ayrdaomei: (Default)
( Jul. 24th, 2008 05:58 am)
[It] was Smith's 11th pickoff of the season, establishing what is believed to be an Oakland record. Kenny Rogers had the previous known high of 10 in 1998, but accurate pickoff records aren't available before 1987.

"That's kind of been my thing," Smith said. "Whenever I call my mom, her first question is always, 'Did you pick anyone off?' So this (record) is cool."
- SF Chron.

He ended the game with 12 for the season. I know nothing about Greg Smith (seriously, would it kill the Bay Area papers to do profiles on A's players every once in a while? I know they're not expected to be around long, but a puff piece or two would not kill anyone), but I want to like him. Although he's gotten saddled with some tough losses this season, I find him fun to watch. Also, he smiled at me in Atlanta. ♥

With a week left before the trading deadline, rumors involving Huston Street have intensified, with the Dodgers, Brewers, Mets, White Sox, Rays and Reds all believed to have interest.

For the record, I would laugh. my. ass. off. if Street got traded to the Cincinnati Reds, although Billy hates me too much to make it happen, and I can't believe the Reds have need enough to give Billy what he wants. The more the trade rumors swirl about Street the more resigned I am to the fact that he's going to remain an A, at least for the rest of this season.

Seven days!

eta: Huddy left with elbow tightness. And has the gall to be all "I don't foresee it being that big a deal." Oh because you've never had issues with lingering injuries, or anything. Way to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing, Timmy.
1. Starting right-hander Dan Haren has switched from No. 24 to 15.

JACKASS. Though I bet you anything Billy had something to do with that. I bet he was like, hey Dan, 75 would look great on you. And Dan was like, I dunno, that's kinda weird, dude. SECOND OF ALL, I already own TWO HAREN SHIRTS WITH 24 ON THEM.

Jackass.

We are so over. For the fifth time.

2. Barry Zito wandered into his new spring training clubhouse carrying an Oakland Athletics duffel bag and plopped into Barry Bonds' chair. - First Day

3. The more radical elements of Barry Zito's new delivery appear headed for the dustbin after he and pitching coach Dave Righetti had a long chat Friday. Asked afterward if Zito will revert to something closer to his Oakland motion the next time he throws, Righetti said, "Probably." - A change of heart? Zito may use old style. Snerk. Listen, kid. We're not paying you $126 million to "express yourself" and "try new things."

There's a piece at the bottom of that page about Lowry being weirded out when someone created a Myspace page in his name and used it to rip Jason Schmidt. Oh, Noah. You don't even know the half of things people do in your name on ye olde internets. Don't be so quick to turn that color.
ayrdaomei: ([Foster's] Yeah...I dunno about that)
( Dec. 29th, 2006 08:03 am)
And then there were none:
May/June 2003 - Barry Zito wants to be the man
August 2003 - Hudson keeps his cool
June 2004 - The Talented Mr. Mulder

Just the cover stories so far. I'll throw out a heads up when the issues have been fully scanned. And hopefully I'll remember how to get rid of that graininess.

blah blah blah barry blah blah blah )

Mulder's back from his longass honeymoon today. You have to imagine he'll make a decision in the next week. If Mark Alan Mulder would just announce he plans to return to St. Louis (pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease), I would BE SO FREAKING HAPPY and I could stick my head in the sand and not have to check MLB.com or ESPN for the next two months and that might actually be kinda great. I'm tired of this offseason.

One of the Lebanese channels is carrying a Saudi broadcast of Waquofat Arafat. On the second day of the Hajj pilgrimage, the pilgrims swarm Mt. Arafat and the surrounding plain to pray at the Mount of Mercy and ask God for forgiveness. Muslims who aren't there are supposed to fast, in solidarity. Me and organized religion have been on the outs for a few years now, though I go through the motions, but part of me can't help but be moved by the visual of so many people, all dressed in white, all holding on to an idea and a hope bigger than themselves. The camera scans the crowd and you see all shades of skin, standing and sitting next to each other, all ages, men and women, arms outstretched, mouths moving in prayer or private communion with God. I suppose it's an image that scares a lot of people now, but it's amazing, really.

Going to see Dreamgirls with my 'rents in a couple hours. I'm looking forward to it. I hope I like it. I've had a bad run of movie luck as of late.

