So much for the future of the Nats

Jim Bowden is staying as general manager.

No friggin' way.

I think we should offer the following definition to Wikipedia:

Delusional: see Rafael Palmeiro.

Office News

For all you office fans this just in fron TVGuide.com:

NBC.com will premiere the first of 10 original, stand-alone webisodes of The Office on July 13. The weekly online installments will chronicle accounting staff members Angela, Kevin and Oscar's quest to find a missing $3,000. Look for Dwight, Jan, Phyllis, Roy, Stanley and Meredith (hic!) to also put in appearances.

King Kaufman and the Cubs

It would be a shame if the day after Dara blogged about the Cubs sucking, my favorite sports columnist wrote a column about the Cubs sucking. Really, it would.

Chuck Norris and Playoff Beards

Scroll down this site to see the most exciting part of hockey... the competition of who wins the Chuck Norris trophy for the best playoff beard! This guy actually takes the time to evaluate the players' beards and determine a winner. Speaking of Norris, here is a list of Chuck Norris "facts" - some of these are pretty interesting....

Video of Asheville Tourists manager's tantrum

No one's posted the link to this video yet, so I thought I'd share.

If you're going to get ejected, you might as well go out this way.

Almost as fun as Royales With Cheese

Justin, I believe this club is for you. (Dan, not so much.)

Um, so about those Cardinals.... and Ponson...

Well, I'm going to sleep, and unless the Cardinals score 18 runs in the top of the 9th... The Cardinals aren't going to top the 20 runs the White Sox have scored tonight.

Mark Mulder gave up 9 runs in 2.1 innings, but the big news is that Sidney Ponson has been demoted to the bullpen.... and gave up six runs in one inning.

Jeff, the ERA+ hasn't been updated yet (as I go to sleep), but it's fair to say you're winning the bet by a decent amount now.

Update

Ponson's ERA+ is 83, and the Cards managed to only lose by 14 runs.

Jewish Baseball Cards!

That's right! Here's your chance to get your set of Jewish Baseball Cards. Current Jews in baseball include Brad Ausmus, Shawn Green, Gabe Kapler, Mike Lieberthal, Jason Marquis, Scott Schoeneweis, and Kevin Youkilis.

And more importantly, here is the list of the career leaders among Jews in a variety of stats. Not surprisingly, Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax are well represented on these lists.

But Shawn Green is only 28 home runs away from being the all time Jewish home run leader! (Actually, make that 21 to go, those stats were published at the end of last year).

Minor League Baseball

For those that are going, the PH4H trip to the minor league game -- either at Bowie or Frederick -- is only 2 weeks from Saturday. For those that aren't, well, it's not like I didn't give you enough advance notice.

In the meantime, here's a nifty little New York Times article on New York City's minor league baseball teams, the Brooklyn Cyclones and the Staten Island Yankees.

Screech is selling t-shirts!

Screech from Saved by the Bell -- not the Nats mascot -- is selling t-shirts to keep his house out of foreclosure.

Kudos to a Cardinal

At Camp Rainbow on Friday, Cardinals outfielder John Rodriguez came out to sign autographs. He also willingly painted faces and let two campers paint his face, and he stopped by swim time on the way out.

He ended up with a rainbow on his forehead and "#15" on his cheek, after telling a camper she could paint her favorite ballplayer's number. It was clear his number is 53, but she went ahead and painted Jim Edmonds's number anyway. Rodriguez's agent got a kick out of that.

I asked him if he'd mind painting a red "C" with a blue circle around it on my face, and he said no, that'd be fine. "Really? The Cubs logo?" I asked. "The Cubs!?" he laughed.

I may be a Cubs fan, but I'm not a Cardinals hater (well, at least not full-time), and I'm impressed by Rodriguez.

Justin's Progressive Rock Quiz

Take Justin's new quiz.

Avram Catches a Foul Ball

Congrats to Avram, who caught a foul ball last Wednesday in the PH4H seats last Wednesday! To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time someone has caught a foul ball in the PH4H seats.

And he caught it on his birthday! And Stephanie got his name on the scoreboard! I happened to be at the game in other seats and took a picture of the scoreboard with my cel phone. You can't really read it in this picture, but it says "Happy Birthday Avram P."

Ponson update

After a particularly bad outing this week, Ponson's ERA+ has dropped to 100. Jeff, who wins the bet if he finishes the year right at 100?

PH4H All Star Ballot

What you see here, my friends, is my PH4H All Star Ballot. At first, I was going to just choose who I thought was most deserving, but I decided it would be better to just base it on the actual points leaders in the league. So here's what I did.

I looked at total points for each player in the league, and took the top players at each position in each league. But there are some caveats.

I only let players be eligible for the position for which they appear on the ballot. The Colorado Rockies' Luis Gonzalez is one of the top players in the league, and is eligible at a number of positions. But he's on the ballot as a second baseman, and Rickie Weeks beat him out for the spot.

Juan Castro is the fourth best offensive player in the league, but he was recently traded from the American League to the National League, so he is ineligible.

I did allow write-ins, but since the ballot has only two spots for write-ins, I limited myself to the top two. Congratulations to the Phillies' Sal Fasano and Abraham Nunez for grabbing the spots.

And I feel a little proud, because I have the best offensive player in the league, Adrian Beltre, on my team.

And congrats to Chris Duffy for making the team, even though he's been in the minors for a decent stretch now.

For ease of reading, here are the AL and NL rosters.

