Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

After scrutinizing future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn’s 1954–57 seasons, Joe Posnanski asks Bill James why, despite pitching 1,081 innings over those four years, the Milwaukee Braves southpaw threw a mere 2 2/3 innings against the Brooklyn Doddgers.
Grantland’s Jonah Keri looks at another southpaw, Clayton Kershaw, and the moment when a 19-year-old’s breaking ball got the normally unflappable Vin Scully to lapse into hyperbole.
A third lefty, Scott Kazmir, is profiled by Beyond the Boxscore’s Lee Trocinski, who observes what the 29-year-old is doing right in his comeback with the Indians and what he could do better.
Matt Snyder of CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball explains why an umpire-crew chief was suspended for screwing up a rules interpretation about a pitching change but another umpire was not, even though he blew an obvious home-run ball:

While it was obviously an egregious error, [Angel] Hernandez’s mistake was technically a judgment call – just like when Jim Joyce botched Armando Galarraga’s perfect game, just like the famous Don Denkinger call, just like Ron Kulpa’s botched call in Game 3 of the 2011 World Series and thousands of others.

Though Hernandez’s mistake was awful and pretty much everyone with a working set of eyes knows it, it was still under the umbrella of judgment calls. And Major League Baseball cannot — as much as we might emotionally want it to — get into the business of suspending umpires for making poor judgment calls. That’s a slippery slope from which the league would never recover. . . .

As an umpire, you cannot just pick and choose which rules to enforce.

That is why [Fieldin] Culbreth was suspended. His crew neglected to enforce a rule that is set in stone.

Citing the Jordany Valdespin incident over the weekend, Dustin Parkes of The Score explains on his Twitter feed why unwritten rules remain unwritten: “The Jordany Valdespin kerfuffle reminds us unwritten rules go unwritten because if they were written out, they’d seem really f***ing stupid.”
Three-true-outcome fans have never been happier: According to Andy of High Heat Stats, fewer balls are being put into play than ever before. 
Baseball Nation’s Rob Neyer takes Boston Globe columnist Dave Shaughnessy to task for the latter’s PED-related comments about David Ortiz.

Alex Cobb (above) struck out 13 batters in 4 2/3 innings, the first time in the live-vall era that a pitcher has struck out that many batters without completing five innings. Meanwhile, rookie Shelby Miller (27) and veteran Adam Wainwright (13) combined over two games to retire 40 consecutive batters, tying a MLB record. 

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

As Manchester City and Wigan prepare to face each other later today in the 2013 FA Cup final, here are some great images from the first FA Cup final, in 1923, at the original Wembley Stadium (officially, at the time, Empire Stadium), where Bolton Wanderers defeated West Ham United, 2–0. With 250,000 showing up for a match for which 100,000 were expected, fans climbed into the stadium and crowded onto the field. They were cleared by a mounted police officer whose gray horse, Billie, appeared white in black-and-white photos of the event, which came to be known as the White Horse Final.

To sum up the allegations, sophomore defensive lineman Chad Washington is accused of misdemeanor ”aggravated harassment as a hate crime” for allegedly making racial slurs against a fellow student.

Gothamist reports, however:

. . . a source familiar with the case suggests that Washington, a defensive lineman for Columbia’s football team, may have been provoked by the victim first. Washington and his group of friends had walked past the victim and the victim’s female friends, the source says, and apparently brushed up against them. This, the source claims, angered the victim who mocked Washington’s group, and at that point, Washington and his friends reacted. Further, the source says that both parties had been drinking.

Washington is black, the alleged victim is Asian.

Now, it would be easy to chalk this up to a drunken he said/he said, but, well, there are tweets (from before the incident occurred) that don’t paint Washington in the best light:

Lots of tweets, from multiple players, of what look-to-be of a racist and/or homophobic nature. 

Did Washington’s encounter with this Asian student constitute a hate crime? I don’t know. But the story is now much more about the social media posts of Washington’s teammates than it is about him.

