James Floto presents "THE OUTER EDGE," a weekly report on the 2001 season.

WEEK EIGHT; Memorial Weekend

Although Memorial Day is officially set aside to remember those who died in wars, for me it is a time to remember all the dead, including those in my family and those in baseball, from Babe Ruth to Willie Stargell. So, a tip of the TDA cap to all those who have gone before us.

Memorial Weekend is one of those benchmarks of the season, just as the 4th of July is more or less the half way point of the season, and the stretch drive begins on Labor Day. This week is the end of the beginning of the season; from now one you will hear no one say, "It's ok, it's still early," when their favorite team or player is struggling. It is no longer early. By next weekend, the season will be a third of the way over. (All stats in this report are through Sunday, May 27.)

The AL East finally tossed us a surprise. Although the Yanks, Boston and Toronto remain bunched at the top, none of them are playing exceptional baseball and out of nowhere here come the old, supposedly tired Baltimore Orioles. They have won 9 of 11, finally reached .500 and at the close of play on Sunday they were only 3 1/2 games out. Tampa Bay, on the other hand, has played even worse, going 3-8 through Sunday, with an anemic .286 W-L %. About all players on this club can do is play hard and hope a contender notices them.

By now we all know the 2001 Minnesota Twins are the real deal, but they slipped out of first for the first time last week. Cleveland continues playing excellent baseball, but the Twins regained their lead. On Memorial Monday, Minnesota was 32-16, while Cleveland was 31-16, a 1/2 game out. Detroit almost got it going, then lost 5 in a row, (including a three game sweep by Chicago) and fell right back to 21-26. Kansas City (18-31) continues to struggle, but the White Sox (18-29) started to get well in Detroit and are now riding a four-game win streak that began on Thursday in Toronto.

Out West, the A's continue their inexorable climb toward the top. They have won 9 of 12, (and 22 of 35) although they lost two of three to the Twins and are now 24-25. The problem is, Seattle isn't stopping for Oakland or anyone else. The Mariners continue to have by far the best record (36-12, .750) in the game. The Angels continue to wing low at 22-26 and the Rangers pitching continues to undo the efforts of A-Rod, I-Rod and Randy Velarde (.331). Velarde went on the DL last weekend with a torn hamstring. Rafael Palmeiro is having another great, quiet season, although his .250 average is a good deal below his .296 career mark. His 11 homers and 39 RBI put him on track for his 7th straight 30+ homer, 100+ RBI year. In fact, Rafael should join the 500 home run club in 2003 (he has 411 right now) and, quiet or not, is becoming a Cooperstown candidate.

The Phillies. Even a month ago I was wondering if they were going to hang in there. I will cautiously say there are, for one simple reason. It is essentially their pitching that has carried them this far (30-18, .625, best in the NL) and Abreu (.243, 7, 25), Rolen (.251, 4, 25), and the articulate, opinionated Doug Glanville (.259, 7, 17) have yet to get hot. Abreu is one of those unheralded players who gets his 2,000th hit in his 12th season and people wonder where he came from. In his first 3 full seasons, he hit .321 with an average of 173 hits per year and a .420 OBP. Rolen, of course, invites comparisons with his predecessor at third in Philly, Mike Schmidt. In four complete seasons, Scott Rolen has averaged 26 homers and 92 RBI per year. When this trio gets going, as long as starters Omar Daal (6-0, 3.57), Randy Wolf and Robert Person (both 4-4), and Amaury Telemaco (4-1, 4.99) and firemen Rickey Bottalico and Jose Mesa (14 saves) keep it going, the Phils will be in the race to the end. The big story is Daal, who in 2000 came within one loss of being the first major leaguer since 1980 to lose 20 games. Bottalico and Mesa have been pleasant surprises as well. Mesa is pitching like he did when he was a dominant closer for the Indians in the mid-'90s.

So, the Phils run things in the NL East, but the Braves are gradually climbing back. When the season began, who thought it would be noteworthy that Atlanta finally hit the .500 mark--the final week in May? Florida with their young pitchers remains respectable (22-26) and we just learned that John Boles has been replaced by Tony Perez as manager. The Mets went (5-2 ) last week, yet actually slipped a 1/2 game (9) further behind Philadelphia. The Expos, who were vying for the top spot the first few weeks, have crumbled like the roof at a well known Canadian stadium. They are 20-30 and were happy just to see .400 on Sunday night.

