AN'T WE GOT BETTER THINGS TO DO?

Republicans swoon; Dems gleefully rub hands while getting autographs; baseball's exorbitant salaries launch them into seedy lifestyles. Do we care? Yes, only to the extent that this charade demonstrates our flippancy. One pundit's opining is keenly revelatory:

What was especially disturbing is that Clemens' defenders seemed to be all Republicans, while those who seemed to side with McNamee were all Democrats. In one of the many bizarre moments in Wednesday's hearing, Clemens said "a former president" tracked him down in a deer blind to offer his encouragement. Should chairman Henry Waxman now subpoena all living U.S. presidents to see what they know about what was in McNamee's syringes? A more serious question: Why should whether a ballplayer was injected with steroids be a matter of Democrats vs. Republicans? Clemens' testimony probably did him little good. All he did was repeat denials already issued on "60 Minutes" and elsewhere, and he wasn't any more convincing this time around. At least here in Red Sox Nation, few people seem inclined to give Roger the benefit of the doubt. But the big losers were the Congress members, particularly the Republicans, whose support for Clemens seemed fawning and artificial. But you don't have be a Clemens fan to question whether the hearing was set up in order to trap Clemens into a perjury charge. Don't these politicians have more important fish to fry? The latest AP-Ipsos poll says just 22 percent of Americans approve of the performance of Congress, matching a historic low. Wednesday's hearing did nothing to change the public's estimation.

THIS AIN'T YOUR DADDY'S BASEBALL

He was fat, smoked big cigars, drank, and ran around with less than reputable woman. But, boy he could swing a bat. Babe Ruth hit all those home runs from pure natural brute strength. Today's players, with their ridiculous salaries and artificial strength ought to feel embarrassed that a fat man could naturally drive a ball farther and more consistently than most of them. Today we find out more about this appalling scourge that plagues America's past-time. According to new reports it ain't gonna be pretty for anyone involved with baseball. Fox News posts a preview of the report referring to what it calls "a serious drug culture":

One person familiar with the final version [of the Mitchell report] would only speak anonymously but described it as "a very thorough treatment of the subject" and said some aspects were surprising. He said the report assigns blame to both the commissioner's office and the players' union.

MLB's "not going to love it, the union's not going to love it," he said.

One source said that while the report will cite problems "top to bottom," it also will expose "deep problems, the number of players, high-level MVPs and All-Stars," as well as clubhouse personnel who allowed steroids and other banned substances in clubhouses or knew about it and didn't say anything.

The rest of the report, the sources said, focuses on recommendations that include enhanced year-round testing and hiring a drug-testing company that uses the highest standards of independence and transparency. Baseball's program currently is overseen by a joint management-union Health Policy Advisory Committee, with an independent administrator approved by both sides.

On a more positive note-this past sumer I watched the Little League All-Star series. During interviews the kids were asked to name their favorite player. Not a single one of those kids mentioned Barry Bonds. Surely these kids possess an innate sense of right and wrong. Let's just hope they carry that wisdom into adulthood. With a little encouragement and a few prayers our children may one day reestablish some integrity to once magnificent sport.

BASEBALL, MOM, APPLE PIE, AND STEROIDS

Professional sports historically posses some shameful moments. And baseball players especially carry an infamous reputation. The late great Mickey Mantle admitted on his death bed that he was a drunk. The press, he said, kept it mum. Pete Rose lost his place in immortality when the world discovered his pathological inclination toward gambling. Willie Mays, the "Say Hey Kid" and, in this pundit's opinion, the greatest complete player to ever come down the pike received a brief ban from baseball for gambling. The ban took place long after Mays retired.

