Shut up.

Who annointed you Mr. Annoying Spelling Guy this week?

I've always been told I'm outstanding in my field.

(Or am I out standing in my field?)

Eye didd.

I've heard rumors that the original Mr. ASG is in some sort of supernatural contact with JR. You might not want to tempt fate like this.

I'm assuming one of them will go blind.

And then get stuck in Hackensack.

Ewww.

You've pretty much summed up all the posts from (and including) Manny on.

<font size=font size> :D</font size>

Sox won last night in 12, with the new guy tripling and scoring the winning run. They're up big tonight, so they're doing ok without Manny for now.

I'm sorry that it came to that point. Manny clearly didn't want his option picked up and it seems like he acted up to get out of Boston. That's pretty sad to me. He hasn't been as great a hitter as he was before last season, but he's still very good.

There was a report in the Providence, RI paper that said the Sox veterans met with Theo and said that they didn't think they could count on Manny and that he had to go. That's pretty amazing to me, if it's true.

On a totally unrelated note, on this day in 1979, Thurman Munson died. I'm not a Yankee fan, but even I remember exactly where I was when I heard that. I was only 13, but I knew how big a deal it was.

Chuck:

You mean you are 42 years old. :eek: I thought you were only 32 years old. :p

MTD, Sr.

Yankee prospects may have been forced to kick back bonus money
 

Sox up early in KC, although Buckholz just gave up a solo shot. I am starting to have nightmares about the mid-August swoon in '06 that started by being swept in KC, then swept again in St. Pete, and culminated in the most recent version of the Boston Massacre -- the Yankees' sweep of a 5-game series in Boston. Hopefully, the Sox offense continues to show signs of life and eliminates the possibility of a repeat performance. (Although Bay just struck out looking for the second time. :( )

Sorry, Mick, but I'm rooting for Cleveland for the next few nights.

No praw, Chuck.
Indians are in a great spoiler role right now, and they could win 8 of next 10.
Twins are pretty amazing. Real fine team.
Leyland went off on the Tigers 2 days ago, so they may wake up in Chicago, but the White Sox can always find a way to win; and they win 7 of 10 in one of the parks in Chicago. :)

Uh-oh. Sox can't get any traction, Lowell is still hurting, and now this. From ESPN.com:

Gee, Chuck, what a shame. You got a couple of players hurting but still playing. What a catastrophe!

Let's see......

The Yankees lost 3 out their 5 projected 2008 starters to injury for most of this year-Wang, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Of course, they also haven't had their $10 million man, Carl Pavano, for the last 2 years either. And now it looks like they're gonna lose Joba Chamberlain too. They've also lost an all-star catcher for the rest of the year in Posada. They haven't had Matsui hardly at all either- another all-star in left field- and he's probably gone for the year too. A-Rod and Johnny Damon spent time on the DL too. Oh, and Mariano Rivera is currently unavailable because of a bad back.

And you're whining about a couple guys who have a little boo-boo but are still playing?

Lah me.....you BoSox fans.....:rolleyes:

Tough one last night, Mick. You hate to lose after you play that long.

Sox finally scored some runs for Beckett last night. In his 8 losses, the Sox have scored a total of 10 runs while he was still in the game. So it was nice to get a little lead for him.

Rays also won again, though, so their lead is still 3 games. Long way to go yet, tho.

Maybe, the Tigers are getting used to it.
Most games lost in MLB after leading by x runs after 6.
Most games lost in MLB after leading by y runs after 7.

David Ortiz hits 2 3-run HRs in the first inning to help Sox to a 10-0 lead over the Rangers after 1 inning.

Fast forward to the top of the 6th. . . Rangers now lead 15-14. I'm gonna barf.

Source: Tigers put disgruntled Sheffield on waivers

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3532016

That's pretty okay for Ortiz.
But the Rangers can be nasty.

Sheffield talks to Boston Globe on Sunday.
Leyland talks to Sheffield on Monday.
Sheffield hit 2 home runs tonight.
Even a .224 DH has a good day.

Man, that was nerve-wracking. After Pedroia hit the double to score Ellsbury to tie it in the 8th, I knew the pitcher was going to throw a mistake to Youk. He was steamin'. Youk made him pay. Whew!! First time in a month that the Sox have gained ground on the Rays.

With Crawford out, and now Longoria out, is there any scuttlebutt about Tampa Bay grabbing him?

