The SoapBoxers

NFL Draft

The 2010 draft will kick off Thursday night, with a new three day format.  In the past, the draft took place on Saturday and Sunday.  This year’s draft will be split across three days.  First round picks will be Thursday night, the next two rounds will be Friday night, and the final four rounds will occur on Saturday.  The NFL is making this move to try to score higher TV ratings for the draft.  I see this as a losing proposition for fans, though.  In the past, the Saturday start to the draft lent itself very nicely to draft parties.  A Thursday night draft doesn’t work quite as well for those who have work the next day.

After releasing longtime quarterback Marc Bulger, the St. Louis Rams are expected to select a quarterback with the top overall pick.  The general consensus is that this year’s crop of quarterbacks doesn’t have the slam-dunk guy who is a near-guaranteed star.  Barring a trade, the Rams are expected to pick Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, whose injury derailed the Sooners’ 2009 season.

Speaking of the Rams, their ownership is still in flux.  When majority owner Georgia Frontiere passed away in 2008, her 60% stake of the team was inherited by her children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez.  Now, they have chosen to sell their stake in the team.  They accepted a bid from Illinois businessman Shahid Khan (check out his Wikipedia bio for a great immigrant-makes-good story).  However, minority owner (40%) Walter  Kroenke has an option to match any offer.  At the end of his window to match the offer, Kroenke announced that he would exercise his option.

There’s a wrinkle in the plan, though.  The NFL bans owners from owning franchises (in other sports) in other NFL cities.  Kroenke owns the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Denver Avalanche – and would thus be barred from buying the Rams, unless this rule is waived, or unless he sells the Colorado teams (his 40% stake in the Rams was grandfathered during a 2005 expansion of this cross-ownership rule).  I’m really not a huge fan of the rule, as it doesn’t make much sense to me.  Some people think the Kroenke has a legitimate interest in becoming sole owner of the Rams, whereas others see this as posturing in an effort to get Khan to pay more for Kroenke’s 40%.  Only time will tell.

Another player sure to be drafted high in the NFL draft is Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.  Suh is expected to be grabbed in the first three picks.  Suh already has a massive fan base in Husker Nation – but he may have gained a few more on Saturday.  During Nebraska’s spring game, Suh announced his intention to donate $2.6 million to the university.  $2 million will go toward the strength and conditioning program within the athletic department.  $600,000 will go toward endowing a scholarship in the college of engineering – from which he earned his degree.  Suh’s family is yet another story of immigrants living the American dream.  His Jamaican-born mother and Cameroon-born father  met in Oregon in 1982.  There will certainly be some 2010 draftees who get into trouble in the future – but I sincerely doubt that Ndamukong Suh will be one of them.  He’s a great player and an all-around class act.  I say this despite the fact that I hate the University of Nebraska.  It’s hard to root against the kid.

Be Like Ike

On the baseball beat, Ike Davis was called up by the Mets on Monday.  Not coincidentally, players called up on Sunday would have received credit for an entire season of service time; those called up on Monday only get credit for actual time served (I explained how this works when I answered the question of why Stephen Strasburg got sent to the minors).  The effect of delaying Davis’ call-up until now is that he will not become a free agent until after the 2016 season.  Down the coast in Atlanta, 20 year old Jason Heyward broke camp with the Braves and is off to a great start.  However, barring a demotion at some point, this means that Heyward will become a free agent following the 2015 season.  A few weeks in April make a lot of difference down the line.

If you’re a longtime reader of The Soap Boxers, you’re familiar with Davis’ name.  He was one of the players selected with draft picks the Mets received as compensation for losing Tom Glavine to free agency.  Chalk up that exchange as a win for the Mets.

Where There’s a Will

Mike and Mike in the morning were talking with George Will this morning and mentioned that his book Men At Work will be re-released next month.  It’s 20 years old, but one of my favorite baseball books.  Will picks the minds of 80’s baseball icons such as Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. to see what makes them tick.  (Yes, this is the same George Will who writes about politics).

When I was looking up the book in Amazon so that I could link to it, one of the books that popped up in “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought …” was Jim Bouton’s Ball Four.  Ball Four takes an even more interesting look way behind the scenes of baseball.  It’s a great read, but there’s adult language and situations, so it’s not the sort of book to use as a bedtime story for your kids.  (There’s no logical reason to talk about Ball Four today, othe than the Amazon connection.  It’s just a good book 🙂

On Sunday, Mitch Albom launched a surprise attack on fantasy baseball in Parade Magazine. 

