Category: misc

Posts that don’t quite fit into any other categories.

In the daytime, I’m Mr. Natural

Here’s a trivia note I read somewhere Saturday. I mentioned it to someone at a party Saturday night, but forgot to post it here. Clearly, I need to be less social.

This is going to be the first season since 1965 in which all National League teams have had natural grass in their home stadiums. Poor American League. And speaking of artificially-turfed American League stadiums, SkyDome is SkyDome no longer.

Original comments…

Levi: The disappearance of artificial turf is the only good side effect of the national publicly financed stadium boondoggle.

Don’t ever say I don’t look at the silver lining!

Kline time

Hanger-on Jay passes along this note about the August 22, 2004 Cardinals-Pirates game: “At the game you attended in St. Louis, reliever Steve Kline got on base on a sacrifice and a fielder’s choice and then scored on either a triple or a grand slam from Larry Walker. Well, it turns out you have personally witnessed every run that Kline ever scored.”

Original comments…

Levi: I do love Steve Kline. I’ve been imagining him playing with his kids in the snow while wearing his new Orioles cap. Hunting deer while wearing his new Orioles cap. Changing the oil on Tony Womack’s purple Lamborghini while wearing his new Orioles cap.

He’ll be ready for Spring Training.

Luke, hanger-on: I’m not big on recounting dreams, but …

Last night I dreamt I saw Stacey at a Critical Mass. I asked where Levi was — and he was on a baseball-related trip to Florida.

Unfortunately that’s all I remember.

Luke, hanger-on: I’m so sorry: Another dream. Apropos of nothing but baseball.

In this dream I’m organizing a trip to the ballpark with Owen, someone I went to school with in Oregon 10 years ago and haven’t thought of since. It occurs to us that a lot of the people who would come to a game with us were named Ed, so I propose we call our event “Eds Go Out to the Ballgame.” We’d invite anyone whose name was Ed, and those whose name wasn’t Ed could change theirs, and we’d get Ed Debevic’s to sponsor us.

Two minor dreams about baseball in one week. I’m now thinking of the Peanuts series where Charlie Brown wakes up and the sun is a baseball, and by the end of the week his head is a baseball.

Three weeks, pitchers and catchers.

More aerial photos

The other current major league stadiums I’ve been to…

SBC Park, San Francisco, California

Network Associates Coliseum, Oakland, California

Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois

And the other major league stadiums…

Pro Player Stadium, Miami, Florida

Turner Field, Atlanta, Georgia

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland

Shea Stadium, New York, New York

Future site of Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, Ohio (construction site east of Riverfront Stadium)

Kaufmann Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas

The Ballpark at Arlington or whatever the corporate sponsor is now, Arlington, Texas

Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

Bank One Ballpark, Phoenix, Arizona (under construction)

Safeco Field, Seattle, Washington

Finally, since Terraserver only has U.S. aerial images, Olympic Stadium is unavailable, but here’s a substitute…

RFK Stadium, Washington, DC

The best episode of "Clubhouse" ever

Hanger-on Sandy passed along this story. It seems that Kris Benson’s wife Anna has already thought through what she’s going to do if he cheats on her. I can’t speak for the married half of baseballrelated.com, but as far as the single half is concerned, this is the first time being a Mets batboy has ever seemed like a good idea.

This is Anna Benson. (Don’t worry, the picture is reasonably safe for work.)

Now, what about Mrs. Jose Lima?

Original comments…

Dan: I should have passed this story along earlier.. The Stern interview was about two weeks ago. She’s insane, and now with Pedro on board, his little friend is fair game. Among other people, I believe, who shall remain nameless.

I’ve already wanted to float the Mets clubhouse reality show — between her, Pedro and accompanying midget, Mike Piazza and his debated sexuality… I WANT Sammy here, not even to play but to add to the comedy.

Levi: Hmm. The timing on this story does make me wonder about Pedro’s motives for becoming a Met.

maura: i’d probably steer clear of mrs. lima for now…

http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3212570

Jim: Not to mention steering clear of the entire Dominican Republic!

Dominican Republic: That’s not fair, Jim. We don’t all have herpes.

Haiti: Well, don’t try to blame us!

My wife is great.

One piece of evidence is in a comment to the previous post, but in case you’re not in the habit of trolling through the comments, I thought I’d run it as a regular post, just so you don’t miss it.

It’s what I hope to see on Opening Day.

Original comments:

Luke, hanger-on: Given that he’s the most devout Christian in baseball, the look would make sense. How Would Jesus Groom?

Who else?

Bad:
As a lover of symmetry, I had hoped that Johnny Damon, having been the first batter of the season, would oblige me by being the last batter of the season. It is purely incidental that such a result would also have only been possible due to the Cardinals winning the World Series. Sadly, Johnny wasn’t interested in symmetry.

Good:

This. And Damon had one of his best seasons, which might encourage other players to go all shaggy. Who wouldn’t love to see Albert Pujols with a Damon look?

Original comments…

Toby: This is totally off the subject, but Levi, you might be interested to know that a kid from your hometown, Steven Smith, has just signed to play with Kansas University, where one of his teammates will be A. J. Van Slyke, the son of former Cardinal Andy Van Slyke.

