Around The Horn

Interleague games have been around for a full decade now, and each year you hear the same complaints about the DH. How could MLB have two different set of rules? Either have the AL drop it or the NL adopt it. Why not have it both ways? Let the pitchers hit and have a DH. Use a 10 man lineup, with a DH and pitcher in it. Let each team have a 26 man roster to include a DH and extra pinch hitter.

Now that we have one set of rules with 10 men up, why not change the divisions? Let the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies all be in one division. Call it the Northeast.

Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta, Florida, and Tampa Bay could be in the Southeast.

Texas, Houston, Kansas City, and St. Louis, could be Southern Midwest.

Cubs, White Sox, Minnesota, and Milwaukee could be Northern Midwest.

Cleveland, Toronto, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, could be Mideast.

San Diego, Angels, Dodgers, and Arizona could be Southwest.

Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle and Colorado would be Northwest.

Each team would play 19 games against the other 3 teams in their division, (and 15 for the two divisions with 5 teams.) Then you would play 4 games with all of the other teams in baseball. One year you would play all 4 at home, and the next year on the road. That would mean 104 games outside your division and 57 within. There would be 2 Wild Cards and they would play each other for the right to get into the World Serious, the baseball term for playoffs which takes place all of October. The team with the best record would be the MLB League Champion, and would be seeded first, with home field advantage throughout the October Madness. Last year the standings would have looked like this:
1. St Louis          SMW
2. White Sox       NMW
3. Angels            SW
4. Yankees          NE
5. Cleveland        ME
6. Atlanta           SE
7. Oakland          NW

Houston and Boston would have met in the one game Wild Card with the winner facing the Cardinals.

Baseball plays the same way each year. I would guarantee if they tried it this way, it would be better for the fans, and better for the game. How many New Yorkers would like 19 games with their cross town rival?

I am
The Fan’s Commish
Rick Swanson

Created in conjunction with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, “Shades of Glory” by Lawrence D. Hogan (National Geographic, $26.00, 421 pages) is a book that owes its origins to the research project “Out of the Shadows: Black Baseball in America.”

The author, Hogan, is a professor at Union County College in New Jersey and the book reflects his scholarly bent. We are there in words and pictures with Buck O’Neil, Monte Irvin, Satchel Paige and so many others through their struggles and successes, through the prejudice and prevailing. This is an important book that celebrates and crystallizes the contributions of Negro League players to baseball and American Culture.

HIGHLY NOTABLE: With fatherly pride, I heartily recommend Frederic J. Frommer’s “The Washington Nationals: 1859 to Today” (Taylor, $24.95, 195 pages). The book is an engrossing, all encompassing narrative about the national pastime in the nation’s capitol.

Frommer, an Associated Press journalist, and a guy who knows a thing or two or about baseball and writing (he should - he had a good coach) takes us through the decades in his detailed look at the game in D.C. There is a nifty chapter about Washington’s only championship, another chapter focused on presidents and baseball, another about the time that Ted Williams managed a team there - and of course all the machinations and maneuverings that moved the Expos of Montreal south to Washington and the creation of the Nationals.

If you are into terrific writing and excellent research, if you are a student of baseball - Frederic J. Frommer’s “The Washington Nationals: 1859 to Today” is the book for you.
“The Best of Baseball Digest” (Ivan Dee ,$29.95, 453 pages) is a mother and father lode of entertaining and insightful stories about the national pastime as it appeared in the pages of that old reliable publication. There are 116 pieces from the 1940s to now and 80 photos - all providing different prisms through which to view the game.

I feel today the same way I felt when I read the manuscript and offered this blurb for Cecilia Tan’s “The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games” (Wiley, $22.95, 238 pages). Old Towne Team fans will think they have died and gone to heaven . Informative, exciting, entertaining . . . .a good deed for the Fenway faithful.”

Jeff Angus has written “Management By Baseball” (Collins, $22.95, 254 pages) which is really not about baseball and really not about management strategies. But really about both and more. Highly readable prose from this award winning non-baseball manager is on every page of this tome. Two especially interesting stories focus on “The Man Who Invented Babe Ruth” and How the Red Sox organization was turned around after being cursed for lo those many years.”

Golfing guys will appreciate “Leadbetter’s Quick Tips” by of course David Leadbetter (Harper, $21.95, 171 pages). There are lots of illustrations and lots of tips by the author, a staff Teaching Professional for “Golf Digest.”

If you haven’t yet had a chance to read “Beyond Glory” by David Margolick (Knopf, $26.95, 423 pages) all about Joe Louis and Max Schmelling and as the sub-title proclaimes “a world on the brink,” go for this riveting chronicle that is at the same time scholarly research and high end journalistic reportage. Wonderful archival photographs. Recommended!

