Around the Majors » 2007

February 2007

Oliva’s next Hall of Fame chance

Monday, February 26th, 2007

Tony Oliva had a hard time containing his disappointment two years ago when he wasn’t elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. Astonishingly, the committee chose nobody. Players need to be picked on 75 percent of the ballots to get in, but if it happens again, they ought to rename these 84 voters The Grizzled Veterans Committee.

Oliva’s next chance comes Tuesday, at 1 p.m. (Central), when this year’s announcement gets made. Other players on the 27-member ballot include Roger Maris, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat and Ron Santo. Here’s the complete list and more information from Cooperstown.

Posted in Hall of Fame | 2 Comments »

Swisher goes yard, as in barnyard

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

OK, here’s one more recent story for your snowed-in reading pleasure, written by the New York Times’ Lee Jenkins (another personal favorite), on the offseason training regimen Nick Swisher used to add 20 pounds. Yes, it addresses the obvious steroid speculation, but Swisher dismisses it, saying he swung a sledgehammer to chop trees and crush walls. He was at a farm in Ohio, where Marines train for boot camp.

“This is not Bally’s or Chelsea Piers,” said Bill Fry, the owner of the center. “We do some different stuff out here, some crude stuff. This is more like Rocky in Russia, running through Siberia and hitting sides of beef.”

Posted in Around MLB | 5 Comments »

Dale Murphy calls out Sosa, Bonds and McGwire

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Received an e-mail today with a transcript of Dale Murphy’s interview with XM Radio’s Holden Kushner on Saturday. Some pretty explosive stuff:

Holden Kushner: One guy that’s trying to make a comeback right now, Sammy Sosa; do you think Sammy Sosa used performance enhancing drugs?

Dale Murphy: Yeah I think so.

HK: Barry Bonds?

DM: Yeah, I think so.

HK: What do you think your reaction will be if and when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s all-time Home Run Record?

DM: Well, I’m not that excited about it. Let me put it this way: When Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record, I pulled my kids into the living room, and said, “You gotta see this.” This is not going to happen with Barry. It doesn’t mean anything to me, ya know. Barry is a great talent, and would have been a great talent without getting involved in this kind of stuff, in steroids, and all the stuff like that. People have said, “Dale, he hasn’t failed a drug test.” That doesn’t matter to me anymore. It’s what I see, what I’ve read, what I’ve heard, and what I can see with my eyes.

That’s my opinion, and a lot other people have that opinion as well. You get back to the record; he’s a Hall of Fame player and would have hit a lot of home runs without it. And now that he’s breaking the record, I don’t think he went about it the right way.

HK: A final name then, Mark McGwire, and if you think he used performance enhancing drugs, do you think he belongs in the Hall of Fame?

DM: I think he did. Anybody who watched the testimony, it’s just not a great leap to say it’s kind of obvious. Bottom line is, yeah, I think he did [use performance enhancing drugs]. I think he got some bad advice because now we’re just kind of looking at him and saying, “We obviously know you won’t address it.” I think there’s ways for Mark McGwire to address this issue and to help baseball, and to reach out to kids. … Hall of Fame, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t vote for someone who I felt was involved with that.

Posted in Around MLB | 4 Comments »

Sir Sidney and Erickson

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Barely a week into my blogging career, I’ve learned a valuable lesson: Don’t blog (yes, this is now a verb) about a story you’re going to write until you’re absolutely sure how you’re going to write it. Readers may recall my Friday entry with this quote from Sidney Ponson about Scott Erickson:

“Everybody said that he was the downfall for my career. He never was the downfall for my career. He made me work out — something I never did. He got me to ride the bike, lift weights, run, do all that. Yeah, we go out and have beers. But they only talked about that. He taught me about situations, how to think. The guy threw a no-hitter in Minnesota on turf. It’s really hard to do it on grass. You do it on turf, it’s pretty good. He won the World Series for these guys, won 20 games. It’s one of those things. People always look to say the worst about anything.”

Well, the Ponson story (which I just found on our home page, under the sports links) is so complex, I didn’t have enough space to delve into the Erickson influence. Didn’t even use the quote! And SBG is right: This needs some explaining.

Early in Ponson’s career with the Orioles, Erickson took him to a Metallica concert. Ponson struggled in his next start, and the media — as we are wont to do — had a field day. Those two were good friends who continued to spend time together. Hard rock and beer remained big parts of their lifestyle.

Erickson became less and less effective for Baltimore, as he battled through injuries, and Ponson never reached his potential. Fair or not, baseball people — not just the media — pointed to Erickson’s influence on Ponson as negative. … Hope that explains it better, and apologies for the blogger’s error.

Posted in Catch-all | Comments Off

For your snowed-in reading pleasure

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

We’re having issues with our web site, apparently, so our Sunday stories have yet to surface. Apologies. If you’re snowed in and looking for a great story to read, here’s one about former No. 1 overall draft pick Josh Hamilton, whose career has been derailed by serious drug addictions. He’s getting a fresh chance this spring with the Cincinnati Reds, and the Twins could face him next Saturday when they face the Reds in Sarasota.

The story was written by one of the best in the business, the Washington Post’s Dave Sheinin. Enjoy.

Posted in Around MLB | 2 Comments »