Baseball Talk

2003-12-12T05:01:00.000Z

Hi everybody,

This is to inform all of you that I moved my blog to a new site. Not that I didn't like blogger, I only moved because I needed something different. Please take note of the new URL.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/baseballtalk

2003-05-08T05:29:00.000Z

Thank you everybody

Hi everybody.

I haven't been able to write recently. As a matter of fact I haven't been able to do much recently, I've been sick all this time; but I'm ok now. Thanks to all of you who've been coming recently to see my baseball blog. As you may have seen, I haven't done much writing in a long while, I expect to be back again, full time of course, in about two weeks. I have been looking for some feed back form, I found one but doesn't work here. If any of you know about a feed back form please e-mail me, I'll apreciate it. I will be looking for one myself.

Again, thanks for coming. We'll sure be talking some more baseball soon.

Greetings,

Francisco Pereiro

2002-09-25T21:44:00.000Z

WORLD BASEBALL UNITED TO DEFEND ITS PLACE IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Montreux, Switzerland- All the representing organizations at the Extraordinary Meeting of the International BAseball Federation Executive Committee called by President Aldo Notari, which concluded today in Montreux, SUI, have declared their total commitment to work together and do all that is necessary to avoid the exclusion of Baseball from the Olympic Games program.

In addition to the Executive Committee, the IBAF invited the following special guests to attend the meeting: Marty Mankamyer, President of the United States Olympic Committee, Hiromori Kawashima, Commissioner of Nippon Professional Baseball, Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball Vice President Baseball Operations, Tony Bernazard, Major League Baseball Players Association Special Assistant, Kazuo Hasegawa, Executive Secretary of Nippon Professional Baseball Commissioner's Office, Paul Archey, Major League Baseball International (MLBI) Vice President International Business, Jim Small, MLBI Senior Director Market Development, Nobbie Ito, Manager International Baseball Operations of the Nippon Professional Baseball Commissioner's Office, and Peter Saito, Director of the International Department of the Japanese Baseball Federation.

In the next two months, before the IOC Executive Board meeting, the leaders of these organizations, along with IBAF President Aldo Notari, will work together to demonstrate the reasons why Baseball should be a permanent part of the Olympic program.

The following are statements made by participants from the meeting:

"USOC will defend, with all possible means, the continuation in the Olympics of the number one sport in the USA, Baseball". - Marty Mankamyer, President of USOC.

"We are totally engaged with the International BAseball Federation to gain their objectives, especially seeing Baseball continue in the Olympic program. 40 million people in Japan are Baseball fans and because of this the best Japanese professional players will go to Athens to demonstrate the great potential of Japanese Baseball". - Hiromori Kawashima, Commissioner of Nippon Professional Baseball.

"We will do whatever we can to ensure that Baseball remains in the Olympics. Baseball is an international and developing sport and it certainly belongs in the Olympic Games". - Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball Vice President Baseball Operations.

"We are going to do all that is possible for Baseball to continue as an Olympic sport. The players want to be in the Olympics and see the sport develop globally". - Tony Bernazard, Major League Baseball Players Association Special Assistant.

"I am happy to verify that the strengths most important in Baseball around the world, the professional leagues of the United States and Japan, the Players Association in the USA, the United States Olympic Committee and the IBAF, are completely united to work together in a positive way to explain to IOC President Rogge and the members of the International Olympic Committee Executive Board why Baseball has to be definitely part of the Olympic program and remove the doubts that have recently risen. We have two months to demonstrate this and with positive arguments we will work together". - IBAF President Aldo Notari.

Source: International Baseball Federation

2002-09-15T20:12:00.000Z

The new 4 year CBA and the minds behind it

The big difference between this year's labor talk and the 1994 strike is that today we, the fans, know much better what the big issues are. In 1994 we knew very little of what was going on among the players and MLB representatives. Some say that the new 4-year-CBA (collective bargaining agreement) is more advantegous for the owners, others say it is more advantegous for the players. It's hard to say. Here's an overview so anyone may come with his/her own conclusions:

The four-year CBA includes initiatives designed to more effectively address economic disparity among franchises. In addition, it will include a policy that authorizes random testing for steroid use, a first in the sport's history. The owners also agreed to not revisit the issue of contraction during the life of the agreement, set to expire on December 17, 2006.

