Foul Territory

Dear Adam Dunn,
I don't care what you said before the season. I'm willing to forgive it as someone eager to please. However, don't listen to all the naysayers who complain about all the strikeouts. None of them are likely to hit 50 home runs this year like you are. Forget about the strikeouts and focus on hitting baseballs into the Ohio River. It isn't like you swing at bad pitches. You've proven you can take a walk, which is about the second most important thing you can do besides clank a few balls off the light towers. Please don't change your approach at the plate. A ground out to the second baseman isn't really better than a whiff, especially with a runner on first who will be doubled up. This year, aim for 200 strikeouts. I'm sure you'll be forgiven when you walk 100 times and hit 50 bombs. Thank you.

Your Fantasy Owner,
Andy Vogel

If the Yankees ever get a new stadium in Manhattan, will people still call them the Bronx Bombers?

Long Rest Pedro is a sight to behold, isn't he? He's a much different animal than Regular Rest Pedro. Long Rest Pedro can fling it with the best of them. He may still have that 100 pitch limit, but on long rest, he might not need that many to get through seven innings as he mows down the opposing hitters with aplomb. Regular Rest Pedro still shows flashes of that brilliance, but it's not as common, and the other team gets to him more often.

Long Rest Pedro always calls to mind, for me at least, the American League Divisional Series of 1999. In the deciding game, the Indians took a three run lead before Pedro, having been removed from an earlier game after stepping awkwardly while covering first, entered the game in the fourth inning. My most vivid memory of Pedro (at least until he invented the Zimmer toss) is the feeling I had when he entered the game that it was over, even though the Indians were winning and he was supposedly nursing an injury. I could just tell, as I watched the game alone in the Naugle dormitory lounge at Messiah College, that there was only one way for this game to end.

I was right, as you'll recall. Pedro came in and pitched six innings of no-hit ball, as the Red Sox rallied to win the game and the right to face the Yankees in the ALCS. That was back when Long Rest Pedro and Regular Rest Pedro were the same dominant force in the American League. When Pedro retires, we'll hold his Hall of Fame induction five years later as we all decide whether or not he had the highest peak of any pitcher to ever play the game. He won't get to 300 wins, or even 250 probably, but we'll still remember him as one of the greats and look fondly back on the time when any time he pitched, a no hitter wouldn't have been a surprise.

Baseball started in earnest today. Dmitri Young is the big story with his three home runs, and the Cubs have scored as many opening day runs as any team since 1975. Junior Griffey managed to not tear anything, and Adam Dunn hit two bombs, making me look like a genius for nabbing him on my fantasy team. Pedro struck out 12, but the bullpen blew it for him. Get used to that one there, Pedro. I can't wait to see where we are in September. I'm hoping to get to a few games somewhere or other before the season's out.

This kind of thing ticks me off. The North Dakota Senate has unanimously voted to ask baseball commissioner Bud Selig to declare native son Roger Maris to again be the single season home run record holder. They say that this should be done because the record was broken thanks to steroids. They apparently don't care that steroids were not only not banned by baseball but that none of the players to have broken the record of 61 home runs has ever tested positive for a banned substance. They'd rather deal in innuendo and all but baseless accusations.

Senator Joel Heitkamp sponsored this resolution, and he's had some real doozies when it comes to quotes about it:

In North Dakota when we think something has been wrong, we try to make it right. And when it comes to Roger Maris, and when it comes to steroids, and when it comes to how people have taken this record away ... that's not right.

and

Sen. Heitkamp said he has gotten several messages wondering why the North Dakota Legislature was wasting its time on baseball. However, he felt obliged to speak out because he believes Maris' record was eclipsed by cheating.

I guess if he believes it, it must be true and require legislative action.  Senator Heitkamp has no idea whether the record was bested thanks to steroids or not, but he really must not care. He probably saw the spectacle of the steroid hearings and decided the time was right for a publicity grab. In that sense, he's been wildly successful, as you can be sure I never would have heard of him if not for this stunt.

Perhaps someone should explain to the Senator that there was no ban on steroids in the summer of 1998 when McGwire took down Maris' record. Should he counter that they were still illegal, someone should then mention that so are the amphetamines that Hank Aaron has admitted to using and nearly all players of Maris' era were on. Also, I'm sure Babe Ruth threw back a few beers that were illegal during prohibition, so the legality argument carries little weight with me. Sure, it would be best if steroids were eliminated from the game but this push to revise history is a sham.