Things went pretty well for Jack Clark during his three years as a St. Louis Cardinal in the mid-1980s. He hit 66 homers and the Cardinals went to the World Series in 1985 and 1987. Sure, they dropped each of those series in seven games and the '86 Cardinals finished 28 1/2 games behind the Mets, but you'd think 20-plus years of perspective might make any leftover pain go away.
You'd think wrong.
Clark still harbors a honey of a grudge against that Mets club and aired his grievances well ahead of the Festivus season.
Sunday, Francoeur decided to tempt fate, announcing that he would wear his lucky underwear for the first time in back-to-back games. On Tuesday (the Braves were off on Monday), the world was going to see just how powerful this lucky charm was for Francoeur and the Braves. However, tragedy struck.
Running late to get to Turner Field, Francoeur returned to his home to find his underwear wet and still in the washing machine. Instead of waiting for the dryer to runs its course, Francoeur left for the game wearing normal undergarments.
Jeff Francoeur seems like kind of a weird dude. I base that solely on the fact that, according to something I read Monday, he owns a pair of lucky "turkey underwear."
Yes, I wish I was kidding. But I'm not! Frenchy rocked out the bird-covered drawers in multiple games recently, based on the fact that the team is 7-0 on days when he wears them.
Francoeur said he had not worn the turkey briefs for back-to-back games all season, but will Tuesday (the Braves were off Monday, and he planned to ask his wife, Catie, to wash the underwear).
[...]"I wore the turkey underwear," he announced before Sunday's game. [Tommy]Hanson then proceeded to pitch six scoreless innings Sunday and the Braves beat the Red Sox, 2-1.
Today's world of widespread steroid use is particularly depressing. Baseball, of course, has gotten the worst rap, for various reasons. And Darren Daulton, in a recent interview with ESPN Radio's Mike Missanelli in Philadelphia, is probably not going to assist in that stereotype.
That's because Daulton, via Sports Radio Interviews, recently made some pretty, ahem, bold statements on air with Missanelli relating to his drug use as a professional baseball player. Well, kind of -- he never directly admits to taking steroids, per se, but he apparently did do a lot of drugs.
I just finished reading through the whole thing and it actually does stick relatively close to the story of the book. Sure, there are some changes -- like making Billy Beane a bachelor and having him hook up with a waitress (p. 20) -- but for the most part it's a story of how he built the 2002 A's into a winner on a shoestring budget after losing three big-time free agents, Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jason Isringhausen.
A few weeks ago there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding Phillies outfielder Raul Ibanez, steroids and a blog. More specifically, a media firestorm started when a blogger named JRod wrote a post on MidwestSportsFans.com that looked at the possibility of Ibanez using steroids because of the way he'd been playing in the 2009 season.
The Philadelphia Inquirer then picked up on the story, brought it to Ibanez, Raul responded and then the next thing we knew Jerod Morris, JRod, was showing up on ESPN's Outside the Lines and was berated by Ken Rosenthal and John Gonzalez. Morris was shown off as the latest example of all things wrong with blogging and had to be reprimanded for his seemingly innocuous deed.
Moneyball, Michael Lewis' novel about the economics of baseball (to put it in a nutshell), was all set to begin production next week with Brad Pitt and Steven Soderbergh in tow. Read: the nerds have finally won, Lebowski!
Unfortunately that would-be -- and actually fictional -- revolution has now been delayed for the foreseeable future as Columbia Pictures, for all intents and purposes, pulled the plug on the movie.
Roger Clemens goes to great lengths when trying to clear his own name. He'll ruin friendships, sell out family members or allegedly lie under oath. The only thing that seemingly matters to him is that his major league career remains untarnished -- which, honestly, isn't even possible anymore -- regardless of the consequences.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Rocket is thinking about writing a book. The book would simply be his side of the story regarding the entire back-and-forth spat between him and his former trainer, Brian McNamee.
I was in love with my iPhone 3G long before the new OS 3.0 software came out on Wednesday, but one of the new applications made possible by the new software has me even more fond of what I like to call The Best Piece of Technology I've Ever Owned.
It's the MLB.com At-Bat 2009 App, which sells for $9.99. It's been around for most of the season. At first it just provided you pitch-by-pitch updates, not unlike those you could find on a lot of websites or other apps. Then they added live streaming radio broadcasts of every game, including either team's broadcast. Then they added condensed video replays of games (you see the payoff pitch to every hitter).
Starting with the update released on Wednesday, they are now broadcasting live streaming video of a couple games a day. There is no charge for the upgrade if you already purchased the app.
One would think that the role of "person required to pull a tarp across the ground when it rains at a Cincinnati Reds ballgame" is pretty simple, right? I mean, the Reds have basked in mediocrity for years, so it's not like they expect a ton from their ground crew. Yet, the poor girl in the following video found out the hard way (being swept under the tarp) that it's not all fun and games at the Great American Ballpark. It's OK to laugh -- she's fine. The fun starts around the 40-second mark.
Things went pretty well for Jack Clark during his three years as a St. Louis Cardinal in the mid-1980s. He hit 66 homers and the Cardinals went to the World Series in 1985 and 1987. Sure, they dropped each of those series in seven games and the '86 Cardinals finished 28 1/2 games behind the Mets, but you'd think 20-plus years of perspective might make any leftover pain go away. 
We've all heard by now that 
Today's world of widespread steroid use is particularly depressing. Baseball, of course, has gotten the worst rap, for various reasons. And 
Although the big movie studios have 
A few weeks ago there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding Phillies outfielder 
Moneyball, 
