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Sunday, May 26, 2002

Memorial Day weekend. The Yankees are at Fenway Park. The Cardinals are at PNC Park. Days are long. Engines turn at Indianapolis, pools open and gas grills are alive. At times, The Guy In The Stands even thinks he hears The Gunner doing a 10 a.m. Memorial Day first pitch from another lifetime.

It has all the ingredients of the most wonderful weekend of the year. The unofficial first of summer. The weekend purists traditionally look to as the real beginning of the baseball season.

So why does it already feel like fall? Why does it feel we should be phoning in for Jerry's kids this weekend instead of phoning in our vacation reservations?

Maybe because the frequency and intensity of strike talk from players has ratcheted up. Maybe because Comissioner Bud Selig has rattled so many sabers we believe the chronically cranky roof of his beloved Miller Park will be fixed long before the game. Maybe because while owners and players are scheduled to meet at the negotiating table Tuesday for the first time in four weeks, it brings with it no reason for hope.

Maybe because it is all so reminiscent of 1994.

Remember what we lost that summer that never ended. The Montreal Expos were 74-40 when the season shut down and perhaps destined for a fate different from what has befallen them. Tony Gwynn was hitting .394 in his best run at .400. Matt Williams already had 43 home runs and could have been the one to catch Roger Maris. Frank Thomas and Albert Belle were legitimate Triple Crown threats.

Would they have made history? We'll never know.

It makes us wonder, though: What questions will be left unanswered this time? What history will be left unwritten? What memories left unremembered?

A pennant race in the American League East Division between the Red Sox (31-13) and Yankees (31-17) such as we have not seen in a generation.

The silent, play-by-playless radios on front porches and backyards on too-warm August nights.

The Derek Lowes and Shawn Greens who will lose out on those once-in-a-lifetime nights when the stars align and magic would be theirs.

The chance for Roger Clemens, with 287 career victories, to reach 300. He turns 40 in August. Some believe a work stoppage could wipe out 2003. And 2004?

The Pirates' flirtation with .500.

Brian Giles bobbleheads.

Any night that Randy Johnson or Pedro Martinez pitches.

The narrow window of opportunity for Barry Bonds, 38 in July and 171 home runs shy of 755, to catch Hank Aaron. Like Clemens, time is not on Bonds' side no matter how much he works out. It won't make up for the 50, 100 or even 200 games he could lose.

The Scott Brosius and Derek Jeter home runs that will go unhit as midnight strikes on cold October nights.

And who can calculate the momentum that might be stolen from the young careers of talents such as Adam Dunn and Josh Fogg?

And how many special nights such as Mark Prior's debut Wednesday at Wrigley Field will go unstaged because the sign on the baseball's front door reads: Out To Lunch.

The reply in all instances is that no one can be certain what will be lost. Only that we will never know.

We shall never forget

In a fitting and solemn Memorial Day tribute, Hall of Fame officials unveil a plaque tomorrow honoring members who served the country in battle. Among the Hall of Famers expected to attend are Bob Feller, Ralph Kiner, Phil Rizzuto and Warren Spahn. All served in World War II and/or Korea.

Who? What? When?

A postscript to the Yankees' epic 13-12, 14-inning victory against the Twins at Yankee Stadium May 17, a game won on Jason Giambi's grand slam sometime after 2 a.m.:

Ted Lilly, the Yankees' starting pitcher the next afternoon, didn't know they had won. And he had owner George Steinbrenner to blame.

Manager Joe Torre sent Lilly home in the middle of the game to be rested for his start. Upon arriving at his apartment, you might have expected Lilly to have flicked on the TV to at least be there with his mates in spirit. But Lilly couldn't.

Because Steinbrenner's new YES cable network hasn't been able to come to a rights agreements with cable TV giant Cablevision, an arm of the team's old rightsholder, Lilly's cable system didn't show the game. So Lilly went to bed.

It wasn't until the next morning, as he left for the park, that he discovered he had missed the game of the season (thus far).

Blinding me with science

It's natural for fans to categorize as magical Mark Prior's rapid ascent to the big leagues. It's natural to attempt to attach rhyme and verse to his triumphant Cubs debut at Wrigley Field Wednesday night in which he struck out 10 Pirates and allowed just four hits in six innings.

Tom House has one thing to say to all of us: Put away your Walt Whitman. House, former big-league pitcher and coach, and now pitching guru to the stars, says Prior's destiny has been charted more by the mind than the imagination.

"Mark has been exposed to, and taken advantage of, the best research available," House, who holds a Ph.D., told Steve Henson of the Los Angeles Times "He has been the poster child for what is, objectively, nontraditional baseball knowledge. He's not going to fail.

"It's not my opinion. With motion analysis, blood chemistry, mental-emotional makeup, he matches up statistically. ... Other guys have had some. Mark is the first to have them all. Objectively, he's a can't miss."

Kind of takes the poetry out of the mix, doesn't he?

Pirates fans can gather their own evidence tomorrow night. Prior is scheduled to pitch the opener of a four-game set at PNC Park.

