Bob Elliot found he had missed one of my questions, so he answered it and sent it to me. It gives me another opportunity to mention what a great writer he is and how people should look up his website Canadian Baseball Network and his book, the Northern Game: Baseball the Canadian Way. And say what a very nice fellow he is, even if he calls me Thomas.....Thomas is who I am when I'm in trouble, my Mom and my Wife call me that when they are mad at me. Well sometimes when she's mad at me my Wife calls me a name that the Drunks could post but I won't. I hope he'll let us talk to him again next year after he is elected to the Hall of Fame. Anyway here is the question and answer:
Scutaro. Last year Inglett was probably the best leadoff hitter, but with Hill back might he may not make the club. They do not have an ideal leadoff hitter. Scutaro and Hill appear to be the 1-2 punch. What does he do when McDonald plays short? Maybe Rios. Although the 1st manager I ever covered Dick Williams always said that the best hitter hits third. So did Sparky Anderson and Whitey Herzog. That might be Rios, with Wells 4th.
That bit about the best hitter batting 3rd goes against what 'The Book' says as noted in this post on Beyond the Boxscore. But then Dick Williams, Sparky Anderson and Whitey Herzog have won a lot of baseball games and all are in the Hall of Fame so I'll let someone else argue with them.
The Drunks found this great blog by the new Jay Leon Boyd (though I think he'll be changing his name to Bond any day now). We must lead the league in players with great blogs, with him and Dirk Hayhurst. Though we did lose Gregg Zaun's wonderful website. I almost typed that with a straight face, I go there when I need a laugh. Speaking of the Zman, it looks like he will start the season as Orioles starting catcher as Baltimore will start Matt Wieters in the minors, like the Rays did with Eva likn Longoria, to buy them an extra year before he gets to arbitration.
And this week's Sports Illustrated's Point After, Chris Ballard has a funny take on Ray's manager Joe Maddon's suggestion that the 104 people on the list of positive steriod test results be given amnesty. He suggests all players of all sports stand on stage together, raise their right hand and say:
“I, [insert name], willingly took [steroids/HGH/experimental Russian opiates disguised as Skittles] that I got from [my trainer/some guy in Queens/eBay] because I thought it would make me [more successful/wealthier/better than Sammy Sosa], and now look at me. I developed [chronic elbow injuries/terrible bacne/barely visible testicles] and am ashamed of myself. Kids, believeme, you don’t want to be me. I don’t even want to be me right now.”
After that there would be no punishment:
And that would be it. They would get on with their lives so that we, as sports fans, could get on with ours. There would be no book deals for the guilty, no flak managed press conferences, no making up stories about reporters hiding in their
carry-on luggage. Rather, each guilty jock would have to stand up, spill the beans
and take it like a man; hey, they should be used to it now after all those needles.
Pro athletes may ask: What’s in it for me? (And surely this is a question they are quite good at asking by now.) Well, reduced public condemnation for one. Because all the confessions would occur in one day, no one would be singled out.
Anyone found out after that would be banned for life. Anyway is quite funny and honestly if it would get it over with, I'm all for it.