Which when you think about it, really does detract from me criticizing Ozzie Guillen....

We will resume regular programming tomorrow.

Random Dodger game callback

June 19, 1894

In the biggest offensive season in baseball's history, Brooklyn and Washington played a game typical of the season as Brooklyn prevailed over Washington at Boundary Park in Washington, 11-9, before 1,975 spectators.

1894 would see Brooklyn set franchise records for runs scored (1021) and runs allowed (1015) that will likely never be approached. The 1953 squad scored 955 runs in 19 more games.

Brooklyn jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the top of the 1st against Washington pitcher Al Maul. As the New York Times described it, Brooklyn benefited from "four bases on balls, several hits, and rank errors." The box score listed Washington with just 3 errors on the game. But also just 1 earned run surrendered during the game too.

Washington got back into the game with a run in the second and then eight in the third against Brooklyn starter Hank Gastright. Gastright walked five, gave up "several hits" and left fielder George Treadway made an error.

Brickyard Kennedy relieved in the fourth and shut out Washington the rest of the way and Brooklyn was able to tack on a couple of runs for the win. Brooklyn had four triples and two doubles among its 12 hits on the day.

The win improved Brooklyn's record to 27-16 and were in fourth place, four games behind first place Baltimore. In the end, Brooklyn finished 70-61 and in fifth place, 20 ½ games behind Baltimore in the 12-team National League.

Brooklyn's lofty run total was only the fifth best in the league. Third place Boston scored a staggering 1220 runs, over 9 per game, the best in major league history. The fourth place Philadelphia Phillies had an outfield that batted over .400 collectively. Left fielder Ed Delahanty batted .407 as did right fielder Sam Thompson. Center fielder Billy Hamilton could only manage a .404 average. Boston's Hugh Duffy led the league at .440.

Of Brooklyn's 8 everyday players, all but one batted over .300. Third baseman Billy Shindle managed to hit only .296. Center fielder Mike Griffin led the team at .358.

Why was offense so high in 1894? Historians don't have a definitive reason. The pitching distance was moved back to its present distance of 60'6" the previous year and offense went up, but not as much as it did in 1894. Perhaps there was a hangover effect as the pitchers adapted to the new distance. New York's Amos Rusie had the lowest ERA at 2.78, but the next lowest was 3.70. The lowest ERA for Brooklyn was Ed Stein's 4.63. A guy named Andy Sommerville pitched 1/3 of an inning in game on August 8 and gave up 6 runs and never came back and left baseball with an ERA of 162.00.

First baseman Dave Foutz served as player-manager in 1894, but at age 38, he was only able to write his name in the lineup 72 times and shared the position with Candy LaChance. With a name like that, one must assume that Mr. LaChance won his share of fights in the schoolyard. LaChance played in the majors for 12 years and was the starting first baseman for Boston in the first AL-NL World Series in 1903. His real first name was George.

Offense would drop a bit in 1895. The losing pitcher on June 19, Al Maul, finshed 1894 with a 5.98 ERA, but in 1895 he would lead the NL with a 2.45 ERA.

Thanks to the New York Times, BaseballReference.com and Retrosheet

Cardinals lead in Cincy, 1-0.

Apropos of nothing, the first time I ever used all seven letters in my rack in Scrabble was to spell the word "harangue"

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1930n.shtml

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1930a.shtml

I stand corrected.

Upon further reflection, I believe I spelled the word "harangued" and used other letters on the board. I got a lot of points. I won. I was very happy.

I'm glad I wasn't playing you at the time. I could have sworn it was spelled with two r's.

Sheesh, Robles is not just bad. He's robo-bad.

If I remember correctly, Harang made his MLB by striking out 10 batters for the A's. Still, if the A's, constantly looking for young and cheap talent, were willing to cast him off, what does that say?

I don't know much about him, I'll admit, but I don't understand why anyone thinks he'd be better than, say, Jeff Weaver or even Elmer J. Thompson.

Padres:
Roberts, CF
Fick, C
Klesko, LF
Giles, RF
Nevin, 1B
Burroughs, 3B
Greene, SS
Jackson, 2B
Peavy, P

I'll take the over. Penny pitches a gem, Ghame Over redeems himself, and the Dogers win 2-0.

I see that Vladimir Guerrero is both healthy and red hot.

This will not be a good thing for this weekend.

And a really depressing six-game losing streak.

That's a great reason. I'm going to go with that as well.

#16,# 17

Pretty easy to recreate. It was always 6 1/3 for some reason.

tries hopelessly to jinx Peavy

The Mets, Padres, Rockies, and Diamondbacks have no no-hitters among NL teams.

That's 43 1/2 seasons without a no-hitter for the Mets, who have had their fare share of good pitchers.

