Every Swingin’ Dick

I can’t believe that I’m stuck at work without a TV while the Germany / Argentina game is on and about to go to penalty kicks.

I also can’t believe that I care. But I do. Yay football!

An early jump on the MLB trading deadline?

Dodgers trade for Hendrickson, Hall

Dodgers get – LHP Mark Hendrickson, C Toby Hall

Devil Rays get – C Dioner Navarro, RHP Jae Seo, a PTBNL

The Hendrickson / Seo part of the trade seems to be a bit of a wash, and the Rays finally get a catcher that at least has the potential to hit. The Dodgers must really like Hendrickson for some reason. He’s not terrible, but he’s not all that good either. He should pitch a little better in LA since he is switching leagues and moving to a pitcher’s park, but I think the Dodgers overpaid for him.

Haven’t seen a temper tantrum quite like this since Sweet Lou Pinella was throwing bases for the Mariners:

- O’s leading contender to sign Ortiz off scrapheap
Makes sense. Wait until he clears waivers, sign him to a CHEAP contract, and reunite him with Leo Mazzone. If nothing else, he gives you an arm to eat innings so you can save a bit of your bullpen. You know, Ortiz probably could have been a really good pitcher at some point during his career if he could have not walked 5 guys a game.

- About a 10 days ago, I was ready to write my mea culpa regarding the Dodgers. Then they started playing like crap again, so I’ll hold off a little longer. Aaron Sele? C’mon…

- On that topic, I’m sick of all of the sportswriters who are claiming that Billy Beane was “fleeced” in the Milton Bradley / Andre Ethier trade. Look, final chapter hasn’t been written yet, so let us hold of on that talk, huh? Bradley has played well, but his overall numbers are down because of injuries. I’m not ready for the Ethier HOF plaque either.

- Is wife / girlfriend beating an athlete thing, or are they just a representation of the percentage of men who abuse women in general? Really, Brett Myersand Jammal Brown in the last couple of days alone. Fellas, don’t hit your lady. Seriously.

- Ozzie Guillen rips Jay Mariotti a new one. And if he hadn’t used a slur, no one would have cared. Mariotti is pretty much universally hated around Chicago, and with his increased exposure on ESPN, the nation. Jay the Joke takes this hatred to a pretty hilarious level if you care to check it out. Ozzie’s “apology” was absolutely tremendous too, apologizing to everyone BUT Mariotti. “I’m not going to back off on what I say about Jay. He’s a piece of shit.” Good stuff.

- Looks like I jumped the gun a bit on all of the Charlie Batch talk. Big Ben appears to be on the road to recovery already, and didn’t suffer any injuries to his knees or shoulders or anything else important. Well, the head I guess…

- USA is out of the World Cup. Ghana saw to that this morning. Well, Ghana and the blasted ref. I hate to bitch about refs normally when I watch sporting events–I am of a mind that most calls even out over time. But in soccer when you can be penalized SO heavily for a judgment call, in this case a penalty kick which is about as sure a thing in sports, well I just hate it. Especially when you consider how few and far between scoring opportunities are to begin with. I don’t like it one bit.

- Grimsley’s big take down has led to the first admission of HGH usage. From David Segui. That is not exactly the smoking gun that the anti-steroid-type-substance crowd was looking for:

Career HR’s – 139
Season high in HR’s – 21
Lifetime SLG% – .443

Maybe the next name will be a better catch for them…

Maybe it would have been better if the USA team had not qualified for the World Cup. Or at least gotten a better draw. From the looks of their performance against the Czechs, they are severely overmatched this time around. I think the Mighty MJD said it best:

I’m just looking for reasons to believe here. Someone who knows more about soccer… please, if you can, give me a reason to believe that we can get the full three points against Italy. Maybe the Czechs were a bad matchup for us, because of their size and physical strength. Maybe we’ll do better against a more skill-oriented team like Italy. Or maybe we’ll find our confidence and grow up, and stop the practice of getting the ball across midfield, and then being like, “DERRRRR, here’s the ball, you ugly Czech fuck.” We avoided the box yesterday like we were A.C. Green.

Emphasis is mine. Great stuff there for sure. Why should I bother to analyze a sport, that I am admittedly a neophyte at, when there are guys throwing out lines like that?

