--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGI00005 Date: 12/12/96 From: PAIGE MILLER Time: 06:44am \/To: STEPHEN FRAZIER (Read 2 times) Subj: AL/NL -=> Stephen Frazier took a called strike three for saying to Paul Seppala <=- SF> A better measure might be the All-Star game, which pits the cream of SF> the crop of each league against the best the other league has to SF> offer. The AL has won only nine or ten times since 1960. An even better measure of how the AL and NL compare talent-wise will be interleague play. ... Even small mouths can gather BIG feet! ___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 --- * KMail 3.10o Knight Moves --- QScan/PCB v1.17b / 01-0406 * Origin: Knight Moves - Rochester,NY 716-865-2106 (1:2613/313) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGI00006 Date: 12/13/96 From: TOM YOUNG Time: 10:38pm \/To: ALL (Read 2 times) Subj: hot stove Man, my Yanks getting outspent for Clemens. 8+mil per year by Toronto. I guess the Canadian dollar is getting a little better exchange rate these days for them to be able to afford that. And then the Cubs getting another pitcher in Tapani. Jeff King and Jay Bell to the Royals for Joe Randa and some minor league pitchers. I would have thought those two could have brought a little more than that, and to have the Pirates kick in 2.2m to sweeten the pot. Do the Pirates now have more than two major league caliber players? It looks like it will be an active winter for the ol' hot stove league. --- SLMR 2.1a Back Up My Hard Drive? I Can't Find The Reverse Switch! * Origin: Dingle Delaware Austin, TX (512) 442-8145 (1:382/48) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGI00007 Date: 12/13/96 From: ALLAN JENOFF Time: 04:32pm \/To: ED GRINNELL (Read 2 times) Subj: AL/NL EG> Most DHs would be first basemen in the NL ala John Kruk. Paul Molitor has said many times that without the DH he wouldn't be playing baseball anymore. In the NL, you put your best 9 on the field. In the AL, you put your best 10. How can that not be an advantage? If the DH were a better defensive player than one of the starters, wouldn't he be on the field? Are teams deliberately hurting themselves defensively in the AL? I don't think so. If you move the DH to 1st, in most cases you weaken the defensive strength of the team. Another advantage to the DH is that it allows injured players to continue playing. An injury that makes a regular position impossible can still allow a player to hit. That's a significant advantage. EG> Maybe because there's NO real "strategy" in the NL. Come on, when EG> pitchers come up to bat with a man on base, it's like punting on 4th EG> down in the NFL: bunt, bunt, bunt. AL pitchers have to put up with 9 EG> REAL bats during a game while NL pitchers only have to deal with 8. But NL pitchers have to think about their at bat, while AL pitchers just rest their arms. And some NL pitchers actually can hit a baseball. Living in an AL town I don't see many NL games, but the few games I saw this year - mostly the Expos - included a number of hits - not bunts - by pitchers. I don't know what the stats on this are but I suspect they would be surprising. One advantage of the NL is shorter games. Pitching changes are made when the team is at bat. You don't have those lengthy trips to the mound and the warmup pitches which for some strange reason we give to a guy who has been warming up for the last 15 minutes. On average, NL games are shorter than AL games and I suspect most fans - and all broadcasters - appreciate that. Those 3 and 3 1/2 hour games are just too long. --- * Origin: FidoNet: CAP/CANADA Support BBS : 416 287-0234 (1:250/710) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGJ00000 Date: 12/13/96 From: ED GRINNELL Time: 04:58pm \/To: TOM YOUNG (Read 2 times) Subj: [1/2] Belle... TOM YOUNG was seen kissing Large Marge and telling us: TY> Not to comment so much on this post, as it is true, but I do want to TY> comment on one of your earlier posts, regarding Belle "sacrificing TY> himself" by signing a long term contract early in his career. The TY> Indians took all the risks on that deal. They gave a guaranteed TY> contract to a player who had not hit 50 home runs, driven in the runs he TY> has now, hit 50 doubles, or become the offensive