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Can the Jays pass the pack?

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Will the Dodgers be punching each other in the room?

These and other juicy topics now on jazztalk.

(thanks Scott)

2 games ago, the Phils handed the Dodgers their most lopsided loss since like 1947 or whatever. 16-1. Then, they turn around and lose the next game, of course. That's why I'm just unable to watch the Phils. Not long ago, they won 5 in a row and turned around and lost 5 in a row. I watched through a lot of bad years but right now I don't feel like putting up with the aggravation.

There's little in MLB that's interesting to me at this time; still jonesin' coming off NHL & NBA playoff action which were absolutely great!

It was so nice to see the tribute paid to Mariano Rivera in today's All-Star game. Interesting that he was utilized in the 8th rather than 9th inning. Jim Leyland had his reasons ...

Mariano is such a class act!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWK5-zMSQB0


The American League won the game 3-0, for the 1st time in a while.

Bleacher Report

Leyland was worried that Joe Nathan (who is tied for 2nd with Rivera for saves in the majors with 30.) wasn't going to hold the lead and Rivera wouldn't get into the game.

Disappointed he did that, but still great to see the reaction.

Mo was the MVP, obviously, but the real MVP was the AL pitchers, they shut the NL down all the way.

My family and I are going to a local baseball game tonight, The Mayor's Cup, featuring the Anchorage Glacier Pilots vs. the Anchorage Bucs, cross-town rivals. It's a 3 game series, and the Bucs won 4-0 last night.

These players play in the Alaska Baseball League, a wonderful experience for NCAA college players and fans alike. It's one of the finest such leagues in the nation, and we've been lucky enough to see hundreds of major league stars in their youth on our local fields. It's a 6-team league, the winner of which goes to the National Baseball Congress tournament in Wichita, Kansas.

Alaska Baseball League

That was a great play.

An amazing throw and blown call by the ump.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tq8-jms290

Another angle which let's you see the trajectory of the ball. Sorry, can't embed it since it's not vimeo, or youtube.


https://vine.co/v/hmPdtOdqE3O

Thanks for the clips, guys.

Wow!

The Mets are constantly improving and are going to have the best second half in major league history!

LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS!

Mr. Met wrote:The Mets are constantly improving and are going to have the best second half in major league history!

LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS!

Hard to guess who you were on JC.

With talk of Mr. April possibly being suspended from 100-150 games to banned for life....Yankees are in talks to bring back Soriano with the Cubs paying most of his remaining salary. And all the Cubs get back is a mid-level prospect.

I am all for that if they Cubs are paying for it.

"Mr. April?"

You mean A-Fraud?

Good guess, by the way...

In my family...he's known as Mr. April. A play on Mr. October.

The one year he lived up to the the hype in the postseason is when he was dating Kate Hudson. They won the World Series that year. They broke up and it's all been downhill from there. haha

And here's the thing... Mr. April (as you so aptly named him), Roger Clemens and probably Barry Bonds won't be in the Hall of Fame for many years, if ever.

Waiting for the other shoes to fall - probably ARod,
Colon, Manny, Bautista? The rumor mongers talk about at least 50 players. Whew!

I have only heard 15-20 being the number of players.

I don't see anyone associated with PED's getting into the Hall anytime soon. The amazing thing is Bonds, Clemens, Rodriguez would have gotten in before they had started.

My estimation based on their career stats and before/after with their bodies.

Clemens - 1997 when he joined Toronto
Bonds - 1999
Mr April failed a test in 2003. I would say 2001.

Hammer Time!

MLB star Ryan Braun suspended for drug violations

By RONALD BLUM

AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK — The first star to fall in baseball’s latest drug investigation is one of its biggest: Ryan Braun.

The 2011 National League MVP was suspended without pay for the rest of the season and the postseason Monday, the start of sanctions involving players reportedly tied to a Florida clinic accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs.

The Milwaukee Brewers star accepted the 65-game ban, 15 games more than the one he avoided last year when an arbitrator overturned his positive test for elevated testosterone because the urine sample had been improperly handled.

“I am not perfect. I realize now that I have made some mistakes. I am willing to accept the consequences of those actions,” he said in a statement.

Full Story<

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SfhBvvIkJM

I agree with Blue Train.

When Clemens joined Toronto in 1997, he was in his mid-late thirties. All of a sudden, he gains 5 miles per hour on his fastball?

And Bonds -- he was jealous that McGwire and Sosa were getting all of the attention for walloping a bazillion homers per game. So he started juicing and hit the absurd amount of 73 homers in one year.

Mike Piazza, the greatest catcher in the history of the game... no, the Universe.... never juiced. But he's a right wing Republican. I'm torn.

LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS! LET'S GO METS!

I agree that A-Rod often fails in the clutch and in the post-season. And from what I've read he's a pathologically self-involved douchebag. Some of A-Rod's seasons were absolutely magnificent. But it's entirely possible that he would not have been half the player he was if he didn't cheat.

That said, sometimes people say that he's never really helped his team because he never hits when it matters. This is total bullshit. While we all want players to hit late in a close game, over the course of a season it is just as important to hit in the first or second or 4th inning as it is to hit in the 9th. And winning games in April is (almost?) as important as winning in September.

Quite often, hitting is contagious. Besides 3 runs being 3 runs, the guy who hits a 3 run homer in the first inning can help the team win by 1)helping the team's batting confidence, 2)allowing his team's pitcher to pitch confidently rather than defensively, and 3) blow the other team's pitcher's confidence.

Brett Gardner has a higher OPS this year than Albert Pujols. Angels are lucky that they are only obligated to pay Pujols
another 200 million over the next 8 years (including non salary compensation).

I assume Pujols is clean. Non PED players have traditionally had serious performance declines from age 32 or 33 on. There have been exceptions and some of them involved greats like Henry Aaron. I think the notion that players could remain as effective in their late 30's is partially the result of seeing juicers like Bonds, Sosa and Manny play so well in their late 30's

It's part of people's almost schizophrenic reaction to steroid/HGC use in MLB. On the one hand, virtually everyone believes that using PEDs greatly enhances baseball performance. Yet when people believe a player who gets caught has stopped using, many often expect the player to excel.

It was pretty clear that A-Rod was juicing up until recently. It was also clear that during the post-season last year, he could no longer get around on a fastball. Since then he has missed a ton of games and has had surgery. And he's old for a ballplayer. And yet people seem to believe that if he's allowed to return, he will really help the Yankees. I just don't get it.

Remember A-Roid doing yelling at the third baseman during a game? Totally amateurish. Or knocking the ball out of another player's mitt?

Too many incidents add up to a grade A narcissist.

Mr. Met wrote:Remember A-Roid doing yelling at the third baseman during a game? Totally amateurish. Or knocking the ball out of another player's mitt?

Too many incidents add up to a grade A narcissist.

How's this one. I think it's from Torre's book. A-Rod used to pay a clubhouse boy to put toothpaste on his toothbrush and have it ready on the sink for him.