Dock Ellis was an All Star, a champion, and threw a drug induced no-no.

Once upon a time there was a pitcher by the name of Dock Ellis. He pitched for a half dozen teams including winning 19 games for the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971. Ellis also started for the National League in the All Star game that season, but will always be remembered for one thing.

Dock … take it away.

Thanks to @GillianJacobs for finding this one. Love her!

Ellis had an eventful playing career. He was the pitcher that gave up Reggie Jackson’s famous All Star blast that is still going. He also beaned Mr. October in obvious retaliation, was maced by a Cincinnati security guard, and beaned nearly every single Cincinnati Red in a 1974 game. Ellis sadly died in late 2008.

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Does Lou Piniella Make a difference?

If Tony LaRussa bolts St. Louis should anyone care?

If Joe Torre bows out for more free time in the L.A sun, will the world end?

It seems this season we will be keeping a watchful eye on the futures of a few high profile managers, but why do we care? Are baseball managers really that important?

We know that managers have different expectations placed upon them. Joe Girardi is expected to take his team to the World Series. As is Mike Scioscia (Angels), Charlie Manuel (Phillies), and Tony LaRussa (Cardinals). However, we can’t expect Ron Washington (Rangers) and Jim Riggleman (Nationals) to achieve the same thing. But there is one thing every manager is expected to do: win.

Certainly the quantity or quality of their wins differ from team to team but, nonetheless, they should be winning more games than they did the year before. But you can’t put a team’s success or failure to win on a manager.

Take the 2007 Yankees led by Joe Torre. They were a poor team lucky to make it into the playoffs only to get bounced in the first round. This meant the axe for Joe. In comes Joe Girardi and only two years later the New York Yankees win their 27th World Series Ring. What changed? The manager? Yes.

But perhaps something easier to understand the pitching staff in 2007 included Andy Pettitte, Rogers Clemens, Mike Mussina, Phil Hughes, Ken Igawa, and Chien-Ming Wang.

In 2009 it was C.C Sabathia, A.J Burnett, Joba Chamberlain, and Andy Pettite. So it looks like you can be successful if you replace two guys of retirement age (Clemens and Mussina) and two starters who were underachievers (Hughes and Igawa) with a Cy Young winner (Sabathia) and a young gun with a proven arm (Burnett). Let’s not forget either that unlike ’07 when Alex Rodriguez hit .267 in the divisional series, A-Rod hit .455 in the ALDS in ‘09.

Point being is that while baseball managers may be valuable to a team, nothing is more valuable than production on the field.

So what do we do with managers who have been recognized as good at their job? Generally speaking: we fire them. Take the winners of Manager of the Year: since 1983 in the American League, only 4 managers have won MOTY and have not gone on to be fired.

There is, as always, a reasonable explanation for their demise and it goes back to the first point: players matter most. Managers don’t. Take Jack McKeon, the beloved 2003 Florida Marlins manager. He took his team from irrelevant to a World Series ring. But 3 seasons later, the man who got so much credit for taking a team to the World Series was stepping down at the end of another disappointing season.

What had changed in that time? Staff ace Josh Beckett was gone. A. J Burnett was gone. Derrick Lee, Ivan Rodriguez, and Juan Pierre had all said goodbye. Once again it comes back to players. It is no wonder why MLB managers get paid an average of 1.3 M, easily the lowest of the three major sports.

Let’s not look at this as an indictment of managers. MLB managers certainly attribute to key decisions and living in Chicago I have seen my fair share of bad managers. We can all also agree that some managers have the right temperament for a particular team. A young team needs a guy who holds them accountable and can also teach. Where as a veteran team might need a manager who just keeps the train moving, so to speak.

So if we can all agree that a MLB manager isn’t all that important to winning, then why fire them at all? The reason is that a manager can contribute to a team’s losing ways far easier than he can help them win.
Moving Pujols to 9th in the lineup and limiting Chris Carpenter to 60 pitches a game would certainly hurt your team. So a manager is fired to give a team a boost. It’s a move done to send a message to others and lets face it: a general manager fires the manager. It’s much easier to for Kenny Williams to say Ozzie Guillen is not a right fit for the ballclub anymore rather than to say that he constructed a bad ballclub, even if everyone knows the latter is true.

But making a change to make a change isn’t the answer either. Moving Riggleman from the Nationals dugout won’t make the team perform better unless the guy that replaces him knows something he doesn’t or is capable of something special. Managers can’t prevent injuries. They can’t prevent slumps at the plate, and they cannot prevent better teams from beating them on most days.

