I’m sure there’s going to be a bunch of these types of videos as New Year’s approaches, but this one was the first that I deemed post worthy. Sure, they missed some highlights here and there, but overall it showed us a lot of our favorite moments from this past year of sports. The one’s I would’ve like to see added to it you ask? At least one Jimmer from another area code shot, and something from that final day of the MLB regular season, Dan Johnson’s homer perhaps!?!
Tag Archives: Baseball
Goodbye Josh
Although Josh Willingham only donned the green and gold for a season, he was one of my favorite A’s players in recent memory, and it appears he’s heading to the Twins. Even if he doesn’t end up going there it doesn’t look like he’s going to be with the A’s either way. Whoever ends up with him, they got one of the most underrated guys in the league. Sure, Josh might miss a game here and there, he doesn’t play the best defense in the world, but he does give you consistency whether you have someone good hitting in front/behind of him or not at all he puts up production. He might be the first guys that came to Oakland, and didn’t bitch once about the hitting in the spacious coliseum. He didn’t bitch about switching to the AL for the first time in his career after being in the NL for five years (looking at you Holliday). He even wanted to stay in Oakland for one of those “hometown discounts” us A’s fans hear other players willing to take to stay with other franchises. While 29 homers and 98 RBI’s isn’t a monster season, in this Oakland offense, it was. I honestly can’t understand why more teams weren’t interested in him or making a push for him when he’s putting up solid numbers in the worst hitting park in baseball. I mean, didn’t Jayson Werth get a kings ransom last year for doing less than what Willingham did this past season? Why aren’t teams trying to offer him what he’s worth? There’s tons of defensive deficient outfielders out there that produce far less (see the entire overpaid Anaheim outfield). At least the A’s will get a couple compensation picks out of it or some money to bid on Yu Darvish with, since that’s all we really seem to value these days…
Keep The Change Ya Filthy Animal
Christmas season is in full swing now, so you have no excuse to have not watched Home Alone recently. Quite frankly, there have been a lot of Angels with Filthy Souls (coincidentally, two of them now play for team of that very name) over the course of the last week. Each day there’s been a new story, and each has a greedy bastard behind it. Allow me to run down the list….
Albert Pujols – Did anyone really ever doubt he would bolt St Louis for the biggest paycheck? Players can say what they want, but at the end of the day, they’re people like us. If we had to choose between a handful of companies, assuming the job was the same, we’d all pick the highest salary. We might take a couple bucks less to be in a city more to our liking, but that’s it. It’s an ego thing. You want the highest number you can get. Say what you want, Dierdre Pujols, but that’s what happened here. You can say you were insulted by St Louis’s offer, but at the end of the day, the reason is still because they didn’t offer as much money. Same thing. Pujols in an Angel uniform will enhance my disdain for them, but not nearly as much as…
CJ Wilson – He and the Angels are a match made in douchebag heaven. I started out liking Wilson because he made the transition from closer to starter effectively, and that’s admirable. But once you go and say Oakland fans suck, that’s where it ends. The reason the stands aren’t full is because the owners are selling us a AAA team with the clear understanding that they’re making no efforts to win any time soon. Texas fans wouldn’t show up for that, neither would Angel fans. Anyway, Wilson is coming off a career year, and Anaheim is always willing to pay. Wilson is a Southern California native, but far more of an Orange County guy, not Dodger material. I look forward to seeing how this contract plays out. He carries a 1-5 postseason record, with a 4.82 ERA.
David Stern – I really like what Stern is doing with this whole Chris Paul debacle. I like it because I don’t like it. Anything the commissioner does to draw more scrutiny in his direction is a welcomed move in my book. I’m so sick of this guy ruining my favorite sport that it’s gotten to the point where I just have to sit back until he runs it all the way into the ground. It reminds me of former A’s manager, Bob Geren. Ultimately, you just had to root for failure in hopes that it will bring change.
