Nomar Garciaparra retires
Nomar Garciaparra, a one-time Hall of Fame lock, has called it a career after 14 seasons in Major League Baseball. He has officially retired and will now begin working as a baseball annalist for ESPN.
I wont miss him. I’ve never been a Nomar Garciaparra fan. To watch him at bat was a baseball at it’s worse. After every pitch, he would step out of the batter’s box and adjust his batting gloves. It was so, so annoying. If his gloves really needed to be adjusted after each and every pitch, maybe he was wearing the wrong gloves.
Goodbye Nomar Garciaparra. You will not be missed. At least not by me.
Stephen Strasburg to make his professional baseball debut in the minor leagues
Stephen Strasburg, the highly touted top pick of the 2009 MLB spring draft, will likely start the 2010 season in the minor leagues and not for the Washington Nationals in the big league. Not that anyone usually thinks of the Washington Nationals has being part of the big league.
Stephen Strasburg will likely start playing professional baseball in either the double-A or triple-A level. That means he wont be playing for the Hagerstown Suns, one of the single-A level teams for the Washington Nationals. That is, unless he begins pitching at the double-A level and turns out to totally suck. That would be a bad thing since he is already being described as one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball.
Which of these two men is older?
Who’s the older man in this picture? Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail or “new” Baltimore Orioles third baseman Miguel Tejada?
I wasn’t sorry to see Miguel Tejada leave the Orioles in 2007. I can’t say that I’m happy to see him return. Not only did he appear on the Mitchell Report in connection to steroids, he actually is one of the few players in Major League Baseball to have a criminal conviction stemming from the steroid controversy. On February 11, 2009 Tejada pleaded guilty to charges that he lied to Congress in 2005. He received one year of probation.
I just don’t see how once again adding Miguel Tejada to the Baltimore Orioles will make them a better ballclub. He’s old. Since he lies about his age, nobody even knows how old he really is. Some scientists claim that he may be 67-years old.
At least that’s what I heard.
Andre Dawson to enter Hall of Fame as an Expo, not a Cub
Future Baseball Hall of Fame enshrinee Andre Dawson was disappointed to learn that when he is enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he will he going in as a Montreal Expo, not a Chicago Cub.
Andre Dawson had let it be known publicly that he wanted to go in as a Cub, not an Expo. Dawson played in Montreal for 11 years. He played in Chicago for six seasons, winning the 1987 NL MVP award in the process. He also played two years in Boston and then Florida before retiring in 1996.
The Expos don’t even exist anymore. They moved before the 2005 season and became the Washington Nationals. All things being equal, he ought to go into the Baseball Hall of Fame wearing the cap of the team that still exists, especially if that is his desire.
Mark McGwire admits to using steroids
Mark McGwire has finally come out and admitted what everyone always thought – that he used steroids when he broke baseball’s home run record in 1998. What’s he going to admit next, that he has red hair and a goatee?
I don’t really understand all the hoopla when it comes to steroids in baseball. Contrary to what you might have heard on sports talk radio, steroids do not help you hit home runs. What they do is allow your muscles to heal faster and recover quicker when subjected to trauma or damage. This means that when someone is engaging in strenuous weight lifting and they are taking steroids, they will be able to recover quicker in between workouts then someone who is not taking steroids. This allows them to lift more and work harder than someone who is not taking them.
So in other words, a person taking steroids is able to work harder than a person not taking them.
The notion that they are some kind of home run hitting magical elixir is absurd.
I guess one might make the argument that steroids help a person gain more muscles and more muscles help a person hit home runs, so it’s cheating. The problem with that argument is that simply lifting weights help to gain muscles too.
Is lifting weights cheating too? How about eating egg white omelets and broiled skinless chicken breasts?
I’m not even convinced that big muscles help a person hit home runs. Hank Aaron held the life time home run record for the longest time and he wasn’t a big muscle type of guy.
It’s probably a good thing that Mark McGwire came out and told everyone what we all thought to begin with. It’s not like he was the first baseball player to use steroids before they were banned by Major League Baseball. I’m sure that as time goes on, more players will come out and make similar “confessions”. If they were smart, they would come out now while all the attention is being focused on McGwire.
Nobody said ball players were smart.
Andre Dawson elected to the Hall of Fame
Andre Dawson has been elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He will be enshrined into Cooperstown on July 25, 2010.
This is the ninth time Dawson has appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot. The other eight times Dawson was on the ballot, he was not yet good enough for Cooperstown. Even though he has not played professional baseball in 14 years, he evidently has somehow improved as a player. Even though his stats and accomplishment have not changed since his retirement, he’s now good enough for the Hall of Fame, even though he evidently wasn’t good enough the prior eight times his name appeared on the ballot.
