| |
The Braves, like Chipper, go nowhere
By Gordon Edes
September 4, 2009
MIAMI — How long has it been that Chipper Jones hasn’t felt right?
“About the last five years,” he said with a chuckle. “You want me to be honest, the last five years.
“But it’s no excuse for not performing. I’m not going to make excuses. I’ve not had a good year.”
And neither has his team, the Atlanta Braves, who can’t seem to gain traction in the National League wild-card race.
The Braves had won the first two in the four-game series against the Florida Marlins and had a chance to close in on the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants, both of whom lost Thursday. Instead, the Braves lost for the second night in a row and allowed the Marlins to draw even with them, four games behind the Rockies in the National League wild-card chase with 28 to play.
“It just seems like every time we get a little mini-run going, we have some kind of meltdown that prevents us from getting any big-time momentum going,” Jones said Thursday night after touted rookie starter Tommy Hanson lasted just five innings and couldn’t hold a two-run lead.
On Wednesday Jones, in the midst of a 6 for 53 slump, was not in the starting lineup because of a sore back, but came off the bench to hit a three-run pinch double. The elation was short-lived, however, as the Braves, after fighting back from a four-run deficit, succumbed to a walkoff home run in the ninth by Wes Helms.
On Thursday night Jones was back at third base and had an RBI single, but that could not prevent another implosion – the Marlins taking advantage of two Braves errors, two wild pitches and seven hits against two relievers (including a game-tying pinch single by the hobbled Hanley Ramirez to score six runs for an 8-3 win and a series split.
Manager Bobby Cox felt the frustration, drawing the 149th ejection of his career for complaining about umpire Jim Wolf’s strike zone. Cox contended Wolf was directly responsible for Hanson’s early dismissal, the right-hander having thrown 104 pitches.
“They have computers,” Cox said of the umpires’ evaluation system. “The way to beat the system is don’t call strikes low, high, in, out. Nothing. He’s a good umpire, but I think honestly I could umpire. All I’d have to say is ‘Ball.’ One down the middle, I would call a strike.”
It has been four years since the Braves made the playoffs, eight since they played for the NL pennant, a decade since they last appeared in the World Series. General manager Frank Wren last winter remade the pitching staff, adding Derek Lowe, Javier Vazquez and Kenshin Kawakami(notes) to holdover Jair Jurrjens. The emergence of rookie Hanson has given the Braves the deepest rotation in the league.
Jones, who played for a World Series winner as a 23-year-old rookie in 1995 and in every October for 10 seasons thereafter, signed a contract extension this spring in the belief that a return of the glory days was in the offing.
“I know it’s not going to be an open window forever,” he said of playing in the postseason again.”But I wouldn’t have signed back here if I didn’t think we’d get back. I’m spoiled. Flat-out spoiled. I want to win at all costs, and if I’m not going to have a chance to do that here, then I’d go somewhere else. But I felt we could get back.”
At 37, however, the aches and pains are more frequent for Jones, who led the NL last season with a .364 batting average and .470 on-base percentage but has seen his average plummet this season to .277. It began with a strained oblique muscle during the World Baseball Classic, and while he has avoided a stint on the DL, at various times he has had issues with his foot, his elbow, his groin, his back, even a dizzy spell.
In his last 69 games entering Wednesday, he was batting just .237.
“I threw numbers and goals out the window a couple of months ago,” he said. “I’m just trying to help us win.”
And as has been the case for too long, the Braves are short on bats. Catcher Brian McCann hit his 18th home run Thursday night. That leads the team; it wouldn’t crack the top seven for the Yankees. Adam LaRoche has hit eight home runs since coming over from Boston and has stretched out the lineup, but he’s hitting in the No. 7 hole. Outfielder Nate McLouth, who was supposed to give the Braves a consistent presence at the top of the order when he was acquired from Pittsburgh, strained a hamstring Aug. 8, aggravated it a week later, and is still out on a rehab assignment.
Close games are commonplace for the Braves, who began the night with a league-leading 43 one-run decisions (they’re 23-20). That has meant Cox taxing his bullpen more than he’d like. Three Braves relievers – Peter Moylan, Mike Gonzalez and Eric O’Flaherty – rank in the top five in the league in appearances, Moylan with a league-leading 75.
