Pioneerzz of the game
with the Carlos Beltran sweepstakes heating up and just 43 days until pitchers and catcher report to spring training, you'll forgive me if i have a bit of baseball on the brain. hey, it's either that or a rant about how Utah, Lousiville or Boise State could have offered a better fight than Oklahoma did last night and how ridiculous it is that none of those teams even had a chance to prove how good they are (outside of the great Liberty Bowl game that Louisville and Boise State played against each other).
the t.s.o.a. ballot for the Hall of Fame: Boggs, Sandberg, Gossage, Blyleven, Tommy John, Alan Trammell (Jim Rice and Dale Murphy are on the cusp).
everyone talks about how WWII took away some of the best years of Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, etc. but what about Johhny Pesky? give him 3 more prime, 200-hit seasons at SS and he's certainly the equal of, say, Luke Appling or Joe Sewell and deserving of a place in the Hall of Fame. sure he got a pole named after him, but that's hardly ample compensation for a plaque in Cooperstown.
a couple fun baseball links: the Girls of Summer, highlighting women pioneers of the game with in-depth pieces on one woman per position throughout the last 100 years. check out Jackie Mitchell who once struck our Ruth and Gehrig back-to-back and Toni Stone who broke the gender barrier in the Negro Leagues.
also check out the Indy Leagues Graveyard, cataloguing the demise of entire leagues and teams mosly from the 1990s to the present day. there's not a ton of info about most of the teams, but there are plenty of bad nicknames and logos to explore (and some good ones). St. George Pioneerzz anyone?
and finally a story to crush the wife's crush: Johnny Damon got married before the New Year. and for some reason AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson was in attendance.
Comments
As a Yankees fan, Johnny Damon makes me ill. But as an AC/DC fan, the fact that Brian Freakin' Johnson was at his wedding, well, I'm just speechless. That's just awesome. Smuttiest wedding ever!
Posted by: Matt | January 5, 2005 04:48 PM
any organization that consistently refuses to acknowledge the contributions of tippy martinez to our great game of baseball does not deserve to be recognized!
Posted by: dan | January 5, 2005 11:12 PM
Tippy is in the Mexican Fast Food Hall of Fame. isn't that enough? he also has a field named after him in La Junta, Colorado:
http://www.ci.la-junta.co.us/TP22nd.htm
Posted by: jamie | January 6, 2005 03:51 PM
is it too late to change the plan for baseball trip '05?
Posted by: dan | January 6, 2005 11:51 PM
"He (Damon) walked down the aisle to "Brand New Man" by Brooks & Dunn."
Jesus christ that's wicked queer.
As a Red Sox fan, yankees' fans make me ill. Still, the fact that Damon likes country and even had music to walk down the aisle too shows that as fans we have no control over the hired help.
Posted by: WisdomWeasel | January 7, 2005 10:30 AM
La Junta is only 792 miles from Phoenix - compared to all the driving we did this year, that's nothing! and we would hit New Mexico on the way, enabling me to cross another state off the "haven't visited" list.
Posted by: jamie | January 7, 2005 01:10 PM
And since you want to cross New Mexico, you might as well go to a game in Albuquerque and get some 'Topes shwag.
What's the itinerary anyway?
Posted by: David | January 7, 2005 05:34 PM
if all goes as planned, this year we will be hitting LA, LA of Anaheim, San Diego and Arizona (Phoenix) with the potential for a minor league game or two. Albuquerque is not out of the question.
Posted by: jamie | January 7, 2005 06:20 PM
That whole "LA of Anaheim" thing is the stupidest sports nomenclature I've ever heard. Teams shouldn't have "of" in their names, nor should they have two cities. It's not even like saying "The New York Yankees of the Bronx"; LA and Anaheim are totally separate cities. They should have stayed with California. That's certainly a bigger market than Anaheim.
Posted by: jim | January 7, 2005 08:38 PM
i love how now their name in Spanish will be "Los Angeles de Los Angeles de Anaheim." And you thought it sounded dumb in English.....
Posted by: Dave Nelson | January 11, 2005 06:33 PM