Ha! Last week it appeared that the Cubs were taking a nose dive, but they revived with a 7 game win streak and are now 28-20, tied with the Cards, who cooled off following a 10-game win streak , going 3-3 in Week 8. The tenacious Brewers are 18-8 in their new stadium, 7-15 on the road, 25-23 overall, only 3 out. The Astros need to stop and re-fuel after their 7 game losing streak, which dropped them from near the top to mid-pack quickly in this closely matched division. Still, they are only 4 out. The Reds continue to slump, are now 20-29, only 3 1/2 ahead of the feeble Pirates.

Despite the close races in the ALE, ALC and NLC, the closest race in baseball is in the NL West. All five teams are above .500, only 3 games separate the first place Dodgers and Diamondbacks from the last place Rockies, and every team moved up and down in the standings this week.

While the Giants starting pitching continues to keep them from breaking away from the pack, (they are currently 2 games out) Barry Bonds is certifiably insane. He hit an unprecedented 11 homers in the last 10 games, finishing Week 8 with 520 career home runs, only one behind Ted Williams and Willie McCovey. Barry has 26 homers on the year and is ahead of McGwire's 1998 pace by 5 games. Could he do it? Maybe, but he is almost a lock to have his first 50-homer season (he had a career best 49 last year).

The thing that gets my goat, however, is the media attitude, typified by ESPN's on-line story about how "we" finally are realizing how great Bonds is, especially with Griffey and McGwire on the DL and Gwynn and Ripken running out of steam. This annoys me partly because many of "we" have long since realized what a great player Bonds is, but even more because the media plays such an overstated role is creating many people's attitudes toward ballplayers. The media says Albert Belle is a bad guy, Bonds is a sulker, Canseco an egomaniacal idiot, Manny Ramirez a shy, unapproachable man, and you hear these stereotypes parroted wherever seam-heads congregate. OK, Belle was hard to get along with, but just because Bonds doesn't trust the media, they do what they can to denigrate him. Example: Last week a talking head on ESPN said that when Bonds hit his 500th homer, it was the batboy, rather than a teammate who was the first to greet himat home plate. Well, for Pete's sake--the batboy is Bonds' son, Nikolai. Of course he would be the first one to greet him, but that bit of information was missing from their report.

Now that he is in Boston, Manny is becoming a media darling, not an easy task in a town known for irascible reporters. Canseco was a straight-A student in high school (his father is a highly placed executive for a petroleum company), collects and intelligently discusses art, but the media plays up the ball that bounced off his head and other foolishness from his early career. Granted, Rickey Henderson is not the brightest bulb on the block, but the media has made him out to be a selfish player, even though the Padres, players and management alike, rave about his taking younger players under his wing. About 10 years ago I met Rickey at a card show in L.A. I gave him a copy of the Diamond Angle. He didn't know what to do with it! "Rickey," I said, "It's for you, man. I used to live in your old neighborhood in Oakland and I really admire what you have done with your career." He was genuinely moved. "Damn, man, nobody ever gives me anything, everybody always wants something from me. Hell, I thought you wanted me to autograph this magazine. Thank you, man, I'll look at it on the plane back up to Oakland." He didn't strike me as selfish at all. If anything, a little bit shy.

OK, off the soapbox. Thursday, Mike Mussina and the Yanks beat Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox, 2-1. The Yanks have now taken five straight from the greatest pitcher in baseball, even though Pedro's ERA in those games is only 2.75. On the year, Pedro is 6-1, 1.60, with 108 whiffs in 73 innings, while allowing only 17 walks and two homers. He just can't do anything with those Bronx Bombers. Hideo Nomo is not as steady as Pedro, but he has a no-hitter, a one-hitter and a 7-inning one hitter this year, and is 5-3, 3.60, with 63 K in 60 IP. The Bosox have 5 players with more than 20 RBI (Everett, Varitek, Hillenbrand, Daubach and Ramirez), and the scary thing is the their best all-around hitter (at least until Manny arrived on the set), Nomar Garciaparra, is ahead of his rehab schedule and will be returning after the All Star game. While we are tossing around gaudy numbers, how about Manny: .391 BA, .474 OBP, .717 SA, 15 HRs, 56 RBI (!) If Nomar hits like he usually does when he returns, look out for the Red Sox.

