Assorted afternoon notes
Posted by: Sam Borden - Posted in Misc on Feb 02, 2010 
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These are slow days in MLB land, especially since it seems that everyone I know is either focused on this or this. Worry not – baseball will be front and center soon enough.
A few random nuggets for you this afternoon:
• Johnny Damon’s saga is slowly becoming comical. Word out of Detroit now seems to be that the Tigers are mildly interested, though that’s hardly a guarantee. Most interesting to me is that Scott Boras (as well as most agents) will often refuse to identify specific teams that may or may not be interested in their clients. Suddenly, however, Boras is openly discussing Damon and the Tigers – a move that could be emblematic of the desperate nature of Damon’s situation.
A year ago, Bobby Abreu left the Yankees and – after waiting and waiting and waiting – signed with the Angels for a fraction of his former contract on Feb. 12. What’s that adage about history repeating itself?
• The Yankees made some changes in their minor-league managing ranks. Former Charleston manager Torre Tyson has been promoted to manage the Tampa Yankees and RiverDogs hitting coach Greg Colbrunn will get his first managing job in Charleston. One would assume that Colbrunn won’t often be bringing his World Series ring to work.
• Like baseball cards? I never really got into them much (though I did like the chewing gum), but apparently Upper Deck is being sued by MLB. Money, money, money.
• Great responses to Jeff’s tech post. We’re trying our best to make this site the best both in content and ease-of-use, and we absolutely want all your feedback. Jeff’s e-mail is jmarx@lohud.com and hopefully we’ll have him check in on here with some kind regularity (monthly?) so that he can address any common questions/concerns.
LOST lost me years ago.
Sam, any word on what Luis Sojo will be doing, now or, where he’s going?
Interesting moves in Yankee minor-league land.
Anyway, Cash has one more move to make before ST. I’m sticking to that claim.
• Johnny Damon’s saga is slowly becoming comical. Word out of Detroit now seems to be that the Tigers are mildly interested, though that’s hardly a guarantee. Most interesting to me is that Scott Boras (as well as most agents) will often refuse to identify specific teams that may or may not be interested in their clients. Suddenly, however, Boras is openly discussing Damon and the Tigers – a move that could be emblematic of the desperate nature of Damon’s situation.
******************
And yet I continue to dream…………………
“History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketfull of tissues”
– Elvis Costello
Hey tom tresh 15, thanks. I arrived at about 6:30am Saturday morning, so it’s been fun weather the whole time. I don’t really mind, it was fun to see Charlotte in the snow for a change.
Johnny Damon is L
ST.
Samuel Johnson once said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Boras may view Detroit as the last refuge for his clients.
What “chewing ” gum. If there was anybody that could chew that stuff, I never met ‘em. smelled and tasted pretty good, but, you had to break it up to do anything with it….and was anything worse than those cookies that Fleer used to put in their cards? I also felt like I was chewing on one of the cards.
“as a disclaimer, i really have little interest in RAB because i’ve never liked what ben k has to say. i remember first butting heads with him over bernie williams and nothing i’ve read since has changed my opinion about his inexperience with baseball.”
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RAB is a fine site.
however, the comment section has to many ‘off color’ remarks, for my liking. Ditto for the Nom@as site
I think Ben is really good.
I wonder if there’s a way to get an “ignore” function.
Slowly becoming comical? Its been in full bloom comedy mode since the end of the regular season.
From Scott comparing Johnny to Derek Jeter……to telling the Yankees “not to bother offering any deal for less than 13 million a year”…….and, when the Yankees STILL offered him a deal (the best one he has gotten thus far), Scott lies and say the Yankees “never offered Johnny a deal”. Simply untrue.
Its been comedy at its finest from that standpoint.
From the human standpoint, as in what’s best for the player, Johnny Damon got hosed bigtime by his agent.
They are now both backed into corners begging to go to the “Scott Boras land of Wasted Contracts”, Detroit.
That’s where Scott hopes his buddy Mike Illich (Tigers owner) does him another solid the way he did with Magglio Ordonez (telling Dombrowski to play him enough to trigger his 18 million dollar 2010 option) last season.
Its the perfect test case of how to misjudge a market and hurt your client.