I know this season will have its usual round of MLB Hot Seat and we’ll be watching the futures of Torre and LaRussa, but at the end of the day the only thing worth watching are the players out on the field. They will most certainly make the most difference.

@Mikearta

Big Mac Returns to the Batting Cage

After a few years of staying away from the baseball diamond and clear from cameras, Big Mark McGwire returned to the place that made him famous. Mac only took a few swing off the tee, and is noticeably smaller, but remember “steroids did not make him hit the ball out of the park.”

Whatever that means. Anyways, good to see you swinging again, Mac. It looks like you could hit .200 and knock at least 20 out, right?

Big Mac is ready for a new start

Mark McGwire reported to Cardinals camp in Jupiter, FLA Thursday and answered a few more softball questions from local reporters. McGwire continued to tell reporters how “sorry” he was and how much he regretted using banned substances during his late 90s home run binge. From the AP:

“It’s something I regret,” McGwire told reporters. “I can’t say I’m sorry enough to everybody in baseball and across America, and whoever watches this great game. “I think people understand how truly sorry I am for what I did.”

Sadly, McGwire contradicted his apology by saying steroids did not make him hit the ball further, it only gave him more at bats.

“Like I’ve said, people are going to have their opinions,” McGwire said. “Listen, it got me the opportunity to get out there and get more at-bats, and I got the chance to play.”

Mac, you are correct, steroids DO help you recover from various injuries, but you are wrong and contradicting your apology when you say they do not help you hit the ball out of the ballpark. You seem to be in denial, and still think you could have made the Hall of Fame with or without the juice.

The facts are you took the juice, played a lot longer than you should have because of the juice, and hit a lot more HR with the juice than you would have without.

McGwire keeps saying how sorry he is for cheating the game, but also says he does not think steroids helped him hit the ball out of the park. So what is he sorry for? Playing in too many games? Huh?!

Steroids add about 100 ft (Doc’s guesstimate) and millions of rotations on the baseball creating an inordinate amount of backspin, therefore making the ball go out of the ballpark nearly every time a 6′5″ 225 pound behemoth hits the sweet spot.

McGwire also said the evolution of his swing helped him hit 70(!) HR and not steroids. LOL.

Big Mac would go on and say how bad he felt for Roger Maris and his family, which again, contradicts his apology, and said he felt he owed it to the Maris family to call them before his steroids admission on national TV. I am still confused on what McGwire is sorry about.

It seems he is very happy with his admission, and happy he cleared his conscious, but the juice rotted his brain because he has no idea what he is sorry for.

“It took a lot to do what I did,” McGwire said. “I spoke the truth. Let’s move on and turn this into a really positive thing.”

I will happily turn it into a positive when you admit steroids made you a better player. Barry Bonds was a HOFer before he used steroids, but you were not.

Sidenote: Another creepy/forgotten fact in this mess is Cardinals Manager Tony LaRussa’s role in the entire steroids era. He managed McGwire twice, Jose Canseco when he was a 40/40 caliber player, and the dozens of other abusers LaRussa would turn his back on all for the price of winning.

Matt Anaya
Twitter @MatAnaya @DugoutDoctors

If you do not know who Bryce Harper is, now you do. The probable number one pick in this season’s 2010 MLB Draft, Harper, a catcher by trade, is only 18 years old and mashing already this season. He has been touted for a couple years now as the ‘Lebron James of Baseball’

Through Valentine’s Day, Harper was hitting .362, getting on base over 42% of the time, and has three HR and 15 RBI.

Harper received his GED after dropping out of high school last season in order to chase his big league dreams. He will be eligible after this season for the June MLB Draft and he is expected to be represented by super agent Scott Boras who will likely scare off potential suitors.

It is more than probable Harper and Boras will command more than the $15.1 million last season’s No. 1 pick Stephen Strasburg did, but will it cost Harper the title of top pick?

Swing analysis: Got fooled, hips flew open, kept hands back and smoked that ball. He literally accidentally hit that ball out of the park. Unbelievable.

We’re still trying to figure out what song he comes out to. Sounds like Bonecrusher or someone, can anyone help?

