Thursday, October 31, 2013

Mike Lupica had several weeks to come up with this zinger.

"They had done everything else over the past 10 seasons, taken out the Yankees and then won their first World Series since 1918 in St. Louis and then won another one three years later in Colorado. The Red Sox had done everything except win a World Series at Fenway Park in all the years since 1918. Like there was one more monster to slay. Just not the Green Monster."

Not the Green Monster.

Lupica is a pro's pro.

I'm a sheriff and I'm a'huntin' for PED users.






Got him! I found another one!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Miguel Cabrera, of all people, is featured in a car commercial which takes a moral stand against PEDs.

Makes me wonder if the Average American thinks PED use is worse than drunk driving.

I think the Average American really does.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Certified check. You can get them at any branch office.

"While I usually enjoy Mr. Francesa’s show, I submit he may be drinking too much of the A-Rod Kool-Aid lately. People with experience in criminal law understand that when dealing with criminals or even just the average guy in the street, cash is king."

Right.

When dealing with criminals.

Which is precisely why MLB should not be conducting its legitimate business in secret, in cash.


"In other words, In God We Trust, but all others pay cash."

For real?

When you wrote this column for the Daily News, did they pay you in cash?


"Thus, assuming that MLB investigators made a legal deal to purchase documents, I suspect the seller of the same would insist on cash. Why? People in these types of situations always think a check could be canceled. The person usually thinks taking cash somehow gives them anonymity."

Exactly.

Which is why MLB should not conduct their legit business in cash. Unless they are trying to hide something. Something they may be trying to hide, for example, is the purchase of stolen documents.


"Mr. Francesa also railed about IRS violations the MLB investigators may have committed by paying 'cash cash' for the document, as if it was the crime of the century that would diminish the evidentiary value of the document(s). The reality is that the finder of fact typically will not be swayed by such issues, unless perhaps the allegation is that the documents were forged or altered."


Not the crime of the century.

Just a regular run-of-the-mill shady tax evasion.


"The fact that Mike Francesa is even talking about MLB’s possible malfeasance shows the Yankee third baseman’s attorneys have been at least somewhat successful in clouding and obfuscating the real issues: did A-Rod take PEDs and thereafter impede MLB’s investigation? It seems Mr. Francesa thinks this circus hurts the sanctity of baseball, and for MLB to participate in this circus by using hardball tactics damages the institutions of baseball itself. Point taken."

"Point taken," he says.

So you're doing a tremendous job agreeing with Francesa.

Which is weird since you started this whole thing out by suggesting you were disagreeing with Francesa.


"Lost in this mess is the legal issue of whether Alex Rodriguez deserves his 211-game ban or something less. If the former All-Star did not use PEDs, there is no issue, and he should not agree to even a one-day suspension."

We're so far past this, for crying out loud. Fifty games, like everyone else.


"There certainly seems to be a colorable legal argument that since A-Rod was never officially 'caught,' that under the MLB Drug Agreement, his suspension, if he did use PEDs, should be 50 games. Many attorneys would argue that using multiple drugs over a period of time cannot result in more than a 50-game ban under the MLB agreement if the player wasn’t officially suspended for each violation separately."

FIFTY GAMES LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

Of course it's the number of times you're caught. Nobody who takes steroids takes one steroid.


"If A-Rod did take PEDs, after the circus he has created, it sure seems hard to think he doesn’t deserve the entire 211-game suspension, if not more. Indeed, it seems to match the number of lawyers he has working on this matter."


Weird conclusion that is not aligned with the rest of your analysis.






So MLB should function like the FBI

"In many of the major Mafia cases prosecuted in New York in the last 20 years, our federal government cut deals with murderers, money was paid and testimony was provided by cooperating witnesses who had supposedly been reformed.

The reality is that a number of active and retired MLB players have repeatedly lied, some even under oath, when asked about illegal drug use, and thereby made a complete joke out of the Joint Drug Agreement and our courts."


I think the people at the Daily News have convinced themselves that Alex Rodriguez is an actual murderer.

Matt Williams was just hired as a manager of the Washington Nationals. At the same time, MLB is going after ARod with the same zeal as the FBI goes after the Mafia. This sounds like testimony for the defendant.


"The reality is that MLB investigators — many of whom are former FBI and NYPD police officers — used the same investigative techniques they used for years when they were on the job, chasing con men and criminals.

Sorry, but I don’t see anything wrong with that just because it is A-Rod. In fact, maybe there is something right with it."


Of course that isn't right.

