High Heels On The Field

Paul Hagen Makes Cliff Lee's Arrival Simple

The lead in any article is the toughest part of the whole idea.

I once buried a lead that still burns me up. I was in the Trenton Thunder clubhouse for Phil Coke's Yankees debut and the team was gathered around the television watching. I stood with them witnessing Coke's beginning in the big leagues.

For some odd reason, I stuck that in the final paragraph as the closing sentence. I still kick myself.

So when a baseball writer pens a lead that I think is absolutely perfect, I envy and admire.

Such was the case today with Philadelphia Daily News writer Paul Hagen's piece on the arrival of pitcher Cliff Lee to the Phillies.

"Well, he's here now," Hagen wrote.

This is no small story in Philadelphia. This is the THE BIGGEST Phillies story and possibly the first or second biggest in baseball. There's also that Roy Halladay guy. (By the way, Jays: Whoops.) So Hagen could have dramatized the details to the fullest. It's not uncommon for today's sports writer's to get to the point after impressing themselves with the sound of their own voice for about ten sentences.

Paul Hagen is not that kind of writer and anyone who reads him regularly knows it.

He leveled us today. The story is Cliff Lee is here and what more can we say? It's a huge day for the Phillies and Hagen appreciates the story over anything else.

I'm honoring him on my blog, because it's rare a writer takes themselves so completely out of the story and just presents the facts in a simple and elegant way.

Bill Lyon has always been the great Philadelphia example of elegant sportswriting, but Hagen is a different kind of writer. I like to say Lyon is the Phillies poet (did you ever read his Phils piece "The Heartbreakers?"), while Hagen writes with a kind of wink and a smile at it all. What they have in common is their humility and respect for the game or athlete they're writing about. And they respect their medium.

*If you're a baseball purist, you can't get any purer than Paul Hagen's writing.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/52152077.html

*Hey, did I bury my lead again? Rats.

Brad Myers and Paul Bush Attack: Harrisburg @ Trenton Thursday Doubleheader

The story advising young players on handling umpires develops for Junior Baseball- I'm getting a lot of chuckling when questioned on that subject. In the meantime, I was able to see tremendous pitching by the Harrisburg Senators and Trenton Thunder Thursday.

Brad Myers took the hill for the Senators in game one and while he had to pitch out of some jams, Harrisburg's offense (7th in the league) pounded Thunder starter Wilkin De La Rosa. De La Rosa entered the game with a 3.84 ERA. Harrisburg made the most of their 12 hits, with Edgardo Baez, Michael Daniel and Matt Whitney knocking in a run a piece. Ofilio Castro knocked in three runs with a base-clearing hit to break the game wide open for the Senators.

Both games were seven innings, but game one went extras. With a 6:05 start for game one, you can probably do the math. But you'd be wrong. Because game one went into extra innings and lasted three hours and nineteen minutes. The name Bill Rinehart will invoke a smile from me forever. With his pinch hit he broke the tie, eventually leading to an 8-4 victory over the Thunder.

Following that one, I was able to talk to Senators reliever Clint Everts, who pitched in the eighth to close out the game for the win.

"Tonight my fast ball command was there and I was throwing my curve ball for strikes. And the guys behind me were making pretty good plays."

As for his take on Harrisburg's success over Trenton?

"Our whole [pitching] staff is just working ahead of hitters. If you fall behind in the count as a hitter, you become real defensive. We've kept them on their heels."

Trenton had lost six straight, all to Harrisburg until....

Paul Bush pitched game two and attacked hitters, pounding the strike zone fearlessly. Every pitch just looked  hard and fast. This time, the Thunder offense did all the right things. Despite several of the guys arguing called strikes with home plate umpire Matthew Hansel, they made Harrisburg pitcher Erik Arnesen pay early and consistently. Arnesen struggled with control for much of the time, allowing six hits, two walks  and four earned runs over six innings. He's 6-4 on the season and 4th in the league.

Thunder shutout Harrisburg 5-0.

Trenton needed that win before heading out on their week long road trip. If nothing else, they were able to gain some confidence back.

Thunder manager Tony Franklin seemed a bit weary (hello, early morning bus ride!), but also upbeat post-game.

"There were a couple plays that hadn't gone our way, but I'm not crying about it," Franklin said after the game two victory. "We haven't gotten any breaks, largely because we haven't created any for ourselves. Tonight we did."

Cliff Lee Breaks Phillies Trade Fever

While I may have mocked exasperation, the looming trade deadline, with all it's Roy Halladay madness was extraordinarily fun. Don't be fooled by anyone who tells you different.

Yes, it's easy to get sick of rumor central, considering central is anywhere on the internet these days. But it's a time to imagine what teams will become and predict how they will fare with new pieces added and some (or maybe a lot) removed.

For Phillies fans, the extension of success continues in a sense with Wednesday's trade for lefty pitcher Cliff Lee. It's a testament to the power of the team's place at the bargaining table, due in large part to the quality of minor league players in their stable. For Lee and Ben Francisco the Cleveland Indians receive pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Jason Knapp, INF Jason Donald and C Lou Marson. Lee, the 2008 Cy Young winner, is 7-9 with a 3.14 ERA this season.

