Archive for the 'Baseball' Category

Does anyone reading this know where in St. Louis I could go to buy a specific Topps baseball card? I’m not looking for a pack, becase I suspect I would have to buy a lot of packs before I got the one card I’m looking for. I can get the card on Ebay, but I would rather avoid shipping and handling fees if I can patronize a local dealer.

Topps recently released a Victor Hugo card. (There’s also a Harriet Beecher Stowe card, which would be fun to have too.). I love the concept of putting these cards in packs of baseball cards for kids to find, and whoever at Topps who is responsible for it, should be congratulated.

My method of predicting the all-star game is slightly different from my method of predicting other major sporting events. The numbers the players have on their jerseys is irrelevant.

If I watch the game: the National League has a chance of winning
If I don’t (like I haven’t post-1996): The American League will win.

Bet on the American League. My weekly writer’s group still meets on Tuesdays.

April is National Poetry Month. In 2006 we attempted to post a poem every day, but got distracted after 11 days. In 2007 we made it through the entire month, to the dismay of a couple readers who complained near the end that they were anxious for something ‘different’. (But hopefully I introduced them to a few poets or poems that they enjoyed.)

And here we go again! My own personal guarantee is that no poem will be posted this April that I posted in prior Aprils. Even if that means I have to start sharing my own poetry (which I don’t think it will.)

Since Opening Day for the Baseball season was yesterday, this poem seems very appropriate, title and all. (Though of course, for the Cardinals, tonight is opening night since our game yesterday was rained out. And every fan will know Albert Pujols hit one more homer than the final tallies will declare, and Rick Ankiel’s 2-run double won’t count either. Sigh. April is the cruellest month.)

Line-Up for Yesterday:An ABC of Baseball Immortals
by Ogden Nash

A is for Alex
The great Alexander;
More Goose eggs he pitched
Than a popular gander.

B is for Bresnahan
Back of the plate;
The Cubs were his love,
and McGraw his hate.

C is for Cobb,
Who grew spikes and not corn,
And made all the basemen
Wish they weren’t born.

D is for Dean,
The grammatical Diz,
When they asked, Who’s the tops?
Said correctly, I is.

The rest of the poem

Here are the last six lines from a poem by a potentially surprising poet

The best times you’ve had
Have been with your Mom and your Dad
And a bat and a ball and a glove.

From the first time you played
Till the last time you prayed
It’s been a simple matter of love.

365 by Jack Buck (delivered on air, date unknown)

Since PAD confessed, I feel I should confess too.

Though his steroid usage was recent, mine was 21 years ago. Doctor prescribed. Nurse fed. I was almost completely paralyzed from the neck down, so it wasn’t like I could say no when they stuck the drugs inside my mouth.

I’m not paralyzed anymore. So, obviously, it must have been the steroids that did the trick.

I don’t recall lifting any buicks, or 37 hour marathons, but my access to buicks in the hospital to attempt to lift were sparse. What happened between me and my nurses I’d like to keep private.

Now that every loyal reader of my blog knows how to predict the winner of a Super Bowl or a World Series I expect everyone to go out and become rich. But if it doesn’t work for you, don’t blame me.

My prediction twelve days ago on the winners of both the NL and AL pennant has come true. The Red Sox are facing the Rockies.

My prediction on the winner of the World Series remains the same. Not that I want the Red Sox to win, mind you. It’s just a matter of numerology.

Back in February I told you I could have predicted the results of the Superbowl if I had tried to do so beforehand.

Well…I’m going out on a limb here and testing my numerological prowress using the theorem I mentioned back in February.

The World Series will be between the Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox will win.
This is somewhat dependent upon who the manager actually plays.
If certain people sit on the bench, that could influence the results.

For exaomple, someone may point out that using my theorem, the Cubs should have beat Arizona. Arizona has no players in their active 40 man roster with any of my magic numbers. The Cubs have one. However, they went with the wrong catcher two out of the three games. Cubs fans will tell me that they lost all three games, and Soto played better in his two games than Kendall did in his one game. That doesn’t matter. If Kendall had played all three games, I guarantee that they wouldn’t have lost more than three games, and can anyone prove they wouldn’t have won the series?

For those who might be curious, but not curious enough to have looked it up yourself in the past week…

It is interesting what happened with the 2007 Baseball Hoover Awards

If you recall, since 1973, three American League teams had finished dead last five times, for a 3-way tie: Tampa Bay, Seattle and Detroit. Tampa Bay did it again, so they are the clear ‘leader’ currently in the American League.

Between 1982-2006, The Pirates were leading the National League with 5 Hoover Awards, with the Phillies, Braves, Cubs and Padres all tied for second place with 3. Pittsburgh extended their lead.

