I once asked Ricky Jordan to compare NFL training camp to baseball's spring training.

  • Ricky: You're throwing up, you're dehydrated, you're sucking down water and fluids wherever you go. You go back to your room and you've got jugs of water lying around just to make it through the night because your body is cramping up so much. It's a brutal sport.
  • Jim Caple: And spring training?
  • Ricky: You have to make sure you get your suntan lotion on right so that you don't burn in the sun.
So, Santa’s in the house in Chicago.
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So, Santa’s in the house in Chicago.

And on the lighter side of baseball news, this kid owns Thriller.

Source: levimaestro.com

Yikes! People sure are stupid for baseballs. thedailywhat: A short time after firefighter Shannon Stone, the  39-year-old who fell 20 feet to his death at Rangers Ballpark, was laid to rest in Texas, Keith Carmickle of Kingman, Arizona, nearly met his maker in the exact same fashion at Chase Field while going after a Prince Fielder homer during last night’s Home Run Derby. Luckily, Carmickle’s brother and a friend managed to grab his legs and arms, saving him from a 20-foot drop to the pool deck below. “I thought: I’ve lived a good life,” Carmickle is quoted as saying.
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Yikes! People sure are stupid for baseballs.

thedailywhat:

A short time after firefighter Shannon Stone, the  39-year-old who fell 20 feet to his death at Rangers Ballpark, was laid to rest in Texas, Keith Carmickle of Kingman, Arizona, nearly met his maker in the exact same fashion at Chase Field while going after a Prince Fielder homer during last night’s Home Run Derby.

Luckily, Carmickle’s brother and a friend managed to grab his legs and arms, saving him from a 20-foot drop to the pool deck below. “I thought: I’ve lived a good life,” Carmickle is quoted as saying.

Source: abcworldnews

Do what you think you’ve got to do to put the best team on the field. … All I want to do is win.
Roy Halladay, the greatest man in baseball, after the Phillies’ GM expressed concern that Cliff Lee’s contract may irk Roy given the Phillies’ refusal last year to extend Roy’s contract for longer than 3 years.

Source: ESPN

Blue Jays pain: who’s on first?

It pains me to see Adam Lind at 1B. He looks completely out of sorts out there. Every play is either a fumble, bumble or recovery.

And our concussed lead man, captain of the doubles his first year with the Jays, Lyle Overbay? Graceful as he is in the field, he has 27 doubles this year, is hitting just .247, and has on on base percentage that puts him second last in the league for first basemen. Woeful stuff.

Meanwhile, our Toronto, Canada brother Joey Votto? He’s destroying National League pitching for the Cincinnati Reds. He’s younger, cheaper and better than Overbay (by a long shot) and Lind (by a year and a few thousand). And his stats? Not far behind if you combine Overbay and Lind’s output.

The Adam Lyle Overlind Monster
107 runs, 50 doubles, 35 homers, 118 RBIs, and 91 walks.

Joey Votto
91 runs, 27 doubles, 32 home runs, 97 RBIs, and 73 walks.

So, as a Canadian, rooting for a Canadian team, you’d have to think Joey must have gone high in the first round to have escaped the Jays on draft day. 

Of course not.

In 2002 Joey was picked 2nd round, 44th over all by Cincinnati. Nowhere near the top of the talent pool.

The Jays chose Russ Adams in the 1st round, 14th over all, well ahead of Votto, and followed with David Bush 11 picks after Votto. Was there any effort to trade up from Bush? Who knows.

The fun of all this is that Adams is a bust, and David Bush was a big piece of the trade for Lyle Overbay.

And so we’re left without Canadian content, no suitably contributing first baseman, and a team where their best player batting average is 46 points below Votto’s. Ugly, ugly stuff.