Let's Play a Game!

There is a party game called "The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon". If you don't know what that is, the game rests on the assumption that anyone involved in the Hollywood film industry can be linked through their film roles to legendary Hollywood film actor Kevin Bacon within six steps. The game requires a group of players to try to connect any such individual to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links as possible. I was wondering if there was a baseball equivalent to this and this being the internet, there is! But there are more than six steps in mine. Why is that? It's because I like being different!


Anyway, for the purposes of this entry, I will use former MLB pitcher Jamie Moyer in place of Kevin Bacon.


In Jamie Moyer’s first game as a Major Leaguer, he beat Steve Carlton.
In Steve Carlton’s first game as a Major Leaguer, he relieved Bob Gibson (well, Gibson started the game).
In Bob Gibson’s first game as a Major leaguer, Stan Musial got two hits.
In Stan Musial’s first game as a Major Leaguer, he got two hits off Jimmy Tobin.
In Jimmy Tobin’s first game as a Major Leaguer, Paul Waner got two hits.
In Paul Waner’s first game as a Major Leaguer, he walked against Flint Rhem.
In 1924 Flint Rhem — who had thrown a no-hitter in the Western League — was brought to the big leagues by Branch Rickey.
Branch Rickey’s first big signing was George Sisler.
In George Sisler’s first season, he was teammates with Bobby Wallace.
Bobby Wallace played his early years for the Cleveland Spiders. His most prominent teammate was Cy Young.

But, wait! There's more!

Here is another way to link Jamie Moyer with Cy Young...

Jamie Moyer was teammates with Ron Cey
Ron Cey was teammates with Hoyt Wilhelm
Hoyt Wilhelm was teammates with Bob Elliott
Bob Elliott was teammates with Paul Waner
Paul Waner was teammates with Joe Bush
Joe Bush was teammates with Tris Speaker
Tris Speaker was teammates with Cy Young


What do you think?

What a heartless team/franchise!

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, and now this year, 2017. These are all years of which I was confident and hyped up before the season or by at least July 1st of said season. They show potential, play great baseball when they're on, but when they aren't on, every single time they are more than just off. They suck. Every god forsaken year this happens. Here is a timeline from 2004 to 2017.
Bill Bavasi/Mike Hargrove. They were spitting talent out left and right and had everything going for them. Then Ownership sided with this selfish prick named Ichiro instead of Hargrove, our last proven Major League Manager, and Hargrove flipped the bird to this franchise and left. I can't really blame him either, we traded all our talent away and sank. Typical Mariners.
Jack Zduriencik/Don Wakamatsu, Eric Wedge, & Lloyd McClendon. Wak was fine, but Jack Z was a massive Piece of shit. He wanted things his way and only his way, and his way was absolutely terrible all the way around. He fired Wakamatsu, ownership sided with him and his failures and fired Wedge, and then got away with a fluke season in 2014. 2015 brought us all back down to earth, both Lloyd and Jack were fired. 7 years wasted, not a single playoff game to show for it. Typical Mariners.
Jerry Dipoto/Scott Servais. Dipoto is amazing, I will give him that all day, everyday. But, the flip side of that coin, Servais is a Courtney Love-level mess one day, then respectable the next day, then downright craptastic the day after. I'm tired of it. Last year, down seasons for players like Nori Aoki, Adam Lind, Nathan Karns, Wade Miley, and other plagued us. This year, injuries and stupid baseball playing has plagued us. I don't care how great of a scout, director, or assistant GM Servais was in Texas and Anaheim, he is not fit for field managing, and our play is showing just that. Many players will refuse to nut up, as well as coaches and the manager.
We just got swept, at home, to the worst team in all of baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies. They SUCK on the road, yet they came here, kicked our ass, and made an embarrassment out of us. Another year where if we could just get out of our own heads and where if our manager wasn't so damn terrible, we'd most likely be a post season team.
But no, once again something has to be wrong when it doesn't have to be. So many things that have gone wrong this year have been avoidable, like being in our own heads and downright sucking. Slumps happen, but not like this. This team is great for 10 days and can beat anybody in the league, then for 11 days they can't beat the most simplest of teams to beat.
It's sad, it's disappointing. It's annoying, it's frustrating. For far too long I have put up with mediocre play year after year after year after year after year. Frankly, I am goddamn sick of it. Some days I absolutely hate being a baseball fan, today is one of those days.
But don't worry, we'll come out of July at .500 due to some nice winning streak, go through August playing "solid .500 ball", make a run through the end in September and come up just a little bit short. If you like that sort of thing then good for you. I quite frankly am sick of it, and I find it unacceptable that we are not a playoff team. I hope to be wrong and that we go on this miracle run and make the post season, but as of now that does not seem anywhere close to likely happen.
Seattle Mariners, you suck. You really, really suck.

