mikelink45

baseball - the sport of Cap Anson and the refusal to play black players until 1947, Umpire Dick Highman banned for life for taking bribes to fix games, the Black Sox scandal, bribery and thrown games, Nap Lajoie was given bunt hits in both games of a double header so that Ty Cobb would not win the batting title, Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson, collusion in the 1980s, Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, Al Campanis on nightline, biogenesis, steroids ruining the record book, 1972 strike, 1973 lockout, 1976 lockout, 1980 strike, 1981 strike, 1985 strike, 1990 lockout, 1994 strike, 2019 sign stealing scandal, the contraction of our Twins and Montreal Expos in 2001, the contraction of minor league baseball in 2020, and 2020 covid-19 and questionable negotiations. What a list - so what is the tipping point? Do baseball owners really want to destroy the game? It has already lost its place as America's National Pastime do they want to be relegated to a minor sport?

Covid at the Bat The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day: The score stood four proposals down, with one idea more how to play , And then when Clark died with the first, and Manfred did the same, A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast; They thought, "If only Manfred could but get a whack at that— We'd put up even money now, with owners and union both at bat." But Clark preceded Manfred, as did also Buster Olney’s take, And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake; So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat, For there seemed but little chance Covid would let us bat. But Players let drive a single, to the wonderment of all, And Manfred, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball; And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred, There were players taking practice safe at parks and a-hugging third. Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell; It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat, For Covid, mighty Covid, was grabbing at the bat. There was ease in Covid’s manner as he stopped them in their place; There was pride in Covid's bearing and a smile lit Covid's face. And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat, No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Covid at the bat. Ten thousand eyes were on it as players rubbed their hands with dirt; Five thousand tongues were silence when they rubbed it on their shirt; Then while the writhing pitcher wiped the virus that hung upon his hip, Defiance flashed in Covid's eye, a sneer curled Covid's lip. And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air, And Covid stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there. Close by the sturdy virus the ball unheeded sped— "That ain't my style," said Covid. "He tested positive!" the doctor said. From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar, Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore; "Kill him! Kill the doctor!" shouted someone on the stand; And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Covid raised his hand . With a smile of unChristian charity great Covid's visage shone; It stilled the rising tumult; the game would not go on; It signaled to the Phillies, and once more the Blue Jays flew; But Covid still ignored it and the doctor said, "that’s two!" "Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!" But one scornful look from Covid and the audience was awed. They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain, And they knew that Covid wouldn't let us play ball again. The sneer is gone from player’s lips, their teeth are clenched in hate, He pounds with cruel violence his infection upon the plate; And now the owners hold the ball, and now they all let go, And now the air is shattered by the force of Covid’s blow. Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright, The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light; And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout, But there is no joy in baseball —mighty Covid has struck them out. AND HERE IS THE ORIGINAL - MY APOLOGIES TO MR THAYER Casey at the Bat Ernest Lawrence Thayer - 1863-1940 The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day: The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play, And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast; They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that— We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat." But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake, And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake; So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat, For there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat. But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all, And Blake, the much despisèd, tore the cover off the ball; And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred, There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third. Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell; It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat, For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat. There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place; There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face. And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat, No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat. Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt; Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt; Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip, Defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip. And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air, And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there. Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped— "That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one!" the umpire said. From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar, Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore; "Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand; And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand. With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone; He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on; He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew; But Casey still ignored it and the umpire said, "Strike two!" "Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!" But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed. They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain, And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again. The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate, He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate; And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go, And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow. Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright, The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light; And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout, But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out. This poem is in the public domain.

A suspension should be served. We might not like it, but that is the penalty. I do not know the circumstances and we never will, but PEDs really destroyed a lot of pleasure for me so I am hard to convince when it comes to being lenient - I am still against their inclusion in the HOF. Sorry Mike, but you must serve your punishment.

Everyone signed will believe they will succeed or why bother. I love the confidance, but like all the draft picks I am in the wait and see mode. A few years back I was confident that we would see Thorpe, Kiriloff, Lewis by now and a few others like Rooker seemed destined to be in MLB by now, but the road to the bigs is really long - no wonder players seek quicker paydays in the other four major sports where they do not have underpaid minor league years ahead. I went back to Ted Schwerzler's 2016 top prospects to see who I would have been excited about then http://offthebaggy.blogspot.com/2016/01/2016-minnesota-twins-top-15-prospects.html This was a fun exercise - the name Tyler Jay was number 3! And then there was Stephen Gonsalves number 6. And Nick Burdi who could throw 100, and Kohl Stewart and the hard throwing Alex Meyer. J.T. Chagois, Lewis Thorpe, and Jake Reed. Wow did we have pitching prospects. Good Luck Marco

it is a good think to do. Statues memorialize individuals in ways that nothing else does. They are a presence and move from generation to generation. We should be careful about who we put in bronze and there is nothing wrong with a little housekeeping that removes an old and now unwanted item. This does not remove him or his story from the history of the Twins, it merely removes the idol that people have to look at and walk by. All of us who are serious Twins fans know who he is and what he did. The Twins are here and that is all that is needed for his memorial. Now we can look at Buxton, Rosario, Polanco, Arraez, Sano, and Cruz and realize that the racist statements of Griffith no longer fit our team and future. I might remind the younger readers that Calvin was not overly popular with the fans even in the sixties.

