(Posted: 3/20/13 P.M; e-mail update 3/21)

It has taken more than half a decade for Bud Selig to do what a growing number of fans, players and press box people have done: support the use of video replays to check the accuracy of close baseball calls.  The commish now says his opinion has “evolved” and he’s considering expanding replay usage to include all calls except balls and strikes.  The catch – the expansion, if he follows through, won’t go into effect until next season.  The delay is in keeping with the hilarious hyper-caution Selig and his people have exercised on this no-brainer of a step forward.

Selig’s head-in-sand stance is strikingly similar to that of baseball’s favorite non-sporting team, the U.S. military.  Consider the “instinctive” feeling of General Martin Dempsey, Skipper of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as to why the military has been slow to crack down on decades of sex abuse in its ranks:  After 10 years of war, Dempsey said, “there is certainly a risk we might be a little too forgiving” of defendants who have fought for their country.  The record book shows the ‘forgiving’ of sexual predators is a shameful military tradition that goes back far longer than 10 years.

The infamous Tailhook convention scandal in which naval and marine officers sexually assaulted 83 women and seven men occurred 22 years ago this September.  Its disclosure  was supposed to change the military attitude toward such offenses forever.  But not a single prosecution resulted from the criminal spree.  And now we know the number of reported sexual assaults has jumped 30 percent in two years (2010-2012) alone.  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says there’s “no silver bullet” that will end the predator game right away; just as Bud Selig believes baseball can’t find a way to insure accurate calls.

The bewilderment expressed by the military front office involves suicides as well as the sex crisis; 350 active-duty troops took their own lives in 2012.  The Pentagon says it doesn’t understand why.  It has yet to address its forgiving record compiled abroad: the aversion to prosecuting the often unforgivable misbehavior of service members on foreign duty toward the persons and customs of local residents.  The emerging picture is of a military that has managed to obscure up to now how porous are its problems.

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Don’t Look Now…but the Indians have won 18 of 22 and five straight.  After their 10-inning, come-from-behind 10-8 victory over the Mariners Monday – making them 5-0 in extras – they were hailed on MLB-TV (perhaps prematurely)as this year’s “Cinderella Team.”

Reason to Fret:  It’s too early in late May to talk of a contending team in crisis. But dominant closer Jim Johnson has given Buck Showalter a legitimate cause for concern: In his last three appearances going into Monday night’s game, Johnson blew two saves and earned a loss, key factors in what became a five-game losing streak for the O’s..

Still Smiling:  We award the managerial prize for grace under stress, to Dodger Skipper Don Mattingly. During the LA-Braves game in Atlanta Sunday, John Smoltz, doing color on TBS, noted that Mattingly has been under pressure to get his last-place, high-payroll team moving.  When asked about it, Don, his job in jeopardy, was able to smile. “I’ve had plenty of time to get used to it,” he said.

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments about blog issues are welcome when addressed to the skipper t dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may be found byscrolling below.)

(Posted: 5/18/13)

Early this week, fans of Team Obama must have felt like followers of the Mets facing a  series with the Cardinals.  Disaster loomed (and occurred differently to both teams). The Mets’ scant chance of winning these days is when Matt Harvey pitches – as happened yesterday against the Cubs.  But Harvey wasn’t scheduled to appear in St.Louis (where the Mets dropped three of four).  And there was no persuasive way the O-team could defend its own sloppy play in response to three separate opposition rallies.

The Skipper tried to dismiss the deadly debacle in Benghazi as old news already recounted in the record book, and to claim that coaches, not he, were in charge during overly aggressive play by the IRS and DOJ squads.  None of his three defensive strategies worked. Rhetorical line drives from the left, right and center buffeted Obama with charges that won’t go away – of cover-up (Benghazi), partisan targeting (the IRS playing anti-right politics) and overreaching against press freedom (the DOJ snooping on AP phone records). It’s (George W.) Bush-league behavior, only worse.  Consider how many of us thought Team Obama played a cleaner game than its predecessor.

The triple play that victimized the O- team will surely energize Team GOP and cause fan defections in advance of the midterm pennant race. The UK Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald finds a press box response to the nub of the scandals – surveillance – most instructive:

“It is remarkable how media reactions to civil liberties assaults are shaped almost entirely by who the victims are. For years, the Obama administration has been engaged in pervasive spying on American Muslim communities and dissident groups…It has prosecuted double the number of whistleblowers under espionage statutes as all previous administrations combined, threatened to criminalize WikiLeaks, and abused Bradley Manning to the point that (the) UN denounced his treatment as ‘cruel and inhuman’.  But, with a few noble exceptions, most major media outlets said little about any of this…  It took a direct and blatant attack on them for them to…denounce these assaults, and acknowledge this administration’s true character.”

