Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
Whew.
It sure is pretty seeing yet another hale fellow thrust upon his Dodger teammates' shoulders, though Dodger fans could have done without the pitching and defense combining to surrender yet another Clayton Kershaw lead.
Anyway, forget about the goats - here's to the heroes. Andre Ethier and friends, take another curtain call. Ever since Takashi Saito and his smile went on the disabled list, the best smiles after a Dodger win have been those shared by Ethier and Matt Kemp when they find each other for their jump and bump.
Ethier had his second walkoff hit of the week, and missed one Saturday night by inches.
This game marked the first time in Los Angeles Dodger history that the Dodgers homered on the first and last pitches they faced in a game, according to year-by-year research I did on Baseball-Reference.com's Batter Events Index. In fact, Los Angeles has never had leadoff and walkoff homers in the same game, regardless of whether the leadoff batter swung at the first pitch.
* * *
James McDonald pitches for the third time with the Las Vegas 51s tonight.
Update: McDonald struck out six in 3 1/3 innings but allowed five runs on six hits and two walks.
* * *
Update 2: Here's how today's finish made me feel. This is for you, Angie - I mean, Andre.
This had nothing to do with today's game, but I can't let it go by.
I would be surprised if it has happened much at all for many teams except for Oakland or San Francisco.
Let's get Andre Ethier on and just ask him about Manny Ramirez.
Nods to Rickey Henderson and Bobby Bonds, I assume.
What about Houston, with Craig Biggio and his 53 leadoff bombs?
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_hr1.shtml
Now they're talking about Nolan Ryan getting traded away by the Mets in the 1970s, calling it the worst trade of all time, and giving Phillips a hard time again and Phillips is saying he wasn't even a teenager when that trade happened.
Salmon was better.
"Ramirez, who has 26 homers overall this year, is 25-for-59 (.424) with six homers and 21 RBIs in 16 games with the Dodgers after a bitter split with the World Series champion Boston Red Sox. In the last 16 games he played with Boston, Ramirez was 24-for-59 (.407) with four homers and 15 RBIs."
Interesting. His hot bat at the end of his Boston career is not often mentioned. I guess it doesn't fit the 'quitter' profile.
They still have "Think Blue". "Think Cure" is the charity organization of the club, and the name is a play off "Think Blue."
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?statsId=7710
He's up to 1.211 after today's game (.357/.426/.786)
p.s. how do I underline the post I am referencing?
Use brackets outside the post number to link to the post.
For instance, [ 1 ] becomes 1 .
I forgot to include, no spaces in between brackets and post number.
Interesting. His hot bat at the end of his Boston career is not often mentioned. I guess it doesn't fit the 'quitter' profile.*
Interesting point. I didn't know that. Makes you wonder even more why a team would get rid of a player who was hitting .407 in his last 16 games for them.
I wonder if (in baseball history) a contending team such as the Red Sox are have "ever" gotten rid of a player hitting as well as Manny was hitting before the team traded him. It's almost impossible to believe something such as that could happen in a trade deadline type deal.
It's funny, unlike other times over the last couple of years, even though they blew the lead, I felt that they would come back to win it in the 9th. FWIW I don't know why JJ was removed after Kendall's single. Even if the next hitter hit an HR it still would have been 5-3 with 1 out.
I will be going to see my first Dodger game since the mid 1980's (no I haven't been living on another planet, just in Connecticut) this coming Friday night in Philedelphia. The way I calculate the rotation with the off day and skipping Penny, Kershaw will be pitching on Friday. I would love to see Clayton pitch, as oppossed to Lowe or anyone else except perhaps Bills.
Can anyone confirm that Kershaw will be going on Friday? He'll have 4 days rest.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=6055
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=6055
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN200607240.shtml
Did I miss anything?
Explains why we've seen in save situations over the last week Broxton, Kuo and Park.
408. I hate to do this, but... I predict Torre will still try to get Pierre a couple starts a week.
I suspect you are correct. The Dodgers face left handed starters next Wednesday and Thursday and I expect Torre to start Pierre in at least one if not both of those games.
Branagh is too busy quoting Shakespeare to play good volleyball.
/ducks
Moral of the story? If Cameron and Ethier both homer in the same game, Ethier will hit 2 that game.
Average never killed a team - it's the below-average players sucking up 300 plate appearances who do you in.
Wow.
What a time to be a Dodger fan. I really feel lucky and excited to see all of this unfold.
