- 07:20 PM
- 11/23/24
I had felt very adversarial towards QuesTec before reading this. Thoroughly illuminating!
posted by kjh at 05:21 PM on February 02, 2005
D'Backs should've gone with Bob Melvin.
posted by kjh at 03:01 AM on November 04, 2004
Who cares? What we're talking about here is really neither performance-enhancing nor performance-detracting. What the players want to do in their locker room before the game or between innings really isn't any of my business. What's next--some players might go for a quick wank to relieve stress?
posted by kjh at 02:49 AM on November 04, 2004
Good for Kobe, this nonsense was obviously a bad rap. Hope you learned your lesson kid, keep your dick in your pants from now on.
posted by kjh at 02:48 AM on September 02, 2004
Send that man up to the majors! Can he possibly be worse than Randy Choate?
posted by kjh at 07:59 PM on July 17, 2004
I know it's business as usual in the baseball world, but it seems unfair to pin responsibility for this god-awful season on Brenly when it was the management's dumb-ass deals for Richie Sexson (out for the season with a shoulder injury) that decimated both the offense and the defense of this Arizona ballclub. The team press release reveals that the D'Backs also fired pitching couch Chuck Kniffin (won't miss him), while bench couch (and regular Brenly fill-in) Robin Yount resigned (a true loss for the team). Colangelo says that "Al [Pedrique]'s familiarity with the young players on our club that have come up through the organization best served our needs as a manager at this time," but I don't think any amount of familiarity can erase the gap between minor-league and major-league ballplayers, and the fault for Arizona's fielding an entire team of minor-leaguers falls with nobody but Colangelo.
posted by kjh at 06:50 PM on July 02, 2004
What unfavorable media coverage. There's nothing concrete in that piece to suggest a Garciaparra trade is any closer than it was on Opening Day; just a lot of ham-fisted speculation. I'm glad the hometown rags don't write about my team this way.
posted by kjh at 03:53 AM on June 12, 2004
I fail to see what the big deal is. How is putting something on the bases going to impact the game at all? We already get huge ads behind homeplate and ads all around the stadium. Shoving a logo on the bases has no impact on the game at all. slippery slope. we already have all that shit, corporate sponsorship of every kiosk, seating section, and half-inning, and a god damn commercial break every single time there's a pause in the game longer than five seconds. honest to god, drood, maybe you haven't, but i have had enough.
posted by kjh at 11:12 PM on May 05, 2004
you can't just mess around with the rules and not carefully consider the consequences. how can you take away the intentional walk? you can't imagine all the tears i'm shedding for those poor bonds fans who are "deprived" of plate performances; but let's get real. it's not the job of the opposing team to make sure the batter gets to put on a good show. they're trying to win a ball game, same as everyone else; and as it turns out, with nobody surrounding him in the lineup, walking barry bonds is the best way to do that. as for throwing to first, sure it can be annoying, but what happens if you can't do it anymore? baserunners start taking ridiculous leads, second gets stolen thirty times a game. give me a break. crack open another beer and forget about it.
posted by kjh at 03:19 PM on April 30, 2004
i'm not sure exactly what this writer is complaining about. is fox sports any goofier than espn, really?
posted by kjh at 12:58 AM on March 05, 2004
Schilling [...] never does things on or off the field that make you feel like you have to excuse him hulk smash
posted by kjh at 07:48 PM on December 06, 2003
all i have to say is 84 days until pitchers and catchers report. amen, sister.
posted by kjh at 04:24 PM on November 30, 2003
what can i say? i've waited an entire season to see this series. is there something better on that i'm missing? baseball has broken my heart three times this season (the diamondbacks, the cubs, the red sox); it would just be incomplete without the hated yankees gloating over yet another world series trophy.
posted by kjh at 11:55 PM on October 18, 2003
"All this has become the tempest that it is because I must have been right about something," Limbaugh said. "If I wasn't right, there wouldn't be this cacophony of outrage that has sprung up in the sports writer community." golly, pissing people off by making inflammatory comments automatically makes you right? i've got to try this.
posted by kjh at 12:28 AM on October 02, 2003
Do you think it's a smear campaign One word ... Yuck! Awww Hell Nawwww.... Him Too???? With so much in the news about Kobe Bryant and his sexual assault case, the news media will soon have another story to cover. true or total bullshit, it sure is a startling reminder that the worst thing that can happen to an athelete--as bad as being accused of rape, apparently--is to be a faggot.
posted by kjh at 04:18 PM on August 21, 2003
and will provide endless conversation fodder when fathers explain to sons why so much money goes to a man who's name is "Poo-Holes" jesus, you have got to be kidding me with this
posted by kjh at 03:42 PM on July 31, 2003
i like the way this man thinks: It's a beautiful thing that the players rejected Sosa, giving him, intentionally or not, his harshest penalty yet for corking his bat. better luck next year dude
posted by kjh at 12:27 AM on July 07, 2003
"[Schilling] didn't bother with words last month; he took a bat and smashed one of the system's cameras." can you blame him? thanks to questec, schilling's home park has a miniscule strike zone.
