BaseballGuru.com's Braintrust Newsletter, April 2002
Friends and Braintrust Subscribers,
Baseball season is back! April we devote to baseball's opening month and watching teams jocky for early position.
Stay interested all season long by registering for the Guru's Fantasy Baseball Challenge. As a team coach working with a salary cap, you select the players you want each week. Cash prizes too! You can sign up even after the season starts. Here's the link: http://www.allamerica.com/baseballguru/
MLB
Tension mounts…Bud Selig promised no owner lockout, but the players have not promised to show up at the all-star game in his hometown, Milwaukee.
The NY Times writers picked a Yankees versus Cardinals World Series. So that rules out those two teams. Look for the Mariners and either the Mets, Braves or Diamondbacks.
Milestones: Expect Bonds to join Mays, Ruth and Aaron as the only players to hit 600 career home runs. He needs 33 and should get there in July. In September look for Sosa and Griffey to reach the 500 mark. They need 50 and 40 respectively. An October long-shot is Clemens winning his twentieth game to reach 300 wins.
Pro Yakyu
Big ad money reaches Japanese players…Nike signed Seibu Lions righthander Daisuke Matsuzaka to a two year contract worth more than $2 million. For the first year of the deal, Matsuzaka will act mainly in an advisory capacity, but the final year will see a full on media blitz from the international athletic goods company using "The Monster," as the Yokohama High grad is known, in television commercials and in other media. The contract is reportedly the most lucrative ever offered to a Japanese baseball player by the firm.
Guru Makes Unusual Radio Appearance
Earl Finkler from KBRW radio in Barrow, Alaska (America's northern most city) invited "The Guru" to talk about spring training and current events. While the people in Barrow tend to be Seattle Mariners fans, Earl is from Chicago and is a big Cubs fan. Afterward, Earl said it was "a very good, and informative interview, despite [my publicly] dim view of the Cubs chances." He forgot to mention that I was actually excited for his Cubs because of emerging pitching star Mark Prior. If he turns out to be the real deal (he was 15-1 last year with USC) and makes an impact this year, he will cause them to win despite them selves. If you want to hear the radio broadcast over the Internet, email me. If I get enough requests I'll post it.
Fantasy Baseball
Did you draft a team this year? The Guru accepted a challenge from FSRU.com to compete its first annual "expert" rotisserie draft. The Sporting News, The Roto Times, The Sandlot Shrink and other high profile baseball web sites all participated. The draft went well. The Guru's strategy was to dominate the pitching categories, but still managed to grab Todd Helton, Larry Walker and Gary Sheffield with early picks. Anyone interested in following the progress of this public league or who just wants to see how each web site drafted can check it out here or using this link http://baseball.tqstats.com/fsicnl/index.html
Baseball Analysis and New Guru
Please welcome Jim Albright (our newest Guru) by visiting his page http://baseballguru.com/jalbright and sending him email. He joins Gary Garland in providing the best English speaking Japanese web site content on the planet. In fact, it is about the only daily coverage of Japanese baseball in English. Jim brings historical perspective and lots of stats to download.
This is a big deal and is a free service. Please pass along the word out about it. It won't catch on without your assistance!
Bruce Markusen from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and author of three baseball books agreed to run a series called "Memories of the Mustache Gang", which will chronicle the 1972 Oakland A's season in this, the 30th anniversary of that great season. We look forward to updates every day.
Finally, John B. Holway posted a series of articles on the AAGPBL Ladies leagues. The true stories are very funny and inform us about a largely forgotten period of American baseball history. Many of you will recall the movie "A League of Our Own" with Tom Hanks, Madonna, Rosie and Gina Davis that brought this league to the forefront of American consciousness a few years ago.
Anyone who would like to contribute commentary, photos, articles, experiences or whatever may to submit them for online publication by emailing me. You don't have to be a Guru to make a valuable and interesting contribution.
Web Tour Gets New Content
Changes to the web tour the month, increases exposure to content by our Gurus. Lots of new articles were posted and now they are easier to find.
The Guru's Famous Game
Japanese cards are in the works! Ever wonder what their players are like? Soon you will be able to find out first hand. Play with the 2001 season cards or try the incredible set of all-time franchise all-star teams. Was Sadaharu Oh a greater home run hitter than Hank Aaron? Was Masaichi Kaneda as great as Sandy Koufax? Stats are already available in the japanese insider if you want a sneak peak at the players.
Browse the other card sets available or use this link http://baseballguru.com/bbboardgame.html
You can support BaseballGuru.com
Do your part by buying all of your books and CD's through The Guru's Amazon Affiliate Store instead of directly through Amazon. You get you the same prices and service but also help keep baseballguru.com up and running. Please use the search box on any page. It's much appreciated.
So, that's what's new. Keep on visiting, keep on emailing and tell your friends about the most interesting baseball site on the web!
Sincerely,
Craig Tomarkin
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