Happy (belated) Hallowe'en

I was hoping to have the Talk Ottawa stuff up on Youtube by now, but the little hellions kept ringing the doorbell last night!

Bekah dressed up twice this year - once as Cinderella (didn't get a picture of it - picture below is from Disney World last fall), and as 'Jack Jack' from 'The Incredibles' (picture may follow later). Zak, camera shy as always, went as what else, a baseball player.



What you can't see is the death grip she's got on Cinderella with her right hand. We had to pry her little fingers loose.

Here's some interesting reading to keep you busy in the meantime. It's too bad the MLB affiliated blogs don't seem to archive....

*** UPDATE:

The only Lynx related Hallowe'en stuff I've got: photos of Brandon Marsters in the 'Hallowe'en at the ballpark' jersey.

Talk Ottawa - minor update

The Rogers Television program which "delves into the various topics and social issues that matter to Ottawa and its residents", had the councillor from Ward 13 (Rideau-Rockliffe), Jacques Legendre on as well as the candidates vying for his seat on City council. I was channel surfing and caught the end of a question being posed by "Ernie" concerning the parking lot issue. It came at around the 15 minute mark of the program and I was able to catch most of the responses on tape - the show repeats today at noon, so I'll get the computer to record it and hopefully have it uploaded to Youtube and then the blog later tonight.

In fairness to the panel, before I give my impressions of the answers, I'll have to review the tape. I will say that I was less than impressed with the incumbent's response; essentially blaming the Lynx for their attendance problems. They did note his potential bias - he was apparently against AAA baseball in Ottawa from the get-go.

*** UPDATE: The Lynx organization might want to note Mr. Legendre's recollection of his conversation with Kyle Bostwick with respect to 2005 Opening Day.

*** UPDATE: Unfortunately the link to the original CBC story is dead, so I can't verify the accuracy of the passage quoted, but here it is:

'Parking lot full' means trouble for Lynx
There is a very Interesting story from CBC-Ottawa about parking problems at Lynx Stadium (satellite view here . )

" The Ottawa Lynx baseball club wants the City of Ottawa to step up to the plate after the team lost hundreds of fans last Saturday because they couldn't find parking anywhere near the city-owned stadium.
There are now just 800 parking spots at the ballpark with seats for more than 10,000 people. There used to be 2,500 parking, but many of them were on land the city has since sold off.

Does building the LVEC on Anglin Bay mean the City of Kingston won't be able to divest itself of downtown parking lots for the foreseeable future? Smart partners are sure to demand this. The story goes on:

The team's general manager, Kyle Bostwick, says 7,500 fans got in on opening day, but hundreds more were not so lucky.
It's the worst thing that could have happened to a team that needs fans, he says.

"We're in a spot where we've opened our doors, trying to get some of the support, and I am worried about how many people were turned off to the whole experience," said Bostwick.

City Coun. Jacques Legendre is also concerned, because he doesn' t want to see the city stuck with an empty baseball stadium.

But the councillor for Rideau-Rockcliffe saw the parking problem coming years ago.

In the early 1990s, he opposed the stadium's construction precisely because there weren't enough parking spots.

Interesting. The councillor believes 2500 spots was insufficient. I was never very good with math, but I do know that if 2500 isn't good enough, 800 must be worse.

Here's the link to the original post.

Here's another about Opening Day 2005, and one more here.

Lifted from the story in the last link I posted:

Wayne Scanlan, longtime sports columnist for the Ottawa Citizen, says he believes the parking and other logistical problems make it seem as if the city has already given up on the team.


***UPDATE 3: Add this to Ottawa councillors reactions to the news of the prospective sale:

"Crap," Alta Vista Councillor Peter Hume said. "That's a 10,000-seat stadium with no tenant. That's just not good." (Ottawa Citizen, July 1, 2005).

No kidding.

AFL update

Nice to see some Lynx alumni performing well in the AFL -

"PITCHING IN: In a league that has been marked by hot hitting and not-so-hot pitching in the first few weeks, it was an especially impressive feat when Baltimore's Cory Morris combined with four relievers for a 5-0, three-hit shutout of the Peoria Saguaros Oct. 25. It was the Rafters' second combined shutout of the season and helped contribute to their league-best 4.09 ERA." MiLB.com

Too bad it came at the expense of some of the new Lynx prospects.

"The Saguaros ended up boasting the starting battery for the West Division team in the Rising Stars Showcase, although that hadn't been the plan until the day of the game. Phillies prospect Gio Gonzalez, who had been named to the club from the get-go, was a last-minute replacement for scratched starter Luke Hochevar (Royals) of Grand Canyon. Catcher Jason Jaramillo, also of the Phillies system, was named to the team just hours before the game to replace ailing Braves prospect Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and ended up starting the game ahead of original Showcase star Neil Walker of Pittsburgh/Grand Canyon. It was a good day on the mound for both Phillies representatives as J.A. Happ struck out the side in his lone inning of work."


