Category Archives: MLB

MLB Network special 1: Seinfeld breaks down Abbott & Costello’s ‘Who’s on First’

Posted on by

MLB Network has two specials on Thursday. I’ll have more on the documentary on Darryl Kile’s sudden death later.

Here’s MLB’s first for the night. I like the premise for this one.

From MLB Network:

Comedian, actor, writer and longtime New York Mets fan Jerry Seinfeld recently spoke with MLB Network’s Bob Costas for a special interview to air during MLB’s 2012 All-Star break this Thursday, July 12 at 7:00 p.m. ET commemorating the 60thanniversary of comedy duo Lou Abbott & Bud Costello’s first televised performance of the legendary routine “Who’s on First?.”

Filmed at New York City’s Soho House, Costas & Seinfeld: Who’s on First? features extensive footage of the routine that TIME Magazine named as the best comedy sketch of the 20th century, interspersed with comments from Seinfeld on his favorite moments and how “Who’s on First?” influenced him as a comedian, writer and baseball fan. Speaking about why baseball lends itself to comedy, Seinfeld says, “Baseball has a heart of gold. It has a humanity that other sports, they just don’t have, for whatever reason, and humanity is funnier.”

Throughout the 30-minute interview, Seinfeld also reveals details of how “The Abbott & Costello Show” impacted the creation of and characters in the Emmy Award-winning sitcom Seinfeld. Seinfeld tells Costas, “I really wanted to imitate this show in my TV series in a couple of ways. … Even [with] Abbott and Costello and me and George, there’s a physical similarity there.” Seinfeld confirms that even the full character name of “George Louis Costanza” was influenced by the show, saying, “We named him after Lou Costello. We were all fans of Abbott and Costello on the show.”

 

Posted in MLB

Despite its flaws, glad All-Star Game still means something; social network experiment

Posted on by

The big game is tonight, and like I have since 1967, I will be watching.

It’s still the only All-Star Game that is relevant in sports. There’s something special about seeing the players wearing their team’s uniforms. It truly is unique.

Yes, you can argue about the winning league getting home field advantage in the World Series. There are incredible flaws in the entire concept. I mean, with so much on the line, you should have your best players in for the entire game.

Still, I like the fact the outcome of the game matters. It does elevate the tension in the stadium.

Obviously, Fox Sports also likes it. Here’s Joe Buck:

I mean I have answered more ‘this time it counts’ questions maybe more than anybody except the commissioner. I have said from the beginning that we have noticed when we go down to talk to managers, talk to players, that it has had an impact on way these guys manage games. They are looking for specific matchups as opposed to just trying to get everybody in the game, which they did prior to the change. I think it has brought a competitive fire back to this game that for awhile was lacking. And this isn’t the same game that was played in ’60s. You would have guys who would do there one at-bat and bolt out of the park. It’s not happening anymore. I think it has been a great change for this game which is by far the best of all the all-star games. Not even close.

******

I have to admit it sounded a bit funny to hear Bud Selig talk about Twitter during a conference call last week. I definitely wanted to be in the room when the concept was explained to the 77-year old commissioner.

Social media is going to be a big part of Tuesday’s game. Once a player leaves the game, he will be able to tweet his views to the masses.

Said Selig:

It’s after players are removed from the game. It’s another contact to our fans which is important to me. It’s a reason this sport is growing as much as it is. One thing I’ve learned in this job is never to say never. I like what we’re doing in the All-Star Game and I think this will contribute to our younger fans having the kind of contact they want to have with players. I’m very comfortable with where we are now.

Added Fox Sports vice-chairman Ed Goren:

This is really an exciting step for the All-Star Game. It’s being handled properly by baseball. The player is out of the game and now here is an opportunity to reach out, through social media, to baseball fans. This is a fun experiment.

It could be fun. However, I hope it doesn’t clog up the broadcast.

The hard part won’t be getting players to tweet. It’ll be getting them to tweet something that’s interesting.

