Ranger Sox talks continue

The Texas Rangers still show an interest in Boston Infielder Mike Lowell but to what degree is uncertain. Before the season Lowell had been traded to the Rangers in a deal that had Boston eatting a large portion of his contract. The deal was canceled after Mike failed his Physical needing surgery on his thumb. Lowell has since recovered and although has taken some criticism in the spring for his lack of mobility. The 35 year old is starting to show some signs of life with the bat.

I believe that a deal with Texas will eventually get done but i suspect they will get Boston to eat almost every last dime of his contract. Boston will eventually cave because nobody else is interested and they will lose it all if they just release him. Its just a matter of when.

Youkilis, Porcello suspended 5 games for brawl

Youkilis, Porcello suspended 5 games for brawl

Five games is not even close to justice for the dirty play of Kevin Youkilis. If you can’t take it like a man and play the game right you shouldn’t be playing it at all. Now if Porcello had been flapping his gums at Kevin after hitting him it would be a little different. Not justified but not as  dirty as Youks actions were. Porcello was backing away and Youk went after him anyhow. Then he says he has no regrets for his actions. He should be suspended for at least 10 days if not the rest of the regular season. At the very least he should show some remorse for attacking another professional athelete. He’s Dirty and he should be punished not slapped on the wrist.

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It almost seems wrong to bash Buster Brown on such a holy day.

Naaaah It’s what I live for. Happy Eater everyone for those of you who are religious this is a very important day for you ,go to church , eat a big dinner with your family. For those of you aren’t religious skip to the eat a big dinner and everyone should catch a ball game. Baseball on Easter should be a tradition like football on thanksgiving,at least it is in my house.

Buster (brown) Ulney has done it again. He takes poop and writes about it for an entire column. In todays fecal masterpiece he talks about how after one start  Cole Hammels might be in for a disappointing season. WHAT??? Its one start mr brown. CC Sabtahia was horrible in his first outing and came back to pitch 7 innings of shut out baseball the next time on the mound.

He makes a comparison to other pitchers who had high innings the year before and came back to flop the next season namely Curt Shilling 2005 , Chis Carpender 2006, and Josh Beckett 2008. I think this is absurd. Shilling is an old man, Carpenter in 2006 was injured and Beckett even though he was only 12-10 he still led his team to the  playoffs and in my mind pitched to what he is. His 20 game season in 2007 was a  career year that he probably will never repeat. Cole Hammels has been a success for 543 innings in his short yet brilliant career but for Buster Brown to put all that in doubt after 3.2 bad innings is stupid.

Swisher says I want to keep playing coach

Yankees role player Nick Swisher had no place to go but up after batting only .219 with the White Sox. Now a member of the Ny Yankees he has hit the ground running as a role player and is starting to turn some heads into believing that he should be  fighting Xavier Nady for the everyday spot in right field.

Now granted we are only a few games into the season but how do you bench a guy that has 7 hits 3 doubles, 1 triple, and 2 Homers in just 13 AB’s. I would think his 9 RBI’s and .538 batting average in 5 games will force Manager Joe Girardi to find ways to keep him in the line-up.

Nick has had his share of success in the past hitting 35 HR and 97 RBI’s in 2006 while batting with the Oakland Athletics. There should definitely be appeal to having a third switch hitter with power in the batting order to compliment Jorge Posada and Mark Texiera. If the Yankees were to bat them 4,5,6 in the order it would make it impossible for opposing teams to mix and match pitching late in a close game.

At any rate Swish is definitely on fire and his play in the field , as he showed playing at first base yesterday, and at the plate is more convincing evidence that he should be the everyday guy in the line-up. Yesterday Swisher scored 3 times on 2 hits that included a triple and a HR he also had 3 RBI’s and walked twice in the Yankees 6-1 win over the Royals. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Swisher might play in todays series finale.

Bob Sheppard could be Immortal

Earlier today the NY Times jumped the gun a bit and announced the New York Yankees Stadium announcer Bob Sheppard was going to retire for health reasons. The Yankees later started that this information was false.

Ultimately we have to prepare for this events inevitability. Sheppard is 98 years old and has been the Stadium announcer sense 1951 and was the public address announcer for the New York Giants of the National Football League from 1956 to 2006. In his time with the Yankees, he has announced over 4,500 Major League Baseball games, and has seen the Yankees capture 22 American League pennants and 13 World Series championships.

