Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• Expanded replay may come as soon as next season, according to Joe Torre, MLB’s executive vice president.
• Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe suggests that Dustin Pedroia may have supplanted Robinson Cano as the premier second baseman in the bigs.
• Has another Yankee, Ichiro Suzuki, reached the end of the road? Derek Albin of the Pinstriped Bible believes so:

Ichiro’s contact and batted ball stats further the notion that his BABIP hasn’t been subject to bad luck. Keeping in mind that contact rate and line drive rate stabilize at 100 and 150 plate appearances respectively, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about Ichiro going forward. Remember, he’s had 145 plate appearances, so we can rely on his contact rate and just about trust his line drive rate thus far. Compared to last season, Ichiro is putting the bat on the ball 5.4% less often, while 3.6% below his lifetime percentage*. His line drive rate, while not officially stable yet but pretty close, stands 9.2% less than last year and 5% worse than his stateside career*. These discrepancies tell a clear story of a guy not being able to put good wood on the ball, a classic indication of age overcoming a once great hitter.

• According to the Hardball Times’ Brad Johnson, the Phillies brain trust should be prepared to “retool but not reboot.”
• After examining PitchF/X and Retrosheet data, Max Marchi of Baseball Prospectus presents the “career laurel as the cumulative king of [pitch] framing for the past quarter century” to Brad Ausmus, now a special assistant with the Padres. Ausmus also get kudos for having the single greatest season behind the plate (2000).
• Cliff Corcoran of Sports Illustrated’s The Strike Zone explains why the Diamondbacks–Marlins game on Saturday night was so unusual:

Gerardo Parra hit the very first pitch of the game from the Marlins’ Tom Koehler, a 94 mph fastball that was up and over the inside half of the plate, into the Marlins’ bullpen for a leadoff home run. Another 234 pitches were thrown in the game by both teams over sixty-one plate appearances, but Parra’s home run was the only run-scoring play of the game.

According to Elias, the last time that happened — the only run of a game was scored on the first pitch — was nearly 50 years ago. It was September 2, 1963, when Reds’ rookie second baseman Pete Rose homered off the Mets’ Jay Hook to start the second game of a double-header at the Polo Grounds. Hook and the Reds’ Jim Maloney then proceeded to match zeroes for nine innings as the Reds won 1-0.

• ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin reveals why Mets pitching prospect Zack Wheeler’s “Super 2″ status is keeping him from being promoted to the big-league club until later next month.
• Jason Grilli may be 36 years old but his strikeout rate is double what it was five years ago and more than five times what it was in 2005. Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs gives most of the credit to the closer’s slider, which since 2009, “has three and a half more inches of horizontal movement, and four and a half more inches of sink.”

• Watch Grilli’s teammate, Pedro Alvarez, deposit this pitch out of PNC Park and into the Allegheny River. According to Mark Townend of Big League Stew, Alvarez’s home run ball traveled 448 feet on the fly.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Eric Mathis shared his views on the IRS in the wake of recent revealtions in an attention-grabbin way, posting a photo of himself on Istragram that depicts him urinating on an IRS sign. The caption? “Audit This.”

When a Twitter follower said to “count on” an Mathis issuing an apology, Mathis shot back, “How high are we counting?

How high are we counting? RT @dcfanaticsblog: Evan Mathis will be apologizing later today. Count on that.

— Evan Mathis (@EvanMathis69) May 15, 2013

AP:

Michigan coach Brady Hoke has taken the Notre Dame rivalry up a notch.

Hoke made a crowd chuckle on Monday at West Michigan Sports Commission luncheon by saying the Fighting Irish are “chickening out” from the storied series.

Notre Dame exercised an option in its football-scheduling contract with Michigan last fall to cancel games from 2015-2017.

Hoke lamented that the Irish will continue to play rivals Michigan State and Purdue, joking he knows why they made that decision.

Last night in Chavez Ravine, Bryce Harper smacked his face into the outfield fence at Chavez Ravine in a both excruciatingly painful and bizarre incident:

Reportedly, the Nats phenom needed eleven stitches to seal a cut in his chin but did not suffer a concussion. He is presently listed as day-to-day.

More here.

P.S. Pete Reiser was unavailable for comment.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

After scrutinizing future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn’s 1954–57 seasons, Joe Posnanski asks Bill James why, despite pitching 1,081 innings over those four years, the Milwaukee Braves southpaw threw a mere 2 2/3 innings against the Brooklyn Doddgers.
Grantland’s Jonah Keri looks at another southpaw, Clayton Kershaw, and the moment when a 19-year-old’s breaking ball got the normally unflappable Vin Scully to lapse into hyperbole.
A third lefty, Scott Kazmir, is profiled by Beyond the Boxscore’s Lee Trocinski, who observes what the 29-year-old is doing right in his comeback with the Indians and what he could do better.
Matt Snyder of CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball explains why an umpire-crew chief was suspended for screwing up a rules interpretation about a pitching change but another umpire was not, even though he blew an obvious home-run ball:

While it was obviously an egregious error, [Angel] Hernandez’s mistake was technically a judgment call – just like when Jim Joyce botched Armando Galarraga’s perfect game, just like the famous Don Denkinger call, just like Ron Kulpa’s botched call in Game 3 of the 2011 World Series and thousands of others.

Though Hernandez’s mistake was awful and pretty much everyone with a working set of eyes knows it, it was still under the umbrella of judgment calls. And Major League Baseball cannot — as much as we might emotionally want it to — get into the business of suspending umpires for making poor judgment calls. That’s a slippery slope from which the league would never recover. . . .

As an umpire, you cannot just pick and choose which rules to enforce.

That is why [Fieldin] Culbreth was suspended. His crew neglected to enforce a rule that is set in stone.