I'm not sure how the waiver thing works, but isn't there a time period where another team can claim Shef, then Detroit would have to trade him to that particular team within certain guidelines? Or, if no team claims him, then Shef is free to try and hook up with whoever he wants? Or, does it depend on the phase of the moon? :rolleyes: Sheesh.

I'm not 100% sure either, but from Boston's experience with Manny a couple years ago, I have some guesses.

1) If another team claims him, then that team owns his contract straight-out, I believe. There's no trade necessary. They would have to pay him whatever salary he's due and assume any option clauses, etc. I think this is why nobody bothered claiming Manny back then. Nobody (except the Yankees) could give him his $20 million.

2) If no team claims him, then his contract returns to Detroit as if nothing happened. Again, this is what happened in the Manny situation. He went on the waiver wire, nobody claimed him, and he stayed with the Sox.

waiver scoop
 

Good find, mick. I guess that's why you get paid the big bucks on this forum. :)

It would be interesting to read the entire binder they mention, because I've always wondered about some of the little-known rules. I know there was a mention one time during a game about a player that couldn't be sent back down to the minors because they had used up their "allotment" of trips. I don't know if that's per season, or per contract. But since he had, the club was now limited in what they can do with him. I guess that might explain a lot of the deals that happen - it's probably a lot to do with specific contracts, number of times a player has been sent to the minors, whether they are on a team's 40-man roster or not, whether they have a certain number of years in the league, etc. and not a simple "this player has the specific talent we need". I guess that's why GM's get paid almost as much as mick - they have to understand all the rules involved, as well as the talent involved.

Sox take another one from Texas, and got a real good outing from Lester. Unfortunately, they gain no ground since the Rays also won in Oakland.

Heard an interesting tidbit last night during the Cubs/Braves game. Mark Kotsay of the Braves hit for the cycle, but it's only the second time in Braves history a player hit for the cycle, and the first time since Albert Hall did it back in 1987, almost 21 years ago. I know hitting for the cycle isn't an everyday occurance, but I didn't think it was that rare.

What are you talking about? The Sox didn't play Texas, they played Kansas City. Oh, wait! You're talking about those other Sox - the ones that aren't in first place. :rolleyes:

Sorry. Should've been more specific. The Sox whose manager doesn't perpetually have his foot in his mouth. The WORLD SERIES CHAMPION Red Sox. Those Sox.

I was thinking about the possible WS matchups that are presenting themselves at this point in the season.

Milwaukee vs Tampa Bay. The NL's Bad News Bears verses the AL's "What the He!! are we doing here?"

Boston vs LA Dodgers. The rematch of the NBA finals; along with the sure-to-be-entertaining Manny playing against his old mates. Odds are Manny gets thrown out at first by the right fielder at least once.

LA Dodgers vs LA Angels at Anaheim (talk about a stupid name). The LA series.

White Sox vs Cubs. Chicago series.

Detroit Tigers vs. Can't buy me Love

60 years ago today. . .

At the age 53, with his wife Claire and his two adopted daughters at his side, Babe Ruth dies of throat cancer at Memorial Hospital in New York City.

Last night's Tampa Bay/Texas game had an interesting tidbit:

I've heard of issuing an intentional walk with the bases loaded, but I can't remember for sure the last time it happened. I think I remember Arizona doing it to Bonds, but I have no idea when/if that actually happened.

Edit: a quick Google search found this in a 2000 article from Baseball Digest: "The last intentional bases-loaded pass occurred May 28, 1998. Arizona manager Buck Showalter, hanging on to an 8-6 lead, saluted Barry Bonds of the Giants when the career leader with 298 free passes came up with two outs in the ninth. This reduced the Diamondbacks' lead to 8-7. Brent Mayne hit a hard liner to right for the final out."

Chuck, here's a tidbit. It hadn't happened in the American League since 1901.

Possibly the only thing that hasn't occurred since the Cubs last won the WS.

ESPN is reporting that Greg Maddux is going to the Dodgers.

Btw, Chuck, any comments on Manny since he joined the Dodgers? :D

Gehrig, McGriff, Sheffield.
 

Love him or not, Gary Sheffield hit his 493rd career home run in the seventh inning, tying him with Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff for 25th on the all-time list.

I think that's probably a darn good pick-up for the Dodgers.

