All Entries Related to "Baseball"
May 30, 2007
Jane Heller Loves You When You Win
Jane Heller, in Sunday's NY Times:
As for the Yankees, if they suddenly start winning and somehow become not only the American League champions this season but the World Series champions, I will take that as a sign that they want me back and I will give them serious consideration. But as of right now, we are over. I am not that into them anymore.
Whether or not this attitude is deplorable isn't even up for debate. But do we read this as (a) the true feeling of 90% of Yankee fans, who are self-professed diehards inasmuch as they never have to actually die; or (b) the setting back 30 years of the female sports fan. Now, I don't think it's (b), as I know more than a handful of female sports fans, and they wouldn't bail out on a team after one crappy spring, let alone write about it in a national newspaper. You know, I bet Heller wears (well, wore) a pink hat.
In related news, we've got the BunkoSquad LiveCam back up, with real-time pictures of the Yankee bandwagon!
Posted by Michael at 09:11 AM | Comments (2)
A Developing Situation
Award-winning sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy goes BEYOND THE HEADLINES today. Using his unmatched skill at putting two and two together, he discovers something you may not be aware of - the Red Sox are playing really well right now. That's the kind of analysis that sails right over the heads of laymen and bloggers.
Incidentally, if Fenway isn't ringing with chants of "Where's Roger? - clap clap, clapclapclap" from 7:00 Friday until 11 PM Sunday, folks ought to think about turning in their tickets.
Posted by Michael at 08:34 AM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/18
Yesterday: 9-6. Season to date: 103-91 (.531). Today's games:
Royals (Meche) over TIGERS (Bonderman)
Orioles (Bedard) over DEVIL RAYS (Kazmir)
ATHLETICS (Haren) over Angels (Saunders)
Phillies (Eaton) over NATIONALS (Bergmann)
MARLINS (Willis) over Mets (Perez)
YANKEES (Igawa) over Indians (Sowers)
BLUE JAYS (Ohka) over Red Sox (Wakefield)
REDS (Harang) over Astros (Sampson)
BRAVES (Davies) over Cubs (Zambrano)
BREWERS (Vargas) over Pirates (Maholm)
WHITE SOX (Buehrle) over Rangers (Millwood)
Dodgers (Lowe) over ROCKIES (Lopez)
Diamondbacks (Webb) over PADRES (Wells)
MARINERS (Hernandez) over Twins (Silva)
Cardinals (Keisler) over GIANTS (Ortiz)
Posted by Michael at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/17
Yesterday: 4-6. Season to date: 94-85 (.525). Today:
CARDINALS (Wainwright) over Pirates (Gorzelanny)
Padres (Maddux) over CUBS (Miller)
TIGERS (Maroth) over Royals (DelaRosa)
Indians (Westbrook) over YANKEES (Wright)
Braves (Smoltz) over NATIONALS (Bergmann)
Mets (Glavine) over PHILLIES (Eaton)
Red Sox (Matsuzaka) over BLUE JAYS (Chacin)
DEVIL RAYS (Fossum) over Orioles (Trachsel)
REDS (Belisle) over Brewers (Bush)
ASTROS (Oswalt) over Marlins (Mitre)
WHITE SOX (Garland) over Rangers (Tejeda)
ROCKIES (Hirsh) over Giants (Cain)
DIAMONDBACKS (Owings) over Dodgers (Tomko)
Angels (Weaver) over ATHLETICS (Gaudin)
Twins (Ortiz) over MARINERS (Weaver)
Posted by Michael at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/16
Yesterday: 5-5. Season to date: 90-79 (.533). Is it really possible that, somewhere in this nation, the sun is shining and baseball is being played? Hard to believe. Today's games:
Angels (Santana) over RED SOX (Beckett), weather permitting (Ha)
Mets (Maine) over PHILLIES (Garcia)
TIGERS (Verlander) over Royals (Greinke)
Braves (James) over NATIONALS (Williams)
DEVIL RAYS (Shields) over Orioles (Loewen)
Brewers (Capuano) over REDS (Milton)
CUBS (Marquis) over Padres (Hensley)
Marlins (Sanchez) over ASTROS (Rodriguez)
CARDINALS (Reyes) over Pirates (Snell)
ROCKIES (Francis) over Giants (Morris)
Dodgers (Penny) over DIAMONDBACKS (Gonzalez)
Posted by Michael at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/15
Yesterday: 8-5. I'm so back. Season to date: 85-74 (.535). Today's rain-shortened slate:
