SPORTS-(PIRATES)
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August 30- Finally an actual Pirates item worth discussing. last week (8/20- 8/25),
the Pirates busted into an exclusive field. They beat, arguably, the National League's
best pitching tandem, in Randy Johnson and Curt Schiling of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The pair hadcombined to go 35-10 against the rest of the league, but came up
0-2 against the lowly Pirates. Now if Pittsburgh can stop losing to the Rocky Coppingers
and Dave Milicki's of the NL, they'd be set to make headlines.
Two late season healdines will no doubt start to pop up in the baseball weeklies.
Late in the season, national writers start to experiment and try to cover the teams nobody
follows in September. Fishing for humorous stories or the old cliche of
"a diamond in the rough". Stories about a writer catching a game in the sparsely
populated stands of Miami or Kansas City. With the Yankees and Mariners dominating most of the
upcoming Fall headlines, Pittsburgh definitely qualifies as a team nobody will
care about. That's where Aramis Ramirez and Jimmy Anderson come in.
Writers will start to warm up to Ramirez's impressive numbers. They'll also note that the
guy will probably have the chance to lead Pittsburgh's anemic offense for the next
few years. Brian Giles has been making the All-Star squad for the past few years, but
Ramirez currently leads the team in RBI's, and will easilly finish with 100+.
Giles will rank second at just under 100.
Fantasy geeks will salivate and writers will peg Ramirez as a "breakout star"
for 2002. Not saying this is a bad story, just remember where you heard it, first :)
Not as optimistic, but Jimmy Anderson will garner some press for his quest at 20.
No, not 20 wins or HRs. 20 losses. Hard luck heroes always get a few pages of coverage,
late in the season. Look in SI's "Life of Reilly" or "Air and Space" within the next few weeks
for some "witty humor" or "sarcasm" about Anderson's rough luck. "Through it all, Anderson
has kept his cool in what has been a dismal season"... followed by a quote from Anderson.
I'm sure they'll even quote the former 20-game loser from the Oakland A's, who roots ever year for someone to lose 20 and knock him off the trivia circuit (can't remember the fool's name
right now. He lost 20 in the early 80's, I think).
Formula writing rocks.
Okay, so the baseball season's winding down. My interest has taken its annual downswing, with
football on the horizon. Rather upset, because I still haven't finished a full season
on EA Sports' Triple Play 2002. I set it for a half season, but haven't even finished that.
My Pirates are currently 38-12, and in first place by
10.5 games. Now I'll probably run out and buy Madden 2002 for the PS2 and forget about
my little season in a week or two. Oh well.. the computer simulated fans in my
computer simulated season were certainly thrilled by their computer simulated Pirates, this year.
Seeing Eye Singles
Omar Vizquel requested Mariners pitcher Arthur Lee Rhodes remove his earring, because the
glare off of it was bothering him. Good excuse, and one Vizquel could use when his wife
catches him in singles bar. "Really, I just removed my wedding ring because the glare was
bothering me, honey!"....||...
Semi-celebrity semi-lookalikes: Toronto Bluejays GM Gord Ash and former
MTV flavor du jour Matt Pinfield
....||...
From the Benjamin J. Grimm "Who'da Thunk it" file:
Just when you think MLB's logged every stat or game combination possible,
Rokcies' pitcher Jason Jennings enters the bigs last week and becomes the
first player, ever, to hit
a homerun and pitch a shutout in his debut. ...||...Please win the batting title, Moises
Alou. If he falters. Larry Walker will win another worthless title and continue to
buffalo the press into thinking he is some sort of baseball messiah...
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