Free Republic

If you go to MLB.com you can vote for the all-star game and it explicitly states that you can vote up to 25 times. Now if every Freeper took this opportunity we could field a team of Expos and a team of Twins for the mid-summer classic!

This is a great idea. Imagine what the FREEPER community could accomplish. We could help save two baseball franchises. And like Chicago DemocRats we're allowed to cast multiple votes!

Does JAP slow down your computer? Some of these conduits I've used slow you down.

Whitey Herzog says you're wrong. Here's what he says in an article written by USA TODAY's Hal Bodley, published January 3:

Whitey Herzog, who managed Smith for nine of Ozzie's 15 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, pooh-poohs the defense-only tag. "I always said he saved a hundred runs every year," Herzog says. "What difference does it make whether you save 'em or drive 'em in?"

I think Whitey would also say, if asked, that Smith did in fact get to more balls than other shortstops, which is why he traded for him in the first place. Herzog actually made his pitching staff better before even assembling the pitching staff. He did this by acquiring Smith, moving Ken Oberkfell from second base to third, and promoting Tommy Herr and making him the starting second baseman. Yes, Herzog wanted ground ball pitchers, but he needed a superior infield in place in order to field all of those ground balls. You wouldn't put that infield in place and then acquire/develope a bunch of flyball pitchers, would you? It's self evident.

You use Kansas City to support your point, but those Royals teams were really a poor example. In fact, they taught Herzog the inadequacies that had to be addressed immediately in St. Louis, where owner Gussie Busch gave Whitey the wherewithall and authority to build a club the way the Kaufmans wouldn't allow him to in KC. In Kansas City Herzog had one superior defensive infielder. Frank White. Fred Patek was adequate, but lacked not only the arm to play as deep as Smith played (thereby cutting off more grounders and turning them into DP's and force outs), but also did not possess the range. A case could be made that Patek's backup U.L. Washington was just as good at getting to the ball as Patek. But Patek turned the doubleplay much better, and believe it or not, hit better (situationally) than Washington, so Washington rode the bench. And George Brett, the great hitter, averaged roughly 25 errors at third base, even in his prime.

When determining whether a player deserves inclusion in the Hall Of Fame he must be measured against the peers of his particular era. Before Ripken, Garciaparra, Jeter, and A-Rod, Ozzie Smith was the greatest shortstop of his era.

Remember that Ozzie played most of his career on astroturf, during a time when turf was in roughly half of all major league ballparks. He perfected turf play. The game, defensively, of middle infielders evolved through him. And while he was no Ripken or Rodriguez at the plate he still had a tremendous influence on those players defensively.

There is also the matter of the pitching staffs Ozzie played behind. Every one of those pitchers was a better pitcher because Ozzie Smith was out there. That's a lot of pitchers. That's a lot of balls that didn't get through. That's a lot of doubleplays he started.

You see I have a theory about exceptional defenders in baseball, specifically middle infielders. The great ones are just as much a part of the pitching staff as they are a part of the regular lineup. It's very difficult to quantify it through statistics, but great defensive teams usually win whether they hit well or not. In his era Ozzie Smith helped keep runners off the bases and runs off the board better than any other player at any other position. He never got 200 hits in a season, but he may have prevented almost that many. And preventing them in the field is just as good as getting them at the plate.