Baseball In The Daytime: June 17 2009

On the day after we discover that Sammy Sosa's stats might not have been on the level, BITD makes the trek to Wrigley anyway. The show must go on.

What are you going to say about Sammy? We all knew it. The saddest part to me was how much of a freak he turned himself into. McGwire was never much of a baseball player to begin with, bulking up did nothing to his game other than add to his already prodigious power. Barry and Canseco maintained some degree of outfield athleticism and baserunning ability after their chemistry experiments.

Sammy, though, that was just pathetic. A guy who once covered a lot of ground in the outfield, who once stole a lot of bases, who once was a complete player...became a sideshow. He had no lateral movement, no quickness, no ability to do anything on the field other than hit home runs. And when that went--poof. Sammy was gone. Sammy could get by OK at the Friendly Confines, but when he was asked to patrol the massive expanse of grass at Coors it was embarrassing, singles quickly becoming triples.

Try to get some good wood on the ball, after the jump...

Chicago White Sox @ Chicago Cubs, 12:20 Mountain I was listening to the Indians-Brewers game on the XM Radio Monday night, and the Cleveland crew was talking about how this weekend's interleague series between the Tribe and the Cubs was going to be comprised entirely of day games. They were flabbergasted by this notion. You, savvy reader of Baseball In The daytime, would not make such a fool of yourself on a national broadcast. Around here, we know that the Cubs play a lot of day games. We sit in the bleachers, we drink Old Style, we casually fondle strange girls in red tank tops. Whoa, who said that? Bad form, dude. Today look for John Danks to bring the kind for the Chicago Americans, while wily Canadian Ryan Dempster deals for the Nationals.

Los Anaheim @ San Francisco, 1:45 Matt Palmer is your starting pitcher for the perennial AL West champion Angels. Coming into the '09 season, Matt Palmer might have been 36th on the depth chart for such an assignment, but since the Halos have had about 35 starters hit the DL, Matt Palmer's your man. He draws reigning NL Cy Young winner Time Lincecum at Some Telecom Field today, and we don't listen to that. Play Ball!