Reliving Marlins Owner's Horrible Decision to Can Girardi

In 2006 the Florida Marlins hired Joe Girardi as their manager after previous manager Jack McKeon retired. It was Girardi’s first managerial job and he nearly turned the Marlins completely around and had a struggling team from the year before in wild card contention late in the ’06 season. He was liked by fans, liked by his players, but he and Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria didn’t get along. After the season Girardi was named the National League’s Manager of the Year, but he was also fired by Loria, becoming the first manager in history to win that honor and be fired in the same season. Well, as you know Girardi was soon after hired by the New York Yankees and led them to a World Series title in just his second season with the team. The Marlins are on their third manager in just the four and a half years since Girardi’s firing, and oh by the way that manager is once again Jack McKeon. Loria made a horrible baseball decision back in 2006 simply because he couldn’t get along with Girardi and I hope he thinks about that every day during the Marlins recent skid toward the bottom of the NL East.

Stupid IndyCar Draw Could Ruin Franchitti's Season

For the first time in 30 years last Saturday night the IndyCar Series held two races on one night. The first race at Texas Motor Speedway was set by the normal qualifying session and three-time Indy champ Dario Franchitti went on to win the race. That’s when the stupidity and big problem set in. You see the starting order would for the second race of the night would be selected by a random draw, meaning the drivers could be lucky enough to select the pole position and could be just as unlucky and draw the 30^th and final position. Franchitti drew position 28. Current points leader Will Power, who is in a tight championship battle with Franchitti drew the third starting spot. Power’s spot, 25 positions ahead of Franchitti, allowed him to cruise to an easy win in the second race and even more importantly allowed him to open up a bigger lead in the championship standings. Thus, something as asinine as a random draw could wind up affecting the entire season and ruin Franchitti’s chances at a third consecutive and fourth overall championship. If the IndyCar Series decides to do another double race night next season they had better figure out a more fair way to set the field for the second race.

de Silvestro On Fire Literally & Figuratively

I can trace my sports fandom back to when I was eight years old in 1995 watching the Atlanta Braves win the World Series. In the 16 years since then I’ve seen some truly great things in sports, some of the greatest teams ever, athletes ever, games ever and moments ever. But, last week there was a first for me as a sports fan …

I developed my first crush on an athlete. Now, I don’t mean this to offend as it’s all in good fun and it certainly shouldn’t take away from any of her accomplishments.

My crush is on 22-year old Swiss IndyCar racer Simona de Silvestro who is in her second year in the IRL and just this past weekend qualified for her second Indy 500. This is the second season I’ve watched de Silvestro on the IRL circuit, but what really caught my attention was something that happened last Thursday.

In practice for the Indy 500, de Silvestro had a horrific crash where her car became airborne due to mechanical failure and remained airborne for what in racing seems like an eternity. Her #78 HVM Racing car landed upside down and caught fire with her trapped in it. de Silvestro was taken to a local hospital with burns to both of her hands, including some second-degree and third-degree burns to them. However, on Saturday when it came time to qualify de Silvestro took her completely bandaged hands put them on that steering wheel and went out on the track and qualified her way into the Indy 500.

That proves that she’s a racer and proves that she wants this and won’t let anything get in her way, that’s the attractive thing about her … oh, and yeah it doesn’t hurt that she’s cute either.

Black History Month a Time to Celebrate Hank Aaron

Black History Month always reminds me of two of my heroes as an avid baseball fan: Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron. I’ve previously had the opportunity to write about Robinson before, so I’ll keep this centered on Aaron, one of the greatest, yet most underrated athletes of all time.

Greatest and underrated are two words that generally don’t go together in the sports lexicon. However, Aaron is exactly that.

He’s one of the greatest baseball players and athletes in general of all time simply based on his numbers on the field. Aaron finished his illustrious baseball career with 755 career home runs, a record until Barry Bonds cheated his way past it with steroids a few years ago, 2,297 runs batted in (first all time), 3,771 hits (third all time) and 2,174 runs scored (fourth all time- tied with Babe Ruth).

