Fixing MLB

Get rid of teams.

The product is watered down. It should be played by only the best. Too many marginal players are on the field now. Folks are watching a great game that's being played poorly. (Look at some of the terrible baserunning so far in this weekends games between the Cubs & Cards. Most noteable was Michael Barrett's blunder to make the last out of the game last night, but I guarantee everyone only cares about the 3 run homer he hit in the fourth inning.) No wonder fans are unimpressed. Plus, there are 750 players on active rosters at the moment. I have no idea who is the best player for the Arizona Diamondbacks. I've also been given no reason to care. If you get rid of all the marginal players and worthless teams, fans interest in teams/players will intensify. All those old timers knew who to watch out for on the opposing teams. Now, only about 1/50th of fans can tell you who's the best double-play combination in the NL West.

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So, good-bye to ...

Florida Marlins - People in the south don't care about baseball.

Atlanta Braves - They've been great for ages. No one in the ATL cares, why should anyone else.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays - no comment

Texas Rangers - These guys were stupid enough to have G.W. Bush as an executive...(oh.)

Houston Astros - They're an okay team, but would you really miss them?

Washington Nationals - Too many teams in one area.

Baltimore Orioles - I like the team, but it's being run/ruined by idiots.

Arizona Diamondbacks - That clears out the south.

Colorado Rockies - Baseball just shouldn't be played at that altitude.

California/Anahiem/L.A./Whatever Angels - Just go away.

Oakland A's - I've been to Oakland. It's a nasty place. It's worth the 2 hour traffic jam to cross the bridge to San Fran.

Toronto Blue Jays - Joe Carter is gone. Toronto is not a baseball town.

Milwakee Brewers - Maybe they can switch to the Independent League.

New York Mets - Other than having Casey Stengal as the manager about 45 years ago, has anything good ever happened with this organization?

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That takes us from 30 teams down to 16. That puts 8 teams in the NL & 8 teams in the AL. No Divisions in either league and you have interleague play all year long.

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Next you replace Bud Selig with a coffee mug full of seamonkeys and you're 95% better off than you are right now.

Mercy

If you want to sit in front of your computer and cry your eyes out, go to Operation Kindness ( http://www.operationkindness.org/ ) and read about Mercy. Then donate.

Was Brian Jordan correct?

Several years ago Brian Jordan accused TLR of racism. If you look at the Cardinal roster you will see they currently have zero, and in recent years have had very few, African-American players. Makes you go ... hmm? (This may be out of line.)(Possibly GM Walt Jocketty should be scrutinized?)
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Maybe I'm just looking for reasons not to like TLR. All I know is that I don't like his managing style, I don't like his results, and the section about him in the 1990 George Will book "Men At Work" really solidified my dislike for the guy. It could be George Will's fault. I don't much like him either. Definitely his writing style is one I don't care for. He can make any subject boring and uninteresting. He makes Marvin the Paranoid Android seem like Eddie the shipboard computer. (My second Douglas Adams reference of the day.) Since this is real life and not a one-dimentional fictional character, TLR must certainly have numerous positive attributes. I hear tell that he's a swell person. But, at the end of the day, I don't like the guy as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Bistro Math*

(This is the kind of stuff that got Enron/Tyco/WorldCom et al. into trouble. Double counting revenue and thinking that everyone benefits. Maybe it's not as bad as that, but sure reeks of money grubbing greediness.)
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Red-hot tickets at Busch
By Derrick Goold
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/20/2006
The financial nature of the Prime Seat Club is such that the Cardinals essentially buy tickets from the season-ticket holder and sell them at gate value, a higher price than what the season-ticket holder paid. Unlike some other clubs, the Cardinals are restricted by state law and cannot sell tickets for above face value. For example, a third-base field box ticket that cost a season-ticket holder $38 (on average) for Friday's game will be resold on the Prime Seat Club for a premium-ticket price of $88. Fans who want to purchase from the Prime Seat Club must pay a one-time $35 membership fee and then a 20 percent fee on top of the ticket price for each ticket. The club splits both of those fees three ways with the program's operator, Tickets.com, and the Web site operator, Major League Baseball Advanced Media.Season-ticket holders are repaid the cost of their ticket or tickets.The Prime Seat Club acts as an alternate route for tickets, and a revenue stream.
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(And this...)
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TALK OF THE DAY
Is the new Busch Stadium too money-hungry?
By Kurt Greenbaum
04/19/2006 5:22 pm
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In a story on the site today, we learn more about how the Cardinals wring revenue from the stadium through the use of the Prime Seat Club. How’s it work? Roughly, it’s like this:

