Thursday Newsletter time: Texas Rangers helped make baseball fun before the lockout. Now, MLB is wearing two black eyes
A delayed start to spring training and the Tyler Skaggs trial have been blows to baseball's image this week.
In the days leading to the MLB lockout, baseball was fun.
The Texas Rangers were leading the way in bringing excitement and interest to the game as they came to agreements with four free agents for $561.2 million within the span of 24 hours Nov. 28-29.
The biggest two were Corey Seager (10 years, $325 million) and Marcus Semien (seven years, $175 million). Each signee was introduced the afternoon of Dec. 1.
By that night, all the fun was over.
The collective bargaining agreement expired, and baseball’s owners locked out the players to mark the first work stoppage since 1994-95 — the player strike that resulted in the cancellation of the World Series.
The sides are scheduled to meet this afternoon to hopefully move the ball forward toward starting spring training, which has been delayed this week.
The lockout has given baseball one black eye.
Also this week in a Fort Worth courtroom, the trial into the death of former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs is continuing. Five players have admitted to using opioids, and all said they got them from former Angels PR man Eric Kay.
Kay has been charged with two felonies: distributing opioids and causing the opioid-related death of Skaggs.
The Skaggs trial has revealed drug use by six MLB players (including Skaggs). MLB has denied that it has a problem with recreational drug use based on testing records.
MLB might want to recheck those numbers or come up with a new testing method.
This trial is another black eye.
It has become hard to believe that the Angels were the only team with a problem, especially since one of the players, right-hander Matt Harvey, admitted that he used cocaine before joining the Angels.
Did the other players stop after they moved to other teams? Did they have a new teammate who knew a guy like Kay?
So, basically, baseball looks like Rocky Balboa in the 14th round of his first world-title shot against Apollo Creed, before a terrific 15th round.
Reaching a new CBA quickly and rekindling the free-agent market might be akin the 15th round in Rocky. And turning over any new statistics might shed a clearer light on drug use in the major leagues.
But just remember: Despite the great 15th, Rocky still lost the fight.
Hamilton’s monster game
T.R. Sullivan’s latest T.R.’s Memoirs on Josh Hamilton debuted Tuesday and will continue later today. The link to Part I of what is now a three-part story is in the ICYMI section below.
As I was reading it and editing it, I couldn’t help but watch highlights of Hamilton’s four home-run game May 8, 2012, at Baltimore. It remains the single greatest accomplishment I’ve seen as a sports reporter.
No, I haven’t seen a perfect game. Yu Darvish nearly pulled the feat April 2, 2013, coming within one out at Houston before Marwin Gonzalez’s grounder when through Darvish’s legs and into center field.
But one batter hitting four homers in one game is rarer than a pitcher retiring all 27 batters consecutively. There have been only 18 four-homer games and 23 perfect games.
Adrian Beltre was in the lineup for two four-homer games, Hamilton and Shawn Green in 2002. Elvis Andrus was on base for each Hamilton homer. Each was a two-run shot.
Beltre and Andrus were both quick to point out those facts afterward.
The game was part of Hamilton’s early-season tear that put him on course for a massive season and big payday after the season. As T.R. has and will point out, 2012 wasn’t the smoothest season for Hamilton even though he finished with 43 home runs.
But that May 8 game was spectacular.
ICYMI …
I’m already having spring-training withdrawal, but hopefully progress will be made today and all will be resolved within the next week. Is that being overly optimistic? Probably. But the Newsletter is a glass-half-full type, and we’re still producing content. Here’s some of our latest, in case you missed it.
T.R.’s Memoirs: Josh Hamilton and the Rangers (Part I)
Armchair GM: What if … ?
The Sunday Read: Amateur scouts digging in
Friday on the Farm: Prospect countdown continues
Doggy video!
Hey, running does this to a lot of humans. He did nothing wrong. Enjoy. See you Friday.
