Jacoby Ellsbury's MLB Debut

Great to see a local kid finally make it to the major leagues, and Jacoby Ellsbury, from Madras and Oregon State University, made his debut tonight for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, against the Texas Rangers. Ellsbury got his call up to the parent club due to an injury to Coco Crisp.


I had the game on the TV, but as the game I was most interested in had aired earlier in the day on Fox (Mets vs. Phillies), this was the best late afternoon match-up on ExtraInnings, and so I used this as background whilst doing things around the house (I can't sit on the couch that long).



Actually had forgotten Ellsbury was with the Bosox, until I heard his name called, which brought me out to witness his first major league at-bat. Unfortunately, it's one that will be remembered for the wrong reasons, grounding out to the catcher on a check swing as the ball hits the ground in front of the plate. Jacoby freezes and just stands there, and Ranger catcher Gerald Laird quickly tags him out, obviously a rookie making a rookie mistake, but one that his teammates will probably never let him forget about (in a good way, of course, like being fined by the kangaroo court).


He did much better in his second at bat, getting an infield single on the basis of his speed, which had to delight Red Sox fans no end. Ellsbury, batting ninth, wound up the night going 1 for 4, although he never hit the ball out of the infield.


The Sox lost 5-4 after leading 4-0 early on, as Josh Beckett pitched like he did last year squandering the lead. Pinch runner Julio Lugo, running for Dustin Pedroia who had hit a two out double in the bottom of the eight, made a critical error by trying to steal third, apparently on his own initiative. It was an ugly effort, and Lugo was out by a mile, which effectively killed the Sox rally before the Rangers sent in Eric Gagne in to protect the lead in the ninth.



The Sons Of Sam Horn, a Red Sox board, had a game thread, with a few posts about Ellsbury's first AB, the relevant posts are on the bottom of page five HERE, with a separate thread related to his arrival, which is HERE.

Say It Isn't So: DaMarcus Beasley To Rangers

Crap....as one who always likes to see U.S. players do well in the European football leagues, today's news of DaMarcus Beasley heading to Ibrox is a bit of a bummer, having been indoctrinated into all things Celtic several years ago. (I still recall running into a transplanted Glaswegian at the library whilst I was wearing the hoops, who was a bit stunned at seeing the colors so far away from home. A lovely fellow indeed.)


Though for the most part the Scottish Pointless, err Premiere, League is a two-horse show, I'll still root for D. to do well, especially in European competition, just not when the two teams from Glasgow face off in an Old Firm clash.




THE NEWS IS OUT...




In other football news, nice to see that while Mexico has problems with the U.S., they have no problems with Brazil for the second time in a row, 2-0 today. Makes all of last Sunday's victory that much sweeter. Heh.



REPORT

Sinéad O'Connor

"That's Why There's Chocolate And Vanilla. That's the name of Sinéad's label imprint via Koch Records, which started with her 2005 release of excellent reggae covers, Throw Down Your Arms, recorded in Kingston with Sly & Robbie.


It's also an apt description of her thoughts about religion and God that have been expressed over the years, to the consternation of those who would like to have those ideas both linear and compartmentalized, with more control of the religion by the leaders rather than by the faithful followers. The ability to freely state and follow one's beliefs confidently, and without regard to the consequences of doing so, has also been a constant theme throughout the majority of her body of work to date.


She has a new album out now today, Theology, with songs based on scriptures from the Old Testament, with one acoustic disc, the "Dublin Sessions", and one electric disc, the "London Sessions", with the 11 songs given a different treatment on each side.



An interview with Beliefnet, in which she expounds on some of those beliefs, as well as the roles of both God and religion in context with the other, can be found HERE and some more background info on the making of the album HERE.

Down To The Basics: Size Equals Speeding On The Highway?

Well, I wouldn't know anything about that assumption, as a guy who drives a lot for my living, all I know is that I wanna get home safely that night, and in one piece as well. Which is why for work I'm almost always found in the right hand lane doing the speed limit or below.


