Month: July 2008

AJ HOMERS AJ HOMERS

My winning streak at the Cell has reached an incredible 15 games in a row, what is even more amazing is that this streak includes FIVE sweeps!!! C.C. Sabathia & the Tribe were the latest victims. In what may have been Sabathia’s last start as a member of Cleveland, he was matched up against Jose Contreras. That divorce from a year ago must’ve really been playing mind games, because while he’s not dominant, he’s no longer the doormat he was in 2007, he battles till the end.

Contreras finally surrendered to Grady Sizemore, threw him a fastball, which he nailed for a single. Sizemore moved up on Jamie Carroll’s grounder, which would’ve been a doubleplay had Grady not been on the move. Later in the inning Sizemore scored on a Jhonny Peralta base hit. 1-0 Tribe with the Sox coming up in the bottom of the 1st.

C.C. had a 95 MPH fastball and a filthy breaking ball working all night. Remarkably A.J. Pierzynski & Jermaine Dye hit fastballs on the screws for long gone home runs, 2-1 Good Guys after one. You could tell both balls were gone from the sound they made off the bat. Caramel-Corn Mike didn’t even have to look up to know they were gone.

The Indians manufactured a run in the top of the 2nd, thanks in part to an error by Pablo Ozuna. Isn’t always the way, a guy who makes an error leads off his team’s at bat with a ringing double over the centerfielder’s head? Well that’s exactly what Ozuna did and then he scored on a base hit by Nick Swisher (did I mention I was wearing his teeshirt?). I felt an arm on my shoulder, looked up to see it was Minnie Minoso. After exchanging hellos we got down to the business of talking baseball. I was impressed by the deep drive to left by Alexei Ramirez, while Minnie correctly pointed out, he has to move that runner along. Still after all these years, around 80 years old, Minnie understands how the game has to be played. You can buy stuff from Minnie at www.minoso.com.

In the top of the 5th Sizemore leads off with a walk, this time Contreras had him 0-2, but couldn’t get his curveball over, and ended up walking him. Grady steals 2nd and scores on a Carroll triple inside the rightfield foul line. Remarkably Contreras bears down and gets out of it without giving up another run. It’s about 90 degrees, sticky & hot, but Jose looks to be in his element, probably reminds him of a winter night in Cuba.

Before the 6th inning begins I tell Dick, it might be better just having Sizemore hit a home run rather than having that speed on base, especially leading off the inning. Well Sizemore was due up third in the 6th and I really thought Ozzie Guillen would bring in a lefty with two outs & nobody on base, and with Contreras throwing a ton of pitches, working out of jams, on a very hot night. Well Grady rips a fastball high & deep over the rightfield wall, Dick says, you got what you wanted. I try to argue that I only thought a homer might be better than speed on the bases when he was leading off an inning. An argument I would regret even thinking.

There was alot going on where I stand behind the plate as the Sox came up for their at bats in the bottom of the 6th, talking & what not, nothing to do with baseball. So I decided to vacate my post, move over a little bit on the other side of a brick partition, and sure enough Jackie stops by to visit. Jackie is a cute little vendor friend of mine, she stopped by just to say hi, it would have been rude for me to have ignored her, but I really wanted to concentrate on our hitters. And from what I hear our hitters took some mighty good cuts in the bottom of the 6th, some very loud outs, but I didn’t see any of it. My eyes were glued on Jackie, sorry I didn’t tell her I wouldn’t be back till the 21st, she’ll be looking for me, I’m sure.

My focus was back on the game in the bottom of the 7th as Brian Anderson stepped in with two runners on base. I was slumped against the wall, head down, eyes closed. Just then another fan stopped by to say, Brian Anderson made him nervous, he wasn’t saying it as a good thing. Immediately I plucked myself off the wall and came to life, I was pulling for Anderson to split the gap, with confidence, Brian hits it hard into the leftcenterfield gap for a two run double and the lead.

Nick Masset pitched the 7th, Octavio Dotel worked the 8th, and setup man Scott Linebrink was called upon to close it out in the 9th, there would be no Bobby Jenks. The first man Linebrink would face would be Sizemore, Dick looked at me and said, “Don’t even think it”, but it was too late as Grady ripped one over the rightfield wall for a loud game tying homer.

Last night’s winner, first win of his career, Adam Russell held the Tribe scoreless in the top of the 10th, and A.J. Pierzynski hit the game winning walkoff home run deep into the night to right.

