forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

If Soriano was a horse, someone would have put him down by now.

If the Cubs want to know why they've failed to win a world series for more than a century, look no further than players like Castro and Soriano. It's cliche, but there really is no excuse for not hustling. Soriano was lucking his dogging it on Greene's triple didn't cost them another run. My guess is he doesn't care one way or the other.

Today is the 15th. I'm guessing the check cleared.

Horse shit

I hate to say "whew" against the damn chicago cubs , but a win is a win ...

The ending was certainly climatic.

forsberg_us wrote:

Carpenter needs a new pair of shades. It looked like he was stashing a Marlboro behind his ear.

What happend?  Was he channeling Chris Duncan in the outfield again?

forsberg_us wrote:

No, nothing like that.  He was wearing a pair of sunglasses that had thick white earpieces.  It literally looked like he was playing the field with a cigarette stashed behind his ear.

Artie Anecdote Alert:

There was a guy in my high school - and I'm not making up this name - named Duke Olson. His real first name was George, but if you called him that, he'd kill you. I was a freshman, and he was a senior, but I think he was like 21-years-old because he couldn't stay in school for an entire academic year. Even the guys in my town who thought they were tough were afraid of him.
I guess Duke had been something of a phenom in our town's youth leagues, so he tried out for the baseball team. He shows up for the first day wearing sweats, a baseball undershirt, and a black leather motorcycle jacket. Hey, it can get cold in April in New England. 
So we start BP and Duke is standing in right field by himself. He takes a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket and lights up. Even in the '70s, when you could smoke while you were filling your car at a gas station, this was unusual. No one, including the coaches, had the balls to tell him to put it out though. He stood out there for two hours, and caught just about everything that was hit to him, with a butt dangling from his mouth.
He only showed up that one day, though, and I'm not sure if I ever saw him again.

tkihshbt wrote:

Sounds like he was really, really inspired by Kelly Leake.

You know, I never thought of that. This might have even been before the original movie came out.
While I'm waxing about my mediocre athletic career, there was another guy I went to school with named Kevin O'Sullivan. Kevin was about 6-6 when he started junior high. His nickname was "Big Bird," but after awhile we just called him "Bird." (This was in like '74 or '75, even before Larry became a household name, so we were being really clever). Bird had no coordination whatsoever, but all our 8th grade basketball coach saw was height and he practically begged him to come out. So we start the first practice with basic stuff, and it turns out Bird can't even make a layup. Not even close. His best effort is this missle that hits the bottom of the rim and caroms off his head, and everyone starts howling. So then we move to dribbling. Bird gets about 10 feet from the baseline, trips over the ball and hits the deck face first. His nose explodes in a torrent of blood. Bird covers his face with his hands and heads to the nurse's office, never to be seen on a basketball court again during his school career.