Despite these all time great numbers, Aaron is only considered to be the fifth greatest baseball player ever by The Sporting News. In my book, that’s the equivalent of saying Michael Jordan is the fifth greatest basketball player of all time.

Hank Aaron the great baseball player is only half the story about why he’s one of my personal heroes. Hank Aaron the man means just as much.

In the early 1970s, when it became apparent that Aaron had a shot at breaking the legendary Ruth’s all time home run record he started to receive hate mail and death threats. Many of these hate mail letters and death threats were published in Aaron’s autobiography “I Had a Hammer,” and are to this day some of the most vile, despicable things I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Not only did Aaron receive these threats, but so did his family and during a time when his focus should’ve been solely on baseball, things got so bad that he and his family had to be protected by FBI agents and he couldn’t even stay in the same hotel as his teammates while on the road as a safety precaution.

This led to William Leggett writing in Sports Illustrated in 1973: “Is this to be the year in which Aaron, at the age of 39, takes a moon walk above one of the most hallowed individual records in American sport...? Or will it be remembered as the season in which Aaron, the most dignified of athletes, was besieged with hate mail and trapped by the cobwebs and goblins that lurk in baseball's attic?”

It was a moment that should’ve been cheered by everyone in the country ­– both black and white – but, like so many things that came before, it divided the country.

Aaron refused to quit and kept on playing. On April 8, 1974, he hit career home run number 715 off of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing to break Ruth’s home run record. It was a moment that should’ve been nothing but joy, but unfortunately felt more like a burden had been lifted off of his chest.

Aaron said: “I read the letters, because they remind me not to be surprised or hurt. They remind me what people are really like" and “Babe Ruth never had to contend with anything like that when he was establishing his record.”

Aaron was the kind of athlete that kids today should aspire to be and more importantly he’s the kind of man they should aspire to be.

During Black History Month when students learn about great African-American leaders and heroes like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson and others I hope that Aaron’s legacy is being taught right alongside them. He’s every bit as important.

Best Players at Each Position Not in Baseball Hall of Fame

Bert Blyleven & Roberto Alomar were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday. Blyleven was, in my opinion, the grestest pitcher previously not inducted into the hall. Alomar was, in my opinion, the greatest second basemen previously not inducted into the hall.



Here are the current best players at each position in baseball history that aren't Hall of Famers:



Catcher: Joe Torre (Braves/Cardinals/Mets) BA .297, H 2342, HR 252, RBI 1185, 9x All Star, 1971 NL MVP



First Base: Fred McGriff (Blue Jays/Padres/Braves/Rays/Cubs/Dodgers) BA .284, H 2490, HR 493, RBI 1550, 5x All Star



Second Base: Lou Whitaker (Tigers) BA .276, H 2369, HR 244, RBI 1084, 5X All Star, 3 Gold Gloves



Shortstop: Barry Larkin (Reds) BA .295, H 2340, HR 198, RBI 960, SB 379, 12X All Star, 1995 NL MVP, 3 Gold Gloves



Third Base: Ron Santo (Cubs/White Sox) BA .277, H 2254, HR 342, RBI 1331, 9X All Star, 5 Gold Gloves



Outfield: Pete Rose (Reds/Phillies/Expos) BA .303, H 4256, HR 160, RBI 1314, 17x All Star, 1973 NL MVP, 2 Gold Gloves



Outfield: Joe Jackson (Athletics/Indians/White Sox) BA .356, H 1772, HR 54, RBI 785, SB 202



Outfield: Tim Raines (Expos/White Sox/Yankees/Marlins/Athletics/Orioles) BA .294, H 2605, HR 170, RBI 980, SB 808, 7x All Star



Pitcher: Luis Tiant (Indians/Twins/Red Sox/Yankees/Pirates/Angels) W-L 229-172, ERA 3.30, K 2416, 3x All Star



Relief Pitcher: Lee Smith (Cubs/Cardinals/Red Sox/Angels/Reds/Yankees/Orioles/Expos) Saves 478, W-L 71-92, ERA 3.03, K 1251, 7x All Star