Archive for August, 2009
Check out who is in this news again: veal! In Which We May Soon Celebrate Danica Patrick In All Her Glory And Extremes Danica Patrick. In the interest of saving time, we have a summary -
When ESPN The Laddie Mag’s Body Issue was announced, tWWL was assertive about not becoming Playboy, a magazine for which Danica Patrick has not posed nude. The Body Issue may — or may not! — distinguish itself in that way.
Patrick has graced the pages of FHM and Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue, but declined an offer to go clothesless in Hef’s shrine to womankind. But ESPN The Mag? That’s a dealbreaker, ladies, SportsByBrooks reported Thursday night. Darren Rovell did some gumshoe reporting and got comments from Mr. Gary Belsky and Patrick’s camp, which was shocked — shocked! — to hear the report. (Your paycheck, ma’am.)
So says Patrick’s rep:
Lewis Kay of BNC public relations, which helps represent Patrick, came back with this note. “Danica is NOT confirmed to appear in the issue, nor has she even been approached,” Kay wrote.
And from the desk of Gary Belsky, (our emphasis):
“We are not announcing which athletes are participating in The Body Issue at this time,” Belsky, wrote in an e-mail. “When we do reveal the participant list, we will not reveal who disrobed and who did not. The photos will answer most such questions, of course; and we will otherwise let the individual athletes reveal, should they so choose, whether they removed all clothing for our shoots.”
“Some are fully disrobing, some are not. That’s why we’re calling it The Body Issue, not The Nude Issue. In every case, the photos are appropriate and tasteful. The Body Issue is a celebration and exploration of the athletic form in all its glory and extremes, situated within the boundaries of taste and the frontiers of artistic excellence upon which ESPN The Magazine and ESPN have built their reputations.“
Personally, though, I don’t understand the fuss. So what if ESPN The Mag is trying to be a more refined copycat of Playboy once a year? I read it for the articles anyway.
Danica To Bare It All SBB
ESPN ‘Nude’ Issue Rumors Surface CNBC
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How do you think this news will affect the team this season?
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Mark Teixeira is an MVP contender. CC Sabathia is piling up wins. A.J. Burnett is throwing heat — and the occasional whipped cream pie. This is exactly what the New York Yankees envisioned last offseason when they spent $423.5 million on three big free agents: a pinstriped juggernaut in their swanky new stadium.
I have always been a big fan of Burnett, I have to say, seeing stuff like this gives me mixed feelings.This will be shocking news for Burnett fans, but there are those of you who will say that you saw it coming. I’m pretty surprised. Burnett is sweet, I really hope this doesn’t affect the season.
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Check out who is in this news again, young! This time, Guess who’s back on the mound! , we have a summary:
NEW YORK - OK, so maybe in the world of Ozzie Guillen grandchildren are overrated anyway.
Asked last week if he would give Jose Contreras another start this season, the White Sox manager responded, “I’ve got three kids, and I want to see my grandkids when they are born. I don’t want to get a heart attack before my time.”
Pennant races must make a man do crazy thing, because guess who is getting the start for this afternoon’s start against the New York Yankees?
“Saturday’s starter is going to be Jose Contreras,” Guillen announced after Friday’s loss. “I don’t have many choices. Our choices in the minor leagues weren’t very good. He’s going to start Saturday. We made sure we changed his routine, so we hope he pitches well.”
Guillen was asked why the organization decided to go away from calling up youngsters Daniel Hudson or Carlos Torres, and he pointed toward the fact that the roster somewhat had their hands tied.
“Because we don’t have another options at all,” Guillen said. “Then we don’t want to move anyone off the roster and we’ll see how it works.”
Contreras was finally yanked out of the starting rotation earlier in the week, after he went 1-5 with a 6.16 ERA in his last eight starts.
The Sox were hoping that the Saturday spot would be filled by Jake Peavy, but after taking a comebacker in his right elbow last Monday, they opted to give him one more start in Class AAA Charlotte Saturday night.
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This might be shocking news for young fans, but there are those of you who will say that you saw it coming from a mile away. I’m pretty surprised. young is spectacular, I hope this doesn’t affect the season.
Want to give yourself an edge? Want the same professional equipment that MVPs use? Want a great deal? Get $0 shipping on orders over $99 when you shop online at BaseballRampage. These guys have everything you and your team need, from bats balls and gloves to cleats, bases, even pitching machines.