I just don’t get that.
Either a player is a Hall of Fame player or he’s not. I don’t get how the voters can reject someone for enshrinement for years and then suddenly reverse their prior votes.
What in the world is going on with Sammy Sosa?
If you didn’t know that the man on the right was Sammy Sosa, you would think it was just some creepy looking guy with pasty skin and freaky looking eyes. It’s Sammy Sosa with pasty skin and freaky looking eyes.
He looks like a vampire or a zombie.
Is pale skin one of the side effects of long time steroid use? If it is, it wouldn’t be the first time Sammy Sosa displayed an unwanted side effect from hard-core steroid abuse. Who can forget the time Sammy Sosa was called before Congress to talk about performance enhancing drugs in baseball and he lost the ability to speak English? If I’m not mistaken, that’s one of the possible side effects of steroid use. I once took a cortisone injection in my shoulder and I stopped being able to speak Klingon.
A coincidence? I think not.
One of his “friends” told the Chicago Tribune that he is going through some kind of “rejuvenation process for his skin” and that it left his skin looking white. This friend also said something about Sosa using moisturizing treatment at night on his face.
If he’s using moisturizer on his face, why are his ears white too?
John Legend sings the National Anthem at game two of the 2009 World Series
If this isn’t one of the best renditions of the National Anthem, I don’t know what is. It’s truly a beautiful performance. It more than made up for Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ earlier performance of the Billy Joel rip-off Empire State Of Mind. Though I liked the part sang by Alicia Keys, I wanted Jay-Z to just shut up.
In Empire State Of Mind, Jay-Z claims that he “made the Yankees hat more famous than a Yankee can.” Really? Then why is it still called a Yankees hat and not a Jay-Z hat?
Ruth didn’t build this house and coincidently, it’s falling apart
The concrete pedestrian ramps at the new Yankee Stadium are cracking, and nobody seems to know why. These are the same concrete pedestrian ramps built by a company that is rumored to have connections to the mob. Then again, if it’s concrete related and it’s in New York City, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the mafia is connected.
Personally, I don’t think it’s shoddy work, a bad design, or watered down concrete. I think it’s the wrath of God. I think God is a baseball fan (and why wouldn’t he be?) and he’s tired of the way the Yankees throw their filthy money around, mucking things up for everyone else.
Maybe you don’t agree. Maybe you think it’s a good thing that the Yankees are able to pay CC Sabathia so much money that his children’s children’s children will never have to work a day in their lives. I just think it’s a shame that there isn’t a way that would allow Sabathia’s descendants to be spared the unpleasantness of working for a living, but would still allow Sabathia to remain a Cleveland Indian for as long as he played baseball.
Or until he stopped being good at getting guys out.
Now you might not agree with me, but don’t be surprised if more strange things happen, things to do with the New York and/or the Yankees. For example, if the Hudson River turns to blood or if millions of locust descend upon the Triborough Bridge.
Those are the kind of things that happen when God gets mad. Bad things happen. Don’t take my word for it, look it up in the Old Testament.
This is one of the reasons people hate the New York Yankees
What would post-season, October baseball be without the New York Yankees benefiting from a “questionable” call? Seriously, this is just ridiculous. Umpire Phil Cuzzi was standing right there watching the ball land in fair territory and then bounce into the stands. It should have been a ground rule double. Instead, it was strike two for Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Maurer.
The score was tied 3-3 in the 11th inning with no outs.
Umpire Phil Cuzzi is no stranger to controversy. He has a track record of making controversial calls. He shouldn’t have been anywhere near this game, especially considering that he lives in New Jersey and likely has a bias when it comes to the New York Yankees. Is it a stretch to think that a guy who was born and raised in Newark probably grew up rooting for the Yankees?
I think not.
Seriously, this is a travesty. Because the first round of the playoffs is only five games long instead of the regular seven, blown calls like this one are even more egregious than normal. Coincidentally, the Yankees seems to always seem to be the ones benefiting from something like this.
Let the Major League Baseball Divisional Series games begin!
