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8:01:55 PM EDT
Hearing OutKast's Idlewild soundtrack

My parents, brother and I were fortunate enough to spend this Labor Day afternoon at RFK witnessing the Nats 4-1 victory over St. Louis that was highlighted by maligned starter Ramon Ortiz's near no-hitter. Ortiz, who hasn't had an ERA under 5.00 since leaving Anaheim and didn't break 91 on the gun all day long, somehow kept the Cards from hittin' it where they ain't until Aaron Miles led off the 9th with a highly disappointing basehit. Aside from the near pitching miracle, there were two other occurrences that made this game one for the memories...

1. Ortiz came to the plate in the bottom of the 8th with the no-hitter intact. Predictably, the crowd gave him a standing O, which he acknowledged by digging in and hitting the first home run of his career. Unbelievable.

2. Once the no-no was gone, Pujols came to the plate with none on and the Cards down to their last out. With the shutout intact, Ortiz delivered and the great Pujols smashed the ball into the upper deck, probably 500 feet away. Again, unbelievable.

Check out the photo gallery for some pics from the day that was, and here are two digicam videos of interest. The first is the crowd reaction to the Ortiz HR and the second is the crowd appreciation when Ortiz came out of the game after Pujols' HR. Enjoy...

No-No Ramon [Baseball Musings]

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8:48:03 AM EDT
Hearing new OutKast tracks

There's a 6'8" Saudi Arabian playing in the Little League World Series. His name is Aaron Durley and he plays first base for the Arabian American squad. He weighs in at 256 pounds, which means he's not just 6'8" but a solid 6'8", outweighing Adam Morrison by 50 pounds. To put this in perspective, no one in my Little League broke 6'0" and I don't think anyone in my high school was taller than 6'5". Of course, Durley's stated objective is pretty evident: "Hit the ball out."

For a kid that size to clear the fences in a ballpark with 200-foot dimensions means he basically has to hit it in the air and keep it fair. That's all. It's also worth mentioning that there's a 6'3" kid and a 226-pound kid on this team as well, all of which makes me nostalgic for the '89 Trumbull, CT team and their ace Chris Drury, who was a pretty normal-sized kid with extraordinary skills. Of course, that was probably the last time I watched and/or played Little League baseball.

Speaking of the Little League WS, has anyone seen the ESPN commercials starring a 12 year-old Gary Sheffield? He swung exactly the same way then as he does now, which is to say irregularly and viciously.

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11:55:33 AM EDT
Hearing Sunday morning SportsCenter

Much-maligned ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk stopped by SBL last week to talk about hitting with no knees, Peter Gammons' health, Harold Reynolds' dismissal and more. By far my favorite topic of conversation, though, was the '93 NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies and their band of mullets (at least 10, by my count). Turns out Dave Hollins was the ringleader of that bunch. Anyway, give it a listen...

 John Kruk on Sports Bloggers Live

While we're here, I figure I'll list the players with mullets from that imminently likeable Phillies team: Darren Daulton, Kruk, Mickey Morandini, Hollins, Lenny Dykstra, Pete Incaviglia, Curt Schilling, Tommy Greene, Terry Mulholland and Mitch Williams. And here are the guys who very well may have been mulleted but I can't be sure: Kevin Stocker, Jeff Manto, Danny Jackson, David West and Bobby Thigpen.

And for good measure and full disclosure, I actually had a mullet myself in the fifth grade, and I rank the '93 Phillies right behind the '86 Mets and just ahead of the '04 Red Sox among the most memorable baseball teams of the past 20 years.

Update: Looking back over this I'd like to add the '89 Orioles to my list of most memorable, or at least favorite, teams of the past 20 years. They may have finished second in the East that season to the Toronto freaking Blue Jays, but that was after starting off the previous season 0-21. Long live Gregg Olson, Mike Devereaux, Jeff Ballard and company.

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9:44:24 AM EDT
Hearing Wilco's live double album

NY Daily News reports that little Tommy Cruise used to stalk Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, more or less, perhaps with hope of getting the movie rights to tell the great slugger's story..