The Jason Varitek/Derek Lowe Trade

On the morning of July 31st 1996, the Seattle Mariners traded outfielder Darren Bragg for left-handed pitcher Jamie Moyer, who, by some unholy alignment of the planets, became one pf the greatest pitchers in Seattle Mariners history. But the following year, the Mariners more than returned the favor...

On the morning of July 31st 1997, the Seattle Mariners had 60 wins and  47 losses. They were also a half game ahead of the Anaheim Angels in the American League Western Division Standings. The Mariners had superstars like Ken Griffey Jr, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, Randy Johnson & a young Alex Rodriguez. But there was a problem: the Seattle Mariners bullpen was crap. Yes, that is a pretty simple reason for why the Mariners record at that point wasn't 67 and 40. The bullpen had cost the team [at least] 15 games up to that point. The Mariners were desperate for a good relief pitcher [with the word "good" being used very loosely here]. They had a few options to deal with this problem:

1) They could wait until the bullpen figured something out but will run the risk of missing out on the playoffs

2) They could acquire future Hall of Fame relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman from the San Diego Padres for future star Jose Cruz Jr. & yes this was a possibility because the Padres were way out of contention at that point in the season.

3) They could do something completely stupid & more Mariner-esque. That being trade promising young catcher Jason Varitek,  who they had just called up on the 30th of July but had yet to use him in a game and/or Derek Lowe, a promising young pitcher who impressed Manager Lou Piniella with his knowledge & work ethic.

So what did the Mariners do? They of course chose Option 3! I mean what did you expect? They are the Mariners...

But if you thought this was the only stupid part of this story, you are clearly wrong...

The Boston Red Sox only wanted Derek Lowe because they already had a catcher in the Major Leagues, named Mike Stanley & they had a promising young catcher themselves in Steve Lomasney [whose career was tragically cut short due to an eye injury in 2000]. The Red Sox just wanted to get rid of mediocre [at best!] relief pitcher Heathcliff Slocumb's $9 million salary. But, of course the Mariners went full-on stupid & included Jason Varitek in the deal!


As expected, Jason Varitek & Derek Lowe became stars in Boston, with both being key players for the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox. Derek Lowe threw a no-hitter versus Tampa Bay in 2002 & Jason Varitek was named the Captain of the Red Sox in 2005. Slocumb, on the other hand was released by the Mariners after the 1998 season. So, in other words, the Mariners got screwed over...AGAIN!!

The Return of Doug Mirabelli

DISCLAIMER: This great piece from Tim Healy of the Hardball Times is worth sharing, as it's been 11 years since the trade occurred. Tim, if you are reading this, thank you for letting me use this! 

As the weeks turn into months and the months into years and the years into decades, all those regular-season afternoons and nights start to blend together. Another day, another game, another win or loss. Repeat.
May 1, 2006, was a little different for the Red Sox. It was a Monday, and they were set to play the Yankees on ESPN. It was Johnny Damon’s first time back at Fenway Park since leaving Boston for the Bronx as a free agent the previous offseason. The stage was a bright one, as far as the spring goes.
The Red Sox won, 7-3, but the game was far more memorable for what happened in the hours leading up to it. That day, 10 years ago this weekend, marked backup catcher and knuckleball whisperer Doug Mirabelli’s return to the Red Sox.
The December prior, the Red Sox sent the 35-year-old Mirabelli — long Tim Wakefield’s personal catcher — to the Padres for second baseman Mark Loretta. They acquired Josh Bard from the Indians (in the Coco Crisp deal) a month later to replace Mirabelli.
April 2006 was a period of adjustment — Mirabelli adjusting to San Diego, Bard to Boston, Wakefield to Bard. It wasn’t going well. Bard had 10 passed balls in five Wakefield starts, including two in their first inning together and four in Bard’s final start on April 26 in Cleveland, the middle stop of a three-city road trip for the Red Sox.
Then-Sox general manager Theo Epstein was on that road trip. The game against the Indians motivated him to move on perhaps the most famous trade for a backup catcher in the history of baseball — a trade he now considers the worst he’s ever made.
“No offense to anyone involved in the deal, but I point to that trade because it was the worst process I’ve ever had,” Epstein said. “We were faced with a challenging situation, Bard not being able to adjust quickly to handling the knuckleball.
“Instead of being patient and coming up with a creative situation, we got caught up in some of the panic that was enveloping our clubhouse. I got too close to the situation and made a really reactionary move.”
As the Red Sox finally returned to Boston that Sunday night, with a chance to sleep in their own beds before the Yankees came to town, Epstein was on the phone with then-Padres GM Kevin Towers. By the next morning, they agreed: Mirabelli back to Boston, Bard and relief prospect Cla Meredith to San Diego.
This is the story of that day.

You can find the rest of this story at this link here.

Ripley's Believe it or Not!

