Steve Phillips has admitted to having an affair with a 22 year old production assistant. Phillips is married and the young lady did not take the break up very well. Police have become involved because of the young lady’s erratic behavior. Phillips has requested a leave of absence and he was granted one. ESPN was not as understanding in 2006 when then analyst Harold Reynolds (pictured above) was accused of sexual harassment. He was accused of giving an employee an improper hug and he was immediately fired. There had been no formal inquiry Reynolds had worked for the network for 11 years and he was simply erased, but Phillips is allowed to take some time off while they make a decision regarding his fate. Why aren’t they simply firing Phillips and calling it a day? What is the difference in these two situations?  One thing I did not mention is Phillips is white.

1.  Tim Tebow:  Regardless my feelings about this guy, there’s no doubt he’s one of the most beloved athletes in recent history.  Despite my eye-rolling at all the over-the-top attention he receives, he has been a good role model. He circumcises Filipino orphans, talks to prisoners, and pretty much embraces being a role model. His girlfriend has huge cans. But because of his status as a role model, I have to take him to task. 

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me...especially motorboating"

The fact that he played against LSU on Oct. 10, 2 weeks after suffering a severe concussion, is incredibly irresponsible.  Recent reports have shown the longterm damage concussions cause, and the exponential increase in damage to the brain caused by Second Impact Syndrome: 

Second Impact Syndrome (SIS) consists of two events. Typically, it involves an athlete suffering post-concussive symptoms following a head injury.² If, within several weeks, the athlete returns to play and sustains a second head injury, diffuse cerebral swelling, brain herniation, and death can occur. SIS can occur with any two events involving head trauma.

I’m sure any parent who saw the 60 Minutes report on concussions will have second thoughts about letting their kid participate in youth football.  50+ kids die each year from sports-related head injuries, mostly from football. 

The point is:  you can’t pick and choose when to be a role model.  Tebow is sending the message that it’s ok to put your brain in jeopardy if it’s a really important game.  Shame on Tebow. Shame on Tebow’s uber-involved parents. And shame on Coach Urban Meyer and the UF Training Staff.

On another Tebow-related note, I’ve begun to wear “Eye Black” with Bible verses under my eyes.  Today’s passage? Leviticus 12:6, or “Levit” “12:6″:

‘When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering.

Now there’s a passage that will spice up the workplace conversation.

2.  Yankees v. Phillies?  That could be good.  I will say that the baseball in the postseason has been pretty bad – particularly the defense and umpiring.  But this potential series could be fantastic.  Phillies in 6.

3.  Cedric Benson:  Ced’s great 2009 season hasn’t stopped his pity-party.  From today’s Suntimes:

Benson blames the Bears for his time on the sideline…and accuses the organization of blackballing him.

”No doubt,” Benson said. ”I heard all the rumors that were said coming out of Chicago. Even the Bengals told me that they would call and inquire about me and get nothing but negative things.”

Such as?

”That I didn’t work hard, that I was, I guess, a prima donna, just wasn’t focused,” he said. ”Just anything negative that they could say was said. I’m sure that contributed largely to me not getting picked up right away.”

Chicago's fault.

So which part of this is untrue? The Bears gave you every chance to succeed. They got rid of Thomas Jones for you. They dealt with your hold out and apathetic attitude.  They dealt with your drinking, pot-smoking and arrests. And you still didn’t produce.

I can’t wait for Lance Briggs to light your ass up on Sunday.  You’re still a fucking scrub.

__________________________________________________________________________

4.  ESPN:  Bristol, CT must be a boring place.  Like clockwork, it seems like every 6 months some ESPN employee gets into a creepy sexual situation. 

According to the New York Post,Phillips had a brief fling with a fellow ESPN employee named Brooke Hundley this summer. He ended it rather quickly, which did not go over very well. She allegedly began harassing Phillips, his wife and even his teenage son—who she friended on Facebook by pretending to be a classmate, and then grilled him for personal information about the family.

The final straw came when Phillips’ wife arrived at her home to see a strange woman coming down her driveway and getting into a car (which she promptly smashed into a pole while trying to make a quick getaway.) The woman had left a very creepy letter in the front door, addressed to Phillips wife. The full original letter is available on the Post website [PDF], but here are some of the bullet points laid out by Hundley:

• She and Steve first slept together in a St. Louis hotel room, but he assured her that she wouldn’t get pregnant because of his vasectomy.
• How and she Steve love to text back and forth with detailed plans on how they would like to sex each other
• An uncomfortable amount of detail about the activities of her children
• How the Catholic Church will totally understand if the Phillips got a divorce, so that she and Steve can be together
• She’s 22 … but not stupid!
• A graphic description of Steve’s birthmarks (on his crotch and inner thigh), just to know she’s legit.

