Beemers Back!!!! Yes!!!

Here 's a couple of pictures of Beemer at the hospital following back surgery.

After a long weekend of emergency vet visits and an extended (3 nights) stay at the Animal Hospital, Beemer was able to return home Wednesday afternoon. Although this concludes a long ordeal (the surgery) and hopefully alleviates a lot of the pain he was in, it begins another long ordeal, the rehabilitation.

To start, Beemer has had an episode or two in the past of back pain, brought on I'm sure by his tendency to jump off the bed or the couch and occasionally land awkwardly. That and the stairs as well as the dachshund breeds unusual shape contributes to their predisposition to back injury.

Anyway, he was in pain beginning Saturday, but he went out for his morning walk as usual and just seemed a little stiff or tired. Later I went out to the store and when I came back he was waiting at the door for me, but when I came in he didn't follow close by under my feet as usual or run ahead and fetch a toy to play with. He just sat there. So I picked him up and put him on the coach to rest. He didn't seem like he was in pain due to the back as much as if his stomach was bothering him, and his abdomen was rumbling like crazy, so I thought he ate something that didn't agree with him.

When Ledra came back home Sunday, she realized his back feet were curled, which is a bad sign and an indicator of back trauma, he was losing function in his hind legs. We brought him to our local emergency vet, since it was the weekend. At that point they gave him some corticosteroids and pain meds and scheduled him for a followup later in the evening.

Unfortunately, the prognosis wasn't as good this time as the prior episodes. When we went back for that followup visit, the doctor recommended we take him to the hospital and schedule him for MRI/Surgery IMMEDIATELY. I was devastated, since the last time we went through this, the meds and rest worked and the pain ran it's course. The dilemma with dogs with disk problems that leads to loss of the use of the legs is that the longer you wait to decide upon surgery as a course of action, the less the chances of success. You have a small, 24-48 hour window to decide on a course of action. So, you're left with a tough decision, with no GUARANTEE of success, either way you go.

Much as I hated it, we took him at 1 AM to Buffalo Grove, about an hour away and had to leave him at least overnight to be evaluated. I know from my own experience, that there is no such thing as routine surgery. I wanted to him to avoid surgery at all costs. But his pain seemed to be getting worse. I wasn't sure if it was pain or fear at the time. And to be honest, I wasn't sure if the dog or I was in more pain or more afraid about what was happening.

We checked him in and left him for his tests, I know I was still hoping against hope they would find nothing major wrong and recommend rest and meds. Luckily, the expense of the surgery wouldn't be an obstacle (he said). The vet mentioned some people find that $3-4K for surgery and follow-up too much, some people say "well he's just a dog...." as if to infer that that's too much to spend to keep your dog healthy and alive. Personally, I never considered not doing everything I could to help him. I think he's earned it. I guess life would be easier if I could say, "Oh well, he's just a dog, put him out of his misery", but maybe in this case life wasn't meant to be easy.

Anyway, the next morning (Monday) the surgeon did a myelograph instead of the MRI and determined he blew out a disk that needed to be removed. They did that, he has the scars to prove it. He was resting well but not eating, the early tests were coming back that he did not have pain perception in his lower legs soon after surgery ( bad news, but not entirely unusual) . Everytime, Ledra would call with a update on Monday, my heart would jump into my throat, bracing for bad/worse news. I had too much free time to research all the possibilities on the Internet (the Internet can be both a blessing and a curse) so I was able to find out both the possibilities and the probabilities, the success stories and the horror stories, and you wonder which one is in store for your unique individual case.

Tuesday, we were able to visit him in the hospital and he was still out of it. He recognized us and whimpered a bit, but he was too tired to put up a real fuss. He has a huge separation anxiety issue (I think I do too) and this was the first time he spent a night without either Ledra and I with him. So I wasn't sure how he'd handle it. He was too out of it to kick up a fuss. Also, luckily for me, I had seen a picture of another dogs surgical scar on the 'Net so I was ready for Beemer's, otherwise it would have shocked and upset me greatly.

I guess me and hospitals don't get along too well. You know he old saying about a place being a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there? Well, hospitals to me aren't even nice places to visit. Plus, I knew we wouldn't be able to take him home. But I was glad to see him, glad he got past the first hurdle (surgery) and glad we were 24 hours closer to having him home.

