Dead Simmons

I'm for it, but who would be the replacement? PCL. Maybe Ron Washington of Texas. He "resigned" today.

Like you, this will be my first look at Scruggs. I know nothing about him. Adams has been totally rotten for 2 weeks running now. Whenever a Card sucks too long they invent something like a back strain or oblique so the guy won't be shamed by being replaced by a rookie. But WE know.

Been there.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2009-06-08-sneaky.jpg

It appears that my prediction that Waino would sit out a couple of starts was wrong. Matheny ran him out there again to give up 4ER in 6 innings again, so he will pitch the finale in the Brewer series. Wacha will get the start in the first game tomorrow. It's been said that his innings will be limited.

I'm off to bigger and better things after this season, so this shouldn't be a problem. I have no vote here Prince, but I hope you stick around. I like your confidence and enthusiasm.

1939 When Babe Dahlgren* strikes out while being given an intentional walk and George Selkirk and Joe Gordon try to steal home on successive pitches by trotting to the plate, Red Sox fans throw a barrage of garbage onto the playing field at Fenway Park to protest the Yankees making deliberate outs to take advantage of the 6:30 Sunday curfew. Umpire Cal Hubbard rules the Boston crowd's action makes it impossible to continue the game and awards the game as a forfeit to the Yankees with a 9-0 'official' score. *Dahlgren is the man that took Gehrig's place on 1B when when he shut himself down, but he is less remembered for the being first player to be ostracized for drug abuse, the demon weed, marijuana. He was swapped around the league for two years before he learned of the rumor, which he denied, and of which there was absolutely no evidence or witnesses. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/images/headshot_20877.jpg In a heart rendering biography by Woodlyn Lane, Matt Dahlgren, Babe's grandson writes that he had had promised his grand dad that he would get to the bottom of the scurrilous talk. He did, learning that it was started by Joe McCarthy, manager of seven Yankees World Series champions, and propagated by Branch Rickey, father of baseball’s farm system and a brilliant executive. A succession of baseball commissioners did nothing to help Dahlgren clear his name, starting with Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who told him, according to the book, that “castration would be an appropriate punishment for the culprit behind the rumor.” “Babe would write to Landis every time he heard of someone who heard the rumor, but Landis never did anything,” Matt Dahlgren said in a telephone interview: “Babe wrote to other commissioners, and none of them did anything.” At age 77 in 1989 Matt finally gave up after talking to Fay Vincent, who sympathized, but could do nothing to clear the Babe's name after all the decades of buried facts and testimony. 2008....New York starter Jonathon Niese, who was born on the day the Mets won their last World Championship, makes his major league debut against the Brewers in Miller Park. On his second pitch of the game, the 21-year-old southpaw gives up a home run to Rickie Weeks.

I'm watching both games and the number of GIDP's are maddening. The MLB channel is showing nothing but our games and the Atlanta game, so I'm just watching that and getting a break from our awful announcers. The Phils have blown the game up...5-0 now, so I get to watch us, and a no'no game. Labor day baseball heaven. The Pirates are pitching to the only Card that's hitting, Holliday and he made it 3-2 Pirates now.

The only good news so far today is that Cole Hamels is no hitting the Braves.

Bucs waste no time. 2-0 in the 1st, still batting

FWI: Matheny benched Carpenter today for Jon Jay @ leadoff, and has Descalso playing 3B. Wong sits and PETE KOSMA is up from AAA to play 2B. I guess he thinks that Holliday can do it all. Good luck fella's with this new look Cub team. I look for them to have a better September than us!

This is the key series of the week in regard to the WC I believe. The Rocks will play them tough though, and the Giants know it. It's going to be a September to remember.

