“Harold Reynolds: Baseball's stars born of its heroes - Denver Post” plus 2 more |
- Harold Reynolds: Baseball's stars born of its heroes - Denver Post
- Kawakami: Freddy Sanchez joins list of Giants heroes with three doubles - San Jose Mercury News
- Giants' run-fest continues with rout of Rangers for 2-0 World Series lead - Seattle Times
| Harold Reynolds: Baseball's stars born of its heroes - Denver Post Posted: 28 Oct 2010 11:53 PM PDT The MLB broadcaster and former all-star talks Rockies, World Series and Clint Hurdle  Harold Reynolds. (MLB) Ever wanted to ask a sports personality a question? Now's your chance. They will answer readers' questions in The Denver Post's "Fan Mail" feature. In this edition, two-time all-star infielder and current MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds fires strikes about instant replay, why Tulo is his 2010 MVP, the emergence of CarGo and what must be done to get more African-Americans in the big leagues. Keep an eye out for next week's installment when Rockies manager Dan O'Dowd takes questions. Send your queries in an email to fanmail@denverpost.com. Hey Harold, one of the hot topics in baseball, of course, is replay. What's your opinion on replay and how this could make the major league game better? Could it harm the future of baseball? I believe the NFL has been able to implement this successfully. Harold Reynolds: Well, that's a tough one because it's so controversial, and I mean that in all senses of the word because baseball's a game where we have a human element involved. Baseball is more intimate up-close and you're going to have a lot of pitches thrown -- there are 250 pitches thrown in a game, so you're going to have a lot of mistakes and a lot of plays. That said, I think we're moving toward expanding replay. There's a lot of evidence that's pushing it that way and fortunately we have a commissioner who's open to it. We've watched him move through it by appointing a committee to evaluate the game and he listens to their input. The suggestion and thought that I've always had -- and I've heard others give the same suggestion -- is that you should have a fifth umpire in a booth. Give the umpire crew chief an earpiece; they look at the replay together and huddle up and the fifth umpire says "Hey, we need to reverse it," or "You've got it right, leave it alone." We've already got it with  Harold Reynolds, middle, has been a fixture of late on the MLB Network broadcasting booth. (Special to The Denver Post) I heard in an interview the other day how a lot of East Coast fans may not know much about the San Francisco Giants because their games are always on so late at night. It seems like West Coast and smaller market teams just don't get as much national attention. Do you think this could be a "time zone" issue or is it just a "smaller market" issue or not an issue at all? HR: Clearly, time zone is a simple answer. I live out east now but I grew up on the West Coast. Now that I've lived out east for the last 12-15 years of my life, I understand the difference. My simple answer is that most of MLB's teams originated out east. West Coast clubs are very young when you start looking at the history of baseball. In that sense, you're going to have a little bit of a bias because most people who grew up with them are still following the East Coast clubs and the ones that are popular out west are the Brooklyn Dodgers, who are now in Los Angeles, and the New York Giants, who are now in San Francisco. Colorado, Seattle, Arizona, all of those newer clubs need to build their own fan base and it's going to take time. It's taken years for the Yankees to have the following that they have and I don't think anybody can expect that to happen overnight.I know that when you were first drafted, you declined to sign with the San Diego padres and instead decided to play with a college team in California. Based on your experiences, do you think that it's better for young players to sign with a team right away? Or should they wait until they feel they have mastered their game? Also, with the playoffs well under way, do you like Bud Selig's idea of extending the number of wild-card teams in a couple of years from now? HR: As to your first question, this is a case-by-case situation. I think it comes down to maturity and opportunity. I look back to when I was 18 years old, coming out of high school. I had two older brothers playing pro baseball and I knew I wasn't ready to ride a bus. I just wasn't going to be ready to wash my clothes, do all the things that are required and still be able to focus on playing baseball and have that be a career. In the next year, circumstances changed for me in college. I transferred schools, ended up back in the draft. I got drafted at a higher spot and I also grew up in that year where I knew I was ready to go. I've been asked this through the years. I had a big debate when I was in Seattle with a friend of mine saying that Ken Griffey Jr. should've gone to college. He was 19-years old and playing in the big leagues. Nineteen years-old! But Ken Griffey Jr. proved that he could handle it. Some people cannot. So, it's on an individual basis. As for extending the playoffs, I like it. I think it adds to the competitive balance and I think baseball can handle it. Right now the system has been terrific but it does have a flaw, and that flaw is that the wild card has the same advantage of any other club that gets into the postseason. (Wild card teams) should have a disadvantage. They should have to play a play-in game, and that's what this would be, a play-in series so that you're not walking into the playoffs with your pitching lined up the same as the club who just one 100 games. It's not fair. I think this will make our game better and the playoffs better and eventually the World Series, and it will weed out the best teams that will win. In today's ever-changing game, in my opinion, each