On the way home, we stopped by Petsmart to pick him up a crate (for rest) and some other things for his rehab. Diapers and clothes to protect the bedding from accidents (recovering dogs often lose bowel control) . We got him a nice crate, doesn't look like a cage, more like a kiddy playpen, and some vitamins and supplements to aid his recovery.

Anyway, Wednesday couldn't some fast enough. When we got there we had some final paperwork to take care of and the payment, of course. They won't release the dog without that.

When he was walked out he let out a little yelp when he saw Ledra. He was more animated than the day before and I'm sure excited to be able to leave.

They had the rear-leg harness so he could walk on his front legs with his rear legs suspended off the ground (Picture a wheelbarrow). He won't have the use of his rear legs for some time. Could be 6-8 days or 6-8 weeks or not at all, depending on the severity of the injury, the skill of the surgeon and the rehabilitation.

The surgeons prognosis is GUARDED: Approx. 40% of dog's with Beemer's clinical signs will recover function of the hind legs. This recovery can take weeks to months and may not be complete.

We're hopeful she's being overly conservative. He gets the stitches out in about ten days and goes back to the surgeon for followup and evaluation in six weeks. His activity is very restricted until then. The good news was they did say that on Wednesday he had deep pain perception in his tail, which is a good, hopeful sign.

One of the sad things about this, he is such an active and vivacious dog that it's sad for me and I think frustrating for him not to be able to move around the way he's used to. I miss not seeing his wagging tail and bouncy nature. But, he's a tough, stubborn little dogie and if anyone can get past this, I think Beemer can.

In a way, I hope this is a test for me as well since I'm studying Physical Therapy. We're doing what we can now to get up to speed on the therapeutic modalities used by vets to rehab injured animals. As if either Ledra or myself needed another thing to become immersed in. Maybe we're being tested. I don't intend for us to fail though. This is for Beemer. It's too important.

Wish us luck and remember Beemer in your prayers, if you can.

2006 Little League World Series Final

Darn rain delay to start, which means 30 or so minutes before we get to hear the first 46 foot to 60 foot MPH conversion. Great drinking game to play if your scoring at home...or even if you're all by yourself.

Brent, Joe Morgan and Orel Hershiser, who gets to pull the trigger first on the reaction time equivalent conversion? My money is on Orel, ex-pitcher, more animated of the two. Brent should just tee it up and let the HOF'ers knock it out.

Erin Andrews is down squeegeing the field. Good for her, at least she's not hawking mobile ESPN phones in the stands. This rain delay is probably the worst thing that could have happened from a ratings standpoint, short of letting the Taiwanese back into the competition.

We're switching off to yesterday's Georgia-Oregon matchup. Beautiful.

One thing I still haven't figured out:
1) If the outfield fences had to be moved out from 205 feet to 225 feet because of the recent HR barrage, why doesn't LL make a similar adjustment to the infield dimensions as well as the mound dimensions. Changing the eligibility cutoff to allow some 13 1/4 year old kids to compete has obviously allowed bigger, stronger kids to take aim at the fences and wreak havoc with the scores. Shouldn't the pitchers also be moved further back, if only in the interest of safety?
Seems like a common sense move if you asked me. I know, nobody asked.

{Fade to Black - Game postponed until Monday 8 PM}

{Uh-oh game moved to 5 PM due to rain}

This is going to hurt ratings as most of the country is either at work or in rush hour traffic, but as I'm sure Erin Andrews would point out, if we all just had a ESPN Mobile phone we could keep updated. Our bad.

Great game, pitchers duel so far through two innings.

Japans big bats reach King Kong Carter who is just throwing bullets. Yada gets a hit and advances to second on an infield tapper. A seeing eye bouncer up the middle knocks him in.

Joe Morgan mentions that the infield is hard due to the rain, that seems strange, you would think it would soften the field a bit, but whatever.

Japan up 1-0 after 2 and a half innings.

