My dad saved me a Starbucks paper cup with a quote on it from Rob Neyer. Here is what it says...

"It's often said that baseball is life, or is like life, or that going to a baseball game is like going to church. Piffle. Baseball is like baseball, and that's plenty good enough because nothing else is quite like baseball."
--Rob Neyer
ESPN.com baseball columnist and co-author of The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers.

Thanks dad!

Finally - I get to see this! I <3 YouTube...

If you haven't heard of Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, they are a punk rock side project for members of NOFX, Lagwagon, and Foo Fighters, to name a few. They don't write their own songs, they strictly play cover songs - everything from Cat Stevens to Boyz II Men. They're a really fun band, and I like them because I enjoy the punk bands (and Foo Fighters) that the members are from.

Anyway (yes, this is about baseball!), they were hired to play Skyblast - a three-day festival after the Pirates' ballgames over the weekend. I don't know whether this had to do with A) The Gimmes' lead singer, Spike Slawson, being from Pittsburgh, B) Someone in the PR/Marketing department of the Pirates being a fan, or C) Like I mentioned earlier, the Gimmes play fun music and *can* appeal to a wide audience because they blend songs that an older generation knows with the style that a younger generation generally prefers.

However, things didn't go so well. The Gimmes were actually booed off the stage on Friday and were asked to not even bother returning for Saturday and Sunday. Slawson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "It was an obscene amount of money for the amount of work we did, so I can't complain. We're a punk band. Getting booed by a sports crowd makes us viable."

I would have loved to have been there, as I've always wanted to see the Gimmes play, but I'm surprised they even got the opportunity in the first place. It's too bad the crowd wasn't a little more receptive, but who cares? It's just another reason to hate Pittsburgh - you know, after stealing the Super Bowl and all...

But, I love it when two of my favorite things (punk rock and baseball) collide. Reminds me of the time when I was in 9th grade and I went to the Kingdome and got Scott Radinsky to sign his band's CD cover...during the game! Remember, the Kingdome didn't have bullpens, so I just walked down to the railing during the game, tapped Radinsky on the shoulder and asked if he would sign my CD cover. He freaked out. He thought it was so awesome that I brought that to the game and he was passing it around to the other relievers, saying things like, "See! I told you I have a band!" Good times...

My wife played a trick on me and left the computer up on Willie Bloomquist’s ESPN Player Card so that I would see it when I got home from work. She knows I despise him and thought it would be funny. She was, after all, voted “class clown” of her senior yearbook.

So, I took out my resulting anger/frustration by making this little list to show just how much Bloomquist sucks (as if you didn’t already know). Remember kids, scrappy is just a code word for “small, shitty white guy who can’t hit and gets his uniform dirty while playing bad defense and running into outs.”

In 2006…
Pitchers with more HR than Bloomquist: 16 (Carlos Zambrano has more HR this season than Bloomquist has in his entire career!)
Pitchers with as many or more 2B than Bloomquist: 8
Other players with a higher OBP than SLG (min 150 PA): 12 (Esteban German, Alex Cora, Brady Clark, David Eckstein, Jason Kendall, Jason LaRue, Brian Schneider, Brad Ausmus, Joey Gathright, Jerry Hairston Jr., Abraham Nunez).
Players with more AB and 0 HR: 3 (Miguel Cairo, Nick Punto & Joey Gathright)
Now, don’t be fooled, some of those players with a higher OBP than SLG are useful players. For instance, Esteban German’s OBP of .428 over 157 ABs makes him a useful player for the Royals, even if he’s slugging only .376. Some of those other guys are useful too, especially if you take their defense into consideration and you’re not paying them almost $12,000,000 (coughKendallcough). Willie Bloomquist, however, is a fucking joke. The fact that he’s started 39 games this year is disgusting; he shouldn’t be starting 39 games anywhere.

http://tourforthecure.org/

Think Danny Haren pitched a good game against the M's yesterday? Give him a present! http://www.crateandbarrel.com/gr/guest/viewRegistry.aspx?grid=805394 I wonder if you buy him a gift, if he'll send you a thank you note... Also, please note that I'm posting on my new MacBook for the first time (Yay!), and it's not letting me make links like I used to...hence, the big URL in the post. I'll have to tinker with this...