Bouncing Around today …

Last week, I said that Ernie Banks was the best shortstop in baseball history.  That conclusion came after mulling over in my mind all the shortstops I had seen going back to the 1950s.  I should have known better.  The reader in Houston reminded me – ever so gently – about the existence of Honus Wagner who was also a shortstop and who was even better than Ernie Banks.  I stand corrected…

The Angels released Albert Pujols in the final year of his 10-year contract worth $253M.  The fact is that Pujols had been in a serious state of decline for at least the last two seasons; the last time his batting average was over .250 was back in 2016.  That is why I was a bit surprised to read about his release; if the Angels were willing to keep him around for the last two or three years, I would have thought that he might have hung around until his contract expired in October.

Pujols has been in the major leagues for all or part of 21 seasons – 11 with the Cardinals and 10 with the Angels.  Here is one comparison to show how far from “living up to his billing” he has been with the Angels:

• OPS with Cards for 11 seasons = 1.037.  That is excellent.
• OPS with Angels for 10 seasons = .758.  That is mediocre.

If you look up Pujols’ career stats you will find one stat where he leads the major leagues for a career – – and it is one I am sure he would prefer not to acknowledge:

• Albert Pujols grounded into 403 double plays in his career – – more than anyone else in baseball history.

As the NBA regular season is drawing to a close, here are my picks for various season awards around the league:

• MVP:  My vote goes to Chris Paul.  The Suns have been worse than an also-ran in the NBA West for the last several seasons; they added Paul to the team, and they are going to finish in the top half of the playoff seedings.
• Rookie of the Year:  I think LaMelo Ball earned this honor.  Yes, he was hurt and missed time in the middle of the year, but he is a major part of the reason that the Hornets are likely to be part of the playoffs in 2021.
• Most Improved Player:  I think Julius Randle runs away with this award.  He is the leader and leading scorer for the Knicks who are 7 games over .500 this late in the season.  It has been a while since that has been the case in NYC.
• Coach of the Year:  This is a tough call for me.  Quin Snyder has led the Jazz to the league’s best record at this point; that is quite an item to have on one’s résumé.  Meanwhile, Tom Thibodeau has changed the Knicks from a doormat to a playoff team in the East.  If I had a vote here – which I do not – I would toss a coin here because both coaches deserve this honor.

Next up is a story about shooting oneself in the foot …  The sport of horseracing is moribund; notwithstanding the upbeat story about Medina Spirit completing a rags-to-riches story by going from a foal who was sold at auction for the minimum price of $1000 to winning the Kentucky Derby by going wire-to-wire, the sport of horseracing has found a way to put a downer on that story.  Over the weekend, we learned that Medina Spirit tested positive for excessive amounts of betamethasone in its blood after the race.  As I understand it, betamethasone is a steroid that is administered by injection into joints to alleviate joint inflammation and pain.

According to reports, the concentration of betamethasone was 21 picograms per milliliter which is double the acceptable concentration.  [Aside:  If you are not familiar with “picograms”, 1 million picograms = 1 microgram and 1 million micrograms = 1 gram.]  You might be tempted to dismiss this as much ado about nothing since the amounts here are so small but there are some disturbing elements:

• Betamethasone is the same substance that was found to be in excessive concentration in the Kentucky Oaks winner last year.  That horse, Gamine, was trained by Bob Baffert who is also the trainer of Medina Spirit.
• Justify won the Triple Crown in 2018.  He too failed a drug test, and he too was trained by Bob Baffert.  The “investigation” there was dropped when it was suggested that Justify may have eaten some contaminated feed thereby explaining the failed drug test.
• Last year, the NY Times reported that two of Baffert’s horses tested positive for lidocaine in Arkansas.  Faced with the investigation, Baffert argued that the stewards in Arkansas did not follow their own rules which would have kept the matter completely confidential.

Regarding the positive test for Medina Spirit, Baffert has vowed to “fight the case tooth and nail” because he says he never treated the horse with that substance at all – – let alone to a point where it would appear at twice the legal limit for the drug.  He also indicated that he is beginning to wonder if he – Baffert – is the target of wrongdoing:

”I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I know everybody’s not out to get me, but there’s definitely something wrong. Why is it happening to me? There’s problems in racing, but it’s not Bob Baffert.”

What should have been a positive week for horseracing looking forward to the second leg of the Triple Crown with a storyline that echoed the one surrounding Seabiscuit more than 70 years ago has turned into a week with a sordid mess hanging over the head of horseracing.  And it may not stop there.  Baffert announced that Medina Spirit would be traveling by van to Pimlico for the Preakness Stakes later this week while there are voices out there saying the horse should not be allowed to run anywhere until all of this is cleared up – – which might take months.

Finally, let me close with an item from Bob Molinaro in his column last week in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot related to the Kentucky Derby:

“TV timeout: A reported audience of 14.5 million watched the Kentucky Derby — ‘the most exciting two minutes in sports.’ Meanwhile, 12.6 million watched the first night of the NFL draft — three hours of reading out the names of other people’s children.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………