On Monday we honor the men and women who gave their lives so we can live a life full of freedom. And baseball, which is undeniably America’s game. Enjoy some three day weekend links.
12 MLB players have lost their lives in war. Times were different in the early days of the game. When the call to arms was made, all men needed to answer. In the case of Bill Stearns in the link above, that includes a 12 year old boy drumming through the Civil War. Incredible.
Over 500 baseball players served in WW2, only two were killed. Elmer Gedeon and Harry O’neill. Those links are to Wiki and tell their stories.
Back to the modern game where pitchers are getting away with using foreign substances on balls to the detriment of the offense. Cardinals manager Mike Shildt is pissed Joe West called out his guy but not others.
Nobody has called attention to this issue over the years more than Trevor Bauer. Of course he’s obviously jumped full bore on the pine tar train himself.
Josh Donaldson is threatening to disclose a full list of pitchers who are cheating. I hope he does.
The Angels are used to having an MVP candidate, only this year it is a different guy. How Shohei Ohtani can win the MVP. At this point there’s clearly no single baseball player more valuable than Shohei. But will the crappy team submarine his chances with the older writers?
But Mike Trout’s injury has opened the door for a new MVP. Who are the other candidates as of now?
Perhaps Shohei wouldn’t be on a crappy team if the Angels only drafted pitchers. Although there have been some nice pitching performances down on the farm this week.
The draft is just a couple of months away and mock drafts are coming out. Baseball America’s newest mock has the Angels taking Texas righty Ty Madden. I’d be stoked but surprised if Madden is available at 9. Take a look at his draft profile and see why.
Ballparks are returning to full capacity. What can you bring in nowadays? Fangraphs tries to steer your right here. Things have definitely changed and they don’t always make sense.
Last weekend I went to take in a small, soft cooler with sippy cups of milk for my son. Never had a problem before, including twice the previous week. Suddenly it was a problem and the attitudes of some guy named Rick and a lady whose name I didn’t catch were astonishingly poor.
Rick said I had to put the milk in a clear bag. Like that would work on a hot day. The lady said it was the ice packs that were the issue; again on a warm day. First time in 3 years I’ve had a problem. My real problem is the condescending tone of the rent-a-cops and the way they treated my family like we were trying to sneak a in a gun. Mid game I had to walk out to the car and grab an individual sippy cup. The security supervisor at the front asked why and I went off on Rick The Dick and hopefully he chills out.
Looking for something to do this holiday weekend? Petco Park is hosting a Beach Boys concert Saturday night and Ziggy Marley will play in honor of his dad Bob on Sunday night.
Of course having a cold beer on Memorial Day is a must. Back in the day Stirrups used to link cool beer and beer-centric events. Well, I’m here to tell you there’s finally a non-alcoholic beer I truly enjoy. Run Wild by Athletic Brewing Company has the body and taste of a solid IPA. Think Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Firestone Double Barrel Ale. I can finally actually enjoy a beer now and then. So anybody on the sober wagon, needing to drive, or just wanting to cut back on booze, give it a try.
Please enjoy the three day weekend. Be safe. And take a minute to remember the reason we have Monday off work.
GIF Gamethread weekend
Hey everyone! We are loving this snappy new server and are going to try out gifs in gamethreads all weekend long! (Fri-Sun). After the weekend we’ll see if we want to keep it or not based on how the server performs.
Have at it, and enjoy!
https://imgur.com/gallery/pIcIe7H
A Young Mike Trout doesn’t know what to think.
La Russia probably didn’t have anything to do with this..That doesn’t change the fact he’s a Giant Dick. I’m sure it’s his go-to place to get sauced before his drive home.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31526788/family-cries-foul-chicago-white-sox-change-name-food-area-honor-tony-la-russa
You know that was a chicken shit thing to do changing the name from an honored employee to LaRussa’s name and it does not matter when it took place.
if they serve any alcohol in that area then it’s an eye-opening gaffe by the Chisox.
Beach Boys Concert, My choice of music from the ’60’s. Plus you get a Ball Game!
Yes I remember the 1982 California Surf soccer game at the big A with a free Beach Boys concert after the game. The Boys seemed old even back then. That was probably the largest attended soccer game in the OC’s history but nobody was there for the match.
They put the stage out beyond the centerfield wall and thought they could keep the fans in their seats. That lasted about half way through the opening number ( California Girls?) when everyone rushed the field. I have never seen so many yellow jacketed security guards retreat towards the outfield stage at one time ever before or since.
Was there, remember the concert with the stage out in center, looked like it was a giant erector set. Probably my first concert as young punk.
Also remember my sister having a crush on the goalie Dave “The Skunk” Jokerst.
Stu Nathan and a Coked up young Fred Roggin would show Angels highlights you’d see the goal sitting behind the left field fence.
The Surf did have a classic logo, but they sucked too.
The Angels & The City of Tempe have agreed to a Lease extension and upcoming renovations on Tempe Diablo Stadium . Unfortunately, It looks like it’s going to be the end of Hooterville:
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1398317659901423616/photo/1
Great “Weekend News Crash” Mr.Joiner. A big thank you to those here that served our country. And the same deep gratitude to those that have family and friends that have done the same.
Thank you.
after watching that crazy Pirates play I see that there were so many mistakes they made that I have to stop and figure out who did what. The Angels might have pitching problems and the defense might be less than we hoped for but at least we’re not the Pirates. Let’s review:
Don’t forget that Báez momentarily forgot that he had to run to first and spent time signaling safe, which would have negated the whole thing! The result was hilarious but I wonder how the whole thing would have looked if only Frazier were covering first!
that’s true about Baez! I liked the moment when he realizes he’s got to go, turns and sprints.
