Hot Stove rumor of the day

For those new to the game, the “hot stove league” is the term used to describe the baseball talk that goes on between fans or the media during the off-season. The MLB Network hosts a daily show where talking heads (real ones, not bobble-heads, although that would be kind of cool) discuss trade rumors, free agent signings, etc.

So the hot topic of the day, as far as we’re concerned, is whither Jason Marquis? The Chicago Cubs’ right-handed starting pitcher may be on his way to the Colorado Rockies, according to an article by Troy Renck in the Dec. 31 Denver Post and this more recent post from MLB.com. The Mets have also expressed an interest in him, which would be nice if for no other reason than he’s a Staten Island boy.

The 30-year-old Marquis has been a dependable, if unspectacular bottom-of-the-rotation guy. He’s won in double figures each of the last five seasons, average 13-9 over that time. For his career, which began in 2000 with the Atlanta Braves (he also spent three years with the St. Louis Cardinals), Marquis has won 79 games with a 4.55 earned ran average. That win total puts him in seventh place among Jewish pitchers; if he stays healthy, he seems a cinch to join Ken Holtzman (174), Sandy Koufax (165), Steve Stone (107), and dave Roberts (103) in the 100-win club.

Marquis is also no slough with the bat: a career .206 hitter with five home runs. Last year he became the first Jewish pitcher to hit a grand slam (against the mets, of course) since Harry Eisenstat belted one in 1950 for the Detroit Tigers. He won the Silver Slugger award, given each year to the best hitter at each position, in 2005 when he batted .310 with eight doubles, a triple, a home run, and 10 runs batted in.

Wait, Wait, tell me the truth.

In keeping with the policy NPR seems to have about replaying its best bits during the week between Christmas and New Years, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, hosted by Peter Sagal, featured a few prominent guests from the “Not My Job” segment, including Sen. George McGovern, Leonard Nimoy, Garrison Keillor, Jimmy Carter of the singing group The Blind Boys of Alabama, and former baseball great Bill “Moose” Skowron.

Now Skowron (I had always thought his nickname came from his appearance and size, but it was because of his haircut that the appellation was given because of a resemblance to Benito Mussolini) was a good player — an eight time all-star with eight World Series appearances, a fact he took great pains to remind Sagal several times during the conversation.

Judging solely from that interview, Skowron, now 78, seems to be one of those old-timers who loves to compare the lack of “sand” in modern players, afraid to pitch inside, afraid to slide. He spoke of an episode in his career that reminded me of Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, The Lies, and Everything Else.

Every time I hear one of these gentlemen relating an anecdote about the good old days, I find I’ve become fairly cynical (damn you, Neyer!). So when Skowron talked about getting hit in the head after htting a home run against the Red Sox and talking it out on second baseman Gene Mauch with a career-ending hard slide, well, I just had to see if that was indeed the case.

Skowron’s tale goes like this:

After hitting the homer off of Ike Delock, the pitcher swore revenge, telling Ted Williams that he would hit Skowron right between the eyes in the next at bat, which he did (actually, it was the head Delock hit, but that’s close enough for jazz).

It must not have been a very hard pitch because Skowron was able to stay in the game. As he took first base, he prayed for his roommate Bob Cerv to hit a ground ball to the shortstop so Skowron could break up the double play.

“Gene Mauch was at second at the time,” Skowron told Sagal and his audience. “I broke his leg and he never played another game in the Major Leagues. I didn’t do it on purpose…, we were taught to break up double plays.”

So I went to Baseball Reference to see if I could verify the story.

According to the BR Home Run Long, Delock gave up 141 home runs in his 11-year career, but none of them were hit by Skowron. (Strike one.)

Mauch, who would go on to manage the Phillies, Expos, and Angels, did play his last major league game against the Yankees on Sept. 28, 1957, so one would expect this was the contest to which Skowron referred. He singled as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning, so he couldn’t have played the field. (Strike two. Ooh, I feel like Sherlock Holmes.)

The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 2-0. No home runs were hit that day. That’s okay, because Skowron wasn’t in the game at all; in fact, his last game of the year came on Sept. 13 (strike three and then some). He did hit six homers against the Sox in 1957; four came over a two-day stretch in April.

Skowron was hit by a pitch three times that season. One came in an April 28, 3-2 win over Boston, in which Mauch played second. Gil MacDougal followed the HBP with a strikeout and Billy Martin (not Cerv, who was on the Kansas City Athletics in 1957) grounded to short for the force at second. Perhaps Skowron went in hard, but is no indication of a violent injury; Mauch was lifted for a pinch hitter in the ninth and played another 50+ games before calling it quits at the end of the year.

