Bert was better known as a boxing guy, largely because he was editor and publisher of both Boxing Illustrated and The Ring magazines. He was frequently seen as a ringside commentator at big-time bouts or as a talking head on documentaries about the sport. He played himself in the film "Rocky Balboa." An ever-present cigar in his mouth and hat on his head were Sugar trademarks. I knew him pretty well for a long time and I don't think I ever saw the top of his head uncovered.
Despite the boxing label, Sugar was a baseball guy through and through, and a Nationals fan to boot. A D.C. native, Bert was a Maryland graduate who later got a law degree from Michigan. He worked in the advertising business for years, and gets a great deal of credit for igniting the sports collecting industry in the 1970s when he published The Sports Collectors Bible, the first comprehensive guide to the hobby.
I did many, many radio shows with Sugar over the years. I interviewed him on the field prior to the first Nats home game in 2005, and at the induction ceremonies in Cooperstown that summer, both on XM Radio. If Bert and I were at the same event and I had a microphone in my hand, he'd invariably find me. He really liked the experience.
Bert was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005, and began writing a regular column for Smoke, a cigar lifestyle magazine, around the same time.
Sugar was a true character, a perennially positive guy who left a positive imprint on everyone who knew him. There's no one out there to inherit his mantle. Or, as Bert would likely say, his Mays.
Oh, and to those Nats fans non-plused by the team's 6-13 Grapefruit League record, just remember this:
After the game at Nationals Park on April 3, you can press the reset button. Exhibition game results don't matter. No one holds a losing record in those games against you. Why do you think there are so many ties?
In other words, it's like an Etch-a-Sketch: After that last exhibition (or preseason game, if you prefer NFL terminology), just turn it upside-down and shake it. Those losses will all disappear.
Gee, that sounds vaguely familiar ...
]]>Parnell didn't pitch for the Senators - he was a Red Sox left-hander from 1947-56 - but he absolutely dominated Washington in head-to-head matchups. In 33 career starts against the original Nats, he went 23-5, with a 2.92 ERA, his best numbers against any other American League club.
Parnell pitched for Boston when Fenway Park was absolute death on most lefties, yet he did his best work at home. His career record at Fenway was 71-30 in 117 starts, with 60 complete games. He was really the first Boston lefty to have that kind of success at Fenway, and with a winning percentage just over .700 in 101 decisions, has few peers; it's even slightly better than Whitey Ford's record at Yankee Stadium.
Parnell wasn't a big guy - 6-foot, 180 pounds - and didn't throw exceptionally hard. He wasn't a strikeout pitcher- he averaged fewer than 100 Ks every season, and a like number of walks - but he made you put the ball in play. Lots of ground ball outs in a place where you hoped the right-handed swingers wouldn't hit the ball in the air to left field. In those 117 starts at home he allowed only 67 home runs, in a park known, as a longball haven.
Parnell retired after the 1956 campaign with a 123-75 record, a 3.49 ERA, and then managed for a few seasons in the Red Sox farm system. He then became a broadcaster for the Sox in the late 1960s. He was a part of their radio crew when they won the 1967 pennant, their "Impossible Dream" season. It surely was a big deal for him; he'd been a part of the last really good Red Sox team, the 1949 club that finished a game behind the Yankees. Parnell was a 25-game winner that year, several seasons before there was a Cy Young Award.
Parnell would have turned 90 in June. He'd battled cancer for several years and passed away in the city where he'd been born, New Orleans.
I'm supposing many of you have never heard of Parnell, and I thought he was someone you should know about.
]]>Earlier reports that Jayson Werth would play center with Harper in right sounded reasonable. Werth had played the position before, though not on a daily basis. He's clearly got the athletic skills to do it, and do it well, but if the thought of switching positions had created any discomfort, well, that's a different story. It's vitally important Werth return to the form he flashed in Philadelphia, the reason the Nationals pursued him in the first place.
Center field isn't like first base, in the sense that conventional wisdom dictates that just about anyone can play first with some small degree of competence. Center requires some rather specific criteria that may not exist instinctively at the outset. Harper is a gifted young man, and having caught as an amateur, likely has a pretty good idea of what the position demands. After all, he's watched from the opposing angle many, many times, and as a student of the game's history, knows it's not for beginners.
