Ring in the new year!

The Powers That Be in college football bowldom have scheduled six games for today and six more for New Year's Day. Can anyone watch all of them? Two of them will be played at the same time and another will be on the NFL Network, which is available only in Cuba and the Maritime provinces of Canada.

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Oh come on, you are going to be watching this game? A pair of 6-6 teams, Alabama and Colorado duking it out in scenic Shreveport.

Here is a brief clip from the greatest Independence Bowl ever, back in 2000:

But if you choose to watch tonight, you can go root on Nick Saban, college football's most beloved coach and his Crimson Tide, or perhaps see if Dan Hawkins can avoid starting out at CU with back-to-back losing seasons.

Alabama will be playing in its 55th bowl game and is 30-21-3 in earlier appearances. The Crimson Tide lost to Oklahoma State in last year's Independence Bowl, 34-31. They beat Iowa State, 14-13, in the 2001 Independence Bowl.

Colorado is appearing in its 28th bowl and is 12-15 in earlier games.

Alabama and Colorado have played each other twice in their history, both times in bowl games. The Buffaloes beat the Crimson Tide 47-33 in the 1969 Liberty Bowl and Alabama beat CU, 30-25, in the 1991 Blockbuster Bowl.

Do you want to catch up on the history of baseball but don't have the time to do things like read books or you know, learn stuff? Well, here's the history of baseball from 1876 to the present in year-by-year format for people with short attention spans. Of course, it does cover 132 years, so maybe you need a longer attention span.

• 1876 - Play ball in the National League!
• 1877 - Hey, those Louisville guys were cheating!
• 1878 - Paul Hines wins the Triple Crown, but nobody notices because no one has thought of RBIs yet.
• 1879 - "Hey, why don't we try this reserve clause thing."
• 1880 - Look the Cubs were really good once!
• 1881 - Chicago has better year than James Garfield.
• 1882 - Play ball in the American Association!
• 1883 - Phillies play first season and win just 17 games. Angry fans there boo Chester Arthur.
• 1884 - Play ball in the Union Association!
• 1885 - Chicago plays St. Louis in World Series and the teams tie 3-3-1.
• 1886 - Pitcher Guy Hecker leads American Association in batting.
• 1887 - Walks count as hits! Tip O'Neill bats .490!
• 1888 - Walks don't count as hits. Tip O'Neill bats .335.
• 1889 - Dodgers face Giants for the first time. They don't like each other.
• 1890 - Play ball in the Players League!
• 1891 - Back down to two leagues. Boston wins both of them.
• 1892 - Down to just one league and it's got 12 teams!
• 1893 - Pitchers back up to 60'6". Batters like this.
• 1894 - Batters tee off and hit .309 and teams average 7.36 runs per game. Speaker of the House Charles Crisp threatens investigations.
• 1895 - Players beat each other up a lot.
• 1896 - Players continue to beat each other up.
• 1897 - Boston succeeds in beating up Baltimore more efficiently and takes pennant.
• 1898 - St. Louis loses 111 games, but fans still refuse to leave games early.
• 1899 - Cleveland loses 134 games and misses pennant by 84 games.
• 1900 - Just one league. Just eight teams. But something is in the air.
• 1901 - Play ball in the American League!
• 1902 - Pirates win NL by 27 1/2 games, but fans would rather talk about NFL franchise that won't start play for 31 years.
• 1903 - The World Series starts. TV ratings are the lowest ever.
• 1904 - The World Series is cancelled on account of the New York Giants being jerks.
• 1905 - World Series starts up again and all five games are shutouts. TV ratings drop further.
• 1906 - Cubs win 116 games, but just two in the World Series as the White Sox rule Chicago.
• 1907 - Cubs win the World Series! There are more to follow!
• 1908 - Fred Merkle doesn't touch second. Cubs win the World Series again!
• 1909 - World Series goes seven games for the first time. Pirates win.
• 1910 - St. Louis teams combine for 197 losses. But fans remain cheerful.
• 1911 - World Series needs 13 days to play six games.
• 1912 - Snodgrass muffs it. Red Sox win the World Series.
• 1913 - Walter Johnson goes 36-7 with 1.04 ERA, Washington still doesn't win.
• 1914 - Braves go from 15 games out of first to winning by 10 1/2 in just 90 days.
• 1915 - Play ball in the Federal League!
• 1916 - Philadelphia A's go 36-117 and finish 40 games out of seventh.
• 1917 - White Sox win World Series more or less honestly.
• 1918 - Red Sox win World Series in war-shortened season, expect titles to keep on coming.
• 1919 - That World Series seems fishy.
• 1920 - Yep, it was fishy.
• 1921 - Babe Ruth hits lots and lots of home runs. People are happy.
• 1922 - Supreme Court says, "Antitrust? What antitrust laws? I don't see any antitrust laws!"
• 1923 - Long suffering Yankees fans rewarded with first World Series title.
• 1924 - Bad hop! Washington wins the World Series!
• 1925 - Pirates win Game 7. Again.
• 1926 - Hungover guy strikes out Tony Lazzeri. St. Louisans cheer!
• 1927 - Hey, those Yankee guys are good!
• 1928 - Those Yankee guys are still good!
• 1929 - Cubs blow the World Series. TWICE!
• 1930 - Philadelphia A's dynasty looks unbeatable.
• 1931 - Philadelphia A's dynasty beaten.
• 1932 - Babe Ruth points somewhere.
• 1933 - Six Crown Year for Philadelphia with Klein and Foxx.
• 1934 - Dizzy Dean makes being a hick chic.
• 1935 - Fans begin to tire of seeing Cubs lose in World Series.
• 1936 - Yankees resume beating the crap out of everybody.
• 1937 - Yankees continute beatings.
• 1938 - Cubs roll over and play dead to avoid beating from Yankees.
• 1939 - Ernie Lombardi snoozes and Yankees win again.
• 1940 - Reds win World Series against opponent that was trying.
• 1941 - Yankees play Dodgers in World Series. Young Roger Kahn writes wistful essay about it for school.
• 1942 - Dodgers win 104 games. Cardinals win 106 and the World Series.
• 1943 - Yankees who avoided draft beat Cardinals who avoided draft.
• 1944 - Cardinals beat crosstown rivals and discover that the Browns actually do have brown in their uniform.
• 1945 - Guys back from the war get together and play World Series. Detroit declared winner.
• 1946 - Enos Slaughter runs through stop sign, St. Louis wins again.
• 1947 - 42
• 1948 - Cleveland beats Boston in one-game playoff and then Boston again in the World Series.
• 1949 - Young David Halberstam writes wistful essay in school about AL pennant race.
• 1950 - Fans puzzle over Philadelphia pennant in NL. Write it off as fluke.
• 1951 - Brooklyn leads it 4-2...Hartung down the line at third not taking any chances... Lockman with not too big of a lead at second, but he'll be runnin' like the wind if Thomson hits one... Branca throws... [audible sound of bat meeting ball]
• 1952 - Yankees and Dodgers win pennants again, but Bobby Shantz and Hank Sauer win MVP awards.
• 1953 - Yankees and Dodgers combine for 17 homers in six game World Series. Congress investigates how Dodgers won 105 games with bad pitching.
• 1954 - Don Liddle retires Vic Wertz in key at bat as Giants sweep Cleveland.
• 1955 - Dodgers win World Series. Wistful essays are written throughout Brooklyn.
• 1956 - Don Larsen: 97 pitches, 27 up, 27 down.
• 1957 - Baseball fans wonder how team in Wisconsin can win World Series.
• 1958 - Major League Baseball goes to the Pacific Time Zone. East Coast fans ready themselves for scores such as "Philadelphia at Los Angeles, night."
• 1959 - White Sox discover that trying to win the World Series doesn't mean that you necessarily will win.
• 1960 - Back to the wall goes Berra... it is... over the fence! Home run! The Pirates win! Pirates win Game 7. Again.
  
