cool unforgettaballs!

Stan Hochman has an interesting piece in this morning's Philadelphia Daily News, about architect-turned-artist Emily Wolfson, who lives in the Philadelphia area. Her canvas of choice is the baseball; her subject of choice, baseball. (She does paint other things as well.) Wolfson, who calls herself a "miniaturist at heart", started painting baseballs in 1994, at first as a present for her husband. She kept at it and started selling the balls, which depict ballparks and opening days, at local craft shows. She now has the balls printed with her unique paintings at a factory in China and aims to create the best art on a baseball in the world. Check out Wolfson's memorable baseballs at www.unforgettaballs.com. She also has an interesting blog (www.unforgettaballs.com/blogger.html) about the balls and about running a small business.

tix arrive

Season tickets arrived today. This year's feature Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, and Brett Myers, all shown in quite straightforward photos. I thought they might be a tad more imaginative. The temperatures are in the teens today and it's hard to think that a month from now the team will be heading north. Even thinking about going to a game makes me shiver.

It was the scoreless frame tossed yesterday by rookie righty Carlos Carrasco that most impressed manager Charlie Manuel. It turns out that Carrasco, who will turn 21 late in March, is now pitching with a greater purpose. On February 3, just eight days before leaving his native Venezuela for spring training, armed robbers invaded his mother's home, held a gun to his sister's head, and made off with thousands of dollars of items. Carrasco had just left home to pick up his mother. Scary, scary stuff. The kid hopes someday soon to be able to bring his family to the US.

Meanwhile, the beat goes on. The FBI is moving to investigate Roger Clemens for perjury. The lesson would seem to be hubris, hubris, hubris.

Despite the many serious issues the Cardinals have had with substance abuse, manager Tony La Russa was pushing for the team to acquire Barry Bonds. But then La Russa says he believes Mark McGwire did it all with hard work.

grapefruit league

It's official: the Grapefruit League is on. This afternoon, on a day when the Clearwater temperatures were in the low 50's, the Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-1. The pitching was impressive; starting pitcher Jamie Moyer allowed one hit and struck out three. The Phillies' offense was more than up to the task. They scratched out a run in the 2nd, then blew it open in the 5th. By then most of the regulars had given way to a changing cast. It was a typical, albeit crisp, spring training game. Even the umpires were rotating on the bases.

I listened to most of the game in the car while running errands. Larry Andersen and Scott Franzke, who have an easy rapport, were on board for the entire game, and it was good to hear their knowledgeable banter again. Up here it was in the 30's and a stiff wind was blowing. The farm fields lay still and untouched. But at the Amish one-room schoolhouses I passed along the way, kids and teachers were out running around on the grounds.

The big news yesterday was Brett Myers, named the starting pitcher for opening day. I quite frankly don't give a damn who starts on opening day so long as he wins, but the move makes sense. It's a day game and Cole Hamels seems not to like pitching by day. So he gets the second start, a night game. By the time the schedules shake themselves out after April's inevitable showers or snow, Hamels will no doubt be the #1 starter. In part, the Phillies made this move, and made it public, to reassure Myers that he was indeed, at least for this year, a starter. (He'd rather close, but that's a story for another time.) Besides, Myers got the last out of the exciting last game of last season. It's sort of cool that he starts the opener.

play ball---almost

Lefty Joe Savery, first-round pick in the 2007 draft, will start for the Phillies tonight in their exhibition game with Florida State University. Spring training games open officially tomorrow, when the Phils face the Cincinnati Reds, one of a couple teams rumored to be moving their spring training camp to Arizona. Best of all, the game will be broadcast on the radio! Boring as spring training games are, it will be a treat to listen to baseball as I toil over a hot keyboard. The Phillies will broadcast a total of 26 games from spring training, including 4 on television and 22 split between radio and the Internet. The first TV broadcast will be the March 1 game with the Yankees.

thinking baseball

A friend who lives outside of Baltimore sent this postcard creation. It arrived this afternoon with the news of opening day tix for 3/31 in Philadelphia! Snow is in the forecast but spring is in the air.

