Visiting Cy Young – part one

Posted: November 18, 2010 | Author: Phillies Outside | Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Cy Young, Denton True Young, Gilmore, Ken Burns, MLB, Ohio, Road Trip, Roy Halladay | 4 Comments

Phillies Outside

This
time of year the day light hours are shorter, yet it seems to make the day
longer, traveling at the start and end of the day in the dark gives a deceptive
lack of time to do some things.

The end of the baseball season has put us into the awards for
baseball, it always seems you get those players winning because of name or
because they have more highlight reels than others, we know the process of
awards is very much a personal choice matter, even when using stats to convince
yourself, that your guy should have won, can be very ambiguous, as with most
numbers they can be made to reflect what you want, because stats don’t show the
big picture, there is no getting away from the fact that there is no fair way to
decide on award recipients.

The National League Cy Young award, for me and it seems the vote
givers was a no brainer, no matter how hard fans of other teams may have tried
to portray the hard work their guy had done, there was no getting away from the
fact, Roy Halladay was the clear winner, so congratulations to the Doc on his
being voted as the 2010 NL Cy Young winner.

If you read my last
post, then you’d know I am apparently being confused as a ‘Pro Blog’, and
since not everyone can grasp the dark sarcastic British humor, I at times
attempt to instill into my writings, I have chosen to take a more self research
view to this post and attempt to be a little more serious, well that was the
concept when I started this post.

The Cy Young award is given out each year to an American League
and National League pitcher and many of you know it as an award which utlilizes
the name of one of baseballs greatest pitchers, as with all claims of the
greatest it is debated as to who actually is, but that’s not what this is about.
Since the baseball antics of Cy Young seem to be well documented, I decided to
look into the man before and after baseball and I must say I was a little
surprised at what I discovered.

First things first, hit google, as with most things it’s
over to Wikipedia
‘the free encyclopedia’ to discover more information. Now if your one of
those who believe everything you read, then I hope you have a happy life, but if
your one of those with some intelligence, then you know, ‘you get what you
pay for’ and when it’s ‘free’ there is always a reason. So with this in mind
I checked some of the information, seems the links to Mr. Youngs biography are,
well, missing links. The CMG
Worldwide doesn’t even list Mr. Young, or Cy Young as a client, so I headed
elsewhere.

Since the web extends beyond the boundaries of the Wakipedia, I
was able to locate an actual place of birth for Mr. Cy Young, and with the aid of google
maps, there was, Gilmore, Ohio. Further assistance from my trusted
iPhone and a wonderful free app named ‘MapQuest’ I now had turn by turn directions
and decided on a ‘Road Trip’.

I am not sure if you’ve ever taken a road trip to somewhere that
you have no idea of what you’ll find, but I always try to picture what I think I
should find, in this case, an icon of America’s national pastime, let me see,
maybe a plaque where he lived, or at the very least where he was born, how about
the town road sign telling all visitors it’s the town where Cy Young was born.
Nope, nada, nought, nothing….

….Now you may think this is fiction, but I can tell you I went
there, I took this picture and I can also tell you just over the brow of the
hill you see in front of you is a 4 way intersection with 3 stop signs and what
you see is the most densely populated part of Gilmore, Ohio. This is a village,
not a town, it is mostly farm land and a good portion of it is Amish owned and
operated. This didn’t deter me from my quest, I was still not able to find out
where his farm land was, or his house, but I do understand it is now owned by
the Amish, it’s location however is still a mystery in the process of being
solved.

So anyone that has read a little about Cy Young, knows his name
was Denton True Young and that the nickname ‘Cy’ comes from the abbreviated name
the ‘Cyclone’ which was given him when he first visited a semi-pro club in
Canton, Ohio, due to the speed he was throwing the ball, some say it was the
destruction of the fence he threw the balls at during his tryout for the club,
some say it was the young catcher catching his throws that claimed “He
throws the speed of a cyclone”, who knows, except that Ken Burns was wrong.

