PHILADELPHIA - At the end of July, the acrimonious relationship between the Phillies and team captain Dante Bichette came to an abrupt end with his trade to the Boston Red Sox for SP Tony Saunders, C Brad Ausmus and OF Dave Nilsson. Despite his steady performance over the season (.293, 89 RBI, 15 HR and 7 SB), Bichette was intensely disliked by senior management due to his outspoken criticism of particular individuals, including manager Al Newman. It is clear that the Phils' skipper isn't shedding any tears over the move; Newman remarked after the trade that his longtime left fielder wasn't "nothin' but a bitch" and went on to say that "some of them Red Sox is bitches, too."

The media and fans were stunned by the trade on two accounts. First, the departure of a fan favorite and steady performer for three relatively untested players was completely unpredicted. Second, the fact that the trade occurred with division nemesis Boston directly contradicted GM Ray Luca's testimony in April, in which he vowed never to work a deal with those "putas" in Boston. The Phils-Red Sox trade thus represents a strange convergence of interests between erstwhile foes, something akin to the German-Soviet pact of 1939. The team captaincy devolved to last year's leader, C Benito Santiago, himself a subject of controversy due to his leading role in the nascent MBL players' union.

The trade certainly did not affect the Bambinos' mediocre style of play. Finding themselves 15 games out of first place by mid-July, Newman pressed Saunders into the rotation as soon as he met the team in New
York for a four-game series against the Yankees. The Phils dropped three, with SP Denny Neagle recording the only win.  Things did not improve with the arrival of Earl Weaver's Florida Marlins at the Vet. Although Neagle recorded his 18th victory, the Phils squandered a two-game lead in the series by losing the remaining three contests. To make matters worse, Saunders found a poison dart in his right arm during the first inning of his start against the Marlins, and will miss the remainder of the season. 

HIT LIST: Saunders is the latest addition to an already lengthy casualty list. Others include SP Willie Blair, CF Chad Curtis and RF Bob Abreu, who is also out for the season...Luca has announced that the Phils are
searching for a backup in RF to Abreu for next season, and remarked that he is willing to depart with several middle infielders.

Well, what can I say about the season so far ... Got it. This team sucks! It was bad enough that the pitching
staff started the season with a 5.80 ERA and has done nothing to pull it down. Now, in July, the offense has also gone south - like Antarctica south. The combination of poor pitching and no offense is adequately demonstrated by the record for the month: 4 - 18 with series against the division leading Cardinals [!] and Dodgers not reported at press time.

Does anybody remember what the lowest win total for a MBL season is? I don't but am convinced I am making a serious run at it. I can and will check team records for the 11 year continuous period I've been in the league and let you know how I stand by season's end. I guess I'll just have to use the Cub refrain "wait until next year."

MLB
It has been amusing to listen to the local (and national for that matter) media rant and rave about McGwire's run at Maris's record. The Cardinals have been performing poorly all year but that's OK as long as Mark is still on the mark. I've gotten feedback from some of my Seattle based counterparts that much of the same applies there with Griffey. The classic, though, was an associate's response to a Cardinal game he attended. The Cardinals pulled out a 1-run victory in a taunt, strategy filled game. The only thing he could say, while sighing, was, "McGwire didn't hit a homer." I pointed out that his HR/10.9 AB this means, on average, one should not expect to see a HR each game. It fell on deaf ears.

Real Baseball
Kate & Alex's season's are over. Little changed from the last newsletter. Both are preparing for soccer season rather than worrying about refining their baseball skills. Gregor (2 yrs), however, has started the process of throwing, catching, hitting [Wiffle(tm)] baseballs. He too, like Michael Sargent, is grabbing a bat saying baseball.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are slowly putting to rest any chance to win a third consecutive division title.  Coming into July they were atop the Rickey division, a place they have come accustom to.  July was
particularly bad to the Dodgers. They went 10-13 on the month and fell to fourth place ahead of only the Toronto Blue Jays.

