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Record: 51-49. Change on last season: +3

I just watched the first episode of the new SciFi Channel “reality” series, Who Wants to be a Superhero?. That’s an hour of my life I’ll never have back. Worse still, that will probably be an hour I’ll never have back for the next few weeks as well. [And we actually recognised someone we know in the auditions!] Anyway. Back in Philadelphia, it’s good to know that the Diamondbacks can still draw a crowd, with the biggest attendance in Citizens Bank Park history turning out to see Arizo… What? The crowd of 45,459 were really there for Ryan Howard bobblehead night? Oh.

Frankly, on the evidence of this performance, I can see their point, as once again the Diamondbacks fell behind early, and this time we couldn’t dig ourselves out. After Batista’s three-run first on Tuesday, we allowed two more on Wednesday, and worse yet, both of these were unearned, thanks to errors by Orlando “I was a Gold Glove winner - honest!” Hudson and Chad Tracy. However, Webb allowed a three-run homer to D’back killer Chase Utley in the second, and it was then a 5-0 deficit. Said Webb, “It didn’t seem like I had my best stuff. I wasn’t locating very well at all…even with the right-handers on this team.”

We did fight back in the third, scoring three runs, but for the second night in a row, Johnny Estrada flunked Baserunning 1.0.1, going too wide round first and getting stuck in no-man’s land. And former D’back favourite, David Dellucci homered in the bottom to kill Webb’s quality start. An RBI single from Jackson cut the margin to 6-4 in the fifth, but CoJack was nailed at second, trying to make it a double, and that was the end of the scoring for either side, with the two unearned first inning runs, the eventual margin of victory for Philadelphia.

Webb went six innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits and three walks, while fanning four. Choate and Aquino pitched scoreless innings, but there was some bad news from the bullpen, where Luis Vizcaino’s status remains day-to-day. He hasn’t pitched since July 23rd, and has been held out of games after feeling some pain in his right elbow. He reckons he’ll be ready to go over the weekend, but I’ll believe that when I see it, and will be holding my breath till then. He remains the team leader in appearances with 46, and even with this series off, is on pace for 74, which would be close to a career high (76 in 2002).

Interestingly, though, his 3.79 ERA is actually now worse than average for the current members of the bullpen. It’s behind Pe�a (1.59), Choate (2.45), Julio (3.16) and Medders (3.38). Though, especially for the first two, small sample sizes are a significant concern: they’re both one flaky outing from an ERA around five. But if they maintain their form thus far - and Pe�a, in particular, seems to have been very impressive (21 hitters faced, four reached base, on three hits and a walks) - then we might have the makings of a solid bullpen. If Julio goes down, my money’s on The Man With A Thousand Visas as your 2006 Closer, v3.0. As shoewizard noted in the diaries, maybe we should be looking to sell relief help to a sucker contending team somewhere?

We outhit the Phillies 12-7, but still lost - the first time this year, when we’ve outhit the opposition by five or more. Byrnes, Jackson, Estrada and Drew all got two hits apiece; Drew fouled a ball off his ankle in his final plate appearance, and as a result was scratched from Thursday’s game. Normal service is expected to be resumed Friday though. Word is, Stevie was also getting some flak from the Phillies fans, because brother J.D. failed to sign for the team after they drafted him in 1997. Tough crowd.

Thanks to npineda for posting the GameDay Thread (even if it had to make do for Thursday’s game too!), and Ben, flyingdutchman, Wimb, William K and unnamedDBacksfan for their contributions during the game. I think, at the time, we were travelling the Strip in Vegas, where we did see what may have been the best sign of all-time outside Gilley’s, the bar at the Frontier. “Mud Wrestling: Cold Beer and Dirty Girls”. Sadly, we already had our Phantom of the Opera tickets, or Mrs. SnakePit and I would have been so there.

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Today: The Terrors of Errors

Ok, that’s the back of the backlog broken, as it were, so I’m going to scurry off to bed. Final report tomorrow morning, and possibly Heroes and Zeroes, if I get a chance before heading to work. Sigh. Seems like I’ve never been away…

This made me chuckle.

Record: 51-48. Change on last season: +4

Back from Vegas: “poorer but wiser”, as they say. Highlight was probably the Venetian upgrading us from a “suite” to a SUITE (1,500 sq.ft, jacuzzi, three TV sets, phone in the toilet, the works), but the Phantom of the Opera show they put on there is also pretty damn spectacular - and I speak as someone whose tolerance for musicals usually stretches no further than My Fair Lady [Rex Harrison is god, and Audrey Hepburn may be the second most beautiful woman of all time. I’m sitting next to the most, of course. ] We had a blast.