The post-season officially starts today for Major League Baseball (MLB) and according the Awful Announcing, this is the TV schedule for all the divisional series games:
Wednesday, October 7th
- Colorado Rockies @ Philadelphia Phillies, Game #1 (TBS, 2:30pm)- Brian Anderson, Joe Simpson and David Aldridge
- Minnesota Twins @ New York Yankees, Game #1 (TBS, 6pm)- Chip Caray, Ron Darling and Craig Sager
- St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers, Game #1 (TBS, 9:30pm)- Dick Stockton, Bob Brenly and Tom Verducci
Thursday, October 8th
- Colorado Rockies @ Philadelphia Phillies, Game #2 (TBS, 2:30pm)- Brian Anderson, Joe Simpson and David Aldridge
- St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers, Game #2 (TBS, 6pm)- Dick Stockton, Bob Brenly and Tom Verducci
- Boston Red Sox @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Game #1 (TBS, 9:30pm)- Don Orsillo, Buck Martinez and Mark Fein
Friday, October 9th
- Minnesota Twins @ New York Yankees, Game #2 (TBS, 6pm)- Chip Caray, Ron Darling and Craig Sager
- Boston Red Sox @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Game #2 (TBS, 9:30pm)- Don Orsillo, Buck Martinez and Mark Fein
Saturday, October 10th
- Los Angeles Dodgers @ St. Louis Cardinals, Game #3 (TBS, 6:30pm)- Dick Stockton, Bob Brenly and Tom Verducci
- Philadelphia Phillies @ Colorado Rockies, Game #3 (TBS, 10pm)- Brian Anderson, Joe Simpson and David Aldridge
Sunday, October 11th
- Los Angeles Dodgers @ St. Louis Cardinals, Game #4* (TBS, TBD)- Dick Stockton, Bob Brenly and Tom Verducci
- Philadelphia Phillies @ Colorado Rockies, Game #4* (TBS, TBD)- Brian Anderson, Joe Simpson and David Aldridge
- New York Yankees @ Minnesota Twins, Game #3 (TBS, TBD)- Chip Caray, Ron Darling and Craig Sager
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim @ Boston Red Sox, Game #3 (TBS, TBD)- Don Orsillo, Buck Martinez and Mark Fein
Monday, October 12th
- New York Yankees @ Minnesota Twins , Game #4* (TBS, TBD)- Chip Caray, Ron Darling and Craig Sager
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim @ Boston Red Sox, Game #4* (TBS, TBD)- Don Orsillo, Buck Martinez and Mark Fein
Tuesday, October 13th
- St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers, Game #5* (TBS, TBD)- Dick Stockton, Bob Brenly and Tom Verducci
- Colorado Rockies @ Philadelphia Phillies, Game #5* (TBS, TBD)- Brian Anderson, Joe Simpson and David Aldridge
Wednesday, October 14th
- Minnesota Twins @ New York Yankees, Game #5* (TBS, TBD)- Chip Caray, Ron Darling and Craig Sager
- Boston Red Sox @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Game #5 (TBS, TBD) Don Orsillo, Buck Martinez and Mark Fein
Baseball players honor teammate killed by a drunk driver by dousing his jersey with beer
The Los Angeles Angels celebrated winning the AL West the other night by dousing the jersey of Williamsport High School graduate Nick Adenhart with beer. Adenhart was killed this past April after the vehicle he was traveling in was struck by 22-year-old Andrew Gallo. Not only was Gallo drunk, he was driving on a suspended license from a prior drunk driving conviction.
Gallo not only killed Adenhart, but two other people who were traveling with Adenhart.
It’s too bad that the Angles couldn’t come up with some other way of celebrating their big win that didn’t involve alcohol.
David Wright’s gigantic helmet
A lot of people are making fun of New York Mets third basemen David Wright’s gigantic helmet, and rightfully so. The helmet makes him look completely stupid. I don’t know if it’s because his helmet is just too big, or that his body is incredibly small.
He’s wearing this contraption because he was hit in the head with a pitch a few weeks ago by Matt Cain of the San Fransisco Giants. Wright went down hard and stayed down for a couple of minutes. He was eventually able to leave the field under his own power and the Mets put him on the 15-day disabled list. He suffered a concussion and the fear is that if he’s hit in the head again, the concussion will be worse. That’s the way concussions are, each one is progressively worse.
This new helmet is supposed to give his head more protection than the standard MLB batting helmet.
I think the problem with this helmet is that the designers tried to make it look sort of like a baseball cap. Back in the olden times, batters went to bat without a helmet, they simply wore the same wool cap that they wore when they played defense. When helmets first appeared in MLB, they looked just like wool caps, only they were hard plastic. Over the years, they slowly evolved into safer helmets, yet they have retained the look of a baseball cap.
I think that’s a mistake.
They should just design a safe helmet and not worry about making it look sort of like a baseball cap. No matter what they do, it’s not going to look like a baseball cap so they should just stop.
