I Met Tony Gwynn, Kinda

The ranks of the heroic men lining the Baseball Hall of Fame grew by two yesterday. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken have both earned the honor--and rightly so.

I am a fan of baseball. As a kid, living in a small town in a state that didn't have a baseball team, I sometimes watched Cubs and Braves games on the WGN and TBS--but I always watched when they played the Padres.

I've only attended a single MLB game my entire life. I was a young boy on a family trip that included a trip to Disneyland, but I was more excited about seeing the Mets take on the Padres in Jack Murphy Stadium. They lost, 2 - 1, but it was still a great time for me. Aftre the game, we gathered above where all the players parked to see the hometeam a little more upclose. There was a long, steep slope of concrete angling down to where all the Padres parked. When Tony Gwynn came out, with barely a thought, I lept over the cement and slid all the way to the bottom without tripping or dropping the pen and baseball I had in my hands.

I was within five feet of him, and he just stared at me until security was there to send me back up the wall. The gathered fans boo'ed Tony while I escorted back to my family. I heard a few muttered comments about not giving that kid an autograph.

I've since lost my affinity for the Pads (go Dbacks!), but I've never been one to ignore the facts, and the facts are the man was one of the most consistant hitters the game has ever seen. He could pull the ball wherever, a testament of his lifetime .338 batting average. He was a hall of fame calibor player. And, as an adult, I really don't hold any grudges about that day. There were probably policies in place that asked the players not to sign autographs in situations like the one I created as an excited youth. Otherwise, there's be kids sliding down that cement after every game--and I had pretty good balance. It'd be quite a tumble if you didn't.

A heartfelt congradulations to both Tonly Gwynn and Cal Ripken!

Sammy So What

Sammy Sosa has agreed in principle to a one year contract with the Texas Rangers (starting in AAA) that guarantees him five hundred thousand dollars. The contract is also laced with incentives, meaning he'll get some awesome bonuses for putting up some good numbers in whatever categories. Most likely, home runs and a .300+ average (says me). He'll be hitting fifth in the line-up in the DH's position.

I'm not really excited to see Sosa coming back into the limelight of baseball. I can't forget the corked bat incident and the resulting 7 game suspension (it was going to be 8, but Sammy was super sorry about cheating).

I can only imagine the pressure on the men who are out there day after day after, sometimes ten games in a row before they get one day off (much of which is spent traveling). For every player that gets caught there are many more that are playing by the rules.

I'm not saying he doesn't deserve a chance to come back and see if his guns are still firing, I just can't get excited about it.

Arbiwhat?

One confusing aspect of baseball can be the specifics of contract negotiation. The reason the Randy Johnson Yankees to Diamondbacks trade took so long was because of the many legal specifics in the contract. Official talks began 12-26-06 and official announcements of a successful trade were announced 1/09/07.

The big buzz in the sticks right now is arbitration. I had no idea what it meant and the two seconds I spent searching www.wikidpedia.org yielded nothing.

I fought through the anger and disapointment and went to Google to tell me. If you hate thinking about the specific salaries of overpaid athletes, this would the time to stop reading. If you hate overpriced salaries but enjoy tempering those feelings with that certain honed-in kind of hate, well read right the hell on.

Arbitration, simply put, is a reassessment of the player's current contract compared with the current market value. Consider this fictional account; you're a starting pitcher two years into a four year, 1.7 million dollar deal. Last season you posted a 3.20 ERA. Pitchers with similar ERA's (an infielder would be judged on fielding percentage, batting average, etc.) entering new contracts would be setting a standard. They would look at the current average salary per year, let's say it's 6 million a year, and allow for a readjustment.

Some people hate arbitration because of the pay me more attitude, but to counter this, clubs will enter into contracts that go long enough (four years I believe) that arbitration isn't included in the terms. I guess a good way to look at it is it's a good way to 1) get younger players and clubs to commit a bit and 2) help younger players who've proved themselves get a comparable salary 3) it prompts early contract negotiations between the player and the clubhouse.

It's not hard for clubs to avoid, even if the club doesn't want to throw a four year dear on the table. The Dbacks, who are awsome, have made a great move to avoid arbitration and signed their closer Jose Valverde to another year by giving him a raise.

Past Time For Baseball

Hello everyone! Welcome to a fan's blog about Baseball. I've been following the sport since I was a boy, though my interest, like many of yours I'm sure, waned around the time the MLB Strike took a season from everyone.

I consider myself, like the commercials say, a fan of baseball. I hate the Cubs but love to see Carlos Zambrano pitch and win. I love my Diamondbacks but am still excited for the post season even if they aren't playing--which is definitely a good thing considering their last few seasons.

Last year was my first in which I kept a close eye on the season as a whole. Close enough that now that it's the off season I find myself desperately sifting through the Internet for any sort of baseball related tidbit--especially trade-related factoids.

The goal of this blog is to put my friendly spin on the baseball happenings at large. I'll try not to cater too much of my stuff toward the Diamondbacks, but I'm not going to avoid the team as subject--especially after Randy Johnson got traded back!

I hope you will have as much fun reading these articles as I will writing them.