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Bonds Issues

Barry Bonds wasn't in the lineup against the Mets last night as the Giants opened a set in the nation's biggest market. He did pinch-hit and drew a walk amid a sea of boos but couldn't move any closer to the record-breaking 756th home run that will surely come later this summer. His visit to New York has coincided with an Associated Press article that reports Bonds is unlikely to donate any souvenirs of his run at the record to the Hall of Fame.

"I'm not worried about the Hall," the San Francisco slugger said during a recent homer drought. "I take care of me."

Bud Selig has no plans to celebrate Bonds' record-breaking home run and baseball is doing everything it can to downplay the story as the historic longball nears. They can't have it both ways. If you treat something as a signifigant moment in the lore of the game then you have to do it all the way down the line. Baseball has treated Bonds like a pariah for too long and too openly for them to expect any gifts in return.

The media is just as two-faced about Bonds, of course. Mike Vaccaro has ridden Bonds' enhanced shoulders to columns the last two days and has spent time on both sides of the fence. Yesterday he wrote that it was hypocritical of Met fans to boo Bonds when Guillermo Mota was returning to the team after serving a 50-game suspension. He was right, too. Bonds has never failed the test Mota did which means he's still just a suspected cheater. Mota's been proven guilty and that's an important line in our society. But today he writes about the fun night and Shea and throws in a tidbit about Bonds' pinch-hit appearance.

NIGHTS like these are the antidote, the serum for the sickness that Barry Bonds carries with him from ballpark to ballpark, from town to town. They are splendid reminders that the celebration is still more pleasing, still far more satisfying, than the castigation.

They got to boo Barry Bonds, always a good time.

Bonds wasn't a factor in last night's game but Vaccaro knows an easy target when he sees one. I just wish he'd remembered his advice from the night before. Still he's not as bad as the folks over at ESPN, particularly Len Pasquerelli. The guys at 100% Injury Rate point out that when asked what NFLer he'd choose to start a team ol' Len selects Shawne Merriman of the Chargers. Nearly every day somewhere on the galaxy of media outlets controlled by the Worldwide Leader there's a mention of the "steroid era" in baseball or a poll about the way people feel about Bonds. When it comes to football, though, no such worries.

The Yankees Keep Looking For Answers

Dave Stewart is slamming Roger Clemens and the Yankees again for their deal to bring the Rocket back two months into the season. He killed the deal when it was first announced and is back again to throw some dirt on the rapidly filling in Yankee grave.

The Yankees are tied for last in the AL East with the Devil Rays right now and unless something catastrophic happens, the Red Sox are going to win that division. New York will have a winning season, but before the decision makers in that organization paid 28 million dollars for Roger they should have asked themselves three questions... 1) "Can we play well enough this season to realistically compete for an AL Wild Card spot?"... 2) "Can a guy going on 45 years old, entering our starting rotation 2 months into the season, pull us out of an extreme situation?"... 3) "Is it worth $28 million to sign a guy like Clemens who isn't a true team player and does whatever he wants?" The truthful answer to all three questions would have been... "Hell no".

The Big Story: All Even In The East

A daily look at the big story of the day in sports as seen through the eyes of writers and bloggers all across the internet.

LeBron James caught a lot of flak for his fourth quarter play in the two Cavalier losses that opened their series in Detroit. He's not getting any after evening the series with 13 points, five rebounds and three assists in the final 12 minutes of last night's 91-87 win at the Q. His play over the last two games may be the one thing that will get the NBA Finals more than just hardcore basketball viewers. If James can lead his club past the Pistons it will become a hot story nationwide. Maligned all season for not lifting his own game and his team beyond where he was last season, James is doing everything he can to make all the detractors eat their words. You can be sure execs from the NBA and ABC are hoping he makes it happen because the prospect of the league's best team trying to win a fourth title against the league's best player in his first Finals is a story that will sell far better nationwide than the Pistons.

