(a) Walthers to Distribute LGB Products

(b) Extinct Attractions - Preserving theme park history through
documentaries, audio recordings, books, podcasts and the stories told by the Disney legends themeselves.

(c) SuperComputer™ gets a major overhaul. A new motherboard and some Thermaltake equipment.

(d) Empire: Total War

(e) Everything Maddux wasn't - First of all, he wasn't greedy enough. He signed for only $75,000 after the Chicago Cubs selected him with the 31st pick of the 1984 amateur draft. No messy holdouts. No nothing. And get this: He actually reported to Pikeville of the Appalachian League that season. For $175 a week. Loser.

(f) 2009 Predictions: Why 2009 Will be Worse than 2008 and Bursting Obama's Balloons

(g) Staying Local: City: Urbanism and Its End

(h) Spore DRM Controversy Spawns Protest Creatures

Labels: baseball, disney, railroads

A great article on Shea Stadium with dozens of links.

Labels: baseball, bermuda, weekend

Today was the last regular season game at Shea Stadium. It ended ignominiously for the New York Metropolitans with a 4-2 loss to the Florida Marlins. The Mets only needed a win on the last day of the regular season to keep their playoff hopes alive (just like last season).

The rest of my 2008 MLB wrap-up...

Congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers are in the playoffs for the first time since 1982! I feel bad for Ned Yost and the Braves should make sure he finds his way back to Atlanta as an eventual successor to Bobby Cox.

Chipper Jones wins the NL batting title and wants to retire a Brave.

The Yankees failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1993. Yawn.

Manny Ramirez hit his 500th home run against the Orioles on May 31st, 2008.

Ken Griffey Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds became the sixth player to reach 600 career home runs on June 9, 2008.

K-Rod sets single-season saves record with No. 58

Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants ended the season with a MLB-best 265 strikeouts.

Cliff Lee became the Indians' first 20-game winner since Gaylord Perry in 1974. He finishes 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA.

Notable Trades

C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Manny Ramirez, Jason Bay, and Ken Griffey Jr.

Labels: baseball, weekend

Once upon a time, before soccer captured my imagination, baseball was king. I have an attic and basement full of cards, magazines, pennants, autographed bats and baseballs, and other assorted memorabilia. My three favorite baseball treasures include a 1954 Topps Henry Aaron rookie card, a bat signed and used by Dale Murphy in 1987 and a pennant from the Glens Falls Tigers.

I went to a Glens Falls Tigers game with my family on a road trip to Cooperstown, NY. At the time I was searching for a new team (mostly to spite my dad) and for some reason had settled on liking a very bad Atlanta Braves team. My interest started with their lanky right-fielder Dale Murphy but was reinforced by their accessibility on TBS.

At Glens Falls I was an unsuspecting witness to baseball history and the very beginning of an historic run by the Atlanta Braves. I had no idea that a pitcher on the Glens Falls roster would soon be on his way to Atlanta and part of the best trio of pitchers in the modern era (John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine).

But in the summer(s) of 1987/1988 I couldn't imagine a Braves team without Dale Murphy. Sadly, Murphy was traded to the Phillies before the Braves went on that run. I suppose there's a lesson in all this waxing because while I was thinking about the present - Dale Murphy roaming right field in a Braves uniform - some smart baseball men were acquiring talent like John Smoltz from the Glens Falls Tigers with an eye on the future.

While my enthusiasm for baseball has waned my affinity for Smoltz (and the Atlanta Braves) remains. The Braves are inextricably linked to a very innocent and idyllic part of my adolescence and that's why this latest injury stings so deeply...It [his injury] is a grim reminder that time is the great violator™ and that if we hold on to the past too tightly we may end up with an attic or basement full of musty memorabilia.

There's more to the story though...My dad never begrudged my adoption of the Atlanta Braves. He took me to Atlanta to see Dale Murphy at the old Fulton Country Stadium. He also bought me that autographed bat. My dad was encouraging me to explore the space and many years later he would even abet my separation from baseball by trudging to a U.S. versus Scotland soccer match.