Today, however, baseball looks like it faces its toughest challenges so far. Following the baseball strike of 1994 which cancelled the World Series, America's past-time struggled to reestablish a semblance of its glorious tradition. Players became more fan friendly. Many cities engaged in building futuristic parks designed to wow the fans even if the players failed to do so. Unorthodox scheduling such as interleague play, enticed Americans to pay more attention. Just when we developed short memories and a penchant toward forgiveness we received a proverbial kick in the teeth from our superstars who literally juice themselves up and become supermen. The days of good old hard working farm boy strength have been replaced by gluttonous self seeking druggies out to make a name for themselves, the rest of the world be damned. Fox News' Adam Housley posts the lateston the 'roids controversy and the ensuing Mitchell Report suggesting:

At baseball’s winter meetings which were last week, the word amongst players, agents and teams…the Mitchell Report would be released this Thursday. Again this is not official, but this is the word amongst those on the inside.Here’s what else I am told late this afternoon:

1. Many players were asked to talk with Mitchell investigators and those who weren’t are already afraid they will be named in the report.

2. This last spring training and throughout this past season, players pointed out and talked about their fellow sluggers and pitchers who “mysteriously shrunk” after professional baseball finally instituted a strict testing policy. As one insider said, “It’s amazing how so many shrunk.

3. Any time the Mitchell investigators wanted to speak with the player they also contacted the players association. Insiders tell me that not one player they know of agreed to release their medical records and that was “always asked by Mitchell’s people.” Basically I am told, it was tough to get any players to cooperate.

4. At this point the union and its players are calling agents and lawyers, trying to get a feel of what might be in that report. There are a significant number of people, inside baseball….and also in other sports who are worried about what will be included. Also, now that Victor Conte is talking again, players believe he purposely decided to talk the day before the Mitchell Report is released.

REMINDER ABOUT CONTE

He is going to apparently share his “wide knowledge of illegal doping in all sports” with World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound Wednesday in New York. The mastermind of BALCO, who served four months in prison for distributing steroids and money laundering, Conte in the past has provided doping information allegedly about Marion Jones and possibly Barry Bonds. Conte has said recently that he believes he can help clean up sports. He said “I plan to share specific knowledge of past and present Olympic-caliber athletes, coaches, and suppliers involved with doping around the world and how they’ve been able to easily circumvent the anti-doping procedures in place.”

Conte still sells legal dietary supplements in Burlingame, California. He said he has knowledge of other Olympic athletes who have cheated and also maintains that George Mitchell contacted him when he began his steroids investigation at the behest of commissioner Bud Selig. Conte recently said that Mitchell never got back to him.

Referring to the apparent character issue at play in this scandal conservative pundit and baseball hobbyist George will once opined:

In recent decades athletes have learned that, using nutrition, strength training and other means, it is possible to enhance performance. But not all that is possible should be permissible. Some enhancements devalue performance while improving it, because they unfairly alter the conditions of competition. Lifting weights and eating your spinach enhance the body's normal functioning. But radical and impermissible chemical intrusions into the body can jeopardize the health of the body and mind, while causing both to behave abnormally. Athletes chemically propelled to victory do not merely overvalue winning, they misunderstand why winning is properly valued. Professional athletes stand at an apex of achievement because they have paid a price in disciplined exertion -- a manifestation of good character. They should try to perform unusually well. But not unnaturally well. Drugs that make sport exotic drain it of its exemplary power by making it a display of chemistry rather than character -- actually, a display of chemistry and bad character.

Yet, before we totally crucify these ne'er-do-wells we fans must shoulder a bit of the responsibility in the matter. We created the monsters. We, with our demand for high flying thrills a minute; we with our Roy Hobbs science fiction delusion; we who live in an empty, self-seeking orgasmic-a-minute culture; yes indeed we gave these men permission to dazzle us with their Louisville Slugger wizardry. Our supposed heroes only responded to fan frenzies. Spectators assured them through the box office that they carried an $umpteen million per year price tag on their heads. That kind of money retards character development in any human being, much more so in young adult athletes still considered children by their parents. Why should they care about their fan base? They can alleviate any discomfort they may feel with the narcotic called luxury. Professional athletes answer to no one and bow only to themselves. We fans ought to weep for ourselves. Opportunistic free capitalism provides Americans with a plethora of choices. High dollar celebrities merely offer a snapshot of the larger American character landscape. Indeed Americans have spoken. The once highly esteemed public service professions now take a back seat to celebrity worship. The baseball saga reminds us of this sad state