Brett Myers and the Phillies agreed to a 3-year, $25.75 million deal.
Details to come...
We got a lot of response about the Direct TV and MLB Extra Innings post from a few days, so this might be some interesting news:
According to a wire story, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is going to raise the issue with the FCC.
"I am opposed to anything that deprives people of reasonable choices," Kerry said in a statement. "In this day and age, consumers should have more choices — not fewer. I’d like to know how this serves the public — a deal that will force fans to subscribe to DirecTV in order to tune in to their favorite players. A Red Sox fan ought to be able to watch their team without having to switch to DirecTV."
If Kerry can get this one figured out, Curt Schilling would be wise to keep playing baseball.
Unlike the Donovan McNabb stuff, the Barbaro saga was national news. The latest Time magazine takes a break from the hard news of the day to offer an opinion on the reigning Kentucky Derby champion's demise, while a Google news search spits out 6,100 stories. But the story with the answer to the question that everyone seemed to be asking is, no, Barbaro will not sire any future champions as explained in Slate. As long as we're on the topic, what's with Slate magazine? Are they just anti everything or what? Is there anything that's good or are we just deluding ourselves? According to Slate, we are and that's bad. Everything is bad. Bad is bad.
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Suffice it to say, there is a lot I don't understand. For instance, why is it that local newscasts spend 10 minutes doing the weather, but about 30 seconds covering the latest developments in Iraq? Or how about the Wing Bowl -- can someone explain that one? In a stunning turn of events, it appears as if I'm not the only one that doesn't understand why it's fun to get drunk at 3 a.m. outside of a sports arena on a cold February morning in anticipation of an eating competition. Worse, it's not just any eating competition, it's a chicken wings eating competition complete with mascots, radio people, and half-naked women in front of a drunken mob. Yeah, that sounds fun. Now here's the stunning part (insert sarcasm font here) – the Wing Bowl, as it's so fiendishly and cleverly named, is having a difficult time attracting national advertisers. According to a story in today's Inquirer, big-time advertisers think the Wing Bowl is "gross." Competitive eating also suffers from a blurred identity. It's not an athletic competition like pole-vaulting, not a game of skill like pool, not a test of intellect like chess. Plus, "it's kind of gross," said Kelly O'Keefe, executive education director of Adcenter, the graduate program in advertising at Virginia Commonwealth University. But the contests do attract tremendous attention, he said. Duh! Personally, I don't have anything against the Wing Bowl. If that's your thing, then God bless you. I just don't happen to enjoy eating food that leads to self-destruction. And if The New York Times is any indicator, people are interested in reading about proper nutrition. No, we're not going to get all PC and promote our vegetarian ethos – that's just boring. But maybe advertisers think that associating with a contest in gluttony is like promoting smoking and baby seal clubbing?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ymHPITfxvE]
So where is the national presence in all of this? To find out I emailed a friend who just so happens to be an executive with an NFL team. Here's his take on the discussion about McNabb in Philadelphia: ∙ Just the idea that Jeff Garcia should be the Eagles' starting quarterback in 2007 instead of Donovan McNabb should disqualify people from watching any NFL games, ever. In other words, people think the whole thing is just silly.
Apparently, Donovan McNabb's press conference for Chunky Soup was a really big deal. Actually, it made all the papers – in Philadelphia. Nationally, it doesn't look as if the so-called "controversy" caused much of a ripple. In a quick search of Google News for stories written about the McNabb press conference, only one paper outside of the Philadelphia area had an original story written by a staff writer. And that writer was from Newark, N.J., which really isn't that far from Philly. Additionally, there was one original story on a national web site, but aside from that, the latest McNabb controversy du jour is strictly local.
This is on the other site, but I'm posting it here, too.
Ryan Hall shattered the American record in the Half Marathon last month with a 59:43. Listen to him talk about it on The Competitors radio show. While you're at it, check out the archives of interviews with triathletes and marathoners.
My favorites are the chats with Rod Dixon and Pat Tillman.
Phillies and former Phillies are getting the full treatment from ESPN.com today. In addition to Jayson Stark’s interesting story about Randy Wolf’s pre-Spring Training workout routine, Alan Schwarz talks hitting with Ryan Howard.
Howard told Schwarz:
“Everybody from the outside looks at us like power hitters, and I think we look at ourselves as contact hitters with power.”
