Around The Horn

Mother, may I slug the umpire, May I slug him right away? So he cannot be here, Mother,
When the clubs begin to play?
Let me clasp his throat, dear Mother, In a dear, delightful grip, With one hand and with the other Bat him several in the lip.
Let me climb hisframe, dear Mother, While the happy people shout:
I’ll not kill him, dearest Mother, I will only knock him out.
Let me mop the ground up, Mother, With his person, dearest, do;
If the ground can stand it, Mother, I don’t see why you can’t too.

Early umpires were selected from the assembled crowd or even from the ranks of players. They personified the amateur spirit of the game of baseball. And since it was an “honor” to be called to that task, the early umpires received no financial compensation for their duties. They wore whatever clothing they wished. Some of the more stylish early fellows showed up bedecked in Prince Albert coat, cane, top hat. They sat at a table or took up a stance or kneeled on a stool a brave distance from home plate along the first-base line.

The National League in 1878 revolutionized things by ruling that umpires would be paid five dollars a game and gave the arbiters the right to fine players up to twenty dollars for the use of foul language. Umps were also given the power to eject rowdy fans.

In 1879 the N.L. named twenty men whom it deemed fit to be a cadre of umpires. For the sake of logistical convenience, the umpires chosen all lived in or close to cities where National League franchises were located. Prior to 1879, rival captains of teams had mutually agreed on whom they preferred to umpire a game. Now the league ruled that umpires could be chosen only from the select list of twenty men.

The gradually increased duties and independence of umpires were reflected in an 1882 ruling that abolished the practice of arbiters appealing to fans and players for guidance on a disputed play. Now umps were on their own to “call them as they saw them.” And from 1882 on, all players except for the team captains were theoretically banned from engaging in any kind of menacing or meaningless banter with the umpire.

That 1882 season the American Association put in place a salaried staff of three umpires to be paid $140 a month. It was also the American Association that innovated clothing umps in blue caps and coats-a uniform that was aimed at giving the arbiters an air of respectability. Those uniforms were to become part of the folklore of the game the dress code for the “men in blue.”

In 1883 the National League copied the practice of the American Association, appointing four umpires for the season who drew salaries of $1,000 each. To ensure neutrality, to quell complaints that the new umps would not be political appointees, all the umpires were unknowns who came from cities that did not have National League franchises. The four men operated under trying conditions-serving without tenure, serving at the suffrage of the owners. Complaints by any four teams were grounds for the firing of any of the umpires, and not surprisingly just one of the four umpires made it through the entire season.

Changing rules, polemics in sports sections of newspapers criticizing umpires, the rugged nature of play-all of these made the work of the men in blue a tough task. Such terms as “daylight crime,” “robbery,” and “home umpire” were part of the lexicon of the times applied to the alleged foibles and flaws of arbiters.

In 1884 barbed wire was fastened around the field in Baltimore to contain the fans. That same season an umpire was beaten by an angry mob when he called a game a tie because of darkness. Police escorts were commonplace to move umpires out of ball parks and away from the menace of irate fans.

Dumping on the umpire was a practice encouraged by owners, who realized that fans howled in delight at the sight of authority being humiliated. “Fans who despise umpires,” Albert Spalding noted, “are simply showing their democratic right to protest against tyranny.” The protests pushed profits at the box office, and owners willingly paid fines meted out to players by umpires.

The system of two umpires working a game came into being in 1887 in postseason competition between the National League and the American Association. The first set of double officials was John Gaffney and John Kelley.

As a class those early arbiters were a colorful and tenacious group of men-they had to be, considering the not so genteel band of athletes they had to deal with. Umpire Billy McLean, who plied his trade in Boston and Providence, was a quick-triggered type. An ex-boxer, McLean kept himself in top physical condition; it was reported that he once arose at 4 A.M. and walked from his home in Boston to his umpiring job in Providence.

John Gaffney was called the king of umpires because of his longevity and resiliency. At one point, Gaffney was the highest-paid umpire, earning a salary of $2,500 plus expenses.

