A-Rod Hits 600th HR

image from www.mlb.com

History was made once again this baseball season, and this time NOT by a pitcher.  Alex Rodriguez, 3rd baseman for the New York Yankees reached a historic milestone August 4th, 2010 by hitting the 600th homerun of his career.  It was against the Toronto Blue Jays, in front of 47,659 fans.  It was the first inning, Jeter on first base, two outs and a 2-0 count when A-Rod hit #600.  The baseball, marked specially for the special moment A104, landed in the netting above Monument Park beyond Yankee’s Stadium’s center-field wall.  A security guard, Frankie Babilonia, picked it up and gave the ball to A-Rod in exchange for an autographed bat after the game.  The Yankees would go on to win 5-1, but all the attention was on A-Rod.

The home run was Alex’s 17th of the season, 255th as a Yankee, and 51st against Blue Jays pitching and second ever off Blue Jays pitcher Marcum.  This ended a long stretch of waiting, as it was the 13th game and 47th at-bat after hitting #599 on July 22.  It happened three years to the day after he hit #500 off Kansas City Royals’ Kyle Davies.

He joins Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Willie Mays (660), Ken Griffey Jr. (630) and Sammy Sosa (609) as the only players to hit 600.  Ruth is the only other Yankee to reach the milestone (Mantle only ever hit 536), and Griffey was the last to do so June 9, 2008 as a member of the Reds.  Not only did Alex become only the 7th player in history to hit 600 homers, he was the youngest to do so.  He had turned 35 just 8 days before the HR, one year and 188 days younger than Babe Ruth when he hit #600 as a Yankee.  It took Alex 2,267 games to reach 600, second behind Ruth (2,044) and the 8,688 at-bats he needed were fourth behind Ruth (6,921), Bonds (8,211) and Sosa (8,637).     

With this being Alex’s 16th Major League season, and having hit 100 HRs over the last 3 years he should make a run at taking the HR lead away from Barry Bonds.  If he continues to hit about 33 home runs a year as he did the last 100 over the last 3 years, he would reach 766 around his 40th birthday in 5 years.  Bonds was 43 when he hit 762.  If he stays healthy he may re-write the books on homerun hitting.

Baseball Mid-Season Trade Report

The Rangers have already made three big deals to aquire both pitchers and position players to help keep them on top of their division, and make a push to the World Series. They started on July 1st by aquiring Bengie Molina and cash from the Giants for relief pitcher Chris Ray and Class A pitcher Michael Main.  Just 8 days later they make a huge splash by trading the Mariners for Cliff Lee. 

July 9th, Cliff Lee was supposed to pitch for the Mariners, against the New York Yankees.  The Yankees, along with many other teams, were interested in trading for Cliff Lee since he has been solid this year since returning from the DL.  But the Yankees did not want to risk injuring a player they wished to acquire by the hands of their own offense, and also did not want to ease up to the point that they lost the game, so they were frantically trying to work out a deal before the game started.  Everyone thought Lee would be in pinstripes before the game started, but the Rangers made a bold move, and landed Lee on their starting rotation.  So the Mariners sent Cliff Lee and injured reliever Mark Lowe and cash to Texas in return for a young powerful first baseman Justin Smoak and three prospects: right-handed pitchers Blake Beavan and Josh Lueke, and second baseman Matt Lawson.  Lee headlined a starting rotation in Seattle that boasted one of the best ERA’s in all of baseball, and Felix Hernandez made the best top two starters of any rotation with them having pitched back to back complete games on several occasions.  But Seattle’s lack of offensive production seen them fall too many games to make a serious push for the playoffs this season.  So they decided to make a move for the future for more offense in Justin Smoak, who could become the next Texiera or Howard.   