Meanwhile, Baseball Prospectus’ Christina Kahrl broke down the Phillies’ off-season moves, and guess what? They aren’t so bad. Here’s the part that stood out:
Obscure Good Move: Adding Jayson Werth seems like an interesting enough risk, giving the Phillies a nice tandem of outfield reserves between Werth and Shane Victorino. PECOTA is willing to believe that Werth could even provide the club with a fix for their right-field needs, projecting him to hit .268/.358/.469 with a .284 Equivalent Average. He'll have to show that he can stay healthy first, of course; if anyone's going to get the black spot from Will Carroll, it might be Werth. Dealing Conine creates opportunities for Coste to handle the reserve duties at first, and might even make for roster space for Dobbs. Dobbs was miscast as a useful regular anything in Seattle, but as a back o'the bench, pinch-hitting type with modest power and contact abilities, he might stick and provide some value. He'll probably have to beat out Chris Roberson, though, and Charlie Manuel might decide he'd rather have a guy who can run.
Anyway, it was interesting to hear though it would have been better if the people in the room were identified. All it says is that “some of the newspaper’s reporters and editors… ” OK. They were having lunch, too, it says. Even better. What did they have?
Here’s a better idea: set up a cheap JVC recorder, install U-Lead and Windows media cleaner to a laptop, edit the tape, compress it, and voila! put it on the web. Better yet, go the You Tube route.
Meanwhile, Paul Hagen had some information about the Aaron Rowand for Scott Linebrink trade that was apparently put on hold.
Here's the deal for today: if I find something interesting, or relevant to the local scene (Lancaster or Philadelphia) it's going up on the site. In other words this might be like a real blog for a change only not fun to read or planned out. Hey, what are you going to do -- I just came up with the idea on the way home from Starbucks.
In a sense this will be a homage to Dan McQuade since he is far and away the best blogger in the city. That Beerleaguer guy is good, too, but he's no McQuade.
Anyway, let's get started...
This morning in the car I heard all-time great football coach talk about the early Super Bowls. He remembered Super Bowl III and losing in his first two appearances in the big game and how everything had changed. The biggest change, Shula said, was in the coverage. Back before the Super Bowl became and event and a holiday -- it used to be just a football game -- Shula said he would ride with the team in a bus from their practice site, walk across the hotel lobby, a park himself in the hotel bar for his weekly press conference. For the two or three reporters covering him, that was enough.
Now, Shula says, the backup offensive linemen have a podium.
Even guys who aren't playing in the game like Donovan McNabb have press conferences, where, frankly, nothing fascinating was revealed. However, thanks to an email sent from bulldog Eagles' writer Andy Schwartz, Peyton Manning seems to have had something interesting to say.
Peyton on the most pressure he has ever felt in his life:
“I signed up for this class in eighth grade called ‘musical theatre’ with the goal of getting out of computers. A week into the class they told me that I had to be in the school play, and I said that I didn't want to do that and they said that I was in the play. They assigned you a role, the play was called ‘The Boyfriend.’ They gave me the role of Miguel. One of the scenes I had to do the tango with Lola. It had the wardrobe; black pants, red ruffled tuxedo shirt and a yellow cumberbun. It was a full on tango. I had to do it on Friday in front of the whole school which wasn't that much pressure. But they said that you had to do it again Saturday Night in front of the families, which meant in front of my two brothers, Eli and Cooper, because on Friday they weren't going to be there because Cooper had practice Saturday they were going to be able to be there. Now that's pressure.
“But I did it. I studied that, and I went full speed on that tango. There is video. Don't look for it. It's deep in the Manning vault I can assure you. That was some pressure.
“The way that I deal with pressure and I used this quote yesterday and I will say it again, my dad used to give me quotes and put a quote on my bulletin board. He would just peg them on there, like Jimmy Connors, ‘I hate to lose, more than I like to win,’ and I agree with that. Chuck Noll's, ‘pressure is something you feel only when you don't know what you are doing’ and that is how I feel. I get prepared. I prepare as hard as I possibly can. Sure you feel nervous, you feel anxious, but I don't feel pressure because I feel that I have done everything I could to be prepared for that game. When you go out there and do it, and there have been plenty of games where I have said that I wish that I could have this throw back or I wish that I would have seen that linebacker, but it just didn't happen, but I have never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready for that game. That gives me piece of mind.
“That is how I am dealing with it this week. I will study as hard as I possibly can. I am not over studying and I am not over preparing. I am doing what I feel I need to do to get ready. I feel that will be enough, and hopefully I go out there and play well.”
Now if Manning dances the tango in the Super Bowl we all should be really impressed.
