Well just because the commissioner of baseball chooses to turn a
blind eye to flaws in his drug policy doesn’t mean you, the fan, have
to. We at Hot Stove Philly have started an online petition in support of J.C. Romero and his innocence.

While he did test positive, Romero took all the necessary
precautions to ensure this would not happen, and if Commissioner Bud
Selig chooses not to do anything it doesn’t mean fans of Major League
Baseball can’t show their displeasure.

I use the phrase “baseball fans,” not Phillies fans, for a reason.
This could happen to any player taking supplements they buy at a
vitamin store. Fans of other teams may laugh that Romero was suspended
and they might even label him a cheater, but I’m sure if it was a
player on their favorite team and the circumstances were the same,
they’d feel the same way.

In fact, it did happen to another player, the Yankees’ Sergio Mitre, who also unknowingly took a banned substance contained in an over-the-counter supplement.

“We strongly disagree with the Commissioner’s discipline and with the
arbitrator’s decision,” said the Major League Baseball Players
Association in a statement.

“Mitre and Romero both legally purchased nutritional supplements from
national chain stores in the United States. Nothing on the labels of
those supplements indicated that they contained a trace amount of a
substance prohibited under Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug
Prevention and Treatment Program. Neither player intentionally ingested
this prohibited substance, but the arbitrator nevertheless found,
wrongly in our view, that the players’ conduct violated the program’s
‘no fault or negligence’ standard.

“The union respects the arbitration process and treats the decision as
final. In our view, though, the resulting discipline imposed upon Mitre
and Romero is unfair.”

So click on the link below and let Bud Selig know what might be
acceptable to him isn’t acceptable to the fans of Major League Baseball!

http://www.petitiononline.com/romero16/petition.html

http://www.hotstovephilly.com/2009/01/06/reinstate-romero/

Father’s Day is also a special day for the Phillies, as 34 years ago today Jim Bunning threw the Phillies’ only Perfect Game. To make the game even more special, it was against the New York Mets.
Bunning became the only player (at the time) to ever throw a no-hitter
in both leagues, and the first pitcher to throw a perfect game in the
National League in 84 years.

Bunning was pitching in his first season with the Phillies after being traded during the off season from the Detroit Tigers.
The previous year Bunning went a disappointing 12-13 after several very
successful years, including 20 wins in 1957. The following year Bunning
threw his first no-hitter, this one against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. In 1958 and 1959 he led the American League with 201 strikeouts each year. (Kind of like Adam Dunn hitting exactly 40 home runs in the last three consecutive seasons.)

Behind the hard hitting bats of Dick Allen and Johnny Callison,
some solid defense that the current Phils could take a page from, and a
6-2 record by Bunning, the Phillies found themselves in first place by
June 20th. Despite the dark ending that would eventually befall the
Phillies (who would only be relieved of the terrible burden of the
greatest collapse in baseball history last year by those same Mets),
the Phillies were hot coming into a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon.

Bunning came into the game in the bottom of the first already with a 1-0 lead, and never to look back. Leadoff man Johnny Briggs started the game off with a walk, went to second on a sac bunt by John Herrnstein, and scored on a single by, who else, Dick Allen.

As is needed for any no-hitter or perfect game, Bunning was the
recipient of some good breaks that day. Some of those breaks came early
on, as he described to author James Buckley Jr. for his book entitled Perfect: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Sixteen Perfect Games.

It was one of those wonderful starts to a game. I got away with some pitches early. Against Jim Hickman leading off the game for the Mets, I got away with some pitches that should have been hit. But he fouled them back.

The hard-throwing, 6’3″ Bunning was also very intimidating. According to Hickman,

He threw me too good pitches in the first, good
pitches to hit and I fouled them off. Then he stood out there on the
mound and laughed at me! After that, I didn’t see a good pitch to hit
all day.

Bunning had all his pitches working that day, his slider, his curve,
and most importantly, his fast ball. This had the Mets flailing around
after pitches early, and often. The Mets didn’t get good wood on the
ball until the fifth inning. Bunning tried to slip one right by Mets’
catcher Jesse Gonder with the only change up he would throw all
game, which Gonder got around on and drove hard between first and
second. Phillies’ second baseman Tony Taylor dove to his left
and managed to knock the grounder down with his glove. However, the
ball bounced away several feet. Taylor jumped up, grabbed the ball, and
threw a bullet to first to just barely get Gonder.

