Posts for category ‘baseball’

First of all, I’m all for integrity and fairness in sports, but not when they are used as an excuse for losing.

These examples happen in all professional sports, but I’ll concentrate on the sport about to begin its second season, Major League Baseball. All but one division has been decided. The Phillies, Cubs, and Dodgers have made it from the National League; the Brewers sealed the NL wildcard with another Mets collapse. In the American League, the Rays and Angels have won their respective divisions, the Red Sox have locked up the AL wildcard, and the White Sox and Twins will play a tiebreaker for the AL Central Division on Tuesday (correction: if the White Sox beat the Tigers today).

Most seem content with the playoff eligibility process, save for one blowhard. New York Yankees Senior Vice President, Hank Steinbrenner, is turning out to be a bigger jerk than his father, sealing my continued distaste towards the team in pinstripes for the foreseen future.

Last week, Steinbrenner decried that the MLB playoff system, where division winners are guaranteed entry in the postseason, is unfair.

The biggest problem is the divisional setup in major league baseball. I didn’t like it in the 1970s, and I hate it now. Baseball went to a multidivision setup to create more races, rivalries and excitement. But it isn’t fair.

This is easily a ‘sour grapes’ moment as the Yankees will be left watching the chase for the World Series from home, thanks to the bad management decisions they have made. Others have also pointed out that Steinbrenner is a pretty big hypocrite for making the complaint now.

Read more »

If New York Yankees catcher, Jorge Posada, ends up needing surgery on this shoulder, and thus required to miss the rest of 2008, could Paul Lo Duca be an option for Hank Steinbrenner?

Posada is scheduled to have an MRI on his left shoulder today, the results of which will chart the path of the Yankees future. For one, the Yanks have some options in the event that Posada can’t make it back behind the plate. Jose Molina, who A-Rod called an “angel,” filled in the other day, and Chad Moeller is available for spot duty as well. Moeller was actually with the Nats during spring training, but was later cut and signed to a minor league contract by the Yankees.

Second, I doubt the Yankees would want to make some drastic move, giving up prospects in return for a playoff rental. Making the post season this year is far from guaranteed, and this tactic has failed the Yankees in the past as their farm system has been pilfered by ill-advised moves.

Which brings me back to Lo Duca. The Nationals should have never signed the guy. In my opinion, Jesus Flores showed enough last season to earn more time in the pros this season, others feel the same way. And if Kasten, Bowden & Co. are in full rebuilding mode, why throw $5 million to PLD for a year in the first place? Quite the waste of money for a bunch of penny-pinchers.

Knowing the Washington franchise status, shouldn’t they be ready to trade Lo Duca for a ham sandwich? I’ll admit that with his injuries, appearance in the Mitchell Report, etc., Lo Duca doesn’t appear to be the best option for New York, but he should be the cheapest option. Thing is, Lo Duca is a New Yorker….straight from Brooklyn. He played for the Mets in the previous two seasons, shouldn’t the guy be afforded the chance to play for the other NYC team?

Read more »

Ok, so when Dan Uggla is involved (in a tragic manner), I can’t resist punning his name in a headline.

What a huge goat he almost was (and to an extent, still is), in hitting into a double play in the top of the 10th and then booting two balls on the first two batters in the bottom of the inning. I bet his mouth was as dry as a bone under a heat lamp in the desert when Grady Sizemore grounded to him in a bases loaded FC out at home-plate after Carlos Guillen was intentionally walked. I know this, Aaron Cook pitched a helluva 10th inning keeping all hit balls on the ground and in the infield. If the American League had prevailed in the bottom of the 10th, the headline would’ve read: National League Hits Every Stick On The Uggla Tree.

Getting struck out by Joakim Soria on a “knee buckler” with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the 12th didn’t aid Uggla’s redemption efforts. In fact, yet another boot to the chest, the 3rd error of Uggla’s night, in the bottom of the 13th pushed him lower. Joe Buck had plenty of sympathy for the kid giving Dan the benefit of the doubt with a bad hop call.

