Baseball Players

Players to watch in 2012: Pitchers Tyler Brashears, El Toro, Sr. UC Irvine signee was 11-2 with 0.77 ERA Chase DeJong, Long Beach Wilson, Sr. Let's see if anyone can beat him Max Fried, Harvard-Westlake, Sr. Left-hander with elite skills Justin Garza, Bonita, Sr. Was 13-0 in 2011 Lucas Giolito, Harvard-Westlake, Sr. Threw a 99 mph fastball in winter ball Cole Irvin, Servite, Sr. Oregon signee throws strikes...

John Grisham is to literature what Cheerios are to a rushed breakfast, something you buy in bulk and consume without too much thought. Honestly, I'm relieved when a new Grisham book doesn't weigh more than I do. Yet his newest work, "Calico Joe," is as slender as a Dodgers shortstop. Coming in at under 200 pages, it is a breezy little baseball novel that will probably appeal to many men the way Nicholas Sparks' stories appeal to that other sex. Strangely, considering the subject matter, it is amazingly unevocative of the game itself.

As Tim Harkrider extends his right hand, the ring commemorating a minor league baseball team's championship sparkles in the sunshine. He wears the ring proudly, despite its Angel logo. "I don't hate them," he said. He is, however, suing them. In a lawsuit filed in his home state of Texas, Harkrider, 28, charges the Angels with inferior medical care that prevented him from recovering from an ankle injury, regaining his status as a top prospect and, ultimately, playing in the major leagues.

Fifty years ago, the biggest man inside Los Angeles' biggest new landmark was 6-foot-7, 255-pound Frank Howard, the National League rookie of the year in 1960 who helped break in Dodger Stadium by slugging 31 home runs, batting .296 and driving in 119 runs. Howard, 75, resides in Northern Virginia and stays informed about major Dodgers news, such as Magic Johnson being part of the new ownership group and Clayton Kershaw winning last year's NL Cy Young Award, only on a limited basis.

The Dodgers should stop waltzing around and make their marriage to Manny Ramirez a proper one. I'm talking here about a real contract, not the truncated one they extracted during the off-season, which covers two years but allows baseball's sweetest swinger to leave after the last out of 2009.

Striking baseball players will not be able to collect unemployment benefits in New York, state Labor Commissioner John Hudacs ruled Friday. The action by Hudacs came after a state senator expressed outrage that New York was the only state where striking players could collect benefits. State Sen. Joseph Holland had promised to submit legislation that would keep major leaguers from collecting unemployment checks.

In major league clubhouses, behind batting cages, on the diamonds and in the grandstands, even in Washington, it seems everyone is talking about baseball and steroids. Everyone that is but Barry Bonds, one of six major league players reported to have received a new designer steroid from a Burlingame, Calif., supplement company, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO).

It's decision time for the wonderful high school baseball class of 1993. Brad Fullmer of Montclair Prep, Jeff Suppan of Crespi, Gabe Kapler of Taft and David Lamb of Newbury Park made it to the major leagues, but others from the talented class of '93 who were stuck in the minor leagues have made difficult choices.

Catching his breath every few moments, Jim Adenhart explained to the hushed crowd that the greatest day of his life was when his nine-pound, three-ounce baby boy was born. Then, in detail, he relayed his final conversation with his son last week, after Nick Adenhart had pitched the best game of his brief major league career.

What makes baseball players like Jose Reyes of the New York Mets and Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red Sox such good hitters? It might have something to do with the time of day (or night) when the umpire yells, “Play ball!” You see, professional ballplayers are just like the rest of us – some of them are morning people and some of them are night owls. And as anyone who has ever had to drag himself to a 7 a.m. breakfast meeting after staying up to catch the end of “The Colbert Report” knows, it’s hard to perform your best when your work hours are in conflict with your natural sleep cycle.

Reporting from Phoenix — The Andre Ethier that Cory Hahn knows isn't short-tempered. He isn't moody. The Ethier that Hahn knows was among the first people to visit him in the hospital last year after he broke his neck sliding into second base in a game at Arizona State. "He's a genuine guy," Hahn said. "On the field, he's a gamer. Off the field, he's been nothing but nice and awesome to me and my family. " Hahn and his father visited the Dodgers' spring-training complex Thursday as guests of Ethier, who played college ball at Arizona State.

