EVIL~! alkeiper

Mark Henry/Kane is gone from One Night Stand.

Sadly, this stuff happens when money is involved. I think quite a few people who had relatives pass away with a bit of money can relate.

Hall of Famer. All modern pitchers with a .600+ winning percentage and as many wins are in the Hall. You have to go down to Carl Mays (207 wins) to find one who is not.

That's an interesting thought. A look at the Favorite Toy gives Edgar Renteria a 41.6% shot at 3,000 hits. (I gave Renteria the benefit of the doubt at used ESPN.com's projected total through the end of the season. Renteria is injured and unlikely to reach that.) If Renteria doesn't come back at all this year, it's 28.4%. Personally I don't see either 3000 hits or the Hall of Fame. At no point has Renteria been a Hall of Fame caliber player in his career. He'll only reach the milestone because the Marlins sold off their players and played rookies in 1998.

This is the first time Chamberlain has pitched a full season of baseball. The Yankees need him for their playoff push, but they need to restrict his workload as not to burn him out too soon. Thus they have an guideline for using him that Joe Torre can follow. I would vote for both given a chance. Biggio should have no problem with his 3,000 hits. Bagwell might have a bit of trouble given his relative lack of counting stats. I hope voters look at his many top 10 MVP finishes.

For about 30 minutes until we get the next SHOCKING~! turn. It only means something when you don't do it at every opportunity.

No way should Randy turn on his father. Faking the turn was one of the best things WWE did with the Randy/Undertaker feud, and really made it more fun to see the elder Orton heel it up one more time.

Verlander, Bonderman, Miller, Zumaya, Jurrjens. I'm iffy on Zumaya. His K rate is tremendous but he's never truly harnessed his control at any level.

He is.

Sheepherders vs. Fabulous Ones from Florida in 1986. Check out a young Bill Alfonso refereeing the match.

If anyone has the right to bitch about bullpens, it's Daniel Cabrera.

Bret Hitman Hart (WF140) 09/29/93 Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler 01/12/94 Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels 1990s Bret Hart career highlights 02/01/94 Bret Hart vs. Irwin R. Schyster 08/31/93 Bret Hart vs. Adam Bomb 04/11/94 Bret Hart vs. Kwang 06/13/93 Bret Hart highlights from winning King of the Ring 12/01/93 Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels (steel cage match) 03/20/94 Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna (referee Roddy Piper) (Hart wins WWF World Title) I hope that's the one.

No. I can't even remember the last time I locked a non-ESPN thread, to be honest.

Kendrick and Durbin are the ones who are overachieving. Kendrick has 31 Ks in 88 IP, and his 11 HRs suggest he's not an extremely successful groundball pitcher. Durbin has 31 Ks and 27 BBs. Those peripherals do not point to sustainable success. To illustrate the point, here are the last ten pitchers to post a K rate as low as Kendrick's in as many innings. STRIKEOUTS/9 IP <= 3.3 INNINGS PITCHED YEAR IP SO/9 IP 1 Chien-Ming Wang 2006 218 3.14 2 Nate Cornejo 2003 194.2 2.13 3 Kirk Rueter 2004 190.1 2.65 4 Danny Graves 2003 169 3.20 5 Kirk Saarloos 2005 159.2 2.99 6 Jimmy Gobble 2004 148 2.98 7 Kirk Rueter 2003 147 2.51 8 Jimmy Anderson 2002 140.2 3.01 9 Aaron Cook 2003 124 3.12 10 Kirk Rueter 2005 107.1 2.10 There's a group that had a lot of future success, no? The only good pitchers in the group are Wang and Cook, and both were extreme groundballers. And the next list, guys in the last seven years with a strikeout/walk ratio as bad or worse than J.D. Durbin, over a full season. SEASON 2000-2006 STRIKEOUTS/WALKS <= 1.14 INNINGS PITCHED YEAR IP SO/BB 1 Jimmy Anderson 2001 206.1 1.07 2 Shawn Estes 2004 202 1.11 3 Jimmy Haynes 2000 199.1 0.88 4 Miguel Batista 2004 198.2 1.08 5 Nate Cornejo 2003 194.2 0.79 6 Kirk Rueter 2004 190.1 0.85 7 Mike Hampton 2002 178.2 0.81 8 Kazuhisa Ishii 2004 172 1.01 9 Damian Moss 2003 165.2 0.86 T10 Jamey Wright 2000 164.2 1.09 T10 Steve Trachsel 2006 164.2 1.01 Do the Phillies have a chance? Absolutely. I very much think they can make the wild card. But the idea of making up six games on a team that's been demonstratively better over the last two seasons is unlikely. I do think Eaton will pitch better from here on out. I don't think an MLB caliber pitcher tosses an ERA that high unless he's hurt.