Look who is in this news again - veal! This time, Soriano’s First HR In August Leads Cubs To 5-2 Win Over Mets. For you convenience, we have a summary -
There may be life in the corpse after all.
After getting only two runners past first base through seven innings, one of them scoring, the Cubs wasted Ted Lilly’s outstanding starting outing when Kevin Gregg gave up a run-scoring single to Fernando Tatis.
No, wait. That’s not fair to Gregg, who got Tatis to hit a two-out fly ball that most left fielders would have caught up with. Alfonso Soriano actually did do that, then let the ball pop out of his clove. It was his third defensive miscue of the game and gave the Mets a 2-1 lead, though his relay throw to Ryan Theriot was sent on home to nail Daniel Murphy at the plate.
And the way the Cubs have played most of this month, that would have been it — giving up the lead run in the late innings, they haven’t been able to mount comebacks. This time, though, a double from Milton Bradley — who also had an adventurous game in the outfield, even while having a fine day at the plate — started the game-winning rally off Mets reliever Brian Stokes. Stokes has been the Mets’ most consistent reliever all year, but he couldn’t stop the Cubs. Derrek Lee moved Bradley to third on a deep fly ball to RF, where he scored the tying run on an Aramis Ramirez single.
Jeff Baker walked — that surprised all of us, who thought he might not have checked his swing in time on a 3-2 pitch — and then Soriano hit his game-winning blast.
Carlos Marmol made us think he was going to play walkathon again, walking the leadoff hitter in the 9th, but then he got three quick outs including a pair of K’s and the Cubs took the first game of the series 5-2, helping Lou Piniella celebrate his 66th birthday today.
Let’s address the booing of Bradley and Soriano first. I’ve consistently said that I’d only boo a perceived lack of effort. I don’t see that from either one of those players — I do think they are giving 100% effort on the field. Bradley was booed when he misplayed a ball in the second inning, allowing the Mets’ first run to score, and thereafter had a mix of boos and cheers when he came up to bat. He also bowed to the crowd in RF after making a nice catch in the seventh inning, which I thought was pretty funny and actually, an appropriate reaction from him. The booing really isn’t necessary, but I can understand fans’ frustration with Bradley, who just doesn’t seem to be a good fit here. He’s made odd comments and then blamed the media for trying to inflame things. There was quite a group of reporters on the field outside the Cubs dugout before the game, probably trying to get more on this story, which I wish would just go away.
It is not my purpose here to reignite the debate about whether Bradley should stay or not. My position is clear and I’m sticking with it — I think he should be traded, and hope the Cubs can do that. In the meantime I hope he hits the hell out of the ball in September, because that would help the team he’s on right now. Here are some cogent comments from Cubs Hall of Famer Billy Williams on this issue:
The sense he gets, Williams said, is fans are focused on what players do on the field and they don’t care about race or your family tree.
“Here’s a case of a player who played here and had some good years — Randy Hundley — and his son Todd came here and didn’t do so well and he got booed,” Williams said. “It’s not directed to any player who’s doing good, it’s directed to players who aren’t having a good year. The fans just want to see good baseball.
“Because we’ve made the playoffs the last couple years, they want a winner here,” he said. “If you don’t perform, they say, ‘Hey, he’s in the Major Leagues and he should perform.’”
Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee told Bradley the best thing to do is ignore the comments. Williams agrees.
“You’ve got to have confidence that you can get beyond that,” Williams said. “Those people have a problem. You have to be like a duck out of water — you have to let it flow off your back.”
Amen, Billy. Amen.
As for Soriano, Lou admitted during the postgame news conference that Sori’s knees are still bothering him and that “he just can’t move around out there”. Well, if that’s the case, why isn’t he on the DL, or why hasn’t this been revealed until now? This has been speculated on for at least a couple of months, and perhaps a DL stint back in May or June would have fixed the problem and he’d be at full strength now. Instead, Lou said Soriano probably wouldn’t play tomorrow and would be examined by the trainers. It’s not clear whether that means Soriano has to be shut down for a while — given that it’s nearly September 1, there’s no great need to place him on the DL, since rosters can expand in three days. If he can hit like he did today, maybe a day off here and there would keep him able to play most of the time, and he could start another hot streak.