Bob Ferguson was another standout man in blue. “Umpiring always came as easy to me,” he said, “as sleeping on a featherbed. Never change a decision, never stop to talk to a man. Make ‘em play ball and keep their mouths shut, and never fear but the people will be on your side and you’ll be called the king of umpires.”

Tim Hurst, who coined the now-famous phrase about umpires, “The pay is good, and you can’t beat the hours-three to five,” was another of the fabled arbiters of nineteenth-century baseball. A rather smallish man who came out of the coal mining region of Pennsylvania, Hurst was quick-witted and quick-fisted.

In 1897 during the course of a game in Cincinnati, Hurst was struck in the face by a stein of beer that was hurled out of the stands. Hurst flung the stein back; it hit a spectator and knocked him out. A frenzied mob surged out onto the field heading for
Hurst. Policemen made contact with the umpire first. They charged him with assault and battery and arrested the irate Hurst, who was fined $100 and court costs by a judge.

Then there was the fracas in Washington in which Hurst mixed it up verbally with Pittsburgh’s Pink Hawley, Jake Stenzel, and Denny Lyons. The quartet agreed to meet after the game to settle things once and for all.

Hurst went to work quickly. He punched Hawley in the face, smashed his foot into the shins of Lyons, and roughed up Stenzel.

“Timothy, what is all the excitement?” asked National League President Nick Young, who as it turned out just happened to be passing by.

“Somebody dropped a dollar bill, Uncle Nick,” replied Hurst, “and I said it was mine.”

“Oh, you’re sure that’s all?” asked Young. “It looked to me like there was some kind of a riot going on. Did the dollar bill really belong to you?”

“Not really. It belonged to Hawley, but these other two tried their best to take it away from him, and I wouldn’t let them. It was just pink tea.”

“Timothy, you did the right thing.” Young smiled. “Now let’s leave these follows alone. Come and take a walk with me.”
Two umpires from that epoch went on to become National League presidents-John Heyder and Tom Lynch. Both men confessed to recurring nightmares of their time as umpires.

With all the pain and the abuse of the job of umpiring, there were some redeeming aspects. The early umpires loved the game of baseball. They earned an average salary of $1,500 for seven months of employment, and as umpire Tim Hurst noted, it was a job where “you can’t beat the hours. ”

In 1898 the Brush Resolution was passed, slightly improving the umpire’s lot. John T. Brush, National League mogul, pushed owners into endorsing a twentyone-point program to do away with the bullying of umpires. Expulsion for “villainously foul language” and umpire baiting were at the heart of the resolution.

The “purification plan” never worked and was ultimately given up as hopeless-no case ever reached the appointed discipline board, but it did raise the consciousness of the public, players, and writers about the plight of umpires forced to contend with the riotous behavior of scrappy and excitable players.

“Kill the Umpire” would be a phrase of symbolic import in the futurc and that was a large step forward, for in the not so genteel days of the gilded age, that phrase had a darker and more sinister meaning.

(to be continued)

HF

Harvey Frommer is the author of 34 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball’s Color Line,” “The New York Yankee Encyclopedia,” “A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball’s Greatest Team,” and the 2005 Updated “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). His THE SPORTS JUNKIE’S BOOK OF TRIVIA, TERMS AND LINGO will be published in September. Frommer sports books are available direct from the author -discounted and autographed. Contact Harvey Frommer for details. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of 750,000 and appear on Internet search engines for extended periods of time. This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2005 by Harvey Frommer. All rights reserved worldwide.

“I don’t want to be in. A lot of people are going to say, ‘Well, how dare him even say that.’ I don’t care. It’s my life. I can say what I feel, and I don’t believe in cheating.”

That is what Jack Morris said this past week about being in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Now keep in mind that Morris is the most winning pitcher during the 80’s, only received 172 votes or 33% during the last HOF election. His statement this week is probably going to cost him votes the next time around.

