Archive for the ‘No. You’re A Slow News Day’ Category

In this corner, we have the returning champions: Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie from Toronto giving us all a little taste of Richmond Street.

And their opponents for today: A salsa dancing duo from Atlanta named Martin Prado and Kris Medlen.

With considerable thanks to The Blue Jay Hunter and Cardboard Junkies.

This is Cincinnati Reds prospect Billy Hamilton. Cincinnati Reds prospect Billy Hamilton is fast. He’s very fast. Not only is he fast, but he’s also good at base running.

I know this because since the beginning of last season, over two levels of Minor League Baseball, Hamilton has stolen 183 bases in 201 games. Over that same amount of time, he’s only been caught stealing 36 times, giving him a successful stolen base rate of 84%.

It’s exactly the type of thing that we’d normally spend time writing about at Getting Blanked, and yet, there have been few mentions of Hamilton on these pages. But why?

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Updating a previous item on the Twitter ruckus that Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie caused when he interacted with a heckling fan last night in Milwaukee, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Jose Bautista stepped in to stop the exchange from going any further than it did.

Jose Bautista told Toronto reporter that one Mil fan was hard on Brett Lawrie last night, leading to brief exchange. Bautista stepped in.

— Tom (@Haudricourt) June 20, 2012

Bautista said the fan was out of line, Lawrie responded, and then Bautista stepped in a stopped the exchange. Good move by Bautista.

— Tom (@Haudricourt) June 20, 2012

Indeed. You might say that the entire incident is much a-Brew about nothing. Heyo!

Cuz people think I’m a gringo and I’m not, I’m from Dominican republic

— Ivan Nova (@IvanNova47) May 28, 2012

Out of context, you might wonder how someone who looks like this …

… would ever be confused for a “gringo,” and not a starting pitcher for the New York Yankees who was born in San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic. However, that tweet was likely in reference to this tweet …

I just wanna talk, don’t make funny of me please, from now I just gonna twitt in Spanish no more English for me

— Ivan Nova (@IvanNova47) May 28, 2012

… which I imagine was in reference to this tweet …

Thanks ur gays always there for me !!!!!

— Ivan Nova (@IvanNova47) May 28, 2012

… which, if you think about it, is exactly the type of Spanglish error that a non-gringo would make.

Oh, social media. What would bloggers do without you?

San Francisco Giants reliever Sergio Romo went to the barber shop yesterday and cut back the salad coiffure and facial hair explosion that he was sporting into an elegant faux hawk and restrained mustache/chin strap/goatee triumvirate of bristle.

Romo, sometimes overshadowed by a bigger personality in the Giants bullpen, has been one of the best relievers in baseball for the last five years. In fact, only three relievers have a better FIP over that time, and none of them have thrown for as many innings or made as many appearances as Romo. Over that same time span, only Koji Uehara and Mariano Rivera have a better strike out to walk ratio.

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I read something about Steven Tyler one time, and I’m pretty sure the details I’m about to relay are wrong (maybe the Aerosmith fans among us can correct me), but it’s the spirit of this story that matters more than anything else.

During a mid 80s Aerosmith reunion tour, the band held an intervention and convinced Tyler to enter a drug rehabilitation program.

After successfully completing his treatment, Tyler felt as though he was experiencing everything again for the first time. From ice cream cones to conversations, it was all new again for the famous front man.

One day, while walking around in Manhattan, Tyler decided to go into a record store. While inside, he began flipping through his band’s records, and while looking through all of the titles, it dawned on him that he had no memory whatsoever of putting any of the greatest hits albums together and foggy recollections at best of recording several of Aerosmith’s most popular tracks.

For some reason, that sort of reminds me of this:

Pretty sure I’m left handed…lol how does this happen???lockerz.com/s/211056952

— David Price (@DAVIDprice14) May 22, 2012

Of course, David Price didn’t battle any drug addiction that would have caused him to forget that he once pitched right handed. The baseball card is merely confusing him with James Shields (or else an amazing work of Photoshop). However, it does remind us that the representation of athletes and singers and other celebrities might not always be the most accurate.

And it also reminds us of this:

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It’s become something of a joke that, as Ryan Howard’s ridiculous five year, $125 million contract kicks in with the Philadelphia Phillies, almost two years after he originally signed it, the first baseman finds himself on the Disabled List.

While his on field abilities may be limited by injury, that didn’t stop him from taking a desk job yesterday to sell tickets at a Phillies ticket window.

This, of course, brings up two questions: 1) How do the regular ticket agents feel about their job security when management basically tells them that their duties are easy enough for an untrained ball player to handle; and 2) How much would it suck to be one line over?

No ticket handling service charge to the SI Vault Twitter account for the picture.