SB Nation User Blog: Charlie77

Purple Row donates $100 to the Mike Coolbaugh Memorial

Charlie77 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:22:44 -0000

Congratulations fellow Rowbots, the check we have all been waiting for arrived in the mail and I have spent it. Back on September 17th we placed submissions for a worthy charity in which to donate our money to and the overwhelming response was for the Mike Coolbaugh Memorial. The timing for the donation is perfect as the Memorial Golf Tournament occurs on November 7th. Anyone interested in playing in the tournament is welcome to join in at the Tapatio Springs Golf Resort in Boerne, TX. The cost to play is $125 but anyone who pre-registers will receive a $50 discount for 18 holes and dinner. The dinner also includes a live auction for donated items such as a Spring Training Trip to Arizona, autographed jerseys and other autographed merchandise.

This morning I submitted the money to the Mike Coolbaugh Memorial and received this reply in response.

Thank you so much Charlie for the generous donation from PurpleRow. We truly appreciate support from individuals and groups like yours. We have a sign made for the tournament listing the "Friends" of Mike Coolbaugh - so how should I list your organization? As PurpleRow or Purplerow Cares? Let me know so I make sure to get it right. Thank you again for your support for the Coolbaugh Family.

Sincerely,

Kristin Frank

Coolbaugh Memorial Tournament

If anyone would like to contribute individually to the Mike Coolbaugh Memorial, donations are welcome in any amount. According to the website donations are used for

The proceeds from this year's tournament will go partially to help support Mandy and the kids, but also to start a baseball clinic for kids from San Antonio who have lost a family member. She also wants to do what she can to promote safer conditions for baseball players, coaches and fans at every level.

Here is a picture of the check we received from Café Press for the sales of Purple Row merchandise. Holly and I want to thank everyone for their support of Purple Row Cares and hope that it continues in the future. The check we received was for all the sales from June to September. Everyone needs to start thinking of another charity, already we have earned nearly $80 for sales through ~~October~~ Rocktober.

via i304.photobucket.com

Here is a Rockies playoff shirt I designed for Purple Row Cares using the Rock-tober theme. I have...

Charlie77 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:54:42 -0000

Here is a Rockies playoff shirt I designed for Purple Row Cares using the Rock-tober theme. I have to be careful how it's worded to avoid infringing on an 80's rock radio station or Hard Rock Cafe's Breast Cancer awareness month in October.

The pictured shirt sells for $13.99 and other selections are available with this design including a women's v-neck. The link to the website is listed below.

Choose a charity for Purple Row Cares!

Charlie77 — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:44:44 -0000

Congratulations fellow Rowboticons! Three long months ago we came together with the goal to celebrate our own identity and donate the proceeds to charity.The day was June 5th and the Rockies were 14.5 games back after an up and down season which could only be described as disappointing. After Purple Row Cares was launched and other "Hurdles" were cleared the Rockies went on an eleven game winning streak and continued winning 17 of 18. While some people may claim Karma was introduced to the Rockies season by those contributing towards Purple Row Cares, I would agree with them. Who else could claim credit? Of course it's all on us, just like crossing your fingers on an important atbat or holding your breath as the closer finishes out the 9th, it's all on us..the fans!

Sales to date have been good, leading Purple Row Cares to generate $78 in income. The question now is what should we do with it? Post your ideas for a charity to donate to and I will put together a list for us to vote on.

Here is an inventory of what has sold and the commission earned so far. It doesn't show the bonus we earned from Cafe Press for our sales in June. Commission from sales are not released for 60 days after the product is received and there is a minimum of $50 earned before a check is cut. So the first check will be released sometime next week. Any questions on Purple Row Cares can be emailed to Purplerowcares@gmail.com and either myself or Holly96 will respond. Thanks to all who have contributed so far!

