Comments for Surviving the Citi http://www.survivingtheciti.com A New York Baseball Blog Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:53:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Comment on The 2013 Hall of Fame Sham by Douglas http://www.survivingtheciti.com/the-2013-hall-of-fame-sham/comment-page-1/#comment-55036 Douglas Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:53:51 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=1583#comment-55036 Sean - good points. Not just the Dead Ball era (when Ty Cobb would have headlined the all-Klansman all-star team), but also the "Golden Age" that Ruth ushered in. Even the Babe opined that Josh Gibson was at least as good as he. Professional baseball IS a business, and virtually all owners in the day felt that if they integrated their teams they'd hurt at the gate. Ballplayers and others associated with the national pastime did not at first have a high reputation, but so it was also with actors and vaudevillians. When you see that entertaining movie but historical travesty, the "Babe" (1992 version with John Goodman), be assured that even if Harry Frazee had put on "No, No, Nanette when the Babe was a RedSox (the play actually debuted several years after Ruth was traded), he'd have known better than to invite one of his ballplayers to a premier in blue-blooded Boston. Such were the times. Now, we can applaud the "courage" of Branch Rickey in bringing in Jackie Robinson, already a college football star and a war veteran, and fairly old and mature for a rookie (a better candidate for "first man through the wall" could not have been found), but methinks this was calculated with the connivance of baseball moguls, who could see that racial relations had changed enough that it was worth a risk...it still took ten years for all teams to integrate after Robinson, though. Bill Veeck, already a baseball maverick, had attempted to buy the virtually bankrupt Philadelphia Phillies (they almost moved before the Athletics did, imagine such as a PoD for an alternative baseball history?), release all the white players, and get enough talented Negro league players to jump ship. Veeck probably figured that Philly would support such a team, but the baseball overloads freaked at the idea. So the Phils were 'rescued' from insolvency. IMO, it doesn't 'taint' baseball, because the sport merely reflects the overall attitudes of the country. If that makes one uncomfortable, deal with it. Today, we deal with prissy, self-righteous twits that want a sanitized, risk-free society. Life just isn't that way. If your kid is going to be self-confident, athletic, and healthy, (s)he's gonna get some skinned knees and bruises. I have no issue with baseball finally coming to grips with performance-enhancing drugs. The health issues to the players themselves and the bad example for America's youth aren't worth it. But baseball needs to get off its newly found, hypocritical, self-righteous high horse. Especially in turning its back on the players who did to themselves what they felt they had to do to make it, with the connivance of baseball management. Now that they're not needed, it's hypocrisy to condemn them, especially behind held ex post facto to a standard that they themselves were not accountable to. Also, most of the players did NOT fail drug tests. If the testing standards were weak, so be it. This is like saying we ALL cheat on our income taxes or we ALL routinely exceed the posted speed limit. Many do, but that's not evidence to convict everyone. Likewise, we need to not render a blanket conviction of the "steroid" generation. Sean – good points. Not just the Dead Ball era (when Ty Cobb would have headlined the all-Klansman all-star team), but also the “Golden Age” that Ruth ushered in. Even the Babe opined that Josh Gibson was at least as good as he. Professional baseball IS a business, and virtually all owners in the day felt that if they integrated their teams they’d hurt at the gate. Ballplayers and others associated with the national pastime did not at first have a high reputation, but so it was also with actors and vaudevillians. When you see that entertaining movie but historical travesty, the “Babe” (1992 version with John Goodman), be assured that even if Harry Frazee had put on “No, No, Nanette when the Babe was a RedSox (the play actually debuted several years after Ruth was traded), he’d have known better than to invite one of his ballplayers to a premier in blue-blooded Boston. Such were the times. Now, we can applaud the “courage” of Branch Rickey in bringing in Jackie Robinson, already a college football star and a war veteran, and fairly old and mature for a rookie (a better candidate for “first man through the wall” could not have been found), but methinks this was calculated with the connivance of baseball moguls, who could see that racial relations had changed enough that it was worth a risk…it still took ten years for all teams to integrate after Robinson, though. Bill Veeck, already a baseball maverick, had attempted to buy the virtually bankrupt Philadelphia Phillies (they almost moved before the Athletics did, imagine such as a PoD for an alternative baseball history?), release all the white players, and get enough talented Negro league players to jump ship. Veeck probably figured that Philly would support such a team, but the baseball overloads freaked at the idea. So the Phils were ‘rescued’ from insolvency. IMO, it doesn’t ‘taint’ baseball, because the sport merely reflects the overall attitudes of the country. If that makes one uncomfortable, deal with it. Today, we deal with prissy, self-righteous twits that want a sanitized, risk-free society. Life just isn’t that way. If your kid is going to be self-confident, athletic, and healthy, (s)he’s gonna get some skinned knees and bruises. I have no issue with baseball finally coming to grips with performance-enhancing drugs. The health issues to the players themselves and the bad example for America’s youth aren’t worth it. But baseball needs to get off its newly found, hypocritical, self-righteous high horse. Especially in turning its back on the players who did to themselves what they felt they had to do to make it, with the connivance of baseball management. Now that they’re not needed, it’s hypocrisy to condemn them, especially behind held ex post facto to a standard that they themselves were not accountable to. Also, most of the players did NOT fail drug tests. If the testing standards were weak, so be it. This is like saying we ALL cheat on our income taxes or we ALL routinely exceed the posted speed limit. Many do, but that’s not evidence to convict everyone. Likewise, we need to not render a blanket conviction of the “steroid” generation.