Winter Meetings Bringing Some Winter Depression
As I heard the Miami Marlins making it rain with their signings of Reyes, Buerhle, and Bell simply because they’re moving into a new stadium and now have more money. It couldn’t help make me wonder if the A’s could do the same thing if they were moving into a new stadium as well. Maybe they won’t spend on that same level, but it does give me some hope that they will be able to spend like the big boys one day. Unfortunately that we won’t really know if that day exists anytime soon because the MLB still hasn’t made any rulings on the A’s stadium situation and possible move to San Jose after three very long and frustrating years of waiting. All the 1,000 A’s fans have had to look forward to is if Andew Bailey or Gio Gonzalez gets traded for a bunch of minor league guys this off-season. At least last year they were throwing offers out there to Beltre and other free agents. This off-season it’s back to standard operating procedure. Our spending has gone down for three straight years, and even when we are in the free agent market nobody wants to come to Oakland unless they’re a semi-washed up pitcher or reliever. Even guys that want to stay in Oakland like Josh Willingham for a discount nonetheless, which is unheard of, since no hitter ever wants to stay in the spacious Coliseum can’t sign with the team because we’re waiting on the MLB’s ruling. I don’t fault Billy Beane like some have in recent years, because it’s impossible to build a team or plan for the future when you don’t know where you’ll even be.
Then the news broke that CJ Wilson and Albert Pujols will be joining the division rival LAAAAAAA for about $325M. No big deal for Moreno, just a couple additions to get more people in LA waving those game changing rally monkeys. I do hope whoever runs the CJ Wilson is a douche site keeps it going. It makes a ton of sense for the Angels to do this to try and take over the LA market while the Dodgers are in a rough downtime, and while doing so they also stole the division rival Rangers #1 starter. Weaver, Haren, Santana, and Wilson is a ridiculous rotation that was already good last year. Trumbo and Pujols makes for a solid heart of the order. The A’s haven’t spent as much as Moreno did in one day on payroll for the last four years combined made me even more depressed. While I’m not overly worried that Pujols will live up to his humongous contract, it will suck to see him playing against Oakland for 18 games a season. Another thing for A’s fans to be depressed about is the fact the Astros are joining their division which means we have more even competition to get that 3rd place finish next year. Fortunately you need 25 guys to play well to win, so there’s a little hope, but a more likely scenario is having to hitch more of my rooting interest on the Warriors and Raiders for the next couple years…
Kemp Got Robbed
Back in August I got to sit in the Dodgers dugout while working with the Fox Sports production team. Finally had the right time to pull out this picture I took!
So today Ryan Braun was named the NL MVP. It came as a complete shock to me for a few reasons. Maybe while I was living in LA, I just heard too much hype on why he was a slam dunk choice for the award, but the more I thought about it the more I didn’t see why Braun had the “better” season. Yes, the Brewers made it to the playoffs and won a lot, but since Kemp played with literally nobody else helping him on offense it made Kemp’s year that much more impressive. Make no mistake Andre Ethier and James Loney are no Prince Fielder or Corey Hart. Some might argue Ethier is good, but despite some of his numbers early on, he had a crappy year. I watched more Dodgers games last season than I’d like to admit, but honestly unless Kershaw was on the mound, the only thing worth watching in thier games was Matt Kemp’s atbats. I suffered through half hour periods of other players batting basically to watch Kemp bat. He finished with the NL lead in homers (39), RBI (126), and was third in BA (.324) in one of the closest attempts at the triple crown in years. To put Kemp in a little better perspective; his team scored a 644 total runs on the season, and he accounted for nearly 20% of his team’s offense even though pitchers were pitching around him all season long (trust me I saw how few pitches he had to hit, and it was Bonds-esque). Oh yeah, and once on base Kemp did another thing better than Braun, which was steal bases. Kemp had 40 thefts to Braun’s 33. Was it Kemp’s fault the rest of his team wasn’t able to score more runs for them to win more games? He came through every time he could and then some. You know what else was impressive in Kemp’s stats that I came across, is he has five walk off hits, and three were homers. Braun had three walk off hits this year, and only one was a homer.
Putting the all the offensive numbers aside that clearly point to Kemp over Braun, doesn’t playing a harder position much better than the other guy playing a weaker position give you an upper hand in voting? I go back to the rookie of the year race last year, and how Buster Posey won the award over Jason Heyward. Heyward had slightly better numbers and had played more games, but Posey won the award because many cited he played the tougher position. Is Braun an above average outfielder with a great arm? Yes, but he plays left field, the spot usually designated for the worst outfielder on the team. Matt Kemp plays center field at a gold glove level. Sure I get it winning means something, but after I took a closer look at it today, I don’t understand how the BWAA made thier choice. Maybe they hate McCourt as much as Dodgers fans, and decided they couldn’t have the Cy young winner and the MVP under his watch. Anyways, congrats Braun you are a great player, but didn’t deserve the award this year in my eyes. At least Kemp can sleep well on his nice pile of cash money!