I said it was the only thing I was left rooting for this season, and Pujols is inching closer to doing it, even with a strained calf. Last night he added his 100th RBI of the season, and his 96th run. So with 4 more runs, he’ll be 7 for 7 seasons with 100 RBI, 100 Runs, 30 Homeruns, and a 300 batting average. The only person in baseball history to do it. But he was the only player in baseball history to do it for four seasons.

He only has 4 games to do it in. After one game tonight with the Mets, who are doing well this year, but struggling recently, we will finish off the season against the Pirates, who are competing with Florida for this year’s National League Hoover Awards. So there’s a chance, but it’s small.

The following statement was true in 2003

“Albert Pujols is the only player in Major League history to bat .300 or better with at least 30 home runs, 100 runs scored and 100 RBI in his first three Major League seasons”

After 2006, all you had to do was change the ‘three Major League seasons’ to six.

8 games out, I don’t have much hope in the Cards staging another comeback. They had a chance for a moment there, but lost it. Right now, I’m rooting for the Cubs to beat the Brewers in our division (still don’t feel the Brewers belong in the National League, and Cubs fans deserve something to cheer about occasionally.) I would like the Cardinals to finish over 500, but that will be a challenge too. Mostly, I want Albert to continue his streak, and he’s cutting it close. He has the homeruns and without doing any math, I’m pretty sure the batting average will stay over 300. But he only has 93 runs, and 95 rbis, and the season ends as September ends. He can do it, he’s just cutting it closer than he usually does.

Missouri appears close to legalizing scalping (tickets, not heads).

The supply/demand arguments make a little bit of sense. (With legalized scalping there should be a greater supply, so prices will go down.) But that is dependent upon demand remaining steady. And I suspect there are people who refrain from buying scalped tickets — not because the price is higher, but they know they are ‘abetting a crime’ as the article puts it. Demand could go up as well. Maybe, as is so often the case on Ebay, supply will go up more.

It certainly falls in the category of ‘victimless crime’

Remember how I was saying back in July that the Cardinals don’t suck?. I should have added that anything can happen in the National League Central division. As we enter Chicago for a four game series, we’re now 2.5 games behind first place, and both the Brewers and Cubs are collapsing.

We could easily end up in the playoffs, even with the season we’ve had. Which is a testament to how bad our division really is. Not that I mind.

We may have a new homerun hitter for the Cardinals. Rick Ankiel.

For those who weren’t in St. Louis, or baseball fans, in 2000 when his promising pitching career took a Bermuda Triangle nosedive, you can read a summary on Wikipedia.

Had a few minutes to spare this afternoon:

If asked, I wonder how many people would guess the American League team that has gone the longest without finishing dead last.

One needs to go back to 1973 to have one team standing in the American League, and they don’t fall until 1933.

Here’s a hint: They were in the World Series lin 2004, and supposedly broke a curse.

Hoover Awards for the American League

1973 to 2006

New York Yankees 1
Toronto Blue Jays 4
Baltimore Orioles 1
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5
Minnesota Twins 4
Detroit Tigers 5
Chicago White Sox 1
Cleveland Indians 3
Kansas City Royals 1
Oakland Athletics 2
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2
Texas Rangers 1
Seattle Mariners 5
Boston Red Sox 0

I’ve heard the complaints from local fans about how the Cardinals are sucking this year.

No, I’m not arguing that they are playing at their top form.

I certainly like the recent winning streak, but there’s no arguing that they still have a won-loss percentage under .500. How horrible.

We’re so used to the Cardinals doing well that we forget something. There are 6 teams in the National League right now doing worse than them.

Sure, you say, but there are 9 doing better!

OK. As I said. I’m not arguing that the Cardinals are at the top form.

There are lots of places online you can find a list of the team that won the World Series each year, or the pennant. But not a lot of places you can find a list of who finished dead last. I went to Baseball-Almanac.com and looked at the annual standings. Just for the National League.

I only went back to 1982. Three reasons.
1) 1981 is tricky because it was split by the strike.
2) I know what I need to know prior to 1982 from elsewhere
3) The Reds finished last place in 1982 completing the list I hoped to complete. (To be honest, I was surprised I finished it by 1982. I thought I would have to go back further.)

Between 1982 and 2006 here are the current teams in the National League and the number of times they have finised dead last (as measured by won-loss percentage. There were a few ties.)

Mets 2
Phillies 3
Braves 3
Marlins 2
Nationals 1
Astros 1
Reds 1
Brewers 1
Pirates 5
Cubs 3
Padres 3
Dodgers 1
Giants 1
Diamondbacks 1
Rockies 0
Cardinals 0

The Rockies are still a new team. (1993). Give them time.