‘Taylor made an unbelievable play,’ Bunning
remembers. ‘If it weren’t Jesse Gonder running, he wouldn’t have thrown
him out. When he did that, I thought I might have something special
going. But looking back, man, that was the play.’

Buckley makes a great point in his book about how the little things end up making all the difference in a game like this.

As happened in several perfect games, a play in the
early or middle innings that would have barely been noticed in a 6-3
game suddenly loomed large in the postgame discussion…So many things
had to go just right on that play, any one of which would have changed
the outcome, ended the perfect game, and sent the play and the game
into baseball obscurity.

After that play, Bunning realized that he was flirting with baseball
history, and started moving his infielders around. Then in the sixth
inning, Bunning helped his own cause with a two run double to
left-center. According to Buckley, the cat was out of the bag and
Bunning went against every baseball superstition in the book and began
chatting openly with his teammates about what was going on.

‘I really didn’t care about the superstitions,’ he
says. ‘I had been through one where I almost had total collapse [the
Boston no-hitter]. So it was important to me to relax. Having gone
through that game in Fenway really helped me in the perfect game. No
one said anything then, and when it was over with, it was total bedlam.
I didn’t want that to happen again, so I tried to talk about it during
the game in Shea.’

He was jabbering at his teammates after each half inning, counting
down the outs. “Nine more, six more…” Despite tempting fate, Bunning
shut down the Mets in perfect fashion, striking out six of the final
nine hitters.

As happens during most such games, the Mets faithful switched sides that day and began rooting for Bunning to pull it out.

It was unusual to have everyone there rooting for me. It
was kind of strange. everyone stood up. You don’t expect the whole
crowd to stand up during a game. But they all stood up.

The only thing left for Bunning to do was close it out. Charlie Smith led off the bottom of ninth with a weak pop up to Rojas in foul territory. Next up was pinch hitter George Altman. Altman fouled off the first two pitches and then Bunning threw him a slow, outside pitch that Altman swung on and missed.

With one out to go, Bunning needed a little pick me up to calm his
nerves. Pausing behind the mound to wipe off his sweat drenched face as
he prepared to face pinch hitter John Stephenson, Bunning motioned for Gus Triandos to come out. Triandos had been traded with Bunning from Detroit to Philadelphia that past off-season.

‘He wanted me to tell him a joke,’ Triandos said.
‘But I couldn’t think of anything! I just told him to go get this guy,
and that was it.’

Not exactly a Vince Lombardi speech, but it did the trick.
“‘I just wanted to relax a bit,’ Bunning remembers.” Stephenson was
batting a paltry .074 on the season and Bunning knew if he threw three
curveballs over the plate he would get him. It was just a matter of
hitting the spots.

Bunning started him out with two quick strikes, but then followed that up with two pitches out of the strike zone.

Then came curveball-to-a-spot number three. It broke like a jet fighter going into a dive, and Stephenson swung over the top.

The crowd at Shea Stadium erupted, understanding that even though
their Mets just got shut down in a way only 16 other teams in history
would go down, they were seeing a rare piece of history. Even though
four other players would go on to do it, Bunning was then the first
player to ever throw a no-hitter in both leagues. Due to the rule
changes over the years, it can be said that Bunning was the first
pitcher to throw a perfect game in the NL.

The Phillies ran onto the field and surrounded
Bunning, thr proud father who had just given birth to a perfect,
two-hour, 19-minute, 90-pitch baby.

Bunning was, to be sure, overwhelmed by all the media attention he received as a result of the perfect game.

‘It was obviously the best game as far as results
that I’ve ever pitched. I’ve had better stuff, though, just not as good
control. I mean, to pitch a no-hitter against the Red Sox, with the
hitter they had, was a tougher feat, I think, than the Mets. I’m not
knocking the Mets, but the Red Sox had Ted Williams and Jackie Jensen and Pete Runnels and a lot of other good hitters.’

