But there’s more to Fritz Peterson.  There’s always more to somebody than what they put down in their memoir.  Is this book a memoir?  Maybe.  Peterson has prostate cancer and thought he was going to die, so he put pen to paper and wrote before it was too late.  So, even though he never uses the word “memoir,” we could call it that.

Is it a tell all?  Kind of.  He writes stories about Whitey Ford doctoring balls.  He writes about Joe Pepitone’s hairpiece (two hairpieces, actually, one for under a cap and one for when he didn’t were a cap).  He explains why he is mad at his former roommate, Jim Bouton, for writing the famous Ball Four.  And he lets readers in on numerous practical jokes that are not only creative but disciplined; some of which took months to reach fruition.

Is this a religious book?  Yes.  And no.  Yes it is, in that every chapter focuses on one, or a few, different baseball personalities.  At the end of the chapter, we find out Peterson’s “verdict,” based upon each respective person’s alleged belief, or disbelief, in God as to whether or not that person will go to heaven, hell, or take a “dip” in the lake of fire for a while before eventually making his way to the Pearly Gates (he actually disputes the existence of Pearly Gates as well).  It’s not a religious book in that every page is not inundated with scripture and suggested psalms (read Paul Byrd’s Free Byrd if that’s what you’re looking for).  In his day, Fritz Peterson played hard and joked/partied just as hard.  He doesn’t condemn his past.  In fact, he glorifies it.  So this religious man still knows a good time, even if he wouldn’t partake in some of the goings-on anymore.

Mickey Mantle Is Going To Heaven is, more than anything, a baseball book.  It is about a baseball player who wanted to win it all but never did.  It’s about a time in baseball before money and big free agent contracts.  It’s about getting along with teammates and hating the competition (Peterson hates – HATES – the Mets but does write a chapter called “Even Met Fans Go To Heaven”).

Ironically, this book is not one that will ever pave the way for its author to grace the cover of Us Weekly.  While Peterson’s famous “trade” of wives in 1972 was huge news in spring training of 1973, and that trade is what Peterson may be best known for today, very little about that transaction is covered.  He devotes a chapter to his former best friend and fellow teammate and “swapper,” Mike Kekich, as well as a chapter called “A New Era In Journalism,” which is the one portion of the book that goes the farthest into the infamous episode.

But a reader can see Peterson held back.  There is still a cloak of privacy over the author, whose second (and current) wife, the one he traded for, is never mentioned by name even though one could easily find it on Wikipedia.  The How and Why of the ‘72 event is never really answered, other than Peterson and his second wife fell in love.  In a recent Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight Interview with Fritz Peterson, he says how the day after his divorce went through he married his second wife.  So maybe, in today’s time, when we want and expect to know every private thought and action of our public figures, just maybe the How and Why is as simple as two bad marriages, four people trying to figure out how to be happy, and two people falling in love and staying there.

An interesting thought is that if Peterson and Kekich had done something like trading wives today, there would be a reality show one television (and baseball) season later covering the aftermath, earning untold riches for the participants.  There would be the magazine covers, the book deals, the film.  But 37 years later, the only book deal is Peterson’s.  A film deal is in the works, he says, through Warner Bros.  Whether it ever sees the light of day is anyone’s guess.

While the book is not perfect – there are typos and incorrect grammar throughout, it is a good book for those interested in the fun side of baseball, the side before slugging plus on base percentage meant everything.  If you have a few hours one day, you’d be using the time wisely reading your copy of Mickey Mantle Is Going To Heaven.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Real Baseball Wife Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Mike Vaccaro, Natalie Niekro and Lary Sorensen.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

One note: These are the top event games.  I’m separating these from the top events in MLB history, like Pete Rose’s banishment, Ray Chapman’s death, the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and the 1994 strike.  Make sense?  Great.

So, in no particular order, here are the second three of Jimmy Scott’s Top 6 Most Shocking MLB Events of All-Time: The Games (Part 2):

4.  Bartman

Chicago Cubs fans blame a nerdy fan with headphones and glasses for interfering with left fielder Moises Alou in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, ruining his chance to catch a ball falling into foul territory.  When this event took place, Steve Bartman instantly became one of baseball’s all-time most famous fans.  The error in judgment – let’s face it, if you were in his shoes, what would you have done with 1-second to think? – led to a series of catastrophic events for a Cubs team cruising on its way to a World Series berth.

But what fans forget is shortstop Alex Gonzalez booting a sure double-play ball later in the inning, opening the floodgates for a Florida Marlins team to eventually steal their 2nd World Series title in 6 years.  And fans also forget Kerry Wood’s game-tying home run in Game 7, as well as a short-lived 5-3 lead.  The Cubs had other chances.  Maybe it wasn’t poor Steve’s fault after all.

