Following my interview with Tina Cervasio in mid-September, I decided to go for broke, email ESPN, and inquire about the possibility of speaking with Erin Andrews. It took a few weeks and several email exchanges with an ESPN PR rep, but we finally managed to set up an interview for last Thursday afternoon.

I spoke with Erin for about half an hour, during which time I became very impressed with her overall love of sports. It is also obvious that she's a professional, as evidenced by the way in which she took a first-time live interviewer (the Cervasio one was via email) and did her best to make sure I got good in-depth answers regardless of the quality of the original questions (and trust me, there was a lot of stammering and repeating and whatnot; I should probably just stick to writing).

OMDQ: Erin, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.

EA: Yeah, no problem. Thanks for inquiring.

OMDQ: The first thing I'd like to ask you about is your schedule, because it seems like every time I turn on ESPN, you're there. You're doing college football, college basketball, baseball - I mean, how do you find all that time? Are you pretty much working year-round?

EA: Yeah, I basically I guess that's kinda the one thing that I pride myself on - I'm really the one sideline reporter that works year-round, I do basically every sport, which to be honest with you, I have never played a sport, I obviously (intelligible) at all, so I think that makes me more versatile as a reporter because I can cover so much ground, so that's one thing that I've really enjoyed and I take pride in the fact that I've done so many sports.

Continue reading at One More Dying Quail

Last spring, a post comparing NESN field reporter Tina Cervasio to ESPN counterpart Erin Andrews was mentioned on Deadspin and resulted in the biggest day in the history of One More Dying Quail. Since then, Google searches for "Tina Cervasio" and similar terms have been fixtures in my list of Site Meter referrals; it varies from day to day, but between those searches and continuing hits from a Red Sox Times story on Andrews and NESN's female reporters, Cervasio is a major part of my daily traffic.

Last week, I visited Cervasio's web site and decided to contact her for an interview. Somewhat surprisingly, she accepted and answered a few questions for me via email. I'm not the best interviewer in the world (alright, I suck - this was my first time, so be gentle), but I tried to cover a variety of topics, from common perceptions of sideline reporters to the awesomeness of Tim Wakefield. The only true disappointment? She won't introduce me to Erin Andrews or Bonnie Bernstein. Not cool, Tina. Not cool.

OMDQ: Let's start this thing off by resolving some trust issues: since we're doing this via email, how do I know I'm really dealing with Tina Cervasio and not just an intern in NESN's PR department?

TC: Because I would never TRUST someone else answering questions about me!!

OMDQ: Can you take me through a day in the professional life of Tina Cervasio?

TC: On the professional side of things, after I wake up, 90% of the time I'll put WEEI on and listen while I get ready for my day. I'll go buy & read the Globe and Herald, then read the other Red Sox and sports stories either online or when they are emailed to me. When we are playing in Boston, I'll head over to NESN in Watertown to have meetings with producers, voice over any features, get my mail, answer emails, autograph requests. Then I'll head over to Fenway (the latest I'll get there is 2:30 ... any later and I'll feel out of sorts.) For about an hour, I'll type up in-game reports that I would like to do, edit sound bites, talk to my game and pre-game producers about what they need from me for the Pre-Game show and the actual Game broadcast. I'll share my ideas, I'll write out my check list, write up my in game reports and hand over or email copies to everyone involved. The clubhouse opens at 3:30, I'll go in, get the lineups, set up any interviews with players or coaches that I need, check in with Don & Jerry, catch up with the Globe writers that I will be talking to later on the pre-game show. Sometimes I'll get sound bites right in the clubhouse, other times we'll head out to the dugout to do interviews. At 4 PM, Terry Francona has his media meeting in the interview room at Fenway or the Manager's office in other ballparks. After he's done with the formal meeting, taking questions, having off-the-cuff conversations ... he does another meeting with the electronic media. When we are on the road, I'm usually the only camera. From there, I'll call my pre-game producer and update him on the meeting and the sound I've collected, we'll discuss my news hit, and "Insider & MLB Topics" with the Globe writers. Then I'll head to the opposing team to either get sound from the manager, or grab a quick interview with a player. Sometimes they are formal, some quick stick mic interviews, sometimes I'll just get sound bites from the player on a story idea I have for in-game or for our pre-game show. (Am I boring you yet?) At Fenway when the Sox take B.P. first, I'll do one last check at about 5:30 in the clubhouse for any updates or lineup changes ... powder my nose, hook up my IFB ... and I'm in the chair for pre-game by 5:50 to do a sound check. From there ... It's show/game time!!

