9 posts tagged “baseball”
It was nice to see Rick make his return to the 'bigs' with a homerun in his first game back!! Yeah he only went 1-4 but that 1 was a sweet shot! Check out the story HERE or HERE. I'm hoping for the best for him. We could definitely have used him as a pitcher but soon we're gonna need another young outfielder.....so GO RICK!!
Barry Bonds finally got to 756 homeruns....and lucky for him, he hit it in San Francisco. I'm torn on this. To reach this milestone is a great feat but the possibility that it was reached with the help of steroids just taints it way too much for me to applaud Barry for acheiving it. I've heard the argument, "Steroids doesn't help you hit a baseball." Yep you're right it doesn't, it helps the baseball you do hit go further though. So if Barry has been using steroids, how many homeruns of his may have fallen short if he wouldn't have been using it? That question alone, without the answer of whether Barry has used or not, makes it hard to accept this 'new record' as legit. But hey, for now, I guess it is so we will have to wait and see if A-Rod or Pujols, or maybe someone else, can break the new record.
But at least it's over. Hopefully now, I can listen to something else besides talk about Barry Bonds when I listen to sports station regarding baseball.
Well....it's been quite awhile since I've posted to this blog. During that time, my Cardinals have basically become irrelevant, Barry Bonds has tied the homerun record, A-Rod hit his 500th homerun, Tom Glavine won his 300th game, I started working at a different school, teachers have started back at that school, and it's gotten freakin hot in Georgia. This past Saturday we past a bank with a sign that showed the temperature...it showed 109 and that was around 4:30 in the afternoon. Granted that was in direct sunlight but isn't that where we are at most of the time we are outside?
Since I brought up the subject of Barry tying the homerun record, I've heard quite a few people on sports radio giving Bud Selig a hard time about not clapping or talking to Barry after he tied the record. These are the same people who said that Bud Selig should be at the game when he ties and breaks the record when Bud was still trying to decide what to do. So the guy does actually show up at the game and is there for the tying of the record but because he doesn't clap he gets blasted for it. Not that I'm a Bud Selig fan or anything but the guy cannot catch a break with this issue. If he doesn't show up, he gets blasted, he does show up and gets blasted anyway for not clapping. Heck, I probably wouldn't have even stood up (ok maybe I would have just to see if it actually did go out or not). I hate the fact that Barry is going to break the record and cannot wait until A-Rod breaks it again (and hopefully Pujols after that) to get Bonds name out of the record book. Yes some of it has to do with Bonds' connection to steroids but that just adds to the fact that he's a real jerk. He's constantly alienated fans and always has given the media a hard time. Hopefully since he will have broken the record by the end of the season, he'll decide to go ahead and retire and we can be done with the circus that is Barry Bonds.
If anyone is interested, Jen (my wife) and I have started a Flickr site. To be honest it is mainly of our son Austin but there are pictures of other things on there besides him. But you tell me...how can you not put up a Flickr site for a kid like this?.....
Well, I haven't posted in a little while. It's been a busy time. Last week was spring break and over the weekend my son Austin turned 1 year old. I can't believe he's 1 already. I will get some pictures of him up soon. He doesn't walk by himself yet but he does walk while pushing a 'walker' that my sister bought for him. It's this neat little car that he can sit and scoot around on but it also converts to a stand up walker. He'll pull himself up and walk all over the place with that thing. I'll have to get a video up of that as well. He gets all excited about it, hehe.
In Cardinals news, they had a successful road trip, sweeping the Pirates and come back home one game over .500 at 5-4. Bad news though that Chris Carpenter has bone spurs in his elbow that caused it to swell. He'll be out for probably 2 weeks. They're still trying to decide whether or not he will need surgery at some point before the end of the season. Scott Rolen's back issues have flared up again and are causing him problems. Hopefully he'll be back in the starting lineup for this series against the Brewers. Also, even though I try not to, I'm getting a little antsy with Pujols' VERY slow start. This is extremely uncharacteristic of him. I'm sure he's just in a slump and hope that it's not something more serious, like an injury that no one is talking about or something. He does try to play through pain and while I admire him for that, if he's hurting in some way, then take the time off now, early in the season, and get healthy!!
