The highly anticipated showdown is sparking some gamesmanship?

http://tinyurl.com/yul23h

I think I'll just have the salad.

You won't have to do too much training. Appears the IFOCE does not sanction salad eating? But if you can better 3.lbs 3oz of whole pickled beef tongue in 12mins....u can be proclaimed champion

It seems that Jim Tracy is turning that Pirate organization around :-)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/06/29/fans.walkout.ap/index.html

Sorry I don't know how to tinyurl

Tracy's turnaround sounds like Harry Kalas's line about Garry Maddox: He's turned his life around. He used to be depressed and miserable. Now he's miserable and depressed.

Jill Painter, in the LA Daily News:
"That spot in the rotation has given the Dodgers fits. They have tried Chad Billingsley, Mark Hendrickson and Brett Tomko and none was fit to stay. That trio is now expected to provide long relief in the bullpen for the unreliable fifth starter."

Billingsley is expected to provide long relief? Who edits over there at the Daily News?

4 It's interesting how the Pirates broadcasters are being asked to completely ignore the walkout. They want to pretend it doesn't exist of course, but I like the idea. Hope someone records it.

Can somebody answer this question for me? Why have I not been reading FireJoeMorgan.com all this time?

Why have I not been reading FireJoeMorgan.com all this time?

A question we all asked ourselves the first time we read it.

On an unrelated note, I just noticed that the Seattle Mariners now have a better record than the Dodgers. How did that happen...?

Regarding the Pirates: they should move west, and join the AL West. That would result in 5 teams per division, which would be pleasing to me.

9 I've never understood why the Pirates were in the Central Division anyway. Atlanta, in the Eastern Division, is further west than they are. Who comes up with this stuff?

You know, cantaloupe is delicious. I think I could eat an enire cantaloupe, no problem.

It's a wonderful fruit.

You'd have to have an interleague matchup every week of the season though since there'd be an uneven amount of teams in each league.

I hate cantaloupe. Just the smell of it makes me sick.

12
I suppose that's true. But it can't be considered "fair" that

1. Some teams need to be better than 5 other teams to win their division, while some teams only need to be better than 3
2. Some teams need to be better than 15 other teams to make it to the WS, while some teams only need to be better than 13

D4P: Hating everything since 1975

9 It might be pleasing to you, but having 15 teams in each league would result in either 1) one team from each league not playing, or 2) one interleague game - every single night of the season. In other words, a mess. That's precisely why Milwaukee Brewers agreed to switch from AL to NL in 1998 when Tampa Bay and Arizona joined MLB in 1998. TB had to be AL to balance Florida in NL, and Arizona, which was supposed to be AL as well (making 16 AL teams and 14 NL) insisted on being in the NL, partly because they wanted to be able to play Colorado and the California NL West teams - less traveling. There needed to be even umbers of teams in each league so Milwaukee agreed to switch : hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Brewers

D4P: Hating everything since 1975

1974

17 I'm betting you were fond of breast feeding that first year.

Year zero was good.

15 teams in each league would require me to write one of those "Interleague Roundup" thingees everyday.

That would make me tired.

Jason Kendall has now moved past Nomar and Pierre in home runs.

I'm betting you were fond of breast feeding that first year

I suppose I didn't hate breast feeding then. Heck, I suppose I don't hate it now, provided of course that no liquid comes out...

A question concerning Kuo. If he threw 94/95 in the past would last night's performance indicate that something is wrong with him? It seems to me that he threw mostly 88/89 with an occasional 90/91. He looked good to me last September but I don't think he can win with the stuff he was throwing last night.

In the words of Grady Little, "He hits a lot of bats."

He hits a lot of bats

And yet he strikes out 8.01 per 9 innings.

Don't y'all remember the good ol' days when the Atlanta Braves were in the NL West? Those were good times, especially for the Dodgers' travel secretary.

25
Weren't the Reds in the NL West back then too?

26 Yup. And Houston!

It was the Dodgers, Reds, Houston, Giants, Padres and Braves for a long time. So "West" was really loosely defined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_League_West

Fairly recently as it turned out...

