BASEBALL!

[Reader]

A new baseball movie called "Moneyball" with Brad Pitt is coming out. I dig baseball and baseball movies, too.


.....sorry to derail.....

[Reader]

Thanks Yellow. I been depressed since my Bronx boys are 1.5 games out behind - the -- the - the - Red Sox. There. I said it. ;)

[Dominique]

Originally Posted by Hunter Green

Thanks Yellow. I been depressed since my Bronx boys are 1.5 games out behind - the -- the - the - Red Sox. There. I said it.

We all have favorites! I keep loving the loosers.We have been 15-29 since the all star game. Theres always next year.

[Reader]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

We all have favorites! I keep loving the loosers.:seeingstars:We have been 15-29 since the all star game. :vigil: Theres always next year.

And afterall, its not if you win or lose, its about how you play in the Series! Just kidding...the game is a pleasure to watch and play regardless of who wins.

:)

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

I was worried about us going to Houston. You know, the bottom feeders. Having been the bottom feeders for 18 years, I'd prefer to think of the Astro's as the spoilers, after they just woooped the Giants butts.

I bicycled by the ball park on my way home last night, and they have new banners up with pictures of the minor league
call ups. In our case, rightfully so, we won many games with them in the first half of the year. Our slide began when our starters returned. So September just may be exciting around here.

Did anyone watch any of the little league world series?
Fun!

Oh, how I would love to see our starters back!!

Yup, Houston smacked us around- and now the Cubs have taken 2 of 3!!! It is just awful!!! I hope SF wins today vs the Cubs... this is heartbreaking to watch!!

And this weekend we play the Dbacks who are 6 games ahead of SF and won their last 8 games. Very hot streak! Another team that has been in the cellar most of the time coming on strong. The way SF is playing, I think it is going to be a long and painful series. Now it isn't just the problems with the offense- a whole lot of sloppy play going on. Both Lincecum and Voglesong had mediocre games this series.

Beltran was booed yesterday with all of his strike-outs. Afterall, we got him to be a bat and took over his big contract- so it appears people are just frustrated as hell with him. Keppinger is finally doing some things with hits, but the rest of the guys need to be able to get on base before he hits!!!

Oh well.... yes, there is next year. Kind of funny, I am more glued to games right now because I keep thinking this spell will be broken. Can't be a fair weather fan.

No, didn't see little league WS- that would be fun!

[Dominique]

Originally Posted by Hunter Green

And afterall, its not if you win or lose, its about how you play in the Series! Just kidding...the game is a pleasure to watch and play regardless of who wins.

Oh wow, you could sit in my section......we are a bunch of has beens, I've concluded, like I said always waiting on next year. You see, I was even watching the little leaguers.....I just love the game. I have 41 games taped so far (that I have not seen) to get me thru the winter.

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

Oh wow, you could sit in my section......we are a bunch of has beens, I've concluded, like I said always waiting on next year. You see, I was even watching the little leaguers.....I just love the game. I have 41 games taped so far (that I have not seen) to get me thru the winter.

Yup- you and Hunter are my kind of baseball people!! Damn, I gotta get some taping equipment! That is a great idea for winter viewing! I follow some college football and have a spot in my heart for the Steelers (mainly because of memories of my Dad and watching them with him), but, baseball is my game.

Thinking as we go through September- the Dbacks might very well be a major force in the play-offs as a team with a lot of spirited scrappiness! Might be some good coverage of their history. LOL, if my guys are not in, I do temd to go for underdogs. Yet, for the AL, I do have another soft spot for the Red Sox.

OK, I am getting excited about October- and play-off ball. No matter the teams that get in, it is always some damn fine baseball being played. It will be fun to have fans here that might have their team in it all- will make my play-off and WS experience more fun.

[Reader]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

Oh wow, you could sit in my section......we are a bunch of has beens, I've concluded, like I said always waiting on next year. You see, I was even watching the little leaguers.....I just love the game. I have 41 games taped so far (that I have not seen) to get me thru the winter.