With my trusty iPhone singing out my directions, I decided maybe
I could get more information at the site of his grave…..

to be continued, my next post – part two, where I visit the supposed burial
site of Mr. Denton True ‘Cy’ Young…

Triphillieslugas Walkoffhiticus

Posted: July 11, 2010 | Author: Phillies Outside | Filed under: Dailies | Tags: ASG, Brian Schneider, Carlos Ruiz, Cincinnati, Cliff Lee, Jimmy Rollins, New York, phillies, Reds, Roy Halladay, Ryan Howard, Texas Rangers, Travis Wood, Triphillieslugas, Walk off, Walkoffhiticus, Yankees | 7 Comments

Making history in Philadelphia again, in all the years the Phillies have been a baseball team it is hard to imagine they have never had walk off’s in extra innings in three consecutive games, it’s hard enough getting three consecutive extra inning games at Citizens Bank Park….

….Thursday we saw Brian Schneider the back-up catcher hit a walk-off home run, then Friday it was Ryan Howard swinging the big bat, going deep for a walk off home run, then Saturday it was Jimmy Rollins who drove in Carlos Ruiz from second to score the winning run.

All 3 games have been tight finishes and some freaky things have been happening, Thursday and Friday we saw 9 inning heroics to drive the games into extras, and Saturday we saw a pitchers duel go all 9 innings, in fact Halladay I am sure was seeing himself way back in 1998, when in just his 2nd major league start he went 26 outs with a no hitter, before it was broken up with 2 outs in the 9th inning. It was eerie how similar the effort from Travis Wood was, his 3rd major league start, went into the 9th inning, nobody out before Carlos Ruiz broke up his no hitter, however as a young rookie he can be proud in the knowledge he went pitch for pitch with one of the best in the business.

Other Stuff

Cliff Lee is in Texas, who’d of thought that the city of New York could miss out twice in one week, for top trades in a sport. Just when everyone thought Lee was going to be a Yankee, after being beaten to the draw last year by the Phillies for Lee, this year it was a matter of tradeable merchandise, it didn’t pass inspection.

Then we had to endure what was created, when for a few years the media force fed everyone about how great someone is, and constantly fed that persons ego, add to that huge amounts of wealth and you crown yourself King then hold the sports world ransom for your own egotistical endeavor to spit in the face of the fans you spent so much time ripping off with your over priced merchandise.

The Yankee way of life rubbed off on at least one of it’s players, who managed to buy his way into the All Star Game, or so it would seem with all the advertising purchased etc, and yet you have to wonder, who would they have got to fill the Home Run Derby spot if he hadn’t made it.

One game left for the half way break, and time to reflect on how teams have done and how they may do in the second half, or rather the 74 or 75 games that fills the 2nd half.

AL-QAEDA Threatens FIFA World Cup….

Posted: April 11, 2010 | Author: Phillies Outside | Filed under: Dailies | Tags: al-Qaeda, Astros, Cape Town, England, FIFA, football, MLB, phillies, Roy Halladay, soccer, South Africa, Sports, sweep, USA, World Cup | 4 Comments

Last week, al-Qaeda’s North African network released threats upon the FIFA World Cup event this June in South Africa. The primary target as indicated by the threat is the scheduled game between the U.S.A. and England in Cape Town.

The threats appear on al-Qaeda-linked websites. A statement said: “How
beautiful would the game between England and the USA be when broadcast
live
from a stadium full of spectators – when the sound of an explosion
rumbles
through the stands. The resulting death toll is in the dozens and
hundreds –
Allah willing.”

They have also vowed to target a full array of facilities that is known to be utilized by supporters during this tournament, from hotels to car parks. They are also claiming to have explosives that will be undetected by the security scanning systems.

This type of threat against a World Sporting event is pitiful and should be prevented at the source.

Back to Baseball

On a happier note Roy Halladay takes the mound today, as the Phillies attempt to sweep the Astros and keep them as the only team in the MLB without a win.

