Jehrico

Just for the record...I never implied I was in the least bit enlightened by the news...just that I wasn't going to be to sorry for him. His family, yes, but him, no.

you're right, that does sound callous. in fact, it is callous. It is, but it's honestly how I feel. I prefer to be honest over politically correct.

very promising pitcher, played from 80-96 with the Dodgers and Yanks. Former NL ROY and all-star. He was suspended from baseball numerous times for drugs and such, namely cocaine. He missed all of the '84, '86 and 88-90 seasons because of drugs.

The Curse of the Witch is a rather murky story involving Voodoo and some other stuff from 1908. It has long been rumored to do with several things the Cubs were involved in. Like the 1932 curse, it is another Curse of Hubris. It has to do with the Game covered most excellently by Wiley here 1908 that probably led to the eventual formation of the Negro Leagues. Apparently at some point the story goes that Rube or one of his cohorts contacted a local medicine woman to place a curse on the Cubs for 100 years for the chicanery that was happening. The rest as they say is history and our only 2 Modern Championships remain 1907 and 1908. I will dig a little deeper and see if i can find some more facts or another reference for you. Edit: There apparently is an alternate version of this story as well. The alternate story has to do with the NY Giants tieing to the Cubs on Sept 23rd, 1908 in the infamous play known as Merkle's Boner. In that story, the Witch was hired by disgruntled Giant fans for the behavior of Chance, the Cub fans, and the Cubs after the Game was over. It eventually led to the Giants and Cubs meeting on October 8th to determine the NL Champ, which the Cubs won en route to the series victory over the Tigers. The alternative version doesn't make any sense though...it makes it sound as if the curse were placed before the '08 series, which we subsequently won. Here's a thought...if you can get a witch to place a 100 year curse on a team, then why don't we just find 29 of these gals and place 100 year curses on the other 29 teams? Someone's gotta win, even if everyone is cursed. That's even the playing field (although our curse would be up in a couple...)

Steve Howe died when his truck rolled over today. No article yet, just a flashline on sportsline.com's homepage. This might sound really callous, and it is, but to be perfectly honest, it's hard to feel too much sympathy for someone who threw so much away like he did. That doesn't mean it's not tragic, but, you kind of have to wonder if there were any drugs or booze involved in the accident...

IF our pen can keep the walks down, I'd say yes. At the worst, I think we'll match them in terms of BAA and K/9 when it's all said and done. I'm still hopefull that Wuertz will come back and perform like last year, and that Ohman will get back on track like last year, which would give us 6 relievers capable of putting up a sub 3.00 ERA.

First Dempster, then Williamson. I hope Hedry can make it 3 for 3 on reclamation projects with Miller. Chad Fox? Not Hendry's fault, Fox was doing a great job before he became the 2nd of 3 Cubs pitchers to be injured by a line drive. I'm pretty sure that that's not how Fox got injured. Yeah.... Fox just threw a pitch and felt something snap. Fox was it by a line drive a little while before the pitch where he felt the snap though, wasn't he? I'm positive you're right about how his season ended, but I think he did take a line drive too. I forgot that he was hit as well, that was just typical of how our season went last year. I can't recall having 3 pitchers hit by linedrives in a year.

I don't know that this was such a move worthy of earning propss for Dusty. Puttig in Ohman or Williamson or Novoa with a 4 run lead in the 9th isnt bad, no matter who he chose. I do like seeing Eyre strike out the side, then Williamson says "I can do that too!"

Don't mix your french with your spanish! From now on, it's Jacque est sur le feu

ask and ye shall receive

Glendon ate him. The last time I recall seein Ohman was when Ponson was pitching...

Here's a question for the statheads...should he get credit for successfully stealing the base? He technically was safe at 2nd for an instance, successfully swiping the bag. It was what happened after he successfully reached 2nd base that got him out. I think it's offcially scored caught stealing, but I think he did meet the qualifications for getting credit for stealing the base.

Anyone know where you could find one of those on the net?

In the USA Today, they did a piece on Damon and how he's fitting in with the Yanks. Supposedly, ARod and Giambi have been telling him horror stories of the first time they returned to Seattle and Oakland after signing elsewhere. I guess they've had some t-shirts made up in Boston that I thought were hilarious: I had to share that one with the board, I got a good laugh out of it... http://www.usatoday.com/sports/bbw/2006-04-25-johnny-damon_x.htm

when is it fair to write off a player? How about when he's struggled to hit .250 the last two years and has provided by far substandard offense for his position? Or when his name is Jacque Jones? I'd take either answer...

