It's baseball season

“The greatest player of all time is a stinking myth. I heard a sportswriter in Philly call Scott Rolen the best defensive third baseman of all time.

I've seen Scot, and I've seen Brooks Robinson. I saw Eddie Matthews as a kid. I also saw Mike Schmidt.

Brooks Robinson was, bar none, the best defensive third baseman I ever saw, and a great clutch hitter to boot. He made plays that Scot can't dream of making. He got clutch hits with regularity, despite far fewer homers and only marginally less of a batting average that Schmidt or Rolen. I'd take Brooks over any of the third basemen I ever saw and not think twice.

But I did not see Tris Speaker, so realistically, what do I know.

Also, looking back at earlier eras, the numbers lie out loud. When Ruth played, the pitching mound was higher, the ball nowhere near as lively, the fences farther out, and they played eight fewer games a season.

So the numbers don't mean diddly squat.

Also, what did Ruth mean to his team and what does Bonds mean to his team. No doubt, Barry is an important contributor, but Ruth had a far greater imact on the Yankees than Bonds has on the Giants.

But Bonds is still a great hitter, and probably the best junk ball hitter in ages. And as far as the controversey goes, Ruth had more than a fair share of that. He was the consumate Peck's Bad Boy of his day, perhaps second only to Ty Cobb. I'd have to give the Babe the edge in that department as well.

Aaron was a fearsome hitter. I remember watching games on TV and worrying my way through the Milwaukee lineup, and it seemed like Aaron came up every other batter. He was always there, always a threat, always a worry.

But again, things were different in Aaron's era than in Ruth's.

People will put up bigger numbers than anybody in the past, sooner or later. That does not mean they are the greatest whatever that anybody ever saw.

I keep wondering what would have happened if the Babe had taken better care of himself. Would anybody be able to touch him?

Just an additional eight games is a big difference. Move fences in 10 feet, lower the pitcher's mound a few inches, use a juiced-up ball, and you have the difference between 60 (or 61) and 78.”

“Geo also giove babe the 4000 extra At Bats that Aaron had and how many homers do you think the babe would have.... If went by his homers per at bat which the babe had one homer per every 11.6 at bats, divide that in 4000 more at bats to equal Aaron babe would of had 345 mor homers for a total of 1058..... but we all slow down in age so say he only got 1 homers in 20 at bats, that would be 200 more homers putting him at a measly 914!... Your correct the babe was a "juicer" too he used "Beeroids" in place of Steroids. Hank was the epitomy of consistent longevity with power....they're all great players if you ask me... another thing is how many of the shiny rings did the babe have?
Red Sox and Yankees WS wins?
Quit a few :-)”

“Quit=Quite”

“Good comments, geo. I would argue, though, that Barry means more to the Giants than Babe did to the Yanks. Look at the lineups the Yankees had during those years - they still would've won lots and lots of games without him. Now look at the Giants over the past several years, and look at how they do without Barry - pathetic. Without Barry, the Giants don't even get to the playoffs, while the Yankees still would've won more than a few championships. This is probably why Barry holds the intentional walks records he does - they wouldn't walk Babe as often because the other guys would make them pay.”

“Non of these guys or any others could even hold this guys jock strap!

He litterly was superman,
He could crush a Nolan Ryan fastball 500 feet, He could steal a base almost at will. He could snap a bat on his head like a kiln dried twig. He could a liner from LF to home plate. He could run up walls. He was one of the 20 fastest men in the world. He could run over a lineback and out run all the defensive backs. He could stand on the 50 yard line with bow and arrow firing the arrow thru the center of the ball on the goal line. He is the greatest "athelete of last century. Who is he?”

“Jim Thorpe?”

“Bo!”

“Ooops, missed the batsnapping thing.

Yes, Bo was famous for that. Too bad about his hip.”

“You mean I'm right?!”

“Well, about that anyway.

I remember reading something about Bo's batsnapping ability once. He used to break them on the back of his head when he struck out.

Apparently after seeing him do this, a bunch of his teammates on the Royals tried to emulate him, and got nothing for their trouble but sore necks.”

“YES

Bo Jackson....
Greatest "athelete" !
He would snap the Bat in the top of his head.....Unreal...

he would started with snapping them on his knee and then said the head felt better!
LOL

Correct! "too bad about his hip"

He was a funny guy too.....

He could also Slam dunk a basketball from the Foul line....
also is the only running back in history to have 3 90+ yard TD runs...
His yards per carrier was higher then Jim Brown's, but he was a flash in the pan. I have a tape on him that is truly amazing.”

