World Series?

When is it? Oh, it is already happening?

Kudos to MLB and Fox for doing a great job of promoting it. Of course, with the Rays and the Phils, what can you do?

To be completely honest, I haven't watched more than five minutes of the series, but I have heard it said that "baseball purists" would love the series -- lots of productive outs and such... Well, I tend to believe I am a baseball purist, but the label is annoying, when certain commentators take it to the level that a "baseball purist" is only happy when the game is 1-0, or maybe 2-1 - with all runs being scored after a combination of at least three of these things: a walk, hit batsmen, stolen base, sacrifice bunt, sac fly, hard slide to break up a double play, taking third on a single to right, suicide squeeze or a groundball to the right side with a runner on second. Don't get me wrong, I love all of these finer points of the game, but what is wrong with a home run from time to time (or, even better, a triple)? Seriously, when did it become illegal for a baseball purist to hate the long ball? It is a very exciting and impressive feat to smash a 92 mph slider over the wagon gate in left... I think what gets me on this, is that when a star player isn't hitting well and he manages to do one of the listed things above it becomes a "he is doing his job" mentality in the broadcast booth. Well, no, Evan and Carlos shouldn't be looking for a sac fly (those will come), they should be trying to hit the ball hard for extra bases... Oh well, this got long, but I really thought John Miller went overboard via ESPN radio with this discussion last evening.

The Best Player in Baseball???

According to a survey of All-Stars by dufus Jeff Passan, Alex Rodriguez is the best. I would make my argument for Albert Pujols of the Cards, but I am admittedly a bit biased. I will say the most impressive player this year has been Josh Hamilton. And that isn't just because of the homerun derby.

Wiffleball... Against the Law???

This article in yesterday's NYT seems to show that it is a legal issue in Greenwich, CT. My good friend Ken scooped me on blogging about this, but it bears additional coverage. This type of ingeniuity and cooperation is to be commended, not litigated. I don't buy that there isn't a compromise to address the "noise" concerns one of the neighbors is making.

The local paper in Greenwich has it right.

“BACK before we lost our collective minds and began shrieking with horror at the thought of kids having fun on their own (as in not part of an official league or otherwise organized activity), they used to do things like find a vacant field, turn it into a makeshift diamond and spend glorious hours in the summer sun,” the local newspaper, Greenwich Time, wrote in an editorial in support of the youths on Wednesday.

I just wish I could get Ken to meet me in Greenwich, so I could strike him out on three straight sliders...

Ludwick and Pujols....

Congrats to the two Cardinals All-Stars for 2008, Ryan Ludwick and Albert Pujols.
Ludwick has been a very pleasant suprise as an everyday outfielder, and Pujols has been his standard first ballot HOF'er self.

Go Cards!

And screw C.C. Sabathia!

To all of my Cubbie fan friends...

In case you thought you have avoided the June Swoon, don't forget we are only halfway home. And it's been a while since you have taken it all down, right?

Let's see if these numbers mean anything to you: 2006, 1982, 1967, 1964, 1946, 1944, 1942, 1934, 1931, and 1926...



See you in September!

Pujols injured???

This is bad, very bad. I have to believe that without Pujols the Cardinals ability to win ball games drops significantly. They are currently playing even money or better with everyone in the bigs, sans the Cubbies, but without Pujols to keep Ludwick, Ankiel and the rest of the lineup seeing good pitches, it's hard to know how this team would perform.

The good news of the evening is that we defeated the Reds, which does always make me feel quite good. Congrats to Griffey Jr. on his 600th. I remember in the late 90's I thought Griffey would be the one to break Aaron's record.

Ducks on the pond...

or just around the corner, as it is. The Madison Mallards season opens on Thursday, and even if I don't make the opener, I'm going to try and make at least a half a duck's dozen games this summer. There really is something to the slogan, baseball like it oughta be...

I think the Cards used to use that slogan... Or maybe that was Busch beer.