 

 

 

Costas interview with Leyland: Bonds, Tigers, retirement and being a singer

Posted on by

On MLB Network Saturday:

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland looks back on his 26-year career as a Major League Baseball manager in a new episode of MLB Network’s Studio 42 with Bob Costas this Saturday, June 9 at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Studio 42 with Bob Costas featuring Jim Leyland will re-air on Sunday, June 10 at 10:00 p.m. ET

And here are some excerpts:

On managing the Pittsburgh Pirates in their 1992 NLCS loss to the Atlanta Braves:

The ’92 loss was probably the toughest I’ve ever suffered and it was a very interesting scenario.  I said it at the time and I still think about it today, this whole picture flashed in my mind [of] a Little League World Series.  It was almost reduced to that, like a Little League game, where one side’s jumping up and down and one side’s crying.  It was unbelievable.

With all due respect to the media people [and] TV people, I asked them, “Can we have a couple of extra minutes?”  I said, “This is a tough one,” and they gave us that.  I always appreciated that…It was pretty much what you’d expect, some guys crying, some guys just really lost…I was in a total fog.  You know the old saying from Jack Buck, “I can’t believe what I just saw,” that’s kind of the way I felt.

On managing Barry Bonds while in Pittsburgh:

I saw a lot of good things in Barry…He’s not as tough as he lets on. I think he’s one of those guys that it was a motivational tool for him to upset people, to make them mad at him.

He was coachable and he was manageable.  A lot of people didn’t think so, but it depended on how you coached him.  Barry was one of those guys where he was very coachable, but you had to let him think it was his idea.

On managing the last inning of the 1997 World Series between the Florida Marlins and Cleveland Indians:

I thought “Devon [White] is going to hit a sacrifice fly, get a fly ball over somebody’s head, get a base hit, whatever it may be,” We were gonna win the World Series.  When he hit the ground ball to second and they forced the guy at home, I said, “Oh my God, I’m almost out of pitching.  I gotta look at what I’m doing.”…I was looking back down at my card and just before the pitch to Edgar [Renteria], I looked up again…Just as I looked up, Edgar hit it and I looked it and it was in center field.  I’m going, “Oh my God, it’s over, and what a relief.”  I was actually relieved more because I didn’t have to continue to work on my lineup card…It was an amazing feeling.

On Game Seven of the 1997 World Series being underrated:

It’s always stuck in my craw, it’s always bothered me a little bit…I really believe had that been the Yankees [and] the Dodgers, Yankees and the Mets, it might’ve gone down as the second greatest World Series game of all time. … It was truly a better game for me than the Arizona [Diamondbacks] and Yankees [Game Seven in 2001] …It’s one of the greatest games, I think, that was ever played…I think the fact that it was Cleveland and Florida, it just didn’t get the hype that it should’ve gotten.

On if he felt he was done in managing after one season in Colorado in 1999:

I didn’t think I would ever manage again.  I truly did not think that I would ever manage another Major League Baseball team. I left four million dollars on the table.  My wife wasn’t real happy about it.  I just felt like I didn’t want to go back there and try to fake my way through it.  It wasn’t the right thing to do.

On taking the managerial position in Detroit in 2006:

[Detroit] was probably really the only situation [I would go to]. I live in Pittsburgh so Philadelphia would’ve been a nice little ring.  I would’ve been interested.  They had a good team, a nice, new ballpark.  But [Detroit] had more to it than a lot of other things.  I didn’t think, at my age, I was ever going to get a chance to manage the Tigers.  All of a sudden, this kind of fell in my lap. Here it was and I said, “You know what, I’m reenergized.  This is what I thought I always might have a chance to do, get a shot to do. Here it is, a little late.” But, yeah, this worked out good.

On when he will retire:

When the passion’s not there. When I start getting up in the morning and not wanting to go to work, I’ll go home. Tony [La Russa] and I are a little bit different in that I had a six-year sabbatical [from 1999-2006] and that really refreshed me. That got the battery going again.  I think that really helped me out. I think if I would’ve tried to do it like 33 straight years like Tony did, I probably would’ve stepped away too, maybe even before that.  But that six-year sabbatical, I spent some time at home and watched the kids grow up a bit.  It really refreshed me.

