SB Nation User Blog: Inkara1

OT: Wyoming fires Joe "Middle Finger" Glenn

Inkara1 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:03:48 -0000

So the University of Wyoming has entered the market for a new football coach after giving Joe Glenn the boot. This year's Cowboys finished 4-8 overall, 1-7 Mountain West, to end a 30-41 tenure for Glenn. Apparently the buyout is $316,000. That seems rather cheap for a buyout.

story

Although I know there's a Wyoming alumnus among the crowd here, I'm really only posting this as another opportunity to post a picture of Glenn flipping Kyle Whittingham the bird. XD

Series over, business resumes

Inkara1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:23:25 -0000

More confirmation of Macha heading to Milwaukee

Marlins send 1B Jacobs to Royals for RHP Nunez

The Marlins were shopping Jacobs because he was due a big raise in arbitration. In exchange on Thursday, they got a right-handed pitcher who was 4-1 last year with a 2.98 ERA in 45 relief appearances.

Nunez has a 9-7 career record.

Jacobs is a career .262 hitter the Marlins acquired in a 2005 trade with the New York Mets. He hit 32 home runs and knocked in 93 runs last season, both career bests.

Tigers decline option on Renteria

(I've always loved the "Why buy when you can Renteria?" headlines.)

Rev Halofan finds out that Angel fans really are bandwagoners

Inkara1 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:30:06 -0000

Rev Halofan finds out that Angel fans really are bandwagoners

Rev Halofan writes of his experience stopping by the Angels' store at the stadium and finding out people had been returning their jerseys and jackets.

From the blog entry:

"So a lot of people are jumping off the bandwagon and want their money back?" I asked, almost scared of the answer I would be given. "Oh yeah," they said in unison, matter-of-factly, like jaded retail pros who know the way the system works. This is now easily my longest conversation with a group of 20-something chicks since I was, oh 25, almost 20 years ago. They needed no prompting from this point on. One told about a guy who brought back men’s women’s and children’s jerseys, caps and shirts and said his neighbors were Dodgers fans and that they could not wear their Angels stuff. One mentioned that a lot of people were pissed about the early exit. They all nodded that this was the common refrain from customers.

If you like the Angels enough to be reading about them on internet blogs you have probably come across the refrain that Angels fans are just bandwagoneers. I have written passionately that this is not the case; a core fan base has always been here. Well, today, the opposite rang true, to the sound of cash registers clinking in reverse.

It could be worse; we could be the Mariners (part 8,675,309)

Inkara1 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:07:46 -0000

Hip pain sent him to the disabled list in April, though just before that, he first felt pain in his shoulder. He's due to undergo surgery Sept. 26.

"The start after I hurt my hip, I felt discomfort in the last inning I pitched," Bedard said. "I know exactly when I did it. After that it got worse and worse"

"We knew what it was after the MRI -- it's a tear in the labrum and a cyst," Bedard said. "Surgery was always an option, but you want it to be the last option. You're never 100 percent sure what will happen in surgery."

link

So Erik Bedard has a torn labrum. He'll probably be out until June at the earliest, but apparently Bedard's eligible for arbitration this offseason and the team would have to offer him at least $6 million, meaning he'll probably be non-tendered. So for five players, the M's got 80 OK innings in the first half of what looks to be their worse season since the early 1980s. The Seattle blogosphere is pretty solidly declaring this the worst trade in team history.

Not that it really should make us feel better about McCarthy's monthly injury, or Mendoza's affliction with suckitis, but it does put it in perspective.

McCarthy's 2007 starts in Anaheim, April vs. July

Inkara1 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:50:07 -0000

So in the Saturday 8/23 gameday thread, this picture was posted as one of a series of three similar ones showing McCarthy's lower leg motion as he pitches.

via i349.photobucket.com

So since it's important to know when that was taken for the sake of discussion, and I recognized the venue as Angel Stadium, I looked and found he pitched on April 4 and July 15, 2007. The uniform he's wearing in the above pic gives it away as the July start.

So I grabbed a few screenshots of him in various points of his delivery in both starts. Shop and compare.

April 4:

via i292.photobucket.com

Here's July:

via i292.photobucket.com

I dunno... looks to me like they actually had him go lower in July.

Rally cat

Inkara1 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:19:12 -0000

Much as the turtles have a special place in all of our hearts, I hereby submit the proposal for the rally cat.

As many of you know, during the 7/25 Rangers-A's game, the Rangers were trailing 5-2 with one out during Michael Young's at-bat when a cat got loose on the field and ran in front of the Rangers' dugout. The Rangers went on to score another three runs in the inning to tie it and then went on to win 14-6 to take over second place in the division.

I'm thinking the team should see about adopting the cat to keep around as the rally cat.

