Knobler: Look Ahead
The Weekend Buzz while you were asking your mother to bake you some cookies or something on Mother's Day. ...
1. The Steroid Twins: First impression of Alex Rodriguez's ballyhooed return Friday came not with him hammering the first pitch he saw over the fence for a three-run homer, but in the seconds right before as he stepped into the Camden Yards batter's box.
He was wearing, as always, an elbow pad the size of Rhode Island.
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| A-Rod, at least lose the armor when you're at the plate. (Getty Images) |
It's high time to do away with the body armor at the plate and actually give the pitchers a sporting chance. And it can start with this: If you violate the rules, you lose any right to wear extra protection at the plate. How much extra edge do the juicers need, anyway? Why don't we just allow them aluminum bats, too?
As for Manny, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is so livid that he wanted Ramirez marched into his office over the weekend, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, like a schoolkid into the principal's office. Ramirez, who has been staying away from Dodger Stadium but keeping in touch via the telephone with manager Joe Torre, did speak with McCourt and general manager Ned Colletti over the weekend.
McCourt continues to demand that Ramirez address his teammates in what would be an extraordinary clubhouse meeting, and the Dodgers want Manny around during his 50-game suspension. They prefer that he travel with the team, work out at the stadium and, generally, be a good teammate by offering support to players like Andre Ethier, James Loney and Matt Kemp during his suspension.
Good luck with that. Ramirez is described as being "distraught" and needing time away to get his mind right. A source who knows Ramirez indicated over the weekend that Manny probably will be on his own program for much of the time between now and July 3, the date when he's eligible to return.
Meantime, one of the common links between Manny and A-Rod is Torre. As manager of the Yankees from 1996-2007, Torre guided several Yankees who subsequently were tied to steroids through the Mitchell Report, Balco or some other means, including Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, Kevin Brown, Jason Grimsley, Denny Neagle, Mike Stanton and Dan Naulty.
Torre, of course, managed the Yankees to four World Series titles, in no small part because of the play of some of those players. In his first season with the Dodgers last summer, Torre guided them all the way to the National League Championship Series, essentially riding Manny's back the entire way.
Torre has seemed practically a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame as manager, just like Tony La Russa (who earned many wins during his highly decorated career thanks in part to Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire). Will the steroid connection taint their legacies? Should it?
"When Alex's story came out, there were 100 or whatever who tested positive," Torre said late last week. "Obviously, it's not an isolated case. ...
"As for it following me around, if you stay around as long as I have, especially in this era, it's been a tough time. I don't concern myself with it following me around.
"I'm looking at it that there's a way to try and figure out what we can do as a sport to get the trust of the people back."
As for the Dodgers, it looked at times over the weekend like they were attempting to employ the old basketball Four Corners offense to stall for time until Ramirez returns. Casey Blake fouled off 17 pitches against San Francisco on Friday night.
2. Zack Attack: The Angels finally slowed Kansas City ace Zack Greinke on Saturday night -- barely. The Angels and Joe Saunders eked out a 1-0 win, which caused the ERA of baseball's hottest pitcher to actually rise to 0.51 seven starts in. Greinke is as good a story as there is this year: He's just 25, left the game for three months in the spring of 2006 because of social-anxiety disorder and now is dominating.
The Royals sold more than 11,000 tickets last Monday alone for Greinke's start that night, and they're virtually sold out for this Friday night's game against Baltimore -- Greinke's next home start.
"To this point in time, I'm not concerned with how he's handled it," Royals skipper Trey Hillman, who managed five seasons in Japan before coming to Kansas City, says of the growing expectations. "In this American society, the more success you have, the more people expect. That's just this society. It's a way of life. These players understand that."
3. Arizona names A.J. Hinch new manager: With the Diamondbacks hitting .226 as a team, apparently Mario Mendoza wasn't available. By locking up a guy who's never before managed through 2012, the Diamondbacks presumably are heading off the possibility of Hinch joining his good buddy and new Padres chief operating officer Jeff Moorad in San Diego.
4. Cubs lose Aramis Ramirez: You never know what's lurking around the next corner in this game. For the Cubs, it's apparently a pulled hamstring (Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Freel), a sore neck (Derrek Lee) or a dislocated shoulder (Ramirez). The Ramirez injury really hurts on several levels. One, he's one of the few Cubs swinging the bat well (.364, four homers, 16 RBI). Two, he's expected to miss close to two months. And three, he's a guy who historically hasn't missed much time. He played in 149 of the Cubs' 162 games last year, 132 in 2007 and 157 in 2006. Even with Zambrano being a staff ace, losing Ramirez for so long might be the most damaging of all.
5. Ryan Zimmerman's hit parade: Classy Nationals third baseman extends his hitting streak to 28 consecutive games on Sunday. If he keeps this up, people are actually going to notice baseball's most invisible club. Thursday, as all heck was breaking loose at Dodger Stadium when Manny Ramirez was suspended, the Nationals were the barely noticed opponent. The next day, as Arizona played its first game after firing manager Bob Melvin, the Nationals provided the backdrop for that story, too.
6. What do Curtis Granderson and Spiderman have in common? Basketball legs. Did you see Granderson going up and over the center-field fence in Cleveland on Friday to rob Grady Sizemore of a homer and preserve Justin Verlander's 1-0 victory? As good a catch as you'll see all year. The man scaled a nine-foot-high center-field fence as if it was a sidewalk curb. Oh, and despite some folks swearing by the magazine's interviews and articles, sometimes it really is worth checking out Playboy for the pictures.
7. The "SF" stands for Score First: San Francisco is 13-0 when scoring first this season.
8. Pink bats and wristbands: Way cool. Great idea, and the players are exceptionally into the cause.
9. Stephen Strasburg rocks: The San Diego State right-hander and future No. 1 pick of the Nationals fired a no-hitter against Air Force on Friday in his final home start. Washington general manager Mike Rizzo was in attendance and, presumably, he'll be camping out on Strasburg's front porch until the June 9 draft. In case you missed it, we visited Strasburg two weeks ago.
10. Where have you gone, Dom DiMaggio? A final farewell to the Little Professor, who passed away at 92. Everybody knows that his brother, Joe, owns baseball's longest hitting streak at 56 games. But did you know that Dom still owns the Red Sox club record with his 34-game streak in 1949? It ended when Joe caught Dom's sinking liner to end a Yankees-Red Sox game on Aug. 9.
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