Besides having one of the most unfortunate names in the history of baseball, Gaylord Perry was a tremendously accomplished pitcher. A veteran of 22 seasons with 8 different teams, Perry won 314 games against 265 losses, posted a career ERA of 3.11, and struck out 3534 batters during his career. In the process, Perry was the 1978 Cy Young award winner and was selected to five All-Star teams.  In 1991, Perry was selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Gaylord Perry was also a cheater.

Over the course of his 22-year career, Perry was known for his use of the spitball, the “puffball”, and also scuffing and cutting baseballs. His former manager, Gene Mauch, was even vocal to the point where he thought Perry’s plaque in the Hall of Fame should have a tube of KY Jelly adhered to it.

So why is Perry relevant today?

Well, the color-commentary announcers for the Toronto Blue Jays, Jack Morris and Dirk Hayhurst, have accused Boston Red Sox pitchers Clay Buchholz and Junichi Tazawa of “loading up” the baseball in a similar fashion. In their accusations, they have noted that Boston pitchers are reaching their forearms and rubbing what appears to be a foreign substance from their arms on the baseball. The accusations arose after Buchholz moved to 6-0, shutting down the Blue Jays offense on Wednesday night.

Here is the accusation from Hayhurst on Twitter:

Forget the hair, I just saw video of Buchholz loading the ball with some Eddie Harris worthy slick'em painted up his left forearm. Wow.

— Dirk Hayhurst (@TheGarfoose) May 2, 2013

Is it a real issue? That’s hard to pick out, as only Buchholz, Tazawa, and any umpire that checks them going forward will know.

However, the practice of rubbing rosen and sweat from the forearm is hardly proprietary to the Red Sox alone, as pitchers all around the game do it in order to improve their grip on the baseball. In fact, Red Sox catcher, Jarrod Saltalamacchia was quick to note that Toronto pitcher J.A. Happ was going to his right forearm throughout the game as well.

"I saw [J.A.] Happ all night going to his forearm. Is he doing something?" Boston catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said about Toronto's starter. "For them to point out one guy or two guys, I don't think that's right."

What it actually stinks of is the desperation of one team trying to drum up something that will fire a fan base back up.

Aside from the obvious success that the Red Sox have enjoyed in 2013, there is also the John Farrell component. The Toronto media, front office, and fan base are all still equally bitter about the way Farrell left his role as Toronto’s manager in order to take on the same role in Boston.  Add in the fact that he has been able to turn them back into a winner, something he was unable to do in Toronto, and all of a sudden everyone is Sherlock Holmes and there is a mystery afoot.

In the end, what this does is create an unfair stigma around Buchholz and the rest of the Red Sox pitching staff and is going to prompt other managers to stall the game during strong outings and ask for an inspection on suspicion alone.

The fact that is comes from a radio play-by-play guy on a hunch after watching tape is simply ridiculous. Jack, you’re better than this.

Oh, and as a closing note, Sportsnet.ca and Fan 590 are owned and operated by Rogers Communications. Anyone want to take a guess who owns the Toronto Blue Jays?

Shorty’s first owner, Dinsdale Piranha, was an abusive man...cruel but fair

put a lot of pressure on ole shorty as you can see

Old Dinsey is demanding custody. 

I called Atty Jackie Chiles. I’m not worried,

I’m not just some innocent bystander!

After the first week or so of MLB, the surprise teams are The Boston Red Sox , Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics in the AL and the Atlanta Braves, Arizona Diamondbacks

And Colorado Rockies in the senior circuit.

It’s amazing how a few wins by Thee Olde Towne Team can change your perspective of the new season. Weather it lasts or it doesn’t, doesn’t matter. You ride the wave and hope for the best. I went into the season with a ho hum outlook on this season, often joking on who would finish last, the Yankees or the Red Sox. After one week I’m saying, this team has some good young players and the potential for the veterans, Ellsbury and Pedroia to carry the load of a long season is there.

Can the starting pitchers, especially Lester and Buchholz ( Sully wouldn’t mind) keep going like they started the season? Both of these guys have shown flashes in their careers as top of the rotation hurlers, both pitched no hitters a couple years back.

