Another reason to hate lawyers

Just kidding, of course. As a member of the bar myself, I don't blame the lawyers. I blame the descendants of Fred Astaire (there's something I don't write everyday). I just thought this was kind of a weird story. A few months ago I wrote about seeing Ivy at the Double Door with a band called Astaire. Well, tonight I was messing around with Rhapsody a little bit and noticed a band in my library that I'd never heard of. Some band called Blondfire. This isn't completely off the wall, as there are a number of bands in my library that I've probably listened to maybe once (like some crazy assed band called Ken Layne and the Corvids). But I had no memory of adding this band at any time, and I'm usually not listening to Rhapsody when I'm drunk, which would have been the most logical explanation.

So I clicked on their EP, and turns out that Astaire was short-lived, as brother and sister team Bruce and Erica Driscoll had to change their name due to legal threats from the estate of the late Fred Astaire. Apparently huge throngs of people were showing up at their concerts expecting to see the corpse of the late dancer magically go into the old soft shoe. Alright, that's obviously a lie, but seriously, this is pretty stupid. What if their last names were Astaire? Or what if they had just changed their name to "A Stair"?

Anyway, not that this is a big deal or anything, and I know this happens with some regularity, but this is the first time I've ever seen a band play under one name, only to have them be forced to change to something else.

Red Sox 5; Angels 1

Well, that was fairly predictable. It was a Steve Finley game, so the Angels started with one foot in the whole to begin with. Byrd was strong for his first 100 pitches, then wore a little bit in the 8th. As has happened so many times this season, just when it looks like an Angels pitcher is going to escape a jam, he can't get the third out, this time ending with a back breaking three run homer to Edgar Renteria.

Papelbon was impressive, but quite frankly, it looked more like a return of the crappy Angels offense had more to do with his success than great pitching. Take nothing away from him ,though. It was a fine performance.

The Angels end the week no worse than 1 game up on the A's, losing at most a half game while going up against one of the league's best teams. Six games coming up against crappy teams, and a chance to make some hay.

Angels 4; Red Sox 2

Typical scratching out of enough runs to win, so I'm not going to talk about the offense. No, what I'm going to talk about today is a comment made by a certain regular poster and fellow blogger, who just happens to be a Sox fan. Here's one of his gems from about a week ago:

You're tied for first with 47 to play and you wanna see if a 22-yo can pitch? You're nuts. You don't have the luxury of experimenting right now, Sietz.

Intentional misspelling of my name notwithstanding, let's take a look at his line today against the vaunted Red Sox offense:

7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 k, W

Consider the experiment a success. I'm certainly not the genius that the Fatman is, but it looks to me like the kid can pitch a little bit. In case he's still not convinced, Santana's got a 4.62 ERA, which includes an eye-popping 2.89 since the all-star break. Not bad for a fifth starter. Guess how many starters the Red Sox have with numbers that good since the break. Or even, try and guess how many they have with ERA's below 4.00 since the break. If you guess a big fat (no pun intended) ZERO, you'd be right (not including Papplewhateverhisnameis, who has two starts in that time).

Then again, we are talking about the guy who thinks that being third in the AL in strike outs isn't good enough to be considered a strike out pitcher.

So to sum up, send Escobar to the pen where he's most needed. If Byrd or Washburn go down, he's ready to start. It's really a no-brainer at this point.

Shirking my resonsibility

No recap last night, for numerous reasons. Let me mark them off:

• Game ended late
• Missed the first five innings because I was at the Yankees/White Sox game
• I had to get up early to play Cog Hill today (shot 79, thank you very much)
• Didn't want to post at 1:00 am on a Friday night/Saturday morning and look like a loser who's at home, awake, alone at 1:00 am on a Friday night/Saturday morning
  

There's a nugget of truth in all of those, so feel free to go with the one that you like best. I'm listening to the game today (at work, of course), and it sounds like Santana is dealin'.

Wow, that was kind of out of nowhere

I was at work until about 10:00, so I had to catch the Kotchman home run on the computer, but I was home in time for the first big inning. The first homer by Rivera asbsolutely crushed.

Fell asleep on the couch again right about the time that Bartolo was giving up singles to pretty much everyone in a Sox jersey, so I missed the late fireworks, but thanks to DVR technology, I was able to rewind and catch Rivera's second home run. Bartolo looked pretty sharp until the one inning where they caught up to him, but by that time, the game wasn't in a lot of doubt. Can't really comment on the relievers, because, ya know, sleep, but from the play by play, it looked like Donnelly did OK, and other than the homer to Mueller, Jones did alright.

Enjoy this one, folks, because it's the rare win with Finley in the lineup. This was a big one to get. Of course, they're all big now, but this is the last night without an A's win for awhile. Worst case scenario, the Angels go through a tough stretch, the A's go through an easy stretch, and they come out the other end more or less tied. Best case scenario, the A's get humiliated by the Royals, they all quit in shame, and the franchise disbands. Hey, a guy can dream.

Sorry

First, there wasn't really much to recap. Second, I fell asleep in about the fifth inning and didn't wake up until the bottom of the ninth. Then fell asleep again, and woke up on the couch at about 3:00 am.

I hate my job.

This is getting ridiculous

Well, it's probably too late, but something has to be done about this bullpen. I've alread brought it up once, but now I'm will to say forget just moving Escobar to the bullpen. They need to not only send him there, but they need to make him the closer while they're at it. Nine blown saves by the bullpen in the last 18 games. This bullpen really sucks right now. Frankie needs to be DL'd or something. Just shut him down for a week. Make up a dead relative so they can put him on bereavement leave.

Hey, what a shocker, but Finley fucked up in a tight spot again.

Ugh. Like I've said, if and when they miss the playoffs, they'll remember this one. How many great efforts can they get from rookies, only to have the pen screw it up?

Speaking of the LA Times

This is just about the cruelest headline I've ever seen.

Finley Gets Released; Lakers Weigh Options.

It really isn't fair to Angels fans to tease us with such a tantalizing first three words, only to leave us crushed when we realize the headline is referring to Michael Finley. Just think how bad this would have been in the days before the internet and sportscenter.

Only a year and a half too late

The L.A. Times is reporting that with Anderson's injury, Finley sucking, and Kotchman not quite sucking as badly as Finley, Erstad might be returned to centerfield. FINALLY!

Oh, and Joe Saunders makes his debut tonight. I'm hoping for the best, but I think it goes without saying that starting rookies back to back, one making his major league debut, in the middle of a penant race isn't exactly ideal. Go get 'em, Joe.

Angels 5; Blue Jays 4

This is getting ridiculous. Three straight extra innings games against this team. The next two games better not go this late. Some of us have to get up and go to work in the morning, and these games that go until 1:00 am are tough. One more reason to move back to the West Coast.

Vlad got Venturaed in the second inning, but a timely error, a theme of the evening, was enough to get him home. Maicer unleased a Glaus in the fifth, and Orlando Hudson would bring the run home with a double to tie the game. A third error, this time by starter Chacin, would later lead to another Angel run. Scioscia finally made the move that probably would have garnered a couple more wins over the last couple of weeks by running the starter out there for the seventh (which I admit I was hoping for), and they promptly gave the lead away. A nice relay from the OC was all that kept the deficit at one. Figgins speed was enough to get the tying run in, as he was able to beat out a double play on a weak grounder to short with Ztu on third. Some anxious moments from the bullpen (surprise, I know), got the Angels into the 11th, where Erstad pre-empted the inevitable walk to Vlad by driving home OC with a walk off single before Guerrero had a chance to bat.

With the A's loss, the Angels now lead by two. It's important to win these next couple before taking on the Red Sox, at which time the A's will be slaughtering the Royals. And with that, I need to get some sleep.

Congrats to the mighty Mick on winning his second major. Too bad for I forgot to set the DVR to record it.

Simply awesome

This is just about the greatest thing I've ever read. Do yourself a favor and go read it if you already haven't. If you have, read it again.

Angels 7; Mariners 6

Didn't see most of it, except for rolling through the version on my DVR where I pretty much just watched the homers and the important plays. It was a nice, cool day here for a change, so I hit the links again.

Kotch absolutely hammered one, but it was really an awful pitch, so it deserved to be hammered. Ditto for Vlad's homer. And Bengie didn't cheat on his, as he hit it to one of the deepest parts of the park. I don't know what the hell happened to Donnelly. At least Bengie had an excuse, as he had just been hit in the hand, but Donnelly seemed to catch the Sax/Sasser disease there on the throw to first base. I was just surprised to see that it was scored an error. That's a really tough play for a major leaguer to make, ya know. Fortunately Erstad came through, and Frankie had one of his sharper appearances of late. With Oakland losing, the one game lead is back for now, but this figures to be a pretty tough week for the Angels. At least they've picked up some momentum, and while they can't make up for the debacle against Seattle in the last series, they did as much as they could.

