Bleacher Report - Articles by Jeff

Roger Clemens: American Icon?

Jeff — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:54:30 -0400

Recently, I caught up with Michael O’Keeffe, one of the authors of American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime. The book hit stores on May 12.

This was the second book on Roger Clemens to come out in the past few months, following the release of The Rocket That Fell To Earth by Jeff Pearlman. My questions are in bold, and his answers are underneath:

What was the purpose of the book? How did the project start?

We had been covering the steroid issue in major league baseball and other sports for a long time, close to ten years. When the Mitchell Report came out, Roger Clemens made a lot of denials about steroid use.

He went on 60 Minutes, made a YouTube video, and filed a defamation lawsuit. We followed the story. And at some point last year, we thought that we had a lot of information.

It was difficult to tell these long narrative stories in the newspaper, so we thought we could put this together and tell a good story, both about how Roger Clemens went from being a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame to the target of a perjury investigation, and also about the rise of steroids in major league baseball.

Is the book more of a narrative, or is it investigative?

I think it’s both. We tell a story, but we also lay out facts that people may not have been aware of before.

Clemens has stated time and time again that he has never done drugs. In fact, he said that American Icon was “one big fat lie.” Why is he so quick to defend himself against the evidence, if he is indeed guilty?

We had requested interviews with him, and he declined or ignored our requests. But there were people that we were talking to that were close to him, and so he had a sense of what was to come and what was in the book (the kind of questions we were asking, the kind of information that we were presenting to people).

The thing about Clemens is that the qualities that made him a great pitcher—his ferocity, his tenacity—there’s a thing in his DNA where he just can’t quit and he just won’t give up. His inability to sit down gets the best of him. He thought he had an opportunity to shoot some things down before they got started.

Why use the term “American Icon?”

I think that Clemens embodies a lot of things that are very American, for good or for bad. He was born in Ohio, and moved to Texas when he was a teenager. He re-invented himself in Texas. He was no longer this kid from Ohio, he became this fireballer, he embodied the “Lone Ranger” type of icon that people in the Southwest are drawn to.

Do you think that performance enhancing drugs still effect the game today as much as it did six or seven years ago?

I think that baseball has formulated a better response to it, but I don’t think you can safely say that the Steroid Era is over. There is still no test for human growth hormone.

But I think that major league baseball sees that there is a bigger picture here, we want to create a level playing field, we want to create a culture that tells people it’s not a good idea to use steroids.

There has been so much coverage of performance enhancing drugs in the sport of baseball. Do you think the fans have had enough? Do you think that they’ll start feeling sorry for guys like Clemens and A-Rod who have been put under the spotlight?

Fans say a lot of times that they are sick of hearing about steroids, but I think when they hear the details and various cases about how guys used them, how they effected their performance, how they effected their life, it becomes a much more interesting story.

If you just hear that the game that you love has been wrecked by steroids, it sounds like a broken record for awhile.

But I think, for example, if you tell people that Jose Canseco went from a guy who was one of the most feared hitters to a broken-down man who is suffering from emotional and relationship problems, I think that becomes interesting to people.

And the way that Roger Clemens has fought this battle is also interesting to people. This was a guy who was prominently featured in commercials and movies and charity work, but now this is a guy who has become very private. People are interested in those kind of stories.

Have you ever met Clemens?

I’ve interviewed him in the clubhouse after games many times, and I’ve had the opportunity to talk to him one-on-one. I had a real magical experience with him once where I wrote a story about a number of baseballs that were stolen from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

They were autographed by five different Presidents. Walter Johnson, who always started the season, used to get the Presidents to sign these balls for him, and they were stolen from Hall of Fame, and I did a series of stories about this.

Bill Maddon, one of my colleagues here at the Daily News, and I wound up doing some detective work and helping the FBI locate these balls. The FBI got these balls back and returned them to Cooperstown, and they did a ceremony with Walter Johnson’s family at Yankee Stadium, and I got to stand in the dugout before the game started.

Clemens actually came out, and we wound up having a long talk about it. I thought he was a really interesting guy; he knew all about baseball history, and we had a great conversation about it.

Do you think the book unfairly pinpoints on one player? Or was it necessary to pinpoint on Clemens because of his status as one of the best ever?