He'll still need to find a way to win a game in Detroit to complete that task and that's not going to be easy. It was an odd game last night. Several Pistons played well - Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton and Antonio McDyess - so if you're looking for goat horns you have to look closely at two of the team's other stars. Chauncey Billups played better than he had in the first three games. With Larry Hughes out of the lineup for most of the game, Daniel Gibson did everything he could and played a great offensive game. Billups appears to be too big and strong for the rookie and that matchup is one Detroit is sure to exploit for the rest of the series but Chauncey still turned the ball over too much and took too many threes. Hughes was totally ineffective in his 16 minutes and clearly is hurting you have to think Gibson will be an attack point for the Pistons. But does Billups have enough in the tank to make it happen?

Rasheed Wallace seemed to lose his cool after a hard foul from Drew Gooden early in the fourth. He started barking at teammates, throwing his headband after a defensive breakdown and picking up a technical, and hoisted some bad shots down the stretch that helped seal the Pistons fate. His volitility hasn't been a secret for a very long time but Wallace needs to keep his head about him when Gooden tries to get under his skin in the next couple of games. The Pistons can't win without an overwhelming team effort and last night two of their key players let them down.

Giving Away The Store, Part II

The Yankees gave away a game in Toronto last night. The other New York team was the beneficiary of another gift at Shea Stadium. Armando Benitez balked twice in the bottom of the 12th after the Giants had taken a lead allowing Jose Reyes to tie the score. Reyes was dancing down the third base line to set up the second one and a peeved Benitez then served up a home run to Carlos Delgado and, for once, a blown save by the closer actually sent Flushing fans home with a smile and a 5-4 win. It was Delgado's second blast of the game, his first coming off of esteemed youngster Tim Linecum who battled Oliver Perez to a 3-3 standstill in regulation. Delgado's questionable decision on a 12th inning grounder, however, allowed Omar Vizquel to score the go-ahead run but, thanks to the always charitable Benitez, he made up for his miscue.

• The Braves posted three runs on Ben Sheets in the first inning but lost John Smoltz in the fourth and the game 5-4 thanks to a throwing error by catcher Brian McCann. McCann tried to nab Ryan Braun stealing second on a strikeout but the bail sailed into center and J.J. Hardy trotted home with the key fifth run during a sixth inning rally. Smoltz left the game after slipping on the mound during his fourth inning warmup, just after he reaggravated a finger injury in his at-bat in the top of the frame. It's a bitch getting old.
• Josh Beckett returned from the disabled list and remained perfect on the season, moving to 8-0 in a 4-2 win over the Wigwammers. Kevin Youkilis followed his inside the park homer of Monday with a more traditional one on Tuesday and had his ninth straight multiple hit game in the middle of the Boston lineup. Beckett struck out seven and showed no ill effects of the finger issues that have bedeviled him throughout his career.
• The Yankees may need to borrow a page from the Texas Ranger book on how to snap a losing streak. The team screened the always inspirational Rocky IV before ending their six-game skid with a 4-0 win against the Athletics. "Hey, it’s a legendary movie," said Gerald Laird. "It’s the best Rocky film out. It’s just full of inspiring moments. It lifts you up. I may just watch it again tomorrow."
• The Diamondbacks pounded out 17 hits, four by Orlando Hudson, and cruised past the Phillies 11-5. The O-Dog drove in four runs as well to lead his mates to a sixth straight victory. Not having as good a day was the rookie third baseman Mark Reynolds. He collided with a pitcher while fielding a bunt, one day after both fouling a ball off and running a tarp into his leg, and had to leave the game for X-rays. Ryan Howard, the Phillie first baseman just back from the injured list, also left the game early after grabbing his previously injured leg but in the lone good news for the Phils it was said to be just a cramp.

(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Giving Away The Store

The Yankees aren't acting like a bunch of highly paid professional ballplayers. They had a pre-game team meeting on Monday to try and stem their slide to the cellar and responded by getting pasted 7-2. On Tuesday they tried to revert back to Spring Training with some afternoon infield practice which worked so well that both Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter made throwing errors and A-Rod fielded a bunt that would have gone foul to advance the winning runner. In a 3-2 loss that kind of mental lapse is unforgivable (perhaps A-Rod's mind was on the busty blonde the Post snapped him heading up to his hotel room with on Sunday night) as is the one that allowed Aaron Hill to steal home in the seventh.

