Tampa Bay Rays

If you’re looking for a baseball book that will keep you entertained until Opening Day, check out Dirk Hayhurst’s The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran.  The book details Hayhurst’s 2007 season at three different levels of the minors.  He describes long bus rides, living with host families, Kangaroo Court, and battling the urge to give up on a dream.  It’s an honest story about the arduous journey it takes so many ballplayers to reach their ultimate goal, knowing they may never achieve it.

Continue reading "A baseball read to hold you over until Opening Day"

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, who are World Champions for the first time since moving to the west coast more than 50 years ago.  Their last title in New York came in 1954, when Willie Mays made “the catch” that will be played on highlight reels forever.  The Giants came unbelievably close to not even making the playoffs this year, but the fans who claimed that watching their team was “torture” are now the happiest fans in baseball.

Continue reading "A new champion is crowned"

While the fans in Cincinnati, Atlanta, and St. Petersburg may not have appreciated it, nearly every game played so far this postseason has featured a dominant pitching performance.  Roy Halladay no-hit the Reds, Tim Lincecum shut out the Braves on just two hits while striking out 14, and C.J. Wilson and Cliff Lee combined to hold the Rays to one run in 13.1 innings.  Lee displayed his talents during last year’s World Series, earning both of the Phillies’ wins over the Yankees, but Halladay, Lincecum and Wilson were all making their postseason debuts, and not one of them showed any sign of butterflies.

Continue reading "Playoff newcomers show the baseball ..."

Reds rookie Mike Leake went from Arizona State to the majors without throwing a pitch in the minor leagues.  Stephen Strasburg spent two months split between Double-A and Triple-A before making his big league debut in front of the entire baseball world.  The rise to the top does not come so easily – or at all – for others who share the dream of playing in The Show.  Two such players are John Lindsey, who was drafted way back in 1995, and Max St-Pierre, who had played 978 games in the minors – nearly all of them as a catcher – before getting called up this month to the Dodgers and Tigers, respectively.  Lindsey had played for five different organizations and even tried independent ball in 2005.  St-Pierre had spent 14 seasons in the minors, including 13 in the Tigers organization, and was one of the Toledo Mud Hens' backstops in 2010.  He probably did not expect the promotion after starting the year at Double-A.  It’s always exciting for any minor leaguer to find out he's going up to the big leagues, but for a 33-year-old first baseman and a 30-year-old catcher going up for the first time, it has got to be the greatest feeling in the world.

Continue reading "Hard work pays off for career minor leaguers"

Congratulations to Brandon Morrow, who came within two strikes of throwing a no-hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays last Sunday before Evan Longoria’s infield single with two outs in the n

Continue reading "Will Chipper hang 'em up?"

The hype over Washington Nationals’ phenom Stephen Strasburg has been followed by terrific pitching from the young right-hander, but the Nats’ front office also deserves a lot of credit.  In his first three starts, Strasburg has faced the Pirates, the Indians, and the White Sox, all of whom rank near the bottom offensively.  While I think Strasburg has a tremendous amount of talent and is going to be a great pitcher for quite some time, I’d like to see how he fares against the heavy-hitting lineups of the Yankees, Reds, and Red Sox.

Continue reading "Nationals handle Strasburg’s schedule ..."

Julio Franco may be the oldest player in Major League history to hit a home run (he also holds a number of other oldest player records), but Jamie Moyer has established himself as the game’s new Ageless Wonder.  In throwing a two-hitter against the Braves on May 7th, the 47-year-old became the oldest player to throw a complete game shutout.

Continue reading "Jamie Moyer: baseball's new Ageless Wonder"

The game of baseball lost two old-timers this week, as beloved Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell passed away at the age of 92 and Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts died at 83.

Harwell is best known for his 42 years broadcasting Tiger games, but before his career in Detroit, Harwell made history.  For this, I turn to wikipedia: In 1948, Harwell became the only announcer in baseball history to be traded for a player when the Brooklyn Dodgers' general manager, Branch Rickey, traded catcher Cliff Dapper to the Crackers in exchange for breaking Harwell's broadcasting contract.

Continue reading "Farewell to a pair of the game's greats"

Big news from the Big Unit: 46-year-old Randy Johnson announced his retirement, concluding his career with a record of 303-166, a 3.29 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP.  His five Cy Young Awards – one with the Mariners and four in a row with the Diamondbacks – rank him behind only Roger Clemens, and his 4,875 career strikeouts are second only to Nolan Ryan.  He was a 10-time All-Star, starting the Midsummer Classic four times – twice for each league. Johnson made history in 2004 when he became the oldest player – at 40 – to throw a perfect game.

