Word: oaklanders
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...baseball's economics thrive, more teams can afford high-profile players to fill the DH spot: the Toronto Blue Jays can sign Frank Thomas, who hit 39 home runs for Oakland last season, to a two-year, $18 million contract, and Oakland can give Mike Piazza one-year, $8.5 million deal to replace him. The result is a concentration of DH talent the game has never seen before. "It's unusual," says veteran Texas Rangers scout Mel Didier. "You usually have two or three of those Hall of Fame caliber guys, but seven or eight...
...thing. It's time to stop the griping, and appreciate the DH position for featuring the game's brightest offensive talent. Though the current DHs are by no means Gold Glovers, they are no longer one-dimensional hitters. The game's current obsession with on-base percentage, driven by Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's stat-driven Moneyball methods, demands that they hit for power and average, and draw walks. "The skill that has the longest shelf life is on-base percentage," says Beane. "And the DH allows you the opportunity to continue to use that skill...
...brutal assault when he was 26 broke his neck and put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. It also helped spark a shift on the professional football field, where New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley took the intentional hit from Oakland Raider Jack Tatum during a 1978 exhibition game. Tatum, who defended his play, saying "My best hits border on felonious assault," was not penalized, never apologized and later wrote books billing himself as an "NFL assassin." Stingley visited paralyzed players, started a nonprofit group for inner-city kids and forgave Tatum. "It was only after...
...again, would you have left Saturday Night Live after only one year? -Steve Hurd, Oakland, Calif...
SEAN PENN, actor, about President George W. Bush, at a March 24 town-hall meeting in Oakland, Calif...