Saturday, 7:30 a.m.

Former Pirates  Freddy Sanchez is in the midst of a hot streak that brings to mind the days of his batting championship.

Sanchez was mired in a deep slump on Aug. 15. He was batting .258 and often found himself out of the San Francisco Giants starting lineup or else batting eighth instead of his customary second.

But over the final 15 days of August he be batted .479  (23-48) to raise his average to .288.  He went 2-4 on Sept. 1 to increase his it to .292 before going hitless last night and falling back to .288.

Sanchez was traded last July for minor-league pitcher Tim Alderson.

He’s batting .446 since August 15.  -- Bob Smizik

Friday, 4 p.m.

John Feinstein of the Washington Post loves college athletics and has written wonderfully about them over the years.  Like many, Feinstein is concerned -- perhaps outraged -- but the turn to sport is taking -- money trumps traditions.  -- Bob Smizik

By John Feinstein

Once again, it is college football season. Let us all say together, "Hallelujah," because there are few things better than Saturdays in the fall, and the atmosphere in and around the sport's great rivalry games, ranging from Williams-Amherst to Army-Navy to Michigan-Ohio State.

While we do that, let us also pause to give thanks for the fact that even as the Big Ten pursues even more power and dollars by expanding to 12 teams, it has decided not to carry through with the folly of moving Michigan-Ohio State from the season's final weekend. If you have any doubt at all about how foolish such a move would be, simply grab your college history books and turn to the page marked, 'Nebraska-Oklahoma,' in the chapter entitled, 'Great Rivalries Flushed by Greed.'

Greed is the word that powers college football. Those who control the sport - the commissioners of the Bowl Championship Series conferences and the presidents of those conferences' schools - would have you believe that tradition is the word that matters most. Sadly, many of college football's most cherished traditions are going the way of the wing-T.

You can start with football Saturdays. Check this week's schedule: Among those opening their season on Thursday was Ohio State. When you think of tradition, you certainly think of Thursday nights inside the Horseshoe, don't you?

College football is now played every night of the week at some point during every season. Two of the best games - Navy-Maryland and Boise State-Virginia Tech - will be played Monday in NFL stadiums.

Tradition indeed.

The same university presidents who tell us that we can't have a postseason playoff in division I-A because that would be too many games for the student-athletes have contrived a system in which many big-time programs routinely play 14 games: 12 in the regular season, a conference championship and a bowl game. The 12th regular season game was created several years ago for one reason: so the power schools could schedule another home game, usually against a completely overmatched opponent, and collect another lucrative gate.

Read the rest of the story.
 

Friday, 2 p.m.

In building their management team, the Cincinnati Reds were the anti-Pirates. Instead of hiring people on the job for the first time, like president Frank Coonelly and general manager Neil Huntington, the Reds went after a man who has won championships.

Walt Jocketty, who build a World Series winner in St. Louis, has turned the long-time losing Reds into a winner and one that has a large step up on a post-season spot.

Here’s a New York Times feature on Jocketty. -- Bob Smizik

By TYLER KEPNER

ST. LOUIS — Tony La Russa had just landed here Wednesday night after a dreary road trip that pushed his St. Louis Cardinals eight games behind the Cincinnati Reds in the standings. It was a bitter disappointment for La Russa, who had every reason to retreat until the next game on Friday.

But La Russa responded to a reporter’s message because he wanted to talk about the man who runs the team he is chasing in the National League Central. Such is his admiration for Walt Jocketty, the former general manager of the Cardinals who has shaped the Reds for their first playoff appearance in 15 years.

“You would have to look long and hard to find someone that doesn’t like and respect Walt — and there’s a difference,” La Russa said. “People like him because he’s a good man, but they respect him because he’s honest. The reason he makes deals is he isn’t hiding information. He gives value and he receives value, so both sides prosper and want to make another deal.”

Well, sometimes. Kevin Towers, the former San Diego general manager, laughs when he talks about Jocketty, whose Cardinals beat his Padres three times in the playoffs.

“Some of the worst trades I’ve ever made were with Walt,” Towers said. “He’s the one guy, every time we made a trade I’d end up saying: ‘You know what? This is not going to be good.’ I always tell him, ‘The only one I ever won on you was Fernando Valenzuela for Danny Jackson, and the only reason I won that deal was because Jackson retired and Fernando didn’t.’ ”

At 59, Jocketty has been around long enough to have traded icons of the 1980s like Valenzuela. He is upbeat by nature, and players call him approachable and calm. But only one general manager is older — Jack Zduriencik of the Seattle Mariners, by a month — and Jocketty came to baseball through some of the game’s most colorful characters.

Read the rest of the story.