As for the golf, not great, but encouraging. 83 from the black tees at Pine Meadow (7100+ yards). Didn't putt all that well, but hit the irons a little better, and I'm still hammering the new driver. I joined a couple on the seventh hole. Husband and wife, probably late 30s or so. She was pretty cute, but he was kind of a dick at first. He wasn't that good, but acted like he was a lot better, getting pissed off when he inevitably hit really bad shots. Now, I don't really care what type of people I play with. I don't care if they're good or not. If I did, I would never play with Ty (and I know he's reading this). But seriously, if you're not good, don't act like you are and you're just having a bad day. I've seen enough golfers out there that I can tell. Around 15 or 16, he started to mellow out a bit. Dude could really use some lessons. He's not old, and he's a big enough guy that he should be hitting the ball relatively far, but he'd tee off 40 yards in front of me, and I'd still be 50 yards by him in the fairway, and I'm not a really long hitter. I'm not short, but I'm not a monster. Anyway, the point is, I learned about 15 years ago that getting really pissed off on the golf course doesn't do anybody any good. No use crying over spilt milk. That's my free advice to all of you.

Next week, Cog Hill again, and maybe Kemper Lakes on Sunday if I can work out the timing. Expensive weekend.

Still at work

Listened to most of it, until it got out of hand. At that point I stopped paying attention and started listening to the stuff you see on the right sidebar.

Nice job of picking up for some mistakes early, as Cabrera committed the cardinal sin of getting picked off with one out, a man on third, and Vlad at the plate. They still got two runs out of the inning, no thanks to O-Cab.

Figgins powered up for a homer and three more hits. Need those guys at the top of the lineup to get on base, especially with Vlad red hot and Anderson not completely sucking at the moment. It looks like Oakland's going to win again, so we do all this again tomorrow, when I might be golfing if it's not raining. But maybe not.

About last night

Sorry for the lack of recap, but I was pretty dead tired, and the game ended late in the Midwest. Today, I'm in the office again, so I don't mind taking a few minutes to catch up. Wash actually looked pretty good for the most part, except for the chuck into right field. Forgive the brief rant, but I think it's pretty pathetic that the bunt by Bloomquist was scored a hit. There is a trend in MLB that I'm not happy with. It seems that every botched play that isn't so routine that a junior high school level fielder could make it with ease is scored a hit nowadays. These are MAJOR LEAGUE baseball players. Are our expectations of their defensive abilities that low that we give hits on plays that would have been sure outs had the fielder simply made a decent throw, or simply held on to the ball. Cabrera's boot the other night was an error. It hit him in the freaking glove. But not in today's MLB. He had to bend over for it a little, so that makes it a really tough play, and subsequently a hit.

Anyway, you could tell Wash was a little anxious in the early going. He wanted no part of Sexon in the second inning, and you could see why when he pitched to Beltre, who hammered one out. Timely offense, and Vlad being Vlad, helped erase some of those mistakes, and Brendan Donnelly, fresh off one of the worst performances of his Angels career, stranded two runner on second and third with nobody out to preserve the tie when the game was still in doubt. A little help from that other Santana lifted the Angels back into a tie for first. So it's on, guys. Either play like this the rest of the season, or watch the A's celebrate their advancement toward first round elimination again.

Humor Me

Santana's ERA over the last two months is 3.43. When Escobar comes back, what happens? Here's my suggestion, and feel free to disagree with me in the comments section, but I say Kelvim goes to the bullpen for the rest of the season, and we ride Santana in the rotation. If they make the playoffs, they'll cut the rotation to four anyway. Escobar has the bullpen experience from Toronto, and Santana really doesn't. Honestly, with Santana pitching well for a fifth starter, and the other guys pitching pretty well (assuming a healthy Washburn), doesn't this make the most sense? I realize that the Angels won't do it, because they don't like doing things that make sense (see: Kennedy hitting ninth; Finley hitting anywhere; etc.), but to me, I think this is the best possible use of their pitching resources. Plus, if he's only needed for one or two innings at a time, it may allow Escobar to come back a little sooner (no need to build up the stamina).

Who's with me?

I didn't see it, and I don't want to see it

I can't even come up with words to describe how absolutely pathetic this bullpen has been lately.

Matt, I don't know how you can watch crap like that and maintain any confidence.

Usually reliable - A's 4; Angels 2

The usually reliable Scot Shields really picked a bad time to have a crappy inning. The usually reliable Orlando Cabrera really picked a crappy time to fail to come up with a pretty easy ground ball (his 0 for 5 doesn't look all that great, either). If and when this team fails to make the playoffs, it will be letdowns like tonight's that we'll look back on.

The kid was fairly sharp again, escaping some early trouble before settling down and pitching well enough to win. When your rookie starter outduels the hottest pitcher in the AL, that's a game that you MUST win. You simply cannot afford to lose when you get a very good performance out of your fifth starter. This one hurts.

The debacle that is Steve Finley continues to suck up time in center, and just to just plain suck at the plate. Of course, as I type that, he homers, but oh well.

Byrd vs. Blanton tomorrow. Starting to look like a must win (or as much as one can look like at this point in the season), as I can't see this offense doing much against the rookie in Seattle on Friday.

Angels 9; A's 2

The Angels needed a game like this, and it couldn't have come at a better time. They got the breaks in the first two innings, and Lackey continued his recent dominance with seven strong innings. A couple or errors, a couple of bloops, a timely strike out by Finley, and really only a couple of hard hit ball, and the Angels had a 7-0 lead. Vlad came into the game with only two career grand slams, one coming just a couple of weeks ago.

Peralta really did not look sharp at all in the 8th. I don't know if it's harder to concentrate when you've got a huge lead like that, but a rookie really needs to take advantage of his chances to pitch. On the other hand, Esteban Yan has looked pretty good lately, and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.

No doubt Matt is already spending his $50. Hey, that's great. Like I said at the time, if the Angels finish strong and win the division, it will be the best $50 I ever spent. Now Fat has joined the fray and given me a chance to win $10 of that money back should the Angels meet the Sox in the playoffs, provided the Angels can come up with at least one quality start should the series take place. But ssshhhhhh, don't tell him that the Angels have the second best starter ERA in the AL.

I'm gonna get myself connected...

Finally have internet access, the non-stolen kind, in my apartment. The cable guy took his sweet time getting here, but he actually ran a line 3/4 of the way across my apartment, and you can barely tell, so things are looking pretty good. Full range of cable TV is back as well, with the baseball package (for which I had to talk the guy out of charging me another $120). All of this comes in time for the Angels not to be on. But the fireworks don't begin until tomorrow night.

Anyway, took my first trip to Ikea yesterday, just to browse a bit (need a coffee table now that I'm in a bigger place). Have to say I was less than impressed. Some of the stuff looked nice, I guess, but it's not like it was super cheap, and quite frankly, I can't believe that people drive over from Ohio (like my sister's friend) just to shop at Ikea. To each their own, I guess.

I guess I could comment on the Angels playoff prospects, but I feel like I've done that already, and Matt, Rob, Richard, and The Chronicler have done so more recently, and probably more entertaining...ly. So go read them.

They won **UPDATE** Kotch!!!!

Didn't see it. Still in a virtual tie for first. Looks like they actually scored some runs.

Played Kemper Lakes today. Had to get the round in before they go private. Nothing to write home about. The last three holes are pretty sweet, though, and but for a poor first putt on 18, I would have parred all three. I'm hammering the new driver. three or four drives over 300 yards. No joke (those GPS things on the newer carts are sweet).

*update*

Casey Kotchman with two jacks, including a granny. Wow. That's some nice production. Just caught the hilights on SportsCenter.

Ironically, the next hilight was Eckstein hitting his fourth grand slam, then Ramon Ortiz throwing the ball away three times.

The injuries finally catch up

Chris Bootcheck gave them one fine start, and the rest of the staff blew it. Asking him to completely shut down major league hitters again was too much to ask. And really, this game was over before it started. Honestly, there was no way the offense really had a shot against a guy with an ERA just south of seven. I mean, Hendrickson, that guy's a real stopper.

These guys fucking suck. What an embarassment. Welcome to first place, Oakland.

My bastard neighbors

Apparently they don't realize that I need their wireless connection to listen to Angels games, and they didn't hook up until about midnight tonight, so I got updates on my cell phone while watching Dig! again. It's the story of the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols (see sidebar for links). If you haven't seen it, well, what the hell are you waiting for? In lieu of writing all of this crap again, I'll repost a review I wrote on PlanetSocks:

Missed this when it was in the theaters, but that's because it was only out for about a week. I'd be interested in hearing what other people thought of this movie, especially those who were either unfamiliar with or not fans either the Dandy Warhols or the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Personally, I've been a fan of the Dandys since "Come Down" came out seven or eight years ago (you've probably heard some of their stuff in movies or commercials), and I've become a fan of BJM in the last few months (I suggest listening to some of "Tepid Peppermint Wonderland" for those who are unfamiliar with their work).
Courtney Taylor: Didn't really seem different than I expected him to be. Arrogant, talented, kind of a pretty boy. He actually seemed a bit more down to earth compared to what I've seen in interviews, and he's downright normal compared to Anton Newcombe.

Peter Holmstrom: Seemed like the most well-adjusted person in the entire movie, except for maybe Miranda Lee Richards, but she was only in a small bit of the film.