5.  The Jeffrey Maier Game

Bartman interferes and he’s crucified.  Young Jeffrey Maier does it and he’s praised.  See what a home crowd can do?  In Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS, 12-year old Jeffrey Maier reached over the right field wall to seemingly grab a Derek Jeter ball from landing in the glove of Baltimore’s Tony Tarasco.  Umpire Rich Garcia called it a home run, not fan interference, and the Yankees eventually captured their first World Series title since 1978.

Here’s another But: Was the ball really going to be a home run?  Scott Erickson recently said HERE that there was no doubt that the ball was going to be caught.  But look at still photos and video and see the ball’s trajectory as it fell toward earth.  Then look at Tony Tarasco’s glove.  And look at his feet.  They were planted on the ground.  Was the ball really going to go over the wall?  Possibly not.  But the ball possibly wasn’t going to be caught, either.  Remove Jeffrey Maier from the equation and we might have had a double instead of a game-tying home run.  Look at the video and pictures and decide for yourself.

One additional thought: Armando Benitez was on the mound.  Orioles and Mets fans know full well that if the Maier event hadn’t occurred, Benitez likely would have still found a way to blow the save.  Sorry Mr. Erickson, but the Yankees would have tied the game that inning no matter what.

6.  Midget At The Bat

It was 1951.  Bill Veeck, owner of the St. Louis Browns, was desperate.  His ballclub was lousy and nobody was coming to the games.  Looking to give fans a reason to see a game – and pay – Veeck thought up the idea of a birthday party.  1951 was the 50th anniversary of the American League, as well as the 50th anniversary of Falstaff Brewery, one of the team’s sponsors.  Nobody could actually prove that it was also Falstaff’s 50th anniversary, but as Veeck wrote in From Veeck – As In Wreck, his autobiography, “If we couldn’t prove it fell on the day we chose, neither could anyone prove that it didn’t.”

For years, Veeck had had the idea of using a midget to promote his team (he owned 3 different MLB teams during his lifetime).  He called a booking agent who found Eddie Gaedel. While at first “dubious,” after some selling by Veeck, Gaedel agreed to appear at the birthday game.  And Gaedel would more than appear.  He’d sign a contract and become a member of the team.  Better yet, he’d come to the plate and actually bat.

Gaedel knew virtually nothing about baseball besides “I know you’re supposed to hit the white ball with the bat.  And then you run somewhere.”  Veeck spent time teaching Gaedel how to stand in the box and how to crouch (making the already tiny strike zone tinier).  When Gaedel pretended to swing, Veeck got scared, telling Eddie all he had to do was crouch in the box, take four balls, and trot to first base.  And if Gaedel did swing?  He was met with this warning from Veeck.  “I’m going to be up on the roof with a high-powered rifle watching every move you make.  If you so much as look as if you’re going to swing, I’m going to shoot you dead.”

Eddie was paid $100 for the day.  Veeck took out a life insurance policy on him for $1,000,000 to protect the team in case of sudden death or “sudden growth.”

The whole plan was a secret.  Even the Falstaff Brewery folks only knew they were part of a big surprise.  The contract Gaedel signed was mailed to league headquarters on a Saturday night, so by the time it was opened on Monday morning, the game would have already been played (in case of expected protest from the league).

A crowd of more than 18,000 showed up for the game, the largest to see a Browns game in 4 years.  In between games of the doubleheader, Gaedel made his grand entrance by popping out of a birthday cake.  Then he went back into hiding until the bottom of the first, when it was announced that number one-eighth was batting for Frank Saucier.  Home plate umpire Eddie Hurley questioned the stunt and Browns manager Zack Taylor showed the signed contract, a telegram to league headquarters (time stamped) proving proper procedures had been followed (just followed at the very last second, before plans could be thwarted), and a copy of the active roster, which included Eddie Gaedel.

Gaedel got into the batters box and the crowd was alive.  The Falstaff people were beside themselves with joy at the promotion they were sure to receive from all of this.  But Veeck was beside himself for another reason.  Gaedel wasn’t crouching, like he had been taught.  “He was standing straight up, his little bat held high, his feet straddled wide in a fair approximation of Joe DiMaggio’s classic stylek” wrote Veeck.  ”I was thinking, ‘I should have brought that gun up here.  I’ll kill him if he swings.  I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him.’”

But by the third pitch, pitcher Bobby Cain was laughing so hard he could barely throw.  Balls three and four floated about three feet over Eddie Gaedel’s head.

Eddie trotted to first base, his image captured by snapping cameras.  He stood on the bag until a pinch runner could take his place, and then he ran across the infield, waving to the crowd, toward the St. Louis dugout.  He was now one of the most famous footnotes in one of the most famous games in the history of baseball.

And the Browns lost, 6 to 2.