Matt Anaya
Twitter.com/MatAnaya

Belated Congratulations

On Wednesday, January 6th, OF Andre “Hawk” Dawson, in his 8th year of eligibility (starts 5 years after retirement) was the sole player inductee into the 2010 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Career Highlights

21 seasons
2627 Games Played

Rookie of the Year in 1977
NL MVP in 1987

.983 Fielding %
.279 BA
438 HR
1591 RBI
2774 Hits
314 SB

4 Silver Sluggers
8 All Star games
8 Gold Gloves

Received MVP votes in 9 seasons

If you ask me, the Hawk was a very deserving selection, but there were also others. Who those others are is for another article. This one is for the Hawk!

Hint: look back into this week’s posts to see one of those “others”…

My name is Peter Schiller. I am the creator/owner of Baseball Reflections.com. I’m also a contributing writer. To read more of my work at Baseball Reflections just click HERE!

I am also affiliated with a great cause, a children’s book with a great message called, “A Glove of Their Own”. Everyone who purchases a copy of this great book using the promotional code PIF 129, a $3.00 donation will be made when purchased through the Franklin Mason Press website for Pitch In For Baseball at checkout. You can purchase a copy by following the link at their website http://www.agloveoftheirown.com

Zach Greinke’s distinction of sharing the record for the fewest number of wins by a Cy Young winning pitcher (16) didn’t last long as the record is now solely in the hands of Tim Lincecum (15).

In fact, it shows how times have changed to consider that the 31 total victories between the two 2009 Cy Young Award winners equals the total number of wins that Denny McLain registered when winning the American League Cy Young Award in 1968.

It used to be that the number one criteria for a starting pitcher being a serious Cy Young Award candidate was how many victories he recorded in a season. Sure, other factors like strikeouts, ERA and winning percentage have always been important, but the top prize for a pitcher usually was reserved for a hurler who either led the league or came close to leading the league in wins.

The voting for the 2009 Cy Young Awards clearly illustrates that is no longer the case.

Though Lincecom finished with one fewer victory than Greinke, he actually finished fourth in the National League in wins while Greinke’s total was good enough to tie for seventh in the AL.

What seems to have made Greinke and Lincecum appealing to voters was their performance in other categories.

Despite playing for the woeful Kansas City Royals, Greinke posted a 2.16 ERA, which is the lowest total in the American League since Pedro Martinez posted a 1.74 mark in 2000. He also finished second in the league with 242 strikeouts.

While Greinke’s selection was widely expected, Lincecum’s repeat as the National League winner was a slight surprise. Lincecum finished second in the NL with a 2.48 ERA. 2005 Cy Young Winner Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals led the league with a 2.24 ERA and finished with a 17-4 record, compared to the 15-7 mark for Lincecum.

What seems to have given Lincecum an advantage over Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, who finished with a 19-8 record and 2.63 ERA was his strikeout total.

Lincecum registered a league best 261 K’s while Wainwright had 212 and Carpenter just 144.

The selection of Greinke and Lincecum as Cy Young winners seems to signal the completion of what has been a gradual reduction over the last decade of the value of victories as a measuring stick of greatness for starting pitchers.

In an era when most starters often pitch only six or seven innings, voters seem to now recognize that the victory total for a starting pitcher is largely out of his hands.

Greinke won 16 games, but very easily could have had many more wins. He allowed four or more earned runs in just five of his 33 starts during the season. He also pitched more than seven innings only 10 times with just three of those starts coming after the first of July.

Lincecum’s results were strikingly similar. He surrendered four or more runs five times in 32 starts and pitched more than seven innings 11 times.

I guess the selection of two pitchers with so few victories could be a one-year aberration, but I seriously doubt that to be the case. I think in the future we will end up with more Cy Young Award winners with 16 or fewer wins than we do with 20 or more victories.

Five lowest combined win totals for Cy Young Winners (since 1967, includes only years when two starting pitchers won the awards):

31 – 2009 – Tim Lincecum (15), Zach Greinke (16)

32 – 1994 – Greg Maddux (16), David Cone (16) * Strike Season

35 – 2006 – Brandon Webb (16), Johan Santana (19)

37 – 1995 – Greg Maddux (19), Randy Johnson (18) * Strike Season

37 – 2000 – Randy Johnson (19), Pedro Martinez (18)

To read more from Dean, go to his sports blog: Sports Then and Now!

The summer before I went away to college I went on a date to the local mall.

Romantic, right?

Thing is, I didn’t go there because of the old stereotype “girls like to shop”…I went there solely because I needed to replace my worn out cassette (yes, cassette) of Pearl Jam’s “Ten” with a new one.