Completed Product Sales

" See Totals

Thumbnail	Completed	Product Description	Product Number	Store	Returns	Commission	Total
	2	PurpleRowCares For Charity Organic Men's Fitted T-Shirt	391542425	PurpleRowCares	-	$6.90	$13.80
	2	PurpleRowCares For Charity Women's Dark T-Shirt	391542442	PurpleRowCares	-	$6.00	$12.00
	2	PurpleRowCares For Charity Dark T-Shirt	391542444	PurpleRowCares	-	$5.70	$11.40
	1	PurpleRowCares For Charity Organic Men's T-Shirt	391542431	PurpleRowCares	-	$6.90	$6.90
	1	PurpleRowCares For Charity Men's Fitted T-Shirt (dark)	391542443	PurpleRowCares	-	$6.60	$6.60
	1	PurpleRowCares For Charity Dark T-Shirt	391542444	PurpleRowCares	-	$5.70	$5.70
	1	PurpleRowCares For Charity Ringer T	391542446	PurpleRowCares	-	$4.50	$4.50
	1	PurpleRowCares For Charity Mug	392273914	PurpleRowCares	-	$3.30	$3.30
	1	PurpleRowCares For Charity Value T-shirt	391542450	PurpleRowCares	-	$2.70	$2.70
	1	PurpleRowCares For Charity Light T-Shirt	391542459	PurpleRowCares	-	$2.20	$2.20
	1	PurpleRowCares For Charity White T-Shirt	391542461	PurpleRowCares	-	$2.20	$2.20
Totals	14				$0.00		$71.30

Seth Smith is so hot the league forces him to wear a Warning Label.

Charlie77 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:00:49 -0000

Seth Smith is so hot the league forces him to wear a Warning Label.

Seth Smith is good and he should start over Hawpe

Charlie77 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:17:59 -0000

It’s time for Seth Smith to take his place at the table at the expense of Brad Hawpe. Opponents of Seth have argued that his bat should gather dust on the bench only to be swiffered off for late game heroics. While Smith is lights out as a pinch hitter, he actually performs better earlier in the game posting a .350 Average with a 1.014 OPS in innings 4-6.

Seth burst onto the scene in 2007 during the Rockies run for Awesomeness with a .625 Avg and 1.500 OPS. He then continued his Awesomeness in the playoffs with a .500 Avg and 1.167 OPS. You’ll notice I’m only using two offensive stats for comparison; batting average and on base plus slugging percentage because they cover the basic offensive skills of hitting, reaching base and power.

via i304.photobucket.com

When comparing their career numbers Smith posts a slightly higher Avg .292 to Hawpe’s .286, however Brad’s OPS of .877 is a tic above Seth’s .872. In looking at their career performances in the second half of the season Seth’s performance improves to .305/.886 while Hawpe’s falls to .269/.833. Brad Hawpe continues to waste AB’s against LHP like he stole them from his Grandmother’s purse, posting .244/.752 against Smith’s .256/.870 and don’t tell me Hawpe has improved because he’s hitting .252 this year, meanwhile Seth is popp’n a .357 (magnum). Hawpe might even be a better late innings PH because his numbers (.297/.878) are higher than Smith’s (.286/.907) in innings 7-9.

So now that I’ve shown why Smith is a better hitter than Hawpe, let’s get to the easy part; defense. It can be argued that defense is more important than hitting and anyone that saw Ian Stewart steal 2 runs from the Nationals while K’ing four times would be swayed. To show how bad of a defender Brad is let's compare him to Barry Bonds. In Bonds final season he was limping from a steroids swollen knee and posted a -15 UZR/150. It was Bonds worst UZR/150 in his final four seasons. Amazingly it was a better defensive year than our Hawpe's -20 this year! On the flip side, Seth Smith is the second best outfielder on the Rockies with a UZR/150 of +19. Which means he saves 19 runs for the Rockies in a season.

HOLD ON A MINUTE!! BRAD HAWPE HAS A GREAT ARM says the man in the backrow. Heck yeah he throws out runners, 3 of them this season the same as Seth Smith. In 137 plays, Hawpe only has 3 outfield assists; meanwhile Smith has 3 in only 66 plays. Starting Smith would allow CarGo to slide into right field, and Carlos has a great arm throwing out 4 runs in 66 plays this season. So have I convinced you? Should the starting outfield be Smith, Dex, CarGo? Let me know.

Poll

Should Seth Smith be starting over Brad Hawpe?

Yes

44 votes

No

49 votes

93 votes | Poll has closed

Time to update the Map: Where are you?

Charlie77 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:40:27 -0000

After moving my family from San Diego to St. George, Utah I thought it would be a good idea to update the Purple Row map. Since there are a lot of new actives on Purple Row lately and with people moving around for college now is a good time to post your new location! Powered by Google Maps, our map was adopted after Holly96’s fanpost earlier this year. It shows how far-flung Rockies fans are, from England to South Korea there is a Purple Row of fans covering the globe.

via i304.photobucket.com

I also thought it would be fun to see some pics of people who have been wearing their Purple Row shirts in public. The Rowbots shown in the picture are from right to left: Russ, Walkoff59, Jcn7vc and Charlie77. JC’s pic is sick, sitting in the Purple Row looking all gangsta. We are close to having enough money to donate to charity, just a couple more shirts people!

via i304.photobucket.com

Get well soon Mrs. MondoGarage!