Albom starts off by pointing out that on any given day, fifteen million people check fantasy baseball stats – more fans than are actually in the stands to watch a game that day.  Albom sees this as a bad thing.  The fire marshals probably see this as a good thing.  In order for fifteen million people to attend a game on a particular day, it would entail each of the fifteen games to have a million people in the stands.  That would be fine – except that the maximum capacity of most stadiums is around fifty thousand. 

Albom also seems to be splitting the followers of baseball into “fantasy folks” and regular fans.  Albom must know a different group of fantasy players than I do.  In my leagues, all of the participants are also big fans of a Major League team.  While I’d love to see my Yura Peeins or Bats in the Belfry teams win titles in their respective leagues, I’d much prefer to see the Colorado Rockies win the division.

Why, then, do I even bother with fantasy baseball?

First of all, to kill the dead time in the schedule.  I absolutely love baseball.  There are, sadly, a handful off days during the season on which the Rockies don’t play.  Being able to actively follow other teams on these days (as well as during the hours the Rockies aren’t playing on other days) staves off the depression that would otherwise set in from lack of Rockies.  While I have a defined order of preference for Major League teams, it’s fun to have some somewhat random players to root for.  (By the way, if you’re looking for an entertaining tale of fantasy baseball, check out Sam Walker’s Fantasyland.)

There is also the actual nature of fantasy baseball.  I consider it to be much more challenging than other fantasy sports.  In football, there is a reasonable correlation between yards and touchdowns.  In basketball, the best centers are going post strong numbers in points, rebounds, and blocks. 

This isn’t the case in baseball, though.  It’s extremely rare to see a player put up strong numbers in all categories.  Prince Fielder of the Brewers is a great offensive player, but he kills you in steals.  Conversely, Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners will give you steals, but few homers.  There is also the issue of positional flexibility.  In the other sports, the position is set.  A wide receiver does not suddenly become a quarterback.  However, in baseball, it is not uncommon to see players log time at a few different positions.  It can be advantageous to have a player who is eligible at multiple positions (so that he can fill in for injured players) even if his offensive ceiling is not as high as others.

Albom says that “if you program a computer correctly, it can play an entire fantasy season without you.”  While this is true (in fact, no programming is necessary), it’s very unlikely that you can WIN this way.  Fantasy baseball is very much an art – determining which of the inevitable sacrifices to make during the season.

Albom’s main assumption seems to be that people use fantasy baseball as a replacement for the real thing.  However, in my experience, this is not the case.  Instead, people use fantasy baseball to supplement the main activity of following their favorite team.

Sorry, Mitch, you struck out on this one.

The rosin bag

Rockies Nation was exuberant on Saturday evening.  26 year old staff ace Ubaldo Jimenez handcuffed the Atlanta Braves en route the first no-hitter in Rockies history.  Baldo’s control was lacking in the early innings.  He walked six batters in the first five innings.  At that point, pitching coach Bob Apodaca noticed that Jimenez was pitching better from the stretch (a shorter motion typically used only when there are runners on base) than he was from the windup.  Jimenez pitched the rest of the game from the stretch and didn’t walk another hitter.  Jimenez was still throwing in the high 90s at the end of the game (after touching 100 several times earlier in the game).  Ubaldo has flown under the radar of casual fans a bit, but many experts consider him to be among the elite pitchers in the game,

After I finished listening to the Jimenez’s no-hitter, I switched over to the Cardinals-Mets game.  The game had started at 3 PM Central time.  By the time I tuned in (thanks to a heads-up from The Angry Squirrel) the game was in the 14^th inning, tied at 0-0.  Eventually, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa decided against draining his pitching staff any further (he had already used eight pitchers).  Shortstop Felipe Lopez  pitched a scoreless 18^th inning.  Outfielder Joe Mather then took the mound in the 19^th.  He surrendered run to the Mets, but Cardinals matched it in the bottom of the frame.  Mather finally took the loss after giving up a run in the 20^th.

