It's the way of the world these days: over-hype the guys who haven't earned it and expect the older players to pick up the pieces.

   Yes Albert Pujols is amazing, so is David Ortiz..Yes Ballparks are smaller and baseballs are harder and home runs are up 20% this season already. How about we pay tribute to some older but still awesome pitchers who are still kicking ass and taking names. They haven't heard that offense is king in baseball these days

Greg Maddux of the Cubs: He's the King with Roger Clemens on vacation right now. in 4 starts, Greg is 4-0 with a league-leading ERA of 0.99 and in 27innings pitched he's given up only 15 hits while walking only 5 and striking out 18.

Curt Schilling of the Red Sox: The guy with the bad ankle! He's also 4-0 in 4 starts and has just blown away hitters this season. In 28 innings pitched he's allowed only 17 hits. Talk about command, only 4 walks and 23 strikeouts and a tiny 1.61 ERA...

Tom Glavine is off to a great start with The Mets, 2-1 in 4 starts and a 1.38 ERA with only 6 walks to 26 strike outs.

Mike Mussina on the other New York team is 2-1 in 4 starts and has a very nice 2.67 ERA with only 6 walks to 23 strikeouts.

A couple things these guys have in common are age and greatness. Yes they are old, but they still throw nothing but strikes and of the 16 games these 4 men have started all 16 have been quality starts. Some things do get better with age.

The last week of spring training is always the hardest, but not just for the players, how about the general managers of 30 baseball teams?

How many sleepless nights do you think the teams GMs have had this spring? Think about it.

For starters, it was the first time the World Baseball Classic was held. For a general manager, this was truly a nightmare. Yeah, it was great for baseball, but how about if you just signed someone like Johnny Damon. You see him for a few days in camp with his new teammates and then boom, he's playing in the tournament. Then you get a phone call, "Hey my arm is sore and I can't play." That's got to make you sick.

Then there's the trading for new guys, trying to build a winner, trying to get players to make it through spring training healthy. How would you like to be J.P. Ricciardi with the Toronto Blue Jays? You sign some big name free agents more on promise than on talent. One of those players has had a history of arm injuries and then he gets hurt in spring training. How does that $55 million dollar signing feel now?  

Thankfully it was some scar tissue breaking up in A.J. Brunett's elbow but do you think J.P. slept the night before the MRI? Brian Cashman of The New York Yankees has a few rings to fall back on, but how about if you're Bill Stoneman with the Los Angeles Angels, and your players are dropping like flies, some guys are in The World Baseball Classic and you haven't even started the season?

Tough job isn't it?

It's not fantasy baseball, this is for real. Real money, real players and really big worries.

I just talked to Jim Hendry on the radio show I do with Kevin Kennedy on XM. The Cubs haven't won a championship in almost 100 years and his two star pitchers, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, must give him plenty of rest. Yeah right. One or both might start the year on the DL, and he's in the last year of his contract, he traded three young pitchers for Juan Pierre, who is hitting .273 this spring and is coming off a down year. Plus he will be starting young players in the field and really doesn't have a front line closer.

Still, I respect the hell out of Jim because he doesn't make excuses; he says they should still win the NL Central. He also had to cut players to get down to the 25 man final roster and long time star Marquis Grissom decided to hang it up.

Imagine having to call players in and say you aren't good enough to play anymore, or we have to send you down, or you need more seasoning. I have to tell you, I have nothing but respect for GMs because I felt it was tougher on them than it was on me when they had to tell me it was hard to leave.

Let me leave you with this, for 14 straight years the best GM has been John Schuerholz of the Atlanta Braves. Last year he had 13 different rookies play during the season and the Braves won the division again. Now some will say, but they've only won one championship despite 14 consecutive division titles. I say they've left spring training 14 times and done just exactly what Mr. Schuerholz gave them a chance to do.

Being a GM may be the toughest job in the big leagues. OK it is.

What I hear so often to describe Barry Bonds is not how amazing he is, or how he would have blown away pitching back when Babe Ruth played, but how he must have cheated to become this good.

When people talk about the end of Roger Clemens' career, all I hear is how he must have had help doing what he has done.

Enough already.

One thing the people who actually played in the last 20 years with these two men would know is how amazing their feats have been. Forget the cheating stuff because it's all nonsense anyway. It's never been proven that taking anything, whether it be steroids or vitamins, can make you into a Hall of Famer. If it were, more players and non-players would be lining up to swallow every pill on the planet.

What we should be doing instead of bashing greatness, is appreciating it for what it is. When Barry is gone and Roger throws his last pitch, two of the greatest players that ever played will be gone.

Let me just tell you from listening to the critics what they haven't really said: To play today, you have to face the world's best every day. Do you think the Babe, smoking and drinking the way he did back in the day, would've survived today's best? Have you ever seen Barry and Roger work out? I have, and that's why today's ballplayers should get way more respect then they do.

Pills don't make the players. Hard work, passion and a huge gift from God make the players. Let's just love the game in 2006. Stop the hating.