To find a year where the Cardinals finished dead last? 1918.

That’s right. 1918.

(I don’t have to go back through the standings at Baseball Almanac.com I read this statistic in a St. Louis Cardinals statistical compendium published in 1983 after the 1982 World Series, so since I have gone back to 1982 in my own research, I know it still stands.)

The list above might also give Chicago Cubs fans something to cheer about. The Pirates have been the annual vacuum cleaner more times than them — in the past 25 years at least.

April is National Poetry Month. Last year I managed to post something poetic for the first 11 days of the month, before I got distracted.

Since it is Opening Day in another sense, here’s a stanza from a poem by Witter Bynner called, Train-Mates (1881):

After a time, when others went away,
A curious kinship made us choose to stay,
Which I could tell you now; but at the time
You thought of baseball teams and I of rhyme,

Since today is many things, here are a few stanzas from The Fool’s Prayer by Edward Rowland Sill

THE ROYAL feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: “Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!”

The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.

He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the monarch’s silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: “O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

A statue of Mark McGwire is hidden in an undisclosed location.
(Commissioned in 2002 when his Hall of Fame status seemed a slam dunk, it now gathers dust as this requirement for putting the statue outside Busch stadium hasn’t been met. And may never be met due to the question of steroid use.)

The Cardinals are World Series Champions for the first time since 1982!
#10 in our distinguished history.
1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, 1982, 2006

Note: The link above is to a comprehensive, but brief, history of the Cardinals as of 2000 “written and researched” by a frood named Gavroche for H2G2 (The guide to life, the universe, and everything)

I miss my weekly Tuesday Night writer’s group rarely. Once or twice a year in December when I am out of town. I missed it in November 2004 due to an Election Night party.

I believe I’ve missed it before in October for the same reason I will miss it tomorrow night. But the opportunity isn’t available every October, depends on the luck of the cards, and even when it is, I’m not always as lucky as the cards are.

Got to discussing sports broadcasters with someone on a mailing list, trying to put together a Top-Four broadcasters for individual ‘eras’ or ‘generations’. Here are two sets I decided upon, each name followed by the year they were born, according to wikipedia:

Dizzy Dean - 1910
Harry Caray - 1914
Phil Rizzuto - 1916
Howard Cosell - 1918

Jack Buck - 1924
Joe Garagiola -1926
Vin Scully - 1927
Bob Uecker - 1935

I’m not sure who follows. Harry ‘Skip’ Caray Jr (1939) could be put into the next set, but I think it would only be due to his father, and the WTBS cable station. Perhaps Tim McCarver (1941). I’m definitely not ready to rate the generation including Harry ‘Chip’ Caray III (1965) and Joe Buck (1969). Joe’s three months younger than me, for Lestat’s sake! And there is a possible generation inbetween of broadcasters born in the late 40’s and 50s.

Any fans with suggestions?

There is no joy in Motown (The article is by famed Detroit Free Press sportswriter, Mitch Album. Perhaps best known for his book, Tuesdays with Morrie)

However, here, fans are cheering.

Let’s finish this series in six games, tonight?
Give our players an extra day’s rest before the World Series.
Does that sound good to everyone?

Suppan did something last night that hasn’t been done by a Cardinals pitcher in the postseason since Bob Gibson in 1968. He hit a homerun. It’s not what the Cardinals pay him for. He also pitched 8 innings of shut-out ball. That’s what he gets paid for. But no one was upset that he helped his cause. (Except for the Mets fans.)

The Hartford Coffee Company was turned into a Sports-Cafe tonight as one of the open-mic attendees brought their tv set with them and management allowed them to plug it in. It was in a corner, by a table, but I got up a few times to check the score. The open mic ended, and people started leaving right at the top of the 7th, but I stayed as the employees began cleaning up, until we tied it.

I showed my One Tin Soldier parody to one of the regular singers. She has sung Mercedes Lackey filks in the past, so I knew she might like it. She did, and volunteered to sing it in the open mic, and proved in so doing that it scans perfectly to the song. I started working tonight on a Star Trek parody of Seasons in the Sun. You may remember me mentioning a few weeks ago that it was one of my favorite songs as a child, and I just learned recently that it was originally a French song, and Rod McKuen is responsible for the English lyrics.

Post WWII the pitching staff of the Boston Braves led to a baseball mantra many fans are familiar with today even if they have no idea who the players were: Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain.. (The link refutes the implication that the rest of the Boston Braves pitching staff were incompetents. There were several years where other pitchers actually had better seasons than Spahn or Sain.)