Having kids compete on live national TV is child abuse
ESPN is televising the Little League World Series and if televising underage children as they compete in athletic competition isn’t bad enough, they are evidently putting microphones on the coaches so that we, the viewers, can listen in as they talk to their kids. It’s because of this fact that we get to see and hear the following conversation:
COACH: “Hey, we’re going to come up again.”
PITCHER: “Is it okay if I just hit this batter?”
COACH: “What? No. No. Are you kidding me? … Let’s get this guy. Come on. We’re still in this game. One-run game. You wanna stay in?”
PITCHER: “No.”
COACH: “You wanna come out right now?”
PITCHER: “Yes, I do. Can I sit out?”
COACH: “No, you’re going to first base.”
I guess you could say that this kid is showing really bad sportsmanship, but he’s just a kid. He’s not done yet. He should be allowed to grow up first before subjected to the national spotlight.
It’s pretty obviously to see that this kid is having a bad day. Though having a bad day is part of life, having a bad day on national TV is not. That’s why people should think long and hard before agreeing to appear on live TV in either a so-called reality TV show or the ultimate type of reality TV, a sporting event.
It should be obvious to see that 12-year old kids are far too young to be making these decisions. I think it creates too much pressure for the kids involved. ESPN shouldn’t be showing these games and you shouldn’t be watching them.
The unassisted triple play
It was the 15th unassisted triple play in major league baseball history and only the second time it’s happened to end a game. There were runners on first and second and both runners were attempting to steal when Jeff Francoeur of the New York Mets hit the ball directly to Philadelphia Phillies utility infielder Eric Bruntlett. Out #1 was when Bruntlett caught the line drive. Out #2 was when Bruntlett stepped on the bag for the force out of Luis Castillo who was on second base, but legally could not advance to third base because the hit ball had never touched the ground. Out #3 was when Bruntlett tagged Daniel Murphy before he could get back to first base.
One. Two. Three. An unassisted triple play by a utility infielder.
Nationals sign top draft pick with minutes to spare
The Washington Nationals were able to reach a deal with 2009 Major League Baseball No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg late last night only minutes before the midnight deadline. Strasburg signed a $15.1 million, four-year deal.
That’s a lot of money.
If the Nats had failed to sign Strasburg before then, they would have lost the rights to sign him and he would have to go back into next year’s draft. The Nats earned the right to take the first draft pick this year by losing 102 games last year.
Strasburg is a right-handed power pitcher. He stands 6-5 tall and weighs in at 216 pounds. His fast ball is clocked at 97 MPH.
There’s a slight chance he might be coming to the Hagerstown Suns for a few minutes, but I kind of doubt it. Then again, I didn’t think the Nats were going to even sign him, so what do I know? The Suns are the single A team for the Washington Nationals and play in Memorial Stadium. It’s the stadium baseball great Willie Mays made his professional debut.
Strasburg hasn’t pitched since May while playing for San Diego State as a sophomore.
Shocker of all shockers, Yankees sign CC Sabathia
The Yankees, a team that hasn’t won a World Series in eight years, has signed CC Sabathia to a 7-year, $161 million dollar contract. As if he wouldn’t have taken the job if they only offered him $160 million. As if they had to kick in another million bucks just to make the deal work.
How do they come up with these contracts? $161 million is such a weird number to settle on.
The funny thing about this is that New York taxpayers are forking over $200 million to the Yankees organization so that they can build the new $1 billion Yankees Stadium. If they have $161 to spend on a fat pitcher, why can’t they build their own statium without getting a handout from the taxpayer?
Baseball Hall of Fame finds room for yet another undeserving Yankee
Former second baseman Joe Gordon has been selected for enshrinement to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. If you think the Veterans Committee is comprised of soldiers back from Iraq or Afghanistan, you would be wrong. They’d probably do a better job.
It’s made up of old ballplayers.
I just don’t get it. Joe Gordon hasn’t played baseball since 1950. He died in 1978. He evidently wasn’t good enough to make the Hall of Fame the regular way, by being voted in by the Baseball Writers Association of America. How did a man who has been dead for 30 years suddenly get good enough at playing baseball to be enshrined in Cooperstown?
I looked at his statistics over at Baseball Reference. Guess what? He doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
His numbers are marginal at best.
He had one great season. In 1942 he won the American League Most Valuable Player. Even then he didn’t deserve it. Ted Williams had a much better season in 1942. Williams had better numbers than Gordon in every offensive category. Don’t take my word for it. Look for yourself.
Joe Gordon didn’t serve to be the AL MVP in 1942 and he doesn’t deserve to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.
Mike Mussina to retire after first 20-win season
Yankees 40-year old pitcher Mike Mussina is calling it quits after achieving his first 20 win season in 18 years of playing Major League Baseball. Mussina was an Orioles first round draft pick in 1990. He played for the Orioles from 1991 to 2000, and then went on to sign a free agent contract with the rival Yankees.