The rarely seen straight steal of home came with Andy Pettitte, who pitched very well, in the stretch and Hill on third after A-Rod's throw pulled Josh Phelps off first in an attempt at an inning-ending double play. Pettitte didn't check on Hill from the mound and didn't pick up on what Phelps or others were yelling and still seemed confused about just what went down in his comments to reporters after the game. Not sure if he'd balked or what, Pettitte hesitated and then threw high to Jorge Posada as Hill slid in with the run. The Yankees tied the score off two Blue Jay errors in the top of the eighth but A-Rod's adventures in the bottom of the frame wasted Pettitte's effort.

The fifth straight Yankee loss was a new lesson in how to give a game away. Toronto scored three runs without a hit driving in any of them while the Yankees again failed to solve an unheralded pitcher. Shawn Marcum played Sandy Koufax to Dustin McGowan's Don Drysdale of Monday night and the Yankees were 1-for-17 with runners on base. Throwing errors, poor defensive decisions, bad at-bats and a complete mental breakdown with a runner on third are a particularly brutal combination of ingredients to put together in a losing stew. Each of them are also hallmarks of a team that has their heads up their asses and not on the task at hand. I don't know what Torre has planned before tonight's game, maybe pony rides or a make your own sundae bar but the most damning thing of all is the way his team doesn't seem to care a whit about changing their ways.

The Natives Are Getting Restless

When I flipped on the Spurs-Jazz game last night after returning home from a long day on planes and in airports my wife expressed some surprise that basketball was still going on. She's not the biggest basketball fan in the world, although she's a regular visitor to the Garden to take in a night with the Knicks. Hmm, perhaps I'm not doing the best job I can of selling the game. At any rate, she likes the game but like many more casual fans of roundball was showing some dismay at the drawn-out playoff schedule.

She's not the only one. Phil Muschnick hit on the same topic in his column for today's Post.

To think that once upon a time, before the playoffs were stretched into late June, there was a rhythm, a beat, a keep-it-coming flow to the NBA playoffs. They were all elements that conspired to create a reason to watch and to keep watching.

Once you start sticking three days between games and try to post-up summer, you begin to challenge people to remain interested. And the NBA, in debt service to its partner national TV networks, has institutionalized that challenge.

Odd, while the NBA at-game experience is predominated by sounds and scenes that are designed to cater to fans with short attention spans, there will be three days between Game 1 and Game 2 of this year’s NBA finals. Outside of the fans in the two remaining teams’ cities, three days is exactly the right amount of time to lose the attention of nearly everyone else.

A San Antonio-Detroit final is limited enough in terms of mass interest but the way the NBA sets up the schedule is going to suck that interest dry to the bone. The weather's nice, school's out and people have more to do than wait for days to watch a matchup between two teams who play a style better suited to the cold winter months with nothing better to do. The NBA has taken hits this season on a variety of fronts but this is the most damning thing. You're just asking too much of your fanbase to keep their attention front and center for two months of playoff action when the product comes in slow spurts rather than a steady flow. You need to give people a reason to tune in and there just isn't a very compelling reason to in the NBA right now.

The Big Story: What's Eating Kobe Bryant

A daily look at the big story of the day in sports as seen through the eyes of writers and bloggers all across the internet.

With the action on the court in the NBA Playoffs occuring in drips and drabs (more on that in a bit), fitting for a season widely reviled as one of the worst in history, most basketball fans attention has already turned to the offseason. Last week's draft lottery set the stage, watch out for the Blazers in about '09, and potential changes of address for names like Jermaine O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett and Rashard Lewis makes for a lot of interesting discussion. Should we be throwing Kobe Bryant onto the heap?

ESPN's Ric Bucher reported over the weekend that the Laker guard said he wants the team to bring Jerry West back into the fold and if they don't he'd be willing to waive his no-trade clause to facillitate a move away from L.A. Kobe denied saying those things, explaining that he was making a suggestion to help improve a club he does not, in fact, want to leave.

