Monday, July 14, 2003 - And now for my side of the story...
I must be in the minority, but I don't think it's such a bad idea having the league that wins the All-Star Game get the home-field advantage for the World
Series. After all, having the best record in baseball has never mattered when it comes to determining which team hosts the seventh game of the World Series,
if it gets that far, because it has alternated between leagues every year.
Unless you're the Yankees, who are in the World Series just about every darn year and are certain to get the odd home game on a semi-regular basis, it's a
crapshoot whether or not you'd get the seventh game if you're good and lucky enough to win the pennant some year.
Come on, was it really fair that the 1987 Twins, winners of 85 games, got to host the seventh game of the World Series against the Cardinals with their 95
victories that year?
Or that the Mets, with their pathetic 82-79 record in 1973, got to host the seventh game at Shea Stadium against the Athletics, who had won 94 games and were
in the midst of winning three straight World Championships?
If there was no rhyme to the site of the seventh game, at least now there's a reason.
--
Save your dime. I admit I was wrong. After the Red Sox outclassed the Royals when they were off to their unexpectedly sensational start back in April, I
predicted the Royals would be under .500 at the All-Star break. Guilty as charged.
--
Theo Epstein kept the vow he made at the Lowell Spinners Awards Banquet last December. He has sent a contending team to Lowell.
The Spinners rank near the top of the New York-Penn League in pitching and offense, and they're in the thick of the fight in the Stedler Division with the
defending champion Oneonta Tigers.
But did the Red Sox really have to send first-round pick David Murphy to Sarasota after just three weeks?
--
I had an interesting chat with David Chadd, the Red Sox's scouting director, at LeLacheur Park last week.
The Spinners have a knuckleballer (Matt Blaney) and two submariners (Zak Basch and Brian Marshall) on their staff, and it's not because the Red Sox are
desperate to fill roster spots.
It's highly unusual for a major-league team to give a second look to young pitchers with freak pitches, unorthodox deliveries, and slow fastballs. But the Red
Sox, like Billy Beane's Athletics, are putting more emphasis on performance instead of raw tools.
And if pitchers with unorthodox stuff have gotten hitters out in the past, then the Red Sox are willing to give them a chance to prove they can do it in the
pros.
"It's not like we've used high draft picks on these kids," Chadd said. "So it's not like we have a lot invested in them. But they get a chance
to show us what they can do."
--
In case you missed it, Darryl Milne resigned as pitching coach of the Spinners just before the season began for personal reasons. Ace Adams, the former
Harvard University star who has worked for the Red Sox organization on and off for the last 20 years, is now the pitching coach.
--
I've read some interesting baseball books this summer.
"Moneyball," the controversial best-seller by Michael Lewis about how Beane's Athletics can compete with the Yankees with one-third the resources,
is a fascinating, if flawed, book.
For example, Lewis devotes an entire chapter to Bill James and his formulae for evaluating defensive skills, then later has Beane tell him that defense is
only five percent of the game (and therefore irrelevant).
Lewis also leaves the impression mistaken, I'm sure that the Athletics have no use for conventional scouts and can find prospects simply by combing the
internet. While the A's and now the Red Sox are paying more heed to performance, they still need scouts to tell them if players have instincts for the game,
how much heart and mental toughness they have, and to ferret out character issues.
Former Lowell Spinner Kevin Youkilis gets prominent attention throughout the book. Beane covets him because of his batting eye, and several entertaining pages
are devoted to Beane trying to use Montreal GM Omar Minaya as a pawn to heist Youkilis from the Red Sox at the trading deadline last summer.
"The Boston Red Sox", a history of the team comissioned by publisher G.P. Putnam and Sons and written by Fred Lieb back in 1947, has been reissued
by the Southern Illinois University Press. While the recently published "Red Sox Century" has the benefit of more hindsight (and a treasure trove of
photographs), Lieb's history is still a good read and has some interesting anecdotes.
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cooperstown," a tragicomic autobiography written by one-time Red Sox phenom Mickey McDermott, has plenty of
revealing moments. But McDermott makes the mistake of pulling some punches. If you're going to tell all, then tell it all.
Former Lowell Spinner and 2002 World Series hero David Eckstein has co-written a children's book, "Have Heart," about how he conquered the obstacle
of his size to become a major-league star. But there's plenty of information in the book that will interest adults, too.
Sorry, but I just couldn't get interested in Bill Lee's "The Little Red (Sox) Book: A Revisionist Red Sox History." I've always liked Lee well
enough, but I soon came to believe his flakiness was contrived.
Bernie Carbo ... now there was a genuine flake. Oil Can Boyd was just nuts.
