Future HOF Randy Johnson wins 299

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/sports/braves/stories/2009/05/28/braves_giants.html

San Francisco — He’s 45 and not quite as ferocious as he was when he threw 100-mph fastballs, but Randy Johnson showed Wednesday night that he still can manhandle the Braves.

The Giants’ giant left-hander notched his 299th career win with six innings of three-hit, one-run ball, leading San Francisco to a 6-3 win that completed a series sweep against the Braves at AT&T Park.

Randy can still win — we didn’t rough him up at all,” said manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves had won five of their last six at home before coming to San Francisco and being swept by the Giants for the first time since 2003.

Chipper Jones, playing with a sprained right big toe, went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, the first time the Braves third baseman whiffed four times in 2,060 major league games. Three of his strikeouts were against Johnson, who had given up a career-high six home runs to Jones in 33 at-bats before Wednesday.

“He just caught me at a good time,” said Jones, who tried to take his first Golden Sombrero (four strikeouts in a game) in stride, given the circumstances. “You just write it off as an 0-for-4 and try not to think about the punchouts.”

Braves starter Kenshin Kawakami (3-6) was charged with four runs (three earned), nine hits and four walks in 5-2/3 innings. His control wasn’t anywhere close to what it had been five days earlier, when he threw eight scoreless innings with three hits and no walks to beat Toronto and ace Roy Halladay.

Kawakami had been 2-2 with a 2.63 ERA in four May starts before Wednesday.

“I was aware [Johnson] was close to 300 wins,” he said through a translator. “It’s really a disappointment that I couldn’t pitch the way I wanted to today.”

Johnson (4-4) had five strikeouts with no walks while improving to 3-0 with a microscopic 0.64 ERA in his past four starts against the Braves, a stretch that began with his 13-strikeout perfect game at Atlanta in 2004.

The 6-foot-10 pitcher was 2-5 in eight starts against the Braves before that.

On striking out Jones three times, Johnson said: “We’re still not even. He’s still got some real good numbers against me.”

Jones struck out with a runner at third and one out in the fourth inning, and struck out with a runner on first to end the sixth with the Braves trailing 2-1. He nearly buckled from pain while swinging at strike three on the latter at-bat.

He missed four starts before returning to the lineup Tuesday. The 37-year-old switch-hitter was asked after Wednesday’s game if it was painful to swing.

“Right-handed, yes,” Jones said. “Left-handed, no. Right-handed, it’s tough on me right now. I have no back foot, not back side, and I can’t push off. I’m lunging real bad. It made everything Randy threw tonight 4 or 5 miles [per hour] harder.”

Johnson’s last start against the Braves before Wednesday was a win on May 24, 2008. Since then, he was 10-13 with a 4.47 ERA in 31 starts against everyone else.

Pinch-hitter Garret Anderson’s two-run, two-out single in the seventh inning trimmed the lead to 4-3, but the Braves stranded two in the inning, and the Giants added two runs against reliever Eric O’Flaherty on four consecutive hits in bottom of the seventh.

It was the Giants’ first sweep against the Braves since an August 2003 series at AT&T Park, where the Braves’ 12-21 record is their worst this decade at any ballpark where they’ve played at least 15 games.

The Braves are 9-15 against Giants since beginning of 2006 season, including seven losses in their past eight games at the ballpark by the bay.

Their seven-game trip continues Thursday in Phoenix with the opener of a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Casey Kotchman’s two-out RBI single in the sixth cut the lead to 2-1, after Jordan Schafer led off with a single and advanced on a Kawakami sacrifice.

Until Anderson’s two-out single in the seventh, the Braves had scored only three runs in the first 24 innings of the series.

In all three games, the Giants scored two or more runs before the Braves got on the board, including a 2-0 lead after three innings Wednesday.

The Giants got a run in the second inning after Fred Lewis drew a leadoff walk, stole second and advanced on a wild pitch — a scenario that’s happened too often lately with Braves pitchers. He scored on Juan Uribe’s single.

They scored their second run on an unsual play in the third inning, a double steal that probably deserved an asterisk.

They had runners on first and third with one out when Edgar Renteria stole second. Braves catcher David Ross threw to the base, and second baseman Martin Prado came up to catch it and throw back to keep Aaron Rowand from scoring.

Rowand held up, but Prado’s throw to the plate was low and bounced off Ross and back to the grass in front of the plate. When Ross went to pick it up, he slipped. Rowand seized the opportunity to race home, scoring just in front of the tag after Ross recovered and lunged to the plate.

Right fielder Jeff Francoeur prevented the Giants from making it a 3-0 lead in the fifth, when he fired a throw to the plate to nail heavy-footed catcher Bengie Molina trying to score from second on Travis Ishikawa’s two-out single.

