Feb 11

Let it stand ….

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SHEA: Honor its legacy.

SHEA: Honor its legacy.

There is one remaining wall of what was Shea Stadium that’s still standing. I know it won’t happen, because such decisions are never made on the fly, but I’d like to see it remain standing. It would make a great gesture to the past.

However, the Mets could still honor their Shea history by outlining a replica of the playing field in the parking lot and denote where some of the most memorable plays occurred with statues. Such of Seaver on the mound when he struck out 19 Padres, or Buckner, or the Swododa and Agee catches, of Cleon catching the final out of the 69 Series.

In Atlanta, the Braves have a replica of an outfield wall and mark where Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record, so it’s not like this hasn’t been done before.

Feb 09

I want the damn asterisk

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Of course, it isn’t fair players from the steroid era are all painted with the same brush of suspicion and scorn reserved the cheaters. It’s painful players who had nothing to do with steroids are lumped in with the others just because they played in this era.

It’s not fair, but since when is “fair” ever the issue?

There was the dead ball era, the lively ball era, the pitching era (take a look at some of the pitching numbers from 1968), and now we have the steroid era.

Steroids are part of baseball’s history, and we all know history isn’t always pretty. Sometimes, it is dirty and distasteful, which defines the steroid era. However, Major League Baseball, and I’m talking about Bud Selig and the MLB Players Association, can’t stick their heads in the sand a second time.

They did so when McGwire and Sosa danced pretty around the bases and that night in St. Louis when the former embraced Roger Maris’ kids. How upsetting to think of that now. The media, of which I am a part of, cheered them on with only a minority bothering to ask the disturbing questions or look under the dirty rocks.

And, it is being done so again without any label to this era.

I want the damn asterisk. I want this to be known as the steroid era, and I want every player linked to steroids to have the asterisk next to his career numbers. I want the notation they aren’t recognized as all-time record holders.

It won’t totally clean things up, but it will out those recognized as cheaters and define this disturbing era.

Feb 07

A-Roids outed … yawn … where’s the surprise?

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RODRIGUEZ: Outed.

RODRIGUEZ: Outed.

Sports Illustrated had the story. Alex Rodriguez has been outed using steriods. Nothing is ever a surprise anymore. Not that there weren’t suspicions. How could there not be questions? How could there not be questions of anybody?

It’s disappointing in a sense because I hoped Rodriguez would have been the one to break Barry Bonds’ mark. (I refuse to call Bonds’ total a record, as to me, the record holder for home runs in Hank Aaron).

Rodriguez, like Bonds, is a great player. Did he really need chemical enhancement to reach his level of excellence? That’s the puzzling thing. It’s not like he needed something to put him over the top.

Then again, we don’t know when he started. We have an idea of when Bonds started, but Rodriguez we can only speculate.

To get inside his head and wonder why he would cross over to the dark side and opt to cheat for the first time would be a fascinating study.

For now, all we can do is wonder.

Why? When? Where? How?

And, of course, who else?

Feb 06

F-Mart has sore elbow

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MLB.com reported Fernando Martinez left the Carribean World Series to have his sore right elbow examined in New York.

“I felt my elbow tighten up the day before yesterday,” Martinez said. “It was a little swollen. It’s better. I feel I can play again. I don’t think I need to fly to New York to get a check up, but the Mets want me to.”

I have a gut feeling the left field platoon of Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis might not pan out and F-Mart might get unexpected time in the majors.