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08
Aug
08

Whitey Herzog Has a Way With Children

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Baseball and Random
Tags: ,

Within a nice story about how Whitey Herzog had a baseball field named for him in Belleville, Illinois (home of famed former Sox (Red and White) slugger Brian Daubach) is this little nugget about him coming across some kids doing something strange:

“It’s the first time I’ve seen two kids playing catch in 20 years, so I stopped the car and gave them each an autographed ball,” said Herzog, who told the surprised boys who he was and why he was stopping to admire their game of catch. “I said, ‘I’m so proud that you two kids are out there playing catch, because nobody does anything today unless it’s organized.’

“I kind of shocked them a little bit, but I was just in awe of that because you don’t see it any more.”

I imagine the kids were totally confused why this old flat-topped guy was coming out of his car claiming he was a famed manager. “I played for Casey Stengel,” “Sure you did old man, now take your liniment smell and get out of here before I have to call the police. Oh, and thanks for now ruining my baseball by scribbling all over it.”

05
Aug
08

Elvis Lives! Elvis Gets Wet! Elvis Gets Arrested!

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Awesome and Baseball
Tags: , , , , ,

Last night’s Cubs/Astros tilt was halted for a while thanks to tornado warnings and intense lightning storms. The grounds crew rushed the tarp out onto the field and within minutes the giant piece of plastic became an all-too-tempting slid n’ slide. We’ve seen some Rangers players this year unable to resist and go sliding, which apparently the security folk don’t mind, (I’d guess the players’ GMs do…) but apparently, if you’re just some normal dude who goes to Cubs games dressed up as Elvis, a classic baseball fan tradition–in fact I believe Abner Doubleday used to do it too, although at the time everyone thought he was kind of a dandy–the security and police folk take umbrage. It just doesn’t seem fair to me, after all, he is the King.

[Fan IQ]

01
Aug
08

So Long Manny

By slanch 2 Comments
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , ,

I’m going to miss you Manny.

You were one of my favorite all time Red Sox, and much like the Nomar trade this one is hard to take. That said, intellectually I understand and appreciate the move Theo and the front office made. Jason Bay is one of the few players I would have wanted to come replace Manny next season, and instead we get a chance to test-drive him and see how he fits with this team. I’m sad to see someone whose number should have been retired as a Red Sox go off and play for Joe Torre of all people, but Manny wants his money and so he’s off on that adventure. I’m gonna miss him, his big at-bats, the watching of home runs, the sidearm flips in to second base to throw a runner out and all the goofy stuff in between. Manuelito, you will be missed but I can’t help feeling like this team is going to start playing better without you. I hope that’s true. I do know that I feel lucky that I got to see Manny Ramirez’ final home run as a Red Sox player in person on Monday. So long Manuelito, Red Sox Nation is going to miss you.

Continue reading ‘So Long Manny’

30
Jul
08

I Want to Pay Attention But For Some Reason I Can’t

By slanch 11 Comments
Categories: Baseball, Hot Women and Television
Tags: , , , , , ,

How am I supposed to pay any attention whatsoever to whatever it was Kevin Burkhardt was blabbering about during last night’s game with this in the background?

I want to pay attention, I’m sure Kevin’s conversations with Jerry Manuel were very deep and profound but I just have this one vision dancing through my head every time they would cut back to him in this segment, I think it went a little something like this:

Some quick research finds out that this is one of the lovely and talented Marlins “Mermaids”, by the name of Glenda. Thanks to their totally kick-ass interactive site, we can find out that Glenda, who terms her fashion sense as “Classy Trendy” also “would describe myself as unique, adventurous, and ambitious.” Sounds spunky!

I know that I would pay much attention to Kevin whenever he speaks if SNY made this a trend…It certainly makes watching the Mets more interesting that’s for sure.

Join us below the jump for a couple more shots of the delightfully fun Glenda, or check out her gallery here.

Continue reading ‘I Want to Pay Attention But For Some Reason I Can’t’

30
Jul
08

Righty Reliever Simply Not Deceptive Enough

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Baseball, Douches and Random
Tags: , , , ,

Julio Mateo is best known for…well, actually, Julio Mateo isn’t really known for anything on the diamond. He’s a scrub reliever who spent a couple years with the Mariners, never particularly distinguishing himself. He had one semi-solid year in 2005 and otherwise there is nothing noteworthy about his playing career.

