Bleacher Report - Articles by Zack Moore

Were Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens Hall of Famers Before Steroids?

Zack Moore — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:31:49 -0400

While some websites tinker with scientific calculations of how Bonds’ or Clemens’ careers could have ended up if they did not take steroids, I’m only going to deal with their statistics through the 1997 season to determine whether either of them are Hall of Fame worthy.

I choose year this because the consensus around baseball is that both of them started abusing steroids during 1998.

Now let’s examine whether or not Clemens would have been a Hall of Famer due to his numbers up through 1997. Clemens’ trainer Brian McNamee said in the Mitchell Report that it was not until the 1998 season that he injected Clemens with Winstrol, which is the street name for Stanozolol.

Many people use this steroid because it causes strength increase without excessive weight gain, something that would be very helpful to Clemens as he grew older.

Clemens' stats through 1997 include 213 wins against 118 losses, a winning percentage of .644. He had an astounding 2.97 ERA through his first 14 seasons while tallying 2,882 strikeouts.

Even though his 2.97 ERA would only place him tied for 157^thon the all-time list, the only current major leaguer with a lower ERA is Pedro Martinez, who has a 2.86 ERA.

Most of the players in front of him on the ERA list played in a time when there was a lot less scoring than there is now. Many of these players played in the early 20^th century. Some even played before baseball’s modern era began in 1900.

I need something concrete to put the Rocket’s stats up against, so I will compare Clemens to Bob Feller, because as the National Baseball Hall of Fame website says, “Bob Feller's blazing fastball set the standard against which all of his successors have been judged.” It only seems fair that Clemens be measured up against a power pitcher like himself.

Feller spent 18 years with the Indians, four years more than Roger’s steroid-free career. During that time, he was victorious 266 times while compiling 2,581 strikeouts.

While Feller did have more wins with the help of those four extra seasons, Roger averaged more wins per season, 15.2 to 14.8. Roger had 301 more strikeouts while also possessing a better winning percentage then Rapid Robert, .644 to .621.

Clemens also had a lower ERA then Feller, 2.97 to 3.25. One thing that we cannot forget is that Feller lost four years of his prime serving his country during World War II.

One thing we must never forget is that many of the men who played baseball during our grandparents' era were actual heroes. An immeasurable statistic of Feller’s that I have to add is that he was decorated with five campaign ribbons studded with eight battle stars.

Now onto Barr-oid Bonds.

According to the book Game of Shadows, Bonds also began “taking injections of Winstrol in the buttocks beginning in 1998, and it is also said that he took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regime that grew more and more sophisticated as the years went on.”

This man is the poster boy for what steroids can do for you; he broke the single season home run record in 2001, at the age of 36, and then won the National League batting title at the age of 37!

Bonds' stats prior to the 1998 season include a .288 batting average, a .408 on-base percentage, and a .551 slugging percentage. He had 1,750 hits, which included 321 doubles, 56 triples, and 374 round trippers. He drove in 1,094 runs, while crossing the plate 1,244 times himself.

He did all that while also walking 1,227 times. Bonds was not only a threat at the plate, but once he got on base, he stole 417 times. He did all this while only striking out 958 times.

In The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, which was written just before the 2001 season during which Bonds hit 73 home runs, he calls Bonds “the most un-appreciated superstar of his lifetime.” That is one reason for Bonds' desire to use steroids, according to Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams in Game of Shadows.

In the section of the Abstract where James ranks his 100 best players at each position of all time, James ranks Bonds the third best left fielder ever, only behind Ted Williams and Stan Musial.

James also calls Bonds “probably the second- or third-best hitter among the 100 listed left fielders (behind Williams and perhaps Musial), probably the third-best baserunner (behind Henderson and Raines), probably the best defensive left fielder. Griffey has always been more popular, but Bonds has been a far, far greater player.”

The astounding part about this is that James wrote this before Ken Griffey Jr. started getting hurt, so he could still vividly remember Griffey gliding around centerfield, robbing home runs, stealing bases, and that beautiful swing.

