Edgy MD

It takes a village to hold him back.

Royals, winners of just four of their last 23 games, have added two new batting coaches, one of whom is the baddest hitter in organizational history, one of the greatest ever, and legendary redass, George Brett.

Thank you for using the word "twirl" to describe the craft of pitching. Damon Runyon did not die in vain.

Gee's making a comeback. Initially, eight of the first nine voters said Gee was on his way out. But latecomers and subsequent re-votes have swung this the other way, and now only six are voting G-spot off the island, while five are in favor of keeping Hef in the mansion.

Babe Ruth.

I think I disagree. The team went too far? Boo-hoo. We get to be kids and be miserly, but somebody's got to be the grownups and remind us that we just look petty. I wanted none of it, but it cost us little to put aside the petulance for a minute, and we ended up taking the game from him. Win-win, as far as I can see it. And to pour in the "retired number" bit? Mercy. Why care? They'll retire a number when they've had a player give the team a career that makes an incontrovertible case for it. Which is what they really need to be working on. Retiring 17 or 36 or 8 won't make those players' careers better than they were or our memories richer. Not retiring them won't diminish them. The Mets play good ball, all these ancillary PR issues likely take care of themselves. They play bad ball (as they have most of the season), all these non-issues get inflated. And there are no satisfactory choices. It's always passing strange when a media outlet declares that something isn't really bad, but the PR arm of the organization makes it look bad. You're the media. The filter. If that disconnect is there, if something is actually better than (or worse than) it looks, you're responsible for clearing it up.

No H, but yeah, the Mets are totally working that angle.

You only get one pick, but don't believe there are necessarily only two valid selections. I'm telling you, the Mets are entertaining offers for Jon Niese at this very hour!

Hefner's got the hot hand this morning, but Gee could change all that by tomorrow. As a righty pitching with a 165-foot fence in right field and prevailing winds blowing out there as a rule, it's a tough assignment.

JCL touches on what I'm trying to say. I wouldn't say I share his terror, but... . Waldman's deference creeps me out, though. Sometimes she disappears for an entire inning and I forget she's there, and she just feeds him some stats from the data sheet she really doesn't seem to understand or doesn't seem to think it's her role to, but rather she's setting him up to pontificate on. She's like an assistant director who gets to occasionally be part of the show just to keep things colorful and familial --- like Gellman or Biff Henderson. But I also have to say, much as I may snicker at Fman's deveiancy, the fact that she's a very rare woman doing what she does, and she's getting hammered with sexual innuendo, makes me more than a little uncomfortable. And the idea that the only(?) woman regularly working an in-game broadcast booth is taking the role of a subservient toady to a pompous caricature of a sonorous baritone dude almost makes it worse than not having any women at all. As much as the Yankees deserve credit for crossing that line, they deserve perhaps an equal amount of discredit for how they crossed it.

With the expected promotion of their top pitching prospect appearing to be weeks away, the Mets, suddenly, but perhaps not-so-surpsingly, have run into a spurt of mostly successful starting pitching. Things can change between now and then, certainly. I include all five current rotation members even though the only two real candidates to find themselves pushed aside are those with options --- Gee and Hefner. But I suppose if he starts spitting the bit again, Marcum could get pushed to the pen or get a rehab assignment for a few weeks until a job opens up, after getting diagnosed with an inflamed scabular flugger. Or Niese could be traded in the coming Carlos Gonzalez blockbuster. Today, by the way, is Zack Wheeler's 23rd birthday.

In more provincial news, the 51s decisively beat up on their cross-state rivals in Reno, 7-1, with Brandon Hicks doing yeoman's work as a relief shortstop, going 2-3 with a triple after Quintanilla got pulled from the game in preparation for an apparent promotion. First-base prospect Josh Satin piled up four more hits, but all were singles and no runs resulted directly, but four hits be four hits. Carlos Torres continued the system-wide run of hot pitching, going 6 2/3 and yielding only three hits and a single run, walking one and striking out seven.

The thing about Sterling is that he's just working from a different perspective from us all. He has an absolutely different idea of what the mission of a ball team's radio announcer is supposed to be, and George Steinbrenner probably hired him personally and agreed with that notion of the mission. And a lot of the Yankees brass is probably just as embarrassed by his bizarre shtick as you and you and you are (and frankly, myself, as well), but he's still got enough juice with what's left of George M.'s old guard to live in safety. And there's probably no small portion of the fanbase who is loyal to him, because they've long since accepted that, if it's the way the Yankees have done these many years, damn it, it's the right way to do things.

Best way to get the most out of your shortstop, I think, is to try another one when one isn't getting it done. Wonderful motivation. And the first one is still available. And the rest of the team knows you're doing what you can to support their efforts. It's not win-win. It's like win-win-win-win-win! Even if you lose!

You geezes have the wrong attitude. I had a Phillies phan I worked with here, and I'd bet a lunch on any Mets/Phils series. I'd take him out, he'd take me out, we'd talk aobut Freddie Galvis' roids and Jordany Valdespin's bollux and have a good old time. After the Mets won two series in a row, he'd opt out of betting, but he wouldn't gloat after a win. Celebrate maybe, but not gloat. If somebody does gloat, well, you remind them, "If you didn't have the faith to bet before, but gloat afterwards, you know that makes you a horrible, horrible human being, right?

Congratulations to current leader Lefty Specialist.

"�Si, yo soy el Presidente, el jugador numero dies!"

Hey, have a Snickerdoodle, Mr. Bitter Sarcasm. You're missing the point tremendously. I in no way claim or imply that he always has performed or is always doomed to perform as such. My faith in my team's players is no less than your'n. I just happen to think of Q-bert as one of those players.

Things That Are Generally Simple ... 11. Calling up Quintanilla There must be 50 ways to change your shortstop.

I apologize to batmags for presuming to preside over these proceedings. I'm trying to be perfect here but may have made a mistake in the rankings. There's no small amount of folks who forget Sutton is a HoFer and seek to expose him for the faker they seem to think he is. Both are excellente guesses. Mussina, hero of Baltimore, is 11th among non-HoF-ers (and 33rd overall). Reuschel is 12th (and tied for 34th). You've got to remember number 10. Both a lover of wine and a good little soldier.

Here's a PCL linescore for you Team123456789RHETacoma52325725261Colorado Springs01000142 Sky Sox continuing to score as I format this post. Just made the last out in the top of the sixth.

The Mets aren't contending this year, but.. .. Nonsense. The Mets gain tonight on both the first-place Braves and second-place Nats. They also gained a game on the Reds in hot, sexy Wild Card action.

"Hi, we're the Mets. We'll just be helping ourselves to a few things around here. What's that? Your irrational hope for your season? We'll take that. Your desperate belief in the invincibility of your closer? Let's throw that in the truck too. Your bullpen's freshness and indefatigability? Thank you. Your joke of a ballpark's ability to cheapen the value of a run, a lead, the game of baseball, and all the profession of ballpark architecture? We're taking that right on down to the salvage yard."

Zvon wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Heckuvan athlete is Hawk. I was gonna say, he's our next pinch-runner. I thought a young Doc ran onto the field. He's probably closer to Doc's age than we care to think.

Hawk seemed drained but he did Craig Swan proud.