A couple other thoughts real quick. This whole thing with Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team. If somehow you haven't heard about this, read HERE and HERE. Don, come on. You really couldn't have thought that was gonna be a cool or real funny thing to say. I'm glad though that he met face to face with the basketball team and they both heard each other out. CBS fired him yesterday with CBS president Leslie Moonves claiming that the "...effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society." is what weighed most heavily on their minds when they made the decision to fire him. I'm sure that it did weigh in, but if it was the biggest influence why didn't they fire Imus immediately, not just suspend him? I think they were waiting to see what the fallout was. To me, it looks like once they lost the sponsors they did, along with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson meeting with them and promising to rally and persuade more sponsors to leave, they figured they had no choice but to fire Imus. Hey, if that's the reason, fine, but don't try to now make it look like your moral conscience was weighing heavily on you. If that was the case, you'd have fired him alot sooner.
Speaking of good ole Al and Jesse. Where are their apologies to the Duke men's Lacrosse team players that had been accused of rape and other violent crimes against an African American woman hired to dance a party. They are the first to come out and rally people, to call for apologies, people's jobs, trials, and convictions when an incident appears to be a racial issue. And they were there for this incident as well. But where are their apologies now when it looks like these boys/men were accused falsely. In fact, the North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper didn't just drop the charges, he declared each player innocent. So Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Jackson, where are your apologies to these men? To be fare, it's not just Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who should be apologetic. It's also Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong for rushing to accuse in order to increase his re-election chances, it's Duke University for cancelling the rest of the team's season and basically totally distancing itself from the accused, it's Duke professor Kim Curtis if she actually did give one of the players a failing grade for just being a member of the Lacrosse team, almost costing him his graduation, it's everyone who jumped to the conclusion that the players were guilty based solely on racial issues, that the accused were white and the accuser was black.
Finally, if, in this country, we all truly want to someday exist as one people (nation) no matter of 'originating' race we have to stop turning everything that happens, good or bad, into a racial issue. I'm not naive and think that no racial crimes or discrimination happens but I also don't believe that everything that happens (the Duke Lacrosse story for instance) is a racial issue. There are unfortunately bad people in all races and they don't just commit crimes against people of their same race. And when they do commit a crime against someone of a different race, it doesn't immediately mean that it was based on the victim's race. The sooner we can all start acting as Americans, not Asian Americans, not African Americans, not Latin American, not Irish American, not European American etc., just United States of America Americans, the sooner this country will be better off.
Just my 2 cents worth....
Is it too early to start counting down the Cardinals' magic number?? ;-)
Austin and I went for a walk yesterday. Well he went for a ride while I walked. ;-) He's all ready for baseball season.
I'm playing in a fantasy baseball league and we had our draft this past Monday. Here's the roster I drafted, let me know what you guys think. I feel pretty good about it.
Just over 11 days until opening day for baseball and I can't wait! It seems like it was just yesterday that the Cardinals won the World Series yet here we are getting ready to try and defend that title. People have made a big deal over the fact that three fifths of the Cardinals' starting rotation will be different that it was last year. Let's take a look at that for a moment. Who are the pitchers that we lost:
Jeff Suppan: One of only 2 of the four we lost that I wouldn't have minded that the Cardinals kept He finished up 12-7 with a 4.12 ERA, 104 strikeouts, and a 1.41 WHIP. Not brilliant stats but not bad to slot in as the number 2 or 3 starter.
Jason Marquis: The Cubs signed him for WAY too much money (3 years $21 million). 14-16 with a 6.02 ERA only 96 strikeouts and a 1.52 WHIP and you're gonna sign him for $7 mil a year? Now do you people understand why the Cubs have gone so long without a championship? Marquis seems to always start off well but falls apart in the second half of the season. The Cards didn't even put him on the post season roster last year....gotta tell you something. At least the Cards will get to bat against him this year instead of trying to win WITH him.