 I doubt that there was a more popular player in the clubhouse after the game, however.  The Cardinals had Sunday’s game to think about (they won that game) and someone needed to take one for the team.  As it turned out, La Russa didn’t need to worry about the bullpen for Sunday’s game – Adam Wainwright turned in a complete game.

The Baltimore Orioles, at 2-11, are 7 ½ games behind the front running Yankees in the American League East.  It may be time for Orioles fans to start looking at promising college sophomores and high school juniors, in anticipation of the O’s landing the top pick in next year’s draft.

An interesting thing about baseball is that every field is different.  The dimensions are different, the amount of foul territory is different, and the altitude is different (see Coors Field for a good example of this).

For this reason, baseball statistics must be taken in their proper context.  The typical way to do this is to calculate a “park factor” for a park and adjust a player’s statistics according.  ESPN has a page devoted to this.  However, their park factors are, for lack of a better word, wrong.  Let’s investigate.

The formula ESPN uses (using runs as an example) is:

((homeRS + homeRA)/(homeG)) / ((roadRS + roadRA)/(roadG))

 (RS = Runs Scored.  RA = Runs Allowed.  HomeG = Home Games.)

Here’s a very simple example:

Rockies 6, Padres 3 @ Coors Field

Rockies  4, Padres 2 @ Petco Park
 

The park factors for runs would be:

Coors: 

((6+3)/1)/((4+2)/1))

9/6 = 1.500

Petco

((4+2)/1)/((6+3)/1))

6/9 = .667

 
On the face, this looks pretty solid.  However, it relies on one flawed assumption: all teams are on a level playing field for road games.  However, this is not true.  Baseball has an unbalanced schedule in which you play many more games against teams in your own division that you do against teams in other division.  Your road stats will be affected by the fact that you play a disproportionate number of games in those parks.

To examine this flaw in greater detail, let’s construct a league as such.

National League – 16 teams

• 8 teams play in parks that have a league average of homers allowed
• 4 teams play in parks that allow 80% as many homers as the league average
• 4 teams play in parks that allow 120% as many homers as the league average

The National League, as a whole, is thus neutral.

American League: 14 teams, whose parks average out to neutral.

My team plays in a park that allows a league average number of home runs.  For the sake of simplicity, let’s set this at 1 HR/game (total for both teams).

The four other teams in my division play in pitcher’s park that allow 80% as many homers as a neutral park (0.8/game).

Of the other eleven teams in the league, there are seven that play in neutral parks and four that player in hitter’s parks that allow 1.2 homers/game.

A typical unbalanced National League schedule has 72 games against divisional opponents, 75 against the rest of the league (6.82 games per team), and 15 against American League teams.  The last few numbers vary a slight bit due to the fact that there are more teams in the National league that the American League.

My unbalanced schedule will be constructed similar to this:

• 81 games at home:  (81 games X 1.0 HR/game = 81 HR)
• 36 games (half of the 72) at divisional parks:  (36 X 0.8 = 28.8 HR)
• 3.41 road games (half the 6.82) against each of the 7 neutral park teams (3.41 X 7 teams X 1.0 HR/game = 23.87 HR)
• 3.41 road games (half the 6.82) against each of the 4 hitter’s park teams (3.41 X 4 teams X 1.2 HR/game = 16.368 HR)
• 7.5 road games against AL teams (half of the 15), assuming a neutral sampling of parks (7 games X 1.0 HR/game = 7.5 HR)

Home: 81 HR

Road:  76.538 HR

Calculated park factor: 81/76.538 = 1.058

The unbalanced schedule has made it appear that the neutral park is 5.8% easier to homer in – but it’s really not!  If you plop this exact same park into a division where the other teams play in hitter friendly environments, you’ll see the opposite effect – the ESPN park factor will suggest that the park is pitcher-friendly.

The ESPN park factors are OK for quick and dirty analysis, but take them with a grain of salt.  This is particular true when the parks within a division lean heavily one way – a park that goes against the grain in that division will have its own effect exaggerated.

Kosmo is filling in for Johnny Goodman on the sports beat this week.

The Masters

To call me a golf fan would be an absurd exaggeration. In general, I check to see home local boy Zach Johnson is doing and see who wins. This week – even with the return of Tiger Woods – it was the same drill here. Tiger fell a bit short and Phil Mickelson picked up another green jacket. I can’t help but cheer for Mickelson, who faced the dual adversity of his wife and his mother being diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

Country Joe Sings the Wrong Tune

Baseball umpire Joe West – also a country music singer – ruffled some feathers on both sides of the Yankees – Red Sox rivalry by saying the two teams were pathetic because of the length of the games they played.

