People say the baseballs are juiced. Bud Selig says he's decided to find out for himself.
"We're taking a look at the baseball," the commish says. "We just want to examine it. People say the ball is this and the ball is that. Our guys don't believe it."
Selig says he has placed the matter in the hands of Sandy Alderson, his executive vice president for baseball operations. And Alderson has ordered a number of tests on the baseball to compare it with balls from previous years.
As for complaints by pitchers that the seams on the new balls are lower than ever, Selig says: "I've raised that point, too. And everybody denies it."
There were rumblings last week, as the Bobby Valentine watch flared anew in New York, that Jim Leyland was high on the Mets' shopping list. But while several sources say Leyland has told them numerous times he would never manage in New York, it turns out he's actually managing the Mets right now.
Uh, not those Mets. It's his son Patrick's Little League team -- the Mount Lebanon (Pa.) Mets.
April 30 is looking like National Comeback Day. Tentatively, Curt
Schilling, Scott Erickson and Kerry Wood all could make their first
big-league starts of the year that day.
Schilling is far from the Phillies' only problem. They were the second team in history (joining the '71 Braves) to open the season by facing three straight playoff teams. Their team average is .230 after 15 games. They and the Brewers are the only teams in the NL that haven't scored 10 runs in a game yet. And in those first 15 games, they faced three Cy Youngs (Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine), three other No. 1 starters (Shane Reynolds, Mike Hampton, Dustin Hermanson) and an "others" list that included Todd Stottlemyre, Omar Daal, Kevin Millwood, Rick Reed, Hideki Irabu and Octavio Dotel.
The Mariners may shake up their rotation in the next couple of weeks, but it might not be Brett Tomko who moves in. Watch for a sighting of 6-foot-10 Big Unit clone Ryan Anderson (28 strikeouts, just six hits in his first 18 Triple-A innings).
Several club executives say the Mariners are actively shopping Tomko for a left-handed hitter and/or leadoff man. They recently asked Milwaukee about Jeromy Burnitz and the Tigers about Bob Higginson. But one scout says teams are getting wary of Tomko, despite his great stuff.
"He's so messed up mentally right now," the scout said. "Very little
command. Almost looks scared to pitch."
For the first time since Ted Williams' plaque had to be changed slightly more than 20 years ago, the Hall of Fame has replaced the plaque of an inductee. Roberto Clemente's name was originally listed as Roberto Walker Clemente. But his actual birth name was Roberto Clemente Walker. So a new plaque has been chiseled.
"At the time," says Hall of Fame vice president Jeff Idelson, "nobody
said anything. But over the last few years, it became evident it was wrong. So we went ahead and changed it."
The most bizarre media squabble of the year has busted out in Pittsburgh: Jason Kendall vs. the Weekly Reader.
The Reader, an elementary-school magazine, recently ran a story on the
dangers of smokeless tobacco. Next to the story was a photo of Kendall -- spitting tobacco juice.
Kendall says he has no problem with the story, because he admits chewing tobacco "is a bad habit." It's that photo that has him worked up.
"Why," he asked, "did I get dragged into it?"
Larry Walker and the slumping Luis Gonzalez had a good time one-upping each other in Arizona this week. Walker sent an application for Houlihan's over to Gonzalez in the Arizona clubhouse. So Gonzalez returned the favor by sending a concessionaire's suit to the Colorado clubhouse.
Walker then put the concessionaire's outfit onto the field (but wasn't
allowed to take batting practice in it). Meanwhile, he sent Gonzalez a bat with a hole drilled through the barrel and a note, saying: "I got your bats by mistake."
The two don't meet again until June 16 in Denver. Stay tuned.
Useless information dept.
Cubs pitcher Kevin Tapani may have hit a home run Tuesday -- but he still hasn't won since June 24 (13 straight starts). So he and Phillies pitcher Chris Brock (who homered, but didn't win, Thursday in Atlanta) are on a dubious pace to join one of America's most eclectic organizations -- the More Homers Than Wins Club.
The only three members in the last four decades, according to Stats Inc.'s Jim Henzler: Dave Eiland (1 HR, 0 W, '92 Padres), Buster Narum (1 HR, 0 W, '63 Orioles) and Ed Hobaugh (1 HR, 0 W, '63 Senators).
Life is good with the Yankees. In Texas, Mariano Rivera blew a lead in consecutive appearances for the first time since Aug. 21 and 23, 1997 (158 outings ago, counting the postseason) -- and the Yankees still swept the Rangers.
There's no greater stat all year than this: Vladimir Guerrero -- a man who swings at everything north of the border -- went 71 straight at-bats without striking out (going back to last season). According to Henzler, the last player to have a streak that long in a season in which he hit 30 home runs was Don Mattingly (85 at-bats) in 1987 (July 31-Aug. 23).