]]> Comment on The 2013 Hall of Fame Sham by Sean Pidgeon http://www.survivingtheciti.com/the-2013-hall-of-fame-sham/comment-page-1/#comment-55028 Sean Pidgeon Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:31:07 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=1583#comment-55028 Douglas, I'm with you on changing to some sort of committee. My only apprehension with adding former players is they are no less likely than the baseball writers to make bad choices. In fact, they'd probably make worse choices. Already, Goose Gossage (a borderline Hall of Famer, by the way), has said he doesn't want "steroid users" in the HoF with him. And the TV media landscape is filled with former players like Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver who continually prove that being a good player in no way makes one capable of understanding or talking about the game. My committee recommendation would a collection of sabermetrically inclined writers like <a href="http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/40867256/" rel="nofollow">Joe Posnanski</a>, Jonah Keri, Dave Cameron, and Rob Neyer. But, long term, I'm not too worried. The BBWAA is getting younger, and its younger writers tend to think more like Posnanski than <a href="http://www.murraychass.com/?p=5663" rel="nofollow">Murray Chass</a>. Eventually, most voters will be SABR friendly and willing to look back at the steroids era as one of many eras in baseball, no worse than the Dead Ball era or the pitching friendly '60s. Actually, I'll edit that a little. The Dead Ball era is bigger blight on baseball than the Steroid era because the Dead Ball era is part of baseball's segregation period, the biggest blight on baseball history, morally and competitively. Douglas, I’m with you on changing to some sort of committee. My only apprehension with adding former players is they are no less likely than the baseball writers to make bad choices. In fact, they’d probably make worse choices. Already, Goose Gossage (a borderline Hall of Famer, by the way), has said he doesn’t want “steroid users” in the HoF with him. And the TV media landscape is filled with former players like Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver who continually prove that being a good player in no way makes one capable of understanding or talking about the game.

My committee recommendation would a collection of sabermetrically inclined writers like Joe Posnanski, Jonah Keri, Dave Cameron, and Rob Neyer.

But, long term, I’m not too worried. The BBWAA is getting younger, and its younger writers tend to think more like Posnanski than Murray Chass. Eventually, most voters will be SABR friendly and willing to look back at the steroids era as one of many eras in baseball, no worse than the Dead Ball era or the pitching friendly ’60s. Actually, I’ll edit that a little. The Dead Ball era is bigger blight on baseball than the Steroid era because the Dead Ball era is part of baseball’s segregation period, the biggest blight on baseball history, morally and competitively.

