pitchleague

it's an old acronym from when we first started the league as kids/pre-teens. It was cool then but not anymore. Heck, I don't even really remember anymore. It was something like "People Interested in The CHampionship" or something dumb like that. But the name has stuck for 22 years.

My wife won her championship tonight. It was frustrating all night, trailing 2-0 right away in the second inning and 4-0 after four full frames. Both teams exchanged runs in the 6th and then her team made a comeback in the bottom of the eighth, scoring three times to cut the deficit to 5-3. In the top of the 9th, Jon Rauch took the mound for her team and issued a pair of walks and a 3-run homer by Adam Dunn to put the game seemingly out of reach at 8-3. And then, the impossible dream happened. Here's the recap of the bottom of the ninth: -Peliz,P flied out to right (SFX) -Hundley pinch hitting for Leach -Hundley reached on an infield single to the catcher -Roberts,R now playing second base -Burnett,A now pitching -Bautista,J now playing right field -Ellsbury grounded a double down the first base line, Hundley to third -Roberts,B walked -Hundley scored, Ellsbury to third, Roberts,B to second, Zobrist to first on an error by the pitcher Burnett,A -Broxton now pitching -Braun walked, Ellsbury scored, Roberts,B to third, Zobrist to second -Berkman struck out (CSBBC) -Olivo lined a single to right, Roberts,B scored, Zobrist to third, Braun to second -Hart,C lined a single to left, Zobrist scored, Braun scored, Olivo to second -Feliz,P lined a double down the left field line, Olivo scored, Hart,C to third All three hits to end the game (Olivo, Hart, Feliz) came with 2 strikes on the batter. I'm so proud of my wife. She never gave up. It was a magical moment. I jokingly was doing a "five-run rall-y" chant at the beginning of the inning to get her spirits up and then had to keep it going as the drama unfolded. This moment probably out-does the Todd Zeile walk-off 3-run homer off Dennis Eckersley in game seven of the 1997 finals.

Tonight, my wife goes for her first P.I.T.C.H. League Baseball championship as she plays Game Seven of the PITCH Series. She had a 2-games-to-1 series lead before blowing a couple of games. Then, facing elimination last night, she gave up 3 runs in the top of the 9th to trail 6-4 before hitting a walk-off three-run shot by Miguel Olivo to force the deciding game. It does not bug me that she is this close to winning after 12 years in the league. The previous 2 times she was in the finals, she was swept fantastically. Yes, I know this pales in comparison to a child being brought into the world but, in our house, this is big news. I'm proud of her and hope she does her best.

nice AB by LuCroy right there. Guess he was paying attention to Walker's AB a half hour ago. Nice to get some runs back, too.

I'm not planning on starting a holy war of consoles vs. PC gaming rigs. They both have their merits and they both have their druthers. I don't have a console because I already have a killer gaming rig and tons of games yet to be played. as for the LA Noire game/movie comment, I completely understand that the trailer that was posted was basically a bunch of cutscenes plastered together. I have yet to see any actual gameplay from the company. I think it'll be a great game, as most Rockstar games are. And it will have some very good cinematic moments. I do NOT think it will just be an interactive movie. But I haven't seen any game play videos to show me how the game will actually look when a person actually plays it. It's kind of like Mafia II (and many other big games these days.) They make trailers that look the bomb but they're just cut scenes put together. So it makes you want to buy the game. And then you get said game and play it and it sucks. That's pretty much Mafia II (or so I've heard. I own it but have not played it yet. At least I only paid $5 on a Steam sale instead of the retail price.) It is, supposedly, most definitely NOT Mafia I (a game I absolutely loved.)

yup, another awesome looking movie, er video game, that won't be coming to PC. Like Red Dead Redemption. Sigh. Oh well, I refuse to pony up for a console when I already have a killer game machine so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. It does look really cool, though. I like those period piece games more than fantasy or sci-fi games.

I think I heard Uecker slam his fist on the table in disbelief that the Crew would run into a double play again.

I'd do it, but I just went on a tirade on Opening Day. They probably don't want to talk to me again.

yup, same here in AZ. Game is blacked out on 669, 669-1, not listed for the Padres station, and not on any of the Extra Innings channels 720-750. Grrrrrrr. Guess it's Uecker and Provus for me (not that it's such a hardship to listen to them.)

my experience with the "new" models (the black underside of the brim; not made of wool anymore) is that they are actually smaller than the size listed on the label. I have bought 7 1/8" for years and they have fit wonderfully. But ever since the "new" models came out, they are extremely tight, almost like the polyester that they use has shrunk or something. I can't wear any of them more than a half-hour before giving me a headache/chaffing my forehead.

