In a story I saw tonight that was a major surprise, THIRTY EIGHT minor league players were suspended for steroid abuse. Of the 38, one guy was suspended for a third violation, that being 60 days. Five of the players were from the Rangers organization. The five players were:
Lizahio Baez, Justin Hatcher, Willy Espinal, Robert Machado, & Christopher Russ were the five Texas players. According to the note, only the first two are still playing, they said the final three here were already released. I’m sure the bit about suspending a released player was a formality. I wonder if these players hook up with another team if the 10 game suspension would still be in place.
I have to admit this was a bit of a surprise to me – mostly in the quantity. I can’t say I’m surprised people were suspended. But on the other hand, the minor league steroid policy is much stronger than the major league one, so in that regard I am surprised people were suspended.
Thirty eight. Wow.

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The Washington Nationals opened camp this morning, and I read a Yahoo news story about their first day. It had the things you’d expect like “it’s nice to have a new home”, how Frank Robinson will still have a hard time as manager, etc, etc, etc.. However, one line from this really stuck out for me. It was this..
The Nationals logo appears throughout the stadium, although the word “Expos” still appears on a couple of signs and the seats remain teal from the facility’s days as the Florida Marlins’ spring home.
They still can’t get by the schizophrenic nature of their existance for the last few years, eh? Nationals logos, Expos logos and equipment bags, and teal seats from the Marlins days of the stadium. Pretty amusing. :)

Read the list of remaining free agents today. There’s quite a few former Rangers on this list. They are:
Al Levine, Mark McLemore, Andy Fox, Brad Fullmer, Rusty Greer, Herb Perry, Jeff Zimmerman, Tom Goodwin, Todd Van Poppel, Darren Oliver, Todd Zeile, Robb Nen, David Segui.
Now I know we’re supposedly going to resign Zim at the start of spring training – we had done so already, but the Commissioner voided the contract, some technicality about arbitration and minor leagues – I didn’t quite understand all that. I think the same goes for Greer, if we don’t sign anyone else to be DH.
Also, I recall early in the offseason there was talk that we might take a flyer on Mo Vaughn to be our DH. We then went to Delgado & Ordonez for that, not signing either. I wonder if the Mo Vaughn rumour will fly again? Personally I hope not, I’d rather us take a flyer on Rusty Greer than Mo Vaughn.
Here’s the complete list of free agents as of today:

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This could be interesting…
I realize it’s a stretch, but if the Cubs pick up some of the salary, and we don’t have to give up a boatload, it might be worth it to see him return to his original team.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/cubs/cst-spt-cub28.html
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/3359986
UPDATE: Forget that. About an hour after I posted this, it was announced that Sosa is likely going to be traded to the Orioles. At least it’s the AL, and we’ll get to see him here.

Well, Carlos Delgado picked the Marlins tonight. This has to be seen as a cash grab – at least to this Ranger fan. The park he’s picked as his home is probably the worst for a left handed hitter.
From a purely baseball standpoint, it was either The Ballpark in Arlington, or Oriole Park. But not Shea or Pro Player.
Oh well, done with that. One interesting sidepoint to this is that I’m now reading where Rusty Greer might be our backup DH option should we fail to do anything with Magglio Ordonez (which I suspect we will).
Would be nice to see the Red Baron again.

Read today where George W. Bush will be throwing out the first pitch of the season in the home opener for the Washington Nationals. That game is April 14th. Politics aside, I always felt the one thing I liked about baseball in the past was that the president would usually throw out the first pitch at a Senators game (both the Twins variant and the Rangers variant). Having the president throw out the first pitch is something just “American” to me, and I always loved seeing that old footage. Hoever, since baseball hasn’t been played in DC since 1971 (when I was 6), I’m a little too young to remember it. Now I’ll get a chance, and I like that. I hope Bush (and whoever comes after him) makes it an annual tradition, like I think it should be.
In other Nationals news, you will hear a lot during the leadup to the start of the season about how the original Senators went to be the Twins and the replacment Senators came here to be the Rangers. That’s not entirely true. The Twins/Senators franchise wasn’t the original Washington Senators team. There was one in the late 1800’s which ended up being contracted out of existance. The Washington Senators from 1892-1899 weren’t any better than the Senators that came after them, but they did exist, and it always irritates me that the press gets it wrong all the time by calling the Twins/Senators the “original Senators”. They weren’t.

Tomorrow night on Fox Sports Southwest, they’re running what essentially amounts to a “2004 Wrapup & 2005 Preview” show. It’s on FSN at 630PM CST on Wed the 8th (repeated on Dec 24 at 10PM). Also, ESPN will be running a 90 minute episode of Baseball Tonight this coming Friday night the 10th at 1:30PM CST. Check that out, too!

All I’ll say about the World Series is this. Damn. It’s great that the Yankees were at home, but the way they got left at home was legendary! Go Sox! :)

