The Sports Idiot

Apparently Jennifer Valdivia, a 12 year old girl, caught Ryan Howard’s 200th home run ball in Miami earlier this season.  She was escorted by security to the Phillies’ clubhouse where an equipment manager convinced her to give the ball to the team in exchange for a meet and greet with Howard and a signed ball.  Problem is, Jennifer thought she was getting her ball back, not some random ball.  Another problem was that Howard was a no-show to the meet and greet, and some random “club official” delivered the new ball to 12 year old Valdivia.

So the Valdivias hired a lawyer after speaking with a Miami TV consumers affairs squad and tried to get her ball back.  Here is where it gets even shadier.  Valdivia’s lawyer got a letter from the Phillies’ team lawyer, William Webb, in which he said the team would return the ball to Valdivia but they would not authenticate it and little Jennifer would have to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Sounds to me like the Phillies were going to send her another random ball, and claim it was Howard’s 200th home run ball.  They had already given the ball to Howard and planned on letting him keep the ball.  Why else would they say that they could not authenticate the ball?  Yet when Valdivia’s lawyer rejected the offer from the Phillies and filed a suit, the real ball showed up the same day.  This ball was authenticated by the Phillies.  See why it sounds like they were trying to screw this little girl out of the real “200th” ball?  This is a record setting ball, for the fastest player to ever get to 200 home runs, by the way.

This ball could be worth a lot of money (seriously, 500K would be on the low side of what it could bring at auction if Howard goes on to a Hall of Fame finish) and the Phillies came up really, really small here.  Oh, they did offer her free tickets to a September visit to Miami by the Phillies, which the Valdivias declined to accept, so they have that going for them.  The Phillies front office should be ashamed of itself for their actions back in July, and even more so for their actions after that.

You will notice I am not killing Ryan Howard for any of this.  I have a feeling that he was not aware of what was going on, and would have been pretty ticked off if he had.  Howard, by all indications, is as outstanding of a person as he is a one bagger and slugger.  I just can not see Howard agreeing to the actions of the front office here, and it is my guess that he never knew about the missed meet and greet.

This is bad news for the Nationals, and for Morgan’s fantasy owners.  Willie Harris will be replacing him in center, and should do a decent job.  It should be noted that Harris drew three walks himself, and got a hit to bring his average up to .230 on the season, which is a steep drop-off from Morgan’s .307, and even worse when you consider his .351 average with the Nationals (he was traded to Washington from Pittsburgh on June 30th).  Morgan also stole 24 bases for the Nats, and his total for the year is now cemented at 42.  Morgan’s final line for the season looks like this (with his Nats numbers in parenthesis):

.307 AVG (.351)
.369 OBP (.396)
.388 SLG (.435)
74 Runs (35)
3 HR (1)
39 RBI (12)
42 SB (24)

It should also be noted that Morgan was gunned down 17 times this season while attempting to swipe a bag.  Since he was traded to Washington, Morgan has been on a tear.  Good luck to him in his recovery.

.406 AVG
.500 OBP
.739 SLG
1.239 OPS
7 HR
16 RBI
15 Runs
14 BB
19 Ks

Hoover just turned 22 this month, and his only stint above Class A Rome was a three inning, three earned run outing earlier in the season.  The 6′3″, 215 pound 10th round draft pick (2008 draft) is set to move up the ranks next season, and a possible late 2010 MLB debut is not out of the realm of possibilities.  My bet would be that he ends the 2010 season in AAA, and pushes to join the MLB club in Spring Training of 2011.

Of course, we will keep our eye on Hoover and do our best to keep you up to speed on his progress.

Oh yeah, and Pedro is also back in form with the media.  Always a quote machine, he gave us this gem last night:

“I’ve been there,” he said. “For this club, what I’m lacking right now, I might give them at the end. Experience. A cold-blooded person that doesn’t matter how big the game is. I’m going to stand right there. And if anybody fails, they can always count on the old goat to go out there and kind of stand up. I might do that. I might be able to do that if I’m healthy.

“I’m healthy. And I’m going to improve. Regardless of what happened today, I’m going to improve. I expect to improve, especially with being healthy.”

So I guess a lot hinges on his health? 

There was also a very sad chapter to last night’s tilt.  While fielding a ball in the fifth inning, Shane Victorino was the victim of some very dangerous and bad fan behavior.  Someone in the stands decided it would be a good idea to throw a beer on Victorino as he attempted to catch a fly ball.  Credit to Victorino for not letting getting pelted by a full beer stop him from making the snag.  Even had he dropped it, the batter would have been called out for fan interference.

There is no place in sports for behavior like that from a fan.  What good could possibly come from doing something like that?  The batter is going to be called out every single time, and now you have put it into your own team’s head that they have to worry about retaliation down the road.  Get a life and grow the hell up.

In case you missed it, John Smoltz was designated for assignment last week by the Red Sox.  Damn.  Even thought he marriage saw a rocky breakup in the end, Smoltz has always been one of my personal favorites, and I wished him the best in Beantown.  With this move, and Tom Glavine not pitching for anyone this season, it looks like Atlanta GM Frank Wren deserves some credit for knowing when to say when.

Despite being only 4.5 games back in the division, and 3 games back in the Wildcard, the Braves are getting no love and seem to be flying under the radar.  Here at The Sports Idiot we have told you not to overlook the Bravos before, and perhaps it is time to do so again.  Do not look now, but the Braves are suddenly 59 – 54 on the season, and riding a 4 game winning streak.

Like the Phillies did this week, the Braves will have to make a rotation decision before too long, as Tim Hudson will be making his next rehab start on Thursday.