These days he’s pitching in the SF Giants’ minor league system and was arrested over the weekend for passing counterfeit $100 bills. Mateo, no stranger to the lawman was also once arrested in May 2007 in a Manhattan hotel after he he admitted to striking his wife and was charged with third-degree assault which then precipitated his release from the Mariners system.

Reportedly, Mateo and a teammate were in a taxi on their way back to their Albuquerque hotel when he used the fake $100 to pay the $26.80 cab fare. The driver then tried to use the bill to pay his dispatcher but  after using a marking pen, they found out it was fake and so he drove back to the team’s hotel and called the police.

When police approached Mateo in the hotel and started patting him down, he immediately told them in Spanish that he “didn’t pass the bad money.” Probably not the best thing to say when they haven’t even informed you yet why they are there; methinks it smacks a skosh of guilt.

Although certainly not as much as the two stacks of fake $100 bills in his hotel room on the table that the police found upon entering his room, that more screams guilt than smacks. Mateo was taken into custody by the Secret Service and is likely to be charged sometime in the next few days. The Giants have yet to take any action against him, but it seems probable that his attempts to get back to the majors will be on hold for the next 7-10…

29
Jul
08

I Swear I Thought I Saw A Nickel on the Ground

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball, Boston and Television
Tags: ,

Heidi Watney joined the NESN Red Sox broadcast team in late April and has since become something of a crowd favorite, mostly because she is a former beauty queen who is easy on the eyes and is genuinely interested in sports. The fine gents over at Red Sox Monster have an item today about a new fan-site for Heidi, which is all well and good, but is not the only Watney related place online. For example, flickr is rife with photos of her and some are especially interesting. Take for instance this one, entitled “Why cameramen love their jobs.”

Heidi isn’t up to Erin Andrews levels of fanboys yet, or even Hazel Mae, but a bit longer in the Boston market and she could be. In the meantime, let’s hope that the fan-sites thrive and we get some chances to appreciate her fine work.

29
Jul
08

Around the Stadiums in 26 Days

By slanch 4 Comments
Categories: Awesome and Baseball
Tags: ,

I know that I am super jealous of the summer that Josh Robbins has had. That’s because, in 26 days, he visited all 30 baseball stadiums to take in a game. He has submitted his accomplishment to the Guinness Book of Records besting the previous best by 2 days.

The native New Yorker who now resides in California began his trip in Seattle traveling 14,212 miles and spending more than $2,000 in gas. Don’t ask Robbins which stadium had the best hot dogs though, the classic ballpark fare isn’t something he likes, so Robbins survived on chicken tenders and pretzels along his journey.

During the trip he went to two games in a day 4 times in order to save time. He went from Seattle to San Francisco; Anaheim; Phoenix; Oakland; back to Los Angeles; down to San Diego; and then to Denver; Kansas City; Detroit; Toronto; Cleveland; Chicago; Minneapolis; Arlington, Texas; Houston; St. Petersburg, Florida; Miami; Atlanta; St. Louis; Cincinnati; Baltimore; Pittsburgh; Boston; the Bronx in New York; Queens in New York; Philadelphia; Washington; Chicago; and Milwaukee.

Along the way, seven friends or family members – including his wife, Su Karuppana, and dad, Jon Robbins – joined him to help drive and watch games.

“The most difficult drive was San Diego to Denver,” Robbins said. “That was one of the most thrills I’ve had driving. After the Padres game, we had 14 hours to drive 1,082 miles. We got to the first pitch by two minutes, every second counted. I still don’t know how [we] did it.”

Robbins managed to see some pretty cool games along the way, too. Continue reading ‘Around the Stadiums in 26 Days’

28
Jul
08

International Baseball to No Longer Resemble Baseball

By slanch 2 Comments
Categories: Baseball
Tags: , ,

In one of the more absurd rule changes I have ever heard of, I came across this item from Baseball America’s Jim Callis:

The International Baseball Federation has adopted a speed-up rule that will be used in international competition, starting with the Beijing Olympics. Beginning in the 11th inning, teams will open each frame with runners on first and second base. Additionally, to start the 11th inning, clubs can decide where they want to begin in the batting order (though they won’t be able to further reset the order in later innings).

“The upcoming Beijing Olympic competition may be our last unless we are successful in adding the sport back to the Olympic program for the 2016 Games,” IBAF president Dr. Harvey W. Schiller said. “We must demonstrate to the International Olympic Committee not only does our game belong alongside the other great sports of the world, but our sport is manageable from a television and operational standpoint.”