However, points are knocked off for the Venetian’s Sports Book, which refused to take my wager on the D’backs winning the 2008 World Series. Which may be the first time I’ve heard of a casino refusing to take someone’s money… In the absence of the MegaBucks jackpot [we tried - $12m being the current figure - but the closest we came was $250 from a Wheel of Fortune slot-machine in Treasure Island], it’s back to Phoenix with us, to find the D’backs play having been not much more jackpot-worthy than our own. I was going to do this as one supermegaomnibusdeath update, but I might as well break it up into more digestible chunks…

So when I left, Miguel Batista had dug Arizona a 3-0 hole in the first inning of the series opener against the Phillies, and things were looking pretty grim. However, more by luck than good judgement, we ended up winning that one in eleven innings. I say that, since by all reports, it was not a well-played game at all, featuring errors, base-running blunders, bad umpiring calls, and Jorge Jorrible blowing his second consecutive save opportunity. [The Closer Alert Status is now officially raised to AMBER]

However, Carlos Quentin smacked his third homer in seventeen major-league at-bats in the 11th, to give us the lead, and Tony Pena made it stand up, pitching one-hit ball over the tenth and eleventh inning to get his first victory as a D’back. Those are both good, positive things we could take from this one. However, does that outweigh failures like the fact this shouldn’t have gone more than nine innings? We had the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth, but failed to score. After scoring the go-ahead run in the ninth on a Phillies error, we had the bases loaded and no-one out there too, but couldn’t do any more than that.

All told, we were a pitiful 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position; though Quentin got his first stolen base, that was more a gift from the umpire than anything. And Batista and Estrada both got thrown out: the former at home after running through a stop sign, the latter (who, unlike Batista, should really know better) at second trying to stretch a single. Hell, opposing starter Madsen even donated four wild pitches in one inning - something not done in the NL since knuckleballer Phil Niekro in 1979. [Oddly, know who the last Phillies pitcher was to throw four in a game, on April 15, 1991? Jason Grimsley…]

Batista settled down after the first, allowing four runs on six hits and three walks, but fanning six. However, some slack is warranted, since he only learned on Monday that his grandmother had died. He’s since headed back to the Dominican Republic for the funeral, but it’s anticipated that he’ll be back with the team in time for his scheduled start on Sunday in Houston.

Medders and Lyon pitched hitless innings, though the latter walked two Phillies, before Julio blew the save in the ninth, on two hits and a walk. Offensively, LuGon, Tracy and Estrada had two hits apiece - Gonzo also drew two walks, as did leadoff man Byrnes, but Hudson took the patience prize for the night, with three free passes. It was a win, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it scroll across the ESPN ticker in our room, but a closer post-mortem reveals it was far from a good performance.

However, it was nice to match our entire 2004 win total before reaching the one-hundredth game of the season this year. Thanks to DiamondbacksWIn, flyingdutchman, andrewinnewyork, npineda, Wimb, TheMainMan, frienetic and William K for posting in my absence. Andrew gets the Nostradamus prize, for saying, “Anyone want to place an over-under bet on runners stranded this game?” The final tally was a startling twenty-eight: 16 by Arizona, 12 by Philadelphia. Who had the over?

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Today: Carlos “Jackals” the Victory

I first met Chad W. Thompson several months ago while attending one of his lectures at ASU. Chad recently wrote an article for Relevant Magazine — quite a good article at that — that compares the mutant theme in “X-Men” and the non-mutants desire to “cure” the mutants with the public attitudes generally surrounding homosexuality.
While […]

I recently read the article Are Churches Good Neighbors in the East Valley Tribune and it brought to memory a scrap that I scribbled while on my Pacific Northwest roadtrip with my wife. The basis comes from a conversation with an old friend regarding a quote from one of the authors of the book, The […]

Coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff announced the 15 players chosen to represent the United States in August’s World Championships.  The coaching staff was required to trim their 24 man roster down to 15 for the championship games in Asia.

Among the players not selected were Luke Ridnour, Shawn Marion (knee) and Adam Morrison; the official reasons were not disclosed.  It’s important to note that these players are still part of the 24 man roster to be considered for the 2008 Olympics, but they won’t representing USA Basketball for this summer’s games.

The 15 men chosen for USA Basketball’s 2006 World Championship roster:

• Lebron James, Cleveland Cavaliers (former Rookie of the Year)
• Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat (2006 NBA Finals MVP)
• Carmello Anthony, Denver Nuggets
• Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix Suns (surprise pick - recent injury/surgery)
• Kirk Hinrich, Chicago Bulls (surprising pick)
• Gilbert Arenas, Washington Wizards
• Shane Battier, Houston Rockets
• Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors
• Elton Brand, L.A. Clippers
• Bruce Bowen, San Antonio Spurs
• Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic
• Antawn Jamison, Washington Wizards
• Joe Johnson, Atlanta Hawks
• Brad Miller, Sacramento Kings
• Chris Paul, New Orleans Hornets

The coaching staff will need to cut the roster down to 12 for the actual championship games.  Look for Hinrich, Bosh and Battier to be taken off for the official playing squad.

From the Catholic News Service:
Cardinal Sodano told Italian state television that the Vatican would be following the summit’s progress with “great attention.”
“The Holy See tries to be ’super partes’ (above all parties); it has a universal mission to unite all of humanity,” the cardinal said in the July 24 interview with RAI television.
His remarks echoed […]

Stephen Colbert puts Ralph Reed, the poster boy for religious conservatives, in his crosshairs. This is pretty funny. Watch the video here.

I’m allowed to discuss this now.  
In a little less then three and a half months, I return to Israel. I have accepted an offer to return to the Promised Land all expenses paid, gratis of an independent film production company out of Phoenix. We will be making a full-length theaterical documentary on the Israeli-Palastenian conflict. […]