Citing the Jordany Valdespin incident over the weekend, Dustin Parkes of The Score explains on his Twitter feed why unwritten rules remain unwritten: “The Jordany Valdespin kerfuffle reminds us unwritten rules go unwritten because if they were written out, they’d seem really f***ing stupid.”
Three-true-outcome fans have never been happier: According to Andy of High Heat Stats, fewer balls are being put into play than ever before. 
Baseball Nation’s Rob Neyer takes Boston Globe columnist Dave Shaughnessy to task for the latter’s PED-related comments about David Ortiz.

Alex Cobb (above) struck out 13 batters in 4 2/3 innings, the first time in the live-vall era that a pitcher has struck out that many batters without completing five innings. Meanwhile, rookie Shelby Miller (27) and veteran Adam Wainwright (13) combined over two games to retire 40 consecutive batters, tying a MLB record. 

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

As Manchester City and Wigan prepare to face each other later today in the 2013 FA Cup final, here are some great images from the first FA Cup final, in 1923, at the original Wembley Stadium (officially, at the time, Empire Stadium), where Bolton Wanderers defeated West Ham United, 2–0. With 250,000 showing up for a match for which 100,000 were expected, fans climbed into the stadium and crowded onto the field. They were cleared by a mounted police officer whose gray horse, Billie, appeared white in black-and-white photos of the event, which came to be known as the White Horse Final.

To sum up the allegations, sophomore defensive lineman Chad Washington is accused of misdemeanor ”aggravated harassment as a hate crime” for allegedly making racial slurs against a fellow student.

Gothamist reports, however:

. . . a source familiar with the case suggests that Washington, a defensive lineman for Columbia’s football team, may have been provoked by the victim first. Washington and his group of friends had walked past the victim and the victim’s female friends, the source says, and apparently brushed up against them. This, the source claims, angered the victim who mocked Washington’s group, and at that point, Washington and his friends reacted. Further, the source says that both parties had been drinking.

Washington is black, the alleged victim is Asian.

Now, it would be easy to chalk this up to a drunken he said/he said, but, well, there are tweets (from before the incident occurred) that don’t paint Washington in the best light:

Lots of tweets, from multiple players, of what look-to-be of a racist and/or homophobic nature. 

Did Washington’s encounter with this Asian student constitute a hate crime? I don’t know. But the story is now much more about the social media posts of Washington’s teammates than it is about him.

When I was at Columbia as a student (and football player), it was crystal clear that an off-color joke shared between friends could easily get you kicked off of the team or expelled from school. I expect these students will find themselves off the team in short order and fighting to stay in school.

It’s a good bet that head coach Pete Mangurian – who reportedly followed many of these players on Twitter — will be fired as well.

David Moyes has been appointed the new manager of Manchester United, beginning July 1st, on a six-year contract. The 50-year-old Glaswegian has been long admired by Sir Alex Ferguson, who originally approached Moyes back in 1998 to be his assistant manager. Moyes instead went on to manage Preston North End, which was then struggling in Division Two, guiding them to the Division Two title and promotion to Division One. After four years, he moved to Everton, where he brought stability and has achieved some success within the club’s limited budget.

Although never winning a Premier League title, Moyes has kept Everton in the top ten for most of his eleven years there. Ferguson himself played a vital role in the selection of his successor, summing up his admiration for Moyes, “When we discussed the candidates that we felt had the right attributes we unanimously agreed on David Moyes. David is a man of great integrity with a strong work ethic. . . . There is no question he has all the qualities we expect of a manager at this club.”

Moyes, who was the bookies ‘favorite, will finish out the current season with Everton.

The 17-year-old who punched and killed soccer referee Ricardo Portillo has been charged with “homicide by assault” and the prosecutor will seek to try the teenager as an adult.

The maximum sentence for an adult is five years and “can be less for juveniles.” 

Not long enough if you ask me.

After watching this clip, from the ninth inning of this evening’s A’s–Indians game — Oakland ended up losing, 4–3 — I think it’s safe to say that second-base umpire Angel Hernandez won’t be getting Christmas cards from A’s manager Bob Melvin or other members of the organization.

More here and here.

Defensive end Nick Reed has quit the Vikings to pursue a career as a fighter pilot:

A year ago, almost to the day, Nick Reed signed a two-year deal with the Minnesota Vikings that would have paid him $1.2 million and solidified his status as a professional football player.

Instead, Tuesday morning Reed awoke before 4:30 a.m., made sure his room was fit for inspection, headed out to physical training and began what would be another exhausting 19-hour day that would trump the demands of any NFL training camp.

While Reed remains a bit confused as to why his NFL career was so brief, he is more than content to be among those elite recruits to be preparing to be a pilot at the Air Force Academy, now hoping to use his skills and athleticism to serve his country.

Reed, 25, was a seventh-round pick of Seattle in 2009, out of Oregon, and is one of the all-time sack leaders in Pac-12 history. For much of his life he felt two callings — one to football, the other to be a military pilot — and he is approaching the pursuit of being a fighter pilot with the same vigor with which he played football.

“When I was a kid my dad was in the Navy,” Reed said late Monday night, during one of the few spare minutes not accounted for by his rigorous schedule, “and he was flight surgeon — a doctor for the pilots. So he would come home and talk about that stuff with me, and I think that’s how I kind of got into it and knew that was something I wanted to do. Most kids want to be an astronaut or a pilot. I guess I never really got out of that stage.”

The rest here and good luck with the new career. 

Blue Jays southpaw J. A. Happ has been discharged from a St. Petersburg hospital after being hit in the head with a batted ball last night:

Bayfront Medical Center said in a statement that Happ was discharged after being upgraded from fair to good condition on Wednesday. Happ was taken there after being struck on the left side of the head by a ball off the bat of Desmond Jennings during Tuesday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Blue Jays said Happ was responsive and feeling better after sustaining a head bruise and cut to his the left ear.

The beaning again raises the issue about how to better protect pitchers:

It was the latest injury to a pitcher struck by a batted ball in the last few years, and baseball has discussed ways to protect hurlers who ply their craft against the world’s strongest hitters — only 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate.