There were a few (published) rumors coming from San Diego that indicated the Phillies and Padres were talking about a deal that was to include centerfielder Aaron Rowand for the Padres' reliever Scott Linebrink. Apparently, those talks have flamed out.
Interestingly, I asked a couple of people with the Phillies about the rumored deal and they had no idea what I was talking about.
Go figure.
I had the chance to talk about my running workouts with Wolf more than a few times over the years and it was easy to tell he was not only interested in long-distance running, but also had a passion for it. A nice, 10-miler was a routine run during the off-season, but mostly, though, he was interested in the volume that elite-level marathoners put in, as well as the types and workout schedules. Better yet, we both had a good chuckle when one writer was gushing over how “tough” Roger Clemens’ workout routine and couldn’t hide his smirk when I finally butt in with a, “Dude, that’s not very hard... ”
I have what I like to call bleephole tendencies. Hey, what are you going to do?
Anyway, I recall a conversation in August of last season where Wolf and I talked about interval sessions and the kind of stuff I did in preparing for a marathon. Like anything with Wolf, it was an informed and well-thought question and, frankly, the first time that a non-competitive runner asked specifically about something as intricate interval sessions.
As a marathoner, I said, I liked to do repeats of a mile to 5 kilometers with longer intervals when preparing for a race. At the time, longish tempo runs were what I was focusing on, which really isn’t a big help to a baseball player – it’s not a big deal for a pitcher to hit a 5k in 16:30 or a 10-miler in 58 flat. But for a marathoner, I explained, I emulated the surges that would occur in a race.
Wolf, though, wanted to know about quarters, which is something I really disliked doing. Oh I did them all right; it’s just that any workout on the track kind of scared the hell out of me. To me the track means speed, and speed kills hamstrings. Plus, stepping on a track wearing spikes meant business. There is no such thing as messing around on a track. It’s easy to go out and run for two hours without stopping where one can allow their thoughts and legs take them to wherever the mood takes them, but a track – that’s like stepping into a boxing ring.
Anyway, I told Wolf that I used to try to do 20 quarters in 70 to 75 seconds with a float around the track for the rest. Another one I “liked” to do was three miles of sprinting the straights and floating the curves. Rob de Castella, the badass Australian marathoner, used to do that one.
Wolf had to leave before we could get deep into the details of intervals sessions and exactly what he was looking for, but I think I figured it out after reading Jayson Stark’s great piece on ESPN.com where Wolf goes through his daily workout routine.
Even though we don’t know how fast he hits his quarters, it’s really a fascinating read and more fantastic work from the great Jayson Stark.
Here's the quote I liked:
"I want to be in baseball shape," he says. "I'm not going to run a marathon or be a decathlon athlete. I'm training to have 35 starts, hopefully more than that [if his team makes the playoffs]. That's what I'm training to do. And I think there were times during the season where I lost my stamina because I didn't listen to my body. I'd go too hard, too hard, too hard, and then I'd fade out. …
"Back when I was 22, 23, 24 years old, I was big into running and keeping in shape that way, and I wouldn't change my routine. I was still into running five, six miles. And then all of a sudden, I'm in the sixth inning and my legs were dead, and I'd have no idea why. I realize now I was just working too hard the days I was not pitching."
Truth be told, I could read about different workouts all day long. Not only is there a possibility of picking up something new, but also it’s really, really motivating.
The running though, is about all there is in common. Instead of the weights, I attempt yoga, which I sure is a treat to see. People like me make the Tin Man look limber. Wolf's workout is for athletes and it appears as if the Dodgers have found themselves a good one.
Originally I had an entire screed written about the egocentric nature of sports, media and culture all tied in to how I thought Curt Schilling was the most masterful media manipulator in the modern era of sports, but I changed my mind. Oh, I still believe that the superficialities, self-servitude, egos run amok and attention-seeking attitudes in local and national media and sports is, well… tacky, but instead of a entire rant on Schilling as the poster child for this, I have relented.
The reasons are simple – I like what Curt Schilling does for ALS and what he and his wife do for skin cancer awareness. This is important work. Sure, maybe I’m a little turned off that it’s Curt Schilling’s Fight for ALS (what, no one else is fighting?), it’s still a fight against ALS and that’s a good thing. From firsthand knowledge and from research, the work and effort Schilling puts into his ALS is more than admirable, and if his name attracts more attention to the fight, then maybe I should relax a bit.
The same goes for the Schilling’s SHADE foundation, which attempts to raise awareness about skin cancer. As a long-time outdoorsy type, I never paid much attention to my skin, but have begun to see the light, to coin a phrase. The SHADE web site is chock full of information and is a good reference point for anyone interesting in learning more about their skin.
