Ron Blomberg happy with claim to fame
When Ron Blomberg mentions his name to check into a hotel, make an airline reservation or something of that sort, he said he typically gets recognized for one of two reasons.
"People either know me for being the first DH," he said, "or they ask me if I'm related to Mayor Bloomberg."
The first part is true. The second part obviously is not (their last names are spelled differently). But the former Yankee has no problem playing along just for kicks. "When they ask me if I'm related to Mayor Bloomberg, I say, 'He's my uncle. But he'll never put me in his will,' " he said.
By all accounts Blomberg did not have the successful professional baseball career that was expected of him, considering the increased amount of hype he entered the Yankees organization with. The Yankees made him the first overall pick in the 1967 draft, giving him an opportunity that was worthy enough to pass up a basketball scholarship to UCLA to play under John Wooden. In fact, he said 125 colleges showed interest in him for basketball and another 140 schools contacted him for football.
But when the Yankees drafted him first, his decision was easy. Injuries, however, limited Blomberg to spending parts of just eight seasons in the majors, and he never played more than 107 games or had more than 301 at-bats in a year. But Blomberg will forever have a place in baseball history because he became the first official designated hitter on April 6, 1973. And Blomberg, who turns 60 years old on Saturday, absolutely loves his claim to fame.
"I jumped in the Hall of Fame through the back door rather than the front door, and I'm just fine with that," he said last week in a telephone interview from his home in Roswell, Ga. "Because this is something they can never take away from me. The DH, whether you like or don't like it, it's always going to be there."
Since introducing the DH into baseball, Blomberg has followed the evolution of the position with great interest. "I screwed up the game of baseball in '73," he said. "Who ever thought in '73 that 35 years later the DH would still be in existence? Everybody said it was a gimmick. Nobody thought it would stick."
Now Blomberg is eagerly looking forward to 2010 when career DH Edgar Martinez is eligible for the Hall of Fame. "For so many years people thought a relief pitcher would never be in the Hall of Fame," he said. "Bruce Sutter and then Goose getting in this year, that's a good sign. I think Edgar Martinez will get in."
Blomberg keeps an incredibly busy schedule, juggling responsibilities that include motivational speaking, Yankees fantasy camps, wine-and-dine in Yankee Stadium suites and some scouting work for the team.
In addition, he also runs a summer camp for kids. He said it's "the largest Jewish sleep-away camp in the country." Herb Brown, Larry Brown's brother, runs the basketball portion of camp, he said. He's also coming off a busy past year that including writing a book, "Designated Hebrew," as well as managing in the start-up Israel Baseball League. The league lasted only one year because of finances, but he loved it. It was his first trip to Israel, and he called it "an unbelievable experience."
And like many former Yankees, Blomberg has mixed feelings about the end of Yankee Stadium.
"Every time I go there I wonder how in the world are they going to tear down Yankee Stadium," he said. "There were always three parks I thought would never get torn down: Wrigley field, Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. I know the corporate and economic reasons, but it will never be the same."
Copyright 2008, Newsday Inc.
Get a lesson in baseball history
In the U.S., only one sport has earned the title of "our national pastime", baseball.
Today's game holds little resemblance to its ancestor. Rules, regulations and player conduct during the 1860s are foreign to modern players and fans alike.
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center offers an innovative and action-packed lesson in the early history of the sport via its Spiegel Grove Squires vintage baseball club. Sponsored by Baumann Auto Group, the Squires play their next home match at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Hayes Presidential Center. Admission is free and open to all.
Spiegel Grove Squire members wear reproduction uniforms consisting of long pants, billowy shirts with button-on chest shields, and simple caps. The only equipment used is a slender wooden bat and softball-size leather ball. In keeping with 1860s regulations there are no gloves, masks, or padding. Players (called ballists in the 19th century) catch and throw the ball bare handed and play on a grass field.
For this home match, the Squires welcome the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Attendees are encouraged to become part of the action by encouraging their preferred players and club using the 1860s-appropriate cheer "Huzzah!" One match remains in the Squires 2008 season. It takes place 2 p.m. Sept. 7 at home in Spiegel Grove and features a contest with the Akron Black Stockings.
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center is located at the corner of Hayes and Buckland avenues, Fremont. Check the Hayes Presidential Center Web site www.rbhayes.org for updates on the team's record and for a complete list of year-round special events.