Zia McCabe: I'm still in love with her, and damn she's hot when she's wearing glasses. I was glad to see they included a bit with her topless, since she hasn't hung 'em when I've seen them live.

Anton Newcombe: Fucking nuts. He's channelled the late '60s Stones perfectly, though. The guy knows his shit when it comes to writing music. Seriously, if you like the Stones, put on a BJM record, and it will sound incredibly familiar for something you've never heard before.

Joel Gion: Fucking hilarious. Probably the most entertaining aspect of the movie. You gotta love a guy who's only contribution is playing the tambourine. And his joke about dicksucking was probably the funniest part of the movie.

Matt Hollywood: Also wrote some very good stuff for BJM. Seemed easily irritable at times, but I'd imagine that anyone with his talent would get pissed off at Anton. A lot.

Peter Hayes: Alright, so he's barely in the movie, but I had no idea that was once part of BJM. He's one of the front-men in Black Rebel Motorcycle Club now, who you will like if you're into the Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Spacemen 3, or other shoegazer stuff.

I'd suggest getting hold of a copy of the two disc special edition DVD. I don't usually go for the extra bits, but the "where are they now" stuff was pretty good.

Fafnir channels Aesop

And I wholeheartedly agree with him. Lions *are* annoying.

Pathetic

I swear, sometimes this team looks like they're trying to lose. Mr. Defense out at shortstop has a pop fly go off his leg (I wasn't even sure that was possible). They have the 1-2-3 hitters coming up with runners on first and second with no outs, and they can't even move the runners up a base, let alone get them in. Frustration is setting in.

It's a fiendish plot - Angels 8; Orioles 4

I blame the recent success of the Angels (all two games of it) on Matt Welch. Somehow I believe he engineered the recent slide which caused perrenial pessimists like me to lose faith. It was in that moment of weakness that he swooped in with his devilish plan to separate me from 50 of my hard earned dollars. Rob McMillin is an unwitting accomplice, as he wrote the post that led to the following exchange:

Matt: Maybe I'm easy to please, but a World Series, a Division Championship, and a likely second consecutive Division Championship (plus a decent shot at the Series), all while assembling (and not squandering) baseball's best minor league system, doesn't really strike me as a bad job.

Me: When? 2006 and 2007? Because they sure aren't winning it this year.

Matt: Seitz, put your money where your pessimism is -- fitty cash dollar bills. I say we win, you bet on the rookie rotation, Scott Hatteberg and Jay Payton. Deal?

Just another case of me letting my mouth write a check my butt.....well, I actually can cash this one, because it's not that much money. Regardless, it will be $50 well spent if the Angels actually pull this out.

So he calls me out. I, of course, can't back down*, and now here we are. And of course, true to form, right after giving up on them, the Angels take the first two from an admittedly reeling Orioles team *AND* the A's lose for a change.

Lackey narrowly averted the Lackey inning tonight, and apparently the bug was still in the mound area, because Bedard caught it in the bottom of the fifth, allowing the Angels to score six times. And just as I was exchanging emails with Stephen Smith, badmouthing Cabrera and talking about how he really isn't any better than Izturis (that was me doing that, not him), all things considered, the OC delivered a big hit and Ztu made two of the three outs in the inning. Bigmouth strikes again.

So I hope you're happy, Matt. It's a good thing this won't be decided until October, or else this would be cutting into my golf budget.

Sometime this week I'll write something about the NHL signings, but I'm waiting to see what the Kings end up doing. I like Demitra, but I want Palffy back. Although if the Simon Gagne for Mike Cammalleri rumors are true, I'll learn to live without Ziggy. I'll give it another day or two to shake out.

*Kind of reminds of a hockey game I played in many years ago (yes, there was organized sreet hockey in Southern California once upon a time). We had a UCR team, and we were over our heads in the division in which we were playing. In one game, we just couldn't get anything going. We finally got an odd man rush, only to have the ref, who was probably in his mid-fifties, get in the way of my line-mate and good friend, ruining the two on one. Apparently refs don't like to be called out on this type of thing. On the next face off, I, clearly pissed off, walked up to him and said "Could you please try to stay out of the way next time?" To his credit, he gave me an out, saying "you're not talking to me are you?" The idiot that I am, I responded "Yeah I am!".

I spent the next 8 minutes in the penalty box. But dammit, my honor was at stake! I did score a goal within about 45 seconds of leaving the box, so maybe I just needed the rest.

Shhhhhh

Don't tell anyone, but I'm writing this while stealing someone else's wireless connection. Apparently they don't use a network key. Woohoo! The connection's not great. I can't really get the video, but I did catch the first four innings of the game at a local bar. Then I realized who was on the mound. Sitting through Ponson vs. Colon, it dawned on me that I might be there until about 6:00 tomorrow evening before the game ended, so I took off before dropping more cash.

Angels up 6-1. Two homers for Vlad. Let's hope that holds up.

Had to push back the cable/internet appointment to Monday because of a meeting at work that I couldn't get out of. I've never wanted to quit my job more than I do right now. We find out what our raises are going to be this month, so that could be the deciding factor.

Night #1 with no internet

The cable guy isn't coming until Wednesday morning. I was too lazy to a) call far enough ahead to get a better appointment date for the new apartment, and b) go to Starbucks last night before it closed, where I could have taken advantage of the Wi-Fi. Tonight will probably be more of the same, although I'll probably walk the 100 yards to a sports bar to watch the Angels, I'd imagine.

Anyway, I'm trying to avoid doing actual work, and Jen (who has a great blog if, like me, you spend a fair amount of time at bars, but are interested in seeing it from the bartender's perspective once in a while) asked for a comment on Raffy, so here goes.

I've never been a huge Palmeiro fan (well, except for Orlando Palmeiro, of course), but I've never been a big detractor of his either. He's always just kind of been there, playing for teams I've neither liked nor hated, except maybe when he was with the Rangers, and they always had more hateworthy guys back then. It was tough to focus on one guy when EVERYONE on that team could mash. Quite frankly, over the last year or so, before this news came out, I was a little surprised at the "will he or won't he" hall talk. His numbers, in a vacuum, are more than hall worthy, despite the lack or awards and post-season heroics. But now, I think he's out. Both for the stigma associated with steroids, and the increasingly likely possibility that he lied to Congress (assuming both that we are indeed talking about steroids, and that he didn't start juicing the day after his testimony). Which isn't to say that I wouldn't vote him in. I just don't think the writers will.

I've made my position pretty clear on Primer over the last couple of years, but in my book, if it's not illegal, and not against the rules of baseball, it's not cheating. Obviously, it is against the rules now (the legality is questionable based on facts not known), but it's pretty clear that without false positives or any such nonsense, Palmeiro was cheating this year. I feel a little cleaner knowing that I never took him off of my bench before trading him in my fantasy league. But now that I think about it, let's take a look at something. Here are Palmeiro's splits this year, April through July:

AB	H	2B	HR	AVG	OBP	SLG
77	19	3	1	247	298	325
86	26	4	6	302	412	558
93	25	3	5	269	317	462
87	26	2	6	299	379	529

So what do we learn from this? Well, nothing really. But I *did* learn how to make tables in HTML, so for that, I think this little bit was instructive. Also, we learned that he's a much better hitter than Darin Erstad, but I'm guessing most of us already knew that. I would note that over the last three years, he hasn't been a slow starter, so that April is out of line with what he's accomplished in the past. Maybe he started juicing after his Erstadian start to the season.

And by the way, how much schadenfreude (which, as I've learned from t-shirts, is a dish best served warm) is Ryne Sandberg feeling? I mean, the week just keeps getting better for him. First he gets inducted into the hall, then he finds out that the guy who was banging his wife 15 years ago gets busted for roids. If I'm Ryno, I'm heading down to the 7-11 to buy some lottery tickets.


And as a parting shot, the Onion really is scraping the bottom of the barrel for pictures these days, aren't they? I mean what's up with this guy? At least make it believable. If he's 28, I'm 15.

Moving done

Now I just need to unpack.

Looks like I picked a good weekend to not be able to watch the Angels. I appreciates Matt's optimism per his post on Rob's site, but man, I just don't think these guys have it. No killer instinct. Teams that win ham 'n egg it well. This team does the exact opposite of that. I have zero confidence in their ability to win consistently. It's the east coast trips that seem to kill them every year, and this week looked like the beginning of the end.

Met up with the Fatman and his lovely girlfriend this weekend for a few beers and some food. Thanks for coming out to flyover country.

Angels 4; Yankees 1

The kid finally pitched well on the road, holding the Yankees to one earned run over six and a third on just six hits and two walks, while striking out five. The offense actually showed up for an inning, as Anderson and Bengie hit home runs that accounted for three. An RBI ground out by Rivera and solo shot from Tino completed the scoring.

Big win against a team that the Angels have really seemed to handle over the years. After the debacle of the last three nights, it was very important to get off to a good start this weekend. Santana has won his last three starts, and four of his last five. He's making it easier for the Angels to figure out that they don't need another arm, especially if it comes at the expense of picking up another bat. The guy's a fifth starter right now, and he's giving them what you'd expect out of a fifth starter, which is something near a .500 performance given normal run support. Unless they just get overwhelmed by an offer, they shouldn't deal for another arm, unless it's for the pen and it comes cheap.