Plus, it’s hard to deny that Curt Schilling is one of the greatest big game pitchers ever. His post season statistics are ridiculous – almost video game-like.
But when it comes to the chatter about Schilling running for the senate in Massachusetts in 2008, and his other political views, let’s just say Curt is a good pitcher.
According to stories in the Boston papers/web sites, there is a veritable “groundswell” of support for Schilling to take the Republican nomination and run against John Kerry in 2008. That’s cool, I guess. Schilling would be a great politician if the criteria were the ability to create superficial attention, alienating colleagues and the media, hypocrisy and arrogance. In fact, in those regards Schilling could be ahead of the curve.
Plus, (and I have no proof of this and I’m not saying it’s fact – I’m just saying something for the sake of saying something) I would not be surprised if the “groundswell” was manufactured by Schilling. I’m not saying this is the case, but everyone knows how much the big boy loves the attention.
Of course, Schilling was humbled by the notion of running for the senate. Who wouldn’t be? It also allowed him to tout his charities (shrewd… very shrewd) and toss out the quote about how mixed up they are in Washington.
“While I am a registered voter, I have too many problems with the political scene, and I don’t think I’d fit into it,” he said.
I also believe that Schilling knows that political pundits suggest a run against Kerry in Massachusetts could make Lynn Swann's run against Governor Ed Rendell look like a close contest.
Nevertheless, the extra time in the spotlight (sans towel over his head) also gave Schilling a chance to endorse fellow Arizonan Sen. John McCain and Illinois Senator Barack Obama as his favorite would-be presidential candidates. Better yet, it gave Schilling a chance to take a swipe at New York Senator Hillary Clinton, who formally announced her bid for the 2008 Presidential race.
“As far as Hillary Clinton goes, I just want her to keep talking,” Schilling said. “I just cringe every time I hear someone with a voice in the political scene talking out against the war. I am not for it, no ones for it, I just feel like -- especially someone like Hillary has to know that those comments have serious implications overseas for the men and women of the United States armed forces -- it scares the hell out of me.”
It’s kind of ironic because most sportswriters feel the same way about Schilling. When Curt starts talking about things other than baseball, his charities or his video games, well… let’s just say he’s a good pitcher. Not to mention that it’s kind of fun to listen to a self-serving blowhard like Schilling go on and on.
Let’s just say this – I like athletes that have interests outside of their sports. I think it humanizes them as well as shows that they actually care about things other than the superficial celebrity culture. Though it’s pretty safe to say that Schilling and I disagree on everything politically (though I’m not a Hillary Clinton supporter either, but not for the same reasons as Schilling) and maybe even on most ideas, I like the fact that he is someone who doesn’t hide behind the veneer political correctness and engages in some semblance of a public discourse.
I think he’s wrong, but it’s kind of refreshing to see an athlete pronounce an opinion.
As for Schilling’s opinion, since when does speaking out against a war mean someone is not supporting the troops? That’s just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
But that’s Schilling – an enigma wrapped in a riddle and covered with a “bloody” sock.
Ryan Hall shattered the American record in the Half Marathon last month with a 59:43. Listen to him talk about it on The Competitors radio show. While you're at it, check out the archives of interviews with triathletes and marathoners.
My favorites are the chats with Rod Dixon and Pat Tillman.
If I ever get a chance to focus on a good marathon, here's the workout plan I put together. Some notes first -- the plan is for 105 miles per week (give or take) except for the "Blast Week" where I try to do as much as possible and still be able to walk the next day. The plan is also similar to the one outlined by Dr. Jack Daniels -- with some Lydiard mixed in, I guess -- where the workouts are defined by two quality sessions per week. The other workouts are used to reach the weekly mileage goal. Also, a "knockdown" is a progression/tempo run where each split is run faster than the previous one. In this regard, the splits are five miles, but can be altered to fit a specific plan.
