Near No-Hitter Baseball Game and a No-hitter Brawl at Wrigley

Saturday, June 16, 2007

In case you didn't notice, Carlos Zambrano had a near no-hitter today at Wrigley. Marcus Giles hit a single in the top of the eighth to end the no-hitter. Russell Branyan's ninth inning solo home run scored the only run as the Padres defeated the Cubs 1-0.

In the fourth inning, after being hit by a Chris Young pitch, Derrek Lee charged the mound. Well, he actually sauntered along the first baseline jawing back and forth with Young. As near as I could tell, it looked like Young hit Lee by accident. As Lee walked toward third it looked like Young asked him if he was all right because Lee nodded his head smfsaid I'm okay. At that point it looked like Young made a remark about getting on down to first then. Lee took offense and threw a punch. None of the punches landed. San Diego pitcher Jake Peavy was also run.

Oddly enough, the Chicago hitting coach Gerald Perry was thrown out too. I couldn't help wondering if Perry had worked with Derrek Lee a little bit more, one of his punches would have landed.

Everyone have a nice, good day! Let's play two!

42 Game Minor-Leage Hitting Streak

Brandon Watson extended his hitting streak to 42 game hitting streak with a double in the fourth inning. Watson plays for the Columbus, Illinois Clippers the AAA team for the Washington Nationals. Forty-two games ties him with Jack Lelivelt had a 42 game streak in 1912 while playing with the Rochester Hustlers.

Brandon Watson plays outfield and currently sports .338 batting average. He doesn't have too much pop in his bat since he has no home runs or RBIs but does have 12 stolen bases. He appeared in thirty-five MLB games with a batting average of .233.

Despite Watson's remarkable achievement, the 42 game streak only ties Watson for eleventh on the all-time hitting streak. Care to guess the name of the player with the longest all-time streak? It's not Joe DiMaggio who managed a mere sixty-one game streak in 1933. It is Joe Wilhoit with sixty-nine straight games with a hit during the 1919 series when he played at Wichita.

For information about Watson's streak. For information about Lelivelt's Steak including a picture of him.

While you're at the Minor League Website. Look around. One of the great features is that you can listen lot of free minor-league games just by registering. By paying $30 for the season you can listen to hundreds of minor-league games and watch others (mostly AAA games). Monthly rates are available too. It's a great way to follow your favorite team's prospects and see who will be the players of tomorrow. By the way, it you want to practice your Spanish, you can listen to games from the AAA Mexican League.

Everyone have a nice, good day! Let's play two!

We'll Miss You at Third!

I'm greatly saddened to hear that Clete Boyer died on Monday, June 4. I remember watching him and his brother Ken each playing third base during the 1964 World Series: Ken for the Cardinals and Clete for the Yankees

I never got a chance to see either of the Boyers play, but I do remember seeing Clete Boyer as a coach for the Yankees and was thrilled to see one of Yankees I'd watched as a little boy. While growing up I was a diehard Yankees fan. There wasn't a lot of choice. The only national baseball broadcast was on Saturday and seemed to cover the Yankees' games more than anyone else. I still think of the 1961 Yankees' as my all-time favorite team. In fact I've had in the back of my mind to try and get autographs from all the team members. I just purchased a Whitey Ford autographed ball to go with my Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Moose Skowron, and Hector Lopez. As you can see, I don't have an autograph for Mr. Boyer. There's a four signature ball available for about $275 that lists the infield. I've thought about buying it, but somehow I prefer to have only one signature on a baseball. Here's a link in case you're interested.

BTW, the Cubs have gone 2-0 since Lou got suspended. He always had the knack for knowing when to get thrown out to motivate the team. When he was in Seattle there was a commercial where an actor portrayed an umpire and talked about how compassionate Lou was. The actor told a story about how when his daughter was sick, he and Lou got into an argument during which Lou called the umpire all kinds of names but ended the argument with the statement, "I hope your daughter feels better."

