Aha! Thanks.

It will make the divisional races more equitable, but it will also mean that we will have an odd number of teams in each league, which means that inter-league play (which old school types like me hate) will be happening every day, instead of during limited parts of the season.

Cubs visit the Twins at Target Field tonight.

It will be the 120th ballpark in which we have played a major league game since it all started in 1876.

1. Walkoff against Philly. We still have life, amazingly.
2. Our AAA affiliate for about 30+ years was Rochester. They got so tired of the players we were sending them that they fired us and signed on with Minnesota in the mid 90's/early 2000's.
3. There are times I wonder if we couldn't have become more of a regional team than we are. In the same way that St. Louis pretty much owned the old Southwest for a long time, we had the whole southeast apart from Atlanta for a long while. I would watch local TV/listen to WBAL growing up and they'd list affiliates from Delaware through NC, and Miami as well since we had spring training there for years.

The highlights of Matt Cain's perfecto are worth watching, particularly Blanco's catch in the 7th.

Also, Chris Davis is strong, but Jim Thome is stronger.

Yankees and the Nats currently in innings 14...

Record baseball season for me - been to two games. At the first one, a Nats game, a foul ball skied into the air close to me and the couple I was with, and they reached for it. She forgot she was holding a glass of wine, which she dropped on her husband while fumbling the ball, which he in turn dropped too, causing it to land in my lap, but I fumbled it too and it fell under the seat in front of me and was picked up by someone two rows in front of us. Poor fielding all round, and much wasted alcohol. The Nats lost.

The following week I went to a Minor League game at the Bowie Baysox - nice little 10,000-seater stadium, but only about 100 people there. By the ninth innings, this was down to about 30 people, so when a fly ball skied into the concourse behind me, the only competition I had was a woman in her 30s, who after being outrun looked at me pleadingly as if expecting me to give up the ball, like she was some wide-eyed kid. No chance! The official Eastern League ball, with authentic scuff mark, is now mine.ha! If anyone wants to come round and see it, I'll consider your request.

Can't remember who won.

Dammit - Bryce Harper had the chance to win it with a triple-homer in the 14th. and screwed up. Didn't he read the goddam script?

Hope to get to a Thunder game this year, being that I work only 5 miles from the stadium. Congrats on that, imp.

Bowie is a very pretty little town. If I had even less of a life than I have, I would have loved to go to every Eastern League stadium. It's a great little league, like the ECHL hockey league. You may think that Trenton-Harrisburg has no heat, then you realize it is the capitols of NJ and PA.

Inca's been kind enough to provide me with the perfect visual metaphor for the Cubs' season:



In other news, this Charlie Pierce takedown of a wingnut's celebration of Bryce Harper is wonderful.

ursus arctos wrote:


I realize perfect games are very rare, but I was still slightly surprised that the Giants never managed one until now, considering their very long history and many great teams and pitchers. When I heard about Cain's I sort of assumed Christy Mathewson must have done it, but no. (He pitched two no-hitters, though.)

Nice one catching the ball at the Baysox.

I never went to a Baysox game but always meant to.

Reed, you will be pleased to know that we took our visitors from London to the Reds' game yesterday, and that all of them supported the "correct" team.

Strangely enough, I missed Brandon Phillips' between the legs throw to start a double play, as I was being denied the opportunity to purchase beer for failing to present an ID.

Very nice.

The Reds seem to have a pattern in recent years of following a demoralizing, "oh shit, here we go" kind of series with a string of wins. They blew a five run lead to the Tigers in the 9th amid losing 2/3 to them after losing 2/3 to the Pirates when Chapman's perfection was lost and Pirates fans were starting to really believe. But since then, they've won six or seven in a row, sweeping the Indians and the Mets and are a full four games in first.

Though Cueto started, Dusty really did seem to be giving the Mets the famous "sporting chance" by starting two outfield players who were hitting under .150.

Harris just managed to work a walk in his last at bat, in order to keep himself at .100.

I noticed that.

Joey Votto may be the best player in baseball at the moment.

Behold:
Batting .491 in June.
mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=458015

I'm not sure that I've ever seen a lineup that featured players as good as Votto and Phillips and as bad as Cairo and Harris.

The best I could come up with were the Cardinals teams that featured Julian Javier and Dal Maxvill up the middle, with guys like Bill White and Ken Boyer on the corners, but that was a much lower scoring run environment in general, and the average differentials were nowhere near as large.

There is a steep drop-off, that's for sure.

I'm starting to have some optimism. The pitching is often very good and Cozart and Mesaraco (of Punxatawney, PA) appear to be promising. The Cardinals don't seem to be as good as I thought they were so I'm feeling 65% confident the Reds can win the division.

Cozart had an excellent game yesterday, and the entire team looked solid.

I don't think you are suffering from irrational exuberance.

Clemens acquitted on all counts.

These sports prosecutions are such a massive waste of scarce resources.

Ursus, should you ever get visitors from South Korea and see the same team at least you can tell them to pack this shirt: