At the beginning of the year, the Toaster staff foolishly tried to predict the standings in all six divisions as well as the postseason winners.

With two months to go in to the season, I thought I would give a progress report to show how everybody was doing.

To rank everyone's predictions what I did was compare the prediction to the actual standings and then score a point for each rank that the person was off by. Then I squared that because somebody with more math skills than me said the sum of the squares was a better predictor of success. Something about multiple regression theory. So if I were a really fancy guy, I would have popped this into a spreadsheet and spit out the answers. But I'm not so I used a pen and paper.

There are a couple of ties. Most noticeably, the Yankees and Red Sox are tied for first in the AL East. So for that division, I gave everybody a zero (i.e., getting it right) if they put either team in first or second. In fact, everybody but Ken put the Yankees and Boston in the 1 and 2 slots in some order. But I made Ken's guess of Boston finishing third as being off by 2, instead of 1.

Also, the Giants and Rockies are tied for fourth in the NL West. All but two of us, Scott and Mark, picked, the Rockies fifth and all those people got charged 1 point. Again, I'm keeping score, if you don't like it, you will have to keep score yourself.

Only one person has correctly tabbed all the teams in a division correctly. And it's Mark Donohue. And he did it two times: in the AL East and the NL East. Mark has the Yankees as his #1 team and Boston as the wildcard.

There are two teams that have really messed up everybody's scores: Detroit, whom most people picked for fifth (except Ken who picked them first and Cliff in third) and Cincinnati, who was chosen to finish sixth or fifth.

But on to the scores, remember no wagering! And like golf, low score wins.

1. Carminati, 49
2. Arneson, 50
3. Smart, 53
4. Corcoran, 55
5T. Weisman, 57
5T. Donohue, 57
7. Siegrist, 59
8. Timmermann, 63
9. Long, 70
10. Belth, 71

Bob Nightengale profiles a different side of the Colorado Rockies in USA Today. It's not about humidors, altitude, relief pitching, or what Choo Freeman's real first name is.

Nightengale writes about the Rockies attempt to fill the team with "character" guys. Which apparently means that the Rockies are looking for players who are openly Christian.

This one passage in the article was very interesting to me.

Is it possible that some Rockies are playing the role of good Christians just to stay in the team's good graces? Yes, former Rockies say.

"They have a great group of guys over there, but I've never been in a clubhouse where Christianity is the main purpose," says
San Francisco Giants first baseman-outfielder Mark Sweeney, a veteran of seven organizations who spent 2003 and 2004 with the Rockies. "You wonder if some people are going along with it just to keep their jobs.

"Look, I pray every day," Sweeney says. "I have faith. It's always been part of my life. But I don't want something forced on me. Do they really have to check to see whether I have a Playboy in my locker?"

Other baseball executives say they appreciate the Rockies' new emphasis on good character but say they would never try to build a team of Christian believers.

"You don't hear about it so much with their players, but you hear about it with their front office,"
San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers says. "That's not us. ... We wouldn't do that. But who's to say they're wrong for doing that?"

I would urge you to read the whole article before making a comment. The article has surprising depth for McPaper.

In one of the Washington Post blogs, comes news that Washington DC Mayor Anthony Williams has asked the City Council for $750,000 to set up a Office of Baseball that would help coordinate the construction of the Nationals new stadium.

Dayton Moore, formerly assistant GM for the Atlanta Braves, was named the new general manager for the Kansas City Royals. Moore will stay with the Braves until after next week's draft.

Baird has been replaced already and VP of baseball operations Muzzy Jackson will run the draft for the Royals, who have the first pick.

Muzzy Jackson's bio on the Royals website does not list a first name for him other than Muzzy and he is the first person I've ever heard of named Muzzy except in a "Rockford Files" episode.

Joey Eischen is out for the rest of the year with a muscle tear in his left rotator cuff. He will have surgery Thursday. Bill Bray is expected to get the call from New Orleans to take Eischen's spot on the roster.

The Minnesota Twins on June 22 are scheduled to be Roger Clemens first major league opponent of the 2006 season.

This is news is from the Astros' website.

Industriales won its third Cuban championship in the last five years with a 4-1 win over Santiago. The series lasted six games.

Slightly off topic of baseball, but you can find baseball in basketball.

There is a proposal to expand the NCAA men's basketball tournament from 65 to 80 teams.

It might not be as much fun to see who wins the Atlantic Sun and Big South tournaments now.

With World War II taking a sizeable chunk out of the personnel for nearly every major league baseball team, teams had to scramble around to fill their lineups. As a result, teams were playing rookies who were too young to be drafted, veteran players who were told old to be drafted or players with medical conditions that kept them out of the service. A pair of patchwork lineups from the Chicago Cubs and New York Giants met at the Polo Grounds on a hot Wednesday afternoon and the Giants, on the strength of a pair of home run by Nap Reyes, beat the Cubs 8-5 before a crowd of 3,210.

Cubs manager Charlie Grimm, in his second of three tours of duty as manager with the team, started Claude Passeau, a 35-year old righthander, who has the distinction of being the last Cubs pitcher to win a World Series game. Giants player-manager, Mel Ott, picked 23-year old Frank Seward as his starter.

Eddie Stanky batted leadoff for the Cubs at shortstop, but the Cubs would soon send him off to Brooklyn (and later the Giants) where he would go on to have a great career. Future Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx, a very tired 36-year old who had been fighting injuries and alcohol, was starting his first game of the year at catcher. Foxx had broken in as catcher with the Philadelphia A's back as a 17-year old in 1925 and had done some emergency duty throughout his career behind the plate. And Grimm decided to give him a start this day.

Ott put himself in the lineup in right field. Regular left fielder Joe Medwick was given the day off and a 24-year old named Danny Gardella started. Gardella, would go on to greater fame (relatively speaking) for his off field activities, as he was one of the first players to challenge the Reserve Clause in court. Gardella might have won his suit, but he decided to take a settlement. (It's a much longer story and it's easy to find on the internet.)

The Cubs scored four times in the first off of Seward. Center fielder Andy Pafko singled home first baseman Phil Cavaretta for the first run of the game. Left fielder Dom Dallessandro hit a three run homer to make it 4-0 Cubs after just half an inning.

The Giants narrowed the gap in the fourth. Gardella led off the inning with a home run to right. First baseman Phil Weintraub singled and Reyes homered into the upper deck in left to pull the Giants to within 4-3. Reyes's homer chased Passeau from the game, and Bill Fleming came in to pitch. Fleming got the last two outs in the fourth, but in the fifth, he started off the inning with two walks and two wild pitches and Grimm brought in Dale Alderson as well as catcher Billy Holm to replace Foxx, who apparently had wilted in the heat. Foxx played in just 15 games in 1944 and went 1 for 20.

Alderson would walk the bases loaded and Reyes would score two runners on the lone hit of the inning. The Giants now were up 5-4.

In the seventh, Reyes would strike again with his second two run homer of the game, again driving in Weintraub. Catcher Gus Mancuso doubled and went to third on a single by Buddy Kerr. Seward would score Mancuso on a suicide squeeze to put the Giants up 8-4. Bill Nicholson would homer for the Cubs in the eighth to make the final score 8-5. Seward went the distance for the win with Fleming getting the loss.

The St. Louis Cardinals ran away with the NL pennant, going 105-49 and wining by 14 1/2 games. The Cubs finished in fourth place at 75-79, 30 games out. The Giants finished fifth at 67-87, 38 games out.

Nicholson would lead the NL in both home runs and RBI in 1944 at 33 and 122. Nicholson also led in runs scored with 116. In a game on July 23, 1944, Nicholson received one of baseball's highest compliments, a bases-loaded intentional walk. Ott was the manager who ordered it. Passeau had an excellent season for the Cubs, going 15-9 with a 2.89 ERA.

The Giants got big years on offense from Ott (OPS+ of 171) and Weintraub (162 OPS+), but otherwise had a lot of duds. Catcher Ernie Lombardi, who had been one of the NL's best hitters in his younger days, slid down to .255 and had an OBP of just .317. Medwick batted .337 in 128 games. The Giants pitchers, outside of Bill Voiselle (21-16, 3.02 ERA) were a collection of has beens and never weres brought together because of the war.

