http://www.murraychass.com Thu, 16 May 2013 11:15:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6154 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6154#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 11:15:57 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6154 The Boston Red Sox fired Bobby Valentine as their manager after their disastrous 2012 season, but it seems that their exorcism might not have been incomplete. The sins of the devil incarnate apparently live on imbedded in Fenway Park’s Green Monster. To be sure, the Red Sox won 20 of their first 28 games with winning streaks of seven and five fueling their strong start, and they led the American League East from April 13 to May 7, two-thirds of the season to that point (24 of 36 days). But it has become a different season for the Red Sox. Entering Wednesday night’s game, they had lost 9 of their last 11 games, a .182 winning percentage compared with .714 previously, and they had tumbled 3 games behind the New York Yankees. Those were the Yankees who were playing without more than half of their regular starting lineup and were not expected to keep up, though neither were the Red Sox. Boston, in fact, had unintentionally contributed to the Yankees’ early success. Last January the Red Sox signed Lyle Overbay as a minor league, non-roster free agent and thought so highly of him that they devoted five pages of their media guide to him. Why they wanted a 36-year-old first baseman, however, was not clear because eight days earlier they had signed Mike Napoli, 5 years younger, and planned to make the catcher their first baseman. On March 26 they had to release Overbay because that was the date by which they had to tell him if they planned to put him on their season-opening 25-man roster, and they had decided they wouldn’t. The Yankees signed Overbay later that same day. Waiting for Mark Teixeira to recover from a wrist injury, Overbay started at first in 34 of the Yankees’ first 40 games and played in 37. He hit 6 home runs and drove in 24 runs. The Red Sox, of course, knew that the Yankees needed a first baseman, but ...]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6154 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6135 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6135#comments Sun, 12 May 2013 11:11:06 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6135 But for the move of the Houston Astros to the American League this season, Major League Baseball could celebrate a development last seen on Aug. 6, 1999. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that was the last date the two teams that call themselves Los Angeles, only one of them legitimately, were in last place on the same day. The Dodgers, a $216 million last-place team, plunged to the bottom of the National League West last Monday and has maintained their grasp on the position since. The Angels, whose $142 million payroll is seventh highest, has been next-to-last in the A.L. West since April 28. Last Wednesday their margin over the Astros fell to a precarious game and a half. These positions were not what the two teams had in mind when they lit up the trade and free agent markets late last season and in the off-season. They spent millions on free agents and committed millions more in dazzling trades. Having made those dramatic moves, they were the popular choices to win their division titles.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6135 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6116 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6116#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 10:23:46 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6116 The readers don’t always agree with me, and they don’t necessarily agree with each other. Last week’s column on Peter Nash, the notorious memorabilia collector, prompted these two responses: “very good on that scumbag peter nash. i was in boston with my son a few months ago and we went to the boylston street saloon named for 'nuf said McGreevy'. Great memorabilia there from 19th century. they told me, 'oh, a fellow named peter nash is our curator.' almost returned the reuben sandwich.” “Does any of this change the fact that so many of the ‘vintage’ jerseys Halper sold to MLB for them to donate to the HoF were fakes? (And that Halper's stories of provenance could not possibly have been true?)” Reader No. 1 stayed on point. Reader No. 2 chose to ignore Nash and his crooked schemes and question the honesty of Barry Halper, the late renowned memorabilia collector, whom Nash has attacked even years after his death. In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t know Nash, talked to him on the telephone once, and knew Halper, though I had no knowledge of his memorabilia activities. What I have learned, however, is ... ]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6116 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6106 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6106#comments Sun, 05 May 2013 09:15:48 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6106 Players who reach the major leagues usually arrive there by way of high school or college through the minor leagues. Although Evan Gattis did the minor league thing, he chose a widely winding path to get to the minors. Between high school and the minors, with two brief stops at colleges in Oklahoma and Texas, Gattis – in some semblance of chronological order– spent 30 days in drug and alcohol rehabilitation and three months in an out-patient center in Arizona, worked at a pizzeria and as a ski-lift operator in Colorado, then as a janitor in Dallas and a cart boy at a golf course, plunged into spiritualism and went to Taos, N.M., where he again worked at a ski resort, then moved on to California for more spiritualism in assorted locations in the state. One reason Gattis has given to interviewers for deciding not to accept the scholarship Texas A & M offered was ...]