1. Season ticket holders can sell their seats back to the Cardinals for whatever discounted amount they paid for them.
2. The Cardinals can turn around and resell the ticket for a marked up “actual cost” of the seat. Example: One of my colleagues has season tickets that cost him $38 each. The Cardinals, however, say those are $78 tickets. That’s what Prime Seat Club members would pay.
3. Non-season ticket holders must pay an annual $35 fee in order to purchase tickets that are available in the Prime Seat Club.
4. Plus, they pay a processing fee every time they buy tickets.
   

Some have suggested that it sounds like the Cards are scalping their own tickets. On the other hand, the Cardinals are the toughest ticket in town right now. They’re darned near sold out — every game.

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(Admittedly this is a novel way of making more tickets available, but something seems fishy to me.)

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(Other $ related news.)

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TALK OF THE DAY Is the new Busch Stadium too money-hungry? By Kurt Greenbaum 04/19/2006 5:22 pm

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We’ve also heard quite a bit about the price of food ($6 beer, anyone?) and the high price of tickets (”Cards have third-highest ticket prices in baseball” — here).

*Bistro Math - A term coined by Douglas Adams referring to complex accounting practices.

Armchair Managing

TLR (Cardinals manager, Tony LaRussa) needs to trim the number of guys in the bullpen, NOW! He'd probably carry 700 guys on the roster if he could, then be annoyed that some of them seem a little rusty. Next, figure out who's playing in the outfield. The combined batting average of all five outfielders is .204! That sucks. Here's what I'd do. Pick the three starters and stick with them. Tell the other two guys they will play sparingly (pinch-hit, cover for days off) and the starters just better be ready to do it every damn day. It's got to be hard to show up every day not knowing if or where you'll be playing. Sometimes the best way to manage is to stop fooling with stuff and let the guys doing the job settle into their work routine. These guys are professionals by the way, by now they should know what to do, TLR needs to let them do it.
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That's it for now. I'll have more as the season goes on.
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BTW, Albert Pujols is a really good baseball player. I wonder if he'd join my company softball team. He's good enough to be one of the top guys in the Thursday night beer league. And that's saying something.

Missoula Raptors 7 - Bitterroot Blaze 16

Blaze of glory: Nixon scorches former team for two TDs, RMFL record 259 yards

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By FRITZ NEIGHBOR of the Missoulian

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Despite a dominating performance from expatriated Raptor Justin Nixon, it took a “jailbreak” for the Bitterroot Blaze to break loose for a 16-7 Rocky Mountain Football League victory over Missoula Friday.An errant punt snap by the host Raptors ended with a safety, breaking a 7-7 tie with 5:58 left in the game at Rollin Field. One play later, Nixon went around left end for 59 yards and the clinching touchdown.

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[and on and on]

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(It looks like last night Bitterroot was the better team. Coach Softich believes his team has tremendous potential. I have no reason not to believe him. The Raptors are still the team to beat in the Montana Division.)

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(and this update re: Scott Wik from the same article as above)

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The Raptors retired the No. 57 jersey worn by injured linebacker (Scott) Wik at halftime. Wik was injured in a preseason game at Yakima, Wash., on March 25. He spent two days in ICU for bleeding in the brain. “That was the uniform I was wearing (when I was hurt),” he said of the shirt. “They had to cut it up the middle. I'm going to look how good a sewing job they did.” Wik collapsed after a Yakima scoring play, and Softich credited lineman Eric Wright's wife, an EMT, for stabilizing Wik until an ambulance arrived. “The doctor said the stars had to be aligned for me to be here,” Wik said.

Happy Easter

Let me get this straight..

By STEPHANIE REITZ Associated Press Writer Friday, April 14, 2006

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Wednesday called his 2004 decision not to recuse himself from a case involving his friend Vice President Dick Cheney the "proudest thing" he's done on the court.

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Okay, my thoughts...

