12/21/24
July 30, 2014
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Yeah, he got cut a while back. Only a couple of years ago, he was a hot commodity in the fantasy league off-season because of his "potential".
posted by grum@work at 06:08 PM on July 30, 2014
Daniel Bard released by Texas Rangers
Ahh, so he was. One pretty dominant season. Kind of unbelievable how badly things fell apart.
posted by justgary at 07:04 PM on July 30, 2014
Not really sports news exactly, but the balcony of my new apartment has a nice view of Mazda Stadium, home of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball team. Plus bullet trains whizzing by.
We can sit on the tatami with the window open and listen to the crowd roar. The Carp have been winning of late so the stadium is packed for every game. We're getting married later today. I'm sure I'll post more here about NPB as I inevitably become a fan.
posted by Hugh Janus at 08:14 PM on July 30, 2014
Life is good for Mr. Janus. Congrats!
I had a girlfriend during my Chicago daze that lived on Addison, pretty much right next door to Wrigley. We used to sit on the deck thingy that hung out from their second floor apartment and hassle the peanut vendor guy ("CHEAPER ON THE OUTSIDE!!") until he threw a bag up to us. The roar of the crowd used to just kind of hang on the muggy July night air.
posted by NoMich at 08:40 PM on July 30, 2014
Probably the rarest of plays, the inning-ending walk-induced double play:
Travis Snider, on 2nd base, thinks there is also someone on 1st base, so he thinks he's forced to third with the walk. He gets caught sleep-walking to third, and for some unknown reason, Gaby Sanchez takes off for home and gets caught in the run down. This is a double-TOOTBLAN.
posted by grum@work at 10:00 PM on July 30, 2014
"Jon Lester Still With Red Sox" reminds me a little too much of "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."
posted by Bonkers at 11:49 PM on July 30, 2014
"To lament the commercialisation of sport is to piss on an inferno devouring your house." The NRL in Australia goes Marvel.
posted by owlhouse at 01:39 AM on July 31, 2014
I kinda dig the Thor-inspired one.
posted by grum@work at 08:08 AM on July 31, 2014
Congrats Hugh!
posted by yerfatma at 08:48 AM on July 31, 2014
Nice digs, Hugh. I spent the years 1973-'78 and 1980-'83 working at the Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, just a few miles down Ni Go Sen (Route 2) from Hiroshima. I was a big Carp fan then, and I still have a Carp baseball cap somewhere. A group of us from MCAS Iwakuni used to go to the games quite often. It was a good evening of baseball and beer drinking. Those were good days. The Carp won the Japan Series while I was there (I was at game 7), and one of our group was busted for DUI by a dummy police car. That last one is a long story, but it really did happen after a Carp game.
I just took another look at the photo. The new stadium looks really nice. The Carp were still in Hiroshima Shimin Kyujo (Hiroshima People's Ballfield) when I was there. It was just down the street from the famous Atomic Bomb Dome building.
posted by Howard_T at 10:02 PM on August 02, 2014
Daniel Bard, now in low minors, is still having extreme control problems
18 batters faced
nine walks
seven hit batters
two outs (one strikeout, one ground out back to the pitcher)
175.50 ERA and 13.43 WHIP
Over a month old link, but yeah, "problems" might not be the right word.