Finally, after posting a few links to where you can buy bubbleheads, I found a larger site you might enjoy.

Everyone have a nice, good day! Let's play two!

Lou Piniella Overcomes His Shyness in Chicago!

Lou's Suspension: I would be lax if I didn't mention Lou Piniella's suspension for an "indefinite" time. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Pagano tried to take third on a passed ball and was thrown out. Replays looked to me like the umpire got the call correct. Most importantly, it provided an opportunity for Lou to express his displeasure with the team. Ironically Lou's fit shortly after he made a statement at a press conference "you don't need to see all of the silliness on the field." In response to questions about the Zambrano-Barrett confrontation in the dug-out and locker room (see my most recent post).

There was an occasion during his spree that Lou reached out and touched the arm of an umpire. It didn't appear malicious, it was more like an attempt to push the ump's arm aside so he could step around it and get closer to the third base umpire. Still, such the rules forbid contact of an umpire and could result in an extended suspension. Except for touching the umpire, I though the Lou's performance was a little restrained. I remember one game in the King Dome when he buried the plate.

Whatever the final fine and suspension, let's hope this whole episode wasn't wasted and the Cubs will start playing like a team. BTW in case you want to re-enact the incident, you can buy a Lou Piniella bobble head figure at the site below. It's head bobs up and down just like Lou's did on Saturday. BTW MLB Manager's Joe Torre, Tony Larussa, and Terry Francona are currently available.

MLB and MILB Broadcasts This year I've been watching and listening to a lot more games than last year. In part this because of my playing a fantasy baseball game. This encourages me to look at games I normally wouldn't because I may have a player on the team. However, I've also added a subscription to MILB.com that offers many minor leagues games both video and audio. One of my favorite features is the inclusion of the MILB AAA Mexican League where the games are broadcast in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish, but I'm trying to learn. The announcers in Mexico seem much more enthusiastic than those in the States, except for Ron Santo. BTW —I'm 4 and 5 with three more weeks left in the fantasy baseball league, smack on the bubble to see if I'll be in the play-offs or not.

Everyone have a nice, good day! Let's play two!

Dugout Fight

I want to applaud both Michael Barrett and Carlos Zambrano for their recent actions. Not the thirteen hits Zambrano allowed or the passed ball and throwing error Barrett made, but in their standup response. Zambrano admitted the fight was his fault, although Barrett certainly claimed a share as well.

With current trends to deny responsibility and point fingers, it's refreshing to have people own up when they mess up.

BTW, my take on the passed ball was that Barrett had sat up on the inside of the plate, there was a left handed batter, and Zambrano threw a pitch that tailed away to the outside; it could be argued as either a passed ball or as a wild pitch. MLB has a good story about it

I also should mention that I have officially changed my allegiance from the Seattle Mariners to the Chicago Cubs.

I've been thinking about doing this for awhile. I find the American League "wait for something to happen" style of play boring. I also HATE the way fans behave at the games. The scoreboard constantly asks for noise, even in situations where it isn't called for. Fans almost always stand up when it's strike three. You might as well go to a football game. That reminds me of a quotation from Erma Brombeck who said something like "Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead." It sounds right to me. It's kind of like that going to a Mariners game.

Everyone' probably focusing on the Boston-New York/Beckett-Pettite matchup, but the Dontrelle Willis v. Ben Sheets matchup with the Marlins at the Brewers looks interesting too.

Everyone have a nice, good day! Let's play two!

Baseball Exorcist

According to P-I report John Andriesen the Mariners are finally taking a positive approach to removing the curse that has inhabited the clubhouse for the last few years.

It appears that they are now trying to use an exorcist. Sounds like a good idea to me. Copy the following link into your browser to read Andriesen's column.

Read about the Mariners' attempts at exorcism here

It's time to update your baseball library and get ready for spring training and fantasy baseball. Check out these books to make 2007 your best baseball season ever.