Even though Andre has done it once before, what a game. And as was said, he just missed back to back two HR games.
I see no reason why he couldn't have 20 - 25 HRs this year if he had played all the time.
Really looking forward to seeing Kershaw pitch.
Also, I had a great time at the picnic and the game with some good friends. Andrew Shimmin is the man.
Oh yeah, and Journey rocks.
Yeah, I saw it there. I do believe xaphor picked it up.
The carne asada was excellent, by the way. Where did you pick that up?
Brought it just in case. Ended up throwing the softball around pre-Matt Luke with Kevin Lewis and Lex (in the dena).
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sanchez-meat-co-culver-city
Speaking of bullpen guys, what happneed Proctor? I thought a couple of weeks ago he was close to coming back. Not that I miss him.
Of course, the Dodgers have to make the playoffs for this conversation to be relevant, but I think statements like "we don't deserve to make the playoffs" aren't really accurate right now.
Of course, the Dodgers have to make the playoffs for this conversation to be relevant, but I think statements like "we don't deserve to make the playoffs" aren't really accurate right now.
Look who is in their division and look who is in ours.
Plus, there are three teams in the Central with better records.
Following the trades for Manny and Dunn, I predict the winner of the NL West has 87 wins - three games better than the winner of the 2006 World Series.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers just went 6-1 against two serious playoff contenders.
87 wins equals a record that's 12 games above .500. Currently, LA and AZ are at four games - 64-60 - above break-even. That means for either to win 87 games, they've got to play at a .605 clip (23-15) until October.
So, yes, 87 wins will do it.
Those bad Astros are only 2 games behind us and we had the same record as them before we started this hot streak.
According to LA's record, the team is just slightly above average. But we all know this current roster is far better than the one that fumbled through the season's first four months.
First one to go over the tree wins.
World-beaters, they.
Is anyone else hypnotized by Olympic badminton? What a beautiful game.
Meanwhile the Dodgers face Denver at home, and then Philly, Wash, and then the D'Backs all on the road. I like the D'backs schedule over the next two weeks over ours.
As do I.
Her funeral.
http://tinyurl.com/dodgerthoughtsfield
Runs scored: 562
Runs allowed: 599
They're outperforming their third-order record by more than seven wins.
So, no, I won't call Houston a good team.
i would'da asked who's mitt's they were but I figured the owners new they were sitting there & were gonna pick'em up... the good thing is that xaphor was kind enough to post about it.
actually badminton is a REALLY fun sport to play as well.
joy...
Old Friend Falkenborg...!
http://tinyurl.com/NomarCarneAsada
Event pictures and whatnot here:
http://www.trolleydodger.com/2008/06/23/nomars-carne-asada-sunday/
; )
Of course, that is provided that Berroa doesn't play again. We can only hope.
I remember Kim blowing the lead against Japan, and then beaning the next batter in frustration. He is all sorts of awful.
That picture cracked me up! So is the palm tree in play or NOT?! ;D
But third base coach Larry Bowa implored the Dodgers to persevere, and soon they would notch their third walk-off win of a homestand in which they have gone 6-1 against NL playoff contenders Philadelphia and Milwaukee.
It pretty much defined it as "not funny."
Both leads are more famous for their first major movie roles, Donna Pescow, in "Saturday Night Fever" and Robert Hays in "Airplane."
Doris Roberts, who made a career as a supporting character, moved on "Remington Steele" and then of course, "Everybody Loves Raymond."
It would almost be worth getting banned to have a field day with this one.
Yeah, I immediately thought, "Hey, it's the guy from Airplane!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY9sBATdA0Q&feature=related
Debralee Scott and Kim Richards are not to be ignored from the supporting casts in the above shows.
And the mom from Out of this World!
The Aussies are winning by 26 in the first half.
That was her? Did not even recognize her.
"One Day At A Time," "Hello Larry," "Phyllis," "Who's The Boss," Benson," Diffrent Strokes," and "Alice" are examples of that theme.
Whooaaa oooo.
In fact, there were really 2 types of sitcoms at that time, the workplace/non-homelife based sitcom ("Barney Miller," "Taxi," "M*A*S*H," "Welcome Back Kotter (until Julie had a baby), "Night Court," and "Cheers")
It wasn't until "Family Ties," and really "The Cosby Show" where the traditional two-parent with kids sitcom returned.