The big knock on Mussina – if there was one — was that he never registered a 20- win season. He had two back to back 19-win seasons while playing for the Orioles as well as two 18-win seasons. With that said, he was almost always the number one pitcher on his team for much of his entire career.
I happened to be in Camden Yards the night he scored his 100 win. I don’t remember the date, but it was an interleague game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles. I remember there being more Philly fans in attendance then Oriole fans. That’s a trend that only worsened as the Orioles worsened. Not just with the Phillies, but with the Yankees and the Red Sox too.
The most exciting sporting event I have ever seen in my life was a game between the Cleveland Indians and the Baltimore Orioles. Mussina was on the mound. He had a perfect game going into the ninth inning. Indians catcher Sandy Alomar then got a one-out single to break up the perfect game.
If Mike Mussina somehow doesn’t end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame, it will be a crime against humanity. He finishes his career with a 270-153 record and 3.68 ERA. He has 2,813 career strikeouts and just won his seventh Gold Glove award. He spent his entire career in the offense happy AL East and 10 years of that pitching in hitter-friendly Camden Yards. He’s also a total class act. That shouldn’t matter much when it comes to Hall of Fame consideration, but it counts a lot in my book.
Not that I even have a book.
Game 5 of the World Series suspended for puddles and wetness
The fifth game of the World Series was suspended last night in the 6th inning. The game is rescheduled for today at 8:00 p.m., but that seems unlikely since they are calling for even worse weather.
The Phillies and Rays are tied 2-2 with the Phillies leading the series 3-1.
Fixed: Media sharing has been turned off
I finally fixed the problem with sharing media on my PC with my Xbox 360. I found instructions buried on the Microsoft website that were actually easy to follow and solved the problem. I found the remedy on a page entitled, “You cannot view, add, or delete items in the library in Windows Media Player 11”
As it turns out, my Windows Media Player library database had become “corrupted”. It looked OK. If I had tried to do anything with the files showing up in my library other then to watch them on my TV, I might have fixed the problem sooner. I was troubleshooting it as though it was a problem between my PC and my Xbox 360. That was only a symptom of the problem. It wasn’t the problem itself.
This is what it said to do:
1. Exit Windows Media Player.
2. Click Start, click Run, type %LOCALAPPDATA%MicrosoftMedia Player, and then click OK.
3. Select all the files in the folder, and then click Delete on the File menu.
4. Restart Windows Media Player.
Windows Media Player 11 will then automatically rebuild the database.
Phillies take Game 1 of the World Series
I didn’t get to watch much of the game last night between the American League champs the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the National League champs the Philadelphia Phillies. Even though both teams are here on the east coast, the game didn’t start till nearly 8:40 p.m. The game was scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m., but Fox being Fox had to waste the first 40 minutes with redundant filler. The highlight was former Phillies great Mike Schmidt announcing the Philadelphia starting lineup.
I’m pretty sure he was drunk.
I got up this morning and the Internets told me that the Phillies won, 3-2.
Looking for a team to root against in the World Series?
This year’s World Series will be played between the Philadelphia Phillies and the former expansion team the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Unless you live in either city, you might not know who to root for. If that is where you find yourself, allow me to make a suggestion.
Root against the team Dick Vitale roots for.
When not running his mouth as a college basketball commentator (and cheerleader for Duke basketball) on ESPN, Dicky V lives in the Tampa area. Evidently he is a huge, ragging Rays fan.
I hate Dick Vitale. His ridiculous catch phrases and never ending blabber make watching college basketball games on ESPN almost unwatchable. It doesn’t matter what game he is calling. It doesn’t matter what teams are involved. On an excitement scale of 1 to 10, his level of enthusiasm is at constant eleven. It’s annoying. He acts like he has never watched a college basketball game before.
He refers to freshmen players he likes as “diaper dandies“. As if they are so young and inexperienced, they have not yet mastered the skill of not pooing or peeing in their basketball shorts. He likes to refer to players he likes as “PTPers“. I think it stands for “prime time performers”. The absurdity of that phrase is that many big college basketball games on the weekend are played in the early afternoon. The early afternoon is not prime time. Prime time is at night and usually at 8:00 p.m. Most college basketball games start at 7:00 p.m. which means that if someone plays in prime time, they must be coming off the bench long after the game started.
To call Dick Vitale a douche bag is an insult to other douche bags. Just look at this photo of Vitale wearing his Rays jersey. Who wears a collared golf shirt underneath a jersey? Enough said.
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