Carter reaches out an laces a single to lead off the third. Sometimes he seems like he tries to do too much, but he's a man among boys in this tournament. One of the few that can harm Go Matsumoto, the Japanese pitcher. Erin Andrews interviews Josh Lesters dad, the scout in the stands, right before his son laces a hit to advance Carter. Carter however races through the stop sign at third base and is thrown out on a great throw by the center fielder. Great block at home plate by the catcher.

Cody Walker the proceeds to go oppo-field line drive home run to make it 2-1 Georgia after three innings. Geogia's 1-2-3 and certainly the cleanup hitter can reach the Japanese pitcher so they are looking good so far.

Carter seems to have more life on his pitches that the Japanese pitcher at this point.

Good point brought up how the Japanese team carries the fourteen player maximum roster while Georgia is at 12, only playing eleven was mentioned, I assume due to injury. This is one point that doesn't get mentioned from the booth much when hey highlight the "must-play" rule.

The "must-play" rule from a coaches standpoint, would be name the "must only carry twelve man roster" rule, which costs two kids per league across the country an opportunity to participate in a tournament at all. This is entirely due to coaches fear that the fourteenth man is significantly lesser player than the twelth player, plus all that messy, confusing administrative stuff, having to get fourteen players in and all.

Kudos to the Japanese team for giving maximum opportunities to the maximum number of kids. I haven't heard one analyst yet complement any team that does this, yet they seem to be required to genuflect at the greatness of the "must-play" rule without examining this underside to the issue.

Anyway, back to the game. Georgia 2-1 bottom of the fourth. Lead off strikeout and ground out to first to start it off. Georgia putting the sticks to the ball a bit. A long fly ball to left field ends the inning. That would have been a home-run last year, I feel compelled to report. This year, it just ends the inning.

Georgia 2-1 after four innings. Still not sure if I like the Georgia coach a lot. He can't be the most popular guy on the grove. He argues what he sees as a HBP, a sleeve knicker at best. Asks umpire for help and the first base ump when asks if he saw anything, says "not in this lifetime". Funny. I'm sure he meant, he's not getting that call in this lifetime. Good job, blue.

Carter strikes out the leadof hitter in the fifth, not even close. Second hitter is a strike out, these are the last of the subs to bat, as the announcer are pointing out. Tough to hit this guy off the bench cold. Yada hitting with two outs. Carter toys with him to end the inning. And I think throws in a Destrade-like pose to rub it in.

Not highlighted by the announcer of course, but noticeable. They won't highlight bad sportsmanship, even when their mikes or cameras pick it up, as we've seen throughout the tournament. Not saying they have to but boy the live mikes are probably a bad idea. Or a great idea if used properly.

Georgia 2-1 after four and a half innings. And Carter is feeling it. If they get a tack on run here it's over, even this one run lead seems large.

Matsumoto strikes out the leadoff hitter for nine K's on the day. A solid but unspectacular effort at this level. Nice play by the third baseman to dive for a popup and retire the second hitter. Carter's not going to see a fastball here , oops 2-1 FB outside corner, then he curves him for a flyout to CF to end the inning. Good sequence.

Georgia 2-1 after five innings. Three outs away for Georgia and Carter is dealing. Gotta like there chances right now. The kid has to be feeling it, but these are the toughest three outs to get. In a way, sometimes kids all of a sudden realize where they are and what's at stake. Sometimes they squeeze the ball a little too tight. If he can relax and throw however, it should be over fairly quick. Plus, he's in good shape in that Yada made the last out, even though he's a lefty bat, he's one of the few capable of hitting this guy on this day.

Well, Carter walks the lead off guy and later hits another, but maintains his poise and more importantly his velocity to shut down the Japanese team. Noticeable was the shots of the Japanese kids crying even before the final third out was recorded. The runner on first had tears flowing and he was carrying the potential winning run. It shows that both physically and emotionally these kids are not miniature adults. Sometimes, with all the hoopla and web gems, I think it becomes all too easy to lose sight of this fact. My wife even mentioned how she doesn't like how they seem to highlight this "thrill of victory and agony of defeat" angle.

For all the highlighting of the "new pitch counts limit as the solution to the arm injuries epidemic" I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe what we really need is a "televised games count limit". Little League and Travel ball snipe that one or the other is the problem when in reality both are. Little League with it's money grabbing and travel ball with it's year round approach. The race for "exposure" has led to events like the Almonte incident which only exposed the kid, the family and maybe the league as a fraud.