20 years as a Supreme Court Justice, and this is what he is most proud of? I worked in retail customer service for a few years, and this one time I didn't punch some loud-mouthed jackass that really had it coming. People are still talking about it. There's an annual festival. We have t-shirts, a dunking booth, beauty pagent, bingo, raffle, barbeque, the whole works. People ask me all the time if it was my proudest moment. I smile and tell them about the time held the door for someone. It never fails to get the listener misty-eyed & my chest always swells a little.

Take that Antonin!

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(Yes, my rebuttal was stupid. So was Scalia's original statement. That's the point.)

Reconsider

I'm going to put up a couple of pictures I did a few years back for my buddy Stefan. I whipped them together so quickly that I don't remember how I did them. At the time they seemed okay, but now I like them much much more. Hungh?

Missoula 17 Great Falls 9

As they used to say on Carson,

More To Come...

mmmmmmmmmm

I have no thoughts today

so how 'bout a picture...

Silly Whitsitt People

I never did see the "Phil Formation", but I've always envisioned it as being something like this....














BTW, in my book "Silly" is very high praise. It's easy to be a grouch, but constant effort and dilligence (as well as creativity) goes into silliness. Plus, it's much more pleasant to be around.

Also, a little something about the Whitsitt's. They are extremely quiet in the mornings, they make up the BEST games and they have a very comfortable sofa which they gratiously let me sleep on. They are warm, open and know no strangers. If you are reading this, and you are not a Whitsitt, you should be.

MIISOULA 48 GLACIER 0

Game Summary/Box Score
April 8, 2006 Glacier Knights at Missoula Raptors @ Loyola High School

Read about the game on the RMFL website.

http://www.rockymountainfootball.com/rockymtn/games/2006games/06knightsraptors.htm

Thoughts While Driving

Firstly, my morning drive into work is 23 miles. It can take anywhere from 35 to 90+ minutes to cover that distance. Here are a couple of thoughts about those Dallas drivers on 635 between 6:45 am & 8:00 am. Stop acting like so many piglets trying to get to a limited number of teats. Some of you my be changing lanes because the voices in your head that tell you to check the front door knob 15 time before you leave the house in the morning are also telling you to obsessively swerve in and out of lanes. It must be something about germs. But the rest of you have no excuse. There is no magical lane that no one else knows about. Frantically searching is just an exercise in futility. STOP IT! Every morning I see countless cars cross over the right side solid white line thinking they have found a lane that only they know of, only to suffer the disappointment of landing themselves in the queue for the on ramp. Thus getting only further behind, stuck in line to get into the lane they just left. Ha-ha-ha..... jerks. Next, I wish I had a bull horn. I'd spend all morning yelling out of my window "Try using your turn sign, idiot". And my final observation today, just to play up stereotypes, I've noticed that while in a traffic jam the person tailgating you may be from any demographic but the most likely person to still be on your tail while all the other lanes are wide open (and they can easily just go around you) .... a woman. Why? Because they think they can change you. If you'd just notice that they want you to go faster, then you will change in order to please them. Me, I slow down. I guess their method works. I do change, just not in the way they want. By the way, I can't figure out why I don't have a girlfriend.

2006 Cardinal Spring Training Report

First of all, the bullpen. It should be okay. Personnel changes always occur through the course of a season, and this one will be no different. Brad Thompson still looks like he's 13 years old and Jason Isrinhausen is still a top notch closer. These guys are fine. Tony LaRussa is carrying 12 pitchers to start the season, and I think that's too many. Guys won't get enough work, so they won't be sharp, so there will be movement between the majors and whoever is hot down in the minors. Big surprise. My next bold prediction will be that the sun will rise in the morning.

Line-up...
Randy Flores
Josh Hancock
Jason Isringhausen
Braden Looper
Ricardo Rincon
Brad Thompson
Adam Wainwright


Starting Pitching - No worries. At times you may want to make a change, but these guys will be solid over the long haul.

The Line-up...

Chris Carpenter
Jason Marquis
Mark Mulder
Sidney Ponson
Jeff Suppan

Catchers - Yadier Molina & Gary Bennett. Yadier is a stud. Look for his hitting to improve and his defense to be as solid as ever. I don't know how much the coaches let him call the game, but he looks pretty comfortable behind the plate. That confidence will carry over to his work with the pitchers. Gary is an unknown.

