Down On Half Street: Elijah Dukes looks like a sorry outfielder — he has not mastered the depth of right field in Nationals Park — but he can hit the ball. Against the Rangers at Nationals Park on Friday night he went 5 for 6 and raised his average to .270. We all watched closely as Manny congratulated him after the game. Dukes even parked one in Center Field. He’s starting to look like the player the Nats thought he might be when they got him from Tampa Bay . . . Enough about this worrying whether the Nats are going to draw. There were 30,000-plus to see the Nats in a 14 inning tussle with the Rangers last night. And the crowd is hardly filled with neophytes. There is a surly quality to the fans along the right field line (where I sit), particularly on ground balls hit to Felipe Lopez . . . camera shots of people streaming in from Half Street now seem to have become a tradition . . . Josh Hamilton struck out three times in the Nats 4-3 win. He looked awful. He should have never agreed to that Sports Illustrated profile.

The Killer: I thought a lot about the Minnesota Twins and all the might-have-beens had they hung around Washington instead of moving to the twin cities. One thing: I have heard that Harmon Killebrew is the model for the MLB logo and the story makes sense  . . .

but I have found no confirmation of it. And the closest I could find of something that looks like a Killebrew stance that might be used for a logo is this:

which is itchy close … but only close. The Twins, of course, started out here before Calvin Griffith moved them after the 1960 season. They went to capture a pennant in ‘65 with a team that should have been in Washington. Killebrew was the center of that team. In ‘65 he hit 25 home runs with 75 RBIs — an off-year in which he was injured much of the time. Tony Oliva, in only his second full year, hit .321 and led the league in hitting.  But it was Killebrew who was the heart of those Twins’ teams: when he retired he had hit 573 home runs, had been in the top ten in the AL in OBP in nine years (and in the top ten in slugging in ten), and played on eleven all star teams. The Twins did well in Minnesota, but only just: “He kept us in business,” Calvin Griffith said of Killebrew.

The early ’60s were very good years for the Twins, with one World Series title, but they were not great years. The great years were the late ’80s and early ’90s. The Twins won the series in ‘87 and again in ‘91, behind the hitting of Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti and Kirby Puckett – two of whom are in the Hall of Fame — and the pitching of Bert Blyleven and

Then there’s this:

twer it so …

The Nation: Me droog Tom (you remember Tom) and I spent Thursday night talking about baseball, and about halfway through our discussion he asked me whether it was true that the Red Sox are now actually hated — after spending years as the darlings of American fandom. It didn’t use to be that way, he noted. I told him that it was true. “You bet they’re hated,” I said, “especially Varitek.” But over the last two days I’ve changed my mind: I don’t think they’re hated, I think they’re getting too much attention. It’s not their fault.

Here’s what I mean. On any given night you can tune into Baseball Tonight and hear Peter Gammons whinge on and on about the trials and tribulations of Dustin Pedroia. Here’s Dustin hitting for the cycle, here’s Dustin making a terrific play, here’s Dustin meeting with the Queen. Why, I bet that Dustin can even sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” There’s no question that Pedroia was a terrific find for the Bosox (and I love Gammons, frankly), but Pedroia’s not a great player, he’s not even close to a great player. Then too, the guy I saw last night, Ian Kinsler, is much better — but gets half the attention.

By-the-bye, the young lady behind me noticed that Kinsler was all over the field, ranging to his left and right to scoop up ground balls and every time he did she would yell “get ‘em gadget.” And then she would giggle. Get it? Get em gadget?

Kinsler’s hitting .306 with ten home runs and 45 RBIs: a clip that should net him 120 RBIs and close to 25 home runs. Pedroia’s hitting .277 with six home runs and 32 RBIs. Kinsler has better range at second, better speed, a better glove. But Pedroia leads the All Star balloting (Kinsler is second) by some 200,000-plus votes. Why? Because Pedroia plays in Boston, that’s why.