Continue reading at One More Dying Quail...

(I checked this blog today and realized that I had forgotten to post the last three Bizarro Hall of Fame classes here.  For those of you who missed it, here they are in one mammoth post.)

As part of an ongoing project, One More Dying Quail will be profiling the 182 current members of the Bizarro Hall of Fame, an organization that currently exists only in my mind. It was created in the wake of Major League Baseball's infamous Steroid Era as a way of honoring those players whose careers were perfectly mediocre: the only requirement is that a candidate be listed on the official Baseball Hall of Fame ballot and receive zero votes.

Class of 1980

Jack Aker - For four glorious years in the late 1960s, Jack Aker held the record for saves in a single season. It happened in 1966, when the 25-year-old reliever won eight games and saved 32 in 66 appearances for the Kansas City Athletics. In doing so, Aker became the second pitcher ever with a 30+ save season on his resume (behind only Ted Abernathy, who held the previous mark of 31). He struggled for the following two years, however, and was eventually selected by Seattle in the 1968 expansion draft.

Steve Barber A precursor to the great Baltimore Orioles pitchers of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Barber won 100 games before his thirtieth birthday but tailed off badly after, never again notching more than six victories in a season. Aside from a 20-13 season in 1963 and two All-Star nods (he didn't pitch in either game), the thing he may be best remembered for is a recurring appearance as an oft-injured pitcher in Jim Bouton's classic "Ball Four."

Bob Barton - A light-hitting catcher who only played more than 61 games in one of his ten major league seasons, all of Barton's homeruns came in 1970 and 1971. Three of them were hit off of pitchers who ended up in the Hall of Fame: Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins, and Phil Niekro.

John Boccabella - Drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 1968 expansion draft, Boccabella spent five years north of the border as a backup catcher and corner infielder. His only full season was 1973, when he caught 117 games and committed fourteen errors.

Larry Brown - No, not that Larry Brown. Not that one either. This Larry Brown played for Cleveland, Oakland, Baltimore, and Texas in a twelve-year major league career, the first three of which coincided with the end of his brother Dick's playing days. According to the Baseball-Reference Bullpen, Brown had a number of connections with other Bizarro HOFers, including a serious injury sustained in a game pitched by Sonny Siebert ('82), being long-time teammates with Sam McDowell ('81), and getting his first major league hit off of Al Downing ('83).

Chris Cannizarro - An original member of the New York Mets and San Diego Padres, Cannizzaro kicked around the major leagues for fourteen seasons, seeing action for six teams. From the end of the 1965 season to August 1968, he did not appear in the majors but was traded four times.

Paul Casanova - A lot of mediocre catching careers ended in 1974. Casanova played for the Washington Senators in the 1960s under Gil Hodges and Ted Williams, but even The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived couldn't make an offensive weapon out of him. After peaking at .254 and thirteen homeruns in 1966, he only hit higher than .229 once more.

Horace Clarke - Due to a recent decade-long run of success, we tend to forget that the New York Yankees of the late 1960s and early 1970s were not a good team, failing to make a World Series appearance from 1965 to 1975 (an unheard of stretch in Yankee land). The second baseman on those teams was Clarke, who assumed the position after Bobby Richardson's retirement in 1966. A light-hitter, Clarke led the league in at-bats, at-bats per strikeout, and outs in 1970.

Johnny Edwards - A two-time National League Gold Glove winner as a catcher with the Cincinnati Reds, Edwards peaked in the mid 1960s, making three consecutive All-Star appearances and hitting 17 homeruns in 1965. He hit .364 for the Reds in the 1961 World Series.
Phil Gagliano - In 1965, Gagliano's 18-year-old brother Ralph played his only major league game, pinch-running for BizHOFer Larry Brown in the ninth inning of a 9-4 Cleveland loss. Two years later, his big brother Phil picked up a World Series ring as a utility infielder with the Cardinals.

