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Ever notice how good teams seem to get the breaks? Well the Chicago White Sox are a very good team and were playing a very bad Seattle Mariner team Saturday night. In the bottom of the 8th inning Bobby Jenks was firing 102 MPH pellets at Richie Sexson. There were runners on 1st & 2nd, with two outs, and the White Sox were leading 4-2. That’s when the BIG fellow sent a screamer that landed at the base of the RF wall. Jermaine Dye fired to Tadahito Iguchi, who relayed to the 1st base side of home. A J Pierzynski reached across the plate to tag Ichiro out with the potential tying run. The White Sox held on for a 4-2 winner. GO SOX GO!!!

“I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt.” — The Pride of Nashville, Tennessee.

Actually, for me, it was Saturday morning after a Friday night at The Cell in Chicago. In the company of half of our fantasy league and other serious degenerates.

Having nothing to do the rest of the weekend, I drove up to Minneapolis to see the Mariners and the Twins. Almost exactly 400 miles. Games were Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. This was my first trip to the MetroDome, and my first “inside baseball,” other than when the roof is closed at Miller Park. I have now been to 20 major league parks. Only 10 of them are still open.

Saturday night’s game featured young Felix Hernandez. This kid is going to be pretty good. He hit 97 on the gun, and his change-up was a consistent 82. The Twins had 5 singles in 8 innings. Two were infield hits. One walk.

The Handsome Man hit two LONG home runs, one a Grand Slam in the 10th inning, as the Mariners posted an 8-3 win.

The Twins came alive to take the Sunday game.

Saturday night, they honored the 1965 Twins, who lost to the Dodgers in the World Series. The only living Twin who was a “no-show” was Jimmie Hall. I think I remember reading years ago that he never forgave the Twins for trading him to the Angels for Dean Chance. Mudcat Grant and Jim Kaat said a few words. Earl Battey, Bob Allison and Zoilo Versalles are no longer with us; I think everyone else was there. Some on crutches, one in a wheel chair, but they all looked GREAT to me. At my age, I get emotional at settings like that. I was in high school in 1965; what an avalanche of memories for me. Worth the trip.

Quick Trivia Question: Who is the only man in Twins history who was a Twins PLAYER, a Twins MANAGER and a Twins RADIO COLOR MAN? Answer later.

Justin Thompson was one of the top young lefthanders in MLB in 1997, but then he hurt his shoulder. Thompson had a 15-11 record with a 3.02 ERA, allowed just 118 hits in 223 1/3 innings, struck out 151, while allowing only 66 walks. The following season with the Tigers he slipped to 11-15, 4.05 ERA, 227 hits allowed in 222 innings, walked 79, but still managed to strike out 149. 1999 was the last time he pitched in the big leagues before shoulder ailments shut him down. His record in 1999 was a dismal 9-11, 5.11 ERA, he let up 152 hits in 142 2/3 innings, he walked 59, but struck out only 83.

Then after six years and four shoulder surgeries he resurfaced. Former Tiger Justin Thompson might not be done, after all. Thompson, 31, had a 3.07 ERA in 14 2/3 innings for Frisco, the Texas Rangers’ Double-A team in the Texas League, and got a callup to the big leagues.

Because of arm problems, Thompson hasn’t pitched in the majors since 1999. After that season, he was traded to Texas in the deal for Juan Gonzalez.

But then I was reading today’s transactions and saw where the Rangers farmed out Justin Thompson after he allowed two home runs in his two appearances, with an ERA of 21.60, four hits, and four earned runs in an inning & two thirds. Thompson was dejected when he got the news of his demotion. But this guy is not a quitter and I wish him luck in his quest for a return to the show!

Looks like the new sponsor of the MLB Comeback Player of the Year is…

Viagra

My brain is being inundated with so many double-entendres, puns, and otherwise nasty jokes, I don’t know where to begin.  But I’ve been told that’s just the kind of guy I am.

I guess losing their spokesman (I’m assuming Palmeiro is no longer shilling for them.  Sexual enhancements is one thing… muscle enhancements is another story) forced Pfizer to come up with a (admittedly creative) marketing campaign.

Sportswriter Don Banks takes an interesting look at Fantasy sports.  His article focuses entirely on fantasy football but the analogies can be easily be applied to fantasy baseball.  His basic premise is that fantasy football takes away from the actual sport.  And he’s got his reasons. 

As an APBA baseball manager for some 25 years and a fantasy baseball participant for 3 years, I have to say he brings up some good points.  His best point?

 1. It changes how you watch a game. We all have some experience with a person who has perfectly illustrated this point from time to time. Being a fantasy player means you can’t see the forest for the trees. Rather than watching a game in its context and meaning to the standings, fantasy folks often ignore the big picture, focusing only on how their players are performing around the league.

I have to plead guilty of this.  When a pitcher from my Thunderchickens is facing the Cubs, do I want him to get shelled?  My honest answer is no.  I hope for clean 1-0 win by the Cubs.  At least his ERA will go down.

 However, check out Reason #4:

4. The geek factor. Sorry, but we have a name for people whose primary source of entertainment stems from stuff that didn’t really happen. They’re called Trekkies.

I mean, come on.  We’re not all geeks.  That’s just a stereotype.  Now excuse me while I create an Access database of all my players stats.

