Warning!! Danger!! Annual Off-topic Baseball Thread '07!! Beware!!
 

Lock the old thread, baby, it's OPENING DAY!!!

Opening night is a gimmick. Gimme day baseball! Yankees first pitch is in an hour. Red Sox at 4 today against that powerhouse and ancient rival -- the KC Royals. Morning radio shows today were saying that Schilling would miss his start today after being hit by a car while crossing the road. Obviously, an April Fool joke, but my daughter was very concerned. :)

Since nothing has really happened yet (although JR may want to mock the Cards' skipper for last night's loss), here's a little historical tidbit to tide us over:

I know it's only April 2, but on May 2, 1917 (almost 90 years ago, depending on how many significant digits you're using) opposing pitchers for the Cubs and Reds pitched no-hitters against each other in the same game. Fred Tony of Cincinnati maintained his no-hitter through the 10th inning, when the Reds finally got to Chicago's Hippo Vaughn for two hits and an unearned run. The Reds won, 1-0.

Also, I'd like to say how cool it is that these baseball threads are so popular, despite some dissent. The three most popular threads ever on the basketball forum have been off-topic baseball threads. One other makes the top 6, and one other was deleted (not that I'm bitter. . .).

http://forum.officiating.com/forumdi...c&daysprune=-1

So happy Opening Day!

First!

who's Chuck Elias?

i remember that game -- my pops and I were there and we had great seats right behind the dugout. then that damn steve bartman messed everything up in the 10th.

Thanks, Chuck, for reminding us that spring is here, along with the eternal optimism it brings.

This is the day that everyone is in first place, for a little while.

(Well, except for the Cardinals, who have lost WAY more than everyone else... :p)

OK, While I've been one of the people who has expressed my displeasure with this thread in the past, apparently it's a fixture, so I may as well roll with it.

My beloved Cubbies are up for sale. PLEASE MARK CUBAN -- WRITE THE DAMN CHECK ALREADY!!!!

And, we're in first place, at least for a few more hours. But, there's always next year.

Yup, they had the Budweiser Clydesdales at the opening game in St. Louis. They were making a delivery to LaRussa.

Absolutely amazing! Ninety years later the Cubbies start <b>another</b> hippo, Carlos Zambrano. He goes about 450, doesn't he?

I was just thinking the other day. The weather is warm, my golf clubs and umpire gear is in the car, the grass is green, Wood and Prior are on the DL. It must be baseball season. :D

Don't forget about Prior whining like a Florida Gator about having to start the season in Iowa.

Get it straight:

Wells = hippo
Zambrano = rhino

Sheesh. :rolleyes:

And, from what I saw, he stayed awake the entire game.

Who <B>wouldn't</B> complain about having to spend time in Iowa? :D

And the fun begins . . .

Schilling didn't have a good Opening Day.
His line:
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3><TBODY><TR class=colhead align=right><TD align=left></TD><TD>IP</TD><TD> H</TD><TD> R</TD><TD>ER</TD><TD>BB</TD><TD>SO</TD><TD>HR</TD><TD noWrap>PC-ST</TD><TD>ERA</B></TD></TR><TR class=oddrow align=right><TD noWrap align=left>C Schilling</TD><TD>4.0</TD><TD>8</TD><TD>5</TD><TD>5</TD><TD>2</TD><TD>5</TD><TD>0</TD><TD noWrap>89-55</TD><TD>11.25</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Gil Meche, on the other hand, tore it UP. Anyone out there ever play those protrade.com websites? If you want to, PM me an email address and I'll shoot you an invite to play.

Good news for Cubs fans as the Trib wants to sell off the team. Or is that bad news?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2821964

Nobody had a good day for the Sox. It was not much fun to watch. Schill was never "on". He struggled from the first pitch.

Twins Win
 

Johan was not great but it looks like Morneau and Hunter are on pace for 162 HR each. 7-4 over Baltimore.

