Baseball History

Comes now major league baseball with a request we pick the 20 greatest moments in baseball history. What they have in mind, of course, is Babe Ruth's called-shot World Series home run in 1932 or maybe Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series in 1956, Pepper Martin's runaway with the 1931 A's-Cardinals Series. Those are all right in their way. But it is the notion here that not all the great moments of baseball history were champagne and caviar. There was the view from the other dugout.

Excluding the strike year, the Atlanta Braves won their division every year from 1991-97 yet have only one World Series championship to show for it. A look at some other teams in baseball history that missed out on multiple world titles: * Brooklyn Dodgers, 1947-56--The Dodgers dominated the National League during these years, reaching the World Series six times and finishing second in the NL three times.

Melky Cabrera gave baseball's detractors yet another reason to turn their backs on the sport Wednesday with his 50-game suspension after testing positive for testosterone, one of baseball's banned performance-enhancing substances. So his league-best 159 hits and second-best .346 batting average weren't compiled the right way. That's a bummer. Even worse, Cabrera is no longer available to the San Francisco Giants, who definitely could use his services down the stretch in a tight race with the Dodgers for the National League West crown.

Who wants to be a millionaire? Nobody placing preseason bets on the 2000 Dodgers or Angels, certainly. To the same dramatic tones that serenade contestants on America's hottest game show, our low-rated baseball teams began this winter vowing to solve all their problems. Glancing at this week's rosters on the eve of spring training, the question must be asked: Is that your final answer? A Stoneman is: 1. A person who spends his winters sleeping like a rock. 2. The French word for, "No deal." 3.

Robert W. Peterson, a former newspaper editor who shed light on a little-known aspect of baseball history with his seminal book on the sport's Negro Leagues, "Only the Ball Was White," has died. He was 80. Peterson, who had lung cancer and emphysema, died of a heart attack Feb. 11 at a hospital near Allentown, Pa., according to his wife, Peggy. Published in 1970, "Only the Ball Was White" was the first detailed accounting of Negro baseball.

Scott Boras tossed three new letters into the alphabet soup of baseball abbreviations. We learned long ago about ERA and RBI. The statistically inclined favored OBP and OPS. As summer turned to fall, Boras introduced us to IPN. On Wednesday, we learned its real meaning: Individual Player Negotiating. Alex Rodriguez is an IPN player indeed.

The relief pitcher with the tattooed biceps and pierced nipple pondered the question. "The only thing I know is, they named UCLA's stadium after him," Kyle Sebach said. Across the clubhouse of the Lake Elsinore Storm, another pitcher shook his head. "He played for the San Francisco Giants, right?" Mike Hermanson said. In jumped pitcher Heath Haynes. "It was either the Dodgers or San Francisco, I know that for sure," Haynes said.

Traditionalists might have liked it better if everybody wasn't saying "periwinkle" so much, but the presentation of the Angels' new baseball uniforms this week actually invoked one of the oldest and richest customs of big-time sports history--shopping for clothes. The playing field has always been part fashion-show runway.

BEIJING -- From the window of the Dodgers' chartered flight, Matt Kemp saw the mountains of Alaska draped in snow and clouds. From the same vantage point, he later saw Siberia. And the Friday morning workouts at Wukesong Baseball Stadium behind him, Kemp and the remainder of the Dodgers' 30-man split squad were on their way to see the Great Wall of China. "This is fun, man," Kemp said. "I'm getting to see things I learned about in school."