As a Pirate fan, I sure do wish Francisco Cabrerra would have hit that ball to center field in 1992. If so, Van Slyke’s throw to the plate would have been on the money, unlike the 7-time MVP’s. Mike “Spanky” LaValliere made a superb catch and dive–all in one motion–just to make that play close.

stacey: http://therocketship.com/baseball/images/bearded_albert.jpg

2004 in Review, part 1

Now that things are finally a bit quieter at work, I’m finally going to do a season-ending wrap-up. And I’ve decided that the way to do it which will be the most fun for me is to pair bad and good things about the season and string them out over many, many posts until I get bored, or all of you get bored, or pitchers and catchers report. So here goes.

Bad:
The *#$)@&@#% Braves won their weak-ass division again. Remember at the All-Star Break, when Dan pointed out that the Braves’ struggles in the first half were one of the good things about the 2004 season so far? Yeah. That was nice. But now they’ve won their division every year since 1991 (except for 1994, when this much better Expos team would have beaten them, had it not been for Bud Selig). The last time the Braves didn’t win their division, I had just gotten my driver’s license. Only true political junkies knew who Bill Clinton was. Bob Hope wasn’t even 90 years old yet. John Smoltz’s Abe Lincoln beard had just gone out of style, along with high, starched collars and medicinal leeching.

And they’ve done it with a constantly changing cast. Smoltz is the only Braves player who’s been on every one of those teams. *#$)@&@#% Braves.

Good:

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays escaped the cellar for the first time in team history. And the American League’s Eastern Division had a new order of finish for the first time since 1998.

Original comments…

Toby: Levi, Surely you are as outraged as I am that a Cardinal didn’t win the MVP… Do you think having three legitimate candidates ended up hurting each of their chances?

Levi: I have to admit, Toby, that I think Bonds was the MVP. He was just that much better.

I am surprised that Beltre finished second, since both Edmonds and Pujols were better than he was, and Rolen was just as good.

Edmonds is the one I think got jobbed: in my view, he was the second-best player in baseball this year, hands-down. But he finishes a distant fifth.

Dan: Down the stretch I was pulling for Beltre, because he sure carried the Dodgers on their back (and as he was on my fantasy team, I was paying close attention). But when I put it all in perspective, the Giants are, really, a last-place team without Bonds. He’s just killer. I don’t like him, but he’s just in another world.

Of course, I’m no Cardinals fan. So I didn’t see which of they three were most deserving, were deserving at all, etc.

And I have my own issues with Jime. So I’d call Vlad or Tejada 2nd best, but that’s just me.

Dan: OT: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/bal/news/bal_news.jsp?ymd=20041111&content_id=912833&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp — an update on the Orioles’ owbn Stahl.

Levi: Dan, it sounds like you dated Jimmy Edmonds, or were roommates with him, or the Porsche he sold you was a lemon.

Or do you have other problems with him?

Dan: Did I never tell you the story about the “Jime” fan?

I was at the one 2000 NLCS game the Mets lost (or, to your POV, that the Cardinals won), at Shea. There was some dude who was being insanely annoying, strangely combative guy wearing a shirt he made that said JimE (with no spaces) and a big No. 15. Under that it said MVP. He was a real pain in the ass and we (Mets fans) gave him an earful. And our seats sucked, so we were all collectively edgy as it is.

So that’s why I don’t like Jim Edmonds — or, Jime. Not a very good one, but at least there’s SOME story behind it.

Oh, and he had sex with my sister.

-Dan

(S)T(L) and sympathy

In 1996, Levi was in the U.K. and the Cardinals battled the Braves in the NLCS. The Braves beat the Cardinals 14-0 in Game 5, and then 15-0 in Game 7, becoming the first team to win the NLCS after being down 3 games to 1. So I mailed Levi, across the ocean, a sympathy card with a few news clippings enclosed.

This year, shortly before Game 4 of the World Series was about to begin with the Cardinals already down 3 games to 0, I stopped off at the drugstore and bought a sympathy card. There was no reason to include news clippings this time, so instead, so it was more than just a card, I broke out my disused colored pencils to do some illustration, making a certain logo into a sad and tearful Cardinal.

I was finished by the sixth inning, and we all know what happened next. I put it in the mail the next day.

The preprinted message on the right reads “Although no words of sympathy can ease the loss you bear/Still, may you find some comfort knowing others truly care.” Appropriate, huh? The message I wrote on the left reads, “Well, we’ll see what happens in the next 86 years… (signed) Jim.” There was a raised illustration of a bouquet of flowers on the front of the card, so I couldn’t draw on the bumpy surface on the left side (which I didn’t think about when I was buying the card). I think I did a pretty good job, except for the fact that I somehow managed to end up with the cardinal leaning backwards. It’s more straight up-and-down in the real Cardinals logo.

Original comments…

Levi: I don’t know that this presentation does the card justice. The crying Cardinal looks very, very sad.

But Jim, does the fact that you were working on this card during the final game mean that the Cardinals’ loss is your fault?

Jim: I was watching the game TiVo-delayed, so nothing I did could possibly have affected the outcome. At least that’s my excuse.

Jason: It looks like the Cardinal is about to fall backwards off the bat in despair. And nice lettering job! Could you now draw a happy Devil Ray to celebrate the escape from the AL East cellar?

Johnny Damon’s still in the news

A baseballrelated.com fan (and/or a Johnny Damon fan) passes along this link to an article about the Red Sox being honored before the New England Patriots game last night. I don’t usually watch the Sunday night football game, so I didn’t see it. (“The Lighthouse in the Forest”? Maybe I’m just unaware of how far out of town Foxboro is.)