Sure. Everybody knows he wanted out of Boston and that he dogged it on purpose to get out. My own theory is that Scott Boras realized that he wasn't going to make a penny off of Manny if the Sox picked up Manny's option. So he convinced Manny that he'd make a ton more money (more than $20 million!) as a free agent; but that wouldn't happen if he performed well for Boston. Now, even when Manny has to sign for less than his Sox option called for, at least Boras will make his 10% of whatever Manny gets.

Rays win again in Anaheim, taking over the best record in the AL. Unbelievable. Sox win to keep pace. Yankees lose putting them 11 games back in the division and only 1 game above 4th place. Damon looked really bad in CF in the highlights I saw.


Bad news: Sox are saying that Beckett has numbness in his fingers. Ugh.

Good news: Yaz has triple bypass surgery today and seems to be doing well.

Go Yaz! (Saw him homer in Briggs Stadium in 1967.)

Your theory about Manny is a popular one...held by many others, particularly in the Bah-ston media. Boras is the kinda scuzzball that would try something like that.

The Rays just won't go away, will they? Impressive as hell.

I watched the Yankees game with my youngest son, who is also an avid fan of theirs. He was going out of his mind in the last few innings. First Girardi left the starting pitcher, Rasner, in an inning too long. He's proved himself to be a 5-6 inning pitcher who goes downhill quickly after that. Even though he had a 2-hitter going after 6, the Yankees had a rested bullpen ready to go. But they leave him in....and boom....home run to tie the game. And then Damon drops that flyball in the eighth with a man on first. I can't believe they ruled that a double instead of an error. Damon not only throws like a girl; he's starting to catch like a girl. The flyball that he dropped in the first was the exact same play. He's a DH only....on a team loaded with DH's. Matsui was back last night....finally....but they had to DH him because he can't play a position because of his knee. Giambi is a DH too; they oughta burn his glove. It's the old story...you win with pitching and defense....and the Yankees are a mediocre defensive team at best. A-Rod didn't help either; every time he came up he seemed to strike out....except for that little flare in the ninth that he stoopidly ran into an out at second.

Tidbit of the day; if the Rays finish with the best record in baseball, they will have gone from worst in the Majors to best in the Majors in one season. This hasn't been done in any major professional sport since 1890.

Just one more thing that hasn't happened since the Cubs won the World Series last.

You just HAVE to keep bringing that up.

Just like I probably have to bring up May 30th of this year. :)

Ya lost me, dude.

Buchholz got shelled again last night. He should be so much better than he's showing. He got optioned -- not to Triple-A Pawtucket -- to the Double-A Portland (Maine) Sea Dogs.

Byrd goes against Toronto tonight. It's his third consecutive start against the Blue Jays. His last start for Cleveland and now his first 2 starts for the Sox have all been against Toronto. Kind of unusual.

Sox and Yanks both got good news about pitchers getting ready to make a comeback. Wakefield may be coming back soon for Boston, possibly for the Yankee series next week. And the Yankees are all excited about welcoming Carl Pavano back to the starting lineup on Saturday!! Good times in NY. :D

Interesting historical first, on this date in 1975: The Reuschel brothers of the Cubs join forces to blank the Dodgers, 6-0. Rick goes 6 1-3 innings and Paul finishes the game for the first shutout thrown by siblings.

Well, that should be interesting, seeing that Toronto is playing the Yankees tonight.:D

Huh. Sox have an off night tonight. Oops!!

Was 7-0 for TO. Now 14-3 with 21 hits. Since the break, Toronto has an A+ record - right at the top.

This is pretty much off topic but I'd thought I'd share. I was watching an old rerun of the game show "The Name's The Same" on Game Show Network. On this show, they have "ordinary" people with famous names and the panel tries to guess whose name they have. The guest has to answer questions as if they were the famous person. On each show, they also have a celebrity guest who states they would like to be someone else whose famous, all in fun, and answer the questions the same way. On this episode, the celebrity guest was Mickey Mantle. He said he would like to be Prince Philip. This episode was filmed in about 1957, I think. BTW - the panel guessed who Mickey wanted to be. The panel consisted of Carl Reiner, Meredith Wilson and Joan Alexander. The host was Robert Q. Lewis. Mickey didn't really say why he would like to be Prince Philip. They also asked him if a certain homer he hit went 562 or 563 feet. He said 562. Carl Reiner said he once hit 562 baseballs one foot each, but nobody took notice. That was typical of the lame humor of that time.