Still working on packing up the apartment in preparation for the movers tomorrow. The day off from work was very nice.

Etymology

The root word of "catcher" is catch. For the second night in a row, the Angels lose a game because the person playing the one position on the field whose name comes from the word "catch" has failed to actually catch the ball. Last night it was Bengie, who admittedly, couldn't handle a tough pitch in the dirt, but his defense has been so piss poor this year that I refuse to give him the benefit of the doubt. Tonight it was because Jose couldn't catch a pitch that was essentially a strike (despite what Rapuano thinks he saw). Pathetic.

Folks, when things aren't going your way, they just aren't going your way. Take my post from yesterday, for example. Pretty much everything bad or stressful that could be happening to me right now is in fact happening. And it doesn't appear to be any different for the Angels.

I said on a couple of message boards after Frankie that if the Angels could hold the Jays scoreless for another nine innings, they just may score again. Guess I was wrong.

Wow. This team really sucks. Or at least the offense and defense do. The pitching is still good, I guess.

Moving this weekend, so the posting will be hit and miss. Mostly miss.

Can it possibly get worse?

I'm working on a project that has absolutely zero chance of making its deadline. I'm missing out on the one and only worthwhile outing that my firm puts on all year tomorrow so that I can be the only person who gets to stay in the office and work on it. I have an apartment that's still completely full of a bunch of crap, and it all needs to be out by Sunday at noon. And to top it all off, the Angels are really crappy.

Seriously, my life sucks.

Something Wild

Time to start being realistic and looking at the wild card race. This team is reliably unreliable.

Thank God for the good minor league guys. It gives us something to follow when the major league guys forget how to play.

Anyway, Toronto games don't make it to Extra Innings (freaking Canadians), so I closed the window on the computer early. But hey! Bad News Bears (good version) is on one of the HBOs.

Light posting

I know, I know, I'm totally slacking. Super busy lately, what with a ton of crap going on at work, the wedding last weekend, moving this weekend, etc. Now with the Angels on th e East Coast, my ability to see entire games will be challenged greatly. I'll do my best. That's how much you all mean to me....*sniff*

Happy anniversary to Matt and his wife Emmanuelle, neither of whom I've ever met, but about whom I've read a fair amount. Sorry about the puking incident, though.

It could be worse. Two weeks ago at my buddy's bachelor party, the best man got so sick that he was forced to leave early and had to be picked up by his mother. That's something you never live down. He blames the Bubba Burgers, but hey, nobody else got sick. I'm guessing it's gotta be a pretty humbling experience to ask the stripper, who was in the process of giving him a lap dance, where the bathroom is. One of the other groomsman has termed the illness "stripapukalikis", which I mention only because he's a teacher, he's bored, and he'll probably google that term at some point. Hope I spelled it right, Po.

Yup

The good guys won. Aint got nothing more to say. I'm drunk, and I'm drinking water in preparation for the inevitable hangover.

And where the hell has Fat been lately?

Sorry

Rehearsal dinner/last night of freedom for my friend last night, so no game recap. Wedding and reception tonight, so it's not looking good for today's game, either.

Angels 6; Yankees 5

Well, that was a nice surprise. I was getting updates on my wireless web and on the White Sox out of town scoreboard. When I left the game it was 3-1. When I went into the subway, it was 5-2. When I got to my apartment, it was 6-5, and I arrived just in time to see the final out. Big win, since I'm not expecting much in this series. The Angels really struggle against good pitching, more than they should, it seems. Even a good pitcher who has been struggling can and will shut them down. But they apparently got to Randy, got to the pen, and well, that's why they pay Vlad $14MM per.

Bartolo was not good again, per the numbers (obviously I didn't see the game, so if anyone wants to fill me in on how he looked, please do). This is becoming an issue, and it would be a bigger issue if the other guys weren't stepping up. He's either nursing something, or he's lost it. Either way, the Angels are in trouble unless he gets it back together soon.

Good game at the Cell. White Sox went up early on an Everett homer. They extended on homers by Konerko and Rowand in the fifth, but poor defense allowed Red Sox back into the game, and eventually gave them the lead. Then Joe Crede just had one of those nights. He stroked the game tying double in the 8th. Then in the 9th, he dropped a popup in foul territory that he should have caught pretty easily. It was a tough play at first, as it looked like it was heading out of play. The wind blew it back in, and Crede camped underneath it. To me, it looked like he tried to make the catch with a little flair, and just flat dropped it. Bad idea. You don't give Manny Ramirez extra outs, and he showed why when he crushed a Luis Vizcaino for the game winning homer. On a side note, Red Sox fans weren't the huge assholes that they normally are tonight.

Missed it

Out with friends. I have a life, ya know.

Offense sucks. Wake me when we're good again.

Bleh

Good night for the game to not be on TV, and to have issues with my computer (it doesn't like to show the baseball game and have large Excel files over at the same time). Not much to say. Get 'em tomorrow.

Angels 5; A's 2

Tremendous effort from Santana tonight. Whatever he worked on over the all-star break, it worked. He worked down in the zone and was throwing strikes (albeit to a big zone). He took advantage, and except for a hiccup in the sixth, he was strong throughout. I especially liked the mental toughness. Maybe there's something to the conversations with Escobar. He was in trouble often allowing the leadoff runner to reach numerous times. All but once, he was able to work his way out of it.

Total team effort tonight, as the offense picked the kid up in the bottom of the sixth. That's really great to see. Magic man gave it all he had, and when he needed the help, the bats came through. Nice to see Cabrera step in and contribute. Look, we're stuck with the guy, so dammit, I'm gonna root for him when he's in there. Santana responded by working a very strong seventh before turning it over to 'ol rubber arm in the 8th. Getting those runs back had to be a big confidence builder.

Of course, genius that I am, I decided to sit Ervin this week, despite his two starts, in favor of a number of guys, notable Dave Williams, who got drilled by the Astros tonight. Then again, Santana goes against the Yankees on Saturday, who have been mashing lately, so maybe it wasn't such a bad decision. We'll see.

These games with the A's certainly aren't make or break, but they are big. It would be really nice to cool them off a bit and open a little more daylight during this rough stretch in the schedule. The key was not getting swept, and they accomplished that tonight. Tough matchup tomorrow against Harden. Lots of pressure on Wash, and it's at home, so that's not a good sign.
These game

Increasingly more fun with Sitemeter

I just discovered that someone visited here from a search on google for, I kid you not, "pitchers of kids dicks". I honesly don't know what's more disturbing, that someone was actually searching for this, that this person apparently doesn't know the word "pictures", or that this site come up under that search? For the record, it resulted from the post where I talked about Scioscia checking Nationals pitchers for violations, and called the Nationals dicks. Go figure.

And shout out to the Steve Physioc search guy (or gal). What up?

Angels 2; Twins 1

You should not win a game in which you get 2 runs on five hits, and during which you also make 3 errors. But the Angels found a way to get it done despite the weak offense and poor defense. John Lackey somehow avoided his Lackey inning, and Scioscia removed him before we had a chance to find out of if that inning would come in the 8th or 9th. Shields was Shields, and Frankie was Frankie, as the bullpen threw two perfect innings to preserve the one run victory.

Davanon stepped it up with a two run shot, but that was pretty much it for the offense, which continues to slumber. The pitching is only going to be there so often, so they really need to get the bats going. As for Lackey, he was great today, but even when he's had that crappy inning lately, he's been fun to watch. He's turning into a bonafide strikeout pitcher.

I don't know what was up with the outfield. Finley's error looked like it took a funny hop off of that turf, so I'm not gonna get pissed about that one, but Garret's looked like laziness, which means he allowed two extra bases with his laziness this afternoon. I thought he'd gotten away from that for a while, but maybe it's back.

Oh well, four great games with the Twins, with three of them wins. Not a bad start to the second half, but it's a good thing the Twins likely won't be in the playoffs, because I don't think my heart could take a full playoff series with these two teams.

Now I'm off to sweat my ass off at a concert in 95 degree heat. Fun.

Lack of posting

Sorry. Busy weekend. Probably more of the same tomorrow. I may have a review of the Intonation Festival tomorrow night. Saw AC Newman and Broken Social Scene today. The Hold Steady, the Wrens, and maybe the Decemberists tomorrow.

Angels 3; Twins 2

Another close one with the Twins. Nice effort from Washburn, who survived a rough fourth, but got picked up nicely by his offense in the fifth.

I'm a little disturbed by the numbe of opportunities the Angels squandered, but tonight they put enough runs across for Wash and the bullpen to get the job done. Shields picked right up where he left off, and Frankie looked very sharp. He needed the rest, although I'm sure Twins fans will be complaining about some borderline calls again. I probably would be if I were them.

Finley looked like he stroked it pretty well on a big double, and Izturis showed why none of us seem to be too excited about the return of Orlando Cabrera. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, though. Maybe the offense was struggling (more than normal) because of the injury. Let's hope that's the case. In the meantime, Ztu is getting it done.

