Uni Watch » White Glove Treatment
Uni Watch is a weirdly fascinating daily blog that obsesses over quirks in professional and college sports uniforms. I don’t know why, but after Mo pointed it out to me, I read it almost every day. Today’s was particularly funny.
I know, as an announcer, it must be hard to come up with interesting banter when nothing interesting is happening on the field. But I think they can try harder than this.
ESPN.com – MLB – ‘Free the birds’: Fans walk out in protest
“When you get down to facts, putting together a team that can compete in the AL East means having a payroll between $100 million-$110 million. That money comes from the consumer, and I have chosen to keep ticket prices to a minimum.
Let’s just see how many teams have a lower payroll than the Orioles, and a better record. Toronto, San Diego, Texas, Minnesota, Oakland, Cincinnati, Arizona, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Colorado, and Florida. Hmm. And look at that, Toronto is in the AL East. They made huge free agent signings over the winter to not win the division. It might take $100 million to win the division, but it doesn’t take $100 million to finish above .500.
For the record, I know it’s hard to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. I understand that. But spending a ton of money is NOT the answer.
I’m not sure how I feel about the staged walkout at Camden Yards to protest Angelos. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to get anyone anywhere. Is Angelos going to sell the team because 1000 fans walked out? I’m going to have to say that’s unlikely. Is he going to change the way he does things? Well, if nine straight losing seasons hasn’t changed him, I don’t think 1000 angry fans will, either.
ESPN.com – MLB – Stark: What should have been — Clemens to Red Sox
But there is also an obligation on the other side, the obligation any team has to a player of Roger Clemens’ stature.Obviously, everybody in Houston has a vision of how the Rocket Man deserves to close out his astonishing career. And obviously, this isn’t it.
For some reason, Jayson Stark thinks that, after Roger Clemens stated quite clearly that he was more important than all of baseball with his little “I’m going to sit at home and play when I feel like for who I feel like” stunt, the Astros should do what’s best for Clemens and trade him to a contender.
Is Clemens the greatest pitcher of the modern era? You can make that argument. Would a lot of people be happy to see him end his career with a win in Game Seven of the World Series? Sure. Would I be one of them? No. Is that because I’ve got a little sour grapes because he’s played for every AL East team but my Orioles? No, of course not, that’s ridiculous, how could you even say that?
Where is it written that the Astros (Who are only 6 games out of the wild card, although they aren’t playing that well right now) should make their team worse to give Clemens a last shot at the postseason? It’s not written anywhere. Clemens came to Houston because he wanted to pitch at home. They were okay with a big contract for half a season. Fine, that’s their decision. But now that Houston doesn’t look like a good bet for the playoffs, they’re supposed to roll over and die? Do you think they’d get anything in return from Boston? Some mediocre prospect, maybe, and they’d probably have to eat a big chunk of Clemens’ salary.
Anyway, I hope Clemens’ last start is a totally meaningless game in September. Houston plays at Pittsburgh right before going to Atlanta to finish the regular season. I hope Clemens starts one of those games and loses to some 22-year-old kid brought up when the rosters expanded. Maybe that will remind him that even 343 wins doesn’t make you bigger than the game.
Baltimore Orioles : News : Baltimore Orioles News
No matter how many runs you get, you feel like they can come back and put a [hurt] on you like they did the first night.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you usually use the word in brackets to add or replace words that are a little out of context? For example, replacing a pronoun with the specific noun if you’ve chosen not to quote the previous sentence where the pronoun was defined.
What the heck is this [hurt] replacing? Was there some even more obscure slang word there? Profanity? Did Sam Perlozzo, Orioles’ manager and the quoted, make hand gestures? We’ll probably never know.
Also, allowing 5 hits and no runs in 5 2/3 innings is not a “gem”, as the article states. It’s a solid start, but in my book, a “gem” is at least 7 full innings, and most of those innings better not contain any hits.