Remember Master Yogi Berra, the dog who got thrown out of a minor league game for taking a dump on the field, well, FINALLY, we now have video of the act in question! Don’t freak out on the video, for some reason it starts with 40 seconds of a freeze frame, but enjoy!
Archive for the 'Baseball' Category
Barry Zito has a Cy Young award, a ridiculous $127 million contract and lots of free time; so it should come as little surprise that he takes the time out of his day to take a photo of, and share via twitter, him playing with his food and making gingerbread animals hump.
"These are real ginger bread pigs from an upscale pizza joint in LA. They got frisky, luckily I had the phone cam."
Of course, those are clearly both DUDE gingerbread pigs, which is totally not cool. It’s an abomination dude…
27
Apr
09
Eckstein Scores
If you were to walk into David Eckstein’s home in San Diego it wouldn’t be unreasonable to see the 5′ 6″ scrub baseball player and mistake him as an actor on children’s television. Alas, you’d be wrong, it’s actually Eckstein’s super cute wife, Ashley Eckstein who is the star in this household.
Commuting from San Diego to LA, Ashley has recently been recording new episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated show, for which she voices Ahsoka Tano, a Jedi in-training. Ashley has also been in several That’s So Raven episodes so David should move that World Series MVP award off the mantle for her, after all she has won a much MUCH more valuable prize; Ashley won SILVER on Nickelodeon’s Guts. Now THAT’S scrappy.
24
Apr
09
A Special Souvenir to Bring Home
I’ve never caught a foul ball at a baseball game, once when i was really young a ball from my then favorite player Wade Boggs came near me, but it hit off my hands and some older dude grabbed it and I got nothing. Another time at a spring training game a ball off the bat of a then Single A’er named Chase Utley rocketed towards me and my friend caught it, but that’s the closest I’ve come.
At the St. Louis Cardinals game on Tuesday one fan caught something even more impressive than a ball or crabs at the ball game, another fan! A man in the mezzanine level sitting in the front room somehow fell and landed on top of a woman 18 feet below him. Medical personnel rushed to treat both people before they were transported to a local hospital.
“Everybody was looking down on the ground between the aisles,” said John Goodman, a long time Cardinals season ticket holder and former EMT and nurse, who was sitting just a few rows away from where the man landed. “And the next thing I know the paramedics were there putting this lady on a back board. It took them so long to get her up that I was concerned somebody was more seriously injured at that point.”
The man was treated and released, but as of Thursday the woman remained in the hospital. With their reputation of being the friendliest fans in baseball, I bet the woman was very polite about the whole thing.
Well, it’s finally happened; Master Yogi Berra, a bat and ball carrying dog for the Greensboro Grasshoppers, the Single A affiliate of the Marlin, was ejected from the game for “relieving” himself on the field.
In-between innings, as he regularly does, Master Yogi was chasing down a ball sent to center field, after picking up the ball, on his back he stopped and took a brief break, leaving his essence on the field. Home plate umpire Jason Hutchings was NOT amused and tossed Berra.
Team owner Donald Moore said Yogi was suffering through a stomach virus and then took a more sanguine approach to the accident, :
“When you gotta go, you gotta go. Yogi’s had a tough start to his season, and I hope this doesn’t get him down. He clearly couldn’t control himself out there. He’s such a competitor and he wanted to do his duties as he’s been trained. We all hope Yogi feels better soon and he returns to us ready to entertain our fans. You know, he’s volunteering his time out there, so I hope he doesn’t get fined too much (for his ejection). I don’t know the Rulebook like the back of my hand, but apparently a dog can’t do his business on the field. Let’s hope this is an isolated incident, and Yogi can learn from this experience.”
The Grasshoppers have since listed Yogi as day-to-day on the team’s injury report. I could have sworn Lenny Dykstra got ejected once for the same thing…
23
Apr
09
Oh What a Day for Darren O’Day
The old adage in baseball is that you can NEVER have enough pitching, unless you’re the New York Mets and your pitching rotation after Johan is a mess and so you drop two useful pitchers over a couple days. First, the Mets put Darren O’Day on waivers; now O’Day isn’t going to remind anyone of a young John Wetteland, but he was a serviceable bullpen arm, and had pitched solidly in the spring and to start the season.
O’Day, after being picked up by the Texas Rangers off waivers had quite the day yesterday, at home in Panama City, FL, he received a call from his agent that the Rangers had picked him up and wanted him to make his way to Toronto to meet the team. Getting onto a flight to Memphis and then a connecting flight to Toronto, O’Day landed around 9:45 pm, expecting to go to the hotel and meet up with the team after their game. The plans changed though, “The travel secretary was texting me back and forth,” said O’Day. “The original plan was to go to the hotel, but he said, ‘Go to the field, we might need you.'” As the game went into extra innings O’Day arrived at the stadium at the beginning of the 10th, except there was another problem, the team didn’t have a jersey waiting for him.
