Joe Garagiola, R.I.P

Thank you Joe for being a big part of my baseball life growing up :(.......and for the inspiration for Fred Willard's role in Best In Show R.I.P

Dodgers 3 Cardinals 2: Heh.........

"That ball got lost in 50,000 white towels shaking in front of Matt's face," Adam Wainwright said. "It doesn't really seem fair that an opposing team should be able to allow their fans to shake white towels when there's a white baseball flying through the air. How about Dodger Blue towels?"

Bitter much? As I've often been told by my "superiors", life isn't fair. Dodgers up 2-0, but the NLDS is far from over. Still, today's game developments couldn't have happened to a better set of fans. Go Blue!!!



ESPN RECAP

More Raging Controversy: Did Pujols Dig In The Dirt?

In a similar style of critical analysis that deals with the big issues, ESPN's popular pick-em game STREAK FOR THE CASH recalls the heyday of the National Lampoon magazine's take on nuclear war by debating on whether or not President Obama's ceremonial first pitch at tonight'sAll-Star Game in St. Louis hit the dirt or not. The purpose of the game is to try and pick 25 consecutive winners and win a million dollars by doing so. Several choices are offered every day for those who play. One of tonight's choices was whether or not the first pitch from President Obama would land in the glove of ceremonial catcher Albert Pujols. It seems that the result was somewhat inconclusive for a large number of people, who couldn't agree on whether or not the ball hit the dirt before landing into the glove of Pujols. What....controversy surrounding anything that President Obama does? Perish the thought! The entertaining in-game thread can be read HERE , with the comments relating to the first pitch starting in the 2000 level. The fact that hopes are riding with the continuation of various streaks, of course, plays no small factor in the writing of some of the participants.

Seattle Mariners (Marineros) 2 Minnesota Twins (Gemelos) 1

AP photo by Elaine Thompson


A good pitching duel between Seattle's Jarrod Washburn and Minnesota's Nick Blackburn was ended by eighth-inning heroics from Ken Griffey, Jr., who hit a two-out double that drove in Ichiro from first base, giving the Mariners the come from behind win over the Minnesota Twins on Salute to Latin American Beisbol day at Safeco Field.



Even though Washburn was not credited with the win, he made the play of the game by quickly following up his third-inning bases loaded wild pitch by quickly blocking the plate on the Twins' Delmon Young. Washburn got a break as the ball, which had quickly skipped past catcher Guillermo Quiroz but bounced back to him off the backstop. Quiroz reacted with a timely throw for the third out of the inning.



Mariner pitchers also benefited from allowing the top three of the Twins lineup to go 0 for 12, with lead-off hitter Denard Span going 0 for 5 and three strikeouts. Very hard to create offensive runs when the top of the order can't get on base.



Kudos to the Mariners, who really began to show signs of life offensively in the fifth inning. Blackburn had been even more effective than Washburn through the first four innings, and was on the edge of getting out of the fifth when the Mariners rallied for their first two-out run. Franklin Gutierrez beat out an infield single and then Ichiro doubled him home to tie the score after Minnesota had scored in the fourth on a Micheal Redmond double.



Micheal Cuddyer made an outstanding defensive play for the Twins in the sixth inning, with a running back-handed stab of a Adrian Beltre line drive.



It was an excellent day for baseball, overcast but not chilly, many thanks to the Army family from Fort Lewis for the free ticket along the right field line. I made it up to them by buying them a couple of overpriced food items from the vendors, I thank them again for their kindness.


In the WTF department, kudos I suppose to the gentleman who won 336 (!) Moon Pies from Am/Pm. Sorry to say that I didn't catch how they managed to arrive at such a number.






ESPN RECAP , SEATTLE TIMES RECAP, STAR TRIBUNE RECAP


Bailadores de Bronce performing




Justin Morneau's backside





No thanks, we're all stuffed and bloated from the garlic fries!

Pound That Budweiser

Here's to you Joe Schultz!

Cleveland 22 New York Yankees 4: Nelson Part Deux

Much better laugh today at the new Yankee Stadium than what happened on Thursday, and the Julie Jacobson/AP Photo of Mariano Rivera walking off the field at the end of the game is a better pic than another pic of the bully from The Simpsons would have been. Sorry I wasn't able to watch the game on Faux today though, I was out enjoying the sun on Record Store Day.