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

There is a baseball site called The Baseball Page and inside it there is a section called Ultimate Games. An Ultimate Game is a must win situation for both teams involved. Any seventh game is an automatic UG for example, but if two teams are tied for the lead and play each other on the last day, then that becomes an Ultimate Game as well.

The site even lists each team’s Ultimate Game All-Time record. The team with the most Ultimate Games is the NY Yankees, with 22, they have an overall record of 13-9, and are 5-6 in World Series play. According to the Ultimate team records St. Louis has the next most with 14 games. Boston is then listed next with 13 Ultimate Games. I then checked the Ultimate Games Chronology, and realized that they missed one of Boston’s most famous Ultimate Games.

On October 1, 1967 the Red Sox and Twins headed into the final game of the year with identical records. The winner of that final game would advance to the World Series. As every member of Red Sox Nation knows, it was Jim Longborg, that led off the sixth inning with a bunt, which led to Boston scoring 5 runs in the memorable inning, and Gentleman Jim pitched a complete game 5-3 victory, which led to pandemonium on the field, as Boston won the American League pennant.

The Red Sox have played the Yankees 4 times in Ultimate games and the only time Boston was victorious was in game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. First there was the last game of the year in 1949, when NY swept the last 2 games to win the pennant, next was 1978 and Bucky Dent, and then came Aaron Boone in 2003. Boston won their first UG in what Sports Illustrated once ranked as the greatest 7th game ever, in 1912. Then came losses in 1946 in St. Louis, 1948 when McCarthy pitched Denny Galehouse, and Cleveland won the first AL playoff, and 1967 when Dick Williams predicted, “It will be Longborg, and then champagne,” but Longborg couldn’t make it on 2 days rest, and Gibson prevailed. 1975 saw Jim Willoughby pinch hit for, and Jim Burton gave up the Series winning hit to Joe Morgan in the ninth. In 1986 Boston had 2 Ultimate Games, first coming back to beat the Angels in the ALCS, thanks to David Henderson’s heroics, but then losing to the Mets in the game after Bill Buckner. In 1999 it was Pedro to the rescue to beat Cleveland in the ALDS. That gives Boston an overall record of 6 victories and 8 losses, (1-4 in the World Series) in a category I never heard of, until today, but probably will never forget what an Ultimate Game is from now on.

I am
The Fan’s Commish
Rick Swanson

They say that baseball is a game of numbers, crooked numbers, straight numbers. The New York Yankees in existence now for more than a century have a stranglehold on stats, records . . . and numbers. For those of you who enjoyed Yankees By The Numbers (Part I) - for your reading pleasure we present Part II.

53 Most doubles in one season, Don Mattingly, 1986
54 - Mickey Mantle hit 54 home runs in 1961, a career best and most ever for a switch-hitter.
56 - Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak included 56 singles and 56 runs scored. It covered 53 day games 3 night games, 29 at Yankee Stadium, 27 road games. He had 223 official at bats, a batting average of .408, 91 hits, 16 doubles, 4 triples, 15 home runs and 55 RBIs. DiMag struck out 7 times, walked 21 times, was hit by a pitch twice.
63 - Joe DiMaggio hit safely against 63 right-handed pitchers during his 56 game hitting streak in 1941.
65- most home wins in a season, 1961.
71- Most career hits in World Series, Yogi Berra.
72 Babe Ruth homered twice in a game 72 times, a major league record
72 - Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig homered in the same game 72 times. Only 16 times did they homer back-to-back.
88 - Number of pitches David Cone threw in his perfect game, July 19, 1999
93 - Most stolen bases in a season,Rickey Henderson, 1988.
94- Whitey Ford, World Series strikeout leader.
100 - Two Yankee teams have lost 100 games: 1912, 50-102 and 1908, 51-103 100 - At Yankee Stadium, Babe Ruth on September 24, 1920 hit his 100th home run of Washington’s Jim Shaw.
110 - Most triples in a season, 1930.
112 - The best base stealing combo in Yankee history was Fritz Maisel and Roger Peckinpaugh in 1914. Maisel stole 74 bases and Peckinpaugh added 38.
114 - Most wins in a season, American League, 1998, all time record until 2001 and Seattle Mariners.
115 - Most combined home runs by teammates in a season, Mantle and Maris 1961
119 - Most extra base hits in a season,Babe Ruth, 1921: 44 doubles, 16 triples and 59 homers.
123 - Most complete games by a Yankee staff, 1904.
126 - Cal Ripken, most games played at Yankee Stadium by an opposing player June 18, 1982 - September 30, 2001
134 - Number of home runs Yankees hit at Hilltop Park, 1903-1912.
156 - Most strikeouts in a season, Danny Tartabull, 1993.
163 - Career home runs Mickey Mantle hit from the right side.
163 - Most career triples, Lou Gehrig.
170 - Most walks in a season,Babe Ruth,1923.
177 - Most runs scored in a season, Babe Ruth, 1921.
179 - Most home runs allowed in a season by a Yankee pitching staff, 1987.
183 - Team batting average in 2001 World Series is the lowest for a team in a World Series that went seven or eight games. The previous lowest average was .185 by the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals.
184 - Most runs batted in, one season, Lou Gehrig, American League record
185 - Number of working days it took for Yankee Stadium to be built
200 - Babe Ruth recorded his 200 home run on May 12, 1923 at Detroit off Tiger pitcher Herman Pillette.

