Showing posts tagged “F.O.B.”
Adam Sobsey ·
6 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—Shortly before game time last night, a debate broke out in the press box about the Bulls’ “magic number” for clinching the International League South Division title. The Bulls were two games ahead of Gwinnett going into the game, so it seemed initially that, with three games to play, it would take any combination of Durham wins and Gwinnett losses totaling two to seal the deal.
But others pointed out that, in case of a regular-season tie, the Bulls would, for the purpose of the playoffs, be named the winner by virtue of their better record within the division. (The first tiebreaker, the teams’ head-to-head record, was nullified because the Bulls and Braves were 11-11 in direct competition with one another.) The Braves would be the wild card team. Thus, it was argued, the magic number was really only 1, because a single Bulls win or Gwinnett loss would assure an outcome no worse for the Bulls than the tie they needed.
Someone else countered that a tie is still a tie, and the tiebreaker was merely a latency, a fiction until it had to be actually wielded; and then someone else used the word semantics, kind of grouchily, and in any case it was decided that the score of the Gwinnett Braves’ game versus the Charlotte Knights would occasionally, as the evening progressed, be flashed on the big screen affixed to the Blue Monster.
As it happened, that game began an hour before the Bulls took on the Norfolk Tides, so just as the action as the DBAP was beginning, the out-of-town score went up on the board. It was already 6-1 Charlotte in the third inning down in Georgia.
Cheers from the stands. Then Bulls’ General Manager Mike Birling rendered much of the rest of the debate immaterial by informing us that the champagne was already on ice down in the clubhouse.
And the Bulls made it even less material by beating the Tides, 5-1. It was Durham’s third straight division title, and the team’s in the last 12 years, a truly remarkable run.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Charlie Montoyo, Craig Albernaz, Dale Thayer, F.O.B., Gwinnett Braves, Julio DePaula, Matt Joyce, Norfolk Tides, Rayner Oliveros, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
30 Aug 2009, 6:00 AM ·
5 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—You’ve probably heard of the Infinite Monkey Theorem, which “states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.”
If you apply the Infinite Monkey Theorem to baseball, you’ll get something like the Durham Bulls’ 10-9, 14-inning win over Gwinnett last night. It’s unlikely that a monkey will type Hamlet, but it’s also inevitable, in infinite time. And it’s also unlikely that last night’s game should ever happen, but last night’s game did happen. You could look it up.
“No, I’ve never seen anything like it,” was the first sentence out of Charlie Montoyo’s mouth afterward, before anyone had even asked him a question.
It would take me an infinite number of words to describe everything noteworthy about the doings at the DBAP on Saturday night (and, in fact, a bit of Sunday morning; the five-hour game ended at about ten past midnight). Although I don’t mind claiming that I am not a sportswriter who would ever, ever succumb to fatigue—I am a veritable dog with a bone, or better yet a monkey with an infinite number of bananas (and if you read that last clause carefully, you found the syntactical giveaway: I’m not a sportswriter)—as I say, although I don’t mind claiming indefatigability, which is an eight-syllable word, the Bulls have another game fairly soon, and at some point between now and then I have to sleep, eat, exercise, and, uh, type. Like a monkey.
And in case you need more monkey stuff, consider that last night’s ballgame featured mascot antics from something called Reggy the Purple Party Dude (he looks like a Sesame Street character who has somehow started growing french fries out of the top of his head). He monkeyed around in the first inning with a fake first-base coach, later with the umpire and Wool E. Bull, and then with “his inflatable nine-foot monkey,” which was both exactly what it sounds like and also inhabited somewhere in its recesses by a person. During one mid-inning caper, a banana figured heavily, along with spray cans of that fake shaving cream stuff that is actually string; and although I know that this is a family Web site, the fact is that the whole Reggy act, including the “his inflatable monkey” scenes and (especially) the fake-first-base-coach antics, played uncomfortably like the preparatory scenes of very, very, very specialized pornography targeted at an extremely specific fetish market I would prefer not to know anything about.
And also, the game was full of monkey wrenches.