Frank Robinson said in an interview yesterday that all of Rafael Palmeiro’s stats should be erased because he failed a drug test. This is absurd. So, let’s see, MLB is going to have to go back through every single game that Palmeiro played and remove him from the boxscore. Then they have to determine if any hits, RBI’s or even “productive outs” had an effect on the games. Then I guess if any of his at-bats resulted in the winning or eventual winning run then they have to go back and replay the games (they could use APBA since some guys may be dead) or they could just award wins to the other team. And then based on that the standings will have to be revised and of course the post seasons will have to be replayed and I guess Mitch Williams’ stats will have to be altered as well because you can’t trade somebody that doesn’t exist (you can only trade for somebody that doesn’t exist. See Cubs-Cardinals trade of Lou Brock and Ernie Brogglio). Then perhaps we can give the Phillies the World Series in ’93 because they’d have probably played the Rangers that year since Williams would have saved 70 games for them and instead of Joe Carter hitting a series ending homer of off the ‘Wild Thing’ it would have been Lenny Dykstra. But wait, I think Lenny would have failed a steroid test so he’d have to be erased as well so the Rangers win in ’93 over the Giants because they’d have won 2 more games over the Phillies that season to beat the Braves by a game. Nope, that won’t work either because Barry Bonds was on the Giants and we have to erase him too because of his flaxseed oil and arthritis cream possibly being tainted. Holy cow, where does it end?

What I don’t understand is how come everybody is so bent on calling the Palmeiro’s of the game “cheaters”? I know the definition of cheating can be applied but what baseball rule or policy did they violate? Especially if the majority of players were doing it? If anybody doubts that steroid users were in the minority in baseball up until a year or two ago then I think you’ve got your head in the sand. Why doesn’t anybody get upset about Gaylord Perry? I mean this guys ADMITTED to cheating and he’s proud of it! And he’s in the Hall of Fame! What’s wrong with that picture? Also, I hope I don’t hear Fergie Jenkins, Paul Molitor or Orlando Cepeda chirping about banning steroid users from the Hall. They all have drug histories. Do we toss them? Nobody seems to think we need to toss out stats from the late ’80s when baseball juiced the balls.

I think we need to just step back, relax and let the new policy work. It seems to be doing the trick. I agree that the penalties need to be increased and it looks like they will. It’s just another era in baseball that hopefully has passed.

Football Beer

The NFL is in negotiations for the “NFL official beer” for the 2006 season now.  For those who care, Anheuser Busch and Miller Brewing are attempting to grab the honor away from Coors.

I went to the White Sox/Yankee game yesterday at the Cell in hopes of a victory. There was even some laughter as we left the hot dog stand on 35th Street south of the ballyard that this would be the day a one game winning streak would begin for the Southsiders. The reason for thinking another L would appear on this year’s record for the Palehose after the day was through was obvious enough, Randy Johnson versus Jose Contreras. More nervous laughter was uttered after observing Pablo Ozuna, Chris Widger, and overmatched rookie Brian Anderson would be in the Sox starting lineup against The Big Unit. It was a true story of David versus Goliath.

The game started off true to form when Pablo Ozuna after singling to open the contest, stole 2nd, and was picked off after Tadahito Iguchi failed to advance him to third. Of Course the Bronx Bombers scored a run to seemingly put the game away with an insermountable lead of 1-0.

But then came the 4th inning! This would not be an inning you’d have wanted to have missed in the bathroom. Tadahito Iguchi launched a solo homer over the rightfield wall to knot the score at one. Aaron Rowand followed suit with a carbon copy of Tadahito’s blast. And then with two strikes on Paul Konerko, Randy Johnson tried to fool Paulie with a breaking ball, the only fool was Johnson, as Konerko made it back-to-back-to-back jacks deep into the leftfield stands. After a couple of singles Chris Widger of all people sealed the deal with a three run gong to left. After each home run the GO SOX GO Fight Song was played. It was only the 3rd time in White Sox history they’d hit three consecutive home runs, the last time being 5-3-00.

Final score Good Guys 6, Yankees 2. GO SOX GO!!!

#1- Dominic Valila, the New York Mets groundskeeper, is expected to lose his job because he has been part of a Mafia-run gambling ring.  He allegedly used the Mets phones to place bets.  According to Dominic himself,

 “What happened is I started gambling and betting on games,” Valila said. “People would see me go nuts watching football. They’d say, ‘Listen, would you put $20 down for me?’ … It’s a guy thing. It’s in my blood.”

He avoided jail by pleading guilty to the crime.

#2- When Nats pitcher Livian Hernandez threw his glove into the stands in a frustrated fit, he wanted it back.  It seems the fan that retrieved it wasn’t so willing to give it back up.  The team offered him an autographed jersey and glove. 

That didn’t seem to be enough.  The fan’s asking price? 

• 2006 Season tickets
• playoff tickets for this year
• and $18,000

My two thoughts:

I hope the playoff tickets aren’t for the Nationals.. and $18,000?  wow, that fan’s got some brass cajones.

Hernandez’ appropriate response?

 ”He can have it,” Hernandez told the newspaper. “He thinks it’s my lucky glove, but I’m not superstitious.”

#3- The Potomac Nationals of the Carolina League are holding a “Hairiest Back at the Ballpark” contest.

Winner gets a laser hair removal service worth $2500.

My Dad was in the hospital over the weekend having a carotid artery cleaned out, he’s home now, and everything’s OK. Saturday we were watching the Cardinals play the Cubs on FOX. In the 7th inning the Cardinals were leading 4-2, with 1st & 3rd, nobody out for the Redbirds, and Albert Pujols was batting. The camera panned to the Cubs dugout where the pitching coach picked up the telephone. That’s when my Dad’s roommate Polish Andy in very broken English chimed in with, “Who is he calling? Maybe he’s calling his Mommy?”. We all busted out laughing! Pujols struck out, but the Cubs allowed another run, making it 5-2, which was the final score.