Frayed Knot

A couple of not so simple twists of fate so far.

Jerry's going to get a good reception because he's in the honeymoon phase and, right now, fans are giving him credit for anything good that happens and ignoring everything else.

Franklin was a Cleveland sport-talk legend prior to there being full-time sports talk radio. Screaming a no-nothing callers was a big part of his act - as it was for young John Sterling who did a nightly call-in show on WMCA in NYC. I'd hear Franklin every once in a while when conditions were right for long-distance AM radio signals. So when FAN first announced plans for a 24/7 sports station Franklin was the guy they turned to as their main afternoon drive time guy. It's worth remembering here that they first imagined the talk as being much more national in nature than the local slant it almost immediately became; Greg Gumbel and Jim Lampley were also early hires while station mgmt was telling local (but lesser known) job seekers like Francesa to take a hike. The Franklin plan got off to a rough start when he had a heart attack prior to launch date and couldn't take the air until a few months into its run. He later wound up in San Francisco.

Not a Latino - according to everything I've heard It's MAN-you-al (as in labor) not man-WELL as is the Spanish name

Pelfrey - 4.1 Sanchez - 0.7 Wagner - 0.9 Beltran - 2.2 Reyes - 1.1 Wright - 0.7 Smith - 0.3

Newsday's sports media reporter, Neil Best, reports that the 18+ year run of the Mike and the Mad Dog program may soon be history Not many specifics are given beyond reports about "recent fraying of personal relationships", but he does cite "industry sources with knowledge of the situation" as saying that; 'barring a change of heart, the partnership between Mike Francesa and Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo is not expected to survive to see its 19th anniversary Sept. 5'

Coming east is tougher on the body-clock adjustment than heading west, but it is ony 2 time zones instead of 3 and is the night game after a day game thing so it shouldn't be that bad. iow, the day off prior to the (4 game) Subway Series weekend might be better. Speaking of travel, no more west or mountain trips and only 3, 1-series trips (10 games total) to the central for the rest of the year! ... and they're spaced quite nicely. - June 30 plus July 1, 2, 3 in St Louis - August 1, 2, 3 in Houston - Sept 1, 2, 3 in Milwaukee Everything else is EDT from tomorrow thru game 162

]I never read or heard of this John Jeansonne before Well you would have had you read my link above. Johnsonne's been there for years doing mostly opinion and topical columns not limited to any one sport. In fact he'll usually be the one who tackles the other "non-major" sports for Newsday: Tour de France, World Cup soccer, track & other olympic sports, etc. On Madden's column; - it very well may be that there were anti-Willie forces hiding behind every potted plant at Shea. But it's also come to the point where I'm no longer just going to take his word for it as there have been enough instances in the last few years where he's gotten too many facts wrong for me to simply swallow this story whole. And it's not specifically his long ties to the Yanx that I think is coloring his slant in this case. But it does seem to me that he's at a stage where he simply takes one source's word on something and prints that as the way things are - either because he doesn't have the energy, skepticism and hunger of a younger journalist to check things out further, or he simply figures that 'I'm Bill Madden' and assumes that his sources are all on the level with him. Either way, his piece comes off like it was fed by a source or sources with at least as big an agenda as that of the anti-Willie cabal he purports to be outing.

Zvon wrote: Wright with the flip down sunglasses ... How long will it take these kids playing today to realize those sunglasses are the ONLY type to use on the field? They have these $300 sunglasses on the brim of their hats. What good are they doing there? Adam Dunn - who's defensively challenged enough - had his on his hat in yesterday's game in the Bronx. So as a fly is hit to him he decides that now is the time to put them on his eyes and almost manages to poke his orbs out in the process. He winds up catching the ball in his glove while the specs are in his bare hand and then proceeds to put the stem in his mouth in order to throw the ball back in. Fortunately for him no runners were on base at the time.

]We will talk about the streaking Yanks First it was gold thongs, now they're running around naked?

]People who read the News are generally smart enough to recognize the names of places like Massapequa, Baldwin, Huntington, Freeport and so on. But not always smart enough to spell them. Meanwhile, back to the original topic; Newsda'ys John Jeansonne takes a few swipes at the media blowing a collective circuit over L'affaire de Wille. There certainly was no shortage of numbskullian outrage from many among the same chattering classes who for weeks had been calling for Randolph's dismissal. That Mets general manager Omar Minaya proved to be anything but nimble in sending Randolph packing -- first literally, to the West Coast, then figuratively -- was obvious enough. But the act of firing a boss for his employees' underperformance hardly reached the level of "spinelessness" and "bullying" widely ascribed to it. The deed was not done via e-mail after 3 a.m., as many reports had it. (Minaya delivered the blow face-to-face when the Anaheim clocks had not yet struck midnight; it's just that reporters were informed of the move electronically and referenced Eastern time.) The article then goes on to consult various ethicists and business leaders who see nothing unusual or cruel about the firing.