Bunning would go on to win 19 games that year for the Phillies,
despite always having mixed feelings about 1964. He would continue to
pitch well for Philadelphia, with two more 19-win seasons followed by a
17-win season in 1967.

Jim Bunning retired in 1971 with 224 career wins, and at the time
was third all time in strikeouts. He would be elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1996.

Bunning, now a father of nine, honored the love and hard work and
dedication of fathers everywhere, particularly fathers who are long
suffering Phillies fans like my dad, by making history on Dad’s Day.

As Bunning says in the Foreword of Perfect,

After the game was over and the initial thrill had
worn off a bit, I realized that the best part about a perfect game is
that your teammates are perfect with you…That made it a little more
special because on that one summer day in 1964, our team was flawless -
in pitching, fielding, and communicating on the field – and the thrill
that comes with working so closely, so perfectly, with your teammates
is beyond words for me.

I think that is very fitting for Father’s Day, as no one can go
through life and be successful without the help of those around him (or
her), and that often starts with our parents. As far as baseball goes,
there is no greater honor or tribute to be had on that late Sunday in
June. Here’s to you Dad(s).

The
baseball world has been calling for Selig to institute instant replay
over the past couple years, with the calls turning into shouts this
season after a rash of blown home run calls, including one during a Phillies game that cost the Phils a win.

The idea is that by instituting instant replay for home runs by
August 1st, it would give the league enough time to fine tune it in
time for the playoffs. According to Walker,

MLB and the umpires’ union need to reach agreement
before replay can be tried, and the sides have started talking.
Previously, it was thought replay would get its first look in the
Arizona Fall League and then the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

In addition to fans and commentators, players have been lobbying for
instant replay, as they stand to gain more out of its implementation
than anyone.

“The game needs it and I think it does need it soon,” said former Phillie’s pitcher Jon Lieber. “With technology the way it is today, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be a part of the game.”

That being said, nothing has been finalized as of yet. There is
still time for Selig to step in and squash it, as this is something he
has been opposed to from the get go.

“It’s all still premature,” MLB spokesman Rich Levin said Friday. “A final decision has not been made.”

Selig is not the only one against instant replay. “I don’t think it’s needed at all, to be honest,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella
said Friday. “How many times do you see players make errors? Baseball
has talked about speeding up the game. It’s all you hear. All of a
sudden, they want instant replay? You’re going to have slower games and
more restless people in the stands.”

Despite the reservations of Piniella and others, baseball appears to
be headed down the path of so many other sports before it. The NBA, NHL, NFL, NCAA and major tennis tournaments all utilize some type of replay system.

According to Walker,

A person briefed on MLB’s preliminary plan told The
Associated Press that baseball wants to create an NHL-style “war room”
in New York where video feeds would be reviewed by a supervisor. The
umpire crew chief wouldn’t see replays– instead, the supervisor would
describe what he saw, but leave it up to the umpire to make the final
call.

It was not certain whether managers, umpires or the video supervisor
would ask for a replay, said the person, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because negotiations were in progress.

The umpires have indicated that they would be open to the idea of
instant replay, after blown calls last month on home runs by the Mets’ Carlos Delgado and the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez.

As with many new ideas in baseball, the concept of instant replay
has spurred intense debate amongst its fans and insiders. Many baseball
purists argue that blown calls are simply part of the game. They are
worried that this could lead us down the road to replay for balls and
strikes, which I personally find ridiculous.

Balls and strikes are an understood part of the game and game
strategy. The strike zone changes with each umpire and this is taken
into consideration by both teams. If that day’s ump is calling a very
narrow strike zone, then the pitchers know they have to pitch tighter
over the plate. It’s part of the strategy and, for the most part,
applies equally to both teams.

A home run being called a foul ball is not fair to both teams, is
not part of any team strategy, and was never intended to be part of the
game. A blown home run call can often times change the outcome of a
game, which can often times be all the difference between a team making
the playoffs or not. The past few years, last year notwithstanding, the
Phillies missed the playoffs by just one or two games. The blown home
run call that ultimately cost the Phillies the game could end up
costing them the playoffs if the season reflects the tightness of the
NL East of the past several years.

