The Nationals Sign Stephen Strasburg

$15 million is all it took for the Washington Nationals to sign the #1 pick of the 2009 draft, Stephen Strasburg. The “greatest pitching prospect ever” is now a National and, if the Nats keep going at the rate they are now, he might even be joined by high school phenom Bryce Harper next season.

The question is now, what do the Nationals do with Stephen Strasburg? The minor league baseball season will end in a couple weeks on Sept 1st so will the Nats stretch out Strasburg in Harrisburg, who hasn’t pitched in months, and try to get him to toss a few innings this season in the pros after the rosters expand, or do they just let him sit at home and wait until spring training?

Obviously, the latter is the choice the Nationals should make, this season for all intents and purposes is lost. The Nationals would risk injuring their young superstar trying to get a look of him in some meaningless game this season, after the long layoff, also risking giving up the #1 pick in the draft if they did anything more to improve their squad this season.

Now, i’m not saying they should tank the year, that would be disrespectful of the great game of baseball, but I am also not saying they should do anything more to improve this year’s version of the squad and should only be thinking about the future here. They really can’t make any more trades anyway unless Willingham somehow clears waivers, so why bother adding another arm to the craptastic pitching corps they have now. Give a minor leaguer a shot who has been there all season I say. Its been crappy enough for most the year, it’l probably be crappy enough to finish dead last….unless KC has something to say about it.

Nevertheless, today is all about Stephen Strasburg and the promise of a better future he brings Nationals fans all over…and when I say all over, i mean all over some parts of gentrified Washington DC, Montgomery County and pockets of Northern Virginia. Welcome to the Nationals kid, lets hope it gets better for this team, no one will want to see them any worse.

Mitch Williams and Rick Ankiel Feel Juan Castillo’s Pain

Of course I threw a wild pitch and didn’t hit my target. I’m in the minors. If I could throw strikes, I’d be in the majors. That would probably carry more weight than “I was aiming for the dugout but beaned a fan in the forehead”. Oh wait.

Juan Castillo was pitching for the Peoria Chiefs against the Dayton Dragons last year when a brawl broke out. He claimed in court that he threw the ball at the Dayton dugout to prevent the benches from clearing. If he was looking to be charged with felonious assault, his plan worked perfectly.

…Castillo said he had been having pitching control problems earlier in the game, became frightened as the brawl began, and did not throw at an opposing player or with the intention of hitting anyone.

“I saw that the players with the Dragons were coming,” the Spanish-speaking Castillo said, testifying through a translator. “I was nervous and frightened. I threw the ball in front of the dugout to see if they would go back. I didn’t throw it to hit anyone.”

Castillo is now on the Boise Hawks, a minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. That’s about right. He’s ineligible to play pending the outcome of the legal proceedings.

Three Peoria players were hit by pitches in the previous game. Castillo pegged two batters including one who took a pitch in the head. A retaliatory hard slide into second kicked things off. 15 players including Castillo and both managers were tossed, fined and suspended for their actions. Everyone knows the first move in a brawl is to karate kick the catcher then run at the opposing team with a bat.

Brooklyn Cyclones Salute Pregnancy

Minor league baseball teams will do anything to get people to games, even appealing to demographics that most sports teams ignore, such as pregnant women. The Brooklyn Cyclones had a salute to pregnancy on Sunday where they offered a centerfield Lamaze class before the game, pregnancy food favorites such as pickles, ice cream, anchovy pizzas etc., a run/walk around the bases, a ceremonial first pitch by women in their 3rd trimester and if any woman gives birth at the stadium before the end of the game, the entire family gets tickets for life.

All pretty nice stuff for them to give out. There was one more giveaway though, and its a doozy. If any mother agrees to name her child “Brooklyn” or “Cy” will get season tickets for life.

Sadly, the kid doesnt get anything for being named after a minor league baseball team except relentless teasing for the rest of his/her life for being the child of an asshat.

From Brooklyn Cyclones

It’s Clown Car P***y Night In Grand Prairie

Leave it to the minor leagues to come up with the best promotions. Fans get to mock others and get something free in addition to a cheap sporting event. The Grand Prairie AirHogs are no different and are getting in on the fun with Octomom Night on June 13.

Fans will be entertained by stroller races and diaper derbies in addition to games of chance. They’ll also have the chance to win tickets to another game if the AirHogs score eight or more runs. 

The fun doesn’t stop with Octomom. The team is also having AIG Bailout Night on June 16. 20 fans will be picked to chase $1000 worth of $1 bills around the field. That should work out well. It sounds like some evil Mr. Burns trick. Watch out for the executive in charge of recreation. Sorry, prank monkey. Monty say Monkey do. What could be better?

