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7/18/2008
Billy-Ball Daily
Bill Chuck (Billy-Ball his own self)
Billy-Ball - From the diamond to your desktop…
By Baseball Newstalgist, Bill Chuck
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The only spin here is on my screwball
Friday, July 18, 2008
Top of the 1st
SPEAKING OF BASEBALL…
By Baseball Newstalgist, Bill Chuck
Here’s a 25-fact roster for you.
Speaking of baseball…
1. In 1954, Bob Grim won 20 games for the Cleveland and only pitched 199 innings. In 2002, pitching for the Red Sox, Pedro Martinez won 20 throwing only 199.1 innings. With 10 wins thus far in 88.1 innings Daisuke Matsuzaka has a chance to smash that record.
2. On the Cust – Oakland slugger Jack Cust struck out 114 times prior to All-Star break, one shy of tying Bo Jackson's 1987 American League record for most strikeouts before the Mid-Summer Classic. By not striking out last Sunday, he also broke his 19-game K streak, which is an Oakland record for non-pitchers.
3. The Tigers have not been over .500 in their last 68 games of any season since 2000, and just once in the last 10 years. A year ago, Detroit was 57-37, only to go 31-37 the rest of the way. Two years ago, they were 63-31, but and then went 32-36.
4. In their first 95 games, the Mariners fired a general manager, a field manager and a first baseman – Show offs!
5. This is just the third time since 1991 that the Braves were below .500 at the ASG break.
6. Prior to Thursday, the Tigers are 41-6 in games in which they score five or more runs and 6-41 in games in which they score four or fewer runs.
7. Ryan Howard is the first player to lead his league in home runs (28) and RBIs (84) and not make the all-star team since Cincinnati Reds outfielder Hank Sauer in 1948.
8. There are rumors San Francisco shortstop Omar Vizquel might call it quits, sooner rather than later. Vizquel is hitting .159 with just 9 RBI and 14 runs scored. The Giants don't want him to go.
9. In 24 games this year, the A's have been held to one run or less, which is one more than all of last season.
10. The Chicago Cubs tied the NL record for most players on an all-star team when reliever Carlos Marmol was selected to replace injured Chicago teammate Kerry Wood. Marmol, the eighth Cubs player chosen, was picked because he was the relief pitcher with the largest vote from the players.
11. Speaking of the Cubs, they may have eight All-Stars but the one they needed again was Jim Hickman. He was the guy that got the hit that drove home Pete Rose in the famous Ray Fosse collision in 1970.
12. If any AL team beats the NL in the World Series, a Series ring should be given to Michael Young, the All-Star hero again.
13. Since May 20, the Giants are 23-26, the best record in the National League Worst.
14. Boo! – A's reliever Brad Ziegler is off to a scary good big league career. His career-opening scoreless streak of 20.1 innings is Oakland record and he’s just 1.1 innings shy of the AL mark held by the Boston Red Sox's Dave “Boo” Ferriss in 1945.
15. Three teams, Toronto, San Francisco and Washington, have nobody with double figures in homers.
16. I hope he keeps a neater cell - Convicted steroid dealer Kirk Radomski looked under his television last weekend and found overnight mail slips from packages he claims were used to send human growth hormone to Roger Clemens.
17. Now he wants a Series ring – Ben Sheets was on the United States national team for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He pitched 22 innings, struck out 11 batters, walked just one, and gave up 11 hits.
18. This is the 25th anniversary of the last and only All-Star Game grand slam ever hit by Fred Lynn of the Angels off Atlee Hammaker of the Giants.
19. Now that Tony Clark has returned to the Diamondbacks, will Ivan Rodriguez return to the Marlins?
20. There are 28 executives and pioneers in the Baseball Hall of Fame, George Steinbrenner is certainly more deserving than Bowie Kuhn.
21. The longest winning streak in Mets history is 11 games which they achieved in 1969, when they were champs, 1972 when the finished third, 1986, when they were champs, and in 1990, when they finished second.