• 1961 - AL says hello to the West Coast. Roger Maris hits lots and lots of home runs.
• 1962 - Mets lose 120 games and become very popular.
• 1963 - Yankees discover that this Koufax kid is good.
• 1964 - Heimlich maneuver not invented in time to keep Phillies from losing NL pennant.
• 1965 - Sandy Koufax makes hitters cry uncle.
• 1966 - Entire Baltimore pitching staff makes the Dodgers cry uncle.
• 1967 - Red Sox live Impossible Dream, but still lose World Series.
• 1968 - Baseball player hits double. Film at 11!
• 1969 - Ooh... divisions... Canada....
• 1970 - Baseball returns to Milwaukee. Guy with bad haircut is hailed as hero.
• 1971 - Pirates win Game 7 of World Series. Again.
• 1972 - Mustaches become cool.
• 1973 - Ya gotta believe the 1973 Mets are the worst team ever to win the pennant.
• 1974 - He's sittin' on 7-14... Here's the pitch by Downing... swinging... there's a drive into left-center field... that ball is gonna beeee... Outta here! It's gone! It's 7-15! There's a new home run champion of all time... and it's Henry Aaron!
• 1975 - "Mr. Kuhn, Mr. Seitz is on the phone for you. He says it's important."
  
• 1976 - 100 years of the National League makes teams wear funny caps.
• 1977 - Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!
• 1978 - "Deep to left! Yastrzemski will not get it -- it's a home run! A three-run home run for Bucky Dent..."
• 1979 - Pirates win Game 7 of World Series. Again.
• 1980 - The Phillies? The Philadelphia Phillies. They won? You've got to be kidding.
• 1981 - Split season shenanigans!
• 1982 - Cardinals beat Brewers in first World Series where all food served in the stadiums is deep fried in lard and beer.
• 1983 - Does anybody really remember anything about the 1983 season?
• 1984 - Tigers win World Series over San Diego as baseball enters into bleak, dsytopian world.
• 1985 - Vince Coleman takes on tarp roller and loses. Kansas City wins the World Series.
• 1986 - "Behind the bag … it gets through Buckner!"
• 1987 - "It's kind of loud in here! Don't you think?" "What?" "Never mind."
• 1988 - "Gibson a deep sigh...regripping the bat...shoulders just shrugged...now goes to the top of the helmet as he always does...steps in with that left foot... Eckersley working out of a stretch. Here's the 3-2 pitch..."
• 1989 - 7.1
• 1990 - See 1931 and insert "Oakland" in place of "Philadelphia"
• 1991 - Braves begin quest to lose every World Series of the decade
• 1992 - Canada? They have teams in Canada? Is that allowed?
• 1993 - "Here's the pitch on the way...a swing and a BELT! LEFT FIELD...WAY BACK...BLUE JAYS WIN IT!"
• 1994 - Still waiting
• 1995 - Baseball adds a new round of playoffs, but hardly anyone sees it.
• 1996 - Yankees reward long-suffering fans with World Series win.
• 1997 - Marlins reward short attention span fans with World Series win.
• 1998 - Ooh, lots of home runs. Looks like fun. How do I do get that big and strong?
• 1999 - Chad Curtis refuses to talk to Jim Grey. America wins twice!
• 2000 - The Subway Series makes a comeback. America is not impressed.
• 2001 - Diamondbacks win World Series despite being managed by Bob Brenly.
• 2002 - Scott Spiezio and Darin Erstad win one for Michael Eisner.
• 2003 - Cubs sign wrong Alex Gonzalez, lose NLCS.
• 2004 - Finally, those people can just shut up.
• 2005 - South Siders laugh derisively at North Siders.
• 2006 - Cardinals become first NL team to win 10 World Series. Approximately eight people notice it.
• 2007 - Why do those people win all the time? It's not fair!
  

