COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – In the village founded upon baseball facts and fables, another fantastic tale was born Monday – The Legend of Gregg Zaun’s Called Shot.
Zaun’s home run didn’t decide the Rangers’ 11-9 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the annual Hall of Fame Game. Because the game was only an exhibition, Zaun officially remains without a homer this season. Still, there was no denying that it was one of baseball’s rare magical moments, a feat so perfectly entertaining it served as a fitting climax to a remarkable Induction Weekend.
“Other than winning the World Series [with the 1997 Marlins], this was probably the best experience I’ve had in baseball,” Zaun said.
First, consider the setting. Zaun, the Rangers’ rarely used backup catcher, was sent in to play right field in the third inning of the game, played before 9,773 at Doubleday Field. It is a splendid little ballpark, built on the site of a former pasture where Abner Doubleday and other Cooperstown schoolchildren are believed to have played the first game of baseball in 1839.
Then consider that, two blocks away inside the stately brick building of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, a rare treasure sits locked inside a glass case. It is the bat Babe Ruth used in the 1932 World Series, when he hit his alleged “Called Shot” home run off Cubs pitcher Charley Root.
Here’s how the legends intersected Monday:
The good-natured Zaun quickly earned the favor of the vocal fans sitting in the right-field bleachers. When he came to bat with two out in the fifth inning against Royals starter Jeff Austin, a chant began.
“Call your shot!” implored the fans.
“I actually thought I heard [Rangers manager] Johnny Oates holler it first,” Zaun said.
The chant swelled after Zaun took the first pitch for a strike. So Zaun stepped out of the batter’s box, turned and dramatically thrust his bat to the sky, pointing toward right field.
Then Zaun slammed Austin’s next pitch into those right-field bleachers.
“I can’t believe I did it,” Zaun said. “I think he threw it right down the middle for me. I just hope the guys on the other side didn’t think I was trying to show anybody up.”
When Zaun took the field for the top of the inning, he dashed toward the right-field corner in a full sprint, then ran along the warning track toward center, slapping hands with hundreds of fans hanging their arms over the wall.
The Royals were more amused than offended. Kansas City’s Mike Sweeney leaned over reporters and said, “You’re awesome, Zaunie!”
Austin, who surrendered six home runs in his five innings, said he didn’t groove the pitch to Zaun.
“He did it,” Austin said. “He really did it. He kind of grinned at me, and I threw a fastball over the plate.”
Zaun said he wouldn’t be donating the bat to the Hall, not that he was asked for his version of “Wonderboy.”
“Hey, I’m getting some hits with that bat right now,” Zaun said. “So until I break it, they can’t have it.”

SAN DIEGO — A baseball tossed to a San Diego Padres fan by Texas right fielder Juan Gonzalez turned out to be a hot potato for the red-faced Rangers.
Padres fan Deborah Calimlin had been asking Gonzalez for a ball during Saturday’s game. When he finally tossed her one, it had the inscription “Here’s your … ball, redneck” written on it.
The Rangers had some explaining to do because the woman turned the ball over to a Padres official, who showed it to Rangers spokesman Brad Horn.
Gonzalez, who’s been booed for asking out of the All-Star game because he wasn’t voted in as a starter, had nothing to do with the inscription, Horn said.
“This ball was never intended to leave the playing surface,” Horn said Sunday. “It was the bullpen’s shenanigans with the outfield.”
Horn said center fielder Ruben Mateo and left fielder Rusty Greer were having problems getting balls thrown to them from the bullpen so they could warm up in the field between innings.
When the bullpen finally threw out a ball, it was the one with the offending message, which Horn said was written by bullpen catcher Ken Guthrie. The message was intended for Greer.
After going into the Rangers bullpen chasing a foul ball, Gonzalez picked up a ball laying on the ground there and tossed it to Calimlin, whose seat is along the railing, Horn said.
The Rangers will make a formal apology to Calimlin and plan to give her a ball autographed by Gonzalez, Horn said.
Guthrie didn’t face any kind of disciplinary action, according to Horn.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Two seasons ago, Jeff Zimmerman was out of organized baseball, faxing major league clubs pleading for a chance to try out. Now Zimmerman is in the spotlight as an All-Star and a bullpen ace for the Texas Rangers.