BRAVES (Hudson) over Marlins (Sanchez)
INDIANS (Sabathia) over White Sox (Contreras)
Tigers (Robertson) over BLUE JAYS (Towers)
TWINS (Bonser) over Devil Rays (Seo)
Brewers (Sheets) over CARDINALS (Looper)
Reds (Lohse) over CUBS (Lilly)
ATHLETICS (Harden) over Yankees (Pettitte)
Rockies (Lopez) over DIAMONDBACKS (Davis)
Rangers (McCarthy) over MARINERS (Ramirez)
DODGERS (Wolf) over Padres (Young)
Posted by Michael at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/14
Yesterday: 12-2. You heard me. 12-2. Stupid Devil Rays, stupid Barry Bonds. Did I mention I was 12-2? Season to date: 77-69 (.527, 80 percentage points better than the Yankees.) Today's games:
INDIANS (Byrd) over White Sox (Danks)
CUBS (Hill) over Reds (Arroyo)
BLUE JAYS (Burnett) over Tigers (Durbin)
METS (Hernandez) over Nationals (Hill)
RED SOX (Schilling) over Angels (Carrasco)
PHILLIES (Hamels) over Astros (Jennings)
Rangers (Padilla) over MARINERS (Batista)
Marlins (Olsen) over BRAVES (Davies)
Royals (Perez) over ORIOLES (Cabrera)
Giants (Zito) over PIRATES (Armas)
TWINS (Ponson) over Devil Rays (Jackson)
CARDINALS (Wells) over Brewers (Capuano)
Yankees (Pavano) over ATHLETICS (Blanton)
DIAMONDBACKS (Hernandez) over Rockies (Cook)
Padres (Peavy) over DODGERS (Schmidt)
Posted by Michael at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/13
Yesterday: 4-2. Season to date: 65-67 (.492, better winning percentage than the Rangers). Today:
Reds (Harang) over CUBS (Zambrano)
ORIOLES (Bedard) over Royals (Duckworth)
RED SOX (Wakefield) over Angels (Lackey)
Astros (Oswalt) over PHILLIES (Myers)
PIRATES (Duke) over Giants (Ortiz)
White Sox (Vazquez) over INDIANS (Carmona)
BLUE JAYS (Halladay) over Tigers (Bonderman)
METS (Pelfrey) over Nationals (Patterson)
Marlins (Willis) over BRAVES (Redman)
TWINS (Santana) over Devil Rays (Kazmir)
CARDINALS (Reyes) over Brewers (Sheets)
Rockies (Fogg) over DIAMONDBACKS (Webb)
ATHLETICS (Haren) over Yankees (Igawa)
Rangers (Millwood) over MARINERS (Washburn)
DODGERS (Lowe) over Padres (Wells)
Also, check out today's Bostonist entry to hear Gil Santos announce four games in four different sports at the same time.
Posted by Michael at 08:51 AM | Comments (1)
April 12, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/12
Yesterday: 7-8. Luckily, picking the Nationals and Giants to lose seems like a pretty solid way to keep myself bobbing around .500. Year to date: 61-65 (.484). Today:
MILWAUKEE INDIANS (Sowers) over Angeles (Moseley)
RED SOX (Wakefield) over Mariners (Washburn)
Royals (Meche) over ORIOLES (Trachsel)
Tigers (Maroth) over BLUE JAYS (Ohka)
METS (Glavine) over Phillies (Moyer) (In honor of the pitching matchup, everyone over 60 gets in for free)
BRAVES (Smoltz) over (the offically-designated-"hapless") Nationals (Bergmann)
TWINS (Silva) over Devil Rays (Fossum)
Posted by Michael at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/11
I know no one's actually checking up on these, right? So why not say I went 10-3 yesterday? Technically, it was 6-7, so I'm 54-57 for the year (.486). I fear that I may have found my level. Today's games:
Cardinals (Wainwright) over PIRATES (Maholm)
Astros (Rodriguez) over CUBS (Hill)
White Sox (Buehrle) over ATHLETICS (Kennedy)
RED SOX (Matsuzaka) over Mariners (Hernandez)
Angels (Saunders) over MILWAUKEE INDIANS (Westbrook)
MARLINS (Mitre) over Brewers (Bush) (My Florida pick for Game 1 is still on the table)
Tigers (Verlander) over ORIOLES (Loewen)
Royals (Delarosa) over BLUE JAYS (Chacin)
METS (Perez) over Phillies (Eaton)
BRAVES (James) over Nationals (Williams)
RANGERS (Tejeda) over Devil Rays (Shields)
TWINS (Ortiz) over Yankees (Mussina)
DIAMONDBACKS (Owings) over Reds (Belisle)
PADRES (Maddux) over Giants (Lowry) (Bonus Prediction: Bobblehead Bonds hits one)
DODGERS (Penny) over Rockies (Hirsh)
Posted by Michael at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/10
Well, I'm back to being bad again. Maybe I should start watching games. Yesterday: 5-7. Season to date: 48-50 (.490).
