"Statistics are the lifeblood of baseball. In no other sport are so many available and studied so assiduously by participants and fans. Much of the game's appeal, as a conversation piece, lies in the opportunity the fan gets to back up opinions and arguments with convincing figures, and it is entirely possible that more American boys have mastered long division by dealing with batting averages than in any other way."
- Leonard Koppert in A Thinking Mans Guide to Baseball (1967)

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May 15

DA PAUL MEISTERS reserve B Wagner, activate J Hammonds.

Click here for updated rosters in Excel format.
Click here for the 2005 Rotation Draft Pick Tracker

This weekend sees the return of the Saturday Game of the Week on Fox, and prior to each game, "This Week In Baseball" will be kicking off it's 27^th season (11:30 in Chicago).  I haven't seen the show in several years, but this one time staple of my childhood Saturdays has apparently changed quite a bit from the show I fondly remember.

I know Allen was originally replaced by Ozzie Smith and that didn't go over too well, but I'd much rather they opted for someone more in the Mel Allen mold as a replacement.  Ernie Harwell, maybe?  I know, I know … Harwell might have kept the baseball fans watching, but he isn't going to pull in that crucial 13 – 26 male demographic who apparently need Spider-Man logos on the bases in order to find the game interesting. 

Also, the content of the show seems to have become much more feature-based.  When I used to watch the program, it actually lived up to its name – it recapped the previous week's action around the major leagues and 90% of the show was highlights.  The press release for the 2004 version , seems to indicate that the only highlights shown will be the "great plays/bloopers" segment.  But we get to see footage of Seth McClung's Tommy John surgery.  I suppose the availability of nightly highlights on Baseball Tonight, etc., would have made a weekly recap redundant, but still…

Anyway, I'm not raising the topic of "This Week in Baseball" to discuss it's current incarnation, but rather the classic 1970s-1980s show.  I recently discovered that ESPN Classic Sports shows old episodes of TWIB at 7:30 AM (Central) every weekday morning.  I'm at work by that time, but I've been taping them each day, and god are they fun.  Over the past couple weeks they've been running episodes from 1978, 1982, 1984, 1985, and 1993.  It's been awesome seeing some of the players from this period – guys I haven't thought about in years.  The mid-80s episodes are particularly appealing since those were the early days of the CFCL.

Unfortunately, there's been a dearth of Cub highlights.  Bill Buckner did receive special mention for the best play by a first baseman in 1978, and Jerry White (Jerry White!) made a great face-into-the-bricks diving catch at Wrigley.  But more often or not when the Cubs make an appearance it's in the blooper segment or as part of a set of highlights that Mel Allen introduces with something like this:  "The Phillies had lost 10 of their last 12, but then they rolled into Chicago to take on the Cubs."  You know what happens next.

If you're yearning for a quick blast from the past, tune in or set the VCR to record an episode or two.  The main CFCL web page has a link to the ESPN Classic broadcast schedule – it's all the way at the bottom of the blue section on the left side of the page.  The link will display the upcoming baseball schedules for ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Classic.