On another note, we can now say that Baseball Prospectus was wrong when they predicted a 72-90 record for the White Sox. They're worse.

I'm sorry it took me a long time to come to this. I neglected to check my replies. OBP developed in the 1950s thanks to Branch Rickey's in-house statistician, Allan Roth. Pete Palmer emphasized the statistic in his work in the 1970s, and it became official in 1984. Slugging percentage dates back to original baseball writer Henry Chadwick. He did not push the stat though and it didn't become official until 1923, mainly because it was a great measure to tout Babe Ruth. Credit to Peter Morris' A Game of Inches for that information. Looking at Peckinpaugh, the Sporting News article I found touts his veteran leadership, effort, honesty, integrity. Presumably Peckinpaugh got a great deal of credit for being the team's shortstop, much like Marty Marion in 1944 for the Cardinals. I get the impression it wasn't considered an elite honor at the time, it got very little press. The only real importance of the selection is that after Peckinpaugh committed eight errors in the World Series, they moved future announcements to after the season.

They didn't show many highlights at that point. Henn should go. Mussina has 247 career wins and good command at least. Henn has pitched 90 less innings and walked five fewer batters. Henn has no track record of success, and frankly never showed me good stuff in AAA either. The only reason he's in the majors is because he's left handed. As I said earlier, there's a tendency to pretend the most recent performance is the only one that exists. Mussina's been too good a pitcher to fall this quickly.

New Stuff this week: * ECW 12/24/95 * Prime Time Wrestling 7/6/87 * Spectacular Legacy of the AWA * WCW Collision in Korea * WWE Global Warfare '93 * WWE One Night Stand 2007 * WWE Maple Leaf Gardens 9/22/85 * Iron Sheik retrospective, along with matches at Wrestlemania and versus Pedro Morales * Shorties featuring Andre the Giant, Carlos Colon, Mil Mascaras, the Sheepherders, and Regal vs. Bruiser * Various previews Next week is the World Class episode featuring the Kerry Von Erich/Ric Flair cage match.

In fairness, Sunny is nearly a decade younger than either Missy Hyatt or Nicole Bass (I assume it's her).

As an aside, you can post silly topics in Chocolate Socket, but not here.

I just watched the Yankees/Tigers highlights. At least three of those hits Mussina gave up should have been outs. Considering the Tigers only scored one run with less than two outs, that's important. What the Yankees really need is better defense.

I don't. I've gone to over 40 games this year at five levels, and at no point did I think to myself, "god, this game would be so much better if Barry Bonds never existed." If you're going the steroids route, steroids existed long before Bonds and will continue long after he retires. Why do we have steroids? Because of the pressure and rewards to win sports. And why does that exist? Because sports are professional and not amateur.