In each of the last two nights, Cox turned to a rookie, Kris Medlen, with disastrous results. Medlen entered with the bases loaded Wednesday and gave up a bases-clearing double to Brett Carroll and three more singles in a five-run sixth. Thursday night, it was walk, whiff, double, single, double, this time in a six-run sixth.
Jones dropped a foul popup in that inning, which eventually led to three unearned runs.
“Always happens,” Jones said of the Marlins exploiting the error. “But there were a lot of mistakes that inning.”
The schedule would seem to favor the Braves. Of their last 28 games, only nine are against teams above .500, including three more against the Marlins in Atlanta on the last weekend of September. The Marlins’ last six games will be on the road against the Braves and first-place Phillies. The Giants play nine games in a row against the Dodgers and Rockies and also have four games against the Cubs. The Rockies also have only nine games left against teams with winning records, but six of their last nine are against the Cardinals (three in Denver) and a three-game set to end the season in L.A. against the Dodgers.
“Yeah, it should work in our favor,” Jones said, “but we’ve tended to play up to the level of competition we’re playing, and down to the level of competition we’re playing. We’ve got to really not let teams get away with beating us that shouldn’t.”
To make the playoffs, Jones said, the Braves will have to finish about 16 games above .500. That’s a tall order: They would have to win 19 of their last 28. Even then, he admits, with the Braves chasing multiple teams, that might not be enough.
“We’ve played better than we have in years,” he said, “but to make the playoffs, you’ve got to be more consistent. You’ve got to put games away when you’ve got ‘em, you’ve got to win games on the road.
“We’ll do that, then we’ll have just a gut-wrencher, kind of like [Wednesday] night, then it spills over to the next game. All of a sudden, instead of heading north you’re heading south.”
Sports Ticket Depot -
MLB News Archive Index: 2010, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOF brodcaster Harwell fighting cancer
By Jason Beck
September 4, 2009
DETROIT — Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, the voice for the Tigers for more than four decades and an icon for the Tigers well beyond his retirement from broadcasting in 2002, has been diagnosed with cancer.
Harwell has an incurable tumor around his bile duct. He revealed the diagnosis in Friday's edition of the Detroit Free Press, for whom he has worked as a columnist for several years, and where he explained his outlook. Gary Spicer, his longtime friend and attorney, confirmed the condition to MLB.com.
"We don't know how long this lasts," Harwell told the newspaper in a phone interview. "It could be a year. It could be much less than a year, much less than a half a year. Who knows?
"Whatever's in store, I'm ready for a new adventure. That's the way I look at it."
Harwell, 91, was hospitalized for a few weeks with a bile duct obstruction. He returned to his home in suburban Detroit while doctors ran tests and was under orders to rest, though he still remained pretty active with his work, he told MLB.com recently, as he awaited news on what was causing the trouble.
The tests soon revealed the tumor and the outlook, and provided "pretty conclusive" evidence, Spicer said. Harwell's spirit, however, has remained surprisingly strong.
"I think that when I heard the news -- that I had this cancer -- that I had a feeling of security and serenity," Harwell told the Free Press, "but I had a feeling of acceptance because of my belief in Jesus and the Lord."
Spicer said Harwell has elected not to undergo any surgery, nor chemotherapy or any radiation treatment. He will remain at home and spend time with family and friends.
"He has elected, with his family, to treat it in a more spiritual manner," Spicer said.
Harwell's life and his ability to remain incredibly active into his 90s has become an example for people across the state through his role as a spokesperson for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. He has long credited his daily workouts, including walking and jumping rope, for helping him work for so long on Tigers radio broadcasts and defy the conventional limitations of his age well after he left the baseball airwaves.
Until this year, Spicer said, "aside from taking a thyroid pill, I haven't been aware of any medical needs. He's been in fantastic medical condition, and his way of life has been conducive to good health."
Now that Harwell has received a worst-case prognosis, he has been forced to cut back on a lot of those activities. He will close out his spokesperson engagements shortly and will write three more columns in the Free Press this month.
Still, he told the paper that he isn't in pain, and he joked that he has been able to eat like a kid again as he tries to keep up his weight. He's working on a book compilation of his recent columns, and Spicer said he has been actively adding to his collection of baseball artifacts and memorabilia.
