Dan Gould

If he stays healthy, Vlad is a Hall of Famer. The rest, not so much. I knew that Belle had generally similar numbers to Rice - RBIs are a bit fewer, homers right on the nose, BA just a bit lower. There's no doubt that if he hadn't broken down, Belle would have put up HoF worthy stats (not sure if they'd be HoF worthy stats put into the context of the steroid era, but still). Then again the same thing can be said for Juan Gone.

Well, I think the hit was plenty vicious in the way Vina went down like a running back hit by a middle linebacker plugging a hole. Much more violent than Lowell's hit, which knocked him off balance but wasn't enough to break up the DP. I don't think there's any doubt that Belle had the superior season and suffered because of the way he treated sportswriters (and just about everybody else). And now he suffered in the HoF voting. His numbers were comparable to Jim Rice, who at least most people acknowledge as a strong, if not a slam dunk, candidate. Yet Belle didn't even get the 5% necessary to stay on the ballot. Can you imagine if it were Belle, not Barry, going for Aaron's record? I imagine he wouldn't even have the support of the hometown fans.

That clip was shown again after Lowell's play, and the difference was so obvious. Belle clearly threw his elbow/forearm instead of putting his shoulder down into the man. Of course you are right about the way Belle was perceived, but while he had a right to the baseline, he went over and above in his zeal to disrupt the play. Certainly the fact that the Yankees never retaliated, unlike the M's (?) did suggests that Cano's complaints were inappropriate. Edit: Isn't Vina now employed by ESPN? Maybe I missed it but they should have gotten his reaction after Lowell's play and compare it to what Belle did.

There was nothing remotely dirty about Lowell's play on Cano, Robbie (and your) complaints notwithstanding. As Torre said, you're in the baseline, you're fair game. And as Lowell said, I did what the Yankees taught me in the minor leagues. He put his shoulder into his chest and pushed. There was no elbow as Cano claimed, and had A-Rod done the exact same thing, I certainly wouldn't be bitching about it. On the other hand, last week, A-Rod had his chance to make that type of play, and he came out of his slide throwing an elbow in the general direction of Pedroia's groin. That is the wrong way to do it, and Pedroia was correct in complaining about it. You hit a man clean in the act of sliding. You don't come up with an elbow. Bottom line, if Torre says it was a good clean play, that's good enough for me. Anyone can see on the replay that A-Rod's move wasn't good or clean. If A-Rod does it the correct way, there will be no complaints from me.

Is that 9 AM eastern time?

Ike's Blue and Sentimental is even better.

Apparently a "fatigued groin" does show up on an MRI, when its "disrupted scar tissue": http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/articl...sp&c_id=nyy They are saying that he is still "hopeful" to make his debut next Saturday, but considering the Yankees need to have him at full strength and healthy for the entire season, doesn't it seem likely they'll push him back? More money down the drain for Roger ... a NY sportswriter calculated his daily pay and came up with $155,000 give or take. Not being placed on the active roster for five extra days is costing him over 3/4 of a million dollars - maybe he'll end up making 17 million by the time he actually starts.

Yeah, and I'm a bit concerned that the Sox are on the road against the D-Backs and the Padres this month. I kinda doubt the Sox are going to go 19-1 against the NL this year.

That's perfectly true. But a lot are rather similar. I have 75, and I know that's perfectly true. Do you have them all Dan? MG Slow thinking day yesterday. The reason Sonny made all those albums (and he didn't have a recording contract most of his life) was because the companies were pretty sure they would make money. And weren't disappointed. So they made more. Whenever Sonny wanted to. Hence the similarities between many. If you had gone around the country, following Sonny to one gig after another, in towns that rarely ever got to see a top flight jazzman, I'm sure you'd have seen the same phenomenon. The differences would have been in the competence of the local rhythm section (and maybe there'd be a local sax player who wanted lessons on stage). MG Well, MG, my attempt at humor was a reference to the fact that I think that Sonny did "mail it in" on occasion and didn't always have the very best accompaniment (though that might have been more in the performance than the recording arena). Then again, even when Sonny was a little off, he was still pretty "on".

Well, losing to New York with your two best relievers on the mound is infuriating, and if the Yankees take this game and make it the turning point in their season it will be even worse, but I like the fact that the Sox are 14-4-1 in their first 19 series and still have yet to lose three in a row (what is the Yankee mark of futility? That they still haven't had a win streak longer than three? ) . I also like the fact that we don't see them until the last series in August. As disappointing as Schilling has been, its the Yankees that have inflated his stats. Against the rest of the league, his ERA is in the twos and his batting average against is like .210. Maybe he'll get his act together and pitch like an ace (until he faces them again).

I think I've posted my experience with a bat that slipped into our apartment my first year in grad school at Washington University in St. Louis, but what's one more time? It was a Friday night, and rather than going out with the roommates (both of whom were also Political Science PhD students) I stayed in to do some studying. The old apartment building had free heat through a radiator system and because there was no way to moderate the temperature, we had to leave windows open in order to keep the place from turning into a sauna. Bad move (on this night). I'm sitting in the living room when a bat comes flying through out of the kitchen. First I barricaded myself in my bedroom. I figured, there's no way it can get in there, I'll just try to relax and eventually go to sleep. Then I thought about my roommates and what they would discover when they wandered back in a drunken stupor. So I decided I'd better go find them and tell them what had happened. Fortunately I knew that they had gone to a great bar in University City called Blueberry Hill (I believe it was owned by Chuck Berry but its been a while so maybe I made that up in my memory) to meet some other grad students. So I grabbed my coat, held it over my head, and ran like hell for the door. When I got there and found my friends, everybody was fascinated by my tale. At this point, I needed a few beers, so basically I caught up with everyone else and we all walked back to the apartment in varied states of inebriation. Frankly at this point I was just glad I wasn't going to confront it alone, because, after all, as Jim so eloquently put it in the opening post .... BATS! To make a long story short, the bat flew around a few times, and one roommate tried to herd it down the hallway. Unfortunately, the people he was herding it toward were more toasted than most of us, and didn't do much of a job swinging the tennis racquets. So now its gotten past them, into a little sun room in the front of the apartment that no one really used. But where is it? Then I spotted it, all balled up, against the brick wall (its quite amazing how small they can be when they want to, yet have lick a two foot plus wing span when they go motoring around). And one of us had a brilliant idea: Get the vacuum cleaner! So we grabbed the vacuum cleaner, one of those tube typed with the long hose, and crept forward (I wasn't getting too close at this point, so I was just watching). And at the signal, they moved the tube closer and someone threw the switch. And all of a sudden, this thing was making that squeak squeak sound over and over again, cuz he was inside the bag! And someone took the bag out and I don't remember if they tried to open it up or just pitched it but that was the end of The Night of the Bat.

