Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Clint Barmes dropped the ball!


I got a threshold, here. I got a threshold for the bad karma my team can experience. Now, right now, I'm a race car, right, and the Rockies got me in the red. And I'm just sayin', I'm just sayin' that it's dangerous to have a race car in the red. That's all. I could blow:

Photos taken by The Denver Post and a spectator in the right-field stands at Coors Field during Sunday's dramatic 4-3 victory over the Cardinals reveal that second baseman Clint Barmes bobbled the final popup, with one picture showing the baseball on the outfield grass. Barmes rolled on the grass, jumped to his feet and fired to first to double off Albert Pujols to end the game.

But did he catch the ball?

"Only me and Barmes know the truth. It's the same as (Matt) Holliday touching home plate," outfielder Ryan Spilborghs said Monday of the controversial slide that clinched the Rockies' 2007 playoff berth. "It's better that it's (mysterious)."

Click through for the pics. The third one down in the most damning.

Albert Pujols' baserunning mistakes notwithstanding, unless things break just right this week, this whole play shall forever be known as the play that jobbed the Braves out of the damn wild card.

(Thanks to readers puck and salvo for the heads up)
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:50pm (27) Comments

My Morning in Exile


For anyone who cares, I will be watching the final episode of Season 2 of "The Wire" tonight (I just watched Frank Sobotka walk towards the Greeks waiting for him under the bridge so I'm pretty sure I know what's going to happen there, but please, no spoilers for the finale). One question, though: How is it that in every single scene in every single episode, Sobotka has a three-day beard? Never clean shaven, never one day's growth. It's always the same. Dude is totally not the guy who uses a precision trimmer to cultivate that as a look, so it must be that all action in the second season takes place every third day. The only guys I've ever seen pull that kind of thing off are starting pitchers who only shave after starts, and that's only because I only see them every fifth day by design. Anyway:

  • Schedule? Schedule! Charlie Manuel is actually going to blame the schedule if the Phillies choke the lead away to the Braves? Oh, Martha.


  • If you dump champagne over each others' heads when you win the division, what do you pour on each other when you clinch the worst record in baseball? Yoo-hoo? Squirt? Diet Squirt?


  • How does the rainout affect the Twins-Tigers thing? I think it benefits the Twins, but I'm not really sure. Fun to talk about though.


  • Congress, after demonizing players for taking questionable supplements, is now going after the questionable supplement industry that they helped create. But really, the players are pure evil, I assure you.


  • Jeff Francoeur is about the only happy person in Met Nation these days. By the way, is their a Met Nation? Seems more like a series of loosely-affiliated villages to me. Often-warring city-states who occasionally come together for common defense at the absolute most.


  • So, what, is Cito Gaston the GM now?


    • And in hindsight, yes, Ziggy would totally have been the guy to steal the Ripken statue. Good call whoever it was who said that a couple of weeks ago.

    UPDATE: Holy Schnikes! I just read that the actor who played Sobotka was born in 1966, which makes him my age when he was filming "The Wire." There are days I wake up, look in the mirror, and wonder what the hell happened to me. Whether it's natural world-weary ugliness or simply a fabulous acting job by the guy, I now know that it could always be worse.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:35am (15) Comments

    And That Happened


    Angels 11, Rangers 0: The Angels clinch the West, and in a fit of wrongheadedness so comically tragic that it strains credulity, they soak the jersey of a victim of a fatal drunk driving accident with beer and champagne in celebration (photo here). Here's hoping that someone in Angels' management was passing out cab vouchers last night.

    Tigers vs. Twins, POSTPONED: I usually put rainouts last, but this rainout was more significant than most of the actual games that were played last night. Not sure whether a doubleheader today gives either team a big advantage. The Twins have a better bullpen, but the Tigers are going with two starters -- Porcello and Verlander -- who will make their own bullpen less important by comparison. All I know is that if I was in Detroit tomorrow I'd probably be skipping work. Heck, the wine I ordered when I was out in California last week is getting delivered today, so I may skip work anyway.

    Pirates 11, Dodgers 1: John Russell lifted Zach Duke with one out to go for a complete game. Russell's explanation: that he wanted to give Duke a standing ovation as he left the mound. Sorry John, this ain't basketball and I ain't buyin' it. My guess: Russell is in a fantasy league in which CGs are a stat and the guy he's battling for first place owns Duke. It'll be a scandal if people can ever prove it. Like the Pete Rose thing, but boring. As for the rest of the game: Andy LaRoche homered twice, doubled twice and singled, driving in six runs. Some genius once told me that homers were rally killers. They're also cycle killers, so your failure was two-fold, Mr. LaRoche. So, L.A.? Is this how you're gonna bring it against Philly or Atlanta or whoever you get next week? Good luck with that.

    Braves 4, Marlins 0: I don't know if the Rockies are going to cooperate and lose two or three games before Sunday, but if they do, ain't nobody gonna want to face the Braves in the playoffs. Based on some stuff I read yesterday, there are still some people who don't quite appreciate how awesome Jair Jurrjens is ("middle of the rotation starter?"). I wouldn't trade the dude -- who shut the Marlins out over seven -- if the money for Fielder was dead even.

    Astros 8, Phillies 2: Well, I suppose it's possible that the Braves AND Rockies could make the playoffs. Such a collapse would be damn nigh historic as far as collapses go, but as I sit here this morning anything seems possible. I thought the 1987 Blue Jays had the division wrapped up too.

    Rays 7, Orioles 6: If the Rays were to move from St. Pete after building a new stadium in Tampa or Branden or Riverview or something, could they change their name to the East Bay Rays? Because that would be cool.

    Blue Jays 11, Red Sox 5: This one was called in the seventh inning because of rain and the mercy rule and the fact that three-fourths of the Red Sox roster is having spasms of some kind this week. Michael Bowden gave up seven runs on seven hits and a walk in a spot start for Beckett. In this he was like the substitute teacher who would just put on the "Free To Be You and Me" video, read her Better Homes and Gardens magazine and let the class run amok the entire period. Not that we all didn't stop when Rosey Grier sang "It's alright to cry," some of us because we were touched, others because we couldn't believe our frickin' eyes. Man, being born in the 70s sucked.

    White Sox 6, Indians 1: It blows my mind that, despite how nightmarish a season it has been for the Royals, they could once again finish out of the cellar and ahead of a team everyone thought would go to the playoffs when camp broke. But here are the Indians, losing again and letting this race go down to the wire.

    Yankees 8, Royals 2: Not that Kansas City is going to go down without a fight. Luke Hochevar, pitched a three hit shutout a couple of starts ago, got shelled for eight runs on 12 hits in six innings. Atta boy, Lukey, always keep 'em guessing! This performance, by the way, came against a Yankee lineup containing such luminaries as Brett Gardner, Eric Hinkse, Shelley Duncan, Juan Miranda, and Frank Cervelli.

    Nationals 2, Mets 1: Helen Keller once said "The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.” She went on to say that the second most pathetic person in the world is any Mets fan who hasn't jumped ship before now.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:36am (30) Comments