In 1945, with even more players missing because of the war, the Giants remained in fifth place, but improved to 78-74. The Cubs improved all the way to first place and a 98-56 record and a trip to the World Series, where they would lose in seven games to Detroit.

Sources: New York Times, Baseball-reference.com, Retrosheet

The New York Times has an examination of the ill-fated trade between the New York Mets and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano.

At least you know that the deal has been certified as bad now by the Paper of Record.

David Wells started the season for Boston on the DL. Then he pitched on April 12 and sprained his right knee. Then he came back off the DL to pitch this past Friday. And he took a line drive off his right knee. So he's back on the DL again.

David Pauley has been recalled from AA Portland to start Wednesday in Toronto.

Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker reviews The Wages of Wins. It's an attempt to take a sabermetric look at the NBA and was co-authored by economists David J. Berri, Martin B. Schmidt, and Stacey L. Brook.

These men will not be invited to Allen Iverson's next dinner party.

Devil Rays!

The team has decided not to change its nickname until 2008 at the earliest.

Newsday is reporting that Roger Clemens is going to announce as early as today that he has signed a contract with the Houston Astros.

The Astros are presently 7 1/2 games behind first place St. Louis in the NL Central and in fourth place. They are four games behind the Dodgers in the wildcard race.

Clemens is expected to be paid $3.5 million per month for the rest of the season.

However ...

The Astros and Clemens' agent are denying the report.

That's running away under the infuence.

Cleveland pitcher Scott Sauerbeck was arrested by police in Sheffield Village, Ohio, after he and the driver of his car, tried to flee from police, apparently to avoid arrest for DUI.

Although it was Sauerbeck's vehicle, he wasn't driving. The driver, Lily Miller, was tested and registered a blood alcohol limit of .253.

Officially, Sauerbeck was charged with obstructing official business and allowing an intoxicated person to operate his own vehicle.

In a craven marketing ploy to exploit a popular movie, the New York Mets have put Xavier Nady on the disabled list after an appendectomy.

Lastings Milledge was called up from Norfolk.

Thanks to Sam DC for the heads up.

This will teach Nady to stop hanging out with Hayden Penn.

I'm not a doctor, but I do have cable TV and I am under the impression that most appendenctomies are done in a less invasive manner now, so the recovery times should be faster.

Now I'm confused, but this AP story says that the sale of the Washington Nationals to the Theodore Lerner group got approval from U.S. antitrust authorities.

Of course, I thought baseball was exempt from antitrust laws. So what was the Federal Trade Commission investigating anyway? I thought that baseball enjoyed legal protections that made it possible for Bud Selig to order us all in to indentured servitude or force us to pledge allegiance to the MLB logo every morning.

Memorial Day at the Network Associates Coliseum featured a pair of last place teams in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Oakland Athletics. For Tampa Bay, this wasn't unusual, but Oakland, but the A's had made the playoffs four straight seasons from 2000-2003 and just missed out in 2004. But injuries and ineffectiveness by the pitching staff had gotten Oakland off to a 17-32 start and they were already 12 1/2 games out of first. But the return of shortstop Bobby Crosby from injury gave Oakland a ray of hope and Oakland was able to rally late and win in 11 innings 5-4 before a crowd of 25,921.

Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella started second-year pitcher Scott Kazmir, whom the Devil Rays had hijacked from the Mets the previous season in exchange for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato. Oakland manager Ken Macha picked rookie Joe Blanton, who was 0-5 with a 6.55 ERA coming into the game. (Blanton had pitched in three games in 2004.)

Oakland got out front in the first on a solo homer by left fielder Bobby Kielty. But the Devil Rays came back with three in the top of the second. Center fielder Damon Hollins hit a 2-run homer and Julio Lugo added an RBI single.

Tampa Bay got three straight hits, including an RBI double by Aubrey Huff, but only one run as Lugo made an out on the bases. Keiichi Yabu came in to relieve and struck out designated hitter Josh Phelps to end the inning.

Kazmir had a fairly easy seven innings, surrendering just three hits, although he did walk four. Former A's prospect Jesus Colome came into relieve in the eighth. Catcher Jason Kendall reached on an error by Lugo and center fielder Mark Kotsay followed with a double to send Kendall to third. Kielty grounded out to first to score Kendall and it was 4-2 Tampa Bay. Lefty Trever Miller came into face Oakland third baseman Eric Chavez, who singled in Kotsay to make it 4-3. Lance Carter came in to relieve Miller and got pinch hitter Scott Hatteberg to ground into a double play.

Danys Baez came in to try to close it out for Tampa Bay in the ninth. Baez struck out first baseman Dan Johnson and then Crosby to start the ninth. But right fielder Nick Swisher singled to center to keep the game going. Charles Thomas ran for Swisher. Adam Melhuse came up to pinch hit for second baseman Mark Ellis and he singled to center to send Thomas to third. But Baez still just needed one out and had Kendall at the plate. Acquired from the Pirates in the offseason, Kendall was not tearing up the AL, batting in the .240 range with no power. But he came through with a single to let to score Thomas with the tying run. Baez walked Kotsay to load the bases, but Kielty missed a chance to win the game in the ninth when he flied out to center.

Neither team scored in the tenth. With one out in the 11th, Thomas singled to left (he would go 5 for 46 in 2005) and Marco Scutaro, who had replaced Ellis at second, singled Thomas to third. Kendall hit a grounder to Huff at third, who threw to the plate and retired Thomas in a rundown. But Kotsay ended the game with a single to center to score Scutaro and end the 3:53 game.

Oakland would go 7-20 in May, but would go 39-14 in June and July to get back into the race. The A's gave the Angels a run for the money, but slumped down the stretch and finished 88-74, 7 games behind the first place Angels. Blanton, after his bad start, finished the year 12-12 with a 3.53 ERA. Huston Street, the winning pitcher on this day, would take over the closer job in the bullpen and win the Rookie of the Year Award. Street saved 23 games with a 1.72 ERA. Justin Duchscherer, the A's lone All Star representative, had a 7-4 record and a 2.21 ERA out of the bullpen. Oakland's offense had the problem that it had to carry around the millstone of Kendall. He had 676 plate appearances and had just 29 extra base hits, none of them home runs. Crosby, the 2004 Rookie of the year, played in just 84 games.

Tampa Bay, which had avoided the cellar for the first time in franchise history in 2004, finished in last place in 2005 at 67-95. The pitching staff had an ERA of 5.39 and with the exception of Kazmir, who finished with an ERA of 3.77, and Baez, who saved 41 games with a 2.86 ERA, it was not a memorable staff. And that is sort of damning with faint praise. The game that exemplified the D-Rays season came on June 21 in New York when Tampa Bay's bullpen blew an 11-7 lead in the eighth and saw the Yankees score 13 runs in the inning. Surprisingly, the Devil Rays had a winning record (11-8) against the AL East champion Yankees in 2005. Carl Crawford led the AL in triples with 15 ad Jorge Cantu had a big year with 28 home runs. Jonny Gomes hit 21 home runs in just 101 games. Nevertheless, Piniella had seen enough and he and the Devil Rays parted company at the end of the season.

Sources: San Francisco Chronicle, Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com

From BTF comes this link to an article in the Knoxville News that the minor league umpires strike will soon end and the umpires should return on June 12.

An earlier settlement was rejected by the union.

There is still no word if the new contract includes Delmon Young bat-ducking bonuses.

The Cardinals will put Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter on the disabled list Tuesday with bursitis in his back. Anthony Reyes will likely get recalled to take his spot.

Carpenter's condition is described as "scapulothoracic bursitis." It hurts, but it's still scrappy. David Eckstein likely approves.

The 64 teams in the NCAA Division I baseball tournament were announced today.

The top eight seeds are Clemson (47-14), Rice (50-10), Texas (40-19), Alabama (41-19), Cal St. Fullerton (43-13), Nebraska (42-15), Georgia (41-19) and Georgia Tech (45-16).

The teams are grouped into 16 4-team groups. Each group plays a double-elimination tournament to pick a winner. Those 16 winners are then paired up in "super-regionals" where eight sets of two teams play another double elimination tournament. The winners of those eight tournaments move on to Omaha for the College World Series, which will start June 16, around the time the NBA Finals will be at Game 2 I think.

