Just waking up and everything has still gone crazy

After getting home at 3 a.m. after being at a baseball game that lasted 14 innings and nearly five hours, it’s safe to say that I’m a bit fried today. But rest is for the week, right…

Man, do I ever need a nap.

Anyway, because I’m struggling to string together cohesive sentences this afternoon, I’ll just ramble on with a few observations about the Phillies and the latest from the sports world.

• After last night’s win over the Nationals the Phillies have a 24.5 percent chance to make the playoffs. Really? Yes, really. At least that’s math according to Ken Roberts, who created an “Odds of making the playoffs” web site.

Here’s what Ken does: after every game – and we mean every game – the odds of a teams’ chances to make the playoffs are calculated and posted on his site. Then, a glimpse into the future is proffered showing not only how the odds change if the Phillies win or lose their next game, but how the odds change pending every result on the full schedule of games.

Yes, it’s good stuff and you should check it out by clicking here.

• To start it off, I had never seen a game go from a sure end to tied up and headed for extra innings like the way last night’s ninth inning played out. For those who didn’t see it, speedy shortstop Jimmy Rollins raced around the bases when his relatively routine fly ball just short of the warning track in left-center field was jarred loose when outfielders Ryan Church and Ryan Langerhans bumped in to each other. Standing at third, Rollins raced home when Church’s relay throw skipped away from shortstop Felipe Lopez to force extra innings.

The most surprising thing about Rollins’ dash around the bases? That it wasn’t ruled an inside-the-park home run by the hometown official scorer.

• Meanwhile, when Ryan Howard hits a home run, he really wallops it. Not only do his homers sound different than other players’, there really is no doubt that they are going out – he doesn’t hit too many that scrape into the first row.

• No one with the Phillies will say it -- though Charlie Manuel’s body language was downright funereal -- but Chase Utley’s broken hand is just about the worst thing that could happen to the team right now. Forget about his statistics and the fact that Utley is an MVP candidate, and his hard-nosed style of play… it was because of Utley that the Phillies were able to stay in the playoff race despite injuries to Freddy Garcia, Tom Gordon, Brett Myers, Jon Lieber and Ryan Howard.

Yes, losing Utley is very significant. And that just might be the understatement of the year.

• The Phillies gave out a Cole Hamels bobblehead figurine last night and had a sold-out crowd. Here’s my question: What is the allure of that stuff? I can understand baseball cards and other memorabilia-type collectibles (kind of), but why are bobbleheads still popular? Just chalk it up to the every growing pile of things I don’t get.

On another note, last year (or maybe the year before, I forget) the Nationals gave out a Chad Cordero bobblehead figurine at a game at RFK. Within hours of bringing it home my son ripped the head clean off the body and for the past year or so there has been the head of Chad Cordero, complete with that geeky unbent brim of his cap, staring up from the bottom of the toy box in our living room. Perhaps that’s the appeal of the bobblehead doll… ripping the heads clean off.

• Speaking of ripping the head clean off and one man’s inability to understand events occurring in the world, I’m still attempting to grasp just what the hell happened at this year’s Tour de France. Frankly, I haven’t been able to come up with anything other than some non-sequitors and random ideas.

For instance:

-- Perhaps it’s because I am an American and believe in a persons’ right to due process, but I just don’t understand how a man who never failed a drug test or violated any laws or rules of the sport could be bounced from an event he was about to win. Look, I know never failing a drugs test isn’t the best argument and I know all about Michael Rasmussen’s reputation, but if the Tour, the UCI and whatever other governing body is attempting to destroy cycling really disliked the dude and had valid reasons to boot him from the race, they should have never allowed him to start.

Now look what they have on their hands. It’s nothing more than a race that no one views as legitimate.

-- I always am amused by American sportswriters whose idea of exercise is actually getting up to manually turn the channels on the television opining about cycling. I also do not understand how one can legitimately write about sports without a basic understand of training and performance-enhancing drugs. Get these people out of the press box now, because writing intelligently about sports doesn’t really have much to do with the games any more.

-- Alexandre Vinokourov? Wow. Who would have thought the Tour could have sunk lower than that fiasco?

-- Along those lines everyone is quick to point out how “dirty” cycling is. But here is a fact: if MLB and the NFL acted like the UCI and the Tour de France, there would be more than 1,000 new players in those leagues tomorrow. It seems as if all cycling officials have to do is point at a guy and he's out. Forget facts and protocol. The players in MLB and the NFL should be thankful every day that they have a union that supports them.

-- Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Michael Rasmussen were all booted from the Tour de France this year despite never failing a drug test. Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and Mark McGwire have admitted to using performance-enhancing substances and got new contracts.

Which sport is “dirty” again?

-- I’ve been asked if the current scandal in France will affect Floyd Landis’ case at all. My knee-jerk reaction is, “No, because they are mutually exclusive. Floyd’s case has to do with one specific test from one stage of last year’s race. This year’s scandal, they say, is about the ‘culture of doping.’”

Since I don’t believe Floyd is a part of that culture, nor do I believe he is a doper, I didn’t think it has anything to do with him.

But upon retrospect, maybe it does in the always fickle court of public opinion. Maybe Floyd suddenly becomes guilty because he rides a bike and won the Tour de France?

Either way it makes me happy to be a runner instead of a baseball player or cyclist.

-- Meanwhile, other folks have asked me why they just don’t cancel the rest of the Tour. What’s the point anymore? It’s a valid question, but the answer comes down to the bottom line. The rest of the ride to Paris is economical, complete with all of the pomp, circumstance and corporate sponsorships.

They don’t put those corporate logos on their uniforms because they look nice.

The reason the Tour continues is the same reason why Bud Selig doesn’t go all French on Barry Bonds and pull the cheater from the field. It’s why the Giants re-signed Bonds – he makes a lot of people money...

Especially people like WADA president Dick Pound.

