Month: September 2007

BP interviews Pat Neshek

Baseball Prospectus recently interviewed Twins setup man Pat Neshek.  You can listen Will Carroll’s interview with him here. I follow Neshek for a couple reasons.  One, I took a chance on him in the Illowa APBA League’s rookie draft.  So far I haven’t been disappointed.  As a fantasy sports game, APBA doesn’t just value a reliever … Continue reading “BP interviews Pat Neshek”

Baseball Prospectus recently interviewed Twins setup man Pat Neshek.  You can listen Will Carroll’s interview with him here.

I follow Neshek for a couple reasons.  One, I took a chance on him in the Illowa APBA League’s rookie draft.  So far I haven’t been disappointed.  As a fantasy sports game, APBA doesn’t just value a reliever on the save alone. 

Also, Neshek is a blogger.  Check out his blog, On the Road with Pat Neshek.  From the looks of it, he finds the time to update it frequently. 

It’s a pretty awesome site, full of photos, articles by Pat, as well as a description of his delivery.  I particularly liked his My Baseball Cards page showing his cards going back to his minor league days. 

Keep the ball down low, Pat.  You might be my closer next year. 

Totally Scored brings you scores and just that

If you’re looking for a simple way to display the latest sports scores on your screen or maybe your cellphone, Totally Scored can do that.  Using rss, this site is easy to customize as long as you’re familiar with rss.  Totally Scored is very simple and uncomplicated.  Don’t expect boxscores or highlights.  That said, there doesn’t … Continue reading “Totally Scored brings you scores and just that”

If you’re looking for a simple way to display the latest sports scores on your screen or maybe your cellphone, Totally Scored can do that.  Using rss, this site is easy to customize as long as you’re familiar with rss. 

Totally Scored is very simple and uncomplicated.  Don’t expect boxscores or highlights.  That said, there doesn’t seem to be any ads or pop-ups, either.  Very handy for tickers or cellphones, I would guess.

By the way, if you want a quick tutorial on rss, this should do nicely.

The Stephen A Douglas Vintage Base Ball Tournament

Vintage Base Ball fans got a treat on Sunday when the Rock Springs Ground Squirrels hosted their annual Stephen A Douglas Vintage Base Ball Tournament.  It was an all day affair starting at 10am involving four teams including my fan favorite Vermilion Voles.

I got there in the afternoon and as usual, I had my trusty Canon with me.  Here are some of shots I got.  Click to enlarge any photo.

I arrived in time to watch the Deep River Grinders take on the Ground Squirrels.  The player in the second photo looks like he can really crank it.  Well, looks aren’t deceiving.  He took the ball deep to left-centerfield both times I saw him at the plate.

This lovely lady all dressed up was the scorekeeper for the Grinders-Ground Squirrels game.  She was nice enough to let me take her photo and even gave me a souvenir pin.

The folks in the Voles camp were passing this around so I had to ask about it.  Earlier in the day, the Voles defeated the Ground Squirrels for the FIRST time in the four years they have played them.  Yay!

“Hollywood” Bolton warms up before the game with the Sum Punkins

Here’s Shawn “General” Lee “laying the willow on the onion” for a hit.  Shawn is the webmaster for the Voles but doesn’t do too shabby on the field either.  He had two hits, a run and a rbi in the last game.  The General had a couple good plays in the field while playing first, too.

Shawn up to bat.  In the foreground is the arbiter or umpire.

The youngest member of the Voles is Dylan “Pup” Rife.  He was quite the hero of the game against the Sum Punkins with his excellent play at second base.

Finally, the Voles players thank their opponents with three Huzzahs!

I have tons more photos at TBZ Photo Gallery.  Check them out.  Thanks to the Rock Springs Ground Squirrels for a grand time!