I’ll give you all I’ve got if you click Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura, Andy Sonnanstine, Aristotle, Barbaro Canizares, Brandon Jones, Charlie Montoyo, Chris Richard, Desmond Jennings, Deunte Heath, Diory Hernandez, Douglas Adams, duct tape, Elliot johnson, extraneous innings, F.O.B., Fernando Perez, Gwinnett Braves, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Infinite Improbability Drive, Infinite Monkey Theorem, Inflatable Monkey, injury, Joe Bateman, Joe Nelson, Jon Weber, Julio DePaula, Michel Hernandez, monkey, Olympic Rings, Ray Olmedo, Reggy the Purple Party Dude, Reid Brignac, Wade Davis, walks, Wes Timmons
Adam Sobsey ·
21 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—Out here in (oh, just go ahead and call it the) blogosphere, we were getting a little restless after the Bulls got crushed by the Charlotte Knights on Wednesday, 8-1. The team seemed flat and dull, listless and [adjective of your choice]. And when Charlotte scored a run in the top of the first inning last night with a bloop single that was so shallow it was actually fielded by Bulls’ third baseman Ray Olmedo, you couldn’t help but think, and now here comes the bad luck, too.
The Bulls took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning, but they got help in the form of a bases-loaded walk (to John Jaso) and left the pasture F.O.B., failing to get a hit with the sacks packed. In the top of the third, the Knights tied it 2-2 when Olmedo made two errors (16, 17) on one play.
And then the Bulls loaded the bases again in the bottom of the third inning. Here’s how they did it: walk, strikeout, flyout, walk, walk. Two outs, three on, zero hits. The Bulls seem to fail routinely in this situation lately. Jaso steps to the plate. With runners in scoring position this year he’s 10/73, which is tragically bad—it seems he needs bases-loaded walks to succeed when it counts. But what I haven’t bothered to look up is Jaso’s average with the bases loaded.
Later, after Jaso rips a bases-clearing, three-run double to the base of the left-center field wall, I will look up that stat, and discover that he is now 4/8 with nine RBIs when the bases are loaded. It’s now 5-2, Bulls. That’s plenty for Jeremy Hellickson and a pair of relievers. Reid Brignac adds a two-out, two-run single in the fifth, and the rout is on. The Bulls win, 10-2. After the game Charlie Montoyo says, “I’ve never been so relaxed in the ninth inning.” It’s the Bulls first easy win in a week and a half.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Akinori Iwamura, Charlie Montoyo, Charlotte Knights, F.O.B., Fernando Perez, Jeff Bennett, Jeremy Hellickson, John Jaso, Jon Weber, Ray Olmedo, Reid Brignac, RISP, Runners In Scoring Position, Typewriter Tip Tip Tip, walks
Adam Sobsey ·
8 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
6 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—And by “wonder-full,” I mean full of wondrous things. If you’re one of those quick-and-dirty types who stops reading at the jump, let me dispense with the summary:
The Bulls battled back from a 6-2, sixth-inning deficit. They scored three times in sixth inning and twice in the eighth inning and took a 7-6 lead into the ninth against Syracuse. Joe Nelson, the fifth Bulls pitcher, came in to save the game, but he put two men on with a single and a walk. With two outs and a full count on Justin Maxwell, he threw a fastball that tailed back toward the middle of the plate, and Maxwell tattooed it. His long, high drive sailed over the Blue Monster—just foul, it appeared to us, up in the press box. But home plate umpire Fran Burke, the only one of the three officials with a straight-on view of the play, called it fair.
Things went nuts. The Bulls all argued. Charlie Montoyo charged out of the dugout to join them. We watched two replays in the press box, both of which seemed to show the ball crossing in front of the screen that extends from the foul pole—which would indicate a foul ball. Charlie Montoyo implored the umpires to watch the replay on the big screen behind them. They didn’t. The call stood. Montoyo was so mad, he threw not only his hat but also the photos of his kids that he keeps in his back pocket. He went into ultra-argue mode, which is manager-code for Eject Me Now, Please. Crew Chief Kevin Causey complied and ejected him. Montoyo, as if only now realizing just how mad all of this had made him, then had to be held back by one ump while he yelled at another. Finally he departed, but not before picking up the photos he’d thrown. A fan threw beer on the field and was escorted from the ballpark. After the game, which the Chiefs won, 9-7, Bulls’ General Manager Mike Birling had a brief, heated exchange with with one of the umpires.
