Sunday Reading

Since there is a night game on a Sunday, I figured it would be okay to have a lot of articles to check out in this week's Sunday Reading post.

So, you want to be an official scorer. You want the glamorous life of watching a lot of baseball. How hard can it be? Brett at RattlersReport.com has a chat with Jay Grusznski, the Rattlers official scorer today. Good to see Brett spelled Jay's name right.

Striking umpire Cory Hinga misses baseball. Jeff Karzen of the Battle Creek Enquirer has a story on the Kalamazoo native that also covers player expectations of umpires (with a surprising dissent), the financial issues at stake for the strikers, and manages to get one of the replacement umps and Midwest League President George Spelius on the record. Good stuff.

John O'Donnell Stadium turns 75 years old this weekend. Steve Batterson at the Quad-City Times dives into the newspaper morgue and microfilm projectors and comes up with gold like this:

Four future members of the Baseball Hall of Fame — Satchel
Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Rogers Hornsby and Johnny Mize — participated in an exhibition between major-league players and the Negro National League All Stars at Municipal Stadium on Oct. 1, 1936.

If you are a baseball history buff, there is more from Batterson and the QC Times to read. This is an article on the pro teams that played there before 1931. Teams like the 1879 Davenport Brown Stockings of the Northwestern League.

Like Milwaukee County Stadium, John O'Donnell Stadium hosted other events to help pay the bills. Like The Rumble on the River.

Tom Hardricourt's Sunday column at jsonline.com covers a bunch of stuff. The upcoming draft and whom to take if you are the Brewers; Junior dropping expletive deleteds; and former UW-Whitewater Warhawk Bob Wickman getting his first win since August 10, 2002 among other things.


Larry Stone at The Seattle Times is looking at the draft, too. Pitchers. College pitchers. Lots of 'em. Some of the names in that story may be headed to Fox Cities Stadium at some point in their career.

Note that both Stone and Hardricourt make it a point to get the fact that Long Beach State third baseman Evan Longoria is not related to Eva Longoria into their columns.

Not much to this story in the San Antonio News-Express, but there is a lot to interest Rattler fans. Former Rattler Brandon Moorhead (WI '04) was released by the Mariners. Justin Jordan (WI '05) got sent back down to Inland Empire. Getting promoted to the Missions were Eric O'Flaherty (WI '05) and Stephen Kahn (WI '05).

Basically the same story at sbsun.com, but from a 66er perspective. Also a note about the 20 run, 27-hit performance the other night.

Are you a Cub fan? Do you think you need therapy? Why not try and do what Transmission over a The Cub Reporter did in his post The Makings of a Disaster: A Chronology? It is a minute-by-minute recap of the loss to the Braves on Friday. A taste:

Ninth Inning
4:04 – Aunt hangs up, I turn to TV and see that Dempster’s given up consecutive singles to start the ninth, putting the tying runs on first and second. What’s happening to Dempster???

4:05 – One of those wild pitches where the pitch was wild, but Barrett doesn’t shift over to try to block it, just goes for the backhand. Misses, and the tying runs advance to second and third. A walk to Giles loads the bases, no outs.

4:10 – I really have to pee, but can’t stand the thought of missing the latest Cubs implosion. 3-2 count on Renteria, bases loaded no outs.

4:11 – Renteria walks, to score another run. 5-4. Hear the sound of a slow, steady drip of water? That’s not Water Torture, it’s the drizzle before the flood. Chipper’s up.

4:13 – Dempster K’s Chipper on a 3-2 slider, with a weak swing by Chipper. Dodged Bullet No. 1, with Bullet No. 2, Andruw, coming to bat.

4:14 – Andruw Jones has very stylish sunglasses.

You know the rest, but the whole thing is very cathartic.

Is this good news or bad news for Cub fans? Mark Prior will pitch for Peoria against Kane County on Monday. Bad news, I think, because it actually gives us hope. But, he'll go about 45 pitches against the Cougars to get ready to head back to Wrigley.

The Milwaukee Admirals spent years in the International Hockey League and never won the Turner Cup. The have a chance to win the Calder Cup in the American Hockey League for the second time in three years, because they swept the Grand Rapids Griffins in the Western Conference Finals. Awaiting them are either the Portland Pirates or the Hershey Bears.

Let's see, former Gambler Tim Stapleton is on the Pirates roster along with a smattering of former USHLers when I did the play-by-play for the Gamblers.

Former Badger goalie Kirk Daubensbach and former US Junior National Team member Dave Steckel are with the Bears, but none of the other names stand out.

I think that I would like to see Portland win to face the Admirals if only because of this from their front page. I realize that it has already happened, but it still is neat-o.

All Pirates fans have been invited to pass along their good luck wishes and support for the team on Sunday before the team leaves for Game 7 in Hershey. The Pirates bus will depart from the Cumberland County Civic Center on Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. The bus will leave on the Spring Street side of the Cumberland County Civic Center.