Pitching is such a vital part of the game, as far as winning is concerned.

On most teams the set up man has become more valuable, on others not so valuable.

Something to keep in mind — it’s raining lightly. The infield could be very wet on ground balls.

What is a drop and drive pitcher? He is a guy who drops and drives. Very simple.

So by guessing right you might have guessed wrong.

Giambi walks too much. He’s always clogging up the bases with all that walking.

As a new day begins in New York, the sun sets in Hawaii.

If football is a game of inches then baseball is a game of inch.

If that ball had more elevation, it would have been a home run.

If the double play is a pitcher’s best friend, what is a fielder’s choice? An acquaintance?

It’s better to have a fast runner on base than a slow one.

One thing about ground balls. They don’t go out of the ball park.

The reason we call that pitch up and in is because the arms are attached to the shoulder.

He wears his hat like a left hander!

Any ball that goes down is much heavier than any ball that stays on the same plane.

The blood on his sock looks exactly like Oklahoma!

You don't want to use too many statistics. The ones that apply to a July or August game won't be relevant on Saturday.

American McCarver

A Hall of Famer, At Last

By Jason Snell, August 8, 2011

Those of you who are not aware of the ineptitude of my favorite college football team, the California Golden Bears, need to know only this: Their conference awards its champion with a berth to the grandaddy of ‘em all, the Rose Bowl. Cal last played in the Rose Bowl in 1959. (Thanks a bunch, Mack Brown, you destroyer of dreams.)

Anyway, a few years ago I realized that no Cal football players have ever been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, either. Now, there’s decent news on the horizon: former Cal Bear Tony Gonzalez has turned into one of the best Tight Ends in NFL history. So he seems to be a lock.

Then there’s Aaron Rodgers, who departed Cal after the Holiday Bowl letdown (see photo above) for the green room of the NFL Draft. After sitting in the green room for approximately five years, a Green Bay-bound tomato truck passed by and offered the down-on-his-luck kid a lift.

After holding a clipboard for approximately five years while Brett Farve dithered and re-dithered and zithered and slithered and finally parted ways with the Packers, Rodgers took over and became a star, and finally won a Super Bowl. Now, Trent Dilfer will tell you that winning a Super Bowl is not a ticket to the Hall of Fame for a quarterback. But it sure helps. So perhaps Aaron Rodgers will one day make it there too.

In the meantime, though, Cal has found its first football hall of famer, and it comes from an unlikely source: the 1951 Rose Bowl team, the second-to-last such Cal team to win its conference championship outright. Les Richter, a linebacker for Cal who went on to play for the L.A. Rams, was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend.

Richter played nine seasons for the Rams, then retired and got into motor sports, eventually becoming a NASCAR executive. He died in June 2010, but he’s achieved immortality in Canton, Ohio. Given that Cal will never, ever play in the Rose Bowl again, this is about as good as it gets.

Unfortunately, we’re still two Hall of Famers behind Stanford.

[Photo by me: Aaron Rodgers leads the Bears to a crushing defeat at the Holiday Bowl after getting screwed by Mack Brown.]

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