Opening Day in Washington…

Posted: April 5, 2010 | Author: Phillies Outside | Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Nationals, Philadelphia, phillies, Placido Polanco, Roy Halladay, Ryan Howard, Washington | 16 Comments

It was the opening day at Nationals Park in Washington, and visiting the Washington for the joyous occasion were the Philadelphia Philles. As with past years, it has been customary for the President to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the opening day game, President Obama, seemed somewhat indecisive and although wanted to promote change, felt tied to old habits…

….as he made his way to the rubber in his Washington Nationals coat, he pulled out his Chicago White Sox hat and placed it on his head. It was a thanks for inviting me, but I’d rather be in Chicago type action, which I am sure was amusing to some, but maybe a little insulting to the team which, after all is the local team for the White House.

I am not sure if this was just another one of those bad omens for the Nationals or if everything today was going to have an element of embarrassment about it.

As I showed on an earlier post the Nationals website declared…

….‘GET YOUR RED ON’ well the Phillies certainly did that today and made the Nats see red, Phillie red…

….as Ryan Howard hit a 2 run bomb and Placido Polanco hit a grand slam as the Phillies posted 11 runs on the board, even the other Phillies new acquisition got in on the act, yes I am talking about Roy Halladay. He managed to not only have a great day on the mound by striking out 9 over 7 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 walks and 1 run, he also swung the bat picking up a hit and an RBI, in fact the only Phillie that stood in the batters box and didn’t get a hit was Greg Dobbs in the 9th when he a fly ball as he pinch hit for Baez.

I am not sure whether my sarcastic ramblings about the Nationals website made a difference or if the whole new MLB website upgrade they have gone through was the cause, but the Nationals no longer have the slogan GET YOUR RED ON on the website, in fact they have nothing more than a city skyline with the words… NatsTown…

Phillies & Yankees Four Months Later….

Posted: March 4, 2010 | Author: Phillies Outside | Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Astros, Brewers, CC Sabathia, Fielder, Giants, Marlins, Mauer, Nats, phillies, Roy Halladay, Twins, Yankees, Zito | 10 Comments

It’s about four months since the Phillies and Yankees closed out the 2009 World Series and today they stepped out onto the same baseball diamond again. Both teams looked relaxed and ready to play some spring training baseball, for the Phillies it was the first Grapefruit League game of 2010, for the Yankees it was their second.

The Phillies fielded most of the starting players, omitted was Utley, Howard and Ibanez, it was the first time Roy Halladay would throw game time pitches in a Phillies uniform, and came out ready to show his new team mates what he could do. Halladay threw two solid hit-less innings, picking up 3 strike outs.

The Yankees surprisingly were the opposite, they fielded just 4 of their starting players, which only included the catcher and 2nd baseman in the infield behind CC Sabathia, it didn’t stop CC having a solid start over 2 innings giving up a couple of hits and a couple of walks.

The game was pretty much like that through 6 innings, both teams traded hits occasionally, but it wasn’t till the 7th inning when the Phillies scored a run. By this time both teams were down to AA and AAA players. It stayed like this till the 9th inning when the Yankees scored a couple of runs with good base running to take the lead. Bottom of the 9th the Phillies mirrored the Yankees with some hitting and running to score 2 runs and win the game.

It was good to see the Phillies out playing another major league team making the regular season even closer.

Around Baseball

Rumors that Joe Mauer may sign an extension with the Twins circulated today after his agent arrived at spring training which was called a regular visit, but could also indicate talks for extending Mauers contract.

The Nats took a double beating today, against both the Astros and the Marlins. Pence of the Astros homered twice in the 4th inning as the Astros had 9 cross the plate, in fairness to the Nats it did look like a AA squad showed up against the Astros.

Zito dinged Fielder in the back today in the 1st inning, it seems the
Giants have held a grudge since last year when Fielders home run base
trotting ended with an earthquake type celebration at home plate. It doesn’t seem to have helped much as they are currently down by 2 runs in the 4th inning. But who knows maybe the Giants will have better luck against the Brewers AA squad in later innings.

any sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the season

It’s Time….

