It's baseball season

“Ya shouldn't orta snicker at the O's. T'ain't gentlemanly! Plus, it irks the baseball gods and they could come back and take a nip out of you.”

“That huge sucking sound yesterday was generated in Montreal. It was the Phillies.

'Course, Eric Milton had to lose sometime, although for the life of me I can't understand why.”

“WHEN I consider how my light is spent
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present 5
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best 10
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.”

“Oops, wrong Milton.”

“I was talking about Eric Milton, not Milton Berle.”

“Losing two of three to Tito's club ... man, some of these guys need to look in a mirror!

They could have first place to themselves it they could just win a few in a row.”

“Kid baseball fans: I started a new thread so we can focus on college a pros here.

How 'bout those boys from Fullerton, huh?”

“"a" = "and"”

“Anytime a team from Texass loses it's a good day!”

“Geo - you must be part Californian!”

“Mariner's throw in the towel and trade away Freddie Garcia. Man. Major rebuilding now. Where will Ichiro be traded to?”

“Arrgh! Somebody needs to tell Felipe Alou that he should NEVER put Felix Rodriguez in a game when the pressure is on. The guy has awesome stuff, but just folds like a cheap tent (backpacking reference) under pressure. Bottom of the 8th, 2 on, 1 out, 1-1 game. Rodriguez gets the first guy on a 4-6 FC, but it was hit too slowly to get the DP, so runners at the corners. LoDuca comes up, mired in a big slump, and, of course, slaps a single to left to put da bums ahead. The Beast comes in and slams the door in the 9th. Arrrrgh!!

Of course, if Scott Eyre hadn't thrown 4 straight balls to the .175 hitting pinch hitter....”

“If frogs had tails, pigs had wings, I'd been born to a millionaire, ...

Managers have brain farts too.”

“Somebody needs to tell Moises Alou that when a ball goes into the ivy at Wrigley, it's still fair.”

“Well, like I said, he brought in Eyre, a lefty, and Tracy countered with a right-handed pinch hitter. One with a .175 average. Oh, and by the way, righties are 2 for 33 so far this season against Eyre, something Alou should know. Four straight balls. Terrible pitching. Switch hitter up, Alou yanks Eyre for Rodriguez. Game over.”

“What happened? Did Felipe's boy screw up?”

“Yah, well, left field at Wrigley is sorta hard. Anyway, he booted a fly ball into the ivy, then couldn't find it. Got charged with a two-run error. I'm guessing he thought it should be a ground-rule double.

Fortunately, Craig Biggio did pretty much the same thing a few innings later and Cubs won anyway.”

“Royals win. Beat the O's. I think the Royals are going to be there in the end.”

“Oh, they will be there alright.”

“No matter where you go, there you are.”

“And if you aren't where you are, you're nowhere at all.”

“Apparently, Felipe Alou does not read TT. He put Felix Rodriguez in a tie game against da bums last night with the same result as on Tuesday. Dummy!”

“The papers here are calling for Larry Bowa to be replaced.

The team does seem to be in the doldrums to me.”

“Yeah, being in first place sucks, huh....”

“Barely in first place. They should be 10 games out.

Look at the won-loss percentage. Just a few games over .500.

With the team we've got, we have a lot of under-achievers.”

“Good point.

This weekend it's the Battle of the Bay, Part 2, this time in SF. It seems like most fans love one team and hate the other, but I grew up liking both teams. So I can't lose this weekend!

On a related note, my neighbor took her 15-month old to yesterday's A's-Angels matchup and got a foul ball! She was just walking along and a ball landed above her a bit; there was a scramble, and the ball dribbled down next to her and she just picked it up. I asked her if she spilled her beer. She said no, but she was holding her son. That had to be SportsCenter-worthy, dontcha think? Walking along holding a toddler and you still get the ball?!”

“One never knows. I've been close several times, but no luck. One was a homer that hit the aluminum facing right next to me and bounced right back out of the box. It put a dent in the facing. No way I was gonna try to snag that one. It was still rising when it hit.

I can't see the Phillies going past the first round of the playoffs unless they get their act together. They can't seem to win more than two games in a row. In seven games against Montreal, they went 4-3 against the worst team in the majors.”

