Chalupa

The Phillies are inventing ways to lose. Bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, 0-2 count Lidge hits the batter to load the bases. Next he balks to let the tying run cross the plate. How the fuck do you get called for a balk with the bases loaded??? And no this wasn't an ump's shitty call. He definitely balked. WTF???

Sucks for the Nats but as one of the posters on the article said,"I feel bad for him, but he did get 15 million for 6 months work." If the owners were smart the next collective bargaining agreement would have a limit on the $ amount a new player can make a la NBA. For some reason, there was just an air of the inevitable about the whole thing, from signing, to now. Agree. Edit: removed NFL as they have no $ limit on guaranteed signing bonuses.

Yes, MLB is culpable in the steroid era, no doubt about it. But don't you think it's wrong to for the players who didn't take PEDs to have their records taken away by players that did take PEDs?? That doesn't seem right to me. I don't know what the solution to cleaning up the record book is but something needs to be done about it, IMHO.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, the Braves were swept in Colorado...only it was just a 3 game series...hey, someone's got to win the East, right??? Just as long as it isn't the Mets!

Nothing personal, but I'm OK with that You'll be even happier to know that now we have to fly out to San Diego to play the team with the best record in the NL. Ugh.

You make a very good point. Now if only Clemens and Bonds had the courage to say the same thing. Strongly disagree. First of all not all of the players from the "steroid era" were on PEDs. So far only 128 players have been caught or implicated for using PEDs. Math isn't one of my strong suits but that seems like a pretty small % out of the total numbers of players who have played in the MLB in the past 20 years. So not everyone was guilty. Not even close. But regardless of how many players took PEDs my main point is this - you can't let those steroid records stand because if you do, it's the same thing as saying it's OK to cheat, which is clearly wrong. Furthermore what about the guys whose records were broken that didn't take PEDs?? Is that fair to have some juicer in the books instead of them?? Hell no. While I'll sympathetic to the let's "MOVE ON" sentiment - because frankly I think we're all getting tired of hearing about steroids at this point - it would be wrong to turn our back on what happened and pretend there are no consequences for one's actions. That's not how life works. Edit: Need to clarify. I do agree w/ your main point about collective responsibility but I disagree about what MLB's response should be.

http://www.dead.net/features/release-info/our-first-80s-box-complete-1989-hampton-warlocks-shows-6-cds

Jesus H. Christ!! The Phillies are about to get swept at home by the Astros. I don't know maybe this just isn't their year....

Documents revealed Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria misled the public to get a new stadium deal. (excerpt) The swindlers who run the Florida Marlins got exposed Monday. They are as bad as anyone on Wall Street, scheming, misleading and ultimately sticking taxpayers with a multibillion-dollar tab. Corporate fraud is alive and well in Major League Baseball. A look at the leak of the Marlins’ financial information to Deadspin confirmed the long-held belief that the team takes a healthy chunk of MLB-distributed money for profit. Owner Jeffrey Loria and president David Samson for years have contended the Marlins break even financially, the centerpiece fiscal argument that resulted in local governments gifting them a new stadium that will cost generations of taxpayers an estimated $2.4 billion. They said they had no money to do it alone and intimated they would have to move the team without public assistance. In fact, documents show, the Marlins could have paid for a significant amount of the new stadium’s construction themselves and still turned an annual operating profit. Instead, they cried poor to con feckless politicians that sold out their constituents.

It's like what Larry Andersen is wont to say,"what do these umps have to do to get fired?"

Much love and respect to Wayne Shorter. Thank you for sharing your music.

Thanks for posting this.

Even as a Braves fan, have to agree that guy had no business tossing him there....man, some of the umps really suck right now, don't they??? That was a ridiculous ejection, and that umpire should be sent back to the minors immediately. Just the way he acted after the first call was bush league.... Didn't look like he went, at least from the angles on the video, but those kinds of judgement calls occur almost every game. Howard is a veteran and should know enough to keep his cool, especially in an extra inning game where his team is short handed. As for sending the umpire back to the minors, does a team do that when a young player goes hitless in his first game in the majors? Well, maybe if George Steinbrenner was the owner, but he was a unique case. (I'd be more blunt about George, but he's gone, so I'll let it be.) Some players (and managers) want umpires to be held accountable to a higher standard than they are. I think both calls could have gone either way. Anyway, it's not the calls that is important in this case; it's the umps overreaction to the players that I have trouble with. I mean when have you EVER seen a ref mock a player in the NFL, NHL, NBA, etc. before last night?? And this isn't the first time during this call up that he ejected a player after tossing their equipment in disgust after striking out. I can't tell you how many players I've seen toss their helmet/bat after striking out against Halladay or Hamels this season. No, his act belongs in the bush league not in the majors. And to your second point - off the top of my head I can name 3 Phillies minor league call ups(Drew Carpenter, Vance Worley, & Scott Mathieson) this season that where sent down after 1 game. In the case of Worley and Mathieson they were sent down after pitching one inning. So it happens. There are 2 more games left in this series so I'm guessing Barry will call 1st base/home plate at some point. Or maybe they just stick him at 2nd/3rd. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The Bird, RIP. Well another night and another ump controversy for the Phillies. Ryan Howard got thrown out for tossing his bat after the 2nd check swing appeal by the 3rd base ump was called a strike. Watch this video of the incident and look at the 3rd base ump's reaction after the first checked swing. Now does Ryan Howard deserve a share of the blame for what happened last night? Absolutely. However, I think in this case the ump Scott Barry, who is up from the minors for a few weeks, needs to show some restraint too. Last week he gave Ryan Zimmerman his first career ejection and last night Howard got his 1st career hook. One of the local writers has this to say about what happened.... But the problem is not their incompetency. It's their obstinacy. A decade ago, Major League Baseball put a big lasso over an umpires union that had empowered itself to dictate games, which stepped all over the game. And for a while it worked. Umpires convened regularly on close plays, walked away from conflicts rather than toward them, and took a considerable level of guff from the participants before issuing ultimatums and ejections. But that spirit of collegiality has noticeably eroded over the last two seasons, maybe three. There are still good umpires all over the place, the crew that just went through being a good example. But guys who act insecure, who lack accountability-well, Gibson and Barry over the last 2 days harken to those bad, old days. And that's not good. For anyone. Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20100825_Sam_Donnellon__Out_of_his_league.html#ixzz0xcZJfuY7

