http://www.murraychass.com Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:34:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 MurrayChasshttp://feedburner.google.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Pageflakes http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/HFSlGuoS1Zk/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1135#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:32:12 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1135 If the Players Association decides to file a grievance against the owners accusing them of collusion in their treatment of free agents, the first witness the owners will call in their defense is the man who makes more money than anyone connected to the union. That person would be Scott Boras, the most prominent agent in the business. Boras expressed his views on baseball’s economy last week, and the owners couldn’t have asked for stronger support for their defense. In comments to reporters at the general managers’ meetings in Chicago, Boras predicted that this winter’s free-agent market will be vibrant. The best free agents, he said, will receive huge contracts despite forecasts from Major League Baseball that spending will be down because of the shaky economy. “We hear this every year,” Boras was quoted as saying. “Based upon their bad economic forecasts of last year, I won't invest in their stocks of choice.” The owners were wrong in their forecast a year ago, the agent suggested, because the best players available got handsome contracts. One of those free agents was a Boras client, Mark Teixeira, who signed with the Yankees for $180 million. “Last year we had one club that went out and made a commitment to a franchise player and they won a world championship,” Boras said, refering to Teixeira and the Yankees, then added about another client, “I think Matt Holliday is another player like that in this marketplace.” Boras is not one of the agents who suspect collusion in every free-agent corner. It is agents who have generated much of the collusion talk and want the union to file a grievance against the owners on the grounds that they have violated the free-agency rules of the labor agreement. Clubs shall not act in concert with other clubs, the primary rule says. The other half of the rule says that players shall not act in concert with other players. The irony of the rule is that it exists because the clubs pushed for it when free agency was negotiated in 1976. The joint 1966 holdout of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale was the reason the clubs wanted the rule. But no players have colluded in free agency’s 33 years while the clubs have been found guilty of colluding three different times – after the seasons of 1985, ‘86 and ‘87 – and the violations cost them $280 million, actually a bargain in relation to what they very likely would have paid had they played the free-agent game straight in those three years. The aim of the owners’ game was to force the free agents to remain with their teams by withholding offers to go elsewhere or to make offers that were unattractive enough that the free agents would remain with their teams.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1135 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1135 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/akQsy3ZKSps/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1120#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:12:08 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1120 One of the things I like best about this job is never knowing when a great story might develop. By great, I don’t mean finding out that the owners and the players are on the verge of signing a new labor agreement or learning that a team is going to sign a major free agent or that two teams are about to make a trade of major players. Those are all good news stories that any reporter would like to get, but I’m talking about a highly unusual news story, maybe a bit on the bizarre side, which no one would have expected. I have one of those stories to relate here.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1120 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1120 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/sEksUDYXiF8/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1085#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:09:17 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1085 They will most likely live in baseball history as memorably as Athos, Porthos and Aramis in literature and Larry, Curly and Moe in television: CC, A.J. and Tex. The Yankees signed the free agents CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira in the space of less than three weeks last winter, and now, 10 months later, they are World Series champions. Other free agents signed long-term contracts with the Yankees, but Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano don’t have World Series rings and Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez didn’t win World Series rings until Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira joined them.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1085 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1085 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/xHHSmLHKC_A/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1078#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:25:51 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1078 Several hours before Game 6 of the World Series, I called a friendly Yankees' source and asked about the team's plans for Hideki Matsui, who can be a free agent this month. I inquired because I had been asked to participate with two other reporters in a discussion of Matsui. We met at a restaurant across the street from Yankee Stadium with a Japanese journalist, Daisuke Sugiura, who was working on a piece about Matsui for Slugger, a Japanese magazine. His timing could not have been more perfect. In the ensuing hours Matsui powered the Yankees to a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and the Yankees' 27th World Series championship.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1078 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1078 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/RpjHhxUpBRE/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1074#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:23:42 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1074 PHILADELPHIA - The Yankees' fan lamented, though not in a way that demonstrated he was distraught, "All we wanted was to have A-Rod up to win the game." In the same car on the same Orange line train, the Phillies' fan announced repeatedly as he walked back and forth, as if to reassure himself that the Phillies had won Game 5 of the World Series, "We're still alive, baby." And emphasizing the reason they were still alive, "Chase is the man; he's the best." In a remarkable display of peaceful co-existence, New York and Philadelphia rode the same train in the same car without incident Monday night. The reason was probably easy to figure out.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1074 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1074 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/vG_cHVQSdqU/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1066#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:45:14 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1066 PHILADELPHIA - The World Series offers a startling barometer of how critical the health of the newspaper industry is in this country. It's not yet on life support, but it's getting there. The latest bleak picture is exhibited in the number of newspapers that are not covering the World Series. Twenty-nine of the 60 newspapers that cover major league teams during the season on the road as well as at home are not at this year's World Series. The commissioner's office declined to provide a list of absent newspapers, concerned that it would provide a negative commentary on Major League Baseball. ]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1066 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1066 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/rGLzhaiTVsw/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1059#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:40:07 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1059 PHILADELPHIA - Based on expectations and the first two games, this World Series should be a good one and a close one. The Phillies and the Yankees appear to be two closely matched teams that could very likely win as many games against each other as they would lose. If the Series should wind up at three wins each after six games, then, it would seem to be unfair to have the seventh game determine the winner of the Series, especially since one team, the Yankees, would have homefield advantage, courtesy of Commissioner Bud Selig and Fox TV. You know about that gimmick, right?]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1059 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1059 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/DrcVY7XsrRo/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1055#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:37:49 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1055 If there is an epidemic of swine flu, Mariano Rivera will not get it. If everyone in the New York Yankees' clubhouse gets chicken pox, Rivera will not get it. Rivera is immune from bad things. There has been an outbreak of blown saves in this post-season, but Rivera has not caught the closers' disease. Jonathan Papelbon caught it. So did Joe Nathan. It struck Huston Street, Ryan Franklin, Jonathan Broxton and Brian Fuentes, too. Fernando Rodney caught it one game before the post-season began, in the playoff between Minnesota and Detroit for the American League Central title. Rivera, however, has avoided the pitching plague ...]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1055 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1055 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/pBGckFihPk0/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1045#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:00:55 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1045 When Jayson Werth was a young boy, he was a skinny kid and his family named him Stick. They even put the name on a license plate on his toy truck. It wasn't original. "I think I caught that off Stick Michael," Dennis Werth related. "That came to mind. Stick Michael was a big influence in my career." Stick is Gene Michael, the Yankees' senior vice president and special adviser, who also has served the organization as general manager, manager, coach and minor league manager, all of that after he played for the Yankees.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1045 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1045 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MurrayChass/~3/XyuCNoYdOxE/ http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1040#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:55:53 +0000 Murray Chass http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1040 When the Philadelphia Phillies overcame the New York Mets in the final 17 games of the 2007 season and won the National League East title, I attributed the outcome more to the Mets' collapse than to the Phillies' comeback ability. After all, if the Mets hadn't lost 12 of their last 17 games, if they had lost only 10 of the last 17, they would have finished in first place. Two more division championships and two N.L. pennants later, though, I am a believer. The Phillies are a really good team, maybe even good enough to beat the Yankees and become the first National League team in more than 30 years, since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds, to win two successive World Series.]]> http://www.murraychass.com/?feed=rss2&p=1040 0 http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1040