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The All-Star Break is over! The NEW MLB Thread - This half we get stickied for sure!

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D

Desperado

Member
Ninja Scooter said:
CLEMENS AM NOT CRY

they are lucky to land the Braves in the division series though. Atlanta's been a pushover in the playoffs the last few years. Why is it that way anyhow? Shouldn't the highest "seed" (the Cards) get to play the "lowest" seed (the wildcard team?) like in most sports playoffs?
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teams from the same division can't play each other in the Division Series.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ASTROOOOOOOOOOOOOS

ATLANTA AM CRY
 
C

calder

Member
Fifty said:
What happened!?

edit http://tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?id=100794 nm, found it. Natural causes at 44? My ass. He looked really healthy and fit for his age.
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Damn that sucks, I always liked him doing the sportsnet games. Is that why the Jays telecast today had a bunch of random guys sitting in with the play-by-play inning by inning? I didn't watch but half of it, but no one mentioned anything about it during the game - must have been too soon or something. :(

And sure he looked healthy, but he didn't strike me as the kind of guy who would be freebasing coke and mainlining heroin alone in his hotel room either so I'm guessing a stroke or something.

 
E

Eminem

goddamit, Griese!
man, this is great. not only do the cubs choke and not make it, someone else in the division passes them.
 
J

JJConrad

Sucks at viral marketing
Is someone going to make a new thread for the post season, or will this one just continue?



As much as I'd like to see the Angels vs. Dodgers in the World Series, I predict a Angels / Cardinals match up.


A.L.

Twins - I just don't see them making much noise in the post season. Nor do I see them beating the Yankees in round 1.

Red Sox - Without home field advantage, slumping Boston will have a very hard time defeating the Angels

Yankees - The Yankees can't win. The evil must not provail. :D

Angels - They've finished strong and probably have the most well-rounded pitching, plus great small ball. They've also had the Yankees number all year.


N.L.

Braves - they won't win; they're cursed.

Dodgers - I'd love to them win it all. They've stood their ground with all of the other contenders this year, but if they're bats don't wake up and if Gagne can't pitch his best... they're in trouble. Expect a post season win... this time.

Astros - I don't know what to make of them. They're red hot, and probably beat out Atlanta, but I don't see them beating St. Lous.

Cardinals - They've just kicked butt this year.
 
S

Scoobert

Member
Larry Bowa a Marlin?

A possible assistant candidate is Larry Bowa, who was dismissed on Saturday at the Phillies manager. Bowa was hired by McKeon as manager of the Padres in the 1980s, and the two remain friends.
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So McKeon and the Marlins pretty much get you fired, and now you might work for them? Heh, uh oh!
 
J

Joe

Member
if pedro truly is tired and hurting (most losses since 1997, most innings since 2000, highest era in career) the red sox are in trouble.
 
T

theo

Contest Winner
from MLB.com:

David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez became the second teammates in the AL to finish with a .300 average, 40 homers and 100 RBIs. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig accomplished the feat in 1931.
 
J

Joe

Member
the yankees rotation could turn out very good. if el duque stops hurting and brown pitches half as good as he did yesterday the yankees will be in GREAT shape. but it could easily go the other way.
 
J

Joe

Member
stat of the year:
So in the season in which Barry turned 40, all he did was:

Draw so many walks that even if he'd gotten no hits all season, he still would have had a higher on-base percentage (.391), counting just his walks and hit-by-pitches, than the guy who led the National League, Juan Pierre (.374).
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:O

slowly but surely im turning from barry hater to barry admirer. he's incredible.
 
F

Fifty

Member
GOAT! Goat baby Goat!
baby_goat01.jpg
 
M

Mrbob

Member
Wow Sosa is really cutting himself out to be an egotistical fool:

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/...004&content_id=882478&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp

CHICAGO -- Sammy Sosa says that he is tired of taking the blame when things don't go well for the Chicago Cubs.
Sosa reported to Wrigley Field at 12:10 p.m. for Sunday's 1:20 p.m. game, was not in the starting lineup and apparently left early -- without approval -- in the seventh inning. He never changed into his uniform, and was never on the bench.