This annoyed me for a couple of reasons. First of all, the umpire is supposed to be an impartial observer. When he made these comments, West crossed a line. If these sorts of statements are to be made, they should come from the commissioner’s office (which later did make a comment about the length of games).

Even more annoying, though, is the continued emphasis on the length of games. One of the beauties of baseball is the fact that it is untimed. You can typically estimate the length of football of basketball games. Baseball is an entirely different beast. You can get a two hour game if the pitchers are working quickly and the batters are swinging at everything. On the flip side, you can have a four hour game if the pitchers are working slowly and the batters are patient.

In baseball, a team is never eliminated until the last out is made. This isn’t the case in other sports. You can’t make up a twenty eight point deficit in fifteen seconds in football. It’s a technical impossibility – you wouldn’t have enough time to execute the necessary players. In baseball, though, you can rally from a 10-0 deficit with two outs in the ninth. As long as you keep getting hits, the game will continues.

Have you ever been to a great rock concert and later, complained about the length? Of course not. If the experience is of poor quality, this is a problem. If it’s merely excess quantity, this really isn’t a problem.

The Resin Bag

Nationals prospect Stephen Strasburg and Reds farmhand Aroldis Chapman both began their minor league careers with strong performances. Don’t expect either of these guys to stay down very long. Once the teams are assured of having their free agency (and possibly arbitration) delayed, these guys will pop up to the majors.

Meanwhile, Mike Leake jumped into the Reds rotation without any minor league experience. If Chappy is indeed being kept down for financial reasons, then why did the Reds keep Leake with the big club to start the season? They could have delayed Leake’s free agency in a similar fashion. Any chance that the Reds will demote Leake when Chappy is promoted – for just enough time to delay his free agency?

CC Sabathia put up a strong performance on Saturday night, taking a no-hit big into the eighth inning. I love the anticipation of a no-hitter in progress and always pull for the pitcher.

On the Rockies beat, Jorge de la Rosa started off his 2010 campaign strong, tossing seven innings of one hit ball. Keep an eye on George of the Rose. He started last year 0-6 with a 5.43 ERA before rallying to finish 16-9 with a 4.38 ERA. For those of you keeping score at home, that means he went 16-3 with a 3.94 ERA from June 5th through the end of the season. The ERA might not seem dominant … but bear in mind that his home park is Coors Field.

Matt Holliday of the Cardinals is off to a hot start, with three homers in seven games (he is, of course, playing second fiddle to Albert Pujols, who has five).  I have always contended that Holliday’s bat would play anywhere.  Clearly Coors Field boosted his numbers … but not by as much as the raw home/road splits would make you think.  If you compare Holliday’s differential to those of other Rockies, you’d quickly noticed that his differential dwarfed those of the teammates.  Either the park was exceptionally well suited for him … or he’s simply the sort of player who thrives in front of a home crowd.  Hey, guess what – his home OPS was 150 points high than his road OPS last year … despite being in Oakland (bad hitter’s park) at the beginning of the year.  As a point of comparison, across baseball, the typical player has an OPS 30 points higher at home.  I’m expecting a strong season from Happy this year as well.

I made a rookie goof in fantasy baseball and neglected to pay attention to my starting lineup.  As a result, I had a sub-standard lineup in place for week 1.  My Yura Peeins fell to Johnny Goodman’s team 6-4.  I lost two pitching categories and four of the five hitting categories – nabbing the only win in steals.  Honestly, though, even with my A lineup, I would probably have lost by the same score.

This article was first published on Feburary 17, 2009.  Early in this year’s new baseball season, I bring it to you again.  I have added a couple of sites to the original list (denoted in brackets).  I have also, sadly, removed one good site that died.  RIP From Small Ball to the Long Ball.

Another baseball season is finally upon us! I follow baseball with a passion that borders on addiction. Well, perhaps it’s beyond the border. The internet is a great place to get information. I have compiled a list of some of my favorite baseball sites.

