2009 WORLD SERIES VIDEO: YANKESS vs. PHILLIES

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WORLD SERIES GEAR NOW AVAILABLE / BEST PRICES ON WEB

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RYAN HOWARD MOST CLUTCH HIT IN PHILLIES HISTORY? [VIDEO]

Congratulations Phillies fans! With an extremely riveting ending to the NLDS, Ryan Howard blasts a 2-run double to tie the game with 2 outs in the 9th. Absolutely amazing!

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SHOULD MLB DEMAND PLAYERS START WEARING THESE MORE PROTECTIVE HELMET?

Below is a well-done video courtesy of Newsy. In the past week or so there have been a series of players getting hit directly in the head. The newer version of the batting helmet doesn't look all that much different from the existing versions, but a handful of players seem opposed. It wasn't long ago hockey players didn't want to wear helmets at all. The reality is that it is going to take someone to get knocked into a coma or worse before the appropriate steps are taken. Could be next week, could be 5 years from now.

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ICHIRO: A HALL-OF-FAMER?

Your first instinct might be to answer, "Absolutely!", when asked, "Is Ichiro worthy of the Hall-of-Fame?" However, in his 9 seasons, he just shy of 2000 hits with a .333 lifetime batting average, 81 HRs, 505 RBI, and 339 SB. His rookie season he was one of few to win both he ROY and MVP awards and once had 262 hits in one season. Needless to say that had Ichiro came over to play from Japan sooner is his career than he'd be a lock for the Hall. Below is Jon Paul Morosi's article from FoxSports.com which further discusses the topic. It should be mentioned that Morosi's somehow forgot to note that Ichiro has won 9 straight gold gloves. Someone make a case for me that he doesn't belong in Cooperstown.



CLEVELAND - We've burned through too many words when it comes to Hall of Fame candidates in the Steroid Era. So, let's consider a different case.

Let's discuss someone as far from the performance-enhancement controversy as just about anyone in baseball. Let's talk about someone whose game involves singles instead of slugging, a player whose candidacy is both unprecedented and untainted.

What are we to do with Ichiro Suzuki?

Ichiro is on the verge of collecting his 200th hit this season, an annual Northwest event like Seafair, the Apple Cup and winter dampness.

This time, it carries special significance. Ichiro, at 183 hits entering Sunday, is about to reach the mark for a ninth straight year. That will be a record for consecutive 200-hit seasons. (Pete Rose, with 10 seasons, holds the overall record.)

Ichiro leads the majors in hits since debuting with the Mariners in 2001. Not even Albert Pujols is all that close.

Suzuki is 12 away from 2,000 for his career. He was the first Japanese position player, batting champion and Most Valuable Player in the U.S. major leagues.

He's also going to be the first Japanese player to receive serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.

And the decision shouldn't be that hard.

"To me," Ken Griffey Jr. said Friday, "he's a Hall of Famer now."

Griffey can speak on that subject with some authority. The Kid will go to Cooperstown on the first ballot, five years after we see that smooth swing for the final time.

Players must participate in 10 major league seasons in order to be eligible for the Hall. Ichiro, 35, will satisfy that criterion next year. After that, it's going to become very difficult for observers to argue that he doesn't belong.

Suzuki already has the single-season hits record (262, set in 2004) and more than 3,000 hits between Japan and the U.S. And he has done it all while serving as the standard-bearer for Japanese position players in the big leagues, giving him the sort of historical claim that counts in Cooperstown.

If that's not a Hall of Fame resume, I'm not sure what is.

"I think fans tend to take him for granted," Mariners president Chuck Armstrong said. "And I think that's a shame, because I've never seen anything like him before and I doubt I'll see anything like him again. He's special."

"When I see him do something," Griffey said, "I feel like one of the fans."

The chief contention against Ichiro's inclusion would be, simply, that he hasn't played in the majors long enough. But Japanese players shouldn't be penalized for the posting system that governs many transfers to the U.S. major leagues.

A critic might also point out that Ichiro, who has hit more than 10 home runs only twice in his career, is somewhat one-dimensional. That is true. But I would argue that, in an era of omniscient video and detailed scouting reports, it's not easy to get base hits.

And Ichiro is not just a good singles hitter. He's the preeminent base-knock artist of his time.

"Ichiro could retire right now and be in the Hall of Fame," teammate Miguel Batista said. "People have to understand that the Hall of Fame is not just for the numbers. It's dominating the era you played in."

