Remember a couple weeks ago when we voted on whether it was awesome or super-totally-wickedly-awesome that a teammate and I were going to be wearing #00 and #0 on our softball team, respectively? Well, congratulations to everyone that picked "Nice try, Bryz, but that other guy is NOT going to be wearing #00 for your team," because that’s exactly what happened. Yours truly will instead be wearing #00 by himself, while my unnamed teammate went with the blasé #2.
By the way, to show that the number without a number isn’t as odd as you may think, the team we played against on Wednesday had a player with #0, so this idea really isn’t that radical. Now, let’s check out this past week in baseball news around the league.
- Three cheers for MLB as they finally showed the guts to discipline one of their own umpires. Bob Davidson, long known as one umpire that enjoys picking fights with players and coaches, couldn’t handle Phillies manager Charlie Manuel’s complaints from the dugout during Tuesday’s Phillies/Astros game after Davidson inadvertently (?) blocked Phillies catcher Brian Schneider from retrieving a wild pitch on a third strike. Davidson quickly turned his mood from cruise control to spitting angry, and launched an expletive-laden tirade against Manuel after ejecting the manager from the game… while he was still in the dugout. MLB clearly and rightfully noticed that Davidson acted unprofessionally here, so they suspended Davidson for one game. Do I feel that the suspension is too short? Kind of, but considering it’s the first umpire suspension I can ever remember, I think it might be simply used as a warning to other umps.
- Speaking of temper tantrums and suspensions, the Blue Jays’ Brett Lawrie had a rather epic one earlier this week, leading to a 4-game suspension when his thrown helmet bounced off the ground and hit umpire Bill Miller after watching a called strike three. Lawrie said after the game that he didn’t intend to hit Miller, but honestly, you just don’t throw anything in the direction of anyone and expect it to not hit them. Lawrie at first was going to appeal the suspension, but quickly dropped it. Hopefully the Jays send him to a physics class while he’s out so he can learn about trajectories.
- Sticking with the Blue Jays, they made history with one of their transactions earlier this week. No, sending Adam Lind to Triple-A wasn’t noteworthy, but rather the man that came up to replace him. On Thursday, C/3B Yan Gomes became the first Brazilian-born athlete to play in the major leagues. Don't worry, this isn't some sort of gimmick, because Gomes had been hitting .359/.391/.565 down in Triple-A.
- Don't spit your gum on Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, or else you're going to get the stare-down. I gotta say, most managers would probably change the argument from "How could you blow that call?" to "How dare you spit your gum at me!" but Valentine decides the better option is to just walk away from umpire Gary Darling while giving him the "You're going to pay" stare.
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Kerry Wood hung up his cleats after yesterday's game, calling it a career after a rocky, up-and-down 14 years in the big leagues. Wood was off to a terrible start this year, and instead of trying to ride out his struggles, he chose instead to just walk away. He finished his career with an impressive 10.32 K/9, and he will always leave us in wonder of what could have been, if not for all the injuries he sustained over the years. At least we'll always have this brilliant game to remember forever.
- Finally, we're going to have another vote. During Friday's Cubs/White Sox game, David DeJesus cracked a base hit into left-center field and attempted to stretch it into a double. He did successfully get to second base... at least, until Gordon Beckham knocked him off the bag. It wasn't so much a remix of the Kent Hrbek/Ron Gant play at first base as much as it was Beckham trying to prevent DeJesus from crossing the goal line for a touchdown by tackling him. However, White Sox announcers Hawk Harrelson and Steve Stone saw it another way. Thus, what do you say?