Jaybird's Jottings

Spring Training Schedule

We've posted the spring schedule for the San Francisco Giants. The Giants play only 14 games at Scottsdale Stadium, with most of those games coming after March 11: some first-round World Baseball Classic games will be played at Scottsdale Stadium, with the Giants spending March 7-11 playing away games. This schedule is still tentative and clashes with some officially released schedules, so don't book that nonrefundable fare just yet. No word on ticket prices or when tickets go on sale. - Spring Training Online Newsletter.

Spring Training Online has posted the Giants tentative Spring Training schedule. Scottsdale Stadium will host first round games of the World Baseball Classic.

Ned Colletti Becomes Dodgers GM

The most embarrassing search for any open position in the history of Dodger baseball came to a conclusion today, as the Dodgers hired Ned Colletti as its General Manager. Colletti, of course comes to us from the San Francisco Giants, where he served as assistant GM. - Mayor Sam's Sister City Blog.

Historian Lee Allen once said there will always been something going on between the Dodgers and the Giants. The latest chapter in baseball’s longest rivalry is now being written. Ned Colletti, a Giant for the past 12 seasons, now bleeds Dodger blue.

The move is a big deal but can’t match the dramatics of two other transfers between the two archrivals. On July 16, 1948, loyalties in New York were torn asunder. In a real stunner, Leo Durocher, Brooklyn manager since 1939, resigned from the Dodgers’ helm and signed on to replace Mel Ott as the Giants’ skipper.

Leo the Lip helped stir things up for eight seasons. A longer lasting switcheroonie took place in 1913. That’s the year John McGraw’s firing of right hand man Wilbert Robinson allowed Brooklyn to sign “Uncle Robbie.” Robinson and McGraw had been teammates, business partners and close friends.

Not a lot has been written about the falling out. The best coverage of what happened is Norman Macht and Jack Kavanagh’s Uncle Robbie.

They write:

After the loss of the final game of the Series at the Polo Grounds, McGraw held a reunion for Hughie Jennings and other old-time Orioles at a New York saloon… McGraw got drunk and criticized Robinson’s third-base coaching decisions in the day’s 3-1 loss. Robbie snapped back that McGraw’s managing had been pretty lousy, possible costing them a few games, an assessment that other observers later seconded. Whereupon, McGraw fired Robinson.

Franchise owner Charles Ebbets jumped on the opportunity and offered Robinson the skipper job. Robinson accepted. Known for getting the most out of players, he helped the sagging franchise turn things around.

Colletti has his work cut out for him in much the same way Robinson, Durocher and Dusty Baker did. We thank him for his service and wish him good luck. The Giants and Dodgers rivalry is at its best as it was when the Robins moved past the Giants in 1916 and 1920 and chased them to the finish line in 1924.

Ford C. Frick Award

The Ford C. Frick Award is presented annually to a broadcaster for "major contributions to baseball." The award, named after the late broadcaster and National League President, has been presented annually since 1978. Each award recipient (not to be confused with an inductee) is presented with a calligraphy of the award during the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and is recognized in the "Scribes & Mikemen" exhibit in the Library of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. - National Baseball Hall of Fame.

On-line voting is now in progress for the Ford C. Frick Award. Voters can choose up to three candidates. According to the instructions, voters are asked to base their selections on the following criteria: longevity; continuity with a club; honors, including national assignments such as the World Series and All-Star Games; and popularity with fans.

Sounds like a great opportunity for someone to come up with a Weighted Points System. Not very knowledgeable on the matter, that person wouldn’t be me. But I did take a look at the candidates and wrote down both their longevity and their ranking by Curt Smith in his Voices of Summer book.

Here are the candidates with 35 or more years.

Active

Ralph Kiner 45
Joe Nuxhall 39
Denny Matthews 37
Dave Van Horne 37
Dave Niehaus 37

Inactive

Gene Elston 43
Phil Rizzuto 40
Rene Cardenas 38
George Kell 37
Herb Score 37
Ken Coleman 35

Here is a list of those on the ballot who Curt Smith ranked in his Voices of Summer (Top 35).

Dizzy Dean 9
Jon Miller 14
Tim McCarver 17
Bob Costas 18
Ned Martin 21
Al Michaels 22
Dave Niehaus 26
Phil Rizzuto 27
Ken Coleman 35

Combining the two factors of longevity and Smith’s rankings.
Years/Ranking

Ralph Kiner (45/42)
Phil Rizzuto (40/27)
Dave Neihaus (37/26)
Ken Coleman (35/35)
Ernie Johnson (35/43)
Ned Martin (32/21)
Merle Harmon (30/30)

Kiner may not have the most impressive resume but he has longevity, an attribute some have observed to be the most important factor. The Hall of Fame slugger has broadcast Mets games for the last 44 years. According to Smith, that is second only to Scully (55) in consecutive years with a club.

Voting ends November 30. The final ballot will be announced in December. Paper ballots will be cast by voting members each January and the final results will be announced on the Hall of Fame's Web site in February.

On Baseball: A History of Baseball Scribes by Jerome Holtzman

Sam Crane. Grantland Rice. Frank Graham. Damon Runyon. Heywood Broun. John Drebinger. Leonard Koppett. Charles Einstein. Bob Stevens.

