This baseball card just sold for $28,000:

Pssst! Don’t tell anyone, but I want it. I would be willing to trade my wife for it — whaddaya think? Here she is:

I went to the Nats game on Tuesday. They were sloppy, uninterested, forgettable and disappointing. Felipe Lopez failed to cover second and Ryan Langerhans (he’s hitting .188), let a ball slide past him in left. The scorer called it an error and later changed it to a double. It was an error. I was embarrassed for them — I was embarrassed for Manny. Don Sutton is forever praising Manny for his patience, but I think it’s about time he started throwing something around the clubhouse. I understand they’re injured, I understand they’re building, but there’s no excuse for looking like they’ve arrived not ready to play. The crowd around me was sullen, critical, disgusted. In my book, they had every right. The Nats have the lowest batting average in the Majors — it’s time for someone to get upset about it.

The Emerging 8s

It struck me the other night that we’re seeing the blossoming of a new era of great centerfielders — triple-crown contender Josh Hamilton in Texas, rookie phenom Jay Bruce in Cincinnati, heavy-hitting Chris Young in Arizona, the Wahoo’s Grady Sizemore (he’s a veteran, but only 26), and the under-the-radar Adam Jones.

Jones is going to be a terrific player. I saw him clear the bases against the Bosox the other night — and it was a sight. He was the big name in the trade for Eric Bedard, and I wondered at the time whether the O’s got enough, but have since decided they got more than enough. Once Jones starts hitting for average (and he will), the Orioles will put him in the fourth spot for the next fifteen years and just watch him — unless Angelos interferes and does something stupid. Jones will have competition from this guy:

who just gets better and better and better. They talk about his base stealing and his speed (and it’s damned good, no doubt), but it’s his brain and not his legs that need to kick in. I saw him try to steal third twice this year, once for the third out. He hasn’t tried it since, and has been steady at the plate. With Jones in Baltimore and Milledge here … well, it will make the I-95 worth seeing.

On Saturday night I had the great fortune to witness some baseball history: Manny Ramirez hitting his 500th home run in the top of the seventh inning. If you haven’t seen the video he accomplished the feat with authority, sending the ball 400 feet to the opposite field. It was a great thrill to hear the crowd react with a sustained roar which underscores the benefit of being at the ballpark rather than watching something like that on t.v. Just great fun. Being a Sox fan and having probably 25,000 of my compatriots in the park didn’t hurt either.

After the game I got to thinking that what with three people in the 700-homer club and five in the 600-homer club (with Ken Griffey, Jr at 599 that number will increase by one any day now), the 500 Club (with 24 members) doesn’t tend to get as much notice outside the city of the player who reaches that goal. But I think you’ll agree that it requires sustained homer production for years coupled with the good fortune of not spending too much time hurt.

For a comparison of the rarity of the accomplishment, there have been 256 no-hitters hrown in the majors. Perhaps the number of perfect games thrown in MLB history would be a better comparison: 17. But what statistic comes close in hitting? The only thing I could come up with, which matches hitting ability over a sustained period with not getting hurt, is batting over .400 in a season. Its been done 32 times (35 if you count the 1887 season when walks were considered hits) and hasn’t been done since Teddy Ballgame did it before the war.

However you compare it, Manny’s had a hell of a career.

Diamond Nuggets

For years the tradition at Camden Yards has been to play “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” by John Denver (note the creepy album cover) during the seventh inning stretch. It’s a stupid song that I’ve never liked and I’ve never understood why they play it since it’s got nothing to do with baseball, Baltimore or that ballpark staple, beer.

Since 2002 it has been the tradition at Fenway Park to play “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond between the top and bottom half of the eighth inning. It’s equally lame and other than the singer’s name it has nothing to do with baseball and I don’t get the point of it either other than the fact that people love to sing “oh, oh, oh.”

Anyway, in Baltimore on Saturday night during the seventh inning stretch a message was put on the video screen in center field that read, “. . .now a little treat for all of the Red Sox fans here tonight” and then the first several notes of “Sweet Caroline” began to play over the loud speakers. Sox fans were at first stunned but then began to smile with eyes wide. Could this be? In Baltimore? What good guys they are! How great,we thought, to have this happen right after Manny’s 500th dinger?!

And then, in large letters on the video screen: NOT!

“Thank God I’m a Country Boy” then began to play to great hoots, huzzahs and laughs all around.

Yeah, they got us good. And you’d have to have been a curmudgeon not to have laughed along.