- Last year the Chicago White Sox fell behind the Twins down the stretch, so they made two trades, on the same day, for veterans Carl Everett and Roberto Alomar- and subsequently fell even further behind and then lost the AL Central title to Minnesota. Everett and Alomar both left the team as free agents after last season.
Santayana said that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” White Sox general manager Ken Williams must not be much of a Santayana fan. Two weeks ago he traded more prospects to Montreal for Everett, and then yesterday he got Alomar back from Arizona for a player to be named later. I’m not so sure how it helps the six-games-back White Sox to have a crazy person like Everett or an over-the-hill Alomar (who is a future Hall of Famer, and always will be). But they wanted to repeat the pattern of trading prospects for the same two guys every year for the rest of the decade, I can’t say I’d object.
- As for the Twins, despite yesterday’s loss to Anaheim they continue to kick ass- the Justin Morneau era is off to a great start, as “Minny” has won eight of ten, and they now have the second-best record in the AL.
- The team with the best record in the league is, of course, the Yankees, and I went up to the Bronx yesterday afternoon to see them beat the A’s, 5-1.
Unfortunately, the “Moneyball” philosophy wasn’t working so well for Oakland, as they were scoreless for eight innings against Kevin Brown before Torre foolishly brought in Paul Quantrill to pitch the ninth. Still, a fun afternoon at the ballpark as expected rain never materialized; the upper deck behind home plate remains my favorite place to sit at any baseball game. And when the New Yankee Stadium is built, I’ll likely feel the same way.
- I got into a long discussion with my friends at the game yesterday about baseball uniforms. We noticed, first of all, that visible stirrup socks seem to have bitten the dust, and also that teams in the ‘80s who wore blue road uniforms (Twins, Royals, Blue Jays, etc.) almost all played their home games on artificial turf. I can’t seem to think of a correlation, other than the younger, less tradition-bound franchises were more likely embrace the stupid, short-lasting fads of the time, such as the blue unis, turf, round cookie-cutter stadiums, and mascots. For more, check out Uni Watch, the column by fashion critic Paul Lukas that used to appear in the Village Voice but has now migrated to ESPN.com.
- And finally, Gammons yesterday mentioned a new San Francisco Giants relief pitcher of whom I hadn’t yet heard: Merkin Valdez. Yes, his first name is Merkin. A Merkin and a Putz, both in one season.