Quincy

He puts the devil back in the Rays! Happy birthday!

Ya gonna sneak in through the back tunnel? Boy, some big meltdowns tonight the aforementioned Cards and M's. At least the Giants got the game's outcome out of the way as Madison put up a 216.00 ERA for the night. Congrats to Jack McKeon & the Fish.

The answer: Eddie Kasko Billy Martin Ralph Houk Ken Aspromonte Del Crandall Earl Weaver Frank Quilici Dick Williams Bobby Winkles Chuck Tanner Whitey Herzog Whitey Lockman Bill Virdon Danny Ozark Yogi Berra Red Schoendienst Gene Mauch Sparky Anderson Walter Alston Charlie Fox Leo Durocher Don Zimmer Eddie Mathews The question: Who are the other managers who started the year with their clubs in Jack McKeon's first season? The year is 1973 btw. Quite a few on the list were recycled several times. For instance Herzog started in Texas. Martin & Houk will switch jobs in 2 years (though not directly.) McKeon even had 2 future managers on his roster in Hal McRae & Lou Piniella. When you're 80 you outlast a lot folks.

No kidding. I get that they needed to squeeze in Berkman's bat while giving him some rest from the OF, but isn't it fascinating that given Albert's contract status how much easier it was to stick him over there. His long streak of .300/30/100 (or whatever it is) is probably done for. Miller is interesting. If he does figure it out look freakin' out. If he doesn't, he'll be "wildly" interesting.

That one didn't work for me, some plugin thingy I don't have. Here's the YouTube version though: Thanks for that. Silverlight is a pain in the ass, at least with Google Chrome. As for Parker's throw it's actually just a tad too high. Nice to hear Vince, see Lou Brock and Graig Nettles (hell everybody), even the outside of the ugly old Kingdome.

Or maybe a very very very old one. Buster Olney reports that Jack McKeon is being considered as interim manager. I guess Connie Mack isn't available so it might as well be Jack.

Jesse Barfield of the Blue Jays is usually considered the best post-Clemente arm. There were some stories of Cesar Geronimo of the Big Red Machine throwing no hoppers from deep in CF to the plate, though I don't think footage exists.

Cool sweep there! The kid who was drafted after Strasburg got in his first game for the M's. Dustin Ackley now at 2nd and if things work out he'll likely bat 2nd as well. It's too bad Jamie Moyer isn't healthy to pitch vs. his old team (not that he could crack the current rotation.)

Hmm, so this is 2 discs of the Health & Happiness Shows without dubbed in applause or overdubs. I'm fortunate enough to already have the Mercury Health & Happiness set and part of the charm is that it feels you are tuning into an old radio show. So for me it comes down to the 3rd disc of teenage Hank. On the one hand I'm curious, but having heard enough of artist-in-the-beginning material I have low enough expectations that I may take a pass on this one, or at least as bundled. But for those who don't have the original Health & Happiness set it's very nice to have this wrapped up with an extra thrown in.

I suddenly have the urge to hear "Settin' The Woods On Fire" sung in German. Thanks for the heads up Hans!

My favorite 3000 hit story was George Brett's. On the final day of a road trip vs. the Angels he goes 4 for 4, the 4th being 3000. A sad one, but how about Roberto Clemente? Gets his 3000th hit on the last day of the season and dies in the offseason in a plane crash delivering supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua. I remember Kaline just missed a HR for his 3000th and ended up with a double. To add to what a difference a foot or 2 makes he retired a week & change later with 399 HRs. I think at the time he would have been the first AL player to have 3000/400. I believe Yaz became the 1st AL player to do so. The NL had Mays & Aaron who were able to clear that HR total by just a wee bit more. I mostly like the Brett story in the context of the upcoming Jeter one. Brett easily could have been benched for that game but perhaps they didn't figure on him getting 4 hits. Or maybe just maybe the game itself was more important? No, the Royals were lousy and were a lock for 5th place. Surely after 3 hits they could have easily sat him down for the upcoming ( & final) Royal homestand? Nope, send him up to the plate again, and if he gets it he gets it. He got it. And then got picked off 1st.

My favorite 3000 hit story was George Brett's. On the final day of a road trip vs. the Angels he goes 4 for 4, the 4th being 3000.