Ichiro could eliminate virtually all dissent about his Hall of Fame candidacy by sticking around long enough to register 3,000 hits. And he may do that. His current contract runs out after the 2012 season, and he will turn 39 that October.

He could have 2,600 hits by then — maybe more — even if he falls off the 225-per-year average from his first eight seasons. And given his body type and training regimen, it's quite possible that Ichiro won't want to stop there.

Masa Niwa, a Sankei Sports reporter who has covered Ichiro for much of his major league career, believes Suzuki will play until he is 43 or 44 years old. If that's the case, it would take a prolonged absence or precipitous decline in production for Ichiro to fall short of 3,000.

Ichiro might be the type of person who continues playing as long as he finds the game enjoyable. To that end, it's worth noting that he seems to be having more fun at the ballpark these days, certainly more than he did when the Mariners lost 101 games last year.

John McLaren, the former manager with whom Ichiro is close, was fired last June; after his dismissal, McLaren told reporters that there had been tension, friction and jealousy in the clubhouse. Then last September, a Seattle Times story quoted an anonymous source as saying a number of players on the team disliked Ichiro.

"You could see he was very uncomfortable," Batista said of Ichiro, when asked about the 2008 season. "This year, he's not. You see him laugh more. He jokes around with the guys. He actually goes to lunch and breakfast with some guys. That never happened, as long as I was here."

Griffey and fellow veteran Mike Sweeney are widely credited with putting Ichiro — and the rest of the clubhouse — at ease. Ichiro met Griffey in 1995 and has looked up to him for years; Niwa believes it is a dream come true for Suzuki to play on the same team as someone he respects so much.

Ichiro is known to keep a very rigid pregame schedule. Griffey is probably one of only a handful of players in baseball with the personality and cachet to disrupt it in a respectful way.

If anything, that has helped Suzuki's production. Despite spending part of April on the disabled list, he's in the midst of perhaps his finest season since '04.

"I get him loosened up," Griffey said. "I help him have fun. ... Everything is on time with him, and I try to break that up some of the time. Right when he starts to stretch, I grab him. Sometimes you need to laugh before you go out there."

Soon, Suzuki will feel the relief that comes with Hit No. 200, that annual signpost of a season well-played. A new record will come with it this time, moving him a few miles closer to Cooperstown. Where he belongs.

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BRONSON ARROYO: THE KING OF SUPPLEMENTS

Bronson Arroyo is just one of many professional ballplayers who feel the need to pop pills to stay close to or in front of their competition. His father says he was taking supplements since he was 5 years old (did I read that correctly?). Stories like this show us exactly how severely MLB executives screwed up the game of baseball. Don't be fooled that the era is over. Pharmaceutical companies are spending more than ever on research and development of the next great supplement. It's hard to argue with those experienced fans of baseball who have become fed up with everything and have turned their attention elsewhere. I wonder if Bud Selig and company would have done things differently if given the chance. Below is Bob Nightingale's article for today's USA Today. The only thing I admire about Bronson Arroyo is his honesty.



Reds' Arroyo is gambling on supplements despite the risk
By Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY
ST. LOUIS — Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo reaches into his locker, pulls down a clear cellophane bag and slowly opens it.

He shakes out the contents like a kid on Halloween night. There are different-colored pills, powders, liquids, proteins, caffeine concentrates and ginseng, products such as creatine, Triflex and xelR8 found at local vitamin stores. Most of the products have not been approved by Major League Baseball for use by players, Arroyo says. Some of the items have the potential to trigger a positive test under baseball's performance-enhancing drug policy. Arroyo takes them anyway.

"I have a lot of guys in (the locker room) who think I'm out of (my) mind because I'm taking a lot of things not on the (MLB-approved) list," Arroyo says. "I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there's four more things. There's a caffeine drink I take from a company that (former teammate) Curt Schilling introduced me to in '05. I take some Korean ginseng and a few other proteins out there that are not certified. But I haven't failed any tests, so I figured I'm good."

Arroyo, 32, is a byproduct of baseball's steroid era, part of the generation of young players who were working their way through the minor leagues in the late 1990s — just as power hitters Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and many others were bulking up, setting records and scoring big contracts.

Arroyo says he took it all in and, although he never knowingly took steroids, he felt the lure to take the same performance-enhancing drugs MLB eventually would ban.

Now, Arroyo is the first player to flout aspects of baseball's drug policy and talk candidly about seeking an edge on the field with the supplements and vitamins he takes off of it. He ignores the dangers that come with popping pills and swallowing drinks bought over the counter — even as studies show they can contain banned substances that, if they turn up in a drug test, could lead to a suspension that would cost him millions of dollars.