RED SOX (Beckett) over Mariners (Weaver)
CUBS (Marquis) over Astros (Sampson)
Tigers (Robertson) over ORIOLES (Wright)
PIRATES (Gorzelanny) over Cardinals (Keisler)
MARLINS (Nolasco) over Brewers (Vargas)
Angels (Santana) over MILWAUKEE INDIANS (Sabathia)
BLUE JAYS (Towers) over Royals (Greinke)
BRAVES (Hudson) over Nationals (Chico)
RANGERS (Wright) over Devil Rays (Seo)
Yankees (Pettitte) over TWINS (Bonser)
Reds (Lohse) over DIAMONDBACKS (Gonzalez)
PADRES (Hensley) over Giants (Morris)
White Sox (Garland) over ATHLETICS (Gaudin)
DODGERS (Tomko) over Rockies (Lopez)
Posted by Michael at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2007
Milwaukee Set To Reprise Its Greatest Film Role
Nearly twenty years after its groundbreaking portrayal of the city of Cleveland in Major League, the city of Milwaukee is set to play the role again for this week's Angels-Indian series.
With Cleveland buried under 14 feet of snow, apparently, the entire Tribe-Seattle series was cancelled, and rather than have the California/Los Angeles Angelic Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California spend their entire week twiddling their thumbs in Ohio, the teams decided to give Milwaukee another moment on the silver screen.
A spokesman for the city of Milwaukee says that even though County Stadium (which doubled as Cleveland's Municipal Stadium in Major League) is long gone, the city is ready to pretend to be Cleveland again. "The moment when 20,000 Milwaukeeans pretended to be Clevelanders and screamed for Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughan is probably the greatest thing that's happened to Milwaukee sports in twenty years," he said. We look forward to pretending to cheer for this new batch of Indians as well."
"Is Cerrano still on the team?" he added.
The city of Baltimore, which portrayed Cleveland in Major League II to terrible reviews, was said to be "hurt" by the decision.
Posted by Michael at 01:47 PM | Comments (3)
Baseball Predictions 4/9
Yesterday: 8-6. Season to date: 43-43 (.500). Today's games:
Phillies (Hamels) over METS (Maine)
Cardinals (Looper) over PIRATES (Snell)
Tigers (Durbin) over ORIOLES (Cabrera)
CUBS (Lilly) over Astros (Williams)
INDIANS (Sabathia) over Mariners (Weaver), G1 (This prediction won't change no matter how many times they reschedule)
DODGERS (Schmidt) over Rockies (Francis)
Yankees (Pavano) over TWINS (Ponson)
Brewers (Suppan) over MARLINS (Sanchez)
BLUE JAYS (Burnett) over Royals (Perez)
RANGERS (McCarthy) over Devil Rays (Jackson)
INDIANS (Carmona) over Mariners (Hernandez), G2 (This one changed.)
Reds (Arroyo) over DIAMONDBACKS (Davis)
PADRES (Young) over Giants (Cain)
ATHLETICS (Harden) over White Sox (Contreras)
Posted by Michael at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/8
Yesterday: 8-6. Season to date: 35-37 (.486). It's going to be a long time before I pick the stupid Nationals again. Today's games:
Mets (Hernandez) over BRAVES (Davies)
Orioles (Bedard) over YANKEES (Rasner)
INDIANS (Sabathia) over Mariners (Weaver) (Game 1)
Phillies (Segovia) over MARLINS (Olsen)
REDS (Milton) over Pirates (Duke)
Diamondbacks (Hernandez) over NATIONALS (Hill)
Blue Jays (Halladay) over DEVIL RAYS (Kazmir)
Twins (Santana) over WHITE SOX (Danks)
Cubs (Miller) over BREWERS (Capuano)
Cardinals (Wells) over ASTROS (Jennings)
Tigers (Bonderman) over ROYALS (Duckworth)
ANGELS (Escobar) over Athletics (Blanton)
PADRES (Peavy) over Rockies (Cook)
Mariners (Hernandez) over INDIANS (Carmona) (Game 2)
GIANTS (Zito) over Dodgers (Wolf)
Red Sox (Schilling) over RANGERS (Padilla)
Posted by Michael at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/7
Yesterday: 5-8. Season to date: 27-31 (.466). In my defense, I've watched a total of about 11 actual minutes so far this season. Time to pay attention! Today's games:
YANKEES (Igawa) over Orioles (Trachsel)
BREWERS (Sheets) over Cubs (Zambrano)
REDS (Harang) over Pirates (Armas)
ROYALS (Meche) over Tigers (Maroth)
Twins (Ponson) over WHITE SOX (Vazquez)
BRAVES (Smoltz) over Mets (Glavine) (Nice matchup, huh? Will Mark Lemke throw out the first pitch?)