Adding to the O-team’s devastation is this take – in the NY Times – on the man supposedly shaping his team’s character:  “A bystander occupying the most powerful office in the world.”                                             

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Stat City:  The Cardinals, first in pitching, third in hitting and fifth in fielding, are the one team in the top five (of 30) of hitting-pitching-fielding categories.  Detroit is first in hitting, Arizona first in fielding.  The Mets have fallen to 29^th in hitting and 26^th in pitching.  The DL-laden Yankees are ninth in pitching, 10^th in fielding (15^th in hitting). AL East and West are opposites in more ways than geography: four of five East teams are above .500, four of five West squads below.

More Bad News for Chisox Fan Obama:  “The White Sox are on pace to score (a sub-par)580 runs. They’re last in the AL with a .237 batting average…It is hard to see a lineup built around an aging Paul Konerko and lacking fresh legs…  scoring enough runs to support Chris Sale, Jake Peavy, Jose Quintana and a strong, deep bullpen.” – Phil Rogers, Chicago Tribune

Evolutionary:  JasonBay calls his role as a bench player for the Mariners “the evolution of a career.”  He told reporters at Yankee Stadium this week “I knew early on I wasn’t going to play…So, it was just (learning) when to be ready, how to be ready.  And that was kind of a process and I feel I got a handle on that.” Bay says he still follows the Mets, stays in touch with former NY teammates, and wishes things had gone differently: “I was trying to do the things you think you can do,(but) it wasn’t happening… I tried everything.”

The Silent Mariner: “Raul Ibanez is a deep thinker — an avid reader and musician, in fact — who understands that athletics is best as a non-verbal activity.  Many ballplayers speak (unresponsively) because they lack insight.  Ibanez knows enough to know that words cannot capture his mindset.”  - Andy Martino, Daily News

Perfectionist:  MLB-TV’s Eric Byrnes. responding to Joe Torre’s “nothing’s perfect” defense of umpire’s missed calls:  “We can get something perfect with the new (video replay) technology.  Why not do it?”

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments about blog issues or requests for regular e-mail updates are welcome when addressed to the skipper at dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may be found by scrolling below.)

(Posted: 5/10/13)

After six weeks of watching teams sort themselves out, it is still not easy to play the probable division-domination game.  The Tigers are an easy pick in the AL Central, but, however unlikely, they could finish second to Kansas City, or, yes, Cleveland.  The Cardinals and Reds look to be the class of the NL Central, but the Pirates and Brewers could certainly make trouble.  It is dangerous to write off talent-laden clubs like the Angels and Blue Jays, so the AL West could well be a three-team (Rangers, Athletics, Angels) dogfight and the AL East, as advertised, a five-team donnybrook.  The Giants, Dodgers (still) and Diamondbacks are the three teams to watch in the NL West, but the Rockies, with their brazen-outsider tradition, may demand room.

The injured Roy Halladay’s absence simplifies the outlook in the NL East.  The Phillies don’t have the arms or the arsenal to keep pace with the two teams that look to be a lock:  the Bravcs and Nationals.  Indeed, of all the teams mentioned so far, Atlanta and Washington are the surest one-two combination (in either order).

The only two clubs worth watching in the political field – Skipper Obama’s and Team GOP – are in a deadlock that neither side looks able to break.  Scout Ron Brownstein (National Journal) sees unavoidable extra innings ahead:

“The GOP’s near-lockstep rejection of expanded background checks on gun sales will provide Democrats another brick in a wall that includes widespread Republican opposition to gay marriage, abortion, no-cost contraception in health insurance, and funding for Planned Parenthood.  All of these positions stamp the GOP as primarily representing the cultural values of rural, heavily evangelical, and largely white heartland states—and not the prevailing beliefs of more diverse, cosmopolitan, and suburban states…The GOP’s struggle to culturally connect with the (diverse group) will help Democrats…

But the president’s inability to deliver better economic outcomes presents a powerful counterforce.  The latest…National Journal Heartland Poll, released last week, offered a keening wail of economic anxiety and discontent. About three-fifths of those polled said they feared falling into a lower economic class, and fewer than one-fourth considered it ‘very realistic’ that they could meet such basic financial goals as saving for retirement or their children’s college education.  Among whites, only 21 percent—tied for the lowest share ever—said Obama’s agenda was increasing opportunity for people like them.” 

If either side figures to have an edge when the game reaches the 2014 midterm race, it is Team GOP, which can easily hold its control of the House while validly competing to outscore the Dems in the battle for the Senate.   

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New Leaders:  The Yankees slipped into first place in the AL East during the midweek, taking two of three from the Rockies.  They did it with what qualifies as remarkable pitching at Coors Field, holding the Rox to five runs in the three games.  The Yanks, we know, have been winning with a patchwork lineup that will soon be bolstered by the return of Curtis Granderson, with Mark Teixeira not far behind.

Perplexity:  Oakland manager Bob Melvin, after umpires ruled that a potentially game-changing A’s home run against Cleveland was only a double: “I can’t process this yet… I’ve never felt so helpless on a baseball field.  So helpless and so wronged.”

