Tragedy struck the baseball world Thursday morning, as Angels 22-year-old rookie Nick Adenhart, hours removed from making his season debut, died in a car crash.  In just his fourth-ever big-league start, Adenhart threw six shutout innings against the Athletics and left with his team leading 3-0, only to see the Angels’ bullpen surrender the lead and lose 6-4.

Sadly, Adenhart is not the first active player in recent memory to lose his life prematurely.

Darryl Kile was found dead in his Chicago hotel room in 2002.

Cory Lidle crashed a small plane into a New York apartment building in 2006.

Josh Hancock crashed a car into a tow truck in 2007.

Joe Kennedy died suddenly of hypertensive heart disease in 2007.

All five players, coincidentally, were pitchers.

Continue reading "A sad day for baseball"

Someone at MLB must have read my blog post from 5/9/08 and decided that All-Star voting needed to start even earlier this season just to see my reaction.  Keep in mind that the 2009 season began later than the 2008 season.

The one good thing about early voting is that maybe the fans will show some support for Evan Longoria over the injured Alex Rodriguez and vote the reigning Rookie of the Year starting third baseman for the American League.

Longoria is hitting .415 and has already hit five home runs and seven doubles – good for a slugging percentage of .830.

How ‘bout that?

How about the Cleveland Indians?  On Tuesday against the Royals the Tribe infield turned six double-plays.  Still not impressed?  How about when I tell you they did it in SIX CONSECUTIVE INNINGS (3rd-8th)?

Continue reading "All-Star balloting reminds me of the Iowa Caucus"