Agony of the Astros

The past 10 seasons or so have put an end to a lot of World Series misery for suffering franchises. The Red Sox, White Sox, Angels and Giants all won historic titles for their teams. The Cardinals and Phillies gave a new generation a title of their own. And of course those poor suffering Yankee fans got their first title in 9 seasons.But one team that continues to torment their fans will begin

A Historic Fluke? My latest for The Hardball Times

In my latest article for The Hardball Times, I take a look at a historic oddity regarding Jim Leyland, Mike Scioscia and Ozzie Guillen.Each of them managed a World Series winner without a clear Hall of Famer on their playoff roster. And the only other teams to have won the World Series without a future Hall of Famer (the '81 and '88 Dodgers and the '84 Tigers) had Hall of Fame managers.So is this

The Yankees are obsessed with 2005!

A few days ago, I wrote about how the Yankees seemed to be obsessed with signing players who were good in 2005. I mistakenly wrote that they had picked up ’05 All Star Justin Duchscherer. It turns out he was courted by the Yankees but signed with the Orioles.No worries. The Yankees got Freddy Garcia today. Guess when he had one of his best seasons, logging in 228 innings to an ERA of 3.87, going

Bobby jenks and his bond with Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon

Today the Red Sox took a flier on former White Sox pitcher Bobby Jenks for some bullpen depth. How could it hurt?But as Jenks changes the color of his Sox, he has a unique bond with current Boston pitchers Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon:All three were the pitchers on the mound when their team won the World Series.Beckett tagged out Jorge Posada on a little dribbler to end the 2003 World

Saluting Bobby Jenks

Today the White Sox parted ways with Bobby Jenks.It hardly comes as a shock.He had injury issues last year and his production was dipping. He is arbitration eligible and would be paid more than seven million tomatoes. But before he goes and before someone else will come in and pile up saves on the South Side, let's salute a truly odd tale of baseball redemption.Jenks was a product of the Angels