Can Dempster win 10-12 games, can Felix Dubront repeat his 12 win season of last year as the number four and can John Lackey be an adequate fifth starter. Lackey hurt his right bicep in the fifth inning against Toronto the other day and will spend time on the DL.

Sox Manager, John Farrell believes that Psycho Alfredo Aseves will fill Lackeys spot in the rotation 

Will David Ortiz ever finish his rehab…on April 1^st he was said to have run wind sprints in the outfield…wind sprints…on April 1^st…

Yikes, hope springs eternal…    but wait...

Joel Hanrahan pulled his best Mitchell Boggs impersonation last night giving up 5 runs to the Baltimore O's in the 9th to tighten up the AL East.

My fantasy team oldmansgame took it on the chin in the first week to Miggy’s

Shorty told me not to draft aging pitchers that relied on velocity to win,

I should have listened.

I do have one or two bright spots, Justin Upton, Lance Berkman

so I lift a glass of Fred Light (now on tap at Moz) to these guys.

gold fish and a Fred Lite

These would make a good bar snack at the Tavern

NEW FEATURE

FUTURE SHOCK 1.1 This section is where shorty takes a look into the crystal ball he took from Bill Parcells. As you remember Tuna used to say,” I don’t have a crystal ball”

That’s because shorty has it.

-NFL news May 2015

    Rumor has it that Sir Roger has appointed an NFL “expansion czar” whose assignment was to identified 3 places out side of the contiguous forty eight to target for expansion…the list of three hasn’t been released yet but there is a rumor floating about places like the Tavern that names the following sites: Hamilton Bermuda, Alajuela Costa Rica and Toronto Canada and one inside the lower forty eight and that would be Los Angeles….shorty says his sources are reliable.

The 2 year is to plan is to add eight teams in total, one to each division. Four in 2015 and four more in 2017. The AFC and NFC East and the AFC and NFC West will get the first four.

The NFL expansion czar hasn’t been identified yet but again, shorty has his sources…reliable sources.

The most frequently named possibility is….

A guy by the name of Billy Shakespeare. Billy hails from jolly Olde London Towne and has been seen having tea recently with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones..

Shakespeare is not a stranger to the game and actually has NFL experience. Billy was a Cleveland Browns 4^th  rounder in the 1993 draft out of…you guessed it, William and Mary, a Classics and Literature major, he was a four year starter at W&M, he played defensive back at 5’11” -195.

He was ceremonially cut by the head coach William S. Belichick during training camp allegedly for attempting to re write the play book into proper English.

The coach was heard ranting around the locker room, Just do your job Billy just do your

#%&*#@*& job. 

After that unfortunate turn of events, he worked out with both the Philadelphia Eagles and the St Louis Cardinals before traveling to Barcelona where he was a special teams standout for two seasons. A wrist injury, diagnosed as carpel tunnel syndrome or chronic writers cramp ended an otherwise promising career.

He’s been involved in the attempt to get a team to London but it’s said he would settle for Bermuda for an expansion

The nick name of the Bermuda team would be the

And would be added to the AFC East

Stay tuned for the next segment of Future Shock and learn the latest from ole shorty himself

And now its time for:

Grilling corner:

Venison Burgers Sweet red bell peppers

Summer squash and Roasted potatoes

Serve with a fine Chianti.

What? you want actual sports?  

NCAA. Basketball, congratulations to new Basketball Hall of Fame selectee Ricky Petino and the hard working Louisville kids.

NCAA Hockey,The Frozen four square off tonite 4/11

U Mass-Lowell vs Yale and

Quinnipiac vs St. Cloud State

The championship game is 4/13

 I bought a “Mo Hate Me” game jersey for shorty,

he handed me $20 for a $2.50 shirt and said…Harry keep the change.

Thanks for the visit, now back to the present and some real sports talk >>

Let me first apologize for the late post. I cannot blame this on time or even on a bad memory. Quite frankly, it comes down to trying to figure out what to write. After finding a way to stretch baseball talk all winter, I finally hit a wall and struggled with something to write about. I hoped that by waiting until the morning, something would come to mind.

