Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Friday, July 03, 2009

My Morning in Exile


No work today, so I blogged from home. It's nice, though I'm not sure if it's less stressful than blogging from the office or not. On the one hand, I don't have to shower, shave, drive anywhere, answer the phone or work around meetings and stuff. On the other hand, in many important ways its easier to balance legal work with blogging than it is to balance things like Hot Wheels car parades, fights over which cartoons to watch and wives and fathers asking me to do things around the house. Upshot: if I ever convince someone to let me write from home full time, I'm going to rent an office.

  • This was here and not at NBC, but many people miss late night posts so I thought I'd bump it.


  • Baseball will raise awareness of -- and money for -- ALS during tomorrow's games. Good for baseball.


  • Weisman and Simers seem to get this stuff right, but everyone else at the L.A. Times is out to lunch when it comes to Manny Ramirez. The latest: they want you to boo him. Classy.


  • More on the Texas Rangers bailout. DuPuyspeak: the Rangers didn't need money for payroll, they're just trying to "help assure a stable environment" for the team. One wonders how unstable things would be if no one got paid today.


  • Scott Boras wants to use Japanese baseball as a bluff to enrich Stephen Strasburg. It ain't gonna work.


  • Marchman says Francoeur should be in the All-Star Game. Why you gotta hate like that, Tim?


  • Finally, the Indians are on pace to lose 100 games for the seventh time. Only seven? I would have lost that bet.


    • And with that I'm done for the Fourth of July weekend. Probably, anyway. If something strange or major happens -- of it I just have too many beers and get some time on my hands -- I may check in with some other stuff. If I don't, however, have yourself a merry little Independence Day.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:19am (2) Comments

    And That Happened


    Astros 7, Padres 2; Look, between my two bloggy spaces and the water cooler at work I have probably talked about Manny Ramirez more than anyone in the past couple of weeks. And I'll admit, my reasons for bringing him up are often tenuous at best. But nothing I've written about the guy is as tenuous as this bit from the game story, describing how a swarm of bees descended on Petco Park in the ninth inning: "The bees arrived more than 24 hours before Manny Ramirez makes his comeback from a 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, when the Los Angeles Dodgers open a three-game series against San Diego on Friday night." Did anyone get Manny's comment on the bees? Where does Plaschke stand on all of this? I WANT TO KNOW, DAMMIT!

    Mets 9, Pirates 8: In town for a makeup game, the Mets overcome Tim Redding getting shelled (2.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER), and then overcome K-Rod blowing the save in the ninth (though he did vulture the win). Jerry Manuel: "We could have just said, `Let's pack up and head to Philly, it's a short flight, let's get this out of the way.'" "They chose to fight and I thought that was what was most impressive." I don't much like Jerry Manuel so I appreciate that maybe I'm being too hard on him here, but really, could your team have chosen to just pack it in, Jerry? Is that a potential option in the current Mets universe such that their choice not to do so is laudable?

    Reds 3, Diamondbacks 2: Joey Votto was the hero, going 4 for 6 and hitting the game winning single in the 10th. The Dbacks have lost ten of twelve. They dead? Yep, they're dead.

    Cardinals 5, Giants 2: Are we sure this was only a four game series? It feels like they've been playing for two solid weeks. Anyway, Todd Wellemeyer offers a bit of an F.U. to everyone in St. Louis who has been screaming for him to be sent down or disappeared or shot or whatever (7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 6K). A couple of RBI for Ryan Ludwick who, according to Rick Sutcliffe on Wednesday, needs to start hitting before Albert Pujols can expect to start seeing anything to hit. It was a moderately useful insight the first seven times he made it, but it declined in utility over the next dozen or so times it was repeated.

    Braves 5, Phillies 2: The Bravos sweep the phirst place Phils, bringing them within two games of first themselves. Or, put differently, making them three games more likely to do some stupid deal to try and contend this year instead of loading for bear in 2010. My view of things is that if they can contend with what they have, wonderful, I'll enjoy it. But any deal apart from unloading Jeff Francoeur is probably a bad move. As for this game, someone better check Bobby Cox for banned stimulants. He used 18 players in this one, and I don't think he's done that since Clinton's first term.

    Mariners 8, Yankees 4: Ichiro, Branyan and Chris Woodward of all people join in the Mariner hit parade, ending the Yanks' seven game winning streak.

    Cubs 9, Brewers 5: Derek Lee bangs in seven runs on a three run homer and a grand slam, as the Cubs shell Greenbrier East alum Seth McClung. Stupid Greenbrier East. Woodrow owns you, Spartans! Hells yeah!

    Angels 5, Orioles 2: Bobby Abreu flashes back several years and shows that yes, he is capable of hitting home runs. Two actually. Meanwhile, John Lackey flashes back to the non-2009 portions of his career to show that he can still pitch like an ace (8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 7K). Nothin' much doin' for Baltimore outside of a Luke Scott home run. Game story: "Orioles' 3B Ty Wigginton replaced Melvin Mora in the lineup. Mora asked for the night off after the trip to the West Coast." OK. For what it's worth, even my old man sucks it up and plays through jet lag when he visits my brother in San Diego, and he's 65 and flies coach. What, Mora couldn't have gotten a few winks on the plane?

    White Sox 4, Royals 1: Bruce Chen? Really? In the same season the Royals ran Horacio Ramirez out there? What, was Terrell Wade not available? Jung Bong won't return your calls, Dayton? Aw, don't look at me like that, whaddaya gonna do, ban me or someth----
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:35am (7) Comments