November, 2010 | The Baseball Zealot

RIP Sparky Anderson

As most of you know, Sparky Anderson died last week at the age of 76. No doubt, he was one of one of best managers of the 70s and 80s. As a Cub fan, I didn’t relish the days they had to play the Big Red Machine. The amazing part was when he left the Reds, he wasn’t done. He guided the Tigers to two first place finishes and a World Championship.

Tiger Tales has a good collection of links to articles about Anderson. And Sports Illustrated has a real nice photo gallery (via StumbleUpon) that spans the life of Sparky including a photo of him in a Phillie uniform back in 1959.

Free Agency season starts today

It’s free agency season. As of 12:01am today, all free agents are eligible to negotiate with all teams.

ESPN has my free agent tracker of choice. Take a look at it now while all free agents are rated “NR” which I guess stands for “No Regrets”.

The average age of the 167 eligible free agents is 33.9 years old but that includes Brad Ausmus who I thought retired. That skews it a bit by probably a tenth of the year or so.

Ausmus isn’t the oldest though. That honor belongs to reliever Trevor Hoffman who might like to add to his all-time leading 601 career saves in 2011.

Which team lost the most players to free agency? The answer might surprise you. The Tampa Bay Rays who succumbed twelve players including six pitchers.

Catholic nuns can’t appreciate inherit beauty of Wagner card

Good news for the Baltimore-based order of Catholic nuns who was bequeathed a Honus Wagner baseball card. They found a buyer.

Doug Walton of Knoxville, Tennessee, will pay $262,000 for the rare card which was auctioned off this week. This figure exceeded analysts expectations up to 100%.

Walton didn’t mind paying the extra dough, according to The Sporting News:

“To be honest with you, we probably paid a little bit more than we should have,” he said Friday. “But with the back story, and the fact that it’s going to a really good charity, to us it just seemed worth it.”

The nuns plan to put the money to good work. They plan to use it in their ministries to the poor in 35 countries.

Obama, typical Sox fan, talks about HIS team in congratulatory call

Listen and watch as President Obama follows protocol and calls the San Francisco Giants (is it Bochy he’s talking to?) to congratulate them for winning the 2010 World Series.

Within 10 seconds, Obama doesn’t hesitate to invoke the Chicago White Sox, who “broke a much longer dry spell” in his conversation. Let it go, Barack… we’re ALL happy the SOX won what, five years ago??

Nevertheless, a fine call despite the fact it was probably scripted on both ends.

Cubs outsourcing their publications and graphics dept

After taking care of their publishing needs in-house for over 100 years, the Cubs will now be outsourcing these needs to a Cincinnati firm, EMI Network.

So says Bleed Cubbie Blue:

Now, the Cubs are outsourcing their publications to EMI Network, a Cincinnati-based company that does publications for a number of other pro sports teams and various clients including Elmhurst College, Eastern Illinois University, PNC Bank, various large law firms and US News & World Report.

Under this new arrangement, EMI Network will operate and manage all aspects of the Cubs’ Publications & Creative Services Department, including publication of Vine Line magazine as well as photography, video and graphic services.

For a cynical guy, I can be pretty idealistic too. So for some reason this really bothers. I guess I need to let it roll over me. But maybe I can’t let go of the fact that the Cubs Vineline or the programs that us Cubs fans will buy at the Wrigley Field will be designed and published in the same city whose team has a former Cub manager.

Counterpoint: Was Quade really the right move for the Cubs??

DonS, a long suffering fan of TBZ, emailed me a response to my article in favor of the Cubs hiring Mike Quade. He makes some good points against the hiring I’m posting it tonight. -tbz

I said the following the day Lou left: “Lou leaving in mid-season” is the worst thing that could happen to the Cubs. What if the “Interim Flunky” hits a hot streak? Now you’re stuck with him.

Is that exactly what happened?. Quade went 24-13 (that projects out to 105 wins in a full season). So now the Cubs think this guy is the answer.

The guys on WSCR think this is a great move. But keep in mind: That’s a bunch of White Sox fans who hope the Cubs lose every game. Some endorsement, huh?

Nothing against Quade. But the guy spent 17 years in the Cub minor league system. In that time, I never heard him rumored to be a managerial candidate at the major league level, for the Cubs or for anybody else. Now, based on 37 games, he gets the job?

One More Thing: I said on the day of the hire, “If I am Ryno, I am outta there.” I heard yesterday that Ryno has left the Cub Organ-I-Zation. It sounds like he told Jim Hendry where he could stick his “Go back to Iowa” idea.

Seems obvious to me that the Cubs NEVER intend to hire him to be the manager. It’s not like they bypassed him for a proven manager, like Girardi or Torre. They had told him, “Go to the minor leagues, ride busses, work hard, … ” Something negative to Ryno must have happened in those four years.

Or maybe Jim Hendry is every bit the stumbling dunderhead that his critics think he is.

As the late Mike Royko often said, “I may be wrong, but I doubt it.”

How Cubs fans can spend their hard earned money

What better way to honor your visit to Wrigley Field than to… throw a football??

From mlb.com:

The Friendly Confines will be transformed into a football field for the first time since 1970 when the Northwestern University Wildcats host the University of Illinois Fighting Illini for a special college game in a unique setting. The Cubs are opening the ballpark the following day, Sunday, November 21, for fans to play catch on the football field-all for Chicago Cubs Charities.

I’ll wait till next year’s Dunking Contest at the Friendly Confines.

A better way to spend your money perhaps is the Chicago Cubs Convention. Since the tickets went on sale today for the January 14-16 affair your luck in getting them through the normal channels may be thin. But there’s always Ebay and other popular web auction and reseller sites. I’ve had luck doing that in the past.

Finally, if that money is still burning a hole in your wallet of yours, you could always buy a Cubs cookbook. No, the image to the right is not a joke. I wish it was. At least the proceeds go to a good cause… the Dempster Family Foundation.

I wonder if it includes goat stew… or humble pie.

I interviewed Shawn Roof from the Toledo Mudhens

I did an interview with former Illini shortstop Shawn Roof. I gleaned some questions from some of his Illini fans and ran them by him.

Roof has continued his success since leaving the Illini. This midseason, he advanced to Detroit’s AAA affiliate, the Toledo Mudhens. Once he got there, he caught fire hitting .354 for the rest of the year.

You can read the interview at my Illinois baseball blog, the Illinois Baseball Report.

Giants’ victory elicits some nasty emotions

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Whoever said that Baseball is a microcosm of all that is America was probably right. All you need to do is read a few of the countless forums out there tonight on the heels of the Giants’ World Series victory over the Texas Rangers.

Over at the MLB forums, you can find this gem:

BlueFan124 wrote:

You hippie losers can take the WS but tomorrow we take our COUNTRY back!!!!!!!

11/1/2010 10:58:16 PM

Woah! That’s quite a stretch. Next thing you know, they’ll be demanding that “the Freak” cut his hair.