The Rangers have recently made one other move to get Jorge Cantu from the Marlins for two pitchers.  They will send Double-A reliever Evan Reed and injured pitcher Omar Poveda to the Marlins who will also pick up a portion of Cantu’s remaining $2.2 million salary.  With an 8.5 game lead in the AL West division, the Rangers are obviously not fighting so hard for a playoff berth, but showing everyone that they are going for it all, and doing everything they can to win the World Series.  So far the Lee deal could be the determining factor for their future.  They were very smart to make that move work, if not only to benefit their team, to keep him away from the Yankees who they will most certainly have to get through to make it to the WS.  All I can say is good luck.

Here is a glimpse of what else has happened on the trade market this July:

Besides Cliff Lee, many other top notch pitchers have been moved to playoff contenders.  The Phillies traded for Houston ace pitcher Roy Oswalt, sending left handed pitcher J.A. Happ, and minor league prospects Jonathan Villar and Anthony Gose who was then flipped to the Blue Jays for first-base prospect Brett Wallace.  The Twins traded for Nationals closer Matt Capps, sending catcher Wilson Ramos and left-hander Joe Testa to Washington.  Capps was the Nationals representative at the All-Star game.  The Angels also traded for an ace pitcher in landing Dan Haren from the Arizona D-backs.  The Angels send three pitchers; veteran Joe Saunders, and prospects Rafael Rodriguez and Patrick Corbin and a player to be named later, in his place. 

Several position players have found new homes as well.  As mentioned earlier Cantu and Molina were moved off to Texas from NL clubs, but Miguel Tejada and Scott Podsednik have moved from the AL to the NL.  Tejada goes from Baltimore to San Diego, and Pods from the Royals to the Dodgers.  The Tigers traded a Class-A pitcher, Giovanni Sota, for the Indians shortstop Jhonny Peralta. 

With one more day before the trade deadline, there should be plenty of more action on the trade market.  But, OH YEA!  football season is just around the corner!

Year of the Pitcher

images and facts from mlb.com

Just a few months into the season, this has clearly shown to be the Year-of-the-Pitcher.  There have already been two perfect games tossed this season and one umpire call away from a third.  Again only 20 perfect games have been thrown in the history of Major League Baseball.  This is the first time since 1880 that more than one perfect game had been tossed in single season.  And the season is not even half over.  In addition to that, as of last Friday another two no-hitters have been tossed.  This has already been one of the best years to be a pitcher.  I will do a recap of this years’ top performances so far.  Through all of this, eve

Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies got things started on April 17 with the first no-hitter of the year after three other pitchers had near no-no’s.  He pitched the Rockies to a 4-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves.  Don’t think that Braves are a push-over either.  They now are currently a half game out of having the best record in the National League and are sitting on top of the standing of the NL East.  Jimenez has pitched himself to be the current favorite for the NL Cy Young award.  Currently he is 14-1 on the year with a 1.83 ERA.  He also has recorded 102 strikeouts verses only 40 walks in 113 innings of work.  He has only allowed a staggering 23 runs so far this year and 10 of those were in his last two less than stellar outings vs the Red Sox and Padres. 

The second no-hitter of the year was probably one of the most memorable moments of the year, a perfect game pitched on Mother’s Day.  What makes it even more special is that Dallas Braden, pitcher for the Oakland A’s, performed this majestic feat with his grandmother in attendance.  His grandmother, from nearby Stockton, CA had raised him since his mother died of cancer when Dallas was just a teen and always came when Braden pitches at home in Oakland.  Braden needed just 109 pitches to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0.  He has not had as great of year so far going just 4-7 in 15 starts on the year with a 3.83 ERA, and has not won since the perfect game on May 9th.

The third no-hitter was the second perfect game of the year just 20 days after the first.  Roy Halladay, pitcher for the Phillies and 2003 Cy Young award winner, did not allow a single Florida Marlin to reach base in a 1-0 pitcher’s duel with Josh Johnson.  This is Halladay’s first season with the Phillies after being traded from Toronto and he pitched the second perfect game by a Phillies pitcher.  It took him only 115 pitches and he recorded 11 strikeouts.  While having a record of 9-6, he has remained a dominant pitcher maintaining a 2.29 ERA.  He has recorded 102 strikeouts in 122 inning pitched and only given up 17 walks. 