Dodgers (Lowe) over GIANTS (Ortiz)
ASTROS (Oswalt) over Cardinals (Reyes)
NATIONALS (Patterson) over Diamondbacks (Webb)
MARLINS (Willis) over Phillies (Myers)
Blue Jays (Ohka) over DEVIL RAYS (Fossum) (Nice matchup, huh? Will Robinson Checo throw out the first pitch?)
RANGERS (Millwood) over Red Sox (Tavares)
Athletics (Haren) over ANGELS (Lackey)
Rockies (Fogg) over PADRES (Wells)
Posted by Michael at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/6
Yesterday: 3-5. Year to date: 22-23 (.489). I suck at this. But if my stumbling means that the Pirates win and the Yankees lose, I'll keep hammering away. Today:
Red Sox (Wakefield) over RANGERS (Tejeda)
INDIANS (Byrd) over Mariners (Ramirez)
NATIONALS (Williams) over Diamondbacks (Owings)
Phillies (Moyer (really?!)) over MARLINS (Mitre)
YANKEES (Mussina) over Orioles (Loewen)
Blue Jays (Chacin) over DEVIL RAYS (Shields)
REDS (Belisle) over Pirates (Maholm)
BRAVES (Redman) over Mets (Perez)
BREWERS (Bush) over Cubs (Hill)
Cardinals (Wainwright) over ASTROS (Rodriguez)
Tigers (Verlander) over ROYALS (Delarosa)
WHITE SOX (Vazquez) over Twins (Silva)
ANGELS (Moseley) over Athletics (Kennedy)
PADRES (Maddux) over Rockies (Hirsh)
Dodgers (Penny) over GIANTS (Lowry)
Posted by Michael at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/5
Yesterday: 5-9 (I forgot to pick the Phillies/Braves game, so I have to count it as a loss). Season to date: 19-18 (.514). Time to get serious.
Cubs (Marquis) over REDS (Milton)
TIGERS (Verlander) over Blue Jays (Chacin)
WHITE SOX (Buehrle) over Indians (Sowers)
Red Sox (Matsuzaka) over ROYALS (Greinke)
PHILLIES (Eaton) over Braves (James)
NATIONALS (Williams) over Diamondbacks (Gonzalez)
YANKEES (Mussina) over Devil Rays (Shields)
ANGELS (Saunders) over Athletics (Gaudin)
GIANTS (Morris) over Padres (Hensley)
Note: If my reverse psychology leads to the Pirates winning the NL Central, I want to throw out the first ball at an NLDS game.
Posted by Michael at 08:26 AM | Comments (2)
April 04, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/4
Yesterday: 5-4. Season to date: 14-9 (.609). Today:
TIGERS (Robertson) over Blue Jays (Burnett)
Marlins (Sanchez) over NATIONALS (Chico)
YANKEES (Pettitte) over Devil Rays (Seo)
WHITE SOX (Garland) over Indians (Westbrook)
Diamondbacks (Davis) over ROCKIES (Lopez)
ANGELS (Santana) over Rangers (McCarthy)
REDS (Arroyo) over Cubs (Lilly)
ASTROS (Williams) over Pirates (Gorzelanny)
BREWERS (Suppan) over Dodgers (Schmidt)
Red Sox (Beckett) over ROYALS (Perez)
Orioles (Wright) over TWINS (Ortiz)
CARDINALS (Looper) over Mets (Maine)
Athletics (Harden) over MARINERS (Batista)
Padres (Young) over GIANTS (Cain)
Posted by Michael at 08:18 AM | Comments (3)
April 03, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/3
Yesterday's record: 9-4. Season record 9-5 (.643). Today's picks:
Padres (Peavy) over GIANTS (Zito)
Marlins (Olsen) over NATIONALS (Hill)
Orioles (Cabrera) over TWINS (Bonser)
Dodgers (Wolf) over BREWERS (Capuano)
ASTROS (Jennings) over Pirates (Snell)
Mets (Hernandez) over CARDINALS (Wells)
ROCKIES (Francis) over Diamondbacks (Hernandez)
ANGELS (Escobar) over Rangers (Padilla)
Athletics (Blanton) over MARINERS (Washburn)
My thoughts on the Red Sox debacle are up at Bostonist.