When I was at Columbia as a student (and football player), it was crystal clear that an off-color joke shared between friends could easily get you kicked off of the team or expelled from school. I expect these students will find themselves off the team in short order and fighting to stay in school.

It’s a good bet that head coach Pete Mangurian – who reportedly followed many of these players on Twitter — will be fired as well.

David Moyes has been appointed the new manager of Manchester United, beginning July 1st, on a six-year contract. The 50-year-old Glaswegian has been long admired by Sir Alex Ferguson, who originally approached Moyes back in 1998 to be his assistant manager. Moyes instead went on to manage Preston North End, which was then struggling in Division Two, guiding them to the Division Two title and promotion to Division One. After four years, he moved to Everton, where he brought stability and has achieved some success within the club’s limited budget.

Although never winning a Premier League title, Moyes has kept Everton in the top ten for most of his eleven years there. Ferguson himself played a vital role in the selection of his successor, summing up his admiration for Moyes, “When we discussed the candidates that we felt had the right attributes we unanimously agreed on David Moyes. David is a man of great integrity with a strong work ethic. . . . There is no question he has all the qualities we expect of a manager at this club.”

Moyes, who was the bookies ‘favorite, will finish out the current season with Everton.

The 17-year-old who punched and killed soccer referee Ricardo Portillo has been charged with “homicide by assault” and the prosecutor will seek to try the teenager as an adult.

The maximum sentence for an adult is five years and “can be less for juveniles.” 

Not long enough if you ask me.

After watching this clip, from the ninth inning of this evening’s A’s–Indians game — Oakland ended up losing, 4–3 — I think it’s safe to say that second-base umpire Angel Hernandez won’t be getting Christmas cards from A’s manager Bob Melvin or other members of the organization.

More here and here.

Defensive end Nick Reed has quit the Vikings to pursue a career as a fighter pilot:

A year ago, almost to the day, Nick Reed signed a two-year deal with the Minnesota Vikings that would have paid him $1.2 million and solidified his status as a professional football player.

Instead, Tuesday morning Reed awoke before 4:30 a.m., made sure his room was fit for inspection, headed out to physical training and began what would be another exhausting 19-hour day that would trump the demands of any NFL training camp.

While Reed remains a bit confused as to why his NFL career was so brief, he is more than content to be among those elite recruits to be preparing to be a pilot at the Air Force Academy, now hoping to use his skills and athleticism to serve his country.

Reed, 25, was a seventh-round pick of Seattle in 2009, out of Oregon, and is one of the all-time sack leaders in Pac-12 history. For much of his life he felt two callings — one to football, the other to be a military pilot — and he is approaching the pursuit of being a fighter pilot with the same vigor with which he played football.

“When I was a kid my dad was in the Navy,” Reed said late Monday night, during one of the few spare minutes not accounted for by his rigorous schedule, “and he was flight surgeon — a doctor for the pilots. So he would come home and talk about that stuff with me, and I think that’s how I kind of got into it and knew that was something I wanted to do. Most kids want to be an astronaut or a pilot. I guess I never really got out of that stage.”

The rest here and good luck with the new career. 

Blue Jays southpaw J. A. Happ has been discharged from a St. Petersburg hospital after being hit in the head with a batted ball last night:

Bayfront Medical Center said in a statement that Happ was discharged after being upgraded from fair to good condition on Wednesday. Happ was taken there after being struck on the left side of the head by a ball off the bat of Desmond Jennings during Tuesday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Blue Jays said Happ was responsive and feeling better after sustaining a head bruise and cut to his the left ear.

The beaning again raises the issue about how to better protect pitchers:

It was the latest injury to a pitcher struck by a batted ball in the last few years, and baseball has discussed ways to protect hurlers who ply their craft against the world’s strongest hitters — only 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate.