"I would love for him to be a part of this," Bryant said. "But it's not something where I demand he comes here. All I can do is offer my thoughts. I love being a Laker. I want to retire a Laker. I want to fix this thing, or at least help any way I can."

West is leaving Memphis on June 30 but reiterated that he has no plans to work for anyone next season. And if he were to go back on that pledge it's unlikely he'd do it in Los Angeles where he'd be undermining his protege Mitch Kupchak. Peter Vecsey agrees with that analysis while reporting that Bryant has said he would agree to a trade to one team, a team Vecsey believes is the Chicago Bulls.

Vecsey floats the idea of a Shaq-Kobe reunion at the Staples but the truth is that any move made to bring in a better supporting cast will cost the Lakers Lamar Odom and/or Andrew Bynum. That makes the core weaker unless they bring in a Garnett and even then the team will be thinner than the other Western contenders. Trading Kobe, however, could help stock the pantry for a brighter future. Take those Bulls, for instance. Tyrus Thomas and the #9 pick would be a good starting point for any trade and with the Pacers, Grizzlies and Timberwolves, among others, possibly looking to make moves with high-profile players a three-team deal could also work. There are other options out there and if Kobe's ready to orchestrate his departure from Los Angeles there may not be a better off-season to do it than this one. If he can't, well, Bryant made his bed when he pulled the strings to get rid of Shaq three years ago and he will continue to suffer for his hubris.

Run Youk Run

They say the triple is the most exciting play in baseball, something I'm inclined to agree with, but there's something pretty thrilling about the inside-the-park home run as well. It's less about the skill of the batter and more about the compound pratfalls that befuddle the defense for one to happen. A ball hit in the right spot, bouncing into oblivion because of odd ballpark dimensions and overzealous fielders make for plays that go so perfectly wrong that they're almost beautiful. Kevin Youklis hit such a ball into the Bermuda Triangle of Fenway Park's centerfield last night and by the time Trot Nixon found the ball the not-speedy first baseman was already crossing the plate and headed for the oxygen tanks in the Red Sox dugout. Curt Schilling struck out 10 to make it stand up and the Sox topped the Tribe 5-3.

• Ron Washington was part of the Oakland A's resurgence in the 90's as a coach and the Texas Rangers hired him to be their manager to help spur one in Arlington. That's not going so well after the A's sent the Rangers to a sixth straight loss 5-3 in Washington's return to Oakland. Eric Chavez hit a three-run homer off Robinson Tejeda, the Texas starter who Washington says is running out of chances. "Tejeda has to be better than he was tonight and the last time, or pretty soon the scholarships will end," Washington said. "It's time to start growing up and throw the ball in the strike zone. He showed me no guts."
• You go away for 10 days and you miss some things but I really wish that there was some kind of notification service that got word to Europe that a player named Norris Hopper was playing for the Cincinnati Reds. Perhaps it was his splendidly unlikely name that captivated Ryan Freel and his imaginary friend yesterday because the centerfielder collided with Hopper while pursuing a ball, which he caught, in the Reds' 4-0 win against Pittsburgh. Freel was stretchered from the field, although he was coherent and moving his extremities, and missed Kyle Lohse's first win in eight starts. No word was available on Farney's health.
• A.J. Pierzynski's former Minnesota teammates got upset with him after it looked like he spiked Justin Morneau while running out a double play to end Chicago's half of the sixth. Ron Gardenhire argued with all four umpires after they warned the Minny dugout to stop riding Pierzynski. The crowd may not have known what was going on but it seemed to inspire the Twins nonetheless. Down 4-3 entering the bottom of the frame the emotionally agitated Twins exploded for five runs en route to a 10-4 win. Those runs bailed out a shaky Johan Santana who pitched through the eighth for his sixth win.
• Andruw Jones hit his 350th career home run and Chuck James struck out eight in six innings as the Braves beat their Milwaukee replacements 2-1. The Brewers, darlings of baseball a few weeks ago have come spiraling back to earth. Monday's loss was their sixth straight and 13th in 17 games, a bad stretch but not bad enough to knock them out of first place in the NL Central.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Winning Ugly

Who would have thought that after coming home from Europe I'd run into a sporting event overflowing with flopping Argentines and a crowd nearly rioting in response. If it had been the soccer Champions League final match that took place while I was in Amsterdam last week there wouldn't have been any surprise but for it to happen in Salt Lake City during Game Four of the Western Conference Finals was a bit of a shock.