"I do what I want to do and say what I want to say," says Arroyo, who will make $9.5 million this season as part of a contract scheduled to pay him more than $38 million from 2006 to 2011. "But society has made this such a tainted thing. The media has made it where people look at it in such a super-negative light. I've always been honest. I'm not going to stop now."

Arroyo, 6-4 and 194 pounds, says he had trouble gaining weight and strength early in his career.

That changed in 1998 when he discovered androstenedione, a steroid precursor that gained national prominence as McGwire, an admitted user, blasted his way to the single-season record of 70 home runs. Arroyo says he took "andro" until it was banned in 2004.

"Man, I didn't think twice about it," says Arroyo, who started taking supplements at age 5, according to his father, Gus.

"I took androstenedione the same way I took my multivitamins. I didn't really know if this was a genius move by Mark McGwire to cover up the real s—- he was taking, but it made me feel unbelievable. I felt like a monster."

'It's an ethical issue'

The 2009 season has been defined as much by the offensive exploits of players such as Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer as it has the revelations linking Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz to banned substances.

After a February report in Sports Illustrated linked Rodriguez to steroids, the New York Yankees third baseman admitted he had taken steroids from 2001 to 2003. In May, Ramirez was suspended for 50 games from the Los Angeles Dodgers for violating MLB's drug policy.

And The New York Times reported last month that the names of Ramirez and Ortiz, teammates with the Boston Red Sox from 2003 to 2008, appear on a list of players who allegedly tested positive for a banned substance during anonymous survey testing in 2003.

That anonymity was threatened in 2004 when the government seized the list from the companies that did the testing as part of a steroid probe into Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in San Francisco. The list now is under a court seal.

Arroyo says he suspects his name is on the list for taking andro contaminated with steroids.

He says that to gain an edge he also took amphetamines for nearly nine years from 1998 to 2006 and that, as a minor leaguer in 1999, he was stopped by customs agents in Canada while trying to cross the border with such pills.

"When you're trying to establish yourself and you've got people saying, 'Try this, it will help you get stronger,' " Arroyo says, "I'm trying (it). There was nothing to be caught about because nobody was testing."

Even today, with MLB having toughened its drug policy three times since it was put in place in 2004, Arroyo acknowledges he is pushing the limits by taking supplements not certified as being legal and free of contaminants.

"It's an interesting mind-set," says Gary Wadler, an internist and member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). "It's an ethical issue as much as anything. It's supposed to be about a level playing field, not a trick of getting as close to the edge as possible without falling over."

Inside each major league clubhouse, there is a list posted on the wall of approved and banned substances. Baseball has established a phone hotline for players and trainers to get information on products. And the players union recently told players about four new supplements that might trigger positive drug tests.

"The union and the commissioner's office has a certification program for supplements," says Michael Weiner, general counsel of the union. "We tell players that the best way to be safe is to use supplements that have been certified as clean. We've been pretty clear with our advice."

Says MLB senior vice president Rich Levin: "If you do take supplements not on our list, you do so at your own risk. You're responsible for what you put in your body."

Arroyo says he has heard it and doesn't care. He has an 81-81 career record, was a 2006 All-Star, has made the most starts of any pitcher in baseball since 2006 and has never gone on the disabled list.

"People can think what they want of me," he says. "I don't give a f—-."

'Performance' above all

Arroyo was in the Red Sox organization from 2003 to 2005 and had a 10-9 record in 2004, when Boston won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. He can't understand the furor surrounding former teammates Ramirez and Ortiz, or any other star who has been linked to performance-enhancers.

He says fans and the news media are more concerned with cherished records falling than they are with whether steroids or supplements will have an adverse effect on a player's health.

"I can see where guys like Hank Aaron and some of the old-timers have a beef with it," Arroyo says. "But as far as looking at Manny Ramirez like he's (serial killer) Ted Bundy, you're out of your mind. At the end of the day, you think anybody really (cares) whether Manny Ramirez's kidneys fail and he dies at 50?

"You were happy if the Red Sox won 95 games. You'd go home, have a cookout with your family. No big deal."

Arroyo says he doesn't know whether Ortiz and Ramirez used steroids. He likes that Ramirez has deflected virtually all questions after MLB suspended him for taking HCG, a female fertility drug popular with steroid users to mitigate the side effects at the end of a drug cycle.

He says he would like to believe Ortiz but says "it's a flip of the coin" whether Ortiz was telling the truth last weekend when the slugger said supplements or vitamins caused his name to appear on the 2003 list.