That had to be played at Wrigley.

As this interesting article points out, baseball has a long history of pitching flame-outs: http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/08/24/all-too-familiar/?eref=sihp Mark Fidrych and David Clyde. Man, I remember watching those two on TV when I was a wee lad. I wonder what they're doing now.

I understood what Dan was trying to say in his post. I only got confused when Goodie misinterpreted it. I then went back and tried to find where Dan said that there was some kind bromance going on between Bonds/Clemens to no avail.

Of course this base path controversy could have been avoided altogether if Howard had just tossed the ball to Utley covering first base.

Man, tonight it was the Phillies turn to get shafted on a controversial call. W/ none out in the 8th and the Phils ahead 2-1 Michael Bourn bunted w/a man on 1st. Ryan Howard scooped up the ball and went to tag Bourn but MB ran about 3 feet out of the basepath(his right foot clearly touched the grass in foul territory), avoiding the tag. Afterward, Manuel and some of his players were fuming that Bourn wasn't called out of the baseline. Making it worse, Gibson tossed Manuel from a game against Cleveland on June 24 for arguing a similar play the opposite way. Gibson called Shane Victorino out of the baseline as he dove into first base to avoid a tag. "He went out of the baseline, but (Gibson) didn't see it that way," Manuel said. When Gibson was asked for a comment by a pool reporter, crew chief Sam Holbrook said umpires are not allowed to talk per major league baseball's instructions. However, umpires have discussed controversial calls several times this season. WTF?? Better explanation

Jesus H. Christ I see that he hit 2 more homers tonight giving him 40 on the season I heard that "swinging for the fences" explanation too and it probably does account for some of the HRs but if he truly is swinging for the fences wouldn't his batting avg. be going down?? It's 20 points higher this year. Also isn't there usually a strong bump up in strike outs when a hitter swings for the fences? That hasn't happened either. And in 2007 he had 614 PAs. Know how many HRs he hit that season?? 4. So he's hit 10 x that amount this season w/100 less PAs. WTF? It is amazing though that the Blue Jays are hitting so many home runs this season. They lead the majors by 20 HRs over the next team. They've hit 38 more than the Yanks and 67 more than the Phillies - both teams that play in bandboxes and that are loaded w/ guys who swing for the fences. It's been a weird season.

So Jose Bautista is leading the majors this season with 38 home runs. He's on pace to smack 50. In his previous 7 seasons his career total was 59. How does a player nearly match his previous homer output for 7 years in just one season??? Hmmm....

Nice story about Jason Heyward who, if you all remember, I picked to be the NL's Rookie of the Year back in Spring training.

Stephen Strasburg to undergo MRI

Disagree. If the Mets really wanted to do the right thing they would have tried to void his contract BEFORE they found out about the season ending injury. The fact that they tried to void his contract AFTER finding out about the injury just seems really lame, imho. I mean if he hadn't hurt himself he would still be wearing a Mets' uniform. WTF? Finally some good press for a Phillies fan. Disagree? Disagree on what? I was only clarifying what had been said and opining on the Mets chances of voiding, which are not too good. I don't think you can void an agreement based on what he did criminally. However they probably thought it was worth it based on his hurting himself and therefore depriving them of his services. Moreover, since they wanted to suspend him more than they could, this is probably a way of sending that message. I disagree that the Mets are not blameworthy. Like Dan said every MLB contract has a "morals" clause and if the Mets wanted to send a message they could have, nay, SHOULD HAVE, at the very least put him on a restricted list like the Cubs did with Zambrano. The fact that they are trying to void his contract only after they found out about his season ending injury just makes them look like a bunch of a-holes. YMMV. And just so that you don't think I'm picking on the Mets... back in 2006 then Phillie Brett Myers assaulted his wife before a game in Boston. The Phillies should have cut bait with him then and there, imho, but they did nothing. No suspension, no suggestion to go seek counseling, nada.

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