Integrity? Ha!

Double dippers

Remember that old adage about good pitching beating good hitting every time? Remember? Of course you do. Aaron Rowand even postulated on it last week after the Phillies dropped two of three to the Dodgers last week. If I remember correctly he said something like, “Good pitching beats good hitting every time… ”

Hey Aaron, guess what? Maybe really good hitting beats good pitching from time to time.

At least that seemed to be the case when the Phillies faced the Padres in pitching-friendly PETCO (or is it Petco?) Park this past weekend. After being shutdown on two hits in a 1-0 loss to Chris Young on Thursday night, Rowand, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and the gang piled on 28 runs in the final three games to take the series.

Check out some of these numbers from the 4-3 trip against the top two clubs in the NL West:

Howard hit .500 (11-for-22) with five homers and 13 RBIs; Utley hit .379 (11-for-29) with five doubles, nine runs and seven RBIs; and Rowand hit .355 (11-for-31) with five runs and eight RBIs.

Meanwhile, some dude named J.D. Durbin allowed just one run in 15 innings including a complete-game shutout in Sunday’s 9-0 victory.

J.D. Durbin? What’s the Deal?

I’m sure we’ll get into Durbin with more depth later, but for now let’s pick on something about Chase Utley. It has been examined by pundits, scribes and the statdorks that Utley is in the mix with Prince Fielder for the NL MVP Award, which is kind of cool but there’s something much more interesting going on under the “2B” for Utley.

There, it reads 41. That’s 41 doubles in 97 games which puts him on pace for 68 for the season. In 1931 a guy named Earl Webb clubbed 67 doubles, which is the best of all time. Interestingly, Webb played two more seasons after his epic ’31 season and then was gone.

Poof! Just like that.

What’s more, no player has hit 60 doubles since 1936 when Joe Medwick and Charlie Gehringer did it. In 2000 Todd Helton hit 59 doubles, which happens to be the Phillies’ record set by Chuck Klein in 1930.

So last year it was Howard taking apart the club’s home run record and this year it could be Utley adding his name atop of the doubles chart.

***
David Beckham made his U.S. soccer debut last weekend and all of the stories and all of the hype got me to thinking… how good is that guy? I know a few people who are close followers of soccer and I asked them if Beckham is going to revolutionize something and get people going crazy the way we all did for the New York Cosmos when Pele and Giorgio Chinaglia came to the U.S. in the late ‘70s.

The answer?

Probably not.

“He might be one of the top 100 players ever, but he won’t have as much of an impact on soccer in the U.S. as Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and the women’s team did,” one friend wrote.

“It helps that he’s white, has a name that’s easy to pronounce, speaks English and is married to a celebrity,” another friend wrote. “He’s probably the best player in the league, but he wasn’t the best player in the European leagues.

However, Beckham joining L.A. in the MLS is kind of like an All-Star baseball player leaving MLB to go play in Japan.”

Meanwhile, U.S. columnists are opining that Beckham’s arrival on our shores won’t turn soccer into a major league sport – though it could push past the NHL. To those ideas I think the writers are missing the point. Soccer already IS a major sport in the U.S. Want proof? Drive past any suburban park on any weekend in any part of the country and look what sport the kids are playing… and no, it ain’t baseball.

Adults might not watch soccer on TV, but the shoe companies dump lots of cash into it and the kids play it. That’s what matters.

***
It’s been written that Game 3 of the NBA’s western conference finals from last May was one of the worst officiated games in the league’s history. Anyone have a guess which ref called that game?

Check it out:

***
Undoubtedly, it has been a very interesting two days in the Tour de France. Michael Rasmussen has hung onto the Yellow Jersey by riding strong in the Pyrenees after the best time trial of his life. It stands to reason that The Danish Cowboy could take it all the Paris if he rides strong in the final mountain stage on Wednesday, though I suspect he will face a challenge from the Disco boys, Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador, whose victory in Sunday’s mountain stage over Rasmussen was fantastic.

As far as Leipheimer’s Tour goes, he has one more day in which to engage. Either that or hope that one of the riders ahead of him makes a mistake, cracks, or crashes.

Meanwhile, the most memorable rider of the Tour has been Alexandre Vinokourov, who won Saturday’s time trial, reportedly fell on his stitched up knees after colliding with a fan in Sunday’s mountain stage (to lose 29 minutes), before riding away with today’s mountain stage.

Give me a choice between riding cautiously and steadily like Leipheimer or putting it all out there despite the consequences like Vino and I’ll take the blaze of glory.

As Phil Liggett said as Vino pumped his fist to cross the finish line today, “Everyone all over the world loves a fighter… ”

There is nothing inspiring about being careful to get fourth place.

Stage 15 Final
1.) Vinokourov, Astana @ 5:34:28
2.) Kim Kirchen, T- Mobile @ 51 seconds
3.) Haimar Zubeldia, Euskaltel-Euskadi @ same time
4.) Juan José Cobo, Saunier Duval @ 58 seconds
5.) Juan Manuel Garate, Quick Step @ 2:14
6.) David Arroyo, Caisse d'Epargne @ 3:23
7.) Bernhard Kohl, Team Gerolsteiner @ 4:25
8.) Christian Vandevelde, CSC @ same time
9.) Ludovic Turpin, AG2R Prévoyance @ 5:16
10.) Alberto Contador, The Discovery Channel @ 5:31

Overall
1.) Rasmussen
2.) Contador @ 2:23
3.) Cadel Evans @ 4:00
4.) Leipheimer @ 5:25
5.) Klöden @ 5:34
6.) Carlos Sastre @ 6:46

Here’s my prediction: the winner of the 2007 Tour de France will be evident by lunchtime on Wednesday.

Way to go out on a limb, huh…

Another busy Saturday

Given a choice between having Albert Pujols or Chase Utley for his team, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel answered quickly and without hesitation.