My enduring memory of this LLWS is the interview with the mom from Illinois keeping score while her son pitched, dutifully keeping his pitch count with a coaches clicker, but what asn't really highlighted was that she was wearing her son's travel team pullover, not his Little League's. Little League used to not allow players in the tournament to play in other leagues, and I know they'll cite a lawsuit for access as the reason for breaking down that law, but this is why both are guilty.

Everyone fighting for more and more glory and exposure and dollars at the expense of the kids.

You have to wonder when there will be a backlash against this type of borderline child abuse. Or , if that is too strong a term, at least child neglect. It just doesn't seem as if the best interest of the kids are paramount anymore when youth sports rises to this level. I hate to sound old-fashioned, but it used to be kids were happy to be their city's champion. Now we have to have national champions and world champions and Top ten lists for 10 yr. old players. And the tournaments have to be extended down to the T-Ball level for crying out loud.

It borders on insanity. If something is good, it doesn't always translate that more and more of that something is better. We have to find a balance point somewhere. I just hope it doesn't take something foolish or tragic happening before we decide to truly confront the issue.

2006 Little League World Series

Set to go off in about five minutes, Japan vs. Columbus, Georgia. Anxious to see Georgia's stud pitcher Kyle Carter try to shut down the Japanese lineup. They are very technically proficient hitters, all tough outs with considerable power down the middle. I'm not sure that Georgia will be able to handle the Japanese ace or the pressure as well as I expect Japan will be able to.

The top two Georgia hitters, both leftys, have a chance to do some damage, but the rest I expect will be overmatched. If the two Georgians sluggers don't carry the team offensively, it could be a long day, with lots of zeroes on the scoreboard.

Japan in a close one early, pulls away the second time through the lineup and later.

Quote - We kept looking up and it kept being the fourth inning.

That quote is just priceless. THIS IS WHY I WILL ALWAYS PREFER THE NL OVER THE AL.

Not because of the DH, although it's got to be a factor, it's the style of play, the overall philosophy and the emphasis on the small ball features of the game like bunting, moving guys over, take out slides in the middle of double plays, etc.

Nothing personifies it as much as this comment from Sportsfilter.com regarding the Boston Marathon, er the Yankee - Red Sox games yesterday.

http://www.sportsfilter.com/comments.cfm/7512
August 19, 2006
"We kept looking up and it kept being the fourth inning." : In the longest 9-inning game in major league history, the Yankees take 4 hours and 45 minutes to seal a 14-11 victory over the Red Sox. The game was the nightcap of a double-header that added up to 8 hours and 40 minutes of baseball, 41 runs, 61 hits, and 18 different pitchers.

Wonder how lively they'll be in this afternoon's game?

THIS JUST SCREAMS WHAT THE LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES IS ABOUT

http://www.littleleague.org/series/2006divisions/llbb/teams/transatlantic/aarondurley.htm

Meet Aaron Durley, Little League age 12, 6-8 and 256 pound first baseman for Arabian American Little League Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

This young man fares well in a Tale of the Tape with Prince Fielder. In fact, my money is on Aaron if he goes up against Cecil Fielder.

This is why when Dr. Mike Marshall rants about this type of tournament, and in some respects youth baseball in general, being mainly about "accelerated maturers" vs. "delayed maturers", we need to take notice and at least understand what is going on and gain some perspective.

In some respects, I have a love-hate relationship with all the hoopla surrounding the LLWS. Mainly because of the nostalgia, the light that is shined on the critical issues surrounding youth sports. You get to see, if you care to look, both the best and worst of what youth sports is all about. And amazingly, it is not all about steroid use.

We had the recent case of the coach in Utah, who intentionally walked a team's best hitter in the champioship game to get at the next hitter, who was a recent cancer survivor. And there was a split in the reaction to the event ranging from why was a no-competetive league holding a championship game, if the kid was handicapped why was he hitting behind the best hitter on the team, wouldn't you want to treat the kid equally, etc.