A’s Bring Back Pitching Coach Curt Young, And Hope For 2012
Curt Young ditches his team of drunks for younger kids who aren't old enough to drink
With a football resurgance going on in the Bay Area – the Raiders and 49ers are both off the great starts in the NFL season – Northern California baseball fans are wondering what it would be like if their MLB teams returned to contention next year. Sure, the Giants are, for a few more days, the reigning World Series champions, but they took a step back this year. But, if you know us, you know Doin Work is more about the A’s anyway. Over the second half of the season, it became clear that Oakland is not too far off from being competitive again. The pitching was clearly there, they just needed to find the offense to go with it, which has been a problem since the A’s went to the ALCS in 2006. But after we finally got rid of manager Bob Geren, the hitting finally came around. Problem is, the pitching suffered. Injuries were a factor, losing guys like Dallas Braden and Brett Anderson certainly hurt, but even ace Trevor Cahill had a down year. While I’m not so sure pitching coach Ron Romanick was the problem, there’s no denying the fact that the A’s pitching staff had much success under his predecessor, Curt Young. Young was let go last year to take the Boston Red Sox position, but we all know what happened there last year. With the Epstein-Francona regime ousted from power, Curt was left looking for a new team. Fortunately, the A’s wereright here waiting (as Richard Marx once sang in 1989 when Young helped pitch the A’s to a World Series pennant). Before he left to coach the Red Sox beer-drinking, fried chicken eating, video game playing bums, Young led the A’s staff to a 3.47 ERA, the lowest for an AL team in 20 years. It’s pretty much the same staff he left, with Braden and Anderson set to rejoin Cahill, and perhaps the new ace of the staff, all-star Gio Gonzalez. So, if Curt Young can help return the rotation to top form, it will allow the A’s front office and coaching staff to focus all of their attention on the offense, where it absolutely belongs.
What’s your problem Bud!?!
With the first pitch of the World Series only minutes away, I ran across the story about Dallas Mavericks finals MVP, Dirk Nowitzki’s bid to throw out a first pitch at one of the games in Arlington Texas was denied by Bud Selig. Apparently he’s an avid Rangers fan that goes to the games, and has thrown out a first pitch before. The decision apparently wasn’t because of the lockout or anything like that, but more so because he’s not a recognizable enough of a figure. I’m sure the country singer they decide to put in there every sports fan will know…
Well, let’s start with the girlfriend test. Could my girlfriend (who doesn’t know much about sports) tell you who he is? Yes, she could pick him out of a group of awkward looking tall white guys. Maybe there’s more recognizable players in the NBA you could put out there, but where are most of the people that will be watching one of the lowest rated WS in recent history? People in Texas, where Dirk is a god. To top it off saying Dirk doesn’t have national appeal is very shortsighted. Didn’t he just give every white boy with hoop dreams hope after winning the finals MVP during the highest (TV) rated finals ever? It’s funny how the NBA finals will easily outproduce the MLB World Series in the ratings. Maybe that’s how much Selig hates Cuban. He doesn’t even want his employees around baseball even if they aren’t a threat to buy a team.
Even if Dirk did throw out the first pitch, how many times do we even see the unofficial “first pitch” televised? The only times I actually see that celebrity “first pitch” is on youtube clips when the person throws the ball 20 feet short of the plate or into the backstop over the catchers head. When I go to games I can’t even remember a time that I ever saw the first pitch, let alone cared that much who it was throwing it. It might be a 15 second event at most. Seems like if the Rangers wanted Dirk, they should’ve gotten to put Dirk out there. Maybe Selig is making some of his last attempts to keep baseball’s pre-historic thinking in tact. Man I hope he retires and we have a new MLB commish in 2012. Maybe then we’ll actually hear what the verdict is on the A’s territorial rights…
Doin ALCS Thoughts…
As I was watching the Tigers put up some runs on CJ Wilson today, it hit me, I genuinely hate the Rangers. I hope anyone BUT them wins the World Series. I guess I had so much respect for my favorite A’s coach over the past two decades, Ron Washington, that I was blinded that they were in the same division as my favorite team and was inexplicably rooting for them to succeed. I can comfortably say the A’s are now under the Curse of the Wash, and I’m no longer rooting for the Rangers to do anything good ever again. Under Nolan Ryan, they’ve been a well run organization that makes solid decisions with trades, signings, and draft picks (sucks, sucks, and sucks). I’m guessing there’s a little jealousy mixed in there. My disdain for CJ mostly came from his comments in August about how A’s fans suck, and that was the tipping point. Since then I’ve been rooting for injuries to the guy, and I can’t say that about many. Especially since he’s one of the main guys helping keep Hamilton off the junk.
