JimH5

I don't have a problem with innovative training, but this seems absurd--almost like a hazing ritual to get into a fraternity. At least now we know how not to do it.

I care about Armstrong only because he is an American playing in a very global sport. He cheated, denied it, was very much in the face of his accusers, all the while wearing the USPS logo. He was the All American jackass, representing us on a global scale, doing harm to the US's image. Other than that, I don't much care about who wins the Tour de France.

I think it was that 1973 Brewers team that (soon-to-be-former) ESPNer Steve Berthiaume has said that he has spent hours and hours working to reproduce his MLB The Show. I think he tweaks the facial and body features to get them as true-to-life as possible. He spent some of his youth living in the area and also loves that 73 team.

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Sad news, indeed. I understand he had been having health problems for awhile. He was Saberhagen-ish in his good year/bad year run with the team, and led the AL in total bases in 1973.

Agreed. I like crusty Jim Leyland and Verlander & Prince & Cabrera. Though I wouldn't be too bothered if this group of Yankees won it all. They are compromised enough by age that they aren't the juggernaut they used to be. I like the Giants team but hate San Francisco, and I am very sick of the Cardinals and their sea of red.

Domestic Violence http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/173964751.html He's already got an incident involving his father-in-law. I'm holding back on ripping him until we learn if charges are filed, but getting arrested is pretty bad on its own.

I'm not purposely neglecting the park effects, I just don't know how to quantify them. Safeco is softer on pitchers than Miller Park, but is the difference greater than being able to face weak hitting pitcher 70 times a year vs. facing a DH? I really don't know.

When Sheets was healthy, yes, he was every bit as good as Hernandez. The numbers support this statement. And the argument can be made that Sheets, in 2004, was better than King Felix in 2010 when he won the Cy Young. I think your analysis is flawed by a couple of things. . . Sheets was great at limiting walks (2.1 per 9 in his career and just 1.2 per 9 in '04). He was better than Felix at that, as Hernandez is at 2.7 for his career and 2.5 in 2010. But other than making for a gaudy ratio, what is the difference between a guy who allows 1 walk per 9 and another guy who allows 2? It counts for just one extra base. Being in the strike zone that much sometimes comes back to bite you, as it did with Sheets in 2004, giving up 57 doubles, 4 triples and 25 homers. In 2010, in 64 more plate appearances, Felix gave up 34 doubles, 3 triples and 17 homers. If I get fewer XBH and all it costs me are a few more walks, I'll take it. The other thing that I think you're ignoring is Sheets throwing to the opposing pitcher way more than Felix. In 2004, opponents of Sheets put up the following numbers: .226 BA; .255 OBP; .383 SLG. with 341 total bases Take away the 72 Plate Appearances that Sheets got to face the opposing pitcher (11 for 67 with 1 BB and 30 Ks), and the numbers are: .231 BA; .261 OBP; .397 SLG. with 327 total bases In 2010, opponents of Felix did this: .212 BA; .273 OBP; .312 SLG. with 285 total bases He only faced a pitcher for 2 plate appearances that year (0-for-2 with 1 K), resulting in a non-pitcher line of: .213 BA; .274 OBP; .313 SLG. with 285 total bases I don't think Sheets at his best was as good as Hernandez at his best, without even taking into account Sheets' injury history.

I think the eras compare closely enough that it's a wash. . . During the Sheets years, the teams in his league scored an average of 4.62 team runs per game. During Felix's years, the teams in his league scored an average of 4.59 runs per game. That's not a huge gap. Then, if you subtract out the performances of their own teams, Sheets' opponents scored 4.63 runs per game, while Felix's opponents scored 4.66 runs per game. I'm not a statistician, but that seems close enough to not matter.

Sheets pitched in a MUCH higher run environment than Felix. Do you mean his ballpark? I didn't break it down by five year primes, but here's the career data: Felix has allowed 64 career HR at home and 66 on the road. Sheets allowed 91 career HR at home and 93 on the road. And the AL always outscores the NL, so I'm not sure what you're suggesting.

Notre Dame alumni would probably go nuts for those programs, especially if they have good artwork on the covers, and if they are against a notable opponent. No idea on prices--though the Sun Times show might be a good place to find out. I like those old Spalding guides. I have an old volleyball guide. The problem is that they printed a lot of them every year, so they're pretty available. I'd guess $30-ish for that little book.

I don't see any way that Sheets compares to King Felix. The wiggle room in your argument is the phrase "in his prime", and I'm not sure if you're only looking at the 2004 season, or a larger sample. Clearly, that season was fabulous, but his ERA was 2.70, and he never had another season under 3.00. Felix has had two seasons under 2.70, in the tougher league. Sheets was susceptible to homers (184 in just under 1600 IP). Felix has allowed just 130 in more IP. Felix has twice lead the league in fewest H/9IP for starters, Sheets was in the strike zone more often and gave up more hits. Felix has 4 seasons over 200 Ks, Sheets has just that 2004 year. Sheets threw 4 shutouts in his career. Felix threw 5 last year. Felix has 7 seasons of 30 starts or more. Sheets had 4. That 32/264 was indeed stunning. But there's more to pitching than that.

The Vince/Punk segment was awesome. And it was completely set up for a run-in. And I thought for sure Stone Cold's music was going to hit and he'd come in to take out Punk. So yes, we're in agreement that they're planting seeds for Austin vs. Punk. I just thought it was coming sooner. I thought the whole show was great, though at 3 hours, I now have to watch through the fast forwarding of my DVR to shorten it to about 1:40.