Yankees won. Red Sox lost. Yup, that seems fair. :)

Hey, we have a lot of great stuff in Iowa like corn...and corn...and corn...don't forget the corn! Actually our AAA ballpark is awesome. I'd rather go there to watch a game than drive up to the Dome in Minneapolis.

Rich F. posted this over on the baseball forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx6zsub-neU

Note: the Cubbies signed him after the game.

And then proceeded to put him on the DL.

If you build it. . .

http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2006/writers/f...e/p1_field.jpg

Not only that, but they were carrying the World Championship trophy! :D

Good news for our left coasties:

Felix Hernandez of the (GASP!) Seattle Mariners, the 20-year-old would-be phenom who has lost 20 pounds since a disappointing 2006 season, thoroughly dominated the defending AL West champion Oakland Athletics in a 4-0 victory Monday. The major leagues' youngest Opening Day pitcher in 22 years (since Dwight Gooden) allowed three hits and struck out a career-high 12 in eight innings.

And in other news about teams that nobody cares about, Ben Sheets produced the first Opening Day complete game in 15 years for the Brewers. I always want to see the Brewers do well, but they just always stink.

The day it was announced they were up for sell, the Cubs tried to up their value a little by trying something different. However, it didn't work and they are back to the way we know them. :D :p

You mean tied with the World Series Chumps? (Oops, spelling error: Champs.)

:D :p yourself!

Kerry and Mark who? 12 million (+) is a lot for a bat boy. :D

Nice. Believe it or not, I've never been to the Field of Dreams. I have, however, had the curator of the Bob Feller Museum come in and talk to my class a few times. She had some great stories. One year she brought in his glove from the only ever opening day no-hitter he threw. She almost brought in the bat Babe Ruth was leaning on in the famous picture from his retirement, but she thought it was worth too much. The bat was actually grabbed out of the Detroit dugout and was one of Bob's. They loan it back and forth with the HOF. It's not a huge museum but if you're driving by it is certainly worth the stop.

Have you taken your class to the Wrestling HOF museum over by Culvers? ;)

Actually I'd love to, but it was moved to Waterloo this year. I met the guy that runs that museum at the Y once and he was fascinating! He had written 20 books or so ranging from Greek history through winning mentalities. He was friendly with a lot of interesting people from Barry Sanders to Dan Gable (always a Cyclone btw!). I was sorry to see it go before we got in there.

Gable's a Hawkeye, and Dan McCarney is a Cyclone.

Why'd they move?

You can claim Dan all you want!!!! Actually he did a lot of good things for the program, it was just time for someone new. He had taken us as far as he could in my opinion. Gable left because ISU screwed around and didn't offer him a contract way back when. They didn't make that mistake with Cael and it is paying off already. Now, wasn't this a baseball thread? This is the most I've ever talked about wrestling and I think I've said everything I know about the sport except those singlets look really uncomfortable. :D

Spring comes to the U.P. and every young lad's dreams turn to baseball!
http://www.mininggazette.com/storyph...ed.weather.jpg

Houghton, Michigan--this morning. A mere 8". That's Mick on the corner.

We're only getting an inch or so tonight. But Beckett's supposed to go for the Sox tonight, despite temperatures falling to 27 overnight in KC. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain there.

Yankees already got rained out, tho. So maybe we move back within a half game of first place. :rolleyes:

May as well use this one now.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphic...714051dui1.jpg

Aw geeze, Dan.........lol......

ESPN.com makes predictions for every day of the regular season: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...l&sportCat=mlb

Here's the highlights for April!

April 16: Former Cubs ace Mark Prior earns his way out of Triple-A Iowa by blowing out his shoulder.

April 18: After calling a game-ending third strike on Delmon Young of the Devil Rays, umpire Joe West tasers Young in the chest in a pre-emptive strike.

