Friday, March 24, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves, Bedtime Edition
The Literal Pain Of Davey Johnson
Former Dodger skipper Davey Johnson's had a rough life post-Dodgers:Johnson, 63, nearly died in 2004 while suffering from a mysterious stomach ailment that turned out to be a year-long ruptured appendix. At one point, his weight plummeted from 250 pounds down to 145. But even that ordeal couldn't prepare him for the pain of last June when his youngest daughter, 32-year-old Andrea Lyn, an accomplished surfer, died suddenly after a lengthy battle with schizophrenia.Peter Angelos refused to give him a contract extension in 1997, and thereafter, Johnson says he was "fired" from the organization, but harbors no ill-will. It amazes me how positive some people can be despite the awful things that happen to them. (Via David Pinto.)
Court To Barry: No Restraining Order For You
The court has refused to issue a restraining order against the publishers or authors of Game of Shadows, or the San Francisco Chronicle or Sports Illustrated for publishing that book. Barry, you made your needle... now you're gonna have to live with it. Unfortunately, it seems to me this was a rather dastardly move by someone high up in the federal prosecutor's office who decided the best way to take care of Barry was to leak enormous volumes of materials, a federal crime for which there will be no prosecution. What a surprise... not...Five Questions About The Barry Bonds Giants of San Francisco
Steve Treder in Hardball Times' "Five Questions" series (which I'll appear early next week for the Angels) covers the Giants fan's perspective on Barry's, uh, "issues":
Being a Giants' fan over the past several years has been a mixed blessing. In Barry Bonds, we've gotten to witness up close perhaps the most remarkable run of hitting any baseball player has ever performed. Whatever one's opinions about the propriety of Bonds's training methods, and the precise degree to which illicit substances might have enhanced his performance, there can be no question about the staggering magnitude of the performance. Bonds had, of course, been the central reason why the Giants had been such a consistently good ball club until 2005.I mention in passing their travails: Scott Freaking Spiezio, and of course, October 2, 2004, to list but two of their more recent humiliations. But there is no joy in this; in the diminution of the Giants -- and really, the NL West -- the entire division has become a baseball Siberia, a place where first-round washouts are born before the season even starts. The close of Barry's career, set amid the writhing and tumult of the snake pit, leaves everyone else that much reduced. Take him down at your own peril.But they had been a consistently good ball club, and never a great one. We Giants' fans have regarded each passing year of Bonds' astounding twilight with a sense of mounting anxiety, even frustration: the window of Bonds' presence was inexorably closing, and yet the ball club, though utterly drenched in gorgeous new-ballpark turnstile-and-concession revenue, never committed to putting the pedal all the way to the floor in terms of payroll. If ever it would seem that the time was right for a franchise to just say, the hell with it, we're going to do whatever it possibly takes to win it all just one time, it would seem to be when they had one of the very greatest players in baseball history in his last few seasons, selling out a jewel of a stadium in a very affluent media market. But that never happened: the Giants teased their fan base, putting good-but-hardly-stellar supporting casts around their superduperstar, and were consistently in the postseason hunt but were never (except perhaps in 2000) really a favorite. Their one trip to the World Series, in 2002, was as a Wild Card entry, and then they managed to tease us even more mercilessly by blowing a late-innings Game 6 lead, and with it the Series. The sense of missed once-in-a-lifetime opportunity hangs deep in the hearts of Giants' fans.
Rogers Agrees To Anger Management
Kenny Rogers agreed to take an anger management class in lieu of jail time, for punching a TV cameraman before a June 29 start.Today's Birthdays
Wilson Alvarez LAN b. 1970, played 2003-2005Jamie Arnold LAN b. 1974, played 1999-2000
Dick Egan CAL,LAN b. 1937, played 1966-1967
Royals 5, Angels 1
The silence of Angels bats were outmatched by a bad start by Hector Carrasco, who gave up five earned in 3.2 IP. The Halos got 11 hits, but couldn't string them together to make more runs; it's hard when the only extra base hit was Cabrera's lone double. Hopefully this doesn't presage the regular season.Marlins 9, Dodgers 2
So what's the excuse this time, Derek? Girlfriend(s) got your tongue? Six earned in 4.0 IP, and a Dodgers offense that never really got started against Dontrelle Willis, who three-hit the club despite a lineup that looks mainly like the opening day batting order.
Just to clarify one inaccuracy in most media reports: the anti-SLAPP is not a "countersuit," but I don't expect non-attorney newspaper writers to understand this. It's just a motion, governed by California Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) section 425.16.
: 3/25/2006 11:13:00 AMNewer› ‹Older
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