As most fans of the game will know, there are 108 stitches in a baseball. Unless, of course, it's a crappy Chinese-made baseball like the one I just bought, which has 97 for some reason.


OK, yes, I'm betting the reason is cheapness.

Anyway, that feeling... that you're not quite getting everything you bargained for... is probably affecting the front office of Edgardo Alfonzo's new team, the San Francisco Giants. The Giants signed Alfonzo to a four-year deal worth $26 million in the offseason, and many people (including myself) thought they got a good deal, inking a star player in what is still his prime (he's 29 this year). Instead, Alfonzo is hitting .219/.295/.325, and is struggling defensively (his .739 Zone Rating is near the bottom of MLB third basemen).

Where are his struggles coming from? Everywhere; he is struggling against righties and lefties, at home and on the road, leading off, close and late, hitting second or down in the order, when he hits the first pitch and on 3-2 counts, against groundball pitchers and flyball pitchers, during the day and at night. And it's not getting any better... he's hitting .197/.244/.250 in June. But nothing can illustrate his problems so poignantly as the fact that the local media are agitating for Pedro Feliz to play more at third base. Ouch.

Barry Bonds stole his 500th base, of course, and there was much rejoicing. Some of the names trailing Barry on the all-time stolen bases chart are amazing... Ron LeFlore, Billy North, Willie Davis, Tris Speaker, Omar Moreno... serious basestealers all. Much has also been made of Barry being second in active players in stolen bases (though a potential Rickey return might bump him down to 3rd soon). Interestingly, Barry is *not* the active leader in career slugging percentage, though he has a .596 career mark trails only five retired players... Ruth, Williams, Gehrig, Foxx and Greenberg. Barry's actually tied with Manny Ramirez for second among active players behind Todd Helton.

Helton, incidentally, is in a dogfight for an All-Star starting berth with Jeff Bagwell. The two of them are separated by something like 200 votes, with over 379,000 each so far.

A recent piece in the Long Island paper Newsday caught my eye...

Former Mets manager Jeff Torborg, fired by the Florida Marlins last month, worked last night's
game for ESPN. He said George Steinbrenner called him the day after he was fired and offered him a job
in the Yankees' organization. "It was very flattering," said Torborg, who spent nearly 10 years as a
Yankees coach. "At the present time, I'd like to sit and take some time off, do some broadcasting."
With tensions rising between Joe Torre and Steinbrenner, there has been speculation that Torborg
could replace a fired Torre.  Torborg begs to differ. "My managing days are over," he insisted.

SO close. Hopefully The Boss will track down Torborg soon and get him to reconsider... as the Good Doctor would put it, that would just about make the nut.

An entry now from the Persistence of Memory Department. Remember how at the start of the month I mentioned that Tim Spooneybarger was complaining of being overused in relief by the Marlins? Well, he had to shut down a side session on Tuesday due to pain (unspecified) and was going to see an orthopedist yesterday.

I guess the "friend" of Juan Gonzalez who told Jayson Stark last week that Gonzalez would "waive his no-trade for Omar [Minaya]. He loves Omar" wasn't as close a friend as one might have had reason to expect. Now since a Gonzalez deal would get in the way of freeing Terrmel Sledge (oh yeah... FREE TERRMEL SLEDGE!) you'd think I'd be against it, but I'm always happy to see Montreal reach out to their fans and try to make a popular signing. And speaking as a recovering Expos fan, those who criticize Minaya's approach as mortgaging the future of the franchise for a desperate roll of the dice are certainly correct. But to an Expos fan, knowing that the team is likely to be broken up for scrap in another far-off city in the near future (if not in 2004) means it doesn't matter what you do to the future of the franchise.

Mike Sweeney's neck hurts (beware! beware!) and my brain hurts, so that's it for Notes.