It's baseball season

“Good for Cameron. That's what catchers do. They guard the plate like it's their kid sister's virginity! "You may score, but you're going to have to go through me to do it." Bet he had a mad dog face on at the moment.”

“Phillies are 3-2 in interleague play. The rest of the NL is tanking.

Good to see the effect Tito is having on the Red Sox (Saturday game on Fox), although Nomo was not up to the job last night.”

“lmao BM.

last year, one of the kids' dad did the same thing. took hundreds of high quality pics and put them on CD and gave everybody one. as you know, being a coach, you get attached to all the kids and it was awesome seeing all those shots and haveing them to remember the kids by.”

“Well, you'll see eventually, but the "mad dog" had his face turned away with his eyes closed, but, heck, the other kid looks like he's losing his face!”

“What a game yesterday in Da Bronx!

Down 2-0 in bottom of the 9th with 2 outs!

Matsui and Lofton hit back to back jacks! to tie it up! 2-2

Extra innings the Padres go ahead 5-2 in the top of thw 13th... Yanks come back in the bottom of the 13th with 4 runs to win it!

This team reminds me of the 1996 team with their never say die attitude.

See ya in October!”

“What do Fenway park Hotdogs taste like in Octobah?



































Nobody knows....yuk yuk yuk”

“One of the trademarks of the Li'l Tigers is that we are not afraid to throw the ball to get runners out, contrary to some teams that want to play it safe. In the game on Saturday, which meant nothing in the standings, we were determined to "practice" this at any opportunity, so threw several runners out by just flat picking them off. (At this level, you can't leave the base until the ball reaches home, and then all runners take a lead, hoping there's a bad throw back to the pitcher. Some take a big lead, so our catcher or pitcher will often throw to that base to try to pick them off, while most teams just have the pitcher run back to the rubber, forcing the kid to return to the base.) We successfully executed two multiple throw pickles (we used to call them run-downs) that had the fans' jaws dropping. Both were between 2nd and 3rd. The first one involved 4 fielders, with our left-fielder coming in to record the tag at 3rd base. The second one involved 5 fielders with Cameron sneaking up to 3rd from behind the plate to make the final tag. It was great because the coaches of the other playoff teams were watching, too. There won't be much aggressive baserunning against the Tigers!”

“It's hard to think about baseball when there's a hard baseball winging your way!”

“It's hard to think about base running when there's a hard baseball winging your way!”

“That's what those hard things they wear on their heads are for!”

“It'll still ring your chimes.”

“OK, tomorrow is the semifinal playoff game for the Li'l Tigers. Since I usually do the pre-game pep talk, I have been obsessing about how to get them to relax enough so that they can play good baseball (that's been our theme, more or less, for the year - don't worry about the score, just do your best to play good baseball, which is really fun to do!). The kids will probably be wound up tighter than a juiced baseball. So I think I will point out that, really, it's the other guys who should be feeling the pressure. They went 16-2 on the season and everyone just assumes they should win and advance to the final. But they also know that we beat them last time we played each other, so they are likely very worried about it. I also plan to tell them that pretty much everyone else in the league is rooting for us to beat them, in part because of the "underdog" thing and in part because their coaches and some of the kids can be pretty darn arrogant at times (yes, 8 & 9 year olds can be arrogant!).

We have a short practice tonight. I will be pitching to the kids in one of the batting cages. An hour of Coach BowlderMan's pitching will be sure to get them ready! I usually remind them that I've only sent a few kids to the hospital by hitting them, and most of those have survived (that usually gets a chuckle out of them). Then I offer 5 bucks for every ball they hit that injures me (another chuckle). Anyway, it looks like the weather will cooperate - should be in the 70's without too much wind. Play ball!”

“Adults chasing after a stupid baseball, I never have nor ever will understand it.”

“Good thing the lil' Tigers don't play like the big Tigers.... lol!


Damn, my tribe was just 1 game under .500, and were dropped again! Oh well, we are making a nice showing for such a young team. I have to admit though, if we had Manny and Jimmy in the line-up, we'd be kicking some serious a$$!”

“A friend told me about that story over lunch today, Bit. The guy sounds like an absolute brute, but then the gifts the kid got as a result sounded better than the ball. Glad to hear the team stepped up.”

