A Tale of Two Pirates

 Today four players were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, including Ichiro Suzuki (who I saw play late in his career in San Francisco) and Dave Parker, a name perhaps only diehard fans, or diehard Pittsburgh Pirates fans remember.  But I sure do.  He once personally threatened to beat me up.

Dave Parker died on June 28, less than a month before he would belatedly be inducted.  He was a key player on the Pirates 1979 World Championship team that won the World Series between two Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl championships, inaugurating Pittsburgh as the City of Champions.  

His accomplishments are major: National League Most Valuable Player, two batting championships, seven All Star appearances, including (if I remember correctly) an All Star MVP. He was a complete player: he hit for power as well as average, he fielded well and especially had a rocket arm, something he shared with the right fielder for the Pirates he succeeded, Roberto Clemente.

But he was not altogether a popular player in Pittsburgh.  Pittsburgh has had complicated relationships with its black athletes over the years.  It seemed that for every hero they loved, there was a villain they irrationally hated.  The beloved hero in those days was Willie Stargell.  Not only was he a superstar but he was a warm, magnetic personality, with a big smile and a generous reputation.  He was loveable, especially in these mature years..  

Dave Parker was not so easily loveable.  He was younger and brash, always with something to say. He got called arrogant and ungrateful.  He was the first million dollar a year player in sports and some fans resented him for it. 

In 1980, on Willie Stargell Day, during the eighth inning of the first game of a doubleheader at Three Rivers Stadium, someone in the stands threw a 9 volt battery at him as he stood in right field, almost hitting his head. He took himself out of the game.

 I was there that day, on assignment to the New York Times Magazine for a story on the relationship of Pittsburgh's championship teams to the city, otherwise reeling from the collapse of its steel industry.  I saw him in the locker room afterwards, a sad and sobered man.

Earlier--maybe that day, maybe an earlier game--I was in the locker room before the game.  It was a notoriously raucous scene, loud and a little crazy.  Someone smashed one of the wooden stools they each had in front of their lockers, and someone else picked up the big round seat of it and threw it across the room like a discus or a frisbee.

I was trying to interview players.  I think I only succeeded getting a quiet Bill Robinson to talk to me. Dave Parker was among the loud and rambunctious.  He told me that he was hated, that tires on his Mercedes were slashed and similar acts, but warned me not to print this or "I'll come after you, Big Bill."  The last had a mocking tone--he was clearly much bigger than me.  

But I do recall it was after that double header when in a much softer voice he apologized.  I hadn't taken him seriously, I thought it was funny.  There was something about him--he was exuberant, not a bully--that communicated itself to me. 

About five years later he testified against a local drug dealer, admitting that he had been a cocaine user, and the conduit for coke in the Pirates locker room.  Somehow that wasn't a surprise.  The difference of his affect before the game and after it told the story.  

I still think of him as one of the most dynamic players I'd ever seen, certainly up close.  But when he left Pittsburgh as soon as his contract was up also wasn't surprising.  He never got his due there.

Another vintage Pittsburgh Pirates star I saw play a number of times was also in the news this summer. For some reason, this year everybody wrote about Bobby Bonilla Day.

That same dynamic, of the beloved black star and the reviled black star on the Pirates, was repeated when Bobby Bonilla and Barry Bonds patrolled the outfield on a 90s team that was always in the playoffs but never quite made it to the Series.  This time it was the glowering Bonds who was the villain, and the sunny, smiling Bonilla the hero.

Just as a fan in the stands, watching Barry Bonds hit was amazing.  I recall a game when I was in the upper deck looking down at the diamond, watching him spray six scorching hits to all fields.  But on a lucky day I got a special thrill watching Bobby Bonilla hit, entirely because of where I was sitting.

I was living and working in the city of Pittsburgh then, and on impulse I walked over to the ball park one sunny afternoon.  Since I got there after the game started, a scalper outside was desperate to sell his ticket, so I got a very good seat for a pretty good price.  I recall barely sitting down just a couple of rows behind home plate when Bonilla came up.  A switch-hitter, he was batting left handed which, when I played as a kid, was my side of the plate.  A pitch came screaming in at his head, and he dived and fell in a cloud of dust.  But the next pitch he hit a line drive home run.  I was so close when he swung and connected, and I could follow the ball more or less from his point of view, all the way to the right field stands: it was the closest I could ever come to feeling what it was like to hit a big league homer.

Bonilla was in the news because July 1 is now famously called Bobby Bonilla Day.  Years ago when he signed a contract with the New York Mets and they mutually agreed to part company, they made an unprecedented bargain.

  Bonilla was owed nearly $6 million.  But he made a deal--he would take exactly nothing.  Nothing at all, for ten years.  But after that, he would be paid annually based on the accrued value of what they owed him, which eventually came to a total of over $1 million a year, every year until 2035.  So every July 1, he gets this annuity.  In New York it became known--ironically if not cynically-- as Bobby Bonilla Day.  By now however it's become something else, a little more joyful.

Deferred payment has since become a thing for sports contracts and contracts in other fields. Today's biggest star, Ohtani, has a deferred contract with the Dodgers--he gets a measly 1 or 2 million a year, but many years from now, that balloons to something like $50 million a year. It makes sense for him--he can get all the endorsement money and other fringe benefits from his current fame, but after his playing days, he's got an assured very decent retirement income, even if grocery prices continue to go up at their present pace.

Bonilla, who was a great hitter for the Pirates and even later, is proud of that contract, not only for what it means for his family, but for the example it set and suggests beyond baseball--about the benefits of a guaranteed income, and security later in life.