"I think there are only three things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and baseball. They're the three most beautifully designed things this culture has produced."
---Gerald Early

lidge outta here

One pitch in spring training and Brad Lidge is headed for surgery tomorrow. They say it is a simple scope. They say it will take 3 to 6 weeks for recovery. Bad news, indeed. And I feel sorry for Lidge, who seemed genuinely excited to be starting over with a new team. No doubt not the start he envisaged.

Speaking of which, there was a Jim Salisbury story in this morning's Inky about 3rd-baseman Scott Rolen, traded over the offseason to the Blue Jays. I used to have seats off of left base because of Rolen, who ended up leaving Philadelphia on a sour note. He did the same with St. Louis, this time because of abiding friction between himself and manager Tony LaRussa. In the piece, the moody player says that he was hoping a deal would have brought him back to Philadelphia, but the Phillies were leery of his surgically-repaired shoulder. (Brad Lidge, anyone?) Apologies to Pedro Feliz, but an infield of Rolen, Rollins, Utley, and Howard would have been awesome. Can Scott Rolen really be 33 already? And looking like such a grizzled veteran.

gloom and doom! lidge hobbled already?

Despite all of the yapping from the Mets, who have pretty much played into the media's needling, I had no doubt that the Phillies were again the team to beat, if they stayed healthy. So what happens when newly-acquired closer Brad Lidge toes the rubber yesterday? He catches a spike on the first pitch and something gives in his surgically-repaired knee. Last seen he was limping off the field and into the clubhouse down at Bright House Field. Sigh. Since spraining my knee last November I have relearned how tricky and longlasting knee injuries are. Just when all seems well, something gives. If Lidge misses the start of the season (please, no more than that!), the Phillies are likely to get off to their usual, maddening slow start. If that's the case, the media will have to back off this whole Mets-Phillies rivalry they are so busy building up this spring.

a coste perspective

Small wonder that back-up catcher Chris Coste is a fan favorite in Philadelphia. He typifies the much-vaunted lunchpail mentality, having hung on in the minors for years until finally getting a mid-season call-up two years ago, at age 33. When he finally got his first hit, there was much rejoicing; when he got his first homer, there was more. Then he demonstrated a flair for clutch hitting and stuck around for the rest of the season. Everyone thought he'd make the team last year but the off-season acquisition of veteran Rod Barajas (what a bust he was) put an end to that. The canny Coste, however, talked the Phillies into sending him to double-A Reading rather than triple-A Ottawa. Reading, after all, was a lot closer to Philly. The move worked, and Coste eventually made it back to the bigs to stay for the rest of the season.

Now in spring training, Coste was on the radio the day that Ryan Howard won his arbitration case. Asked how he thought he would handle arbitration, Coste, who makes the league minimum of $385,000, laughed and said, "I turned 35 last week and if I make it to arbitration, I'll be happy. Ten years ago I was making $750 a month. If I made it to arbitration, I'd ask for $10 above the minimum and be satisfied."

Coste also offered his thoughts on the whole steroid mess. His feeling is that the public outing of those caught is humiliation enough to discourage others from using, that no player wanted his reputation tarnished in that way. Is that why accused users such as Lo Duca and Gagne offer such lame apologies, worded so that they never acknowledge what it is exactly that they have done?

college baseball season

Snow falling outside the window, Kodaly playing on the radio: a lovely day to work at home. Or it was until the cursed snowmobilers started running mindlessly up and down the road.

I wonder about my friends who were flying from Philadelphia early this morning to attend the opening of the college baseball season in Charleston, South Carolina. Their son, a first-year student, is on the George Mason team. When I woke at 2:30 there was already an inch of snow, by 7 there were about 5 inches here. As of 8 a.m.: three-hour delays at airports up and down the East Coast.

College baseball always cues memories of night drives in Alabama during a spring training trip several years ago, with college baseball games fading in and out on the radio.

my bad

I was wrong about ticket prices in NY. This year the highest tix at Yankee Stadium will be $1,000 a seat, up from $600 last year. Next year, comparable seats at the new stadium will cost $2500 each. It's simple arithmetic: 2 seats @ $2500 each x 81 home games + postseason. Yes, indeed, it's business.

howard wins and it's back to baseball

Ryan Howard won his arbitration case against the Phillies and will be getting $10 million this year, not the $7 million the team was offering. That $7 million was more than any other player with his length of service had ever received; the $10 million is the largest amount ever awarded a player with that length of service. It's also the first time that the Phillies have lost an arbitration case. What it will all mean going forward is up in the air. Meanwhile, as one wag put it, that extra 3 mill will allow Ryan to feed his family. No knock really against Howard, who in baseball terms deserves the raise. For the past two years he's piled up more homers and RBI than anyone in baseball. All in all, quite a raise for Mr. Howard, up from $900,000 last year. Guess dinner's on him tonight.