April 21: The huge number of camera flashes from the Japanese media photographing Daisuke Matsuzaka's first major-league pitch to Hideki Matsui unfortunately sets both players aflame.

April 24: With J.D. Drew down in the outfield with a strained hamstring after trying to run down a deep fly ball hit by Toronto's Vernon Wells, fellow Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez runs over to his fallen teammate, takes a picture with him and then attempts to sell Drew on eBay.

April 29: With the bases loaded for the Red Sox and only one out in the seventh inning of the Yankees' home game against Boston, Alex Rodriguez calls for an infield meeting at the mound so he can pass Derek Jeter a note that reads: "Will u b my bff? YES/no/maybe."

I'm willing to bet 2 out of the 5 will actually come true.

As fun as it is to point out Prior's and Wood's problems, I was surprised to hear a stat on the radio last night. Apparently 6 out the last 7 (or maybe it was 7 out of the last 8) top Pirates pitching prospects have all had major arm surgery already. Maybe they can borrow the Cubs' staff to learn how to keep it down to 2 or 3?...

Yo, eMMy, here's another one for you.....

What's the difference between a Yankees hotdog and a Cubbies hotdog?

<font size = -3>...sigh...I know I shouldn't, but here goes:</font size>

One of them's full of sh!t?

No?

Ok, I give up. What's the difference?

You can get a Yankees hotdog in October.

But, when we do partake in one of those Oct. Cubbie dogs, it tastes that much sweeter...

(Ok, I know, now who's full of sh!t?...)

As of this [Thursday] morning, Woody, I have 24" covering my crocuses, where they were protected from the 50 mph blizzard drifting. In a small yard, I have drifts from 3-1/2' to 5-1/2'.
A swirling wind at Comerica park yesterday put the Tigers' 8 run lead in jeopardy.

Geez mick, have you ever thought of moving further south to the warmer weather?

Like Wisconsin? :D

And to think I was grumbling this morning when I saw flakes flying in the wind. And there weren't enough of them to cover any of the green blades of grass, crocuses, or lilies. I have even mowed the grass once already.

Keep the faith though. That snow will be gone. Eventually. June, maybe. About the same time Kenny Rogers comes back.

M&M,
The last time I thought of moving south was a coupla minutes ago.:cool:

Update.......

This morning in Houghton, U.P.---

http://www.mininggazette.com/storyph...interstorm.jpg

Trout opens in a coupla weeks, Mick.

The picture you posted is right in front of a 7-story motel.
...They already cleaned the main drag. :(

Early trout season is on, methinks. Time for smelt!

I read on the internet that Al Gore thinks global warming will raise the yearly avg temp of Houghton, U.P. by 6 deg F

To 48 degrees.

Better get a coupla pair of bermudas!

Bermudas ? Plaids? Brown socks ? ...Stylin'.

Dunno how much snow fell here since Tuesday night.
9 miles south there was 38" from this thing.
25 miles north, the measurer guy couldn't get to his equipment. :)

[From USA Today]

Tigers, Blue Jays happy to stay inside
DETROIT (AP) -This was no weather for baseball.
With light snow falling, the temperature in the mid-20s and the wind chill dipping into single digits, Thursday's game between the Detroit Tigers and was postponed until Sept. 10.

Sept 10, the mud should be all dried up by then.

Won't you be getting the 07-08 winter snow at that point?

Ha ! I dunno.
I think maybe they use a similar counting method that is used when *they* count to determine that "bad things happen in threes".

At an arbitrary point in time, you just start over again. :)

Bos @ Kc
 

Pitchers.......................IP......H.......R.. .....ER......BB.....SO......ERA
D Matsuzaka (W, 1-0)....7.0.....6.......1.......1.......1.......10.. ....1.29

Don't have an orgasm just yet. Don't forget that he was only pitching against a Triple-A team. Wait 'til the big kids get out of school.

