The Inside Slider

Ever heard of Wally Backman? Well he is the manager of the South Georgia Peanuts, a team playing in the lowest level of independent minor league baseball. That is all I am going to say. Enjoy the videos.



...and see what the f*ck Buddy wanted to say here:



You can buy the uncensored box set here.

Claudia Williams, daughter of Red Sox great Ted Williams, has decided to sell many of her father's personal belongings. Hunt Auctions, Inc. will handle the auction on April 28th. Items will include Williams' player awards as well as numerous personal items that have his signature. In addition, there will be many autographs of other great players that Williams had acquired throughout his life.

You can find more information on the auction here.

You can view some of the items to be auctioned here.

Online pre-bidding will be available until April 26th at 11 p.m. here.

'Acclaimed documentarians Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback, TFF 2007; Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, TFF 2010) deconstruct the unpredictable and erratic pitching style known as the knuckleball in this highly entertaining and enlightening sports doc. Anchoring the history of the controversial pitch itself are the trials and triumphs of two of its best known practitioners in the major league: veteran Tim Wakefield of the Red Sox as he struggles to clinch his 200th career win, and up-and-comer R.A. Dickey looking to make a name for himself with the New York Mets.

A classic sports story from its glorious highs to its crushing lows, Stern and Sundberg's energetic documentary explores the knuckleball phenomenon through copious archival footage and illuminating interviews with legends like Charlie Hough, all with a level of reverence and detail that would make a true baseball aficionado proud. Through Wakefield and Dickey's tumultuous stories, Knuckleball! demonstrates why the titular pitch is renowned as one of the most difficult to hit in baseball, and also one of the most difficult to master.'- Published by KnuckleballTheMovie on Youtube.com

Just felt like putting this here...

Today marks the 100th birthday of the famous and historical Fenway Park. To honor this occasion the Red Sox will take on the Yankees just as they did 100 years ago and will do so in the 1912 throwback uniform.

One thing they will NOT be able to replicate is the creative names that riddled the roster of that 1912 game. Here are a few samples of what we will be missing today:
(Click each name for player info)

• Duffy


• Tris


• Olaf


• Pinch


• Del


• Hick


• Heinie


• Hack


• Birdie


• Dutch


• Gabby


• Ezra


• Cozy


• Klondike


• Homer


• Hippo


• Iron


• Red

In case you don't know the story, Wisconsin freshman basketball player Jarrod Uthoff requested to transfer away from the university. Head coach Bo Ryan has effectively blocked this student athlete from transferring anywhere other than Cogswell Polytechnical College. Ryan has blocked Uthoff from transferring to the entire Big Ten, Marquette, the entire ACC, and Iowa State. Listen to Ryan attempt to justify his actions in this embarrassing interview here:

I cannot bring myself to believe that the University was aware of this interview and if they were how their PR team was not smacking the phone away from Bo Ryan is beyond me.

You can check out the full interview here.

Bottom of the 9th. Runners on first and second. Two outs. Tampa Bay up by one run on Boston. It's all down to Cody Ross vs. Fernando Rodney. Rodney throws five straight balls. Only umpire Larry Vanover decided that three of them were strikes. Because apparently the strike zone is something you can change when ever you see fit.

Here is the Amica Pitch Zone (click to enlarge):

...and so you don't think i'm biased for using Boston's own pitch zone image, here is the the strikezone plot from BrooksBaseball (click to enlarge):

We finally got to see the Miami Marlins home run feature (a.k.a. gaudy aquatic monstrosity) thanks to Omar Infante's first inning HR against Houston today.

So yeah...

Here it is...

It's horrible. Just like their uniforms.

If it were up to Luke Scott, Fenway Park would have to produce a birth certificate in order to celebrate their 100 year anniversary in peace. The always opinionated DH for the Tampa Bay Rays made it very clear in an interview with ESPN that he hates Fenway Park going so far as to call the newly awarded national historical site “a dump”. Some would say this is an odd observation for a player whose home turf is none other than Tropicana Field. The Trop (which is also one of the worst nicknames in sports by the way) is plain, cold, antiseptic, and looks like something straight out of the 70’s.

An ESPN investigation that took place in 2010 found that every one of the Tropicana Field’s 47 food and beverage vendors recorded a “critical violation” from health inspectors within the past year. A few of the violations included molded countertops and equipment, toxic chemicals too close to food storage areas, and my personal favorite, “slime” in the ice machines. ESPN also reported that “an employee complained anonymously that small insects and other debris were blended into frozen alcoholic beverages at a stand where equipment wasn't being cleaned. When inspectors checked, they issued a critical violation for a buildup of slime inside the frozen drinks machine.”

And let’s not forget, Luke Scott is an idiot. Literally. No one likes him. His own teammates have called him “a loud mouth racist”. When he was with the Orioles they actually hired an adviser to sit with Scott during his interviews and post game pressers to keep him from putting his foot in his mouth. I believe the last straw for the O’s was when he decided to throw banana chips at a black teammate while calling him a “savage”. It’s safe to say that Scott does not enjoy hip hop if you know what I mean. He is more of a Travis Tritt kinda guy.

So thank you Luke Scott. Thank you for reminding me that no matter how big of an asshole I am, there will always be you. Enjoy that death palace you call a stadium. And watch out for falling glass.

When Frank McCourt bought the Dodgers in 2004 from Fox Entertainment Group he did so for $430 million. Obviously he did not have $430 million stuffed into his mattress for a rainy day so in order to make this purchase he arranged financing that was convincing enough for Major League Baseball to approve the deal. In hindsight that turned out to be ill advised.