Dodger Blues:  Skipper Don Mattingly, after the Dodgers lost their seventh straight, 3-2, Wednesday night, to the Diamondbacks:  “Every day at this point is deflating. When it keeps kind of creeping on you day in and day out and you get (Clayton) Kershaw up there, and…(lose).”

Defiance:  Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, on suggestions (like the one above) that his team could be counted out of playoff contention this season: “We have core guys on this team who know to win. We’ll survive.  Others can think what they want, it’s what we believe.”

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments about blog issues or requests for regular e-mail updates are welcome when addressed to the skipper at dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may befound by scrolling below.

(Posted: 5/6/13 P.M.; e-mail 5/7)

In Miami, Houston, Chicago, and certainly in NYC, the unflattering words are flying, about the Marlins, Astros, Cubs, and Mets.  Fans, impatient with teams that are rebuilding instead of contending, feel betrayed.  In the third year of GM Sandy Alderson’s tenure, the Mets have a near-Triple-A-level lineup, with little sign of imminent minor league help. Any wonder offended fans are staying away.  The situation is similar in Miami and Houston, teams with the two lowest payrolls and rookie-deep rosters to match.  In his second year as GM, Theo Epstein has upgraded Cubs personnel, but not enough to make them competitive in the tough NL Central.

Why do fans in those cities consider grousing their right?  For them, the corporately owned local teams are a public asset expected to perform at a level that does justice to their support.  Fans in the national political ballpark expect the same of Team USA and its skipper.  Polls say many consider the play of clubs at both the executive and legislative levels Bush-league.  One of their growing grievances: the security state game and its impact.

On the (Bill) Moyers and Company show the other night, UK Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald traced a “coarsening” of fan attitudes to Team Obama’s aggressive play in the Middle East.  He noted that reports of “collateral damage” are dismissed without detail.  “We don’t even know the names of innocent people who died,” he said, “so, since they don’t exist, we don’t think about them” How different, he said, was our attitude toward the victims in Boston: there was understandable nationwide mourning, as well as a celebration of “collective self-esteem.”

Greenwald also recalled the “bloodthirsty” response to the killing of Osama bin-Laden in 2011.  “When someone is shot in the head and his body dumped in the ocean,” he said, “when even a person we consider evil meets death, the relieved response should not be raucous, but solemn.”  The overall consequence of the anti-terrorism game, he suggested, has been to “degrade” the way we respond to what’s happening in the world and at home.

A sample of degradation – an attitude that asks of Team Obama: “Do whatever you have to do to keep us safe; we don’t have to know about it.”

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Time to Take Texas Seriously.  The AL West-leading Rangers have replaced the Braves atop the team pitching list, and have joined the Tigers in the elite first-five listings in all three hitting-pitching-fielding categories.  The Tigers are second in hitting (to Colorado) and fielding (to Arizona), and fourth in pitching.  To go with their first in pitching, the Rangers are fifth in hitting and fielding.

On Manny Machado, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout:  “Manny is ZOOMING into the (who’s better) discussion – exceptional fielding at third (what an arm) and hitting .309 with 21 RBI (more than Harper) in 32 games.  Harper has taken a big leap forward as a hitter. I think that will continue…Machado right now is playing better than Trout.  Trout is continuing at exactly his level of the last 2 months of ’12… At .275 and a .850 OPS, that’s an excellent player but not what last year seemed to portend.” - Tom Boswell, Washington Post

Swingers:  Fresh from winning nine straight, the Brewers have dropped five in a row.  The Giants, meanwhile, reeled off six wins a row, four of them by a single run. including three weekend one-run victories over the Dodgers.

 Making an Impression:  On YES Sunday afternoon, Yankees color man Al Leiter liked what he saw in Oakland closer Grant Balfour:  “High energy…old school, talks to himself…fiery nature.”  He and his team have “lots of personality.”

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments about blog issues or requests for regular e-mail updates are welcome whenaddressed to the skipper at dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may be found by scrolling below.

(Posted: 5/3/13 PM; e-mail update 5/4)

A cruel month for a half-dozen teams, April was particularly painful for two with enhanced payrolls – the LA Angels and Toronto Blue Jays.  Both, with keen playoff aspirations, hoped their new mix of players would start fast.  Instead, the Angels (now 10-18) lost 17 of 26 (.346), the Blue Jays (now 10-19) 17 of 27 (.370).  The sub-.400 percentages are significant, according to record-book research conducted by Fangraphs.  Of 32 teams that finished April sub-.400 between 2003 and 2012, only one – the 2006 Twins – made the playoffs.

The hope that the new second wild card (as of last season) would give the 2012 Angels a better shot at bouncing back into the post-season went unrealized.  They fell short by four games, unable to make up ground lost in April.  The Angels have an advantage now over the Jays; they can possibly bulk up against the AL West’s new addition, the rebuilding Astros, who are expected to lose close to 100 games.  There is no is no similar weak sister, we know, in Toronto’s AL East.

