[SPOOKY]

Sorry guys, havent been around.
Been taking a bit of a break with the dog days of summer and
taking it easy again this week with the holiday.
Plus my son is coming home from grad school for the long weekend, but here is something to get the week started.

Hope everyone is doing well.




Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.........

13) Interleague play is over and I really am glad it is, and once again the American League drilled its NL rivals, winning by 137-114 margin. Closer than last year, but not very close at all.

12) Actually, there is one interleague game left, a Cub-White Sox game that has to be made up after a rainout last week.

11) To me, this should guarantee the American League champ home field in the World Series, but no, jackasses that run MLB use the winner of an exhibition game, the All-Star Game, to determine home field for the most important event of the baseball season. Just a terrible idea.

10) A total of nine runs scored in this weekend's Boston-Atlanta series. Thats nine runs total in three games.

9) Braves' Tommy Hanson hasn't allowed a run in his last three starts, for a total of 19.1 consecutive scoreless innings. Those were starts #3-5 in his major league career, so he is quite a hot prospect for the Braves.

8) When the Mets got only four hits total Friday/Saturday, it was first time since April, 1967 they had got that few hits in consecutive games.

7) Andre Ethier hit three homers Friday night against Don Wakamatsu's Seattle Mariners; when Ethier was a kid, he attended a baseball camp run by Wakamatsu. Interesting to see if Ethier stays in the Dodger lineup on Friday, when Mr Ramirez returns from his 50-game suspension.

6) Nationals-Orioles series this weekend brought together announcing teams of the two teams-- both clubs share MASN network; interesting to hear Rob Dibble/Jim Palmer share the airwaves-- it made for pretty good television, since both guys are opinionated and smart.

5) Then there is Bert Blyleven, who minces no words on Minnesota's broadcasts; when Francisco Liriano couldn't bunt a runner over Sunday, the play-by-play guy was coming up with excuses, but Blyleven was quick to chime in, "Why can't he learn to bunt? Its not that hard."

4) Only 17 of 60 starting pitchers Saturday/Sunday finished 7th inning, with just four finishing the 8th inning. JA Happ's 100-pitch shutout in Toronto Saturday was the only complete game of the weekend.

3) There is no truth that Chien Ming Wang is Korean for "Ed Whitson." :rofl:

2) Apparently, the NHL wanted to have two outdoor games next year, Flyers-Bruins in Boston, and Canadiens-Flames in Calgary, but hideous NBC, which shows some NHL games but doesn't pay rights fees, put pressure on the league to only have the game in Boston, so the NHL did the wrong thing and cancelled the game in Alberta. Too bad.

1) If the playoffs started Monday morning, these would be the teams:
NL-- Phillies-Mil/StL-Dodgers-Giants
AL-- Red Sox-Tigers-Angels-Bronx

[SPOOKY]

SPOOKY BASEBALL SCOREBOARD FOR MONDAY, JUNE 29TH EVEN THOUGH I AINT POSTING MUCH


Tampa Bay at Toronto (7:07 p.m. EDT). The Blue Jays' Roy Halladay (10-1) is scheduled to make his first start off the disabled list and go for his league-leading 11th victory. He's been out since June 12 with a mild groin strain.


STARS FROM SUNDAY


- Brandon Phillips, Reds, had three hits, three RBIs and scored three runs in an 8-1 victory at Cleveland.

- Mark Teixeira, Yankees, had a two-run double in the first inning of a 4-2 victory over the Mets.

- Brandon Inge, Tigers, hit a two-run homer off Jose Valverde with two outs in the ninth inning of a 4-3 win over Houston.

- Jose Lopez, Mariners, had three hits, including a two-run double, in a 4-2 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

- Chipper Jones and Garret Anderson, Braves, homered to lift Atlanta to a 2-1 victory over Boston.

- Justin Morneau, Twins, hit a three-run home run in a 6-2 victory at St. Louis.

- Gary Matthews Jr., Angels, hit a three-run double and stole home in a 12-8 victory over Arizona.