On the next page, James then went on to list his 10 best players of the 1990s; Bonds leads that list, with Craig Biggio of the Houston Astros coming in second, the 10th player on that list is Greg Maddux. I say this because James goes on to say, “the No. 2 man, Biggio, is closer in value to the No. 10 man than he is to Bonds.”

We tend to forget how good Bonds was, even before he went on this steroid-aided home run tear of recent years sometimes.

I can’t compare his 12-year career statistics with any one player because his ability to do everything does not allow that. Instead, I’ll use a few different Hall of Famers to nail home the point.

His .288 average is higher than both Rickey Henderson’s .282 and Carl Yastrzemski’s .285.

He hit 101 fewer home runs then Stan Musial in about eight less seasons and also hit 13 more home runs than Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio.

His on-base percentage was one point lower then Manny Ramirez’s current .409 career mark, and it tied Jackie Robinson’s career OBP.

Listen carefully to this next statistic, with his 12-year all-natural career, Bonds’ career slugging percentage of .551 would be eight points lower than Musial’s, six points lower than his godfather Willie Mays’, five points lower than Mickey Mantle’s, and only three points lower than Hammerin’ Hank Aaron’s.

Bonds had 15 less career runs scored than HOF centerfielder Duke Snider.

He finished with 29 less hits than HOF infielder Lou Boudreau.

Kirby Puckett’s 1,085 RBIs were nine less than Bonds’ sum. His 321 doubles tied Yogi Berra’s.

Bonds’ 1,227 base on balls are still more than future Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, and Manny Ramirez’s current totals. He even had more than walk machine Jason Giambi, and he did it in only 12 seasons.

Bonds’ 417 stolen bases put him in the top 65 all-time.

Another testament to his incredible combination of speed and power is that he is one of only four players in the 40/40 Club (home runs and steals). He actually did it during 1996 when he was clean.

The other three members of that club are fellow abuser Jose Canseco who did it in 1988, Alex Rodriguez who did it in 1998 when he was still with the Mariners, and Alfonso Soriano who did it in 2006.

After only 12 seasons in the Major Leagues, Barry Bonds was unquestionably a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Here’s an idea I’ve had bouncing around my head for years. How about instead of putting their career numbers up for their election to the Hall through 2007, we instead let the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) decide whether or not their career numbers through 1997 are Hall of Fame worthy?

I also say that the only way we even think of granting them this opportunity is if they can at least have the guts to admit to their poor decision choices, like a player such as Jason Giambi has so fearlessly done.

And if, the BBWAA decides they are worthy enough to have their plaques in the same room as the untainted greats such as Aaron, Mays, Ruth, Feller and Ford, only the stats accumulated through ’97 are displayed on those plaques.

Maybe they still at least deserve a shot at the Hall. Although they lied and cheated the game of baseball, they may at least deserve some recognition for what they did during the first 12 and 14 years of their careers respectively.

All of this makes me wonder what kind of person would risk everything that these two men obviously had going for them. Two of the best players of their time, felt the need to use performance enhancing drugs, for what?

Game of Shadows explains that Bonds was upset because as the 1998 season was coming to a close Bonds’ elite status had slipped, as fans were less interested in the player who was the complete package like he was and the emphasis was shifting to guys who were pure sluggers.

He realized that players like Mark McGwire, guys who he saw as inferior to him, would be the guys who would be getting the biggest contracts and all the glory and adulation of fans now.

“To Bonds it was a joke. He had been around enough gyms to recognize that McGwire was a juicer. Bonds himself had never used anything more performance enhancing than a protein shake from the health-food store. But as the 1998 season unfolded, and as he watched Mark McGwire take over the game—his game—Barry Bonds decided that he, too, would begin using what he called ‘the stuff.’”

—Game of Shadows

So yeah, maybe it was jealousy, maybe it was the feeling of getting older and not wanting to let time catch up to them, which is definitely something that every middle-aged American can relate to.

Bonds was turning 34 the year he started, and Clemens was 36. These guys wanted to beat Father Time, and at the time what they were doing was not completely illegal, unethical, but not illegal.

Although they were destroying the integrity of baseball and definitely do not deserve everything they have earned the last ten years, what they did was not illegal in 1998.

Well, they're the ones who get to live with the shame of lying to us and getting caught, for the rest of their lives.

