Friday Open Thread

Buck O'Neil

Former Kansas City Star (and current Sports Illustrated) scribe Joe Posnanski wrote the following column October 7, 2006 — the day after his friend (and frequent subject) Buck O’Neil passed away at 94.

I share it with you today because I shared it with some morons college students this morning and the resulting non-reaction hurt more [...]

Tuesday Open Thread

Le Hawk

Andre Dawson, the only player elected to the baseball Hall of Fame this year will go in as an Expo — or at least the cap on his plaque will be an Expos hat. He preferred to go in as a Chicago Cub.

The hall announced its decision Wednesday. Dawson told WMVP-AM in Chicago that [...]

He’s Going to the Angels… Sorta

Arizona Fall League MVP and A’s prospect Grant Desme has retired from baseball at age 23 — to seek the priesthood. From the San Francisco Chronicle’s A’s blog The Drumbeat:

Desme, the Arizona Fall League MVP, said he has been considering becoming a priest for a year and a half, but he had decided to [...]

Radio Free Threedonia 2.3 — A whole 2 hours?!?!

OK, we still had some sound glitches, but we indeed ran a full 120 minutes with no major stalls or even a few minutes of silence. In our first interview-less show in God knows how long, and ably produced and piloted by Young Gun Conservative’s Kender “Patriot Missile” MacGowan, Rich, Floyd and I, along with [...]

Classic Pick O’ the Day: January 9

Matt Helm made a great suggestion in Friday’s Open Thread where I used a still from His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell (grrrowl) and Cary Grant (go ahead and purr ladies). Why not steal resurrect Dirty Harry’s “Pick O’ the Day” posts? Well… why not? I love old and classic films and [...]

All Hail Whitey!!!

With the list of this year’s list of first-time nominees to the Baseball Hall of Fame ranging from snooze-worthy to ridiculous (between the likes of David Segui, Eric Karros and Pat Hentgen, please fill in your own blanks, and I don’t think anyone from the list besides Roberto Alomar deserves to eventually wind up in [...]

Swinging for the Bleachers

What has happened to Sammy Sosa since he retired from baseball? No really. WTF happened to Sammy Sosa?!?

So in football season I’m a little slow on the baseball news. Holy crap! If I used that skin cream you could see my organs. I’d be like Slim Goodbody — except I’m not slim [...]

For those already missing baseball

2 Legs Bad, 4 Legs Good

For those of you who are just now awakening to the persistent strain of PC that is currently running through our military, I present this story via CDR Salamander

The Potemkin Color Guard
Walk in somebody’s shoes for a bit.
You have worked long and hard to reach a high profile position, as those who came before you [...]

Landesman Gets the Big League Fisking he Deserves

It could be… It might be… It is!

Yesterday Floyd gave NEA Director Rocco Landesman an apropos and skillful dressing down based on Rocco’s comments in a recent speech.  Today Jonah Goldberg teed it up and (no offense to Floyd) knocked it into the cheap seats.  Floyd and Jonah have pretty much guaranteed Landesman will be met with [...]

World Series Open Thread

No offense, Scott. M, but some of us ’round here love football and baseball, even if this cartoon digs a knife deeper into my back the same week the Tribe hired the ex-manager of a team with a worse record. The regurgitating pumpkin couldn’t have said it any better.

Saturday Open Thread

And it’s one, two, three, four, five…

On behalf of fans of the ineptly run Cleveland Indians front office, to the Phillies, Dodgers and Yankees fans, you’re welcome. Angels fans, considering you lack what seems to be a key component of the 2009 League Championship Series — ex-Indians — best of luck (maybe not so strangely, the Halos are the guys I’m [...]

Quiz Time!

Can anyone tell me the political beliefs of ANY of the NFL owners — including the views of multiple members of the various ownership groups? Beyond that when have the personal political views of ANY potential owner of a professional sports franchise of any professional sport been a litmus test for ownership???

Don’t [...]

Swing and a Miss!

From Sports Illustrated:

Larry Johnson says in the book Frozen: My Journey into the World of Cryonics, Deception, and Death that he watched an Alcor official swing a monkey wrench at Williams’ frozen severed head to try to remove a tuna can stuck to it. The first swing accidentally struck the head, Johnson contends, and the second [...]

Thursday Open Thread

OCTOBER!!!

Tuesday Open Thread

55 years ago today…

Forty Nine Years Ago Today

A real American hero went out in style:

I Like This Judge

Despite what Floyd may think, I do have compassion for people in prison.  Here, for example, is a case in which a prisoner was let out for an entirely defensible reason.

Prisoner Released from Jail to Watch Red Sox Game.

A judge in Iowa allowed Barker, who is serving a 10-day sentence for interference with official acts [...]

Shhh! Don’t Tell the Yankees!

The New York Yankees lost to the Seattle Mariners last night.  Had they won, they would have celebrated their 14th time they’ve made the playoffs in the last 15 years.

Well, the should have celebrated anyway.  The fact that they didn’t shows that none of them read Threedonia often enough, because RIOT has them listed as “In” [...]

Nice First Pitch

Feel free to compare and contrast with other first pitches you may have seen lately.

WTF?!?!?!

Mark Hemingway at The Corner aptly summarizes the following column — a sports column mind you — this way. Worst. Sports. Column. Ever. Now I know that putting periods after each word to evoke a Shatnerian enunciation is an Internet cliche, but this one applies perfectly to. this. column. from The Orange County [...]

