Folks, the Daily Dish will return on Monday.

Have a nice weekend,

Marty Lurie [Read more →]

Another amazing day of baseball on Wednesday.

The Cubs rallied from a 6-0 deficit to knock the Cards off 8-7. Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker are not getting along. They both live in the Bay Area, see each other from time to time at other sporting events during the winter, but during the season they fight like cats and dogs.

We all know how much Tony cares about our four footed friends (cats and dogs), but he is fanning the competitive flames with his comments about Baker and the way the Cubs pitchers play the game.

The Card’s manager challenged Baker to a fight yesterday after Matt Clement and Dan Haren took turns hitting one another with pitches.

Last year in the playoffs, Tony chastised Kenny Lofton and Dusty ( then with the Giants) for the way they play the game. Now Tony is critizing Kerry Wood and Mark Prior for pitching up and in, and claims that the Cub batters wiil be “dealt with” accordingly. Tony played with the toughest pitcher of the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s in KC in 1963, Hall of Famer Early Wynn, who would knock his mother down at the plate if she dug in, I wonder if Tony critcized Wynn, a 300 game winner, back then.

In the midst of all this, these two teams are fighting it out with Houston for first place in the NL Central.

Both bullpens are spent. After four excruciating games, they face each other again today with Shawn Estes who has trouble going five good innings facing the more capable Brett Tomko for St. Louis.

These two teams have been bitter rivals for over 100 years, this series is absolutely special not only because of the Cardinals lineup and the Cubs starting pitching plus Sosa and Alou (five hits Wednesday), but because two of the best managers in baseball are trying to knock each others block off and I like the action.

The Cards have a better chance of winning today simply because Tomko can win and Estes is so inconsistent that the Cards should have plenty of runners on base, not a good formula for success.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Starting this month of September
(Latinamerican month in the USA)
last of the regular season a total
of 30 percent of all Major League
Baseball players are Latinos,
a figure that continues to
increase with each season.

By Amaury Pi-González
Bay Area [Read more →]

I’m not sure that I’ve seen better baseball games than the ones played at Wrigley Field yesterday. For one, neither the Cards nor the Cubs have distinguished themselves through their bullpens this season. Yesterday they did!

The Cubs finally won the first game 4-2 behind Sammy Sosa’s homer in the 15th inning. And I mean 15 tense innings. Both bullpens were outstanding. The Cubs put up eight innings of one hit shut out relief, while the Cards went nine and one third innings of two run (Sosa’s homer), five hit relief.

Moises Alou made an ill advised dash to third with none out on a hit and run single to short left field (being thrown out easily in the ninth), but other than that miscue these teams played superb baseball.

Matt Morris outdueled Kerry Wood 2-0 in the nightcap allowing the Cards to break even on the day.

Matt Clement and Dan Haren today in Wrigley, with another game tomorrow. Both pitchers today will be expected to go at least seven, I think the Cubs have a better chance of winning this game because Clement is a horse while Haren is an untested rookie, but with the St. Louis offense ready to bust loose at any moment, this should be another great game.

Funny thing if the Cubs or Cards win the Wild Card, they will give either the Giants or the Braves all they can handle in the NLDS.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Barry Bonds was back playing ball yesterday and, in what has become a typical fashion, provided the hit that won the game in late innings. This morning’s Chronicle devoted most of it’s story on the Giants to an interview with Bonds in which he described the physical symptoms which led to his overnight hospitalization, his reaction to what he was told by doctors treating him, and included a statement by trainer, Stan Conte, to the effect that Bonds “doesn’t need medication but will continue to be monitored and see a Bay Area cardiologist this week.”

Continue Below for more of Ed’s excellent perspective on this situation. [Read more →]

Every game the Red Sox play these days seems to be the one that will define the rest of their season. Yesterday, the Sox came back to win with a six run ninth against the Phillies.

Of course all the heroics, topped by Trot Nixon’s grand slam off Turk Wendell, were set up by the Boston bullpen, which once again proved that on a day to day basis it cannot hold a lead.

Mike Timlin, Scott Sauerbeck (it may be time to worry about him), and Alan Embree simply were awful at crunch time. Only Byung Hyun Kim seemed to have his stuff Monday and you now how he has pitched lately.

Damian Jackson who pinch ran for David Ortiz in the eighth inning, came up with a big single to keep the budding rally alive in the ninth. It looked like Grady Little had outmanuvered himself, but Jackson a low .230s hitter got the hit to keep things cooking.

Jose Mesa became unglued and it got uglier for the Phillies from there.

Today it is on to Chicago where John Burkett and Bartolo Colon recreate their matchup of June 17th, when the Red Sox beat Chicago 7-4.

The Cubs got the pitching performance from ace Mark Prior that they were looking for yesterday. Prior’s pitches seem to float through the strike zone effortlessly, but are untouched by the hitters. He struck Albert Pujols out on an untouchable pitch.

Sammy Sosa came up with a big base running play, going from first to third on Jim Edmonds, who seemed to hold on to the ball too long. I said last week that Edmonds likes to grandstand from time to time, and this time it hurt his team as the run that Sosa scored got things rolling for the Cubs. Otherwise, Edmonds is the best overall centerfielder in the game today.

Today it’s Jason Simontacchi and Matt Morris against Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood. Does it get any better than this in September?

Only if this was the last weekend of the season.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

After all these years since they
have been playing in San Francisco
(1958)without a World Championship
compared to four (4) for the Oakland
Athletics, who got here 10 years
later, why are the San Francisco
Giants the Bay Area’s favorite
baseball team ?

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

Labor Day is another marker along the road to the finish line during the major league season.

With September first officially here today, the race to the end becomes a tight, daily grind. One cannot afford too many missteps along the way or the dream will end abrubtly.

The Phillies won three in Ny over the weekend despite their players obvious dislike for the manager.

Larry Bowa held a meeting Thursday, telling his team he was basically through with them, that they were now on their own. The players responded with a meeting of their own and then went out and swept the Mets behind good pitching from Vincente Padilla, Randy Wolf and Kevin Millwood among others.

It’s always a good idea to have a meeting before playing games you should win. The Phils picked a good time for theirs because even though the Mets have been playing well, they really don’t match up with the talent on Philadelphia.

Today, the Phils meet the Red Sox in the Vet in a makeup of a rained out interleague game from June. Jeff Suppan who had success in the NL goes against Brett Myers, in a game Boston needs alot more than the Phillies.

The A’s have won nine in a row. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.

Click below and I’ll tell you why I like this team better than last years AL West champs. [Read more →]