BERIGAN

Indeed! Pirates fans must be pinching themselves right about now... and in other non AL East news...Braves are just the 3rd team to win 10,000 games. Put that in your pipe and smoke it AL east teams!

It really works!

Actually guys, taking in to consideration OBP, a successful hitter has a 35% + rate of reaching base!

whoa, check this guy out!

Congrats!!! You are now a level 5 whiney ass baseball fan, the Red Sox level! Last April, Ibanez hit .222 with one homer. .243 Pre all star break, .309 after the break. Few folks of any age in baseball work out as hard as he does. And players have actually been productive at that ancient age. by the by, your fucked team is 18 and 9 and in a tie for first place. Without production from Left field. Without Chase Utley(who is supposedly going to start playing in games very soon)Without your closer. So.Very.Fucked! 2nd best record due only to the fact that we had the easiest schedule in the majors - the Nats, Mets, Pads, Astros, D-Backs are not exactly playoff material. Are any of those teams playing .500 ball?? No. Ibanez is not going to regain the form that he had last season after the all star break unless he hires Greg Anderson. He turns 39 in less than 4 weeks. He's done. Utley is progressing but it's still uncertain when or IF he will be back. Even if he does make it back this season I don't think his body can take being an everyday player anymore. Look, anyone who has watched the Fightin's this season know that they have a lot of question marks surrounding their hitting and bullpen. The Phantastic 4 are masking their problems - for now - but at some point the lack of hitting and miserable bullpen will catch up to them. The schedule is about to get a lot harder in May. So do we have a right to complain? Shit yeah. Am I giving up on my team a la the way a certain Red Sox fan in this folder did back in the first week of the season? Hell no. But as this team is constructed right now we are fucked. We will be lucky to sneak into the playoffs w/ this roster. Rube needs to get a bat or two and pray that Lidge and Contreras make it back if we are going to make any noise in October. So please do not promote me to level 5 just yet BTW, Cole Hamels is just plain NASTY. Well, clearly Ibanez is done! :P Are you happy today? And yes, Hamels is still NASTY.

Yes, indeed! Everyone should be able to make an over the shoulder basket catch every time! 71 RBI's with basically no protection behind him, and never seeing a right hander after the 6th inning of a game.....he sucks! Tell ya what, trade him to the braves,(you all paying most of his ridiculous pay, of course!) we will put Freddie Freeman in Left...yep, we will give you, ummm...Scott Proctor, Scott Linebrink, Nate McLouth, and Jordan Schafer! Make it so! Goodspeak, I'm not a Father, but I had the same feeling seeing the play. He just wanted to get the ball for his kid. It was a reminder to everyone how tenuous our hold is on life... To other news...Chipper Jones had his aching knee fixed up yesterday....he was playing with a torn meniscus plus a cracked knee cap! I guess 8 homers and 46 RBi's is pretty impressive for a 39 year old on one leg....

Well, congrats to the Yankee fans, and to Jeter. Amazing way to do it! Hey, I thought the reds would run away and hide from the rest of the division, right now, anyone can win it, except the cubs and Astros.

Interesting! Since I don't know him, I was sure it was number 2. That guy knew everything tossed at him.

in happier news, 19 yo Mike Trout has been called up!!!! http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=6748299

I remember those! There was one at the St. Louis Zoo, too. (A zoo thing?) Trying to think did they ever have these at Disney Land, or Knotts Berry Farm perhaps???

Just terrible...I read this part on ESPN as well... Oakland reliever Brad Ziegler was in the visitor's bullpen in left-center field, not far from where Stone fell. When Stone was put on a stretcher, Ziegler said, the firefighter told his tenders that his son was "up there by himself" and asked them to check on the boy. "He had his arms swinging. He talked and was conscious," Ziegler said. "We assumed he was OK. But when you find out he's not, it's just tough."

Perhaps everyone else has, but man, this is freakin' incomprehensible to my brain! Amazing! I just got this in a an email today, but Saw Jay Leno has something similar to this, on a My Classic car a week or so ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw&feature=player_embedded

Utter bullshit. Taxpayer winds up paying for ambulances and medical care for the helmetless crashers. Typical neocon garbage. Sounds much more like a Libertarian viewpoint...don't agree with it, but it's hardly Neocon.

Especially when one is driving in and around L.A. you would think 3-4 riders would be killed on the freeways each week.

