I'm looking forward to seeing Lou manage the Cubs.
I watched him manage here in Seattle for several years. I'm not sure how he will do in Chicago. When he was in the American League he played big baseball. He occasionally talked about playing little baseball but it never really happened here. Of course he had some big hitters, Griffey, Arod, Jay Buhner, and Edgar.
I don't know how he'll due in the National League. I know he won the series at Cincinnati, but I've always felt like he was more comfortable in the AL.
I'm concerned about Lou with pitchers. I think there have been several young pitchers over the years that Lou pulled too early and too often so they lost there confidence and were unable to perform in the organization. He's good with older pitchers, but watch out for the young guys.
One thing for certain, he's a colorful character. I'm looking forward to seeing him bury home plate at Wrigley. He's my candidate for the "throwing a baseball fit" category in the Hall of Fame.
If your interested in buying Piniella's autobiography, try here
Whatever happens, it's sure to be interesting. I can't wait to hear Ron Santo talk about him during games.
Warning, the ball is NOT meant to be hit with a bat, just for pitching practice.
I was just looking through the Hall of Fame ballot and was surprised to see Jay Buhner there. Frankly he doesn't have the numbers, but he sure hit some powerful home runs and was a great leader on the field and in the clubhouse.
One Mariner who might have a chance and probably should be in the hall is Dave Niehaus. Dave has been the Mariners' broadcaster since the beginning. He's broadcast more than 4,600 Mariner games. Anyone who can do that and survive deserves something. Considering that he was the first broadcaster for the Angels and spent 16 years there, he watched a lot of losing teams and still made it interesting. I listen to a lot of online games, both radio and television and find Dave is the best. Some are absolutely terrible, they talk about everything but the game.
Ripkin and Gwynn should be automatics for the hall. McGuire too, for my money. I keep hearing they'll keep him out because of steroids. I don't see that myself.
Have a nice, good day and let's play ball!
If you're anything like me, you start itching for some baseball about this time of year. Here in Bellingham, WA it's way to wet and cold for any outdoor baseball, but playing indoor baseball sounds just about right.
I found this this TV baseball game on Amazon that looks like it might be just the ticket to engage in your own fantasy league while waiting for Spring Training. Unlike the big game systems that cost hundreds of dollars, this baseball only game is less than $50. It looks like it plugs into the front of newer TV sets and should be a lot of fun.
Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the Curse of the Bambino.
86 years ago today, Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Think of how baseball would be today without the Babe. One of the greatest power hitters of all time. One of the greatest pitchers. And all without steroids but lots of hot dogs and beer.
Get the whole story of this and other baseball curses
The big news in the Seattle PI today was that GM Bevasi announced that they might not be done looking for talent. He said they especially need pitching. Who would have though something so obvious would make the papers.
I'm starting to get in the mood for some baseball. My own spring training is to bring out my baseball movies and watch them again.
I had the great pleasure of attending a semi-pro baseball game her in Bellingham, WA today. It was great. The sun was out and the hotdogs were bad and the local team won.
Today being Independence Day I felt particularly patriotic to be at a baseball game. A few years ago I was at a game where Bob Feller was giving autographs. It was a pretty lengthy line, but he was patient, always willing to pose for a picture. The only time he stopped until the line was empty was during the playing of the national anthem. He stood, removed his hat and stood at attention.
For those of you too young to remember, Feller threw 3 no hitters. The reason I'm remembering him on Independence day is that he served 4 years in the Navy during WWII. Unlike many of the MLB players who ended up playing on barnstorming teams that entertained troops, Feller was a gunner on a navy ship and received four battle stars.
The picture above is of my wife Lorna, Bob Feller and me, taken about 15 years ago. In these days were baseball players are called "heroes" when they're really little more than public idols, Bob Feller stands well above most players and is a true hero.
I had an "aha" moment when I realized that the leather lunged fan that yells loudest at the umpire, knows the least about baseball. I'm thinking of making it a corollary to my "whoever argues loudest and most aggressively in an argument or debate it most likely to be be wrong.
I took a bath on my baseball picks yesterday. 1 and 4. Only the Astros came through for me. That makes me 20 and 20 for the year and in a tie with the dreaded coin.
No picks for today, the coin refuses to work holidays.
Happy Independence Day. Happy Baseball.
Have a nice, good day and let's play ball!
On vacation recently in Oklahoma City, I had the opportunity to visit Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse Located at #7 Mickey Mantle Dr. across from the Brickyard Baseball Park.
The food there is excellent. I had tournedos with bernaise sauce done medium rare and found with pleasure that they steak was extremely tender, genuinely able to be cut with a fork and the bernaise was very nice, but a little less strong than I'm used to. I also had a mushroom risotto that was excellent. It had been finished with cream and with the fresh parmesan, was very reminiscient of a light alfredo sauce.
