Vin Scully to Retire

Two articles reporting The Great Vin Scully will retire either at the end of the 2009 season or more than likely after the 2010 season. The first is from The New York Times

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/vin-scullys-final-innings/?hp

Thsi next one is from Bill Plaschke: of The L a Times and His idea of the Tribute The Dodgers should give to Scully.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke29-2009jul29,0,6130416.column?page=1

Here is an some excerpt from it.

If they could build a Mannywood in a couple of weeks, surely they can use the next few months to figure out a way to permanently honor Scully in a way that no Dodger has been honored before.

There was talk about making him a centerpiece of the proposed stadium park, but that idea is several years from the shovel, and Scully deserves the attention now while he and his city can enjoy it.

"Honestly, I have never given that a thought, and I never will," Scully said. "I'm embarrassed to even think about it."

Well, I'm not, and here's my plan.

Turn this Dodgers monument into a statue. Sculpt Scully sitting in a booth, with a microphone and headsets and his ever-present scorebook.

Fill the desk with dozens of ports where fans can plug in headphones and listen to tapes of Scully's calls. What greater tribute than having Dodgers fans gathered at his feet as one, listening to his voice forever?

Place the sculpture just beyond the Dodger Stadium center-field fence, in the area currently populated by autograph booths and fans chasing batting practice fly balls. Lay down some grass like they do at Yankee Stadium for the center-field Monument Park. Call it Scullyville.

Because there is no main Dodger Stadium walking entrance, this is the best spot to be reached by the most people. You don't need a ticket to come here, you just need to pay for parking. With all sorts of fans hanging out before every game talking baseball, it feels like Chavez Ravine's front porch, which would make it the perfect spot for the Dodgers' storyteller.

Vin Scully is the best play by play man from 1950 till date along with Tigers Great Ernie Harwell (Sorry of other teams, But these 2 are the best.) They not only told you what was happening but told stories about baseball yesterday and today and made it sound like poetry and did it that any fan from the opposing team can listen and enjoy the broadcast! Below is a Clip of Vin Scully Calls. This is just magic listening to these calls, Some of these were heard by Just Dodger fans and others are National calls.. Included is the Call of the Final out of the 1996 World Series done on National Radio. Enjoy

This is from http://www.archive.org/details/ClassicVinScullyHighlights

Classic Vin Scully Highlights

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Vin Scully - Some Highlights

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A collection of some highlights described by Vin Scully. Included is a steal of home plate by Jackie Robinson, two final outs from Sandy Koufax no-hitters (one of them being the classic perfect game in 1965), Hank Aaron's 715th home run, the A's clinching the 1974 World Series, Rick Monday saving the American Flag, a Willie Aikens home run from the 1980 World Series, "The Catch" from Joe Montana to Dwight Clark, the Mets Game 6 come back in 1986, Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series home run, and the Twins, Braves, and Yankees winning World Series in the 90's.

This audio is part of the collection: Open Source Audio
Artist/Composer: Rob Adams
Keywords: Scully; baseball; football

Scully is the last of the great Play by Play guys, All we will have left are the Stieners, Michael Kay's, John Sterling, The "God Awful" Hawk Harrelson and all the other Pathetic Guys who are such Homers that can make even the most loyal fans of teams sick.

Bill James outrageous Statements

This is from Bill Madden in Saturdays 7/25 New York Daily News,

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/07/25/2009-07-25_wilpons_need_to_completely.html?page=1#community

My Comments follow the story

***

James off-base about steroids and Hall

The stat geek Bill James, who has made a fortune taking credit for having invented on-base percentage, last week revealed to the waiting world his position paper on steroids in baseball, which, essentially says that there is no harm in steroids and steroids have had no harm on baseball.

Mind you, this is coming from a guy who is employed by the Red Sox as a special assistant to GM Theo Epstein: "One of the characteristics of the steroid era was that we had several dozen players who continued to improve beyond the normal aging time frame, so that many of them had their best seasons past the age of 32. … But what does it mean? It means that steroids keep you young. … Well, if steroids keep you young, what's wrong with that?"

James goes on to say that he believes the Baseball Writers Association will eventually come to the same conclusion - that steroids didn't enhance performance, merely prolonged it, and that they will eventually vote all of the steroid cheats - Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro - into the Hall of Fame where they belong, ignoring evidence that the performance of some steroid users actually improved over time. He also said steroid users will be called "pioneers" in the future, when everyone in America, he said, will be on the drugs.

