Yardbarker: Troy Glaus

Redbird Report Cards: The Starting Lineup

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:47:35 -0500

It was a surprising and exciting, yet frustrating and ultimately disappointing season for the St. Louis Cardinals. They managed to prove the pundits wrong, again, and finished the season 10 games over the .500 mark, but injuries, stranded runners and an abysmal bullpen kept the Redbirds out of post season play. Although the [...]

Game 154 Thread / Cardinals @ Cubs (3 of 3)

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:21:59 -0500

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SP	Braden Looper	SP	Ryan Dempster
	12-13, 4.06, 96 K, 43 BB, 186 IP		16-6, 3.02, 182 K, 75 BB, 196.2 IP

CF	*Skip Shumaker	RF	*Kosuke Fukudome
RF	Ryan Ludwick	SS	Ronny Cedeno
1B	Albert Pujols	LF	*Micah Hoffpauir
2B	#Felipe Lopez	1B	*Darye Ward
3B	Troy Glaus	2B	*Mike Fontenot
LF	Nick Stavinoha	CF	*Felix Pie
C	Jason Larue	3B	Casey McGehee
P	Braden Looper	C	#Koyie Hill
SS	#Cesar Izturis	P	Ryan Demspter

Nothing like the post-clinch lineup...although you have to feel a little bad for Dempster who is trying to get win number 17 and retake sole possesion of the wins lead on the team. Cubs magic number to secure best record in the NL and homefield advantage is two. A loss by the Philles and Mets and a win by the Cubs would make the season ending road trip mostly irrelevant.

Game 153 Thread / Cardinals @ Cubs (2 of 3)

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:11:18 -0500

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SP	Joel Pineiro	SP	*Ted Lilly
	6-6, 5.24, 71 K, 31 BB, 135.2 IP		15-9, 4.13, 175 K, 61 BB, 191.1 IP

SS	#Cesar Izturis	LF	Alfonso Soriano
CF	Ryan Ludwick	SS	Ryan Theriot
1B	Albert Pujols	1B	Derrek Lee
2B	#Felipe Lopez	3B	Aramis Ramirez
3B	Troy Glaus	CF	*Jim Edmonds
RF	*Adam Kennedy	C	Geovany Soto
LF	Brian Barton	2B	Mark DeRosa
P	Joel Pineiro	RF	*Kosuke Fukudome
C	Jason Larue	P	*Ted Lilly

It be clinching day...we hope. Lou gets nostalgic with the lineup by letting Fukudome start again and Ted Lilly tries to tie Dempster for the team lead in wins. He'll also need to watch his head in case LaRussa tries to retaliate for Lilly's takedown of Yadier Molina last week.

Clinch! Clinch! Clinch!

Game 153 Recap: Cubs 5, Cardinals 4

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:11:16 -0500

Cubs Clinch Division, First Back-to-Back since 1907-1908, Earliest since 1932

W - Lilly (16-9), You, Me, Santo, Harry, 104-year-old-dude-who-threw-out-the-first-pitch, all Cubs fans.

L - Pineiro (6-7), the rest of the NL Central

S - Wood (32)

Box Score, Photos

Things to Take from This Game

1. A bases loaded three-run single for Soriano

Well, two rbis and an error leading to the third run. In the bottom of the second Soriano lined a single right at Brian Barton in left. The ball kicked off his glove and rolled to the wall, clearing the bases. The Cubs raced out to a 3-0 lead.

2. More fielding problems, more runs.

The Cubs got two more runs in the fourth, as Soto began the inning by smashing one through Glaus at third. DeRosa hit a double high off the ivy to score Soto, and after advancing to third on a Fukudome ground out, scored on a nicely executed suicide squeeze by Lilly. 5-0 Cubs through four innings.

3. Glaus homers in 4-run Sixth

Lilly looked great, very economical, through five. In the sixth Felipe Lopez gets an RBI single on a smash up the middle off Theriot's glove, and Glaus unloads a no-doubt three-run home run into the left field well. Suddenly we had a close game. 5-4 through six.

4. Lilly Recovers, Marmol and Wood close it out

Other than a leadoff walk to Glaus in the ninth, the last three innings passed uneventfully as Lilly pitched the seventh, with Marmol and Wood doing their jobs to close out the game. A soft fly out to Edmonds off the bat of Aaron Miles ended the game, and a happy Cubs team celebrated between the pitcher's mound and first base.

The Back-to-Back NL Central Champion Details, below.

Game Recap

Oh my god, can we just declare that FOX has no pretensions towards actually concentrating on the game? We get some WWE Diva giving us the cardinal lineup, which amounts to her plugging the WWE, mentioning that Pujols is good, and flirting with Tim McCarver. Eww.