It is worth mentioning, the third ALMOST perfect game of the season.  Armando Galarraga pitched the Detriot Tigers to a 1-0 victory against the Indians on June 2nd.  In that victory he gave up only one hit in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs.  Viewing replay after replay, the umpire came back and admitted he missed the call and the game hit should have never been, which would have made this a perfect game.  However, none of that matters since human error has always been a part of baseball.  Viewing the play in real time you see just how fast everything happens, and I am sure most of us would have been split on how to call the play, but umpires are professionals and usually get it right.  It is only the modern era of TV cameras and multiple angles that all of America is able to scrutinize each and every play.  Galarraga’s game was not over-turned and will forever remain the best one-hitter he will ever throw, however he was given a new car.  He is currently 3-1 on the season with only 7 starts and a 3.68 ERA.

The most recent and officially 4th no-hitter of the year came June 25th against the before mentioned Tampa Bay Rays.  Edwin Jackson, of the Arizona Diamondbacks, rolled through with a 1-0 victory.  After having thrown 60 pitches in the first three innings, it did not seem that this would be a historic game.  However, 149 pitches and 8 walks later, the Rays fell victim to a second no-hitter.  This marked the third no-hitter verses a Florida team this season.  The 8 walks given up by Jackson marked the third most ever in a no-hitter.  He also recorded 6 strikeouts in the game.  On the season, Jackson is 5-6 in 16 starts with a 4.63 ERA.  He has 85 strikeouts in 107 innings pitched while issuing 45 walks and allowing 55 runs.  Not quite the star numbers you generally see from no-hitter pitchers.  But this was payback against a team he pitched for from 2006-2008, and it was against a Florida team.  With 3 no-hitters this season, 2 perfect games, and a perfect game last year, I think every pitcher is eager to pitch against the Rays and Marlins.  However, the Rays had been leading the AL East until recent struggles, and are still among the leaders in runs scored.  But they have been the common victim to historic games recently.

Powpow!

I told my boss about Vice. Heh, I figured I’m quitting, like screw it who cares? He wanted to honestly know what I was planning for the summer. Lies are tiring and the fraud is palpable anyways. I figured I’d get a negative reaction but it was more supportive than what I get from some of my friends.  Like wow, that’s amazing. He asked me why I didn’t tell him about it before. I asked what about HR??

He’s like “what’s that have to do with your job?”

I replied “Isn’t it a conflict?”

He’s like “How is that a conflict?”. I left it at that, like sweet I always figured I screwed myself over the day I posted a picture of my pikachu online. I’m not saying everyone should post pictures of their bewbs on the net, and in some professions it is definitely a conflict. But it turns out there’s a whole world out there that either doesn’t care, or thinks being young, hot and naked is awesome (and will still hire you).

A Legend Retires

Ken Griffey Jr.

  ”I’ve come to a decision today to retire from Major League Baseball as an active player,” Griffey said in the statement. “This has been on my mind recently, but it’s not an easy decision to come by. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to play Major League Baseball for so long and thankful for all the friendships I have made, while also being proud of my accomplishments.”

Ken Griffey Jr officially announced his retirement June 2nd, 2010, a day many Mariners fans will remember for some time.  His career started 22 seasons ago in a Seattle uniform, and last season he rejoined the team as a coming home party as most everyone knew his end was coming near.  It only seemed right that it come to an end right where it began, as Griffey brought so much to the Mariners. 

Even though his overall lack of production this season and reduced playing time seemed to be signs of the nearing end, his retirement came as a shock to all.  He was not asked to retire, but came to the decision on his own stating that he did not want to be a distraction to anyone else on the team and felt that this was the right time.  He was batting only .184 (18-for-98) with no home runs and only 7 RBIs this season and had only 1 plate appearance in the last 7 games, a pinch-hit that he grounded out as Mike Sweeney had had the hot bat, taking most of the time at DH. 

