The Loss Column — Baltimore Sports Blog and Community

I’ve held off commenting on this until everything became 100% official. Now it is: the New York Yankees have named Carl Pavano their Opening Day starter. Praise be.

You might recall that back on February 16th I wrote a post criticizing Mike Mussina for his bitchy comments about Pavano. I still stand by everything I said there, and so I couldn’t be happier with this development. Why? Because anything that might bother The Moose generally makes me happy. Sure, I already know that he’ll never win 20 games or a World Series title. But that doesn’t mean that I want to see karma stop running its course.

Mike Mussina is a smart guy, so he probably understands where I’m coming from. He probably knows somewhere deep in his heart that he doesn’t actually deserve to reach that elusive Next Level. And so if you’re out there, Mike, screw you and good luck winning 19 games this year.

In terms of the bigger picture, and all kidding aside, does anyone really think the Yankees look all that strong this year?

A handful of news items from around the tubes…

– A writer named Stacy Karten, at the Baltimore Jewish Times, writes a nice walk down Opening Day memory lane.

– The more Ramon Hernandez talks, the more I like him.

– Tom Robinson offers some more historical perspective, this time about major league teams and the city of Norfolk, which, of course, is our new AAA home.

– Nice piece on Jason Dubois, who figures to see time in Baltimore at some point this year.

– Another nice piece, this one on Erik Bedard.

Opening Day’s just three days away…

Reggie Sanders had quite a year once, batting .306 with 28 HR and 99 RBI. That, of course, was in 1995. The past few years haven’t been nearly so kind, and at this point (39 years old) he’s best suited to a fifth outfielder role on a contending team.

Something about that intrigues the Orioles, who apparently haven’t yet slaked their thirst for guys who are three-plus years past their prime. They’re considering a trade with the Royals that would put Sanders in black and orange for the 2007 season.

I can neither explain nor defend this move, so I’m going to keep quiet and hope it’s just a rumor. But on the plus side if it does, in fact, go through? Sanders’ middle name is “Laverne”.

In that same SI article they mention a rumor that the Mets are interested in Todd Williams, so we’ll have to see where that one goes.

Hard as it may be for Americans to see much of what’s happening at the FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Baltimore has vested interest in two major players at the event.

Towson resident Michael Phelps utterly crushed Aussie golden boy Ian Thorpe’s record in the 200 meter freestyle Tuesday, with a new time of 1:43.86. The old standard, 1:44.06, was widely touted as practically unbeatable. American backstroker Aaron Peirsol called it “probably the single most incredible record in the books.”

“I thought this 200 freestyle record by Ian would last for 10, maybe 20 years,” Dutch competitor Pieter van den Hoogenband said.

Wednesday night, Phelps broke his own month-old record in the 200 butterfly (1:52.09), more than a second faster than the old standard (1:53.71). Then Thursday he broke another world record in the 200 Individual Medley (one lap each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle).

Meanwhile, fellow Baltimorean and North Baltimore Aquatics Club teammate Katie Hoff won the 200 I.M., setting a new FINA World Championship record of 2:10.13. As in track events, certain records in swimming are particularly difficult to break. The 200 Freestyle is one of the harder events to swim, akin to middle distance events in running like the 800 meters. It’s a long sprint that requires both discipline and raw physical power to swim well. Still, breaking 1.62 seconds off any personal best, much less the world reocrd in the 200 Fly, is beyond significant. Things like that just don’t happen. Butterfly is the most difficult stroke to master. Phelps’ breaking of these records is proof positive that he’s the best swimmer in the world at his events, especially when you consider how much time he broke the records by. And he’s only halfway through his program!

It’s good to see B-more on the aquatics map.

Much-loved and all-too-infrequent Loss Column contributor Staci has a piece in this week’s edition of PressBox. Not only a piece, but the piece — the cover story.

It’s a 2007 baseball season preview, and it’s good stuff — click here to read it!

She can, I suppose, be forgiven for her lack of contributions here in light of clearly having been busy on something more important. But the rising tide lifts all boats, no?

If the 2007 Orioles have one thing going for them, it might just be chemistry.

The talent level remains a question mark, but there’s a different feeling this year. Nobody really knows why one team wins and another loses, at least not when it comes to a full season. Talent matters, but how often does the “most talented team” win the championship, in any sport? Talent alone does not a successful team make.

Chemistry is a classic “know it when you see it” commodity. The ‘04 Red Sox had no business coming back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Yankees in the ALCS. In retrospect we look at that feat and rightly say that chemistry had a lot to do with pulling it off.

The key word there is “retrospect.” Much more difficult is the question of whether or not we can evaluate team chemistry as not only a way of explaining what has happened but also as a way of predicting what might. As far as the 2007 O’s are concerned, we’ve got a lot of room for hope.

Start with the fact that Miguel Tejada came to camp this year with a renewed focus on leadership and hard work, determined to put last year’s ugly trade rumors behind him. Then consider that the team managed to sign Kevin Millar, Aubrey Huff, and Jay Payton, all of whom knew in advance they’d be competing for at-bats. To a man they’ve all said that they’re willing (along with Jay Gibbons) to compete for playing time if it means that the team is doing well.

Let’s also not forget that Chad Bradford left the Mets and Jamie Walker left the Tigers — two highly successful franchises — to come here and be part of what this team is doing.

Money has a lot to do with that, sure, but it was only one season ago that Jeromy Burnitz spurned a perfectly good offer from the O’s to sign instead with the Pirates.

Recent news bolsters the point. First came Brandon Fahey, who responded to his demotion by saying “If I was a coach and one of the guys hit like I did, I wouldn’t keep him either.” Then there was Adam Stern’s reaction to the same circumstance: “Eighteen at-bats just isn’t going to cut it. So you go down there, take it like a man and hopefully I’ll be back here later.”

Best of all might be the words of Brian Roberts, who explained that he wants to stick in Baltimore, as long as the team starts winning. How can you not respect a guy who agrees to a short extension — a show of faith — but puts it out for everyone to read that he cares first and foremost about seeing the team win?

Attitude goes a damn long way, and it’s these kinds of attitudes that you want on your team. You want guys with a drive to compete and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win. Get enough of them together and suddenly the over .500 seasons and playoff appearances start to take care of themselves.

The pieces, in other words, seem like they might finally be in place. We’ll see.

One last item: if any of you publish, contribute to, or know of a Baltimore-based sports site/blog that ought to be linked in the sidebar, let me know. It’s been my intention to show that support for other local sites all along but I’m really trying to make it a point now that baseball season is upon us. Of course I’ll be grateful to any of those sites who return the favor, but that’s not entirely the point. Like I said in the earlier post, one big family.

On top of that, if any of you ever have an idea for a post you’d like to write, feel free to shoot me an email with the details (including links to writing samples if you’ve got ‘em). I can’t guarantee acceptance but I will consider everything.

Thanks to everyone for reading, commenting, helping spread the word, clicking the affiliate links, etc.

The Orioles made a deal today. Former Brooks Robinson Minor League Player of the Year Cory Keylor is on his way to Boston in exchange for “veteran” catcher Alberto Castillo. In the words of Friend of The Loss Column and future contributor Steve:

Am I crazy, or does this not sound like an awful trade?

It certainly seems that way to me. I guess our organizational catching depth really is just that bad, and that the loss of Adam Donachie hurts more than I realized.

On the bright side, I doubt Cory Keylor had much of a future here anyway. But still, this one seems a bit odd.