Talk about highs and lows...One night after the Marlins' new star, rookie Dontrelle Willis, gave up just 1 earned run in seven innings to win his seventh straight start, their starting oitchers gave up a AL-record 14 runs in the first inning (including a new major league record of 10 runs before the first out was recorded) against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Boston CF Johnny Damon went 3-for-3 (tying a major league record) and was only a home-run short of the hitting for the cycle - or the merry-go-round, as we now like to call it [see June 25 post] - in the epic 50-minute inning.

The only consolation that Marlins manager Jack McKeon and the starting pitchers who got bombed might conceivably get from such a game is that it only counts as one game in the 'L' column. However, the great thing about baseball - and what sets it apart from other sports such as football and soccer - is that they play 162 of these things every year, so Florida can get back out on the field again tonight and turn it all around. Ain't life just so simple sometimes?

I'm sat here at a friend's place, using his PC, and I finally know what I want for Christmas - a new PC with a broadband connection, so that I can sit here in the Paris suburbs (as I am doing now) with a nice cold beer in my hand and watch live baseball games from 4,000 miles away all summer long! I'm not a big Cubs or White Sox fan, but US Cellular Field looks like a little piece of heaven to me right now.

Well, I'm off to watch the last two innings of the game, and then I think I'll sit down and make a start on my letter to Santa Claus...

I've been playing baseball in France for a couple of years now and thought I knew most of the French equivalents for standard baseball terms. However, reading the report of last night's Pirates / Expos game in Montreal allowed me to learn a new one, as Expos outfielder Brad Wilkerson hit for "le carrousel" ("the merry-go-round"), which, you have to admit is much nicer than its slightly dull and functional English equivalent, "the cycle". And what is 'hitting for the cycle'? Well, it's hitting a single, a double, a triple and a home run, all in the same game. Wilkerson is the first major leaguer to achieve the feat this season (and the first Expo to do so since Rondell White in '96), and not only that, but he also seems to have an inbuilt sense of baseball order, since he did it in sequence - 1B, 2B, 3B, HR - thus helping the Expos to their second straight win for the first time in two weeks. They need to put a few more together if they're going to stay in contention for the NL Wild Card spot.

The reason I didn't know the French term is that I've never seen anyone hit for the cycle at our lowly level of baseball. I think I've seen about two home-runs in two years, and when anyone gets as far as third base, it's usually on a single / double followed by a throwing error by the fielder...

Another very rare occurrence, whatever the level of baseball, is the night Boston's Nomar Garciaparra had - he went 5-for-5 last night in the Red Sox' 10-1 demolition of Detroit. To give you an idea of how rare that kind of 5-hit game is, Garciaparra is in his seventh full major league season, and he's had the grand total of two games where he's had 5+ hits. And when was the other one? Four days ago, against the Phillies, when he went 6-for-6 in a 13-inning game... Sometimes there are days / weeks / months when you feel you'd be better off staying in bed, but I bet Nomar can't wait to get to the ballpark right now. The Yankees had better watch out, because it seems the Red Sox have decided to forego their traditional 'June swoon' this year...

I pointed out recently that real pennant races seem to have broken out all over the place this year, but I could write pages and pages on here and still not say it as well as The Washington Post's Thomas Boswell does in his column on the subject.

I know I sometimes keep going over and over the same stuff here, but if you needed proof that this game is all about pitching, look no further than yesterday's Subway Series game between the Yankees and the Mets. The Mets' Armando "I'm OK as long as there's no pressure" Benitez walked four batters in the ninth inning (including the tying run), and was followed by Graeme Lloyd, who, after a scoreless tenth, managed to walk home the winning run in the eleventh. Compare that to the stats of Yankee starter David Wells, who has walked four batters in 107 2/3 inning this year, and it's no longer a real surprise to see the Yankees heading the American League East with a 44-29 record, whilst the hapless Mets prop up the National League East, 15 games behind the Braves. Even Tom Glavine's defection from Atlanta doesn't seem to have bridged the gap any - it's going to be a long, hard season for the Mets and their fans.

Nightmare weekend on the home front, so baseball has taken a back seat. I can't get any decent thoughts together about anything, so I thought I'd point you in the direction of Mike Bauman's excellent article on pitchers hitting (a regular topic in baseball, even more so when interleague play is under way....).

Today's two magic words: interleague play - Cubs / White Sox, Yankees / Mets, Giants / A's... A fine weekend of baseball in store. Grab a beer and a hot-dog and enjoy!!

I've been looking over the first couple of weeks' posts here on the blog, and I've had a Great Baseball Revelation: I'd rather watch and talk about great pitching and great defence than guys hitting the ball out of the ballpark any day of the week. I'm not saying the Barry Bonds of this world are not fun, but I sometimes just get fed up of watching the ball go over the fence time after time (of course, the words 'watching' should be taken with a pinch of salt, as I don't actually get to see any MLB games here in France - just the occasional highlight on MLB.com, when my broadband connection at work is functioning correctly - but you see the point I'm making...). Bonds hitting the ball with that great swing is indeed a thing of beauty, but watching Torii Hunter rob Bonds of a home-run at the outfield wall in last year's All-Star Game was a moment of pure perfection.