“Come on, I gotta go with my guy,” the skipper chided.

It wasn’t an answer based in loyalty or a show of solidarity for his guy either. Manuel firmly believes that Chase Utley is the best player in the National League. He even said as much following the 13-3 victory over Pujols’ World Champion Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night. Certainly Utley made it easy for Manuel to boast, too, by rapping out four hits to go with three RBIs to give him 71 for the season – second-best in the league – as well as his 17th home run.

Add in the fact that Utley is hitting .331 – 10 points behind league-leader Hunter Pence of Houston – and it gives Manuel’s claims more than just the mark of pride for his guy.

“He's probably the best player the National League,” Manuel said. “And I get to see him every day.”

The last part of that quote was the real bit braggadocio. “I get to see him,” he said. “Every day.”

In a way it was a challenge, perhaps. No, not for Utley to live up to another man’s boast and help carry the bruised and battered Phillies in their push to overtake the Braves and Mets in the NL East. Instead it seemed as if the manager was telling the other folks who also have the privilege to get to see Utley play every day to enjoy it. Players like that don’t come around that often, he seemed to plead.

It also shouldn’t be lost on anyone that Manuel touted his All-Star candidate and MVP candidate on a night when Pujols and Ryan Howard were in the ballpark. Howard, of course, hits in the lineup after Utley and plays on the same side of the infield. He also is the reigning NL MVP after slugging a franchise record 58 home runs last season and currently leads the club with 21 more this season. After a slow and injury-plagued start to the 2007 season, Howard has shown glimpses of a return to his MVP form.

Pujols, on the other hand, might just go down as one of the greatest hitters of this era. In his first six seasons Pujols has never finished worse than fourth in the NL MVP balloting and claimed the award in 2005 after second-place finishes in 2002, 2003 and 2006. In his six-and-half season Pujols has clubbed 267 homers, driven in 811 runs with a .330 batting average.

Oh yeah, Pujols rarely strikes out. When he digs in at the plate it’s a safe bet that Pujols is going to hit the ball somewhere. Hard.

Still, given a choice Manuel will take his guy. You know, the one on pace to hit 30 homers and drive in 130 runs in the first year of his brand-new, seven-year contract.

“I think it’s a compliment,” Utley shrugged to reporters, noting that there are still 73 games remaining in the season.

But that’s Utley. The compliments are nice and so are the back-to-back starting nods in the All-Star Game, but to Utley a player is only as good as his last game, his last at-bat or his last play in the field. He’s clearly not interested or comfortable in talking about himself. Oh sure, he knows he’s a really good player – how could he not? But to Utley playing hard and playing well is their own reward. Celebrating is something he shares with his teammates after a victory. For Utley, the focus is on the here and now, always striving to improve in every game, every at-bat and every play in the field.

And for Utley, improving is beginning to become a monumental task.

How much better can he get?

***
Anyone wondering if ignorance is truly bliss needs to look no further than Gary Sheffield and his much-publicized interview with HBO’s “Real Sports.” Check out some of the highlights here, via Steroid Nation.

***
Apparently the genius manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Tony La Russa, got a little testy with some members of the local baseball press following last night’s 13-3 loss.

Here’s something interesting to ponder: La Russa is in the last year of his deal with the Cardinals, while Manuel is in the last year of his deal with the Phillies. Wouldn’t it be something if they traded positions, or at the very least, if La Russa took over as skipper for the Phillies?

Then we’d get to see how the genius handles his brains power being dissected. You know, like leaving Pujols on the bench in the ninth inning with two outs and the bases loaded in a one-run game.

Yeah, he was saving him for extra innings. Uh-huh, a real genius there.

***
I did a little investigating spurred by a chat and have deduced the following:

• Don’t expect a decision from the USADA arbitration panel on the Floyd Landis case until after the Tour de France. The panel has to render a decision in 10 days after the case has been closed, and apparently the arbitrators are still pouring over the evidence and arguments.

• Expect the ruling to come back 2-1 against Floyd. Arbitrators in such cases don’t get their jobs by being fair – they get them by being political.

“This was 2-1 against Landis before the first argument.”

I have some more stuff, too, but haven’t been able to corroborate it yet. As soon as I get a chance to ask some more questions I’ll dish away. I’m also still planning on writing the review of David Walsh’s From Lance to Lance: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France. According to a couple of folks who have crossed paths with Walsh and have read his book the short review is very consistent.

“Flimsy.”

“A house of cards.”

Most scribes that have been around for more than a few years know that when there is smoke there is also fire. However, if one is going to present the smoke as fact, they better have the goods down cold. After all, anyone who has ever spent time in a press box or media room and covered a sport has some really good stories.

Trust me. They’re good.

Suddenly I feel like David Walsh and Kitty Kelly’s love child…

Meanwhile, the Lance vs. Landis race at the Leadville 100 appears to be on. I say call up Jan Ullrich and Bjarne Riis and turn it into a party...

***
Speaking of love, today is Bastille Day and there is nothing the folks lining the mountain road from Bourg-en-Bresse over the category 1 climb at Col de la Colombiére to Le Grand-Bornand wanted to see more than a Frenchman in the lead.

That just ain’t going to happen.

My take is that a lot of the folks in France wouldn’t be disappointed if their country’s grand Tour became a lot less international and featured their best countrymen. That’s kind the sense I get from the folks in Boston about their marathon. If some slender dude from Quincy or Jamaica Plain were to win every year instead of the best runners from around the globe, it wouldn’t bother the Bostonians all that much.

France’s best hope in the 2007 Tour is Christophe Moreau is 36-years old and a veteran of the 1998 Festina doping scandal. Though he won the Dauphiné Libéré race this year, and despite finishing ninth in today’s stage at 3-minutes and 38 seconds behind winner Linus Gerdemann of T-Mobile and Germany, Moreau is not considered a threat.

