No way to the no-no

There’s something about no-hitters or near no-hittersthat gets people to remember and talk about all the great pitched games they have seen. Watch a game like the one Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched on Saturday night against the Phillies and all those crazy memories come flooding back.

Dice-K came four outs away from throwing a no-hitter against the Phillies even though the hitters smoked about a half-dozen balls right at the defense. Finally, it was the No. 8-hole hitter Juan Castro who broke up the no-no with a soft, broken-bat single over shortstop.

Close but not quite there.

Having seen just one no-hitter and a couple of close ones, it would have been kind of cool to see Dice-K close it out on Saturday night even though it would have meant a bunch more work. Considering that Kevin Millwood’s masterpiece in 2003 was the only one I’ve seen—at any level—sure, pile it on.

So what were the close ones?

·         May 30, 1982 — The Blue Jays’ Jim Gott, in the fourth start of his career to get his first win, went six innings against the Orioles at Memorial Stadium before turning it over to Roy Lee Jackson to close it out. The only hit was a one-out single in the fifth by catcher Rick Dempsey, so the game was hardly dramatic. However, the game was historical because it was the very first game in Cal Ripken’s epic consecutive games streak.

·         Oct. 6, 1991 — Dave Hollins ended the no-hitter in the second inning with a double, but with six players in their first or second big-league season, plus the strikeout prone Dale Murphy all in the lineup, David Cone had one of those days. Cone got 19 strikeouts against the Phillies and had a chance to tie the all-time record against Wes Chamberlain and Murphy. Oddly, Cone didn't get that 20th strikeout, but he got Ks on the first six outs, struck out the side four times and didn't get a single strikeout in the seventh inning. Still, Cone had a chance to get 20 Ksin his 141-pitch three-hit shutout.

·         Sept. 26, 2001 — Randy Wolf shuts down the Reds at the Vet on Larry Bowa bobblehead night. This was back in the days when people would show up to collect their dolly and then turn around and walk out because they were cynical about the local ballclub. Nevertheless, this one was less dramatic than the Gott/Jackson combo piece since the only hit Wolf allowed was to second hitter of the game. Interestingly, the hit turned out to be the first one in the career of Raul Gonzalez.

·         May 10, 2002 — What did you think of Padilla this day? Well, he was pretty good. In fact, the enigmatic right-hander came four outs away from throwing a no-hitter against the defending World Champion Diamondbacks at the Vet. The first hit was a ground-rule double by pinch hitter Chris Donnels that bounced just inside the chalk line in left field and bounced into that area that jutted out in foul territory. Padilla was thisclose from getting it, but the two-hitter might be the best game of his wobbly career.

·         April 27, 2003 — Kevin Millwood got it done. The part everyone forgets about this one is that the Giants’ rookie Jesse Foppert tossed a three-hitter in just his second career start. Fortunately for the Phillies one of those hits was a leadoff homer from Ricky Ledee. Otherwise, Millwood might have had to go more than nine innings to get the no-hitter.

·         May 14, 2003 — This was just a two-hitter for Curt Schilling in his last start ever at the Vet, but  it was easily the most dominating pitching performance of any game on this list. David Bell legged out a flared double in the third inning and Bobby Abreu looped a single in the fifth, but no Phillie made solid contact. Mixed in with those two hits were 14 strikeouts from Schilling, which wasn’t as incredible as the fact that he threw 45 pitches that were completely missed by the Phillies hitters. Not a no-hitter, but it could have been.

·         July 25, 2004 — That chatty Eric Milton came the closest of anyone to getting a no-hitter at Citizens Bank Park when the lefty took one into the ninth inning only to lose it when Michael Barrett got a pop up double when center fielder Doug Glanville got a bad read and jump on the ball. The weird part was that manager Larry Bowa put Glanville in for defense in the ninth to replace Ricky Ledee, who happened to make two really good plays in center field during Kevin Millwood’s no-hitter as well as in David Cone’s perfect game in 1999. Nevertheless, Glanville went on to misjudge another fly ball in deep center that led to two runs for the Cubs. As a result, Milton didn’t get out of the ninth, missed out on the win, the shutout and the no-no. Rough day for Glanville.

·         April 2, 2008 — How about this… the year the Phillies won the World Series, they lost the first two games of the season to the lowly Washington Nationals. The Nats won just 59 games in 2008, which means after the first series of the year they went 57-101. One of those wins was a combined one-hitter from Tim Redding, Luis Ayala and Jon Rauch in which the Phillies whiffed only twice and scratched out just a second-inning single by Pedro Feliz. Worse, Cole Hamels allowed just one run in eight innings on a homer from Ryan Zimmerman.

So aside from Kevin Millwood and the time I took a no-hitter into the final inning of a fifth grade little league game for the Lancaster Township Phillies against the LT Giants (10 Ks and a run before the first hit), there really haven’t been too many near misses. Perhaps that’s why people tend to go a little crazy over no-hitters or why guys like Charlie Manuel don’t want to see them against his team.

According to Manuel, he has never managed a team that has been the victim of a no-hitter. Moreover, Chuck says the only time he was on the losing end of a no-hitter was in the minor leagues against the Cocoa Astros’ ace, Don Wilson.

Now Charlie says the no-hitter against his Orlando Twins of the Single-A Florida State League was in 1964, but considering the fact that Wilson only had two starts and one win in ’64, it’s more likely that Wilson’s no-hitter against Manuel and his teammates was in 1965.

Aside from the minor detail of the year, Charlie remembers the more important details.

“We had two people in the stands — a scout and a lady that was selling hot dogs. Seriously,” Charlie said.

No sense selling hotdogs when the only person in the stands is a scout, right?

“She started giving them away,” he said, noting that he probably took one considering he didn’t get much in meal money in those days.

“I might have, but I didn’t have any meal money back in those days,” Charlie said. “Maybe a buck and a half.”

Charlie likes to tell the story about the time he broke up a no-hitter from Catfish Hunter if it can be called that. No, his story isn’t completely inaccurate, but it wasn’t the most dramatic setting in baseball history, either. Manuel got Catfish with a leadoff single in the fifth during a game in Oakland on April 16, 1972 to start a two-run rally in a Twins’ 3-2 victory over Catfish’s A’s.

But, technically, yes, Chuck broke up the no-hitter. However, he might have been the only one to notice what was happening.

Nothing has changed except for everything

Nothing has changed. Up is not down, black is not white and there are no dogs sleeping with cats. The earth still spins on its axis and righteous indignation is still the rallying cry for losers.

The truth—a very mysterious and sordid concept these days—is still very plain. Today’s revelations notwithstanding, a cooked case is still crispy and charred just so.

But yes, I still believe that if Floyd Landis and his failed drug test from Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France were presented on the same standards of the rule of law, it would have been thrown out of court. I also believe that if Landis were a baseball player, a football player, a golfer or any other pro athlete outside of cycling, he would be on the field right now. Like anyone else in elite sports, Landis probably was not-guilty though he was never innocent.

Maybe this is where that righteous indignation line can be reinserted. After all, everybody gets screwed at one time or another. There’s no sense whining about it and I still do not care if Landis was cocktailing HgH with winstrol and deer urine all while freezing his rest-day blood in a hyperbaric chamber. The fifth amendment of the U.S. Constitution still exists. We all own it, but not if you like to ride a bike, win races or have your blood tested at the Laboratoire National de Dépistage du Dopage in Châtenay-Malabry. 

Those guys…

Then again, a lot of us look pretty stupid right now.

The above section is what hasn’t changed. The part that has changed is everything else. One of the most incredible days of the Tour de France and exciting sports day I have ever seen is more than just a little tainted. Oh sure, Landis still says he did not use the synthetic testosterone he tested positive for (according to that French lab) during that fateful 17th Stage in 2006, but according to admissions published on ESPN.com by Bonnie Ford today, Landis used testosterone in previous editions of the Tour de France as well as HgH during the 2006 season.

In other words… never mind.

Oh, Landis came clean finally, unburdening himself in e-mails to cycling and doping officials and in an interview with Ford in which he claims to have started a systematic doping program in June of 2002 when he joined up with the U.S. Postal Service team. That team, of course, was the vestige of Lance Armstrong and his hand-picked manager, Johan Bruyneel, and it’s where Landis said he leaned all about the hows and whys of performance-enhancing drug use. It wasn’t just old fashioned steroids and syringes, either. Nope, Landis appeared to be more than just a dabbler.

He says he used EPO, a drug so effective it not only improves performance quickly, but it also has the potential to kill a guy if not used properly. He also admitted to using female hormones, diabetes medication and the tried-and-true blood doping, which is when a person removes some of his own blood and stashes it in a freezer only to re-inject it when seeking a boost. That’s some old-school stuff right there.

“I don't feel guilty at all about having doped. I did what I did because that's what we (cyclists) did and it was a choice I had to make after 10 years or 12 years of hard work to get there; and that was a decision I had to make to make the next step,” Landis told Ford. “My choices were, do it and see if I can win, or don't do it and I tell people I just don't want to do that, and I decided to do it.”

Certainly that’s not a statement we hear too many athletes make, let alone one who spent three years and approximately $2 million of his own money attempting to appeal his doping ban. Making the admission even more compelling is the fact that Landis says Armstrong—and many other of the top U.S. riders—were complicit and drug users just like him.

The accusations, of course, are where people start to take notice. It’s one thing to admit that you have done something wrong, but to point out the failings of others is something significant. There’s a word for people who do those types of things and that word is, “rat.” We’ll get to the rat thing in a moment.

Nevertheless, one rider who Landis says was a doper was Dave Zabriskie, who is currently leading the Tour of California. Zabriskie was a roommate and training partner with Landis in Spain. It was in Girona, Spain, the training base for Armstrong and Landis, where it is said one of the world’s most famous athletes kept his blood in a freezer for doping. It’s also there where Bruyneel is said to have schooled Landis on the use of steroid patches, blood doping and human growth hormone.

Kind of like your readin', ‘ritin’, and ‘rithmatic of doping.

The bombshell is the stuff about Armstrong, but that goes without saying. Armstrong has long been accused and suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs in order to become the most decorated cyclist in the history of the sport, but he always fought back tenaciously pointing out that like Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds, he never tested positive for drug use.

But no other rider has ever levied accusations against Armstrong, especially one as intimate to him as Landis. It’s one thing to hear whispers of Armstrong dumping Landis’ “rest-day blood” down a sink during the Tour de France to prove some sort of angry point, but it’s another completely to read the words of one of Armstrong’s closest teammates saying that he got drugs directly from him.

Landis told Ford that he gave Dr. Michele Ferrari, Armstrong’s personal trainer, $10,000 in cash for a season’s worth of doping. Six years ago Ferrari was convicted of fraud and lost his medical license in Italy, and Landis says the doctor personally extracted and re-injected his blood for him. Landis also said he and Armstrong discussed the efficacy of the then-newly developed test for EPO in 2002.