There are five first-time participants in Lehigh, UNC Asheville, Prairie View, USF, and Sacred Heart. The latter is in Fairfield, Connecticut if you were wondering. Princeton made the tournament with a 19-24-1 record.

The best place to check for previews of this tournament will be at Baseball Analysts where Rich and Bryan probably can fill out a bracket sheet for this tournament. Their preview hasn't been written yet mainly because there is a limit as to how fast someone can write. But check there for the best info.

I'll post periodic updates during the tournament, which starts June 2.

USA Today capsules

Big league baseball finally moved into the Mountain Time Zone in 1993 when the Colorado Rockies began play. The Rockies played their first season (as well as 1994) in Mile High Stadium, where they drew huge crowds. One of the features of play in Denver was lots and lots of offense. But lefthander Terry Mulholland of Philadelphia was able to tame the high altitude for one day, shutting out the Rockies 6-0 before a crowd of 56,263.

The Phillies, managed by Jim Fregosi, were already ahead of Montreal by six games in the NL East. The Rockies, managed by Don Baylor, were in seventh place 17 1/2 games out.

Surprisingly, the game had no extra base hits. There were 14 hits in the game, all singles. The Phillies outfielders had no putouts in the game.

Philadelphia scored in the first inning when catcher Darren Daulton hit a sacrifice fly to score center fielder Lenny Dykstra. The Phillies added three more in the fourth on RBI singles by third baseman Dave Hollins, Daulton, and a sacrifice fly from right fielder Wes Chamberlain. John Kruk singled home two more runs in the fourth to wrap up the scoring. The Phillies did all of their damage against starting pitcher Willie Blair.

Mulholland needed just 99 pitches for the shutout, 66 of them for strikes. He walked just one batter and struck out two. He also hit a batter.

After the game, Baylor was impressed. "If you told me that we'd get shut out in this ballpark, with all the right-handed hitters that we have, I just wouldn't have believed it," Baylor said.

The Rockies would not be a success in the Won-Loss column, finishing 67-95 and in sixth place, 37 games behind first place Atlanta. But the Rockies were a hit at the box office. They drew 4,483,350 fans to Mile High Stadium, an alltime record in Major League baseball. The Rockies managed to draw 70,069 people for their final home game. The Rockies were 39-42 at home and 28-53 on the road.

First baseman Andres Galarrraga was the team's leading hitter as well as the league's with a .370 average. Third baseman Charlie Hayes led the team with 25 home runs. The pitching staff had an ERA of 5.41 which was .64 worse than the next worst team, Pittsburgh. Armando Reynoso had an ERA of 4.00 and a 12-11 record. Darren Holmes managed to pick up 25 saves.

As for the Phillies, it was a much different story. They won the NL East with a 97-65 record, three games better than Montreal. The Phillies surprised the Braves in the LCS in six games, but would lose to Toronto in the World Series in six games.

Dykstra was the team's offensive leader, batting .305 with 19 home runs. He had an OPS+ of 143. Kruk batted .316 and had an OPS+ of 144.

The four main starting pitchers, Mulholland, Curt Schilling, Tommy Greene, and Danny Jackson all had ERA+ of 100 or more. Mitch Williams managed to pick up 43 saves while driving Philadelphia fans crazy with 44 walks in 62 innings of work. Williams gave up three home runs during the regular season. And one very big one in the post season.

Sources: Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com

Al Downing
Byung-Hyun Kim

Bonds' 715th homer came in the fourth inning at AT&T Park to center field with Steve Finley aboard to make it Colorado 6, San Francisco 2.

Andrew Morbitzer meet Tom House.

The radio call that nobody heard.

Just who goofed? I've got to know!

I came across this from Chris Needham's Capitol Punishment blog about the Washington Nationals.

The link is to a post he made discussing how Bowden and the Nationals "brain trust" would be handling the upcoming amateur draft.

In particular, Chris notes that Bowden is going to be use a man named Jared Niednagel to advise on "brain imaging."

Here is Niednagel's website.

If you keep reading it, you will begin to think that the guy works for The Hanso Foundation.

"I do not know what is more disquieting. That Royce Clayton bats second for Washington or that Marlon Anderson bats fith."

In a 13-12 win over the Cubs at Wrigley today, the Atlanta Braves:

• hit eight home runs, tying a franchise record (August 30, 1953, game 1 vs the Pirates)
  
• struck out 18 times
  
• struck out only 2 Cubs batters themselves
  
• saw relief pitcher Oscar Villareal run his record to 7-0
  
• blew a 12-8 lead in the ninth thanks in part to a Neifi Perez triple that was nearly a home run
  
• scored the winning run when Aramis Ramirez had a pop up from Ryan Langerhans bounce off his head for a two-base error and then score on a bloop single by Marcus Giles
  
• used 19 players (all but Matt Diaz, reliever Mike Remlinger, and the other four starting pitchers)
  

After 8 innings, Boston led Tampa Bay, 5-0, then:
Top 9th: Tampa Bay
- R. Seanez relieved T. Wakefield
- J. Gomes walked
- J. Gomes to second on fielder's indifference
- T. Wigginton struck out swinging
- R. Branyan lined out to first
- T. Lee walked
- J. Paul walked, J. Gomes to third, T. Lee to second
- G. Norton hit for T. Perez
- J. Tavarez relieved R. Seanez
- G. Norton struck out, reached on passed ball, J. Gomes scored, T. Lee to third, J. Paul to second on passed ball
- J. Gathright walked, T. Lee scored, J. Paul to third, G. Norton to second
- J. Lugo walked, J. Paul scored, G. Norton to third, J. Gathright to second
- C. Crawford singled to left, G. Norton scored, J. Gathright out at home, J. Lugo to second

4 runs, 1 hits, 0 errors
Tampa Bay 4, Boston 5

Tavarez was given a save after getting one out (Gathright at home) and giving up two walks and a single. To be fair to Tavarez, he should have gotten out of the inning except Mirabelli let a third strike get past him.

Boston reactivated Coco Crisp from the DL. Wily Mo Peña changes place with Crisp on the DL with a wrist injury.

Mike Timlin went on the DL also and Manny Delcarmen was brought up to replace him.

A crowd of 32,221 poured into Forbes Field on a Monday night to watch the defending World Series champion Brooklyn Dodgers take on the hometown Pittsburgh Pirates. The big draw was the Pirates journeyman first baseman Dale Long, who had set a major league two days earlier by homering in his seventh straight game, breaking a record held by six others, including Willie Mays the year before. Long was given a $2500 bonus by Pirates GM Joe L. Brown as a reward.

Long had bounced around between the majors and minors for Cincinnati, the Red Sox, Detroit, the Yankees, the Browns, and two tours with the Pirates. Long finally got a starting job with the Pirates in 1955, a team that went 60-94. The 1956 team wouldn't be much better, but they were off to an 18-14 start and were in third place.

Dodgers manager Walter Alston started Carl Erskine and Pirates manager Bobby Bragan picked Bob Friend to start.

The Dodgers were on the board before most of the crowd was in its seats. Jim Gilliam led off with a walk and one batter later, Duke Snider homered to center over the 436' sign to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. But Friend would only give up one more hit during the game.

The Pirates got a run in the second when Lee Walls tripled to left center. Gene Freese hit a sacrifice fly to score Walls to make it 2-1.

In the fourth inning, Long came to bat against Erskine. And Long ended the suspense by homering into the right-field stands to tie the game 2-2. It was Long's eighth homer in eight games and his 14th overall.

The Pirates would take the lead in the fifth when catcher Hank Foiles tripled and scored on a pinch single by Bob Skinner. Friend went the distance for the win.

Long finished the 1956 season with 27 home runs, a career high. In 1957, the Pirates traded Long and Walls to Chicago in exchange for Dee Fondy and Gene Baker. Long would put up three 20-homer seasons in Chicago, but was sold to San Francisco before the 1960 season. The Giants sold Long to the Yankees for the stretch drive in 1960. The Yankees lost Long to Washington in the 1961 expansion draft and he had two mediocre seasons in Washington, but in the middle of the 1962 season, the Yankees reacquired Long in exchange for Don Lock. On August 2, 1963, the Yankees released Long. Long played in both the 1960 and 1962 World Series for the Yankees.