Inning 1 - Top

First pitch of the game, Izturis pops up to straight behind home plate. Ridiculously easy first out
Ludwick lines a shot over Soriano's head for a double. Looks like it would have been uncatchable regardless, but Soriano also misjudged it a bit, leapt for it without a shot
Pujols rolls out easily to Short. Nice scoop by Lee. McCarver wanted to IBB Pujols. Idiot.
Strike 3 called on Felipe Lopez. I know that all the studies show that "protection" for a slugger is a myth, but really, Felipe Lopez hitting fourth, behind Pujols? 13 pitch inning for Ted.

Inning 1 - Bottom

Hey, how about it: Jeff Samardzija gives the Cubs lineup, and actually, you know, provides information. But God Bless Fox, they misspell it "Smardzija." Poor Fox: so far from journalism, so close to remedial freshman english class.
Soriano with a check-swing tap-back to Pineiro
Theriot rolls out to Lopez at second.
Lee lines one off the base of the ivy in straight-away center. Looks like Ludwick also had some trouble judging that liner.
My God, McCarver is a moron. Just listening to him discussing whether to pitch Sabathia on short rest makes my mind want to shrivel up and die.
Ramirez lines out to right, inning over

Inning 2 - Top

Everyone, take another shot for a 1908 reference from Josh Lewin
In fact, the entire "what was going on in 1908" graph.
Glaus K's swinging at a fastball
Adam Kennedy is playing RF? Ouch. A check-swing right back to Lilly, two outs.
Brian Barton bounces one just outside of Lilly's reach, over his head up the middle for a single.
McCarver tells me Barton was an aerospace engineer major, lived in Addis Ababa for a time. Cool.
Pineiro flies to center, Edmonds battles the sun, makes the catch.

Inning 2 - Bottom

Edmonds nearly hits one out at the left field well. hits maybe a foot away from the basket, instead it's a double.
Soto walks
DeRosa bounces into a potential 4-6-3, but there's a bobble on the turn, DeRosa safe at first by a half step. Pineiro not happy about it.
Fukudome walks, bases loaded for Lilly
McCarver shills for budweiser.
Pineiro continues to look a bit annoyed by things.
Lilly battling nicely.
Finally K's swinging. Soriano up, 2 outs, bases loaded.
Soriano singles to left on an inside fastball, and the ball bounces off the heel of Barton's glove, rolling to the wall. 2 RBIs with the third run being credited to the error. 3-0 Cubs
Theriot flies to Kennedy in right.

Inning 3 - Top

Jason LaRue (hitting 9th) up. Gentle pop-up to Lee on a big curveball
Izturis with a slow bouncer up the middle. Theriot makes a pretty sweet sliding stop on it, but no chance on the throw.
Everyone, take a shot for the Bartman reference.
Ludwick grounds into a very easy 6-4-3, out of the inning. 37 pitches for Lilly on the day

Inning 3 - Bottom

Lee flies to Kennedy in right
FOX cries crocodile tears for Derek Jeter as he misses the playoffs
and Ramirez grounds to short. two pitches, two outs
Edmonds K's swinging, five pitch inning

Inning 4 - Top

3-2 pitch to Pujols, he lines a shot to Ramirez's left. He makes a great diving stop for it, the throw is up the first bas line, and Lee manages to barely tag Pujols on the leg as he lunges for it. Out. Very nice set of plays by Ramirez and Lee.
Lopez squibs one to Lee, unassisted.
Maybe it's time to listen to the Pat and Ron audio while watching the FOX telecast.
Glaus pops to Theriot.

Inning 4 - Bottom

Soto rips a grounder right at Glaus, who can't handle it. Well hit ball, but certainly an error.
DeRosa then smashes one high off the ivy in the left field well. Looks like a fastball that tailed back over the plate. Barton gives it a good try, but no luck. Soto scores, 4-0 Cubs.
DeRosa to third as Fukudome grounds out to second.
Suicide Squeeze play. Lilly bunts, a nice one to the left of Pineiro. DeRosa is breaing for home on the play, Pineiro tries for the glove-hand toss to LaRue, but it's not even close. Lilly safe at first, 5-0 Cubs. Pineiro really letting himself get rattled by his D.
DeRosa flies out to Kennedy
FOX shows a highlight of Brewers game: Fielder trying to score on a hit to the outfield, is going to be out by a mile, so he just PUNCHES the catcher as he runs into his tag a few feet up the line from home. What a monumental collapse...
Theriot grounds out to second

Inning 5 - Top

Kennedy with a soft liner to DeRosa, first pitch. FOX keeps getting back to the game late from commercials
Barton flies to left, and Pineiro flies out to the warning track in left. I think it was something like a five pitch ining. 56 for the game