MiLB.com

The Saguaros were beat up pretty badly yesterday, losing to Mesa 14-4. They've fallen to second in their division with a 7-10 record.

Phillies notes

I'll leave it to others to speculate on what impact the exodus of these players may have on the '07 Lynx roster.

And here's more wishful thinking admittedly disguised as little more than speculation. I'll play along, and wish for a small injury which would require three or four rehab starts here in Ottawa.

Please have your pets spayed or neutered.

This really is painful/funny. The poor guy, er.... lynx. Not only does he fall onto some steps, he manages to nail the package on a CONCRETE dugout on the way down. I used to wonder why he didn't have kids...

Lenny the Lynx

Stats are for ...

Well, you know.

I was taking a look at the 2006 Lynx team stats vs. the 2006 SWB stats - you might be surprised with the numbers, considering that the SWB made the playoffs.

Lynx team batting average: .261
SWB team batting average: .260

Lynx total HR: 105
SWB total HR: 83

Lynx total RBI: 538
SWB total RBI: 530

Lynx team slugging: .389
SWB team slugging: .388

Lynx ERA:3.59
SWB ERA: 3.28

Lynx strikeouts (pitching): 953
SWB strikeouts (pitching): 897

Lynx total stolen bases: 127
SWB total stolen bases: 106

Lynx team on base percentage: .323
SWB team on base percentage: .320

Pretty even statistically in a lot of areas. I was surprised to see that SWB, being a National League minor affiliate, had fewer SBs than Ottawa by a fair margin (i.e. almost 20% fewer) - then again, maybe the speed merchants were called up by the Phillies and never got a chance to add to the SWB totals. Having said that, they had 28 more doubles than Ottawa (268-240) and twice as many triples (42-20).

It'll be fun to watch things play out in 2007.

It'll be a slow weekend for blogging

All things being equal, I'd rather be in Disney World. Can anyone recall a more dismal fall than what we've had to endure this year? Rain, grey and cold, followed by more rain. What can you do, though?

Surfin' around the net I found a blog being run by the Phillies media spokesman, John Brazer - didn't have time to go through all of it, but what I did read was pretty good stuff.

Here's a list of more Phillies blogs that appear to be loosely connected with MLB.

There may or may not be blogging tomorrow, but thanks for checking in!

Politics 101 - Update

Remember - we get the government we deserve.

Let's see if there's any response. Scroll down to the "comments" section.

**UPDATE:

Sorry for the blogging delay today - a recent minor crisis at home (aka: a fire) has me tied up this weekend. Anyway... unless I've suffered a stroke recently, I could have sworn that I left a comment on Larry O'Brien's website. I checked back today and it's been deleted.

Hmmm..... I guess somebody's just going to have to show up at an all candidates meeting and put the hard question to these guys. On Thursday, I went down to City Hall, dropped $5 to cover the cost of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection fee and requested a copy of the lease the City has with the team. It'll be nice to be able to confront the mayor, armed with the agreement....

I'd be upset about this too.

The absolute nerve of the Yankees GM, Brian Cashman.

This is unconscionable, picking up a player's $13 million dollar option. Apparently, all part of an effort to keep him from putting on a Red Sox uniform.

Meanwhile, back in the 'real' world, last night the Saguaros lost a tough one in extra innings. Jason Jaramillo (C), in a DHing role went 2-5 and drove in 2 runs (he's now hitting .306 for the AFL season).

That's just... great.

Yeah.
Congratulations Fred.
It could have been me. A 1 in a 1000 shot – not bad. Had I won, I’d be off to Walt Disney World – really. I might even take the family with me. I’m somewhat of a minor Disney freak – were I a major or complete freak, 95% of my wardrobe would be comprised of Disney logo attire. I believe I’m at the 75% mark. Want to see what a minor Disney freak looks like? Here’s the first entry from my pre-2005 WDW trip planning blog.

Disturbing, isn’t it?

I’ll probably get to the Arizona Fall League results later today, but I figure I should clear the air a little first. As I look back on the 50+ posts in the blog, it occurred to me that I probably appear to be an angry, somewhat young man, who gets up too early, spends too much time on his bike and cries a lot. In my defense, I think it’s got a lot to do with this municipal election – daily sound bites from some of these candidates have really raised my frustration level. Beyond that though, I’m a pretty happy kinda guy, if not passionate. As I’ve said before, if you give me an issue I feel strongly about, a captive audience and a keyboard, stuff happens.

I’ll settle down after November 13. I'll sleep a little later. I'll ride a little less. I'll get my emotions in check.

Promise.

I tried. (minor update)

Lord knows I tried. When was my last outburst concerning the City? Last Thursday? Last Friday? I didn't want to rant today - didn't want to do it. It started off so well - a nice, piece of fluff post about favorite movies. A calm, hopefully humorous post yesterday. And now:

"In an interview, Mr. Chiarelli said there’s little appetite among taxpayers for big spending on public buildings and the city doesn’t have the money. So he hopes that public-private partnerships can see places such as Lynx Stadium and Lansdowne Park spruced up. For instance, if the CFL wanted to come back to Ottawa, the team would have to spend its own money to build luxury boxes."

