This Week In Baseball 8/27-9/2

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

YOUUUU

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

My mistake.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I don't know if Bruiser or Czech want to hear this but Tom Verducci of SI was on Mike and the Mad Dog today and said the Cubs would make it to the World Series.

 

hahaha, yeah, because of their "superior pitching"

 

You do realize they have the third best ERA in the NL and fifth best in the bigs? And they're within mere points of the third and fourth best ERA leaders. Cubs may not have a team full of aces, but their starters have been reliable in the grand scheme of things.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Did anyone catch Steve Phillips' multi-inning rant against the "Joba Rules"? He mentioned the 2003 Marlins as a team that didn't need rules for young pitchers, specifically citing Beckett, Pavano and Burnett. I know they won the series and all, but does he not realize that those three guys have been among the most injury-ridden pitchers of the past few years? Maybe they could have used some "Joba Rules" or their own.

[KingPK 0]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...ons/tampa/part1

 

Bill Simmons took a trip to Tampa for a Sox-Rays game and took a bunch of pictures. If anything, it shows that Tropicana Field has officially usurped Olympic Stadium as the shittiest, most sterile baseball park in history.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...ons/tampa/part1

 

Bill Simmons took a trip to Tampa for a Sox-Rays game and took a bunch of pictures. If anything, it shows that Tropicana Field has officially usurped Olympic Stadium as the shittiest, most sterile baseball park in history.

Sad thing is, I would love that park. Prices, convenience and such are more important to me than aesthetics when visiting a park.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

I'm home from the Phils game, another awesome crowd, was in the 200 level, be there tomorrow.

 

Did I read something about the Phillies being "dead" and "like 7 games back" a few pages back?

 

Seriously, though, I love series like this, great Playoff Atmosphere (something Phillies have only a few games/series a year, honestly, and they're not real Playoffs, so...).

 

Mets pitching was great again tonight. Phils were pretty good, but Moyer, Romeo, and Myers all needed defense to get them out of jams, or in Myers case a boneheaded play.

 

I'll be bringing my broom tomorrow!

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Yeah, I've been there (Tropicana Field), and can attest to the shittiness of the stadium. On the plus side, the dome roof lights up orange (as seen from the outside) when they win.

[treble 0]

Did anyone catch Steve Phillips' multi-inning rant against the "Joba Rules"? He mentioned the 2003 Marlins as a team that didn't need rules for young pitchers, specifically citing Beckett, Pavano and Burnett. I know they won the series and all, but does he not realize that those three guys have been among the most injury-ridden pitchers of the past few years? Maybe they could have used some "Joba Rules" or their own.

Burnett was on the DL most of that season, wasn't he?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Yeah, I've been there (Tropicana Field), and can attest to the shittiness of the stadium. On the plus side, the dome roof lights up orange (as seen from the outside) when they win.

 

 

Have they ever gotten a chance to use this feature?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Did anyone catch Steve Phillips' multi-inning rant against the "Joba Rules"? He mentioned the 2003 Marlins as a team that didn't need rules for young pitchers, specifically citing Beckett, Pavano and Burnett. I know they won the series and all, but does he not realize that those three guys have been among the most injury-ridden pitchers of the past few years? Maybe they could have used some "Joba Rules" or their own.

Burnett was on the DL most of that season, wasn't he?

 

 

Yep.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

I believe they won the game I saw.

[treble 0]

And Olympic Stadium wasn't as bad as it was made out to be. The shitty roof didn't help things, but when they took it off that one year, it was pretty nice. A little fixing (and cleaning) up would have made a huge difference.

 

Wasn't worth a billion dollars, however.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

On the subject of Florida and stadiums, and I swear this isn't an attempt to be either A)humorous or B)racist, there's a big ass billboard near the Florida Marlins Stadium, I saw this March on vacation, which reads:

 

"1 Out of 30 Black Males in Miami Now Has A Sexually Transmitted Disease"

 

And then lists a hotline number to call. If anyone lives near there and can explain WHY this hasn't been torn down, enlighten me.

[Broward83 0]

Because maybe it's something to promote general health to the black population? In Houston, they have ads similar to that on the bus system here. Haven't seen anything like a billboard however...

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

On the subject of Florida and stadiums, and I swear this isn't an attempt to be either A)humorous or B)racist, there's a big ass billboard near the Florida Marlins Stadium, I saw this March on vacation, which reads:

 

"1 Out of 30 Black Males in Miami Now Has A Sexually Transmitted Disease"

 

And then lists a hotline number to call. If anyone lives near there and can explain WHY this hasn't been torn down, enlighten me.