Reyes - 1.0 Heilman - 0.3 Castillo - 0.3 Beltran - 0.3 Delgado - 0.3 Easley - 0.3

Maine - 3.2 Reyes - 1.4 Chavez - 0.6 Delgado - 1.1 Beltran - 1.4 Nixon - 1.0 Easley - 0.5 Schneider - 0.4 Heilman - 0.2 Feliciano - 0.2

This was a player poll (about 2/3 responding) so they're reacting to perceived publicity of what theose NYC & Boston players get over and above what they think is accorded similar players in smaller markets. As far as fans go, clearly what's most annoying about Jeter isn't Jeter himself but the hordes of Jeter-ites and mostly their tendancy to think that all arguments as to his greatness can be boiled down to three inane statements: 1) He's Clutch! Specifics are discussed above as they have been forever here and elsewhere. But the real annoyance about the 'clutch' argument is that it's used as a catch-all. A Jeter-ite will trot out his stats until counter stats are offered at which point he'll fall back on; 'Jeter transends stats' 2) He's the Captain! What the fuck does that mean? A Captain in baseball is like being Mother Superior at the Pentagon; iow, it's irrelevent. They could name him Field Marshall and it wouldn't change the fact that it's nothing more than a symbolic title that carries no weight beyond their own inner-fiefdom and I'm not all that sure it means much there either. 3) Four Rings! Do I even have to?

.. and quite possibly for good. He'll undergo season-ending (although it never really started) surgery on his throwing shoulder next week. What happens after that depends on what's found once they get a peek inside that oft-used joint but even he says it's likely he's thrown his last pitch.

Niese gets a little love from a Baseball America online chat: ... you wouldn't know Niese was one of the Eastern League's youngest pitchers based on his performance. He committed to conditioning this season and got out of the gate strong. His ERA took a step back in May, but his peripherals remained solid, and now in June he's given up three runs in three starts while striking out 20. Niese sits in the low 90s and touches 94 with a solid curveball and change, meaning he's got midrotation starter potential.

These lists are pretty silly. All the guys at the top of the list are from either NYC or Boston meaning that the voters are reacting to the pub the national media gives to those 3 teams.

Farm systems also tend to be somewhat cyclical. Not that we had a top system to begin with - but when you mix the promotion and/or trades of the likes of Milledge, Pelfrey, Gomez, Humber, Mulvey, and Guerra within about a 12-month period along with a lack of top draft picks due to top-half finishes and the signings of Alou, Wagner & Beltran, the system tends to take a hit.

Good for Adam for at least painting Bernazrd with some living breathing traits (good, bad, or somewhere in between) rather than just starting with the "fact" that he's pure evil and therefore is responisble for everything short of gas prices and the inability to find Bin Laden.

IRK MET ZERO = MIKE TORREZ

Mojo Coke - Joe Moock

A Snide Sex = Esix Snead

]The managers and umpires conferred for a good 5 minutes until it seemed that they decided that the batter had to choose a side to bat from for the entire at-bat but the pitcher could do what he wanted. Batter stood in righty, pitcher threw righty and struck him out on 4 pitches I think The way I've always understood it is that the pitcher was the one who had to declare which hand he was going to pitch with and stick to it for the length of that AB -- but I may be wrong and I guess it's been mostly a theoretical rule up to this point. The Yanx drafted this kid [Pat Venditte] a year ago but he didn't sign and went back to school -- but they remained intrigued and drafted him again this year (20th round - Creighton Univ). I've read that scouts consider him to be somewhat of a prospect from one side (right, I think) and more a novelty from the other. But hey, if you can get away with fewer pitching changes and use him twice as often (half the shoulder strain) it's worth a try.

Vic Sage wrote: One of the picks, the CFer Neuwinheise (or something like that) was pretty impressive. Big, athletic guy... got a few hits, threw a guy out at 2b. Kirk Nieuwenhuis - 3rd round pick (#100 overall) in this year's draft out of Azuza Pacific Univ

The full season leagues are all considered to be above the short-season ones although the S-S leagues often have some recently drafted players who may be of full-season quality. Also, in the case of the Mets, they have a bit of an incentive to showcase their NYC-based, team-owned affiliate.