And That Happened

Reds 7, Nationals 0: Johnny Gomes (Johnny Gomes?) hits three homers and Bronson “Flintstones kids, ten million strong and growing” Arroyo throws a two-hit shutout. Obviously his best game of the season, so maybe he decided to use his one DUI last night. Hey man, he earned it.

Tigers 2, Red Sox 0: Justin Verlander (8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 8K) helps the Tigers salvage one. He also hit Chris Woodward twice, but no benches cleared and no punches were thrown because, hey, it’s just Chris Woodward.

Rockies 10, Pirates 1: Yesterday I complained about Josh Beckett’s possible Cy Young. No such worries about Jason Marquis, though. Sure, he has the wins, but there are a lot of guys pitching much better than him overall who are close enough in the oh-so-critical win column and who pitch for contenders (e.g. Lincecum, Carpenter, Cain, Wainwright). I don’t think that even baseball writers are dumb enough to overlook all of them and give Jason Marquis an award. But hey, he did pitch well yesterday (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER).

Royals 5, Twins 4: Joe Mauer was 2-4 with a homer and four RBI, but it wasn’t enough as (a) no one else on his team knocked anyone in; and (b) Carl Pavano allowed 5. The Royals take the series 2-1, which is their first win since the signing of the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. At least it seems like it.

Phillies 6, Cubs 1: And the sweep. Cliff Lee, he’s pretty good (8 IP, 6 H. 1 ER, 8K). Easily the best pickup for Philadelphia this year. In any sport.

Rangers 4, Indians 1: A day game, but they replayed it on STO last night. AMC was showing “Major League” at the same time. I don’t think I need to tell you which one I watched. Kind of wished I had watched the seventh and eighth of this one, though, as Neftali Feliz struck out five guys in those two innings of relief work. Gotta love that Mark Teixeira trade!

Brewers 12, Padres 9: Prince Fielder and Mike Rivera each had two dingers, and Ryan Braun launched one too. They needed it all, though, as despite jumping out to a 9-0 lead, they never really put the Padres away until the very end. According to the game story, Fielder and Braun wouldn’t talk to the media after the game, choosing instead to defy the requests of the Brewers’ P.R. department and hide in the meal area that is off limits to reporters. What gives with those guys? As the season goes on, they seem to get gotten pissier and pissier.

Yankees 11, Mariners 1: CC Sabathia (8 IP, 3 H, 1 ER. 10K) and Hideki Matsui (4-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI) beat the tar out of the Mariners. Ian Snell: “That lineup is just stupid. They shouldn’t be allowed to have a lineup like that, but that is why their payroll is what it is. That is a lineup nobody in the National League has.”

Marlins 9, Astros 2: Every couple of weeks I come across a game about which I find nothing interesting. Nine out of ten times it’s an Astros game, though I have no idea why. In light of coming across yet another one, I’m going to note that I am currently re-reading Leo Durocher’s Nice Guys Finish Last (which is being re-released very soon). I’ll further note that, on the first page of the book, Leo talks about all of the various ways he, his teammates and his opponents cheated throughout their careers. He sums it up by saying “If you get away with it, fine. If you don’t, what have you lost? . . . Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it.” I sit here this morning wondering why, then, we’re all so shocked and sanctimonious about everything that has transpired in the past few years.


13 Comments
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lar
14 years ago

You have no idea how bummer I am that there is no Google Books preview of the Leo Durocher book, just this basic info page (none on Amazon either). That’d be fun to read.

Gary Cowart
14 years ago

Please! Please! Please, get rid this clown. He’s bringing the whole site down to his putrid level.

Brian
14 years ago

Um…Gary…no.  Shyster is the one thing on this site I read every day, and I suspect I’m not alone.  I do read other articles here, but not on a daily basis.  I suspect site traffic would go down without Craig, but maybe the HBT people wouldn’t mind that.

Sara K
14 years ago

I never understand the anti-Craig-ists that pop in here…you’d think there were some draconian blog headmaster that forced THT and Shysterball to sit at the same table. I mean really, if the guys at THT invited Craig to post here (they did), there must be a good reason (there is).

Brian
14 years ago

Well said, Sara.

Jason Rosenberg
14 years ago

and, while we’re complaining about people complaining about Craig…if you don’t like him, might I suggest not reading him? I’m pretty sure you can delete him from your RSS feed, or just not click on his links. Then, the rest of us, who appreciate sarcastic, yet often insightful writing can enjoy him. In peace.

Craig – I’ll have you know that your blog is usually the first thing I check in the morning – even before Neyer. So, just keep doing what you’re doing!

The Rabbit
14 years ago

Gary, On the basis of the style and content of your post, I suspect that you are unable to appreciate Craig’s literary references and hyperbole. I also suspect you’ll need a link to wiktionary to understand this comment, but I’ll post it anyway.
Shysterball is the only site on the web to which I have an RSS feed. As Brian correctly surmised, he is not alone. This is the only site I read on a daily (or hourly, when updated) basis. Craig’s writing is both erudite and entertaining, a feat in itself.
I do enjoy other writing at THT and “Shyster’s Circuit”. It’s not mutually exclusive.

Adam
14 years ago

Ian Snell meant to say “that is a lineup nobody in the Pacific Coast League has.”  Apparently somebody in the NL must be able to hit his slop, since he’s been pitching to a 5.5 era and 1.7 whip for the past 2 1/2 years.

TC
14 years ago

Sure, the season hasn’t started yet, but Flyers snagging Pronger was pretty good, too.

Chris Simonds
14 years ago

I guess Bronson Arroyo comes under the category of marginal players who need to be juiced to play – barely – at the major league level. Otherwise, with his record, he might want to reconsider whether all the stuff he takes is actually helping him be a better ball player. Not that I didn’t enjoy his commentary. I think he wins this year’s Bill Lee Award for Truth In Baseball.

kyle s
14 years ago

forget the moneyball movie, i want the bronson arroyo story. better yet, make it an hbo series; if it’s half as entertaining as watching him pitch it’d be better than anything they’ve got going now.

Sara K
14 years ago

re: not being shocked…recently re-read Ball Four, and chuckled at this bit: “Most baseball people have two ages, real and baseball. The older they get, the greater discrepancy between their numbers. Some of the players were clever enough to cheat by two or three years as soon as they signed and thus were more valuable throughout their careers.” 

It may be (or may not be) that it is now impossible for ‘Nortes’ to lie about their ages and so the only age cheats are now coming from Latin America, but please, let’s remember to roll our eyes the next time someone goes off on the occasional Latino age-cheat like they’re all dirty rotten liars void of good, clean American morality.

Jeff
14 years ago

I love how Snell made that comment despite the fact that neither A-Rod or Posada played in this one.  He got his butt whooped by the 3rd string lineup.