Spicer said Harwell has already received hundreds of calls and requests from well-wishers. He said that fans who wish to send Harwell a message can reach the broadcaster through his office, which will then forward the messages.
Harwell spent 55 seasons broadcasting in the Major Leagues, the last 42 of them in Detroit. He became known as the radio voice of the Tigers through generations of fans, from the 1968 team that won the World Series to the 1984 club that did the same. He was honored with the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, and he compiled what is now a renowned collection of baseball artifacts and memorabilia.
All the while, his conversational style and Southern accent from his days as the voice of the Minor League Atlanta Crackers on radio during World War II became part of the sound of Michigan summers. Through Harwell, fans came to know Tiger Stadium by its location on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, and recognized home runs as "looong gone!" For several years, even after Harwell's retirement, the scoreboard at Comerica Park would celebrate a called third strike with Harwell's phrase that the batter "stood there like a house by the side of the road."
Harwell broke into the big leagues in 1948 as part of a trade between the Crackers and Brooklyn Dodgers, who had to send Minor League catcher Cliff Dapper to Atlanta to get the Crackers to let Harwell out of his broadcasting contract with them. Harwell had the national radio play-by-play call when Bobby Thomson hit "The Shot Heard Round the World" in 1951 for the Giants to win their National League playoff against the Dodgers.
Harwell signed on to do radio play-by-play for the Tigers in 1960 and, with the exception of one year, called Tigers games through 2002. Though he never played a game in a Detroit uniform, his ability to bring the game to fans has made him one of the most beloved sports figures in the city.
That makes his latest news a heartbreaking development for fans in Detroit.
"I'd like to thank them for their loyalty and support over the years, certainly, and their affection, which I don't know if I deserved or not, but I accept it," Harwell said.
Hopefully they can take some comfort through Harwell's upbeat nature. His words, again, are going out to Tigers fans.
"I really feel good. I've got a great attitude. I just look forward to a new adventure," Harwell told the paper. "God gives us so many adventures, and I've had some great ones. It's been a terrific life. Of course, the best thing that ever happened to me was my wife, Lulu. I'm just happy that we were able to reach our 68th wedding anniversary."
Sports Ticket Depot -
MLB News Archive Index: 2010, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crucial weekend series set to start up
By Rhett Bollinger
September 4, 2009
Division leaders will be hoping to add on to their leads with several aces taking the mound on Friday with many new crucial weekend series starting up.
The Tigers' Justin Verlander will try to tame the Rays, the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw will aim to top the Padres, the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright will look to beat the Pirates and the Phillies' Cliff Lee will try to continue his run of dominance in the NL against
Three of those four pitchers have sub-3.00 ERAs this season with Verlander being the only exception. But Verlander makes up for it by being a strikeout machine, whiffing 215 batters in 189 innings this season.
Verlander will be leaned upon by Detroit as it travels to Tampa Bay for a critical three-game series against the Rays, who sit six games back in the AL Wild Card standings.
But Tigers manager Jim Leyland said his club won't be treating the series any different despite the fact his club is playing against the defending AL champs.
"Just go play the game," Leyland said. "We don't need to be talking about anything, just like nobody else does. That's just the way it is. Just play the games."
The Dodgers and Cardinals will be playing bottom-dwellers in the Padres and Pirates, respectively, but both clubs have their eyes on home-field advantage in the postseason this year as Los Angeles has the best record in the NL by just a game over the Cardinals and Phillies.
Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa, however, doesn't want to use home-field advantage as a motivating tool for his club.
"It's a sign of nothing," La Russa said. "It's a sign of a potential distraction for our team. What we need to do is, we need to crank out series, competitions, and try to get to the finish line. Whatever the numbers turn out to be, it turns out to be. Anything that the team thinks about other than that is a distraction."
Meanwhile, the Yankees and Angels will also be sending top starters to the mound Friday with Joba Chamberlain getting the call against the Blue Jays and Jered Weaver getting the nod against the Royals.
But how long Chamberlain goes in Toronto is anyone's guess as the young right-hander pitched just three innings in his last start to keep his innings down this season with the Yankees' large lead in AL East.
"We've got a routine going, and it's been something we've been searching for," Chamberlain said. "We've got a good one going. I had a good four days in between, so I'm excited to get back out there."
