The MLB Thread Part Duex... because Sicy killed our last one short of 756 :sad:

[phanan]

Gotta love The Smoking Gun.

 

[Numb1075]

best part on smoking gun is Jasmine Bleeth's mug shot

 

[speedracer]

So I'm watching YES on MLB.tv for the second time today, and Coco Crisp grounds out weakly to first with a 3-0 count. They switch to a camera that follows him into the Red Sox dugout. Coco drops an F bomb, the camera stays fixed on him for another 15 seconds or so, then Coco drops another couple. Do the YES cameras always do this?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i try my hardest not to watch YES, so i can't tell you for sure

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Pujols' trainer denies link to performance enhancers

Whew, the rumors are running wild out there. The rumors, in fact, are going on anything. Speculation has a major green light right now. Hearsay has just run straight through a stop sign.

Baseball's latest steroids scandal is now in full-blown, screaming 72-point type. Pitcher Jason Grimsley, caught with a box full of human growth hormone, rolled over for federal investigators in a two-hour interrogation on April 19, and the new game in and around baseball is trying to figure out all the names he named.

So in an effort to further this story that won't go away, here's a name for you: Chris Mihlfeld.

"I figured my name would get thrown out there somewhere," Mihlfeld told me from his Kansas City-area gym on Thursday.

Maybe you've never heard of Mihlfeld. He's not a player. He doesn't work for Major League Baseball or any of its teams, not anymore. But Mihlfeld is a player in the game, a personal trainer to the biggest star in the game: Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, currently on the disabled list with a strained right oblique. Mihlfeld also has close ties to Royals slugger Mike Sweeney.

At least one website fairly well-known in sports circles suggests that Mihlfeld is the personal trainer whose name has been redacted from page 14 of the affidavit that details Grimsley's talk with IRS Criminal Investigations special agent Jeff Novitzky. A paragraph of that page reads, in part, as follows:

"Grimsley stated that [blacked out], a former employee of the [blacked out] and personal fitness trainer to several Major League Baseball players, once referred him to an amphetamine source. Grimsley stated that after this referral he secured amphetamines, anabolic steroids, and human growth hormone from [blacked out] referred source."

Mihlfeld served as a scout for the Royals and was their strength-and-conditioning coordinator as recently as 2004. He also has worked in minor league capacities for the Dodgers and the Devil Rays. He helped Grimsley rehabilitate last year after Tommy John surgery.

"I know Jason Grimsley very well," Mihlfeld said. "And I have only two statements to make. One, Jason Grimsley is still my good friend. And two, I've never been involved in any illegal steroids, amphetamines or HGH activity. Period."

Publicly, at least, nobody is yet claiming that Mihlfeld has done anything wrong. Certainly, nobody should be making the leap that he or Pujols or Sweeney are guilty of anything. Right now it's speculation on a website, talk in chat rooms and whispers in clubhouses. A lot of "what if?" and "do you think?" and "could it be?"

And let's get this straight: Even if that is Mihlfeld's name under the black ink on page 14 of Novitzky's affidavit, that's a long way from his being charged, let alone convicted, of anything. Grimsley's statement said the personal trainer in question merely referred him to a source for amphetamines, not supplied him with them.

But the whispers are out there already, the suspicions are raised. Sweeney, who has conducted clinics at Mihlfeld's gym and withstood rumors about alleged steroid use for years, faced reporters again on Wednesday and, again, strongly denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs.

"I'll put my hand on the Bible or my children's [head]," Sweeney said. "I know I've never taken any steroids, any performance-enhancing drugs or any growth hormones."

The connections between Mihlfeld and Sweeney, between Mihlfeld and Pujols and between Grimsley and just about everyone he ever played with already are being made. Mihlfeld's ready to head it all off.

"He's just like me," Mihlfeld said of his friend Pujols, whom he signed to play at Maple Woods Community College in Kansas City when Mihlfeld was head coach there in the late 1990s. "He's got nothing to hide."

That may well be true. Let's hope, for Mihlfeld's sake and for Pujols' sake -- heck, for the sake of baseball and everybody who ever has taken a little bit of enjoyment in watching it -- that it is.

But right now, truth has little to do with this. The rumors are running.

And the story has taken on a life of its own.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/john_donovan/06/09/grimsley.trainer/index.html

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Gen'R just got that much stronger...

