As the Phillies turn

There are so many underlying themes and subplots with these Phillies that it makes a day with the team seem as if one were watching a mini-series. Swing a dead cat and hurl it through the Phillies’ clubhouse and chances are it will bean a would-be story in the melon.

But the main premise with the Phillies remains unchanged. It’s all about injuries and pitching, folks.

In Thursday’s series finale in Chicago the injury bugged showed that it wasn’t just monopolized by the initiated. No, it appears as if all one has to do is pull on a Phillies uniform and something crazy will happen. Kyle Lohse, the new starting the pitcher the Phillies picked up in a trade from the Reds on Monday had his Phillies’ suit on for just 29 pitches and one inning before he got all nicked up by a line drive off his forearm.

How long he’ll be out is anyone’s guess.

“Just the way it welted up right away, I knew they weren't going to let me go out there and chance it,” Lohse told reporters after the 10-6 victory over the Cubs. “We'll see how it goes. I don't think it's serious enough for the DL, but it was pretty bad.”

Lohse is hardly the biggest problem for manager Charlie Manuel and general manager Pat Gillick. Far from it, in fact. The Phillies stayed in the playoffs chase without Lohse, chances are they will stay close to the first-place Mets with him doing his best Danny Tartabull impression.

Nevertheless, it’s a fun little exercise to imagine how much better the Phillies could be had the injuries not plagued the team so thoroughly – and by fun we mean in the same manner as pouring a can of paint thinner on top of a bon fire. You know, Beavis & Butthead stuff.

Think about what would have happened this week if Chase Utley had not been beaned by that pitch at the Bank last week. Certainly Gillick would have never gone out and traded for Tadahito Iguchi even though he didn’t really have to give up much to get him. More importantly there’s a strong possibility that Ryan Howard would not be in such a swoon if Utley were still hitting ahead of him in the lineup.

“Teams probably are not going to give me anything to hit even more now,” Howard forecasted soon after Utley’s injury. “It's definitely going to be hard with him not being here, the way he works pitchers and has such good ABs.”

With Utley on the shelf, Howard is 5-for-26 (.192) with three RBIs, no homers and 15 strikeouts. Clearly Howard is trying to carry the load with Utley out, though he dismissed the idea when the subject was broached by a few of the li’l newshounds travelling around with the team. However, Manuel believes it just could be the case just as he admitted it was the case in the beginning of the season when Howard got off to a slow start before landing on the disabled list in May.

Meanwhile, one of those underlying themes that could become a major focus if the Phillies are still in the hunt a month from now remains the right arm of reliever Tom Gordon. The veteran right-hander pitched on Thursday afternoon and was able to hand over a lead to closer Brett Myers despite giving up a run, two hits and a walk in the eighth inning, but that wasn’t the case the night before.

Gordon complained of shoulder tightness before the game and informed Manuel that he wasn’t available, which didn’t really work out too well. As a result, Myers came in to pitch in the ninth inning of a tied game (on the road), and had he been able to get out of the inning J.D. Durbin was set to come in and pitch until ol’ Mother Leary’s cows came home to Chicago.

The coincidental part of that is Durbin was brought in to be the long man today when Lohse was knocked out after just one inning.

So maybe it all worked out?

Maybe. Maybe not. Myers likely would have escaped the inning last night had the injured Michael Bourn been available to play left field instead of Jayson Werth when Matt Murton’s sinking liner dropped in for a double.

Anyway, there’s a lot of that woulda, coulda, shoulda stuff going on with the Phillies these days. You know, kind of like Beavis & Butthead.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

***
Tomorrow (or maybe later) we finally get to Barry Bonds and David Walsh’s book.

We should also mention that Pat Burrell is hitting hell out of the ball these days... if we rip him when he's bad, it's only fair to point out when he's playing well.

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!

Adding on

Lots of stuff going on around here and none of it has to do with the Phillies or baseball. In fact, with a couple of days off and the regular holiday busyness going on around here, I think the last thing I saw from the Phillies was Pat Burrell smacking a home run.

How’s that for a lasting image of the 2007 Phillies?

Anyway, here’s a prediction kind of regarding the Phillies – if someone backs out of the All-Star Game for the National Leaguers, Ryan Howard will be selected as a replacement. Certainly his numbers aren’t stupendous, but Howard is fourth in the league in homers despite spending some time on the disabled list. Howard still projects to 43 homers and 133 RBIs, which is a decent season… think the Phillies are disappointed with that?

Nope, me either.

***
I’d like to leave homeboy Floyd alone for a little while, but it just seems so impossible…

Firstly, Lance Armstrong spoke to a group in Aspen, Colo. this week and told the audience that he thinks Floyd is innocent of the doping charges levied against him, but it appears unlikely that the steamroller of (un)justice that is USADA will not agree.

In fact, it seems as if Armstrong, I and other correct-thinking folks agree that the testing in cycling far exceeds the system in the American pro sports.

Quoth Armstrong: “If you went to Major League Baseball and said, ‘We're going to have random, unannounced, out-of-competition controls,’ they would tell you, ‘You're crazy. No way, we're not playing another game.’ The NFL, they would never do that. NHL, no way. Golf, forget it. Tennis, forget it. Of course, cyclists get tested more than anything else, and perhaps that's why they get caught more than anyone else.”

Interestingly, there is a report that Armstrong may race at Leadville with Floyd on Aug. 11. Perhaps if they can coax Jan Ullrich to join them the last nine surviving Tour de France champs could be doing a race at 11,000-feet in Leadville, Colo. instead of climbing the Alpe d’Huez.

How much fun would that be?

Speaking of fun, there is a report that a verdict from USADA on the Landis case could come as early as tomorrow.

Maybe that’s what has kept someone from USADA from returning my phone calls or e-mails.

***
Speaking of ignoring me, David Walsh’s publisher has not acknowledged my request for a copy of From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France.

Perhaps it’s the crazy holiday week? Or maybe they don’t want me to read what’s in that book? Who knows? All I know is that the so-called anti-doping groups seem to have a low level of credibility when it comes to answering calls or emails.

Also, the podcast from The Competitors radio show featuring a 60-minute interview with Walsh won’t load onto my iTunes. Don’t make me listen to the pudcast again!

***
I dropped my Pat Burrell/Saddam's hanging line on Mike Gill of The Mike Gill Show this afternoon... I think it went over well.

Back from a break

Hola amigos! I was busy procrastinating and managing my time poorly so I didn’t get a chance to post anything substantive here over the past few days. Because of that, I won’t try to overwhelm everyone all at once. Instead, here’s a few recent stories, trends, etc. that I thought were interesting.

Let’s go:

Ryan Howard finding a seat on the bench with Greg Dobbs, Rod Barajas, Jayson Werth and Michael Bourn for last night’s game against the Diamondbacks’ Randy Johnson was something that raised eyebrows and caused a few to say to no one in particular, “Hmmph.”

Cosmetically, I suppose, it makes sense in that it was left-hander Randy Johnson pitching and Howard is a left-handed hitter. Add the fact that Howard got a cramp in his hamstring during the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s loss and perhaps manager Charlie Manuel was just being safe than sorry.

“(Howard's) played five days and Randy is pitching,” the skipper said before the game. “I figured from a conditioning standpoint, everything kind of points to me giving him a day off. He'll rest tomorrow although he is available to pinch-hit. He had a cramp and once he got over it he was fine.”

