More Bonds

Eddie thinks I'm oversimplifying and points to this site to show that moving Bonds from third to second in the batting order won't make much of a difference.

First, not to oversimplify, but Cho's wrong.

Second, wow, I consider myself a baseball fan, but that's ridiculous.

My actual argument has changed a little over the years, but it's not based on number of at bats.

Three years ago Bonds was so devastating a hitter than he would change everything in the late innings. For instance, if the Giants were down a run or two, or if the game was tied, and Bonds was up 4th in the 9th inning, the threat of having to face him with the game on the line was very disruptive. I figured that if he moved up in the lineup, it was more likely that he would get that one extra at bat in close games. For instance, if Bonds were scheduled to bat 4th in a the ninth inning instead of 6th, it would put a lot more pressure on the opposing reliever.

Today, the argument is based on his knees. It's in the Giants' best interests to have him play as few innings as possible. Realistically, there are going to be plenty of games where he's good for three at bats and then he'll leave. If they can make that third at bat happen an inning earlier, it could help him. He's sufficiently gimpy/cranky/etc. that an extra inning here and there could make a difference.

In other news, I went to the Giants game last night. The first game of the season is always fun.

(a) Zito looked good, although the game ended in about 2:10. Nobody was grinding out at bats last night.

(b) Bonds can unquestionably hit but he sure can't run. We had great seats right behind the bullpen in left field. He's capable of jogging to make a catch, but generally he just stood there. Granted it's an exhibition game, but he better hit a lot of homers because he's going to clog the bases. Not that I blame him, but if his knees are this gimpy in March, I doubt he'll play in even 130 games this year.

(c) 29,627 fans? No way, no how. MAYBE 15,000.

More Great Sportswriting

Again, by Tom Verducci. Wow, that sounds like fun.

Bonds Bats Third

Finally! The Giants should have made this decision years ago.

As I pointed out three years ago, he should be batting second. But third is a lot smarter than cleanup.

Pat Tillman

I didn't pay much attention to the whole Pat Tillman saga when it broke. I admit I figured he was a sort of uninteresting meathead football player. Sure it was a tragedy that he died, but I was disgusted by the Administration's war to start with and their hero workship of a dead man made it worse. Then I read this set of stories on ESPN. (Warning: these are long stories. But Pat Tillman's story isn't simple.) I was so, so wrong.

Having read more about him, Pat Tillman sounds like a damn interesting guy. The story is a scathing indictment of an Administration, along with the Army brass, who wanted a hero. It turns out that Tillman did what he wanted to do, but the last thing he wanted was to be their hero.

The fallout continues. It was clear from the ESPN story that the Army lied and lied again. For several generals, it looks like their lies will end their careers. So be it.

All sorts of people (the Army, the Administration, various commentators) have tried to appropriate a piece of Pat Tillman's glory. They're all wrong. He's an American hero, the rare kind who's too authentic to be pigeon-holed.


This is another case of good sportwriting. Kudos to ESPN (!) was going waaaaay outside its bailiwick to bring a story that wasn't really about sports at all, any more than Pat Tillman's life was about sports.

More Matsuzaka

Matsuzaka's durability is such an interesting topic.

The article is interesting, and it raises the possibility that everything we're doing is wrong, but I have many, many more questions.

-What's the normal training regiman for young Japanese pitchers--is he typical?
-Is it common for Japanese pitchers to have so many innings?
-What's the injury history for Japanese pitchers?
-How has his training changed over time?
-How durable are pitchers in Japan--are they all finished at age 35?
-Does Matsuzaka lift weights?
-Most importantly, is he going to blow out his arm in June???

Yesterday I brought up Nolan Ryan. But he didn't pitch much when he was young. Maybe a better example is Livan Hernandez. Something tells me that when Hernandez was growing up in Cuba, he didn't spend a lot of time worrying about pitch counts.....


Also, I complain enough about sports writers, that I should point out that this is a terrific article. Huzzah!

