Sportsmanship

Thank God for girl softball! This story made me cry.

I Could Have Been an October Guy

Yes, before I can say "talent" and "boys of summer," there is a prosaic explanation.

Ichiro vs Bobby Fischer

"Ichiro has no business playing in the US and for a US team," Fischer says in his 2004 rdio interview with Bombo Radio. "Point two: The game has changed so much, the ball's livelier, the bats are livelier. The old records were much harder to make. Point three: I believe this has been staged between the Japanese and US governments. They could easily have stopped him from breaking the record, simply by giving him walks. Let's say he had been originally from Cuba and still pro-Castro. Do you think they would have let him break the record like that? No way. They would have given him walks or tried to hit him with the ball. I saw [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro] Koizumi on TV congratulating Ichiro. Me he has put into prison, him and Bush working in conspiracy. That's perfectly okay for him. But he would never dream of putting Ichiro into prison, on an immigration charge."

Taschen's Baseball Book

Baseball season is over. But you can relive the glory with this new book from Taschen. Neil Leifer and Eric Kroll edited this humongous book (39.6 x 33 cm, 302 pages). The price is £ 300.00. Pounds not dollars.

Batman and Jeter

And then there is the official Derek Jeter baseball card. If you look closely, you see President Bush and Mickey Mantle. How did they get into the official card? It is supposed to be a joke. But it now pains me to see you Jeter breaking the record of the most induced double plays in a series.

The Attack of the Canadian Soldiers

You get the squirms watching Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain's nape. Little bugs, some said they are Canadian soldiers, were bugging the relief pitcher and it clearly bugged him. An umpire sprayed Off on Joba's uniform and cap but apparently forgot to spray his neck. So Joba made some wild pitches which allowed Gary Sizemore of the Indians to steal home. So what are these bugs. They came late in the game and disappeared. They were all over the Yankees, the way they reacted especially Jeter. mlb.com wrote: "According to the Associated Press, in a game taking place against the Angels at Jacobs Field in September 2004, play was stopped several times after players complained of swallowing the bugs while running the bases. The situation played out very similar on Friday, with the bugs ending up in players' mouths, eyes, noses ..." Hmmm
Late breaker: the bugs are midges. AP said that it was God's wrath that did it to the Yanks. And here's a photo that was accidentally clever. It was supposed to be Go Tribes with red and silver alternating. But the silver spells "O RBI." That's for A-Rod, I now guess. The Yankee's 4-5-6 were pitiful with A-Rod again known as "O No/ O-Rod/ O for October" as one Cleveland placard had it.

Yanquis

I am wearing my Yankee jacket. They lost. Tremendously, as in. 12-3. Only four hits and nada from A-Rod who was made to pass the baton (walked). The biggest loser is LeBron James of Clevaland Cavaliers who was wearing a Yankee cap and flaunting like stupid.
Then later, Kaz (Kazuo Matsui), now with the Rockies hit a triple, double and a grandslam to make it 2-0 in their series against the Phillies. Things are not OK with the Phillies and the Cubs (Go, Chicago) because only seven baseboru teams came back from a 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five series. For the Yankees, they would have a 5 pm game to even things up.

Maori Wallpaper

I was researching on a Maori woodcarver who came here last week. I was looking for the Maori term for mask and got this picture instead. These are real heads by the way. This is taking the term 'trophy head" to its grossest form.
And I was awake at 1 am watching the Mets collapse on the 1st inning. Seven runs given in the 1st inning by Glavine??? Jamie Moyer was the Phillies pitcher who stuck the dagger on the Met's hopes by dumbfounding the Nationals with his slow pitch. He used to be a Mariner favorite. Another is A-Rod who has a phenomenal year as a Yankees. Gil Meche is also flourishing somewhere. Former coach Lou Piniella just made the Chicago Cubs a contender. Seems the Ms are best when they're out? By consolation, the Ms won their last 5 games and they are the only team to improve their record for the past three years. If that's any consolation.

ESPN's Top 100 People to Hate

Only 100 athletes you would say but Jonah Keri had separate categories for quarterbucks, the New York Yankees and the Mets, Cubs, Red Sox and Phillies. I was thinking, hey, they almost forgot the Mariners (Sexson is here) but they saved the best for last.

M's

Seattle Mariners are on a 0-9 roll. Whoa! And they will next meet the Yankees. Double Whoa! But so as not to depress us further, we give you the top 1000 songs of the 1980s or Top 100 per year.

Besbol

This is the U.S. Baseball Map. From Strange Maps.

256

Major league baseball teams would have to play 256 games for the real good teams to shine through. Otherwise the 162-game season is too short and some underdogs come out. Two physicists of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico who should be studying quarks instead decided to run a simulation of the baseball schedule and found that the cream will only rise if there are more games. Because there's always some chance that a lesser team will win any given game, teams would have to play a larger number of games to overcome statistical randomness—specifically, the number of games should be the cube of the total number of teams, write Eli Ben-Naim and Nick W. Hengartner in an upcoming issue of the journal Physical Review. Well, maybe that's why they placed the wild card to stir things up.
And then, of course, there is that mathematician who said that the Yankees will dominate this year. That was in April. He he he.

Hargrove

The Mariners are on a roll, winning eight in a row. They made mincemeat of the two top teams in the AL East, blanking both the Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays. And yet manager Mike Hargrove decided to resign. The rumors came ever early in the season but what a way to go! As usual Ichiro is in the All-Stars on July 10 and he will be joined by J.J. Putz as the closer.

Draft Night

The Sonics shipped out Ray Allen. That's a ?! in chess parlance. Allen has the most reliable jump shot I ever watched live. I hope they retain Rashad Lewis, who has the second most reliable jump shot. At least now they have Szczerbiak who is a hell of a shooter to spell but has probably the 3rd most reliable. Then they also got No. 5 draftee from Celtics. I'm not really sure about Sonics. Of course, they got No. 2: Mr. Kevin Durant, who looks like the young Shawn Kemp. No? That's Oden. So it's either party or bust. Anyway, I've been told that yawning actually cools the brain. And here's a funny clip from Japanese besoboru.

Red Sox

Improbable maybe last month but today, the Mariners just swept the Red Sox, which used to have the best record in the American League. It was a close series, with the final game going 2-1 decided in the 11th inning. The M's have the longest winning streak with five straight wins, followed with Central League bottom-dweller Kansas City with 4, including a sweep of the Angels. Which is good for Seattle because that means they are only five games away.