Greatest Baseball Jersey Ever?

(That's Kosuke Fukodome of the Cubs and Trevor Hoffman of the Padres for you non-baseballers)

Note: The owner of this shirt would like everyone to know, that he grew up in Chicago and was a die-hard Cubs fan, but got relocated to San Diego and subsequently fell in love with "his" Padres.... oh and his dad's a quarter Japanese. The fact that his shirt is cursing at you, is purely a coincidence. 

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The Stat Machine

Welcome to the Stat Machine: a fancy and expensive device we have purchased that spits out interesting sports statistics for our amusement. My aim every Wednesday is to bring you the funny, the strange, the amazing, and the just plain wacky stats found in such sports categories as:

- batting average
- record when playing at home and wearing white
- penalty kill percentage

And of course everyone's favorite, YAC (yards after catch). So lets crank up the machine, watch the flashing lights, and see what our stat machine has in store for us today.


* Trever Miller, Pitcher: Last week Tampa Bay Rays (Don't you dare say DEVIL Rays) pitcher Trever Miller earned his first decision since September 30, 2006. The win he earned was his first decision in 121 straight appearances on the mound, a Major League Baseball record. After the game Miller went straight to the jokes.

"I tell you what, I'm going to go home tonight and make some decisions," Miller said. "Cause I told my wife, 'Don't ask me anything.' I haven't had a decision in a year and a half; it's all you. You decide where we're going, what vacations we're taking. Now I'm going to take control. So she'll be happy with that."

A feat such as this requires several things. A win OR a loss is counted as a decision so Miller had to pitch just well enough to avoid a loss but poor enough to miss a win. You also have to have an offense behind you that has a penchant for staying off the bases. Any run support at all, even just one run, the inning after he pitches very well could decide the game.


* Pittsburgh Pirates: On opening day this baseball season the Pirates, like every other team, fielded a roster of 25 players. Only 14 of those 25 players still remain in Pittsburgh today. Outfielder Xavier Nady and left-handed reliever Damaso Marte were recently traded to the Yankees, and of course outfielder Jason Bay is now a member of Red Sox nation as part of the Manny trade to the Dodgers.

Pittsburgh entered August in last place in the National League Central, 14.5 games out of first place. Who says you need stability to be successful!


* NBA Live '09 is Alive: The latest NBA video game installment looks to be a lot more realistic than any other basketbal game to date. This upcoming game will feature something called Dynamic DNA which will use changing player abilities, stats, injuries, and trades to update the gameplay. Information will be downloaded to your system as it unfolds throughout the regular season of the NBA.

With almost real-time information you'll have new plays available to call, and ever changing game play. You've always been able to download updated rosters but never before have you had player abilities and team tendencies change as they happen on the real hardwood.

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Yankee Mustache Retires, Moved to Front Office Role

The hard-hitting mustache that resided on Yankee 1st baseman Jason Giambi's face has announced his retirement from the game. He had spent almost three months with the team and helped Giambi break out of a frustrating hitting slump, although the mustache's overall batting average was just .182 and Giambi now says it's just the right time for the mustache to leave the game.

"There's no more hits in it," Giambi said as he boarded the team bus for the team's flight to Dallas. "No more hits."

Yankee fans had joyously supported the 'stache and often brought their own fake mustaches to home games. It had become a cultural symbol in the Bronx and almost helped Giambi win a spot on this year's all star team.

The Yankees handed out 20,000 fake mustaches to fans attending the Yankees-Rays game on July 9 in an attempt to get him the final spot on the team. But he didn't win the Internet voting by the fans, and now Giambi will try to regain his hitting touch as a clean-shaven guy.

It doesn't appear that the mustache's playing career was quite long enough to be considered for induction into Cooperstown, although mustache aficianados such as Burt Reynolds have already talked of starting a petition.

For more on the magical mustache, New York Newsday has you covered.
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Manny to L.A., Boston says "Yay"

Surprise! Manny didn't get traded to the Marlins, but he was dealt, and just minutes before the deadline today. A three team trade was in the works to send Jason Bay to Boston from Pittsburgh, and Manny to the Marlins. The Pirates blame the Marlins for failing to get the deal done, the Marlins blame Boston.

The Dodgers jumped into the mix and threw together a deal just in time. So Manny will wear blue and move to the National League and Boston is relieved of an awkward situation in which Ramirez was publicly frustrated.

Jason Bay hitting 3rd in Boston's lineup with David Ortiz behind...not a pretty site to opposing pitchers. Manny was obviously a stellar player but "personality differences" led Boston to desperately ship him out to the west coast. Bay is an all-star caliber player who is suddenly thrust into a major playoff contender. Look for him to have a stellar remainder of the year.

