Today is the 137th birthday (don't you love how I say it as if they're still alive; like I'm Willard Scott) of Louis "Chief" Sockalexis. He was, supposedly, the first Native American to play in the majors, playing for the Cleveland Spiders of the National League from 1897-99. His physical skills were legendary, and this Penobscot Indian (around Maine) would have been an all-time great had he not drank (drunk, drinked, drinken) himself into obscurity by the tender age of 27. He went to Notre Dame and got kicked out because he threw furniture out of a window of a dormitory or something. Great...
Yesterday, I did not watch the World Series... yet I did watch the highlights. And one thing I saw that makes me completely ill was Ryan Howard versus the shift. And how did he go about facing the shift? Hitting right into it. What a joke. You're given an opportunity for a free base without relinquishing an out, and you choose not to in favor of something that happens, at the very best, once every twenty plate appearances? What stupid baseball. If I were a manager, I would bench any player who didn't accept the free hit. This is the difference between real baseball and the crap you see nowadays. This is why a team from years past would embarass these fools playing today. That stuff wouldn't fly back in the teens and twenties and thirties. And there wouldn't be a bunch of fools falling on their face trying to hit the ball as hard as humanly possible every time.
Next, I will complain about the obnoxious amount of off-days during the playoffs. Cut them out. During the course of the season, this didn't happen. Teams are built with five man rotations, and this is how divisions are won. A team with a weak pitching staff can get cheap wins in playoff serieses because their weak back ends of the pitching staffs are never exposed. This is entirely unfair to teams that take the time to develop a strong rotation one through five. Plus, fans can't stay enthused with all these days off. The excitement of game two gets lost as you have to sit through a travel day to get to game three. This is terrible. The World Series should be a non-stop thrill where you don't have time to stop thinking about it. Plus, stop complaining about the ratings. Fans don't seem to care about Tampa Bay because they're all young unknowns. They don't have any marquee players to boast of. Fans cling to marquee players. David Ortiz. Alex Rodriguez. Manny Ramirez. But real fans appreciate the fact that the two teams in the World Series are there because they beat every other team in their path, and will watch anyway.
Ok, that's my piece. Go Baseball.
And back to our usual business...
Top 10 most career homers given up by lefties:
1. Jamie Moyer 464
2. Frank Tanana 448
3. Warren Spahn 434
4. Steve Carlton 414
5. David Wells 407
6. Jim Kaat 395
7. Randy Johnson 392
8. Tom Glavine 356
9. Mickey Lolich 347
10. Kenny Rogers 339
and the top nine Canadian born home run hitters in history...
1. Larry Walker 383
2. Matt Stairs 254
3. Jeff Heath 194
4. Jason Bay 149
5. Justin Morneau 133
6. Corey Koskie 124
7. George Selkirk 108
8. Pete Ward 98
9. Terry Puhl 62
What's interesting about this? Only Bay is right handed... the other eight are lefties. Crazy Canadians...
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