Baseball Thread Number 8: Cal Ripken says the playoff hunt is fun

You trying to tell me Gerald Laird can't hit a curveball?

 

From your fingers to Tebow's ears.

 

Interesting brief, F_B. Couple this info with the miserable crowds in Oakland, and a few stragglers showing up for M's games ("crowd" last night around 16,000 announced), and the AL West isn't all that healthy.

Lots of tickets available for a weekend series with the Yanks in Seattle; that hasn't happened in a while.

 

Indians haven't been able to draw flies this season, and their president came out and said the team will lose $16 million this year. He basically throws the team's fans under the bus saying that because they don't show up, the team can't spend. Yeah, that'll get people to come to games.

 

Don't lose any sleep over that, Moddy. I'm not giving them a bleeping dime this year or for the foreseeable future. I can't begin to explain how much the Dolans have soured people in this town on the Indians, which, 10 years ago, would've been unfathomable. But from the same story where Paul Dolan cried about the team losing $16 mil this year, he also delivered this gem:

"If every four or five years we can have a shot at the World Series like we did in 2007. And compete for a playoff spot like we did in 2005, that's as good as it gets in this market."

That's right. In the best case scenario, we can hope for a chance to not fail once every presidential term. In other words, our own owner says we're f'd 80 percent of the time. I don't know how that comment flew under the radar as well as it did.

I know a baseball game is a staple of the annual SportsJournalists.com gathering, but seriously, if you're coming to Cleveland, there's a lot of better ways to spend your time than giving money to the Dolans. Maybe I'll try meeting up with everyone after the ballgame, because I just cannot justify going to the Jake, err, Progressive Field, anymore.

 

Considering you are accompanying the Nats on their second straight 100-loss season, I'm pretty sure Indians fans are glad they don't have your help.

 

If this were true in '07, Joba & the Yanks would have been a lot better off.

 

The Royals give Greinke some run support and he goes out and takes a line drive off the elbow in the fourth inning.

He finished the inning, but you could tell there was some discomfort too. He threw about 6-7 warmup pitches after he got hit. Bruce Chen immediately started warming up in the pen.


Edit: Greinke did come out for the fifth.


He has seven strikeouts, most of them called strikes, through 4 1/3.

 

Eight strikeouts (five called) through five.

He has 224, which is 16 from the Royals' season record held by Dennis Leonard.


He can console Joe Mauer when the Cy Young and MVP awards go to those most deserving Yankee players.

 

Derek Jeter should win the Cy Young, too, because he inspires the Yankees pitchers to do better.

In fact, it should be renamed the Derek Jeter Award.