April, 2006 | The Baseball Zealot

DANGER KENNY WILLIAMS

The wheels on the White Sox wagon came off last night in Kansas City. The hapless Royals starter Jeremy Affeldt surrendered five runs before KC even stepped to the plate, it was 6-0 going into the bottom of the 3rd. Then it happened, Pablo Ozuna (an infielder misplaying in the outfield) misjudged a fly ball that fell in front of him for a double(?), it was an error if there ever was one. Ozuna also misplayed another flyout into another double later in the game when he went back to the wall, feeling for the wall, which wasn’t even close to, as the ball landed in the middle of the WARNING track. It was too much for the White Sox & Jon Garland to put up with as the All Star starter from 2005 gave up nine earned(?) runs in 5 1/3 innings. Matt Thornton came on, was throwing hard, but he let up a couple of runs himself to make the final unlucky 11-7 Bad Guys.

KC hadn’t won a ballgame this year. This White Sox team has some needs that won’t go away. Ignoring them will not help. In 2005 Chicago won the close games with pitching and solid defense, which is why the 2006 team is losing the close ones. Brian Anderson is hardly adequate in CF, Jermaine Dye & Scott Podsednik have been hurt. The only other guy who can play OF is Rob Mackowiak. As illustrated last night Pablo Ozuna can’t play outfield. And while Brandon McCarthy & Neal Cotts have been throwing well out of the pen, gone are Dustin Hermanson, Luis Vizcaino, & Damaso Marte. The only other relievers are Matt “I throw it hard, it gets hit harder” Thornton, Boone “Look at me I’m a big leaguer, who was that?” Logan, & Bobby “He’s too fat for me” Jenks.

I’m a die hard White Sox fan who knows a good team when I see one. Kenny Williams seems to always find a way to get the missing pieces. So I’m not jumping off the band wagon, but something needs to be done, NOW! Surely a 162 game schedule is a marathon, not a sprint, but the Sox were at the top from start to finish last year and need to wake up before it’s too late.

MADDUX WINS 319

Went to Wrigley for Opening Day to see the Cubbies & Greg Maddux defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1. Derrick Lee hit one over the leftfield wall in the very first inning to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. That shot was hit into the teeth of a gale wind coming out of the north. The Cubs never trailed as they built up a 5-0 lead before Jim Edmonds launched a ball out to rightfield in the 7th that found the Bud Light Bleachers, Maddux gave way to a much improved bullpen after walking the next batter. Matt Murton caught a ball blown back from being a homer, fired on one hop from left, and caught Juan Encarnacion who had strayed too far off firstbase. There were over 40,000 fans freezing out there at the Friendly Confines today.

4/6/06 LINESCORE OF THE DAY: DETROIT TIGER BATTERS

The Homer Happy Detroit Tigers launched seven longballs into the night against the Texas Rangers enroute to a 10-6 spanking. The amazing thing about it is that six of the home runs, all but one were solo shots, were hit through the first four innings all off Ranger starter R.A. Dickey, who’s learning to throw a knuckleball. Magglio Ordonez added a 9th inning solo blast off Brian Shouse, it was Magg’s 2nd of the game. Chris Shelton (#’s 3 & 4 on the year) also hit two out, Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe, & Marcus Thames also did some yard work for the Big Cats. Detroit sits at the top of the baseball world with a 4-0 record under new skipper Jim Leland.

4/6/06 LINESCORE OF THE DAY: MARK HENDRICKSON

Mark Hendrickson tossed a three hit shutout at the Baltimore Orioles yesterday. The Devil Rays defeated the O’s 2-0. It was Hendrickson’s 2nd career shutout, the first was a rain shortened affair. Mark completed only one game in 2005. M. Hendrickson (W, 1-0) 9 3 0 0 1 5 0 0.00

M. Hendrickson (W, 1-0) 9 3 0 0 1 5 0 0.00

4/5/06 Linescore of the Day: Ivan Rodriguez

Ivan Rodriguez, Detroit Tigers 5 for 5, 3 2B, HR, 5 rbis, 3 runs When scrolling down the box scores of yesterday, Detroit was listed first. When I saw IRod’s performance, I stopped right there. “We have our winner”, I thought. Ivan had a “down” year in 2005 (.276, .290, .444). His 5 for 5 … Continue reading “4/5/06 Linescore of the Day: Ivan Rodriguez”

Ivan Rodriguez, Detroit Tigers

5 for 5, 3 2B, HR, 5 rbis, 3 runs

When scrolling down the box scores of yesterday, Detroit was listed first. When I saw IRod’s performance, I stopped right there. “We have our winner”, I thought.

Ivan had a “down” year in 2005 (.276, .290, .444). His 5 for 5 effort will certainly set him off on the right foot in 2006.