Sooooo I hear football season is coming up soon........ :D

I'm not sure if you're saying that b/c you hate baseball or b/c you're writing off certain teams. But I'll just throw out there that on PTI tonight, Wilbon gave the Cards 0% chance to win their division b/c he picked the Cubs to win it. :D

0% ?
Obviously Wilbon [whoever that is] isn't a candle in the darkness. http://www.deephousepage.com/smilies/dunce.gif

Hey! I heard he's purdy danged smart.

Anytime a team with only 83 regular-season victories wins the World Series, it gives hope the to the rest of us poor, huddled masses.

And now, back to the junior circuit. Did you see yesterday the White Sox won in the bottom of the ninth by AJ Pierzynski getting nicked (not hit, or hammered, or walloped, etc., just nicked) by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in the winning run. Of course, leave to him to be in the middle of a little controversy as to whether he made any attempt to get out of the way of the pitch.

Anytime a player tells me that he wasn't trying to get hit, ... he was trying to get hit.

And if the pitcher hadn't thrown it there, nobody would have anything to say :)

Would this be the corollary?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26axJdDKYWw

he umpire showed remarkable restraint for not throwing him out earlier for bad acting. I can imagine what he told the player's manager what he thought about his actions.

Has anyone ever seen an umpire rule that a player didn't make an attempt to avoid, therefore no base is awarded? I've never seen this called, at any level.

Yeah. I have one every few years.
Sometimes they lean into the pitch and sometime they merely refuse to move. But everytime the pitch is a round-house curve that couldn't hurt a gnat.

There was a famous play no-called back in the late '60's when Don Drysdale was trying to break the major league record for most shutout innings pitched in a row. He hit a player with the bases loaded, which shoulda forced in a run, but the umpire(Harry Wendelstedt iirc) ruled that the player didn't try to get out of the way. Drysdale then got him out and went on to set the record. Wendelstedt took a lot of crap but later most everybody agreed that he made the right call. Gutsy call, but Wendelstedt was a gutsy umpire. His son, Hunter, is a MLB umpire now.

No, no. Silly joke because the Cards are off to an 0-3 start. ;)

Yep, I've had this call before, not only that but I called a strike on the batter.

Wow...come back from my vacation and see that my Mariners are 2-1...off to a good start! Of course, they've had several games snowed-out (Snow for crying out loud???), but a good first series...let's see if they can keep it up. Traded Meche who had a good first outing and Piniero who has looked good in spring games, so we'll see what they can...I predict another 68 wins this season - yuck!!

I think this is hysterical. The Indians' home opening series got snowed out (the whole series -- not rain, but snowed out!), so their next "home" series is being played in Milwaukee.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2830648

Meanwhile, my Sox play a day game tomorrow against DJ's M's. Jeff Weaver goes for Seattle. Is he the good Weaver? Of course, it's supposed to snow here on Thursday for the series finale!

Tigers are 50-50.

Pistons' magic number is 1. :)

1) Cleveland....Milwaukee.....nobody can tell the difference anyway.:rolleyes:

2) This is the Weaver that in his total career has had half a good year with Detroit and half a good year with St. Louis.......and has parlayed that into becoming a multi-millionaire.

Major League was even filmed in Milwaukee!

Well, Weaver was freaking OUTSTANDING today! Gives up 7 runs in two innings...M's go on to lose 14-3...good thing the M's signed that guy this past winter...can't wait to see what he does in his next start. Geesh...:mad:

Rocky,

Atleast tomorow should be an interesting game with Hernandez vs Matsuzaka

Ah, 14-3 today. Dice-K tomorrow. Snow on Thursday.

How about being able to watch a MLB game for 10 bucks. Sounds like a deal...

No more ties in baseball!
 