Okay, now I have to get ready to teach some bored middle schoolers writing. Ciao for now.

Okay, now I have to get ready to teach some bored middle schoolers writing.

You might teach them to write such sentences thusly: "Okay, now I have to get ready to teach writing to some bored middle schoolers."

Yes, yes, I realized that after hitting "submit" but was in a hurry. (It's actually a screenwriting class, believe it or not, so maybe we focus less on grammar.)

But as soon as I get their scripts in for grading, I'll send them to you and your red pen for inspection. ;-)

The NL West makeup from 1969 through 1993 was what I grew up with, and because of that, it was the greatest time to watch baseball.

Three trips a year to Atlanta and Cincinnati and Houston!

Well, it was a little different in 1993 when the Rockies and Marlins joined, but I still remember when those 18 games with the Reds each year were like a war.

The Reds were the last team of the 12 in the NL before 1993 I ever saw in person because it was always hard to get tickets to see them.

Chad Gaudin ran off 5 1/3 interesting innings in New York today before Johnny Damon made things uninteresting.

Oh how I hated the Braves in the 80s. Murphy, Horner, Ramirez, Hubbard: yuck.

Hating Rafael Ramirez was a niche hatred. That guy had bad hands and the strike zone judgment of Tony Abreu on Benadryl.

I didn't like how the (soporific) Braves' announcer called him "Raffy".

"announcers", that is.

I'd like to see the Pirates move to So. Cal. With our population, we can support another team. In 20 years, the Tejon Ranch project will bridge the L.A. Basin and Central Valley. Send 'em out.

35
What about Glenn Hubbard? Are you afraid of men with beards?

Hubbard could field, but he couldn't hit.

Horner was always hurt.

Murphy was great.

Those 1980s Braves won a grand total of one divisional title and needed Tommy Lasorda's incompetence in Game 162 to get there.

38
My hatred wasn't necessarily rational. I just didn't like them.

39
I fully understand the irrational hatred. If it weren't for irrational hatred what kind of world would we live in?

40
I shudder to think. The world is lucky it has people like us.

I love cantaloupes. I have about 6 growing in my garden.

Melons fit in right behind pitted fruits on my list of forbidden fruits that I don't like usually because they're too sweet.

Bad:
Cantaloupe
Pineapple
Honeydew
Watermelon

"Honeydew? That's the money melon?"

"I've never understood why the Pirates were in the Central Division anyway. Atlanta, in the Eastern Division, is further west than they are. Who comes up with this stuff?"

Probably the same folks who decided AAA Nashville and Memphis should be in the Pacific Coast League.

Well, you can get to the Pacific coast from those cities. After 2000 miles or so...

I knew Marty would like cantaloupe.

Watermelon
13.22 pounds Watermelon/ Brookville Community Picnic
15 minutes/ July 30, 2005
Jim Reeves

That's the record

It appears there could be some disappointed people in the left field pavilion on Sunday.

>>> Towers categorized Bradley as "doubtful" for Sunday's game. <<<

http://tinyurl.com/2tyhxp

Marty, I didn't see your post about Koufax throwing a forkball yesterday until too late to respond, so--

You probably know more about it than Joe Morgan, but I once heard Morgan say Koufax threw only a FB and curve.

Since Morgan faced Koufax, you could hope he'd know what he was talking about. Apparently not.

4. Sorry I don't know how to tinyurl

Just put http://tinyurl.com/ in your Favorites. The rest is easy.

Claudell Washington, Pascual Perez, Chris Chambliss, and Gene Garber were also hateable 80s Braves. But Skip Caray was the most hateable of all.

Pineapple is my favorite.

And Filipinas.

I used to like the Braves, but only because I was a little kid and they broadcast a lot of their games on TBS. Dale Murphy was one of my favorite players and I'm still a little peaved that he's not in the HOF.

I used to like the Braves, but only because I was a little kid and they broadcast a lot of their games on TBS

Ironically, that's largely why I hated them. Their announcers were horrible, their games were boring, and their players were uncouth (Murphy excepted).