Patriots-Giants on two networks! Bah, no time! There's more minor bowl action to watch!

It starts at 10 am PT with the Meineke Car Care Bowl (formerly the Continental Tire Bowl) from Charlotte. This year's edition matches a pair of teams better known for basketball: Connecticut (9-3) and Wake Forest (8-4). The Huskies were co-champs of the Big East with West Virginia.

UConn has appeared in just one other bowl game, the 2004 Motor City Bowl, a 39-10 win over Toledo. Wake Forest has appeared in seven bowls and is 4-3, losing last year to Louisville in the Orange Bowl. Their last bowl win was over Oregon in the 2002 Seattle Bowl.

UConn and Wake have played each other twice and they have split the two games with the road team winning each time, once in 2003 and again in 2006.

The Big East is 1-0 in bowl games so far with Cincinnati picking up a win over Southern Miss in the Papajohns.com Bowl. The ACC is 1-1 in bowl games with BC winning and Maryland losing.

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A tripleheader of bowls although one game will likely be seen by few people since it will be shown on the NFL Network only. And CBS and NBC aren't going to show it either.

The action gets underway at 2 pm PT at the Champs Sports Bowl from Orlando, the first of two bowl games from there this week. #14 Boston College (10-3) faces unranked Michigan State (7-5).

When it comes to bowl games, BC is on a roll winning their last seven (Utah won its seven straight last week in the Poinsettia Bowl). The Eagles have played in 18 bowls and have gone 12-6. BC's bowl winning streak has not been in the biggest series of games however: Aloha, Music City, Motor City, San Francisco, Continental Tire, MPC Computers, and Meineke Car Care.

The Spartans are playing their 18th bowl game and have gone 7-10 in the previous ones. They have not played in a bowl game since losing to Nebraska 17-3 in the 2003 Alamo Bowl. Their last win was in the 2001 Silicon Valley Football Classic over Fresno State.

BC and Michigan State have met five times with BC winning three times, Michigan State once, and one tie. They last played each other in 1995 in East Lansing and Michigan State won 25-21.

Michigan State will be the second Big Ten team to play a bowl game. Purdue beat Central Michigan 51-48 in the Motor City Bowl. BC will be the first ACC team to play in a bowl this year.

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Jim Beauchamp, who spent 50 years in organized baseball, 10 as a player in the majors and 22 years as a coach with the Atlanta Braves, passed away Tuesday in Atlanta at the age of 68 of leukemia.

Beauchamp was Bobby Cox's bench coach from 1991 through 1998.

Major league career. 

Nothing says, "Your college football team is pretty good, but not really special" more so than a trip to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego (with the noted exception of the 1984 BYU National Championship team). The 2007 edition kicks off at 5 pm PT and matches #12 Arizona State (10-2) and #17 Texas (9-3).

The Sun Devils had a better than expected year thanks in part to a favorable schedule and a penchant for comebacks. The Longhorns had a worse than expected year mainly because they lost to BOTH Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Arizona State will be appearing in its 24th bowl game and is 12-10-1 in previous bowl games. They are 0-2 in the Holiday Bowl, losing to Arkansas 18-17 in 1985 and falling to Kansas State 34-27 in 2002.

Texas will be appearing in its 47th bowl game and its fourth Holiday Bowl. Texas lost to Oregon 35-30 in 2000, beat Washington 47-43 in 2001, and lost to Washington State 28-20 in 2003. Texas is 23-21-2 overall in bowl games.

Texas and Arizona State have never played each other previously. The Sun Devils will complete the circuit of Pac-10 teams for Texas. ASU has played nine other Big XII schools and still has not played Iowa State or Kansas.

You can choose to cheer on ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter, the pride of Newbury Park Westlake Village or Texas QB Colt McCoy, who has a name that sounds really cool. Well, at least to me.

What do you open the day after Christmas? The doors to Ford Field in Detroit for the Motor City Bowl!

It's a matchup of the Purdue Boilermakers (7-5) and the Central Michigan Chippewas (8-5). Central Michigan was the champion of the Mid-American Conference, while Purdue happened to be one of the 10 teams in the Big Ten+1 with a winning record. While this game may not seem attractive, it will likely draw a big crowd. There were over 54,000 at the game last year.

Central Michigan played in this bowl last year against Middle Tennessee State in a game that had just one hashmark used right in the middle of the field to make everyone happy. Central Michigan is located in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, a city that is guilty of false advertising with both parts of its name.