I was listening to a writer who had a Hall of Fame vote. He was saying he didn't know where to put relievers that are eligible for The Hall of Fame.

I have a tip.

Put them in The Hall of Fame.

For some reason, writers can't figure out how history will remember closers and bullpens. How about we take a look at the last time a team won a world championship without a good or great closer and or bullpen. Well that would be in the early '60s. Since then every team that has won a championship has had help down in the 'pen.

If that isn't helping to judge the great relievers, then let's look at the salary increases to some of the relievers just in this off-season. The reason for the money being spent is an indication of how valuable an asset short relievers and closers are. Toronto paid $47 million to B.J. Ryan and he only has 42 career saves, Billy Wagner and the Mets? Try $43 million for his 284 career saves. Kyle Farnsworth got $17 million from the Yankees to set up future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera.

The Cubs gave Bob Howry $12 million and he saved only <i>three</i> games in Cleveland last year. Before that, he hadn't had a save since 2001 when he was with the Chicago White Sox. He has been great as a set up man in Cleveland the last 2 seasons.

Let's take Braden Looper and The St. Louis Cardinals; he got $13.5 million over the next three seasons but was 28 for 36 in saves last year, and that's why.

Pitchers are used in a totally different way than they were 50 years ago. We take pitchers, mostly with the best arms on a team or in an organization, and make them relievers. These are pitchers who can get loose in 10 pitches or less and can throw strikes in the highest pressure situations of a game right out of the 'pen. Yet when it comes to voting them into the Hall of Fame we look upon them like they are half of a starting pitcher, or freaks or DH's.

Let's take a look at some of the recent Hall of Famers. Some of them just hung around five or 10 more years, flipping the ball up there just to get 300 wins. Yet many of those games were completed by bullpens. Oh, he won 300, he's in ... please. Lee Smith, the all-time save leader with 478 (and throw in another 71 wins), helped his teams win 549 games over his career. He's the Cy Young among closers, yet writers can't figure out how GREAT he was. Or Goose Gossage, 310 saves and 124 wins and 22 years in the big leagues. Find one of his peers including myself that would say he wasn't the best they've ever seen, but hold on, The writers won't say that. Bruce Sutter, one of the best ever, shouldn't have to beg to get a pass to The Hall.

How come every year history shows us that you can't win a championship without a great bullpen? Maybe we should have history explain it to the writers.

First posted on Wednesday, Nov. 16

Today more than 25% of all the MLB Players are Latin American. This year three of the four major awards were won by Latin American players. The AL MVP was won by Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, the AL CY Young Award was won by Bartolo Colon of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the NL MVP Award was won by Albert Pujols of the St Louis Cardinals.

I wanted to take a little time to talk about the players as people as opposed to them as players since it's so close to Thanksgiving. I guess I can start this by saying, during my first year in the minor leagues up in Eugene, Oregon, I lived above two players from the Dominican Republic.

As the season wore on I really got to know both of them. They ate hot dogs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What money they saved, they sent back to their families in their native land. Now being from a middle class family in Connecticut, I was really impressed.

As I rose to the Major Leagues I played Winter baseball in Puerto Rico a couple of times, and it made me really understand why these players had such devotion to their families ... I saw families living in shacks made of tin with no floors and the sides of the shacks didn't touch the ground.

I saw poverty at it's worst but I also saw many players who would do anything to give back to their families and towns because just being able to play baseball, they knew they had really been given a blessing.

We all know the story of Roberto Clemente; he died trying to help total strangers in Nicaragua who had been devastated by an earthquake ... His plane carrying much needed medical, food and clothing supplies crashed and his body was never found. So let's talk about this year's MVPs.

Alex Rodriguez, a 2-time Award winner, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to many charities. Let's just tell you about a couple of them. He gave $750,000.00 to the Boys and Girls Clubs and the Dominican Republic Relief Effort.

He also spends much of his time helping the youth of this country to improve their mental health ...His wife Cynthia, who has a Masters degree in Psychology, also helps Alex in many charities and says, "It's a lifelong effort to help children improve their mental health".

Your NL MVP Albert Pujols is just as giving. He has the Pujols Family Foundation that donates money to three or four charities including one very close to his heart, the Down Syndrome Association of Greater St Louis.

It's very close to him because Albert and his wife Deidre have a 7-year-old daughter named Isabella who has Down Syndrome. And what has Albert said besides being so giving, "I hope in 5 years we are helping 15 or 20 charities like this".

These are just two Latin American players. How about this year's AL MVP runner-up David Ortiz and last year's AL MVP winner Vladimir Guerrero. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they both donated $ 50,000 dollars to the relief effort.

When asked why, David responded, "When we were younger, Vlad and I remember when we were hit with a hurricane and America was so generous. It was just the right thing to do".

The world not just America needs role models like these. I hear all the time how greedy baseball players are. I just wanted you to know, that there are many players who give back, not because they have to, but because they want to.

Have a great Thanksgiving.