D4P and Bob have a lot of hangups about fruit. Are you eating only the canned or unripe or shipped-in variety? Because cantaloupe and melons are pretty bad when not ripe, and pineapple is not nearly as good when it is canned. Peaches are notoriously hard to get from stores -- you have to get them from a fresh fruit stand, and they must be ripened on the tree. I advise D4P to try cantaloupe from Marty's yard, and Bob can try peaches and apricots from my trees.

I can remember Vin talking about Kofax' forkball when he was pitching. I suspect he used it as his change-up

Wikipedia has this on the perfect game:

Koufax retired the first batter he faced, Donald Young, a late season call-up, on a pop-up on the second pitch of the game. Glenn Beckert, another rookie, struck out looking at a curveball after hitting a line drive down the third base line just barely foul. The third batter, Billy Williams, also struck out looking at a curve ball. In the second inning, Ron Santo fouled out to catcher Jeff Torborg, Ernie Banks struck out on a forkball, and Byron Browne, during his first major league at-bat, lined out to center fielder Willie Davis. Koufax got Chris Krug to line out to center field to start off the third inning. Following him, Don Kessinger flew out on an 0–2 pitch and Hendley struck out. In the fourth inning, Koufax got Young to line out to center field and Beckert to fly out to right. Koufax then struck out Williams a second time.

I like peaches, whether fresh or canned. Apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, black/blue/rasp/straw berries: all good.

We had a peach tree in our backyard when I was a kid.

Peaches got a fair shot from me.

They were found wanting.

I do like pineapples. And I've had plenty of fresh ones, living in California and travelling to Hawai'i and also stealing them people's door frames in New England.

I have two peach trees also. I just got my first ones today. They are about a day or two from perfect, but they also looked like the easiest ones for the squirrels to get, so I picked them early.

Oh, I almost forgot. There's nothing in the world like the perfect pear. Nothing com-pears...

What happened to Dale Murphy's career? He was a star until he reached 32 then went into a big decline. Anyone know if it was injuries? Also, Bob Horner flamed out quickly too. I'm thinking of Nomar as I type this.

54 I guess I didn't know any better, but I liked Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren (and Don Sutton sometimes?). I think it was because they had cool announcer voices and I didn't get to watch many other games.

Robothal says the Dodgers are going for Beuhrle!

That makes me very nervous. But this is Robothal we're talking about here.

61
Murphy's production really tailed off as he got older because of injuries and regular old aging.

Murphy did have a serious knee injury and he got an infection in the bone, similar to what Bonds had in 2005.

I'll take a honeydew over a cantaloupe any day. A good watermelon is the best.
Isn't it about time for the Times remove the picture of Christine Daniels?

51 Thanks!

I think the best combo to hear on TV all time was Harry Carry and Steve Stone.

What I would give to hear those two again!

"Rob Dibble spelled backwards is Bor Elbbid!" says Harry Carry

I always pitied Steve Stone.

67

There was nothing better than living in Chicago listening to Steve Stone rip Corey Patterson day after day after day after day.

It was awesome!

I should start a website dedicated to the greatness of Steve Stone!

As if he couldn't get any better! Steve Stone was actually born in the great state of OHIO!

The Mets are have 2 HRs, a double, and a single in their first five ABs against Phillie rookie pitcher Jay Happ.

I sense a rant from Mike coming.

Oh no! Ohio!
Can't wait to say
Goodbye-o!

63- Any details on who Ned would be giving up?

63- Any details on who Ned would be giving up?

71

That's not a haiku
Your just counting syllables!

72 Unfortunately, you would have to assume it would involve Billingsley unless Ethier is involved in which case they would hand RF to Kemp. Kershaw is untouchable. Loney and/or Kemp would probably only be traded for a big bat. Elbert's hurt. The White Sox already have Josh Fields as their 3B of the future so LaRoche doesn't make sense. I don't think management would be willing to give away Billingsley for 3 months of Buehrle though, so I don't see how this trade makes sense unless they get creative by including Dye in the deal or something.

