Afternoon Baseball

Happy day-after Valentine's Day. Speaking of overhyped commericalized events that are inevitably a letdown, how about the Winter Olympics? The only thing of note is the totally unsurprising flameout that Bode Miller committed. Of course, I read the one article that mentioned how his more (mentally) steady teammate had an excellent shot as well. So the outcome was no surprise to me. I'm sure Miller has other events in which to redeem himself. We'll see.

But, it's baseball time. Roger Clemens highlights the U.S. team for the WBC (Why Bother Classic), and Bronx Pride had thoughts on his future over the weekend. Willis, Peavy and Sabathia as the rest of the rotation is dynamite, though.

As Baseball Musings reported the other day, Steinbrenner rewarded a young fan who gave his money, saved for a trip north to see the Yanks, to help his school district. What a kid, and George is a decent guy in all this as well.

Bronx Banter looks at how the Yanks avoided disaster this offseason amidst the Shawn Chacon bargin signing. There's a bunch of legitimate criticism as well, not least of which is the ripping of the re-signing of Bernie:

"In this case it's not the length or size of the contract, but the mere fact that it exists. Outside of the odd walk, the dulcet tones of his smooth-jazz guitar, and his winning personality, Williams has absolutely nothing left to offer a major league baseball club, let alone a perennial pennant contender such as the Yankees."

I agree with him. Completely. And I'm much more in agreement than I was in September, when even I was caught up in Bernie nostalgia.

Off the Facade says Tino might head to ESPN. I'm all for it, especially if it'll bump Jeff Brantley off of telecasts. For the love of God, please.

On a historical note, this year will be 50 years since Mickey Mantle's Triple Crown season. In case the largess of stats below don't tip you off, Mantle may be my favorite player ever, even though he retired 15 years before I was born and died when I was 12. His 1958 card may be the best purchase I ever made.
His numbers from that season still astound now:
G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG TB OPS *lgOPS*OPS+
150 533 132 188 22 5 52 130 10 1 112 99 .353 .464 .705 376 1.169 .747| 210

That's right. 210 OPS+.* Mantle led the majors in the big three, not just the league. He also led the majors in slugging, OPS, OPS+, runs and runs created, He lead the AL in slugging by 100 points, HR by 20, runs by 23, and OPS+ by 38, with 49 more runs created than Al Kaline. He was also sixth in stolen bases despite only having 10. (Mays, to be fair, went 36-40 that year)
Mantle was still not 26 at the end of the 1956 World Series. With all he accomplished, it's so clear how much more he could have done, and thus why he may always be in the "greatest player ever" discussions, even if just as a hypothetical.

**The next season, when he "slumped" to .365/34/94, his OPS was 1.117 and OPS+ was 223. Ted Williams, incredibly, was at 233 that season. Mantle lead the league in OPS+ 8 times and is 6th best in history.