Down the Left Field Line:
Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes

Byrnes fans know Saulo from the Eric Byrnes Show. He has leukemia. Below is a press release for an important event. If you’ll be in Phoenix that day, stop by and help out.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Eighteen-year-old Saulo Morris is in a fight for his life.

He’s been here before, but this time he needs a bone marrow transplant.

Transplanting bone marrow is a tricky business. The first step is to find a compatible donor. The donor must be genetically similar to the recipient. “Finding a donor is a numbers game,” said Oscar Correa, a donor recruiter for the National Marrow Donor Program (http://marrow.org). The more people we can get into the registry, the greater our chance of helping Saulo.

“I haven’t really ever asked for anything as we’ve gone through this,” said John Morris, Saulo’s dad. “But I’m asking now.”

The community has pitched in behind him to host a marrow donation registry drive. The event will be at Thunderbird High School, at 19th Avenue and Thunderbird on November 15. The event will run from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The North Phoenix area around Thunderbird has swung into action with dozens of volunteers stepping up to hold what promises to be a significant event on an extremely short timeline.

Saulo’s situation looks grave. Where there’s life there’s hope, and anyone who knows this kid knows better than to count him out. But this project is moving forward no matter what. Saulo committed to the drive with the understanding that he might or might not benefit directly from it. In honor of Saulo’s fighting spirit, the only thing to do is to keep our commitments to this drive and to continue this work.

They won the suspended game 4-3, taking the World Series 4-1. It’s their first championship since 1980 and the city’s first championship in 25 years. Cole Hamels was the Series MVP.

The game ended with Brad Lidge striking out pinch hitter Eric Hinske. That put the exclamation point on Lidge’s perfect season. He saved 48 of 48 in 2008. The Albert Pujols homer has finally landed.

Congratulations, Philadelphia, and congratulations, too, to the Tampa Bay Rays for their great season. Most losing teams have to claw up to .500 before they become contenders, but the Rays’ first winning season was 97 regular season wins, beating the White Sox and the Red Sox, and getting to Game 5 World Series.

But, MLB, this was ridiculous. The later the World Series goes, the more likely you are to get bad weather. (Unless, of course, it’s in a dome/retractable roof facility and/or a dry climate, like Arizona). In 2009, the World Series will definitely go into November if it goes 7 games.

Undoubtedly, the World Baseball Classic in the spring plays a role in this, but still, it seems to me to be another example of calendar creep. Remember when March Madness actually ended in March? The Super Bowl was the last Sunday in January until recently, now it’s in February. Some stores put up Christmas decorations before Hallowe’en. Whatever became of distinct seasons?

ByrnesBlogger1

Final Score 3-2.

This game proved the old adage that pitching is everything in a short series. Scott Kazmir of the Rays got off to a shaky start, giving up 2 runs in the first. Meanwhile the Rays did not get a hit after the fifth.  The score was close, but it could have been worse. The Phils left a lot of men on base.

If the Rays are going to win this thing, they can’t give the Phillies as many scoring opportunities as they did. The Phillie lineup is powerful and they have been too quiet this post-season not to come out blasting sometime in this series.

Great Play for the Rays: B.J. Upton gunning down a runner at home to end an inning. The Phillies had the bases loaded at that point. The radio announcer said this was why the American League had given up running on him. D’Backs fans know what a rifle younger brother Justin has. Great arms run in the Upton family.

ByrnesBlogger1

For making it to the World Series by beating the Red Sox 3-1 in Game 7 of the ALCS. Excellent preformance especially by rooking pitcher David Price who shut down the Bostonians in the 8th inning when they had the bases loaded. Talk about grace under pressure from a rookie. WOW!

Thank you, Red Sox for making the series interesting. You could have folded in Game 5 but you didn’t.

Now, Rays, Beat the Phillies and the worst-to-first story will be complete!

ByrnesBlogger1

The Tampa Bay Rays are moving on to the ALCS, after defeating the Chicago White Sox 6-2 today and taking the ALDS 3 games to 1. They will likely face the Boston Red Sox who are leading the geographically challenged Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim–hey, I’ve heard of urban spawl but this is ridiculous–2- 0 in the top of the eighth in an elimination game for the Angels. Someone(s) needed to check LAA’s record against Boston, especially in the post season, before crowning them the team to beat this October.

