After McGriff and Palmeiro, Bagwell completes our 2nd matched set of first basemen with Frank Thomas. Like Frank, Bagwell just completed his age 36 season, had by far his best season in 1994, and is definitely on a Hall of Fame course.

Big Frank is headed to the Hall of Fame. That much we know. His standing among the great first basemen still is not known, after a .271/.434/.563 half-season in 2004 at age 36.

According to wire reports published on ESPN.com, a bat signed by Shoeless Joe Jackson sold for $137,500 Saturday at a memorabilia auction in Kentucky. At the same auction, a Cleveland Indians jersey worn by Satchel Paige was sold for $110,000. A letter handwritten by Babe Ruth, with six of his signatures at the bottom, and its original envelope went for $41,800. A baseball signed by Ruth and Lou Gehrig went for $31,900.

Question of the Day: Forget about price for a second; what piece of memorabilia from the entirety of baseball history would you most like to own?

Here is your weekly AFL spot. We'll get things rolling with yesterday's Saguaro boxscore. We will have some BBRadio of the game on Wednesday the 10th here.

Javelinas, by the way, look like small designer pigs, and are adept at eating cactus. Don't ask. They are not actually pigs but peccaries. Now you know.

Today is Justin Speier's 31st birthday. Yes, I remember when his daddy Chris was a young shortstop with the Giants. Do you? That is not today's Question of the Day.

Also having birthdays today: Trammell, Munson and D. Dean ... but in each case, not the one you're thinking of. Don't there seem to be lots of scrub-level ballplayers with Hall of Fame names? That is also not today's Question of the Day.

Finally, one last birthday wish ... he would have been 117 today ... the great right-hander, The Big Train, "Barney" ... Walter Johnson.

And that brings us to ...

Question of the Day: Who is the best pitcher you've ever seen in a live game? Try to give a non-Jay answer so we don't have 500 "Roy Halladay" and "Dave Steib" entries.

I'm writing to remind you all to vote early and often for Tom Cheek for the Ford C. Frick Award ...

Keeping on with old guys, we now turn our gaze to Fred McGriff. Crime Dog was always the strong, silent type, and that might eventually be what keeps him out of the Hall. It certainly won’t be the merits of his cause.

HOUSTON -- Houston Astros free agent center fielder Carlos Beltran is seeking a 10-year contract, his agent told a television station on Thursday, according to ESPN reports.

In other news, as you've surely heard by now, it slipped the minds of the Arizona Diamondbacks to perform a background check on new manager Wally Backman before introducing the former Met 2B as their skipper.

UPDATE: D-Back-man No More: Arizona Cans Wally

Question of the Day: It's a two-parter. What's the worst long-term signing of the free agent era? And what's the worst managerial choice of your lifetime?

Over the past two days we’ve presented our assessments of the men paid to throw, catch, and hit baseballs down at the SkyDome in 2004. What of those designated to collect and guide the on-field talent? We graded them too, and here’s what we thought of the job they did.

For those who discovered Batter's Box during the season, you're probably not familiar with Hijack Central. Its purpose is to be a clearing house of the latest links, news, and rumours from around baseball. Rather than "hijacking" another thread, feel free to post whatever your heart desires here. When Hijack Central gets too full to manage, or it falls off the main page, it'll be replaced with a shiny new thread.

Of course, in keeping with tradition, this thread has a contest associated with it. Read on for details.

Back in the "real world" of baseball politics, two managerial moves were made in the last 24 hours, as Charlie Manuel will run the Phils and at long last, finally, the Mets' new skipper, Willie Randolph gets to embark on his nascent Hall of Fame managerial career. It's the Joe Torre arc -- even starting with the same team Torre did, though let's hope he has better luck.

Question of the Day: Who doesn't have a job managing that should? Who would make a good manager among current players or recent retirees, regardless of what you've heard of their potential interest in the field?

Yesterday we presented our report card for the Toronto pitching staff, v2004. Today, to use a term loosely, we turn our attention to the hitters.

As many of you will have noticed, Batter's Box is under attack by spammers seeking to use us to boost their search engine rankings. Their posts consist of a bunch of links and keywords, over and over and over again. In the last few days it has gone from an occassional annoyance to a constant deluge.

To attempt to combat this, we've had to ban a whole range of IP addresses, so if you've found yourself suddenly banned from posting you are simply a civillian casualty in what is increasingly becoming a war. But all is not lost: drop one of us roster members a line and we can see to it that your IP is unbanned as quickly as humanly possible.

Bush won, so Raffy goes first. Rafael Palmeiro had a typical age 39 season in 2004 for a great first baseman, going .258/.359/.436 and passed the 550 homer plateau. He has recently signed another 1 year contract with the Orioles and figures to collect his 3,000th hit in 2005. As far as I am concerned, he's a lock for the Hall of Fame.

2004 was a forgettable year for the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans, as the club floundered its way to 94 losses and the AL East cellar, a locale not visited by this club since 1997. With it all said and done, who were the culprits responsible for the mess? Who on the club turned in an individual performance not deserving of a Last Place label? The Batter’s Box roster has handed out grades for all of the good, the bad, and the ugly 2004 Jays, and over the next 3 days we’ll present these assessments.