Anyway, here it is:
Week 1 2 miles easy + 2 x 2 miles @ 5:35/mile + 9 miles easy + 3 miles @ 5:35/mile + 2 miles easy
4 miles easy + 5 x 1 mile @ 5:10/mile + 5 miles easy
Week 2 20 miles in 2:15
2 miles easy + 10 miles in 58 2 miles easy
Week 3 4 miles easy + 8 miles in 48 + 1 mile in 5:35 + 6 miles in 36 + 1 mile in 5:35 + 2 miles easy
knockdown in 33, 32, 31
Week 4 22 miles with 5 miles in 28
knockdown in 32, 31, 30
Week 5 22 miles in 2:28
2 miles easy + 10 miles in 58 + 2 miles easy
Week 6 20 miles with 12 in 72
knockdown in 32, 30, 29
Week 7 22 miles with 5 in 28, 10 easy, and 5 in 28
knockdown in 31, 30, 28
Week 8 22 miles in 2:27
4 easy + 10 in 57 1 mile cool down
Week 9 23 miles with 12 in 72
knockdown in 31, 31, 27
Week 10 22 miles with 5 in 28
knockdown in 32, 30, 29
Week 11 22 miles easy
4 miles easy + 5 x 1 mile @ 5:10/mile + 5 miles easy
Week 12 BLAST WEEK
Week 13 22 miles easy
5k or 10k race
Week 14 * 13 easy * 10 easy * 4 miles warm up and cool down + 3 in 16 * 6 miles easy * 4-5 miles easy * 3 miles easy * 4 miles easy
It’s pretty safe to assume that my updates on this page may directly correlate to how well my running has been going. So obviously, it hasn’t been so hot – relatively speaking, of course. Actually, it hasn’t been as bad as that. I still get out nearly every day, it’s just that since the end of December I hit the proverbial wall. Just like that I went from running hard and turning in some of the best workouts I’ve ever had to simply not wanting to do it… well, it hasn’t been that bad, but I definitely have had my share of days off.
Not that it’s a bad thing. As someone who was once chewed up and spit out by the sport not so long ago, I know I was walking on a tightrope. That’s the good part – I can pinpoint my mistake and exactly where everything went wrong. That’s good. Now the trick is to figure out how to get back to the place I once was.
So what happened? Simple. I bit off more than I could chew. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. Instead of breaking down after the Harrisburg Marathon last November, I pushed the envelope and thought I could get away with it. I was a degenerate sitting at the roulette wheel who thought he had the game figured out only to wonder where all my money went when the number didn’t come up.
Need any more bad analogies?
Because I ran “just” 2:53 at Harrisburg, which was a good 8 to 12 minutes slower than I should have run because of the 20 to 30 mile-per-hour headwinds, I figured that my body didn’t take the pounding it would have if I had run 2:40.
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
It’s not the time, it’s the effort and I really busted my ass during the last five miles even though when I finished I didn’t feel as though I was done running. I wanted another 40 yards to catch the dude that was paced through the race like he was Lance Armstrong in New York or some silliness like that.
In reality, the silliness came from the “smart” dude who turned in four straight 100-mile weeks just two weeks after running a marathon.
The point of all of it was to be ready to take a strong crack at 2:35 at the National Marathon on March 24 and then gear up for 2:30 at Steamtown in early October. National, of course, wasn’t the important one but it was gearing up to be with the way the workouts were going during those four 100-mile weeks. Not only was the distance there, but also there was plenty of quality sessions, too. In fact, I think I made up a workout that I called “knockdowns” where the plan was to run a minute faster for each five-mile segment of a 15 miler. For instance, I wanted to do one effort in 33, 32 and 31 minutes for each split, but instead ran 33:14; 30:57; and 29:08.
That one made me feel like a badass.
But a week later a 20-miler knocked me out. It was work and I don’t know how I was able to force myself through it. Afterwards I only ran 10 kilometers over the next two days, took a bunch of days off over the next few weeks and pretty much gave up on National being anything more than another marathon to add to the collection.
Steamtown is out, too. With my wife due to have our second child in mid August, training for a race and heading out of town for a few days to run it kind of found a spot on the back burner. August and September are going to be pretty busy.
So things have been rearranged a bit. Hey, things happen. There’s nothing wrong with some new ideas, right? Try this one for instance: a marathon a month through the summer before re-focusing for another run at Harrisburg. All of those marathons will be run at workout pace and will be great for base building before gearing up a serious marathon in mid-November. In reality it’s the same kind of plan I used before the 1998 Boston Marathon where I used a couple of local races for long runs where I got an age-group trophy at the end.
The George Washington Marathon is coming up on Feb. 18. Then I can run National on March 24, maybe (maybe) Boston on April 16, and Delaware on May 20.
Good idea, huh?
Meanwhile, I’m contemplating doing a run from my house in Lancaster to the ballpark in Philadelphia a la Terry Fox. It could be a fun and interesting way to break up some of the monotony of my commute and every day workouts, though the logistics could be a bit difficult. The distance is about 70 miles as the crow flies, which I figure should take no more than 10 hours. I’ll probably need a support group and maybe a handful of people to run segments with me, as well as a good route with little traffic. The running will be the easy part.