In other World Cup news, the finish to the Germany / Poland match was great stuff. Hard fought 0-0 game nearing its completion, Germany puts two shots off the crossbar in the 90th minute. All the wind is out of their sails, thinking that their best chance to win has gone by then -BAM- they connect on a long pass down the side and feed it into the middle for a game winner in the 91st minute. Dramatic is an understatement.

*update*
Highlights of the game. Enjoy them before YouTube takes them down…

Big Ben injured in motorcycle accident

Details are sketchy right now, to be sure. But when you hear the terms “non-life threatening” or “serious but stable”, and no one will tell the media WHY he is in surgery, I think it is safe to say that the Steeler Nation had better be prepared for a year of Charlie Batch.

I sympathize with them in advance.

You know, I think I’m actually a little excited about this World Cup thing. I’m not generally a “football” fan, but I think that has much to do with the fact that the soccer we tend to see in the country is of the MLS variety, which is a league made up of guys that aren’t good enough to play in Europe. Melrose Place’s Andrew Shue played there for cryin’ out loud, so the talent level just can’t be that great. But hell, I saw the first bit of the Chivas @ Galaxy game last night, and even this great goal got me fired up.

So bring on the World Cup! Whether it is to root for great players like Rohnaldinho, Ronaldo and Petr Chec, or for tall goofy guys like Peter Crouch(6’7″!) it just looks like fun. Add in the atmosphere of those wildly passionate fans, and you’ve got yourself an event that I’m actually looking forward to.

Got my PVR set for the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica, and then we’ll just see where it goes from there. If you need something to fire you up in the meantime, just head over to YouTube and plug in any of the above names for some pretty, incredible, videos, of just how talented those players are.

There is much hilarity in the following articles:

Feds Search House of Arizona Reliever

Grimsley Released After Search of Home

OK, so Jason Grimsley had his home raided by federal agents in conjunction with the BALCO case. Grimsley has in the past admitted to taking human growth hormone, amphetamines and steroids. A veritable murderer’s row of illegal / banned substances. Apparently, he was working with the BALCO investigators at an earlier time and gave them names of all the ballplayers he suspected were using steroids. He has since withdrawn from helping the investigation. This is the same Jason Grimsley who snuck into the Umpires Room at Comiskey Park and switched out Albert Belle’s corked bat in 1994.

The first statement I found humorous was from the Arizona GM Josh Byrnes as he told the media that Grimsley had come to him to ask for his release:

We accepted his request.

Brrr, did it just get cold in here. Icy. I’m sure that it is true that Grimsley asked for his relase. I’m sure he asked for it right after Josh Byrnes said, “Jason, you need to ask me for your release now. Or I will blackball you and take away your pension and pretty much everything else I can possibly do to ruin your life and reputation. Now, do you have something you want to say to me?”

The other humorous bit came from Terry Mulholland as he relayed events that happened in a meeting Grimsley had with the other Diamondback players:

He expressed to us that he had too much respect for to allow this to bring us down. He’s that kind of guy.

Ah yes. That kind of guy. A drug user, a cheater, a fink, and a liar. Tremendous.

McNair traded to Ravens

The Titans and Ravens finally completed the long rumored trade of Steve McNair. The Ravens get a QB who can play a little bit, and the Titans get a 4th round pick. I like the move of trading a pick and getting him now instead of waiting until later this summer in hopes that the Titans would cut him. It gets him out of a bad situation in Tennessee, and into the Ravens offense earlier.

I’m not sure that this puts the Ravens over the top or anything, but he should help. I’m not totally convinced yet that Kyle Boller can’t play, but getting the chance to compete with or play behind McNair might actually help him out. He was forced onto the field too early, has had some injuries that kept him out of games, and has been playing behind a suspect line–everyone other than Jonathan Ogden that is. In the short term however, I think McNair is obviously a better QB than Boller. Considering the Ravens recent performance, it might bode well for Brian Billick to win a few games this year. Like, enough to get into the playoffs maybe?

If Carson Palmer takes a 1/4 of the season to get back on the field, I think this move makes the Ravens the #2 team in the AFC Central.