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Thursday, January 10, 2008
Hall voters designate one position out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
This is from the same guy who thinks the American League ought to join major league baseball and ditch the designated hitter. The DH: a sort of an obtuse intrusion in the box score. The Hall of Fame hasn’t flung open its doors to the bullpen performers, but another edged through the voting process the other day. Hoyt Wilhelm was more than a relief pitcher, as was Rollie Fingers. It was Bruce Sutter, with five seasons of just over 100 innings, a losing record and one-third as many blown saves as saves, who really sneaked in, a mystery to most of us who have the purity of the game at heart.
Goose Gossage made a quantum leap at the ballot box. He was more than one of those one-inning wonders, the closers. Still, with Bert Blyleven to vote for, a record of 287 wins, fifth all-time in strikeouts among other credentials, I could see Gossage going in, but only flying in on Blyleven.
The point here today is, since relief pitchers have crossed the bar, is there some conspiracy against the DH? (Ugh, I have to swallow hard when I say that.) To date, only one player registered as a designated hitter has crossed the barrier, Paul Molitor, voted in four years ago. Not that I’d care to be found guilty of launching a campaign opening the way for such half-players, but Harold Baines does come to mind here.
Baines became eligible in 2007 and barely aroused a whisper of support. Same again this year. He barely cleared the 5 percent barrier to stay eligible. Those rejects you read of more often are Jim Rice, Andre Dawson and Dave Parker, and those with heart refer to Dale Murphy — who, sorry to say, is never going to make it.
Baines hit more home runs than Rice and Parker, drove in more runs than Dawson, Rice — and Murphy, had more hits than Dawson and Rice and a higher batting average than Dawson and Murphy. Yet, this fellow, 22 seasons in the major leagues, drew only 18 votes while Dawson and Rice soar.
This was Baines’ record: 384 home runs, 1,628 runs batted in, .289 batting average — 27 points better than incumbent Reggie Jackson, by the way — and he barely scratches the surface of voter interest. Main flaw in his dossier is, it seems, that he was a DH in more than half the 2,830 games he played, l,644 exactly. I heard one of those panels dissecting the candidates the other day, and Baines was mentioned one time, negatively.
Now, I’m not beating the drums for more borderline delegates to Cooperstown. Matter of fact, it’s getting rather crowded up there anyway. Some years, candidates get votes because there’s “no one else to vote for,” as they say. So it was in Sutter’s year. And to a lesser extent this year with Gossage, though the Goose had a long career, won 124 games, spent some time as a starter, pitched in three World Series and struck out 1,502 batters in 1,809 innings. He had a case going for him. Sutter didn’t.
Rarely will we have the kind of overwhelming slate of candidates that we had last season. Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn had places in Cooperstown dusted off and waiting for them, both popular with fans everywhere — never has an induction attracted such a sprawling crowd — and not a cynic to be found. It happens once in a while. Heaven forbid one of those years when “there’s no else to vote for.”
Not that this is intended or expected to arouse a supporting electorate for Harold Baines. I’d say, offhand, that after two years of barely squeaking over the 5 percent line, there’s no hope down the line. No room in the inn for DHers. Sort of sad, especially if they’re clearing the way for “one-inning wonders.”
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Falcons seem clueless in coaching search
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
When it comes to decision-making involving the Falcons bosses, it’s about to get uglier. Uglier than staying with the overmatched Rich McKay too long as general manager. Uglier than hiring the coaching disasters that were Jim Mora and Bobby Petrino. Uglier than allowing Bill Parcells to play them for suckers to get a better deal in Miami.
Uglier than anything you’ve seen from an NFL franchise in recent years, or maybe during any year.
They’re clueless. I mean, what are the Falcons doing? Their clumsy, convoluted and comical search for a head coach and general manager is even bizarre for what historically has been a goofy franchise. In other words, something outrageous is on the way, and it won’t be the hiring of Southern Cal’s Pete Carroll, another overmatched college coach. That’s because Carroll will save the Falcons from themselves by pulling a Bill Parcells by saying, “No,” on his way to somewhere else in the NFL or back to the USC campus.
Among other oddities, the Falcons have spent weeks in a simultaneous search for a head coach and a general manager. Then again, what can you expect when you have owner Arthur Blank demoting McKay by taking away his general manager duties and then giving the guy a contract extension along with a raise to remain as president? Not only that, Blank assigned McKay to pick his successor as GM.