Tom Glavine may retire - future hall of famer without question

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4068510

Glavine was told Tuesday he must rest for at least two weeks after inflammation was found in his left rotator cuff. The 43-year-old had an MRI and was examined by Dr. James Andrews, who advised treatment and rest.



Glavine

Glavine said he's tired of rehabbing after elbow and shoulder surgery last August. He's willing to give the shoulder two weeks, but not much longer.

"I'm willing to put in a little more time but I'm not willing to put in another six weeks or eight weeks because by then, you know what, I'm going to have to start all over again and I'm not interested in doing that," he said.

Glavine joined the Braves at Turner Field on Tuesday night following the examination in Birmingham, Ala.

He ended Sunday's minor league start with Double-A Mississippi after two innings due to soreness in the shoulder after swinging a bat.

Glavine felt similar discomfort when hitting in spring training, but he said that pain didn't last as it did this time.

The visit with Andrews left Glavine with a two-week timetable that may determine if he continues his career.

"From my own standpoint, it works better for me to kind of have a timetable to say, OK, let's give it this amount of time, and if we see some progress, then good. We'll know we're going in the right direction," Glavine said. "If we don't, then I think maybe at that point in time maybe we need to sit down and honestly think about how much more I want to go through this and whether or not anything is going to change."

Because the MRI did not reveal a tear, the initial reaction from the Braves was positive.

General manager Frank Wren said the Braves "were happy that it wasn't more serious."

"I think it's good it happened swinging the bat instead of throwing the ball," manager Bobby Cox said. "It's kind of a disappointment for me, but I think the good news is he's coming back."

Glavine, who agreed to a $1 million, one-year contract in February, sounded less sure that he'll pitch again. He doesn't expect to have another MRI in two weeks.

"I think all of it is going to be based on how I progress pain-wise," he said. "If I'm seeing a definitive change in the amount of pain that I have and the amount of strength I'm being able to gain, then I think I continue on. If two weeks from now my pain has not changed and my strength isn't any better, then I think I'm more clearly in a position where I need to honestly sit down and figure out how much more I want to go through with this."

Glavine was 2-4 with a 5.54 ERA in 13 starts last season. He had a partially torn left elbow tendon repaired by Andrews on Aug. 21. At that time, Andrews also cleaned up Glavine's left shoulder.

"I think he's surprised my elbow has held up as well as it has and I'm having so many issues with my shoulder," Glavine said.

The rehabilitation from last summer's surgery has left Glavine less willing to start another long process. He said if his shoulder doesn't feel better in two weeks, he'd have difficulty being ready to pitch before the All-Star break.

"I don't think it's fair to this team and I'm not sure I have the desire to do all that for maybe half a season," he said.

Atlanta adjusted plans for the No. 5 spot in their rotation. Left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes will be recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett for Saturday's game at Pittsburgh, which had been Glavine's first scheduled start of the season.

Glavine, a 305-game winner and 10-time All-Star, spent his first 16 major league seasons with the Braves, winning the NL Cy Young Award in 1991 and 1998. He pitched for the New York Mets from 2003-07 and returned to Atlanta last season to be with his family.

Glavine's contract contains $3.5 million in bonuses based on roster time, including a $1 million bonus when he is placed on the active roster.

My All-Time Baseball Team

All-Time Starting Line-up

First Base – Lou Gehrig – 23 Career Grand slams (MLB record), .340 Career batting average and 1995 RBI

Second Base – Roger Hornsby - .358 Career batting average (number 1 all time for second basemen), 301 homeruns and 2,930 Career hits

Shortstop – Cal Ripken Jr. – 2632 straight games played (MLB record), 2 MVP awards and 3184 Career hits

Third base – Mike Schmidt – 3 MVP awards, 548 Career homeruns and 10 Gold Gloves

Catcher – Ivan Rodriguez – 2605 Career hits, .301 Career batting average and 13 Career Gold Gloves (MLB record for a catcher)

Outfield – Ted Williams – 2 MVP awards, .344 Career batting average and 1839 Career RBI (note: he missed nearly 5 total years of playing due to WW II and the Korean War)

Outfield – Willie Mays – 660 Career homeruns, 12 Gold Gloves and 2 MVP awards

Outfield – Hank Aaron – 755 Career homeruns (no steroids; bigger ball parks), 3771 Career hits and 2297 Career RBI

DH/Other – Babe Ruth – 714 Career homeruns, .690 Career slugging average (MLB record) and 2217 Career RBI (note: he was also a great pitcher)

