Bad Trade: Padres Rob Brewers
July 26th, 2007
Apparently the Milwaukee Brewers are really enjoying this winning thing, because they are going to do whatever it takes to stay in first-place. Even if they have to mortgage some of their future.
On Wednesday night, the Brewers traded three of the top-25 prospects in their minor-league system to the San Diego Padres. In exchange for the three highly-regarded farmhands Milwaukee added Scott Linebrink, a 30-year-old reliever who will become a free-agent at year’s end. Read the rest »
First goal for ‘Skins at camp: Return defense to its old form
July 23rd, 2007
WHEN WE WENT to summer camp, we spent our time swimming at the pool or sharing ghost stories around campfires. When the Washington Redskins report to their summer camp on Friday, they won’t have any time for swimming or campfires. They’ll be too busy trying to put a plan in place that will help the team rebound from last season’s 11-loss campaign.
Ghost stories may not be eradicated from the team’s training camp itinerary, though, because any chatter about the team’s defense of a year ago is spooky enough to be considered one. That’s because Washington’s defense, which had ranked in the top 10 for three consecutive seasons prior to a year ago, couldn’t have been more inconsistent. Read the rest »
For ‘07 Skins … It’s All About the D’
July 20th, 2007
When we went to summer camp, we spent our time swimming at the pool or sharing ghost stories around campfires. When the Washington Redskins report to their summer-camp on Friday they won’t have any time for swimming or campfires. They’ll be too busy trying to put a plan in place that will help the team rebound from last season’s 11-loss campaign.
Ghost-stories may not be eradicated from the team’s training-camp itinerary though, because any chatter about the team’s defense of a year ago is spooky enough to be considered one. That’s because Washington’s defense, which had ranked in the top-10 in each of the three seasons prior to a year ago, couldn’t have been more inconsistent. Read the rest »
Snubbed Stars Deserve Credit
July 20th, 2007
BASEBALL’S 78TH All-Star Game was played this week, and for the 11th straight year, the National League didn’t win. The game had as much drama as a soap opera, as the American League escaped a bases-loaded jam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to win both the game and home-field advantage in the World Series.
While the game was great and there wasn’t any shortage of star power in San Francisco, I put together a team comprised of the top first-half players who didn’t get to play in the All-Star game. Read the rest »
The Broadcast of a Lifetime
July 16th, 2007
It’s July 13th, and I’m doing what I normally do on a Friday night. I’m hanging out with a crew of my friends in town. We aren’t really doing anything worth-while, but we’re having fun anyways.
On this particular Friday night the game-plan was a good one. We were going to Hooters to get our wing on while we watched some baseball, which we’d follow-up with a trip to the movies. After eating a little more than a dozen wings, and before we were going to go to the movies, I dropped by my house to check my e-mail.
I would never make it to the movie theatre that night, because the first e-mail I opened changed my plans for the rest of the night. It was from the producer of my radio show at XM, Jeremiah Tittle, who also produced “Ripken Baseball,” a talk-show hosted by Cal and Billy Ripken. Read the rest »
Top-10 Moments From the MLB Season’s First-Half
July 11th, 2007
Top-10 Moments of the First Half
10. Lou Pinella Tirade – June 2nd
+Pinella got ejected after going nuts at the hot-corner…
+Cubs had lost 6 in a row … Ejection took place a day after Barret/Zamabrano fight
+Cubs were in 5th place at 22-31… Since the incident they are 22-12, climbed three spots
The All Non-Allstar Team
July 10th, 2007
The mid-summer classic will be played tonight in ‘The House that Barry Built,’ AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. It’s hard not to enjoy the all-star game, because all of the game’s best are on display, playing on the same field for just one game.
While there won’t be any shortage of star-power in San Francisco tonight, I’ve gone ahead and put together a team comprised of the top first-half players of the season who won’t play in tonight’s game. I’ll call it my all non-allstar team. Read the rest »
Listen to an interview from Minors and Majors
July 9th, 2007
I recently did an interview with Peter Kirk, the founder and chairman of a company that owns minor and independent league basebeball teams, on my show - Minors and Majors. Kirk, who’s been running his company - Opening Day Partners - for a quarter-century, is one of the most respected executives in baseball. He was kind enough to chat with me this past weekend.
You can hear the interview, a rare chance to hear an interview from the show, by clicking on the link below. Randy Flaum, of the York Post, was kind enough to approach XM about putting the interview up on his site. I thank him for his interest in both the broadcast and in minor-league baseball, which Minors and Majors dedicates a great deal of time to. Read the rest »
Future is now for this pitcher
July 9th, 2007
ON THE surface, Collin Balester looks like the typical 21-year-old guy. A skilled surfer who enjoys rap music and the beaches in his home state of California, he also wishes that he were Tony Parker.
Why Parker? Because he has a crush on Eva Longoria, whom Parker–the starting point guard for the NBA-champion San Antonio Spurs–married yesterday. Read the rest »
Wizards come up short filling biggest need
July 9th, 2007
ANOTHER NBA DRAFT has come and gone and the Washington Wizards still have yet to add a quality big man. With their two selections Thursday, the Wizards chose two forwards, Nick Young and Dominic Maguire, neither taller than 6-foot-8.
If I were talking about the Kansas City Wizards–the MLS soccer team–then 6-8 players might have been nice additions. But we’re talking hoops, a game predicated on being able to defend the rim with mammoth paint-players, which Washington just doesn’t have enough of at this point. Read the rest »