Monthly Archives: April 2024

The temporarily Sacramento Athletics

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Sutter Health Park

Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, designated to be the temporary home of the Vegas-striking A’s. With apologies to Casey Stengel, the park is lovelier than Mr. Fisher’s team.

Losing in baseball provides reactions running the proverbial gamut from outrage to sarcasm with gallows humour somewhere in the middle. When Sacremento-to-be Athletics owner John Fisher suggests tiny Sutter Health Park to be so intimate he can’t wait to see the Show’s top stars (he mentioned Yankee bombardier Aaron Judge specifically) hit home runs there, we wonder.

It’s bad enough that Fisher tried and failed to strong-arm Oakland into handing him a big new real estate development with a ballpark thrown in by-the-way. Bad enough that he turned the A’s into the Gang Green That Couldn’t Pitch (Catch or Throw) Straight (Without Being Hustled Out of Town).

And bad enough his idea of playing nice with Oakland is to pick up and move to Las Vegas in due course, assuming Vegas or Nevada can’t thwart him yet, while deciding to leave Oakland after this season to spend three seasons at least in the fourteen-thousand seat Triple-A ballpark that hosts the Giants’ farm team, the River Cats.

All because the A’s and Oakland couldn’t agree yet again, this time on extending their lease to the rambling wreckage of the Oakland Coliseum.

“It appears,” posted ESPN’s Buster Olney, “that the difference between what Oakland offered and what the A’s wanted was about $35 million or so over three years. Or about the same that the Angels are paying reliever Robert Stephenson. Meanwhile, owners overseeing an industry worth many tens of billions of dollars stand by and watch their weakest franchise put on this cheap circus, and do nothing.”

So not only does Oakland still lose, but Fisher sounds as though he might revel in the A’s deeper downfall in front of . . . well, the Sutter Health capacity is only slightly larger than the A’s have been drawing while Fisher’s mirthless Coliseum comedy has played out.

Longtime Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith once said, “The fans enjoy home runs, and we have assembled a pitching staff that’s certainly pleasing them.” Griffith made the remark sardonically—after his Old Nats pitcher(s) got hammered for distance yet again. Fisher has the sense of humour of a barracuda deprived of its three squares for one day.

“Come an’ see my amazin’ Mets,” original expansion Mets manager Casey Stengel loved to tell fans who fell in love with their slapstick style. “I been in this game a hundred years but I see new ways to lose I never knew were invented yet.” Shown Shea Stadium for the first time, the Ol’ Perfesser cracked, “Lovely. Just lovely. The park is lovelier than my team.”

Rarely at a loss, anchoring most of Stengel’s Yankee winners full time, Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once observed, “The other teams could make trouble for us if they win.” Should I be surprised if Fisher should observe of his A’s in Sutter Health Park, “The other teams could make trouble for us if they lose.”

The Orioles survived a ghastly 0-21 beginning to 1988 with gallows humour. “Join the hostages,” Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. hailed a reporter new on the Orioles beat. Said a button manager Frank Robinson took to showing at the slightest provocation, “It’s been lovely, but I have to scream now.” A local DJ elected to stay on the air until the Orioles won. Before they did break the streak, Robinson mourned, “We’re gonna kill the poor guy.”

“We know we’re better than this,” said Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn during a time of Padres struggle. “We just can’t prove it.” Said Rocky Bridges after an arduous loss, during a two-decade life managing in the minors, “I managed good, but boy did they play bad.” (This is the same Rocky Bridges whom Stengel once named to an American League All-Star team as an infielder, saying of it, “They were close to launching an investigation.”)

It would figure if Fisher’s Sacramento A’s (ok, they’re not going to call themselves that, officially) say, “We know we’re worse than this, we just can’t prove it.” Manager Mark Kotsay may find himself saying, “I managed bad, but boy did they play worse.” All things considered, it might actually get him a raise.

Time was when the Yankees’ most notorious owner, George Steinbrenner, was about as gracious a loser as a crocodile is a dinner guest. Let his Yankees incur a losing streak as long as two, and the speculation began on when, not whether he’d throw out the first manager of the season. (Not to mention when the once-notorious Columbus Shuttle of slumping Yankees going back and forth between the Bronx and Triple-A would commence.)

OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. But he did once fire Berra after promising him a full season on the bridge—until the Yankees lapsed into a season-opening 6-10 record that included a pair of . . . three-game losing streaks. (“I didn’t fire Yogi, the players did,” the Boss purred.)

An owner who thinks nothing of either trading or letting walk any A’s players who show even a few degrees above replacement-level player talent, Fisher wouldn’t shock anyone if he thinks about firing his manager, coaches, and maybe two clubhouse stewards, before trading his entire pitching staff, after a season-opening winning streak.

(In case you wondered, as of Thursday morning, the A’s sandwiched two three-game losing streaks around their lone win to open this regular season. Thus far, the players haven’t fired Kotsay yet. Stay tuned Friday afternoon, when the A’s face the Tigers, coming home after splitting a weather-prompted doubleheader with today’s Mets in New York.)

Sutter Health Park is said to hold fourteen thousand seats. Fisher’s shenanigans may put the A’s into the record book under a dubious distinction: the only major league baseball team that couldn’t sell out a ballpark a third the size of Wrigley Field.

But A’s president David Kaval talks of increasing Sutter Health’s capacity. Seriously? They must be enthralled with acres of empty seats, which is what they’re going to have unless Fisher either sells the A’s (a consummation A’s fans devoutly wish) or decides he’d like to have something better than the American League West’s Washington Generals to offer.

Being saddled with a team run from Bizarro World and leaving a too-much-troubled Oakland further in the lurch might not make for Sutter Health becoming the friendliest of confines. Don’t tell Vivek Ranadivé, who owns the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and bought the River Cats two years ago. He may not believe it yet.

“Believe it or not,” he tells The Athletic‘s Evan Drellich, “this is going to be the best ticket in [MLB]. Because it’s a small, intimate stadium. It’s like being in the lower bowl in a basketball game. And so imagine that, (Shohei) Ohtani is there and it’s a small, intimate stadium. So it’s going to be the most sought-after ticket in America.”

Ranadivé has the slightly ulterior motive of using Fisher’s duplicity as a lever to hoist Sacramento as a major league showcase for whenever the Show elects to add two more teams. But he, too, seems to suggest everyone who loves a good trainwreck might even be willing to pay to see one.

The earliest no-hitter for his team’s first win

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Ronel Blanco

The Blue Jays got Blancoed for the record books on Monday . . .

You know a man of my ability
he should be smokin’ on a big cigar.
But ’till I get myself straight
I guess I’ll just have to wait
in my rubber suit rubbin’ these cars.

–Jim Croce, “Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues”

I have no idea if Ronel Blanco knows who Jim Croce was, never mind if he’s heard the old troubador’s music. But the Dominican righthander who worked at a car wash in his homeland before the Astros handed him a $5,000 bonus when he was 22 can smoke all the big cigars he wants now.

You earn such spoils if you become only the fourth pitcher in Show history to throw a no-hitter for your team’s first win of the regular season, a club that includes Hall of Famer Bob Feller (who did it in 1940, on Opening Day) plus Burt Hooton (Cubs, 1972) and Hideo Nomo (Red Sox, 2001). You earn them when you break Nomo’s record for the earliest regular-season no-hitter in Show history by two days. (Nomo: 4 April; Blanco: 2 April.)

But you might care to share them with your catcher, Yanier Diaz, since he also became the first since 1901 to call a no-hit game from behind the plate and hit a pair out in the same game: solo blasts with two out in the second and one out in the seventh. And, with your left fielder Kyle Tucker, who joined Diaz going long in both innings, a solo in the second and a two-run shot in the seventh.

And pass one to your manager, Joe Espada, who’s become the first manager in Show history to be on the bridge when his first major league win comes with a no-hitter. You might have needed to wait until age 28 to get to the Show at all but Espada ground away a very long time as a minor league infielder turned minor and major league coach before becoming the Astros’ bench coach after 2017.

All that plus a changeup described politely as nasty kept the Blue Jays’s bats from hitting anything past Astro fielders when not striking out while the Astros dropped a ten-run, twelve-hit assault upon last year’s AL wild card victims. (They lost two straight to the Twins in that set.)

All the Astros wanted in Minute Maid Park was to shake off the season-opening sweep the Yankees dropped on them that included three comeback wins for the latter. They couldn’t have gotten a better shake-off if they’d hired a scriptwriter and his number-one script doctor at once.