General managers discussed the issue during their meetings in November and MLB presented several ideas at the winter meetings weeks later.

MLB staff have said a cap liner with Kevlar, the material used in body armor for the military, law enforcement and NFL players, is among the ideas under consideration.

The liners, weighing perhaps 5 ounces or less, would go under a pitcher’s cap and help protect against line drives that often travel over 100 mph.

Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy, who was hospitalized after getting struck with a line drive last September, sounds a cautionary note:

Most everything that’s come out wouldn’t have protected me, and it wouldn’t have protected [Happ] if he got hit directly in the ear. You’re at a point now where you’re looking at batting helmets. You’d have to have something that protected the ear and then the face and beyond. So it’s kind of a slippery slope. Someone will have to come up with something really good and really sound. Otherwise, I don’t know how you answer that question.

More here.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will retire at the end of the season. “It is the right time,” the Scot said. The decision marks the end of an era in British soccer. No other manager has been as successful, Ferguson having won a total of 49 trophies, beginning with his time at St. Mirren and then Aberdeen in the old Scottish First Division. Coming to Manchester United in November 1986, he stated that his aim was to “knock Liverpool off their perch.” His retirement comes two and a half weeks after Manchester United sealed their 20th domestic league title, his 13th Premier League trophy with the club. His other trophies include three UEFA Cup Winner’s Cups, five FA Cups, two Champions League trophies, in addition to other league and intercontinental honours.

The 71-year-old has always stated that his health will determine when he retires. The club announced last weekend that he is scheduled to undergo hip-replacement surgery this summer.

“The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. . . . It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so. The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long-term future of the club remains a bright one.”

He will remain at Manchester United, taking on a director’s role and be a club amabassador, and will certainly have a say in who his successor will be. His advice for the next manager will be appreciated, as he has said that Man U’s previous legendary manager, Sir Matt Busby, was invaluable to him. A few names being thrown around are Everton’s David Moyes, Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho, Borsussia Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp, and Malaga’s Manuel Pellegrini.

Or, “Why I gave up umpiring little league games a long time ago”:

A Little League baseball manager has been charged with assault after witnesses told police he slapped a 17-year-old umpire who had ejected him from a game.

The manager, Thomas Murphy, 43, of Yaffa Road, Bayville, faces two counts of simple assault, according to Detective Sgt. Jim Smith, a spokesman for the township police department.

Smith said Patrolman Michael O’Connor found Murphy, manager for the Mets Little League team, at his home after Murphy had left the field after the incident.

Murphy was issued two summonses — one for simple assault and another for simple assault at a sporting event in the presence of children under the age of 16, Smith said.

No court date has been set for Murphy, Smith said.

Smith said witnesses told police they saw Murphy “strike the umpire with an open right hand to his right ear.”

Smith said the 17-year-old umpire said he didn’t need medical treatment.

The ages of the baseball players who witnessed the umpire get slapped were 10, 11 and 12 years old, he said.

It’s a game. Your kid is not going to play in the majors. Let it go.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

A recreational league soccer referee died Saturday night, a week after being punched in the head for issuing a yellow card to a teenage player.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• Baseball Nation’s Rob Neyer reveals his all-April team, which may include a face or two that will stink up the joint by Memorial Day:

SS - Jean Segura
Yes, yes . . .  He was an excellent prospect; that’s why the Brewers got him from the Angels last summer. As a rookie, though, Segura didn’t take real well to the National League, batting .264 without a single home run in 44 games. This season, though? He’s batting .364 with nine extra-base hits (including three homers!) in 24 games. Meanwhile, the 9-17 Angels can merely wonder what might have been…

LF - Nate McLouth
Nate McLouth is a testament to . . . something. Six years ago, McLouth came out of Nowhere to have a pretty good season with the Pirates, and a year later came out of Semi-Nowhere to lead the National League with 48 doubles and win a Gold Glove in center field. The next year, the Pirates traded McLouth to the Braves and he went back to being Nate McLouth, Journeyman Outfielder. Which he’s been ever since. Except this year, he’s the Orioles’ every-day left fielder and he’s batting .346 with a lot more walks than strikeouts.