While the Angels and Jays nursed early-spring hopes, Team Obama went into the sequester game in March, thinking it had an edge over its righty opponents.  Team GOP had hung tough in pre-game discussions designed to avoid mandatory cuts in rosters and payrolls.  Its hard-nosed resolve meant much inconvenience, if not hardship, for fans at all levels of the national ballpark.  Surely the O-team would score with the restive public as a result.  All went according to the game plan until cutbacks at the airports made flying an ordeal.  Then, as WashPost’s Ezra Klein describes it, the Skipper’s Dem team dropped the ball:

“Sequestration was supposed to be so threatening that Republicans would agree to a budget deal that included tax increases rather than permit it to happen. That theory was wrong.  The follow-up theory was that the actual pain caused by sequestration would be so great that it would, in a matter of months, push the two sides to agree to a deal.  Democrats just proved that theory wrong, too…What Democrats said (last week) was that in any case where the political pain caused by sequestration becomes unbearable, they will agree to cancel that particular piece of the bill while leaving the rest of the law untouched…Sequestration is (thus) no longer politically threatening, but it’s even more unbalanced: Cuts to programs used by the politically powerful will be addressed, but cuts to programs that affect the politically powerless will persist.”  

Scoreboard shows a loss for fairness, the Dem team staring at defeat from the cusp of  a walk-off win…and Team Obama fighting the odds as it plays its version of catch-up baseball.   

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Rockies High: Of course, it’s still early, but the prize for the persistently surprising team goes to the Colorado Rockies, first in the NL West, and at the top of the 30-team list in hitting. The Red Sox, with the best record in the two leagues (20-8), have a legitimate claim on that prize, especially since they and the Tigers are the only teams in the top five of the hit-pitch-field categories.  Detroit is second in hitting and fielding, Boston third in hitting, fifth in pitching.

New Manager of the Year (so far): “I know I probably got an opportunity because Mike Matheny and Robin Ventura got an opportunity and handled themselves really well.  I think we make too much of (the lack of experience), maybe.  I don’t want to be disrespectful to the guys that grinded and took that (more traditional) path, but for me, maybe because I’m naive, the game is the game. I try not to make it more than it is.” – Rockies Skipper Walt Weiss (quoted by Sporting News’ Anthony Witrado)

Blame Game: Finger-pointing in Toronto is inevitable, given the team’s dashed hopes so far.  On MLB-TV Thursday night, a panel that included Dan Plesac and Tom Verducci singled out Melky Cabrera for partial blame.  Melky, who was batting .346 with 11 HRS for the Giants when drug-test failure forced him to the sidelines last summer, is hitting .235, with zero homers in 115 ABs for the Jays.  “Melky has ruined it for others,” said Plesac. “No returning drug-user will get a contract like the one Toronto gave him ($16 million for two years).”

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments about blog issues or requests for regular e-mail updates are welcome when addressed to the skipper at dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may be

found by scrolling below.

(Posted: 4/29/13 P.M; e-mail update 4/30)

Snap quiz:  What do Baseball and the banks have in common?  Answer:  Both have the clout to avoid regulation.  We know how “too big to fail” has spared major banks from Team Obama hitting them with game-changing penalties for cheating.  Baseball has taken a purposeful pass on complaints about the exploitation of young players recruited in Latin America.

Two years after the meningitis death of a Washington Nationals prospect in the Dominican Republic, a condition that went untreated early because of the lack of a medical professional at the Nats’ baseball academy, little has changed.  Both there and at most of 30 such facilities in what is the epicenter of Latin American baseball, young recruits are denied health insurance as well as the presence of on-site medical personnel.

The victimization of 16-year-olds, who, unlike here, don’t have to be high school graduates , is a story that gets no coverage in the Yanqui press boxes.  A follow-up piece last month on the death of the Nats’ prospect by a Mother Jones reporter was the first substantive mention here of the tragedy over a two-year period.  In the same way, our corporate media ignore political stories that suggest a setback for the capitalistic game in Latin America.   Recently, for example, Team Obama called for an audit of election returns in Venezuela, echoing the demand of the right-wing candidate who lost by a narrow margin to Hugo Chavez’s successor Nicolas Maduro.  The story received prominent play here, especially since Spain also supported the audit.  What happened next went largely unreported…except by the UK Guardian’s Mark Weisbrot, who put the entire game into perspective:

“Washington’s efforts to de-legitimize the election mark a significant escalation of US efforts at regime change in Venezuela.  Not since its involvement in the 2002 military coup has the US government done this much to promote open conflict in Venezuela… But the Obama team’s effort failed miserably. (Last) Wednesday, the government of Spain, Washington’s only significant ally supporting a ‘100% audit,’ reversed its position and recognized Maduro’s election. Then the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS)…backed off his prior alignment with the Obama administration and recognized the election result.  It was not just the left governments of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay and others that had quickly congratulated Maduro on his victory; Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti and other non-left governments had joined them. The Obama administration was completely isolated in the world.” 