"I have no idea what David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez took," Arroyo says. "Ballplayers aren't nearly as tight as people think they are. … I've never had a guy I played with say, 'Dude, check out what I'm taking.'

"Now, if you get it over the counter, that's different."

And if Ramirez or Ortiz or any other player was taking banned substances, Arroyo says the notion that teams have ever been concerned with anything other than wins, losses and money is absurd. The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants sold thousands of seats and won games with McGwire and Bonds, respectively.

"If Mark McGwire is hitting 60 homers, the only thing that matters is his performance," Arroyo says. "People don't own teams to lose money. If you ask any owner whether they would rather make $20 million and come in last place or lose $20 million and win a World Series, there's only one guy who honestly would take that championship: George Steinbrenner (of the Yankees). Nobody else."

Praise for andro

Arroyo's attitude exemplifies that of many major leaguers: seek anything that gives an edge — without crossing the line.

Arroyo says he never cared whether the andro or another supplement was contaminated with steroids. He took amphetamines without thinking twice, but until 2006 they were not banned.

"Even what we know now about steroids, and all of the dangers," Philadelphia Phillies reliever Scott Eyre says, "if they didn't have testing, I think there'd be more guys doing it now than even did it back then."

Arroyo says he submitted to the anonymous drug test in 2003 but didn't take it seriously, figuring his identity was safe.

The collective bargaining agreement between players and owners stipulated that if more than 5% of the tests were positive, a drug policy with penalties would be put in place the next year.

He says he wasn't surprised when MLB announced after that season that 5% to 7% of players tested positive.

"I think most of us believed we'd be way over 5%," Arroyo says. "You knew for a fact there were a lot more guys taking the stuff five years prior to that."

Arroyo says he stopped taking andro in 2004, when baseball banned it. He has gone on to win at least 10 games in five of six seasons.

"I think I could have had the same career without andro," Arroyo says. "The best years of my career have been after they enacted the steroids policy."

Arroyo says he began taking androstenedione when he was in the Arizona Fall League in 1998, after McGwire's record season. Arroyo couldn't believe the effect. His fastball didn't increase in velocity, he says, but he felt strong the entire game. He added muscle and strength.

Arroyo swore by the supplement, even when a teammate warned him of possible liver damage. He says he was tempted to take steroids as he struggled to become a full-time major leaguer from 2000 to 2002 but never did.

"We brought Bronson up on supplements, but it was more about health," says his father, Gus. "I know everybody is human and get caught up with ego, but I don't think Bronson would ever do steroids."

Arroyo was introduced to amphetamines in 1998 by teammates in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, he says, adding he'd still be taking them if they weren't banned in baseball.

"That stuff's like bubblegum compared to steroids," he says. "You're playing (night games) in L.A., you fly across the country, and you're pitching a day game at Wrigley (Field in Chicago). You telling me you don't want something to wake you up? You have half this country, maybe more, that can't function without a cup of coffee.

"You don't want me to get Albert Pujols out? Give me a break. If you give me (the amphetamine) Adderall, and I strike out Pujols in the seventh inning with the bases loaded, there's a pretty good chance I'm going to want to take that Adderall the next time."

No regrets

If not for the home run record falling, first with McGwire and then with Bonds hitting 73 home runs in 2001, Arroyo says there would be no drug testing.

"It might be dangerous," he says, "but so is drinking and driving. And how many of us do it at least once a year? Pretty much everybody."

It's also time, Arroyo says, to stop blaming baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, players union executive director Don Fehr or other officials.

"You think this country really cares about what ballplayers put in their bodies?" Arroyo asks. "If we really care, why are we pumping Coca-Cola in every kid's mouth, and McDonald's, and Burger King and KFC? That (stuff) is killing people.

"If you want to say the union continued to knowingly barter in bad faith for us to have steroids and not have a policy, hey, they're not at fault for anything. The union is there to protect our best interest.

"Whether you think it's right or wrong, the union is there to make sure we look good in the media, make as much money as we possibly can and continue our career as long as we possibly can."

Maybe there are players who are ashamed of playing in the steroid era, Arroyo says, but he is proud. He made it. He survived.

"I don't regret a thing," Arroyo says. "Neither should anyone else."