Pitcher – Kevin Correia
So, so much fun. Correia is the thrilling apogee of the Minnesota Twins’ pitch-to-contact philosophy: Don’t strike anybody out, and the wins will come. Which is actually a really terrible philosophy. Except that Correia, who’s got only 15 strikeouts in 36 innings in this Age of the Strikeout, is also 3–1 with a 2.23 ERA. Granted, it’s not nearly as shocking as Jonathan Sanchez washing out with the Pirates. Still, I’ll bet you didn’t see this one coming.

• Paul Swydan of Fangraphs explores the use of the sacrifice bunt in the first inning and concludes that the oft-ridiculed tactic is still being employed too frequently.
• Writing in USA Today, Graham Womack of High Heat Stats highlights the Marlins’ offensive woes as a means of introducing weighted runs created plus (wRC+) to those readers unfamiliar with the statistic.
• Inspired by his five-year old son’s introduction to organized baseball, Beyond the Boxscore’s Adam Darowski discusses “The Sabermetrics of Little League.”
• Christina Kahrl of ESPN’s SweetSpot says that Jeremy Guthrie, who has been a key component in the Royals’ early-season success, also fits in well with Kansas City’s win-now philosophy:

From disappointing high expectations as a top prospect in Cleveland, to being stuck as an innings-eater in Oriole irrelevance, to the brief horrors of a mile-high exile as a Rockie, Guthrie has paid his dues and deserves a good turn. That he’s given the Royals more than one in kind is one of those happy developments. With the additions of James Shields and Ervin Santana to the rotation, Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore can reasonably brag that he’s managed to cobble together a better-than-average rotation in short order despite limited supply and limited cash. Thanks to their rotation, the Royals are in that gaggle of teams fighting for bragging rights to be second in the American League to the Detroit Tigers in quality-start percentage so far — just a tick or two below 60 percent — even as they fight to keep up with the heavily favored Motor City Kitties in the AL Central.

• Kahrl’s colleague, David Schoenfield, believes it is time for the Padres to ink the face of the franchise, Chase Headley, to a long-term extension.
• Zach Links of MLB Trade Rumors interviews Michael Pfaff, president and general manager of the Long Island Ducks, a team in the independent Atlantic League. Pfaff recently signed three former MLBers — Ramon Castro, Vladimir Guerrero, and Dontrelle Willis — to play for the club this summer. 

Has the Ducks’ reputation gotten to the point where the club doesn’t have to recruit and big names just sort of gravitate to the team?

Its a lot different than it was ten years ago.  There’s no question  In 2013, agents, players, and managers that are with or work with major league organizations know about the Atlantic League at this point.  We’ve had more than 600 players signed to major league deals.  

Let’s look at it from the perspective of a major league organization.  If you’re running player development for a big league club, and you have a player that makes, say, 10K a month, and you want to give a younger guy an opportunity to see if he can perform at that level, you would have to keep that guy at 10K a month in Triple-A or spring training or extending spring to give your young guy a shot.  Now, if he goes to an Atlantic League club, we really only have major league clubs to purchase our contract to repay the integrity of our contact.  It’s not to profit from it, its not a big revenue source for us, we make our money from ticket sales and such.  

If you’re a major league organization, and you go and you spend 4K to purchase that player, two months into the season, you would have paid that player 20K to have him.  Not only did you give your younger payer an opportunity to prove himself, you’ve got 16K to spend elsewhere..Economically, we’ve benefited major league organizations, they see that using the Atlantic League as a place where they can pluck talent from.

• Writing in the Hardball Times, Alex Connors asserts that the return of John Farrell to Fenway Park — he was the pitching coach from 2007 through 2010 and is back as manager this season — is having a positive effect on the Red Sox pitching staff.

• Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci wonders what was the substance that glistened on Clay Buchholz’s left forearm while on the mound against the Jays last Wednesday evening.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

The bill to use taxpayer money for renovations to Sun Life Stadium — owned by billionaire Stephen Ross’s Miami Dolphins — has died in the Florida House. Voting for the measure in a special election was already underway in Miami-Dade county, but that referendum will now be pulled:

Up against the clock and with a future Super Bowl on the line, the Miami Dolphins suffered an epic loss Friday in the state Capitol. The look of defeat on the face of Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, as he hugged House Speaker Will Weatherford, spoke volumes as the team’s stadium effort failed.

Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, had been the Dolphins’ chief ally in the Florida House. Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, turned out to be the team’s nemesis.

“OK, members,” Weatherford said at 6:57 p.m. Friday. “We’re done.”

Lawmakers ended the 60-day legislative session without approving a deal to provide taxpayer support for a $350 million upgrade of Sun Life Stadium. With last-minute amendments and late-game Hail Marys, the Dolphins held out until the final hour.

But a deal was not to be had, as Weatherford rejected the overtures of several lawmakers who pleaded with him to hear the bill. The House instead killed the stadium effort without a vote.

Republican Will Weatherford: hero.

But he’ll need conservative support in the coming weeks as Stephen Ross is not happy about losing his taxpayer bucks. Here’s his statement (my emphasis on the last paragraph — which reads like a threat to Weatherford):

Jason, I watched that game with my two brothers and had no problem staying up the whole time. Of course, back then I was a proofreader at a law firm, working the midnight-to-6 shift.

* According to my lovingly preserved 1984 copy of The Scouting Report (rather patronizingly discussed here), “Rick Camp is absolutely, unquestionably one of the worst hitters you will ever see in a major league game. Fortunately, as a reliever, he rarely comes up to bat.” Indeed, over his first six major-league seasons, 1976 to 1982, he was a combined 2 for 78 (both doubles, oddly enough), with 44 strikeouts. In 1983 his bat caught fire and he went 3 for 39, doubling again and even driving in two runs. And after his home run in 1985, his OPS for the season was a whopping .821. In fact, if you’ll pardon my being gauche enough to quote such a retro statistic as batting average, Camp’s BA increased over the previous season in each of his last four years. If he had stuck around, who knows? He could have become another Brooks Kieschnick . . .

* When Camp came up in the bottom of the 19th, Gary Carter stood up and trudged out to the mound, and the Mets’ announcer said, “I don’t believe this — it’s the bottom of the 19th and they’re changing signs because there’s a runner on second base.” Carter went 5 for 9, by the way, despite spending six hours squatting behind home plate. That’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame.

* Camp was as incredulous as anyone else when the ball went out, but as he rounded the bases he pulled himself together, and by the time he reached the dugout he was like, “Yeah, I do this all the time.” But everyone else on the Braves was cracking up. Dale Murphy, in particular, could barely contain himself.

* Back in the long-lost days when there used to be two leagues (and when, if you joined one league, you stayed there, damn it!), the AL and NL had different policies on late-night extra-inning games. The AL had a curfew of 1:00 AM; you couldn’t start any inning (i.e. the top of any inning) after that time. If 1:00 came and went and it was still tied, they suspended the game and picked up where it had left off the next time the teams played. The NL, by contrast, had a Rose Hartwick Thorpe policy, which is why the Mets and Braves were still playing baseball at a time when only cops and milkmen and legal proofreaders should be awake.

* Believe it or not, this was only the second-most memorable sporting event with a 16–13 score that I saw during Reagan’s second term. The most memorable was the 16–13 victory over Princeton in 1988 that broke Columbia football’s 44-game losing streak (and 47-game winless streak).

Rick Camp, 59, died last week, presumably of natural causes.

