July 3
Dallas Morning News
columnist Kevin Sherrington
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Ever since Tom Hicks bought the Rangers in the summer of '98, dubious readers have called, e-mailed, whispered and wailed. He doesn't have any money, they'd say. He's broke. Can't you tell from his other businesses? Don't you get it? No, I'd say. I don't. Granted, I was never a candidate for The Wharton School, but the reason the charges never carried much weight was simple enough: Players keep cashing checks, don't they? And not at your local grocer, either. But the issue became critical in the last couple of days after we got a tip that the Rangers had, indeed, missed payroll. We were still getting to the bottom of the story when a caller to Kevin Kennedy's national radio show told ..."
July 3
L.A. Daily News
columnist Ramona Shelburne
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Mitch Kupchak, we had you all wrong. So much for conservative and cool. By agreeing in principle with the highly flammable but highly gifted attention magnet that is Ron Artest on Thursday, Kupchak and the Lakers proved they were not only willing to take a risk to repeat as NBA champions next year, but excited aboutit. Which is what they should be - bold and excited, not conservative and complacent, sitting back and assuming they could do it all again next year without making any structural improvements while the rest of the league took aim at them. The second a team wins an NBA championship, they become a target for everyone else. In the three weeks that have passed since the Lakers beat ..."
July 2
Boston Globe
columnist Dan Shaughnessy
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Going to Fenway Park for Red Sox-Mariners Saturday? Bring a box of tissue. Bring your checkbook, too. Boston's ancient baseball theater will be one of 15 major league parks honoring the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech ("I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth'') and raising funds to support ALS research. It's called "4ALS Awareness'' Nice going, MLB. In 1939, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis took Gehrig off the field after 2,130 consecutive games and now baseball is joining the fight against the deadly disease. "We're involved with a whole series of charities,'' explained commissioner Bud Selig. "We get asked a lot. But I've had inquiries about ALS from a ..."
July 2
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Dave Hyde
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Well, it was all on display in the opening three innings Wednesday, good and bad, pro and con, the reason the Marlins Get your Marlins Tickets now! should end this Emilio Bonifacio experiment right now and the proof they should keep the laboratory open for him all season. He swung at bad pitches. And his speed helped force a Washington error. His leaky judgment cost a run. And his baseball instincts created a run. He popped up balls that make him no money. And he slapped a single through the infield. His manager questioned his thinking in the dugout. And after this 5-3 Marlins win, in his office, manager Fredi Gonzalez talked of the run Bonifacio created by saying, "The guy's a winner." ..."
July 2
St. Paul Pioneer Press
columnist Charley Walters
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Jesse Crain wore jersey No. 28 for the Twins. But now that the relief pitcher has been dispatched to the minor league Rochester Red Wings, it would seem a perfect opportunity for the Twins to retire that number, which was prominently worn by Bert Blyleven during his 11 seasons pitching for Minnesota. Retiring Blyleven's No. 28 could help remind voters that Bert belongs in baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Other retired Twins jerseys are those of hall of famers Harmon Killebrew (No. 3), Rod Carew (No. 29) and Kirby Puckett (No. 34), as well as Tony Oliva (No. 6), Kent Hrbek (No. 14) and Tom Kelly (No. 10). Happy birthday: Killebrew turned 73 on Monday. Crain, by the way, in ..."
July 2
Philadelphia Inquirer
columnist Frank Fitzpatrick
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Jim Fregosi used to complain that I refused to absorb all the wisdom he tried to impart, whether it was about baseball, journalism, or 401(k)s. But the ex-Phillies manager did teach me one valuable lesson during my four years as a beat writer: A baseball season is 162 games long for a reason. Good teams invariably end up with good records, bad teams with bad. And, unless some underlying variable is at work, veteran players almost always come close to their career norms. They don't fall off statistical cliffs for no apparent reason. Which brings us to the strange, sad case of Jimmy Rollins and His Missing Bat. According to Fregosi's theory, either the slumping Phils shortstop will have an ..."