position evolves because of what stars make of the position. Younger generations emulate their stars and try to be like them and play their positions. Witness Pee Wee Reese, Ozzie Smith, Cal Ripken, Alex Rodriguez, and now, Troy Tulowitzki at shortstop. How do you see the progression at second base from Jackie Robinson, Joe Morgan, Ryne Sandberg and Roberto Alomar to today's best? Who is the best star of today at second base that you believe today's generation of youth baseball players should model their game after in regards to that position? HR: I think younger players have to pick out the person that fits them best. If you're smaller in stature and you're a little scrappier, then you don't get any better than Dustin Pedroia. If you're like Robbie Cano and you're 6-foot-1 and you can drive the ball and you've got a great arm, that's a great guy to emulate. Second base is probably the deepest position in all of baseball. You starting looking at Chase Utley, Robinson Cano, Dustin Pedroia, Ian Kinsler and it's the deepest position that's got the most all-star potential every year. Do you think the Yankees will have any problem acquiring Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee (during the offseason)? HR: I hope Cliff Lee stays in Texas for baseball's sake. He's found a great fit, he's got tremendous respect, and he's going to get that respect anywhere. There's no doubt that the Yankees are probably going to throw an incredible offer at him and there are very few teams in baseball that could match it, but it would be nice to see him stay in Texas and be an example to other players that you don't just have to go to New York to get the money. He would give that organization a guy to look up to and be a foundation. I think the Rangers are going to be in the playoffs for the next 5-10 years, that's the time of run they're getting ready to go on. They remind me of the young Yankees with the Core Four (of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte). If I'm Cliff Lee, after a while, you're going to get a big contract. I think he's going to pick where he wants to go and the team where he feels he's going to be competitive. And I think Texas is going to be very competitive. How do you rank Troy Tulowitzki among the top shortstops or players in baseball? As a middle infielder, how do you rate the Tulo-Clint Barmes double play combination? I enjoy your baseball knowledge and insights. HR: Tulo is one of the top players in baseball, not just at shortstop. I picked him to be my MVP for the National League in 2010, that's how much I respect his abilities. He has an incredible throwing arm, great power, hits for average -- everything you look for, including leadership quality. It's all there. As far as Barmes is concerned, he doesn't play every day, so it's hard for me to say that that's a combination. I don't look at the Rockies and say that Barmes and Tulowitzki are a combination like (Chase) Utley and (Jimmy) Rollins. I know they're there every day. One day you might see Eric Young Jr. at second base, so I don't look at it like it's an etched-in-stone, Lou Whitaker-Alan Trammell combination. There has been some early speculation that Clint Hurdle might become the new manager of the Mets. You have been around the Mets enough to have a feel for that team. What do you think, is that a good match? HR: I think Clint Hurdle would be terrific as the Mets' manager. The No. 1 thing you've got to do in New York is handle the media. X's and O's, all those things can take care of themselves, but you have to be able to handle the media in New York. What I mean by that is you have to be accessible, you have to forthright, you have to answer tough questions, you have to lay your cards on the table and Clint Hurdle would do all of that. On top of that, I think he's a terrific baseball person. He's got a real grasp on things. He did a terrific job in Colorado and he's done a fantastic job in Texas as the hitting coach. His resume speaks for itself, but I think the thing that separates him from most other managers is his ability to communicate and handle the media. Harold, you obviously love baseball, but the game doesn't seem to have caught on with the current generation of African-Americans. My question: Do you think baseball will ever regain its popularity with black sports fans in America? HR: I think there is a resurgence, so to speak. It's not necessarily that the African-American community is not following baseball. I think they are. I think Major League Baseball's done a great job with the RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner cities) program, but I also think that we're starting to see younger stars, and you need them for young black kids to look up to. I wouldn't have gotten involved in baseball if I didn't have all the figures in the 1970's that I grew up seeing. Now several of the role models that African-Americans identify with in sports are in football or on the basketball court. I think we need to get guys like CC Sabathia, Derek Jeter, Jimmy Rollins, Justin Upton, B.J. Upton, who are All-Star players, front and center.The last thing is, I think we have to make it fair and competitive. A lot of times when I watch college baseball, there aren't any African-American players. I'm just being frank. I did the College World Series for 10 years and I can count on two hands how many black players I saw. As long as there are 11.7 scholarships available, it's going to be very difficult to allow lower income families -- not just black players, but lower income families - to play college baseball. If we continue to have the mindset that we're only going to draft college baseball players, then you eliminate an entire generation. That's what happened when I look back at "Moneyball" and all the systems that we're now accustomed to. We cut out a whole generation of ballplayers because we said we were only drafting college