Anticipation was high for the first divisional matchup of the season as the Harris champions, the Houston Astros, came to the Vet. What followed was a trail of brutality and destruction with which Phillies fans were all too familiar. After losing the series 4-1, GM Ray Luca noted, "I'm sick of them and their nice-guy image. Things are going to start happening to them - bad kinds of things." LF Dante Bichette's hitting
continued to improve. He batted .350 for the series with a pair of RBI, a stolen base and his sixth round-tripper. On the pitching front, Neagle showed improved form in his two starts against Houston (16 IP, 14 H, 2 BB, 10 K), gaining a win in one of them. CF Quinton McCracken played solidly on defense. 

The Phillies then embarked on a nine-game road trip that took them to Chavez Ravine in sunny California as well as to the crime-ridden, condom- and needle-infested streets of the nation's capital (London?). What
emerged from the series at LA was a surprising 3-1 result. Wearing a GO OTTAWA SENATORS t-shirt under his uniform, Rolen murdered Dodger pitching for a spectacular .636 for the series with a trio of RBI, two stolen bases and his ninth home run. SP James Baldwin sought to take some of the pressure off of Neagle to gain wins for the team, as he emerged victorious in game four, allowing five hits in six innings of
work while striking out nine. SS Kevin Stocker shut the Dodgers down on defense, making several spectacular plays. 

It was time to put on the Kevlar for the trip to Washington. Transported to RFK in armored personnel carriers, the Phillies took every security precaution known. Playing in a stadium full of drug addicts, pimps and whores (and that's just the Senators' front office), it could have been very easy for the Bambinos to lose concentration. Finding themselves six games out of first place in the middle of the month, they played steady ball in a hostile atmosphere, and took three of five in the series. Bichette continued hitting well, batting .474 for the series with 4 RBI.  Rookie SP Garrett Stephenson threw an all-too-rare complete game, getting the win while allowing only six hits while striking out 10. 3B Jeff Cirillo made a solid defensive contribution. Encouraged by Luca's offer of cash to any batter who could make Senators reliever Gregg Olson look like the sorry shit he is, the Phils mauled him in his only appearance for four runs. A former Gambino employee when he was with the Milwaukee Brewers, Olsson turned informant, helping Janet Reno with her investigations into the Gambino Group's financial "irregularities." When asked why Olson didn't receive the treatment that befell Brewer-turned-informant Steve Olin upon his defection from the organization, Luca remarked, "It's better to torment a jerk like Olson rather than to kill him straight out. He isn't worth the lead." 

The Phils returned to the Vet to face the principal nemesis of Gambino's seven years in the MBL: Earl Weaver. This time he was leading the Florida Marlins, a poor defensive club with a distinctly geriatric
touch. Weaver immediately embarked on controversial behavior when the groundskeeper refused to allow Cal Ripken to play shortstop in a wheelchair. The Phils took advantage of poor defensive play to take three of five from the Marlins, but stooped to the visitors' level with a sloppy showing in the field on their own account. 2B Mickey Morandini proved the offensive catalyst, hitting .500 for the series. Neagle gained a pair of victories, pitching a total of 16 innings while allowing 14 hits and striking out 15. Bichette turned in a rarely seen solid performance in left field.

Five games out of first place, the team travelled to Beantown to face the division-leading Red Sox. Another surprise occurred - a 3-2 series victory. The unlikely offensive hero was Johnson, who trashed BoSox
pitching for a .667 average with three RBI and his first home run.  Neagle was once again stellar on the mound: although he did not gain a result in his nine innings of work, he allowed only seven hits against
at strong Boston lineup while fanning nine. RF Orlando Merced's defensive performance was perhaps the difference in the series. After a 4-1 win in game five, Manager Al Newman was ecstatic: "Yeah, people
think we can't beat him, but we took it to the MAN," referring to Whitey Herzog, the longtime object of Newman's hatred.

HIT LIST: Phillies captain Benito Santiago has confirmed that the player of the month is Denny Neagle, who is presently 12-8 with a 3.21 ERA... Rumors are flying in Philly concerning the management's likely response
to the injury of Garrett Stephenson in Boston. According to the Director of Entertainments, a Mr Holman, "anything could happen" during Boston's visit to the Vet next month.

Still, all-in-all, May actually showed that the team may not be as terrible as its performance over the first two months. The principal difference between the winning streak at beginning of May and the rest of the season can be summarized with a simple phrase: home run. That phrase was not said much (relatively speaking) when describing the opponent¹s at bats but was (again relatively) for the Jays. Unfortunately, that changed back with the LA visit and held through the rest of the month.  Despite the horrific record, the ownership is not as depressed about this season as it was at this time last season or the year before. The reason: the sub-expectation performance on the offensive side, on the whole, is slight with a couple of notable exceptions; the sub-par pitching is only slightly out of synch with that of the rest of the league. 