I remember Cardnials fans at some point in the 80s coming up with the phrase, “Andujar and a three day shower.” Which was equally unfair.

It rained last night, and the playoff game was postponed, which could very well help us against the Mets.

Of course, rain having an effect on history is nothing new. As Victor Hugo wrote, if it hadn’t rained between June 17th and June 18th, 1815, the fate of Europe mighthave been different.

Baseball is just a game.

The Cardinals won today (11-3), and I had an opportunity to watch the game from a box seat.  Unfortunately, I had to stay home, with a stomach virus.  There were two things I am grateful for.

1) My mother…who even though I am 37…still made me some jello.  Though she didn’t make me chicken broth….she went to the store and bought me a carton.

2) It’s not next weekend.  Missing a Cardinals baseball game is one thing.  I have tickets to the Fox next Sunday night for the Les Miserables Au Revoir performance.  I was unable to make the trip to New York for the final Broadway performance back in May, 2003.

However, the Broadway revival begins in October, and they decided to use the sets from the National Tour, so the National Tour had to end.  And they chose St. Louis for the final performances.  I don’t think there was any way for me not to buy tickets.

Last night was my first chance to see the Cardinals play at the new Busch stadium.  The Cardinals played a little sloppily in the first half of the game, but managed not to let 3 fielding errors cost them the game.  The Rockies managed to strand 10 players on base, and we kept them to just 2 runs, so when Pujols hit his 3-run homerun in the 8th, we won 4-2.  Isringhausen pitched flawlessly, striking out the only three Colorado batters in the 9th.  I didn’t hear the Star of the Game show, but I’m hoping Isringhausen was chosen.

After the game I caught up with my writer’s group at our weekly post-meeting watering hole.  Upon approaching the table I said, “We won 4-2.”  Someone responded, “I guess that means you weren’t at your ecumenical group ?”  They were referencing, of course, the monthly Interfaith Dialogue group I joined a few months back.  Luckily, that switched from a Tuesday night to a Wednesday night.

Tonight I will set foot into a mosque for the first time in my life.

I was invited tonight to attend an upcoming baseball game in the new Busch Stadium with some friends.  I haven’t had a chance yet to see a game in the stadium, so I am looking forward to it.  The game will be Tuesday night.  I suspect most members of my writer’s group will understand, and would be shocked if I made any other decision.

One common office betting pool during the baseball season is the 13-run pool.  The idea is each bettor draws the name of a team randomly.  The cost is usually $1 per team.  If your team is first in the week to score 13 runs in a single game, without going over, you get the pot.  If no team does this, no one wins, and the money is rolled over and added to the next week’s draws (but everyone draws new teams.)  Most people think  the pot will grow to huge proportions.  Most people think 13-run games are rare.  However, the last time I participated in one it only rolled over once the entire season.

Today was opening day for most teams, and if you’re in a 13 run pool, there’s already a winning team for this week.
The Cardinals  (Pujols had 2 homeruns)

Today marks the opening game of the 2006 Baseball Season. The game starts at 7:05 pm in Chicago between the White Sox and the Cleveland Indians.

The Cardinals opening game is tomorrow, in Philadelphia.

To honor the season, and National Poetry Month, I offer you the oldest surviving poem from Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899. This was written on April 12, 1912, 3 months shy of his 13th birthday.

The Opening Game

1st Inning

With Chance on first, and Evers on third,
Great things from the Cubs will soon be heard.
Then up comes Schulte to the bat,
On the plate his bat does rap;
Takes a slug at that old ball,
Makes it clear the right field wall.
Then in comes Chance and in comes Evers,
Such hits are seldom seen–’most never.
Then to the bat comes Zim in haste,
He sure knows how the ball to paste.
He slams the ball upon the Bean,
Almost seems to make it scream.
The center fielder nabs the ball;
It seems as if ‘t’would make him fall.
But stop of this rank stuff,
Just one inning is enough.

From the same time period, two years earlier, comes this classic by Franklin Pierce Adams - July 10, 1910 (he was a New York Giants fan)

Baseball’s Sad Lexicon

These are the saddest of possible words:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double-
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

Mexico Walloped Canada in the World Baseball Classic, which means the US has a chance to advance. We still need to beat South Africa today. (We would have been eliminated If Mexico had only won by 2 or less points, since Canada managed to beat us on Wednesday. We would have been placed in a 3 way tie that was unravelled by the number of runs in the favor of Canada and Mexico being the 2 teams of four advancing regardless of what happened in our last game of this round. We’ll still be tied, but the run total now works out in Mexico and our favor. International Baseball Federation rules have the first tie-breaker as runs allowed divided by the number of defensive innings in the field in games between the teams tied. (that hurts my brain.)
Apparently two members of the Canadian team were Cardinals. Stubby Clapp and Larry Walker. Walker retired last year, and is the Canadian manager. He schooled the Canadian players on how to hit the US pitcher, and it worked. Apparently he didn’t have enough information to share on the Mexican pitcher. Stubby played 23 games for us in 2001. I have no recollection.

