A Welcome Back To The Big Hurt!

The Oakland A's resigned (& already played) Frank Thomas today after he was released by the BJ's a couple days ago. I wasn't too excited about this initially. Probably cause I'm always a bit skeptical when someone is let go... I mean, there must be a reason right?

But then, a strange thing happened. One of my roommies & an ex both sent me text messages about the events surrounding this acquisition. So I started thinking maybe this is something I should be excited about. I mean, just because Canada dropped him like a hot potato after only 16 games, doesn’t lessen the fact that he did do good things for the A’s. He was a great influence on the A’s club the last time around, so it must be some kind of karmic delight bringing good news right? Maybe rather than listen to the reports that he was livid at being benched by the Blue Jays more often than not, I should choose to believe that fate has a hand in this. I think he even got the award for the Comeback Player of the Year – but I have zero time to figure out where to look that up. What I did look up was that he had 39 dingers with the A’s. That pleases me, & makes me a tad bit more excited than I was initially.

So thanks boys for lighting a fire under me to think about baseball for a bit. It has brightened my day more than you can possibly realize. I cannot wait to spend some of my upcoming time off relaxing in the sun & watching our boys continue to kick ass. I keep you updated on all my A’s ogling adventures…

In other (Yankee Hating) news – this delighted me to no end!

Billy Crystal Struck Out

I find that kinda sad.

I'll try to keep everyone interested updated in this dream of his come true, just in case you all don't have access to MLBTV right now...

Found this here, a live blog from the game...

Billy Crystal’s at-bat:

First pitch: Fastball away, he took it.

Second pitch: Fastball, foul down the first-base line.

Third pitch: Fastball inside, took it for a ball.

Foruth pitch: Fastball up, took it for a ball.

Fifth pitch: Swung and missed at a fastball.

Sixth pitch: Swung and missed at a slider.

The crowd gave him a standing ovation and he waved on his way back to the dugout. Hey, he made the pitcher work.

Nick Swisher Traded to the White Sox... :-(

Yep it's true. For 3 Triple A-er's no less. At least one of the new kids sounds promising & is fairly cute too! Meet Ryan Sweeney folks...
Let's just pray they have game, & more importantly - heart!
The full article is here...

As you can imagine, I'm sorely disappointed. I think Swish is too:

Former Yankee Arrested For Vehicular Homicide

Jim Leyritz has been arrested in Broward County, Florida after a crash early his morning. Apparently his drunk ass was driving a Ford SUV & he hit another car, killing a girl inside (unclear still as to whether she was the driver or passenger.)

You probably remember him for his typical Yankeeness in the 90's & for breaking Braves Fans hearts in the '96 series with a dinger.




Check out ESPN for the details...

Red Sox are heading to the Series again!

I have lots to say about this but minimal time, darn it!

I think this remix of Soulja Boy & Jonathon Papelbon in his underwear & Kevin Youkilis dancing their jigs in celebration say enough for now :-) Silly happy boys!

Barry Bonds Is Leaving San Francisco Giants (Finally?)

The Giant organization is about to announce that they will not be offering Barry Bonds a contract for 2008 (surprise, surprise, surprise eh?)

Bonds is now saying he’s disappointed & ticked off that he didn’t have more time to ‘say goodbye properly”. He thinks the front office planned this a long time ago & I’d bet he’s right. In all seriousness, what did he think was going to happen? The way I see it, there’s really not much either side has to offer one another now.

I would have said the same thing at the end of his last (injury hampered) season, but with that darned record looming, what choice did the G’s have but to keep him & enjoy all the money that would inevitably flow their way. Knowing that kind of cash would be coming in allowed them to offer the most expensive contract ever for a pitcher, who they said they wanted to specifically keep the media off Bonds’ back – which Zito did by sucking rotten eggs for the first half of the season.

So any thoughts on this out there? He says he’s not going to retire. He wants to try & get a World Series Ring which probably means he’ll be a frickin’ Yankee. Then I’ll get to officially hate him so that makes me happy. J

Baseball salary vs performance

What baseball teams are spending their money well, and how does it change over the course of the season? This sketch looks at all 30 Major League Baseball Teams and ranks them on the left according to their day-to-day standings. The lines connect each team to their 2007 salary, listed on the right. A steep blue line means that the team is doing well for its money, which reflects well on the team's General Manager. A steep red line implies that the team is throwing away money. The thickness of the line is proportional to the team's salary relative to the others.





If you click here, it'll take you to the site where you can drag the date at the top to move through the season. The first ten days of the season are ommitted because the rankings to (at least) that point are statistically silly. You can also use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move forward or backward one day.

Thanks to B&P

A's win but I feel kinda quiet today...

The A's won again today in a super short shutout against the Angels. That's three in a row & Haren's first win, yet I still find myself with not much to say. So I'll leave it to you all!

Send me a comment or one or two of a sports related memory of your own. Anything you like, whether it's a silly memory of your first kickball game or the sweet green grass of your first stadium. Maybe it's your best goal or the smell of the ice, send 'em to me & share a bit of your sports history if you will...

Super Marco!

Yesterday was one of the best games I've been to in a very long time.

The A's got ahead of the Yankees quick when they routed Pettitte in the first. "Swisher led a first-inning charge, nothing new for the A's, as they scored two runs off Pettite right away. Shannon Stewart reached on an error by Jeter, then Swisher smacked a double into the left-field corner to put runners on second and third. Stewart scored on a sac fly by Bobby Kielty, and Swisher came home when Mike Piazza smashed a single off the glove of Cano."

The early error by Jeter alone made my day, & things just got better & better from there. Even after the Spankees took the lead in the 7th it never really felt like we could lose.

Then fate stepped in: "for the ninth time in his four years in Oakland, Scutaro delivered a game-winning hit, hitting a three-run home run off the left-field foul pole with two outs in the ninth inning to give the A's a 5-4 win."



After Super Marco hit that dinger, no one left their seats! The celebrations went on & on! Plus the seats were great for heckling the Yankers, although they had lots of coppers guarding their precious lil egos...

The only crappy part was of the day was that Harden left the game with a tight shoulder & none of the MFY's were actually hurt...

Now Zito needs a new glove

MLB Rule 1.15
(a) The pitcher’s glove may not, exclusive of piping, be white, gray, nor, in the judgment of an umpire, distracting in any manner.
(b) No pitcher shall attach to his glove any foreign material of a color different from the glove.
(c) The umpire-in-chief shall cause a glove that violates Rules 1.15(a) or 1.15(b) to be removed from the game, either on his own initiative, at the recommendation of another umpire or upon complaint of the opposing manager that the umpire-in-chief agrees has merit.

Sunday a rep from the commissioner's office showed up to take a picture of Barry Zito's glove. Apparently they saw a photo in Sports Illustrated that showed his glove with the laces looking a tad ‘distracting’. The funny thing is that the photo in the magazine is actually of his old leather, the one he’s used for at least the last 2 years with the A’s without a single complaint.


While searching for photos to make up my own mind, I found some through the AP that show his new super pretty one. It’s fairly fancy, & much, much more distracting with it’s tan ties & burgundy smoothness.

Either way, & with either glove, I seriously can imagine how a little issue like laces could ruin a guy’s swing. Then again, I’ve never been at the plate facing a 77 MPH slurve. I’ll let you judge for yourself:










UPDATE: The commish did come down on him about the laces after all & this week they were replaced with new BLACK laces... How the F is that any different I wonder?