Meanwhile, Team Maduro has arrested an American filmmaker, charging him with fomenting anti-government tension.  Team Obama says it knows nothing about the gringo free agent.  But the record book shows repeated instances of U.S. meddling in countries like Guatemala, Chile, and Bolivia, as well as Venezuela, that weren’t playing ball with the Yanquis.  Just as George H.W. Bush said (in the early 1990s) that we were intervening in the oil-rich Middle East to protect “our way of life,” the widening move there and in Latin America to isolate us seems the result of a perception that we are threatening their way of life.

Something to Bank On: Attorney General Eric Holder (before Senate Judiciary Committee): “(There are indications that) if you…bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.  And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these (banks) have become too large.”

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Resiliency:  The 15-9 Yankees are winning – they made a resiliently played four-game sweep of Toronto – with discards, who in Joe Girardi’s words – have “found a way (to come) together.”  The second and seventh innings of Sunday’s game offered a composite snapshot of the team’s has-been heroics.  Brennan Boesch, a pre-season cut by the Tigers, hit a solo HR in the second.  Travis Hafner, let go by the Indians, singled in the seventh, with the score 2-1 Blue Jays.  LyleOverbay, released by Red Sox just before the season opened, hit a two-run homer to give the Yanks their winning 3-2 margin.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, with a three-game sweep of Houston, lifted their MLB-best record to 18-7.  The Sox are two-and-a-half ahead of the Yankees, and nine-and-a-half over Toronto, which has lost 11 of 16 since Jose Reyes fractured his ankle.

Hype-r-ama: Rangers catcher A.J. Pierzynski on Yu Darvish: “He has (seven) pitches, he has the mentality, and he keeps getting more comfortable.” (quoted by ChiTrib’s Phil Rogers). 

Joe Posnanski, NBC Sports on the Mets’ Matt Harvey: “You watch him pitch now and you think ‘How does anyone ever hit him?’  Five starts this year, and he has not given up more than four hits in any of them.  His pitches are eerily (Dwight)Gooden-like … his hard slider is very different from Gooden’s sloping curveball obviously, but Harvey (like Gooden) throws high fastballs, 95 to 100 mph, and to the batter the ball must look like it disappears into the atmosphere…because they swing and miss it about half the time.”

 Streakers:  Red Sox +5, Giants – 5

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments about blog issues or requests for regular e-mail updates are welcome when addressed to the skipper at dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may be found by scrolling below.)

(Posted: 4/26, PM, e-mail update 4/27)

“Fun to watch in a train-wreck sort of way.”  That’s a sports betting service’s pre-season comment on the Houston Astros; it added that the Astros, for compassionate reasons, should be allowed to play the Miami Marlins – another train wreck – every game.  Both teams are rebuilding, with emphasis on developing prospects instead of paying veteran players; it’s a long-term, money-saving process reflected in 2013 payrolls – $39 million for the Marlins, $24 million for the Astros (29^th and 30^th on the MLB list).

For many observers, the “fun” extended to dire predictions of what awaited the Colorado Rockies, the Seattle Mariners, the Mets, Cubs and even the Red Sox.  Pre-season negativity is a popular game.  The Rockies and Red Sox, we know, have led their divisions throughout much of the month.  The Rox are showing signs of a slide, but it’s likely the Sox will remain secure in the AL East scramble until playoff-time.

Negativity is an everyday play in the edge-seeking political game.  Opposing teams love to bench-jockey each other’s rough brand of contact and brush-back strategies.

In a recent switch, Team GOP applauded as a member of the Dem opposition,  Max Baucus, turned on his own front office, warning that its medical game plan (Obamacare) was a potential – yes – “train-wreck.”

Press box observer Ezra Klein recorded the Baucus warning at a Senate hearing, then put the criticism into perspective:

BAUCUS: ‘When I am home small businesses have no idea what to do, what to expect. They don’t know what affordability rules are; they don’t know when penalties may apply. They just don’t know…So that’s just from the small business perspective, let alone all the other issues that are going to be arising here…I just tell you, I just see a huge train wreck coming down.’

“Insofar as the Republican Party has a strategy on Obamacare (says Klein), it’s goes like this: The law needs to be implemented.  The GOP can try and keep the implementation from being done effectively, in part by refusing to authorize the needed funds. Then they can capitalize on the problems they create to weaken the law, or at least weaken Democrats up for reelection in 2014.  In other words, step one: Create problems for Obamacare. Step two: Blame Obamacare for the problems.”

Klein believes the strategy may work in states with intransigent Team GOP skippers, and, that, broadly, Obamacare will only be partially effective in 2014.  He anticipates clearer sailing once the country sees the benefits of the program: in particular, its provisions giving heath coverage to tens of millions now uninsured.