More evidence to support St. Louis has the best fans in baseball.

Saturday night’s game - that started at 10 pm St. Louis time…
Despite the late start time:
26% of all tvs were tuned to the game. And it had only dropped to 20% by the time the game ended at 1:30 am.
1 out of every 5 television sets in St. Louis was tuned into the game at 1:30 am Sunday morning.
(Admittedly, it’s possible, some people had fallen asleep in front of the TV)

The St. Louis Cardinals are raffling off the opportunity to be the person who gets to push the button at the end of the season.

Raffle ticket: $10
250 winners get to go to an “Implosion Party” where there is another drawing (article doesn’t say whether second drawing will require more purchases of tickets), and there is one lucky imploder, and 249 get to watch the implosion from a yet to be determined location.

I thought Republicans were supposed to be in favor of a free marketplace.

But apparently a few are dislodging threats if George Soros is allowed to purchase the Washington Nationals. Apparently they feel only a conservative should be allowed to purchase a baseball team. According to this article, one of the threats dislodged is a review of Baseball’s anti-trust exemption.

It’s not like I have the money to purchase a team, but I would like to think if I did, I wouldn’t be precluded just because I have made my political opinions clear.

Interestingly, it appears the same Reps who are trying to stop Soros, are supporting a Conservative, Fred Malek, who is a large GOP fundraiser. Malek has an interesting skeleton in his closet:

When he was White House personnel chief, he was summoned by Nixon to discuss a “Jewish cabal” in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nixon believed Jews in the bureau were tilting stats to make his policies look bad. He wanted to know how many Jews there were in the bureau, and he wanted Malek to count them. Malek eventually complied and produced a list. Some of them were later demoted or transferred.

It’s Opening Day for the Cardinals (I’m wearing red, are you?)
and it’s April - National Poetry Month.
So here’s a poem I wrote a year or so ago.
It’s a Pantoum (a Malaysian form of poetry introduced to the West by none other than Victor Hugo)

Pantoum - second and fourth lines of each stanza
become first and third lines of next.
First and third lines of first stanza
are fourth and second of last…
creating a squirmer effect.

The Wave

Arrival of spring
Grass fields
A high fast one
Low and away

Grass fields
Artificial turf
Low and away
Outside

Artificial turf
Players contracts
Outside
Foul balls

Players contracts
Millionaire salaries
Foul balls
Homeruns

Millionaire salaries
World Series
Homeruns
All star game

World Series
Seventh inning stretch
All star game
Play ball

Seventh inning stretch
A high fast one
Play ball
Arrival of spring

I posted the below quote exactly a year ago:

“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.”

– Frank Zappa

And i made this comment:

I’d like to add the addendum, ‘and it helps if the beer from your country doesn’t taste like horse urine.’ Of course, there would be some individuals who will go unnamed who would query how I know what horse urine tastes like. I write poetry and fiction. I have a creative mind. So I can state with authority, Horse urine tastes (sigh) like the beer made in my hometown.

And in a comment to that post last year, I clarified that I am proud of our horse (or Clydesdale) urine, but when our august family sold the Cardinals, they lost their best asset.

It still tastes like horse urine. But with no other options, I will drink it.

Baseball players born on this date (whatever today’s date may be)

Baseball players who died on this date (whatever today’s date may be)

I asked the Baseball Oracle to connect Hornsby with McGwire, this is what it spit back:

�� Rogers Hornsby played with Pat Malone for the 1929 Chicago Cubs
�� Pat Malone played with Phil Cavarretta for the 1934 Chicago Cubs
�� Phil Cavarretta played with Minnie Minoso for the 1955 Chicago White Sox
�� Minnie Minoso played with Rich Gossage for the 1976 Chicago White Sox
�� Rich Gossage played with Mark McGwire for the 1992 Oakland Athletics

This depressed me, so I asked for it to try again, and they offered:

�� Rogers Hornsby played with Freddie Lindstrom for the 1927 New York Giants
�� Freddie Lindstrom played with Phil Cavarretta for the 1935 Chicago Cubs
�� Phil Cavarretta played with Minnie Minoso for the 1954 Chicago White Sox
�� Minnie Minoso played with Rich Gossage for the 1976 Chicago White Sox
�� Rich Gossage played with Mark McGwire for the 1992 Oakland Athletics

I wanted to cry. I hit reload.