But from another point of view – namely Howard’s – that explanation was just silly. Though Howard is hitting .133 in just 45 at-bats against lefties this season, he hit .279 with 16 homers against southpaws in his 2006 MVP season. Interestingly, Howard has never faced Johnson during his career, though Johnson has faced such notable Phillies as Ruben Amaro, Mike Schmidt, Bob Dernier and Floyd Youmans.

How does Randy Johnson get to face Floyd Youmans but not Ryan Howard?

Regardless, the notion of sitting Howard against Johnson doesn’t work anymore. Sure, Johnson can still pitch and he showed that by holding the Phillies to just one hit and no walks on just 61 pitches through six innings. But that famous fastball, apparently, isn’t what it once was and in sticking it to the Phillies last night Johnson relied on a slider that got in on the right-handers as well as the overzealousness of the hitters.

How overzealous were they? Well, the Phillies were so anxious that even with Johnson out of the game the Phillies went down in order in the seventh inning against reliever Doug Slaten on 10 pitches.

Anyway, in regard to sitting against Johnson, Howard said:

"It is what it is. It's fine. It's done. It's good.

“I told them I was alright. It was my hamstring. I told them it was alright. I'm sure when I grabbed my left leg, which is the one where I had the quad injury, everyone thought it was that. My quad is fine.”

The Phillies, however, are not in the best shape. After all, it’s quite reasonable that “The Team to Beat” could be up to a dozen games behind the New York Mets in the NL East before the first full week of June.

What did Jimmy Rollins, the author of the “team to beat” quote have to say about getting swept by the Diamondbacks and falling below .500.

“Unfortunately everything that went right for us in Atlanta went wrong for us here,” he said. “We get tomorrow off. Regroup, come back and get some wins against San Francisco.

“The losing record is only one game below .500 fortunately but we do have to play better ball. Things we did in Atlanta we have to do the rest of the season.”

With 109 games to go in the season, the Phillies’ best chance rests with the wild card. But if it will take 95 victories to win the wild card, the Phillies have to go 69-40 the rest of the way. That’s .633 ball, which is about what the Red Sox and Mets are doing these days.

Can the Phillies do that too?

***
No one asked me, but I think the Arizona Snakes would be a much more menacing nickname than Diamondbacks. I don’t like snakes, in fact, I’m probably afraid of them. A Diamondback does nothing for me. Snakes and Bugs would be a better team name… the Arizona Flyin’ Bugs? That has a nice ring to it.

***
If you are like me and a fan/participant of endurance sports, it’s worth noting that Martin Dugard has a blog. I just discovered it yesterday after hearing him interviewed on The Competitors radio show from San Diego.

Speaking of cycling (wasn’t I), the 2007 Men's Pro Cycling Tour hits the area starting this Sunday with a race through downtown Lancaster. It culminates on Sunday, June 10 with the U.S. championship in Philadelphia.

Interestingly, folks in Lancaster complain about some of the top cyclists riding through their downtown streets, while in Philadelphia they turn the event into an all day party.

Yes, in that regard I believe the people in Philadelphia are smarter than the people in Lancaster.

***
Back to baseball…

The Phillies, the very minor flap with John Smoltz was fascinating not because of what Smoltz said regarding Brett Myers’ move from the rotation to the bullpen, but because of the way the Phillies reacted to it.

You know, because the Phillies go to the playoffs every year and the Braves have just one World Series title in their 124 seasons in the Major Leagues… wait, I think I got those mixed up.

Anyway, from the way I read the stories from the long-forgotten sweep in Atlanta last weekend, it sounded as if the Phillies reacted as though Smoltz offered his sage opinion regarding Myers’ move to the bullpen instead of simply answering a question posed to him by a writer.

Come on… baseball players don’t go around offering their opinions to anyone who will listen.

Oh wait… I forgot about this guy.

Digressing again, assistant GM told writers last weekend that Smoltz really ought to just butt out.

“The Phillies have a great deal of respect for John Smoltz and what he's represented to the Braves and to this division. He's a Hall of Fame pitcher. At the same time, I'm not sure it's appropriate for him to be making comments about personnel decisions that we've made as an organization.”

The entire thing could be a matter of poor reading comprehension on my part, but I don’t understand why the Phillies chose to comment at all, nor why they would be so dismissive of John Smoltz. In fact, I remember talking to him back when he was closing games for the Braves and asked him about the move from the rotation to the bullpen and how it affected his golf game.

Big time, is my many years removed paraphrasing of the conversation.

Back then Smoltz said that the training regime for a reliever was much more intricate than that of a starter. As a reliever, Smoltz had to be ready every single day and he had to train for that during the off-season. As a starter, he could pace himself a little more.

Certainly, in regard to Myers, I don’t think he injured himself because he wasn’t strong enough, stretched out or couldn’t handle the work load, but the everyday-ness of relieving could have caused a slight muscle weakness. Myers will definitely work all of those issues out if he has a long-term future as a reliever/closer.

***
Hey... Barry Bonds comes to town tomorrow. I bet he gets booed.

Every day is game day

The good thing about baseball is that anytime you need to take a day or two away, the game will be there when you get back. Baseball is not like the second part of a movie or an episodic television show where a person needs to keep up with the back story in order to enjoy it. Sure, it helps, but it’s not really necessary.

It is just baseball after all.

So after taking a few days away from following the baseball team to travel around with my family, it’s pretty easy to jump back in. The Phillies are still fighting to get back to .500, the bullpen is still a question mark and Ryan Howard’s struggles continue when he was sent to the 15-day disabled list with a strained quad and a sore knee.

As the season progresses the Phillies should continue to be a team of streaks and should win more than they lose. The bullpen, unless Pat Gillick can make a deal to get some help, will remain a sore spot. And Ryan Howard will continue to have trouble with his knees and legs until he gets in shape.

It’s pretty simple.

Howard, as he says and everyone noticed when he was a minor leaguer, is a big dude. But when he showed up in Clearwater for spring training he was an even bigger dude. Frankly, he looks soft and it’s funny to see him and remember that some speculated that he could have used performance-enhancing drugs during his breakout season last year. If he was taking steroids, it was pointed out then; he was taking the wrong kind.

Certainly baseball is littered with the failed careers of players who simply couldn’t keep in shape. Along those lines, many more careers were cut short for the same reason. In that regard, John Kruk comes to mind. Greg Luzinski, too. Mo Vaughn was another slugging first baseman whose injuries seemed rooted in his lack of fitness.

The good folks at Baseball Prospectus took note of Howard’s physique when putting together their annual yearbook in which they surmised that Howard, at 26, could be peaking:

Historically, players like Howard, big-bodied guys with limited defensive skills such as Mo Vaughn and Boog Powell, tended to have high but brief peak periods. Their legs just couldn’t carry that much mass for very long, and around 30 their defense plummeted, their playing time dropped due to nagging injuries, and their singles dried up and disappeared. The Phillies should have a three-year window in which they can expect this kind of production from Howard, but should not plan beyond that.

Mo Vaughn was washed up at 34. Greg Luzinski played his last season when he was 33. John Kruk walked away for a pinch runner after getting a single in a late July game for the Chicago White Sox when he was 34. Their bodies just couldn’t take the rigors of a baseball season any more.

Ryan Howard is a big dude looking for an even bigger paycheck. A good way to get to where he and the Phillies need him to be is to get in shape.

***
Chris Coste took Howard’s place on the roster when he was placed on the disabled list. But unlike last May when Coste’s call-up led to a nearly a full season of MLB service time, don’t expect this stint to last too long. The talk around the club is that Coste will go back to Triple-A Ottawa when Howard is ready.