Only certainty for Smoltz: Hall of Fame
It's 514 miles from Glens Falls, N.Y., to Richmond. John Smoltz dragged out the trip to 14 hours in 1987. He was in no hurry. He was trying to sort things out, not easy for a 20-year-old who had just been traded by his hometown team, the Detroit Tigers, to the Atlanta Braves. And for a grumpy old pitcher twice his age. John's mind was in a tornadic whirl...

Related
Smoltz says he will attempt a comeback
Maddux on the mound a joy to watch

Labels: baseball, weekend

Bobby Cox receives a contract extension one day after the Braves complete a four game sweep of the New York Metropolitans.

Something about Bobby Cox is just very managerial. Every time I see him, I am overcome with the urge to put on a cup, put something in my mouth and just spit the afternoon away. (This is why I only watch the Braves in the comfort of my own home.)

Source

Man Crush Update: Smoltz to begin rehab assignment

Refreshes the palate and the loins.

**UPDATE**
Francoeur's walk-off homer saves Braves; Big Unit strikes out 10

Labels: baseball, weekend

Tag Sales, Flea Markets and eBay, Part III
A photograph of the square people from the Playskool® Play Friend National Park set. I first wrote about it here I'm still taking photographs of the other pieces in the set. The "car" the square people sit in rivals the smart fortwo.

Hope Springs Eternal
The Washington Nationals are hosting my beloved Atlanta Braves tonight at 8:00 ET (approximately 1 hour from now). It is the first domestic game of the MLB season and the inaugural game at Nationals Park. President Bush is throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for the Nats.

The Limestone Roof Director of Print gave me this article [My Fair Leather Friend] from the Wall Street Journal. It's worth reading and afterwards you'll want to scramble around your basement, attic or garage to find your old mitt.

One other baseball topic before the season starts. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays changed their name to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Navy blue and light blue have replaced green and black as the primary colors. The club's new logo, as well as the home and road uniforms for next season, feature the word "Rays" in navy blue lettering with a light blue shadow...

Labels: baseball, toys, weekend

If you believe Wikipedia William Grady Little was a cotton farmer from 1975 to 1979. He was chased from Boston after his decision in the 2003 ALCS to leave a laboring Pedro Martinez on the mound against the Yankees (a game the Red Sox eventually lost in eleven innings).

Little was most recently the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers until Joe Torre declined a 1 year contract extension from the New York Yankees. Despite reassurances from the Dodgers that he would return they [mainly Ned Colletti] engineered Little's exit from the team so they could hire Joe Torre.

Did the Curse of the Bambino jump from the Red Sox to this cotton farmer? I hope Grady finds a job; I just hope it's not with the Atlanta Braves.

In other baseball news...

The Milwaukee Brewers hired Ted Simmons as a bench coach. Ted Simmons (one of my favorite players as a child) finished his professional career as an Atlanta Brave.

Labels: baseball

A quote on the mind of every New York Yankees fan:

"The Planet drifts to random insect doom."
- William S. Burroughs

From my inbox...

Q: What is the status of your doomsday clock now that the New York Metropolitans have suffered that record-breaking collapse?

A: I need to run some calculations.

Labels: baseball, end times, weekend

It's time for my list of best (and worst) baseball stories of 2007. The title, by the way, is a reference to the inevitable end times certain to follow a second consecutive NL EAST title by the N.Y. Metropolitans. These are grim days if you root for the Atlanta Braves.

1. The Milwaukee Brewers - My feel good story of the season was Rick Ankiel UNTIL the HGH revelations this afternoon. The Brewers are a great story and their skipper is a former coach under Bobby Cox. They may have the league's MVP (Fielder) and Rookie of the Year (Braun). It doesn't matter if they make the playoffs or not, this is a young team with a bright future in a section of the country ravaged by the haves in the east and west. I pity the fans in Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

2. Rick Ankiel - Once a highly touted pitching prospect, he made the major leagues and was in the playoffs before completely losing his ability to throw a pitch in the strike zone. He was sent back to minors and became a position player. While in the minors he battled injuries (some severe) before being promoted this summer to the big club as an outfielder. Since being added to the active roster Ankiel was batting .358 with 29 RBI and 9 HR. This was going to be an ABC (ESPN) made for television movie before the HGH revelations.