The post title is what's seemingly referred to in a new Australian advertising campaign aimed to make speeding drivers slow down. I guess it's an extension of men buying fast sports cars to make up for those "shortcomings", but I've also seen a number of women speeding as well, and I'm not quite ready to think about how those things relate, if the advertising hypothesis is true.



The news story is HERE, found via reading DIGG

USA 2 Mexico 1

A strong second half comeback from the United States featuring two goals, one from Landon Donovan on a penalty kick in the 62nd minute, the other on a spectacular long range strike from Ben Feilhaber in the 73rd, put a cap on a lively, entertaining match in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup Championship against Mexcio.


A boisterous sold out, pro-Mexican crowd at Soldier Field in Chicago provided the usual atmosphere that's on hand when these countries meet on the pitch, and I didn't sense the bit of extra "oomph" on tackles that might've sparked a verbal or physical challenge that has occurred in the past.



The Mexicans had the better first half in terms of overall team play that might lead to goal opportunities, but the Americans had some chances that were denied with both some awkward shots and some brilliant goaltending from Oswaldo Sanchez. The energetic (and unmarked) Jose Andres Guardado knocked in a rebound just before the end of the first half to give Mexico a deserved lead.


The U.S. showed more life in their offensive attack in the second half, and were rewarded with the two goals. In fact, the score might've been totally different were it all of the golden chances for a goal were capitalized on, a couple of shots hit the woodwork, some shots went just wide, and of course the fine saves by both goalies, Sanchez and Tim Howard.


The usual post match analysis has been going on with regard to the performance of the Mexican team on U.S. soil, who are now 0-8-1 in their last nine north of the border. This means that some, including Mexico coach Hugo Sanchez, will insist that the team playing the best did not win. Hey, at least you guys got a goal today, the first in nearly 800 minutes up here.


I did notice that the Mexican coaching staff were talking with the referees immediately after the game, as well as the roll of toilet paper that flew down when Donovan took his penalty kick, but all reports that I've seen is that the crowd was as well behaved as one could expect, basically meaning only a couple of incidents involving meatheads from both sides.


FOX SOCCER RECAP

Stick Sports Baseball

I might well use this baseball game as a bit of a time-waster at work the next couple of weeks, being as office bound as I am due to my injury. Only just came across this site, strangely enough from a gent from the U.K., where cricket is the more popular sport by far between the two over there.


The batting order for the team one is assigned, without registering, where one can then create one's team, features Micheal Young, Jeter, Griffey, Jr., A-Rod, Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira, Derrick Lee, and Jason Veritek, with a choice between Dontrelle Willis, Jake Peavy and Roger Clemens for the pitchers.



STICK SPORTS BASEBALL

Shed No Tears: Au Revoir Henry, From The Arse To Barca

Much as I admire Thierry Henry's skills , the news of his departure to play for Barcelona in Spain will be no cause for grief, at least in most quarters outside of a certain area in North London, as well as their fanbase.


Knowing that he could no longer win the Premiership and CL titles in London were the big reasons that the Frenchman decided to seek greener pastures in Catalonia, with the possibility that coach Arsene Wenger may soon follow him to the south as soon as his current contract expires at the end of the next season.


The bandwagon effect of all the U.S. soccer fans I've met around who are fans of the Arse has always gotten on my nerves a bit: would they be fans if they weren't on top? I have admitted to becoming a fan of MLB's New York Mets because they were champions, but I have kept the faith in my long-distance fandom all of these years, through thick and thin, now is the time for those Arse fans around here, like the ones I met at the Sports Park, to do the same. I do offer sympathies to the long-time Arsenal fans I've met though, it can't be easy in a time like this when a star the magnitude of Henry decides he must play elsewhere


A reason for some tempering of unbridled joy at the news of Henry's departure here is that Dimitar Berbatov next year could possibly be open to leaving Spurs if they fail to advance in his search for European glory. For now, the declines in fortune for those usurpers might well be the advantage that Spurs need to help consolidate the advances that have occurred under Martin Jol the last two years. Fcuk Arse.....come on you Spurs! ( as well as Real Madrid!)





WENGER'S FUTURE?