Jim Gosger - Gosger played for the Athletics during the team's first season in Oakland in 1968, the Pilots during their only season in 1969, and the Expos during their second season of existence in 1970.

Jim Ray Hart - As a rookie in 1964, Hart hit .286 with 31 homers and 81 RBI - and received one vote for Rookie of the Year (Dick Allen was a near unanimous decision). Other points of interest: he and I have the same birthday, and he hails from Hookerton, North Carolina. I like to think that last one used to be known as Hooker Town before being shortened, because that would just be funny.

Ron Hunt - A .273 lifetime hitter, Hunt realized early on that the most efficient way for him to reach base was to stand directly in the path of the ball and hope for the best. He only finished out of the league's top ten in the hit by pitch category once (1965, when he appeared in 57 games) and led the league for the final seven seasons of his career. His 243 career HBP rank third in the modern era behind Craig Biggio and Don Baylor; his 50 HBP in 1971 are a modern single-season record.

John Kennedy - Jesus, another inaugural Seattle Pilot. It's gonna be fun to go back through this list when all is said and done and figure out which teams are the best represented.

Andy Kosco - Kosco was once traded from the Red Sox to the Reds with fellow BizHOFer Phil Gagliano.

Lew Krausse - For a time in the early 1970s, Krausse (the son of a former big league pitcher of the same name) followed a somewhat circular career path. On April 11, 1974, he was purchased by the Oakland Athletics from the Atlanta Braves. 35 days later, he was purchased by the Atlanta Braves from the Oakland Athletics. After the 1974 season, he was released by the Braves...and less than two months later, signed with the Athletics.

Frank Linzy - Linzy appeared in 516 games in eleven years, all but one as a reliever. The lone start: his major league debut on August 14, 1963, when he allowed three runs on eight hits in 2+ innings.

Denis Menke - A two-time All-Star with Houston, Menke was a part of the Big Red Machine-building trade that brought Joe Morgan, Ed Armbrister, Jack Billingham and Cesar Geronimo to Cincinnati in 1971. He lasted two seasons with the Reds before going back to Houston in exchange for Pat Darcy - who pitched well in 1975 but will always be remembered for giving up the famous Carlton Fisk homerun in Game Six of the World Series.

Bob Miller - A solid reliever who appeared in nearly 700 games (included 99 starts), Miller went 1-12 for the newborn Mets in 1962. He was later repaid for the sacrifice with World Series rings in 1965 and 1971 (and probably 1973, when he pitched for the Dodgers but didn't play in the Fall Classic). It also must be mentioned that he is one of four Bob Millers in major league history, three of whom played in the 1950s.

Norm Miller - Miller had a great OPS+ in 1973, finishing at 177 while splitting time between Atlanta and Houston. Unfortunately, he only had twelve at-bats.

Ivan Murrell - Baseball players generally aren't renowned for their all-around athletic skill. Murrell, who died last year, was an exception - in addition to his ten year major league career, he was also an accomplished amateur boxer and soccer player.

Juan Pizarro - Though he picked up a World Series ring in 1957 with the Braves, Pizarro's career blossomed following a trade to the White Sox in 1961. He averaged fifteen wins a year in the four seasons that followed, culminating in a 19-9, 2.56 campaign in 1964.

Rick Reichardt - A two-sport star at Wisconsin (baseball and football), Reichardt was once handed what was at the time the richest bonus in major league history: $200,000.

Pete Richert - Richert's birthday is the day before mine. In three World Series games, he pitched a total of one inning - and managed to record a save. He was part of a trade that sent Frank Robinson to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1971.

Mike Ryan - Eight times in his career, Ryan recorded more than 100 at-bats. Only twice did he manage a batting average above .200 - 1966 (.214) and 1969 (.204). His career OPS+ was 51.