On the Aftermath in Boston: “What must th(ose) in the Middle East…think of a great city in total lockdown from an attack by primitive explosives when Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis and Yemenis experience far greater casualties and terror attacks several times a week? Including what they believe are terror attacks by U.S. drones… that have directly killed many thousands…”  - Ralph Nader, Common Dreams                                            

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Stat City:  As April winds down, only two teams have made the top five in all but one of hitting, pitching, fielding categories.  The Tigers are third in hitting and fielding, the Rangers second in pitching, fourth in fielding.   The Rockies lead in hitting, the Braves in pitching, the Diamondbacks in fielding. The Tigers, with Anibal Sanchez, Justin Verlander and Doug Fister, are the sole team placing three starters in the top 20 pitchers.  Only a single team made the top 10 in all three categories: the no-longer-surprising Red Sox.

Prosperity:  For more on why the Red Sox have prospered so far in the ultra-competitive AL East, the work of Clay Buchholz is a good place to start. On Thursday night, Buchholz became the MLB’s first five-game winner.  He’s 5-0, with a 1.19 ERA.  Sox GM Ben Cherington deserves overdue cheers for team’s turnaround after the front office overruled him on the managerial choice a year ago.  New Skipper John Farrell, who helped Buchholz in Florida, has been as impressive as Bobby Valentine was depressive.

Hear, Hear:  “In this age of technology, an age when baseball tracks the speed and break of pitches with military-style cutting edge tracking devices, but does nothing about whether a ball is fair or foul…there’s no reason why we can’t have quick remedies on obvious calls right now.” – SI’s Tom Verducci, on umpires’ dubious call of what would have been a key Jed Lowrie double in A’s-Red Sox game Wednesday night.

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Commentsabout blog issues, and requests for regular updates are welcome when addressed to the skipper at dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may be found by scrolling below.)

(Posted: 4/23/13)

On YES the other night, Yankees color man Al Leiter remarked that the visiting Arizona D-backs were a “grinding, gritty team.”  He added that they reflected the no-nonsense approach of their skipper, Kirk Gibson.  Shots of Gibson in the dugout, exuding intensity, documented the description.  Most managers are intense – it goes with the job – but they’re able to conceal how they feel.  The occasional exception: when umpiring calls that could go either way hurt their team at crucial moments.  Gibson seldom jaws with umpires; he just smolders.

Polls say that close to 90 percent of the country is seething about the failure of the Senate to support even minimal reform of our weak gun laws.  Among the seethers, humorist Garrison Keillior, who turned serious over the weekend before a national broadcast audience in gun-tolerant Austin, Texas.  He said the Senate had “disgraced” itself in catering to what he called the “National Pressure Cooker Association”… “Not a great moment in the U.S. Senate,” he added.  “Hard to think of the last great moment.”

Whether the smoldering of people like Keillior turns to flame while the game is still fresh, or sputters in its aftermath, will play out over the next several months.  The gun control team feels the final out has not been recorded and a late win is still possible because of a D-backs-like spirit energizing its would-be rally.

The team’s Skipper Mark Gaze says anti-gun players have closed the “intensity gap,” spurred by the series of mass shootings that culminated in the Newtown massacre.  He adds that, after Newtown, the team’s roster was dramatically reinforced with a passionate array of prospects.  Finally, and most importantly, the team – funded by Mayors Against Illegal Guns – will have the money to neutralize the opposition’s electoral war chest.

The team will unveil its key weapon, Gaze says, in the Congressional campaign:  “Between now and 2014, you’re going to see Mayor Bloomberg (and others) who have not been focused on this issue providing support for people who did the right thing and letting the folks who did the wrong thing know someone’s watching.”

Reason for hope that the teams will be more evenly matched from now on, and that the game will indeed go to extra innings.

On Treatment of Boston Bombing Suspect:  “Leave aside the fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been convicted of nothing and is thus entitled to a presumption of innocence. The reason to care what happens to him is because how he is treated creates precedent for what the US government is empowered to do, including to US citizens on US soil. When you cheer for the erosion of his rights, you’re cheering for the erosion of your own.” – Glenn Greenwald, UK Guardian                                                 

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Weekend-Plus Update:  The Brewers, riding an eight-game win streak, have moved to a game within first in the NL Central.  Oakland lost momentum in the AL West, getting swept by TampaBay and losing to the Red Sox last night.  The Dodgers’ Matt Kemp ended his slump, going six-for-13 in series with the Orioles.  He picked up 52 BA points.

The Talk of Late-Wintry Denver is the job Rockies manager Walt Weiss has done with his once-low-rated team.  The Rox, in case you haven’t noticed, are 13-5, a game ahead of the Giants atop of the NL West.