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

John Schuerholz of the Atlanta Braves is the winningest general manager in the big leagues. His “Built to Win” with Larry Guest (Warner Books, $24.95, 272 pages) is a true inside look at how the fate and fortunes of the most successful baseball team of the last 15 years has been handled.

Schuerholz’s tricks of the trade, how he copes with an $80-million payroll in an era of megabuck payouts, what he thinks of the much ballyhooed “Moneyball” baseball management theory and why he prefers his own style - “winning-ball.” These and many more themes pervade “Built to Win,” a book filled with interesting, inside anecdotes and perspectives on the national pastime. Highly recommended reading.

One wonders why after all these years Mike Schmidt decided to write a book. No matter - the Philly legend has done the right thing in “Clearing the Bases” (with Glen Waggoner, $24.95, 199 pages). The ten time Gold Glover, Hall of Famer and member of the All Century team lets it all hang out in his spirited broadside on sham records, juiced players, and other things wrong with the game he lovess. As the book’s sub-title proclaims - it is Mike Schmidt’s search for the “soul of baseball.” There is much to agree with Mike about, much to admire him for saying what others would not say. If you are a Mike Schmidt fan or just care about the state of Major League Baseball - this is the books for you.

For those who never got their fill of New York sports radio’s WFAN’s Christopher Russo - there is now “The Mad Dog Hall of Fame, the Ultimate Top-Ten Rankings of the Best in Sports” (Doubleday, $23.95, 284 pages). Shrill, over-stated, and of course highly opinionated - that’s what C. Russo and his book are all about.
For zealots only.

The much celebrated Ira Berkow has been on the staff of the “New York Times” for a long, long time. His “Full Swing Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer’s Life” (Ivan R. Dee, $26.00, 289 pages) is a marvelous memoir of events witnessed and written about, of celebrities known and learned from. I was especially interested as the biographer of Red Holzman to read what Berkow had to say about the sorely missed, late and legendary coach of the New York Knicks. On target stuff here - and moving, too. If you like Berkow - and why shouldn’t you - get a copy of this book and keep it in a place of prominence on your sports bookcase. Terrific stuff.

“Day By Day with the Boston Red Sox” by Bill Nowlin (Rounder Books, $19.95, 614 pages, paper) is a must have reference book for all fans of the team from the Hub. The author, born just 3.9 miles from Fenway Park is a BoSox zealot. That zeal and many facts and factoids intermingle on the pages of this terrific timeline to me.

More Lou Gehrig: The classic “Iron Horse Lou Gehrig in his Time by “Ray Robinson (W.W. Norton, $14.95, 300 pages. paper) is thankfully out in this brand new edition - and we are all the better for it. Marvelous writing by a true old pro. And there is also” The Life of Lou Gehrig Told By a Fan” by Sara Kaden Brunsvold (Acta Sports, $14.95, 252 pages, paper. This is a highly readable montage of memories about the legendary Yankee first baseman who died too soon.

The first black full-time beat reporter to cover the Yankees - Cecil Harris - offers anecdotes and opinions on his time there in “call the Yankees My Daddy” (The Lyons Press, $14.95, 241 pages, paper).

A little book with a lot to offer is “Extraordinary Putting” by Fred Shoemaker with Jo Hardy (G.P. Putnam’s Son, $21.95, 189 pages). A revered coach muses on the game and offers many tips from a pro.

“Black Maestro” by New York Times reporter Joe Drape is a bio of Jimmy Winkfield, the last black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby.
The book is riveting and consciousness raising.

FOR THE KIDS: “Roasted Peanuts” by Tim Egan (Houghton Mifflin) is a beautifully produced book about baseball and loyalty and friendship. Highly recommended.

HF

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd. consecutive year of writing sports books. His “Old Time Baseball” will be published in 2006. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.