The A's Jermaine Dye making yet another great catch at the wall, Jeter and Soriano (or any other combination you care to name) turning a perfectly-executed double-play in Yankee Stadium, the Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki throwing out the runner going from 1st to 3rd, from deep in right-field - these are the reasons why I love baseball.

Even when I play, I'd rather be fielding batting practice than taking it - if ever baseball creates a DF (a Designated Fielder) position for those who can field but can't hit a lick, rest assured that I'll be first in line to play!

The Mets did it again, as they were involved in a one-hitter for the third straight game. This time, three Mets pitchers combined to turn the tables on the Marlins, and, in the process, set a franchise record by facing the minimum 27 batters for the first time ever.

Great pitching was the name of the game elsewhere as well, as the Yankees' David Wells threw a complete game in the second half of a day-night doubleheader against the Devil Rays. Wells' performance not only served to highlight the woes of the Yankees' Jeff Weaver, who just couldn't get it together in the first game of the double-bill, giving up 6 runs in five innings, but also was a lesson in simplicity. He threw 111 pitches, of which 82 were strikes, and didn't walk a single batter (he's walked only 4 in 100+ innings this year...) - if you do that, you're going to win a lot of ballgames. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner's decision to steal Wells from under the Diamondbacks' noses two years ago and bring him back to New York looks better every time the 40-year-old left-hander takes the mound. He's now 9-2 for the season...

Another pitcher having an amazing year is LA's Kevin Brown, who is looking strong after his injury-hit 2002 season. He has won 9 straight games and is now 10-1 this year for the streaking Dodgers, who have won 7 straight and who are now just one game behind the Giants in the NL West.

Things are hotting up all over the place - only Atlanta and Seattle have comfortable leads in their divisions. It looks like we could be in for a good summer.

After all the hoopla surrounding some of baseball's more senior players recently, it's nice to see a series where the new kids on the block get to make a good impression. Last night's Mets / Marlins game in Florida featured two names I hope we'll be hearing a lot more of: Mets' shortstop Jose Reyes - whose first major-league home run on Sunday was a grand slam - and Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis. Willis was pitching in just his eighth major league game, and was up against veteran Tom Glavine, who was making his 519th career start. Willis was by no means fazed by the experience - his funky delivery (MLB.com's term, not mine...) and his blazing fastball baffled the New York hitters, and he ended up pitching a complete-game, one-hit shutout, to give him a 6-1 record for the season, with a tidy 2.61 ERA. All of that just one night after the Anaheim Angels were on the receiving end of a one-hitter by New York pitcher Steve Trachsel. It's not often we've been able to say it this season, but the place to look if you want to see good baseball right now would seem to be the NL East cellar. Long may it continue!

I promise that this will be a Rocket-free zone for a little while after today, but I did want to tip my hat to Clemens for finally getting his 300th career win last night. It took him four attempts, but the upside of that is that he was able to reach 300 wins and 4,000 strikeouts in the same game. He's the 21st pitcher in Major League history to reach the 300-win milestone, but only the third to reach 4,000 strikeouts (after Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton), and it's a pretty safe bet that - barring some kind of pitching miracle or revolution - he will be the last pitcher ever to combine those two mythical milestones. The Big Unit (Arizona's Randy Johnson) has 3,777 strikeouts, so he could reach 4,000, but he has 'only' 225 career wins - he would need another four 20-win (and injury-free) seasons to reach the magic number, which, at almost 40 years of age, is not impossible, but highly unlikely. The Braves' Greg Maddux has a shot at 300 (he's currently at 278), but he's 1,300+ strikeouts short of 4,000 - not gonna happen.

So, hats off to Clemens - maybe not the greatest pitcher of all time, but certainly up there in anyone's top ten.

OK - enough of the milestones already - we'll get back to the more mundane business of teams winning and losing tomorrow, I promise!

A possible Friday the 13th scenario:
Roger Clemens, still looking to win #300, takes a no-hitter into the ninth-inning against the Cardinals at Yankee Stadium - he retires the first two batters he faces in the ninth, and then gives up a game-winning home run to ex-Yankee favourite Tino Martinez...

When asked by non-fans why they keep watching "boring" ballgames day after day after day, baseball fans often quiet rightly observe that no two games are ever the same, and that there's always a chance that you'll see somthing at the ballpark that you've never seen before. Well, last night was no exception, as a record total of six Astros pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter against the Yankees at the Big Ballpark In The Bronx. It's not something that often happens to the Yankees (it last happened 45 years ago...), and manager Joe Torre's detailed analysis of the defeat seemed to sum things up pretty well: "The whole game stunk". His candour is not too surprising, since I have information from a reliable source (a Florida-based Phillies fan) that the Yankees were swinging at everything - so much so that star 2B and potential MVP Alfonso Soriano swung and missed at a ball that was so far off the plate that it was called a wild pitch (which in turn allowed reliever Octavio Dotel to tie a Major League record by striking out four batters in an inning).

