$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on Feb 22, 2009 16:49:09 GMT -5
Dellucci's 'alligator', Guillen's nail kick off weird spring injuriessports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Dellucci-s-alligator-Guillen-s-nail-kick-off-?urn=mlb,143117 Spring training is only a week old, but we already have strong two entries for baseball's weirdest injury of the year.
Well, kind of.
Cleveland outfielder David Dellucci, our first contestant, would have no doubt clinched the award with the tale he told reporters on Saturday of how an alligator chomped his thumb while he was saving a child — if only it were true.
From the Associated Press:
"Right before I came here," Dellucci explained, "I was fishing on the side of my lake, and I heard a little boy screaming. I ran over there, and an alligator had him by the leg. I jumped on the gator, poked him in the eyes, freed the kid, but he [bit] me in my thumb. I got stitches, had surgery and the stitches will come out on Monday."
Dellucci had reporters sold on the story, but his conscience got the better of him and he broke the silence with a well-placed "just kidding." Turns out Dellucci slammed his hand in a trailer tailgate before leaving his home in Louisiana and had to get three stitches that will cause him to miss the beginning of Cactus League play.
When it comes to our second contestant, Kansas City outfielder Jose Guillen, we can only wish he were just kidding about his self-inflicted injury earlier this week. When told by team doctors that an ingrown nail on his right big toe might require surgery, Guillen took matters into his own hands and removed the nail by himself with a pair of tweezers later that night.
At this point, I'll pause so that you can all recollect your thoughts, your dinner and whatever else you might have lost ....
All good, now? No? Well, let's move onto Guillen's recollection of the "surgery," via The Kansas City Star anyway:
"Let me tell you, I cried. I had one tough hour. But I got it out."
"I reached in there (with the tweezers) ... and poked around until I got the end of it. Then I counted one, two, three and just pulled .... Oh, my God. It came out, but tears were running down my cheeks." Not that the story needs any more context — I'm sure most of you have already clicked off the page in digust by now — but here' a short conversation that Y! Sports' own Jeff Passan had with his own mother, who works as a nurse:
JP: "How much would it hurt to yank your big toenail out with a pair of tweezers?"
JP's mom: "They have a word for that. Torture."
JP: "So someone who would do that himself ..."
JP's mom: " ... is crazy."
Guillen's toe is currently being treated with antibiotics, but he has has since developed a sore shoulder and was limited to light conditioning work Saturday in Arizona. No word yet on whether Guillen plans to scope the shoulder himself with assorted kitchen utensils ...
|
|
|
Post by 9 on Feb 22, 2009 17:55:05 GMT -5
Guillen is more of an idiot than I thought. I seriously want to hurl now.
|
|
|
Post by Jason Giambi on Mar 4, 2009 10:23:32 GMT -5
A tragic end for minor leaguer traded for bats By BEN WALKER, AP Baseball Writer 9 hours, 45 minutes ago Buzz up!30 votes PrintAsk the most hard-core baseball fan about John C. Odom and most likely you’ll get a blank stare. Yet millions of people have heard of the slender right-hander.
He was “Bat Man” or “Bat Guy” or “Bat Boy,” the minor league baseball player traded for 10 maple bats.
It became a big joke last May when word of the unusual swap jumped off the sports pages, and the former San Francisco Giants prospect went from pitcher to punch line.
“People are like, ‘I’d kill myself’ and stuff,” Odom said at the time, dismissing any such notion.
Three weeks after the trade, he abruptly left the team.
Six months after the trade, he was dead.
ADVERTISEMENT The medical examiner said Odom’s death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.
Odom’s death had drawn little notice by the start of spring training this year. Now, former teammates, managers and club officials keep asking a question for which there is no satisfying answer.
“I guarantee this trade thing really bothered him. That really worried me,” said Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year on the Laredo Broncos of the United League. “I really believe, knowing his background, that this drove him back to the bottle, that it put him on the road to drugs again.”