“I didn't wish to take the risks on my own and especially since it was fairly clear that his advice was endorsed by Lance himself,” Landis told Ford. “And therefore Johan and the other guys that knew of it and were involved—working with him, they'd understand the risks that I was taking as well and therefore trust me.”

Trust. That’s an interesting word, isn’t it? Why, after all these years, does the guy talk about this now? After years of refusing to cooperate or name names—you know, steadfastly choosing not to be a rat—why is Landis ratting out the old gang? After all, before he had everything to lose and yet kept his mouth shut. At least we think he kept his mouth shut though Armstrong told reporters in California this morning that he had been receiving “harassing” messages from Landis for quite some time.

Still, this morning Armstrong never said, “Floyd is a liar.” He also did not say, “I didn’t do it.” Maybe that’s beside the point.

"It's our word against his word," Armstrong said instead. "I like our word. We like our credibility. Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago."

What about Armstrong or the cycling union? Do they have any credibility? Who believes any of them at this point anymore? Armstrong might like his credibility, but it's not like Landis is the only person saying the seven-time Tour champion is a doper.

That list is long and varied.

But really… why now? Landis says he doesn’t expect anyone to believe him and it’s almost impossible for him to become a bigger pariah than he already is. The money is gone, his wife left, and his book is nothing more than a bunch of paper with words on them that are meaningless. Worse, he had to call up his mom in Lancaster County and tell her the truth.

What good is that going to do now? No team is going to hire him, the money isn’t going to come back and divorce is like toothpaste already out of the tube. When Armstrong said this morning that Landis has no credibility, it’s difficult to counter. That’s especially true when Landis admits that he does even have concrete proof and there is no paper trail or smoking gun—just some names, dates and details.

Truth? Who knows?

“I want to clear my conscience,” Landis told Ford. “I don't want to be part of the problem anymore.

“With the benefit of hindsight and a somewhat different perspective, I made some misjudgments. And of course, I can sit here and say all day long, ‘If I could do it again I'd do something different,’ but I just don't have that choice.”

No, there’s always a choice. Just because the world is a rat race doesn’t mean a guy has to be a rat. Just because a guy likes to ride his bike and play sports doesn’t mean he has to prostitute himself. Life is full of choices and a man lucky enough to have the mind to make a conscious choice is hard to feel sorry for.

But that doesn’t answer the question…

Why? Why now?

No, nothing has changed, aside, of course, for everything.

No messing this one up

Go ahead and admit it—you know you want to. As soon as it turned out that the 76ers would get the No. 2 pick in next month’s NBA Draft, your first thought was, “Great… how are they going to mess this up?”

Hey, I thought the same thing. I even asked around to some folks who are wise in the way of the NBA and the players headed into the draft. Needless to say the answers I received were uniform and succinct.

“They can’t,” was the response in how the Sixers could screw up the No. 2 pick.

But there is always an addendum tacked on at the end after that two-word answer.

“They can’t… unless they draft Shawn Bradley.”

Remember that one? Remember how the Sixers had the No. 2 pick in the 1993 draft and took a 7-foot-6 center with just one year at Brigham Young under his untested belt? Even with Anfernee Hardaway, Jamal Mashburn, Isaiah Rider, Vin Baker, Alan Houston and Sam Cassell sitting there on the board, the Sixers gobbled up the lean and lanky center that at his very best was labeled a project.

Two-and-a-half years later they finally traded away Bradley for Derrick Coleman… maybe the one instance where Coleman was the preferred alternative.

Here’s how bad the pick for Bradley was… for five seasons after the Sixers used the No. 2 overall pick on him, they were still in the lottery for five straight seasons afterwards. That’s how they were able to get Jerry Stackhouse, Allen Iverson, Larry Hughes, not to mention trading away the No. 2 pick in the ’97 draft for Jim Jackson, Eric Montross, Anthony Parker and Tim Thomas.

Quite obviously, not many of those picks worked out too well, either.

This year there is no such worry, though, mostly because there is no Shawn Bradley-type available in the 2010 Draft. It’s not a crop that is seen as particularly deep with the picks beyond the top three a guess. After Kentucky guard John Wall goes to Washington with the top pick, the Sixers are expected to take Ohio State guard Evan Turner. Essentially, Washington has the top pick while the Sixers have No. 1A.

It really is a can’t miss. In fact, last night La Salle grad and former NBA player, Tim Legler, told viewers on ESPN that Turner was the true star of the draft. Legler declared that 10 years from now we will be talking about Turner as a Hall of Famer.

That’s a pretty bold comment considering how uncertain the draft can be. For every Iverson, Charles Barkley and possibly Evan Turner, the Sixers have shown us Bradley, Sharone Wright, Charles Smith, Keith Van Horn, Marvin “Bad News” Barnes and whatever the hell that was in 1986.

Indeed, June hasn’t been the kindest month for the Sixers.

Which is why we want to know if they can mess it up? Is there a Sam Bowie to take ahead of Michael Jordan? A Kwame Brown-type poised to turn heads at the draft workouts or an Adam Morrison set to be labeled the next Larry Bird?

Can it really be this easy?

“It gives us a lot of options which is what we really need,” general manager Ed Stefanski said. “We are ecstatic. When you are at six and you move up to two it is phenomenal. We are happy campers. I just got a text from (Comcast-Spectacor COO) Peter Luukko and a text from (Comcast-Spectacor Chairman) Ed Snider; they are watching the hockey game but they were watching this too.”

Yes, apparently this is a slam dunk. If the Sixers were to take Turner, a 6-foot-7 guard with a seven-footer’s wingspan, a knack for making clutch plays, as well as what his draft media guide bio says is, “a student of the game who studies past greats and appears to have a great understanding [of the game].”

What it means for the Sixers is that Turner can pair with Jrue Holiday in the backcourt, while Andre Iguodala can move to a more natural forward spot where we won’t have to watch him brick up three-pointers on a routine basis. Turner’s addition could also make Thaddeus Young a potential draft-day trade bait, though not the type of deal that would free up cap space for a bigger move.

In other words, all the Sixers have to do is take Evan Turner. It really is that easy.

Revisiting Pat Burrell's unique impact in Philly

We’re very into measuring legacies here on this littlesite. Go ahead and dig through the archives and there will be plenty of stories detailing the impact certain athletes had on their time and place. Some guys made a big impact in a short amount of time like Cliff Lee, Terrell Owens or Lenny Dykstra, while others stirred the drink over a longer period like Donovan McNabb or Jimmy Rollins.

The thing about coming to define a ballplayer’s legacy is that it’s totally subjective. For instance, a guy like Simon Gagne is the longest tenured athlete in Philadelphia right now, and might go on to set a whole bunch of franchise records for the Flyers. However, Gagne was rarely the most important player on his team.

Of course an argument could be made about Gagne these days considering the Flyers are 7-1 in games that he played in during the current playoff run.

Still another thing about this exercise is that it defies statistics or any other type of metric. It’s completely one of those “it” things. You know, it’s so tough to define “it,” but you know it when you see, “it.”

So with the end of his days as an everyday player on a major league roster likely looming after the Tampa Bay Rays sent him packing, we are officially entering the beginning of the end for Pat Burrell. The weird thing about the fan favorite here in Philly being sent out by Tampa is how quickly the bottom fell out for Burrell. After he clubbed that long double off the top of the center field fence to set up the World Series-winning run in October of 2008, Burrell has not been very good.

No, he hasn’t been as awful as he was in 2003 when he batted just .209 and manager Larry Bowa wanted to send him back to the minors only to be vetoed  by general manager Ed Wade because they signed the guy to a $50 million deal before the season. However, with the remainder of a $16 million deal still owed for the rest of the year, Burrell has been bad enough that the Rays had to do something.

After all, Burrell still has that big, sweeping swing that leads him to strikeout more often than he puts it into play. Remember that swing? You know, the one that made you throw things at your TV set because you saw it so often every summer so you figured someone must have been in Burrell’s ear telling him not to swing at those low and away pitches that sent his rear to the on-deck circle while his bat flailed like an old lady beating back a prowler with her cane.

Yes, that swing. Apparently the folks in Tampa had less patience for it than we did.

Chances are Burrell will clear waivers and catch on with a team as apart-time DH or right-handed bat off the bench. He’s not so far gone that he’s completely worthless even though he’s hit just two homers, whiffed 28 times in 84 at-bats, and posted a .202 batting average. Just like Charlie Manuel in Philadelphia, Rays’ manager Joe Maddon couldn’t say enough nice things about Burrell even when kicking him to the curb.

“The thing about Pat that I respect so much, this guy worked very, very hard despite a lot of outside criticism,” Maddon told reporters on Saturday. “But I’m always about effort and work, and this guy did that every day. He was the first guy showing up. He was always in the cage, always worked on his defense even though he didn’t play out there. He was very supportive among his teammates. It’s just unfortunate that it did not work out.”

In other words it was business, not personal. It was exactly what Ruben Amaro Jr. said when the Phillies decided to allow Burrell to become a free agent after his key double and role as the Grand Marshal in the World Series parade down Broad St. Quite clearly, it was a great send off and one Burrell never wanted. If the Phillies would have had him back, he would have stayed. And yet despite some kind words from people like Bill James touting his stats, the Phillies kind of knew better.

There were just too many of those swings.

But how will you remember Pat Burrell? Is he a Greg Luzinski type with some big slugging seasons before a very quick demise? Did he have a career worthy of the Phillies’ Wall of Fame?

Or was he the epitome of unfulfilled promise and hype? Was he one of those guys who just had so much talent and raw ability, but no idea how to piece it all together?

How about all of the above?

Burrell, of course, was the No. 1 overall pick out of Miami in 1998 who belted 29 homers in his first full season of pro ball in ’99 and then got the call to the big club in May of 2000. In fact, in his first big league game in Houston, Burrell hit one so hard that if that high wall in left field hadn’t gotten in the way, the ball might have orbited the earth. Oddly enough the pitcher who served up that shot was none other than his soon to be nemesis, Billy Wagner.

Go figure.

Burrell hit 18 homers in 111 games of his first season, 27 in 2001 and then the big year in 2002 with 37 homers, 116 RBIs and a career-high .920 OPS. After that season he had the city in the palm of his hand because of his ability to get huge hits against the Mets, that $50 million deal, and his de facto title as the “Midnight Mayor” of Philadelphia.

And then he just never put it all together. Sure, there was that good 2005 season and a strong 2007, but his inability to hit with runners on base in 2006 might have cost the Phillies a shot at the playoffs. Strangely, 30-homer seasons with solid RBI and slugging numbers seemed rather mundane, probably because we expected so much more.

Isn’t the curse of high expectations always a lose-lose? Strapped with burden, it always seemed as if Burrell should have been better when in reality he wasn’t that bad.

Yet Philadelphia loved the guy. He somehow was excused from the boos that rained on Mike Schmidt during rough times, or hundreds of lesser players. Why was that? How could a No. 1 overall pick struggle to hit .200 and to avoid a trip back to the minors wind up being cheered… in Philadelphia?  Somehow Burrell charmed the fans even when he was snubbing the press. Needless to say, Burrell was in a unique position for an athlete in the city.

