SWEEP!

Congratulations to the Indians who completed a 4-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays with a 5-2 victory today. Hopes were that the Indians could at least compete with the Rays this weekend but the Tribe played like they are capable of playing and whipped the Rays handily. The Indians may not be a playoff team this year but despite injuries and key players not producing early on, this team definitely is not a last place team.


In his second start with his new team, CC Sabathia homered to help his own cause as well as his Brewers beat Cincinnati 3-2 in a complete game victory. In two starts with the Brew Crew, CC is 2-0!
Go CC!

Milton Bradley has shown that he can actually get in touch with his softer side. The Texas Ranger (this year’s team) star reported how he learned he had made the All-Star team from manager Ron Washington;
“He called me out of my domino game and told me about it. You know, I never really had any father-son moments growing up, but from Wash, the congratulations, would be something like one of those moments.”
Oh Barf! Too bad he didn’t take Indians manager Eric Wedge’s base running advise as a similar moment in 2004 when he was with the Tribe, before he was with the Dodgers, A’s, Padres, and Rangers.

No more human rain delays?
Beginning with the 2009 season, Major League Baseball will empower umpires to call a “strike” on a batter who fails to ask for permission to step out of the batter’s box. This rule, already in effect in the minor leagues, is expected to shorten the length of games. I certainly agree that the stepping out of the box to readjust batting gloves, even after a no-swing is way out of hand, but the games are already under 3 hours on the average. Wow! What team will be the first to lose a game on a called third strike because the batter reverted back to old habits? This will be an interesting rule to enforce fairly, hmmmm…