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!

Ortiz Gets His Head Burned Servely While Trying On A Yankees Hat

This cracked me up!

Poor Wally!

Why I Won't Be Renting With Avis Anytime Soon

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.

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...

Hey - Where's The Sports Talk?

I know I've been slacking - life does that sometimes & I'm not getting paid as well as most major leaguers for producing at only 30% like they do. I'm not getting paid at all come to think of it, so stop with the nagging emails about how "so much is happening in the sports world & I haven't weighed in on anything" Jeez!

I still don't have time to address everything, but here's what I shot out earlier when an old baseball buddy mentioned in an email that "Barry Bonds is toast":

Barry is beyond toast. He's toast crumbs. If this case goes forward, he'll either be found guilty & go to jail for a long time, or a short time & either way, will be suspended forever by the league when that's over. He'll never play again (unless he makes a Longest Yard-The Baseball Version situation in the pen) which is fortunate, because I can only take so much hate in this sport I love, & I'm completely consumed with hating A-Fraud right now. Barry Bonds doesn't even exist to me.

Of course, if I'm honest, he never really did. I only tried to be a decent Giants fan for friends who liked them - but deep down, I always, always, always knew it would come to this extreme with Bonds. The G's are lucky to have cut their ties with him just in time. Makes me wonder if the Mitchell Report got leaked to them a bit early so they would have time to put some substantial space between them.

I think Frisco has a real chance to make something of themselves now & I truly hope this could be Barry Zito's banner year (although I'm fairly sure that won't come til 2009 at the earliest.) But think about it: What better way is there to flip Bonds the bird than to win it all & rub that ring right in his face?

Bitter? Moi? :-) Not too bad as far as these things go. I'm more upset about Super Marco getting traded from my A's more than anything else. Although our AAA mounds needed attention & this will open up a nice spot for Donnie Murphy.

I swear I can remember being at at least 15 games where Scutaro knocked out a walk-off game clincher, including 1 I wrote about here, but his stats show he only did it 9 times in his career here. I guess I'll have to wait & see how it all works out. I just have this nagging suspicion that Marco won't be as lauded in Canada. He barely makes Ingles words okay, how's he supposed to pull off French!?!

Yankee Stadium Proposal Prank...

Further proof that Yankees Fans Suck & deserve bad things that happen to them! ;->

Actually this is just plain funny... & kinda sad.



How hard would it have been for the prankster to let her in on the idea beforehand?

Thanks to B&P for the find!

Today's Fallen Yankee Doesn't Bring Much Of A Smile

“Holy cow!” 89-year-old HOF’er Phil Rizzuto, died this morning. Although my hatred for the Yanks is through & through, my respect for baseball’s history is always expanding. He was with Evil Empire for 54 years. That’s amazing in & of itself, & he only left briefly to serve his country though the Navy in WWII with DiMaggio & Mantle.

Ted Williams fought to get the 7-time World Series Champ into the HOF, and finally succeeding in 1994. Williams said Rizzuto was the man who made the difference between the Yanks and his Red Sox. He always said, "If we'd had Rizzuto in Boston, we'd have won all those pennants instead of New York."

After Rizzuto couldn’t play anymore, he announced with such color for 40 years & only left after an unfortunate incident where they tried to force him to work through Mickey Mantle funeral. They of course did apologize later (as Georgie Porgie is know for after the fact) & he returned for one last season.



Rizzuto was the oldest living rookie in The Hall & still stated that he didn’t think he records compared to the legends there before him during his induction speech. He was humble & hilarious & I remember his distinct Brooklyn voice & curious but clean sayings. I loved that he’d call various characters “Huckleberry” when you could tell anyone else would be saying a bad word about them. And I loved it even more so when my Grandpa Paul used that term of endearment for me, usually just after telling me to quit blocking his view of the game.

Scooter was a good man, a great friend, and a perfect family man. And he was married to the love of his life Cora, who Joe DiMaggio introduced him to, for more than 64 years. The world of baseball has a heavy heart today & the flag at Cooperstown was lowered to half-staff, a laurel was placed around his plaque, & thousands will tip their cap to him in today’s games.


Here's his voice one last time...

Oakland A’s Turn Their Back on Bradley!

The A’s told outfielder Milton Bradley to essentially take a hike today, designating him for assignment & giving themselves 10 days to trade or release his cranky butt. He had been hitting pretty well (.292 with 2 dingers & 7 ribby’s) but I think it’s pretty much because he’s such a bitchy baby.