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WASHINGTON NATIONALS: EVALUATING THE FUTURE

If I'm going to post one Washington Nationals related article a year, it might as well be that of one of baseball's best writers in Thomas Boswell. That being said, I think his outlook on the Nationals is far too optimistic. The Nationals are a doomed franchise that plays within the most competitive division in the league. Even if they are able to sign the #1 overall draft pick in Stephen Strasburg, they still have to take care of some serious issues like growing their fan base and not relying only on profit sharing income from around the league. Below is Boswell article in today's Washington Post.



Recent Run Is Hard to Figure

By Thomas Boswell
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

You can't construct a big league team properly unless you can evaluate it correctly: See it clearly, don't kid yourself and face the truth. Few tasks are harder for executives.

If you conclude that your team is abysmal, then that drives every key decision. If you believe you are a losing team, but far from a bad one, then you act very differently.

Either way, you better not delude yourself. If you needlessly blow up a team that's actually close to being decent or, conversely, if you fool yourself into thinking you just need a few good men to be a winner, it can waste several seasons and scores of millions of dollars.

Welcome to Nats Town, where every day this season has been Crazy City. If you can evaluate the Nats accurately, go straight to Cooperstown. Nobody else can.

Three weeks ago, they were 26-66 and aimed at 116 loses. Since then, they had gone 14-6 before last night's loss to Atlanta. They've already caught the '62 Mets in wins (40) with 49 games left to play. If they finish their year a crummy 20-29, they will still surpass their 59 wins in '08.

The Nats aren't just winning. They're more confusing than that. They are clubbing people. Their top five hitters -- Nyjer Morgan, Cristian Guzmán, Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham -- have season stats that duplicate (in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage), respectively, Boston speedster Jacoby Ellsbury and '09 all-stars Miguel Tejada, Evan Longoria, Mark Teixeira and Prince Fielder.

Dunn entered Tuesday with 30 homers, 84 RBI and a .281 average. Teixeira stood at 29-83-.286. Does Teixeira play defense $12 million a year better? Somebody extend Dunn's deal -- fast. The Nats' big offseason theft, however, is the misevaluated Willingham. He crushed the last four minor leagues he played in (better than a combined 1.000 OPS) and should've been in the majors far sooner. With enough plate appearances, he would be third in OPS (1.016), behind only Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer. No, he's not nearly that good. But he's a tough, stand-on-top-of-the-plate, HBP-ignoring Don Baylor type. At 30, he's never had a bad year. The Nats have probably stolen one of baseball's top 50 heart-of-the-order bats.

"After we traded for Josh, [Yankees Manager] Joe Girardi told me, 'You just got my favorite player that I ever managed,' " Nats President Stan Kasten said.

Ever since the Nats came to Washington, they've been looking for a pitching staff. They still haven't found one -- they're last in the NL in ERA this season. The franchise's best arm, Jordan Zimmermann, faces ligament-replacement surgery. Remember John Patterson, Chad Cordero and Shawn Hill, all high-ceiling Nats hurlers, now all gone with blown arms? Is there a pattern here? The Nats have just five days to sign No. 1 overall draft pick Stephen Strasburg; does Zimmermann's injury worry him?

The young starters, such as Ross Detwiler and Collin Balester, make sense if they fall in line behind Strasburg, Zimmermann and John Lannan. But fill a whole rotation with these guys? If anything, their extended auditions this summer have knocked them down a notch. The recently improved bullpen may be temporarily sufficient; that's faint praise.

Yet, somehow, this franchise obsessed with amassing pitching has almost accidentally amassed one of the NL's better hitting lineups. By next season, they may be truly formidable, at bargain prices. Next season, injured catcher Jesús Flores returns, and Elijah Dukes may be the regular right fielder. Both will be 25. Both are under club control for, roughly, eternity. If you combine the 2008 and '09 stats of Flores (12 homers, 74 RBI, .269 in 391 at-bats) and Dukes (86 RBI, 53 extra-base hits in 499 at-bats, .805 OPS), you discover hitters who are clones of Bengie Molina and sluggin'-whiffin' Dan Uggla.

Just as disorienting as a bad team with a good lineup is the way modern stats assert that the '09 Nats are baseball's unluckiest team. Given the number of runs they've scored vs. the number they've allowed, the Nats should have been 48-64 (Bill James's Pythagorean wins) or 47-65 (ESPN's expected W-L record) through Monday. Instead of being a national punch line, they should have a better record than the Padres and Royals, and be indistinguishable from the seldom-mocked Reds and Orioles.

So, which is it? Are the Nats and their 5.00 ERA basically awful but temporarily blessed with a fluke eight-game win streak that will soon be reversed? Or is the team's 23-27 record in its last 50 games, and 14-12 mark under interim manager Jim Riggleman, more predictive? Will the Nats keep buying into Riggleman's refrain of "better defense"? Send your answers to MannyActa@unemployed.com.