 

 

That's seems like an awfully low percentage. I'm not tyring to being racist either.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Maybe it was 1 in 20. I just found it to be a really rude billboard, especially for black men that live in the area who are healthy, for when a tourist enters and sees a giant billboard pretty much saying "Welcome to Miami, hide your daughters!" My POINT is, it's a shitty thing to be near the stadium.

[Guest Soriano's Torn Quad]

I didn't expect this sort of sensitivity from Sledge, and I don't want it.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

After reading that, I actually want to go to Tropicana Field to enjoy the free parking and leather chairs behind home plate.

[The Man in Blak 0]

It's looking like Rolen will be out for the season.

 

"I'm injured and I'm hurting. I'm not capable of doing any better. I'm pretty much down to the end of the wick."

 

Rolen has taken cortisone in his shoulder, and the shot provided some temporary relief. About three weeks ago, when the Cardinals were eight games under .500, Rolen had a chance to shut it down for the season, but he wanted to keep playing.

 

"It's a frozen shoulder, for lack of a better term," Rolen said.

 

I'm not really as concerned for 2007, because we wouldn't have even been in this position if the Brewers hadn't been trying so desperately to hand us the division. The real issue is Rolen's career and the Cardinals' long term plans going forward; this guy was on pace to the Hall of Fame before his shoulder ran into Hee Seop Choi's fat ass. The Cardinals had committed a lot of money over a long period of time to him and they don't really have any kind of organizational depth (Brian Barden?) to backfill this position. Brendan Ryan, a career second basemen, looks to be locked into the hot corner for the remainder of the year, unless Spiezio can make some kind of miracle recovery or manic escape from drug rehab. Maybe he can wear a fake mustache in the dugout like Bobby Valentine. (As long as it's not red.)

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

I am off to Game 4 with a broom in hand. I noticed that with the Snakes losing all of a sudden the Wild Card sees the Phils only 2 back in the loss column!

 

I hope The Other Kyle has good stuff today!

[King Kamala 0]

And Olympic Stadium wasn't as bad as it was made out to be. The shitty roof didn't help things, but when they took it off that one year, it was pretty nice. A little fixing (and cleaning) up would have made a huge difference.

 

Wasn't worth a billion dollars, however.

 

 

I went there during the Expos last season and I'll agree. If you take off the crappy roof- it's not much worse than Yankee Stadium (which I thought was incredibly mediocre outside of the great atmosphere) and it had better concessions than Yankee Stadium.

[mike546 0]

After Farnsworth's outing last night, the Joba Rules are going to be changed according to the NY Post. Thank god, I was at the game last night and watching Farnsworth someytimes is terrifying.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

It'll take dual 7 game winning and losing streaks. Not happening.

 

[Jim Ross Voice]DAMN YOU ALKEIPER!

DAMN YOU STRAIGHT

TO THE DEPHTS OF

HEEEEEEEEEEEEE

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/Jim Ross Voice]

[CanadianChris 0]

And Olympic Stadium wasn't as bad as it was made out to be. The shitty roof didn't help things, but when they took it off that one year, it was pretty nice. A little fixing (and cleaning) up would have made a huge difference.

 

Wasn't worth a billion dollars, however.

 

 

I went there during the Expos last season and I'll agree. If you take off the crappy roof- it's not much worse than Yankee Stadium (which I thought was incredibly mediocre outside of the great atmosphere) and it had better concessions than Yankee Stadium.

The smoked meat at Olympic Stadium was amazing.

 

I never had an experience at the Big O worse than the one I had at Fenway Park, where I was in a cramped seat with an obstructed view. I think the biggest knocks on the Big O were more from the players than the fans -- understandable, since the playing surface was probably the worst in all of sports. Even worse than Veterans Stadium in Philly. For the fans, it was a perfectly acceptable ballpark, not great, but not terrible, either.

[King Kamala 0]

Fenway Park is the only park in baseball that's alternately one of the best and worst ballparks, depending on where you're sitting. If you get an obstructed view, it's one of the worst. But if you get a half decent one, it's the "Great American Ballpark" of yore. It is pretty fucking cramped though, that's why I like SRO (Those are the only tickets I've been able to get since '04 for face value)

[milliondollarchamp 0]

great game going today between the Phillies and Mets

[NYU 0]

Has it yet become cliche for me to come in here and complain about another Mets bullpen meltdown?

[KingPK 0]

Joba, some advice.

 

If you want to hit a guy, HIT HIM! None of this lobbing the ball over his head shit.

[mike546 0]

I thought everything was even? After Clemens hit Pedroia?