Shwam added: “There were some demons chasing him, they’d been after him for a long time. But there’s no way to really know whether the trade did it, is there?”
At first, Odom seemed to handle it well. He gladly agreed to interviews. He kidded about the kooky deal and said it would make a better story if he reached the majors someday.
Odom certainly wasn’t on the path to the big leagues when the Calgary Vipers of the independent Golden Baseball League made him an instant curiosity.
By his own account, the 6-foot-2 Odom was a “lost youth” who got tossed off his Roswell, Ga., high school team. A few years later, he showed up in Florida at Tallahassee Community College, a small-school baseball powerhouse.
“This guy comes into my office, hair hanging below his shoulders, earrings, and asks if he could use my field,” TCC coach Mike McLeod recalled.
With a sharp curveball, 90 mph fastball and good changeup, Odom made the team as a walk-on. He pitched well, going 9-3 in 2003-04.
Odom had another talent: He was tremendous on the guitar, playing so often he hurt his elbow and missed some games.
“He had a musician’s heart, not an athlete’s heart,” McLeod said. “He was manic. He’d sometimes come in with dark glasses and you’d know he was in a black mood. But he had so much going for him.”
Odom later committed to Oklahoma State and instead signed with the Giants, who had drafted him in the 44th round in 2003.
He had a bumpy four years in the Giants’ system, none above Class A. He went 9-8 in 38 games, missed most of one season because of a wrecked right elbow and lost another year to a dislocated left shoulder.
The Giants released Odom in spring training last year. Calgary offered a job, but because of a 1999 conviction for aggravated assault when Odom was a minor, he couldn’t get into Canada. On May 20, the team made the famous trade.
Calgary team president Peter Young and Laredo general manager Jose Melendez nearly traded him for a slugger, but it fell apart. Melendez proposed buying Odom’s contract for $1,000. Young rejected that, saying the Vipers didn’t do cash deals because they made the team look financially unstable.
Bats, though, the Vipers could use. At $665 for 10 bats—made by Prairie Sticks, double-dipped black, 34 inches long, model C243, Laredo agreed to the unusual deal.
“This was not done as a publicity stunt,” said Young, now the Vipers’ director of baseball operations. “I talked to John several times and told him this wasn’t done to embarrass him.”
Odom did more than change teams. He changed identities.
One day a ballplayer, the next day a bit of trivia.
“It really is sad,” Giants ace Tim Lincecum, who used to bunk on Odom’s couch in Class A, said about the deal last weekend.
Eager to play somewhere, Odom packed up after the trade and drove 30 hours, nearly 2,000 miles, to Laredo. When he arrived in Texas, everyone wanted to ask him about the bats.
At first, Odom lapped up the publicity. “Batman survives,” he said. His first outing went OK, too.
Then came a particularly bad night in Amarillo.
Baseball isn’t always the warm and fuzzy game of “Bull Durham” and “Field of Dreams.” It can also be cruel and unforgiving.
Reliever Donnie Moore shot himself to death three years after giving up a big home run that kept the Angels from winning the American League pennant. Boston All-Star Bill Buckner became a scourge after letting a ball roll through his legs in the World Series. A Cubs fan, Steve Bartman, retreated from public view after trying to catch a foul ball and possibly costing his team its first National League championship since 1945.
On June 5 in Amarillo, the “Batman” theme played while Odom warmed up for Laredo, and he tipped his cap to the sound booth. But he was battered for eight runs in 3 1-3 innings and mercilessly taunted by the crowd. Shwam went to the mound.
“The chants, the catcalls, they were terrible. I had to get him out of there for his own good. He was falling apart, right in front of our eyes,” Shwam said.
When Shwam noticed Odom becoming more withdrawn, he called a team meeting. The message: No more talking about the trade or the bats by anyone.
Odom pitched five good innings at San Angelo on June 10 in what turned out to be his third and last start. On the bus after the game, Odom said he needed to speak with Shwam the next day.
“He came in and said, ‘Skip, I’m going home. I just can’t take it. I’ve got some things to take care of. I’ve got to get my life straightened out,”’ Shwam recalled.