Yesterday Jimmy Rollins was showing off his new shoes, designed just for him by Nike. They're red, white, and blue, with the Phillies' Liberty Bell logo and MVP on them.

talking baseball = talking money

This afternoon prize-winning slugger Ryan Howard goes to arbitration with the Phillies. Howard wants $10 million, the Phils are offering $7 million. It's uncharted territory with Howard, who is eligible for arbitration after just 2+ years. But he's a special case, having won NL Rookie of the Year his first year and MVP his next. Cal Ripken, Jr., is the only other major leaguer to have done that. Last year, hampered early by injuries, Howard still hit 47 homers and knocked in 136. So give the guy what he wants, say the fans. Howard himself is in his own words "chilling". Yesterday he told reporters that he wanted to be "young James," in a reference to Jimmy Rollins. "I'm going to go out and try to buy his shoes, if they're in the store. I just want to be like Jimmy."

If, by that, Howard means another MVP year, HOF 3rd baseman Mike Schmidt has thrown out a little prophecy of his own. The other day he said he thought left fielder Pat Burrell had an MVP year in him. If so, what better year than 2008, the final year of his contract? Will Burrell be with the Phils past this year? If Pat has his way, the answer is yes. He loves the organization and loves playing in Philadelphia. And he maybe won over his loudmouthed critics (if they have a brain) after carrying the team last year when Howard floundered and Utley was injured. But his lack of speed and subsequent lack of outfield defense will probably doom an extension with the Phillies. The American League is no doubt a better fit for him. What a pity, though. When it comes to offense, despite some rocky times, Burrell has been consistently above average. At 31, he is now the elder statesman of those players who came up with the Phillies.

The acquisition of Pedro Feliz at 3rd base makes Wes Helms the odd man out. I hope the Phillies keep him as a pinchhitter. They could use a good righty off the bench and I'd hate to see him traded to the Mets, who are definitely in the market for one.

Speaking of money, some seats in the Nationals' new park in D.C. are going for $300 a game. In NY next year, both the Yankees and Mets will reportedly have seats at $1000 a pop. It stinks.

all is well

Full squads report today, though all are in camp but reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins, and he always shows up on the last day. So spring training is in full swing. It's great if you're in Florida or Arizona, but up north it's just a long teaser till the start of the real season. Each year the Phillies have had terrible starts to the season, no matter what their spring training is like. For now, though, all is well with the Phillies and every other team. All are 0-0 and every rainbow has a championship at its end.

Last year the Phillies started the season with six starting pitchers and in no time at all were scraping the minors to fill gaps created by season-ending injuries. As always, the big questions facing the team revolve around pitching. Will Cole Hamels stay healthy? Will Brett Myers fare well in his return to starting? Will Jamie Moyer, at 45 the oldest player in the majors and an invaluable mentor on and off the field, be able to hold up? Will Kyle Kendrick improve on his good rookie year? And what about Adam Eaton? Then there is the bullpen. Will Brad Lidge again be lights out? Will Tom Gordon stay healthy? Will J.C. Romero stay in his comfort zone? Will Ryan Madson step up? Can only hope that the injury bug that ran through the squad last year has gone somewhere else. 41 days till opening day.

splits

Karita Mattila starred as Manon Lescaut in yesterday's Met simulcast of the opera of that name. Interviewed backstage by Renee Fleming after Act 1, Mattila rattled on about preparing for the role. She does her yoga, she said, so that she could do the split required in the next act. "I'm 47," she said, sliding low into a full split to Fleming's obvious surprise.

Meanwhile, in Clearwater the preseason joking continued. Chase Utley was responsible for the Pat Burrell caper. Yesterday it was Brett Myers, who orchestrated an elaborate practical joke on last year's rookie Kyle Kendrick. Myers got manager Charlie Manuel, assistant GM Ruben Amaro, Jr., Kendrick's agent, Comcast, beat writers, and players all to take part. Comcast filmed it all, with the unsuspecting Kendrick being called into Charlie's office and told that he was being traded to Japan. Amaro got him to sign papers, told him to clear out his stuff, etc. Other players acted dumbfounded and media members clustered with questions. Finally Myers let Crazy K know he had been punked.