MLB should not be using the same investigative techniques as the FBI and the NYPD.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

This Week in Bill Madden


Terrific insider "confidential" stuff by Bill Madden. Not one, but two columns in which Madden reminds the Yankees to follow the strategies of the teams that are in the World Series.

Which would also be good advice for the 30 teams that are not in the World Series.

Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Win World Series


It's difficult to describe Madden as a "hypocrite," because a hypocrite first needs to have a coherent point of view in order to violate the tenets of that point of view.

Madden's garbled nonsense does not even qualify as a coherent opinion, it seems more like a random word generator ... a baseball_ebooks twitter account, or something.

But if a mushbrain can be a hypocrite, I suppose this is pretty close:


Madden on 9/21/2013:

"And there is also this to consider: In years past, the Yankees had an added advantage in the free-agent market besides just money: As a team that was always assured of being a World Series contender, players wanted to come to the Bronx. Now they are back to where they were during George Steinbrenner’s manic ’80s, a purgatory the Mets have been mired in, seemingly forever, without a championship-caliber team and having to overpay for free agents in order to get them to come to New York."



Madden on 10/19/2013:

"With the Yankee high command left little choice but to fill their multiple holes through the free-agent market, it was interesting that Scott (Avenging Agent) Boras should suggest the other day that they’re going to need to prove to the major free agents they will be competitive next year. Coming from Boras, the ultimate 'money talks' and 'sold to the highest bidder' agent, this is laughable."

So Boras is "laughable" when he comes to the same conclusion you made a month earlier.



Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Don't blame the teacher.

"Twenty years later, the lesson hit. Terry Collins was standing a few feet from Jim Leyland and Barry Bonds on that day in spring training, 1991, when Leyland howled at his superstar, 'don’t you f--- with me!' and ended up with more respect from the player because of it.

Bonds has been sulking all spring about losing his arbitration hearing, and one morning began cursing at a photographer. Bill Virdon, an old baseball lifer and coach on Leyland’s staff, told Bonds to stop, and Bonds was soon swearing at Virdon; Leyland would not have anyone disrespecting his coaches, so he stuck his face into Bonds’ and started yelling. Bonds later called Leyland the best manager he had ever played for.

How, wondered Collins, then a bullpen coach and aspiring manager, did Leyland pull that one off?

Two decades (and two failures in with Astros and Angels later) the Mets manager understands. 'What I got from him was that I always had to be myself,' said Leyland’s longtime friend and acolyte on the day of the 68-year-old’s retirement in Detroit. 'Then there was what happened in Houston. Then there was what happened in Anaheim.' "

The implication seems to be that he has succeeded in New York.


"But then there was what happened in New York: Close relationships with star players, and a strong hold on the clubhouse despite three years of losing records. So it took 20 years for the deep lessons of Leyland to take hold inside Collins?

'Exactly,' Collins said."

Congratulations on your close relationships with star players and a strong hold on the clubhouse despite three years of losing records.

The World Series counts more.

Top Ten list of best playoff hitters which does not include Reggie Jackson.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Rules of evidence.

"A source familiar with the proceedings said Manfred admitted to Rodriguez’s attorney Joseph Tacopina, during cross-examination, that a member of MLB’s investigative team made two cash payments — one for $100,000 and a second for $25,000 — to Gary Jones, a former Biogenesis employee, for the information. The documents turned out to be stolen from Biogenesis founder (and now MLB’s star witness) Tony Bosch, though Manfred testified he did not know that at the time."

How was I supposed to know this information was stolen?

When he asked for payment in a brown paper bag in non-consecutive, unmarked bills ... I just assumed he didn't have a paypal account.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Nobody ever remembers Jose Veras. Poor Jose Veras.

One team will win the World Series in 2013. That team will consist of a lot of player who used to play for other teams:

"Today’s installment of 'Former Yankee Chronicles' is brought to you by the Detroit Tigers, who are hoping Austin Jackson and Phil Coke, two pieces they acquired in the Curtis Granderson trade, can help them in the AL Championship Series against Boston."

Austin Jackson is a former Yankee in the sense that he never played a single game for the Yankees. He's a former almost-Yankee.

Randy Choate is on the Cardinals. I always liked Randy Choate. He was walking off the field and they flashed a graphic that he got 8 outs on 20 pitches. Way to go, Randy Choate.





Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The prosecutor is the judge.

"Alex Rodriguez’s doping-ban arbitration hearing resumes Wednesday for three days of testimony during which Manfred, MLB’s chief operating officer, is expected to take the witness stand and outline the investigation that led baseball to suspend Rodriguez for 211 games.

