Tag: Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Photo credit: @NBCSports

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Rafael Palmeiro has the numbers to be in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Now, the 53-year-old said, “I am missing the game” and he wants to come back to the MLB. However, his chances are not very good as his prime days have passed.

Palmeiro was born in Havana, Cuba, and played in the MLB for 20 years (1986-2005) with the Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, Rangers (again) and returned to the Orioles for his last two seasons in the league.

His very last season (2005) was on July 15, at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington. In the fifth inning, he hit a double to the left field wall against Mariners pitcher Joel Pineiro. That was Palmeiro’s 3,000 career hit. I was broadcasting the Mariners games in Spanish that year and I just had the call that game. ESPN Deportes picked it up; I have the CD of that moment. Palmeiro also received a copy of that CD. After the game, I interviewed Palmeiro, who was very happy and gracious.

Palmeiro is the only Cuban-born player to reach the 3,000 hit plateau. In my opinion, he finished with excellent numbers that are Cooperstown-worthy: 20 career years combined for a .288 batting average, 3,020 hits, 585 home runs, 1,835 runs batted in–all in a total of 2,831 games played.

Unfortunately, Palmeiro’s career didn’t ended very well. Former Rangers teammate and fellow Cuban, Jose Canseco, identified Palmeiro as a fellow steroid user in his 2005 book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, and claimed he injected Palmeiro with steroids.

On March 17, 2005, Palmeiro appeared at a Congressional hearing about steroids in baseball, and while under oath, denied ever using steroids. He stated, “Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that.” Five months later on August 1, 2005, Palmeiro was suspended for 10 days after testing positive for steroids.

Palmeiro is part of that ugly phase in the game–the steroid era. After an excellent career, he wants to comeback and play in the major leagues. “There is no doubt in my mind that I can do it,” he recently said. This January 24, the inductees into the Hall of Fame will be announced, but his name will not be on the list.

For Palmeiro, the numbers above on his career can help him secure a spot in the Hall of Fame. However, the steroid scandal caused him to fall off the ballot.

Here is the deal: If Rafael Palmeiro plays in one more MLB game, he will become re-eligible for the Hall of Fame.

Buena suerte Rafael!

Photo credit: @sportingnews

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Since MLB commissioner Rob Manfred took over for Commissioner Bud Selig, his main mission has been the speed of the game and how to move the game at a faster pace. Manfred could implement a variety of pacing measures during this 2018 season.

The 20-second pitch clock is perhaps the most notable. They’ve already been experimenting with a 22-second clock in the minor leagues. If this rule goes into effect in the Major Leagues, a pitcher would be charged with a ball, and if he takes more than 20 seconds between pitches, there will be only one warning per game on this. Hitters will have a 30-second timer between batters, and if they take longer than that, they will be charge with a strike.

I could see down the line, some argument when a hitter keeps fouling pitches on a 3-2 count, it takes too long to come to a decision that maybe done by the all-popular today “algorithms.” Algorithms can perform calculation, data processing and automated reasoning tasks. An algorithm is an effective method that can be expressed within a finite amount of space and time and in a well-defined formal language for calculating a function.

There are other rules in the oven such as a second mound visit to a pitcher in the same inning that must result in the removal of that pitcher from the game, the control of the amount of time between innings, and the number and length of pitching warm-ups. However, the last one is not coming this season.

On Thursday, MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reported that the MLB Players Association rejected the league’s most recent proposal of pace-of-play rules, which was a revised version of an initial proposal submitted last year, addressing the players concerns with the original.

However, after the union’s rejection of this revised proposal, MLB could still implement the original rules changes; even if the MLB Players Union do not agree with it. During the last off-season the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) gave the MLB the right to do so.

Before we get lost in the “legal matters” here, both sides: Manfred and the MLPA will continue negotiating all this stuff next week, and only God knows where it will end. Just remember the MLPA is one of the strongest unions in the country.

