Play Deep: I Can Be Centerfield

Two of my favorite musical treats are listening to the album Play Deep by The Outfield (of “Your Love” fame) and “Centerfield” by John C. Fogerty, of Creedance Clearwater Rival fame. I think of baseball when I hear them...go figure.

The purpose of this post is not to describe my musical likes but to list the best centerfielders and offer my undying love of Centerfield play.

I grew up playing outfield, most often centerfield, in the mid-late 1980’s, which explains the music tie-in. I always felt a bond with that position even though I played everywhere on the ball diamond, except 2nd base, even into high school. I am left-handed so you try to figure out why I caught, or played 3rd base as late as my junior year in high school. But my real love was centerfield. The vast expanse was a place I could go to work out things. I did my best in centerfield, even though it took until my senior year before the high school coach would stop playing me in right field (arm) or pitching (but never taught me anything I did not all ready know.)

During this era, there were only a few guys I really respected as centerfielders. Mind you, there are always a few really good ones, but rarely so many as the list later will reflect. Brett Butler and Kirby Puckett come to mind as vastly different, but solid day in, day out players of the 1980’s. Butler was a master of the bunt. Kirby was a clutch hitting, spectacular fielding at times CF in Minnesota, thus the HOF induction.

Centerfielders are known usually for their great defensive skills or uncommon power/speed combination. Most hit high in the batting order, either 1st because of their speed, 2nd because they can handle the bat or 3rd-4th if they can slug. This is not an absolute; just more often than not if they are going to play over a decade for any team(s).

The best ones of all time are a roll call of the immortal players. Only around 100 men have amassed 1,000 games in centerfield through 2005 season. Currently 16 of those are HOF players.(With another 5-6 possibly inductable after their careers are over: Ken Griffey Jr., Carlos Beltran, Steve Finley, Andruw Jones, Bernie Williams and Jim Edmonds.)

Six of those HOF men played in the late 1940’s through 1960. Joe DiMaggio, Duke Snider, Larry Doby, Richie Ashburn, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. A few of their contemporaries were:

• Jimmy Piersall - Boston Red Sox/Cleveland


• Bill Virdon - Pittsburgh


• Vada Pinson - Cincinnati


• Curt Flood - St. Louis


• Jim Landis - Chicago White Sox


• Willie Davis - LA Dodgers

The 1950’s saw most every team have at least a competent CF running the outfield, if not spectacular. Of this group a few generalities existed:

• Mantle, Mays, Doby and Snider were the best sluggers.


• Ashburn, Mays, Piersall, Flood, Landis and Virdon were likely the best glove men.


• Mays, Ashburn, Pinson and Davis were stolen base threats.


• Snider and Mays likely had the best arms.
  

Mays is considered the best all-around CF of his day for a reason. His numbers are compiled in neary 3,000 games as a CF. Tris Speaker is the only other CF to amass over 2,500 games.

Centerfielders with 3,000 hits: Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Willie Mays, Robin Yount ( shortstop then move to CF for 1,000 games) and Rickey Henderson (started off as CF before spending most of his career in LF.) Even Lou Brock started out as a Centerfielder for the Cubs, but spent more time in LF and did not amass a significant game time in CF.

Centerfielders with 500 home runs: Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr.

An applicable quote from a great Centerfielder:

"Well, my dad taught me that there's three parts. There's hitting, there's defense, and there's baserunning. And as long as you keep those three separated, you're going to be a good player. I mean, you can't take your defense on the bases, you can't take your hitting to the field, and you can't take your baserunning at the plate. But defense, is number one." - Ken Griffey, Jr.

Defense is number one.

The best ones get to balls. Always. Ask Vic Wertz about Willie Mays. Ask the few living Negro Leaguers about Cool Papa Bell or Oscar Charleston. Many a centerfielder has changed the game with his glove. As the table above reflects, quite a few of the greats are on the list, particularly those in the 1950's, highlighted in bold. It should be noted that Brett Butler and Kirby Puckett are high on the list of getting to balls.

If I had things to do over, I would have played centerfield for a minor league/semi-pro team for as long as I could. Maybe to make it to the show for a day, if two or three injuries happened. My best days in life involved playing baseball.

Last summer, I played in an adult league, a few pounds from by optimal playing weight. But I enjoyed chasing down balls and making the ultimate play: throwing a runner out a home. I did that 3 times. Not as much juice on the ball as I use to have, but accurate and the runners were dead in the water rounding third. The grass feels better under your feet after a throw or a great diving catch. The fence pats you on your back after you avoid a crash into it. And the sun gets out of your eyes on those elevator shots a few wannabe sluggers hit.

