Historically Speaking: Pine Tar Anniversary

I love the fans' faces in this photo. And I love you too, single, solitary reader. Now go study your history, as I want a bright future for you.

* Proving that Jesus hated Cleveland even as far back as 1882, the city's baseball team dropped a game on this day of that year by the mark of 35-4.

* It was today in 1965 that Casey Stengel resigned at manager of the New York Mets.

* Three years later, Hoyt Wilhelm broke Cy Young's appearance for Major League appearances by a pitcher when he logs number 907.

* Today in 1978, Pete Rose got a base hit in his 37th consecutive game, tying the modern-day record held by Tommy Holmes. The starting pitcher, New York Met Pat Zachry, kicks the dugout steps out of frustration after surrendering the hit, which broke his foot, which ended his season.

* Finally, the year was 1983 when Kansas City Royal George Brett hit a home run off of Goose Gossage with two outs in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium. The jack put the Royals up 5-4, but Yankee Skip Billy Martin tells the officiating crew that Brett's bat contains more than the allowed 17 inches of pine tar. The crew called Brett out (which he didn't particularly care for), giving New York the win. For a month.

And your Sports Illustrated quote of the day came from the mouth of...



...some guy named Jimmy Demaret, who, after golfing with Bob Hope in 1979, said, "Bob has a beautiful short game. Unfortunately, it's off the tee."
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Tuesday Tidbits: Do Not Criticize George Brett's Royals

If you haven't already heard, George Brett has grown tired of the criticisms of the 2009 club, and particularly, the decisions made my Manager Trey Hillman. Jump ahead for more details.


Now, I'm at work right now, and my wonderful employers have disabled sound from the speakers of all of our work computers, so I can't play this bit for my co-workers, but you, splendid readers that you are, may partake immediately.



From what I heard this morning on the TalkRadios, Brett commented to the media that he's tired of the criticisms. He then, however, appeared on air this morning and said that, at one point, skipper Whitey Herzog said that a good manager will win you five extra games in any given season, a bad one will lose you five, the difference, he iterated, being a 10-game swing. He admitted that that statement is something that has always stuck with him.

A number of Royals fans (Editor's Note: In a surprising twist this morning, TLR jumped on this bandwagon.), have claimed that Hillman has already, one quarter of the season through, cost Kansas City two contests via his allegedly unsavvy bullpen decision-making. These decisions, of course, largely involve Kyle Farnsworth, and blown-save opportunities you could hang on the corners of his pointy-framed spectacles.

My take, oft-dismissed as it seems to be, is that General Manager Dayton Moore went out and got this guy. The Glass family is paying him, and so you have to find ways to use him; he's on your active roster, like it or not. Now, because the guy hangs meatballs in the air that many Little Leaguers could jack out of the K, doesn't, in my opinion, mean that Hillman cost us the game. It would appear that, more generally speaking, George Brett agrees.

Personally, as much as I don't like the "performances" Farnsworth turned in on those outings, or the recent six-game slide, I'd rather focus on taking, at minimum, two out of three against the Tribe, who's in town tonight. Add to that that an allegedly back-in-form Cliff Lee takes the hill for Cleveland, while Brian Bannister and his recently ailing shoulder get the nod for KC. Last month in this same matchup, Banny logged the victory, while Lee, I believe, got a no-decision, which, in the course of things 2009 Royals, is improvement, when you consider that Lee had a previous career record of 5-0 with an under-three E.R.A. What's more, is that the Royals will face two other division opponents before the month is out.

Still cautiously optimistic, I'm not all that bent out of shape by a 20-18 record, one game out of first in the Central.
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The Latest Poop On The Kansas City Royals

I have no idea if this clip has made it onto this site in the past, but here it is. Enjoy, after the jump...


Our fantasy baseball league is named after Ted Williams, who was a great American. Its two divisions are the Mark Grace (for all the Cubs fans) and the George Brett (for everyone else). Every once in a while we'll get a new owner, and that new owner will want to rename a division after Ryne Sandberg or Kirby Puckett or Doc Gooden or somebody.

That new owner can go get fucked. I will never play fantasy baseball in a league that doesn't name a division after George Brett.
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The Judges Called the YouTubes and the Judges Said, "No More Pine Tar May Your Users Embed"

This Monday, July 23, Rustoleum’s beloved Yankees come to Kansas City to take on the Royals in a four-game series. On Tuesday the 24th, the 24th anniversary of the Pine Tar Incident, the first 20,000 fans into Kauffman Stadium will get a commemorative powder blue George Brett t-shirt with pine tar smudges on the front and the back. Good stuff. I happen to work with a Yankees fan, we’ve even gone to a Royals-Yankees game together. Last night, we were talking about the series and, upon mentioning the t-shirt giveaway, it occurred to me that he’d no clue about this famed piece of baseball lore. Granted, he’s from Mexico and a Yankees fan solely because of the club’s vast number of championships, but whatever.



Anyway, I took the young lad up to the office to consult the almighty InterWebs and quickly found myself disturbed, then angry, and finally downright pissed. Here is why: It appears that a recent court ruling has determined any and all Pine Tar footage to be the property of Major League Baseball, and any seven-minute-plus clip from the YouTubes is in fact, in copyright violation of that property. Not good stuff.

Read a slightly more educated synopsis of the event here, should you desire. Or see what the YouTubes have in place of what was once the locale for Pine Tar footage here. So now, any young buck that wants to query the Pine Tar footage has only the option of doing so here, the MLB Web site, where they will probably attempt to charge you money for breathing. Very ungood stuff.

Answers.com offers a nice summary of the Incident here, my favorite part of which is the following:

"On August 18 (a scheduled off day for both teams), the game was resumed from the point of
Brett's home run. Martin symbolically protested the continuation of the game by putting first baseman Don Mattingly (who threw left-handed) at second base, and pitcher Ron Guidry in center field. Before the first pitch to Hal McRae (who followed Brett in the lineup), Martin challenged Brett's home run on the grounds that Brett had not touched all the bases on his way home, and maintained that there was no way for the umpires (who were a different crew from those who worked on July 24) to dispute this. In response, umpire Davey Phillips produced an affidavit signed by the July 24 umpires and stating that Brett had indeed touched all bases. An irate Martin continued to argue with the umpires and was ejected from the game. The game finally continued with no further runs scored by either team and the Royals preserving their 5-4 win."

The point of this post, though, is to point out the absurdity of this ruling, what it might mean for those of us that troll the CyberUniverses and take full advantage of the Googles and the YouTubes that live on our block. What next? Will we be offereing credit to someone just because they wrote it? I suppose photgraphers and musicians won't be far behind, demanding royalties and currencies in every nook and cranny.

Why would you deprive the world of watching the best third baseman of all time losing his freaking mind? Beats the pants off of me. Read more