I posted the photo at the top of this thread. A little repect maybe? Jif, my consiglieri. Advise me how to deal with this ungrateful mob.
Greetings from the ice hockey capitol of the world... BTW- congratz to local girl Taryne Mowatt from Santiago HS in Corona, who pitched Arizona to the NCAA softball championship. She was awesome... http://www.arizonaathletics.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1600&SPID=528 Dodger hitters looked sick again tonight, this time in a 5-2 loss. Old pal Greg Maddux was up to his old tricks. He had no strikeouts or walks going into the 7th inning and no pitch was over 82mph. One sinker after another sawed off corners and in some innings he threw only 6 or 7 pitches as he pitched to contact and gave another clinic on why location and control are more important than velocity... -We need some RBI guys! Aaaaahhhhhh! The schedule doesn't get easier. The Dodgers end their road trip tomorrow, then go home for the Blue Jays, Mets and enfuego Angels...
Be kind to your webfooted friends, for a Duck maybe somebody's mother.... Congratz to the Mighty Ducks. 8)
Oh yeah and that Az softball pitcher, she pitched every inning for the Wildcats in the tourney, threw over a 1000 pitches. MLB should go to throwing the ball underhanded, it'd solve a lot of pitching problems!! :roll:
It also would lead to the erasure of all the batting records and the setting of astronomical new threshholds. Hmmm, not a bad idea.
Baseball as we know it dates from the 1893 season. All records before that are in a separate category. Before that year, the pitcher stood in a "pitcher's box", similar to the batter's box, that was 48 ft from home plate. (Little League distance.) The pitcher could do anything that he wanted to, underhand or not, as long as he delivered the ball from the box... In 1893, the pitcher's box was abolished. It was replaced by a raised mound (currently 10 inches high) which was moved back to 60ft 6 inches. Yes, the 6 inches came about because the original field bozo mis-measured the distance. It was supposed to be only 60ft, but by the time the error was discovered many league games had already been played, so they decided to leave it like that. A pitcher's slab of rubber was placed on top of the mound and the new rules stated that the pitcher had to maintain contact with the "rubber" as the ball was delivered. This new arrangement practically eliminated the underhand delivery. A pitcher throwing underhand from a raised mound would deliver the ball with a flat trajectory, which is the kiss of death for a fastball. Very few pitchers have even tried. On the other hand, tall pitchers, like Randy Johnson, Chris Young or Mark Hendrickson deliver the ball at a severe angle, forcing the batters to use more of an "upper-cut" swing to hit the ball. One of the biggest changes in the modern game came after the 1968 season, when MLB batting averages hit their all-time low. That was the year there was only ONE .300 hitter in the American League: Carl Yastrzemski .301 (.30056) Boston Red Sox 1 Danny Cater .290 (.28968) Oakland Athletics 2 Tony Oliva .289 (.28936) Minnesota Twins 3 Willie Horton .285 (.28516) Detroit Tigers 4 Ted Uhlaender .283 (.28279) Minnesota Twins 5 Vic Davalillo .277 (.27746) Cleveland Indians 6 Bert Campaneris .276 (.27570) Oakland Athletics 7 Ken Harrelson .275 (.27477) Boston Red Sox 8 Frank Howard .274 (.27425) Washington Senators 9 It was also the year that 24 year-old gangster Denny McClain won 31 games and Bob Gibson posted the lowest ERA of any pitcher in modern times. The higher mound had made some pitchers like Gibson and Koufax virtually unhittable... .........DD
Ouch...ouch...ouch! Its been a long time since we Dodger Dogs saw one like this. The Dodger's took a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th, with 23 year-old Jonothan Broxton playing closer instead of Takashi Saito: Padres 6 Dodgers 5 After screwing the pooch in every possible way, including walking the bases loaded...the kid walked in the winning run... The loss of Saito cost us 2 out of three games, including this one that the Dodgers had dominated for 8 innings... ....................ouch.
Here is the Yankee way to play baseball as of this morning: a losing record at home; a losing record on the road and a losing record... New York 27 31 .466 10.5 94 6-4 W3 8-15 9-4 9-10 1-2 12-13 15-18
A very angry Dodger team returned to LA in a hurry last night. Gonzalez and Garciaparra skipped the bus and drove a car back to town in 2 hours; which is an average speed of around 100 mph... Tonight's game almost turned out the same way, with Takashi Saito returning to close, but blowing Brad Penny's masterpiece in the 9th. Fortunately, Olmedo "The Killer Tomato" Saenz hit a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 10th to win it: Dodgers 4 Blue Jays 3 The same problem remains that prevents this Dodger team from being great: no power. They were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in this game before The Tomata's blast... In another transparently cheesy roster maneuver before the game, the Dodgers placed Ramon Martinez on the DL with a "chronic bad back" and recalled Matt Kemp from Las Vegas...
My Dodgers are fading... Now we play the Mets, who're fading too... In the latest desperation moves, the Dodgers released Brady Clark, whom they had traded Elmer Dessens to get, and recalled James Loney from Las Vegas. This gives them lots of stud-pony kids on the big team and I think at least some of them are being showcased as trade bait. The latest rumors have either Broxton or Billingsley going to the White Sox for Jermaine Dye... The Dodgers must obtain some power from somebody... Both Jason Schmidt and Juan Pierre appear to be free agent busts and they will be impossible to get rid of, because of their contracts. This is especially true of Pierre, who has a 5 year deal, but can't think, get on base, throw or wear his uniform properly...
I watched the first few innings of your game yesterday. Halladay and Schmidt both got off to shaky starts, but Schmidt stayed shaky. I also saw what you were talking about with Pierre when he one-hopped a throw to the cut-off man, giving Vernon Wells the opportunity to score.