Paul Schaal - A light-hitting third baseman, Schaal was a member of the original Kansas City Royals. He manned the hot corner for the team from 1970 through 1974, with his best season coming in 1971.

Dick Selma - I could, if need be, probably write quite a bit about Dick Selma. All I'm going to say, however, is that according to Baseball-Reference, the man's nickname was Mortimer Snerd. No explanation was given. I'm sure it could be looked up on the Internet, but that's not gonna happen. Some things are perfect and ought not be ruined.

Duke Sims - One of several BizHOFs on the Cleveland Indians teams of the 1960s, Sims was a hard-hitting catcher (imagine that) who once slugged 23 homeruns in a season. My favorite thing about him, however, is the story included in his sponsorship section on Baseball-Reference, which reads: "For my mom, who was sitting in the Dodgers dugout before a game, when Duke Sims sauntered by, saying, "My, my! Look at all the pretty ladies sitting in the dugout today!"" Sounds to me like the Duke (real name: Duane B. Sims) had some game.

Bob Veale - Like Sandy Koufax, Veale was a hard-throwing lefty who enjoyed a solid multi-season run in the 1960s. Pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Veale won 103 games in the seven seasons between 1964 and 1970, an average of just under fifteen victories a year. He also demonstrated an ability to run up large strikeouts totals, four times tallying more than 200 in a season. Veale was used in a relief role at the beginning and end of his playing days; one of his best seasons was 1963, when he had a microscopic 1.04 ERA in 77 2/3 innings pitched, mostly out of the bullpen.

Class of 1981

Ken Berry - Berry wasn't the offensive threat one might expect in an outfielder - 58 homeruns, .255 batting average, .652 OPS - but he stuck around for fourteen seasons on the strength of his glove. He won two Gold Gloves in 1970 and 1972, the second when he recorded thirteen outfield assists and did not commit an error for the California Angels.

Johnny Briggs - Briggs hit 139 homeruns in his twelve-year career, but none were more interesting than the first two. His first, a solo shot off the Mets' Frank Lary on June 21, 1964, led off the first inning of an eventual 8-2 win for the Phillies; his second, a two-run job on May 10, 1965, ended a game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Bill Hands - Most fans would remember Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins as the ace of the 1969 Chicago Cubs team that finished second to the Amazin' Mets. Most fans would be wrong. As good as Jenkins was in 1969, Hands was better, posting a 20-14 record, 2.49 ERA and 181 strikeouts in exactly 300 innings pitched.

Bob Locker - A member of the original Seattle Pilots in 1969, Locker was one of the American League's most used relievers from 1967 to 1970. He bounced around a bit throughout his career, from Chicago to Seattle to Milwaukee to Oakland and back to Chicago (with the Cubs this time), appearing in nearly 600 games and saving nearly 100. Locker saw action in the 1972 World Series with the Oakland Athletics, walking Johnny Bench intentionally and allowing a run scoring single to Tony Perez; in 1974, he was traded for future Hall of Famer Billy Williams.

Dal Maxvill - Owner of three World Series rings from his days with the Cardinals and Athletics, Maxvill has one of the worst offensive records of any player in Fall Classic history: a career .115 batting average (7-for-61), including an 0-22 disaster against the Tigers in 1968. On the bright side, he won a National League Gold Glove at shortstop that season.

Dick McAuliffe - A power-hitting middle infielder who might have put up even better numbers had he not played his prime years in the offensive sinkhole that was the late 1960s. McAuliffe was one of the American League's best shortstops from 1965 to 1967, earning three consecutive All-Star nods before being moved to second base in 1968.

Sam McDowell - One of the hardest throwing pitchers in history, "Sudden Sam" was a six time All-Star who twice struck out more than 300 batters in a season. Despite phenomenal seasons in 1965 and 1968, he only finished among the top ten vote-getters for the Cy Young award once, in 1970. He was traded from Cleveland to San Francisco for Gaylord Perry in 1972, bounced to the Yankees the following year, and finished up with Pittsburgh in 1975.