If I can get out the door.
It wasn’t all that long ago when general manager Pat Gillick stood in front of the local press and said that he didn’t think the Phillies would be able to compete for a playoff spot until 2008. To be fair, it certainly didn’t look good for the Phillies from anyone’s perspective after the team had just sent Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle to the Yankees while dealing away veterans David Bell and Rheal Cormier in a payroll purge that had “Fire Sale” written all over it.
So when Gillick – a GM who has witnessed enough in his four decades in the game to know a salary dump when he saw one – the “wait until the year after next year” was chillingly honest.
“It will be a stretch to say we’ll be there in ’07,” Gillick said on last July 30. “We’ll have to plug in some young pitchers and anytime you do that you’ll have some inconsistency.
“It’s going to take another year.”
But a funny thing happened on the Phillies’ trip to oblivion. After the trading deadline Ryan Howard emerged as the slugger in the Majors by smashing 23 home runs in the final 58 games. Furthermore, Chase Utley joined Howard amongst the game’s elite and clubbed 10 homers in the last month of the season to form a dynamic duo that should be a staple for the Phils well into the next decade.
A team does not live on homers alone, which is a good thing because heralded rookie Cole Hamels showed glimpses of the brilliance everyone had predicted by going 6-3 with a 2.60 ERA and 76 strikeouts in 69 1/3 innings during the season’s final two months. Those are numbers any veteran would take, let alone a 22-year-old kid who had never completed a full season ever because of one injury or another.
With that, when Jimmy Rollins proclaims the Phillies are the team to beat in the NL East everyone just kind of shrugs and says, “Yeah, maybe he’s on to something.”
“We've improved ourselves, and some other teams haven't really done a whole lot,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “We've cut some ground on the Mets. On paper, we got stronger in our division.”
In other words, despite Gillick’s anti-Knute Rockne speech, the Phillies believed they were good enough to compete for a playoff spot now. With a youthful exuberance that prevents the players from doing something silly by allowing the media or fans to dictate how good they can be, the Phillies took the season to its final days for the second straight season. Actually, the prospects for success changed so much that Gillick backed off his claim from last July and went out and added a couple of veteran pitchers for the rotation, a veteran bat or two for the bench, and just might have another move up his sleeve to get a relief pitcher before the Phillies break camp in Clearwater and head north in late March.
Suddenly, wait-until-the-year-after-next-year became let’s-get-them-now.
This turnaround begs the question, “How did this happen?” Or better yet: “Just what did the Phillies do to go 36-22 after trading Abreu and three other veterans to nearly reach the playoffs for just the second time since Hamels, Howard and Utley were babies?”
Do you really want to know what the players say? Well… it’s the manager.
“He's a big reason the chemistry on this team is as good as it is,” Aaron Rowand said at last week’s media luncheon in Citizens Bank Park. “You guys don't get to see it, the fans don't get to see it, because you guys aren't in the clubhouse all the time. You guys aren't in the dugout during the game when he's talking to the guys, when he's conversing with people, helping guys out, pumping guys up. He's one of the best managers I've ever had a chance to play for, and I would have been very sorry to have seen him go after last year.”
Rowand, who won the World Series with Ozzie Guillen as the manager for the White Sox in 2005, isn’t the only player who says these kinds of things, either. Actually, it’s harder to find a player who says Manuel is not his favorite manager. Any player who has spent time with Manuel has lots of stories to tell with most of the subject matter dealing with something that left everyone in stitches and gets retold in an imitation of the skipper’s Virginia drawl.
In that regard, if imitation is the most sincere form of flattery then Charlie Manuel is the most beloved man in Philadelphia.
Yet for as much as the players love him, and for as much as the writing press respects him, something about Manuel’s down home, everyman persona has missed with the sophisticates in Philadelphia. In fact, a common thing heard from folks talking about the Phillies’ chances is that the team is ready to make a run at the playoffs, but if they don’t maybe they’ll finally get rid of that Charlie Manuel.
And because Manuel is heading in to the last season of his three-year deal, it could be playoffs or bust for him.
Yes, he knows all about it.
“Believe me, that doesn't affect me,” Manuel said. “I want to focus on winning ballgames. It's not about me. It's about our players. The players are the ones who are going to win the game for us, and if we're successful, then I think Charlie Manuel will be successful.”