Here's the screen capture and LOLcat text I added. Sorry it's so blurry; it's a screen capture of motion in a 400K stream.

via i292.photobucket.com

My trip to Bakersfield: Blaze 11, Visalia 2

Inkara1 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:46:17 -0000

So in a thinly-veiled attempt to get some recs (and also to see "where the future plays today") I took the two-hour drive to Bakersfield today to watch the Blaze take on the Visalia Oaks in "Historic" Sam Lynn Ballpark.

When pulling up to the stadium, this is the view you see:

via www.inkara1.com

There are also some for-hite batting cages on the other side of the parking lot:

via www.inkara1.com

I had a pretty good opportunity to check outt he beautiful scenery in the parking lot because I got there at 6 p.m. and they don't open the ticket booth until 6:30 for a 7:30 scheduled start. Somewhere between 6:15 and 6:20, a pizza guy showed up with a pair of 30-inch pizzas. (Remember this; it will be referenced later.) The ticket window actually opened about 10 minutes early, but the gate would only let people who had tickets to some sort of barbecue/party thing in before 6:30. It was just as well because the guy accidentally printed me a ticket for last Thursday's game against the Modesto Nuts. Once I noticed it, I was able to get it straightened out.

Upon entering the stadium, I headed to the Bullpen Store to get my card pack for the special price of $8... only the girl in there told me it's $10, but packs would be available after 7 for the reduced $8 price. Since the autograph session was from 6:30 to 7, I just paid the $10, grumbled a bit on my way out the door and headed to the autograph tables... where there was a box of card packs on sale for $8. I figured $2 wasn't worth bitching about at the store while losing valuable autograph time.

Autographed cards 1 - Josh Lueke, Daniel Sattler, Omar Poveda, Truan Mehl, Josh Giles, Evan Reed, Chris Gradoville, Zachary Phillips.

Autographed cards 2 - Beau Jones, Ryan Falcon, Kasey Kiker, Jordan Stewart, John Bannister, Grant Gerrard, KC Herren, Johnny Whittleman, Chad Tracy

Autographed cards 3 - Mauro Gomez, Marcus Lemon, Manny Pina

Autographed program cover - Tanner Roark, Jacob Kaase, Ian Gac. Those three didn't have cards in the set so I had them sign the program cover. Two asides: Gac's last name is pronounced "Jack," so he says; and the Blaze logo looks like a burning pot leaf.

Once I had autographs from everyone who was out signing, I headed to the concession stand and bought a "Wienerschnitzel" quarter-pound hot dog, bag of barbecue Lay's chips and 20-ounce Dr Pepper for $7.75. I put quotes around the Wienerschnitzel because the dog wasn't as good as the ones I usually get at a real Wienerschnitzel. It wasn't terrible but I'd hope for better for $7.75.

My seat was in Section 10, Row A, Seat 1. It's between the backstop and the dogout, below field level (so my butt was actually just below the playing field level, with my head and torso above field level). I'd call that a good seat for $9.

Game time was scheduled for 7:30, but they announced that it would actually start at around 7:45. Here's why:

via www.inkara1.com

For those unfamiliar with the park, some genius decided to make the batter's eye face west, right into the sun when it sets. This didn't become a problem until evening/night games started to be the norm. They put up a big wall in center field to block the sun a bit, but even so, games are scheduled for 7:30 instead of 7:05 or so. Center field is only 352 feet deep, while left is 325 and I believe right is too (couldn't see the sign from my seat). To make up for it, the outfield wall is really tall.

Left field:

via www.inkara1.com

Right field (I couldn't poke the lens through the fence to get this shot):

via www.inkara1.com

I put quotes around "historic" earlier because the place is more old than historic. A few good players have come through there, but otherwise, it's not terribly impressive.

At 7:40 or so, the managers exchanged lineups with the umpires.

Afterwards, the Blaze defenders took the field and Derek Holland took the mound.

The downside to the late start time is my pictures of actual game action are limited because it got too dark. Using the flash slows down the shutter so the bat is one big blur when being swung, but not using the flash makes the picture come out too dark to be usable. The solution is to buy a $2,000 lens that can go down to F2.8 and gather enough light to not need a flash. Anyone got $2,000 to spare?

Derek Holland delivers a pitch

Marcus Lemon fouls off a pitch

Renny Osuna fouls one off

Grant Gerrard watches a pitch go by

Truan Mehl swings through a strike

By the time any of the good action started happening, it was even darker than the Truan Mehl pic.

The game:

Both pitchers, Holland for Bakersfield and Barry Enright for Visalia, were perfect through two innings, with Holland racking up two strikeouts and Enright getting four. I didn't have access to a radar gun, so I don't know pitch speeds or locations (since I was off to the side roughly halfway between the mound and the plate), but it looked to me like Holland needed an inning to get going, sort of like what Eric Hurley does.

