Edgy MD

"Warming in the pen, let's see if I can make out the number... it's number 99 --- that's Fman up and getting ready to enter the game."

Wait... I know how this one ends!

You know some days, when my woman's being mean, and my ballclub is getting battered, and the boss wants everything yesterday, I've been known to get the oversaturated blues myself.

The famous and much-admired Never-Became-a-Sister Christine would win any poll, but since she was the lone bridesmaid at our wedding, it would be a drama-free vote.

Photographer gives you a lower rate in exchange for permission to show your beautiful C-list celebrity faces on his or her website. (This was not a deal offered to me at my wedding.)

�Ballmer�s problem is that he�s stuck in the past,� Einhorn said. �He�s allowed competitors to beat Microsoft in huge areas, including search, mobile-communications software, tablet computing and social networking. Even worse, his response to these failures has been to pour tremendous resources into efforts to develop his way out of these holes.� Over-relying on market position and it's advantage in resources instead of continuing to innovate, perpetually leaving you spending the most to come in second or third in new markets. True of Microsoft, true of Disney, true of the Mets.

I'd have preferred the team be sold to someone with hard assets, rather than a paper empire. I understand and agree with this. But the real money --- the money that produces the sorts of young men with rising financial profiles --- is in moving paper around these days. Grew up in Milwaukee? Selig approves! They would be the second big-league team with an Einhorn as a high-profile minority owner.

I don't know why so cynical. If I had $200,000,001, I'd spend $200,000,000 on the Mets. I'm sure he wouldn't be silent.

I guess Blomberg isn't big on focusing.

Y'all are so Yankee-mindsetted. I'm hoping to retain them for the sake of victory, more than to pimp out the record book in the face of Yankee fans.

The Royals were really an impressive franchise before 1994 --- an expansion team with a record above .500, a beloved committed ownership group, an urban baseball academy, a stadium that continued to improve while still looking like a relic from the era it was built, a willingness to be aggressive in the free agent market, a couple of giant-killer pennant winners, and a franchise player who was damn near the best player ever at his position. Yeah there was cocaine, astroturf, and powderblues, but they paved their own way.

Vic Sage wrote: He is a complex character that to simply dismiss out of hand as a hateful racist is to miss the point entirely. Please give me some credit. I didn't dismiss him out of hand.

The Cubs sit in fifth place in baseball's only six-team division, 7.0 games behind the rival Cardinals. Their catcher (who I now see is injured) is Geovany Soto, of the baseball hotbed that is Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, which gave the world Angel Pagan, Rey Sanchez, Ruben Gotay, and Jose Oquendo, among dozens of others. Geovany came on like a dream, peaches and cream, in his all-star rookie season of 2008, stunk in 2009, was very good again last year, and stinks again this year. Catching is hard. One year, your the outstanding rookie in the league; the next, you stink like day-old fish. He bats right, throws right, and his name seems to be a phonetic spelling of the Italian Giovanni, an equivelant of John. He was a yawner of a minor-league prospect until one year he found Heaven in Iowa and hit .353 with 35 homers. Suspicious much? Maybe. His stinky 2009 was also notable as he missed out on catching in the World Baseball Classic after testing postive for marijuana. Do the biggies test for mj, or is that just a WBC thing? Because I imagine those who don't smoke sense in the bigs are in the minority, and have it soaked into their skin from being around those who do. He's sort of like a Puerto Rican Mike Piazza in that he's manly enough to be able to grow facial hair in a few hours... ...but when he tries to keep it under control, it kind of comes out as effeminate. You may notice from that shot that he's done some eyebrow shaping too. Finally, he's been know to carry a man-purse. (It's a Coach, for all you bagwatchers out there. Hey, bitches!!) Geovany likes to cook and if he had a superpower, it would be to control minds. He has a wife, but I can't find her. Presumably she's into that eybrow thing. He has three homers and 12 ribbies. He's backed up by Koyie Hill, who is hitting even worsely. Koyie is a switch hitter, however, which is a cool thing for a catcher to be. He can also play some outfield and third base in a pinch, so he's an asset to a roster, if not to a lineup. his wife is named Meghan and like Soto, he has two daughters. He's real popular with the chicks. Who's on first?

Now I know the Cubs like I share a den with them.

Actually, LWFS is lined up for this one, so let's see what he's got.

Post moved down under LWFS's post.

Good for a .915 fielding percentage.

Freddie (of Freddie and the Dreamers) holds a strange fascination for me. He briefly served as a bridge between Buddy Holly and Elvis Costello --- bespectacled, awkward, twitchy, and somehow someone able to assemble those uncool traits to present a character folks would identify with.

John Church is on shifting ground in St. Lucie, giving up 11 runs over four appearances totalling 5 2/3 innings. He looked to be straightening it all out with two scoreless appearances of two innings each, fanning five and walking one, and then kaboom, a six-run inning (three earned) on May 16. John Church was born in Florida. John Church went to high school in Florida. John Church went to College in Florida. John Church probably went to church in Florida. I'm diagnosing him with an overdose of home cooking and Prescribing for him a trip to Brooklyn asap.

Sounds right. Billy Crystal/Richard Nixon/MC Hammer-type special-access-for-rich-and-powerful-guys relationships.

I agree he catches a lot of shit. I've given him some myself. I don't think that adds up to most Met fans treating him indignantly. Those that do, I imagine, are just indignant folks. And yeah, the Mets have no shortage of generally indignant fans, but I think the Sons of Indignance beat the Carter pinata less than many others. I mean, try and buy Bobby Bonilla a break at a Met convention. Mention that he had a better OPS as a Met than as a Pirate and see how it goes over. Anyhow, heal well and completely, Gary Carter.

G-Fafif wrote: One of the tidbits I learned (besides Fred being more mental than I would have suspected) was he hung around Shea in the late '70s with his pal Joe Torre while his other pal Joe Pignatano got Jeffy a BP catching job. It never occurred to me that Fred went to Mets games before owning the team. Also, those deep Brooklyn roots and great friendships didn't stop him from sanctioning the dismissals of the Joes a couple of years into his part-ownership. I don't really expect him to have more loyalty than necessary here, do you? He wasn't senior partner in this decision. Managers get fired and Torre had a longer tenure than most, and a longer tenure than virtually all who've lost as consistently as him.

MFS62 wrote: This wouldn't be the first time a New York baseball owner did something like this to use as a smoke screen during a Legal and/or financial investigation. Back in the 80's, I was in Tampa on business. The headlines down there were saying that one of Steinbrenner's companies was being investigated for major illegal dealings (Ship building? real estate? I don't recall which) with indictments being handed down shortly. I wondered how the New York press would handle that news. When I got back to New York, the headlines screamed "Steinbrenner Blasts Winfield" (for lackluster play). Funny how news of the legal stuff wasn't being mentioned. Later I don't believe this for a minute, and I have trouble believing you do.

Jordany bats lefty, doesn't see a whole lot of lefthanded pitching, and doesn't do much with it when he do. vs Left: .167 / .231 / .292 // .522. 26 PA. vs Right .293 / .344 / .440 // .783. 124 PA

I'd loathe to make a paragon of virtue out of Nelson Doubleday either. Neither do I think him particularly victimized.