All hatred aside, I honestly don’t see the Tigers being able to win the next two in Texas to take this series. They have a ton of injuries, and even home run swings are painful at times. They seem to be hanging on by a thread every inning as the Rangers constantly have men in scoring position, but one can only hope that Texas collapses and they slowly get labeled playoff chokers. If the Tigers can get to Fister for a game 7, you never know what can happen. He shut them down the Rangers offense in game 3, but I’m not entirely sure he can duplicate that in Arlington’s launching pad of a park even though he’s a ground ball pitcher.
The bottom of the 6th was the most enjoyable inning of game 5, which started with a single by Raburn. Then Miguel Cabrera bounced one off third base which went over Beltre’s head (who used Oakland’s offer as a bargaining chip this off-season) gave me a little feeling of vindication for shunning us. V-Mart’s triple was pretty solid, but the one that really got me going was Delmon Young’s second homer of the game. Maybe it’s also a little because I said the Tigers wouldn’t be where they are without Delmon about a month ago, but watching the Rangers miserable inning made me happiest I’d been all playoffs. I wasn’t sure what my point was when I started this post, but if it gave you any reasons to root against the Rangers, I think I did my job!
What Would Stern Do? – MLB Edition
Uh oh, the Yankees are on the brink of elimination tonight. To make matters worse, they’re sending AJ Burnett to the mound. Fortunately Major League Baseball is the least corrupt of the professional sports leagues. I can’t help but wonder, though, if NBA Commissioner David Stern was running MLB. First, they wouldn’t even be in this predicament in the first place. Why? Because the Red Sox would be in the playoffs right now. Remember that wild, amazing 162nd night of baseball we all had last Wednesday night? It never would’ve happened in the NBA since Stern would have made sure all the dollar signs associated with the Red Sox got in rather than the one dollar sign next to the Tampa Bay Rays. However, put in the position MLB is now, with the Yankees on the brink of elimination, and I know the NBA front office would be going crazy. We’d be in store for some of the worst umpiring ever witnessed tonight (we still may be). Here are some measures I would put in place tonight if I were David Stern (besides jumping in front of a train for the greater good of humanity)….
- AJ Burnet suspended for insert prior incident here - This is quite simple. Dig up some prior incident on Burnett’s criminal record – surely he has one – and have someone close to the situation go public with it. There has to be an ex-girlfriend out there who can re-hash an old domestic altercation. Suspend Burnett, force the Yankees to start someone else, thus improving their chances of winning.
- Exercise the Bartman Clause - Ever think back to the Bartman incident and think, “Hey, that would have been an out if it were the other team.”? Be it financial or something else, find a way to entice Detroit fans to reach over the wall. If they snag a ball out of play off a Tiger’s bat, then it’s an out. If a Yankee player hits it, give him a do over. This would really give New York a fair unfair advantage.
- Humidor in the Yankee clubhouse - Oh man, this one makes David Stern drool! Unfortunately for him, it’d be impossible to make each team play with two different balls. Otherwise, he’d have done it in a heartbeat. In baseball, it can be pulled off. If I am Tigers player, I’m making sure to grab a ball while I’m at bat, and also grab one in the field, and then run scientific tests on it afterward. No big league player is going to do that though, so this move could be easily pulled off undetected.