US Champs

Congratulations to Chicago's Jackie Robinson West, the Illinois/Great Lakes Region team, now the US Little League World Series champs.  They play South Korea for the world title.

It's been fun and inspiring to watch some of this year's Little League WS.  This all-black team of inner city Chicago kids that has their city rooting them on in watch parties across Chicago, as well as the Girl of Summer, Mo'ne Davis, are the prominent stories.  But for all the attention (and the incredible mental and well as physical baseball skills of Davis, for instance) this is still Little League.  Kids get scared and upset when they screw up, they cry when they lose.  Their emotions are part of the game.  But it does seem that coaches and officials take a lot of care to recognize they are kids and respond to their needs.

The Girl of Summer

Mo'ne Davis, who Friday became the first female pitcher to win a Little League World Series game with a complete game 2-hit gem, helped Philadelphia' Mid-Atlantic Region champs win over Texas on Sunday with an RBI single in a come from behind thriller.  She'll pitch again Wednesday against Las Vegas.

News Week: Lows and Highs

The news quite often causes us to wonder just how low human beings can go, and how insane elements of our culture can become.  "Curiosity" about these is likely a big reason the internet is what it is these days.  I'm not generally in sympathy with this obsession for the darkest and most bizarre to tweet and tsk tsk about.  And as farcical as it gets, I don't look for my laughs there either.

But sometimes such evidence is unavoidable, as in the aftermath of the death by suicide of Robin Williams.  Based on very early reporting, the internet and its established news sites (including those associated with long established if now desperate print publications) were flooded with analyses and especially first person comparisons, opinions, etc. of all kinds.  All based, as it turned out but not surprisingly, on incomplete information.  Thursday his wife revealed that he had known he was in the early stages of Parkinson's Disease, of which depression is a common symptom.

But the usual range of opportunism and self-aggrandizement (along with sincere remembrances) were utterly innocent in comparison with the hateful and hate-filled comments by rabid right extremists, including so-called leaders and so-called Christians.  I won't dignify their repulsive and cynical and corrupt commentary by repeating any of it or identifying any of them, especially since their primary goal is to get named.

On top of this, the tendency of internet sites and social media to attract those most twisted with hate, ego and myriad delusions, culminating in one of Robin Williams' daughters being so bullied and abused that she quit all of her social media accounts.

Yet the news also provides us with contrasts, which may be straws to grasp but definitely are loci of hope.  This past week provided at least these:

The Fields Medal, widely regarded as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for mathematics, was won for the first time in history by a woman:  Maryam Mirzakhani, a Stanford University professor who was born in Iran.  Her work is called boldly original and it appears to cross boundaries between traditional mathematical disciplines.  To somebody who couldn't understand trig, it sounds as if it can be significant beyond academic math.

The victory of course is as well for all the women who were told, and all the girls who still are told one way or another, that girls aren't good at math, it's for males only.  For them this is the academic equivalent of  Lisa Leslie's first WNBA slam dunk.  And that's before the significance of her work itself can be evaluated in the future.

Then there's the Little League World Series, and the victory of Jackie Robinson West of Chicago in their first game, sparked by three--count 'em, three--home runs (plus a triple) by leadoff batter Pierce Jones.  Representing Great Lakes Region as the Illinois state champs, Jackie Robinson West from the South Side of Chicago is the first all-black team to make it to the LLWS in "over a decade" (according to this ESPN report) and the first Chicago team since the 80s.  The team is part of the league's urban initiative program begun 15 years ago.  

Best of all perhaps, they are the toast of Chicago.  The Jackie Robinson West team doesn't know, said their coach, how big they are back in Chicago.  Another ESPN piece quotes: Gabe Bump, fiction writer and Chicago resident, said of this JRW run for the right to do something seldom seen by any Little League team from Chicago, "It's important because they are the kids Chicago wants to forget about. These are the kids that get their schools closed. I'm rooting for them because they're South Side kids, but it's much more to it than that."

The story concludes: "here's almost a feeling that what is happening now has nothing to do with sports. It's something much bigger. At least, that's the way it is being taken in; that is how it is being embraced. Basically, calling this a feel-good story is underselling the true nature of the weight this story carries at this moment."

Update: On the second day of the Little League World Series, Pennsylvania team pitcher Mo'Ne Davis threw a two-hitter to become the first female pitcher to win a LLWS game.  She's also black.  Apart from the extra-sports significance, these stories are big deals for baseball because the proportion of African American MLB players has been diminishing.  

Speaking of Sports

The SF Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates are in the playoff hunt probably for the rest of the season, although the Dodgers sweep in San Francisco may turn out to be a pivotal moment.  So far the only contender to make a move was SF, trading a very good minor league prospect for veteran pitcher Jake Peavy.  The Giants hope to repeat their success with down on their luck veteran starters (most recently Tim Hudson.)  Peavy was immediately thrown into the deep water Sunday with a start against the rival LA Dodgers, to try to stop the bleeding as the Dodgers knocked the Giants out of first place with two straight wins in San Francisco.  His outing was respectable in an otherwise weird and poorly played game, featuring bad calls and errors by another recently acquired veteran, Dan Uggla, whose fielding lived up to his name.  Peavy got the loss, 4-3.

Meanwhile the Pirates survived Coors Field in Colorado, salvaging one win out of three games.  On Sunday they finally scored runs and hit enough homers to take the Rockies 7-5.

 Both the Giants and Pirates have more away games than home games remaining (SF has 6 more away than home, Pirates 3) which is usually not good. But the Giants are a pretty good road team--their epic slump in June and July was mostly at home after a very good road trip.  They started after the break with a good road trip, and lost their first games back.