MLB.com, of course, is the official site of Major League Baseball. In addition to news, standings, etc, MLB.com is home to MLB.tv and MLB Audio. For $100 (or $120 for premium content) you can watch any game on your computer (subject to blackout restrictions) all season long. For $19.95, you can listen to the audio feed of any game (not subject to blackout). This is a nice, cheap option for following out of market teams.

MLBTradeRumors is a nonstop source of rumors about trades and free agent signings. Updates occur multiple times during the day, hitting a frantic pace at the trade deadline. The guy who runs the site scours multitudes of other sources in an effort to compile every rumor.

SportsBlog Nation is a compilation of blogs from every major sport. The folks who run each blog keep up to date on every aspect of the team and pass the knowledge on to you. In addition to covering the major league team, they also keep you up to date on all of the minor league teams in your organization. The fan interaction is also a great feature. Game threads – in which fans are commenting on game action as it occurs – is pretty cool.

Renowned minor league analyst John Sickels runs Minorleagueball.com. John is one of the most knowledgeable minor league experts in the country. He publishes a book on prospects every year, but he also gives out an incredible amount of free information on his site.

There’s also the official Minor League site. MILB.com posts draftee profiles each spring.  Andy Seiler’s MLB Bonus Baby site [2010 new addition to my list] is another great draft resource.

You can find player salary information in several places, but COT’s Baseball Contracts keeps tracks of all the nitty gritty details – such as incentives and service time (helpful for determining when players will be eligible for arbitration or free agency).

baseball-reference.com is the best place I have found for baseball statistics. It tends to allow you to delve a bit more deeply into the numbers. In addition to tons of great content, BR’s premium “PI” service allows you to do some really deep searching. You can subscribe to PI for very short time periods (as low as $2.00 for 24 hours) so you don’t necessarily need to pay the $29 annual fee for a short research project.

Fangraphs goes into a lot of depth in their statistics. Considering the name, it should come as no surprise that they also have graphs on the site. The graphs show how player performance has differed from year to year, while also comparing the performance to the MLB average for those statistics.

The Lahman Database is a free (donations accepted) compilation of statistics for every player from 1871-present. MS Access, SQL, and CSV formats available.

The College Baseball Blog, not surprisingly, follows the college game [2010 new addition to my list].  NCAA baseball gets a lots less attention than its football and basketball cousin, in large part because much of the elite talent is drafted out of high school and come up through the minor league ranks.  As such, you typically have to hunt for good information.  This site is a great one-stop shop for college ball.

Summer Ball covers collegiate players, with a specific focus on the collegiate summer leagues. The summer leagues use wood bats instead of the aluminum bats used in NCAA games. If a player performs well in a summer league, it can often boost their stock in the draft, since the adjustment to wood can be a problem for some players.

Nippon Baseball Tracker covers Japanese leagues.

MLB’s Collective Bargaining Agreement can be downloaded in PDF format. I actually have a printed copy of the CBA which I keep in a binder. I wouldn’t say that it is a page turner, but it is great for settling arguments.

I have been a fan of the Colorado Rockies since their inaugural season in 1993.  I had deserted the Cubs the previous winter after losing confidence in the front office in the aftermath of Greg Maddux leaving town.  I decided make a clean break, and picked an expansion team to follow.

I live 800 miles from Denver.  This means that I’ve only been to one game at Coors Field, and that I have rarely had the opportunity to catch a game on TV.  Unless they play the Cubs or the Cardinals, the game is not on TV.  I have been a longtime purchaser of MLB.com’s audio package, and have listened to a lot of games over the years.

This year would be different.  I purchased the MLB Extra Innings package through DirecTV.  I would now be able to watch every Rockies game!  I looked forward to opening day.

Imagine my frustration when I found out that that game was blacked out.  Why?  Because Iowa is considered a “local market” for the opponents of the Rockies, the Milwaukee Brewers.  I have lived in Iowa nearly all my life, and I have met exactly one Brewers fan during this time.  He was in town on a temporary assignment and was from Wisconsin.

Iowa is considered a local market for six teams – the Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox, Twins, Brewers, and Royals.

The main reason for blackouts is to force people to watch game on local and regional channels.  This would make some sense – if those teams were actually available to me on local and regional channels.  I can tune in to nearly every Cubs games.  Most White Sox games are also available to me.  A smattering of Cardinals games appear on the WB during the season.