posted by kjh at 03:37 AM on June 26, 2003
i'm glad sosa got caught tonight. i hope it's the beginning of the end for an era of crooked baseball. i can't believe his protestations of innocence. (though i am fully aware that he is really, really sorry and just wants to apologize to all of us!) a player keeping his game straight isn't going to store corked bats anywhere near game bats--and there's no way a player who routinely uses both, as sosa admits to doing, can't tell the difference between them. reporter: 'are you telling me you can't tell the difference between a corked bat and a game bat?' sosa: 'i'm telling you i picked the wrong bat, sir.' and he's absolutely right. obviously a corked bat was the wrong call for that at-bat.
posted by kjh at 12:18 AM on June 04, 2003
I have no idea what Sinins is trying to say about wins. RBIs are a stupid, abandoned, discredited hitting stat? Huh?
posted by kjh at 09:20 PM on April 28, 2003
hey, why is the lpga commissioner a man, anyway? what's up with that?
posted by kjh at 11:17 PM on March 30, 2003
white athletes in baseball and hoops get credited for intangibles like "grit" because the tangible measurements of success are color blind. i guess you talk sports with a less savory crowd than i do
posted by kjh at 07:25 PM on March 01, 2003
this ain't baseball or basketball where toughness and grit is a synonym for "white", this is football where toughness means first downs, wins and Super Bowl rings racism is cool
posted by kjh at 05:28 PM on February 27, 2003
The #1 argument against the wild-card is that a team (Arizona, Oakland) that beats another team (San Fran, Anaheim) over a 162-game haul shouldn't have to beat them again in a rather insignificant, statistically speaking, seven game series. Except that Arizona lost the season series to both San Francisco and Los Angeles. True, this isn't usually the case, but with teams like Arizona and New York able to spend a season beating up on lightweights like Colorado and Tampa Bay, that they have conclusively defeated their competitive rivals during regular season play is far from given. Also, the wild card is responsible for removing the Yankees from playoff contention. Therefore, it must be good.
posted by kjh at 04:59 PM on October 19, 2002
They beat the Yankees. How can you not root for them?
posted by kjh at 05:01 PM on October 15, 2002
Yes, it's an aberration, to be sure.
posted by kjh at 08:33 PM on October 13, 2002
The Diamondbacks did fall to the Cardinals. Last Tuesday I sat in the upper deck at Bank One Ballpark and watched Randy Johnson die on the mound in the face of a team that will not be stopped. The roof was open that night. Christ alive, what a season it's been.
posted by kjh at 02:02 AM on October 06, 2002
Angels over Yankees in five. A's over Twins in four. Giants over Braves in four. Diamondbacks over Cardinals in five. Angels over the A's in five. Diamondbacks over the Giants in four. Diamondbacks over the Angels in six.
posted by kjh at 04:34 PM on October 01, 2002
Tonight, the Colorado Rockies, who denied the D'backs the opportunity to clench by sweeping them in a three-game series, towed a limping Arizona into the playoffs. With Craig Counsell, Luis Gonzales, and starting pitcher Brian Anderson all out for the rest of the year--not to mention the long-forgotten Danny Bautista--and the slumping performances of those left, things don't look good for the postseason. Okay, they clinched: another notch in the belt and banner to fly at the BOB. But maybe, like Pedro, the whole team should just call it quits, lest the Big Unit wind up dead.
posted by kjh at 04:17 AM on September 25, 2002
Okay, but if pitchers are out of the running, then shortstops for dead-last teams oughtn't be considered either. Nor should outfielders for teams fighting hard just for a wildcard spot--no matter how many home runs they hit.
posted by kjh at 06:43 PM on September 07, 2002
It's been attributed to Bob Brenly--a quick Google search couldn't give me a link--of the enormous fanbase that sprouted up around the Diamondbacks during and after the 2001 World Series: "There's plenty of room on the bandwagon." God bless the A's. If anyone in the American League can pose a serious threat to the New York Yankees--they're it. (And who wouldn't like to see the look on Jason Giambi's face if that were to happen?)
posted by kjh at 10:53 PM on September 05, 2002
The things we never tried to disallow Have come back to haunt us now With apple pie and Chevrolet We've come to see the end We all made this bed Now we've got nowhere to lay Ladies and gentlemen, Try and understand. --NOFX
posted by kjh at 11:05 PM on August 30, 2002
There are millions like me who would take their place in a heartbeat...that's all I'm saying. And we would run out every goddamned groundball to first base, even those we tapped right back to the pitcher, for the opportunity. And you would suck. (I assume. I know I do.) And because I suck, I wouldn't get promotional deals, I wouldn't get huge urban stadiums, I wouldn't get ticket sales of any kind--in fact, I would not be part of any organization that resembled Major League Baseball--and so we wouldn't be talking about revenue sharing in the first place, now would we? Let's accept that, while you or I would be overjoyed to swing the bat, we aren't exactly qualified to fill the jobs that Major League Baseball stands to lose.