July 2
Cleveland Plain Dealer
columnist Bill Livingston
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Nearly midseason, and Cleveland is held hostage. Down and down the Tribe goes. Where it stops, nobody knows. Given the expectations for the season, manager Eric Wedge would not make it to the All-Star break in some organizations. But he will with the Indians, who think stagnation is the same as stability. Given that Wedge has guided the team to only one playoff berth in seven years, he might not last the season in most organizations. But after all the beat-downs lately, all the games when it gets late early, all the other games when the bullpen implodes, he will probably last the season. Given the stubbornness and loyalty of his boss, partner and apologist, Mark Shapiro, he might be ..."
July 2
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
columnist Mark Bradley
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Yunel Escobar is, shall we say, a different sort of Brave. He has blond highlights in his hair. He doesn't always pay attention. He has a temper and is given to the sulks. He has yet to respond to the gentle urgings of Bobby Cox, which have become less gentle over time. According to Buster Olney of ESPN.com, the Braves "are willing to trade Escobar for a good hitter right now." (Link requires registration.) But I don't think they will. Nor do I believe they should. Because Yunel Escobar is a different sort of Brave in another way: He can really hit. And he can really play. The Braves have become so skilled at siphoning off higher-maintenance types that they have lesser tolerance for one ..."
July 1
Houston Chronicle
columnist Richard Justice
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When pitchers need a shot of confidence, they'll sometimes go out and watch batting practice. That's when they're reminded how tough baseball is. Even with a pitcher throwing the ball down the middle of the plate, the hitters get no more than three, four or five hits for every 10 at-bats. Mike Hampton was in a place like that at the end of May. He'd won two of his nine starts for the Astros, and his ERA was 5.62. Since then it's been a turn-back-the-clock stretch including Tuesday night's six innings and one run allowed against the Padres. The Astros had gambled he still had something in the tank last winter even though Hampton had made just four starts during a hellish four-year period in ..."
July 1
Houston Chronicle
columnist Richard Justice
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When the Yankees released him last July, LaTroy Hawkins didn't waste time feeling sorry for himself. Instead, he went to work trying to put his career back together. Instead of going home to Dallas to catch his breath or reflect on what had happened, he flew to Fort Wayne, Ind . That's where he hooked up with his agent, Matt Kinzer. Actually, Kinzer is more than an agent. He's a former major league pitcher and scout, and through the years has become the person who knows Hawkins as well as anyone. "Matt watches me like a hawk," Hawkins said. "He knows everything I do. Even when I have a good outing, he'll call or text me if he saw something. His mentality for pitching and the way he can ..."
June 30
Akron Beacon Journal
columnist Patrick McManmon
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It's reached the point with the Indians that they trade Mark DeRosa and it feels like they traded Mark McGwire. The St. Louis Cardinals must have thought the same thing. They put DeRosa in the fourth spot in the lineup in his first game. Behind Albert Pujols. Gotta protect Pujols, after all. On one level, the DeRosa trade makes sense. He's 34, he's going to be a free agent and the Indians are going nowhere. Except that the Indians say that the relief pitcher they got for DeRosa - Chris Perez - was acquired to help this year. So they evidently think that they can still go somewhere this year. The likeliest place seems to be Hale Farm, on the train. It's not right or fair to make too much of ..."
June 30
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
columnist Bob Wolfley
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The front office for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the last few years has had to deal with a question related to another team in its division. The question is some variation of this one: Why can't you be more like the Milwaukee Brewers? Fans and media in Pittsburgh have wanted to know why Milwaukee, a market two-thirds the size of Pittsburgh, has a team payroll of $80 million, while the Pirates' payroll is $28 million less, at $52 million. Frank Coonelly, the president of the Pirates, said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that his team was spending all it could to improve the product on the field. Coonelly said the Brewers could spend more on payroll because attendance in ..."