NEW YORK -- The New York Mets have dealt second baseman Kaz Matsui and cash to the Colorado Rockies for catcher/first baseman Eli Marrero.

And according to media reports, the Mets paid the Rockies dearly to take Matsui off their hands.

Before the trade became official on Friday, Newsday reported that according to a person familiar with the details, the Mets would pay Morrero the $477,000 remaining on his contract and send the Rockies about $4.6 million. The Mets owe Matsui about $5.1 million on his current contract, the newspaper reported.

The Rockies optioned Matsui to Triple-A Colorado Springs and recalled outfielder Jorge Piedra.

Signed by the Mets to a $20.1 million, three-year contract before the 2004 season, Matsui never showed the talent that made him an All-Star and MVP in Japan. He struggled at shortstop in his first year with New York, and later got moved to second base.

The 30-year-old Matsui was hitting .200 with one home run and seven RBI in 38 games. For three straight seasons, he has homered in his first at-bat of the year.

The 32-year-old Marrero batted .217 with four homers and 10 RBI in 30 games for Colorado. He has started in right field, left field, first base and catcher this season.

Marrero has hit .244 with 64 homers, 256 RBI and 54 stolen bases while playing for St. Louis, Atlanta, Kansas City, Baltimore and Colorado.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

ole! soler!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

the diamondbacks are supposedly a first place team, right?

just wanna check.

 

[TheBrush]

Ummmm, Numb, I think I am anything but bad luck for our Mets........Bring out the brooms in the pressence of Dan!!

And I get to go to another baseball game next weekend.

Piazza Time!!!

 

[Hewson]

Gen'R just got that much stronger...

GenR has miraculously slipped into the NL West cellar once again.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

so the mets outscored the diamondbacks 37-9 in a 4 game sweep job, led by their newest slugger...

and now it's off to philadelphia tuesday night with a chance to put the NL East out of reach.

last trip to the 'illadelph had the mets lose on a 9th inning aaron heilman error, a win on an absolute beating for a victory in game 2, and a 5 game rain shortened 2-0 loss in game 3... for a 1-2 series loss. i think it's time to make up for those games they probably feel they should've had.

 

[Numb1075]

Matsui - buh bye

What a waste of $$$

Los Mets are beating the snot out of everyone. This has been a real nice west coast trip. We have some tough interleague games coming up w/ the Orioles, Blue Jays, the Sawks, and the Yankees.

 

[Numb1075]

Moe Drabowsky, the prankster pitcher who delighted in putting pythons in teammates' shoes and wound up as a World Series star for the Baltimore Orioles when they won their first championship in 1966, has died at age 70.

Drabowsky died Saturday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock, spokeswoman Liz Caldwell said Sunday. He had been ill with multiple myeloma, the Orioles said.

Drabowsky worked for the Orioles' organization the last 13 seasons as their Florida pitching instructor, overseeing players in extended spring training and on rehab assignments.

More than anything else, Drabowsky was known for being one of the most zany players in the majors. He loved to make crank calls from bullpen phones and once gave commissioner Bowie Kuhn a hotfoot. In a 1987 interview with The Associated Press, while working as a minor league pitching coach for the Chicago White Sox, he lamented that the game wasn't so playful anymore.

"Players seem to be more serious now," he said then. "I would tend to believe they don't have as much fun. You don't find the same kind of characters in the game today. Egos are a big factor. And the guys are making so much money."

The highlight of Drabowsky's 17-year career came in Game 1 of the 1966 World Series. He set a record for relievers by striking out 11 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, starting the underdog Orioles toward a sweep.

Drabowsky pitched from 1956-72 with the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Braves, Cincinnati, Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis and the White Sox. He was 88-105 with 55 saves and a 3.71 ERA.

Drabowsky also was the answer to several trivia questions. He gave up Stan Musial's 3,000th career hit, was the losing pitcher in Early Wynn's 300th career victory and was the first Royals pitcher to win a game.

Yet, Drabowsky developed more of a reputation for what he did off the field.

Slipping sneezing powder into the air conditioning system of the opponent's locker room was a pet trick. So was putting goldfish in the other team's water cooler. He was a master at hotfoots and claimed Kuhn as one of his victims, lighting the commissioner's shoe on fire during the Orioles' 1970 Series win over Cincinnati.

Oh, and the snakes: Because of Drabowsky, they'd show up in shaving kits, lockers and many other places. During a reunion dinner in Baltimore, in fact, one of them slithered out of Brooks Robinson's bread basket and frightened him.