Charlie77 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:45:11 -0000

Get well soon Mrs. MondoGarage!

High Wiff Warning along with hurricane Santana threatens Rockies playoff launch.

Charlie77 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:30:01 -0000

High Wiff Warning along with hurricane Santana threatens Rockies playoff launch.

RockDrive 1.5 : Launch phase begins

Charlie77 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:46:27 -0000

via i304.photobucket.com

*UPDATE

via i304.photobucket.com

The odds of the Rockies making the post-season have improved from a flatlined 1.5% a few days after Clint Hurdle was fired to a season high of 64.7% through Monday. The skyrocket in flight has given Rockies nation many afternoon delights, causing fans to dust off the old bandwagon. Colorado lead the NL in walks and walks allowed, but fans are running through the gates to catch a glimpse of the Wild Card leading Rockies.

Poll

How far will the rocket of the 2009 Rockies carry them?

NL West division champs, the Dodgers are going down!

5 votes

Aces wild! Marquis and Ubaldo will lead this team to the Wild Card!

27 votes

Fwhee! I'm on this bandwagon until Kiszla or Woody tell me to abandon ship!

0 votes

Holliday, Kung Fu Panda and the Garko-lord will defeat Colorado's playoff chances.

4 votes

36 votes | Poll has closed

Book Report: The Duke of Havana

Charlie77 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:34:39 -0000

We weren't free. We became aware that if we were going to realize our dreams we had to get out of Cuba. ~Juan Carlos Bruzon

MY FAVORITE BASEBALL POINTS

Written by two newspaper journalist who covered Cuba and the events of surrounding the defection of Orlando Hernandez. This book reads part drama, part spy novel, part underhanded agent negotiations as it grips the reader with intrigue until the end.

via www.randomhouse.ca

Cuba has a terrific baseball program for its youth. Sports ability is assessed early in a child's life from which they are assigned to baseball school and spend as much time playing baseball as learning their figures. After school they graduate to tournament teams and then the professional teams on the island. The best professionals are chosen to represent Cuba in international competition. Orlando Hernandez was not selected for the youth program. Like Micheal Jordan getting cut in High School, Hernandez pushed himself to be a great player and then had to try out when he was older. Orlando became one of the greatest Cuban pitchers of all time.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba became a nation of squalor which lost billions in economic support from its sugar exports. While its players were perhaps the greatest in the world, they had no way of cashing in on their talents. Hernandez earned $50 a month while pitching for Cuba. Enter agent Joe Cubas who began stalking players in an attempt to bring them to America. The agent discovered that players had to defect to a third country to establish themselves as free agents and cash in to the highest bidder.

Cubas and another agent named Juan Ignacio became so good at getting players to defect they became targets of Fidel Castro. Juan Ignacio was arrested in Cuba while staking out a high school game and the Cuban police discovered forged documents in his briefcase containing the names of several prominant players; including Orlando Hernandez. Orlando, nicknamed El Duque just like his father, had no intention of defecting. He loved Cuba and was married with two small daughters. When a player defected they were never allowed to come back to Cuba, and lost all contact with their families. Ignacio was sentenced to 15 years in a Cuban prison.

After Orlando's brother Livan had defected then pitched the Marlins to World Series victory, El Duque became the next Cuban player for the agents to target. When the documents were discovered El Duque was officially banned from Cuban baseball. Along with two other players shortstop German Mesa and catcher Alberto Hernandez. El Duque spent two years attempting to get back into baseball only to be denied at every step. Only after losing his wife, daughters, home, and livelihood did El Duque choose to defect.

El Duque was taken by boat to a deserted island in the Bahamas where he was supposed to picked up by an American. The boat never showed up, and El Duque spent several days on the island with only cans of spam. He was eventually rescued by the Coast Guard and then the story really gets interesting as he is exiled to the Bahamanian government, gets sent to Costa Rica and then holds a tryout where he is eventually signed by the New York Yankees for $6.6 million.

Poll

Should the US abolish the Cuban blockade and allow baseball players to play in the MLB?

No, those commies tried to nuke us back in the 60's and are probably responsible for the Kennedy assassination!

1 votes

Yes, Cuban players should be allowed to sign cheap contracts like Dominican players!

3 votes

MLB should expand to Cuba, or even better move the Marlins there so someone will finally attend their games!

4 votes

8 votes | Poll has closed