It's His Yuni-Verse

It has been a little while since we discussed a blog favorite, Yuniesky Betancourt … which is a shame because Yuni is having what might be his worst season and he is on pace to do something that has not been done in more than 100 years.

I’m shocked that I missed this -- I must denounce myself for being distracted by unimportant sports stuff like the U.S. Open and NBA Finals -- but Saturday morning, I was scanning the Baseball Reference best and worst batters of the day. There was our guy Yuni right at the top (or at the bottom) having gone 0-for-5 with an error in the Brewers 4-3 extra-inning loss to Cincinnati. When I clicked on the box score I saw that the Brewers were not only hitting Betancourt fifth -- FIFTH! -- but playing him at first base. Even the Royals didn’t do that. I believe there is a chapter in the Bible somewhere saying something like “He who shall batteth Yuni Betancourt fifth whilst at the same time standest him at the base that is first shall be perfumed in myrrh and beer and stoned with bags of Cracker Jack.”

Then I saw that twice this year, the Brewers have started Betancourt at first and hit him CLEANUP -- and even the Bible does not discuss such heresy.

Andy Pettitte and the Van Doren Gene

There’s a great line in the movie Quiz Show … well, there are a lot of great lines in Quiz Show, but the one I think of now is when investigator Dick Goodwin delivers a subpoena to the fraudulent but thoroughly likable Charles Van Doren. Goodwin has figured out that Van Doren, who had gained nationwide fame as a quiz show contestant on Twenty One, was given the answers in advance. He had also wanted to keep Van Doren out of the investigation, in part because he liked Van Doren. Then Van Doren double-crossed him, pleaded his innocence publicly, and Goodwin had no choice but to bring out the subpoena.

“I can’t decide if you think too much of me or too little,” Van Doren says.

“Charlie,” Goodwin says, “I want to think the best of you. Everybody does.”

Links 6/10

A few links as I head off to the U.S. Open, where I fully expect to see rain win.

-- Really loved doing this one -- the story behind golf’s most famous photograph and the fascinating man who took it.

-- I did not mean to start a mini-war with this one. I just wanted to write about how I learned to stop worrying and love hockey.

-- Everything that has leaked about baseball’s Biogenesis investigation suggests serious overreach. It seems like the commissioner desperately wants to secure his legacy.

Wait, the Royals are only three games under .500?

The Kansas City Royals have done a few things right in the last week or so and it’s a nice reminder that it really is a long season. When the year began, I kind of thought they had a pretty good shot at a .500 season -- their second since 1994 -- and anything beyond that would be gravy. Hey, they lost 90-plus games in seven of the last eight seasons. Walk, then run.

Then, the Royals got off to a nice start, a 17-10 start, a first-place start, and sure, it was fun to do a little dreaming. Hey, why not?

Then, the Royals went through a spectacular stretch of awfulness like only a Kansas City team can -- they lost 18 of 22 and looked hopeless and fired hitting coaches and said ridiculous things -- and it was fun to do a little venting because, well, if you follow the Royals without venting you will end up with holes in the plaster from where you continuously banged your head.

And now? Well now, you look up, and the Kansas City Royals are three games under .500. No, it’s not ticker tape parade stuff. It’s not where fans want them to be be. But you know it’s really not terrible for a team that has broken .500 once since 1994 … it’s probably about where the realistically optimistic thought they would be. They are right around .500. They’ve scored more runs than they’ve allowed all season, which is nice. They’ve got the best ERA in the American League, which probably won’t last. But they’ve also been in a rolling power outage straight out of biblical times -- more on this in a second -- and that probably last either.

They seem, maybe, to be settling into a decent team that is working through some growing pains and might take a real step toward respectability and contention in 2013. And, honestly, that was all anyone really wanted.

Fifteen Years

Our first date was at a Kansas City Royals game. I remember it being a day game against the Detroit Tigers. I believe Chili Davis homered. I believe the Royals lost. One thing I remember for certain: Margo -- she was Margo Keller then -- had to pay for the tickets. I had forgotten to get cash.

Margo told me that the Royals had always been hugely important to her and her family. They were a team that filled her imagination. She grew up in a tiny Kansas town called Cuba, which is near Belleville, which is near Concordia, which is not too far from Salina. At that point, I had not heard of any of those places -- maybe Salina. She talked about what it was like to grow up in a small town. I talked about what it was like to grow up in Cleveland. She said her high school graduation class was 12. I asked, probably too quickly, if she was class valedictorian. She was. I said that was good. I couldn’t be seen with someone who finished second in a class of 12.

Links and Thoughts 6/4

In Los Angeles getting ready for some Kings-Blackhawks hockey. Here are a few links and thoughts:

-- Link: The Big Read: Tim Duncan.

-- Thought: Spent the weekend at the Salute to the Negro Leagues in San Diego. It was fabulous in so many ways -- but probably the best part was how much of his heart Dave Winfield puts into it. It’s a funny thing being a retired Hall of Famer. You can go a lot of different ways. Winfield still cares so much about the game that he gives all of himself (for no glory or reward) to keep the salute going (even though San Diego as a city really has no connection to the Negro Leagues) and to keep the memories alive of these great players. Good on ya, Dave.

-- Link: The French Open has always been my favorite tennis tournament … and also, in many ways, the hardest one to watch. The grueling Venus Williams match was Exhibit A.

Wainwright's World

Sometime in 2010, I decided that Cliff Lee had to be a witch. He had been a very good pitcher up to that year -- heck, he won a Cy Young Award in 2008 -- but there’s a difference between “very good pitcher” and what Cliff Lee turned into for the first half of 2010. He started that year in Seattle because the Mariners ludicrously determined that they were contenders (they ended up losing 101). His first start, he pitched seven scoreless innings, gave up three hits, struck out eight. He didn’t walk a batter.

His second start, he gave up four runs but, again, he didn’t walk a batter. His third start, he didn’t walk a batter either.

After his first start in June, Cliff Lee had struck out 50. He had walked four. FOUR! Cliff Lee? Heck, he was Bruce Lee. There is a prominent theory out there, sparked by Voros McCracken and shaped by numerous other smart people, that pitchers’ mainly have control over three things: Strikeouts, walks and home runs. The rest is a foggy collection of line drives and luck and defense. Cliff Lee had struck out 50, walked four and allowed one home run. By the theory, Lee was pitching about as well as any human being in the history of planet earth.

And, then he pitched better.