The Reds and Giants had a doubleheader yesterday, and due to a scheduling quirk and a rainout, the Reds were technically the home team in Game 2, despite it being in San Francisco.
But anyway, the MVP of yesterday is Todd Frazier, who went 5-10 in the doubleheader with 3 RBIs.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
So, earlier today I found this pack of assorted baseball cards. I, of course, decided that I needed to do something.
I, for some reason, decided that the best way to do this would be to write Haiku-style poetry about it. Because, well, it’s my blog.
So, here we go:
1989 Topps Cap’n Crunch #20 Kirby Puckett
There you are, Kirby.
No Twins logo has your hat,
No licensing deal?
So, I finally broke down and started reading eBooks. I dunno how I’ll do with it, since I so much like the feel of the paper page and reading things on a computer always seems to lead me to getting distracted a lot, but, hey, it’ll let me read some books I otherwise wouldn’t have read, such as this one: Cellar Dwellers, by Jonathan Weeks
As the name suggests, this book is about the crummiest teams in baseball history, ranging from the 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys to the 2003 Tigers. Each chapters is about a team, and gives some background on how the team became so crummy, some bright spots (for example, a 21-year-old Walter Johnson went 13-25 on the 1909 Senators despite a 2.22 ERA) and particularly bad players, while also spreading in some color about how baseball was at the time.
Overall, it’s a good breezy read, full of little anecdotes (some of which may be apocryphal, given old-time baseball writers love of exaggeration) and horrific statistics that further show how bad some of the teams covered were. There is even a bit at the end that features “dishonorable mentions”.
However, there are some sins of omission, with some of my favorite stories or bad teams not making the cut. For example, Weeks does not include Eddie Kolb of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who was a clerk and semi-pro player who was hired from a local tobacco shop to pitch the final game of the season. Seriously, that really happened, and I was kind of disappointed it wasn’t included.
That is a small quibble, however. Overall, while hardly a groundbreaking work by any means, I’d recommend Cellar Dwellers to anybody looking for a quick read about bad teams.
This book was reviewed using an eBook from my local library’s website.
With apologies to Bronson Arroyo (who had the advantage of getting 11 runs of support) and A.J. Ellis and his 5 RBIs, the MVP of Yesterday is Matt Moore of the Rays, who pitched a complete game shutout, giving up only two hits in the Rays’ 3-0 victory against the Red Sox yesterday.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
In the hours since the Ryan Braun news broke, you could see a wide variety of responses. Here are the types I found… I am not including examples as a way to protect the innocent and/or guilty. In addition, many tweets may be crosses between the below.
The Purely Informational Tweet: Tells us what’s happening, how people are reacting, give us further details, etc.
The “He had it coming” Tweet: Self-explanatory.
The “He should apologize” Tweet: He should apologize to his teammates, he should apologize to that sample-collector, he should apologize to the arbitrator, he should apologize to the fans, he should apologize to his family, he should apologize to those who defended him, he should apologize to Matt Kemp for winning the 2011 MVP Award instead of him, etc.
The “Not Enough” Tweet: Suggesting that Braun got off easy. Other suggestions can range anywhere from 100 games to some who suggest expunging Braun from the record books, banning him for life and then shooting him on a rocket towards the heart of the Sun. Only slightly exaggerating.
The “Who Cares?” Tweet: Somebody either says they don’t care about PED use anymore or don’t see what the big deal is because the Brewers are already out of playoff contention.
The “A-Rod’s Next” Tweet: Self-explanatory.
The “Tie this into another event” Tweet: Ranging from the rather apt comparison of the reaction to Braun’s suspension to the reaction to the suspension of the NFL’s Von MIller to the rather silly, such as saying that this means that the Royal Baby won’t be named “Ryan”.
The “Get off your high horses” Tweet: Again, self-explanatory, usually aimed either at sportswriters or MLB itself.
The “MLB is just as bad” Tweet: Focuses on the fact that some of the methods that MLB has used in these investigation are rather suspect morally or ethically. In extreme cases this may appear to be an attack on MLB instead of a condemnation of both MLB and Braun.
The “Anti-Semitic” Tweet: I haven’t seen any, but given the fact that this is Twitter and some real scumbags are on it, I’m sure they exist.
The “Woah” Tweets: People are so stunned at this development that they just can say “wow” or “woah” or something similar.
Any types I’m missing?
BREAKING: Ryan Braun suspended rest of the season for connection to Biogenesis.
— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) July 22, 2013
Mike Napoli only had two hits yesterday, but both of them were HRs and one of them was the walk-off home run in the 11th inning.
Standings after the jump:
C.J. Wilson went 8.1 IP, with 8 Ks and giving up on 3 hits in the Angels 2-0 win yesterday… good enough for MVP of Yesterday.
Standings after jump:
After the All-Star Break, the MVP of Yesterday feature is BACK! And the MVP of Yesterday is Astros rookie Brandon Barnes, he went 5-for-5 with a cycle (he got two singles) and drove in two runs. It wasn’t enough to give the Astros the win, but it was enough for him to be the MVP of Yesterday.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
The @Dbacks have introduced the D-backs Luchador (@DbacksLuchador) as an official mascot of the team. pic.twitter.com/ZqRBwHaAJY
— MLB (@MLB) July 18, 2013
The Baseball Continuum 
