Beyond Golf — 07 May 2012 by Jim Street
MLB Power Rankings (Week 4)

GW’s MLB Power Ratings (Week 4):

1. Rangers (1): Promotion idea: Have a Michael Young bobble head giveaway. You just wind it up and a line drive comes off the bat.

2. Dodgers (2):  The reunion of veteran outfielder Bobby Abreau and Dodgers manager Don Mattingly bodes well for the NL West team’s pursuit of postseason action.

3. Diamondbacks (3): Cody Ransom has been hotter than a midsummer day in Phoenix since being recalled from Triple-A Tacoma, batting .345 with 3 home runs and 10 RBIs in his first 29 at-bats.

4. Rockies (4): A slight change has been made to right-hander Jeremy Guthrie’s contract. From now on, the bicycle he rides must be equipped with training wheels.

5. Giants (5): Pablo Sandoval is extremely grateful that a broken hamate is not career-threatening. He’s also pleased to know that he’ll never sustain that injury again.

6.  Athletics (7): After averaging more than 43,000 fans per game in their first two “home” games (in Tokyo), the A’s are packing in an average of 16,713 patrons for their other 11 home games.

7. Angels (6): That shipment of Kryptonite sent from St. Louis to Anaheim last December sure seems to be working during the early stages of the 2012 season.

8. Mariners (8): The theme of the season so far is “close-but-no-cigar”, but as in each of those 100-plus loss campaigns in recent seasons, the glass-is-half-full bunch is saying, “It’s still early.”

9. Padres (9): It’s always tough to see my self-proclaimed nephew, Huston Street, get injured, and soreness in his pitching shoulder (right) is troublesome news for sure.

(Last Week’s rating in parenthesis)

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Jim Street

Jim’s 40-year sportswriting career started with the San Jose Mercury-News in 1970 and ended on a full-time basis on October 31, 2010 following a 10-year stint with MLB.com. He grew up in Dorris, Calif., several long drives from the nearest golf course. His first tee shot was a week before being inducted into the Army in 1968. Upon his return from Vietnam, where he was a war correspondent for the 9th Infantry Division, Jim took up golf semi-seriously while working for the Mercury-News and covered numerous tournaments, including the U.S. Open in 1982, when Tom Watson made the shot of his life on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach. Jim also covered several Bing Crosby Pro-Am tournaments, the women’s U.S. Open, and other golfing events in the San Francisco area. He has a 17-handicap, made his first and only hole-in-one on March 12, 2018 at Sand Point Country Club in Seattle and witnessed the first round Ken Griffey Jr. ever played – at Arizona State during Spring Training in 1990. Pebble Beach Golf Links, the Kapalua Plantation Course, Pinehurst No. 2, Spyglass Hill, Winged Foot, Torrey Pines, Medinah, Chambers Bay, North Berwick, Gleneagles and Castle Stuart in Scotland, and numerous gems in Hawaii are among the courses he has had the pleasure of playing. Hitting the ball down the middle of the fairway is not a strong part of Jim’s game, but he is known (in his own mind) as the best putter not on tour. Most of Jim’s writing career was spent covering Major League Baseball, a tenure that started with the Oakland Athletics, who won 101 games in 1971, and ended with the Seattle Mariners, who lost 101 games in 2010. Symmetry is a wonderful thing. He currently lives in Seattle and has an 8-year-old grandson, Andrew, who is the club's current junior champion at his home course (Oakmont CC) in Glendale, Calif.

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