I'M GOING TO SPAIN

Twins 6 Mets 2 (May 17th Seems So Long Ago)

Once again, the Mets lose a series after winning the first game of it. The date in the title of the post is the last time, by my reckoning, that the Mets made a meaningful late game rally to win a game. That was when they scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth, all with one out, to defeat the Chicago Cubs (and give Lou Pinella yet another reason to get all hot and bothered under the collar). Of course, there was the game a couple of weeks later when the Mets rallied in the bottom of the twelfth inning with two runs to turn back the Giants 5-4, though one of those runs was due to two balks by the soon-to-be-unemployed-in-the-Bay-Area Armando Benitez, so the Mets had a little help in that one.


By any measure, the biggest failure of the Mets is to get the consistent timely clutch hits, not a good thing when combined with the implosion of some members of the bullpen, as well as the off-day by some of the starting pitchers.



Definitely tough times for Mets fans, even the failure of the Braves and Phillies to capitalize on this losing spell doesn't bring much comfort. Perhaps the arrival of the Oakland A's will be a sign, but the fact that they lead the American League in E.R.A. (with an astounding 3.36) might be a harbinger that runs might be tough to come by this weekend.



Ah hell, in for a penny, in for a pound, there's still no other team I'd root for in baseball. Let's Go Mets!

Early Computing Games On The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Via Music

Jeez, another backwards-looking post. It's always jarring when someone else brings up something from the past, thanks to a post on REDDIT today, I was reminded of my first computer over 20 years ago, a gift via my aunt on Christmas. In this case, that would be the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, invented by a British gentlemen, dunno why she picked that one over the Commodore 64.


I don't have the layout for connecting the various pieces of equipment for consultation just now, about all I can remember about that aspect was that all of the programs were stored and played on regular tape cassettes, and from that, I still do possess one piece of software from that period: a UK cassette tape version of the Stranglers' 1984 album Aural Sculpture, which had a game on it, at the end of the album, entitled Aural Quest. There were some other programs that came with the computer, some of which were marginally useful, relatively speaking, but I have no idea where those tapes are these days.


At this point, once I had bought the Stranglers album, trying to play that game, where one is the bands road manager, became a goal I wished to master, but due to various factors (my total inexperience with computers then, faulty equipment...the tape player I was using was a cheap handheld portable type, etc.) that goal was never accomplished much past the beginning stages. It definitely could have been the hardware, on the inside of the j-card, the instructions read Wind the tape just before the computer programme starts. Set the Spectrum up for loading programs as shown in the manual. Type load "ENTER". Now play the tape. If the program fails to load, try a different volume setting.


Being that we had much more time to waste those days than we do now (HA!), all of the other volume settings would prove to just as useless when trying to get the damn program to start. That in itself was a rare occurrence, but the fact that this was a crappy game didn't help matters much either. The fact is also that the Stranglers were a crappy band to begin with and were to lose whatever credibility they had with me on this album, I rather liked the punch of the single No Mercy, but the rest of the album was just mediocre pop pap, not at all like the stuff from the first album such as Down In The Sewer or the tastelessly sexist chant Peaches.


That Reddit thread had a link to a site that had been running for just over a year, apparently (I don't go around searching for stuff like this), and the story on Kempa.com, which is HERE, which also has a link to play the game today, caught my eye because it told of of various 80's bands from the UK who used vinyl as a type of software for computer programs. For the record, I once might've bought the Pete Shelley XL-1 album, but seeing as I sold his debut album Homosapien soon after buying it ended that possible dilemma. The only question remains is why it took my so long to figure out that most of the Stranglers catalog was garbage.

The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith

Not to be looking backwards too much tonight (what the heck though, it's not like the torn bicep in my right arm is gonna heal itself overnight), but I came across this MetaFilter thread about one the best all-time bands ever, The Fall, and the documentary that ran on the BBC about the history of Mark E. Smith and whomever happened to be backing him at the moment.



Still a bit irked over the lack of northwest dates from the last couple of tours, especially in 2006, but then again one doesn't expect much in the way of concessions to the "normal" way of the "rock & roll" biz from MES after all of this time, do they?