1931....For the third time in four days, Bronx Bomber Lou Gehrig hits a grand slam. The Iron Horse's third-inning base loaded home run off Ed Morris proves to be the difference in New York's 5-1 victory over Boston at Yankee Stadium. 1945....14 years later Vince DiMaggio's grand slam paces the Phillies to an 8-3 victory over Boston at Braves Field. The Phillies outfielder ties a major league mark with his fourth grand slam of the season. http://www.i70baseball.com/wp-content/uploads/dimag-ap-shot.jpg The lesser known elder brother of Dom and Joe saw a decade of NL ball in the 40's. He had power, speed, and like his little brothers, was a great outfielder. Unfortunately, in an era where strikeouts were considered shameful, he did it a lot. A torrid hitter in the minors for the KC Blues in the AA in '39, (they won 107 games) and rival of the St. Paul Saints, he was the talk of the town and the Blues regularly drew over 20,000 that year. He was spotted and signed to the Reds. They worked on cutting down his K's, which they did, but w/o his free swinging approach his homers went way down, and his .250 BA was not impressive. But he was still a fine fielder, and good enough for Cincy and Pittsburgh to keep him in the game. (And the name didn't hurt)

The wild card is like a rickety old lifeboat. It looks pretty bad 'till your ship sails away. Then it's beautiful.

4 vs Saint Louis (Masterson; Lackey; Lynn; Wainwright) After Waino's admission of "a dead arm", Matheny said he will give him a rest. He'll miss at least one start, more if the team doesn't need him. The pressure put on by everybody imaginable to dump Masterson prompted Matheny to blast the writers and "internet bloggers" in his post game presser today, but the "Master of Disaster" has seen his last start in St. Louis. The arms replacing those two will most likely be rookies Tyler Lyons and Marco Gonzales, who pitched well in the 2nd game of the double header on Saturday. Both saw action earlier this year, both were decent, but not really ready for prime time. They can be counted on to pitch five, maybe six decent innings per start and give up 2-3 runs. Not great, but better than the other two at this point. There's a little sense of dread around town about Brox joining the Brewers. He may not be quite the shut-down pitcher he once was, but he still gives the Cardinals fits. Of course, what pitcher doesn't this year? I just don't believe the Reds are throwing in the towel THIS early. I'm pretty curious about the PBNL. (is tomorrow "later"?) At any rate, how ironic is that on September the 1st we're dead even, just like on April 1st? From this point on it's not a marathon, it's a race. To be perfectly honest, I think the Pirates are better than both of us... right now. Their 3-2 loss today was a near miracle. Hiesey with 2 HR's...really?! We play 'em next, and 2 of 3 would would be nice, but I'm not betting on it.

Yep, and he's still pitching. Travis Wood isn't much better. Got 3 GIDP to get him out of trouble, but the Cards scored 3 and he's on his way out. It's blisteringly hot and humid out there.

Yeah....but when? Something to watch for when you play the Cubs: The team batting approach has become very aggressive. A LOT of 1st pitch swinging. Attack, attack and more attack. One of the (idiot) Cardinal announcers suggested knocking down some of those hot shots to slow 'em down. He may be right. The Reds played tough last night, holding the Pirates to 4 hits, but they pulled out another one. Josh Harrison was held to a single and BB and was CS, and not as many crazy plays at 3rd to kill Reds' rallies. Edit: I should have not mentioned J.H.....he just gave the Bucs an early lead with a bomb.

1957....If you were an Orioles scout, what would you recommend if you had just seen minor league fireballer Steve Dalkowski issue 18 walks, hit four batters and uncork six wild pitches and who knows how many diving stops by his catcher? The New Britain, Connecticut native's wildness costs him the game when Kingsport loses in an Appalachian League contest, 9-8. By the way, Steve also struck out 24. http://seattletimes.com/ABPub/2009/07/22/2009519797.jpg - In high school, he had an 18-strikeout, 18-walk no-hitter. - In one Northern League game, Dalkowski threw a one-hitter, striking out 15, but walked 17 and lost 8-4. - In the California League, he threw a four-hitter, striking out 19, but lost 8-3. - In one extra-inning game in the Eastern League, Dalkowski struck out 27 batters and walked 16 while throwing 283 pitches. - One time he was pulled in the second inning after throwing 120 pitches. - A Dalkowski pitch once tore off part of a batter’s ear. - A Dalkowski pitch once struck a batter on the helmet and the ball rebounded to second base. - In one game, Dalkowski threw three pitches that penetrated the backstop screen, sending fans scattering. For more on the amazing pitcher, check out this article. Included's the time when Ted Williams stepped in to face him....briefly. http://www.hardballtimes.com/delving-into-the-dalkowski-depths/

Can't get my game so I'm going to watch yours. Watch out for Pence!

