A Travesty to Gil Hodges

The Veterans Committee for the Baseball Hall of Fame voted today to send...NO ONE to the Hall. What makes this worse is that this is the third time in a row that they could not pick one deserving person into the hollowed halls of Cooperstown. The purpose of this committee being formed was to make sure that executives, managers, and great players who slipped through the original Hall voting get their due. There were MANY deserving men who they chose to ignore today. Doug Harvey, one the greatest umpires of all time. Marvin Miller, the union head who saved players from antiquated labor and made hundreds of players millionaires. Ron Santo, one of the top third baseman of his time. Being a Gil Hodges (and Dodgers) fan, I have decided to focus my rant on their omission of Gil.

Gil Hodges is one of the greatest first baseman of the 1940's-50's. From the official Gil Hodges website, gilhodges.com:
"Hit at least 30 home runs a season for five consecutive years from 1950 to 1954

·Had over 100 RBIs during the 1949 to 1955 seasons

·Played in seven World Series, six with Brooklyn and one with Los Angeles

·Inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1982

·Career consisted of:
2,071 games played
7,030 at bats
1,921 hits
1,105 runs scored
295 doubles
48 triples
370 home run
1,274 RBIs

·Had a career batting average of .273

·Had a career slugging average of .487

·Had more RBIs during the 1950s than any other player at 1001."

He had the numbers. He had more RBI in the '50's than Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, and Willie Mays. He appeared in 8 All-Star Games, won 2 World Series with the Dodgers, and managed the '69 "Miracle Mets" to the World Championship.

This Committee (who, by the way, are made up of Hall of Famers!), have committed a huge injustice to all true baseball fans, but more importantly, to these men like Hodges and Santo. It's time for baseball to take a hard look at changing their way of "selecting" these much-deserving contributors to this fine game. Let's fix this before the next vote in 2009.

Two Weeks Into My P-Nats Career

It is nice to wake up in the morning and be excited about work. The first two weeks of my baseball career have been boring at times, but when you wait 12 years for something, you can deal with boring! And things will be picking up soon, as we hire all the seasonal help next week, and start ordering for the season the week after. It won't long before I am writing that I don't have one minute of free time at my job! Of course, I will look back on these times when I am GM of the Dodgers, and laugh at how simple it all was!

What are we to do????

A-Rod and Derek don't love each other any more? Say it isn't so! This is the only thing that I do not like about the first couple of weeks of spring training, crap stories like this that no one truly cares about. Except maybe Tim Hardaway, who hates gay people like these two. What a world.

Now Batting For the Nationals...Who????

Just glancing over the hometown Nats' non-roster invitee list. It reads like a list of..well, nobodies. Jason Simontacci. Joe Thurston. Darnell McDonald. Melvin Dorta. These guys aren't even has-beens, they are never-were's. Sure, there are a couple of retreads, somewhat-recognizable names: Tony Womack, Ray King, Tony Batista. Guys who are way past their prime. What would Manager Lou Brown from "Major League" say?

GM Jim Bowden: How would you like to manage the Nationals this year?
Lou Brown: Gee, I don't know...
GM Jim Bowden: What do you mean, you don't know? This is your chance to manage in the big leagues.
Lou Brown: Let me get back to you, will ya, Jimmy? I got a guy on the other line asking about some white walls.

Thank goodness for Ryan Zimmerman and John Patterson, because besides them it's going to be a loooonnng year in DC...

How It All Began...

It's hard to believe that the first baseball game I went to was nearly 28 years ago. I was a fan before June 10, 1979, but being at a ballpark for the first time was a religious experience, even at 5 years old. And as luck would have it, I got to see two future Hall-of-Fame 300 game winners duel each other in Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro. It's funny that is still the best pitching matchup I have seen, and may ever see. I also got to see Mike Schmidt, who's in the Hall, and Pete Rose, who should be. The weather was beautiful, the game was exciting, even with a lopsided 10-3 Braves win. The ballpark, well, did I mention the weather was beautiful? Yes, my first game was at Veterans Stadium, the cavernous, colorless cookie cutter park in Philadelphia. The park will always hold a special place to me, however, as I spent most of my childhood splitting games between here and Yankee Stadium. Thankfully, Darwin-ism finally caught up with the Vet in '03, and it fell down and went boom. It looks much better as a parking lot next to the beautiful Citizen's Bank Park. The good memories remain though.

The Beginning of Bill's Baseball Page

I begin my new blog page with the intention of covering all my baseball adventures, to the many wonderful Major and Minor League ballparks across the nation. I have been to 18 of the 30 current MLB parks (19 total), and 38 of the over 300 Minor League parks. Accompanying me on my travels is my beautiful fiance Staci. We have been attending games together since 2004. Above is the two of us at the final game of the 2005 season at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. That is our "home" park, since we live in Northern Virginia.
I will include pictures and stories of all of the ballparks I go to, as well as revisit past travels, rant about baseball and life in general. Along the way I will sprinkle in personal non-baseball stories, and try to entertain those of you who decide to read on. I look forward to this exciting new adventure! Stay tuned!