Posted: March 1, 2010 | Author: Phillies Outside | Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Cardinals, Charlie Manuel, Hamels, Holliday, Lidge, Magic Roundabout, McGwire, Pete Rose, phillies, Polanco, Pujols, Roy Halladay, Spring Training, St. Louis, Yankees, Zebedee | 9 Comments

…to spring into action, players
have had a chance to wipe away the cobwebs, meets old friends, get
introduced to new ones, have their memories jogged on which base is
which, and figure out which shoe goes on which foot.

This week is the week that interaction
between teams begins, this week is the start of old and new rivalries.
It may only be spring training games, but it will give us a hint
of what’s to come, it will let us see who’s here to play and who’s here
to wing it.

The Phillies bring a core of
players which in essence is the strongest it’s had over the last few
years, some new additions, even a re-addition to what was already a
solid base of players. This is definitely the start of what should be an
interesting year all around baseball.

For the Phillies, question marks
will surround the likes of Lidge and Hamels, not just at
the start of the season, but all season long. The media will be waiting
to pounce on the first sign of anything that may show a reduced
performance, in my opinion Hamels will do just fine, for me the
one to watch will be Lidge, even though he will have a better
year than last year, (which shouldn’t be hard to do), he will
have just a mediocre year and hopefully Charlie will have him on
a shorter leash than he did last year.

I am sure it will not take Polanco
long to get his footing at 3rd base and become a dominant 3rd base
player, he is a familiar figure to the organization as are they to him.
It’s looking as if Polanco will be the only addition to last
year’s starting line-up in the field, the rest of the infield and
outfield should be more than accustomed to each other by now. We should
get a chance to see the new additions to the bench during this month and
some of the potential prospects, even though the farm system is a little
depleted with the acquisitions over the last couple of years.

We will definitely get a chance to see
the star acquisition Roy Halladay as he is set to square off against CC
in the opener against the Yankees this week, as with all spring training
games, we shouldn’t expect too much from him, after all we’d like to see
him still throwing maximum innings come October.

Around Baseball

Not too much to say at this point, just
waiting for the St Louis Cardinals to announce Pete Rose
as the players investment coach, following the announcement of McGwire
as the hitting coach, I am sure Pujols and Holliday will
be looking to him for inspiration.

any
sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the
possibilities of more during the season.

Seasonal Stuff….

Posted: December 23, 2009 | Author: Phillies Outside | Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Apple, AT&T, bad santa, Batista, bloggers, British Armed Forces, Christmas, Damon, Fed-Ex, Halladay, happy holidays, happy new year, ho ho ho, Hot Stove, Johnny Damon, Kevin Wilson, merry christmas, Microsoft, phillies, Photoshop, Roy Halladay, santa, Sun Trust Bank, UPS, US Armed Forces, verizon, WWE, Yankees, you tube | 14 Comments

The holiday season is on us and Christmas
Day is almost here, some people are feeling charitable, some not so and
others are in full swing of the holiday season.

For
the Philadelphia Phillies fans it’s been a wonderful Halladay
time. I admit it, I didn’t think the Phillies would be able to swing the
deal and thought that the Red Sox and Yankees would be in a bidding war
for Halladay, it was also my contention that this bidding war
would make Toronto hold onto Halladay till July 2010. How
wrong was I, and I am happy to say I was wrong, the fact that Roy
Halladay even signed an extension for what appears to be below
market value for his talents shows that he has the Christmas spirit and
gave the fans in Philadelphia an early gift…

…Thanks Roy… and a Merry Christmas to
you too, here’s hoping you get your long sought after ring at the end of
the 2010 season.

