7/12/99

"Little O" needs a new nickname--How about "Mr. Ninth Inning"! However, no matter how good he is with the glove, and how good he gets with the bat, I'm not sure we should let him talk to reporters. For example, here is his comment after his most recent game-winning homer: "I threw a little butt into it," he said, "and the ball just happened to leave." I rest my case.

I must say I was surprised as well as delighted that Omar was selected to another All-Star team. I didn't think he was going to have much of a chance, considering how many Indians were voted in to start the game.

4/6/99

Congratulations to Omar for hitting the Tribe's first home run of the year!

Who'd have thought Vizquel, Maddux, and McGwire would ever all be tied in the home run race...

1/18/99

For any Omar fans who aren't in Cleveland and haven't heard the hubub yet, here's the story. Omar signed a six year contract at three million a year, with a club option for a seventh, which the Indians have already picked up. Omar (and/or his agent) now feels that he is underpaid. While this is undoubtedly true, he willingly opted for the security of a long-term contract. However, Omar is suggesting that he might exercise other options, such as holding out from spring training or asking for a trade. Many of his fans, myself included, are disappointed to hear this news and never expected this behavior from our beloved Omar. I also suspect that not many--including John Hart--actually believe he will hold out. Asking for a trade, however, is a very real possibility. And Hart demonstrated with the Matt Williams trade that he is willing to honor reasonable trade requests. I guess the questions here would be whether Hart considers this request reasonable, and if he doesn't honor it, how will that affect Omar's play and the rest of the team. We can all see how it would affect the team if Hart did re-negotiate the contract--and there is no way he will do it. So far the optimal solution seems to be for incentives to be added to Vizquel's contract--for getting Gold Gloves, making the All-Star team, batting above .300, etc. (I'm not sure why other players, such as Manny, wouldn't also be able to request such incentives...?) Any way you slice it, it is not a good situation.

Regular visitors will remember that a while back I promised to post the e-mail I received from Hofstetter's Jerk of the Week in response to why Vizquel received so many points for his bench-clearing brawl-attempt back in September. But first I'd like to note some additional information on the incident that I received from an observant fan: The entire CWS lineup was standing on the top step of the dugout ready to rush the field before Parque threw the pitch over Omar's head. Sounds like premeditation to me...

Here's the letter--I wanted to post it so that anyone else who was annoyed can see that they were very nice in providing a response. (I was also sent a letter by another staff member specifically outlining the number of points he received and why. So I guess they do have a system of points established.)