As for the Twins, Brewers, and Royals?  There is no way for me to tune into these games.

There is also gross inequality in the system.  My friend Lazy Man hails from Boston.  How many teams are blacked out in Boston?  Just one – the Red Sox.  The Sox are readily available on a regional channel.  Lazy Man currently resides in the Bay area.  How many teams are blacked out there?  Two – the Giants and A’s.  Again, both teams are readily available on local and regional channels.  Contrast this with Iowa and Nevada, which each have six teams blacked out.

The fact that I am paying a premium price for this package makes me even more upset.  If Major League Baseball is really that concerned that my ability to tune into a Rockies – Brewers game via MLB Extra Innings will somehow take money away from the local stations that carry the Brewers games, there’s a really easy solution for that.  Take some of the money that they get from me (via the conduit of DirecTV) and pay some of it to those stations.  Problem solved.  Baseball has a happy customer who will renew Extra Innings next year and the Brewers stations are being fairly compensated.

Want to know what teams are blacked out in which areas?  Here’s a nifty map.  It’s from 2006, and while there may be slightly more updated maps available, I have found this one to be the easiest to understand.

Butler – Duke

I was on the phone with DirecTV diagnosing why, exactly, my receivers were not picking up the MLB Extra Inning package (despite being signed up several weeks ago) and managed to miss much of the NCAA championship game.

I did manage to catch the last 12 minutes or so of the game.  I was pulling for underdog Butler.   When they missed a shot with less than 5 seconds remaining, I thought that they were finished.  I was stunned at how close Gordon Hayward’s desperation shot came.  Had he made the shot, I would have ranked it as the best moment in the history of the NCAA tournament.

It’s time to close the door on another basketball season and transition to baseball.

Is There an Editor in the House?

Earlier in the week, USA Today announced that their annual survey of baseball salaries indicated a 17% drop – saying that the average player’s salary dropped from $3.2 million in 2009 to $2.7 million in 2010.  A number of sites reported this news, only to later print news of a correction.  Player salaries actually ticked slightly upward (less than 1%).

I can understand some Mom and Pop sites believing this news, but struggle with how a big organization (ESPN, I’m looking at you) fell for it.

There are a number of ways to calculate this, but if we assume simply the 25 man rosters of each team, a $500,000 decrease per player would have been a $375 million decrease across baseball.

This really should have begged the question – where did this money come from?  Sure, there were some players taking pay cuts, but others signed contracts that paid them more money.  A few notable players retired, but they didn’t take hundreds of millions of dollars in salary with them.

I think one thing that may have made this believable was that the crop of free agents didn’t sign for as much money as last year’s crop.  However, that doesn’t mean that salaries declined – it’s a completely apples to oranges comparison.  The fact that Matt Holliday signed for less money this year than Mark Teixeira did last year doesn’t mean that this negatively impacted salaries.  Holliday isn’t making as much as Teixeira, but he is still exceeding his own 2009 salary.  That’s what we should be looking at.

Much of the blame should go to USA Today, of course.  They’ve been generating these reports for many years, and yet nobody realized that there was no basis for the reported decline.  The amount was large enough that it should have caused raised eyebrows and verification of the data.

The Resin Bag

I’m going to call this section – with short blurbs – The Resin Bag.  Welcome aboard, Resin Bag.

Tiger Woods fielded some questions from reporters and once again apologized for his actions.  OK, at this point, you either believe that he is contrite, or you don’t.  Is repetition going to change your mind?  Let’s move on.

Kurt Warner threw out the first pitch before the Diamondbacks game on Opening Day.  It was a bit to the third base side of the plate, but not a bad effort compared to the typical first pitches we see.

Marc Bulger – who replaced the “injured and washed-up” Warner as quarterback of the St. Louis Rams and was expected to lead them back to the Super Bowl – was cut loose by the team after a 1-15 season.  The consensus thought is that the Rams are paving the way to select Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford with the #1 pick in the draft.

Fantasy baseball heartburn began early this year, with the Youra Peeins third baseman Ian Stewart teeing off of Peeins teammate Yovani Gallardo.  It’s always a bittersweet moment when one fantasy player succeeds at the expense of someone else on your team.  In this case, Stewie is not only a Peein, but also a member of the real life Colorado Rockies – making it easier to cheer for him to succeed.