And with that, Odom disappeared.
Several baseball people tried calling him, but got no answer.
In January, Shwam called Odom’s cell phone, seeing if he wanted to pitch this year for a team in Alexandria, La., but got only his voice mail. A few weeks later, Shwam learned that Odom was dead.
“I was shocked,” he said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me.”
Melendez and Young found out only recently, and his old Giants teammates hadn’t heard.
Remembered infielder Kevin Frandsen: “He was always wanting to joke around, always wanting to keep the clubhouse mood light.”
Odom’s roommate in Laredo, former Twins prospect Nathan Crawford, now lives in Australia. He didn’t learn about Odom’s death until a few weeks ago.
“As far as the trade, I can say it started getting to him,” Crawford wrote in an e-mail. “Something would happen, like a umpire walking past would be ‘What’s up, Batman?”’
“We would stay up some nights after the games and jam on the guitar, talking about pitching, the trade, family. I said goodbye to him finally after a trip to Amarillo. He said he just had enough and that he wanted to spend time with his father. He told me he would play again next year,” he wrote. “He was a friend, he was a ballplayer, he will be remembered.”
The medical examiner’s office figured out Odom’s fame when they saw a tattoo on his right elbow over suture marks that read “Poena Par Sapientia”—a rough Latin translation of “Pain equals wisdom”—and did a Google search.
Details of his final days are elusive. His death was obscure. There is no record on where he was living, no explanation of how his body wound up at a hospital, no police report, no public record of where he is buried. Numerous telephone messages left for his family and friends were not returned.
The actual 10 bats that Odom got traded for, they’re easy to discover. An Internet search shows a picture of them, stamped with “John Odom Trade Bat.”
They were never used.
The Vipers planned to auction them for charity. When Ripley’s Believe it or Not! heard about the trade, it offered $10,000 to the team’s children’s charity.
So the bats are now stored away at a warehouse in Orlando, Fla.
“We’re still hoping to create an exhibit around them,” said Tim O’Brien of Ripley’s. “It would still attract a lot of interest.”
AP Sports Writer Gregg Bell in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Associated Press writer Chris Talbott in Jackson, Miss., and researcher Susan James in New York contributed to this report.
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on Mar 4, 2009 11:23:47 GMT -5
Cool story, tragic tale.
|
|
MSBNYY
Administrator
El Guapo
Posts: 15,545
|
Post by MSBNYY on Mar 13, 2009 11:52:29 GMT -5
Ryan Dempster is not upset about missing the Opening Day stark for the Cubs. "It's good," Dempster said. "I never expected to start Opening Day. It would've been neat, but I really don't care. � I can go to WrestleMania Sunday night in Houston. There's a positive side to everything. You just have to look for it." -- Chicago Tribune
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on Mar 25, 2009 12:04:34 GMT -5
Good job, Tabata! Way to marry someone twice your age. Prospect's wife arrested for abduction Pirates outfielder Tabata not involved in alleged kidnappingBRADENTON, Fla. -- The Manatee County Sherriff's Office has told the Pirates that Minor League outfielder Jose Tabata was not involved in his wife's alleged kidnapping of an infant, Pirates president Frank Coonelly said in a statement on Wednesday. Tabata's wife, Amalia Tabata Pereira, is being questioned in the abduction of Sandra Cruz-Francisco, a two-month old girl who Pereira allegedly took from a Plant City, Fla., family on Monday. The infant was found safe on Tuesday in Bradenton, Fla., the same city where the Pirates hold Spring Training.
"Jose was as shocked as the rest of us upon hearing the news and has cooperated fully with law enforcement officials," Coonelly said in the statement. "The Pirates organization will continue to do anything and everything we can to assist and support Jose during this difficult personal time.
"Due to the nature of this ongoing investigation, we cannot discuss any specifics of the case, other than to say that, like Jose, we are extremely thankful the young child was safely returned to her family," Coonelly added. "Our hearts go out to her and her family for the pain they must have endured during the hours that she was missing."
