MVN - Most Valuable Network

Blows Against the Empire Emeritus

The injury-riddled New York Yankees may have to add Jorge Posada to the list of the fallen, for the rest of the season and possibly part of 2009: the veteran catcher and occasional (if reluctant) first baseman, who’s already missed time enough with tendinitis in his right rotator cuff, has hit the fifteen-day disabled list and could miss the rest of the season if he chooses surgery based on Monday’s MRI result.

This comes as outfielder Johnny Damon (left shoulder, injured when he crashed a fence trying for a Fourth of July catch) came off the DL (he’ll DH against the Minnesota Twins Monday and won’t be in the field a few days yet), and fellow outfielder Hideki Matsui chose not to undergo surgery for the left knee that may yet keep him shelved a long enough while.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE JUNGLE . . .

JEROME HOLTZMAN, RIP: SAVED—The Hall of Fame writer (Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune) , whose books include No Cheering in the Press Box (considered a classic examination of baseball writers) and Baseball, Chicago Style (a neat if somewhat flawed and almost excessively staccato overview of the Cubs and the White Sox), and who is credited with inventing the save as a valid pitching statistic, died Saturday in Evanston, Illinois.

He was amazing baseball people, I don’t just want to say writer. He was a baseball fan. He did a lot of things for baseball. He gave his life to baseball and we’ll always remember how great he was. Jerome was a classy man and a great man to have around. I was lucky enough to be covered by him for a few years.

—Ozzie Smith, White Sox manager, whom Holtzman covered during his playing days with the White Sox.

[E]very one of the closers over the last 30 years . . . should take out their checkbooks and write a gigantic check to whatever foundation or charity the family directs. He’s really the person responsible for being able to quantify what has become one of the most important positions on the field.

—Steve Stone, former Cubs and White Sox pitcher and Cubs broadcaster, now broadcasting for the White Sox.

Holtzman retired from newspapering in 1999, at which point then-acting Commissioner Bud Selig named him major league baseball’s official historian. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Spink Award winner ten years earlier.

BLACK TUESDAY?—It could be for the New York Mets, on the threshold of a huge set with the Phillies in Philadelphia, when closer Billy Wagner—complaining of a tight pitching shoulder—undergoes a medical re-evaluation on the shoulder, a re-evaluation that will determine whether Wagner undergoes at least an MRI or a trip to the disabled list.

This came just hours after Wagner rejected a first thought about an MRI after saying he felt a little better following a tight-shouldered save against the Reds Sunday.

THE GUN OF AUGUST—Freddy Garcia plans to throw for an audience of scouts 5 August, in a bid to prove he’s got plenty enough left in the proverbial tank after recuperating from shoulder surgery. His agent Peter Greenberg tells ESPN’s Buster Olney that Garcia’s confident enough that he’ll be able to help a contender for the stretch drive, but his former manager Ozzie Guillen thinks that might be pushing it a bit.

I hope he is. He’s my friend. But when I see him and where he’s at right now, I don’t see that happening. I don’t think by August, maybe September. Freddy hasn’t even thrown off the mound yet. He’s throwing flat and he’s throwing good and he said his velocity is coming around. Everything is fine, but people think because you play catch, you are pitching. That’s not the same. You don’t have people on the mound or hitting. I hope he do it, but it’s going to be a little bit difficult for him to do it.

—The Blizzard of Ozz.

A key to the White Sox’s 2005 World Series triumph, Garcia went 17-6 for the 2006 Sox before being swapped to the Phillies for Gavin Floyd and minor leaguer Gio Gonzalez. He went 1-5 for the 2007 Phillies before being shut down for shoulder surgery.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Billy Wagner, Chicago White Sox, Ozzie Guillen, Catbird, Jerome Holtzman, Freddy Garcia, Philadelphia Phillies, Johnny Damon, Jorge Posada, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Hideki Matsui. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.