His final hit at Safeco Field came on May 20, a walk-off pinch-hit single in the ninth inning against the Blue Jays that gave the Mariners a 4-3 victory.

He was the first overall pick in the 1987 First-Year Player Draft, played his first 11 seasons with the Mariners, before spending the next eight and half with the Reds.  He played the second half of 2008 with the White Sox before returning to Seattle in 2009 where he hit .213 with 19 home runs and 57 RBIs.

His presence to the club was much more than in his numbers.  He and fellow veteran Mike Sweeney changed the clubhouse attitude through their leadership.  Their influence played a huge role in the Mariners winning 85 games last season, a 24-game improvement over the previous season.  It was clear that the leadership helped the team work together and become a team rather than a group of individuals. 

Griffey Jr. has amassed a number of accolades in his career including ranking 5th on the all time career home run list with 630.  He trails Willie Mays by 30 at 660 and is 21 ahead of Sammy Sosa.  The active leader and former Mariners teammate Alex Rodriguez is currently 7th at 590 home runs.  Bonds leads the list with 762, but Griffey is the only player of the modern era among the top 10 that has not been linked to steriod allegations (Bonds, Sosa, McGwire and A-Rod all have.) 

Griffey was named to 10 All-Star teams and was named the 1992 All-Star MVP.  He won the Home Run Derby 3 times.  He won 10 Gold Glove awards for his remarkable play in the outfield and 7 Silver Slugger Awards for his offensive production at the plate.  In 1997, as a Mariner, he became the 14th player all time to have won the MVP by a unanimous vote.  In 1999 he was named to the All-Century team, whose team is made up of all Hall-of Famers outside of McGwire, Pete Rose and Clemens (not officially retired). 

Griffey has 8 home runs on opening day which ties him with Frank Robinson for first all-time.  And Junior was one of seven players to hit 40 or more home runs in five consecutive seasons. 

Many of todays leaders grew up idolizing Griffey especially the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum and Twins MVP Justin Morneau as both grew up near Seattle and were early Mariners fans. 

The overall consensus is that Junior will be a unanimous first ballot Hall-of-Famer and should recieve the most votes for the Hall of all time.  They should be clearing a space for him now.  He will be missed on the field.

Interleague Round One

This weekend marked the first round of Interleague play for Major League Baseball.  Interleague baseball is the only time that National League teams play American League teams during the regular season when it counts.  The only other time they play each other outside of spring training exhibition games is the World Series.  Interleague play began in 1997, and has been much of a success, drawing more fans to the game to see teams play their home team that they don’t get to see year to year. 

Since its inception, the American League has dominated in about every match-up it has had against the National League, Interleague Games, All-Star Games, and World Series titles.  The AL has won 1,673 games to the NL 1,534 in Interleague Games, winning more each year for the past 6 years.  In the past 13 years, the NL has won more than the AL only 4 seasons.  Also since then, the NL has not won the All-Star game.  There was a tie in 2002 (7 - 7) but other than that the AL is 12-0-1.  The AL has also dominated in World Series titles having won 9 since 1996 for a record of 9-5. 

For the first 3 games of Interleague, the NL has had a taste of something new.  The NL won 22 games to the AL’s 20.  Now that is only a 2 game lead, but could it be the beginning of a new trend?  It is way to early to tell at this point, but the NL sure made a point, and several teams made a big statement, while other would rather put this weekend behind them. 

Here is how it went down:

The NY Mets defeated the NY Yankees 2 - 1.  The Mets are now 22 – 23 for the year, and currently in last place in the NL East.  The Yankees are coming off of a World Series Championship, have a 26 – 18 record, and trail only the Rays for the best record in the AL. 

The Cardinals (26-19) defeated the Angels (21-25) 2-1 with a walk-off hit in the 10th inning Sunday night. 

The Dodgers (25-19) beat the Tigers (25-19) 2-1 despite injuries to Ethier and Furcal.

Arizona D-backs (20-25) beat the Blue Jays (26-20) 2-1 in a series that seen a lot of offense as each game had at least 13 runs scored.    