Sox, Rays, Yanks all win last night. (Patriots got trounced, but that's a different off-topic thread.)

But did anybody happen to see the baseball gold medal game in the Olympics this morning? Korea vs. Cuba. Bottom of the ninth, one out, Korea up by a run. They give up a hit and then on a 3-0 count, ball four is called on a borderline pitch that the umpire must have judged was high. The pitcher's body language shows he obviously thought it was a strike, but he wasn't demonstrative. Next batter, ball four is called (to load the bases) on a very close pitch that I think was just low and outside.

The catcher is visibly upset and then stands up to talk nose-to-nose with the plate ump. The Korea coaches come out, there's a big discussion (although no yelling or gesturing that I could see), and when the dust settles, the catcher is ejected.

I can't imagine what must have transpired for the ump to eject a player in the bottom of the ninth in the gold medal game. It had to be pretty bad, but we didn't get to hear or see it on TV.

The catcher ejected himself.
Perhaps he said that "one more word". :)

Grumble, grumble, grumble.....(at least until the l'il sh!t shows up to gloat anyway).....

PS- A Rod is aptly named.

It's always fun to beat the Yankees, but honestly, I'm more happy that the Rays lost against Toronto. It's nice to see the bullpen hold up as well as it did. Okajima seems to be getting back to last year's form, and that's huge for the Sox.

With the Rays' loss, the Sox are now only 3.5 back. Twins also lost (thanks, DJ), so the Sox get another game up in the wild card, just in case they need it.

Mets can't hold off the Phillies' charge. They're not playing horribly (6-4 in their last 10), but the Phils are hot.

And I have to admit to a little bit of happiness to see the Dodgers go 2-8 over their last 10. Manny started out crazy-hot, but has cooled off quite a bit over the last week.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned it, but baseball is now moving (kicking and screaming, apparently) into the 21st century by starting replay on Thursday. The Phillies/Cubbies game will be the first one in history to use the system.

(Well, maybe the discussion is going on in the Baseball forum, but I'm too lazy to go over there.)

They seem to be preoccupied with the 9 year old second coming of Nolan Ryan.

All right, you forced me to go over there.

Rather entertaining. I didn't know whether to bring out my tissue box or wave my flag, but I did learn a new word.

As long as you've learned something today....

I'm still trying to forget what I learned about Woody yesterday.

Yeah, we never got preoccupied with stuff like that over here.....

Croquet anyone? :p

Hey, i wasn't judging. It's not like I haven't joined in. :)

Well, last night was fun, especially Pedroia's grand slam in the 8th; but today was downright painful. Okajima gives up the tying HR to Giambi, then they load the bases in the 9th before bringing in Papelbon, who promptly gives up the game-winning hit to -- again -- Giambi. Grrrrrr.

Kinda makes you want to go out and grow a 'stash, eh?

Forgot to mention that I'm off to Fenway tomorrow night to see Beckett's return to active duty. Saturday night, I'll be in D.C. to see the Nationals.

I hope you're not heading to Mississippi, are you?

Never mind.

Let us know how the new Nats stadium looks, and of course, what's the best food.

For medicinal purposes only, right? :cool:

I had no idea he had glaucoma.

Yer lucky. Have fun.
***

:(
Brewers - 327miles
Twins - 331 miles
Cubs - 408 miles
White Sox - 417
Tigers - 546 miles

That's what you think. :D

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3558531

I think it's sad that people don't know how to spell Halladay's name correctly. He is a real ace and a real great ballplayer, which he has proven year after year. Why do guys like Jeter get so much attention?

Have fun. Great Park!! I'll be at the Nats Game Monday - hey, there on a roll!

Gee, let me take a shot at this one - he's handsome, appears to be a nice guy, never gets in trouble, plays hard, respects the game, has 2500 hits, pretty good fielder, well spoken, articulate, goes to the playoffs almost every yr, perennial All Star, beloved by his teammates, and he plays in a major metro area and succeeds......of course, that's JMO.

PS - I'm no Yankee Fan, but, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Are you sure it wasn't a Halladay Inn?

And just what is wrong with Mississippi? Uh, never mind, I grew up there.:rolleyes:

You might've missed the spammer that came through here yesterday posting some, um, interesting pictures and the title included "Mississippi". They posted to all the foums, so I'm sure the mods got a blister on their fingers from hitting the delete button so much.