Well, the story develops when Clemens filed his lawsuit, and Clemens took his denials to the press and the public, and that’s what the book is about. Why not focus on Clemens? If there are wounds here, aren’t they self-inflicted?

In a previous interview you compared Roger Clemens to George Bush. Can you elaborate on that?

I think they’re both iconic figures. They’re both guys who were born in other parts of the country but re-invented themselves in Texas. They both took on that swagger that people associate with Texas. Obviously, that didn’t work out too well for President Bush’s Presidency. I think there are parallels there with Clemens.

Just as Bush said “I’m the decider, I make decisions whether they are right or wrong,” Clemens also made some decisions that people around him advised him against. A lot of things, in hindsight, didn’t really work out for him.

Do you think that Clemens will ever make the Hall of Fame?

I don’t have a Hall of Fame vote. But I think that a lot of things can change in five years. Time will tell; he officially hasn’t retired yet, so he won’t be eligible until five years after he does that.

What happens if he gets indicted on perjury charges? What happens if he’s convicted? What happens if he goes to trial, and gets acquitted? I don’t know.

You worked with three other writers on this book. How was that experience?

It was great. The people that were on our Daily News I-Team are all very talented, and I feel privileged to work with three really good reporters. We’ve been working together for a long time, so it wasn’t very difficult.

There were times it was easier because we had four people working together, but sometimes it was harder because things weren’t always coordinated.

Final question: What is the primary reason that people should go out and buy this book?

It gives you a real detailed look at how the greatest pitcher of our time, maybe the greatest pitcher ever, responded to the allegations in the Mitchell Report. It tells a story about Clemens’ fall from grace in a level of detail that people haven’t seen before.

We talk about a specific player, but I think his reaction to the Mitchell Report, and the things that we learned from his reactions, told us a lot about the culture of steroids in baseball. So it tells a lot about an individual player, but there is also a greater social story being told here.

New York Yankees: The First Twenty Games

Jeff — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:29:07 -0400

From The Voice of Yankees Universe, nyyankeesrumors.com.

One thing I’ve learned from watching the Yankees: you can’t get too high and you can’t get too low. It’s all about the balance. The ying-yang. Homeostasis. You get the idea.

And so far, that’s exactly what the 2009 team has done for us; as fans, we’ve had some ups, some downs, and a lot in between. Through 20 games, the Yankees stand at 10-10, which puts them right in the middle of the road. They’re not in last place. They’re not in first place. They’re just mediocre.

The offense is fine. There are a few players that haven’t gotten off to a great start (here’s looking at you Mark Teixeira), but that is to be expected. Teixeira has never been a fast starter.

Robinson Cano, on the other hand, has been one of the best hitters in the league during the month of April. His average stands at .381, and he is currently riding a 15-game hitting streak, a far cry from his dismal start in 2008.

The pitching is not fine. The Yankees have the highest ERA in baseball (well over six), but the ERA is somewhat inflated because of three games in which they allowed 15 or more runs.

CC Sabathia hasn’t looked like the Sabathia of last year, but then again, he started off slowly in 2008.

A.J. Burnett has looked great, except for his last start against Boston. Joba Chamberlain has had control issues, while Chien-Ming Wang has had…issues (a 34.50 ERA through three starts).

Andy Pettitte is Andy Pettitte. He gives up a lot of base runners but he has a knack for getting out of jams. At this point, he is the team’s best starter.

Phil Hughes, meanwhile, may be ready to take a spot in the rotation, especially after his dominant performance against the Tigers tonight. His fastball stands at around 92-ish, and his hook has a strong, knee-buckling drop to it. I like it.

The bullpen has had a Jekyll and Hyde feel to it. Some games, the guys out there are lights out. Others, not so much. But the first 20 games have shown me that Jose Veras, Damaso Marte, Edwar Ramirez, Phil Coke, and Jonathan Albaladejo cannot be trusted in big situations. And now Bruney is injured.

So that basically leaves Mariano. Oh, where have you gone, Tom Gordon?

Hopefully the next 20 games go a little better for the Yankees. This team is too good to settle for mediocrity.