Watching the LL Southern Regional final between Columbus, Georgia and Dunedin, Florida, we got to see a polished, 12-year old lefthander throwing 80+ MPH fastballs.

No, Danny Almonte is not making a comeback.

But you do have to wonder about the accuracy of the radar readings when the Florida pitcher was throwing 64 MPH knuckle-curves. I don't think I had any High School Freshman throwing 80+ and thats 14 and 15 year olds. He did look as polished mechanically as some 14 and 15 year olds I've seen, it's just that I had the same queasy feeling I had when I saw Amonte pitch and that's a) 12 year olds don't throw that hard and b) 12 year old LH pitchers generally aren't that polished on the mound.

I hope for the sake of Little League Baseball that I'm just being overly cynical. Or that the radar readings are as inflated as a Major League Slugger. I'm not sure they could take another Almonte-like scandal.

Especially with the Outdoor Life Network showing the Cal Ripken World Series at the same time. Good to see some of these other organizations get some play. Especially Ripken's, they do an outstanding job and have a fantastic approach to youth sports overall. I saw Billy Ripken on air explaining rule changes for next year: 50 foot pitching distance to help the hitters a little bit and 70 foot basepaths to help infielders learn better mechanics. His explanation was that at the shorter distances IF's "panic" too easily and don't learn properly how to relax and just field the baseball and throw. They just don't hav enought time with 60 foot basepaths, or in most cases they don't feel like they have enough time. Good explanation for why they were making the change and I would expect both changes will facilitate a better overall game played by kids at that age.

Competition is good, it's what made America great. It's good to see some of that philosophy filter down to the youth baseball level.

FOR ALL YOU DO - THIS BUD'S FOR YOU

Historically, I haven't been the biggest fan of Bud Selig's but I think in hindsight, you have to give the devil his due.

We're in the equivalent of the NFL's 12th week and very few teams are clearly out of the playoff hunt. So much for the competetive balance issue that seemed to be such a major item a few years ago that we were thinking of contracting the Twins, Devil Rays, Marlins, Expos (now the Nationals). Nice that baseball didn't do that to fans in those areas.

Does the salary structure need additional tweaking, maybe. The compensation of lost free agents with first round draft picks seems to be having an effect on teams at the trade deadline. Front-line players in walk-years of contracts (a la Soriano) are being held onto by teams rather than just dumped for low-level prospects. Teams know they will get a late first round pick that they can use on a collegiate player, who in many cases, turn out to be nearly Major League ready. At worst, they are holding out for near Major League ready prospects at the deadline in exchange.

Thus, there is less drop off in talent for some of the lower revenue teams when they do lose these free agents.

The World Baseball Classic, I believe is going to stimulate world wide interest and grow the game not only from a fan standpoint but from a talent pool standpoint. Players in other countries are seeing first-hand that their peers can comptete against Major League talent and have to think "Why not them?". I believe very soon we will see the talent from other countries begin to come stateside to compete is droves. Very much in the way European talent is washing to the NBA shores.

Can they do more from a PR standpoint or helping youth sports more, and not just in areas where kids are running away from the sport, but in neighborhooods where it flourishes as well? Yes. Can they do for softball what the NBA does for women's basketball and cultivate a new fan base? Yes.

We'll see what the future holds, but maybe the sports has been more visionary in some regards than it has been given credit for.

KEEP YOUR DRUG TESTS, I'D RATHER HAVE SOGGY BALLS

Again, from the wonderful world of "You can't make some of this stuff up" sports, the Floyd Landis controversy bring up what I've been saying about drug testing in baseball for years.

People don't trust the testing to catch the cheaters (except if it's Bonds). If a popular player like Derek Jeter ever tested positive we'd hear, as we are now with Floyd, how unreliable the tests are, how they can be manipulated by anyone with an agenda. And let's face it, who doesn't have an agenda today?

So we have everyone and his cousin rushing to Floyd Landis defense with a myriad of reasons why he could have tested positive and still not cheated. THEN HOW THE F_ _ _ CAN ANYONE EVER BE EXPECTED TO TRUST THE TESTS AND THE TESTERS AGAIN? WHY HAVE TESTING IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Keep the tests, I don't trust them or the people administering them anymore. It's a joke and it always has been. Look at the Olympics over the past twenty or thirty years and the world of cycling and track. That's the path these idiots want to lead baseball down.