General managers discussed the issue during their meetings in November and MLB presented several ideas at the winter meetings weeks later.

MLB staff have said a cap liner with Kevlar, the material used in body armor for the military, law enforcement and NFL players, is among the ideas under consideration.

The liners, weighing perhaps 5 ounces or less, would go under a pitcher’s cap and help protect against line drives that often travel over 100 mph.

Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy, who was hospitalized after getting struck with a line drive last September, sounds a cautionary note:

Most everything that’s come out wouldn’t have protected me, and it wouldn’t have protected [Happ] if he got hit directly in the ear. You’re at a point now where you’re looking at batting helmets. You’d have to have something that protected the ear and then the face and beyond. So it’s kind of a slippery slope. Someone will have to come up with something really good and really sound. Otherwise, I don’t know how you answer that question.

More here.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will retire at the end of the season. “It is the right time,” the Scot said. The decision marks the end of an era in British soccer. No other manager has been as successful, Ferguson having won a total of 49 trophies, beginning with his time at St. Mirren and then Aberdeen in the old Scottish First Division. Coming to Manchester United in November 1986, he stated that his aim was to “knock Liverpool off their perch.” His retirement comes two and a half weeks after Manchester United sealed their 20th domestic league title, his 13th Premier League trophy with the club. His other trophies include three UEFA Cup Winner’s Cups, five FA Cups, two Champions League trophies, in addition to other league and intercontinental honours.

The 71-year-old has always stated that his health will determine when he retires. The club announced last weekend that he is scheduled to undergo hip-replacement surgery this summer.

“The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. . . . It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so. The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long-term future of the club remains a bright one.”

He will remain at Manchester United, taking on a director’s role and be a club amabassador, and will certainly have a say in who his successor will be. His advice for the next manager will be appreciated, as he has said that Man U’s previous legendary manager, Sir Matt Busby, was invaluable to him. A few names being thrown around are Everton’s David Moyes, Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho, Borsussia Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp, and Malaga’s Manuel Pellegrini.

Or, “Why I gave up umpiring little league games a long time ago”:

A Little League baseball manager has been charged with assault after witnesses told police he slapped a 17-year-old umpire who had ejected him from a game.

The manager, Thomas Murphy, 43, of Yaffa Road, Bayville, faces two counts of simple assault, according to Detective Sgt. Jim Smith, a spokesman for the township police department.

Smith said Patrolman Michael O’Connor found Murphy, manager for the Mets Little League team, at his home after Murphy had left the field after the incident.

Murphy was issued two summonses — one for simple assault and another for simple assault at a sporting event in the presence of children under the age of 16, Smith said.

No court date has been set for Murphy, Smith said.

Smith said witnesses told police they saw Murphy “strike the umpire with an open right hand to his right ear.”

Smith said the 17-year-old umpire said he didn’t need medical treatment.

The ages of the baseball players who witnessed the umpire get slapped were 10, 11 and 12 years old, he said.

It’s a game. Your kid is not going to play in the majors. Let it go.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

A recreational league soccer referee died Saturday night, a week after being punched in the head for issuing a yellow card to a teenage player.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• Baseball Nation’s Rob Neyer reveals his all-April team, which may include a face or two that will stink up the joint by Memorial Day:

SS - Jean Segura
Yes, yes . . .  He was an excellent prospect; that’s why the Brewers got him from the Angels last summer. As a rookie, though, Segura didn’t take real well to the National League, batting .264 without a single home run in 44 games. This season, though? He’s batting .364 with nine extra-base hits (including three homers!) in 24 games. Meanwhile, the 9-17 Angels can merely wonder what might have been…

LF - Nate McLouth
Nate McLouth is a testament to . . . something. Six years ago, McLouth came out of Nowhere to have a pretty good season with the Pirates, and a year later came out of Semi-Nowhere to lead the National League with 48 doubles and win a Gold Glove in center field. The next year, the Pirates traded McLouth to the Braves and he went back to being Nate McLouth, Journeyman Outfielder. Which he’s been ever since. Except this year, he’s the Orioles’ every-day left fielder and he’s batting .346 with a lot more walks than strikeouts.

Pitcher – Kevin Correia
So, so much fun. Correia is the thrilling apogee of the Minnesota Twins’ pitch-to-contact philosophy: Don’t strike anybody out, and the wins will come. Which is actually a really terrible philosophy. Except that Correia, who’s got only 15 strikeouts in 36 innings in this Age of the Strikeout, is also 3–1 with a 2.23 ERA. Granted, it’s not nearly as shocking as Jonathan Sanchez washing out with the Pirates. Still, I’ll bet you didn’t see this one coming.

• Paul Swydan of Fangraphs explores the use of the sacrifice bunt in the first inning and concludes that the oft-ridiculed tactic is still being employed too frequently.
• Writing in USA Today, Graham Womack of High Heat Stats highlights the Marlins’ offensive woes as a means of introducing weighted runs created plus (wRC+) to those readers unfamiliar with the statistic.
• Inspired by his five-year old son’s introduction to organized baseball, Beyond the Boxscore’s Adam Darowski discusses “The Sabermetrics of Little League.”
• Christina Kahrl of ESPN’s SweetSpot says that Jeremy Guthrie, who has been a key component in the Royals’ early-season success, also fits in well with Kansas City’s win-now philosophy:

From disappointing high expectations as a top prospect in Cleveland, to being stuck as an innings-eater in Oriole irrelevance, to the brief horrors of a mile-high exile as a Rockie, Guthrie has paid his dues and deserves a good turn. That he’s given the Royals more than one in kind is one of those happy developments. With the additions of James Shields and Ervin Santana to the rotation, Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore can reasonably brag that he’s managed to cobble together a better-than-average rotation in short order despite limited supply and limited cash. Thanks to their rotation, the Royals are in that gaggle of teams fighting for bragging rights to be second in the American League to the Detroit Tigers in quality-start percentage so far — just a tick or two below 60 percent — even as they fight to keep up with the heavily favored Motor City Kitties in the AL Central.

