|
November 22, 2009
Who is Shyster?Order Now The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 is now in development and will ship in mid November! This year's book will feature articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Rob Neyer, Tom Tango and Craig Wright. If you use this link to purchase the Annual, you will be in the first group to receive it and you'll be supporting THT.
 Plus our Statistical Definitions Monthly Archives
November, 2009
October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008
Or you can search by:
Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets. Find premium Chicago Cubs tickets and other Chicago tickets at JustGreatTickets.com. Chicago Cubs Tickets Chicago Tickets  All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Most Recent Comments
My Morning in Exile (21)
Your Thursday afternoon tizzy (40) Great Moments in Championship Celebrations (4) My Morning in Exile (9) Lincecum takes the Cy Young (24) Shyster's Daily Circuit
Rob Neyer
AaronGleeman.com Joe Posnanski Blog Baseball Analysts Baseball Musings Cot's Baseball Contracts It IS About the Money Keith Law Cardboard Gods Baseball Think Factory MLB Trade Rumors Retrosheet Vegas Watch Way Back and Gone Bats -- NYT Baseball Blog The Biz of Baseball The Daily Fungo U.S.S. Mariner Braves Journal Scott Simkus The Common Man Jorge Says No! Baseball Over Here Fack Youk Wezen-Ball Chop-n-Change |
Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.Wednesday, May 13, 2009Bowling with the BucsYou can go bowling with the Pittsburgh Pirates if you're so inclined: Pirates Charities and Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star Shortstop Jack Wilson and his wife Julie will host the fifth annual "Bowling with the Bucs" fundraiser tournament, sponsored by Trib Total Media, on Sunday, May 31. The event, which offers fans the opportunity to interact with their favorite Pirates players and celebrities, will benefit Pirates Charities and its mission to make a positive impact on the local communities. I'm too lazy to check, but I'm almost positive I blogged something about this event last year. I can't for the life of me remember what my impression was, however, so why not opine again? The opinion: I'd be all over this event if I lived in Pittsburgh, if for no other reason than I bet Nyjer Morgan -- he of the old school stirrups -- shows up with traditionalist two-tone bowling shoes, a metal-reinforced wrist-brace, and the vintage Guppy Troup ensemble. Morgan is both stylish and a traditionalist, so I can't imagine him not utterly owning this event. Note: a semi-recent update on Guppy Troup. While he sounds happy and well-adjusted and everything, I was very depressed to learn that he works as a school janitor during the week. Intellectually I know better, but I used to watch a lot of PBA when I was a kid, and sort of imagined that pro bowers lived some rarified movie star life, and that Troup, Mark Roth, Pete Weber and Nelson Burton, Jr. were the bowling version of the Rat Pack. Lovin' and leavin' em, you know. Troup throwing money around like it was nothin'. Weber, the wild man, getting into bar fights all the time. Roth, the Sinatra-like leader of the crew, and Nelson Burton, Jr. liberally giving out the "tip of the week," if you know what I mean. OK, I may have said too much at this point. Francoeur finally, mercifully given the day offI just hope this doesn't mess the rhythm of that new approach we've been hearing so much about! In the midst of his roughest stretch of the season, Francoeur was given a chance to rest during Wednesday afternoon's series finale against the Mets at Citi Field. The 25-year-old right fielder had started each of the previous 33 games the Braves played this year. Not sure what's making him so tired. It's not like he's been running bases, working counts, or exerting himself mentally out there. Zirin on MannyI'm not a big fan of Dave Zirin -- I think he's going on his 50th straight column in which race, class, Bush and Nixon are prominently mentioned, and that's overkill even for me -- but you can't say the guy isn't passionate about his subjects. My Morning in ExileSorry about the day off yesterday. I can assure you, what I was doing was nowhere near as fun as talkin' baseball: The NCAA is about to get slammed in the Andy Oliver caseI've practiced law in Columbus, Ohio for nearly eleven years. I don't know if I've learned all that much over that time, but I have learned a couple of things. First, even if your office has a casual policy, always keep a suit hanging on the back of the door, because you never know when you're going to get called down to court. Second, bring extra copies of everything with you when you go to court, because clerks and bailiffs have way more important things to do than