"We need Justice, O'Neill and Bernie, but I'll take Knoblauch and Jeter right now. Hopefully everything else will fall into place." So says Joe Torre. Gee, Joe, O'Neill only has 9 homers and 31 RBI--too bad he is having such a rotten year. And talk about "can't get any respect," he doesn't even mention Jorge Posada, with his 8 homers and 33 RBI and .292 average, nor Tino Martinez, 7 and 34, .273 BA. As for Mussina, the victory over Pedro boosted his record to 5-4, 3.44, and he has 62 K's in 68 innings, with only 8 walks. I think the Yanks are glad they inked him.

Before we leave the AL East, on Saturday Toronto beat Boston, 5-0 (the first time the Red Sox have been shut out this year) and New York topped Cleveland, doyen of the Central, 12-5. The interesting thing was that all four starting pitchers ended the game with 5 wins. Chris Michalak, Toronto's 30-year-old rookie starter is now 5-3, while Frank Castillo is 5-2 for Boston. Roger Clemens raised his record to 5-1 (265 victories for his career. At 38, will he make it to 300 wins?) Clemens opponent, C.C. Sabathia, dropped to 5-1. The kid is 20, barely half the Rocket's age, and this reminds me of the time I saw Warren Spahn, then 41, pitch against a young Giants pitcher named Juan Marichal, then 25 and on his way to an 18-win season. I have the same feeling about Sabathia I did about Marichal, that he is destined for greatness. Just as long as the Tribe, desperately trying to win a World Series before this great assemblage of players breaks up, doesn't wear out the huge, fireballing southpaw, as so many teams have done with very young pitchers.

Nomo pitched his one-hitter on Friday, and so did the Cubs' Kerry Wood, who is working on a comeback. Wood, who hopes to become the next great Texas fireballer in the Nolan Ryan/Roger Clemens mold, impressed people as a 1998 rookie when he went 13-6, with 233 strikeouts in 167 innings. But it wore his 21-year-old arm out and he missed all of '99 with shoulder miseries. He came back at the mid-point in 2000, but was still hurting, although he did fan 132 in 112 innings. But his arm seems back to normal this year. He has struck out 92 batters in 60 innings, compiling a 3-4, 4.20 record so far.

I've mentioned before how underrated middle relievers are. Next to catchers, there is no position the average fan, or reporter/broadcaster, for that matter, appreciates less. For every Piazza and Ivan, there are a dozen catchers who are in the bigs for their defensive skills. Just ask pitchers how important Mike Lieberthal, Charles Johnson, Mike Matheney, Dan Wilson and youngsters like Bobby Estalella and Ramon Hernandez, are to the overall game. At least catchers are out there most days. Middle relievers just get popped into the game between the big name starters and those intimidating closers. The gents who own the 6th, 7th and 8th innings just don't get their due and this year we are going to continue introducing the best middle relievers to you.

This week: Toronto's resurgent Paul Quantrill, who many thought was just about done is 5-0 with a 1.27 ERA in 22 appearances. Most fans have heard a little about Mike Stanton from his post season appearances with the Yanks, but he is almost as much a part of their success as the great Mariano Rivera. No, he is not as great a pitcher, but Rivera wouldn't have saved so many games if Stanton and his ilk hadn't kept the Yanks in the game. Likewise, Mike Magnante has been a rock for the A's. He and his 2.30 ERA have been a major, if understated, part of the A's dramatic comeback from the cellar to at least wild card contention. Finally, there is the Dodger's veteran Mike Fetters. For a couple years with the Brewers in the mid-'90s, he was one of the best closers in the game. Then he began having arm problems due to his herky-jerky motion. He bounced around for a few years, and when the Dodgers picked him off the scrap heap last year his career was at stake. He pitched 51 times, compiled a 3.24 ERA, won 6, saved 5, held 11. His fiery attitude helped inspire a mostly lackluster Dodge club. He is doing just as well in 2001.

This has been a long Outside Edge, so we are going to forego our usual statistical report this week but do want to point out that: Bonds has a .918 Slugging Average. The single season record is Ruth's .847 in 1920. The highest since WWII are McGwire's .752 in 1998 and Bagwell's .750 in '94)....Randy Johsnon is 5-3 despite a nifty 2.84 ERA and 123 strikeouts (and a mere 27 walks) in 86 innings. Might have something to do with the fact that the Big Unit it 39th in the NL in run support...Dan Reichert of the Royals is having a decent year, being promoted from the bullpen and going 4-4, 3.61. The trouble is, he is the only Kansas City pitcher with more than 2 wins....