It's baseball season

“In hockey they beat the crap out of each other. In baseball they beat the crap out of the fans and mascots. And in football, T.O. just runs at the mouth. Ain't sports grand?”

“A huge loss to Baseball. A modern day "throwback" Gamer passes on.

RIP Kirby. It was an honor to see you perform your craft.”

“Oh man, I was afraid that was where it was headed. Thanks for the thrills Kirby. RIP hell - take Cy Young, Christy Matthewson, and Walter Johnston downtown!!!”

“Barry Bonds, the guy should be banned from baseball; be forced to pay his salary back to the fans that watched him since 1998; and all of his numbers from 1998 on, removed from the record books.”

“Barry who?”

“Hey Geo, I haven't followed baseball in a few yrs. What is up with this World Baseball Classic. I thought it was spring training time?”

“As if we needed another reason to dislike the Phillies, now they’re taking the Red Barons out of Scranton.”

“The WBC is a Bud Selig idea gone bad.”

“Iv'e been to a few Red Baron games, that's a pretty nice stadium. Oh, and Geo, you don't like the WBC? I think it's a great idea, exspecialy with no Olympic baseball after 2008. Maybe they should do it in the winter though?”

“November would be nice, right after the Whirled Series, going into December. But the problem then is that it would cut into Caribbean and South American winter ball.

One year they showed some Arizona Fall League games on television. Man, that was da bomb! Loved it. Baseball lasted into December.”

“*Yawn* The Canadian minor leaguers beat up on the American Stupor Stars.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

“ANd the Atlanta Braves have been statistically eliminated from the World Series..or is that Historically”

“I hear Bobby Cox has been studying up on the Heimlich maneuver.”

“A week from tomorrow I'm on my way to AZ!!!”

“Okay Bowlder, I've alerted the authorities.”

“If I bump into Barry, I'll say "Hi" for ya....”

“See if you can check out his hat size. A Philly sports columnist says 8, but I think larger - maybe 12 or so.”

“Uh-oh. Geo has discovered "Bad Reporter...."”

“Discovered him long ago and have posted some of his stuff, but usually in fuego threads.”

“I am sorry I grew up with the Arlington (Texas) Rangers (their old Stadium was called 'Arlington Cemetery". Came over here and went through some neat times, but I figured I was being damaged when I watched the fluke where ATL won the series and I sat there and watched for ten minutes after Nixon caught the last out....I was watching for them to screw it up somehow.”

“I'll let you know if he's "perky" or "surly" if I see him.”

“The Japan team really got hosed on that leaving the base call!!!”

“Did the guy actually leave early or was it a bad call? (Apparently the catcher thought he left early....)”

“Bad call. They replayed the tape a number of times and it clearly showed his foot did not come off the bag until the ball was caught.

Buck Martinez apparently complained to home plate umpire Bob Davidson that he should have made the safe call on the appeal play, not the second base ump. Davidson conferred with the second base ump, who apparently said he didn't see the play or didn't have a clear view of it, so Davidson changed the call. There was no evidence the guy left the base early, and considerable video evidence that he only left after the catch. Davidson should have lined up the base and the catch, but apparently didn't.”

“ESPN's take on the play: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/columns/story?id=2366132”

“Another take:

It looked as though Japan broke a 3-3 tie against Joe Nathan in the eighth when Akinori Iwamura flied to left with one out and the bases loaded. Tsuyoshi Nishioka beat Randy Winn's throw home, and second-base umpire Brian Knight ruled safe when Team USA appealed the play. But plate umpire Bob Davidson overruled the call following a brief discussion with the other umpires.
Manager Sadaharu Oh argued to no avail.
"The wrong umpire made the initial call," Davidson said in a statement issued afterward. "That's the plate umpire's call. I had it lined up. It's my call, and I had him leaving early and called him out."”

“oops! Maybe it's time for instant replay in Baseball?

My tribe is ripping it up in pre-season. However, I think it's just a testement to a team's depth, not the current year's club.”

“Wow, the Venezuelans lost to the Dominicans last night. San Pedro de Macoris is the baseball capital of the world, for now at least.

*Yawn* in other baseball news, Dwight Gooden was arrested again.”

“Barry: 5 for 7 w/2 dingers so far this spring....



Weather forecast for this weekend in Phoenix: low 60's with rain showers.

I thought we were going down there to enjoy some warm desert weather during the ballgames!”

“The man's a walking testament to (What was it he thought he was taking? Marshmallows?).”

“Another round-tripper in today's game.