Purdue beat CMU earlier in the season, 45-22. But that was back when Purdue was considered good. The Boilermakers lost five of their last seven. Central Michigan gives up lots of points. The Chippewas gave up 52 to Kansas, 70 to Clemson, and 48 to Eastern Michigan.

Central Michigan has played in just three bowls and its only win was last year. The other losses were to San Jose State in the 1990 California Bowl and to UNLV in the 1994 Las Vegas Bowl.

Purdue is 7-7 alltime in bowls and have lost six of their last seven bowl games. Purdue is 3-0 alltime against Central Michigan.

Willie Mays Aikens that is.

From the Griddle's Capital Bureau comes this Washington Post story by Darryl Fears about how the U.S. Sentencing Commission's decision to stop charging criminals convicted of possession of crack cocaine with longer sentences than people charged with possession of powdered cocaine.

Aikens received more than 15 years for possession of 64 grams of crack -- about the weight of a large Snickers bar. To receive an equivalent sentence, he would have had to possess nearly 6 1/2 kilos -- more than 14 pounds -- of powder cocaine.

"You can supply a whole neighborhood with 6 1/2 kilos," Aikens said by telephone from prison, where he is in the 13th year of his sentence.

And don't forget to Weill away the hours with the weekly puzzle.

This one might hold you over for the rest of 2007.

From Ken Levine's blog, an inspired movie trailer version of one of America's Christmas classics:

Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times reports on the trend for online sites such as ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports to hire away writers from what would normally be considered the top print publications.

ESPN.com has recently hired Howard Bryant, Mark Fainaru-Wada, Rick Reilly, Selena Roberts among many others. Yahoo has gone for cheaper names, but has hit the Los Angeles Times hard after hiring David Morgan of the Times to run its sports operation.

“When you lose an established star like Howard Bryant, it’s a terrible blow, because they’re not easily replaceable,” said Mr. [Emilio] Garcia-Ruiz of The [Washington] Post. “We’re used to being a destination, not a stepping stone.”

What better way to get ready for the holidays than with some exciting minor bowl action from the 50th state?

Normally, the University of Hawai'i would play in this game if they had a winning record, but the 'Bows spoiled things by going undefeated and going to the Sugar Bowl. So instead it will be last season's favorite underdog, Boise State (10-2), facing East Carolina (7-5).

A crowd of invited guests is expected. Boise State finished its regular season with a loss at Hawai'i, so it's not like its fans are motivated to make another trip out to the islands. And East Carolina's fans probably won't be coming out in big numbers either. Mostly because they can't figure out which state they're really in.

Boise State has played in seven bowl games at the Division 1-A level and is 5-2 in those games and three of those wins came at home.

East Carolina is 4-4 in 1-A level bowls, including an epic 64-61 loss to Marshall in 2001. The Pirates are 3-2 in lower division bowl games, losing the 1952 Lions Bowl played in Salisbury, North Carolina and the 1954 Elks Bowl played in Greenville, South Carolina. They did beat Northeastern in the 1963 Eastern Bowl in Allentown, Pennsylvania and won the 1964 and 1965 Tangerine Bowls (over UMass and Maine), which has since morphed into the Capital One Bowl.

Boise State Fight Song

East Carolina Victory March

Apparently, you can measure grit. Flotsam Media gives us G.R.I.T. (General Requirements of Intangible Talents). I think it should just be GRIT, but I suppose these people like the New York Times style.

The alltime grittiest season belongs to Ron Hunt in 1971. The least gritty season came from Barry Bonds in 2004. Craig Biggio is the career leader and Barry Bonds again pulls up the rear.

G.R.I.T. is determined by a complicated formula that breaks down to (Dirt + Determination - Talent) / Opportunity.

You've seen it before, but it's always worth another look: Masafumi Yamamori's famous catch in 1981.

A tripleheader of bowl games that you will neither remember or forget!

It kicks off at 10 am PT with the PapaJohn's.com Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama. Why is this game played in Birmingham named after a pizza company headquartered in Louisville? It's best not to think about such things.

Anyway, Southern Mississippi (7-5) and fired its longtime coach, Jeff Bower (he still gets to coach this game), takes on Cincinnati (9-3). Southern Miss has played in 15 bowl games in its history and is 8-7. The Golden Eagles also have played in four other postseason exhibitions including the 1946 Cigar Bowl against Havana University. Southern Miss won that one, 55-0.

Cincinnati has played in eight bowls if you don't count the 1949 Glass Bowl against Toledo, which apparently was just a fancy name for a regular season game. The Bearcats are 4-4 in bowl games. Southern Miss and Cincy used to be in the same conference and have played each other 14 times and split those games. This one should settle the score!

At 1:30 PT comes the New Mexico Bowl. It's played in Albuquerque, which the last time I was there, was in New Mexico! Brilliant idea! And one of the teams playing in it is New Mexico. The Lobos will be playing the Nevada Wolf Pack. Bring your own lycanthrope! New Mexico was 8-4 and Nevada was 6-6 this season.

New Mexico has played in ten bowl games and is 2-7-1 and last won in the 1961 Aviation Bowl (in Dayton, Ohio, at treat for anyone) against Western Michigan. They also won the 1946 Sun Bowl against Denver.

Nevada is 3-4 in bowl games and lost won one in 2005 when they squeeked by Central Florida 49-48 in the Hawai'i Bowl.

Surprisingly, the two schools haven't played each other since 1942 (a scoreless tie). New Mexico beat Nevada in 1941. But for over 60 years, these two teams have seen neither hide nor hair of each other.

