Before the din of their World Championship celebration died down last year, Chris Chambliss was fired from his job as the hitting coach for the New York Yankees. He resurfaced this spring as manager of Florida’s Triple-A team, the Calgary Cannons. Chambliss is probably the most qualified managerial candidate in baseball today, but has yet…
Right now, 30 major-league organizations are making decisions that will impact the success of their franchise over the next few years, and in some cases, for a decade or more. Unlike the football and basketball versions, though, the annual draft of young talent doesn’t receive national television coverage or make men with good hair and…
Part One This continues our update on how the first round of last year’s draft is performing this season. We’re not assigning grades or drawing conclusions. For a look at a draft from a few years out, I highly recommend John Sickels’s piece on the 1996 draft, available from ESPN.com. Billy Traber, Mets. Traber is…
The annual "First-Year Player" draft is occurring as you read this. Baseball’s draft, unlike the football and basketball ones, brings in players who don’t make an impact at the major-league level for a few years. Even the most polished college draftees do not generally appear in the majors for at least a year. Even if…
One of the those short-attention-span days… The Orioles are just 6 1/2 games out of first place in the AL East. They were actually playing .500 ball until becoming the latest victims of the Seattle Freaking Demigods a week ago. Now, a good chunk of their season has come at the expense of the Devil…
ON STADIA As you state, prior to 2000 teams that moved into new stadia tended to be good ones. You might check attendance figures for this season at Comerica Park. Granted the weather has not been good, but allowing for unoccupied season tickets counted as attendance, it’s hard to claim that fans are flocking to…
PEDRO VS. YANKEES "I don’t believe in curses. Wake up the Bambino and I’ll face him. Maybe I’ll drill him in the ass. Pardon the bad word." —Pedro Martinez, Red Sox pitcher, on the Curse "I’m starting to hate talking about the Yankees. The questions are so stupid. They’re wasting my time. It’s getting kind…
About two week ago, I was feeling pretty smug, having watched the Cubs drop seven in a row to fall out of first place in the NL Central. I was pretty sure their April was fluky, the product of good months by random retreads like Jason Bere and Jeff Fassero. Mind you, I had a…
We’re getting close to this year’s Cooperstown festivities, when the media’s attention turns to grainy footage of the newly enshrined and the current travails of Peter Edward Rose. And what of Pete these days? Rose has been trying to build public support for his enshrinement nearly non-stop for more than a decade. Well, perhaps not…
Minnesotans for Major League Baseball member Thomas Lang weighed in on last week’s The Imbalance Sheet by pointing me to that committee’s report on the Twins’ stadium situation: "The Twins’ claims that they can’t compete without a new stadium were obviously fraudulent before this year…" I object both to your conclusion and particularly strongly to…
While sporadically entering data for a follow up column on the Walk Gap, the following arrived in my inbox. Suffice to say Mike Rice does more justice to the topic than I can, so I’ll turn it today’s column over to him: I read your article on the "Walk Gap" last week and decided to…
This week’s tour takes us through the Mariners’ and Astros’ farm systems. Seattle Mariners: Early-Season Organizational Review Ichiro Suzuki isn’t the only reason the Mariners are this season’s Story. In 1998, they lost Randy Johnson. Before last season, they lost Ken Griffey Jr. Over the winter, it was Alex Rodriguez. And yet the Ms have…
I was hoping you would do a take on the drag bunt by Ben Davis that broke up Curt Schilling’s perfect game. Dave Campbell seems to feel that since the NL West is close, it was acceptable. I’m torn; I understand the point of the game is to win, but Curt Schilling, probably more than…
BARRY "To talk about it on May 21 is ridiculous. I could be hit by a truck tomorrow, then what? ‘He was on his way, but, damn, he got hit by a truck.’" — Barry Bonds, Giants outfielder, on his chances of breaking the single-season home-run record "We held Bonds to two home runs. That’s…