Jim Edmonds
 

Jim Edmonds' career might be over. He came up lame while rounding the bases after a home run the other day. He might have torn his Achilles tendon. He is, or was, one of the best center fielders I've seen. When he was on the Angels in the early 90s, one of the baseball shows, probably on ESPN, would regularly have a segment when one of the talking heads said, "What did Jim Edmonds do today?" And then they would show video of him making an impossible catch. He did it over and over. One of his catches is the best ever captured on video, IMHO. It was on a long line drive directly over his head. He is completely horizontal, diving away from home plate, when he caught the ball. The ESPN people must have played it ten times. It makes Willie Mays' catch look like a Little League play, with all due respect to Willie Mays who might be in the top 3 players all time.

If Edmonds is done, someone should do a TV special on him. He was a human highlight reel. Good hitter, too.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/players/5151/

I hated (well, strongly disliked) Jimmy Baseball when he was a Cardinal, and warmed to him a bit when he was a Cub. I still believe he made many of his catches appear to be a lot more than they really were; he was a bit of a showboat. But yeah, he was one heck of an athlete. If his time's up, he has nothing to be ashamed of; quite a career he had!

Edmonds and Andruw Jones make an interesting comparison. In their prime, both players dominated the Gold Glove awards for center fielders, but Jones appeared so effortless. Many of Edmonds' circus catches probably would have appeared routine with Jones in center field. Edmonds might have some showboat in him, but I don't think he could have showboated his way to 8 Gold Gloves.

He's had a very nice career.

I think the showboating might have HELPED with some of those Gold Gloves. Not to take anything away from the guy... he is/was a great ballplayer, and my hat's off to the guy. Hope he mends well!

I remember being in CF bleachers at Wrigley for a Cubs/Cards game several years ago; Jimmy dropped a routine flyball when transferring it to his throwing hand, and allowed a runner to advance to scoring position. The bleacher bums let him have it, taunting him with chants of "Gold Glove" and all manner of insult. He ignored all of it 'til the end of the game (which the Cubs won on an extra-inning walkoff HR), when he tipped his hat to us. Good guy!

No tear:

http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100922&content_id=14962770&notebook_id=14962772&vkey=notebook_cin&c_id=cin

That's good. I decided a while back to root for the Reds this year, so it would be nice to see him see some action in the playoffs. I have no particular connection to the Reds, but I find several reasons to pull for them, including:

Miguel Cairo, utility man extraordinaire
Joey Votto, nice guy, great all-round player
They aren't the Phillies
It's about time for the Big Red Machine to ride again.

I'm kind of pulling for them, too. Not sure what Dusty's love for Cueto is all about, but whatever; if the Cubs can't make it to the post-season, I'll root for the Reds (at least in the NL Central). They haven't looked too hot of late, but the Cards have looked even worse. No sleep lost there, though; it's fun to watch my Card fan friends writhe in dismay for a change.

Cueto is the only thing I don't like about the Reds this year.

The road to the WS leads thru Philly.
It'll be a one way trip for all comers this year.

Consider the last 4 weeks.
West coast trip 6-1
Home and 4-2
Road and 5-1
Home (current) 6-0
Current streak = 10 wins
That ain't hot. That's on fire.
Best record in NL = home field advantage.
NL = home field advantage in WS.
It's all lined up for them.
LY with only Cliff Lee they lost 4-2 in the Series.
This year with Cole, Roy & Roy: Lights out. Early. Against anyone.;)

Careful -- baseball's a funny game! Streaks come and go with alarming regularity. The Phils are tough, to be sure. There's just so rarely a "sure thing" in baseball anymore; guess that's why I love the game so.

My goodness, aren't we confident.

The Phillies are the class of the NL. Too bad they will have to beat an AL team to get the championship.

And before I forget to say it: Go Yankees.

Sure thing about streaks. And the Phils have been streaky this year. But these guys, like the Yanks, know what it takes to win. In Sept and Oct.
Sure they can lose, but their team is muuuuuch improved over last year becaues of muuuch better front line pitching. Halladay's never been to the playoffs. Oswalt wants a ring. These guys are driven to succeed. I think signing Halladay really motivated Hamels (along with better off season conditioning.) And Oswalt is pitching like he's 10 years younger. He's 7-1 in a month and a half. ERA south of 2.00.
They are gonna be tough to beat. Even if the bats go cold in NY in the fall.
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=251352

No sure things in sports. Just ask the '69 Orioles. ;):D:D:D
"Seav & Kooz and break out the booze!":P:D

Speaking of going cold, we might be headed for November (or at least really late October) baseball in an outside stadium in Minnesota.

Why did they build the new stadium topless anyway? Money?
I'm just waiting for the day a World Series gets caught in a freak blizzard.:eek::P:o

Not quite, but close!
http://weblogs.wgntv.com/chicago-weather/tom-skilling-blog/2008/10/snow-during-the-world-series.html