Immersed in a fight with two other teams for the division title and with three teams for the wild-card spot, the San Francisco Giants just might wish they had forgotten about Buster Posey’s free agency six or seven years hence and made this season their priority.

Instead of calling up the talented Posey earlier than they did, the Giants left the catcher in the minors because they were playing the game clubs love to play to manipulate players’ major league service time and delay their eligibility for salary arbitration and free agency.

From the day he arrived in San Francisco (May 29), Posey has been an offensive force and an all-round valuable member of the team and surely could have helped the Giants win another game or three or four, the games he couldn’t help them win because he was in the minors.

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Once upon a time, Bobby Cox was a general manager.

“I remember those days,” Cox said. “Ted asked me. He asked Toronto for permission. I lived in Atlanta so it was a pretty easy family decision to pull out of Toronto, which I hated to do. I loved it up there. I loved Beeston, Gillick, the team, the organization, the people were outstanding. But it was a chance to be home with your family, too.”

Cox managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1982 through 1985 and became fond of the club president, Paul Beeston, and the general manager, Pat Gillick. But before he went north, he spent four years (1978-1981) managing the Braves, who were owned by the flamboyant Ted Turner, media mogul, yachtsman, sportsman.

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News item: Appellate court rules that Feds illegally seized results from 2003 test for steroids.

With the government unlikely to get the United States Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the 9-2 decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Players Association can expect to have the notorious list of approximately 100 names returned with the government unable to make any use of it.

The ruling, however, doesn’t mean that no use will be made of the list. In fact, I suspect the ruling will trigger use of the list by the person or persons who last year leaked the names of four players from the list.

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