Civil Rights Game- Mets and White Sox March 29

Ben Shipgel of the NY Times wrote an excellent column about the meaning of the Civil Rights Game next Saturday to Willie Randolph. This is an important game for every minority in the game not just African-Americans. The Mets have even adopted aspects of Jackie Robinson’s legacy as a National League player from New York. We know how important Robinson’s historical career is to Fred Wilpon.

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I’ve read some articles questioning the choice of the Mets for the game based on the racial makeup of the roster. Although there are few African-Americans on the Mets roster, and Major League Baseball in general I disagree with the view that African-Americans are the only players impacted by the social change that occurred when Jackie Robinson began playing for the Dodgers in 1947. The door was opened for Latin, Japanese, and Korean players that play throughout the league now.

It was a smart choice by MLB to have two big market teams in the game to draw maximum attention to an exhibition game that’s more than just an exhibition.

Oliver Perez Inconsistent

The Indians won 5-2 today as Oliver Perez gave up four homers in five innings. Perez was consistently high with his pitches and paid the price. Carlos Beltran hit a bomb to center field and Damion Easley was 2 for 3. Read the full recap at MLB.com.

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Brian Schneider Playing Today

Injured catcher Brian Schneider is playing today for the first time in quite a while. He’s had a hamstring injury that’s severely limited his playing time this spring.

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Willie Randolph Won’t Coddle Martinez Again

SI.com reports that Willie Randolph says that he won’t have Pedro Martinez on a pitch count again this season. I don’t buy it! Randolph has managed the pitching staff in the classic late 20th-early 21st century fashion. He employs pitch counts and rarely lets starters finish games. He uses the formula late inning relievers regardless of the situational aspects of the games and point in the season.

Willie Randolph

Certainly Willie isn’t the only manager employing these tactics, as a matter of fact he’s in the company of almost every manager in baseball. It’s the style of the game today to closely manage starting pitchers to limit innings. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it may keep pitchers from burning their arms, shoulders, and elbows out.

I don’t buy that Willie will change his style this year. Specifically, changing his style with Martinez doesn’t make sense. He’s 36 years old this season and coming off a 2007 in which he only made five starts at the end of the year due to injury. Martinez hasn’t pitched a complete game since 2005 (he had 4 in 31 starts).

I could see Willie running Oliver Perez and John Maine deeper into games. I’d like to see that. They’re younger players without a recent history of injury.

Time will tell but I’m not buying Willie’s big talk during spring training. It doesn’t jive with his historical record and common sense.

Photo courtesy of alpineinc

Mets-Phillies Ascending Rivalry

Fox Sports Dayn Perry wrote a piece about the four best rivalries in baseball today. There wasn’t anything surprising about the rivalries selected in the column that you can read here. Though I found it bizarre that Perry would use this column to trash fans of the Red Sox, Yanks, Cubs, Mets, and Phillies. He also goes on to say that Midwesterners are better human beings than people from the East Coast.

I think it’s time to stop reading Perry’s columns. He can’t hold a candle to Ken Rosenthal…