One man has made up his mind. Or, rather, he has never changed it. For months, Kasten has muttered: "This is nuts. We're not anywhere near this bad." I've agreed but wisecracked back, "Will reversion-to-the-mean arrive in time to save Manny's job?" This week, Kasten said, "You, me and Pythagoras all knew we were better than that. I just have no idea why it took so long."

Kasten thinks the Nats' recent hot run answers his most basic evaluate-the-Nats question. "We are not 'rebuilding.' There is tangible progress. It's all coming together," he said Tuesday. You can almost hear him shredding his "Village Idiot" business cards.

Morgan is the center fielder and leadoff man "we've been looking for since we came to Washington." Zimmerman, Dunn and Willingham "will hit 90 to 100 homers this season and keep on doing it." Beyond 2010? "Who's to say Dunn leaves?" Kasten said.

From the seats of Kasten and interim general manager Mike Rizzo, the Nats need better defense up the middle, a couple of relievers and probably a veteran (not-elite) free agent starting pitcher.

"But those are things you can get," Kasten said. "We have the 3-4-5 hitters. We have the leadoff man now. We have depth in inventory in young starters. We have Drew Storen [the No. 10 overall draft pick reliever from Stanford]. He walked another man the other night."

That's 37 strikeouts vs. two walks in 23 minor league innings for Storen.

Then there's Strasburg. Twice, Kasten mentioned him casually in listing next year's starting pitchers. Maybe. You don't pick 'em No. 1 overall so you can screw it up. But the Nats view Zimmermann's injury as more evidence not to overspend for any one arm. Negotiations? Most likely, nothing worthy of the term has happened yet. Best bet: Last day, last hour, even last minute before the midnight Monday deadline. Hey, relax.

Every season, baseball tests the loyal fan's sanity, though usually in some new way. You test your powers of observation and ability to reason unemotionally. The game tries to make you crazy. Like Annie Savoy from "Bull Durham" said, "It's a long season and you've got to trust it." In this regard, as in so many others, the Nationals have been a torment to their fans as well as their own executives. They are not a good team. But what are they?

"We're not as bad as we looked earlier. We're not as good as we look right now," Rizzo said. "But without a whole lot of retooling, we can be a viable team next year."

They better be. It's past time. And the Nationals may finally know it. "We need to put a damn team out there next year," said one executive. So, sign Strasburg. Then seeing the future, and evaluating the Nats, will get a lot easier.

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BRYCE HARPER CRACKING UNDER PRESSURE?

Bryce Harper is becoming the biggest hitting prospect of all-time thanks to the 16-year-old's tape-measuring home run blast of 570 ft. What is it like for the prospect and what kind of pressure does he feel? David Picker of ESPN tells us in his article below. Below is also a E:60 segment on Harper.

LAS VEGAS -- Hours after the June 8 issue of "Sports Illustrated" -- the one with Bryce Harper featured on the cover -- hit the newsstands, a producer in Los Angeles picked up a phone and called Harper's father, Ron, in Las Vegas.

"We want your son, Bryce, to be on Jimmy Kimmel Live!" the producer gushed.

Kimmel wanted Bryce Harper and Kobe Bryant to appear on the same night. Bryant, on the verge of winning his fourth title with the Los Angeles Lakers, already had agreed to appear on the show. But the guest Kimmel might have wanted more was Harper, a fellow Las Vegan. And with good reason: Harper is a child prodigy as rare as Mozart or, more to the point, Alex Rodriguez. Only Harper, at 16 years old, is a more promising baseball prospect than A-Rod was at that age.

Ron and Sheri Harper, Bryce's parents, suddenly had a dilemma on their hands. Should Bryce go on Kimmel's show, or should he stick with the original plan, which was to go fishing with some friends? In the ensuing months, the Harpers would face a steady stream of decisions in which they had to balance the demands of Bryce's newfound fame with the need to maintain normalcy. It was no easy task; everyone from small-market radio stations to CNN came calling.

In the case of Kimmel, the funnyman lost to the fish. And at the last minute, Bryce scrapped his fishing trip in favor of -- surprise, surprise -- a baseball tournament.

"Just wanted to play some more baseball," said Harper, a catcher who has blazing bat speed and Herculean power and can throw the ball 96 mph. "I'll go fishing some other time."