- Call more fouls - I know there’s no fouls in baseball (aside from foul balls), but one thing the NBA is really good at is star treatment. Fouls on Lebron James aren’t fouls on Lou Amundson. Let’s do the same thing in Major League Baseball. It’s true that supertstars already get special treatment. Look no further than Derek Jeter’s final at-bat last night in the 9th inning. Valvered threw a pitch for a ball that would have undoubtedly been called strike three against 99% of player. But let’s take it a step further. Let’s penalize other players for imeding the stars’ performance. Remember when A’s pitcher Dallas Braden told Alex Rodriguez to stay the f*** off his mound? Toss him! It’s the postseason now. The stakes are higher. If Porcello comes inside on Cano, throw him out of the game! There’s a good chance you can get Leyland out of there too.
Best Baseball Teams On Film
On the heels of one hell of an introduction to the MLB Postseason, a lot of us have received the shot in the arm we needed to get captivated by baseball in the form of a dramatic 162nd day of the regular season. Even though the A’s failed to qualify for the postseason for the fifth straight year, my season isn’t quite over yet. Today I’ll finally be heading out to the theater to check out the new Billy Beane flick, “Moneyball.” I’m really curious, and in some ways scared, to see how I feel about it. The movie looks great on paper. A-List actors, well-respected writers, and a critically acclaimed director make it an immediate favorite to win the World Series of baseball movies. Even the reviews are pretty much nothing but solid. I’ve even heard the word OSCAR tossed around. But I’m scared to get my hopes up to high for a movie I’m about to see, let alone one about my beloved A’s. I’ve found over the years, that the way I feel about the team is reflective of the way I feel about the movie, and vice versa. So, I’m especially curious to see how I digest Moneyball, which documents the 2002 season, which will forever be etched in stone in my memory. I went to somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 games that year, including the historic 20th win in a row, as well as the game 2 victory over Boston in the ALDS (Dyslecix and I left the Coliseum with little doubt that this series was a wrap). For that reason, I expect plenty of goosebumps as some of Hollywood’s finest reenact some of my most memorable A’s moments. Every clip of the movie I’ve watched so far has looked pretty bad. I didn’t see The Social Network or Capote, so I don’t really know what to expect when it comes to screenplay and directing. All I can hope for is that the movie doesn’t change the way I feel about the A’s. If anything, I’m worried it’ll make me long for the good ol’ days when my team was a winner. We’ll know, though, if that happens, then the movie was a success. In the meantime, I’m going to take a look at other famous movies about a particular MLB Baseball team and see how it helped form opinion – either about the team or the movie….
Minnesota Twins: Little Big League - I’ve always been neutral on the Twins. On the one hand, they’re a fellow low-budget, moneyball-type team. On the other team, they seem to pop up against the A’s in the playoffs every few years. I love this movie though, for two reasons. The fella who plays Lou is Timothy Busfield, who’s from Sacramento. Even more impressive is that Billy Heywood is played by Luke Edwards. Many of us remember him as the little brother of Fred Savage in the classic Nintendo film, The Wizard. Few of us remember him as the title role in the based-on-a-true-story, I Know My First Name Is Steven.
Chicago Cubs: Rookie Of The Year - The only way you don’t love this movie is if you’re over 30. Otherwise, you dreamed of breaking your arm and magically being able to throw 105 mph. This movie always reminds of a relaxing weekend day, probably because that’s always when it’s on TV. It’s also probably because it’s about the Cubs, so all of the game footage is during the day. People often fail to make the connection between Henry Rowengartner and Kevin from American Pie, but overall, he was good in this movie – except when he struck a guy out and said, “Kewl!” The Cubs have been scouring the Little Leagues ever since, and have yet to find a pitcher as good as Rowengartner.
Cleveland Indians: Major League I & II - I probably would have liked the Indians no matter what, since my best childhood friend’s cousin was the manager of the team from 1991-1999. Even if that weren’t the case, I’d always be a closet Indian fan thanks to the Major League movies. Know what else? I probably would have never picked them to go to the World Series this year either if it weren’t for these movies.
Los Angeles Dodgers: The Sandlot - I’m pulling this one out of my ass here. I’ve seen most of the Sandlot a thousand times, but mostly on TV, and therefore rarely in its entirety. So, if I’m wrong about the kid ending up on the Dodgers, please forgive me. But if it’s true, it’s only fitting that one of that classic group of kids ended up on a good team. I liked the Sandlot gang and I like the Dodgers (with the exception of 1988)
New York Yankees: *61, Pride Of The Yankees, The Scout - For all the movies about the Yankees, I don’t think I’ve seen any of them. That’s pretty reflective of real-life, where I have a vague grasp of Yankees history, but haven’t really made the effort to get to know all the facts.