A great starting lineup of writers who have covered the Giants.

But what about some of the lesser known scribes who tapped out a living on the Jints’ beat?

I’m reading On Baseball: A History of Baseball Scribes, Jerome Holtzman’s book published earlier this year and learned about one of them. After paying his dues in Milwaukee and Chicago, George Phair arrived in New York City in 1926. His assignment was to follow the Giants for the New York American. Arthur Daley said he was ‘the cleverest versifier the Polo Grounds press box ever produced.”

Phair began writing his little ditties about 15 years after another reporter covering the Giants, Franklin P. Adams (New York Evening Mail), penned Baseball’s Sad Lexicon. It was the famous, eight line poem about the Cubs’ double play combination of Tinker to Evers to Chance.

Holtzman informs us:

“the assumption has been that F.P.A. was rooting for the Giants and wrote the poem in frustration after they had lost another game to the Cubs. Not so. He was from Chicago, a Cub fan, with a huge dislike for John McGraw, the Giants’ dictatorial manager.”

With over 50 years of experience as a writer, including his excellent oral history, No Cheering in the Press Box, the author offers insights on a variety of baseball writers. Henry Chadwick, Jimmy Cannon, Red Smith and Ford Frick get good coverage as well as one his favorites, Harold Kaese. Among Giants’ scribes, the author gives looks at John Kiernan and Einstein.

On the negative side of the ledger, the book is not as thorough as the subtitle suggests and there are no photos. I was also disappointed that Holtzman seemed to put down sabermetrics.

Overall, however, I enjoyed this book. Such works are few and far between, making this flavorful addition most welcomed.

Nobel Prize

Correction:

The anniversary of Nobel's death is December 10.

Our trip to Finland and Sweden

Greetings.

We’re back from a week-long trip to Finland and Sweden. Pretty much an un-plugged affair although I had time to go on-line at the airport in Amsterdam to find out the White Sox had just reset their World Series counter. Congrats to the South Side.

This past Monday night, I was thumbing through the TV channels in our hotel room in Stockholm. BBC does a great job covering world affairs but there was not much else on. Then I came across a rebroadcast of Game Four on ViaSat Sports Channel. It wasn’t FOX’s coverage, rather a stripped down presentation. Kind of quaint actually.

A recap of our visit:

Flying in style.

The Washington to Amsterdam flight was made much better by KLM’s excellent service and brand new aircraft. The remote control entertainment featured a slew of new and classic movies, TV programs, great music selection, games, etc. I even found a short on 1950s sci-fi movies. Can’t do any better than Spielberg and Lucas talking about how some of those flicks scared and inspired them.

The Iswariahs.

Arrived in Helsinki on Thursday. The first order of business was to embrace the Iswariah family. Our friendship with them began in 1995 when we were both ex-patting in Muscat. We all crammed into one tiny room in the hotel and caught up. Son Adrian’s wedding to Helsinki native Linda was the primary reason we got on the plane.

The wedding.

The handsome couple, who met last year on a dusty trail in Russia, tied the knot in a ceremony in a church on the outskirts of Helsinki. Afterwards, 80 some of us dined, drank and danced. It was fun to meet some of the locals and have the extended time to talk to them as the party went on past midnight.

Helsinki.

We had time for a day and a half for sight-seeing. I most enjoyed the vibrant center city. Rectangular glasses and the latest Nokia, manufactured there, were the hip thing. Interesting to look around and know that this was once a place where the East and West rubbed cold shoulders.

Stockholm.

My trusty Lonely Planet guide recommended taking a ferry ride to Stockholm. We were limited by time so we flew instead. We landed at Arlanda airport, about 30 miles north of the city. The express took us into city center, clipping along at a smooth speed of 120 mph.

As advertised, the island city is wonderful. It was chilly but one coat without bundling all up sufficed. Summer is obviously the time to go to Scandinavia but then again, we had the advantage of everything not being too crowded.

After checking into the Nordic Sea Hotel (their Ice Bar was all the rage!), a convenient accommodation next door to to the end of the line, we walked around and got our orientation. We wanted to take the more extensive boat cruise to see some of the 15 islands but it had sold out (It was the last one for the year). We were a little disappointed but the one hour boat tour around leafy Djurgarden Island was excellent.

On Monday and Tuesday we crammed in several must-sees. Highlights included:

Gamla Stan. The Old Town Island with cobblestone streets, great vistas and the Royal Palace.

Djurgarden Island, home to Skansen, “Sweden in Miniature,” the Zoo and the Wasa, a raised vessel that sunk on its maiden voyage in the 1700s.

Skeppsholmen Island. The Museum of Architecture, the Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Umlauts (ok, that last one is a joke!).

City Hall. This is where the Nobel Prize winners receive a banquet every year on November 11 (the day Alfred Nobel died). (Note: The award ceremonies are held at the Concert Hall).

City Bus Tour complete with ABBA sound bites of Waterloo and Dancing Queen. When the first one came on, a pair of locals raised their eyes. But ah, the memories of those tunes.

All in all, a very good trip. Adrian and Linda, kiitos for the invite and all the best!