But before Harper would cast his next line, he joined a handful of teams for games in Oklahoma, Utah, Arizona, New York, California and North Carolina. He also made the biggest decision of his life. In mid-June, Harper dropped out of Las Vegas High School and enrolled in the College of Southern Nevada, a junior college with an outstanding baseball program. Harper, who hit .626 as a sophomore this past season, said he wasn't being challenged in high school. He doesn't need a high school diploma to enroll at the junior college, but to play on its baseball team in the spring, he must obtain a GED, the equivalent of a high school diploma. He will take the test for his GED after his 17th birthday in October.

The leap from high school to junior college is a means to an end. It will almost certainly make Harper eligible for the 2010 Major League Baseball draft. Had he remained in high school until graduation, he wouldn't have become eligible until 2011. Harper's path to the majors is believed to be unprecedented, according to league officials.

In many ways, Harper is still your average 16-year-old. He's polite, has a good sense of humor and just received a learner's permit to drive. Unless asked a direct question, he generally doesn't talk a whole lot. But at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, he looks more like a man-child.

Many scouts believe Harper will be selected with the first overall pick in the 2010 draft. If the draft were held today, the Washington Nationals (40-72) would win the sweepstakes. Harper, who is already being advised by agent Scott Boras, could command a $10 million signing bonus.

"If the Nationals pass on Harper, it will only be for financial reasons," said Keith Law, the director of baseball scouting for Scouts Inc. Law called Harper "one of the best high school position-player prospects, I would say, in probably the last 10 to 15 years."

Before the Sports Illustrated article, only insiders like Law were touting Harper as that rare player who could reach the majors as a teenager. But June 8 was a watershed moment in the life of Bryce Aron Max Harper. After the cover story, he became a nationally known commodity. Sports fans from Maine to Maui were buzzing about the 502-foot home run he hit as a sophomore during a home run derby for top prospects at Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field in January, the longest in the ballpark's history. Clips of the blast have been viewed on YouTube more than 350,000 times.

"I didn't hit it with the wood, I hit it with aluminum," said Harper, who bats left-handed. "But when I hit the back of the dome, I was like, wow, did that really just happen? I just, like, looked up, like, holy crap."

Five hundred two feet? Not bad. But Harper has done better. During his freshman season, he crushed a ball that cleared the right-field fence at Las Vegas High School, a sidewalk, five lanes of traffic and another sidewalk, landing in a desert on the edge of town. His coaches measured the home run at an astounding 570 feet. And while they might have been generous by several feet, it was a Ruthian moment for sure.

At tournaments in which Harper has played this summer, he has been approached by scores of autograph-seekers. In Oklahoma City, more than 50 people waited in line after a game to meet Harper, many of them carrying glossy photos of him. Some of the autographs have resurfaced on eBay with an asking price of $24.99.

The legend of Bryce Harper has gotten so big that some fans attend his games expecting to see him launch the ball into orbit during every at-bat. When he fails to produce, they snicker. "Over-rated!" shouted one fan in Oklahoma City. While Harper isn't the first teenage athlete to deal with these kinds of expectations, few have gone from nameless to known as quickly as he has. Coping with the pressure can be stressful.

"It was scary at first," Sheri Harper said of the negative attention Bryce has received. "It was difficult to see him out there. You're vulnerable when you're out there. There's a lot of comments online and that sort of thing. I used to read those comments, and then finally I just had to say I can't read them. I can't see the negativity because I feel bad."

Bryce Harper is aware that countless can't-miss prospects have, in fact, missed badly: Todd Van Poppel and Brien Taylor come to mind. He said he copes with the expectations by tuning them out.

"I'm going to play the game like I know how to play it," he said. "If people don't like it, then they can leave. Don't want to watch me? Then don't buy the ticket."

To reduce the stress, Harper's parents have taken precautions. He will continue to live at home during college, and his older brother, Bryan, a pitcher at Cal State Northridge, is transferring to the College of Southern Nevada to watch over him.

"He just needs to be a kid and go have fun," said Ron Harper, a steelworker who used to toss beans at Bryce to improve hand-eye coordination. "We're still the same family; haven't changed. It's just there's more attention now."

Ron has also been the target of criticism this summer -- in print, on television and in cyberspace -- for allowing Bryce to skip his last two years of high school. One newspaper went so far as to call Ron a stage parent. He winces at the characterization. "They don't know our family," he said. "They've never spoken to us. Not fair."

In the coming months, the pressure on Bryce and his family promises to intensify. He will face better competition in college, and major league scouts and general managers will follow his every move. The Harpers realize they can't change the expectations or the criticism. Fans and columnists will always say what they want. So as summer inches closer to fall, the family is solely focused on the moment, enjoying what little time remains before Bryce's freshman year begins.