A Letter From MLB Commissioner Bud Selig

Jeff — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:48:05 -0400

A few months ago, I wrote a letter to Bud Selig as part of a class project. Here was the letter I sent:

Dear Mr. Selig:

As part of a class project, we were assigned to write a letter to a person of interest; some wrote to President Barack Obama, others wrote to Former President George W. Bush. I chose to write to you for a variety of reasons.

I am passionate about the sport of baseball and wanted to discuss some of the issues facing the sport today. I would like to applaud you for the many of your implementations over the past few years.

Major League Baseball’s drug testing program is the strongest in sports. It has definitely leveled the playing field since its installment. Baseball has been hit hard by a number of steroid and performance-enhancing drug allegations, but in my opinion, MLB has handled them well.

I am also a huge proponent of interleague play.

I was only six-years-old when it was instituted, but it has certainly added a whole new dimension to the game. As a Yankee fan, I have seen some great interleague moments at Yankee Stadium, such as in 2002, when the crowd gave a standing ovation to Byung-Hyun Kim when he returned to the Stadium for the first time since the 2001 World Series. The Subway Series, between the Mets and the Yankees, is also a great thrill; every year, there is a huge rivalry, between the Met and Yankee fans, in our school.

However, with all due respect, there are some policies in baseball that I disagree with.

I am against the use of instant replay in baseball for several reasons. As you stated in November 2005, “Human error is part of our sport.” I believe this sets baseball apart from other sports. In football, you can call back a touchdown, but prior to this year in baseball, you could not “call back” a home run. Replay exists in the NFL because the NFL is made for television. Baseball is on television, but it is made to be watched in person, without unnecessary breaks in action.

Trust me, as a Yankee fan, I was angry at some of the atrocious calls made by the umpires at Yankee Stadium, earlier this year. Still, I believe that human error is a part of the game, and more so than not, the umpires get the calls right.

As I enter my college years, I will be looking into careers and majors, and ultimately I would love to do something in the sport of baseball.

As Tim Kurkjian said, “Baseball is the best game because once it grabs you, it never lets go; it is so seductive.” That said, I want to thank you for all that you have done for the sport since becoming commissioner. You have broadened its interest and allowed the game to progress perfectly into the twenty-first century. While we may not agree on many of the current issues facing the sport of baseball, I commend you for your work in improving the game.

–

I never expected to get anything back. But just a few weeks later, I received a personalized letter from Bud. Here it is:

Dear Jeffrey:

Thank you for your letter of October 29, 2008. I really appreciate your intense interest in the sport of Baseball and I thank you for your thoughtful comments relative to our drug testing program and interleague play.

I certainly can understand your critique of instant replay. You know that we have only a limited form on home run calls and on the outfield walls as well as along the foul poles. The new ballparks have made it very difficult for umpires to see, and quite frankly, they even agreed with this. They had to run 200-300 feet to call a ball and in some of the parks it was impossible. That is why we went to a limited form of instant replay. There will be no further replay as long as I am Commissioner in the next 4 1/2 years.

Your Tim Kurkjian comment is absolutely accurate and I am delighted that you want to be in Baseball some day. We have great intern programs for individuals leaving college and I hope you will avail yourself of that opportunity.

It was a pleasure to hear from you and I thank you for taking the time to write to me. If there is anything further I can do to help you with your class project, please do not hesitate to contact me again.

Sincerely,

Allan H. Selig
Commissioner of Baseball

For all the criticism Selig has endured, it says a lot about the man that he took the time to write back to me.

It’s also interesting that he capitalized “Baseball.” You don’t see that everyday.

Strange But True: The Best of 2008

Jeff — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:21:04 -0400

As a baseball fan, I love seeing odd events happen during games. Who could forget the night Melky Cabrera hit a ground rule double when the ball hit the pitching rubber and flew into the stands? Or when Orlando Hernandez threw his entire glove to first base?

The oddities of the game are one of its primary attractions. Even though thousands of games are played each year, there always seems to be a “Wow, I’ve never seen that before” moment in almost every game.

So I present to you some “strange but true” oddities that occurred during the 2008 season. I found these from an article Jayson Stark wrote a few months ago. Here are some of the better one’s:

- The only Padre to steal a base in the entire month of July was that world-famous base bandit, Greg Maddux.