In the end, the National League could not survive the marathon. Hopefully, next time, Dan Uggla will have a much better looking effort than going 0-4, striking out three times and leaving six on base.

Defensive MVP?
In the bottom of the 11th, Nate McLouth made a great throw to put out Dioner Navarro at home. If the National League would’ve went on to win in the 12th, I was ready to give Russell Martin the All-Star MVP for blocking the plate and making an unbelievable tag….the 3rd of the last five outs which came at home plate.

Delayed Response
It sure did take Joe Buck and Tim McCarver a while to mention that the All-Star game actually counts for something after they initially wondered if the game would be a tie situation as it was in Milwaukee in ’02. And I wasn’t the only one questioning this….c’mon fellas, know what’s going on….that’s awful announcing.

Read more »

The good folks at Epic Carnival got their hands on a $50 gift card from MLB……so the obvious choice was to hold a Photoshop contest (despite a call for boobies and zingers) to see who would get their hands on the prize.

Naturally, I wanted to put my Photoshop skills to the test and attempted to get creative in the 11th hour of the deadline….and here is that attempt:

Hank Steinbrenner is at the wheel. Roger Clemens, Sidney Ponson, and Jose Canseco are all aboard. Milton Bradley is ordering Barry Bonds to get back on while Elijah Dukes is trying his best to escape the fray.

Check out all the other entries here. If you’re around…..you can, like, go and vote for me and stuff.

See the full photo slide-show here.

I love to people watch. Coffee shops are good, but metro rides on the way to the debut of Nationals Park are even better:

• You got your enthusiastic 12-year-old, complete with a mitt and a blue & red Nationals “crazy hair” wig…..along with his suspiciously effeminate father, who was wearing a purple-blue jacket with a pink collar, glasses with frames you’d expect to see on a 14-year-old schoolgirl from the 1960s, and a tan Nationals hat. “It’s opening day son!…Time to break out the tan Nats hat!”
  
• The couple of mid-60s white women with beauty-parlor dyed hair and pudgy mid-Western décor hustling and bustling into the green line train from their blue/orange transfer at L’Enfant Plaza. Beware of such determination to find one of the few open seats for a two-stop ride…. women with their own seat cushions don’t mess around.
• Finally, you got your average white guy along with his average white girlfriend projecting that uncomfortable white guy smile at the sight of some black folks tusslin’. He appears to convey his delight at the hijinks, but we all know he wants to charge out of the train like George Kostanza at a child’s birthday party.

Read more »

Everyone is gushing over Chris Bosh’s All-Star campaign videos. It started with attention from bloggers, then ESPN, and now media markets all over are jumping on the band-wagon. But should Bosh really be an All-Star this year? And will the fans ever get it right?

According to common sense (and working within the current flawed voting system for starter — that’s for another post), here is how it should go in the East for the 2008 NBA All-Star game.

Let’s start with the givens, Kevin Garnett and LeBron James will be the starting forwards. KG leads all players with 1,527,963 votes and LBJ is second overall with 1,294,019.

The fans are right here, Garnett and James are putting up great numbers for great teams and they should both start at forward. No arguments.

At center, Dwight Howard is also a lock to start. He’s more than doubled up Shaq’s 2nd place 466,292 votes. Thumbs up to the fans on Howard, thumbs down for Shaq being number two. (Thank god, it’s about time Shaq missed an All-Star game — there is no way the coaches can select him, is there?)

Read more »

(refers to the page number on the bottom of the Mitchell report pages, not in the PDF)

Paul Lo Duca – Page 208

Who he got them from: Radomski

When he got them: July 26, 2004 – $3,200; August 7, 2004 – $3,200; at least 4 additional transactions.

When they worked: Probably when he started dating pop star Rietsa

Read more »