Say Hey Is 75
"They invented the All-Star game for Willie Mays."
— Ted Williams






see the bio and history here



Well, it was yesterday, but Willie Mays turned 75 years old.

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Haven't read anything by Peter Gammons in a long time but here he suddenly pops up with an absurdist question like Who Is The Greatest Living Pitcher? - it's a rather stupid question, meaningless in that once one dies, they're no longer the greatest living pitcher but they still might be the greatest pitcher - dead or alive.

Not surprisingly, the choice is everybody's favourite free agent, Roger Clemens and there's a bunch of meaningless statistics to prove it.

However, there's a little Roger Clemens story that makes it all worthwhile:

"In a Florida State League game after Clemens signed, a Lakeland first baseman named Jim Morris took out and injured Clemens' Texas teammate Mike Brumley. Morris, it seems, had played at Oklahoma State, a team Texas had had some scuffles with. And when Lakeland went to Winter Haven the next week, Clemens started and struck out the first six batters, then beaned Morris in the head."

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Billy Wagner Lite

The big issue over the winter about closers was whether the Phillies could resign Billy Wagner - they couldn't and the Mets did instead and now the man they've brought in to replace him, Tom Gordon, is nine-for-nine in save chances through Thursday. An 0.66 ERA. An impressive 21 strikeouts in 14 2/3 innings. Only five walks. No homers allowed. A curveball to kill for and a fastball that reaches past the mid-90s on occasion.

Billy Wagner? He was busy blasting his former teammates. There was no support there," he said of the Phillies' clubhouse. "As soon as the game was over, everyone was gone and I was there by myself." -

Wagner will be pitching against the Phillies, most likely, in three days.

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The White Sox and Mets are tied for the best record in baseball this morning. The Sox were led by two last night who weren't with them on the World Series run last season. Javier Vazquez, acquired from Arizona, improved his record to 4-1 and his ERA to 2.88, fourth best in the American League, as the White Sox pounded the Royals 9-2.

And Jim Thome, acquired from Philadelphia, socked his third homer in as many games and his league-leading 13th of the season to help warm 38,593 chilled fans at U.S. Cellular Field—the fifth sellout of the season.

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On the other side of Chicago, the ineptitude is almost palatable. The Cubs lost their fifth straight game Saturday night by going 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position in a 2-1, 10-inning loss to San Diego.

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Matched against Florida Marlins All-Star Dontrelle Willis, Mulder doubled home a run in a five-run fifth inning, and the Cardinals got to Willis for 12 hits and seven runs in 4 2/3 innings before staggering to hold on for a 7-6 triumph in front of a modest crowd of 14,369 Saturday night at Dolphin Stadium. It was Mulder's 100th career victory.

Mulder has won 19 games for the Cardinals and 81 for Oakland since being the second player taken in the 1998 draft behind Philadelphia's Pat Burrell. He has a .662 winning percentage (100-51), which ranks third behind Pedro Martinez (.706) and Tim Hudson (.684) for active pitchers with 150 or more starts.

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Opening Day at the Sapporo Dome, 2005

Former Met Shinjo has a new career

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Standings, Etc.

Taking stock of the standings this weekend, here are some observations.

1. The Yankees are 1-4 in one run games. The Mets are 9-2 and the Astros are 10-2. The Nats and Marlins are the worst in tight games, losing 7 of 8 and 8 of 9 one run games respectively.

2. The Rockies are 4-0 in extra inning games. And the Padres are 4-1. The Mets have also had five extra inning games and are 3-2.

3. The Tigers have allowed the fewest (107) runs of any team in the Majors. The Orioles have allowed 187, the most.

4. The miserable Royals (7-21) have scored only 95 runs. The 16-15 Indians have scored 199 runs.

5. Best Road team are the Tigers, who are 12-5 away from home. The Nats are better on the road (8-11) than at home (2-10). Other teams with better away records than home records: San Diego (9-4 away, 6-11 at home) and the Marlins 6-9 on the road, 2-11 at home.

* If the baseball playoffs started today:

AL: Detroit @ Yankees
Rangers @ White Sox

NL: Astros @ Mets
Rockies @ Reds

On this date last year, four of the six eventual division winners were already in front, but the Yankees (12-19), Padres (17-14) and eventual NL wild-card winning Astros (11-18) were still lying in the weeds.

Seven Surprising Story Lines in Baseball.

"Former Atlanta Braves teammates Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux both turned 40 this spring and both are pitching as if they have discovered the fountain of youth. Glavine is 4-2 with a 1.94 ERA for the New York Mets. Maddux is 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA for the Chicago Cubs."

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Hey kids, it's Cinco de Nomar as the Dodgers win another.

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Oscar de la Hoya redeems himself, dopping Ricardo Mayorga with his signature left hook in the first round and finishing him with a furious flurry of lefts and rights midway through the sixth.

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No Laker Dynasty


Kobe watches Tim Thomas celebrate, Lakers blow 3-1 series lead against the Suns.

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In the first-round playoff series, Cleveland's LeBron James set 11 individual playoff records for the Cavaliers - including most points in a game with 45 in Game 5 - and tied five others. His 35.7-point average in the first-round series against Washington is the third-highest in NBA history for a player in his debut series, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain's 38.7 in 1960 and Lew Alcindor's 36.2 in 1970.