Inning 5 - Bottom

Lee flies to Kennedy
Ramirez lines a single to left center
Edmonds bounces into a 4-6-3 DP

Inning 6 - Top

LaRue with a soft fly out to Edmonds.
Izturis with a soft liner into right-center for a single
Ludwick K's flailing at a curve.
Pujols gets pitched around, walks on five pitches.
Double-steal, uncontested. Gyeh.
Lopez smashes one to Theriot's left. Makes a nice stop to keep it from getting to the outfield, but can't get Lopez at first. One run scores, first and third, two outs.
Glaus then crushes one out into the left field well bleachers. 5-4 game.
Ron Santo is Sad.
Full count, Kennedy walks.
Cotts and Samardzija up for the Cubs, McClellan for the Cards. 0-2 on Barton
Crowd gets up.
Barton with a bouncer to Theriot. Handles the in-between hop, gets Barton by a step.

Inning 6 - Bottom

Soto with a slow roller to third. Glaus charges, bare-hands, it kicks away. Soto singles.
DeRosa flies to center.
Soto isn't being held on (well, Pujols is a foot or too off the bag, between Soto and the bag) and Soto, with a modest lead, takes off for second. Thrown out by a mile. Seems to be explaining himself to someone in the dugout. Two outs.
Pat and Hughes assume Fukudome missed a hit and run sign. Since I'm not listening to the Fox-cast, and since I can't fathom Soto straight-stealing there, I'll go with that theory.
Fukudome K's swinging at a pitch inside.

Inning 7 - Top

Josh Phelps hits for Piniero, K's looking at a fastball
LaRue K's swinging.
Izturis bounces out to Theriot. Nice comeback by Lilly

Inning 7 - Bottom

Ryan Franklin in to pitch.
and Fontenot hits for Lilly
and rolls out to Pujols
Soriano flies to Kennedy. Sun still looks really tough today. Santo with a loud "gyeah!" about it, I'm not sure why.
Theriot swings and misses at three straight. Really struggling the last few days.
Very, very quick inning

Inning 8 - Top

Marmol in.
From 3-0 to 3-2 on Ludwick, he flies easily to center.
Pat really getting into it on the radio broadcast
Pujols reaches for a slider, gently pops to DeRosa, two outs.
Lopez bounces to Lee way behind the bag and on the line. Waits for Marmol to get over, tosses, inning over. Three outs to go!

Inning 8 - Bottom

Ludwick to left, Baron out of game Schumaker comesin to play center.
Lee K's swinging at an inside fastball
Pat tells me this would be the earliest Cubs clinch since 1932.
Wood warming up to face Glaus, Kennedy, Schumaker, and a bear-hug from Soto.
Ramirez K's swinging
and Edmonds bounces out to Lopez
Pat - "Time to fasten those seatbelts!"

Inning 9 - Top

Crowd on its feet at the start of the inning. 3-1 count to Glaus, Wood hitting 96 on gun. Glaus walks
Brendan Ryan runs for Glaus
Taps one slowly to DeRosa. He goes to second for the force,Theriot throws, quite late, back to first. Nice work by DeRosa on a relatively tough 4-6 force to get the lead runner
FOX informs me that wood has a 9.82 era in september. ohh boy.
1-1 on Schumaker. 2-1, fastball just off the outside corner. Bit of a tough strike zone, today.
2-2 count.
Wood drops a gorgeous slider down the middle of the plate, bottom of the zone. Strike 3
Miles hits for franklin. First pitch, skies it to Edmonds in shallow left, an easy out.
The team gathers between pitcher's mound and first base bag. Santo is hollering on the radio broadcast.
All told, a rather subdued celebration after a few seconds of group-hug-jumping. Everyone hugs, handshakes each other.

Inning 9 - Bottom

Parachat Recap

Inning 1

Chad gripes about Theriot
We gripe about Fox, McCarver
we mock Fox, McCarver
how we know who Rob G's wife thinks is cute.
Whether it's smart or not for the Brewers to pitch Sabathia today on short rest

Inning 2

Cubs offseason SP rotation moves.
Brewers game updates
Wes arrives. People surprised to see him and me at the same time. Harrumph.
Prominent Cardinals free agent signings
What to do when life hands you tomato juice. Good suggestions from me, H. Vaughn, Andy
Our newly socialized economy.
Ethnically stereotyped pronunciation jokes. Go, Parachat, Go.
The Blink 182 Drummer's plane crash
- meh
We don't care about the AL
Who gives fucks?
Celebrating the lead

Inning 3

Since evidently people are sad when I don't give them shout-outs, here's who we have cheering along in Parachat right now: Rob, Andrew, Andy, bizmarquis2, crunch, cubs.com, H_Vaugh, HollywoodChad, MorningtonCrescent, nohit, osiris, The_Real_Neal, THUD, me, and Wes. And every single one of them has said something witty and funny for which they should be eternally commemorated in the internet ether.
Who is Mischa Barton?
Who is Brian Barton?
When Andrew's in Rome...
The Virgin Mary doesn't ring anyone's bell.
- wait, are we back to talking tomato juice, or rome, or sex?
- I'm so confused.
More fox-mocking.