From the realm of imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, yesterday Carlos Beltran predicted, a la Jimmy Rollins last year, that this year the Mets are the team to beat. It all seemed a bit lame, but Beltran, a guy who often seems limp, will now have to walk the walk.

more bad news for baseball and beyond

Many major league hitters may now favor maple bats, but Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, and Hank Aaron all used ash. The source of most of the ash billets used by the Louisville Slugger company to make their bats is in northern Pennsylvania. The mountains there are home to the best hardwood forests in the US. But the ash forests are dying. About seven years ago they were infested by the deadly emerald ash borer beetle, which was discovered in Pennsylvania only three years ago. By then it was in effect too late to do much about the infestation. It is, said a PA environmental agent, a devastating natural catastrophe, which will have cascading effects. Those effects will be felt far beyond baseball. I saw a story on the topic on my local Comcast station and it made me want to make a trip along Rt. 6 to Warren County, where much of the forests are. Rt. 6 is one of my favorite roads anywhere and I hate to have to think of it in such sad terms.

man or machine

That was the caption on a T-shirt an unidentified someone put in the lockers of all down at the Clearwater complex. The shirt had a hunky photo of a bare-chested Pat Burrell doing arm curls. No comment from Burrell, who was off being inducted into his university's hall of fame. Everyone else, though, was wearing the shirts for the first day of pitchers and catchers, including manager Charlie Manuel. Asked if it made him feel stronger, Charlie thought a moment and said, "Yeah, it does. Y'know yesterday I broke my driver playing golf." Several position players also reported yesterday though the squad's not due in till next week. Among them was Ryan Howard, looking loosey-goosey despite his looming arbitration session. Not yet in camp was Kris Benson (yes, him), who had just passed his physical in Philadelphia. Young righty Scott Mathieson was also being examined in Philly. He had felt a twinge in his elbow while throwing a bullpen session on his honeymoon. That's right, on his honeymoon.

back to the dogs

Three cheers for Uno, the beagle, who won the Westminster Kennel Club dog show the other night to a standing ovation. He's a great-looking dog. And the first beagle ever to win. I was also pleased that the Tibetan mastiff, a new breed to the show, actually placed in the final cut in working breed.

I posted Lillian Morrison's Fan Valentine on the old site and will post it again here in honor of the day.

Yours till the pinch hits
Yours till the inning stretches
Yours till pennant races
Yours till pop flies
Yours till the home runs
Yours till the line drives
Yours till the double plays
Yours till the batters box.

Pitchers and catchers today in Clearwater. Maybe that will go just a little way to cleansing the bad taste left by yesterday's Congressional hearing on steroids in baseball, but I haven't got the time to indulge in a rant on that.

hogs

A quotation from Carol Travis: A fan without a team is like a hog without truffles---she has nothing to root for.

Too bad there's nothing much to root for in the Congressional hearings on steroids which will resume tomorrow, starring with Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee. BOO! BOO! BOO!

dogs and birds

The annual Westminster Kennel Club show will be on tonight and tomorrow night. That's one of the few highlights of my TV-viewing year. I'll also be checking to see how the Sixers do hosting the Mavericks this evening.

This weekend is the annual Backyard Bird Count. Help track the birds, those miraculous migrating beings! Even 15 minutes will do it. For details, go to www.birdsource.org/gbbc.

pregame show

After retiring from baseball in the 1960's, center fielder Richie Ashburn worked in the broadcast booth for the Phillies. From 1971 till his death in 1997, the popular Ashburn worked along side now-HOF broadcaster Harry Kalas. In addition to doing color analysis, at which he excelled, Ashburn often had to do the pregame show. I recently heard Kalas tell this story about his late dear friend. Once the two were sitting in a bar in Manhattan when a blonde hooker came up to them and said, "Boys, for $100, I'll do anything you want." Ashburn thought for a while, then said, "How about the pregame show?"

Pitchers and catchers on Valentine's Day. Lovely.

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