Disclaimer: I don't think any of this is a good idea, I'm just trying to evaluate the particulars

63- did you see how robothal's eyes lit up when he proclaimed that. he looked like a little kid. really funny.

to chime in on the fruit subject, nothing tops a nectarine for me. plums, and pears are right there as well. not to mention all the berries. btw, what is up with all the kuo bashing on every blog ? it is hilarious. yeah his velocity is down, but the guy can strike people out. the pads got some good righty bats as well so i dont quite understand it.

what do you guys think kenny williams is asking for mark?

I should correct that the pitcher for the Phillies is J.A. Happ, not Jay Happ.

73
Robothal just said that there was a new "big time" player in the Beuhrle sweepstakes, and it's the Dodgers. They've moved from looking for a bat to looking for a starting pitcher.

It's Ken Rosenthal. It could mean absolutely nothing.

Great Britain raised their terrorist threat level to imminent, after the failed plot a day ago and the Glasgow airport car bomb today.

Whoever Williams is asking for Buehrele, it'll be too much to give up in youngsters for a 3mo. rental. I'm sure the asking price would be Kemp, Bills, and AA prospect.

I'm sure Mark is looking for Top Dollars, and doubt if we would work on getting an extension with him, after getting burned with Schmidtty. So he'll be a free-agent after the year.

Rumors of our scouts in Texas...I'm thinking not Texiara, but maybe a backed rotation guy..like Millwood??

I believe the offical terrorism threat level in the UK is "critical."

Although critical means the threat is imminent, so there you go.

It's not nearly as much fun as a Cycle Alert.

Buehrle is incredibly overrated. Awful last year, with an embarrassing K/9 rate.

NO THANKS.

Man, I checked out the ESPN Dodger message Boards for the first time in months, I used to post there years ago. . . .and to be very frank, This place is like Heaven. Nuff said.....

Is this Heaven?

No, it's just a blog.

Tony Jackson thinks, "Kuo clearly isn't going to last in the rotation"

Problem is, there is no one out there with as much upside as Kuo....trading for another Wolf is going to really anger me

84

but how do we really know man , you know, its like how do we really know......

71

Bad poetry!

Oh noetry!

I have joined the same timezone as GenBlue3 and Sam DC (and maybe Sam in NC) as I have made it to the original home (not the same borough) of the Dodgers.

I just witnessed an unspirited effort by the Bronx Bombers as the A's Chad effectively pitched against Jeter and A-Rod and the rest as the Yankees only had 1 hit.

I did see Jason Kendall hit his second homer (did I miss any comments that now Jason Kendall has more home runs than Furcal, Pierre and Nomar.

did I miss any comments that now Jason Kendall has more home runs than Furcal, Pierre and Nomar.

You did.

88- Yes. Bob mentioned in 20. But he beats everybody, so don't feel bad.

90 It's hard to comment sitting in the sunshine in the Bronx (trust me the sun was the only thing that was shining for Yankee fans to day).

Glad to hear Bob is on top of it.

But Nomar's singles in total distance probably went farther than Kendall's homer off the screen.

90
I took yesterday off though.

I'll be at Dodger Stadium tonight. I'll be wearing the white long sleeve DT t-shirt.

Sunday I will resume couch potato status.

We failed to issue a red alert yesterday in Bob's absence. Thousands of lives were ... well, not lost, and .. not really affected in any way. A few of us were embarrassed, though, and that's gotta count for something.

Michael Fontenot started for the Cubs at short today and made an error in the first inning. The next inning, Fontenot and Mark DeRosa switched positions at second and third.

Fontenot made an error at second base in the fifth inning.

Here's tonight's lineup: ItD

Furcal, SS (.324 with RISP)
Pierre, CF (on pace for 59 steals, the most since Lopes' 64 in '76)
Martin, C (finds out tomorrow about AS results)
Kent, 2B (was awesome at the WIN clinic today)
Gonzo, LF (must see TV)
Nomar, 3B (hitting .336 at home)
Loney, 1B (eight-game hitting streak)
Ethier, RF (signed autographs for fans today in Whittier)
Penny, P (.241 batting average, 2.04 ERA)

95.

