Hiney Bird Alert: Some Syracuse grad on Yahoo who never played the game calls Hawk an "imbalanced wingnut"

"Now, if Hawk Harrelson knew any of this – if this announcer in the American League knew anything about the game of baseball – he would understand that in fact Mark Wegner had done the right thing."

Ooooooooh.
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Trib Readers - Brain Dead

See Sarge, it's not just the sportswriters. It's the readers too.

Readers vote: 'Z' ya later

Match Made in Heck

Jay Mariotti joins AOL Sports

So you left the World's Awfulest Newspaper (tie) because it and other newspapers were going to die. Then you go to AOL? Yeah, that's a winner. You guys have fun together

But ya know, Paul DePodesta didn't know what he was doing...

Joe Torre said before Thursday's game that Jason Schmidt probably wouldn't return this season. Schmidt doesn't have his next side session planned, and he has less than a month before the minor league season ends, so he might not even make a rehab appearance this year. Two years into his three-year, $47 million contract, the Dodgers have six starts and one win to show for Schmidt.

Then there were Ned Colletti's brilliant signings of Juan Pierre ($44m) and Andruw Jones ($36m).

I saw L.A. Times sportswriter, Bill Plaschke, commenting on Around the Horn about Billy Beane after the Rich Harden trade. Like most brain-dead sportswriters, Plaschke hates Beane and all things sabermetric (probably because it requires them to think - it's much easier just to look at pitcher wins or RBI, and how many "guts" a player has....), and certainly hated DePodesta while he was there. Of course, he hated the Harden trade, and it surely looked like his head was going to explode while talking about Beane. Plaschke has been "writing" for the L.A. Times since 1987. Since then, they have won one World Series ('88) and been to the playoffs 4 other times (inc. one of DePodesta's two seasons), losing in the first round each time. Since Beane became the A's GM in 1997, they have been to the playoffs 5 times. Seems like his track record is better than the GM buffoons L.A. has had, with a lot less money to work with. But he's never won the World Series, so obviously he and his ilk are all morons (also see: the Red Sox two World Series wins since they hired Bill James). But the fact remains, the Dodgers haven't been in the World Series since 1988, and ain't going to be there this year, either. Maybe if they had Beane spending the $127 million they wasted on Schmidt, Pierre and Jones they would have a team closer to contending.

And thank God Colletti finally traded Andy LaRoche away...
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Well, it was on Foxsports.com...

Found this link on the Fire Joe Morgan site. I didn't know that msn.foxsports.com stood for "The Onion" in sports journalism. And we all know what we think about sports journalism...

Will get a Fox noise label even if it's not quite Fox noise since it's noise coming out of Fox...

Pseudo-Journalism

Honestly, I think sports journalism is all about throwing something out there and waiting for the flame war to begin. How is that different from this blog? Not much. Except they get paid. And call themselves journalists.

Rick Morrissey: Illinois fans can consider Bob Knight

Somehow, I don't think the Illini are that desperate.

funny stuff...

Shawon Dunston and Todd Stottlemyre both got one vote for the HoF.

2008 Baseball Hall of Fame Voting
Rich "Goose" Gossage was elected Tuesday to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The following are the results of the balloting with 406 of the 543 votes (75 percent) required for
election:

Name Ballots received Percentage
---- ---------------- ----------
Rich Gossage 466 85.8
Jim Rice 392 72.2
Andre Dawson 358 65.9
Bert Blyleven 336 61.9
Lee Smith 235 43.3
Jack Morris 233 42.9
Tommy John 158 29.1
Tim Raines 132 24.3
Mark McGwire 128 23.6
Alan Trammell 99 18.2
Dave Concepcion 88 16.2
Don Mattingly 86 15.8
Dave Parker 82 15.1
Dale Murphy 75 13.8
Harold Baines 28 5.2
Rod Beck 2 0.4
Travis Fryman 2 0.4
Robb Nen 2 0.4
Shawon Dunston 1 0.2
Chuck Finley 1 0.2
David Justice 1 0.2
Chuck Knoblauch 1 0.2
Todd Stottlemyre 1 0.2
Jose Rijo 0 0.0
Brady Anderson 0 0.0

Ronny Cedeno?

Assuming the Rays aren’t looking to make a major commitment/investment, here are four players who could be potential trade targets: Erick Aybar, Angels…Ronny Cedeno, Cubs…Chin-Ling Hu, Dodgers…Brent Lillibridge, Braves.– St. Petersburg Times

they must know he's one of Decker's...

According to Tracy Ringolsby*, the Giants have "let it be known that Tim Lincecum, their No. 1 pick in 2006, can be had for a quality bat."

Hmmm, unless it's Miguel Cabrera, this would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. Of course, this is Brian Sabean* we're dealing with (see ridiculous Barry Zito signing), so anything possible. Cabrera might be too young for Sabean - maybe he could get Moises Alou back from the Mets? What's Willie McCovey up to (they have his cove right there in right field!). Meanwhile, he's considering bringing Omar Vizquel back for not one, but two years...

*moron

Anudder Crazy Smiff

This one keeps having wet dreams about (insert NBA Player/College Player/High School Player/zygote here) and how they could/should/want to play for Da Bulls...

Jackson points a 'critical' finger
As NBA camps open, Lakers coach has serious doubts about his team

Those around Bryant say he continues to talk about the Bulls.

Only Bryant would embrace the chance and challenge to upstage Jordan in Chicago. Perhaps it's just coincidence, but Bryant changed his Lakers' uniform number to 24 and took No. 10 with the U.S. Olympic team. Jordan wore No. 23, of course, and No. 9 in the Olympics.

One more than Jordan?

I wouldn't put it past Bryant to believe he could win four championships with the Bulls to get to seven overall after his three with the Lakers and Shaquille O'Neal.

Trib-co Bias

What might have been
Cubs would be about ready to clinch had they not lost 10 killer games

Of course, if they went back and chronicled the 10 games they should have lost but didn't, they'd find that they're probably right where they should be. Such is life. Anyone think they'll go back and find the 25 games that the Sox lost that if they'd won, they'd be up half a game? Probably more actually, since a bunch of the games came against the teams ahead of them? Course not. Coz they're paid to write about the Cubs. Not da Sox. Not that I'd write about da Sox right now...

how to suck at sportswriting

Glavine may be last to reach 300 wins by Rick Gano

First, "Rick Gano" states this is Glavine's first attempt at win #300, when it was his 2nd. Secondly, why would Glavine be the last to reach 300 wins? Glavine, Maddux & Clemens all pitched in the era of five-starter rotations...so why would they be the last? They all pitched into their 40's...why would they be the last starting pitchers to get to 300 when they're making millions of dollars per year? Seems to me there are/will be other starting pitchers who will reach this milestone if they start early enough and pitch long enough. Santana? Webb? Gallardo? &tc. ? Rick Gano is a moron and any of us could do his job.

Hmmm, i seem to recall sportswriters of yore proclaiming Ruth's & Maris's HR records would never be broken...