Fairly enough, the Jays exacted a little revenge the following day. José Altuve wants to open the proceedings with a leadoff bomb against José Berríos in the top of the fourth? We’ll just see about that, said Davis Schneider, with two out in the top of the ninth and Daulton Varsho pinch-running for Justin Turner, hammering Josh Hader’s slightly hanging slider more than slightely beyond the center field fence. Thus the 2-1 Jays final.

But it wasn’t enough to dull or diminish Blanco’s blanking Monday. Nobody can take that from him.

MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE IN THE RECORD BOOKS

Slumpbusting Thumps Dept.—Bryce Harper opened the season 0-for-11 with only a pair of walks placing him on base. Then he took it out on Reds started Graham Ashcraft on Tuesday for openers, hitting a 1-2 service over the Citizens Bank Park center field fence in the bottom of the first. He abused Ashcraft opening the bottom of the fourth, too, hitting the first pitch into the lower right field seats.

Harper wasn’t even close to finished, either. With the bases loaded, one out, and Brent Suter, the second Reds reliever of the night, on the mound, Harper unloaded on a full count and sent one two-thirds of the way up the lower right center field seats. Making the score 8-1, Phillies. They needed all that insurance plus Brandon Marsh’s solo bomb in the top of the ninth, after all, since the Reds pried three more runs out before expiring on the wrong end of a 9-4 Phillies win.

Harper became the 56th player and third Phillie to hit three home runs including a salami slice in the same game. The previous two such Phillie phloggers: Should-be Hall of Famer Dick Allen (29 September 1968) and Jayson Werth (16 May 2008). All three such games have something else in common: thirteen runs scored total, though Allen’s and Werth’s resulted in 10-3 Phillie wins.

OH, BY THE WAY . . .

Place Your Betts Dept.—Mookie Betts has now played eight regular-season games this year. He has five home runs, fifteen hits in 38 plate appearances, and eight walks. The only problem there is that four of the five times he hit them out there wasn’t a Dodger to be found on base ahead of him, and the Dodgers have been 3-2 in the games he’s dialed the Delta Quadrant so far.

But the Mookie Monster has also scored fourteen times, and other than by himself it seems Freddie Freeman has shown him the most love after he’s reached base: Freeman has sent him home five times over those first eight.

Did I mention that, as of Wednesday morning, Betts leads the National League in hits, bombs, walks, and total bases? That he leads the NL with a .605 on-base percentage thus far? That he leads the entire Show with his 1.772 OPS?

Easter Opening Weekend; or, Who Else is Risen?

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Jeff McNeil, Rhys Hoskins

The Mets can’t afford to let Rhys Hoskins remain living free in their heads.

You’d have to be superhuman, five-headed, and swift with all five heads to catch every game on Opening Weekend. But I caught what I could with what I had:

Wait Till Next Year Dept.—Of course you could hear Met fans purring that lament, after the Mets incurred a weekend sweep at the hands of GM David Stearns’ former but still built-by-him Brewers. These are still the fans who know the season’s lost over one bad inning . . . on Opening Day.

Not Terribly Bright Section: Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil fuming over newly-minted Brewer Rhys Hoskins sliding hard and late in the first game. We get McNeil’s fury, especially being spiked on the play, even if baseball government ruled the slide legal. But Hoskins is a known Met antagonist. The Mets will have enough issues going forth without letting him live rent free in their heads.

Dishonourable mention to Mets reliever Yohan Ramirez for winging one behind Hoskins on the first pitch the day after. Sure we’ll believe you weren’t trying to drop him. News flash: You want plausible deniability, wait another pitch or two before sending the message.

By the way, the geniuses who cobbled baseball’s schedule together this year sure picked a pair of bookends—the Mets and the Brewers won’t meet again until the final series of the regular season. It’s plausible that each might be playing for a postseason berth. The Mets better make damn sure Hoskins’s free lease in their heads is expired by then.

Is This Year Next Year Dept.—It’s not that Yankee fans are suddenly going to drop their sense of entitlement or shelve the “What Would George Do?” demands at the first sign of trouble. But a season-opening sweep of the BBA (Big Bad Astros) just had to make Yankee fans feel as though they were getting a special Easter present this time around.