Jays Chatter 
Orel Hershiser looked to be loosing ground in the highly unofficial competition of his allowing more
homers than any one Jay hits -- then the Dodgers came in and whacked 5. In his last start of the month, Orel allowed another three homers in the Astrodome [!] before being injured. He has a comfortable lead that isn¹t likely to be surmounted while Orel¹s on the DL . . . Orel Hershiser¹s current pace has him giving up 52 HRs this season [only double what happened in MLB]. . .The Dodger hit 14 HRs in the five games and managed to win just three games; the victory margins were huge, both losses were by 1 run. . . John Olerud has found his stroke picking up 12 RBIs with 8 Ds and 5 HRs. . . Jose Hernandez continues to be a effective force off the bench as he is still pressing the regulars in all power categories. . . A slight surprise, Delino DeShields leads the team in stolen bases as Brian Hunter cannot buy a lead. 

Major League Baseball 
Martine and I took the kids (all four) to the Cardinals game on 22 May -- it was the Saint Louis Zoo¹s Beanie Baby promotion night. We decided late (Wednesday) but managed to get tickets in the right field upper terrace just inside the foul pole. The price for McGwire (and Beanie Babies?) was felt as ticket were $6/child, $11/adult versus $2/child, $8/adult of last year. The amazing and sad part: we got to the park at 17:15 (19:10 game) to watch batting practice [why not?] and had to stand in line for 25 minutes before we reached the turnstiles [claiming 4 of the 20,000 toys]. As we entered the stadium we noticed a steady stream of people leaving by veering from entry gates to exit areas! We took our seats at 18:05 to a less than 40% full stadium and by game time I would say there was 65-70% capacity. The kicker was the official attendance was sold-out. The game against the Giants was very good with Merker and Gardner pitching well. McGwire paid back some of this year¹s ticket price increase by hitting a home run into ³Big Mac Land² [upper terrace in left field power alley] which got us free Big Mac the next day. A positive: my children actually watched the game with only occasional lapses! Still, all of them lost interest or consciousness in the 11th inning, which started at 22:30. [Game ended by the time we reached the car.] Nonetheless, the experience was positive enough that the family will be there for the first time the Detroit Tigers visit in the regular season. 

Real Baseball 
Alex 
Alex¹s team is still rolling over the competition except for the season opening one run loss. They avenged that loss on Saturday (5/30) with a come-from-behind, extra-inning, 1-run win. Now I am convinced that these teams are going be true rivals over the coming years. Alex seems to be settling into four defensive slots: P, RF, 2B, and 1B. The manager has finally noticed that putting a lefty at 3B is not a bright move. For the season, Alex is batting in the 0.875 range but is starting to slip -- he wants to hit for power versus average. He has started to over swing, with an exaggerated upper-cut, and is hitting into [what should be] routine pop-ups. McGwire Madness has not helped my dissuasion case for trying to hit liners and letting the power come. Anybody got a suggestion? 

Katie 
Frankly, I cannot be any prouder of her even if her team was winning, which has yet to do, through her efforts. In spite of not wanting to play originally, she has gone to every practice, listened, tried, asked questions about situation defense, hustled, and been alert every minute she has been on the field. Except for two other girls, I cannot say 50% of that about the rest of the team. Katie holds the second best BA mark on the team at 0.667 [6-9] but leads with an OBP at 0.880 [16 BB]. Her defense has improved enough that the manager has moved her to 3B vice RF. [The 11 inch circumference, soft-center ball and erratic pitching have lead to very few hits that reach the outfield in the air and the predominantly RH hitting line-ups have combined to make 3B a busy position.]

Some of you may not really care about this (I can think of a few that are sorta laughing at me now) but I'm working on some ideas that I can facilitate to allow us to share some of our interests at least. Let's try this on for size: I'd like every member who reads this article to send me an acknowledgement that he has read it (that alone will be a great test of how many members actually read the HPP). Then, in the email message,
tell me the following things about your interests outside of baseball, as follows:

1. Name your favorite author and, if you can decide, your favorite work of his/her.
2. Name your favorite songwriter/composer, and your favorite work of his/her.
3. What music (if any) have you been listening to in the last month?
4. What was the last book you read?
5. If stranded on a desert island, which single book and which single record/CD would you take with you?