A sweep of Cleveland and my streak extended to 15! A White Sox security guard threatened that I couldn’t leave when I told him about the streak and that I wouldn’t be back until July 21st.

Here’s to the Sox! Let’s hope they can keep the fireworks going during the games this weekend against the A’s. Tade & I might go to see the Sox in Oakland in August. Other out of town baseball for Teddy Ballgame includes a game between the Indians & Angels in Anaheim on 7/22 and a four game set in Minnesota rooting on the Southside Hitmen. LET’S GO WHITE SOX!

MLB’s Bulletin D-12 and Replays

In light of the baseball instant replay issue, Kevin Murphy from the Kansas City Star has an interesting article on MLB’s new policy called Bulletin D-12.

Apparently, Chris DeRuyscher who is director of game entertainment for the Royals passed on to him the policy for what plays are acceptable (and unacceptable) to be replayed up on the scoreboard.

The big issue here?  Not to “show up” the umpire.  Here is a snippet:

“Clubs must continue to use good judgment not to ‘show up’ the umpires, incite the crowd or distract players, but this admonition does not preclude showing close plays.”

According to Murphy, “any calls on balls or strikes, brushback pitches and any case where the umpire has clearly made an incorrect call” cannot be shown.

Non-compliance to the policy results in a fine according to DeRuyscher. 

I’d be curious to know what the real reason is behind this.  The umpire’s union?  Crowd control?  Just simply MLB’s over-reaching desire to control everything that fans see? 

Rich Hill update: It don’t look good from here

After successive starts at AAA Iowa where he obviously lacked control and confidence, the Cubs’ Rich Hill was sent all the way to Mesa in the Rookie League to work on the fundamentals and maybe get his head together.

Please tell me if I’m saying the obvious here but I have to wonder if Hill is just done.  In his first start at Mesa yesterday, he didn’t even get past the first inning.  Pitching 1/3 of an inning, he gave up five runs, three earned including 3 walks. 

The Cubs organization is considering giving Hill a break altogether to see that might work.  I don’t see what other option they have. 

hehe… The Cubs Brickyard have heard some other “news” about his future plans.

Bonadonna gets second chance with Madison Mallards

070 Illini secondbaseman Joe Bonadonna’s summer has been quite tumultuous up north.  The weekend after the amateur draft, Joe signed his release waiver from the Duluth Huskies where he’s been a fan favorite for years.  Huskies management turned in the waiver and despite that Bonadonna had expressed regrets, there was nothing the team could do according to Northwoods League rules. 

Now, Joe Bonadonna has found a second life in the Northwoods League.  Though league rules prevented Bonadonna from going back to the Huskies, there was nothing preventing another NWL team from picking the talented secondbaseman.  And that’s exactly what the Madison Mallards have done. 

Bonadonna has been with Madison for three games now and is off to a decent start.  So far, he’s 3 for 10 with 3 walks in those three games.  The Mallards are batting Bonadonna second in the lineup. 

Bonadonna has quite a legacy at Duluth and unfortunately, his departure from the Huskies has evoked some bitter feelings among a few of the fans who feel he left them high and dry.  Madison’s two game series in Duluth next week should be interesting for Bonadonna.

DANKS ALOT

Tade called today to say he had a couple of freebies for tonite’s game. I called CLuke who decided to bring his son Tom down to the Cell. Advanced billing had it as a pitcher’s dual between John Danks & Cliff Lee, and advanced billing didn’t lie. Lee came into the action with a record of 11-1, while Danks would surely have at least ten wins with a little better run support. You’ve got to give CLuke credit, putting his record on the line, with Lee on the hill for the Tribe.

Grady Sizemore tracked down Alexei Ramirez’ Cuban Missile in the 2nd inning with the bases loaded that resulted in a sac fly to put the good guys up 1-0. It stayed that way in part because of Joe Crede flashing the leather and a couple of John Danks pickoffs. Jose, Crede’s brother-in-law, stopped by to say hello, NickyV & I know him from our trip to KC & just before, I called him Josh, my bad. Kelly Shoppach smacked Danks’ first pitch of the 6th inning over the leftfield wall to tie the game at one.

