Ken Davidoff's baseball insider

Yeah, I figured this was too easy. But this past week, I finally saw "Pride of the Yankees," and I felt like I had to check in on this topic.

I can't believe that people think of this film, a Lou Gehrig biopic, as an all-time classic. I was taken aback by the poor acting and the surprisingly slap-sticky plot. Perhaps some of its flaws reflect its era, both in terms of baseball culture and Hollywood culture, but "Citizen Kane" came out the year before "Pride," and "Citizen Kane" is still brilliant. So it's not like it was impossible to make a great movie back then.

Gary Cooper was 41 years old when this film came out, so to see him as a student at Columbia is absurd. And Cooper doesn't even try to take on Gehrig's persona. He carries the aura of "Hello, I'm Gary Cooper, and you'll accept me as Lou Gehrig." The scene in which Gehrig makes his big-league debut _ first, he slips on a bunch of bats and falls on his rear end and then he gets hit in the head by the opposing first baseman's throw _ seems like something out of "The Naked Gun." Very bizarre.

The film redeems itself somewhat at the end, as Cooper handles Gehrig's terminal illness well. But this is still a movie that has not aged with dignity, assuming that people at that time viewed it as high-quality.

My two favorite baseball films both star Kevin Costner: "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams." The former works as an incredibly unsentimental look at the game and its players. I love all of the minor-league touches, including the presence of Max Patkin, who used to stop by visiting clubhouses at the old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia and shoot the bull with the players.

I love "Field of Dreams" because it is SO sentimental, and fantasy-based, and the acting by Costner, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster and Amy Madigan is terrific. If you don't get choked up during the final scene, then you're more cynical than I am.

For the record, I am a big enough Costner fan that I thought even "For Love of the Game" was watchable.

What's your favorite baseball movie?

As I flipped channels late last night, between the Mets' post-game show on SNY and the Yankees' extra-inning contest on YES, I was trying to come up with an analogy to illustrate the difference between our local clubs' general managers.

Is Brian Cashman a point guard, and Omar Minaya a shooting guard? Is Cashman a scrappy, middle infielder and Minaya a swing-for-the-fences slugger?

In short time, I gave up and decided to play it straight. My point is this: Cashman, in my humble opinion, has more of a long-term vision for what he wants to do with the Yankees than Minaya does with the Mets, and Cashman possesses more patience, too. But Minaya makes far more trades that make you say "Wow!" in admiration.

Where would the Mets be without Ryan Church so far? Would they even have a winning record?

As you know, Church, who excelled again last night _ here he is congratulating Carlos Delgado at game's end _ became a Met last November 30, when Minaya acquired Church and Brian Schneider from Washington in return for prodigal outfielder Lastings Milledge.

Like most of my media brethren, I panned the trade, and trust me: It was hard to find Mets support in the baseball industry. It's too early to rip the Nats _ Milledge has obvious talent, as he showed in running down that Delgado blast last night _ but it's not too early to already praise Minaya. I just don't think Milledge could've had the impact on the Mets that Church has so far, this season. And Schneider has proven the perfect replacement for Paul Lo Duca, both in his strength as a defensive catcher and in his more laid-back personality.

A "Wow" trade, in my mind, is one that is surprisingly high-impact. The Mets' current active roster features the products of three such trades: Church and Schneider, John Maine and Oliver Perez. Maine was a virtual nobody when the Mets acquired him and Jorge Julio from Baltimore in return for Kris Benson on January 21, 2006. And Perez appeared a has-been when he and Roberto Hernandez joined the Mets from Pittsburgh on July 31, 2006, in return for Xavier Nady.

Three "Wow" trades, in roughly three and a half years on the job, is pretty good. I can't think of a Cashman move that blows me away similarly, and Cashman has been on the job far longer.

Now, to reiterate, I think Cashman has put the Yankees in better condition, long-term, than has Minaya with the Mets. And Omar has to be accountable for his share of bombs, most notably Brian Bannister to Kansas City for Ambiorix Burgos on December 6, 2006 and Heath Bell and Royce Ring to San Diego for Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson on November 15, 2006. Moreover, the decision to not protect Jesus Flores in the 2006 Rule 5 draft (Washington selected him) was an awful one.

But Minaya admits that he'll employ his instincts in some deals, and while those instincts are far from perfect, they have produced some real beauties in the trade department.

In Friday's Newsday, I'm going to compare our two local organizations, from players to on-field staff to front offices to management. Whom do you think is the better GM, Minaya or Cashman?

As I mentioned here recently, I loved the "John Adams" mini-series on HBO, so I watched all of the "Making of..." stuff on it. Tom Hanks, who is one of the executive producers, says something like, "We wanted to show people how difficult it was to live in this time."

Translate that sentiment over to baseball, and you have "When Boston Still Had The Babe: The 1918 World Champion Red Sox." It's a new book by a group of SABR members, and it exhaustively researches everyone who so much as played in one game for those World Series champs, the last Red Sox team to win it all prior to 2004.

What amazed me is just how different these players' worlds were. Yes, we know that players didn't make big money until the advent of free agency in 1976, but stilll. These guys would play exhibition games on off days, just to make a few extra bucks. They would play minor-league ball for years and years after their time in the majors, because it's not like they saved enough money to retire comfortably.

And it was an entirely different game, of course, since the Babe had yet to become a full-time hitter; he hit 11 homers in 317 at-bats and went 13-7 in 20 games on the mound. There was so little power in the game. There were no people of color in the game, either.

What this book made me appreciate more than anything was how futile it is to compare eras in baseball. Each has such a dramatically different context. That's why it's very valuable to have statistucs like ERA+ and OPS+, for they allow us to see how each player performed among his own contemporaries.