Maybe the reason for that was because he was so accessible. There were probably thousands of Phillies fans that ran into him after games at The Irish Pub or out in Olde City, where he likely bought a few rounds for the house. Perhaps Burrell was immune to the catcalls because he lived the fantasy life of a star athlete to the hilt, and didn’t miss work or call in sick. In fact, he and his bulldog Elvis were usually the first pair in the clubhouse every day. Better yet, he was one of the leaders behind the scenes with the Phillies when they finally broke that playoff drought.

He did a lot of things that fans and ballplayers liked, such as calling out guys like Wagner for perceived slights and not airing his laundry in the media. Actually, Burrell called us “rats,” which is fair considering we ripped him for all those slumps and strikeouts. Sure, he was fine to shoot the breeze with or trade in some friendly banter or idle gossip, but to go to talk about himself or some insight on the team or the game… forget it. That’s when the walls went up.

For those looking for the defining quotes on Burrell, look no further than this gem Dallas Green dropped on Jim Salisbury a couple of years ago:

“I’ve been out with him a couple times in Florida. We have a secret (watering) hole every now and then.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. There are tons of guys in the Hall of Fame that were like that.

“It’s neat to have money, it’s neat to have good looks, and it’s neat to have broads all over you. Every place I’ve managed, I’ve talked to kids about the same thing. It’s a hell of a life. But there comes a time in every player’s life when he needs to get his act together.”

No one is saying Burrell doesn’t have his act together—far from it. However, the act often changes for all ballplayers and athletes. Sometimes it has to come crashing down to remember how good it once was.

Heavy is the crown

Blame Twitter. Or better yet, blame those bleep-stirrers that like to say outrageous things just for the sake of saying them. Heck, blame ESPN or whatever other breathless corporate monolith placed in charge of propaganda or sports discourse.

Actually, blame society. Yeah, you know who you are…

In an age of knee-jerk punditry and instant history, we’re supposed to swallow the worst in an athlete even before the corpse of a season grows cold. In this case, because the Boston Celtics are a better team than the Cleveland Cavaliers and knocked them out of the playoffs in six games of the Eastern Conference Semifinals last night, that whole “LeBron James is a loser who is leaving Cleveland” stuff is flying around like dandelion spores in a wind tunnel.

Oh yes, based on Cleveland’s early ouster, LeBron’s entire basketball legacy—and maybe even his worth as a human being—has been defined by a bunch of nonsense. Sure, the fact is LeBron James has not won an NBA title. However, to label him as a fraud, loser or worse, not only lacks perspective or responsibility, but it’s also plain stupid.

Again, you know who you are.

Nevertheless, here we are. This is an age in sports where the only thing that matters (after the endorsements and salary digits, of course) is the number of championships one has. Sure, there is plenty of weight to that premise and it’s fair to rate Bill Russell higher than Wilt Chamberlain because of the number of championships won. But that’s as far as it goes.

See, winning championships in sports is not a singular activity. There’s a whole bunch that goes into it and that doesn’t even include the uncontrollable forces. Luck and timing is huge. In fact, there are teams that won championships by accident. For instance, look at the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, the 2003 Florida Marlins or the 1994/1995 Houston Rockets. Don’t forget about the 1978 Washington Bullets, either.

So don’t go labeling LeBron a fraud or loser just because his teams haven’t been good enough. The same thing goes for Ernie Banks, Ted Williams, Dan Marino, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Ty Cobb, Barry Sanders, Elgin Baylor or Dick Butkus.

Sometimes it’s not all about one guy. Other times, believe it or not, it takes a team to win a championship. So LeBron hasn’t won a title yet… big deal. The fact is he has just completed his seventh season in the NBA and is just 25 years old. He has two MVP Awards, two All-Star Game MVPs, a scoring title, two Olympic medals and one Finals appearance.

What did you have at age 25?  Debt? An inflated sense of entitlement and worth? A clue?

Answers: Yes, yes, no.

Throughout his life James has often been compared to Michael Jordan. Hell, they both even wore/wear No. 23 on the court. So what was Michael Jordan doing at age 25? By that point he was five years into his NBA career with one MVP Award and one trip past the second round of the playoffs. Take away the endorsement deals, the scoring titles and the Olympic medal and there wasn’t much to Jordan’s career at the same age as James.

And yet no one called Jordan a fraud or a loser. Far from it. People saw that Jordan was coached by Doug Collins on a team in which tired, old Dave Corzine, Orlando Woolridge and Brad Sellers got tons of minutes and realized changes had to happen. When Horace Grant, Scottie Pippen and Bill Cartwright finally emerged, it all started to come together.

So why isn’t it the same with LeBron? Mike Brown is his coach, a guy whose main job seems to be telling his players what time the next game starts. Somehow the Cavs made it to the Finals in 2007 with a team where James was complimented with the likes of Larry Hughes, Anderson Varejao, Drew Gooden and (gasp!) Eric Snow. The top man off the bench was Donyell Marshall.

Yep… anyone want to reexamine James’ body of work now?

Obviously something has to give for James and whether that happens for him in Cleveland, New York, Chicago or Los Angeles is the great unknown. But make no mistake about it… James isn’t going to win a title until he’s surrounded by the right players. No one expected Barkley to win it all with Hersey Hawkins or Armon Gillam, did they? Why is so much expected from James?

'Here comes a fastball in 3, 2... '

One of the better sports books I read over the past yearwas Joshua Prager’s, The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World. The title kind of explains the story in which the book documents the events leading up to one of the most famous events in all of sports and the aftermath of its participants.

The event, of course, was the home run hit by Thomson off Branca in the 1951 playoff to determine the champion of the National League played at the Polo Grounds. Even before Prager’s book, Thomson’s homer was one of those historical flashpoints where seemingly every movement had significance and was chronicled in some way. In fact, Don DeLillo’s epic novel, Underworld, opens with the ball disappearing into the left field stands and retrieved by a neighborhood kid who snuck into the ballpark. In reality, no one knows what happened to the ball.

Imagine that… the most famous home run ever hit and no one knows what happened to the ball. If Thomson’s homer happened in our age there would be a court injunction or an Amber Alert to have it returned.

Nevertheless, Prager painstakingly researched the length to which the New York Giants went to create an elaborate scheme to steal the signs from the opposition. First, a member of the grounds crew set up a line of buzzers and signals from the centerfield clubhouse to the bullpen, where coach Herman Franks had stationed himself at a window with a pair of binoculars. There, Franks buzzed the signal to backup catcher Sal Yvars in the bullpen that was actually located in the deepest part of center field on the playing field. When he got the signal, Yvars would tip off the hitter by positioning himself a certain way in the bullpen. If hitters wanted the sign, Yvars had it for them.

In the book Yvars admits that he signaled to Thomson to be ready for a fastball from Branca. The rest, as they say, is history.

Using technology, like buzzers and binoculars, is a violation of the spirit of the game and probably a whole bunch of good rules, too. However, if a player (or players)are able to decode the opposition’s signals through wits or another team’s negligence, then there is nothing wrong with that. Better yet, stealing signs is an art form in baseball. No one wants to admit that they do it for fear of retribution, but trust me… the Phillies have a guy on the team who is really good at stealing signs. This guy once told me that he could pick off most team’s signs just one cycle through the pattern, but later denied this a few years later.

Oh yes, I know what I heard and that Phillies player knows what he told me.

There is nothing wrong with that. A good sign stealers is one of those intangibles like the ability to take a good lead or knowing how to read a ball off the bat. Anyone who complains about that type of sign stealing is a whiner.

And that’s exactly what Charlie Manuel called those complainers before Wednesday’s game in Denver.

“Keep crying,” Manuel said.

Of course, the Phillies have been accused of stealing signs for years, which is something Manuel always greeted with a wary smile when asked about it. Good, old fashioned sign stealing is part of the game and something old salts like Manuel appreciate. However, the latest accusation has some legs to it with the photographic evidence of bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer with a pair of binoculars and sitting next to what could be the bullpen phone.

So the Phillies were caught red-handed, huh?

“Absolutely not,” Manuel said Wednesday. “Absolutely [bleeping] not. In no way were we stealing signs. We don’t do that.

“I understand why they’d be concerned about it, but that’s the truth. We’re not trying to steal signs. That’s it. I didn’t know [Billmeyer] did that. He watches our catcher to help him where he’s setting up. It definitely had nothing to do with signs.”

That’s the Phillies story and they are sticking to it. But that didn’t stop Major League Baseball from issuing a formal warning to the team or the Rockies from piling on the accusations. At the same time, it’s OK to take Manuel at his word but that doesn’t mean anyone has to buy it. Knowing Billmeyer he very well might be checking out the catcher’s positioning, or scoping out girls in the stands. He is the catching coach, after all.

However, teams have access to tons and tons of video and if Mick wants to make a teaching point to Carlos Ruiz or Paul Hoover, he has all of those games and squats at his disposal.

Binoculars? It doesn’t look right.

Who knows if it is even possible to catch a sign and signal it back in to the hitter so that he can react accordingly. To do that, Billmeyer would have to be really good at deciphering the sign with a way to get his message across in seconds. That doesn't seem likely.

On the other hand, Billmeyer could spot tendencies and patterns to what the catcher and pitcher are doing and signal that in... but then again they can figure that out from any point in the ballpark.

So are the Phillies cheaters? Probably no more than any other team… besides, it’s not like they’re getting three extra home games or anything.

Wait… what?

Tiger's tales

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — There’s something about seeingridiculously famous people up close that is both exciting and sad. It’s like some sort of badge of honor only good for currency at cocktail parties or trips to the local bar that always comes off as remarkably lame.

Oh yes, I saw Tiger Woods the other day. We had a moment. He told me…

Blah, blah, blah.

Yes, Tiger posed for that picture and signed that autograph because he had to. It’s one of the hardships of the job that’s just like taking out the trash for regular folks. In other words, Tiger Woods didn’t show up at Aronimink Golf Club on Monday afternoon because he wanted to. He did it because he had to. He wants to pile money into his charities and make sure people pay money to come out to watch a bunch of dudes slap golf balls around pristine fields of grass.

He was taking out the trash.

It’s interesting to hear what “celebrities” truly think about interacting with the non-celebrity people in their lives. For instance, it’s pretty common to hear players on the Phillies whine and complain about doing those photo day interactions with the fans and compare notes on making it go as quickly and as harmlessly as possible.

You know, because interacting with people who like you is the worst way to spend a few moments.

Certainly that’s the cynical way to look at it. Then again, guys like Tiger Woods have created many-layered organizations in order to make the “have-to” things as harmless as possible. There are PR people that act as buffers in case fans and the media get a little too close to the celebrities, because if they aren’t as orchestrated and as vanilla as possible, it might cost someone a dime.

That’s the thought I had when Tiger Woods was answering questions about his neck injury and golf game while dressed in the uniform provided to him by his corporate overlords at Nike and TAG Heuer[1]. Of course he was sitting in front of a banner with the AT&T logo, which is one of the companies that invoked a morals clause and dropped him because of the revelations regarding his activities away from the course and home.