Probably no game report tomorrow, as I'll be at a birthday barbeque for a friend. Saturday I'll be at the Intonation Festival, but Broken Social Scene should be over by 6:00, so I might be back in time to watch that game. We'll have to wait and see. Could be a big weekend, as I expect to be threatened with termination when I tell one of my senior managers that I will under no circumstances be in the office on Saturday. I'm past the point of caring.

Drinking

Yup. That's what you do on a night with no major league baseball. Normal junk to resume tomorrow. I will have processed much of the beer I consumed tonight by that point.

All Star Break

Honestly, I only watched the game until it got to be about 5-0, then I started watching Le Tour, then I played PlayStation. Once Colon had pitched, and Vlad had failed to hit, and Anderson had failed to hit, I kind of lost interest. Buy yay American League. Home field advantage if the Angels miraculously reach the world series (let alone the post-season).

So I'm gonna take this time to ask a couple of movie questions that have been bugging me:

1) I was watching Top Gun the other night, which is seemingly always on a cable station somewhere, and there's a part that I've never understood. In their first dogfight at the school, they refer to a hard-deck of 10,000 feet, under which engagement is not allowed (presumably for safety reasons). But first, they seem to be doing a hell of a lot of fighting below 10,000 feet. That's the ocean, folks. And they seemed to be darn near it, or at least near all of those mountains, which are nowhere close to 10,000 feet high. Second, when he does the "put on the breaks" thing, Jester heads straight for the hard-deck, below which they nail him. Isn't heading for the hard-deck cheating by Jester? That dude was a total liar. Tom Skerrit's character says "commander Heatherly lost sight of you and called no joy" (I looked this up). That's bullshit. He knew where he was the whole time. This isn't a game of tag where there's a 'safe' zone. What a dick.

2) I was watching "The Girl Next Door" last night, because, ya know, porn stars, and I had a few issues with the burglary scene. First, while the guy's (James Remar's character) house was nice, it wasn't what I'd expect of someone who was at the top of the porn industry food chain. Second, where did these people live? Obviously somewhere in SoCal, because, ya know, porn industry, but it sure didn't look like the Valley. Third, what kind of major porn king pin is going to be sleeping at home by himself, as in, not surrounded by chicks trying to break into the porn industry? Otherwise, what't the point (besides the money, I mean). And finally, this has nothing to do with the burglary, but are there that many SoCal kids that are that gung ho about going to Georgetown? Not saying it's impossible. Just saying it's unlikely. Maybe during the Patrick Ewing days, when everyone and their brother was wearing Georgetown gear, but whatever.

Anyway, baseball tomorrow.

Weaver wins again

5-4. 3 runs, all earned, on 3 hits, one a home run, in 5 and two thirds. Eight strikeouts to one walk. Brandon Wood is likely still enjoying the all-star experience, but Howie Kendrick had two hits.

Bill Buckner took the loss. All of the runs were earned, so reports of the winning hit going between his legs appear to be erroneous.

Recap.

Hey, it's a day off for me, too

Honestly, it's been a busy weekend and it's carried over into today, so I'm kind of digging a day with no baseball, minus the home run derby.

Caught some of the home run derby. They're better in person. I've been to two, and it's just not as fun on TV. It's also not that fun when none of the Angels are participating. It was pretty cool when GA won in Chicago a couple of years ago. At the actual game itself that year there was a guy in an Expos Guerrero jersey who kept badmouthing Troy Glaus, and you could tell he was doing it a little louder because I was seated so close to him. Granted, Troy was having a down year, but at the time, I kept wanting to ask "how many World Series MVPs does Vlad have." A year later, Vlad was in Anaheim. Expensive weekend for the all-star package, but a lot of fun.

Scary story for David Eckstein this weekend. Apparently he was on the phone with his dad when his dad started experiencing kidney failure, which looks like it runs in his family. Long story short, they got emergency assistance soon after and looks like he'll be back to normal, although he is awaiting a transplant (as he was before this incident).

To the extent that the Angels still have any shot at the playoffs, I'd really like them to play the Cardinals. Mostly, I just want to see the ovation that Eckstein would get from the fans in Anaheim. I think it would be a nice juxtaposition to what I hope would be a loud show of disdain for Jim Edmonds.

No comment

Didn't see one pitch. Played golf instead. Right now, I'd rather do just about anything other than watch this trainwreck of a team.

Fuck this fucking team

Seriously, it's one thing to go into a slump, but they're getting absolutely destroyed by a really crappy team.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'll say it right now. The Angels will not make the playoffs this season.

Your Questions Answered

Anonymous asks:

I need to know exactly what the bean bag tournament is and I was kind of hoping for a recap of how you got to the quarterfinals. Maybe over the all star break since you wont have a game to write about. Oh, and have you listened to British Sea Power at all?

I'm not sure if it's simply a Chicago thing like 16 inch softball and Italian Beef sandwiches, or if it's more of Midwestern thing in general, but I never played bean bag until I got to Chicago. It's basically a variation on horseshoes, or jarts (which was a totally awesome game as long as you didn't get impaled by a jart). You usually play with four people, two teams of two each. Partners stand on opposite ends of the court, or field, or whatever the hell you want to call it. You have four bean bags. You throw them onto an inclined board that's about three feet long and two feet wide with a hole about five inches in diameter near the top/back of the board.

If the bag lands on the board and stays, you get one point. If it goes in the hole, you get three points. There are probably other ways you can score it, but in our tournaments, the teams cancel each other out. In other words, if I get one on and one in, and my opponent gets two in, he/she gets two points (six minus four). You generally play to 11 or 15. At the block party I go to, we try to have guy/girl teams, but there are always more guys than girls, so there ends up being a couple of guy/guy teams. They have to play each other in the early rounds, so you can't get two guy/guy teams in the finals. Last year I was on a guy/guy team, and we had an epic choke in the semi-finals. We were playing to 11, and we had a 10-0 lead. We proceeded to lose 11-10.

This year it was pretty uneventful. A lot of people were out of town, and the weather sucked, so attendance was poorer than usual. My partner and I won our first round game pretty handily. The next round was the quarter-finals, and we got smoked. I think we lost 15-0. We lost to the team that eventually lost the championship to my former law school roommate/current co-employee, and the sister of the guy that invites us (she had home field advantage, as she lives at the house where we were set up for block party). I was disappointed in my performance, but I'm going to blame that on the wet weather. Also, I was drinking more heavily than usual in the early part of the day, so I was buzzing pretty good. And the bags were much heavier than normal. And the boards sucked, too. Given enough time, I can come up with more excuses.

The winners generally are required to spend their winning ($1 per person entry fee) on pitchers at the bar where everyone ends up at the end of the night. I can't comment on this year's winners, as one is underage, and the other bailed before being forced to pony up for beer. I'll try to give him a chance to defend himself.

With regard to BSP, I've listened to the new album maybe once, but it didn't grab me right away. I'll try again. They're a band that I know is in my sort of 'genre' I guess, but for whatever reason, I've just never got around to listening to them. I don't think the first album is available on Rhapsody, so if that's the one I should be listening to, I may be out of luck.

As for the All-Star break, I have something special planned (note to self: plan something special for the all-star break).

Mariners 10; Angels 2

Well, there's not much to say, really. Sometimes you get a game like this. You give up a ton of runs, and you get shut down by what is essentially a pretty crappy team. Baseball's weird that way.

Colon was not good. He got the first two batters of the game, gave up a couple of singles, and then turned back into Nibbler. He was afraid to pitch to Beltre, walked him, and Jeremy Reed made him pay. As it turns out, maybe he was right to be afraid of Beltre, as he would drill a three run double just an inning later, putting the game out of reach for all intents and purposes.

On the bright side, they got a great start on a night where they didn't need it. And Colon didn't waste a great offensive effort. If you're gonna lose, lose big.

Tomorrow night it's a kind of soft throwing lefty against a REALLY soft throwing lefty. Moyer always seems to pitch well against the Angels, but he's been pretty bad this year. If good Washburn shows up, then the Angels should win. Of course, they should have won tonight based on matchups, so who knows. I probably won't have much to say about tomorrow night's game, as it's looking like a date night. Sorry, but you're forewarned. I'll try to make it up to you somehow.

More fun with Sitemeter

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Angels 7; Twins 6

What a great game. Too bad I was at work for the whole thing, but I snuck peaks here and there.........and there.......and here, and there, and here again. Santana is making me look very foolish for keeping him on the Guzzlers this year, and he's making me look foolish for not accepting the recent trade offer which could have landed me Clement and Carlos Silva. He is making me look smart for not starting him this week, though (we won't get into how Beckett and Dave Williams are making me look stupid this week).

I'll reiterate what I said last night. Kennedy has got to be the gold glove winner at second base. Is anyone else even close? Bengie continues to hit, Vlad continues to be Vlad, and GA.......what can you say about GA? The guy is awesome. For some kid watching the Angels, he's gotta be the Brian Downing of this team. Quiet, goes about his business, and gets the job done. Some great defense in the 9th made what could have been a rough inning a 1-2-3 routine frame.