Ottawa Citizen
October 23, 2006.

It's not clear when this interview was conducted, but it's tied to the story (I've linked to it above) concerning a candidates meeting being run by the Tourism Council of Ottawa. The bold type was added by me. From the same article:

"Pat Kelly, chairman of the Tourism Council of Ottawa, said Ottawa has a good airport and hotels but that it faces serious problems, including convention space that’s one-quarter of what it should be, aggressive panhandlers, graffiti and crime downtown. He said the national perception is that “Ottawa is Dullsville.”Mr. O’Brien said Ottawa’s tourism business has suffered from years of neglect from the city. He said the city’s tourism areas are “knee-deep in garbage on Sunday mornings.” He said lack of cleanliness in the core of the city is a sure way to repel tourists from Ottawa."

I'm wondering why the mayor is interested in sprucing up Lynx Stadium, particularly SINCE THERE'S INSUFFICIENT PARKING TO ACCOMODATE THE PEOPLE YOU'RE TRYING TO ATTRACT. Is the 'years of neglect' comment just hyperbole on the part of Mr. O'Brien (a challenger for Mr. Chiarelli's job)? If you read the comments made by Dick Brown (executive director of the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association), Pat Kelly (Pat Kelly, chairman of the Tourism Council of Ottawa) and Jacques Burelle (Jacques Burelle, president of Ottawa Tourism) it's tougher to argue otherwise. Set aside the issue of 'neglect', because to my way of thinking, 'neglect' doesn't necessarily imply any kind of willful intent. So let's frame the issue/question this way: Could the City have done a better job alienating, angering and offending it's ONE AND ONLY TENANT IN A SINGLE USE FACILITY THAT APPARENTLY HAS NOT BEEN PAID FOR YET?

Great. Now I'm upset again.

** UPDATE:

One of the guys at the office felt I hadn't made a strong enough connection between the Lynx and tourism, the subject of the Citizen article. I thought that much would have been obvious; i.e. that the Lynx are a tourist attraction. Clearly the City thinks they are, touting them as an attraction in the 'Visitors' to Ottawa section of their official website.

My top 10 -

Just to change things up a little today - not a baseball related post. No Lynx cheerleading today. I was surfing over at Dave Gross' site and I found a few shows that I thought were missing.



No Flintstones. This must have been an oversight.
No Wonderful World of Disney - how could you not include Disney?
Emergency! (I believe the exclamation mark was in the title - I didn't add it for effect).
Seinfeld ranks higher on my personal list than #6.
Gotta have Survivor, and more importantly, the Amazing Race.

Since we're delving a little into pop culture, I should come clean - I'm a product of the 80s generation. Never had the 'big hair', nor did I get into the British 'New Wave' stuff - but I was into bands like The Police, Yes (not really an 80s band), Roxy Music, ZZ Top, U2....

Top 10 movies (in no particular order):

1. Beauty and the Beast - clearly, I am not a man. But this is one of my favorites.

2. Lion King - I cry like a baby - "You said you'd always be there for me!"

3. Star Wars (the original) - I'm not a complete geek - but I did see this eleven times in the theatre. I was 10, give me a break.

4. Searching for Bobby Fischer - I don't cry like a baby, but I do well up. Great chess movie, with a little bit of baseball to boot.

5. Field of Dreams - I cry like a baby. Come on. Admit it, so do you. Watch - I'll make you cry right now.
Field Of Dreams Trailer


Told ya. Crybaby.

6. Ghostbusters - classic. So many lines. " 'Get her!' That was the whole plan Ray?"



7. It's a wonderful life - I cry like a baby. And then I cry some more. Donna Reed - now there's a girl you could bring home to mom.

8. Toy Story - timeless classic. "I don't believe that kid ever went to medical school."

9. Raiders of the Lost Ark - Indy. A man's man.

10.The Right Stuff - could any ad campaign ever come close to what this film did for Beemans gum?

World Series memories

Even though it's now been 13 years since it happened, I remember the last Jays World Series win almost as if it were yesterday. My wife and I were down in Niagara Falls for a friend's wedding. Having missed the 1992 World Series (long story), I was determined not to miss another potential Jays win. God forgive me, we cut out of the reception WAY early and went back to the hotel. When Carter hit it out, I let out a yell, and then Doris screamed - mostly because she was sleeping and didn't know what the heck had happened.

For my son, Zechariah, the '93 World Series was yesterday - more or less. This past winter he dug out my 93 World Series tape and lived the experience for the first time - so he's a little less than excited about the Phillies organization coming to town. They're still the enemy; he doesn't see Tom Gordon, Jamie Moyer or Chase Utley - he sees these guys:







Thankfully, it ended with this:



Or Zak might have boycotted the upcoming Lynx season.