Long's record would stand up until 1987 when Don Mattingly matched it. Ken Griffey equalled the record in 1993.

The Dodgers would bounce back from this early season loss to win their last NL pennant in Brooklyn by one game over Milwaukee at 93-61. The Pirates, still a young team, would finish in seventh at 66-88.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Retrosheet, Baseball-reference.com

In a matter of interest to very, very, very few people, except me, John F. Kennedy High School of Granada Hills, California won its seventh L.A. City baseball championship Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, upsetting the #6 team in the country (according to Baseball America), Chatsworth High, 4-2. (So sayeth the L.A. Times website.)
The Cougars had previously won in 1981, 1985, 1989, 1995, 1996, and 2000.

Notable alums who played baseball at Kennedy are:
Garret Anderson, Jon Garland, and Terrmel Sledge.

A profile of Kennedy and its longtime coach, Manny Alvarado from the Daily News.

Alvarado, in his 18th year at Kennedy, says he has made an effort not to "be a dinosaur." But his way of keeping up with the younger generation is a little different than you might expect.

Instead of learning how to IM or text message, he teaches players about Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio.

"They've got to know who Sandy Koufax is so when we talk about baseball, they know what I'm saying," he said.

It actually has gone over pretty well with the team.

"You should know who those players are and what they did for the game," Quezada said. "They played for the love of the game."

A lot has changed over the years, but what Alvardo has done so successfully at Kennedy is teach his team that the game still is the same.

Daily News coverage of the game.

L.A. Times story.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports tries to make sense of MLB's TV blackout policies.

Passan tries, but his attempt is futile as he discovers that searching for reason in an inherently illogical system only serves to give you a headache.

The Kansas City Star is reporting that Atlanta assistant GM Dayton Moore is in negotiations with Royals owner David Glass to replace current GM Allard Baird.

If Moore and the Royals can't agree, the team is expected to set its sights on either Ed Wade or Randy Smith.

The #8 and #9 hitters for Atlanta are both batting 1.000 this season.

Catcher Brayan Peña is 1 for 1. Pitcher Horacio Ramirez is 2 for 2.

First at bats today for each hitter: Peña walked and Ramirez got a hit. They remain perfect.

Second at bats today for each hitter: Peña doubles and Ramirez sacrifices. They are still perfect.

The dream dies. Both Peña and Ramirez make outs in their third at bats.

If the Reds win their next two games against Arizona and the Dodgers win their next two games against Washington and the Mets lose their next two games to Florida, then there would be four teams tied for the second best record in the NL.

Which would make my "If the playoffs started today..." scenarios even more confusing than it is now. I believe I have all the possible scenarios listed. But I could be wrong.

I think counting on Florida to beat the Mets twice more is a longshot fortunately. And the Mets won to prevent this catastrophe!

1968 was the year of the pitcher in baseball. The American League ERA was 2.98 overall. The overall batting average was .230. Carl Yastrzemski led the league in batting average with an alltime low of .301 and was the only qualifier to top .300. But on this one night in Anaheim, the Detroit Tigers and California Angels combined for 13 runs and 29 hits, including 3 home runs as the Angels defeated the Tigers 7-6 in 12 innings. The Tigers were still a half game ahead of Baltimore and the Angels were 4 1/2 games out in sixth place. 8,712 showed up for the game.

All three homers were hit by the Tigers, two of them by Eddie Mathews. Those homers were the 511th and 512nd of his career and it moved him past Mel Ott into sixth place on the alltime list of home run hitters at the time. They would also be the last home runs hit by Mathews in his career as he would play in just 13 more games. Presently, Mathews total is tied for 17th most in major league history. Ernie Banks also hit 512 home runs.

Mathews had started his career in 1952 with the Boston Braves and would be only person to play for the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. Mathews led the NL in home runs twice, once in 1953 and again in 1959. Both of those years he would be the runnerup for the MVP award. In 1953, Roy Campanella beat him out and in 1959, it was Banks.

Detroit manager Mayo Smith picked lefty Mickey Lolich to start. California manager Bill Rigney opted for righthander Sammy Ellis. Mathews was getting a start in first as Norm Cash was supposed to get the day off because he was slumping.

Lolich gave up single runs to the Angels in each of the first three innings to put his team in a hole. Chuck Hinton had an RBI grounder in the first. Bobby Knoop singled in Bubba Morton in the second. And in the third, Rick Reichardt singled home Hinton.

Mathews put the Tigers on the board in the fifth with a two-run homer off of Ellis with Willie Horton aboard. But the Angels got the two runs back on an RBI double from Reichardt and an RBI single by Morton off of reliever Pat Dobson.

Tigers second baseman Tom Matchick led off the sixth with a double and scored on a single by Jim Northrup to make it 5-3. Matchick was starting in place of regular second baseman Dick McAuliffe.

Mathews chased Ellis in the seventh after he led off the inning with a home run. Minnie Rojas relieved and promptly gave up a double to third baseman Don Wert. Norm Cash was called off the bench to bat for shortstop Ray Oyler, who was batting .182 at the time and would finish the year at .135. Cash broke out of his slump with a home run to put the Tigers ahead 6-5.

The Angels bounced back in the seventh. Shortstop Jim Fregosi led off with a single. Hinton sacrificed him over and Reichardt grounded out, sending Fregosi to third. Morton singled home Fregosi to tie the game. Bobby Trevino followed with a double to send Morton to third and Dobson was pulled in favor of Fred Lasher, who got Buck Rodgers to ground out to end the inning.

The game dragged on to extra innings. Clyde Wright came into pitch in the 9th for the Angels and Daryl Patterson came in to relieve in the 10th.

In the twelfth inning, Reichardt led off with a single. Patterson balked Reichardt to second. Patterson then hit Morton with a pitch. Bobby Trevino popped out, but Tom Satriano doubled to left to score Reichardt and give the Angels the win. It was the second straight night that the Tigers had lost 7-6 in extra innings. They had lost to Oakland by the same score on May 26.

But the Tigers wouldn't lose a lot of games in 1968. They won the AL by 12 games with a 103-59 record. Denny McLain would win the Cy Young Award and the MVP with a 31-6 record and a 1.96 ERA. But in the World Series against the Cardinals, Lolich would be the hero, winning three games in the Tigers seven game victory. Mathews would finish his major league career when he started at third base in Game 4. His final plate appearance was a walk against Bob Gibson.

The Angels had an awful 1968, finishing tied for eighth with a 67-95 record, 36 games behind the Tigers. The Angels scored just 498 runs and batted just .227. Reichardt led the regulars with a .255 average and 21 home runs. Rigney, the Angels first manager, would only get to stay on the job until May 25 of the next season.

And on the day that Mathews hit his last home runs, two future sluggers were born, Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com

First he was a Dodger (7 for 14).

Then he was a Red (1 for 5).

Now, outfielder Cody Ross is Marlin.

Well, it's not like Esteban Yan is injured. He just isn't good anymore (6.85 ERA).

And the Angels brought up Jeff Weaver's little brother, Jered.

Will Jered become a Pedro to Jeff's Ramon? Or will he become more of a Greg to Jeff's Mike? Or will Jeff be a Big Jeff to Jared's Jeff?

Starting today, (for no real good reason except I found the article interesting), there will start being posts here about the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Germany, which starts on June 9.

I will try to put "World Cup" in the headline, so those who aren't interested, can just skip by it. But since at least three of us here on the Toaster care about the World Cup, including Ken, who uses the political principle of "one guy sitting by the server, lots and lots of votes." So the vote in favor of soccer posts was as one-sided as a North Korean election. Fortunately, Ken is not a developing nuclear power, but I have heard rumors.

But today, for those who haven't read about it yet, check out the worsening crisis in Italian soccer which centers around national powerhouse Juventus.

The Italian national team is in the same group (E) as the USA, along with Ghana and the Czech Republic.

John Shea writes in ESPN.com about the enmity between Jose Mesa and Omar Vizquel.

The book elevated the tension. In "Omar! My Life On and Off the Field," Vizquel writes about Mesa blowing Game 7: "The eyes of the world were focused on every move we made. Unfortunately, Jose's own eyes were vacant. Completely empty. Nobody home. You could almost see right through him. Not long after I looked into his vacant eyes, he blew the save and the Marlins tied the game."