In my opinion, instant replay is a no brainer and purists who say it
will hurt the game are fools. This is not interleague play or the
stupid all star game. This is an opportunity to ensure the purity of
the game by making sure that the right call is made. Instant replay
can’t always 100% determine if a runner was tagged out at the plate, or
whether a called strike was accurate. But it can determine whether
Delgado hit a home run or not, and shouldn’t we all be in favor of
maintaining the integrity of the game?

I say, it’s about damn time Selig came around and removed his head
from his rear. After all, Selig is the one who considers interleague
play to be a significant part of his legacy, and that’s about as
anti-purist as you’ll get.

For starters, who would have guessed that the Baltimore Orioles would be atop the American League East? Even better, who would have guessed that Tampa Bay would be tied with them? The O’s and the Rays are tied with Boston for the top seed in the East, one and a half games up on the Yankees. The Toronto Blue Jays
are sitting in the cellar, just three and a half games ack out of
firstr. Tampa has won six in a row and that is with staff ace Scott Kazmir on the disabled list. Filling the void is last year’s surprise James Shields
with three wins and a 2.54 ERA, including a complete game shutout. They
also have one of the youngest and most talented lineups in the game,
led by B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena. Nonetheless, most of us expected the Rays to be better than usual.

Not so with Baltimore. After the loss of Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard, everyone expected the O’s to be one of the worst teams in the majors. Instead they are winning, led by starters Brian Burres and Matt Albers. Burres is currently sporting a 2.49 ERA and three wins, Albers a 1.65 ERA and two wins. Closer George Sherrill
currently has nine saves on the year despite an ERA of 4.66. It’s not
always pretty but Sherrill gets the job done. He came over from Seattle in the Bedard deal and appears to have tipped the trade advantage to the east coast team. Nick Markakis and Brian Roberts are having their expected good year, but so are veterans Aubrey Huff (leads team in RBIs with 16) and catcher Ramon Hernandez. The Orioles’ success typifies the surprising start to this new season.

In the Central, the team many people picked (including me) to win the World Series, the Detroit Tigers,
have gotten off to an extremely sluggish start, losing seven of their
first eight games. Their potent offense has been anything but up until
just a week or so ago. The Tigers’ pitching has been even worse. Ace Justin Verlander has just one win on the season and a 6.50 ERA. Beleaguered former ace Dontrelle Willis
is currently on the DL, pitching only five innings and giving up four
runs. The lone bright spot for Detroit’s pitching has been minor league
journeyman Armando Gallarraga,
who has won two games so far, with an ERA of 1.50 and thirteen
strikeouts in just eighteen innings. That being said, their bats have
started to heat up. In just the past week Magglio Ordonez has hit three home runs and has ten RBIs. Newcomer Miguel Cabrera has two home runs and six RBIs. This team could explode at any moment and I still think has a great shot to win it all.

Another surprise is the abysmal start of Cleveland Indians’ ace C.C. Sabathia.
Sabathia has just one win on the season. In thirty-two innings he has
given up twenty eight earned runs and walked seventeen batters. He has
a league high ERA of 7.88. Fausto Carmona,
despite an astounding twenty two walks in twenty eight innings, has
pretty much picked up where he left off last season, with three wins
and a 2.89 ERA. The surprising ace so far for the Indians is veteran Cliff Lee,
with four wins and a ridiculous ERA of 0.28. Behind the solid pitching
of Lee and a solid offense, Cleveland has managed to stay in second
place behind dark horse Chicago.

Another surprise is in the NL West, where San Diego and Colorado are battling for last place. Even more surprising is that San Francisco is not only not in last place, but has actually won a game, despite Barry Zito
winless with a 7.53 ERA. Young star Tim Lincecum leads the team with
four wins and thirty-six strikeouts and I would argue has supplanted
Zito as the ace of that team. Even more surprising is that they are
actually hitting the ball a little; I said a little. Veteran catcher Bengie Molina leads the team with four home runs and sixteen RBIs. Aaron Rowand is batting .293 with ten RBIs and John Bowker
has provided some pop to compliment the two veterans. This won’t last.
Lincecum will continue to pitch well and Rowand and Molina may continue
to hit but the Padres and Rockies are not going to continue to play
this poorly.

