Like Barry Bonds, my birthday is this week.  Each year my family goes through this ritual complaining because they say that they don’t know what dad wants for his birthday.  No matter how many times I tell them, “I like fishing rods, power tools, and camping equipment,” my wife insists that she has no clue about what I like.  In fact, every year she waits until the last day before she goes out and buys me clothes or some other thing that I have to smile and pretend to like.  I suppose I am like most dads and it really doesn’t matter what they get me because in the end I can always go out and buy my own rod, but if my wife would really just listen she could have bought the right gift weeks ago.  That got me to thinking about what Barry really wants for his birthday.  Here are just a few suggestions I would give to the important people in Barry’s life.

Kimberly Bell:  An autographed copy of her Playboy.  It’s not like Bell hasn’t already given Bonds enough trouble.  After she broke up his first marriage, she continued to be his mistress throughout his second marriage, only to turn against him once she was spurned.   In it she could say, “Thanks for the hooters, they really have come in handy lately!”

Gary Sheffield:  Former friend and work out partner of Bonds should continue to say stupid things to the press in order to deflect any criticism Barry may get.  Funny how Sheffield trained with Bonds and was also a Balco client, but steroid allegations with him just sort of waft away like a puff of smoke.  Yet, I can’t help but feel sorry for Gary because he appears to be one of the most bitter athletes I have ever seen play the game.  No one has ever treated him right.  Not the Dodger, the Braves, the Yankkees, and in a year or two the Tigers.  He never has anything good to say about anyone.  Maybe the best gift Barry can receive from Gary is to just not say anything.

 

MLB Writers:  Enough votes to get into the HOF.  After all, the HOF has other known cheats in it.  ####lord Perry immediately comes to mind.  He routinely used Vaseline to throw his famous pitch and even bragged about it often, yet he is still in those hallowed halls.

 

Roger Clemens:  He could test positive for steroids thereby further proving that pitchers take steroids just as much as hitters.  It would also show the double standard when Clemens would immediately be ignored while Barry is still persecuted. 

 

Hank Aaron:  Aaron should try to be in attendance for the big game.  He alone could go along way in helping people to accept the new record.  After all, Aaron had some help when he started taking “greenies” in a down HR year.

 

Bud Selig:  An admission to being at least partly culpable in the whole steroids debacle.  It was on Selig’s watch that baseball players ballooned over night, but as long as they were hitting the long ball and brought fans back to the game, Bud turned a blind eye.  Now he wants Barry to take all the blame.  It would be such a nice present if Bud just accepted part of the blame. (Selig, pictured at right,  doing his best imitation of Homer Simpson)

 

There you have it.  Just a few of the gifts that would make Barry smile on his 43rd birthday.  For me, turning 44, I would just enjoy that fishing rod and a chance to use it with my two boys. 

 

SoCalSportsFan

With the conclusion of the All Star Game last night, a couple of questions come to mind that need to be answered.  Is the AL really better than the NL?  Should home field advantage be awarded to the winner and does it make a difference? Many people on sports talk radio say that the AL is the better league.  They say it has better hitters, pitchers, and the All Star Game just proves it.  After all, the AL has won this most important game 10 out of the last 11 years with 2002 being a tie.  Is this a relevant correlation?  I say it isn’t, but I guess I will just have to state my case with a few statistics and observations of my own.

In the overall history of the All Star Game, the NL has actually won four more times.  There have been two ties as well, one in 1961 and the other in 2002.  So even if the AL won both of those they would still be two spots behind the NL.

 

There is a cycle to the wins of the All-Star game.  The NL won eight in a row from 1963-1970, and then went on to win it 11 times in a row from 1972-1982. During that same span of time, the American League won the World Series 8 times while the National League won it 11 times.  In other words when the NL dominated the All Star Game winning it 19 times in a 21 year period of time the AL won the World Series 42% of the time.   That is not dominating to me.

 

 

Now let’s look at the AL dominance in the All Star Game for the past 11 years.  I can not factor this year’s All Star Game into the equation because we do not know the outcome of the 2007 World Series, but if we look at the last 10 years in which the AL has won the All Star Game and 2002 a tie, the AL has won six World Series to the NL’s four.  Again, hardly dominating compared to what the analysts would have you believe.

 

Then we have the matter of the score of each game.  If one says that the AL is so much better than the NL, then the score should reflect it.  In last night’s game, the winner was decided by one run.  Last year, the final determination was also decided by one run.  In 2005, two runs; 2003, one run; 2002 a tie; 2001 and 2000 the NL lost by three runs.  There have been very few real blow-outs in the All Star Game like it was in 2004 with a score of 9-4.