You could argue that it's not fair, but I think the umpire element is a major part of the seriousness of this incident. Pitchers throw at batters all of the time, and the speed at which young threw his bat didn't make it any more dangerous than your typical beanball. But, but directing it at an umpire, he's undermining the integrity of the game by causing (or trying to cause) future intimidation of an official. That's why I think he should be slammed.

I've been out of this debate for about 4 pages, so forgive me for catching up. Delmon Young intended one of two things...to either harm the umpire, or to make the umpire believe he was capable and likely to harm him in the future if he didn't do as he wanted. So, either he intended to harm him, or if you believe his statement that he didn't mean to hit him, then his intent was to threaten him with harm in the future the next time he made a call against him. For those who don't think he intended to cause harm but believe his teammates who say he did intend to hit him, what would any reasonable person expect to happen by throwing a bat at high velocity at someone? Any reasonable person would expect pain and suffering as a result of the throw. (and for those who insist on calling it an underhand flip, this underhand flip had about the same emphasis on it as when Kent Tekulve unhand flipped the ball to home when he was pitching.) In either case, this is severe and is not in the same ballpark as headbutting another player or spitting at an ump. Plus, he's undermining the integrity of the game by, if you believe he didn't mean to hit him, intending to intimdate the umpire so as to influence future calls. I say season ban, probation with threat of a lifetime ban in '07.

Jones can't be dealt till June anyway and I actually think you would find a market for him -- I believe a significant portion of his deal was in the signing bonus.... as long as the Cubs didn't try to pass that cost off on the acquiring team, I'm sure there would be a few GMs interested in JJ @ $3-4mil/year. Didn't the Royals make him the same 3 year / $15mil offer or even offer him more? There is not going to be a market for Jones, and Hendry isn't going to try and trade him. KC had an offer, it wasn't accepted, so they went elsewhere. They don't just have $15m laying around they want to spend. Jacque Jones of 3 years/$16M (2006-08 ) signed as a free agent 12/05 $4M signing bonus (paid 1/06 to 1/08 ) 06:$3M, 07:$4M, 08:$5M If we picked up the bonus and the first half of his salary this year, KC could probably afford $1.5 for this year, then 9 mil over '07 and '08. They could afford it, if it were made worth their while. I'm not sure making it worth their while would be worth it.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/yankees/65224.htm Granted, this quote is from a NY newspaper, and thus, has little credibility :) Tuesday will be interesting...

I think so. Spitting at an umpire is degrading and insulting, but there's no threat of physical harm. There is a threat of harm with headbutting, but not that much. Winging a bat at high speed towards an ump, IMHO, implies an intent to do serious bodily harm to the ump. I say suspend him for the remainder of the year, put him on probation for the next 2-3 years. Any further conduct which results in contact with an umpire leads to a lifetime suspension.

ESPN News had a little blurb on this incident that I found a little funny... I don't recall exactly what they said word for word, but here's the gist of it, with the important part bolded: "Delmon Young has been suspended for a game pending an investigation into an incident where his bat struck an umpire..." ESPN is going to be all over the Delmon Young bandwagon when he comes up, like they are on the Bonds bandwagon now. Delmon Young didn't throw his bat at the ump. It's not his fault. It's the bat's fault, because it was the bat that struck the ump... To me, it was almost like saying something like "steriods were injected into Bonds" instead of "Bonds took steroids."

It's funny Dusty will give struggling vets multiple chances based on success they've had with other teams. But if they failed with other teams, he talks about fresh starts, and the result is the same: the vet continues to get chance after chance. Success, failure, it's all the same when you're a veteran. In Dusty's defense, Ronny struggled big time in ST and never had to hear footsteps behind him. Murton struggled for a week and half here, and Dusty was incredibly supportive of him. Then again there isn't a viable replacement for Murton, but there was for Ronny. I could be wrong, but I think Hendry has something to do with Baker's newfound tolerance of slumping rookies.

You wanna help Jacque Jones? Break out the chloroform against lefties...

Menky is a cross between DLee and Neifi, Lee's glove and Neifi's stick. Only plays 1B like Lee. No thanks to Mentkabsceadskads.

I have the same feelings whenever Angel Hernandez is anywhere on the field: especially behind the plate. The difference between Froemming and Hernandez is that Froemming seems to have it out for the Cubs, but is reasonably competent against other teams. Hernandez is just the worst umpire on the planet, regardless of who is playing. I still love the game where Mongo was in the booth during the 7th inning stretch of a game Hernandez was calling: "Don't worry Cubs fans, I'm gonna have a talk with that ump after the game." Hernandez subsequently threw him out of the park. I've loathed Hernandez ever since. Has Mongo ever been back to Wrig after that game?