What exit? Yes, It’s the Jersey Turnpike World Series!

1985: The Cardinals and the Royals meet in an all-Missouri matchup, and it’s the I-70 World Series.

1989: The Giants and Athletics endure an earthquake to play in the Bay Bridge Series.

2000: The Bronx Bombers rumble with the Metropolitans of Queens in an all-NYC Subway Series.

This is 2009, Yankees versus Phillies, and there’s only one possible name for it: The Jersey Turnpike World Series!

It’s time the Garden State gets its due with a World Series of its own. New Jersey connects Manhattan’s George Washington Bridge in the north to Philadelphia’s Ben Franklin Bridge in the south. In between, millions of baseball fans from area codes 201, 609, 732, 908, 973, et al. are passionate the Yankees, Phillies or (rarely) both. From the Delaware Water Gap to Cape May, the people of New Jersey will be watching these games intently.

So come on, America. Recognize this series for what it is: A celebration of New Jersey!

Pedro’s back in the winning column

It was good to see Pedro Martinez back on the mound today. He got the victory as the Phillies defeated the Cubs at Wrigley Field 12-5. Pedro has worn a lot of caps over the years – Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and – I’d forgotten this — Los Angeles Dodgers. Any innings he puts in the for the Phils will be a boost to the defending World Champions, and any more victories will be a bonus.

Of “Seinfeld” and baseball caps

The TV rerun gods were in a generous mood last night, enabling me to catch a Seinfeld rerun of “The Letter,” the episode in which Elaine twice causes a ruckus at a Yankees’ game by wearing an Orioles cap while sitting in the owners’ box seats. (Sorry,  I can’t figure out how to embed the TBS clip, so the link will have to do.)

“Seinfeld” was one of the best baseball-aware TV shows of all-time, especially when George went to work for the Yankees and George Steinbrenner. One of my favorite episodes is “The Hot Tub.” George is assigned to entertain visiting executives from the Houston Astros,  a bunch of good ol’ boys who call each other bastards and sons-of-bitches. George soon picks up the patter.

So a tip o’ the cap to Jerry and Elaine and George and Kramer and the whole Seinfeld gang for making the national pastime an integral part of the show’s enduring legacy.

The Bay Bridge series: Athletics vs. Giants

I’m on vacation for a week, and I celebrated by watching the San Francisco Giants host the Oakland Athletics in their first interleague games of the season.

I wish I had one of those A’s-Giants combo caps that were available during the 1989 Bay Bridge World Series, the one that was interrupted by the Loma Prieta Earthquake.  A good friend back east still has his, but I can’t even find a photo of one. This ersatz Giants’ cap in the A’s green and gold will have to do.

The San Francisco Bay area is the only market where a twin logo cap could exist. In New York, would any fan of either the Yankees or Mets want to share space on the crown with the other team’s NY? No way.

In Chicago, would a Cubs or Sox fan tolerate such? Never.

In LA? Angels and Dodgers together? Inconceivable.

Around San Francisco Bay, fans have fierce allegiance to their team, but it’s a market that appreciates both franchises. I take the twin logo cap as a signal that Bay Area people are true fans of the game, recognizing the value of both the American and National leagues.

(The Giants won tonight on a 3-0 shutout by Tim Lincecum. I was rooting for the Giants.)

Can a fantasy sports team wreck your love of baseball?

Late in tonight’s ballgame between the Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays, slugging Carlos Pena came up with two men on and a chance to break a scoreless tie and give the Rays the victory. I was listening to the game on the car radio on  my way home from work, and I faced a deep philosophical choice.

Carlos Pena

Do I pull for Pena, one of the stalwarts on one of my fantasy baseball teams? Or do I root for the A’s, a team I’ve followed as my “home team” for most of the past two decades?

I stuck with the A’s, who – amazingly – retired Pena, pushed the game into extra innings and won it in the 11th with a rare outburst of four runs.

I’m a casual fantasy player, and oddly I seem to fare worst in baseball, the sport I played the most and know the best. Maybe that somehow underscores the tussle in my psyche between pulling for a real team versus a fake one. Or maybe I just suck at fantasy baseball.

I do wonder how the ballplayers react when a fan at a road game comes up and says: “Dude, I’ve got you on my fantasy team. You gotta start hitting.”

What cheek.

When I was a kid – and I’m just old enough to remember the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators as expansion teams – I could recite the starting lineups of the American League teams. I had a fair knowledge of the National League lineups, too. With 30 teams in the leagues today, and with players changing uniforms multiple times over a career, it’s awfully tough to keep track. (Fernando Tatis is still playing, and he’s a Met???)

But trolling the fantasy baseball stats helps me know who’s where in real time, better than the stacks of Topps baseball cards I used to sort meticulously team by team. Managing fantasy hockey teams has certainly deepened my knowledge of the stars and muckers of that great sport, and for that I’m grateful. In fact, it was the EA Sports NHL video games that really helped me get a handle on the players and teams when my interest in hockey surged back full-tilt.