The whole magilla of postponing Harper's free agency for a year is also a consideration, though not one the club will readily cop to. It was a nice thought that he'd be introduced to a full house on opening day, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not that important at the moment.
Harper hit well enough this spring - .286 in 28 at-bats - but he also struck out 11 times, tops on the team. Some left-handers seem to retire him rather easily, but again, springtime stats are notoriously unreliable predictors.
Harper says center field is his "favorite" position, but then we already know he has a particular interest in Mickey Mantle - the numerals in his No. 34 add up to the Mantle's No. 7. Harper said this will be the last time he's sent to the minors, and I wouldn't dispute that.
Harper will be in Washington for a long time. This side excursion to upstate New York for a while is no big deal.
]]>The focus changed somewhat last winter, and the Nats decided they needed more left-handed punch, and Chad Tracy was signed to a minor league contract. Tracy, who will turn 32 in May, has 79 big league home runs, but 47 of those came over two seasons, 2005-06, with Arizona, the team that drafted Tracy out of East Carolina. Since then, Tracy's offensive output has stalled as his playing time diminished.
He left the D-Backs as a free agent after the 2009 season and split 2010 between the Cubs and Marlins. He spent 2011 in Japan as a part-timer with the Hiroshima Carp before signing with the Nats in December.
Tracy's had a reasonably good spring training with the Nationals. He leads the team in RBIs entering today's game with the Yankees with eight, and has played a reasonably solid first base. He has also played third and all three outfield spots in the major leagues.
Tracy has a history with Nats general manager Mike Rizzo, which may or may not have significance. Spring training stats are notoriously unreliable predictors of regular season production, but Tracy's been around the block and knows the whole March drill. He knows he's not here to supplant a regular.
You may be aware that there's another player named Chad Tracy. The other Chad, in camp with the Colorado Rockies, is also a first baseman, though he's right-handed all the way. He's yet to play a game at the big league level, though his chances may improve with Colorado, where his father, Jim Tracy, is the manager.
The Nats' Tracy has averaged 17 home runs every 162 games in the big leagues, which can't be overlooked. Still, the criteria for selecting bench players seems rather non-specific. With little more than three weeks left before the opener in Chicago, he's still in the picture, and that may be all he can ask for at this point.
]]>"I'm completely focused on breaking camp with this club," he said. "I'll do whatever they ask me to do."
Lombardozzi, a true local product out of Atholton High School in Columbia, got a taste of the big leagues last September, getting into 13 games. A 19th-round pick in 2008, Lombardozzi had a steady climb through the Nats' farm system, hitting a little bit better on every higher rung. Most scouts agree that he has nothing left to prove on the minor league level, but there's an obstacle - or two - in his way. A middle infielder by trade, Washington already has regulars at second and short - Danny Espinosa and Ian Desmond. Would Lombardozzi be content in a utility role?
Unequivocally, yes.
Manager Davey Johnson believes he can find Lombardozzi around 300 plate appearances, but skepticism abounds on that possibility. Lombardozzi believes in his skipper, however.
"I can pinch hit," he says, and as a switch hitter with a .369 career minor league on-base percentage, that sounds appealing, "and I can pinch-run."
He can obviously spell either Desmond or Espinosa, and likely Ryan Zimmerman at third, as well. Can he play the outfield?
"As I said, I'll do whatever they ask me to do," Lombardozzi said.
The Nationals need to decide if Lombardozzi, in a utility role, would see his development stall. It's entirely possible that, if June rolls around and he's had fewer than 50 at-bats, he could find himself back at Triple-A Syracuse. Johnson, as a former second baseman, understands what Lombardozzi is going through, but also grasps the importance of the process.
At 23, Lombardozzi would seem to still have time on his side.
As opposed to NFL camps, there was no playbook to turn in, just a gear bag to pack and carry down the street to the minor league clubhouse. For most, maybe all, of those given the word today, it was not unexpected.
When I arrived at the ballpark today and walked through the clubhouse, some had already departed, but one young man was still wearing his No. 56 Nationals uniform, and not so upset he couldn't look up and ask "How's it going?" with a smile on his face, despite the fact that he'd never seen me before in his life.
Ladies and gentlemen, please greet pitcher Austin Bibens-Dirkx. And no, I'd never heard of him either. A right-hander who attended the University of Portland, he's 6-foot-2 and 190 lbs.
Bibens-Dirkx is a native Oregonian who will be 27 next month. Originally the property of the Mariners, Bibens-Dirkx was drafted in the 16th round of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft. In six minor league seasons he's compiled a 31-22 record and a 4.29 ERA in 176 games covering 515 2/3 innings of work.
Bibens-Dirkx - yes, he's the only player of that surname to ever play professional baseball - spent three years in the Seattle system before being released. He signed with the Victoria Seals of the independent Golden Baseball League in 2009, and ended up back in organized baseball with the Cubs, where he reached Triple-A ball for 37 games.
The Nationals signed him this winter as a six-year minor league free agent, and gave him an invite to big league camp. Far be it for me to question why - Bibens-Dirkx went 6-7 with a 5.94 ERA in 2011 - I'm only sorry I didn't get a chance to see him pitch before he got sent out.
It's a small sample, to be sure, but in two road appearances this spring, Bibens-Dirkx pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and a run, and striking out three. Not great, but not terrible, either.
At his age, Bibens-Dirkx surely knows his window of opportunity may be closing, insofar as having a major league career. That his zest for the game is still palpable speaks volumes. Maybe he's inspired by the George Sherrill story, another ex-independent leaguer who went on to have a big league career, despite some less-than-stellar minor league numbers.
Bibens-Dirkx may never get another invite to big league camp, and I'm sure he savored every second of this one. Will he ever see his name in a regular season big league box score?
Other than I'm curious to see how it's abbreviated, it would be a good story, at the very least.
]]>Zimmermann allowed four runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.
The Nationals' offense brought their sticks against the Cardinals today, though. The Nationals lead the Cardinals 5-4 after an Ian Desmond single to right that scored Roger Bernadina.
Jesus Flores provided a home run in the second inning and Michael Morse hit an RBI double in the first inning.
The wind here is blowing out to right field, which aided the Flores home run. Ryan Zimmerman hit a solo homer in the third for the Nats.
The Nats' defense has turned two double plays.
Update: The Nationals defeated the Cardinals 8-4.
]]>Mincher was one of a handful of players to perform for both the original Senators and the expansion club, playing first base during the final year of both franchises in D.C. He came to Washington as part of the late 1960 spring training trade with the White Sox that also brought catcher Earl Battey to the Senators, along with $150,000, for first baseman Roy Sievers. Washington wasted no time putting Mincher into the lineup, batting him cleanup in the opener at Griffith Stadium. Mincher went 0-for-4, but the Senators prevailed 10-1 behind Camilo Pascual. The lone Red Sox run came on a long home run by Ted Williams, later to play his own role in a Senators uniform.
Mincher struggled at the plate, and in mid-May was optioned to Triple-A Charleston in the American Association, where he batted .306 with 12 home runs and 65 RBIs in 112 games. He was brought back to D.C. in September, but played sparingly. He finished his rookie season with an average .241 with two home runs (the first off of Baltimore's Milt Pappas on April 25) and five RBIs.
After the club moved to Minnesota, Mincher was a mainstay with the Twins through 1966 before he was traded to the Angels in the Dean Chance deal. After two years in Anaheim, he was taken by the new Seattle Pilots as the second pick in the expansion draft.
Mincher played well for the Pilots, but one game really stands out in my memory. It was Saturday, May 31, 1969, and Seattle was hosting Detroit in the "NBC Game of the Week." Right-hander Joe Sparma was on the mound for the Tigers, and through eight innings had held the Pilots without a hit, though he had allowed an unearned run on a walk and a Norm Cash error. He had also walked seven hitters - command was never Sparma's strong suit.
Top on the ninth, Tommy Davis leads off and flies out to Jim Northrup in left, bringing Mincher to the plate. Mincher hits a dot to the gap in right-center, a no doubt about it solid double. Adios, no-hitter. Wayne Comer, a future Senator at that point, reaches on an error by shortstop Dick Tracewski, Mincher to third. Rich Rollins then hit into a force play, short to second, and Mincher scored. Sparma got Larry Haney to fly out to right, ending the game.