To read Shocking Games Numbers 1-3, go HERE.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Real Baseball Wife Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Mike Vaccaro, Natalie Niekro and Lary Sorensen.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

So, in no particular order, here are the first three of Jimmy Scott’s Top 6 Most Shocking MLB Events of All-Time: The Games:

1.  1989 World Series Game 1

Pre-game, Game 3, San Francisco, 1989 World Series.  The Oakland A’s were up two games to none.  Then, the ground shook.

The Bay Bridge collapsed.  More than 2000 buildings were toppled.  63 people were killed and 3,757 were injured.  Game 3, scheduled for October 17th, wouldn’t be played for 10 days.  The A’s would sweep, the first World Series sweep since 1976.

Other than the natural disaster, this was not one of baseball’s most interesting Fall Classics.  Sweeps are never as fun to experience as a 7-game series (think 1991 Twins/Braves), unless your team is doing the sweeping.  It’s unfortunate for both the sweeping Athletics and swept Giants that this World Series is best known for what took place off the field.

2.  1986 World Series Game 6

One could call this game The Bill Buckner & Mookie Wilson Future Card Show Appearance Game.  In other words, it was Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.  Note this followed Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, in which the Angels Donnie Moore gave up a game-tying home run to Dave Henderson of the Red Sox.  Moore would eventually commit suicide, partially because of his pitching error (he pitched the following inning without the Sox scoring).  But compare Moore’s fate to Bill Buckner’s.  Buckner, a very good hitter, was hobbled and usually replaced for defense.  But on the field in the bottom of the 10th at a packed Shea Stadium with two outs in Game 6, Buckner “let” a ground ball hit off the bat of Mookie Wilson go past his glove and through his legs.  Ray Knight scored the winning run from second base, the Mets came back from the brink of a long and cold winter to win not only Game 6 but Game 7 as well.

But like the famous Steve Bartman Game in the 2003 NLCS, fans forget other circumstances.  Buckner wasn’t the only man to blame.  Boston manager John McNamara, to this day, is criticized for not making the defensive switch, like he did in the regular season.  And while Calvin Shiraldi got two quick outs in the bottom of the 10th, he then gave up consecutive singles to Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell and Ray Knight.  Bob Stanley relieved and promptly threw a wild pitch during the Wilson at-bat, which led Kevin Mitchell to score the tying run from third and Ray Knight to get into scoring position at 2nd base.  Buckner made the error and Game 6 was won by the Mets.

It was a swift victory, completely surprising.  And because it involved a New York team, because Vin Scully was doing the play-by-play for NBC, and because it was against Boston, one of baseball’s most storied franchises, Game 6 goes down as one of the most shocking games of all-time.

3.  The Pine Tar Game

Just a regular game in 1983.  Reliever Mike Armstrong got the win.  Dan Quisenberry got the save.  Game-winning home run by George Brett in Yankee Stadium.  Only Brett got ejected after the home run, as did manager Dick Howser, coach Rocky Colavito and pitcher Gaylord Perry.  Why was Perry ejected?  For giving Brett’s home run bat to a bat boy and telling him to hide it.  Why did they hide the bat?  Pine Tar.

What is Pine Tar?  It’s a sticky substance that’s source is pine tree stumps and roots that, after an intensely high-heating process, “has a long history as a wood preservative, as a wood sealant for maritime use, in roofing construction and maintenance, in soaps such as Packer’s Pine Tar Soap and in the treatment of skin diseases, such as psoriasis, eczema, and rosacea (pronounced roh-ZAY-sha).” [source: Wikipedia]

Pine Tar is also used on baseball bats to give hitters a better grip.  The rules state Pine Tar is allowed on a bat from the knob up to 18 inches.  In the Pine Tar game, Brett was accused by Yankees manager Billy Martin that the Pine Tar on Brett’s bat exceeded what the rules allow.  Brett was ejected and his home run disallowed after the umpires discussed the rule.  Famously, Brett stormed out of the dugout and had to be restrained.  If you read his lips as he erupted, you can see his choice of language was not appropriate for too many churches or mosques.

The Pine Tar Game is most famous for Brett’s eruption, Martin’s protest, and the resumption of the game 25 days later after the umpire ruling was overturned by the American League office.  Approximately 1,200 fans showed up to watch the final four outs of the game, one in which the Royals would win 5 to 4.

For an interesting viewpoint by winning pitcher Armstrong, read THIS.

Coming Soon: Shocking Games Numbers 4-6.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

It sucks.

A lot of other words describe the emotions as well, words that are unprintable in respectable places such as this.  But let’s say you’re a fan of the Detroit Tigers.  You had the post-season wrapped up and your team blew it.  To make matters worse, you even had tickets for the Division Series in your cracked & frayed hands.  Suddenly, out of the blue, the Twins got hot and your guys got cold and there was a playoff.  And you had a lead and blew the lead and blew your chances and ultimately lost the game.

Yeah, that sucks.