ESPN RECAP

One Of The Greatest Stadium Openings In This Or Any Other Sport: Indians 10 Yankees 2

ESPN

An Encouraging First Step: Oregon 5 St. Mary's 3

To be honest, I was not one of those fans going nuts about the return of baseball to the University Of Oregon after 28 years (in a similar manner to those Oregon State fans who never really cared for their own program until they started winning in the last few years), but Friday afternoon's win in a game with St. Mary's was a lovely diversion on a spring-like day here in the mid-valley.


The Ducks rallied in the top of the fifth with four runs to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead, the key hit being a two-run triple by Jett Hart that accounted for the final two runs as well as the margin of victory.


Oregon got some good pitching in the second inning when starter Tyler Anderson allowed one run, and then pitched his way out of a bases-loaded jam with no further scoring. They also got some timely defense, in particular another situation in the seventh when reliever Ryan Fleckenstein, with the bases loaded and one out, got the Gaels batter to hit the ball back to him. Fleckenstein fired the ball to the plate for a 1-2-3 double play that proved to be another critical point of the game. In the ninth, Drew Gagnier induced a game-ending double play.


Radio announcer Brian Prawitz was quite enthusiastic about being there for the return of Oregon baseball, though he did have a Jerry Allen-type moment just before the Ducks took the field for defense for the first time when he mentioned that Anderson could be the "staff of the ace". That very minor quibble aside, he kept my attention for the times I was listening (most of the game, but I did have to let work have its say every once in awhile.)


With my work schedule, it's hard to say how many games I'll personally be able to attend this year, but this win was solid enough to insure that I'll be tuning in to the radio broadcasts whenever I can. Nice job George, keep up the good work and let's go Ducks!






GO DUCKS RECAP

Baseball Around The Corner: Spring Training Starts

So a large number of people around the country may have been permanently put off by major league baseball in this steroid age, but there are still a larger number of people who still have a certain faith that most of the players are playing the game the right way ("right way" being relative to current societal norms, I'd suppose).


To celebrate, Sports Illustrated has a lovely 21 PICTURE SET of baseball players in spring training over the years, with this amazing Walter Iooss Jr. photo of Yankee pitcher Sam McDowell in 1974 being my personal favourite.

MLB Network Here On Jan. 1st

Got the notice via the cable box last week that the MLB NETWORK will debut on New Year's Day, channel 419, at 3 p.m. PST. Glancing through the schedule that they've lined up for the first month, it's safe to say that I won't have the channel on continuously, at least for that time frame.


It's great to note that they have already stated that they don't WANT TO BE 'BASEBALL CLASSIC' but given that there's still a long time before spring training opens, the 'classic content' that is lined up involves some teams and World Series that I'd just as soon not revisit any time soon. Those teams would include the Red Sox, Phillies and Cardinals. About the only time I saw the Mets mentioned was on a replay of game seven from the 2006 NLCS, so one can figure out why that would be. Shows on the 69 and 86 Mets can't get aired soon enough.



However, the channel is airing the Ken Burns series that originally ran on PBS, which I haven't seen in a long, long time; the timing is just right to get reacquainted with that program. In addition, the big draw for me concerning the modern game will be the Hot Stove Live show as the place to get my daily fix on issues related to player transactions.


They've also announced plans to televise 26 games during the regular season (I think I read in one of their myriad pieces regard the channel debut that these would be on Thursday night; I wonder if the blackout issues that prevent a good number of Saturday day games from being televised on the ExtraInnings package will come into play in this relationship).



We'll sign off with an article from MLB.com, THE TOP 10 REASONS TO WATCH MLB NETWORK. (Your mileage may vary, of course.)

Well Worth Anybody's 75 Dollars: Beavers 27 USC 21

(Unless you're a fan of the Trojans, I suppose!). Can't say that I watched the first half of last night's contest at Reser, but that's because I was splitting my time watching three baseball games instead: the Twins comeback against the White Sox, the Pirates/Brewers tilt, which featured a walk off grand slam by the Brewers Ryan Braun, and the Mets comeback against the Cubs 7-6. All of those games ended within 15 minutes of each other, though of course I spent more time on the Mets game. For the record, the winning single hit by Carlos Beltran happened just a minute after the third Beaver touchdown in the first half, because by that time my Beaver brother, who lives in Southern California, had begun texting me about the incredible happenings in Corvallis.


