I'm Back

April 17, 10:38 AM, PDT

I’m done.

I was kind of done yesterday, but there is always something on filing day. God bless electronic filing, particularly electronic extensions, which have really taken the sting out of filing day. And in the great tradition of tax filing day (and more importantly, the day after) it is beautiful outside. A little golf and a little tennis tomorrow.

Too bad there is no poker game scheduled.

So today we begin the regular blog filings. No more excuses, although to be truthful, I really have been busy. It always cracks me up to get those phone calls from clients in April which begin with the “I’ve been really busy” excuse. Bite me. Hey, I’ve been busy. You’ve just been lazy. I’m sure Mark would confirm these calls.

Let me take a moment and discuss the direction I’d like to go with this space this season. It will be more of the same, but I’d like to make it a little more about baseball, a little more about other stuff, and a little less about BABI. Just a little change of balance, otherwise I’ll only end up with about 15 readers. I’d like to see if I can get it over 20.

So let me address what has been in the papers day after day throughout this past tax season: Barry. Steroids? Don’t care. Won’t comment other than to say I’d bet a months pay Eric Gagne (done forever, folks) was doing them too.

What interests me about Barry is I think he suddenly got old. He looks hurt all the time. He used to never miss pitches, now he regularly looks bad, off balance, swinging at stuff way out of the strike zone – in sum, ordinary. Or worse. Life is bad for him, really bad, Martha Stewart bad, but on top of it, he’s now … me. He’ll never reach Aaron. Maybe not even Ruth. OK, he’ll reach the Babe. But never Aaron. That’s a shame.

It’s certainly a shame for the Giants, but give them credit, they planned for it. Finley is a good player, and as Larry (Baer, not Dot Net) told me when he encouraged me to buy him in the auction (we made the penultimate bid), Finley is going to get 450 at bats. If they are like 2005, who would want them? But he’s still got some talent, and enough speed and power to be a reasonable fantasy player. He better be more than that, because the Giants are going to need him, big time.

The Giants are 7-4, but they look to be crumbling. Schmidt looks like 2005 was a picture of his future. After Morris, the rest of the starting pitching is being held together by Jamey Wright (does anyone believe it?) and guys who didn’t make the roster out of the spring. They’re probably good enough to win the NL West, he said, damning with faint praise. Three and out in the playoffs, maybe 4 assuming Matt Morris wins one.

A Rod hit number 432 yesterday. He’ll turn 31 on July 27. That seems like a huge number for that age. Griffey had 438 homers when he turned 31, and everyone was sure he’d break the record. Barry only had 292. Sammy had 336. If he stays injury free, he might do it.

A Rod and Steroids? Probably. Don’t care.

Here is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Today, I have time to do it.

Here are 2 five year scans:

..AB....Runs....Hits......Ds....HRs....RBIs....BA
2618....683.....925.....191....165.....638.....353
2954....629.....982.....227....201....621......332

Pretty impressive, huh? What is more impressive is that for both players, they were the first 5 seasons. Both players were instant stars, monster stars. Neither had anything other than a great year in each of those seasons.

I know you know who one of these guys is – Big Al Pujols. His is the second line. Got an idea about that first line? It’s Ted Williams.

A couple of notes about Ted. First and foremost, his first 5 years were 1939-1942 and then 1946. He missed 3 seasons for WWII, but then came back and hit .342-38-123. That is sick. He also missed virtually all of 2 more seasons, getting 10 AB’s in 1952 and 91 in 1953 because of the Korean War.

Second, that BA is really high because there was a .406 in there in 1941. What a year, 1941. Pearl Harbor, .406 and 56. The guy hit .406, led the league in homers, was 4th in RBI’s and didn’t win the MVP.

The next year, 1942, his last before WWII, he won the triple crown, but STILL didn’t win the MVP. He did that AGAIN in his 2nd year back from the war in 1947 – triple crown, no MVP. I’m too lazy to prove it, but I’m pretty sure he’s the only non-MVP among triple crown winners, and he did that twice. He missed 3 seasons sandwiched between 2 triple crown years.

Greatest hitter ever? Maybe. Add those 5 seasons right in his prime, and he’d have 700 homers. He had 521 homers, 1838 RBI’s and a lifetime BA of .344, and missed 5 seasons. He also walked over 2000 times, so like Barry, he was regularly pitched around. That’s the difference, by the way, in the AB lines above. For some weird reason, they pitch to Big Al. Not Ted.

Anyway, Pujols is on Ted’s track. He has the potential to be the greatest hitter ever. Of course, I used to think Roberto Alomar was going to break Pete Rose’s hit record.

Pujols – steroids?

Don’t care.

Glad to be back.