BenMaller.com - Ben's Takes

Friday Thoughts, Opinions and Notes

By Ben Maller

The Dodgers activated Tom Goodwin from the disabled list. Along with Marquis Grissom and McKay Christensen they now have three centerfielders. I hope Christensen likes the Las Vegas Buffet's

It was great to see Mike Fetters shove it down the Dodgers face. As GM Kevin Malone said on Fox Sports Net last night. Fetters was a clubhouse leader. He'll be missed in the last two months of the season.

Anyone else not surprised to see Glen "My Wife Wants me to get the God Damn Ball" Rice on his way out of the Big Apple? Rice was a key reason the Knicks stunk this season. Rice ate up the east averaging an impressive 12ppg. The Lakers sure miss the great glen

Markus Steele has moved up on the depth chart to a starting linebacker spot for the Dallas Cowboys. He's come a long way from his early SC Days. He once lost a bet on the Ben & Dave show and ended up having to wear the name of our show on his wrist bands against Notre Dame.

Steve Lavin looks like he will escape serious NCAA trouble for his latest mistake. But can Lavin do the unthinkable and get alumni to support him?

If Bill Plashke who I like as a writer enjoys the WNBA Sparks so much, why doesn't he buy season tickets?

Attention NBA Beat writers... Here is your first story line of the upcoming preseason. The Lakers will get off to a poor start and complain about jet lag after having to play a pair of preseason games in Tokyo.

Here is hoping that the San Francisco Giants make get the wildcard. You know I'm a Dodger Fan. However one of my real joys in life is watching Barry Bonds fail time and time again in the playoffs.

Tennessee will win the AFC Central. Kevin Carter and Jevon Kearse will dominate on Defense. With Jamal Lewis out for the season in Baltimore the Ravens are cooked.

Denver will win the AFC West. Sorry Raiders Fans. The Joint that Darrell Russell (allegedly smoked) is going to cost the Silver and Black. The team that used to play in Los Angeles has a tough opening four games @ KC, Jets, @ Miami and Seattle. The Broncos play host to the Giants, @ Indy, @ Ariz and host Balt in there first four

Mike Scioscia is supposedly talking about a contract extension with "Team Disney." Scioscia has the optimism of a young Tommy Lasorda. Scioscia and Bud Black should get lots of credit for turning a handful of crap into a handful of gold.

Mike Thompson my former boss when I worked at KXTA, Called into my radio show Saturday morning. Buddy as he is known was listening from a Waffle House in Atlanta on the great "790am the Zone." Thompson is a big radio management stud in the south he runs two stations including the competing all-sports "680 The Fan"

Larry Stewart is wrong, Orel Hershiser is hard to listen to on ESPN. I find him very rough around the edges and his voice hard to listen to. Here's hoping he gets a pitching coach or assistant gm job next season!

Billy Ray Smith will be a major loss from the UCLA Football radio booth. He's the best color commentator in college football. UCLA will be happy that Smith is leaving the booth. He was very critical on the air of the Bruin Defense. Luckily he will continue doing mornings on XTRA SPORTS 690am and weekends on the Fox Sports Radio Network.

Finally... Tune in Saturday morning from 5am till 8am (Est) to hear myself and Patrick O'Neal give our opinions and take your calls on FOX SPORTS RADIO. Thats 2am till 5am on the West Coast. permalink

Thursday, August 09, 2001

"Pride of the Dodgers"

By Ben Maller

Eric Karros has stepped up to deliver three game winning hits in the last week.

Lets face it, It's been a tough 2001 season for the veteran Dodger. Over his 10+ year career Karros has been a rock of consistency, averaging 29 Homers and 102 RBI's a season. This season Karros has been limited to just 82 games. He's hitting just .243 with 12 Homers and 50 RBI's battling a bad back. That puts Karros on pace for right around 20 Homers and 71 RBI's... If you double the power numbers a hurt EK still hits 24 Homers and 100 RBI's.

Hosting Dodger talk during the 2000 season and being around the Dodgers as a media stiff since 1994. It has always amazed me how some fans continue to take cheap shots at the dodger firstbaseman.

Karros helps you win baseball games. He is not in the Jeff Bagwell or Giambi class of firstbaseman but his offensive production has been in the top five of the national league firstbaseman over the last 10 years.

According to my friends at Baseball-Reference.com Karros compares to the following players thru the age of 32. Lee May, Tino Martinez and Joe Carter.

Eric Karros must have a big finish for the Dodgers to get into the playoffs for the first time since 1996.

I'm a fan just like you. I would love to have a "Dodger Rotisserie team".

Bonds, Griffey, Sosa in the outfield Glaus at 3rd, A-Rod at short, Kent at 2nd, Giambi at 1st and Piazza behind the plate. However that's not going to happen. We live in the real world.