Wow, what a cool idea...taping for winter! I love it.

[Dominique]

Originally Posted by Hunter Green

Wow, what a cool idea...taping for winter! I love it.

What's Derek Jeters' batting average?

[Reader]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

What's Derek Jeters' batting average?;)

A respectable .293! They are playing Boston right now. Losing though. :(

[Dominique]

I should be in bed, but instead I am torturing myself by watching the Astros continue to beat us......

The Pirates have a late afternoon rain out make up game tomorrow (one game) My darling lover said she'd leave early if I wanted to go to the game. We are both off Friday.......

Initially I said No, and she came right back and said No pouting all evening because we aren't at the game. (lol) I'm so predictable.

Good job on that batting average!

[Hack]

Got to go to the Tigers-Royals game last night in Detroit with some friends who scored some fabulous tickets (friend knows someone who works high up in the Royals). Tigers won in 10 innings! It was such a good game. Our pitcher had a no-hitter going into the 7th inning.

Given the crap I have been going through at work lately, I was glad to have this little escape.

Jake

[Dominique]

Galaragga, Won my heart the night he threw the no hitter and Jim Joyce missed the call. He showed class by not arguing. Showed even more class by accepting the appology, quietly, and moving on. Who was the winning pitcher?

[Kobi]

ALH,

Are the Giants having a rummage sale or something? Rowland and Tejeta (spelling is wrong I know). Why are they up for reassignment or maybe I should ask why did they wait so long to do it?

Sox lost to Yanks yesterday but rebounded today. Safe for the moment but the September schedule is brutal.

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Kobi

ALH,

Are the Giants having a rummage sale or something? Rowland and Tejeta (spelling is wrong I know). Why are they up for reassignment or maybe I should ask why did they wait so long to do it?

Sox lost to Yanks yesterday but rebounded today. Safe for the moment but the September schedule is brutal.

I know, weird timing. Guess it is due to all the "rules" about this stuff. Kinda sux with Rowand as he was part of the WS team, but he has just not been performing. Tejada's situation is more about just having quite a few guys in the positions he plays coming up through the farm system that are showing better offensive stats.

Oh yes, September schedules... we start the series vs Dbacks tomorrow here and they are playing way hot! On a mission, they are! We are 5 behind them.

SF took the last game with the Cubs yesterday and Keppinger is looking like he is coming alive- the Panda and he knocked solo homers back to back. But, as much as I love my team, I don't see them back in first place. Something is just not meshing with them as a team. Maybe all the injuries just took too much of a toll on keeping them in sync. But, I could be wrong- they were 6 back at this very time last year.

These guys can be scrappers out there. Actually, I love it when teams that don't have flashy players just get out there and grind it out. The Dbacks have some of this kind of stuff, too. Pirates are another teams like that- and I never count the Red Sox out and love it when they beat NY.

I gotta check out what is going on with Detroit-

[Dominique]

The pirates record for August was 8 and 22.

They had a late afternoon game (rain out/make up one game) and came to pgh via houston and onto Chicago.

Clearly, they have been awful. Since there was a televised Steeler game, I suspected, in lieu of the steadily declining popularity (again) of baseball
attendance would be low. I called my ticket Rep and asked him if they were discounting any tickets for the game...he said *No, why?* I said
Hey...you're not exactly rocking the house....and we are not going to leave work early, give you $110.00 and well....NEVER MIND!

Heard on the news, less than 4,000 fans came to the game. Seriously.
Could you pay your grounds crew with that money?

We have 4 more games in our ticket plan, I think it's going to be an empty ball park again. How anti climatic.

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

The pirates record for August was 8 and 22.

They had a late afternoon game (rain out/make up one game) and came to pgh via houston and onto Chicago.

Clearly, they have been awful. Since there was a televised Steeler game, I suspected, in lieu of the steadily declining popularity (again) of baseball
attendance would be low. I called my ticket Rep and asked him if they were discounting any tickets for the game...he said *No, why?* I said
Hey...you're not exactly rocking the house....and we are not going to leave work early, give you $110.00 and well....NEVER MIND!