People should relax here. It is not basketball, it is baseball, the game was meant to be the way it is. Too bad this generation needs something to happen every 10 seconds because baseball is not like that. This is exactly what happens when non-baseball people are running the game. Maybe soon you will be able to play a game of baseball on Twitter and be done in a couple of minutes with 280 characters.

I can see in the future where they would like to find a way to “end” a hitter that has a 3-2 count on a pitcher, and keeps fouling pitch after pitch, after pitch…which would take too long. Maybe if he fouls 10-12 pitches he would be awarded first base automatically, since the pitcher obviously could not “put him away.” Those who like the OBP (On Base Percentage) will be delighted with this rule.

Umpires are bound to become extinct from the game of baseball as robots are already taking over our labor force, some fast food places already have robots handing food and you can easily order without a human in sight. Or you can always tell Alexa to do something for you, while your robot sweeps your house.

Man invented computer and computer could be its demise. I think I saw a movie with that script. Since baseball is traditionally slow to change, chances are that by the time baseball is ran by computers, the whole world is already slaved by technology. When that happens it will be a “One World Government.”

Hold on now…I can already hear the Home plate Robot saying: P-l-a-y B-a-l-l…the same voice that says PlayStation.

Photo credit: @NBCSAuthentic

By Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–It was 20 years ago that Major League Baseball expanded with two more teams. Last time that Major League Baseball expanded was in 1998, when the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were born, one in each league. Also, in 1998 the Milwaukee Brewers moved to the National League, in order the keep the leagues with even numbers of teams. Today MLB is doing very well economically, some of the television contracts are the largest ever even in the billions of dollars.

More than ever baseball has become international. Regular season games have been played in Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico and there is no doubt this is here to stay. There are still some cities in North America, like Montreal, Canada; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; and Nashville, Tennessee or Charlotte, North Carolina, that could (in the future) gather enough support for a Major League franchise. Montreal, already had a team until 2004. Then the franchise relocated to Washington, D.C. and are now the Washington Nationals. Washington had a franchise, the old Washington Senators until 1971, so this “move” made sense. Washington is the capital, and there is enough population not only in the District of Columbia but in neighboring states. By the way, in 1972 the Senators franchise moved to Dallas,Texas and are today the Texas Rangers.

Which countries and cities outside the United States would make the most sense for an expansion team? The obvious choices are places like Mexico City, Mexico, with over 21 million population, one of the largest cities in the world. Montreal, Canada (again) because there was a franchise there. Tokyo, Japan is currently the most populous city on earth with over 22 million people. And then there are others, because of their connection to baseball historically and geography.

Although not as big or as populous, Cuba, is only 90 miles from Miami. Cuba was the only country in the world to ever have a professional US American franchise. Cuba once had a team in the International League (AAA), the Havana Sugar Kings, an American franchise which ended after 1961. Not because it was unpopular or because of economic problems, but because the Cuban government in 1961 officially eradicated all professional sports in the country, as they became a communist government ruling over all in the island. Today Cuba has a population of 11 million people.

Major League Baseball led by Commissioner Rob Manfred said this past July 2017 about possible expansion:

“Let me go back to a conversation we’ve had already. I think for us to expand we need to be resolved in Tampa and Oakland in terms of their stadium situations. As much as I hope that both Oakland and Tampa will get stadiums, I think it would be difficult to convince the owners to go forward with an expansion until those situations are resolved”.(quote). Mr.Manfred also mentioned that after the Oakland and Tampa Bay stadiums situations are resolved he has three places in mind: Montreal, Canada, Charlotte, North Carolina and Mexico City, Mexico, for possible expansion.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez a former candidate for the broadcast wing of the MLB Hall of Fame, Spanish play by play talent for the Los Angeles Angels (TV) and Oakland A’s (Radio), and does That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Photo credit: @Pirates

By: Amaury Pi Gonzalez

This December 31st will mark 45 years since we lost Roberto Clemente.