Lots of things going on today. The Angels were screwed on the play at third where Morneau came off the bag. I missed it and only saw the replay, but Morneau was clearly out, and that cost the Angels two runs. Santana falling apart used to be a rare sight, but as his fantasy owners can tell you, it's becoming more and more common. He refuses to throw his killer change up with men on base. Paul Byrd reverted to his early season form, where he follows up any offense he gets by giving it right back, as he did after the Angels score three runs in the fifth to tie the game. Not to be outdone, Santana responded by giving up singles to Figgins and Vlad before Anderson smoked one to right field, almost the same place where Kennedy hit his home run off of Santana in the 2002 ALCS. Rivera followed with a solo shot of Jesse Crain that supplied the winning margin.

As if that wasn't enough, Anderson made a very good throw, and was helped by a nice play by Jose Molina, to cut down the tying run at the plate in the top of the 8th on the rare 7-2 double play. Turnabout is fair play. The Angels lost game one of this series when Kennedy was thrown out from center trying to score from second on an Erstad frozen rope of a single.

This is a nice win for the Angels. You can't really ever 'expect' to beat Santana, even in a rough stretch like he's currently going through. They start the trip with a series win and have a struggling Seattle coming in for four straight before the break. Win three of those, and the Angels could find themselves with a very healthy lead at the break.

Speaking of healthy, is anybody else dreading the return of Finley and Cabrera? Someone should tell them that the stadium moved, or give them a "revised" schedule with all games starting at 10:00. Let's roll with Maicer at short and Figgins in center. Who's with me?

Angels 2; Twins 1

This is the second time that Santana has struggled early, escaped, and gone on to pitch a pretty decent game. Maybe he's taking instructions from Washburn. One thing it tells me is that the kid has pretty good poise. That's a hell of a lot more than you could ever say for Ramon Ortiz. You have to admire the way he battled.

If Kennedy isn't the favorite to win the gold glove, especially with bat flip among the ranks of the released, there's something wrong. He's even got the offense to go with it this season, or at least a gaudy batting average. Boy, what a play he made in what I think was the fourth. Can't remember. But it was a great play.

It's easy to laugh about these things now, but Bengie Molina, despite the home run, and Maicer Izturis have a lot of explaining to do. Maicer I'll let slide this time, since he's been playing excellent defense, but geez, what an awful drop in the ninth. Bengie, on the other hand, just really sucks behind the plate. I've touched on this before, but he's just gotten lazy. I realize that he took a few foul balls tonight, so I'm not going to harp on it, but seriously. Block the ball, Bengie. You don't need to pick every ball cleanly.

More great work from Shields, although I was sure that Gregg was going to blow it. Nice to see him recover and pitch well. I think Lecroy should have been booted after striking out and arguing vociferously on what was admittedly a pretty bad call. The fact that it was a crappy call didn't keep Kennedy from getting run last night. Of course, running Lecroy would have been just as meaningless as ejecting Kennedy was last night.

Back up by 7.5 after Texas' loss tonight. I would be very comfortable with this lead at the all-star break. I'd be more comfortable if it was bigger. I don't think I'll ever be completely comfortable until all is decided, though.

Twins 7; Angels 5

Missed the first three innings while attending a block party in Oak Park. Lost in the quarter-finals of the bean bag tournament, and lost the egg toss when my partner screwed up on a pretty nice toss, but whaddya gonna do. If the egg doesn't break on me, I consider myself a winner.

Chipping away at your opponent's lead doesn't really work if you constantly let them repair the chips. Tonight, the Angel offense played well enough to win (although they could have been better), but the pitching was not up to par. Lackey turned into bad Lackey in the fourth inning, giving up three runs and blowing a 2-0 lead. Then, after almost getting himself out of a jam in the sixth, he gave up a two run single to lowly Juan Castro, hitting a paltry .241. The Angels were never able to get closer than one run again.

Dallas crushed a ball in the 5th that would have been a home run in most parks, but it hit off the top of the wall and he had to settle for a double. He would later score on an infield single by Kennedy. Adam was later erased trying to score on a single by Erstad. I don't blame Roenicke in this situation. There were two outs, and Kennedy runs well. The problem was that Erstad hammered the pitch. It really got into center in a hurry, and Hunter was able to pick it up while moving toward the plate in a pretty good position to throw. Tough break.

Kennedy was kicked out arguing balls and strikes after striking out for the second out in the bottom of the ninth. He had a case. Hallion had called a high fastball a ball, and on the next pitch, called a fastball just as high and slightly more outside a strike, clearly irking Kennedy. When Kennedy swung and missed the next pitch, he turned and let Hallion know that he (Hallion) sucks. Hallion disagreed and ran Kennedy. Players understand that umpires all have different strike zones, but what really pisses them off is inconsistency. Hallion had two different strike zones on two consecutive pitches at a crucial moment in the game. I don't think for a second, however, that Kennedy would have argued in, say, the third inning, or sixth, or any inning but the ninth, and in anything other than a game that they were losing. For what it's worth, Hallion tightened his strike zone and Figgins walked in the next at bat.

Tune in tomorrow to find out which Santana shows up. Hopefully it's not the same as the Lackey that showed up tonight.

Angels 5; Royals 0

Shortened by rain. They picked a great game to not put on TV. It gave me a chance to watch the Western Open, which I had recorded.

Tiger, although he didn't win, is incredible. You can't believe some of the shots he hits until you play the same course. Or rather, a course at the same location, because he and I aren't playing the same course. The tenth hole is maybe a driver/wedge for me. For Tiger, he just drives it to within 10 yards. 11, on a good day, is driver/five iron/wedge. For Tiger, it's driver/nine iron. That's freaking amazing.

38 out - 36 in = 74

Played Prairie Landing today in West Chicago. 6,950 yards, with a rating of 73.2 from the tips and a slope of 136. Good test of golf, although not as tough as Cog #4 or Pine Meadow from the back tees. Tough greens, no trees (which means tons of wind), and wide fairways, but a lot of junk if you miss the fairway.

Hit all but one fairway, and hit 11 greens. Putted a little better, but still not great. Missed good birdie opportunities on 1, 7, 8, 12, and 15, but carded birdies on 3, 4, 10, and 11. The key, again, was no big numbers. No double bogeys.

I'm guessing as of the next revision, my handicap is going to be somewhere around 5, which is OK for now. I'd like to get it a little lower, but no complaints. That's two great rounds in my last three, and even the one that wasn't great was pretty good.

Angels 5; Royals 3

Nice job by Colon until the 8th. Still, that's a fair amount of rest for the pen after the last two games before this series, which they needed.

Honestly, I missed this one. The girl wanted to go to Taste of Chicago to see Carlos Santana and some band called Los Lonely Boys. Or rather, wanted to hear them, as we really couldn't see them. Nice day, though. Great weather, and fun was had by all.

Angels 5; Royals 0

What a great effort from Paul Byrd. After the leadoff single that wasn't, he really settled down, and gave the bullpen a much needed rest after the last few games. Another complete game, his second in his last three starts, on 105 pitches. I'll be honest, the power guys are fun to watch, but I love pitchers that don't walk anyone. I gotta think the fielders love it too. You know that almost every batter is going to put it in play, and you know that you aren't going to have to sit there as he walks the bases loaded. I once played on a softball team where our pitcher walked 6 straight batters on 18 straight balls (you start with a 1-1 count). It just deflated everyone. Man, that sucked.

More two out magic, as the first three runs all scored with two outs. The first run (which, quite frankly, I missed) came home on a Bengie single after some nice baserunning by D-Mac. It hasn't gotten a lot of pub, but he can run a little bit. That's three steals this season, and he had surprising stolen base numbers for a power guy in the minors. That might be something that the Angels find very valuable this season.

Nice way to start this series after the last two games. The Royals really suck, and the Angels just beat their best pitcher, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the Angels sweep this series.

Snuck in 18 at Pine Meadow today, my choice for the best publicly accessible course in the Chicagoland area. The course, as usual, was in great shape, but there some dry spots, probably due to the recent drought.* That, and I'm guessing the Jemseks, who also manage Cog Hill, have used all of their water budget on Dubs, home of this week's Cialis Western Open. The result is that the fairways play a little dryer, and the rough becomes thinner and much more playable. On the other hand, it was windier than it's ever been when I've played there, so that was a factor as well.

I was knocking it all over the yard on the front nine. Only hit two greens (2 and 7) but escaped with a 41. Started to put it together on the back, hitting seven greens (10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, and 18). Still couldn't get any putts to drop though, and three putts on 10 and 17 sunk me. I also blew some good birdie opportunities on 11, 13, 16, and 18. Came in with a 39 for a finishing 80 (from the gold tees - roughly 6,900 yards with a course rating of 73.4). And I did par what is, for my money, one of the toughest holes in the city, number 3.



I still think I'm not that far away. A little more consistency, and some better putting, and I can drop two or three strokes per round. Next year is the year I start playing in some events (Illinois amateur, USGA Publinx, etc.)

*For my West Coast readership, when we go about two weeks without rain in the summer, it's a drought. I know, it's crazy. I come from a place where we start thinking about droughts when we hit roughly the tenth year of no rain, but hey, it is what it is.

The Plan

Looks like all we need is a cardboard box.