On what he would do if he wasn’t in baseball:

I’m embarrassed to say this, but I would’ve liked to have been in a band.  I love to sing.  I played the trumpet as a kid.  Our family sat around the piano. I never played a piano in my life, but my brother played the piano, my two sisters played.  I love it.  I still like to sing.  I’m not as good as I was at one time.  I was ok at one time…I can’t quite hit the high ones like I used to, but I was ok.  I sang weddings and I was in a choir and different things like that, and I loved it.  But this worked out a little better, I think.

I love soft rock.  I’m not into the rap too much, obviously.  I’m a little old for that….I love the oldies.  I saw “Jersey Boys” four times…I love musicals.  I saw a lot of the musicals.  I like those and participated in those in school, so that’s probably what I would’ve tried to do.  I doubt it would have worked out, but who knows?  That’s a tough business.  That’s probably tougher than our business to be successful in.

 

 

Saturday flashback: Classic Hawk Harrelson

Posted on by

White Sox announcer Ken Harrelson received plenty of attention for an epic rant during Wednesday’s game. It hardly was the first time he vented in the booth.

In the spirit of celebrating Hawk, we offer these classics.

Here he goes off on umpire Joe West.

Here is a 1991 game in which Joe Brinkman makes a horrible call that costs the Sox a game. Harrelson really starts to lose it around the 3:20 mark, and check the expression on his face when they show him and Tom Paciorek in the booth. Vintage disgust.

And to better understand Harrelson, here’s a segment that ran on MLB’s The Club, featuring the White Sox.

Harrelson’s last rant? Selig, Reinsdorf tell him to tone it down

Posted on by

Have we seen the last classic, over-the-top rant from White Sox announcer Ken Harrelson?

ESPNChicago’s Bruce Levine reports MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf had chats with Harrelson to discuss his reaction to umpire Mark Wegner during Wednesday’s Sox-Tampa Bay game.

Harrelson didn’t get into the details of the calls, other than they appeared to be one-sided. He said:

“I talked to Bud Selig yesterday,” Harrelson told ESPNChicago.com’s Bruce Levine on Friday morning. “We had a talk. Actually, Bud talked and I listened. If it was a prize fight, they would have stopped it in the first round.

“I also talked to Jerry, and I listened to him as well. That’s all I really have to say.”

Clearly, Harrelson has been told he has to temper his emotions. From ESPNChicago:

Senior vice president of sales and marketing Brooks Boyer said Harrelson will talk about the outburst on Friday’s broadcast.

“He’s ultimately going to address it the way he feels it be best addressed,” Boyer said Friday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “We’ve discussed it, and we’ll talk about it on the air and it will be gone as of tonight.”

Boyer said an outburst like that won’t happen again from Harrelson.

“I could certainly be wrong but I think this was a good way for him to understand the importance of what’s going on on the field,” Boyer said. “I think moving forward those type of bursts and snaps will be limited if not eliminated.”

 

 

 

 

 

Explaining, defending Ken Harrelson

Posted on by

I’ve known Ken Harrelson for 26 years. Back in 1986, the Chicago Tribune dropped me without a parachute into the White Sox beat. I was 26-years-old and woefully inexperienced; the year before I actually covered the Illinois state high school badminton tournament.

To top things off, the Sox made Ken Harrelson their general manager. It proved to be a wild season, with Hawk eventually firing Tony La Russa. Yet through it all, I still have fond memories of working with Harrelson that year. There never was any BS with him and that definitely holds true today.

I’m saying all this because it helps explain why Harrelson went off like he did Wednesday in Tampa. The video has gone viral, and he even got some play on SportsCenter.

It is a quite a rant. Epic, even.

Yet this is what White Sox fans come to expect of Harrelson. In fact, this homerish approach even predates him. During the 1970s and early 80s, Harry Caray was blowing up people left and right while calling Sox games, and many of his targets were Sox players. Then it went over the top when Caray was joined by Jimmy Piersall, easily forming the most outrageous broadcast team of all time.

You think yesterday was crazy? Just check out some old clips from Harry and Jimmy.

Back to Harrelson, as I saw first-hand 26 years ago, you need to know he lives for this team, and he will do anything for its owner, Jerry Reinsdorf. He has more than 30 years invested in this franchise. The loyalty runs extremely deep.

