Baseballhead:
The Race

Michael Cox

It's been quite a busy week, I must say. First and foremost on our list of greatest hits is the accomplishment of one Sammy Sosa, who took the Mark McGwire one-man celebration tour (or so ESPN and FOX would have liked it) and made it a real horse race, with the true home run king not likely to be decided until the final day of the season.

And over the course of his march from there to here, I have to tell you I've become a Sosa convert. It's not just the fun he's so obviously been having, or his media-borne underdog status in the race, but mainly because he's just plain become a great hitter. (Good thing, too, seeing as he's being paid like one.)

He's a decent guy, and I've got to say that I especially like him for not being over-the-top smarmy. Unfortunately, that's just the trait that has made Mac America's sweetheart. Hey, if McGwire is honestly that way and it gets into baseball, so be it, but give Sammy every bit of respect you're giving Mark, OK? He isn't just the wacky sidekick.

Okay, you can help me down from the soapbox now. It's hard enough standing on it as this bandwagon has begun to roll.

Item: Lost among the Maris chase hoopla was Griffey's 50th dinger, making him only the third man to have two consecutive 50-homer seasons. It also so happens that if it wasn't for a game in 1996 that was rained out just before it became official, Griffey would have joined McGwire as the only players to have had three consecutive such years. But the home run Junior hit that night was nullified, and so was his chance at history...so far. There is always next year for Junior, plus I hope I'm not the only one who realizes that he's about halfway to 700 homers at the age of 28, and his pace is increasing.

Item: Speaking of Griffey, more and more AL managers (though generally not ones with first-place teams...yet) are using a "Griffey shift" - the shortstop moves to the first-base side of the bag at second, joining the two fielders who are normally there, plugging any hole there might have been on the right side.

While that may be a reasonable strategy (or would be, except for the fact that pitching Griffey to make him pull is a dangerous move, even if nine guys are on the right side), it has resulted, more times than I care to see, in an easy bunt base hit for Griffey. Someday soon I see fans, hungry for a Griffey homer, beginning to jeer their own team just for positioning the infield.

Item: The big McGwire-Randy Johnson matchup almost didn't occur due to the Big Unit's big case of stomach flu, and we here at Baseballhead heartily congratulate the lanky one for not only not tossing his cookies all over the Titan of Tater, but for winning the game in his usual awesome style (well, he did give up his first two runs ever at the Astrodome).

But a strange moment occurred during one of Johnson's at-bats, when the bat slipped out of his fingers and whizzed over to McGwire at first base. After fielding the bat, Mac kissed the lumber for luck before handing it back to RJ. Now, call me a fuddy-duddy (which would likely make you as silly as me), but that just ain't sanitary.

Item: I decided to swing by the Rocky Mountain News website just to see how exiled former baseball writer Bob Kravitz was doing. Well, I'm happy to report that the revocation of his baseball press credentials means that he's been sticking to football writing, where they won't notice how abysmal he is. However, he managed to squeak out a column or two on The Pastime.

The first was a swipe at what he calls "baseball poets," basically for the fact that the least of them, smarmy as they may be (and I admit that I wince at Boswell sometimes) is 632,856 times the writer Kravitz is. In the second, he claims that he hasn't watched a game in a month because the Rockies stink. A more likely reason is that to attend a game right now he would have to buy a ticket, and to do that he would actually have to love baseball.

And now that I've managed to work in the word "smarmy" twice in one column, it's time go get back to listening to my Duncan Sheik CD.

about the author

Michael Cox has bills to pay, so help him out by purchasing a copy of the book he ghostwrote, Ground Out the Felix Fermin Way. Ask for a bulk discount at mc@strikethree.com.