Mike Hampton Is A Wimp

There, I said it. For 3 years now baseball talk shows have been giving Hampton the benefit of the doubt. They say he's just run into some bad luck. No, he's a wuss.

This week, Hampton was pitching in his 6th and final rehab start before he would make his return to the Atlanta Braves. Hampton hasn't pitched in the majors since 2005. Oh, by the way, the Braves have been dishing out $15 million per year since then for this slacker.

His latest injury was a groin pull. Before that, a torn pectoral muscle. Are you serious Mike? Take notes from your teammate John Smoltz who was pitching for the last year in pain knowing he would need surgery. Smoltz did the same thing in 2004, pitching knowing he's need elbow surgery after the season was over. He pitched through it. What a concept. He earned his wages.

Pitch through the pain Mike. You know what the problem really is? Steriods. Mike was on the juice back in his 20 win season days. Quicker recovery time, right Mike?

A few weeks ago I played in a flag football game and pull my groin and hammy a few plays in. Did I call it quits? NO. I played through and even drove our team down the field for a TD late in the game. Why? Because I love to compete. I love the game...so I play through pain. My love for the game is greater than both the physical pain and disappointment if I didn't get to play. You pay me $15 million and I'll play every position with all my limbs torn off.

Mike, do the right thing. Give the Braves their money back and retire so we can stop giving a crap if you ever decide to pitch. And while your at it, stop by Baseball Express and pick up some women's softball gear.

Disrespecting the Game

The game of baseball, and any sport for that matter is to be respected. The games we play give us their enjoyment, the memories, the dreams we had as kids to play them professionally. This is something one should never do. This is a Georgia State AAA baseball tournament game.

Coco Crisp Charges the Mound

Coco Crisp charges the mound at Fenway. Checkout the initial punch he dodges, then lands one of his own. However, he would then get thrown to the ground by the D-Rays catcher and then punched a few times by more D-Rays.

Bobblehead Giving Fans the Finger

The Pittsburgh Pirates had Tom Gorzelanny Bobblehead Night. However, Pirates fans were surprised when they were given a memento of Tom giving them the finger! Although the promotion photo that was used did not give them the finger (right) the one they were handed clearly does (left). Now we know these these kinds of things are massed produced in China. So, was this intentional? YES. But not by the Chinese. The Pirates owners have been screwing their fans for quite awhile now. Not one winning season in 16 years!

The Final Season Movie Review

The Final Season starring Sean Astin (Rudy) was released this past week. I added it to my Netflix queue and watched it a few days ago. Here is my official video movie review.

Red Sox Not Allowed to Beat the Yankees!

It's OK Jonathan, we'll get through this. A Massachusetts proposal to ban spanking has been submitted by Democratic Rep. Jay Kaufman. Parents would face charges of abuse or neglect, according to the Boston Herald.

No spanking. This puts the Red Sox in a difficult predicament when facing the Yankees, having to choose whether to do their jobs, or face the law.

Sean Fitzgerald, Kaufman’s chief of staff, the Herald says, "But the problem is the boundary is often overstepped. The right to hit should never be the right to hurt.”

Where does this leave A-Rod? Oh, wait. He's clear when playing the Red Sox in October, he can't hit.

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Now you can buy and live in an Ewok house, this is not a joke.

Babe Ruth Autograph for Sale on EBay

Do you think it's real? Looks like he just bought one of those fake replica ones and then dropped it into a cup of coffee. No way he gets $870,000 for this. The description on the auction is shaky with bad grammer, like a 5th grader wrote it. >>

Throw in a Baby Ruth candy bar and I'll think about it. Why would a Yankee fan want a Red Sox team ball? Why would a Red Sox fan want Babe Ruth's autograph? Give it to the Sandlot kids and let Smalls hit it over the fence again.

A-Rod MVP

Congrats to A-Rod! I guess most valuable now means, "totally flakes out in the playoffs when it really counts".

-Jason

World Series, Girardi and Fighting Over Pee

With the Red Sox winning the World Series with ease coinciding with a book I'm reading, it reminded me of some things we forget. Sports have history. I'm not talking about records but rather the way the leagues and the game was played and developed over time. I'm reading a book titled Crazy '08 which reveals some great baseball insights. During the early part of the 1900s, baseball was a young game. As I've come to find out back then the NL dominated. The AL wanted to join in with the NL, and did, but many players and coaches would rip the AL teams saying they were a cut below. After all, the NY Giants and Cubs dominated during that time and the AL were very weak.

Here we are 100 years later and the last 7 out of 10 champs have come from the AL. Also ironic, the NY Giants have since moved to San Francisco and their star player, Bonds, has injected himself to the point of becoming a giant (allegedly).