Now, back to the nicely played win — it’s too bad Lilly couldn’t have gotten the victory today, because he threw yet another fine game. But the bullpen did its job and so did the offense, coming from behind. I’m not going to turn this into blind optimism because I see the reality of where the Cubs would have to go if they want to make something out of the last 36 games of the season. Today’s crowd of 39,381 included maybe 9,000 no-shows; the bleachers were pretty full but there were many scattered empty seats elsewhere, due not only to the recent play of the Cubs but the late-Septembrish weather. There were quite a number of people seen around the park in Mets garb, probably having planned their trips months ago when the Mets were still thinking about contending. Those fans probably never dreamed they’d not see Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran, all disabled.
Nevertheless, a win is a win, and well done at that. They’ll try to take another one from the Mets tomorrow. Keep the faith.
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This will be shocking news for veal fans, but some of you who will say that you saw it coming from a mile away. I can’t say I’m all that surprised though. veal is spectacular, I really hope this doesn’t affect the rest of the team.
Want to give yourself an edge? Want the same type of professional equipment that the professional athletes use? Want to steal a few dollars off the price? Get $0 shipping on orders over $99 when you shop at BaseballRampage. These guys have everything you need, from bats balls and gloves to cleats, bases, even pitching machines.
Nobody can top young nowadays,
Sky Blue FC won the first Women’s Professional Soccer League championship last weekend, but didn’t find out until the champagne celebration that their coach-slash-captain, Christie Rampone, is three months pregnant. No, she didn’t play barefoot.
Rampone, who is also the captain of the U.S. national women’s team, was forced to take over as coach after the team (which has only been in business since March) had already lost its second coach of the season. They rallied to snag the last spot in the playoffs, then beat the league’s top three teams, all on the road, in eight days. Then she drove the team bus to Dairy Queen and bought everyone Blizzards.
It wasn’t until teammates started bugging her about not drinking during the celebration that Rampone finally admitted that she was 11 weeks along. Oh, and she had surgery for a ruptured ovarian cyst in July. What did you accomplish this summer?
Yeah, maybe those NFL players are a bunch of pussies.
Christie Rampone, captain/coach of champion Sky Blue FC, expecting second child NJ Star-Ledger
Christie Rampone: Ultimate Soccer Mom Fanhouse
Oh, baby: Christie Rampone’s happy secret LA Times
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Tell us your opinion!
Want to give yourself an edge? Want the same type of professional equipment that MVPs use? Want to buy it for less? Get $0 shipping on orders over $99 when you shop online at BaseballRampage. These guys have everything you could need, from bats balls and gloves to cleats, bases, even pitching machines.
Young doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into -
Let’s push controversy aside for a while, shall we, and try to just enjoy a baseball game this afternoon?
The last time the Mets visited Wrigley Field was more than 16 months ago, on April 22, 2008. That isn’t that long ago in baseball terms, but of the eight starting Cubs that day, four are no longer with the team and one is on the DL. Five other Cubs who appeared in the game are elsewhere as well. As for the Mets, four of their starting eight from that game won’t appear due to injury and three others have departed.
Ronny Cedeno hit a grand slam in that game, just to remind you of blasts from the past. It’s still his only slam. (That’s just about the time we started calling him ONEDEC.)
Two very different teams will take the field at Wrigley this afternoon from that long-ago day in 2008 (the Cubs did face the Mets last September, still almost a year ago, when the Mets were desperately trying to win a playoff spot, which they lost on the last day of the season). The Mets have been decimated by injuries, both to their starting lineup and pitching rotation — the three Mets probable starters in this series, Pat Misch, Bobby Parnell and Nelson Figueroa, were definitely not the pitchers Jerry Manuel envisioned in his rotation in April.
OK, I suppose I can’t resist a couple of links and comments regarding the current Milton Bradley situation. Phil Rogers says the Cubs should just cut him, which would cost north of $20 million and I think is a ridiculous idea, but Rogers also offer some suggestions of other teams’ bad contracts that could result in a trade:
The only way to trade Bradley, according to executives with other clubs, is to up your ante to take on someone else’s bad contract. You know the names — the Blue Jays‘ Vernon Wells, owed $98.5 million over five years; the Giants‘ Barry Zito, $83 million over four years; the Astros‘ Carlos Lee, $55.5 million over three years, maybe the Giants’ Aaron Rowand, $36 million over three years.