And low and behold...We have Curt Schilling.

The former Red Sox, Philly, and Diamondback right-hander is no stranger to opening his mouth. 

On Wednesday, during a radio interview with ESPN, the erstwhile former pitcher went into detail about an incident in the Red Sox clubhouse involving steroids. During the 2008 season, Schilling claims to have been approached by an unspecified employee of the Red Sox organization about the possibility of taking PED’s in order to extend his career.  Health issues had begun to catch back up to Schilling at that time and the thought was presented to him that if he took certain substances, that he could recover and regain some effectiveness.

Schilling has said he reported the incident to a team official, who in turn took the matter to Major League Baseball. The league acknowledged the fact in a statement on Thursday, “The club immediately notified us, we take these matters very seriously, and an investigation was completed.” There was no further mention of any penalties against the club, the player, or the employee accused during the incident.

And while the motives of such a conversation by Schilling are timed more as a way to draw attention away from his bankruptcy, they do show one thing; not all ballplayers operated on the low standards of others.

Schilling retired after the 2007 season, after making just 24 appearances due to a shoulder issue in June that kept him out for close to a month. With that in mind, the motivation to “fix” the health issue and extend his career would have been relatively great at the time.

With a solid postseason resume, Schilling would still need to overcome a 216-146 record to make the Hall of Fame. Despite the fact that wins are looked at differently by sabermatricians at this stage, win totals are still a gauge used by many of the voters when accessing a pitcher against the generations of pitchers that preceded him.

The urge to push past that may have been motivation enough for some players, yet Schilling denied it, perhaps due to some moral standing or perhaps because he felt his legacy (76.9 career bWAR, 11-2 Postseason record) without it was better served by letting his merits stand on their own.

Schilling’s may not have been the least abrasive personality to ever play the game. He may have made some questionable decisions in regards to his 38 Studios venture and he certainly isn’t winning any friends in the broadcasting world, but one thing you can never take away from Curt Schilling his appreciation for the history of the game. By doing the right thing here, Schilling did so with a watchful eye on the legacies of the players that came before him and chose to respect their contributions more than worry about his own. He chose to walk away before trampling on their memories.

We just wish that others could have done so as well.

I don’t know about any of you folks, but it is certainly cold where I’m at. About the only thing keeping me warm if the thoughts that Spring Training is right around the corner.

Oh, and that hot stove still burning in the corner over there.

Sure it’s starting to cool off a bit, but it is still pumping hot, with plenty of time to get a couple of more moves done before the season starts. Let’s take a look at what this week’s stove is cooking:

-          Of course the big news of the week is the trade between Arizona and Atlanta, sending Justin Upton to the Braves to patrol the outfield with his brother B.J. Upton and Jason Heyward. And all it cost the Braves was Martin Prado, Randall Delgado, and three prospects. While I like the trade results for the Diamondbacks, I cannot help but think that the package they would have gotten from Seattle would have been greater, including Taijuan Walker, Nick Franklin, and Stephen Pryor.  But then again, Upton vetoed that trade and the D-Backs were forced to get what they can, and they still did pretty well for themselves.

-          The Mets are trying to pursue free agent outfielder Michael Bourn. However, to get the deal done, they are asking Major League Baseball to have the draft pick compensation reduced to a second round pick. The Mets have the 11^th pick in the 2013 draft, just one pick outside the protected pick window, and right behind the Pirates, who have the 10^th pick due to their first round pick not signing in 2012. The Mets feel that they should not be punished for this misfortune and have asked for Major League Baseball to rule in their favor. However, one would have to question the system if in its first year of enforcement the league circumvents it for a large market team.

-          The Pittsburgh Pirates inked a contract with Francisco Liriano earlier this winter, but failed to finalize it. That was because the left-hander broke his right arm. Now it is coming out that he broke the arm due to a slip up in the bathroom. The two sides will come to an agreement, but it will likely mean reworking the contract to protect Pittsburgh against any recurring injuries with the arm.