Nomar, 3B (hitting .336 at home)

If he's hitting that well at home maybe he can start doing it at work, too.

51 - if you are using Firefox, you can also use the TinyURL Creator extension:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/126

83 - the dodgers.com fan forums have been a miserable place to be for about four years now. I haven't bothered since 2003. There's a bunch of cool kids who used to hang out there at dodgers.cc, AKA Big Blue Wrecking Crew.

82 Buehrle has a 5.94 K/9 rate so far this year. Brad Penny's is 5.96. Derek Lowe's is 6.30.

Penny: K/BB 2.50, K/9 5.96, BB/9 2.38, H/9 7.75, WHIP 1.13

Lowe: K/BB 2.31, K/9 6.30, BB/9 2.72, H/9 7.55, WHIP 1.14

Buehrle: K/BB 3.30, K/9 5.94, BB/9 1.80, H/9 8.10, WHIP 1.10

Not arguing for or against, just sayin'.

So if Marlon Anderson comes back to Dodger Stadium with another team, which is not all that unlikely, does he get booed by the same brain-dead slobs (who were given cushy jobs) who booed Steve Finley?

For completeness' sake:

Wolf: K/BB 2.66, K/9 8.40, BB/9 3.16, H/9 9.48, WHIP 1.40

Kuo: K/BB 1.93, K/9 8.01, BB/9 4.15, H/9 10.38, WHIP 1.62

100 - the same brain-dead slobs (who were given cushy jobs)

You was a poet but you didn't know it.

Buerle is a solid pitcher. Last year was an abberation. His career ERA+ is over 120. He has nearly a .600 career winning percentage. True, he is generally better in first halves, but outside of last year the differencde has been nil. And he's comeback solid after last year's disappointment. What is not to like?

52

Claudell Washington looked like a guy that could hit 25-35 home runs but never hit more than 17.

Back to the fruit. A few months ago I was in the grocery store. There was a lady there giving out samples. She came up to me and asked if I'd like to try an apple that tastes like a grape. Nothing surreal had happened to me that day so I took the slice of what looked like an apple from her. And I'll be a monkey's uncle if it didn't taste just like a grape. And so I took a step into the brave, new, stupid world.
www.grapplefruits.com

Fruit was so much simpler when I was a kid. I even miss watermelon seeds.

I'm a big fan of things that taste like other things.

as far is my favorite fruit goes give me strawberries & give me lots of them. I also eat a bowl of mixed fruit daily with pico de gallo, salt & green lime or lemon, really good.

Buehrle is a hard name to spell. I usually have to type it about three different times til I decide it looks right.

I do not even want to imagine what we would have to give up to get Beuhrle.

108 makes 109 particularly funny.

My spelling nemesis is Colorado's centerfielder.

Whom I shall always refer to as "Colorado's centerfielder" unless Cory Sullivan is starting.

End of the 3rd in Pittsburgh!. Unfortunately I'm watching the Pittsburgh feed so it will be as if nothing happended. Then again, probably nothing happened.

100

was another setup for you Brock.

111
And after three in Pittsburgh, it's Pirates 6, Nats 1!

In my only trip to PNC, I saw the Pirates play the Expos. The fans sitting behind me talked about the Steelers the whole game.

100

Monorail.

Not sure if anyone else will get this obscure reference.

Interesting, they showed a panned back shot of the first base seats from the 3rd base dugout camera, the announcer said "Take a look at the ballpark...". Now they are talking about it. "I honestly can't say a ton of people did it". Not a significant number for sure.

112 I skimmed right over it. I didn't even notice. I suck.

Besides, it was more of a Shelbyville post.

That is what I get for changing my spelling based off Brock's original post.

I really like B-R's game previews, but the Dodgers-Padres one for tonight is messed up and doesn't have head-to-head batter-pitcher info.

And this is the night I'm taking it to the park.

When it's printed out, it's kind of small.