June 30
Denver Post
columnist Patrick Saunders
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Sitting in an airport, waiting for my flight back home, I mulled the state of the Rockies and arrived at the following conclusions: • Dan O'Dowd takes a lot of heat, but the general manager's deal that sent Matt Holliday to Oakland and brought Huston Street, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith (someday, maybe) to the Mile High City is starting to look like a masterstroke. • Holliday, with a big push out the door by agent Scott Boras, was never going to stay with the Rockies. Now Holliday is in limbo, playing in a lousy ballpark for a lousy team that looks like it has already quit. Hopefully, Holliday gets traded to a contender in July. And I do think he'll get a decent (but not great) ..."
June 29
Boston Globe
columnist Tony Massarotti
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Adios, farewell, and good riddance to National League rules. The Red Sox won't see another double switch until 2010. Or, perhaps, October. "I just feel so embarrassed when I do something wrong out there,'' designated hitter by trade David Ortiz said yesterday following a busy day at first base that ended with the Red Sox dropping a 2-1 decision to the Atlanta Braves. "You've got a guy pitching his [tail] off out there and you just feel bad. Nothing happened [as a result of Ortiz's mistakes], but you feel like, 'What the [heck] am I doing?' '' Something suggests he wasn't alone. In the end, the Red Sox emerge from baseball's answer to reverse-sweater night with an 11-7 record in interleague ..."
June 28
Boston Globe
columnist Tony Massarotti
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Suddenly, Brad Penny looks like a heck of a lot more than just bait. In fact, he looks more like a very big fish. "We didn't sign him to trade him,'' Red Sox manager Terry Francona said yesterday of Penny, who will take the mound this afternoon when the Red Sox and Braves conclude a three-game series at Turner Field. "We signed him to win. He's worked hard. I only think it's going to continue to get better.'' Penny's recent history in Atlanta aside - he is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA in his last six starts here and has an 8.35 ERA in his last four starts against the Braves overall - his value to the Red Sox is indeed growing. Daisuke Matsuzaka is on the disabled list. A 42-year-old John Smoltz is ..."
June 28
St. Paul Pioneer Press
columnist Charley Walters
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Before I graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota 33 years ago, I pitched professionally for seven years in the organizations of the Twins, Washington Senators and Texas Rangers. More than a month of that insignificant baseball career was spent in the major leagues with the Twins, pitching for Billy Martin in 1969. So sometimes these days, I perch in the press box at the Metrodome and wonder, when Joe Mauer comes to bat, "How would I pitch to this guy?" I also sometimes ponder the same, before Twins games, when standing immediately behind the batting cage and watching Mauer practice his strokes. That swing. It is a beautiful sight to behold. I once asked Sam ..."
June 28
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
columnist Mark Bradley
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If pitching is 75 percent - or 90 percent; estimates vary - of baseball, why are the Braves further under .500 than they've been all season? Because the other 25 (or 10) percent of their team is worth about 10 cents. Without meaning to say it, Brian McCann said it perfectly: "We've got to start playing better baseball." Then he checked himself. "Not better baseball - we've got to swing the bats better." The Braves swing the bats just fine. It's the hitting part that bumfuzzles them. They've scored one run in two games against the Red Sox, who have managed only five but have already won this loud and steamy series. Jair Jurrjens was rather good Friday night but wound up the loser. Javier ..."
June 28
Dallas Morning News
columnist Jean Jaques Taylor
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The Rangers don't deserve your faith. Or your hope. Or your optimism. They've done nothing over the last decade to earn it. One day, perhaps. Not now. And the butt-kicking the raggedy San Diego Padres delivered Saturday night certainly won't make you feel any better about this team, which has lost 10 of its last 14 games, especially since the loss knocked the Rangers out of first place for the first time since May 6. They trail the Angels by one-half game in the AL West. That said, we can talk about the Rangers' pitiful offensive performance this month - they delivered another putrid effort against the Padres - but history says the Rangers will eventually hit and score runs. It won't ..."