Class of 1982

Gates Brown - His given name was William James Brown, but for some unknown reason his mother called him Gates. In his first major league at-bat, he pinch-hit for pitcher Don Mossi and homered off Red Sox pitcher Bob Heffner. He went on to compile a .257 career average in that role, with 106 hits and 16 homeruns in thirteen seasons.

Tommy Harper - An original member of the Seattle Pilots in 1969, Harper moved with the team to Milwaukee the following year and enjoyed his best season, hitting .296 with 31 homeruns, 82 RBI and 38 stolen bases. After two seasons he was dealt to Boston for 1967 Cy Young award winner Jim Lonborg and a pair of famous baseball brothers (Ken Brett and Billy Conigliaro). Harper's 54 stolen bases in 1973 remain the Red Sox team record.

Deron Johnson - Johnson finished fourth in the 1965 National League Most Valuable Player voting after hitting 32 homeruns and driving in 130 runs for Cincinnati, but his best season overall (according to OPS+) may have been 1971 - 34 homeruns and 95 RBI for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Alex Johnson - Carl Yastrzemski won three batting titles in his major league career. It could easily have been four. In 1970, Johnson edged out the Red Sox Hall of Famer by percentage points, .3289 to .3286. The narrow loss rankled Yastrzemski, who wrote years later in his biography that Johnson had "conned" him by promising to play a full game in the season finale if the title was on the line. Yaz went the distance in his final game, while Johnson finished 2-for-3 before leaving for a pinch-runner.

Cleon Jones - The most famous part of Cleon Jones is his shoes. In Game Five of the 1969 World Series, Dave McNally threw a pitch down and in the dirt. The Mets argued that the pitch had actually struck Jones on the foot, a fight that was settled when the umpire looked and found shoe polish on the ball. New York went on to win the game and the World Series.

Jim Northrup - One of the heir apparents to Hall of Famer Al Kaline in the Detroit Tigers outfield in the late 1960s, Northrup could (and did) play all three outfield positions in his 10+ years with the team. He brought some pop to the Tigers lineup, hitting 20+ homeruns from 1968-70 and 16 in two other seasons.

Sonny Siebert - A two-time All-Star with the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, Siebert won 15 or 16 games four times in twelve seasons. Primarily a starter, he was also capable of closing games out, as evidenced by his 1969 campaign with the Red Sox in which he went 14-10 with five saves.

Tony Taylor - I find it somewhat bothersome that I had never heard of Tony Taylor before tonight; a guy with 2,007 career hits deserves better. He might have had more, but his playing time took a major hit in 1971 and his last six seasons were spent in supporting roles. Primarily a second baseman but also valuable at a variety of other positions, Taylor was the oldest player in the National League in 1976, his final season.

Cesar Tovar - Always a player who was valuable at a number of defensive positions, Tovar made himself into a historical footnote on September 22, 1968 by playing all nine positions in a game against Oakland. The opposing shortstop was Bert Campaneris, who became the first to accomplish the feat three years earlier. Unlike Campaneris, however, Tovar played the positions in their numerical order, starting the game as the pitcher and finishing as the right fielder.

(Originally posted July 14 at One More Dying Quail)

My RSS feed reader is packed with blog posts featuring datelines as old as last Tuesday. My email gets checked approximately once every thirty hours. The only thing I've posted on a blog in the last several days is a hastily written entry on why I blog about sports for Just Call Me Juice. Thursday night, I actually forgot the Red Sox were playing until my wife's cell phone chimed with the final score. And you know what?

I'm perfectly fine with all of that.

Why, you may wonder? What could, in a matter of days, completely alter the worldview of a sports and Internet-obsessed individual? The answer, my friend, is an arm's length away, currently weighs a shade over eight pounds, and goes by the name of Joseph Reed.

He's my son.

Joey, as his mother has taken to calling him, was born on Tuesday, July 10, at 8:54 in the A.M. He started things off as a pretty big little man, tipping the scales at 8 lbs., 10 oz. and measuring 21 inches long from toe to top. He sprang out of the gate as a four-tool baby (eating, pooping, crying and sleeping), but I think with a little bit of work and some formula, his puking ability could be unparalleled. The kid's got potential.