The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum has had many, many, many name changes over the years, including the short-lived UMAX Coliseum [from June to July of 1993] & every single sports fan in Oakland, California agrees that the stadium is outdated, has bad sewage & is a fire hazard unlike the more modern stadiums you see today [like AT&T Park in San Francisco, California] But, believe it or not, the Coliseum was considered State of the Art back in 1968 when it was first built! I am not making this up! It was a very innovative structure, as it was 21 feet/6 meters below ground level. But not only was it innovative, it was a bargain. It cost just $25 million US to build & maintain the whole place, which translates to $186 Million in 2017. It also provided a home for not just baseball, but for American football & soccer, as the Coliseum was built in the era of Multi-Purpose Stadiums [i.e. the Houston Astrodome & the Seattle Kingdome] where one place would host multiple teams. There is a lot of history in the deathtrap that the Oakland Athletics call home. For example, a player named Rickey Henderson whose home was & still is two miles away from the Coliseum, stole his 939th career stolen base on May 1, 1991, setting the All-Time Major League record. 

Unfortunately there is also some speculation that if the Athletics do not get a new ballpark near the Oakland Waterfront by 2022 [which is when the lease for the Coliseum expires], they may ask MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred for them to move to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. So, in other words, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is entering it's final years of existence.

[above] In the Old Configuration you could conceivably look at a beautiful view of the Oakland Hills from the upper decks of the Coliseum while watching baseball!

[below] In the Current Configuration you could conceivably look at an ugly aircraft carrier while watching baseball!

My Opinion on MLB Copyright Laws

When it comes to YouTube & Major League Baseball, there's a zero-tolerance policy. With the National Football League, you can search for "Bo Jackson" and get hundreds of video clips. On the other hand, MLB has dedicated full-time employees looking for things like a 30-second clip of a fan catching a Greg Colbrunn foul ball in 2003. If you think that's an exaggeration, it's exactly what happened to a fan in 2009 when the fan tried to describe a game to a friend & Major League Baseball prevented the fan from doing that. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance.

Fine. I'll pay the stupid $3.99 MLB might want for a Mariners/Padres game from 2003. Nothing's for free, and Commissioner Rob Manfred's $25 million a year salary isn't going to pay for itself...

Here is what Major League Baseball is essentially saying to the small percentage of their fanbase who upload archived games to YouTube, only to see the video & YouTube channel deleted:

Not for sale. At any price. Scram! And if you find it, it will be scrubbed from existence.

However, I understand where MLB is coming from. It's a free market, it's their product, and they have a right to make money with it. I remember being similarly annoyed when vintage video games became available over the internet in ROM format a.k.a. illegal downloading. Nintendo kept shutting down sites that offered games that Nintendo wasn't selling anymore. It was beyond aggravating, and it didn't make sense if Nintendo wasn't going to sell their vintage games. Then years later, the Wii & Wii U came out, and Nintendo started selling those vintage games to play on the new system.

But does MLB really have a plan to digitize and upload the 100,000+ games that have been broadcast since the '60s? Is there really some sort of "Operation: Holy Crap Amazing" going on behind the scenes? If so, then this all makes sense. Something like that would make an incredible amount of money. If they keep the $1.99 pricing model that they currently have on the iTunes store for the games they do have for sale, MLB will be rolling around in liquid cash. I'm guessing that there's a plan to make a lot of games available. But there is also a theory that MLB wants you to give them your hard earned money.
I'm guessing it's not going to include the Mariners/Padres game from 2003. I'm guessing there's a good chance that I'll never be able to buy a random, forgotten game from 30 or 40 years ago. Maybe in a couple of decades, something will become available.
Until then -- and this is the important part -- how does the availability of such a game do anything but help Major League Baseball?
But until MLB Advanced Media realizes that a draconian zero-tolerance policy is something that only made sense in 2000 before the drunk monkeys in their office could figure out a better policy, I'm keeping this guy's YouTube channel a secret because if I were to send you the link to his YouTube channel the potential for MLB to infiltrate his site increases thrice fold!

Players of the Past: Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez

Pudge Rodriguez in 1996

Former catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez was recently elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame & rightfully so. He had a total Wins Above Replacement [WAR] of 68.9, with his highest single-season WAR coming in his Most Valuable Player Award Winning Season of 1999, where he barely beat out Red Sox stars Pedro Martinez & Nomar Garciaparra in the voting process. Pudge Rodriguez could run, field, hit & of course throw, despite his large size [5 foot 9 217 pounds] & the fact that he was a catcher [who, historically speaking, are not the fastest guys on the field] he could run the bases efficiently with good foot speed. He had the best throwing arm of any catcher I have ever seen in my life. He threw out 786 baserunners & that is excluding the 88 men he threw out from his knees behind home plate. So, in total he threw out 874 baserunners!

Oh & did I mention he could block home plate better than anyone in the history of the game?