After the book was published, Mesa was quoted as saying, "Even my little boy told me to get him. If I face him 10 more times, I'll hit him 10 times. I want to kill him."

I'm guessing that Vizquel's co-writer, Bob Dyer, penned the paragraph about the vacant eyes.

Rick Guttormson of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, became the sixth foreign pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Japan. Guttormson's Swallows downed the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, 6-0. Guttormson gave up one walk and one batter reached on an error.

It is the 72nd no-hitter overall in Japan since the two league system was initiated in 1950.

Also in the linked story, you can note that the Eagles have signed former MLB outfielder Eric Valent.

The fallout from last Saturday's set-to between Michael Barrett, et al. has been settled by the Commissioner's Office.

Michael Barrett - 10 games
Brian Anderson - 5 games
Joey Cora - 2 games
A.J. Pierzynski - undisclosed fine

I believe that since Cora is a coach, he can't appeal his suspension, but I could be wrong.

If you grew up in Southern California, the year 1965 is often associated with Sandy Koufax. It was the season where Koufax threw a perfect game against the Cubs. Koufax would strike out 382 batters. He won 26 games. His ERA was 2.04. Koufax would win two games in the World Series over the Twins. But Koufax didn't win them all in 1965. And on this day, the St. Louis Cardinals were just a little bit better, beating the Dodgers and Koufax, 2-1 before 30,794 at Dodger Stadium.

The Cardinals had won the World Series in 1964, but their manager Johnny Keane, had left the team to go manage the Yankees. Local hero Red Schoendienst took over the job and would hold on to it for 12 years as well having two stints as an interim manager after that. Schoendienst picked veteran lefty Curt Simmons to start. Simmons had broken in with the Phillies as an 18-year old in 1947 and pitched with them until 1960 when his career appeared to be over with an arm injury. But the Cardinals signed him and he slowly got back into shape and was a key part of the Cardinals championship in 1964. Simmons was the prototypical "crafty lefty."

The Cardinals started three players who would be key to their success in 1967 and 1968: left fielder Lou Brock (who was batting second), center fielder Curt Flood (the third place hitter), and second baseman Julian Javier (who was the leadoff hitter). Three players who were key to the team's success in 1964: third baseman Ken Boyer, first baseman Bill White, and shortstop Dick Groat also were starting. And they would all be traded at the end of the year.

The Dodgers under Walter Alston were trying to retool their offense to make up for the loss of Tommy Davis, who suffered a broken ankle earlier in the month. Lou Johnson had been recalled from the minors and was starting to put in a claim for the left field position. Johnson was 4-for-7 in the first two games of the series against the Cardinals and was batting .340. Alston had tried him as the leadoff hitter with Maury Wills out for a couple of games, but Johnson was back down to the fifth spot this night.

St. Louis grabbed an early read. After Javier struck out to start the game, Brock reached on a bunt single and stole second. Flood reached on an infield hit and Brock stayed at second. But not for long as Brock and Flood executed a double steal against Dodgers backup catcher Jeff Torborg. Boyer hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Brock and make it 1-1.

The Dodgers, who had to struggle to score runs all year, scratched out one in the second. The Dodgers got started with singles by Ron Fairly and Johnson. Jim Lefebvre walked to load the bases. Torborg then put the brakes on the rally by grounding into a DP, but Fairly scored to tie the game.

Simmons and Koufax then matched zeroes until the seventh. Then the Cardinals had the most unlikely of rallies. With two outs, backup catcher Bob Uecker singled. That brought up Simmons and Schoendienst opted to let him bat as he was pitching fairly well. Simmons was 0 for 18 on the season, but he managed hit a grounder that made it into left field and Uecker went to second. (It was the only hit Simmons ever had against Koufax in 13 plate appearances. Uecker was 7 for 38 in his career against Koufax with a home run.) Javier followed with a single to right. Fairly's throw to the plate was not in time to catch Uecker and the Cardinals led 2-1.

The Dodgers mounted a rally of a sort in the ninth. With two outs, Johnson walked and then tried to steal second. Uecker throw's had Johnson out, but Javier dropped it for an error to keep the game going. Simmons then walked Lefebvre. But Torborg fouled out to Uecker to end the game. Simmons had a complete game 5-hitter, but had no strikeouts. Koufax struck out six in eight innings of work. Bob Miller pitched the ninth for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers would go on to win the NL by 2 games over the Giants with a 97-65 record. The Dodgers won 15 of their last 16 games and had seven shutouts in that stretch. The Cardinals finished in seventh place at 80-81. Simmons finished a disappointing 9-15 with a 4.08 ERA. Ray Sadecki, who had won 20 games in 1964, went 6-15 in 1965 and would be traded to the Giants early in the 1966 season in exchange for Orlando Cepeda, a trade that still haunts many Giants fans.

Sources: Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com, Los Angeles Times

Brian Murphy writes on ESPN.com's Page 2 about San Francisco Giants fans and why they still like Barry Bonds.

It's an interesting look at a complicated issue.

Jeff Kent won the MVP award in 2000, but Kent didn't get it the way Barry got it. While Barry kept saying he wanted to win a World Series for Giants fans in San Francisco -- "my hometown," as Barry always pointed out -- Kent was the one who ripped the Giants' new home uniforms on Opening Night at Pac Bell, oozing disdain when he uttered his infamous "french vanilla" description of the Giants' cream-colored home gamers. Worse, he dared describe Pac Bell Park as a place with flaws. He pointed out its shortcomings, how it wasn't a hitter's park, how it was still cold … when all any San Franciscan and any Giants fan wanted to hear was how pretty it was and how lucky we were to have it.

See, I told you, this is complicated stuff. It involves the ego of the native Northern Californians, and a regional pride that likes to be fed with compliments. Northern Californians and San Franciscans are proud in a provincial way, sometimes to our own detriment. Kent never got that, or maybe he did get it and he wanted to be the needle in our pride balloon.

As Murphy says repeatedly, it's complicated.

What he doesn't answer is, could Bonds get a sympathetic reaction now in any other city if he played for a different team?

Personally, I don't think so.

A different viewpoint.

Kansas City GM Allard Baird is quoted as saying on MLB.com,

"I want the best available guy," general manager Allard Baird said. "In this case, it's going to be the best available pitcher."

-----

They are left-hander Andrew Miller of the University of North Carolina, right-hander Brad Lincoln of the University of Houston and right-hander Tim Lincecum of the University of Washington.

Which ever young man gets drafted by the Royals, I am certain that in a matter of weeks, he will meet some misfortune. I'm betting on a dirigble accident. My second favorite is someone contracting one of those diseases that only turn up on "House."

Another possibility is that the pitcher drafted will look at his assembled teammates and just lose the will to live.

America's most scintillating reality TV show "Bonds on Bonds" will go on hiatus after the next two shows are aired.

The show may return when anyone wants to watch it.

Don't blame me. I watched it once!

Federal prosecutors were a sizzling 25 out of 34 in guilty verdicts in the trials of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling this morning in Houston.

Lay was found guilty 9 out of 9 times to win Guilty White Collar Criminal of the Week honors.

While Cole Hamels can do , he can't avoid going on the disabled list.

Clay Condrey will replace him on the roster.

Remember when the Phillies were hot and making a run at the Mets?

I remember the early part of May. I was younger then.

A Memorial Day crowd of 40,689 at the Oakland Coliseum saw what was normal for the Oakland A's at the time, a complete game win by an Oakland pitcher. In this case, it was Steve McCatty who did the honors beating the Chicago White Sox 5-2.

Oakland manager Billy Martin and his pitching coach Art Fowler seemed to believe that the best recipe for success for his young pitching staff was to have them go the distance. In a season shortened and bisected by a strike to just 109 games, Oakland still had 60 complete games and Oakland pitchers finished 1-2-5 in the AL in complete games. Chicago manager Tony La Russa started Richard Dotson.

Both teams scored in the first inning. The White Sox strung together singles by Mike Squires, Carlton Fisk and Greg Luzinski for a run. In the bottom of the first, Rickey Henderson tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Wayne Gross to shallow left, surprising Ron LeFlore who didn't think Henderson would try to score on the play.