Anaheim Angels of California: Angels In The Outfield - Don’t like the Angels. Never saw the movie. Looks like a pretty star-studded cast with Danny Glover, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Adrien Brody, and Matthew McConaughey. I’m still not gonna go and watch it though. My life seems to be better without the Angels around.
Boston Red Sox: Fever Pitch - I gave this movie a chance, because I thought it would at least be entertaining. Negative feelings about Boston aside, this movie was so bad, so bad, so bad. If this movie was about my favorite team I would stop liking them. I’m trying to picture the Oakland version of this movie, but all that comes to mind is Poetic Justice…
Detroit Tigers: For The Love Of The Game - I’ve never seen this, but it stars Kevin Costner, so perhaps I’m better off steering clear. I know of one friend who swears this is a great movie, but she’s a Red Sox fan, so perhaps I’m better off steering clear.
San Francisco Giants: A League Of Their Own - Tom Hanks plays Bruce Bochy in this touching film about a bunch of women who came together to build a winner. Geena Davis stars as Buster Posey, and Madonna shines as pitcher Matt Cain. Lori Petty scored a breakthrough performance in her role as Tim Lincecum. But perhaps the star of the show was Rosie O’Donnell as Pablo Sandoval. The physical resemblence is out of this world.
Oakland Athletics: Moneyball - TO BE DETERMINED…..
How good was tonight for baseball?
I don’t even know where to start with all the wild games that just went down, so I won’t try to tell you since you’ve already probably seen the highlights by now, and if you haven’t you better flip on the TV, and check out one of the wildest last days of the season in MLB history. Everynight in baseball you can see something you’ve never seen, but I doubt I’ll ever see something that will duplicate tonight. The Rays alone could probably write Moneyball II about this season after their biggest signings in the off-season were Damon and Manny. They also lost pretty much their entire bullpen along with a handful of quality players. I’ve always liked Dan Johnson (grew up with the A’s). Mceezy and I definitely had a texting frenzy when he went deep to tie the game. The Cards were in the least exciting game of the day, but they survived tons of injuries and pushed their way into the playoffs. Are the Red Sox back to being cursed? Doubt it, but I bet we’ll hear Boston start complaining about being cursed again if this becomes a trend or maybe even if it doesn’t. I think the Braves are much more cursed of the two losers on this wild Wednesday. In the end, the Braves relied a little too much on rookies, this won’t be the last we see of them. The first thing I thought about tonight was, they better do a 30 for 30 on the two 9 game comebacks, and this crazy finale on the last day of the season. It has to be better than the Bartman crap they gave us this week (which I gave up on after 15 minutes).
Having one of the craziest days in baseball history has me more fired up for the playoffs than I thought I’d be with relatively no rooting interest. I guess I kinda like Detroit, but that’s not even set in stone. I really tuned out for a few weeks and wasn’t paying attention at all except for an A’s update or Matt Kemp’s triple crown watch, then BAM the wild card races were actually interesting last week. I guess this means we don’t need to add another wild card spot to the mix, Bud. It also shows that every game does matter. Even the game Matt Kemp won’t play because it’s not being made up after a rainout against the Nationals, could’ve been the game that got him to be a 40-40 guy. Also, Reyes is weak for leaving in the first today after he got a bunt hit. Any thoughts or comments are welcome, because I think I’m just rambling after what I just saw!
MLB’s Meanest Players
Last week Sports Illustrated released this list of baseball’s meanest players voted on, by 215 of the players. Some guy decided to make a spoof of it, so I thought I’d share since it was mildly funny, and I couldn’t think of anything to write about when I sat down to write a post today. My favorite was probably the Jason Kendall impression. I was highly disappointed we didn’t get to see an impression on the #3 meanest player, Milton Bradley, it seems like he’d be one of the easiest guys to make fun of!
Moneyball Movie Premiere Recap
Unfortunately my invitation got lost in the mail somewhere, surely, so I wasn’t in attendance for the movie premiere of “Moneyball” in Oakland tonight. Therefore, I couldn’t really recap it any better than the San Francisco Chronicle. Here’s some highlights…
Brad Pitt, Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman and Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin were among those on the red carpet at the Paramount Theater in Oakland on Monday evening as “Moneyball,” the movie based on A’s general manager Billy Beane and the 2002 Oakland team, made its national premiere.
