Kent no fan of gay marriage

Free agent Jeff Kent has a thing against gay marriage.  So much so, he’s willing to put his money where his mouth his.  

He’s putting up 15 grand of his own money towards the cause of stopping Proposition 8 in California.  Prop 8 would ban same-sex marriages in the state.  Kent, by the way, isn’t a resident of the state (his official residence is in Austin, TX) but did play the bulk of his career with the Giants and the Dodgers.

A hotly contested battle, around $30 million has been spent from both sides.  The latest poll shows Californians oppose the ban 49% to 45%. 

Frank Schubert, who manages the Yes-on-8 campaign, did his best to butter up Kent.

He has had a stellar career and will no doubt one day be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  I wish the Giants had kept Kent and traded Barry Bonds.

Come on Frank, don’t alienate your base.

Losing brings out the worst in ballplayers

Things are so bad in the Seattle clubhouse there’s talk of player anger toward Ichiro. 

…former manager John McLaren and his staff were forced to act this season after a player was overheard talking about Ichiro and wanting to "knock him out."

Apparently, some players had an issue with Ichiro’s "selfish" style of play.

Dave Cameron from USS Mariner has his take on the issue.

Phillie Phanatic Phingered phor Phear-inducing Phranks

Never trust anyone in a green suit.

phillie phanatic

Apparently, there was a bomb scare on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park forcing an evacuation of fans before the game.

The culprit?  Foil-wrapped hot dogs duct taped together left by the Phillie Phanatic and his crew.  The ballpark dogs were part of a tv commercial featuring the Phillie mascot.  The leftovers were left outside the ballpark and somehow looked like an exploding device to somebody therefore causing the ensuing panic.  The bomb squad was called in and yes, the hot dogs were indeed blown up.

Five straight for the Nats

The Washington Nationals have just woken up in time for September.  At the beginning of the season, I thought the Nats might be the the big story of 2008.  I’d be pretty smart if I’d had inserted Tampa Bay in for Washington. 

Washington did win their first three games of they year but it didn’t take long for them to sink to the depths of the NL East. 

Injuries to Ryan Zimmerman, Dmitri Young, Chad Cordero, Wily Mo Pena… well, I could on for a while,  add that to a no-name starting rotation and that isn’t a recipe for a winning team. 

And now, late in August, they start putting it together… for now.  Even with their five game winning streak (and Atlanta dropping two), the Nats are still languishing 24 games back and even eight games behind fourth place Atlanta. 

There’s always next year. 

Instant Replay on its way??

Bud Selig is expected to make a decision soon regarding instant replay.

It doesn’t take much to read between the lines to know that his mind is already made up.  He just needs the numbers and PR to back him up. 

From USA Today:

Selig was once a staunch opponent of replay, but a spate of missed home run calls this season has changed his stance.

This is faulty reasoning and bad logic.  If instant replay is a bad idea, then don’t let a few bad calls in one season change your opinion. 

And as I’ve said before, you certainly shouldn’t implement this mid-season.  MLB claims that teams don’t need to vote on this because this isn’t a "rule change" but it’s pretty dang close.

Paula Duffy from the Examiner has an interesting idea.  Start the experiment just before the 2008 playoffs.  I guess I would prefer that to doing it mid-season.

Karstens takes perfect game into 8th against D’backs

Last week, we were asking, "Who is Jeff Karstens?"  Now, I guess a better question is, "Is Jeff Karstens for real?".

Pirates hurler Jeff Karstens took a perfect game into the eighth inning against Arizona today.  He finished the game with a two-hit shutout.  Oh, for good measure, he also hit two singles and scored a run. 

This was Karstens’ second start this year (and second overall in the NL, his past two years were spent with the Yankees).  His first start was against the Cubs when he pitched six scoreless innings.  Karstens got the win in that game though it didn’t prevent some people (most likely Cub fans) to express some sour grapes skepticism that he didn’t have great stuff due to lack of control. 

No one can argue that Karstens was on his game today.  In addition to the two hits, he only allowed one walk. 

Pirates blog Bucs Dugout has the run down on today’s game. 

How will Jason Bay fare in Boston?

In his article, Why Jason Bay makes the Red Sox a better team, Alex Eisenberg from Hardball Times makes the argument that Jason Bay will help the Red Sox in the long term. 

Given Bay’s age (29, compared to Manny’s 36), I’d have to agree. 

Bay had an off year last year for Pittsburgh (21 HR, .247) but seemed to get out of his funk this season.  For Pittsburgh this season, he hit .290 and already exceeded last year’s homerun total. 

He seems to like playing for Boston.  In 5 games, he’s 9 for 21 with 6 rbis and 8 runs.  Playing his familiar position of left field, Boston is batting him 6th in the lineup which suits him well.