Is fantasy baseball pure and true? No, not even close. But how can anything that brings you a deeper understanding and appreciation for a sport be bad?

Jeff Kent: Hero or villain?

Jeff Kent announced his retirement from professional baseball today, ending an outstanding career as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kent has always brought out mixed feelings in me, and a lot of memories were dredged up today as I heard the morning guys on KNBR radio in San Francisco talking about him.

I first noticed Kent when he was playing for the New York Mets, and I considered him a hack. Why — who knows? I never saw him play anywhere but on TV, and only rarely.  I had no rational basis on which to form an opinion.

Kent came to San Francisco by way of Cleveland in a stunner of a trade for Matt Williams, who at the time was one of my favorite Giants.  So I didn’t exactly warm to Kent right away.

But what a run he had with the Giants. As Murph and Mac pointed out on KNBR, the Giants went from losers to winners as soon as he arrived, which didn’t happen when Barry Bonds came to The City a few seasons earlier. The team hasn’t been the same since Kent left. Of course, he left and later ended up with the hated Dodgers, and every time I’d see him in Dodger blue I’d seethe with rage.

For any good reason? Not at all. But as a Giants fan, I figure my DNA requires that I hate anybody wearing Dodger blue, especially somebody who turned on the Giants. And especially somebody as talented as Kent, who always seemed to get a key hit and wreck whatever the momentum the Giants had.

Now, in the middle of winter, I’m taking a mellower, more rational approach. What entitles us sports fans to decide that any particular player is a hero or villain? We don’t know these athletes, and the closest most of us will ever get is brushing past them as they walk off the field at the end of a game while we head from the cheap seats to the parking lot.

Kent was a fine player. Who am I to begrudge him getting a better deal for himself and his family by leaving the Giants for the Dodgers, or any team for another?

Here’s wishing Jeff Kent well in his retirement from playing. Whether in the role of hometown hero or archrival villain, he added to my enjoyment of baseball. His play is worthy of the Hall of Fame, in my judgment, and I hope he gets elected.

As for whether he should go into the hall with an “LA” or “SF” on his cap, don’t push me. I haven’t quite fully forgiven his move to Chavez Ravine.

Which cap for Rickey in the Hall of Fame?

Players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame no longer get to choose which cap they’ll be depicted wearing in the bronze plaque that enshrines them. There’s no question that Jim Rice, who played his entire career for Boston, will be wearing a Red Sox cap.

But what about Rickey Henderson? In a 25-year major league career, he played for the Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, San Diego Padres, Anaheim Angels, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers.

If there’s any debate, it’s between the A’s and the Yankees. He spent several years with each of those teams and only a season or two at most with the others. For me, there’s no question he should be enshrined as a member of the A’s, with whom he spent roughly half his career.

I think if you ask the average baseball fan what team Henderson played for, most fans would say “A’s” first.

I was fortunate to see Henderson tie Lou Brock’s single-season stolen base record at Milwaukee County Stadium in 1982. While I missed the next game, at which he broke the record, I got to cover a news conference he had the next morning.

While he always impressed me with his speed and hustle as a young player, I found him even more impressive in his 40s as he tried to hang on in the big leagues. He was playing Atlantic League ball for the Newark Bears when I last saw him on the field. It was in either 2003 or 2004 when I saw him get tossed out of a game against the Somerset Patriots for mouthing off to an ump.

For all his accomplishments, and his competitive fire, Rickey Henderson truly is a worthy member of the Hall of Fame.

These baseball caps freak me out

When I have some time to kill, I’ll often head over to the Major League Baseball or Minor League Baseball Web sites to salivate and dream over the ballcaps and other merchandise they offer. This morning, I decided to broaden my search and entered a Google search for baseball caps. The major cap-making companies popped right up, but I was not ready for the visual assault I received from a couple of them.

I decided to go straight to the New Era site and – POW!!! – I came face to face with an ersatz Milwaukee Brewers cap with an old-style ball-and-mitt logo in Apple Jacks green. I’d show it to you here, but 1.) it’s in a Flash module that I can’t import and 2.) I wouldn’t want to frighten you. I’ll instead show you these tiny thumbnails of other caps available from the Cooperstown Pop Colors collection.

Actually, these caps for the Cleveland Indians, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Mets look kind of cute here. But imagine them at life size. It’s as if Andy Warhol designed them after a bad acid trip.

I realize these caps are aimed at a younger, hipper (and you know I’m not hip if I use the term) crowd than a baseball traditionalist like me. Same goes for these Red Sox, Yankees and LA Dodgers caps from the Lids’ “Double Up” Major League Baseball collection:

While they’re not for me, I won’t complain if others wear them. They’re still ball caps, and showing your support for your favorite team leaves us all lots of stylistic latitude.