Copyright 2008 The News-Messenger
Manny Ramirez brings bat and baggage to Los Angeles Dodgers
He will arrive at Dodger Stadium today lugging 510 career home runs inside 510 pounds of baggage.He will take his place in the middle of the Dodger batting order tonight as one of baseball's biggest hitters and most baffling headaches. In the biggest late-season acquisition in club history, the Dodgers acquired left fielder Manny Ramirez on Thursday from the Boston Red Sox and Mars.
They are counting on him to carry them into October and beyond. Just as soon as they can find him. Three hours after the trade, Ned Colletti, Dodger general manager, was asked whether he had spoken to Ramirez.
"I left him a message," said Colletti. Four hours after the trade, Dodger Manager Joe Torre was asked whether he had spoken to Ramirez. "I left him a message," said Torre.
Days after the Angels grabbed the national sports spotlight by trading for quiet slugger Mark Teixeira, the Dodgers have thrown a massive counterpunch by acquiring a guy who is part Hollywood and part Dagwood.
A guy who occasionally swings like Babe Ruth and is consistently as nutty as a Baby Ruth. The only thing that flops around more than his trademark dreadlocks are his moods.
Nobody in baseball history has hit more postseason homers, 24, yet when the 2007 world champion Red Sox visited the White House, Ramirez didn't show up.
"I guess his grandmother died again," President Bush said at the time. "Just kidding."
Perhaps nobody in baseball history has performed better in a more pressure-filled World Series, as he was the MVP of the 2004 Series that broke the Red Sox's 86-year title drought. Yet a couple of weeks ago, during a sixth-inning pitching change at Fenway Park, he momentarily departed left field to make a cellphone call. The Red Sox have long shrugged off such behavior as "Manny being Manny."
But recently, with Ramirez ripping club executives in preparation for his probable departure as a free agent this winter, the Red Sox finally decided Manny could be Manny somewhere else. Officially, the Dodgers acquired Ramirez in a three-team trade that cost them third-base prospect Andy LaRoche and pitcher Bryan Morris, who worked in class-A. Unofficially, it doesn't take a Laker fan to understand that they were given a gift the size of Pau Gasol. Neither Dodger kid was considered a top prospect,
and the Red Sox agreed to pay the remainder of Ramirez's USD 21-million annual salary, about USD 7 million. "It's crazy," said Torre. "This is a huge 'get' for us."
It is actually two "gets" for the price of none. They do not have to pay someone who immediately becomes their best hitter. And, because of his impending free agency, they are not obligated to tolerate his nutty behavior beyond this season. He is probably here only for two months, but with a swing that is as unshakable as his smile, he is capable of carrying the Dodgers every day of those two months.
"Three months," corrected Dodger owner Frank McCourt, adding a month for the playoffs and World Series. "We're going to have a great three months of baseball."
It was Boston native McCourt who pushed for this deal Thursday morning, just hours before the trading deadline, when he realized that the Red Sox were truly serious about dealing their recurring headache.
In the weak National League West, one hitter could elevate his pitching-rich team to the top. And amid the inexperienced National League teams that will make the playoffs, one hitter could provide the postseason difference. Ramirez, even at age 36, is still clearly that hitter, leading the Red Sox with 20 home runs and ranking second with 68 RBIs at the time of the trade.
"This team has hung in there all season with all these injuries. This is about giving them a chance to go for it," said McCourt. "This is about paying back our loyal fans and rewarding our hard-working team."
The fans will get it, and were already loudly cheering just the scoreboard announcement of the trade Thursday night. The clubhouse may be a more difficult sell, particularly because Ramirez not only creates distractions, but a total of five potential starting outfielders.
"This is why we have a guy like Joe Torre as manager," said McCourt.
Indeed, other than the Red Sox's Terry Francona, probably the only other current major league manager who can handle Ramirez is Torre, who constantly dealt with wacky late-season acquisitions with the New York Yankees. Torre, who was constantly haunted by Ramirez during the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry, said, "It's funny, but I did everything I could not to have to see him again, and all of a sudden he's showing up in the uniform I'm wearing."
He smiled. "It's pretty special."
Pretty strange. Pretty, yeah, pretty special.
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times
Ichiro reaches 3,000 career baseball hits, first with US-Japan combo
ARLINGTON, Texas (AFP) Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki of Japan became the 29th player in professional baseball history to reach 3,000 career hits here on Tuesday with a leadoff single against Texas.