“If you had asked me about making the All-Star team two years ago, I would have just laughed,” he said. “I didn’t even make the all-star team when I was pitching in the independent Northern League in ’97.”
Now he’s 8-0 with a 0.89 ERA for the AL-West leading Rangers. He got the win in Wednesday’s 7-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics, pitching 2 1-3 innings to tie a club record with his 16th straight scoreless appearance.
Zimmerman, who has struck out 46 and walked only nine in 50 1-3 innings, has the lowest ERA and has allowed the lowest batting average (.110) in the major leagues.
Fellow Texas reliever and All-Star John Wetteland said Zimmerman’s numbers are hard to believe.
“Like 99 percent of the rest of baseball, I hadn’t heard of him before this year,” Wetteland said of his setup man. “Now, sometimes we look up there and he’s got Super Nintendo numbers or Little League numbers.”
It has not been an easy route to the majors for Zimmerman.
He played two seasons at Texas Christian, then spent 1994 pitching in France. He was a starter for the Canadian national team in 1995 and 1996 in hopes of pitching in the Olympics, but Canada failed to qualify.
Zimmerman was selected in 1997 for the Canadian team scheduled to play in the world championship qualifying tournament, but that was canceled.
So the right-hander went to Winnipeg of the Northern League, where he went 9-2 as a starter and led the league with a 2.82 ERA. In 1998, he was signed by the Rangers as a free agent and was made a reliever. He went to Single-A Charlotte, then was promoted to Double-A Tulsa.
He came to spring training this year as a non-roster invitee, and has turned into a top middle reliever. He has become the first Texas pitcher to begin his major league career with eight straight victories, and the Rangers are 28-5 in games in which he has appeared.
“I can’t think of anyone who came on the scene with less publicity and did as much,” Texas manager Johnny Oates said. “These things happen — not often, maybe once in a lifetime, and this is my once.”
Zimmerman, 26, has not allowed a run in his last 19 2-3 innings, the second longest streak in Rangers history.
“You look at hitters’ faces, and you can see they’re wondering, `How can he throw a slider at 2-and-0, how can he paint the plate on a 3-and-2 count?’ ” Oates said. “He exemplifies pitching instead of throwing.”
Oakland’s John Jaha, who also was selected to the All-Star team, was one of Zimmerman’s victims Wednesday. He struck out looking in the eighth inning.
“He has one of the best sliders I’ve seen this year,” Jaha said. “He’s got movement on everything he throws and he’s throwing 93-94 miles per hour. He’s one of the best pitchers I’ve faced.”
Though middle relievers rarely are chosen for the All-Star game, AL manager Joe Torre said he couldn’t ignore Zimmerman’s statistics.
“I was just hoping to get my teammates’ respect as a competitor,” Zimmerman said. “But to have Joe Torre of the Yankees show that same respect is unbelievable. This is the ultimate pinnacle to me.”

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA (TICKER) — Texas Rangers pitching coach Dick Bosman was released from UC-Irvine Medical Center today after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured right hip suffered while in-line skating outside Edison Field on June 28.
Bosman, 55, had a screw and a plate inserted into his right hip. He has returned home to Texas and is expected to be limit his duties for four to six weeks after the All-Star break.
In Bosman’s absence, bullpen coach Larry Hardy has served as the Rangers’ pitching coach and minor league hitting instructor Butch Wynegar has assumed the role of bullpen coach.
Bosman is in his 28th year in professional baseball and fifth as a coach with Texas. He also served as the pitching coach under current Rangers manager Johnny Oates in Baltimore from 1992-94.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS (TICKER) — The Texas Rangers activated right-handed pitcher Esteban Loaiza from the disabled list and sent reliever Danny Kolb to Oklahoma of the Pacific Coast League (AAA).
Loaiza was placn thsabled list on May 16 with a broken right hand and made a couple of rehabilitation starts wiOklahoma. In 4 1/3 scoreless innings, Loaiza allowed three hiand e walks with six strikeouts.
Loaiza has had a shaky season for the Rangers. Over 26 1/3 innings, he has allowed 22 runs and 38 hits with a 7.52 ERA in 11 appearances. Loaiza has 23 strikeouts and six walks.
In four relief appearances, Kolb gave up four runs — three earned — over 7 1/3 innings with a 3.68 ERA. He allowed a solo home run and three hits over three innings in a 6-0 loss to Seattle on Sunday.