Yeah, I haven't been to the site for a couple of days (work keeps getting in the way of surfing), so I guess I missed all the fun.

Hang Ten Baby ...
 

Me too.

http://re3.yt-thm-a01.yimg.com/image/25/m4/2875877211

"Well I'll Be Damned. This is funny."
 

Stephen Drew of the Diamondbacks and Adrian Beltre of the Mariners both hit for the cycle yesterday. That's only happened twice in the history of major league baseball. The other time was in 1920.

Nobody bothered to comment on Sabathia's near no-hitter?

Cliff Lee threw a shutout last night for his 20th win. Pretty amazing how good he's been while the rest of the team has played so far below expectations.

Chuck - what did you think of National's Park in DC?

PS - and for your once in a while bizarre occurrences - yesterday Phils made two consecutive outs 1-5 (pitcher to third). I can't recall ever seeing that one before (one ground out, next pick-off).

I didn't see the play in question to have an opinion as to whether it should've been ruled a hit or error. But I hope they don't change the ruling, for a couple of reasons. First, I can't see MLB setting the precedent of reversing a judgement call (whether it's an umpire's call or an official scorer's call), and C.C. didn't have the pressure of pitching in the late innings with a potential no-hitter. I think there's something to going through the late innings with the crowd buzzing, your teammates ignoring you, etc., and he did not have any of that going on. A retroactive no-hitter just wouldn't be the same.

I thought it should have been an error, but I don't have a lot of experience judging these things.

I too thought it was an error, but absolutely concur with your thought process on NOT over-turning the scorer's decision.

Last year I was at a Cards vs Nats game at RFK in DC. Nats pitcher had a no-no going through 8 1/3. As described here - electric atmosphere and very exciting! Then a Cards player hit a clean single - the air went out of the stadium. Next batter up was Albert Pujols who proceeded to hit a ball almost as far as humanly possible (without juice I presume)! A tremendous shot to almost dead center! (next to a blast by Johnny Bench at the Old Veterans Stadium in Phila, I have never seen a ball go so far). The pitcher had the ole "let-down" and loss of concentration for one pitch after losing his no-no bid. It was the last pitch he threw.....he was relieved to a tremendous ovation. Great stuff though!

Very true. I was disappointed that Beckett couldn't go on Friday, and even more worried when they posted an announcement in the ballpark that he was going on the 15-day DL.

But we were treated instead to a great game. Dice-K pitched 8 shutout innings and gave up only 2 hits and 2 walks. He was stellar. I wish he could keep his walks down like that every outing. It seemed like the only trouble he had was on the very first pitch when Orlando Cabrera (who apparently is not feeling the afterglow of the '04 World Series from the fans anymore) sent a deep liner to the right-centerfield gap. But Ellsbury made an amazing diving catch to save extra bases. Pedroia went 4-for-4 with two steals on the night, scoring 3 times. Big Papi was 3-for-4 and Youk was 2-for-4; so it was a great night to be at Fenway.

Why, thank you so much for asking! If this doesn't get Dan to come out of hiding, nothing will. For those of you who don't know, my buddy John and I are about halfway through visiting all the MLB ballparks. We take a weekend trip each year, and this year we visited Boston and Washington, D.C.

Here are my descriptions of our previous visits if you're interested.

Chuck's Baseball Rankings -- First Installment
Chuck's Baseball Rankings -- 2006 Update
Chuck's Baseball Rankings -- 2007 Update

The Sox have made a lot of improvements to Fenway since I started going to games in the mid-'80s. But it's still a 96-year-old building in a 200-year-old section of the city. It's easy to get to by subway, but we drove in. And while parking is very difficult (and expensive -- $40/game) at the ballpark, the Sox have an arrangement with one of the city parking garages, so it's only $9 if you don't mind a 10-minute walk.

We sat in the right field outfield boxes, just beyond Pesky Pole. The seating is cramped, but our view was great. There was no way we were moving to find better seats, though. The Sox have sold out every game for about 4 years (they're 3 games away from breaking the record for consecutive sellouts), so the place was packed and we had to stay where we were. Additionally, the ticket prices are very high. The face value of our tickets was $50 each -- for outfield seats.