And that was only one exciting sequence in a game full of them.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays Anthony Michael Hall, Baltimore Orioles, Bulls on the Move, catcher's interference, Charlie Montoyo, ejection, Elliot johnson, F.O.B., Fran Burke, Greg Zaun, injury, Jack Spradlin, Joe Nelson, John Hughes, John Jaso, John Meloan, Jorge Julio, Justin Maxwell, Justin Ruggiano, Kevin Causey, Matt DeSalvo, Matt Joyce, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes, Shairon Martis, Shawn Riggans, Sixteen Candles, Syracuse Chiefs, Winston Abreu, Zechry Zinicola
Adam Sobsey ·
3 Aug 2009, 5:00 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—I had a bunch of really nice tomatoes that I got at the farmers’ market on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon I made a sauce out of them that I planned to poach some fish in on Monday. Maybe some Spanish Mackerel. The sauce had mint in it, some young garlic, a little fresh cayenne. Simple, but really tasty.
After I was done with the sauce, I went to last night’s ballgame at the DBAP. When I got there, I realized I’d left my voice recorder thingy at home. Oh, well.
In the fourth inning of the game, I had one of those uh-oh moments.
The Indians had jumped on Durham starter Wade Davis—they hit three homers and two doubles off of him—and led 4-0 after three innings, but the Bulls began the last of the fourth with three straight singles off of the highly regarded Indianapolis pitcher Brad Lincoln. Two of those hits were little loopers, but of course loopers count. With the bases F.O.B., Chris Richard flew out to shallow center field for the first out of the inning. To the plate stepped Rhyne Hughes, the Bulls’ hottest hitter over the last ten games.
Here’s the uh-oh moment: Hughes hit a towering fly ball to deep left-center field. From where we sat in the press box, it looked very obvious that the ball would at least hit the Blue Monster if not clear it, and Hughes would either have a three-run double or a grand slam. But Justin Ruggiano, who had been on first base, must not have seen the ball well, because he hung around between first and second waiting to see the outcome of Hughes’s hit.
The ball hit high off the Monster in left-center field—had it been hit about 15 feet to the right, it would have avoided the Monster and been a homer—and Hughes had a double, extending his hitting streak to 10 games (which matches the longest by a Bull this season). Reid Brignac and Jon Weber scored, but Ruggiano had to stop at third base. It was 4-2 now, but it should have been 4-3. Elliot Johnson struck out and John Jaso grounded to third, Ruggiano was stranded, and the inning was over.
I thought to myself, I hope that doesn’t end up the difference in the game.
Guess what? It was the difference in the game.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Chris Richard, Desmond Jennings, F.O.B., farmers' market, Henry Mateo, Indianapolis Indians, Jon Weber, Jorge Julio, Jose Tabata, Justin Ruggiano, Mario Brothers, Media Pass, Neil Walker, Reid Brignac, Rhyne Hughes, SBG, Tagg Bozied, tomato sauce, voice recorder, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
22 Jun 2009, 12:25 AM ·
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DBAP/ DURHAM—So much attention is paid to Father’s Day that it was easy to miss the other red letter stamped on Sunday: June 21 is the summer solstice. The ballgame ended right around 8:00 p.m., and there was still plenty of daylight left. It wasn’t fully dark until after 9.
But solstice or no, it’s getting late early, as Yogi Berra once said, for the Durham Bulls these days. Sunday was another dispiriting game, shadows creeping ominously across the infield as the day waned. Even though the Bulls mounted a late uprising, which failed due to catastrophically bad luck (more about that below), they never really seemed in it, losing their eighth straight game, 5-3 to Pawtucket. The loss dropped them two games behind first-place Norfolk, and in fact Durham surrendered second place to Gwinnett. They’re now third in a four-team division.
