Plenty to cram in big picture

Story lines of change, expectations and goodbyes abound

By Jack Etkin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 30, 2008 at 10:42 p.m.

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Photo by Frank Franklin Ii / Associated Press

As construction on the new Yankee Stadium continues, the curtain rises one final time on The House that Ruth Built, right, which opened in 1923 and was modified in 1974 and 1975.

Johana Santana.

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Barry Bonds, whose career began in 1986, is gone, his playing days possibly over. If so, that comes as no surprise. The same can be said of Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa, all figures of the past as the 2008 season begins.

Suspicions linger that they used performance-enhancing drugs, a topic that won't vanish, to be sure, but happily will be pushed aside by happenings on the field.

Joe Torre has left the New York Yankees bench after 12 seasons and is managing the Los Angeles Dodgers. Joe Girardi has replaced Torre as manager of the Yankees, who are banking on young pitchers to return to the World Series for the first time since 2003, an eon by their standards, and win it for the first time since 2000, an eternity to them.

The Boston Red Sox will try to become the first repeat Series winner since the Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000. Another Series triumph would give the Red Sox three world championships in five years, the best run since the Yankees won four in five years from 1996-2000.

Tom Glavine, who turned 42 last week and has won 303 games, has returned to Atlanta, where he will finish his career, although not necessarily this season. Will it be a sweet encore - Glavine helping a very good Braves team win the National League East after a two-year hiatus following 14 consecutive division titles?

Will the San Francisco Giants, who hadn't been very good lately with Bonds, be as bad as most observers think and lose 100 games?

Will the Tampa Bay Rays - they've been exorcised and are the Devil Rays no more - finally be a feel-good story instead of a laughingstock by, first, winning more than 70 games for the first time in their 11-year existence and, second, rising above .500 as their slew of good young players gain confidence?

Can the amazing Ichiro Suzuki, who joined the Seattle Mariners in 2001, become the first modern-day player (post 1900) to string together eight consecutive 200-hit seasons? He shares the record of seven with Wade Boggs (1983-1989). Another 200-hit season for Suzuki will tie him with Willie Keeler, whose hit-'em-where-they-ain't prowess produced an all- time-record eight consecutive 200-hit seasons from 1894-1901.

St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols, the only player in history to start his career with eight consecutive seasons with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI, has a torn ligament in his right elbow that will require surgery. Can he extend his record? The Cardinals, who have enough concerns even with a healthy Pujols, sure hope so.

Major League Baseball expects attendance to surpass 80 million for the first time after drawing a record 79.5 million last year. Fans clearly are weary of the Mitchell Report, which was released nearly four months ago. It elicited sincere apologies from some players named, vague statements of accountability from others and a fierce denial from Clemens. There's no guarantee the Mitchell Report or anything having to do with performance-enhancing drugs won't reverberate in the months ahead, but at least the games have returned, and with them, a host of interesting scenarios.

Touch 'em all

Ken Griffey Jr., 38, is seven home runs from 600, a milestone only six other players have reached. Manny Ramirez (490) and Gary Sheffield (480) are closing in on 500, a peak Alex Rodriguez (518), Frank Thomas (513) and Jim Thome (507) scaled last year. If 500 homers doesn't have the cachet it once did, it's still a notable achievement and something accomplished by only 23.

Record-tying futility

The Pittsburgh Pirates have endured 15 consecutive losing seasons. During that stretch, the Pirates lost at least 93 games six times, including the past three seasons, which suggests it's unlikely they'll climb to 81-81 mediocrity this year. Another losing season will tie the Pirates with the Philadelphia Phillies, who between 1933 and 1948 set the all-time record of 16 consecutive losing seasons, including five in succession and seven overall with at least 100 loses. And that's when teams played 154 games.

Too bad for the Pirates that Philadelphia finished 78-76 in 1932. But for 1932, the Phillies would have slogged through 31 straight losing seasons from 1918-1948 and nobody would be readying this year's Pittsburgh club for history.

Happy day

Former closer Goose Gossage will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 27 at ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y. In his ninth year on the ballot sent to 10-year members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Gossage, a Colorado Springs native who still lives there, finally was elected. Anticipating this richly deserved honor for Gossage brings to mind a murkier time in the future, namely 2013. Assuming they don't play again, that's the year Bonds, Clemens and Sosa will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time.

A grand's worth

The Detroit Tigers added third baseman Miguel Cabrera to an already potent lineup that scored 887 runs last year, which was third in the majors. Can the Tigers become the first team to score 1,000 runs in a season since the 1999 Cleveland Indians (1,009)? Can Detroit break the major league record for runs scored in a season - 1,067 by the 1931 New York Yankees? Are the Tigers primed to break their franchise record of 957 runs scored in 1934? And will any of this matter if the Tigers have significant bullpen issues?

Farewell to one, good riddance to the other

Both New York teams will move into new ballparks in 2009, making this the final season for Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium. Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 - it was rebuilt in 1974 and 1975 with the Yankees playing those seasons in Shea - and has been the site of 37 World Series, 26 won by the Yankees, the most storied sports franchise. Known as The House That Ruth Built, the stadium was home to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and now Derek Jeter. It is regarded as a baseball shrine and venerable. Not so Shea, which opened in 1964 and is dingy, drab and depressing.

Ten in a row

The American League has won 10 consecutive All-Star Games and, counting an embarrassing extra-inning tie in 2002, hasn't lost since 1996.

On July 15, Rockies manager Clint Hurdle will have the honor of managing the NL team, in Yankee Stadium, no less, and trying to end the streak. Since the winner of the All-Star Game gets home-field advantage in the World Series, the Rockies might benefit in October from what promises to be a memorable time for Hurdle in July.

New start

The Mets fortified their questionable rotation by acquiring left-hander Johan Santana in a Feb. 2 trade that sent five prospects to Minnesota.

Santana, 29, a two-time winner of the AL Cy Young Award, is 93-44 lifetime with a 3.22 ERA. Can Santana team with Pedro Martinez, who is healthy after making only five starts for the Mets last year, and help the Mets make the postseason after their epic collapse?

Barren century

The Cubs last won the World Series during the Roosevelt administration - Theodore, not Franklin. That was 100 years ago, and when the Cubs won the Series in 1908, it was actually their second consecutive world championship. At the outset of spring training, Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster, who lives in the Denver area, predicted they would win the Series this year. Maybe that's not entirely fanciful. The Cubs did win the NL Central last year. And they've improved their lineup by signing free-agent right fielder Kosuke Fukudome to a four-year, $48 million contract. If nothing else, the Cubs winning the Series would be the perfect antidote to the Mitchell Report.

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