My first year of Blogging my random scattered thoughts…. So WordPress sends me my stats, and I guess it wasn’t a total disaster!! So I thought I’d share some of my blogging stats on this Jan 2nd of 2011
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,500 times in 2010. That’s about 11 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 75 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 274 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 150mb. That’s about 5 pictures per week.
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, digg.com, healthfitnesstherapy.com, dating-online2u.blogspot.com, and storagesavvy.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for general charles krulak, livingsocial interview process, giants rookie of the year, buster posey, and livingsocial interview questions.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Dallas Braden of the Oakland A’s did it….. he really did it. One of sports’ most beautiful achievements.
Each and every time someone does it, I get chills. FANTASTIC!!
The following was written by Bill Chuck in his Billyball blog, and he describes what happened:
Asked if he’d even thrown a no-hitter before at any level, Braden told reporters, “In Little League, I had a couple under my belt. And in the bullpen, I’m damn near perfect every day.”
He defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0, The last time this was performed by an Athletics pitcher,Catfish Hunter did it on May 8, 1968, against the Minnesota Twins.
It was Braden’s 53rd start and his first complete game. It was the sixth no-no in A’s history, the first since Dave Stewart on June 29, 1990, at Toronto.
The Rays lost for just the third time on the road this year and it was the third time in team history that a no-hitter was tossed against them. There were no near misses or close plays in the victory. Braden threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of 27 hitters. He went to three-ball counts only four times, including the last batter.
This was the first perfecto since Mark Buehrle did it for the White Sox against the Rays on July 23, and the second no-hitter this season after Ubaldo Jimenez accomplished it in Atlanta on April 17.
The fact that the feat was accomplished on Mother’s Day as MLB was raising awareness about breast cancer should not be minimized as Braden’s mother, Jodie Atwood, died of skin cancer in 2001 “It hasn’t been a joyous day for me in a while,” said Braden, 26, who lost his mom when he was a senior in high school. “But to know that I still get to come out and compete and play a game on that day, that makes it a little better. With my grandma in the stands, that makes it a lot better. And to be able to give her this today, it’s perfect.”
27 up, 27 down
1. Bartlett lined out to third
2. Crawford grounded out to first
3. Zobrist flied out to center
4. Longoria flied out to center
5. Pena grounded out to first
6. Upton struck out looking
7. Aybar struck out looking
8. Navarro lined out to center
9. Kapler flied out to left
10. Bartlett grounded out to third
11. Crawford struck out swinging
12. Zobrist grounded out to short
13. Longoria struck out swinging
14. Pena flied out to left
15. Upton grounded out to third
16. Aybar struck out swinging
17. Navarro fouled out to third
18. Kapler fouled out to third
19. Bartlett lined out to left
20. Crawford grounded out to second
21. Zobrist flied out to right
22. Longoria flied out to center
23. Pena fouled out to third
24. Upton struck out swinging
25. Aybar lined out to first
26. Navarro lined out to left
27. Kapler grounded out to short
Baseballs perfectos
Pitcher Team VS Score Date
Cy Young, Red Sox Athletics 3-0 May 5, 1904
Addie Joss, Indians White Sox 1-0 Oct. 2, 1908
Charles Robertson, White SoxTigers 2-0 April 30, 1922
x-Don Larsen, Yankees Dodgers 2-0 Oct. 8, 1956
Jim Bunning, Phillies Mets 6-0 June 21, 1964
Sandy Koufax, Dodgers Cubs 1-0 Sept. 9, 1965
Catfish Hunter, Athletics Twins 4-0 May 8, 1968
Len Barker, Indians Blue Jays 3-0 May 15, 1981
Mike Witt, Angels Rangers 1-0 Sept. 30, 1984
Tom Browning, Reds Dodgers 1-0 Sept. 16, 1988
Dennis Martinez, Expos Dodgers 2-0 July 28, 1991
Kenny Rogers, Rangers Angels 4-0 July 28, 1994
David Wells, Yankees Twins 4-0 May 17, 1998
David Cone, Yankees Expos 6-0 July 18, 1999
Randy Johnson, Dbacks Braves 2-0 May 18, 2004
Mark Buehrle, White Sox Rays 5-0 July 23, 2009
Dallas Braden, Athletics Rays 4-0 May 9, 2010
x-World Series; Source: The Associated Press
Heres the ninth inning, just imagine the stress and nerves. So many things can happen.