The best of those scenarios involves the Rangers‘ five-year, $80-million deal with Michael Young, who at 32 is a productive player. He’s owed $16 million a year for four more seasons.
In a cost-cutting mode because of ownership problems, Texas might consider a Bradley-for-Young trade. But it wouldn’t do it during its ongoing playoff race and it’s going to be increasingly awkward for them to try to wade through a hugely problematic trade.
As Rogers says, Texas is in a playoff race and probably wouldn’t do it now. So are the Giants with Zito, who has actually pitched very well since the All-Star break. The Vernon Wells deal would be more palatable to the Cubs if it didn’t have five years and nearly as much money as Alfonso Soriano’s. But I’d do it. Wells is virtually the same age as Bradley (about eight months younger) and, though he’s had a couple of tough years since he signed his monster deal, at least he does have proven power numbers from the past, and could play CF, allowing Kosuke Fukudome to move back to RF next season (with Reed Johnson retained to back them both up).
And strangely enough, the best local media words on this situation come from the Tribune’s Steve Rosenbloom, who I almost never agree with and who often writes ridiculous bombast. But today he nails it, in a column titled Bradley’s response ought to anger those who take on racism seriously:
Racism is serious. If you are concerned or angry enough to put that in the public discussion, then you seemingly should be motivated to explain when and where this happened. How else do you take a step toward keeping it from happening again?
But when Bradley offers only cynicism and sarcasm, he diminishes the severity of the issue. Moreover, he does a disservice to those suffering abuse but who are willing to fight the fight head on.
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Under no circumstances does anyone deserve to be abused racially. Underachieving baseball player and racial epithets are dots that should never connect.
But Bradleyâs history and now his dismissive response to questions following his serious charges invite the suggestion that heâs looking for ways to shield himself from his problems, self-inflicted or otherwise.
One hundred percent correct, Mr. Rosenbloom. Bravo.
Try to enjoy today’s game.
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Pat Misch’s stats below are with the Mets only; see the pitcher box for his full-season stats.
There’s no profile photo of Pat Misch in a Mets cap available (at least not in that size), so you get one of him with his former team, the Giants. The Mets acquired Misch on waivers in July and he’s spent the last couple of months shuttling between Buffalo and New York, making 15 relief appearances with the Mets (after four with the Giants). He is a Chicago-area native who graduated from Glenbrook North HS in Northbrook in 1999 and has made three career relief appearances vs. the Cubs, all in 2007. This will be his first start as a Met. Only one current Cub has a hit off him — Koyie Hill (1-for-2), but that’s covering only eight total at-bats from all current Cubs.
Ted Lilly is 2-1, 3.86 in five career appearances (four starts) vs. the Mets. His last two starts against them, one in 2007 and one in 2008, were both wins, the last one in the April 22, 2008 game mentioned above. The current Met who has the most AB against Ted is Gary Sheffield; Sheffield is only 5-for-28 against him.
Cable-only today in Chicago (CSN) and New York (SNY). For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Mets site Amazin’ Avenue.
Overflow comment threads will post today at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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What do you think.
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I wonder how Young’s fans feel: Michael Young and the Texas Rangers chased Joba Chamberlain early, then hung on for a nail-biting win at noisy Yankee Stadium. If this was a first-round playoff preview, there’s plenty to get excited about. Rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus turned Melky Cabrera’s line drive into a game-ending double play, and Texas held off the New York Yankees 10-9 on Tuesday night in a game of momentum swings…
what do you think?This might be shocking news for Young fans, but there are those of you who will say that you saw it coming. I’m pretty surprised. Young is spectacular, I really hope this doesn’t affect the season.
Want to give yourself an edge? Want the same professional equipment that MVPs use? Want to steal a few dollars off the price? Get free shipping on orders over $99 when you shop at BaseballRampage. These guys have practically everything you and your team could need, from bats balls and gloves to cleats, bases, even pitching machines.
I wonder how Duke’s real fans feel:
Elijah Dukes seemed to be beating a path to the batter’s box because his Washington Nationals’ teammates kept getting on base and giving him a chance to hit. “You’ve got me down in the seven hole and it just comes so quick. You’ve got guys up there that’s basically hit after hit after hit and then I’m up there.
what do you think?This will be shocking news for Duke fans, but some of you who will say that you saw it coming. I’m pretty surprised though. Duke is awesome, I really hope this doesn’t affect the season.
