Category: Uncategorized

I was listening to Mike and Mike this morning on the Deuce and Dick Vitale was a guest. Dicky V., as everybody knows is very opinionated and this morning went on a rant about Manny Ramirez opting out of the All-Star game. Vitale came up with a plan to penalize all-star no shows by not letting them play the last game before the break and the first game after the break. This is ludicrous in my opinion. If a player doesn’t want to go then that’s their choice. Personally, I don’t like it when a healthy player who was voted in by the fans doesn’t play. If he’s injured then that’s a different story.

But I do think that perhaps players who opt out should be penalized in some way. What do you think will happen if players with bonus clauses in their contracts for making the All-Star team (another sore spot of mine) actually have to show up at the festivities and the game to collect? I bet Manny would be in the visitor’s locker room at PNC right now figuring out which bat he was going to use for the HR derby tonight. Perhaps another penalty could be to leave them off of the ballot the following year. Or maybe the fans should take matters into their own hands and just not vote for players who opt out in subsequent years. But we all know fans have short memories for these kinds of things.

Tom Glavine, who is not injured, opted out since he’s not able to pitch after starting on Sunday. He’s still making the trip to the ‘burgh. Glavine’s decision, at least on the surface, appears to be for the good of the NL and the Mets. Since the game now has some meaning (another point I can rant about) and as it looks today Glavine’s Mets may be a benefactor of a NL win, he decided to step aside and give Phil Garner another option. A class move by a class guy.

Manny is not the first player to no-show and he won’t be the last. But until players face repercussions there will continue to be dead beat All-Stars.

by Tabletalk Teddy

Started playing our series at a little after seven, it
takes about 1/2 hour per game, and my alarm was set
for four for a 7:15 AM flight home. The Chicago
Champions were ten games up on .500, the Gamblers were
eight up, going into this nine game set. Chicago took
three out of the first four, then the Gamblers kicked
the Champs to make it 3-2 Good Guys. Dontrelle
Willis, Gambler Ace, was starting for Three Rivers, so
I matched him with our best Mark Buehrle. Buehrle no
hit the Gamblers, then Brett Myers posted a shutout,
22 straight shutout innings, before the Gamblers won
game #8, but the Champs put away the series 6-3 with a
win over the overmatched Kirk Rueter in the series
finale.

I’ll be going out of town for the weekend and blogging access will be minimal (but who knows?) so I’m wishing y’all a Happy Fourth of July!

The 4th is usually considered a Freedom holiday. Use it to consider your freedoms and how lucky we are to have them. You know the saying, Use them or lose them!

Coming up
Next weekend, is the Illowa APBA League‘s Mini-Convention. My Twin City Thunderchickens will be playing 27 games with three other teams in the league over the weekend.

I’m holding on to a decent third place right now and hoping to improve on that.

You’ll probably be hearing more about it next week.

Scott Podsednik

Joe Crede

Tadahito Iguchi

Although the Chicago White Sox actually lost ground on the first place Detroit Tigers over the weekend, it was still a three game series full of excitement as Chicago took two of three from the Houston Astros. Believe it or not I didn’t make it to the two wins. Friday was my Dad’s 72nd birthday, we celebrated with dinner at Wishbone. Saturday we hosted the 56th Lindskoog Family Reunion. Sunday went to see a play with my brother, ate some sushi, before FINALLY hopping the El to the Cell. It was quite a comeback even though the White Sox eventually lost 10-9 in (unlucky) 13 innings. Houston had a 9-1 lead heading into the bottom of the 7th, as Roy Oswalt had it, and Javier Vazquez didn’t. Astros skipper Phil Garner, feeling the game was hand, pulled Oswalt with a 9-2 lead through seven in favor of Russ Springer. After Springer allowed three hits to consecutive hitters in the 8th, Iguchi’s three run home run being the third, it was a closer 9-5 ballgame. Houston closer Brad Lidge was brought on with a four run 9th inning lead, but Tadahito Iguchi’s Grand Slam tied it up. Brandon McCarthy allowed the go ahead run in the 13th as ugly man Adam Everett hit a ball to RF off Ross Gload’s glove, then a fan grabbed it, Everett was awarded a triple, and he scored on a Willy Taveras single to left.

Friday was the first of a three game series rematch of last Fall’s World Series pitting Jose Contreras against Andy Pettitte. The Sox jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Joe Crede doubled home Jermaine Dye, and scored on Rob Mackowiak’s RBI single. But then the momentum seemed to change when Chicago left Scott Podsednik stranded after a leadoff 3rd inning three bagger. Pettitte was on the ropes in the 4th as the Pale Hose loaded the bases with nobody out, but the crafty lefty retired the next two hitters leaving the sacks drunk, and up stepped Podsednik. Scott didn’t hit a home run all last season, has one this year, but had two in the 2005 Playoffs & Series. He was Grand Slamless before this at bat, I did say was. Watching the game on TV I had a sense the Sox might not win if they allowed Andy off the hook again. They didn’t as Scotty fouled off a bunch of pitches before driving one over the RF wall. Contreras allowed two Houston home runs and three runs in the 5th, another in the 7th, but the Sox scored again in the 8th, and Bobby Jenks pitched a 1-2-3 9th to nail it down for Jose 7-4. It was Jose Contreras’ 16th consecutive regular season win without a loss, a White Sox record. Congrats Jose!