So this week, in walks Jeff Cirrillo with his "Soggy Balls" theory as to why offense is down in "Coors Canaveral". A stadium that in the past made the "Launching Pad" in Atlanta look like a pitcher-friendly ballpark in comparison,.

Runs in Colorado are way down, shutouts are way up since the club was granted permission by MLB to manipulate the composition of the baseballs via the humidor. I wonder how baseball knew that this would correlate to lower, more reasonable numbers. Of course, we have to have our statistical integrity, or the game will die.

They knew it would happen because MLB is the old pro at manipulating the consistency of the baseball to either raise offensive numbers or lower them. They did it before to raise the attendance level. They could also decide to raise the mound or lower it further, if they so desire.
All in the interest of manipulating offense to effect changes in fan interest and therefore attendance and TV ratings. That translates into dollars.

If you wanted steroids out of the game, make the consistency of the ball more like a bean bag and you could tell your steroid jackers, "Go ahead, swing for the fences, you muscle bound retard". A couple of warning track flyouts and a .230 average later and these guys will be looking for jobs as bouncers at Studio 54.

You can thank me later for solving the "Steroid Crisis" without involving Congress (they should be busy what with the Middle East crisis, Korean Missile Crisis, Terrorism, to say nothing about the myriad economic issues at home they should be dealing with), the media, WADA, USADA or any other group of idiots you can name who have been overly involved in the issue recently.

They're not going to move the fences back, that costs seats, expensive behind the plate box seats. And that's revenue students. So that's not going to happen. But it would be the easiest solution.

Devalue the HR a little bit, if you must. But then don't complain when fans vote with their wallets and attendance comes down after a plethora of 2-1 and 1-0 games unfolds. Or when teams start to value speed and the SB again. Remember the early 80's, the St. Louis Cardinals of Vince Coleman and Willie McGee and 70 HR's as a team? And four and a half-hour games because pitchers had to hold runners on so much. Gosh, who didn't love that style of baseball??

As always, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.


Other Interesting articles:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...section=si_mlb
Cirillo suggests balls at Coors Field are waterlogged

Coors Field is tied with Comerica Park in Detroit for the most shutouts in the majors this year with 10, including six by Rockies pitchers.

Cirillo, who played two seasons in Colorado pre-humidor, agreed the Rockies have better pitching now, "but at the same time, does that mean the rest of the league has better pitching, also?"

"It's pretty dramatic, wouldn't you say? Most shutouts in Coors Field, in the National League, when you take into account Petco, Dodger Stadium, where Washington plays. Those are huge parks," Cirillo said.

Runs have never been harder to score at Coors Field since the stadium opened in 1995. The average game now features a combined nine runs -- down from 15 runs that were scored a decade ago. Of course, the Rockies don't have the Blake Street Bombers hitting home runs all over the place as they did back then.

It was pretty well agreed by most in the know that PHDs were more rampant then, but perhaps more importantly The balls were juiced, too! Bug Selig all but admitted that the material used to wind around the pill was changed "around 1996" to a new synthetic that allowed 20% longer, thinner material, much tighter winding of the syntho-wool, and therefore a livlier ball that still conformed to the weight and diameter rules. The folks at Rawlings will only say all the MLB balls were once stitched in the Dominican Republic, then Haiti, and finally now in Costa Rica, but would offer no details as to the winding process or materials.

Evidently the Rockies can do anything they choose with the balls once they've been unsealed, but only if they are supervised by the umpiring crew. All conspiracy crybabies should be aware that the homeplate ump is the guy that puts balls in the pitchers hands, and likewise takes them out of the game.

Do you think the guys in blue would actually allow "heavy" balls to be used in the games they work? Cirillo just might be a few french fries short of a happy meal on this one.

and some excerpts from a Baseball Prospectus Article by Joe Sheehan
http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5386

If you’d told someone in June of 2004 that two years hence, one of every six or so games at Coors Field would end in a shutout, you would have been laughed out of the room.

