Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Pearlman on McGwire


Jeff Pearlman brings the Mark McGwire sanctimony:

Worst of all, however, McGwire was a baseball thief. At the very moment his 341-foot home run landed behind the outfield fence, he robbed Roger Maris of the most important record in professional sports. He robbed the Maris family of future income from 61-related merchandising and events. He robbed the Hall of Fame -- which swooped up McGwire memorabilia as if it were free Twinkies -- of its credibility, he robbed those fans who spent hundreds of dollars for a ticket in order to witness history and he robbed thousands upon thousands of kids of a seemingly genuine role model.

If the baseball record book is the sport's Holy Bible, than McGwire is a 3-year old armed with a permanent marker. The damage is not merely done -- it is un-erasable. (Of course, along by such analogous measures, Barry Bonds is a 3-year-old with a permanent marker, a torch and a vat of gasoline).

Pearlman often writes how disgusted he is with what baseball has become. I can't help but think that if he hadn't had such a ridiculously idealistic notion of what it was in the first place, he never would have crashed so hard to begin with.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 2:56pm (41) Comments

Great Moments in Niche Blogging


Reader and Dodger fan Josh Fisher has found his bloggy calling. It's called Dodger Divorce. But allow Josh to explain it:

Greetings, Dodger fans, and a pleasant afternoon to you, wherever you may be. Welcome to Dodger Divorce, a blog designed to be your one-stop shop for news and insight into the McCourt divorce and how it will affect the Boys in Blue.

If you're a Dodger fan, I presume that you'll want this blog to run out of content as soon as possible. Based on what we've seen in the last week, however, I see no danger of that happening.

Good luck, Josh!
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:58pm (2) Comments

My Morning in Exile


As brushes with celebrity go, this is pretty good. Not as good as that time I was at the urinal next to a totally wasted Marshall Faulk at the Bellagio during the Rams' bye-week in the 2001-02 playoffs, put pretty good.

  • Yankee Stadium has been quiet . . . too quiet [arrow flies into back; keels over dead in front of his second in command; rest of calvary unnerved]


  • Jeter calls his two-strike bunt attempt "dumb." If my experience is any guide, Jeter fans are really going to let Jeter have it for criticizing Jeter like that.


  • Great ratings so far. And an exciting Series for pitchingphiles like me.


  • I think the Red Sox are putting on some Kabuki theater when it comes to the Jason Bay negotiations.


  • Leave A-Rod alone.


  • Some more bad calls last night. Though to be fair, neither of which would have been noticed if it weren't for the really bad ones earlier in the postseason. Bonus: I use a different permutation of the hacky "Empire Strikes Back" thing in the headline. I'm so damn clever I ought to be made King Clever, ruler of all of Cleverland.


    • The next night, also at the Bellagio, I saw Fred Schneider of the B52s dining alone at Circo. If you made a list of 1000 celebrities who you'd expect to see dining alone, would Fred Schneider ever be on it? I figured that the "Love Shack" video was one of his home movies.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:19am (13) Comments

    And That Happened: World Series


    Yankees 3, Phillies 1: The Empire Strikes Back. Sorry, that was totally hacky. I haven't looked, but I'm guessing that line is being used by no less than two dozen outlets this morning. Anyone that can find them and make a note of it in the comments gets bonus points. Anyway:

    In the copious back and forth I had with Phillies fans in my "it's not time to panic yet, Yankees" post, almost everyone said that Burnett would get lit up last night because, well, I don't know exactly why. Yes, the guy was a bit erratic down the stretch, but he was still an above average pitcher this season, totally capable of dropping a nice performance like this one last night. Teixeira and Matsui shaking off the cobwebs was welcome too. And for the "good outcomes don't mean good decisions were made" file, how about Molina picking off Werth and Posada hitting that pinch hit RBI? I bet Burnett still has good stuff and wins last night even if Posada was behind the plate, but with it breaking down the way it did, Girardi will probably get some genius points today, for whatever they're worth.

    Ah, Pedro. I love the guy. Like I said over at NBC, I hoped like hell that he would be able to catch some 1999 lightning in a bottle. He didn't quite do that -- who could? -- but he gave a solid and gutsy performance, showing all of the smarts and guile he's always had, even if he doesn't have the velocity anymore. But really, if you had told anyone before the game that he'd throw over 100 pitches, lasting into the seventh and giving up only two runs before his exit, you would have assumed a Philly win, right? He was just met with a better performance by his counterpart. That happens.

    I can't tell you how much I've been enjoying this World Series so far. I'm a pitching guy, and we're four for four in solid starting pitching performances. Here's hoping it keeps up.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:38am (31) Comments