My dad wasn't from the US so I was on my own to find loyalties, and I tend to not be overly loyal to laundry. I was a Cardinal baseball fan until they hired a law & order manager named Vern Rapp who forced players shave. Al Hrabosky without a Fu Manchu was just wrong and he soon lost his mojo. This had been building though as the trades of Torre (I was young and didn't get that players aged), a young Jose Cruz and Reggie Smith (for Joe Ferguson?) ticked me off. I defected to the Cubs who were easier to follow because of WGN (you'd think Berigan & I grew up on the same road ) and thus missed a closer connection to the great '80s for the Cards. My AL team was the Yankees as I was a Sparky Lyle fan (like Dan - Sparky's card said he sat on birthday cakes - why this appealed to me I'm not sure) & Thurman Munson. I stuck with the Cubs even after I had moved to Oregon although as the years passed I realized that 1) maybe I liked Harry Carey more than the team 2) I came to loathe Sammy Sosa kissing his fingers and Dusty Baker's managerial genius moves of bunting whenever possible. (A runner on 2nd, no outs in the 1st? Bunt! Moron.) By the late '80s I realized I was falling for the Mariners and when they faced the Yanks in '95 I knew the M's were #1 in my heart. Being 2000 miles away means I can now equally root for the Cubs or Cards (I know this is wrong), depending on which personalities I like more (or loathe less). I was a free agent fan for football as regional coverage was the StL Cards & Chiefs. Screw that, I loved the outlaw image of the '70s Raiders. I've stuck w/ them although I had a brief flirtation with the Oilers when Stabler was traded there. The Bears are my NFC team. In basketball the first game I recall seeing was a tape delay of Game 6 of the Celtics-Bucks final and I was mesmerized by Havlicek so that stuck for many years. In the ABA I was a fan of the StL Spirits but that didn't last as they folded (yet they still are highly profitable.) Same happened with the Kentucky Colonels who I also liked. I wanted to follow the Bulls but NBA coverage sucked in the '70s so the Celtics it remained until Jordan was drafted put the Bulls back on my map. (I am guilty of jumping on bandwagons some of the time.) I was incensed at how the Bulls were broken up yet my old Celtics connection wasn't going to work for me either as I loathed Rick Pitino. I have something against men who spend too much time with their hair (unless they're happy alcoholics), even more so for coaches who write management books. So I've kind of gone local and followed the Blazers since the late '90s. Though enough time has passed (and gee, success too - coincidence?) w/ the Bulls that they're a "back up" team.

I have that card. Wentzville MO is the home of Chuck Berry. Which begs the question if Chuck Berry had played baseball, would he have duck walked to first if he had been HBP?

Yowsa, for a second I thought you were drinking wine at 5:40 AM. Now that's a birthday! Have a great one!

Rose, Durant, Nash, Duncan are a few who seem to know how not to make asses of themselves. It's not impossible.

They do excellent work. It's a good check on the home plate ump.

I know them well from getting their cards the 1st year I collected. Interesting that both knocked in pivotal runs in Game 7s and passed away around the same time.

Sheesh, it must be great to be young is all I can say. I half expect he'll be grunting & yelping like certain female tennis players. Either that or he'll grind his molars down to nubs while he waits & pitches.

I owe you a big thanks for steering me towards Porcupine Tree and other music. I get what you're saying about the material stuff, and sometimes it's good to step away from boards for awhile. But I hope you know that the person we know from your posts is greatly appreciated around here. All the best.

Happy birthday!

According to the James & Neyer guide Johnson didn't develop a curve until mid-way into his career. It was mostly fastballs, or as Walter put it in 1913 "I used to pitch one wiggly one to about 4 or 5 fast ones." Despite the lack of leg drive the arm action is loosey goosey and I like that. I think the key to his ability to pitch today (other than needing to be alive & much younger) would be the movement. Depending on his grip(s), who knows? Speaking of grips and movement, I wish there was film of how the ball moved when Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown pitched. He had a great "hook" curve according to the reports.

I know you don't do it but I was within 40 seconds (real time) of shutting it off just before the Mavs run. Whew! What ugly (non)offense from Miami at the end. OKC had a similar breakdown in a game vs. Dallas but Westbrook & Durant are much younger so it wasn't that unexpected. One of the great comebacks to (as JSngry notes) premature attitude too. Cool, now we got a series.

No one is losing sleep over this, it's just fun to have a villain in sports and he's made it easy. It's interesting that you brought up KG. He was criticized for being loyal to Minnesota to the point where some questioned his desire to win. It took former Celtic teammates in front offices to pull the trade off which was not orchestrated by Garnett. So yes, it's quite possible that LeBron would have been criticized for staying in Cleveland. Face it, he'd have been criticized no matter what he did. I liked a joke by a woman from Cleveland who said she'd accept it if LeBron booked a 1/2 hour show on ESPN called "The Apology" for charity. As it was just a sentence after finishing off Boston and occurred 10 months after his show there are plenty of folks who haven't even realized he apologized, or may not think much of it. You were married once right? You know that timing is everything as is magnitude of the transgression vs. the apology. And it's not about forgiving (here's where I say "I don't care"), but more like forgetting. High grade douchebaggery sticks in the brain, and it's not just The Decision but not shaking hands after losing in the playoffs to the Magic and confiscating a tape of someone dunking on him in a pickup game which got on youtube anyway. For now he lights up the page if you Google "biggest douche in sports." (Also try "king of…") With Farve & Bonds retired it may stay that way for awhile. But I have faith that someday a bigger douche will take his place. At least he's a very talented one.

Does this mean that Cliff Lee no longer owes you one?