Longest streak without a punchout by any active player: 157 ABs, by Tony Gwynn in '95. Gwynn has four streaks of at least 100 at-bats without a strikeout. All other active players combined have two -- Lance Johnson (106) in '92 and Lenny Harris (103) in '96.
How incredible is it that Robin Ventura has hit 14 grand slams out of only 206 career homers? The Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR home-run historian David Vincent, reports that Vinny Castilla has 204 homers -- and just two slams. George Brett hit 317 homers -- but only two slams. Jeff Bagwell has 267 homers -- and two slams. Bob Horner thumped 218 homers -- with one slam. And Glenn Davis hit 190 homers -- with no slams.
Randy Johnson once walked 152 hitters in one season (1991, in 201 1/3 innings). But he just finished a stretch in which he faced 102 consecutive hitters without walking any of them. (Strikeout-walk ratio in that span: 39-0.) Through four starts, the Unit is at 42 strikeouts, 5 walks -- which projects to 368 strikeouts, 44 walks over 35 starts. Biggest one-season differential between walks and strikeouts since 1900: Sandy Koufax in '65 (382-71).
From our Deja Vu Dept.: Jaime Navarro gave up nine runs to the Mets on Tuesday. That makes 10 times he has allowed nine runs or more in a start since 1997. Hard to do.
What a year. Two players own three-homer games -- and they're both shortstops. Before this month there had been exactly one season ever in which two shortstops had three-homer games. And to find it, you have to go all the way back to, uh, last year: Miguel Tejada, Nomar Garciaparra. There had been just three three-homer games by shortstops in history before 1991 -- two by Ernie Banks, one by Freddie Patek.
In the whole decade of the '90s, there was one game in which a team won on back-to-back homers in the bottom of the ninth -- by the Indians on July 18, 1996. We've already had our first game like that in the '00s -- by the Indians again, on April 16, when Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome homered off John Wetteland.
Finally, Hideo Nomo managed to allow a home run Wednesday after he was out of the game. To accomplish that near-impossible feat, he had to allow a shot by Mike Stanley that hit a railing in left-center and bounced back on the field. It was first ruled a single, after which Tigers manager Phil Garner took Nomo out of the game. As he was departing, Red Sox manager Jimy Williams
came out and argued, got the umpires to confer and had the call changed to a home run -- with Nomo sitting in the dugout.
Useless Cal Ripken information dept.
A few facts of note on the 3,000-hit man himself:
Favorite pitchers to hit against during the run to 3,000 hits: Mike Morgan and Lary Sorensen (both 12-for-23, .522).
Least favorite pitchers to hit against: Bob Wickman (2-for-26, .077) and Joe Cowley (2-for-21, .095).
Pitchers who allowed the most Ripken hits: Roger Clemens (28-for-103) and Chuck Finley (28-for-89).
Pitchers who faced him the most times without allowing a hit: Orel
Hershiser (0-for-16), Doug Drabek (0-for-14).
Hits against current general managers: 8 (off Jim Beattie).
Hits against current big-league pitching coaches: 16 (Bud Black 11, Vern Ruhle 3, Pete Vuckovich 2).
Hits against pitchers who won Cy Youngs in the '90s: 101 (Clemens 28, Pedro Martinez 1, Randy Johnson 12, Greg Maddux 3, Pat Hentgen 13, David Cone 7, Jack McDowell 19, Dennis Eckersley 4, Bob Welch 14.
Hits against pitchers who won Cy Youngs in the '80s: 108 (Bret Saberhagen 24, Frank Viola 24, Steve Bedrosian 1, Clemens 28, Dwight Gooden 13, Rick Sutcliffe 4, Willie Hernandez 1, John Denny 2, LaMarr Hoyt 7, Vuckovich 2, Rollie Fingers 2.
Hits against pitchers who won Cy Youngs in the '70s: 25 (Ron Guidry 12, Tom Seaver 8, Gaylord Perry 4, Mike Flanagan 1).
Hits against pitchers who won an ERA title in the '60s: 6 (off Phil Niekro).
Hits against pitchers in the Hall of Fame: 37 (Don Sutton 11, Seaver 8, Nolan Ryan 8, Niekro 6, Perry 4).
Hits against the Perez family: 15 (Carlos 3, Melido 11, Pascual 1).
Hits against the Joneses: 24 (Doug 11, Mike 2, Bobby 2, Calvin
2, Al 1, Barry 1, Jeff 1, Jimmy 1).
Hits against the Johnsons: 25 (Randy 12, Jeff 5, Joe 3, Dane 2,
John Henry 2, Jason 1).
Hits against six the Williamses: 18 (Albert 6, Woody 5, Brian 2, shad 2, Mitch 2, Frank 1).
Hits off pitchers once traded for Frank Robinson: 9 (off Doyle Alexander).
Hits off pitchers once traded for Bo Belinsky: 2 (off Rudy May).
Hits off a pitcher once traded for Jim Kaat: 7 (off Roy Thomas).
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com. Rumblings and Grumblings will appear each Saturday. | |
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