• Kahrl’s colleague, David Schoenfield, believes it is time for the Padres to ink the face of the franchise, Chase Headley, to a long-term extension.
• Zach Links of MLB Trade Rumors interviews Michael Pfaff, president and general manager of the Long Island Ducks, a team in the independent Atlantic League. Pfaff recently signed three former MLBers — Ramon Castro, Vladimir Guerrero, and Dontrelle Willis — to play for the club this summer. 

Has the Ducks’ reputation gotten to the point where the club doesn’t have to recruit and big names just sort of gravitate to the team?

Its a lot different than it was ten years ago.  There’s no question  In 2013, agents, players, and managers that are with or work with major league organizations know about the Atlantic League at this point.  We’ve had more than 600 players signed to major league deals.  

Let’s look at it from the perspective of a major league organization.  If you’re running player development for a big league club, and you have a player that makes, say, 10K a month, and you want to give a younger guy an opportunity to see if he can perform at that level, you would have to keep that guy at 10K a month in Triple-A or spring training or extending spring to give your young guy a shot.  Now, if he goes to an Atlantic League club, we really only have major league clubs to purchase our contract to repay the integrity of our contact.  It’s not to profit from it, its not a big revenue source for us, we make our money from ticket sales and such.  

If you’re a major league organization, and you go and you spend 4K to purchase that player, two months into the season, you would have paid that player 20K to have him.  Not only did you give your younger payer an opportunity to prove himself, you’ve got 16K to spend elsewhere..Economically, we’ve benefited major league organizations, they see that using the Atlantic League as a place where they can pluck talent from.

• Writing in the Hardball Times, Alex Connors asserts that the return of John Farrell to Fenway Park — he was the pitching coach from 2007 through 2010 and is back as manager this season — is having a positive effect on the Red Sox pitching staff.

• Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci wonders what was the substance that glistened on Clay Buchholz’s left forearm while on the mound against the Jays last Wednesday evening.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

The bill to use taxpayer money for renovations to Sun Life Stadium — owned by billionaire Stephen Ross’s Miami Dolphins — has died in the Florida House. Voting for the measure in a special election was already underway in Miami-Dade county, but that referendum will now be pulled:

Up against the clock and with a future Super Bowl on the line, the Miami Dolphins suffered an epic loss Friday in the state Capitol. The look of defeat on the face of Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, as he hugged House Speaker Will Weatherford, spoke volumes as the team’s stadium effort failed.

Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, had been the Dolphins’ chief ally in the Florida House. Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, turned out to be the team’s nemesis.

“OK, members,” Weatherford said at 6:57 p.m. Friday. “We’re done.”

Lawmakers ended the 60-day legislative session without approving a deal to provide taxpayer support for a $350 million upgrade of Sun Life Stadium. With last-minute amendments and late-game Hail Marys, the Dolphins held out until the final hour.

But a deal was not to be had, as Weatherford rejected the overtures of several lawmakers who pleaded with him to hear the bill. The House instead killed the stadium effort without a vote.

Republican Will Weatherford: hero.

But he’ll need conservative support in the coming weeks as Stephen Ross is not happy about losing his taxpayer bucks. Here’s his statement (my emphasis on the last paragraph — which reads like a threat to Weatherford):

Jason, I watched that game with my two brothers and had no problem staying up the whole time. Of course, back then I was a proofreader at a law firm, working the midnight-to-6 shift.

* According to my lovingly preserved 1984 copy of The Scouting Report (rather patronizingly discussed here), “Rick Camp is absolutely, unquestionably one of the worst hitters you will ever see in a major league game. Fortunately, as a reliever, he rarely comes up to bat.” Indeed, over his first six major-league seasons, 1976 to 1982, he was a combined 2 for 78 (both doubles, oddly enough), with 44 strikeouts. In 1983 his bat caught fire and he went 3 for 39, doubling again and even driving in two runs. And after his home run in 1985, his OPS for the season was a whopping .821. In fact, if you’ll pardon my being gauche enough to quote such a retro statistic as batting average, Camp’s BA increased over the previous season in each of his last four years. If he had stuck around, who knows? He could have become another Brooks Kieschnick . . .

* When Camp came up in the bottom of the 19th, Gary Carter stood up and trudged out to the mound, and the Mets’ announcer said, “I don’t believe this — it’s the bottom of the 19th and they’re changing signs because there’s a runner on second base.” Carter went 5 for 9, by the way, despite spending six hours squatting behind home plate. That’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame.

* Camp was as incredulous as anyone else when the ball went out, but as he rounded the bases he pulled himself together, and by the time he reached the dugout he was like, “Yeah, I do this all the time.” But everyone else on the Braves was cracking up. Dale Murphy, in particular, could barely contain himself.

* Back in the long-lost days when there used to be two leagues (and when, if you joined one league, you stayed there, damn it!), the AL and NL had different policies on late-night extra-inning games. The AL had a curfew of 1:00 AM; you couldn’t start any inning (i.e. the top of any inning) after that time. If 1:00 came and went and it was still tied, they suspended the game and picked up where it had left off the next time the teams played. The NL, by contrast, had a Rose Hartwick Thorpe policy, which is why the Mets and Braves were still playing baseball at a time when only cops and milkmen and legal proofreaders should be awake.

* Believe it or not, this was only the second-most memorable sporting event with a 16–13 score that I saw during Reagan’s second term. The most memorable was the 16–13 victory over Princeton in 1988 that broke Columbia football’s 44-game losing streak (and 47-game winless streak).

Rick Camp, 59, died last week, presumably of natural causes.