]]> Comment on The 2013 Hall of Fame Sham by Douglas http://www.survivingtheciti.com/the-2013-hall-of-fame-sham/comment-page-1/#comment-55004 Douglas Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:16:49 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=1583#comment-55004 Major League Baseball should dump this dubious fraternity of self-righteous twits that NEVER PLAYED THE GAME. If any player juiced up over the past thirty years, it's for one simple reason: COMPETITION. That is, unless you got big, you didn't get to or stay in the bigs, let alone excel. Steroid-enhanced batters faced Steroid-enhanced pitchers, and sharp grounders and liners were chased down and thrown to the appropriate bases by steroid-enhanced fielders. Today's typical major leaguer is as large as the average NFL player of the 1970s. That's NOT simply due to steroids, it's also due to overall nutrition from infancy, not only in the US but especially in Latin American countries. It's also due to enhanced training in the player's youth, especially their high school and college years. Many NCAA college baseball teams have budgets and facilities that the great Yankee manager, Miller Huggins, even with Ruth, Gehrig and the rest of "Murderer's Row" could only have dreamed of. Plus, as late as the mid-70s, many players had to work at other occupations during the off-season (albeit many had "sweetheart" deals as a form of unofficial patronage) to make ends meet. This obviously didn't permit the intensive off-season workout regimens that are expected of every player in the team's farm system, let alone a highly-pampered major league star. Plus, there's no direct evidence that muscle mass in ballplayers, 'blamed' on steroid use (never mind nutrition and long hours in the weight room) is the primary cause of the offensive explosion over the past thirty years. Baseball moguls have long tinkered with things like the pitching mound height (was once 18", then "15", now "10", will pitchers in the 22nd century be throwing from a rabbit hole?) and especially how the umpires handle the strike zone. Rare is a pitch over the plate but at the letters ever called a strike, never mind that the "official" strike zone is still armpits to the kneetops in the batters "natural" stance. Also, the season-long "home run derby" of McGwire and Sosa in 1998 coincided with EXPANSION in the National League from 14 to 16 teams; adding twenty to twenty-four pitchers in the majors made it possible for these sluggers to have more chances of facing pitchers of lesser ability (incorrectly referred to as "dilution", incorrect since the ratio of pitchers to batters is still constant) and feasting off them. Finally, more players are lasting longer, due to overall slowing of aging in the general population ("40 is now the 'new' 30"), and are able to make a meaningful contribution due to better training and sports medicine. This simply provides more opportunity to pile up impressive career stats, especially home runs. That and the designated hitter. Jim Thome, Cecil Fielder, his son Prince, Albert Belle, etc. all owe their home run totals due to being able to focus more on hitting and not having to field a position, at least not every day. This leads to my personal plug for Barry Lamarr Bonds. It's more than being a long-time, diehard Giants fan. It's having seen what this man did for this franchise. He came aboard in the wake of the team almost ending up in that awful cave called Tropicana Field. Once Bonds was signed for the 1993 season, a team in disarray that couldn't draw seagulls to Candlestick was suddenly filled almost every day with fifty thousand screaming idiots. Now, Bonds' offensive stats were great, but as he 'matured' (though I would dispute that until his waning years he could be described as 'mature') he became a HITTER more than a slugger. In particular, rather than his magical 2001 season, which was self-fulfilling prophecy-wise described by the Giants media early that year as the "drive for seventy" (home runs), look at his 2004 season, in which he turned 40. Forty. An age when most men have already left the game, or if still able to hit, are DHing. Bonds, being on a National League team, could only DH for interleague games. So this man had to be a credible outfielder, and to his credit, his fielding was not utterly disgraceful (.983 percentage). Looking at his overall HITTING statistics, the man was unreal. 613 plate appearances, but 232 walks, and only 373 official at-bats. Out of that, the traditional 'stats' were 45 home runs, 101 RBIs, and a league-leading .362 average. Of course, if we go "Bill James", look at his OBP (.609) and OPS (1.422!)..to put it simply, Bonds was THE most-feared hitter of his generation, and with reason! Projecting that IF Bonds had been pitched to at a normal rate (if, like in 2001 when he had Aurilia with a monster year before him and Kent, Burks, and for a time Gallaraga behind him), assuming about 500 ABs, that extrapolates into 60 homers and 135 RBIs. Finally, look to Bonds' LAST year (2007), when his skills were diminishing with age (he was becoming an embarrassment in left field)...BUT...he still led the league in walks! Projecting his 2007 stats into a 'typical' 500 AB seasons extrapolates into 42 homers and 100 RBIs. At age 43! Hypothetically, if it was a "roid-rage" that had been the source of Bonds' firepower, then by that point he ought to have started to suffer the inevitable side effects of steroid abuse. But today, at 48, he's as healthy as a prized thoroughbred. In fact, had baseball not practically conspired to drive him from the game, as once he'd set the record both the Giants and MLB didn't want him anymore, Barry could probably still DH in the American league, and might be looking at 900 homers. In fact, the Tampa Bay Rays almost did pick him up in 2008, but supposedly they couldn't come to terms. Considering how close Tampa came to winning it all, it's a good bet they wished they'd met the prickly superstar's demands, it'd have likely paid off! Change the Hall of Fame to a committee of former players, coaches, managers, general managers, and scouts, equalizing the weight as much as possible. Screw the pompous, self-important baseball writers. They might have been need a hundred years ago when if you couldn't go to the ballpark you had to read a box score and the sports section in order to keep up with your team and favorite players. Now, with modern media and the Internet, the fan can see the players and teams for himself, and download and crunch stats that a paid statistician of the fifties would have though science fiction. So who the hell needs the sports