Posted by Michael at 08:04 AM | Comments (3)
April 02, 2007
Baseball Predictions 4/2
Let's see how long I can keep this up. I would have picked the Cardinals last night, so I'm 0-1.
YANKEES (Pavano) over Devil Rays (Kazmir)
Blue Jays (Halladay) over TIGERS (Bonderman)
Marlins (Willis) over NATIONALS (Patterson)
PHILLIES (Myers) over Braves (Smoltz)
Indians (Sabathia) over WHITE SOX (Contreras)
BREWERS (Sheets) over Dodgers (Lowe)
REDS (Harang) over Cubs (Zambrano)
Diamondbacks (Webb) over ROCKIES (Cook)
Red Sox (Schilling) over ROYALS (Meche)
Athletics (Haren) over MARINERS (Hernandez)
ASTROS (Oswalt) over Pirates (Duke)
TWINS (Santana) over Orioles (Bedard)
ANGELS (Lackey) over Rangers (Millwood)
And just so we can all have a good laugh this fall, here are my overall predictions.
AL EAST: 1.Red Sox, 2.Yankees, 3.Blue Jays, 4.Devil Rays, 5.Orioles
AL CENT: 1.Twins, 2.Indians, 3.Tigers, 4.White Sox, 5.Royals
AL WEST: 1.Athletics, 2.Angels, 3.Rangers, 4.Mariners
NL EAST: 1.Phillies, 2.Mets, 3.Braves, 4.Marlins, 5.Nationals
NL CENT: 1.Cardinals, 2.Brewers, 3.Cubs, 4.Astros, 5.Pirates, 6.Reds
NL WEST: 1.Padres, 2.Dodgers, 3.Diamondbacks, 4.Giants, 5.Rockies
AL PLAYOFFS: Red Sox over Twins, Yankees over Athletics, Red Sox over Yankees :p
NL PLAYOFFS: Cardinals over Mets, Phillies over Padres, Phillies over Cardinals.
WORLD SERIES: Red Sox over Phillies. Why not?
Posted by Michael at 09:17 AM | Comments (1)
March 29, 2007
Daisuke Can Win Games All By Himself
Dan Shaughnessy gave us something to look forward to yesterday:
The result of all this [what 'this' is isn't worth getting excited about; trust me] will be a five-day frenzy of Dice-K speculation on two continents. Is he hurt? Is he frustrated? Is he a diva? Is he physically and mentally prepared for his first big league start next Friday in Kansas City?
The problem with this is that the rest of the Red Sox are scheduled to be in Arlington, Texas, on Friday.
Will Daisuke be traded to Detroit by next week? (I used the Internet to check the Royals' schedule, but then again I'm a basement-dwelling loser who uses the Internet to look stuff up, and not some hotshot sportswriter.) Or is he planning to beat Kansas City all by himself? Is the Japanese concept of ronin, the masterless samurai, still alive and well?
Or did Shaughnessy just eff up?
Posted by Michael at 09:46 AM | Comments (4)
March 23, 2007
You Provide the Content: Baseball Music
So Jon and I have decided we need to start a letter-writing campaign to make Soul Coughing's "Super Bon Bon" the official song they play at Fenway when Papelbon comes in from the bullpen.
So I'll throw this out to the panel: what's your walk-up song? What do you want to hear the PA blaring when you come up to bat or out of the 'pen?
I'll throw a few of mine out: "The Mountain Song" by Jane's Addiction; "Waiting Room" by Fugazi; "Lounge Fly" by Stone Temple Pilots (even if it was used for MTV News); or "Go" by Pearl Jam.
Your turn; maybe we can at least come up with something to help David Wright.
Posted by Michael at 10:50 AM | Comments (3)