Suffice it to say, my love affair with the Seattle-based rockers has lasted much longer than the result of that afternoon explaining the overlap of Green River, Mother Love Bone and Pearl Jam to a girl I shared space with in Spanish class.

And with their latest release “Backspacer”, one can only be reminded of the consistency they’ve maintained since “Alive” first hit the airwaves in 1991. It is that same sort of consistency that has made Yankees closer Mariano Rivera an obvious shoe-in when his name comes up in Hall of Fame discussions.

Yes, I did just segue from Pearl Jam to Mariano Rivera.

Saturday night, I received the following tweet from Yankees jack of all trades Nick Swisher: “Congrats to Mo. 1000th career strikeout. Wow.”

1000 career Ks…I had no clue. Immediately that led me to scrambling. I know Rivera is a stud, but how does he stack up to active counterpart Trevor Hoffman?

How about against Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter or friend of The Hall Rollie Fingers?

Of the six, only Hoffman and Sutter never started a game…Eckersley started 361. “Mo” started ten in his rookie campaign, and both Gossage and Fingers took the mound as the game’s starter 37 times.

And, no, “Clerks” fans…not in a row.

I won’t compare the save totals between the six since we’re talking two VERY different periods of closers, but we can look compare their ERAs out of the bullpen.

Fingers (2.73), Hoffman (2.74), Gossage (2.77), Sutter (2.82) and Eckersley (2.85) are all pretty much cut from the same cloth when it comes to their ERA as a reliever. Rivera blows them all away with a career 2.09 ERA out of the bullpen. Matter of fact, dude even has the lowest career ERA (2.26) among relievers that have pitched at least 1000 innings.

In his saves (all American League leading 522 of them), Rivera’s ERA continues to drops even more…to a staggering 0.64. The only member of the Hall of Fame with a better ERA in his saves is Gossage at 0.54.

“Do you want to hear something sick” Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder warbles as “Gonna See My Friend” kicks off their latest offering, so I am inclined to ask the same…do you?

Rivera has managed to save 85% of the games he’s come in to close. By comparison…current reliever wunderkind Francisco Rodriguez is only at 77% so far in his young career. Odds are he won’t touch Mo’s consistency.

Shawn also writes for The Hall of Very Good(HOVG). If you liked this article, please follow the link to the HOVG and tell them the Drs. sent you!

Editor’s note: Yes, that is current Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona. He was Jordan’s baseball manager with the Barons!

Michael Jordan’s recent induction into the NBA Hall of Fame was a no-brainer. There is no other basketball player on the face of the earth who deserves it more, with the exception of maybe Bill Russell, with all due respect. The idea that Jordan is anything but the greatest is as ridiculous as saying Manny Ramirez is a two-time NBA all-star. Of course, we do know that Ramirez never played professional basketball on any level, but the same cannot be said for Jordan, who played minor league baseball in the mid-90’s after the first of his three eventual basketball retirements.

Jordan’s story is sad and noble, but is it fair that he was able to walk into a baseball roster spot because he was a great…basketball player?

Let’s start with the sad part of the story. In July 1993, when Jordan was at the height of a tremendous career wave, the story broke that his father was murdered. The late James R. Jordan was gunned down as he slept in his car at a rest stop.

According to Jerry Reinsdorf, majority owner of the Chicago White Sox & the Chicago Bulls, said of Jordan- “The death of his father and all of the media attention and people saying it was because of his gambling, it had got to him. He was burned out.”

Jordan himself has said that it was his father’s dream to see him play baseball. That might be why he was set to play a few games for the Kannapolis Intimidators, a Class A affiliate for the Chicago White Sox, before his father’s passing.

“He said he wants to go to Kannapolis and just play a couple of games. He had taken batting practice a couple of years before,” said Reinsdorf. “Shortly thereafter, he found out his father was dead and that took care of the Kannapolis thing.”

It’s understandable that Jordan would be sick and tired of the media attention, and how ultimately this would affect his play on the court. It’s a noble and precious idea to take the words of a father who taught him so much, knowing that you’ll never be able to see or talk to him again. The only thing Jordan had was the dream of a father that his son play major league baseball.

And that’s what he set out to do. Jordan shocked the world by retiring from basketball at the age of 30.

In March 1994, he signed a contract to play professional baseball for the Birmingham Barons, a Class AA affiliate of the White Sox. The media coverage didn’t cease, nor did the idea that a publicity stunt was in the works. Even White Sox hitting coach Walt Hriniak had his doubts. “We don’t need this kind of publicity and what kind of gimmick is this?” remembers Reinsdorf of Hriniaks comments.

