By Blaidd Drwg

Detroit doesn’t exactly have a reputation as a tourist destination, but the city is really missing out on an opportunity here with old Tiger Stadium Site, something akin to the movie, Field of Dreams.

In case you don’t know the story, here is my really short version:

– Tigers build shiny new ballpark.

– City, not knowing what to do with historic old ballpark, demolishes it.

– Fans come to site of old ballpark to see what is left of it, see the field is still intact (albeit overgrown) and decide to play a pickup game on it.

– Owner of the site threaten fans to get off the property.

– Fans ignore owners and spend their time and money to clean up the field and host regularly scheduled games .

– Owners continue to threaten fans

– A group of Chevy employees offer to volunteer their time and money to maintain the old site as a ball field for youth teams.

– Owners of the property tell them to bugger off.

A couple things you might not know about the old Tiger Stadium Site:

– It is in a lousy part of town
– The city has no idea what to do with it and no money to do anything with it anyway
– There are a lot of abandoned lots in the neighborhood
– People still come to the site to see it, including former ballplayers

Seems like a no-brainer here – you have the opportunity to draw people somewhere that they would not otherwise go, have someone maintain the property for you without you having to put any money into it and you will actually improve the neighborhood. How does this not make sense?

While not the greatest movie, Field of Dreams does provide us with something that I think is appropriate here, spoken by the great James Earl Jones playing Terrance Mann:

Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

I for one would come, to play catch on a field that some of the greatest players in the game once roamed; to sit and watch a game at a place I visited many years ago; to hear the echoes of the late, great Ernie Harwell calling one last game.

To the city of Detroit, build it – people are already coming. Do the right thing.

by Blaidd Drwg

At the end of the 1971 season, the MLB all-time list for pitcher strikeouts looked like this:

Rank	Pitcher	Strikeouts
1	Walter Johnson	3,508
2	Jim Bunning	2,855
3	Cy Young	2,803
4	Warren Spahn	2,583
5	Bob Feller	2,581

Here is where those guys rank on the current list:

Rank	Pitcher	Strikeouts
9	Walter Johnson	3,508
17	Jim Bunning	2,855
20	Cy Young	2,803
25	Warren Spahn	2,583
26	Bob Feller	2,581

It is amazing what a difference 40 years makes. Johnson’s number looked insurmountable for the longest time, then Ryan and Carlton blew past it and eventually Clemens and Randy Johnson also joined the 4,000 K Club.

Raise your hand if you knew Jim Bunning was #2 all-time on the list at the time he retired, or would have even guessed he was in the top 5.

By Blaidd Drwg

What a difference a week makes – thanks to a 2-8 record by the Red Sox over the last 10 games, paired with a 3 game sweep of the Sox by the Rays and a run by the Angels, we have us a wild card race in the AL.
The standings as of this morning look like this:

Team               W-L      GB
Red Sox         85-61      —
Rays              82-64     3.0
Angels           80-67     5.5

The Angels still have a better shot at winning their division than the Wild Card, but I put them in here because they were on a roll and you never know what will happen in the last couple weeks of the season.
It is still an uphill climb for the Rays. The Sox don’t have an easy schedule to end the season, but they do have 4 left against the Rays, all at Fenway, where the Sox have the best record in the AL, but then again, the Rays don’t exactly have a cakewalk either. Here are the remaining schedules:

	Red Sox			Rays
	Remaining Home	Remaining Road		Remaining Home	Remaining Road
Blue Jays	2	0		3	0
Rays	4	0		0	0
Yankees	0	3		3	4
Orioles	4	3		0	2
Red Sox	0	0		0	4

The interesting part of the remaining schedule for the Rays is that their 10 remaining road games are all over the next 11 days – that is right, they get to play the Red Sox at Fenway for 4 games and then the Yankees for 4 right after that. They do have an off day between the series, but the Yankees games do include a double header on the 21st.

With all of the scheduling craziness and inter-divisional games, it could be a very interesting last 2 and a half weeks of the season in the AL east. Let the games begin.

By Blaidd Drwg

I was looking at the baseball standings today and I noticed that there are currently only 2 teams in baseball who play their home games on a turf field – the Rays and the Blue Jays. It got me thinking about growing up in the era of turf fields and cookie cutter ballparks. If you turn back the clock 20 years, you can see how the game has changed:

• There were only 26 teams – the Rays, Dbacks, Rockies and Marlins did not exist at that point, and one of those teams played in a different country under a different name (Nationals/Expos).

• Of those 26 teams, 12 of them played their home games on artificial turf.

• There were 4 teams playing in true domed stadiums (i.e. non-retractable roofs) 20 years ago. There is only currently 1 dome left in baseball and that one was not in use in 1991 (Tampa Bay).