Drabowsky made his share of crank calls from bullpen phones, too. He used the one at Anaheim Stadium to order takeout food from a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong. His favorite gag ever, he said, came at old Municipal Stadium in Kansas City.

"I had pitched there for a few years so I was familiar with the phone system. I knew the extension of the Kansas City bullpen and you could dial it direct from the visitor's bullpen," Drabowsky once recalled.

"One game, Jim Nash of the Athletics is cruising against us in about the fifth inning. So I call their bullpen and shout, 'Get Krausse up' and hang up.

"You should've seen them scramble, trying to get Lew Krausse warmed up in a hurry," Drabowsky said. "It really was funny."

Born Myron Walter Drabowsky in 1935 in Poland, he was a young boy when his family left the country and made it to the United States.

Drabowsky, by the way, once said he never intended to be a kooky character. When he broke into the majors, he actually was ostracized by some teammates for being too serious.

"I signed with the Cubs in 1956 for $75,000, which was a lot of money then," he remembered. "Some of the guys used to get on me pretty good, saying I was strange because I carried The Sporting News under one arm and The Wall Street Journal under the other."

***************************************************
that's some funny stuff

I like the goldfish in the water cooler

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

The White Sock pitching staff is killing me. Well, not the entire staff, more like Garland and Garcia.

The Sock could have and should have won that game last night.

I hope the Ranger don't kick the crap out of them tonight. At least Contreras is on the mound.

 

[impy13]

I hope the Ranger don't kick the crap out of them tonight.

Lefty sensation (at least here in north Texas) John Koronka on the hill for Los Rangers tonight.


And dollar hot dog night is Wednesday

 

[phanan]

And dollar hot dog night is Wednesday

Due to the game being delayed for something like five hours on Saturday, the Red Sox offered free hot dogs to everyone...

 

[Hewson]

Due to the game being delayed for something like five hours on Saturday, the Red Sox offered free hot dogs to everyone...

Just as long as they accompanied each hot dog purchase with either four $8.00 beers or 12 $5.00 sodas.

And mustard was not free, it was $3.50 an ounce, 2 ounce minimum. Grey Poupon was extra.

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

Lefty sensation (at least here in north Texas) John Koronka on the hill for Los Rangers tonight.


And dollar hot dog night is Wednesday

Gotta love dollar dog night. It's thursday's at the Cell.

Annnnnnnd if it's been far too long since you've heard then Cubs manager Lee Elia's 1983 rant http://cubfanssuck.ytmnd.com/

WARNING: if you're at work, turn down the volume on your computer. Lots of profanity in this rant.

 

[Hewson]

Can we please send this psycho looking Julian Tavarez back to St Louis?
We'll give them Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz plus $450million to take him off our hands.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

7.5

 

[Hewson]

June

 

[phanan]

Can we please send this psycho looking Julian Tavarez back to St Louis?
We'll give them Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz plus $450million to take him off our hands.

You just knew that was gonna happen, though. As soon as they came back from commercial and showed Tavarez, it was over.

 

[randhail]

Who's been worse - Tavarez or Farnsworth?

 

[phanan]

Oh, I'd take Farnsworth any day over Tavarez.

With Farnsworth, it's not so much that he's had some problems as it has been Torre using him way too much. Torre is a great manager, but the one thing he's always had difficulty with is using his bullpen appropriately...

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

it's official... confirmed by willie randolph on mike and the mad dog around 5:15 this afternoon. so for those of you in new england who want to get a jump on stubhub tickets before the news hits the major media and they go through the roof...

Wednesday June 28th - Pedro takes the mound at Fenway for the Mets.

 

[Hewson]

Its gonna rain

 

[Numb1075]

best record in baseball - nuff said

 

[Numb1075]

First JJ Redick and now we have Estaban Loiza doing 120 mph in his Ferrari at 3:30am while intoxicated. Nice.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

you leave JJ alone...


i think last night's white sox rangers game showed us two things... opponents reeeeally really hate a.j. pierzynski, and ozzie guillen is an absolute douchebag.

 

[phanan]

Wednesday June 28th - Pedro takes the mound at Fenway for the Mets.

If the Sox were to keep their rotation as it is now, he'd face a rookie, Jon Lester.

With a couple of days off between now and then, however, expect to see Beckett that day.

Of course, with the way he's been throwing lately, perhaps Lester would be better...