Marty May 16th, 2008
Well, we had our 5th and 6th softball games this week, and at best I had a mediocre week. The lines:
Game 5: 0-3, 0R, 0RBI — 10C, 5PO, 2E
Game 6: 1-3, 1R, 0RBI — 12C, 9PO, 0E
Tuesday’s game was probably the worst I’ve ever played. I got good contact on the ball but hit it TO someone every time. And defensively I made two big errors and one costly mental mistake. We still won, with no help from me. Continue Reading »
Marty May 8th, 2008
Well, we played our 4th softball game of the year (my third), and I finally had a satisfying game. I haven’t been playing badly, just not connecting with the ball or making the plays that I thought I could/should be making. The box score:
Hitting: 4-4, 1 double, 3 runs (3AB had no one on base when I came up - so no rbi)
Fielding: 6 chances, 5 putouts
So far for the year, I’m 7-10, 1 double, 4 runs and 1 rbi. Batting .700 isn’t exactly screaming ‘I’m awesome!’ in a slow-pitch league, but at least I’m not flying out - and I finally started getting the ball out of the infield (I was topping every ball last game). So, even though the weather wasn’t the greatest, it was still a fun game - made better by the fact that our other team also won in a 9-inning come-from-behind stunner.
Marty April 22nd, 2008
The Phillies line-up is amazingly agonizing. One one hand you have the hottest player in baseball, Chase Utley (.364, 9 HR, 18RBI, homers in 5 straight games) and the surprising Pat Burrell (.354, 7HR, 19RBI). On the other hand, you have one of the saddest hitting line-ups out there: the Phillies’ starting line-up has 2 players hitting .250 or under and THREE PLAYERS HITTING UNDER .200 (Bruntlett - .174, Howard - .193, Ruiz - .196). That’s just unforgiveable. Continue Reading »
Marty April 1st, 2008
Today are the softball tryouts for our company team - or should I say, teams. We had so many people last year that it was hard to get in the game and assure an at bat - and with more people in the company than last year, we were almost assured of a worse situation. So, we are putting TWO teams out there this year. Hopefully that will mean some increased playing time and more at bats this year.
On a slightly more somber note, I suspect the rate of heart attacks in the city of Philadelphia will increase over the next few weeks, if yesterday’s game was any indication. The Phillies offense did their job, but our bullpen … well, SUCKS. Announcer Larry Anderson had the gumption to say, “Well, the bullpen has been a concern all spring…”. SPRING? Of what - 2002? The bullpen has been the achilles heel, bum rib and sciatica of the team for the last half-dozen years, and they never do anything to solve it. Tom Gordon has the highest possible ERA in the majors (135.01, in case you’re counting) and Ryan Madsen isn’t much better. Brett Myers didn’t pitch horribly - nor did he pitch well - but it’s going to be a long season if he has to be used much. And what was Ruiz thinking throwing to third base when you’ve got 2 men on base, down by 2 in the 9th inning? That’s just bad baseball.
In other news, I worked more on the ZPC project and sent Van over some new files. I’m finally seeing this shaping up to be what I wanted it to be. Cleaning up stray pieces that look bad, adding some flair, etc. I have a little ways to go, but at least it’s acceptable now. Maybe I’m too anal … now, I’m a perfectionist. That’s it.
Marty February 3rd, 2008
It was Super Bowl time again, and once again I had a hard time caring about either team who was playing. As a Cowboys fan, it’s really tough to root for the Giants. But I found myself doing so anyway because I dreaded the thought of hearing all of the ‘Greatest Team Ever’, “Tom Brady is God” and “19-0″ b.s. for the next year. If the Patriots win (and it’s 7-3 with 6:13 left in the 3rd quarter now), it will be an endless repetition of how great they are. Continue Reading »
Marty October 4th, 2007
I don’t care what anyone says, Charlie Manuel is a moron. I know the Kendrick was getting into trouble, but he was in less than 3 innings, and we KNOW that we need the starters to go deep. And Kyle Lohse? That worked out really well… giving up a grand slam to a guy with 4 home runs for the season. And Jose Mesa?!?!? Brilliant. Son-of-a-b!tch this sucks.
Marty October 4th, 2007
Cole Hamels pitched a good game yesterday … well, except for that one inning. Take that away and they had a chance. Of course, having the entire top of the order going 0-for-alot didn’t help, either. Come on Phils - we’re still hoping you’ll bring us a World Series!!!
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Now playing: Rachael Yamagata - Worn Me Down
Marty October 1st, 2007
Okay, not really. But for the 1st time since 1993, the Phillies are in the playoffs. They’re one of four teams to have more than 85 wins in each of the last 4 years (Atlanta, NY and Boston are the others), but they were the only ones to never make the playoffs in that span. Finally, the jinx is broken. Continue Reading »
Marty September 10th, 2007
This past weekend was being rolled out as one of the top weekends of Penn State football in years - in fact, they have been selling ‘Beat Notre Dame’ shirts since last spring. So, it was just a bit of a disappointment that Notre Dame wasn’t going to be the powerhouse that they were last year when they came to the House that JoePa Built this year. Continue Reading »
Marty September 5th, 2007
After seeing the box score of today’s game, I’m done. I’m convinced that the Phillies have no shot of going to the playoffs this year, and the reason is simple. It’s also the same reason it’s been for the last two years: relief pitching.
Below is a chart of the Phillies relievers for their last 5 and 10 appearances. Notice anything? How about only 3 of the 7 having respectable ERAs in their last 5, and NO ONE being under 5.68 over their last ten. How can any team expect to win with numbers like that?
Hell, the team has a combined 9.76 / 9.19 ERA for those same periods (okay, it’s hard to count since they weren’t the same games, but still…). That’s just ridiculous. It’s like saying, “Gee, we have to survive 3 more innings using a reliever - are we up by more than 3 runs, just in case?”
Well, the Flyers start in a month, right?
| Pitcher | ER5 | IP5 | ERA5 | ER10 | IP10 | ERA10 |
| Myers | 5 | 6.1 | 7.38 | 7 | 11.1 | 5.68 |
| Gordon | 5 | 4.1 | 10.98 | 11 | 7.2 | 13.75 |
| Alfonseca | 7 | 2.1 | 30.00 | 9 | 2.7 | 30.00 |
| Mesa | 11 | 3.3 | 30.00 | 13 | 7.4 | 15.81 |
| Rosario | 7 | 4.4 | 14.32 | 8 | 11.4 | 6.32 |
| Romero | 1 | 2.4 | 3.75 | 3 | 3.8 | 7.11 |
| Castro | 2 | 7.2 | 2.50 | 6 | 9.2 | 5.87 |
| Geary | 2 | 7.3 | 2.47 | 10 | 12.8 | 7.03 |
| TOTALS | 40 | 36.9 | 9.76 | 67 | 65.6 | 9.19 |
I posted this using the new-ish Adobe Contribute. I made the table in Excel (TONS quicker than HTML), and then simply did an ‘export to blog’. It worked pretty well once I configured it. I might have to consider it for other things in the near future…