The Yankees need to turn things around quickly, as Boston is still a 1/2 game ahead of them, and the streaking Blue Jays are coming up strong behind. Wow, that almost sounds like a pennant race in the AL East, and that is definitely something you don't see very often...

When you live in a foreign country, one of the things you get used to is people getting your name wrong. It used to worry me a lot that the French could neither spell nor pronounce the name "Iain", but ten years here have mellowed me a little, so now I answer to pretty much anything - if someone sneezes on the subway, I'll probably look up from my book and give them my best "You talkin' to me?" look...

This problem crossed my mind on Saturday as I was listening to the Yankees broadcasters battling with the surname of Cubs' second baseman Mark Grudzielanek. Since it's All-Star voting time, I thought I'd try to come up with my version of the team. So, for your enjoyment, and the enjoyment of baseball broadcasters everywhere, here is my 2003 All-Star Misspelt / Mispronounced Team:

1B Doug Mientkiewicz (Twins)
2B Mark Grudzielanek (Cubs)
SS Nomar Garciaparra (Red Sox)
3B D’Angelo Jimenez (White Sox)
OF Hiram Bocachica (Tigers)
OF Frank Catalanotto (Blue Jays)
OF Albert Pujols (Cardinals)
C A.J. Pierzynski (Twins)

SP Nick Neugebauer (Brewers)
RP Gene Stechschulte (Cardinals)

There’s only one possible manager for this team - the Angels’ Mike Scioscia, of course. I wish him a lot of luck with the lineup card…

Today we get to find out if Major League Baseball is going to uphold the eight-game suspension handed out to Sammy Sosa on Friday for using a corked bat last week in a game against the Devil Rays. Sosa appealed against the decision - which conveniently allowed him to play in the high-profile interleague series against the Yankees over the weekend (and collect his 2,000th career hit in the process) - but there's something I still don't get. I keep hearing about how Sosa is a stand-up guy - if that's the case, why doesn't he just accept the suspension and let the whole incident blow over? Nobody is disputing the facts of the case, and Sosa has trotted out his ever-so-slightly far-fetched "it was a batting-practice bat" excuse, so where's the problem? Other players have had longer suspensions for the same offence - admitting he did it and coming up with an improbable and creative excuse doesn't change the fact that he did what he did. So Sammy, do us all a favour, will ya? Take your punishment 'like a man' (an important concept for Sammy), and let us get on with the rest of the season.

OK - rant over. I'm just a little cheesed off because it took me forever to get into work this morning because of the transport strike here in Paris.

Woke up this morning to find that the Yankees had again lost to the Cubs, and that the Red Sox had kicked the crap out of Milwaukee. This is the kind of thing that used to worry me - not the Red Sox now being a 1/2 game ahead of the Yankees (there's still plenty of time for their June swoon), but the Yankees losing a series - but it does so less and less, and I think I've finally worked out why: it's a cap thing. I used to have just one baseball cap - a Yankees home model - and the Dark Side of the Pinstripe was able to exercise full control over my mind and baseball allegiances. However, over the past year or so, my collection has grown (Mets, Phillies, Mariners, Diamondbacks, Indians...), and the more caps I have, the less I seem to care about the Yankees. Who knows - maybe the other caps have magical powers? I wore my Phillies hat yesterday, and they took both games of their doubleheader against the A's...Hmmmm...

Shopping list for today: one Expos cap.

A Blog Is Born

I realised tonight that I no longer had a choice - either I create a weblog and throw my random baseball-related thoughts out there into cyberspace, or I would end up getting locked up in a padded cell, where I would spend all day muttering to myself about Sammy Sosa's corked bats, the Expos' underrated ballclub and my strange love-hate relationship with the Yankees. Option two didn't really seem like a lot of fun - even if it meant I wouldn't have to go to work any more - and so a new baseball blog was born...


I keep hearing that the Yankees are trying too hard in their attempt to get Roger Clemens his 300th career victory. Unfortunately, it seems that no-one told Yankee reliever Juan Acevedo that - he didn't seem to be trying hard enough. He inherited two Clemens baserunners this afternoon at Wrigley Field and proceeded to give up a three-run home run on the first pitch he threw to Eric Karros... The Rocket was looking good up until that point, matching Kerry Wood for the best part of six innings, but he once more went home not only empty-handed, but with a 5-2 loss to his name. Maybe the only people who are enjoying the supsense are the members of Clemens' family - he keeps bringing them to the ballpark (Yankee Stadium, Detroit and now Chicago) for the historic event, which has so far failed to materialise. At this rate, they'll have completed the full Mastercard tour (60 days, 30 ballparks) before Roger gets his priceless win...