Month: May 2006

Kevin Frandsen’s late brother D.J. who died of cancer was a huge Dave Righetti fan. Now Kevin is wearing Dave’s number 19 with the Giants. Frandsen started wearing Righetti’s number in A ball all the way through the minors, as a way to honor his deceased brother. Righetti surrendered his number to Kevin, “Now I know why my brother admired Righetti so much,” commented Frandsen. D.J. used to tell Kevin, “Don’t screw up while wearing number 19”.

 As you know I’m a huge White Sox fan!!! I’ve been a White Sox fan since I was 12 years old in 1968. Frank Thomas is the GREATEST WHITE SOX HITTER, period!!! So I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to welcome him back, along with over 40,000 other Sox fans. The Big Hurt got a standing ovation from the crowd when he came to bat, there was a highlight piece shown on the scoreboard, and Sox manager said beforehand he expected White Sox fans to treat Frank with the respect that he’d earned. Ozzie was not disappointed. This ovation came after there was some bad blood aired in the media between Thomas and Sox GM Kenny Williams, but that was old news. This was a night to honor Frank. There were signs all over the ballpark showing support for their hero. Frank Thomas is off to a slow start with his new team the Oakland A’s, but last night was just like the old days when the Big Hurt went yard twice against his old mates. His first shot came in his first at bat against the Sox and it brought everybody to their feet. I was cheering the Big Hurt, but went absolutely nuts when Pablo Ozuna’s two out bunt brought in the winning run 5-4 as the Sox came all the way back from a 4-0 deficit. LET’S GO WHITE SOX!

Danny Almonte

There are three stories out in the world of baseball that are stranger than fiction. Each need to be looked at a little more closely and here is the only place where you’ll see all three lumped into one column.

There is a theory out there that MLB has suspended the Rocket for fifty days because he tested positive for steroids. On the surface you may say this is ridiculous and should be lumped in with the Kennedy Conspiracy and Michael Jordan turned to baseball when the NBA banned MJ for his gambling links. But when you look a little more closely at the Rocket you’ve got to wonder. Recently Roger Clemens’ agent said The Rocket will make his decision on which team to sign with in eight days, which is exactly 50 days, things that make you go Hmmm.

Everybody hates AJ Pie! Understood, he is an agitator! He’s good at it, it’s what he does best! But if you look objectively at what happened on Saturday, there’s only one possible conclusion you could come to, AJ was in the right and Michael Barrett was in the wrong. Barrett was blocking the plate and AJ was trying to score on a sac fly. Something had to give, and that something was Barrett. AJ bowled over Michael like a bowling ball hitting the pocket, slapped the plate to make sure he’d scored (you never want to leave anything to the umpire), and got up to retrieve his helmut. At which point Barrett grabbed AJ in a bear hold, said – “I didn’t even have the ball, bitch”, and sucker punched AJ. Pierzynski said if he had it to do over again he wouldn’t have gotten his helmut and Barrett said he would have simply pushed him rather than a punch. AJ said he and Barrett rain clinics together in the offseason and never thought Michael was going to punch him. Not a good example for all you youngsters out there watching, although it was the best hit the Cubbies got all day, losing 7-0. Good guys wear black!

Saw a story where Danny Almonte, the little leaguer who pitched a perfect game a few years back, got married to a thirty year old. Almonte had lied about his age when he tossed the gem. It turned out he was two years older than he actually was. This kid can’t seem to win, now he’s getting all this attention for playing with a kid that’s older than him, back then he was playing with kids too young for him. Danny married this 30 year old last fall when he was only 18. It turns out he had his eye on her when he was a pony leaguer, she kept saying, “You’re only a kid. I’m an adult. We could get in trouble”. Now they’re married, something disturbing about this story.

Other than A.J. Pierzynski, is there any baseball player more hated than Barry Bonds? Remember that Bugs Bunny cartoon where he plays by himself against the Gashouse Gorillas, that overgrown team of dirty cheating thugs? All Bonds needs is a Gorilla uniform and a stogie and he’d fit right in. Even though you can question his motives and his moral fiber, 714 is still quite an accomplishment. I’ll offer a very subtle tip of the cap to Barry and quickly redirect my attention to the good and the great things about baseball. Things that don’t elicit hatred and cause fans to boo and scream insults and throw syringes onto the field. I can’t wait until we’re past all this.