TOPIC	STATUS/DETAILS
Revenue Sharing	$258 million each year phased in over four years. A $175 billion base to be distriuted to each club on a straight-pool basis with the remainder split by the Commissioner out of the central fund and discretionary fund. It phases in at $230 million in 2003, $243 million in 2004, $258 in 2005 and $301 in 2006.
Competitive Balance Tax	Thresholds of $117 million in 2003, $120 million in 2004, $128 million in 2005 and $136.5 million in 2006. The percentage for all teams being penalized for the first time is 17.5 percent throughout the agreement with second-timers being penalized as high as 40 percent.
Contraction	Tabled for length of four-year agrreement. Owners can unilaterally contract at the start of the next agreement. Grievance case filed by players last November is now moot.
Worldwide Draft	Provision to discuss during new agreement. June amateur draft remains the same until changed.
Salary Arbitration	Language remains the same as in the 1996 collective bargaining agreement. Any player with three years of service and less than six years of service at the Major League level can file. An arbitrator picks the dollar figure submited by the player or the one submitted by the club. The decision is binding.
Drug testing	Testing for "Schedule III" anabolic androgenic steroids only throughout the agreement. No testing for recreational drugs.
Termination Date of Contract	Changes from Oct. 31 (or two days after the World Series ends in 1996 agreement) to Dec. 17 in the new agreement.
Minimum Salary	Increase from $200,000 to $300,000 next season for all Major League players. Those on split contracts go from $40, 500 to $50,000 for the minor league portion next season.

MLB Negotiators and The Player's Union
Allan H. "Bud" Selig Commissioner
Allan H. "Bud" Selig was elected the ninth Commissioner of Baseball on July 9, 1998 by a vote of the 30 Major League Baseball club owners. As Chairman of the Executive Council, and then as Commissioner, Selig brought about numerous dramatic changes to baseball, including: Interleague play Revenue sharing (more than $165 million is transferred from high to low revenue clubs each year) Three-division formats in the American and National leagues An extra tier of playoffs and the Wild Card First phase of realignment Consolidation of the administrative functions of the American and National League into the Commissioner's Office.
MLB Negotiators
Robert A. DuPuy MLB President and Chief Operating Officer		Robert D. Manfred Executive VP of Labor Relations and Human Resources
Robert A. DuPuy was named the President and Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball this past March 7 after working as an attorney, outside and inside of baseball since 1989. DuPuy is baseball's lead lawyer this year on the Labor Relations Committee that is currently trying to negotiate a basic agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association. He is also responsible for all phases of baseball's Central Offices, including licensing, sponsorship, international, broadcasting, publishing, marketing, public relations, government relations, baseball operations, legal affairs, finance and baseball's internet operations.		Robert D. Manfred, Jr. is one of four Executive Vice Presidents of Major League Baseball reporting directly to the President and the Commissioner. His areas of responsibility include Labor Relations and Human Resources. He is responsible for the relationship between the Clubs and the Major League Baseball Players Association, as well as the Human Resources function in the Commissioner's Office. This year, as a key member of the Labor Relations Committee, his primary assignment is to negotiate a new basic agreement with the players' union.
Players Representatives
Don Fehr Executive Director of the MLBPA		Gene Orza Associate General Counsel of the MLBPA
Don Fehr is the constant through all of Major League Baseball's labor negotiations in the past 25 years and once again is the union's lead negotiator in collective bargaining sessions. He was voted as only the third Executive Director in the union's history in 1984, succeeding Marvin Miller and Ken Moffett. Prior to his selection as executive director, he served as general counsel, a position he still holds today, and as acting executive director. Fehr was and remains the chief negotiator for the Players Association in collective bargaining with major league clubs. Fehr's primary responsibilities include collective bargaining, contract administration and enforcement, litigation and legislation, pension and health care and administrating the union's licensing program.		Gene Orza has been Associate General Counsel of the Major League Baseball Players Association since 1984. In that role, he is direct understudy to Executive Director Don Fehr and is considered the union's lead negotiator in collective bargaining sessions when Fehr is not in attendance. Orza is part of a negotiating team that also includes Associate General Counsel Michael Weiner. In his position as labor negotiator, Orza played a major role in ultimately signing the 1985, 1990 and 1994 basic agreements. He has also handled player grievances, salary arbitrations, agent relations, scheduling issues, rule changes, umpire problems, and realignment. Orza is the union's representative on the Health Policy Advisory Council, which deals, on a confidential basis, with substance abuse matters and other medical issues concerning players.

