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The Red Sox are on strike. Or, were on strike. In fact, strike that. Everything’s been set right. Let’s fly to Japan to celebrate!

Baseball strikes are ugly. In 1994, they wiped out the end of the season and eliminated the playoffs. Many people think it caused irreparable damage to fan relations. In Montreal especially the dissatisfaction was noticeable as, following the strike, the Expos suffered through years of dismal attendance only to be sent packing for Puerto Rico and then Washington D.C.

But today a strike was a cause for celebration. The Red Sox and A’s are scheduled to play their first games of the regular season in Japan on March 25 and 26. For the disruption, Major League Baseball had agreed to pay each of the players an extra $40,000. But players were upset to learn that their coaches weren’t going to be given the same bonus. So they went on strike, refusing to take the field for their final spring training game in sunny Florida and threatening not to board a plane to The Land of the Rising Sun today.
The standoff lasted about an hour when MLB caved to player demands and agreed to pay the members of the coaching staffs $20,000 each. The Red Sox organization will supply the other half of the money to its coaches.

This is a feel-good story about overpaid athletes standing up for not-as-overpaid coaches. I guess these professionals are probably getting by just fine without an extra $20,000 but they are part of the baseball team and should be treated with respect by everyone, especially the sport’s central administration. To do otherwise for less than $500,000 (about what it would have cost to put up the 40 grand for each coach) is a foolish decision.

The lesson here is that teamwork gets things done. And it’s a good sign for the Red Sox that their players care so much about the coaching staff. This is a talented and unified club. That will be a difficult combination to beat this year.

When I read about the on the field fight last week between the Rays and Yankees, I was in shock. This was Spring Training. You don’t fight during Spring Training. That’s crazy.

It all began with a play at the plate. This is easily one of the most violent moments in professional sport. A catcher stands at home waiting to receive the ball from his fielders while a runner barrels in toward him. For the catcher, the hope is that he’ll get the ball in time and tag the runner. For the base runner, the hope is that he’ll either get home before the ball or, in the alternative, knock the ball loose by colliding with his opponent full bore. It’s not a play people relish; no one wants to blindside a defenseless person. But it is a necessary and accepted situation. It happens time and again because that is how the game is played, with maximum intensity.

But Joe Girardi, the new Yankees manager, criticized a Rays player for overrunning a Yankee catcher and breaking the catcher’s wrist. Giraridi’s position? This was Spring Training and there was no reason to play that hard in Spring Training.

To which I thought, isn’t Spring Training the place where young careers, like those of both the runner and the catcher involved in the collision, are made? Shouldn’t unproven players whose hope is to finally make the Major Leagues play as hard as they’ve ever played, if not harder? Shouldn’t their goal be to impress with both their abilities and their hardnosed hustle? These are their careers, after all. Would it have been acceptable for the Yankees’ catcher to have backed away from the play because “it’s only Spring Training” and he doesn’t want to get hurt? Hell no. Girardi’s position just doesn’t make sense.

But the craziest part of the affair happened four days later when a fight broke out. Girardi’s childish wining, about an unfortunate but appropriate play, emboldened his players to act like kids too. Shelley Duncan, a first baseman for the Bronx Bombers, took it upon himself to slide into Rays Second Baseman Akinori Iwamura with spikes held high. Of course this ludicrous action sparked an on-the-field brawl and the league meted out punishments all around.

Now Duncan is appealing his three-game suspension. Why can’t he just take his deserved penalty like a man?

No doubt these un-pleasantries will continue during the regular season, and that is a shame. Girardi should demand that his team not retaliate further. That won’t happen, of course. And now that we’ve seen what an explosive personality he can be, expect an entertaining series of public addresses this season as Girardi tangles with the rabid New York media.

There was no joy in Dodgertown, where the gates were closed for the last time on Monday. A storied Spring Training facility, the park had hosted Dodgers greats and historic baseball figures like Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax. Fans traveled to Vero Beach for decades to appreciate the last link between the Brooklyn Dodgers and their subsequent Los Angeles incarnation.

On St. Patrick’s Day, that cord was finally cut with the completion of the final home preseason game for the ’08 Dodgers, an ugly 12-10 loss. Next season the Dodgers will take up residence in a new facility in Glendale, Az.

With no lakes to enjoy or trolleys to dodge, Los Angeles is a place that has primarily benefited from the uprooting of sports traditions. And the move to the Cactus League makes good sense from an economic point of view. Loyal hometown fans will be more likely to make a trip to Arizona to witness team preparations next March. But when traditions are altered, especially in an institution as laden with legacy and legend as baseball, there is always sadness. For good or worse, baseball fans have a very personal relationship with the sport and changes in that interaction can lead to heartbreak.  That was very much the case with many of the Dodgertown faithful.