How can you have a Tour de France without a dude from Germany named Linus?

Gerdemann, more than a decade younger than Moreau, isn’t considered a threat to win the Tour either, but as the race enters its second week the 24-year old is the man in Yellow. How long he holds onto it remains to be seen, however. Gerdemann’s big win on Saturday is viewed as a bit of a surprise and perhaps the kid emptied the tank with his victory. After all, the riders face three category 1 climbs tomorrow in the Alps from Le Grand-Bornand to an uphill finish in the skiing village of Tignes.

After the first rest day on Monday, the Tour gets even more difficult on Tuesday when the riders face Col du I’lseran and the infamous Col du Galibier with a category 1 climb at Col du Télégraphe mixed in for fun.

“It doesn't mean a lot,” said contender Cadel Evans about the young German’s win. “It's still very early.”

Stage 7 Final
1.) Linus Gerdemann, T-Mobile, Germany, in 4:53:13
2.) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel, Spain, at :40
3.) de la Fuente, Saunier Duval, Spain, at 1:39
4.) Mauricio Soler, Barloworld, Colombia, at 2:14
5.) Laurent Lefevre, Bouygues Telecom, France, at 2:21
6.) Fabian Wegmann, Gerolsteiner, Germany, at 3:32
7.) Juan Manuel Garate, Quick Step, Spain, at 3:38
8.) Xavier Florencio, Bouygues Telecom, Spain, at 3:38
9.) Christophe Moreau, AG2R, France, at 3:38
10.) Alejandro Valverde, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, at 3:38

Overall
1.) Linus Gerdemann, T-Mobile, Germany, in 34:43:40
2.) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain, at 1:24
3.) David de la Fuente, Saunier Duval, Spain, at 2:45
4.) Laurent Lefevre, Bouygues Telecom, France, at 2:55
5.) Mauricio Soler, Barloworld, Colombia, at 3:05
6.) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany, at 3:39
7.) Vladimir Gusev, Discovery Channel, Russia, at 3:51
8.) Vladimir Karpets, Caisse d'Epargne, Russia, at 3:52
9.) Mikel Astarloza, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain, at 3:55
10.) Thomas Dekker, Rabobank, Netherlands, at 3:57

What a difference a day makes

As quickly as he was derided for making a “dumb” play by bunting in the first inning with two on and no outs during the first inning of a 8-1 loss, Chase Utley was lauded for his outstanding effort in last night’s victory at Shea Stadium.

It’s funny how that works, huh?

Perhaps that’s what a 3-for-4 outing with a double, three RBIs and the game-winning homer in the top of the 11th will do for a guy. That’s especially the case when that guy is one of the cornerstones of the franchise and just signed a seven-year, $85 million contract extension.

Said skipper Charlie Manuel: “What do you want me to say about him? I can’t say enough. If I start talking about Chase, you could come back next year and I’d still probably be talking. He’s that good. He’s something very special.”

Better yet, Utley had his latest big night in New York City against the top team in the National League. If a baseball player wants to get noticed, New York City is the place to go to have some big games. So far this season Utley is 5-for-16 with two homers and five RBIs at Shea. In his career, Utley has six homers and 14 RBIs in 30 games, which is good because they pay attention to baseball in the Big Apple.

In Philadelphia they go to baseball games to chant for the football team.

Nevertheless, Manuel couldn’t stop talking about Utley last night.

“I used to say Kirby Puckett was my favorite player,” Manuel said. “I love Kirby Puckett, but Chase is getting there. Just the way he plays the game. How hard he plays. How mentally tough he is. Plus how he hits and hustles. I like everything about his game.”

Kirby Puckett played well in some big games on the biggest stage. It would be interesting to see if Utley ever gets that chance, too.

***
In one of the more interesting plays one will ever see in a baseball game, Utley was held up while rounding third base by coach Steve Smith on a single by Aaron Rowand. As a result, Pat Burrell was caught in a rundown between second and third where he actually ran from first to third to second and back to third.

Aside from that, Utley pointed out the oddest part of Burrell’s dizzy run around the bases.

“I've never seen anyone slide twice into third base on the same play. Pat wanted to get to third base,” Utley said. “And he did.”

***
Speaking of the local football team, Lito Shepherd was flying in a plane with Jacksonville's Fred Taylor and Baltimore's Samari Rolle during a trip to South Africa when the door blew off in the back of the craft. Interestingly, someone videotaped the entire thing and put it on YouTube:

I don’t know about anyone else, but if I’m in a small plane and the door flies off at 6,000 feet, the last thing I’m reaching for is the camera. Maybe a parachute or a big, billowy blanket, but definitely not the camcorder.

***
The thing I liked best about baseball’s amateur draft was how no-frills it was. In a sports world dominated by overproduced and over-hyped faux drama, it was cool that MLB kept it real at least one time.

For those unfamiliar with the MLB draft, it took place over the course of two days where the teams squeezed in as many rounds as possible. But unlike the other major league sports, baseball’s draft was broadcast through a conference call amongst all of the teams, which was streamed onto their Web site.

It probably would have been easier if the teams got together and logged onto a Yahoo! league site or something.

But for the first time ever baseball’s draft will be broadcast on television (tomorrow at 2 p.m. on ESPN2), which, frankly, destroys the entire allure of the proceedings.

It also will slow down the rapid-fire nature of the draft. In most years, according to Phillies’ director of scouting Marti Wolever, they complete close to 20 rounds in the first day of the draft. But this year, with television slowing things down with their pesky commercials, analysis and production stuff, they might be lucky to get in six rounds on Thursday.

***
Dennis Deitch of Philadelphia correctly identified Steve Carlton as the last pitcher to toss 300 innings in a season when he did it for the 1980 Phillies. Initially, Deitch guessed Phil Niekro in 1979 as the last pitcher to go for 300 innings, but quickly changed his answer.