The pitch that never came

Pardon Dodgers first baseman Eric Karros if he couldn't entirely enjoy Shawn Green's four-homer outburst while it was happening Thursday in Milwaukee. "I was on deck for the first three," Karros told Drew Olson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I'll be honest, I'm thinking, 'All right. I'm getting something at least a little inside.' " But no knockdown pitch came from a Brewers pitcher -- to him or any Dodgers player. Of course, if Aramis Ramirez had been up next ...

Perfect timing

It's no coincidence that since May 12 the Cardinals (26-22) had won 10 of 12 and pulled within two games of Cincinnati in the NL Central going into last night's game vs. the Pirates. Garrett Stephenson came off the disabled list May 14. Woody Williams followed May 16. Bud Smith was expected to rejoin the rotation this weekend. The five-deep rotation anchored by Matt Morris and Darryl Kile that was expected to give them the edge over the Astros is finally back together.

Difference makers? Patching names like Travis Smith, Josh Pearce and even Mike Timlin into the rotation, the Cardinals hit bottom in late April, going 4-11 in their final 15 games. Starters had a 5.76 ERA in that span. With their rotation getting healthy, the starters' ERA has been 3.93 in the recent streak.

Heaven is hot

Going into the weekend, the Angels (27-17) had won 21 of 24 games to climb within 2 games of Seattle in the AL West after trailing the Mariners by 10 1/2 in mid-April. To give their surge some sort of historical perspective, in winning a record-tying 116 games last season, the Mariners' best 24-game stretch was 20-4, achieved twice -- April 2-28 and May 23-June 18.

aka Margaret Mead

Leave it to Phillies Manager Larry Bowa to cut to the quick about the question of the week: Would homosexual ballplayers be better accepted in major-league clubhouses in these enlightened days of the early 21st century. "I'm sure it would depend on who the player is," Bowa said. "If he hits .340, it probably would be easier than if he hits .220."

Good

Box score lines of the week:

Good: Shawn Green, Dodgers, Thursday: 6 AB, 6 R, 6 H, 4 HRs, 7 RBIs, 19 total bases in a 16-3 win vs. the Brewers. Goes to show how you never know about this game. In the previous two weeks, he had only 17 total bases. And in the homestand before the club left for Milwaukee he hadn't hit a ball out of the infield in five consecutive games.

Wild

Wild: Erubiel Durazo, Diamondbacks, May 17: 5 AB, 3 R, 4 H, 3 HRs, 9 RBIs in a 12-9 win vs. Phillies. Observed Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins: "Without him in the lineup, we would have had a chance." Oh, really!

Ugly

Ugly: Glendon Rusch, Brewers, Thursday: 1 2/3 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 0 Ks in a 16-3 loss to the Dodgers. On the bright side, he only gave up one of Green's four homers.

Series of the week

Diamondbacks (30-17 before last night) at Giants (28-19), tomorrow-Thursday ... 1 vs. 2 in the NL West. Series likely more important for the suddenly struggling Giants, who have lost 6 of 10. ... After dispatching Mark McGwire yesterday, San Francisco's Barry Bonds (584 homers, fifth all-time) sets his sights on No. 4 Frank Robinson (586). ... Arizona's Curt Schilling (9-1) can become the majors' first 10-game winner Wednesday.

This 'n' that

Arizona's Randy Johnson needs three strikeouts vs. Los Angeles today to pass Walter Johnson (3,509) for eighth on the career list. ... Like a foreign language, The Guy isn't always sure what a ballplayer means. But sometimes it sure does sound pretty. Take Giants pitcher Livan Hernandez after giving up a disputed home run to Arizona's Erubiel Durazo Tuesday: "There's no question it was a foul ball. In Miami and Italy, it's a foul ball." ... The Guy can calculate an ERA with the right side of his brain tied behind his cerebral cortex, but apparently he can't do simple math. Reds prodigy Austin Kearns turned 22 this week, not 21. Nevertheless, Kearns' numbers -- .333, 6 HRs, 18 RBIs -- remain remarkable. ... Pedro Martinez became the 35th pitcher in history -- and second this season -- to strike out the side on nine pitches when he did it in the first inning against Seattle May 18. Mark McLemore was the only Mariners player to foul off one of the nine pitches. "Pedro hit my bat," McLemore says. "I really had very little to do with it." ...

Aramis Ramirez's two home runs this week were the first two by a Pirates' cleanup hitter this season, or as many as have been hit by Pirates pitchers. ...In beating Seattle, 1-0, Tuesday, Joe Kennedy gave Tampa Bay its first complete game in 194 games since Albie Lopez April 13, 2001. How long has that been? Lopez has been traded twice in the interim. ... The Guy has picked on Steve Trachsel in the past (the only pitcher to earn Ugly line of the week in consecutive weeks), but he has got to hand him props on this one. After the Mets turned a 5-4-3 triple play in San Diego a few weeks ago, Trachsel told David Waldstein of the Newark Star-Ledger: "If a double play is a pitcher's best friend, I don't know what a triple play is. A sexy mistress?"

Shot and a jeer

Shot: So let's get this straight. Texas owner Tom Hicks gave Alex Rodriguez a $252 million contract 17 months ago and he thought the odds of the Rangers making money were in his favor?

Jeer: To a certain New York tab. The Guy once saw you tucked under the arm of a man who had a Ph. D. Does that make you intelligent?