force he has today. TY> They gave this money to a player who was a self admitted alcoholic, Albert Belle has his problems but most of what you described happened AFTER he had signed AND New York did quite well, thank you, with an alcoholic power hitter by the name of Mickey Mantle (Whose transgressions were kept from the public for many years until Bouton published Ball Four). Albert Belle was no more of a risk than Mantle. Mantle got to answer a lot of softballs being thrown at him by the press (even by New York standards) and his life wasn't under the kind of scrutiny that Belle (or any other athlete today) has had to endure. --- TrekEd 1.00 * Origin: Marge Schott, the cure for Baseball Fever (1:170/1701) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGJ00001 Date: 12/13/96 From: ED GRINNELL Time: 05:12pm \/To: ALAN HESS (Read 2 times) Subj: Cal to third The Braves traded Alan Hess to the Pirates for saying: AH> Well, Pat Gillick has succeeded at another part of his plan to dismantle AH> the Orioles' offense. Mike Bordick, he of the Teflon offense (no AH> stick), has been signed by the Orioles. I hope the guy learns how to AH> hit! I think you're being too hard on Bordick. He's hit rather well for someone who has had to play in Oakland and he's appreciably better when they leave him in the 8th or 9th spot (Where he hit over .270 in the 5 years previous). --- TrekEd 1.00 * Origin: Where did you go, Joe Charboneau? (1:170/1701) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGJ00002 Date: 12/13/96 From: TERRY MAY Time: 04:50pm \/To: ALL (Read 2 times) Subj: TBS losing Braves? From ESPNET: Not so Brave Time Warner's TBS will likely lose its right to broadcast Atlanta Braves games, reports Variety. This potentially devastating news for TBS comes from Dave Almsted, senior VP of acquisition rights for the Fox Sports Networks, who says ESPN and Fox's FX, both of which share an exclusive national cable package of Major League Baseball games, are negotiating a dramatic phase-out of Braves games on TBS. ... Atlanta Braves - 1995 World Series Champions! --- JetMail 0.99beta22 * Origin: *[Rebel BBS]-[Las Vegas]-[HST/V32b]-[702/736-2822]* (1:209/745) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGJ00003 Date: 12/14/96 From: VIRGINIA BLALOCK Time: 01:36pm \/To: PATRICK DUBOIS (Read 2 times) Subj: trades Patrick Dubois was chewing the fat with Ronald Crowell about trades on 12 Dec 96 19:10: RC> I hope that the latest trades will be better for the team! PD> Which team? The Astros. They made yet another multi-player deal and such. ... Go Astros! --- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 * Origin: The Wizards Realm 1-713-9467315 1:106/7315 (1:106/7315) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGJ00004 Date: 12/14/96 From: ED GRINNELL Time: 10:04am \/To: ALLAN JENOFF (Read 2 times) Subj: AL/NL Allan was hit by a Randy Johnson fastball for uttering: AJ> Paul Molitor has said many times that without the DH he wouldn't be AJ> playing baseball anymore. So, Paul Molitor doesn't think he could do it but he probably could. I'm sure his biggest concerns would be injury and not how he would measure up to the rest of the players in the NL. AJ> In the NL, you put your best 9 on the field. In the AL, you put your AJ> best 10. How can that not be an advantage? Baloney. The NL puts players at first, right and left field that would be DH material in the AL. AJ> If the DH were a better defensive player than one of the starters, AJ> wouldn't he be on the field? If there was NO DH in the AL, you bet your butt he would be. He'd be playing first, right or left field just like other Bozos in the NL. AJ> don't think so. If you move the DH to 1st, in most cases you weaken AJ> the defensive strength of the team. Puhleeze. The NL has been doing it for years. AJ> baseball. Living in an AL town I don't see many NL games, but the few AJ> games I saw this year - mostly the Expos - included a number of hits - AJ> not bunts - by pitchers. I don't know what the stats on this are but AJ> I suspect they would be surprising. For you. NL pitchers accounted for 55.6% of all sacrifice hits. NO OTHER POSITION IN BASEBALL accounted for that high of a percentage of ANY offensive stat. When you remove SH and SF from pitchers, you'll