"We hate to fall behind those loser Yankees," said manager Ken Phelps.  "They don't deserve this division.  They have nothing."  Phelps has always been a Yankee hater, even in his playing days.  He seems not to
be able to forget the Gary Pettit incident when Pettit had 17 Pizza Hut supreme pizza delivered to his hotel room at 2 a.m. the morning of a critical game. 

The players don't seem to think the Yankee's have the division locked up.  all-star catcher Mike Piazza said, "They don't have a chance, I guarantee they will finish behind us.  They don't have the horses like we do."

The Dodgers had a bad month both at the plate and on the mound.  The hitters could only muster a .244 average. They were lead by new comer Troy O'Leary.  O'Leary hit .289 for his new club.  He played in both left field for the struggling Bernard Gilkey and right field for the injured Gary Sheffield. 

Dodger pitchers didn't fair much better.  The team had an era of 4.49.  There were a couple of bright spots, though.  Darren Driefort held the opponents scoreless in seven games and 14 innings.  Closer John Wetteland contributed by saving 7 of the 10 Dodger victories.

How the hell did this happen?  The Indians have languisted in last place all season long and now suddendly find themselves in third place at the .500 mark.  Although the Angels and Braves do not have to worry about the Tribe challenging for the division title, the final month's games between the leaders and the Indians may very well determine the division winner.  July saw the division opponents each lose 4 out of 5 games in each series this month.  I know Steve and the Braves are pulling their hair out trying to figure out how they are only 3-12 against the lowly Tribe this year and the season ends with the Indians in Atlanta.  This month's success can partially be credited to new acquisitions by the Indians, Wade Boggs and Rey Sanchez.  Boggs played like he used to as Brewer when I owned him during the '80s, hitting over .350 for the month.  Rey Sanchez contributed with a grand slam to  help win one ball game. I will not be as long winded as usual this month.  Debi and I just closed on our new home today the 31st of July and will be moving over the weekend of August 1st and 2nd.  We are only moving about 10 miles from where we are now and will keep the same phone number.  We had a larger home built for us on a wooded 3/4 acre lot.  It is in a remote corner of a 5000 acre subdivision and does not even have cable television.  Darn I will have to get a DSS system (wink, wink, and just in time to get the NFL package so I can watch all the Pittsburgh Steeler games).

I want to start off by apologizing to Chuck for assuming that he actually wrote an article.  This is probably wasted though since he also probably doesn't read the HPP.

July was an interesting month for the Braves. he first half produced a record of 9-4 while the second half so far has gone 4-6 with 4 games outstanding.  This is actually pretty good considering that I played most of the games without my CF or top 2 catchers. 

I want to vent a little steam here so if you're not interested, I apologize ahead of time.  I am getting really tired of not getting managers on time.  Most of you are prompt but several people (and you know who you are) are consistently late with their automanagers.  Starting next year, if an automanager is more that 2 days late without my receiving notification of this fact, I will be requesting that the commissioner fine the offending manager.  This has been a persistent problem and I feel that it needs to be addressed.  I hope that everybody else follows suit and reports when a manager is late.  I appreciate that sometimes work is hectic and that you may not have time to set up your manager but how long does it take to send e-mail that your manager will be late and when to expect it??  If you don't have time for that, then pick up the phone and call.  If this causes us to lose a manager then I say good riddance because that person obviously is not interested in the league.  Maybe if people start losing money they will wake up and fly straight.

OK, vent over.

As for my wife, she has yet to fully recover from her illness.  It turns out that this same illness grounded the astronaut Alan Shepard for 6 years.  When she read this, she was on the verge of going ballistic but I assured her that she still won't be able to fly a plane in 6 years so don't worry about it.  She got a good laugh.  Things still move when she moves her head quickly but the intensity has toned down.  She has been doing exercises to recondition her brain to her condition so that it won't get so affected.  These seem to have helped so she is pursuing them with a passion.  She really wants to be able to drive again; she misses the freedom of getting out whenever she wants to.

