8/13/2006

Sunday Reading

Brett has this story that answers some questions over at RattlersReport.com: Rattlers' Williams trades baseball for real world

Goodbye baseball, hello life. So it is for former Wisconsin Timber Rattlers pitcher Harold Williams, who recently took a leave of absence from the club in order to better provide for his mother and two younger brothers in Rialto, Calif.

"A little while earlier, he had talked to me about it a little bit," Rattlers manager Jim Horner said. "I told him to think about it because it's a hard decision. Talk to your family, talk to the people you trust and then get back to me.

"He got back to me. He just needed to go home and help out his mom."

Brett could not get a hold of Harold for the story.

Interesting that the Tip of the Week at RattlersReport.com is Dealing with Adversity.

MILB.com had some fun stuff this week:

Patrick Brown continues his "Working the Minors" series as a scoreboard operator for the Tacoma Rainiers:

TACOMA, Wash. -- It was only a scoreboard that records balls, strikes and outs; runs, hits and errors. It couldn't possibly be that difficult to operate.

Yeah, right. After working a few jobs in the Minors, I've come to realize that there's always more than meets the eye.

For a couple innings, I would get to operate the scoreboard at Cheney Stadium, home of the Pacific Coast League's Tacoma Rainiers. As Kyle Piazza, Tacoma's regular scoreboard operator, started to show me around, I quickly realized how complicated things would become.


It wouldn't be a good story if it was easy, now would it.

It was Rodney McCray "bobblefence" night in Portland the other night:

Over the course of baseball history, many outfielders have run into the wall while pursuing a deep fly ball. Only one, however, can claim to have run through the wall.

That man is Rodney McCray.

On May 27, 1991, the Portland Beavers took on the Vancouver Canadians in a Pacific Coast League contest at Portland's Civic Stadium (now PGE Park). In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Beavers' Chip Hale lofted a deep fly ball to right-center field. McCray went after the ball at full speed -- paying no heed to the warning track -- and slammed into Civic Stadium's plywood fence face-first.


He's alright. He's alright.

Jonathon Mayo had a chance to "manage" State College in a New York-Penn League game. He won.

MiLB.com's Jonathan Mayo won his managerial debut Thursday as Steve Gonzalez hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to lift the State College Spikes to a 4-3 victory over the Williamsport Crosscutters.

"The Spikes have been gracious -- or perhaps foolish -- enough to let me be the quote-unquote manager for the day," said Mayo during a pregame interview with Mark DeJohn, the team's regular skipper, who offered some advice.


Tom Hardricourt at JSOnline.com has this for a lede today in Baseball Beat:

When the Milwaukee Brewers had the fewest days lost to the disabled list of any major league club last year, they were given the prestigious Dick Martin Award for that achievement.

This year, the Brewers have suffered so many injuries, they're in line for the Dan Rowan Award.

OK, there's no such thing as the Dan Rowan Award, but you get the picture. The Brewers have experienced more than their share of injuries to key players, a primary reason for the club's inability to get over the .500 mark.


Laugh-In ref. Good. Sock it to me! Also in the column; are major leaguers hearing voices? A look at the Soriano - Wilkerson trade from last off season. Jeff Loria = Mark Cuban?

Ryan Ori at the PJStar.com has a Chiefs notebook about a streak that is coming to an end:

ON THE AIR: Chiefs broadcaster Nathan Baliva's streak will end at 543 games on the radio when the Chiefs play a four-game series starting Friday in Battle Creek, Mich.

Baliva will be in Springfield for the 90th-birthday celebration of his grandmother, Grace.

"I've missed a lot of weddings and graduation parties, but I didn't think I should miss this," Baliva said.


Who keeps track of that kind of streak? What's mine at? What about me?

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