BR Bullpen Website

I just ran across a very cool website called BR Bullpen. It has lots and lots of information about baseball throughout the world and throughout time. It's definitely worth a look for the baseball fan.

Visit the BR Bullpen, you won't be disappointed.

It's not too late to buy complete sets of Topps baseball cards.
Bring your collection up to date.

"The pitcher only had a ball, I had a bat."-Hank Aaron

Have a nice, good day and let's play two!

Lou Piniella on the North Side

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.

Have a nice, good day and let's play two!

More Cool Baseball Gadgets

How fast is your best pitch?

I found another cool baseball gadget. It's the Virtual Speed Baseball. According to the blurb, it will show you the speed of your pitches and has a battery life of 100,000 pitches. If you figure an average of about 100 pitches per game, that's about a thousand games. So it should last a good long time in practice.

Warning, the ball is NOT meant to be hit with a bat, just for pitching practice.

Hall of Fame

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!

Play TV Baseball

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.

Have a nice, good day and let's play ball!

Curse of the Bambino!

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.

Baseball and 4th of July

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!

July 3 picks.

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!

Cardinals Haiku-Dizzy Dean

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!

July 2 Picks

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 Pirates
Cardinals over Royals
Oakland over Arizona
Rangers over the Astros
Mariners over Rockies

Detroit may be the best team in baseball right now. They certainly have one of the premier managers.

I've got to keep picking the Cardinals and picking against the Royals. There's something wrong with the baseball karma in Missouri, but it's got to straighten out soon.

Zito will not let Oakland be swept by the lowly D-backs.

Tough call with Rangers over Astros, but the AL has been cleaning the NL's clock.

Tough call for the Mariners, too. Washburn hasn't panned out, but he seems to be hot and cold. Last time he was cold.

Have a nice, good day and let's play ball!

Mickey Mantle IV and today's picks

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:

• White Sox over Cubs. I hate to pick against both Maddux and the Cubs, but it's mostly for sentimental reasons. The Cubs seem to be finding ways to lose and their offense has been mediorcre on their good days.
• Yankees over the Mets. Randy seems to be working his way back to his winning ways. This is a bit of a sentimental pick too. I watched him pitch for years when he was in Seattle and still remember how overpowering he can be. I hate to see Alex at third.
• Cards over the Royals. For much the same reasons as yesterday. The Cardinals have gone 1 and 9 in the last ten. That can't last. Neither can the Royals', clearly an inferior team, 7 and 3 in the last ten.
• Orioles over the Braves. Partly a hunch and partly because I can seen Russ Ortiz pitching very well against his old team. I was lucky enough to see Russ in his first professional season here in Bellingham when he was the closer for the Bellingham Giants. You could tell from his first appearance that he would make it into the majors if he didn't get hurt.
• Brewers over the Twins. Based purely on the starting pitching.

Have a nice good day and let's play ball!

Mickey Mantle's Home Part III & Daily Predictions

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:

• Chisox over Cubs-the Cubs sometimes seem to be trying to lose. They're not playing as a team and are trying too hard so they make mistakes. Unfortunately this may cost Dusty Baker his job.
  
• Tigers over the Pirates. Jim Leyland has done an incredible job and at this point should be manager of the year.
  
• Cardninals over the Royals. St. Louis needs to get back to winning ways, and there's nothing like a series against the lowly Kansas City team to make that happen.
  
• Marlins over Bosox. I love Boston and strongly dislike the Marlins, largely due to the way habit they have of building a good team, winning, then dumping the team. I also hate the way Willis wears his hat. As far as I'm concerned that's a mockery of baseball. When I become commissioner, that will stop. However, Boston's 12 game winning streak is due to come to an end and it just might be tonight.
  
• Reds over the Indians.

Have a very good, nice day, and let's play ball.

tfedge

Daily predictions

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

Predictions of the day

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.