Running MLB Thread, Part the Fourth, 2007

I'll be honest I am starting to get concerned about Duke. He has looked awful.

And here is the thing -- suppose they are, oh I don't know, four games out come July when the trading deadline rolls around -- do you think the management of that organization will go out and get a player or two to help put them over the top?

I don't -- I think they'll rationalize that they aren't in the race and they'll end up being sellers and dump some salaries--- again. That would be a shame because if they are close they owe it to their fans and to the city that built them a stadium to do everything in their power to, as Herm Edwards would say, play to win the game.

I mean, 14 years is a long, long time to go without having at least one season of .500 or better. You have to try to be that incompetent.

 

He'll be fine in a couple of years, right after they throw him in to a deal with the Mets.

 

Completely unrelated to baseball, but the above comment reminds me of it. On Monday's episode of "Wife Swap" one of the wives was making the point that the other husband wasn't manly at all and actually said, "he doesn't have a penis, he has a vagina." And, no I didn't have to read lips, the censors let that through on a show that airs from 8-9 p.m. ET. For some reason, that guy's wife was insulted.

 

Watching senor Benitez implode last night was kind of funny, but it did get me to thinking about balks. The late Jack Lang, longtime baseball writer, used to say that he never saw a balk and we'd all laugh. But when you think about it, other than on those rare occasions when it's obvious, when do we really actually see a balk before it's called? I've been watching baseball all my life (and that's a long time) and covered the game for more than 30 years and how many balks was I able to call before the umps called it and I watched the replays? All who say Benitez's balks last night were obvious must know a lot more than I do because I was watching and saw nothing on the first one and only saw the second one on the replay.

All I'm saying is that I don't mind admitting that the balk rule in baseball mystifies me.

Thanks for listening.

 

For Jays and CBC viewers, it looks like the Jays are coming back to CBC (thank god!)

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story/2007/05/29/cbc-sports-jays-deal.html

Jim Hughson will be doing play by play. Man that brings me back to when he used to do it in the ninties.

The long weekend in August, CBC will broadcast three games. I am personally happy that I will have something to watch Saturday afternoons in place of hockey. That and the FIFa Under 20 World Cup and CBC will have plenty to watch during the summer while we wait for HNIC to come back.

 

Note to the Brew Crew: Yell "I got it" from time to time. It will keep y'all from running into each other like a bunch of morons with every fly ball not right at someone.

 

That was below the belt...and it hurt like hell

 

Or deal him to the Cubs for 10 cents on the dollar.

 

Not quite a full century. But close. They should have a parade.

 

Or deal him to the Expos for Matt Herges

 

Fucking wild pitch. Fucking McCann. Fucking Brewers. 2-1 in the 8th with Turnbow and Cordero coming up.