How is this happening? Those close to the Rockies will cite a crop of young pitchers developing in concert, a younger team featuring an improved defense, higher grass and even a grand design before they’ll mention the humidor.

The humidor was first used in 2002 in an attempt by the team to control scoring in one of the greatest run environments in MLB history. According to the linked story by the Denver Post’s Mike Klis, the Rockies began storing their baseballs in a climate-controlled room at 40% humidity to keep the balls from drying out in Denver’s thinner, drier air. The idea wasn’t to make the balls dead, but to make them more like the ones used at lower altitudes. There was a great hue and cry over the issue, but Coors Field remained a great hitters’ park, the best one in baseball from 2002-2005, albeit not quite as extreme as it had been before. The Rockies, set astray by The Great Change-up Experiment in 2001 (Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle were signed to $170 million worth of contracts and proceeded to implode), weren’t any more successful in those years than they’d been in the previous four.

In any given season, one park or another might have been better for some event than Coors Field was--81 games isn’t a large enough sample to overcome variance, which is why most analysts use multi-year park factors for rigorous work—but no park was consistently in the top five of all three categories. You can see a drop in the home-run factor in 2005, a dip that may have foreshadowed things to come.

This year, the changed used of the humidor has made Coors Field, at more than 5,000 feet above sea level, a pitchers’ park. There’s no question, none at all, that Jeff Cirillo is onto something here. Coors Field has become a below-average place for run scoring, despite the thinner air at high altitude, and with no change in the park.

For years, Coors Field was the best place in baseball to make contact. You hit the ball, good things happen, more than they did anywhere. There was a wobble last season, which might well have been written off as a personnel matter--the Rockies had improved pitching and a wretched offense--if it hadn’t been followed up by this year’s line. Coors Field is now average in turning batted balls into extra-base hits and homers, and slightly above when it comes to doing the same with flyballs. For the first time I can recall, it’s also not the safest place for a ball in play. Even conceding that the above are park stats and not park factors, the extremes listed make a compelling argument that the natural order of things has been badly upset.

Think about why Coors Field is such a good hitters’ park. The air in Denver is thinner than it is at sea level, so it provides less resistance, less drag, on struck balls. Robert Adair, author of The Physics of Baseball, estimated this effect at 9% for an average fly ball. This is the biggest reason why Denver is such a great place to hit. Another reason is that the same thin air makes it harder to throw good breaking stuff, because breaking balls need that same resistance to do their dancing. Finally, a common complaint by pitchers was the dry Denver air made it hard to grip the baseball, adding to problems with command, especially of breaking balls, as the baseballs become slicker, harder and, according to some, smaller.

Now, soaking the baseballs in milk, or whatever it is they’re doing, addresses the first of those problems and the last. Heavier baseballs mean more resistance, which is one reason why there’s a cap--5 ¼ ounces--on the weight of a baseball. But they shouldn’t have much effect on the second other that some improvement in pitchers’ ability to grip the ball. The thin air is still not going to mix real well with breaking pitches.

As you can see, Coors Field has been a terrible place for pitchers to get results on their own. If the humidor is tuned to cancel out the effect of dryness--a problem that was only raised to crisis levels once the humidor came to be--it shouldn’t be enough to turn Coors Field into a pitchers’ park. Adair’s 9% should still be affecting things. The humidor is overcorrecting for the dryness, having a minor effect on command, but the real driver of run prevention is that the humidor is producing baseballs that simply don’t travel.

Now, the Rockies don’t want any part of this. They want to point to Jeff Francis and Aaron Cook and Jason Jennings and say that the lowered run scoring is the end result of having good pitchers. If this is about personnel, then the Rockies’ pitchers should be showing improvement at home and on the road, and in their peripherals as well as their ERAs.

