Sports Then and Now

Happy 80th birthday to the "Say Hey Kid".

The beauty of sports is that even though his birth certificate tells us that Willie Mays turns 80 years old today, our minds can still remember the “Say Hey Kid” as the young superstar with a smile and personality that could light up New York and who possessed enough talent to fill up a baseball stadium.

You can argue about who was the greatest baseball player of all-time, but there is little doubt that Mays is on the short list for any discussion.

Mays was the rare player who could win games with his bat, glove and legs.

After earning Rookie of the Year honors in 1951, Mays missed most of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season while serving in the military.

When he returned in 1954, Mays began a streak of 19 straight years earning an All-Star spot as he won the first of his two National League MVP Awards.

During his career, Mays led the league in runs, hits, triples, home runs, stolen bases, batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage.  He was the first player in baseball history to steal 30 bases and hit 30 home runs in the same season. Read the rest of this entry →

Just days after spending time in the hospital, Jeremy Guthrie allowed just one run in six innings against the Rangers.

Less than 24 hours after the two best teams in the American League split a Saturday doubleheader, the defending American League Champion Texas Rangers returned to Camden Yards for the rubber and final game of the three game series and proved that they deserve to be considered the best team in the American League after the first full week of the season.

The matchup between lefty Derek Holland (1-0, 4.50 ERA) and the Orioles opening starter, right hander Jeremy Guthrie (1-0, 0.00 ERA) made for an interesting story line.

Guthrie, getting his second start of the season after battling pneumonia like symptoms a few days prior, looked healthy walking around the clubhouse during the pregame routine.  Guthrie in his only start of the year against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowed only 2 hits, striking out 3 and walking 1. But this time he was facing a much more potent lineup with the Rangers.  In the second game of the Saturday doubleheader Texas tagged Oriole pitching for 13 hits including 3 home runs.

The Rangers have a team batting average of .306 against right-handers in this young season.  Josh Hamilton (.381) and Mitch Moreland (.333) are the offensive leaders.  The Orioles were hoping that Guthrie’s history of success against the Rangers would hold as he entered the game with a 3-0 record against Texas and the O’s were 4-3 against the Rangers when Guthrie has the hill.

The Orioles were facing southpaw Derek Holland who in his only start this season went 6 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 7 hits and striking out 5.  In 2010 Holland averaged 5 and 2/3 innings in his 10 games he started.  Holland previously hadn’t enjoyed much success against the Orioles with an 0-2 record.

However, so far this season the Orioles are batting just .180 as a team against left-handers with only has 2 players in the lineup batting over .300, Matt Wieters (.333) and J.J. Hardy (.333). Unfortunately, Hardy missed the Sunday game after leaving Saturday’s game with a strained left oblique muscle.  He will have an MRI Monday to diagnose the injury.  Replacing him at shortstop was Robert Andino, who was getting his first playing time of the season.

As it would turn out, Holland and the Rangers proved to be too much for the Orioles to overcome. The struggles against left-handed pitching continued as the Orioles were unable to capitalize on a number of chances. Read the rest of this entry →

Fernando Valenzuela

It was 30 years ago that the April Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month became a national phenomenon as he captured the hearts and spirits of baseball fans across North America.

The rise of Fernando Valenzuela was exactly what the baseball world needed at a time when labor unrest started to lift its ugly head. Read the rest of this entry →

Manny Ramirez is retiring after a week in the lineup of the Tampa Bay Rays.

On some fronts the news that Manny Ramirez is retiring from baseball to avoid his second suspension under the banned substance policy is shocking. However, given the combustible nature of his personality, you had to know that he wouldn’t exit baseball in a conventional manner.

Now, with the reality that this player with unquestioned Hall of Fame credentials has failed not one (during the 2003 anonymous testing), not twice (50-game suspension in 2009), but now three tests for using a substance related to performance enhancing drugs, the debate begins about whether he is indeed worthy of being in the Hall of Fame.

In some ways, the case of Manny Ramirez is going to be significantly more difficult to judge than that of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens.