Rangers a lot; Angels not so much

Ouch.

I really don't think there's much else to say except, thank God I was at work and didn't have to witness too much of it.

And Maicer got robbed.

I blame myself

They were doing fine until I left to go drinking with some law school friends. Next time I looked, the Angels were down 6-3. When I left the bar and checked the score again, they were tied in the bottom of the 11th. I just had to question it, though. I had to call my dad to figure out what was going on. And while on that call (I had since been passed to my mom), the Rangers won on a crappy little hit. So really, now that I think about it, I blame my mom.

Lackey apparently went back to his "be crappy for one inning" mode.

Other than that, I'll wait for some other recaps. Or feel free to provide your own in the comments.

Angels 5; Rangers 1

Pick your poison. Pitch to Vlad, who will most certainly drive in at least one run, or pitch to GA, who is gonna rip a grand slam.

Quite honestly, this one wasn't on extra innings tonight, and I was following it on MLBTV while also watching two Illini go in the first round (congrats to Deron and Luther). Since nothing really happened after the first inning, aside from some nice defensive plays by Kennedy and Figgins, I really don't have much to say about the middle innings. But after a huge double by Erstad, the Rangers didn't have much of a choice other than to pitch around Vlad. You had to assume Anderson would drive in a run somehow, but the grand slam was a little unexpected.

Scioscia tempted fate in the bottom of the 11th by bringing Frankie in with a 4 run lead in the bottom of the 11th. I still think that more often than not closers struggle in that situation, but after giving up a hit to Blalock, Frankie settled down and retired the side.

8.5 games up. Guarunteed a split in the series with Big Tex on the mound tomorrow night. Oakland is leading again tonight, so it's nice to see the Angels playing well while Oakland is hot. At least Seattle is getting buried over this stretch.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Earlier today, one of my favorite posters, Anonymous, asked for some comments on Jeremy Roenick's remarks about hockey fans, or really more accurately "to" hockey fans. Now, at first I had no idea what anonymous was talking about, so I had to look it up. Here's what he said:

""I will say personally, personally, to everybody who calls us spoiled - you guys are just jealous... We're trying to get this thing back on the ice and make it better for the fans. If you don't realize that, then don't come. We don't want you in the rink, we don't want you in the stadium, we don't want you to watch hockey."

He also said this:

"If we would have signed that deal in February, in terms of what we're getting now, we would have looked like heroes. Right now we look like a bunch of idiots. The deal in February beats the (expletive) out of the deal we're gonna sign in July. It's unfortunate we had to go through a whole year to realize the (expletive) that was going on. We've hurt our league, we've hurt the reputation of our league and the integrity of our league by sticking up for something that might not have been the right thing to do."

As to the first set of comments, which I think were actually second chronologically, but they're the first comments I ran across, I think he went a little overboard rhetorically. Obviously it's not very good business strategy to tell all of your customers to piss off. But quite honestly, the one hockey discussion site that I used to visit until I couldn't take the stupidity any longer were all VERY anti-player. It was all the fault of the greedy players, and sure the owners signed offered the deals, but it's the greedy players who accepted them. And as long as there are rogue teams like the Rangers and Capitals and St. Louis Blues (mid-90s version) signing players to huge contracts, how can teams like Calgary and Tampa Bay compete (pay no attention to the most recent Stanley Cup Final). And the owners are sure to lower ticket prices as soon as salaries go down, because they're all such benevolent human beings. Gag me. And let's face it, fans are jealous. Hell, I'm jealous. But I don't begrudge those guys what they make. It's how the market works. Everyone likes to trot out the "but teachers and firemen only make....." B.S., but (and I say this as someone with a family full of teachers) until 16,000 people per night pay $30 to watch my brother teach, he shouldn't be making as much as a pro-athlete. They have skills that society values for entertainment, and they're paid accordingly.

Essentially what we had last year was a group of owners saying "oops, we broke the system, and the only way to fix it is to have you guys bend over and let us shove a new labor agreement up your asses." The difference between this and the baseball strike, however, was that the owners had leverage. They actually had screwed up the system so bad that some of them actually were probably telling the truth about their losses. But this was never about getting a fair deal. This, and every other labor negotiation in professional sports (except for maybe basketball) has been about one thing and one thing only - busting the union.

But I digress. I think the second group of quotes is a pretty accurate statement. Much as I hate pretty much all of them, the owners hung together, passed up some very good deals that would have salvaged the season, got the players to capitulate on a number of issues, and now stand poised to sign a deal that really makes the union their collective bitch, assuming of course that hockey survives.

The irony in the stance taken by the pro-owner fans is that the deal really solves nothing. Ticket prices may come down initially, but that's not due to lower labor costs. It's due to lower demand, the result of practically destroying the league. And the lament that the low revenue teams couldn't compete because perennial cup hoisters like the Rangers were going to steal all of their players will just be sung to a different tune. As a Kings fan, this really pisses me off, because they've got a bevy of young, talented players in the pipeline. If those guys pan out, they'll be gone because of the cap. What's the point in building for the future if it means you're forced to let some of your best players go due to the salary cap? It's gonna hurt when it happens, but there will be some serious schadenfreude when guys like Visnsovsky, Gleason, and Brown are shipped out because of cap restraints. Be careful what you wish for.

I'm of two minds about the (hopefully) upcoming hockey season. On the one hand, I love hockey, and I love the Kings, so I'm looking forward to it with great anticipation. On the other hand, hockey still has huge problems, including owners who are far too short-sided to make real improvements to the game, like increasing the size of the ice. No long term vision for the sport. And with the new labor deal, I'll have a hard time finding any part of the last shred of respect I had for management.

Angels +7.5; Rangers -7.5

I'll be honest. Games like this scare the crap out of me. They swung the bats great, scored a ton of runs, and they'll probably score two more runs over the course of the series. I should point out, though, they not only knocked the Gambler out of the last game early, they knocked him out of tomorrow's game early. Rogers broke a bone in his right hand punching the water jug after the Angels rocked him last week. So I'm of two minds. On the one hand, it's the type of game where Rogers would toss a one hitter. On the other hand, they'll start some kid that should get shelled, and he'll toss a one hitter. I hope I'm wrong. I am the eternal pessimist.

Bart was throwing a lot of strikes again, and didn't seem to be working too hard. Lots of fly balls, though, except of course for the one that bounced off his shin. Vlad and AK went deep to just about the same part of the ballpark. Tough start stonight for CJ Wilson, a kid who grew up in Fountain Valley watching the Angels. I think that would be tough. You root for a team your whole life, then you have to go out and pitch against them. I'm guessing the loyalty dissipates pretty quickly after you sign that contract, though. The first four Angels reached base, and they plated three in the first. The Angels were relentless, scoring in 7 of 9 innings.

Hank Blalock had the magic stick for Texas, belting two homers and driving in all three runs. He's a cornerstone the Crown City Guzzlers, the only fantasy team I care about, so this is just the type of game where I like to see him blow up. Between he and Grady Sizemore, I picked up some serious points tonight, which is great for a night without many games, and for a week in which I'm only getting five starts.

Worst case scenario, the Angels will leave Arlington up by 4.5 games. If they win one more, that goes up to 6.5. They could conceivably leave Texas up by 10.5 games, at which point Oakland becomes a bigger concern. Without a doubt, the credit goes to the pitching staff. With Vlad back in the lineup and killing the ball, we can see just how important the staff was in keeping the team above water during his absense. Hat tip to those guys.

Man, I've alluded to it before, but Jeff Davanon really runs a lot of bad routes in the outfield. It's like he's been taking lessons from Bernie "L Route" Williams. Call me crazy, but I still have more faith in him out there than Finley. And Maicer Izturis continues to make Bill Stoneman look like a genius and a moron at the same time.

Good game, guys. Let's get one more tomorrow.

Angels 5; Dogers 3 & Cubs 2; Sox 0

Didn't see much of the Angels game, but I got back in time to see Vlad single up the middle, and Garret pick up his 999th and 1000th RBIs, pushing the Angels to a two run lead that they wouldn't relinquish. Congratulations, Garret.

Frankie has been very shaky of late, and he didn't get any help from Davanon on the Olmedo Saenz popup that El Jeffe lost in the sun. After putting the tying run on base, Frankie recovered with a ground out to complete the sweep. This puts the Angels 6.5 clear of Texas, who lost to Houston, and gives them double digit leads over Seattle and Oakland. The worst case scenario has the Angels up two and half after their trip to Arlington, and if they stay hot, and Texas stays cold, they could lead by as many as 10.5. That's a nice position to be in.

Another fine day on the mound, with a quality start from Byrd, and solid relief from Donnelly. The pitching staff continues to surprise and impress.

A packed house at Comiskey saw the Cubs beat the White Sox 2-0, a solo home run from Corey Patterson (redundant, I know) providing the Cubs with all they'd need. Garland and Prior were both outstanding, and the infield defenses were excellent, turning numerous double plays.