The food is pretty good at Fenway. They have the normal stuff (hot dogs, sausages), but they also have chicken meals, cheesesteaks and a Legal Seafood menu. Not as good a selection overall as Tropicana Field, but pretty varied.

The atmosphere is great, and it was helped by Dice-K's great performance. They have the music pumping, of course, but it wasn't overkill. (Unless you have a real aversion to Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline".) Plus the unusual dimensions and the Green Monster make it a unique experience.

Nationals Park had all the things that you expect in the new generation of ballparks. Great views from every seat, a cool video scoreboard, open walkways so that you can still see the field while you walk around the park. It also had little quirks in the outfield dimensions, but in the new parks, you know that they're for effect; not because they need them. The park was very easy to get to on the Metro system (Navy Yard stop) and our tickets were fairly reasonably priced.

And although we had decent seats (3rd level, directly behind home plate), we never even saw them. We walked down to field level behind the visitors' dugout to watch batting practice -- and never left. We watched the whole game from the 5th row, directly behind the dugout. So it was pretty easy to improve our seats!

The selection of food was very good, I thought. Pizza, hot dogs, chicken fingers, chili-cheese fries; although John was very disappointed with the pulled pork sandwich.

It was a nice park, but it didn't seem to have anything that made it stand out a whole lot for me, personally. It's like Turner Field -- nice but nothing spectacular. The biggest thing that Nationals Park has going for it, and what makes it better overall than Turner Field or Tropicana Field, is that it's in Washington and close to all the fantastic museums and memorials on and around the National Mall.

So here's my updated personal rankings of the ballparks that we've been to so far:

1. Camden Yard (Baltimore, 2001)
2. PNC (Pittsburgh, 2003)
3. Citizens' Bank Park (Philly, 2004)
4. Fenway Park (Boston, 2008)
5. Yankee Stadium (NY, 2004)
6. Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati, 2005)
7. SkyDome (Toronto, 2006)
8. Nationals Park (Washington, D.C., 2008)
9. Jacobs' Field (Cleveland, 2005)
10. Comerica Park (Detroit, 2006)
11. Tropicana Field (Tampa/St. Pete, 2007)
12. Turner Field (Atlanta, 2007)
13. Olympic Stadium (Montreal, 2002)
14. Dolphins Stadium (Miami, 2007)
15. Shea Stadium (NY, 2003)

I've created a Google map, showing our trips and some of the things that we've done along the way. If you're interested, please feel free to check it out:

Chuck and John's Baseball Trips

Most of the placemarks have pictures attached, but there are no pictures for Baltimore, Montreal, NY (Mets) or Pittsburgh. We only have video of those, and I don't know how to load that stuff.

Here's yet another one. When we were in Washington, the Nats won the game when the Braves pitcher walked in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. The same night, the Mets lost by walking in the winning run (although it was the 9th) in Miami.

How many times have there been 2 walk-off walks on the same night?!?!

Chuck - thanks for the review!

I've been to a great many parks myself (not as many as you and John though) and concur with: A) your opinion of the Nats Stadium (GREAT HUGE scoreboard, wide concourse, good site lines, friggin ex$pen$ive food like they all have, etc.), and B) your ranking of Camden Yards - one of the first New Generation of Old Time Parks which really does stand the test of time well.

I am increasingly dissappointed at the DC crowds though (obvioulsy the same reason you could get your nice seat). Only 29K for a Labor Day game against the Phils yesterday on a beautiful summer day - and 10K of those were Philly Fans!? :eek: Bright side of course is, I can always get tickets and "improve" my seats! ;)

Hope you have more happy travels and please continue to report in!

I was at a Nats game earlier this year when the Nats won the game on a "walk-off wild pitch!" Great memories!

Sox stole a game today that they had no business winning. Tie game, bottom 9 with runners on 1st and 2nd, and Ellsbury puts down a sac bunt. The pitcher tries to get the lead runner and throws it away, allowing the runner to score and end the game.

And now I'm rooting for the Yankees?!?!?! :confused: What's the weather like where you are JR? Frozen over yet? :D

C'mon, they were playing the O's!? ;)

Chuck,

What's the next stadium you are going to knock off your list?

Well, it's history.

MLB's first use of Instant Replay confirmed the on-field call of a home run for A Rod.

It's about time!

Since the Sox aren't playing tonight (NFL Opening Night is almost as good!), I thought I'd share this little tidbit that I found online.