"I felt that even if he wasn't playing that he obviously should have been here," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said after the game. "He also should have dressed in uniform, the same as all the other players."

Manager Dusty Baker was upset that Sosa left early.

"I didn't know he was going to leave," he said. "I didn't give him permission. I saw him about 12:50 when I was going to the field, and he was packing his stuff up, like a lot of guys were. Jim's got to take some action."
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Actually, to make this story much more interesting, it sounds like this report is slightly inaccurate. Sosa didn't dress up and LEFT before the game started. Not in the 7th inning like reported. I heard it on The Score today.

Sosa had told reporters after Saturday's game that he would talk on Sunday. But when he was approached before the season finale, he refused interview requests.

"I'm always the guy they are going to blame," he told the Chicago Sun-Times. "They blame me for not going to the World Series last year. They blame me for not going to the playoffs this year. I'm tired of it."
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WTF. When the hell did the fans blame Sosa last year for not going to the World Series? He is sounding like a self centered jerk. As for this year, him and his .250 batting average need to take some of the blame. But he wasn't singled out alone.

Sosa, who turns 36 on Nov. 12, told the Sun-Times that he was upset at Baker's comments before Sunday's game; the manager said that he wanted the slugger to come back next year in "tip-top shape, mentally and physically." Sosa missed a month this season because of sneeze-induced back spasms, and also was bothered by bursitis in his hip and a sore shoulder.

"No one has ever questioned my mental or physical preparation at any level," Sosa told the Sun-Times. "They always find something to blame me for."
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This is one time I'll actually defend Dusty. Sosa was out of it this year. No need to turn it around in the blame game. Ridiculous.
 
C

calder

Member
Whoa, Sheffield goes off on Bonds

Severing Bonds
In a universe of limos, personal chefs and performance-enhancers, two stars clashed

By Tom Verducci

Gary Sheffield was testifying before a federal grand jury in San Francisco in 2003 when a prosecutor held up the testoterone-based steroid known as "the cream," supplied by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

"Do you know what this is?" Sheffield was asked.

"Yeah, I do," Sheffield said.

"What did they tell you it was for?"

"My wounds," said Sheffield, who then rolled up his right pants leg to show a surgical scar on the outside of his knee. "It was like a cortisone to heal these wounds. I rubbed it on every night and it helped me."

Sheffield says he was not told that the cream, which he used before and during the 2002 season when he played for the Atlanta Braves, was an illegal steroid. "It was like you could go to a store and find something like that. That's what was in my thoughts," he says. "I put it on my legs and thought nothing of it. I kept it in my locker. The trainer saw my cream."

Sheffield says it shocked him when news broke that "the cream" and "the clear," another balm supplied by BALCO, were designer steroids. "That's why I was mad," he says. "I want everybody to be on an even playing field."

Sheffield was introduced to BALCO by someone he now describes as a former friend: Barry Bonds. Sheffield says he has no knowledge of what, if any, enhancers Bonds may have used, but he did provide SI with a harsh firsthand look at the inner circle of Bonds's trainers. (Bonds, through a spokesperson, declined to address Sheffield's comments, saying only, "I wish nothing but the best for Gary. I want him to win the MVP. He deserves it.")

Sheffield says he and Bonds enjoyed a casual friendship when the Giants leftfielder invited Sheffield to live and train with him in San Francisco for a few weeks before the 2002 season. "He said, 'I got guys here, they can get your urine and blood and prescribe a vitamin specifically for your blood type and what your body needs,'" Sheffield says. "And that's what I did."

Bonds introduced Sheffield to BALCO president Victor Conte as well as to members of Bonds's support team, which included chiropractors, a track coach, a stretching coach and a strength coach, Greg Anderson. He and Conte were two of four men indicted last Feb. 12 on charges of conspiring to distribute performance-enhancing drugs. Sheffield says he did not deal directly with anyone from BALCO after his initial meeting with Conte, but that the company gave vitamins to Anderson, and Anderson gave them to Sheffield. (Anderson's lawyer did not return SI's phone calls.)