That class was great, where else could I give a presentation on "Beavis and Butt-head."
A judge watched over the two of them and she said that she was required that neither of them ask for a paternity test or else they would both lose custody.
I'm no expert on family law, but I'm guessing that such an agreement would not be legal.
Here you go.
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Out_of_This_World.html
Quality.
Loved, Count Floyd reference.
3 1/3 innings 6 hits 5 ER 2 BB 6 K's 84 pitches
Were you expecting anything else?
Yeah, that pretty much delivered what was promised. I was hoping for some more humor, and I could have used more Ed Begley, Jr. and Nora Dunn. :)
It would have been cool to touch my fingers together during Bob's quiz to go look at the answers while time was frozen.
I actually haven't seen it yet. Shocking, I know.
never_ buy the DVD.
Generation Kill filled the void the Wire had left.... but once this is over, now what? True Blood isn't looking too hot, but I'll give it a shot.
It's pretty funny, I recommend it.
True Blood looks ridiculous.
Not touching that one with a 40 foot pole.
On a more serious note ,are Drew Locke and Thomas Giles considered major league prospects, also Matthew Sartor?
I hope it folds up. That sounds like it would be hard to store.
Not yet, everyone here seemed to hate the pilot so much that I figured I would wait to watch it.
Why hasn't a team signed him after getting released by Cincinnati? Is he not good anymore?
Look at his home and away splits. Still got on base away from home, but no pop at all.
Mad Men, on the other hand, was awesome tonight - not just because Matthew Weiner named his priest character after the one at our mutual high school.
Canuck, is the Trailer Park Boys pilot episode available for viewing?
I liked the episode of "Mad Men" except for the priest character, who is poorly conceived and did something at the end of the episode that would get him excommunicated.
I quit using downloading programs, since so many sites just stream stuff, but have not found it yet. I saw that they make way more drug references.
In the meantime, enjoy the photos from the epic DT whiffle ball series - I've uploaded them to the DT Flickr group. "Team 1" swept the 2 game series.
Game 1 was pitch to your own team. After scoring a thousand runs, we decided to pitch to the opposite team. It was a contrast in styles with Team 2 pitching bringing straight heat and Team 1 "pitching to contact." Team 1 won 4-2. The picnic was a definite highlight of the baseball weekend - thanks to everyone!
Anyway, after rummaging through a pile of videotapes, I found my copy of the movie taped from TV. I should be able to get my friend (the same guy who finds Generation Kill boring, coincidentally!) to make a DVD copy at some point.
Nice.
Yeah, I just wasn't sure about making a reference to the nose candy on DT.
That would be so flippin sweet if you could do that for me. TPB is my favorite show of all time, so I really want to see that.
Thanks.
Maybe he will get excommunicated someday, though - but he has to be found out first.
http://www.trailerparkboys.co.nr/
167 All I am going to say is that I have friends/family from the RAF and Royal Navy who have echoed the same sentiment as well as friends/family from the American services who would vehemently deny them. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in between.
xaphor, you rule!!!!
Tsao refused to change his name to Teixeira.
"Beat L.A. Beat L.A."
Congrats, Andre. Keep it up and you might be regarded by management as one of the three or four best outfielders on the club.
Ethier will probably never win a batting title, but there's something about his swing that brings to mind Bill Buckner.
I totally agree with the poster (KG16?) who once said the Dodgers will rue the day they trade Andre Ethier. Don't be ruers, Dodgers. Avoid the rue.
Thanks for the great pics! You forgot to mention Team 1's excellent defense! Well, not counting me, I was on rollerskates out there...
I think a main reason for the delay of Flight of the Conchords season 2 is that the duo used just about all of their material for season 1. They had a few years worth of songs built up, and I'm sure its taking time to recreate the magic for season 2.
Other than Molitor and 1985 Tom Herr, you have to go back to 1950 to see such a season.
There was a little taqueria in Encinitas that had fantastic carnitas and carne asada. Eric Stephen - do you know about Juanita's? It's on Coast Hwy, b/w Encinitas Blvd and Leucadia. Juanita's carnitas in Encinitas. Easy to remember.
But what about around here? I'd appreciate suggestions.
July for the Sox:
.386 .438 .591 1.029
August 1-20 for the Cubs:
.333 .373 .565 .938
Overall:
.308 .365 .477 .842
Does Shimmin have pens in his shirt breast pocket...?
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