Here’s a clip of Duke:
Keith Olbermann: “Minor league managers duke it out” - 8/20/2009
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On Sanchez: “You saw his eyes get big,” Ray Lewis said, “and he was jumping around in the pocket. We gave him a lot of looks and disguises, and we confused him a little bit.” NYP (photo courtesy via Smoot)
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I have always been a fan of sanchez, but I have to say, seeing news like this gives me mixed feelings.This will be shocking news for sanchez fans, but there are those of you who will say that you saw it coming. I’m pretty surprised though. sanchez is spectacular, I really hope this doesn’t affect the season.
Want to give yourself an edge? Want the same professional equipment that the professional athletes use? Want to buy it for less? Get $0 shipping on orders over $99 when you shop online at BaseballRampage. These guys have everything you could need, from bats balls and gloves to cleats, bases, even pitching machines.
I wonder how Chavez’s serious fans feel, If it wasn’t for the second game in a GCL double-header, the affiliates would have scored progressively fewer runs as you descend the minor league ladder. So what I’m saying is, stop reading after Dunedin.
Las Vegas 9 at Salt Lake 8
The 51s did a pretty good job of scoring throughout the game, and yet they were behind from the bottom of the 1st until the top of the 8th when they broke through for 3 runs and finally re-captured the lead they had first taken in the top of the 1st. The offense was fairly evenly distributed, with only Brian Dopirak not reaching base. Buck Coats drove in 3 on a triple and a single, and Aaron Mathews had 2 singles and 2 walks. T.J. Beam didn’t have a great start, but the trio of Zach Stewart, Brian Wolfe and Jeremy Accardo picked him up nicely, allowing 1 run over the final 4 2/3.
Scoring almost as many runs as you have hits is generally a good way to win a game. New Hampshire was more efficient than their opponents, scoring 8 runs on 9 hits while Trenton banged out 12 hits, but could only convert those runners into 5 runs. Nick Gorneault swung the big bat for the Cats, with 3 RBIs on a single and a homer. David Cooper doubled and walked twice. The pitching was nothing to write home about, or anything to write Batter’s Box about, really.
Moises Sierra 4 at Clearwater 2
Dunedin got out-hit 11-8 in this contest, but they had the big hit that counted: a grand slam by Moises Sierra. Clearwater did a poor job cashing in their runners, as they went 2-11 with RISP. Charles Huggins was good on the mound, allowing an earned run on 7 hits in 5 innings, and striking out 8.
Lansing put up a good fight in this one; they had 9 hits including homers by Mike McDade and Balbino Fuenmayor, and got a quality start out of Chase Lirette, who allowed 3 runs in 6 innings. It just wasn’t quite enough, as Jason Roenicke allowed the tying and go-ahead run to score in his 3 innings of work. Johermyn Chavez had a double in 4 trips, while Welinton Ramirez singled and stole a base.
Mahoning Valley 12 at Auburn 1
There is absolutely nothing that happened in this game that I care to mention.
GCL Blue Jays 1 at GCL Braves 3 (7 innings)
Wow, take a look at that box score. Actually, don’t, it’s bleak. The GCL Jays managed just 3 hits and 1 walk. Bryson Namba was the hero, homering in half of his at bats, but even though he wasn’t pinch-hit or pinch-run for or anything, he only managed 2 at bats. Gustavo Pierre had a single and a steal, and there was some solid work out of the bullpen.
GCL Braves 3 at GCL Jays 4 (7 innings)
That’s a little better. Eric Thames and Jony Fernandez each doubled and walked, and John Roberts smacked a solo homer to give the Baby Jays just enough offense to even up the doubleheader. Someone named Lance Loftin’ pitched 2 perfect innings out of the bullpen, but should probably switch to hitting with a name like that.
Three Stars
3. Moises Sierra - grand slam
2. Buck Coats - 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI
1. Nick Gorneault - 2-4, HR, 3 RBI
what do you think?This might be shocking news for Chavez fans, but there are those of you who will say that you saw it coming. I can’t say I’m all that surprised though. Chavez is sweet, I really hope this doesn’t affect the rest of the team.
Here’s a clip of Chavez doing his best work:
Baseball
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