So what did we learn by this exercise, other than the fact that I have way too much time on my hands? Was Skowron lying or is this just the way he remembers the incident? No one can say for sure, perhaps not even the Moose. Look, I’m considerably younger and according to my wife I completely mistold an anecdote from our honeymoon in Aruba that involved a goat skull, a scorpion, and hotel housekeeping. I wasn’t lying; that’s how I recalled the event. So you have to give Skowron the benefit of the doubt.

In Israel, real life intrudes on sports

We take a lot for granted here. For one thing, minor as it might seem, we don’t expect our sports to be interrupted by violence. Unlike in Israel. This piece by Jeremy Last in the Jan. 1 online Jerusalem Post puts things into perspective. Following a rocket attack on the training facilities of the Hapoel Ashkelon socer club, just minutes before the team was to begin their workout:

But the determination, resilience and courage of the staff at teams like Ashkelon and Beersheba, both in soccer and basketball, deserves respect and admiration.

Most people from the South are finding it difficult to lead normal lives and the example set by the country’s sportsmen can only serve to inspire the nation’s population.

The teams are getting on with things as best they can, representing the ‘never give up’ attitude which Israelis are famous for.

A special mention goes to the foreign players who appear to have no problem sticking together with their teammates as war rages in the area close to Gaza.

Small world

What are the odds that the two premier Jewish baseball players would be born just two days apart?

Sandy Koufax made his “debut” on Dec. 30, 1935; Hank Greenberg on Jan. 1, 1911. Both are in the Baseball Hall of Fame and both are known, in addition to their outstanding careers on the field, for their refusal to play on Yom Kippur, Greenberg in 1934 and Koufax in 1965. Brian Moynahan assessed how these Jewish ballplayers were discussed in the mainstream media at the time in this 2003 piece on Baseball-Almanac.com.

As if to prove the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Greenberg’s son, Steve, was a former deputy commissioner of baseball. His granddaughter, Melanie, is also involved in sports, hosting the blog, You suck, Coco Crisp. Last year, she wrote this piece for The Forward on her grandfather and what his decision meant to the Jewish community of his day and those that followed, including the obligation of modern Jewish players to represent.

When asked about their respective decisions, players have responded that it is a personal choice — that every individual has to do what is right for him. That is not entirely true.

Heavy though the burden may be, I believe that Jewish players share the same obligation as my grandfather — to serve as representatives for their people. Admittedly, he lived in different times. Jewish athletes, however, still have the ability to affect their communities.

By the way, I believe one of my Hanukka wishes was an interview with Koufax. Still haven’t gotten it, so if anyone out there has any influence…

The reach of Bernie Madoff

By now the Jewish community has learned of the shanda that is Bernie Madoff (as in “made off with your dough”). Media both Jewish and ecumenical have opined on the possible impact his schemes might mean in feeding the stereotype of the greedy, money-loving Jew.

Madoff stands accused of ripping off individuals and, of particular concern to us, Jewish organizations who rely on contributions to do their good works.

As it turns out, the sports world was not immune. Fred Wilpon, owner of the New York Mets, had “invested” with Madoff, as reported in this recent article by our old friend Murray Chass on his website.

Once Wilpon began investing his and Sterling Equities money, he and Madoff became close friends. It was a natural relationship. Both were successful businessmen, and both had become prominent Jews in the New York business world.

Although reports say Wilpon did not invest any Mets money with Madoff (as in “made-a-f-ool” of a lot of people), it still raises eyebrows in the sports community.

But Wilpon didn’t invest Mets money; he invested Wilpon and Sterling Equities money. If the Mets were Wilpon’s only enterprise, he might have a problem because it would have been Mets money he invested.

Wilpon has not spoken publicly on the matter. He has spoken to Commissioner Bud Selig, and a baseball official said Selig is satisfied that Wilpon will not have a problem. And at a news conference the other day, Jeff Wilpon, the team’s chief operating officer, told reporters neither the Mets nor a part of the Mets is for sale.

All baseball, all the time

According to a story on AdAge.com:

In these challenging economic times — during which every story and press release commences with an “in these challenging economic times …” salvo — media entities are as likely to roll out a big-dollar, big-ambition offering as they are to quadruple their head count. And then there’s Major League Baseball, which will come across as positively brazen when it launches its eponymous cable network in upward of 50 million homes Jan. 1.