It's always fun to remember past World Series Champs.

Yanks Hire Girardi

What took you so long? After insulting Joe Torre with a pay cut, it should have been a breeze to hire Girardi. Joe Girardi won Manager of the Year in 2005 with the Florida Marlins, took 2006 off, waiting for this job. Who looks dumber than the Marlins now?

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Classic line today from my 4 year old. She and our 2 year old daughter were fighting over who gets to flush the toilet. Kailey replies with, "I get to flush it, it's my pee!"

Ahh! The World Series

There's nothing more American than the World Series. Unlike the NFL where every game matters, Major League Baseball bores most of us to death by June. Does the Nationals-Reds game really matter in the middle of May? NO. But the World Series...is true sports viewing pleasure...especially this year. It will be played at Fenway Park, the most famous ball field in the game. I'd give my left toe to be there!

Thank you baseball!

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Remember Heath Shuler?

Check out the 23-foot Jason Taylor robot! This guy already looks big enough in that Peyton Manning commercial, we don't need a rbot. The fins could use this bot. I don't understand the marketing logic behind this. Hey brits, let me know why this amuses you....and me.

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By the way, it's now 10-1 Red Sox cruising, forget what I said about the World Series being great.

Rocky Mountain Men

If you are any kind of sports fan you MUST start paying attention to what the Colorado Rockies are up to. Last night, the Rockies pulled more late inning heroics to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 11th inning 3-2. The Rockies are the first NL team to win the first 5 games of the postseason since the Cincinnati Reds did it in 1976 (first NL team to do it since Wild Card was introduced).

What else have they done? In their last 20 games they are 19-1. How do they do it? The Rockies set a Major League record for highest fielding percentage in a season with their .98925 mark this year. These guys are insane! Rockies look like a team of destiny. It may not be sexy to root for the Rockies this year, but be honest, none of us are really sexy anyways. Is winning all the time sexy? So, if your team is long out of the World Series hunt, root for the good guys.

MORE SPORTS NEWS

• Marion Jones admits using 'The Clear', gives medals back
• Falcons want $20 million back from Vick - They won't get it, the dog ate it (sorry, i had to).
• Cow Taken Into Custody for killing six

The Final Season Trailer - Lord of the Rings Lineup

This Friday, October 12th, The Final Season will be released in theatres starring Sean Astin (Rudy, Lord of the Rings). I've posted the trailer below for you all to see. I can't wait to see Samwise Gamgee throwing a two-seam fastball and waving a runner around third base. I'll like to see Gandalf take the hill and Gimli behind the dish. I could see Legolas at short turn the DP with Frodo Baggins. Bilbo would be the manager. Boromir at third, and one of those talking trees at the 1 bag. Outfield would be Aragorn, Merry and Pippin.


The Final Season

I Told You

See...I told you so. Full story.

Book Review: The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs

"...when Barry Bonds hit 72 home runs in 2001, his longest (except the ones hit in altitude enhanced Denver) was 462 feet. In Ruth's day, any drive of that length hit to center field wasn't good enough for a homer"

Bill Jenkinson's book The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs is a great baseball read. It brings Babe Ruth to life like never before. Things I never knew about baseball in the early part of the 20th century are revealed in this book. Bill Jenkinson convincingly communicates that Babe Ruth is 100% the greatest baseball player that has ever lived. Why? Read the book. Bill give specific reasons with scientific proof. Nobody has ever hit the ball harder than Ruth...including today's juiced players.

You won't be able to keep the book down. There are even some areas in here where Bill talks about HRs that Ruth hit in Exhibition games that may have gone over 575 to 600 feet! He's got the newspaper clippings to prove it. This book really opened my eyes. I knew Ruth was a legend, but I never knew exactly why and was surprised that it was at such a level superior to anyone else.

Gnats!

Jorge Posada sprays Mariano Rivera with Off to keep away the gnats. Speaking of off, how long before the media notices that A-Rod is batting .000 this post-season going 0-4 tonight with 3 Ks and leaving 3 men on base? Oh, they know. What we all also know is that if the Yanks lose this series, faces will change.

Mets Collapse

In 1969 they were known as the Amazing Mets. We could use that term again to describe the 2007 Mets. It was Amazing how they were able to squander a 7 game division lead in just 17 games. It has never been done before.

And the Mets did it in Amazing fashion. Check out the boxscore. Tom Glavine gave up 7 runs while recorded an out. Can you speak into my good ear? It sound like you said an out. TommyG, who notoriously struggles in the first inning, did just that. The Mets lost to the Florida Marlins, second worst team in the National League.

