MLB

After Tuesday night’s gem against St. Louis, Phillies’ starter Cole Hamels lowered his season ERA to a less than desirable 4.42.

A fresh faced Jim Bowden bellied up to the bar once more.

The recent college grad of Rollins College (Florida) found himself in sports bars on a regular basis come the mid-80s. He wasn't so much interested in a cold tall one, but more the free happy hour grub.

"My second year with the Pirates I was making $12,500 a year," Bowden said. "I was having trouble getting food on the table."

Last year the Oakland A's made big noise in the acquisition of Matt Holliday. Unfortunately, it also meant that the A's gave up talent to the Colorado Rockies to get him and now that talent is doing so much more than Holliday did in an A's uniform.

This trade by far was the worst decision Beane has ever made for the A's. He gave up Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith, and Huston Street to bring Holliday over from the Rockies. Holliday didn't win many fans in Oakland with his lackadaisical play and his slow start to the season.

He eventually was traded on July 24th, 2009 to the St.

First off today, I want to mention the passing of Ernie Harwell.  

Ernie was an Michigan sports Icon and the best play-by-play baseball announcer I have ever heard.   

He might have also been the victim of  Bo Schembechler's worst decisions as a coach or sports executive when he fired Ernie in 1991.   

With Rick Ankiel finally being placed on the DL, the Royals have recalled Kila Ka’aihue (unfortunately, we had not yet gotten to cover him in our Prospect Trackers, which you can check out by clicking here and here ). 

"Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball."—Ernie Harwell in his Induction Day Speech (August 2, 1981)

Quotes from Ernie Harwell

"Baseball is a lot like life. It's a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life."

With all due respect to Javier Vazquez, I’m tired of hearing about him and his lack of prosperous pitching.

Give him a break—he’ll eventually get to where he needs to be. Well, at least we hope.

The Yankees did have a three-pitcher rotation in the playoffs this past season, and what did we get? A world championship. They can certainly pull this off again if need be, so Vazquez is not of primary concern at the moment.

Look, it’s early but then again it’s not that early. We’re into May and the slash line from Aramis Ramirez looks like a pitcher's (not named Zambrano): .149/.214/.267/.482.

Perhaps as troubling as his struggles at the plate is the word going around that Rami isn’t seeking help from Rudy Jaramillo. He apparently feels he is a professional hitter who can figure things out for himself.

While the stars steal all the headlines in baseball, it’s a team’s backups that steal the bases, steal the hearts of fans and push a team far into the Major League postseason.

More often than not, the big market teams feature the best backups – in many cases, players who could start for half of the other teams in the league (perhaps more).