to make copies for you, and they will hurt you in insidious ways if you're not nice to them. Third, when you appear before judges in smaller counties, do not, under any circumstances, act as though their orders are not as important as the orders from big city courts, because they really, really don't like that: An Ohio judge has ordered the N.C.A.A. to appear in court later this month to explain why it has apparently not followed an order that invalidated the organization’s ban on the use of lawyers by baseball players during negotiations with professional teams. The problem, basically, is that despite Judge Tone telling the NCAA otherwise, the NCAA is still out there telling high school baseball players that they'll lose eligibility if they hire a lawyer to negotiate with Major League teams who draft them. Ignoring a judge's order like that is just the sort of thing that really makes a judge mad. It's also the sort of thing that shows you just how arrogant and oblivious to reality the NCAA is. And That HappenedPhillies 5, Dodgers 3: Jason Werth stole home in the seventh inning and tied a team record with four steals in one game, but since he's not Dustin Pedroia, no one will probably make a big deal out of it. In other out-of-the-spotlight news, the AP game story's "game notes" said that "Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt was at the game." There had to have been at least five guys who played in this game plus Joe Torre, plus at least two or three local news anchors in attendance who are more famous and relevant than she is right now. Rockies 12, Astros 1: Brad Hawpe was 4-4 with 5 RBI. No word if character actor Pat Hingle was at the game. Blue Jays 5, Yankees 1: Matsui injured, Teixeira 0-4, Burnett gives up five runs, Roy Halladay dominant. Is there anything that didn't go according to script in this one? Pirates 7, Cardinals 1: Pujols got his, but beyond that, bubkes for the Cards. Zach Duke was 5-14 last season. He's now 4-3. Mets 4, Braves 3: They say that revenge is a dish best served cold. In winning on an extra-innings bases loaded walk last night, I can only assume that the accounts are now even for Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS. White Sox 7, Indians 4: Back when Thome was with the Indians, a friend of mine from Cleveland used to yell "Thome is my homey!" whenever the big guy would hit a home run. I haven't talked to that dude from Cleveland for a few years, but I bet he didn't yell it as Thome hit two against the Tribe last night. In other news, the dreaded vote of confidence from Mark Shapiro! I can only assume that Wedge will be collecting unemployment this time next week. Cubs 6, Padres 2: At this rate, Jake Peavy (6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER) is going to be the hottest 90 ERA+ pitcher available at the trading deadline since Andy Ashby! Orioles 7, Rays 5: It's probably gone by now, but the AP game story of this one said that "Kevin Bass (2-1) pitched four scoreless innings of relief," when in reality it was Brian Bass. I'd like to think that rather than an innocent typo, however, that it was the AP stringer's subtle tribute to the former Astro, who happened to turn 50 years-old yesterday. Brewers 6, Marlins 3: Milwaukee has now won seven of its last nine and is five games over .500. Two two-run homers for Prince Fielder. Twins 6, Tigers 2: Kevin Slowey gives up one run over six innings and the bullpen holds up. Joe Mauer has an OBP of .571 right now, but it's really batting average heavy given that he's hitting .500, so, like, don't get too high on him or anything. Rangers 7, Mariners 1: Josh Hamiton's return boosts the Texas Rangers and the Matewan Massacre. Look, I know I said I won't mention my fantasy teams very often, but his absence has been absolutely KILLING me. Athletics 12, Royals 3: OK, so maybe there were reasons to keep Luke Hochevar down on the farm after all. Ick (2 IP, 7 H, 8 ER). Giants 9, Nationals 7: Pablo Sandoval hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth to win it for the Giants, who are now 18-14. Zimmerman's hitting streak is up to 30. Reds 3, Diamondbacks 1: Micah Owings takes it to his old team, giving up a single earned run over seven, beating Danny Haren, who can't get any run support these days. Red Sox 4, Angels 3: The bullpen betrays the Angels once again, squandering a 3-1 lead in the eighth and ninth innings. Justin Masterson, not wanting to lose $750, had this to say after throwing a pitch behind Torii Hunter: "I walked two guys before that, then I left a slider up and in on him and I was trying to throw a sinker on the next pitch. It didn't look good, but there was no intent whatsoever on that pitch behind him." There, was that so hard Bobby Jenks? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