Make no mistake; there are a lot of people who don’t want the Phillies to be successful for that very reason. Forget that after two seasons in which Manuel won more games than all but one manager in team history through this point in his tenure – a fact first reported on CSN.com. With the Phillies, 173 victories in two seasons in which the team was eliminated from wild-card playoff contention at game Nos. 162 and 161 is borderline historic. Actually, it’s more than remarkable – it’s unprecedented.
This is a franchise, after all, where only two (two!) managers have taken the team to more than one postseason. It’s a franchise that has been to the playoffs just nine times in 123 seasons. For comparisons sake, look at the Atlanta Braves who… wait, nevermind. It just isn’t fair to compare the Phillies to any other franchise.
One thing hasn’t changed from the Phillies’ golden days in the late 1970s and early1980s and that’s the bottom line. In the end, winning is the only thing that matters.
“Ever since I came here, from Day 1, I said I came here to win,” Manuel said. “It's not, ‘I need to win.’ It’s, ‘Philadelphia needs to win.’ ‘The organization needs to win.’ And I understand that.”
So what happens if the Phillies win in 2007? Does Manuel get a new deal to take him into the next decade, or does the organization allow him to walk away? Of all the intriguing plotlines for the upcoming baseball season, the case of Manuel and his future with the Phillies could be the most interesting. After two seasons littered with hope and promise there is plenty of room for improvement.
But then again, for the Phillies 173 victories in two seasons is nothing to sneeze at.
For the past half dozen years I purchased the Major League Baseball Extra Innings package and enjoyed the fact that if I wanted to watch a game – even late at night – one was usually available.
The problem was, however, that I was rarely home to enjoy a Dodgers game at 1 a.m. with Vin Scully painting portraits over the microphone. On most nights during the summer I was at the ballpark and the Extra Innings package didn’t get used as much as it should have.
That doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to get it. After all, I’m one of those people who is a baseball fan, but not necessarily a sports fan. Ever since I was a little kid I always thought that sports were for playing, not watching. To a large degree I still think that way. Nevertheless, last season I bought the online version of the Extra Innings package. Since I was never at home, but was always travelling with my laptop or within reach of a computer, it made sense to make baseball games portable. That way I could watch whatever games needed to be seen when I was at the ballpark, at the house in Colorado, on an Amtrak train, or even in a Starbucks.
As Jello Biafra said, “give me convenience or give me death.”
Rallying cries or the portability of baseball watching aside, I expect the online version of the Extra Innings package to increase its sales this season. Needless to say, any cable subscriber who is also a big baseball fan is going to agree with me after MLB told their fans, essentially, to “go to hell.” Perhaps since MLB couldn’t take away the statistics (they called it “intellectual property” and were laughed out of court) from the rotisserie leagues and online fantasy games, the league decided to take their games to Direct TV.
Now I have nothing against Direct TV, because I have never seen it nor do I know anyone who has it. As a Comcast subscriber (and shareholder), I’m very happy with what choices I have, the various offerings and the so-called on Demand features. Yes, it’s probably overpriced, but to me television is kind of like Trans fats. Sure, it tastes good, but you really don’t want to ingest too much of it. As far as cable goes, most people’s complaints lie with the local stations and affiliates.
Jayson Stark and Buster Olney wrote very eloquently about MLB’s move to the satellite company, while The New York Times thoroughly broke down the ins and outs of the deal though they left out the answer to one really big question:
What is MLB thinking?
I think MLB is attempting to enhance its web presence and believe that the era of pay-per-view sports is here and here to stay. I also believe that the Direct TV deal will be the big push to turn sports on television into something as archaic as games on the radio with the World Wide Web reaping all the benefits.
Time to increase your bandwidth, folks.
On another note… Here in Lancaster – just a little more than an hour from the Philadelphia city limits – Phillies games will not be available on “free” TV in 2007. To watch the “hometown” team, fans need Comcast SportsNet or a nationally broadcast FOX or ESPN offering. Additionally, WLPA, the long-time home of the Phillies on the radio, will broadcast Lancaster Barnstormers (an independent league team) for a second straight year.
Needless to say, most people are a little peeved. Who wants to listen to a glorified sandlot team on the radio when the Major League team that everyone has followed for their entire lives is making a run for the playoffs?
Freddy Sanchez?
I remember a time during the latter portion of the 2000 season when Phillies' pitcher Chris Brock gave up a home run to Mike Piazza that hugged the right-field line before clanging off the façade at the Vet. Afterwards I asked Brock about the home run he surrendered and he not-so subtly insinuated that in order to hit a ball the way Piazza had, the player had to be dabbling with performance-enhancing substances.
