Is Brian Hanley Gay?

Just askin.'

30 Ballparks I Have Been To

Wrigley Field
PNC Park
Coors Field
Safeco Field
SBC Park
Anaheim Stadium
Dodger Stadium
Jack Murphy Stadium
Royals Stadium
Milwaukee County Stadium
Comerica Park
Riverfront Stadium
Great American Ballpark
Busch Stadium
New Busch Stadium
Fenway Park
Comiskey Park
U.S. Cellular Field
Miller Park
Three Rivers Stadium
Veterans Stadium
Fulton County Stadium
Enron Field
Astrodome
Joe Robbie Stadium
Bank One Ballpark
Skydome
Olympic Stadium
Metrodome
Shea Stadium

Dan Serafini leads Soccer County in Upset Baseball Victory over Hockey Country

Dan Serafini, last seen being banned for using steroids after stops in Japan and the 2007 Rockies expanded September roster, beat Team Canada for Team Italy. Using the loosest rules, the native of California started for Italy and went three innings for a team whose batting coach is Mike Piazza.

Couldn't be bothered to check Italy's roster, but I bet not too many spent any significant time in the country. They beat a pretty good Canadian lineup actually, and a team that played the U.S. real close.

I enjoy the World Baseball Classic, and would love to spend some quality time in a Caribbean ballpark in March 2013, when they do this again.


Knowing that my alter ego, or is it the other way around is still playing makes me really enjoy it. Another great thing, Lee Arthur Smith is the pitching coach for South Africa, who are on the verge of elimination by Mexico as I type.

The End of the 2008 Cubs: An Exercise in Catharsis

I was fearful of the 5 game series all season, and knew that the whole thing could come crashing down in 4 days. I was optimistic, but realistic. The LA team the Cubs played early this year was nothing like the team that went ~16-7 in September, and had dominating pitching from Lowe and Billingsley. The Cubs played their best baseball in June-early August.

Game 1 - I had told people that all it would take is one early HR to deflate the ballpark, and that Dempster, while good/very good all year, was never really dominant. The crowd wasn’t really that hyped at gametime, which may have been because it was 530p, and when Dempster kept walking guys (he wasn’t getting squeezed, he was wild), you knew it was a matter of time. Sho’ nuf, the grand slam ended the game, and the crowd knew it.

Game 2 – I was confident that Zambrano (on long rest) would pitch well, and the 830p start meant a much more lively crowd pre-game. They played Going the Distance from Rocky as Z ended his warmups and went to the dugout, and the crowd was as loud and electric as I can remember at Wrigley. Very positive energy. Z then blew the Dodgers away in the 1st, and in the second gave up a lead off single, then got three straight double play balls. The first was a single that went through shortstop, as Theriot was covering second on a hit and run. Bad break. The next two batters hit routine ground balls that DeRosa and Lee booted. Inexcusable. Then Furcal bunts for a hit. Then Martin hits a ringing double. 5-0, all unearned, but they count. Game over, series over.

Game 3 – I resisted all efforts to get me to a bar to watch, and the Long Haired Filipino Dogwalker and I watched at my house. I told LHFD that if the Cubs don’t take the lead early, they lose. Dodgers get a two-out RBI hit in the first, and it was done for. The body language of the Cubs was awful, like a late-era Knight IU team during an early round loss to Pepperdine.

As far as the offense, I always believed that pitching and defense win in the post-season, as only the good pitchers pitch. The fact that the Cubs didn’t get hits (in any situation) was not surprising, as they faced a good staff that was peeking.

They won most of their games by scoring 5+ runs, and you cannot or should not expect that in the post season. You need to catch the ball and make good pitches on good hitters. The Cubs did neither.

Neither Soriano or anyone else here is catching flack, but I am avoiding coverage, so who knows. He is who he is, and I had no expectations of October greatness from him.