The question is why should these privileged BBWAA members have exclusive HOF membership rights anyway? Since there are 825 members of this exclusive club today, why did only 516 cast ballots in the last election? Should those 309 BBWAA forfeit their voting privilege, because they never even voted? Maybe the Hall needs to open up the election process to those that really care about the game.

Back in the dark ages when baseball was only written about by those members of the press that were present at the games it made sense. Now there are more people than ever that have their own baseball blogs and write only in cyberspace. I happen to be one of those people. I can never gain acceptance by the BBWAA because I lack the necessary credentials, that being that somebody pays me to write about baseball.

Maybe if we open up a new voting section call it the BBBAA. The Baseball Blogger Association of America. Some of those people with voting privileges now really don’t deserve to have them. Look at what Rick Reilly wrote in last week’s Sports Illustrated about BBWAA member Jayson Stark. According to Reilly, Stark said “I am not a cop, and it isn’t my job to police the sport.” Well Jayson maybe you need to turn over your voting privilege to someone that really cares about the game. I’m sure if Stark was a card carrying member in 1953 he would have been one of the 56% of the voters that left Joe DiMaggio off the ballot. Those members saw to it that Jolten Joe had to wait 3 years before getting in. He wasn’t much of a role model, or even a ballplayer back then anyway.

Now today the BBWAA has grown to 816, most of them don’t like to recognize bloggers. The world has changed, people that write about baseball should have a voice in the game. Baseball bloggers unite! Write to Cooperstown now. If everyone wrote to the Vice President of the HOF, Jeff Idelson, at info@baseballhalloffame.org maybe we can change the system.

For starters there are 309 openings where members didn’t vote. Open those up to the top 309 baseball bloggers now. Baseball is our National Pastime. America is a free country, every citizen that cares to is allowed to vote in America. Open up the voting rights of baseball to those who really care about the sport. I, for one, want the Hall of Fame to put Smoky Joe Wood in the Hall and to never let any performance enhancing cheater in the Hall. I want to restore Roger Maris as the single season home run leader, plus he deserves to be in the HOF.

All I want is a vote, to have my say. The number one requirement as far as I am concerned is rule 5, and I am going to keep writing this rule until somebody finally hears me. Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character. Maybe you don’t have to be a cop to vote but you do have to look at this eligibility rule.

I am The Fan’s Commish

Rick Swanson

The early environment of baseball games was that of a gentlemen’s affair marked by the absence of spectators except for those invited by the teams. What spectators there were lolled about on the grass or sat on chairs or benches. The umpire was generally attired in tails and a tall black top hat, and in those early years he seated himself at a table along a baseline. Circa 1860, the general public became more and more involved as spectators, and winning replaced gentlemanly ways as baseball’s operative factor.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings began play in 1876 in the National League in a ball park located in an area known as Chester Park. In order to get to the ball game, fans had to ride on special trains or in carriages. Crowds of 3,000 were common and considered a good payday for the team. When the National League came into being, the White Stockings played their home games in a rickety wooden park on Dearborn between 23rd and 24th streets on Chicago’s West Side.

During the 1880s and 1890s most parks were surrounded by wooden stands and a wooden fence. Some of the stands were partially protected by a roof, while others were simple wooden seats of sunbleached boards. That is how the word bleachers came to be. When those parks were filled to capacity, fans were allowed to stand around the infield or take up viewing perches in the far reaches of the outfield.

John B. Day transferred the Troy National League franchise to New York in 1883; arrangements were made for games to be played on the polo field of James Gordon Bennett, publisher of the New York Herald. For most of the 1880s, the team played its games on a field at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue, across from Central Park’s northeast corner. In 1897,a game between Boston and Baltimore drew more than 25,000 fans, the overflow crowd was permitted to stand just a few feet behind the infielders, creating a situation where any ball hit into the throng was ruled an automatic ground-rule double .