And to put the cherry on the sundae, at 5 pm, it's the Las Vegas Bowl, from well, Las Vegas. Brigham Young (10-2) and ranked 19th takes on one of the two teams that beat them this year, UCLA (6-6). Toward the end of this game, you may wonder how UCLA actually beat BYU. (Tulsa handed BYU its other loss.)

BYU will be playing in its 26th bowl game and is 8-16-1. The Cougars lost to UCLA in the 1986 Freedom Bowl in Anaheim.

UCLA will be in its 28th bowl game and is 13-14-1. UCLA has played BYU eight times and won seven of the matchups. And the two teams will play again on September 13, 2008 in Provo.

If you watch all three games in their entirety today, you will receive a special commendation from Congress. Or possibly a subpoena. I know a guy.

Really, you're going to watch this? Memphis (7-5) versus Florida Atlantic (7-5). Good for you.

Florida Atlantic, in its third season of Division I-A football, won the Sun Belt Conference this year and that gave them a spot in the first of three bowl games to be played in the Lousiaina Superdome this season. The Owls, in their brief history, have won only one game against a team from a BCS conference and that was Minnesota this year. Florida Atlantic also beat Hawai'i in 2004.

Memphis is 5-1 alltime in bowl games. Their first win was in the 1952 Burley Bowl (burley is a type of tobacco grown in the area) over East Tennessee State. That was played in Johnson City, Tennesee. Then there was the Tigers trip to Pasadena in 1971 to play in the Rose Bowl. Except it wasn't for the Rose Bowl, but rather the Pasadena Bowl on December 18, and Memphis (then Memphis State) beat San Jose State, 28-9.

The Tigers won the New Orleans Bowl in 2003 over North Texas State, then lost to Bowling Green in the 2004 GMAC Bowl, and beat Akron in the 2005 Motor City Bowl.

Tommy Byrne, who pitched in 13 major league seasons, mostly with the Yankees, but also with the Browns, White Sox, and Senators, passed away in North Carolina at age 87.

Byrne appeared in four World Series (1949, 1955, 1956, and 1957). Byrne pitched the 8th and 9th innings of Game 7 of the 1957 World Series against the Milwaukee Braves and Casey Stengel allowed Byrne to bat with two outs in the ninth inning and the Yankees down 5-0. Byrne singled, but Bill Skowron followed with a forceout to third to end the game. That at bat was Byrne's last appearance in a big league game.

I really don't expect much chatting, but since I have little to write about this time of year, I am going to post a chat thread for all 32 college football bowl games (days with multiple games will get one thread). Why? I do not know. Perhaps because it is there. Once I used to make it a goal to see at least one minute of each bowl game just because I do things like that. But now that some games are on the NFL Network that will never happen. And some days I will actually go out and socialize with people over the holidays.

But for tonight, enjoy Utah (8-4) versus Navy (8-4) in the Poinsettia Bowl at 6 pm PT from San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. It's the first ever meeting between the Utes and the Midshipmen.

Utah has won its last six bowl appearances defeating Fresno State, USC, Southern Mississippi, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, and Tulsa. Navy's lost last bowl victory was in this game in 2005 against Colorado State.

Jonathan Papelbon claims that his dog, Boss, chewed on the baseball that he used to record the final out of the 2007 World Series and that the ball is pretty much destroyed.

Doug Mientkiewicz has sued the dog.

The War for Jenkins' Ear, plus the rest of him, is over as the Phillies are going to sign the former Brewer to a 2-year contract.

The Phillies also signed pitcher Chad Durbin to give them a matching pair of Durbins as J.D. is already on the team. As far as I can tell the two Durbins aren't related and this Durbin isn't either.

One of the two major bond rating service, Fitch Ratings, has announced that it is not changing its rating for the bond issues from Major League Baseball (called the Major League  Baseball Trust) in light of the Mitchell Report. They were A and they will remain A. The highest rating from Fitch is AAA.

I don't know what the Moody's (really Mergent) rating is, but from my experience of working as a librarian in the Business Department of the library for several years, is that when someone asks a questions about bond issues, the best way to answer the question is to crawl under the desk and hide and hope that the person asking the question believed that you died.  It proved to be an unsuccessful tactic.

Curt Schilling at his 38pitches.com blog goes on at length about the Mitchell Report and some of the players involved.

The most interesting part is about Roger Clemens.

Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. I know both of these men. Roger had a profound effect on my career from a very early point. His ‘undressing’ of me and lecture were a major turning point. I’ve always respected his career accomplishments and regarded him as the greatest pitcher to ever play the game. Now I, like every other Yankee, Clemens fan am faced with a dilemma. The two men that fingered multiple players, from my understanding, both testified with immunity, but only if they told the truth. So these guys had every reason in the world to NOT lie. That doesn’t mean they didn’t, but there is an immense amount of incentive for them to NOT lie when they gave their depositions because lying would have seen them open to legal actions beyond what they are already facing. So the question to me then becomes this. It’s no mystery that Roger and Andy are as close as any two teammates I know of. Andy makes no bones about Rogers influence in his career. Their personal trainer, the trainer Roger took to Toronto, then to NY, has admitted to administering PED’s to both men. Andy has admitted he did, and that it was a mistake and he never did it again. Roger has denied every allegation brought to the table. So as a fan my thought is that Roger will find a way in short order to organize a legal team to guarantee a retraction of the allegations made, a public apology is made, and his name is completely cleared. If he doesn’t do that then there aren’t many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and 3 Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end. From that point on the numbers were attained through using PED’s. Just like I stated about Jose, if that is the case with Roger, the 4 Cy Youngs should go to the rightful winners and the numbers should go away if he cannot refute the accusations.