Those who like the odd quirks of baseball and follow the stats of the game should ponder this:

MIAMI (AP) -- It didn't take long for the first suspended game of the season under the new major league rule change.
The Florida Marlins' game against the Milwaukee Brewers was suspended after 10 innings and three rain delays Tuesday night with the score 2-2. Before this year, it would have become an official tie game and would have been replayed from the start. Because of the change made during the offseason, it will be resumed Wednesday night in the top of the 11th inning and be followed by the finale of the three-game series.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap;_y...410128&prov=ap

Off - off-topic
 

I didn't want to start another off-topic thread, so I'll tell this story here. My wife and I were walking the dog Monday morning, when we saw 4 large birds circling overhead. We're used to seeing Peregrine Falcons around here, but these were not falcons. One landed in a tree near us and my wife thought it was a turkey vulture. We got home and looked it up online and, sure enough, it was a turkey vulture.

Why do I mention this here (other than to give "26 Year Gap" another reason to kid me about walking the dog)? Because in the article describing the turkey vultrue, we read the following:

They'll literally puke on your shoes!!! Are turkey vultures the ancient ancestors of basketball officials? Do turkey vultures also employ the dreaded "stare at their pants" defense? Inquiring minds want to know!

They must have seen you officiate before.

Don't feel bad. Every time I look out my window, I see buzzards circling my house.

Wow, Chuck, sounds like you'll be taking your next PhD in paleo-ornithology. Cool!!

C'mon, it's no big deal. In fact I hear these birds are so common they don't even count in undergrad ornithology class.

At least not in any college in Indiana...

Felix vs. Dice-K...could be interesting.

Cubs-Astros game scheduled for this afternoon has already been postponed, due to "wintry conditions".

Yoo-hoo...Mr. Gore?...

This winter stuff is becoming inconvenient, true?

Maybe they'll move it to Milwaukee. Might have a little culture with their baseball too then.

Interesting article by an MIT weather guy. MIT is in Cambridge on Kendall Square, just across the river from Storrow Drive, which eventually takes you to Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play.

So enjoy this on-topic article!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17997788/site/newsweek/

MIT, eh?

This guy can't be very smart. He doesn't live in Washington, DC or Hollywood, CA.

And thanks for keeping things on-topic! :D

By "culture", I assume you mean cheeze?

Well, that and brats and beer.

And both can be pretty good.

Well, as long as we're on that topic, there was a cover story once in Gourmet Magazine about where to find the best brats. And the number one place was this restaurant in Sheboygan, WI (north of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan). So one family vacation we decided to stop in so we could try the Gourmet Magazine #1-rated brat. The brat was actually pretty good; they sliced it in half the long way, and fried it. The part that surprised us was the restaurant. It was essentially this little hole-in-the-wall diner, smack dab in the middle of a residential section of Sheboygan. There were probably 10-12 tables, and another 6 or 8 chairs at the counter. The only way we knew for sure we were in the right place was they had a copy of the article framed near the cash register. Right next to the posters of the estate auction and the upcoming fishing tournament.

So, for those of you that think Gourmet Magazine is about mostly fancy, la-di-da type food, well, you're right. But every once in a while they also feature regular food.

http://www.designofsignage.com/appli...0/arrow-up.jpg

ATTENTION MODS!!! OFF TOPIC POST!!!

Naw....one sided.:D

Heckuva pitching job. A virtuoso performance.

Go Braves! 7-1 already.

That's two straight fantastic games for Felix...could it be that the M's finally have a decent pitcher again??? Have to wait and see, but that was pretty impressive last night.

Hey, that means they've got a shot to win most of 1/5 of their games.

The cool thing about baseball that EVERY team, at some point in the season, goes 7-1. Even the Cubs.

It just that some teams do it more than once a season.

As long as we're talking about pitching (we were mentioning the Cubs, right?), what's this I hear about Moose being out for a while?

I heard on SportsCenter this morning that the Nationals have trailed by at least 3 runs in each game they've played so far this season. They've only won once.

Gonna be a long summer in DC.

Sox got only 1 hit last night. :( Let\'s see if they can get a game in this afternoon.