As my brother and I talked about the 2009 Cubs during the end of Game 2, I think Lee is a guy who is expendable. He never expresses a great love of the fan base (sometimes the opposite), has seemed distracted (rightfully so, his daughter is going blind) all year, and spoke openly about the pressure the team felt after Game 3. There was a tangential reference to him going (possibly to San Francisco) in the Tribune’s ‘look ahead’ article I read.

Ah, that felt better. That is the most I talked/wrote about since it happened. Thanks for the catharsis.

(I am looking forward to the expansion IU Hoosier bball team. They could be OK, like .500, and a victory over Illinois, I think, is possible)

More Evidence That the Brewers are Weak Minded

The Brewers' Corey Hart said it was great to escape the boo-birds in Milwaukee and get to a more serene place -- ehhhhh, Philadelphia? "Actually, it felt more like a home game than playing in Miller Park," Hart said. "We didn't hear the boos that we sometimes hear at home. … A guy makes an error, a guy strikes out, and you hear your hometown booing you. It makes you ready to get out of there and go somewhere else for a while. I think we're all looser here."

Todd Rundgren's 'Stood Up'

When I found we could have some brains
I was the first in line, cause we were, like
Dragging our knuckles along the ground

(dragging our knuckles along the ground)

Ever since, I've been convinced that every

Sacred thought is mine, and you were still

Dragging your knuckles along the ground

(dragging your knuckles along the ground)

Cause I think I'm there, dude

(don't get ahead of yourself)

I think I'm there, dude (Already high)

And when they asked us who will lead

I thought it surely must be me

But I stood up too fast(I stood up too fast)

Because as soon as I was boss

The next one in line took my head clean off

Cause I stood up too fast(I stood up too fast)

I was barely in my teens when I decided I was tired

Of always like dragging my knuckles along the ground

(dragging my knuckles along the ground)

So with all due haste I based until I got so freakin wired

Forgot I was dragging my knuckles along the ground

(dragging my knuckles along the ground)

I thought I was there, dude (you'll got ahead of yourself)

I thought I was there, dude

Already high

And when they asked for volunteers

I must have thought they said 'drink beers'

And I stood up too fast(I stood up too fast)

I can imagine things that can't possibly exist

And then I add them to an ever-expanding list

And when I've solved every significant test there is

Then I'll move on no matter how many clues I've missed

It's so easy to be smart but it's a struggle to be wise

You shouldn't be always throwing your weight around

(always throwing your weight around)

It's much better to be humble than to have a big hat size

Or you'll be just begging somebody to take you down

(begging somebody to take you down)

And you'll be nowhere, man (you got ahead of yourself)

And you'll be nowhere, man

Already high

And right before your very eyes

I have ignored my own advice

Cause I stood up too fast

(I stood up too fast)

And nobody has the slightest choice

But to put up with my droning voice

When I stood up too fast

(I stood up too fast)

From Illini Red Shirt to Champaign County Orange Suit?

An arrest warrant has been issued for Illinois basketball player Jamar Smith after prosecutors filed paperwork to revoke his probation for allegedly drinking alcohol.

The 21-year-old Peoria man is serving two years of probation after pleading guilty last year to felony driving under the influence causing great bodily harm. He drove a car into a tree in February 2007, injuring former teammate Brian Carlwell.

Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz says the warrant was issued after police investigated an incident outside a campus bar called Fubar. Details weren't immediately available.

Smith is a junior guard who sat out last season after his guilty plea.
Illinois coach Bruce Weber wasn't immediately available for comment.

He later said, "I run a scummy program, and I cannot even recruit. What do you want from me?"

Too Bad He's Dead...George Carlin

The first two minutes of this clip are the truest words I have ever heard.

Bruce Weber Sucks Cock...Don't Put that on the Internet

Major league whiner, minor league coach, and a man who effectively blew off his mother's death, makes the obvious point that Indiana will struggle because of developments in the program.

Funny Guy Weber told the Peoria Star: The league should be wide open and we can be right in the middle of it. I do know one thing, though. I think Indiana will suck. Don't put that on the Internet."

This is also the same coach that punished Jamar Smith, who left his teammate for dead after a drunken driving accident, by forcing him to redshirt.