Originally, I wanted this post to be about how every parent thinks his or her kid is special. But you know what? There are really no words that can accurately explain the way I feel when I look at my son and realize that already, at five days old, he is my magnum opus (note to any future children: don't worry, I love you all equally). Or the feeling of awe that hits me whenever I say or write the words, "my son." Or the frustration I feel when he cries and there's nothing I can do to fix it. None of it can truly be defined - not by me, anyway.

Here's something I can do, however: use this space to thank the people who have helped us out over the past few days:

--The nurses: If you have ever been forced to stay in a hospital for several days at a time, you probably have some sort of appreciation for nurses and the work they do. The knowledge that these women possess and the caring attitudes they display toward complete strangers truly amaze me. Amber, Nancy, Sharon, Teresa, Tiffany, Renee, Cheryl, Cynthia, Terry, Rosemary, and everyone else I know I'm leaving out - there's a special place in heaven for people like you.

--My in-laws: From 7 o'clock Tuesday morning to 11 o'clock Friday night, one or both of my in-laws made time in their work schedules to be at the hospital with my wife and I. Their presence allowed both of us to take time for ourselves in different ways: my wife actually had the chance to get some rest every afternoon while her father watched the baby, and I was able to run home from time to time, secure in the knowledge that my mother-in-law was keeping an eye on things. I don't know if that SOUNDS like a big deal, but it might have been the one thing that kept us sane.

--The doctors: Counting the doctor who performed her Cesarean, my wife saw something like four different people with an M.D. tacked onto their name. Each one displayed a genuine concern for her well-being and made sure she was receiving the best care available (and a couple were even nice to me). Likewise, the representatives from the pediatrician we chose convinced us that are son is in good hands. The initial exam was done by an older gentleman who responded to my uncertainty about a name (Joseph wasn't among the three finalists we had brought to the hospital and I needed to speak to my wife before going public with it) by cheerfully suggesting that my son "looks like a Michael" and proceeding to call him Mike for the rest of the exam. Kinda quirky? Yes. But he had a definite likeable air about him. And don't even get me started on the guy who did the circumcision - possibly the driest sense of humor I've ever stumbled across. Everything was delivered in a total deadpan (think Stephen Wright without the droning monotone). Completely put me at ease, which is surprisingly difficult when watching one's offspring get his tallywacker snipped.

--Aunt Kathy and Christine: As luck would have it, my wife's aunt and cousin both work at the hospital where she had the baby and were able to be in the operating room during the procedure. I wasn't sure what to think about that at first, but it became obvious soon after I entered the room that their presence was a huge positive. For starters, Vicki was able to tell Kathy what she was feeling (she had a local anesthetic and was awake, which can be disconcerting when you start feeling tugging and pulling from down below) and know that Kathy could calm her fears by telling her that everything was normal. Add in Christine's boundless energy (she's a nurse - go figure) and obvious enthusiasm for this particular case (right after Joseph was born, she poked her head around the blue curtain separating us from the crime scene and crowed, "Vicki, he's BEAUTIFUL!") and the situation couldn't have been any better.

--My wife: The true star of this show. She carried that little bowling ball around for nine months, took great care to manage her weight (even after a gestational diabetes diagnosis) and was smart enough to cut back to two packs of cigarettes a day (I keed, I keed. The only thing she smoked during her pregnancy was crack). It was an impressive performance even before the doctors cut her open and left a twelve-inch incision across her stomach. The strength she has shown over the last week, even when she can barely get out of bed or walk across the room, has been remarkable.

Last season, Justin Morneau accomplished two things that guaranteed his place in baseball history: one, he became the first Canadian to take home the American League's Most Valuable Player award, and two, he became the first Minnesota Twin to hit more than thirty homeruns in a season since 1987.

Thanks to Morneau, the longest current streak without a thirty-homerun hitter now belongs to the San Diego Padres, who are going on six years since Ryan Klesko and Phil Nevin each passed that mark in 2001. Unfortunately, six-year streaks in just about anything aren't all that exciting (Roger Federer's ongoing run at Wimbledon notwithstanding), so until Petco Park kills homerun production for another thirty years, we need to find something new to latch onto.