 The Pirates on the other hand are nearly invincible at home, and not so great away.  Another difference: the Giants this year prosper the most when they score early and hang on (although their bullpen has been an adventure lately.)  The Pirates come from behind a lot, which has been a characteristic of some great Pirate teams in the past.

  The Giants will contend with the Dodgers, and both those teams continue to be plagued by injuries to key players.  But in the just concluded home series, the injury depleted Giants were clearly outplayed by the injury depleted Dodgers. The Pirates are in a competitive chaos with three other teams, and they have several late season head-to-heads with the Reds and the Cardinals.  And coming up next week, the Giants and the Pirates play their last series against each other, in San Francisco.  So at least I'll be able to listen to those games on the radio.

NBA:  The LA Lakers have finally done something right: hired Byron Scott as their coach.  Scott is an experienced coach at a high level (the Lakers beat his Nets in the 2002 finals), he won championships as a key player for the Showtime Lakers (and had the support for coach of key members of that team like Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Michael Cooper), and he mentored a 17 year old rookie named Kobie Bryant, who also lobbied for him.

 Phil Jackson says that in the NBA today you need a dependable point guard and a big center.  The Lakers acquired point guard Jeremy Lin and sort of big man Carlos Boozer.  I wasn't a fan of Boozer's game and didn't see Lin much, but they're veterans without being over the hill overpaid fading stars, so it does suggest these Lakers could have a respectable number of wins with some exciting games.  Because I expect Kobie will be back with a vengeance.

Most of the ESPN analysts who know more about the league than I do, don't exactly agree--they believe the Lakers are in a terrible position, not good enough to contend but too good to qualify for the best draft picks.  The rebuilding however must begin with the credibility of the organization.  Having whiffed on acquiring Carmelo Anthony, let alone LeBron James suggests that players suspect the legendary LA organization is not what it was. It is the Buss boy who probably has to prove himself to the elite players in the league.  Hiring Byron Scott looks like a start.

Meanwhile across town the LA Clippers have a better team but are in deeper chaos because of the still ongoing Sterling/Silver affair.  Donald Sterling is tying things up in court but Clippers coach Doc Rivers added urgency to the situation by suggesting he won't return if Sterling is still the owner.  Star player Chris Paul has since said he might sit out the season for the same reason.  There's even the possibility that players on other teams will refuse to play, perhaps limiting that to refusing to play the Clippers.  So just letting this all drag out in the courts doesn't look like a good option.
Update: Or not!  A judge's ruling Monday seems to clear the way for the sale of the Clippers by mid-August.  It's not yet certain but looks more like resolution is near.

Speaking of Sports

NBA: LeBron James is going back to Cleveland.  The response in sports media is overwhelming positive: he's going back to his home town area, he's admitted his mistakes in the way he left, and incidentally, he's making $88 million.  The move led to this Bill Simmons piece on basketball genius, a lot of it about Michael Jordan as well as LeBron--it's the best basketball piece I've read in a long time.  It says a lot about what happened in Miami and why LeBron left, plus Bird and Magic lore.

Once LeBron made his move, others followed quickly.  Contrary to my prediction, Bosh turned down a really good situation in Houston to rake in the dough by resigning with Miami, which lost its superstar but gained a lot of cash (otherwise known as "cap room.")  Pau Gasol left the Lakers for the Chicago Bulls.  Carmelo Anthony is reportedly negotiating with the Knicks to stay in New York.  The Lakers got point guard Jeremy Lin.

So who wins and who loses?  The clearest winner is the Eastern Conference.  The Bulls and of course Cleveland strengthened, the Knicks at least haven't lost ground.   Charlotte is improved.  Miami obviously will no longer dominate the conference, so it's going to be a lot more competitive and probably a lot better.The Chicago Bulls could be the team to beat--a long time since that could be said.

The Lakers got a point guard and lost their crucial big man and Kobe's experienced partner.  The Lakers organization has screwed up so badly for the past several years that it's going to take several years to just get even, and by that time, Kobe will likely be gone and LA may well enter another dry period with no face to the franchise.

That said, no other Western Conference team has conspicuously improved through free agency.  There's still time for teams to make moves and it's likely there will be some with the potential to change things.  In fact both the Lakers and Knicks have to make moves--they don't have enough players signed to field a decent team.

Baseball: After some tough--even freakish--losses against St. Louis and a blown lead in Cincinnati, the Pittsburgh Pirates showed why they are one of the most exciting teams in baseball.  Again losing a lead and down to their last inning, Andrew McCutchen blasted a 95 mph fastball over the wall in center to tie the game.  The Reds almost won it in the 10th but the mighty arm of super-rookie Gregory Polanco got the runner at the plate.  And with two outs in the 11th, McCutchen blasted a changeup out of the park to left, the game winner.

Meanwhile the Giants don't seem able to win for anybody but Lincecum.  Update: Unless the starting pitcher (Bumgarner) and catcher (Posey) hit grand slams in the same game for the first time in major league history.  And guess which one of them hit his second slam this season?  Hint: it wasn't Posey.  Giants won 8-4 Sunday.

Speaking of Sports

Baseball: The SF Giants were so far ahead in their division that one of the worst months it is possible for a contending team to endure has left them in a two-team race with the Los Angeles Dodgers that will probably continue the rest of the season, if--IF--they can right the ship after the All-Star break.  They had a couple of games returning to form, Hunter Pence turns out to be a terrific lead-off hitter,  Brandon Belt is back and taking up with where he left off as a power hitter, Joe Panik is turning into a skilled major leaguer who can deliver timely hits, and the starting pitching is coming around--the miracle of Lincecum in particular.  Relief pitching is still shaky and it will have to stabilize for them to stay at or near the top.  Their series with Oakland--now the team with the best record in the majors, replacing the Giants--suggests the NL pennant may not be worth all that much anyway.

Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Pirates continue to scorch the league, with Gregory Polanco already a star, even beside the Hall of Fame numbers that Andrew McCutchen has been putting up for the past month or so.  Their test will be to maintain this momentum after the break.  They have very difficult competition in their division: the Brewers, Cardinals, Reds and Pirates are all separated by no more than 4.5 games. They'll need nerves of steel to win the division or even a playoff spot, but on the other hand they are only 4 games above .500 but only 3 games out of first.

Basketball: I hate myself for being at all interested in millionaire basketball free agents shopping for multimillion dollar contracts, but I've been watching old Lakers and Bulls games on tape so the NBA has my attention.  The news changes every day, and what's becoming clear is that some of these guys may well decide based on what other guys decide.

 LeBron may well stay in Miami but it feels to me like Bosh goes to Houston regardless.  The Lakers are working the PR machine to make it seem like Carmelo Anthony is seriously considering joining Kobe and Pau Gasol as the nucleus of a contending team.  Melo would take a pay cut from the Knicks to do so.  A NYC paper is reporting that Melo wants to recruit LeBron but the Knicks don't seem to have that kind of money available--and LeBron has announced he's looking for the money.

For the Lakers hopes with Melo, the wild card is Gasol, also a free agent.  He's being actively courted by several teams who actually want him, while the Lakers have been rumored to be trading him most of the past several seasons.  Do you stay somewhere you've been dissed by management?  I would be surprised if he stays with the Lakers, but he seems to like living in Los Angeles.

  Right now the Knicks don't look in great shape for next season and if they lose Melo to LA or Chicago and that money is available, we'll see how creative and persuasive Phil Jackson can be.  The Lakers aren't in great shape either without landing a superstar or a couple of stars. Still, this conventional wisdom that Kobe is too old and is only a "nominal" superstar will be proven wrong.

World Cup: Uh, what's the World Cup again?

A Party for No

Giants fan favorite Tim Lincecum tossed a no-hitter on Wednesday in front of 41,500 in San Francisco.  In their radio postgame, the announcing team talked about the drama and excitement in the stadium during this game against the San Diego Padres.  Despite this being the second no-hitter this month, and Lincecum's second in a year, given the number of games played over the years it is a rare event. He's only the second pitcher for the Giants to have thrown two no-hitters--the others were by legendary Christy Matthewson in 1901 and 1905.  Fans gave Lincecum several ovations in the later innings.  After the game the team broke out the champagne--that's how special this is.

In fact Lincecum was one batter away from a perfect game.  He gave up one walk, and there were no Giant errors.  On top of that, he had two hits and scored twice.

This bolt from the blue event was all the more dramatic given Lincecum's starts this year, and particularly the morass of losing the Giants have been sunk in for weeks.  Lincecum's starts this year have been an adventure, with lots of walks and hits, though the Giants were scoring well enough to win most of those games.  In recent weeks, the Giants have found every which way to lose: for awhile their hitting and starting pitching was fine but late inning relief pitching--one of their strengths--simply fell apart.  More recently their most reliable starters have faltered while their hitting fell off.  One of those starters, Tim Hudson, made a statement about it that's pure 21st century San Francisco--he suggested it was regression to the mean.  The Giants had been winning games they probably should have lost, and then lost games they should have won.

In their Techtown broadcasting booth, the game announcers also talked about the role of tech --the news of Lincecum pitching a no-hitter into the late innings spread around the world via social media and various sports aps via smartphones etc. so by the ninth inning there was global attention on this game.

Playing second base in this game was the Giant's rookie phenom with the great baseball name of Joe Panik.  He'd been called up from his minor league team, as usual without warning, and managed to make a phone call that woke his parents at 3 a.m., but they got on a plane and were in the stands for his first start--and his first major league hit.  Now learning the big league ropes, he fielded the ground ball that ended the no-hit game.

Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Pirates have the best winning percentage this month in the National League.  Their super-rookie, Gregory Polanco, hit safely in his first 11 games, and got on base in his first 15, both club records.        

Play Ball!

In some places it was a strange Opening Day to the 2014 Major League Baseball season.  The New York Mets game couldn't start on time because nobody was playing first base.  Angels coach Don Baylor broke his leg during the ceremonial first pitch.  But in Pittsburgh's PNC Park, it was all good.

Former Pirates star (and twice MVP in a Pirates uniform) Barry Bonds was there to award the 2013 NL MVP to Andrew McCutchen.  Former Pirates manager Jim Leyland was back to award the 2013 NL Manager of the Year to Clint Hurdle. He told the Post-Gazette: "I've said this many, many times, but this is the most beautiful ballpark in America. It's nice to have the fans really be able to cheer for something."

And did they.  After expanded instant replay was used for the first time (and then the second), Pirates ace Francisco Liriano (who struck out 10) and four relievers combined on a 9 inning shutout.  And in the top of the 10th, Pittsburgh boy Neil Walker parked one in the right field seats for a walk-off win, 1-0 over the Chicago Cubs.

Going to Opening Day of the Pirates was a tradition when I lived in western PA.  And I recall a similar Opening Day game in 1980 when Bill Robinson parked one right in front of me in the right field stands at the top of the tenth to win that one.  They were the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates that day.  Fans in the burgh figure that day could come again real soon.