Manfred, a member of the three-person panel hearing the appeal of the suspension along with Players Association lawyer David Prouty and arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, is expected to testify about what MLB knows about Florida’s now-shuttered Biogenesis clinic, the source of performance enhancing drugs for more than a dozen players. Rodriguez is the only player appealing his suspension.

...

Manfred will vote to uphold the suspension, which was handed down by commissioner Bud Selig, while Prouty, as the union rep, is expected to side with the player. Horowitz, the arbitrator, will cast the deciding vote on A-Rod’s punishment."


Yes, I suspect Manfred the arbitrator will be convinced to uphold the suspension. I wouldn't expect Manfred the arbitrator to spend much time questioning the testimony of himself.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Red Sox players secretly complaining about Peralta's PED use.

Peter Gammons is in the writer's wing of the Red Sox Propaganda HOF ... I mean, the actual Major League Baseball HOF.

Yes, the one in Cooperstown.


Though I guess I shouldn't complain about this article.  Gammons at least points out the ongoing benefits of PED use.

Monday, October 14, 2013

The monetary benefits clearly outweigh the costs.

The reputational costs are fatal, yet selective.

The long-term health costs may be tragic.  I wouldn't take steroids, I'll tell you that.  But I also understand the allure of a pro sports contract.


Mike Lupica makes passing mention of a local steroid cheat, but still can't generate any legitimate disdain.  He can only use it as an opportunity to slag on ARod:

"Kellen Winslow must have gone to the PED store because he thinks using PEDs is working out so well for everybody else."


A PED cheat just hit a game-tying grand slam in the playoffs.

In the same game, Peralta's fly ball died on the track ... I'm guessing it would have had a little more kick if he had hit it earlier in the season. Funny how the wind was blowing out earlier in the season.

Off the top of my head? ... Colon, Byrd, Cruz, Peralta played for their teams in the 2013 MLB playoffs ... McGwire has a good chance to get another ring in his role as Ironic Hitting Coach.

Who knows how many current playoff participants weren't caught?  We know the MLB tests are insufficient ... biogenesis proved that, as if we didn't already know.

So you take a couple of months off and rest up for the playoffs.  It works out fine for the player and for the team. 


Kellen Winslow will miss four games and no one will care.  The head coach of the Jets already said the backup tight end is an acceptable replacement.  Winslow will be back in a month ready to go.

Bill Madden and Mike Lupica won't even be able to feign outrage.  They're not repulsed by steroid use; they're repulsed by ARod.


"Well, if it turns out that the Yankees really are hot on the latest Japanese pitching phenom, it means they do have a farm system after all:

The Nippon League."


Right.

I don't understand why that is intended as an insult.


Look, the US draft is rigged. It is intentionally rigged -- that is the whole point.

The Yankees are at a big disadvantage because they made the playoffs for 2 straight decades, give or take.

The Yankees would be better served to eliminate their entire minor league system and buy the entire island. Spend $100 million on 1,000 17-year-olds and hope 3 of them become Bernie Williams.

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Girardi signs with Yankees.

Daily News 0-for-2013 in the prediction department.

I suppose I give Klapisch credit for trying.

He is actually watching baseball games and writing about them.  Not that anybody around New York will care ...

Sunday, October 06, 2013

No wonder he jogs to first base ...

... he is exhausted from working the night shift at the factory:

"You are not the only one who has seen Robinson Cano jog to first base, exerting a tepid effort that harms his reputation and, perhaps, his earning power?
Joe Girardi and his coaches reveal scores of appeals to Cano about how bad the visual looks — both to the fans and to impressionable younger Yankees — and that it is, quite frankly, not the way any major leaguer should play.
Yet the same folks disappointed in this aspect of Cano’s game nevertheless vouch for his work ethic, commitment to winning and belief that a lucrative long-term contract would not diminish either of those elements."

I don't doubt that Cano spends a lot of time in the batting cages.

You and I would consider that "recreation," but in the rarefied air of a pro athlete, I suppose that could qualify as a "work ethic."

I see no indication that he takes his craft seriously.  Situational hitting, base running, straddling the bag on throws from the catcher, all the things I learned in Little League.


"It is the Cano disconnect — the player not trying hard, except he is. The guy giving off a terrible impression in public, doing the opposite behind closed doors for his teammates. The loafer with impeccable work habits."

I just think you're sort of diminishing the meaning of the word "work."