2002-09-10T19:30:00.000Z

Incredible Facts of the Amazing A's

Straight A's: Oakland's 20th win in a row moved the A's ahead of the 1906 White Sox and the 1947 Yankees for the AL record (the White Sox had a tie in that streak). It is the longest winning streak in the Majors since the Yankees won 19 in a row in 1947, making Oakland's streak the longest in 55 years.
Longest ever: The longest winning streak in MLB history is 26 games, by the 1916 New York Giants (the Giants had a tie in that streak).
AL record: The longest win streak in AL history was previously 19 set by the 1906 White Sox and 1947 Yankees (the White Sox had a tie in that streak.) The A's are now holders of that record with the win Wednesday.
Hot August: The A's finished 24-4 in August, an Oakland record for most wins in a month.
Top 3: Only three teams in baseball history have ever won 20 games in a row. Then 1916 Giants won 26 and the 1935 Cubs won 21 consecutive games.
Top 10: Only 10 teams since 1900 have won 17 in a row. They are: 1916 Giants, 26*
1935 Cubs, 21
2002 A's, 20
1906 White Sox, 19*
1947 Yankees, 19
1904 Giants, 18
1953 Yankees, 18
1907 Giants, 17
1916 Giants, 17
1912 Senators, 17
1931 Athletics, 17
* tied game during streak
Lucky 13: Six times in Athletics franchise history has a team won more than 13 straight games. Each time, (excluding this season) that team has reached the World Series.
Series: The A's won their 10th consecutive series with the win Wednesday.
Runaway offense: During the win streak, the A's have outscored the opposition 141-65.
Bat men: After Wednesday's game, the A's have only trailed in 10 of the 180 innings of the streak. They are batting .299 (209-698) in the streak with 30 home runs.
Strong arms: The pitching staff has a 2.65 ERA in the streak (53 ER in 180 innings pitched) while allowing a .221 (131-621) batting average against them. Oakland's 2.17 ERA in August was the fourth lowest one-month ERA since 1980.
Mound mettle: A's starters have tossed at least seven innings 14 times in the streak.
Lidle unbridled: In allowing one earned run over 7 1/3 innings, Cory Lidle closed out August with a 0.20 ERA, the best single-month mark by an Oakland starter since the club began keeping such stats in 1980.

AL West Standings:Pre-streak (8/12)

Team	W	L	GB
Seattle	72	46	--
Anaheim	70	48	2
Oakland	68	51	4.5

Current

Team	W	L	GB
Oakland	91	52	--
Anaheim	88	55	3
Seattle	84	59	7

Anaheim is 18-7, Seattle is 12-13 and Oakland is 23-1 in that span.

2002-09-05T02:41:00.000Z

Diablos Rojos are the 2002 Champions

Before a sold-out "Foro del Sol" stadium, the Diablos beat the Tigres in game 7 to become the 2002 Liga Mexicana de Béisbol (AAA) champions. The Tigres lived a living hell in the fifth, when the Diablos scored 5 runs. Ray Martínez hit a 2 run-homer, for the second game in a row, and Alfredo García made a great relief appereance to help the Diablos beat the Tigres 9 to 5. As expected, the game was a nail-biter.