�� Rogers Hornsby played with Sam West for the 1933 St. Louis Browns
�� Sam West played with Early Wynn for the 1939 Washington Senators
�� Early Wynn played with Minnie Minoso for the 1949 Cleveland Indians
�� Minnie Minoso played with Harold Baines for the 1980 Chicago White Sox
�� Harold Baines played with Mark McGwire for the 1992 Oakland Athletics

This was slightly better. But I wasn’t satisfied with the Browns, so I pressed reload one more time:

�� Rogers Hornsby played with Chick Hafey for the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals
�� Chick Hafey played with Eddie Joost for the 1937 Cincinnati Reds
�� Eddie Joost played with Jim Pagliaroni for the 1955 Boston Red Sox
�� Jim Pagliaroni played with Reggie Jackson for the 1968 Oakland Athletics
�� Reggie Jackson played with Mark McGwire for the 1987 Oakland Athletics

I knew the odds were low I’d be able to get both of them in St. Louis, but a few clicks of the Reload button, and I did come up with:

�� Rogers Hornsby played with Estel Crabtree for the 1933 St. Louis Cardinals
�� Estel Crabtree played with Murry Dickson for the 1942 St. Louis Cardinals
�� Murry Dickson played with Ken Johnson for the 1958 Kansas City Athletics
�� Ken Johnson played with Dusty Baker for the 1968 Atlanta Braves
�� Dusty Baker played with Mark McGwire for the 1986 Oakland Athletics

This was the most satisfying chain I’ve discovered so far:

� Dizzy Dean played with Bill McGee for the 1935 St. Louis Cardinals
�� Bill McGee played with Stan Musial for the 1941 St. Louis Cardinals
�� Stan Musial played with Bob Gibson for the 1959 St. Louis Cardinals
�� Bob Gibson played with Bob Forsch for the 1974 St. Louis Cardinals

And interesting, because all the above were pitchers. (OK, Stan only pictched to one batter in one game, but that counts.)

Finally, this was the biggest surprise….I didn’t think it was going to be this short of a connection:

�� Whitey Herzog played with Ray Jablonski for the 1960 Kansas City Athletics
�� Ray Jablonski played with Red Schoendienst for the 1953 St. Louis Cardinals

Babe Ruth played with Hank Johnson
for the 1925 New York Yankees

Hank Johnson played with Johnny Vander Meer
for the 1939 Cincinnati Reds

Johnny Vander Meer played with Minnie Minoso
for the 1951 Cleveland Indians

Minnie Minoso played with Terry Forster
for the 1976 Chicago White Sox

Terry Forster played with Chuck Finley
for the 1986 California Angels

Chuck Finley played with Albert Pujols
for the 2002 St. Louis Cardinals

Find your favorite ballplayer’s Babe Ruth Number

***

Cups of Coffee (A complete list of all baseball players who only played in 1 major league game)

Baseball season is long over, and I don’t go to football or hockey games, but while I was watching a few post-season games at Busch the question crossed my mind:

Why do we remove our hats when singing the national anthem?

Sure — it’s to show respect for the flag. But that’s not an answer. Or even if it is, it’s just “begging the question.”

Why is “hats off” showing respect?

In my tradition, “hats on” is showing respect. (At least with reference to G-d).

And when I put my hand over my heart, what am I saying? Is it “respect for country” “love of country” or “worship of flag”?

And if I stand, but refuse to take off my cap, and refuse to put my hand over my heart, am I a bad American?

Any input welcomed.

Going just from those stats alone…

Out of all World Series they’ve been in …
The Red Sox average 6.67 games per series.
The Cardinals average 6.4 games a series.

So I predict there will be seven games.

(If you think that’s normal…the NY/SF Giants average 5.9, the Yankees average 5.4, and the Oakland/Philadelphia A’s average 5.35)

So…judging from history…who will win?

The Red Sox have a .555 won-loss record for series, and a .55 record for total games.

The Cardinals have a .600 won-loss record for series, but a .500 record for total games.

It’s pretty much a toss-up here, so since I’m wearing red today, I’ll say Cardinals.

The Boston mayor is considering banning liquor sales during the World Series games in Boston, as well as banning live television broadcast of the games in local bars and restaurants.

That’s hard to imagine. A baseball game without liquor? I suspect there would be fans with tickets who refused to go to the stadium because they preferred watching at their home/dorm where they could drink.

There are Fenway tickets going for thousands of dollars on Ebay — selling one’s ticket might look appealing.