Whilst I have no particular love for the Beavers or many of their fans, the sight of Trojan head coach Pete Carroll befuddled on the sidelines helpless to stop the other side is one that had me laughing out loud. From what I watched in the second half, when the Trojans earnestly began to rally from the 21-0 halftime deficit, they had a very difficult time trying to get a hold of of freshman running back Jacquizz Rodgers, who had no problems getting a sizable number of yards on first down running straight up the field for continual short yardage situations. In addition, the Beaver defense stymied the Trojans for a good portion of the game by making things uncomfortable for Trojan quarterback Mark Sanchez, who statistically had a good game but was undone by way too many ineffectual 3 and out drives that failed to balance the time consuming drives that the Beavers used to establish their lead.



Way to go Beavers for a great exhibition of team football, it's nice to see the underdog pull out a decisive win against the favoured opponent, and I certainly don't begrudge the fans rushing the field at the end, it was a big, big win that was well deserved. What this means in the context of this season is anybody's guess, who knows how this team will respond next week away from Reser against a tough Utah team is something that we'll all know more about by next Sunday. As for what happened Thursday, it was an enjoyable 'perfect storm' of an underdog team at home thinking that it could beat the top dog strongly encouraged by its rabid fans.



ESPN RECAP

Nice Move George: Randolph Goes To The All-Star Game

Though I have little love for the Yankees (but will root for them whenever they play the Red Sox), and have even less time for the digs given by the fans of the inter-city rivalry as exhibited in the comments in the linked article, as a Mets fan I must say that it is a very nice gesture of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to invite fired Mets manager (and former Yankee standout) Willie Randolph to tonight's All-Star game.


DAILY NEWS STORY

New York Mets 7 Florida 2: It's A Long Season After All

Not a whole lot to complain about in this one, but the best news certainly has to be that off-season acquisition Johan Santana looked awfully good in his season debut with the Mets in Miami today. (The photo is from J. Pat Carter of the AP)



Unfortunately we were stuck with the Florida broadcast team of Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton; they're good enough, but not nearly as entertaining as SNY's team of Cohen, Hernanadez and Darling. Since Waltz used to be at Fox Seattle, we were reminded of the basketball days of Marlins starter Mark Hendrickson at Washington State.



Both pitchers looked good through the first three innings; Hendrickson got the Mets to swing at balls that were inside, resulting in quite a few pop-up outs. The Mets actually had runners on second and third in the first, with two outs, but that was the result of a fluke play by Marlins centerfielder Cody Ross, who misplayed a shallow fly ball hit by Carlos Beltran that popped out of his glove as Ross attempted to make a diving catch. Somehow, that was ruled a double for Beltran rather than an error, but Curtis Delgado ended the inning by lining to shortstop.




The Mets rallied in the fourth inning with six runs, the first two coming on two doubles, a single and a walk. Hendrickson then got the next two Met hitters out, but then the floodgates opened with the top of the order, as a single by Jose Reyes and a walk from Luis Castillo loaded the bases for David Wright, who hammered the ball into centerfield for a bases-clearing double, rounding out the damage for the inning.




Santana did struggle a bit in the fourth and fifth innings, comparatively speaking with the rest of the game, and it was in the fourth where he allowed both the first base runner ( a walk to Hanley Ramirez) and first hit, a two-run home run by Josh Willingham, to trim the Mets lead to 6-2. In the fifth, Santana gave up an infield single, threw a wild pitch , and then walked a batter to have runners at first and second with one out, but got himself out of that mini-jam with a couple of strikeouts.



Marlon Anderson got another pinch hit, and wound up scoring the final run in the top of the ninth, making it home on a throwing error on Marlins catcher Matt Treanor. Reyes had sacrificed Anderson to second, but then pitcher Matt Lindstrom threw a wild pitch; Anderson was heading for third when Treanor recovered the ball, but his throw wound up in left field. Treanor, however, did throw out two Mets trying to steal a base (Reyes and Wright) but replays seemed to indicate that both runners were safe. Castillo did manage to steal one, back in the third with two outs; he laid a perfect bunt down the third base line to get on base, and promptly stole second in an effort to create something, but the early inning jinx of Hendrickson continued as Wright ended the inning with a fly ball.




Once again, it's a long season, and it was only the Florida Marlins after all, but it was a good enough show to create optimism amongst Mets fans, especially after division rivals the Braves and Phillies had enough problems of their own, as the Braves BLEW TOM GLAVINE'S HOMECOMING AND FAILED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE FROM RECOVERING FROM A 5-RUN 9TH INNING DEFICIT to lose to Pittsburgh in 12 innings, and the Phillies bullpen fell apart to the DIVISION LEADING WASHINGTON NATIONALS. Hey, the Mets'll take care of them later.