Somewhere Harold Reynolds is smiling.  And possibly masturbating.

On this episode of The Wheelhouse: Bower and “The Sweet Nasty” Chris Cause open the show reviewing last night’s ALCS GAME 4 and the amazing job the UMPIRES have done throughout the entire postseason! We then spend the rest of this WTF!? WEDNESDAY talking about WTF!? did STEVE PHILLIPS cheat on his wife with? All this and more on this HEAD SCRATCHING edition of The Wheelhouse!

Download the Podcast – HERE!

In 1987 Vince Coleman stole 109 bases to cap off three consecutive seasons of at least 100 steals. Since then, not a single player has stolen 100, and only one has swiped 90 – Ricky Henderson in 1988. Contrary to what analyst, Harold Reynolds, argued in his blog, the game has slowed down. The combination of power and baseball intelligence is encouraging teams to be more cautious and selective on the base paths.

In the last 20 years the Major Leagues have seen a steady drop in stolen base attempts (per team) each year, and today teams are stealing almost half as often as two decades ago. Being more selective, stolen base success rates have improved 5% over that time. In addition to steals, another old school, small-ball stat has seen a decline as well: sac bunt attempts. Understanding the importance of preserving outs in the home run era, team are sacrificing less today than 20 years ago. In the late 80s, an average team squared up to sacrifice almost 90 times a season, but today that figure is south of 80. It’s not that managers are inexperienced or less savvy today, as Reynolds argues, but they realize that outs for bases is just not a good deal.

Stealing and sacrificing are generally pre-meditated stats, meaning they are often called by the manager. Their decline illustrates the movement toward slowing the game down and playing less-risky ball. While this may break the hearts of old school guys like Reynolds, with the recent home run surge it is not worth risking outs for bases so often.

During yesterday’s game between the Jays and Phillies, Jays manager Cito Gaston made what in my opinion are a couple of questionable decisions.

The first I will just mention in passing.  The Jays were down 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and the bases loaded.  Cito elected to remove OF Jose Bautista (.754 OPS) in favour of pinch hitter Russ Adams (.619 OPS).  Anyone who has followed the Jays over the last few years knows that he has one of the worst sticks in the league.  After predictably popping out to third base, he was also forced to enter the game in left field, where he has a grand total of 13 innings played in the majors.  Mind-boggling decision by Cito.

The point I want to focus on occurred in the bottom of the ninth, and is at the heart of the small ball debate.  I will preface this by saying that I am not a small ball fan, and would build my team with a couple of on-base machines and a couple of sluggers to drive them in.  I would always play for the big inning and would not give away precious outs with bunts or stolen bases.  However, like every game plan, there is an exception, and this is it.  The Jays got their first two batters on to begin the ninth inning (score is still 5-4 Phillies) against closer Brad Lidge, bringing Aaron Hill to the dish.  This situation begs for a bunt.  A successful bunt not only gives you two chances to win the game with a base hit, but also tie it with a sacrifice fly while keeping you out of the double play.

Instead, Hill swings away.  I know Hill leads the AL in total bases this year and already had two home runs that afternoon, but they were against soft-tossing lefty Jamie Moyer, not power closer Lidge.  The rest of the inning played out like this.  Hill pops out.  John MacDonald gets picked off at second and Vernon Wells grounds out.  The rally is dead and the game is over just like that.  Normally in a baseball game you never play for a run or two, but always play the numbers and go for the big inning.  However, in this situation the Jays only needed two runs to win the game.  Had Hill laid down a sacrifice bunt, the Phillies most likely would have walked Wells (who is terrible) and pitched to base-hit machine Scott Rolen (.333 batting average).  Even if he did not get the job done, they would still have an opportunity to win it with Adam Lind, who is third in the AL in total bases.           

I have a ton of respect for Cito as a manager, and his free-swinging ways really helped turn around the Jays after he replaced micro-manager John Gibbons.  However, there are certain situations where you have to break the mould and play according to the situation.  I hope I did not sound too much like Harold Reynolds there.