- Chad Gaudin and Scott Hairston, Padres. Gaudin gave up one hit in eight scoreless innings and Hairston homered to end an 0 for 17 slump in San Diego's 2-0 win at Texas.

ROLLING ROCKIES

Aaron Cook took a shutout into the ninth inning and won his fifth consecutive start and Colorado defeated the Oakland Athletics 3-1 on Sunday. Chris Iannetta, Carlos Gonzalez and Seth Smith each drove in a run as the Rockies completed their first sweep of the A's and their fourth sweep in June. Colorado is 20-3 since June 4, and also improved to 22-7 since Jim Tracy replaced Clint Hurdle as manager.

MILESTONE

Mariano Rivera earned his 500th save, becoming the second reliever to reach the milestone, as he got the last four outs of the New York Yankees' 4-2 win over the Mets on Sunday night. He trails only Milwaukee's Trevor Hoffman, who has 571 saves. Rivera also got his first career RBI when he drew a bases-loaded walk against Francisco Rodriguez in the top of the ninth.

STEALING HOME

Chris Getz stole home on a squeeze play in the sixth inning when the pitch from the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano's was outside and wild in the White Sox's 6-0 win on Sunday. ... Gary Matthews Jr. stole home in the fifth inning, helping the Angels build a 9-2 lead and they hung on for a 12-8 victory over Arizona.

STRONG PITCHING

Chad Gaudin gave up one hit in eight innings and Heath Bell got the last three outs for his NL-best 21st save in San Diego's 2-0 victory over Texas. ... John Danks gave up four hits in seven innings and reliever Scott Linebrink completed the shutout in the Chicago White Sox's 6-0 win against the Cubs. ... Aaron Cook took a shutout into the ninth inning and won his fifth consecutive start and the Rockies defeated the Oakland Athletics 3-1 on Sunday. Cook gave up nine hits while walking one and striking out four. ... Rookie Tommy Hanson threw six scoreless innings despite a bout with the flu, helping the Braves beat the Red Sox 2-1. ... Ryan Sadowski allowed four hits over six scoreless innings in his major league debut, and the Giants beat the Brewers 7-0.

SWEEPS

The New York Yankees' 4-2 win over the Mets on Sunday night gave them a sweep in the Subway Series and their fifth straight victory - all on the road. The Mets were swept for the first time in 13 series at their new home, Citi Field. ... Colorado's 3-1 win over Oakland gave the Rockies their first sweep of the A's and their fourth sweep in June. ... Tampa Bay beat Florida 5-2 to complete a three-game sweep and win its fifth straight overall. ... The Angels' 12-8 win over Arizona gave them a sweep of the three-game series and they wrapped up interleague play with a major league-leading 14-4 record, including 8-1 on the road.

MANNY WATCH

Manny Ramirez's minor league rehab tour continued Sunday without a word from the suspended slugger. Ramirez didn't produce any hits, either, a day after hitting a leadoff homer for the Dodgers' Class A Inland Empire 66ers. It was the fourth minor league rehab game for Ramirez, who is scheduled to return from his 50-game ban for violation of baseball's drug policy and rejoin the Dodgers on Friday.

CLOSING IN ON A RETURN

Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton will begin his comeback from abdominal surgery as the designated hitter for Double-A Frisco. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said Hamilton, who last played May 31, will lead off and get as many at-bats as possible for the RoughRiders on Monday night in their last game before the Double-A All-Star break. Hamilton, who had surgery June 9, will then work out with the Rangers on Tuesday. If all goes well, he will join Triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday in Iowa and play multiple games there.

SPEAKING

"How many opportunities do you get to steal home and the manager doesn't mind it? So I figured I could give it a shot. ... They're definitely not expecting that with two strikes. The key is obviously getting out there far enough, but also kind of surprising someone.'' - The Angels' Gary Matthews Jr., after he stole home in the fifth inning of Los Angeles' 12-8 win over Arizona on Sunday.