It had to feel even better when the Yankees’ newest import, Juan Soto, factored large enough in the weekend doings. He threw the tying run out at the plate on Thursday night, then he poked what proved the winning run home Sunday in the top of the ninth. And when he couldn’t or didn’t do it, someone like Oswaldo Cabrera could and did: his 4-for-5 with three steaks Friday helped the Yankees to a 7-1 ambush over the AL West ogres.

Resurrection Section: Easter Sunday’s win was the first of the four-sweep in which the Yankees didn’t have to come from behind. By the way, on Saturday, Soto was one of three Yankees to dial the Delta Quadrant—Cabrera hit a two-run homer to tie in the seventh; Soto went solo with two out in the inning to break the tie; and, Anthony Volpe went solo for an insurance run in the eighth.

What’s Uproar, Doc Dept.—Bottom of the seventh in Tropicana Field. Blue Jays vs. Rays. Randy Arozarena on third after a leadoff single, a theft of second, then a theft of third on a swinging strikeout. José Caballero at the plate for the Rays, bunting for a base hit and getting it, scoring Arozarena and taking second when Jays third baseman Justin Turner overthrew first base.

Caballero gunned for third when he realised the throw went into the right field bullpen in foul territory. Jays right fielder George Springer grabbed the ball and threw to shortstop Bo Bichette covering third, with reliever Genesis Cabrera backing the base, getting Caballero out by a few steps. Uh-oh—Caballero bumped into Cabrera on the play, they swapped words . . . and Cabrera gave Caballero a big enough shove to empty the benches and the bullpens.

Bichette pulled Caballero away and two Jays starting pitchers, José Berrios and Alek Manoah, got Cabrera away. That cooled the scrum off practically as fast as it began. The Rays finished what they started, a 5-1 win en route a season-opening series split with the Jays, and Cabrera landed a three-game suspension Sunday, which he’s appealing.

And what were the words that triggered the scrum? According to several sources, Cabrera told reporters Caballero said, simply, “What’s up?” Seriously?

No Betts Are Off Dept.—You weren’t seeing things when you awoke Monday morning to read the season statistics thus far: Mookie Betts has been a threshing machine for the Dodgers out of the gate. In their first six games, the Mookie Monster has four home runs, ten steaks, a .621 on-base percentage, and a 1.136 slugging percentage. (1.757 OPS.) And, the Dodgers followed a season-opening split with the Padres by taking three of four from the Cardinals.

The hard part for the Cardinals: playing Sunday with a short bullpen thanks to their lone win, a Saturday night come-from-behind special. Overall, they’re also missing some key arms thanks to injuries to starter Sonny Gray (hamstring) and reliever Keynan Middleton (forearm).

Bounced Check Dept.: Miles Mikolas, Cardinals righthander, on 16 March: “We’re not exactly a low payroll team, but you got the Dodgers playing checkbook baseball. We’re going to be the hardest working group of Midwestern farmers we can be . . . It would be great to stick it to the Dodgers.”

Miles Mikolas, starting for the Cardinals to open the series against the Dodgers: Four and a third innings pitched in which he was hammered for seven hits and five earned runs including a pair of home runs by Betts and Freddie Freeman, opening his season with a 10.38 ERA.

The farmers barely brought their pitchforks and plows to bear. The Dodgers went on to win that opener, 7-1, and the Cardinals went on to being out-scored 23-14 for the set.

Hold Those Tigers Dept.—Don’t look now, but the Tigers—they who went 78-84 to finish second in the anemic AL Central last year—have opened their season atop the division. They swept the White Sox in three, though not overwhelmingly: they outscored the White Sox by a mere three. But it’s still a promising beginning.

From there the Tigers are scheduled for three against the Mets in New York, the Mets wanting nothing more than to put that season-opening 0-3 behind them if they can. The Tigers, of course, would love to make it difficult for them to do so.

Keept Your Witts About You Dept.—Royals shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr., when Opening Weekend ended: a major league-leading 1.888 OPS. The Royals, after Opening Weekend ended: 1-2, fourth in the AL Central. To survive this season, the Royals will need to keep more than their Witts about them. And, a lot more than Brady Singer on the mound for them.