Juan Pierre is a disaster and this situation is getting ugly. First he was moved down to 8th in the lineup, then he was benched. Now what do they do with him? Colletti should have seen this coming. Last year, Pierre finished first in "outs made" in all of MLB. In fact, he made more outs than all but 10 other players in MLB history. His on-base percentage has fallen to nothing. He's been picked off base several times. He's made the third out at third base. His arm is so weak, that he doesn't even throw the ball in to the infield after the third out, because he can't throw that far! Now Juan Pierre is on a contract that will cost every Dodger Dog $3 bucks per seat for the next five years. Matt Kemp or Jason Repko are better out there and they have arms and brains and everything... Jason Schmidt's performance last night was discouraging. Not only was he bad to the point of the Jays just sitting on his pitches like batting practice, but he never came close to breaking 90mph on the rader gun. If this pattern repeats, then we may have to face the realization that he may be through and he's guaranteed $47 million for three years. What all of this means long-term, is that the Dodgers may not be able to trade either Billingsley or Kemp, because the team may need them. The same is true for James Loney at 1st base. Nomar has hit only ONE HR all season and he's slumping. Popular or not, James Loney can do better than that and everyone knows it... The time is at hand for the Dodgers to make some very hard decisions about their players and the future of the team. I saw this coming, that's why you didn't see me celebrating their being in 1st place all year. I just couldn't see this team staying in 1st place with no power and $100 million dollars worth of free agent busts. Sooner or later, (and we've reached that point now) the team must either play the super-rookies and hope for the best or make trades and repair the roster that way...
Showcase? For the second night in a row, Nomar was benched in favor of James Loney. For the second night in a row, Loney knocked in a run, this time with a triple off the pavillion wall in left. Dodger players tonight who are 25 years-old or younger included Loney (22), Kemp (22), Abreu (22), Ethier (25), Billingsley (22), Martin (23) and Broxton (22). Final score: Dodgers 5 Mets 4 The team had a meeting after last night's fiasco and the skipper had another meeting with Juan Pierre, who actually looked like a ballplayer tonight. He had two walks, an infield hit, tagged up and hustled to 2nd base on a flyout to CF and he didn't F-up. Its about time... Pitcher Randy Wolf is now 8-4. He apparantley has brought his own rooting section from Philadelphia. They call themselves the "Wolf Pack" and they wear weirwolf costumes while dancing like Michael Jackson's "Thriller." I think they're really from West Hollywood... James Loney's father drove him straight to Dodger Stadium from Las Vegas when he got the callup to make sure that James was on-time... Loney, Kemp, Ethier and Abreu are now part of a regular rotation as the older guys, Nomar, Luis Gonzalez, Pierre and Jeff Kent will get regular rest... Excuse my cynicism, but this sounds like a showcase to me. If they're out of it at the trade deadline, they trade the old guys. If they have a chance at that time, they trade some young talent for whatever they need... Takashi Saito got his 17th save. The Dodgers are now 29-1 with a lead after 7 innings and they're an incredible 94-0 with a lead at home going into the 9th inning. The last game that they blew in the 9th at home, was in August of 2004, when Eric Gagne, of all people, blew a three run lead to the Florida Marlins... BTW- Corey would have been proud of Grady Little tonight. He called a suicide squeeze play with a rookie (Abreu) at the plate and another rookie (Loney) at third. It didn't work, because the skipper forgot one thing: Abreu was batting left-handed. It was an easy out, when El Duque threw to the third base batters box and LoDuca just caught it and dropped on his equipment...
He's at Texas and there's all kinds of trade rumors swirling around with him in the middle. The Rangers aren't going anywhere this year or next, so what good is a closer when you never have a lead in the 9th? Please note the Mighty One's 0.56 ERA: 2007 31 TEX AL 1 0 17 0 0 0 15 6 16.0 8 1 1 1 7 16 1 0 61 0 0 0.56 He's fragile, but he can still pitch. Some team that does take leads into the 9th inning will pick him up before the trade deadline in exchange for young prospects as the Rangers rebuild...
My Dodgers may be fading and underpowered, but in spite of everything, they have the best record in the National League. This makes me wonder about the whole league... The Mets were supposed to be the best team in the league, but they're no match for the Dodgers so far. Somebody was kidding somebody here. I was wondering how Shawn Green, Paul LoDuca and Jose Valentin got so great all of a sudden. They were all younger and better when they played here, but I don't remember anyone back east voting them to the All-Star team or singing their praises then... In tonight's game, some unlikely power showed up at the bottom of the lineup. Wilson Betemit, Matt Kemp and Hong Chih-Kuo hit back-to-back-to-back HRs. Hong's HR was so funny it had the Dodgers rolling in dugout with laughter. Not only was it the first HR for the 25 year-old pitcher; it was the first HR ever hit by a Taiwanese player in professional baseball. When he hit it, he posed for a second like Babe Ruth, then dramatically flipped the bat away as he watched it go, then slowly rounded the bases as if he owned the whole world. The players in the Dodger dugout cracked up in at least six languages. It was a funny sight... Matt Kemp has an RBI in every game since he was recalled... Takashi Saito got his 18th save and should join Russell Martin and Brad Penny on the All-Star team... Jonathon Broxton needed only 8 pitches to mow down the Mets in the 8th, after Hong pitched 7 great innings... This team still lacks adequate power....
I'm no Mets fan but Green and Valentin have been on the DL more than on the field so far this year. LoDuca? I don't know what anyone ever saw in him other than a punch n judy hitter. He could not carry Posada's water. When you Dodgers get finished slapping them around, they get to come to the Stadium for a first class beatdown ( I hope :evil: ).