-          Another team that had an issue with a signed player’s health records has finalized their agreement. However, the deal between the Boston Red Sox and Mike Napoli is a far cry below the original 3-year, $39 million deal they agreed to in December. The new deal is for only a single season and $5 million, as it was discovered during Napoli’s physical that the catcher/first baseman suffers from Avascular Necrosis in his hip. It’s the same disease that Bo Jackson had to deal with, so Boston was rightfully diligent in reworking the deal so as to not handicap themselves for 3 season with a catcher that may or may not play.

-          The Seattle Mariners are not discussing trading stud ace Felix Hernandez this winter, as almost every GM wishes they would. Instead, they are exploring a way to extend the right-hander, with rumors floating around about a 4-year, $100 million extension on the table. That would make King Felix’ current deal worth 6-years, $139.5 million and keep him with the Mariners until he is 32-years-old. However, Hernandez may want a few more years of security, but it is worth noting that both sides are very interested in getting a deal done.

Pity the fans of Cleveland. First they prostrate themselves by elevating LeBron James to Kim Jong-Il stature and he jilts them on national television. Then the Browns suffer through another rubber-stamp lousy season, being ditched by their owner in the process, only to get a new owner whose first move is to hire a coach whose name inspires a Google search more than it inspires hope. And now they get to watch their estranged original franchise go to the AFCC --- again --- in black and purple uniforms.

And then there are the Indians. The Tribe. The team that Bill Veeck, flush with gimmicks in a city flush with postwar industry, turned into a powerhouse, winners of two pennants and countless futile but entertaining runs at the unbeatable 1950s Yankees. A team with names like Lou Boudreau, Early Wynn, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, Rocky Colavito, Bobby Avila and many more. A team that beat Ted Williams' mighty Red Sox in a playoff in 1948, then beat Boston's other guys, the Braves, in the World Series. A team that went 111-43 in 1954. A team that found a gold mine in Latin America and built another powerhouse in the '90s. A team that was within a game of going to another World Series in 2007 --- before choking versus Boston. That team dissolved as the stars, unaffordable as free agents, were diffused into the league's money pits. It was time to turn things around from the bottom up.

And to whom did they turn to raise the phoenix from the ashes? Terry Francona. Did they really deserve this?

There are as many non-Pink-Hat Red Sox fans who thought the team won despite Francona (he was derided as 'Francoma' before anyone even knew about painkillers) as there are those who thought it was because of him, but make no mistake, he won two World Series. He was brought in to babysit the second-highest-paid roster in the league, a team awash in self-described 'idiots' like Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, Johnny Damon, Curt Schilling, Jason Varitek and Nomar Garciaparra. As time went on most were replaced by equally volatile egos like Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon, John Lackey, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Carl Crawford... you get the idea. Francona appeared masterful at keeping this potential zoo yoked together to pull the wagon --- until it all came apart, perhaps tellingly following the departure of steadying influences like Mike Lowell and prodigal son John Farrell. Left alone with the whip, Francona gave no sign of being able to control what quickly degenerated into a madhouse, even with wild man Ramirez gone. What was left for Bobby Valentine wasn't going anywhere. Was upper management partially at fault with Valentine, mollycoddling star players and giving them a red carpet to the front office to complain about the manager? Of course. Were the veteran players at fault? Of course. Was Valentine the cure? Not hardly. But nothing in this soap opera gives any indication that Francona, without broad shoulders to stand on, was a capable manager even for a team loaded with high-priced talent, let alone for a bargain-basement rebuild.

Enter the Indians, who hired the glitter of his two rings to lift them out of the cellar. At that point, success-starved Forest City denizens felt they had reason to rejoice. Here was a big name. This guy had won.

Then came the news that he had also --- gulp --- written a book, or as likely been coaxed into writing one by Boston Globe sports vulture extraordinaire Dan Shaunessey. Ah, the Globe --- as biased and controlling in its politics as it is convinced that it is the heart, soul and conscience of Boston sports --- and which, scant years back, shamelessly begged for its own unprofitable existence until it was discreetly bailed out by the New York Times, its owner and, of course, its political ally. Ah, the Globe, which portrayed the Sandinistas as folk heroes in the '80s, earning the sobriquet El Globo almost everywhere outside the PRC (Peoples' Republic of Cambridge). The Globe, whose election year eat-the-rich movement, amplified by daily radio soapboxes for its scribes, cast the issue as out-of-touch ownership victimizing the fans through a preoccupation with money, this despite the fact that John Henry's massive hedge fund, his cash cow, went belly-up in 2011 --- not exactly a sign of obsessive scrutiny. Forgotten was the fact that this ownership bought as much as brought Boston two titles and nearly a third, following a brief 86-year drought. While it worked, no one's lofty principles were violated.

