Oh, Wikipedia (or ESPN.com's readers)

Tim Tscida's page

Tschida is known for his quality work and is a well-respected umpire, but is probably best known for his massive blunder in blowing a call in the 1999 American League Championship Series in which Chuck Knoblauch's applied a "phantom tag" to Jose Offerman. The call was ranked the worst call in sports history by readers of ESPN.com.

5-4

Thanks again to our good friend Ralph Nader who said it didn't really matter whether Bush or Gore won the 2000 election. Replacing Justices Roberts and Alito with sane people ... nah, can't see how that would have had any impact in our lives. Or that of Americans for the next 40 years.

Is it really that strange to hate him?

It's June 23, and all is right with the world

ENOUGH!

It was the second hit of the game for Jeter, whose latest hitting streak has reached 14, notes the New York Times.

Derek Jeter is a great hitter. He's leading all shortstops with an on base percentage of .417. He has a fine slugging percentage of .480, putting him nicely in the top tier of that statistic among shortstops. His OPS is third among those at his position.

Using the ridiculously complicated but inarguably accurate clutch-ness statistic, WPA, he's the 10th clutchiest hitter in baseball this year. (WPA measures how one's at bats impact the expected outcome of a game. Hitting a homer in a tie game, bottom of the ninth, is worth about zillion times what hitting a homer in a 5th inning of a 10-0 blowout. It's the long-sought Palmeiro Index.)

His team has scored the 3rd most runs in the majors, and he's a huge part of the reason why. He's been intentionally walked 3 times despite the fact that some pretty good hitters follow him in the Yankee lineup. (He's hit into quite a few double plays, though.) A lineup full of Derek Jeters would score 7 runs a game.

I DON'T GIVE A FLYING F. ABOUT HOW MANY GAMES IN A ROW IN WHICH HE HAS HIT. Why does baseball persist in talking about hitting streaks?!

ARGH!!!!!

I can't do any of these things, much less all three

The call center provides service in 179 languages. “You can report a pothole in Korean, ask for a nicotine patch in Portuguese and ask about alternate-side-of-the-street parking in Zulu,” Mayor Bloomberg said.

Why Jim Bowden is doing a worse job than people realize

Joe Posnanski:

Over the last three seasons, the Royals are 119-227 against the American League, which is sensationally bad. But against the National League, they are 28-21, a winning record and them some. It’s a .571 winning percentage — higher than any team in the National League Central right now.

Fluke? Statistical glitch? Luck? Maybe. Then again, maybe not. There’s something that became blatantly obvious watching the Royals beat the Cardinals on Monday night — that was their third victory over the Cardinals in four games and their fifth in the seven against the World Series champs. The obvious thing is this:

The Cardinals are not very good. That whole league is not very good.

This week in Rick Sutcliffe

During last night's game, Rick Sutcliffe was making an impassioned (read: lacking in logic) case of why Chipper Jones should be elected to the Hall of Fame. Sara (making her blog debut!) was feeling equally passionate about something, so I couldn't hear the entire argument but I did see a couple graphics on screen that, between cries, I think comprised part of Chipper's case.

- Chipper Jones, you see, is among the top 4 home run hitters ... among switch hitters in baseball history since 1960 or something. (He's trailing Eric Davis, I believe.)

- Chipper Jones is also one of just four active players with more than 2,000 hits ... all of the same franchise.


Now, either of these attributes -- the part in front of the ellipses, that is -- seems somewhat impressive. But once the qualifications are added, I fail to understand why I should be impressed.

Does Rick Sutcliffe know that Ron Santo isn't in the Hall of Fame?

Aggressive baserunning

Yesterday, I took second on an RBI single when the centerfielder's throw -- and I'm not sure where it was supposed to go, anyway -- was dropped.

And I scored one pitch later on a routine groundout to the pitcher when (a) the pitcher didn't look me back to the bag on fielding the ball (making it easy to take third) and (b) the first baseman (i) turned her back to the field after touching first (I guess forgetting that I existed) and (ii) no one was covering home plate (I guess forgetting that the game was still being played).

Needless to say, this is not a very competitive league. But I'm still really impressed with myself.

The Stars Fell on Alabama

Session ends with a bang

For most of the session the Republican minority stalled legislation in protest of operating rules they say are unfair to them.

The tense session exploded Thursday when Sen. Charles Bishop, R-Jasper, punched fellow Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, on the Senate floor during the last day of the session.

I found something to add

"A-Rod Breaks Commandment," writes Todd Jones.

Just not the one you were thinking of.

I don't know what to add

From LittleLeague.org:

HONORING THE GAME

Rules
Honoring the Game means we refuse to bend the rules to win a game. Getting away with illegal behavior, just because the umpires’ views are blocked, doesn’t change the fact that it is against the rules of the game. (Compare this to the classroom – cheating when the teacher is not looking, is still cheating.)

Honoring the Game includes the letter and the spirit of our Little League rules. For example, you are a base runner and the batter hits a pop fly towards your part of the field. You see multiple fielders converge under the pop fly and as it comes down, you shout, “I got it! I got it! My ball!” in an attempt to intentionally interfere with the play.

Another example that comes to mind is a recent World Series [sic (and evidence that this wasn't written by a Red Sox fan)] game in which a player knocked the ball from the Red Sox first baseman [sic] and claimed that the incident was nothing more than a result of his running motion. (The umpires ultimately ruled against the runner on this call.)

If you win by ignoring or violating the rules, of what value is your victory?

I take my marching orders from the liberal blogs

This is pretty funny, courtesy of Kos.

It really is hilarious how right-wingers can whip themselves up into a frenzy about "Liberal Hollywood", but shriek like little girls when a Hollywood celebrity winks at them.