I also got roped into a “straight” league (as opposed to my Alphabet Soup League) as a last minute spot filler.  I haven’t even had a chance to take a close look at the rules, so the other teams will probably chew up Bats in the Belfry.  On the plus side, it’s an opportunity to compete in a CBS league – which I’ve heard good things about.

[Note: this article is from 2010 and refers to Lisa by her maiden name throughout.  I have changed the title to include her married name in an effort to make it easier for fans to find this article.]

I am an alumnus of Iowa State University and a former high school track athlete (albeit a slow one).  Thus,  I am  following the career of Iowa State runner Lisa Koll with considerable interest.

Koll won exactly zero state titles in high school.  She has made up for this by adding several NCAA titles to her resume.

The most recent record breaking performance by Koll was on March 26 at the Stanford Invitational (outdoor meet).  Koll posted a time of 31:18:07 for the 10,000 meters.  She won the race by 28 seconds.  If you don’t think this is impressive, stare at your watch for 28 seconds.  That’s quite the lag time between first and second place.  She broke the collegiate record by more than 8 seconds.

The NCAA also keeps a record of the fastest collegiate performances by Americans.  Many of the elite NCAA track performers are athletes from other countries who are attending college in the U.S.  Koll’s time was more than 59 seconds faster than the previous record for an American collegiate performer – 32:17.10 by Christine McMiken in 1986.

Koll was battling an injury last year and finished a mere 9^th in the 10,000 meter run at the NCAA outdoor championships.  In 2008, she won the title with a time of 32:44.95.  In other words, she has sliced 86 seconds off a time that was already good enough to win a national title!

Koll is not a one trick pony, though.  She recently won the women’s 5000 meters at the NCAA indoor meet.  In the Big 12 conference indoor meet, Koll set a new collegiate record in the 5000 meters.  Her time of 15:41.57 was more than 17 seconds faster than the previous record.

Koll also finished second in the 3000 meters at the NCAA indoor meet.  She had run the 5000 meters the prior day; her main rival had not (and was thus fresh for the 3000 race).  Koll was edged by 0.12 seconds in the race.  She had dominated the event at the conference meet.  Her time in the 3000 meters at the Big 12 meet was “just” the third fastest collegiate time for that event.  At the conference meet, she finished more than 22 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.  This is an enormous margin for a relatively short race.

Distance runners tend improve after their collegiate years, so it’s likely that we haven’t yet seen the best of Koll.  As a point of comparison, the current national record of 30:22.22 for the 10,000 meters was set by Shalane Flanagan when she was 27 years old (that record is an impressive 28 seconds faster than the 2^nd best runner).  At this point, Koll is “only” the sixth fastest American woman ever.  If she can improve her time by 5 seconds, she would jump into the 4^th spot.  A half dozen years of improvement after college, and perhaps she’ll grab the national record.   The current world record is 29:31.78 – could this possibly be in play?

Watch for Lisa Koll in the 2012 Olympics and beyond!

Living With Balls.  John agreed to write this article for publication on The Soap Boxers and I wrote an opposing article – Why I Hate the Yankees on Living With Balls.

In an ever-changing world, the Yankees are the one constant in my life.  While my other teams (Jets and Knicks) continue to disappoint on an annual basis, the Yankees are always there to pick me up around October and remind me why I watch sports in the first place. 

With an endless stream of money and an ownership dedicated to winning, the Yankees will always be in the mix for a World Series title.  Sure the Yankees have had some heartbreaking losses and disappointing seasons in my lifetime (not too many though) but for the most part, the Yankees will make things exciting for the city of New York.

Now let’s get one thing clear: I am NOT a frontrunner (as evidenced by the other two teams I root for).  I was born into Yankees royalty.  My father grew up in an Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn, only a few minutes from Ebbets Field— but he was raised a Yankees fan because his father, idolized fellow Italian-American and Yankees icon Joe DiMaggio.

My father has seen every major Yankees game in the last 50 years, both good and bad: from Mickey Mantle’s Triple-Crown season in 1956, to Bill Mazerozki’s series-winning home run over the Yanks in the 1960 series, to Reggie Jackson’s three homers in the 1977 Fall Classic, all the way to last year’s win over the Philadelphia Phillies.  He’s witnessed the Yankees go from a dynasty in the 50’s, to a laughing stock in the 60’s. He cheered the back-to-back titles in the 70’s and suffered through the embarrassment of the 1980’s. Things then came full circle for him as he saw the Yankees become a dynasty once again in the 90’s.