“It’s very cool,” Pitt said as he paused on the carpet to speak to two Bay Area papers. “We’ve been gearing up for this viewing for a long time. This is a special screening for us.
“The people of Oakland gave such a great response. They stayed up with us for hours on end to tape the baseball scenes and never lost energy. We see a lot of fans from the ’02 season. It’s just special.”
Having played Beane in a movie, Pitt disclosed that he now follows Oakland, and he said, “I feel a bit romantic about the A’s.”
Another of the major actors, Chris Pratt, has a less than storied baseball background. Pratt, who plays first baseman Scott Hatteberg, said he has not hit a home run at any level, including T-ball, and in the movie, Pratt, a right-handed hitter, must bat lefty. Through the magic of cinema, his homer gives the A’s their record 20th consecutive victory.
Pratt nails Hatteberg’s preparations at the plate, and he accurately captures Hatteberg’s joyous trip around the bases on the game-winning homer.
“None of it was spontaneous,” Pratt said. “That was the one physicality that I really spent a ton of time trying to mimic exactly.”
High-powered baseball agent Scott Boras walked the red carpet, and though he’s called a bad name in “Moneyball,” he described the movie as “great for baseball.”
*Other observations from the Moneyball premiere: Jonah Hill is HELLA skinny. Philip Seymour Hoffman looks like Sandy Lyle again.
Detroit’s Delmon Deserves Some Love
Over the past couple weeks there’s been a lot of buzz on how good the Detroit Tigers are, and I agree with the sentiment that they are a very good team. Usually the conversation goes something like Verlander is amazing, Cabrera is a great hitter, and Valverde hasn’t blown a save all season, but that doesn’t explain this recent 11 win hot streak at all because those three have been on the team all year. Could you point to Doug Fister’s addition to the rotation? Probably a little, but since they were still playing just .500 ball since he was acquired to when they got the real piece that has had them on an offensive tear, I’d say no. That piece offensive piece was Delmon Young.
Delmon had a terrible year in Minnesota. I was one of those fantasy owners that held onto him way too long hoping he’d show some glimpse of what he did last year. On August 15th the best thing that could’ve happened to him did happen when he was traded to Detroit. He was instantly inserted into the 3 hole in the lineup, just in front of Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez. His bat has reeked of burnt wood since the move. After making that lineup adjustment, they are an impressive 22-6. While Young was playing in Minnesota he had no protection with Mauer and Morneau always being hurt and out of the lineup, now he has a ton of protection, and is not only getting good pitches to hit, but isn’t missing many of them. Since the trade on August 15th Delmon has hit .313 with 5 homers, 20 RBI’s, and 19 runs scored over 28 games. Is it a coincidence that Detroit has scored the most runs in the league since he joined their team? Not in my opinion since this offense was average at best before he arrived, and now it seems like everyone is hitting in thier lineup, even Miguel Cabrera has picked it up after his arrival as hard as that may be to believe. With Delmon on this team they’ve also increased their division lead from 2.5 games all the way up to their now 12.5 game lead in just a month of his presence. I just wanted to give Delmon some love since it seems like he got lost in the media when they talk about Detroit and the Verlander for CY and MVP…
Moscoso Def
You wanna dance? Guillermo Moscoso’ll make you dance. Well, half the time. Like Chappy and I determined earlier today, he’s either lights out, or gets lit up. Today he was on fire though. Neither of us caught the game, since it was a weekday day game, but we both certainly kept up on it. Oakland A’s pitcher, Guillermo Moscoso carried a perfect game into the 6th, and a no-hitter deep into the 8th. Apparently today’s start, coupled with his last start against Seattle, set an Oakland record with 30 consecutive batters retired. On paper, he didn’t appear to be particularly dominating. He struck out just four and had a ground ball to fly ball ratio of 3 : 19. But an outstanding performance is outstanding regardless of how it looks. And while the game itself doesn’t have much significance for the A’s for this season, Moscoso is looking more like yet another Oakland young player that, with a full season’s work, can help carry the team back into contention next year.
Highlights….
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_09_07_kcamlb_oakmlb_1&mode=video
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