[Note: Subject title is the song that gave rise to the phrase, “Banned in Boston”]

Update: the above note is wrong. it goes a little bit further back than that, and possibly even further.

Sure…it was stupid of him to break his fingers. But he broke the fingers on his non-pitching hand. He can still pitch just fine — as he showed last night. If he had been brought in first, instead of Isringhausen, there wouldn’t have been extra innings. Sure…that assumes he’d have pitched identically to different batters. But if he can pitch that well now why get rid of him?

Perhaps he needs to take an anger management course, but on the other hand
perhaps he needs the anger like Darrell Porter needed the booze. [A 20 year old reference to a former Cardinals catcher who’s career went downhill as soon as he found religion and stopped drinking.]

Did Whitey fire John Tudor when he hit the fan? (The thing with blades that rotate and makes the dugout cool; Not a kid wearing red. But it did make great headlines.)

No, he wasn’t traded until 1988 after his career had taken a distinct southward turn. We even took him back, briefly, in 1990.

Received this in email. All quotes below are attributed to Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon

“A hit up the middle right now would be like a nice ham sandwich and a cold, frosty one.”

“This big standing room only crowd is settling into their seats.”

“It’s raining like a Chinese fire drill!”

After Brian Jordan was hit by a pitch for the 4th time on a single road trip) “He must feel like a Ouija board.”

(About former Cardinal Bernard Gilkey) “He was originally born in University City.”

“He’s faster than a chicken being chased by Ronald McDonald!”

(Referring to Mike Schmidt) “the longtime and soon-to-be Hall of Famer.”

“He’s madder than a pig caught under a barnyard gate.”

(About a base stealer) “Sometimes when you feel the urge, you’ve just gotta go.” (6/17/98)

“This game is off to a rather conspicuous start, don’t you think, Jack?” (7/15/98 )

“Well, folks, this game began as a tiny worm and is blossoming into a large cobra.” (8/12/98 )

(About Hideo Nomo) “He’s the biggest thing to hit Japan since they dropped that bomb on Nagashima!”

“That foul tip bounced up and caught him right in the groins…and that’ll really clear your eyes out!”

Broadcasting from New York under a full moon) “I wish you folks back in St. Louis could see this moon.”

(On the day before Easter) “I just want to tell everyone Happy Easter and Happy Hanukkah.” (4/98)

After a warning track fly ball) “A couple of strips of bacon at breakfast,and he’d a busted that baby out-a-here!”

“Things are not always as they appear to be as.” (1999)

“I tell you, that same river flows the same way”.

“Well, he did everything right to get ready for the throw, but if ya ain’t got the hose, the water just won’t come out.”

“Like Spring makes the rains come, so does the edge of the plate grow.” (6/17/00)

“Our next home stand follows this road trip.” (5/20/01)

“I don’t like that play. I’ve seen it go opposite more often than positive.” (6/08/01)

(Referring to a home run by Ted Simmons) “And that’s the bread on Simmons’ butter.”

“The right-hander is throwing up in the bullpen.” (4/23/02)

“I’ve heard it said that if you know English, Spanish, Italian, and I think it’s French, you can go just about anywhere in this world…except for China where they have all those derelicts.” (5/19/02)

This year’s quote regarding the derelicts in China was followed (after a pause) by Joe Buck’s suggestion that Mike had meant to say “dialects.” Mike’s response was,”Yea, dialects! That’s what I mean. But they’ve got a lot of derelicts too!!”

During an Eli Marrero at bat, Mike Shannon makes mention that the Cardinals had a lot of Latin players on the team and that “they are a creditable people.”

“If you’re writing a thesis or something, you could finish it in a week or so if you were catching this guy.” (05-25-02)

“We’d like to say hello to all those folks listening in Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky.”

“He ran to second faster than a cat in Chinatown.”

“I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it.’”

Joe: “Mike, the Cardinals would like to welcome a group of 19 French foreign exchange students in section 382 today.”
Mike: “Where they from Joe?”
Joe: “Uhhh… France… I think.”

And Mike Shannon’s classic: “Ol’ Abner has done it again!”

A couple years back, Mike and Joe were discussing the horrible photographs of players that had been flashed on the screen at another ballpark. Mike’s take on the quality of photo selection was, “Some of those guys looked like the picture was taken while they were seeing their first UFO.” After several seconds of laughter, Joe added, “As opposed to their second or third.”

“Oooh, that last pitch inside was a bit questionable and he’d like to say something to the umpire, but he won’t say anything. At least not verbally.”.

“Boy a frosty cold Budweiser would be great about now”…long pause…then an “aahhh”.

“The wind has switched 360 degrees”.

“The Dodgers are ahead by 5 runs or 3 runs or in between there somewhere.”

