Bay

I saw him hit two homers a couple weeks ago.

Besides that, wow. No more Manny. Tons of mixed feelings, but: thanks for 2004 and 2007. Good luck in LA...

A-Rod and I-Rod

Have to say I never saw this coming. Looks like he didn't either.

Things to keep in mind when booing him: (1) he won the 1999 MVP instead of Pedro, (2) several former Rangers (Canseco, Palmeiro, JuanGone) have accused him of steroid use.

Holy crap, who'd have thought Boston may finish the season in third?)

Let's see if my no hitter jinx still works

lackey through five.

Manny Being Manny Part 33 and 1/2

It is a beautiful day in Boston. We survived the monsoon season and avoided a sweep by our AL East rivals.

Also, Manny has officially gotten out of his system. We all know he needs to have his temper tantrum every other year. Now that it's done, he's ready to go back to playing.

Money quote

Rob Neyer on George Brett:

"Most baseball players get married young, then likely spend most (all?) of their careers fooling around on the road. Not George Brett. He fooled around on the road for most of his career … but he was a bachelor. He didn't marry until late in his career, and he married a beautiful woman quite a few years younger than him; they're still together."

GYSN's favorite Royals fan

Something Jeff Passan recently wrote got torn to shreds (deservedly) by Fire Joe Morgan. Basically he (accidentally) said the Royals or Indians would win the AL Central. When confronted with his error, he didn't get defensive, and instead immediately fessed up and issued a correction. Well done Jeff.

We are worth $5,000 (see below)

Sweet.

On the topic of stadia...

...apparently Yankee Stadium stinks.

Remembering Shea: A Sunday evening with Baseball Tonight

I felt like storing up on some real baseball before the circus comes to town. So I lowered my standards and decided to listen to Joe Morgan for the evening. This week's feature game is the Rockies vs. the Mets. So naturally, the subject of a new Shea stadium came up. This is the second time I've heard the news today. I had not know previously that they were building a new Shea. I started to wonder and it turns out the Mets are entirely local news. According to google the new Shea story didn't get much reach, especially when compared to the mega-story of the New Yankee Stadium.

Anyway, here are some notable Shea Stadium moments, courtesy of the Baseball Tonight crew on ESPN. Oh, by the way that's the New stadium as seen from the current Shea.

Beatles Perform in 1965 &1966

Jets beat Raiders in AFL Championship 1968

Mets win World Series 1969 & 1986

Pope John Paul II 1979

Burgh

So I'm in Pittsburgh for a couple weeks, and last night I made it to PNC Park. Upper deck, behind home plate. Basically, everything I've heard about this park is true - it's a fantastic place to catch a baseball game, and the view is probably the best in baseball.

The game itself was...pretty good too. Starting pitcher was a AA callup, and was giving up runs pretty much constantly. By the 7th the Pirates were down by six. But then they tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, scoring 3 off Isringhausen. The crowd quickly shut up as Glaus got a go-ahead HR it the top on the 10th, but Jason Michaels (weren't the Sox looking at him some years ago?) got a two-run HR in the bottom of the 10th to win it. Pretty wild - I've never been so excited about a game I couldn't care less about.

It's official: the Pirates are now my NL team. Fifteen years of losing seasons gives you som,ething to root for.

Random notes:
- Both the Cards and the Bucs bat their pitchers eighth. Someone explained to me that La Russa does it because Pujols gets a tiny bit more at-bats (2.84 vs 2.83) by having three real hitters in front of him. That makes no sense to me since La Russa hates numbers; but also, why not just bat Pujols fourth?
- La Russa had his pitcher bat in the top of the 10th rather than use a PH. But then in the bottom of the 10th he took out the same pitcher after one batter. Now, I know nothing about NL baseball, but that seems completely, utterly stupid to me.

What a dushbag

Okay, so the A-Rod/Madonna/Lenny Kravitz thing is pretty awesome. But this is way, way, WAY awesomer. (Baseball sideshows sure are fun when they involve non-Boston teams!!!)

Update on CC

Revisiting a previous post. Apparently, my prediction of C.C. coming to Boston was just WRONG.

Imagine that... IBID's prediction wrong?! Like that ever happens.