Incidentally, Niekro went 21-20 for 340 innings for the Braves in 1979. Yeah, that’s right – 21-20.

Nevertheless, kudos to Dennis. Kudos. We’ll see if we can set him up with something nice.

***
Speaking of 1980, if you’re going to Kansas City this weekend for the Phillies’ first trip to the Emerald City (is that what they call it? If not, they should) since the World Series, carnivorous insiders recommend the Hereford House and/or Plaza III. Having never been to Kansas City, I'm going to assume that both joints are downtown.

Work with me, folks.

We put the word out for more suggestions since the Phillies are making their first trip to KC in nearly three decades, so stay tuned.

So it goes

I don’t care about what the Moneyballers, Baseball Prospectus-ers and other stat heads can prove by crunching the numbers and lining up all the stats in the proper column of an Excel spreadsheet. I like the bunt.

Yes, I understand that bunting actually decreases a team’s chances at scoring a run and that by bunting with intent to move runners into scoring position is never a good idea because it trades 90-feet for the most valuable commodity in the game – outs.

But my reason for liking the bunt is purely selfish. Without it, there was no place for me on the baseball team back in high school. In fact, I remember clearly when I came to terms with the notion that swinging the bat was a bad idea and dropped down a bunt for the sixth plate appearance in a row…

“Why do they keep giving you the bunt signal,” a teammate finally asked.

“No one gave me a bunt signal.”

Clearly no one gave Chase Utley the bunt signal either when facing Barry Zito with two on and no outs of the first inning of yesterday’s loss to the Giants. Thinking that no would expect the club’s No. 3 hitter to drop one down with the starter against the ropes in the early going and slugger Ryan Howard on deck, Utley thought it would be a good idea to sneak one in there.

Needless to say, it didn’t go well. The bunt didn’t go to its intended area, Utley was thrown out – but given a sacrifice – and the Phillies were on their way to stranding 12 runners on base.

“I was trying to make something happen,” Utley said after the game. “You don't know how many times you're going to have an opportunity to score off Zito. It was a curveball that I tried to put in play. Worse-case scenario, you got two guys in scoring position with the middle of your lineup up. We didn't get the job done.”

Had it worked, Utley would have been lauded as a smart player trying to set the table for Ryan Howard, who has been starting to get hot lately. Instead, with first base open, Howard was intentionally walked and the Phillies squandered yet another chance.

So it goes.

***
Speaking of squandering chances, Jon Lieber turned in another poor outing in the 8-1 loss that was detailed deftly by Bob Ford. Lieber, of course, chose not to discuss his outing after the game with the local sporting press, which is all well and good – based on his pitching line (10 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks in just 5 innings), who could blame him. However, even when Lieber pitches well he is terse and petulant with the media following the game.

That’s fine, too, and I’m sure fans don’t care about how athletes treat the press. At the same time, if a writer needs Jon Lieber to say something pithy or insightful in order to write a baseball story, well, they just aren’t that good of a writer.

Nevertheless, if someone wants to talk to me about baseball or running or any other aspect of my job, pack a lunch and call a sitter because we’ll be there all day. Maybe it’s me, but if there I’m supposed to be passionate about my life’s work it would be exciting to talk to folks about it… especially if paid $21 million for three years.

Certainly the situation with Lieber has been a mess all season long, and that’s not all his fault. The Phillies did everything but hire a skywriter to advertise that they wanted to trade Lieber, but then didn’t – or couldn’t. Then they moved him to the bullpen into a role he had never done in his 13 seasons in the Majors. And then, when it was clear that Lieber was ineffective and disinterested in engaging in his new role, they moved him back to the rotation.

In that sense, who could blame him if he doesn’t want to talk to a bunch of pesky writers.

Regardless, if the Phillies were to take Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer out of the rotation, the teams' starting rotation has a 5.50 ERA and has allowed 283 baserunners in 189 2/3 innings this season.

Worse, the remaining bunch is 8-15… Hamels has eight wins all by himself.

What is this? Carlton in ’72?

Saturday in the park

Chase Utley has been the minor focus of a few local blog posts this past week for an interview/commercial he did for Maxim magazine. Because it was a non-sports magazine talking to a jock, the questions were more of the human-interest nature, which is always a little more revealing than the stuff the sporting press comes out with.

For instance, Utley was the typical cliché Philadelphia questions, like which cheese steak joint he likes best, what he did with the money when he signed his big contract extension, why he chose the song that plays when he comes to bat, and fantasy baseball stuff. You know -- dorky, meaningless stuff.

But ever the pitch man ready to take care of his product, Utley pushes Abbott Nutrition’s EAS Myoplex shakes. For visitors of the Phillies clubhouse, EAS products aren’t too hard to find and I suppose they are a fairly popular supplement/meal replacement product.

In fact, Utley says they taste great!

“Well, for me they're easy and convenient. And they give me the fuel that my body needs, especially in the off-season. And they taste good.”

Needless to say I was intrigued by the Myoplex shakes and decided to check them out. Wouldn’t you know it that they sold them at my local grocer? Out the other afternoon to pick up Clif Bars, sugar free Red Bull and Gatorade mix, I saw the Utley shakes at eye level to the immediate right of the Powerbars. In reading the label I learned that Myoplex shakes are kosher, wheat and rice-gluten free, and it contains a milk protein derivative which makes it unattractive for vegans.

Noticing that, I read the nutritional label and saw something that surprised me:

Myoplex shakes have 50 milligrams of cholesterol per one 76 gram serving. That comes to 1,000 milligrams of artery-clogging cholesterol per a 20 serving container.

If I'm wrong I hope someone could set me straight.

It seems to me that a Clif Bar or two would be a better meal replacement. And since Utley is a budding environmentalist after seeing An Inconvenient Truth, he can take solace in the fact that Clif Bars are organic.