Then again, no one expected his stay to last too long last year, either.

***
I have a theory that if baseball or soccer were introduced to Americans in 2007 with no prior knowledge of its existence, people would hate it. Baseball, more than any other sport, seems to be one that’s passed down from father to son or whomever – and yes, that’s as close to getting all Field of Dreams on anyone. That crap is just so annoying…

Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that Major League Baseball isn’t exactly a flashpoint with folks involved in the endurance sporting world. In fact, the runners, cyclists and triathletes that I’m friendly with don’t really keep up with more than one of the major sports – typically that one is football or hockey.

To a lot of them, a baseball game is a good way to wile away an afternoon with some junk food and a beer or two following a hard training session.

So when Outside magazine – billed as a periodical “dedicated to covering the people, sports and activities, politics, art, literature, and hardware of the outdoors...” – offered a small feature on a baseball player in its June issue…

Whoa.

The player, of course, is Barry Zito and the feature (an interview) didn’t cover much ground or space. The topics ranged from surfing and how it has helped Zito with his pitching, to meditation and yoga, which Zito is a well-known practitioner of.

An excerpt:

Question: You also do yoga and meditate, which has led the baseball press to label you as flaky.

Zito: The most outdoorsy these guys get is playing golf or hunting. So if I play guitar or surf or do yoga, I’m some weirdo. But you have to take it for what it is. Baseball is one of the oldest games in the country. There are definitely stereotypes, but I think we’re breaking through those things.

Given the choice of a DVD of Point Break or The Natural, Zito says he’d take Point Break.

Now that’s weird. The yoga and meditation is hardly anything unoriginal or flaky. It’s smart.

***
I’d love to write much more about the Floyd Landis arbitration hearing, but I’m pacing myself. Interestingly, though, I thought the yellow tie Landis wore to yesterday’s hearing was a nice touch and sent a bit of a message.

Yellow, of course, being the color of jersey the leader (and winner) of the Tour de France wears.

Another interesting point came from Juliet Macur of The New York Times:

TOMORROW, the American cyclist Floyd Landis, the would-be heir to Lance Armstrong, steps before an arbitration panel in California to rebut the charge that his come-from-behind victory last year in cycling’s most celebrated race was a fraud.

If he loses, Landis will become the first winner in the 103-year history of the Tour de France to be stripped of the victor’s yellow jersey because of doping. The disastrous toll his case has exacted on cycling’s credibility — races canceled for lack of sponsors, teams abandoned by their corporate underwriters, fans staying home — offers a stark picture of what can happen when a sport finally confronts its drug problem in a serious way.

This couldn’t be where baseball is headed, could it?

Very interesting.

It ain't where you're from...

While perusing the rosters of the Atlantic League clubs, the independent baseball league centered in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, there was one particular name that jumped off the page. The player spent a little bit of time with the Phillies with a legitimate chance to earn a spot in the bullpen – or maybe even as a spot starter – until an arm injury knocked him out of commission. Four years and three big league organizations later and ex-Phillie is pitching in the Atlantic League.

That’s the way it goes sometimes.

But upon seeing his name I quickly contacted a Phillies insider to tell him about my “sighting.”

“Good guy, super smart and really had a chance to stick around. It’s a shame he got hurt. That’s quite a fall to be pitching in that league.”

Frankly, I like it when guys refuse to quit. That’s especially the case with players who were right there and all they had to do in order to put together a decent Major League career was to do the work. It’s a simple as that – work hard and be rewarded. But then those killer injuries come and wipe out all that development and it’s back to the end of the line.

It happens too many times to count.

Feeling indignant and a little saucy, I figured it would be interesting to tweak my mystery baseball insider to see what kind of reaction I’d get.

“I bet Pitcher X could be in the Phillies bullpen right now. What do you think?”

“No.”

“What do you mean no? You mean to tell me the Pitcher X isn’t as good as Francisco Rosario or Clay Condrey?”

“No, I’m not saying that at all. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Pitcher X was as good as a quarter of the guys pitching on big league staffs. That’s not the point.”

Then he dropped the dozy.

“There are no secrets in professional baseball. If someone can play, we know about him. And there is a reason why someone is playing in the Atlantic League… ”

I thought about that as I watched Pete Rose Jr., Carl Everett, Edgardo Alfonso and Damian Rolls take their hacks at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster tonight. I especially thought about it when Everett – who seemed to struggle with a mid-80s fastball thrown by the Lancaster pitcher – came to the plate and my wife started reminiscing about a game at Fenway the day before the 2000 Boston Marathon when Jurassic Carl slugged a walk-off homer to win it for the Red Sox. For about five minutes, Everett was The Man with the Sox. Now he hits cleanup for the Long Island Ducks behind Petey Rose.

It can be a cruel game sometimes.

***
Everett went 0-for-2 in the plate appearances I saw, though Rose was 2-for-2 with a home run that just cleared the high right-field fence in Lancaster. A few pitches later I took off for home partially because it was raining, partially because it was just about bed time for my three-year old and mostly because it took nearly 60 minutes for them to play two full innings. That’s right on pace for a 4- hour, nine-inning game.

***
The first thing I noticed about Ryan Howard watching him play for Reading and a call-up with the Phillies a few summers ago, it was how quickly made adjustments in his stance and swing at the plate. In fact, he didn’t simply make changes from at-bat to at-bat or game to game, but instead he made them from pitch to pitch.

Even when he struck out – which was (and is) often – Howard looks like he has a plan.

So just before he smashed his game-winning, pinch-hit grand slam to help the Phillies beat the Diamondbacks yesterday, it appeared as if Howard did something different. Maybe he was more open or had his weight more evenly distributed than putting the bulk of it on his sore back leg – who knows. Whatever it was it worked.

And it was something different than the noticeably upright stance he used the day before in a pinch-hitting role when Howard clearly was having trouble with his injured left quad. Needless to say, the over-compensation on Wednesday night was on the money.

***
Bruce Sutter did it. So did Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers. Now Brett Myers has done it, too.

What’s that, you ask?

A two-inning save.

Having not pitched all week and with a much-needed off-day looming, Charlie Manuel rightly chose to use his closer for six outs to avoid, I mean give his ‘pen an extra day of rest.

Garcia improving, Howard not

Freddy Garcia injured himself by running full speed into a maintenance vehicle parked on the field during batting practice in San Francisco last weekend, which left the Phillies wondering if he could make his start in Arizona on Monday night.

There was no report on how much damage was done to the vehicle.

Not only did Garcia pitch after smashing into the maintenance cart, but he also turned in his best outing as a Phillie. No, that’s not a backhanded compliment considering that Garcia had not pitched past the fifth inning since joining the Phillies and had an ERA north of 6, but it’s something to build on.

Nevertheless, at times it appeared as if Garcia was limping or favoring the soreness in his shin after the accident. He also pitched just as deliberately (read: slooooooooow) as he typically does, as well.

But Garcia pitched well and felt good. That’s important for the Phillies. If he didn’t have to come out for a pinch hitter at the end of the sixth, Garcia could have gone deeper into the game since he only threw 70 pitches.

Regardless, there is no truth that Garcia plans on running into a wheel barrel or stepping on a rake before his next outing.

***
Speaking of injuries, Ryan Howard really looks like he could be hurt because his swing and stance appear off. I’m no doctor or Walt Hriniak, so this is based purely on watching the games on TV, but it seems as if Howard is more upright and open than usual in his stance. It also seems as if he’s having difficulty distributing his weight during his swing.