During a recent day in Las Vegas, Harper slipped into a brown and yellow Southern Nevada uniform for the first time. He then took batting practice from his father, sending one ball after another toward the sky. Two hours later, it was time to go home. But for nearly the rest of the afternoon, despite 110-degree heat, Harper continued to wear his uniform.

"Just feels right," he said.

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AROUND THE LEAGUE: BEST BEER VENDORS

Every stadium has that guy who thinks he'll sell more beer if he can create a unique cold beer "call". They think that they might sell more beer than the standards vendors who simply shout out "Cold Beer", and they might be right. At my ballpark (Citizen's Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia), it's the beer vendor who carries a fake parrot on his shoulder and call out "Cold Beer" as if he is Toucan Sam himself (see below). Below are a collection of some videos displaying some of the league most unique beer vendors.

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JOSH HAMILTON HAS LAPSE IN SOBRIETY

Most of us can't understand the enormous amount of pressure Josh Hamilton feels everyday as he is the poster boy for born-again recovering drug addicts. Somehow I hope he finds the strength to become stronger from his lapse in sobriety that took place this past January.

Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton acknowledged a January bar incident Saturday in which he became drunk and was photographed with several women, not including his wife, in lurid poses in Tempe, Ariz.

Josh Hamilton and David Ortiz each had opportunities to clear their conscience Saturday, but only one -- Hamilton -- sounded like a human being, writes Howard Bryant.

"I'm embarrassed about it. For the Rangers, I'm embarrassed about it. For my wife, my kids," Hamilton said in Anaheim, Calif., before the Rangers played the Los Angeles Angels. "It's one of those things that just reinforces about alcohol.

"Unfortunately, it happened. It just reinforces to me that if I'm out there getting ready for a season and taking my focus off the most important thing in my recovery, which is my relationship with Christ, it's amazing how those things creep back in."

"Honestly, I hate that this happened," he said. "But it is what it is. You deal with it. I realized that, obviously, I'm not perfect, in this ongoing struggle, battle, that is very real. A lot of people don't understand how real it is."

Hamilton, 28, won't face discipline from the Rangers.

“Hamilton I don't feel like I'm a hypocrite. I feel like I'm human. I got away from the one thing that keeps me straightened out and going in the right direction.” -- Josh Hamilton

Hamilton, who had been in Arizona preparing for spring training, told the team of the incident the next day.

"As soon as it happened, I called my support system -- my wife, the Rangers, MLB and told them what had happened," he said Saturday. "I was absolutely open and honest about it."

General manager Jon Daniels spoke with Hamilton in the clubhouse Saturday before they addressed the media, and said later the tone of their conversation had a different kind of emotion than the one in January because of the time Hamilton's had to think about it.

"I'd hesitate to say it's something we're going to put behind us, but we're not going to allow this to become a distraction the rest of the season and we'll try to move on as best we can," Daniels said.

Hamilton, who hadn't had a drink since Oct. 6, 2005, was chosen as the No. 1 draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays as an 18-year-old in 1999.

Out of baseball for three years while serving suspensions and getting clean, Hamilton reached the majors in 2007 with the Cincinnati Reds. He was traded to Texas in December 2007 for pitcher Edinson Volquez.

In a July 2007 interview with ESPN The Magazine, Hamilton described his fight to overcome alcohol and drug abuse, which helped pave his way back to the major leagues.

"How am I here?" Hamilton asked then. "I can only shrug and say, 'It's a God thing.' It's the only possible explanation."

Hamilton said the encouragement and support of his wife helped during his recovery process.

"I'd go five or six months without picking up a ball or swinging a bat," he said in the interview. "By then, I'd been in rehab five or six times -- on my way to eight -- and failed to get clean. I was a bad husband and a bad father, and I had no relationship with God. Baseball wasn't even on my mind."

Hamilton's performance at the 2008 Home Run Derby was one of the compelling storylines of last season, when he crushed the first-round record with 28 home runs, at one point going deep on 13 swings in a row.

"I don't feel like I'm a hypocrite. I feel like I'm human," he said Saturday. "I got away from the one thing that keeps me straightened out and going in the right direction."

When asked whether he will make a formal apology to his teammates in private, Hamilton said: "More than likely. I don't necessarily know when it would be, but I won't let it linger too long. What I do off the field affects my teammates and the name of this organization. They know who I am and what I want to accomplish."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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