It is all genuine with Harrelson in the booth. When the Sox lose, it’s hard to say who takes it tougher: Hawk or Sox GM Kenny Williams.

I tried to call Harrelson this morning, but he explained in a radio interview on WSCR-AM 670, he has decided to turn off his phone. However, don’t think for one minute he will back down from yesterday’s comments.

From WSCR’s site, which has audio of the entire interview:

“First of all, I still have a headache because I got so upset yesterday,” he said. “I took four Advil after that inning was over and then I had to take four more on the plane and then when I got home last night I had to take four more. Also, when I got up this morning, I had to take four more.”

As for the play, his stance hasn’t changed.

“We had two guys drilled, none of their guys got thrown at, none of their guys left their feet and then all the sudden we throw at Zobrist, which was below the belt about knee high behind him, and he throws Quintana out? Give me a break,” the broadcaster said.

ChicagoSide also ran an interview by Daniel Dorfman this morning on Harrelson’s 30 years in Chicago. It included this quote:

…On being a homer

HAWK:That to me is the greatest compliment that can be paid to an announcer. I want the White Sox to win. When they win there is not one person happier than I am. When they lose there is no one more down than I am. I have some detractors, as every announcer does, and I have fans who love the Hawk, and I think one of the reasons why is that I am a White Sox guy and I give the other team credit but I want the White Sox to win.

When I am doing a game and I have to bite my tongue, they know by my silence, which is the greatest communicator of them all.

Indeed, at age 70, Harrelson isn’t about to change, and most Sox fans are fine with that. Expect more clips like the one he produced Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

Pearlman tells complete story of infamous John Rocker story

Posted on by

There’s the story that gets printed in a publication. Then there’s the story behind the story.

Often, the latter is just as interesting.

Jeff Pearlman has decided to tell what happened before, during and after his infamous story on John Rocker that ran in Sports Illustrated in 1999. He writes about the weird encounters on his JeffPearlman.com in response to Rocker knocking him in a recent interview.

Rocker said of Pearlman:

Pearlman spent nearly 10 hours with me that day and we engaged in numerous very long-winded conversations on everything from how to throw a breaking ball to the effects of a flawed U.S. immigration policy. Strategically extracting a sentence fragment here and separate thought there Pearlman painted the exact picture of me he intended from the very beginning and in doing so remained true to form and consistent with his long and decorated history of trash journalism. In my research I have found that Pearlman has done eerily similar hatchet jobs to dozens of other subjects during his 20 year career.

Pearlman decided he couldn’t let the comments go. He goes into the details of how Rocker went off his rocker.

Pearlman writes:

Rocker has said and said and said that his words were taken out of context; that, in and of themselves, they sound awful. But that we were actually discussing, oh, foreign policy and race relations and the such. This, of course, is a complete lie. Like, not even close to the close to the close to the truth. He said what he said because he was—and still seems to be—quite stupid. Stupid people call black teammates “fat monkeys,” and berate “queers with AIDS” on the New York City subway. At the time, Rocker was dating Don Sutton’s daughter. He was also dating another young woman. One of his girlfriends (I can’t recall which) was in the car with us. When she left, he called the other.

My favorite moment actually never made print. We were driving around Atlanta—girlfriend in the front seat, me in the back—when Rocker asked whether I’d ever been to Disney World.

“I have,” I replied.

“You know all those characters who walk around the park—Mickey, Donald, Minnie …”

“Sure,” I said.

“Well, they’re all faggots,” he said. “They’re all fucking faggots.”

Pearlman also writes about Rocker threatening him in a clubhouse encounter after the interview:

Rocker spent the ensuing two minutes (felt like 10) in my face, jabbing his finger into my chest, blasting me for ruining his career, his family. He said, “Do you know what I can do to you?”—and I thought, “Yes, beat the living shit out of me.” My only strong moment came midway through, when he said, “I even bought you lunch!”

“Actually,” I said, “I paid.”

“Well, fuck you …”

Read the entire piece and tell me who you’re going to believe.

 

 

This week’s SI: The untold story about steroids in baseball

Posted on by

Back in 2002, Ken Caminiti’s revelations in Sports Illustrated blew open what was painfully obvious: rampant use of steroids in baseball.