Yeah, that makes sense. So does trying to hire another college head coach after the one you foolishly signed a year ago bolted with three games remaining in his first season to call hogs in Arkansas.
Pete Carroll? Is this a joke, or do those who run the Falcons just enjoy being the punchline? Since they’ve taken a vow of silence until they find a GM or whatever they’re doing, I’m guessing they’d say Carroll isn’t Bobby Petrino. I’m guessing they’d say Petrino wasn’t an NFL head coach before he joined the Falcons from Louisville, but that Carroll ran pro teams twice before leaving to win Pac-10 titles and national championships.
I’m guessing they’d prefer not to say Carroll bombed in the pros. He was fired after going 6-10 during his only season with the New York Jets. Then he was fired after he inherited a nice New England team from Parcells that digressed during each of Carroll’s three seasons. Even so, Carroll reportedly is the Falcons’ primary target, not only as their head coach, but as their general manager. Two things: History has shown that few can do both and for another, Pete Carroll?
Even if Carroll does lose his mind and joins the Falcons, you’d have the makings of Bobby Petrino II. Carroll likely wouldn’t leave before the end of his first season, but he would do so sooner than later. Consider that he has mentioned he wouldn’t return to the pros without full control of a team. Well, no matter how the Falcons bosses would spin it, Carroll always would have an omnipresent owner. Not only does Blank walk the sidelines, but he wants to meet with his head coach every Monday for dinner.
Carroll also would have McKay down the hall. You know, the old GM who obviously has the owner’s ear, especially since the old GM was able to get that demotion, that extension, that raise and that ability to choose his successor.
It gets uglier. You have the Falcons’ search committee that consists of Blank and McKay at the top and others below them, including former NFL executive Ernie Accorsi as an adviser. It’s a committee that still is interviewing candidates for the Falcons’ head coach and general manager jobs during the Carroll rumors.
Which brings up a question: Why? If you want Carroll to be the guru of your franchise, why waste the time of others with phony interviews? If you don’t want Carroll, why not say so? Otherwise, you give the impression to those you’re interviewing that they only are backups if (when) Carroll pulls a Bill Parcells.
Maybe you don’t care. Maybe this Carroll thing is just to make you look flashy in public, just like that Bill Cowher thing and that Bill Parcells thing.
Instead, you look silly.
Permalink | Comments (139) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Falcons, Carroll match seems strange
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Had Dan Radakovich sought to hire Pete Carroll to coach Georgia Tech — a far-fetched scenario, but bear with me — I’d have said, “Hooray!” But this is different.
This is the Falcons approaching Carroll, and the Falcons play in the NFL. And Carroll, who’s one of the five best college coaches now working, is a two-time NFL washout. In New York he’s remembered as the guy whose Jets fell for the Dan Marino fake spike. In New England he’s scarcely remembered at all, coming as he did between Parcells and Belichick.
He lasted a total of four NFL seasons as a head coach, which isn’t bad by Falcons’ standards — June Jones and Jim Mora got through three years, Bobby Petrino not even through one — but still: Given that the NFL and the Pac-10 are separate entities, what makes you think he could not only win big as a professional coach but also set a falling-down house in order?
Looking at it from the other side, what about the Falcons would appeal to Pete Carroll? He told the L.A. Daily News, “They’ve had a lot of problems there. It’s not the most sought-after job.” And that’s about the nicest thing anybody has said about the Falcons lately.
In L.A. he’s a king. He has won over USC’s snooty fans — who were hugely skeptical when he was hired — and he enters every season with a realistic chance of playing for the national championship. He has coached three Heisman winners, and when he needs a player he doesn’t wait in line to draft a specific guy; instead he signs three high school All-Americans and lets them fight it out.
A famously nice fellow, Carroll would bring a ton of enthusiasm to any job. But Mora was pretty enthusiastic, if not quite so nice. How’d he pan out?
If I’m the Falcons, I’m wondering what about Carroll’s background leads me to believe he’d be half as good in the salary-capped NFL as he has been at the football factory of Troy. If I’m Pete Carroll, I’m wondering what the flailing Falcons could offer me, other than money, that I don’t already have. And if money is indeed everything, why did Petrino take a pay cut to go coach Arkansas?
Permalink | Comments (80) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
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