Sports Then and Now

Ron Santo averaged 23 home runs and 89 RBI in 15 Major League seasons.

Sad news being reported this morning that former Chicago Cubs great Ron Santo has passed away at the age of 70. Though remembered by many for his great play as the third baseman for the Chicago Cubs from 1960 through 1973, in recent years he has been best known for his courageous battle with diabetes and his inexplicable omission from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

His combination of power and excellent defense made him the best third baseman in the National League throughout the 1960s. Santo was a nine-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove selection.

From 1963 through 1970 he was consistently one of the best players in the league. He topped 30 home runs and 100 RBI four times during that stretch and had at least 26 home runs and 94 RBI in each of those eight seasons.

He finished in the top eight in the MVP voting four times, including fourth in 1967 when he hit .300 with 31 home runs, 107 runs scored and 98 RBI.

In 1969 he was fifth in MVP voting while finishing with 29 home runs and a career-best 123 RBI. However, that season is best remembered by Cubs fans for the collapse that saw the Cubs lose the NL East Division to the New York Mets by eight games after having led by nine games on August 16th.

It is that lack of having played on a winning team that many attribute as a major reason that Santo has never been able to take his rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The statistics for his 15 year career, which ended with a single season with the Chicago White Sox in 1974, are comparable or better than a number of third basemen who have received the call from Cooperstown.

He blasted 342 career home runs and drove in 1,331 runs with a .277 batting average. Those numbers work out to 23 home runs and 89 RBI per season for 15 years, which is better than many players who have a plaque in the Hall of Fame. Read the rest of this entry →

Jeter, the Yankee captain, is asking for more than he's worth, while the Yankees are offering far less than Jeter deserves.

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, so the only thing on most minds is Christmas shopping and antacid tablets.  This probably doesn’t apply to baseball GM’s, especially Brian Cashman of the Yankees.

While the Yankees have feelers out to Cliff Lee, and despite the fact that the roster, as is, would make them a sure 2011 contender, Cashman is on the radar of many a Yankee fan.  He has developed the reputation of doing things that any GM would do if he had the Yankee bankroll behind him, but overall, many see it as a situation where Cashman only need to avoid screwing things up and the powerhouse team will prevail.

Of course, the main item in Yankee headlines right now is the ongoing negotiation with Derek Jeter, the iconic Yankee short-stop who is a free agent this year.  Unnamed sources from the Jeter side of things claim that this year’s AL gold-glover for the position is looking for a six year deal worth $150 million.  Cashman and the Yankees, on the other hand, had offered a much lower $45 million for three years.

While Jeter’s request seems insanely high, the Yankees are offering what most feel is just short of an insult to the 11 time all-star.  The majority of talking heads believe that the two sides will eventually come to an agreement.

For the sake of common perspective, here are the five most important factors that everyone should be keeping in mind about the Yankee/Jeter saga.

5. Jeter is the Yankees

Like it or not, the Yankees are a team that has a ton of fans, but roughly ten times as many people who root against them.  While the reasons for both are better left to another article, the relevant point here is that Jeter is an exception to the love’em or hate’em mentality regarding the franchise.

While Jeter’s talent level is debated, and while most are sure that his best years are past, Jeter has been the dictionary definition of class.  He has had zero scandals or controversy associated with his time in pinstripes.  He has been noted for his hard work and leadership skills pretty much from the get go.

Jeter is the team captain and his leadership position is not only important, but just about irreplaceable.  If Jeter is not a Yankee next season, who would be the locker room (positive) presence?  Posada is due to be relegated to DH-ing due to physical limitations.  If Pettitte even returns next season, it’s hard to be a leader in a once a week role.  Perhaps Cano is a possibility, but the bottom line is that Jeter would be sorely missed. Read the rest of this entry →

Joey Votto earned MVP honors after leading the Reds to the playoffs.

The 2010 Major League Baseball Award season is now history. Here is a rundown of the choices and my input on whether the right players were selected.

Rookie of the Year
National League: Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants; American League: Neftali Feliz, Texas Rangers

Based on value to teams and performance over the second half of the 2010 season it is very difficult to argue with the two picks for Rookie of the Year.