Awww-kward!

It seemed as if Tiger didn’t want to say anything when he turned up at Aronimink on Monday. However, because he hasn’t been playing golf well lately, Tiger spent most of the 27 minutes he talked to the media (inside the velvet ropes in the ballroom of the clubhouse) explaining why.

He’s hurt of course… and no it has nothing to do with that accident that happened last November.   

That’s what he says, anyway. Besides, it’s a convenient enough excuse until consideration is given to a couple of facts. One is that Tiger is always injured in some way or shape. He famously won the U.S. Open with a broken leg and seems to always be coming back from something. Maybe it’s the way his people try to paint him as some sort of an underdog, and because there is always a need for a compelling story, the TV broadcasts and some of the media buy it. After all, what good is sports if there is no drama? We can’t simply have a guy dominate like Usain Bolt or Secretariat. What fun is that?

So now Tiger is injured again, and very much like his broken swing that needed overhauled and coaching gurus, this is something else to feed the narrative. See, why would a competitor as fierce as Tiger walk off the course at The Players Championship if he wasn’t hurt?

Only this time the injury talk is taken with a grain of salt. Say what you will about them, but the media has a thing about placating people viewed by conventional wisdom as liars or cheats. Moreover, if a guy sets up layers and layers of buffers to keep away the fans and the press only to offer up vanilla, then he has no one else to blame if people come asking for something with a little more flavor.

Yeah, Tiger is probably hurt. Why would someone say that if it wasn’t true. But then again the sad part about seeing someone as famous as Tiger in the flesh isn’t so much the people jockeying to get close to him (that’s sad, too), it’s watching him try to put the curtains back to where they were.

No, apparently there is no less cynical way to see it

---

[1] The one organization providing him with jewelry since he did not appear to be wearing a wedding band. Does Nike make those yet?

Yawn! Sizing up Moyer's big night

After Friday night’s game in which he became the oldest man in Major League Baseball history to toss a shutout, Jamie Moyer was rather non-plused about his performance. When asked what he thought about making a somewhat significant piece of baseball history, Moyer acted like he didn’t know what was going on.

It was kind of weird considering someone had to tell Moyer what he did in the approximately 30 minutes it took him to record the final out and then talk to the press. Besides, at this point in his career/life, Moyer has to know that when he accomplishes something exemplary like throw a two-hit shutout, chances are he’s the oldest guy to ever do it.

It’s a curious thing watching someone accept platitudes by downplaying them. Maybe Moyer is just shy or a little embarrassed about how good he was in comparison to the Braves? Maybe he doesn’t like to talk about his age?

“It was cool,” he said, downplaying the result, and seemingly holding back a bored yawn. “Just doing my job.”

Yeah, ho-hum.

After an evening to reflect on what we saw from Moyer on Friday night against a Braves team that has been barraged by a number superlative pitching performances this season, it’s pretty safe to assume that we witnessed a record that won’t be broken any time soon. When Phil Niekro established the record in October of 1985, Moyer, then 22, had wrapped up a season where he climbed from Single-A Winston-Salem to Double-A Pitsfield. Niekro broke the record set by Satchel Paige in 1952 (his second shutout as a 46-year old), which was a decade before Moyer’s birth.

In other words, if anyone breaks Moyer’s record he probably is coming through the low minors or hasn’t even been born yet. Or maybe it’s Tim Wakefield, who at 43 is still floating that knuckleball up there for the Red Sox… that is if Wakefield can get back into the starting rotation four years from now.

Yeah, that’s “cool.”

Nevertheless, since Moyer downplayed the event, maybe we should, too. After all, it was the Braves the wily lefty blanked and they didn’t have All-Star catcher Brian McCann or rookie phenom Jason Heyward in the lineup. Moreover, Troy Glaus led off the second inning with a single on the first pitch and then from there it took Moyer just two more pitches to record the final three outs of the inning.

One hit, three hitters and three pitches…

“Cool.”

This season the Braves have been no-hit by Ubaldo Jimenez, though he allowed six walks to do it, and the day before Moyer’s gem, Washington’s Scott Olsen came five outs away from a no-no against Atlanta. Considering that Olsen often seems to be his own worst enemy on the mound and was sent to the minors at the start of the season, a second no-hitter would have been the greatest indignity.

“I think if that would have happened you probably have to put us all on a suicide watch,” Chipper Jones said.

After last night’s game Jones went on about how Moyer, at “87,” schooled them.

“Jamie carved us up,” Jones said. “The guy is 87-years old and he’s still pitching for a reason. He stays off the barrel. He changes speeds, changes the game plan and keeps you guessing.”

Considering the Braves also posted eight scoreless innings against back-of-the-rotation hurler, Kyle Kendrick, and were already shutout by Roy Halladay, it seems as if everyone is having a good time with the Braves’ hitters. At least the Phillies starters are, combining to go 32 innings against the Braves in four games without allowing a single earned run. What stands out more is that the Braves have more strikeouts (20), than hits (17) against the Phils’ starters this season.

So really, maybe it was the lineup Bobby Cox sent out there on Friday night that had the most to do with Jamie Moyer’s record-setting performance. Considering he was two Troy Glaus singles away from a perfect game, that might have something to do with it.

Werth the money? The fans think so

Congressmen often make the assumption that the folks who write letters to their office typically are ardent voters. Certainly that seems like the proper conclusion to make since if people are moved enough to put their feelings into words, they probably will drag their rears out of the house and go to the polling place.

A similar assumption can be made by taking a look around the ballpark on Friday night. Indeed, it’s one thing to go out and purchase a team shirt with a favorite players’ name on the back, but it really says something about the fan if they spend time creating a sign or poster with some sentiment attached to it.

Think about like this: money comes and goes. Certainly folks waste a bunch of hard-earned cash on trivial things that they will grow tired of or too big for. Of course there’s always a chance that favorite ballplayer could get traded and there you are stuck with a Kenny Lofton shirt.

Hey, it happens.

But if a person wastes time, it will never return and can’t be replaced. That makes one’s time the most valuable commodity. It also means if a person gets out the markers, poster board and glitter gun, they are invested in something significant. What makes it doubly important is that if a person takes on a big project that sends words out for all to see. Moreover, carrying a sign with a message arranged on it means the person is hardly sitting on the fence.

That message… yes, they mean it.

So considering the number of homemade signs imploring the Phillies brass to re-sign right fielder Jayson Werth, an interesting predicament could arise if the off-season arrives without a new contract in place.

How will the fans get out the message if Werth is allowed to test free agency?

It could be an interesting development considering the Phillies are reported to have a limited amount of cash to spend on player payroll and a significant portion of that money already committed to some key members of the team. Plus, with Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels and Ryan Madson available for new contracts after the 2011 season, the Phillies have some decisions to make.

Based on the feelings put onto poster board on Friday night, the decision is pretty easy. Then again, it’s always easy to spend someone else’s money.

We don’t yet know what type deal Werth will be seeking come this winter, but it’s safe to assume it will be a bit more than the $7 million he’s getting this season. Sure, Werth should cool down a bit as the season wears on, but there are very few players in the game producing the way the Phils’ right fielder has.  Heading into Friday’s game, Werth ranked in the top 10 in most every significant offensive category in the league, including the second-best OPS and the most doubles. Moreover, based on the Phillies’ attendance at home and the amount of signs professing love for Werth, it’s difficult to envision a scenario where he is not playing in July’s All-Star Game.

In fact, Ryan Howard says the rest of the lineup is keying off Werth, who slugged his second two-out, three-run homer in as many days on Friday night. Eventually, Howard says, the opposition will have to figure out whether it’s better to go after the cleanup man or Werth.

“In time it will. It’s one of those things where I will probably get some better pitches, but now I’m just trying to get on and ride on Jay-Dub for a little while,” Howard said.

Oh yes, even with a late start to his career, Werth, soon to be 31, is becoming a star. When GM Pat Gillick snapped up Werth for $850,000 after the Dodgers let him go before the 2007 season, who could have guessed the player would be so beloved? Seriously, when the Phillies picked up Werth in December of 2006, the most common reaction was, “Who?”

Certainly Werth would have joined that chorus considering he was nearly out of baseball because of a wrist injury and had bounced around through the Orioles, Blue Jays and Dodgers organizations before Gillick snuck in and grabbed him. His career was over before it started until Geoff Jenkins was injured during the 2008 season and Werth could finally move into an everyday role.

“I don’t see any reason why he can’t keep it up,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “He’s a big strong guy with a lot of talent. I’ve said it before, but I see him getting better.”

But where Werth’s worth (like that?) is most evident is not from the prodigious numbers he’s posted through the first month-plus of the season. Sure, that stuff helps when it comes to contract time and voting on the awards and stuff like that, but Werth is one of those guys who can, in Manuel’s parlance, “be whatever you need.”

It’s not unreasonable to believe that Werth could be a leadoff hitter because of his speed and ability to get on base and milk pitchers, just as it’s not insane to see him batting cleanup. Sure, Manuel uses him for protection in the lineup behind Ryan Howard, and he’s come through with big-time slugging. However, Werth’s versatility is what the Phillies cannot replace.

“He’s playing very good,” Manuel understated.

And they know it.

“He’s just going out there and having good at-bats and he’s not missing,” Howard said. “Basically, he’s there waiting for Chase (Utley) and I to have good at-bats so we can get on for him.”

There is no way to forget Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts was one of those guys your grandfather always talked about. But rather in hushed tones and clinical recitation of the finer points of his Hall-of-Fame baseball career, your grandfather and the other old timers talked about Robin Roberts with excited exuberance.

See, Robbie, who died this morning at his home in Florida of natural causes at age 83, was a horse. He was the guy who started both ends of a doubleheader, or threw until there was no one else to pitch to. If he didn’t finish the first game and take the hill for the night cap, chances are he’d get into the game as a pinch hitter. Robin Roberts was a baseball player. Baseball players play every day.

Oh, but Roberts was a pitcher, too. He had to be. For a guy to rack up 305 complete games in 609 career starts over 19 Major League seasons, yeah, he absolutely had to know something about how to pitch. It was more than simply blowing the ball past a hitter or leaning back on one unhittable pitch in order to rack up all those innings for so many years without breaking down.

“I liked him when I was a kid,” Charlie Manuel said, noting that the high heat that Roberts was known for overshadowed a pretty nice curveball, too.

There was an art to his craft. Sure, there was brawn and strength, but there was guile, too. How else does a pitcher pile on seven straight seasons of 300 innings?

Yeah, imagine that… 300 innings. Do you know when the last time was when a pitcher got 300 innings in a season? Try 1980 when Steve Carlton got 304. Indeed, baseball has traversed through three decades since a pitcher accomplished what Roberts did as a routine part of the job.

There was more to it than that, though.

“The kind of person he was will stand out more than the numbers on the back of a baseball card,” Roy Halladay said, adding that he was overwhelmed to learn that Roberts wanted to meet him and sought him out during spring training.

“Everyone aspires to be that good.”

