Category: Uncategorized

Shane Costa

Detroit Tigers starter Mike Maroth was almost perfect in Thursday’s game against the Kansas City Royals. Shane Costa was the only man who stood between Maroth and perfection, perfectly awful that is. The lefty pitcher didn’t even have to take a post game shower as he wasn’t around long enough to work up a sweat. Royal fans probably thought their hitters were still taking batting practice as the Striped Cats spotted KC six runs in the 1st before coming back to beat the hopeless Kansas City club 13-8. Esteban German got a leadoff single to left, Shane Costa popped to short, Reggie Sanders doubled German to third, Emil Brown’s double to center plated two, Tony Graffanino hit a two run homer to left, Angel Berroa hit a solo shot to left, Doug Mientkiewicz went yard to right-center, and Maroth was mercifully removed from the game. Ivan Rodriguez wasn’t supposed to start for Detroit, but backup catcher Vance Wilson stepped on a baseball before the contest and couldn’t answer the bell. IRod sealed KC’s fate driving in five runs in the last two innings with a two run triple and a three run homer.

Phil Nevin took a Huston Street into orbit over the centerfield wall for a Texas walkoff homer. Rookie Ranger secondbaseman Ian Kinsler blasted two out helping to erase a 7-0 Oakland lead, Kinsler just came off the DL and is batting .520 on the year. The A’s closer out of the University of Texas has had his troubles thus far this season, his ERA stands at 5.28. But the real story is about Texas DH Phil Nevin, who broke an 0-17 slump, and a homerless streak that extended back to a month ago Thursday. Nevin had seven homers in April, his most ever to start a season.

Greg Maddux has been on my APBA team the Chicago Champions since I drafted him as a rookie. Today I’m watching him on TV pitch for the Cubs against the Florida Marlins. Maddux worked with a personal trainer in the off-season and jumped out to a 5-0 record in April. So far Greg is 0-3 in May, but he was cruising along with a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the 5th when a Marlin batter grounded one to Cub shortstop Ronny Cedeno. Cedeno’s throw couldn’t be handled by Todd Walker at firstbase, the scorer ruled it a basehit (bad ruling on a bad play). Florida went on to hit for the cycle in the 5th after two men were out. There shouldn’t have been an earned run in the 5th allowed by Maddux, but instead Greg let up five in the inning (six all day). Greg Maddux’ ERA soared to over 4.30 as Joe Borchard rocketed one over the RF wall. I’m pulling for Mad Dog, but it certainly is rough rooting for the Cubbies.

Got some Mexican food in the outfield last night at the Cell and decided to watch the first couple innings on the concourse with some eye candy. There were about 15 cuties celebrating a Wisconsin White Sox fan’s 21st birthday, gave her a kiss & a squeeze before heading to my usual spot beside Nancy Faust the Sox had the game pretty much in hand, homers were as easy as 3-4-5 (Thome, Konerko, Dye went yard in the 1st two innings, 5-0 Good Guys). White Sox ended up winning the game 9-3 Javier Vazquez over Kirk Saarloos.

LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!

Kevin Frandsen’s late brother D.J. who died of cancer was a huge Dave Righetti fan. Now Kevin is wearing Dave’s number 19 with the Giants. Frandsen started wearing Righetti’s number in A ball all the way through the minors, as a way to honor his deceased brother. Righetti surrendered his number to Kevin, “Now I know why my brother admired Righetti so much,” commented Frandsen. D.J. used to tell Kevin, “Don’t screw up while wearing number 19”.

 As you know I’m a huge White Sox fan!!! I’ve been a White Sox fan since I was 12 years old in 1968. Frank Thomas is the GREATEST WHITE SOX HITTER, period!!! So I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to welcome him back, along with over 40,000 other Sox fans. The Big Hurt got a standing ovation from the crowd when he came to bat, there was a highlight piece shown on the scoreboard, and Sox manager said beforehand he expected White Sox fans to treat Frank with the respect that he’d earned. Ozzie was not disappointed. This ovation came after there was some bad blood aired in the media between Thomas and Sox GM Kenny Williams, but that was old news. This was a night to honor Frank. There were signs all over the ballpark showing support for their hero. Frank Thomas is off to a slow start with his new team the Oakland A’s, but last night was just like the old days when the Big Hurt went yard twice against his old mates. His first shot came in his first at bat against the Sox and it brought everybody to their feet. I was cheering the Big Hurt, but went absolutely nuts when Pablo Ozuna’s two out bunt brought in the winning run 5-4 as the Sox came all the way back from a 4-0 deficit. LET’S GO WHITE SOX!

Danny Almonte

There are three stories out in the world of baseball that are stranger than fiction. Each need to be looked at a little more closely and here is the only place where you’ll see all three lumped into one column.