Rejuvenation:  There may be other GMs who deserve similar cheers, but the Yankees’ Brian Cashman, and his scouts, have outdone themselves in the signings of un-coveted players thought to be over the hill.  Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells and Kevin Youklis have all performed beyond expectations.  Hafner, an injury-prone DH whom the Indians let go, has been a particular surprise: BA .319, five HRs in 47 ABs.  Wells, relegated to the bench by the Angels despite a hefty contract, has returned to productive life with the Yankees: .299, five HRs.  The versatile Youklis is performing at his Red Sox-level, playing third and first, hitting .279…which means there’s no urgent need for A-Rod to return.  Add LyleOverbay to the list, and Cashman and co. have four reasons to take a bow.

Did You Know That…As the fourth week of the season unfolds, only one of six divisions shows four of five teams above .500 – the NL Central, where the surge by Milwaukee has left the Reds, Pirates, Cardinals and Brewers bunched with winning records.  The Cubs are the outliers.

Shufflin’ Starters:  The Aaron Laffey experiment, 7.20 ERA in two games, has ended for the Mets – he’s been demoted – with replacement Shaun Marcum coming off the DL. If fans are hoping Jeremy Hefner, 7.07, follows Laffey to Las   Vegas, they’ll likely be disappointed.  Zack Wheeler has been walking, roughly, one batter every other inning at Vegas, meaning the prize prospect is not ready for prime time. 

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments about blog issues are welcome when addressed to the skipper at dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may be found by scrolling below.)

(Posted: 4/20/13)

It could well have been a baseball statistician who said stats “are like bikinis – more interesting for what they conceal than reveal.”  The numbers on the Braves, the team with the sport’s best record, confirm the thesis: Atlanta (13-3) is a poor 21st of 30 in team fielding and 20^th in hitting.  Not even superior pitching, which the Braves have (they’re at the top of that list), should offset those on-field and at-bat liabilities, but that’s what’s happened.  Timely team play can neutralize persuasive numbers.

Pressbox people tracking the political game have a more complicated task in deciding which stats on which to focus.  Rather than pitching-hitting-fielding numbers, they must dig into fan-and player-opinion stats that can differ widely.  Yet a consensus picture can emerge based on the media’s misplaced emphasis.  Case in point: while polling numbers put fan opinion at a generally moderate 50-50 left-right split, the stats on the performances of congressional league players show the country to be extremely divided.

The figures – based on a University of Texas-based survey – are these:  comparing Congressional stats from the tumultuous  1967-69 racial era to those of  2011-13, the House went from a 24.2 to a 54.8 extreme-partisan rate; in the Senate, the jump was from 27.2 to 55 percent.  The survey scoreboard showed Team GOP “winning” the polarization games by 3-1 in both ballparks.

Official scorer Ezra Klein, of Bloomberg.com, says the numbers“ explode many of the easy assumptions of contemporary political punditry. For one thing, the (comparative) political unity of yesteryear largely relied on a combination of extremist views and poorly functioning parties. Congress wasn’t very polarized partly because the Democratic Party was populated by conservative Southern racists who (crossed the aisle) to block civil-rights and other liberal legislation.” 

Today, Team GOP has enough hit-hard-to-right players to keep the legislative game in deadlock.  Furthermore, as in this week’s futile effort to strengthen gun control, it can often recruit Dem switch-hitters to defy the statistical (almost 90 percent) will of the fans.  All the while, the media tend to blame the spectators rather than opposition team play for the bitter, indecisive outcomes.

Lob from Left Field:  “Whatever rage you’re feeling toward the perpetrator(s) of th(e) Boston attack, that’s the rage in sustained form that people across the world feel toward the US for killing innocent people in their countries. Whatever sadness you feel for (the) victims, the same level of sadness is warranted for the innocent people whose lives are ended by American bombs.” – Glenn Greenwald, UK Guardian

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Seems Like Old Times in the AL East, with the Red Sox and Yankees one-two at the top of the division.  John Farrell seems to have stabilized the streaking Sox, who are second to Atlanta in pitching and to the Tigers in fielding.  The Yankees, minus much of their core, are doing nicely, anyway – winning eight of their last 10, buoyed by solid pitching from the oft-shaky Ivan Nova and Phil Hughes.  Speaking of shaky, Eduardo Nunez will be playing under extreme pressure as the likely Derek Jeter-fill-in until mid-July.

On Doing Without Derek: “The Yankees say they won’t do anything drastic, but there are no alternatives…There isn’t a soul in their farm system that can replace Jeter.  They must live with a shortstop tandem of Nunez and Jayson Nix.  ‘We’re going to stay as we are,’ GM Brian Cashman says. ‘I’m happy with Nixy and Nuney, but I’d be happier with Derek.’  He was talking about the old Derek Jeter.  The one that we’ll never see again.” – Bob Nightingale, USA Today.

What Else We Know: In the NL West, the 12-4 Rockies – also streaking – are doing it with hitting, not mirrors; they’ve replaced the Tigers as the top team in batting, with a collective BA of .289 and 26 HRs.   Oakland, 12-5, in the AL West, is persuading the world it was no fluke a season ago.