From MLB.com  

Rox talk to Giles about second base 

In a compromise to satisfy the people who liked them and the people who hated them (I really don't care about people who had no opinion about them), there will be one rebus puzzle per week. Unless otherwise specified, the puzzles will have a baseball theme. The answer will not be provided with the puzzle.

Don Chevrier, the first TV broadcaster for the Toronto Blue Jays back in 1977, passed away at his home in Palm Harbor, Florida Monday at age 69. The cause of death was a blood disorder.

In addition to baseball, Chevrier covered numerous other sports in Canada and the U.S. He may be remembered most recently for calling the rock-by-rock action in Olympic curling for NBC along with Don Duguid.

In 1980, Chevrier called the USA-USSR "Miracle on Ice" hockey game for ABC Radio.

Chevrier worked for the Blue Jays for 20 years.

The Washington Nationals will debut their new stadium, Nationals Park (until someone pays them for a better name), for regular season action on March 30, 2008 against the Braves in the first ESPN Sunday Night game of the year.

"I cannot think of anything more fitting than the first domestic contest of 2008 being played in the nation's capital," team president Stan Kasten said.

State Department employees and embassy workers are not welcome.

Korean slugger Lee Seung Yeop has agreed to return to the Yomiuri Giants for a second year, but agreed to a 20 million yen (about $177,000) pay cut. He will still make 630 million yen (about $5.5 million).

This past season, Lee was limited to 30 home runs and 74 RBIs
while batting just .274 after suffering injuries, including a damaged
left thumb.

''I am not satisfied with my personal performance this past
season. I didn't fulfill my role as the cleanup man,'' Lee said.

Jack Cassel has signed with Houston.

Terrmel Sledge is joining the Nippon Ham Fighters.

Jon Garland has joined Garret Anderson on the Angels.

I am presently sitting on my couch.

Today's Kennedy High trivia question: What is the name of the school's largest building?

It's Day 5 since the Mitchell Report named Fernando Viña as a user of PEDs and the ESPN commenter has not appeared on ESPN to address the matter.

This leads to several questions:

1. Do we need to know?
2. Can ESPN compel testimony from anyone? I have nightmares about Chris Berman coming after me with a subpoena. Or even worse Tony Kornheiser.
3. Fernando Viña worked for ESPN?

UPDATE - Viña speaks on the matter.

He looks pretty good for a guy who is going to turn 145 years old in a few days.

According to a Palm Beach Post story, the Florida Marlins drew approximately 50 fans to the first two hours of their season ticket "Select a seat" day at Dolphins Stadium.

The Marlins marketing slogan for 2008 is "You Gotta Be Here!"

According to an AP report, Andy Pettitte has acknowledged that he did indeed use HGH in the past, but he says it was only on two occassions back in 2002.

"If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize," Pettitte said Saturday in a statement released by his agent. "I accept responsibility for those two days."

According to Ken Davidoff of Newsday, Roger Clemens is planning to come back to pitch again in 2008. Houston and Boston are expected to be the teams Clemens is interested in.

The St. Louis Cardinals have reached a deal with the San Diego Padres to ship Jim Edmonds to San Diego in exchange for minor leaguer David Freese, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. There will be cash involved also.

The Kentucky General Assembly has voted to name part of U.S. 60 outside of Ashland, Kentucky in honor of native son Brandon Webb. It should run from approximately where the arrow is in this link until you hit the Ohio River.

The Mark McGwire Freeway section of I-70 is still meeting with opposition.

Library catalogers have taken their look at the Mitchell Report.

OCLC Worldcat record.

In a sign of how information is disseminated now, ESPN is trying to summarize the Mitchell Report in a news crawl that appears underneath the action of the NCAA women's volleyball semifinals.

There's no better way to learn complex information than in crawl form. I'm going to go out and buy a newspaper tomorrow and have someone cut out each line and then paste them together horizontally and then have them pulled right to left in front of me.

Would I have learned more in college if all my textbooks had been presented to me in a similar way?

David Eckstein has signed a one-year deal for $4.5 million with the Toronto Blue Jays. Eckstein is expected to bat leadoff in 2008 for Toronto.

"That's been his role and he's always been successful at it," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told The Canadian Press. "He's a tough out and he really battles. He just seems to find a way to get something done."

At 11AM PT, MLB.com will broadcast the press conference and make downloads available from its Mitchell Report home page. You can now download the report. Will this Mitchell Report be as controversial and have as much implications for the future of mankind as the last one?

Direct link to report.

With new baseball books not titled “The Mitchell Report” not coming out for a couple of months, I took a stab at a recent book written about one of the obscure parts of the history of the NFL. That is, the controversial championship decision of 1925, which is officially recorded as belonging to the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals, but one that many think should belong to the long defunct Pottsville Maroons. Pottsville’s story is recounted by ESPN.com writer David Fleming in his new book: Breaker Boys.

Pottsville is a city in Eastern Pennsylvania that in its heyday was known as the “Queen City of Anthracite.” The coal mines of Pennsylvania provide a backdrop for Fleming’s recounting of the 1925 season as the book opens with a horrific description of what working in a coal mine was like around the turn of the century. One of the jobs in a coal mine was called a “breaker boy” and it was a job given usually to children who would pick pieces of rock that weren’t coal out of a long chute.

