pebadger

It's a *really* gutsy call. I've seen Ishikawa bunt.

Ump single-handedly kept Lincecum in the game with a single strike call.

I'm happy they scored the runs and all, but that was one weird half-inning to watch. If Greinke comes out and does something similar we can all blame it on the moon or some supernatural phenomenon.

This is reminiscent of my Pee-Wee pitching debut way back in '77, except I plunked more guys and never pitched again. And I never struck somebody out.

I'm torn between seeing this lineup in action and hoping the Preds score a last-minute goal to send the hockey game to OT.

It bothers me to no end (if only just slightly) that the Wausau TV stations show Cubs highlights every single night after the Brewers highlights on the local news and have done so for decades now.

Our cat just puked up a giant hairball on the new carpet, just before I switched from Brewers Live to hockey. About sums up the day.

Agreed. I don't think replay solves all ills, given the nature of how the game works, but just putting a guy in a position with authority to help the rest of the on-field crew solve most of them would be an improvement. And I say that as a guy who beleives umps make at least as many really, really good calls as really, really bad ones. As to the stuff upthread about experience with officiating: calling balls and strikes is not easy. It's not easy at any level, from 10-year-old kids through high school age kids (I've called games in the past at those levels and all between, but I haven't called a game in about a decade now.). To a certain degree I think the same qualities that make guys kind of prickly are the same qualities that lend themselves to being any kind of good at calling balls and strikes. I could go on and on about it, but I won't. The best umps are the guys who can be complete authorities on the field during the play and who then have the ability to turn that off and relate to players and coaches after the action.

Well boys, low walls or not, it's probably better to go into the stands in a mostly controlled manner than try to stop yourself from a dead sprint on a dime.

Insult, meet Injury.

Here's a hint, Crew. You got unlucky with the Yo tip. Don't compound it with stupid throws to the plate after that.

Yup. Watching last night I was pretty sure he tore something (likely the ACL) just from watching it. Terrible break for Mat.

After tonight's Kotsay debacle, they had better be posting cops on bridges and overpasses tomorrow night if the Crew loses a series to Suppan and the Padres.

To quote Jack Buck, "I don't believe what I just saw!"

Well, Kam just got the call that K'd up Braun a few innings back.

It's really starting to appear that, barring serious injury problems or a complete pitching collapse, the Cards going to run away and hide on this division. Nobody is close to good enough other than the Brewers and Reds, and both of those teams are too often busy finding ways to lose while the Cards patiently wait for opportunities to win.

C'mon. It's time to officially christen this as the Summer of George.

UGH. Walk the pitcher, defense. I've seen this one before.

That was two days of Yuni-range.

No. That ball was going to the wall no matter what. Probably, but I thought he had a chance to cut it off before the wall if he took a better route. Hard to tell on TV. I don't think he ever had a shot at catching it because Carlos smoked it, but I thought he might have had a shot at saving a run. Nice job by Wolfie to hold it to one run.

Thumbs up. Quality comedic comment right there.

I usually defend Braun's defense against some of the harsher criticism, but that simply wasn't good at all. Bad angle, bad dive. I guess at the point that he dove there was nothing to lose because it was going to the wall regardless dur to the path he took.

I'm not sure if Clemens has ever submitted a sample that has been subjected to testing which subsequently indicated a positive test. I'm virtually certain he never tested positive within the confines of the MLB system, but I'm unsure if there was anything outside that system being used as evidence. To the best of my knowledge the only forensic evidence here involves the needles McNamee held onto for years and which he claims he used to inject Clemens. If I'm correct about that, I don't know how Braun's testimony would be relevant with respect to the specifics of the forensic methods at issue. To the extent that somebody might want to call him to testify on broader issues, if I were the judge I don't know that I'd be amenable to much of that sort of testimony and would be highly disposed to sustain objections to a great many questions on the basis of relevance barring a very strong showing by the offering party.

The written decision likely wouldn't tell the 'whole story' either - what it would do is indicate the exact grounds and supporting information for Braun winning his appeal. You're correct, FTC. But it would provide a starting place for people who want to do more digging and ask more questions, and it appears to me that that is exactly the kind of thing MLB and the union are looking to foreclose. We can only speculate as to why that might be the case. The bottom line is that this whole thing blew up over confidentiality and now, in the aftermath, that same confidentiality provision is being used as both a weapon and a shield. Who is being cynical? Who is being self-serving? Who is being principled? Does it matter, when, in the end, MLB and MLBPA are just being practical and nobody is in a position to really to demand anything or force them to do anything other than what they want to do? It's like a Game of Thrones storyline, minus the sex and violence.

Here's the thing: Braun isn't technically a "party" to the JDA. He's clearly affected by the JDA and he has obligations that arise under the JDA, but he's not a party to the agreement. Without getting into a law school-type discussion/debate on both privity of contract and principles of labor law, it's not clear that Braun has any right/standing to demand that an opinion be issued/released. From the JDA: Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program (the “Program”) is established by agreement of the Office of the Commissioner and the Major League Baseball Players Association (the “Commissioner’s Office,” the “Association” and, jointly, the “Parties”) THat's why I said earlier that this stinks to high heaven. MLB and MLPBA are moving to cover themselves and the only one who really bears any of the PR burden for that among the general population that don't understand the intricacies is Ryan Braun. I think Braun could probably take some action to try to force a written decision, but he'd be in the position of having to fight his own union to do it and he'd be in the position of having to make this thing a bigger deal than it already is. But then you'd have to ask "why is he forcing a decision"? He's already won. Why does he need a written decision, especially if, by terms of the agreement, nobody outside of MLB, MLBPA and the player is supposed to see it anyway? The only reason for the player to demand it at this point is in hopes that it will be leaked. It sort of goes to demonstrate another facet of the slantedness of the system. The only real reason for having a written decision in the first place is to explain to the player why he's being suspended. It's not a document that he would ever use publicly in any case, with the very minor exception that it might hold some use if a player were ever to attempt the very improbable manuever of obtaining relief from the arbitration decision in a court of law. If confidentiality holds throughout the process, the player is never going to want the award document public as it would only serve as a foundation for suspicion even under the best of circumstances. No player is ever going to make a big public spectacle of saying "Hey I tested positive for PEDS, but it's alright now!". Ryan is simply one small cog in the machine on this one and he's going to have to just take what comes here. He won and I think he's happy with that. He has no real incentive to get in the way of MLB and MLBPA when they are trying to hide their own mistakes. He can't "prove" his innocence in a way that is going to change the minds of those that have already convicted him despite the decision of the panel. With MLB and MLBPA closing this down and essentially destroying all the evidence of what happened, I think the message is pretty clear to anyone who is paying attention that those two parties don't want anyone digging around anymore and that they never want the story to come out. By extension, they are also sending a pretty clear message to Braun to keep his mouth shut. He's done that anyway, but this action is emphasizing the fact. So, I'll say it again in closing. MLB and MLBPA (which has its own agenda apart from defending Braun) are burying their mistakes. Braun has no incentive (and several disincentives) to get in their way was they go about this task. By doing this they are ensuring that nobody ever gets the whole truth. That's a pretty frightening proposition, given that the drug testing regime was set up at least partially with a nod to the grand principle of letting sunlight disinfect the game.