In 1899, the Giants moved to New York City plot 2106, lot 100, located between 155th and 157th streets at Eighth Avenue in upper Manhattan. The location was called “the new Polo Grounds,” a horseshoe-shaped stadium with Coogan’s Bluff on one side and the Harlem River on the other. The Polo Grounds seated 55,897, the most of any facility in the National League. A four-story, misshapen structure with seats close to the playing field and overhanging stands, it was an odd ball park that afforded fans the opportunity to be close to the action. There were 4,600 bleacher seats, 2,730 field boxes, 1,084 upper boxes, 5,138 upper reserved boxes, and 2,318 general admission seats. The majority of those who came to the Polo Grounds sat in the remaining lower general admission seats.

The visitors’ bullpen was just a bench located in the boondocks of left center field. There was no shade from the sun for the visitors or protection from Giant fans who pelted opposing pitchers with pungent projectiles. The upper left field deck hung over the lower deck; and it was virtually impossible for a fly ball to get into the lower deck because of the projection of the upper deck. The overhang triggered many arguments, for if a ball happened to graze the front of the overhang it was a home run. The double decks in right field were even. The short distances and the asymmetrical shape of the convoluted ball park resulted in drives rebounding off the right field and left field walls like billiard shots. And over the years hitters and fielders on the New York Giants familiar with the pool table walls of the ball park had a huge advantage over opposing teams.

Fires and progress would make steel and concrete replace the wood and timber of the nineteenthcentury ball parks. The idiosyncratic dimensions of stadiums, the marching bands, even the real grass in many instances-all of these would ultimately become footnotes to baseball history.

As late as 1900 some clubs even allowed fans to park their automobiles or carriages in the outfield. The environment at those games made it difficult for fans to follow the action clearly. Even though scorecards and programs were sold, no public address system existed, and there were no names or numbers on the players’ uniforms.

Players were sometimes pressed into service to double as ticket takers. And during breaks in the action on the field, the dull moments were enlivened by the festive performances of brass bands.

The St. Louis National League entry was known as the Browns and then the Perfectos-an odd name for a club with a not so perfect track record. The team left the National League twice, then returned and finished twelfth twice, eleventh three times, tenth once, ninth once, and once in fifth place in the years 1892-99. To attract customers to Robinson Field, St. Louis owner Chris Von der Ahe transformed his ball park into what he called “the Coney Island of the West.” He installed chute-the-chutes (tubs that plunged with their riders into a pool), night horseracing, a Wild West show.

The popular tunes of the day were played by the Silver Cornet Band-an all-female aggregation bedecked in long striped skirts and elegant blouses with leg-of-mutton sleeves and broad white sailor hats.

In 1899 Chris Von der Ahe changed the uniforms around in his zest for more color-the new garments featured red trim and red-striped stockings. The new uniforms brought new nicknames for the St. Louis team- Cardinals or Redbirds, they were called, and so they would remain.

(to be continued)

HF

Harvey Frommer is the author of 34 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball’s Color Line,” “The New York Yankee Encyclopedia,” “A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball’s Greatest Team,” and the 2005 Updated “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). His THE SPORTS JUNKIE’S BOOK OF TRIVIA, TERMS AND LINGO will be published in September. Frommer sports books are available direct from the author -discounted and autographed. Contact Harvey Frommer for details. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of 750,000 and appear on Internet search engines for extended periods of time. This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2005 by Harvey Frommer. All rights reserved worldwide.

I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn’t work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball.. I’ve tried ‘em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.
Of course everyone knows that is from Annie Savoy in Bull Durham, but in reality it is all of us. Those of us that follow and run this great pastime of ours know that we too are a part of this religion, The Church of Baseball. Cooperstown is the Vatican, and Bud should be the Pope, but he isn’t. Even the HOF is tainted, and not enough of objective fairness in who gets in the HOF. What the HOF needs is a Ten Commandments of the game. This needs to be engraved in stone and visible for all.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF BASEBALL

1. Thou shall not bet on thine game or any other baseball game in the major leagues.

2. Thou shall not take any performance enhancing drugs that are deemed illegal by the sport. Any records broken by these cheats will be abolished. Immediately Roger Maris will be restored as the single season home run champion with 61.