If you know me at all, you know that I wasn’t too happy when he arrived, & although I was happy he was producing fairly well, I always knew it’d be a simple matter of time til he went a lil poopy again. Just 2 days ago, he was asked how he was feeling, since he’s been on the DL for awhile (like half the A’s roster) & he openly complained "I'm healthy and on the bench." He played yesterday & only had 1 walk in 3 AB's. Nothing else to report there.

& I swear I’m not just being judgmental about him. Remember the crap he pulled with he was with the icky Dodgers? He pretty much called Jeff Kent racist, called an ump an "Uncle Tom", once grabbed a bag of baseballs & threw them at another ump after he was ejected, & was suspended multiple times, including a 5 game sentence for an altercation with a fan after someone threw a plastic bottle at him. Not to mention his criminal record! He’s actually even had to serve time for various run in wit traffic coppers, plus there have been domestic violence allegations as well! He’s so not a good guy getting the shaft like he always whines he is.

My favorite was when quit the icky Dodgers. He didn’t even just quit, he threw a huge tantrum, actually took his jersey off, threw it on the field & walked off the field. All over a lil disagreement with an ump. When I saw that it was official that he was a tool. When I heard he was joining the A’s afterward, I shuddered. Imagine him, or anyone really, pulling a ridiculous stunt like that in Oakland. He wouldn’t have made it to the player’s gate. Someone woulda flat out shot him for dishonoring his uni like that. It’s just so un-American! (Of course no one threw a fit that it happened in L.A., it’s pretty much a given that if you play for the icky Dodgers or the MFY’s that you’re going to behave like an asshat.)


I say good riddance to Milton Bradley; no one here liked his game.

Happy Hopes...

I love bridges, (I have no idea why) & I really love the Brooklyn Brigde. & I hate the Yankees, I really, really, really hate the Yankees.

That must be why this post from CopyRanter this morning has me all excited! I so hopeful that the Red Sox can sweep the Spankees once again this weekend, only this time in the house that Ruthie built...

Even though I'll be cheering from the Oakland Collesium this weekend, my heart will be with Boston!

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...

Friday... The 13th!

So everyone seems to be mentioning something about Friday the 13th. I don’t feel anything particularly different or weird so far though. I did wake up with a headache, but I think that’s just cause I didn’t sleep well, & a couple of Advil seem to have taken care of that so far. I haven’t been looking out for things falling on my head or worrying that the world will end, but I also wouldn’t walk under a ladder or let a black kitty cross my path if that should arise. How ‘bout you?

The last Friday the 13th, in October, BetUs.com actually generated some odds on lucky and unlucky events for the day. These guys also had odds up on whether the world would end on 6/6/06. People were reportedly ‘flooding the site’ to wager on what may or may not happen as a result of the unlucky day. I couldn’t find any evidence of that toady, but here’s what their odds supposedly were:

The World to End: 1,000,000/1
You lose your job: 100/1
Your spouse leaves you: 500/1
You throw out your back: 250/1
You go bankrupt: 500/1
You get a flat tire: 50/1
You break your leg: 100/1
A bird will poop on you: 100/1
You will get sick: 50/1
You will get locked out of your house/apt: 50/1
Your car will get towed: 100/1
You will get a ticket (speeding, parking, etc.): 50/1
You will lose all your hair: 250/1
Your car will get stolen: 100/1
You will place a winning bet at BetUS.com: 1/1 EVEN ODDS
You will hit a Royal Flush at BetUS.com poker site: 250/1
You will find money: 50/1
You will slip on banana peel: 100/1
You will win the lottery: 500/1

Oh & Bits & Pieces found this:

"Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is recommended."

So far it’s been a rather quiet day at work though, so, so far, so good! I guess I’ll let all of you know about that on Monday?

I just really hope it isn’t an unlucky day for my Ducks tonight. They face the Wild tonight for game 2 of the playoffs & so far they’ve had a rather lucky week. As you may know, Giggy’s been off for a bit dealing with a medical issue with his newborn son Maxime. He & his wife did get good news about his condition yesterday, so hopefully he’ll be back soon & with a light heart. Either way, he’s got a great back up & Ilya Bryzgalov would do a fantastic job if he gets a chance at his second start tonight. I have trust & faith & zero superstitions about this game! GO DUCKS!

Oh & the A’s begins their first series against the MFY’s tonight too. I’ll make at least one of these games so keep your fingers crossed that Igawa, Pavano & Pettitte all get into a gay lil Spankee style love brawl where they all three strain their arms & can’t pitch this weekend. Yankees still suck.

Why A Divorce Is Making Me Smile Today

Let's hope this is just the beginning of the end...