Flashback Videos: Jordan Plays (Base)Ball

Ok, so I’m just getting my blogging feet back under me after being worked to the bone for the last 2 months…not that I’m complaining, it is good to have a day job in this world. But all that time in the office got me thinking back to some interesting highlights of the sports world before there were sports blogs to beat current stories into the ground like there are today. So I’m going to kick off a new feature here on the Deuce, the Flashback post.

Flashbacks work so well on TV shows when they can’t think of new material, so why can’t it work here? Let me start it off.

Lets go back to 1994 when Michael Jordan signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox after retiring from basketball because he was tired of dominating the game…or as he called it “loss of desire”. This started a new phase for Michael…one which involved a great amount of sucking. Playing for the Birmingham Barons, a Sox farm team, he achieved the highly mediocre career average of .202 with 3 home runs, 51 RBIs, and 11 errors. The only thing he was good at was stealing bases, he grabbed 30 bags in his time in the minors.

In March of the next year, Jordan was back in the NBA but wearing his Barons number 45 instead of his traditional #23 apparently that caused him to lose some of his super powers because he wasn’t quite the same player he was when he left. That is until the next year when changed his number back and went and won a championship…then 2 others the next two years. All was right again in Chi-town and the people were happy to forgive his one year diversion away from the NBA…but they will never forget.

So lets flashback and watch some Youtubes of this weird story in the history of one of the NBA’s greatest players…and one of MLB’s worst.

Here’s a clip of Jordan being interviewed by Tom Brokaw about the entire baseball thing, its a good 7 minutes, but well worth your time as a flashback to the days when Jordan realized he was a mortal man.

And here is a baby faced Reese Davis breaking down the “Jordan Cruiser”, the bus which Jordan bought for the Birmingham Barons when he was with them in the minors. Pretty swank for those guys, but its no Madden Trailer. Check out the youthful coach Terry Francona there too wow.

Finally…here is the return of the king to his court.

The Baracklyn Cyclones? That is awesome.

How Bad Do You Want It?

How bad do you want to eat and drink all you want while watching minor league baseball? How much would you pay? What would you eat? How about a beetle?

The Madison Mallards held Beetle Eating Night on Thursday. Fans were received free access to the all you can eat and drink area of the stadium if they ate a dead beetle. The offer was only open to the first 250 fans who took up the challenge.

Beetle Eating Night is only the tip of the iceberg. Next Saturday, fans can meet William Hung and “stick around for some intense karaoke!”. Hung is followed by the What You Talkin’ Bout Tour on August 1 when Gary Coleman shows up “‘Eighties’ Night”. The fun never stops in Madtown.

If you make it to Madison, send us a couple Plazaburgers. There’s not much like a Plazaburger with a pint of Point Amber.

** We’re not even touching that picture, you perverts.

Judge For Yourself

Is this fake or one hell of a catch by the ballgirl?

Darryl Strawberry Teachin Them Kids Right

I couldn’t think of a better place for a former all-star cokehead than teaching young baseball players how to be professional ball players. Darryl Strawberry is a roving instructor for the New York Mets organization, a job given to him by Mets VP and GM Omar Minaya where Straw will visit the affiliates from the rookie leagues to Class AAA.

Last weekend, Strawberry was at the single A Savannah Sand Gnats complex giving all sorts of advice to their young hitters, something he wishes he had when he was coming up to the majors:

“We didn’t have that when I came up. You had to learn the hard way. You had to learn the hard knocks of life. It’s life. It’s a journey. It’s the same thing for these younger guys.

“I try to explain to them about the life of playing professional sports, the temptations and the people. You’ve got to be extremely careful about who you deal with.”

Certainly these kids are going to listen to this guy when he tells them how to get to the majors and what not to do to stay there. Straw had a world of talent and he could have been a hall of fame player were it not for his addictions, for him to talk to the kids in the Mets single A team is like the baseball equivalent of Scared Straight to these kids.

“Do you wake up in the morning and feel like you have to kill somebody??”

I have to think besides teaching the normal hitting, fielding, time management and psychological aspects of the game of baseball, Darryl is also telling the kids some other fine points about managing life in the big leagues such as:

– How to have a ho’ in every visiting town

– How to not get said ho’ pregnant

– How to keep said ho’ quiet about her ho’ing around with you

– How to do a proper line of blow off said ho’s ass

– How not to mix the uppers with the downers

Well you get the point…oh yea, and if you don’t remember scared straight, here’s some bonus footage for ya.

From Savannah Morning News/Savannah Now
Photo by Richard Drew / AP

Radio Call of Line Drive That Killed 1st Base Coach

This is the audio of the radio broadcast the night when Tulsa Drillers first base coach Mike Coolbaugh was struck in the head with a ball and killed. Not very long or graphic, just the shock of the hit and then the concern in their voice while still trying to keep it light for listeners. Our hearts go out to Coolbaugh’s family. Have a listen

Via Daily Motion