3. Anyone that buys a team must put out their best effort to win at all times.

4. No player shall ever physically assault a fan or anyone connected with the game. This includes cameramen, sportswriters, announcers, and bloggers. (How does Ron Artest get a season long suspension for going after a fan, but a baseball player assaulting a cameraman is only suspended 13 games?)

5. Any fan that tries to assault or interfere with the game in progress will be excommunicated from the Church of Baseball, and never allowed in any MLB park again. This includes jumping on the screen from the upper deck.

6. October Baseball will be televised at a reasonable hour to be determined by the fans of the game, not by the evil networks. No game will ever go beyond midnight.

7. Umpires will be held accountable for their calls, and available for the entire baseball world to view. This means all QuesTec numbers will be open for the public viewing. Umpire crews that miss home runs and call them doubles will be suspended.

8. Those that disgraced the HOF with their bias life, will be removed from the HOF. Cap Anson, “Father of apartheid” will be the first to leave.

9. Baseball will have an equal salary cap so that all teams will have an equal chance of winning.

10. Entering the HOF will be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, and character.

Oh I forgot they already have that rule, they just choose to not enforce it.

I am
The Fan’s Commish

Rick Swanson

Just call me Moses of the game

The rules of the game of baseball are one thing that many can recite, but how many baseball people really know the fine print of the game? If you think you are ready to be a Big League General Manager, here is an interactive test to see if you know to Waiver Wire rules. Just click on the “Fan’s Commish” link at the end of this test, put down 1-10, and put in the correct response for each question. and you will know if you are ready to play ball.

Waiver Wire Baseball Rules Test

1. Which team would have first claim to a waivered player if your team is leading your division?

A. The team in third place in your division.
B. The team in second place in your league, but in another division but a lower winning percentage than the third place team in your own division
C. The team in last place with the worst record in baseball, put in the other league.

2. True or false, in order to be on the playoff roster you must be on the 25 man roster by August 31. If false you must name a player in this millennium that did it.

3 How many business days does it take to clear waivers?

A. 1 day
B. 1 week or 5 week days
C. 3 days

4. What is the requirement for another player to be added to the playoff roster for someone on the 60 day disabled list?

A. They both must play the same position?
B. They both must have the same number?
C. They both must be rookies

5. If a player is released after August 31, what date do they have to wait until to sign with that same team?

A. January 1 of the next year
B. The first day free agents can sign
C. May 15 of the following season.

6. How many claims can a team make of waivered players each week?

A. Unlimited amount
B. 40
C. 30 for the worst team down to 1 for the best team
D. 20

7. How many players per week can a team put on waivers?

A. 25
B. 15
C. 7
D. 2

8. If a player is claimed how long does the team have to pull them back off waivers?

A. 24 hours
B. 48 hours
C. 72 hours

9. If a player is pulled back, but then is placed again on waivers in the same month what will happen?

A. The rules stay the same
B. the team claiming him first automatically gets him
C. The team can block him from leaving twice in the same month

10. True or false. A team cam promote a player on the minor-league DL to get the extra spot for the playoffs.

Bonus questions.

1.What player did the New York Yankees pick up on waivers in 1949 to help them beat Boston?

2. 5 points each. What were the names of the 2 players to be named later that went from Boston to NY, in 1967 when Boston got Elston Howard? Hint one of the players worked for QuesTec later in his life. Answer Pete Magrini and Ron Klimkowski

3. What was the worst waiver deal ever on August 31, 1990. You must name all the players and teams involved, and the GM that still regrets it. .

Your total:

120-130 You are a real G.M. already

100-120 You should be in the minors.as an intern.

80 100 You should become a player’s agent.

60-80 You need to practice using Google to find answers.

50 or less, you don’t care about waivers you just want players on your favorite team.