Tabata issued his own statement on the matter on Tuesday night.
"I was shocked to be told today that my wife has been arrested for kidnapping," he said. "I am hurt, frustrated, and confused by her actions. I have and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement officials in any way that I can. Until I have all of the facts, I cannot comment any further."
Tabata, 20, married Pereira, 43, in January 2008, according to Hillsborough County records. Tabata was traded by the Yankees to the Pirates last July in a Trade Deadline deal that netted the Pirates four players in exchange for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte. He was recently listed as the Pirates' third-best prospect, according to Baseball America.
Tabata, who was put on the Pirates' 40-man roster this past offseason, participated in Major League camp this spring. He was optioned to Double-A Altoona on March 18 and has been participating in Minor League camp since.
Pereira appeared in a Manatee County court on Wednesday and will remain in jail on a $750,000 bond. She is reportedly going to be moved back to Hillsborough County, the location of the kidnapping, at some point soon.
She has been charged with interference with child custody, kidnapping and false imprisonment, The Associated Press reported.
The baby, Sandra Cruz-Francisco, was taken from her mother, Rosa Sirilo-Francisco, at about 3 p.m. on Monday by a woman her family simply knew as "Janet," Plant City police told the AP.
According to the Tampa Tribune, Sirilo-Francisco took the baby to the Plant City Health Department for a checkup and met "Janet," who claimed to be an immigration official and told the mother that immigration officers were waiting at her home to deport her and the baby's father to Mexico. "Janet" said she would help the parents, but she needed to take the baby.
The Tribune reported that the two women then drove the baby to a farm where the baby's father works, where "Janet" relayed the same story to him. Soon after, the mother gave "Janet" the baby. This story has not been confirmed by Plant City police, according to the AP.
Plant City police Capt. Darrell Wilson told the AP on Tuesday evening that Pereira has a criminal record, with theft and fraud convictions. Wilson also said that Pereira has a number of known aliases. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the AP that they are investigating the matter.
|
|
|
Post by 9 on Mar 25, 2009 12:35:27 GMT -5
Damn it, Janet!
|
|
|
Post by Chris on Apr 1, 2009 12:32:54 GMT -5
I think the two worst names in baseball history, that I can personally think of, both belong to pitchers...
Grant BALFOUR Bob WALK
Unless there's catcher named Johnny Passedball out there somewhere, these names take the cake.
|
|
MSBNYY
Administrator
El Guapo
Posts: 15,545
|
Post by MSBNYY on May 20, 2009 6:40:55 GMT -5
MET FANS SUCK!!!! By MURRAY WEISS and JEREMY OLSHAN
A hapless Mets fan tried to make a diving catch when her gold tooth fell into a Citi Field toilet -- and got her arm stuck in the commode.
The unidentified woman's bizarre Flushing adventure happened during last Wednesday's game against the Atlanta Braves, sources said yesterday.
It's unclear how long she was trapped screaming in the john, but stadium security guards and emergency medical personnel eventually showed up.
But they could not pry her loose on their own.
They called for back-up -- dialing up a worker from Cardoza Plumbing, the company that installed all 646 ultra-low-flow toilets at Citi Field.
He rushed to the scene from his company's Jamaica headquarters 7.2 miles away, the sources said.
The anxious victim, meanwhile, could only wait as the toilet continued to flush over her arm.
At one point, she became more entertaining than the game -- which the Mets lost 8-7 -- as fans gathered outside the bathroom near Section 338 to see the off-field action.
It's unclear if the toilet had to be destroyed to free her.
The woman did not recover her tooth, but was plenty relieved just to leave the bathroom.
The Mets and Cardoza Plumbing declined to comment.
Some low-flow toilets use powerful vacuum suction to minimize the amount of water needed, but it's unlikely that contributed to the woman's hand being stuck, a Queens plumber said.
"The truth is, this kind of thing happens all the time -- usually with wedding rings or cellphones," he said.