In the cases of all four of these players you have a significant body of work before you know that they started taking steroids that either shows that using steroids took them from being pretty good to great (McGwire, Sosa and Palmeiro) or from great to immortal (Bonds and Clemens).

Because Manny Ramirez was great from the day he got to the minors (.315 batting average in three minor league seasons with 31 home runs and 115 RBI in 1993) and his numbers were remarkably consistent for his first 14 full seasons in the league, it is much more difficult to get an understanding of when Manny started using steroids than it is for any of the players I just mentioned.

In many ways, Manny’s situation is most similar to Alex Rodriguez, who also was a superstar from the day he got to the majors.

When he was confronted with his own steroid use two years ago, Rodriguez attempted to mitigate the damages by putting a defined period around his steroid use. Even though are enough irregularities to believe that his steroid use went beyond the years he has admitted to, for the most part Rodriguez has put the situation behind him and the belief is that he will eventually get in the Hall of Fame. Read the rest of this entry →

It was 36 years ago this week that Hank Aaron became the all-time home run king.

Given how much emphasis sports put on championships, it may seem a little strange that the most significant home run in Major League Baseball history was not hit during the month of October, but instead was struck in early April by an aging player on a team that wouldn’t come close to reaching the postseason.

Such was the case 37 years ago today, on April 8, 1974, when Hank Aaron forever cemented a place for himself in baseball lore with his record breaking 715th home run.

Every die-hard sports fan has a number of moments that are forever etched in their subconscious memory – to the point that even years after the fact they can recall not just the special moment, but also where they were and what they were doing at the time.

Though I was only six-years old, the night when Aaron set the home run record is one of those moments for me.

My family was paying special attention to the record because we had family friends who were from Atlanta and thus big fans of Aaron and the Braves. “Hammerin’ Hank” had tied the record during the season opener in Cincinnati and there seemed to be little doubt that he was going to set the record during the home opener, which was being shown on national television by ABC. However, for a while there was some doubt whether we would be able to see it.

It was a stormy Monday night in my hometown of Keysville, Virginia, thanks to a powerful early spring thunderstorm that brought lightning, thunder and heavy rains. There was no such thing as cable television in our town in 1974 and because we were about 75 miles from the closest television station, even with having an antenna on the roof we never really had crystal clear reception. The general practice at that time was also to unplug the television during electrical storms so that the TV wouldn’t get zapped. Read the rest of this entry →

The addition of Adrian Gonzalez should help lift the Sox back to the top of the AL East in 2011.

The question in the American League is whether the usually dominant East Division will regain the form that saw teams from that division make five of seven World Series between appearances by squads from the West.

While the Boston Red Sox, who failed to make the playoffs in 2010, made serious moves to regain playoff form, the other two powerhouses in the division, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, did not make the same player gains.

With the Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers all seemingly positioned to make a run at the playoffs, the wild card team in the AL could come from a division other than the AL East for the first time since 2006 and only the second time since 2002.

AL East

The conventional wisdom is that the AL East is a three-team race, but both the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays are better than many teams that will be contenders in other divisions.

The Tampa Bay Rays won the division a year ago, but lost a number of important components in Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena and Jason Bartlett. To replace the offensive losses, the Rays have brought in former superstars Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez. Though both players are on the down sides of their careers, they should at least provide some production to offset the losses. The strength for the Rays will remain their pitching staff, with David Price and James Shields leading a unit that ranked second in the American League with a 3.78 ERA in 2010.

After reaching the AL Championship Series a year ago, the New York Yankees made relatively few changes to their lineup as catcher Russell Martin will likely be the only new addition to the opening day lineup. While in general the Yankees still have one of the most explosive lineups in the game, the age of veterans Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez has to be of concern as the Yankees move into 2011. The biggest question for the Yankees is in the pitching staff where ace C.C. Sabathia is the only reliable starter. Phil Hughes and A.J. Burnett must improve their consistency while the Yankees are also relying on unproven Ivan Nova and a trio of former major league aces to fill the void left by the retirement of Andy Pettitte. Read the rest of this entry →