Monday, June 17, 2019

"BIG BOY SEASON IS ABOUT TO COMMENCE"

 The words of ESPN staff writer, Coley Harvey, forecast what Yankee supporters hope will be a massive display of baseballs leaving the confines of ballparks across the nation. Not since the early '60s, the days of Mantle, Maris, Berra, Moose Skowron, Elston Howard and Johnny Blanchard, has a lineup threatened the existence of pitchers like this one. No shortcuts, no easy outs and no respites, there will be home runs and strike outs galore. Whether they win or lose, it will be exciting to watch.
Judge, Stanton, Encarnacion, Sanchez, Voit followed by Torres, Gregorious and Hicks with DJ LeMahieu, the teams leading hitter, waiting his turn.  It starts tonight and should be in full bloom by the weekend. I'm waiting. Everyone's waiting.

**There's been a number of discussions this week about players unconcerned with running hard after hitting the ball. The argument is, why run hard and risk an injury when the end result is obvious. When they run hard but not all out on easy grounders and pop flies, I can understand. When they loaf to first on obvious home runs -  which turn out not to be - then that I cannot handle. The problem comes down to the managers. There is no chastising, no fines, not even any nasty looks. They make excuses for them. Yesterday, Welington Castillo  of the White Sox, hit a ball that bounced off the base of the wall in right center and he made it all the way to ...first base. What happened to him? They took him out of the game because he "had a bad back." If Billy Martin was the manager, Castillo's pain would have been a bit lower than his back. I think that's what is needed.

**About a week and a half ago, a minor league player bunted for a base hit in the ninth inning against a pitcher who was throwing a no-hitter. The score was 3-0 .  Players on the other team - and a lot of other people - were incensed by this. Why? Well baseball's Unwritten Rules say you can't bunt when a pitcher has a no-hitter going. Bull roar! The object of the game is to win. You get on base, you score more runs than the other team and you win. Why do I have to make it easier for you to gain a personal achievement and in the process, lose the game? You don't like it? Take up needlepoint.
The same thing goes for this "defensive indifference" thing about stolen bases. I'm not indifferent about anything. You give it to me and I'm going to take it and you can live with the bad statistics.

**Happy Father's Day to all dads (belated). My Dad taught me try hard, don't show the other team you're upset when you fail and don't embarrass the other team with excessive celebrations. The USA Women's Soccer team should have been taught this lesson. It's nice that they beat Chile 13-0 in the first round of the World Cup. And they celebrated wildly after  every  single  goal. Soccer games where a total of one goal is scored is not uncommon so thirteen goals is outrageous. Not only was the Chilean team embarrassed, I was embarrassed. The country should have been. Shame on you, USAWNT.

**An interesting tid-bit. Cities with two baseball teams rarely have both teams scheduled to play in that city on the same day. We happened to be in Chicago a few years ago when  both the White Sox and the Cubs were scheduled to play afternoon games. We had tickets to the White Sox game, but the game was rained out.    But the Cubs played. I've been to both stadiums. They're not that far apart. How could this have happened?


**There are often stories written about fathers on Father's Day. Here's a good one written by my friend, Brad Dickson:
https://www.braddicksononline.com/sports/2019/6/14/the-shot

***THEY SAID IT***
"Only 3% of the U.S. population donates blood, according to the Red Cross.Even worse, it’s only 1% if you toss out MMA, the National Hockey League and Black Friday shopping."  -- Dwight Perry
" And who’d a thunk that so far,  the SF Giants are having a much better June than the GS Warriors."  -- Janice Hough
" O.J. Simpson has joined Twitter. As you know O.J. has a dark past - he once played for the Buffalo Bills."  -- Brad Dickson
"A runaway gold cart injured five people at the U.S. Open. No one had any idea that John Daly had even qualified to play in that event."  -- Jim Barach
"Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius, while sidelined after Tommy John surgery, taught himself to play the piano. Maybe he accidentally had Elton John surgery."  -- Rob Merc via Twitter
"The Chicago Bears waived kicker Chris Blewitt. Headline writers were inconsolable."  -- Dwight Perry

" Long NBA season is finally over. So I presume the preseason starts next week?"  -- Janice Hough
" I attended the Mississippi State-Auburn CWS game tonight. For almost three hours I sat amidst fans from both schools and now I keep saying "y'all."  -- Brad Dickson
"Texas A&M says it will sell beer and wine at football games this year. Mostly because they need the revenue now that the school is no longer getting bribes from non-athletes to get admitted."  -- Jim Barach
"If race car driver Mike Conway sends a tweet, would that be a Conway Twitter"  -- RJ Currie

CP- 










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