A couple days off from work gave me an opportunity to catch a ballgame. Much of the local Eastern League was on the road, leaving Reading as the only local minor league team in town. Checking the Majors, I noticed the Phillies and Orioles both played home games. Running the choices by my friend, we agreed that Baltimore was a solid option as I have been to the other parks already this season. For a bit of background, I have been to Baltimore a couple times, but never to the ballpark. The last time was July of 2001. Knowing we were staying in the Inner Harbor, I bought tickets to two baseball games. Unfortunately Baltimore had an underground train wreck, and the games were wiped out for the duration of my vacation. Camden Yards is easy to get to, given that I-83 ends right at the Inner Harbor with minimal traffic to boot. Parking is it's usual adventure in an unfamiliar area but not too bad. Honestly, Camden is probably the most crowd-friendly ballpark I have ever been to. Bringing in outside food and drink is NOT prohibited like it is in seemingly every professional ballpark (note to Eastern and New-York Penn Leagues: league rules my ass). Walk in and of course you're greeted by the Eutaw Street promenade, the area behind the right field wall and in front of the B&O Warehouse. Leaving that building intact is the most brilliant move any park designer has done. The area of course has it's various stands including Boog's Bar-b-que. Arrive early and you can meet Boog Powell himself, as I did. Powell was nice enough to sign my ticket stub, and is approachable and gregarious. Boog and Eutaw Street are a couple of the features copied by Citizens Bank Park (Bull's Bar-b-Que and Ashburn Alley). We sat about ten rows from the field on the first base side. What is the advantage of watching two second-division teams on a Wednesday? Sparse crowds give you a better opportunity for good seats. The seating isn't quite as comfortable as in Philadelphia but that is expected. The O's took a three-run lead early in the game, scoring one in the first and two in the third. O's fans in our section seemed lukewarm towards Miguel Tejada due to his contract and production. That is what you get with a big contract. You pay for the first years of production with the last years. Jarrod Saltalamacchia kicked off the scoring with a two-run single in the fourth, and Ramon Vazquez followed up with a three-run home run. Vazquez's home run was a no-doubter, and really Cabrera's only serious mistake of the night. This was the first game of a doubleheader, which is very important to know when evaluating this game. Saltalamacchia led off the sixth inning with a home run, and Trembley responded by pulling Cabrera with 96 pitches thrown, 62 for strikes. In came Brian Burres, holding a 4.45 ERA at the time. Whatever went wrong with Burres who knows? He gave up a single to Vazquez, who advanced on a wild pitch. Catalanotto walked. Ian Kinsler failed a sacrifice bunt. Michael Young singled on a line drive, loading the bases. O's fans rode the outfielders for not diving for the balls. What they miss is if they dive and miss, it's a triple. I'll come back to this however. Marlon Byrd hit a grand slam to put the game effectively out of reach, 10-3. If I have a thrill outside of the 30 spot, it's seeing Byrd come up big. The Phillies never gave Byrd a fair shot after his poor 2004 season. After a strikeout, five straight singles, the last four on line drives. Three runs scored on those, at which point Trembley pulled Burres in favor of Rob Bell. Bell is the mop-up man, and recovering from Steve Blass disease (the same ailment that Rick Ankiel suffered as a pitcher). Bell gave up one more RBI single and got the last out on a fly ball. The Rangers went in order in the seventh. At this point, the O's fans were waiting for the second game. I don't need to bore you with the full details of the eighth and ninth, you can check the play-by-play if you want. In the eighth the fans were cheering for a mercy rule. At the ninth when Ramon Vazquez homered again to make it thirty, the fans cheered heartily. I think everyone realized at that point they were in the midst of a historic game, not just a mere blowout. This all came about because manager Trembley wanted to save his relievers for game two. After the Rangers hung six in the ninth, there was no reliever warming up behind Shuey. You can question not using a prime reliever or at least an outfielder, but it was just one game in the end. I made the observation that this was Baltimore's "rope a dope" strategy to win game two. The Rangers got a three spot early and the O's tied it in the third. As an aside, I saw game two pitcher Garrett Olson pitch last year with Bowie, and earlier this year with Norfolk. It was 10pm after the third, and we departed. With six innings to go, there was no reason to try and stick it out with a three-hour drive home ahead. Overall, Camden Yards is a wonderful ballpark. The only complaint you can make is that the amenities aren't quite on par with the newest parks. That's nit-picking. Even the concourses are larger and easier to navigate than Citizens Bank Park. No reason not to get to Camden at least once.

I love the sudden Phillies love. If there's one thing that never fails to amuse me in sports talk world, it's that future predictions are based solely on the most recent performance. Yes, Chase Utley is back and hitting. We also beat up on the Mets' worst starter. There is a long way to go yet. As an aside, it amazes me that the Phillies have the fourth best record in the NL. God bless parity.

At least Jim Ross tries to put over a bad match, and has his own little code of saying it sucks. Those commentators are openly making fun of the match and exposing the business.