And while it doesn't appear as though the Yankees' 7 1/2 game lead over the Red Sox is in any danger, Boston is still in the Wild Card hunt with a three-game lead over Texas.
The Red Sox will send veteran Paul Byrd to the mound against the White Sox for his second start this season while the Rangers will rely on right-hander Scott Feldman in Baltimore.
But the Rangers will have a tough task with third baseman Michael Young out for two to three weeks with a strained left hamstring.
"Anytime your best player goes down in any sport, it's important for the rest of the team to pick up their game," infielder Hank Blalock said. "Everything Mike does speak for itself -- it's important for us to step up our game to another level."
In the NL, the Wild Card race is even wilder with the Rockies leading the Giants by just one game with the clubs set to face the Diamondbacks and Brewers, respectively.
The Rockies will lean on right-hander Jason Hammel, who has been a pleasant surprise this season since being traded from the Rays, while the Giants will call on left-hander Barry Zito, who has recently started to find the stuff that made him the AL Cy Young Award winner in 2002.
The goal for Zito will be to end the Giants' recent string of bad luck in Milwaukee as the club has lost 14 of 18 at Miller Park. And as for Hammel, his goal is to pitch deeper into the game after lasting just five innings in his last start.
But just like Zito, who has a 1.92 ERA in his last nine starts, Hammel has been lights out in his last three starts with a 2.37 ERA. He credits his recent success with sticking with a four-seam fastball over a sinker.
"When I used a two-seamer, it helped a little bit, but I'd change my arm angle trying to make it sink, and it was affecting my other pitches," Hammel said. "So I'm sticking with what works."
Sports Ticket Depot -
MLB News Archive Index: 2010, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Rankings: Cardinals get boost
By Tim Brown
September 4, 2009
After a 21-win August, Yanks take a quick breather. Or, as the schedule-maker called it, three days in Baltimore.
Week 22:
1. New York Yankees (85-48; Previous: 1) – Jeter rumored to be engaged, single males age 21 to 45 stampede to New York for leftovers.
2. St. Louis Cardinals (79-55; Previous: 4) – Holliday suggests he might consider extension, Boras gets good laugh, thinks Holliday looks just fine bald.
3. Philadelphia Phillies (76-54; Previous: 2) – Hamels reminds himself, âDon’t worry, just pitch,â and shuts out Giants. Bobby McFerrin reveals he’d originally written same words, at last minute changed second part to âbe happy.â
4. Los Angeles Angels (78-54; Previous: 3) – Lackey: âThere’s plenty of money here if they want to keep me, let’s be honest.â And that, by the way, would be the downside of throwing $160 million at Teixeira. Unsuccessfully.
5. Boston Red Sox (77-55; Previous: 7) – Theo Epstein, explaining how Papelbon’s reaction to arrival of Wagner might have been misunderstood: âHe’s not a Rhodes scholar to begin with, obviously.â You know, you get the feeling he meant to help there.
6. Texas Rangers (75-58; Previous: 8) – Rangers, hoping to sharpen pitching staff at a time their margin for error is razor thin, call up Strop.
7. Los Angeles Dodgers (79-55; Previous: 5) – Leyland says he paid for Thome’s flight to L.A., of course he was joking. He used his miles.
8. Colorado Rockies (74-59; Previous: 6) – David Wright(notes) gets to on-deck circle, annoyed when he picks up batting helmet to find Clint Barmes’(notes) entire family in there.
9. Tampa Bay Rays (72-60; Previous: 9) – Rays trade away Kazmir, wonder how many Mets execs will be canned over it this time.
10. San Francisco Giants (73-60; Previous: 10) – Penny arrives, Giants see he’s already gotten into the garlic fries.
11. Detroit Tigers (71-61; Previous: 11) – Katie Leyland talks husband into playing Huff. Huff drives in three. Husband never wins another argument. Ever.
12. Seattle Mariners (70-64; Previous: 13) – Beltre, talked into wearing a cup, uses David Wright’s helmet.
13. Atlanta Braves (70-63; Previous: 14) – Also discovered in remote corner of Chipper Jones’(notes) ranch: Braves’ playoff hopes, Jones’ bat speed, dehydrated Mets fan moaning, âLar-EE! Lar-EE!â
14. Florida Marlins (69-64; Previous: 12) – Ramirez asks Uggla which is more harmful to Marlins, not playing occasionally because of sore hamstring or not hitting even .250.