Casey Blake put Cleveland up 2-1 ripping one out to left off Matt Thornton in the top of the 10th, Adam Russell put out the fire. The bottom of the lineup, the heart of the order, would face Indians closer Joe Borowski. JoBo got Crede & Swisher, before Alexei Ramirez sent leftfielder Ben Francisco to the track where Alexei’s drive was just out of the grasp of the leaping Francisco to tie the game at two. It was Ramirez’ third track drive of the game, I thought the homer was too high to go out. I wanted to wear my Alexei Ramirez tee shirt, but I didn’t have one, was gonna buy one Monday night, but didn’t, don’t even know if they have them at the ballpark’s gift shop. Anyway the White Sox weren’t finished as pinch-hitter Dewayne Wise lined a single to right. JoBo threw over to firstbase, I could tell Wise was going on the first pitch, the Indians could not, Dewayne stole second easily on a breaking ball, and scored the winning run when Orlando Cabrera’s base hit fell in front of Sizemore. A streaking Wise beat Sizemore’s throw home.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I moved into the vacated seats with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, to try to keep the streak going, it now stands at 14 wins in a row with me at the games, Adam Russell picked up his 1st win. Bad timing, Steve left to catch his train at the same time I stepped up.

Almost forgot to mention I saw Erick Robertson (of SimYard fame) and his wife Gwen as I was headed into the game. It was a surprise to see Erick at a Sox game, a free ticket, and a pass to the Stadium Club must’ve inspired him to see the light. Robertson usually goes to watch professional baseball in Japan.

I called Tade when I got home to high five him on the win. Tade gave me another freebie for Wednesday night’s game with C.C. Sabathia taking the hill for possibly the last time for the Tribe.

Big Series at Tropicana

One series I’m keeping my eye on is the Red Sox-Rays matchup in Tampa.  With Tampa on top of the AL East, that’s gotta be one a lot of people are keeping their eyes on.

I can’t help but quietly root for the Rays this year.  Aside from the fact that any others in their division who have a shot (NY, Boston) have already seen their fair share of post season action (and all else equal, I tend to root for the underdog), it’s the Rays’ time to shine.  For the last 5-10 years, I’ve alays felt Tampa had plenty of young talent.  But for whatever reason, they couldn’t put it together.  Either it was lack of experience or lack of leadership from their management or both.

Last night, Tampa held off a Sox rally in the ninth to squeak by 5-4.

Roger Mooney writes an illuminating article in the Bradenton Herald detailing the history of bad blood between the Red Sox and the Rays.  According to him, 27 players have been ejected in games between the two teams since 2000.

The AL East is up for grabs.  I guess only time will tell if the Rays are for real.

MLB Advanced Media seeing cloud in Silverlight?

silverlight3  With the new rollout of Firefox 3, those at MLB Advanced Media may be a bit frustrated. 

You see, those who use Firefox 3 and want to see MLB’s videos using Microsoft Silverlight which they went to last year, may be experiencing problems.  The new release of Firefox 3 does not support the current version of Silverlight. 

Word has it, though, that the second version of Silverlight will work with Firefox 3.  Unfortunately, it is still in beta at this point.  Unfortunate for MLB and unfortunate for the fans who use FF3 and don’t wish to trust a beta release yet.

Firefox has a browser share of anywhere around 15-25 percent (maybe higher for MLB’s target audience.  then again, maybe not).  Mozilla hasn’t pushed Firefox 3 out yet opting to let browsers download the new version voluntarily.  But it will only be a matter of time when FF 3 will be the standard. 

As for me, I like Firefox 3 and I’m going to either going to find a way to make it work or find a different way to watch my content. 

U of I 2008 draftees beginning to make their mark

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Hudson off to a good start with the Aberdeen Ironbirds

The 2008 Illini draftees have made a good impression so far in the minors. If the first couple weeks are any indication, they are in the pros for a while. 

Former Illini and All-Big Ten centerfielder Kyle Hudson is at the Orioles’ A farm team in Aberdeen.  He’s already off to hot start.  He’s hitting .280 (7 for 33) with 5 rbis with 7 walks.  As he did with Illinois, Kyle is playing centerfield. 

Scott Shaw, who was drafted by the Mets, is spending time with the Brooklyn Cyclones.  In two starts and one relief, he’s allowed two just runs in 14 innings.  In those 14 innings, Shaw’s KOed 18 batters.

Interestingly, one appearance (the relief in which Shaw got the win) was against Hudson’s team, the Aberdeen Ironbirds, but Shaw didn’t have the pleasure of facing off against his old teammate. 

