Shit, fan. Fan, shit.:

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 12:27 PM - 183 comments

Gene Mauch,: journeyman big-league manager for 26 years, died Monday at 79. Few suffered through more on-field misery for so long than Mauch, who is best known for presiding over the Donnie Moore game in '86. He also had the honor of managing the expansion Expos for seven years. But in spite of the awful teams he skippered, Mauch cobbled together a respectable 1,902-2,037 record and is lauded by two generations of players as one of the game's preeminent strategists and teachers.

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 12:40 AM - 2 comments

Pedro,: I love you like a brother, but STFU already.

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 12:35 AM - 16 comments

Ladies and gentlemen: meet your 2005 Washington Senators Nationals.

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 01:28 PM - 22 comments

Is anyone else sick of Curt Schilling?: Tom Boswell is, in a passive-aggressive sort of way: "A nasty injury, gruesome enough to make for good melodrama, but medically insignificant enough to allow him to throw a baseball 92 mph... Pedro Martinez...has felt a bit slighted by Schilling's large, sometimes self-serving persona... Yankees Manager Joe Torre made it clear that he thought Schilling, consummate tough professional that he is, was not doing significantly more by pitching through the inconvenience of an ankle injury than many other players have done in postseason baseball, where countless players take the field held together by tape and a high pain threshold." An interesting perspective from outside the Nation.

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 07:22 AM - 93 comments

Baseball was being played in 1791,: according to an ancient Pittsfield, Mass. bylaw. Abner Doubleday, meet Roger Maris. Enjoy your footnote. (Nice publicity windfall for Jim Bouton, though.)

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 05:17 PM - 7 comments

The Boys of Spring.: A look back at the 1984 Mets, full of hope and promise. (sigh)

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 10:33 AM - 2 comments

The Ultimate Mets Database : is one of the most comprehensive fan sites in all of sports, with an all-time roster, a message board to discuss specific games, and an impressive database of stats. A great complement to Bryan Hoch's excellent Mets blog.

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 01:03 AM - 1 comment

The Yankees lose! The-e-e-e-e Yankees lose!

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 10:05 PM - 68 comments

It only took 95 years.: The Cubbies advance in the postseason. You heard it here first: if Wood and Prior stay healthy, they are going all the way.

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 10:01 PM - 16 comments

Bobby V out as Mets manager.: Since 1996, New York baseball writers have been obsessed with the contrast between the manic Valentine and the laconic Torre. Is this the right response to a miserable season, a pot scandal, and a detached clubhouse? Or will this cast of characters continue to underachieve for a new skipper in '03?

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 10:58 AM - 4 comments

Roid Rage?: Sammy Sosa says that if the Players' Association starts requiring steroid testing, he'll be "the first in line." So why not, asks the SI reporter, volunteer to give a urine sample now? What do you have to hide? Sosa's response is, uh, let's say it was "testy."

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 02:24 PM - 10 comments

Rob Neyer's new page at ESPN.COM : is up and running with links to each day's column, a "Link of the Week" and a section titled "Quick Hits" which more or less resembles, well, a blog. As a Neyer fan, I think the new format suits him well. I'm also glad to see him getting a more open-ended platform, since his personal homepage is no longer frequently updated.

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 11:27 AM - 1 comment

SF Giants' 2B Jeff Kent breaks his wrist at a self-serve car wash,: and the vicious cycle of athletes injuring themselves in stupid ways endures. What are your favorite stupid injury sports memories?

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 10:44 AM - 14 comments

If curling is in the Olympics, why not bowling? The International Bowling Federation wants bowling to be an Olympic medal event. The benefits, according to their FAQ, are: the objectivity of its scoring, its gender equity, and the appeal of an additional demographic not otherwise drawn to the Games. Sounds good to me.

posted by Prince Valium to other at 04:32 PM - 12 comments