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CC Sabathia Just Missed Joining the Black Aces

When CC Sabathia stepped out on the mound October 2 on the road against the Tampa Rays he had 19 wins. One more would have given him 20, a nice round number to look good for the Cy Young voters and his only real shot at winning the award. He missed it, but missing out on an award he’s already won is probably not that big a deal to him especially considering the outcome of the playoffs themselves.

The more award that eluded him along with his 20th victory would have landed him in the category for elite black pitchers; he would have become a Black Ace.

The Black Aces are a group of 13 black pitchers who have won 20 games in a season at least once. Jim “Mudcat” Grant came up with the idea for the group and originally called it “The 12 Black Aces” after the group of guys who had broken the “last barrier” as there was still a reluctance to use black men as starting pitchers even after the color line was broken.

The group eventually expanded in 2005 when Dontrelle Willis won 22 games with the Florida Marlins. The other members are Vida Blue (’71, ‘73, ‘75), Al Downing (’71), Bob Gibson (’65, ‘66, ‘68, ‘69, ‘70), Dwight Gooden (’85), Mudcat Grant (’65), Ferguson Jenkins (’67, ‘68, ‘69, ‘70, ‘71, ‘72, ‘74), Sam Jones (’59), Don Newcombe (’51, ‘55, ‘56), Mike Norris (’80), J.R. Richard (’76), Dave Stewart (’87, ‘88, ‘89, ‘90), and Earl Wilson (’67).

Some of the members have expressed an interest in lowering the bar for pitchers to get in such as only winning 18 games or winning the Cy Young award since it is more uncommon for pitchers to win 20 games in this day and age. So far that has been just talk though, talk Sabathia would love to see turn into action as he’s won 19 games twice and a Cy Young.

Grant, who authored a book called The Black Aces: Baseball’s Only African-American Twenty-Game Winners that was released in 2006, was on hand during Sabathia’s final start this season anxious to make an addition to the tome.

“I’m looking for the 14th member of our club,” said Grant just before Sabathia’s October 2 start. “I’ve never actually witnessed the 20th victory by any of the guys, so it would be a thrill for me.

“CC is a great guy and he deserves it. And let’s not forget he’s going against (Rays pitcher) David Price, who could very well win 20 games one day, too.”

Big Papi Joins the Party

In 2002, David Ortiz was non-tendered by the Minnesota Twins.

In 2004, he carried the Red Sox on his back to their first World Series title since 1918.

In 2003, he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

In 2009, after it is determined that his friends Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez tested positive for steroids Ortiz goes into the tank and his average drops to .224 and he is on pace to his the least amount of home runs he has hit since 2002 with the Twins.

These situations don’t necessarily mean that Ortiz was only able to become such an elite player because of The Juice, but it hard to deny.

Should Arod Get His Historic Home Run Bonuses?

When Alex Rodriguez resigned with the Yankees for $275 million dollars after the 2007 season, the Bombers threw in a nice little incentive package worth $30 million if he could set a new all-time home run record.

And why not? After all if he did accomplish the feat it would have been a big deal and the Yankees surely would have profited enough to toss him that bonus and then some.

But that was before his positive steroids tests from 2003 surfaced and his would be historic home run chase became tainted.

Now it will be a big deal, but instead of a historic run at reclaiming the record from the evil Barry Bonds it is now just one junky passing the baton to another.

According to ESPN’s Jayson Stark, there are grumblings around baseball that side with the idea that the Yankees should try to stiff Arod on his $30 million bonus when the time comes.

Suppose, given his admission of steroid use and the other furor that has swirled around this man, the Yankees were to argue that he’s no longer a “historic” figure?

Wouldn’t that mean that those milestones were no longer “historic” accomplishments?

And wouldn’t that then mean that they no longer would have to pay him his 30 million “historic” bucks — or any portion thereof?

These are not questions the Yankees are asking — yet. But they’re questions we have heard asked around baseball lately, as A-Rod’s reputation, approval rating and marketability have plunged to somewhere south of Rio de Janeiro.

“If I’m the Yankees,” said an official of one team, “I think I’d be doing everything I could not to pay that money, and let him sue me for it.”

“I think the Yankees ought to challenge it and baseball ought to challenge it,” said an executive of another club. “And then it’s up to A-Rod and the union to determine how much they want to fight it. Does this guy really want to continue to go through this stuff? Does he really want to continue to explain himself?”

It’s a good point. If the Yankees are no longer marketing something historic, but rather something any jerk with the right kind of dedication and drugs could pull off, do they really have to pay him?

What do you think?

Updates on A-Rod's Comments and Cyst

Alex Rodriguez spoke with reporters yesterday after a tune-up game with Team Dominican Republic, discussing his admiration of Mets shortstop Jose Reyes.

Initially the comments were taken as a slight against Derek Jeter, but now some people, like Chris Harihar of iYankees, have started to wonder if it really was a shot at the Yankees leadoff hitter Johnny Damon.

Here is part of the quote from A-Rod: “I wish he was leading off on our team.”

I can see how that might be a swipe at Damon, but Damon wasn’t one of them.

“Obviously, we know how talented Jose Reyes is,” Damon told The Post. “I know Alex loves me as a teammate and leading off. Jose Reyes still has 10 to 15 years in the tank; I have five at the most.”

In reality A-Rod didn’t take a swipe at anybody, he just doesn’t think before he talks. In the couple of years he has been in New York haven’t we come to expect that just as much as he’s going to be great all season long before disappearing in October?

Meanwhile, there was some more serious A-Rod news yesterday that for some reason came with perfect timing, he has a cyst on his hip. Apparently this is something he had to deal with last season.

“Alex expressed a little stiffness. There was really no pain,” Joe Girardi said on Wednesday. “We just thought it was best because he had some minor issues last year with it. We’ll have a better idea after today with what the course of plan is.”

The Yankees have let him go on playing because, according to Girardi, it hasn’t affected his play at all.

“Whenever you have something going on, you’re concerned,” Girardi said. “The fact he didn’t have a lot of pain is a little bit more comforting. He’s been able to play, and play at a high level. It hasn’t kept him from doing anything. It hasn’t kept him from driving the baseball. That’s the good thing.”

The Yankees, who like to discourage their players from participating in the WBC will likely use this as an excuse to keep him from playing. They’re just going to need some help from the doctors to come up with that excuse.

“We have to err on the side of caution for the Yankees,” Girardi said. “But we’ll let the hip specialist determine if he’s ready to play Saturday. We’ll take his suggestions.”

Nowadays when people talk mysterious ailments involving A-Rod it is always going to come back to steroids and it has started already. Ken Davidoff of Newsday made the connection to a similar issue with Roger Clemens a few years back.

“Before word broke last night about the cyst in A-Rod’s hip, the most famous cyst in recent baseball history belonged to Roger Clemens. As was disclosed in the Feb. 13, 2008 Congressional hearing that involved Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner developed an abscess (an infected cyst, according to medical Web sites) on his buttocks during his 1998 season with the Blue Jays.

Brian McNamee, the former Yankees employee who testified he injected Clemens with illegal, performance-enhancing drugs, pointed to that ailment as evidence of his accusations. A doctor commissioned by Congressional Democrats examined Clemens’ medical report from 1998 and agreed that McNamee probably was telling the truth.”

Apparently it is enough evidence for Davidoff and while I’m certainly not a doctor, it is hard for me to believe that this is not a side effect of repeatedly sticking a needle in your ass for years.

I’ve already chimed in with my thoughts that this seems like more of a Jason Giambi like tumor, hopefully this isn’t a sign of the long string of injuries Giambi suffered as a result of his steroid use.