The game lasted 4 hours. Ray Martínez was named the series MVP. This is the Diablos' 13th championship trophy in their history. This is the game 7 line-score:

Tigres	0	1	0	0	1	0	3	0	0	5	9	1
Diablos	0	0	0	0	5	2	1	1	x	9	9	1

J.Olague, A.Armenta (5), J.Navarro (5), R.Roque (5), J.Campillo (5), S.Hernández (6), A.Manzano (8) and C.Gastélum, E.Váldez (8); R.Ramírez, E.Vosberg (5), A.García (7) and M.Ojeda. W: Vosberg (1-1), L: Olague (1-1), Sv: García (1). HR: Tigres: Gastélum (3), Diablos: Ray (3).

Some players were called up by their teams in the Majors soon after the last championship game ended. The switch hitter Félix José will join the Diamondbacks on tuesday, and RHP Ben Rivera leaves for San Diego to sign a new contract with the Padres.

This has been a great series with lots of action by both teams, and big crowds throughout. As I said before the game, the team that had a descent pitching performance would win game 7, and Diablos Rojos with releiver Alfredo García on the mound did just that.

So now we have to focus again on some of the MLB races that's going on. And we'll talk about that and the results of the MLB labor agreement talk later this week. Congratulations to Diablos Rojos, the new kings of Liga Mexicana de Béisbol (AAA).

2002-09-01T10:08:00.000Z

The Mexican League (AAA) Championship Series

Any baseball fan should love this, the series tied at 3, there's no tomorrow, can't afford to lose, and both teams used to play in the same town, Mexico City. A rivalry only equal to the Yankees and Dodgers.

The "Diablos Rojos" tied the series yesterday with a dramatic 3 run balst from Ray Martinez in the 7th inning to put the Diablos Rojos ahead 8-6 over the "Tigres" in game 6.

It was also the first game sold-out in "estadio de sol" history which can sit up to 26,000 fans, to witness the come-back thriller by the home team Diablos Rojos slugging out the "Tigres".

Even though the Championship Series is no pither's paradise, we've seen great hitting. Just take a look at some team stats:

HITTING

 AVE  AB  R  H HR BB SO SB CS

.341 182 38 62  8 12 28  1  4  Tigres       

.311 177 30 55  4 22 33  5  0  Diablos

PITCHING              

W-L   ERA  SV   H  SO  BB

3-3  5.73   1  55  33  22  Tigres       

3-3  5.49   1  62  28  12  Diablos

As we can see, this has been "the hitters" series, poor pitchers. Where are they playing at, Coors Field? If good pitching is to beat good hitting, whoever the gets the pitching will become champion today. Of course, everybody is available to play today, except yesterday's starters. Even the bat-boy may take a cut as a pinch-hitter today. The Mexican League final series haven't stretched to the seventh and final game since the 1994 series when "Diablos Rojos" beat the "Sultanes de Monterrey".

If you understand spanish, you can link here at 12 noon (1pm in New York, 10 am in Los Angeles, 5 pm GMT) to go to the league site and listen to the final game live. They open the audio link at game time. All you need is to download the regular Real-Audio, which is free, and you'll be all set. For complete playoffs stats click here. Can't wait til game time...

2002-08-31T19:19:00.000Z

In memory of a friend

Three days ago died a good friend of mine who was a venezuelan navy officer, his name was Luis Calma, he was 33. He left no wife and no children, although he came from a poor background and a big family. He wasn't lucky when it came to love, but he was always cheerful, nonetheless.

The reason I'm writing on him today is not just to remember the kind of person he was, a great individual with a big heart, but to make people more aware of the dangers of having bad eating habits.

