Tom Singer, for MLB.com, has written an excellent article touching on memorable moments from the 2007 MLB season. Read the entire article, presented below. To get more nostalgia about this year in baseball, read this post.
Continue reading ‘Baseball in 2007 – Year in Review’
Mark Prior, banished from the Cubs less than a month ago, has found a new home. He is now going to be a San Diego Padre.
Prior receives a one-year major league deal with a $1 million base salary. The contract, which doesn’t include an option, contains incentive clauses that could take the total value of the deal to over $3 million. Prior, however, is not anticipating his season debut with the Padres until mid-to-late May.
“Mark Prior is a competitor and is working hard to regain the form that made him one of the great young pitchers in the game,” general manager Kevin Towers told The Associated Press. “We are confident he is going to help us in our rotation this season. It’s exciting that Mark is coming home to San Diego to pitch for the Padres.”
Prior, 27, last pitched in the majors in 2006, and he had shoulder surgery in April of 2007. Prior believes that he still has a career ahead of him, but he’s really just kidding himself.
“For unfortunate reasons, I just haven’t been healthy since the 2005 season,” he said. Prior went on to say, “2006 was not a good year, when I had shoulder problems. I feel I’ve got things taken care of. I’m on a good rehab program. I feel I’ve got a lot of great years left.” Nothing unfortunate here; he shouldn’t be talking about luck with the way his mechanics are for pitching.
The second overall pick in the 2001 draft, Prior went 18-6 for the Cubs in 2003 before experiencing a series of physical problems.
The only upside about this news is that Prior is returning to his home, in that he was born in San Diego and currently lives in San Diego County. Prior joins a rotation that includes Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Greg Maddux, and Randy Wolf.
Prior’s lifetime record in the big leagues is 42-29, with a 3.51 ERA. Coming to San Diego, he will benefit from the expansive confines of PETCO Park. The Padres didn’t spend much money on Prior and didn’t include an option for him, so this may prove to be a win-win situation for both parties. However, Padres fans shouldn’t be holding their breath.
If you celebrate Christmas, then I hope you have a happy Christmas! If you don’t celebrate it, have a great day nonetheless!
I’ve been taking a bit of a break from baseball these last few days. In light of the holiday spirit, I have enabled snow to fall on my blog (even though I wish there was real snow where I live).
Anyway, happy holidays!
Jonathan Papelbon’s dog apparently has a taste for expensive rawhide. Papelbon’s dog has apparently ate the baseball that Papelbon used to strike out Colorado’s Seth Smith to close out the four-game sweep by the Red Sox in the World Series.
The lowly remains of the ball are in the living room of Papelbon’s Hattiesburg, Mississippi home.
“My dog ate it,” Papelbon said. “He plays with baseballs like they are his toys. His name is Boss. He jumped up one day on the counter and snatched it. He likes rawhide. He tore that thing to pieces. I’ll keep what’s left of it.”
For a few weeks at least, Papelbon played dumb and pretended to have no knowledge of where the ball was. But he was actually floating the story around in jest for about a month now. He even had an interview with NESN. Lucky for Papelbon, however, the Red Sox aren’t really interested in acquiring this “piece of history.”
“From the Red Sox standpoint, our only real comment is that from the ballclub’s perspective, the 2004 ball was very special because it was the first time we won in 86 years and everything,” said Red Sox spokesman John Blake. “This one, obviously, if Pap says the dog ate the ball or whatever, we have to believe him. It’s really kind of a non-issue with us.”
This news come to you on a light noter; we remember that just a week after the Mitchell Report was released. I am pretty sure the dog wasn’t on steroids.
It has been about 48 hours since the Mitchell Report has been released, and the ongoing fervor of blogging continues. Here are the latest blogs from around WordPress dealing with the Mitchell Report:
The list now consists of fifty posts, just like Part I of the list. If you’ve written your thoughts and have been omitted, or would like to point out other interesting blogs that deal with the Mitchell Report, please leave a comment.
Before the Mitchell Report officially came out at 2PM ET on December 13, 2007, there were many leaks in the media and on the internet about the players who were cited in the Mitchell Report. One of the media outlets that spread the rumors was WNBC-TV in New York. The early rumor included a list of names of players who allegedly would be cited in the report, and one name in the initial list was Pujols’. Pujols, one of the best players in the game, came out with the following statement:
“It has come to my attention that several national and local news outlets have published false reports that associated my name with the Mitchell Report. I have never disrespected, nor cheated the game of baseball and knew without a doubt that my name would not be mentioned in the official investigation. I would like to express how upset and disappointed I am over the reckless reporting that took place this morning. It has caused me and my family a lot of senseless aggravation due to their inaccurate information.
“What concerns me, is the affect this has had on my family and that my character and values have now been questioned due to the media’s lack of accuracy in their reporting. I have never had a problem with the media when they do their job correctly, whether it is positive or negative — just as long as they report truthfully.
“I would like to thank my fans for their continued support and never doubting my integrity. God has blessed me and allowed me to play a game that I would never take for granted.”
I believe Albert Pujols is one of the best players in the game because he works out and has natural ability. He is a genuine player who has a great sense of morals.
It’s sad to see all these leaks occurring before the actual names were released. What was the point? It’s not a competition. It’s always better to get accurate information to the public, rather than hasty information. Yesterday, I tuned into ESPN coverage starting at around 1PM. For about one hour, Buster Olney and company speculated on the players’ names, what the report implicates, who should and shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame, etc. Most of the discussions were pretty drab and narrow-minded (not to mention speculative). ESPN reporters did discuss Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte being included in the report, but those names were validated one hour later. But they could have just begun the coverage at 2PM; the world wouldn’t have stopped if the public received its information just an hour later.
There are now hundreds of posts relating to the Mitchell Report from around the web. Here are the top hits from around WordPress, which I’ll update as more bloggers post their thoughts:
And the list keeps growing by the minute!
