Category Archives: Other Baseball
If you’ve ever wondered why Quad-A reliever Dirk Hayhurst is something of a baseball-nerd darling on the Internet, it’s because his book The Bullpen Gospels is really good. Not just good-for-something-a-ballplayer wrote, legit good.
Anyway, now it appears he’s bound for Italy to play baseball there and write about it. I’ve long fantasized about writing a book about baseball around the world — going to games every place baseball is played and detailing each place’s baseball culture. But it looks like Dirk Hayhurst is going to trump the hell out of that idea, and good for him.
They cooked and baked, from regular bacon to home-made chicharron with fresh cheese. All the way up to the chocolate-covered bacon. Seriously. They ate and they drummed, they shouted and had fun, they cheered and they ate some more. And when the game was over, there was a spare plate left for Jeff Francoeur….
The next day, he walked out to his position before the game, carrying a signed baseball in his hand. He spotted the familiar faces, smiled and threw the baseball over the fence.
There was a hundred dollar bill rubber-tied to the baseball. And an inscription: “Beer or Bacon Dog on me. Jeff Francoeur.”
- Bojan Koprivica, Hardball Times.
Oh, Frenchy.
Via Craig Calcaterra.
Since switching leagues:
I’m in the minority of baseball fans who thinks the Marlins’ absurd home-run art installation is going to be awesome, and I believe this post from Grant Brisbee supports my case. He’s got a bunch of pictures of the home-run thing under construction, and it is tremendous. Look at how it dwarfs that palm tree:
Via Toby Hyde.
Lincecum and Kershaw matched up four times in 2011, Kershaw winning all four contests, all four of them tremendous duels. In the four games Lincecum pitched 29 innings with a 1.24 ERA, but an 0-4 record. Kershaw was 4-0, pitched 30.1 innings with a 0.30 ERA.
So that’s pretty awesome. It’s cool when matchups between the best pitchers in the game play out like matchups between the best pitchers in the game. Poor Tim Lincecum pitches for a team with no offense to speak of.
I spoke too soon before when I said I “got one” new embarrassing photo of Cole Hamels. I stumbled my way to the website of photographer Sean Patrick Watters, who apparently did a photoshoot with ol’ Cole at some point. All four photos can reasonably be deemed embarrassing, but I’ll direct you to Watters’ site for all but this one:
A no-doubter:
It has been added.
Oof, the Pirates. It’s like the Mets’ 2010 Opening Day lineup, except with Boyz II Men as the best answer for David Wright.