Long Ball, Long Life

Hearing about big league baseball as a child, Ralph Kiner was probably the first name I knew.  His rookie year was mine--he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates the year I was born.  The late 40s and early 50s were not great ones for the Pirates; Kiner was their biggest and sometimes only star.

 He was a home run hitter in a baseball park--Forbes Field--that wasn't built for the long ball.  But his 54 homers in 1949 was about as close as any hitter got to Babe Ruth's 60 home run record for a long time, and is still a record for the Pirates.  He hit 51 in 1947, just his second year.  (By the way, Babe Ruth hit the last two homers of his career at Forbes Field, both in the same game.)  Kiner led the National League in homers for every full season he played for the Pirates--7 in a row.

Kiner also hit over .300 twice, and knocked in more than 100 runs six times.   Given the rest of the Pirates lineup and Forbes Field, his run of RBIs from 1947 to 1953 was phenomenal: 127, 123, 127, 118, 109.

He was traded to the Cubs and then to Cleveland.  I'm pretty sure I was aware of him as a Pirate but I probably got his baseball card when he was with one of those two teams.  I remember reading his stats with awe.  He retired after the 1955 season, and was later elected to the baseball Hall of Fame.

But the bulk of his life in baseball was ahead of him.  He became an announcer and interviewer for the New York Mets from their first season in 1961, and did some play by play as recently as last year.  His death at the age of 91 was announced today.

It's Outa Here!

Well, before we get into this week's bad news let's talk some sports.

The NBA playoffs are going into their second round.  If you had to choose which of the three California teams would make it at least that far, it probably wouldn't be the Golden State Warriors and the classic shooting of Stephen Curry (pictured with Kobe), but that's the facts. The Kobe-less Lakers got decisively swept, but I was surprised they even made it to the playoffs at all.  I guess I'm not alone in believing Boy Buss's choice of coach was disastrous from the get-go.  It's not far under the surface in this diatribe by one of LA's leading sportswriters, and I heard it crawl into comments from Magic Johnson.

But even Phil Jackson may not have been able to save them from the repeat of an experiment that failed when he was there: bring in some aging superstars for a team that looks unstoppable, at least if you judge by old highlight reels.  Injuries and lack of chemistry killed that Karl Malone/Gary Payton experiment, and the same factors ruined this season.  Especially injuries.

Injuries to key players are the story for many teams.  Oklahoma, Golden State and Chicago got through the first round despite them, but that's probably it.  Everybody is competing to finally lose to Miami, which has played even better this year, despite injuries.  Right now they're pretty healthy so it's probably pretty safe to snooze through June.

The NFL had their draft, and for all the volumes of words wasted on it, nobody has any idea of who is really going to be helped decisively.  But even with a reputedly strong draft, I still see the Ravens as a lucky one month wonder.  The Steelers seemed to have a good draft, everybody says, but I'm afraid I don't understand how they get better with no help to the offensive line.

Which brings me to the only sport and only team I really enjoy watching, baseball as played by the San Francisco Giants.  In the early season they don't have their dominating starting pitching, but everything else is working as it was last fall.  Lately they're coming from behind a lot, with games being tied and won in the very late innings.  In that they remind me of my 1960 Pirates, and one of  Bob Prince's signature sayings when they squeezed out a come from behind victory: "We had 'em all the way!"

Another 1960 Pirates reference: Pablo Sandoval is the best bad-ball hitter I've seen since Smoky Burgess.

But mostly (as I've said before) they are so much fun to watch.  Especially at home, because even though I've been in that ballpark only once, it's an indelible memory.  The combination of what a great park it is with the great fans--I saw a game in the Barry Bonds era, when there was always excitement and a lot of winning--makes it so easy for me to feel like I'm there while watching it on TV.  So here's this story from this past weekend:

I watched the early innings of the Giants-Dodgers game on Saturday, when the Giants built a 5-1 lead.  Then dinner time and then Saturday night movie time, so I only glanced at the score to see them behind as the Dodgers had scored 9.  Then when our Netflix was over, the game was in the bottom of the ninth, tied 9-9, with Buster Posey up, the bases loaded and one out.  Basically there are only a few ways you don't win with this combination.  First of all, there's Posey, a great hitter, last year's MVP, who won the previous night's game against the Dodgers with homer in the last of the 9th.  Posey had at least a dozen ways to put the ball in play and win the game. He could win the game just by being walked. The only bad things he could do were to strike out or foul out, but the next batter would still come up with the bases loaded.  The worst thing he could do was hit into a double play.  Which is what he did, on the second pitch I think.

So the TV went off, and by the time I got to my computer to check the score--I was prepared to go to my cave to resume watching--the game was over, the Giants had won in the 10th, via a home run, by a player I had never heard of: Guillermo Quiroz.

Later I checked the recap, and found out he was the backup catcher and pinch-hitter, and that he hit it with one out in the 10th.  Much later, just before sleeptime, I turned on the TV--the Sportsnet Bay Area station often replays the entire game but I never know when--and there it was.  I saw immediately that I had turned it on with the score tied 9-9 and the bottom of the 10th.  I then saw there was one out, and I realized this was the guy.  I saw exactly one pitch--it was the home run ball.

What a moment!  The stadium was in delirium, and so was Quiroz.  It was a line shot to left field that he and everybody knew was gone right away.  He was ecstatic on the bases.  He took his cap off, exposing a big round bald spot on the top of his head.  Quiroz was a veteran journeyman with six major league teams that mostly kept him playing in the minors.  This was his first home run of the year.  He won a game with it in extra innings, at home, for the Giants, in very probably the oldest rivalry in major league baseball, the Giants and the Dodgers.