Howard said: "My quad hasn't been the best. It's my back leg. It's my leg that I push off of that helps generate that power. When you're off, you're rushing things. You're off balance. Right now, I just can't stay on my back side, so I'm pushing everything forward and trying to go get everything instead of letting it come to me. It's just a matter of getting back to trusting myself, being relaxed and having fun."

Based on reports from Arizona it seems as if there is some concern about Howard’s balky left quadriceps and a trip to the disabled list is not out of the question.

Mixing it up

Anyone can manipulate statistics to say whatever it is they want, but sometimes the cold, hard numbers on the page are simply too hard to ignore. For manager Charlie Manuel, Ryan Howard’s stats jump right off the page:

Try 4-for-27 (.148); 0-for-3 with two strikeouts; and .217.

Those stats indicate Howard’s hitting against left-handed pitchers so far this season, his record against the Florida Marlins’ lefty Dontrelle Willis this year, and finally his batting average for 2007.

That’s why it was so easy for Manuel to give Howard a night off to rest his, ahem, achy knee that he injured last week while running the bases in Washington. So in order to compensate for the struggling yet reigning NL MVP, Manuel will attack Willis and the Marlins with a lineup heavy with righties with one of the game’s hottest hitters in the leadoff and No. 3 slots.

Manuel’s order for Saturday night:

Aaron Rowand, cf
Shane Victorino, rf
Jimmy Rollins, ss
Chase Utley, 2b
Pat Burrell, lf
Wes Helms, 1b
Abraham Nunez, 3b
Rod Barajas, c
Adam Eaton, p

All over the map

If you want to know how far Ryan Howard has come since hanging around in Reading and Moosic, Pa. it was in evidence on Tuesday night around midnight on CBS. There, Howard, sat in a chair usually reserved for the latest Hollywood star or pop culture icon to trade barbs with David Letterman.

From most accounts, Howard did well. He wore a nice suit, seemed personable and held his own against one of the sharpest wits (an oxymoron?) on television.

So I guess it’s fair to say that Ryan Howard is a superstar. Wow. Not bad for a guy who was “blocked” by Jim Thome.

Interestingly, Howard revealed to Dave that he “guesses 90 percent of time” about what pitch he’s going to get.

"Most of the time I'm swinging with my eyes closed anyways," Howard told Dave.

If only that were true. Howard is one of the better hitters at making adjustments on the fly. He might swing with his eyes closed, but that's because he already knows where it's going to land.

***
If you’re looking for someone to criticize the “traditional” style of newspaper writing, I’m the first in line. Without getting too much into it, I just don’t like doing the same old things the same old ways.

Hey, that’s just me.

But if you’re looking for good, quality newspaper writing, look no further than Paul Hagen’s story about Chris Coste and his “exile” back to the minors.

Coste, as we all remember, was the saccharine sweet feel-good story of 2006. After a decade playing and struggling in all levels of independent and minor-league ball, Coste finally made it to the Majors and played well enough that it seemed as if his days of being a bush-league cliché were over.

Or so it seemed.

Yet despite slugging seven homers, batting .328, and – more importantly – getting plenty of accolades from veteran pitchers about his abilities behind the plate, the Phillies really didn’t seem to believe what they were seeing with Coste. In fact, even when Coste was getting lots of important playing time during a late-season chase for the playoffs, the sense I got was that general manager Pat Gillick looked at Coste as an experiment that somehow went really well.

No, it didn’t seem as if Gillick or the Phillies wanted Coste to fail, but reading between the lines it appeared as if it wouldn’t have bothered them if the fairy tale would have ended with a loud thump. No matter what he did (it seemed to me), Coste never figured into the Phillies plans.

That’s a damn shame.

These days, Coste is grinding it out for Ottawa waiting for a call in his role as the perpetual insurance policy. He seems to be nothing more than a commodity or a number to the guys calling the shots, which is way it is in baseball a lot of the time. As Hagen wrote in his excellent story, “Heck, the Yankees got rid of Babe Ruth when they had no more use for him.”

Hopefully the Phillies will eventually do the right thing for Coste and trade him to a team where he can play. But then again, baseball is all business. Why would they want to do that?

***
Maybe a good place for Coste would be Kansas City, where former top prospect Brandon Duckworth has resurfaced as the team’s fifth starter after a few years kicking around the minors. In his first start of 2007 for the Royals, Duckworth held the defending American League champion Tigers to four hits and a walk without a run in 6 1/3 innings. Of the 19 outs he recorded, 12 were on ground balls.

Outings like that were kind of what the Phillies were hoping to get from mild-mannered right-hander when he arrived in the midst of a playoff chase in 2001. During that season, manager Larry Bowa yanked veteran 13-game winner Omar Daal from a start in Atlanta during the end of that season in favor of Duckworth.

But in 2002 and 2003, Duckworth didn’t take to Bowa’s managerial methods where it seemed that no matter what the pitcher did, it was never enough for the manager. Shockingly, it seemed to be a matter of someone having a personality clash with Bowa… like that has ever happened before.

Despite this, Duckworth averaged a little more than a strikeout per inning in 2002 though a forearm injury sidetracked much of his 2003 campaign. That winter the Phillies dealt Duckworth to the Astros in the Billy Wagner deal, where he struggled for two more seasons as a reliever and sometime starter. Before the 2006 season, he signed on with the Pirates where he spent most of the season in Triple-A before being sold to the Royals, where he pitched his way into the rotation.

Is this where Duckworth finally puts something together? Perhaps. Unlike Coste, Duckworth will get a chance.

***
Finally, on to the Imus fiasco…

For a while it was easy to be Don Imus. All he ever did was hate everyone, equally, for an entire career. In fact, Imus and his flunkies have hated everyone with vitriol and anger for as long as I’ve been alive. And I ain’t so young any more.

That’s why the outrage over his comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team is so weird. Imus is the dog that has been pissing on the carpet for decades, but now, after doing something that has defined his career, everyone is trying to whack him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper. I ask, “What took so long?” One would be hard pressed to find a group that he hasn’t slurred.

Don Imus didn’t say one thing – he said a million things. Most of them were mean and aimed – without irony – at hurting others. That’s just how he rolls.

In fact, it’s fair to conclude that Imus is the purveyor of the schlocky and unoriginal talk radio tripe that pervades the airwaves. If Imus and his ilk have a legacy it’s creating a medium based on loudness and meanness with disciples all over the dial and ideological spectrum.

So when Imus picked on the young women from Rutgers for no good reason other than they can’t fight back, it seems as if those waiting to pounce finally found an opening. Enough, as they say, is enough.

Still Imus’ reign of hate has already scorched the airwaves. Because of his influence it seems as if the requisite for getting a talk show on the radio is to get some anger, bluster and the ability to pontificate in relative complete sentences. It doesn’t matter what stupidity pours out of one’s mouth as it gets a reaction... or ratings.

In writing about the extremely unoriginal talk-show host Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio, Salon.com sportswriter King Kaufman (hey… I’m warming up to that guy) cites the lack of innovation in the sports-talk radio as one of the reasons for all the misplaced anger by hosts. The target, at least in Cowherd’s case, is the Internet which the ESPN host has stolen from and lambasted equally. Writes Kaufman:

It was the latest battle in an ongoing war between sports-talk radio and sports blogs, one that hardly seems like a fair fight. One side is a medium that's essentially unchanged since the 1970s, an industry whose only idea since the Carter administration has been to keep getting more “in your face.” The other side is, so far in its brief history, constantly adapting, changing, self-correcting, reinventing.