Game-opening batter Ichiro, who tripled on Monday to reach the brink of the milestone, sent a single to left-centerfield off Luis Mendoza to set the mark in the Major League Baseball matchup. Ichiro is the first player to reach the mark by playing on two different continents. Ichiro amassed his first 1,278 career hits over 11 seasons with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan before joining the Mariners in 2001.
The eight-time Major League Baseball All-Star joined Isao Harimoto, who had 3,085 during his illustrious career, as the only Japanese players to reach the 3,000-hit milestone. Ichiro, 34, owns the record for most hits in an eight-year major league span even with much of this season yet to come. The only younger player to crack 3,000 hits was Ty Cobb, whose glory days came nearly a century ago.
Ichiro has hit over .300 and had more than 200 hits in each of his US seasons, including a Major League Baseball record 262 hits in 2004. This season, Ichiro is hitting .296.
Copyright 2008 AFP.
Even the Padres have a shot in abysmal National League West
After two-plus weeks of playing some of the sufferin'est teams in the American League, the Detroit Tigers, the Cleveland Indians, the Seattle Mariners, the Padres get to spend the upcoming week playing the two clubs that played vied for the pennant in last year's National League Championship Series.
What a relief.
Some of you may remember the NL West, the division with the best day-to-day pitching in baseball, the newly respected, sun-splashed quintet that began 2008 in full expectation of another season with four clubs posting winning records. Anybody seen those guys lately? At the exact halfway point of the season, the Padres were 17 games under .500 and nearly on pace to lose 100 games, yet they can't be completely ruled out of the division race. The Rockies are headed for the worst record in franchise history, but at the same time, Colorado's still alive for a second straight playoff berth and its first-ever NL West title.
Egad.
"We aren't in a bad position, but it's not the one we drew up before the season," said Rockies manager Clint Hurdle. "But we are there, hanging around."
Hanging around is about all anybody in the NL West is doing. Going into Saturday's play, the division was led by a team no better than even, the Arizona Diamondbacks, who host the Padres next weekend, and no other club was closer than five games to .500.
"If you look at it, the standings aren't that much better than they were when we left (for interleague play)," said Padres General Manager Kevin Towers. "It's like everybody's waiting for somebody to take off. And nobody's done it."
Ostensibly, the division caught a break when matched in 2008 against the underachieving AL Central. Instead, the latter entered the weekend 33-18 against the NL West, including consecutive sweeps of the Diamondbacks and Padres by the previously dormant Minnesota Twins.
Overall, the NL West took a 24-49 interleague record into Saturday night's schedule, owing some small thanks to the Rockies for actually winning one more game against AL opponents than they'd lost. If not for that recent run, the defending NL champions already would be done.
As it is, the Rockies are positioned to become only the seventh team in baseball history to finish one season with a losing record, play a World Series the next season and go back under .500 the next. That roller-coaster list already includes the Padres of '97, '98 and '99. Likewise, after opening eyes with four winning clubs and two league finalists in 2007, the NL West is back to the sort of derision that was attached to San Diego's division title of 2005.
"I don't really know the reason we've all struggled," Towers said. "Injuries are a factor. Arizona lost (Eric) Byrnes. Colorado lost (Matt) Holliday and (Brad) Hawpe and (Troy) Tulowitzki. L.A. lost (Rafael) Furcal. We lost (Chris) Young and (Jake) Peavy and (Shawn) Estes and (Josh) Bard.
"San Francisco's stayed the healthiest and they're probably the one team that's exceeded expectations. The rest of us are better than the way we've played. How we do head-to-head is what's important now. We're going to find out if we've got another run in us, which we really need."
Almost as much as they needed to get away from the American League.
Maple bats a danger to all
You knew, sooner or later, somebody was going to get hurt, maybe worse. What you didn't know is who it would be. A fan? A player? A base coach? Turns out it was an umpire.
On the exact day that Major League Baseball finally began to address the issue of maple bats and the danger they present to everyone inside the ballpark, it was one of the people wearing the most protection who left the field bloodied by a sheared-off piece of a maple bat. Struck in the forehead by the bat of Royals designated hitter Miguel Olivo, plate umpire Brian O'Nora was taken away to a Kansas City hospital with a laceration. Baseball's safety and health advisory committee held a conference call to discuss maple bats. A preponderance of players prefer them to ash, but barely a game goes by when you don't see one of the more explosive maple bats sawed off in a batter's hand, the meat end spinning out into the field or into the stands.