A pitcher, Camp, spent his entire nine-year big-league career with the Braves. He was in the starting rotation on manager Joe Torre’s 1982 team that won its division. Three years later, however, Camp was a bullpen arm, Torre had been fired, and the franchise was entering a period of malaise that would last through the end of the decade. On the Fourth of July, Atlanta’s record was 34–41 and only San Francisco was behind it in the NL West standings.

Not yet a junior in high school, I experienced the summer of 1985 as another prolonged break from classes and the last one that did not involve holding a job. I recall watching the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks display from my parents’ apartment building in Brooklyn Heights and then hanging out with friends in the neighborhood. On returning home after midnight, I turned on the TV and was surprised to find that the Mets–Braves game was still ongoing and about to go into extra innings. (The game had started an hour late due to rain.)

Here’s pretty much what my mind remembers from the game that might end up becoming the most memorable regular-season game I will watch in my lifetime:

• Keith Hernandez hit for the cycle but also got robbed of a base hit when the second-base umpire did not see center fielder Dale Murphy, who had dived for the sinking line drive, drop the ball.
• Eventual Cy Young Award winner Dwight Gooden had started the game but lasted only two and one-half innings, presumably because of an in-game rain delay.
• Eventual Hall of Fame closer Bruce Sutter blew a save.
• Howard Johnson hit a home run with a man on in the top of the 13th inning; Terry Harper evened the score with a two-out, two-run blast off the left-field foul pole in the bottom half.
• Manager Eddie Haas summoned Camp, who by now was used almost exclusively as a reliever, to pitch the 17th inning
• The second batter he faced, Darryl Strawberry, was ejected after arguing a strike-three call. Skipper Davey Johnson was tossed as well.*
• After the Mets had taken a one-run lead in the top of the 18th inning, southpaw reliever Tom Gorman, who was in his sixth inning of relief, retired the first two batters. Since there were no more available position players left on the bench, Camp, a career .060 hitter, had to hit for himself. He fouled off the first pitch, then took strike two. The third pitch — I think Gorman threw him a slider — was unbelievably deposited over the left-field wall, tying the game once more.
• After the batted ball cleared the outfield fence, exasperated left fielder Danny Heep took both hands and placed them on top of his head. In contrast, Camp appeared to have the biggest sh*t-a** grin on his face as he rounded the bases.
• The Mets shook off Camp’s offensive heroics and battered him for five runs in the top of the 19th.
• Unbelievably, the Braves rallied in the bottom half off Ron Darling, usually a starter, and cut the lead to three. With two on and two out, up stepped . . . Camp.
• This time, Camp came up empty. At 3:55 a.m., he struck out to end the game.
• As the players staggered toward their respective clubhouses, the few thousand fans who remained were treated to the planned fireworks show.
• By the time Mets broadcasters Ralph Kiner and Tim McCarver** said good night — or, more likely, good morning — I was passed out in the living-room recliner.

* According to Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times, “When asked about it after the game, [home-plate umpire Terry] Tata responded with the words later engraved at the Tomb of the Unknown Umpire: ‘At three o’clock in the morning, there are no bad calls.’”

** Camp’s home-run shot on the Atlanta telecast was called by none other than current Yankees radio play-by-play man John Sterling, who called Braves games for Turner Sports from 1982 to 1987. (Thankfully, he had not yet come up with the “It is high, it is far” shtick.)

Camp finished the season with the Braves but was released before the 1986 season. He became a Georgia lobbyist and, years later, served two years in a federal prison after being convicted on an embezzlement charge.

Nonetheless, he remained popular in and around Atlanta and was always given a warm welcome when he showed up to Braves old-timers’ games.

Rest in peace. And thanks so much for the memories.

In early issues of National Review, readers were treated to debates over Abraham Lincoln’s place in American history, especially in relation to the growth of the federal government that occurred under Lincoln’s watch. Harry Jaffa, the great Lincoln historian, and Frank Meyer, the originator of conservative fusionism, were the two main belligerents in these debates, with Jaffa defending Lincoln and Meyer criticizing him.

Meyer argued that the expansion of the federal government during the Civil War laid the groundwork for the New Deal and future expansions of the state. In 1965, Meyer wrote in the pages of NR, “Were it not for the wounds that Lincoln inflicted upon the Constitution, it would have been infinitely more difficult for Franklin Roosevelt to carry through his revolution, for the coercive welfare state to come into being and bring about the conditions against which we are fighting today.” In other words, FDR never would have gotten away with creating Social Security if Lincoln, 70 years prior, hadn’t bothered to save the Union. The relationship between the two men is tenuous at best.

Harold Hutchison’s article “Eject Gaylord Perry” reminded me of Meyer’s line of thinking. Like Meyer, Hutchison connects an event several decades old with contemporary problems. Major League Baseball’s problem with players abusing performance-enhancing drugs, Hutchison contends, has its roots in Gaylord Perry’s unpunished use of the spitball. 

Gaylord Perry, a Hall of Famer, frequently used the spitball, which is exactly what it sounds like. A pitcher who lubricates the baseball enjoys certain advantages. The ball slips off his fingers with more ease, creating more spin, and the ball’s weight is no longer evenly distributed, which can affect its course in the air and make it harder for the batter to hit. The spitball, like the corked bat, is a serious though eccentric baseball transgression that baseball fans have been willing to forgive. 

Not Hutchison, though. He is outraged that MLB never threw the book at Perry, going so far as to call for his ejection from the Hall of Fame. He explains:

Much of the steroid use between 1991 and 2006, before testing became common, was by players who when in high school, college, and the minor leagues in the 1970s and early 1980s saw Gaylord Perry get away with flouting the rules. . . . The Steroid Era may get the headlines, and it may fuel the debate today, but the seeds were planted when baseball let Gaylord Perry get away with throwing the spitball.

Sure, these young and impressionable athletes may have been aware of Perry’s spitballs, but they were probably much more familiar with the widespread use of amphetamines, or “greenies,” as they were called. They might have even heard about Dock Ellis’s claim to have thrown a no-hitter while hallucinating on LSD. 