NEW YORK (TICKER) — Texas Rangers first baseman Rafael Palmeiro today was named American League Player of the Month for June after driving in a league-best 30 runs.
Palmeiro hit .369 (38-for-103) with eight doubles, six home runs and 14 runs scored. In 27 games, he compiled a .621 slugging percentage and a .437 on-base percentage.
Slowed by a knee injury at the start of the season, Palmeiro has heated up. He leads the AL in slugging percentage (.641) and ranks third in batting (.362), fourth in RBI (70), tied for fifth in home runs (20) and fifth in hits (100).
Palmeiro edged Baltimore Orioles left fielder B.J. Surhoff for the award. Surhoff led the league with 43 hits while batting .358 with nine homers and 25 RBI.
Other players on the monthly ballots were Chicago White Sox right fielder Magglio Ordonez, New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams and Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Tony Fernandez.

(AP News Wire): SS Royce Clayton, increasingly frustrated with his erratic play, faces possible disciplinary action from the American League following an ejection from Sunday’s (June 27) game against Seattle at the Kingdome. First-base umpire Jim Joyce ejected Clayton in the sixth inning following a dispute over whether he had hit a pitch off his foot. Crew-chief umpire Jim McKean said the report on the ejection will include mention that Clayton threw his batting helmet and hit plate umpire Brian O’Nara. “We put in what happens,” McKean said. “The league decides what to do after that.”

I originally had posted a news story on Monday morning about the weekend change of Goodwin back from the DL and Green going back to AAA. About two hours after I posted it, I learned that Tom Goodwin was going back to the DL, and Green is back up again. Here’s both press releases:
June 28th: ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA (TICKER) — One day after he was activated, Texas Rangers outfielder Tom Goodwin returned to the disabled list today after aggravating a left hip injury.
Goodwin returned to the lineup on Sunday, 16 days after suffering a small tear in his left hip flexor muscle. He aggravated the injury after going 1-for-4 with a run scored in Sunday’s 5-2 loss at Seattle.
Goodwin, 30, is tied for the league lead with 27 stolen bases and is batting .241 with a home run and 12 RBI in 56 games. He has 240 career steals, all but nine coming in the last five years.
To replace Goodwin on the roster, the Rangers again summoned outfielder Scarborough Green from Triple-A Oklahoma. Demoted Sunday, Green was 0-for-4 with Texas. Initially recalled on June 23 to replace injured rookie Ruben Mateo, Green was batting .224 with a home run and 12 RBI for Oklahoma.
June 26th: SEATTLE, TEXAS (TICKER) — Texas Rangers outfielder Tom Goodwin was welcomed back in time to say goodbye to the Kingdome.
The Rangers activated Goodwin from the 15-day disabled list today and he had a single in four at-bats and scored a run in a 5-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners played their final game at the Kingdome today and will move into a new facility, Safeco Field, after the All-Star break.
To make room for Goodwin, the Rangers optioned outfielder Scarborough Green to Triple-A Oklahoma of the Pacific Coast League.
Goodwin has been sidelined since June 12 with a small tear in his left hip flexor, suffered a night earlier while running the bases in a game against the Colorado Rockies.
The 30-year-old Goodwin has stolen 27 bases this season, and was six shy of the New York Mets’ Roger Cedeno for the major league lead at the time of his injury. He has collected 240 steals in his career, all but nine of those coming in the last five years.
Often used as the Rangers’ leadoff hitter, Goodwin is batting just .241 with one homer, 12 RBI and 41 runs scored in 56 games. Coming into this year, he was a career .277 hitter.
Goodwin spent four unproductive seasons with the Dodgers before being dealt in 1994 to Kansas City, where he played three-plus years and became known as one of the league’s top base stealers. He was traded to the Rangers in the middle of the 1997 campaign for third baseman Dean Palmer.
Green was called up from the minors Wednesday when the Rangers placed outfielder Ruben Mateo on the DL. Green is hitless in four at-bats this season.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS (TICKER) — Texas Rangers outfielder Ruben Mateo, one of the top young prospects in baseball, was placed on the 15-day disabled list tonight with a pulled left groin muscle.
Mateo left Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to Oakland after eight innings with tightness in his groin. He was replaced on the roster by outfielder Scarborough Green, who was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma.