ByrnesBlogger1

I am rooting for whomever comes out of the Chicago-Tampa Bay playoff. Right now I’d like to see TB win. I like their worst-to-first story and their ability to come from behind in the late innings. But the White Sox winning gets Junior Griffey deeper into the post season, and that, as Mychael Urban would say, is Good for Ball.

ByrnesBlogger1

I console myself by thinking that the playoffs would not have been that much fun without Byrnesie anyway, and that it would have been terrible to see Orlando Hudson sidelined for the second October in a row. But the bottom line is that the Diamondbacks would have won the division going away if they’d played up to snuff. They beat themselves this year.

1. Net blown saves (i.e. the ones you don’t win anyway) — The offense has oft been criticized as weak, but to blow a save, you have to be in the lead in the ninth. Had they saved half, or even a third, of the saves they actually blew, they’d be playing in October.

2. Defense — We can’t blame the blown saves on the bullpen every time. There were some games that the fielders gave away, much more so than last year.

3. Strikeouts (and I don’t mean by our pitchers) — The offense would automatically improve, without spending an additional dime to buy some high-priced slugger,  if the players all worked on their plate discipline in the off season and spring training.

As of Sept. 25, these were the stats on K’s and HRs for players with at least 300 ABs: Young 163 - 21; Drew 107 - 20; Jackson 58 - 12 Reynolds 201 - 28; Dunn (including Reds stats) 161 - 39;  Upton 117 - 14; Snyder 100 - 16; Hudson 62 -8.

This is why you have 3 guys who are with the team the whole year hitting 20 or more homers (Young, Drew, Reynolds) and still have what is considered to be a weak offense. The K/HR ratio for the above players is 969/158 or 6.13. As I said in an earlier post, Whiff, Whiff, Whiff, Whiff, Whiff, Whiff, Crash is not a dependable offense over the long haul.

The team model should be Conor Jackson who, as of Sept. 25, had 58 Ks in 532 AB’s (K/AB = .109) …and a .303 batting average. Since Orlando Hudson went out for the season with a .305 average, CoJack is the only guy on the team with a shot at ending the year at .300. I think the low strikeout total is a factor in the high batting average. He doesn’t swing at junk.  Stephen Drew, who has the third best K/AB (.179) of all the guys who had at least 300 ABs, is hitting .290. (Orlando Hudson, who had 407 ABs before going out, had a .152 K/AB ratio). Everybody else is mediocre (Upton .253) or worse.

If the team made it a goal to strike out no more than a collective 12.5% of the time, (K/AB = .125, right now it’s 969/3867= .251),  in other words, cut their strikeouts in half, the batting averages would skyrocket because the pitchers would have to throw strikes or walk guys. And pitchers know that walks will kill them, especially in the late innings. Be patient! The Red Sox are masters at it and they are going to the playoffs again this year after having won it all last year.

ByrnesBlogger1

as in wins for Webby. 2008 National League Cy Young Award to Brandon Webb. Yes, Tim Lincecum will win it someday. But not this year.

ByrnesBlogger1

is almost over as I write this.  Hoooray! I had never heard of Yankee Stadium being a cathedral before this year and I hope I won’t hear it again after this year. Yes, you will not be able to say “Ruth played here” at the new stadium. But it is not as if the Yankees, or MLB itself, were going out of existence.  Ruth’s monument and all the other monuments and plaques to the greats of Yankee history will be moved over to the new place, which is not very far from the old place. True, Ruth never played in the new place, but he’d know the neighborhood.

And he might feel at home in the new place, because the architects made an effort to recapture the appearance of the ballpark that Ruth really knew.

A worse break with tradition would be for the Yankees to change their colors. Nowadays,  crazy marketers have put out red baseball caps with the Yankee insignia–RED! Talk about disrespecting history. But a new park with nicer facilities is something Ruth would have appreciated. He liked the finer things of life.

ByrnesBlogger1

Eric Byrnes did his radio interview and LV appearance today instead of the usual Friday because of scheduling conflicts. He reported himself well on the mend, having recently run a 4:40 mile on a special kind of treadmill. He is going to use his full no-trade clause to stay in Arizona for the remainder of his contract. And his fantasy football team is in first place.

A word from ByrnesBlogger1 to any of you who might be reading this and thinking the team made a mistake to sign EB to an extension: Back off! Sure it was a disappointment that he was so badly injured this year. (A first in his career). It be’s that way sometimes. But he is going to come back strong. Mark my words: This time next year, you will be glad to have him on your team.

Conor Jackson is not as good a left fielder as Eric Byrnes!!!

BYRNESBLOGGER1