Continue reading "The Big Unit hangs ‘em up"

Last week I saw Andy Pettitte throw six and two-thirds innings of perfect baseball at against the Orioles at Camden Yards.  With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Adam Jones hit a ground ball to third.  Alex Rodriguez was getting the night off, and his replacement at the hot corner, Jerry Hairston, booted it.  Having grown up an Orioles fan and somewhere along the way developing into a Yankee-hater, one might think I would have been rooting for the Birds to end Pettitte’s bid for perfection; however, this was not so.  As a fan of the game, I wanted to witness history.  Sure; I would have preferred seeing an Oriole pitcher throw a perfecto (though even a shutout by one of this year’s starters would have been historic), but I can’t expect miracles.

Continue reading "Nobody’s perfect"

I’ve been in Denver all week and was able to attend two Rockies games at Coors Field.

Among the highlights:

I saw Evan Longoria hit home runs – his 15th and 16th - on back-to-back nights.  The first shot got the Rays on the board in the first inning on Tuesday en route to their 12-4 win over the Rockies, whose 11-game winning streak came to an end.

Continue reading "Mile High Baseball"

Francisco Rodriguez just signed a big-money contract with the Mets, who have missed the playoffs the last two seasons.  CC Sabathia chose to become the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history, signing with the Yankees in spite of the fact that they play in what is considered the toughest division in baseball and failed to make the postseason in 2008.  What drew Sabathia to the Bronx and K-Rod to Queens?  It wasn’t a near-guarantee to return to the playoffs, which they could have had with the Angels.  They didn’t grow up in New York dreaming of wearing Yankee Pinstripes and Met blue and orange one day.  There’s only one thing it could be: money – $161 million for seven years of Sabathia and $37 million for three years of Rodriguez.

Continue reading "Greed takes away from the game"

Who will be next season’s Cinderella story?

Though they did not go all the way, the Tampa Bay Rays were an unbelievable success story in 2008.  After changing their team na

Continue reading "Looking back on the Tejada trade ..."

I know that the title suggests pure blasphemy for loyal fans, and if you're wondering where I could possibly be going with this, let me be the first to say, I really don't like the Phillies. However, as a loyal and lifelong Cubs fan, I thought I should point out that the Phils are the logical choice to root for in this World Series.

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If you would have told me in April that the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies would go to the World Series, I would have told you to get some professional help. While teams like the Cubs and Angels consider their seasons failures after having the best regular season in their respective leagues, the Rays and the Phillies go to show that it’s not the best regular season team that wins in the playoffs. Just as the Rockies of 2007 won 21 of their last 22 games to make it into the World Series, only to lose all their momentum because of a long break after the NLCS, it is usually the team that is playing its best baseball at the end of the season.

Continue reading "Philly and Tampa HOT in October"

he one team that used to keep them out of the cellar – the 2008 American League East champion Tampa Bay Rays.

Give credit where credit is due Baseball has not always been the p

Continue reading "20 wins for Moose"

tender has been calling for this guy, the Yankees, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and the surprising Tampa Bay Rays. The price tag is slightly lower then Bay, but still substantial, which would leave those Rays in the lead as they obviously have the deepest minor league system.

Continue reading "The Pittsburgh Swap Market"

Mike Piazza announced his retirement on Tuesday, concluding a 16-year major-league career that includes 2,127 hits, a .308 batting average, 427 home runs, 1,335 RBI’s, 12 All-Star teams and one All-Star Game MVP, 10 Silver Slugger awards, a Rookie of the Year award, and one trip to the World Series during which he slugged two homers in the Mets’ five-game series loss to the Yankees.  Though he was known almost exclusively for his offense, Piazza actually caught two no-hitters, including the only one thrown at Coors Field in the thin Colorado air.

Continue reading "A notable retirement, three ’08 ..."

arks the start of the 2008 season where anything is can happen.  It is a season where even the Tampa Bay Rays can contend for fourth place.  It is a season where the impossible turns into the possible.  Just listen to Ryan Dempster of the Chicago Cubs make a bold prediction, “I think we are going to win the World Series. I really do.”  Great, just what a Cubs fans need to hear, another prediction. 

Continue reading "Is this the year of Dreams? Think ..."