A pitcher, Camp, spent his entire nine-year big-league career with the Braves. He was in the starting rotation on manager Joe Torre’s 1982 team that won its division. Three years later, however, Camp was a bullpen arm, Torre had been fired, and the franchise was entering a period of malaise that would last through the end of the decade. On the Fourth of July, Atlanta’s record was 34–41 and only San Francisco was behind it in the NL West standings.

Not yet a junior in high school, I experienced the summer of 1985 as another prolonged break from classes and the last one that did not involve holding a job. I recall watching the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks display from my parents’ apartment building in Brooklyn Heights and then hanging out with friends in the neighborhood. On returning home after midnight, I turned on the TV and was surprised to find that the Mets–Braves game was still ongoing and about to go into extra innings. (The game had started an hour late due to rain.)

Here’s pretty much what my mind remembers from the game that might end up becoming the most memorable regular-season game I will watch in my lifetime:

• Keith Hernandez hit for the cycle but also got robbed of a base hit when the second-base umpire did not see center fielder Dale Murphy, who had dived for the sinking line drive, drop the ball.
• Eventual Cy Young Award winner Dwight Gooden had started the game but lasted only two and one-half innings, presumably because of an in-game rain delay.
• Eventual Hall of Fame closer Bruce Sutter blew a save.
• Howard Johnson hit a home run with a man on in the top of the 13th inning; Terry Harper evened the score with a two-out, two-run blast off the left-field foul pole in the bottom half.
• Manager Eddie Haas summoned Camp, who by now was used almost exclusively as a reliever, to pitch the 17th inning
• The second batter he faced, Darryl Strawberry, was ejected after arguing a strike-three call. Skipper Davey Johnson was tossed as well.*
• After the Mets had taken a one-run lead in the top of the 18th inning, southpaw reliever Tom Gorman, who was in his sixth inning of relief, retired the first two batters. Since there were no more available position players left on the bench, Camp, a career .060 hitter, had to hit for himself. He fouled off the first pitch, then took strike two. The third pitch — I think Gorman threw him a slider — was unbelievably deposited over the left-field wall, tying the game once more.
• After the batted ball cleared the outfield fence, exasperated left fielder Danny Heep took both hands and placed them on top of his head. In contrast, Camp appeared to have the biggest sh*t-a** grin on his face as he rounded the bases.
• The Mets shook off Camp’s offensive heroics and battered him for five runs in the top of the 19th.
• Unbelievably, the Braves rallied in the bottom half off Ron Darling, usually a starter, and cut the lead to three. With two on and two out, up stepped . . . Camp.
• This time, Camp came up empty. At 3:55 a.m., he struck out to end the game.
• As the players staggered toward their respective clubhouses, the few thousand fans who remained were treated to the planned fireworks show.
• By the time Mets broadcasters Ralph Kiner and Tim McCarver** said good night — or, more likely, good morning — I was passed out in the living-room recliner.

* According to Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times, “When asked about it after the game, [home-plate umpire Terry] Tata responded with the words later engraved at the Tomb of the Unknown Umpire: ‘At three o’clock in the morning, there are no bad calls.’”

** Camp’s home-run shot on the Atlanta telecast was called by none other than current Yankees radio play-by-play man John Sterling, who called Braves games for Turner Sports from 1982 to 1987. (Thankfully, he had not yet come up with the “It is high, it is far” shtick.)

Camp finished the season with the Braves but was released before the 1986 season. He became a Georgia lobbyist and, years later, served two years in a federal prison after being convicted on an embezzlement charge.

Nonetheless, he remained popular in and around Atlanta and was always given a warm welcome when he showed up to Braves old-timers’ games.

Rest in peace. And thanks so much for the memories.

In early issues of National Review, readers were treated to debates over Abraham Lincoln’s place in American history, especially in relation to the growth of the federal government that occurred under Lincoln’s watch. Harry Jaffa, the great Lincoln historian, and Frank Meyer, the originator of conservative fusionism, were the two main belligerents in these debates, with Jaffa defending Lincoln and Meyer criticizing him.

