Why do baseball people persistently pursue pitcher-pampering practices when pitchers keep getting hurt in spite of them?
My runner-up question:
Why do players persistently slide head-first when that practice produces unnecessary injuries to hands and heads?
This second question was prompted by Josh Hamilton’s recent head-first slide into first base. In so doing, the Anaheim outfielder …
Without invoking the dreaded word, Tony Clark, executive director of the players’ union, raised the issue of collusion Friday in a statement about unsigned free agents. Rob Manfred, MLB’s chief operating officer, quickly rejected Clark’s suggestion in his own statement.
But as much as I respect Manfred, I have to say his response to Clark’s statement was …
When rain was delaying a game and he was asked if he thought it would stop raining, he would smile and say, “It always has.” Disdainful of people who lounged in bed late into the morning, he pronounced that “only whores make money in bed.” More appropriate to baseball, Paul often declared, “You can never have too much pitching.”
Jim Fregosi, a former player and manager, agreed with Paul at least on the last point. “If you have six pitchers, you have four,” Fregosi used to say.
Frank Wren, the Atlanta Braves’ general manager, recalled Fregosi’s remark the other day when …