After the game, NBC's Tony Kubek was on the field interviewing Sparma and Mincher. Sparma had won the game, but lost his no-hit bid after 8 1/3 innings, and clearly wasn't happy about it. He talked about how he had such good stuff that day - no mention of the seven walks - and then the microphone turned to Mincher, who memorably said, "I just want my mom back home in Alabama to know that I never hit without a batting helmet on my head."
Somehow that seemed entirely appropriate and kind of folksy.
Mincher was traded to Oakland the following year, and then was spun to the Senators as part of the Mike Epstein-Darold Knowles deal in May 1971. He played well for Ted Williams, batting .291 - a career high - in 100 games, with 10 home runs and 45 RBIs on a bad club. In July 1972, he was sent back to Oakland, where he served as a pinch hitter for the eventual world champs. His final big league plate appearance came in Game 4 of the World Series against Cincinnati. He batted for Dick Green in the bottom of the ninth with two on and one out and singled to right off of Clay Carroll, plating the tying run. He left for a pinch runner, and the A's won the game 3-2 when pinch hitter Angel Mangual singled home Allan Lewis, and the A's were up 3-1 in the series.
After retiring as a player (with an even 200 home runs) Mincher became owner of the Huntsville Stars of the Double-A Southern League where, presumably, he no longer had to worry about wearing a helmet. He later served as league president.
]]>It's too bad, really, since Burnett was looking to recapture the kind of ability he'd shown prior to the last couple of years in the Bronx. But it's not like he blew out his elbow or shoulder. Recovery from the surgery itself will only take a couple of weeks. After that, it's a reconditioning program and starting the spring training process all over again. The Pirates expect he'll be back in the rotation by early May.
Because he injured himself batting, there's been a hue and cry from a number of fans who believe this is why the NL needs to adopt the DH rule.
Really? Have you forgotten that Burnett spent seven seasons in the NL with the Marlins? Oh, he's a lousy hitter to be sure, but he does have three career home runs.
I can think of several major league position payers who are God-awful in the field, yet they still play defense. Anyone who would point to this incident as a legitimate reason to adopt the DH isn't seeing the big picture here.
First of all, pitchers are far more likely to get hurt pitching than hitting. Secondly, has there been a rash of incidents recently in which pitchers have hurt themselves hitting? Sure, there are a handful of incidents over the past several seasons, but it's far from an epidemic.
The American League has featured the DH since 1973. When the rule change was first proposed in 1972, AL owners voted 8-4 to adopt it - but they were coming off of a season where only three teams showed a profit. The NL turned it down, largely because most of their clubs made money in 1972.
My friend and colleague of the past 30-plus years, Tom Davis, believes that another vote should be taken now, since there's been a total turnover in club owners. It's not that simple. You'd first have to find a group of NL owners who wanted to adopt the rule, and I don't think a real "group" exists. If you put the cleat on the other foot, I think you'd handily find a group of AL owners who'd happily vote it down, but that's of no consequence, since it would be a collective bargaining issue with the players' association.
For those fans who believe that "it's inevitable" that the NL adopts the DH, consider this: 2012 will be the 40th consecutive season that the AL has used it and the NL has not. Inevitability flew out the window 25 years ago. If the NL thought that letting the pitcher hit was keeping fans away, they would've adopted it before the decade of the 70s ended. It's pretty clear it's not something that's cost them any spins of the turnstile.
The easiest way for the AL to dump the DH would be to offer the union an extra roster spot or two, to compensate for the probable lower cost of a 25-man roster without a designated hitter. It's unfortunate that Burnett got hurt, but it's not going to provide any impetus to change the rules.
]]>Really?
Hey, I'm as optimistic about Rendon's future as anyone, but I'm pretty sure his professional resume is essentially non-existent at the moment. Would you bet your house that Rendon will be no worse than Zimmerman's equal in two years?
Neither would the Nationals.
Look, Rendon was pretty much the hands-down best hitting prospect available in the 2011 draft. That he fell to the Nats with the sixth overall pick was based on several issues including signability and health; Rendon has suffered injuries to his right shoulder as well as his right ankle.
Rendon's athleticism has never been questioned, and most scouts agree that he could probably play a solid second base, or even transition to the outfield. It's fair to speculate that Zimmerman could find himself across the diamond himself before his contract expires, but at the moment he's still a top drawer third baseman. Yes, he had some throwing issues in 2011, but he re-made his throwing mechanics and by August his accuracy had returned.