…

On paper, the MLB Network looks like nirvana for hard-core fans. The net’s flagship show, “MLB Tonight,” will air every day except Sunday during the regular season from 6 p.m. Eastern time until a half hour after the evening’s final game has concluded. It will broadcast a game every Thursday night and cover any number of events in and around the game. Additionally, the network will tap the league’s trove of historical footage for documentaries and series such as “Prime 9,” a countdown show devoted to the game’s best moments and performers (center fielders, dramatic home runs, etc.).

Can’t wait. Where do I sign up? Aw, sweet! It’s on Comcast.

***

MLB Network will be hungry for content until the season opens. One wonders why they didn’t wait until at least Spring Training — if not opening day — to launch. I guess they wanted to start building their audience early.

I watched a little but last night, mostly previews of what is to come. Among the personalities serving as talking heads will be overall host Matt Versagasian and ex-players such as Harold Reynolds, Joe Magrane, Al Leiter, Mitch Williams, Dan Plesac, and Barry Larkin. Other on-air personnel include Greg Amsinger, Alex Rojas, writer Jon Heyman, and the obligatory female reporters Trenni Kusnierek and Hazel Mae. And let me say immediately that I apologize if anyone finds the choice of “obligatory” offensive. In watching the “trailer” for the new enterprise last night, several of the ex-athletes swung a bat for the camera. So did the women, and that looked just stupid. If they were Dot Richardson of Jennie Finch — elite softball players — I could accept that; at least they would look competent swinging a bat, but Mae and Kusnierek just looked silly. (and don’t get me started on Jeanne Zelasko.)

Anyway…

So I’m watching and there was a lot of exciting and emotional footage, mostly World Series events (home runs by Joe Carter, Bill Mazeroski, Kirk Gibson, etc.), a behind-the-scenes look at the studio in Secaucus, NJ, and testimonials from various baseball figures such as Commissioner Bud Selig and Cal Ripken Jr.

A word of caution: as much as baseball fans love the game, the executives at MLBN have to take care not to wax too poetical or philosophical: the metaphors of life and baseball, the majesty and history of the national pastime, the august music, the verdant playing fields, etc. That’s something I always find annoying when it comes to the All-Star Game and the World Series. I know there are those who never watch a game except those, but I find such exposition redundant in almost every circumstance.

The latest big news is the rebroadcast of Ken Burns’ nine-part documentary. which will air weekly beginning Jan. 6. I wonder if they will be showing other documentaries as well (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, anybody?). And when there’s a rain delay, perhaps they can show a baseball-themed movie, or episodes of old TV shows that have a baseball guest star ( Leo Durocher on The Munsters!).

A list of shows aiready on the network.

More on the network from, of all places, Reuters UK.

Memo to self: Do not give this as a bar mitzva present

From Frumsatire.net:

But beyond all of my memory [sic] stand one memory and it holds true for almost everyone I know. “Great Jews in Sports” was that one gift that I received multiple copies from people too cheap to give me cash yet too stupid to figure out that every other secular Jewish person would buy the same gift.

You can read the rest of the entry here.

By the way, it happens to be a very good book.

Better sports through science

No, we’re not talking performance enhancing drugs here. Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE), an Israeli company, has developed software to help in the mental aspects of basketball and is now in co-development with USA Hockey on a program for that sport. The story is covered in fully by Israel21c.

Parents  finally have a reason to encourage kids to play video games.

Jews in the NFL: Week 17

• Igor Olshansky made a solo tackle in the San Diego Chargers’ 52-21 drubbing of the Denver Broncos. The win gave the Chargers, who finished with a record of 8-8, the AFC West title. They will take on the Indianapolis Colts in the wild card game on Jan. 3. David Binn was once again the long snapper.
• Houston Texans QB Sage Rosenfels did not play in his team’s 31-24 victory over the Chicago Bears. Houston finished 8-8, in third place in the AFC South.
• Here’s a misheberah (prayer for health) for Cleveland Browns guard Lennie Friedman and Jacksonville Jaguars punter Adam Podlesh for 2009. Friedman missed the entire season, Podlesh the last five games, with injuries. Their teams both finished in last place, 4-12 in the AFC North and 5-11 in the AFC South, respectively. We’d like to think it was because they just couldn’t do without Friedman and Podlesh.

Binn

Olshansky

Rosenfels

Friedman

Podlesh

Wait, Wait, Mr. President-elect

Taking advantage of the holiday, our old friend and neighbor Peter Sagal prepared yesterday’s edition of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me as a highlight reel.

The program offered items regarding the 2008 Presidential election. It included this one from August, 2005 featuring Senator Barack Obama in the “Not My Job” portion, in which popular figures are asked things they supposedly know nothing about. Obama’s topic: The superstitions of Wade Boggs. He got two of three answers correct; he got game.

You can hear the show here.