On the occasion of Dodgertown’s passing, I link to four stories about its last day, from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, ESPN.com and NPR.org. There is also a video attached to the New York Times article that includes some nice fan reactions. It’s hard to imagine the effect of baseball on its fans until you see them speak for themselves.

You heard it here first: Tampa Bay is going to win the World Series. Eventually.

But they are off to a blazing start, compiling a 7-2 record and jumping to the top of the Grapefruit League standings.

Everyone knows that Spring Training doesn’t count. Eventual World Series champs, the Red Sox, were wedged uncomfortably in sixth place by the end of Grapefruit League play last year. And Detroit, a team which dominated the preseason circuit a year ago, completed the regular season eight games behind division rival Cleveland.

But they still play the games. Managers and GMs still make critical decisions based on what they see during these tune-up events. Fans still attend the contests and hound stars and up-and-comers alike for autographs.

So I pay attention too. And I like what I see coming out of Tampa Bay. After an infusion of young and very young pitching talent, the team is finally making its presence felt among its peers. Scott Kazmir and James Shields are now receiving the assistance of truly talented peers like Matt Garza and explosive favorite David Price (who struck out three batters in his first inning of work yesterday). I think it’s a safe assumption that the ’08 Rays will not be last in the league in most major pitching stats, as they were in 2007. And the effect of that circumstance alone cannot be underestimated.

The team as a whole is fourth in Grapefruit League play in runs allowed per game. This has enabled them to have the third-highest run differential in the Florida-based league. If this trend can be carried into the regular season you can expect a significant improvement out of Tampa this season.

Not enough to overwhelm the Yanks or Sox (yet) but enough to make their presence felt.

Kudos to those scrappy Rays for showing their new—and, many in that Tampa/St. Pete region hope, true—colors.

Word has reached the press that the Texas Rangers, a perennial disappointment in the AL West, have already thrown in the towel on the whole season. It’s sad but true. They’ve signed Sir Sidney Ponson to a minor league deal and invited him to camp.

Let’s tally up the stats: Ponson last played in the majors on May 12, 2007—not because he was ailing but because his team couldn’t stand getting blown out in the games he started. Ponson is listed at ESPN.com as 6’1” 258 lbs and that ain’t muscle folks. Ponson hasn’t had an ERA below five since 2003. In that time, Ponson has accumulated 36 losses while only pitching in 79 games, no mean accomplishment. He has also racked up at least a couple of DUI charges in the meanwhile.

I had a journalism professor mention that the better the publication that hires you, the more willing you should be to work for a pittance. He used The New Yorker as an example of the sort of magazine for which you might work gladly on a discounted rate. I quipped to my friends that I’d pay David Remnick if he’d just let me get his coffee.

Kidding aside, I think it’s important to invoke the David Remnick Rule in Ponson’s case. No salary is low enough to take this guy on. He ought to be paying the Rangers instead. No word yet on whether that’s the arrangement.

But Ponson does prove one thing that pleases the dreamer in me: You might be just a few DUIs away from a knighthood.

If you thought losing a seven-game lead with 17 games to go hurt, try heading back to spring training the next year. The Mets are discovering daily that getting in shape for the season can be a painful proposition.

They’ve accumulated a long list of injured or inactive players. Here is a list of notable players who are still nursing ailments:

1. Alou
2. Beltran
3. Delgado
4. Schneider
5. Church
6. Anderson
7. Gotay
8. Easley
9. Hernandez
10. Sanchez
11. Castillo

It’s luck for the Metropolitans that the season is still a few weeks away because this is a talented list of players. Their depleted squad sure as heck wouldn’t have an 8-4 record if they were facing major league-caliber opposition.

But how do you get ready for the regular season when a substantial portion of your ballclub can’t participate in exhibition games? That’s the quandary facing the Mets right now and some New York-based sportscasters are already discussing the idea that the Mets might start “slow” out of the gate (“slow” being a sports euphemism for lousy).

In general it’s too early to sound the alarm. Not a single meaningful game has been played yet. But after obtaining the best pitcher in the game, Johan Santana, in an effort to erase the embarrassment of last year, this under-performing Mets squad doesn’t need any extra pressure.

Just don’t give in and pick up Barry Bonds as Buster Olney has advocated. There couldn’t be a more expensive or distracting liability.

So Mark Prior is back at it in sunny San Diego. Or so reports Gene Wojciechowski on ESPN.com. Will he finally make it back to form and dominate the league as the Cubs had hoped when they drafted in with the No. 2 pick back in 2001?

A return to the mild Southern California climate and the opportunity for a fresh start with a new team has got to be just what the doctor ordered for the 27-year-old pitcher. I’m impressed with how well he seems to be handling the pressure of repeated disappointments at the major league level.

I really do want to see him rise again. So it is with ambivalence that I reveal my gripe. A few weeks ago he scorned me when I requested an interview.

