MLB Discussing The Maple Bat Issue

The MLB Safety & Health Advisory Committee met here in New York today via conference call, to discuss the whole maple bat issue. For anyone living under a rock, maple bats have been shattering at an alarming rate, causing injury to coaches, umpires and fans. This was, hopefully, a first step to ending this before more series injuries occur.

Yankee fans know that Johnny Damon's bat explodes into pieces almost every time it makes contact with a pitch. Johnny's a prime example of just how frightening this maple bat thing is, right? Wrong. This season Johnny got rid of all his maple bats and went back to the traditional ash bat. So why does he continue to shatter so many bats? Broadcasters have offered guesses as to why, including suggesting that it happens because he slashs at the ball or that he's pitched inside a lot. Whatever the reason, Johnny Damon probably isn't considered to be a friend of environmentalists, because ash is so rare these days.

I hope MLB doesn't drag its feet on this maple bat issue, waiting until a tragedy occurs before new rules are put into effect. Today's conference call gives me hope that it won't.

The Lady

This Bud's For Keeps (Until 2012)

So Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig won't be retiring next year after all. How nice.

Actually, I'm not being facetious at all. While Selig hasn't been perfect, he's done an okay job, even if he's known now as The Commisisioner of The Steroid Era. I'm guessing that's exactly the reason he's staying on: He also wants to be known as the commissioner who ended The Steroid Era.

I suppose that, while he works to end the Era, he'll continue to have a hotdog for lunch everyday, as he's done for many, many years. Wow. At 73 years of age he certainly doesn't look like someone who eats garbage like that every single day.

It remains to be seen if he can finish cleaning the garbage out of Major League Baseball. Good luck, Bud.

The Lady

[Photo: Aude Guerrucci]

MLB & Venezuela: No Mas?

There's an article on ESPN.com now about how Venezuela is beginning to make it harder for MLB to conduct business there. They're talking about, among other things, teams paying the government 10% of a player's signing bonus and making players register with the government for a professional athlete's license. Teams are starting to throw up their hands in defeat. The Padres have already given up completely, having packed up and left the country.

I don't know why, but this makes me think of Ugueth Urbina, languishing in a Venezuelan prison. I believe he's serving a 14-year sentence for beating and burning his field hands. I remember that most people believed the sentence was much too harsh. Urbina's troubles along with these new developments really make me wonder: Does Venezuela hate its baseball players? Probably not. The players are just scapegoats. The country is buried in problems. Sticking it to MLB players is easier than tackling the real issues facing Venezuela.

The Lady

It's Fine, Until Someone Loses An Eye...

...or their life.

Of all the decisions made by MLB GMs this week in Orlando, the most important one might just be the decision to have first and third bases coaches wear helmuts next season. Obviously a reaction to the tragic death of Mike Coolbaugh (left), the GMs don't want to see another coach lose his life on the playing field.

This is good news and it should be applauded. But why do these changes always happen after someone is killed? I'm of the opinion that pitchers should wear some type of helmut as well, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Why can't it be done? A simple grandfather clause is all it takes: If you're a pitcher and you didn't wear a helmut before, say, 2009, you can continue to go helmutless. Otherwise, you must wear a helmut on the mound.

Pretty simple, yes? Why wouldn't MLB and the Players Association go along with something like that? Why should it have to take the death of pitcher before a change is made? It should be done and it should be done as soon as possible.

The Lady

$6 Billion and Counting

I was just reading an article on CNNMoney.com which says that Baseball will surpass $6 billion in revenues this year. Why is this significant? Because it comes awfully close to the more than $6 billion in revenues reported by the NFL in 2006.

The NFL is the nation's top moneymaking sport and for MLB to be catching up to it in revenues is a very big deal. Now all they have to do is catch up in popularity as well and all will be right with the world.

The Lady

Who's Running This League, Anyway?

First a league official visits the Red Sox Dugout in the middle of a game to make sure Terry Francona's wearing his uniform top. Then there's umpiring crew chief Derryl Cousins: "There is more than a little bit of history between these clubs," he said. "Those were two pretty nasty pitches [Joba Chamberlain] threw. Up here, you need to be a little better throwing strikes, and we just had to put a lid on it before there was a problem."

Peter Gammons brought both of these issues up this morning on Mike & Mike In The Morning. Gammons wondered whether the League offices are being run by people who know nothing about baseball. I think I agree with him. Why send someone to check on what Francona's wearing in the middle of an inning??? Also, why eject a 21-year old pitcher with less than 20 innings in the Big Leagues without warning him first? Cousins' statement makes no sense anyway. If Joba needs to be "a little better throwing strikes" doesn't that mean he thought Joba had no control and, hence, wasn't throwing at Kevin Youkilis?

Joe Torre thinks the umps need to apply more common sense. Hmmmm. Wake me when that happens.

The Lady

Bud Must Go

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig still hasn't revealed if he'll be in the ballpark or not when Barry Bonds breaks the all-time home run record this season. Anyone who was born yesterday knows he doesn't want to go. But will he?

Everyone seems to have an opinion one way or the other. It's become such a hot topic that you can even bet on it. According to BetUS Sportsbook, the odds are +500 that he will go and -1000 that he will not go. I'm not about to use my hard-earned money to place any bets and I have no idea where Selig will be when Bonds breaks the record. I do know where he should be, however. He should be at the ballpark when Barry Bonds hits his 756 home run.

Selig not being in the ballpark would be like passing the buck. It would be like not accepting part of the blame for the steroids mess, and MLB should accept part of the blame. They were the ones who turned a deaf ear and covered their eyes back in 1998 when McGwire and Sosa were chasing baseball history. Now Selig is acting like MLB is totally innocent. He's acting as if there was a steroid policy in place long before this year, even long before '98. It's just wrong. It's time for Bud to step up to the plate and accept some responsibility. He needs to be at the ballpark.

The Lady

They're On The Schedule (In Cleveland)

The above is a picture of Jacobs Field in Cleveland, taken this weekend. As most baseball fans know by now, the Indians have yet to play any part of their weekend series with the Seattle Mariners. If I read it correctly, they're going to try for a double-header today, but with the Indians now trying to move the next series they have, with the LA Angels of Anaheim, to Anaheim, it doesn't look like they'll be playing the Mariners anytime soon.

The MLB schedule-makers were thrown for a big loop last week. After they finally tired of hearing complaints from teams like the Yankees, who were forced to open up on the West Coast for God knows how many years, they finally let Northern teams have their opening and/or early season series at home. The result: baseball teams playing in football weather. If that wasn't bad enough, I'm hearing that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays actually requested to open up on the road, instead of in their domed stadium in St Petersburg, FL.

What?

Maybe they thought they'd have a better chance of beating the Yankees in Yankee Stadium. Tropicana Field, afterall, is Yankee Stadium South. When was the last time there was an actual Devil Ray fan there, other than Dick Vitale?

Update: The Indians and Angels will play their series in Milwaukee, not in Anaheim. The Indians suggested it after the Angels, who are on their way to Boston, voiced displeasure at going back to Anaheim first. (*sigh*)

The Lady