I know, I’m in the middle of a “boycott“. I have MLB’s Gameday up, so that I can periodically peek in on the O’s game tonight (they’re playing away against Seattle), and I happened to notice that Rafael Palmeiro was at bat, and that he still hadn’t had a hit yet in tonight’s game. Earlier, I had seen a banner on the official Orioles web site announcing that Palmeiro was 1 hit shy of 3,000 hits, which is quite a milestone in Major League Baseball.
So, Melvin Mora is sitting on second base, after hitting a lead-off double, and I’m just begging to see the “In play, run-scoring play” message popup on the screen for Raffy’s at-bat. And it did! Palmeiro doubled in Mora for his 51st RBI of the season, and his 3,000th career hit. He is now the 4th player in Major League history to have 3,000 hits and 500 home runs (ESPN is johnny-on-the-spot with the announcement). He joins Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Eddie Murray (another Oriole), some prestigious company. Congratulations, Raffy!
(By the way, the O’s lead 5-1 in the top of the 5th. Woohoo!)
August 2nd, 2005 at 8:36 pm
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse for the Orioles. It truly is disappointing to hear this kind of news, especially with someone like Raffy. I’m actually still waiting for all of the details to come out before I pass judgment, but I don’t see this ever turning into a simple misunderstanding.
I haven’t really been paying attention to sports news or watching SportsCenter, since I’m trying to avoid all of the O’s lowlights that would be showing, so I’m not aware of the full details. Right now, though, it seems like Raffy truly didn’t know he was using something bad or at least wasn’t intentionally using it…whatever that means.
I’m with you, though, in that I can’t stand to watch the O’s play at all anymore. It’s just too painful. They have a lot of talent, and they should still be in first place in their division, but they just don’t seem to want it anymore. There’s no fire, no determination. Especially from the pitching…
August 1st, 2005 at 11:53 pm
Too bad Palmeiro is on the juice. I definitely lost respect for him after hearing that. Baseball is a joke, I’m almost sick of watching it, especially now that the Orioles suck again. I still think they’re a good team, and there are still a lot of guys I root for on the team (Miggy, BR, Mora), but it’s tough to stay positive when they’re sucking.
July 16th, 2005 at 12:25 am
Man, I really wish Adelphia carried the channel that shows the weekend O’s games. I feel like I miss so many of them, even if it is only the weekend games. I guess those are the ones that I’d mainly be tuning in to.
Hopefully I’ll be able to catch the highlight on SportsCenter tomorrow morning, before we leave for the wedding. Keep me posted if there’s any more excitement!
July 16th, 2005 at 12:18 am
Yeah, I was watching his at-bat and didn’t think he’d do it since he seemed to be pressing and got two strikes quickly. But he worked the count a little and went with an outside pitch, dumping a double in the left-field corner. Definitely cool to see, like watching Jack Nicklaus’ last competitive round this morning.
The only thing weird was after he got the hit, the whole team came out to congratulate him at second (even the guys from the bullpen ran down), and it seemed to take quite a while. Now, I know this kind of stuff doesn’t happen everyday, but to delay the game at another team’s ballpark for several minutes seems kind of weird. The Seattle fans were cool about it though, and cheered for him the whole time. Even the pitcher that gave up the hit congratulated him, so it was a pretty cool scene.