Eta: Okay, I lied - Danny is too cute: "I'm very content to see Barry just once or twice a year. It would be hard to go head-to-head against him for the next however many years. This is perfect -- we can still hang out during spring training." - Choice thrills ex-mates. And because I'm a dork, I am amused to no end that the story quotes Billy and Chavvy as well, on how very nice it is that Barry will be so close. I BET.
Redbirds still in the hunt, agent says: No timetable for a decision from the Mulder camp, after all, which is good. Or maybe not good. I guess the idea was to force the teams interested in him put offers on the table already. Or maybe he was going to decide but now wants to give Arizona more time to figure how much they want him. Meh. I'll just finish working on my paper then, thanks. Boys.

A Cardinal the past two seasons, Mulder will marry Lindsey Pringle this afternoon in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Lindsey? lol, Brianna. Elena. I am oddly proud of him. There is a world of difference between marrying a blonde named Amber and marrying a blonde named Lindsey. (I am judgmental about the most random things, and I know I made a face when I heard 'Amber' for the first time.) But I approve of Lindseys, generally. Way to be, Mark. Hope things work out for you, even with the repression and all.

Huddy's in AZ for the wedding, which fills me with little hearts. I'll just entertain myself with the thought that the stutter re-emerged (pre-wedding jitters, don't you know) and got one last sendoff ^_~

********

"You can sign the President's name?"
"Yeah."
"On a document removing him from power and handing it to someone else?"
"Yeah. Or do you think the White House Counsel would say that was a bad idea?"
"I think the White House Counsel would say that was a coup d'etat."

John Spencer died a year ago today. I had him on the brain all this week, and I wasn't really sure why especially now, and it just finally came to me. I read somewhere that John Spencer once said that Leo was the best character he ever played, that Leo was real to him in a way he hadn't experienced as an actor before. I was so happy to hear that. I loved Leo, so I loved John for bringing him to life. When John died, Leo died, and I really felt like I'd personally lost someone.

Of her many transgressions, Mr. President, let's not worry about she resorted to cliche. )

Ah. Off to papering.
ayrdaomei: ([Foster's] HI.)
( Sep. 17th, 2006 04:37 pm)
Oh my God, y'all, please tell me some of you were just watching the Marlins/Braves game on TBS. Because that was hilarious. The Marlins break a 3-3 tie in the 9 10th by scoring four...and manage to lose the game 8-7.

[Bad username or site: rickenbacker / @ livejournal.com], your boy cannot field. HE CAN'T, OKAY?

Oh, Marlins. You've killed me. You've killed me dead. You see what this is? It's called "coming full circle." Because that was SO the April/May Marlins right there. That was that game against the Cubs on ESPN where I died a little inside.

OH, AND NICE JOB NOT WINNING TODAY, NYM.

And Philly is busy not losing.* lol, what a day.

Don't ever leave me, baseball.

* Come on, Houston. I know things aren't the same between us. I took things out on you when you were just the kid in the messy divorce. I realize. But come on. You've got a walkoff in you for me, don't you?
ayrdaomei: ([L Word] my on again off again Alice)
( Jul. 1st, 2006 08:36 pm)
First things first: while you were sleeping. I'm really proud of them! They're currently getting slaughtered by the Red Sox, lol, but still, I'm proud of them.

Neither Best Buy nor Circuit City were carrying the MLB Bloopers dvd in store...but Wal-Mart has it for $9.44. So. Yeah. In the alternative, you can order it for $12 off DDD. Much of this is compiled from Maximum MLB and other MLB productions like that mic'd special they did - I recognized lots of different bits. Still worth the money ^_~ A couple of my favorite bits:

- Huddy punks Eddie Perez. And as of today, my favorite thing about Huddy is the way he gets all breathy and girly sounding when he laughs really hard. Other notable thing: the streamlined room check-in procedure the Braves use at team hotels. Innnteresting. Also, I would be really pleased if this put an end to people describing team hotels in fic as if they were $30 motels.
- the Bruce Chen classic I Live For This segment. It's really a shame Bruce has struggled this year, cause I really like him.
- Chavvy recounts running over a squirrel. This isn't really funny, at all, but Chavvy looks sharp, and I'm shallow that way.
- A few seconds of the Astros bullpen as 12 year old girls who cut each other's hair. This only endears Brad Lidge to me even more, because you know me and my hair cutting kink.

[Bad username or site: offspeed / @ livejournal.com], [Bad username or site: catslash / @ livejournal.com]: if you haven't heard it, Nate Robertson on MLB radio a couple days ago.

Nick Swisher on MLB Radio Friday. Nick Swisher seems to have been on MLB Radio just about once a week this season. Just talking about the extra inning game and striking out 5 times.

Re: the Fandom mini-mixes. I was gonna wait until I had all of these done to put them up, but it's taking me forever, so here are the ones that are done, so far.