History tends to be on the side of the latter. There's no reason sports-talk radio has to be an enemy of innovation, no reason it can't adapt to the times, meet the challenges of new technologies and changing audience needs. It just hasn't.

Talk radio's response to the World Wide Web, possibly the greatest communications revolution since Gutenberg built his printing press and certainly the greatest since television, was to say, “Hey, you can listen to our radio show on your computer now!”

Dazzling.

After writing about Imus and Cowherd I think it’s time to take a shower.

Ryan Howard on the 0-3 Phillies

Extra frustrating with all the expectations?
It's frustrating to lose, period, whether you have expectations or not.

How about you, with the way you hit?
Not good. I'm not too happy about it. But what can you do?

Are you still fighting your swing, like have all spring?
It's not where I want it to be. I mean, there's balls that you think you should hit, and you don't hit them.

How do you fix that?
You do what you need to do. It's three games, and everybody is kind of jumping ship and panicking right now. For us, it's three games out of 162. It'll get right. I'm not worried about it. It's a little frustrating. But it'll come.

Are guys pressing?
I don't think guys are really pressing. It's just coming here, trying to get used to the conditions. It was snowing today. It was a little different coming from Florida. We're trying to get into the mix.

Something about a slow start?
Obviously, it's a slow start after three games (sarcastically). I don't really get it. If we were like 0-10 or something I could understand that. But it's three games. One series. We got to go down to Florida, take care of business and have a good road trip.

How magnified is 0-3 start?
Very. Very magnified.

Is it hard not to feel that vibe?
It's not hard, but when you hear about it everyday, constantly, it's more annoying.

Is it surprising?
Yes and no, because we are only three games into the season. And no, because we've had slow starts in the past. For people to come out and say, are you guys worried about this or are you worried about that, I'm not really surprised to hear that. At the same time, we're only three games in.

Getting paid

Ryan Howard is really the media darling for the national press that covers Major league Baseball. Aside from the big N.Y. Times story in their sports tab that appeared late last week, Howard has been described as the “anti-Bonds,” who along with Albert Pujols, is expected to rescue baseball from the plague of supposed drug cheats.

That’s a pretty big task for a guy with just a bit more Major League service time than Cole Hamels.

So when the Phillies handed Howard a one-year deal worth a cool $900,000, it touched off a tiny wave of chatter around these parts. After all, Howard smacked 58 homers, drove in 149 runs, hit .313 and posted gaudy numbers all over the stat sheet to win the MVP Award in his very first full season in the Major Leagues.

Let’s repeat that part… his very first full season in the Major Leagues.

Based on the sentiment from certain segments, the Phillies should have run out with their wallet open, a blank check and a contract ready for Howard to fill out the way he saw fit. Better yet, folks are reacting the way they do when stores open at 3 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving and they just have to run out there and beat the crap out of each other and trample over human carcasses just to get a superficial piece of crap Cabbage Patch Doll…

You know, because it’s going to be a collector’s item one day. Oh no, it’s not an impulse buy or one of those keeping-up-with-everyone else moves. Consumers are looking long term when they buy Cabbage Patch or Tickle Me Elmo.

Now we aren’t comparing Howard to trendy plastic dolls or superficial silliness. Not at all. But we will compare him to a player with just one full Major League season under his belt who cannot become a free agent until 2011. In that regard, Howard got what he deserved… and then some. Just once in the history of the game has a player with Howard’s experience been paid as much as Howard and that was Albert Pujols.

Just as an aside and for fun, let’s throw this out there: Knowing what we know now, who would you rather have Howard or Pujols? Go ahead… think about it. While you’re thinking, how’s this fact – Howard is two months older than Pujols.

From all reports – published or not – Howard seems to understand the baseball salary structure and knows he has to wait in line in order to get the grotesque salary he apparently covets.

Here’s another aside… I always loved it when guys like Jimmy Rollins teased Howard about not really “getting paid” yet.

Meanwhile, the Phillies apparently talked about a long-term deal with Howard’s people before they came to an impasse and Howard only received his $900,000. Based on that it seems as if the Phillies will continue talks with Howard’s camp, but in the meantime the slugger has to go out there and try not to be Joe Charboneau. In that regard, I still can’t get over the synopsis from the Baseball Prospectus guide that came out late last week:

Historically, players like Howard, big-bodied guys with limited defensive skills such as Mo Vaughn and Boog Powell, tended to have high but brief peak periods. Their legs just couldn’t carry that much mass for very long, and around 30 their defense plummeted, their playing time dropped due to nagging injuries, and their singles dried up and disappeared. The Phillies should have a three-year window in which they can expect this kind of production from Howard, but should not plan beyond that.

Here’s one more question: just what did Howard lose in being stuck behind Jim Thome for two seasons?

Randomness

I’m not angry about anything today. The snow and ice (or “snice”) is finally starting to melt and it looks like I might be able to get my car out of the driveway by tomorrow some time. I also had a decent run that wasn’t impeded by too much snice that formed like a glacier over the neighborhood. I’m properly caffeinated, not over-fed and everything appears to be coming off without a hitch.

Since that’s the case, let’s just do an old-fashioned link dump.

Ready?

In New York the big deal seems to be the story about the relationship between A-Rod and Derek Jeter. Actually, it all sounds like the time in eighth grade when my friend John got angry with me for making fun of his parachute pants. Hey, he knew where he got those pants – why should I apologize because he wore the same pants as Micki Free?

Nevertheless, Tyler Kepner and Ben Shpigel of The New York Times are keeping a baseball blog this season. Guess what? It’s pretty good.

No one asked, but judging from some of the photos from Clearwater, Ryan Howard isn’t in great shape.

Remember in the old days when guys showed up at spring training and wore those rubber jackets the entire time? It’s interesting to see how far training and the science behind it has come.

Here’s one – three guys ran across the Sahara Desert. To cover the 4,000 miles in 111 days, the trio ran the equivalent of two marathons a day.

What’s going on with the Phillies? Check it out, I broke it down:

In today's Daily News, Marcus wrote about Jayson Werth and how he hopes to catch on with the Phillies.

In today's Inquirer, Todd wrote about Jayson Werth and how he thinks he can help the Phillies.

In today's Courier Post, Radano offered this piece on Jayson Werth and his prospects for 2007.

In Tuesday’s edition of the News Journal, Scott Lauber gets in to how Jayson Werth is looking to bounce back in 2007.

On Phillies.com, Ken Mandel takes a look at the maturation of prospect Kyle Drabek.

For today’s edition of the Bucks County paper, Randy Miller wrote about Jayson Werth and his recovery from surgery.

The good people in Delaware County were treated to a story by Dennis Deitch about how Jayson Werth says he has something to prove in 2007.

Stephen Miller of the Morning Call wrote in the Tuesday edition about how Jayson Werth is feeling ready to contribute in 2007.

Elsewhere, Paul Hagen’s updates on Randy Wolf and Mike Lieberthal were excellent.

Same old song

For as long as Ryan Howard has been a part of the Philadelphia sporting scene, which goes back to 2002, steroids never entered my mind. I never thought about anything regarding illegal drugs or performance enhancing substances when Howard was smashing all those homers.

