Week of 2006-09-30 17:00 to 2006-10-07 16:59

Two stories showing, on the one hand, what’s good about baseball and, on the other, what’s not.

On Yahoo: “Their favorite Martin” - another cool piece on Russell Martin, including some new details on when the Dodgers fully realized what a good player they had on their hands.

[Assistant GM Kim] Ng was at the game and never will forget something she saw: Martin springing from a crouch, firing the ball to second base and easily throwing out the runner.

All around Ng, scouts were looking at their stopwatches in disbelief. “What do you got? What do you got?”

Someone clocked the throw from home to second in 1.88 seconds – much better than the two-second average for a major league catcher.

Ng called then Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta and suddenly Martin was on the “no-trade” list.

And then on SI.com: “Bonds fires back at owner”

Controversial Giants superstar Barry Bonds was deeply upset to hear club owner Peter Magowan recently characterize him as a complementary player and “not the centerpiece of the puzzle.” As a result, Bonds may be more seriously than ever considering options other than the Giants.

What a putz. Of more concern was this tidbit at the end of the story (on the second page):

While there’s no evidence of outside interest at this point (teams are disallowed from declaring their intentions yet), potentially one interesting option could be the Los Angeles Dodgers, who badly need to add power and could have the opportunity to zing their archrival by acquiring Bonds as he’s on the precipice of breaking Aaron’s record. It would be interesting to see whether the Giants would chance watching Bonds break Aaron’s record as a Dodger in their home park.

Regarding the Dodgers, Borris said, “That’s a possible scenario we wouldn’t rule out.”

Somehow, I don’t see this happening — again, the Angels seem like a much better fit especially since they want to make “big moves” this offseason. However, even if the Dodgers were seriously considering this (a big if), I think the negative publicity and potential scandal would turn them sour on the idea, never mind the steadily decaying shell of a baseball player.

Of course, if it did happen, if the Dodgers did sign Barry Bonds… well, all I can say is I would definitely miss being a Dodgers fan.

The 66ers recently published their schedule for 2007 (printable version). The first game is at High Desert on April 5, 2007, and the first home game is a week later on April 12 versus the Lancaster JetHawks.

I created the schedule in iCal for my own uses and exported it for download for anybody who’d like it: 66ers2007.ics.zip. Download and double-click to extract the .ics file from the zip archive, then you can import it into iCal.

Home games (indicated with “vs”) have the start time, while away games (using “@”) do not, following the official 66ers calendar; check the other team’s website for start times on away games.

Be aware that game times or even games themselves are sometimes changed around. You’ll want to confirm everything before heading to the ballpark.

I’ll admit it — I feel sorry for Alex Rodriguez right now. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say I hope he continues doing poorly this off-season so the Yankees and their fans will push to trade him somewhere else. Now, he does have a no-trade clause that means he has to approve any moves, and he stated specifically that he wouldn’t approve any trades, but I imagine the pressure could get bad enough to make that desire moot.

Again, this is sheer speculation on my part, but as I pointed out back in August, A-Rod’s supposed $25 million salary would be more like a $15 million salary since the Rangers are still paying a portion of the original deal. That’s still a big number, but not so much for a player of his abilities. I would imagine that the combined factors of a budget large enough to handle him, a team that could contend immediately (making them attractive to A-Rod), and being outside the AL East would limit his potential destinations. Say, the Dodgers, the Angels, or the White Sox (maybe the Cubs too, if they could make the right other moves this offseason). Most likely? Probably the Angels, given their need for a big bat to protect Vladimir Guerrero, as well as owner Arte Moreno’s publicized desire to make a huge splash before 2007. But wouldn’t it be something for Ned Colletti and Frank McCourt to pull off a deal of their own?

The playoffs are still in progress, and a breakout game (even if it is from the 8th spot in the lineup now) from Alex would make all the speculation meaningless. But if he goes 0-4 again today or the Yankees are eliminated, all bets are off. He could succeed tremendously any place other than New York City. Seems to me the more laid back environs of Southern California would suit him fine.

Congrats to Nomar Garciaparra (NL) and Jim Thome (AL), the MLB Comeback Players of the Year!

This season, Garciaparra, who received 72,054 votes, won by a decisive margin, and re-emerged as a star on the baseball field this year after a couple of injury-riddled seasons. For the season, the Dodgers’ first baseman batted .303 with 20 home runs and 93 RBI. Additionally, the right-handed slugger was selected to his sixth All-Star Game while leading the Dodgers back to the playoffs.

The 1997 AL Rookie of the Year played first base this year for the first time in his career and committed only four errors in 1,124 total chances for a fielding percentage of .996. The two-time AL batting champion helped the Dodgers reach the postseason with some clutch hitting during the last two weeks of the regular season including two dramatic walk-off home runs. Garciaparra will be honored prior to today’s New York Mets - Los Angeles Dodgers Divisional Playoff game.

And justly deserved.

Redlands Daily Facts: Going far out to eat locally

When students meandered in for lunch Tuesday at the University of Redlands Commons, they studied Bon Appétit’s offerings a little more carefully than usual.

Pizza was not available, nor was rice. Soda fountain treats were not an option. Navel oranges? Not a chance.

It was Bon Appétit’s Eat Local Challenge. The challenge may not have been so much for students to find something good to eat as it was for chefs to come up with food made from ingredients grown or produced within a 150-mile radius of the university.