Chris Robinson during his Illini days

Speaking of Tiger catchers, former Illini catcher Chris Robinson got to spend some time in the bigs with even if it was during spring training. The London (Ont.) Free Press has a great article detailing his latest efforts. Illini fans check it out.

CONNECTING WITH HISTORY

One of the magical things about baseball is it’s connection to the past. History is such an integral part of the game. Yesterday Ken Griffey, Jr. reached out and touched a couple of legends with one swing of the bat. Jimmy Rollins stepped closer to immortality when he doubled in yesterday’s game keeping his streak … Continue reading “CONNECTING WITH HISTORY”

Ken Griffey, Jr.
April 5, 2006 Ken Griffey, Jr. passed Mickey Mantle in homers & Joe DiMaggio in RBIs (RBIs were not recorded as an official stat until 1920) in the history of the baseball. The home run was Griffey’s 537th of his career moving him soley into 12th place all time. Ken’s solo shot yesterday against the Cubs also moved him into 31st place all time with 1,538 career RBIs.

Jimmy Rollins
Jimmy Rollins continued his hitting streak on 4/5 when he doubled in his first at bat of the game for the Phillies against the Cardinals. 38 is the special number of games in a row Rollins has gotten at least one hit in, moving him ahead of Tommy Holmes who had a 37 game streak in 1945. Next up on the list is Paul Molitor who hit safely in 39 straight games in 1987. Of course Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak is the longest.

A Conversation with Darrin Fletcher

It’s great living in a small town with a major university. There is so much happening on campus that the community can take advantage of, if one looks hard enough. A couple of years ago, Jim Bouton came to campus spoke to a sparsely attended audience about his the fight to build a new minor league stadium. Yesterday, the University of Illinois College of Law invited former big leaguer and University of Illinois standout player Darrin Fletcher to come and talk about his experiences with sports agents and as a team player representative. One of the law professors sat on stage and asked him a series of questions, then there was a little Q&A from the small audience of primarily students.

The 1994 Expos were a great team, with Cliff Floyd, Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez, Moises Alou, Mike Lansing, John Wetteland (a close friend of Darrin’s), and Ken Hill. They were on their way to an NL East division title, which would have broken the Braves streak of three in a row at the time. Darrin Fletcher was an All-Star and having his career year. Then the player’s strike happened and went on longer than anyone believed including the players, according to Darrin. The postseason was cancelled. Darrin believes this was the final nail in the coffin for the Montreal franchise.

The topic of collective licensing came up. This is a nice little perk that Donald Fehr negotiated for the Players Union that says that moneys from all licensing opportunities (autographs, public appearances, etc.) gets put into a central kitty and is equally divided amongst all major league players on the 40-man roster at the end of spring training each year. During Darrin’s playing career, this amount ranged from $25,000 to $70,000. Unlike other unions where dues are collected and they are a significant percentage of the workers’ salaries, members of the MLB Players Union are paid money. As you can imagine, it’s not hard to convince rookies to join up. They sign their union papers and immediately collect $70,000.

The steroid issue was brought up, of course, even though it was a bit off-topic. Darrin guesstimated 5% of players might have used. He has no problem with drug testing, saying it’s not an invasion of privacy if you have nothing to hide.

Talk centered around the business and legal side of the game, not on the game itself. Still, it was worth attending.

CAN O’ CORN

We’ve all heard the term, “Can o’ corn” referring to a high fly ball easily handled by an outfielder. Now I’m gonna ask you, where the term comes from? So as not to spoil it for others, e-mail your answer with Can O’ Corn in the subject to malltedd@yahoo.com

KID, WELCOME TO THE SHOW

Went to the Cell yesterday to get a replica World Series Trophy and see the White Sox take the rubber match of their opening series, I got neither. 20,000 trophies were given out and even though we got in line when the gates opened by the time we walked into the ballpark they were all … Continue reading “KID, WELCOME TO THE SHOW”

Jose Contreras was a little wild in the first inning and the Indians took a 2-0 lead. Even though the thermometer read in the 50s it was cold out there, which might have explained Jose’s lack of control. The Good Guys came back to take a 3-2 lead, before Boone Logan was greated by Travis Hafner with a game tying bomb off the kid from rookie ball, welcome to the Show! The Sox went on to lose 4-3 in extras.

4/4/06 Linescore of the Day: Richie Sexson

Richie Sexson, Seattle Mariners 3 for 5, HR, 5 rbis, run Sexson’s 5 rbis were the difference in the Mariners’ 10-8 win over the Halos. Teammate Kenji Johjima hit his second homer in as many days.

Richie Sexson, Seattle Mariners

3 for 5, HR, 5 rbis, run

Sexson’s 5 rbis were the difference in the Mariners’ 10-8 win over the Halos.

Teammate Kenji Johjima hit his second homer in as many days.