Here was the play of the game: In the last of the eighth, down two runs, the Bulls loaded the bases with one out. Henry Mateo came to the plate, patiently waited for a pitch he could hit (the selective Mateo saw 23 pitches in five at-bats), and then stung a line drive—right at Pawtucket shortstop Gil Velazquez. Velazquez gloved it and flipped to second base to double up Ray Olmedo, ending the inning and, for all practical purposes, the game. What looked like a sure game-tying single turned into the Bulls’ latest misery.
Naturally, the first question posed to Charlie Montoyo after the game was about that play. But Montoyo disregarded the prompt. He had something else on his mind.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Charlie Montoyo, F.O.B., Henrry Mateo, James Houser, Joe Bateman, Luck, Pawtucket Red Sox, Ray Sadler, Scott Kazmir, walks
Adam Sobsey ·
20 Jun 2009, 1:30 AM ·
4 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—Let me get the good news out of the way first, since that’s what the Durham Bulls did tonight.
First, the franchise set a remarkable record: most fans ever to see a ballgame at the DBAP, 11,300 (!). And it was a very comfortable oversell: with the SRO behind the Blue Monster and the party decks out by the foul poles, the nominal capacity of the park (10,000) is a numerical relic. Twelve thousand could easily have fit tonight. It was great to see so many people at the DBAP.
Second, Justin Ruggiano did something that isn’t exactly a record but is quite rare. He was the Bulls’ fourth batter of the game, and hit a grand slam. Finding out how many times that’s been done would require help from the Elias Sports Bureau, most likely. Henry Mateo walked, Reid Brignac singled, Matt Joyce drew another walk, and then I called Ruggiano’s granny. You could feel it. Straightaway center field, and obviously gone the moment it left the bat. The Bulls plated two more runs in the inning off of Pawtucket starter Michael Bowden, the No. 2 prospect in the Boston farm system who had pitched quite well against Durham in Pawtucket less than two weeks ago. Bowden was done after the inning, with an ugly 1 5 6 6 3 1 line. His bizarre, too-many-notes delivery has me skeptical.
Anyway, I think that’s enough of that. The Bulls led after one inning, 6-0, and never scored again, losing the game, 8-6. Mike Potter’s Mudcats post sums up in a one-sentence aside what I’m going to need 1600 words for. Clicking “continue reading” is like opening the closet door in a horror flick, in an over-the-shoulder, POV tracking shot, and you’re a cute teenage girl in a bra and panties.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls attendance, baserunning, Charlie Montoyo, F.O.B., Joe Bateman, Jon Weber, Jorge Julio, Jorge Luis Borges, Justin Ruggiano, Michael Bowden, Pawtucket Red Sox, Reid Brignac, SBG, The Roodge, Wade Davis
Adam Sobsey ·
3 Jun 2009, 2:19 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—Enlightened baseball commentators in the blogosphere will tell you that there is no such thing as chemistry, no such thing as clutch hitting, and no such thing as momentum (I’m guilty of the latter denial myself). Baseball is an individual sport masquerading as a team game; clutch hitting stats tend to regress (or progress) to regular stats overall; and every at-bat is a fresh start for pitcher and hitter. There is no carryover, no sum greater than its parts in baseball.
So what to make of the Bulls’ current run? They fall behind early and win late so often that it’s starting to seem like a deliberately cultivated habit. They lose players to Tampa or to injury, call up guys who shouldn’t be as good as the ones they lost, and win anyway. Their starters are inconsistent and put them in holes, and their bullpen keeps the hole from getting deeper until the bats rouse.
Last night the Bulls went into the 9th inning trailing Toledo by three runs, so of course they scored three times—twice down to their final strike—and then won the game in the 11th, 6-5. So many Bulls did so many important things to help win the game that it’s ludicrous to try to say that baseball isn’t about teamwork. Sure, each effort is individual, but the cohering of energy and belief is a team phenomenon. Even at a remove, watching from the dugout while a teammate hits, or marking time in the outfield while a pitcher labors, there is group focus, group intensity, and a sense that any guy who does something good is the hero of the moment, the only player who matters, all of the competitive energy funneling into him—no matter how distant he may seem, no matter how recently he may have been called up from Montgomery or plucked out of obscurity in Bridgeport.
