Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- A month without a fork. I could do that easily. I went all yesterday without using a fork and I didn't even try to avoid using one.

- Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night recreated with 7,000 dominoes

- I agree - very classy move by the Diamondbacks.

- And coincidentally - mind-controlled exoskeleton's helping paralyzed people to walk

- Interesting discussion with director William Friedkin and his surprising relationship with sports (especially the Celtics and Mike Tyson)

- Heh heh - Obama is checking your email!

1971 MLB Draft

Jim Rice was taken by the Red Sox with the 15th pick of the 1971 MLB Draft. Couple of observations about the first round of that draft:

- Of the 24 picks - besides Rice only Frank Tananna taken 13th by the Angels and Rick Rhoden taken 20th by the Dodgers had significant MLB careers.

- All of the picks from the 1st round were taken out of high school - compare that to today where picks are just as likely to be college players

- The state of NY had more picks (4) than the state of FL (3) - my how times have changed!

Was ESPN Trying to Screw with Fox's All-Star Game Ratings?

Baseball is a slow game to begin with but Fox Sports treatment of the All-Star game made it so slow that it would make Brideshead Revisited seem like a shoot 'em up - smash 'em up excitement thrill ride in comparison. It was 8:53 by the time the game started and by that time my interest had whithered and died on the vine.

And I'm a huge baseball fan!

Luckily for me I happened to notice on the channel guide that the WSOP episodes on ESPN were brand new 2007 episodes. I ended up watching those until 10:00 and just flipping back to the game during commercials. I don't think I really missed anything.

I have to wonder if ESPN scheduled the new WSOP episodes to screw with MLB and if MLB's recent decision to keep ESPN Baseball Tonight crew out of the All-Star game (because ESPN jumped the gun in announcing the All-Star line-ups when TBS had the rights to the announcement show).

I say this because the TV schedule was updated July 7th (almost a week after ESPN jumped the gun). But upon checking it looks like ESPN was just sticking to its original schedule for airing 2007 WSOP events. I still wonder if ESPN's programming choice played a role in why MLB was so upset with ESPN for the All-Star game announcement brouhaha.

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

The Dodgers brought up 3rd baseman Andy LaRoche, brother of Pirates 1st baseman Adam LaRoche, and Andy has hit in all three games since the call-up. LaRoche could be a good candidate for the NL ROY if he keeps this up (although Josh Hamilton will be a big sentimental favorite this year). Andy and Adam's father is Dave LaRoche who pitched for 14 big-league seasons and is currently the pitching coach for the New Hampshire Fishercats (the AA affiliate for the Blue Jays)... Maybe the person happiest to see Bobby Abreu struggling for the Yankees (.258 BA with just 1 HR) is Andruw Jones. If the Yankees pick up Abreu's option for 2008 - then all three outfield spots for the Yankees are tied up and the Yankees would be out of the bidding for the free agent to be Jones. However, at his current production level - why would the Yankees ever pick up the $16 million option?... Ichiro is now on pace for just 174 hits which would break his string of six straight 200-hit seasons... Only Gary Sheffield (6th pick) and Roberto Hernandez (picked 16th) remain from the class of players drafted in the first round of the 1986 MLB draft. That draft was noteable because all of the top 6 picks actually had productive MLB careers (normally the top picks in the MLB draft are crapshoots). Greg Swindell (123 wins) was picked 2nd by the Indians, Matt Williams (378 HR) was picked 3rd by the Giants, Kevin Brown (211 wins) was picked 4th by the Rangers, and Kent Merker (17-year career) was picked 5th by the Braves. Of the top 6 picks - maybe the least successful was the very first pick - Jeff King - who was picked by the Pirates. But even King had three straight seasons of 20+ HR and 90+ RBI in a career that lasted 11 seasons... Jason Varitek raised his batting average 34 points last night from .250 to .284 with his 4-4 performance against the Blue Jays...