players. We have to change that system. I see a change happening now with some clubs starting to draft kids who are younger and come from lower-income families, and they're not having to go to every camp to be evaluated and fit in. They're scouting them and finding them. So we've had a flawed system. It's not that African-Americans aren't playing -- they are playing. I think the system that was in place did not allow them to be in a situation or put themselves in a position to be drafted. Harold, the NL players just voted Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies as the league's outstanding player. How much have you seen of him? What are your impressions and how good a player can he be? HR: We're looking at one of the greats for the next 10 years. His name will be penciled in for an All-Star Game almost every season. He's going to right at the top with batting titles, home runs, RBIs like we saw this year and possibly a Triple Crown guy. He's a once-in-a-generation player. I think he's phenomenal. Harold Reynolds, a two-time American League all-star, has long been considered one of the best baseball analysts on television. He's an Emmy-award winner who now works as an MLB Network studio analyst and is covering the World Series between the Giants and the Rangers. Reynolds joined MLB.com in 2007 as a baseball commentator and in 2008 joined the New York Mets' pre- and post-game coverage on SNY as a baseball commentator. Reynolds also worked on TBS' Sunday Baseball MLB Playoff coverage in 2008. From 1996-2006 Reynolds worked as a studio analyst for ESPN's award-winning "Baseball Tonight" and also provided commentary for the Little League and College World Series for ESPN and ABC Sports. Reynolds made his big-league debut with the Seattle Mariners in 1983, spending 10 of his 12 Major League seasons with the club, earning two All-Star berths and three Gold Glove awards at second base. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Kawakami: Freddy Sanchez joins list of Giants heroes with three doubles - San Jose Mercury News Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:33 AM PDT Click photo to enlarge Game One World Series/Texas @ Giants Oct. 27, 2010. Freddie Sanchez celebrates scoring on Cody Ross' fifth inning double. Sanchez himself hit three successive doubles to lead the Giants' scoring attack. (Josie Lepe/Mercury News)  This is the laser-hitting, large-moment Freddy Sanchez the Giants thought they acquired more than a year ago, though it did take some time and waiting and some more time and more waiting. But wouldn't you know it? Just like every other brilliant and fortuitously calibrated moment of this breathtaking Giants season, Sanchez picked the perfect time to burst back into absolute prominence. Game 1 of the World Series, matched against the previously unhittable Cliff Lee, with the ground shaking beneath the Giants' feet. That's a pretty good time to justify the trade, his reputation and everything about the Giants' postseason fortitude. Oh, and the 32-year-old second baseman spark-plugged the Giants' rally from an early deficit to clobber Lee and the Texas Rangers 11-7 on Wednesday at AT&T Park and take a 1-0 lead in the World Series. "Obviously anybody that knows me, that's close to me, knows it's been a long road from the day I got traded here to now," Sanchez said after raking three doubles against Lee. Historically speaking, Sanchez became the first player to hit doubles in his first three World Series at-bats. Ever. And he did it against Lee, who was 7-0 in the postseason before losing this one. "Obviously, for no one to have done that yet, it's something special," Sanchez said. "For just a little guy like me to go out there and be able to do it. "But getting the win was the most important thing."Almost single-handedly (doubles-handedly?), Sanchez outslugged the Rangers and set the tone for this series. You could say this was just Sanchez's turn in the hero's spotlight, after Cody Ross, Juan Uribe, Buster Posey and others great and nondescript have one by one lifted the Giants in each successive moment. But Sanchez actually has been ripping the ball for many games now after he admittedly was a bit tight and apprehensive in the first round of the playoffs. This would seem natural for a player who never sniffed the postseason in his years with Pittsburgh, and maybe was a little troubling coming from someone who seemed fairly content there, until the trade to the Giants in July 2009. After he was acquired for minor league pitcher Tim Alderson, specifically to help the Giants in the stretch run, Sanchez only played in 25 games the rest of that season because of various injuries. Even this year, fighting a shoulder problem, Sanchez didn't get into the lineup until May 19. Was Sanchez big enough for the big, big games? Was he ever going to be the difference-maker the Giants thought they were getting? Sanchez hit only .125 in the first-round series against Atlanta but said he wasn't nervous, just maybe a little amped up. "Just getting real anxious, real big," Sanchez said. "I tried to just relax at the plate. I don't think it had anything to do with being obviously nervous or anything like that. "I think it was just more anxious "... just trying to do too much." On Wednesday, he started it off by fighting off a tough Lee pitch and nudging it down the right-field line for a first-inning double. Sanchez erased that by misreading a popup and getting doubled off of second base, but his momentum was not disrupted. In the third inning, Sanchez ripped a double on an inside fastball, which drove in the Giants' first run (after Texas took a 2-0 lead). "He jump-started us, no getting around that," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. For his next magic trick -- err, at-bat -- Sanchez blasted a double into the left-center gap after Andres Torres' one-out double in the fifth, which gave the Giants a 