Salon.com > MLB

Is the knuckleball an optical illusion?

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:14:00 +0000

STANDARD baseball pitch—slider, curveball, fastball—seems to slavishly follow the laws of physics, making it possible to predict where a ball will go and how it will get there. The knuckleball is different. It appears to dip suddenly, dart to one side or the other, or—when you least expect it—to float in straight over the plate. Hitters are left flailing desperately at it. On a six-game streak last season, pitcher R. A. Dickey struck out sixty-three batters and gave up a single unearned run. And yet Dickey, who joined the Blue Jays this season, is the only active knuckler in the major leagues. When he won the National League Cy Young Award in 2012, he was the first knuckleball pitcher ever to do so.

Opening Day: Spring’s other religious holiday

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 22:13:00 +0000

Of the many names assigned to the Jewish holiday of Passover, one of the best — maybe, most hopeful — is hag h’aviv, “the holiday of spring.” I spent this past week in Cleveland, celebrating the holiday midst evening snow and near-freezing temperatures, thereby necessitating some serious meteorological-temporal-phenomenological leaps to try and ring in the new, but by no means arrived, season. Though the Jewish liturgy and tradition speak to spring, for those of who grew up on the shores of Lake Erie, Passover often played the ironic foil, laughing at our seasonal affect from the depths of biblical eternity.

What always (truly) signified spring was baseball; you knew the weather was going to get better when kids skipped class for opening day’s afternoon first pitch, even if you wore the down parka only a few days before. It is thus fortuitous, and arguably a saving grace, that both Passover and Easter fall during the last week of spring training this year. The furious overanalyzing of the starting rotation, bullpen, and outfield, paired with final calculations of home runs batted into palm tree strewn outfields, can give those of us in the north some solace.

MLB sues Florida clinic for doping its players

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:52:00 +0000

MIAMI (AP) — Major League Baseball on Friday sued a now-shuttered South Florida clinic and its operators, accusing them of scheming to provide banned performance-enhancing drugs to players in violation of their contracts.

The lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court seeks unspecified damages from Coral Gables anti-aging clinic Biogenesis of America and its operator, Anthony Bosch. Several other Bosch associates are named in the lawsuit. A phone message left for a Bosch representative wasn't immediately returned, and associates have previously said Anthony Bosch is out of the country.

MLB contends the clinic's operators solicited players to use banned substances knowing that would violate their contracts, specifically the drug prevention and treatment program that became effective in 2003. That program, part of baseball's collective bargaining agreement with players, includes a list of banned substances, lays out penalties for violations and imposes testing requirements.

Because of the alleged conspiracy, the lawsuit contends MLB has suffered "costs of investigation, loss of goodwill, loss of revenue and profits and injury to its reputation, image, strategic advantage and fan relationships," attorneys Allen Weitzman and Matthew Menchel wrote in the complaint.

MLB to expand blood testing for human growth hormone

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:15:00 +0000

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) -- Major League Baseball will test for human growth hormone throughout the regular season and will step up efforts to track the use of artificial testosterone.

Players were subject to blood testing for HGH during spring training last year, and Thursday's agreement between management and the players' association expands that throughout the season. Those are in addition to urine tests for other performance-enhancing drugs.

Under the changes to baseball's drug agreement, the World Anti-Doping Agency laboratory in Laval, Quebec, will keep records of each player, including his baseline ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, and will conduct Carbon Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) tests of any urine specimens that "vary materially."

Also Thursday, owners approved the transfer of control of the Cleveland Indians to Paul Dolan, son of owner Larry Dolan.