I happen to know one of the book's writers (there are roughly 30), Rob Edelman. Rob teaches fiim history at the University at Albany, and he has become a regular contributor to the "Pop Quiz" I run every week with my Seventh-Inning Stretch. Rob wrote about Lore Verne "King" Bader, who pitched in five games for those 1918 Sox. He would never pitch in the majors again.

Rob dug up countless details about a man who pitched a total of 22 games in the major leagues, including how he spent his final years (farming in Kansas). Bader died on June 2, 1973, and his funeral service was held at LeRoy's Mattingly Funeral Home. The proprietor was named Don E. Mattingly.

"The Bader piece took a couple of months of intense research," Rob e-mailed me, after I inquired how much work he put into this profile. "I love doing this sort of thing. During the next few months, I'll be writing similar pieces for SABR-produced volumes on the New York Mets and Brooklyn Dodgers."

I am a complete sucker for this kind of stuff. I love that there are people willing to invest so much time and effort to learn about players from the past, both distant and recent. If you're like me, I recommend this book (or, you could wait for the Mets and/or Dodgers books that are coming).

My apologies for the delay this morning. Crazy technical difficulties.

Anyway, I've been to two of Johan Santana's starts this season, and in both, he labored like crazy against bad teams. On April 29, he threw 114 pitches to the Pirates and lasted just 5 2/3 innings, needing Pedro Feliciano to bail him out of trouble in the sixth. And on Saturday, the Mets' new ace fired 116 pitches for six innings in a victory over the Reds, and if he hadn't struck out Corey Patterson with Reds on first and third, he might have been lifted.

So I now admit: It is somewhat vexing that Santana isn't mowing through the NL with more ease. Yes, his overall numbers are just fine, and yes, we know he historically improves alongside the warm weather. But still. I'm surprised that Santana has needed to work so hard to not even get very deep into games.

Consider this: Santana has thrown 110 or more pitches in four of his eight starts this season. Last year, he reached that number in just six of his 33 starts. And it's not like Willie Randolph and Rick Peterson are pushing Santana late into games. They're just trying to get him to finish six innings.

What do you think, Mets fans? Something to shrug off, or not? I'm beginning to get a tad curious, myself.

1. The Yankees will drop two of three to the Tigers at Comerica Park, with Kei Igawa picking up the lone victory tonight in his 2008 major-league debut. On Saturday night, following the game, Jose Molina will recommend that a group of players go see "Iron Man," but Joba Chamberlain will shake off Molina three times and insist on seeing "Made of Honor." Bad things will ensue.

2. The Mets will take two of three from Cincinnati at Shea Stadium. The Reds Ken Griffey Jr. will hit his 598th career homer on Saturday, then pine for a return for Seattle in his post-game conference, then wonder on Sunday what all the fuss over his comments was about.

3. Alex Rodriguez, rehabilitating his strained right quad in Tampa, will drive by a hospital and instantly faint.

4. The highly disappointing Mariners will get swept by the White Sox, despite a total of 10 hits in three games by Miguel Cairo. Seattle will fire manager John McLaren and replace him with his predecessor Mike Hargrove, going with the philosophy that every good manager has a good nickname.

5. The rationalization comes after reading David Lennon's Mets Insider on Aaron Heilman: It's not good that Heilman has switched from the Mets' eighth-inning pitcher to their sixth-inning guy. But on the bright side, he's moving closer to his eventual goal of pitching in the first inning.

M-Crash asked me this morning to check Derek Jeter's VORP, so I did. Here is his ranking among shortstops (13th overall). Here is his overall ranking (tied for 124th with J.D. Drew).

Of course, of course, it's still early, and Jeter historically hits better in the second half. He also missed a week with a quad injury. But still, are any of you alarmed by Jeter's lack of power? Wally Matthews discussed that with Jeter in his column today.

Here is the best explanation I've seen for how VORP is calculated. It's a particularly relevant stat given the Yankees' injuries. We're seeing how much their lineup is hurt by the absence of Alex Rodriguez (who led all of baseball last year with a 96.6 VORP) and Jorge Posada (who was eighth overall, and first among catchers, with a 73.4). VORP doesn't factor in defense _ for that, you need WARP, or Wins Above Replacement Player _ but right now, offense is the Yankees' problem.

At 7:43 last night, I commented here on the blog that I intended to do a column on Jason Giambi for today's Newsday. I figured it was time to check in on Giambi's horrid start to the 2008 season, and ponder whether the Yankees would actually consider releasing him.

When Giambi had a strong start to the game, beating out a double play in the first inning and ripping an opposite-field, RBI double in the fourth, I thought, "Perfect!" I began to put together a column reflecting my belief that, while Giambi has been anything but relentless when it comes to his work ethic, he is resilient. I was going to bet, and I'll do it now, that Giambi will indeed finish this 2008 season in a Yankees uniform, although I'll also bank on a visit to the disabled list.

Yet as I was finishing up this column, David Dellucci came up as a pinch hitter against Joba Chamberlain with two outs and two on in the eighth inning. And the next thing I knew, I was calling Newsday's king of the night, Jeff Weinberg, and informing him that I was going to have to write about Joba. When someone as popular and buzzworth as Chamberlain picks up the first regular-season blown save of his career, and allows his first ever runs at Yankee Stadium, that's not something to be ignored. Even if the game-turning homer takes place at 10:00 and you have to have the column in by 11:15.

Here is the column. The point I attempted to make was that, whether he winds up as a reliever or a starter _ and I think it's a no-brainer that he should be a starter _ Chamberlain has some growing up to do.

So that's a brief glimpse into the nature of my job. Next week, I'll explain to you how I choose my clothes.