The trade allowed the Phils to keep their golden sons: pitchers J.A. Happ and Kyle Drabek. Drabek's readiness for the majors has been projected as 2009, or possibly August if the Phils need to call on him. When last I spoke to him, he came across as a guy with little anxiety about that call. And those who attended the Futures game and saw him pitch, witnessed a real showstopper.

Happ, 27, is 7-1 on the season with a 2.48 ERA.

There's a lot for Phillies fans to be proud of these days. Now add one more thing. As the temperature heats up, so do the World Champions with the Cliff Lee acquisition.

Adam Rubin Takes One For The Team

There are many signs that the New York Mets are having problems. You could look at their place in the standings. You could look at their extensive Disabled List. Or you could look at the case of Mets beat writer Adam Rubin. Sounds strange, right? He's been dragged into the Mets mess and, of all things, it seems to be the straw that's breaking Flushing's back.

While none of us can judge one way or the other if he was angling for a job with the Mets, GM Omar Minaya's conduct was reprehensible. So what if Rubin was looking for a new job? It's not uncommon. If Minaya thought that the reports of Player Development VP Tony Bernazard's abusive behavior was fiction, he could have voiced his feelings privately. Not in a press conference, with Rubin sitting in the interview room.

Media members walk a tight rope when they become friendly with front office people. They put themselves in a position to be first in line for exclusive information and conflict of interest comes into play. But a member of the media looking for a job within the organization he or she's covering is not unique, nor is it unethical.

There's often an attitude that media members don't deserve respect, that we're intruders. In a sense, we are intruders. But most (hopefully all) of us are there trying to do our job to the best of our ability. Wanting to advance ourselves is no different than an athlete wanting to do the same.

It's hard to believe that the GM of a baseball team would address such private issues publicly.

Rubin may very well have been hoping that if Bernazard was fired, he'd have an opportunity to get the open position. But that's not the story. Minaya thought it was and thought wrong. The story is: the Mets are self-destructing. And here's just the latest example.

Kevin Kouzmanoff For Junior Baseball Magazine

Here are excerpts from my interview with San Diego Padres 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff:

On his childhood, learning about baseball:

We'd play catch all the time. I think anytime you can put on a baseball glove and just play catch you'll get better. Baseball is a great family sport, because you can play catch with your mom, your dad, your sister, your grandfather.

On going from the minors to the majors:

I think going from college to the minors is different. You go from playing 60 games then to the minors...and that's a big adjustment. But the biggest thing is the grind, because you're playing everyday.

Memories of Akron and Buffalo:

I wasn't used to playing for 20,000 people so that was a big deal. Akron has a great ballpark and fans.

On the ups and downs:

You're going to have your good days and your bad days, you're not going to be perfect everyday. It's important to let the losses go, because you're going to have a game the next day.

Pete Rose's Road To Cooperstown: If He Goes, I Go

It was Hall of Fame induction day and Joe Gordon, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice took their place in the hallowed halls.

But during HOF weekend, the subject of one man missing from the Hall came up yet again. Pete Rose is back in baseball news. And apparently, he's getting closer to a pardon by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig according to an MLB.com report.

The controversy over the decision will divide baseball fans, just as it has since Pete Rose was banned from baseball, later admitting that, yes, he had bet on baseball.

There are traditionalists that hate him and traditionalists who love and forgive him. And even if they don't, their attitude is that, despite what he did, his contributions to the game as a player surpass any personal wrongdoing. In an interview I did with former MLB pitcher Larry Andersen a few years ago, he talked only about Rose's numbers when asked about his banishment.

There are many sides to it and they've all been covered.

I'm not going to make the arguments, because they've all been made. Yes, he did the absolutely wrong thing. Yes, he made tremendous contributions to the game of baseball. It's all there, take your stand and stay there if you please.

But when Hank Aaron is saying Rose belongs there, it's hard to ignore.

If ever it seems a possibility, it's now.

Why? Ok, my theory.

Baseball has been busted. Battered. It is in serious trouble and can't very well make too many judgments. Selig knows this and knows the lines are blurring and, in a sense, baseball is reborn. This is a new day for the game. It's evolving and changing, and for the better mostly.

If Pete Rose is inducted in the Hall of Fame, it will create a lot of new questions and new debates will begin.

But baseball, in all it's imperfect glory, will survive. We may not be able to explain or excuse a lot of what we've seen and heard over the years. In the end, however, the guy contributing on the field is the guy you want to remember.

I don't know where you stand. But if Rose enters that Hall, you have to decide how you feel about baseball. If you love it now, with all it's darkness and human errors, then you would have to love it then. Right?

I didn't get to witness Pete Rose playing, he was a little before my time. But if he goes into Cooperstown, I'll bear witness to that in person. And I won't feel ashamed about it.

An Open Letter To Christine Brennan

On behalf of women in the sports journalism industry, I want to address your comment that women shouldn't "play to the frat house," because, well, "there are a lot of nuts out there."