Meyer argued that the expansion of the federal government during the Civil War laid the groundwork for the New Deal and future expansions of the state. In 1965, Meyer wrote in the pages of NR, “Were it not for the wounds that Lincoln inflicted upon the Constitution, it would have been infinitely more difficult for Franklin Roosevelt to carry through his revolution, for the coercive welfare state to come into being and bring about the conditions against which we are fighting today.” In other words, FDR never would have gotten away with creating Social Security if Lincoln, 70 years prior, hadn’t bothered to save the Union. The relationship between the two men is tenuous at best.

Harold Hutchison’s article “Eject Gaylord Perry” reminded me of Meyer’s line of thinking. Like Meyer, Hutchison connects an event several decades old with contemporary problems. Major League Baseball’s problem with players abusing performance-enhancing drugs, Hutchison contends, has its roots in Gaylord Perry’s unpunished use of the spitball. 

Gaylord Perry, a Hall of Famer, frequently used the spitball, which is exactly what it sounds like. A pitcher who lubricates the baseball enjoys certain advantages. The ball slips off his fingers with more ease, creating more spin, and the ball’s weight is no longer evenly distributed, which can affect its course in the air and make it harder for the batter to hit. The spitball, like the corked bat, is a serious though eccentric baseball transgression that baseball fans have been willing to forgive. 

Not Hutchison, though. He is outraged that MLB never threw the book at Perry, going so far as to call for his ejection from the Hall of Fame. He explains:

Much of the steroid use between 1991 and 2006, before testing became common, was by players who when in high school, college, and the minor leagues in the 1970s and early 1980s saw Gaylord Perry get away with flouting the rules. . . . The Steroid Era may get the headlines, and it may fuel the debate today, but the seeds were planted when baseball let Gaylord Perry get away with throwing the spitball.

Sure, these young and impressionable athletes may have been aware of Perry’s spitballs, but they were probably much more familiar with the widespread use of amphetamines, or “greenies,” as they were called. They might have even heard about Dock Ellis’s claim to have thrown a no-hitter while hallucinating on LSD. 

Hutchison continues: “Baseball’s failure to deal with a pitcher who routinely violated the rules against doctoring the baseball sent a signal to players that cheating didn’t necessarily have consequences.” Perhaps, though he presents no evidence that players actually learned that lesson.

Why did they put dangerous chemicals into their bodies? Because Gaylord Perry cheated also, and, you know, Que sera, sera? Or did they think that the proper mixture of chemicals could transform them into baseball gods and, in the process, millionaires? Did MLB’s failure to properly condemn Perry lead to the Steroids Era, or did the promise of hitting 62 home runs in one season? 

Forget Gaylord Perry and his spitball. He could have been hanged, drawn, and quartered and it still wouldn’t have stopped Mark McGwire from becoming Big Mac. Remember the attention that he and Sammy Sosa received in the summer and fall of 1998. They met world leaders, graced the covers of magazines, and received endorsements left and right. Sosa won the Most Valuable Player award that season, too. The temptation to cheat was so great, and the restrictions against it were so minimal — it seems almost inevitable that cheating would have occurred. 

Yes, Gaylord Perry cheated, and yes, Abraham Lincoln expanded the role of the federal government. But not all cheating is created equal. (Neither is all big government.) It shouldn’t need to be said, but, here goes: Gaylord Perry isn’t Barry Bonds. 

He isn’t even Abraham Lincoln.

Good for Jason Collins. Now I hope he hip-checks Kobe Bryant into the 4th row of the Staples Center for calling a ref a “faggot.”