Inning 4

Facing your prostate issues
for celebration purposes, should we root for the Brewers to win their games, so that the Cubs have to clinch by winning it on their own? (ehh, never root for your opponents.)
What are we drinking for the clinching celebration?
Evaluating the New Commisky/Cellular ballpark
Rob G starts counting the outs remaining in the game.
Talking to people about their itches in Manhattan
Cubs Game Plan: Aim for Between Their Legs - The Real Neal
Cheering on the squeeze play
amazed at Fielder's cheap-shot.
Should Theriot rest/be dropped in the order? (Yes, and No.)

Inning 5

Erudite ostrich-eating tailgaters. I think it was Brick who brought up this crucial demographic.
Discussing life in North Carolina
and my modest love life. (
- Osiris preemptively complains about my censorship of this discussion in the recap.
Trust-fund bums
my story of Henry the Handwiper

Inning 6

Facebook, MySpace
Not Trans's MySpace Page.
Angst. Chad. Chad. Angst.
Who is using LinkedIn for sex?
Who is Fred Gwynn, and is he as stiff as Troy Glaus?

Inning 7

Interesting trivia: Josh Phelps is one of Alaska's 15 men who haven't impregnated the governor - John Beasley
- I almost feel bad for recapping that.
- Almost.
is it true that Jason LaRue is singing in a Motorhead cover band during the off-season - Real Neal

Inning 8

Brewers updates
that Fielder cheap-shot.
Discussing the Micah Owings PH RBI in Cincy
Naked old men in a balloon.
Last year's parachat on clinching day.

Inning 9

The top of the ninth starts with a big parachat crowd of: Rob, Andrew, Andy, Biittner, biz, brick, crunch, cubs.com, H Vaughn, Chad, John Beasley, mattralph, MorningtonCrescent, nohit, osiris, real neal, me, Wes, lowitzki.
A picture is worth a thousand words.

Cubs record in games recapped goes to 13-6

Game 152 Thread / Cardinals @ Cubs

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:29:58 -0500

Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview

SP	Adam Wainwright	SP	Carlos Zambrano
	9-3, 3.20, 84 K, 26 BB, 121 IP		14-5, 3.41, 127 K, 65 BB, 182.1 IP

CF	*Skip Schumaker	LF	Alfonso Soriano
LF	Ryan Ludwick	SS	Ryan Theriot
1B	Albert Pujols	1B	Derrek Lee
2B	Felipe Lopez	3B	Aramis Ramirez
3B	Troy Glaus	CF	*Jim Edmonds
RF	*Adam Kennedy	RF	Mark DeRosa
SS	*Aaron Miles	2B	*Mike Fontenot
P	Adam Wainwright	C	Henry Blanco
C	Jason Larue	P	#Carlos Zambrano

In his post-game press conference Thursday, a giggly Lou Piniella implied he was planning to go out last night to tie one on in celebration of the spectacular comeback victory. (I believe the exact quote was, "This is going to be a bad night for me.") It's a relief then, looking at today's lineup, to see Lou didn't stumble into the lockerroom still drunk and blindly pencil Koyie Hill into the leadoff spot as his second baseman or give a spot start to Michael Wuertz.

Geovany Soto gets the day off owing to irritation of a joint in his left hand. He is listed as day-to-day.

Our man Zambrano makes his first start since last Sunday's no-no at Milwaukee. I took a look at the last ten National Leaguers to throw complete game no-hitters before Zambrano to see how they fared in their very next outing.

First of all, the ten pitchers constitute a fairly motley crew, with luminaries like Randy Johnson, A.J. Burnett, and Kevin Brown mixed in with much lesser lights like Bud Smith and Jose Jimenez. In other words, the ten are hardly are a perfect list of comparables for Zambrano.

Anyway, in their first, post-no-hitter starts, these pitchers averaged a little over 6 IP, with about 6 hits and 3 ER allowed, for a cumulative ERA of 4.18. Combined they won 5, lost 3, and had a couple of ND's. Also, these 10 NL pitchers, who averaged 112 pitches in their respective no-hit games, averaged about 104 pitches in their first games following.