I wonder, what we are supposed to believe about ourselves and our value in this industry, based on that comment. It was one of your several responses to the sexual violation of Erin Andrews. Only one of your Twitter responses was particularly considerate of her and that was after you'd been criticized.

If she were considered by men to be a cold bitch, the "frat house" would say she was asking for it for not being friendly enough. Let's get real. Someone filmed her naked, because of the way she looks. Whether she's a person known for being flirtatious- as she is- or known for being not at all flirtatious, made no difference.

But I wonder if you can see the flip side of your "frat house" comment: You implicated Erin Andrews in a crime against her.

Am I supposed to be proud of that? As a baseball writer still in the early part of my career, I wonder if being friendly, might mean that I'll be accused of playing to the frat house. Hope to God I'm never filmed naked, since it appears burning women at the stake for having some sort of evil power is still alive and well.

And you're right, Ms. Brennan. There are a lot of nuts out there. And they're all pointing fingers at a woman who has just been the victim of a crime.

Respectfully,

A friendly blond...gulp.

I wrote this letter out of frustration and hurt. It is no way meant to start a war of words or create bad feelings. I'd just like to know that we have each other's backs, as this incident suggests we have some things to talk about.

Roy Halladay Is Making Me Crazy

I realize it's not pitcher Roy Halladay's fault. But the Blue Jays ace is destroying my mental capacity to think clearly or think at all. He's in there. And won't leave.

As the Phillies and Jays decide if they can strike a deal, Phillies fans, writers and general baseball experts and enthusiasts, keep their ears to the air and hope to hear some news. It's the biggest story in baseball and yet, there's no story. There's nothing to tell, folks.

One of the side effects has been finding myself waffling on my stance. I was sure the trade wasn't the best idea. I was sure that giving away too much, even for Halladay, wasn't worth it. Not that I would be unhappy. Just uneasy.

However, with the Phils playing like every game's their last and running away with the division a little more everyday, does my attitude need to shift with the summer winds?

Baseball standings are nothing to live by. They are fickle and unpredictable. They will trick you. Many teams in history- including the Mets and Phillies- can tell you stories about that particular heartbreak. It looks like a sure thing or really close, and then suddenly, you're out. So, no, I won't allow the standings in the last week of July dictate my entire thought process. But it's got to matter to an extent.

And so, my alternative view is this: if the Phillies have a 2009 World Championship title, perhaps that's most important.

The future is important too. But winning is the point. Winning now, is REALLY the point.

If the Phils could replace pitchers J.A. Happ or Kyle Drabek in the trade with Carlos Carrasco, I'd be more comfortable with that. But, if not, this deal is probably dead anyway.

The kids on the farm continue to wait and take the field.  Happ- a picture of calm and maturity when I interviewed him last week- continues to suit up for the Phillies with the cloud of questions hanging all over him. Baseball goes on.

But the big story- the non-story- goes on too.

And I bow to the experts behind the scenes on this one, because, it's tough.

In the meantime, complimentary psychiatric services would be much appreciated.

New Site For Female Baseball Writers/Fans

http://girlsofsummerbb.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/quote-of-the-day-happ-stuck-in-his-own-head/

Check it out and enjoy.

Excuse Me, While I Kiss The Sky

If someone has mustard on their shirt, it's never good. But in baseball, it's worse.

A "hot dogger" with mustard on his shirt is a baseball player that needs to take a step back and, as they say, check himself. He's showing up the team. He's making it all about himself.

A player has to carry himself with class, of course. He has to have respect for the guys in the opposing dugout. But some players are emotional and express their passions, be it anger or joy, when they play. It's hard to say when a guy has gone too far.

Young Joba Chamberlain was on the hill for the Yankees Friday, and he was filled with pride about the game he was pitching. It was obvious. The twenty-three year old kicked his leg, pumped his fist and spun around, yelling to himself more than to anyone. The Yankees were on their way to their 8th straight win. And he was on fire and knew it.

But whether or not showing that kind of feeling is inappropriate, is up to the observer.

Yanks manager Joe Girardi doesn't think it is.

"There has been discussion about the emotion," he told MLB.com. "I don't ever think Joba is showing anyone up. I believe that emotion makes him a better pitcher." 

Emotional players, we've seen many of those. Josh Beckett comes to mind. His angry young man approach to playing isn't frowned upon so much, as it's considered amusing. And there's also the players who feel so blessed by God for a home run or a hit, they kiss their finger and point to the sky. Jimmy Rollins and Albert Pujols do that consistently. Sometimes this seems sweet and thoughtful. Other times (particularly if it's a player on the opposite side of your loyalties), it just seems annoying.

But fans need those kinds of players on their team. For every Joba Chamberlain, there's a Derek Jeter. For every Jimmy Rollins, there's a Chase Utley. The generally inexpressive, cool player is as meaningful and necessary to a team as the guy who plays with a soul full of fire, and shows it in his face or gestures.

And just because he doesn't show what he feels, by the way, doesn't make him less of a player.

Mike Schmidt could tell you that.