The Yankees have added some
outfielders and made the team for 2010 just as formidable as the one
that won it all in 2009. The player that didn’t resign though, Johnny
Damon has some time to reflect on what he will do in 2010, in just a
couple of months he has gone from a entertaining fans in the World
Series to the World Wrestling Entertainment, I am guessing this was to
be expected, since he was dreaming of this during the World Series,
using a dominant WWE superstars entrance music when he would come to the
plate during the World Series, if you didn’t know or didn’t hear about
it, he was using the music of Batista from the WWE, apparently
Damon is an ‘avid‘ member of the ‘WWE Universe’. Seen here
with Batista, it’s amazing how small Damon actually appears, almost as
small as his mentality.

I am sure that Johnny
will get to play somewhere in 2010, even if it is in the WWE…

Other little known news items that caught
my eye over the last couple of weeks….

Apple – If you own an Apple product,
beware, it seems that some authorized service locations have refused
warranty work due to the appearance of possible contamination by
cigarette smoke, Yes under the rules laid out by OSHA the residue left
by cigarette smoke is a biohazard, as is talc and calcium. A word of
warning be careful with your laptops, iPhones or any other Apple
product.

Microsoft – Yes you’ve all heard
it, Word and Office will cease to be sold on January 11th, due to a
court ruling, based on some patent infringement for ‘xml coding’, dream
on, it’ll never happen, you know Microsoft will resolve the issue with
time to spare.

Verizon – Tells the FCC the
additional charges added to the ETF (early termination fee) are due to
‘because they want to’ and the reasoning for charges by accidentally
opening a web browser on a phone, without the browser package, are ‘in
the agreement’, ‘if you don’t like it go else where’ that’s when the ETF
becomes more apparent. (just glad I have AT&T)

Santa
Claus – Is in as much trouble as the rest of us, it seems the
economy is even affecting the guy that has the abilities to deliver
faster and further than UPS and Fed-Ex combined. Santa dropped by the
Sun Trust bank in Nashville, Tennessee and made a withdrawal with the
aid of a gun, claiming he needed the money to pay his elves, he promptly
stuffed the money in his red sack and fled, no eye witnesses saw a
sleigh and reindeer though…

Great
Britain has banned the use of Photoshop when used to make models
appear improved in and advertisement and claim it’s due to the product
they are trying to sell, i.e. weight loss, face creams etc.

Some ‘THANKS’ and ‘Seasonal Wishes’

I would like to give my sincere thanks
and seasonal wishes for a safe Christmas and New Year to all the members
of both the US and British Armed Forces serving their respective
countries with honor (honour).

Finally
– Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my
fellow bloggers, eat, drink and be merry, just don’t drive too.

I
leave you all with another special Christmas song, the chorus I have
used for a few years now as a ring tone this time of year, if you
haven’t heard this one it’s freakin hilarious (I think so anyway), it’s
done by an Australian comedian, Kevin Wilson… I tried to find one with
him actually singing the song live, but was unable, this video that
someone put together, I though was kind of fitting. WARNING – The
contents of this video contain language not suitable for minors.

HO, HO, HO….

Could Halladay join the Phillies?

Posted: July 8, 2009 | Author: Phillies Outside | Filed under: Dailies | Tags: AL East, Blue Jays, Halladay, Jays, Jon Heyman, phillies, Red Sox, Roy Halladay, SI.com Daily Scoop, Trade, Yankees | 4 Comments

I guess the answer is unknown at this time but, the chances may have got better today, from a story on SI.com by Jon Heyman, Daily Scoop, he lists the possibles for Halladay, showing the Phillies as number 1 contenders on his list, he also reports that the Jays would prefer he goes out of the AL East, so that could cancel any thoughts for the Yankies and Red Sox. You can read the story yourself and make up your own mind, do the Phillies have the players the Jays would want and would the Phillies give them up? : Full Story

Phillies Outside Archive Vault

Visiting Cy Young – part one

Triphillieslugas Walkoffhiticus

AL-QAEDA Threatens FIFA World Cup….

Opening Day in Washington…

Phillies & Yankees Four Months Later….

It’s Time….

Seasonal Stuff….

Could Halladay join the Phillies?

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