I am
The Fan’s Commish

Rick Swanson

In the baseball sportswriter’s world, there is the real world, and then there is the cyber world. The BBWAA is a powerful organization. They are the ones entitled to vote on who goes into the Hall of Fame. They mostly work for the industry that uses newspaper for their means of communication. Those BBWAA card carrying members get to get inside locker rooms and talk to players. They feel threatened by baseball bloggers, of which I am one of. When I met Peter Gammons last month at Fenway, he wanted to scurry away from me as fast as possible. He wasn’t interested in any baseball story I could give him, because I wasn’t a real writer, just a blogger. When I wrote to Boston Dirt Dogs, which is probably the best blog ever made, they liked what I wrote and put my story right in their blog on April 3 and left me there for a month, with the following statement: Friend of BDD and self-proclaimed “The Fan’s Commish” Rick Swanson writes on Opening Night. When I tried to apply with MLB as a baseball writer, I was rejected. My stories don’t mean a hill of beans in the baseball world. Since the beginning of this season I have 24 stories I have written here at Around the Horn. I wrote this story on March 17, “Truth be told, if you lie to Congress, then you go to jail.” Now it appears Rafael Palmeiro might end up where I predicted. The real verdict is in Cooperstown. Controlled by those same BBWAA individuals that get to be lifetime judges. They decide, who goes in and who does not. Some already are saying they will punish McGwire and make him wait a year before getting in. Kind of like their forefather writers that made Joe DiMaggio wait a year, I guess. The writers already have the means to keep all these cheats out of the HOF. I wrote about it March 25 in this story “Rule 5 HOF voting.” Rule 5.Voting — Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character. There isn’t one player from this last decade that could pass rule 5 requirements for the HOF. Maybe by 2007 when Big Mac is on the ballot, there will be bloggers that are part of the BBWAA, and their voice will be heard. Until then I will write my stories about baseball and maybe someone in the game will see that I belong there too. I guess just the fact that my stories are published by my friend Sean Holtz at Baseball Almanac, and read by the leaders of the team I love, and by people connected with the Worldwide Leader in Sports, means that my stories are in the baseball world. In striving to reach my goal of being inside the game I listen to the words of A. Bartlett Giamatti:
“There are many routes to the game. There are many routes to the kingdom of baseball.”

In some ways I have already accomplished that goal.

I am
The Fan’s Commish

Red Auerbach, Celtic legend, remarked: Gene Conley was one of the greatest athletes of our generation” Red ought to know. He coached Gene on the Boston Celtics. The 6′ 8″ Conley also pitched (at the same time) for the Boston Red Sox. Incredible.

Incredible, yes, and The Gene Conley Story: One of A Kind by Kathryn R. Conley (Advantage Books, 1-888-383-3110) is an incredible kind of book.

The only athlete to win a world championship in both the NBA and Major League Baseball, Conley was a just a jock all the time. “I enjoyed all sports,” he notes, “but especially basketball and baseball. I played both well enough to excel. I never had it in my mind to be a professional athlete even with all the accomplishments.”

Written by Kathryn Conley, Gene’s wife, One of A Kind is a remarkable account of the life and times of one of the top all around athletes produced in the United States. His highs and lows, his uncensored opinions, his characterizations of so many famous sports figures - all make this a wondrous read.

Now in paperback from Thomas Dunne Books Brushbacks and Knockdowns by Allen Barra deals interestingly with all sorts of old fashioned baseball legends, lore and likes. License to Deal by Jerry Crasnick (Rodale, $24.95, 328 pages) is a truly inside look at the world of baseball agents focusing as it does on the way of life of Matt Sosnick.

Also from Rodale comes The Slam by Curt Sampson about Bobby Jones and his epic feat 75 years ago - becoming the first golfer to win the Grand Slam and The Jump by Ian O’Connor, a book focused in depth on Sebastian Telfair’s roller coaster ride out of Coney Island to a big-time pay-off in the NBA. Finally, from Rodale Fun is Good is focused on steps to make your work life and career better by Mike Veeck (son of Hall of Fame club owner Bill) and Pete Williams.