But as usual, it didn’t look good early.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls, Tampa Bay Rays F.O.B., Jeff Spicoli, Jon Weber, Matt DeSalvo, Matt Joyce, momentum, Ray Sadler, The Roodge, Toledo Mud Hens, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
16 May 2009, 2:19 AM ·
7 Comments
DBAP/ DURHAM—For most of tonight’s wild game, which Durham won 13-9 in 11 innings, I couldn’t think where I’d begin my report later. The game took 3:45 to play but didn’t seem all that long because it was thoroughly packed with action, so much as to bewilder a journalist who is only in his fifth week as a daily baseball writer.
Fortunately, Chris Richard (pictured, left) solved my problem: He hit TWO GRAND SLAMS IN ONE GAME.
Just to emphasize how rare this is, it has happened 12 times in the history of the major leagues (no information was readily available about the minors). For comparison, dozens of players have hit two inside-the-park homers in one game, and inside-the-park homers are rarer than grand slams. There have been 17 perfect games pitched in major-league history. The only thing more freakish, among freakish things I could think of, is unassisted triple plays: eight all-time.
The Bulls’ official scorer, Brent Belvin, has been at every game at the DBAP since it opened in 1995. He said he’d never seen two grand slams in a game here.
(Possible Headline: “CHRIS RICHARD IS JUST LIKE YOU AND ME: HE HAS TWO GRANNIES.”) Continue reading »
Baseball, Durham Bulls, Uncategorized Brent Belvin, Charlie Montoyo, Chris Nowak, Chris Richard, Dave Levine, Dewon Day, Elliot johnson, F.O.B., grand slam, I Am Psychic, James Houser, Joe Dillon, John Jaso, Jon Weber, Justin Ruggiano, Kevin Barker, Louisville Bats, Matt Joyce, Mike Potter, Reid Brignac, The Roodge, Two grand slams in one game, Wilkin Castillo, Winston Abreu
Adam Sobsey ·
6 May 2009, 3:35 AM ·
1 Comment
DBAP/ DURHAM—It was already misting at gametime this afternoon, sprinkling in the third inning, and by the seventh-inning stretch it was pouring. Finally, the sky began to get higher and the downpour subsided an inning before the Bulls finished off their 7-2 win over Charlotte, earning a split of the series and the homestand.
It was nice to see the Bulls’ bats wake up a bit, although they continued to scuffle with runners in scoring position. They hit three home runs today (Brignac, Richard, Ruggiano), which accounted for six of their seven runs, but still managed to strand 11 baserunners. They had a man on third with one out in the second inning and then again in the third and failed to plate him both times, and they left the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth; in the seventh, they had the sacks F.O.B. (Full of Bulls) with no outs but went cold after a pitching change that brought in Knights’ reliever Jon Link. The Bulls are currently limp-RISPed.
The statistical oddity of the day was that the Bulls flew out to left field eight times. The major-league record for a nine-inning game is eleven, so the Bulls were within shouting distance.
On the other end of things, the Bulls executed what is becoming their idea of a typical pitching effort: The starter, in this case James Houser (mid-80s fastball, 67-mph curve), went five serviceable innings, allowing seven hits and two runs, and then the bullpen made it stand up with four scoreless frames. Rehabbing reliever Jason Isringhausen made his second appearance as a Bull, and this time was even more mercenary than the first. He threw just ten pitches (six strikes) to record three outs, a performance even more remarkable considering that he also gave up two hits.
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Baseball, Durham Bulls Andy Phillips, Charlotte Knights, Dale Thayer, Daryle Ward, F.O.B., Gary Ward, Gookie Dawkins, James Houser, Jason Isringhausen, Josh Kroeger, Lubbock, Michael Restovich, Reid Brignac, Runners In Scoring Position
