Archive for July, 2008

It must be the contrarian in me that reacts so strongly to people being deified upon their deaths. Jerome Holtzman was a very good, very intrepid baseball beat writer for a very long time, but from reading the tributes in the Tribune and the Sun-Times -- both of which rightfully laid claim to his legacy -- you'd have thought we'd lost baseball's patron saint. I enjoyed Paul Sullivan's formal obit in the Trib, and like Steve Rhodes at The Beachwood Reporter, I admired how it stuck it to the Sun-Times for basically chasing Holtzman to the competition in 1981. My colleague Bruce Miles's tip of the cap in the Daily Herald was likewise eloquent about how charitable Holtzman could be with young sportswriters.

True, Holtzman deserves credit for coming up with the "save," an important addition to baseball statistics, but the game was changing, and he was simply the first to recognize those changes in a statistical manner--if he hadn't invented it, someone else would have. While not siding with the Sun-Times in thinking Holtzman had nothing to offer in his later years -- the testimony of Marvin Miller and  Donald Fehr in Dave van Dyck's story, citing how he was ahead of most of his peers in treating the Players Association fairly and not siding blindly with owners in strike negotiations, is convincing -- I have to insist that Holtzman was not "the consummate writer," as George Vass said in the Trib, but a bit of a plodding stylist. I also feel compelled to point out the severe criticism Holtzman comes under in Gene Carney's Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded. As baseball's official historian, Holtzman refused to acknowledge any ameliorating evidence about "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in the Black Sox scandal. "On the whole," Carney writes, "Holtzman's work is bleak and black journalism, which begs for a fact-checker." It's the same sort of hard-headedness Joe Mooshil talks about in the Trib obit. Look, I'm not arguing for Jackson's induction into the Hall of Fame -- far from it -- but I admit Carney makes some convincing arguments, and it casts significant doubts on Holtzman's role as baseball's official historian that he didn't.

So the world is a diminished place with the death of Jerome Holtzman, but the press box not so much. And if you think I'm being unnecessarily hard on the journalistic dead, just be glad I didn't have access to a blog when Steve Neal died.

Feel like picking up a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth? Or one of Shoeless Joe's game-used bats?

Mastro Auctions, the Burr Ridge-based consignor of sports memorabilia and Americana collectibles, is hosting its second annual live auction at ESPN Zone on Friday, August 1. The 95 sports-related lots on offer--including a 1909-'11 T206 Honus Wagner, considered the "holy grail" of sports cards--opened for bid by Internet, phone, and proxy yesterday.

This is Mastro's only live auction all year, and like the company's three annual "premier" auctions, where the average lot goes for about $5,000, this one's for high rollers. The minimum bid on the cheapest lot is $2,500, and 19 lots start at $20,000 or more. Don't expect to see a copy of that 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card you've been holding onto. But if you wish you'd caught the Kid's 600th home run ball, now's your chance to chase it--the starting bid is just $24,000. (Low rollers might consider one of Mastro's three annual "classic" auctions, where the average lot goes for about $1,500. The next one is in October.)

The live auction is intended for serious bidders only, in part since the capacity in the second-floor room where it's being held is just 300. But if you want to attend, you can register with Mastro and be prepared to make a $100 donation at the door; proceeds will benefit Derrek Lee's 1st Touch Foundation. (The Cubs' first baseman won't be attending the event, but he has donated several game-used and autographed items, sales of which will also benefit 1st Touch.)

The restaurant's serving a dinner buffet at 7 PM, and the auction is at 8:30 PM. Only phone and in-person bids will be accepted. The auctioneer is Mastro's Nicholas Dawes, who's also an appraiser for the TV program Antiques Roadshow.

Here are the Chicago-related items in the auction (in addition to the Derrek Lee items mentioned above):

Babe Ruth game-used bat, 1920, personally obtained by White Sox player Buck Weaver 

Shoeless Joe Jackson game-used bat, 1916-'17

Buck Weaver game-used bat, 1911-'15, the "only known example" from his professional career

1911 Buck Weaver rookie cards: D310 Pacific Coast Biscuit, "Excellent," and E137 Zeenut PCL, "Near-Mint/Mint"

1915 E145-2 Cracker Jack Joe Jackson, "Near-Mint"

Joe Tinker signed letter to the MLB Hall of Fame, 1948

Joe Jackson photograph by Charles Conlon, 1915, "one of the earliest images" of the player (pictured below)

And here are some other highlights of the auction: 

1909-'11 T206 White Border Honus Wagner, graded PSA 5 "Excellent" (pictured below)

Lou Gehrig game-worn jersey, 1938 (his final season) (pictured below) 

Wilt Chamberlain's MVP trophy, 1959-'60 (his rookie season)

Ken Griffey Jr.'s 600th home run ball, 2008

Signed contracts for the 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Ken Norton boxing match

The "first" football card, 1888 N162 Goodwin "Champions" Ed Beecher, "Near-Mint/Mint"

Fingerless baseball gloves, late 1870s/early 1880s (pictured below)

The White Sox' Carlos Quentin just got recognized as an All-Star, in addition to receiving a well-done profile from the Tribune's usually puffy Melissa Isaacson, who delivered a piece with some fine quotes and details from Quentin's mother, Queta. Yet through it all what's been overlooked is his pivotal place in the Cubs-Sox interleague series. (Let's call it the City Serious, in honor of Ring Lardner's Jack Keefe, as opposed to the Crosstown Classic or whatever else.) With both teams entering in first place, when the Sox got swept at Wrigley, making it seem as if they didn’t deserve a postseason date with the Cubs, they came back more determined and more focused when the action shifted to Sox Park. The pivotal moment came early in Friday’s opening game when Cubs starter Ryan Dempster came high and tight with some chin music to Quentin with the Sox rallying in the third inning, knocking him to the ground. As the baseball book requires, Dempster followed that with a low, outside breaking ball, and Quentin lashed it down the right-field line to score a run and make it 3-0 Sox. Jermaine Dye drove him in, the next two batters walked against the rattled Dempster, and Nick Swisher followed with a grand slam, so the rout -- and the Sox comeback -- was on. If Quentin doesn't deliver in that instant, the Cubs have delivered their message of dominance and perhaps everything is different.

“He came up and in,” Quentin said afterward in his typically understated, matter-of-fact manner. “I’m not surprised by that when a pitcher does it. He’s trying to make a pitch. Obviously, I don’t want to get hit. (Dempster’s) got enough control that he might have wanted to put it there. It’s neither here nor there. The job had to get done to get the run in. You dust yourself back off, refocus, and I was happy I got a good swing on the ball and got the run in and got the job done.”

He got the job done the next day too, when he hit the game-winning homer, and Sunday as well, when another Quentin homer broke a scoreless tie and sent the Sox toward a 5-1 victory to complete the reverse sweep. That might not have sealed Quentin's spot on the All-Star team, but it sealed his place in the hearts of Sox fans. 

On Wednesday, July 2, at a book signing for the new collection Classic Cubs: A Tribute to the Men and Magic of Wrigley Field, by sports artist John Hanley and Sun-Times sportswriter Chris De Luca, the first 20 people through the door will have the chance to buy a copy signed by Cubs great Fergie Jenkins. Hanley will also be on hand; the book retails at $24.95.

Wednesday, July 2, 7:00-8:30 PM, Borders, 2817 N. Clark, 773-935-3909