From my vantage I saw a guy who really had an idea of how to hit. In the batters’ box he also seemed to be thinking even if he struck out, and even in the minor leagues he was always making adjustments. He was always one step ahead of the competition.

Last year, though, the steroid question popped up, which was equally rationale and infuriating. Because such sweeping ideas which are always lacking in depth and nuance come from the national media, it made sense. They don’t watch Ryan Howard play every day. They don’t appreciate the intricacies of his regime and day-to-day effort. All they see are the numbers.

Anyone who has been in the Phillies’ clubhouse knows that if Ryan Howard is taking steroids he’s taking the wrong ones.

Nevertheless, the steroid question sprung up again during Howard’s pre-Spring Training press conference in Clearwater yesterday.
A bunch of other questions came up, too, but since the national media was there, the steroid issue was out in front. That’s fine and expected, but when is it going to end? Is it going to end? I doubt anyone really thinks Howard is cheating, but will there ever be a day when the questions about it ever stop?

It’s very doubtful.

Lance vs. Pound
One thing is for sure: Lance Armstrong will never escape the questions about performance-enhancing drugs, and Dick Pound will never stop talking about Armstrong.

In The New York Times, George Vecsey writes about how the pair are tied to each other – kind of like Magic and Bird.

Making the rounds
John Amaechi is not the first gay man to play in the NBA. He won’t be the last, either. He’s also not the first gay man to play professional sports to write a book, and it’s doubtful he will be the last.

In other words, there is nothing particularly interesting about his story. Amaechi is not a trailblazer, was barely a marginal player in the NBA and was an above average player for Penn State mostly because he was a center who could get up and down the court.

As far as being gay goes… whatever. The fact that something like that is still an issue in 2007 is sad. Just get in the pot already. It also reminds me of a quote from Gandhi when he was asked what he thought about American culture:

“It would be a good idea.”

Nevertheless, Amaechi was in Philadelphia doing the canned interviews with all of the outlets to sell more books – a fact that seemed to be lost on those doing the interviewing. Tim Hardaway, Shavlik Randolph and their unfathomable idiocy aside, the only reason Amaechi is even in the news is because ESPN published his book. His story really isn’t that extraordinary – in fact, it’s probably very normal.

Doing the work

I was probably 12-years old the first time someone told me I wasn’t going to make it to the NBA. At the time the thought of it made me laugh – I was one of the tallest kids on my basketball team, I was relatively coordinated, I could dribble with both hands and I was the best shooter in the league. Plus, I went to basketball camps and worked on my shooting as much as a kid my age could. When games were on TV (not everyone was televised in those days), I watched hoping to pick up some moves from Julius Erving, Larry Bird or Kevin McHale.

Better yet, the Sixers’ pre-season training camp was held in the gym where I practiced after school. I went to every practice session because when the NBA champs were finished using the court, I was going to go through my paces. Sometimes a few players hung around to snag rebounds and offer a few pointers. Dr. J did once, and Leon Wood was very friendly. No one, though, was as helpful as Andrew Toney. It always seemed that Toney was working on his shooting long after his teammates had left the gym to do whatever it was they did in Lancaster, Pa.

So when I was told that I wasn’t going to make it to the NBA it was laughable. How could that be?

Looking back it all makes sense now. I grew up to be 6-foot-1, which is the same size as “Tiny” Archibald. Plus, I soon ventured out of my insular little world and found out that there were players just as good as me who sat on the bench for their teams. Sure, I was an above-average shooter – probably amongst the best two or three in my school – but there is a lot more to the game than just shooting the ball from the outside. On defense, chances were that I was going to allow just as many points as I scored. Occasionally I got in the way and stopped my opponent, but that was usually just dumb luck.

More telling was the fact that I went to the high school regarded as the finest in athletics in the area. The basketball teams have won more league championships than any other school, while the other sports – specifically track and field – were sometimes powerhouses. Yet despite this, my high school has never produced an NBA player. Actually, we’ve had just three Major Leaguers, two NFLers, and just a handful of Division I standouts.

So what’s the point of this? Simple. Mo Vaughn knew by the age of 12 that he was going to be a Major League baseball player. At least that’s what his parents said during a game at Fenway a few years back when asked when they realized their son was going to be a big leaguer.

When Mo was 12, Mr. Vaughn said, he played in a men’s baseball league and, “he dominated.”

It seems like 12 is the magic age to determine a person’s athletic future. Oh sure, there are late bloomers like Ryan Howard who was overlooked even when he was deep into his college career. But one thing is for certain: Ryan Howard was on the path to the big leagues long before that. A diamond in the rough is still a diamond.

But baseball doesn’t last forever. Sure, these days getting a big-league contract is a lot like winning the Powerball. The thing a lot of parents and kids don’t understand is that the odds of getting there are just as slim. Yet even though Mo Vaughn dominated adults before he was a teenager, he was made to prepare for the day when the games ended. Interestingly, these days Vaughn is in real estate development, but he’s not simply putting up high-end McMansions that only other lottery winners can afford. Instead, Vaughn, according to George Vecsey's story in The New York Times, is building affordable housing for folks with modest incomes.

Baseball, it seems, was nothing more than a tool for Vaughn to put him where he could do really important work. That’s the key – kids should use the games to put them where they need to be. Chances are that’s not going to be in the big leagues.

Ryan Howard seems to believe that, too. According to what he told Bryant Gumble on the latest edition of HBO’s Real Sports that there was no doubt in his mind that he was going to return to school and finish his course work.

Believe it or not, that’s much more important than hitting 60 homers.

Odds and ends

Here are some general noodlings while waiting for the sun to burn through what’s left of the ozone and return to temperatures to something a little saner.

It seems as if Charlie Manuel’s fears regarding Ryan Howard have been realized. Howard, it seems, has been worn out from eating too much microwaved chicken and mashed potatoes winter banquet circuit and asked the team for a break.

Here’s the blurb from The Sporting News:

If Phillies 1B Ryan Howard starts slowly this season, he'll have an excuse: He couldn't say no during the offseason. After being honored at five banquets in about two weeks, Howard told the club he had hit the wall and needed some time away before heading to spring training in Clearwater, Fla.

Manuel, as most remember, warned the writers about Howard’s popularity during the media-day outing two weeks ago, saying: “I want his time kind of monitored. He’s a professional and he doesn’t mind sitting there and talking. I don’t want to see interviews and stuff like that interfering with his work habits. Because who he is and his demeanor and everything – I’ve said this from Day 1 – if he sticks with exactly what he’s doing right now, that’s exactly where I want to see him stay.”

Fortunately for Manuel and the Phillies, Howard recognized that there was a potential problem and nipped it early. Better yet, Howard and the rest of the gang took off from the chilly northeast and hit Clearwater where the temperatures are supposed to be in the low 70s all week…

***
Speaking of warm, lefty Fabio Castro tossed a one-hitter through five innings for the Dominican Republic against Puerto Rico in a Caribbean World Series game on Sunday. Castro struck out four and walked three in the 12-0 victory.

A Rule 5 pick for the Texas Rangers last season, Castro, 22, seems likely to make the Phillies as a reliever. Initially, the team was considering sending Castro to the minors to get some work as a starter after spending the past season deep on the bench with the Rangers and Phillies. But since the Phils’ ‘pen is so thin Castro could end up with a significant role – relatively speaking.

Anyway, Castro posted some decent numbers this winter for Gigantes del Cibao (translates to Giants of the Cibao) with 31 strikeouts and a 1.86 ERA in 29 innings. In limited work for the Phillies last season, Castro made 16 relief appearances with a 1.54 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings.