The Cubs (21-24) beat the hot hitting Rangers (25-20) 2-1, each game was decided by only 1 run.

The Reds (25-19) that have surprised everyone into a battle for the NL Central lead beat the struggling Indians (16-26) 2-1.

Another surprise in the NL, the Nationals (23-22) beat another struggling AL team in the Orioles (14-31) 2 – 1 with a walk-off home run in the 10th inning Sunday.

The Rockies (22-22) also beat the Royals (18-27) 2-1, even giving the 2009 Cy Young winner Greinke, earliest exit from a game in the past 2 years, leaving in the 4th inning on Sunday.

The last NL series win was the Padres (26-18) over the Mariners (16-28) 2-1, despite Seattle scoring 15 runs in the first game to win 15 – 8.

The Oakland A’s (23-22) swept their Bay rival Giants (22-21) 3 – 0, giving up only 1 run in the entire series.

The Red Sox (24-21) heated up to take the former NL champion Phillies (26-17) 2-1, roughing up ace pitcher Roy Halladay to one of his worse starts of his career. 

The Rays (32-12), with the best record in baseball, won 2 of 3 against the Houston Astros (15-29) that have the worst record in the NL.

The White Sox (18-25) and Twins (26-18) also won their series 2-1 like most every other series was decided over the Marlins (23-22) and Brewers (17-27) respectively.  The Marlins lone win came as 13-0 victory Sunday, while the AL Central leading Twins scored 26 runs in their 3 game series.

Interleague play will resume in the middle of June with about 9 more games for each team.  We will see if the NL can keep up the charge and come out on top.

More Baseball Records Set

image from yahoo.com

Thats right, two more records were set in baseball on Friday May 7th.  This time by a unique dou, the oldest and youngest players in major league baseball, Jamie Moyer and Starlin Castro.  When Castro was born in 1990, Moyer was already 27 years old, and had pitched in the Major Leagues for 4 seasons. 

Jamie Moyer, 11/18/1962, is a left handed pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, and at 47 years old, currently the oldest active player in baseball.  Last Friday, he pitched nine innings against the Atlanta Braves, which is quite a feat in itself.  But the fact that he did not allow a single run landed him in the record books as being the oldest pitcher to throw a shutout.  The Phillies beat the Braves 7 – 0 in the game, where the 3rd inning 3-run home run by Werth would be enough.  Another astonishing thing is that he only allowed 2 hits in the game, making this only the third time in his career of 615 starts over 23 years that he allowed only two hits.  The previous record holder was Phil Niekro that was 46 when he pitched his shutout.  Moyer is 4 – 2 on the season with a 4.38 ERA in 6 games started, benefiting from a very potent offense featuring Utley, Howard and Werth.  He won 12 games last year and 16 the year before for the Phillies, which is not great, but it was good enough to help them to the World Series for the past two seasons.  His best season came in 2003 while pitching for the Seattle Mariners, winning 21 games at 40 years old. 

Starlin Castro, 3/24/1990, plays shortstop for the Chicago Cubs and is currently the youngest player at the Major League level.  He started the day at Double-A Tennessee, but would be called up replacing Chad Tracy on the roster to try and give the struggling Cubs a boost.  That he did provide, hitting a 3-run home run in his first plate appearance in the Major Leagues.  He would follow that up by hitting a triple with the bases loaded, giving him 6 runs batted in on the night, and setting a new record.  His 6 RBIs set the mark for the most hit in a Major League debut – the previous total of 5 was last matched by Ben Grieve.  In Doulbe-A ball, Castro was hitting .376 in 26 games.  He had hit 1 home run, 8 doubles, 5 triples and 20 RBIs.  The Cubs would win the game 14 – 7 against the Cincinnati Reds.  So is he the next Albert Pujols or Hanley Ramirez?  The Cubs would lose the next two game to the same Reds, 14 – 2 and 5 -3.  Castro went 1-4 and 1-3 in those games respectively scoring one of the two runs in the 14 – 2 loss.  So not too bad in his very early career, the future remains to be seen.  The Cubs are 14 – 18 as of Sunday night, and six games behind the league leading St. Louis Cardinals at 20 – 12.  This early everyone is still in contention, but they will need more help as they get deeper into the season.