" 'When he hits a groundball to the second baseman or shortstop, I know what it looks like,' Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said. 'I get it. I know it is part of the perception. He’s been talked to a million times about it. But I am telling you that is not a true picture of how hard he works or cares, and so if that is his only downfall, it is not the worst thing in the world.' ”

1) Perception is reality.

2) It "looks like" he is jogging to first base because he "is" jogging to first base.

3) If he has been talked to a million times about it, and he refuses to change, then someone needs to be fired ... or Cano needs to be benched for insubordination.


"Ask those around the team and different theories abound:
1. This is just the way the game is now — you have players who don’t always go hard at every moment."  Every moment?  How about nevery moment?


 "2. He is trying to preserve his body. Reggie Jackson used to say he could dive for an extra 10 balls a year in right field or bat 600 times, you can’t have both and which do you want? This theory holds that Cano knows his body and over-extending on what is a routine out 499 out of 500 times doesn’t make sense in risk-reward."  It's more like 49 out of 50 times and Professor Reggie Jackson's analysis is completely wrong.  No one is demanding a player ruin his body by recklessly crashing into walls.  Run 90 feet one time in your entire career.  Then make it a habit.


"3. Cano is so smooth and graceful that — like a prime-aged Carlos Beltran — he does not look like he is giving full effort, even when he is."  Ever notice how Cano almost never makes a diving stop at second base?  Maybe once or twice per season.  It is an impossibility that this is because he has fewer opportunities to do so.  It's because he refuses to dive for a ball and alligator-arms it rather than strain himself.

He does not makes hard plays look easy.  He makes easy plays look hard.


 "4. His frustration gets the best of him when he rolls a ball over. Paul O’Neill — who George Steinbrenner dubbed “The Warrior” for his intensity — used to jog to first after hitting routine grounders, so angry was he with wasting an at-bat. He nevertheless was beloved. Cano is not in nearly the same way. Is this about championships? Skin color? Something else?"  Abreu on the warning track would be a better parallel than O'Neill.

I think Cano always acts like he knows what's going to happen on every play.  It's why he almost gets pegged at second base on doubles.  It's why he has never taken an extra base in nine years.  It's why he pauses so long before throwing the ball to first base.   It's why he inexplicably puts the bat on his shoulder when he knows he's going to take a pitch -- as if the physical act of holding a baseball bat upright away from his body is too much of a strain.


We're all wasting our mental energy on this topic, anyway.  Comparing this guy to O'Neill and Jackson, for crying out loud ... O'Neill and Jackson would run through a brick wall to win a baseball game

Run to first base and all then there is no reason for these complaints and apologetic theories

It's only 90 feet.






Saturday, October 05, 2013

Took PEDs and is a victim of a witch hunt. Not mutually exclusive.

"A-Rod doesn’t have a whole lot of defenders at this point, and this over-the-top lawsuit isn’t likely to improve his image any. Nor is the suit likely to find much traction, considering the commissioner’s broad power to act in the 'best interests' of the game. Of course, one could also argue that what would truly serve the game’s best interests is a little court-ordered discovery.

It’s tempting to dismiss the suit as a public-relations stunt, A-Rod’s desperate ploy to counter the piles of evidence that baseball has reportedly amassed against him. They can’t win on (the merits), said one blind source quoted by the Daily News, 'so the next move is ‘let’s attack the integrity of the investigation.

It looks to me like this is an investigation whose integrity is worth attacking, or at the very least scrutinizing. More to the point, A-Rod may be guilty of using PEDs, but that doesn’t mean baseball should be free to do whatever sleazy things it wants to prove it. A lot of people will look at this lawsuit and say that it has nothing to do with whether Rodriguez used performance-enhancing drugs. Which is true. In its own, self-serving, A-Rod way, it’s about something much bigger."

Friday, October 04, 2013

Alex Rodriguez sues MLB.

You know what would be hilarious?

If someone could think of a synonym for "witch" or "witch hunt" and then use that as a prefix for "Rod."

Because you can then use that word to refer to Alex Rodriguez and it's funny.

It would a can't-miss, uproarious yet biting response to the news that Alex Rodriguez is suing MLB.

Because it's always funny to attach something to "Rod" and refer to Alex Rodriguez that way.

Mike Lupica?  Are you up to the task?  I anxiously await your next column with cautious optimism.


Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Mike Lupica attacks real-life straw men.

Humorless and ignorant, Lupica usually attacks non-existent arguments from the opposition. This time, he attacks the weird, possibly fictional pro-ARod protesters. A real-life manifestation of straw men.

