Tag: baseball

Where are the nicknames of yesteryear?

Bartolo is Worth a Flyer

Final note: a look at Colon’s B-R.com page reveals that he is yet another modern day star without a nickname. How is this possible? The guy is an orca-fat Dominican fireballer who, by all accounts, has a pretty good sense of humor. If he was around in the 50s he would have been given a nickname so early in his career that we all would have forgotten that his name was Bartolo by now.

I think we’ve, sadly, gotten away from good sports figure nicknames. I mean, how many great nicknames can you think of off the top of your head? The best one I can think of is “The Truth”, Paul Pierce, and the only reason I know that is because the wife is a huge Celtics fan. Is it because sportswriters and sports announcers are hired for being loud and “funny” (Hello, Monday Night Football crew) instead of being good at making the fans feel like they are part of the game? As an aside, my post title is a reference to Catch-22, my favorite book. I’ve heard that phrase used before, and I always wondered if Heller created the expression, or if he was making a play on someone else’s words. Turns out he was. So, kudos to you, Francois Villon. Sorry to the wife for failing to include the squiggle under the ‘c’ in ‘Francois’. Okay, back to nicknames. Maybe I just don’t watch enough sports on TV. Or maybe it’s that sports are so national now that it’s hard to use a nickname because no one will understand it. If you’re a local announcer, you know you get a lot of the same fans, over and over, and they know the local team really well. So you can use a nickname and you won’t confuse too many people. But if you’re a football announcer who knows that the audience for this week’s 4PM game has only seen this team once in the past two years, if that, you probably can’t call their defensive tackle by his truly inspired nickname without stopping to explain who it is and where the nickname came from. No one wants that. All this to say that it’s probably ESPN’s fault.

Lots of rumors, and theyre all bad

My two favorite sports teams, the Washington Redskins and the Baltimore Orioles, are both looking to shoot themselves in the foot.

First we have the Washington coaching search.  There are rumors they want USC’s Pete Carroll, a doubly-confirmed NFL failure.  Don’t people realize that coaching in the NFL is different from coaching in college?  Didn’t Snyder learn anything from Steve Spurrier?  Carroll is a very good college coach.  He was a very bad NFL coach.  He would be a disaster in Washington, although that would go right along with Dan Snyder’s past history.  But Snyder has fired the coordinators, probably pissed off the team, and will likely end up with another flashy failure at head coach.

And the Orioles.  I get that they’re rebuilding.  It’s come at least five years too late, but I get it, and I’m thankful for it.  But why would you trade Bedard?  He’s 28.  He could be the ace of the staff for 5-7 years, maybe more.  He is the ONLY player on the team that you absolutely must keep, as far as I’m concerned.  And they want to make a deal with the Mariners that centers around a young outfielder with moderate power (His home runs were up in 2007 in the minors, but his doubles were down, and he doesn’t get on base much)?

I’ll grant you that George Sherrill, the reliever said to be part of the deal, had a disgusting season last year (0.99 WHIP, park-adjusted ERA+ of 183, K to BB of over 3).  But Bedard is, by far, the best player on the Orioles.  Why would you give him up?  Do you WANT Seattle to win their division this year?  Is that your goal?  Is Angelos getting a cut of their playoff revenues?

I think Angelos and Snyder want me to move to Boston.  That’s the only logical explanation.

Orioles move on, I hope

Apology accepted, O’s say — baltimoresun.com

“I wish I could sit here and say, ‘Wow, this was a great day as I got this off my chest.’ But I would be lying. I don’t really have any hopes of what other people will do. I asked for forgiveness and I hope people are willing to do that.”

Sorry, commenter Zac Boyd.  Looks like Brian Roberts did take steroids.  But, he did it before it was officially banned by baseball (Nice job, Bud Selig.  You are truly an asset to the game of baseball). And he only did it once.  And now he’s apologized.

I know I came out and said that everyone on the list should be released, but I’m taking that back.  Everyone who takes responsibility and seems to honestly be sorry can stay.  We’ll just wag our fingers at them.

I’m inclined to believe Roberts, in part because I like him and I want to believe him.  And he hasn’t done anything to make him untrustworthy.  He hasn’t been in the news getting in trouble, he has a reputation as a nice guy.

Roger Clemens, on the other hand, is a big jerk.

How could you do this, Brian Roberts?

So the Mitchell Report is out, as I’m sure you all know.  The only current Oriole on there, I think, is Brian Roberts.  I’ve always liked Brain Roberts.  He’s a little tiny second baseman who gets on base a lot.

I suppose we should have seen this coming – his yearly OPS numbers are .625, .605, .704, .720, .902, .757, .809.  Does one of those numbers look, perhaps, way higher than the rest of them?

The year his bat exploded, 2005, is also the year he started wearing the Nike MaxSight contact lenses, which could explain it.  The Mitchell Report simply states that former Oriole Larry Bigbie said that Roberts told him that he took steroids “once or twice” in 2003.

It figures:  after I call for releasing all the Orioles on the list, one of my favorite players is the only guy who would get released.  At least it wasn’t Bedard.