"He'd show up at baseball-signing shows and wait for Joe to come out," says the source. "One time, he waited outside a restaurant for him for three hours. [DiMaggio] called him 'a short little guy.' He didn't like it. He felt like he was stalking him."

Fact or fiction, this story strikes me as odd considering Cruise is the last guy I'd expect to be well into baseball and the last actor I'd cast as the Yankee Clipper. I don't know, maybe he sees himself as a spot-on Scooter Rizzuto or maybe I just don't know anything about Tom Cruise, sports fan.

Story found via entertainment gossip site TMZ, which also posts pics of Pink golfing and labels Peyton Manning the Anna Kournikova of the NFL, which is a pretty weird comparison.

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9:53:52 AM EDT
Hearing Kings of Leon

Washington sent Livan Hernandez to Arizona yesterday with the intention of building towards their future and affecting the playoff picture in the NL West. While this is only the seventh headline on AOL Sports' MLB index and Hernandez's ERA is 5.34, this is probably the most significant starting pitcher move made this summer for a few reasons...

1. Livan pitches every fifth day. A lot. Averaging 34 starts per year and seven innings per start every year since 2000 is no joke.

2. Seven of his last 10 starts have been of the quality variety, at least six innings while allowing three runs or fewer.

3. He's 6-2 lifetime in the postseason with NLCS and World Series MVP awards under his formidable belt.

Sounds like a guy that Boston could really, really use right now.

Anyway, as a Nats fan, it's sad to Livan go but I understand the deal for two decent pitching prospects nonetheless. Hernandez won the first game at RFK in 30+ years. He contended for the NL Cy Young through much of that magical first season. And it was a joy watching him get guys out with guts and guile (a.k.a. a 86-mph fastball and 68-mph curve). Now he's Arizona's guy and I wish him and his enormous belly all the best.

In other news, that much-maligned move the Reds made with the Nats to acquire middle relief is not looking so good now that Gary Majewski is on the DL and Cincy GM Wayne Krivsky is making accusations.

Related: Banks of the Anacostia gives the deal a B+.

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1:40:39 PM EDT
Hearing Wolf Parade

Johnny Bench is on the latest SBL and, no, I can't believe we get these guys to do our show either. He has plenty to say about Mark McGwire and the Hall of Fame (in), Pete Rose and the Hall (out), today's best catchers and, of course, the '06 Reds and their playoff chances. You're totally encouraged to stay with the interview until we ask him about Rose's chances of enshrinement, at which point Bench asks us if we have kids and follows that up by saying something to the effect of, when you do, "tell them there's no more rules!" It's truly priceless. And uncomfortable.

 Johnny Bench on Sports Bloggers Live

Other guests on this episode of SBL...

 Rivals' Steve Megargee on Oklahoma football
 Fanball's Paul Charchian on fantasy WRs
 Phil Gordon on the World Series of Poker

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9:12:29 PM EDT
Hearing a pitcher's duel between 'Rigo Lopez and Moyer

As a Nats fan, it has been with great interest that I've watched them trade for Alfonso Soriano, then try to cast him away and now allegedly try to ink him to a long-term deal. My brother tears Washington GM Jim Bowden apart and Thomas Boswell is making his usual apologies for this, but Armchair GM's Dan Lewis is the one making the most sense.

His post The New Economics of the MLB Trade Market is a fascinating and well-stated look at how smart teams can take advantage of free agent compensation by acquiring players such as Soriano in their walk year, low balling them in arbitration and then collecting draft picks from whichever team the guy ends up signing with. Here, I'll let Lewis explain...

"In November, the GM should identify players entering their walk year who are likely to be Class "A" free agents. He should try and acquire these players, if the price is right... In calculating whether "the price is right," the GM should have an eye toward trading the player over the summer, absent, of course, a need to keep the player for a playoff run. Basically, the GM should use the player's "flip" value as a hedge against overpaying in November.

The old analysis would have the GM simply analyze whether the player, if added, would make the team better for the current season. But that analysis, as demonstrated above, is incomplete. The player does not lose value simply because the team fails to remain competitive. Rather, the player takes on a different value. He turns from on-field asset to trade-block commodity.