22. Jacoby Ellsbury still leads the Detroit Tigers in stolen bases, 35 to 33.
23. Junior Griffey may be batting all of .235 with 12 homers, but he’s still second in the NL in intentional passes with 13. Albert Pujols has 22.
24. Detroit’s Kenny Rogers who is 243 years old leads all major league pitchers by being involved in seven double plays.
25. Bobby Murcer was a good guy who will be missed. Seven times in his career he had 88 to 96 RBI in a season, but he never cracked the 100 mark.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Top of the 2nd
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A MONTH MAKES
Exactly one month to the day of Willie Randolph's 3 a.m. firing, the Mets scored four times in the top of the 9th topping the Reds, 10-8, and moving into a first-place tie with the idle Phillies. The victory was also their 10th straight, and improved their record under Jerry Manuel, who took over for Randolph, to 18-9. On June 12, the Mets trailed the Phillies by 7.5 games hadn't occupied first place since April 19. Their last double-digit winning streak came July 1-13, 1991.
One month ago the Mets were in shambles. Today, they are tied for first place.
So, while the Phils were having another day off on the field, they were active off the field. The Phillies have acquired right-handed starting pitcher Joe Blanton from the Oakland Athletics. The 27-year-old Blanton, a 14-game winner last season, is 5-12 with a 4.96 ERA in 20 starts for Oakland. He was the opening day starter in March against the Boston Red Sox in Tokyo.
The Athletics get second baseman Adrian Cardenas, pitcher Josh Outman and outfielder Matthew Spencer, all minor leaguers. All three players acquired by the A's will remain in the minors for now.
Cardenas batted .309 with six triples and 16 stolen bases in 67 games for Single-A Clearwater and ranked seventh in the Florida State League in batting average. Spencer hit .249 with six home runs and 41 RBIs in 84 games with Clearwater in his first full professional season. Outman (a great name for a pitcher – could become a favorite aptonym) was 5-4 with a 3.20 ERA and one save in 33 games, including five starts, for Double-A Reading.
Top of the 3rd
O SOLO HOMER
Troy Glaus hit two and Rick Ankiel and Joe Mather had one solo homer apiece and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Padres 4-3 and San Diego's Jake Peavy. It was only the second time that Peavy allowed four homers in a game. The other was July 9, 2003, at Arizona. Glaus now has four homers in his career off Peavy and is batting .466.
Kyle Lohse (12-2) won his ninth straight decision, the most for St. Louis since Chris Carpenter won 13 in a row in 2005. Lohse pitched seven innings, allowing two runs, seven hits and two walks while striking out four.
Glaus has hit four home runs in his last 16 at-bats. It was his 27th multihomer game and second this season. He did it July 2 against the New York Mets. It was the second time the Cardinals hit back-to-back homers this season. Albert Pujols and Ankiel did it against Cincinnati on July 11.
Top of the 4th
THE TWIRL
I can’t help thinking about Ryan Dempster and they way he twirls his glove as he delivers a pitch. It was very cool to watch during the All-Star Game and must be very distracting to hitters who have never seen him before. There were Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter leaning against the dugout railing watching Dempster and Mo was talking about how Dempster was told that he was tipping his pitches and that his grip was visible to hitters, but not any longer thanks to the twirl. It will be interesting to see if other pitchers adopt the move.
Top of the 5th
OWN A PIECE OF THE STADIUM
The Yankees will sell pieces of Yankee Stadium before the 85- year-old ballpark is torn down. While the baseball team hasn't said what may be sold, items such as team Captain Derek Jeter's locker, the pitching rubber and pieces of the famous facade would attract fans interested in salvaging a sliver of Yankees history, said Mike Heffner, president of Lelands Inc. auction house.
The Yankees are working with New York City, which owns the stadium, on a deal to auction memorabilia and the Mets are negotiating a separate arrangement to sell pieces from 44-year-old Shea Stadium.