In farm related news, last night in the AFL, Saguaros was on the wrong end of a 12-7 score; Kyle Kendrick pitched a 1/3 of an inning and gave up 3 hits, a walk and a run. The complete run down of the game can be found here.

Winter ball

Speaking of Ottawa Start, and if anyone is looking for a local 'winter ball' program for their kids, the Pinecrest Little League and East Nepean Baseball are running a campat Algonquin College starting January 13, 2007.

Meanwhile, seven Phillies are playing in the Arizona Fall League as part of the Peoria Saguaros. Here's the official site. As of yesterday, with a 7-5 record, the Saguaros were in first place in the Western Division. Zack Segovia (RHP) and Jason Jaramillo (C) look to be having success after 12 games. The season extends into mid-November.

Trying to keep up

On Sunday I noted that the Batavia MuckDogs were one of the Phillies single A affiliates.

Wrong! "Batavia is officially not an option for the Phillies in 2007. After 19 years of affiliation with the MuckDogs franchise, the Phillies will be moving their short-season Class-A from Batavia and it looks like they'll land in Williamsport." (source: PhillyBaseballNews.com).

Welcome to visitors who are finding their way here through the OttawaStart.com link. Thanks for checking in!

Sources (minor update)

I've compiled a pretty lengthy set of 'Bookmarks' that I check in on for news and ideas for the blog. Here's a sampling of some of the ones I visit most frequently:

Project Prospect
Reading Eagle Sports blog which is part of the Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle newspaper.
The good phight A Philadelphia Phillies blog (with a message board).
www.minorleagueball.com Another blog with a ton of links.
www.baseballforum.com A well organized 'message board' style site.
www.baseball-fever.com Another message board.

That's more than enough to keep me busy most evenings.

UPDATE: I killed myself 'googling' for this link. It's a 'thread' on the Baseball-Fever message board, complimenting the Lynx on the Jackie Robinson tribute (e.g. "A classy move. Our neighbors up north are generally a pretty smart bunch.").

Memo to me: If you see something you want to save for later, use the 'Favorites' button!!!!

Back to baseball

You know that guy in the stands, the guy who can give you the answer to any Lynx or baseball question he hears (whether you want it or not)? I want to be that guy this year - or, more accurately, I want to be the guy that has more answers than I do questions about the organization. Don't worry - I won't cut into your conversations in the stands - my son might though, particularly if he hears something he knows is wrong. In an effort to improve everyone's familiarity with the new Lynx, I'll post what I discover on the blog.

Certainly, everyone knows that the Lynx are Philadelphia's AAA affiliate. But who knows the names of the AA and A teams? The Philadelphia farm team system looks like this:

AAA - Ottawa Lynx
AA - Reading Phillies (Reading, Pennsylvania)
A - Clearwater Threshers (Clearwater, Florida)
A - Lakewood BlueClaws (Lakewood, New Jersey)
A - Batavia Muckdogs (Batavia, New York)
R - Gulf Coast League Phillies (Clearwater, Florida)

Just to mix things up, for today, I'll look at the Clearwater Threshers - it's just starting to snow outside, so thoughts of Florida seem appropriate.



That's 'Phinley', the team mascot. Here are his vitals:

NAME: Phinley

BATS: Right

THROWS: Poorly

HEIGHT: 6’8”

WEIGHT: 275 @ $5 lb

MOVIE: Jaws

SONG: Fins by Jimmy Buffet

TV SHOW: Shark week on Discovery Channel

BOOK: Movin’ On Up: Baseball and Philadelphia Then, Now and Always By Robert Gordon and Tom Burgoyne

FOOD: Philly Cheese Steak

They've obviously got a good sense of humor down in Clearwater.



Brighthouse Field, home of the Threshers.

Their website (www.thresherbaseball.com) includes a blog of their own, run by staff members - "Inside the Clearwater Threshers" (thresherbaseball.blogspot.com), which is an interesting feature, giving a 'behind the scenes' kind of look at things.

The team is part of the Florida State League (FSL) and "since the 2004 season, they have played in the West Division of the Florida State League, (and are) the High-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. They play their home games at Bright House Networks Field. Opened in 2004, the park seats 7,000+ fans. Before 2004, they were known as the Clearwater Phillies, and played at Jack Russell Stadium." (reference:wikipedia).

For me, trying to identify a prospect that might head our way during the season is beyond my very limited (i.e. non-existent) expertise. But it will be interesting to see if any of the Threshers make it up to Ottawa.

"Access"

A couple of posts back, I somewhat enviously noted that Dave Gross had "access" - the implication being that I did not. It's been pointed out to me, very diplomatically, that if I had a question, all I had to do was... ask. Touche (which, of course, is French for 'Touche').

On a housekeeping type note, I'm now hitting .400 - or more accurately, the blog's hitting 400. I'll have to put up a counter on the website so that you won't have to just take my word for it.

UPDATE:

The counter style has been changed, and I've corrected the time stamp for the blog (i.e. the time posts are added).