I'm not sure how instructive any of this is—as I said, it's not a great list of comps for Zambrano. What's more I don't know that any of these pitchers was fresh off a bout with rotator cuff tendinitis, which raises what is probably the most important aspect of this afternoon's game as it relates to the Cubs' World Series-winning prospects: gauging how well Zambrano has bounced back after a 110-pitch start.

One other thing to keep your eye on in this series: whether or not Tony LaRussa, who strikes me as being insane, decides to exact "revenge" on the Cubs and Ted Lilly, Saturday's scheduled starter, for Lilly's clean takedown of Cards catcher Yadier Molina last week in St. Louis. (I put revenge in quotes because I don't personally understand why a completely fair home plate collision would beg for some sort of vengeance, but I believe in TLR's world, it just will.)

What to Do Without Brandon Phillips?

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:49:51 -0500

Brandon Phillips is out for the year. What do you do now in the fantasy stretch drive? There are some options available. Plus, more injury news and players coming back that can help you win your league late.

Game--4 Thread / Cubs @ Cardinals (1 of 3)

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:22:37 -0500

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SP	Ryan Dempster	SP	Kyle Lohse
	15-6, 2.99, 167 K, 72 BB, 183.2 IP		13-6, 3.76, 106 K, 44 BB, 182 IP

LF	Alfonso Soriano	CF	*Skip Schumaker
2B	*Mike Fontenot	3B	Troy Glaus
1B	Derrek Lee	1B	Albert Pujols
3B	Aramis Ramirez	RF	Ryan Ludwick
RF	Mark DeRosa	LF	*Rick Ankiel
CF	*Jim Edmonds	C	Yadier Molina
C	Geovany Soto	2B	#Felipe Lopez
SS	Ronny Cedeno	P	Kyle Lohse
P	Ryan Dempster	SS	Cesar Izturis

The Cubs and the Cardinals meet in the first of three at Busch and the first of six matchups between now and the end of the season. The Cubs lead the season series, 5-4, and have won 10 of their last 15 in St. Louis.

Dempster won his only start this year against the Cardinals, allowing 2 ER over 6 2/3 in a 6-2 Cub victory in early August. Lohse is 0-1, 6.92 in a pair of starts this season vs. the Cubs, but is otherwise having a fine year, producing more ground balls, yielding fewer long balls, and allowing fewer walks than at virtually any other point in his MLB career.

By Baseball Prospectus's reckoning, the Cubs, 4 1/2 games up on Milwaukee, enter play with an 88.8% likelihood of winning the division, 10.3% chance of winning the Wild Card, and a 99.1% overall likelihood of reaching the post-season. The Cardinals, 9 games back of the Cubs and 4 1/2 behind the Wild Card-leading Brewers, come in at .2% / 4.5% / 4.7%. In other words, deprived of greater glory, Cardinal fans may realize no more significant joy in these last few weeks than seeing their heroes get in the way of a Cubs celebration.

Every time the Cubs and Cards meet and I enter the batting orders, I stumble as I remember to enter the St. Louis pitcher in the eighth spot. That led me to look up a few team season stats. First, what kind of production the Cubs and Cardinals are getting from their respective #8 hitters:

	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HR	RBI
Cubs 8th-place hitters	.300	.362	.442	804	12	79
Cards 8th-place hitters	.196	.247	.292	539	8	51

Then from the #9 hole:

	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HR	RBI
Cubs 9th-place hitters	.231	.271	.340	611	10	60
Cards 9th-place hitters	.266	.322	.323	645	2	34

The Cubs' #8 numbers have been helped by the fine season they have received from Reed Johnson. The Cubs #9 numbers reflect an offensively outstanding pitching staff (thank you, Carlos Zambrano!), one that's 105 OPS points better than the next best-hitting group of pitchers, which happens to belong to St. Louis.

And the Cardinals' production from the 9th place? That right there is what you call the handiwork of a former Chicago Cub, one Cesar Izturis.

Rob G: Just a little roster note that Felix Pie and Randy Wells will be joining the team. To make room for Wells on the roster, the Cubs have moved Jon Lieber to the 60-day DL.

Dunn does in Cards in desert

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:10:42 -0500

Drew and Dunn do in the Cards in a desert showdown.

Diamondbacks drop another to Cards

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:16:50 -0500

The Skinny: Troy Glaus and Yadier Molina both hit 2-run home runs, and Felipe Lopez added a solo shot as the St. Louis Cardinals trounced the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-2 at Chase Field. St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright pitched very well, allowing only 1 run and 3 hits in 5 and a third innings for [...

Wainwright wins as Cards pound D'backs

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:29:03 -0500

Never count out the Cards, not even when the St. Louis media does.

WAL-LACE! WAL-LACE!