Apparently, the club’s equipment manager doesn’t bring blank uniforms with him, but does maintain a stash of uniforms for players who MIGHT be called up. So, O’Day donned a spare Kason Gabbard uniform — who is currently in AAA — and headed to the bullpen. Alas, O’Day only got the chance to face one batter, Kevin Millar, who promptly welcomed O’Day with a hit to the left-field gap, winning the game.
Then, to show that the Mets are the smartest team in baseball, today they designated Nelson Figueroa for assignment, I guess because he was too useful in his role as a spot starter on Sunday. Don’t worry though, come June the Mets won’t be desperate for pitching… Blech.
[MLB]
After last night’s day/night double-header while doing the post-game wrap-up on NESN, Dennis Eckersley made clear what he thought about Brad Penny’s stuff saying:
He’s a little gay with his cheese.
Now, I don’t know EXACTLY what he means by that, but I got a pretty good idea, and I don’t think you’re supposed to say that on television… Unless of course Eck was just referring to his post-game meal plans…
Finally, residents of Burr Ridge, Illinois have a bank, and a banker to trust. In these uncertain economic times, the local bank takes on all the more importance and so who better to entrust your money to than one of the greatest physical freaks of talent ever, Bo Jackson.
In addition to several others, Jackson is backing the newly chartered bank, the Burr Ridge Bank and Trust, and despite the failings of many other banks, Jackson et al have few concerns about their new venture. “We have no type of debt, like all the other banks. We’re a small community bank and one thing we all decided, is that if we are going to do a bank in our community, it needs to be owned by the people who live in the community,” Jackson said.
Since his retirement from sports, Bo has been a pretty successful businessman, including owning and operating a gigantic sports complex and his food company, N’Genuity in addition to his regular speaking engagements for schools and similar organizations. The other charter members of the bank are excited for the chance to be working with Bo, “We interviewed Bo. He was very committed to growing the bank and being part of our organization, not just a name,” said Roy Thygesen, CEO and president of the bank.
Alas, Bo’s sporting days are long past, the 46 year old these days only plays one game; “I’m crushing golf balls, when I hit it straight. I’m enjoying being an employer,” said Jackson.
[CBS 2 Chicago and Big League Stew]
23
Apr
09
Nice Catch!
If you go through the fence to make a catch than I’m likely to post it, that just shows good effort. So, here’s Kenny Burns of URI robbing Northeastern’s Mike Tamsin of a sure home run. I particularly enjoy the struggle with the fence after the catch.
21
Apr
09
He Did It!
Last week we looked at Florida high schooler Patrick Schuster who had thrown 3 straight no-hitters for his Mitchell High School team; yesterday he got his chance to toe the rubber once more and guess what, he did it again! 4 STRAIGHT no-hitters!!! Against the strong offense of Pasco High, Schuster faced 25 batters, and Pasco managed a mere 6 BALLS IN PLAY! He ended the night striking out 17, including on his 106th and final pitch, a slider for a called strike three.
“The kid didn’t even budge,” Mitchell catcher Doug Burlett said. “When Patrick has it going like that, you don’t have to do that much other than watch it happen.”
Schuster now has 60 strikeouts over the streak, but he has managed to stay even-keeled throughout it all, saying after the game:
“I walked in today saying, ‘Everyone is going to be disappointed in me because I’m going to give up a hit.’ Look, it’s going to happen one of these games. When it happens, I won’t be disappointed. Hopefully, it’s at the beginning of a game. What has happened so far, there’s no way anybody could expect that. We’re just going to keep on riding with it.”
His next start will be next Tuesday with the beginning of the Class 6A District 7 tournament semi-finals where he will be gunning for the national prep record, 6 straight no-hitters.
20
Apr
09
Bye Bye Buddy!
In a boring bit of baseball bartering, the Atlanta Braves bumped Blaine Boyer out of their bullpen — and beyond the borders of the Big Peach — in exchange for Brian Barton of the St. Louis Cardinals. The beer barons of Budweiser who built the basically brand-new ebullient Busch Stadium, believe Boyer will bolster their own beleaguered bullpen; Barton meanwhile will battle for ball-playing opportunities below the big leagues — in AAA.
[MLB]
Because a cute girl in baseball clothes always becomes a hot girl, and because hot girls in Red Sox or Cubs gear really wets my whistle, thanks to the men at the suitably masculine Manofest comes a gallery of 75 hot women wearing baseball related clothing. Enjoy!
Also, I absolutely MUST meet this girl. C’mon New England, help foster true love.
[Manofest]
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