These days everyone is writing a Bucket List.  I wrote my list back in 1999 and one of the items I included was a autographed baseball from the 9 baseball players who I thought were the best n their respective positions.  As with everything I do, I had rules: 1) The signatures have to be on a official major league baseball – no commemoratives, autosigned, HOF or gimmicky balls; 2) all balls have to present with only the player’s autograph, no multisigned balls; and 3) the signature has to be authentic and 4) it has to be a clean and visible signature.

My list of players was developed by looking at each players stats and their overall meaning to the game, while considering my rule constructs and the virtual impossibility of securing a verified autograph from players from the turn of the century like Christy Matthewson and Nap Lajoie.  I will say up front, I did not select Babe Ruth who many consider to be the best player of all time.  Why?  I just do not like him and I really do not want a signed ball from Ruth.  The rest of the list may have a bit of slant to my hometown Birds, but I would challenge the nay-sayers to consider Brooks Robinson and his strong defensive play combined with MVP stats, longevity and and World Series appearances against the typical Schmidt and Brett selections for a 3rd baseman.  The same is true of Cal Ripken and his 2632 games, 19 time All-Star selection, two AL MVPs and ROY honors .  His quest to top Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak came at a time when the next closest player in Major League Baseball with an active games played streak was Albert Belle at 327.

Here is how I size them up:  Pitcher – Sandy Koufax; Catcher – Johnny Bench; 1st Base – “The Hebrew Hammer,” Hank Greenberg (a rather price ball); 2nd Base – Jackie Robinson (that ball is also going to leave a mark in the ol’ wallet); SS – Ripken; 3rd Base – “The Hoover”; Rightfield – Hammerin’ Hank Aaron; Centerfield – Willie Mays,”The Say Hey Kid”; and in Leftfield – Ted Williams (but I am not averse to swapping him out for Stan “The Man” Musial).

Comments and analysis are always welcome but you are free to make your own list and grab your own balls.

Two things that irritated me: 1) Tony LaRussa (who I respect for his years of baseball experience and knowledge) took a shot at the umpire’s strike zone disparities. Strike Zones for both teams were questionable all game, but it’s low to go on national television and whine about it.  Charlie Manuel in his post-game interview said, “I’m not blaming the umpire, they outplayed us on the field.” EXACTLY.  If the umpire gives you a smaller strike zone, then you have to play better defense and also actually hit the ball.  2) Swinging at the first pitch:  Did the Phils not learn from the prior night’s experience (an 11-run rout) that swinging at the first pitch (and causing an inevitable out) yielded nothing?  Swinging at the first pitch rarely gets you a hit and especially in the Playoffs when adrenaline might be running a little higher than usual causing you to hit a quick pop-up or ground out to second base.  

Weather forecast for St. Louis on Tuesday for Game 3….a sunny 77 degrees with no chance of rain.  We’ll see…

It wasn’t the “shot heard ’round the world” or Kirk Gibson’s remarkable one-handed home run off of the Eck in the 1988 World Series, but last night was most definitely one of the most memorable nights in baseball history as the fate of four teams trudging through the marathon of a 162-game season weathered the perfect storm of rain delays, improbable comebacks, momentum shifting plays and managerial “stick it to yas.”   The Rays down a hockey stick in the 8th comeback to force extra innings and beat the Yanks who opted not to trot out their closer Mo Rivera, while Red Sox in control of their game against the O’s with the taste of victory one out away give up three consecutive base hits in the bottom of the 9^th and lose 4-3.  The Cards pound the hapless Astros 8-0 and wait through extra innings for the results in Atlanta where the Braves jump to a 2-0 lead only to lose at home in 13 against Philly.  The Divisional races long settled, baseball needed last night’s drama to kick start the Playoffs.

Boston, which held a 9 game lead in the wild card race on September 3rd, limped to a 7 -19 record over the ensuing 26 days, losing to the AL East doormat, Baltimore Orioles, 5 times in 7 games.  The “2011 Fold” as it will come to be known by the Red Sox sets the new standard for “failing to close” as Boston became the first MLB team to miss the postseason after leading by as many as nine games for a playoff spot entering September.  In the yin/yang of baseball, Atlanta proceeded to cough up the second largest September lead – 8.5 games – as the Cardinals passed them for the NL Wild Card.   Is it also possible that the unholy alliance between LeBron James and the Fenway Sports Group has so skewed the balance of Boston lore that karmic forces also impacted the 2011 Atlanta Braves (formerly of Boston)?  Could be….