They also probably face five to 10 in the slammer with a bunch of angry convicts who probably won't take too kindly to two guys who had it all, but still had to cheat.

Neither of these men deserve the credit of having 354 wins or 762 home runs, but they do at least deserve credit for the ballplayers they were prior to their terrible decisions.

Rick Mahorn Shouldn't Be Punished, but the WNBA Should Be Embarrassed

Zack Moore — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:57:58 -0400

I just saw this topic while watching 1st and 10 with Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. They were discussing the scuffle last night at, of course, none other than The Palace in Auburn Hills, during a game between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Detroit Shock. The question posed was whether or not Rick Mahorn should be punished for “pushing” Lisa Leslie to the ground.

In our world now, where media has all these channels to fill with 24 hours of programming every day, people have come to expect this kind of coverage. I am not surprised to have seen this story brought up at least five times already today. This, being the first ever brawl in a WNBA game, it is getting even more coverage than a normal fight in an NBA game would.

I can’t help but be disappointed by Skip Bayless’ response to this question. The response is probably the same as many people have. He thinks that Rick Mahorn should be punished.

Now for those of you who did not see the video, a scuffle broke out at half court between the two teams and the refs and coaches tried to break it up. ESPN put the spotlight on Mahorn for us.

Now, as I watched I saw him go toward Lisa Leslie and a Detroit Shock player and try to break it up. He tried to bring Leslie away from the action and as this 6’10”, 270-pound man tried to walk the 6’5”, 170-pound Leslie away from the action, she fell while trying to get away from his grasp.

As Leslie went to the ground, you can clearly see that Mahorn instinctively reached out a hand as if to say, "Oops, I’m sorry," and almost as an offer to help her up as he is getting pulled away by his assistants. Then another Sparks player jumped in and decided that punching Mahorn on his upper back would probably solve the whole situation. She was later suspended.

Let me first clear up the fact that I am not a Rick Mahorn fan. In fact, all I really know about him is that he was a power forward/center for the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons back in the 1980s. That being said, I feel like this man deserves some kind of defense.

He is currently in his fourth season as an assistant coach for the Shock and they even won a championship after the 2006 campaign.

Let’s just use our common sense to try to determine the kind of behavior Mahorn displays towards women. He has four daughters and I would assume he probably treats other women the same way he would want his daughters to be treated.

Also, in this day and age, with the Isaiah Thomas sexual harassment case and many more like it, a woman can and will sue you if she feels she is even just slightly mistreated.

I find it somewhat incredible that we have all these male coaches in the WNBA and college sports, and that we don’t hear about more sexual harassment suits. Just a random thought.

Now, Lisa Leslie, after the game in an interview with Rebecca Lobo, you look beside yourself when talking about the incident. You talk about how you are a role model. If you are a role model, be one. Don’t try to make Mahorn out to be the bad guy.

She was there, she saw what happened, and I know maybe she has never been in a fight like that before, but in the heat of the battle Mahorn went out to be a peacemaker for everyone.

His job as an assistant coach is to make sure that everyone is safe. He tried to get Lisa out of there because maybe that was the best thing he could do to try and break up the fight.

This is the same man who went up into the stands to try to get Ron Artest off of the fans during the “Malice in the Palace” back in 2004 when he was broadcasting the game.

"Rick Mahorn is known as a peacemaker, from even the brawl we had here with Indiana," Shock head coach Bill Laimbeer contended. "He went out there to get people off the pile, and to get people to stop the confrontation. That's who he is, that's what he does."

By being the face of the WNBA and because of the respect people have for her, she could have downplayed the whole situation in the interview. While I understand her emotions were also running high, she could have helped Rick Mahorn out by simply saying, “I’m sure that he did not mean to push me over, but he did what he did and I do not appreciate it.”

Instead, with her tone of voice and the words she chose to use, you could tell she somehow thought this man who outweighed her by 100 pounds felt the need to put her on her butt. At worst, this was just a case of a man who did not know his own strength. I have to think that there is no way that he meant to push Leslie to the ground.

Because of the media’s focus on Lisa Leslie and Rick Mahorn, no one will ever remember the person who really started this fight.