Korean Baseball “Brawl”

This video of a baseball “brawl” in Korea made me do a double take: A comment in YouTube from someone who sounded like they knew what they were talking about shed some light on the matter: for those who are confused.. the two teams are comprised of korean stars/entertainers.. and the pitcher threw a bean bag … Continue reading “Korean Baseball “Brawl””

This video of a baseball “brawl” in Korea made me do a double take:

A comment in YouTube from someone who sounded like they knew what they were talking about shed some light on the matter:

for those who are confused..
the two teams are comprised of korean stars/entertainers..
and the pitcher threw a bean bag instead of the ball..
and to out of frustration the hitter was gonna vent his anger at the pitcher.. but obviously cos theyre all close and also for their image sakes they just turned it into that ^^
plus the hitter is a comedian.. so i guess thats his way of being funny.

Anyway, it gave me a laugh.

Photo of the 1917 St Louis Browns Outfield

TBZ reader Marty Napier sent this photo to me.  It is of the St Louis Browns outfield of 1917.  On the left is rightfielder Tod Sloan.  On the right is Baby Doll Jacobson who played center.  In the middle, we’re not sure. Tod Sloan happens to be Marrty’s grandfather.  A quick look at Baseball Reference shows that Sloan … Continue reading “Photo of the 1917 St Louis Browns Outfield”

St.-Louis-Browns

TBZ reader Marty Napier sent this photo to me.  It is of the St Louis Browns outfield of 1917.  On the left is rightfielder Tod Sloan.  On the right is Baby Doll Jacobson who played center.  In the middle, we’re not sure.

Tod Sloan happens to be Marrty’s grandfather.  A quick look at Baseball Reference shows that Sloan played 3 seasons between 1913-1919 and 1917 was indeed his big season where he played close to a full year hitting .230 with 32 runs.  Interestingly, he was hit by pitch seven times that year. 

Baby Doll Jacobson holds a special place in my heart.  You can read why in this article I wrote previously. 

I think it’s a fantastic photo.  Even at first glance, it didn’t take long for me to pick out Baby Doll.  At 6′ 3″, he was one of the tallest players in pro ball in that era. 

As for the mystery man in the middle, I suggested to Marty that perhaps it might be Burt Shotton who was the third starting outfielder on the 1917 Browns.  Marty conceded that might be the case but did say that he didn’t look like Shotton’s likeness in later photos when he was a manager.  Any guesses by anybody?

Many thanks to Marty for sharing this photo!!

Illini Baseball continuing Diamond Notes updates

Throughout the summer the Illini baseball program has been keeping us informed of what’s was happening in the player’s own words with Summer Diamond Notes.  I found them very useful and entertaining. Now it turns out they will continue the series with Fall Diamond Notes.  Presumably, they will detail how things are going in fall … Continue reading “Illini Baseball continuing Diamond Notes updates”

Throughout the summer the Illini baseball program has been keeping us informed of what’s was happening in the player’s own words with Summer Diamond Notes.  I found them very useful and entertaining.

Now it turns out they will continue the series with Fall Diamond Notes.  Presumably, they will detail how things are going in fall practice and the upcoming Orange and Blue series. 

Fall Diamond Notes #1 starts out with the Illini team manager Michael Schroeder and his take on the first few weeks of practice.  You can read Michael’s write-up on the Fighting Illini’s website. 

Mark your calendar for the week of September 24.  That is the week of the Orange and Blue Series.  I attended last year and it’s a good chance to get your Illini baseball fix and get a preview of the 2008 team. 

 

HT interviews Retrosheet founder David Smith

Hardball Times is known for their unconventional,and rather entetaning Q&A interviews.  This week, Chris Jaffe from HT takes on David Smith, the founder and mastermind behind Retrosheet.  It was a special interest to me since (besides the obvious) we at Baseball Zealot Radio interviewed Mark Pankin also of Retrosheet a few shows back.  You can read Smith … Continue reading “HT interviews Retrosheet founder David Smith”

Hardball Times is known for their unconventional,and rather entetaning Q&A interviews. 

This week, Chris Jaffe from HT takes on David Smith, the founder and mastermind behind Retrosheet. 