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:34:50 -0500

It's a gloomy time in St. Louis after seeing the Redbirds cough up 4 straight, essentially ending any hopes of postseason play. The balloon that is Cardinal baseball is deflating. Quickly. The players and coaching staff seem dejected and exhausted, and right now Cardinal Nation feels more like Mudville. High spirits, [...]

The Media Circus

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:40:20 -0500

For over 20 years, Dick Stockton has been one of the primary play-by-play men for NBA and NFL action on CBS and Fox. He's done some baseball in his career, with his most notable accomplishment coming in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series for his call of Carlton Fisk's home run.

With Joe Buck's lighter workload on Fox Saturday baseballe, Stockton occasionally pops up as broadcaster for the secondary Fox Saturday games of the week. Let's just say it might be wise to avoid calling Stockton in from the announcer bullpen in the future (same goes for you, playoffs on TBS).

Paired with Leo Mazzone for the Cardinals and Braves this past Saturday in St. Louis, Stockton referred to All Star Ryan Ludwick as "Aaron Ludwick", originally called Albert Pujols' homer that barely inched over the wall in centerfield an upperdeck shot, claimed the Cardinals retired the side with only two outs and mentioned that Cards rookie reliever Kyle McCellan jumped from AA Springfield straight to the big club out of Spring Training. Nothing wrong with that factual nugget with the exception that Stockton said the Cardinals double-A team was located in Springfield, Texas as opposed to Missouri. We looked it up and found that there is, in fact, a Springfield, Texas located in Jim Wells County.

Springfield is at Farm Roads 625 and 3087, about three miles southeast of San Diego and seven miles northwest of Alice in west central Jim Wells County. The community was established when the Texas-Mexican Railway built across the county in the early 1880s. A post office was established at Springfield in 1909, and in 1910 the community's population was estimated at about 100, though by 1914 the number of residents had decreased to eight. The post office closed in 1918. A county highway map made in the 1930s showed Springfield with a school and scattered dwellings. During the late 1980s it was a dispersed rural community.

Those scattered dwellings, though no longer standing, would have made for awesome baseball training facilities.

To be fair to Stockton, he attempted to redeem himself with a snappy line about Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus making "a glossy play", but that line was beaten to death a few weeks ago. Not even a good snapper was enough to get back in our graces. Safe to say it's best if Stockton keeps his inaccurate name-calling to football and basketball.

And yes, as the picture indicates, we still think Stockton fits the mold of drunk high school English teacher quite well.

Crap that actually came from somebody's mouth

"It's not that, it's the little things (that get a team a win)." - Steve Phillips, on Braden Looper's sacrifice bunt being more important than Albert Pujols' homer

If we didn't know any better, we'd assume Joe Morgan jumped into Steve Phillips' body.
___

"These guys are athletes. You create ways to win when you're athletic." - Mark Grace

Whichever team lands Alicia Sacramone when free agency hits this winter will likely open up a pinata of created-victories.
___

"Milwaukee has a much easier schedule than the Cardinals do, but sometimes, you'd rather play a winning club or somebody who has something at stake like you do than to play the weaker ones." - Al Hrabosky

Makes perfect sense. Why would you want to play a team that's been crappy all season when you could try to gain those all-important victories over teams that have been good all season?

The Beat Writer Who Hit it Big

If there's one type of General Manager that is likely going to get gushing reviews from the mainstream media regardless of results, it's one who used to be a part of it. Perhaps that explains a little of the irrational love for Dodgers GM Ned Colletti who has been responsible for a healthy dose of moronic moves from his post the last few seasons.

He has long been a favorite of Bill Plaschke and now MLB.com's Hal Bodley is ignoring Colletti's path of destruction and instead looking at a fellow beat writer who made it big and beaming like a proud father.

"When I first met Ned Colletti in 1980, he was covering the Flyers for the Philadelphia Journal, a colorful newspaper that had a short life?I mention this background because, even back then, Colletti seemed more absorbed by baseball than the sport that was his beat. That he is now the respected general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers shouldn't come as a surprise."

Not surprising at all, hockey beat writers from failed Philadelphia newspapers go on to become GM's of Major League Baseball franchises all the time.

"Colletti has seemingly been at his best this summer, wheeling and dealing in an attempt to fill in the gaps in a battle with Arizona for the National League West crown. He energized the clubhouse, landing third baseman Casey Blake from Cleveland and pulled off a blockbuster three-team deal for Boston's disgruntled future Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez."

Manny is off to a roaring start in LA, but everyone wants to assume that the Dodgers have been on fire since he invaded the clubhouse. In reality, since the trade, the team has gone 11-12 and has actually lost ground in the NL West. Dreadlocks are cool and all, but they don't necessarily mean the team is performing any better.