"I use maple bats, and that was pretty scary," said Royals outfielder Jose Guillen, who applied a towel to O'Nora's bloodied face. "They can ban them if they want to. I love to use them, but I don't want to see anybody get hurt."
As it happens, one of the player reps to the committee is a Royals player, John Buck. Sandy Alderson, CEO of the Padres is on the committee.
There has to be more studies and testing and more testing, and even if they do decide to ban the maple bats, it has to go to collective bargaining. And we all know too well how that goes. In the meantime, then, just keep ducking.
Unfair ball
Here's yet another case for somebody to take a look at the inequities of interleague play. Of the Phillies' 15 games against American League teams, only six are on the road.
The Union-Tribune contributes to, and uses information from a national network of major league correspondents.
Copyright 1995-2008 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Oldest living major leaguer has stories to tell of greatest names in the game
Bill Werber steered his motorized wheelchair to the end of the table. The waitress pointed to the lunch menu, but the oldest living ex-major leaguer had no use for it. Days shy of his 100th birthday, Werber knew what he wanted: a hot dog with onions and a little ketchup. After his first bite, the link to baseball's golden era began his storytelling.
"Babe Ruth hit a home run and I wanted to show them how fast I could run," Werber said of being driven in by Ruth after drawing a walk in his first major league plate appearance in 1930 with the New York Yankees. "So I get into the dugout, and finally, Babe got into the dugout. He patted me on the head and said, 'Son, you don't have to run like that when the Babe hits one.' "
Werber chuckled. Ruth's old teammate may occasionally forget dates and appointments these days, but remembers vivid details of playing ball when games routinely lasted less than two hours, starting pitchers were rarely taken out, and fielders left their gloves on the field when it was their turn to bat. Werber, a career .271 hitter who led the American League in stolen bases three times, is the last of his generation. Just don't ask him about his impending 100th birthday Friday.
"It's an annoyance," Werber said, before taking another bite of his hot dog. According to the Society for American Baseball Research, the next-oldest ex-player is Tony Malinosky, 98, who played 35 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1937. It's believed the oldest living former professional player is Millito Navarro, 102, the first Puerto Rican to play in the Negro Leagues. Werber played at a time when baseball was segregated and had no equal on the American sports landscape. As a collegian, he traveled briefly with the storied 1927 New York Yankees. He was teammates with Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove. He hit .370 in the 1940 World Series as the third baseman for the champion Cincinnati Reds, despite playing most of his career in pain after breaking his toe in 1934 by kicking a water cooler in anger. He played for Hall of Fame managers Casey Stengel, Joe McCarthy, Joe Cronin and Bucky Harris, and locked horns in a contract dispute with Connie Mack. Werber was also the leadoff hitter in the first televised game in 1939.
"I was vociferous and cocky, and if they wanted to fight that was all right for me," Werber said of his career. "I was ready to go anytime. I've mellowed somewhat and I'm crippled."
Werber, who became a millionaire after baseball by selling life insurance for a company started by his father, has a prosthetic below his left knee following a diabetes-related infection six years ago.
"The surgeon gave me a choice: I could cut off my leg or I could cut off my head," Werber said in his deep, booming voice.
Werber, whose wife, Kathryn, died in 2000, remains independent. He wheels himself around the swank Carriage Club where he resides, reads the newspaper daily and occasionally pens letters to baseball commissioner Bud Selig. Werber has told Selig he doesn't think women should sing the national anthem, that games today take too long and that he's disgusted with the long hair on modern players. "Mr. Selig always responds and always writes me a nice letter," Werber said, "but he never says anything."
Soon Werber shifted back to his era and his pleasant demeanor returned. A rarity for a ballplayer of his time, Werber graduated from college. The Berwyn, Md., native signed with the Yankees after his freshman year at Duke. The contract wouldn't begin until Werber left school, but scout Paul Krichell thought Werber could learn by spending the summer of '27 sitting in the dugout and practicing with perhaps the best team in baseball history. Only Werber wasn't welcome around Murderers' Row, and left a month later to play in a summer league in North Carolina.
"They never let me in the batting cage," Werber said. "The '27 Yankees were one of the greatest ballclubs of all time and they didn't have time to fool around with a college kid."
The 5-foot-10 infielder, who was also Duke's first All-America basketball player under the legendary coach Eddie Cameron, returned to New York after graduating in 1930. He quickly became friendly with the strapping Ruth. Werber was adamant that while Ruth always carried a bottle of whiskey, he never saw his performance suffer from booze.
