Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 1233 of 1503)

Johnette Howard of Newsday writes about what could have been for Ken Griffey Jr. had he stayed healthy his entire career.

Griffey could’ve gone on to stress how injuries turned his own career into a cautionary tale, or how a lot of so-called “sure things” can go wrong on the way to Cooperstown. He eventually had so many physical problems that some wise-guy comedian came out one year and said he was looking forward to the start of another major-league season, “especially the traditional National League opener featuring the Cincinnati Reds and Ken Griffey Jr. throwing out the first hamstring.”

It was sarcastic. But it also was true. In four of his first five seasons with the Reds, Griffey missed 331 games – an average of 83 in those four years. Entering this season, he was averaging a home run every 14.9 at-bats. If you do the math, he really might have passed Aaron before Bonds did.

But Griffey won’t go there. He seemed determined this weekend to fight off even the slightest suggestions of sentimentality or what-ifs, even on the day when Babe Ruth’s 91-year-old daughter was in the house to give A-Rod a home run award.

You can ask him, all right. But Griffey doesn’t do serious or traffic in regrets.

Though he’s never been accused of using steroids, Griffey won’t even confess to sharing the pride that Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez expressed earlier this season about having the ability to dominate during baseball’s steroid era despite being clean himself.

Griffey just laughed yesterday and said: “Nah. Pitchers have five days to sit around thinking about things like that. I play every day. I hit my 600th on a Sunday. Had a flight back to Cincinnati that night, got in at 3:30 a.m. And it was back to work on Monday.”

Ken Griffey Jr. is everything baseball players should be. Yeah he was injury-prone, but he was often injured playing the game hard. He played the game the right way and is one of the classiest ballplayers of this, or any other generation. Too bad he couldn’t ever stay healthy, because he would have been baseball’s superhero to Barry Bonds villain. Or maybe Griffey is still our superhero.

SPORTSbyBROOKS.com (via the New York Post) breaks this story of interim manager Jerry Manuel compared Mets fans to fertilizer.

During this Amazin’-ly bad season, Mets reliever Aaron Heilman has been hearing it from the home crowd, through harsh heckling & bountiful booing. Manuel came to the defense of his put-upon pitcher on Sunday by saying how Heilman has been holding up the harassment – through the use of farming phrases:

“It’s very, very fertile ground for growth in Shea Stadium. It’s fertile ground for a team’s growth and development. Sometimes, fertile ground has fertilizer.”
Realizing the crap he’d soon be taking from mad Mets fans, Manuel tried to sweeten up his scatological comparison:

“Fertilizer is a good thing,” Manuel said before the Mets’ (Sunday) afternoon contest against the Rockies. “It’s a good thing. You get the greatest results – get the most beautiful plants – when you put it in that type of fertile soil. That’s what we have the opportunity to do.”

Dumping off a load like that, Jerry would be a great fertilizer salesman.

Nice analogy. The front office just ran off Willie Randolph and this is the best Manuel can come up with to why fans are booing one of his players? One would think he would trend more lightly given the situation.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the Cubs might look to beef up their starting rotation for a World Series push. And two pitchers they might be interested in are Indians’ ace C.C. Sabathia and Oakland’s Rich Harden.

Carlos Zambrano’s injury and the recent hitting of Jim Edmonds makes it more likely that Hendry will pursue pitching — C.C. Sabathia and Rich Harden top the list — than another left-handed bat.

ESPN’s Buster Olney recently ranked the Cubs second to Milwaukee in the Sabathia derby. If the resurgent Brewers, who are 18-7 since May 26, do make a run for Cleveland’s ace, it could spark a bidding war between them and the Cubs.

Sabathia has looked real good in his last three starts and with his contract expiring at the end of the year, it’s not far-fetched to see the Tribe move him at the trade deadline. Of course, the Indians are also built to win now and still might want to lock their ace up long-term. This is one trade scenario that will certainly start to heat up towards the deadline.