And what could possibly be better? Kenny Burrell, Midnight Blue Grant Green, Idle Moments Different, but no better. MG Burrell is close; the Green isn't. Nothing touches Blue Hour.

And what could possibly be better?

Reason #1005 why Gary Sheffield is an idiot: Yeah, right, Gary, that's exactly why. Doesn't have anything to do with African Americans playing basketball and football. And there is no significance to this statement in today's NYT review of a book about Jackie Robinson's rookie season:

Oh, just get them all. Stitt never had an off-day and never just "mailed it in". That's why so many labels recorded him so often.

That was someone else as I didn't see the rehab start. Roger just seems like a groin guy to me. Phew...I guess it's just that kind of year. Not that I can recall this kind of year happening in quite this way to any team. Man! For the fans it must feel like their very own groin pull. Sorry, I mean "fatigue." (I mean wtf?, try using "groin fatigue" in a sentence and not have it sound silly.) There are just too many zeros for me to calculate that now as I'm suffering from brain fatigue. If you were using "Little Eric" to think instead, would that be groin fatigue?

Very believable. Woo-hoo, I feel like I've just placed a win-place-show bet on the Belmont! (Now watch Wang or Hughes muss it up.) Though the neck cramp crack is funny, I'm going with the good ole groin as the most likely Clemens injury. (Not that your specific injury picks were in order.) Looks like we're both wrong on the order, but I got the Rocket's injury right. (Nah nah nah nah nah nah. ) Clemens is scratched from Monday's start. Right groin injury. Quoted as "fatigue in the right groin." Phrasing is everything. What a year for the Yanks. Dan, do you have a supply of voodoo dolls that you're not telling us about? -Edited to change a "q" to a "g" in fatigue. Well, you certainly deserve kudos on the spot of the injury. Funny how we noticed that he came up a tiny bit lame at the end of the first inning of that rehab start, but since he completed five more and looked at least halfway decent in doing so, it was reasonable to assume it was just a twinge. To be hurt before he even starts is just priceless. And Igawa starting in his place is just icing on the case. What's even funnier is that they won't put him on the roster until he is ready, which means that this is going to cost him at least one week's salary. What is that, about a hundred grand?

How about the kid, Dustin Pedroia? Batting .170 in April, he ought to be a lock for Rookie of the Month if not Player of the Month for May, hitting over .400 with a .600 slugging percentage(!). He's now over .320 on the season after hearing a lot of whispers about him not being able to cut it after his poor September call-up and April start. But he kept saying that he always starts slow and he'll be fine, and right now I'd have to say he could be a strong ROY candidate at this early date. He's flashed excellent leather, too. BTW, if he gets Rookie of the Month, that will be two in a row for the Sox, after Hidecki Okajima in April. One difference would be that Dustin won't say "Is it proper that I receive this award?"

They also screamed "Mine!" in unison when A-Rod caught a pop-up.

Can you state this a little less obliquely so I understand what you are saying?

Well, number one, Lasorda is the only old timer to describe a time that it was done - in the minors. What he doesn't mention is the likelihood that it was after that game that he ended up with the plate in his head. And he is flat out wrong to say he is "allowed" to say it. The rule says that the runner shall not cause "confusion" to the fielder or it is interference. There's no way anyone gets away with it. Its flat out bush league play. I was listening to the Sox broadcast earlier, and Joe Castiglione made a fine observation: As far as I am concerned, that says it all.

I'm amazed that people are defending him. There are plenty of "old school" ballplayers who are calling it bush league and most seem to think that the answer is a pitch in the ribs, either to the next batter or the next time you face the cheater. No one ever went head hunting after a successful "deak" on a baserunner that keeps him from taking an extra base. That's how the game is played and its up to the runner to know where the ball was hit. This is flat out cheating and most players have never seen it even be attempted. That tells you right there that its not an accepted form of gamesmanship. And A-Rod's claim that it happens all the time when he approaches the dugout on a foul pop? That's BS simply because its his play all the way. No one ever backed off a foul pop by the dugout because he thought someone was calling him off. I'm kinda hoping that the Fenway crowds will yell "Mine" with every pitch delivered to A-Rod this weekend.

And to think I won the Four Sounds Demo Acetate for just 50 cents plus shipping. What a strange world we live in. I was told to use mild dish detergent and warm water, and it did wonders for the 4 Sounds acetate. The only thing you really want to do is keep the label dry, which isn't the easiest thing when you are trying to rinse the soap out.

P.S. - I'm glad to hear that its lame ass young whites who think you are inauthentic.

While I haven't heard you play, Mike, I know from your background and the time you spent with masters like Big John Patton that there is no doubt that you are totally authentic in your chosen styles. Anyone who looks at the color of your skin instead of listening isn't worth worrying about.