Finally, for those who remember the Illini from before this year, Tanner Roark was a All-Big Ten second team starting pitcher in 2007.  Thanks to Tanner, we won the first game in the 2007 Big Ten Tournament against Iowa.  Well, Roark was declared ineligible in 2008 because of his academics. 

That didn’t stop the Texas Rangers from taking a flier on Tanner in this year’s draft.  And so far, he’s looking pretty good in the Rangers’ team in the Rookie League in the Arizona League.  Roark has been put in the role as reliever in three games.  While three games and five innings is a small sample size, he hasn’t allowed a run yet and has struck out six batters while walking no one. 

Good luck to all!

13 WINS IN A ROW FOR BALLGAME & SOX

Cub fans had pretty much wiped their feet on the Sox after sweeping them at Wrigley the previous weekend, now it was time for the Sox to return the favor. Like I said before, I missed seeing the middle game of this Crosstown Classic at the Cell, Lindskoog Family Reunion. But was able to watch the game on TIVO Saturday night. And was able to watch Carlos Quinten take Carlos Marmol yard with what turned out to be the game winner. Just before the homer, FOX showed a closeup of Kerry Wood in the bullpen double flipping the bird to White Sox fans, no one said a word.

Mark Buehrle was on fire as he entered the finale of this three game set, matched up against a soft throwing lefty Sean Marshall. I was a bit concerned, as sometimes Sox hitters have troubles against this type of pitcher. But not Sunday night, Quinten hit a solo shot in the 4th to left, Brian Anderson hit one out with one on in the 5th, and Jim Thome blasted a two run bomb off a reliever in the 8th. The final score 5-1 Sox.

Even though the Sox won by four, there was plenty of drama & excitement. Cubs manager Lou Piniella was ejected early on for disagreeing with the firstbase umpire on whether Joe Crede checked his swing with runners on 2nd & 3rd and nobody out in the third. Nick Swisher made three great fielding plays at firstbase in this game. First he caught a throw from Buehrle that was ticketed from the rightfield line, then he grabbed a hurried off the mark throw from Alexei Ramirez (Ramirez tried to double the runner off 1st, Swisher from the seat of his pants threw to 2nd to double up the runner there), and then Nick put out a threat by snaring a 9th inning nobody out liner & doubling up a wayward Mark DeRosa off 2nd base. After going 5 for 5 on Saturday Derrek Lee struckout three different times on Sunday on high heat.

Monday night was halfpriced night at the Cell, only $8.50, to see the White Sox play the Indians, a fullhouse, with 8,000 walkup. A.J. Pierzynski was not in the lineup for Polish/American Night, go figure. Among those in the house were NickyV & Kathy, Al & Anthony, Tade, Big Bob, KevinS & his friends, Phil, Caramel-Corn Mike, and Jackie stopped by to visit.

It was a beautiful night for baseball on the Southside of Chicago as Gavin Floyd would be facing Jeremy Sowers, another softthrowing lefty. Jim Thome took a heater(?) on a line drive ride to left that cleared the fence with two aboard & two out in the 1st to turn a 1-0 deficit to a 3-1 lead. With two out and Orlando Cabrera on 2nd after a leadoff third inning double, Jermaine Dye ripped a single off the thirdbaseman for an RBI sinle. Later in the 3rd Nick Swisher stepped to the dish with the sacks drunk and unloaded for a grand slam to put the Sox up 8-1. The lead looked out of sight.

The lead was still a comfortable 8-4 one when Floyd left after six innings of work. Octavio Dotel pitched one inning of scoreless ball before giving way to Nick Masset. The Tribe relievers only allowed one run over the last five innings, another Swisher homer, this time from the left side. Things got a little tight as Masset, who hadn’t worked in a while allowed five hits & three runs (two unearned) in 1 2/3 innings, before Matt Thornton was called to save the day. The lefty Choo got an RBI single off the southpaw Thornton, which brought the tying run to the plate in the person of Casey Blake. Matt got Blake to fly to right to end the game and preserve a 9-7 win. Jhonny Peralta had a career night, going 5 for 5, with three doubles, a homer, three RBI’s and three runs scored, but it wasn’t enough.

Going back to the Cell Tuesday & Wednesday nights with Cliff Lee & C.C. Sabathia toeing the rubber for the Tribe, before I head out to Waupaca for the weekend of the 4th.