AGRI Biz

During Thursday night's American League Division Series game between the Anaheim Angels and Boston Red Sox, first base umpire C.B. Bucknor had an absolutely horrendous evening. He mangled two obscenely easy calls at the bag, calls that had no business being missed and resulted in erroneous baserunners for the Halos. Luckily for Bucknor, neither gaffe materially affected the outcome. On Friday night, the Baseball Gods were not so merciful. The Minnesota Twins were ...

Torii Hunter's three-run big fly on Thursday night pleased a lot of people. The Anaheim Angel fansùno disrespect intended, but the team simply is NOT anywhere close to Los Angelesùin attendance were audibly ecstatic. Hunter's teammates were obviously thrilled. And the center fielder himself was all kinds of pumped up. Nevertheless, the happiest soul should be C.B. Bucknor. The three-run bomb and carnage that ensued will deflect a considerable amount of heat that ...

When I was in high school during the mid-1990s, we had what would now be called a strength-and-conditioning coach. He was an ex-coach/administrator who volunteered to help around the edges of the program because he loved athletic competition. Gradually, his passion became a magnet for those willing to walk the line. Our weight room's popularity increased and guys from rival schools started showing up during the summer months. I will always remember ...

I'm a shade unclear as to the specific voting rules for Major League Baseball's regular season awards. Common sense would dictate the writers who select the winners have to wait until the last of the 162 games (including any one-game playoffs that might be necessary) so that they have a complete data set. If that's the case, the official tallies should begin rolling in once the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers ...

The three-horse race for the National League Cy Young Award is officially over. The votes haven't been cast or tallied yet as the Major League Baseball season still has some leg in it, but Chris Carpenter, Tim Lincecum, and Adam Wainwright have all finished their respective bodies of work. Carp and Lincecum put a little extra flourish on their campaigns while Wainwright took a bit of a tumble. In fairness to the ...

The three-horse race for the National League Cy Young Award is officially over. The votes haven't been cast or tallied yet as the Major League Baseball season still has some leg in it, but Chris Carpenter, Tim Lincecum, and Adam Wainwright have all finished their respective bodies of work. Carp and Lincecum put a little extra flourish on their campaigns while Wainwright took a bit of a tumble. In fairness to the ...

I'm not sure what to make of a headline that announced Freddy Sanchez is "open" to the idea of staying with the San Francisco Giants in 2010. In all honesty, my first reaction was to be a little perturbed. When the second baseman came over at the trade deadline for once prized-prospect Tim Alderson, the Giants Faithful were sold on what a Good Guy and great clubhouse presence Sanchez would be. ...

Depending on what the top three candidates do in their final starts of 2009, the National League Cy Young announcement could be one of the most acrimonious days in recent Major League Baseball history. If current trends hold, the voters will be hard-pressed to find much solid differential amongst the three primary candidates and that means die-hard fans in St. Louis or San Francisco will be taking to the cyber/airwaves with ...

I have dreamed a dream, but now that dream is gone from me.—Morpheus, Matrix Reloaded (and San Francisco Giants fans across the country) Technically, which means mathematically, the San Francisco Giants are still alive. They sit five games behind the National League Wild Card-leading Colorado Rockies with both teams facing 11 games left in their 2009 seasons. So, yes, the pulse is still there. But they amount to a brain-dead patient kept ...