“Our friend who took us to Grand Canyon in March had her hip replaced about the same time as Bo's with the same type of joint (her problem was a bad car accident). Seems to me there was a physical therapist or doctor that she saw who also treated Bo. At the time, about 10 years ago (?), they told her the lifetime of the joint was about 10 years. Sure enough, she's looking at another replacement within a year or so....”

“BM
I hope friend is doing okay soon...
Anything like that has to really suck..”

“521 HR
344 Lifetime avg
634 slugging

missed all of 3 and most of 2 other seasons while in the military”

“Teddy Ballgame
"521 HR
344 Lifetime avg
634 slugging

missed all of 3 and most of 2 other seasons while in the military"
ChuckD


His services where comendable, so was Joe D's. Unfortunatly for Teddy Ball Game he has a BIG Goose Egg in World Series Rings :-)”

“Off to practice for the Li'l Tigers in a half hour or so. BowlderGal called me a few minutes ago from the high school's game, where BowlderSon is performing batboy duties. She called me to say how amazing it was to watch the kids take infield/outfield to warm up for their game - crisp, quick, everybody knows what to do - just beautiful!”

“Well, the Li'l Tigers blew out the last place team, eleventy-something to three last night. Most of their batting woes (taking called third strikes) were gone, at least until the last couple innings. Lots of good defensive plays, including, ahem! our first runner thrown out at second trying to steal, by Cameron of course! He also tagged out a kid at the plate and participated in a rundown by chasing a kid back toward third, then throwing him out. After the game, the umpire, who also coaches the first place team, came over to me and told me how well he thought Cameron plays catcher. Where do we sign up for those endorsement contracts?!”

“The Phillies finally realized the season started. WoooooooHoooooooooooo!”

“Sin-sin-atty walked Barry to lead off the 10th yesterday, despite the fact that he was 0 for his last 15 (battling a major sinus infection that leaves him dizzy). Oops, he scored the winning run!”

“What? Barry Bonds is human? How can this be?”

“Wha-?


NASA SCIENTIST TO THROW OUT FIRST PITCH AT GIANTS GAME MAY 13

To celebrate innovation in space exploration, NASA Ames Research
Center scientist Dr. David DesMarais will throw out the
ceremonial first pitch at the San Francisco Giants vs. the
Philadelphia Phillies baseball game on Thursday, May 13 at SBC Park
in San Francisco.”

“Hopefully the Phils can grab two more and get out of town before the Grunts wake up!”

“Say Bowlderman, what's with the rubber chickens?”

“When a pitcher won't pitch to Barry, they're being chicken. Thus, the rubber chickens. One of the local columnists also urged people to dance like chickens when this happens. Also, the mayor bumped into an opposing manager at their hotel recently and urged him to "pitch to Barry!"”

“The Phils did pitch to him early in the game, but with runners on walked him. Hey, there's a difference between being chicken and being stupid.

Like the Giants never intentionally walk anybody?”

“They used to say "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM."

Walking Bonds is the easy decision for an opposing manager. No matter what the result, the decision to walk him doesn't really get questioned.

Pitching to him, on the other hand...if he hits, the manager is faulted for giving him the opportunity.”

“Yeah, I know what you're saying, Geo. It's just that he gets walked at ridiculous times often. Like leading off an inning, etc. But that's the Giants' fault for not having anyone hitting well behind him. If someone would occasionally come up after that and thwack the ball somewhere, the silly walks (unintentional Monty Python reference) would stop.”

“The Phils pitched to him at least 3 times last night...he was officially 1 for 3.”

“It has to be frustrating for a Grunts fan, I admit. It's the price of greatness.

My view is pitch to him when it's only a run, or when the game is a laugher. If he's in a position to take the game away from you, four fingers!

The Phillies lineup is potent enough that teams have to think long and hard about IW's. If you walk Thome, it's a potential extra RBI for Burrell. That's what the Grunts need; you are absolutely correct there.

It's all funny. They put the shift on for Thome. Every now and again he takes it the other way and gets an extra base, thanks to the shift. Good hitters prevail. That's why Bonds is such a good junk ball hitter. Necessity!”

“'Unintentional'... Riiiiiiiiiiight, LOL

After an horrendous beginning, Augusta's been playing near-.500 ball lately. I went to the game last night and actually witnessed a win!

We're now 10-21.

<argh>”

“OK, I pitched for an hour and a half solid tonight to the kids. I threw pretty hard to get them used to the pitching we expect to see Friday night. I think my arm will fall off later....

(Between kids I got in a few curveballs (good, but wild) and split finger fastballs (unbelievably awesome!).)”