Heard on the news, less than 4,000 fans came to the game. Seriously.
Could you pay your grounds crew with that money?

We have 4 more games in our ticket plan, I think it's going to be an empty ball park again. How anti climatic.

UGH!!!

The time a team really needs its fan base is when they are loosing!!!

[Dominique]

Originally Posted by AtLastHome

UGH!!!

The time a team really needs its fan base is when they are loosing!!!

The NLB has a page...who doesn't. Even I have a page. Anyhow, The NLB
page, each team has a sub page, so then it's the Pirates page. Ok, I just didn't want you thinking I was on FAKE BOOK. Well, pages and pages
and pages of unhappy Pirate fans. While the team has imploded, they announced they are raising ticket prices. I was all in favor of that. You can sit in the bleacher seats for $9.00, and right and left field, you know...way out there, for $10. Not bad seats for $10.00

Let me see if I can explain this. My season ticket package came yesterday. Season tickets, or half season or quarter season, is the way to go....if you are a fan. The savings is substantial. Well, now the pricing is not going to be bleacher seats, Rt. Field, Left Field. It's going to be all about the view. Every year that you are a season ticket holder, you are
given a chance to bid better. You can't get better (in my opinion) than my seats. Took me 10 years to get here. I am right behind home plate, two tiers up. Perfect for me, because i love to watch the pitching and the catching. With my little binoculars, I can see the black rubber around home plate. I'm such a nerd. So, looking at this price sheet....my ticket, and the view, will cost me $30.00 a ticket more. But then it goes on to say....significant price difference to renewal season ticket holders. But no invoice. I guess I'm supposed to become numb before the invoice and better bid sheet comes. When I heard ticket price increase, I thought oh, $5.00 across the table or something. We have not had an increase in 10 years.

So back to this Pirate page. Fans are calling for a total boycott. That's extreme. I have to tell you what Ryan Doumit (the scrappy catcher) did. I saw this on Sports Clips or something A. was watching. Runner on first. Pitcher throws a past ball. Doumit takes his good old time going to get it (it looked like he forgot
there was a runner on) he actually walked to the ball, didn't even whip off his face mask...then picked the ball up...the runner was on his way to third. All of a sudden Doumit looked at third, and here comes the runner
safe. no throw. Whats that??? I couldn't help but wonder if he was dissappointed no one took him from the trading block?

Good thing we live blocks from the ball park. I refuse to pay 20.00 to park a car. oH HECK, YOU KNOW ME....i REFUSE TO DRIVE A CAR!

[Reader]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

The NLB has a page...who doesn't. Even I have a page. Anyhow, The NLB
page, each team has a sub page, so then it's the Pirates page. Ok, I just didn't want you thinking I was on FAKE BOOK. Well, pages and pages
and pages of unhappy Pirate fans. While the team has imploded, they announced they are raising ticket prices. I was all in favor of that. You can sit in the bleacher seats for $9.00, and right and left field, you know...way out there, for $10. Not bad seats for $10.00

Let me see if I can explain this. My season ticket package came yesterday. Season tickets, or half season or quarter season, is the way to go....if you are a fan. The savings is substantial. Well, now the pricing is not going to be bleacher seats, Rt. Field, Left Field. It's going to be all about the view. Every year that you are a season ticket holder, you are
given a chance to bid better. You can't get better (in my opinion) than my seats. Took me 10 years to get here. I am right behind home plate, two tiers up. Perfect for me, because i love to watch the pitching and the catching. With my little binoculars, I can see the black rubber around home plate. I'm such a nerd. So, looking at this price sheet....my ticket, and the view, will cost me $30.00 a ticket more. But then it goes on to say....significant price difference to renewal season ticket holders. But no invoice. I guess I'm supposed to become numb before the invoice and better bid sheet comes. When I heard ticket price increase, I thought oh, $5.00 across the table or something. We have not had an increase in 10 years.