The Nationals are in a position they've never been in before: they have genuine depth in their farm system that should allow them to maintain some continuity at several positions. A portion of that depth will end up with other ballclubs - that's just the way it works - and others will graduate to Washington.
Zimmerman's new deal is another step toward organizational continuity, as well as a solid marketing move. Zimmerman is exactly the kind of player you want to lock down for their career. Low maintenance, solid performer, not a whiff of scandal or unpleasantness. He won't play in 2,632 straight games, but his temperament and carriage remind many of Cal Ripken.
I'd say that's worth embracing.
]]>Braun's 50-game suspension was overturned through arbitration, and the story of why that happened is still not crystal clear. What is clear, though, is that the confidentiality of baseball's drug testing program has some obvious holes.
Braun had every reason to think that his positive test, showing an abnormally high level of synthetic testosterone, would be known only to him and his agent, along with MLB and the Brewers. When the story was leaked to ESPN, Braun - having just won the National League MVP Award - was branded a cheat by fans and journalists nationwide. Some even advocated stripping him of the award.
It later came out that Braun had been tested about two dozen times in his career prior to the positive result, and that results had been negative in each of those instances. Braun had requested a re-test after the positive result came back, and that test, too, was negative. What we don't know is how much time passed between the latter two tests.
The story that's out there now concerns the chain of custody of the sample that tested positive. The perception seems to be that because there was a delay in sending the sample to the lab in Montreal, arbitrator Shyam Das ruled in Braun's favor, based on the sample sitting in someone's refrigerator for 24-48 hours. However, we now know that something similar has occurred in previous instances involving other players where Das ruled in favor of MLB, so I suspect that's not the actual reason this time.
Braun has declared himself "innocent," but it's not quite that simple. He may well be innocent, but there will likely be a cloud of doubt that may hover for quite some time. Braun's 2011 stats are pretty much in line with what's he's done annually over his five-year career, so it's difficult for me to see him as someone who needed an artificial performance boost of some kind.
One thing's for sure: the Players' Association is going to use this breech of confidentiality by MLB as a hammer to beat some changes into the testing program. The Brewers have to be absolutely giddy that their offense is back on track; losing both Prince Fielder and Braun simultaneously - even though Braun would've been back in June - would have been a tough hole to climb out of.
As for the Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman, I don't believe for a second that a long-term contract extension with Zimmerman doesn't get done before the weekend's over. I know, I know, he says it has to be done before Saturday's workout, but inasmuch as both sides know the dollars involved, it's inconceivable that the no-trade clause Zimmerman is seeking will stop this thing in its tracks, especially given that they gave one to Jayson Werth last year.
With six full years already in the big leagues, and two years to go on his current contract, he only needs a no-trade clause for the first two years of a new deal, since after that he'd be a 10-and-5 man, with the right to veto any deal. Obviously, it's adding no-trade protection to his current deal that's holding things up, but it would be ludicrous to see the club not embrace its first homegrown star.
Zimmerman wants to join the short list of long career major leaguers who played for just a single team. Locally, Walter Johnson spent 21 years with Washington, and his teammate Ossie Bluege was a Nat for 18 seasons. Zimmerman's the last of the 2005 Nats still with the club, and it would be fitting if he's still holding that distinction in 2020 and beyond.
]]>Every so often, there would be a scoring decision that was questioned by either the player involved, or the PR guy for the team he played on. They'd ask me to "take another look" at it on video, and see if I saw it their way. I never did, but I'd take the time to review it.
Now, it seemingly won't matter if the scorer - not me, I stopped doing it after 1995 - agrees with them or not. The new protocol for questioning a scoring decision, as delineated in the collective bargaining agreement, sets it up thus:
1. Aggrieved player calls his agent, and spells out his objection.
2. Agent contacts Players' Association and states his client's case.
3. Union contacts MLB and files an official complaint.
4. MLB reviews the play and issues either a confirmation of the original call, or a scoring change.
Got it? Until now, the official scorer had 24 hours to change a call before it was etched in stone. Now it appears to be a procedure that will take considerably longer than 24 hours.
