From an old article about a White Sox / Rangers brawl:
George W. Bush, general partner of the Rangers, was in a box seat near the Texas dugout when the brawl broke out and said he considered for a second running onto the field.
“I thought about it, but then I saw Bo coming out and decided to stay where I was,” said Bush.
With quick thinking like that, is it any wonder he was such a fine president?
(via South Side Sox)
Opening day is approaching and Summer Anne Burton is doing her part to make sure we’re ready. Though she’s only about 10% of the way through drawing every baseball hall of famer, I smell an impending book deal. Go ahead and sign me up for a pre-order, Summer.
(via the really, really awesome Chitwood & Hobbs)
When I first moved to the NYC area, I felt like the Mets would be a good local team for me to cheer for. Their second-class status in New York (to the Yankees) reminds me very much of the way the White Sox exist in Chicago. They play in the NL, so I don’t have to worry about them playing the Sox unless both teams make the World… err… never.
My first season as a prospective Mets fan went really well. By which, I mean they suffered one of the worst collapses in MLB history (blowing a 7 game lead with 3 weeks to go). Needless to say, my interest waned. To make matters worse, the next season the Mets hired one of my least favorite managers, ever (former White Sox skipper, Jerry Manuel). The seasons since I moved here have been plagued by injuries, drama, arrests and underperformance.
Today, the Mets chose Terry Collins, a man who lost his players confidence at both of his previous jobs (players basically revolted and voted him off the island), as their next manager. Or - as Deadspin put it:
Mets’ New Manager Hire Ensures
Continued Drama, Failure
What a joke.
With the addition of Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, the Yankees were a pre-season favorite to win the World Series Title. Sports rarely play out according to script, however, and by mid-May the Yankees looked fairly average at 1 game under 500. Of course, by now, you know how it played out. The Yankees caught fire and were the hands-down best team in baseball after the All Star break. The playoffs were not without drama, but their conclusion seemed inevitable from the start.
Hideki Matsui Homers in the Second inning of game 6. Photo: Richard Perry/The New York Times
A current web site on my “explore often” list is Book of Odds, a reference on the odds of everyday life. The site really digs into life’s important issues and gives us nuggets like “the odds an adult has ever eaten cold pizza for breakfast are 1 in 2.56.” One of today’s articles discusses superstitiousness in baseball, claiming that 1 in 1.88 baseball players engages in superstitious behavior. With the World Series starting tonight, it seems we can expect the players will be conjuring up their own brand of victory-assuring Voodoo.
This year’s World Series pits the Philadelphia Phillies against the New York Yankees — two teams separated by a stretch of highway running right up the middle of New Jersey. If the tickets weren’t ridiculously expensive, I could reasonably consider traveling to either team’s stadium to take in a World Series game.
From Hoboken, NJ:
Not surprisingly, I’ve never lived within 100 miles of both teams playing in the series. In fact, this is only the fourth time in my life that I’ve lived within 100 miles of one of them:
«There was an image here, but somewhere along the lines I delete it. Whoops!»
Yesterday, the Phillies chose to take an Amtrak train into New York’s Penn Station. When the Yankees travel to Philly, I assume they’ll just get on A-rod’s back.