Seats are the biggest revenue generator in stadium sales because they are so plentiful. Not all of the more than 56,000 Yankee seats can be salvaged because of the difficulty in removing them, though 20,000 could be an easy target. One seat may sell for $1,000. All fans needed 25 years ago was $7.50 and five empty packs of Winston cigarettes to buy an original Yankee Stadium seat in a promotion by the now-defunct Korvettes department store. Korvettes bought up all the wood and cast-iron seats that were ripped out as part of a renovation after the 1973 season. Today, they sell for $4,500 apiece.
The locker where Jeter has suited up for his entire 14-year career might go for $50,000 to $100,000 if the team auctioned it, while pieces of the white frieze that encircles the top of the ballpark may fetch $100,.
Top of the 6th
BILLY-BALL-SITE-OF-THE-DAY
http://www.amazon.com/Walkoffs-Last-Licks-Final-Outs/dp/0879463422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216389250&sr=8-1
You’ve been Billy-Balled!
Top of the 7th
PROBABLE PITCHERS
AL
Detroit Tigers at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 pm
(R) Armando Galarraga (7-3) vs. (R) Jeremy Guthrie (5-7)
Oakland Athletics at New York Yankees, 7:05 pm
(L) Greg Smith (5-7) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (11-6)
Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 pm
(R) A.J. Burnett (10-8) vs. (R) James Shields (7-6)
Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 pm
(R) Kevin Millwood (6-5) vs. (L) Glen Perkins (6-2)
Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 pm
(R) Zack Greinke (7-5) vs. (L) Mark Buehrle (6-8)
Boston Red Sox at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 pm
(R) Clay Buchholz (2-4) vs. (R) John Lackey (6-2)
Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 pm
(L) Aaron Laffey (5-5) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (6-6)
NL
New York Mets at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 pm
(R) John Maine (8-6) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (7-7)
Philadelphia Phillies at Florida Marlins, 7:10 pm
(L) Jamie Moyer (8-6) vs. (R) Ricky Nolasco (10-4)
Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves, 7:35 pm
(R) Tim Redding (7-3) vs. (R) Tim Hudson (9-7)
Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros, 8:05 pm
(L) Ted Lilly (9-6) vs. (R) Brian Moehler (5-4)
San Diego Padres at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 pm
(R) Greg Maddux (3-8) vs. (R) Braden Looper (9-7)
Pittsburgh Pirates at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 pm
(R) Ian Snell (3-7) vs. (L) Glendon Rusch (2-3)
Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 pm
(R) Hiroki Kuroda (5-6) vs. (L) Doug Davis (3-4)
Milwaukee Brewers at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 pm
(L) C.C. Sabathia (2-0) vs. (R) Matt Cain (5-7)
Top of the 8th
DID YOU KNOW?
By losing to the Tigers 6-5 last night, the orioles lost their ninth straight one run loss and are now four games under .500 (45-49) for the first time this season.
Top of the 9th
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND
C’mon admit it this was a fun week. Usually All-Star week is a drag, but there were so many interesting things going on that we all had fun (even your intrepid writer/curmudgeon).
Your assignments for the weekend – turn more people on to the joy of Billy-Ball.com, buy some books, write some reviews on Amazon.com about the book and watch some baseball, major, minor, amateur, who cares? Doing all these things will put all of us in a good mood.
See you Monday and thanks again for everything this week!
Bottom of the 9th
BUY THE BOOK
Bill Chuck is the creator of Billy-Ball.com and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales,” with a Foreword by Jon Miller available now from ACTA Sports.
Autographed first editions are available by contacting, Bill@billy-ball.com or order directly from Acta Sports, http://www.actasports.com/detail.html?&id=3427 or from your favorite bookstore worldwide.
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Information provided in Billy-Ball has been gathered from A.P. reports, espn.com, sportsline.com, mlb.com and numerous other e-sources. Opinions expressed in Billy-Ball are obviously solely the opinions of the author of Billy-Ball and do not reflect those of source material no matter how off the wall they may be.
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