Because the incentive to acquire Class "A" free agents is high, the market for these players is increased. (That's why the Rangers could give up three MLB-ready players for two months of Carlos Lee and a good prospect; if they can't re-ink Lee, they'll get two draft picks!)"

So if the Nats don't re-sign Soriano, which I'm not convinced they're even trying to do, they basically spent $7 million on his services (his salary is $10 million vs. Brad Wilkerson's $3 million) in exchange for an astounding 40/40 season and two top-50 draft picks next year. Not bad for a GM who has taken as much flack as trader Jim Bowden has. And if you don't trust me on the plausibility of all this, follow the link above for the full piece. It's worth it for any true fan trying to stay in touch with an ever-changing market.

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11:27:38 PM EDT
Hearing Baseball Tonight (more Olney, less Kruk!)

Big Papi hit his third walk-off bomb, knocked his 36th and 37th home runs and drove home his 102nd, 103rd, 104th and 105th RBI of the season tonight, the last night of July, which prompted Stuart Scott to say, "David Ortiz is just stupid" and got me to thinking about what kind of magnificent season he's having.

Right now, he's on pace for 57 HR and 162 RBI, or 219 HR-plus-RBI (a meaningless stat I just made up that is easily more digestible than VORP). To put that in perspective, only seven guys have combined for over 200 HR-plus-RBI in the 28 seasons since George Foster did it back in 1977 with the Big Red Machine. Here's the full list...

224 -- Sammy Sosa in '01 and '98
219 -- David Ortiz in '06?
217 -- Mark McGwire in '98
212 -- McGwire in '99
210 -- Barry Bonds in '01
209 -- Manny Ramirez in '99
204 -- Sosa in '99 and Ken Griffey Jr. in '97
203 -- Griffey in '98
201 -- Juan Gonzalez and Albert Belle in '98

Made-up stat or not, that's pretty unbelievable. What's even scarier, for AL East pitchers at least, is that this may not even be Big Papi's career year. Sure, it's far exceeding his highwater marks of 2005, but there's no reason to believe he won't be even better next season. Dating back 2001 in Minnesota, Ortiz has increased his runs, hits, homers, RBI, walks and on-base and slugging percentages with every new campaign. All in all, the man is the best hitter going and I hope you're enjoying it, despite Stu Scott's best efforts.

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9:55:38 AM EDT
Hearing Stereolab

To steal a line from Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, let me tell you why the Yankees SUCK as a franchise. Actually, that's too much to tackle in one blog post, so let's just keep this to two items from this past weekend...

1. They bought Bobby Abreu. Even though they already have the highest payroll and fourth-best record in baseball they're dropping $20 million for Abreu's services over the next 15 months (and possibly $36 million over the next 27). This for a guy who has hit .270 with 14 HR in his past 600 at-bats. He does get on base over 40% of the time, but that's a lot to pay for some OBP. Of course, Yankee fans like Lush like the deal in part because they have no soul.

2. Cuba's best player may be headed to the Bronx. Second baseman Yulieski Gourriel has defected and there's a quote saying his next stop is Yankee Stadium. This may be far from etched in stone, but if it does happen it would be yet another example of the Yankee "farm system" producing a blue-chip foreign player (see: Hideki Matsui, see also: Alfonso Soriano) just because they outpay the competition. No wonder they've been to the postseason 11 straight years.

Note: This has nothing to do with me being a lifelong O's fan. Nothing at all.

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9:31:41 AM EDT
Hearing Belle & Sebastian

Whenever I'm gone and not posting for a few days I feel the need to explain my absence. In this most recent case I was out at Deep Creek Lake with family enjoying, among other things, a hyper-competitive Wiffle Ball home run derby with my brothers. This is usually an enjoyable endeavor for me as baseball and Wiffle Ball are "sports" that I've always beat them at, but in this case Chris was king racking up 13 points to my measly five. I mean, just look at that swing...

By the way, this photo has no credit but know that it was taken with love by my mom from an aerial view safely out of harm's way on the house deck. Now, onto sports and stories that people not related to me may actually care about.

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