"Whatever he drank he absorbed well," Werber said. "And he was a kindly man. He didn't shove these little kids along. They crawled all over his white shoes and his tan pants."
After a stint in the minors in Toledo where he didn't get along with Stengel, whom he called the worst manager he played for, he returned to the Yankees in 1933. Later that season he was sold to the Red Sox. Werber played under Cronin in Boston and was teammates with Grove and Foxx. Werber marveled at Foxx's talent, but expressed sadness for how the slugger's free-spending ways forced him to play longer than he should have. Boston eventually traded Werber to the Philadelphia Athletics, where he played under the legendary Mack, who also owned the team. At that time, players had to negotiate one-year contracts each season, but could only play for the team that held their rights. After rejecting Mack's offer in 1939, Werber sat out spring training before he was sold to the Reds. Later that season, Werber led off in baseball's first televised game at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, with Red Barber at the mike. Werber claims he didn't realize the fascination until 40 years later when a boy reading a trivia book came up to him near his retirement home in Naples, Fla.
"He said, 'Hey Mr. Werber, you're famous. You're the first player to appear on television in organized ball,' " Werber said. "And I said, 'Big deal.' I don't understand all this fuss."
1996-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Griffey's milestone wasn't the one most expected
As Ken Griffey Jr. rounded the bases for the 600th time, baseball fans and historians everywhere were left marveling at a breathtaking career while wondering what could have been. Griffey entered one of baseball's elite fraternities Monday, becoming just the sixth player in history to hit 600 career home runs.
He joined a club graced by three of baseball's all-time greats, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and disgraced by two players believed to be among the sport's all-time cheats, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa. Although he is a contemporary of Bonds and Sosa, the sweet-swinging Griffey has more in common with Aaron, Ruth and Mays - players who reached milestones and achieved greatness through pure talent instead of precise chemistry.
"I got a call about 10 days ago from Willie and then the next day from Hank," Griffey said. "They said to keep going and have some fun."
As a young man, Griffey certainly had fun while dominating baseball in a way that few others have. A dazzling defensive centre-fielder with an ever-present smile, Griffey slugged his way into the record books on multiple occasions during the 1990s, when he was named the Player of the Decade. Griffey was the youngest player in baseball history to hit 300, 350, 400 and 450 career homers, leading many to believe that he eventually would challenge Aaron's record of 755. He homered in eight consecutive games in 1993, won the American League MVP in 1997, hit 50 homers in back-to-back seasons in 1997 and 1998 and led the Seattle Mariners to the first post-season appearances in franchise history.
The sky was the limit, historically speaking, for Griffey, who had 398 career homers before turning 30 years old. But then a funny thing happened, Griffey's body failed him. While sluggers like Bonds and Sosa beefed up around the turn of the century, Griffey broke down. After hitting 40 homers in his first season with the Cincinnati Reds, he missed more than 400 games over the next six years because of a variety of injuries.
"If he could have stayed healthy all those years, he would have had over 700 by now," said Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden, who orchestrated the trade to bring Griffey to Cincinnati.
Never one to praise himself, Griffey summed up his latest accolade with his customary modesty.
"My dad hit 152 home runs, and that's who I wanted to be like," Griffey said. "I came up as a second hitter and he was a second hitter. Get the guys over and let the big guys bring them in - that's what I thought I would be. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that I would be hitting 200, 300 or 600 home runs."
One can only dream how many homers Griffey would have hit had he taken care of his body. In an era when so many players were juicing and weightlifting, Griffey rarely visited the workout room, opting to spend the majority of his off-seasons at home with his family. On the other hand, Griffey also has avoided the steroid cloud hovering over baseball. He is only nine homers away from tying Sosa and needs 61 to eclipse Mays. Griffey, a free agent after this season, has been the subject of numerous trade rumours in recent seasons. With career homer No. 600 out of the way, the Reds likely will deal the 38-year-old Griffey to an offensively challenged contender at some point this season.
"I enjoy baseball," Griffey said. "As long as I can go out there help a team win, then I'm going to do it."
As long as he stays relatively healthy, Griffey has a serious chance to reach 661 career home runs, which would place him fourth on the all-time list. And when it is all said and done, that is exactly where Griffey belongs, standing side-by-side with baseball's very best.
2008 Canwest Interactive
|
