Ken Davidoff's baseball insider

Nice article, Ken. Heartening, if not surprising.

I know people who wait tables and have been working when Giambi and his crowd have come in. They say he's one of the nicest celebs they've ever dealt with. Fun, unfailingly polite, and usually leaves the tab for a tip. Cool.

I am a perennial third place finisher.

Dennis - kudos!

Bob, you should be working in either the MLB/Commissioner's Office (I know how ridiculous that is) or in a front office.

Jim - I went that route and ran into too many roadblocks due to my status as a former player (albeit brief) and being identified too closely with the union - and there was nothing available for me at the union outside of marketing related positions.

I am now at the point where I am happy dealing with kids at clinics and think of the Tom Hanks line in "Volunteers" with regard to MLB - "It's not that I can't help these people, I just don't want to."

I'll let my daughter pursue that route and hope that the "sins" of the father are not attached to her.

That's too bad, Bob, because I think you have an awful lot to offer. I also think that there are many people in baseball that are not very bright. Between listening to them in person, on TV, etc., reading their comments and reading their writing, I am convinced this isn't the smartest group, generally speaking. You would run rings around 99.99% of them. Maybe that's the real problem.

I would expect you to become the most valued teacher at any school you are hired to work at.

All the research I did to look up all the MVPS, Cy Youngs and Rookie of the Years pay off.
There is a reason why all his teammates on the Yanks like Jason Giambi. For all the problems he has bought on himself, he has gotten the respect and support of his teammates.
The 2008 baseball season isn't even over yet, but MLB decide to release the tentative 2009 regular-season schedule today for all 30 teams. The schedules for the next season are usually release during the off-season. But baseball decided to release them now. Anyone here see the schedules yet?

Yes, I saw it. The Yankee home opener is 4.16 against the Indians. People are starting to camp out now for tickets.

Giambi's staments are good, but...is Giambi being generous with playoff money partially obtained through the use of illegal PED's?

You can't rob a bank, give back half of the money and claim you're a philanthropist.

You are tough, Bob; very tough. I wouldn't want to go to confession to a Father Tufts. Your line would be very short.

Honesty and character comes from doing the right thing when no one is looking.....

Bob I agree with you about how Giambi obtained that contract, but that doesn't mean he's not a generous person and shouldn't be commended for it. Ken, its that type of stuff that I love. Little inside stuff that nobody knows. I always enjoy playoff shares. Is it true if you've been on the DL the whole year you get a full share? Like Pavano got a full share last and this year?

Dennis/Jim...how long did it take you to do that? Jim its gotta hurt putting in those hours and coming up just short. Maybe you can play on the Mets!!! (Ken that's a dig on the Mutts not Jim)

Speaking of the Mets...Sandy, I agree with what you said about the Mets effort. I dont think they gave the same effort under Willie as they did under Manuel. But I have no problem with their effort during this losing stretch. Their just losing. IMO.

I've always heard about how at the end of the year each player takes care of the clubhouse people (tax-free for them) with huge tips for how they did good jobs during the season. However, in a sense they are part of the team and also deserve to be rewarded when the team makes the playoffs. Everybody always says Giambi is a real good guy, he might cheat, but he's a real good guy. Lehman Brothers was a good brokerage company once too. But I digress, 500 point drops in the Dow bug me some.
Congrats Dennis, good job!

Richie I just saw what you wrote while waiting for my other comment to clear the censors and security number. My point was if the mets played harder earlier in the season, they wouldn't be where they are now. If they won 4 or 5 more games that they didn't try hard enough to win back in April May or June, they would still be in first place now by a lot with a decent magic number. They reaped what they sowed. Now let's see if they have enough heart to do anything.
I'm a Phillies fan, I've said this before on this blog, and the most important guys on the team have really stepped up lately: Howard, Utley, Rollins, Myers and guys like Werth and Victorino.

Sandy, I know Ken isn't a fan of saying stuff like that on his blog, but I dont disagree with you here.

Actually, I came up with the answers pretty quickly - less than 15 minutes. Looking back, I guess I worked too quickly.

Richie, if you're on the major-league DL for the entire season, then you get a full share. And thanks for the nice words.

It took me about a 1 hour and a half to look up the players that have won the MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the year and then find out which ones play with and was on the team when Mel was the pitching coach. Then I sumitt my entry last night. This morning I receive a e-mail from Ken that said that there were 2 more players that I need to look up. I look them up and then re-smitt my entry, As I said today, All the research pay off.
Looks like Mike Schmidt's comments a couple of weeks ago have pay off so far for the Phillies.

Congrats, Dennis!

Despite the bullpen's best efforts, the Mets might just win this game....

What a surprise. Ben Sheets left tonight's game against the Cubs after the 2nd inning because of right forearm tightness. This is why the Yanks should not sign Sheets. The guy is hurt every single time.
The Rays have shown some guts against the Red Sox in the 6 games they have play the last 2 weeks. The Rays seem to rise to the challenge when they face some adversity. Something the Mets have to do if they don't want another collapse like last year.
The Atlanta Braves could decide the NL East between the Mets and the Phillies. With the Phillies winning 6-1 tonight against the Braves, the Phillies are now 12-2 against the Braves this year, including 8-0 in Atlanta. The Mets are 6-9 against the Braves this year and 0-6 in Atlanta. The Phillies have 4 more games against the Braves including tomorrow. The Mets go to Atlanta this weekend to play 3 games against the Braves.
The Mets hang on to win 9-7 after using 8 pitchers out of the pen after Knight statered the game. If the Nats had a better offense, the Mets would have lost.

Remember the Rays the next time some color commentator drones on and on about the importance of having "veterans" on a playoff contender. Give me David Price; Rick Sutcliffe and Dave Campbell can have Marlon Anderson.

Bob, I still don't understand why Murray Chass congratulated the Sox AFTER the Rays had taken two of three in Boston. Now that the Rays have won another two of three, this time in Tampa, will he at least entertain the possibility that the Rays will hold on?

Credit is due to Chass for a more recent post, in which he opined of Yost's reaction to CC's no-hitter/one-hitter:

"It was bizarre that a manager of a team in a playoff race would focus his team’s attention on an official scorer’s call, especially after his team won the game."

http://www.murraychass.com/?p=177

But Sandy, how would the Mets have gotten their manager fired if they played hard?

(that's sarcasm, folks)

JE - I just chalk it up to Murray's confidence in the Sox winning and trying to stall the long time feud many Sox fans have had with Murray.