I Love Big Papi

Since I'm poor, I'll likely wait till he's released at some point during the season before I buy his jersey - it will then be discounted. But in the meantime, I still love this commercial. It's been out since I was in undergrad, meaning it's been around at least since 2007. Still makes me chuckle - yes, chuckle.

The Real Question Is:

Where do you get a half-baseball helmet?


via Ball Don't Lie

Texas > Boston

No really. They proved it. Through college baseball.

It took 25 Innings, but the University of Texas handled Boston College in the college world series playoffs. They played for seven (!) hours and three minutes.

random highlight

Texas reliever Austin Wood pitched 13 innings, including 12 1/3 innings of no-hit ball before allowing a two-out single to Tony Sanchez in the 19th inning

yeah, he pitched a no-no for more than the length of a normal game. Crazy. Glad I wasn't watching that game.

source: Foxsports

Manny Being Manny - The Drug User

Normally, under any other circumstance, I'd say, "WHAT AN IDIOT" if a player got caught for currently using steroids. Except this time it's Manny Ramirez. And it's not surprising. It's another case of "Manny Being Manny." I just don't get how you could be this oblivious to the modern era's testing programs. Did he think he was going to get a pass? Did he think the drug wasn't going to show up in his tests?

The best part (aside from the fact that he's not with the Sox and we have Jason Bay who has done a good job of replacing him without the antics or the extremely high price tag)?

Citing a source familiar with the matter, The Times reported Ramirez is expected to say the positive test results were a result of medication received from a doctor for a personal medical issue.

I love that they already have the excuse ready to go. Guess we'll have to wait until this develops further, but man, this is awesome. Mostly because this is LA's headache and not Boston's. Now if only Kobe could get a suspension for elbowing Ron Ron, my day would be complete.

source

Super Epic Fail

Wow. The franchise is slowly moving towards epic fail-dom.

Let's spell Nationals together. N-A-T-I-N-A-L-S. Nothing is missing from that. Or wait. I wonder why this country has literacy problems.

source

props to jim

Here's Some Cheer for Your Rainy Saturday

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/gameTrax?gameId=290418110

I'm watching the refresh and it's showing 21-4. Cleveland. Over the Yankees. No, that's not a football score. Or a basketball score. It's a baseball score.

Chien-Ming Wang started. His ERA for the game is 34.50. And he has a 28-something ERA on the year. I love it. I really do.

The reliever? Claggett. He came in and did 1.2 innings of work. His ERA? 43.20. File this under "Epic Fail."

Between the two pitcher and 2.3 innings of work they gave up sixteen earned runs. Yes. Sixteen. In 2.3 innings. Thankfully the next two relievers only gave up a collective total of five runs. Phew. And here I thought the bullpen might be in trouble.....

Suck it Yankees.

This is Disturbing....

So, I don't know how this got past me, but Roberto Alomar has HIV (or AIDs).

Former MLB star Roberto Alomar had unprotected sex with his ex-girlfriend while he had full blown AIDS, a sensational lawsuit charges.
In the $15 million action filed in Brooklyn Federal court, Ilya Dall, of Queens, said the ballplayer tested positive for HIV in 2006 and a doctor later told him he had AIDS.Whoa.

When did this happen? Well this is where it get's disturbing.

Also in 2005, Alomar told Dall that when he once was raped by two Mexican men after playing a ballgame in New Mexico, according to the suit.

Yeah, you just threw up in your mouth a little bit, right? I don't blame you. Well, thankfully, the woman suing him says he didn't know he had AIDs at the time of the incident. I have no background in this area, but I think she'll have to prove that he was negligent in his actions in order to have any sort of merit in her claim. And I'm pretty sure that's going to be hard to do.

Dall said she tested negative for the disease — but is claiming punitive damages for emotional distress. She also claims her children were exposed to the virus.

Wait what?! Yea, she doesn't have the virus. So, ummmm, are you just trying to get him to settle with you so you'll go away? Either way....I think Alomar has gone through enough.

Source Foxsports

More Hype

It's another dope video with some pretty decent interviews and some fun moments.