3-2 lead. He clearly was seeing Lee better than any hitter has seen Lee in years. "A couple of those pitches we wanted to get a little deeper in on him," Texas manager Ron Washington said of Sanchez. "But that guy can hit, man." To finish off his gaudy 4-for-5 night (with three RBIs and two runs scored), Sanchez stroked a shot down the right-field line in the eighth for a play that was badly misplayed by Vladimir Guerrero -- Sanchez reached second on a single plus an error. Asked how he approached Lee, Sanchez repeated a theme of the Giants when they have faced great pitchers this postseason -- they knew Lee was going to be around the plate, so they went up hacking. Sanchez also was one of the best hitters in baseball against left-handed pitching this year, and today the Giants face Texas left-hander C.J. Wilson. Sanchez now has hits in his past six games, starting with Game 2 of the NLCS, and is hitting .520 (13 for 25) over that span. That's against pitchers including Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Oswalt again and now Lee. "Freddy is a great player -- I mean, this guy did win the batting title one year," Bochy said. "He can hit, and he can hit good pitching, and he showed that tonight, and really, throughout the playoffs. "I know he's having fun with this. He hasn't been in this situation, as a couple of them haven't." Yes, just when they needed someone else, the Giants were presented with another highlight machine. "I'm not worried about being a hero," Sanchez said. "I'm just trying to help put our team in a position to win ballgames." They do keep doing that, again and again, in different ways, with different heroes, and this time it was the guy they've been waiting for. And the wait is over. Read Tim Kawakami's Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami. Contact him at tkawakami@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5442. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Giants' run-fest continues with rout of Rangers for 2-0 World Series lead - Seattle Times Posted: 28 Oct 2010 08:18 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Matt Cain shut down the Texas Rangers with the type of suffocating pitching that put the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Two more games like this and they'll win the World Series. Cain was sharp, the Rangers bullpen was not and San Francisco broke away for a 9-0 win Thursday night. The Giants headed to Texas with a 2-0 lead that looked to come way too easily. Edgar Renteria reprised his October success with a go-ahead home run, and the Giants erupted with seven runs in the eighth, the biggest inning in their postseason history. Four straight two-out walks by Texas relievers let the game out of control. At this rate, team president and part-owner Nolan Ryan probably wants to grab a ball himself and get on the mound. Texas set a record for most runs allowed in a franchise's first two Series games. "You take all the runs you can get," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's nice to have a cushion going into the ninth." Cain drew frenzied ovations from a crowd waving Halloween-colored orange pompons, a day after the Giants won the opener 11-7. San Francisco pushed across just 19 runs against Philadelphia in the six-game NL Championship Series but has outscored Texas 20-7 and outhit the Rangers .314 to .227. "I think that more or less it has to do with the pitching we've been facing," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "We had some opportunities early in the ballgame to put some runs on the board, and we had the right people up there, and he made his pitches." C.J. Wilson allowed Renteria's fifth-inning homer, then left the mound accompanied by a trainer with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand after a leadoff walk in the seventh. Juan Uribe added a run-scoring single against reliever Darren Oliver. "This blister is something he's been dealing with all year," Washington said. "He'll put some glue on it and do whatever he has to do to close it up." San Francisco pulled away as Washington again made bullpen moves too late. Derek Holland relieved with a man on and forced in a run with three straight walks, the last to Aubrey Huff, and Mark Lowe forced in another run with a walk to Uribe. Renteria, whose 11th-inning single won Game 7 of the 1997 Series for Florida against Cleveland, followed with a two-run single to left. Pinch-hitter Aaron Rowand hit a two-run triple against Michael Kirkman, and Andres Torres doubled in a run. Cain allowed four hits in 7-2/3 innings, struck out two and walked two — one intentional. With the Giants ahead 2-0, left-handed specialist Javier Lopez retired Josh Hamilton on a lazy fly out to strand a runner on second in the eighth. As fans stood cheering, Guillermo Mota completed the four-hitter. Forty of the previous 51 teams to take a 2-0 lead have gone on to win the title, including seven straight and 13 of the past 14. The last to overcome a 2-0 deficit was the 1996 New York Yankees against Atlanta. The Giants have won each time they took a 2-0 lead: in 1922, 1933 and 1954. San Francisco improved to 11-0 against Texas at AT&T Park and got its third shutout in nine postseason wins. The Giants sent the high-octane Rangers offense to its first shutout since Sept. 23. But after a day off, the Series resumes for the first time in Arlington, Texas. Colby Lewis starts Game 3 for the Rangers on Saturday night against Jonathan Sanchez. "I don't think we caught any breaks yet," Washington said. "We certainly don't feel like we're defeated. We're heading home. They took care of us in their ballpark, now we're headed to ours." By the end, the sellout crowd was chanting "Sweep! Sweep!" And as some gleeful fans filed out, they told friendly ushers, "See you next year." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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