Preparing for the Mitchell Report

I’m kind of terrified of this thing.  I love baseball, and this is going to hurt.  It’s a necessary hurt, like tearing off the old bandage, but it’s still going to suck.  There are already leaks that Roger Clemens is on the naughty list, and the promise of other big names.

I hate Clemens, but he’s the best pitcher of my generation, and I don’t want to see his name tainted like that.  Maybe it will knock him down a peg and remind him that he’s not actually bigger than baseball and teams will stop letting him get away with this “I’ll pitch when I’m good and ready and we’re playing at home” garbage.

And I’m afraid that other big names are really going to hurt.  I hope the Orioles release everyone on the list.  Immediate, unconditional release for anyone breaking the rules.  I would rather watch the Orioles have the worst season in the modern era, or promote our entire AA team, than watch them employ cheaters.

My great hope for all of this is that maybe now the Steroid Era can end.  No more.  I want it to be over so we can go back to thinking about baseball, not asterisks.

They couldnt have done it when he hit 754?

The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Major League Baseball News

“I have yet to see the details of this indictment and while everyone in America is considered innocent until proven guilty, I take this indictment very seriously and will follow its progress closely,” Selig said. “It is important that the facts regarding steroid use in baseball be known, which is why I asked Senator Mitchell to investigate the issue. I look forward to receiving his report and findings so that we can openly address any issue associated with past steroid use.”

Selig, you’re a tool. This is the same statement he gives every time they advance the case against Barry.

“I haven’t seen him inject drugs with my own eyes, but I take those allegations very seriously.” Barry’ll go to jail and Selig will say, “I haven’t seen him actually sitting in jail, but I take the word of the California Penal System very seriously.”

Anyway, it couldn’t have happened to a bigger (headed) jerk. I haven’t seen anyone mention it, but I’m wondering if he’s gotten himself eligible for a Pete Rose. That would be kind of funny in a sad sort of way if the all time hits and home run leaders were both barred from the Hall of Fame for their off-field actions.

I’m a little sad for the game of baseball, but at the same time, this can’t come as a surprise to much of anyone.  Which means that most of the damage has already been done.  I hope.

I bet ARod is mad that his smallish contract is getting overshadowed by Barry.  Jake Peavy and his Cy Young award, too.  I am a little surprised that ARod signed for only $27.5 million a year.  I mean, that’s barely more than he’s been making, and significantly lower than the $35 they had been talking about.

Heres your chance to root for the Yankees

If you’re like me (That is, a rational human being not raised in New York), you hate the New York Yankees. You’re probably jealous of the cretins who actually root for them because they’ve averaged a World Series win every 4 years or so since 1900. It’s nice to root for a winner.

Anyway, tonight, you can safely root for the Yankees. Since 2000, which is as far as I’ve gone back, the Yankees are 0-3 in three game playoff series when they win the first game, and 4-0 when they lose.

In contrast, in all other three game playoff series, the team that wins game one is 16-5 in winning the series.

So, for you Phillies, Angels, and Cubs fans – you’ve got a tough road ahead of you.  But for you Indians fans, volunteer to pitch tonight to ensure a Yankees series loss.  The rest of the country will thank you for it.

Any Oriole fan could have told you this

Do you have a favorite sports team? Have they spent the last five years or so kicking you in the teeth and expecting you to like it? If so, you might be an Orioles fan. Ever since Cal Ripken saved baseball after the strike, it’s been nothing but a string of bad moves. I had thought earlier in the season that bringing in Aubrey Huff was the worst thing they’d done, but that’s because Jaret Wright has spent so little time in uniform that I forgot about him.

So, the Orioles gave up a promising young pitcher who is now working in the Yankees minor leagues. What did we get in return? We got a guy with one good season (15-8, 3.28, 159 K’s in 2004), only 60 career wins, and a history of injury problems.

Not only that, but we took an aging, overrated starter off the Yankee payroll, and replaced him with a young reliever. It’s like Angelos is a Yankee fan.

And what have we gotten out of Wright? Three starts. Twelve hits, nine walks, and eight earned runs in 10 innings while losing all three games. Wright should be ashamed of himself. There’s not a human being on earth who couldn’t lose all three of his or her starts this season. He should return his paychecks.

What’s especially discouraging is the Orioles have been showing some heart lately. I watched the game the other night when Bedard and Dice-K battled for seven, then the Red Sox went up 5-1, then the Orioles actually came back and won. They came back again against the Sox last night, and they’ve tied it late against the Yankees tonight (Game’s still going, tied 6-6 in the ninth. Although Bradford may be blowing it as we speak, hitting Cabrera in the middle of the back then giving up a double. Shoot. I didn’t even finish typing that sentence before Jeter knocked in the winning run. Still, they put up a fight.).

In conclusion, Peter Angelos is a jerk.

More baseball geekery

I’m making some progress with my baseball game. I’ve switched from Gedit to Anjuta, which I’m pretty happy with so far. Very lightweight, easy to use.

I’m fooling with pointers now, and remembering that I never really understood them when I was doing C++ before. So I’m figuring it out now. Slowly. I knew there was a reason I liked Java.

Anyway, it’s been going reasonably well.  I need to get over a little hump in general C++ knowledge, and then I should start making better progress.