“It was raining so hard I thought it was going to stop.”

“…this crowd on their feet for the Canadian Star Spangled Banner.”

“Horner’s arguing, he wants an interference call against Cangeloni. Now Cangeloni’s got something to say, but here comes Whitey to give a taste of his vocabulary, and it’ll have extra mustard on it.”

Received the below in my email, thought I would forward it on.

Ok, baseball fan or not, this is embarassing. somewhere in Texas, the radio stations are telling texans to come to the Cardinals’ website and vote for the Houston Asstros winning the series in the poll they have up. Right now, it’s very close. earlier today, the Asstros were winning the poll. ON OUR WEBSITE! This is wrong. please go to the website and show your cardinal support. Vote for the Cardinals to win on the poll in the lower left corner.

link to Cardinals site

if you really want to take action, go to the houston asstros site and vote
for the cardinals!

link to Asstros site

There are four choices on the Cardinals site:
Cards win in 4 or 5
Cards win in 6 or 7
Asstros win in 4 or 5
Asstros win in 6 or 7

Currently, as of my voting, votes for the Cardinals winning in some fashion are 56% to 44%

On the Houston Asstros site there are six choices

Asstros in 5 or less
Cards in 5 or less
Asstros in 6
Cards in 6
Asstros in 7
Cards in 7

Houston is winning 76% to 24%

Note: There is nothing preventing you from voting as often as you like!
(You may have to switch back and forth between or among the different Cards Win options for it to register as a new vote.)

The story behind the Hockey game that broke out on Dodgers Field last night.

I agree with the final sentiments. When the Yankees and Red Sox do it, we’ll know it’s caught on. But the odds are low.

I can’t find a picture yet of the Cardinals and Dodgers shaking hands, but…I can’t help but think this is such a waste of alcohol…If they’re not going to drink it, there’s lots of starving kids who would love getting drunk…

The Cardinals won Game 1 of the NLDS against the Dodgers 8-3. They hit four home runs in the first four innings. I guess that was as good a way as any to serve notice that they were not, as it appeared, in a slump.

Next year there will only be one Major League Baseball team outside of the continental United States — the Toronto Blue Jays

The Montreal Expos are moving to Washington. D.C.

� What’s left to do: The D.C. Council must approve the stadium funding package. A compensation deal with Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos must be finalized and approved by Major League Baseball, which must also approve the move and sell the team.
� The name: The team will be called the Expos until a new owner is named.
� Opening Day: Likely April 4, although the schedule has not been released.
� Stadium: The team will play RFK Stadium for three seasons while the city builds a 41,000 seat ballpark at South Capital and M streets on the Anacostia waterfront.

Angelweave mentions on her blog the latest prank by the people at PETA.

For a donation, you could have a brick in the San Diego Padres new PetCo Stadium engraved with a message. PETA jumped at the chance.

The inscription read: “Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This Championship Organization!” � the first letters of which spell out “Boycott Petco.”

PETA isn’t too fond of the pet-store chain. Complaints about how pet stores mistreat animals are legion.

I agree with Angelweave in that it is a childish prank — but it certainly gets their message across. And its poetry during National Poetry Month! (Well…some people consider acrostics as poetry.) PETA is quite good at getting their message heard, love it or hate it. I actually find myself agreeing with much of what they say — though I don’t always agree with their tactics, and I’m not a vegetarian. Having extremists out there doing extreme things is actually good. It makes the moderates seem more…well…moderate. Without the extremists, the moderates look extreme. Not a good thing. (Which is why we need Michael Moore on Air America, not Al Franken. Or at least in addition to Al Franken)

Editorial Disclaimer of Possible Bias: I was the roommate of “PETA Director of Vegan Outreach”, Bruce Friedrich for several months. (Actually, we had separate rooms of a 4-room suite in college Sophomore year. Though I left the college the following January, so it was only for 4 months or so.)

Holocaust on Our Plates - a poem I wrote a while back about a PETA campaign. My blog entry on the same campaign.

Baseball players are superstitious by nature. If they do something and they win, and in the next game, they don’t do it, and they lose…they will do that something, whatever it happens to be, for the rest of the season.

It is for this reason, I predict, at least one LA Dodgers player will go insane this year. (Perhaps they already have)

I admit, I purchased Hung’s CD too. For the novelty. But the novelty wears off quick. I would not subject myself to listening to it every morning. But I guess, whatever works. If this helps the Dodgers win, more power to them. If they go all the way to the World Series, they should name Hung MVP.

I’d suggest the Cardinals look into it, but they aren’t living in LA, and the California weather (or possibly the plate tectonics in the area) are known to make people a little screwy.