Now put yourself in the shoes of the guys on the field.  Mets fans can do this too, based upon 2007 and 2008.  These sudden cease & desist orders to your seasons is hearbreaking.  For the players, it’s even worse.

If you’re a player who was in the race until the bitter end and now sits watching another team play in your playoffs, well, man you ain’t feeling so good.  It’s like losing a girlfriend and watching some other guy marry her.  Sure you blew it with her.  But it doesn’t stop the pain from eating away at your arteries.

Even worse, think about the Twins players.  They had Cinderella Story written all over them.  The great late-season comeback, the comeback within the playoff game, the series in New York against the Goliaths of baseball, circa 21st century (and pretty much 20th century as well).  And you blew it.  Hell, you even had a lead in the 9th in Game 2.  You had your shot at infamy.  And you blew it.  Now you’re sitting on the same couch as the Tigers, watching other teams play in your playoffs.  It’s not fun.

And it really, really sucks.

The wound can run very deep.  There’s blame everywhere, from the teammate who blew the big game or made the colossal error to the manager who made the bonehead decision to the teammate who suddenly forgot how to run the bases to everyone but yourself.  Because one way to get over the season fast is to flip the Denial switch and put your self-criticism into hibernation with the bears and donkeys.

When you finally take responsibility, it will be later in the winter.  It will be when all the baseball games are done and the free agents are signing and you’re looking at the way your team is shaping up, or new team if you were traded or waived or released.  Then you’ll get a sense of how you can possibly improve or get over the hump next year.  Then you’ll get that sense of regret that is so hard to admit to yet so hard to fight.

And you’ll look into a metaphorical mirror and tell yourself that you had a hand in organizing the couch party last October.  You were an accomplice to the drop in season ticket sales as the off season progressed.  You had something to do with the fan base on the attack and the hot-seat status of your manager.  And you’ll think about how you watched the post-season from your couch instead of playing in the post-season while other guys watched you and how much you envied those who played and wished you could stuff a pillow into their faces.  You’ll wish the pennant-winning, World champion style champagne had a small amount of poison in it so those guys could feel as lousy as you the day after.

The problem is, your hangover started the first Tuesday in October and theirs didn’t begin until November and yours was the terrible, awful kind where you remember certain things you did and said and wish you hadn’t done or said those things while theirs is the kind of hangover that brings a smile to their faces because, damn, every throbbing pain in the brain was worth it.

Watching from the couch sucks.  Maybe next year, they’ll get to share your pain.  And you’ll be throbbing in the brain.

You can only hope.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

But there’s a worse part to an injury.

Who likes to be fooled?  Maybe your buddy, who asks for $500, swears he’s good for it.  And he isn’t.  Maybe the woman who woke up next to you isn’t really 21 like she said she was and like her “drivers license” indicated.  Maybe your agent says you’re his top priority then won’t return your calls.  Your reaction to these moments is frustration, embarrassment, even a little fear.  And you swear you’ll never fall for that stuff again.

Then you get injured.  You go through the incident itself – maybe running down the first base line, maybe a short right field collision, maybe tripping over a helmet on the way back into the dugout – and you survived.  It hurt when it happened, but after one, maybe two nights of little sleep (pain & worry the main reasons), you’ve mentally accepted that this happened to you.  Injuries heal.  You’re not going to die.  You’ll eventually be fine.  So you let the swelling go down, you have your surgery, you do your rehab – or, you just let time pass.  It’s all dependent upon what you did to yourself.

One day, you suddenly feel pretty good.  Cool.  You recall that getting out of bed, literally, had been painful just a few mornings before.  Brushing your teeth or pouring cereal into the bowl or practically scrunching into the fetal position to jam yourself into your ‘83 Camaro (buy American!) had been acts of near-suicide.  Today, that’s gone.  Your body doesn’t hurt like it did just a few days before.  Even yesterday’s shadow pain – more muscle memory than real pain – isn’t there.  It’s like the old days, pre-injury.  There’s one thought that pops into your brain:

I’m cured!

This is the worst part of an injury.  You’re not cured.  You’re fooling yourself into thinking that folding your body into a car is the same as swinging a Louisville Slugger at a 97 mph squiggly fastball.  You think that because you can brush your teeth, you can suddenly throw a 97 mph squiggly fastball (when you never broke 89 mph before).  Since shaking a box of Fruit Loops into a porcelain bowl didn’t hurt, you can now toss your body against an outfield wall, slide headfirst into first base, or engage in a brawl near the pitcher’s mound like you’ve always done.  The worst part of an injury is deceiving yourself, emotionally bowling over reality with a new package of extra strength denial, and airing out the arm or hacking away in the cage when you’re not ready.