In the second inning, Tracy and Gac both struck out looking on three pitches, and neither were very happy with the umpire about it. Kaase, shortstop and No. 9 hitter, broke up Enright's no-hit bid in the bottom of the third with a single and Lemon followed up with a double before Osuna struck out to end the inning.

Holland gave up a hit with two outs in the top of the fourth to end the perfect game bid, but got a flyout to left to end the inning. Gac and Whittleman got back-to-back two-out singles in the bottom of the frame, but Mehl grounded out to end it. Whittleman's single almost knocked the clothing off the base umpire Charlie Brown-style.

With two outs, Gac couldn't come up with the ball at first base, and the next batter put a real charge in the ball, to the right-center wall to score the unearned run before being thrown out trying to make a double into a triple. 1-0 Oaks.

In the bottom of the fifth, Gradoville flied out to right, then Kaase singled for his second hit of the game and stole second before scoring on Lemon's double to tie the game. Osuna flied out to left, then Gerrard singled to score Lemon. Tracy was then hit by a pitch and Gac singled to score Gerrard. Unfortunately, Gac went too far towards second and the cutoff man threw to first to pick Gac off there to end the inning. 3-1 Blaze.

From then on it was a tight game through the top of the eighth. Holland struck out the final five batters he faced and looked to have more velocity in the eighth than in the second. He finished with 99 pitches in eight innings with two hits, one run (none earned), nine strikeouts and no walks.

He might have gone out for the ninth inning, except I'm guessing how long the bottom of the eighth lasted made them decide not to send him back out. Visalia sent out Jorge Perez and he got absolutely lit up. Bakersfield sent 13 batters to the plate and scored eight runs on six hits, two walks (the first two of the game for either team) and a hit batsman. 11-1 Blaze. There was no action in the Visalia bullpen the entire time, making me wonder if the manager just didn't want to go home or something or if Perez was taking a Dusty Tits in Boston-style beating to save the bullpen.

Stewart came on to pitch the top of the ninth and allowed two hits and one run in his inning of work.

Final score: 11-2 Blaze.

Lemon ended up 3-for-5 with three doubles and three RBI, scoring two runs. Kaase quietly had a nice day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Gac had an up-and-down day: he went 2-for-5 with two RBI but had the only error for the Blaze and also made the first and second outs of the eighth inning. Whittleman went 3-for-5.

Visalia score sheet

Bakersfield score sheet

Some names are probably spelled wrong, since the lineup sheet they passed out had a few names spelled wrong. I caught "Whitleman" at the game, but I didn't catch "Enlight" until after I had gotten home and already scanned the score sheet.

Because the Blaze scored three times in the fifth inning, everyone in the park got a coupon for buy one meal, get one free at either of the two Bakersfield Marie Callender's locations. Then, because Holland struck out the side, everyone got $5 off at Great Clips. When I got to my car, I found another buy one get one free Marie Callender's coupon under my windshield wiper.

During the seventh inning (about 9:40 p.m.) one of the members of the "Fun Crew" walked through the stands with a 30-inch pizza for a free pizza giveaway. Remember how I mentioned seeing two big pizzas delivered at 6:15? I hope that wasn't the same one, 3 1/2 hours later.

The stands int he stadium were between 1/3 and 1/2 full. I was expecting a bigger crowd than that for some reason.

The game started at 7:50 p.m. and ended at 10:15, for a duration of 2:25 even with an eight-run inning.

My car got 31 miles to the gallon for the trip (2002 Chevy Malibu V6). I was happy about that since it's rated 21 city/29 highway and that was the first real long trip I'd taken it on since buying it in April.

Heading to Bakersfield

Inkara1 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:41:05 -0000

So tomorrow (Saturday) I'm heading to Bakersfield to watch the Blaze take on the Visalia Oaks. I'll be sure to get pictures.

Now, I checked the Web site and the promo is "Christmas in July" and as it turns out, the "Christmas" gift is an autograph session with the players from 6:30 to 7 p.m. (game time is 7:30). For $8 I can get a card set and have the players sign them... my question is, who should I especially try to get autographs from? Should I have them signed to me or to Lone Star Ball (if they're personalized)? How in-depth do you want me to get about the game? I don't have to hit the road to get there until about 4 p.m. to get there in time, so I'd have time to pick up a score sheet at Big 5 if need be.

Any tips/suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Sexson to Yankees

Inkara1 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:56:50 -0000

link here

The Yankees will only have to pay Sexson the prorated minimum of $390,000 from his $14 million salary with the Mariners. Seattle is eating the remainder of the nearly $6 million Sexson is owed for the season.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

*regains breath*

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Holy crap!

Inkara1 — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:02:42 -0000

Holy crap!

Never, ever get down 3-2 to Randy Johnson. I just watched Adam Eaton do so and then give up a two-run double hit to the wall... and it's gotta be well-hit if the Big Unit could make it to second. 4-2 D-backs.