No, I don’t have a sponsorship with Clif Bar, though I eat one for breakfast most mornings…

***
Alex Rodriguez could be a Myoplex shakes man, too. Who really knows what that guy eats, though it seems as if we know every other little thing about A-Rod.

But before anyone starts to think that the celebrity culture has taken of sports, guess again. According to a story in The New York Times, sports figures don’t go through anything near what celebrity celebrities have to deal with.

Nevertheless, don’t look my way if you are looking for someone to separate sports from the so-called “entertainment” world. Sports, simply, ARE entertainment. What else could it be?

***
Speaking of entertaining, it's quite a paradox to hear the entire park boo AND see flashes pop from cameras whenever Barry Bonds comes to the plate.

Make up your mind, dude...

According to a story from Bloomberg, Barry Bonds "loses" $10 million a year for simply being Barry Bonds.

My question is how can he lose it if he never had it?

***
Jayson Werth walked to the plate to the strains of "Fear the Reaper" tonight.

Perhaps he's gotta have more cowbell?

***
Despite running like a tired, old nag this morning, it was a lot of fun seeing old familiar faces at the Red Rose Run in Lancaster. The running part was a mess and the weather was a little hot and humid, but for a guy who doesn’t get out all that much, it was great to see a lot of good people.

Tomorrow we hit Hershey Park and then, weather permitting, the bike race over roughly the same course we ran on today… good times.

Coming a long way

It’s funny how quickly things change, to coin a phrase. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that manager Larry Bowa was forced to send Chase Utley back to the minors so that Doug Glanville could take over the last roster spot. Bowa didn’t want to do it, and if I remember correctly, fought hard to keep Utley for Opening Day in 2004, but with Placido Polanco set as the second baseman and David Bell entrenched at third base, Utley would have been able to get four or five at-bats every night in Scranton.

The rationale, as explained by the former Phillies administration of Ed Wade and Bowa, was that Glanville could spell Marlon Byrd in center field and come in and swipe a bag or two. Besides, Utley was purely an offensive player at that point of his career and his defense wasn’t so great.

Nope, Bowa didn’t really buy what he was ordered to sell. Imagine that? Byrd and Glanville for Utley?

Utley ended playing in 94 games in ’04 – 50 at second base and 13 at first base – and seemed destined to take over as the everyday second baseman until Wade offered arbitration to Polanco. Since he wasn’t one to turn down millions of dollars, Polanco accepted and Utley found himself in a platoon. Though he hit 28 homers and knocked in 105 runs in 2005, Utley was on the bench on opening day.

Polanco was traded by June and Utley hasn’t looked over his shoulder or picked up his first-baseman’s mitt since. Not even two years after sitting on the bench on opening day, Utley has a new $85 million deal with the Phillies.

Meanwhile, Ryan Howard seems to be walking the same path as his pal Utley, though when the time comes it seems as if the slugging first baseman will be messing around with Powerball-jackpot type digits. Unless Howard turns into Joe Charboneau (or Pat Burrell) it seems as if the Phillies will take care of him before spring training opens in 2008.

But like Utley, Howard never could break camp with the Phillies for one reason or another. One of those reasons, of course, was bona fide 40-homer man Jim Thome. Another was Wade and the Phillies’ reluctance to take a chance on a young player even when that young player was destroying the records at every stop in the minors. It definitely was an organizational thing, too. In fact, I remember talking to Reading manager Greg Legg during Howard’s assault of the Eastern League in 2004 and he said Howard needed a year of Triple-A before making the jump to the big leagues.

He said it, but I don’t think he believed it. All of the Phillies’ brass were saying that kind of stuff back then.

Nevertheless, count on Howard and his “ordinary” contract being a topic of discussion all summer. That’s just what happens for some reason. I remember how Kevin Millwood’s contract status was such a hot topic in 2003, and how Millwood told us he wasn’t going to talk about it anymore before talking about how he wasn’t going to talk about it.

It’s a vicious cycle or something like that.

Howard, it appears, made his first full season in the Majors, too good, according to a quoted source in Jayson Stark’s story on ESPN.com from Jan. 24. Technically, the Phillies don’t have to do anything with his contract and if they want to pay him the minimum – slightly below $400,000 – they can.

They won’t because Pat Gillick is smart. He knows better than us why the Howards felt it necessary to have three different agents in a little more than a year. Perhaps (despite his public and behind-closed-doors media persona) Howard is sensitive and takes perceived slights hard? Hey, we’ve seen that before, right?

The last part is just some out-loud thinking, but the point remains – Utley and Howard have come a very long way in a very short time.

Fair, not foul

From our vantage point in the press box at RFK Stadium, we can’t see the right-field corner where Chase Utley’s “foul” ball apparently landed. Better yet, from the press box at RFK, we can’t see the outfield.

At all.

Last night I had a view of most of the infield, but not of the second baseman because there was a big, white pillar blocking my view. That wasn’t as bad as the view Phil Sheridan of the Inquirer had sitting directly to my right. If he wanted to see the pitcher, he had to lean hard to the left.

Then again, Phil used to come to RFK to cover Eagles-Redskins games back in the old days. Based on what I’ve seen of the old ballpark, I imagine those games made for cozy conditions with the press corps.

From the Phillies first-base dugout, the view is equally as bad though they can see most of the outfield. However, the one spot they can’t see is the right-field corner – exactly where Utley’s home run landed.

So when Manuel says he couldn’t see where the ball went and couldn’t confront the umpires over the poor call, he isn’t exaggerating. There is no way he could see anything going on in the right-field corner. From Manuel’s spot in the dugout, right field is nothing but a rumor.

The point is, a lot of people in the press had no idea Utley’s shot had struck the foul pole because we couldn’t see it. Meanwhile, we didn’t get the Nationals TV feed in the press box. Instead, we could only see the in-house scoreboard feed, which wasn’t about to show a replay contradicting the call on the field.