writers anymore? Fire them all, their irrelevant opinions, published in the dying dinosaurs that are today's newspapers, are utterly meaningless. Major League Baseball should dump this dubious fraternity of self-righteous twits that NEVER PLAYED THE GAME. If any player juiced up over the past thirty years, it’s for one simple reason: COMPETITION. That is, unless you got big, you didn’t get to or stay in the bigs, let alone excel. Steroid-enhanced batters faced Steroid-enhanced pitchers, and sharp grounders and liners were chased down and thrown to the appropriate bases by steroid-enhanced fielders. Today’s typical major leaguer is as large as the average NFL player of the 1970s. That’s NOT simply due to steroids, it’s also due to overall nutrition from infancy, not only in the US but especially in Latin American countries. It’s also due to enhanced training in the player’s youth, especially their high school and college years. Many NCAA college baseball teams have budgets and facilities that the great Yankee manager, Miller Huggins, even with Ruth, Gehrig and the rest of “Murderer’s Row” could only have dreamed of. Plus, as late as the mid-70s, many players had to work at other occupations during the off-season (albeit many had “sweetheart” deals as a form of unofficial patronage) to make ends meet. This obviously didn’t permit the intensive off-season workout regimens that are expected of every player in the team’s farm system, let alone a highly-pampered major league star.
Plus, there’s no direct evidence that muscle mass in ballplayers, ‘blamed’ on steroid use (never mind nutrition and long hours in the weight room) is the primary cause of the offensive explosion over the past thirty years. Baseball moguls have long tinkered with things like the pitching mound height (was once 18″, then “15″, now “10″, will pitchers in the 22nd century be throwing from a rabbit hole?) and especially how the umpires handle the strike zone. Rare is a pitch over the plate but at the letters ever called a strike, never mind that the “official” strike zone is still armpits to the kneetops in the batters “natural” stance. Also, the season-long “home run derby” of McGwire and Sosa in 1998 coincided with EXPANSION in the National League from 14 to 16 teams; adding twenty to twenty-four pitchers in the majors made it possible for these sluggers to have more chances of facing pitchers of lesser ability (incorrectly referred to as “dilution”, incorrect since the ratio of pitchers to batters is still constant) and feasting off them.
Finally, more players are lasting longer, due to overall slowing of aging in the general population (“40 is now the ‘new’ 30″), and are able to make a meaningful contribution due to better training and sports medicine. This simply provides more opportunity to pile up impressive career stats, especially home runs. That and the designated hitter. Jim Thome, Cecil Fielder, his son Prince, Albert Belle, etc. all owe their home run totals due to being able to focus more on hitting and not having to field a position, at least not every day.
This leads to my personal plug for Barry Lamarr Bonds. It’s more than being a long-time, diehard Giants fan. It’s having seen what this man did for this franchise. He came aboard in the wake of the team almost ending up in that awful cave called Tropicana Field. Once Bonds was signed for the 1993 season, a team in disarray that couldn’t draw seagulls to Candlestick was suddenly filled almost every day with fifty thousand screaming idiots. Now, Bonds’ offensive stats were great, but as he ‘matured’ (though I would dispute that until his waning years he could be described as ‘mature’) he became a HITTER more than a slugger. In particular, rather than his magical 2001 season, which was self-fulfilling prophecy-wise described by the Giants media early that year as the “drive for seventy” (home runs), look at his 2004 season, in which he turned 40. Forty. An age when most men have already left the game, or if still able to hit, are DHing. Bonds, being on a National League team, could only DH for interleague games. So this man had to be a credible outfielder, and to his credit, his fielding was not utterly disgraceful (.983 percentage). Looking at his overall HITTING statistics, the man was unreal. 613 plate appearances, but 232 walks, and only 373 official at-bats. Out of that, the traditional ‘stats’ were 45 home runs, 101 RBIs, and a league-leading .362 average. Of course, if we go “Bill James”, look at his OBP (.609) and OPS (1.422!)..to put it simply, Bonds was THE most-feared hitter of his generation, and with reason! Projecting that IF Bonds had been pitched to at a normal rate (if, like in 2001 when he had Aurilia with a monster year before him and Kent, Burks, and for a time Gallaraga behind him), assuming about 500 ABs, that extrapolates into 60 homers and 135 RBIs. Finally, look to Bonds’ LAST year (2007), when his skills were diminishing with age (he was becoming an embarrassment in left field)…BUT…he still led the league in walks! Projecting his 2007 stats into a ‘typical’ 500 AB seasons extrapolates into 42 homers and 100 RBIs. At age 43! Hypothetically, if it was a “roid-rage” that had been the source of Bonds’ firepower, then by that point he ought to have started to suffer the inevitable side effects of steroid abuse. But today, at 48, he’s as healthy as a prized thoroughbred. In fact, had baseball not practically conspired to drive him from the game, as once he’d set the record both the Giants and MLB didn’t want him anymore, Barry could probably still DH in the American league, and might be looking at 900 homers. In fact, the Tampa Bay Rays almost did pick him up in 2008, but supposedly they couldn’t come to terms. Considering how close Tampa came to winning it all, it’s a good bet they wished they’d met the prickly superstar’s demands, it’d have likely paid off!
Change the Hall of Fame to a committee of former players, coaches, managers, general managers, and scouts, equalizing the weight as much as possible. Screw the pompous, self-important baseball writers. They might have been need a hundred years ago when if you couldn’t go to the ballpark you had to read a box score and the sports section in order to keep up with your team and favorite players. Now, with modern media and the Internet, the fan can see the players and teams for himself, and download and crunch stats that a paid statistician of the fifties would have though science fiction. So who the hell needs the sports writers anymore? Fire them all, their irrelevant opinions, published in the dying dinosaurs that are today’s newspapers, are utterly meaningless.