Yesterday I went 2 and 3.
Y-T-D percentage is now 52% and 19 and 16. I'm still beating the dreaded coin, but the day's young.
Today's picks:
White Sox over Orioles
Yankees over Indians
Mets over Pirates
Redsox over Devil Rays
Astros over Cubs.
Have a nice, good day and let's play ball!
I found a cute haiku about the the Cardinals.
Haiku.
I found myself wondering if the Dizzying referred to Dizzy Dean, the great St. Louis pitcher. He's before my time as a player, but I loved him as a national tv broadcaster in the early to mid-sixties with P.W. Reese.
"That's a blue darter!"
Have a nice, good day and let's play ball!
Yesterday I went 2 and 3. My y-t-d totals are 17 and 13 for 56%. I'm still ahead of the coin, but I'm no longer leaving the coin in the dust, so I apologize to the dreaded, fickle disk.
One of my wins yesterday was CWS over the Cubbies. I was routing all the way and excited to see the Cubs be ahead with two out and nobody on. Dempsey could have been a hero instead of a goat, but his failure to to close out against pinch hitter Gload after having a 1-2 count and failing to field a ground, he walked Dye on five pitches and served up a hanging slider to Pierzynski that ended up on Sheffield avenue.
You should have heard Ron Santos. As soon as Dempsey missed the grounder, he began to sense the beginning of the end. "I don't like feeling like this," he said while Dempster was walking Dye. Ron is a very good color man and I love listening to his comments during the games, but this one was hard to take. That's baseball.
On the local level, the Mariners are sitting alone in second place. I still expect them to collapse, but will be glad to be wrong.
Today's picks:
Tigers over PiratesDetroit may be the best team in baseball right now. They certainly have one of the premier managers.
Cardinals over Royals
Oakland over Arizona
Rangers over the Astros
Mariners over Rockies
On Friday, I picked 4 of 5 correctly giving me a y-t-d of 15 and 10 for a percentage of 60, so I'm slowly climbing my way up the ladder after the disastrous 1 and 4 day earlier this week. I'm leaving the dreaded fickle coin in the dust.
The game I got wrong was due to the Royals beating the Cards in the tenth inning.
Today's picks:
Have a nice good day and let's play ball!
Those of you who have read recent posts know that my family and Mickey Mantle's family knew each other and were neighbors in the early thirties.
Dad told me about a trip to Tulsa he and Mutt (Mickey's father) and some of the other men of Spavinaw, OK made. A barnstorming team including Mickey Cochran played there. Mutt was so impressed with Cochrane's play that he decided right then to name his son Mickey.
I did pretty well yesterday, 4 out of 5. I should have known better picking the Cubs over the Brewers, but I like the Cubs and think Wrigley is the best baseball experience in the major leagues and I've never quite forgiven the Brewers for leaving Seattle.
Anyway, my y-t-d totals are 11-9 or 55% so I'm finally better than that fateful flipping coin.
Today's picks:
Have a very good, nice day, and let's play ball.
tfedge
Yesterday I was 3 and 2. That brings my ytd total to 7-8 or 46%. I'm still not as smart as that dreaded coin.
Shock of the week for me is that the Mariners have climbed above .500 and are only two games out of first. I don't expect this to last.
I suppose I'm pleased about this, but frankly I'm having trouble watching the Mariners this year. I have attended one of their games, but frankly I'm tired of American League baseball and that's the way Mike Hargrove manages. It seems to me that when a team has lesser talent you've got to play little baseball instead of base to base like the AL does. I guess the problem with that is that a lot of people love the home run. And it is a business. Team owners would be happy to lose every game as long as they fill all the seats.
This must be the time of the season where losing teams make a run at winning. The Royals are 7-3 in their last 10 games. This won't last either.
Today's picks:
The premier game of the day is Boston vs NYM. Schilling vs Glavine. The teams have almost identical records, so I'll go with the home field advantage.
My sentimental pick is the Cubs over the Brewers.
Cubs over Brewers
Bosox over the Mets
Blue Jays over the Nats
Reds over the Royals
A's over Padres
Well I can't do too much worse than I did yesterday. I was 1 and 4 for my predictions, bringing my y-t-d total to 4 and 6 for a 40% correct prediction rate.
That means I'm slightly dumber than flipping a coin. Oh, well.
Today's picks:
White Sox over Pirates-Freddy is pitching and he's become a good pitcher. When he first came up he'd let a bad call, or least what he thought was a bad call, get to him and he'd lose his stuff. He's matured and is a good solid picture.
I pick the Mets over the Bosox. It's hard to go against Boston at home, but it's even harder to go against Pedro, especially after the ovation he got yesterday at Fenway. It will be interesting to see how he is received today.