Players need to take greater control of their situations. If not, you end up like Johnny has and that’s not a great place to be right now.
That reminds me, I promised myself I was going to read “Everything That Rises Must Converge” before the show tonight. Time’s a wasting!
“What “chewing ” gum. If there was anybody that could chew that stuff, I never met ‘em. smelled and tasted pretty good”
The point of the bubble gum was to impart an aroma of bubble gum to the baseball cards which apparently lasts forever. I have cards from the 60′s and you can still smell the gum.
I used to collect baseball cards and kept them in a shoebox. Unfortunately, they went the way of my Archi, Richie Rich, Superman and Batman comics – that is to say, the trash
Nick in SF…Russan’s, great Sushi…Firecraker roll !!!!!
SJ: All fair points. I trying to paint it with a lighter brushstroke and you came in with a roller
Bottom line: Damon’s winter has been the “what not to do” example in Contract Negotiations 101 …
SJ, don’ you think Damon has to take some “blame” as well? Why give him a pass? If he didn’t approve of Boras’ tactics, then he should have said something. As Boras once said, he has had clients that have given him specific instructions as to where they wanted to go. Damon didn’t do that. It’s fine that he’s chasing the $$, but he should really be quiet now as he had his chance. First, months ago, he babbled about having 3 offers; now he’s making ludicrous comments about Jeter and the Yankees, as if he got hosed here by the Yankees. He also sounsd silly saying there’s still a chance he could return, as if his new team is going to trade him to the Yankees for nothing (which is what I would give up for him) if they fall out of the race.
I think Damon deserves 90% of the blame. He’s the principal. Boras works for him. For all we know, Boras advised him to accept the Yankees’ latest offer.
From the human standpoint, as in what’s best for the player, Johnny Damon got hosed bigtime by his agent.
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How can this be true? I saw a quote from J D stating that when the Yankees made the 2yr offer at $7mm per he was not ready to sign for that amount. I also think that Boras screwed up, but Johnny was a willing accomplice.
I have two shoe boxes of 1976 or 1978 Topps baseball cards in my closet. A friend of mine actually put them in team order back in high school.
Just in case things get really, really rough out there, I’m selling my gold, my baseball cards, and batteries.
“Samuel Johnson once said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”
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if this is the case, very thankful Patrick Henry, Nathan Hale, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Nathanael Greene, and other like individuals were ‘scoundrels’. As oppposed to sophisticated, elitist, loyalists.
Rich Aurilia wants to go to either the Mets or Yankees, and he is willing to accept a minor-league deal. Thoughts?
-per mlbtraderumors.com
GB, Sojo should be on the Isle of Margarita checking out his Leones de caracas in the Serie Caribe.
SJ, that human standpoint is the sad part. JD’s got a young family…sure he’s made millions, but he’s lost a lot as you’re well aware of, and his career is winding down. But that’s business, right.
It may not be a direct analogy, but one had to feel bad for Abreu when he mistimed/read the market; and look at him now. He got his chance, the proverbial foot in the door, produced and bought himself a two-year K commensurate with his skills.
One could only hope the same for for JD. I for one will be rooting for him. Once a Yankee…
I’m not sure that I can talk about my late, great collection of baseball cards without sobbing into my computer. Over 10,000 kept in a footlocker.
It’s awesome to hear from the behind the scenes guys that make the LoHud an awesome place for all of us.
If we can hear from Jeff or anyone else monthly or at the very least once a month, it would be of great appreciation.
The threaded idea is cool, as long as the Website remains similar. I like how it looks, format-wise.
vinny-b
He meant invoking patriotism against an opponent to divert attention from one’s own shortcomings.
My Dad had 12 mantle rookie cards at one point. He came back from college one weekend to find that his grandfather had been using his baseball cards to start fires in the wood stove…he got all 12 rookie cards and the only one left was a 1957 topps. Ugh.
I know where Sojo is now, but, he’s no longer managing the Tampa Yanks. Was he let go, promoted, demoted?
Tyson should do a great job for Tampa, now that he has a full coaching staff. It’ll be interesting to see how Colbrunn does handling a short staff in Charleston.