All this being said, I know I'm not drinking the Kool Aid when it comes to this team. There are some legitimate problems. I've watched two of the tune up games, but since Silverman moved and took his TV AND they're broadcast on local China time, I've missed the Russia game, as well as the too-close-for-comfort-Australia game. In no particular order:
The team defense can swarm the ball handler as he drives the lane. The problem is the internation game focuses on the outside in game. This means that when the ball handler drives the lane shooters are positioned on the perimeter. The ball handlers know to pass out for the open shot. This creates a TON of 3 point opportunities. Coupled with the fact that the 3-point line is shorter, the game can shift momentum in but a few possessions. Aside from the Australia game, none of USA's performances have highlighted this problem because the opposing teams have not been knocking down their shots. This will likely change in Olympic play.
The team likes to run isos. Two years ago when I watched the FIBA games (where we finished 2nd or 3rd, I don't recall specifically) the team was highly focused on Isolations. This means one guy dribbles the ball for an absurd lenght of time and tries to drive the lane or forces a contested jumper. Needless to say, these types of plays have a high result of missed shots. The international game focuses on jumpshooting and ball movement which leads to open jumpers. Forcing iso plays is a quick way for the US to lose. Those guilty thus far: Lebron and Kobe
We lack depth down low. Now a lot of people have highlighted this problem. But it's far more concerning than even all the attention indicates. NBA big men don't really have to deal with high-post centers. This style of play is much more European-esque. So guys like Zydrunis Ilgalskus, Yao Ming (sometimes), Mehemet Okur, and Brad Miller are really the very few that play at the high post position (I'm probably forgetting a few others). Thus, centers rarely get too far away from the hoop and are taught to protect the rim and not drift away. In the international game, however, big men drift from the hoop and can knock down an 18-20 foot jumper with ease. In addition, rebounding has been a problem. The bigs for USA? Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, and Dwight Howard. Howard is the only true center. Whereas Bosh and Booze are true power forwards. Rebounding will be a problem. Why we left Tyson Chandler at home is still a mystery to me.
International rules are different. The court is shorter in both length and width. The free throw lane is more of a trapezoid than a rectangle. This means that on free throws the players have to move much faster to box out opponents for rebounds. It also changes how you have to move around to avoid a "3 in the key" violation. You can also touch the ball while it's still on the rim. In the NBA this is goaltending. In the international game, this is a no-call everytime. The 3-point lane, as previously stated, is also significantly shorter. While all of this might not seem like such a big deal, we're dealing with players who have grown up playing the NBA version of basketball. So changing life-long instincts isn't always something that's easy to do.
The Zone. The international game is all about zone defense and not man to man. Again, this highlights the necessity of ball movement. I've faced a zone a few times and it is incredibly harder to play against if your opponent is running it. Quck ball movement around the perimeter is a must and penetration by a ball handler is insanely hard since the defense collapses on you so quickly. If I recall, the zone was not run in the league for many years because of the illegal defense rules. More importantly NBA teams don't run it quite as much as they run man-to-man defense. Passing and three point shooting is key. Problem? We don't have a lot of shooters on the team. Kobe, Carmello, and Michael Redd are the only guys who can knock down the 3-pointer with any type of consistency. Thus far, Deron Williams (who has improved his shooting) has been horrific. Chris Paul is alright sometimes....Everyone else is far less reliable. If Redd's shot isn't falling, we might be in trouble.

These are just the major problems with the team. I am hopeful, albeit skeptical. Come on GOLD MEDAL. And come on passing. And come on defense, and come on rebounding......

Thoughts, In Two Parts

This story popped up tonight.

And it was all over ESPN's baseball tonight which I watched while at the gym (hooray for cardio).

Okay, so Prince Fielder and Manny Para exchanged words during the game which resulted in a shoving match and Fielder looking like he was about 2 milliseconds away from going BALLISTIC. In the end, I didn't really think it was a big deal. And neither did their manager. His response: we're a family eight months a year. There's going to be fights. It's like when your neighbors fight. You don't go over and ask them what they were fighting about. So stop asking what it was about.

Yeah, I totally agree. And my agreement is free of sarcasm. These players spend the majority of their lives together. Practice, workouts, training camp, regular season, etc. All in a very competitive atmosphere. And they're not always going to get along together. Especially when things aren't going well (they're in the middle of a losing streak). Who cares?

My second thought is that it's interesting when grown men fight or argue with one another and even lay hands on the other....and it's supposed to be brushed off. I agree.

But lay hands on your manager or another non-player and kiss your tenure with that team goodbye (see Latrell Spreewell, Shawn Chacon). Interesting. What's the lesson? Respect the chain of command, but fighting with your teammates is okay. Interesting (which is coincidentally a word that has been invading my blog posts).

[(Car + Packie) x Alcohol] / Baseball = Death

For now, the Yankees have one in the life series against the Sox. We must accept that this will forever be an ongoing rivalry, and for now the Yankees have drawn first blood.

In Nashua, New Hampshire (LIVE FREE OR DIE!!!) a Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan got into an argument, most likely about who is the better team (does it matter?), and the Yankees fan, in typical Northeastern-style rage....ran him over. Oh, and did I mention that the Yankees fan was FORTY ONE?

What sparked this madness? A bunch of Sox fans chanting "Yankees suck." So in response, she got in her car, and drove at the group of people, accelerating the entire time. She claimed she just wanted to scare them, and she thought they would get out of the way....yeah...okay lady.

In her defense, it is New England and perhaps she thought they were left-over British imperialists. If that's the case, she was just doing her part to continue to rid our nation of tyranny and oppression. Or not.