]]> Comment on Trying to Make Sense of MLB Blackout Policies (Spoiler: I Don’t) by Rick http://www.survivingtheciti.com/trying-to-make-sense-of-mlb-blackout-policies-spoiler-i-dont/comment-page-1/#comment-45242 Rick Tue, 05 Jun 2012 04:53:53 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=1549#comment-45242 I live about 73 miles North of Tampa and therefore I understand why the Tampa Bay Rays are blackout on MLB.tv because I get them on local TV here as well as on the Central Florida feeds of both SunSports and FOX Sports Florida but what I don't understand is why the Miami Marlins are blackout here? I live about 235 miles North of Miami-Dade county and neither of the Central Florida feeds of SunSports and FOX Sports Florida or any local TV stations here carry the Marlins at all so why are they blacked out? Apparently when I called MLB.tv the woman who I spoke to who was really nice could not provide an answer because she didn't know, heck she couldn't even rationale why the Blue Jays are blacked out on MLB.tv throughout Canada, that just seems dumb if you live in Vancouver which is several thousand miles from Toronto not to have access to any of the games. Maybe Commission Selig should consider re-evaluating the blackout policies. Just my 2 cents. I live about 73 miles North of Tampa and therefore I understand why the Tampa Bay Rays are blackout on MLB.tv because I get them on local TV here as well as on the Central Florida feeds of both SunSports and FOX Sports Florida but what I don’t understand is why the Miami Marlins are blackout here? I live about 235 miles North of Miami-Dade county and neither of the Central Florida feeds of SunSports and FOX Sports Florida or any local TV stations here carry the Marlins at all so why are they blacked out? Apparently when I called MLB.tv the woman who I spoke to who was really nice could not provide an answer because she didn’t know, heck she couldn’t even rationale why the Blue Jays are blacked out on MLB.tv throughout Canada, that just seems dumb if you live in Vancouver which is several thousand miles from Toronto not to have access to any of the games.