Other (potential) Phillies playing in the Caribbean World Series are Karim Garcia (Mexico) and Randall Simon (Venezuela).

Man… wouldn’t it be nice to be sitting on some Caribbean island right now? Better yet, wouldn’t it be nice to be walking around in, say, Washington, D.C. – it’s supposed to get up to 28 degrees there today.

***
It was fun to see about six people in Indianapolis line the streets to welcome home the Colts after their Super Bowl victory. It was even funnier to watch Peyton Manning pick out which expensive, environmentally-incorrect car he wanted for free for being the MVP of the game.

The funny part isn’t that Manning got a prize for being the MVP, it’s the idea of giving rich and well-known people things for free. A former hockey player once told me that when he was young and coming up in the NHL, no one ever gave him anything. In fact, no one ever paid any attention to him no matter what he did. But as soon as that former NHLer signed a big contract and got some money and a little bit of fame, he couldn’t pay for anything.

“I have money now and can afford things, but everybody gives me stuff for free,” he said shaking his head.

Meanwhile, Gary Matthews Jr. once told me that his first car was the one his dad received for being the MVP of the NLCS in 1983. That’s kind of cool.

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.

More MVP banter

Full disclosure – if I had a vote for the 2006 MVP Award, my ballot would have looked like this:

1.) Albert Pujols, St. Louis
2.) Ryan Howard, Philadelphia
3.) Lance Berkman, Houston
4.) Alfonso Soriano, Washington
5.) Miguel Cabrera, Florida
6.) Jose Reyes, New York
7.) Jason Bay, Pittsburgh
8.) Aramis Ramirez, Chicago
9.) Chase Utley, Philadelphia
10.) Carlos Beltran, New York

Ryan Howard is certainly a worthy MVP winner and no one should really have any qualms about him winning the award. It’s just that I think Albert Pujols was a more valuable player. Statistically, Howard gets the nod, but Pujols carried his team into the playoffs and then on to the World Series without much help from Jim Edmonds or Scott Rolen.

Howard, on the other hand, had Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Bobby Abreu for most of the season. In fact, a story in Baseball Prospectus surmised that Howard wasn’t even the MVP of his team.

That could be a little far-fetched, but the point is Pujols was the only man on the Cardinals down the stretch, while Howard hit just two homers after Sept. 9. Perhaps the argument for Pujols could be summed up by an email I received this week:

In game 157, Albert Pujols hit a three-run HR that allowed the Cardinals to make the playoffs and allowed La Russa to start Carpenter in Game 1 of the NLDS.

That sort of incredible moment is what wins players MVP Awards.

Another baseball writer crime.

I wouldn’t call Howard’s MVP a crime – far from it. But Pujols’ September should have clinched it for him.

That month? Try 41-for-110, 10 HR, 28 RBI, and 19 BB.

Meanwhile, don’t lump me in with the baseball writers or the arcane, anachronistic, outmoded and irrelevant Baseball Writers Association of America. They don’t let me vote, but the guy who put Pujols third on his ballot probably gets to vote for the Hall of Fame, too. Just like the guy who put Derek Jeter sixth on his MVP ballot.

Yeah, it’s all so scientific.

Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure Pujols is very pleased with how his season ended.

M-V-P!

I’ve been reading what a lot of folks are writing in the newspapers, blogs, plogs, message boards and on billboards and I honestly believe some of these people are missing something really, really obvious about Ryan Howard.

What’s that Obi-Wan? Tell us what everyone else is missing that you, astutely noticed that we all missed…

Digressing, did I just have an argument with myself in a different voice? Have I sent our beautiful and complicated language back a day or two?

Back to the point – here’s what everyone has missed:

Ryan Howard is just going to get better. He’s going to get stronger, smarter and faster. He’s going to be able to recognize pitchers and their tendencies better. He’s going to go to the plate with a more developed plan of what he wants to do. He’s going to strike out less and walk more. As a result, his batting average and slugging percentage will rise. He will score more runs and the Phillies will win more games.

Then there are the other things away from the field. Such as Howard will learn how to work out better. He’ll learn what he can eat and can’t eat. He’ll see Pat Burrell and realize that sleep is much more important than people realize and directly affects an athlete’s performance.

He’ll learn how to say no.

He better because the world changes for guys who win the MVP Award in just their first full season in the Majors. That first full season came just a year removed from a rookie-of-the-year award and a trade of established all-star Jim Thome in order to make room for a player making just the league minimum instead of the big years and eight-figures Thome was drawing.

The Phillies will never admit it (then again, maybe they will), but the only reason they didn’t deal away Howard was because of the economics.

“He's better than I expected,” general manager Pat Gillick admitted to reporters yesterday. “Our people thought he would struggle against left-handed pitching. That's why we tried to sign Wes Helms and Eddie Perez last year. We were looking for someone to take the heat off him with a left-hander pitching. As it turned out, none of that was necessary.”

Nor will it be for the foreseeable future.

Howard is just 27. He’s still years away from his prime, which will coincide, coincidentally, with his ability to test the free-agent market if the Phillies fail to sign him to a long-term deal. Though it isn’t likely he will turn in 58 homers and nearly 150 RBIs every year, 40 and 120 isn’t out of the question. Neither are a .330 batting average, .450 on-base percentage, and 1.100 OPS.

“We laugh all the time about Ryan because he doesn't think he should ever make an out,” hitting coach Milt Thompson told reporters yesterday. “I love that about the kid. He's never satisfied. That's a sign of greatness.”

But does he need protection?

That will be the $125 million question this winter.

Soriano gone to craziest bidder
It was no secret that the Phillies coveted Alfonso Soriano as the compliment to Howard in the lineup. What they didn’t expect is that it would take eight years and a gazillion dollars to add him to the club. Apparently that's what the Chicago Cubs thought he was worth.

Good luck with that, Cubbies.

Here’s what is clear about that… Soriano is not interested in playing for a winning club. He’s a Dominican Rod Tidwell. Moreover, I hope the Phillies were just playing lip service to “being in the running” to sign Soriano. Eight years? For a 31-year-old player with no position?

Let the Cubs have that albatross of a contract.

The greatest of all time?

I don't know if this is a trend or simple marketing of sports so that people will not only stay tuned to the game (or whatever), but also will think they are watching something historically significant, but often it appears as if I have tuned in to watch an "all-time greatest of the game."

It seems like such a debatable hyperbole, yet often there is no debate. It just so happens that I, luckily, have tuned in to something historic.

Mostly this occurs with individual sports like golf and tennis, but lately the G.O.A.T./history trend has morphed into mainstream team sports as well. Take Ryan Howard for instance -- last week in Washington I was sitting in the press box for a supposed historical occasion when the slugger tied and passed Mike Schmidt's franchise record for home runs in a season. It was something to see because the shots Howard hit were magnificent and I remember watching Schmidt hit a lot of those 48 homers during the 1980 season. So to be there when the record changed hands was pretty cool.