— CC Sabathia tied for the lead in shutouts in BOTH, the American and National, leagues in the same season.

— Matt Holliday reached base six times in one game Apr. 17; however, didn’t score nor drive in a run.

— In Game Two of the World Series, the Rays became the first team since the 1923 Giants to score two runs on RBI groundouts in a single World Series inning. In Game 3, the Rays became the first team to pull off that very same feat in, oh, about 48 hours.

— Finally, when the Phillies win the World Series, they really do it with mirrors. Just check the calendar—and the closers:

Won in:

‘80 and ‘08

Last out collected by a reliever wearing No.:

45 (Tug McGraw) and 54 (Brad Lidge)

—The Rangers had a winning record in July; however, their ERA for the month was a picturesque 6.63.

—In a Sept. 5th game, the A’s got one hit in the eighth inning and scored eight runs. Along the way, there were six walks, four bases-loaded walks, a hit batter, and the only grand slam in the major-league lifetime of Rakin’ Rajai Davis (who had entered the game that inning, as a Pinch Batter).

Before that inning, naturally, the A’s hadn’t scored more than five runs in a whole game in 40 consecutive games. And no team had scored eight runs or more in an inning while getting just one or less hits since the 1959 White Sox.

—The Nationals had losing streaks of 12 and nine games in their first 39 games after the All-Star break. The Yankees haven’t had a losing streak as long as either of those two since Sept. 21, 1982, which was more than 4,000 games ago.

Of all the Strange-But-True moments, this one takes the cake:

This year, Bengie Molina hit a home run, but didn't score a run.

So how’d he become the first man in major-league history to pull that off? It took a rare, Molina-esque combination of muscle, lead-foot-itude, and modern technology. But it happened, all right. Here’s how:

On Sept. 26, Molina lofted a fly ball that looked as if it hit the top of the right-field wall at AT&T Park. So Molina stopped at first. Emmanuel Burriss trotted out to pinch-run for him. And nothing seemed amiss, until Omar Vizquel told Giants manager Bruce Bochy he thought he’d heard the ball clank off the metal roof just above the wall.

So Bochy asked the umpires to use replay. And whaddayaknow, the call was reversed and Molina had himself a two-run homer. But the umps WOULDN’T let Molina come back to finish his trot because they ruled Burriss was already in the game and couldn’t exit.

So Burriss finished circling the bases. And Molina wound up with a box-score line that went 3-0-1-2—on a night he hit a home run.

Want to know how impossible that is? Our buddy, Andy Baggarly, of the San Jose Mercury News, checked in to tell us that when official scorer Michael Duca tried to enter this sequence into his computer, the computer program wouldn’t let him do it, because even computers know a guy can’t hit a home run without scoring a run. Right?

So check the box score over at baseball-reference.com. It still doesn’t believe this happened. But it did. In actual life. And all us Strange But True Feats of the Year fans will be eternally grateful that it did.

–

Good stuff. I’ll try and update the strange-but-true moments as they happen throughout the 2009 season.

Pay As a Percentage of Team Value

Jeff — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:02:20 -0400

While digging through my closet, I found an interesting article written by Peter J. Schwartz in a 2008 issue of Sports Money.

In the article, Schwartz looks at historical player salaries in comparison to the overall value of the team. Here were some of the players listed:

1930: Babe Ruth’s salary — $80,000
Yankees Team Value: $2.5 million
Ruth made 3.2% of the team’s total value.

1949: Joe DiMaggio’s salary — $100,000
Yankees Team Value: $5 million
DiMaggio made 2.0% of the team’s total value.

1980: Nolan Ryan’s salary — $1.125 million
Astros Team Value: $13 million
Ryan made 8.7% of the team’s total value.

1991: Roger Clemens’ salary — $5.38 million
Red Sox Team Value: $136 million
Clemens made 4.0% of the team’s total value.

1997: Albert Belle’s salary — $11 million
White Sox Team Value: $149 million
Belle made 7.4% of the team’s total value.

1999: Kevin Brown’s salary — $15 million
Dodgers Team Value: $270 million
Brown made 5.6% of the team’s total value.