I’m not whining mind you (well, okay, I’m whining just a bit) — I’m just building a case for claiming that the Red Sox are not hated. They’re over-exposed. And that has nothing to do with the Red Sox. It has to do with the way that the baseball media cover them. The same is true of the Cubs, by the way. And, well, you know … I love the Cubs. And the Nats, of course. But honest-go-God, I know that ESPN has to worry about ratings, but we’ve got the Cubs and Yanks and Bosox covered — let’s see the Rangers and Pirates and, yes, even the Royals. It shouldn’t be that I have to go to a Nats game to be expose to the likes of an Ian Kinsler.

The Cleveland Naps: When I was a kid I was always delving into the history of baseball, honing my skills at talking about guys like Nap Lajoie and Kid Nichols. History is what I had instead of an ability to hit a curveball. But I only learned recently that the current Cleveland Indians were once named the Cleveland Naps in his honor (his name, by the way, is French Canadian — and is pronounced La-jway). That’s how good he was.

One thing’s for sure: they’re not going to be renaming the Nats the Felipe’s anytime soon.

Last night’s 14-inning win by the Nats over the Rangers was important for several reasons. First, it broke a three-game skid and provided a win to a franchise that badly needed one. Up until last night the ol’ town team had gone 5-12 in June. Ugh. Second, it was a great night for Elijah Dukes who had five hits, including the game-winner. Its good to see Dukes succeed. He could be, along with Zimmerman, the future non-pitching nucleus of the team. After his dust up with Manny in the dugout a week ago a five-hit night is just what the doc ordered.

What was also interesting was Christian Guzman’s performance. Guzman is having a hell of a year, hitting .312 (45 points above his career average) and piling up 141 total bases in just 75 games (that’s more than he had in 142 games in ‘05). Given his great performance at the plate thus far, not to mention a 12-game hitting streak which was snapped yesterday, last night he went 0 for 7. Just one of those nights that everyone has at some point in their career. As it happens, that 0-fer display is the first of the bookends mentioned in the title of this post. The other is provided by one Cesar “Cocoa” Gutierrez.

You don’t know any Cesar Gutierrez? Do not fret. No one else does either. But one Sunday night 38 years ago today he had a game which few others have matched. His line in the box score looked like this:

Player          AB     R     H     RBI     TB     BB     K

Gutierrez     7       3      7         1         8       0       0

Yes, he went 7 for 7. This most improbable of feats - something that only two other players have accomplished in the last 52 years - was achieved by a lifetime .235 hitter who never hit one out of the park.

Gutierrez was playing his first full season with the Tigers after having been sent there by the Giants toward the end of the ‘69 season. He joined a team coming off a World Series championship year and shared the clubhouse with guys who I watched with dread when they came to Fenway: Al Kaline, Norm Cash, Mickey Lolich and Denny McLaine.

The Tigers were in Cleveland that day and they had won the first half of a double-header 7 - 2 but Gutierrez didn’t play in that game. For the nightcap, he replaced Ken Szotkiewicz at shortstop. Szotkiewicz was a weak hitting infielder - even compared to Gutierrez - and was benched for the evening tilt by manager Mayo Smith. As it turned out, the 47 games Szotkiewicz playied for the Tigers that year would comprise the entirety of his career.

Few of the 24,000 people who attended that night in Cleveland would have imagined the game they would enjoy - save for the fact that the Indians lost. The Tigers pushed a run across in the first but Cleveland opened up with five of their own in the first and added another in their half of the second. Detroit matched the score with four runs in the third and, after some back and forth scoring in the ensuing innings, tied it at eight-all in the top of the eighth when Gutierrez singled to right. In all there were 34 total hits in the 12-inning game and the Tigers won it 9 - 8 on a homer by Mickey Stanley. Gutierrez followed Stanley in the order that night and supplied his seventh hit but was erased trying to steal second.

Gutierrez would play a total of 135 games that season but just 38 in 1971. Then, he was done. A total of 223 games stretched over four years. But on one night in Cleveland, Ohio the kid from the coastal town of Cabimas, Venezuela was perfect.

Diamond Nuggets

One of Gutierrez’s teammates that June night was Willie Horton whom I should have added to the list of Tigers I hated to see enter Fenway. He was a career .273 hitter who hit with power. He played 18 seasons and had almost 2,000 hits. A heck of a career. Perhaps one of those “peripheral greats” Mark talks about.