2003 Season

                                        Official Publication of

                                        The Bronx Bombers

                                                                    Special Edition of

                                      From the Bullpen

                                                  Guest Editor:  Mouse

   2004 Season

Edition No. 10

   April 27, 2004     

 

“I have a wonderful wife.  I have a wonderful father and mother, and wonderful friends and teammates.  I have been privileged to play many years with the famous Yankees, the greatest team of all times.  All in all, I can say on this day that I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.“   Lou Gehrig 7-4-39

 

 

          As I begin to scribe my version of the “Bullpen” this week, I thought this famous quote was a great way to start.  Even though we are all somewhat miffed and surprised by the early season performance of some of our draft picks, some good,some bad,  I think we would all agree with parts of the above quote as we reflect on the opportunity to start a new HSL Season and the joy and excitement it brings us.  Sure, it may be just a game, but “Boy, what a game it is! “

 

          I recently received the book “ The Quotable Baseball Fanatic” so I thought it would be appropriate to use some of the quotes to describe my fellow HSL members, so here for your reading enjoyment are my selections:

 

          “ If you walk backwards, you’ll find out that you can go forward and people won’t know if you’re coming or going.”  Casey Stengel.  After the latest edition of the Bellyflop, this can only describe Bob’s approach to the draft and his perspective of life in general.  Whether from in the car or on his feet!

 

          “Baseball isn’t a life-and-death matter, but the Red Sox are.”  Mike Barnicle

This can only be attributed to our resident Red Sox fan, Mr. Ted Bridges, proud owner of a new t-shirt and $100.00 lighter.

 

          “Always have a belligerent, take-charge attitude up there.  You have to cultivate quite a “mad on” while awaiting your turn at bat, a cold determination o ram the ball down the pitcher’s throat.  You’d be surprised how effective it is”  Ty Cobb.  This is undoubtedly the mind set that Mitch uses on draft day.  Although it was easier for him to make a “mad on” demeanor with his old hair style!

 

          “This isn’t life or death.  We’re like those surfer dudes out on the ocean.  When you get up on a good wave, you ride it out as long as you can.”  Barry Bonds.  This can only describe Itchie’s approach to making a near mockery of our leaue and his recent success.

 

          “You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball; and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”  Jim Bouton.  This has to simply quantify a lot of what happens in Ernie’s life.  I mean who else has their own baseball field and spends as much time researching the free agent drafts!

 

          “If you have some good horses you can win the race, but you can’t win anything with a bunch of mules.”  Eddie Moore.  This can only be attributed to the Irate Pirate and his slow start this year, and last year, and the year before that , and…..Boy am I glad that I didn’t draft Mark Prior! 

 

          “All I’ve tried to do as a manager of this team is to get the fear of losing the hell out of this clubhouse.”  Felipe Alou.  I think Big Guy has used this little bit of managing insight to scare the hell out of his club right into first place.  Could we have a worst to first burst this year?

 

          “Just stay away from firearms, Red, and don’t room higher than the second floor.  You might want to jump.”  Frank Frisch’s advice to Red Schoendienst.  Could there be any quote more appropriate for the Redbirds?  If it doesn’t apply to the noose getting a little tighter as time runs out on his ten-year bet with Scott, it certainly applies to the recent success, or lack of, of his team.  Everybody keep your eyes on our beloved Iowegan.

 

          “I love baseball too much to do anything else.  When the season is over I’m grouchy all the time.  I feel miserable.  I’m always sick.  I get imaginary pains, like a baby.  Only when spring training comes around and I can put the uniform back on do the pains go away.”  Woody Huyke.  How true it is that this quote hits so close to home for all of us but especially the tall one known as Blongo! 

 

          “If you became a Yankee, you took on the quality of breeding which the Yankees exemplified.  You became a Yankee, and that answered a whole lot of questions.  For some reason you were able to perform a little better.”  Waite Hoyt.  This has to explain the recent success of the Chiefs since the addition of Screech to their management team and his crafty handling of the team!

 

          “If asked where baseball stood amid such notions as country, family, love, honor, art, and religion, we might say derisively, “Just a game.”  But, under oath, I’d abandon some of those Big Six before I’d give up baseball.”  Thomas Boswell.  This could be applied to our very own Cubs, but if food had been one of the choices, I’m not quite sure where that would rank compared to baseball!

 

          “…it’s pretty hard to be lucky when your pitching is bad.”  Walter Alston.  It’s hard to admit that this one quote could so accurately reflect the state of my team this year, but I still have faith that someone will be trading me one of their pitchers for one of my hitters or closers before the All-Star break.