The tie held until the fifth inning. Designated hitter Mitchell Page led off with a single and second baseman Keith Drumright singled Page to second. After shortstop Rob Picciolo popped out, Henderson singled to left and Drumright went on to third when LeFlore misplayed the single. Center fielder Dwayne Murphy was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Right fielder Tony Armas then cleared the bases with a double to give Oakland a 5-1 lead. Kevin Hickey came into relieve and finished out the game for the White Sox.

The White Sox got one more run in the seventh when third baseman Jim Morrison homered. McCatty retired the last seven White Sox hitters to end the game.

After the game, the White Sox were not happy. La Russa and his players accused McCatty of throwing a spitball. During the game, White Sox second baseman Tony Bernazard twice asked home plate umpire Ted Hendry to inspect the ball, drawing Martin's ire. McCatty and Martin denied any shenanigans after the game in the local papers. Many fingers were pointed at White Sox backup catcher Jim Essian, who had earlier in the year, that he knew that the Oakland pitchers were throwing spitters when he was the A's catcher in 1980.

Dotson and La Russa also admitted after the game that they hadn't gone over the scouting report for Drumright, anticipating that Shooty Babitt would start at second base, but Babitt's lack of production was earning him a spot in Martin's doghouse, a place where many went in and few ever came out.

When the strike hit on June 10, the A's were ahead in the AL West by 1 1/2 games over Texas. The White Sox were in third, 2 1/2 games out. When play resumed, the A's had a playoff berth in hand, but almost won both halves, finishing just a game behind Kansas City, who had the fourth best overall record in the division. Oakland would sweep Kansas City in the Division Series and then get swept in the LCS by the Yankees.

Martin had made a dramatic turnaround in Oakland. In 1979, the A's finished 54-108. in 1980, Martin took over and led the team to an 83-79 record, which featured 94 complete games by the starters and a 21-year old Henderson who stole 100 bases. In 1981, Henderson stole 56 bases and batted .319 and had a .408 OBP. Armas tied for the AL lead in home runs with 22. With starters like McCatty, Mike Norris, Rick Langford, and Matt Keough throwing complete games nearly all the time, the bullpen didn't get a lot of work. Jeff Jones and Dave Beard tied for the team lead in saves with three. By 1982, the pitchers started breaking down and Oakland finished 68-94 and Martin was out of a job again.

La Russa, in his second full season as manager of the White Sox, got the team over the .500 mark at 54-52. Luzinski hit 21 home runs in 104 games. 22-year old right fielder Harold Baines, batted .286. La Russa was not afraid to use his bullpen as the White Sox had just 20 complete games. (For comparison purposes, La Russa's 2005 Cardinals team led the majors in complete games with 15.) Ed Farmer and La Marr Hoyt each had 10 saves. Britt Burns was the top starter with a 10-6 record and a 2.64 ERA. Fisk hit just seven home runs in his first season in Chicago after leaving Boston as a free agent, but he would hit over 10 home runs in his next 10 season with the White Sox, including 18 in 1991 when he was 43.

Sources: Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com, Chicago Tribune

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The Mets tried to fill their vacancies in their rotation by acquiring Orlando Hernandez from Arizona in exchange for Jorge Julio.

Thanks to bhsportsguy for the link.

You should read about the lack of unity among baseball leagues in Japan.

Jim Allen of the Daily Yomiuri writes of the problems that Japan's two leagues are having in trying to reconcile their methods of choosing a champion.

Japan, like the U.S., has two leagues: the Central and the Pacific. Unlike MLB, the two leagues operate somewhat autonomously. Presently, they have different methods of choosing their champions. The PL has its top three teams face off in a playoff tournament. The second and third place teams face off in a best of three and the winner faces the champion in a best of five. The winner moves on to the Japan Series.

The CL has no playoffs unless there is a tie for first. And there has never been a tie for first as Japanese teams usually pick up enough ties (which are not replayed) to make that mathematically unlikely.

According to Allen, the CL proposal for the 2007 postseason was to have the top two teams in each leagues meet in the postseason, but in a crossover fashion: CL #1 vs PL #2 and CL #2 vs PL #1. Then the winners of those series would meet in the Japan Series. As Allen points, out that would set up the possibility of a Japan Series matching Japan's two most popular teams (both in the CL) of the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers. It be would like a Yankees-Red Sox World Series.

While that may be interesting, that's not all that likely as the Giants and Tigers have not been in many pennant races against each other in recent years, although they are 1-2 now.

Not surprisingly, the Pacific League doesn't like this proposal. A PL team has won the last three Japan Series and it's been a different team each time. The PL has long been the poor stepchild of Japanese baseball as it's teams don't have the same level of fan support and the weight of history behind them. The PL started its playoff system to heighten interest in late season games. And its playoff series keep its teams sharp while the CL champ sits around for three weeks waiting for the Japan Series to start.

The Central League needs to work on helping out its less popular teams (Yakult, Yokohama, and Hiroshima) and making the league more competitive.

Allen has some other good points about the problems of the Central League, such as why in the world it refuses to let teams announce who will be the starting pitcher ahead of time.

All of this makes MLB's setup of 16 teams in one league and 14 in another along with unbalanced schedules seem quite equitable.

502 - Cole Hamels will miss his start tonight against the Mets with a sore shoulder.

Actually, it's #306.

The defending World Series champion Milwaukee Braves rallied to score four times in the eighth inning to beat the San Francisco Giants 6-3 before a crowd of 26,948 at County Stadium.

The Giants, in their first year on the West Coast after their move from New York (along with a Brooklyn based team called the Dodgers), had a bad 1957, but manager Bill Rigney had his team in first place early in the year. Rigney tabbed 19-year old Mike McCormick to start. Milwaukee manager Fred Haney chose 6'8" Gene Conley, who also played in the NBA, to start.

Henry Aaron drove in the first run of the game when he hit into a force play and Johnny Logan scored in the first inning. In the second, San Francisco rookie first baseman Orlando Cepeda tripled and scored on a double by Willie Kirkland. The Braves went back ahead in the bottom of the second on a home run by Del Crandall.

The Giants took the lead in the third. McCormick led off with a single and Davenport bunted him over. Whitey Lockman singled home McCormick to tie the game. Willie Mays grounded out and Lockman moved over to second. Cepeda singled to score Lockman.

Aaron singled to lead off the sixth, but was erased on a double play ball off the bat of Joe Adcock. Andy Pakfo followed with a single as did Wes Covington and Rigney pulled McCormick in favor of Al Worthington, who retired Crandall to end the inning.

In the eighth inning, Eddie Mathews led off with a ground out. Aaron then hit a grounder to shortstop Daryl Spencer, who booted it, and Aaron was safe at first. Adcock walked and then Pafko singled to score Aaron to tie the game at 3-3. Rigney brought in Marv Grissom. Covington singled to right to score Adcock and send Pafko to third. Crandall then hit a bouncer to the pitcher and Grissom threw out Pafko at the plate. Red Schoendienst singled to score Covington and it was 5-3 Milwaukee. A wild pitch by Grissom let Crandall score with the Braves sixth run.

Don McMahon, who relieved Conley in the eighth, worked out of jams the last two innings to pick up the win.

The Braves would win their second straight NL pennant with a 92-62 record, eight games ahead of the Pirates. The Giants finished in third, 12 games back at 80-74. The Braves would lose the World Series to the Yankees in seven games.

Warren Spahn, who went 22-11 with a 3.07 ERA, and Lew Burdette, who went 20-10 with a 2.91 ERA, led a strong Braves pitching staff that led the NL with a 3.21 ERA. However, despite the bats of Aaron and Mathews and the strong pitching, the Braves would not win an NL pennant again in Milwaukee.

Cepeda would win the Rookie of the Year award in 1958, batting .312 with 25 home runs. Mays batted .347 with 29 home runs in his first year in San Francisco. However, the rest of the offense was pretty spotty with guys like Bob Schmidt and Danny O'Connell getting a lot of at bats. And the pitching staff, aside from reliever Stu Miller, wasn't all that stellar. The Giants had another prospect at AAA Phoenix in 1958 by the name of Willie McCovey. He would prove to be quite helpful in the future.