I’m not sure where this animosity towards good players that Cashman has decided he doesn’t want comes from. Abreu was an outstanding player for the Yankees. He ended up being a key player for a playoff team last year (the Angels). The Yankees will really miss him (and/or Matsui) this season because the Yankees are one short of middle of the lineup hitters, of which Abreu is one of the best. (Granderson will be an abject failure in the middle of the Yankee lineup). Anyway, I don’t get the Abreu bashing. Similarly, I don’t get the Damon bashing. The Yankees could really use him, since they have no replacement for him. The fact that no other team is willing to spend for him right now is no reason to have all of this animosity towards him. The situation is a joke, but the joke’s on us, Yankee fans, who are going to have to suffer thru Winn/Gardner in left field this year, not to mention the sloth-footed Johnson clogging up the basepaths out of the two hole. If you have animosity, it should be towards the General Manager, who, after having to spend $420 million bailout of himself to get the Yankees into the World Series last year, is once again proceeding to run the team into the ground.
don’t know if were mentioned. Reed Johnson signed with the Dodgers for $800,000. (with incentives of $250,000)
It will be interesting to see what Damon eventually signs for? I think it’s going to be less than the 7M per he could’ve had from the Yankees and it might be less than the 6M, they offered him last week.
“He meant invoking patriotism against an opponent to divert attention from one’s own shortcomings”
——————————————————
ok, Rich. I missed the context
“Rich Aurilia wants to go to either the Mets or Yankees, and he is willing to accept a minor-league deal. Thoughts?”
He will be 39 and was awful against both RH and LH pitching in 2009.
The Yankees have already met their quota for signing an aging player and hoping that he will bounce back after a poor season.
As long as Reed Johnson isn’t a Yankee, I don’t really care where he goes.
Re: Baseball cards- I don’t know about all the hoopla of EBay and value, but back in the day, we flipped cards and scaled them (up against a wall) to get more.
You had to do something to get over the Yankee teams of the mid to late sixties and early seventies.
Today you can do fantasy leagues, blog, surf the web – we had stickball, WPIX, the stadium and baseball cards.
It’s all good!
Run the team into the ground? They are the pre-season favorites to repeat.
If that’s “running the team into the ground”, i’ll take it anytime.
Avatar > Inglourious Basterds
http://oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees
Gammons (Tokyo Rose) says Dice-BB set to win 20 games this season.
I wonder if Gammons gets a cut of the ticket sales.
“I’m not sure that I can talk about my late, great collection of baseball cards without sobbing into my computer. Over 10,000 kept in a footlocker.”
we were pretty irreverent about our cards in my neighborhood and at school.
we didn’t collect them as much as played games with them- flippsies, closest to the wall, etc.
i can remember winning/losing hundreds of cards at a time.
the other crazy thing we did was put them on our bicycle spokes with clothespins for the noise it made.
i honestly can’t remember what i did with my mantle cards. i’m sure those were treated differently.
I’m looking forward to Nick Johnson setting the table for the heart of the order and Gardner doing his road racer ’round the bases.
The outfield D should make even the ESPNBoston highlight reels.
Chomping at the bit…
“I wonder if Gammons gets a cut of the ticket sales.”
I don’t think Gammons does it for the money. I think he does it for the sex.
“we were pretty irreverent about our cards in my neighborhood and at school.
we didn’t collect them as much as played games with them- flippsies, closest to the wall, etc.”
We did that. I think the ultimate goal was to get them to lean against the wall.
My father is still an avid baseball card collector.
We started building cabinets all over the house to try to accomodate it all. I knew it was officially out of hand when I returned from college and was told I couldn’t have a closet because his baseball cards were there.
We finally compromised. He let me hang my clothes, but I had to give him the whole top shelf of the closet as well as the floor space
GB, you’ve refreshed my recollection…re: Mantle and Pepitone cards. They were never scaled or flipped.
Very cool the bicycle thing; never did it, but you could hear one go by, with its distinctive buzz.
Bold prediction: dice K will stink next and and the rest of his time in the big leagues because he’s just not that good and the deception period is over. He can’t throw strikes and stay ahead consistently.
we were pretty irreverent about our cards in my neighborhood and at school.
we didn’t collect them as much as played games with them- flippsies, closest to the wall, etc.”