We were all part of a moment in that man's life he will never forget--and unlike a lot of such moments lately, this was one of joy, celebration, accomplishment, fulfillment, a dream come true.    

Weekend Update

Dept. of Corrections:  CNN says using the song Stupid Girls "to introduce a segment on Sarah Palin was unintentional and not meant as a commentary on the former Republican vice presidential candidate," The Wrap reports.

Baseball Update (Monday): The SF Giants got a power hitting outfielder, Hunter Pence, from Philadelphia, where he led the team in hitting.  That's a damn good move.  Meanwhile,  the Dodgers got another Phillies outfielder, Shane Victorino, to lead off.  Both teams got help from these trades, the pros are saying the Dodgers overall made the best trades.  Meanwhile, the Pirates got an all-star first baseball (Gaby Sanchez) and some pitching.  
The Olympics have started but I only have eyes for baseball.  My Pittsburgh Pirates are still going strong in a tough division (though fans in Pittsburgh are despairing over a recent rough patch.)  But my San Francisco Giants stumbled badly by losing a 3 game series to the LA Dodgers, and losing first place to them in the process, while revealing their comparative (and probably fateful) weaknesses: they don't have the depth, especially in bringing hitters off the bench.  They were without Pablo Sandaval and may be for awhile, their other best hitters have cooled, their first baseman has been in a deep slump (as has one of their formerly dependable best pitchers.)  The season starts grinding about now.  Their one trade wasn't all that impressive.  They are a close team, though, so they might still make a run.  Unfortunately for them, the Dodgers matched their latest winning streak, and now are back at full strength--with Matt Kemp hitting homers again--and they acquired a good new hitter (who beat the Giants himself) and just acquired more pitching.  I believe both the Pirates and Giants are three games out of first place, to highly touted teams.

Baseball Very Very Good

They gave a taste of this last year: the Pittsburgh Pirates went on an exciting winning streak just before the All-Star break, when they were above .500 for the first time in years, but collapsed after the teams returned.  This year they are again in first place at July 4th, with another impressive winning streak, but somehow this feels like it may be different.

It seems less freakish, for one thing.  There is solid pitching and pretty dependable hitters, especially Andrew McCutchen (pictured) who leads the National League in batting with a .360 average.  In any case, the Pirates have been rocking the excellent Pittsburgh ballpark.

The San Francisco Giants are also suddenly in first place, after a series in which they shut out the LA Dodgers completely, and won a home series with the Pirates' main division rival, the Cinncy Reds.  But they're now on a torturous road trip, in which Tim Lincecum wilted in the DC heat.  Earlier in the week, first place Washington's best pitcher had to leave the game with dehydration.  Baseball is not the only sport affected, though with temperatures this dangerously high, more events should have been cancelled.  It's another adjustment to global heating that will be eventually made, though probably after the danger becomes all too obvious.

Apart from that, baseball is a ritualized refuge from current madness, and with my teams doing this well, it's fun again.

Magic By the Bay

It only took 128 years.  On Wednesday evening in San Francisco, Matt Cain pitched the first perfect game in the 128 year history of the Giants, one of the oldest teams in big league baseball.  This perfect game was a thing of beauty that exemplifies this sport at its best.  There have been only nine official perfect games in the National League (they don't count Harvey Haddix's 11 perfect innings in a game he lost in the 12th) and the 22nd in major league history.  That's out of more than 350,000 games played.

Said the ESPN headline: Matt Cain wasn't just perfect Wednesday night. He may have tossed the greatest game in MLB history.

 It happened in the Giant's home park before a large and very responsive crowd.  (I've only seen one game there but the combination of the beauty of the park and the right-there electricity of the crowd in so-called layed back San Francisco was unique.)

Matt Cain has come close to no-hitters before, and he said afterwards that he'd never had better command of his pitches. He struck out 14 of the Houston Astros he faced--his personal high, and tying the most strikeouts in a perfect game with the immortal Sandy Koufax. Watching the game on TV, I don't recall seeing a better moving fastball since the young Doc Gooden.

 But a perfect game--no walks, no errors as well as no hits--is a team accomplishment.  This season the Giants have more team errors than all but one team.  But they made a number of tough plays, including Gregor Blanco's sterling catch in the right-center field "triples alley."  The teamwork starts with the catcher and pitcher, and Buster Posey was as perfect as Cain--every pitch he called worked, and Cain didn't shake off one sign the entire game. 

The Giants also gave Cain a 10-0 lead, which meant he could concentrate on the perfect game.  On the other hand, the Giants' 15 hits meant he was sitting in the dugout for long stretches, which can cool the arm of some pitchers and throw off their rhythm. 

But everything was working--Cain, the hits, the defense, the crowd that was thunderous in the late innings, after Cabrera's catch against the wall and then Blanco's instant classic, and they weren't the only excellent plays in the late innings to preserve the perfect game.  This is what makes it magical.  It can happen any game, but no one can predict which one.  If you're lucky enough to be part of it or just be there, you've been touched by magic.

This great but relatively young ball park has seen some magic before, and some history--World Series wins, the home run record broken and set. This also becomes an immortal night, to lift us out of the ugly slog of politics and"news."  To remind us that once in awhile, people can do something that's perfect.

This Is Sports

Barry Bonds, after breaking the all-time U.S. major league home run record on Tuesday in San Francisco with his 756th home run . On his next at bat, Wednesday night, he hit his 757th.