Yet that's just what happened as Manu Ginobili finished drive after drive by flinging his arms in the air or his body to the floor, drawing call after call in the Spurs 91-79 win. It was the first loss for the Jazz at home in these playoffs and will likely be the last game they play in white jerseys since they haven't won a game in San Antonio since 1999. Ginobili's 11 fourth-quarter points from the free throw line led to outbursts that got Jerry Sloan ejected and an uncharacteristic attack byDerek Fisher which sent him to the same fate. The Utah crowd, frustrated and realistic about their team's chances, responded by throwing stuff at the court. They even hit Bruce Bowen with something while Ginobili responded by throwing his hands up and pleading ignorance to his role in all the unseemliness.

Even if Ginobili is a flopper, the Jazz have to look at themselves in the mirror for why they failed to protect their home court. Manu got to flip and flop because he kept taking the ball at the Jazz and receiving harsh rebukes every time. It's all well and good that he earned a call or two more than he should have but this was hardly a case of phantom calls piling up. While Ginobili was assaulting the rim and forcing the issue the Jazz kept settling for jump shots and relying almost solely on an ailing Deron Williams for offense. They made more field goals than San Antonio but their 20 free throw attempts were 10 fewer than the ones made by the Spurs. Those free throws are a byproduct of aggressiveness, not just because they exaggerate the hits they took from Utah defenders, and some of Sloan's anger should be directed at his team's offensive passivity. The Spurs won by playing ugly, something Sloan excelled at as a player, and no matter how terrible it is to watch the only way for the Jazz to extend this series is to get just as ugly and assert themselves the same way Ginobili did last night.

(AP Photo/Steve C. Wilson)

Welcome Home

After a couple of delayed flights, a connection in London that was tighter than a virgin gymnast and two bags jettisoned somewhere along the way I stumbled home three hours later than planned but just in time to catch some of the Yankees game north of the border. I was aware that they hadn't been doing much winning in the week I spent overseas but it had been quite a while since I'd seen any baseball and was hopeful that my return would coincide with their return to the winning ranks. No such luck. Silent bats greeted me when I turned the game on in eighth as the Blue Jays were well on their way to a 7-2 victory. A pretty sad welcome home party, guys.

Taking a look at the postseason odds report on Baseball Prospectus, the panic button that has already been mashed into the console a dozen times this season may need to go into overtime. Roger Clemens, sterling in Scranton last night, will be here this weekend to firm up the rotation but the questions now focus on how to fix a lineup that's gone from thunder to pop gun this month. Is it still a matter of sittting on their hand and waiting for players who have always hit to start hitting or do you try to make a move even if it is one from a diminished hand. Clearly they can't go on with the one day in/one day out lineup shuffle being done by Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi, they need to either go on the DL or stop talking about it because the story's gotten old.

Steve Lombardi at WasWatching wonders if the way to light a fire under this team isn't to let the manager go. I'm in agreement with his belief that the team has no signs of life, for the second time this season they are in the midst of a long losing streak with little reason to think they can snap right out of it to play .650 baseball and I'm in agreement that Joe Torre shoulders a large portion of that blame. I also agree that things couldn't get any worse if they brought in a new skipper but I'm doubtful of both the chance this particular move happens and the likelihood that the coddled, hands off Yankees would respond to a different voice. Especially with Clemens coming back and having made such a fuss about how he's doing this, in part, for Torre you have a team full of guys who don't want the kick in the ass that a new foot in Torre's shoes might try to provide.