What will be of Boston without Manny? I personally like that crazy son of a bitch. He's hilarious and he always has fun playing the game. On the other hand, he's insane and frustrates the crap out of you if you're his coach. Not a great attribute. Either way, Boston will suffer for losing him. He's one of the greatest hitters EVER. A playoff spot this year may be missed for Boston as a result of purging Manny.

Ken Griffey Jr. moves again, this time to the White Sox. You partially want to root on Chicago to get Griffey into the Series, but then you remember it's the White Sox. Break a leg Kenny! Oh wait...don't do that again. (CONTINUE READING)

And Man Ram? Man Ram So Far Away?

ESPN's Buster Olney now says there's "better than a 50/50 chance a deal gets done on Thursday."

Manny Ramirez has been paving the way for an exit from Boston for the past few days. His comments to the media have ranged from, "If Boston gets a good deal for me, they should do it, but if not I want to stay and help the team," to, "My mental happiness is priceless and I don't have any mental happiness in Boston."


It looks like the Sox are willing to give up an important offensive weapon to the Marlins. Why dump Manny? Lets just say he spends an awful lot of time doing things described as "just Manny being Manny."

In honor of Manny's impending departure to south Florida, here's just one of many Manny moments. Yes, this was DURING a game, the man is wacky!


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Trading Spaces

MLB teams have less than 24 hours before the trade deadline which always makes for good live drama. Since so many games are played each and every day, and trades often happening DURING a game, it's not uncommon to hear of players getting yanked off the field in the middle of a game because a trade has just been finalized.



So keep an eye especially on tonight's action as another late trade or two is certain to take place. A few trade rumors include Pittsburgh's Jason Bay to Tampa and Boston's troubled personality Manny Ramirez possibly in talks to move to the Marlins. We'll keep an eye out. (CONTINUE READING)

Yankees Trade For Mini-Pudge

This post is far less an informative study of today's New York trade as it is a chance to remind folks who mini-Pudge is. First the news:

The New York Yankees traded pitcher Kyle Farnsworth for Detroit catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez. With Yankee catcher Jorge Posada going down with injury at a crucial time of the season it was no secret the Yanks were on the prowl for a catcher. It's a mediocre trade that should slightly benefit New York, although today's Rodriguez is nowhere near productive as he was in his early years, both offensively and defensively.

Now on to mini-Pudge. You see, before the steroid era and the Mitchell Report, Ivan Rodriguez was a power-hitting catcher with a giant Barry Bonds sized noggin. He was huge. Mysteriously, after steroid-use became taboo and testing became more prevalent, Pudge Rodriguez became "mini-Pudge." The evidence after the jump.





See what I mean? His miniaturization literally happened over one short offseason. I remember him showing up for Spring Training the next year and thinking that he drank some sort of Beetlejuice-like head shrinking potion.

Now I'm not saying he was a steroid user just because his head shrank. I'm just pointing out that...oh who are we kidding, yeah that's what I'm saying.

I feel bad for pitcher Kyle Farnsworth who was traded out of NY for Rodriguez. He actually cried today during an on-camera interview about the trade. When he first came to the big apple he couldn't stop talking about how excited he was to be a Yankee and how we wanted to stay for several years. So much for that. Listen Kyle, it's like getting a transfer out of the Death Star. You're back among the good guys. (CONTINUE READING)

Little People, Big Replay

The Little League World Series in August will try out an instant replay system, something that Bud Selig has only so far been talking hypothetically about for Major League Baseball.




Supposedly the system will only be utilized for homeruns or balls near the outfield walls and only will be used to "overturn an obvious wrong." It should be interesting to see how smoothly the system is implemented and how well it works. You can bet Selig and company will be at least keeping an eye on the games to help work out the kinks for a similar future system for MLB.

Full Story from NBC Sports and MSNBC.com. (CONTINUE READING)

Angels Add Teixeira, Fail to Spell His Name Accurately

The best team in baseball this year just became a little bit better.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California from Anaheim of the west coast, acquired all-star 1st baseman Mark Teixeira late Tuesday. Teixeira had spent only a year in Atlanta, who traded to get him at last year's trade deadline.

With the addition the Angels beef up their offensive power that already features a terrifying lineup to opposing pitchers, namely, Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero, and Garret Anderson.

The other thing that fans of the franchise will appreciate is the fact that the front office acquired some balls on this one and pulled the trigger on a semi-blockbuster trade to bolster their postseason chances. They've been criticized before for failing to make something happen and improve late in a season.

20 homers, 78 RBI's so far this season for Teixeira. And a last name that sounds nothing like it is spelled. Brett Fav-ra and Mike Shisheffsky would be so proud. (CONTINUE READING)