This is just what Bud Selig needs as he desperately tries to enforce and enhance baseball's drug policy and hold the game up as a model for young kids. I can only suppose James also agrees with Carl Everett that dinosaurs never existed and men never walked on the moon. Then again, didn't he just tell us a couple of years ago that teams would be more successful bringing their closers into the game in the seventh inning, and that bullpens-by-committee were the way to go? Obviously, the resident baseball stat geek wants to make sure all big stat players, however performance-enhanced those stats were, are properly enshrined in Cooperstown.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/07/25/2009-07-25_wilpons_need_to_completely.html?page=1#ixzz0MNF3rLBb


When I read this My Blood Pressure tripled, How can Bill James say there was no effect or harm done to the game, And he must be on "crack" if he thinks that even one of the steroid boys will ever get into the HOF, I would not let any of these guys in even if they bought a ticket,
James is now a consultant to the Boston Red Sox, The Red Sox should fire him this morning,
To me James is endorsing Steroid use in baseball and if I was Bud Selig I would ban James for life from any official job in MLB,
Back to these guys ever getting in the HOF, It will never happen, There will never be more than maybe 50% of the writers who would vote for any of these guys, and the only guy who 'Might" except any of them is Gaylord Perry, I did see he thought some of them might get in after a few years, But hearing him say that will now make him an outsider to the rest of the members and many do think he should not have gotten in the HOF,

Hitting Streaks

James McOwen of the California league has a 45 game hitting streak
Does this mean he will be a great player, I think it is obvious that hitting streak is a curse
Not one of these guys ever did anything, Especially if they play in California
Whatever became of that Joe DiMaggio guy anyway.

To prove my point here is the list of the top Hitting streaks in Minor League History
Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitting_streak

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Minor League Baseball records

The longest streaks in the history of Minor League Baseball and other professional baseball leagues:

Rank	Player	League	Games	Year(s)
1	Joe Wilhoit	Western League	69	1919
2	Joe DiMaggio	Pacific Coast League	61	1933
3	Roman Mejias	Big State League	55	1954
4	Otto Pahlman	Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League	50	1922
5	Jack Ness	Pacific Coast League	49	1915
	Harry Chozen	Southern League	49	1945
7	Johnny Bates	Southern League	46	1925
8	James McOwen	California League	45	2009
9	Brandon Watson	International League	43	2007
	Eddie Marshall	American Association	43	1935
	Orlando Moreno	Longhorn League	43	1947
	Howie Bedell	American Association	43	1961

Hey Red Sox Fans,

You have to be kidding me,
You cheer for Nomar Garciaparra on his first trip to Boston since he quit on you in the middle of 2004, I do not understand how you can cheer for this loser,
I guess it was because he did not comeback as a Yankee. But hey Red Sox Fans, Do you not remember that during the 1st exhibition game between Boston and The Yankees in 2004 when A-Rod and Derek Jeter were taking ground balls before the game Your hero went out to 2nd base and was taking some ground balls there, He was telling the world he wanted to be a Yankee,
Thank God Caskman did not take on this loser.
And do not tell me how you always welcome back all your players not in a Yankee uniform.
I got 2 words for you. Bill Buckner, You did not accept him back till after you won your 2nd tittle in 2007, So don't tell me that you are such great fair fans, Red Sox fans are just as bad as fans everywhere, including Yankee fans who will boo one of their own players for striking out in a big situation even if they have won games the night before.

How bad is the 2009 Mets??

I have watched the 2009 Mets and I am stunned on how bad they play the game. They make the Bad News Bears (before they started playing good) look fundamentally sound.

So the Question is ("How Many Games would The 2009 Mets win vs the 1962 Mets"?) if they played 162 games, Remember that the 62 Mets went 40-120 in 1962.

I have done the research and conclude that the 2009 Mets would be better, They would go 43 wins and 119 losses vs the 62 Mets, But hey 2009 Met Fans, Do not celebrate yet, You have to understand that the 62 Mets youngest player would be Ed Kranepool at 64 Years old, the others would be in their late 60s to late 80's and also many have passed away, so the 62 Mets would only have about 8 pitchers and 10 position players on the roster, So barring injury that would be very tough for the 62 Mets,

Now if you took the 62 Mets and transported them to Today's age with a full roster they would go 143 wins and 19 losses vs the 2009 Mets,

Roger Craig would win 40 games

Frank Thomas would have 58 Home Runs and 150 RBIs.

Conclusion: The 62 Mets would destroy the 2009 Mets,