Pottsville had little else going for it except pro football and back in 1925, that was akin to saying that your town was notable for having the second-highest murder rate in the country. Football in the 1920s was a sport played by proper college men, not mercenaries paid by the game and rounded up each week to entertain the masses.

Continue reading...

The Baltimore Orioles have traded shortstop Miguel Tejada to the Houston Astros for five players.

Thanks kylepetterson.

The Tampa School Board has voted to name a new high school in the city of Lutz, Florida after New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. (Insert joke here.)

Actually, that part of the linked article from the St. Petersburg Times is the least strange part. If you keep reading further down, you get to this:

In an unusual encounter, a School Board critic confronted chairwoman Jennifer Faliero during the public comment section of the board meeting.

The question came from Lee Drury De Cesare, who lives in Madeira Beach but has set her sights on the Hillsborough school system in a blog that spares few officials in its criticism.

De Cesare said she wanted to bring up a rumor that surfaced recently on local blogs where teachers post anonymously. Faliero stopped her twice, warning that this forum was for school business, not rumors. De Cesare challenged that this was free speech.

"Did you have an affair in the school environment?" asked De Cesare, who previously made news by asking then-Attorney General Charlie Crist if he is gay.

Dave Smith of Retrosheet has announced the release of two new data sets. One is the play by play data for the 2007 season. Now you can relive the Padres-Rockies one-game playoff. Or Clay Buchholz's no-hitter. Or Jose Guillen reaching first on catcher's interference on September 30!

Also 1956 play by play is available. Here is the play-by-play of the NL pennant clinching game by Brooklyn. Did you know that in 1956 there were two only two catcher's interference calls all year in the AL? And Joe Collins of the Yankees had both of them. There were only two in the NL. One was by Sandy Amoros in the Dodgers' 153rd game of the season. Andy Seminick of the Phillies had the other one.

One year on a December 10 in the future, Dave Smith and Retrosheet will be honored in Stockholm.

Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post reports that the Nationals and Paul Lo Duca have agreed on a one-year, approximately $5 million contract.

And a different year birthday for me.

Current status for me: not dead. What more can you ask for?

I can't promise that this status will always be accurate. I'll check back in the morning to see if is.

8:22 a.m. PT - status: still not dead. Woo hoo!

11:14 a.m. PT - status unchanged!

Joe Posnanski has a long interview with Bob Dutton, Royals beat writer for the Kansas City Star, about the status of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), which has been in the news recently over its decision to allow writers from internet sites in to the association. However, ESPN.com's Rob Neyer and Keith Law were excluded.

This decision led to one of the longest threads I'd ever seen at Rich Lederer's Baseball Analysts. There was also a monstrously long thread at Baseball Think Factory that started out on topic and then devolved into something else. I sort of gave up in the 200s. I'm sure the Mets were involved in it.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times has seen the home movies that Saul Terry, formerly of Scottsdale, Arizona (and now deceased) took on a trip with his wife, Elise, to New York City back in 1956. One of their stops: Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

Terry's family rejected MLB's initial offer to buy the film. There are parts of the original NBC broadcast still existing, but they have only been shown to a small audience.

Many famous sporting events don't exist on tape or film in complete form. Super Bowls I and II are examples of this. For Larsen's perfect game, most of us will still have to settle for watching newsreel footage of Yogi Berra jumping into Don Larsen's arms after a recreation of umpire Babe Pinelli calling out pinch hitter Dale Mitchell to end the game.

The Texas Rangers have reached a preliminary agreement on a 1-year, $5 million contract with free agent outfielder Milton Bradley, according to an AP report.

Texas will be Bradley's sixth stop after playing in Montreal, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego. Bradley will DH and play the outfield after his injured knee allows it.

Bradley's end in San Diego was legendary.

Several news outlets, an example being The Canadian Press, are reporting that Japanese free agent outfielder Kosuke Fukudome has turned down the Yomiuri Giants contract offer. And since Fukudome, who has played his whole career for the Chunichi Dragons, has said that he would play in Japan for the Giants or no one, the right fielder should be on his way to MLB.

The Cubs, White Sox, and Padres are all making strong plays for Fukudome.

And if you don't trust me, you can read the story from Nikkan Sports.

Erstwhile Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent flays, filets, and purees the Baseball Hall of Fame's selection of Bowie Kuhn in an op-ed piece for the New York Times. Vincent goes on to champion former Players Association executive Marvin Miller.

[Marvin] Miller was much smarter and more talented than [Bowie] Kuhn. Though not a lawyer, he was a public relations genius. He had been an economist with the United Steelworkers when he became the executive director of the players’ union. Miller presented the economic issues in baseball largely in moral terms. Kuhn was the lawyer who argued against change. Miller argued against evil. Guess which was more appealing?

Kuhn permitted  Miller to portray the owners as unenlightened and mean-spirited rich men while casting the players as downtrodden and benighted workers who wanted only to be treated fairly. The owners never had a chance.

When Kuhn was pushed out of baseball — as I was years later — he went back to his law firm. In 1988, he and another lawyer started a new firm that was expected to be a grandly successful practice. At the end of 1989, Myerson & Kuhn filed for bankruptcy. At this point, Kuhn moved to Florida — a move that his creditors’ lawyers said was made to claim the protection of that state’s homestead exemption.

