So over the Holidays, I found at a used-book store the book "9 Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game" by Daniel Okrent.  I finished up the book this morning and wanted to recommend it and throw out there a thread on favorite baseball books.

First of all, here is a link to the book from Amazon:

I was not sure what i was getting when I picked the book up but it was well worth the read.  It details out a rather random game in June 1982 between the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles.  9 Chapters and each Chapter has a portion on the top half and bottom half of the resepctive inning and then in-between background information on either various players or just history of the game.

It is a very interesting read and for som will bring back either memories or in my case was a few years before I really got into baseball but the names and some situations really resonate. 

Of course, at the time Bud Selig is the owner of the Brewers and it talks in great detail about this ownership, hands-on approach, his willingness to either pay more or not pay more for certain players.

Anyway, for anyone that is looking for a good read, I highly recommend this book.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3318132

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Doug Davis has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, team president Derrick Hall confirmed to The Arizona Republic on Friday.

<!-- INLINE HEADSHOT (BEGIN) -->

Davis

<!-- INLINE HEADSHOT (END) -->

According to Hall, Davis is planning on making his scheduled start Friday against the Colorado Rockies and will address the media at some point on Friday, too. Davis will make his next few starts before undergoing surgery sometime in the next three weeks.

"We're not sure about the timetable after that," Hall told the newspaper. "We're deeply saddened and concerned for Doug but we're still in the process of collecting facts and applying that to timing."

Davis was 13-12 in 33 starts with a 4.25 ERA as Arizona won the National League West and advanced to the NL Championship Series before losing to the Rockies in four games.

According to the webmd.com Web site, there are 18,000 annual cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S. Most patients are cured or live many years with the disease.

Wish him the best.  Sounds like they caught it early.  The reason I say this is I was watching espn and it stated that he planned to be back playing in one month.

Any Pettite has asked the committee to not have to testify tmorrow.  He does not want to testify against his friend Clemens...interesting..not sure what this means, but why do this?

And why would the committee let this happen, if it does.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/02/11/pettitte.excused/index.html

OKay, some friends and I are looking to go to Yankee Stadium this summer and I went to the Yankees website and individual game tickets are not yet for sale.  You can go to Stubhub and get some but I was wondering if anyone knew when tickets will go on sale via the Teams websites or has stubhub taken over this process?

thanks for the help.

Also, any suggestions on how to get tickets to Yankee stadium and good places to sit or avoid in the stadium (in terms of view, etc).

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3062658

Intereresting.  I guess the pull of the game brought him back for more.  Will be interesting to see how he does there.  Not sure what Cincy is looking for with this hire.  I mean Dusy is not known as a turnaround specialist and unless I am wrong not necessarily great with young players.  I had the impression that he favored vets so will be intesting.

x

xfdsfads

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/steve_aschburner/09/03/southwest.grades/index.html

Cnnsi is doing articles on the Offseason of various divisions and I saw the one on the Southwest.  Based only on Offseason moves to them it appears Houston has taken great leaps.

Of course in the end the Powers are Dallas and SA.

Everyone wants moves and things to look good but I am very satisfied that we did not break up our core and overhaul things.  

Dirk is back at it with Germany and trying to get his team into the Olympics:

Game 1:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/olybb/news/story?id=3003012

Game 2:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/olybb/news/story?id=3004526

(read down the article it has his numbers and the German team win).

His team is 2-0 thus far.

GO DIRK!

Marc Stien Interview with Dirk:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=Nowitzki

Some nice thing in there, noting earthshattering but nonetheless Mavs news.

x
s
s
s
s
s
s

One-line diaries are prohibited on Mavs Moneyball. Give your diary a bit more thought, then give it another shot. If you have nothing to add to your proposed diary, then it probably belongs as a comment under another appropriate thread.
The minimum is 300 characters.

Okay this is only one sportswriters opinion but in the interest of getting some discussion going here is an article that states that Dirk is not a Cornerstone player:

http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/08/30/summer-of-answers-why-kg-and-dirk-arent-top-ten-cornerston es/

He has players such as Chris Paul above him.

People can say what they want about Dirk but any player that is the focal of one of the top 3 teams in the leauge, the focal player of a team that went to the NBA Finals in the past 2 years, a focal player of  team that if it gets back to the Finals it will be becuase of him then he is a cornerstone player.

Another tough outing today.

He enters the game in the 8th inning with a 3-1 lead and one person on base.  He proceeds to give up a 2-run homer to Tejada to tie the game.

Can't catch a break.  Maybe the idea of not closing really just does not sit well ith him.

xx

x