Hutchison continues: “Baseball’s failure to deal with a pitcher who routinely violated the rules against doctoring the baseball sent a signal to players that cheating didn’t necessarily have consequences.” Perhaps, though he presents no evidence that players actually learned that lesson.

Why did they put dangerous chemicals into their bodies? Because Gaylord Perry cheated also, and, you know, Que sera, sera? Or did they think that the proper mixture of chemicals could transform them into baseball gods and, in the process, millionaires? Did MLB’s failure to properly condemn Perry lead to the Steroids Era, or did the promise of hitting 62 home runs in one season? 

Forget Gaylord Perry and his spitball. He could have been hanged, drawn, and quartered and it still wouldn’t have stopped Mark McGwire from becoming Big Mac. Remember the attention that he and Sammy Sosa received in the summer and fall of 1998. They met world leaders, graced the covers of magazines, and received endorsements left and right. Sosa won the Most Valuable Player award that season, too. The temptation to cheat was so great, and the restrictions against it were so minimal — it seems almost inevitable that cheating would have occurred. 

Yes, Gaylord Perry cheated, and yes, Abraham Lincoln expanded the role of the federal government. But not all cheating is created equal. (Neither is all big government.) It shouldn’t need to be said, but, here goes: Gaylord Perry isn’t Barry Bonds. 

He isn’t even Abraham Lincoln.

Good for Jason Collins. Now I hope he hip-checks Kobe Bryant into the 4th row of the Staples Center for calling a ref a “faggot.”

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• In the wake of a telephone interview with Bud Selig, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports appears convinced that the commish will step down on January 15, 2015, the date that his current contract expires.
• Baseball Nation’s Rob Neyer is irked at the Mariners’ decision to bench arguably the best defensive player in the game, shortstop Brendan Ryan (2012 Fielding Bible Award winner), who admittedly also happens to be one of the worst offensive players (.148/.232/.148). Neyer explains why starting Robert Andino over Ryan is a head-scratcher:

Since Opening Day in 2011, Ryan’s got a terrible 69 OPS+, while Andino’s got a terrible 72 OPS+. They’ve been the same for three years, and they’ve been the same for their whole careers.

As hitters. As fielders, Ryan’s been outstanding and Andino’s started only 108 games at shortstop in his whole career. He’s played mostly second base, and has been just decent there.

• Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times profiles 75-year-old Manny Mota and his new gig with the Dodgers after 33 years as a coach with the club.
• Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan shows how Alfonso Soriano’s historic over-aggressiveness can make him a liability in high-leverage situations.
• Ted Berg of USA Today’s For the Win profiles six prospects who are poised to make big contributions in the majors, although one, Zack Wheeler of the Mets, is currently struggling with his control.  
• The Hardball Times’ Chris Jaffe notes the 20th anniversary of Royals manager Hal McRae experiencing an unforgettable meltdown:

At any rate, on April 26, 1993, the Royals lost a game 5–3 to the Tigers, dropping their record to 7–12. This wasn’t the Royals record McRae expected.

Then came the post-game conference. It started off fairly generically, with McRae holding court in his office. Then a reporter asked a question McRae didn’t like. And history was made.

The question was whether he’d considered using the aging George Brett as a pinch hitter in the seventh with two outs and the bases loaded. Something inside McRae snapped.

First he called it a “stupid a** f***ing question.” Well, that’s a nice little quote. But before anyone could go on, he got up, and started throwing things. Just whatever was in front of him on the desk. He screamed some more at the reporter, threw some more objects—most notably his phone, which caught a reporter in the face, drawing blood.

McRae chased everyone out of his office, followed them out, and screamed at them some more before concluding, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”

• Meanwhile, Jaffe’s colleague, Dan Lependorf, asks, “Which agencies negotiate the best contracts for their clients?” and discovers that, lo and behold, Scott Boras’s reputation is well earned.

•  Giancarlo Stanton hit his first home run of the season on Saturday evening and it was quite memorable. Mike Axisa of CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball has details. 

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Via USA Today.

What I liked: The top two picks were offensive linemen, the first seven and 18 total first-rounders were either offensive or defensive linemen. 

What I didn’t like: E. J. Manuel, QB from Florida State, to the Bills.

And as for my Raiders: D. J. Hayden’s miraculous recovery from heart surgery is one of the better stories I’ve read this year. He’s been medicaly cleared to play and he’s fast. And the best news is this gives the Raiders a second-round pick (which they gave away in the idiotic deal to get Carson Palmer last year.)

Obligatory Manti Te’o comment: Not drafted on Day 1. His imaginary girlfriend has already cost him possibly millions in first-round dollars, but he should get drafted today and we’ll see just how much damage was done.

Tonight’s coverage starts tonight at 6:30 pm.

Watch Victor Martinez get thrown out at home plate on a strike from Jeff Francoeur in last night’s game at bone-chilling Comerica Park. Notice anything pecuilar, other than the participants wearning enough thermal attire for a climb up Mount Everest?

Yup, Martinez chooses neither to slide nor take out the opposing catcher. He avoids home plate altogether and instead makes a beeline for the dugout.

Dayn Perry of CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball doesn’t blame the slugger for the detour; au contraire, he questions the third-base coach’s decision to give the go sign:

The problem here was three-fold:

1. Martinez was already slow.
2. He’s a season removed from having his ACL (knee) repaired.
3. Royals right fielder Jeff Francoeur sports one of baseball’s most lethal throwing arms.

Fortunately for the Tigers, the out at the plate was not all that costly; Detroit defeated Kansas City, 7–5.

Tune in tonight at 8 pm!

Until then, here are some links for your Thursday-afternoon reading. . .

Mock drafts from NFL.com.

Oakland is recycling President Obama’s election strategy for the draft: HOPE.

Who will draft Manti Te’o?

Best and worst of the new NFL uniforms.

What’s a draft without the obligatory posts on the Wonderlic test. . .

A seven.