Plenette Pearson was the woman who decided that she was fed up with the physical—but legal—style of play shown by Candace Parker. Then she decided that she would to try to use the worst tackling form ever to try to get Parker to the ground.

Maybe this is why there has never been a fight in the WNBA before—because of how much dumber it looks than even a fight in the NBA.

I have the utmost respect for Lisa Leslie. She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and the first player in WNBA history to win the regular season, WNBA Championship, and All-Star Game MVP awards in the same season. Without players like her, I’m not sure this league would even still be in existence.

I just hope that she will try to be a bigger person and help put this situation behind us.

And in all seriousness, please no more fights in the WNBA. The Detroit Shock’s Cheryl Ford had a bad knee, but hurt her other knee in trying to restrain Pearson. She will actually be out for the rest of this season with a torn ACL. Way to help out your team, Pearson!

This fight was an embarrassment for everyone involved, and especially for the WNBA. They won’t be improving their atrocious TV ratings any time soon.

My Jason Phillips Story...

Zack Moore — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:18:34 -0400

I felt that this story from the 2008 Home Run Derby deserved its own article seeing as I didn't want it to get lost in that last long article...

A little side story from my night in the Bronx…

About halfway through the second round, I realize the guy next to me is calling his friend to his left by a very familiar name, for the sake of this story and the safety of all of those involved we’ll call him, Verdy, because that’s his real name.

I realize that of course that’s Verdy, the same guy who used to work at Ramapo College Baseball Camp and that’s why I recognized him. So I nudged my cousin as a sign to pay attention because a good story is about to follow, and I started talking to him.

Zack: “Hey you used to work at Ramapo College Baseball Camp right?”

Verdy: “Yeah, why did you used to go there?”

Z: “Yeah I went there a few years back, maybe you might happen to remember Jason Phillips?”

Time out: For those of you who might not know who the great Jason Phillips is, he had a seven year career spanning from 2001 until 2007 with the Mets, Dodgers, and Blue Jays. He was a career .249 hitter with 30 home runs and 168 RBI. The reason I say this is because I am confident that he will stay in the Japan League for the rest of his career.

Anyway, Jason Phillips does not have 20/20 vision, a problem many major leaguers might suffer from. But instead of wearing contacts, Phillips has always worn a kind of Rec Spec goggles throughout his career.

Now for future purposes in this story I will say right now that I do not have any problem with his choice of eye wear. I just think it’s pretty rare that you come face to face with someone who wears this unique eyewear. OK, back to the story.

V: “NO WAY?! You’re a butthead (PG) Zack?! Oh my god, you got me in so much trouble for that stunt you pulled.”

Z: “Yeah, I’m sorry but it was hilarious.”

V: “Of course it was, all the counselors loved it.”

Brad: “What’d you do?”

V: “This little crap (PG), decides it would be funny to bring a pair of scuba goggles to try to get Jason Phillips to sign them. Not only would Phillips not sign them, but he was pissed. Your little stunt cost us a couple thousand dollars.”

Z: “Wait, how’d that cost you a couple thousand?”

V: “He almost left, he didn’t want to talk to the campers after that, and Coach Martin had to pay him a couple thousand extra just to stay, and to try to stop him from going back to the Mets and telling the guy who was coming next week that Coach ran a camp that let the campers do whatever they wanted. So on top of paying him to stay, we had to pay him just so he didn’t talk too badly about our camp so we could try and keep getting Mets to come and talk to you guys.”

Z: “Wow.”

So not only was Jason Phillips terribly offended by the actions of a 13-year-old kid, not only would he obviously not sign my scuba goggles, but he wouldn’t even shake my hand after I apologized and told him I was only joking.

He also had to try and swindle a couple extra thousand dollars out of a Division III baseball program who obviously runs camps like they do to try and help finance their season.

Hope you feel really big in Japan Jason; no one is missing the .208/1/12 you brought to the Blue Jays in 55 games last season.

Here's to keeping' it real Jason Phillips.

2008 Home Run Derby: Tucker Max Watches Baseball

Zack Moore — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:23:08 -0400

Josh Hamilton circa 2004:

Failure, crack addict, bust, waste of talent.

