It’s difficult for me to actually cheer Manny, but (pardon the play on words) man-oh-man, that catch-high five with a fan over the wall-hit the cut-off man-double up the guy off first was both amazing and hilarious.

Here’s the summary from an ESPN.com summary:

With runners at first and second and one out, Kevin Millar hit a drive to left. Ramirez made an over-the-shoulder grab on the warning track, reached over the seven-foot wall to slap a Boston fan with a high-five and then turned and threw the ball to Dustin Pedroia. The relay from Pedroia to Kevin Youkilis doubled up Aubrey Huff to complete the 7-4-3 double play.

I’ve instructed my sons to “play hard, play fair and have fun” when playing sports. It’s sort of become our mantra. Manny might not always play hard, but he’s always having fun and that’s part of the pro game that seems to be missing. {Witness the hullabaloo the end of last week about Joba and the fist pumping.}

Fifth in a series of reviewing Chien Ming Wang’s performances. Click here for Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV.

So how’d our favorite subject do last night? Pretty well, just looking at his stats. But I saw a few things that concerned me. We’ll get to all of that…

Select View Full Post to continue reading.

In short, there’s nothing new to this indictment (called a superceding indictment by legal folks), but what it does is take the 4 original charges, called “potentially vague and ambiguous” by the prior judge, and convert them into 14 individual charges, including obstruction.

[If you're into reading the actual indictment, click here.]

I was suggesting earlier today that so long as Bonds’ (original) indictment didn’t preclude him from leaving the country, that the Blue Jays seems like a pretty good landing spot for him right now. The Jays are starving for offense and just lost stud Vernon Wells for 6-8 weeks with a broken wrist. I doubt that Bonds is restricted from leaving but I suspect these modified charges won’t help his P.R. ‘case’ to find a job anytime soon.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Unrelated tidbit: For those of you who like nailing others on editing or spelling or grammar, the AP wire had this: “The next hearing in the case is skedded for June 6.” Guess the editor was out to dinner when they ran with this. Though, by the time you see the article, it will probably be fixed.

Well, those guys at the WWL are finally catching up to me. After all, it was six weeks ago (3/24/08) when I wrote A closer look at the next Dice-K. Jim Caple has the honors here, and besides a requisite anti-Yanks quip or two, the expose is quite interesting.

No, this is not a commercial for a fast food joint’s ploy to sell you half a sandwich for $1 and make it look both a) appetizing and b) filling.

No, you can get yourself a regular professional ballplayer for a mere $1.

As it turns out, Wes Helms got traded for $1. That is all the Marlins had to give the Phillies, who agreed to pay his $2.4 million salary this season. (He is under contract next season, though the Marlins could buy him out.)

Just awesome.

With a big thanks to Shyster, I present you with this, a wonderful email-based dialogue between a writer and Carlos Delgado’s agent. Priceless.

Remember the “I” in this is Star Ledger writer Dan Graziano:

“Sorry I missed your ‘joke.’ This is what I wrote: ‘the Mets are paying Delgado $12 million in salary this year plus a $4 million buyout on his 2009 option’I won’t hold my breath waiting for your apology.”

Glad I didn’t. Because it didn’t come. What did come was a total descent into immature madness by somebody who purports to be a major league player agent. Sloane wrote back at 12:40 p.m.:

“Apologize this retard, he’s making 16 this year WITH an option for next year @ 16 or a buyout @ 4. Nice research by you but then I guess that whole concept of fact finding escapes you huh? They didn’t teach that on the short bus did they?“

Seriously. Not making this up. I cut-and-pasted it.
……….
Anyway, maybe I should have resisted, but I couldn’t. I wrote him back again:

“That a joke too? You’re a funny guy.”

And then, at 12:46 pm, in apparent celebration of Mother’s Day, David Sloane, the agent for Carlos Delgado, wrote back the following e-mail, which I present to you in its entirety:

“So’s your Mom.”

And there you have it, folks. “So’s your Mom.”

Incredible.

Buried late in an article about Goose Gossage’s visit to the Hall Of Fame is this story. I love hearing from the ballplayers about what they were really thinking at a pivotal point in time. Not right after it happens and they give us something they think we want to hear, but the truth some time later.

I’m not sure what’s better: his story about deciding to hit a batter, the twisted joy he derives out of executing it perfectly, or the fact that he noted that he “saved four pitches” by doing so. Either way, I love it.

My head hurts. Trying to decipher the “unwritten rules of baseball” can do that to ya. So, here’s my short but sweet answer:

“That’s what gets him going and that’s what everybody likes to see, but if a hitter was to do something like that they’d probably say it was ‘bush (league)’ and you shouldn’t do it,” Dellucci said. “It’s kind of funny how a pitcher can get away with it.”

Sorry for the belated posting about Wang’s performance last night (Wednesday). Two excuses: 1) I was at the game (see pix below) so I couldn’t post after I got home; 2) My company reported earnings today and I just didn’t have the bandwidth to get to really diving into it.

Ground ball/Fly ball