Until 2002, the All-Star Game had no impact on the MLB post-season.  It was purely an exhibition game where fans could simply enjoy a game that featured the league’s best players all on the same field, but in 2003 current baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, mutated the Mid-summer Classic from a passive, easy-listening showcase into an ill-will-inducing, results-driven competition with a significant post-season impact.  The League that wins the All-Star Game earns home field advantage in the World Series when the AL and NL Pennant winners square off in October.  The baseball season is a punishing 162-game marathon which occurs over the course of 183 days.  Using the results of an exhibition game to establish home field advantage (or have any influence whatsoever) for the league championship of the sport is positively idiotic.

The very composition of the all-star team is incongruous with the critical effect of the game’s outcome.  At least one player from every major league team must be included on the all-star roster in this “everyone is a winner” play date.  In consideration of this requirement, this year, the following players are being deemed All-Stars:

These five players are perhaps the better players on their respective teams but in no way, shape or form do any of them merit All-Star status.  Gio Gonzalez has a solid ERA, but he is 7-5 and other AL pitchers are more worthy.   Yes, closer, Brandon League leads the AL in saves, but he is far from dominant. (I don’t get this one; Ron Washington already had King Felix from Seattle on the squad and didn’t need to add League.)   Wieters has a gun for an arm at catcher, but he is not the 3^rd best catcher in the AL. (Granted, he is better than Russell Martin of the Yanks who was inexplicably selected, but Victor Martinez is having a better season.)  Cuddyer’s numbers are very pedestrian for an outfielder just as Sanchez’s are for a first baseman.

So these players are filling All-Star roster slots while players who could actually help either Bruce Bochy or Ron Washington win this game will be watching on television.  Enjoying the play-at-home version will be:

The All-Star Game used to be a way that baseball gave back to the fans; kind of a breather from the daily grind where the best in the game played something akin to a pick-up game, just for kicks. Everyone got to play because the outcome was irrelevant.  Bud Selig extinguished the light-heartedness of the original game, causing fans began to consider more weighty discourse relative the match-up.  If the All Star Game is going to affect the post-season, isn’t it time to re-examine the roster composition requirements?  Shouldn’t the managers set the starting rosters instead of the fans?  If winning is the new objective, why wouldn’t the best players simply stay in the whole game while the more marginal selections ride the pine?  What value does the “player form every team” requirement add to a game? It is no coincidence that players from NY and Boston dominate the starting rosters in the AL, should the teams with the largest fanbase hold such selection power?   Over countless hours, fans can debate the highlights of every season, the merits of every team, the strengths and weaknesses of every player and the true value of every statistic.  This is the constant of baseball.  Courtesy of Bud Selig, the All-Star Game is now no different.

Fast Fact:  In the two-wrongs-don’t-make-a-right department, the modification of the All-Star Game to establish World Series home field advantage was devised by Selig in response to his 2002 all-star gaffe where he was roundly criticized for letting the 2002 game end in a tie.

Major League Baseball has its own form of recycling: the signing of another team’s free agents who are over 35.  Not a practice without costs, the 2011 season has produced its share of suspect reclamation projects:

However, sometimes recycling can be beneficial.  Adam Kennedy, Henry Blanco, and Miguel Batista have been serviceable,

while players like: Lance Berkman, Orlando Cabrera, Barton Colon, Scott Downs, Kyle Farnsworth and the timeless Arthur Rhodes all have been valuable acquisitions.

It is interesting to note that aside from Berkman and Cabrera, the hitters from the recycling class of 2011 have been sub-par, while the pitchers by and large have continued to hold their value.  Assuming that we are past the quarter-pole of the 2011 MLB season and that the players noted above continue to perform in line with their existing arc, it appears that ballplayer recycling has about a 33% success rate.  Some players from the 2011 free agent class failed to make teams and others landed on the DL with too many old parts.  Which brings us full cycle… right back to where we started…in Japan.

With Japan’s robust recycling system, what about ballplayers who spent years in the Japanese League and then came West in their 30s?  The 2011 free agent signings of Hisanori Takahashi and Takashi Saito have been less than stellar.  The Angels signed 36 year old, Takahashi for $3.8M.  Takahashi is 1-0 with a 4.74 era and a dreadful 1.68 whip.  Saito (41) who signed for $1.75M remains on the DL after pitching 2 innings this year.  Saito’s ‘end of useful life’ signing is reminiscent of quite a few Hiroshi-Come-Latelys.