Halladay has been labeled as the modern-day version of Roberts, only he has only completed as many as nine games in a single season and topped out at 266 innings. However, like Roberts, Halladay rarely played for good teams (until now). The Phillies won the pennant in 1950 and were swept out of the World Series by the Yankees. So when one looks at the career stats there is just that one trip to the postseason. That’s it. Moreover, Roberts’ teams finished as high as third place just twice in 19 seasons. So beyond 1950 and two other seasons, Roberts’ teams were pretty much out of it by September. There really wasn’t all that much to pitch for since the season could easily be charted out on the calendar with no hope for a trip to the World Series.

Actually, after going to the World Series in 1950, the Phillies finished better than fourth place just one time in Roberts’ tenure with the team. Somehow, the great righty figured out how to win at least 20 games in six straight years.

Yet Roberts completed all those games anyway. He won 286 despite pitching almost exclusively for second-division teams.

With that in mind, imagine how your grandfather would talk about Roberts if he had pitched for the Yankees, Dodgers or Cardinals. Think about that for a second... You would probably be told that Roberts was the greatest pitcher of all time, only without all that exuberance. Had Roberts been lucky enough to pitch for a team in the pennant chase every season, you’d hear his name whispered in those tones reserved for Cy Young or Christy Matthewson. He would be seen as otherworldly and his stat sheet would be difficult to look at without breaking into historonics.

He could have gotten 400 wins with the Yankees.

But Roberts was of this world. He wouldn’t have been Robbie had he been the star of New York. You see him in those grainy old photos smiling and striking a pitching pose, hardly broken by all those losing seasons. Better yet, when he career had ended after hanging on for a few extra seasons with Baltimore, Houston and Chicago, Roberts was more than the Phillies greatest Hall-of-Famer and greatest ambassador…

He was the game’s greatest gentleman.

I’d like to think Roberts’ gentlemanly ways are what drew in my grandfather. Sure, those stats are amazing, and the kind of stuff to dig into like an old box in the attic filled with photos never seen before. Roberts was retired long before I was born and, ridiculously, needed 10 years for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame. But when he was in the room, flashing that great smile of his that shined from his eyes as if it were a floodlight filling every corner, you were sucked in.

He didn’t even have to say a word and everyone was charmed by his charisma.

I first met Roberts in 1984 just as I was heading into junior high.

Back in 1984 in the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., I stepped onto an elevator with Roberts and he was kind enough to indulge me and my questions about the Olympics. I had seen where Roberts was a consultant for Team USA and with the L.A. Games quickly approaching, I saw it as my in.

So when I had the chance to shoot the breeze with Roberts again, 24 years after that first meeting, I brought up that ’84 Olympics team again.

They sure did. Mark McGwire, Will Clark, Barry Larkin, B.J. Surhoff and a catcher from Philadelphia named John Marzano took the silver in the first year baseball was re-introduced to the Olympics.
Strangely, the next time I talked to Roberts about Olympic baseball was before the last time the sport was part of the Olympic program.

Good memories. That was the charm about Roberts… he loved the game and he loved talking to people about it. He loved his memories and seemed to be part of a time when stories were passed down from one generation to another. Better yet, he wasn’t so self-absorbed that he looked down on modern players for not playing the way they did back in his day. He also showed no bitterness about the amount of money they make these days, either. He was wise enough to know that the game and times had changed and accepted his era for what it was.

The bottom line was that he loved baseball and life. To create an unforgettable legacy playing a game was a charmed fate for a person, and Roberts knew it.

The last time I saw Roberts was shortly before the 2009 World Series was to begin. Once again the Phillies were playing the Yankees, and Robbie riveted us with stories about closer Jim Konstanty taking the ball as a starter in Game 1.

“The Konstanty thing was a miracle,” Roberts said last October about the league’s top reliever starting in Game 1 of the 1950 World Series. “(Manager) Eddie Sawyer gave him the ball and he went out there like he was doing it his whole life. … That really was a miracle. If he would have won that would have been something they talked about forever, but because he lost people kind of forgot about it.”

No one will ever forget about Robin Roberts, though. Your grandfather was rarely wrong, and when he told you all about Robin Roberts, he was totally correct…

He was as great as they came—off the field more than on it.

PODCAST EPISODE NO. 11

Everyone loves going to a ballgame every once in a while. In fact, I can remember times when we went to games and we screamed so loud and rooted so vociferously that we were convinced we had an effect on the outcome of the game. It wasn’t true, but that’s what we believed.

Only once did we get a reaction from a player, which came whilst sitting in the left-field bleachers at Memorial Stadium and yelling non-stop at Rickey Henderson. Oh, make no mistake about it… Rickey Henderson not only is one of the greatest players in the history of the game, but also one of the most entertaining. In his prime he was like the most fearsome cleanup hitter only he batted at the top of the order.

Rickey did it all. He changed the game the way he swiped bases and he could jerk one out of the park, too, if a pitcher went to sleep on him.

But where Rickey really scored points with my friends and I was when he turned around and flipped us the bird at Memorial Stadium. We loved it and we loved Rickey for it.

Now Dan Roche, our esteemed colleague at the Podcast of Awesomeness, has taken the art of going to a game and rooting for the home team to a higher level. Actually, Dan claims to be one of the best hecklers on the Eastern Seaboard, which is a statement he backs up with some compelling stories.

Here, take a listen:

AWESOME 11

There’s a story—a legend, actually—out there that Dan not only heckled Marlins lefty reliever Vic Darensbourg into coughing up a game against the Phillies. So rattled by Dan’s calls was the pitcher that the Phillies actually won the game.

But better than that, Dan also was able to send out messages around the Delaware Valley with his exuberance. So yeah, we’re pleased to be on Dan’s good side…

At least we hope we’re on his good side.

Stay off the lawn!

A kid can learn a lot at a baseball game. The most important lesson, of course, is how to act—or not act—in social settings. 

Oh yes, you can see where this is going already, right? But guess what… forget it. We’re not going to even mention those knuckleheads that jumped on the field at Citizens Bank Park the past two nights and the criminal vomitter from a few weeks back. If there were a way to go back into a time machine and Photoshop them out of attendance at the ballpark, then yes, that would be infinitely better than taking a taser to their backsides.

Unfortunately there are no time machines except for in the movies and people can’t be Photoshopped out of existence. What a gyp.

Anyway, we try to focus on the positive here, so let’s just say that one has to work very hard to have a bad time at a ballpark or an arena. It happens sometimes, and based on the latest events reported out of Citizens Bank Park, it has been happening a lot. The shame of that is there are some really good fans that get out to games and it’s possible that the really good fans are being scared away from going to games.

And no, that fear does not come from the price of tickets.

I always relate going to games to the way it was when I was a kid. Frankly, there weren’t too many things that were more fun than the handful of games my family went to every year. Luckily, some of those games are burned in my brain like the time Larry Bird, at the height of his ability, dropped a triple-double on the Sixers at the Spectrum and used one ridiculous move that I hadn’t seen before or since.

Then there was the final game of the 1982 baseball season at Memorial Stadium where Robin Yount went 3-for-4 with two homers to overshadow a pitching matchup featuring future Hall-of-Famers Jim Palmer and Don Sutton. More notably, Yount’s heroics cinched the 1982 AL MVP Award for him and got the Brewers into the playoffs for the first time ever.

There were other events, too, like the beginning of the Red Sox swoon in 1978 that we saw from behind home plate at Memorial Stadium, which was the perfect vantage point to see a home run hit by Jim Rice that may have just landed. We were also there on a sun-drenched Sunday where Cal Ripken appeared in the very first game of his historical streak. The thing that made that day stand out was that Toronto pitchers Jim Gott and Roy Lee Jackson combined to one-hit the Orioles in one the most boring games I ever sat and watched. Rick Dempsey got a one-out single in the fifth, so there was no drama whatsoever. Worse, it was a combined one-hitter, which seems rather devious when you think about it.

Nevertheless, we were able to have fun at the games without being jerks about it. Sure, most of that has to do with the fact that we were really into the teams and the sports, but that didn’t seem so extraordinary at the time. We didn’t need dollar-dog nights or bobbleheads to get us out to the park. Maybe it was a different time or perhaps our senses weren’t numbed or dulled down by an over proliferation of media coming from all directions, but the game, a ticket stub and a program was enough.

Maybe because of our ability in interact or communicate with anyone (or anything), there is an attitude that the individual is part of the show, too. It wasn’t so much as we knew our place way back when, but maybe we had a little more respect for others’ property. The game and the field belonged to someone else and the only way to get the honor of running, hitting or shooting on it was by earning it.

True story: in 10 years of exclusively writing about baseball, I walked onto the actual playing surface just one time. It was to retrieve an errant baseball and then fire it back to the kid retrieving them, but even then I was told—under no uncertain terms—to get off the field.

That’s someone else’s work space, not mine.

From those days of going to games as a kid, there was one fan we saw as the ultimate booster of his team. He didn’t have a fancy job, or seats in a special box or anything, he was just a guy who liked to hang out with his friends in Section 34 at Memorial Stadium after finishing his shift as a cab driver in Baltimore.

Oh yes, we loved Wild Bill Hagy.

Wild Bill came from the Dundalk section of town and did nothing more than cheer for his team. In fact, he was so good at cheering for his team that everyone else followed his lead, which included his trademark of spelling out the world ORIOLES with his limbs and shouting, “Oh!” during the final stanza of the “Star Spangled Banner.” That was it. Wild Bill was just a fan—a genuine fan without any airs or pretension.

Better yet, Wild Bill didn’t have to run onto the field or break the law in order to get attention. He didn’t have fancy seats or have ins with any of the team’s brass. He was just a guy who liked the Orioles.

What’s wrong with that?

Paying homage to the 'Cardboard Gods'

So I promised, via Twitter, that I would be “stealing” from the great web site, Cardboard Gods. The author of the site, Josh Wilker, even wrote a memoir based on the format of the site. Frankly, visits to the site upset me that I didn’t come up with it first, but in the meantime, kudos to Wilker and his great site/book.

Probably what drew me the most to Wilker’s work was the fact that I also have a baseball card collection that began in earnest in the late 1970s before dropping off as I aged. For fun, I got a bunch of the newer cards over the past few years, but was completely overwhelmed by just how many different sets and the price for a pack of cards.

For instance, when I started out collecting cards they were all made by the Topps Chewing Gum Company and they put out a standard issue every year. In fact, it was always a big deal when the new cards came out and there was some cachet amongst my friends for getting that first pack before anyone else. Really, what could be better? We didn’t know much about art theory or photography, but we definitely appreciated the aesthetic of the new baseball card design. We could differentiate between the years based on how the card was designed… 1975 looked and felt very different than 1978. In 1975 there were odd color scheme and a modular design that made us feel as if primary colors were too passé. But in 1978, classic script and basic facts were en vogue. It was a less-is-more year.

These days, Topps puts out about a dozen sets a year. So too does Fleer, Bowman, Upper Deck, Donruss and whatever other upstart card company deigns itself to commit photos to cheap cardboard. Worse, there is no way to collect all of them, what with the subsets and extras and everything else released every year. It's maddening because I hate being one of those guys to say it was better in my day...