Major League Baseball and Rawlings will introduce newly designed official baseballs for the 2000 season, it was announced today at the SGMA Super Show in Atlanta, Georgia.
The new baseballs, which will be used throughout the 2000 Championship Season, will feature the trademarked MLB Silhouetted Batter logo and the signature of Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig stamped in blue ink. The redesigned baseballs are part of Major League Baseball’s branding strategy to use the Silhouetted Batter logo on all authentic, on-field equipment and apparel that is available for retail purchase. To mark the change, Major League Baseball will issue a special Millennium Opening Day Baseball, which will be used at the home openers of each team except the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets, who will use a special baseball to commemorate the Opening Series 2000 in Tokyo, Japan, on March 29 and 30. The Millennium Opening Day Baseball will be similar to the regular season ball, but will have “2000” embellished in silver ink above the Silhouetted Batter logo. “The newly designed regular season baseballs and the 16 special event baseballs are great collectibles and another way to bring our fans closer to the game,” said Tim Brosnan, Senior Vice President, Major League Baseball. “In addition, the new design of the regular season baseballs will help us continue to promote the Silhouetted Batter logo as a symbol of authentic Major League Baseball merchandise.”
In addition to the redesigned regular season baseball and the Millennium Opening Day Ball, Major League Baseball will introduce 15 other special baseballs throughout the 2000 season to highlight such events as the 4th of July, the All-Star Home Run Derby, the All-Star Game and the World Series.
In the past, special event baseballs used by Major League Baseball were made available primarily to the clubs and players. All of the special event baseballs manufactured for use in 2000 will be available in retail with release dates throughout the 2000 season. Fans and collectors will be able to obtain the new baseballs at any authorized Major League Baseball retailer or on majorleaguebaseball.com. The baseballs will be sold separately and will also be available as a packaged set. The physical makeup of the official Major League Baseball game ball (not less than five ounces nor more than 5 ¼ ounces; not less than nine nor more than 9 ¼ inches in circumference) will not be affected by the redesign. “Major League Baseball’s official baseball has undergone very little change since the early days of the game,” said Steve O’Hara, President, Rawlings. “We have served as the official supplier since 1977 and expect to deliver more than one million balls to major league clubs each year.”

BOSTON (AP) — It was a baseball love-in on the mound, the stars of the night and the stars of the century swamping Ted Williams, gazing at him in awe, reaching over each other to shake his hand.
He rode out in a golf cart from center field at the All-Star game after they’d all been introduced — Aaron and Mays, Feller and Musial from summers past, McGwire and Sosa, Ripken and Griffey from Tuesday night’s lineup.
Players watched as the adoring crowd stood and cheered him, the roar almost as loud as the jets that buzzed Fenway Park after the national anthem. And they watched Williams respond by waving his cap, a gesture he never made as a player, even after he homered in his final game.
“Gods don’t answer letters,” John Updike wrote of that moment years ago.
This time, a baseball god did.
Williams was often booed by Fenway fans during his playing days, but now no one is more popular in Boston.
“Hell, I haven’t had a base hit in 30 years, and I’m a better hitter now than I’ve ever been in my life,” Williams said.
The 80-year-old Williams waved all the way down the right field line as the golf cart proceeded toward the mound. Even the policemen ringing the field applauded.
Suddenly, spontaneously, the players, young and old, closed ranks on him, moving in to be as close as possible to the last man to hit .400 — .406 in 1941 — and who is arguably the greatest hitter in history.
They formed a huge huddle on the mound, no one wanting to leave, no one caring if the ceremony or the game was delayed.
Williams rose gingerly from the cart — two strokes and a broken hip in recent years make it hard for him to walk.
“Where’s Sammy?” Williams bellowed, calling for Sosa, then shaking his hand. Williams wore a big smile and seemed to want to reach out to all of them. He grabbed Mark McGwire’s shoulder and spoke with him.
Afterward Williams recounted what he said:
“They wanted me to meet (Don) Mattingly when he was going good, and (Wade) Boggs. And we went to this high-class restaurant and we’re talking about hitting, the intimate part of hitting, where you put your foot, everything like that. Finally, I said, ‘Did you guys ever smell the wood when you foul one real hard?’
“They looked at one another, like what’s this guy smoking now? And I said I could smell it quite a few times, and it smelled like wood burning. I said the next time I see Willie Mays, the next time I see Cepeda, the next time I see Reggie Jackson, I’m going to ask them. They said, `Oh, sure, we’ve smelled it, too.’ So I asked McGwire the same thing, and he said he could smell it, too.”
Williams wanted to keep talking, but time and his own emotions wouldn’t allow it.
“He wanted to talk baseball with everybody out there,” McGwire said, adding that a lot of players got choked up.
Larry Walker of the Rockies was one of them.
“Tears were coming out of Ted’s eyes. I had to turn away because tears were coming out my eyes, too.”
Finally, the players backed away and Williams took the ball to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to Carlton Fisk.
“Where is he?” Williams asked. His vision, once the best in the game, has suffered, too, and he can’t see well outside a narrow range.
Tony Gwynn pointed him toward Fisk and held him steady.
“I got you,” Gwynn said.
Williams joked a bit, then tossed a soft pitch to Fisk, inside but all the way to the plate.
Fisk jogged to the mound to hug him.
Other players came back to crowd around Williams, and after a few minutes the public address announcer pleaded with the players to return to the dugout. The game was running late, but no one wanted this moment to end.
“It was kind of funny,” Boston shortstop Nomar Garciaparra said. “When the announcer asked everybody to go back to the dugout, everybody said no. It didn’t matter. What time was the first pitch? Nobody cared.”
Said Rafael Palmeiro: “That’s the chance of a lifetime. The game can wait … We had chills all over.”
It was a scene reminiscent of Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic torch at the start of the 1996 Atlanta Games — Ali shaking, the crowd cheering wildly, the greatest athletes in the world staring at him in awe. When Ali later made the rounds of the games, even athletes like Michael Jordan fawned over him.
That’s the way it was with these all-stars and Williams, an all-star himself for 18 years.
To a man, the players expressed a sense of reverence about the occasion.
“Meeting Ted Williams was probably the greatest thrill of my career,” Cleveland’s Jim Thome said.
Finally, Williams was helped back into the cart, and the crowd roared again until he made his way to his box seat along the first base line with commissioner Bud Selig.
“Wasn’t it great!” Williams said. “I can only describe it as great. It didn’t surprise me all that much because I know how these fans are here in Boston. They love this game as much as any players and Boston’s lucky to have the faithful Red Sox fans. They’re the best.”