Baseball took a hit on Thursday.
Ted Uhlaender died.
Put Alex Rodriguez and his lies and performance-enhancing drugs on hold for a moment. Ignore the accusations of a former female acquaintance about Roberto Alomar and AIDS. Forget, temporarily, about the dog-and-pony show that Roger Clemens has become.
The fact that those athletes ruined the dreams of many by proving athletic superstars are prone to the same stupid actions as the average Joe is a subject for another day.
Uhlaender was a superstar, too, but his stardom transcended a solid, albeit far-from-spectacular eight-year big-league career that was followed by a stint in coaching and scouting during the 50 years that he made a living in the game.
Uhlaender's notoriety came from his baseball career, which included time with the minor league Denver Bears in 1962 and again in 1965, when he led the Pacific Coast League by hitting .340. But it was in life that he excelled.
He was a friend, in the true sense, to those whose lives he touched.
The father of five, including a daughter Katie, who is an Olympic skeleton racer, Uhlaender was born in Chicago, raised in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and graduated from Baylor University.
In recent years, when he wasn't on the road scouting for the San Francisco Giants, he split time between a home outside Dillon, where his wife teaches skiing, and a ranch in western Kansas, where he raised Tennessee Walkers and cattle.
The impressive residence he built on the Kansas plains had a picture gallery that included a photo of Kaiser Wilhelm, standing next to his chief aide, who Uhlaender explained was his grandfather.
Uhlaender was a throwback, in baseball and in life.
His word was good. His work ethic was even better.
In the last year, he had been slowed. When he developed some vision problems last spring, he decided to visit a doctor, who discovered the 68-year-old Uhlaender was suffering from multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer that requires stem cell transplants for treatment and can be put in remission but can never be cured.
On Wednesday, Uhlaender received a checkup at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and was told the cancer seemed under control. Uhlaender was encouraged enough that the Giants were actually making plans for him to get back out and do some scouting, as much for his mental therapy as anything.
Uhlaender, however, never received a scouting assignment. Late Thursday morning, he died of a heart attack.
INFIELD CHATTER
-- Seattle is trying to finalize a deal for the return of Ken Griffey Jr. to finish his career where it began, but the Mariners also are staying in contact with representatives for Garret Anderson in case the Griffey deal falls through.
-- If Manny Ramirez is going to get a three-year deal, it will require Dodgers owner Frank McCourt overruling his baseball people, who most recently proposed a one-year, $25 million deal.
-- Cardinals manager Tony La Russa began lobbying last fall for the release of second baseman Adam Kennedy, wanting to keep Aaron Miles instead. Now he winds up with neither, the front office letting Miles go back in December, and then this week giving in on Kennedy and his $4 million salary when it became apparent there was no trade market for Kennedy.
THE ROTATION
Five prime Hall of Fame candidates whose eligibility will be marred by the ugliness of performance-enhancing drugs:
-- Mark McGwire, who has yet to receive even 24 percent of the vote in his first three years of eligibility.
-- Barry Bonds, whose legal battles could result in him being ineligible before he ever appears on the ballot.
-- Roger Clemens, who could be the first 300-game winner shut out of Cooperstown.
-- Alex Rodriguez, who became the victim of experimental testing that was never supposed to become public.
-- Rafael Palmeiro, who suffered the double whammy of damning abusers in congressional testimony and then being exposed as being an abuser himself.
OUT IN LEFT FIELD
There is a blessing to the positive steroid tests failed by Rodriguez and 103 players back in 2003.
The tests were designed to determine if there was a PED problem in baseball. The answer was yes. And it was because of those tests that ownership was finally able to create enough pressure that the Major League Baseball Players Association had to cede to the demands for the game to adopt drug testing and to create a penalty system for violators.
Is the system perfect? Not close. But it has already been refined, and there is reason to feel that in the future, even more loopholes will be eliminated.
CLOSING STATEMENT
The recent events involving A-Rod and Alomar only reinforce the fallacy of placing athletes on a pedestal.
Bottom line is, they are products of their culture. If anything, they are more vulnerable because of their athletic abilities. They are often the exception to rules, given favorable treatment in their youth because of what they can accomplish on fields of play.
There are athletes who fall victim to temptations, just like people in every other walk of life, and there are athletes who are able to lead exemplary lives, just like people in every other walk of life.
Athletes become role models only because parents shun their responsibility to provide the guidance and leadership for the development of their own children, instead entrusting that responsibility to others, whom they don't even know.
COMING UP SHORT
The shortstop position for the St. Louis Cardinals was the least productive position in baseball last season. St. Louis shortstops combined to drive in 31 runs.
Bad?
Well, Chicago Cubs pitchers alone drove in 33 runs.
WALKER FOR HALL?
Former Rockies outfielder Larry Walker said he never thought much about being a Hall of Famer during his playing career.
His outlook is changing, at least in terms of being among the 2009 inductees into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
"The key about this honor is the word Canadian," Walker said. "I have never forgotten where I came form, even when I played in Colorado or St. Louis, following my time in Montreal. I've always believed in representing my country proudly."
Walker was a five-time National League All-Star, including 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 with the Rockies. He won the NL Most Valuable Player award while with the Rockies in 1997 and won batting titles in 1998, 1999 and 2001. The seven-time Gold Glove winner is the career leader among all Canadian players in every category except average (Tip O'Neill, .326) and triples (George Wood, 132).
Walker, who has expressed interest in joining the Rockies as a big-league coach or minor league instructor, is serving as a coach for the Canadian team in the World Baseball Classic.
BY THE NUMBERS
-- 9: Spots on the 12-man Pittsburgh pitching staff that are open going into spring training. The only pitchers who are set are left-handed starter Paul Maholm, closer Matt Capps and setup man John Grabow.
HE SAID IT
"I still consider myself a closer, but after what I went through in Seattle, I just want to win. The bottom line is winning. The opportunity to play in the postseason is everything. It's the same three outs, just an inning earlier. My job is to close the game in the eighth inning."
-- Mets reliever J.J. Putz who will be the setup man for Francisco Rodriguez.
(Tracy Ringolsby writes for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colo. E-mail ringolsbyt(at)RockyMountainNews.com.)
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