Sidney Ponson: Who thought that was a good pickup to begin with? 4-5 with a 6.25 ERA, 48 strikeouts and a huge 1.69 WHIP. He didn't even last the full season before the Cards dropped him.
Jeff Weaver: The other pitcher that I wouldn't have minded if the Cardinals could have resigned him. His overall stats don't look great, 8-14, 5.76 ERA, 107 Strikeouts, 1.51 WHIP. That was split between the Angels and the Cardinals. Just his stats with the Cardinals though, 5-4, 5.18 ERA, 45 strikeouts and a 1.50 WHIP in 15 games. He had 2 more wins and 6 less losses in 15 games with the Cards than he did in 16 games with the Angels. Then the way he pitched in the post season (3-2, 2.43 ERA, 19 strikeouts and a 1.15WHIP), you can tell Dave Duncan had an impact on him.
Now, let's see who we replaced them with:
Kip Wells: He's definitely a question mark. Hopefully Dave Duncan can work his magic on him. 2-5, 6.50 ERA, 20 strikeouts, 1.85 WHIP in an injury plagued season. So far though in Spring Training (so take it for what it's worth) in 12 innings (through 4 games) he hasn't given up an earned run and has struck out 9.
Adam Wainwright: Ok, this kid was a STUD last year filling in for Isringhausen as the closer even though he's actually a starting pitcher. He went 2-1 with a 3.12 ERA, 72 strikeouts, 1.15 WHIP and 3 saves. The in the postseason as the full time closer he went 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA, 15 strikeouts, 0.93 WHIP and 4 saves in 9 games. So far in spring training this year, he's 2-1, 1.08 ERA, 6 strikeouts in 4 games as a starter.
Braden Looper: He may be another question mark. He's been a reliever for his career and is making the switch to a starter. Last year as a reliever for the Cardinals though, he went 9-3, 3.56 ERA, 41 strikeouts, and a 1.31 WHIP. He's also had a pretty good spring training as a starter, going 1-0, 3.21 ERA, and 6 strikeouts in 14 innings through 4 games. That ERA had been 0.00 through 11 innings. So he's not looking too bad either.
So, looking it over, I don't really think our rotation is that much worse than it was last year winning the World Series. If these 'new' guys actually pitch up to their potential, or at least the potential they're showing in spring training, this rotation could be even better than last years. With all of them working with Dave Duncan, I think they will come closer to reaching their potential than not. Ahh, but that's part of the fun of spring training, trying to figure out what your team has and if they are going to be any good.
Come on opening day!! Cardinals baseball and listening to Mike Shannon talking about having a cold frosty Budweiser....it doesn't get any better than this!
I'm sure you've all seen, heard, or read by now about the Cardinals winning the World Series for the first time in 24 years. I still remember where I was when the Cards won that series in 1982. I was 10 and my parents let me stay up to watch Bruce Sutter secure the win in game seven. I remember the nervous feeling watching that game, standing behind, leaning on my dad's recliner because that nervous feeling wouldn't let me sit down. Flash forward to game 5 this past Friday. I was still nervous but it was a different feeling than I remember being a 10 year old kid. Maybe it's because that was a game seven and this was just a game five, or maybe it's because then I was 10 and now I'm 34. Whatever the reason, it didn't feel quite the same and that's kinda disappointing to me. I'm kinda hoping that it's because it was only a game 5 instead of the seventh, do or die, game of the series. I really don't want it to be because I'm 24 years older and it doesn't affect me the same anymore. I have a son now but he's only six months old and obviously has no clue about baseball and the Cardinals and their history. I'm hoping as he gets old enough to enjoy baseball, the Cards will get back to The Series again and I'll get to experience it with him and maybe that feeling of a 10 year old kid getting to stay up late to watch his favorite team in game seven of the World Series will come back. Even though it didn't feel quite the same, I'll take it!! Congratulations Cardinals and a tip of my hat to the Detroit Tigers, their manager Jim Leyland and the season they had. They should still be very proud of themselves. Jack(Buck), this one's for you! We definitely miss hearing you call Cardinals games and it would have been great to hear your line, "...and that's a winner! A World Series winner! Go crazy folks! Go crazy!!"