 

Any discussion on the relevance of the All Star Game is not complete without discussing the absurd change that Bud Selig made in 2003.  Of course I think most of what Bud does is silly including that hairstyle of his, but I digress.  The last four years in which the winner of the All Star Game is awarded home field advantage for the World Series it has actually benefited the winner very little.  The AL has won the All Star game the last four years thus securing home field advantage for the World Series, but they have lost to the NL twice in those four years.  Most recently the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers in 2006 and the Florida Marlines beat the vaunted Yankees in 2003 even though both of the AL teams had home field advantage.  That does not mean that I think it should remain this way because I think home field advantage should be rewarded to the team who has earned it with a winning record.  The assignment of home field advantage based upon winning an exhibition game is ludicrous to me, but in the end there are many factors that determine the outcome of the World Series. 

 

In summary, the AL appears to be on one of those cycles where they are winning the All Star Game, but that does not insure a World Series win.  History has proven that this mid-summer classic is nothing more than a 50-50 split.  And while the AL appears to be the more dominant league on paper, the final outcome is always decided by the intangibles.  Everyone thought the Tigers would steam roll over the Cardinals last year, but in the end the Redbirds were left holding the trophy.  The games are decided by the players and not history.

 

SoCalSportsFan

 

I was listening to my radio the other day, as I often do since I have found ESPN on the dial of my new car, and I was stunned to hear Dan Patrick blaming Bud Selig for the post poned games due to weather.  To be fair to Dan, I have heard many others blaming the commissioner of baseball for the rained out games and the cold weather.  Come on folks, let's not be too hard on Bud Selig.  Sure I think he is an #### and turned a blind eye to steroids.   I truly believe he has done everything in his power to make baseball profitable for his Brewers, but control the weather? 

There are those who say that home openers should not be scheduled in the northeast in April.  Maybe not, but how many games would have to be played on the road to open the season to guarantee nice weather.  It was frigid in Atlanta yesterday during a day game.  Of course if Global warming is truly happening, then this should not occur.  Unfortunately, once in a great while we get snow in April and sometimes even May.  When that occurs people should just chalk one up to Mother Nature and move on.  Quit blaming MLB for the schedules.  It rains in Seattle year round and no amount of money could get me to move to Minnesota where my toes would freeze.

SoCalSportsFan

Allan H. Selig, Major League Baseball’s commissioner, is taking some serious heat for his testimony before Congress on two separate occasions.  The first time Bud appeared before Congress was to discuss the financial woes of MLB.  In his testimony he declared that only three teams made any money at all in MLB and the rest all lost money to the tune of 14.3 billion dollars over the last 10 years.  He also went on to say that two teams needed to be contracted to help right the ship that is MLB.  When asked daunting questions from Congressman Mel Watt of NC, Bud ignored the questions and stuck to his contrived script.  After many people reviewed all of Bud Selig’s statements on the financial woes of MLB, many officials have basically said Bud Selig is a liar and has always been a liar.  He has completely misquoted financial information and also has not included a clear picture of the facts.  Representative Conyers asked Bud for more detailed information and yet Bud refused to give him those statistics because they will show that Selig committed perjury.

Secondly, in the Congressional hearings on Steroid use in baseball, Bud once again was up to his crafty ways.  You would think Bud had been crying “Wolf” for years if you listen to his testimony.  Here is what Bud said at his 2004 testimony,

“One of my primary policy objectives as the Commissioner of Baseball is to eliminate the use of performance-enhancing substances in our great game….My commitment on this issue is long-standing.”

Later on, Bud says he has been committed to stopping steroids since 1999.  He even goes as far as to say he convened a special meeting with his staffers and then implemented a plan for immediate intervention yet he did not start his plan until 2001 in the minor leagues.  So if he took immediate action how can it take 2 years.  Sounds like perjury to me.

But then in 2005 Bud is quoted as saying,

"Did we have a major problem? No," Selig said. "Let me say this to you: There is no concrete evidence of that, there is no testing evidence, there is no other kind of evidence."

Speaking on a condition of anonymity, Donald Fehr said, "Bud will never be convicted because he is always intentionally ambiguous and no one ever understands a word he says!"  Fehr went on to say no one cares what Selig says either.

These facts alone do not prove perjury and as many noted law professors have stated, perjury charges are hard to gain a conviction on the worst liars. 

 

SoCalSportsFan