What will the NCAA do with IU?

The NCAA will give IU a strong talking to, wag their finger, shake their collective head disappointingly and issue sanctions that will involve everything and anything but the one thing that would effect the NCAA's bottom line: TV and/or Tournament bans.

There is a reason that IU is on CBS a maximum number of times per season, and never get the early morning first round tournament times: TV ratings. That's me being cynical.

IU, for its part, will point a finger at Sampson ,who I suppose is a scumbag, but not more so than the people still at IU who enabled him.

They, and Tom Crean (for completely different yet equally selfish reasons), hope the story goes away and we can then focus on the literal sinkhole that is IU football, which features their version of Mike Davis, a suspended star, and increased capacity for a stadium that is, on its best days, half full.

It's Official: Indiana Football (Field) Sucks

The Indy Star reports that the IU football field was damaged when a sinkhole developed under the fake turn field on top of due to heavy rains in the Bloomingville area.

I do think it is symbolic, as it will be the way every story about the 4-8 2008 Hoosiers will begin. Well, at least I know that now and can focus my attention elsewhere, as I had planned anyway when I heard Kellen Lewis was suspended.

I do blame Greenspan for this, too, as this had to be foreseeable, and especially if insurance doesn't cover the potential $1M damages. And, not just some of it.

Perhaps this bad dancer can blame the dance floor.

Too Bad He's Dead...Sydney Pollack

He was a great and famed director, but to me, these two scenes from Tootsie were my favorite work by Sydney Pollack...



Oops, I couldn't find the second scene, when Dorothy Michaels meets her agent at the Russian Tea Room.

Back in First...To Stay

I really think this is the first day that the Cubs stay in first place, and they will stay there until late September (when the regular season ends). With Zambrano pitching with the precisely right amount of emotion, and his hitting, this team seems poised to go on another roll.

Of course, as Earl Weaver said, momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher.

Just Say No to Jim Edmonds

Is Lou Piniella really that frustrated with Felix Pie that he would push (or agree to) the signing of Jim Edmonds? He is batting a woeful .178 with 24 strikeouts in 90 AB. He is slugging .233 and is no longer the outfielder that Pie is. Yes, Pie has a higher percentage of strikeouts, but is hitting .233 and is slugging .286, and is the far superior outfielder.

If, as it appears, the team insists on signing Mr. Fake Hustle, give him 2 weeks, tops, to show he is better than the younger Pie.

I guess this is when you give Piniella the benefit of the doubt, but...

Alexis Marshall's Husband Gets 1st MLB Save

In a game that championship teams win, the Cubs overcame unclutch relief pitching to beat the Pirates in 15 innings. And, who picked up his first major league save? The favorite pitcher of a certain Phoenix television personality...

Kudos to Ryan Dempster for his incredible one-hit pitching over seven innings and Feliz Pie for keeping his head up and getting the big hit in the 15th.

Frank Deford Column about the Dying Olympics

There is something wonderfully ironic about the Olympic torch, which is making its journey around the world with what appears to be, a big "KICK ME" sign on it for China.

Ah, what goes around ...

The torch was conjured up out of whole cloth by the Nazis for the 1936 Berlin Games, and then embedded in our dreamy Olympic consciousness by the magnificent gossamer photography of Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's favorite movie maker. Now, three-quarters of a century later, the torch has come back as an unexpected curse to haunt another totalitarian government to which the International Olympic Committee has hitched its wagon.

The ignominy that China is going to endure with protests, which will cling like moths to the torch e're it goes, will far exceed whatever positive attention China might receive when the Olympics are in the world limelight for a fortnight in the dead of summer.

The reflected heat from the torch uproar will also help expose what a humbug the IOC can be. This is the organization that loves to call itself a "movement." Come on, would we accept it at face value if baseball commissioner Bud Selig stood up and crowed about the "Major League Baseball Movement?" Would we bow our heads if Mayor Oscar Goodman asked us to pay homage to the "Las Vegas Strip Movement?" Get serious.