The following was written by Bill Chuck who writes a great column called Billy Ball which I subscribe to and I wanted to share a sad day in baseball history with you all.
The great Tigers’ announcer Ernie Harwell passed away yesterday and all of baseball lost an illustrious voice. He was 92 and battled cancer with the same dignity in which he conducted every part of his life. Frequently, in the Detroit Free-Press and elsewhere Harwell referred to his incurable cancer and impending death as “his next great adventure, a gift handed down by God.
“I’ve had so many great ones,” he said. “It’s been a terrific life.”
John Lowe in today’s Free Press summed up what made this Tiger announcer so great for 42 years:
“Unlike some announcers in recent decades, Harwell didn’t litter his broadcasts with shouting, excessive talking or all-knowing pronouncements about players and managers. Listening to him was as pleasant as being at Tiger Stadium in the summertime. As he fell silent between pitches, listeners got to hear the sounds of the ballpark — the crowd’s buzz, the vendor’s cry — and absorb the rhythm of the game. Harwell thus became an ideal companion for a listener anywhere: the couch, the yard, the car or the boat.”
Baseball broadcasters, and writers in a different way, bring the game to you. The great ones make you feel as if it is better than being there. They capture the excitement, they appreciate the athleticism, and they bring you moments that have passed, so that you can better understand the magnitude of the present.
Great members of the baseball media, for whom you know my respect is never ending, teach you to love and respect the game. They want you to love baseball. People ask me frequently, why I work so hard each day, without being paid, writing Billy-Ball.com and I explain why I define myself as a “newstalgist” I simply want to bring past baseball fans to the present, present baseball fans the past, and create new baseball fans for the future. I want to be like the announcers and newspaper guys and authors who did that for me.
Sharing the love for the game by an announcer can be spotted right away. Not necessarily singling him out, but announcers like Jim Nantz simply share their love for sports announcing. They bring nothing but a mike to the various sports they cover, all with the same amount of saccharine, counterfeit hype and false emotion.
Jerry Green of the Detroit News writes today of following Harwell into the Yankee clubhouse 10 years ago and how the Yankee players all quickly responded to his presence, in particular Derek Jeter. “I used to listen to him as a kid,” said Jeter, who grew up in Kalamazoo, rabid about baseball.” Can you imagine rousing a kid like Derek Jeter to the greatness that Ernie did?
Green wrote this morning: “He taught the game to a million or more youngsters from Monroe to Iron Mountain, down into Ohio, and across into Ontario. Because of him, and his voice, they learned to understand baseball. They learned to love the sport. They learned to respect it.
And the ballplayers and the newspaper journalists learned how to respect baseball, too.
“I have this card-file system that I use,” Harwell, told Green. “I keep it up to date, the same thing that you get in the press guide. I do it so I don’t have to lug the press guides around.
“To me, the play-by-play’s the bread and butter, the score. That’s what people want. They want to know what’s happened, and the other stuff’s a little frosting on the cake.
“You can’t just say ‘ball one, strike one’ for two or three hours.”
I got to see the black notebook that Jerry Howarth, the Blue Jays outstanding announcer, uses during games that make listening to him so entertaining and educational. I was hoping to see what Terry Smith, the fine announcer for the Angels uses to add to his broadcasts but getting to the ballpark was not possible for me this week. I hope someday to meet Vince Scully and have the honor of watching him work. He brings an elegance and descriptive quality to baseball in same the manner that Van Gogh brought to paintings and Lennon and McCartney brought to music.
During my childhood, I listened to Mel Allen who taught me to love the game. Then, and now, I read whatever I could get my hands on about baseball so long before I ever heard Harwell I knew that he was the only broadcaster ever traded for a ballplayer. When Red Barber, the voice of the Brooklyn Dodgers, took ill and couldn’t sit “in the cat bird seat,” Branch Rickey, the Dodgers president, contacted the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association and asked about the availability of Harwell to replace him. In return, Rickey sent catcher Cliff Dapper to the Crackers.