“If you don't pitch to Barry, you are officially a WUSS. End of story.
How would Mike Schmidt have barely made it into the hall if pitchers didn't throw him the friggin' ball? Fer chrise sakes, the dude has a slim chance of breaking the hallowed home run record. The commisioner should demand that teams pitch to him.”

“Hey Marty, it sounds like one arm should be at least 2 inches longer that the other by now, LOL -- Are you a righty or a lefty?

It it now officially Thirsty Thursday here on the banks of the Savannah River. The first pitch crosses the plate in 18 hours and 5 minutes.”

“Maybe next practice I'll pitch left-handed to even out the arms!

It was great when the kids I was pitching to rejoined the rest of the team where our best pitchers were pitching in a scrimmage. The kids having the most trouble batting started raking 'em around the park!”

“Friday night, the Li'l Tigers pulled out a close one, winning on a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the 6th. Scoring this way is actually remarkably rare in this league, even though it's the first level that kids pitch. The Tigers had a terrible 2nd inning in the field, making several errors to allow the opponents the max 5 runs. But they came back in the bottom of the frame and scored 5 of their own! Anyway, the Tigers were raking the ball around the park (due to, ahem, some extra batting coaching by yours truly!), frustrated by some fine fielding on the other side. Even Cameron got into the act, hitting two balls hard (first time doing so this season), which were, unfortunately well-fielded and turned into outs. We had some good fielding of our own, with one kid getting an unassisted double play - as a SS, he made a nice catch of a line drive, then tagged the kid who had been on first and was running to second, thinking the liner would fall. In the end, the heart of our lineup was up, so we probably would have won without the walk, but it was great to beat a team ahead of us in the standings to even our record at 5-5 with 8 games to play. Next up, a team just behind us in the standings that scores a lot of runs - watch for the game report on Thursday morning!!”

“Our T-ball season is over. I don't think I've ever been so glad to see it over with. They decided to make up the last game, and let the parents know 1 day in advance. It's the same day as the team pictures, but it rains most of the morning and we figure the game won't be played because the field will be too muddy. My wife gets there, then calls me to let me know the game is probably going to played. Then, a few minutes later, she calls me again and asks can I come and bring some drinks for the kids, no one had thought to bring them earlier. So I do that.

When I get there, I discover that the opposing team had about 6 kids there to play. We probably wouldn't have had that many, if we hadn't been taking team pics the same day. I watch my son play in the T-ball game, which lasts until after 7:00PM, but at least the actually finished a game this year.

Later, I find out from my wife that our coach didn't finally decide to play the game until after 6:00, thirty minutes after the game was supposed to begin. Grrr. It took him forever to decide, and even then, he didn't really decide, he asked the kids if they wanted to play.

I'll step up next year and coach if it looks like he'll be involved. He's an okay guy, but he can't make a decision to save his life.”

“Phillies are onkly a game back !!!
They're doing great!!!”

“Yes, they finally figured out that the season has started. They're having a great road trip, and need one more at Coors this afternoon for an 8-2 trip. But even 7-3 isn't half bad.”

“Thank god the Mariners got rid of the Big Unit when they did. He was well past his prime...

ATLANTA (AP) -- Arizona's Randy Johnson became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game, retiring all 27 hitters to lead the Diamondbacks over the Atlanta Braves 2-0 Tuesday night.

The 40-year-old left-hander struck out 13 and went to three balls on just one hitter -- Johnny Estrada in the second inning. Estrada fouled off three straight 3-2 pitches before going down swinging.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/baseball/mlb/05/18/bc.bbn.diamondbacks.braves.ap/index.html?cnn=yes”

“Amen bro. Lots of teams could use a washed-up pitcher like that.”

“If you want to see perfect game, you should check out Artex, Briar rabbit and myself at your local singles bar on a friday night.”

“Randy Johnson: The Second Ugliest Man in all of Baseball.”

“Are you talking just current players, or all-time, BowlderMan?”

“Current people in baseball (so, managers and coaches, etc. included). But maybe all-time, too.”

“The ugliest is Bud Selig, and I'm not just talking about appearances!”

“Not eligible in my book - have to have played at least a little (actually, I don't even know what that dude looks like....).”

“I think that Willie McGee is right up there, personally. The only baseball player I ever saw who looked better with a batting helmet on.”

“Yeah, he was a little freaky looking, but not super ugly. Trivia note: his photo was prominently displayed at my lasik doctor's office as one of his more famous patients....”

“McGee's photo, not Mr. Ugliest....”

“

If you see this guy, punch him in the nose or something.”