American League

1B Travis Lee, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
2B Mark Ellis, Oakland A's
SS Angel Berroa, Kansas City Royals
3B Adrian Beltre, Seattle Mariners
C Jose Molina, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
OF Brian Anderson, Chicago White Sox
OF Darrin Erstad, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
OF Rondell White, Minnesota Twins

National League

1B Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego Padres
2B Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee Brewers
SS Ronny Cedeno, Chicago Cubs
3B Abraham Nunez, Philadelphia Phillies
C Sal Fasano, Philadelphia Phillies
OF Reggie Abercrombie, Florida Marlins
OF Chris Duffy, Pittsburgh Pirates
OF Geoff Jenkins, Milwaukee Brewers

While All Star voters don't vote for pitchers, no PH4H list would be complete without the real MVPs of PH4H. So here are the top pitchers from each league... 5 starters, 1 middle reliever and 1 closer for each.

AL Pitchers

P Rodrigo Lopez, Baltimore Orioles
P Scott Elarton, Kansas City Royals
P Carlos Silva, Minnesota Twins
P Seth McClung, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
P Jeff Weaver, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
RP Andrew Sisco, Kansas City Royals
CL Ambiorix Burgos, Kansas City Royals

NL Pitchers

P Oliver Perez, Pittsburgh Pirates
P Solomon Torres, Pittsburgh Pirates
P Jorge Sosa, Atlanta Braves
P Livan Hernandez, Washington Nationals
P Dontrelle Willis, Florida Marlins
RP Mike Stanton, Washington Nationals
CL Chris Reitsma, Atlanta Braves

Time filler

I had some down time at work so here are some random things:

1. Zack Braff has a new blog check it Check it out.

2. The Florida Marlins celebrated Jewish heritage day by giving away Mike Jacobs T-Shirts, only he's not Jewish. Here is a really funny take on this from NPR's Wait, wait...Don't tell me! The Marlins claim it was only a coincidence that the T-shirt giveaway was on Jewish heritage day.

How is he not still a Nat?

Esteban Loaiza was arrested for DUI and reckless driving yesterday.

Although, with respect to the reckless driving charge, if I had a Ferrari, I'd want to drive over 120 mph, too. Just not after drinking.

Save PBS and NPR

Generally I hate preaching so I won't, but if you like NPR and PBS please sign this petition

Justin's latest post . . .

. . . is an important public service announcement.

Programming Note

Forget the World Cup. Tonight Catch the Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship on the A&E channel at 10:00 pm. Personally I will be watching the Closer and Saved on TNT.

Also Matt Damon and his wife had a baby girl name Isabella on Sunday.

Tom Petty, the Heartbreakers, and Stevie Nicks

So, Justin, Inbal, and I went to go see Gainesville's own Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at Nissan Pavillion last night. The show featured special guest Stevie Nicks. The concert was amazing, and our seats were really good.

Here are a some pictures:










And here are some videos:

Stop Draggin' My Heart Around


Learning to Fly

American Girl

Sidney Ponson Update

Sidney Ponson currently has a 4-1 record with a 3.54 ERA and an ERA+ of 124. I am still winning the empanada bet with Jeff by a fairly significant margin.

To trade or not to trade?

Over the past two days, DCist ran a series of articles on whether or not the Nats should trade Soriano for prospects.

For the record, both Boswell and Svrluga think he -- along with anyone else with value -- ought to be traded.

On the one hand -- the practical side -- I agree with the idea of building the team from the ground up. On the other hand, most of my tickets are for later in the season, and it'll be painful to watch those games after a fire sale. Besides, the team is playing so well lately.

2-for-1

1. Here's a contract dispute, football player style:

[T]he two athletes wrote out a crude contract that stipulated that Portis would pay Ohalete $40,000 in three payments during the season. The agreement was signed and witnessed by an equipment manager, in accordance with ancient tradition.
***
Portis, believing Ohalete’s prior claim on the jersey number was voided after Ohalete left the team, has not paid Ohalete the final two installments of $10,000 that are stipulated in the contract. Ohalete disagrees, and he likely has contract law backing him up, provided the courts recognize something that was probably written on a napkin in the presence of a guy who collects jockstraps a “contract.”

2. Fowl ball (forgive the pun):

The Bisons were batting in the bottom of the 11th inning when the seagull flew between the mound and home plate just as Durham reliever Jason Childers released the ball.

The ball knocked the seagull to the ground.
***
Umpires conferred on the bizarre happenings and ruled play should have stopped as soon as the bird was hit.

This is not the first time, though:

During an exhibition game in 2001, Randy Johnson threw a pitch for Arizona that killed a dove as it flew in front of the batter.

In 1983, Dave Winfield, then with the New York Yankees, threw a ball that hit a seagull at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Winfield was charged with cruelty to animals, a charge that was dropped the next day.

Worst birthday ever

As post on this blog have become few and far between I figured I should contribute.

This kid had the worst birthday ever (or at least until my next birthday). Not only did his parents take him to ChuckE Cheese, they forgot him there too.

Also Brangelina sold pics of their new baby for $4 million to Time, Inc, but it appear that one of Dara's favorite sites Gawker got it for free (its right below the Jew York post).

And while we are taking about kids, I think I found definitive proof that Darwin was wrong. Scariest baby news of the week Anna Nicole is pregnant. Any one else feels that will set the human race back a couple of years.

Typo?

Maybe, maybe not:
(from Gawker)

Pee-Wee Herman is back!

And, no, I'm not talking about Justin's Halloween costume.

Adult Swim -- home to my favorites Robot Chicken and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law -- has obtained the rights to Pee-Wee's Playhouse and will air the episodes beginning July 10th.

Today is National Doughnut Day

To celebrate: free Krispy Kreme.

I still think he's funny

Here's an interview with the guy that Debby doesn't think is funny.

Continuing our Royals Bashing....

According to the Onion, the Royals have hired Tom Emanski to teach them the fundamentals of baseball.