But, it was better in my day.

Nevertheless, going down to the garage to dig out the baseball cards to browse through them is a much different activity now. In one sense it’s disappointing because I remember how exciting it was to get a card of certain players in those packs that cost no more than the loose change my mom had in her purse. After all, back then baseball players represented the very best in adults and were people worth emulating. Who didn’t want to grow up to be a baseball player?

But remembering how it was to find one of those heroes randomly inserted into a wax pack compared to actually having the opportunity to know some of those men all these years later can be a downer. Not only did some of them not represent the best in what adults should be, they didn’t particularly care how big of a jerk they could be and held some ridiculous sense of entitlement that pervades many aspects of professional sports—yes, even media types, too.

Rather than dwell on the negative, a recent session with the old baseball cards turned out to be so illuminating. Oh sure, I found a few cards of guys that I knew who were kind of creepy, but I never knew I had so many cards of Billy Sample.

Those boxes tucked away in the corner of the basement turned up a half-dozen cards depicting Billy Sample. Of course the hunt also turned up piles of Sarge Matthews cards, too, but that’s a story for much later.

Anyway, Billy Sample spent nine seasons in the Majors, mostly with the Texas Rangers aside from a year with the Yankees and Braves. In fact, Sample’s last year in the big leagues came as I was going into my sophomore year at McCaskey High, which made it more interesting that we eventually became colleagues of sorts. Billy was winding down before I even got started, and he may even played in some of the very first games I attended.

That made knowing him much cooler. And yes, these were all things we discussed.

See, baseball games can get long and tedious. There is a lot of time spent just standing around and waiting and that pretty much goes for every aspect related to baseball. I think they call it the national pastime because you stand around and watch time pass by without anything happening. Regardless, when Sample was working as a correspondent for MLB TV on the Internet, we got to spend a lot of time passing the time in the press box. I learned a lot about baseball from sitting with Sample, but more than that, I learned that he is probably the classiest dude ever to step into a press box or a ball diamond.

Go ahead, ask around.

In swapping stories and waiting for time to pass with Billy, I learned that he was the star football player for Andrew Lewis High in Salem, Va., which was the team T.C. Williams played in the state championship game in real life and in the movie, Remember the Titans. The difference was, Billy told me, the movie was given the Hollywood treatment since the real Titans won in a blowout. Moreover, the car accident that crippled Titans star Gary Bertier didn’t happen until long after the state championship.

Otherwise, it was kind of accurate.

Billy doesn’t work for MLB anymore (which stinks for us), so I don’t see him around much these days. However, at the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas in December of 2008, I got to spend even more time with him away from the park. What stands out most was the time we hung out at The Bellagio after the work day had ended, but not far from the baseball talk. What I remembered the most was we were all in a big group with guys like Dusty Baker, Ellis Burks, and, most notably, Eric Davis.

Baker and Burks were players that had some dynamic seasons and were All-Stars throughout their long careers, but not nearly as fascinating as the crazy course baseball carried Davis.

Davis very well might have had a Hall-of-Fame career if he hadn’t been nicked up by some crazy injuries. If all the injuries weren’t enough, Davis also had a bout with colon cancer, but preserved and returned to play for several seasons his diagnosis. Nevertheless, as a high school kid I remember when Davis put together a hot start to the 1987 season where he mashed a career-high 37 homers, including 27 at the All-Star Break.

It was during the late ‘80s where Davis was billed as the second-coming of Willie Mays

In 1990, Davis helped the Reds win the World Series, which he was famously remembered for diving to make a catch in the clinching Game 4 only to be carried off the field with a lacerated kidney. That injury kind of explains the tough luck Davis had during his career. One minute he’s an All-Star and helping his team win the World Series and the next he’s being left behind by team owner Marge Schott in Oakland with a lacerated kidney, having surgery AND THEN being diagnosed with cancer a handful of years later.

Anyway, Davis was at the winter meetings in 2008 with the Reds where he serves as a special assistant to general manager, Walt Jocketty. It was at the Bellagio one evening with Sample at my side when we were introduced and I immediately started in on the guy.

“I remember a game when you were with the Tigers in Baltimore where you hit a ball so hard that it was on the way up when it hit the batters’ eye,” I told Davis while shaking his hand. “You really smacked the bleep out of that one.”

Davis barely paused and his answer left us all wide-eyed in disbelief:

“Arthur Rhodes,” Davis said. “It was a slider. Two-two pitch.”

Honestly, he was like the Rainman. I looked it all up later, and he was exactly correct on the pitcher and the count, though there was no way to prove that it was a slider that Rhodes served up that September night in 1993. Either way, it was an impressive display from Davis, who based on that meeting proved to be a worthy winner of the Roberto Clemente Award during his playing days.

Davis remembered every detail of the games I saw him play to a fascinating degree. He was like one of us sports geeks whose knowledge of the games and his role in them was just like ours. The difference was Davis was making great plays in the All-Star Game and World Series while we had some pretty tense CYO basketball games or wiffle ball wars at May Field or Bernhardt’s backyard. Davis hit his homers off the brick batters’ eye at Camden Yards, while mine inched over a copse of bushes or a chicken wire fence spread out in a suburban backyard. Different, of course, but no less meaningful for anyone involved.

The good part is that guys like Billy Sample and Eric Davis got that, which is why their baseball cards are more valuable to me than any gem mint shown off in a museum.

Pitching help for the Phillies? Absolute-Lee

Following yet another poor outing from Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick, a rough five innings in a rehab assignment at Double-A Reading from Joe Blanton, and at least another three weeks on the disabled list for lefty J.A. Happ, it must have been difficult for diehard Phillies’ fans to follow the game between Texas and Seattle on Friday night.

Actually, following the inning-by-inning reports from Seattle was enough to muster up pangs of jealousy and maybe even a little resentment. Considering the Phillies trotted out Kendrick on Friday and will go with the aged Jamie Moyer on Sunday night, Cliff Lee’s debut for the Mariners was enough to make one want to beat on their head with a shoe.

Or something like that.

Nevertheless, all the old arguments and sports-talk radio styled knee-jerk reactions reemerged even before Lee exited the game after spinning a three-hitter without allowing a walk or a run in seven innings. Add in the eight strikeouts and it’s an insult-to-injury jawn.

That’s especially the case if Moyer rolls out a clunker on ESPN on Sunday night.

Nevertheless, not even 12 hours after his gem for the Mariners reports out of Seattle indicate Lee will likely be headed to free agency this winter. Given his consistency and the fact that his run during the 2009 postseason was the greatest by a Phillies pitcher since Grover Cleveland Alexander, Lee just might be able to demand the long-term deal he’s reported to be seeking. If John Lackey can get five years and more than $80 million from Boston, what will Cliff Lee get?

That’s going to be a big issue for the Mariners, a team that should be right in the thick of things in the AL West this season. Considering that the Mariners have the core group under contract until 2011, Lee should be the team’s lone long-term priority.

Still, from the looks of things it appears as if the Mariners are taking a wait-and-see approach with Lee. According, to a report from ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Mariners and Lee’s agent Darek Braunecker, are at an impasse.

“We're five months away from free agency,” said Braunecker, “so I think that's the most likely scenario at this point.”

“We've not really had any significant discussions with Seattle. I wouldn't anticipate a deal [with the Mariners].”

Now let’s trot this scenario out there just for fun…

Let’s say the Mariners fall way out of the race in the AL West by the All-Star Break while the Phillies remain scuffling along with some inconsistent performances from the starting staff. Perhaps even Cole Hamels’ inconsistency is enough to make some believe that the Phillies need another pitcher to back up Roy Halladay. Let’s just say all of this unfolds just in time for the July 31 trade deadline…

Do the Phillies again swoop in and make another move for Lee?

Since it’s not my money and I was on record as calling the trade to send Lee to Seattle a mistake, then yes, go get him again. If Pedro wants to sign up, go get him, too. After years of doing all the work in Toronto and carrying the Phillies through the first six starts of the season, Halladay deserves a little more help.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. doesn’t discuss internal matters, rumors or even share his thoughts on certain matters, so who knows what’s going on in regard to bolstering the pitching. However, when asked about the team’s pitching after Halladay’s spot, manager Charlie Manuel admitted he was a bit worried.

“I’m concerned about our pitching, really,” Manuel said. “We have to show that we can pitch and we gotta show that we can be consistent doing it. But you have to have confidence in your pitchers. I’ve seen our guys pitch and we have to get Happ and Blanton back, though. And the guys we have I have confidence in them, but they have to do the job.”

No one needed to watch Halladay spin a three-hit shutout over the Mets to know he was a good pitcher. After six starts the righty leads the league in innings with 49 to go with the 5-1 record and 1.47 ERA. But take that out of the mix and the Phils’ starters are 5-5 with a 5.18 ERA while allowing the opposition to hit .283 off of them in 17 starts.

If Lee isn’t an option, maybe Roy Oswalt will be one. Either way, the Phillies need some help.

Phillies pretty uninspiring thus far

No one likes a know it all. That’s especially true for those of us who can act like one of those high-falutin’ smarty pants. That being the case, it’s hard not to act all smart when sizing up the start to the 2010 season by the Phillies.

No, it hasn’t been awful, but then again it hasn’t inspired much in the way of making a guy want to compose lyrical poems or even compound sentences.

Instead, with one month effectively in the books, the Phillies have been one big shrug of the shoulders combined with an audible, “Meh.” Since starting out 7-1 against doormats Washington and Houston, the Phillies are 5-8 against Florida, Atlanta, Arizona and San Francisco. With the first-place—yeah, first place—New York Mets in town for a big weekend series, the undertone of apprehension is palpable.

It’s not for nothing, either. Take away Saturday’s game where Roy Halladay pitches and why would anyone want to write sentences or compose poetry about the Phillies? The truth is when the offense can beat up on some subpar pitching, they are a good team. Otherwise…

Meh.

“We’re not playing good at all and we haven’t been good for quite a while,” Manuel said.

“We squeezed out a game the other day in San Francisco and we stayed with them and battled, then we caught a break and won the game. But it wasn’t a really pretty game, we just haven’t played good. I’m concerned about our pitching.”

Granted, the season hasn’t really hit its stride yet. One month down and 22 games into it, there is still much to learn about the Phillies. That’s certainly the case considering Jimmy Rollins has played in just seven games so far and is still nursing a calf injury. No knock on Rollins’ replacements, but the offense definitely takes on a different look without its leader.

“With Jimmy out you can see the balance leave us and we become a weaker offensive team,” Manuel said. “Rollins means more to us than you’d think. When you sit down and you see everything that he can do and what he contributes to our club, he’s a great player.”

Still, there are a few trends developing with the Phillies that might have Charlie Manuel calling up to general manager Ruben Amaro to ask for some reinforcements. The fact is that if Halladay is taken out of the equation, the Phillies’ pitching has been horrible. To soften that a bit, maybe we can just call it inconsistent.