Under that law, the home of a debtor may not be used to satisfy debts, and so Kuhn, with a large, valuable and recently purchased Florida residence, was literally home free. In effect, he thumbed his nose at the banks and court in New York, and he left his partners, some of whom he had vigorously recruited, holding a huge empty bag. One such former partner, a tax expert, complained bitterly to me when I was in baseball. He has since died but I wonder how he would have felt about this latest honor by an institution that claims to value character when it considers candidates.

Ahh, the beauty of cut and paste.

The New York Yankees designated for assignment Bronson Kiheimahanaomauiakeo Sardinha after Andy Pettitte accepted arbitration.

Just sound it out. Or ask Jim Leahey.

Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that free agent reliever Eric Gagne has reached an agreement in principle with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers lost closer Francisco Cordero as well as setup man Scott Linebrink, but have replaced them with Gagne, Salomon Torres (who says he might retire), and David Riske.

I've often thought that the typical Slate.com article should be headlined "You should crawl under a rock and die because you're so wrong about everything", but this article about Yahoo! Answers and it's ... um... interesting use of the word "answer" is a bit more my style.

No one has yet answered this question about why individual season statistics in baseball don't carry over when a player changes leagues. But will anyone have the courage to come up with the answer of, "That's the way it's always been done. The leagues were considered separate entities for decades."

The headline of the article is "Why Yahoo! Answers is a librarian's worst nightmare." It's not my worst nightmare. My worst nightmare involves Joseph Biden, Russ Ortiz, and an oversized peach.

However, Cleveland wasn't able to get that player.

Instead, they picked up Jamey Carroll from the Rockies for a player to be named later. Colorado supposedly is interested in signing Tadahito Iguchi.

But now they are just Yokohama BayStars. The Kyodo News Service reports that Yokohama has added former Met pitcher Dave Williams, former Baltimore/Colorado/St. Louis outfielder Larry Bigbie, and Red Sox minor league reliever Travis Hughes have all signed with Yokohama.

The trio will get to play in one of Japan's smaller parks, at least in terms of seating, Yokohama Municipal.

It's a relatively easy poke to hit the ball completely out of the park.

From Rich Lederer at Baseball Analysts comes news that the Baseball Writers Association of America for the first time has admitted 16 writers for web sites.

I believe that all 16 who were admitted had all written for newspapers prior to moving to sites such as ESPN.com or Yahoo, e.g. Peter Gammons, Jayson Stark, Tim Kurkjian, Tim Brown, and Steve Henson.

It's simpler when the puzzle doesn't accurately reflect what happened.

Knee (Knights who say "ni" from "Monty Python & the Holy Grail.)"

AP story

LA Times article

This will teach me never to take time to go read a book.

AP story from Nashville

The World Series awaits!

Larry Whiteside, a former Red Sox beat reporter for the Boston Globe who passed away June 15, was honored with the J.G. Spink Award by the Baseball Writers Association of America, presented annually at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.

Nick Peters of the Sacramento Bee and Dave Van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune also received consideration.

And from the comments there is word that the BBWAA is trying to take action about the potential for BBWAA votes to trigger incentive clauses in contracts.

Fan voting through MLB.com has added three candidates to the Hall of Fame's Ford Frick Award ballot. The three men added were Joe Nuxhall, Bill King, and ... JOE MORGAN!

JOE MORGAN!

JOE FREAKIN' MORGAN!

Pictures cannot express my disapproval at this development.

Thanks to Diane Firstman for the tip.

AP story

Many people were wondering when New York Daily News columnist would come out with a piece about how bad it was that Walter O'Malley was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Ask, and you shall receive.

I think that Hamill must have had this saved up on his computer and just hit F9 + O to send it in.

Some highlights:

Forget the dithering about Barry Bonds. Send apologies to Pete Rose. Warm up a place for Shoeless Joe Jackson. All moral arguments about who belongs in Cooperstown are over forever. Walter O'Malley has been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

---------------------------------

They included my father. He was an immigrant from Northern Ireland who did not become an American by reading the Federalist Papers. He became an American by reading the sports pages of the Daily News.

His James Madison was Dick Young. His team was the Brooklyn Dodgers, and most of all, the team that played together 10 years after Jack Roosevelt Robinson, No. 42, first walked onto the sweet grass of Ebbets Field.

If Dick Young were James Madison, we would have had no constitutional right to root for Tom Seaver on the Mets.

The new Lehigh Valley IronPigs, which will begin play in 2008 as the Phillies AAA affiliate, had to quickly get rid of the original name for its mascot, a furry pig, from PorkChop to Ferrous, after receiving complaints from local Latino groups that "pork chop" was a derogatory term to refer to Puerto Ricans.

"It is common for ferrous materials to be highly magnetic," said Director of Community Relations Sarah Marten, "so we feel fairly certain that this name will stick!"

Ferrous can be described as a portly, affable IronPig wearing the IronPigs home uniform and jersey number 26 – the atomic number for Iron (Fe). He made his first public appearance on November 17 during an Open House at Coca-Cola Park. 

Dancing Homer did not wear a number, but I presume it would have been 92 or 94.

Five-year old Kylie Shimkus of Easton, PA, was chosen among the 32 "PorkChop" entries in a fan contest to pick the mascot name for the IronPigs. Kylie will still receive her prizes.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports

AP story

 

 

 

 

+ N

Article announcing the vote

,

ESPN.com story

ESPN.com story

Did you even know he had left?

Sportsticker story