Trade talk - the Orioles' unexpectedly strong performance this year has led to rumors that the club is looking to deal for a first baseman and right fielder - regular first baseman Jeff Conine is hitting only .224, and the bench is lacking depth. Sanders has done only slightly better, .227, and has been injury prone as well.

Thanks to all of the league members who are keeping up the Web page and the stats.  The team stats reveal the Indians to be leading the MBL in fielding.  Believe me that is the ONLY thing keeping me in games.
My team ERA is around 4.67, which is thirteen in the league but almost half a run per game over the team in 12th place.  This ERA is just about what the '97 performance was for my starting rotation.  How big
would that ERA balloon to if I had an average defense?

I would like to thank Chris for responding to my comments about Diamond Dreams and I hope each of you has taken time to send him your comments about the game.  From Chris' responses and comments made in the past by him, one aspect of the game will be taking a direction that I do not find appealing.  Chris said that he wants to obscure pitching performance levels (when a pitcher is fading or tired) and, a year or two ago told me, that defensive ratings viewable to the manager will become categories like poor, good, excellent, instead of a specific numerical rating. I prefer to have all of the information available.  My first reason would be that these changes, especially the pitching performance, will lengthen the time needed to play a game, because you will have to observe additional aspects of the screen.  I want to know the rating of my fielders.  When two or more numerical ratings are lumped into a more general category, it could
change the team's range percentage by 10% or more.  That is significant.  I would assume that the range of fielding numbers would remain the same and that just the manager will not know whether a fielder's rating is 6 or 7, for example.

How do each of you keep up your interest in the current baseball season?  One of the reasons I play in the MBL is to keep my interest up in the real leagues.  The few years I did not play, over the last fifteen years,
I found myself not paying attention to the majors at all.  I grew up a die hard Pittsburgh Pirate fan, but have not followed them since I moved away from Pennsylvania in the fall of 1979.  During the eleven years I lived in the St. Louis area, coinciding with the Herzog-era, I cheered for the Cardinals.  In the last seven years living near no major league city, I find myself with no team loyalty and really not caring which team wins or loses.  My daily routine is to sign on to the Internet, call up USA Today's scoreboard page and look in the box scores to see how each player that I own performed in yesterday's game.  In the evening I turn on ESPN to see Baseball Tonight and/or Sports Center, in the hope that I will see a highlight of one of my
players.  There have been times when I have been genuinely surprised when I hear an announcer comment that the Indians have won seven games in a row, the Cubs have lost four in a row, or a pitcher that I do owe has not won a game in his last five starts.  That is when Irealize that I still am not paying attention to who is winning or losing, but only to the individual statistics of a handful of players.  This is such a perversion of our great national past time.  Any one else out there do the same thing?

“We simply cannot allow ourselves to lose series at home inside the division, especially to teams like Philadelphia,” manager George Scott noted.  “A couple more performances like that and I’ll be selling Sam Adams in the bleachers after the All-Star break.”

As was the case throughout the first two months of the season, offense has been a problem.  New acquisitions Tim Salmon and Mo Vaughn have provided less power than anticipated although Salmon, at least, has been making up for it in other ways.  Vaughn continues to struggle at the plate, blaming his slow start on the unusually cool weather in New England this year.

“It was always warm in Anaheim.  Although I miss the weather, there are better strip clubs in Providence than there were in southern California.

Thus far, GM Whitey Herzog has adopted a largely wait-and-see attitude.  In April, pitcher Derek Lowe (at AAA Pawtucket) was acquired from Seattle for Clint Sodowsky.  In early May, free agents Tim Naehring and Craig Grebeck, both formerly with the Athletics, were signed to one-year contracts to add some depth to the bench.

“Timmy is a true gamer,” coach Carlton Fisk said.  “He has already helped us out by giving Val and Mike Lansing rest in the infield.  He also has proven to be a capable right-handed bat off the bench.”

The pitching staff continues to be a strength for Boston.  Although performing much worse than anticipated, first-round selection Rick Reed has a 10-4 record to accompany his ERA in the 4.50-range.  The bullpen has been superb, especially Randy Myers (1.42, 20/21 saves) and Eric Gunderson (0.00 in 15 appearances).  Pedro Martinez continues to make Dodger owner Bob Biermann lament his departure by posting an 11-3 record, 2.26 ERA in 17 starts.

“We have some good arms at Pawtucket, too,” Herzog said.  “With Saunders, Lowe, Woodard and Suppan, we are in good position to make a trade to get over the top should that prove necessary.  Still, the market should be tight with so many teams still in contention, especially in the Rickey Division.”