=====================================================
When I was a kid, our neighbors knew the Toppings, who then owned the Yankees. They gave me a ball signed by Mantle, Berra, Ford, and the rest of that team, 61 or 62. I was very young and actually used the ball to play catch, then misplaced it. Dumb beyond belief. My parents did not know much about baseball.
Rich in NJ, if you got it to lean against the wall, you were a likely winner, unless your card got covered by another leaner: the ultimate blend of luck and skill.
vinny-b –
I also found the “salty” language at RAB off-putting, self-indulgent and very unnecessary.
I thought accusing someone of questioning your patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel.
just when I thought we were done with Gammons, he comes back to pollute the airwaves with his constant Boston propaganda.
Gammons could use some cosmetic dentistry.
Gammons has no shame. He makes Baghdad Bob blush.
randy l.
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:04 pm
“I’m not sure that I can talk about my late, great collection of baseball cards without sobbing into my computer. Over 10,000 kept in a footlocker.”
we were pretty irreverent about our cards in my neighborhood and at school.
we didn’t collect them as much as played games with them- flippsies, closest to the wall, etc.
i can remember winning/losing hundreds of cards at a time.
the other crazy thing we did was put them on our bicycle spokes with clothespins for the noise it made.
i honestly can’t remember what i did with my mantle cards. i’m sure those were treated differently.
————————————————————
Excuse my while I dab the tears from my swolen eyes. Seldom traded the extra Yankee cards and never the Mantle cards. I had all of the Topps, Fleer and Post Cerial Mantle cards, including two of the Mantle Topps first year cards. My mom gave everything to the kid next door when I was in Vietnam. It was years later when I told her the value of some of those cards, including the old Ruth, gehrig and DiMaggio cards.
But yet the comedic saga of Johnny Damon would not be complete without mentioning his superior DNA.
shockingly, Crypt-keeper Gammons is only 65. He looks much, much older.
***swollen***
Dang GB, Ruth, Gehrig and Dimaggio cards. Never had it that good.
Tresh, Kekich, Bahnsen, Stick Michael and No-neck Williams cards was my neighborhood.
“Gammons could use some cosmetic dentistry”
————————————————
at least you didn’t say Austin Powers.
don’t have anything personally against him, but it was refreshing when it was only the jocks at the desk on MLB Hot Stove. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Those were the days
the Colt 45′s. Would this nickname make it in today’s world?
: )
Bronx Jeers -
Of all the things that were said, that particular speech by Boras about Damon I found not only the most amusing, but the most insulting and, well, plain dumb. Superior genetics! Sheesh!
Apparently, Sojo quit/was fired by his Dominican team. Ken Oberkfeld is managing now.
I don’t have anything against Gammons personally either. He seems like a nice person but it was annoying when he was supposed to be an unbiased reporter for ESPN and all he ever talked about was the Sox. At least he just stopped the act and started working for NESN.
vinny-b
It didn’t exactly make it back then. But wasn’t that a beer?
GreenBeret7
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:19 pm
I do understand GB! I had a box that housed a 25″ TV filled with shoe boxes of meticuously organized baseball cards from the early 50′s thru 1972. A kid down the street from me gave me his early 50′s cards when I was very young. While I was at college my Mom took them to the curb for trash. My cards were in mint or better condition. I had 5 Mantle Rookie Cards (1951 Bowmans) & several of his 1952 Topps as well as multiples of every other year he played. She left one box of cards that were not in the big box out of her destruction. A sick empty feeling still is in the pit of my stomach over this. I also had Ted Williams & Yogi cards as well and the entire 51 thru 55 Bowman set. The only one of those cards that survived was my uncles card that I mailed for him to sign for me.
History never repeats
I tell myself before I go to sleep
Don’t say the words you might regret
I’ve LOST before you know I can’t forget
“I don’t have anything against Gammons personally either”
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I know Blake. I didn’t take it that way.
“It didn’t exactly make it back then. But wasn’t that a beer?”
——————————————
Doreen: yes it is. The team either represented a gun or Malt Liquor. Take your choice
People may be laughing at Damon’s situation, but I guarantee you that he’s not. I feel sorry for the guy. This is one of those times when having Boras as your agent does you more harm than good.