Arguing with these people would be a waste of intellectual energy, except Lupica has no intellect in the first place:

"Up until now, you probably thought he was just another rich, self-absorbed athlete trying to hold on to his money and what is left of his prime. But looking at the demonstrators on Park Ave., it turns out you were wrong, we all were. Alex Rodriguez is a victim, and practically a political prisoner. No one saw the obvious similarities between him and Nelson Mandela until now."

No one is really comparing ARod to Nelson Mandela, but you're going after a very easy target. I actually think these protestors were hired or were satirical.


"He is a symbol of oppression, at least according to protesters who appear to have piled out of a Volkswagen like clowns every morning for photo ops before Rodriguez goes upstairs for these hearings on his 211-game suspension."

You're shooting fish in a barrel.


"You really do start to wonder how we did miss the obvious comparisons to Mandela. Or Cesar Chavez. Or, better yet, Che Guevara."

You, Sir, are an ignorant turd.

I really think Lupica googled "freedom fighter" and picked the first three names that appeared.

Not to get all political up in here, but you're linking Nelson Mandela to Che Guevera and you somehow think this comparison is appropriate. If you want to join the adult conversation, read a book or something.


"No justice, no peace for the guy, to go along with a batting average that ended up in the .240 range, and two swings that anybody remembered after Rodriguez rejoined the Yankees."

Right.

When he bats .300, it doesn't matter. When he slumps, it matters.


I'm also quite intrigued by the "two swings" theory. My guess is (1) the Revenge HR in Fenway off Dempster, and (2) the record-breaking grand slam.


I can think of many other memorable ARod swings in 2013, so I'm not sure what Lupica is talking about.


Are "memorable swings" even a thing? Does the lack of memorable swings speak to a player's ineptitude? Or does it speak to an elderly sportswriter's soft brain?


MVP Candidate Mike Trout: name two specific swings since the All Star Break.

Alfonso Soriano: name two specific swings since the Yankees picked him up.

The entire Mets team: I challenge Mike Lupica to name two specific swings from the entire Mets team that occurred in the final seven weeks of the 2013 season.



"He thinks he can lawyer his way out of this, or flack his way out of this, or crisis-manage his way out of this. He is defended by these demonstrators and really is treated like some sort of victim as the meter continues to run on these lawyers and flacks and crisis managers. You start to think that in the end, what he will end up paying these people could have kept the government running this week."

Wow! Effortless transition to current events.


"Alex Rodriguez, bless his heart, has played a lot of parts in his life, and now he plays a new one, at least in his own mind, and the minds of these people on the street who seem to think they’re in some weird reality series:

Freedom fighter.

Maybe he really is Che Guevara in pinstripes. Don’t call him A-Rod, anymore. Go with Che-Rod."


"Che-Rod."

Good one.

I'm sure it's going to catch on like Fox News' "government slimdown" is catching on.

Before you conflate Nelson Mandela and a baseball player to a Marxist guerrilla mass murderer, you should probably check wikipedia.












Ken Davidoff talks to the crazies.

I like the "Randy Levine is the Devil" signs.

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Yeah, what's up with your drug testing?

One might accuse Murray Chass of being "pro-ARod," but I think he's basically right on. Read the whole thing if you wish. Here are the highlights:

"A prediction (I am not big on making predictions, but I like this one’s chances of being right):

Frederic Horowitz will join Raymond Goetz, Richard Bloch, George Nicolau and Shyam Das in the ranks of baseball’s impartial arbitrators who have overturned or reduced player suspensions for off-field transgressions.

...

And baseball will have to deal with the fact that Rodriguez never tested positive for banned drugs in the 'multiple years' Selig has cited.

Oh yes, about those tests. Why didn’t Selig’s vaunted, self-proclaimed toughest tests nab Rodriguez? The commissioner, as far as I know, hasn’t answered or explained that matter. I, for one, am intrigued by the question and would be happy to hear an answer. Maybe it will come up in the Horowitz hearing."

I want to rant about the Wild Card's supposed success.

The Pirates earned a four-game intra-divisional regular season edge over the Reds. That can evaporate in one game.

The only city that was energized by the wild card race was Cleveland.

If the goal is to make September more important and compelling, this goal is largely counteracted by the expanded rosters.

The one-game playoffs are exciting only because they are rare and unique. You can't force a Game Seven or a Bucky Dent Game or a Last Day 2011. Nobody cares about the first round and why should they? It's like trying to generate excitement by declaring every day is Christmas.