It was hot. Damn, was it hot. And humid. Seriously, as a west coaster, I just never understood how uncomfortable 88 degrees can be. But the train was nice and air conditioned on the ride home. This was the first Cubs-Sox game I've been to in three years, the last one being on my birthday at Wrigley in 2002. Coincidentally, Garland also started that game, but that was when he sucked. Honestly, I don't remember much of anything from that game, except that the start was delayed by a little rain. We met up at Goose Island for a couple of beers beforehand. Then we never actually took our seats. We stood in the SRO section next to the beer cart and got pretty tanked. That was followed by a trip to Sluggers for a few more beers. Next we headed to my friend's then girlfriend's (now fiancee, and in four weeks, wife) apartment, where I consumed a couple of glasses of wine. After that, we picked up some tapas at Emilio's, where I also downed about a pitcher of Sangria. We figured we hadn't quite had enough, so we headed across the street to one of the bars on Clark Street for another beer. So you can see why the details escape me a bit. None of that today, though. Just a Polish Tailgate* before the game, at which I arrived late, no drinking during the game, and well, that takes us to right about now. Gotta stay sober for that softball game tonight.

**UPDATE**

Not my best game, but we won by the slaughter rule in about a half hour. 0-1 with sac fly, a line out, a walk, and a run scored. I know, I hate guys who walk in softball, but if I don't get anything to hit, I'm not going to swing at bad pitches. I also made one play in left, and, I'll admit, should have made the play on a ball that hit the top of the fence and came back into play. I didn't play the guy deep enough, but the air was heavy and ball wasn't carrying very well. It ended up being a long single, because the runner on first had to hold in case I caught it. I'm guessing he was on the bag thinking of tagging up (which would have been a good decision). Oh well, at least I didn't hold onto the ball looking for somewhere to throw it, before finally chucking it in after giving everyone an extra base or two, then blaming my weak arm on being "flat footed".

*Instead of driving, you take the train with a case of beer in tow, stake out a spot, preferably in the shade, and suck it down before heading in to the park.

Angels 3; Dodgers 1

It's a crazy game, ain't it? The Angels got four hits and three runs in the second inning and it was all they needed. Good thing, because it was all they got. Three runs on four measly hits. Ervin Santana, on the other hand, gave up a bomb to Jason Werth, and two more shots that would have been home runs if hit anywhere other than dead center, scattered 7 hits over 6 and 2/3, escaped from a bases loaded one out situation in the third, and cruised to his third victory. He did look sharp over his last 3+ innings, finishing with seven strike outs, including one which featured a very serious Jeff Kent twirling like a fool.

The Angels not only got timely hitting, but they got timely pitching as well. Santana induced a double play grounder after giving up a leadoff single in the seventh, and Shields started a 1-6-3 double play to end a threat in the eighth, retiring Jayson 'foul-o-matic' Werth in the process.

Another nice night of listening to Vin Scully. Really cool that he works without a color guy, although I thought he and Joe Garagiola made a good team on the national games fifteen or twenty years ago.

Angels still lead Texas by 5.5, and they're guaranteed to come out of their four game set in Arlington with a lead, no matter how bad it gets.

Probably very little in the way of a recap tomorrow, as I'll be at the Cell for the Cubs-Sox tilt. Although I guess I could recap my softball game tomorrow night. I know that would be almost as exciting for most of you as my golf post was today.

39 out; 35 in - 74

I don't often toot my own horn on this blog, unless I'm being facetious, but allow me to say "toot-toot". Cog Hill #2 is certainly no Cog Hill #4. It's about 700 yards shorter, and if you look at the course rating, it's about 5 shots easier. However, that doesn't diminish the fact that I shot two over on the front, and even on the back for a two over 74. Probably one of my best rounds in a while (the 81 I shot from the tips at Purdue's Kampen Course is still one of the best ball striking rounds I've ever had, and the 76 at Foxford Hills was mighty fine).

Snaked in a 15 footer for birdie on 2, fell apart on 3 for bogey, three putted 5 for par and 6 for bogey to go one over. Got it together on 7 and 8 for par, and blew a golden oppotunity on 9 after a great drive, and made bogey to go two over.

Drove the tenth green and missed a 12 foot eagle putt to settle for birdie. Bogeyed 12 to drop back to two over, and parred in, with a good birdie opp on 13, routine pars on 14 and 15, hit a tremendous 4-iron punch under the trees onto the green to par 16, got up and down on 17 for par, and snaked in a 8-10 footer on 18 to save a two putt par for the even 35 and 74 overall. 13 greens in regulation, which has got to be somewhere near a career high.

The rough was very playable, which was fortunate, because I didn't exactly light up the fairways (8 of 14). Greens rolled well, and weren't brutally fast. The course played pretty easy, but still, seeing 74 on the card is nice confidence builder. And while the putting wasn't great, it was light years better than it's been. The Scotty Cameron Caliente will be staying in the bag for a while.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that my buddy shot 75, his failure to get up and down on 17 being the difference between our two scores. He shot an 81 or 82 last week on Dubsdread, so he still has bragging rights on the big course. The fact that we really pushed each other to play better made for a great round.

No rounds booked for now, but I imagine I'll try to walk on somewhere next weekend, especially if there's an opportunity to play well again.

Angels 7; Dodgers 0

It's always nice to beat those guys.

Lackey was excellent through seven innings, throwing his curveball for strikes in the zone and out of the zone. He finished with 9 strikeouts to one walk. I think it's safe to say that he's putting it together this year. This is the guy we expected to have in the rotation after game 7 of the 2002 World Series. He's 6-2, his ERA is down to 3.50, and he's really been racking up the strikeouts lately. I'm getting the feeling now that we have two pitchers with whom we should win, two with whom we have a good shot to win, and then the fifth spot rotating between Escobar (solid when healthy) and Santan (feast or famine).

I'm with Sean. The pitching has really been unbelievable and unexpected this season. On the nights when the offense shows up, these guys look like world beaters.

Weaver bested Lackey for the first four+ innings, not allowing a hit. He didn't allow his first 'hit', and I use that term loosely, until Jeff (not Jerry, Vin) Davanon knocked one back up the middle under the glove of a very serious Jeff Kent, who wasn't quite serious enough about selling out to save the run. That plated D-Mac, who'd hit one to the moon that eventually fell to earth and went through Cesar Izturis' glove. Heads up baserunning got him into scoring position. A couple of hits later, and the lead was 2-0. The Angels would add single runs in the sixth and seventh, before D-Mac put it out of reach with a three run bomb to dead center. Shields and Donnelly pitched solid 8th and 9th innings respectively to close it out.

Texas dropped another one in Houston. That makes five straight, coming on the heels of five straight wins. The Angels have now picked up four games in five nights, and have increased their lead to 5.5 games. Suddenly, they've got a really nice cushion. Not that I expect sweeps, but if they hold their lead before heading down to Kelo v. New London Stadium for four against the Rangers, they've put them into position where a sweep at the hands of the Rangers would still find them in first place, and a sweep in the other direction could push their lead to double digits. Not a bad situation to be in.

Nice surprise getting Vin Scully on FSN tonight via the Extra Innings package. No offense, Steve, in case you stop by again. Looks like it should be more of the same tonight. And with the girl out of town this weekend (for those of you who believe in her existence), I'll be back in front of the TV tomorrow night, recovering from a round at Cog Hill #2 played in 95 degree heat.

What you learn from Sitemeter

Sitemeter is that little thing on the bottom that tracks blog hits. If you're cheap, like me, you get the free version that tells you all kinds of neat things (but not as many neat things as the pay version) like how many hits you've had, what pages people are clicking through from, the ISP of visitors, what time zone they're in (shout out to those of you in Cental Europe), etc. For example, it tells me that today I received my 2,100th hit since I got a Sitemeter account a little less than two months ago, right about the time I restarted this here blog.

One of the interesting things is the referral listing. It shows you where people have clicked over from. If you type the URL into the address bar, it just turns up as "unknown". But if you click the link on the sidebar of BHW's site, it shows the URL for his site. It's really not enough information to tell me who any of you are, although I suppose if I was really that interested, I could figure out a few of you. Some of you, like some guy in Atlanta, post really predictable comments, so I already know who you are.

Which leads me to the point of this post. I recently received a visitor who clicked through from a google search, which isn't all that rare. For example, Brian Carlwell's recent commit to Illinois brought a few people to the site who did searches on his name. But tonight, I got a hit from someone who who searched for 'steve physioc angels'. Now this isn't really a big deal. I'd imagine that given enough time in front of a computer, I too would run similar searches which would seem pointless to everyone else. This person had their reasons to search for information on Physioc (I'm giving the benefit of the doubt).

Now I don't know about you, but I when do a google search, I look through the first ten results, maybe the next ten, and on those rare occasions, I'll even click over to page 3. If I don't find what I'm looking for, I alter the search a little bit to see if I can pull up what I seek. But who in the world does a Steve Physioc search and clicks NINE PAGES THROUGH and is still clicking on the result links at that point? I can't imagine doing a search for Physioc and not finding what I needed in, oh, say the first few results, let alone 9 pages worth. Of course, if it's actually Steve Physioc (or members of the Physioc family), I guess that's understandable, and let me just say, Steve, thanks for visiting.

Sitemeter: Sometimes raising more questions than it answers.