Despite Francona's book as yet being unavailable, sensational details have been leaked to provide maximum sales stimulus. And it will sell. Doubtless it will also sell Boston's ownership (which made Francona rich and famous) down the river, and equally doubtless it will fail to emphasize that the controlling suits in the front office knew a stooge when they saw one, and an eager stooge at that. Terry Francona made his bed and slept in it.

So what's so sordid about all this? Maybe Casey Stengel never wrote a book shredding Del Webb for canning him after a mere 10 pennants in 12 seasons, but Joe Torre sure wrote one. With the bar lowered appropriately, why can't Francona cash in? Who cares? Isn't baseball ridden with bigger scandals anyway?

Something to consider: Torre, though coy about retirement, knew he was done with baseball when he decided to rip his former organization. He never came back. Terry Francona has apparently forgotten that he's back in the game --- and in the American League. What's to stop Cleveland fans now from feeling that he considers his new job banishment to the minors, something unworthy of his memoirs? Ok, my best days are behind me now, and as I ease into retirement and fatten my nest egg by managing these rubes I'm free to reminisce (and vent) about my glory days in Boston --- plus fatten my nest egg even more. If I flop in this nowhere burg, nobody will want to read my book. I gotta strike while the iron is at least still warm.

Sound harsh? Know what? That's how Red Sox fans would feel if everything had happened in reverse and Francona had just been hired by Boston. Around here, the spin-zone media who begat this masterpiece are already at high rpm, and they aren't likely to implicate Francona. He's making them money and publicly hanging their class-war enemies all at once. Apologists are pushing the angle that he probably didn't torch any of his players a la Torre, so it's ok. That, after all, would damage his ability to manage his new team. Hello? Here's hoping the fans and scribes of Cleveland aren't quite so purposely naive about workplace relationships. The timing of the book, even if it turns out to be a mea-culpa testimonial to the goodness and purity of the Red Sox organization, is tasteless. And it will include an even more tasteless blame game. The admission that he was a painkiller-guzzling zombie will elicit cries of 'courageous' from the spinners, but smells like an attempt at an excuse. The way to show the world that the utter collapse of a league-leading powerhouse in 2011 wasn't your fault is to lead your new team to the promised land, not to publish an expose. Nobody loves a rat. Seen Eric Mangini working the sidelines lately, speaking of Boston and Cleveland?

In publishing his Red Sox memoirs, Francona has announced to Cleveland that he considers the writable portion of his career over. If he's also thrown his former ownership (maybe others?) under the bus, then it must have slipped his mind that he now works for new ownership. This isn't the same as leaving a corporation in a huff to head up a cutthroat competitor. Everybody works for one company, and it's called MLB. Players insist that they are part of a brotherhood. Guess what? So are owners. And an owner is a rather important part of the team. Ya think? There's no winner here except for the yellow media.

Now, if Terry Francona indeed leads the Tribe out of the cellar and back into contention his book will surely become just old news. However, if he doesn't, this curious episode may indelibly cheapen his all-important legacy. It probably has already. More importantly, it will heap further disrespect on the city that was once the Best Location in the Nation, extending its status as the Mistake on the Lake. He may be helping the overbearing Boston media drive out the only owner in a century to take the Red Sox to the top, but the irony is that he's dumping on his new employer and on his new city in the process.

Most importantly, writing any expose cheapens baseball, but writing one while still active breaks new ground, even if every word is true. Pandering to Pink Hats is one thing, but reaching out to the Jerry Springer crowd with Mommy Dearest is another. Biting the hand that fed you looks tawdry. Even reminiscing wistfully about your old team while in the employ of another looks bad. Biting the hand of MLB while it's still feeding you is just plain stupid.