This week, Caminiti, who died of a drug overdose, is back on the cover of SI. However, on the 10th anniversary of the original story, SI’s Tom Verducci takes a different approach on discussing the impact steroids had on the game.

His opening paragraph:

This is a story about the real cost of steroids in baseball–not the broken records, not the litigation, not the talk-show drone about the elite players who juiced and how to weigh their Hall of Fame candidacy. This is a story about the hundred, even thousands, of anonymous ballplayers whose careers and lives were changed by a temptation that defined an era.

Kudos to Verducci and SI for detailing the deeper implications here. It went far beyond Bonds, McGwire, Clemens, Sosa, etc..

This is a must-read story. One of the best I’ve seen in SI in a long time.

From the release:

(Verducci) examines the playing careers of four right handed pitchers who were members of the Minnesota Twins organization in mid-to-late 1990s. They had similar skills and backgrounds. None were drafted by the Twins higher than the fourth round of the MLB amateur draft. One of the four, however, took steroids, and he was the only one who ever reached the major leagues. His name was Dan Naulty and his decision to cheat the game, his teammates and himself affected all their lives.

Naulty was 6’6’’ and 180 pounds as a senior at Cal State Fullerton, had a fastball that sat around 85mph and was drafted in the 14th round. After using steroids and other performance-enhancement drugs, he began throwing his fastball at up to 95mph and at one point weighed 248 pounds. He spent three seasons with the Twins, pitching in 97 games before being traded to the New York Yankees in 1999, where he won a World Series.

On the outside, he looked like many other major leaguers, but inside he was an emotional wreck from the steroids, the guilt of cheating and a drinking problem. Naulty hit rock bottom just after the World Series. After a night of celebrating with some teammates, Naulty asked his driver as they crossed the George Washington Bridge, “Tell me. Tell me if this is all there is to life. Because if this is all there is, just stop this car right now and I’ll jump…. I had no hope. I had sold myself that bill of goods so long that I believed it. But I realized at that moment I had totally destroyed my life. And I had destroyed countless other people’s lives. I was ready to die.”

 

Ozzie Guillen shuts down Twitter account

Posted on by

Say it ain’t so.

Ozzie Guillen has decided to shut up. At least on Twitter.

Yesterday, the Florida manager fired off this tweet to his 231,000 followers:

OzzieGuillen

my last tweet. me ultimo tweet good luck buena suerte.

What triggered this final tweet? Thursday he said:

“Yeah, I hate Twitter,” Guillen said in the Marlins’ dugout before the game. “Everybody following me can (expletive) his pants. You can quote me on that one. … Don’t follow me anymore. Twitter is a stupid thing. I never make money out of that. When you speak Spanish, you speak Spanish. When you speak English, you don’t know how to spell ‘English.’ Get a real job, get a life. I don’t make money out of that. I’m done.”

Prior to signing off, Guillen did a series of tweets on the death of former White Sox reliever Kevin Hickey, who served as the team’s batting practice pitcher during Guillen’s tenure as manager in Chicago.

The White Sox wish Guillen realized Twitter was “stupid” a while back. He angered General Manager Kenny Williams by starting an account. Then after promising to keep it unrelated to baseball, he did a series of tweets complaining about the umpires while a game was in progress in Toronto in 2011. Guillen let his emotions get the best of him after being kicked out of the game.

The tweets landed him a two-game suspension and $20,000 fine.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in MLB

TBS lands wildcard games; MLB Network gets two playoff games

Posted on by

Major League Baseball took care of its own Thursday.

It was announced that TBS has landed the rights to air the two new wildcard games in 2012 and 2013. However, in the process, MLB shifted two division playoff games to its MLB Network.

It is a shrewd move by baseball. Post-season games will drive more eyeballs to MLB Network. It also means we’ll likely get to hear Bob Costas on the call for playoff baseball. That’s a good thing.

As for TBS, the American and National League wildcard game should attract big ratings. They will have the feel of the win-or-go-home feel of the NCAA basketball tournament. We love that.

 

 

 

Posted in MLB