Former MLB All-Star and current MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds recently wrote an article on his blog in which he argued that the OPS statistic was overrated.  He is obviously an old-school mind who has not embraced the statistical revolution.  One of his arguments is that great power hitters on bad teams, like Adrian Gonzalez, have an inflated OPS because pitchers do not pitch to them, meaning they walk a lot in addition to their home runs.  He is also claims that they have a higher OBP than the rest of their teammates because they clog the bases; not sure how that one makes any sense. 

Obviously, I disagree tremendously with his point of view.  OPS is an excellent tracker of player performance, and helps predict how many runs a player or team will score over the course of a season.  It is much more accurate than archaic stats like batting average, RBI, and even home runs.  Let me put it this way.  If you had to assemble a historical team but were only allowed to base your selections on one statistic, what would that stat be?  A lot of people would argue VORP, or win shares (which would be difficult due to the lack of historical fielding statistics), and these would be valid, but I think I would go with OPS+.  I know it does not take defence into consideration, but like I said, if you want to be using guys like Babe Ruth, there are not going to be any effective defensive stats to monitor them anyways.

I decided to make a team based on OPS+, and OPS+ alone, to prove how ridiculous Reynolds point is.  A player can only play the position he actually played that year.  This is what my starting line-up would look like, arranged according to batting order.  I bet you can figure out who each player is based on the information given.

They are of course Roger Hornsby, Ted Williams (technically a left fielder but I lumped corner infielders into one group), Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, George Brett, and Johnny Bench.  As you can see, OPS is so overrated that my nine players include six first ballot Hall of Famers and the asterisked home run king.  I would hardly call a team that steals 124 bases a bunch of base-cloggers either.  The only player on the team that you could call a legitimate slowpoke on the basepaths is Ruth, and maybe Bench but he is a catcher.

If you were to use more traditional statistics like batting average and RBI, you would get a significantly different team.  I will not go through the list, but good players can fluke out and knock in 191 runs or hit .350.  It takes a lot more skill to have one of the best single season OPS.  To put that in perspective, three players (Bonds, Ruth and Williams) occupy the top eleven spots on this prestigious list, discounting the two guys from 19^th century who played a much different game.   

You may not find this article overly informative, but I find looking up historical stats a pleasure, so it was a lot of fun to write.  I also like to critique individuals like Reynolds who are stuck in their ways and refuse to embrace the changes that are happening around them. 

As an aside, I think we should all take a moment to appreciate Joe Mauer.  Going through the list of all-time OPS+ seasons, I had to go all the way down to 413^th to find the first catcher.  The next lowest position was Brett at 45^th.  It is incredibly difficult for catchers to put up the kind of numbers that Mauer does, and he could be the guy that you tell your grandkids about just as much as Pujols. 

Colorado’s run is just that, a run. In my mind, this team is not a threat to win the wild card. Even though the Mets and Phillies have played terribly lately, the wild card is still going to come out of the NL East. Both teams are almost unwatchable at the moment, but I’m still certain the Phillies will win the division and the Mets will take the wild card. – John Kruk

I’ve always been a John Kruk fan, more as a player than as an analyst. Not that he’s bad as an analyst, he’s pretty good actually. I like him much better than Harold Reynolds. This time I gonna have to disagree with the Krukster and his slighting of our Rockies and his “their run is just that, a run” comment. Story here.

Of course Kruk will always be partial to the Phillies, the team he once played for, so I don’t fault him for that totally. But what Kruk doesnt do in his comments is tell us why he’s so sure the Phillies and Mets will do what he believes and finish at the top of their division and also take the NL wildcard. He seems to think that the Rockies will have a more difficult time maintaining playing at a high level than either the Mets or the Phillies will at bouncing back from playing the pathetic brand of baseball they’ve been playing as of the last week or so. He goes on to mention all of the positives that are allowing the Rockies to be on the roll they are on, winning 17 out of 18, but doesnt give them any credit to threaten for the NL wildcard? Doesn’t make much sense if you ask me. He doesn’t even mention them as a possibility for the wildcard, he just simply eliminates them from ever being a thought just like that despite what they’ve done. How can one person in his position as an analyst do that and think they’re being fair and truthful? No one in their right mind is excpeting the Rockies or any team to finish out the remainder of the season on such a hot streak. If it were the Red Sox, Yankees or even the Dodgers, ESPN and other biased media outlets would be quick to hand any of those teams the World Series trophy, no questions asked, no less a division title.