Playoff Picture Natinals___76__57 - Dodgers___76__59 - Brewers___73__61 - Giants____ 72__ 62 wc St. Louis__ 71__ 62 wc Atlanta___ 71__ 64 -1 Pittsburgh_ 70__ 64 -1.5 * Miami____ 65__ 68 -6 Cincinnati_ 65__ 70 -7 * Pirates won 3 str. as Cards & Brewers lost 3 str.... Josh Harrison must be destroyed! But Mc Cutchen is clearly not 100%....Molina looked lost at the plate in his return last night. (0-3, K, HBP)..... BP is hittin' and grinnin' as usual for the Reds, renewing hope for a miracle finish. They play the Pirates again this afternoon on FS1. (Go Reds) The Cubs, in just a matter of days have become the talk the NL. With Rizzo still sitting out they pummeled the Cards 7-2, Soler going deep twice to lead the young wrecking crew.. I shudder to think what the division will look like next year.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR199208280.shtml Four 2B. One HR. One SB. One error. That's a lotta singles!

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR199208280.shtml Thanks Logan.1951...The Yankees trade rookie hurler Lew Burdette along with $50,000 to the Braves for right-hander Johnny Sain. The right-hander will come back to haunt the Bronx Bombers, pitching three complete-game victories in the 1957 World Series won by Milwaukee in seven games. http://bigmouthsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/lew-burdette.jpg 1966....In San Francisco, the Beatles play their last concert ever at the Giants' home, Candlestick Park. The 'Fab Four' will never perform in public again, unless you count the rooftop jam on the Apple Records building in '69. http://cdn.collectorsmusicreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/beatles-shea-candlestick-300x294.jpg Also today in 1966 came this nice trivia question: Getting the Cubs’ 4-2 win in relief, who becomes the first and only pitcher to beat the Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves? (answer at the bottom) 2010....Nationals manager Jim Riggleman benches Nyjer Morgan for the his 'unprofessional' play during the previous day's 14-5 victory over St. Louis. The center fielder had bowled over and severely injured Bryan Anderson at home plate in the bottom of the eighth inning, even though the Cardinal catcher didn't have the ball. Morgan was so hot to put a hurting on Anderson that he didn't bother to touch the plate and was called out on the play. http://media.cleveland.com/tribe_impact/photo/nyjer-morganjpg-bec8863f910f42a1_large.jpg The three city Brave beater was: http://img4.fold3.com/img/thumbnail/306982094/400/400/0_0_666_571.jpg _________________Robin Roberts_________________

Cubs playing a day game with Reds now on WGN...lotta rookies to check out LF Chris Coghlan (L) 2B Javier Baez ® SS Starlin Castro ® 3B Luis Valbuena (L) RF Jorge Soler ® CF A. Alcantara (S) 1B Chris Valaika ® C John Baker (L) P Jake Arrieta ® I wonder what's the average age of this squad ? As I'm typing Soler doubled off the wall and Alcantara hit bomb, just foul.

1992.... In a 22-2 rout, the Blue Jays pitching staff yields 31 hits, of which 22 are singles, to help the Brewers set an American League record. The 'Brew Crew' scores in every inning except the fifth inning in the SkyDome contest. I'd like to see the box score from that game.

I wish I could watch your game but they're showing an AL game instead on MLB. But if I could, I wouldn't know which to team to pull for anyway.....you know?