Whenever I read a Dick Vitale tweet, I imagine him saying the words he has just typed. He is the only person for whom I cannot separate his voice from his written words.

I like Jim Slaton a lot, but the whole league was putting up high CG numbers during his era. Only once did he finish in the top 10 in IP. And that was really all that he was, a workhorse pitcher. He never struck out 5 guys per 9 IP and never finished in the top 10 in ERA. And Caldwell, too, really only had two good years, the rest of the time, he just wasn't that good. My memories of him far exceed his stat line. I'm not a Sheets guy. I thought the sum of his game was less than what the gawdy SO/BB ratio would have you believe. But I think he was much better than Slaton & Caldwell.

On the Brewers All Time pitching leaderboard, he falls short of Ted Higuera on some stats, and ahead of him on others. For guys with lengthy stays with the team, I would think those two have to be considered as having had the best careers. And for that, I have to give him credit. Maybe my expectations for him were just too high--and he was surely burdened by playing on some bad teams--but I still think there could have been more. Though that's also certainly true of Higuera. If he had come along in today's era with pitch counts and a more gentle approach with younger players, I wonder how things would have worked out. He made a good amount of money, represented the team and city well, didn't complain, made his way back from injury and now gets to spend his time with his family. Congrats to him on a good career and I hope he has a lot of happiness and satisfaction going forward.

The most surprising thing to me out of all of this is that some publisher thinks there is an audience for an Eric Gagne book. It's written in french, it's not on Amazon--do they think they will sell even 1000 copies? How much money is there in this kind of project? Can't wait to get my hands on the Danny Kolb tell-all where he drops dirt on Glendon Rusch. Just because you have a story doesn't mean that I want to hear it.

Perhaps in the micro, where dirty pitcher faces dirty batter, then the outcome may not be reliant on PED use. But in the macro, where clean fringe guys can't make the roster because dirty fringe guys had better performance, that's a big deal for the clean guy. And if fans were lead to believe someone was clean and he wasn't, that's still the same size deal it was before. To some, it's no big deal, to others it could be.

I'm 50, and if I make it to 94 I might think differently, but I can see wanting to hang on at home as long as possible. My dad is turns 80 next year and he and his wife live in a condo and get along ok. My maternal grandfather lived into his 80s and he knew his limits and didn't drive at night. I would would want to live life on my own terms, even if that meant driving for the mail.

He has been much better than I imagined. Though I would still like the Brewers to have a better plan against lefties. Aoki's got a .688 OPS against them, which is tough to take at one of the corner spots. Maybe shift Hart back to RF against LHP and put a different guy at 1B. Not sure if that's Gamel or someone TBD.

A terrific talent from days gone by. I'm glad that we have recorded music and video to remember this era. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is an iconic holiday song, and he will live on with that, if not more. And he seemed like a nice guy, which is a good way to go out. RIP Andy. . .

We went on the tour this afternoon, and I would say in general, it was pretty mixed. Our tour guide was a nice guy, very pleasant, and he led 9 of us together into an elevator in the right field corner offices down to the field level, back of the house area. There is a single tunnel that wraps around from that corner, down to the homeplate area and up the 3rd base line to the left field corner. It's not unlike an airport concourse, with delivery vehicles taking beer kegs and other stuff around the building. Along the way, you get to go out onto the warning track in the RF corner. My daughter really got a kick out of that. We were there for a few minutes during BP and one of the coaches tossed her a ball, which she loved. They're pretty clear on not being able to touch the grass. After that, it was pretty dull until the slide. They walked us into the media room, which is a theater style room for post game press conferences and the like. There's nothing remarkable about that. They walk you past the doors to the clubhouses & past a hitting cage area (someone was hitting in there, but we couldn't see who), past some storage rooms and past the staff getting ready for work. It's all cinderblock & concrete, and then back into an elevator and up to the NYCE club area, out to the stairs to Bernie's house. You climb the ladderlike stairs up to the Bernie area and he's there silently greeting folks. They give you a big piece of burlap and you go down the slide and land at the bottom on a pretty rough piece of astroturf (nice rug burn on my right shin). We went down a few times and then that was about it. I don't know how long it was--maybe an hour. My daughter had fun, which was what I was going for. I can't imagine going more than once--certainly not more than once a year. It might be a better tour when there isn't a game and you can go into the press box or the clubhouses, dugouts, or on the field and not risk getting in the way of someone working. We didn't encounter players or media on this tour, though I can see how you might. The slide itself is pretty quick, and the climb up the stairs is pretty significant. Hard to see how a guy would do it in costume.

The guy sitting behind us tonight at the game combined "talking a lot about baseball" with "not knowing even the most fundamental aspects of baseball." It wasn't really annoying, just puzzling. He was in his 60s, and he just didn't know when a force out was in play, or what happened when you pinch hit for a pitcher. He couldn't understand what 1-1, RBI meant on the scoreboard, and yet he talked to his friends all night about baseball. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but how could he have lived so long and not picked up the basics?

Indeed $100 sounds expensive and there will be three of us, so I'm in for $300. But, my understanding is that it's a pretty exclusive tour of 2-6 people total, with a behind the scenes walk through of media areas, clubhouse spaces, batting cage (not sure if its on the field or in the bowels), Bernie's chalet and up to 5 trips down the slide. The info says we'll be milling around player areas, but to not interact. Good photo ops, fun way to get my daughter into liking baseball. I'll post some pics afterward, hopefully not of me with a broken hip.