Mateo, 21, homered in his major league debut on June 12 against Colorado. He is batting only .182 with one home run and three RBI in 10 games, striking out 10 times in 33 at-bats.
Mateo was summoned from Oklahoma after the Rangers placed outfielder Tom Goodwin on the 15-day DL for the first time in his career.
At the time of his recall, Mateo was one of the top players in the Pacific Coast League with a .340 batting average, 17 homers, 58 RBI, 81 hits and 50 runs scored. Used as a center fielder and designated hitter, he was batting .434 (23-for-53) during a current 13-game hitting streak for Oklahoma.
Signed as an undrafted free agent in 1994, Mateo was among the last players cut by Texas during spring training. The native of the Dominican Republic hit .283 with four homers and 11 RBI in 24 exhibition games.
Green, who turned 25 two weeks ago, was hitting .222 at Oklahoma with one homer, 12 RBI and 12 stolen bases in 60 games.

Twice, former teams have walked away from Rafael Palmeiro. Twice, he’s made them pay.
After the 1993 season, Palmeiro wanted to remain with the Texas Rangers, for whom he had been a productive player for five seasons. Instead, the Rangers opted to sign free agent Will Clark, like Palmeiro, a lefthanded-hitting first baseman from Mississippi State.
Palmeiro took his game to Baltimore instead, and for five seasons, was one of the most productive hitters in the game. While with the Orioles, Palmeiro was durable (he was never on the disabled list and missed a grand total of four games in his final three seasons), reliable (he never hit fewer than 38 homers in his last four years in Birdland) and consistent (his average dipped below .289 just once in his five seasons).
But when Palmeiro went looking for a five-year deal, the Orioles balked and signed — guess who? — Clark, as Palmeiro went back to Texas.
That was fine with Palmeiro, who maintains a home in the Arlington area, where his children attend school.
So far it’s fine with the Rangers, too. At the start of the week, Palmeiro, despite two surgical procedures on his knee in spring training, was hitting a robust .351 with 19 homers and 59 RBI.
Once again, it would seem, Palmeiro is showing that it can be costly to give up on him.
“I’ve always felt like I had to prove myself to someone,” said Palmeiro. “It always seems like there’s someone out there who doesn’t believe in me. But I thrive on things like that, to prove people wrong.”
Motivation has been a valuable tool for Palmeiro. He’s been limited to DH duty for most of the season (he did play first base when the Rangers crossed over to National League parks in interleague play) thanks to his bothersome knee. But he’s kept his bat in the lineup, and, with Juan Gonzalez, Rusty Greer, Pudge Rodriguez and Lee Stevens, helps make up one of the most fearsome batting orders in the game.
Texas, despite dropping three in a row to Boston over the weekend, maintains a hold on first place in the AL West. By contrast, Clark, who has been on the disabled list once already, hasn’t hit for much power and the Orioles remain lodged closer to the AL East basement than first place.
Baltimore wasn’t the only team balking at Palmeiro’s contractual demands. The Red Sox, who lost Mo Vaughn, didn’t get very deep into discussions with Palmeiro before backing out. Despite averaging a shade under 40 homers and 120 RBI for the last four years, Palmeiro wasn’t the subject of bidding wars like Albert Belle, nor the recipient of an eight-figure yearly salary like Vaughn.
Instead, Palmeiro cut a deal which pays him approximately $9 million per season, with some of the money reportedly deferred.
“I’m happy with it,” he shrugs. “I can’t say I would I could have gotten more. I’m making more money than I ever thought.”
Palmeiro was considered by some Orioles teammates as a stat-driven individualist, but the Rangers have been delighted by the leadership he’s provided in their clubhouse, particularly to the team’s many young Latin players.
“I’m a more mature player,” acknowledges Palmeiro. “I’ve been through a lot and I’ve got a lot of experience. After a while, your natural instincts take over. I’m not the vocal type, but I help the young guys and guide them in the right direction.”
Now 34, Palmeiro thinks the age issue which worried the Orioles and others last winter is moot. He’ll be 39 when the present contract expires, and he expects to remain productive throughout — and then some.
“The way I approach this game,” he said, “I don’t see a problem playing beyond 39.”
As Palmeiro looks ahead, he refuses to look back.
“I think the Orioles know what kind of player they let go,” he said. “And I think the Rangers know the kind of player they got.”