On December 31, 1972, Clemente’s DC-3 charter and heavily loaded plane crashed just off the Puerto Rican coast. Clemente’s body was never recovered. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1973 in a special election that waived the mandatory five-year waiting period.

Clemente was a very private and charitable man, not only in his native Puerto Rico, where he was the closest thing to a God, but for others outside the island. The best example was the way he died, helping people he didn’t know in another country (Nicaragua), taking a charter plane filled with aid for the suffering people of that terrible earthquake.

Clemente is a historical figure in American sports. His famous #21 was retired by Major League Baseball in all 30 ballparks across the country. Nobody else can wear #21. He’s just as historical for Latinos as Jackie Robinson (#42) was for African Americans as the first man of color to play in professional baseball.

Clemente was idolized by the players that played with and against him in the Major Leagues. “There was nobody like Roberto, he could do it all, and with class and style,” countryman and Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda once told me.

I remember during a Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame exhibit at the San Francisco main library at the Civic Center, a man kneeled right in front of the Roberto Clemente display. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me in Spanish: “Soy Boricua, y estoy rezando por Clemente, quien Dios se le llevo demasiado temprano.”

Translation: “I am Puerto Rican, and I am praying for Clemente, God took him way too early.”

Clemente is a worldwide figure. He began his MLB career in 1955 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had to go through very difficult years as many Latino and Black players at that time.

In 1972, I was writing for El Mundo News, an Oakland Spanish publication, and I was covering a game between the Giants and Pirates at Candlestick Park. I can’t forget inside that press box when Clemente struck out and a writer sarcastically said: “Send him back in a banana boat!” I could not believe it, and this was 1972. The man thought that was funny? Incredible.

So, imagine what Clemente had to go through when he first began playing some 17 years prior to that game in San Francisco. Clemente was frequently misquoted by the media, which was something he really never liked. He was a proud and honorable man, born in Puerto Rico, an American, he was a US Marine in the US Marine Corps Reserve.

Most Puerto Rican players, past and present, born in the island or in New York, identify with Clemente. Most of them like Candy Maldonado, and Ruben Sierra always wanted, and some did, wear #21 in Clemente’s honor.

In today’s game between 30 to 33% of all players are of Hispanic heritage, but when Clemente played it was not like that. I remember when I went inside a locker room and wanted to conduct and interview in Spanish some players told me: “Let’s do it outside,” and some even outside told me: “I do not want to be seen talking in Spanish.”

Yes, there was racism. I know of a Latino player (of whom I will not mention his name) who told me when he played, his manager even hated him to speak Spanish in the lobby of the hotel where his team was staying. There were racist managers, players, owners, executives.

Yes, I admired all those men that had to play a game like baseball, one of the most difficult games, where concentration, focus, dedication is needed, to play under those circumstances. For me, those were real heroes.

One of my favorite players, that played with Clemente, was Panamanian-born catcher Manny Sanguillen. When I spoke to Sanguillen, somewhere in that three to five minute interview, he will find a way in that interview to say how proud and lucky he was to play next to Clemente. I do not recall another Latino player getting the same level of respect Clemente got from other Spanish speaking players.

Today every game is on television. There are shows that dissect every play of every game, and when they talk about style, they talk about the color shoes a certain super star might be wearing…or his hair style.

Clemente didn’t need any of those things because he was the ultimate professional serious ballplayer. He did everything with grace and style and dignity. Watching Clemente throw from right field, or even run from first to third, was a “work of art.” He was an artist and the field was his canvas. Image what a guy like Clemente would be paid today? I do not think there would be enough steel in Pittsburgh!

I am proud to be a Latino and proud of Clemente. When I think of him, I think of a “real baseball” strategy–hit and run, bunts, advancing the runners, great throws, catching the ball without diving (like many unnecessarily do today), respecting the game, not celebrating and going crazy every time you hit a home run.

Clemente played the game like it was meant to be played.

Happy New Year!