Snakes In My Pants

Likely nothing to this, but still interesting.
On July 26th, 2007, John Lannan hit Chase Utley in the hand with a pitch, breaking his hand.  Jesus Flores was the catcher and had the go-ahead three-run homer to win the game.
Tonight, with John Lannan pitching, Chase Utley sent Jesus Flores out on a stretcher sliding into home.

The only other time John Lannan faced the Phillies?  July 31, 2008.  Kyle Kendrick hit both Zimmerman and Belliard with a pitch, sending Zimm out of the game.  Lannan hit Victorino and Buttocks Colume hit Chase Utley.

No one hit yet tonight….   However, seems Lannan vs the Phillies always creates pain.

Wow, who’d have thought.  Sister Cristian Guzman just hit for the cycle against the Dodgers.

That should pretty much be the icing on the cake for this series sweep, and also for the Dodgers playoff hopes (after 7 consecutive losses including being swept by the worst team in baseball…)

Baseball gets with the times: Limited instant replay debuts Thursday

And the system looks like it makes sense too.

I happened to check out the FedEx Cup standings for humor today.

With two weeks left in the “regular season” (whatever that means in golf), Tiger Woods is still leading the FedEx Cup points totals.  This is after playing in only 6 events, and being out due to season ending surgery since June 16 after winning the US Open.

#1 might not last through the regular season, but he is likely to stay in the top five:

Top 5 (name, events played, points):

• Tiger Woods       6      22,695
• Kenny Perry     21     20,878
• Phil Mickelson     16     17,354
• Stewart Cink     17     15,126
• Anthony Kim     17     15,115

Full FedEx Cup Point Standings
Kenny Perry with a first, second or third finish at the PGA Championship could finally overtake Tiger at #1 (after playing in 16 more events than Tiger…)

That is an insane level of Tiger dominance.

Go away for the holiday weekend and miss this?!?

On July 4, the Braves optioned outfielder Jeff Francoeur to Mississippi of the Southern League (AA).  Double-A?!?!?  Wowsers. I don’t know about you, but this just sucked what little optimism was left in the Nats fan in me by crystallizing how bad the Nats actually are.

Now to put this in Nats perspective, Francoeur’s paltry stats of .234, 8 HR, 41 RBI, .287 OBP, .374 SLG for his 334 ABs place him pretty much above the entire Nats entire outfield:

Read it all..

The Nats (as we call) “Sister” Cristian Guzman is heading to the MLB All-Star game for the 2nd time in his career.  Additionally, he is the last man standing (player without a trip to the DL) from the Nats opening day starters.  This is a very different experience from the past few years, when Guzman was on the DL from 3/27 - 10/9/2006, 4/3 - 5/7 and 6/25 - 9/21/2007 (after batting .219 in 2005…)

Here is what happened to the rest of the Nationals 2008 Opening Day roster:

Read it all..

After the family friendly conversation, I tried to resist posting this, but just couldn’t.

Apparently in Spain, they have “evidence” that football (soccer) is more popular than sex.  Attendance to the three-day International Erotic Film Festival of Barcelona (FICEB) plummeted from previous years, and organizers are blaming Spain’s success in the European Cup.

Spain’s success at Euro 2008 hurt erotic film festival (thanks to AFB Offbeat news for this one!)

3,494 and counting: Ballhawk is in league all of his own

Amazingly, he claims to have gotten “28 baseballs at a Washington Nationals game”, including “17 in batting practice.”  I’m just glad to know our team can hit that many home runs in batting practice

Speaking of shortstop trades, could we possibly be this fortunate?

Orioles Interested in Felipe Lopez (mlbtraderumors.com)

O’s have interest in deal for infielder Lopez (Fox Sports)

I agree with Rosenthal’s stament that the O’s could trade a “marginal minor-league prospect”.  I’d personally settle for a dozen or so bats and balls if they take over the entire contract.

Couldn’t we get this done before the series vs the Os this weekend?

On the opposite sites of the intelligence and situational awareness continuum:

Don Imus puts his foot in his mouth again with inappropriate race comments.  You can judge this from Imus being a racist to his provided explination.  Regardless of what you believe, he handled it poorly.

On the opposite side of the continuum, “Pacman” Adam Bernard Jones has somehow taken the high ground and has said, referring to Imus, “I will pray for him.”

Two years ago The Onion probably could have written the article Jones to pray for Imus.  Now its surprisingly real.
And, yes, I am still calling him Pacman.  While I’m assuming his new jersey will say A. Jones, his P. Jones jersey and Team Pacman pro wrestling team still are top of mind for me…