Wonder Woman, Ellsworth, Helo, Jack, Bayliss/Pembleton, Before Sunrise/Sunset )
ayrdaomei: ([Crow] eric - my valentine)
( Jun. 23rd, 2006 06:09 am)
How come NO ONE told me about this?! You're all fired. Can't exactly nail down what bothers me about the actor chosen to play Blade, except that he strikes me as a little on the slight side.

So, no suspension for Ozzie because of his recent comments but he was fined and ordered to attend sensitivity training. Yet there's no time frame for the training, nothing from MLB on when it need be completed, and it's up to the ChiSox to make the arrangements about who he goes to see. **rolls eyes**

After giving up 4 runs in the 8th to go down 5-1, the Fish rallied with two outs in the ninth to tie, and won it in the 10th (when Miggy C singled on what was supposed to be an intentional ball, heh. Except it was off Todd Williams, so aww, just a little). It was Chris Ray's first blown save, and I MISSED IT. Alas. Palmer totally called the comeback, too, while I...turned the game off in the ninth >.> Still, yay, Fish. Philly didn't play so the Marlins picked up half a game and are now 2.5 games out of second in the NL East. This series against the Yankees is gonna be interesting.

**pointedly averts her eyes from the Braves and their 10th loss in a row.**

Albert Pujols made his return, which was good enough to help the Cards....keep it together enough to not get blown out for the third straight game. Instead they lost 1-0. Huzzah? I'm really surprised by how quickly Albert's come back.

As someone once said, I know fandom's a complicated thing, but I don't really understand the total venom I've seen/heard from some Astros fans on the topic of Roger Clemens coming back. I understand the big hullabaloo about his return has been draining, and the drawn out business about which team he would go to was annoying, but the fact of the matter is, you're two games out of the wild card, and you've just landed a pitcher I think any team in baseball would give blood to have. I understand being tired but the "hahahahaha! see! who needs him?" reaction to the team losing a close game upon his return makes, like, no sense to me, in the grand scheme o' things.

eta: Peter Gammons has a cd coming out? o.O And they just played a clip and he sounds...not bad. **laughs** I don't know what to make of this. And the BoSox picked up Jason Johnson, which makes me a little happy, because I've always had kind of weird soft spot for Jason, even though he used to KILL the Orioles.

edit 2: Hmm.
Meanwhile, Mulder is suffering from a shoulder strain. He owns a 6-5 record with a 6.09 earned run average in 15 starts this season. Mulder, in his second season with St. Louis after five years in Oakland, has been especially disappointing over his last five starts. In those outings, Mulder is 1-3 and has given up 35 runs over 21 1/3 innings.

So he is hurt. Or 'shoulder strain' is STL code for 'excessive suckage.' Hmm. Either way, hope he comes back strong, for Bri's sake. Randomly, on the radio, heard a commercial for Southwest - "now fly nonstop from BWI to Oakland for one low fare." This is me, NOT checking southwest.com to see exactly how much it might cost to fly out to the West Coast for a spell. Yup. **sits on hands**
ayrdaomei: ([Movies] figurin' out all over again)
( Jun. 18th, 2006 06:50 pm)
So, on my birthday, someone gifted me with an LJ gift certificate. I didn't say anything at the time, because I thought it was [Bad username or site: johnnybvo / @ livejournal.com], and I was going to see him the next day anyway. But when he and I met up for breakfast, he gave me a hardback of Runaways, volume 1, (which I'm insanely excited about, btw, because I fell in love with the art in that title ages ago), so it must have been someone else. I'm not gonna ask who, since I guess the fact that you sent it anonymously means you don't want me to know, but thank you so much! It was very sweet of you, and I really appreciate it.

Can't hang around long (**ignores cheers from peanut gallery**); have to gather up my things and get back to VA, but:

+ a handful of screencaps from the last few innings of yesterday's LAD @ OAK game. Because I have this thing where I'm as amused by a blown Huston save as I am pleased with an Oakland win, and last night provided both.

And, MLB.com's highlight clip of Crosby's at bat and the walk off:

(asf - 3mbs)

(wmv - 3mbs)

The Marlins swept Toronto, bringing their winning streak to 8 games. If Atlanta loses tonight, the Marlins will be out of last place in the NL East. And because I make no sense, I now begin to feel bad for the Braves, even though I'd be thrilled for someone other than the Fish to finish last in the East, and all the Braves have done for the past 8 years is annoy me. **laughs** What can I say. I like to make my fandom a complicated thing.
ayrdaomei: ([Celeb] Rosie & Tracie)
( May. 30th, 2006 11:37 am)
+ Hey, it's totally [Bad username or site: angisageek / @ livejournal.com]'s birthday. I usually miss these things, but I will now take this opportunity to say that despite her propensity for using words that I don't understand, and her refusal to Snoopy dance in front of her webcam for me, she seems a decent person, and I rather like her. I hope you have a good day!