Hanson sounds like a jerk. The players want to play, the owners are more interested in correcting their own decisions to pay so much for individuals in a team game. It is not Mike Trout's fault that an owner offers $30 million despite the fact that the man is given all kinds of best in the business accolades. Owners are culpable. They have not negotiated in good faith and if the players want to play more games - it sounds good to me. No one is paid to stand up for the anthem and shut up. Please no more Hanson insights.

It makes Larnach and Rooker better trade bait - maybe our new draftees too. Start trading before the positions gets filled.

Put the pitchers as number 1 and 2. Kiriloff and Larnach will look good in the lineup, but they also need to wear gloves. Royce has lost his number one position in my mental list - his bat has really regressed and it is disappointing to see. I cannot see him challenging Polanco or Arraez at this point.

I cannot support Cavaco this high - despite his draft status he has to show me something before I would rank him - the same with Sabato. Lewis Thorpe is too high for me too. He has been a disappointment so far and I know he follows the trend of many young pitchers with his arm troubles, but I do not seem higher than a fifth starter. That means that in my highly questionable opinion only two of these players belong on the list at this level.

everything about these negotiations is unpredictable. Just the process they are going through is discouraging.

I am bewildered. Even in the juiced ball era pitchers are the most valuable commodity. The reduced minor leagues still need good arms and also good fielding. Unless MLB is just going to be a series of home run derbys I am not a fan of the current strategy.

This NYT essay is a good look at Manfred and the morass we are in. I am really sad about the current status of my favorite sport and Manfred and the Owners are really disappointing. No one forced them to sign massive contracts or even offer them. They are their own worst enemy. Now the players are mad, the new talent could not be drafted and the fans are ignored as though we do not matter.

I have been trying to think of how to rank the baseball commissioners and Rob Manfred is quickly dropping down the list. I think about Bowie Kuhn as the worst, and Bud Selig as a joke for his all star gaff. Judge Landis started strong, but kept Blacks out of MLB for too long. Happy Chandler seems to be the best. Ford Frick was a bozo when it came to the Maris season. Eckert avoided the real issues of his day Ueberroth accomplished the raising of the commissioners salary. Fay Vincent and A Bartlett Giamatti really loved baseball and would have been great if they lasted.

here is what Keith Law has to say on the Athletic: UNC first baseman Aaron Sabato (1) is a draft-eligible sophomore who got himself into the first round with huge exit velocities and a brief track record of patience and power. He’s a below-average defender at first base, and there’s a good chance he ends up at DH, but he should have the bat to be valuable there. Alerick Soularie (2) is a young junior at Tennessee, turning 21 next month, who’s had success in the SEC despite an awkward swing that sees his back side collapse. He can’t play center and doesn’t project to the power for a corner. Marco Raya (4) is an undersized right-hander from Laredo, Texas, with average velocity from a high slot and a max-effort delivery. Kala’i Rosario (5), a high school outfielder from Hilo, Hawai’i, has big raw power and impressive bat speed, driving the ball well in spite of a very early stride and weight transfer, and if he hits enough to get to that power in games he’ll have a chance to be a regular in an outfield corner. Sabato could come up very quickly, but there doesn’t seem to be a ton of upside here.

i remember it well - it was terrible. we were so mad and to think we would lose Carew and keep Griffith.

I really liked this summary and I hope you consider doing this for the last 5 draft classes.

I suspect that we did not know that MLB was going to give us an option of having a DH at all nine positions in the batting order.

so once again I look at the draft and wonder - who are they? Then I read the summaries and wonder why they were chosen. So I will wait and see.

I have questioned cavaco and his ranking on the TD board, but otherwise Wallner is the only one who has generated any buzz for me.

MLB is never going to compete with NFL and NBA drafts.

Ho hum. Who needs a glove? Who needs a position? Nine DH's and boy will that be fun.

Great recap - and another reason why the MLB cut of minor league teams, minor league players and draft rounds seems crazy.

As I said in another posting - I know nothing about the players being drafted so check in five years from now, but having said that I am really disappointed in this pick. Let's see what we have for 1B and DH in the future - Sano, Rooker, Larnach, Kiriloff, Garver or Jeffers just to name a few. Give me middle infielders and pitchers. Even trade value is low as we heard with Morrison and Cron there is a glut of these types. Gleeman and the Geek kept talking about how easy it was to find a Cron type player. I look at the arm, the fielding, the running and think that is a pretty low bar for the first round.

What is really fun is the fact that Rosario was MVP for the team. For all the Rosario bashing and the admitted fact that he was a weak MVP compared to many in this series, still he has been the most his cumulative WAR - 10.7, Kepler 11.5, Buxton 9.8 means our three OFs has essentially evened out over the years and we are not yet at that point where we can celebrate their accomplishments as we had dreamed. Add that to poor FA performances, Sanos injury and surgery and Berrios was the best story of the year.

This is why I do not follow the draft - who knows - think about it. Trout was passed by 24 teams - not just the Twins. Yelich was passed over by 22 teams. I do not know these players and obviously MLB doesn't either. The lottery is not easy to predict and that is why they used to need so many rounds in hopes that someone would work out. Now we have skipped all the extra rounds and the percent of washouts will continue, but those who might have made it will never be known.