Josh Hamilton 2008:

First half MVP candidate, Home Run Derby Champion*, Inspiration, Hero.

My cousin, Brad Zak (also a writer on Bleacher Report), texted me from his internship at the New York Post around 10 am the week before the Home Run Derby telling me that he somehow found two tickets to the Derby asking me if I want one.

It being 10am, I of course am still asleep. Why you might ask? Because I am a bum.

So I immediately texted him back at..11:28am, and tell him of course I would, wondering why that would even be a question.

He texted me back telling me he got tickets, but they are in the nosebleeds behind the foul pole in left field in row V—the seats, meanwhile, only go up to Z.

He claims this will test his theory that there is not a bad seat in the House that Ruth had custom built for him so he could hit all those home runs.

I drive up to the Stadium and it only takes me about 25 minutes as there is somehow no traffic.

I will also take this time to note that I am the only person listening to "Keg in the Closet" by Kenny Chesney on this hot, but pleasant enough summer evening in the Bronx. I meet Brad right outside the 161st Street Subway stop adjacent to Yankee Stadium around 5:50.

We go inside around 6:15 and want to try to catch a home run during batting practice seeing as we really did not think any of the righties in the derby were going to hit a 600 foot bomb.

We went to the lower level down in the left field seats, we stand right around the same place Aaron Boone hit that home run in the bottom of the 11th in Game Seven of the 2003 American League Championship Series.

And for those of you wondering why I had to clarify where I was standing, seeing as there really shouldn't be that much question to the words "lower level" and "left field", I must admit that sometimes I need to think about the good times to reassure myself that these dark ages won't last much longer.

We got there in time to see the last two groups of American Leaguers take their hacks in batting practice. We were lucky enough to see Josh Hamilton hit a few 475 foot shots in batting practice, and both got the feeling we would see something special out of him.

The National League then hit, and I took this time to really grasp how much we can take Yankee Stadium and the opportunity to see a game here for granted. I realized that I had not been on time for batting practice since I was maybe six years old.

My cousin also realized we had not been to Monument Park since we were little, a trip we must take before they close the Stadium up for good.

Hanley Ramirez hit a home run to the left field seats and we watch as a guy standing about 10 feet over to our left and in the next section of seats that is raised just a little bit higher than the aisle we were standing in puts his glove up to catch it.

I think he catches it until I see it laying on the ground beneath the feet of a small scrum of people now going for it. I see the ball, look at Brad, and then dive in. Brad follows close behind, more of the kind of guy who thinks things out.

I see the ball under this middle-aged man's foot—he is trying to keep the ball wedged there so he can somehow get down there and grab it before someone else in this crowd gets it. As I'm grabbing this ball I realize I don't really have an angle to tear this ball out, but I do realize that Brad is next to me and will have a better shot to get this then me.

In the greatest act of teamwork seen in New York City since the last time the Knickerbockers stepped on the floor at the Garden, I pushed the ball out from under this guy’s foot as Brad grabbed it. Mission accomplished.

Brad and I are so fired up we both punch each other in the chest and give enthusiastic high fives.

As we go back to where we were standing before we snagged that home run ball, we hear this guy repeatedly yelling at us things such as "Bet you feel really big stealing a ball from a bunch of little kids." Brad turns around and says "Hey I'm a kid too," which is right—I mean he is a 19-year-old college student.

The PG version of what I said goes along the lines of, "So what, I'm a horrible person, maybe you should've caught it, shut up old man."

He turned out to be one of those dumb New Yorkers who yelled at you until you yelled back, and then had nothing to say because he's not very quick. Score that a point for me.

We get to our seats upstairs around 8:30 and make our predictions as to who will win the home run derby. We have placed a five dollar bet on it in honor of our good friend Andrew Kupec, the possible starting QB of The Assumption College this fall, who has not stopped making gambling with us since he made a trip to the Belmont Stakes a few months ago.

I choose Josh Hamilton. Brad says with a smile, “Crap, I was going to choose him too.” We decide to change our bet to who will make the final and face Josh Hamilton.