Maybe Commission Selig should consider re-evaluating the blackout policies. Just my 2 cents.

]]> Comment on Trying to Make Sense of MLB Blackout Policies (Spoiler: I Don’t) by Thomas http://www.survivingtheciti.com/trying-to-make-sense-of-mlb-blackout-policies-spoiler-i-dont/comment-page-1/#comment-42455 Thomas Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:32:09 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=1549#comment-42455 Screw'em. I fake my location to avoid all blackouts and feel no guilt whatsoever. No cable for me. Screw’em. I fake my location to avoid all blackouts and feel no guilt whatsoever. No cable for me.

]]> Comment on A Bunting Manuel by Let’s Make Fun of Mitch Albom! « keithstache http://www.survivingtheciti.com/a-bunting-manuel/comment-page-1/#comment-41666 Let’s Make Fun of Mitch Albom! « keithstache Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:03:23 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=981#comment-41666 [...] happy that their fantasy guy hit a home run and sad that their real favorite team lost. Oh, and anyone who sacrifice bunts really is a zero. Giving away an out is a stupid stupid play. But I would bet that Mitch knows all this. As Ken [...] [...] happy that their fantasy guy hit a home run and sad that their real favorite team lost. Oh, and anyone who sacrifice bunts really is a zero. Giving away an out is a stupid stupid play. But I would bet that Mitch knows all this. As Ken [...]

]]> Comment on A Bunting Manuel by Moneyball | Surviving the Citi http://www.survivingtheciti.com/a-bunting-manuel/comment-page-1/#comment-35627 Moneyball | Surviving the Citi Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:08:12 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=981#comment-35627 [...] bunt, we throw it to first base and say thank you for the out.” If just one high school coach stops sacrifice bunting because of this scene, then Moneyball will be a [...] [...] bunt, we throw it to first base and say thank you for the out.” If just one high school coach stops sacrifice bunting because of this scene, then Moneyball will be a [...]

]]> Comment on Breaking News! Jeter Implicated in Steroid Scandal by Sean Pidgeon http://www.survivingtheciti.com/breaking-news-jeter-implicated-in-steroid-scandal/comment-page-1/#comment-35042 Sean Pidgeon Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:52:13 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=847#comment-35042 My story is straight, Chuck. In his hypothetical, Wojo says "If I ever see Jeter's name attached to the hip of performance enhancers, I'm done. I mean it -- I'll never watch another big league game again." That's why, after fake finding out that fake Derek Jeter is fake using steroids, fake Wojo stops watching baseball, or as I say in this April Fool's Day post, "signed his baseball fan letter of resignation." Way to catch my non-mistake 20 months later, fool. My story is straight, Chuck. In his hypothetical, Wojo says “If I ever see Jeter’s name attached to the hip of performance enhancers, I’m done. I mean it — I’ll never watch another big league game again.” That’s why, after fake finding out that fake Derek Jeter is fake using steroids, fake Wojo stops watching baseball, or as I say in this April Fool’s Day post, “signed his baseball fan letter of resignation.” Way to catch my non-mistake 20 months later, fool.

]]> Comment on Breaking News! Jeter Implicated in Steroid Scandal by Chuck Gerard http://www.survivingtheciti.com/breaking-news-jeter-implicated-in-steroid-scandal/comment-page-1/#comment-32188 Chuck Gerard Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:39:05 +0000 http://www.survivingtheciti.com/?p=847#comment-32188 What a joke! The reference here is from a 'What if...' article from ESPN. Get your story straight! Idiot. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=4392903&sportCat=mlb What a joke! The reference here is from a ‘What if…’ article from ESPN. Get your story straight! Idiot.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=4392903&sportCat=mlb

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