Manny Alexander
3/20 Day: Before we even got our fannies into our seats the White Sox took a 1-0 lead off Rich Harden & the Oakland A’s, Pablo Ozuna got a leadoff double and scored on a two out base hit by Jermaine Dye. With Knuckleballer Charlie Haeger (KevinS has an in with the Sox) on the bump for the Sox I could taste the dollar coming my way from DonS via our friendly wager on who would surrender more runs, Harden or Haeger. But when Uncle Lou Merloni dropped a three run bomb on an un-knuckleball my dillusions of grandeur vanished. Sox dropped this one, 5-3, Josh Fields got two backward K’s, one with two on & two out to end the game.
3/20 Night: It was Manny Alexander in Peoria, AZ. After somebody who sounded alot like Teddy Ballgame yelled out, “Retire ya bum!” Manny lined an RBI extra inning two out single to mercifully end it, it was gonna end after 10 innings no matter what. Justin Germano, SD’s 2002 Minor League Pitcher of the Year, who was recently claimed off waivers from the Phillies, was the winning pitcher for the Padres. The Angels got a triple play against the Padres in the very first inning when Josh Bard swung & missed strike three, Todd Walker who was on 1st stopped running & was tagged out, and Brian Giles who was on 3rd strayed just far enough to be tagged out. DonS stated, “We eat teams that run the bases like that alive!”, but it wasn’t to be. Although Royce Ring of SD allowed 4 hits & walked in a run in 1/3 of an inning, which put the Halos up 6-3 after 5 1/2. Ervin Santana sat in the dugout far too long, and spit out the lead, surrendering 4 in the bottom of the sixth to put the Padres up a run. Alexander made an error, which woke up the fat guy in the stands, who bellowed, the error produced an unearned run off Trevor Hoffman, which setup Manny’s heroics, 8-7 SD. I pick both teams to win their divisions in 2007.