Players to watch in 2012: Pitchers Tyler Brashears, El Toro, Sr. UC Irvine signee was 11-2 with 0.77 ERA Chase DeJong, Long Beach Wilson, Sr. Let's see if anyone can beat him Max Fried, Harvard-Westlake, Sr. Left-hander with elite skills Justin Garza, Bonita, Sr. Was 13-0 in 2011 Lucas Giolito, Harvard-Westlake, Sr. Threw a 99 mph fastball in winter ball Cole Irvin, Servite, Sr. Oregon signee throws strikes...

There was an eerie sense of deja vu in the Dallas Hilton Anatole last Thursday morning. In the same winter meetings hotel in which the Texas Rangers stunned baseball by signing Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year, $252-million deal in 2000, the Angels sent similar shock waves through the game, acquiring slugger Albert Pujols with a 10-year, $254-million deal. "There must be a strain of Legionnaires' disease in here," New York Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson said. "I think every club that has signed a 10-year contract has regretted it. " Maybe not every club.

Soon after he bought the Angels in 2003, Arte Moreno endeared himself to fans by going on a $146-million free-agent shopping spree and lowering prices for beer and merchandise. Former Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley was beloved for the family atmosphere he created, his first-class treatment of players and buying his staff ice cream every day the team was in first place. George Steinbrenner ruled the New York Yankees with an iron fist, engaged in bitter public feuds with managers and players and popularized the phrase, "You're fired!"

A man's homeland is wherever he prospers. — Aristophanes Three things fans can count on this season at Angel Stadium: fireworks after Angels homers, the Rally Monkey appearing in late innings when the home team needs a run and Scott Downs shutting down the opposition. It's "Inning Over" whenever the Angels left-hander emerges from the bullpen behind left field. He has not given up a run in 20 2/3 innings, striking out 17 and walking only two to go with his immaculate 0.00 earned-run average.

Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday. Blyleven was elected on his 14th time on the ballot, his next-to-last opportunity. Alomar made it in the second year he was eligible. Staff writer Ben Bolch offers his take on the chances of some active players: First ballot, baby Vladimir Guerrero has been one of the most feared hitters in both leagues, capable of hitting balls a long way whether they are over the plate or bounce in front of it (just ask Pete Harnisch about that split-fingered fastball off the Olympic Stadium turf in 1998)

Three Westlake High baseball players, including two starters, were among five students suspended last week for allegedly vandalizing the Thousand Oaks High baseball field. The players did not participate in a Marmonte League game Friday against Simi Valley and are not expected to play the rest of the season. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department is investigating, with charges pending against the juveniles, Sheriff's Deputy John Wright said.

Caught in lockout limbo, Bob Ojeda and other major leaguers today have a new set of concerns. Like when to play, where and with what. "We can't even come here," Ojeda said at the New York Mets' spring training camp Wednesday, a day before the owners' lockout went into effect. "The players' union isn't saying don't work out. But I don't think they think it's best for the whole team to get together."

Forget steroids. Forget Frank McCourt's mismanagement of the Dodgers. The biggest scandal in baseball at the moment is the Baseball Hall of Fame's failure — for the fourth time — to induct Marvin Miller, the man who freed players from indentured servitude. The great Hall of Fame broadcaster Red Barber observed that Miller, who directed the Major League Baseball Players Assn. from 1966 to 1983, was one of the three most important figures in baseball history, along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson.

The Dodgers are in last place and bankrupt. The Angels are barely above .500. Looks as if that real Freeway Series will remain only a fantasy. With their final interleague game this evening in Anaheim, the wistful Dodgers' and Angels' faithful can dream about happier times. As Hemingway's Jake Barnes said, "Isn't it pretty to think so?" Here's a woulda-coulda-shoulda team -- a 25-man roster -- of players the Angels and Dodgers had on the hook but couldn't keep. With them, oh what might have been ... well, except for that starting rotation: -- Infielders Adrian Beltre [ THEN: DODGERS ]