HOME

IP ERA BFP/K BFP/BB K/BB BFP/H BFP/HR BFP/XBH
2006 494.0 4.03 6.44 12.95 2.01 4.23 37.04 12.87
2005 735.0 5.18 6.56 12.61 1.92 3.86 39.48 11.55
2004 733.0 6.27 7.02 10.32 1.47 3.78 31.15 10.57
2003 737.0 5.07 6.92 14.52 2.10 3.86 27.93 10.61

ROAD

IP ERA BFP/K BFP/BB K/BB BFP/H BFP/HR BFP/XBH
2006 451.2 4.32 6.52 14.12 2.17 4.20 56.05 12.58
2005 683.2 5.07 6.45 10.69 1.66 4.15 33.73 11.08
2004 702.1 4.77 6.77 11.06 1.63 4.27 35.33 12.29
2003 683.0 5.35 7.86 11.22 1.43 3.96 37.30 11.86

We’re on to something here. This is an improved pitching staff. Look at the road numbers: Rockies’ pitchers have cut their ERAs, improved their command and dramatically improved their home-run rate from one season to the next. You can see the effects of the humidor at home in the vastly decreased hit rate and extra-base hit rate, but it’s clear that this Rockies’ staff is not entirely the product of wet baseballs.

Over two years, the difference is even more stark. The Rockies allowed a .501 slugging and .194 isolated power at home in 2004. This year, those numbers are .420 and .155. Some percentage of that is the pitchers, and how you assign credit among the hurlers and the humidor depends largely on your proximity to Blake Street.

Earlier this year, I wrote about how the use of the humidor was a mistake because it homogenized the baseball world. While conceding that playing at altitude presented challenges for the Rockies, I lamented the loss of a unique environment. At the time, I didn’t think that Coors would play neutral all season long, and I was right; it’s become a better pitchers’ park as the year has worn on.

I don’t blame the Rockies at all. They’re convinced that their best chance to win is to deaden the baseballs and create a nine-run environment. That they had their most success as a franchise when they hit the snot out of the ball--while getting adequate starting pitching and great relief work--hasn’t registered. There’s nothing wrong with them asking for permission to alter the baseballs in a manner that fits their needs. However, they shouldn’t be able to turn a ballpark one mile high into what it’s become today, a slight pitchers’ park. MLB, which approved the humidor plan to begin with, has to step in and restore order. There’s no way--no way--that Coors Field should play neutral. You want to bring it with a certain distance of the other parks, that’s fine, but you can’t mess with the baseballs so much that it cancels out all the run-enhancing effects of the altitude.

In the case of the Rockies, they’ve implemented a solution that has radically changed the way the games are played at home. If the massive effects of the humidor are acceptable to MLB, then I believe it opens the door for teams looking to make less-radical changes. What I’d prefer, though, is for the league to step in and take a stand on how wet is too wet. Well, what I’d prefer is for no tampering with the baseballs at all, but I don’t think that will happen.

What I do know is that Jeff Cirillo is right. The baseballs in use at Coors Field have been modified in a way that completely changes the game played there. Where batted balls used to go for hits, extra-base hits and home runs, they now become outs. If you want to give some credit to the Rockies’ pitchers, you can, but the primary reason is the humidor. Cirillo’s conspiracy theories are wrong--there’s no swapping of dry and wet baseballs depending on the Rockies’ situation--but he’s right to point out what should have been obvious all along.

Joe Sheehan is an author of Baseball Prospectus. You can contact Joe by clicking here or click here to see Joe's other articles.

DID PAUL LODUCA GET GOOD WOOD ON THIS?

Or maybe he just whiffed on his marriage. Whatever, old dude.

This story remind me of the Aesop fable of the dog with the steak in his mouth who runs over a bridge and sees his reflection in the water, another dog with a steak, so he barks at the dog to try to get the second steak, only he loses his steak as it drops in the water. That's the first thing I thought of when I saw the story. No really, it was. Dang, the chick's not all that hot.

So anyway, he's trading in his drop-dead gorgeous wife for this? For what, stimulating conversation? I though catchers were supposed to be smart. OMG, whatever dude.

"This is your wife? OMG she's hot and junk. OMG, old dude, you have a wife? Whatever, I'm out of here, I have to go to the mall and get my nails done. Later, old dude." Stimulating. Where does one sign up for this type of deal?

Hope you can keep up the gambling jones on half your ass(ets). Cause you just gave the soon to be ex-Mrs. Paulie LoDuca a "Grab half your assets and skate out of this so-called marriage FREE" card. You might want to grab your checkbook Mr. LoDuca. You'll be hearing that a lot in the near future.