On this date in 1913:

Guy goes 11 innings for a complete game win and never pitches again in the bigs. Ouch. I couldn't find a reason; either an injury or a really stacked pitching staff.

Was he related to Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, or (now) Carlos Zambrano?

Oh, never mind. I'm sure Snaqs will be along shortly to help me out with any statistics.

No need. :)

Hal Schwenk was hit by a streetcar just after leaving the ballpark that night. The streetcar knocked poor Hal 28 feet in the air through a third story window and he landed in the bed of an elderly spinster, Miss Myrna Drozdz. After thanking God and then having her carnal way with the befuddled Mister Schwenk, Miss Drozdz pitched poor Hal back out of her window, whereupon Hal was promptly run over by a Model A Ford and two teams of horses pulling Budweiser wagons. To add insult to injury, Mr. Schwenk was also charged with leaving the scene of an accident for his flight through poor Miss Drozdz' window. Hal never did recover sufficiently from the injuries that he suffered in this unfortunate mishap to be able to continue his baseball career. He died a broken man and he currently lies in an unmarked grave about 7 feet to the left of what is now second base in Busch Stadium.

There are rumors that the evil, misbegotten spawn of Hal Schwenk and Myna Drozdz is currently living somewhere in Illinois, disguised as an avid Cubs fan.

It's true, it's true......

You know, at some point this season, poor Mr. Schwenk is going to roll over, stick his hand up out of his grave and simultaneously trip Albert running the bases and flip you off, all in one motion.

It's true...it's true...

Let me save Chuck the trouble.....

This morning's update......

- The Rays are gagging but still have a big enough lead to get the AL wildcard.
- You win with pitching. The Yankees don't have any. They're officially toast.
- I'd trade A-Rod straight up for Dustin Pedroia. I don't think Bah-ston is dumb enough to go for that one though.
- The Cubbies are in first place. Not to worry...somewhere along the line, they'll gag too.
- LA and Manny are in love with each other. Manny is a heckuva ballplayer (when he feels like trying).
-I-Rod punches like a girl.

Prediction: the Angels win the World Series. They're the best team in <i>beisbol</i>.

ESPN says the 250,000th MLB HR was prolly Gary Sheffield's grand slam last night.

A-Rod reminds me a little of Darryl Strawberry and Mike Schmidt in the sense I seem to only recall them hitting homers and knocking in runs when it didn't matter.... (ya know 10-3 and 9-1 games). I seem to recall one yr Mike Schmidt had like 20 homers and only 30 RBI's early in the yr (I know this is a generalization and my memory is not so good). I heard the other day that A-Rod has THREE RBI this yr after the 7th inning! I like him as a player and his eventual stats will be up there with the all time greats when he's done. But overall, with runners on base, late in the game, clutch he is not!

For 30 mil a year, you'd better do a helluva lot more than he's been doing. Gaudy stats don't translate into wins.

Unfortunately, A-Rod has never won a damn thing in his career to date and he's also never shown that he can carry a team either. Manny, for all his faults, has been more valuable over-all to his teams imo.

I did some checking on ESPN's stat site, and here's what I found for the situation "Close and Late" (which means 7th inning and later, with their team either up one, tied, or the tying run in the on-deck circle), for 2008:
<TABLE border=1><TBODY><TR><TD align=left></TD><TD>AB </TD><TD>H</TD><TD>HR</TD><TD>RBI</TD><TD>AVG</TD></TD><TD>OBP</TR><TR><TD align=left>A. Rodriguez (Yankees)</TD><TD>65</TD><TD>17</TD><TD>2</TD><TD>7</TD>><TD>.262</TD>><TD>.364</TD><TR><TD align=left>M. Ramirez (Red Sox/Dodgers)</TD><TD>78</TD><TD>23</TD><TD>5</TD><TD>17</TD>><TD>.295</TD>><TD>.417</TD><TR><TD align=left>A. Ramirez (Cubs)</TD><TD>65</TD><TD>25</TD><TD>8</TD><TD>27</TD>><TD>.385</TD>><TD>.523</TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Manny must get walked a lot in those situations. OBP of .968? Wow!

Oops - I accidently used Manny's OPS (On-base plus slugging) stat instead of his OBP. I went back and corrected it.

FYI - Aramis' OPS in those situations is 1.338.