But the players love Dale, don't they? Maybe they'd all revolt and just bunt every AB until Dale is returned to power. Seriously, I thought of this as well tonight. It's starting to get to the point of a closed door meeting, a players-only meeting, the dreaded "vote of confidence", or someone getting the axe. This has just been a terrible road trip and, really, a terrible start to the season. Statistics be damned, it's been terrible to watch as a fan.

wow. just wow. Nice to see McClendon pitch like he belonged on the team from the beginning. Oh wait. He did belong on the team from the beginning (unless he was hurt or Roenicke was basing the team only on Spring Training stats or something.) When will this end? Is this the beginning of the Seattle Mariner-ification (circa 2010) of the Milwaukee Brewers? Tune in tomorrow to find out. I'll see you around then folks.

nice inning, McClendon. Good lord, hitters. Come on. Okay, here we go, let's get something. Anything.

"Ron, do you remember what you told me when I asked you if I should take the job in Eagleton?" "You mean, 'What do I care? Do whatever the hell you want?'" Comedy. Gold.

Haikus can suck it We can only do them on when mods tell us to. As for the game itself, I'm hoping Marcum can deliver and I like that our "solidest" lineup yet is out there. I would be happy to finish 4-4 against Atlanta for the year. Let's hope so.

Sirius/XM just changed over their channel lineup. MLB Radio used to be 175, with all the Play-by-play channels ranging from 176-189 or so. NOW, MLB radio is on 89, while the PBP channels remained where they are. I USED to be able to just program 175 into one of my 5 pre-sets on my radio, and then just uptick the tuner a couple of clicks to find the game I want. NOW, I have to either use of my 5 valuable pre-sets for channel 89 and ANOTHER on 183 so I can find games faster, OR just use one pre-set for channel 89 and then click the tune button about 100 million times to get to the PBP channels. Whose asinine decision was it to change that??? Ludicrous, I say. And it bugs me.

disappointing losses this weekend after a great promising start on Friday. Oh, well. I really thought that this Brewers team could have been one of those teams that wasn't shut out all season or until September or something. Darn. What a cruddy way to go into a 4-gamer with Atlanta, too.

I'm not intending to single you out, as I see this throughout the interwebs. Don't fight it, just let it go. You'll feel much better. On topic, tremendous episode. Not much in the funny department (Creed coming out of the lady's restroom stall, Andy's reaction as he lost one of the top ten clients within 3 minutes of Michael giving up the names, Andy's non-verbal reactions as D'Angelo presents Dunder Mifflin's case during the sales presentation), but it did the job. How did Pam get past the security checkpoint at the airport? (not to mention the camera crew.) Did she "buy a ticket" just to say goodbye to Michael? I think Dwight summed up the rest of the season/series for us all (unless they get jiggy with it and fool us all) . . . ."uh oh."

I agree with GodSpeed, if the Phyllis/Erin thing (something I didn't even THINK of last night) or the Gabe as the Scranton Strangler comes to fruition, I am DONE with this show. That would be so moronic.

Well, since I picked a good record for April and came up pretty short, I'll go the other way this time around and hope I'm way wrong again. 1-0 @ Hou 1-3 @ Atl 1-2 @ Stl 2-1 vs Sd 2-1 vs Pit 0-2 @ Lad 1-1 @ Sd 1-2 vs Col 2-1 vs Wsh 1-2 vs Sf 1-1 @ Cin 13-16 for the month of May.

I was coming here to post that, too. We were thisclose to a no-hitter. Overall, very good game. Nice and quick, great pitching all around, some homers, and a win. C'mon Crew, get the series win tomorrow.

I guess it depends on how you interpret the question. Better HITTER or better BATTER? To me, someone who walks a lot along with getting a good batting average and slugging percentage is a good BATTER. Taking walks means you have a good eye for pitches one can hit, a very good trait for any BATTER. A good HITTER is determined just by looking at what they do when they actually make contact (i.e. HIT the ball.) So, for me, Braun is the better HITTER when contact is made with the ball and hit into fair territory. Fielder is the better BATTER because he draws walks better.

Would Sabathia get booed when/if he returns to Miller Park? I highly doubt it. Sure, there will be some boos amidst the hoopla, but the majority will be cheers. At least at first. Following that game, the love affair might be over. I anticipate it the same way with Prince. There will be boos, no doubt. But the cheers will out-voice the boos for at least the first game/series at Miller Park. After that, it may be reversed.

Ryan Braun wore white shoes one time last year, I believe.

for the record, Gomez was out on the Foxmo replay. Yeah it was thisclose to being safe but Joe West got the call right, even if he just guessed. I'm not saying that he guessed but it was so bang-bang that he could have called him safe and probably wouldn't have had an argument either. Just a horribly sloppy game. Both sides. The contact play? I can understand it but YuniB got such a bad jump (just like in the field) that he should have known to just get back on the bag. The ball was hit too slow to be a DP, even with Almonte running to first. What was LuCroy thinking? Just stay on the bag and be happy you're in scoring position. Even Ed Sedar had his hands on his hips during the play as if he was saying, "what the heck are you guys doing out there???" Well, go out tomorrow and get the series win, which is pretty much what many of us expected anyway.