You kinda had a sense that Buster Posey was going to be an impact player for the San Francisco Giants when he was called up in late May and promptly had six hits in his first two games and posted seven multi-hit games in his first 12 games. He went on to hit .305 and serve as a major catalyst for the late season surge of the World Series Champions.

What is interesting about his selection over Jason Heyward of the Atlanta Braves is that Heyward got so much publicity early, but by mid-season you almost forgot he was a rookie. Heyward had a great rookie season with a .277 batting average, 18 home runs and 72 RBI. On a team that lost offensive power to injuries on a regular basis, he had a solid rookie season and was definitely a key reason they made the playoffs.

However, at the end of the day the choice of Posey was the right one. It is ironic that neither of the two most celebrated Atlanta Braves rookies of the last two decades, Chipper Jones and Jason Heyward received Rookie of the Year honors. Jones finished second to Hideo Nomo in 1995.

Given the sizzle and star power of the two major candidates in the National League, the American League Rookie of the Year race was basically made up of unknowns. Read the rest of this entry →

Felix Hernandez claimed his first Cy Young Award despite winning only 13 games in 2010.

How ironic is it that an award named for a pitcher who won 511 games, including more than 30 on five occasions, has now been awarded to a starting pitcher who won 13 games in a season? That is the question that can now be raised following the selection of Felix Hernandez as winner of the 2010 American League Cy Young Award.

Playing for a team that won only 61 games, Hernandez posted a 13-12 record with a league-best 2.27 earned run average. It was his low ERA, rather than his lack of victories that made him the overwhelming choice of voters for the award.

This marks the third straight year and fourth time in the last five years that the American League Cy Young Award winner has also led the league in ERA. In 2006 (Johann Santana) and 2008 (Cliff Lee), the pitcher also led the league in wins. However, that has not been the case the last two years when first Zack Greinke with 16 wins and now Hernandez has set a new AL record for fewest wins by a starting pitcher who wins the Cy Young.

In many respects, it is a predictable trend given the changing landscape for starting pitchers over the last couple decades.  Because starting pitchers now typically are asked to only pitch five to seven quality innings per start, their ability to personally control win-loss records has declined. Read the rest of this entry →

Sparky ANderson (center) guided the famous Cincinnati "Big Red Machine" to four pennants and two World Series titles in nine seasons.

News this week of the illness and then death of Hall of Fame manager George “Sparky” Anderson has elicited many fond memories of the feisty manager who enjoyed unparalleled success during 26 seasons managing the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers.

When Anderson was introduced as the new manager of the Cincinnati Reds prior to the 1970 season many asked “Sparky Who?” and wondered why management would turn the reins of one of baseball’s up and coming teams to an unknown 36-year-old who had spent one season playing in the majors for the Philadelphia Phillies (hit .218 in 152 games in 1959) and never managed above AA.

As it turns out, Cincinnati General Manager Bob Howsman, who had hired Anderson for minor league managerial stints with the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds, had the manager he needed to turn the Reds into baseball’s team of the 1970s.

It didn’t take long for Anderson to prove that he was indeed the right man for the job. During his first season at the helm, the Reds won 102 games and reached the World Series for the first time since 1961.

Though they lost the Series to the Baltimore Orioles, with emerging superstars like Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Tony Perez and Dave Concepcion, the “Big Red Machine” had been born. Read the rest of this entry →

Tim Lincecum capped the "Year of the Pitcher" with eight strong innings in the final game of the World Series.

In a perfect ending to the “Year of the Pitcher”, the San Francisco Giants received back-to-back great pitching performances to secure the first World Series title for the franchise since 1954.

It wasn’t quite the showing of the 1966 Baltimore Orioles, who held the Los Angeles Dodgers without a run for the last 33 innings of their series sweep, but it was almost that impressive given that the Rangers were among the top offensive teams in baseball in 2010.

In holding the Rangers to five runs over the last four games, with four of them coming in their only victory of the series, the Giants demonstrated exactly what took them from floundering team to World Series champion over the final three months of the season.

After seeing their record fall to 41-40 on July 4th, the Giants rallied to go 51-30 over the final three months of the season. During that stretch, 20 of their victories were in games in which their pitching staff held the opponents either scoreless or to one run.

Though Tim Lincecum will not claim a third consecutive Cy Young Award, the performance of the young hurler during the World Series proved that he is indeed a staff ace. Read the rest of this entry →