I will leave the honor of recounting Ernie moments to those who knew him better than I. There is so much online today about him and I encourage you to read about this man who taught so many to love the game.
I closing, I leave you with this quote that Lowe grabbed from something that Ernie wrote in the Sporting News in 1955 when that publication was “Baseball’s Bible”:
“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. —
“There’s a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh 46 years ago –that’s baseball. And so is the scout reporting that a 16-year-old sandlot pitcher in Cheyenne is the coming Walter Johnson.
“In baseball, democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rule book. And color, merely something to distinguish one team’s uniform from another’s.
“Baseball? Just a game — as simple as a ball and bat. And yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes.”
Detroit will always remember their announcer. So will everybody who has loved the game.
And I’ll just say this…
Goodby Ernie, god bless you…. Thank you for everything.
It’s important to recognize the importance and quality that he’s brought to the game.
Once of Baseball history’s most colorful characters, we can only wish him the best and a speedy recovery.
The long time Radio voice of the Milwaukee Brewers is expected to miss 12 weeks of recovery time.
Good Luck Euck. And god bless you.
My beloved Giants go to 6 – 1 with the home win against the poor Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh hasn’t had a winning season in 15 years or so, as Jim Bouton said in his FANTASTIC book BALL FOUR, ” all these years you play the game of baseball, you’re gripping the ball, and in reality it’s the other way around, the ball is gripping you the whole time”.
As I sit here listening to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” I find it necessary to dive a bit into my love of the game. Baseball is soooo American. It’s soooo life.
It’s absolute boredom surrounded by bursts of excitement. The average fan will sit there and not see the game within the game, the chess game being played out each and every pitch. When people tell me that baseball is boring to them, I nod my head and understand why they think that way. I guess it’s the same with me and Soccer… I don’t follow the game, I don’t know THAT chess game within the game. Hence I have no passion for it. Here’s an example of the game within the game, and why Baseball is like life…
Seattle Mariners game last night, home opener. Recently retired ex-Mariner, Randy Johnson throws out the first pitch, opening day ceremonies, everyone in their Mariners jersey’s. Excitement is in the air, sellout crowd. The poor Mariners have started out the season, slow, 2 – 5 record, they can’t seem to find their collective asses with either hand right now, they can’t hit yet. But the beauty of a new baseball season is in the air, where EVERY team has World Series title hopes, it can happen….right?? That magic season, where EVERYTHING comes together, pitchers pitch, hitters hit, fielders field…. that once in a decade season, it’s here right???? Opening day is the kind of game I love, low scoring pitchers duel. It’s 2 – 0 Oakland in the 7th inning, and Ryan Rowland-Smith albeit wild and not on his best game has pitched pretty well, he’s got runners on 2nd and 3rd, with two outs in the 7th. Gabe Gross is up for the A’s and this matchup screams advantage Seattle, as Gross is not known as a stud hitter vs. lefty’s being a left-handed bat and all. Well, Smith has two strikes on him, he pounds him with an inside fastball, which he appears to strike out on, he swings, and just gets a piece of the ball and it rolls out of the glove of the catcher Rob Johnson, foul ball, and he’s still alive. And here comes the part where Baseball is like the game of life…. The announcers all go… ” OH!!!! too bad Johnson couldn’t hold on to that!!, we’d be out of the inning now”.. I just smile and shake my head cause I KNOW what’s coming, it’s as inevitable as the sun coming up tomorrow, and so like Baseball. Gross, who can’t hit lefty’s, is 90% of the time overmatched, who should be out, who is a dead PULL hitter ( hits most to RF), calmly strokes a fastball into the Left Centerfield gap, scoring two runs and this game is all but over as the Mariners offense is really in trouble right now. Gawd it’s why I love the game. Anything can happen any time, just when you think you’ve seen it all, you haven’t . It’s a single pitch in a season of hundreds of thousands of pitches, and I guarantee you that Gross will remember this pitch, this AB until he’s 80. And so will Roland-Smith. For the love of the game baby…. for the love of the game
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