Prince Fielder also got one in the same game. Is he as, um, rotund as his dad?”

“OK: forecast for Phoenix:

Today (me not there): 77, sunny

Tomorrow (me arriving there): 75, sunny

Saturday (me at A's game): 65, cloudy

Sunday (me at A's game): 56, showers

Monday (me back here at work): 68, sunny

Tuesday (me still here): 71, sunny

Anybody else see a pattern here?

Guess I'm bringing fleece; leaving the shorts at home....
last edited: 3/16/06 7:35:49 AM”

“You could rent yourself out to countries undergoing prolonged drought.”

“Spahn and Sain and...

Bring BowlderMan to the game!”

“I'm tellin ya dude, ya can make money with talent like that!”

“Great trade! The Phillies got a guy named Matt Kata from Phoenix last season when they traded away Tim Worrell. The Reds claimed Kata, who was hitting .190 this spring and slated for triple A, from waivers yesterday, so the Phillies got nothing for Worrell. Oh well, for his time here, that's about what he was worth.”

“Aack! We're counting on Worrell this year!

Worrell's line yesterday:
1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 HR”

“Damn, the Red said they were already mathematically illuminated from making the playoffs.”

“Hell, anybody that the Tigers dump can't be that good.”

“Ha! Ugueth "It wasn't me that burned those dudes" Urbina!”

“Baseball joke of the week: Bob Davidson.

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa ... I crack myself up!”

“76 in Phoenix today!

Then we arrive.

62 and showers tomorrow.

61 and showers Sunday.

I have packed long underwear and my Precip.

For a trip to Arizona.

Go figure....”

“I'm back. Photos are uploaded but no captions yet.

We had fun, even though it was 48 degrees and raining up through the first inning of yesterday's A's/Cubs game.

When we got to Phoenix (Scottsdale, really) on Friday, we stopped by the A's training facility near the Papago Hills. It was cool - the minor leaguers were playing games against the Giants' minor leaguers on a couple of the fields, and some of the other guys were doing other workouts on some of the other fields.

That night we went to see Damn Yankees at our cousin's dinner theatre in Peoria. They did an excellent job, and we got a nice tour of the backstage area after the show.

Saturday morning BowlderSon and I jogged the mile over to the A's training facility to watch the players. I love that kind of thing - coaches hitting infield & outfield, players doing baserunning drills, pitchers working on covering first on a grounder. One of the guys tossed a ball to BowlderSon.

Then we went to the game in the afternoon (A's vs. Royals). We saw about a week's worth of baseball in about 3½ hours. The teams combined for 35 hits and 24 runs, with the Royals coming out on top, 17-7. We were shouting "mercy rule!" when the 9th inning started.

Sunday morning it was pouring rain and about 45 degrees. As mid-day approached we decided that the gals would go to a movie, and the guys would go over to the game. If it was called off, we would join them at the movies. Well, the rain let up, so they played. Our seats were excellent: 10th row, a little to the first base side of home (we looked right down the 3rd base line). It finally stopped raining about the end of the first inning, although it stayed cold. Good thing I decided to pack our long underwear (tops and bottoms). This was a very well-played game, although both the A's and Cubs has split squads. Barry Zito pitched 6 innings for the A's - it was great to see that big rainbow curve of his so close. Former Giant Jerome Williams started for the Cubs and got seared for 4 runs in the first inning, including the first pitch he threw ending up somewhere beyond the left field fence. Another former Giant Neifi Perez missed a hit and run sign in the first, leaving his teammate hung out to dry. Oops! He heard about that one in his next few ABs (from us, of course!). The Cubs caught up in the 7th, but the A's countered with 4 more in the bottom half of the inning to reach the final score of 8-4. You could tell they're getting close to the regular season because the A's put in their real closer Huston Street in the 9th to mow 'em down.

The weather was looking much better when we left at 7:30 this morning, so of course it was pouring rain and 48 degrees when we arrived back in the Bay Area - Happy Spring!”

“My team is ranked # 1 in Baseball America this week.
14-0 baby!
Go Dawgs!”

“If they need a game rained out to give themselves a rest, just fly me down there!”

“I'm a-tellin' ya Bowlder, hire yourself out to places where there is drought. You're a walking money-maker!”

“OK, captions now added to photos - check 'em out....

http://community.webshots.com/album/548747814vHYsvT

Don't be offended by the "Baseball Annie" captions - I'm a product of one!
last edited: 3/21/06 9:35:43 AM”

“Cool (literally) beans. So you had a great time anyway, I see. And why the hell not?!!”