"The only thing Greg Anderson does is what Barry tells him to do," Sheffield says. "Barry ran everything. If I'm training and if he sees Greg making me do one curl too many, it's an argument: 'I told you, don't have him do no more than he needs!' So I knew Greg was a puppet. All these guys around [Bonds] were puppets.

"They used to confide in me about how they hated it. I told them, 'You knew what you were getting into. You accept his money. You accept the status when you're around him. But you don't want to deal with the backlash of what comes out of his mouth, and you want to complain to me.'"

Soon after Sheffield arrived in San Francisco, the friendship between him and Bonds began to sour. Bonds insisted that Sheffield stay at his house and not rent a car. He insisted that Sheffield not pay for anything, though Sheffield did bring his personal chef. "[It was], 'It's my way or no way,'" Sheffield says. "I'm not a child. I make $11 million. I can buy what I want."

To thank Bonds for inviting him into his home, Sheffield arranged for the two of them to see a boxing match in Miami on Feb. 2, 2002. "I was going to pay for the plane, the flight, pay for the limo service, the hotel," Sheffield says. "He gets my mail. He looks in my mail and sees he can get better seats, so he gets better seats. He can get a better flight, so he gets a better flight. He can get a better limo service. And he can get a better hotel. So basically my plan, in trying to do something in return, he wound up doing it. And [that sort of behavior] just escalated."

Another time, Sheffield arranged for a limo and tickets for him and Bonds to see the Sacramento Kings host the Los Angeles Lakers. "He complained the whole drive," Sheffield says. "'Man, I could have drove. We would have gotten there a lot faster.' The whole time. And I'm saying to myself, Never again. Never again."

Sheffield says the breaking point occurred one morning when Bonds departed for their morning workout without him, leaving Sheffield to scramble for transportation to the gym. When Sheffield eventually showed up, he found Bonds laughing at him with someone he later learned was a writer for Men's Journal. "He sold me out to the media," Sheffield says.

Though Sheffield says he was under doctor's orders not to run because of his knee, he did so anyway because Bonds and his trainers wanted him to. "Now all of a sudden my knee was hurting," Sheffield says. "He said something to me [about being late]. I did not respond, because if I did respond at that particular moment, I would have knocked him out. That's how I was feeling. [But] I said [to myself], No, I'm just going to walk away, and when I say walk away I mean walk away."

Sheffield flew home to Florida with his chef. The chef told him, "Gary, I want to confess something. [Bonds] made an offer to hire me: He'll get me a car, give me a place to stay and pay off my student loan."

Shortly after they returned, Sheffield says he and his chef parted ways. Sheffield says about a month later Bonds called him to inquire about why the chef was no longer working for Sheffield but made no mention of a related development: Bonds had hired him.

"That's the kind of person I found out I was dealing with," Sheffield says. "To me, I don't want friends like that. I never will have friends like that."

Soon Sheffield received a call from one of Bonds's team. According to Sheffield, Bonds had initially insisted that Sheffield not pay for anything, but now he was told to settle his tab with BALCO and others. Bonds also told Sheffield that BALCO would no longer supply him with vitamins.

"I called BALCO. 'Do I owe you anything?'" Sheffield says. "'Well, you have a bill. ...' I told my wife, 'You write the check.' That's how I got linked to BALCO."

Sheffield hit .307 in 2002 after training with Bonds, but with 25 home runs and 84 RBIs, it was a down year for him. "I had my worst year ever," he says. "I gave him too much credit. When you listen to another person on an everyday basis drill into you numbers, numbers, numbers, and you've never been that way, it doesn't work. I don't play for numbers. When I played to try to get numbers, I didn't get them."

Adds Sheffield, "I never wished anything bad on [Bonds]. I want him to achieve what he wants to achieve, but what I want more is that his life gets right. That he can have compassion for other people. And that's what I want the most."

Issue date: October 11, 2004
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The BALCO stuff is damaging, but really I found it almost more interesting for the anecdotes about Bonds and how he treats his friends. I think like a lot of ppl I have an incredible amount of respect for Bonds' ability, but I'll never be a fan that's for sure.
 
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