Trade Stuff

Atlanta is a serious contender in the NL East with the addition of Texeira (sp?), and they look to be close in getting Dotel. Look out Mets.

Castillo was a good pickup for the Mets. He's another pesky hitter that gets on base and can steal. With Reyes and Castillo at the top of the lineup as the tablesetters they should score a lot of runs.
Will Pedro coming back be significant???

Linebrink to the Brewers??? Why couldn't the Sox get him again?

I know everyone is hot for Jermaine Dye, but don't count me in as one of them. Not at this point. He's got pop. Yes...But his average is terrible and he wants to play 5 days a week. I have seen him make some great plays in the outfield at Fenway, so I wouldn't be uncomfortable with him out there (as I am with Wily Mo)...But, overall, not someone I would give up a promising arm for...

Gagne? Yes, I would give up the young arm.

I still think that Piazza would be a good fit in Fenway. He still has pop. Papi will need rest, and Piazza could DH. He could be the third catching option. He could play first (no, he isn't great, but he can handle it now and then). They are looking for a right-handed bat off the bench.

Let's continue with trade talk as we near the deadline...

Holy...

...wow.

Donnie? Not...Donnie!!!

Donnie Sadler was suspended for using a banned substance.

I'm with Schilling on this. I think all his records should be erased from the books.

X on Bonds

Today at 6:05 pacific, I will be settling into my seat at PacBell and sometime around 6:20 or 6:30 BLB will (possibly) take his first shot at tying Aaron. I say possibly, since I full anticipate him to get walked pretty much every at bat until he reaches the record. Who wants to be the pitcher that will be an answer to a trivia question, in a bad way. I doubt he breaks the record tonight, but it would be nice to be there - hell even pretty cool if he hits one and ties.

Attending tonight's game is a complete fluke - something that has been planned for about six weeks. Bonds have never really bothered me. I don't like. I don't dislike. I may be one of the few indifferent people in the country. But he IS going to break the record. And it would be pretty cool to be there.

Ironic that the week Bonds breaks the record may be less taxing for Selig than either David Stern or Roger Goodell. Who would have thought that.

This week in sports

This is excellent.

More fun

Curt Schilling, yesterday:

"If someone wrote that stuff about me and I didn't sue, am I not admitting that there's some legitimacy to it? If I wrote a book about Bob Costas and in that book I wrote about Bob Costas' girlfriend being on the road, and Bob Costas giving that girlfriend card show money and I outlined your daily steroid regimen, I've got to believe your first line of defense is to sue my (butt) off."

First off: where was this tough talk when he was testifying before Congress?

Second... uh, off: I love that a die-hard Republican calls "suing one's ass off" a "first line of defense". I was sure they thought lawyers were the cause of all our nation's problems. (Oh wait: I'm wrong. Gay marriage is the cause of all our problems. Never mind.)

Third off: he then points out

But I just always thought it was very simple: If you did something and someone asks you if you did it and you didn't do it, you say no. Any other answer than no is some form of yes, isn't it?

While this isn't true legally (innocent until proven guilty, etc.), in general I agree with him. What I love is the implications this has for the Bush administration. Torture, spying on people without a warrant, firing attorneys for political reasons...

Fourth off: Bonds's response is absolutely awesome:

"You mean that little midget man who absolutely knows jackshit about baseball..."

Midget? Schilling is like 6'4"! And I think he actually knows quite a bit about baseball. Oh wait a minute, Barry's not done ranting...

"...who never played the game before? You can tell Bob Costas what I called him."

OHHHHHH, now I see, you're blaming Bob Costas for something Schilling said. I see now.

Keep it up...

If the Sox win tonight, they'll be 23 games over .500. Which is something they haven't been all season. Meaning finally we can stop saying "They've been a .500 team since..."

Important websites

www.dougeddings.com
dougeddingsisadouche.blogspot.com
www.firedougeddings.com

Why, you ask? Just today I learned (at plunkbiggio) that Doug Eddings was the guy who made this godawful call also. I hate that man.

(Am I the only one who posts anymore?)

Refreshing

Yeah, it was a home run. All you can do is catch the ball, run it in and throw it back and hope that they don't call it.

- Rob Mackowiak, after Friday's non-HR call

I don't think I've ever seen a ballplayer be so candid about a bad call in favor of his own team. Usually it's, "I didn't see where it hit - I was focused only on getting to the ball and getting it back to the infield as soon as possible." Or "The umpires had a better view than I did." Even the most honest or smart ones only implicitly acknowledge the error: "You know, the umps get it right 99.9% of the time; when there's a difficult call, sometimes its for your team and sometimes it's against your team."

...Of course, the White Sox lost by 7. Had they won by 1 or 2, he might have said something else.

(Anyway, first back-to-back wins since July 4-5. Let's keep this up, please.)

Recap of the last 2 games (and last 6 weeks)