The Yankees , playing their best baseball of the season, are making a late rush at the division title. Having struggled most of the year Yankee manager Buck Showalter held a closed door meeting with the team to clear the air.  “ I told them that the division was up for grabs, “ explained Showalter. “ The Dodgers have fallen back to reality and it is wide open for once. We just need to focus and give a total team effort day in and day out “.  In a division where the leading St. Louis Cardinals ( Yes the Cardinals!!!) are only a few games above .500 anything is possible. The Yankees went into the last half of the month only two games above the .500 mark. The first series they played were against the “hit men” from Philly.  The Yanks spanked them 3 out of 4 to get the home stand off to a good start. “ Thats what we needed , “ said shortstop Derek Jeter. “ If we want to make a move we need to win series like this.”  The Blue Jays stopped in for a visit to Yankee Stadium and got plucked 4 out of 5 games although they actually did put up a fight as three of the games were one run affairs. “ This is a step in the right direction for us, “ said pitcher Mike Mussina. “ We need to really put it all together down the stretch. The next series for us will be huge “. The series that he was talking about was the series against the divison leading Cardinals ( does that sound strange to anyone else besides me???). The Yanks went to Busch stadium with a 7-2 mark and hoping to add on. The first two games went to the Yankees and the third went to the Cards. The Yankees ended up winning the final two games to win the series 4 games to 1 and end the month with a 11-3 mark that put them a season high 10 games over the .500 mark.  The weak spot of the Cardinals proved once again to be their bullpen. “They have some big sticks over there , but their bullpen sucks, “ said Ellis Burks. “ If they had to bring someone in we new the game was ours.”

Yankee Trades??? ..... The Yankees are looking for a secondbaseman and a catcher for next year. If any team has anyone available please let me know. I have a few players that are available. Not any big names but solid players ( Burks, Hal Morris, Fred McGriff, and closer Rob Nen or Mark Leiter)

The Boston Red Sox, behind a superior month by Pedro Martinez (22-4, 1.55) and a resurrected Mo Vaughn, took three of five at the Astrodome to help open up a three game margin on defending champion Houston.  Boston pitchers were masterful after the break posting five shutouts in July.  The big story, however, was the addition of disenchanted Phillie Dante Bichette to the Red Sox lineup.

On July 15th, the last day the Phillies were in town, GM Whitey Herzog and Philadelphia GM Ray Luca visited Quincy Market and, several Sam Adams later, successfully concluded trade negotiations that had begun a few days earlier.  Under the arrangement, Bichette would stay in Boston while minor leaguer Tony Saunders would leave Pawtucket for Philadelphia.  Saunders, who was drafted in the second round by Boston last February, failed to make the team out of spring training and had spent the entire year in Rhode Island.

“We really like Tony, but Bich has had a great year for the mobsters and should love hitting at Fenway,” Herzog said at a news conference announcing the trade.  “Tony’s chances of making the rotation next season were also suspect since we expect Steve Woodard to surpass him.  It was a trade of depth in the rotation to improve upon the production we were getting out of left.”

Incumbent leftfielder Dave Nilsson, whose run production has spent the entire year “down under” the Mendoza line, was thrown into the deal as a player to be named.  Nilsson left Boston for Philadelphia on July 31 and is slated to take over in left for the Phillies.  This will represent Nilsson’s second stint under Gambino management, the first being during the days in Milwaukee.

In other roster moves, Boston signed reserve infielder Mike Benjamin to a two-year contract.  Benjamin is expected to compete with Craig Grebeck for a reserve bench role next March in Ft. Meyer.  Grebeck, claimed off waivers from the Athletics in May, has yet to appear in a Boston uniform.

SOX YARNS: Catcher Brad Ausmus is rumored to be included in the trade that landed Dante Bichette.  Herzog denied the report, saying it would be unproductive for players still in Boston to know such a fate awaited them in the offseason, especially while mired in a pennant race. ... Leadoff hitter Nomar Garciaparra leads the team in RBI with 96.  Garciaparra is followed by Mo Vaughn (94), John Valentin (91) and Tim Salmon (83). ... Salmon leads the team in caught stealing with 16, a franchise record. ... The Red Sox and Phillies participated in a “Turn Back the Clock” promotion on July 13.  Each team wore jerseys from last April 22 --- the last time the Phillies were at the .500 mark.