Saw this story over at bizofbaseball today about Gary Matthews possibly being involved an an Internet sale of steroids problem.
That’s a bit of a surprise. No further commentary at this time.
6 signed
- The following players signed to a 1 year contract: OF Nelson Cruz, OF Victor Diaz, C Gerald Laird, RHP Wes Littleton, RHP Kameron Loe and RHP Brandon McCarthy. [ link ]
I haven’t laughed this hard in ages
I was googling for something the other day (can’t remember what now), and happened upon an article over at USS Mariner (probably the best Mariners fan site if you haven’t seen it) entitled, “Bugs Bunny, greatest banned player ever“.
It is an extremely funny “real life” check on the old 1946 cartoon “Baseball Bugs“. They break down the cartoon in such a way as to nitpick the events of it (talking about stadium capacity, realities of injuries sustained in the comic animation, etc). Oh dear, I haven’t laughed this hard in ages. It was originally published right about a year ago, and I obviously missed it. Being this funny, I would have remembered it. I haven’t laughed this hard in ages. This article is one of the best fan baseball things I’ve ever read on any site.
Here’s a couple of examples from the piece:
The Gorillas score 42 runs in this inning alone by drilling single after single right at the pitcher. By keeping the pace of the game extremely fast, they kept the pitcher in the game, presumably because he had a low pitch count and was not tired, but also there was no pitcher warmed up to relieve him, and the Gorillas scored so quickly that they drove the score up before one could even be told to begin stretching. There is an additional psychological effect to be considered, as well: faced with a team that can score 42 runs in an inning, the opposing manager must have been so stunned by the offensive onslaught that he was unable to make a move, and further that his coaches and other staff were similarly disabled.
It’s a further testament to the addled mental condition of the Teatotallers during this drubbing that they were unable to take advantage of the congested baserunning by fielding any ball and throwing it to any base, where it would have immediately forced out three runners and ended the inning.
Why such a game would be scheduled remains unclear. Efforts to find contemporary promotional material for insight into fan motivation or how the game was marketed have proved fruitless.
Seriously – if you haven’t read this piece over there, you need to go do so. The cartoon is available as part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD sets. This particular toon is on Volume 1 (they have four as of the writing of my piece here). Click on the dvd image to order it from Amazon.com.
UPDATE: I noticed the entire cartoon is available on Google video. You should buy the DVD set, you get so much more, and a really good quality copy, too. :)
Whither Jason Botts?
I know if you read my site, you’re also going to read all the other fan sites for the Rangers. I hold no illusions – my site is not a bastion of originality or extreme wordiness when it comes to Rangers news. I post when the moment strikes. :)
Anyway, having said that, I wanted to point out an article over at “Baseball Time in Arlington” by their new writer, Joe Matschulat. It talks about our DH situation, and a lot about Jason Botts, as well as the rest of the outfielders who are likely to spend some time in the DH slot. I got a major kick out of the first line of the article..
If only John Hart hadn’t dealt Travis Hafner.
Isn’t that the truth. :) Anyway, as I said above, if you’re reading this, I’m sure you would have seen his piece anyway, but I still wanted to draw attention to it, as it was a well written article.
UPDATE: Guess it would help if I did something useful like post the link!
Sosa is in the house
Fantasy Baseball
I just got done with my first fantasy draft of the season for a public league I joined. I ended up with an OK team I think, although my outfield doesn’t have any AAA players in it. Check this out:
C – Pudge
1B – Ryan Howard
2B – Mark DeRosa
SS – Michael Young
3B – Hank Blalock
OF – Jermaine Dye
OF – Michael Cuddyer
OF – Brad Hawpe
DH – Frank Thomas
B – Gary Matthews Jr
B – Frank Catalanotto
SP – Carlos Zambrano
SP – John Lackey
RP – Trevor Hoffman
RP – Bobby Jenks
P – Chris Young
P – Barry Zito
P – Derek Lowe
B – Josh Johnson
B – Greg Maddux
B – Brandon McCarthy
In the next to the last round, it occurred to me that of the 21 players I have on my team, nine of them are current or former Texas Rangers players. I’m such a homer. :)
Anyway, I still have a few slots open in my second Yahoo Fantasy Team. Seven have signed up so far, there’s five open slots as of the writing of this story. You can check out the details on how to sign up in this post from earlier this week. Thanks.
New Baseball Caps
In a move that will probably make the zealots over at Peta happy.. It was announced today that starting in 2007, there will be new baseball caps worn by the players on the field. They won’t look any different, but they’ll be made out of different material. Previously (and for some time, too) they were made out of wool. The new ones will be made out of 100% polyester. It’s some sort of new tech in the hat to reduce sweat, and make the hat better in say 100 degree days.
I wonder what they’ll feel like – according to the article, they’ll all have black brims, and will conduct sweat away much better than before. I know a lot of people get all bent out of shape over change. What I worry about is if they’ll use this as an excuse to raise the prices again. These things are already way too expensive ($28 per cap). In re-reading the article, I missed the sidebars the first time. The price is going up again. Retail on these hats will be $32, instead of the $29 they previously were. Hopefully they don’t get so sweat stained up as much, so I can keep one for a few more seasons than before, and amortize the cost. It seems really weird to be using the phrase “amortize the cost” in a story about a baseball cap.
Anyway, go check out the full article over at USA Today, which has quotes from several players. One of my favorites is a line from Diamdondbacks infielder Orlando Hudson, who says that after the season starts, it will be about his performance, not his hat.
5 signed
- The following players signed to a 1 year contract: RHP Francisco Cruceta, RHP Frank Francisco, RHP Armando Galarraga, LHP Daniel Haigwood and LHP John Rheinecker. [ link ]
Camp Washington Opened Today
Saw this picture from spring training today. Somehow it just speaks to me about how the new regime will be a lot different than the old one.
Just seeing this picture gives one a nice feeling, eh?
My 2007 Schedule is Online
After much delay, my 2007 schedule is online. Managed to get it all done today while my daughter was taking a nap. :) You can check it out on my schedule page. It includes all the games, TV stations, and whatnot.
I also need to finish updating the 2006 schedule pages. From 1999-2005, I hand created all of my recap pages. In 2006, I moved over into Movable Type blogging software for that. The problem is doing them that way removed my changing the schedule page to account for the recap pages. The old way it was a piece of cake, the new way I kept forgetting to update the schedule page with the recap. So much so that I discovered at the end of the 2006 season that I wasn’t updating at all! So I got about halfway through updating that a few months ago, and never finished either. The fact that I let it slide like that twice, annoyed me. So I decided for 2007 I was going to do something automatic, and I finally today figured out how I can do that – wish I would have thought of it last spring. Anyway, once the games start happening, you’ll see the recaps listed on the page with the schedule again. That makes it a heck of a lot easier for me to keep up to date. But I still need to finish off the 2006 season. I know a lot of people don’t read these old recaps of mine, but it annoys me personally that it’s unfinished like that.
UPDATE @ 9:10PM: I’m sure you were all waiting with baited breath. I finished the 2006 schedule and recaps tonight. That leaves the schedule totally up to date for the start of spring training games in a couple of weeks.
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