Oh, I almost forgot one of Colletti's most important coups -- landing another future Hall of Famer during the offseason: manager Joe Torre.

Amongst the "coups" that Bodley fails to mention are the 2-year $32 million deal for Andruw Jones this offseason, the 3-year $47 million contract he gave to Jason Schmidt and, if those two weren't bad enough, he was also the author of what is widely regarded as one of the worst free agent signing of the past few years when he inked slap singles hitter Juan Pierre to a $44 million deal over 5 years.

With all that dead weight on the roster, convincing Joe Torre aboard probably was a coup.

Finishing ahead of the multi-talented Diamondbacks will be no easy task. They have excellent pitching and a maturing lineup that has quickly learned how to win under pressure. One thing is for certain: If it's in Ned Colletti's power to make a move that will help the Dodgers he won't sit on his hands. That's just not his style.

If only there were any horrible overpriced free agents still left to pluck, Mr. Colletti would have enough magic to get his team over .500. The other beat writers will be so proud.

Anyone Else Want to Register an Opinion on Instant Replay?

Safe to say that the stable of MLB.com writers had their marching orders when word was announced of the league's decision to proceed with instant replay. Their job ? stick a mic in someone's face and see how many articles can be squeezed out of the topic in under 24 hours?

Gonzalez supportive of instant replay
Reds react to use of instant replay
Nationals happy about instant replay
Teahan undecided on instant replay
Piniella not that sweet on instant replay
Other sports embrace instant replay
Yankees back instant replay on homers
Wedge not a fan of instant replay

At least they made it easy for the headline writers.

Bob Carpenter Memorial Snappy Line

We've documented at length Bobby's penchant for celebrating cultural diversity, especially when a snappy line is involved. Veteran snapster John Buccigross knows this and sought to sprinkle his finishing-move catchphrase with the appropriate dose of cultural know-how.

"Winner, winner: chicken dinner?" Not today, my friends. Not when Hawaii wins the Little League World Series.

"Winner, winner: mahi mahi dinner."

It's a unanimous thumbs up and wink from the Bobber. In fact, Robert C is so happy he's probably going to head to the fish market and celebrate with a Hawaiian feast, which means plenty of Don Ho blaring in the Carpenter household.

The Media Circus is written by Josh Bacott and Patrick Imig. They swear this stuff is real. Email them at info@joesportsfan.com

Looper and unnamed closer Perez muddle Marlins

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:54:30 -0500

La Russa may not want to call Perez his closer, but that's what the rookie is doing.

The Media Circus

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:03:49 -0500

At this point in the season, we've come to the conclusion that the baseball networks are simply antagonizing us. Over the course of this summer, we documented Eric Byrnes' penchant for TV whoredom, in which Byrnes appears in ridiculous skit-based segments on the Fox Saturday baseball pregame show. Whereas last time we tuned in to see "Byrning Heat", the latest installment involved Byrnes acting as judge in a courtroom, something we're sure the Diamondbacks greatly appreciated [/sarcasm]. At that point, we turned off the TV in disgust, as this was the man who ...

appeared as a studio analyst for MLB on FOX telecasts, ESPN's Baseball Tonight, appeared on an episode of the awkwardly terrible EOE game show Teammates? and kayaked across McCovey Cove with his baseball-searching dog, Bruin, during last year's All Star festivities. All the while he's reappeared in various roles on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

Continuing the theme of the networks antagonizing us, Neil Everett added to his impressive arsenal of Tampa Rays devil-lingo, with another award-winning descriptor for Tampa's 71 win milestone:

"This year, with the devil no longer a part of its moniker, Tampa Bay has become bedeviling."

And on the same night of ESPN programming, we witnessed the WorldWide Leader's newest "on-air personality", Steve Braband, excessively promote the live weekday morning SportsCenter episodes which were to debut the following day, only this time the spots were live from Braband's fantasy football draft where he wore a Brady Quinn jersey over a Ben Roethlisberger jersey (don't ask). To make sure the commercial was completely unbearable, viewers were treated to that horrid Finally Fast dot com commercial immediately after. It was deja vu to the extreme, and watching the two spots in succession was akin to jamming fishing rods in our eyeballs on the entertainment scale.

Safe to say we've had better weekends of television viewing. There's always next weekend, though. As long as we keep a positive attitude and keep things in perspective, do the appropriate amount of game-planning and execute, we'll get back to our winning viewing habits next weekend.