Put me in coach, I'm always ready to play....

Earth: The Lost Frontier. Global Warming and Overpopulation

I have not been a tree hugger for all of my life. I'm 34, so half of my life was spent not knowing or caring what happened elsewhere because I wanted to play baseball, score chicks and have a great car, probably in that clearly delineated order...

The last decade I have paid attention to the growing concern and also the growing backlash against the idea that our Earth is pissed off. Now, mother nature has not yet sent us yet to our room, but she is showing her harsher side, growing more temperamental and eventually wil tip her hand, likely to our ultimate dismay.

We have utilized our fossil fuel resources to drive our industrial age for roughly 250 years. The last 100 years has seen us make plenty of holes in mama Earth's skin, spill our messes on her face and letting go her once precious figure by expanding our population. So mama Earth has aged and does not look so hot - where she once was quite the looker of the Universe. (Think Helen of Troy, Aphrodite, Marilyn Monroe, Bridgette Bardot, maybe Fara Fawcett, pre-Burning Bed, and Jessica Alba all rolled into one.)

While I am using sarcasm and humor, I actually am trying to point to the serious of this problem. Earth no longer looks so hot. She's heating up --according to scientists, engineers and anyone that has noticed anything remotely related to such balance. From the reports, we do not have much positive to look forward to if we refuse to change our polluting, wasteful and otherwise greed driven ways.

Some are not convinced of this. They believe that scientists have some hidden agenda like trying to live in a tree-filled, clean, species-laden and healthy Earth at the cost of Capitalism and Free Markets because scientist hate money...or some other nefarious action to destroy the Oil companies, Car manufacturers and Mining Industries.

There are alternatives batted around that could lessen our problems in the future. Less energy usage (like my computer used to write this diatribe), and pollutions from my car, lawnmower, and anything that puts out CO2 on regular basis. (Though some disagree on that gas's contribution.) Printing out paper, which encourages big paper companies to cut down those trees, not recycling enough and keeping inefficent lights and other products humming along.

Nuclear power can be a better way to go. Yet people are afraid of 3-mile Island that happen in 1979 when I was seven. Plenty of biased press coverage has negated any hope of building future reactors, even though they can be done safely and much more effectively. Yes, they produce waste - but containment fields can be made or better, why no ship this stuff out space where it is at home in its natural habitat? (Nuclear material, that is.) Once again, plenty of bias against this area.

Overpopulation is also a great multiplier of this problem. Look, this mother Earth is getting crowded. People are going to starve quicker than they will die due to climate, yet the damage may be doubly so. As our population is diversifying - third world becoming developed on fossil fuels and the U.S. fails to show leadership on this issue of Global Warming - it is growing at an alaming rate. By 2050, we'll be on the threshold of 9-10 Billion souls. Should be an interesting world if we run it like we do today.

As you probably figured, I watched An Inconvenient Truth. If anything, you should keep an open mind about things. We've made plenty of mistakes on this pebble called Earth. We may think back soon enough and say, "boy, maybe we should have listened...to mother Earth."

I should come clean and say I still have to drive too much. I do deliveries everyday which requires me to drive and I can't afford a hybrid or solar or electrically-enhanced vehicle. I turn off power, unplug often and otherwise do my best, when I think of it. We better solve these problems with Global Warming, Energy Usage/Efficiency, Overpopulation, H20 shortages and other environmentally related issues or Mother Earth is going to go Postal in a way barely recognizeable to our children or us.

Think Globally, Act Locally!!!

Moniker: No More Mr. Nice Guy, Nice Guys Finish Last

In the link above, Mr. William Safire's Dictonary had a few wholes in it. He referenced the idea that last place was 7th in the 1940s. But aside from that, he was referencing politics. "Mr. Nice Guy" could be an apt reference to Neville Chamberlain, who practiced the policy of appeasement with Adolf Hitler. We realize that did not turn out well. The idea of a Nice Guy denotes weakness, too easily swayed to acceptance. A poor leader.

Another man famously, and erroneously quoted to have uttered, "Nice Guys Finish Last," is Leo "The Lip" Durocher. This in reference to HOF Home Run basher Mel Ott's managerial style of the Giants, prior to Leo taking over for "Master Melvin" Ott.

Actually, Leo is reported to have said, "They're all nice guys, but they'll finish last. Nice guys. Finish last." Leo was never a nice, touchy-feeling manager or player. He once is alleged to have five-fingered Babe Ruth's watch while a member of the Yankees in the late 1920's.