This brings us to the NL East, where the surprising upstart Florida Marlins are atop the division, one and a half games ahead of the Mets and Phillies. What is it about Florida and young talented lineups? Josh Willingham, Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Mike Jacobs, Jeremy Hermida and Jorge Cantu (yea, that’s right) are all hittining the cover off the ball. Scott Olsen and Mark Hendrickson
lead the team with three and four wins respectively. Once again, the
Marlins prove that you cannot count them out and that you can actually
succeed in this game without a mega payroll. Screw Billy Beane, someone should write a book about Florida’s scouting department.

The Mets and Phillies have struggled to start season, in large part due
to significant injuries and considerable slumps by some of their best
players. Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and Jose Reyes are all batting below .250. Of the big four, only David Wright
is having a good year, batting .292 with four home runs and twenty-one
RBIs. When the spark of your offense, your lead off man, is not getting
on base, it makes it hard to generate runs. Likewise for the Phillies.
Reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins has not started a game since April 9, as well as worthy leadoff man Shane Victorino, who returns to action this week. Former MVP Ryan Howard
is batting a paltry .174 with five home runs and eleven RBIs. Howard
also leads the league in strikeouts with thirty-seven, a year after
setting the record for most strikeouts in a single season with
one-hundred and ninety nine. Nevertheless, MVP hopefuls Chase Utley and Pat Burrell have been carrying this team on their back, with help from outfielder Jason Werth and backup catcher Chris Coste.

Pitching has also had its ups and downs for these Turnpike rivals. Newly acquired superstar Johan Santana
has looked like the dominant force he is for much of the season but
only has three wins, in large part due to a lack of offensive support.
Beleagured former ace Pedro Martinez has again found himself on the disabled list and pitchers John Maine and Oliver Perez
have looked spotty this season. The Mets’ bullpen has been less than
stellar so far. Of the eight relievers to have five or more innings of
work this season, only four have ERAs less than 3.00. Of those four,
only Billy Wagner has at least ten innings of work. The three relievers
with the most innings for the Mets have an average ERA of 6.02.

The Phillies pitching, a source of much heart burn last year, continues to be a source of frustration this year. Adam Eaton,
who had the highest ERA in the National League last year, started the
season out beautifully, giving up no more than three runs in each of
his first three starts. He has since come back down to earth, going
five and three and two-thirds innings in each of his previous two
starts, respectively. He has yet to record a victory, or a loss, this
season. Last year’s surprising star, rookie Kyle Kendrick,
is going through a bit of a sophomore slump. He is 2-2 so far this
season with a 5.13 ERA. He has looked very good at times and looked
very shaky at others. The Phillies number one starter, Brett Myers,
is having a frustrating year, largely due to the loss in his velocity
(for more on Myers’ struggles this year see my post earlier today on
www.hotstovephilly.com).

That being said, true ace Cole Hamels,
despite getting knocked around in his two previous starts, has an ERA
of 2.75 with thirty strikeouts on the year. Seventh inning specialist J.C. Romero has yet to give up an earned run in over eleven innings. Set up man Tom Gordon,
after having a rough start to the season, has settled down nicely and
has an ERA of 2.08 and two wins over the past two weeks. New closer Brad “Lights Out” Lidge
has been just that. Lidge has yet to give up an earned run this season
and has four saves, with eight strikeouts in seven innings. Lidge has a
higher strikeout per nine innings ratio than any other reliever in
major league history. When Lidge is healthy (both mentally and
physically) there is nobody in baseball better.

Perhaps just as surprising as Florida’s success is Atlanta’s
lack of it. The Braves are only one and a half games back of the Mets
and Phillies, but are a game under .500, despite being picked by many
to win the division. Their pitching, when healthy, a problem this
season, has been solid. Unfortunately, oft injured Mike Hampton is back on the DL and Tom Glavine is making his first trip to the disabled list in his career.  John Smoltz is banged up and will likely miss a couple starts. Closer Rafael Soriano only
pitched four innings before also finding himself on the DL. That being
said, when healthy, they’ve been very good. No starter has an ERA above
four and this has kept them in every game. Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann got off to slow starts and third baseman Chipper Jones
is, shocker here, banged up. Nevertheless, the Braves’ offense has
started to heat up in the past week or two, so look for them to make a
surge.