The Devil Rays are the only AL team without a no-hitter.

"Honey, I forgot to duck!"

My anger has passed about that. I have moved on to other vendettas.

I could have sworn...

Cross them off your list.

And they still won the division.

I've never seen it enforced. The penalty is a ball.

Or do I just have self-esteem issues?

Please, Bob, we know you're lying. That's pathetic.

If you'd written about bleeping balls, I'd think you mistakenly turned to the blind baseball playoffs on ESPN 7.

I thought you guys were cousins. Keep the hillbilly hookup off DT, please.

Why? wassup there?

I think the bases make noise as well.

But she comes with a trailer!

It would make things so difficult to figure out.

My Dad did a lot of genealogy research and we finally came up with a pair of cousins who married each other. My genealogy software program flashed a warning about it before I typed in the marriage info.

This is taking a while to type because my sixth finger keeps getting in the way.

The Dodgers turn DPs just fine. The Padres had the runners going on that play.

Steiner was just making the exact same observation on radio, or is that what prompted you?

And a fat Panamaniam will break the spell.

(Book of Saenz, 4:3)

As a 39-year old, I don't object to this in and of itself, but as for a baseball player, I don't see it as being something in Snow's favor.

And since Bob knows all, I'd like to toss out a question. At RFK, they change the bases in the fourth or fifth inning (probably halfway through, though I'm not certain). Hadn't noticed that before -- is it commonly done?

And apropos of nothing, is there any player whose Gameday shot looks less like his tv visage than Jason Phillips?

Amazingly the SD announcers said he still leads the league in multi-hit games.

Loren C. Murchison (December 17, 1898 - June 11, 1979) was an American athlete, double gold medal winner in 4x100 m relay at the Olympic Games.

Loren Murchison was an AAU Champion in 100 yd in 1920 and 1923 and in 220 yd in 1918 and 1923. He also won the British AAA championships in both 100 yd and 220 yd in 1925.

At the 1920 Summer Olympics, Murchison finished fourth in 200 m and sixth in 100 m. He also ran the third leg in the gold medal winning United States 4x100 m relay team, which set a new world record of 42.2 in the Olympic final.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics, Furchison was again sixth in 100 m and won his second Olympic gold medal as an opening leg in the world record (41.0) setting American 4x100 m relay team.

Loren Murchison died in Lakewood, New Jersey, aged 81.

http://loren-murchison.biography.ms/

Memo to Dodger Scouts:

Please re-write the book on Brian Giles.

Memo to Jason Phillips:

If it didn't work the first two times, there is absolutely nothing that says you have to try it again.

Memo to Chicago White Sox:

Congratulations on "smartballing" your way to that 11-8 victory tonight.

They also had 17 hits and 3 home runs.

That really is a lame theory, isn't it? Maybe the reason they're scoring less is because they don't have Ordonez or Lee, and Thomas missed the first third of the season. Oh, and they're getting pitching like the south side's never seen before...or at least, in a damn long time.

Nevin say never!

The only run in the game came on an RBI triple by Elmer Dessens off of Andy Ashby.

The Dodgers last won an 1-0 game on July 24, 2003 against the Rockies at home. It was an 11-inning game.

And on July 25th, the Dodgers lost 2-1 at Arizona in 15 innings.

2005-06-20 21:12:11 144. Bob Timmermann
I really think the Dodgers will fare better against Hoffman in the 9th than they have against Peavy.

2005-06-20 21:12:11 145. brendan glynn
I'll take our chances with Hoffman if we can keep it 1-0

There might be games where the Dodgers hit 18 in extra innings

I saw Nomo K 17 Marlins.

And the Padres can give tonight's stolen bases to the charity of their choice. Or deed them to Sean Burroughs for his arbitration hearing.

It'd be different if it was a homegrown player.

Mea culpa.

But in my defense, I still haven't cast any votes for him.

I'm channeling all of my anger toward Repko.

If they do, they will have successfully created an unholy mutation of Sandy Koufax and Cy Young.

WWSH

Steve, can I request a Fire Jason Repko temporary heading over at FJT?

On a diffrent note which you would appreciate: Scott Munter, a pitcher, just called up by the Giants had his first AB. He bunted and the announcers were cracking themselves up calling him "Munter the Bunter." What else do you expect from Giant announcers.

4 for 49, no extra base hits, two runs scored, 3 walks

OPS on the season: .714 (not counting tonight's 0-4)
NEIFI!(TM) OPS on the season: .720 (not counting tonight's 2-5)

Lesson: Do not let Plaschke write about you. He's cursed Izturis, and gave Chuck Tiffany cancerous moles.