It was a special interest to me since (besides the obvious) we at Baseball Zealot Radio interviewed Mark Pankin also of Retrosheet a few shows back. 

You can read Smith interview on the Hardball Times website.

 

 

Piniella accused of wardrobe malfuntion

It happened to Terry Francona last week and now it’s happened to Lou.  Lou Piniella was threatened with a $1000 fine for not wearing an official Cubs jersey during games.  The supposed infraction during the series against the Giants in San Fran. ”It was cold, so I wore the fleece top,” Piniella said of the … Continue reading “Piniella accused of wardrobe malfuntion”

It happened to Terry Francona last week and now it’s happened to Lou. 

Lou Piniella was threatened with a $1000 fine for not wearing an official Cubs jersey during games.  The supposed infraction during the series against the Giants in San Fran.

”It was cold, so I wore the fleece top,” Piniella said of the pullover that is included among the uniform items. ”I had on the gray [T-shirt] underneath the fleece.”

Apparently, someone above noticed and Piniella got the letter with the threat of the fine.

As my friend, Todd V would say, “Leave it to the MLB to find a way to make money”.  The issue here lies with the corporate sponsors who require all players and field personnel to wear the official uniform. 

Don’t get me started on this.  If it were up to me, I’d put all managers in street clothes during games.

Big Z: Searching for a win

Call it the Curse of the Long Term Contract or maybe The Curse of the Rainout. Either way, since Carlos Zambrano has signed his five year contract (and pitched 3 innings of perfect ball only to have the game called because of rain), he has been less than effective.  Ok, that’s putting it nicely.  Quite … Continue reading “Big Z: Searching for a win”

bigz

Call it the Curse of the Long Term Contract or maybe The Curse of the Rainout.

Either way, since Carlos Zambrano has signed his five year contract (and pitched 3 innings of perfect ball only to have the game called because of rain), he has been less than effective. 

Ok, that’s putting it nicely.  Quite frankly, he’s stunk.  He has a 8.29 ERA and 0-5 record over that period.  Not only that, he’s close to 6 walks per 9.  Hopefully, Monday’s game is the bottom of the barrel for him and he can start climbing out of his funk.  After his baserunning boner, he fell apart against Dem Bums and allowed 8 runs. 

The media came out strong against Zambrano’s blast of the fans.  Maybe it’s me but I don’t think he was THAT out of line.  Derrek Lee came out against the booing and I’m glad he did.  Bonus:  he took Big Z for missing the stop sign. 

Zambrano did apologize:

“I’m a grown man. I know when I make a mistake. I know what I’m doing. I know when I have to come to whoever I offended. I don’t think somebody has to tell me what to do,”

I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt.  I’ll bet Z had a nice chat with Rothschild and Piniella.  Hendry says that nobody told him what to say.  For some reason, I’m dubious.

Zambrano has been inconsistent all year and this is the time of year we really need him.  The timing of this downturn doesn’t help his cause.  

Zambrano is a different personality.  Do I expect him to come forward and be a team leader in the way that Derrek Lee is.  Probably not.  But I do expect him to pitch effectively and consistently.  Whatever it takes to get him to that point, be it a missed start or whatever, Lou needs to do it. 

And fans, get off his case.  I don’t think the booing helps. 

Update:  Cubs are now up 4-2 and Lilly pitched well allowing 2 runs in 6 2/3 innings.  Maybe we can salvage this last game.

Baseball Reference now has Minor League Stats

This email from Baseball Reference dropped into my inbox today:

Baseball-Reference.com now has minor league stats from 1992-2007. In
addition to player, team, league and major league affiliate pages, we
also have sortable batter and pitcher leaderboards for every league,
level and year.

You can access it at B-R’s minor league section,

In true Baseball Reference fashion, the database is well organized.  It’s sorted by Organization, level and leagues.  Of course, everything is interactive allowing you to click away to your heart’s content.