Sure, umpire Jim “DONT CALL ME JAMES” Joyce blew this call which would have completed major league baseball’s 21st perfect game ever and third one this season.  He called this a base hit.  Ooops his bad. Tigers still won the game, Armando Galarraga doesnt get his perfect game, but in his mind he’ll always know he had it.  He was robbed and he knew it but you know what, there’s no crying in baseball.

If MLB didn’t reverse Jeffery Maier’s catch over Tony Tarasco, giving the Yankees a home run and allowing them to beat the Orioles in that game, eventually becoming the momentum changing moment in the Yankees world series run…then you know what Tigers fans?  You can suck it.  You won the game anyway.  Quit your bellyaching.  We all know there’s no crying in baseball.  You take your 1 hitter and a win and go home.

Speaking of tears, Jim Joyce was absolutely heartbroken after the game.  He sounded completely distraught in his post game interview.  So much so that you could almost hear the violins playing in the background, quietly, beneath his voice.

Image from Keith Olbermann’s blog…where he appears to be crying.  THERE IS NO CRYING IN BASEBALL KEITH!

Noted singer, whom apparently played baseball for awhile, Jose Lima died last night at 37 years old of a heart attack.  Looks like the last and final Lima-Time will be at his funeral.  Sad news.  Good night sweet prince.

Sure its exciting that the Washington Nationals have Stephen Strasburg, the next Mark Prior or David Price or Doc Gooden or whatever.  That is great news.  The sad thing is that they possibly could’ve had 2 such prospects if they wanted to pony up the cash for Aroldis Chapman like the Cincinnati Reds did.   Chapman, as a Cuban defector, was a free agent available to anyone in the league and in the end it seemed like the Nationals and the Reds were the last two in the  running for his services, but the Nationals felt that they didn’t want to spend $30+ million for 6 years on an unproven commodity.  It was the safe call, it was also the inexpensive call…and it very well might be the wrong call.

Of course one should never draw conclusions from one, split squad spring training game against lesser bats but in just looking at the way Chapman pitched I am going to do just that.  Seriously, he doesn’t look like he will be waiting around to start in the show for long.  What did he do in his first MLB start in spring training?  Here’s what, allow me to paraphrase Dave Brown in Big League Stew’s wrap up of Chapman’s start in some bullet points for you:

• He threw 26 pitches, 15 for strikes and his control got better as he pitched more.
• At least one pitch reached 100 mph.
• He can throw sliders with two different breaks.
• He unexpectedly cuts his fastball
• He once followed up a pitch in the upper 90s with an 80-mph change-up.
• He struck out three Royals batters in two scoreless innings.

Meanwhile, with Strasburg set to pitch at 1pm today, what have the Washington Nationals combined to do thus far this preseason?  Oh, only 61 runs given up in 50 innings, a 1.22 runs an inning average and just over 10 runs a game allowed.  Gee, you think the Nationals could have afforded to spend $5 million a  year on second possible pitching savior now?   Ya think?  Do you think they wished they had his arm right now when the entire staff is sucking more than a room full of Dysons?  Its not like he is Daniel Cabrera, he actually HAS control.

According to the Washington Post back in January,

…when the total value of the last Nationals offer approached $25-million, almost $10-million more than the Nats paid to sign No. 1-overall draft pick Stephen Strasburg, Washington had reached its limit.

I hope they didn’t take a pass on a chance at a dominant 1-2 pitching combination all because they didn’t want to hurt the ego of their young phenom.  I hope they didn’t pass on the chance had having a dominant 1-2 pitching combination because of just 5 million more dollars, because if all worked out well his VORP would be through the fraking roof and well worth that gamble .

I know that the Nationals have “The Plan”™, I like “The Plan”™, but Chapman would’ve fit into the plan and this was a blown opportunity to possibly dramatically speed up “The Plan”™.  He’s still a young player if you believe his papers, he has as much potential as our #1 draft pick and he wouldn’t have been so expensive that they couldn’t work around his salary if he failed.

Its a snap judgment, yes, but from what it looks like right now, the Nationals probably blew it being cheap.

Padilla probably assumed this position after being shot.

It’s baseball season again. I’ll pass on Orioles Magic. Just give me some good pitching. Feeling it happen is like taking a deep breath before walking into an overflowing outhouse. You can only hold your breath for so long before having to take in the funk. It’s definitely in the air around you. Hope doesn’t spring eternal with the opening of Orioles training camp. Only a week or two passes before reality sets in while watching the pitchers. It’s cool. I’ve been doing this for 12 years but I always come back like John Terry’s wife.

At least we can fall back on the non-story of players coming clean or covering their asses regarding their knowledge of PED-dealing doctors. Dodgers pitcher Vincente Padilla didn’t want to feel left out but no one’s going to believe he’s on the juice so he came clean about something else.

Padilla was shot in November while home in Nicaragua. A friend was cleaning his gun on a shooting range and accidentally shot him. (Lesson #1: Never trust weapons sent to you by Ollie North.) At the time, it was claimed that he was only “grazed” by the bullet. Um not exactly true.

Pointing to a spot high on his right thigh, Padilla said, “It went in here.” Touching the back of his leg, he continued, “And it went out the other side.”

“I was bleeding a lot,” Padilla said.

Padilla said he lost 1.5 liters of blood while his friend drove him to the hospital. He said he felt dizzy when he got there.

“We were far from the hospital,” he said.

Plaxico bumaye!! Padilla may not have shot himself but way to cover it up. Burress ended up in jail while he ended up with a one-year deal worth $5.025M. What’s the other lesson here? If you’re gonna catch a bullet, do it offshore like reinsurance. It pays.

The Mets can’t win for trying. Wait, they don’t try. They Minaya. Big difference. Pitchers and catchers report in less than two weeks and the Mets are already preparing to crap their pants. Gary Matthews Jr. and the “real-life Crash Davis” were signed. They also dropped the height of Citi Field’s center field wall. Standard and Poor’s responded by dropping Citi Field’s bond rating to junk status.

The bonds issued in 2006 “do not have a reserve fund with adequate liquidity to support any disruption in project cash flow,” S&P said in a statement. In other words, the rainy-day fund is drier than thought.

S&P, however, said the outlook for the bonds was “stable,” not “negative,” which means another downgrade is not imminent. Moody’s Investor Services lowered its ratings on the bonds to junk status last week.

At least the bond rating matches the product on the field. There’s something to be said for consistency. Fred Wilpon should have offered up Matthews.  If he doesn’t scream “adequate liquidity”, nothing does. The steroids going through Matthews’ blood stream make him priceless!

It’s almost like the Mets are booking a choke in advance. “We just wanted to make sure we got a good seat.” Mets fans are looking forward to the upcoming season with dread. All other baseball fans can’t wait to see how they impode this year. If everything goes pear-shaped, they can take off-brand Crash Davis and make some hybrid Bull Durham/Major League movie. Play ball!