Then there is 1939 Baseball’s Turning Point by Talmadge Boston (Bright Sky Press, $24.95, 288 pages). With a foreword by John Grisham and a preface by Baseball Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey, the tome has all the bases covered. Content includes the opening of the Baseball Hall of Fame that year of 1939, the creation of Little League Baseball, essays on heroes like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Satchel Paige. A keeper of a book.

From Advantage Publishers Group comes books that any golfer or fan of the sport would love to have: These Guys Are Good by Bob Cullen ($40.00, 224 pages) “The Ultimate PGA Tour Book of Trivia” by Mark Cubbedge ( $9.95, 240 pages) “PGA Tour Fan Guide” (19.95, 240 pages). These Guys Are Good is a beautiful looking, lavishly illustrated work that celebrates the players, the moments and the greatest shots in the history of golf. “The Ultimate ” is a complete and highly user friendly guide book for the three tours -PGA, Champions and Nationwide.

One of A Kind (with apologies to Gene and Kathy Conley) by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson (Atria Books, Simon and Schuster $25.00, 315 pages) is the authorized bio about the rise and fall of Stuey “The Kid” Ungar, the greatest poker player in the world. For those into the game, this book is a must. Readable, riveting, rich in details.

HF

Harvey Frommer is the author of 34 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball’s Color Line,” “The New York Yankee Encyclopedia,” “A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball’s Greatest Team,” and the 2005 Updated “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). His THE SPORTS JUNKIE’S BOOK OF TRIVIA, TERMS AND LINGO will be published in September. Frommer sports books are available direct from the author -discounted and autographed. Contact Harvey Frommer for details. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of 750,000 and appear on Internet search engines for extended periods of time. This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2005 by Harvey Frommer. All rights reserved worldwide.

I see the Kansas City Royals, and I vision the Washington Generals. One team has all the top talent, and the other none. Maybe it is the competitive balance issue, or maybe ownership just doesn’t care, but this team does not have any heart left in it. Too bad, that is baseball’s fault. I wonder what would Bart have done, if he was still with us, would the game be different? He would have eliminated the DH. He wouldn’t have sold out to network TV. He would not allow baseball to go on until 1:22 in the morning. Bart would have started the World Series the same time the Super Bowl starts, 6:18, the perfect start time. Prime time would be the most exciting part of the game, not part of the pre-game.. Everyone would get to stay up and watch the end of every game. Bart would have been harder on steroids. With Palmerio’s guiltily test, he would have banned him from the HOF. He would have restored Roger’s record of 61. The only asterisk would be from 95-03, all of those were a fraud.

Bart Giamatti was a leader that loved and respected the game of baseball. Everyone connected in baseball should read “A Life of A. Bartlett Giamatti by him and about him” by Anthony Valerio. This game is such a rich American institution, and it is being tarnished by greed and corruption. From the umpires refusal to be held accountable, to home runs hit by enhanced players, baseball needs to follow the words of Bart: “Acts of cheating are secretive, covert acts that strike at and seek to undermine the basic foundation of any contest declaring a winner– that all participants play under identical rules and conditions… They destroy faith in the game’s integrity and fairness; if participants and spectators alike cannot assume integrity and fairness, and proceed from these, the contest cannot in its essence exist.”

If there was a real commissioner today, he would put Maris back as the single season home run leader, and baseball fans everywhere would rejoice.

Integrity and fairness are what is missing from the game today. Many think baseball is better now than it ever was. They are so wrong. There is so much to improve in this game, what it takes is for those that love the game, to take over the sport, and run it the way Bart would have wanted to see it done. Each day if all the baseball world read these words from Mr. Giamatti they would help make the National Pastime, a treasure of the past and of the future.

“I keep trying to remind people that there are lots of ways to love baseball. Some come to it through a love of statistics, or the smell of the glove, or just for something that their grandfather recited to them when they were very young. I keep saying: There are many routes to the game. There are many routes to the kingdom of baseball.”

A. Bartlett Giamatti from “A Gentleman and a Scholar.”

I am
The Fan’s Commish
But really someone that loves the game.