It's Friday

And 'angry blogger man' has gone away. Sorry about the outburst yesterday, but some things just hit a nerve sometimes - give me a soapbox and a keyboard, and well, you saw the result.

Here's something a little lighter to end the week with - a classic scene from "A League of Their Own".

In other news....

Clearly, Dave Gross is in a much better mood than I am today.

But then, he's got access.

Now the gloves are coming off.

"It's one thing to lose an election; it's another thing to lose your honor."
Senator Fred Thompson, Tennessee.

Something that Mayor Chiarelli ought to keep in mind.

"On Wednesday morning, Mayor Bob Chiarelli told Radio-Canada, CBC's French language service, that the city has spoken frequently with the Lynx about the parking problems, and suggested the lawsuit is a defensive strategy aimed at helping the team wriggle out of the money it owes.

"The Lynx have had problems for four to five years and it's very irresponsible to blame the city for those problems," Chiarelli said in French. "The Lynx have a legal obligation to pay the city when they leave the city.""

Here's the link to the entire story.

I have to tell you, this 'response' from Mr. Chiarelli infuriates me. I try to keep most of the posts on this blog fairly positive, but I'm going to have to make an exception here. Contrast what His Worship said with what Mr. Bostwick said -

"We've been asking for fairness for a period of six years," said Lynx general manager Kyle Bostwick. "After a long period of empty promises, losing millions of dollars and obligations not being met, you run out of patience."

No cynicism, no crass remarks impugning the City's motives for not holding up their end of the bargain. No baseless suggestions that perhaps the City sold off the spaces because they stood to make more of a profit than if they honored their agreement with the Lynx. By contrast, Mr. Chiarelli's comments are contemptible, because they are entirely without merit. Were I to accept his premise, I would have to believe that Mr. Pecor came to town, absorbing seven figure losses for six years, paid his taxes, paid his rent, let the City ignore their lease obligations, all so that one day he could move the team, and stiff the City by breaking the lease early. What a clever little ruse, what a scam he almost got away with! Thank heavens we had Mr. Chiarelli to piece it all together for us before it was too late.

"Helping the team wriggle out of the money it owes".

Mr. Mayor, I'm not a lawyer, but I know that you are. So it is with all due respect that I will suggest to you: If there is any merit to your side of the argument, please let the rest of us hear it. And then shut up. My suspicion? Your side is without merit, and you have no valid explanation - all you're left with is your bag of dirty tricks. Sadly, you've chosen the low road and your entire public defense has degenerated into mudslinging. The motives which you've attributed to Lynx ownership are, on their face, risible. Has this organization given you any reason to believe that they intend to abrogate the terms of the lease? Have Mr. Pecor and Mr. Bostwick been anything but forthright with the City? I know it's contrary to your modus operandi, but if you have any such evidence, stop tilting at windmills and SHOW US.

I believe that the mayor's comments are part of a well thought out smear campaign. Hyperbole? I don't think so. The City began tarring the Lynx as the villains in this story months ago - don't let them get away with it. Don't take your eyes off the ball: Why hasn't the City lived up to the terms of the lease? Or to frame it in Chiarellian fashion: Why has the City wriggled out of its obligations to the Lynx for the better part of seven years?

Sadly, I believe the City can't fall back on the truth or the facts, because neither are on their side. Sadder still, this mayor has lost his honor.

Whoa. (updated)

Guess I don't have to write that letter to the City now - the Lynx have brought the parking issue to the front burner very nicely, thank you.

Lynx sue Ottawa for $10.75M. I'll have more, relatively uninformed, biased comment later.

Okay, it's later now. I've read through the Citizen article, and surprisingly, apart from the headline, I found little to find fault with. It will be interesting to hear what the City's side of this story is via their official comment. I don't think anyone will dispute the disappearance of the parking spaces. Further, I think if the City had some - i.e. ANY rationale for it's part in the loss of the parking we would have heard it by now; the Lynx have been making noise about this for years.

The timing of the suit could not be worse for Mr. Chiarelli. He's currently fighting the O-Train funding issue, the loss of $30M in Federal funding for the Congress Centre, and is trailing not one, but two candidates in an election which is just a few weeks away (November 13).

But politics aside, I think this presents a fantastic opportunity to hold all incumbents' feet to the fire: Where do you stand on the parking issue with respect to the Lynx? Are you prepared to live up to the original agreement? The same questions should be asked of the challengers - particularly Mssrs. O'Brien and Munter.

Ottawa Start has a great website located here listing all the candidates for each ward in the City. Most have websites and email and are seeking input from their constituents. I will press my councillor, Gord Hunter, as well as the O'Brien and Munter campaigns on this issue - quite simply, "Where do you guys stand on this issue? Does the City honor its agreements, or not?".

I think the Lynx have done the right thing; if anything, I think they would have been justified in taking out their action years ago.

