baseball fans mourn the loss of two greats

Two Baseball Greats Pass Away

One of baseball's prolific hitters and one of its most cantankerous managers both passed away on January 19. Stan "The Man" Musial passed away at the age of 92. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals for his entire 22 year career and amassed 3,630 hits and 475 home runs to go alog with 1,951 runs batted in and a .331 career batting average. In his first full season the Cardinals won the World Series, then again in 1944 before missing the 1945 season serving with the US Navy. Upon his return in 1946 he won his second MVP award and third World Series championship. He was a first ballot Hall Of Famer in 1969, a seven time batting champion and even served as the Cards GM for a season, winning the World Series then stepping down from his post. Cheers to The Man!

Baltimore Orioles Hall Of Fame manager Earl Weaver passed away at 82. He managed the Orioles for 17 seasons after an unsuccessful playing career, won the AL pennant for the first of four times in his first season and captured his only World Series title in his second, 1970. He was known for his mantra of what wins baseball games: "pitching, defence and the three-run homer." He despised the idea of stolen bases, hit and runs and bunting, feeling that they were a waste of outs. He was also known for his run ins with umpires. Not counting the post-season, "Earl the Pearl" was ejected at least 90 times and received four multi-game suspensions. Some of baseballs most quotable lines come from Earl after getting ejected. After one ejection, Earl yelled out "I'm going to check the rule book on that." The umpire replies "Here, use mine," to which Weaver shot back "That's no good - I can't read Braille." He loved kicking dirt on umpires' cleats as well as putting his hat on backwards so he can get even more up in the grill of the ump. He was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1996. Here's two of the best Earl rants, one on a radio show (probably outtakes but still shocking) and one tirade from a game against the Tigers from 1980, where umpire Bill Haller was miked up for the game for a documentary on the daily life of an MLB umpire. Strong language!

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american league east 2013

Who became contenders overnight in the AL East? The Toronto Blue Jays. The team added $160 million to their payroll in a monster deal with the Miami Marlins before spending another $16 million on a two year deal for Melky Cabrera. He was suspended for 50 games for testing positive for a banned substance in August after leading the National League batting race and winning the All Star Game MVP. A good player and above average fielder should be a good fit, especially since he will be hitting lower in the order. In the Marlins trade, the Jays picked up 2011 National League batting champion Jose Reyes, starting pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, both former all stars, catcher John Buck (two years removed from his career season with the Jays) and solid utility infielder Emilio Bonifacio. The trade is on of the biggest in recent memory.. well, this deal and the Dodgers-Red Sox deal when the Sox shed $250 million in salary shipping Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto to the 'cash poor' Dodgers for Troy Loney and a couple minor leaguers. Either way the Blue Jays have positioned themselves to compete in the AL East, with the Yankees aging/looking to shed payroll and the Red Sox in shambles after a disastrous season in 2012. There has also been rumours floating around that there is some interest in former Jay Shaun Marcum, and apparently the feeling is mutual. If the Jays can manage to get Marcum back then their rotation in 2013 would look something like this 1-5: Josh Johnson, Shaun Marcum, Ricky Romero, Brendan Morrow, Mark Buehrle. That is really, really good, and would be among the best rotations in all of baseball. The only other big rumor floating around the AL East is that the Orioles are front runners in the Josh Hamilton sweepstakes, and if that deal goes down then the Yankees and Red Sox might very well be battling to stay out of the basement, while the Rays, Jays and Orioles will be fighting for a trip to the postseason. At the very least, the Toronto Blue Jays have put pressure on the rest of the division to make a move since there is no way Toronto won't be significantly better, despite the ongoing search for a manager (which is down to a few candidates: Former Rockies skip Jim Tracy, Dodgers third base coach Tim Wallach, Jim Riggleman who last managed with the Washington Nationals in 2011 and current Jay coach and former Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu). And, as good as their rotation is, their starting nine ain't too bad either: 

LF: Melky Cabrera

CF: Colby Rasmus

RF: Jose Bautista

1B: Adam Lind/David Cooper

2B: Emilio Bonifacio/Maicer Izturis

SS: Jose Reyes

3B: Brett Lawrie

C: John Buck/J.P. Arencebia

DH: Edwin Encarnacion