- Minutes before the close period May 30, the Los Angeles Angels signed 2004 first-rounder Jered Weaver to a $4-million US signing bonus pending a physical. At the all-star game, one agent said that the Jays were expected to be a player in the Weaver sweepstakes if Weaver re-entered the draft. Weaver was rated the top overall prospect by Baseball America.
'PERFECT PACE'
- John Rooney, the Chicago White Sox broadcaster is a Tom Cheek booster and feels Cheek should be the next winner of the Ford Frick Award.
"His voice is pleasant and he has the perfect pace for a baseball game," said Rooney, a veteran of 21 years of broadcasting with CBS, the Minnesota Twins and the Sox. "Tom will always be one of my favourite broadcasters."
MUST READS
- Two great books for your baseball collection:
How About That! The Life of Mel Allen, by Stephen Borelli. We grew up listening to Allen's Yankees home run calls "and there's another Ballantyne Blast." Allen worked 24 major league all-star games and often visited his maternal grandparents in Detroit when as a boy he saw Babe Ruth play and worked selling soda. He was fired after one day for watching too much baseball, which was good for the Yanks and baseball.
Scout's Honor: The Bravest Way To Build A Winning Ball team, by Bill Shanks. No more can anyone write how come no one writes books about GMs like John Schuerholz, who puts together teams that can actually win a post-season series. This history of building the Braves is the anti-Money Ball to the extreme.
CUBA IN DOUBT
- Cuba is not confirmed for the World Baseball Classic since the powers that be are worried about defections. "Why should they be worried, they play international competitions all the time," said Marlins broadcaster Cookie Rojas, a Cuban native. "What I'd like to see is have us enter a team of Cubans playing in North America, but we don't have enough players."
SIGNED AND SEALED
- Mississauga RHP Chris Leroux walked off the mound in the third inning at Eddy D. Field in Malibu, Calif. in March, because the pain in his right arm wouldn't allow him to pitch. His Winthrop University Eagles were playing the Cal State Northridge. Leroux had Tommy John surgery performed by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. and didn't throw another pitch.
Yet on draft day, he was selected in the seventh round by the Florida Marlins. The Marlins signed Leroux and he will rehab in Jupiter, Fla., before resuming pitching. Leroux caught with the Mississauga North Tigers, Team Ontario and Team Canada.