Junior Lynx Day Clinic



One of my first attempts with Windows Movie Maker. I'm pretty happy with the result, although if I never hear "Centrefield" again it will be too soon. I tried some other songs because initially I thought that Centrefield was a little cliche; everybody's seen a baseball video set to Centrefield. But in the end, I think it worked out pretty well. My wife thought it was a little too 'Zechariah centric' until I pointed out that, generally speaking, people didn't appove of strangers taking video of their children. The result? There's a lot of Zak.

I have to say, I'm really diggin' this video blogging/Youtube stuff. Which means that over the course of the off-season and next season, as a captive audience you'll be subjected to more of my directorial endeavors. I'm no 'Cecil B. deMille', but I get by. I especially like the shot near the end where Howie Clark makes the 'no look', behind the back scoop catch. I also like the final shot; after the music ends, I brought up the audio from the actual tape - you can hear Brooks Badeaux encouraging the kids.

I hope you enjoy it.

Alas, John Russell, we hardly knew ye....

John Russell was the manager for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2006, winning the IL 'Manager of the Year' award after racking up 84 wins and a winning percentage of .592 (finishing 5.5 games ahead of Rochester in the IL North division).
In 2002 he led the Edmonton Trappers (of the PCL) to the PCL Championship "and was named Baseball America's Minor League Manager-of-the-Year. He spent the past three seasons as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates coaching staff." (ed: Sorry, I've lost the link for the reference quoted). Rochester went on to beat SWB in the playoffs, 3 games to 1 - but the Phillies stripped the Red Barons when September came, so Russell wasn't playing with his front-liners when Rochester beat them.


Mr. Russell was called up by the Phillies after SWB's season ended, helping the parent club until the end of the MLB season.

Will Ottawa see Mr. Russell in a Lynx uniform? Hard to say; the Phillies just let go three coaches last week and "Gillick did say that candidates in the organization would be considered, such as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager John Russell, a former Phillies player who was the Triple A International League's manager of the year this season and will manage the club's Venezuelan affiliate this winter." (ref:Philadelphia Daily News)

And then there's this - "Phillies Triple A manager John Russell will interview Thursday for the Rangers' managing job. Russell, a former Phillies and Rangers catcher, was the International League Manager of the Year after he led an overachieving Scranton/Wilkes-Barre team to the playoffs." (ref:Philly.com)

I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that we'll have a 'new' new manager next season.

A little under the weather.

I think that my riding in all this recent crappy weather has finally caught up with me. Yesterday, while riding on my indoor trainer, something started to feel not quite right. Literally - within five minutes, I watched the graph measuring the watts I was producing (i.e. power) fall off a cliff. Within the next four hours, I threw in the towel at the office, came home and slept for five hours.

All of which is to say, blogging may be a little light for today.

League realignment

Everybody knows (or should know) that the Lynx have ended their affiliation with the Orioles. What you may not know are all the other changes around the International League since the season ended in September.

Here's a link to an article I found covering off the new look of the IL.

Interesting quote from the article, which I've edited for the blog:

"Norfolk is about 4 hours and 40 minutes, or 240 miles, from Baltimore. That’s a big shortcut from the 10 hour 36 minute drive, or 525 miles, to Ottawa...
This should prevent the Orioles from trying to avoid using their AAA team like the plague as they did in Ottawa. It should also remind the Birds that double A Bowie is not one step away from the majors like they seem to think it is now."


According to the author, the O's treated their former city affiliation, Rochester, the same way. I'd heard some rumblings about this in the stands during the season, and this article would certainly confirm some of the suspicions of local "die hards".

Milestone

The blog hit the 300 hit mark today, which I consider somewhat of a milestone. I began this little endeavor a little over a month ago, and I have to say that I'm surprised by the amount of traffic (which has really picked up over the last couple of weeks, by the way). The comments left on the blog and those that I've received by email have all been very positive, so I thank you. I encourage you to leave comments, or just a note to say you visited. Please don’t hold back; if there’s something you’d like to see (or not see), let me know.

Sustainable?

Zakky and I went to the Sens game last night, and quite honestly, we had a pretty good time. Having said that, and as I've posted previously, I find seating in a hockey arena fairly restrictive. When you add the fact that you can't move to or from your seat until a whistle... you get the picture. I was given the tickets by a good friend (thanks Mitch!) and if you look close, you can see they were in the 200 section in the home end of the ice. All totalled, had I paid for last evening's entertainment I would have spent $250.

$250.

That.
Is.
Un.
Believable.

And I don't think it's sustainable - at least not from my family's perspective. Yes, there are cheaper seats, but I would think - at a minimum - for two people, an evening with the Sens is at least $100. I know comparing it with the Lynx is 'apples and oranges', and that there are differences in the product, economies of scale, perestroika.... But the bottom line remains the same.

Four hours.
Two hundred and fifty dollars.

'Nuff said.

Player profile III

Here's another player that I hope we have a chance to see. Michael Bourn has got serious speed -

One of Bourn’s most amazing accomplishments occurred in 2005 at Reading when he tagged up and scored from second base on a sacrifice fly.