Since forty homers has, over the past fifteen years, become the new thirty, maybe that's the way to go. A look through the year-by-year team statistics at Baseball-Reference.com confirms that the nineteen seasons the Twins went without a thirty-homerun hitter was nothing; in fact, the team has not had a player hit forty homeruns since Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew did it for the eighth and final time in 1970.

Carlton Fisk, the Hall of Fame catcher who played 24 seasons and once held the career record for homeruns at the position, had two major league games on his resume in 1970. Ken Griffey Jr., the sixth leading homerun hitter of all-time, wasn't even a year old. Justin Morneau's parents were quite possibly not yet married. It was a very long time ago.

At least the Twins have had a player hit forty homeruns at some point in history (with Morneau on pace to do it this season). That's more than the Kansas City Royals have to hang their hats on. Since entering the league as an expansion franchise in 1969, no Royal has ever managed to hit that many in a season (the closest was Steve Balboni's 36 in 1985), despite a ballpark that often plays very favorably to hitters.

Much of this can be attributed to the twin demons of bad luck and bad timing. The Royals enjoyed their best success over a ten year period between 1976 and 1985, a point in history where speed was considered much more favorable than power, especially for a team that played on the artificial turf of Royals Stadium. By the time the nineties rolled around and sluggers once again assumed their place as the game's primary focus, salaries were skyrocketing and the small market Royals were placed in a difficult spot in terms of competition.

The bad luck's name is Bo Jackson. Make no mistake about it: if Jackson had not injured his hip in a football accident while playing for the Los Angeles Raiders in 1990 and the Royals had spent the money to keep him in free agency, there is a good chance we would not be having this discussion right now. Though his high-water homerun mark in four full seasons prior to the injury was just 32, it's not a reach to suggest that Bo's power numbers would have increased along with the rest of baseball's in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Kansas City's homerun difficulties actually back further than the Royals. In the thirteen years the Athletics called the city home (1955-67), no player hit more than 38 homeruns in a season, which makes it likely that the only forty homerun seasons Kansas City has ever seen came courtesy of Willard Brown, a 2006 Hall of Fame inductee who played for the Negro Leagues' Monarchs for several seasons before World War II and later spent time with the St. Louis Browns.

The only other current team that has never had a forty-homerun hitter is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which came into existence in 1998 and has thus far neither developed a homegrown slugger nor had the financial resources to pay one for his services. The closest they came to either were Aubrey Huff and Jose Canseco, respectively, who are tied atop the team's single-season homerun list with 34.

In all, seven teams have not had a forty homerun since the start of the 21st century. As currently constituted, at least three of those clubs - the Twins, Pirates and Tigers - have players capable of passing that total: Morneau has 23 homeruns for Minnesota this season and could reach forty if he is not effected long-term by his recent lung injury; fellow Canadian Jason Bay is working on back-to-back seasons of 32 and 35 in Pittsburgh (only 12 at the break this year, however); and Detroit's Gary Sheffield has recovered from a dismal April to go deep eighteen times since May 1.

The other four - the Royals, Marlins, D-Rays, and Orioles - are situated differently in that none has a clear-cut power hitter on the team and is not likely to spend money on one in free agency (with the possible exception of Baltimore). The Royals are probably in the best shape, with recent first-round picks Alex Gordon and Billy Butler seeing playing time this season, but neither rookie has distinguished himself thus far offensively (here's a fun fact: in his first three seasons combined, George Brett had more stolen bases (26) than homeruns (20)). In fact, the organization's homerun leader is Craig Brazell, a 27-year-old first baseman who is not listed by Baseball America as one of the Royals' top ten prospects but has thirty round trippers between Double A and Triple A in 2007.

The great thing about baseball is that the players are human, which means that no streak can last forever. Joe DiMaggio went 0-for-3. Cal Ripken took a day off. The Atlanta Braves finished third. The Boston Red Sox won a World Series. And one day, players on all seven of those teams are going to have a forty-homer season.

Of course, by that point, fifty will probably be the new forty.