But due to the state of text-to-speech technology, Sheppard’s voice could be the voice of the starting lineups for the next 50 years, if the Yankees choose to go that route.

Patrick Dexter, director of business development for Cepstral a leader in text-to-speech technology, told CNBC that it would be possible for the company to create a program that would enable the Yankees to have every player – the Yankees and their opponents – be announced by Sheppard’s voice forever.

Currently because of Bobs health they don’t expect him to make an appearance at the stadium until mid-season. I would think that with modern technology they would be able to do a remote broadcast from his home but I’m sure they have thought of this. Some people think the Idea of recording his voice to use forever is a little creepy and others believe that there is just no replacement for the legendary announcer. Derek Jeter has already taken measures to ensure that his name will always be announced by Sheppard and has a recording that is played every time Jeter steps up to the plate.

So what do you think should Sheppard be recorded using the technology and be the stadium announcer forever or when Sheppard retires should they open a new chapter in Yankees history with a new announcer?

Tigers opening on good friday Catholics displeased.

Jesus  hung on the cross from noon till 3pm on Good Friday the Tigers home opener begins at 1:05pm against the Texas Rangers the only game scheduled during this time period. Does this mean that Detroit is atheist? I’m gonna go with no on that one. My guess is that when the schedule was written this was an oversight.The Rev. Ed Vilkauskas of downtown Detroit’s St. Mary’s Catholic Church said the game at nearby Comerica Park will keep people from services.  Nobody is knocking baseball or the fact that its to cold in Detroit for a night game at this time of year, but come on Good Friday? It’s a 2000year old tradition.

I hope that the Tigers decide to move the game to 3:30 or find another way to  work something out. Looking at the Tigers record last season it might not hurt to have God on their side.

Hey how about a pre-game service? It’s all about compromise people.

‘Zero regrets’: Schilling announces retirement

‘Zero regrets’: Schilling announces retirement

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A fond goodbye to one of the classier guys in the game and an avid blogger Curt Shilling. As A Yankees fan I will admit that I didn’t have a lot of love for Curt over the years. (mainly because he wasn’t on my team) He was a great talent that served his team well. Curt finishes his career with a record of 216-146 with 3116 strike outs and a era of 3.46. There are only 16 pitchers all time that have 3000 or more strike outs, led by  who has 5,714 a record that i feel will never be broken. The only active player that is even sniffing this accomplishment is Tom Glavine with 2,607 however it is unlikely that he will ever reach this milestone. The only member of the 3000 Strike out club not elected to the Hall of Fame is Bert Blyleven who is considered by most to be best eligible pitcher not elected and will continue to be on the ballot until 2011.

Curt’s Blog 38 pitches has long been a staple in my baseball reading diet and hopefully he will continue to share his musings and open-mindedness for years to come. Nothing symbolizes Curt Schilling’s impressive heart better than pitcher ‘s bloody sock, which he donated to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Schilling pitched Game 2 of the 2004 World Series just days after he had surgery to repair a ruptured tendon sheath on his right ankle.

Curt has 3 world championships and finished runner up for the Cy Young award three times. Between 2001-2004 heres how he ranked

Wins 74                         1st
Win pct. .725              4th
Strikeouts 1,006      2nd
CGs 17                            4th

So I guess the next question to be asked is obvious  Does Curt Belong in the Hall Of Fame?

Hello fellow baseball bloggers did I mention that A-rod is now buying hookers?

In an effort to give you more exposure (and me more content.) If you are interested in submitting one of your editorial blog posts for the whole world to read on Behind the Foul Pole. Drop me a note @ mdrook6206@hotmail.com. I’m a full service blog that is more than willing to give credit to others work by prominately displaying it.

In other baseball news it Appears that things just keep getting worse for    A-fraud A-Rod as now it appears he has connections to hookers.  Wow (takes deep breath ) this guy just doesnt know where to stop does he.

After his well publicized divorce with his wife Cindy, The Stripper in Toronto, The “Hey” thing, the steroids on top of the needed hip surgery we find out that he dated a hooker who got him more hookers. Whats next perhaps he will roofie a cheerleader and kill her while he sleeps.

Here is a little video that I found on You tube after Cynthia found out

Two former employees of the call girl agency say the Yankees player became a regular at one of Kristin Davis’ three agencies and wooed the woman in charge. “In regard to Alex, all I can say is our paths have definitely crossed personally and professionally,” Davis told the New York Daily News. The two met in 2006, before his divorce and “affair of the heart” with Madonna