Fact is, the album Grotesque (After The Gramme) totally blew me away in the post-punk, disco-new wave era with its anti-production and the use of a kazoo(!)....and my Beta copy of the Ikon video of Perverted By Language is one thing that will always have a place in my home (nice to see the reissue on DVD with a bonus live show from Leeds, picture quality of the total package aside.....)



A good primer for the Fall.....THE WHITE CRAP THAT TALKS BACK

Why The Mets? Tom Seaver

Some people I know have wondered why I started rooting for a baseball team located across the country. When I started getting into sports as a young kid, the Seattle Pilots were finishing their first (and only) season in the northwest, before a man named Bud Selig somehow "miraculously" found a home for them in Milwaukee for the next season, which is another story altogether. There were soon to be no more regional teams in which to have an interest, at least for awhile.


Like many kids, we collected baseball cards, and started figuring out from the stats on the back who were the better players (we had some idea from checking out the daily box scores back then, in addition to the year-to-date stats of the everyday players that were published in the Sunday paper).


Tom Seaver was the best player on the team that wound up winning the World Series that year, so, like I suppose any kid does still, I became a bandwagon fan, the distance between us be damned. However, a principle of never changing allegiances no matter what had been somehow formed in my mind, so when Seattle wound up getting another baseball franchise, there was no thought whatsoever of changing by then. As for following the Brewers, who had been the Pilots, rather than the Mets, I thought to myself, "Well, they are in Milwaukee now....it's not New York!"


So it's been all of these years, with some highs and a lot of low points, one of those being the trade, in June of 1977, of the cornerstone of the franchise, Seaver, to the hated Cincinnati Reds. By that time, I'd found some other sources for information on baseball, most notably Baseball Digest and The Sporting News. I'd read articles about concepts like the free agency, and the rapid increase of salaries for players, but I'd never really though much about them, knowing that while trades were a part of professional life, the antics of Charlie Finley aside, the stars of a team were pretty much going to be with a team for the majority of their playing days, except in the twilight of their career, as with what happened with Willie Mays and the Mets.


The fact that one of my fave ballplayers had been dealt just days after another high point in my sports life, the Blazers winning the 77 Championship, was quite a shock, even if the Mets were in the tank by then (and God knows they were), I still never really thought that Tom Terrific would ever be anything but a Met, but as most everybody has found out in the post-Curt Flood era, loyalty on both sides in the business of sports isn't exactly what it used to be.


At any rate, some of the machinations behind Tom Seaver's sudden departure from New York, 30 years ago this past Friday, some of which I never could comprehend at the time, especially from miles away, are detailed in a great story in today's New York Daily News story HERE.

Mets 2 Yankees 0

Having lost 10 of 12 in this June swoon (seven of those losses have happened after the bullpen has blown early leads), the Mets righted the ship a bit, when it perhaps counted most, by blanking the red hot Yankees and Roger Clemens 2-0 tonight. Jose Reyes and Carlos Gomez, in left field, were the keys to both Met runs ,and with Gomez, the defensive play of the game to keep the home side Yankees off the board, with a leaping grab of a ball over the fence. That apparent home run was enough to catch Hideki Matsui, at second base, off guard, where he was easily doubled off back at second when he realized that the ball was caught.


Oliver Perez pitched very well, other than in the fourth inning, when he walked the first two batters but was saved by the aforementioned double play, and the Mets beleagured bullpen came through against the torrid Yankee lineup. However, it's not like scoring two runs against major league teams is going to guarantee a victory, which is where the lack of offense is still somewhat of a concern, other than the two losses against Detroit last week, where they put across seven runs, the Mets have yet to tally more than three in any one game. Hence, when the pitching falters, the wins stop as well.



Weirdly, the ExtraInnings package added this game late in the day, for whatever reasons, I figured lots of people would want to watch this one. Also, the between innings commercials from the local broadcast were pre-empted, which was also weird. We were also treated to the YES broadcast, with Micheal Kay, Al Leiter and Ken Singleton in the booth doing a good job, though I found myself missing the catchphrase from those SportsNewYork promos, GET YOUR NEW YORK SPORTS HERE!!!.