Sure Kruk, your comments about your beloved Phils may get you a couple of free rounds of beer with your former organization the next time you’re in the city of Brotherly Love, but don’t come down to 20th and Blake looking for any freebies.

Have I ever mentioned how great Harold Reynolds is? He’s great. He really is.

Reflecting on my earliest memories of the Seattle Mariners, two lasting images come to mind: Alvin Davis’ moustache, and Harold Reynolds’ afro-jheri curl. You can’t deny that the man had style.

Once you factor in his termination from ESPN for giving hugs, as well as his penchant for providing commentary at the Little League World Series back in the day, you end up with an all-around good guy who is tough to dislike. That’s basically Harold Reynolds in a nutshell.

Now, however, there is a new reason to love Harold: He speaks honestly and truthfully about his disdain for sabermetrics. Particularly, the infamous OPS (on base + slugging percentage) stat.

In his latest blog post, Harold talks candidly about how dumb he thinks OPS is. Many of us reference OPS every day (especially those of us who play fantasy baseball), but that doesn’t change the fact that the stat is a little rough around the edges. For as smart as sabermetricians are supposed to be, it’s a wonder they can’t figure out a better way to decipher the worth of a hitter than by adding together the values of two separate stats. It’s elementary, at best.

Harold challenges the sabermetric way of thinking, and as many of the comments on his post suggest, he is basically greeted by the same anger and ignorance that I was when I wrote a column about the ineffectiveness of sabermetrics.

Yep, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Harold Reynolds. And if you don’t, then you probably aren’t a fan of hugs, either. So suck it.

There are many controversial issues in baseball stats analysis, ranging from the control a pitcher has over his BABIP to how much effect a catcher has on the performance of his pitcher. Former ESPN baseball analyst, Harold Reynolds, chose neither of these to attack when he decided the time was ripe for a stats counter-movement. He instead questioned the value of OPS in a less-than-coherent manner.

This from his very own blog:

“If you have a ball club that’s a great offensive team then that changes everything. But if you have a guy like Adrian Gonzalez, for example, his OPS is going to be high – he’s got a lot of home runs and walks a lot…because you’re not going to pitch to him…Big power hitters swing and miss and strikeout. Or they hit home runs and walk. And at the end of the year their OBP is always going to be higher than most of the other guys on the team because they clog the bases.”

Clog the bases? Yeah, I don’t want runners on base when I come up, either.

To be fair, Reynolds’  initial point was a good one. OPS cannot explain EVERYTHING about a player. However, there is substantial evidence – including this study of mine – showing that OPS is extremely important to offensive production. I can only hope that Harold will see the light someday so I don’t have to listen to his incoherent spiels on the MLB network.

This book is the 3rd book in this new feature at ‘30-Year Old Cardboard’.

Title – ‘Class of ‘86′

Synopsis – Taking a in-depth look at the baseball rookie class of 1986. 

Jacket  Content – This book will look at the rookies that impacted the game during the 1986 baseball season.  We will dig in deep to review each player’s adjustment to the big leagues, their introduction to new managers and teammates, taking on life in a new city, their impact on the world of baseball card collecting, and will also provide a glimpse into their lives 23 years later.

‘The Class of ‘86′ had some wild characters.  Here are their stories…

Chapters

1 – Fred McGriff – Toronto Blue Jays

2 – Andres Galarraga – Montreal Expos

3 – Paul O’Neil – Cincinnati Reds

4 – Jose Canseco - Oakland A’s

5 – Ozzie Guillen – Chicago White Sox

6 – Lenny Dykstra – New York Mets

7 – Harold Reynolds – Seattle Mariners

8 – Cecil Fielder – Toronto Blue Jays

9 – Barry Bonds – Pittsburgh Pirates

10 – Will Clark – San Francisco Giants

11 – Bo Jackson – Kansas City Royals

12 – John Kruk – San Diego Padres

13 – Ruben Sierra – Texas Rangers

14 – Benito Santiago – San Diego Padres

15 – Vince Coleman - St. Louis Cardinals

16 – Darren Daulton – Philadelphia Phillies

17 – Bobby Bonilla – Chicago White Sox

18 - Danny Tartabull - Seattle Mariners

Congratulations to ‘The Class Of 1986′!!!

