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Nashville Sounds vs. Oklahoma City Dodgers (Pacific Coast League)

19030644098_1e9dae1bbd_zFirst Tennessee Park-Nashville, TN: Over the weekend my best friend was lucky enough to take in a couple of games down in Nashville. He was also nice enough to supply me with some photos of his experience, and it definitely looks like a great place to see a ballgame. The scoreboard looks especially unique, and fits into the theme of Nashville so much, and just one of the reasons I love minor league baseball. The Sounds hosted the Oklahoma City Dodgers both nights he was there, winning 3-2 on Friday, and 7-2 on Saturday. The top photo, and the one below are from Friday nights game.

18595728514_141e2ed10e_zThe rest of them below are from Saturday. Thanks again to my friend for providing these pictures. First Tennessee Park is definitely one that I need to see for myself one day.

19218212665_ce612a4778_z19192128656_411bbe65fc_z19192127266_02f8e14f12_z19192125796_9d660bf1b3_zPhotos courtesy of D.D.

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Pirates 8 Tigers 4

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There’s an old saying in baseball, ‘if you can’t pitch, you can’t win’, and right now, the Tigers can’t pitch.  I spent the first two months complaining, rightly so, about the offense, and now the pitching staff can’t hold opposing teams to under five runs a game.  Guess what, Toronto comes to town tomorrow.  It isn’t going to get any easier.

A reliable source and friend of this blog, Nebraska, has passed along an unsubstantiated rumor. He heard that the Tigers are going to send Nick “The Quick” Castellanos, Alex “A Squared Money” Avila, and a third player to the Cincinnati Reds for Johnny Cueto.  If the trade happens, Nebraska’s sources are usually pretty good, I’m not sure what the purpose is.  I’m not going to cry about losing Nick the Quick or A Squared Money, but what do the Tigers need with a rental like Cueto?  Is the front office delusional? Do they really think this team can compete?  I don’t.

McFly, is anybody home?

Pirates 9 Tigers 3

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After the 14 inning affair Tuesday night the Tigers needed innings on Wednesday from Alfredo Simon.  They got 5.2. To be fair, it wasn’t all his fault.  The defense made two errors behind him but Simon was up in the strike zone all night and surrendered six earned runs on 15 hits.

Basically, the Pirates beat Simon into a conniption and I don’t have the adjective to describe what they did to Joba. I don’t think “conniption” accurately describes the type of beating they put on him.  Try to remember the beating Freeway Ricky put on Youk in Fenway a few years ago.  Or perhaps think of the whooping Nolan Ryan put on current White Sox’s manager, Robin Ventura, you know, the Dumbest Manager In Baseball.  If you take those two beatings, multiply them by 1000, you may begin to get an idea of what the Pirates did you Joba last night. When Joba left the mound he didn’t know whether to crap his pants or wind his watch.

DD needs to trade David Price soon  He’s not re-singing here.  This team is not making the playoffs. They need to get something for him.  This rotation is a mess.  When you subtract Price, you don’t have much left.  Is it too early to start thinking about next year?  I’m not so sure.

Pirates 5 Tigers 4

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Well 5-4 seems to a popular score.  While I don’t like coming out on the losing end, the four-run Tigers are much better than the two-run Tigers.  I’m impressed that the Tigers have been finding ways to claw their way back from deficits, especially late in games. J.D. came up with another big homer home run last night to even the score, his 20th.

I’m not sure what to make of J.V. Perhaps it’s too early to tell. This could basically be his spring training.  He only allowed two earned in 6 plus but he did allow twelve base runners.  I guess when push comes to shove, the Tigers are 39-37, basically right around a .500 team.  I has hoping for more, but ‘hope is not a strategy’, and this is probably what we are going to get.

Tigers 5 White Sox 4

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The Tigers got their first win of the season when trailing after the 7th and it didn’t look like they were going to get their first Sunday either.  They were doing nothing with Jeff Samardzija until James McCann led off the eighth with a single.

The four run, eighth inning, rally was even more impressive because the Tigers got nothing from Miggy.  Samardzija was able to blow three 95 mile an hour fast balls by him, the last up and away, for the first out of the eighth, with bases loaded.  Luckily, he tried to do the same thing to Victor who took the first pitch and cleared the bases with a double.

It looks like, when the bases are loaded Miggy, is trying to hit a home run instead of just a single or a sac fly and as result he’s striking out.  I believe he is 0-5 now with the bases full this season.  Usually, especially with RISP, he’s fine with taking the pitch the other way between first and second.  I guess it’s hard to complain about a guy hitting .350 but he did leave five runners on base yesterday.

Anyway, big win.  Even thought the White Sox suck, they’ve played the Tigers fairly even this year.  At this point, every win is big.  The Tigers are basically a .500 team so far.

White Sox 8 Tigers 7

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This game had to end this way.  How could it end any other? When a mistake is so egregious, so odious, karmic law requires that the committer of said infraction is harmed by his own misdeed.  That’s exactly what Brad Ausmus and the Tigers got today.

I’m a believer in liberty and the free flow of information.  However, if there is a “book” that told Brad Ausmus he needed to pinch run for Victor Martinez, in the bottom of the ninth inning, when he was on first base, with two outs, that “book” is the first one in history that I want burned.  Please.  Every copy needs to be collected. Placed into a fire place.  Doused with gasoline and set ablaze.

Brad.  Didn’t you go to Dartmouth?  Isn’t Dartmouth an Ivy League School?  Aren’t we told that Ivy League Schools are elite (eyeleat) institutions?  Don’t you have to be smart to get into those schools?

There was less than a 31% chance that Cespedes was going to hit safely?  Much less than a 31% chance that he was going to hit for extra bases.

Where did you learn your trade?

For as mad as I am at Ausmus, did anyone hear Kinsler’s comments after the game?  The little baby doesn’t like the fans booing the team.  Generally, I’d agree with him, but it comes with the territory. Fans pay a lot of money to watch jackasses like him play.  While I chose not to boo, because I think it is rude, it is classless for babies like him to complain about it.  He should take lessons from Ryan Rayburn.  Rayburn took a lot of crap when he was here and he took it with class.  I’ll always have respect for him.  Kinsler, on the other hand, is on the Joe Nathan list.  Get your head out of your ass jackass, hit better than .257, come up with a clutch hit once in a while, the 10th inning today would have been nice, and maybe you won’t get booed. – Jackass!

This video is for Brad Ausmus and Ian “Diaper Boy” Kinsler.

A-Rod’s 3,000th hit

Crippy Baseball

Have you ever heard of this guy? I heard him on MLB radio a few years ago. He’s made a science out of catching baseballs. Anyway, he caught A-Rod’s 3000th.

Zack Hample's avatarThe Baseball Collector

So . . . as you may have heard, Alex Rodriguez’s 3,000th career hit happened to be a home run, and I happened to snag it. (Un-REAL!!) I’m planning to write a long blog entry with lots of photos, but things are so crazy right now that I wanted to get this up quickly.

First, here I am on TV with the ball:

zack_on_tv_with_number_3000

Here’s a better look at the ball itself:

arods_3000th_hit

The “R” is for “Rodriguez,” and the “1” indicates that it was the first specially-marked ball of the game that was put into play for his at-bats. Those markings were already there when I snagged it. The sticker up above was placed there a little while later by an MLB authenticator.

Now, why are things so crazy? Here’s a screen shot of my email inbox:

emails_06_19_15

I’ve already gotten SO MANY interview requests — and I still have 62 texts that I…

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