So when I got down to the clubhouse after the game, I was a little taken aback by Charlie Manuel’s anger. Obviously, he was able to see something we (or I had not) and that drastically changed things. It wasn’t until I got home and watched the highlights shows that I saw that first-base umpire Rob Drake blew it.

Nevertheless, while Manuel expressed his displeasure at the bad call – as well as his team’s inability to get a hit with runners in scoring position – all I keep thinking to myself was, “It’s always something with this team… this is the way it’s going to end for them, isn’t it?”

Maybe.

But maybe not. The one thing that stood out amidst the hand wringing by the Phillies’ officials was Utley’s demeanor and attitude. He was not going to break character or allow himself to lose his focus on the task at hand. Sure, he recited all of the usual clichés, but the thing with Utley is that he believes what he says.

“When you look at the replay in regular [speed], it's hard to tell,” Utley explained. “When you slow it down, it's easy to tell. Everybody makes mistakes. We have to put this behind us and come out tomorrow ready to go.”

He will put this episode behind him and come back the next day and try to win.

MVP?

Around these parts, Ryan Howard has slugged his way into the debate for NL MVP. And why not? With a homer in four straight games, Howard leads the Majors with 48 home runs as well as with 125 RBIs.

But nationally Howard isn’t getting as much respect as in Philly and that’s especially the case with that stat folks and logical types at Baseball Prospectus. According to a story on the BP site by Joe Sheehan, Ryan Howard isn’t even the MVP on the Phillies.

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

Apparently, the NL MVP race isn’t as small as I would have it. Many, many readers--even more than the number who chimed in defending Jermaine Dye’s honor when I left him out of the AL MVP discussion--wrote in to question the absence of Ryan Howard from Monday’s article. Howard leads the NL in homers, RBI and slugging average. His hot August (.330/.431/.699), coupled with the Phillies’ "surge" to the vicinity of .500 and the wild-card slot, has made him a viable candidate in some quarters.

The problem isn’t just that Howard’s season is not on par with Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Beltran. The problem is that Howard isn’t the most valuable Phillies infielder on the right side of second base.

AVG OBP SLG EqA VORP FRAR WARP1
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ryan Howard .294 .382 .628 .318 50.2 -4 5.4
Chase Utley .317 .385 .525 .300 53.5 15 6.4

Howard hits more home runs than Chase Utley. Utley and the three real MVP candidates do everything else better than Howard does. The big guy is seventh in the league in EqA, VORP and RARP, and off the charts in WARP. Once you account for position and the things baseball players do other than hit homers, he falls rapidly down the lists.

Can Howard be a serious MVP candidate when he’s three wins worse than the other first baseman in the discussion?

AVG OBP SLG EqA VORP FRAR WARP1
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ryan Howard .294 .382 .628 .318 50.2 -4 5.4
Albert Pujols .323 .424 .665 .345 65.4 19 8.8

From here to the end of the season it will be a wide-open race. If Howard gets to 60 homers, give him the trophy… and all of the bonus clauses.

Joe Sheehan: Howard the Phillie

Chase Utley!

That's right... are there any questions about Chase Utley's fire after watching the second inning of the Phillies' game against the Nationals on Saturday night? Is it any wonder why so many people like watching him play?

For those who missed it, Utley bounded out of the dugout after Nats' pitcher Ramon Ortiz -- a.k.a. The Gutless Wonder -- decided he was better off throwing fastballs at hitters instead of trying to get them out. So when Ortiz drilled Aaron Rowand in the ribs during the Phils' eight-run inning, Utley, still burning about getting drilled a few batters earlier, rushed onto the field to challenge Ortiz, man to punk.

Ortiz, who was immediately ejected, just walked away.

Good move.

Here's how it is: if my son has even the slightest interest in playing baseball when he gets older and wants to understand how to play the game the right way, I'm going to get video of No. 27 for the St. Louis Cardinals and No. 26 for the Philadelphia Phillies and say, "Son, watch these two men... this is how the game is played."

Damn right!

King Kong, the second baseman and the big 'clean up'

While cleaning out a closet that had become nothing more than a container for junk that I had refused to throw away for "sentimental" reasons, I came across some old baseball cards I’d saved from the 1980s. Rather than pitch them into the trash pile, or placing them up for sale on eBay (I’m saving them for my son because they’ll be valuable one day, right?), I decided to sit down and look at them. You know, a little stroll down amnesia lane.

As I thumbed through all of the old names – George Hendrick, Frank Tanana, Tippy Martinez, Chet Lemon, Ron Cey, etc., etc. – it felt like it was 1985 again and there was nothing to worry about.

But there were two things that were particularly revealing about those old cards. Firstly, let’s hope that there is never a '80s retro trend. For anyone who survived the style trends of this particular era of our culture, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

For those of you still hanging on with the hope that parachute pants make a stylish comeback, God bless you.

Secondly, and more importantly, the most fascinating part about looking at those baseball cards was how skinny the players looked. It wasn’t an unhealthy skinny where it appeared as if the ballplayers needed to chow down on a few more carbohydrate-heavy dinners, but it was a fit skinny.

Though dressed in those crazy uniforms for the bright colors zooming at you from all angles, the players looked athletic – like a college miler or someone who spends three-quarters of their time at the gym on cardio instead of the weights.

It’s a look that is nearly non-existent amongst the current crop of ballplayers, and, certainly, no explanation is needed.

With the curious case of one-time Phillie Jason Grimsley suddenly dominating all the seedy chatter about baseball these days, as the Steroid Era finally enters into the darker, uglier Human-Growth Hormone Era, it was striking to see the 20-year old images of sluggers Dave Kingman and Jack Clark.

Kingman and Clark, as followers of baseball remember, were two of the most-feared home run hitters of their era. At 6-foot-6 and a wispy 200 pounds, Kingman was known as "King Kong" for routinely bashing 30-plus homers per season and for smacking the ball a long way.