All-Time Starting Rotation

Walter Johnson – 2 MVP awards, 417 Career wins and 110 shutouts (MLB record)

Greg Maddux – 355 Career wins, 3,371 Career Strikeouts and 18 Gold Gloves (MLB record)

CY Young – 511 Career Wins (MLB record), 2.63 Career ERA, 89 Career Shutouts

Randy Johnson – 5 CY Young awards, 4789 Career Strikeouts and 295 wins

Ed Walsh – 1.82 Career ERA (MLB record), 1.00 Career Whip Average and 6 sub-2.00 ERA seasons

All-Time Bullpen

Mariano Rivera – 482 Career saves, 0.77 Career Post Season ERA (MLB record) and save percentage of 88.9

Dennis Eckersley – 390 Career saves, 1 CY Young Award, 1 MVP

Hoyt Wilhelm – 143 Career wins, 2.43 Career ERA and 227 Career saves

Trevor Hoffman – 554 Career saves (MLB record), 2.78 Career ERA and 6 All-Stars

Goose Gossage – 124 Career wins, 310 Career saves and 9 All-Stars


Note - I do not respect players who cheated such as A-Rod, Bonds (whose head grew nearly two inches) and Mark Mcgwire. That is why none of these "greats" are on my list.

Rice and Henderson head to Baseball Hall of Fame

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090113&content_id=3742458&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

NEW YORK — It had been 20 years since the Baseball Hall of Fame had selected a new left fielder to join the greatest team ever assembled. The Class of 2009 will unquestionably supply that all-time squad with two of the best.

With seven months to work on speeches before the official induction ceremony, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice joined the Hall from two different backgrounds — Henderson, an overwhelming first-ballot inductee and Rice, making it in his 15th and final try on the ballot.

One played for a single club as a lethal middle-of-the-order power threat, while the other journeyed through nine uniforms as the game’s quintessential leadoff hitter. But they had one thing in common — left field, a position Cooperstown had not called upon since Carl Yastrzemski in 1989.

“I think you’re probably looking at two players that could have played at any time,” Rice said. “We were just hard-nosed, down-to-earth ballplayers.”

Both stated their case for entry with magnificent credentials. Rice, an eight-time All-Star, logged 382 home runs, 2,452 hits and 1,451 RBIs in 16 seasons with the Red Sox. And Henderson touched home plate more than any other Major League player, holding all-time records with 2,295 runs scored and 1,406 stolen bases.

“I played the game because I loved the game,” Henderson said at Tuesday’s news conference. “I never knew that this day would come and I would be in the class of the greatest players that ever played the game. I tried to play the game as long as I can and give something back.”

They sat side by side in a ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on New York’s Park Avenue, grinning and slapping each other on the back, reveling in their respective achievements. Henderson’s eyes darted back and forth, treating the crowd as he would a timid rookie reliever, and Rice simply showcased a tight smile of satisfaction.

Henderson will enter Cooperstown with the logo of the Oakland A’s on his cap, Rice having no option but to wear the “B” for Boston. But on this afternoon, they wore the vintage creme of the Hall of Fame — Rice, proudly covering an argyle sweater, and Henderson sporting a snug turtleneck, the same as he might wear if called upon for a ballgame on a chilly afternoon.

Rice continued the legacy of dominant left fielders at Fenway Park, succeeding Ted Williams and Yastrzemski, both of whom had long since passed through the Hall’s doors. Recalling their spring conversations, Rice referred to the pair of old-timers’ personalities as “grease and fire,” but later mentioned his pride in joining them.



“I think when you talk about my legacy, you have to look at the two guys before me,” Rice said. “You have to look at Williams and Yaz, and then I’m the third one. You’re talking about three guys that played their entire careers with one ballclub. That’s the legacy that I’m looking at.”

“Jim was a threat,” Henderson said. “He was a guy that when you came into Fenway and played against Boston, you always said, ‘Do not let Jim beat you.’ … Every time we came to play Jim, he was the man and we did not want to pitch to him.”

Some voters held a career at Fenway Park as evidence that Rice’s offensive numbers may have been lesser than contemporaries of his era. It was a criticism the slugger sniffed at, saying he was fortunate to drive the ball to all fields with power.

“The Monster gave me some, but it took a lot away,” Rice said. “I was more of a right-field hitter. The wall was good for left-handed hitters. I had to go out there and really learn to play the wall. I got enjoyment not hitting at Fenway Park, but holding guys to singles.”

One such competitor was Henderson, to whom Rice gleefully recalled cocking a baseball in his right hand, daring the speedster to try to advance to second base. Henderson would retreat to the bag, content with a single, though it would often not remain that way for long.