At the All-Star Break Glavine said, "I'd be shocked if we've already played our best baseball."

This morning Tom Glavine and Met Nation woke up shocked.

Prince vs. Cecil

Remember Cecil Fielder? He was that huge Detroit Tiger that came back after playing in Japan and then dominated in the MLB for a few years. It wasn’t long before he completely fell off the radar. I was in Melbourne, FL a few weeks ago and my friend took me by his old house he bought while playing for the Tigers. He no longer lives there because he gambled all his money away.

Well, his son, Prince Fielder, of the Milwaukee Brewers hit his 50th HR yesterday to become the youngest player at age 23 to hit 50 HRs.

Prince said he wants to hit 52 homers in a season and win the MVP because his father never accomplished either. Doing that, Prince Fielder said, would "shut him up."

What was Cecil’s reply? "I just don't think my son knows how to let it go," Cecil Fielder said."I don't think he's grown up yet. Until he can move on and talk to me like he's my son, we don't need to talk."

And now back to Prince: "You've got to look at who's saying it," Fielder said. "Let's be honest, he's not really the brightest guy."

Why is it that the top Father-Son HR families can’t get along? (Griffey, Bonds)
Maybe these guys are so used to dropping bombs, they drop them on their kids too. Like father like son.

Book Review - Diamond Dollars

Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball
by Vince Gennaro

I finished the last page of this book yesterday. It is not for the casual baseball fan. It is also not for the easily distracted reader. Vince Gennaro explains through in-depth analysis why teams do what they do. He answers questions like this:

• Why pay Daisuke Matsuzaka all that money of which $50 million was just to have the rights to buy Daisuke from his Japanese team? (To keep the Yankees from getting him, but also to draw international revenue dollars from Japan. Hypothetically, the Sox would lose money if they didn't make that happen.)
• Why don't the Pirates spend more money to field a better team? (Because their local market would not support the increase in wins enough to pay for the extra costs in buying better players)
• Why do the Yankees spend so much? (Because their player development system and drafting skills are awful)
  

  Vince digs in and tells us that the Yankees are masters at branding their team, but because they typically have horrible drafts and lack in the ability to develop their minor league players, they have to pay for superstars to win now. The Dodgers are in the same camp. However, the Indians, A's, Braves and Twins have great drafts and develop their players much better. They HAVE to, their pockets are not as deep. This is how those teams are able to compete with the bigger spenders.

  
  Diamond Dollars is one of those books that you'll probably understand 75% of. However, it will open your eyes to a whole other side to baseball. A side that explains why your team does what is does. If you've ever gotten mad at a move your team made, this is the book that can explain why they made that move.
  

Xtreme Baseball

A new kind of baseball has been introduced. It's called Xtreme Baseball, and it was invented by Phil Weidner. Watch the video preview below to learn more about it. I also included a diagram of what the field looks like.

We all saw what happened to the XFL...this will have the same fate, except nobody will even ever know it was attempted. Right now, only a few cities in Florida have a team. It is extreme. Extremely boring, extremely confusing for the average fan and NOT that extremely creative. Well, the field is, but it stops there.

If your going to try to create an Xtreme form of baseball give the fans everything they love about baseball, but to the "Xtreme" (pun intended). Let the players use corked bats for more homeruns, raise the pitchers mound and move it closer to the batter while your at it. Let players use all the pine tar they want and as far down the bat as they want. Heck, let them use metal bats! Make the fences 30 feet high. Cork the balls as well and make the seams so high the pitchers will be breaking off curve balls that drop 3 feet. That would be extreme baseball. This league they've got is just the same 'ole game with players 10 times worse.

The Field

The Video

Best Boxscore Ever?

Last night the Texas Rangers were down 3-0 going into the 4th inning against the Baltimore Orioles. Final score, 30-3, Texas wins! Texas had 2 grand slams and 2 guys (Vazquez, Saltalamacchia) with 7 RBIs. The impressive thing was that Texas did it with 29 hits.

The Orioles went through just 4 pitchers, which isn't many considering they were getting totally embarrassed. I guess at some point you just give up and save your pitchers for your next game....which, by the way was right after this one! I thought Leo Mazzone left Atlanta to help the Baltimore pitching situation? A team has to really try to give up 30 runs. Even Little League games don't reach that stratosphere. Check out the full boxscore >>

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Sports Movie Review
Last week I watched what is supposed to be a sports movie classic, Le Mans, starring Steve McQueen. Boring! The first 30 minutes of the film had no talking and was just the slow process of getting the race started. It dragged on so long I felt like I was in the Le Mans....which maybe was the point and I totally missed it.