Category: misc

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

Jimmy Edmonds

So how good has 2004 Gold Glove-winner Jimmy Edmonds been in recent years?

Well, having crunched some numbers, Rich Lederer says he’s very very very good. As in, not as good as Bonds, but as much better than all the other center fielders in the league as Bonds is better than all the other hitters.

Excluding the World Series, that is. We love you anyway, Jimmy. See you in the spring.

Original comments…

thatbob: Wow, Levi, that guy is even stat geekier than you. To wit, in fact, and furthermore, even!

Manager of the Year?

Wally Backman ends his tenure as Diamondbacks manager with a perfect record.

Original comments…

Jim: I checked the stats for this site last week, and one of the searches that had led someone to baseballrelated.com was “wally backman drinking problem,” or something like that. After he was hired Monday, I e-mailed Levi to say, “I wonder if that was the Diamondbacks checking up on him.” I guess it wasn’t!

Score that play 1-3, and thus ends 2004

Well, Levi, aside from the fact that you had a rooting interest in the team that lost the World Series, I would hope you can agree with this statement: overall, this was a great baseball season. Maybe you wouldn’t use the emphasis, but I would (and did).

Original comments:

Lucas: My condolences, Levi.

Toby: Sorry, Levi. When are you coming home? I have a CD for you.

Dan: Levi, I feel your pain — ’twas me in ’00. I didn’t speak to anyone for days. And I still don’t like talking about it.

Steve: Even though it didn’t turn out right for the Cardinals this year, thanks to Levi and Jim for making this one of the most enjoyable interactive baseball seasons ever. This blog was like an angioplasty in the artery that led to my black baseball loathing heart. There are many things that still bug the hell out of me about baseball but this is neither the time nor the place. Thanks again.

Quoth the Rajah

“People ask me what I do in the winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do: I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
— Rogers Hornsby

Here’s hoping the Cardinals stave off winter one game at a time until at least Sunday.

Original comments…

Luke, hanger-on: Only 129 days until pitchers and catchers report.

Levi: I was counting on someone knowing the number. I was consoling myeslf that it’s about four months.

Thanks, Luke.

It could still happen

Don’t worry, Levi; my co-worker Joe and I spent our lunch break on Tuesday coming up with horrible “curse” scenarios that would cause the Red Sox to lose in spectacular fashion. Among them: Curt Schilling has a perfect game going, until his legs fall off. Also, Tim Wakefield gets hit by a truck.

Original comments…

Jason: Other curse scenarios:

Johnny Damon gets lost during a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery.

David Ortiz loses his shirt at one of the local riverboat casinos, so he has to serve as a greeter for the rest of the series until his debt is paid off.

Bill Mueller gets married to Bill Buckner’s daughter, and decides to take her last name.

Manny Ramirez gets stuck atop the Gateway Arch.

Terry Francona turns into Terry Francenstein.

sandor: Of the three post-game Red Sox interviews I’ve seen in this series, all three players spent their first moments behind the mic profusely crediting God for all of their good fortune.

So it wouldn’t seem totally unreasonable to me, if in fact God is responsible for the Sox players’ success, for Him to suddenly… change his mind. Who better to put on a curse than the cursemeister Himself?

Levi: Or, if Satan is responsible for their good fortune, I could see him getting really pissed and pulling the plug.

We’ll know that tonight when Jason Marquis, with a freshly-grown goatee, hits three home runs and throws a two-hit shutout.

Johnny-o-Lantern

I’m too busy today to really comment on how poorly the weekend went for the Cardinals. So all I’ll do is share with you the jack-o-lantern Stacey made Saturday. She also made a Cardinals one, but I don’t have a photo yet.

Original comments:

Cushie: Stacey is a genius.

Jim: My co-worker Joe at first thought the Johnny-o-Lantern was Photoshopped. Perhaps after Halloween, Stacey can mail him the desiccated husk of the pumpkin.

Celebrations

Some people, when their team wins the pennant, pour champagne on their heads.

Me, I paint the second eye on my Daruma doll, four years after painting the first eye and wishing for a Cardinals World Series.

Such a ritual has the benefit of requiring much less clean-up than one involving the bubbly.

Original comments…

stacey: under the category of “bad wife” – i’ve carved a johnny damon pumpkin to celebrate the red sox:

http://www.therocketship.com/baseball/images/johhny.jpg

Color the Series red

One final accomplishment from the trip in August: we saw both World Series teams, twice each.

I think we’re going to have a schism among the proprietors of this blog now, since I’m going to be rooting for the Sox.

Original comments…

Levi: I figured during our trip there was a slim chance that we’d see two of the teams that we saw twice end up in the World Series. And I didn’t figure those teams would be the White Sox or Dodgers.

Jim: You thought the Brewers and the Tigers were going to be in the Series?!

Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen

I think, at this point, all I can do is quote Levi’s post from way back on April 5th.

I may have a new favorite non-Cardinal player.

Last night, we had a couple of people over to watch the opener between the Red Sox and the Orioles. We settled in, started the TiVo, and the first image of the season caused everyone to gasp in sheer, unadulterated awe. Johnny Damon, over the winter, turned into a god. He grew out his already shaggy hair so that it hangs over his shoulders, trailing out of his batting helmet or cap. And he grew a beard. It was hard to concentrate on what he was doing during his first at-bat, because all anyone in the room could look at or think about was all that hair. Then, on his first play in the outfield, he was coming in for a ball, not too fast, and it looked like there was no hope of his cap falling off. Everyone was disappointed. Then, like a silent prayer being answered, the cap popped off his head and his glossy locks floated free. There was much cheering in the Rocketship.

I apologize for not having a link to a photo. I haven’t seen one today, which just tells me, once again, that the majority of sportswriters have been doing their jobs so long that they no longer really love sports. Otherwise, today’s headlines would be along the lines of: Damon’s Hair, Beard Open a Glorious Season.

You know it’s going to be a great year now.

Original comments…

maura: and look at that kid tonight!! looks like the trim worked!!

Steve: If I wasn’t taking another crack at joining the foreign service tomorrow I would come over and show everyone the Johnny Damon autograph on my boobs. I still liked him better with the buzz but whatever.

I stand corrected!