What time is it? Tool Time!

How do you ruin an otherwise-great sporting event? Have a phone conversation with Tim Tebow, of course.

Demonstrating an incessant desire to get in the sack with the Gators QB, ESPN had their softball announcers conduct a phone interview with Tebow in the third inning of the Washington-Florida Women’s College World Series championship game.

Tebow, proving once again that he’s still the most unlikable likable guy in America, iterated and reiterated the fact that Florida’s softball players “love each other.” Not unlike the way Tim Tebow loves the cock.

The worst part about all this, of course, is that Washington’s own football playing wunderkind sits mere feet away from that very broadcast booth and has yet to be acknowledged throughout this entire World Series. That’s right, in case you haven’t noticed, Jake Locker is in Oklahoma City cheering on the Husky softball team as we speak. How’s that for dedication?

Way to drop the ball ESPN. First you put John Kruk in the broadcast booth where he sits helplessly pondering why there’s 10 players on the field, then you go all high and mighty on us by propogandizing America with Gator Blue Tebow Kool-Aid. This absolute show of disgrace ranks right up there with the firing of Harold Reynolds for spreading hugs and goodwill around the workplace.

• Opening day in the Bronx, Yogi is throwing out the first pitch and the festivities start at noon and can bee seen on-line mlb.tv.  MLB network will be covering the game with Costas, Jim Kaat, and Harold Reynolds. Then of course YES.
• The Devils built an early lead and the game was never in doubt.  Hopefully they keep this up and end this series early.
  
• Pittsburgh dominated the Fly Guys, The Rags beat the flying Ovechkins and the Canucks beat the Blues.
• Isaiah Thompson or Thomas is the new basketball coach at FIU check out the video around the 2:00 mark.  Ha the AD doesn’t even know who he hired! This perfectly describes how far Isaiah Thomas has fallen.

Fast forward to 2 minutes unless you like listening to Jim Rome.

• Tonight’s NHL Matchups:

I can’t believe Somali pirates witha few machine guns in stupid inflatable boats are causing havoc in the open seas. Five 100-pound guys in a raft with guns are winning the battle against the naval forces from several powerful countries. What the hell? … I figure from all the copies floating around and all the advertisements in it that SOCO magazine is doing well for itself in a time where publishing isn’t thriving. However, I think its “investigative journalism” articles lose some of their luster considering that they offer to do a story about your business if you buy a lot of advertising space. Good formula to make money? Yes. Good formula to portray journalistic ethics? Give me a break. … The Celtics will not win the Eastern Conference if Kevin Garnett is not 100%. Cleveland, and maybe Orlando, will be too much for Boston without Garnett holding court in the paint on the defensive end. … I heard Harold Reynolds say “I don’t really understand this fantasy stuff” at the end of MLBNetwork’s Fantasy Baseball Preview show. At least he admitted it — listening to him struggle his way through the show with two geeky fantasy baseball experts was, at times, painful. … Happy 64th birthday to former Boston Globe scribe and current ESPN badass Peter Gammons. Dubbed “The Commissioner” by baseball players for his never-ending knowledge of the game, Gammons is the most connected journalist covering the game today. Although I sweat Gammons for his insight, I think he does refrain from negative criticism of the Boston Red Sox. Maybe it has something to do with his musical relationship with GM Theo Epstein … Speaking of The Boston Globe, one of the biggest newspapers in the country is in some deep fiscal trouble. Corporate overlord New York Times Company gave the newspaper 30 days to save $20 million or face closure. I doubt the Globe will really cease to exist, sounds more like the NYT trying to strong-arm the powerful Globe unions into taking paycuts, furloughs, etc. and doing away with lifetime job guarantees. The Globe’s newsroom/editorial union is gathering public support, as was seen in two Globe pieces on Page A1 last week. My question is, if the Globe goes under, does management at the Boston Herald layoff half its staff with no major competition in Boston? … Happy 35th birthday to the Queen of Porn herself, Jenna Jameson. Jenna pretty much layed the foundation for what the porn industry is today, and agree or disagree with her career choice, her work has been heralded by horny teenage boys and adults looking to spice things up in the bedroom. I don’t know if I can, or should, do this, but here’s a link to Jenna riding a sybian machine on Stern. … Chapter 1 of Decent Community’s They’re Going to Make Movies Better Than  They Used To: Star Trek, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.