I choose Chase Utley, which proves out to be a poor choice—story of my life. Brad thinks about either choosing Lance Berkman or Justin Morneau, but after hearing me talk about how overrated I think Morneau is and the fact that I made a bunch of anti-Canadian comments when talking about him, makes Brad choose the Canadian.

Brad also thinks that having 14 home runs at the break is a good sign. He also just likes to do things just to tick me off sometimes because he knows the only thing I would hate more than seeing Morneau in the final would be having to pay him five dollars to see Morneau hit in the final.

The home run derby gets off to an unusually quick start as Uggla hits six to start it off. The next few guys go and everyone finds the seats more than a couple times.

The Bleacher Creatures did not disappoint, starting a "We want Jason" chant about halfway through Evan Longoria's three home run round.

Ryan Braun almost wins the award for being the guy who hits little to no home runs before he goes on a tear late in the round and earns the right to move on with seven. Berkman and the hockey player each hit eight to move on.

Then Josh Hamilton comes to the plate.

As he came to the plate both of us moved to the edge of our seats, knowing something special was about to happen—the fact that this guy was even a home run derby participant is special.

It only took him three swings to turn a crowd of 53,000 into a state of delirium as he hit one off the big white Bank of America sign some 500 feet away.

From where I was sitting I was almost sure that ball went clear out of the stadium through one of the holes on top of Yankee Stadium’s famous façade because I was sure the ball was still rising and I had lost it in the whiteness of the sign.

He continued to pound home run after home run. When he got to eight outs, he hit an unprecedented 13 homers in a row. It got to the point where no one in the building was wondering if the next ball was going to be a home run or an out, but instead was wondering how far the next home run was going to go.

He finally got out when one of his all-star teammates suggested that he try and hit an opposite field home run, he took the challenge and hit it to the warning track.

Hamilton finished the round with 28, beating Bobby Abreu’s single round record of 24 home runs that he set back in 2005 at Comerica Park in Detroit while he was still with the Phillies.

Something that I thought was almost as remarkable about his record-setting performance was how the Yankee Stadium crowd got behind him like something I had never seen before. Hamilton may have been the first, and definitely the last, person from an opposing team (other than former Yankees) to have their name chanted by the Yankee Stadium faithful.

Not only that, but the volume of the crowd was incredible—the cheers were louder than any curtain call I had ever heard, and may have been louder than the applause received Roger “B12” Clemens on the night that he earned his 300th* win and 4000th* strikeout in the same game.

If you didn’t know any better you would’ve thought Hamilton was one of our own, thought that we were cheering for Derek Jeter.

When his first round was over, my future wife Erin Andrews interviewed him about the round he just had. During this interview he made a reference to a dream he had two years before, a dream where he was being interviewed at Yankee Stadium after participating in the home run derby.

The fact that he said something like this along with telling the whole crowd thank you, that hearing his name chanted gave him chills, reminds us that even in all the ugliness of the recent Steroid Era, there are still good, regular people in this sport, they’re still humans even though they can do completely out of this world stuff like he had just done.

Fans also have to appreciate the fact that they do not even need to question if this guy is taking anything because due to an agreement he made with MLB to get reinstated, he gets drug tested three times a week.

In the second round Hamilton only took eight cuts, hitting four home runs and four outs.

Braun and Berkman both put up good showings in the second rounds, but were both outdone by the guy who’s flag has a Maple Leaf on it—cementing Canada’s place as the softest country on the planet—who had nine to bring his dinger tally up to 17.

Morneau’s 17 home runs were now 15 behind Hamilton’s 32, and Hamilton only needed 14 outs to get that total.

As the third and final round began, I turned to Brad and made a comment about how I wished Hamilton were going first because since he was going second we weren’t going to see how many home runs this alien could hit.

I, of course, had to be proven wrong. Morneau hit a pedestrian five, but as Hamilton began to hit, we started to realize that maybe this guy really is human.

He got off to a slow start, and before we knew it, he had five outs already. Halfway done, Michael Kay asked the whole crowd to get behind this guy as he had done 13 times already that night.

The whole crowd seemed to get to their feet to cheer Ham on. By the time he had seven outs and only two home runs, the crowd realized he needed all the help he could get. They erupted, repeatedly yelling "Hamilton", and he promptly responded with a home run.