So with Brock’s quote in tow, I marched over to the Mets’ clubhouse and told Piazza what the Phillies’ pitcher had said about his home run (the second of that game, I should add).
“Who,” Piazza deadpanned, “is Chris Brock?”
That’s kind of what I thought when I read the story from Pittsburgh about Pirates’ second baseman Freddy Sanchez not being jealous of Chase Utley’s new contract with the Phillies.
Freddy who?
To be fair, Sanchez is a nice ballplayer who probably never gave Utley’s contract a second thought. What probably happened was a writer or two were sitting around and saw that Sanchez won the batting title last season and had some statistics that were a bit better than Utley’s. So rather than think the subject through they went with the notion that Sanchez is OK with the fact that Utley is getting $85 million even though he hit .344 and the Phillies’ All-Star only hit .309.
Never mind that Utley is one of the best 10 to 15 players in the game and not simply one of the better infielders in the National League. Plus, Sanchez plays for a dreadful team that will probably be equally as bad for another generation. That means he doesn’t have the pressure of pennant races or little things like situational hitting or winning games to worry about. In Pittsburgh, Sanchez and Jason Bay can go out there and play any kind of game they want as long as they get their statistics. That way a few writers will look at them and think, “Look, he hit .344. He’s gotta be as good as Chase Utley… ”
Meanwhile, people outside of the Three Rivers area wonder just who is this Freddy Sanchez dude.
It’s funny how quickly things change, to coin a phrase. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that manager Larry Bowa was forced to send Chase Utley back to the minors so that Doug Glanville could take over the last roster spot. Bowa didn’t want to do it, and if I remember correctly, fought hard to keep Utley for Opening Day in 2004, but with Placido Polanco set as the second baseman and David Bell entrenched at third base, Utley would have been able to get four or five at-bats every night in Scranton.
The rationale, as explained by the former Phillies administration of Ed Wade and Bowa, was that Glanville could spell Marlon Byrd in center field and come in and swipe a bag or two. Besides, Utley was purely an offensive player at that point of his career and his defense wasn’t so great.
Nope, Bowa didn’t really buy what he was ordered to sell. Imagine that? Byrd and Glanville for Utley?
Utley ended playing in 94 games in ’04 – 50 at second base and 13 at first base – and seemed destined to take over as the everyday second baseman until Wade offered arbitration to Polanco. Since he wasn’t one to turn down millions of dollars, Polanco accepted and Utley found himself in a platoon. Though he hit 28 homers and knocked in 105 runs in 2005, Utley was on the bench on opening day.
Polanco was traded by June and Utley hasn’t looked over his shoulder or picked up his first-baseman’s mitt since. Not even two years after sitting on the bench on opening day, Utley has a new $85 million deal with the Phillies.
Meanwhile, Ryan Howard seems to be walking the same path as his pal Utley, though when the time comes it seems as if the slugging first baseman will be messing around with Powerball-jackpot type digits. Unless Howard turns into Joe Charboneau (or Pat Burrell) it seems as if the Phillies will take care of him before spring training opens in 2008.
But like Utley, Howard never could break camp with the Phillies for one reason or another. One of those reasons, of course, was bona fide 40-homer man Jim Thome. Another was Wade and the Phillies’ reluctance to take a chance on a young player even when that young player was destroying the records at every stop in the minors. It definitely was an organizational thing, too. In fact, I remember talking to Reading manager Greg Legg during Howard’s assault of the Eastern League in 2004 and he said Howard needed a year of Triple-A before making the jump to the big leagues.
He said it, but I don’t think he believed it. All of the Phillies’ brass were saying that kind of stuff back then.
Nevertheless, count on Howard and his “ordinary” contract being a topic of discussion all summer. That’s just what happens for some reason. I remember how Kevin Millwood’s contract status was such a hot topic in 2003, and how Millwood told us he wasn’t going to talk about it anymore before talking about how he wasn’t going to talk about it.
It’s a vicious cycle or something like that.
Howard, it appears, made his first full season in the Majors, too good, according to a quoted source in Jayson Stark’s story on ESPN.com from Jan. 24. Technically, the Phillies don’t have to do anything with his contract and if they want to pay him the minimum – slightly below $400,000 – they can.
They won’t because Pat Gillick is smart. He knows better than us why the Howards felt it necessary to have three different agents in a little more than a year. Perhaps (despite his public and behind-closed-doors media persona) Howard is sensitive and takes perceived slights hard? Hey, we’ve seen that before, right?
The last part is just some out-loud thinking, but the point remains – Utley and Howard have come a very long way in a very short time.