Sources: New York Times, Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com

You can email get well messages to Barbaro at this link.

Barbaro has promised to read every message I've been told and I believe he will respond to as many as he can.

How did one of the world's pre-eminent large animal veterinary hospitals end up in suburban Philadelphia?

Cincinnati has activated former Dodger outfielder Cody Ross from the DL. He joins former Dodger catcher David Ross.

The copy editor at Yahoo sports lost track of his Rosses and has this headline:

Reds activate OF Cody Ross, option RHP Mike Ross

Actually, the pitcher is named Mike Burns.

You know I thought that PVK was the initial for a terrorist group. But apparently it's nothting more than the airport code for Preveza Airport in Greece.

Last night, Padres pitcher Jake Peavy struck out 16 Atlanta batters in seven innings of work. Peavy was lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh as his team was down 2-0 as John Smoltz was pitching just as well.

Peavy's 16 strikeouts were a Padres record for one pitcher in a game. The previous highs were 15 by Fred Norman on September 15, 1972 at Cincinnati and Sterling Hitchcock against Montreal on August 29, 1998.

Like Peavy, Hitchcock also lost the game.

Relievers Scott Cassidy and Jim Brower also had a strikeout apiece to give the Padres a team record of 18 Ks in a 9-inning game, breaking the record of 17 set in Hitchcock's start back in 1998.

Kevin Brown also had 16 Ks in Game 1 of the NLDS against Houston on September 29, 1998.

Although 1973 was a time when the Baltimore Orioles dominated the AL East, on this day, the New York Yankees moved into a tie for first place with a 6-5 win over Detroit at Tiger Stadium before a crowd of 12, 038.

The Yankees were only 20-20 (the same as Detroit), but this day marked the first time the Yankees had been in first place outside of the month of April since they had won their last pennant in 1964.

Yankees manager Ralph Houk in his second tour of duty as Yankees manager chose Fritz Peterson as his starter. Peterson and teammate Mike Kekich caused a stir during spring training when the two mean agreed to trade their spouses. Ahh, the 1970s, I miss them so. Detroit manager Billy Martin started Joe Coleman.

The Yankees order was not formidable. Horace Clarke led off. He would finish 1973 with an OPS+ of 80 and had just 23 extra base hits all season. In the picture accompanying the New York Times account of the game, it appears that Clarke also played the infield this game in a batting helmet. Roy White batted second and would play in all 162 games and would hit .246, but he did hit 18 home runs. Matty Alou batted third. He hit .296, but his 25 extra base hits brought his slugging percentage all the way up to .356. Bobby Murcer batted cleanup and was a solid hitter with 22 home runs. Ron Blomberg was starting at first, although he played DH (which was introduced in 1973) frequently and hit .329 in platoon duty. Third baseman Graig Nettles had arrived from Cleveland and would hit 22 home runs, but would bat .234. Jim Ray Hart was the DH this day and he had been purchased from the Giants in April. Thurman Munson, the best hitter on the team, was batting eighth this game and catching. Shortstop Gene Michael, who never hit well, batted ninth.

The Tigers had won the AL East in 1972, but they had to tweak their lineup a bit in 1973. Frank Howard had joined the team for the 1972 stretch run and was starting this game at DH. Catcher Bill Freehan was put at first base this game instead of regular starter Norm Cash. Tony Taylor was filling in for Dick McAuliffe at second base. Third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez who had an OPS+ of 63 was batting second. He would play in 160 games. Shortstop Eddie Brinkman played in 162 games and had an OPS+ of 67.

In this game, the Yankees got off to a fast start, scoring three times off of Coleman in the first. Murcer and Blomberg had RBI singles and Nettles had a sacrifice fly.

The Tigers tied it up though. In the second, left fielder Ike Brown singled home catcher Duke Sims. And in the third, Sims homered with Howard aboard to make the score 3-3.

In the fourth, the Yankees went back ahead. Blomberg led off with a single and Nettles reached on an error by Taylor. Munson singled home Blomberg and Nettles would come in to score when Michael hit into a force play. Mickey Stanley homered in the sixth to make it 5-4 New York.

Lindy McDaniel came in to relieve Peterson in the seventh and Brinkman greeted him with a double. Taylor grounded out, but Rodriguez doubled home Brinkman to tie the game. McDaniel had thrown just four pitches and Houk pulled him in favor of his relief ace, Sparky Lyle, who got out of the inning.

The game stayed tied in to the ninth. Michael led off with a single and Clarke sacrificed him over to second. White flied out to right and Alou doubled him home. (Matty's brother, Felipe Alou was also on the Yankees this year.) After 8 2/3 innings and 11 hits allowed, Martin finally pulled Coleman and brought in John Hiller, who finally got the Yankees out of the inning. The Tigers got two runners on against Lyle in the ninth, but Rodriguez popped out and Freehan struck out to end the game.

Martin would be let go by the Tigers on August 30 and Joe Schultz replaced him for the rest of the year. The Tigers finished in third place at 85-77. The Rangers would hire Martin on September 8 to replace Whitey Herzog. Houk's Yankees would finish 80-82, 17 games behind Baltimore in fourth place. Houk would step down as Yankees manager and take over the Tigers job in 1974.

1973 was also the last season, in a sense, for Yankee Stadium. The stadium would close for extensive renovations at the end of the year and the Yankees would share Shea Stadium for two seasons with the Mets. Yankee Stadium version 1.2, would have fewer seats and would no longer have monuments on the field that were in play. By the time Yankee Stadium reopened in 1976, Billy Martin would be calling the shots for the team.

Sources: Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com, New York Times

The Jeff Mathis experiment wasn't a success as he batted .103. The Howie Kendrick trial was not a big hit either as he batted .115. Now the Angels are bringing up another prospect, Kendry Morales from Salt Lake City. Pitcher Jason Bulger is going back down.

The Los Angeles Times article hints that Tony Clark may be a trade acquisiton possibility.

Before Monday's game against Detroit, the Kansas City Royals held a players only meeting.

"For some of the players, it was probably a long time coming," second baseman Mark Grudzielanek said. "Things needed to be said, obviously, or they wouldn't have came out yesterday."

The Royals went on to lose their tenth straight game of the year, 8-0 as Justin Verlander threw a five-hitter.

The Royals are now 10-32 on the season. They have the highest ERA in the majors at 5.97. They are also last in the majors in runs scored with 154.

The ten wins by the Royals have come against Cleveland (5 times!), Chicago (3), and Minnesota (twice, once by 1-0). They are 10-18 within their division and 0-14 against the AL East, AL West, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

In Sunday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith didn't have many nice thing to say about Cardinals manager Tony La Russa or GM Walt Jocketty.

Smith said he hadn't felt he belonged with the Cardinals since his last year with them coincided with manager Tony La Russa's first year as manager.

"I think everybody knows that I didn't fit in," Smith said. "And when you don't fit in . . . that's one of the reasons why I kind of backed off (of doing on-field work with the Cardinals). I won't do anything as long as the current management is in place."

At first, La Russa was trying to downplay any friction. But in Monday's paper, he changed his tone.

"Speaking personally, I don't think he would be good for our ballclub," said La Russa, who sought out the Post-Dispatch before Sunday's game. "For him to repeat those comments is really unreasonable. That invitation is no longer there.

"He's not welcome."

The American League's two newest teams, Toronto and Seattle, faced off at the Kingdome on a Friday night before 10,012 curious spectators. The Blue Jays pounded out five home runs as they won 7-5. The Blue Jays were in third place 2 games behind first place New York. The Mariners were tied for second with California, 3 1/2 games behind first place Kansas City.

Toronto manager Jimy Williams picked lefty John Cerutti to start. Seattle manager Dick Williams chose righthander Scott Bankhead as his starter. The Mariners were coming off a 67-95 last place finish in 1986 and hoping that Dick Williams would be able to turn around the franchise. Jimy Williams was in his second year in charge of the Blue Jays, taking over for Bobby Cox who left after the Blue Jays AL East title in 1985 to become general manager of Atlanta.

George Bell homered in the second inning to put Toronto ahead 1-0. In the fourth, Bell and Lloyd Moseby hit solo home runs to put the Blue Jays up 3-0.