But it wasn't historical despite how it was being billed by certain media types. Not even close. If I had been outside of the Appomattox Court House on Palm Sunday of 1865 when Lee surrendered his army to Grant, now that would have been historic. Had I been alive to watch Neil Armstrong hop off the Apollo and onto the moon, that would have been historic. Waking up five years ago to desperate phone calls from my wife to, "TURN ON THE TV! NOW!" That was historic. This is just baseball. A nice milestone and definitely something very cool, but not anything I can brag about seeing. Not when half the people I know don't care.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I'm just being one of those uptight guys who likes to toss a wet blanket over everyone's fun. Well... yeah. Sometimes I enjoy being iconoclastic and "brutally honest." But mostly I just don't appreciate being misled. Even in the insular world of baseball, Howard passing Schmidt was barely a blip in its history. Maybe for the Phillies Howard's homers are significant since the franchise's history is pock-marked by losing season after losing season and overt racism during the game's "Golden Era" in which the team failed to integrate its roster long after nearly every other team.

Along those lines, Howard is already being referred to as potentially the greatest Phillie ever. Hell, he ought to just retire now. He almost has one full season in the books; he ought to hang 'em up. What else does he have to prove?

Certainly those who call Howard the G.Ph.O.A.T. acknowledge their silliness. Let the man have a career first. But that didn't stop anyone from waxing exaggeration in regard to Roger Federer during the finals of Sunday’s U.S. Open.

For anyone who saw it, Federer was often brilliant and mostly dominant in cruising to a four-set victory over Andy Roddick for his ninth Grand Slam victory. That's within the range of Tiger Woods, Federer's Nike brethren, who was sitting courtside with the Swooshes blazing for all of the close-up shots that stopped being about a celebrity watching a tennis match and more about selling over-priced athletic gear and shoes. Hey, if you're going to be a corporate shill, go all out... right Tiger?

So as Federer cruised, the debate started. Actually, it wasn't a debate, it was history.

It also got me thinking, which is probably not what CBS, the USTA, or Nike wanted anyone to do. But the idea was out there -- was Federer the greatest tennis player of all time?

Certainly the way he pushed around Roddick on Sunday made the debate easy for that day. Federer is easily the greatest tennis player out there now, but whom is he playing? Andy Roddick? Rafael Nadal? Lleyton Hewit?

Please.

But when I saw Federer blast balls from the baseline, daring anyone to approach the net against him, I thought, "this kid watched tapes of Borg play."

Who can forget Bjorn Borg? For as great as the "Super Swede" was -- and he is on the short list for G.O.A.T. -- he was even more of an enigma. But perhaps that's the way Borg had to be since he had John McEnroe always buzzing around and trying to knock him off. When it wasn't McEnroe, it was Jimmy Connors -- a guy who was No. 1 in the world for 160 straight weeks -- gunning for him.

Then came Ivan Lendl. Then Boris Becker. Then Pete Sampras, who re-wrote the record books.

Beneath the top layer guys like Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Pat Cash and Michael Stich always seemed to be hovering around the top ranks for decades.

These days Federer isn't the king of the hill; he's a man on an island.

That's not Federer's fault, of course. Since you can't pick your parents, you can't really pick when you are born, either. Blaming Federer for being dominant in a weak era is a lot like judging Wilt Chamberlain for being bigger than everyone else during the infancy of the NBA. Any competitor like Federer wants to measure himself against the very best.

Eventually, Wilt had Bill Russell as his nemesis, which often brought out historical performances from both men. It remains to be seen whether or not Federer will develop a big-time rivalry with Nadal or Roddick, just like it's still up in the air whether or not the slugging Phillie will ever fall to mere mortal status against a tough lefty pitcher.

Then again mere mortality never seemed to happen for the golf-swatting Nike billboard sitting courtside for the tennis clinic on Sunday.

Howard is the MVP

Forget the numbers for a second. Often in baseball people get too hung up on the numbers and lose sight of the people and the game. After all, that's what draws us to the game, right?

How can anyone quantify that running catch Michael Bourn had in right field the other night in his big league debut? Well, yeah, I'm sure some egghead can whip up some type of formula to show that Bourn's catch was the 463rd best by a right fielder in his Major League debut. But that's not the point -- the point is that Bourn ran like a freakin' gazelle, extended his arm as high as it could go and softly cradled the ball into his black glove just before he nearly flattened himself into the outfield fence.

That, folks, is baseball. Leave the numbers to the stat geeks -- we'll take the game.

Digressing a bit, I'm reminded of a conversation I had with Scott Rolen a few years ago. When presented with the notion that he could very well be the best fielding third baseman ever to play the game, Rolen shifted his feet uncomfortably for a few seconds before answering, "You know, that's nice, but I really don't think there is any way you can determine that. Every game and every player is different and a lot of people being compared never played during the same time."

He was using an old but popular argument about how it was difficult to compare players from different eras, etc. It's a valid argument, of course, and it wasn't just a matter of Rolen trying to be diplomatic, either. He just didn't want to think about being better than anyone else. Something tells me he's like that in a lot of facets of his life.

Nevertheless, I told him that, yes, indeed, there are ways to determine who the best is. Smart people with real jobs and the ability to make numbers sing have come up with formulas and hyperbola showing who could do what and all that jazz.

Basically, living, breathing people had been reduced to cold, hard numbers in order to prove something that most baseball people think is silly. The numbers may show something, but they don't tell the story.

Numbers don't show how hard Randy Wolf and Rolen worked during the off season in order to play this year. Numbers don't show how Curt Schilling was able to get all of those strikeouts by studying all of the hitters with John Vukovich. Numbers don't show the size of Charlie Manuel's spirit after he battled a heart attack and cancer to return to a Major League bench.

You can have the numbers. Give me something I can touch.

You want to know what else the numbers don't show? How about how important Ryan Howard has been to the Phillies during their chase for the wild card. Oh sure, there are the home runs and the RBIs with the slugging, OBP, OPS and batting average that will put him in the horserace with Albert Pujols for the NL MVP Award. In that regard, yes, the numbers do tell a big portion of the story.

But they can't quantify the veteran things Howard has been doing since he has come to the big leagues to stay last summer.

Veteran things?

By that I mean making himself available to the media before and after every game no matter what happened previously. Win, lose, embarrassment, controversy, celebration or whatever the occasion, Howard has been dependable. In fact, last season there were times when Howard was the only player to speak for the team during a difficult period for the team. Now how is a rookie, who had not even played a complete Major League season, going to be the spokesman for the team? I guess that's just who Ryan Howard is.

Accountability is a lost art that transcends sports. When a "stand up" guy is identified, people have a way of gravitating toward that person. That's kind of the way it has been for the Phillies this year.

Certainly this group of Phillies has a lot of stand up guys. Howard, Wolf, Rowand, Conine, Gordon, Coste, Moyer, Madson, Victorino, Dellucci, Hamels... the list continues. But when one of the big stars is doing the dirty work -- like handling the media and all of the other extenuating non-baseball things – it doesn’t go unnoticed. It may not seem like a big deal to the casual fan or the number crunchers, but if Ryan Howard is standing up in front of the media, it means other players don’t have to. Instead, those guys can get the treatment they need, or they can go home and rest so they can be fresh for the game the next day.

In baseball, the little things matter just as much as the 56 homers, 138 RBIs and .311 batting average.

The numbers add up
Last season there was some debate whether Howard was going to win the rookie of the year award over Jeff Francoeur of Atlanta and Willy Taveras of Houston. Actually, let me rephrase that -- there was some debate amongst people who didn't know any better. For those of us who spoke with rookie of the year voters, we knew Howard was going to win the award easily and thought the idea of the debate was silly.

But sometimes sports media is very silly.

Nevertheless, it seems as if some of the MVP voters are giving Howard a really long look. And based on what's happening in the final month of the season, Howard just might be sprinting for the finish.

Whether or not he passes Pujols remains to be seen.