Blame colleges for low Wonderlic scores!

Don’t judge a player by his Wonderlic.

Jimmy Kimmel gets fans to opine on fictional draft prospects.

The year of the OT.

Rumors.

And finally. . .

“A preview of the worst NFL Draft in the history of the world.”

On second thought, maybe I won’t watch tonight.

ESPN:

Award-winning writer and Emmy recipient Robert Lipsyte has been appointed as ESPN’s fifth ombudsman.

Lipsyte, a native of Rego Park, N.Y. and graduate of Columbia University — where he also earned his Masters in journalism — will begin his 18-month term in June, offering independent examination, critique and analysis of ESPN. The role will include written pieces on ESPN.com, on-line chats and other multi-media interactions with fans.

“During his days at the New York Times, PBS and throughout his distinguished career, Robert Lipsyte has always been recognized as an impeccable journalist with a true gift for reporting, writing and analysis,” said ESPN President John Skipper. “His deep and thorough understanding of sports media will assuredly be an asset for ESPN and our users.”

“We at ESPN have long admired Bob’s keen awareness of the sports world and how the media interact with the industry,” said ESPN Executive Vice President and Executive Editor, John Walsh. “During our interview with Bob, we agreed about a blueprint for the ESPN ombudsman in the digital age. So we will be looking at a multi-platform focus along with paying attention to the views of our audiences.

“We have always been interested in new ideas with the goal of making us better,” Walsh said. “Bob’s reputation as an independent thinker and fearless reporter and columnist will be important qualities.”

Who knew ESPN had four ombudsmen benefore Lipsyte?

This week’s Reveille readers saw the video of a fan at Safeco Field catching a ball with his suds.

Now witness the dad in the right-field bleachers at Minute Maid Park nabbing a home-run ball using a vat filled to the brim with movie-theater popcorn.

Alas, while the Mariners fan was able to proudly gulp down most of the cup’s contents — with the ball resting inside, no less — all of this family’s kernels were lost, most ending up as uninvited guests of the warning track.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• When Jean Segura of the Brewers on Friday evening got thrown out stealing second after he had already stolen it, Mickey Mantle’s quote, “It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you’ve been playing all your life,” immediately came to mind. Sports Illustrated’s Cliff Corcoran offers his thoughts on this bizarre occurrence.
• Rob Neyer of SB Nation reminds us yet again not to read all that much into Cactus and Grapefruit League statistics:

Essentially, Jackie Bradley Jr.’s spring is a case study for aspiring statistical analysts. It’s just possible, is it, that a player could collect 28 hits in 62 at-bats . . . and then 3 hits in 31 at-bats? Well, yes, it is possible. Obviously. It’s not at all likely. Those 28 hits in 62 at-bats did suggest that Jackie Bradley Jr. is a capable major-league hitter. Of course, his .271 batting average in 229 Double-A at-bats last season suggested something else. And suggested it more strongly.

Bradley actually turns 23 today, and is still a fine prospect. But he will, I suspect, live for some years as an object lesson for Red Sox fans (and yes, writers too). Spring-training statistics are a lot of fun, but they’re merely a snapshot in time, and they describe the random nature of raw performance statistics as much as they describe fundamental abilities.

• Daniel Nava made sure that the first game at Fenway Park since the Boston Marathon terrorist attack was not only memorable but included a joyous outcome.
• Some buckethead is looking pretty silly at the moment in the wake of the Rockies’ red-hot start (13–5). Troy Renck of the Denver Post profiles leadoff hitter Dexter Fowler, one of the keys to Colorado’s success to date:

He hit seven home runs in his first 40 at-bats left-handed this season, leaving him among the league leaders. For his career, the switch hitter has never hit more than 10 home runs left-handed in a season. . . .
When the 6-foot-4 Fowler arrived with the Rockies in 2008, straight from the Beijing Olympics, he weighed roughly 145 pounds. He could have been faxed to Denver. Looking at that player, it’s easy to see how opinions formed about his future. He could run, and without much muscle, he profiled as a slash-and-dash leadoff hitter.

Problem is, that’s not Fowler.

“I can see why, but a lot of people wanted him to be a different player than he wants to be. Right now, he wants to be a guy who can mash. That’s who he is,” said Bichette of Fowler, who’s now a much stronger 195 pounds. “Look in his eyes. That’s who he wants to be.”

• NBC Hardball Talk’s Bill Baer finds it rather amusing that Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., who claimed back in January that he didn’t “care about walks,” is now flabbergasted that the lineup isn’t — wait for it — drawing walks.
• It seems that the fans at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park are hooked on both their closer and grilled cheese.
• According to Fangraphs’ Paul Swydan, what makes Robinson Cano and Pablo Sandoval special is that they not only hit for power but also for contact:

Cano and Sandoval really do separate from the pack. Their SLG [slugging], ISO [isolated power] and wOBA [weighted on-base average] marks stand out as the best among the group. You could squint and put Crawford in the same group, but then Crawford has struck out far more frequently across this span than have Cano and Sandoval. …

Cano and Sandoval, on the other hand, are still swinging with the best of them this season. Cano’s swing rates are down from his 2011 peak, but he is his O-Swing% [the percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone] and Swing% are still five percent above league average as of today. And Sandoval trumps just about everyone. Sandoval’s swing rates are 15-20% above league average. Only two players are swinging at more pitches this year than Sandoval — Josh Hamilton and Jeff Francoeur — and neither of them have contact rates even resembling league average.

• Thanks to Blake Murphy of Beyond the Boxscore, we now know that the hitters on the 2010 Diamondbacks deserve the distinction of putting less than 63 percent of balls in play, the lowest percentage of any MLB team in history. Their walk, strikeout, and home-run rates were 9.5 percent, 24.7 percent, and 2.91 percent, respectively.