Cardinals over the Indians. St. Louis is sliding, but they can't keep losing forever.
I'll go with the Mariners over the D-backs. Felix Hernandez is pitching today. Someday he may be a great pitcher, but not yet. I think he needs a strong, older catcher that will keep him in line. Not that there's anything wrong with Jojhima, but he's not old enough to mentor Felix. I can't go away without noticing that the Mariners have crawled bat to .500, frankly I didn't think it would happen this year. I hope it continues.
Finally, the A's over the Padres. Oakland is doing their typical turning up the heat in June. They're looking awfully good.
There's a great article by Scott Miller at CBS News.
It talks about the routine Ichiro uses before games and how that makes his first appearance at the plate a high percentage hit plate appearance. According to the article Ichiro feels many people are trying to feel out the pitcher during their first at bat and aren't really trying to get a hit.
In effect, this results in Ichiro having an extra at bat in each game over many other starters. This helps explain why he is well on his way to his sixth consecutive 200+ hit season.
It's well worth a read
Peter Gammons, one of if not the most knowledgeable baseball analyst, suffered a brain aneurysm today at his home in Cape Cod. He has been flown to NYC and is undergoing surgery.
Read the story on CBS MLB
Let's hope we see him back at Fenway soon
Best wishes to Peter and his family.
Sadly to say, the house where Mickey Mantle was born is no longer there. It is currently a Church of Christ.
I don't know when the change took place. I was last in the area in 1965. I wish I had a picture of it I could share with you.
During the early 30s, the Mantles were neighbors of my parents. In fact, at one time my parents owned the house and one of my sisters was born there in the same room where Mickey was born. That's not too surprising because it was a small house in the dirt poor town of Spavinaw, Oklahoma. One of my older sisters was good friends with Mickey's older sister and my mother used to babysit Mickey and had changed it's diaper. If she'd kept it instead of washing it out, it might be worth a fortune today
Today's Major League Baseball Picks:
Houston Astros over Detroit Tigers
St. Louis Cardinals over the Cleveland Indians
Texas Rangers over the San Francisco Giants
Chicago Cubs over the Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago White Sox over the Pittsburgh Pirates
Year to day prediction percentage 60% 3 out of 5.
Have a very good, nice day, and let's play ball.
This is the last day of my vacation except for flying home tomorrow.
It was a great baseball day.
We spent the afternoon in Oklahoma City watching the OKC Redhawks lose to the New Orleans Zephyrs. The temperature was in the high eighties, a few clouds to bring some much needed shade occacionally. A steady wind blowing in that helped as well.
It was a good game until the tenth inning, but OKC then fell apart.
It's a beautiful stadium though. I took quite a few pictures and will be sharing them with you.
After the game we ate at Mickey Mantle's restaurant across the street. It was great too and I'll have more information for you in the next day or two.
When we got to our hotel, I watched most of the second College World Series game between North Carolina and Oregon State University. I'm not usually a fan of higher scoring games, but this was fun and exciting.
I'm now watching the Astros beating the Whitesox. It's the top of the ninth and the score is 9 to 5.
BTW, if you want to add RSS feeds of this blog to your newsreader and haven't figured out how to add a blogger site, check out my other blog
I went to a family reuninion yesterday in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, the birthplace of Mickey Mantle. I'll have a few pictures in the next few days or so.
I didn't do that great yesterday on my prediction.
I missed the Reds over the Indians and the Cards over the Tigers. My prediction rate was 60% and since it's the first time I've done it this year, my YTD percentage is also 60%.
I'm hoping to make it to Oklahoma City in time to attend the OKC game against New Orleans. I'll let you know tomorrow how it turns out.
It's tough to pick a winner in interleague play, but here goes:
Reds over the Indians
Cardinals over the Tigers
Twins over the Cubs
White Sox over the Astros
Mariners over the Padres
I'm not sure I agree with punishing somone for speaking his mind. I could see maybe the Whitesox fining him if he broke a rule because he's their employee. It's hard for me to see the league doing it though, unless it's during a game.
What about the 1st Amendment rights to free speech?
I'm getting really tired of the so-called political correctness. Often it seems like political correctness just something to give those people who can't think of something meaningful to say a chance to say something. It rarely adds anything of value to a discussion and frequently deflects meaningful conversation into another subject.
These days there are only three groups that it is politically corrrect to badmouth in the United States. The first is white males, second are older people, and third are obese people. One can say just about anything one wants about any of this group, especially white males and fat people.
I happen to fit into all three categories so I'm pretty much open to any vergal abuse anyone would care to heap.
I have recently started a website about health and weightloss.
Check it out.
I'm currently on vacation is Oklahoma and have been eating the heavy food of the area. When I get back I'm planning on some weightloss. I'll be putting up a diary blow. The address will follow.