“Wow! Just read the story. Reggie Sanders gets cheers from me, and he'll be the only Cardinal to get them. I love what he did for the kid. Nice photo!”

“Yah, it's no wonder he's a "former youth minister".”

“lol, I waited too long to post that.

I don't know about Reggie Sanders, although he did step up to the plate, but the prick who stole the kid's ball is a "former youth minister"...”

“At the minor league games I've been to in Billings, any adult who catches a ball is subjected to chants of "Give it to a kid!" until he/she relents. I've always thought they should do that in major league parks, too. The only situation I would not give a ball to a kid would be if the ball was special to the player for some reason, and I'd give it to him instead. I can't really see the excitement of getting a baseball as an adult, while I remember how cool it was to get a few of them as a kid.”

“Well, any flies I catch are going home to my kids, so I would be giving them to a kid.

But I wouldn't step on a 4-yr-old to get a fly ball for my kids.”

“I'm going to the Giants game tomorrow (when they play interleague archrival Toronto!). We'll be in the left field bleachers, row 7. BowlderSon and his cousin are bringing their gloves - I'm going to catch one like a MAN!”

“It's amazing the lengths to which people will go to get a baseball that costs $3.98.

In the new Philly ballpark, they're doing the Wrigley schtick and throwing homerun balls hit by the other team back onto the field. If somebody doesn't do it, the fans boo until they do.

Last night a home run ball came back on the field. Detroit third base coach Juan Samuel got it and tossed it into the stands behind third base. That fan threw the ball back too. Samuel just stood there with his arms out and a "What did I do wrong?" look on his face.

Yeah, I like it when ballplayers do things for kids.

The other thing I get a laugh out of is when the ball guy or gal puts a ball into the hands of a fan and the fan holds the ball up as though they actually caught it, when 40,000 people in the park and another 100,000 watching on TV saw the ball placed gently into their greedy little hands. No Hot Dog, you are not a foul ball hero. Sit down and shut your pie hole!”

“I mean how many opportunities does someone get to knock people over, jump over rows of stadium seats and crawl around on a filthy stadium concrete floor to get a $3.98 baseball. When an opportunity like that comes along you have to just go for it.”

“If you're really good, you can do all that... and still hold on to yer beer!!”

“A guy sitting next to me caught one one night while sitting in his seat and didn't spill a drop of beer. Caught the ball with one hand and held the beer in the other. I thought for a second I was gonna take a beer bath. Everybody around was complimenting him on his feat. Man, didn't spill a drop!”

“In the Astros-Cubs game on ESPN last night, Moises Alou was initially thought to have been hit by a pitch. Turned out the ball hit his bat instead.

Jimy Williams came out, spoke to the home plate ump, who then conferred with the other three. They changed the call (correctly), and everybody got back into position. Dusty Baker came out of the dugout to ask what in the world was going on, and the umps politely explained the situation to him. Game resumed, nobody tossed, ... now that's the way it's supposed to be!”

“...and the Cubs whipped the Astros for the third time in a row, so everything was really okay!”

“An hour-plus of pitching to the Li'l Tigers last night - they almost killed me! Lots of wicked line drives. I also mixed in some change-ups, as the pitchers they'll face tonight throw them sometimes. Most of the kids actually got the concept of wait, wait, wait, then wait some more... then smack it!”

“Baseball Notes | Rude fan to give up ball

From Inquirer Wire Services


A Texas baseball fan who prompted a public outcry when he knocked aside a 4-year-old boy to get a foul ball now says he will give the ball to the youngster, the Texas Rangers said.

The fan, Matt Starr, also agreed to send a letter of apology to the family of Nick O'Brien and buy them tickets to future Rangers games, a club official said yesterday.

Starr, who was sitting behind Nick at a game in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday, knocked the boy against the seats as he dived to get the foul ball. Fans started chanting "Give him the ball!" but he wouldn't give it up.

Nick's mother, Edie O'Brien, said she swatted the man with a cardboard fan and called him a jerk, among other names. "I said, 'You trampled a 4-year-old boy to get this ball,' and he said, 'Oh, well,' " she told ABC's Good Morning America yesterday, adding that the man seemed proud he got the ball.”