Here’s where players can make their injuries worse.  Here’s where certain “setbacks” are alluded to be a team spokesman.  “Edgardo had a setback while running today.  We’ll take a look in a few days and see how he’s feeling.”  In other words, Edgardo woke up feeling like a million bucks.  He’s young, so his desire to earn a million bucks (times 5 or 10) ASAP tricked him into thinking he was all better.  He got to the park early, made sure nobody on the coaching staff, none of the trainers, not one teammate, was looking, and he did his thing.  He sprinted from home to first base.  Only, since he had only healed to the point that driving himself to the ballpark didn’t hurt anymore, he didn’t make it to first base.  He tried pulling up 20 feet short of 90 and fell.  Because a trainer or an assistant to an assistant GM turned at just the right time to see this fool fall, he didn’t have to get up on his own.  And guess what?  The next day, it hurt like hell to get into that Porsche 911 (he almost dialed 9-1-1 at one point).

You like to think maturity helps keep a lid on reality as the years go by.  But contract status has a lot to do with how “mature” a player can be.  In the third year of a five-year deal?  No need to push it.  The doctors will greenlight me.  But, if you’re on a year-to-year career trajectory and the season is winding down, you need to show them.  Who?  Anyone with a checkbook.  You need to show them that you’re a quick healer or that you can play at less than 100% and still be effective.  You need them to know you’re a gamer.  You convince yourself that you’re suddenly fine because you need a deal for 2010, if anything, for the medical benefits.  Rather than listen to the doctor who told you you’re still a few weeks, or a month, or a couple of months away from beginning baseball activities again, you use your index of cereal bowl indicators to convince yourself that you know more than any M.D.  And when you feel the intense pain later that day from your self-proclaimed “test,” it’s a worse feeling than when the injury happened in the first place.  You know you’ve just lost another week or two or three with your stupidity.  Or you know, deep down, that you hurt something else.  You didn’t listen and now you suffer the consequences.

Next time you hear the prognosis on a guy playing for your favorite team, pray very hard to the Baseball Gods that he listens to his doctor.  Use your witchcraft or voodoo dolls to make sure he sticks to the prescribed comeback regimen.  Because if he falls for self-deception that one sunny morning, when the OJ with some pulp tastes amazing because it didn’t hurt to pour it into the big cup, he’s going to test himself and will soon know what the worst part of his injury is.  His own bullheaded stupidity.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

Yet, there’s the other side.  While some guys can’t wait to get away from their well-paid group of “friends” who either weren’t paid enough or weren’t worth their paychecks, hence the going home after game 162, there are some guys who don’t want to go home.  Why?  You’ve heard phrases like Life begins at 40, right?  For ballplayers, Live begins at home once the season ends.  In other words, the responsibility of thinking basically only about yourself every day ends abruptly.  Now you need to think about the wife or live-in girlfriend and the kids.  The younger guys might end up going home to where their parents live; maybe not the same house, but likely the same town.  Since most kids aren’t buddy/buddy with their folks, and since most Thanksgiving dinners are not the stuff of a Norman Rockwell painting, most MLB kids do not look forward to seeing Mom & Dad every day for the next 5 months.

For some players, there’s surgery.  Read the Notes section a day or two after the last game of the season and you’ll see this player and that player are suddenly scheduled for some sort of surgery, ranging from minor to Six Million Dollar Man rebuilding, the kind that you’ll hear about as spring training begins and ends and our Six Million Dollar Man is wearing jeans every day instead of a jock.  If you’ve ever had surgery, any kind of surgery, it’s not fun.  Some guys know already they’ll have to go under the knife the first or second week of October.  Some guys know but are in denial about it, just like they’ve been in denial about how bad their team is, and will continue to be, in order to get to this point in the season.  Some guys just think they’re sore right now and are in for quite a surprise once they take that exit physical.  And then the fun of the off season, of not having to travel all the time or live in a hotel half the time or hang out with a band of jerks most of the time or get badgered by the media the times when you screw up doesn’t really matter because you’re going to spend much of your upcoming time rehabbing.  If you lust for the upcoming 5 months, surgery is like a cold shower.

The upcoming off season isn’t really an off season for some players.  Some are going to fly to Arizona or Hawaii or Mexico or Central America and keep playing.  There’s the Arizona Fall League for the game’s more elite prospects and the Caribbean League for those who either come from that part of the world or need to get better at their game.  Some will keep playing because they simply love to play baseball.  They grew up playing ball all year round.  Why stop just because they’re adults?  Others live for the Caribbean League because they are stars down there.  Even if they’re not big shots in the States, they may be legends-in-the-making south of our borders.  There are always fans willing to pay to scream your name.  There are always ladies will to whisper your name in your ear.  There is always the pull of fame and its perks.  When the MLB season ends, the fun for some has just begun.