posted by kjh at 01:55 AM on August 17, 2002
It's good to see the usual reactionary, knee-jerk responses out in force. Heck, along with death and taxes, whiners condemning those evil, greedy baseball players are easily the third sure thing in this world. Look, folks. If the people you worked for were getting in cahoots to keep your salary down--would you be upset? Would you want to fight back? Even if it were "mere" thousands or hundrends of dollars at stake? What if your local supermarkets got together to fix prices? Your gas stations? Your operating system vendor? Like it or not, the players have a legitimate gripe. What do you expect them to do--sit back and let the owners slash and burn their salaries, just so your daily after-work pleasure is left intact? I think that's far more selfish than you could ever accuse players of being--huge salaries or no. If the owners weren't such an unstoppable force--that is, if it weren't for that niggling little antitrust exemption--it wouldn't come to a strike. But with the owners so unwilling to negotiate, this is the only option available. Bring on the strike, boys. I'll be here waiting when you get back.
posted by kjh at 05:25 PM on August 16, 2002
Is there anything more frustrating than an inconsistent strike zone? Bring it on. This isn't quite the "death" of the umpire, anyway, as balls and strikes are not the only things they call. For example, their most important duty, throwing out obnoxious managers, would remain fully intact.
posted by kjh at 01:02 AM on August 10, 2002
Keep in mind this is very far from a done deal. Instead, the players' union has sent a counterproposal to the owners, who may or (more likely) may not accept it. More interesting to me is the assertion, buried deep in the article, by Vernon Wells of Toronto, that the claims of Caminiti and Conseco are solely responsible for the widespread belief that steroid use is rampant in baseball. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the problem is too apparent, and I have to welcome any move towards curtailing it. Let's forget about home runs and spend next season in a race for RBI records. Or on-base percentage. Something, anything, that represents a player's ability to participate in the game of baseball--a team game, I'd like to remind Mr. Bonds--rather than the raw power of his muscles.
posted by kjh at 02:25 AM on August 08, 2002
Honestly, I don't think Bowden knows what he's talking about. I mean, take a look at this passage from Olbermann's Salon article:
Here's how he explained it at Florida State's media day last Sunday: "That guy, on that plane, knowing they were fixin' to die and they were going to try to keep it, save the, save the White House or whatever they were gonna hit and I heard that guy, they said he said, 'Let's Roll,' I could really relate to that, and you know that's exactly the motto we're trying to get to our players, is, hey, the season has started, we got bad year last year, let's roll. And then, of course, in honor of those people who died on that plane."Bowden may be inarticulate, but is his appropriation any worse, any more self-serving, than Bush's of the same phrase? What with the brouhaha regarding it then--attempts at trademark, for instance--I think that Bowden's move is hardly worth mentioning.
posted by kjh at 11:55 PM on August 07, 2002
I don't blame Lindgren for misunderstanding the issue, but sports games are not about statistics and star players--they're about the power of human faith. What does he want these teams to do? Baseball has a club that single-mindedly compiles the best and the brightest--they're the New York Yankees, and if you don't (inexplicably) love them, you hate them with a passion, frequently choosing them to represent all that is wrong with the sport: oh yeah, and the Yankees' big, fat payroll couldn't propel them to a World Series victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks--a team whose offense is spotty at best, and whose defense is represented to those unfamiliar with the team only by the twin guns of Johnson and Schilling. So it's easy to blame Bobby Cox for leaving his pitchers in too long: he trusts them enough to write off hit after hit as a freak occurance. That's how AZ manager Bob Brenly could send Johnson out to pitch in game seven on zero days rest. And if Johnson had blown it, Brenly would be the next Cox. Johnson didn't, and instead, Brenly will be remembered as a gutsy manager who made a gutsy move--and it paid off. Teams win titles by taking risks. And going after big-money stars isn't a risk--it's the safe, easy answer that'll make fans hate you, and leave you blindsided by the maverick upstart.
posted by kjh at 12:35 AM on August 03, 2002
Players may strike as soon as August 16th. In my opinion, it's time to end the "writing on the wall," "death of baseball" rhetoric, and accept that a strike will probably happen--and it won't, necessarily, demolish the postseason. I, for one, respect the right of the players to fight against the owners--owners who do not, I think we can agree, have the best interests of the players at heart: saying that the rich, bastard players just want more money is more than inaccurate, it's depressingly cynical. I'm not afraid to admit to loving baseball, and I'm not afraid to proclaim that no penny-ante work stoppage is going to tear me away from it. But for those of you dead-set against a strike, there is good news: one team has voted against authorizing a date--the first time in eight labor disputes.
posted by kjh at 11:58 PM on July 29, 2002
twenty-five cent hot dog nights at cohen stadium, home of the el paso diablos--falling in love with baseball for the first time.
posted by kjh at 01:46 AM on July 28, 2002
Who was your favorite player growing up?
This "new site" has archives that go back to summer 2003. My first favorite ballplayer as a kid was Bo Jackson. He knew. I think somewhere in a closet I might still have my assiduously-collected KC Royals cards.