“I saw the video last night. What a prick! He actually pinned the kid against the seats while he went for the ball.

Apparently this guy has an unlisted phone number. Too bad.”

“Here's what happens when you try to score on the Li'l Tigers!”

“...and we take our stolen bases seriously!”

“Now that's a game face!!!!!!”

“I've seen some professionals not block the plate that well. You should be proud, BM. :)

I can't get the second picture to load.”

“Be patient. It takes a while.”

“Well, the Li'l Tigers' season came to an end last night in the second semifinal for this league. We had a rough first 2 innings in the field - the kids didn't seem nervous at all before the game started, but got rattled when the first batter hit a triple. Several errors followed, and we let in 8 or 9 runs in those first 2 innings.

After that, we held them to 1 more run, and actually faced the minimum batters for the last 2-1/3 innings. Our batters hit the ball hard, but the other team made lots of good plays. In the final inning, we had our bottom 2 batters up to start, and eventually got to a bases-loaded 2-outs situation, 5 runs down. Our batter hit a 2-2 pitch about as hard as a kid can hit it. Unfortunately, it went directly into the pitcher's glove for the final out. A few inches in any direction, and at least 2 runs would have scored, and the rally would've kept going. Oh, well, there were a few tears, but by and large the kids realized they had a great season, and even a very good final game.

Next up: the summer "traveling team," where we'll play in some tournaments over the summer....”

“BTW, Cameron tagged out yet another runner at home last night after picking a runner off of third who then broke home. This time he tagged him on the foot instead of ripping the kid's helmet off. Unfortunately, he did not have other opportunities to throw runners out on wild pitches - they all seemed to bounce to crazy places that didn't give him a chance to make the plays. That's baseball....”

“Game of inches!”

“Took in the Giants/Jays game yesterday with Cameron and his cousin. We had bleacher seats in left - 7th row. Far from home plate, but GREAT for feeling like you're part of the game. Barry was taking the day off, so we didn't get to watch him out there, although he did pinch walk, I mean pinch hit in the 8th and scored what turned out to be the winning run. Barry's replacement, Dustin Mohr, got into the action early, when the leadoff hitter for Toronto sliced one down the line. Mohr dove, but missed, and the ball bounced into the seats for a double. The same guy hit one in a similar spot, only higher, his next time up. This time, Mohr caught it and fired it home to try to get the guy who tagged from third. Not sure what happened at the plate - somehow Torrealba missed the tag (maybe Cameron should have been in there!). So when the guy came up again, I couldn't resist yelling stuff like, "Four steps to the right, Mohr!" and "Comin' yer way, Dustin!" He did inch over toward the line somewhat during that third AB....

Anyway, we had to leave early because of the Li'l Tigers' playoff game, but it was a beautiful day at the ballpark!”

“Why are the Giants so hot (and in first place)?

Here's the box score for the two guys following Barry in the lineup last night:

AB R H RBI
Alfonzo 5 1 2 6
Cruz 5 1 5 2

7 hits and 8 RBI will make those chicken pitchers think twice about walking Barry next time!”

“Also, a few photos of BowlderSon's Little League season taken by our "team photographer."”

“Go, Cameron! First base is a great position. Not to mention, the shades are way cool! We didn't have shades when I played little league. That's why we are all stuck in a permanent squint.

Go Royals!

Go Giants!”

“Our kids had to have shades, as many of their games were in the late afternoon, with the sun setting right behind home plate. For the playoff game, we got them some eye-black to mark their cheeks with some war paint!”

“So how did the Hogs do strat?”

“I was wondering, too, geo. This thread has been pretty Hogless lately....”

“I tried to tell him not to shout too loudly or Artex would hear. Did he listen to my advice? Nooooooooooooooooooooo!”

“Gigantes going for a 4-game sweep of da bums tonight. Haven't done that since the Ford administration....”

“I would actually cheer for the dodgies if they would move back to Brooklyn.
Go Giants!!!! Chavez Ravine Sucks!”

“thats why I hate the mets....the Dodgers moved due to they could not get a new stadium and then when they move the mets are formed and get a new stadium.....what the phuck!!!

Yankees beat marko's Lame-O's :-)
5.5 games up on the Red Sux's”