After enjoying a beautiful day for our Lindskoog Family Reunion, I came home, and flipped on TIVO to see what the White Sox had done. I must admit things didn’t look good for our heroes, in fact I was pretty much zipping through the game on TIVO. Jon Garland and our boys were behind 5-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th. Houston rookie Taylor Buchholz had it pretty much on cruise control, but when two guys got on for Jermaine Dye I slowed TIVO down to watch the action. A few moments later after a Dye single to right Joe Crede stepped to the plate versus Astro reliever Chad Qualls. Crede took Chad’s first pitch for a game tying Grand Salami, it was deja vu for Qualls as he allowed a first pitch Salami to the White Sox in last year’s Fall Classic. You knew it was over in favor of the Good Guys, but I had to catch the WGN News to see the result. My TIVO ended after nine innings, but the game didn’t. I switched over to live WGN just as they were recapping the game and I got to see the Sox win it in 10 when Alex Cintron plated the winning run, 6-5 White Sox.

Funny thing is I’m a vegetarian, but I sure did enjoy these Grand Salamis!!!

Miguel Cabrera hit what was supposed to be one of four pitches outside the strike zone from reliever Todd Williams for an RBI single scoring Hanley Ramirez with what proved to be the winning run. This game was played on June 22nd between the Baltimore Orioles and the Florida Marlins. Florida was trailing 5-1 to Baltimore in the 9th before coming back against Ken Ray who was a perfect 18 for 18 in saves before allowing the Marlins back in the game. The Marlins came back to win 8-5 in ten innings.

I love my wife. In 20 minutes, it will be my our 17th anniversary.

Mrs. Zealot is understanding enough to indulge me the time I need to maintain this site. The least I could do is recognize that once a year on this site. Thanks, sweetie!

Sorry, that headline just wrote itself.

I thought I’ve seen it all but for those fans who lived and died with their team (there I go again), Eternal Image Inc. is coming out with a line of caskets with MLB team names and logos on them.

Eternal Image has reached an agreement with Major League Baseball to legally allow the reproduction of logos on the caskets. They do urns, too apparently.

Costs of the caskets and urns range from $600-3500.

“Fans incorporate baseball in nearly every aspect of life,” Eternal Image Chief Executive Clint Mytych said, adding that the caskets could appeal to “a market that is just waiting for a way to make team loyalty a final statement of a great passion in their lives.”

Wouldn’t you just die for one? (Okay, I’ll stop now)

The Florida Marlins are rebuilding with a rookie skipper at the helm. Yet they had one nine straight games before losing 4-0 to Baltimore. Dontrelle Willis & Brian Moehler are the only Marlins who’ve answered affirmatively to the question, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, $4,350,000 for DW and $1,500,000 for BM. Florida’s payroll is 30th among MLB teams at $14.3 million. The NY Yankees rank #1 at $198.6 million. Joe Girardi is the rookie manager for these overachievers. Girardi learned his smarts at Northwestern University and learned his winning ways from Joe Torre & the Yankees. It won’t be long before the Marlins are back in the playoff picture for years to come, built on a solid foundation. But they may have to change locations, as there seem to be a lot of distractions in South Florida, and fans have too many other things to do, go figure.

I know the issue is all about profanity and the word fag to describe Sun Times writer Jay Mariotti. Don’t get me wrong, Ozzie Guillen should have chosen better words to describe Mariotti. I do understand however what ticked Ozzie off. Jay has jumped on Ozzie Guillen from the word go. Recently Mariotti was all over Guillen because Ozzie had relief pitcher Sean Tracey farmed out for refusing to follow orders and hit Hank Blalock. Guillen was trying to protect his hitters, his job is to win ballgames, and in this game Texas pitcher Vicente Padilla hit A.J. Pierzynski twice with pitches. Padilla does have a propensity for hitting batters, but still has only hit 59 batters among the over 3,600 batters he has faced.

Lately sports guys on TV, radio, and in the newspaper have taken to controversy. It shouldn’t surprise these guys when their subjects explode. Makes for good copy and sells papers, I guess. Writing in the last issue of the National Jay Mariotti is the same guy who wrote off the Bulls after they lost their first game to the Lakers in the 1991 NBA Playoffs, the Bulls rebounded to win the next four straight, and six championships in the next eight years. More recently Jay was counting down to when the Bulls would lose their 73rd game after they opened the season 0-9, they came back to make the playoffs that year. And just the other day Mariotti said Miami was too old and overmatched for the Dallas Mavericks, but that was when Dallas was up 2-0. His latest victim is Mark Cuban, saying Cuban’s big mouth has run its course. At the risk of offending weasels, Jay is one!