I hope this doesn’t totally mess up Craig’s head. It could. Hey, I made a crazy mistake myself, one day in Little League but I recovered. He can, too.
I showed my kid this play after school yesterday, he couldn’t believe it. He was laughing saying that it was the kind of play you see in AA Little League during the first month of the season.
E in P’s spot on break down. MLB has the Zapruder film. Now, who was that on the grassy knoll?
Pass on Madden, give me Jackson Jobe.
Great WNC Jeff. I love the theme.
Thank you.
Security at ballparks is ridiculous and covid made it worse. Also seems to depend on the rent a cop who screens you since they all seem to vary. Tried to take in a bottle of soda water once and they said it wasn’t “water” and wouldn’t let us take it in. Also at Petco park my belt sets off the metal detector and that same belt is fine at airports. They need to tone it down a bit for sure.
It’s ridiculous! I’ve been wanded so many times that I just stopped wearing pants that need a belt to games.
I just glanced at this and saw “Stopped wearing pants”. I gotta clean my glasses to prevent things like this.
I think we all stopped wearing pants over the last 14 months for the most part.
Except for the unfortunate souls like myself who kept working from the office and never had the opportunity to work remotely.
Am I the only one who saw the news break about Ohtani getting scratched for something other than injury and immediately assumed he’d been traded? The last 10 years have scarred me to the point of believing he’ll be on, like, the Marlins the minute the FO gets an itch.
That one never crossed my mind since the Angels don’t usually make trades in May
Open your mind, my friend, to the new possibilities this season may hold.
I was afraid you were going to say that.
We will win tonight.
I can’t wait until Mikey returns. Sandoval is a great surprise addition to the rotation.
How will we bridge the gap to the 9th tonight then? no lead is safe with our bullpen against this team. Even if Ohtani gets through 7 there is a huge divide.
Score more runs
/\ /\ /\ Doing this is really part of the solution. Middle of the pack for most of the year in scoring runs. As bad as the pitching is we need another big bat or two along with Fletcher and Redon returning to normal.
Good for Donaldson. I hope it all gets exposed. There is so much cheating in this sport. Plus I would like to see the whole commissioners office replaced.
Hope Donaldson likes bruises cuz he is headed for a bunch.
Yep. The good ole boy club will come after him. I still hope he has the guts to do it though.
Agreed. And he’s at the point in his career to do it. He’s on his way out but respected in the game.
Can Angel pitchers start cheating too?
Maybe they already are….and this is as good as it gets 😳
Can’t even cheat effectively.
Quality of pitching sure fell off a cliff when we fired that guy who was giving it to the other teams.
Funny Jeff, my family had a similar experience with “security” last Sunday. Have been to 13 home games this year and never had an issue with my clear bags or diaper bag. They were even making people show them diapers which I hadn’t seen before.
One of the guys decided to have an issue with everything on Sunday. I said something like great last place service for our last place team that got a chuckle out of the actual angels employees.
Still had a great time at the game. TSA was better than Angels security last weekend and that’s saying something.
Interesting. They were giving away Rally Monkeys. They were expressly marketing to families like ours. And they blew it.
Imagine if we were taking our kids to their first game or we’re just casual fans. Would you want to come back?
The supervisor guy I spoke with mid game said there were changes to the policy but the attitudes were unacceptable.
It wasn’t a great way to start the game (attitude and apparent policy change they didn’t let people know about or enforced only when wanted).
Getting the kids those rally monkey (having left their others at home) was a quick turn around. Even got some merch I hadn’t originally planned on getting. So spent money regardless of that experience. But I haven’t bought any more tickets since. I’m sure we’ll go just not going to jump all over it at this point
Same here. Once I got inside it was fine.
Honestly, taking that tone/posture towards my family really set me off. It took a while for me to cool off. But ultimately I couldn’t let security ruin a beautiful day at the yard with loved ones.
So, The Mariners called up Hector Santiago, our old left handed friend, coincidentally The Angels will be facing The Mariners next week. Is that a Cheshire Cat grin you have there Mr. Dipoto?
Hector apparently prepared a resume and had his agent send it to all 30 teams. Another guy Perry passed on.
They are adding up. But hey we got ourselves a Sluggo.
As a soft tossing lefty he will see action against The Angels.
We just beat Hector at AAA . We’ll beat him in Anaheim. Even the Angels left handed curse won’t save this guy.
Thanks for jinxing <knocks on wood>.
Looking forward to GIFs in gamethreads. But wouldn’t pics be a better stepping stone? Even after the new Server we were having problems connecting to the site. Did we get a New-New Server?
Pictures are fine too. There was a day we had issues because the provider had a server outage that affected out site.
Other than that day , it’s really been stressless and smooth.Swift, speedy, superior server😊
If Ohtani and Trout have healthy and great seasons, I believe Ohtani takes the MVP everytime.
I am really down on Trout right now.
I know. How dare he get injured and not play!!
IDK. There was Fred Lynn after he got majorly injured in his first year with Angels (about same age as Trout now) and he was never the same again….
Fred Lynn would get injured while waiting for his at bat on the on-deck circle. (True story) so i don’t know that one of his injuries was worse than the others. Some guys are just more sensitive to their body’s musculoskeletal system more than others.
Availability……….. is kinda important. Up there on the list of abilities. One might even say it’s most important.
One day, probably sooner than later, DNA testing will show who is predisposed to injuries, what kind, maybe even when and players will by then have the technology to understand and improve those risks.
Never heard the on deck circle story…..found it in a good article about him.
https://metsmerizedonline.com/2018/04/mmo-exclusive-nine-time-all-star-center-fielder-fred-lynn.html/