Josh Bell On Fire

Before the baseball season goes any further, The Grandstander just has to stop and pay a brief tribute to Pirates first baseman Josh Bell.  

Here's is how 2019 has started for him:

Games - 43

At Bats - 162

BA - .333

Runs - 30

Home Runs - 14

RBI - 43

OPS - 1.106

It is unfair to say this about any young player, but he has been invoking memories of Willie Stargell this season.

Awesome. Wow!

Memorabilia in the News

Pirates Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell have been in the news of late, or, rather, their "stuff" has been in the news when their respective widows, and in Clemente's case, his children, announced that the late Pirates stars' memorabilia will be put up for action later this summer in two separate auctions.  Gold Gloves, MVP Awards, World Series and Hall of Fame Rings and lots and lots of other neat stuff will be available for folks to bid on and take home.

This might surprise some people that families would do such a thing.  On a recent Pirates telecast, Steve Blass seemed horrified at the thought of Clemente's World Series rings being sold.  Blass flashed his 1971 Series ring to the camera and said some to the effect that "this baby will NEVER leave my possession."  

I get Blass' sentiment, but I also get the Clemente and Stargell families' motivation.  This is all, after all, just "stuff" and what are they, the families, going to do with it as they get older?  Also, we have no idea as to the financial situations of the Clementes and Mrs. Stargell, so who are we to judge?

However, I do get a kick out of the disingenuous statements released by both families.  It went something to the effect of  "We know that Roberto/Willie have many thousands of devoted fans out there, and we thought that now was the time that these mementos and artifacts be shared among them."

So, I said to Mrs. Grandstander "You know, one of those Gold Gloves of Clemente's would look nice on a shelf in our office.  Maybe Vera and the boys will 'share' one of them with me, as I was and remain to this day a devoted fan of Roberto."  Well, I suppose that there are many definitions of the word "Share", and in this case, the relevant definition is "it's yours if you are the high bidder, preferably something in the high five figures."

I seem to remember that when Bill Mazeroski did something similar with all of his stuff a few years back, he pretty much came out and said that he'd like to have the money for himself in his later years and for his children and grandchildren after he's gone.  No b.s. about sharing with the fans from Maz, nosiree!

Like I said, I have no problem with what these two families are doing, and I hope that they get what they feel they need for whatever their reasons may be, but they can spare us the song and dance about sharing with the fans.

On the DH, Braun, Burnett, and a Legend's Birthday

Some baseball thoughts, two weeks into Spring Training....

• An article appeared in Sports Illustrated a few weeks back that I meant to comment upon, but didn't at the time. The gist of the article was that it was time - long past time, actually - for baseball on the Major League level to standardize its rules and put the Designated Hitter rule in place in the National League. Oh, I can hear all the purists wailing and gnashing their teeth out there, but consider the ludicrousness of having two sets of rules in place, that puts teams at serious disadvantages, not only during interleague play (which will be come more pervasive come 2013), but during the game's most important event, the World Series. It is beyond ridiculous.


• Also, consider the the two prime free agents this past winter, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder, were lost the the NL, and it was not insignificant that their new AL teams knew that they would be able to employ these players as DH's during the back end years of their contracts.


• Not to mention that 2012 will be the FORTIETH season since the DH was adopted by the American League. Like it or not, this is no longer a fly-by-night experiment. It ain't going away, so standardize the rules for crying out loud.


• Ryan Braun. The guy got off on a technicality (he himself never once said the the test that showed the amazingly high volume of testosterone in his sample was wrong), and that is far different from being "innocent" or even "not guilty", and he then proceeds to trash the reputation of the guy who conducted the test and handled his samples. Another reason to not like Ryan Braun.


• As might be expected, Braun is starting to hear the taunts from the opposing fans. Ironically, they came in a game against the Giants from those same fans who cheered and supported Barry Bonds for all those years.


• The A.J. Burnett Affair. One of the points that the Pirates trumpeted upon acquiring Burnett was that fact that he was durable, was never hurt, would take the ball every fifth day, and would give the team 200+ innings. Then the guy fractures his eye socket on the first day of training in a bunting drill. You said what I said, right? This stuff can ONLY happen to the Pirates.


• To their credit, the Pirates themselves, whatever they might be thinking privately, are not taking the woe-is-us attitude over Burnett's injury, which is good. The line is that he will be back come late May/early June, and that they will go with the guys they have until then. The worst thing the Pirates could have done was say "we're really screwed" because of the Burnett injury. What kind of message would that have sent?


• And to expand upon what I said at the beginning of this post, if the National League used a DH, like every other league in professional and amateur baseball, would Burnett have even been in the position to have received such an injury?


• One close friend is predicting that Starling Marte will be the sleeper of this year's Pirate training camp. I see that he did go 3-for-3 in last night's Grapefruit game.


• Nice to see MLB Network televising so many spring training games. Not that you want to glue yourself to the tube to watch the Mariners and Brewers B-squaders battle it out, but it is nice to catch a couple of innings of a ballgame while the temps are in the teens and there is snow on your front lawn here in Pittsburgh.


• Finally, today we observe what would have been the 71st birthday of one of the Pirates All-Time Greats, Willie Stargell. Happy Birthday, Cap'n Willie!!