As it turns out Jordan was one of the hardest working guys on the field in the spring of that year. Of course trying to quell the doubts of many, and learning in a short time what the guys next to him have been learning since the early days of little league, will challenge anyone to work harder than most.

At the end of that baseball year stood Michael Jordan, an outfielder with a .202 batting average, 114 strikeouts in 436 at bats, three home runs, 51 RBI’s, and 30 stolen bases in 127 games. Let’s be honest, these numbers aren’t even good enough to keep a no-name orphan with a prosthetic leg and one blind eye in the game of baseball. They’d tell him maybe he should start looking for another line of work. That maybe this baseball thing isn’t going to work out after all. For a young player, the scouts would say this kid’s got potential. For a 31 year old Michael Jordan with mediocre skills, it’s too late for potential. The greatness he showed on the basketball court didn’t translate over to the diamond. He showed good instincts on the fastball, but couldn’t hit a curve with a 2×4.

There have never been many two-sport superstars in the professional ring. Bo Jackson was one, and Deion Sanders was another, playing both baseball and football. Both men displayed incredible skills to be able to achieve that goal. Is it fair that someone who has the want and desire to enter a professional sports setting, but has never demonstrated the ability to be able to perform such tasks, be allowed to take a spot away from those that do because he was great in another arena? Some may say yes, but there’s a 9-5er out there somewhere that might disagree.

If his name starts with Michael and ends with Jordan, then I guess that question is null and void.

In the end, Jordan retired from baseball in March 1995 and went back to the Chicago Bulls. For one year the sports writers had a story to write about, the White Sox organization took in unexpected publicity and profits, and Jordan got to partially fulfill his fathers dream of playing professional baseball, even if it wasn’t in a major league setting.

The quotes from Jerry Reinsdorf were taken from Scott Merkin’s piece “Jordan’s effort a marvel 15 years later“ on MLB.com.

Lost in the Derek Jeter “is” (check out what Hal Bodley had to say) or “isn’t” (read the rebuttal to Bodley’s piece by Michael Schur) American League Most Valuable Player debates that have hit the interwebs since he surpassed Lou Gehrig’s Yankee hit record were two other significant hitting milestones.

First…Ichiro Suzuki added to his Hall of Fame credentials by putting together his record setting ninth straight season with 200 or more hits Sunday night. Fittingly, it was an infield single (a slow roller to Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus) that broke the Ichiro free of Willie Keeler’s 108 year-old record of eight straight.

“We witnessed something that has never been done in the history of baseball,” marveled four-time All-Star Mike Sweeney following the game. “That was a special night for all of us, and especially Ichiro. I’m elated for him. We’re all elated for him.”

And just how good is nine straight seasons with 200 or more hits? Consider this…hit kings Ty Cobb and Pete Rose never did it in more than three consecutive seasons. Both played 24 seasons in the bigs and for their careers, Cobb had nine season where he hit the benchmark…Rose had ten.

Ichiro is nine for nine.

Also lost in the shuffle was Brian Roberts of the Orioles and I know what you’re thinking…yes, THAT Brian Roberts.

You see last week against the Red Sox, Roberts launched a double to deep left off of starter Paul Byrd. And no, the fact that he leap frogged Hall of Famer Earle Combs on the all-time doubles list in the process has nothing to do with the achievement.

You see, with that hit (double number 50 for Roberts this season), the second baseman became only the fourth player in Major League history to have three seasons with more than 50 doubles.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that Roberts is the same caliber as the other three on the list (Hall of Famers Tris Speaker, Paul Waner and Stan Musial), but I’ll tell you this…regardless who you root for, being on that short list is pretty impressive.

“I’m guessing that will be the only thing in my career that I’ll ever be in that sort of company for,” Roberts said following the game. “I respect the game and I like the history of the game, and to be in that company is something I’ll be proud of when I’m done.”

Speaker hit 50 doubles in a season five times during his career, while Waner and Musial did it three times each.

Also, with 51 doubles last season, Roberts recorded his second straight 50 double season. The other two that did it…Hall of Famer Billy Herman and his future plaquemate Craig Biggio.

So there you have it, gang, a Thursday morning post that features five Hall of Famers, three future Hall of Famers, Pete Rose and Brian Roberts.

Yes…THAT Brian Roberts
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Shawn also writes for The Hall of Very Good(HOVG). If you liked this article, please follow the link to the HOVG and tell them the Drs. sent you!