Infield -
David Eckstein (ss) - All Star
Hector Luna (utility) - Could be a starter
Aaron Miles (2b) - He looks really good. Junior Spivey didn't make it. He works hard, but just looked sloppy. He'll play for somebody this year and be good. I was sad to see Mark G. go after last year, but Aaron will fill in without missing a beat and he's 10 years younger.
Albert Pujols (1b) - It's a rare thing that the best player on the team is the same guy standing on the top of the stairs cheering on his teammates while they're at bat or the first in line to give a "high-five" as a player comes around to score. He's special. I wish time could stand still and Albert could be as he is right now, forever. That won't happen, but he'll be the best player in the league for many years to come.
Scott Rolen (3b) - All Star. He looks healthy.
Scott Spiezio (utility) - Unknown. Didn't look very impressive in Spring Training.



Outfield - First let me say that I'm glad to see some youth in the out field. The last couple years it was starting to look like an old age home out there. Don't get me wrong, I loved the "Parade of Geezers" but it's time to see what the farm system has been cooking up. What I'm happiest about is that Juan & Skip are not being brought in as guys that have to be stars, but just as players to help the team. I think they will. The Cardinals have had a habit over the last 10 years of putting a ton of pressure on their outfielders to be extra-super-great. Ray Lankford, Brian Jordan, Ron Gant, Larry Walker, Reggie Sanders, Roger Cedeno, J.D. Drew, Albert Pujols (oops, that one worked), Shawon Dunston, Eric Davis, Eduardo Perez, Darren Bragg and John Mabry (and others) were all brought in to be "The Next Big Thing". Maybe this year's approach will yield better results in the long run.

Jim Edmonds (CF) - I hope Jimmy feels better this year. He looks to me like his All-Star form is behind him, but he will still be the best player in the Cardinals outfield, and would be the best player in most outfields.
Juan Encarnacion (RF) - He will see a lot of good pitches hitting in front of Albert Pujols. He's not great, but he looks good.
John Rodriguez (OF) - Streaky hitter, sub-par defense, but a hard playing guy. He's going to come off the bench and make a difference a few times this year. Not good enough to be a starter.
Skip Schumaker (LF) - I love this guy. He's not going to be a superstar, but the fans are going to end up loving him.
So Taguchi (OF) - The oldest guy on the team. I've never been a fan and I'm still not. He filled in well last year seeing extended playing time due to other players being injured. Let's hope we don't have to see too much of him this year. Best used as a late game defensive replacement.

As for the guys that didn't make the team (Alan Benes, Carmen Cali, Deivi Cruz, Junior Spivey, Larry Bigbie, Chris Duncan and others), as far as I can tell, the right decision has been made.

Scott Wik

This from the Raptor Web Site.

April 1st, 2006-- Scott Wik returned back to Missoula last week but is still feeling serious effects from his collision in the Yakima game. He is continuing his medical care here in Missoula and has not returned to work yet. Your thoughts and prayers for his quick recovery are welcome. As long as Scott is up for it, he will be our fifth captian as we take on Kalispell this weekend.

Skip (part 2)

He hit his first major league home run tonight against the Phillies.

Skip

Watch for this kid.

Keeping Score

Here's how...

April 1, 2006 - Jupiter, FL

2 beers, 2 hot dogs, 2 cokes, 1 cheeseburger, 7 cookies.
Lots of goodies in the gift shop.
CBC reunion.
Both teams played thier scrubs.
Mets won.
Skip hit a homer.

March 31, 2006 - Port St. Lucie

Seated in the 5th row behind home plate I was in a perfect position to see just how much movement Pedro Martinez has on his pitches. A lot. Cardinals pitcher Mark Mulder has absolutely no movement on his pitches at all, and the Mets were able to rack up the hits. They were not, however, able to plate many runs. Albert Pujols hit 3 home runs and the Redbirds scored a total of 9 runs for the game. It appeared to be considerably more than they needed but then Alan Benes took the mound in the 9th. Poor Alan. He got shelled. Looks like he doesn't have it any more. Luckily Izzy came in to stop the bleeding and the Cards held on to win.

I drank a giant beer and had a hot dog and a brat. The Mets "Tradition Field" is nice, but Roger Dean Stadium is far better.

John Mabry

John hit a homer today for the Cubs in a losing effort against the Reds.

It just doesn't look right seeing him in Cubby blue.






I'd much rather see him as he's pictured here. (After hitting a grand slam against the Royals.)