+ Snow Patrol (feat. Martha Wainwright) - Set The Fire To The Third Bar

+ Going to see Over The Hedge tomorrow, because when I am not being 12, I'm busy being 8.

+So check out Girardi with the not-so-veiled threats:
[T]he story was Olsen, who said he and Girardi had a talk a few days ago.

"He said, 'Don't let anyone come and take your job because they out-work you.' Me and him came to an agreement where I'm going to work as hard as I possibly can," Olsen said.
-- Olsen steals show in Marlins' victory.

**pets him** On the one hand, yay for Olsen pitching well, but I feel badly that Joe had to put the fear of God in him to get him there.

"I thought maybe if things went bad today I could have gone back to the minor leagues," Olsen said. "It was definitely a possibility, and I didn't want that to happen. I know that every time I go out there, my job is on the line. So every day it's a battle to go out there and keep my job." -- Marlins' offense backs Olsen Hmm. I worry a little about this mentality. I mean, yes, he should go out there and want to keep his team in it and work hard, but it's gotta eventually wear on a young pitcher to think he has to be as perfect as he can or risk losing his job.

[Bad username or site: cruzalicious / @ livejournal.com], I'm sorry to tell you Maddox was optioned to Triple A ;_;

+ Tough one for the A's yesterday, goodness. I didn't read any of the post-game stories, because they're all of the "zomg, Oakland lost to the 'lowly' Royals!1!?!!" variety, and I hate that shit. Tell me how the team lost, don't take shots at who they lost to. Not that I'm counting on Rich's smirk to turn things around in an instant, but Harden could be back in a week. Fricking finally. Ah well, May's almost over. Nothing like a new month. I can probably start filling out all-star ballots in good conscience now.

+ plus some 'cuz Leanne is all Linky McLinksalot )
ayrdaomei: ([Comics] how like an angel)
( Apr. 27th, 2006 11:23 am)
+ Sci-Fi announces Caprica. [Bad username or site: acroarcs / @ livejournal.com] posted about this last night, and then [Bad username or site: johnnybvo / @ livejournal.com] emailed me about it this morning, and I do so love when my people keep me informed :P I am SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS. I cannot express to you how jazzed I am. I have been trying to see the silver lining but I was pretty ambivalent about the new premise of BSG going into next season. Caprica on the other hand? Sounds right up my alley. Man alive, I am so excited. I am probably too excited. Calming down...now. I'm just really happy to have a fallback if me and BSG don't work out, is all.

+ USA Today already has Ken Macha on a short list of managers that stand to be fired if their clubs don't get it together soon. I don't really see it, but I've been paying attention to West Coast baseball for all of 10 minutes, so what do I know. The image of Lou Pinella as A's manager is kinda cracking me up over here.

+ Very anxious to hear the word on Mr. Harden's MRI.

+ "It's real big," Helms said. "Especially with a young team like this. You can just see the atmosphere in the clubhouse when you win. The guys are so happy."-- Florida leaves Chicago hanging. **snickers** See that? Winning makes them happy! Other teams should stop coming back and taking wins away from them. That's not buddies.

Joe didn't fly home with the team after the game; he's spending the off-day with his father, because "you never know when it might be the last time." ♥ Also. Um, that's kind of morbid, Joe.

+ baseball )

+ I've been trying to figure out the best way for me to rip Flash videos, so I've been grabbing stuff left and right, just 'cause. Here's some of it, if you're interested:

Sophomore Year - ESPN.com spends an offday with Nick Swisher. I think that's Blanton on the couch in the one shot, but no Huston. Suspiiiiiicious :P So this is the place he's sharing with Blanton and Street? Guess they decided against keeping the ranch joint.
Arroyo interview from a couple weeks ago about - what else? - his hitting.
Shelton interview on the Hot List.
Posada interview about some kids book he wrote. I continue to crush on Jorge Posada.
Jeter used to play Atari. I used to play Atari. This changes nothing between us.
Apparently Zito and Chavvy were on BDSSP last night? Why does no one tell me these things? **resents you all** Happily, there was a clip on their website. Download (here). It's about 8minutes, and while it doesn't seem to be the whole appearance, it looks to be a good chunk of it. Highlights: "the chavvy run," mentions of Huddy and Mulder (your question partly answered, Bri), and something that should amuse Jen - jokes on the contents of Z's locker ^_~

Chavvy's not too comfortable talking/joking about Z leaving, is he?