Leo's brash, uncompromisingly crass, insensitive nature was born out of his need to hustle early on in life. Nothing came easy. He survived the Great Depression as a middle infielder on the Gashouse Gang and was considered an immensely knowledgeable baseball man. He once owned the highest salary in the managerial ranks while in Brooklyn. Got suspended for year due to his connections to gamblers, mobsters and "the wrong people."

Leo took over the reigns of the horrid Chicago Cubs franchise in 1966. They had spent twenty seasons getting their crap handed to them on baseball. Leo took them from a 65 win team to a 85-92 win seasons for six straight seasons. But he is forever known for 1969...and the over usage of that pitching staff and certain ballplayers. Unfairly labelled the sole reason they lost, Leo went down in history as the goat in Chicago because "Mean Guys finish Second".

I picked this moniker because of Fantasy team I had that finished 2nd recently. By accident, I had pitching problems that could not be solved via trade or free agency. It was frustrating and I could hear Leo saying, "you are too nice."

Have a Good Weekend!!!!!

Baseball Realignment and Travel Concerns Improved

It is time to expand the number of teams to 32 in Major League Baseball...starting in 2009-10.

1. Add two teams: New Orleans and Las Vegas.


2. Move Arizona to the American League, joining Las Vegas in that league.


3. Both cities have minor league teams - Las Vegas would be a haven for MLB -and both need an economic boost. New Orleans has the opportunity to utilize the Superdome until either: a) a new stadium is built b) The Saints move West c) the hurricane threat is addressed correctly.


4. LSU College Baseball has been the #1 attendance draw in the NCAA baseball in 2004 and 2005. This reflects the market is present for a successful baseball arena.


5. Arrange the teams geographically. This develops stronger rivalries.


6. Inter Division games of 24 apiece x 3 teams equals = 72 games
   Same League games of 6 apiece x 12 teams equals = 72 games
   Intra- league play of 3 games x 4 teams equals - 12 games
   Intra- league play of 6 games x 1 team (same city or geographical rival) = 6 games.


7. Playoff format:
   5 teams (4 division winners and 1 wild card - with the highest record of 2nd place teams)
   Lowest 2 teams (#4 seed and Wild Card) play best of 3 game series.
   Divisional round: #1 seed versus wildcard winner in best 5 games. #2 -#3 seed play best of 5 games.
   Winners play best of 7 for League Championship.
   7 game World Series - no homefield decided by the ALL Star game. Best Record holds home field.


8. Due to the rescheduling, series can be longer, and cut down on extra travel. For example, playing 24 games against your rivals means that 4 game series are the norm. Instead of 8 three games sets, now you need only 6-four game tilts. Two less series, less travel. Environmentally friendly...


9. In the league match ups, rotate the home/away from year to year. Six game sets - one week including the off day. This ideally allows for makeup dates, doubleheaders and the rainout date at the end of the trip. This cuts travel by 50%.

Arranging this sort of schedule is easier, cuts out 2-game sets that are wasteful. Also the realignment (not show, but exists in my head) is ideally suited to maximize competitive balance and rivalries.

Heroes: Final Two episodes, nah! Season Two

Just finished watching a guilty pleasure, that being Heroes on NBC. As the season has progressed, we have seen the groups of characters (those with powers) become more intertwined into groups who are motivated to advance their futures or stop the future, as Isaac, the now departed artist-seer has envisioned.

Two characters, Sylar (aka Gabriel) and Peter, are gathering powers from all they contact. They are in the last flashforward episode engaged in an apocalyptic showdown. This is supposed to be prevented by stopping events that took place 5 years prior.

I believe the events that will take place have to moderated - in order for the show to continue. But battles are going to take place, but Sylar and Peter will have to go on, with their motivations, growth and development as characters altering as time, and new connections are made.

Certain characters can and will disappear; only to be replaced by new ones, with new powers. The idea of powers being special, as Sylar's objective has been, will be soon replaced as persons involved realize they are all special, unique and gifted in some way. But it will take about 3-4 seasons to discover that.

This is a show about the journey more than the inevitable conclusions, via the Heroes plot twists. It deals subtlety with the grander issues of our society, good v. evil, as the character's names reflect to a small degree. Surprisely little interaction has taken place in a religious context, but they exist...

No predictions as to the ending of season one. We may see a compromise on the huge doom of blowing up NYC. Certain characters will have to pass, others will come to light as new Heroes (like the little girl that can find anything by thinking of them) either supplant or assist in the journey to....will see.