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6106 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6099 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6099#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 11:17:05 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6099 Known in his rapper days as Prime Minister Pete Nice, Peter Nash is known today as the epitome of what is primarily wrong with the Internet and blogs. He is also known for his propensity for losing lawsuits, accusing others of fraud while defrauding others himself and, perhaps worst of all, for forcing his father to give up the prestigious academic role he had for nearly half a century in a case that at least bordered on embezzlement. I first encountered Nash’s name and talked to him in July 2011 for a column I wrote about how he had grotesquely maligned and tried to destroy the reputation – posthumously – of Barry Halper, a limited partner of the New York Yankees, a world renowned collector of baseball memorabilia and a genuinely good person. Halper, it turns out, has not been the only memorabilia figure Nash has maligned unfairly. He’s still doing it and has done it to this day. He has a pattern: beat him in a lawsuit or a business deal and expect him to write viciously nasty things about you. That’s where the Internet and blogs come in. They give Nash a free hand to do and say what he wants about whom he wants with no way of being stopped.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6099 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6079 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6079#comments Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:45:13 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6079 It’s too early to say: If the Red Sox can maintain their good start and return to their status as a contender after missing the playoffs the last three years. If the Yankees can overcome disabling injuries to half of their starting lineup, all four players still in recovery. If the Angels can recover from their surprisingly poor start and justify their signing of Josh Hamilton. If the Angels don’t recover if Mike Scioscia, the majors’ longest-running manager, would lose his job after 14 years. If the Blue Jays can shake off their poor start and justify their uncharacteristic off-season spending. If the Orioles will repeat their 2012 status as a playoff contender even though they have given that initial appearance. If the Royals are a ...]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6079 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6064 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6064#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:35:35 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6064 The similarities between Honus Wagner and me may not all be obvious so let me elucidate them. We grew up – at different times – about 25 miles apart in southwestern Pennsylvania. We both played baseball in our youth. We both spent a lot of time at Forbes Field. After graduating from high school, my sister Irene worked as a secretary at Honus Wagner Sporting Goods Company. The elderly Wagner gave my sister a shakily written autograph for her little brother on a small piece of paper (no, I don’t have it; my mother, cleaning my room – what else? – tossed it out). Our likenesses (mine a black and white photograph, his a bronze plaque) are in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. We are both part of ...]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6064 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6052 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6052#comments Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:48:07 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6052 When the season began three weeks ago, the Yankees had seven players on the disabled list. Collectively their 2013 salaries totaled $92 million, which was more than the entire payrolls of 16 of the other 29 major league teams. That $92 million included slightly more than $1 million for pitchers Michael Pineda and Cesar Cabral and $7.15 million for Phil Hughes, meaning the Yankees had $84 million in disabled-list salaries for Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson. That part of the payroll was more than the payrolls of only 10 teams. But this isn’t about money. It’s about the carnage epitomized by the disabled list. Forget the money they’re making. Can a team win a championship in spite of the absence of a substantial segment of the starting lineup?]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6052 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6043 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6043#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:51:11 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6043 The most perplexing puzzle in the Texas Rangers’ spring training camp took on a second part in the second week of the season. After the Rangers’ two principal owners (Part I) stripped Nolan Ryan of one of his two titles, why did Ryan (Part II) opt to remain with the Rangers as their chief executive officer? None of the principals (Ryan, Ray Davis, Bob Simpson) is talking except for making meaningless statements) so it leaves lots of room for speculation and theories. The most intriguing theory I have heard involves the other Texas major league team, the Houston Astros. Ryan, this theory goes, would stay with the Rangers until his son, Reid, could put together a group to buy the Astros, then move to the Astros, for whom he pitched for nine years (1980-88). An immediate problem with that idea: ]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6043 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6026 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6026#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 11:24:38 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=6026 A tisket, a tasket, I'll spend eternity in my Red Sox casket. If I can’t see the Yankees win forever as I yearn, I can spend eternity in a pinstripe urn. OK, enough of that, but those weird rhymes fit the subject of this column, which itself is sort of weird. You will find no balls and strikes in this one, nor are there home runs and runs batted in. Last week Eternal Image Group of Novi, Mich., announced the availability of a line of memorial products licensed by Major League Baseball. Fans have credit cards adorned with their favorite teams’ logos; now they can be buried in caskets with team logos, cremated and have their ashes placed in urns with team logos and have memorial monuments with team logos. Once a Cubs’ fan, forever a Cubs’ fan.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=6026 0