Baseball

As if I needed an additional reasons to be excited about baseball: Daisuke Matsuzaka! Whoo-hoo!

I can't even pick out one single highlight from the article. But 250 pitches in one game in high school? No ice? Eight pitches?

Now, in the past, I've been a strong proponent of limiting pitch counts for youg pitchers.

But this whole Matsuzaka thing is nuts. He's an insane workhorse. According to the Sports Illustrated article, maybe I'm wrong. Way, way wrong.

Or, maybe, he's just a physical freak. But Nolan Ryan didn't pitch many innings before he was 25. Maybe everything we know about training young pitchers is wrong.

I just hope that Matsuzaka doesn't blow his arm out.

Pete Rose

I have some friends (Eddie) who have, ahem, defened Pete Rose over the years. Presumably, that's now over.

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

Alberto Gonzales

It sure looks to me like Alberto Gonzales will end up resigning as Attorney General. The first Republican Senator called for it. Obviously, he's failed completely at the job.

As an admittedly partisan Democrat, I sort of hope he sticks around, though. The longer he sticks around, the louder the chorus seeking his resignation will be, and the more damage will be done to the Administration. Heh heh.

Spring Training

Ahhh, another year of spring training, another year of the same stories, another year of me complaining about those same stories.

I missed one category of story, The Guy Who's Healthy Again (Bobby Crosby, Eric Gagne).

It's so booooooring. I make it a policy to never pay attention to the games themselves, as they don't really matter. I'm ready for the real thing!

Libby

I haven't paid much attention to the Scooter Libby trial. I figured it wasn't new news--I already believed that the Administration was manipulating intelligence and engaged in character assassination.

However, I did find one thing amusing. Apparently when Cheney read Wilson's op-ed piece that started this whole thing, about Wilson's trip to Niger, Cheney wrote: "did his wife send him on a junket?" on the news clipping.

I've been to Niger. Let me assure you, that no one goes there on a junket. Aren't junkets supposed to be fun? If I ever go on a "junket", I hope it involves sitting on a hot beach in the sun with a cold fruity drink in my hand.

In Niger there's nothing to see, nothing to do. It's hot and dry. There aren't many reasons to go to Niger. And going on a junket surely ain't one of them!

Soccer

Most people don't follow European soccer too closely. I've started to pay some attention, especially this time of year, when spring training is boring. (As noted previously, I don't care about basketball.)

Anyway, I was reading something and ran across a guy with surely the longest last name in sports: Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. Yep, that's really his last name.

Iraq's civil war

Of course, Iraq is a disaster and a huge mistake. It seems to me that the White House is still fundamentally confused about one simple fact, and until they change their minds, we're going to keep on this same path.

What's the simple fact?

The Administration still approaches Iraq like it's us versus them. It's them versus them.


The Iraqis are not really fighting against us. They're fighting each other. Until the President understands this basic fact, I don't think he's ever going to change course.

How To Lose Fans

Apparently Michigan had a good shot at beating Ohio State in Ann Arbor, but blew it.

This validates my decision, made several years ago, to stop caring about Michigan basketball. I can't remember the last time I watched a Michigan basketball game. I don't even bother entering NCAA tournament pools.

It's like how I stopped paying attention to the NFL after the Browns announced they would leave Cleveland in 1995. And like the decision to ignore the NFL, ignoring college basketball has turned out to be great. I've got plenty of things to pay attention to anyway.

UCLA beat Michigan this year and a friend of mine who's an obnoxious UCLA fan tried to give me a hard time about it. It didn't work, because I didn't care.

Am I just a fair weather fan? Well maybe. I did go to all the Michigan games when I went to school there. But it's difficult to be fired up about a team that (a) stinks, (b) is never on TV, (c) never makes the NCAA tournament (see (a) above), and (d) stinks every year.

Michigan just announced its 2007 schedule.

For the first time I can remember, we play a Division I-AA team, Appalachian State. Who? It's embarrassing. Surely we can do better.