Doubt we get the broadcast of tomorrow's game here, being as it is a 1 p.m. EST start.



Also had to check in at the beginning of the Giants/Red Sox game to see how loud the Fenway crowd would be, they did not disappoint, a lot of "asterisks" in view, even some sported by people who couldn't afford to make their own sign and wound up taping an asterisk on their t-shirts. Nice to see that Dave Roberts got a very warm reception though.




METS RECAP

Away To Sunderland

The same club, newly promoted to the EPL, that played a 0-0 draw with the Timbers a couple of years ago. That's where Spurs are (provisionally) opening next season at on August 11th, followed by two home fixtures within a week, with Everton and Derby being those teams, the latter also returning to the EPL again after an absence away.


Roy Keane is now the manager, haven't had the chance to see how many players remain from the club that ventured out here, but he certainly lit a fire under those who did play for him, much more effective than what Mick McCarthy was accomplishing. I hope that bitter and twisted Sunderland fan in Seattle is happy.



SPURS STORY

Postcard.org.....

Sorry that some a*holes are using your site for crap like this....

"It was the best feeling I ever had in my life."

A Bill Walton quote about the event that happened 30 years and one week ago. Doubtless there are millions of Oregonians who wouldn't disagree with you Bill. This isn't an obscure article on some fansite, it is on ESPN, but rather a lovely (and honest) look back at the team and what made it so special, I always like it when one of my all time fave Blazers, Lloyd Neal, is quoted.




ESPN STORY

Some Mekons U.S. Tour Dates Announced

It's possible that all the people who like the Mekons in this area aren't on their mailing list ClubMekon, but the good news is that some fall tour dates in support of their upcoming studio album Natural have been announced. The better news is that a Portland show has been included on the first round of confirmed dates, that is, if being revealed on their MySpace page fits ones idea of confirmation. October 8, 2007, a Monday, at the Aladdin Theater is the scheduled date and location. Just over five years since their last appearance, glad to have 'em back




MYSPACE

16.31% Mainstream On Last.fm

Amongst users of Last.fm, relating the comparative "mainstream" appeal of all of the favourite artists of the users of the social networking/music site. A bit useful tool, I was wondering a bit how many other people still listened to African Head Charge after all of these years. Also nice to see that Flipper and The Mekons have balanced out the popularity of both R.E.M. and Bob Dylan.



Found the site via Meta Filter




The full list (Top 30) can be found HERE.

Not Good For Business

That'd be the news coming out of Salem about a restaurant in Salem that we sometimes deal with (El Campesino Hacienda) being a place where searches were conducted as part of a break-up of a narcotics trafficking ring. No word on whether their Junction City store is involved with this (I could find nothing in the Register-Guard), the Statesman-Journal story is HERE. The community message board for the story is HERE, though I'm not registered to post a comment on that site.

Eddie Kunz Is A Met

Congratulations to the Oregon State's Eddie Kunz for being selected by my favourite Major League Baseball team in the first round of the 2007 MLB draft, with the 42nd pick. I could be like a few knuckleheads I know and wish that any athlete from the rival school fails miserably (or winds up in Tampa Bay, possibly the same thing)....but I won't, hoping that the Mets see something that they, or some other team, could use in the not-too distant future.


Only time will tell in that aspect, I recall watching a very young Mike Piazza with the Salem Dodgers thinking that he might possibly end up with nothing more than maybe a couple of cups of coffee with the parent club. (Of course, everyone was drooling over a Bellingham Mariners outfielder by the name of Griffey, Jr. about the same time).


My father, a Cardinals and OSU fan, called me up to congratulate me for the Mets having such good taste.


Also, even though Oregon has not fielded a college baseball team for about 20 years, according to Baseball Reference.com, they have still placed more players in the big league than OSU. For what that's worth.





NY METS STORY



BASEBALL REFERENCE







LIVE UPDATE: Against the Phillies Cole Hamels, Carlos Delgado, David Wright and Paul LoDuca have hit three consecutive home runs to give the Mets a 3-2 lead after six innings. Gary Cohen tells us it's the seventh time in Mets history, the last time being in April 1989, also against the Phillies, with Darryl Strawberry, Kevin McReynolds, and Keith Hernanadez getting the hits.

