April 13th 2009 - Vacaville native Jermaine Dye along with Paul Konerko became the 1st teammates to ever hit their 300th (or any century number) home run in back to back fashion in the 2nd inning of a 10-6 victory over Detroit

April 19th 2009 - Also in the 2nd inning, the Cleveland Indians pound out 14 runs (that’s what I said) in what would be 22-4 massacre in front of 45,000+ in New Yankee Stadium. The irony is plenty, first off, the 14 run 2nd inning set a record for most runs ever scored in the 2nd beating the previous record set by guess who, u got it, the New York Yankees just 4 years ago to the date (April 18th, 2005), you gotta love baseball. Not to mention ,Yankee pitcher Chien-Ming Wang who started the game, now has an ERA of 34.50, to put that into perspective, he would have to pitch 45 consecutive scoreless innings to get his ERA under 4.00……

April 16-19th - In the same series at New Yankee Stadium the, the Yankees and Indians combined for 20 home runs, the most ever for a opening series in a new stadium.

April 14th 2009 - Jody Gerut became the first player to lead off a game with a home run in a new stadium. On the 3rd pitch ever thrown at Citi Field in New York, Jody Gerut hooked it inside the foul pole for the stadiums first home run.

April 20th, 2009 – This one isn’t relevant but it was the first rainout in Yankee Stadium history but I thought I would list it since it irritated me being an A’s fan and all……

“”What a historical moment that was last night. … From an African-American standpoint, I watched my people — watched my people — celebrate the not guilty verdict of O.J. Simpson. They were so hungry for a victory of some kind that they celebrated — we celebrated — the verdict of O.J. And I was thinking to myself, ‘Two people are dead. Two people are dead’ Now, I’m not talking about my people, I’m explaining them here. They were just so hungry to say ‘We have a victory.’ And I cringe when I even think about that.

“But last night I watched a celebration. A real celebration. A real celebration, and it was a celebration for everybody, and everybody celebrated, and they kept showing this shot, and I was watching, of this little black girl and this little white girl, just sitting there crying together, and I thought, wow. I thought about Martin Luther King and his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, and I thought about him saying, black kids and white kids playing together. …

“Last night we removed all differences and became just one, and I thought that was a beautiful thing. It was just a beautiful thing. I stood here with my kids, we watched it and we cried and we prayed.”

And in the video below, you’ll see reactions from Tony Dungy, LeBron James, George Karl, Donovan McNabb, Lovie Smith, and Doug Williams.

Magic Johnson had this to say:

“Johnson smiled when asked the first thing he did when it was announced Tuesday night just after 8 p.m. in California that Obama had won the presidency.

“Jumped up for joy, we were hollering and screaming,” he said. “And then we started crying. As African-Americans we’ve made great strides. I think what this says is you can really become anything in life you want to become. It’s really a wonderful thing that we can be able to witness this.”

Johnson said he believes Obama is prepared to do the best possible job.

“He’s a motivator. He has a plan,” Johnson said. “One thing Barack can do, he can come in a room, command a room. Everyone will listen to every word.”

More reactions below …
Baseball officials think Obama could help get their sports re-instated in the Olympic games, and possibly help Chicago host the 2016 Summer games:

“President-elect Obama’s interest in sports and specifically in baseball, combined with the efforts of other world leaders, is the kind of thing we need to return baseball to the Olympic program,” Schiller said from New York”

“I think Sen. Obama’s election is an event of profound significance to a lot of people around the world, and I would be surprised if it was not received that way in Olympic circles, also,” union head Donald Fehr said by telephone from Los Angeles.

Things aren’t all peaches and cream though, a Texas Longhorns lineman was kicked off the team for posting, ““all the hunters gather up, we have a nigger in the whitehouse” on his Facebook page. Here’s his apology.

“Clearly I have made a mistake and apologized for it and will pay for it. I received it as a text message from an acquaintance and immaturely put it up on facebook in the light of the election. Im not racist and apologize for offending you. I grew up on a ranch in a small town where that was a real thing and I need to grow up. I sincerely am sorry for being ignorant in thinking that it would be ok to write that publicly and apologize to you in particular. I have to be more mature than to put the reputation of my team at stake and to spread that kind of hate which I dont even believe in. Once again, I sincerely apologize.”

Troy’s mother (Niecy Nash) had me crackin up “make it rain on them hoes baby!!”

I love white folks.

But the real question becomes: why is there a delay in the filing of a grievance? Sadly, Barry’s agent Jeff Borris said, “I am convinced based on MLB’s actions in 2008 that they will never let him wear a major league uniform ever again.”

Not only is this my favorite show on television, I made a post nine months ago about “Lie Detector Questions For Your Favorite Athletes”. The idea is now coming to life thanks to the good folks at Fox, Jose Canseo may not be my favorite athlete, but he’ll be on the show for our entertainment and I cannot wait.

David Vassegh on am570radio.com has the scoop:

“As I reported first on the PMS Show on Thursday afternoon, I have learned that former MLB Slugger, Jose Canseco will be in the hot seat on Fox’s Reality Show, “Moment of Truth” Canseco already has taped the episode and according to my source that was in attendance.

[D]uring the taping Canseco was asked if he ever injected Mark McGwire with steroids and if he ever corked his bat amoung other questions that were asked during the taping.

…The way the reality show works is the contestant in the chair takes a polygraph test prior to going on stage and is asked the same questions. If the anwsers the contestant gives on stage matches the polygraph then, they continue to advance and get more money.”

There should be no shortage of ex-disgruntled (and broke) professional athletes that can go on the show for money.

Between hitting his 600th career home run and being shipped to Chicago, I’d say 2008 hasn’t been that bad of a year for Griff. If the Oakland A’s don’t make the postseason, I’ll be rooting for Ozzie and Ken.

This remains one of the best written descriptions of pure jerkiness ever conceived. It comes from former New York Times baseball writer Buster Olney:

“It was a given in baseball circles that Albert Belle was nuts. … The Indians billed him $10,000 a year for the damage he caused in clubhouses on the road and at home, and tolerated his behavior only because he was an awesome slugger. … He slurped coffee constantly and seemed to be on a perpetual caffeinated frenzy. Few escaped his anger — on some days he would destroy the postgame buffet … launching plates into the shower … after one poor at-bat against Boston, he retreated to the visitor’s clubhouse and took a bat to teammate Kenny Lofton’s boom box. Belle preferred to have the clubhouse cold, below 60 degrees, and when one chilly teammate turned up the heat, Belle walked over, turned down the thermostat and smashed it with his bat. His nickname, thereafter, was ‘Mr. Freeze.’”

Naturally, after reading this I went to Wikipedia to see if I could dig up any other “Crazy Al” stories. I came up empty for the most part, but I DID find out he plead guilty to stalking a hooker in 2006.

In February 2006, Belle was arrested on suspicion of stalking a woman who was identified in court as a former licensed escort. He was again arrested in charges related to the same case on May 17, 2006. On July 27, 2006, Belle plead guilty to one count of stalking and he was sentenced on August 24 to 90 days in jail and five years supervised probation. Belle had attached a GPS tracking device onto her car and obtained her phone records. Belle issued an apology to the woman stating, “I have made mistakes in my life, but I have admitted my mistakes and learned from them to be a better person.”

The great ones are always a little wonky in the head.