There's no real difference, but only the IOC still calls itself a movement and gets away with it. Hey, it's no more than an international cartel that puts on a big show every four years. It's just NASCAR with accents. And to tell you the truth, I think the Olympics are yesterday's party. Once upon a time -- before globalism and jet airplanes and cyberspace -- bringing athletes together quadrennially in one place might have made sense. Today, it's an unnecessary excess. And while insular Americans may not understand this, soccer's World Cup has become much more important to many more people worldwide.

The Olympics has really ended up as a festival for those sports that nobody much cares about for the other three years and 50 weeks. The showcase is track and field, but how many of you can even name a single American track athlete in this year's Games? How many of you can name a single track athlete from any nation? The Olympics is a symphony orchestra without the violins and brass.

But hooray for all the Olympic athletes. Please, everybody, just threaten to boycott, but let the athletes all go to Beijing and have their day in the smog. It was so unfair when, in 1980, President Carter sacrificed our Olympians to make a point against the Soviet Union. But as the torch wends its way, spreading the bad news, I really think we might be seeing more than a censure of China. We may also be witness to the start of the Olympics' real decline.
I love London. I wish it hadn't got itself stuck with the 2012 Games. I love Chicago. I hope it gets lucky and doesn't get stuck with the 2016 Games. Every dog has its day. No movement is perpetual.

I met Frank Deford at an obscure sporting event, and, at the time, he was much more positive towards the "Olympic Movement" or at least the "athletes." I agree with everything he says except about the idea of a boycott. Boycott these Games, and the athletes can find something better to do with their lives. Like anything.

WWW.FIRETOMCREAN.COM

The post title is simply to catch Google traffic, but I think this was a smart hire, blah blah blah. For me, the best part of this is that my brother-in-law is the spitting image of Coach Crean.

Well, this has me relieved. Ted Kitchel is OK with this hire. After telling anyone that would listen that he wouldn’t let Kelvin Sampson coach a seventh grade girls team, he let the Indiana Daily Student know that he was gratified that Crean would give him a call.

Another self-righteous guy stuck in his Glory Days, Kent Benson, even got a shout out at the beginning of Crean’s press conference, which is unfortunately some lip service he is forced to pay. I guess he had to say that before he announced he would not be running the precious motion offense. Benson, you may remember, stopped going to IU games to protest Sampson. Like anyone gives a shit what this has-been has to say. If he was such a hero, he would not have lost his campaign for state Secretary of State.

Jay Bilas Calls Rick Greenspan "Incompetent"

On Tony Kornheiser's radio show today, Jay Bilas was asked about Bruce Pearl and the Indiana job. He said, "Indiana is a little bit disfunctional right now. And, honestly Tony, I wouldn't work for that athletic director for any amount of money. I don't think he's competent." This echoes John Feinstein's sentiments when Sampson was hired.

Unfortunately, since he's on the 'blue ribbon committee,' he will certainly be around for a while. It also means that IU will take the safer (and reasonable to me) choice of Tony Bennett over Pearl.

Dick or Rod or Johnson...Johnson?

The Cubs have added the right handed Reed Johnson to platoon with Felix Pie in centerfield. A good pickup, it says here. I was at Skydome on Father's Day 2003, and Johnson hit a tenth inning walk off home run off Mark Guthrie. Is it Opening Day Yet?

With a Whimper

Other than D.J. White, Armon Bassett, and Lance Stemler, the team quit after their coach got gacked. Seems to me that they resented that their guy, Ray McCallum didnt get the job, and the new guy (and Knight guy) Dan Dakich did get the job. I think they also resented the crowd's cheering for Dakich (both in Bloomington, and in Evanston, where I saw them) after booing Sampson the way they did at the end. This was not a team that the fans liked, and the feeling, unfortunately, was mutual.

Hopefully, the new coach will be a non-Knight guy who will return the pride to this program.

As for Eric Gordon, he never recovered from the game in Champaign, which tells you a little something about his heart and mind. Luckily, he will never face that kind of scrutiny in the NBA.