In 1985, Clark was slugger and catalyst for the St. Louis Cardinals and such a power threat that he often walked more times during a season than he reached base on a hit. But during that ’85 season in which Clark struck a menacing fear into all pitchers, he hit just 22 home runs, and during his 18-year career Clark hit more than 30 homers just once.

In 24 combined big league seasons, Clark and Kingman reached the 40-homer plateau just once.

These were your sluggers, folks.

And yes, both players were blade thin. In fact, Clark and Kingman had the same type of physique as second baseman Chase Utley, a strong hitter who smacked 28 homers a season ago and is on the way to duplicating that total this season.

Those are definitely strong statistics, but how many people would consider Chase Utley a home run hitter?

Right. Not many.

So what exactly then is the point? That strength training, nutrition, performance-enhancing drug abuse, and fashion sense has come a long way in 20 years? That baseball’s statistics are about as valuable as the paper they’re printed on? Yes, we already knew that.

But what about this: baseball, like those old cards buried in the back of a closet, is a fun diversion. A night at the ballpark or in front of the tube watching a game and talking about the strategy, the players and those forgotten heroes is a pretty good way to spend an evening. And based on attendance figures and TV ratings, a lot of other people think so, too.

Even with Congressional hearings where nothing meaningful was learned about steroid abuse other than a few ballplayers were less than honest, or an investigation and the chance that one of the game’s most prolific sluggers might have perjured himself in front of a federal grand jury, interest in the game has not waned.

Perhaps Phillies catcher Sal Fasano is correct when he says the only thing he remembers turning off the fans from the game was the strike in 1994.

"We know the substances are being used, and we know baseball is doing what it can to clean it up," said Fasano before last Thursday’s game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., just two miles away from where the Congress vowed to "clean up" baseball. "But do fans want to hear about it all the time? I don't know."

A night out, some good and affordable food and maybe even a few homers from the home team… what’s better than that? Who cares if King Kong is the same size as the second baseman?

King Kong, the second baseman and the big 'clean up'

While cleaning out a closet that had become nothing more than a container for junk that I had refused to throw away for "sentimental" reasons, I came across some old baseball cards I’d saved from the 1980s. Rather than pitch them into the trash pile, or placing them up for sale on eBay (I’m saving them for my son because they’ll be valuable one day, right?), I decided to sit down and look at them. You know, a little stroll down amnesia lane.

As I thumbed through all of the old names – George Hendrick, Frank Tanana, Tippy Martinez, Chet Lemon, Ron Cey, etc., etc. – it felt like it was 1985 again and there was nothing to worry about.

But there were two things that were particularly revealing about those old cards. Firstly, let’s hope that there is never a '80s retro trend. For anyone who survived the style trends of this particular era of our culture, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

For those of you still hanging on with the hope that parachute pants make a stylish comeback, God bless you.

Secondly, and more importantly, the most fascinating part about looking at those baseball cards was how skinny the players looked. It wasn’t an unhealthy skinny where it appeared as if the ballplayers needed to chow down on a few more carbohydrate-heavy dinners, but it was a fit skinny.

Though dressed in those crazy uniforms for the bright colors zooming at you from all angles, the players looked athletic – like a college miler or someone who spends three-quarters of their time at the gym on cardio instead of the weights.

It’s a look that is nearly non-existent amongst the current crop of ballplayers, and, certainly, no explanation is needed.

With the curious case of one-time Phillie Jason Grimsley suddenly dominating all the seedy chatter about baseball these days, as the Steroid Era finally enters into the darker, uglier Human-Growth Hormone Era, it was striking to see the 20-year old images of sluggers Dave Kingman and Jack Clark.

Kingman and Clark, as followers of baseball remember, were two of the most-feared home run hitters of their era. At 6-foot-6 and a wispy 200 pounds, Kingman was known as "King Kong" for routinely bashing 30-plus homers per season and for smacking the ball a long way.

In 1985, Clark was slugger and catalyst for the St. Louis Cardinals and such a power threat that he often walked more times during a season than he reached base on a hit. But during that ’85 season in which Clark struck a menacing fear into all pitchers, he hit just 22 home runs, and during his 18-year career Clark hit more than 30 homers just once.

In 24 combined big league seasons, Clark and Kingman reached the 40-homer plateau just once.

These were your sluggers, folks.

And yes, both players were blade thin. In fact, Clark and Kingman had the same type of physique as second baseman Chase Utley, a strong hitter who smacked 28 homers a season ago and is on the way to duplicating that total this season.

Those are definitely strong statistics, but how many people would consider Chase Utley a home run hitter?

Right. Not many.

So what exactly then is the point? That strength training, nutrition, performance-enhancing drug abuse, and fashion sense has come a long way in 20 years? That baseball’s statistics are about as valuable as the paper they’re printed on? Yes, we already knew that.

But what about this: baseball, like those old cards buried in the back of a closet, is a fun diversion. A night at the ballpark or in front of the tube watching a game and talking about the strategy, the players and those forgotten heroes is a pretty good way to spend an evening. And based on attendance figures and TV ratings, a lot of other people think so, too.

Even with Congressional hearings where nothing meaningful was learned about steroid abuse other than a few ballplayers were less than honest, or an investigation and the chance that one of the game’s most prolific sluggers might have perjured himself in front of a federal grand jury, interest in the game has not waned.

Perhaps Phillies catcher Sal Fasano is correct when he says the only thing he remembers turning off the fans from the game was the strike in 1994.

"We know the substances are being used, and we know baseball is doing what it can to clean it up," said Fasano before last Thursday’s game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., just two miles away from where the Congress vowed to "clean up" baseball. "But do fans want to hear about it all the time? I don't know."

A night out, some good and affordable food and maybe even a few homers from the home team… what’s better than that? Who cares if King Kong is the same size as the second baseman?