Baseball

On the night that Barry Bonds tied Hank Aaron's record with his 755th home run, I was at a ballpark watching a baseball game. Not the big league park in San Diego where Bonds hit his historic homer, but at my home park in Arcata, watching the Humboldt Crabs play the Solano Mudcats in a twi-night doubleheader.

The Crabs and the teams they play are mostly college players, and some of them do end up in the Bigs. It was a great night at the ballpark. The first game was played in daylight, a bit of sunshine, a big of evening high fog. It was Hawaiian night, so plastic leis were given out at the gate, and some fans showed up in Hawaiian shirts. There were about 800 fans all told, which filled the bleachers, including the new ones along right field, the first time any have been added for the outfield. Lots of families, lots of kids. There was a brass band, playing all the old favorites--breaking into "Wild Thing" after a wild pitch, the drummer doing the sound of a ball hitting off a car parked outside when a foul ball leapt the fence, and it gets you every time.

The second game was after dark, with the green field and the infield dirt, the players in motion, all etched in a way that's unique to a baseball game under the lights. Most of the young children were gone, replaced by teenagers parading back and forth. There was a constant line for hamburgers made on the spot, and at the concession stand a teenage boy asked me politely if he could step in front of me to return some money he believed had been given to him by mistake, but the concessionaire assured him that it was the correct change. I had a hot dog and some nauchos, probably for the first time since the last time I came here for a game, which was alas several years ago. This was the last night game of the season for the Crabs, and as such clearly a community event. What impressed me was not only that the complete range of community people were there--every age, color, gender and gender preference, and young and old with various disabilities--but that there was tolerance and appreciation for eccentricities and wit.

As for the games, they were more competitive than the final scores indicate (the Crabs won both by a healthy margin, as they usually did this year) and the level of play was pretty good, with some excellent baseball moments--a couple of home runs (one for each team), timely hitting, exciting pitching, stellar fielding plays, including a catch with the center fielder's back against the fence in the dead center most distant point in the park, 368 ft. if memory serves. And this was wooden bats baseball.

I had a good time, and so I didn't especially envy the fans in San Diego. I've seen Barry Bonds hit homers, and I recall seeing Hank Aaron on TV when he broke Babe Ruth's total home run record. These days it's less the steroid allegations than all the money involved that puts me off--Roger Clemens is being paid just about a million dollars a game this season--and it's only going to get worse. The resulting hype is smothering.

I honor Bonds' achievement (ESPN had a great feature recounting the more than 400 pitchers who served up his home run pitches, including 6 brothers) and I'm impressed by the feats of today's players. But these days I'm happy in a ballpark that seats 800, watching line drives from right behind home plate, or watching the pitches while standing almost as close, listening to the play-by-play over a nearby speaker. There's a lot of baseball at a Crabs game--great catches, collisions, great strategy, strategy that backfires, close plays, bad calls, arguments, little guys hitting a ton, big guys bunting, a right fielder who nails a runner at third, a catcher who can't catch anybody stealing (9 Crabs mercilessly stole on him), etc. And the National Anthem sung with everybody silent and motionless, and half the park at a time being led by the band in singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

Barry and the Level Playing Field

Barry Bonds is four homers away from the all-time career home run record. So he's an Issue again. Because he used steroids as part of a bulking up program, it is alleged, he's had an unfair advantage. His career was not played on a level playing field. To which I say: hey, Ump--are you blind?

The points that Jonathan Cohen made in the Nation last month about the SI all time team are relevant here. They add up to this: what level playing field? He points out that the SI team is largely composed of players from before 1947--that is, from when black athletes like Bonds were banned from major league baseball. Without athletes of color even permitted, and in particular so many demonstrably superior black players, what are those records really worth? Where was the level playing field then?

What constitutes a level playing field anyway--what gives this metaphor a real meaning? The U.S. population has doubled since Babe Ruth, and it's probably a third larger than since Hank Aaron. What about the number of teams? The influx of players from Japan, China and Europe, as well as the recently higher number of Latin players as contrasted with African Americans? What about the average height and weight? What about ball parks? (San Francisco's is beautiful, but one of the harder ones to hit homers in.) What sort of mountains or molehills in the playing field does any of those produce?

While steroid use is often illegal and against the rules, and also harmful, the fact is that various products containing such substances have been used in recent years by a number of players, including pitchers that Bonds faced, and hitters whose records are not currently being questioned. Where's the level playing field exactly? Maybe it is level--everybody in the game today is competing against some players who have used some banned substances to some degree, and some who haven't. And does anyone claim Barry Bonds is using such substances now?

Keith Olbermann did a piece on Bonds and the record tonight. He clearly thinks Bonds has cheated (and sorry, I don't find bigger shoe size compelling evidence), but he told the sad story of previous players who approached such a record: Roger Maris was vilified, and so in fact was Hank Aaron--where the tone was often decidedly racist. You'd have to be as blind as an umpire not to see that some of the violent emotion behind criticism of Bonds is racist.

Maybe it's because I've been watching Barry Bonds since he broke into the league with my Pittsburgh Pirates, and hit his first major league home run on my birthday. But I'm rooting for him. I'll let others measure the tilt on the playing field.

Barry

I was watching the game on TV when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record for career homers. Aaron was a feared adversary on the Milwaukee Braves when the Pittsburgh Pirates made their pennant runs in the late 1950s, finally making it in 1960. He wasn't so much a home run hitter then, as an all-around player who could hit with power, hit in the situation, run the bases, field and throw. By the time he was challenging the Babe I guess I was surprised he'd hit so many homers. He was consistent and stayed healthy, and played a long time.