2001: Alex Rodriguez’s salary — $25.2 million
Rangers Team Value: $342 million
Rodriguez made 7.4% of the team’s total value.

2008: Alex Rodriguez’s salary — $30.5 million
Yankees Team Value: $1.3 billion
Rodriguez made 2.3% of the team’s total value.

Check out nyyankeesrumors.com and bronxinsider.vox.com for more commentary.

How Good Is Mariano Rivera?

Jeff — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:39:21 -0400

In short, very.

He is unquestionably the greatest relief pitcher of all time, given his longevity, durability, and success from April through October. And, in my eyes, his 2008 season was the best season ever by a relief pitcher.

Rivera, who was 38 last year, posted a 1.40 ERA in 64 games. In 70.2 innings, he allowed 41 hits, 11 runs, while walking six and striking out 77. That's better than a 1:12 walk to strikeout ratio. It's absolutely mind-boggling.

Rivera posted a WHIP of 0.665. It was the sixth season of his career where his WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) was below 1.000. He also posted an ERA+ of 317, which was the best mark ever in the history of the game.

Want more stats? These are his career postseason marks:

W-L: 8-1, G: 76, ERA: 0.77, SV: 34, IP: 117.1, H: 72, ER: 10, BB: 16, K: 93.

Rivera has pitched in 26 career postseason series, and yet he has allowed just ten earned runs.

Oh, and by the way, he throws only one pitch (for the most part.)

Even though the Sandman will be 39 this year, I am sure he'll be back to his old tricks again in 2009. We will never see another one quite like Mariano, and as Yankee fans, we should enjoy his dominance and savvy on the mound while we can.

Read more of my commentary at bronxinsider.vox.com.

The Decline of the Baseball Card Industry

Jeff — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:40:57 -0500

The sport of baseball has never been more popular or widely-marketed, and yet, the baseball card industry suffers more and more each day.

Old timers will tell you how baseball cards were a staple of their childhood. The same cannot be said for today's youth. I have always been an avid baseball card collector, but in today's world, this places me in the minority.

The baseball card industry is struggling to regain relevance in the world of 21st century technology. Why is this?

Alan Narz, owner of Big League Cards, offers an explanation.

"Everything got too complicated. There was just too much of everything. No one could keep up with it and there was no commonality for collectors. It needs to be simple again so people will want to build (complete) sets and stay excited about it."

Sports cards revenues peaked in 1991 at $1.2 billion. Since then, it has dropped to under $300 million.

Many claim the reason to be the arrival of Upper Deck in 1989, which started selling packs for an unprecedented rate of $1. The cards featured improved photography and graphics, but without the gum.

Other new companies followed in Upper Deck's footsteps, targeting their product to nostalgic baby-boomers instead of children. Then, as the 1994 strike approached, the bubble burst.

"A proliferation of card purveyors, combined with the 1994 baseball strike and surging popularity of video games, depressed sales," says Erik Spanberg, who has done extensive research on the subject.

Evan Kaplan, the category director of trading cards and collectibles at the Major League Baseball Players Association, is trying to reverse this trend.

"There were a number of issues that plagued us during the past 10 years and now the intent is to market and promote the card better and attract kids. We are looking to work very closely with Topps and Upper Deck to improve in those areas."

How will Kaplan go about this?

He envisions lower-priced cards and better distribution. He wants more drugstores, convenience stores, and delis selling cards. He also wants to improve display areas at bigger retailers (Wal-Mart, Target).

In my opinion, the biggest thing the baseball card industry needs to improve on is the extensive inserts that have become a nuisance to collectors.

It seems that in every pack of five cards, there is at least one card that is either an advertisement, a checklist, or a filler that has nothing to do with an actual player. This has made it harder (and much more expensive) to complete sets in recent years.

There is hope, however. Michael Eisner purchased Topps a few years ago and has promised improvements to his product. There has also been an increase in baseball card blogs and sites—there are literally hundreds of them now.

If the industry decreases prices, increases awareness, and makes less inserts, I am confident that baseball card collecting will become a more popular pasttime for kids.

(Quotes and information can be credited to csmonitor.com).

Read more on my blog, The Bronx Insider (bronxinsider.vox.com)