3. Bonds 755/Thomas 500/A-Rod 500/Glavine 300 - Tom Glavine is Mr. Union and left Atlanta for a little extra money. Bonds is a travesty and he's 1/1000 of the player Aaron was. Kudos to the Big Hurt and A-Rod for hitting 500.

4. Biggio - A season after losing Bagwell, the Astros will enter 2008 without the other B. Biggio has 3,000 hits, 660+ doubles (5th all time), and has played for 1 club his entire career. If you had to invent the perfect baseball player for a sequel to Field Of Dreams you may as well use Biggio.

5. Dustin Pedroia/Ryan Braun - What do these two players share in common? They may each win Rookie of the Year honors in their respective leagues. Also, they are each connected to Boston's rich baseball history.

6. Ichiro Suzuki - Super terrific happy baseball player. He's been playing in the majors since 2001 and he still doesn't speak English? He has over 200 (200!!!) hits every season since joining MLB. He's never batted below .300 in both the NPB and MLB. He also this year's All-Star MVP and has just signed a five year extension with the Seattle Mariners.

Tsuyoshi Shinjo he's not
Ghidorah are these Kaz and Hideki Matsui
The real Godzilla lives West

Baseball's Worst Moment of 2007

1. Susan Waldman - It's important you listen to Susan Waldman announce the return of Roger Clemens from the Del Ray Retirement Home in Texas to the New York Yankees. There's only one woman in America with a screech worse than this and she may sit in an office much more important than a broadcast booth.

About the Rocket...I hear some lines from that old Bruce song...

Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days

And I'll leave it up to the reader to make the connection between Roger and Bruce (my apologies Mr. Gammons).

2. Andruw Jones - In this last year of his contract Andruw is batting a paltry .223. His outfield skills have greatly diminished and that break-out year that's supposed to happen hasn't (and certainly won't ever in Atlanta). During the off season Andruw will benefit from a free agency market thin on available talent, and with Boras as an agent he'll get paid enough to keep that supply of donuts arriving to his crib.

3. TBS - The Braves have been airing nationally on TBS since the 70s. The relationship between the Atlanta Braves and TBS will conclude on September 30th. I wouldn't be a Braves fan if it weren't for TBS; they introduced me to Dale Murphy. They coined the Braves America's Team, broadcast during those dark days with Ted Simmons and Jim Acker, and were there for that decade-plus run with a cast of heroes named Smoltz, Jones, Galarraga and McGriff.

Labels: baseball, end times

Casey Meister and Drew Ryder saw it all go down from their arcade seats overlooking the bleachers.

"It [Bonds 756 HR ball] was coming right at us, just another 20 yards," Ryder said.

Meister saw the ball bounce off the back of someone's glove before it dropped down into an ensuing scramble. There was a mad pile on as everyone in the area jumped in the general direction on the ball.

Source

Years ago a foul ball popped out of my hands at a Mets game and I was pretty devastated. I had some revenge years later when I caught a foul ball off the bat of Matt Franco (Atlanta Braves).

Here is Dale Murphy, my childhood hero, on Bonds (it ain't pretty).

Labels: baseball

1. Field Of Dreams
2. The Natural
3. Bull Durham
4. Eight Men Out
5. Stealing Home
6. The Rookie
7. Major League
8. The Bad News Bears (1976) and The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977)
9. The Sandlot
10. Mr. Baseball

Gay

Mr. 3000, Angels in the Outfield, Fever Pitch, Bad News Bears (2005), and Rookie of the Year

Awful

For Love of the Game, Major League II, Major League: Back to the Minors, and Ed

Honorable Mentions

The Slugger's Wife, Summer Catch, A League of Their Own, and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan

Labels: baseball

Chipper Jones hit a pair of solo homers that tied and broke Dale Murphy's Atlanta Braves record on Thursday night. Dale Murphy was the franchise leader with 372. Hank Aaron hit 335 home runs in Atlanta. He belted 398 home runs as a Milwaukee Brave and 22 with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Murphy was my childhood hero and the reason I became a Braves fan.

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution and ESPN

Labels: baseball

The photo has NOTHING to do with this post but Bobby Cox just tied Hall of Famer John McGraw on Saturday by getting run (ejected) for the 131st time of his career.

What else can a depressed Braves fan and self-proclaimed Yankee hater do except take a little pleasure in these statistics?