see that AL hitters accounted for 111 and 121 more in each category than their NL counterparts. NL pitchers are called on to bunt because that's about all that they can do without hurting their team. A number nine hitter in the AL will be asked to hit away FAR MORE OFTEN than a pitcher in the NL. NL pundits try to bring up the double-switch but that's merely a ploy to hide the pitcher away from the opposing team and is a bare-faced admission that NL managers don't believe in their pitcher's ability to get a hit when it counts. That's not strategy, it's punting on 4th down and goes under the category of rote. --- TrekEd 1.00 * Origin: Marge Schott, the cure for Baseball Fever (1:170/1701) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGJ00005 Date: 12/14/96 From: TOM YOUNG Time: 07:15pm \/To: ED GRINNELL (Read 2 times) Subj: [1/2] Belle... EG>TOM YOUNG was seen kissing Large Marge and telling us: Only to keep her distracted while u stole Schottzie. :-) EG>Albert Belle has his problems but most of what you described happened FTER EG>had signed AND New York did quite well, thank you, with an alcoholic power EG>hitter by the name of Mickey Mantle (Whose transgressions were kept from the EG>public for many years until Bouton published Ball Four). Albert Belle was no EG>more of a risk than Mantle. Mantle got to answer a lot of softballs being EG>thrown at him by the press (even by New York standards) and his life asn't EG>under the kind of scrutiny that Belle (or any other athlete today) has had t EG>endure. And Albert didn't have to put up with a tyrannical g.m who could and would and did cut his salary when he did not improve each year. MAntle did not have a long term GUARANTEED contract like the players of today, Nobody back then did. I agree Mantle was an alcoholic, heck even he agreed. As far as the press is concerned, Belle made his own bed there. There will always be media people who will slam a player, but for the most part the media as a whole will present the player in a favorable light, unless the player's actions dictate otherwise. Even the players with the worst off field lives, Mantle (since u made this comparison), Strawberry, Gooden, Howe, Welch, Ferguson Jenkins, et. al. have not committed the boneheaded on and off field actions Belle has. I really don't want to make this sound like a slam of Belle, I enjoy watching him at bat, and hope he'll do well in Chicago. It was intended to debate the issue of Cleveland not upping the ante for Belle as a reward for his "sacrifice." Just one final statement on that, do u truly believe, that with the offer they had already made for Belle, Cleveland would not have matched Chicago's offer if they really felt Belle could put them over the top? --- SLMR 2.1a This tagline is umop apisdn * Origin: Dingle Delaware Austin, TX (512) 442-8145 (1:382/48) TM> Time Warner's TBS will likely lose its right to broadcast Atlanta Brave TM>games, reports Variety. This potentially devastating news for TBS comes fro TM>Dave Almsted, senior VP of acquisition rights for the Fox Sports Networks, w TM>says ESPN and Fox's FX, both of which share an exclusive national cable pack TM>of Major League Baseball games, are negotiating a dramatic phase-out of Brav TM>games on TBS. Wouldn't this also mean the end of Cubs/White Sox games on WGN and Mets games on WOR? And Yankee's games on MSG? --- SLMR 2.1a hAS ANYONE SEEN MY cAPSLOCK KEY? * Origin: Dingle Delaware Austin, TX (512) 442-8145 (1:382/48) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 234 BASEBALL Ref: DGJ00006 Date: 12/14/96 From: TOM YOUNG Time: 07:17pm \/To: TERRY MAY (Read 2 times) Subj: TBS losing Braves? TM> Time Warner's TBS will likely lose its right to broadcast Atlanta Brave TM>games, reports Variety. This potentially devastating news for TBS comes fro TM>Dave Almsted, senior VP of acquisition rights for the Fox Sports Networks, w TM>says ESPN and Fox's FX, both of which share an exclusive national cable pack TM>of Major League Baseball games, are negotiating a dramatic phase-out of Brav TM>games on TBS. Wouldn't this also mean the end of Cubs/White Sox games on WGN and Mets games on WOR? And Yankee's games on MSG? --- SLMR 2.1a hAS ANYONE SEEN MY cAPSLOCK KEY? * Origin: Dingle Delaware Austin, TX (512) 442-8145 (1:382/48)