Happy Father's Day to all the fathers in the league. I was especially happy to receive a cake in the shape of catcher's mitt with a cupcake shaped like a baseball in the pocket. I am a very lucky uncle indeed. Here's a look at the league this week.
Roster Moves
None
Who's Hot/Who's Not
Hitters
Hot: Washington's Ian Desmond had a home run and nine RBIs while hitting a red-hot .500 this week.
Not: While trying to fend off the Biogenesis Clinic scandal, Ryan Braun then gets hurt and goes on the 15-Day DL.
Pitchers
Hot: Edwin Jackson won a pair of games and struck out 15 batters for the Cubs this week.
Not: Tampa Bay's Matt Moore gave up 13 earned runs in 10 1/3 IP in two losses this week.
This Week's Three Trivial Things
1. It was a big brawl that featured some big stats. When Dodger skipper Don Mattingly and Hitting Coach Mark McGwire were going toe-to-toe with Diamondback Manager Kirk Gibson and Bench Coach Alan Trammell I did some quick stat math. That part of the brawl represented 7,210 hits, 4,601 RBIs, and 1,438 home runs. Wow.
2. This is from the weird stat department, The Angels beat the Orioles on Wednesday, 9-5. Mike Trout did not have good day going 0 for 5. It was the fifth time in his very young career that he has gone 0 for 5 in a game. The Angels have won all five of those games in which wore the 0 for 5 collar.
3. Well, that's what I call togetherness. The A's and Mariners had to share the Raiders locker room after Sunday's game at the Oakland Coliseum. Oakland won the game, 10-2, but proponents of a new stadium were the real winners as sewage and other unknown pools of water flooded both baseball locker rooms. It showed once again that the Oakland Coliseum still holds the title as worst ballpark in the majors.
Cool Baseball Cards of the Week: 1987 Donruss Opening Day #163a Barry Bonds (Johnny Ray),
163b barry Bonds (Corrected)
26 years ago, Donruss had a pretty cool idea. They produced an Opening Day set. The set consisted of a card for each member of the starting lineup of each MLB team on Opening Day 1987. Here's what the factory packaged set looks like...
After the set had been released, one of the biggest error cards of the last 30 years was discovered. Here's card #163a Barry Bonds...
Ummmm, that's not Barry Bonds. That's Johnny Ray. Johnny Ray actually played second base that day for the Pirates and has his own card. It's #162. That's right folks, on the printing sheet it sits right next to the error card and nobody caught that the same face was on two consecutive cards. Here's the corrected version #163b...
The ironic thing about these two cards is that corrected version of the card can be had for around 10 bucks. Meanwhile, the error card can go for as high as 2,000 dollars graded in NM-MINT condition. That means Barry's most expensive rookie card doesn't even feature Barry. Kind of like a career that was marked with artificially enhanced achievements.
Until next week folks, remember that stealing third base is harder to do than second.
-The Commissioner
