Bonds' 756 ball to be Branded With Asterisk, THEN donated to Hall of Fame

Holy Crap, they were serious about this?!

So I took this online poll the other day. Maybe it was on Espn.com or something. It asked what should be done with Barry Bonds' all-time record 756th home run ball. I found the question amusing in a hypothetically absurd way, expecially given that the options were:
A: "Bestow it intact to Cooperstown" (34 %)
B: "Permanently brand the ball with an asterisk before sending it to Cooperstown" (47%)
C: "Launch it into space forever" (19%)

—I voted for "C".

Ha ha, right? well apparently if I was more current, I would have known this was not joke. Hip hop fashion designer, Marc Echo purchased the ball at auction for a cool $752,467 and announced on live TV that he planned on soliciting a national opinion on what to do with it. The choices, although ludicrous, speak to the "passion" of baseball fans everywhere. Over 10 million people voted to have the ball branded with an asterisk to signify the suspected steroid use surrounding Bonds and his controversial record. And whether or not you think Bonds is a juicer, a cheater, or just an arrogant jerk, everyone seems to care about this record. WOW.

read more on MLB.com »

Sam Fuld on SportsCenter

Came home the other night and turned on SportsCenter. I heard the familiar name, Sam Fuld in connection with a nasty, game-saving outfield assist. My ears perked up. This kid was on my senior Baseball team at Berwick Academy. He was in EIGHTH (frickin') grade back then. Coach Libby had to make a special exception for this kid but he was worth it. He was probably the only one on the team to hit a legitimate homer that year. Granted there were very few fenced in outfields and he was a lefty and our field was about 300 to right. But we knew we were watching something special. He wasn't too tall, but he was solid and disciplined. He never took a bad swing. And he had patience and Varitek-like mental toughness. The following year, he moved on to Phillips Exeter, where he got much more exposure and his stats really started to take off. He then went on to Stanford and set the all-time College World Series Record for hits. There's definitely no coincidence there because it requires consistency over 4 years of nationally ranked performance. He also became Stanford's all-time leader in runs scored. But the point is, expect good things from this kid in the bigs. The Cubs are lucky to have him and I'm hoping the Sox trade J.D. Drew for him.

Wiki the kid »
View on The Cubs' Site »

We've gone "2.0"

You may have noticed, we've changed the blog around a bit. Until now we had been building our blog "by hand" meaning we wrote all the code ourselves. It's more work but we got more control out of it. We've recently streamlined the process by using Blogger. We've imported all our old posts to this system and we'll keep working to get it the way we like, but there's a lot of extra functionality now. You can write comments on any one of our postings, search the blog, and find stuff quickly using our archive or by the use of "tags" or content labels. You could even "subscribe" to our blog if you really want. But best of all it's easier for us to post stuff...from anywhere. We can post photos with other computers or even our camera phones through our flickr account. Or we can post on the road using various wireless connections, etc. So HOPEFULLY, we'll be writing more often. We hope you'll do the same.

Thanks, as always for checking in.
Joe & Sarah

Jerry Remy Eats "Tuner Fish"

So I'm watching the Red Sox game and laughing about the latest Remy-isms. In this case, Don's feeding Jerry some seemingly benign questions about his lego-person hair-style. Jerry in turn becomes facetiously defensive. He embraces the situation and takes the opportunity to tell Red Sox Nation exactly what hair dye he uses. His diatribe was complete with telestrated analysis. You have to love this guy. Even if you're not a Sox fan, his absurd approach to broadcasting is honest and refreshingly blue-collar, like a favorite uncle.

For the uninitiated, Jerry Remy is a Boston institution. Along with fellow Northeastern University alumnus Don Orsillo, Jerry is a former Red Sox second baseman and color-commentator for the New England Sports Network. He is casual and sardonic. His commentary is actually quite astute but his easy-going delivery often underwhelms his insight. New Englanders have grown so fond of his schtick in recent years, they've formed a cult following, complete with an organized fan-club called Rem-Dawg Nation. But his immediate trademark, especially outside of the New England area is his THICK Boston accent.

I was eating a tuna fish sandwich the other day and watching a game. For some reason I found myself wondering how Jerry might order a tuna Fish sandwich. Would he call it "tuner". I started looking around the kitchen and pointing to things and saying their names like Jerry Remy might: "tuner"; "bananers"; "cawfee"; "papah towels"; "dishwashah"; "windas"; "pitchas on da wall"; "can openah" and on and on and on... It's fun. I suggest you try it.

Anyway it's that kind of small detail that makes me feel really close to home.