I didn’t exactly expect Mark Prior to jump at the chance to be interviewed by an unknown reporter, but did think he’d be able to give me an answer in a timely manner. That was a mistake. It took six days to get this ambiguous response from his agent’s secretary:

Hello [My name, which was included in my email, misspelled],

Mark sends his apologizes for not responding to your request a lot quicker. I am sure you know that this time of year Mark along with a lot of our other players have been pretty busy getting ready for the new season.

Wish you lots of luck with your article!

Have a wonderful day!

I had to take a poll of my friends as to whether this was a rejection. The consensus was yes.

Why can’t you simply tell me you are not willing? Why not get back to me in a timely manner? What does Mark getting ready for the new season have to do with my interview request? I’m busy myself. Do I think he cares about that? Of course not. Is he too busy to be polite?

Keep working hard Mark, but don’t scorn those of us who want to see you succeed.

It’s spring, at least in Florida and Arizona, and baseball players have once again taken on the optimistic task of reinventing themselves. Mark DeRosa went so far as to have his heart repaired. But in a lesser effort at renovation, a couple of pitchers debuted new pitches this past week.

Daisuke Matsuzaka, the $103-million Red Sox import of a year ago, dedicated himself to the use of a two-seam fastball for this season. In the AP article, the usual plaudits were in order for spring work.  It that J.D. Drew missed three consecutive Matsuzaka pitches on Wednesday. But if last season is any indication, that was merely a sign that the Red Sox are still overpaying for their right fielder.

Dice-K should probably be working on consistency more than complicating his pitch selection. If he can control the pitches he already throws for an extended stretch this summer, he’ll be devastating. But I can’t discount the possibility that Matsuzaka’s first priority is to enable Joe Morgan to make the term “cutter” the most used word on ESPN this summer.

Meanwhile, Chien-Ming Wang announced on Sunday his intention to begin throwing a changeup. The story on the ESPN.com seemed to imply that Wang was encouraged to take up this pitch by Dave Eiland, the Yankees’ pitching coach. My concern for Wang, who was the best pitcher on the Yanks’ staff last season, is that this addition could disrupt his already-successful method.

As they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. A pitcher is a fragile thing, just ask Rick Ankiel.

The New York Mets are suffering from a terrible combination of high expectations and residual embarrassment from their historic collapse late last season. The news was good this off-season with the signing of my erstwhile favorite pitcher in the game, Johan Santana. And commentators are drooling over a rotation featuring young talent like John Maine and Oliver Perez anchored by two Cy Young winners. But when you’re a popular pre-season pick for NL East champion, the only place to go is down.

Cue Carlos Delgado, or rather his hip. Delgado experienced discomfort in his right hip yesterday and has been dispatched back to the Big Apple for an MRI to determine the severity of the injury. As is common in these cases, officials with the club have been downplaying the seriousness of the situation. The AP quotes Omar Minaya, the Mets GM, as saying, “I just don’t expect [the injury time] to be extended.”

But you have to wonder when the injury requires a trip from Florida to New York and an MRI. Of course the Mets are being cautious because they don’t want a player of Delgado’s talent exacerbating an injury sustained this early. If that were to happen, he might be hampered by it the entire season. Still why not prescribe some rest and physical rehabilitation? They must have some concern that they’re not admitting.

I hope, for Mets fans, this isn’t the first in a series of disappointments in 2008. I’m not sure they could survive it.

The injury bug didn’t take long to strike some unfortunate ballplayers in the first week of Spring Training. Here is a couple of situations that interested me:

Brad Lidge, a major pick up for the Phillies in the offseason, was destined to anchor the Philadelphia bullpen this season. It was an infusion of talent meant to allow Brett Myers to return to the rotation and keep the aged Tom Gordon from becoming the stopgap closer once again. That dream expired after one batting practice pitch Saturday. Lidge reportedly caught his spike on the mound as he threw and felt a pain in his knee. This is the same knee that doctors operated on last October. Now it looks like he’ll be going under the knife once again to repair this new injury on Monday. The estimate is that he’ll be out between three and six weeks.

In situations like this at the beginning of the season when hopes are high for every club and the beautiful spring sunshine promises renewal and rejuvenation, it’s common for teams to underestimate the time needed for recovery from an injury like this. Surgery is a major event and recovery takes time. My guess is Lidge will not pitch in the majors until at least mid-May. And that’s if he’s lucky.

Mark DeRosa had to be taken off the field Saturday after suffering from an irregular heartbeat. Team trainers examined him, and he was brought to an Arizona hospital for monitoring and kept overnight. The hospital released him Sunday, according to team officials. Apparently DeRosa has suffered from this condition in the past.

On a serious note, I wish DeRosa the best and pray that this condition will prove to be harmless.

More lightheartedly, it’s good to see that he’s still got a passion for the game. Why else would it set his heart aflutter?