When baseball players fight, they call it a "brawl"

This week's fight/brawl between San Diego Padre Carlos Quentin and Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Zack Greinke (which left Greinke with an injured shoulder), reminded many baseball fans of other fights/brawls from the past. One of the most famous has to be the fight/brawl that took place on August 12, 1984 between the Padres and the Atlanta Braves.



This next one's not so famous-- in fact, I don't remember it at all. But it has the Cardinals in it and, more importantly, a rare instance of Ozzie Smith losing his cool.

Baseball Playoff Update #3

Above: St. Louis Cardinals players watch from the dugout as their team loses to the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in Game 3 of the National League Division Series. The season is now over for the Cardinals.

Baseball Playoff Update #2

Above: The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate their 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 2 of the National League Division series. Losing 2-1 with two outs in the 9th inning, the Dodgers came back to win after Cardinal outfielder Matt Holliday dropped what should have been the game ending fly ball. Holliday later told reporters that he lost the ball in the lights.

Prior to the 9th inning collapse, this posting was going to be all about how brilliant Adam Wainwright is.

Baseball Playoff Update #1

In Game 1 of the National League Division Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3. Here are the important statistics:

• Number of runners left on base: 30 -- a new post-season record for a nine inning game
• Number of times an inning ended with the bases loaded: 4 -- three times by the Dodgers
• Number of walks: 13 -- including two intentional walks to Albert Pujols
• Number of batters hit by pitch: 4 -- two for each team
• Number of pitchers used: 12
• Number of players who appeared and who also played for the Cardinals during the 2006 World Series: 5 --Chris Carpenter (pictured above), Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, Ronnie Belliard (for the Dodgers), and Jeff Weaver (for the Dodgers-- he was the winning pitcher)
• Inning during which the broadcast technical difficulties were the worst: 4th
• Time of game: 3:54

Click here for the box score.

Below: Matt Holliday argues with home plate umpire Dana DeMuth after being called out looking with the bases loaded in the first inning.

I have a Franklin Gutierrez bobblehead doll

Last night my wife, daughter, and I went to see the Seattle Mariners lose 9-0 to the Cleveland Indians. It was also Franklin Gutierrez Bobblehead Night (see picture, above). Earlier this week, Manny Ramirez hit a pinch-hit grand slam for the Dodgers at Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Night, and we were hoping for something similar from Franklin Gutierrez. It didn't happen, though-- he went 0-for-2 with a walk (see picture, below).

Gutierrez also tried, but failed, to catch a home run hit by Travis Haffner in the 7th inning. (see picture, below).

Also at the game were such celebrities as Flo Rida and members of the Everton FC squad, including Tim Cahill (below, holding the baseball), who has the same birthday as I do.

Historically significant baseball games I have attended #1

Who was playing? Los Angeles Dodgers versus St. Louis Cardinals

Where did they play? Busch Memorial Stadium, St. Louis, MO

When did they play? October 14, 1985

Did I know this game might be significant before it started? Yes. It was Game Five of the National League Championship Series. The series was tied 2-2 (best of seven format).

What happened? Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith came up to bat in the bottom of the ninth with the game tied. Ozzie hit his first career left-handed home run off Dodgers reliever Tom Niedenfuer to win the game. On the radio, St. Louis announcer Jack Buck intoned his now-famous line, "Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!"

The Cardinals went on to wrap up the National League Championship Series in Game Six in Los Angeles on a Jack Clark home run off, again, Dodgers reliever Tom Niedenfuer.

Ultimately, the Cardinals lost the World Series to the Kansas City Royals in seven games after having been up three games to one.

What do I remember? It was warm for October and so muggy and humid that you could practically see the water hovering in the air. Back then, they still played important playoff games in the afternoon, so I got to miss school to go see the game. My father got excellent tickets - row 13 behind the first base dugout - and we sat right in front of Ron Glass, the actor who played Detective Harris on the television show Barney Miller.

At one point during the game, I turned around to stare at Ron Glass and I think he gave me a shrug of the shoulders and a sheepish grin.

When Ozzie Smith came up to bat in the ninth inning, I turned to my father and said, "Ozzie has never hit a home run left-handed." (Back then I knew a lot about baseball.) Right after that, as if on cue, the scoreboard operating people posted the same fact on the giant scoreboard out in right-center field. When Ozzie Smith hit his home run - a line drive that barely cleared the fence in right field - the ball struck a concrete pillar and bounced back onto the field, so, for a split-second, no one was sure if it was a home run or not.

Then the stadium erupted - still the loudest noise I think I have ever heard. My father and I high-fived each other and I turned to try to catch the reaction on Ron Glass's face, but he had already disappeared into the crowd. My father and I sprinted out of Busch Memorial Stadium and back to our parking space under the highway bridge as if we were lifted on a cushion of really humid, semi-visible air.

Click here for the box score.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #2

Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball's Most Enigmatic Slugger; written by Jean Rhodes (professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston) and Shawn Boburg (reporter at The Record in Bergen County, New Jersey); authorized by Manny Ramirez (leftfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, formerly of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians).

Fun facts you might learn if you read this book:

• As a child, Manny Ramirez suffered from an "intense fear of the dark." (page 23)
• Manny Ramirez's great-grandmother worked as a nanny for the children of the Dominican Republic's "tyrannical dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo." (page 15) (Trujillo pictured below)

• In high school, rather than attend class, Manny Ramirez enjoyed hanging out in the lunchroom and talking to his girlfriend Kathy, friends, baseball fans, security guards, and cafeteria workers. (page 73)

Above, Manny Ramirez versus a fly ball

I read up to page 91 (out of 304) in this book, when Manny Ramirez was a junior in high school. At that point, I stopped reading, because I decided that the book was boring.

Note: Becoming Manny was published in early 2009, so it does not cover Manny Ramirez's 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. Manny Ramirez returns from his suspension tonight, in a game against the San Diego Padres.

Nice catch

This man basically goes to Dodger games with his video camera and records what happens there. Some of it is actually interesting.

What I have been reading lately #8

Sparky Lyle wrote The Bronx Zoo in 1978, his last year with the New York Yankees. 1978 was not the year Chris Chambliss hit the home run to win the ALCS against the Kansas City Royals and then barely made it around the bases to score. That was 1976. 1978 also was not the year Lyle won the Cy Young Award and Reggie Jackson hit three home runs on three straight pitches in Game 6 of the World Series against the LA Dodgers. That was 1977. 1978 was the year that the Yankees came back late in the season to catch the collapsing Boston Red Sox and then beat them in a one game playoff. I remember that game well: I was in 5th grade and my History teacher, Mr. Philbrick (who was from Maine), let us listen to the game in class. I heard Bucky Dent's home run in the car on the way home (or maybe it was Reggie Jackson's less-well-remembered HR that I heard), and I saw Yaz pop out to Nettles to end the game at home on the tiny black-and-white television set in the kitchen. It's amazing how times have changed - back then I was devastated by the Red Sox loss but turned around and rooted for the Yankees to beat the squeaky-clean Dodgers in the World Series. Now I can't stand either the Red Sox or the Yankees.

Best day of the baseball season

This year it took longer than most, but, once again, the Chicago Cubs will not be winning the World Series. Let's all give thanks to those Los Angeles Dodgers! (I never thought I'd be rooting for Joe Torre again.)





The last time the Cubs won the World Series, there were no favorite television shows, because the television had not yet been invented, and the President was Theodore Roosevelt. In the election that fall, Republican William Howard Taft defeated the Democrat William Jennings Bryan.


27th President of the United States,
William Howard Taft