“It was a fly ball to center field, and the dude was going back on the ball. His momentum carried him to the wall. I knew I had a chance to score and (Steve) Swisher waved me home.”

Read the entire article here.

I've also dug up some other interesting information at PhillyBaseballNews.com (PBN), but it's 'subscription only', so I can't link to it. The bolded sections have been cut and pasted from various PBN articles.

The next story came out in June of 2006, a month before he was promoted to AAA Scranton. He was named the 4th best prospect in the Phillies system by PBN.

Michael Bourn's numbers haven't been the flashiest that have ever come across a stat page, but the young outfield prospect is looking to stay steady and consistent. Bourn is currently showing signs that he is looking to get hot and continue boosting his stock.

It's easy to look at Michael Bourn's numbers at Reading this season and be underimpressed. After all, a .264 average is nice if you're projected as a utility player, but it doesn't cut it if you want to keep wearing the centerfielder of the future tag that Bourn wears in the Phillies organization. You simply have to know better and Bourn knows that.
Of course, another thing that you have to do is be consistent. That's something that Bourn has done not just this season, but throughout his career. He's currently hit safely in five of the last six games and is hitting at a .400 (10-for-25) pace over that stretch. You want consistency? How about the fact that Bourn has not gone hitless in back-to-back games since May 7 and 8 when he went 0-for-8? And even though his average hasn't been stellar, Bourn's speed hasn't disappointed. The 23 year old speed demon has stolen 18 bases while being thrown out just three times this season. When all is said and done this season, Bourn's stolen base numbers should rival those that he put up at Lakewood in 2004 when he swiped 57 bases and was thrown out just six times.

One area of Bourn's game that is a struggle is hitting left-handed pitching. Being a lefty himself, Bourn figures to hit a little less against southpaws than against righties, but his .224 average this season against lefties is simply too low. He's also been able to steal just four bases against left-handers as he looks to get a grip on reading their moves to first base.

After skipping Clearwater and coming to Reading last season, Bourn has found himself back at a more pedestrian pace by having to repeat AA ball. The bottom line is that while he's been steady and consistent, the Phillies believe that there is much more in Bourn and want him to repeat not just his stolen base numbers from two seasons ago, but his offensive numbers as a whole. Asking him to be a consistent .317 hitter like he was at Lakewood could be a bit of a stretch, but he should flirt with the .300 mark pretty much every season.

Early Grade - C+ : You have to love the fact that Bourn isn't staying off base for very long and he's finally putting together more and more multi-hit games (he had nine multi-hit games in May). That's the kind of stuff that the Phillies want to see him do. The key to that is cutting down on his strikeouts. Bourn is on a pace to whiff 113 times this season, which is a mild improvement over his 123 strikeouts last season at Reading, but not enough.

The Phillies love Bourn's aggressiveness, but need him to develop a more disciplined aggressiveness at the plate. He tends to do too much in one at bat and looks to make contact with everything that's thrown rather than draw a few more walks. The whole key to Bourn's 2004 season was the fact that he drew almost as many walks as he had strikeouts (85:88) and he needs to get back to that sort of ratio and be more selective with what he swings at. His current pace of 59 walks just isn't enough to allow him to really put his speed to use.

Here's another good article from 2005.

Mr. Bourn finished up the 2006 season with the big club - hopefully we'll get to see him light it up on the basepaths in Ottawa for a little while in 2007.

Friends of the Lynx

Dave Gross is a 'media type' that I always considered friendly to the Lynx. Kyle was a frequent guest on Sportscall on The Team 1200, and Mr. Gross always conducted a good interview; he was one of the few radio guys who knew his stuff when it came to baseball. Back in July, Mr. Gross was a victim of some fairly major changes over at Chum. Thanks to Ottawa Start, I was able to find him - he's running his own sports blog which you can find here.

Take me out to the Ballgame!

Thanks for the tip Patrick! I just figured out how to add video to the blog. This will work out nicely during the season - I'll have to bring the miniDV camera as well as the digital now.

Thoughts on the post season.

Steinbrenner: My name is George Steinbrenner, I'm afraid I have some very sad news about your son.
Scene changes to Costanza living room)
Estelle (crying): I can't believe it, he was so young. How could this have happened?
Steinbrenner: Well, he'd been logging some pretty heavy hours, first one in in the morning, last one to leave at night. That kid was a human dynamo.
Estelle: Are you sure you're talking about George?
Steinbrenner: You are Mr. and Mrs. Costanza?
Frank (yelling): What the hell did you trade Jay Buhner for?!? He had 30 home runs, over 100 RBIs last year, he's got a rocket for an arm, you don't know what the hell you're doin'!!
Steinbrenner: Well, Buener was a good prospect, no question about it. But my baseball people love Ken Phelps' bat. They kept saying 'Ken Phelps , Ken Phelps'.
(Scene: Jerry entering his apartment, as Frank is leaving a message on his answering machine)
Frank (from the answering machine): Jerry, it's Frank Costanza, Mr.Steinbrenner is here, George is dead, call me back!