I don't even like it when Michigan plays MAC schools. We never used to play MAC schools. I was surprised in 1995 to watch us beat Miami of Ohio. Before 1995, the last time Michigan played a MAC school was sometime before 1954 (I got bored of looking). In fact, we frequently played strong out of conference schedules. Until 1995, the last "weak" school we played was Cal State Long Beach (?????), in 1987. In every other year, we had three real opponents. In 1986, we beat Notre Dame, Oregon State, and Florida State (plus Hawaii at the end of the year).

Unfortunately, those days seem to be over. But this is ridiculous. The last time we *didn't* play a MAC school was 1999. Ugh. I think we should play Notre Dame every year, plus one tough team from a power conference like Oregon, and then fill up the schedule with teams like service academies or Cincinnati. I have to think that teams like that would come to Ann Arbor for the exposure (and money) and it would sure beat watching a MAC school.

It's been clear that *someone* on the inside was leaking the grand jury testimony to the Chronicle reporters in the Bonds steroids case.

Of all people, it was Victor Conte's former lawyer! His lawyer!

One question for Mr. Ellerman: "Excuse me, sir, how dumb are you?"

I'm going with 'extremely, extremely dumb'. It's pretty basic that grand jury testimony is confidential.

But it gets better. Not only did he leak the testimony, he then swore to the judge that he didn't do it. Ouch. And not to disparage the importance of this investigation, but this ain't exactly the Pentagon Papers here. I can't wait to hear his explanation for why he felt obliged to do this.

I see that he recently changed his law license to inactive status. That will shortly be changed again to "Disbarred."

That Barbaro horse died.

So what? You'd think it was, say, a *person*. The New York Times had an article: After 8 Months Filled By Hope, Setback Ends Barbaro’s Battle; Barbaro’s Desperate Fight for Life Gripped a Nation in Anguish; and Veterinarian Says Goodbye to a Patient (whew! good thing there's nothing else important going on in the world!).

Sports Illustrated is particularly bloviating: A Champion Until the End
Barbaro Touched Us With His Grace and Fighting Spirit; before saying Churchill Downs Could Be Burial Site For Barbaro. It goes on and on.

Ummm, remind me again, who cares?

Sportswriters, of course, love to find the Big Picture. And then write it into the ground. And beat us over the head with it. With purplish prose. The Sports Illustrated article contains the following gems:

It lost a champion whose class and bravery -- before and after his injury
-- were inspiring and lent a visceral touch to a sport that is rapidly becoming
disconnected from human emotions.

His passing, upon further review, is immeasurable.

Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby in the manner of an athlete who is evolved
beyond his peers. He cut a massive, striking pose in the Derby paddock before
the race, taller and more muscled than the others in the race.

Calling Tim Layton, calling Tim Layton. We're talking about a horse here.

Maybe sportswriters grew up when people still cares about horse racing. But I think they're congenitally unable to resist the desire to show us how Sports Affects Us All. Blech.

Well, the Sox finally signed J.D. Drew. I still think it's a mistake. Too many years; he's too old and injury prone.

However, my good friend Eric Freeman, who follows baseball far more closely than I do, assures me this is a good deal. He's got a lot more PhD's than I ever will, so I suppose I have to give him some credence. Eric, I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

The Giants also signed Bonds. I think $16 million is too much money, especially for a guy who hit 26 homers last year and can't field. Zito was a great signing, but I still think the Giants will be too old and slow.

Come to think of it, the Giants would have been better spending their money on J.D. Drew instead of Bonds.

The Chronicle just mentioned that Alberto Gonzales doesn't think the Constitution guarantees the right of habeas corpus (i.e. the right to have a court hear you out if the government throws you in jail).

(Note, the Constitution says "The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." Presumably, if it can be suspended, it must already exist, no?)

Wow.

Remember when he was discussed as a candidate for the Supreme Court? Not something he has to worry about anymore!

I like Bill Richardson. And I like Barack Obama. I think each one of them can win, which is what I want most of all.