OOH. I totally recorded it! (Ah, the rewards of being too lazy to correct the vcr setting when you overprogram the O's game. Happy day.) Yeah, the clip isn't the whole appearance, the guys go on to play 'Know Your Teammate.' They fail at it, miserably, and hug. Hee.

MLB must have put a foot in people's asses, because both David and Haren finally had updates posted yesterday. Or maybe I have Jen-like powers and sometimes people do what I say. WHO KNOWS. Dan talks about the game on Sunday, and muses about Lost some more, and for serious, I would have a Haren icon, if it wouldn't jinx the hell out of him. I'm getting ready to head out to Richmond but I just had to point out:

Barry Zito and I sat next to each other on the plane back from our road trip and watched last week’s episode of Lost.

Also, he talks some more about Barry and the example Barry sets and if you're not gonna re-sign him then at least plzdon'ttradehimbilly :(

Um.

**coughs** I may have inferred that last part. But seriously, I have so much love for this idea of Sensei!Zito, I can't even tell you. So the renewed trade whispers can please to be stopping now.

+ player blogs )
+ MLB opens urban youth camp in Compton. About. Freakin'. Time. Now open about a dozen more, please. After DC (which hopefully won't take another six years), how about New York, Chicago, Atlanta. . . The other ten places in this country where black people live. As per Chris Rock, you can skip Minnesota. I did a paper in undergrad on the shrinking number of black players in baseball, and it's only gotten worse since. I think it's great that we're finally starting to see Asian position players as well as pitchers, and I have no problem with Latinos becoming the face of the game. But there's long been a sense that MLB has given up on African American youth, as much as African American youth have given up on baseball. Kids will play this game if you give them somewhere to play it, and the equipment to do so. Not every kid is gonna be a Jimmy Rollins, playing in the small courtyard of his apartment complex, making up rules about how high a hit off the apartment building constitutes a double. But it's substantially cheaper for MLB teams to open camps and scout young hispanic kids in Latin America and the Caribbean, so that's where they've gone and with no instruction and no fields, black athletic youth turn to basketball and football instead. I think this is great, and I really hope MLB remains committed. I think the education component of this thing is also very, very cool. And at the end of the day, I'm all in favor of anything that gets my father to eventually shut the hell up about the non-presence of blacks on the Orioles.

+ Things that are random: Leiter's side also A-Rod's. Highlights:

"It's just wrong," Leiter said yesterday of any perception that A-Rod is disingenuous. "He's a good guy. Anybody who thinks that doesn't know him. If you sit with him, hang out, go to lunch with him, you can't think that. He's really fun to be around." ... "[B]ecause he is who he is, people want to know what he does, how he looks, what brand of sweat pants he's wearing. He's learned to be careful, but at his core he's this jovial guy with an almost-childlike sense of fun who likes to be a little goofy and likes to have a good time, so he tries to be protective of saying the wrong thing, and as a result, it may seem like he's insincere but it's more not saying just the right thing." ... "He's not a pity-party guy," Leiter said of A-Rod. "I think in trying to express himself, it may come off that way sometimes. But again, he enjoys what he's doing, and who he is. Maybe he'd be better off like some other (stars) who say as little as possible, and leave it at that. But he can't help it sometimes. He has a lot to say." ... "Alex is too acutely aware of his surroundings sometimes."

Heh. No shit. It's funny that it would be Leiter who would be the guy to step forward and say this stuff. I've never read similar comments from Jeter in defense of Alex, you know? I think it's kinda sweet he wants to stick up for his friend, since few others (besides Shef, heh. He's been pretty quiet about A-Rod, is the love affair over?) are inclined to, BUT come on, Al. Isn't being so concerned with not saying the wrong thing in a way inherently insincere/disingenuous? When you're sitting next to him this season, try putting a bug in his ear about not trying so damn hard.

And...a bunch of linkage to other neat stories I read over breakfast )

ETA: Boy, does that coloring need to go, Manny.
According to this, Danny Haren volunteered to become the second A's player rep. Does anyone know if Zito is still a rep as well?

Just, you know, wondering.

ETA: Awww. the BabyBraves are so fucking cute.

And interestingly enough, [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com] um, Lupe:

The McCann house had a fourth resident in the time prior to spring training, as Braves reliever Joey Devine also stayed there. :-P

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