Early Encomium:  “The best young pitcher in baseball” is what SI’s Cliff Corcoran calls Matt Harvey after the Mets’ sophomore starter outdueled the Nats’ Stephen Strasburg last night.  Premature?  We’ll see.

Travel Sidelight:  Going into Thursday afternoon’s game at Milwaukee – the finale of seven on the road – the Giants were 3-3.  Brewers telecasters Brian Anderson and Bill Schroeder said SF players were hopeful of going 4-3, and earning themselves a “happy flight.” The pair credited the term to Angel Pagan. “You always want to win the last game of a series on the road,” they quoted Pagan, “so you can enjoy the trip ahead.”  The Giants’ flight to Denver (site of their next series) figured to be of the unhappy-hours variety: a 7-2 SF loss gave Milwaukee a three-game sweep.       

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments about blog issues, if pertinent, will be addressed by the skipper, reachable at dickstar@aol.com.  Previous Nubs may be found by scrolling below.)

(Posted: 4/16/13)

Remember at the start of spring training the saga of the three unwanted free agents, Michael Bourn, Josh Hamilton and Kyle Lohse?  Around the same time, Theo Epstein was saying that free agents had become baseball’s “forbidden fruit.”  We now are only too aware that, despite the draft-pick and cash penalties entailed, all three were signed to generous contracts of five years, for Hamilton, with the Angels; four for Bourn, with the Indians, and three for Lohse, with the Brewers.  The alluring fruit, like the Biblical apple, was too tempting to resist.

For political front-office people, the “third rail”, tied to Social Security, is the equivalent of baseball’s free-agent warning sign.  Leave that earned-entitlement alone, is the message both righties and lefties in Washington have taken to heart…up to now.  Skipper Obama has signaled he’s ready to skim the third rail, cutting back a bit on the safety-net benefits in return for a Team GOP agreement on tax hikes.

His reasoning coincides with the widely touted baseball trend – still in its infancy – of  investing in prospects – politicos call them ‘millennials’ – over experienced players.  The National Journal’s crack stat man Ron Brownstein describes what’s happening:

“By (defend)ing entitlements over discretionary spending, the (Obama team has been) favoring the predominantly white senior population, which cast about three-fifths of its votes for Republicans in last year’s elections, over the diverse millennial generation, which voted about three-fifths Democratic… ‘Obama is ahead of his party on (changing the approach)’…says (a knowledgable scout). The president’s budget could threaten congressional Democrats in 2014…But Obama’s positioning could help Democrats deepen their grip on millennials, who will approach one-third of eligible voters by 2016.”

In the same ballpark, Brownstein notes a generally overlooked trade-off: the Skipper’s health care plan cuts back on Medicare spending so as to help cover the medical needs of uninsured working-age people.  An intra-squad liberal-centrist battle looms for the Dem team.

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Who Are These Guys? Two reasons to take the 11-1 Braves seriously: Journeyman hurler Paul Maholm is 3-0, and atop the MLB pitching stats, having given up zero runs in 20 innings.  And unheralded third baseman Chris Johnson, a throw-in when Atlanta traded Martin Prado to the D-backs’ for Justin Upton, is batting .405, and sixth among hitters in both leagues.  Boston, now 8-4, and first in its division, can boast long-heralded (up and down) starter Clay Buchholz.  Like Maholm, Buchholz is 3-0, and has yielded only a single run in 22 innings.

They’re Baaack!  A month from now, Roy Halladay and Josh Beckett will turn 36 and 33, respectively. Together, they have a total of 29 major league seasons and 332 victories behind them.  Their best years were also considered behind them…until Sunday.  The pair combined to pitch 16-and-a-third innings for their teams, the Phillies and Dodgers, giving up a run each.  Halladay won his 200^th as the Phils edged the Marlins, 2-1, while Beckett struck out nine on the way to losing, 1-0, to the Diamondbacks. Washed up?  Not quite yet.

Evaluation:  John Smoltz (on TBS) on why the AL East should remain a five-team competition for the entire season.  “No team has a lights-out rotation, but all staffs are pretty solid.  The only thing that could upset a close race – a long losing streak by one of the teams.”

Exaggeration, Maybe:  Mets color man Ron Darling on the team’s young eye-opener Matt Harvey: “I’d give my World Series ring and my entire career to have his future.”

Noted from a Distance:  While the Mets were weathered out Sunday in Minnesota, two of their former players, Endy Chavez and JasonBay were at the top of Seattle’s batting order as the Mariners defeated the visiting Rangers, 4-2.  Ex-Yankee Raul Ibanez homered for the M’s, who trail Oakland and Texas in the AL West.

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(The Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to dickstar@aol.com are welcome, and only they can be addressed by the skipper.  Previous Nubs may be found by scrolling below.)