"People have probably been getting their hands stuck in toilets as long as there have been toilets."
In 2003, 41-year-old Edwin Gallart dropped his phone in the toilet on a rush-hour Metro-North train, and went in after it.
Railroad employees could not pry his arm loose, and it took an army of emergency personnel 90 minutes, using Jaws of Life rescue equipment, to free Gallart and his phone.
During the rescue, the track was shut down, passengers were evacuated, and dozens of other trains were delayed.
Last year, a woman in China spent two days with her hand stuck down a toilet when she tried to save a pet turtle that she had accidentally flushed.www.nypost.com/seven/05202009/news/regionalnews/met_fan_a_potty_mouth_170125.htm
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on May 20, 2009 7:14:47 GMT -5
Last year, a woman in China spent two days with her hand stuck down a toilet when she tried to save a pet turtle that she had accidentally flushed.
Ok, THAT one I dont buy. Who "accidentially" flushes a turtle?
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on Aug 28, 2009 12:03:22 GMT -5
Cla Merediths last two teams, the Padres than the Orioles, have lost the last 33 games he has appeared in.
|
|
|
Post by Lindsey on Aug 29, 2009 13:33:55 GMT -5
Thank you for putting up a picture of Markakis.
makes this page so yummy.
|
|
|
Post by sean on Sept 9, 2009 15:38:32 GMT -5
commentary from the Astros/Braves game last night on Javy Vazquez facing fellow ex-Expo Geoff Blum.....
Announcer 1: These guys would have been mates together in Montreal...
Announcer 2: Yeah. .....
A1: Probably went out and had a little Poontan. (sp?) together
(brief awkward silence)
A2: Really?!?!
A1: Yeah...that's a cheese, curdy, gravy dish they serve in Montreal...
A2: OH!!!. (Relief in his voice)
|
|
|
Post by Jason Giambi on Sept 9, 2009 19:46:41 GMT -5
now that is good....
|
|
|
Post by Lindsey on Sept 14, 2009 13:33:06 GMT -5
My team is so bad. There's an LOL. or maybe it qualifies as a 'duh'
|
|
MSBNYY
Administrator
El Guapo
Posts: 15,545
|
Post by MSBNYY on Mar 8, 2010 15:14:32 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by cactusjames on Mar 9, 2010 10:47:31 GMT -5
LOL, I love how the kid falls down like Rocky in Rocky 3 after beating Clubber.
|
|
MSBNYY
Administrator
El Guapo
Posts: 15,545
|
Post by MSBNYY on Mar 31, 2010 14:14:48 GMT -5
sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2010/news/story?id=5043987Hope we can get a video clip of this one: TAMPA, Fla. -- Minnesota Twins outfielder Denard Span hit a foul ball that struck his mother in the chest in the first inning of Wednesday's spring training game against the New York Yankees. Wanda Wilson was wearing a Span jersey and sitting with about 20 family members and friends near the third-base dugout. Span, batting leadoff, took a defensive swing against Yankees starter Phil Hughes in the first inning and hit a liner right at her in the box seats. A stunned Span sprinted from the batters' box to the stands and stayed with his mother while paramedics treated her. The split-squad game was delayed for a few minutes as she was taken to first aid, and the Twins said she was sore but OK. Span returned to the plate with the count 3-2 and struck out looking on the next pitch. The Twins originally said Span would leave the game, but his mother was sitting in a different seat by the bottom of the first inning and he went to center field. She was treated by paramedics and back in the stands minutes later, but eventually went to a hospital after being convinced by medical personnel at the stadium. Span flied out in the second inning, then left in the bottom of the third, telling a team official he wasn't mentally into the game. Span and his mother spent time together after he departed. The AL co-leader in triples last season was born and raised in Tampa. Span regularly volunteers to make the long trip from the Twins' spring training home in Fort Myers when Minnesota visits the Yankees so he can see his family.
|
|
|
Post by sean on Mar 31, 2010 20:29:57 GMT -5
It would not be good for The Globex Corporation if one of our star outfielders killed or maimed his mother with a line drive during a game
|
|
MSBNYY
Administrator
El Guapo
Posts: 15,545
|
Post by MSBNYY on May 4, 2010 12:08:15 GMT -5
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on May 18, 2010 13:02:39 GMT -5
So Toby Gardenhire, son of Ron, has been promoted to AAA in the Twins' system. He's an infielder. Father and Twins manager Ron was asked does this mean he will be able to manage his son someday, and he quipped, "no, it means he may get a raise going to AAA, and he can pay me back money."