This has to be one of the most asinine rule changes ever. Also, it doesn’t seem like it will matter, as after this year baseball will no longer be an Olympic sport. I simply don’t understand how anyone could do something like this and think of it as baseball. Now, I’m all for making the sport more marketable and popular worldwide, but this is simply changing the game for the worse and makes no sense. This is supposed to be top-line competition, not Little League. Wait, I take that back, even Little League wouldn’t be this stupid. It’s one thing to have a mercy rule in international competition, which is also stupid, but arbitrarily putting men on base and then allowing you to hit whomever you like is just an awful affront to the game.

Ugh.

28
Jul
08

Reds Make Important Deal for Their Future

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball and Random
Tags: , ,

Despite being 11.5 games out of the lead for the NL Central, the Cincinnati Reds don’t believe they’re out of it, so they swung a major deal over the weekend for both their present and their future. Of course, I’m referring to the news that is already everywhere across the nation, that everyone is talking about, the Reds have finally chosen their OFFICIAL and exclusive ketchup provider. Finally!

Our long national nightmare is finally over and we can get back to our regular, dull lives!

Red Gold Premium Ketchup are the lucky winners and will become the sole providers for the Reds at their 32 food stands. I’m just glad that this whole ordeal is at long last over and the Reds can get back to concentrating on the game. In fact, I’m almost certain that this long search has been the reason why the Reds are so far out of contention. Sure, critics might point to Dusty Baker and say that since he doesn’t understand how to properly manage a baseball team, or that he ignores statistics that would actually help his team because he’s “old-school” and that he’s out of touch with the current game, but to those people I say ketchup!

The Reds are primed to go on a Rockies-like streak and most likely win the World Series this year, solely propelled via the high quality Red Gold PREMIUM Ketchup.

24
Jul
08

I Can’t Believe He Threw a Strike

By slanch 6 Comments
Categories: Awesome and Baseball
Tags: , ,

Let’s just say that in Japanese baseball being sneaky can sometimes work in your advantage. Take for instance, this pitcher who throws a totally dope pitch in a game, and somehow slides it in there for a strike against a truly baffled hitter, methinks the umpire was just so impressed he called it a strike regardless.

All I can think about when I see this pitch is the Dunkin Donuts ad where some Fenway food vendor guy is teaching Pedro Martinez how to REALLY be an effective pitcher and teaches him trick pitches like this. I’ve looked everywhere I can think of and can’t find that commercial at all. But I swear it exists, if I find it I’ll post it as well.

22
Jul
08

Manny Ramirez Is a Bad Jay Walker

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball and Boston
Tags: , , , ,

While I’m still angry with Manny, noted lush Bob Lobel’s comments that Manny was fined six figures for pushing the team’s traveling secretary appear to have been wrong, and there is no clear evidence that he purposely took those three pitches against the Yankees. I’m not letting him completely off the hook though.

That said, here’s a pretty funny story about him from Seattle last night. From the Seattle Times’ Mariners Blog:

Seems that Boston slugger Manny Ramirez was leaving the ballpark, with headphones on trying to look inconspicuous and quickly get away from the crowds still leaving the stadium. He started to cross South Royal Brougham Way, against the signals of a traffic cop who was directing pedestrians. The police officer demanded that Ramirez open his wallet and show identification. He warned him that he could face a $500 fine and possible arrest for disobeying a police officer.

It became clear to those watching that the policeman had no idea who Ramirez was. He didn’t ask for an autograph or anything, but did ask Ramirez if he’d attended the game. After the brief lecture, and no argument from Ramirez, the police officer let him go with no further trouble.

Manny, who was pinch run for late in the game, apparently didn’t feel like waiting for the team bus and so went off on his own. I especially like that the cop asked Ramirez if he had attended the game and had no idea who he was; I’m sure that the brief lecture from the cop completely reformed Manny and really impacted his life.

21
Jul
08

Lakers Looking to Change Up Their Team

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Baseball and Hot Women
Tags: , ,

The Los Angeles Lakers were unable to deal effectively with the Celtics in the finals this year, being simply overmatched. To fix that issue, the Lakers are taking this off-season to retool and prepare for next year. Over the weekend they brought in a slew of hot, new prospects for a try-out.

Oh, did I mention that the try-outs were for the Laker girls?

Ah, those plastic-y dye blonds of LA, what a land! Looks like Jack Nicholson will have a slew of new prospects next season. There’s plenty more over at the Lakers Blog so feel free to check them out, I won’t take offense.

[Lakers Blog]

Continue reading ‘Lakers Looking to Change Up Their Team’

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