15. Minnesota Twins (67-66; Previous: 15) – Nathan points out, âI’m not a machine,â nods wordlessly at Mauer, everybody gets it.
16. Chicago Cubs (67-64; Previous: 17) – Falling behind in his quest to identify one perceived enemy at a time, Bradley finds 40,000 in one shot.
17. Chicago White Sox (65-69; Previous: 16) – Ozzie: âI’m stealing money from Jerry.â While he gets the metaphor, Reinsdorf, just to be safe, has accountant review Guillen’s last five expense reports.
18. Milwaukee Brewers (64-68; Previous: 19) – Down economy means it might take longer to pay off Miller Park. On bright side, club still in black against Pirates.
19. Houston Astros (63-70; Previous: 18) – Tejada accused of tipping pitches to countrymen, for the record states he tipped for A-Rod only in WBC years A-Rod played for Dominican Republic.
20. Arizona Diamondbacks (61-73; Previous: 24) – Dbacks run âWhere’s Augie?â promotion, turns out Ojeda is right where everyone left him, 241st in the National League in OPS.
21. Oakland Athletics (59-74; Previous: 20) – Marketing department evaluating which was better Coliseum give-away: Giambi’s bobblehead or Cahill’s 20 home runs allowed.
22. San Diego Padres (59-76; Previous: 26) – Pads sweep their first series since May. Nats still won’t give Strasburg back.
23. Cincinnati Reds (60-73; Previous: 25) – Dusty wants to use Owings as hybrid, figures if nothing else it’ll get him into I-275 carpool lane.
24. Toronto Blue Jays (59-73; Previous: 21) – Comic strip character Luann’s one-time boyfriend was named Aaron Hill(notes). Hill said he liked Luann and all, but that she didn’t have much depth to her.
25. Cleveland Indians (58-74; Previous: 22) – Indians named one of best workplaces in Northeast Ohio, overriding criterion being Hafner contract.
26. New York Mets (59-74; Previous: 23) – Long Island considers seceding, becoming 51st state. New York lawmakers say sure, but only if you take the Mets.
27. Baltimore Orioles (54-80; Previous: 28) – O’s charge $1 for bleacher seats, fans outraged over clear case of price gouging.
28. Pittsburgh Pirates (53-79; Previous: 27) – All over Pittsburgh this weekend there will be young men and women attending their first R-rated movies who have never seen a winning Pirates team. Just saying.
29. Kansas City Royals (51-82; Previous: 30) – Royals extend GM Moore’s contract by four years, also announce five-year plan might have become, ahem, nine-year plan.
30. Washington Nationals (46-88; Previous: 29) – On very first day on field, Strasburg complains about media, public scrutiny. Somehow missed lecture on grace, perspective while being just a ânormal kidâ at Boras U.
Sports Ticket Depot -
MLB News Archive Index: 2010, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
World Series History
The World Series is perhaps the oldest national sports final in the history of the United States. Buying World Series tickets allows you to be a part of something that has been part of America’s culture for over a hundred and fifty years. No one even knows for sure when baseball started, and the first World Series ever played was more than one hundred years ago. Tickets to the World Series involve the rich history of the game and the heroes that it has made.
Some of the most notable World Series ever played were the 1905 Series in which Christy Matthewson pitched three complete game shutouts, the 1919 Black Sox scandal, the only unassisted triple play turned during the postseason in the 1920 World Series, The Babe’s called shot for the Yankees during the 1932 World Series, and of course the Boston Red Sox breaking the curse of the great Bambino in 2004 with a sweep over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Last year’s World Series saw the Chicago Whitesox ending an even longer World Series drought in 2005 (one that lasted nearly ninety years) sweeping the Houston Astros. It’s blatantly obvious that having World Series tickets means being a part of something special –being a part of history in the making.
Now that we are nearing the end of the season, the World Series is not far away and its never too early to purchase your World Series tickets. You can be a part of the history of the World Series as well with World Series tickets. The World Series is one of the most exciting sporting events in the world, don’t miss out on the action; purchase World Series tickets today from Sports Ticket Depot.
Sports Ticket Depot -
MLB News Archive Index: 2010, 2009
|