• the Orioles post-prime acquisition of injury-plagued Koji Uehara (34 at signing) in 2009;
• Takhito Nomura (33) and his 8.86 ERA in one year in Milwaukee;
• Norihiro Nakamura (32) who hit .128 with the Dodgers;
• Masumi Kuwata (39) who went on the DL at 0-1 with 9.43 ERA in 2007 in Pittsburgh; and
• Kazuo Fukumori (32) who landed a two year, $3M deal with the Rangers and pitched for about five minutes in the Majors recording a 20.25 ERA.

Maybe the imports are not quite what we thought they were.  And clearly, although the Japanese recycling system is overachieving in its span of implementation and return on investment, the lion’s share of baseball players who sign with Major League teams after a lengthy careers in Japan belong in the scrap heap.

On the flip side, I think all Presidents could use a DH.  While those who sit in the Oval Office think they can do everything (the obvious character flaw in politicians being oversized EGOs) who wouldn’t need a little help in running the country?  Watching President Obama’s lack of business sense filter through the economy, it seems we would be better served if a professional businessperson came in and pinch hit.  President George W. Bush needed a designated speaker so he would never have had to open his mouth in public and record an error.  The DH concept could trickle down right into our homes.  What parent wouldn’t want a professional nanny to come in and discipline their kids when mom and dad were too gassed to continue the inning?  Wouldn’t most families love to have a designated kitchen cleaner for mop-up duties?

The first DH in baseball was Ron Bloomberg.  My favorite was Edgar Martinez, who spent his entire career with the Seattle Mariners.  As a baseball purist, I would dump the DH.  But in today’s ADHD society, the average  fan’s desire to see home runs, and the constant barrage of Top 10 highlights on every sports channel, it’s hard to see it going anywhere.

Which leads us to this year’s predictions.  The easy pick here is the Red Sox versus the Phillies in the 2011 World Series.  All 44 of ESPN’s pundits forecasted Boston to win the AL East, 39 of them predicted that Boston would represent the AL and 33 of those folks expect the Sox to win the World Series.  That’s really going out on a limb gang.  Even Harpo – the silent Bench Jockey – is of the opinion that we will be watching Lester against Halladay in the Fall Classic.   However, I say, when something seems so obvious, do the opposite.  I like the young arms in Oakland to emerge from a weak AL West and shock the so-called “experts.”  Need I say anything other than the Texas Rangers in 2010?  In the NL, San Francisco is essentially the same team that won in 2010 except now they have some self-confidence in their ability to win.  Half the US doesn’t even remember they won it all last year, and the other half think it was a fluke.  Even in winning, they have a chip on their shoulders. 

So what does this mean for baseball in 2011?  The earthquake series redux.  It just seems like a fitting end.

It just seemed appropriate that The Bench Jockeys initiated their Blog to coincide with the start of the 2011 MLB Season.  Although there is nothing like debating AL and NL Pennant chances for the upcoming baseball season and analyzing the strengths, but more likely, the weaknesses of current and former ML players, starting this Blog at this time offers The Bench Jockeys the opportunity to assess the potential play-off scenarios in the National Hockey League, as well as the contenders and the pretenders for the Green Jacket, which is  just around the corner on April 7th.  The NBA is just absolute garbage, so you won’t see much from us about that steaming pile, but you will be able to read about the Final Four and VCU’s improbable run.  (We don’t hate basketball, we just hate the NBA.)  Conflicts, oddities and head-shaking actions within NASCAR, soccer, tennis, even the much-maligned PBA, will be served up with cheeky commentary and exploration.

But it’s not just about sports here at The Bench Jockeys, oh no.  We have opinions about any number of subjects.  And along with the sports banter, we intend to mix in a fair share of analysis about the national political scene, potential domestic and global crises, and of course, we fully intend to heckle leaders deserving of derision.  We hope that you will come along for the ride and participate in the discourse.

Oh, and in case you didn’t notice it in the pic above, Barack Obama is a lefty.  Now, there’s a big surprise.

Ferris and Cameron

According to the ever-insightful Wikipedia… a Bench Jockey is a slang term in American baseball to describe a player, coach or manager with the talent of annoying and distracting opposition players and umpires from his team’s dugout with verbal repartee. The art of riding opposition players enough to unnerve them and perhaps enough to enrage them and provoke a fight is believed to be fast-fading in the 21st century game.  To that we say, “Too bad.”   The Bench Jockeys are bringing it back into vogue.