Finally, there are the guys who are going to spend the entire off season either being courted by teams and sponsors – your elite free agents – or guys doing the courting – your 25th man free agents.  These are the guys who will feel the stress of looking for work starting 15 days after the last game of the World Series.  Some guys will love the process.  It’ll be their Caribbean League equivalent, getting loved and cheered by front office executives, media personnel and fans in cities you could love if the money is right.

Other players will hate the process.  There’s either the stress of squeezing as much money as possible in a bad economy from the winning bidder and then living up to your new billing as The Next Big Thing or there’s the stress of your phone not ringing.  There’s that stress of knowing your agent is working to get 28 other guys jobs before he gets to you.  Which means the available jobs won’t be as lucrative as you had dreamed, or the city you’ll have to settle for isn’t on a coast, or you might be insulted by not getting any offers until Christmas and New Year’s and MLK Day and Valentine’s Day pass you by.  There’s the stress of waiting and wondering why you skipped playing in Puerto Rico this off season when you could have been showing off your skills instead of protecting yourself from possible injury.  Add in that you potentially don’t like your wife (or she doesn’t like you), your parents bug you every day, and, quite frankly, you don’t have anything to do and suddenly miss the camaraderie of hanging out with a bunch of jerks all the time and you’ll begin to long for the end of the off season.  Soon enough, you’ll find yourself telling people you can’t wait for 2010, when The New Season Cometh and you can get away from the reality of a cold winter without baseball.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

In the film, the owner wanted to move to Miami not as much as she felt they had a better chance to win there, but because she was a former nightclub dancer and thought Miami was a nicer place to live than Cleveland (she inherited the team after her husband died).  She is the story’s villain, but, as owner of her team, she had the right to desire to move it.  Losing every game possible was her wish and, even though it was opposite of what the Cleveland players and fans wanted, her right as owner of the team.  Whether her reasons were exactly dignified don’t matter.  An owner of a team has a right to do what he/she wants.

In real life, team movement is a rarity in MLB, even though we just saw the Montreal Expos move to Washington DC not too long ago.  But if you follow the money, as any team owner wants to do, you’ll see wins and losses correlate.

Which brings us to a quandary for a team like the New York Mets.  Should they win or should they lose?  They are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.  The purpose of the team winning more games this year would be to keep fans coming to a brand new stadium, Citifield, giving them hope for next year, thus leading to, at the least, flat ticket sales with 2009.  Plus, if you’re into psychology, a 10-game September winning streak could help this year’s players who will be on the team in 2010 believe more in their personal and team abilities to win it all next season.

There’s a reason why losing could help the team.  A big reason.  If the Mets continue to lose games at the rate they’ve been losing in the second half, they’ll have a strong chance at “earning” a Top 5 amateur draft pick next June.  Put aside the (strong) possibility that they’d make a bad choice with that pick.  The fact is, a Top 5 pick in Round 1 (and subsequent rounds) could help infuse an ailing farm system with (again, if they pick well) top talent, either creating inexpensive talent for the big club in a few years or quality talent to trade for established stars (i.e. the 2011/2012 Roy Halladay equivalent).  Losing games now gives the organization more flexibility down the road.

So should they win or should they lose?  Let’s follow the money and see if it makes the decision for us.

Losing every game now has a payoff, but its years down the line.  While the team could, in theory, reap the benefits of top minor league talent from the draft, they’d have to pay for it next year.  Is hope worth $3 million to $5 million for an 18 or 21-year old Top 5 ”prospect”?  Suppose the prospect doesn’t live up to expectations talent-wise or gets hurt before making it to the big leagues or getting traded.  That’s money down the tubes.  That’s the end of your hope.

Losing now doesn’t help the now or the next season.  Losing now will bring further media criticism on the entire organization.  With ownership not known to be a group of men with thick skins, can GM Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel survive a 5 and 14 slide in the final 19 games?  Unless the team can completely turn around in 2010, neither man will be around when next year’s Top 5 draft pick bears fruit.  There’s no incentive for these two to want to lose.  They’re going to make every effort to go 19-0 before their season ends.

Ownership is in the quandary.  They have suffered through an embarrassing year, both on and off (Madoff, Bernazard) the field.  There were championship dreams when Citifield was unveiled at the end of March.  Those dreams still exist, just not for this year.  If you owned the Mets, what would you want?  It’s not an easy decision.

Built into the decision-making process is not just the psyche of the fans and players now and the need to sell as many tickets as possible next year, which would bring in more concession revenue, more SNY network (through commercials) revenue, more merchandise sale revenue.  But those future revenues are based upon next season’s team.  The budget for next season has to be made and enacted before a dime of revenue for 2010 is earned.  Based upon this season, do you cut next year’s budget (rumor has it they will)?  Do you keep your budget flat?  Do you increase the budget for minor league operations, allowing for the increased expected expenditures for higher draft picks?  If you do this, is it at the expense of the parent club, the one fans pay to see?  Are you hurt even more if your team loses so much in September that you’re forced to fire your GM and manager to save face, continuing to pay their contracts in 2010 while bringing on new individuals to run the field operations?  And are you realizing that, with the firing of manager and GM, you’re also firing a coaching staff and many of your GM’s “guys”?  Does that mean your new hires will be hired based more on their paychecks than talent?