Flash forward to 2012. Enter Magic Johnson (and partners) with a whole lot of cash. Buying a baseball team with cash is almost unheard of. Now keep in mind, I don’t mean that Magic Johnson walked in dressed in his Lakers uniform with duffle bags of $100 bills. By “cash” I mean funds that were not borrowed against something else. This made a lot of people very happy because it was the exact opposite of McCourt’s purchase. The New York Times, however, sees things a little differently:

“In addition to their own cash, Mr. Walter plans to use money from Guggenheim subsidiaries that are insurance companies — some state-regulated — to pay for a big chunk of his purchase of the Dodgers. Guggenheim controls Guggenheim Life, a life insurer, and Security Benefit, which manages some $30 billion, among others. Using insurance money — which is typically supposed to be invested in simple, safe assets — to buy a baseball team, the ultimate toy for the ultra-rich, seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.”

Now I am no finical genius by ANY means but the Times article draws quite a few questions about this purchase. Essentially they are using other peoples money to buy a baseball team right?

“The transaction seems even more questionable when considering Mr. Walter’s own words to The New York Times two weeks ago: ‘I don’t want to realize a return on investment on buying the Dodgers. I want to have a multigenerational relationship that changes my life, Magic’s life, Magic’s grandchildren’s lives and all of our lives.”

So what does all of this mean? Well, maybe nothing at all. Maybe everything will be fine. Maybe Magic and his cohorts will trot off into the sunset 20 years from now as the guys who saved the Los Angeles Dodgers. But maybe, just maybe, things are not quite as they seem.

Read the full NY Times article here.

Since the season started I have watched Nation fan after fan flip over the 0-3 start. The majority of them seem to think it has to do with a lack of caring. This is a notion I just can't get behind. Are there members of the Red Sox with bad attitudes? Yes. There are members of every team with bad attitudes. Is that the reason the Red Sox started 0-3 and went 7-20 in September last season? Not likely.

I actually read one fans take on Melancon saying that he is disrespectful to Red Sox fans. Seriously? The guy has had two appearances in a Sox uniform. Another "fan" said that Beckett should be traded for draft picks because he hates Boston. Draft picks?! Now that's just plain ridiculous.

Any level headed fan can see that the struggles radiate from the act of pitching. Nothing more. To say that the players don't care is over dramatic. This is even more evident with the (game 4) win over Toronto in which Felix Doubront, Scott Atchison and Alfredo Aceves threw gems and were a major part of the 9th inning comeback.

So just remember, its only 3 games. Red Sox Nation must not fall apart.

Here is your lineup for the 04/10 game at Toronto: Ellsbury CF, Pedroia 2B, Gonzalez 1B, Ortiz DH, Youkilis 3B, Sweeney RF, Ross LF, Salty C, Punto SS, Bard P

And here is a little motivation to keep you going...

Here are the roster moves for the Red Sox today.(If you have a specific team you would like me to consistently check in on let me know. I'm a one-man show so its hard for me to hit every team in baseball) :

Placed on the 60-day DL RHP Andrew Bailey RHP Chris Carpenter OF Ryan Kalish

Placed on the 15-day DL OF Carl Crawford LHP Rich Hill RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka LHP Andrew Miller

Note: RHP John Lackey and RHP Bobby Jenks were previously placed on the 60-day DL.

Added to the 40-man roster RHP Scott Atchison RHP Vicente Padilla LHP Justin Thomas

Assigned to Triple-A Pawtucket INF Pedro Ciriaco INF Nate Spears OF Jason Repko

Assigned to Double-A Portland C Daniel Butler

Option transferred from Portland to High-A Salem LHP Drake Britton

The 25-man MLB roster

Pitchers (13): RHP Alfredo Aceves, RHP Matt Albers, RHP Scott Atchison, RHP Daniel Bard, RHP Josh Beckett, RHP Michael Bowden, RHP Clay Buchholz, LHP Felix Doubront, LHP Jon Lester, RHP Mark Melancon, LHP Franklin Morales, RHP Vicente Padilla, LHP Justin Thomas.
Catchers (2): Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Kelly Shoppach
Infielders (5): Mike Aviles, Adrian Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia, Nick Punto, Kevin Youkilis.
Outfielders (4): Jacoby Ellsbury, Darnell McDonald, Cody Ross, Ryan Sweeney.
DHs (1): David Ortiz.

Here are the winners of 2012 (aka who will play in October).


N.L. East Champion - Philadelphia Phillies (Depth of their roster guarantees this).

N.L. Central Champion – St. Louis Cardinals (This is a tough one but I think the Cards beat out the Reds).

N.L. West Champion - Arizona Diamondbacks (Thay have a very young, strong core kind of like my abs).

N.L. Wild Card No. 1 - San Francisco Giants (The return of Buster Posey should give the Giants some offense. Of course this could change depending on how many times he gets rocked at home plate).

N.L. Wild Card No. 2 - Washington Nationals (Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper lead the Nationals to their first playoff game, and Strasburg and I peed together once).

A.L. East Champion – Boston Red Sox (Their bats will prove too strong for pitchers and with 3 – 2011 Gold Glove winners their defense will dominate as well).

A.L. Central Champion - Detroit Tigers (The Tigers roar with the addition of Prince Fielder and breeze through the Central).

A.L. West Champion - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Albert Pujols gets them past the Rangers).

A.L. Wild Card No. 1 - New York Yankees (Sorry Tamp Bay, The Yankees are better than you as much as that pains me to say).

A.L. Wild Card No. 2 - Texas Rangers (The Angels and Rangers will go back and forth all season and in the end they both will make the playoffs).