No, I`m not suddenly going to pretend I know what`s going on in the
National League, other than the fact the Phillies got a solid hitter (Jeremy Giambi) for practically nothing. However, Roger
Angell had his eloquent early season musings on baseball in last week`s The New Yorker. Most of his article had a New
York Mets connection. Ironically, the Mets` high-priced offense has been feeble, their stellar infield defense has been blunderous,
and their rag-tag pitching staff has been gloriously stingy. The funniest anecdote was about Ray Ordóñez the perennial gold
glove shortstop who made only four errors in the entire 1999 season. Angel revealed this slice of locker room life after Ordóñez
committed three errors in one game.
Ordóñez had slammed his mitt - a black Wilson A2000 model - against the
clubhouse wall after the game, and then snipped the laces out of it with a pair of trainer`s scissors, making sure it would
never clank again. This was more revenge than mojo, since he shifts to a fresh mitt every couple of weeks.
It`s no wonder I don`t
write for The New Yorker, because I would bore everybody by noting that their clean-up hitter (Mo Vaughn) and their
manager (Bobby Valentine) come from the two cities (Norwalk and Stamford, Connecticut), which border my hometown on either
side. I have been raising my family in Toronto, so I always help coach my kids` baseball teams and let other dads and moms
teach my kids hockey.
While Barry Bonds rises
up the all-time homerun list, Angell makes note of a more interesting statistic. As of this writing Bonds is 14 stolen bases
away from the 500-500 club (stolen bases and homeruns). He is already the only member of the 400-400 club. There are only
three other members of the 300-300 club. One of them is his dad (Bobby Bonds), another is his god-dad (Willie Mays), and the
other is Andre Dawson.
About Scoresheetwiz:
I'm not getting enough readers.
What am I doing wrong?
What do you want me
to write about?
More Ideas for newsletters?
Player Ratings?
Historical Comparisons?
Interesting lists?
More of the same?
Some other idaeas? (I`ll have one article on trading tips.)
Let me hear your ideas, please: jcarter@rogers.com