117 Nice. Pass the failure back to me.

Did you ever serve in Congress?

119
Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't.

I am going to the Sidewinder/Rivercats game tonight. I wish Justin Upton was in AAA.

>>>>The typical modern strawberry, of the genus Fragaria, comes from the Americas, and is a hybrid of both North and South American varieties. Ironically, the crossbreeding was done in Europe to correct a mistake; the European horticulturists had only brought female South American plants, and were forced to cross them with the North American variety in order to get fruit and seeds.

Fragaria comes from "fragans", meaning odorous, referring to the perfumed flesh of the fruit. Madam Tallien, a great figure of the French Revolution, who was nicknamed Our Lady of Thermidor, used to take baths full of strawberries to keep the full radiance of her skin. Fontenelle, centenarian writer and gourmet of the 18th century, considered his long life was due to the strawberries he used to eat. Strawberries were considered poisonous in Argentina until the mid-nineteenth century.<<<<

Wikipedia on strawberries, wow it looks like the Argentinians missed out for a good chunk of there history, interesting stuff though.

110 It only take a minute Bob, to spell Taveras wrong.

122 My lady of Thermidor often said, "are you hungry. Can I get you something to eat?"

My Lady of D'Arbanville often said, "I'm cold"

If two months of Buerhle costs something similar as Maddux-for-Izturis, then I'm all for it. But NO top prospects.

119 Define "serve".

Baseball Analysts did a piece on Buehrle the other day:

http://tinyurl.com/35rzqr

107 "I also eat a bowl of mixed fruit daily with pico de gallo, salt & green lime or lemon, really good."

That does sound really good. Do you chop the fruit into pieces and toss it in a bowl with the seasonings, or do you just dip and eat?

Now I need a margarita.

Keep an eye out for the guy with the UCLA cap and the white Dodger Thoughts t-shirt along the RF line.

129
Will he be scoring...?

128

yeah i chop up the fruit into peaces then toss them in a bowl & work my magic, it's really tasty.

71 I lived in Ohio for a few years, and I found it generally uninspiring. I thought the motto of the state should be "It's Good Enough," thinking that is what the 19th century pioneers may have said in choosing to stop there instead of heading farther west.

I am afraid that to acquire Burlee, we might have to offer Cemp, Bellenslee or Loaney. I would offer Tomcoe or Hennriksen, however.

129

will do, score book & all right Bob??

There's new content up at the 5th Outfielder. I guess I'd stopped checking, but it looks like he's posted a few times in the last month. The latest:

http://tinyurl.com/2qwd6r

135
I like it.

This was linked to from ItD, but in case you were too afraid to click it, here's another chance. This may be the saddest thing I've seen in awhile, and I've seen many pathetic things recently.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84_L3WAvqUc

Now if he'd actually been on a Muppet show with the real thing, I'd be into it. But even he's not that old.

Say hello to DJ Houlton:

http://tinyurl.com/32qnvl

Yay!
I'd rather see that for now than acquiring a mediocre veteran.

Not that I consider Buehrle/Burl/Bueller a mediocre veteran, but for a rental player I agree with what was said above, that I wouldn't want LA to give up very much for him. Otherwise, makes me a bit nervous.

Like to see them trying something new, and in-house, first at least.

Was brousing our minor league stats, and saw that Delwyn Young is tearin' it up....gained like 60 pts on his batting average from last time I checked...is this just because it is now hot in Vegas or is he a legitimate candidate to play LF next year if Gonzo is not re-signed, and Ethier traded in a Buerhle type trade ....

*Browsing...doh

138

i'm not surprised TC & I were talking about that yesterday as everything unfolded with him. i don't mind DJ Houlton one bit.

137

what are you talking about?? that video is bad ass.

Game chat is up.

This is one of my most favorite FJM's of the year, maybe all time:

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2007/06/as-long-as-im-here.html

138. Say hello to DJ Houlton:

I was not surprised at all. I suspect there is something wrong with Kuo that he was unable to get above 91 (after hitting 94/95 in the past) and therefore unlikely to get through the opposing lineup twice.