Certainly Joe Blanton’s and J.A. Happ’s injuries have been a blow and the Phillies didn’t expect to have both Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick in the same rotation. However, take away Halladay and his 4-1 record and 1.80 ERA and the Phils’ starters were 6-4 with a 5.08 ERA with 102 hits in 88 2/3 innings heading into Friday night’s game against the Mets.

Yeah, Halladay has a way of making teams look better than they really are, but even he had to think Cole Hamels would be better than he has been. After all, when Amaro made the deal to send Cliff Lee to Seattle it was as if a challenge had been offered to Hamels.

“Man up!” the trade of Lee declared.

Hamels has two of the seven wins against the Nationals, but is 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA in his last three starts. On the Phils’ staff, only Kendrick has been worse.

Again, it’s early. There are 140 games left to play and it would be a small miracle if the Phillies’ offense does not carry them back into the playoffs for a fourth straight season. But with the roster looking the way it does right now, the Phillies’ playoff chances don’t look so hot. They are going to need some help.

“We have a lot of guys hurt and we have a lot of new guys,” Manuel said. “They have to get used to playing the way we play and they have to get used to what we play for and what we stand for. People come to see us because of who we are and the way we play and when we get away from the things that I think made us, I get very concerned.”

Where will the help come from? Well, Pedro Martinez is an obvious choice, though Pedro by himself hardly seems to be enough.

So why don’t we throw a name out there just to get the chatter going…

Roy Oswalt.

Since the Astros clearly have some sort of a rebuilding thang going on down there, dealing Oswalt can free up a big hunk of cash. Sure, the Phillies want to stay within the parameters of a self-imposed salary cap and picking up Oswalt for the rest of 2010 as well as the $16 million he’s owed for 2011 would mean Amaro would have to allow Jayson Werth to walk or deal away another ace to Seattle.

Nevertheless, until Hamels becomes a sure thing in the rotation, Pedro and Oswalt just might be what it takes to get the Phillies back to the World Series. Maybe then we can get back to composing those jaunty odes about the local nine.

“We can have more life, we can have more get-up-and-go to us,” Manuel offered.

PODCAST EPISODE NO. 10

Truth be told, we don’t have much to be angry about here at The Podcast of Awesomeness. No one is living out on the streets and we’re all in reasonably decent health. Sure, there might a few mental issues here or there, but for the most part life is good.

That doesn’t mean we don’t engage in our share of dramas or controversies. Sometimes we even stick our snouts into places they don’t belong and then yelp when they get snapped. Chalk that up to human nature… or just plain busybody-ness.

With that in mind the gang was unified in the simmering anger over numerical order. Yep, those tricky numbers—or statistics as they sometimes like to be called—got our rugs in a bunch. It’s not that we don’t appreciate representative digits and all they do for us, it’s just that sometimes they ruin all the fun.

For instance, when it pertains to Ryan Howard and his statistical body of work and how it relates to his contract extension, well, we just have no patience. The thing of it is there is so much the numbers do not reveal about Howard, which is something else considering he has already posted several of the most statistically awesome seasons in Phillies history.

Look, we all appreciate “advanced metrics” and what they explain about baseball. We get it. The numbers actually paint some sort of a portrait. However, if it comes down to the numbers over the nuance of the game and the sheer beauty of watching the drama and stories unfold, the numbers can go pound sand.

Yeah, that’s right.

Anyway, listen to the gang as we react to the reaction about the Howard deal and discuss hockey player, Ian Laperriere. Check it out:

AWESOME NO. 10

Oh yeah, it should be mentioned that this little dog-and-pony show will evolve into a videocast. And you know what? We’re going all out with it, too. We’re talking a live band, solid production values and a desk from Ikea.

Nope, we can’t wait either.

Strasburg dominant in Reading, but is he ready for the NL East?

READING, Pa. — It’s almost easier to expect the worst. Likemaybe his fastball will be flat and hitable, or maybe the torque on his elbow from throwing his curveball will mean more business for Dr. Frank Jobe.

It’s worth noting that some of baseball’s biggest flops might have achieved greater fame for being a cautionary tale than if they had put together a solid big-league career. Oh yes, sometimes we celebrate failure as much as we immortalize success.

Try this out for size: Ever hear of the pitcher Ed Figueroa? From 1975 to 1978 he won 71 games, including 20 for the World Champion Yankees in ’78. Twice during that span Figueroa finished in the top seven in the Cy Young balloting though he was overshadowed by more well-known pitchers on the Yankees staff like Ron Guidry, Catfish Hunter, Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage.

Still, from 1976 to 1978, three seasons in which the team went to the World Series, no Yankees pitcher won more games than Figueroa. Obviously, he was a solid pitcher for some really good teams.

Now, how many people have heard about Brien Taylor, the overall No. 1pick in the 1991 draft? Of course you know Brien Taylor. He was the lefty with electric stuff who signed for a $1.55 bonus with the Yankees and appeared to be on the fast track to the big leagues until he tore the labrum in his pitching shoulder in a fight. Taylor pitched in a handful of games in his final five seasons and never made it past Double-A. These days, according to reports, he was working for a beer distributor.

No, we’re not comparing Stephen Strasburg to Brien Taylor. By all accounts Strasburg has been treated as if he were a Ming vase since he signed with the Washington Nationals after being selected as the top overall pick in last June’s draft. When the right-hander with the triple-digit fastball and a knee-buckling curve showed up at First Energy Stadium on Tuesday night with his Double-A Harrisburg teammates, a veritable entourage of press folks also took over the quaint, old ballpark.

Scribes from The New York Times and Washington Post came out to watch Strasburg while members of the Nationals’ PR staff strung the velvet ropes around the 21-year old. Moreover, the fans that turned out on a chilly night caught a glimpse of something. Strasburg retired the first 13 he faced before losing the perfect game with one out in the fifth on a strikeout/passed ball. Regrouping and working out of the stretch, Strasburg got a pair of ground balls to get out of the inning.

“My command of my pitches allowed me to [throw more off-speed pitches],” said the pitcher after throwing fastballs on approximately 60 percent of his 64 pitches. “If I don’t have command of my pitches, why would I throw off-speed? That’s the big thing I was able to do.”

Well, that wasn’t the only big thing he was able to do. All told, Strasburg did not allow a hit in five innings, picked up six strikeouts and allowed just two fair balls to leave the infield. And just to make it seem like he wasn’t just some freak throwing fastballs past everyone, Strasburg singled home the first run of the game.

Outings like the one on Tuesday night in Reading have been closer to the norm for the phenom. In four professional starts, Strasburg has allowed one run in 17 1/3 innings (0.51 ERA), with three walks and 23 strikeouts. In those four starts he has allowed just 11 base runners. On Tuesday, he topped 96 on the stadium radar gun, but it was more than enough to overpower Double-A hitters.

In other words, he hasn’t been tested.

So how good is the kid? Or better yet, why is he pitching for Harrisburg?

“He’s pretty impressive. If he’s able to pitch in effectively to Major League hitters, then he’s going to be really tough,” said Brad Lidge, who also was a first-round pick after a solid college career. “He has command of his changeup and curveball and that kind of arm doesn’t come around very often. It’s not often to see a guy with that kind of fast ball and with a good idea of what he’s doing with his off-speed pitches. Hopefully our hitters will figure him out when he gets called up this year.”

This year, huh? Clearly Strasburg has the stuff to pitch in the Majors now considering his heater likely got closer to triple-digits than the stadium gun indicated. Better yet, because he was able to throw his fastball for strikes, he got a better workout than expected.

Still, it’s difficult to determine how good Strasburg is until he moves up. Then, of course, expect to hear names like David Clyde and Todd Van Poppel ticked off the first time the kid gets roughed up. Clyde and Van Poppel? Yeah, like Strasburg they were both can’t-miss No. 1 picks in the draft who went on to have very poor big league careers. Combined, the former top picks went 58-85, which, of course, is 58-85 better than Brien Taylor did.

Nevertheless, Strasburg seems to have prepared himself for everything. He knows just as many people will be rooting for another flop as much as a Hall-of-Fame career. Since he grew up in an age where media encompasses just about every facet of life, Strasburg is better prepared than perhaps anyone before him. Plus, his college coach was Tony Gwynn—one of the big leaguers well known for being great.

Well schooled, Strasburg seems grounded enough to not let it all get ahead of him. He’ll be in the big leagues eventually, so until he gets the call he has no control of his situation.

“It’s obviously not a normal situation for a guy in his first year of pro ball, but it goes with the territory and I’ve accepted that,” he said.

Besides, they have the minor leagues for a reason. Lidge pitched in 53 games over four seasons in the minors after he left Notre Dame and made it to the big leagues for good. This experience will be good for Strasburg, Lidge says.

After all, Clyde went from his high school graduation to his Major League debut in the same month when he was just 18, while Van Poppel made his debut when he was 19 after one season in the minors. Clearly those guys needed a little more seasoning.

“I think it’s a good idea because at the very least it’s going to get him used to being on that clockwork of the rotation and pitching every five days,” Lidge said. “If nothing else, he gets to experience the minor leagues a little bit. That’s a good thing for guys. But clearly he’s showing he’s ready to move on from Double-A and I’m sure he’ll have the same results in Triple-A.”

As for the Majors, we’ll probably find out about that soon enough.

Does Howard's deal put Brown on fast track?

READING, Pa. — The steady rain and foreboding forecastleant itself to some light workouts on Monday, so the Reading Phillies’ right-fielder Domonic Brown knocked off a little early. With a doubleheader on the slate for Tuesday against Harrisburg’s star Stephen Strasburg, a little extra rest was in order.

Besides, Brown suffered a concussion last week when he collided with teammate Tagg Bozied when chasing after a fly ball. With a long season ahead that likely will surpass Brown’s previous career-best for games played, an easy day here and there isn’t a bad thing.

Then again, that’s just the thing — what are the Phillies plans for Brown this season? When asked last week, the team’s latest can’t-miss prospect said he didn’t know what his immediate future held. For now the plan is to suit up for Reading, get his at-bats and wait for further instructions.

It’s not known if those instructions will include a late-season call from the big club, because teams aren’t too keen on getting the service-time clock started on a player sure to command a big paycheck in the future.

After all, as of Monday afternoon the Phillies are paying out a lot more cash to a handful of players for the better part of the next decade. In fact, it might just be because of Ryan Howard’s new five-year, $125 million contract extension that Brown is officially placed on the fast track to South Philly.

See, if Jayson Werth hits the free-agent market this winter looking to cash in, then yes, chances are the Phillies won’t be able to sign him to a contract extension. Sure, the Phillies are making plenty of money with sold out crowds every night at Citizens Bank Park, but to quote Bill Gates as depicted in an episode of The Simpsons, “You don’t get rich by writing checks.”

However, if Werth wants to give the Phillies the ol’ hometown discount, then general manager Ruben Amaro should be ready to listen.

“Naturally we’d like to keep all of those guys, but we’ll go by a case-by-case basis,” Amaro said from San Francisco during the press conference to officially announce Howard’s new deal.