Crap that actually came from somebody's mouth

"I think (Michael Wilbon) went in and said 'pardon the interruption guys.'" - Jon Miller

That joke has never been used before, Jon. Kudos.
___

"Obviously (President Bush) was sweating like everybody else. His back is soaking wet."- Tiki Barber

Prior to the Olympics, Tiki assumed all presidents were robots incapable of perspiring.
___

"The FBI or the CIA or the Secret Service is going to take that shirt and find out who did it!"- Tiki, discussing a USA softball player placing infield chalk on the back of Bush's shirt

We're confident Barber won't be hosting Saturday Night Live in the near future. Stick to water-skiing squirrels, Tiki.
___

"I'm shutting Joba (Chamberlain) down, this guy has a Hall of Fame career as did Kerry Wood, but Kerry Wood has been fighting arm issues for the last ten years because the Chicago Cubs ran him out there until his arm blew and I'm afraid that's what is going to happen here with Joba Chamberlain." ? Mark Grace

Mark might be playing fast and loose with the term "Hall of Fame career".
___

"I'm no different aside from being a little gray-headed and a little bit older."- Brett Favre

Sure, Brett. Most of your teammates would probably have the team send out an official press release about you running a lap during training camp.

Teddy Atlas is having a blast inside Teddy Atlas' brain

Monday night CNBC aired "Round of 32" boxing action with the solid play-by-play voice of the New York Jets, Bob Papa, and longtime boxing trainer and commentator Teddy Atlas on the call. While some of the in-ring action was underwhelming, CNBC's appointed color analyst provided ample entertainment with a litany of boxing cliches, metaphors and similes that would make Larry Merchant jealous.

Three notable anecdotes from American Sadam Ali's lopsided 20-5 defeat at the hands of Romania's Georgian Popescu ...

"There is more to a fight than one hand."

With wisdom like that, you'd think Teddy was vying for the title of "boxing's John Madden".
___

"He's good at taking air out of the tires."

A reference to body blows to the gut and stomach, I'm confident Atlas has used the tires metaphor many a time throughout his years as a trainer for Mike Tyson and Michael Moorer.
___

"When you're in a boxing match, you want to be the ocean; when you're controlling everything that's around you. Both of these fighters are attempting to be the ocean. They do not want to be the log that gets moved and drifted from place to place. And that's why they're being so careful."

That's beautiful stuff. It's analysis like that which turned a disappointing match into an entertaining boxing production. We're now tempted to purchase Teddy's autobiography.

Master the Obvious and You Too Can Cover the Olympics

Mitch Albom Still Stuck in Suck Mode

Admittedly, we don't read much of Mitch Albom's columns; we had enough of him on the Sports Reporters alongside William C. Rhoden and Mike Lupica for the past 15 years. But when Albom goes to Beijing to cover the Olympics and morphs into Bill Simmons at the Super Bowl, we certainly take note of it (or have our online friends do it and then take note of it).

Of the first four columns Albom constructed from the Olympics, four of them were about Mitch Albom!

Why make this Olympic journey?- yes, please tell us why you, Mitch Albom, decided to grace the games with your presence.

Theme from Beijing: There's always someone else - the tale of trying to get a cab and Mitch's hotel room (!!!)

How business gets done in China - Mitch goes shopping and would like you to know about fashion

USA vs. China features high energy from crowd- who needs basketball input when you can hear all about the monsoon that got in the way of Albom's trek to the game?

At some point when the mainstream sector of society transformed Albom from sports columnist to all-world-spiritual advisor, Albom became his own believer. We believe Albom's columns to suck.

Bob Carpenter Memorial Snappy Line

Even though the Bobber loves an individual snappy line, he's all about chemistry and good teamwork. When one media outlet displays great team unity in the quest for a top-flight snap, everyone at the Carpenter Memorial stands up and takes notice.

Luckily for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the account of Troy Glaus' two homer, 5 RBI day at Wrigley on Saturday did not go unnoticed. Everyone from the headline writers to beat writer Joe Strauss and columnist Bernie Miklasz took advantage of Glaus snapping his 0-30 season against the Cubs in grand fashion.

Before the 0-for was snapped ... ... ...

He was Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's vault

Glaus was like a democrat running for office in Utah

The Glaus wasn't half-filled, it was empty.

And after?

Glaus turns glossy in Cards rout

No more zero: how about hero?

And with that, Robert C sends out two strong thumps up to the Post-Dispatch sports section. Solid work, fellas.

The Media Circus is written by Josh Bacott and Pat Imig. They swear this stuff is real. Email them at info@joesportsfan.com

MLB Trade 'Em - The Final Edition

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:00:08 -0500

Screaming Sports' Tommy D breaks out the final 2008 edition of MLB Trade 'Em and suggests some very surprising moves. Trade Mike Mussina? Carlos Delgado? You betcha. And while it may sounds crazy, he follows it up with some very sound reasoning.