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• In the wake of a telephone interview with Bud Selig, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports appears convinced that the commish will step down on January 15, 2015, the date that his current contract expires.
• Baseball Nation’s Rob Neyer is irked at the Mariners’ decision to bench arguably the best defensive player in the game, shortstop Brendan Ryan (2012 Fielding Bible Award winner), who admittedly also happens to be one of the worst offensive players (.148/.232/.148). Neyer explains why starting Robert Andino over Ryan is a head-scratcher:

Since Opening Day in 2011, Ryan’s got a terrible 69 OPS+, while Andino’s got a terrible 72 OPS+. They’ve been the same for three years, and they’ve been the same for their whole careers.

As hitters. As fielders, Ryan’s been outstanding and Andino’s started only 108 games at shortstop in his whole career. He’s played mostly second base, and has been just decent there.

• Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times profiles 75-year-old Manny Mota and his new gig with the Dodgers after 33 years as a coach with the club.
• Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan shows how Alfonso Soriano’s historic over-aggressiveness can make him a liability in high-leverage situations.
• Ted Berg of USA Today’s For the Win profiles six prospects who are poised to make big contributions in the majors, although one, Zack Wheeler of the Mets, is currently struggling with his control.  
• The Hardball Times’ Chris Jaffe notes the 20th anniversary of Royals manager Hal McRae experiencing an unforgettable meltdown:

At any rate, on April 26, 1993, the Royals lost a game 5–3 to the Tigers, dropping their record to 7–12. This wasn’t the Royals record McRae expected.

Then came the post-game conference. It started off fairly generically, with McRae holding court in his office. Then a reporter asked a question McRae didn’t like. And history was made.

The question was whether he’d considered using the aging George Brett as a pinch hitter in the seventh with two outs and the bases loaded. Something inside McRae snapped.

First he called it a “stupid a** f***ing question.” Well, that’s a nice little quote. But before anyone could go on, he got up, and started throwing things. Just whatever was in front of him on the desk. He screamed some more at the reporter, threw some more objects—most notably his phone, which caught a reporter in the face, drawing blood.

McRae chased everyone out of his office, followed them out, and screamed at them some more before concluding, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”

• Meanwhile, Jaffe’s colleague, Dan Lependorf, asks, “Which agencies negotiate the best contracts for their clients?” and discovers that, lo and behold, Scott Boras’s reputation is well earned.

•  Giancarlo Stanton hit his first home run of the season on Saturday evening and it was quite memorable. Mike Axisa of CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball has details. 

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Via USA Today.

What I liked: The top two picks were offensive linemen, the first seven and 18 total first-rounders were either offensive or defensive linemen. 

What I didn’t like: E. J. Manuel, QB from Florida State, to the Bills.

And as for my Raiders: D. J. Hayden’s miraculous recovery from heart surgery is one of the better stories I’ve read this year. He’s been medicaly cleared to play and he’s fast. And the best news is this gives the Raiders a second-round pick (which they gave away in the idiotic deal to get Carson Palmer last year.)

Obligatory Manti Te’o comment: Not drafted on Day 1. His imaginary girlfriend has already cost him possibly millions in first-round dollars, but he should get drafted today and we’ll see just how much damage was done.

Tonight’s coverage starts tonight at 6:30 pm.

Watch Victor Martinez get thrown out at home plate on a strike from Jeff Francoeur in last night’s game at bone-chilling Comerica Park. Notice anything pecuilar, other than the participants wearning enough thermal attire for a climb up Mount Everest?

Yup, Martinez chooses neither to slide nor take out the opposing catcher. He avoids home plate altogether and instead makes a beeline for the dugout.

Dayn Perry of CBS Sports’ Eye on Baseball doesn’t blame the slugger for the detour; au contraire, he questions the third-base coach’s decision to give the go sign:

The problem here was three-fold:

1. Martinez was already slow.
2. He’s a season removed from having his ACL (knee) repaired.
3. Royals right fielder Jeff Francoeur sports one of baseball’s most lethal throwing arms.

Fortunately for the Tigers, the out at the plate was not all that costly; Detroit defeated Kansas City, 7–5.