Classic ( UPDATE : Someone pointed out to me that not everyone is as much of a Seinfeld freak as I am. The above exchange was from a Seinfeld episode titled "The Caddy")

Zakky and I celebrated after the hated Yankees were knocked out last week (although, clearly not as much as the Tigers - carrying Leland off the field?!!). The only time we have ever cheered for New York was in 2001 - the city really needed that win following 9/11.

Stealing my very limited thunder on the subject of former Lynx players in the playoffs, are the Lynx themselves - from their website last week:

"Lynx alumni continue their drive to the World Series
OTTAWA - No fewer than 11 former Lynx players are on the active rosters of the eight Major League clubs in the 2007 post-season, which starts with three games today. These 11 players span 12 of the club's 14 seasons, with only the 1995 Governor's Cup team and the 2006 squad going unrepresented.If Ottawa fans want to root for Lynx graduates, then the city's team of choice must be the New York Mets, who boast four former Lynx on their active roster: OF Cliff Floyd, OF Endy Chavez, RHP Guillermo Mota and RHP John Maine.The Mets' opponents, Los Angeles, do hot have a single former Lynx players, though C Russell Martin is one of four Canadians in the 2007 MLB Playoffs.The other National League matchup sees a Lynx-free St. Louis Cardinals team take on IF Geoff Blum, OF Jack Cust and OF Termel Sledge and the San Diego Padres.In the American League, OF Milton Bradley and OF Hiram Bocachica represent the Lynx with the Oakland Athletics, while the Twins have OF/DH Rondell White. The Twins do, however, feature Canadians 1B Justin Morneau, a potential MVP candidate, and RHP Jesse Crain. RHP Rich Harden wears the maple leaf for the A's.The final series pits Detroit against the New York Yankees. The sole Lynx in this series will be C Sal Fasano."

Unfortunately both the Twins and the Padres were eliminated last week. I'm not sure that I can cheer for the Mets - in fact, I'm pretty sure I can't. St. Louis is my mom's hometown, so I think we'll have to pull for them. "Lynx free" or not.

Player profile

And I apologize in advance - I can pretty much guarantee that I won't get this finished today.

Carlos Ruiz is a catcher who may spend some time in Ottawa and Philadelphia next season. Last year he played 27 games with the Phillies, and was recalled on August 31 to cover off for the injured back-up catcher Mike Lieberthal. By all reports, he'll be invited to spring training and will make a serious bid to become the back-up catcher.

Here are his big league stats for 2006:

Year Team G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2006 PHI 27, 69, 18, 1, 1, 3, 10, 5, 5, 8, 0, 0, . 261, .316, .435, .751

(Sorry, I can't find a way to format the stats into something 'readable').

Another '06 highlight was his appearance in the World Baseball Classic as a member of the team from Panama (unfortunately they went 0 for 3 and were knocked out early).


Here's a link to an article from the beginning of last season. It will be interesting to see if he sticks with the big club next year.





"ATLANTA -- On most days, Carlos Ruiz can be found in a clubhouse group of the Phillies' Latin players that typically includes Danny Sandoval, Jose Hernandez, Abraham Nunez and Eude Brito. Even in this environment, the quiet Ruiz mostly listens, though he appears very comfortable.
At the plate, and behind it recently, he's beginning to look equally as comfortable.

"If he's as good a player as the reports, he'll be fine," said Phils manager Charlie Manuel. "He's starting to look like he's figuring it out up here."

Ruiz looked lost during his first callup in May, going 5-for-35, with no homers, one RBI, a walk and three strikeouts, batting .143. In two separate callups since, he's hit .375 (9-for-24) with three homers, six RBIs, two walks and three strikeouts entering Thursday's game. He hit his second home run in three starts in Game 2 of Wednesday's doubleheader against the Braves, turning a 2-1 lead into a 4-1 advantage.

This didn't surprise Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager John Russell.

'He was one of those guys who got big hits for us," Russell said of Ruiz, who batted .307 for the Red Barons. "He was one of those guys we counted on heavily to come through. The hits he got meant something. He has the ability to do that.' "



I'd like to see someone of his calibre in a Lynx uniform, but it sounds like Philadelphia might have him in red next year.

Still here....

but in a greatly diminished capacity. One of the things that often happens with blogs is that the bloggers become disinterested or distracted and the blogs eventually stop being updated. I'm determined to keep this one going through the off-season - I was a little concerned that I'd run out of material, but with the new team, spring training, winter ball, etc. I'm sure that I'll have lots to write about.

However, I'm still trying to get the basement done (hopefully by the end of this long weekend) and the computer, while up and running, is not yet connected to the net (should be easy). All I need now is TIME.....

So, a 'cheap' post today:

Only 183 days until the first pitch of the 2007 season!

Blogging outage

Blogging will be pretty sparse for the next few days - I'm finishing up some home projects (started during the 2004 Summer Olympics) and configuring a new computer (goodbye Windows 98!).