There are a myriad of problems with this change, not the least of which is the most obvious: If an error is changed to a hit, and the pitcher involved sees his ERA rise by 50 percent because of what happened after that error - which is now a hit - don't you think his agent will start the process all over again? Plus, how is the scoring change announced? Is there a specific avenue for releasing this information? It's revisionist history for those fans who live and die by the box score.
I have to believe that this issue will be revisited if there are daily challenges, which won't surprise me. If you're an agent, are you going to talk your client out of it if you think that extra hit might mean the difference between .299 and .301? Of course not. You'll see those same dollar signs your client sees.
This is potentially a dangerous precedent. We'll keep an eye on it throughout the season and revisit the topic at a later date.
]]>In the course of Gibson's dialogue, the subject of the Snakes' signing of free agent Jason Kubel came up, in regards to Kubel assuming the everyday left field gig, a position that featured Gold Glove-winning Gerardo Parra in 2011. Gibson said he wanted to see Parra improve defensively in center, which could lead to additional playing time spelling Chris Young. Piecoro added that Parra wasn't the type to sound off about losing his job, but likely wasn't happy about it.
We don't see a lot of D-Backs' baseball on the east coast, so Parra's resume may not be familiar. He was signed by Arizona out of Venezuela as a free agent in 2004, when a certain Mike Rizzo was in the employ of the club. He arrived in the big leagues in 2009, and in three years has compiled a career batting average of .282 with an OBP of .331. Last year he hit .292 with an OBP of .357, with 15 steals. He's left-handed all the way and, while not a true slugger, had an OPS last year of .784.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Is it possible that Parra could be a Nationals' target at the moment? He hasn't played a lot of center field, but has spent more than 360 innings out there. He had 12 outfield assists in left in 2011, so his arm seems adequate. Rizzo is certainly familiar with Parra's development, and Washington may have something to offer that the D-Backs could use.
Parra will be 25 in May, and usually bats in the lower third of the lineup. If he's unhappy in the desert, maybe he'd find the east coast more to his liking. I think we all feel the Nationals have at least one more trade in the offing before opening day, and Parra makes at least a modicum of sense.
]]>Cameron, 39, had signed a minor league deal with Washington in December, and one popular theory had him platooning with Rick Ankiel in center field this year, allowing the ballclub to send Bryce Harper back to the minors for further seasoning. His departure doesn't mean that Harper makes the big club out of spring training, but it may provide some of the other non-roster right-handed hitters like Brett Carroll and Jason Michaels a longer look.
It may also be the impetus for a trade that brings yet another outfielder to the Nationals.
If you buy the rumors that the Nats will trade lefty starter John Lannan somewhere during spring training, perhaps a right-handed bat will be the return. We're all in the speculation business this time of year, and that makes as much sense as anything else.
Cameron retires after 17 seasons in the majors, doing time with the White Sox, Reds, Mariners, Mets, Padres, Brewers, Red Sox and Marlins. He batted .249 with 278 home runs. On May 2, 2002, he hit four home runs in a single game for Seattle in a game versus the White Sox in Chicago.
]]>Many scouts believe that Cespedes will need at least a little while in Triple-A ball to get his stroke back after a long layoff, but the A's likely want him to be in center field on opening day. His spring training performance will have a lot to do with that, but the real question is how close to major league caliber the level of play is in Cuba.
Oh, I've seen Cespedes' audition video. Very impressive. But really, what does it mean? It's batting practice. A lot of guys can put on a show against a BP pitcher. There's no challenge when someone just flips it up there with no movement on it. Most players will tell you that BP is for getting loose and not much else.
Guaranteeing $36 million to an unproven 26-year-old who's been playing in a 4-A league is more of a gamble than I'd be willing to take. Believe me, if Nationals talent evaluators saw this guy as a potential long-term answer in center field, they'd have been in on him until the end. They actually thought he'd be better off at first base, and likely not yet ready for an everyday big league role.
I wish the A's well in their pursuit of a new stadium in San Jose. Previous Oakland owners handed Santa Clara County to the Giants for free, and San Francisco is stonewalling Oakland owner Lew Wolff in his quest for a new ballpark.
Cespedes may sell a few additional tickets in the bay area - he'd better - but the A's are still an also-ran in the American League West. Their decision to sign him may turn out to be pure genius, but Nats fans shouldn't lose any sleep over it.
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