It's baseball season

“Oh, man, that's, like, sick!”

“In the late 90's, I wanted to author a web page comparing and contrasting Bud Selig and Bill Gates, with the goal of determining who was more evil. It never got past the "good idea" stage, but I still think of it from time to time.”

“I couldn't find a picture, but Ron Karkovice has to be the ugliest baseball player I'd ever seen.”

“OK, OK, our household's choice is....


Don Zimmer!”

“Not fair, you might look like that too if you had been beaned twice and had a steel plate in your skull...lol...”

“Actually, I've lobbied for Randy Johnson to be #1, but have been outvoted....”

“On May 19, the Phillies phinally phulphilled their destiny and entered phirst place!

Now, they have to stay there!”

“Jim Thome is a gamer!”

“As if my hair wasn't gray enough already, the Li'l Tigers tried to give me more of them last night. But they scored three runs in the bottom of the 6th after 2 were out to pull out an 13-12 win, extending our winning streak to three games.

Lots of drama in this one. We went out in front 2-0 in the first inning, and held that lead 'till the third, when the Braves took the lead 4-2. The Tigers came roaring back in the 4th, by 5-running them, then, after the Braves notched one in the top of the 5th, added 3 more in the bottom to go up 10-5. Game over, right? Wrong.

The Braves' bats woke up and they racked up seven, count 'em, seven runs in the top of the 6th. With 2 outs, one batter hit an easy grounder to our usually reliable 2nd baseman, who booted it to keep the inning alive - ugh!

The Tigers were a little down, especially with the bottom half of our order due up. Cameron tried bunting for a hit leading off, but was thrown out by the catcher on a nice play. Corey got an infield single, but Nick forced him at second on a blooper to center that Corey had to hold up on because it might be caught. Two outs, runner on first, down by two. No problem. The hits started falling, and the Braves made an egregious error of their own. Curtis popped one up to the pitcher, but, even as the Braves began running off the field to celebrate, the pitcher dropped it, keeping the inning alive. Finally, Travis blooped one into right field to tie the game, bringing up little Emile, the 13-spot hitter (all kids bat in a continuous lineup at this level). Emile is in the 13-spot (out of 13) for a reason. Well, not tonight. With 2 strikes, he fouled one off. Then he got a fastball down the middle (well, OK, their all "fastballs") and hit an absolute rocket up the middle that nearly took the pitcher's head off and knocked in the winning run! Wild celebration ensued.

During the game, Cameron was superb at catcher. He threw one runner out at third trying to advance on a wild pitch, and caught another runner at third slow getting back to the base after a pitch. He also was Tough Guy of the Game when he stayed in after taking a very painful foul ball off the knee.

These kids are amazing. They never give up. Never. We had at least three 2-strike hits with 2 outs in the 6th inning, and several others earlier in the game. They didn't get down after blowing the lead. I guess they understood when we've told them it isn't over 'till it's over....

Next up: the 11-1 first place Royals on Saturday. Stay tuned!”

“Oops. "their" should be "they're"

My bad.”

“Good lesson for kids to learn. The big leaguers should learn that too.”

“These kids have really grasped that concept - and we always reinforce it. They really had fun last night - you shoulda seen 'em with their "rally caps" on. Some kids even forgot they had "rally helmets" on (helmets turned backwards for luck) in the dugout and came up to the plate with the helmet on backwards!”

“When I was a kid, the Phillies never came back in the bottom of the ninth to rally. I moved to Maryland in the mid-60s, and was surprised to learn the Orioles were winning games in the bottom of the ninth. I had never seen such a thing!”

“Yeah, it's a bummer when you only get to read "Winning run scored with x outs" from box scores when your team is on the road....”

“Is This True?

In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first, and only, home run.

http://www.monitortoday.com/u_know-05-02.html”

“Wow! The Li'l Tigers did it! Beat the first place (overly arrogant!) team on Saturday, 4-3, holding them to about 10 runs under their per-game average! Everyone contributed, including Cameron's diving catch of a popup while catching one of his 5 innings with the tools of ignorance. The umping was awful, but I kept my mouth shut, while the opposing coaches whined about many of the calls. The most satisfying part of the game was when, two pitches after one of the opposing baserunners was put back onto third base after a pickoff (called out, no, safe), our pitcher caught him napping and picked him off again! The kids celebrated many times during the game and had an absolute blast!!!!

Tonight is another game - stay tuned....”

“If Placido Polanco stays on the DL much longer, he'll be in danger of becoming the next Wally Pipp. Chase Utley is tearing up the league.”

“I share your pain, Geo, about half of the Cub's starting lineup is on the DL right now, argh...they are still managing to win though.”

“Well, Chase is hitting 290-something and Placido is hitting 230-something. Chase will be the everyday secondbaseman next season, sooner if Placido does not produce in a big hurry.

And I like Placido.

Good news is Thome is about to come back. Bad news is Billy Wagner is still out another 15 days. But they're still winning. The bench dogs come through!”

“Go Yankees!!”

“Who?!”

“Go Yankees. Please. Go away. :)”

“The Yank-mes went at least two of the three games in Texas! A-Rod's homecoming was a little ruined.”

“ok try this one then

Go Mets!”

“Who?!”

“ok


i will root for any team, as long as I get to wear this.”

“Royals have baseball's worst record at present. You gotta be known for something, right?”

“Go, Li'l Tigers!!”

“I think Bowlderman has the right idea.”

“With all of the close games lately, I've been lobbying for allowing devices like the one in maple's post in the dugout, but with fluids a little stronger than the root beer shown there....”

“LOL i didnt even see the ROOT part”

“Phillies and Mutts duke it out tomorrow and Wednesday. Oh yeah, baybee!”

“Damn, maple, you do need glasses...”

“dude, all I saw was BEER.

you cant faulter me for that!”

“So if you go to the store and bring Treebeard back a six of root beer when he asked for real beer, is that the excuse you use? lol...”

“tree once did a DJ gig, and announced over the microphone, that they were serving cold beer.
MAN, he almost started a riot, it turns out that it was a SOBER party and it was ROOT BEER.

LOL he never dj'd that place again.”

“Mapes just figured that's the beer you drink when you root for your team.”

“Some people have no sense of humor.”

“who me?
I know your not talking bout me!!”

“No, the people who almost rioted because Treebeard mentioned the evil "B" word.”

“LOL”

“Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, beer!”

“LETS GO METS!!!”

“must hike (aka Mike)is drunk again.

sooo sad really”

“Where are the Mutts going, Must Hike?”

“Enough of all this major league crapola! Here's some real baseball:

Cameron wearing the tools of ignorance:





Cameron racing to first after a dropping a beautiful bunt (and BowlderMan urging him on from the first base coaching box):

”

“that guy in the back left has a HUGE beer belly.

great pics.”

“Ya think it's a "root beer belly"??”