Simple math tells you how tough the Yankees’ chore is.

Starting with last night’s game in Seattle, the Red Sox had 88 games left. If they go 44-44, they would finish 92-70. In order for the Yankees to reach 92 wins, they would have to post a 56-33 ledger the rest of the way. That’s .629 baseball for more than three months by a team that has played at a .493 (36-37) clip this season. And who is to say the Red Sox, who have an interest in acquiring Chicago lefty Mark Buehrle, will play .500 ball the rest of the way? They are at .640 (48-27) after last night’s loss in Seattle.

Source

Labels: baseball

ATLANTA -- John Smoltz became baseball's first pitcher with 200 wins and 150 saves, achieving the feat with a victory over one of his best friends.

Smoltz beat Tom Glavine with seven shutout innings and Matt Diaz homered to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 2-1 win over the New York Mets on Thursday night.

Making his third start of the season against Glavine, his Atlanta teammate from 1988-2002, Smoltz (7-2) became the NL's first seven-game winner.

The 40-year-old Smoltz gave up seven hits without a walk and struck out five. In back-to-back wins over Boston and the Mets, Smoltz has thrown 14 scoreless innings while allowing 10 hits and one walk.

Smoltz, 4-1 in May, lowered his ERA from 2.85 to 2.58.

Glavine also pitched well, giving up only five hits and two runs in six innings for the Mets, who were denied their sixth straight series win.

The Braves won two of three in the series to cut the Mets' lead in the NL East to 1½ games.

Source

Labels: baseball

Jeff Schultz in the AJC on Bonds:

In short, Selig, a former owner, has had an executive view of this sport’s underbelly for decades. When baseballs began flying out of stadiums like Superballs, when players like Brady Anderson morphed into statistical cartoons (from 16 home runs to 50?), when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa did their best to obliterate memories of Roger Maris, Selig and owners didn’t investigate. They wore blinders in the light and counted ticket sales in the dark.

Never mind waiting until Bonds is only a swing away from tying Aaron. Selig should be there now. He should be made to watch Bonds’ every swing. So should anybody who ever allowed this era’s chemically enhanced assault on history to take place.

Every owner who focused on turnstiles and dollars.

Every TV executive who counted rating points.

Every union representative who stiff-armed cries for mandatory drug testing.

Watch.

Suffer.

Drink it up, like a hemlock smoothie.

But this is baseball’s freak show, and Selig should not be allowed to hide from it. He can always crawl back under the rock when it’s over.

Heore is George Will in Newsweek,

According to Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who wrote "Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports," Mike Murphy, equipment manager of the San Francisco Giants, testified that since Bonds became a Giant in 1993, the size of his uniform jersey has gone from 42 to 52. His cap size has expanded from 7 1/8 to 7 1/4, even though while it was expanding he shaved his head. (Bonds reportedly shaved his head because his hair was falling out as a result of steroid use.) And Fainaru-Wada and Williams also say Murphy testified that Bonds's baseball shoe size has changed from 10½ to 13.

Labels: baseball

Braves' Cox passes Sparky Anderson in managing wins

PITTSBURGH -- Atlanta's Bobby Cox moved past Sparky Anderson into fourth place in career managerial victories when the Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-2 on Saturday night, Cox's 2,195th victory in the majors.

Source

Labels: baseball

Bobby Cox signed a contract extension to manage the Braves through 2008

Including an earlier four-year stint with the Braves and four seasons as Toronto's manager, Cox has a career record of 2,180-1,690 going into Wednesday night's game against the Chicago Cubs. He is the fifth-winningest manager in baseball history, trailing only Connie Mack, John McGraw, Tony La Russa and Sparky Anderson.

Labels: baseball

When Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's home run record this summer it will sully a game already in its death throes. I am not Mike Lupica, or one of the 40+ ESPN sport journalists on the DISNEY/ABC payroll, so my prose isn't as superfluous or as insightful as those paid professionals. And while one man can't make or break a sport...one man can represent a composite of all that's wrong and sickly about it. All you need is commom sense, and a little taste of the old game, to know that Bud Selig's version of America's Past Time is a travesty. It's a rotten slurry of agents, owners, journalists, players and fans, represented by a man who just blamed a teammate for testing positive for amphetamines.

Labels: baseball