A month of baseball has passed and there has been more talk about a kid named Barmes than a slugger named Bonds.
The New York Yankees are down, the Boston Red Sox are hurt, the city of Chicago belongs not to the Cubs but the White Sox. And the St. Louis Cardinals look like the class of baseball.
Pitchers are recording more complete games but batters are hitting fewer home runs.
“One unmistakable trend so far is relief pitchers blowing games in the eighth and ninth inning,” commissioner Bud Selig said.
That, too. Trevor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera and Keith Foulke were humbled in April, which is more than can be said for San Francisco Giants closer Armando Benitez, whose season is likely finished after tearing his hamstring.
As always, April was a strange month for baseball.
Besides the Windy City’s South Side stepchild, division leaders included the Baltimore Orioles, who have finished no better than third in a five-team division since 1997, a Los Angeles team not named the Dodgers and an Arizona Diamondbacks team that lost 111 games last season.
But for all the surprises, such as the Rockies’ and Orioles’ Brian Roberts, disappointments such as the Houston Astros and Yankees, and injuries to the likes of Barry Bonds, Nomar Garciaparra, Curt Schilling, Jason Isringhausen and Benitez, Selig is pleased. The commissioner is satisfied, because for all the trouble that steroids and congressmen brought to baseball as it opened the 2005 season, April attendance was up 1.7 percent from last year, when baseball set an attendance record.
“We’re off to a wonderful start,” Selig said.
Power numbers down
Then again, the commissioner – known for his collaborative, not combative techniques – has never been accused of wielding a menacing stick. April seemed to take the juice out of home run hitters. Not since the Rockies were granted big-league membership in 1993 have so many flyballs fallen short of ballpark fences. Entering Saturday, home runs were down 15.5 percent from last season.
Naturally, suspicion arises. People will wonder if the precipitous power decline is connected to fewer players taking steroids because of baseball’s recently revised, and significantly stricter, drug policy.
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“There is a connection,” said the Marlins’ Todd Jones, a former Rockies reliever. “I hate to say it, but we’re doing what we need to do to clean up the game. I hate that it’s looking like it is, but if you take away one, it’s going to decrease the other.”
Selig is torn. In general, he has joined the crusade against steroids, putting his thoughts in a letter to players union chief Donald Fehr last week. The commissioner called for stiffer penalties, including a 50-game suspension for first-time steroid offenders and a lifetime ban for a third offense.
However, Selig carefully avoids relating banned substances to home runs, perhaps because he is receiving political and public pressure to abolish records set by known steroid users.
“It’s too early to tell yet,” he said. “I know home runs are down, but ask me that question again in 30 to 60 days.”
Wide-open races
Steroids may be baseball’s most sensational crisis, but competitive balance has been its most persistent. Since the strike ended in 1995, teams with the highest payrolls have dominated, particularly the Yankees.
Entering this season, baseball seemed to be separated into three parts – the Yankees, who were in their own universe with a $208.3 million payroll; the defending world champion Boston Red Sox, in their own galaxy with a $123.5 million payroll that was $22.2 million more than the New York Mets’ third-highest payroll; and the 28 other teams.
Then April came along to force all those high-salaried players on the field and remind baseball that it’s not how much teams spend but how they spend it.
The Yankees finished April with a 10-14 record. Since 1982, only three teams finished April with a record worse than three games below .500 and made the playoffs.
“The attitude is, we realize it’s early, but there’s work to be done,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox were 11-11 entering play Saturday night, with their top two starting pitchers, Schilling and David Wells, out for extended periods with injuries and Foulke struggling with a 7.20 ERA.
If the Yankees and Red Sox are beatable, the sense is baseball may have its most wide-open field in years.
“Parity has stood out so far,” Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd said. “There’s not a lot of perfect clubs. Even the contending clubs are going to realize they’re going to have needs to fill as the season goes along.”
This industry-wide imperfection, or mediocrity, is exactly what baseball was hoping for when it instituted its new revenue-sharing/luxury-tax economic model before the 2003 season.
“My desire for baseball is to have 20 teams still in contention on Sept. 1,” Selig said. “I think we have a realistic chance of that happening this year.”
April developments
1. The De-Juiced Era: It might be no coincidence home runs are down 15.5 percent in the first season of stricter steroid testing.
2. Decline of Evil Empire: It could be just a slow start for the Yankees, or it could be too much money was spent on glittery stats but aging
profiles.
3. Finishing what they start: There were 15 complete games last April, 27 entering the final day of April this year.
4. Curse of the Bambino II? Needing just 11 homers to tie Babe Ruth’s second-place total of 714, Barry Bonds has yet to play because of knee surgeries.
5. Baseball goes to Washington: After President Bush threw out the Nationals’ first pitch April 14, Vinny Castilla became a nation’s capital legend.
6. Brian Roberts/: Roberts, the Orioles’ tiny second baseman, hit eight April homers while Barmes, the Rockies’ rookie shortstop, finished his first full month well above .400.
7. Chicago White Sox: It’s tough to beat a staff that has a No. 5 starter like Jon Garland (4-0, 1.80 ERA).
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
