Greg “Mad Dog” Maddux, a legend of pitching, is no longer active, but his legacy remains. Fittingly, the Braves will be retiring his number.
The Braves announced Sunday morning that they will retire Maddux’s number and induct him into their Hall of Fame during a July 17 ceremony at Turner Field.
“His fingerprints are all over the success this club enjoyed from 1991-2005,” Braves president John Schuerholz said. “Those kinds of guys who make that kind of impact deserve to be honored in the manner that we are going to honor Greg.”
For the best article on Maddux that I’ve read, see this amazing piece on ESPN.com. Or this one. While he’s not the type to open up, the man’s a legend. If only for “Chicks Dig The Long Ball.”
What's important is spending time with your loved ones.
As much as we dislike encouraging the Post, they do sometimes know what’s going on in New York. And there’s good news for Yankees fans, as A-Rod is doing well and could be back by late April.
Hitting coach Kevin Long, who speaks daily with A-Rod, told The Post that Rodriguez has begun to hit and reported that he “feels 70 percent.”
A Yankee official told The Post that he thought the rehab was going so well, in fact, that if the organization wanted to it could have Rodriguez back on a major league field by late April.
Pity the ace pitcher stuck on the terrible team. Ask Nolan Ryan how much fun it is to be gifted with a thunderbolt for an arm, only to play for a team that struggles to get above .500. So take a moment to feel sorry for Jake Peavy, an amazing pitcher stuck on a terrible team and quite possibly on the cusp of a tremendously dubious record, at least according to one blogger.
Unless he’s traded to a contender by the deadline, Jake ‘n’ Bake will lead the league in ERA and losses.
It would be quite a distinction, because such a statistical perfect storm has happened only once in the history of Major League Baseball since the American League established in 1901.
It really is a pity, too. Having seen the kid pitch, he’s just electrifying, and he gets tremendously frustrated when he’s throwing his heart out and his terrible team is sucking it up anyway.
Fire Joe Morgan acolytes like yours truly often use “scrappy” as short-hand for mocking the sportswriting/announcing establishment, who seem content to defend players who, quite frankly, aren’t very good, but are “scrappy.” You may recognize David Eckstein as god’s own prototype for this breed, at least until another one of their number, Dustin Pedroia, won the MVP last year.
However, there’s no denying despite classical scrappy attributes like getting his uniform dirty, Pedroia is a really good player (and his commercial for The Show is hilarious), which is why I perused with interest this long Boston.com article on Pedroia and the etymology of “scrappy.”
“Scrappy” approached the new century, then, as “the consolation prize of baseball adjectives—like saying a girl has a nice sense of humor,” Thorn says. The model was established by the relentlessly overpraised 5-foot-7 shortstop David Eckstein, who had the good fortune of being a slow, limp-armed, dink-and-dunking mediocrity who was not so bad at the plate as to prevent two of his teams from winning the World Series, and who not incidentally is as white as the fresh-fallen snow. Eckstein remains the sort of guy who makes Fox announcers sound like the front row of a Jonas Brothers show. He even won a World Series MVP with the Cardinals in 2006, mostly on the strength of a few doubles, of which at least one would’ve been caught had the Tigers not penciled in the>moaiof Easter Island in left field. (Poor Craig Monroe is probably still trying to get a read on that line drive.)
And now, in the twilight of Eckstein’s career and at the dawn of the Post-Steroid Era, the mantle has been passed to Pedroia.
Going on a road trip! Next up: world's largest ball of twine.
I’ve recently taken a job offer on the West Coast and have to plan an epic road trip across the country from New York. So chances are updates will be coming in at weird times and very sporadically. Unless one of our intrepid readers would like to jump in and help out, we’re in Rick Vaughn’s hands for a little while.
The Royals 2009 Season Starring Bill Paxton As Any Royals Fan
As a close follower of the Yankees, I know all about Sir Sidney Ponson, which is why I was delighted when they got rid of him. Unfortunately, Royals fans, you picked him up and, for whatever reason, you put him in the rotation. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it came out today…
Manager Trey Hillman said Sidney Ponson would be the fourth starter and work the home opener April 10 against the New York Yankees. Left-hander Horacio Ramirez will be the No. 5 starter but also would work out of the bullpen.
Billfer thinks making Marcus Thames a permanent fixture in the lineup takes away from the team’s production, assuming Sheffield is healthy. But after last season and his turning 40, Sheffield bouncing back from injury isn’t a safe bet.
He also comments on Sheffield’s boisterous personality, which he believes wasn’t actually a clubhouse issue: “He certainly is controversial and he’s quick to burn bridges. But you never hear his teammates complain about him. In fact Thames and Jeff Larish went out of their way to praise Sheffield as a teammate. The beat writers don’t attack him, largely because he almost always was willing to speak and not speak in cliches. My impression is that Sheffield wasn’t in this for the love of the game. Baseball is a job for him. It’s not romantic, but it’s far from being a cancer either.”
It’s tough to be sure either way, but Sheffield’s comments are usually directed at people other than his current teammates. Typically, he has a problem with management and up.
McPherson creams righties but has undergone invasive back surgery.
While the Yankees are ostensibly happy with Cody Ransom filling in for A-rod the month-plus the all-star is out, Mike Axisa at River Avenue Blues caught an interesting prospective add on the waiver wire: Dallas McPherson, a former prospect in the Angels’ system, who made his way over to the Marlins last year but was just released by the team.
McPherson has battled injury problems all his career and can’t hit lefties, but Axisa thinks the Yankees could platoon him with Ransom, who destroys left-handed pitching, and then use Ransom to spell the rest of the infield when McPhereson starts.
Of course, the idea does have its holes, as Axisa admits: McPherson is drawing interest from other clubs who are more likely to give him a full-time role, and McPherson likely wouldn’t stay in the Majors with the Yanks once A-rod returns. But it’s still interesting to watch a team have to cope with losing its best player at a relatively shallow position.
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