• Since 1991, 19 of the 26 teams in the league have opened new parks and one went through a complete remodel (Kansas City). On the down side, we lost such old timers as Yankee Stadium, Comiskey Park, Tigers Stadium, the Astrodome and Cleveland Stadium. On the upside, we lost at least 9 relics from the early 70’s cookie cutter era.

• In 1991, there were 8 stadiums built prior to 1960. Currently, there are only 2 – Fenway and Wrigley. Dodger Stadium is the 3rd oldest in baseball at 49 years (opened in 1962). To put that in perspective – Vin Scully has been broadcasting Dodgers games longer than they have been in their current home.

By Blaidd Drwg

…as Yogi Berra used to say.

After 4 innings in NY today, the A’s lead the Yankees 7 – 2 and didn’t look like they stood much of a chance against Rich Harden and the Yankees starter Phil Hughes was already out of the game. There is a reason they play 9 innings rather than 4 in baseball. Over the next 5 innings, the Yankees managed 15 hits, 13 walks and 20(!!) runs against the A’s pitchers, aided by 3 grand slams, to pull out a 22 – 9 victory today. Nick Swisher managed to go 1 for 4 with 2 runs and 2 walks, making him the only Yankees starter not to drive in a run and Mark Teixeira managed to be the only Yankee starter without a hit despite knocking in 2 runs. Heck only 2 A’s starters failed to get a hit or knock in a run (they both failed to do both) – Coco Crisp and Andy Recker, who has the unfortunate luck of going 0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts in his MLB debut in a game featuring 31 runs and 36 hits. Overall, it was a good day if you had any A’s or Yankees hitters on your fantasy team.

By Blaidd Drwg

Back in 1998, Topps included an insert subset in their baseball card set called “Hall Bound” with the intention of predicting guys who were going to be heading to the Hall of Fame some point after they retired. The way it looks, 14 of the 15 guys in the set should at some point have a plaque in Cooperstown. Here is the list:

1998 Topps HallBound #HB1 Paul Molitor
1998 Topps HallBound #HB2 Tony Gwynn
1998 Topps HallBound #HB3 Wade Boggs
1998 Topps HallBound #HB4 Roger Clemens
1998 Topps HallBound #HB5 Dennis Eckersley
1998 Topps HallBound #HB6 Cal Ripken
1998 Topps HallBound #HB7 Greg Maddux
1998 Topps HallBound #HB8 Rickey Henderson
1998 Topps HallBound #HB9 Ken Griffey Jr.
1998 Topps HallBound #HB10 Frank Thomas
1998 Topps HallBound #HB11 Mark McGwire
1998 Topps HallBound #HB12 Barry Bonds
1998 Topps HallBound #HB13 Mike Piazza
1998 Topps HallBound #HB14 Juan Gonzalez
1998 Topps HallBound #HB15 Randy Johnson

Some of these “predictions” were pretty easy – Molitor, Gwynn, Boggs, Eckersley, Henderson and Ripken were all at the tail end of their careers by 1998 and, with maybe the exception of Eckersley, were all pretty much locks for the Hall by that point.

Maddux, Clemens and Bonds were all in the league roughly 10 years by that point and were pretty much locks by that point. McGwire was also in the league about 10 years by that point, but he hadn’t broken 60 home runs and was probably a borderline candidate at best.

Let’s take a look at the rest of the list:

Ken Griffey Jr. – He had just come off his first 56 home run season and won an MVP award. He was pretty much a lock by this point in his career for the Hall, unless he had completely fallen apart. While he only had 2 more great seasons left, he stuck around long enough and had enough good seasons to stay on track.

Frank Thomas – He was looking like a no-brainer selection for the Hall after the 1997 season. He would start his decline after ’97, but like Griffey stayed good long enough that there is no real question about his HOF credentials.

Mike Piazza – He was the first really risky choice on this list. He had only 5 full seasons under his belt after the 1997 season (granted with 3 finishes in the top 5 in MVP voting) and played a position where lifespan is generally not great. Posted a 23 WAR through 1997 and 26 from 1998 through the end of his career, but is probably the best hitting catcher in history, so he should cruise into the Hall easily.
Juan Gonzalez – Juan Gone was one of the most feared hitters at the time. He had one MVP and would win one more and like Griffey, looked like he would cruise into the Hall and would have only 2 more great seasons after 1997. Unlike Griffey, Gonzalez had his last great season at age 31 and was pretty much done after that and probably won’t see the Hall unless he buys a ticket.

Randy Johnson – The Unit was probably the most interesting choice on the list. He was 33 after the 1997 season ended, had recorded an ERA+ of 129, 2000 strikeouts and won a Cy Young Award, but had only recorded 124 wins. While he was great, he didn’t exactly scream Hall of Famer. From 1998 to the end of his career, he managed to pitch to age 45, win 4 Cy Young Awards, win 179 games, strike out 2875 batters and post a 141 ERA+. I would say he padded his resume just a bit.

by A.J. Coltrane

The Cubs futility continues (SI.com):