“At least he just stopped the act and started working for NESN”
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and MLB Network unfortunately
When I was in college my roomate once won a case of Colt 45 40s at some dive bar. That was an awful night.
Nobody that I knew had Bowman cards. Jay’s potato chips, jello/Post, armour canned and packaged meats, Oscar Meyer all had cards. My grandfather and his brother gave me all of their old cards from tobacco cans to get me started when I was young. Thst’s where I got my love of vaseball. I became a Yankee fan and they threatened to take the cards back when they found out. They were Cardinal and Cub fans. They never failed to take me to see the Yanks in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland when the Yanks played, though. They had all girls and I was the only baseball fan in the family.
Damon in left field at Comerica stadium? He’d have to throw the ball twice to make it to 2nd base.
love of vaseball
I also loved baseball.
Vaseball was only played on rainy days. Broke my share of those.
56Bomber February 2nd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Damon in left field at Comerica stadium? He’d have to throw the ball twice to make it to 2nd base.
———-
Or he’d need Manny to cut off the throw.
Vinny,
What did I say to make you think that I dislike Gammons as a person. I said jokingly that he could use some cosmetic dentistry. I actually like him, just not that he talks about the Sox so much.
He’s a fellow tarheel so a can’t dislike him too much.
Vinny,
Disregard my last post..I misread what you wrote.
“Or he’d need Manny to cut off the throw”
—————————————————-
my favorite all-time Manny Ramirez moment.
still remember John Kruk laughing his *** off, while they were recapping on Baseball Tonight.
Wonderful
“Gammons could use some cosmetic dentistry”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I just looked at a one dollar bill and George Washington had better teeth and they were wooden.
Sojo resigned so he could spend the summer in Venezuela, for whoever asked.
Let me get this straight. Pecota said…
1st, The Rays would win the AL East.
Then it was revised to sux would tie The Yankees.
It was again updated to sux would win by 1 game.
Now RAB is reporting there’s been a new “Upon further consideration” Pecota picks the Yankees to win the AL East.
Are these fools drunk?
I guess the Winn signing made a bigger difference than we thought..either that or they looked back and saw that the WS champs are better on paper than they were last year and they had them 3rd in the division.
Salty buggar-
Look at it this way, they made the Rays fans very happy for a day. They had sox happy with hope, and finally they came back to earth and got real!! Yankees rule!!
The Tigers owner (Mike Llitch) may be a pizza baron (Caesar’s Pizza) but he’s saddled down with some bad contracts and a nearly 25% unemployment situation in Detroit.
Boras better use his best sales technique or Damon won’t land there either.
In what should have been the No. 2 client to sell, Boras severly misjudged the market but then again, Damon overestimated his worth to the Yankees with only himself to blame.
The Damon situation could have been avoided. I believe he is to blame. I also believe Boras is to blame. Each set the bar so high, no team was going to come close to the terms.
Ego’s prevented Damon from returning to The Bronx.
Now he’s left to basically beg for a job and a very, very discounted price.
Why isn’t Cashman to blame? I think Cashman, the accountant, had mentally written Damon off the books. Now that there are no other takers, Cashman is faced with a contingency he hadn’t expected, re-signing Damon for a lot less. Its something he should have been considering all along since he never had a replacement for Damon. Now, instead of readjusting his tactics, Cashman would rather hurl accusations over the fence at Damon and Boras. If Cashman were doing his job as a competent GM, he would be working hard to get Damon back at a good price instead of being stuck with two schlocks in left field and a lead-footed top of the order hitter.
The schlocks in left field don’t have to be able to hit according to the intelligentsia on this board. That is the greatest of all wives tales.
It would be funny (not really) if Damon signs with the Tigers (or any team) for one dollar less than the Yankees are paying Randy Winn, and then Cash has to explain why Winn is playing LF for the Yankees and not Damon!
Vrsce
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:11 pm
When I was a kid, our neighbors knew the Toppings, who then owned the Yankees. They gave me a ball signed by Mantle, Berra, Ford, and the rest of that team, 61 or 62. I was very young and actually used the ball to play catch, then misplaced it. Dumb beyond belief. My parents did not know much about baseball.
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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! That was a collective scream from the LowHud blog readers.