Being a military man is not easy, anyone can tell you this, because they don't always eat at the same time everyday, they live in permanent stress, and so on. But also you have to be careful on how often you eat junk food, he was a big fan of that, like many of us. If there's anything to learn from somebody's loss is what you can make of such tragedy. In this case, his bad eating habits led him to have a sugar blood level of 900, his liver just couldn't stand such stress, ending with his life.

This is not to say that you can't have your junk food from time to time, but please watch it. I am no expert on that since I'm overweight too, but I think I'm going to take better care of myself now. If anyone happens to be reading this, please take better care of your health, we only have one life to spare.

I hope you can rest in peace now Luis. I will always have you on my mind, like other dear friends that I've lost. I know this is not a farewell, it's just a short good-bye, since we'll meet again, somewhere, and you'll be around your loved ones. Tonight my prayers will be for you. God bless you, Luis.

2002-08-31T07:37:00.000Z

No Thanks At All

We don't have to thank anybody, not the owners, nor the players, for not going to their labor stoppage. If they think we have to be thankfull, well, they are wrong big time.

For instance, if a store shuts its doors, then the customer'd go some place else to shop. Same thing with baseball fans. We'll go somewhere else...

Why should we care for them, when they (both management and players) don't care for us. Next time they'll remember who pays for all that (we, the fans).

Good for them they didn't have the guts to strike. So, we shouldn't thank them. There's still some bitterness left. Why can't they talk about their labor disputes during the off-season?, that's all we ask. There are five months between the world series and opening day. That's plenty of time to talk it out.

2002-08-29T22:20:00.000Z

What about the MLB strike

I get really upset every time there's a MLB strike talk. What's wrong with both sides of the matter? Both sides are outrageous. On one hand, there are the owners who just won't stop sucking on the little team's, and fan's, blood. On the other hand, there are the players who make so much money that any small country would name them "king" just for taking their money to one of those "tax paradise" lands.

Nowadays, it is very expensive to attend baseball games regularly. It's really expensive. Been to a baseball game this year, yet? The owners, along with their mafia gang, haven't done anything to make it more affordable for the fans to go to a game. Instead, they keep paying such high salaries...making it harder for small market teams to keep on. Not that the small market teams don't have the talented players, they just can't pay them. Besides, the big market teams make so much money, not only on ticket sales, but TV, merchandising, etc. and do not want to share the profits.

On the other side, the players. How can a guy, making 5 or 10 mil, ask for incentives? Isn't he making enough already? If any of us made a fraction of that, I'd bet you wouldn't miss a day's job for anything in the world. Even rookies make more money on a year's pay than most humans. I undertand they want a bigger piece of the pie, but...

Who gets punished for all these? the fans. It always comes down to the fans. Why can they have their labor talk during the off-season? 'cause they are on vacation, and don't want to get disturbed. They have between November and March to talk it out; that would be...yep, 4 whole months. I say, that they can play their baseball season without upsetting the fans. If there's a strike I encourage of all you to take action on it. I love baseball as much as anybody, but we can't let this happen. Bud Selig and Don Fehr are destroying, in less than a decade, what took more than a hunded years to build up.

If you want to participate in a MLB fan strike group just click on one of the links below and let your voice be heard.

MLB fans fed up with new upcoming strike. MLB Fan Strike

Think we don't have absolutely no voice in sports except when we're cheering, not anymore. We The Fans

BFUI and other fan orgs urge INTERNATIONAL MLB FAN WALKOUT. Baseball Fans Unite

The All-Star game showed once again that baseball doesn't really care about the fans. Sports Fans Of America

2002-08-27T03:05:00.000Z

I'm new on this. I don't know what expect. I'll talk a little bit about myself: I was born in Venezuela and came to live in Spain a llitle less than two years ago. I'm a spanish citizen now. I read about blogs on newsweek today, as I was taking a bus ride, and came to take a look. I'm on vacation now so nothing much is going on. The whole country (Spain) stops functioning during August; everybody's vacation unless you own an hotel. Even restaurants take a month-long brake.