Herzog continues to pursue a deal for a leadoff hitter, a legitimate weakness on what is otherwise a solid, if underachieving, lineup.  Nomar Garciaparra has hit leadoff in each Boston game, but Scott and others feel he’d be better suited hitting lower.

“This team is so slow, it takes two trips to haul ass.”

Herzog’s inquiries have, to date, been rebuffed.

Sox Yarns
In comparison to the Stanley Cup finals, baseball is pretty boring.  With Primestar, I find myself switching to the Cardinals games to check on when McGwire is due up during commercials.  I cannot remember the last time I actually watched a whole game on television.  ... The Cardinals drafted J.D. Drew.  I am hesitant to judge Drew personally, but Boras is a prick.  Hopefully, Drew will be signed do his development can begin.  Jason Varitek, a similar holdout, is finally playing well for the Red Sox, but he lost a couple years of playing time that could hurt him over the long haul. ... I attended my first game at Fenway Memorial Day weekend against the Yankees.  The Park was nice, but our seats sucked (last row of the grandstand, immediately in front of the standing room only crowd.  The overhang from the upper deck and poles made me feel like I was watching the game from inside a garage.  Next time, I’ll know to sit in the sun. ... A moment of clarity overcame me while at Fenway: I don’t hate the Yankees, I hate Yankee fans.  There were a bunch of drunken pricks picking fights all over the place.  They made Flyer fans seem polite.  I just hope Angelos and Steinbrenner spend each other into poverty. ... Buchanan Enterprises is proud to announce the acquisition of the 1968 Boston Red Sox in the WMBL (Womens Molson Baseball League).  BE is hoping its other interest, the MHL Washington Capitals, can get past the pesky Sotolarian St. Louis Blues in the Campbell Conference semifinals.  The Blues swept Fitzgerald’s beloved Blackhawks in the first round while Todd Clark’s Ottawa Senators won game seven on the road to defeat Biermann’s Avalanche. 

The reason for the success in May was largely the return from the infirmary during the month of Ken Caminiti, Ken Lofton (editor's note: Lofton was reinjured in Boston when he was hit with an empty bottle of Irish whiskey hurled from the centerfiled bleachers), and Butch Henry. Royce Clayton had his first career 5 hit game in the Washington series. 

The Astros AAA team in New Orleans is struggling these days. The recent injuries necessitated callups of Russ Johnson and Richard Hidalgo. Both are now back in the Big Easy. A recent explosion of interest caused by the arrival of Darryl Strawberry on a rehab assignment was shortlived as Darryl quickly pulled a hamstring and was put back on the shelf (for another year). Starting pitching prospects Scott Elarton and John Halama continue to struggle, making it unlikely they will see action before 2000. 

The SunStros in the Florida veterans league was bolstered by the addition of Greg Harris (the ambidexterous one) to the starting rotation, joining Jim Deshailes, Bill Gullickson, and Charlie Leibrandt
in the rotation. The lineup is as follows:

1.      ss Eric Yelding
2.      2b Bill Doran
3.      dh Franklin Stubbs
4.      1b Glenn Davis
5.      rf George Bell
6.      3b Mike Pagliarulo
7.      cf Jerry Mumphrey
8.      lf Mark Carreon
9.      c Mike Fitzgerald

The bullpen

Dave Rhigetti, Ed Nunez, Rob Mallicoat, Al Osuna, and newly signed Mike Bielecki

We keep waiting for Danny Darwin but he keeps going and going and going

Promising young pitcher Francisco Cordova was also traded away.  In an attempt tomake a run at the pennant, Gary Sheffield and Dean Palmer were brought over for Cordova and Martinez.  The Dodgers were quickly eliminated from the post season in the first round by the Houston Astros.  The offense hasn’t been helped either.  The Dodgers are last in the league in hitting this year.  In the era of offense, the Dodgers are hitting a modest .238 as a team and that is with Mike Piazza hitting at a .358 clip. 

"I don’t know where I’d be without Mike," said manager Ken Phelps.  "I know where I wouldn’t be and that is managing the Dodgers.  He’s carried this team.  It’s time for someone else to step up or we’re going to have some serious changes around here."

Dodger management hasn’t been too quick to seek trades.  "Your always in it in the Rickey Division," said owner Bob Biermann.  "When teams like the Yankees and Cardinals are in the hunt, you can never give up.  You know they are going to choke.   The only team we have to worry about is Baltimore.  Hopefully Whitey will even things out over here and steal away Roger Clemens and Ray Lankford from the O’s."