In this world Karros is a steal. He plays hard does what it takes to win and dosen't cost the Dodgers a great deal of money. Meaning the team can overpay other players such as Kevin Brown and Darren Dreifort.

Ask the Mets, Braves, Pirates, Devil Rays, Rangers, Angels or Twins if they want a healthy Karros and they all say YES.

More importantly Karros is a very active member of the community. EK is a regular visiting sick kids at hospitals and talking to young people. You don't hear about Eric Karros doing drugs or getting into bar fights. He's a class act and truly is "The pride of the Dodgers".

Big Ben Trivia: Can you name the other NL West starting 1st Baseman in 1992??(Karros First full Season) Answer at the end of this story.

Let's put into perspective what Eric Karros has seen since he arrived to play at Chavez Ravine for the first time in 1991.

The '91 Dodgers went 93-and-69 but did not make the playoffs by one game.

Brett Butler (112 runs), Darryl Strawberry(28 Hr's 99 RBI's), Eddie Murray(19 Hr's 93 RBI's) and Kal Daniels (17 Hr's 73RBI's) led the Dodger offense.

Ramon Martinez won 17 games. Mike Morgan was a 14 game winner and Tim Belcher won 10

Tommy Lasorda was still the manager.

The great Don Drysdale was still broadcasting with Vin and Ross.

Over an average of 162 games Karros has averaged 29 Homers 102 RBI's 30 Doubles and a .269 average.

He is the bridge from the Strawberry early 90's Dodgers to the 2001 Fox boys in blue

Karros was the first of five straight dodger rookies of the year. Piazza '93, Mondesi '94 Nomo '95 and Hollandsworth in '96.

Karros has seen his best friend Mike Piazza traded (1998) and go onto a world series (2000). EK has seen a young reliever Pedro Martinez traded (1994) and go on to win three cy young awards in four seasons.

Big Ben's Trivia Answer:

The other NL West 1st Baseman in 1992: (Karros 1st Season)

Sid Bream, Braves
Hal Morris, Reds
Fred McGriff, Padres
Will Clark, Giants
Jeff Bagwell, Astros permalink

Sunday, August 05, 2001

The Great Maz Debate

Sunday, August 5th 2001

The day that the bar was lowered to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame with the induction of Bill Mazeroski.

Argument for Mazeroski: His stellar defense. During a 17 year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates he was an eight-time gold glove winner and a 10-time all-star. Maz turned more double-plays than any middle infielder in baseball history.

In addition to that he was a member of two World Championship teams with the Bucs in 1960 and 1971.

Mazeroski is a house hold name because he became the first player ever to end a World Series with a home run, smacking a solo bomb in the bottom of the ninth inning in the Pirates' 10-9 victory over the New York Yankees in the '60 Series.

Argument against Mazeroski: A career .260 hitter. Mazeroski was all glove and no bat. He never hit 20 homers in a season, never drove in 100 runs in a season and never scored 100 runs in a season.

According to baseball-reference.com's HOF Standards the average hall of famer gets 50 points in their system to get into the hall. Mazeroski scored 16.0

Ben's Twib Note: Frank White, Leo Cardenas, Bill Russell, Chris Speier, Jim Fregosi, B.J. Surhoff, Terry Pendleton and Garry Templeton. All these players had similar career numbers to Maz:

Any of those guys hall of famers? No

A caller from Kansas City to my radio show on Fox Sports Radio this weekend brought up a great point. He said that if you put Bill Mazeroski in the hall of fame, then you must put Royals second baseman Frank White into Cooperstown.

When I looked up White's numbers I was amazed!

An Average Season, by the Numbers:

Mazeroski .260avg 10 HR's 22 Doubles 63 RBI's and 2 Steals
White .255avg 11 HR's 28 Doubles 61 RBI's and 12 Steals

Frank White played 18 years all with the Kansas City Royals. A gold glove winner eight times during his career. He was an All-Star 5 times, in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1986.

In addition to all that White played in the postseason seven years. He batted .545 in the 1980 ALCS and was voted the series MVP. He played in the 1980 and and 1985 World Series. Winning the ring against the St. Louis Cardinals in '85

According to baseball-reference.com's HOF raiting system: White scored a 19.2 or 3.2 points higher than Mazeroski.

If Bill Mazeroski is a hall of famer then you have to put Frank White in!

How much should the game winning homerun in the 1960 world series mean? White and Mazeroski were good major league players NOT HALL OF FAME PLAYERS!

The point of all this is Mazeroski shouldn't be in the hall and neither should White.

What do you think?

Let me know: BigBenOnFox@yahoo.com permalink