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on May 19, 2010 12:23:24 GMT -5
So how bout them feuding McCourts. Another nice juicy tidbit here, giving an eye how that shitshow in LA is run.
The Dodgers have paid the couples 2-adult sons a total of "$600,000 a year" for services that "could not be described" by either parent, and also have paid nearly 4 MILLION DOLLARS in "consulting services" to an entity that "has done virtually nothing for the club, even as the team has made a concerted effort to raise ticket prices, trim payroll, and acquire players on the cheap."
|
|
|
Post by Chris on May 21, 2010 12:33:54 GMT -5
|
|
MSBNYY
Administrator
El Guapo
Posts: 15,545
|
Post by MSBNYY on Jun 1, 2010 6:29:40 GMT -5
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on Jun 1, 2010 8:20:26 GMT -5
Not very funny to me. He was the anchor of my fantasy team, and he will not return until September, if at all. Funny note is the next day the Angels also won in the final at-bat, and when Howie Kendrick crossed the plate you would have thought he had a bomb strapped to his chest, the way everyone cleared space by the plate.
Oh, for those of you who enjoy raucous Yankee celebrations, I have read from more than one team source that those too will be quite more sedate going forward. So this kind of will bump into everyones fun.
|
|
MSBNYY
Administrator
El Guapo
Posts: 15,545
|
Post by MSBNYY on Jun 1, 2010 8:32:21 GMT -5
You can't blame any team for clamping down on it. Something like that was inevitable, and it's a good thing it didn't happen to the Yankees. You don't need that to add to the enjoyment of a walk off HR.
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on Jun 1, 2010 9:13:52 GMT -5
This same thing happened years ago to someone in the Padres system, a hot prospect at the time. Tagg Bozeid, who celebrated a walkoff by doing one of those high jumps onto the plate, and he totally wrecked his knee. Since it happened on a smaller scale to a smaller profile, no one noticed and nothing changed.
|
|
$heriff Tom
Administrator
Groom ba ya ya ya
Posts: 16,173
|
Post by $heriff Tom on Jun 4, 2010 10:16:12 GMT -5
Way to go, idiot! And way to bring class to the Yankees!
Yanks minor league coach has WS ring stolen by hooker
The pitching coach for the Staten Island Yankees reportedly had his 2009 World Series ring and two cellphones stolen after he cavorted with two prostitutes in a Tampa motel room. Patrick Daneker, 34, was boozing it up with fellow Yankee minor league instructor Carlos Chantres Sunday at the Blue Martini Bar — where Tiger Woods has been known to prowl — when they met up with two young ladies of the night that Chantres allegedly knew, CBS/Channel 10 of Tampa reported yesterday. Daneker left the watering hole and got into a cab with the two women — described by the motel clerk as wearing “short mini-skirts” — and headed back to his room at the Holiday Inn Express at around 3 a.m., the station said. — NY Post
|
|
|
Post by Chris on Jun 4, 2010 11:23:28 GMT -5
Co-worker replied to this story:
"Yankees aside, Florida + holiday inn express = absolutely nothing good."
|
|
|
Post by sean on Jun 5, 2010 1:02:20 GMT -5
2 tidbits from Mitch Williams on MLB Net tonight......
1) Both Tyler Clippard & Roy Halladay are 8-3.
2)Bruce Chen goes to 2-0 for The Royals on Friday, while reigning Cy Young winner Zack Greinke is 1-7
|
|