BATTER UP!

[Harp]

Shoei Ohtani supposedly declined both the Yankees and Red Sox; the Cubs may be in the running. But doubtful.
I suspect Ohtani will sign with a West Coast team.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Campy, Pee Wee, Gil, and Jackie hold a pitcher's mound conference with the new acquisition, who's hit a cold spell.

 

[2jakes]

Campy, Pee Wee, Gil, and Jackie hold a pitcher's mound conference with the new acquisition, who's hit a cold spell.

Aaaaah...the world’s coldest Dodgers fan at Ebbets Field!

 

[Harp]

Heard word city street n' office suite today is that Ohtani favors Joe Maddon's managerial style.
Does the kid know that Joe would take the ball away from St Peter and give it to Judas? Hell, Joe'll toss it to Lucifer.

 

[Harp]

Just have to say this reminds me of Jeff Smardzija, White Sox-Giants, pitcher extraordinaire and his Sox meltdown.
Smardj shaved his ERA and landed with San Francisco, a Domer made good.

Cubs sign free agent Tyler Chatwood for the bullpen. Now if Ohtani can be had, with Montgomery the team will have a six gun rotating cylinder pen.

 

[Harp]

Cubs sign Brandon Morrow. Bullpen news all good so far, xceptn' Wade Davis probable departure.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Red Sox sign Sam Adams as their new Official Beer. Hey, that'll show the Yankees. Who's this guy Stanton, anyway.

 

[Harp]

... Who's this guy Stanton, anyway.

And I thought Heyward's contract was a heft. At least Theo backstabbed the Cards.
Hated to see Starlin Castro leave the Cubs earlier. He seemed to fit in with Maddon's diamond plan.
Miller Lite and Vienna Beef dogs are tops.

 

[Harp]

White Sox topkick Rick Hahn caught red-handed trying to wheel n' deal with the Orioles for Manny Machado; supposedly peddlin' Kopech and Giolito
to sweeten and seal it done. Got caught. Claims he wasn't guilty. Yet another instance of White Sox front office infidel devilry at play.
Feelin' the Cubs heat.

 

[2jakes]

(ca. 1935)* - Fay Thomas (left, with Ray Prim), the ace of the Angels staff in 1934 with
a 28-4 record. A USC grad who played collegiate football with actor John Wayne,
Thomas played Christy Mathewson in "Pride of the Yankees."

 

[LizzieMaine]

The view from the top of Coogan's Bluff, 1958.

The Giants are gone, but under the master lease with the Coogan family, which runs until 1962, their corporate owner, the National Exhibition Company, still controls the ballpark and is making good money subletting it out to various promoters. Note that an asphalt track has been laid down around the perimeter of the field for midget-auto racing, which proved a very popular attraction until the New York Titans AFL team moved in for the 1960 season.

Those copper N Y GIANTS letters were ultimately hauled out to San Francisco, where they turned up in a storeroom some years back as the Giants were moving out of Candlestick Park. At the time there was supposed to be some plan to put them on display, but there's no word on if that's actually happened. Unlike a certain other West Coast franchise that was part of the same unfortunate diaspora, the Giants have always embraced their New York roots, and made a point during their recent championships of bringing their World Series trophies back home to New York for appreciation by their remaining Eastern fanbase.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Surviving members of the World Champion 1954 New York Giants pose with part of the Polo Grounds sign in 2004. Still no permanent display though.

 

[2jakes]

 

[Harp]

Wade Davis signed with Colorado.

 

[Harp]

Word heard on the street (Michigan Avenue) and listened to the wind flying past the Options Exchange, the Cubs will sign Yu Darvish within twenty-four-to-forty-eight hours.
Hubba hubba. A rumor still, but well placed.

 

[belfastboy]

Word heard on the street (Michigan Avenue) and listened to the wind flying past the Options Exchange, the Cubs will sign Yu Darvish within twenty-four-to-forty-eight hours.
Hubba hubba. A rumor still, but well placed.

Another rumour is that Darvish's agent found him locked in a closet incomprehensively mumbling to himself......."how....how....how???

 

[Harp]

Another rumour is that Darvish's agent found him locked in a closet incomprehensively mumbling to himself......."how....how....how???

And the agent sez: "Verlander and Peacock, and some exceptional fielding, wakarimaska Yu?"
And Yu replied" Wakarimas, hai." Then Yu came out of the closet and announced that he definitely wants to be a Cubbie starter.
And Theo learned of this, and signed Catcher Chris Gimenez to a minor L contract.
...but things are dragging and I am a bit worried.

 

[LizzieMaine]

June 15th, 1938. The first major league night game ever played in New York City kicks off at Ebbets Field before a sellout crowd, as the Reds take on the Dodgers. Max Butcher of Brooklyn throws the first pitch of the game to Lonnie Frey of Cincinnati. But it will not be Max Butcher's night. Twenty-three-year old Johnny Vander Meer will pitch for the Reds, four days after throwing a no-hitter at the Boston Bees, and tonight he'll do it again -- facing only twenty-eight batters as he no-hits the Dodgers 6-0. Eighty years later, Vander Meer remains the only major leaguer ever to pitch no-hitters on two consecutive starts.

 

[Harp]

the Cubs will sign Yu Darvish within twenty-four-to-forty-eight hours..

Ain't lookin too good for the home team. Darvish still holdnout. Dodgers in play, agent wants a fiver. A slow hand of shirtfront poker.

 

[Harp]

Oscar Gamble, drafted out of Alabama by the Cubs in '68; R.I.P.