2) Because in a bunting contest between Mark Teixeira and Jayson Werth, Teixeira would win in a landslide

3) Because one run doesn't do you any good anyway if you can't score two, and you can't score two without getting something resembling a base hit, in most situations.

4) Because your lame bullpen can't hold a tie score anyway, so why play for the tie?

I said I didn't like him as far back as this spring, when he was trying to fool all of us.

Maybe I'm just bitter. I think I'm about to file those divorce papers with Tracy, Jon.

Sincerely,

The Proprietor of www.firejimtracy.com

First batter bunts: reduced chances of scoring on that at-bat.

Second batter bats with a runner on third, one out (if bunt is successful) - increased chances of scoring on this at-bat - on ground ball through infield, sac fly or wild pitch.

If second batter fails, though, your chances of scoring with the third batter are virtually the same as if there had been no bunt to begin with.

So essentially, the bunt - even if successful, which is a big if - sacrifices one batter to pin all your hopes on another. Is that really worth it? Why not use both batters to try to get a hit.

I think you'd have a better case in a 0-0 game, where one run might be enough. though I'm still not sure I'd go along. In a game down 1-0, when their bullpen is probably better than ours today, I just don't think you can bunt there.

What would Ozzie Guillen do?

Another reason I was in favor of the bunt was because I have witnessed every one of Werth's AB's this road trip. He is lost. I know that this is subjective and I am not trying to validate my opinion by saying so, but in my mind Werth had no chance unless he squared.

Tracy gets a lot of mainstream credit for having a good record in one-runs games. Does he have to share the blame for one-run losses, too? Because it seems like those are all DePodesta's fault, by reading the papers.

3-1
3-2
9-6
5-3
4-3
1-0

That's a rotten lineup (too many AAA guys, as has been thoroughly discusses), questionable in-game management and lineups (guaranteed out in the 2 spot plus illogical bunting), and bad luck.

Rearrange those scores, and the Dodgers have one win, two losses, and three extra innings contests that could theoretically go either way.

Also, I can't watch anymore. I haven't watched a game in two weeks because the anger affects my everyday life. At least I can openly acknowledge my problem and seek help.

Believe me, I can see how badly Werth is struggling, though.

Bad hitting, bad pitching, bad bullpen, bad defense -- it's a helluva job DePo's done.

I don't get to see the Dodgers much this year. Are they any fun to watch anymore?

Don't waste your time arguing with eight-year-olds.

How are the Marlins by the way? Five back? Sounds familiar.

It appears that DePo traded Danny Graves for Brad Penny. Good deal.

The Dominoes are falling! We might have to wait until the end of the year, but it's time to go home to Ohio!

Oooh, that really hurt. Are you collaborating with Xei on your insults? By the way, way to go out on a limb and have doubts about Repko! You are true baseball genius (and obviously older than eight years old)

Steve,

Down, boy! Save your ire for Tracy.

Please don't push me off the monkey bars.

I'll stop.

Didn't we argue all offseason about how lousy you thought this team was going to be?

Don't say such things here -- you may get hurt. Or at least charged with apostasy.

If bunting and "moving runner over" would somehow allow us to score more runs than we would have otherwise, I'd agree. I think the struggles to score have a lot more to do with facing a few outstanding SPs, plus the three or four replacement-level players in the lineup than a lack of bunts and stolen bases.

Oh, and the diluted bullpen has been a small problem as of late, despite a solid showing yesterday.

If there are two DKs, someone needs to copyright the name and end the confusion.

I thought that was Wilson Alvarez.

Thanks.

Not only that, but Houston could have had 4 outfielders, since AC could cover second and short by himself.

Trade Penny and Choi for Mota, LoDuca and Encarnacion?

Trade Beltre for Kent?

Trade Drew for Finley?

Trade Phillips for Ishii?

Get Lima and Cora back?

Trade Navarro for Green?

Give Lowe and his contract away?

Good god. Things are bad now, but things could be much, much worse. There are not many transactions Depo's made that haven't made the Dodgers better and cheaper.

Erickson's presence does baffle me, though.

"He (DePo) said a six-game losing streak will not trigger any dramatic moves with the manager or coaching staff. He also indicated that his desire to acquire a starting pitcher before the July 31 trade deadline might be adjusted due to needs created by the club's injury siege."

I read the following between the lines:
1) DePo has not yet thrown in the towel on this season.
2) He feels the biggest weaknesses are on offense and/or in the bullpen.

I agree with both points... of course, I came up with explicit interpretation from the quote.

I was watching the game last night with my daughter. Other than the fact that I knew we weren't going to score, I had a wonderful time attempting to answer all my daughter's questions in a way a 7 year-old could understand.

She didn't understand why I said bedtime for both of us at the end of the 7th inning; "... but daddy, what if the Dodgers get a point?" Such innocence!