Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Your WTF? of the Day!


The Indians team bus was in a minor accident on the way to Kauffman Stadium this afternoon. No injuries to anyone on the team, minor injury to the driver of the other car. That's not the WTF part, however. This is:

It's the second time the Indians were involved in a bus incident in Kansas City. In 2004, rookie pitcher Kyle Denney was struck in the calf when someone shot at the bus. He avoided serious injury thanks to go-go boots he was wearing as part of a hazing ritual.

I love the "hey, didn't you all know this already" randomness of that. It kind of reminds me of the original WKRP opening that has the guy switching the radio dial and coming across the newscaster saying " . . . but the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity."
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:34pm (13) Comments

Paging Ruben Amaro. . . Ruben Amaro, call your office


Trevor Hoffman has been placed on waivers. If you're Philly, wouldn't you rather have him closing games for you than Brad Lidge?
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 3:09pm (5) Comments

Not only was the leaking wrong . . .


. . . but so too was the seizing of the list in the first place:

A federal appeals court has ruled that investigators were wrong to seize a list of 104 Major League Baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the 2003 season. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that federal authorities had the right to take only the results of the 10 players listed on their search warrant. Federal agents took the larger list players during 2004 raids in connection with their probe of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, later found to be at the center of a steroids distribution ring.

It was already ridiculous and ignorant for people to call for "all the names to be released." Now it's even more ridiculous.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:19pm (51) Comments

Programming Note


For what seems like the umpteenth time in the past two weeks old lady law is whuppin' my behind again today. Government work wasn't supposed to be like this, but whaddaya gonna do?

Unlike other recent awful days, however, I expect that I will actually have some posts up later today, so do check back. In the meantime, maybe someone can help me understand why I take so much joy in tweaking the Pete Rose apologists.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:24pm (7) Comments

And That Happened


Rockies 5, Dodgers 4: If you encounter a team in the Dodgers' position, lean them forward slightly and stand behind him or her. Make a fist with one hand. Put your arms around the person and grasp your fist with your other hand in the midline just below the ribs. Make a quick, hard movement inward and upward in an attempt to assist the person in dislodging the object that is obstructing the airway. This maneuver should be repeated until the person is able to breathe or loses consciousness.

Marlins 2, Mets 1: Yesterday, in the wake of the Johan Santana news, I wrote "Rest now, Mets fans. There really is nothing else that can hurt you this year." Almost immediately thereafter readers wrote in with ways this nightmare of a season could get worse. Things like a Phillies-Yankees World Series or Jeff Francoeur getting a five year deal. With each passing day the latter seems like a possibility. As one of the only real major leaguers left on the roster (I use that term to describe tenure more than merit), Frenchy will stick out. Especially if he does things like hit a couple of doubles a night like he did here. And no, it doesn't matter that one of the doubles was a total misplay on the part of the defense. It still counts!

Pirates 6, Phillies 4: At this rate does Brad Lidge even make the postseason roster? Brought in to protect a one-run lead in the ninth, Lidge blows his ninth save of the year and sees his ERA go up to 7.33. He had some help from Jayson Werth, who came in late in the game, supposedly to provide defense, but who let a run score on an error.

Reds 8, Brewers 6: The Reds blow a five run lead in the ninth, but Joey Votto and Laynce Nix homer in the 13th to make it all better. The dingers came off of former Red Todd Coffey. The Reds hitters had the psychological advantage in that situation: they knew that Coffey sucks, whereas Coffey probably still labors under delusions that he does not. It's called clarity of thought, people. Therein lies the advantage.

Twins 7, Orioles 6: Delmon Young goes 4-5 and hits a walkoff single in the ninth.

Red Sox 6, White Sox 3: Chicago loses its third straight and falls to .500. Jacoby Ellsbury steals his 55th base, breaking the tie with Tommy Harper for the most steals in a single season in Red Sox history.

Tigers 5, Angels 3: Detroit takes advantage of the Chicago loss, extending their lead to four and a half games. John Lackey was beat up for the second straight outing. Miguel Cabrera (3-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBI) is on pace for having one of the quietest .340 35 HR 100 RBI seasons in recent memory.

Cardinals 1, Astros 0: Wandy Rodriguez and Adam Wainwright throw bullets all night -- each only gave up three hits -- but a quick single from Brendan Ryan followed by a Pujols double in the first inning put Rodriguez in a "hole" he could never get out of. This game took 2:10, which is roughly the length of your average AL East inning.

Rays 7, Blue Jays 3: Carlos Pena continues his Dave Kingmanesque season, hitting his 36th and 7th home run, while still maintaining that .223 average. Wait, that's not fair. Pena leads the league in walks and he can play some defense, so Kingman's not a good comp. How about his Russell Branyan season?

Royals 6, Indians 2: Zack Greinke mows down the Indians with 15 strikeouts. With this outing, with Halladay's recent swoon, and with the guys with the high win totals posting considerably higher ERAs, Greinke probably just catapulted himself back into "favorite" status for the Cy Young award, didn't he?

Padres 2, Braves 1: Adam LaRoche knocked in pinch runner Reid Gorecki with two outs in the ninth (after Gorecki stole second) to stave off defeat, but then David Eckstein won it for the Pads with an RBI double in the 12th. The Braves' 1-2-3 hitters combined to go 0-16.

Rangers 10, Yankees 9: Let's hear it for all of that extra rest Joba Chamberlain got (4 IP, 9 H, 7 ER). Let's also hear it for a valiant, yet utterly unsuccessful ninth inning rally by the Yankees.

Nationals 15, Cubs 6: Huge nights for Josh Willingham (4-4, 2 HR, 6 RBI) and Elijah Dukes (2-3, 2B, HR 5 RBI) provide a not-so-friendly welcome back for Carlos Zambrano, who was making his first start since August 1st. Zambrano did hit a homer, though.

Mariners 4, Athletics 2: Ryan Langerhans, in as a defense replacement (AHEM, Jayson Werth) wins the game with a 10th inning homer. Even in the loss, Oakland Rookie Brett Anderson was sharp, giving up one run on six hits with eight strikeouts in seven innings.

Giants 5, Diamondbacks 4: Travis Ishikawa's three-run shot in a tie game in the eighth inning proves to be the winner after the Giants had their hearts ripped out by the Rockies the night before. At this point, seeing someone come back from a killer loss to the Rockies like this might be the only ray of sunshine in Dodgerland.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:43am (31) Comments