In the bottom of the fourth, Cerutti gave up leadoff singles to Jim Presley and Ken Phelps and Mark Eichhorn came into relieve Cerutti. Eichhorn had put up one of the best relief pitching seasons ever in 1986 with a 1.72 ERA in 157 innings. He wouldn't be quite as sharp in 1987. And he wasn't sharp in the fourth inning.

The first batter Eichhorn faced was Dave Valle and Eichhorn hit him with a pitch to load the bases. Alvin Davis singled in two runs to make it 3-2 Toronto. Mike Kingery pinch hit for John Christensen and hit a sacrifice fly to score Phelps to tie the game. Rey Quiñones grounded into a force play and Valle scored and Seattle led 4-3.

The Blue Jays lost Bell after he was ejected in the fifth inning after striking out and Rick Leach replaced him in left field. In the seventh, Kelly Gruber homered to tie the game at 4-4. After Mike Sharperson struck out, Tony Fernandez walked. Ernie Whitt hit a grounder to Davis at first and he tried to get a force at second, but threw the ball into left field and Fernandez went to third. Willie Upshaw singled home Fernandez and Leach singled home Whitt and it was 6-4 Toronto. Finally, Dick Williams decided to pull Bankhead in favor of Jerry Reed. Bankhead had given up 11 hits, including four home runs in 6 1/3 innings. After the game, Seattle's Williams would admit that he should have pulled Bankhead earlier.

In the bottom of the seventh, Seattle got one run back. Phil Bradley led off with a triple and scored on a Presley ground out. Jeff Musselman came into relieve and got out of the inning.

In the eighth, Gruber hit his second home run of the game (and the season too) to put Toronto up 7-5. In the bottom of the eighth, with one out, Kingery doubled and Toronto's relief ace Tom Henke came in. Scott Bradley pinch hit for Quiñones and lofted a long fly ball to center, but Moseby tracked it down at the fence and Seattle's threat died. Henke retired the Mariners in order in the ninth to close it out.

1987 was not a happy year in either Toronto or Seattle. The Blue Jays led Detroit by 3 1/2 games with seven left to play. The Blue Jays would not win another game, including a three-game sweep in Detroit as the Tigers won the AL East.

Seattle would finish fourth in the AL West at 78-84, seven games behind first place Minnesota. Although the 78 wins were a franchise high, it was the 11th straight losing season for the Mariners. The Mariners would not finish over .500 until 1991.

Bell would win the AL MVP, batting .308 with 47 home runs and 134 RBI. It was a power-filled year through out baseball as home run totals spiked. The highlight for the Blue Jays came on September 14 when they hit a major league record 10 home runs in an 18-3 win over Baltimore at Exhibition Stadium. Eight Blue Jay hitters were in double figures in home runs.

The Mariners weren't as powerful, but they had a good pitcher in Mark Langston, who led the AL in strikeouts with 262. Mike Moore suffered through a 9-19 year. There wasn't much of a bullpen with Ed Nuñez leading the staff in saves with 12.

Sources: Seattle Times, Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com

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Early in the morning Sunday, the Minnesota State Senate approved a $522 million deal to build an outdoor stadium in downtown Minneapolis. The financing for the stadium will come from a sales tax increase for residents of Hennepin County (which contains Minneapolis, but not St. Paul.)

The University of Minnesota will also get a new outdoor stadium in Minneapolis, while the Vikings appear headed to suburban Blaine, in Anoka County, but the Minnesota legislature is not going to act on that proposal until next year.

The Legislature was meeting late because it is required by law to adjoun on Monday and cannot pass legislation on the last day.

Part-time state legislatures! This Californian finds the idea of them so quaint. Where I come from, the state legislators meet all year round and pass all sorts of crazy stuff. And we like it! Well, actually if we don't like it, we make up for it by putting incredibly complicated pieces of legislation on the ballot for the voters to throw a dart at to decide.

So does Tyler Snyder, the 19-year old Pleasanton man who caught Barry Bonds's 714th home run ball, sell it or keep it?

It looks like he's going to sell it.

What's he going to do? ``Sell it.''

Why? ``To get money, I guess.''

How much is it worth? ``I've heard a lot of numbers,'' Snyder said. ``Anywhere from $50,000 to $1 million.''

And what were his plans for Saturday night? ``Probably go out and party and stuff.''

Sometimes, I can't do justice to describing a game from the past as the people who were there did.

So, enjoy the Chicago Daily Tribune's two different game stories describing Chicago's 4-2 win over Boston 125 years ago.

Chicago would win its third NL pennant in 1881. Chicago would win six NL flags in the league's first 11 years.

Then came that pesky 20th century.

From the New York Times "Thirty seconds with ..." feature. This one features David Eckstein.

PICK THREE HISTORICAL FIGURES TO TAKE TO DINNER I hate going out to dinner with people. That's one of my biggest fears. I'm a very picky eater, and I'm not a big fan of that.

....

I DON'T GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT There's not anything I have to have with me. Hopefully I would remember my wallet.

Also in the Times, 36 hours in Syracuse!

That's about 35 hours and 45 minutes more than you need.

Meet Guy Bush, aka the Mississippi Mudcat.

Meet Jack Billingham. In 25 1/3 innings of World Series pitching, he had an ERA of 0.36.

Meet Brad Halsey. He's famous enough to be traded for Randy Johnson once. And now gets to join the exclusive 714 pitcher club.

Perhaps not a true review, but my thoughts after seeing The Da Vinci Code

• No one can solve a "Jumble" puzzle better than Tom Hanks.
  
• No one plays an albino, self-flagellating, sociopathic monk better than Paul Bettany.
  
• Always handy to have a jet on hand for quick escapes.
  
• Not to Ron Howard: It's dark at night, light during the day, keep this in mind for future films.
  
• The organizational abilities of the Catholic Church are never as good as depicted in films. If you want to see something Catholics are good at organizing, they should have shown Alfred Molina running a pancake dinner.
  
• All the supporting documentation of any organization nearly 2000 years old can fit into a room a little bit bigger than my bedroom.
  
• Jack Bauer would have found the Holy Grail faster by just shooting everybody in the thigh.
  

Jose Lima was designated for assignment by the New York Mets and Jeremi Gonzalez may soon be following.

According to Lee Jenkins in the New York Times, Mets GM Omar Minaya may be dipping down to AA Binghamton and bring up either Mike Pelfrey or Alay Soler.

The bored and the unemployed wandered out to Yankee Stadium on a Wednesday afternoon to watch the best team in the American League take on the worst team. Just 9,013 people looked on as the New York Yankees rallied from a 5-run deficit to beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-8 in a game that took 3:08 to play, or about 2:30 in 2006 terms.

Tigers manager Fred Hutchinson started veteran lefty Hal Newhouser. Although he was just 32, Newhouser was in his 15th season in the big leagues and had won back-to-back MVP awards in 1944 and 1945, the only pitcher to do so. Yankees manager Casey Stengel, whose team had won four consecutive World Series, started lefty Eddie Lopat. But there would many more pitchers who turn up in this game.

The Tigers got three hits and two runs off of Lopat in the first to jump on top. But the Yankees scored single runs in the second and third to tie the game. But in the top of the fifth, the first four Tigers reached, scoring a run and Lopat left with the bases loaded in favor of Ray Scarborough. Scarborough didn't get out of the inning until four more Tigers score, three of them on a double by second baseman Gerry Priddy. The Tigers led 7-2.

The Yankees got two men on in the bottom of the fifth. Gil McDougald brought them home when right fielder Bob Nieman played his fly ball into a triple. McDougald came home to score when Mickey Mantle beat out a grounder to shortstop Harvey Kuenn. That made the scored Detroit 7, New York 5.

Bill Miller came in to pitch for the Yankees in the sixth and walked two batters and was yanked in favor of Tom Gorman. Don Lund doubled home a run to put Detroit up 8-5, but the Yankees bullpen would stop the bleeding and it was up to the Tigers pen to save the game. They weren't up to the task.

Hutchinson brought in Dave Madison to pitch the sixth. Pinch-hitter Irv Noren, batting for Gorman, singled and first baseman Joe Collins, who came in as part of a double switch to play first in place of Don Bollweg, then homered