Dave, I'm somewhat sympathetic to your view - but the series' presentation as "a history of jazz" instead of "a very slanted history of jazz with many key lacunae" is what leaves a sour taste in people's mouths. But any history of Jazz is going to be slanted, to some extent. We can just hope that people that never heard jazz before, were turned on to it...And when can you expect anything related to jazz to get even 1/4 the viewers this did??? Ken Burns is not perfect(Pretty gutsy call for me to make, I know! ) but when he is at his best, like the Civil War Documentary, he is a great filmmaker....

Lady Gaga will be wearing the first pair outside of a month http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/07/shoe-design-c-1939/

Pretty shocking news, from a person who clearly sees his body as a temple.... http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6716984

Clearly, the REAL WS preview, as you said! It could be argued the Braves have the best overall pitching staff. But it really doesn't matter if only Brian McCann is hitting, does it??? Jason Heyward is hitting .228, and is not the hitter that had 10 Hr's and 38 RBI's in the first two months of his career. He's still only 21, so I guess it's just a tad too early to give up on him. Everyone swears Jordan Schafer is a real sparkplug, but he's hitting .223 with a .299 OBP. But the biggest black hole in the lineup is Dan Uggla. But of course, coming from the NL East to the ...NL east, naturally, there is an adjustment period. Meanwhile, halfway thru the 2011 season, he is hitting .177. He is on pace for 24 homers, so he's basically Rob Deer this year. You just know the networks would LOVE a Mariners/Braves W.S.!

Carlos Beltran will be available soon... Would love to have him but I can't see the Mets trading him to the Phillies. I remember him from the 70's when he was the local sportscaster in Baltimore. Seemed liked a good guy. If the Phillies have what the Mets need, I don't see it as a major stumbling block. Trouble for the Mets is that they're neither a bad nor a good team so they may be in a bit of a quandry as to when to be buyers or sellers. Only if they fall completely out of the Wild Card race will they start selling. The moron critics in NY (read that Mike Francesa) keep predicting they'll be in trouble when they go on the road but they're actually much better on the road than at home. Go figure. If I was the GM I wouldn't let how well they've played deter me from the long range plan of rebuilding the team. Well, it is a bit of a sticky wicket as they say in Texas... Carlos Beltran?? The violent closer??? Sure, trade them off... But, what about David Wright or Jose Reyes??? Won't attendance fall off the face of the earth, if they were traded??? Would you and your friends pay as close attention to the Mets if they were gone??? As much financial trouble as the organization is in, they have to consider that as well. Of course, if they can't afford to re-sign Reyes....

a little gory, but worth watching, IMO

Sad news, Nick Charles of CNN fame in the 80's, died of bladder Cancer, he was only 64

Yep... indeed. My late Mother LOVED Columbo, so naturally I am fairly familiar with them, but more the later movies, and just some of the earlier series/seasons, whatever you want to call them. Have the 1st and 3rd seasons, and they really hold up, IMO.

Neal, glad to hear you say this! Something about GM Mike Rizzo has rubbed me the wrong way, for a long time. The ultra babying and delaying of Strausburg's MLB debut when people said he was ready in spring training (still blew out his elbow, but at least no one can say the Nats overworked him) He also thinks a 39 year old back up catcher is pure gold and wants a mint for him. Here is Tim K's take on the situation. and from MLBTR site... Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports also chimes in on the Nationals' managerial situation, noting that while Riggleman was wrong to leave the team, it was also unfair of Nationals management to leave Riggleman as a lame duck without a guaranteed 2012 contract. Rosenthal also reports that GM Mike Rizzo rarely communicated with Riggleman and has a similar lack of regular contact with his scouting department.

could have been Michael Caine's agent, not too long ago!

I would love to see footage of that Andre Dawson throw...find it Jim! It's the least you can do for beating up on the hapless braves, with guys that should be braves still! Best I have seen...well, there was a white dude with the Astros in the 80's...Not Glenn Davis, he was a 1st baseman...have to look him up, you know, that dude...Ah, had the first name right, Glenn Wilson, remember him??? Dave Parker(I think there was an even better throw than the one above that was used for years for This Week In Baseball, a throw from the warning track to home...but then again, it may have been that A.S. one... But I think Rick Ankiel has to be the best, at least that I have seen in recent years....(who are we forgetting who had amazing arms? Dave Winfield???) A merely very good throw http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=5258191 Those famous two throws in one game via the rockies in '08... (sorry, there is an ad each time) http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=2655396