So back to this Pirate page. Fans are calling for a total boycott. That's extreme. I have to tell you what Ryan Doumit (the scrappy catcher) did. I saw this on Sports Clips or something A. was watching. Runner on first. Pitcher throws a past ball. Doumit takes his good old time going to get it (it looked like he forgot
there was a runner on) he actually walked to the ball, didn't even whip off his face mask...then picked the ball up...the runner was on his way to third. All of a sudden Doumit looked at third, and here comes the runner
safe. no throw. Whats that??? I couldn't help but wonder if he was dissappointed no one took him from the trading block?

Good thing we live blocks from the ball park. I refuse to pay 20.00 to park a car. oH HECK, YOU KNOW ME....i REFUSE TO DRIVE A CAR!

Bleacher seats for 10 bucks? Wow...theyre like 50 bucks at Yankee Stadium, plus a kidney donation to park. But, the Yanks did just scrape into first place last night.

I don't care what the reason is, Doumit should be fined by the coach. I love baseball, but, there is no reason to slack off even if your team is bad. Youre still playing BALL for a living! Any crap day on a shitty MLB ball team is 10 times better than the best day at my job. Any AAA player would love to get that job. Man. I was shocked when you posted that. That behavior is such a slap in the face to sooo many people...fans, players, teammates, working stiffs...crazy. :(

[Dominique]

Originally Posted by Hunter Green

Bleacher seats for 10 bucks? Wow...theyre like 50 bucks at Yankee Stadium, plus a kidney donation to park. But, the Yanks did just scrape into first place last night.

I don't care what the reason is, Doumit should be fined by the coach. I love baseball, but, there is no reason to slack off even if your team is bad. Youre still playing BALL for a living! Any crap day on a shitty MLB ball team is 10 times better than the best day at my job. Any AAA player would love to get that job. Man. I was shocked when you posted that. That behavior is such a slap in the face to sooo many people...fans, players, teammates, working stiffs...crazy.

Yes Hunter, they (the Pirate Organization) were very quick to point out the prices of the tickets at your ball ball park, the Bo sox, The Giants and the Brewers. This enraged the Pirate fans even more.....NO TEAM in baseball histrory has had a loosing record for 19 straight seasons and is
still around. The Pirate Organization was smart enough to Thank the season ticket holders for sticking with them, hell or high water, (we have a
fairly substantial fan base) Steelers #1, Penguins #2....both teams sell out every home game and then the Pirates. Now....even with $9.00 and $10.00
seats almost always available (even as season tickets) we still do not get people to go to the games because well, people, (in general) are tired of loosing. The team reportedly made 30 million dollars last year, with horrible attendance and the lowest payroll in MLB. (and lost 105 games). Ownership disputes that figure. Ownershio owns newspapers. So...I don't know. Show us the pricing of a mediocre team I guess.

And as for Ryan Doumit. Our team manager has a proven track record of
punishing players who minutely give the apperance of being a slacker. Andrew McCutchen is no exception. He failed to run out....all the way to first, an infield pop up to the catcher. And spent two days on the bench
(newspsper said he was fined two days of salary) Clint Hurdle said *we don't discuss discipline* We have a minor league catcher the Bo Sox gave us for cheap, Micheal Mchenry, who turned into an absolute sensation. The first defensive catcher we have had, ever since I can remember.....
Doumit is what critics call a terrible catcher. He lacks finess. Things like, his unprotected hand is always injured from foul balls (every year a broken bone or two) because he lacks the self discipline to put it behind his back
while recieving the ball. His throw out % is 28%. Micheal Mchenry is in the high 90's. Few will even try to run on him now. Not to mention how at least once a game, he catches some one AT ANY BASE, leading off too far
and makes that throw as if he was tossing back to the pitcher.

I have always been a fan of Ryan Doumit, but was very soured on what
I saw. Even sorrier for HIM, that it was broadcast on a sports channel. He may find himself in the minors or out of baseball next year. Passive Aggressive I think. Oh, one more thing....on a low payroll team...he makes 5 million dollars. They called up a catcher from the minors, I think the Pirates are done show caseing Doumit.