That’s kind of like saying, “Water is wet.” It’s obvious the Phillies will weigh all their options before deciding which players to keep and which ones to let go. Clearly the team had no trouble in letting Brett Myers walk away even though he might not look too bad pitching for the Phillies these days. Along those lines, the Amaro Gang was not averse to shelling out three years to veterans Raul Ibanez (at age 37) or Placido Polanco (age 34).

Plus, after the 2011 season Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels and Ryan Madson can become free agents. Theoretically the Phillies will have enough money to go around re-signing all of those players, but you know what they say about theories.

So with the harebrained theory that the Phillies will be benevolent with that extra dough they are raking in from all those sellouts, it might be wise to look ahead at cheaper alternatives. That’s where Brown comes in.

And by most accounts Brown could have cracked the 25-man roster this spring if the Phillies needed the depth on the bench. The thing there is that Brown is at the stage in his development where he needs to play as much as possible. At 22, Brown has hit .289 in 49 games for Reading, including a .325 mark this season though he has hit just one homer.

Still, Brown has a .386 on-base percentage this season and said he hoped to improve his plate discipline since jumping to Double-A. That’s an interesting notion considering Werth routinely leads the Majors in pitches seen per plate appearance and has a robust .400 on-base percentage this year.

Brown was the one player the Phillies would not part with in any deal even if it meant they would not be able to trade for Roy Halladay. He rewarded the Phillies for sticking with him by batting .417 in 11 games this spring with two homers and a pair of doubles with eight RBIs. Only Howard and Ben Francisco had better numbers in Grapefruit League action.

Here’s the crazy part… Brown was the team’s 20^th-round pick in 2006 and 606 players were taken ahead of him. Yeah, that’s right, Brown, the untouchable, was a 20th round pick in the 2006 draft for the Phillies. The reason he dropped nearly off the charts was because he had a scholarship offer to play wide receiver at the University of Miami (Fla.). Odder yet, Brown was listed as a left-handed pitcher when the Phillies drafted him.

Needless to say Brown hasn’t thrown a pitch since turning pro.

“He’s ridiculous,” said former Phillies starter and Brown’s teammate Scott Mathieson. “He’s one of the best outfielders I’ve ever seen.”

Still, Brown needs some honing. In 49 games at Double-A, Brown has struck out 46 times. He also has been caught stealing 29 times in 102 attempts in his minor league career. In other words, there are a lot of rough edges. Still, the potential and the raw talent that project to a five-tool All-Star is what turns heads at Reading.

“It should be lot of fun to watch him develop,” manager Steve Roadcap said.

That’s what the Phillies want to see happen. Ideally, when Ibanez’s contract runs out, Brown could create a seamless transition. But if the money runs out and Werth moves on, Brown might be needed much sooner.

Catch him in Reading while you can.

Bolt and a busy week

Note: There will be lots going on this week. Both Brad Lidge and Stephen Stasburg pitch in Reading tonight, the Flyers likely will go to Washington to open the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Thursday or Friday, and the Mets come to town. Nevertheless, we're still hearing from folks about the performance by Usain Bolt at Franklin Field on Saturday.

To be sure, there were a lot of great performances at the Penn Relays last weekend, and take away Bolt and the field was still ridiculously star-studded. But these days Bolt is one of the biggest names in all of sports so that's what we're all going crazy about.

So since ESPN is offering two encores of Saturday's card at the Penn Relays, we'll repost the Bolt feature from CSNPhilly.com.

Get ready for some more baseball and hockey beginning tonight.

World's Fastest Man Puts on a Show at Franklin Field

There aren’t too many titles that cause a crowd or force folks to react. The President of the United States is one. So too is the heavyweight champion of the world. Generally, those are two jobs that make people change their schedules or travel long distances just to catch a glimpse, and even then it’s just to catch a peek amongst thousands of other folks.

These days though, those titles don’t seem to be as respected as they were in the past. The President could be one of the most polarizing figures around, while it’s difficult to figure out who exactly the heavyweight champion of the world is. In fact, ex-champs like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson pack ‘em in, though more out of curiosity than anything else.

And that is no knock on Ali by comparing him to Tyson.

But mention the “fastest man on earth” and get ready to fill a stadium and/or cause a small riot. Certainly that was the scene at Franklin Field on Saturday afternoon when Usain Bolt showed up to race in the USA vs. The World competition at the Penn Relays.

Bolt, of course, is the 23-year-old Jamaican who destroyed the world records in the 100- and 200-meters at the Olympics in 2008 and the World Championships in 2009 in a manner that transcended mere athletics. In fact, Bolt’s electrifying efforts at those competitions motivated a even a few of the most jaded and experienced sports writers to describe the events as the most exciting and exhilarating they had ever seen.

Moreover, crusty old veteran track coaches have gone so far as to compare Bolt’s talent along the lines of those possessed by Einstein, Beethoven and Newton. Certainly those aren’t the usual names one hears an elite-level athlete compared to.

Chalk part of it up to the cult of personality. Sure, his talent is so far beyond his contemporaries that an “easy” effort against competition that featured the owners of 14 Olympic medals. For a non-Olympic and World Championships year, the 4x100-meter competition at the Penn Relays just might have been the best in the world this year.

Still, the largest crowd in the 116-year history of the event all came to see one guy, and he competed for just 8.79 seconds in his anchor leg effort. Actually, Bolt’s personality is so large in the sport that Olympic gold medalists and champions of the sport lingered around the track just to catch a glimpse.

“I was leadoff leg and I could actually hear, right next to me, the crowd screaming. I’ve been coming here for about 12 years now, and this was the loudest one. It was great,” said two-time world champion, Lisa Barber, who helped Team USA win the women’s 4x100-meters. “When Bolt was warming up, I couldn't hear my music anymore through my headphones. It's great that Usain is getting this much press. He’s getting so much recognition worldwide.”

It’s worth asking who the most famous athlete on the planet is these days. Certainly Tiger Woods is pretty well known, though that has very little to do with his sport. Bolt was asked about Michael Jordan, but his Airness has been retired for nearly a decade and his successors, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, aren’t the best players in their sport on any given night.

So in terms of pure domination of a sport on a consistent basis, Bolt is the greatest on the planet. And just like all of the races he has been in since 2008, it isn’t even close.

“Over the past two years I’ve been surprised by the amount of people that know me and the welcome I get when I go to track meets or functions,” Bolt said. “For me I’m still trying to get used to it and I’m enjoying it.”

As for the runners he’s beating, it isn’t so much fun. Before 2008, the 4x100 USA team that competed at the Penn Relays on Saturday would be the best in the world and the group that competed last year set the meet record. The loquacious and personable Shawn Crawford, the Olympic champion in the 200-meters in 2004, but finished a distant second to Bolt in 2008, appears to be frustrated by Bolt’s talents. Though he’s creeping up on the end of his career, Crawford knows the window for knocking off the fastest man on earth is closing quickly.

That is if it’s even open at all.

Team USA with medalist Walter Dix and anchorman Ivory Williams, Mike Rodgers and Crawford, actually had a nice lead over Jamaica heading into the final leg.

Then Bolt got the baton.

“I just hate to lose,” Crawford said, muttering a few unprintable words under his breath.

“[Racing against Bolt] excites and it motivates. The more excitement they bring to track and field, we all get the attention because we’re on the same playing field. But it motivates me because you want to be that guy winning. I want to get up there and showboat a little bit and be in the spotlight so I can talk a little mess.

“Well, I already talk mess.”

Talk is cheap, of course. Bolt doesn’t appear to say much on the track aside from flashing his trademarked “Lightning Bolt” pose, which probably is the coolest bit of posturing in all of sports.

Actually, just seeing Bolt run might be the coolest and surreal effort in sports. Standing yards away from the finishing line on Saturday, Bolt moves past as if he were a runaway motorcycle and the breeze from his nearly 30-mph wake was enough to cool the crowd on a sun-soaked afternoon.

“I told the guys to make sure I didn't have to work, because I really didn't want to do much,” Bolt said. “I got the baton, so I wasn’t really worried about anything else.”

Worried? What could the fastest man in the history of the earth ever have to worry about?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjNxCdlDrv8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Bolt just another legend at Franklin Field

Based solely on the number and the variety of eliteathletes that have competed at Franklin Field, the relic and classic, brick stadium is by far the most-storied and historical spot in the city.

Oh sure, there was a lot of pretty important events that occurred over at Market and Fifth, like that birth of a nation business, and the framing of the American ideal and grand experiment. Between Independence Hall, the First (and Second) Bank of the United States, and any number of spots where taverns once rested in Olde City, there’s a square mile on the east end of town that is debatably the most historical piece of land in the world.

Yes, once upon a time things went down in Philadelphia.

But if we’re just talking about sports and/or athletic competition, nothing beats Franklin Field. Take away the fact that the Eagles won their last championship at the old stadium 50 years ago, the sheer number of Olympic champions that have taken a spin on the oval in the place is staggering.

Put it this way… there are world-record holders and Olympic champions who have competed at Franklin Field in the Penn Relays and are not members have the event’s Wall of Fame. Michael Johnson isn’t in it, nor is Jesse Owens, one of the most important African-American athletes of the 20^th Century (top two at least). Both runners raced at Franklin Field yet are not memorialized on the far wall on the east end of the stadium. They don’t mess around in this stadium.

Still… Jesse Owens.

Of course Usain Bolt isn’t in the Wall of Fame, either, but that’s for a good reason. Bolt, still just 23-years old, will make his professional debut at Franklin Field on Saturday. As a school boy in Jamaica, Bolt made the trip to Philadelphia to race at Penn several times, but that was before he was the fastest man in the history of the planet.

Bolt seems poised to add to his legend when the world-record holder in the 100- and 200-meters steps up to the 400, which was Michael Johnson’s signature event. But that isn’t going to happen any time soon. The training is too difficult for the 400, Bolt said. While we’re at it, don’t expect any world records at Franklin Field, either, since Bolt says he wants to spend the 2010 track season “taking it easy.”

“I want to try to get through the season injury-free and be unbeaten,” Bolt said. “If I need to run fast to win, I will do that. But if not, I will just take it as easy as possible.”

Those aren’t exactly the most inspiring words, but like anything “easy” for Bolt is a relative term. At top speed Bolt gets over 30-mph, and because of that he usually commands six-figures in appearance fees just to show up at a track event. However, for the USA vs. The World competition on Saturday, Bolt waived his fee to race at Franklin Field.

Oh yes, Bolt came to Philly for free.

“I told my coach, we decided we really needed to come to the Penn Relays this year,” Bolt said. “So we decided that it's OK. I like to run the relays with my team. For me, it was just enjoyable, a very fun moment when my coach told me we're going to the Penn Relays. I was happy to come here.”

No, certainly that’s not something we hear every day around here, then again, Bolt may need a few more appearances at Franklin Field to get his name etched on the wall at the top of the curve. Yeah, Bolt is the fastest man in the history of the planet, but that’s nothing new for the folks here.