I'll be brief this morning, and I'll start with something that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks now. While the D-Backs were in the middle of their 12-game winning streak, I heard the same comment being uttered by myriad broadcast outlets: "Just think how they would be doing if they had Schilling and Johnson!" This is akin to saying, "Just think if Roy Halladay didn't give up all those home runs during his ten-start winning streak!"
Guess what? He doesn't give them up and he still wins ten starts in a row, you knucklebeaks, and the D-Backs still have a 12-game winning streak no matter who the winning pitchers are. I mean, these bozos are essentially saying that Arizona should have received credit for "super wins" if it was Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling leading the rotation instead of Brandon Webb and Miguel Batista. If anything, it's the other way around: they should get two wins (or three) if Elmer Dessens actually pitches well for a change and enables the D-Backs to win.
Craig and I have been following, me for ESPN.com and Craig for BB, the progress of A's phenom and Vancouver native Rich Harden. It now looks like Harden will indeed get the call after the all-star break, but I wonder whether this is the right decision. Ken Macha no less than a week ago said Harden wasn't ready, but now he is suddenly behind the move. It is no coincidence that local media report that Steve Schott wants to see Harden in the majors, possibly to see if he can cut it right away, so the A's can then trade Justin Duchschere, Aaron Harang, and Mike Wood for offensive help. Harden hasn't really done much in the last two weeks or so -- he allowed one run in seven innings in his last start, but that came after a 5 2/3 inning, six-run affair the start before -- that should have changed Macha's mind. That responsibility falls to Schott, who could afford to bump the A's payroll but remains too cheap to do so, and who is possibly putting his manager in the position of using a player he doesn't want to.
In the latest New Yorker, Ben McGrath writes a story about Bill James and his position with the Red Sox. Unfortunately the article is not on-line, but it is a good read, and if the magazine is available in Toronto, I suggest you pick it up.
Finally, this next tid-bit is not baseball related, but I would be re-miss if I did not pass it along, especially to my Canadian friends here in Da Box. Recently -- two days ago, in fact -- Seattle's public radio station (KUOW) had an hour-long call-in show devoted to one of my favorite questions: which country is better, Canada or the United States? (One of the guests, Hendrik Hertzberg, is one of my favorite New Yorker contributors who recently wrote a short essay on Canada's decision to legalize same-sex marriage and who, in general, says what I try to about 20 times better.) On this page you will find the link to the program. And on the same page, as you will see, there are also links to a few other stories about Canada -- the quality of which I cannot guarantee, because I am too lazy to research them myself. Enjoy.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030713040243999