 

 

WEEK 3 POINT TOTALS

 

1.

Blues

490.0

2.

Wahoos

402.5

3.

Tigers

387.0

4.

Cubs

387.0

5.

Irates

375.5

6.

Redbirds

318.0

7.

Bombers

317.5

8.

Chiefs

304.0

9.

Reds

302.0

10.

Senators

290.5

11.

Skipjacks

270.5

12.

Tribe

225.5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STANDINGS THROUGH

April 25, 2004

 

1.

Tigers

1235.5

2.

Wahoos

1219.0

3.

Blues

1151.5

4.

Skipjacks

1136.5

5.

Cubs

1110.0

6.

Irates

1105.5

7.

Redbirds

1081.0

8.

Senators

1018.5

9.

Reds

984.5

10.

Chiefs

950.0

11.

Bombers

848.5

12.

Tribe

684.5

 

 

MOUSE'S MINUTE

 

          It’s always great to start another HSL season, when Baseball Tonight becomes a religious event, and you yell at the TV when it is replaced by a hockey game, or pro basketball game.  Can’t they tape delay those games?  I mean , when was the last time a baseball player tried to hire a hit man to kill his roommate?....  WOW!  490 points for the Blues this week.  Great job!!....  Due to the early season success of Johnny Damon,Craig Wilson, and Royce Clayton attributed to them growing their hair long, I am thinking of letting my gray locks grow for a little extra dose of badly needed good luck.  On second thought, I had hair like that in high school (circa 1976) and it didn’t seem to help me then....  Baseball’s average salary this year is $2.49 million!!!  And it’s just a game.  Right!!....  With the death of Pat Tillman and my Air Force brother having already served two tours of Iraq and returning home safely both times, I certainly find The Manning Family’s little escapade at the NFL Draft hollow and challenge him to stand and up and serve his country like a man instead of pulling the crap about refusing to play for the Chargers because he didn’t want to play for them.  Too bad the Giants caved, but I sure hope he gets “Ryan Leafed” and we never have to hear from him again....  Any odds on how long Steinbrenner will stay silent?....  I nominate Scott for the next “Bachelor” episode....   Wow, the free agent draft was red hot this week!....  If only I could have drafted Juan Encarnacion before those other two teams did!....  That’s all for this issue, here’s to a great year for everyone and remember how lucky we all are!!        Mouse

 

 

EDITOR'S COMMENTS

 

          Great work by Brother Mouse in demonstrating his facile mind, lightning wit, and unabashed willingness to plagiarize good material from others.  Well done, lad!

 

          Just a few other random rantings from your publisher and editor: 

 

Ð

When will I ever learn my lesson on Derek Jeter?  He might be great in October, but he’s stinking it up in April.  He stays in the minors until he gets his average up over the Mendoza line. 

 

Ð

Speaking of the Mendoza line, Bob’s Tribe threatened to post a sub-200-point week for the second time in our young (three weeks) season.  Only a rally on Sunday of this past week allowed the Tribe to sneak over the embarrassing and humiliating 200-point barrier.  I hope Underbelly has a trip to Branson scheduled in August of this year, when it will be nice and cool down in the Ozarks, because it will be the high point of his summer, the way things look with the Tribe.

 

Ð

Not to talk out of school, but an anonymous source reports that Itchie was one of five men in attendance for Dr. Phil’s recent sold-out performance at the Qwest Center.  Say, I’ll bet that was a good time.

 

Ð

I read that Roger Clemens is now No. 14 on the All-Time Wins List, and only ten strikeouts away from passing Steve Carlton for No. 2 on the All-Time Strikeout List.  What a stud.  One of the greatest of all-time, and we have seen him up close and personal for virtually all of his Hot Stove league career.

 

Ð

Does anyone have a guess at how many “successful executions” of the hidden ball trick have happened in major league history?  Yes, there is somebody out there who actually keeps track of such obscure things.  I previously provided you with the website for www.retrosheet.org, which is one of my favorite baseball websites.  I was surfing the site for other information the other day when I saw an update on the number of hidden ball tricks.  According to Retrosheet, there have been 210 successful executions of the trick, the most recent being June 26, 1999, when J.T. Snow victimized Carlos Perez.  Prior to that, the most recent successful execution involved that always-aware deep-thinker Rickey Henderson, who was caught napping by Rafael Palmeiro on April 25, 1998.  I love it.

 

 

          That’s all for this week.  Carry on, men.

 

 

 

                                                                                     Skipper

 

 

 

 

 

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