“I have a few balls. My most prized one is the first one I got. I was 10 at the time, on 9/1/72, and was at a night game for the first time. The A's had the game pretty much wrapped up, ahead 4-1 in the bottom of the 8th. We recognized it was our last chance to potentially get a foul ball from an A's batter. Sure enough, Reggie Jackson came up and popped a high foul off of Tigers pitcher Chris Zachary in our direction. It came right to me, so I simply put my glove up and caught it. I was pretty excited to get a ball, but didn't really understand why everyone was clapping - why wouldn't you catch a ball that came right to you?! Maybe other peoples' 10-year-olds couldn't catch popups?

The other one I got in a game was on a ball that Bob Robertson of the Pirates hit a mile into the left-field bleachers at Candlestick, but foul. Again, it was right to me, so, of course, I just reached up and caught it.

Then I have two from batting practice, one hit by Mike Ivie and one by Jack Clark. Those bounced around a bit before I got 'em. I'm giving the Ivie ball to one of the kids on Cam's team for winning the contest for most pushups done during the season.”

“Oh, and I also have a ball signed by both Mays and McCovey that an old lady gave me - long story....”

“Oh come on Bowlder, you knocked over little kids to get those balls.”

“Yah, but did he pin'em under the seats with his leg?”

“Wait a minute - I was a little kid when I got those balls! If anything, I knocked over big burly grown men to get those!”

“I know none of you yankee hating dirtballs will agree, but last nights game against the Boston Redsox was the best regular season baseball game I have ever seen.....”

“Wow, Bowlder. You had better keep your door locked when I visit the Bay Area. That ball signed by both Willies would be a great item on the mantlepiece. Willy Mays, the best ball player to ever play the game.”

“Dunadan, if wishes were thefts, Bowlder would have lost that ball a long, long time ago.”

“However, I have a baseball signed by Lefty Hoffman, who got into all of three games with the 1939 Phillies and got the shellacking of his life. Bet nobody else in the world has a Lefty Hoffman autographed ball.”

“I'll bet you have an authentic Geobeet autograph too.”

“Nah, ... they're a dime a dozen!”

“I've got two signed balls socked away, one signed by Bullet Bob Turley, another signed by Rafael Palmeiro.”

“Lefty was the neatest old guy. He was showing up at amateur ballgames, and our photog told me about him. I had him in for an interview and did a story on him. Then I bought him a replica 1939 Phillies hat, and asked him to autograph the ball.

It was neat seeing those blue eyes sparkle for just a fleeting moment of time.

He'd stop in from time to time to say hello or talk about some golf tournament he was in (and won). Another story.

He recently passed on and I had to write his obit.
He had his 15 minutes, but he should have gotten a few more. How many guys have the talent and not the passion? This guy had the passion, some talent but not enough, and he still had fun pitching in semi-pro ball around the city. In that venue he was pretty damned good.”

“Let's see, Besides Lefty, I have Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt, Richie Ashburn, Robin Roberts, Brooks Robinson, and Frank Robinson, a number of the old Philadelphia A's, and an 1876 baseball in pretty good condition.

I'll be getting some of my father's baseballs as well, including Pete Rose and a few others.”

“But I still haven't snagged that $3.98 foul ball at the park!”

“I actually saw Willie Mac not long ago when I had to go to a public meeting for work. He (well, his developer) was trying to get approvals to build a restaurant, and the hearing for that was coincidentally the same night as for the project I was working on. So he was there at the meeting - the ol' battered knees had him on crutches, but he looked good other than that.”

“Dang, he wasn't a catcher. What right does he have to have battered knees? You wanna see battered knees ...?”

“Why da very noive uv dat guy!”

“Yeah, that's why he ended up playing 1B all those years. When he came up in '58 (ahem, 3 years before I was born!), he was a very speedy LF'er. Mantle was that way, too, wasn't he? Speedy, then with bum knees for no apparent reason?”

“looks like they will lose tonight, but holy St. Louis Cardinals batman!! I've been a Cards fan since I was in diapers and finally looks like they have a team to go all the way after a long drought. Go CARDINALS!!! Wish I could still can't "OZZIE! OZZIE!"”

“Went to the Home Run Derby last night, lots of fun.

When they introduced all the living 500 home run hitters it gave me goosebumps.”

“wow, I'm trying to think of who lat list would include. Some greats no doubt.”

“Here's a list of who was there, in descending order

A lot of my boyhood heros:

Hank Aaron
Barry Bonds
Willie Mays
Frank Robinson
Mark McGwire
Harmon Killebrew
Reggie Jackson
Sammy Sosa
Mike Schmidt
Rafael Palmeiro
Willie McCovey
Ernie Banks
Eddie Murray
Ken Griffey, Jr”