METS STORY and GAME RECAP.

Pepperdine 8 Oregon State 5

Spent a good part of a perfectly lovely Saturday afternoon in Corvallis to watch the Pepperdine Waves and Oregon State Beavers finish their series at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. My parents have season tickets, and my father somehow wound up working on Saturday, so I wound up going with my mother to see how the Beavers looked this year.


Yes, I wore an Oregon sweatshirt and hat, but my mother's colleagues, as expected, were very good natured in their ribbing of me (though I did get a "Go Ducks!" from a lady handing out the Powerball tickets before the game!). Of course, there's always one in every crowd, and as we took our seats in front of the radio booth, a man standing next to us, who'd noticed what I was wearing whilst talking to another man, began to voice his displeasure about Oregon, Pat Kilkenny, etc. etc. etc. Just shut the hell up, I thought to myself, not wanting to take his bait, I'm just trying to finish my sudoku puzzle, thankyouverymuch!



It was a great game of baseball, for the first six innings anyway, as the Waves put together a 7 run inning in the top of the 7th to rally from a 2-1 deficit and grab the lead at 8-2. A couple of errors from third baseman Drew George were the keys to the big inning for the Waves, and it seemed to me most of the damage came with two outs in the inning, which always make such innings extra painful (I could be wrong about the number of outs though, as I didn't keep score but the Beaver fan next to me, a very nice guy, agreed with me on that point).



The Beavers rallied with two in the seventh and another one in the ninth, with two out and the tying run at the plate in Jordan Lennerton, but he struck out after working the pitcher up to a full count. I must say that the thoughts of most people around me were that the Beavers had rallied before to win in this series, and could do it again, so optimism was high until that final strike.


I've got to agree with the local views that James Nygren, making his first collegiate start, looked pretty good in his effort, I remember thinking early that he was able to hit the corner for some strikes early on.


The Pepperdine short stop did make a wonderful throw from deep in the hole to throw out an Oregon State batter, for which he got a nice ovation from the home crowd.


I'm not going to say that I'll attend every Beaver baseball game in similar situations in the future (lucky for me that there were no good soc....err, football games going on at that point) but there are many good things to like about this team, as young as it is.




G-T VIEW



OREGON LIVE VIEW

I Remember When He Would Sign For Nothing

This'll make a coworker of mine, a Boston Red Sox fan who played baseball for the Beavers, roll his eyes and shake his head: after signing with agent Scott Boras, JACOBY ELLSBURY WILL BE CHARGING $125 FOR AN AUTOGRAPH at some autograph sessions. A simple but effective photo shop of the new dark-side business duo is HERE.

Oregon Adds Baseball

The news, not altogether unexpected, was officially announced today, along with something called "competitive cheer" for the females in order to make Oregon more Title IX compliant. The bad news in this is that men's wrestling has been dropped in this shuffle.



All of the issues and contentions about why the Ducks have added baseball won't be addressed here, as everybody's gonna have their own ideas and contentions about the nature of these machinations. On a personal level though, this news affects me, as a Duck fan, very little. Some of this is down to traveling, I'd have to drive about an hour to get to the games, and some of this pertains to my tastes, which include the metal bats and the use of a designated hitter.


About the only games I might attend would be the games in Corvallis against the Beavers, or those games that would fall on a Saturday or a Sunday.



I'm sure to hear an earful at work about most of this in the coming days, weeks, and months, so I guess I can be thankful to help fill in some of the dead time until the football practices and games start again this fall.





GODUCKS.COM ARTICLE

Jacoby Ellsbury Game Number Three

Definitely not going to run a game by game rundown of former Oregon State baseball player Jacoby Ellsbury, but while killing some time before the Mets start at Colorado, I've got to note the fantastic speed that Ellsbury has displayed so far in his stint. (Texas at Boston is a more appealing match-up than Cubs/Washington, Milwaukee/Pittsburgh, or Tampa Bay/Cleveland, for sure).



His first major league hit was that infield single on Saturday, as was his second hit, which he got in his first at bat tonight, after going 0 for 4 on Sunday. In tonight's second at bat, he lined a solid single to right field, used some of that speed to steal his first base tonight, and then scored his second run of the game.........by blazing home from second on a passed ball by Texas catcher Gerald Laird, which bounced away from him and wound up near third base. Very impressive exhibition on that run, much appreciated by the Red Sox faithful.


I'll tune in from time to time during the Mets game, but for now....way to go Jacoby!

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.

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.

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