[manong36]

yeah, spooky. i thought you took a vacation to bahamas or costa rica again.lol
the good thing is matthew's rants are also enjoyable to read.
not so lucky in bases. wnba is my bread and butter for now. hope they will also play in winter.
gl and have a nice day, spooky

[SPOOKY]

Yeah I am still not posting much but here are a few thoughts before I go swimming.

Heading to Costa Rica in August Manong.
But visiting Gainesville and University of Florida next week with my kid and then
some colleges in DC and North Carolina the following week.

So yeah dont have much time to post.

And if you want some WNBA winners, that can be arranged.


Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but..........


13) Reason #4,598 why your kid should throw lefty-- Bruce Chen is in the major leagues again, this time with the Royals. Now on his 10th club in 11 major league seasons, Chen made his first big league start in three years in Pittsburgh Saturday night-- he has a 35-38 career record, and as recently as 2005, Chen won 15 games for the Orioles.

12) Update on Jason Giambi, who hit .342 for the A's in 2001, with 38 homers, 120 RBI, then sold out to the Bronx Bombers, where he went in the ashcan after the steroids stuff came to light: He is hitting .200 so far this season, with 10 homers, 38 RBI. He is a horrendous first baseman; even though you hear he's a good guy, he's stealing Mr Wolff's $$$.

11) How can the A's not have a decent 1B or 3B? I mean, Giambi is a complete stiff now, worse on defense than offense-- when Mark Ellis came off the DL, he moved Adam Kennedy to 3B, so Oakland has two 2B in its starting lineup, which is just freakin' terrific. They wasted ton of money on Eric Chavez, which is part of why they're terrible now.

10) You'll see Matt Holliday's numbers go way up as soon as he leaves Oakland-- A's just don't have any decent tablesetters in front of him, and they have a guy hitting .200 behind him. If he has a half a brain, Holliday signs with a real good team, and finds himself in middle of potent lineup next year where he can show once again just how good he is.

9) Arizona scored one run in five of Doug Davis' nine home starts.

8) Mets' Fernando Nieve had rough night at Miller Park in 10-6 loss at Milwaukee; Brewers swung at 31 of his 68 pitches in 3.1 innings-- on the 18 balls they put in play, Brewers got 11 hits. Not good.

7) Washington Nationals made a pitching change in 8th inning Monday, replacing Ron Villone with Julian Tavarez; Villone has pitched for dozen big league teams, Tavarez for eleven. They might be the best packers in the major leagues, either them or their wives.

6) Villone has pitched in 45 different major league ballparks.

5) This is how good Josh Greinke has been for Kansas City this year; Royals scored two runs in three of Greinke's starts- they won all three.

4) Cardinals scored three or less runs in Joel Pineiro's last nine starts.

3) Astros walked Adrian Gonzalez in 4th inning with first base open and two outs, leading 1-0. If Padres keep Gonzalez, and it looks like they're going to, they have to find decent hitter to bat behind him. Kouzmanoff isn't respected enough that they'll pitch to Gonzalez very often.

2) I watch a ton of baseball, love the Extra Innings package, and as I sit here every night, it is obvious that two things are way down this season: attendance and scoring. Teams that fall out of contention are going to be playing in front of tons of empty seats the second half of the season.

1) Watching CNN the last week, I'm thinking being rich and famous ain't all its cracked up to be. Not that I wouldn't like to give it a try.......

[SPOOKY]

Okay guys, so there are no questions.

I will be gone for the next 2 weeks traveling around to
college campuses and getting my kid situated on where he
intends to go to college.

So I will be posting very infrequently.

Here are a couple plays I like today.

MLB

KANSAS CITY ROYALS -115

HOUSTON ASTROS -110

TAMPA BAY RAYS -127


Will be in the Gainesville area as well as central and eastern parts of North Carolina. So send me an email if anyone is
around those areas and want to hook up for a drink or 3.

When I come back, getting started with our FOOTBALL CONTESTS
that we have been running for over 10 years thru my emails.

Send me an email if you want to get involved.

Have a great week and best of luck.
:lluck:

[manong36]

gl, spooky. if you want to adopt another son , i'll apply. lol.very lucky kids
enjoy costa rica, amigo