As he got to his ninth out, the chanting and applause got louder and louder, but Hamilton could not respond—this Hercules of a man could no longer find the strength to hit anymore out on this night in the Bronx—he was exhausted.

Looking around you could see people with their A-Rod and Jeter jerseys on with their hands on their heads and a stunned look in their eyes as if the Yankees had just lost another Divisional Series to the freakin’ Angels. It was quite a sight to see, a bunch of Yankee fans clearly upset that their new hero couldn’t pull it off.

Justin Morneau received his trophy in front of an already half-empty stadium, for hitting 22 home runs over the span of 30 outs, which is actually six fewer than Hamilton hit needing only 10 outs, but hey, who’s counting.

After the derby Morneau basically apologized for beating Josh Hamilton, something he should have done in 2006 when he beat out Derek Jeter in the MVP voting. While his numbers were more than respectable, .321, 34 home runs, 130 RBI, Jeter carried the Yankees on his back hitting .344, 14 home runs, and 97 RBI, while also scoring 20 more runs then Morneau and swiping 34 stolen bases.

I guess the voting committee forgot MVP means Most Valuable Player to your team, which some would even argue that Morneau was not even the MVP of his own team. This was the year that Joe Mauer led the league in batting average with a .347 average while also collecting 13 home runs and 84 RBI.

It’s also a lot easier to get 130 RBI when you’re hitting in the clean-up spot and you've got Mauer hitting like he did that year in front of you.

Here’s a fun fact—Joe Mauer turned down a scholarship offer from Florida State to play QB under Grandpa Bobby Bowden. Mauer has apparently made the right choice, while Drew Weatherford counts his blessings every time he throws another interception, thanking the good lord that Joe Mauer was a baseball player.

But all of that is for another time and place.

When it was all said and done, Morneau may have won, but Hamilton won the hearts of everyone who watched it. America loves guys like him, we love a guy who gets his ass kicked by life only get to back up off the mat and fight back.

Hamilton not only has overcome his addiction, but he doesn’t try to hide his past, he instead tries to use that as an example to people everywhere of how not to live your life and how it’s never too late to turn it around, you can’t help but appreciate that.

So now a man that used to drink Jack and smoke crack reads the Bible and packs a fat lip of Skoal during games. No wonder the people of Texas love him and no wonder the people of New York couldn’t help but fall in love with him.

A little side story to my night in the Bronx…

Zack: “Hey you used to work at Ramapo College Baseball Camp right?”

Verdy: “Yeah, why did you used to go there?”

Z: “Yeah I went there a few years back, maybe you might happen to remember Jason Phillips?”

(Time out: For those of you who might not know who the great Jason Phillips is, he had a seven-year career spanning from 2001 until 2007 with the Mets, Dodgers, and Blue Jays. He was a career .249 hitter with 30 home runs and 168 RBI.

The reason I say was is because I am confident that he will stay in the Japan League for the rest of his career.

Anyway, Jason Phillips does not have 20/20 vision, a problem many major leaguers might suffer from, but instead of wearing contacts, Phillips has always worn a kind of Rec Spec goggles throughout his career.

V: “NO WAY?! You’re butthead (PG) Zack?! Oh my god, you got me in so much trouble for that stunt you pulled.”

Z: “Yeah, I’m sorry but it was hilarious.”

V: “Of course it was, all the counselors loved it.”

Brad: “What’d you do?”

Z: “Wait, how’d that cost you a couple thousand?”

"So on top of paying him to stay, we had to pay him just so he didn’t talk too badly about our camp so we could try and keep getting Mets to come and talk to you guys.”

Z: “Wow.”

So not only was Jason Phillips terribly offended by the actions of a 13-year-old kid (not only would he obviously not sign my scuba goggles, but he wouldn’t even shake my hand after I apologized and told him I was only joking), he also had to try and swindle a couple extra thousand dollars out of a Division III baseball program who obviously runs camps like they do to try and help finance their season.

Hope you feel really big in Japan Jason; no one is missing the .208/1/12 you brought to the Blue Jays in 55 games last season.

Here's to keepin' it real, Jason Phillips.