There is a theory out there that MLB has suspended the Rocket for fifty days because he tested positive for steroids. On the surface you may say this is ridiculous and should be lumped in with the Kennedy Conspiracy and Michael Jordan turned to baseball when the NBA banned MJ for his gambling links. But when you look a little more closely at the Rocket you’ve got to wonder. Recently Roger Clemens’ agent said The Rocket will make his decision on which team to sign with in eight days, which is exactly 50 days, things that make you go Hmmm.

Everybody hates AJ Pie! Understood, he is an agitator! He’s good at it, it’s what he does best! But if you look objectively at what happened on Saturday, there’s only one possible conclusion you could come to, AJ was in the right and Michael Barrett was in the wrong. Barrett was blocking the plate and AJ was trying to score on a sac fly. Something had to give, and that something was Barrett. AJ bowled over Michael like a bowling ball hitting the pocket, slapped the plate to make sure he’d scored (you never want to leave anything to the umpire), and got up to retrieve his helmut. At which point Barrett grabbed AJ in a bear hold, said – “I didn’t even have the ball, bitch”, and sucker punched AJ. Pierzynski said if he had it to do over again he wouldn’t have gotten his helmut and Barrett said he would have simply pushed him rather than a punch. AJ said he and Barrett rain clinics together in the offseason and never thought Michael was going to punch him. Not a good example for all you youngsters out there watching, although it was the best hit the Cubbies got all day, losing 7-0. Good guys wear black!

Saw a story where Danny Almonte, the little leaguer who pitched a perfect game a few years back, got married to a thirty year old. Almonte had lied about his age when he tossed the gem. It turned out he was two years older than he actually was. This kid can’t seem to win, now he’s getting all this attention for playing with a kid that’s older than him, back then he was playing with kids too young for him. Danny married this 30 year old last fall when he was only 18. It turns out he had his eye on her when he was a pony leaguer, she kept saying, “You’re only a kid. I’m an adult. We could get in trouble”. Now they’re married, something disturbing about this story.

Other than A.J. Pierzynski, is there any baseball player more hated than Barry Bonds? Remember that Bugs Bunny cartoon where he plays by himself against the Gashouse Gorillas, that overgrown team of dirty cheating thugs? All Bonds needs is a Gorilla uniform and a stogie and he’d fit right in. Even though you can question his motives and his moral fiber, 714 is still quite an accomplishment. I’ll offer a very subtle tip of the cap to Barry and quickly redirect my attention to the good and the great things about baseball. Things that don’t elicit hatred and cause fans to boo and scream insults and throw syringes onto the field. I can’t wait until we’re past all this.

I rode the El to the Cell to see the White Sox kick the Cubbies around. I likened it to ripping the wings off a helpless fly. After spending the previous day in the Bleachers at Wrigley I seriously wondered aloud whom the Northsiders would use as their DH, seeing they were having trouble finding eight hitters let alone nine. In fact against the Nats with two outs in the 9th and the tying runs on base Dusty Baker had Neifi Perez bunt to end the game. Dusty said if he had it to do the same thing, he’d do it all over again. Wasn’t Baker the same guy who gave the ball to Russ Ortiz when he removed the starter from the game a few years ago in the World Series as a souvenir baseball, not very memorable after losing the game and the series? Also in the Steve Bartman game, Baker didn’t have a relief pitcher up late in the game with 22 year old Prior on the bump, didn’t tell Moises Alou to get back to his position & play ball, and didn’t even talk to Prior before lifting him after the game was over. But getting back to the subject at hand, I took the El to the game and it was a great way to go, $4.00 roundtrip, meeting fans on the train, talking baseball there & back. I bought a ticket for face walking to the park. Despite the Sun Times giving Maddux the nod over Buehrle, the White Sox won 6-1, the Cubbies got two hits in the game, and the DH was Barrett with Blanco catching Maddux.

I was out there to see what all the fuss was all about, see Kerry Wood, and see some of the Honeys in the Bleachers catch some rays. Some idiotic drunk woman fan at Tuesday’s game threw a baseball at the head of Jacque Jones, luckily it missed. I’ve been drunk, but never that drunk, or at least never that drunk with a baseball in my hand. To top it off the Cubs ushered her out of the Drunken Confines without arresting her, defies explanation. This was a day game, under the sun, the way God intended baseball to be played. There were some early morning showers, but the sun came out and the game was played. Kerry Wood allowed two 2nd inning homers and the Cubbies never recovered from their 3-0 hole, losing to the Nats 5-3. Wood’s fastball was not there, as he topped out at 93 MPH. There were plenty of Honeys present. But the highlight of today was getting together with some new friends I’ve met in the Right-Centerfield Bleachers: Judy, Marvin, & Holly. Judy has been keeping score in the Bleachers since 1963, Marvin’s been out there everyday for the last 60 years, while Holly’s a newbie only coming for the last nine years. I look forward to reading Holly’s book about stories from the Bleachers called, Keep Your Scorecards Dry, as soon as it gets published. These are the REAL Bleacher Bums!