Keep Your Eye On The Ball

Dan Riehl, over at Riehl World View (h/t: Instapundit), rightly reminds conservatives that certain memes are forming about the Van Jones issue and that while we should celebrate the Van Jones resignation victory; we should then get back to work defeating Obamacare — the truly destructive policy agenda.

I would add the school speech [...]

Senator Schilling?

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is considering a run for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.

Schilling, a registered independent and longtime Republican supporter, wrote on his blog that while his family and video gaming company, 38 Studios, are high priorities, “I do have some interest in the possibility.”

“That being said, to get to there, [...]

Where’s an Ethicist When You Need Him?

John Heyman has an interesting item in his column at Sports Illustrated.  “Interesting,” meaning I can’t understand what he’s saying.  Since we have a lawyer and a sportswriter in the Threedonian brain trust, I’m hoping I can get an explanation.  (I’ve bolded the things I’m puzzled about.)

Perhaps the leaks of the 2003 steroid survey test will [...]

Sometimes There’s Crying in Baseball

When I was seven or eight years old, I was in the finals of the Fairfield County Connecticut spelling bee.  The winner would move on to the state finals for a chance to go to the nationals.  Somehow, I lucked out and was given an easy one.

“Though.”

I could spell that in my sleep!

I was so excited [...]

Sunday Open Thread

Redemption in a Triple Play

A Walkoff unassisted triple play by the Phillies Eric Bruntlett… the second in Major League baseball history and the first since 1927. It looks like he set it up on purpose.

Inning By Inning

I just watched a documentary about the winningest baseball coach in NCAA history, Augie Garrido. If you are a baseball fan you owe it to yourself to watch this. I can only wish that I had a coach like coach Garrido. It is obvious to me while watching this flim that there is a reason [...]

Happy Birthday Mike!!

Sites for Stat-Heads

With about fifty games left in the baseball season, the pennant races (and more crucially, the wild-card races) are starting to heat up.  Avid fans begin to check the standings more frequently, trying to calculate the chances that their team will make the post-season.

Here are three sites that make this ritual easier.

First, one I’ve shown [...]

Big Juici

David Ortiz… tested positive for ‘roids in 2003. Hmmmm…. when did Ortiz begin his home run tear? Why…. it was 2003. The Oritz, Ramirez …..Red Sox are now the Black Sox Redux — cheaters — right Mike?

Busy Tuesday?

Maybe this’ll rouse the Threedonia troops. If nothing else, we can all bitch about ‘roid-rage Clemens …

“This day have came…”

So Rickey Henderson’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech earlier today didn’t live up to the hilarity Chez Porvaznik anticipated after hearing the above line in his press conference yesterday. What he did deliver meant much more than any of his malapropisms could have provided. On the flip-side to that incredibly selfish Wade Boggs’ recent [...]

Note to Boggs: Take a Hike

Just a quick note to Wade Boggs, who recently complained that his number has not been retired by the Boston Red Sox: You wanted to become a Yankee, let them retire your number.

The linked Boston Globe article claims that,”the Red Sox have had a policy of not retiring numbers unless the player finished his career as a [...]

What’s It Like to Save Perfection?

Ask the Chicago White Sox’s journeyman outfielder DeWayne Wise who made this catch in the 9th to save Mark Buehrle’s perfect game this afternoon. Given the circumstances this is one of the greatest catches in baseball history as the broadcaster rightly points out.

Good pitching beats good steroids any day.

Disco Inferno

30 years ago this day the infamous Disco Demolition Day riot occurred at Old Comiskey park in Chicago. Fans were offered entry in exchange for disco records and 98 cents. The disco records were blown up in center field then Chicagoans reverted to form, rioted, and nearly burned the place down. The [...]

Happy Independence Day! – Local Edition

A couple of days ago Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay was sworn in as an American citizen.  He was born in British Columbia, but Bay’s wife and children are American.  Bay said he’s not denouncing being Canadian, “but I’m definitely proud to be an American.”

Last year it was David Ortiz who took the oath of citizenship.  [...]

Palin Resigns: “We are not retreating, we are advancing in another direction.”

More here, and just about everywhere else on the Internet, including Threedonia’s Friday Open Thread.

(And for the record; we are all in a bar, celebrating Independence Day Eve.  Kriskey caught the news on one of those scrolls when he looked at the bar TV to check on the score of the BoSox-Mariners game (tied up [...]

Very Discreet, Gentlemen…

If any of you teachers or homeschooling parents ever need a real world example to help your students understand the meaning of the word, “shameless” simply point them to this thread at Big Hollywood:

Turn and Turn About

Well, they weren’t down 10-1 in the 7th, but the Red Sox did  overcome a 5-1 defecit in the 9th!

God’s in his heaven, and all’s right with the world American League East.

I May Be a Little Distracted Today

Can you spot when the rain delay happened?

My beloved Sox were up 10-1 in the 7th last night, and lost.  I remember listening to them blow a 10-0 lead in the 7th to the Blue Jays while driving to my sister’s house twenty years ago.  (It can’t really be twenty years, can it?)

That was worse [...]

I second that emotion

Just something about the way Gene Wojciechowski’s brain ticks that makes me smile, widely, more often than not. Love me that Chicken!!!