Thank You Editor: Sex Pistols Debuted Thirteen Years Ago?

This is probably an interesting article about the Sex Pistols from the Rolling Stone site, but the pedantic part of my nature is still taken aback by the title. Thirteen years ago, huh? No wonder I still get carded.




2:20 p.m. edit: finally edited to thirty years, I did not make a screen grab of the original.......just one of those things.




8:50 p.m. edit: the first story, with the misheard title, was still on the Rolling Stone feed, over 12 hours later. Story in that link was changed to "thirty" though, a screen grab can be found HERE.




THIRTEEN YEARS

Guardian's Top Ten Premiership moments

Not that I watch every single EPL religiously, to the exclusion of everything else (just when Spurs are on, really....), it's nice to see a couple of items from Tottenham matches, even if the number one moment was a goal against, by West Ham.


That'd be the goal that Carlos Tevez got in the derby at Upton Park, on a wonderful free kick, whereupon he celebrated by removing his shirt and celebrating with the Hammer faithful. After all the drama he'd undergone up until that point of the season, I did not begrudge him his moment at all. Best part of all, of course, was Paul Stalteri's late breakaway at the death of time to cement a Spurs victory.



The other moment with Spurs was, of course, the goal that goalie Paul Robinson made against Watford, against the man, Ben Foster, who's keenly pushing Robinson in a fight for England's number one goalie.


Rio Ferdinand's own goal against Portsmouth was lovely, especially with Rio looking like he wanted to blame somebody but himself for the faux pas with Edwin van der Sar.


The rest of their best are HERE

Oregon State 7 Virginia 3

After the Mother's Day loss to Washington State, recounted HERE, whose game-ending double play seemed to have typified the Beavers season up to that point, it is very nice to see how they've recovered to host the Super Regional against Michigan this weekend. Winning those three games in just two days was no easy task, but it is certainly gratifying to all Oregonians (yes, I am an Oregon fan, though my parents have had baseball season tickets for the last few seasons), though I'm still happiest for a coworker who played OSU baseball in the 90's, I know for sure what this has meant to lots of people.


There are several stories on the web about the game, which I'm sure all Beaver fans already know about (couldn't listen to the game as 1240 doesn't come in very well driving around Eugene for work), so the ESPN recap will suffice me for now.....



Once again, congrats to the Beavers, I'm sure Coach Casey will remind the team that there is still a long way to go.


ESPN

Note To Self: Never Double-Park In Greece

Maybe all of the Greek police force has been on edge ever since all of those Liverpool fans left last week.. Maybe the weekend announcement of a nationwide crackdown on unruly drivers has added to that stress. At any rate, a Salonican policeman has been arrested after allegedly shooting a man who wasn't moving his car fast enough after being caught double-parking. Yikes.

Irresistible Force Vs. Immovable Object

Having driven vehicles that are over 10 feet tall for work, one of the most important rules is to be aware of areas of low clearance. We've had some close calls, along with a couple of accidents in that regard, one involving the parking structure at Salem City Hall and one, involving yours truly, with the drive thru at the Taco Time in Sweet Home. For the record, the facts in my accident are that I had enough clearance at the top to drive through, with inches to spare; what I failed to take into consideration was how wide the span at the place was, the result being that I knocked down several tiles on either side of the arches. Nothing ever came of that incident, as there really wasn't much damage.



The incident in Salem peeled back a few inches of the box, before the driver realized what was going on and backed out. This accident required some major restoration work on the truck, whereas the result from mine was a couple of minor indentations at the top of the box unit on both sides.


Anyway, I've always kinda wondered what would happen if a too-tall truck went through a low clearance area.........completely? . No need to wonder anymore, as the story in today's New York Times tells the tale of a Texas trucker and the Lincoln Tunnel. The NYT photo by Oscar Hidalgo shows the "after" result from the clash alluded to in the title of this post.



STORY