A-Rod’s Numbers | FanGraphs Baseball

If ARod started using PEDs in 2001, then they had no effect, as his three years in Texas are statistically indistinguishable from his previous two years in Seattle. His jump in performance was between the 1998 and 1999 seasons.

Who knows for sure, but why the hell would someone start using them AFTER signing a guaranteed contract for a bazillion dollars? Thus endeth the biannual sports post.

Good story on Pedro Martinez here.

My take - In a lot of ways, players like Pedro, Manny and Ortiz are what is great about baseball - they're incredible performers who know that they're playing a kid's game, they're lucky to be doing it, and they LOVE it.

Pedro is the greatest pitcher I've ever seen, and probably ever will see. I had great luck getting to his games at Fenway in the late 90s and in 2000 when I moved down the street in Cambridge. It was a lot easier to get in to the park then - there were plenty of times that I would figure out where his slot in the rotation was and then grab the tickets a couple weeks beforehand.

I remember watching him dominate the Indians and Bartolo Colon. I remember when Mo Vaughn returned as an Angel. What happened that night is basically what should happen tonight - the fans cheered Mo (well, there were a lot of boos, but mostly cheers), and they went beserk when Pedro made him look like a total fool, striking out on a three pitches.

Anyway, I hope that Pedro goes 9 innings and loses 1-0 on an unearned run or something like that. I wish he was still on the Sox. In case I ever become a GM, note to self - if you have a chance to sign the best pitcher ever, always go for it.

FIRE JOE MORGAN: Up is Down, Black is White

Did any sentient entity on any planet in the universe expect any sportswriter to describe the hiring of Grady Little as the manager of a major league baseball team as a "coup"?

I certainly didn't

Giamatti: The Green Fields of the Mind

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

well that sucked.