A Day That Will Live in Iran-y…Get It?

It’s irony, but with an ‘a’ and hyphenated ‘y’ so it spells ‘Iran.’  Cue the snare drum, baby, it’s time to talk about the newest member of the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women.  I wanted to link to a respected and popular for-women-by-women website for their certain outrage.  For sure, feminists the world over would be furious with the decision to put a country who still allows the stoning of women for suspicion of adultery.  Not on wowowow.   The Huffington Post?  Nope.  I know, the National Organization for Women are always mad about something.   Somehow, the girls at NOW missed this story about our newest example of how to treat a lady.  AOL News did, however, happen to notice that Iran, the United Nation’s newest member of its Commission on the Status of Women, has made it illegal for women to have, wait for it….suntans.

Just days after an Iranian cleric declared that scantily clad women were to blame for an increase in earthquakes around the world, Tehran police chief Brigadier Hossein Sajedinia promised to move “firmly and swiftly” to round up and arrest women with that sun-kissed glow.

“The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehavior by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values,” he said Tuesday. “We are not going to tolerate this situation and will first warn those found in this manner and then arrest and imprison them.”

I’m assuming that by ‘warning’ they mean stone to death.  Why waste time on a trial when she’s clearly got that ‘sun-kissed glow?’  The real irony of this, of course, is that Iran was admitted to the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women after they announced the criminalization of the sun.

This goes beyond pandering, which is about all the UN does.  That and steal money, lots and lots of money.  I’ll come back to the sheer irresponsibility of Iran’s appointment in a minute, but I thought this’d be a good place to check in on Haiti.  Remember Haiti?  There was an earthquake, people died, $732 million dollars went to rebuild, even Sean Penn flew in and saved a person showed a woman

Pictured: Sean Penn, Not Pictured: Actual Haitians

where he was staying.  Wait, that third one isn’t right at all:

Some $495.8 million goes for salaries, benefits, hazard pay, mandatory R&R allowances and upkeep for the peacekeepers and their international staff support. Only about $33.9 million, or 4.6 percent, of that salary total is going to what the U.N. calls “national staff” attached to the peacekeeping effort…the budget also includes at least part of some $10 million that the U.N. has spent on renting two passenger vessels, the Sea Voyager (known to some U.N. staffers as the “Love Boat“) and the Ola Esmeralda, for a minimum of 90 days each, as highly subsidized housing for some of its peacekeepers and humanitarian staff. The tab for the two vessels, which offer catered food, linen service and comfortable staterooms and lounges, is about $112,500 per day.

Well, at leas the United States isn’t on the hook for any of that, right?  Right?

Under a cost-sharing formula, the U.S. pays a 27 percent share of the entire $732.4 million peacekeeping tab for Haiti during this 12 month period, or about $197.7 million.

I think I know where congress can save almost $200 million in next year’s budget.

So how did Iran, the land where women cause earthquakes, find itself in such an enviable position despite not having a single heroine or role model for young women to look up to in their entire history?

A simple misunderstanding with equally-sympathetic-to-women’s-rights Pakistan.  It turns out that Iran’s failed bid to join the more prominent Human Rights Council had absolutely nothing to do with groups like International Human Rights Watch loudly and successfully lobbying the world body with facts and common sense.  The reality that there are still enough rational nations left that didn’t take the bid seriously and Iran couldn’t get the required votes by existing committee members had nothing to do with it, you see.

A group called The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran doesn’t seem to get it, though:

In a letter signed by hundreds of supporters, the organization said “women lack the ability to choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage, no right to divorce, no right to child custody, have no protection from violent treatment in public spaces, are restricted by quotas for women’s admission at universities, and are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of such laws.”

I just thought of an admirable female figure in Iranian history…Neda.