It’s not a simple decision.  For ownership, there’s always a balancing act between now and the future, between making money and winning games.  For a team like the 2009 New York Mets, losing now may bring in incrementally more revenues in a few years.  But since there’s no Major League option of moving the team to Miami, they’re going to have to get through 2010 and 2011 first.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

This isn’t just a sprint of teams trying to make the final eight.  It’s also a sprint of September call-ups, injured (former) stars and desperate role players all jockeying for a spot on the 2010 roster.  Whose roster?  It really doesn’t matter.  To be on a Major League team is Goal #1.  To have a say in which team?  Like the commercial says: Priceless.

Think of a guy like Carlos Delgado of the Mets.  His contract runs out on October 3rd.  Rather than receive an extension, he’ll be looking for work.  A hip injury put him on the DL in May, and just as he was about to come back to the field, an oblique injury put a stop to that.  A guy like Delgado needs a couple weeks to prove he’s worth an investment by some team for 2010.  Barring recovery in the next 30-ish days, he might be one of those guys you read about in January, trying out for scouts on some back Puerto Rican ballfield.

Lefty Ron Mahay of the Twins has been healthy this year.  The problem is he hasn’t been great, or at least that’s what his statistics say.  Ineffective in Kansas City, he was designated for assignment and released, going from a last place, underperforming Royals team, to an AL Central contender.  Ron’s performance during the next month will either raise his value to another multi-year, multi-million dollar contract or a floater getting picked up just as camps begin in February.

Then there’s a guy like Paul Byrd, who took the majority of 2009 off because, well, he wanted to.  When he decided he did want to come back, the Red Sox signed him.  His first start was six innings of shutout ball.  What’s September mean to him?  It means a Wild Card October and one more shot at a World Series he’s never reached after 3 Championship Series appearances.  But even more than that, Paul Byrd’s September is one more opportunity to see if he wants to play next year or follow through on his most-of-2009 sit -out and retire for good.

There are more stories like these, many of players only the hardcore or fantasy baseball fans know about.  But they’re out there, taking early BP, watching extra video, or doing some extra pre-game warning track wind sprints.  Because the season’s winding down and there’s no time left for marathon training.  Just playing hard and making the most of these last 30 days.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook

But…

I don’t like it.  I am in total, unequivocal favor of a salary cap for draftees.  Isn’t that ironic?  The players have been fighting against a salary cap for years, like in 1994 when the strike took away the World Series (sorry Expos fans), and now I’m saying put a cap on the amateurs.  Ironic, but sensible.  Here’s why.  If I’m on a Major League roster, it took me years to get there.  Chances are good I was signed out of high school or college and then spent between 2 and 5 years in the minor leagues, paying my dues and learning the game at a level I never came close to before I signed.  Then I finally got my call up and heard the whining from management (which you may or may not have heard in the media, depending upon who’s doing the whining) about lack of funds.  In other words, I want them to spend their money on me in the off season.  I don’t want that money to be gone because they spent it all in the draft, going above their budgetary expectations.

Accountants out there are saying, “Jimmy, that’s just it.  Teams have different budgets.  They have their draft budget and they have their player payroll budget and they have their budgets for other operations, etc.  You’re not affected by their signings.”

To which I respond, somewhat thoughtfully, balderdash.  The revenue comes in and streams to each budget.  If they realize they keep going over budget to sign amateurs, then they’re going to allocate more money to the draft and less somewhere else, like, to the guys on the 40-man roster.

That’s where it affects me directly.

The NBA has a rookie salary cap.  That’s a different league, where college is like their minor leagues.  We don’t need a rookie salary cap in baseball.  An overall amateur salary cap is sufficient.

What would be important is the loopholes.  There are probably many of them in this plan.  Think like Scott Boras dealing with this cap.  “Okay, I’m suddenly constricted to what I can get for my guy as an amateur.  Do I have every one of my guys hold out, play one professional game with an independent team, and now, since they’re technically professionals, have I gone around the cap?”  But, Scott, since they now can’t go back to school (most guys are drafted after high school, when they can use going to college as leverage, or after their junior years of college, when they can use going back for their senior year as leverage), have you lost your leverage?  To which Scott says, “Not with Stephen Strasberg.  Not with David Price.  The top guys are going to get top bucks, and I’ll have all the leverage in the world because these guys are the best young talent in the country.  They can change the fortunes of an organization overnight.  Wait and see.”  My guess is most teams have to wait a little longer than overnight.