• Watch a bon vivant attending a Mariners game demonstrate what to do when a batted ball lands in an $8 brew.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Two days after being arrested on a drinking-under-the-influence charge, Yovani Gallardo is slated to take the mound this afternoon for the Brewers when they host the Giants.

After pointing out that MLB has disciplined players for transgressions that are not directly baseball-related — for example, remember Delmon Young? — Craig Calcaterra of NBC’s Hardball Talk wonders when the owners and the union will wise up and discipline players who put their fellow citizens’ lives in jeopardy:

It doesn’t have to be this way. If Major League Baseball and the MLBPA felt that players driving drunk was as serious as, say, smoking a J in your apartment, they could agree that players would be subject to suspension or some other form of discipline. It wouldn’t even take that long to do. There may be a bit of haggling over when you suspend someone – right after the incident or right after they’re convicted? – but that could be easily handled and negotiated. It’s not the 1980s anymore. The league and the union are frighteningly cooperative and efficient when they want to be these days.

They have no desire to, however. Perhaps because baseball has always tolerated alcohol abuse more than it tolerates anything. Perhaps because there are still, to this day, fans who feel like Gallardo pitching poorly of late is way more offensive than Gallardo driving drunk.  But the fact that the first and seemingly only question that is asked is whether Drunk Driving Player X is able to play in the next possible game, it shows that they simply don’t care.

More here.

On Friday, the draws for UEFA’s Champions League semifinals pitted Bayern Munich against Barcelona, and Real Madrid against Borussia Dortmund. Come May 25th, London’s Wembley Stadium will host either an all-German final, or another El Clásico. For supporters of other traditional powerhouses such as Manchester United, Juventus, or AC Milan, or last year’s champions, Chelsea, although their teams were knocked out earlier in the competition, the upcoming semifinals (and even the prospect of what should be a thrilling final) will offer spectacular soccer.

Bayern Munich, who already sealed their 23rd Bundesliga title on April 6th, will look to get past Barcelona. After losing in the final last year to Chelsea at the Allianz Arena, their home ground, they are looking to claim their first Champions League trophy since 2001, making them five-times Champions of Europe. Should they accomplish this, it will be the successful ending to manager Jupp Heynckes’ two-year reign. Watching with interest will be incoming manager Pep Guardiola, former Barcelona manager – his recent past vs. his immediate future. For Guardiola, Bayern Munich has always been “the business”. Bayern Munich will hope to win their 8th Double this year.

Although Barcelona have not sealed the La Liga title, it is already a given that the Spanish title is theirs, making it their 22nd; their 13 point lead over second placed Real Madrid, their historic rivals, and possible 2013 Champions League finals opponents difficult to overcome. Barcelona are also hoping to become five-times champions of Europe, having last won the competition in 2011 at Wembley Stadium against Manchester United. Winning the Champions League would also be of special meaning to the Catalan team, which they would undoubtedly dedicate to manager Tito Vilanova, whose recent battle with parotid gland cancer had him being treated in a New York City hospital for six weeks. He returned to his position in late March.

For Real Madrid, since they have ceded the La Liga title to Barcelona, becoming European champions is the prize they are aiming for. Should they get past Borussia Dortmund and triumph at Wembley, this will be their first European trophy since 2002, and their long-awaited tenth. Real Madrid are alone in winning the competition nine times so far. For José Mourinho, winning with Real Madrid will make him the first manager to win the European Champions with three different clubs. He first won the competition with Porto in 2004, then with Inter Milan in 2010, after which he immediately took over at Real Madrid.

His time at Real Madrid has not gone as smoothly as was expected. There has been friction between him and the Spanish press, criticizing him most recently over his dropping of club and Spain captain, goalkeeper Iker Casillas. The club’s hierarchy have been reported to be unhappy with his lack of success in knocking Barcelona off their perch and a section of madridistas (the club’s supporters) have been showing their discontent with him. Recently, he challenged them to take out their criticism upon him as he proposed to appear before them on the field prior to a game so they can jeer him. Winning the Champions League title would be the ending he would relish to silence his critics and leave the club on a high note.

Although he has been silent on his immediate future plans, it is known he desires to return to managing in the English Premier League. It is known that he longs to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United when the latter retires, of which the latter has not given any indication of doing. With the lack of a permanent manager at Chelsea, it is speculated that he may return to manage the London club, where is loved by the players and the fans, but from which he was fired in 2007 by billionaire-owner Roman Abramovich.

But first he and Real Madrid must get past Borussia Dortmund, this year’s outsider favorites. This will not be the first time in year’s competition these two sides are meeting. In the group stage, they faced each other, with Borussia Dortmund edging the Spanish club to finish top of their group. Having emphasized European success this year, Borussia Dortmund are looking to claim only their second Champions League title, winning it back in 1997. Dortmund have surprised many this year with their performances on the European stage, especially Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who has been linked in the media with interest from many top clubs. Jürgen Klopp’s managerial talent has also brought him into the attention of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who seeks a repeat of last year’s success over Bayern Munich. As usual, the German manager has refused to speak about his future, repeating his commitment to Borussia Dortmund.

Against Real Madrid, the German club must nullify Cristiano Ronaldo, this year’s competition’s leading goal scorer, with 11 goals to his credit, three ahead of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. One way for Klopp’s men to accomplish this is by clamping down on Mesut Özil, Real Madrid’s attacking midfielder whose relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo is pertinent to the Spanish club’s success.

Should the Wembley final be an El Clásico, it will be the third time Barcelona and Real Madrid will meet in competition in four months, with Real Madrid coming out on top on the last two occasions. For José Mourinho, it will be sweetest success if his team defeats Barcelona in the final, where he was assistant coach to the late Bobby Robson and his successor, Luis van Gaal. It was during this time that Pep Guardiola played at Barcelona. An all-German clash pitting Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund will be another game in the historic Bavarian rivalry between these two clubs. For Dortmund, having lost this year’s Bundesliga title to Bayern Munich, winning the Champions League final in a Bavarian derby would be the ultimate statement.