Tuesday, June 08, 2004
One of these things is not like the other
1) Damon claims in this article that it took him only three weeks to grow the beard. But then he goes on to say that he will have it back in about ten days. Maybe that means he's getting better with practice?
2) According to an article Stacey found, which I can't find right now, Damon's been shaving since he was six. That's what she says.
3) And just to leave you all warm and fuzzy, here are Damon's reasons for choosing tutoring program at the Boston Public Library and a city program, ReadBoston, as the beneficiaries of his charitable act:
"I didn't read well when I was young," said Damon. "They help kids do that. My parents were always working. I never had help on my homework, so it just related a lot with my life and me growing up. I think it just helps out everybody. It brings awareness and hopefully, they can get a lot more donations and help out a lot more kids, and that's what Boston's about. We have all these colleges here. We want to try to make each kid smart enough to go to these colleges.
"We're going to have even more 'smahtah' kids here in Boston."
You all know what to do.
4) In today's non-Damon note, I noticed something interesting that recent Cardinals call-up the Third Molina was doing last night while catching Chris Carpenter. In the late innings, as Carpenter tired and his pitches started to float up a bit, Molina began dropping his target all the way to the dirt. He'd set up, then hunker down and more or less lay the open glove in the dirt. The tactic seemed to work: Carpenter started aiming at the glove, and the pitches, when they didn't drop as much as they should have, ended up around the knees rather than around the belt. Does anyone know if this is a trick that Jose Molina or Bengie Molina uses?
Bengie Molina: I use that trick all the time. I also have the picture of a fly painted on the inside of my mitt, which the pitcher attempts to squash. It seems to help, unless a real fly lands on the end of the bat.
Levi: The real question, though, is how the hell a family produces three major leaguers at one position?
Were there no pitcher or shortstop genes in their family? Or did those all go to the gals?
sandor: Smart idea, Bengie. Been to Amsterdam lately?
Secho: What we do know is that Mr. and Mrs. Molina were pretty quick to get their groove back on after Bengie was born. His birthday is July 20, 1974, while Jose's is June 3, 1975. So they are, at this moment, both 29 years old, and not twins. So I guess itt's not too surprising that they share common talents and interests, though you would think one of them would've been pitching to the other one all those years.
Who were the last set of 3 brothers to play major league ball simultaneously? The Alous?
Levi: I think it's the Alous. The only other trios I can come up with off the top of my head are the DiMaggios and the Boyers. I know there have been at least a couple more.
I really like what I've seen of The Third Molina so far, although he does still look not quite ready for a full-time job in the majors.
stacey: did the third benes brother never make it out of the minors? they were all pitchers, i believe. maybe they grew up down the street from the molinas.
Luke: Pat Hughes and Dave Otto were discussing this during last night's game -- Ron Santo was taking the series off, so there was much more talk about actual baseball and much less about hairpieces, sweaters and funny names -- and they said there have been 19 sets of brothers, the most recent being Jose, Hector and Tommy in 1977. Here's a complete list.
Cluke: And I think it goes without saying that the awards for best names go to Clete, Cloynd and Ken Boyer.
Cloyd!
2) According to an article Stacey found, which I can't find right now, Damon's been shaving since he was six. That's what she says.
3) And just to leave you all warm and fuzzy, here are Damon's reasons for choosing tutoring program at the Boston Public Library and a city program, ReadBoston, as the beneficiaries of his charitable act:
"I didn't read well when I was young," said Damon. "They help kids do that. My parents were always working. I never had help on my homework, so it just related a lot with my life and me growing up. I think it just helps out everybody. It brings awareness and hopefully, they can get a lot more donations and help out a lot more kids, and that's what Boston's about. We have all these colleges here. We want to try to make each kid smart enough to go to these colleges.
"We're going to have even more 'smahtah' kids here in Boston."
You all know what to do.
4) In today's non-Damon note, I noticed something interesting that recent Cardinals call-up the Third Molina was doing last night while catching Chris Carpenter. In the late innings, as Carpenter tired and his pitches started to float up a bit, Molina began dropping his target all the way to the dirt. He'd set up, then hunker down and more or less lay the open glove in the dirt. The tactic seemed to work: Carpenter started aiming at the glove, and the pitches, when they didn't drop as much as they should have, ended up around the knees rather than around the belt. Does anyone know if this is a trick that Jose Molina or Bengie Molina uses?
Original comments:
Bengie Molina: I use that trick all the time. I also have the picture of a fly painted on the inside of my mitt, which the pitcher attempts to squash. It seems to help, unless a real fly lands on the end of the bat.
Levi: The real question, though, is how the hell a family produces three major leaguers at one position?
Were there no pitcher or shortstop genes in their family? Or did those all go to the gals?
sandor: Smart idea, Bengie. Been to Amsterdam lately?
Secho: What we do know is that Mr. and Mrs. Molina were pretty quick to get their groove back on after Bengie was born. His birthday is July 20, 1974, while Jose's is June 3, 1975. So they are, at this moment, both 29 years old, and not twins. So I guess itt's not too surprising that they share common talents and interests, though you would think one of them would've been pitching to the other one all those years.
Who were the last set of 3 brothers to play major league ball simultaneously? The Alous?
Levi: I think it's the Alous. The only other trios I can come up with off the top of my head are the DiMaggios and the Boyers. I know there have been at least a couple more.
I really like what I've seen of The Third Molina so far, although he does still look not quite ready for a full-time job in the majors.
stacey: did the third benes brother never make it out of the minors? they were all pitchers, i believe. maybe they grew up down the street from the molinas.
Luke: Pat Hughes and Dave Otto were discussing this during last night's game -- Ron Santo was taking the series off, so there was much more talk about actual baseball and much less about hairpieces, sweaters and funny names -- and they said there have been 19 sets of brothers, the most recent being Jose, Hector and Tommy in 1977. Here's a complete list.
Cluke: And I think it goes without saying that the awards for best names go to Clete, Cloynd and Ken Boyer.
Cloyd!
Labels: chris carpenter, johnny damon, yadier molina