The point is, MLB players who have done their time in the minors and now live year-to-year in the bigs, or are fortunate enough to earn multi-year contracts, want the pool of funds for them to be as rich as possible.  If that pool is limited because of allocations toward young kids who haven’t put in the sweat and time and effort that you have, you’re not going to want to share it with them.  You’ve made it to the big leagues.  You know there are plenty of “bonus babies” throughout MLB history who never got out of A-ball.  Why should a team gamble “your” potential money on an unsure thing, when you’re right there under their noses, playing your heart out; when you’ve been a member of the union for a few years, literally paying them dues?

If you drive home one day and see a house two doors down for sale, you want that house to get as much as possible so that it raises the value of your home.  In this regard, players like other players similar to them to get paid lots of money, because it can make it easier for them to get paid lots of money.  The players’ market values are worth relatively the same.  But from a Major League player perspective, they’d rather that “relative” money go directly to the guys on the roster who are playing, not the ones who still pop pimples before going out on a Saturday night date.

I should add that this cap will never happen.  Why?  The owners will taste blood.  The seal has been broken on Pandora’s Box.  If the players agreed to this cap, maybe they’ll agree to a cap on rookies too.  And then a cap on pension payouts.  And then a cap on healthcare benefits.  And then a cap on…  See where it’s going?  Marvin Miller and Donald Fehr didn’t spend the last 30+ years fighting caps to suddenly instill one.  The future risks are too uncertain.

But from a simplistic, young MLB player point of view, if I were a pre-salary arbitration player on the Nationals today, I’m publicly saying congratulations to Stephen Strasberg.  And then I’m wondering where the money is going to come from to pay me next year.  That answer lies somewhere in the next six months.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

Make sense?

Life can be hard.  Baseball can be really hard.  Succeeding in baseball can be even harder.  and when you fail, you want to quit.  That’s human nature.  But… That’s where people differ.  The strong keep going; they keep trying.  The rest quit.  What’s the difference between the two groups?  Mental toughness.

Put yourself in this situation: Bottom of the ninth.  You’ve gotten two quick outs as a closer.  You’re nursing a one-run lead in a very big game.  You walk the #8 hitter on 10 pitches.  A pinch hitter comes up and smashes a first-pitch two-run home run to win the game.  You have failed.  Add to that 35,000 people saw you fail in person.  Add to that the hundreds of thousands who saw you fail on TV back in your home city.  Then throw in the media who are going to write about your failure and talk about your failure and then, at your locker, ask you about your failure.

Do you quit?  Do you run?

There are guys who hide from what happened.  They’ll go into the deep recesses of a locker room and not come out until the throng is gone.  They will feel the weight of failure, the burden of stress, the personal disappointment and it will take time for them to recover.

It is those with mental toughness, those with their heads turned on straight, who can overcome this short-term failure and understand exactly what it was: a short-term failure.  If they can understand immediately that the next night they’ll have a chance to win and make up for this night, they’ll be winning the Quitting Game.

Look back at the same example.  Remember the #8 hitter who walked on 10 pitches?  Think about his head.  He’s a #8 hitter, so that means he’s no Babe Ruth.  If he’s hitting .250, he automatically has to live with the fact that 3 out of 4 times he walks back to the bench holding his bat in his hands and holding his pride down in his chest.  This guy could have been the end of the game.  He could have gone up and let the closer beat him on 3 pitches.  But if you have a 10-pitch at bat, you’ve got two personalities battling each other.  You’ve got two guys desperate not to fail; desperate to win.  You’ve got an underdog #8 hitter who does not give up on himself, his abilities or his team.  As mentally tough as the closer needed to be in that spot, the #8 hitter had to have equal mental strength.

The pinch hitter?  He’s sat on the bench for roughly three hours watching.  He’s cold.  Sure, he’s stretched out in the hallway behind the dugout, maybe taken some hacks in the cage, but he hasn’t been playing the game at all.  He’s been a third wheel, a spectator.  Now he’s asked to insert himself and succeed.  He’s got one chance that night to not fail.  Generally, he does.  Pinch hitting is hard.  Some guys can do it and some can’t.  This guy did.  How?  His head was in the game.  And he never gave up on himself.

Former 15-year MLB catcher Brent Mayne makes a few comments about mental toughness in his most recent blog entry, Man, This Weather Sucks. Check it out.  You learn a different perspective about the mental game as it pertains to playing in weather that blows, figuratively and literally.  Brent’s main (get the pun?) lesson? “Complaining about the conditions isn’t going to help your cause. Matter of fact, it’ll take you out of the game before it ever starts. Why waste energy on a fight you’re not going to win?”

There are two fights a player can win, the game on the field and the game in their heads.  If you can beat the fear of failure and never give up on yourself, quitting won’t even become an option.  It’ll be something those other guys do.  And it’ll be the reason why you win.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.