So it only made sense that he would raise his two sons to be Yankees fans as well. I was a Yankees fan before I even knew what baseball was.  My father taught me everything I know about baseball and everything I know about the Yankees.  He introduced me to the game I love but never forced it upon me.  Some of my fondest boyhood memories are having a catch with my father in the park or going to Yankee Stadium with him to see Don Mattingly play first base.

Now I’m all grown up and out of the house but I’ll always pick up the phone and call my Dad after a big Yankees win.  I still make it a point to go home and watch almost every big playoff game with him.  We watched together when Jim Leyritz hit a three-run homer off Mark Wohlers in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series, catapulting the Yankees to an upset win over the Braves.  We watched the nerve-wracking game 7 of the 2003 ALCS together, when Aaron Boone finally delivered a walk-off home run to give the Yankees the pennant. We even watched together when the Yankees choked away a 3-0 lead over the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS.  Win or lose, a Yankees playoff game just isn’t the same if I’m not watching it with my father.

The Yankees have helped my father and I bond throughout the years.  If there’s one subject we can always take about, it’s the Yankees.  My father recently suffered a heart-attack, but thankfully he is doing well now.  His health problems have only made me appreciate these moments more. 

I am not a father yet but I will be getting married in the coming months.  I hope to have a son one day and that three generations of Yankees fans will be able to walk into the new Yankee Stadium and witness great moments together.

Having the Yankees win every year is certainly enjoyable from a fan’s perspective. But to me, the Yankees mean a whole lot more.

Living with Balls is your place for testosterone-induced humor.  A humor blog for men, Living with Balls takes a lighter view of life from a man’s perspective.  John S., the founder and editor, can be contacted at johns@livingwithballs.com.  Follow LWB on twitter as well.

Less than a year after media magnate Sam Zell sold the Chicago Cubs to the Ricketts family, the lovable losers are reported to be on the block again.  This according to a source close to the family.  The Soap Boxers made a call to Ricketts family spokesperson April Sloof.  When Sloof finally returned our call, she said that she could neither confirm nor deny the rumor.

Our anonymous source, however, was quite willing to spill the beans.  It seems that there was a great deal of buyer’s remorse after the sale was finalized.

The Ricketts era got off to a rough start when the family discovered that the Zell group had stripped the facilities of all tangible assets.  Uniforms, bats, balls, and gloves had all been packed into boxes and removed from Wrigley Field before the sale was completed – likely headed to eBay for sale to collectors.  The theft was not limited to baseball equipment, however.  Office chairs were removed, carpets ripped up, copper wire stolen, and light bulbs taken from the outlets.  Tom Ricketts expressed great dismay:

“When you spend nearly a billion dollars on a team, you expect to buy it lock, stock, and barrel.  This isn’t like buying a house, in that you need to buy the stove and refrigerator.  When you buy a baseball team, you should be able to step in on day one and continue operations without interruption.  It’s completely ridiculous to send the general manager to Home Depot in search of compact flourescent bulbs.”

The Ricketts family also suggested that false statements were made about the recent history of the Cubs.  Tom Ricketts has accused Sam Zell of showing him an altered version of the Cubs’ 1907 World Series trophy.  Our inside source says that Zell hired an engraver to change the inscription from “1907” to “2007”.  Ricketts was reported to be “livid” when he discovered the deceit.

The straw that might break the camel’s back, however, are the zoning restrictions of Wrigley Field.  Ricketts, a devoted environmentalist, had planned to turn the field into a common grazing area for goats during Cubs road trips.  However, the area surrounding Wrigley Field is zoned in a manner that precludes it from being used for agricultural purposes.

If the Cubs are to be sold, who will be the next buyer?  There are rumblings that Portland Trailblazers owner Paul Allen is forming an ownership group.  It is believed that Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, and Beaverton sports apparel company Nike would be the largest investors in the group.  Allen has long been connected to proposals to bring Major League Baseball to Oregon.  Allen is reported to favor a stadium in suburban Tigard because of its closeness to Interstate 5.

We will continue to follow this story as it develops.