Danny Patterson is rumored to be drawing some heavy interest from the east coast.  Todd  and Layne Montgomery have inquired about his availability.  "Layne is high on this guy,"  said Todd over the roaring
sound of Beatles music in the background.  "He thinks Patterson has the karma to be an excellent closer.  It has something to do with the fact that he is an Aquarius and was born under a full moon.  Hell, I’ll give
him a shot."  The pitching poor Dodgers have put hold on any trades until they can find a suitable replacement for Patterson.

Griffey has hit better lately, but A-Rod is not the player he was last year and Huskey and Klesko have struggled mightily.  Perhaps this season is a lesson learned.  One does not win without a bullpen.  The Mariners have no one who can get them through the 7th and 8th inning to Wohlers.  Two thirds of the Mariner bullpen is situational lefthanders.  Not the easiest way to win.

Its clearly an ugly situation.  And what decisions have been made have not been good ones.  When will Brett Boone start to hit?  When you cut him, of course!  Want Derek Lowe to blossom?  Ship him to Boston!  Manager/Owner/GM Barry has announced he will step down as manager if this team cannot finish .500.
 Jim Pressley waits in the wings as a successor.  Can this team bounce back?  Not likely.  It has a lot of holes and too many DHs playing the field.  The team is slow.  The starter are okay but injury prone.  There is
a silver lining.  Currently Seattle would pick 2nd in the freeagent draft.  If they can suck just a little bit more, maybe Kerry Wood can join the rotation.  Or maybe we'll trade him for extra baggage.

But why be negative?  The rest of this article will be filled with the positive things that can be said about the teams performance so far.

I am proud to report that my 2 year, 3 month, old son can now say baseball and makes a swinging motion with a small plastic bat whenever a game comes on TV. What was best about this is that I did not teach him this, he came up with this on his own. It'll only be a couple of years before he can assume a more active ownership role in the franchise.

Jays Chatter 
At 12 games into the season I lead the team in triples and ho,e runs. At 24 and 40 games I still lead in triples despite being a part time player. After 52 games I still lead in triples and my slugging is 0.828. Who am I? . . . José Hernandez . . .  Hentgen has managed to turn in four CGs in 12 starts but, on the other hand, has only 4 wins. It took two spectacular performances to pull his ERA under 4.75. . . A new contest: can Orel Hershiser manage to keep pace?  To date he has more home runs allowed (HRA) than any Blue Jay has home runs hit. After 52 games, Orel is at 19 HRA and Delgado is at 15 HRs. Delgado had to hit 13 HRs in April just to keep things close! Place your bets and stay tuned . . . Player of the month goes to Carlos Delgado for the 13 HRs and 17 RBIs . . . Pitcher of the month goes to Mike Timlin for sucking the least, actually Mike has pitched well but has blown two saves. 

Major League Baseball 
Mark McGwire did himself a favor with the local sport media, whether he realizes it himself or not, by having nearly a week with no home runs.  They temporarily backed off the "At this point Roger Maris had ..." comparisons and started looking at the rest of his game. One stations actually did a human interest (type) piece him where they tried to explain some of his reasons for $1M/year to charity. 

Is it just me or have the MLB players basically broken down into two levels of performance, especially the veterans? It looks like the players are either having a very good year (not necessarily a personal best) or an extremely poor one. 

Real Baseball 
Katie (4th Grade): Katie's team is starting the long climb back to playing well -- they had lost all concept of the fundamentals the last couple of years. They¹ve yet to win but both losses have been by one run. The coaching staff [me included] had started preaching the basics. The results has been no more infield singles turning into inside-the-park home runs! Katie has volunteered to be the permanent RF. While she's not got the strongest arm on the team, her throws into the infield/relay are on-line and aren't the rainbows of the others. So far, Katie's 1-2 with 4 BBs as a hitter. Since the league has adopted an 11" circumference (3.5" diameter) softball, slugging has become a non-existent concept. 

Alex (2nd Grade): There was no joy in Mudville for the opening game of their fourth season as a team (pre-K, K, 1st, now 2nd). The team lost a one run heart-breaker (21-22) for their first loss ever. The winning team had lost only four games for three years -- all to Alex's team. Smells like a rivalry brewing. They meet again in late June. Alex's team bounced back for their second game of the season crushing their opponent 28-5. [Mercy rule stopped the game.] The league remains coach-pitched. However, this year but the coaches are required to toss overhand. Every boy on the team has had some trouble adjusting, especially with our ³pitcher² being over 6' 3". Alex really struggled in spring training.  He recovered his smooth stroke just as the season opened and is 8-11 with 3 Ds.