Today I turned on the TV just as Barry Bonds was at bat in the fourth inning with a 2-2 count. The count went to 3 and 2 before he smashed what looked like a fastball on the outside of the plate into right center for his 715th home run. I watched Barry play in Pittsburgh from the beginning of his career---he hit his first home run on my birthday. The last game I attended in Three Rivers Stadium, he had four or five hits, to left, right and center, all of them smoked.

I guess I might also mention that Babe Ruth hit his 714th homer (as well as his 712th and 713th) in Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on May 25, 1935. He was with the Boston Braves then, and they were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Though it happened more than a decade before I was born, I can claim to have gone to several games in that ball park, now gone.

With the Pirates, Bonds was a good fielder with a strong arm, and he excelled as a runner on the bases. He is the only player in history to steal 500 bases and hit 500 home runs in his career--nobody else has even 400 of both. Of course, everyone knows he broke the single season home run record in 2001 with 73. He then won National League batting average titles in 2002 and 2004, and was voted league MVP every year from 2001 to 2004 inclusive. He'd already been MVP three times in the 1990s.

He got a huge ovation today in San Francisco's great ball park, whatever it's called this year, but nationally there's a lot of talk about his recent records being tainted by steroid use. It's overblown bullshit as far as I'm concerned. First of all, everyone pretends they know what "sterioids" are, but there are all kinds of substances involved. Secondly, if he did so, Bonds was hardly the only major league to use creams and supplements that might contain what's defined as steriods, including pitchers he faced. He passed all his drug tests. The rest is circumstantial at this point and he's been convicted of nothing.

Bonds probably believes racism is part of why he's being singled out, and his detractors would likely vehemently deny it. I believe racism is involved, though mostly unconscious racism, along with a lot of other factors, including the usual viral celebrity deification or demonization, off/on switch. On the Pirates, there was always a good black star and a bad black star. Willie Stargell was affable, projected a modest good guy "Pops" image and was patient with the press. Dave Parker was flashy, opinionated and mercurial. He was uppity. The press didn't like him, and despite his great play, fans didn't love him. That Pirates team had its own drug scandal, and having been in that locker room, I wouldn't be surprised if both of them had been involved.

Later, Bobby Bonilla was the good black star--affable, big smile, modest. (At the time, Bonilla was more of a home run hitter. I once sat behind home plate at an angle that put me in direct line with left handed batters, and when Bonilla hit a homer it was the closest I ever got to feeling like what it might be like to hit one.)

Barry Bonds was the bad black star--mercurial, uppity. He'd lived through what he considered the racism that affected his father as well as himself. Come to that, August Wilson was among those convinced that the Pittsburgh media and fans unfairly criticized Roberto Clemente early in his career because of race. The criticism again fit those stereotypes--he was criticized for being "lazy" when he complained of injuries, and for being uppity when he protested.

Saying that the reaction to Bonds is influenced by racial feelings isn't to say that he's really been a nice guy, or that he's not really been imperious, irrational and rude--though being rude to the press is a relative kind of thing. It's more subtle--it's the difference in the strength of feeling against a non-white person as opposed to a white person who behaves the same way.

Eventually we may know what Bonds did or didn't do that was or wasn't banned or illegal. Yet I don't think his records are tainted. Baseball players have never been choirboys, and as professional athletes--meaning professional entertainers--they use what helps them compete. It doesn't make every choice right, but it does mean that the playing field, so to speak, is generally level. Besides, why no mandatory steroid testing for ballet dancers?

Bonds has a ways to go to break Aaron's eventually record of 755. Bonds got to 715 with far fewer at bats than did Aaron, partly because Bonds is walked so often. Still he has to be ready for the one good pitch he might see in a game. Nobody believes he'll break it this year with the Giants, and few believe he'll return to the Giants next year. His knee injuries hamper his fielding, so the best outcome for him would be to play in the American League, where he could be a designated hitter. If he could make a deal with the Oakland A's so he could stay in the Bay area, he'd probably do it.

ADD: Later I saw a bit of Bonds talking to the press after the game. When he hit 714 he was effusive in his praise of Babe Ruth, but this time he emphasized Hank Aaron. He acknowledged him as the home run king. Beyond simple accuracy, there's another message: The season Aaron came close and then surpassed Ruth's record he was the subject of overt racist threats, and generally had to deal with the implicit racism who said they didn't want to see anyone break Ruth's record, but meant they sure didn't want a black man to do it. Aaron overcame more overt racism than Bonds sees, but like a lot of racism these days, it just got coded into p.c. phraseology, and shoved deeper into the subconscious. But it's there, and Bonds (like most people of color) knows it.

Desperation

Barry Bonds is still one homer shy of Ruth's record. George W. Bush is at 29%.

When Richard Nixon hit below 30%, he resigned. Instead, as the Harris poll news breaks, so does a story claiming that Bush is preparing to start a war, within weeks.

Raw Story is reporting that: Concern is building among the military and the intelligence community that the US may be preparing for a military strike on Iran, as military assets in key positions are approaching readiness... According to military and intelligence sources, an air strike on Iran could be doable in June of this year, with military assets in key positions ready to go and a possible plan already on the table. While this may be speculation at this point, Raw Story reports that two aircraft carriers are on their way to the Gulf, which would be a necessary prelude to air strikes. Other news organizations can be expected to confirm or deny this story in the coming days.

However, the worry is coming (according to Raw Story) from military and intelligence sources. Retired Air Force Colonel and former faculty member at the National War College Sam Gardiner has heard some military suggestions of a possible air campaign in the near future, and although he has no intimate knowledge of such plans, he says recent aircraft carrier activity and current operations on the ground in Iran have raised red flags. "