One of the great things about baseball, and sports in general, is its
ability to constantly surprise and amaze and I am looking forward to a
season of just that.

While
there is always the possibility that someone will take a flyer on the
dangerous slugger, it appears that Thomas’ illustrious, if not
sometimes controversial, career has come to an end. There are few teams
that are in serious contention in need of an every day designated
hitter and it appears that, at least for now, Thomas refuses to play
off the bench. There is also a crowded market for heavy hitting DH only
players. Home run king Barry Bonds has yet to find a team willing to take on his circus and demeanor. Sluggers Mike Piazza and Sammy Sosa
are also without a team. Bonds, Piazza and Sosa all have somewhat of a
leg up on Thomas because they can all still play the field, if not on a
regular basis. Thomas is a major defensive liability at first base, not
to mention a serious risk of injuring himself.

It is unfortunate
that one of the best hitters to ever play the game would end his career
on such a note, but this type of incident is not without precedent for
Thomas. After playing for the Chicago White Sox
for sixteen years, the White Sox unceremoniously decided to not bring
Thomas back for a seventeenth year. After signing with the Oakland Athletics Thomas publicly complained about the way his tenure with Chicago ended, saying that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf did not even call him to tell him they would not be re-signing him.

“I’ve
got a lot of respect for Jerry Reinsdorf, I do. But I really thought,
the relationship we had over the last 16 years, he would have picked up
the phone to say, `Big guy, we’re moving forward. We’re going somewhere
different. We don’t know your situation or what’s going to happen.’ I
can live with that, I really can,” Thomas said. “But treating me like
some passing-by-player. I’ve got no respect for that.”

He also knocked heads with manager and GM Kenny Williams
over several provisions in his contract and felt the Sox should have
just traded him after the playoffs in 2000. In response to Thomas’
publicly calling him out, Williams called the slugger an “idiot” and
said

“If he was any kind of a man, he would quit talking
about things in the paper and return a phone call or come knock on
someone’s door. If I had the kind of problems evidently he had with me,
I would go knock on his door.”

On January 25, 2006, Thomas
signed a one year deal with Oakland. He would go on to finish second
behind his replacement in Chicago former Phillie Jim Thome as AL Comeback Player of the Year, but would win the award for Player’s Choice Comeback Player of the Year.

Thomas’
career was filled with many records and distinctions. From 1991-1997 he
finished in the top ten in MVP voting every single year. He is only the
second first baseman ever to win the MVP Award in two consecutive years
(’93-’94). The other is Jimmie Foxx,
in 1932 and 1933. He actually won the AL Comeback Player of the Year
Award in 2000 and won the AL Batting Title in 1997. On June 28, 2007,
Thomas hit his 500th home run in Minnesota (ironically the sight of his
first home run), becoming just the 21st player in Major League history
to ever do so. Thomas, along with Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and later Alex Rodriguez,
are the only players to ever hit 500 home runs and have a career
batting average of .300 and above. He is also on a short list of
players to hit 500 home runs and acrue at least 1600 walks. With him
are the Babe, Mel Ott, Mickey Mantle,
Ted Williams, and Barry Bonds. Thomas currently ranks number one all
time in home runs as a designated hitter and eighteenth all time in
home runs with 516. He ranks twenty-second all time with 1,685 RBIs and
a .559 slugging percentage.

Thomas was the seventh overall pick
of the 1989 MLB draft. Picked at number five that year, out of Simeon
High School in Chicago Illinois, was Jeff Jackson,
to the Philadelphia Phillies. Jackson was a highly tauted outfielder
and the Phillies’ management spent several months debating between
whether they should take him or Thomas. Jackson never made it out of
the minors. Thomas was, and still is, one of the all time greatest
hitters to ever play the game. Just another in a long line of Phillie
management blunders. Don’t forget Von “Five for One” Hayes.