A second impromptu live blog in a span of a week? Why the hell not, I say!
*Sign up for FEB updates to get all Fire Eric Bruntlett posts compiled into one daily e-mail! *Follow us on Twitter! Also, follow Steve, Tommy, and Max individually! * Become a fan of us on Facebook!Less impromptu than last Thursday’s! Doors open 35 minutes before gametime for extra discussion of Rube’s failure in letting Haren go to the Angels for the equivalence of a bag of balls.
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We don’t have a whole lot of consistency over here at Fire Eric Bruntlett. It’s partly because of each of us being incredibly busy in other parts of our lives, but also in part due to us being really bad at this. In any case, this is one of several steps we will attempt to take to gain relative consistency. Once a week, we will try to post a random picture of screengrab we find around the interwebs (but likely fail) which is ironic, considering what the nature of feature is. Most of the time, it will be a fail we thought was funny. “Fail,” or “epic fail,” of course, referring to the Internet meme of something bad happening with hilarious circumstances. However, once a month, we will post a great win, like that used in this post.
I really love finding athletes on Twitter, for a few reasons: they’re more candid than usual, they’re generally impossible to understand, and sometimes you need a translator just to do so. However, as great as athletes Tweeting is, athletes on Facebook are even better. First of all, they’re are more words coaches can use when trying to talk about Facebook, as University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino did yesterday morning. You can also find more random info right on the surface – favorite movies, random people they’re friends with whom you also happen to know, etc. That is, of course, if it’s actually the real player, which is where a lot of the fun comes in. That’s also where the very first WIN of the week comes in. I was checking out some random Philly athletes on Twitter as I often do specifically for times like these, but other than that, for no real reason whatsoever. Eventually, I landed on a few minor league Phillies, and shortly thereafter, the page of Tagg Bozied, the power-hitting first baseman for AA affiliate Reading Phillies. He recently became friends with pitcher Vance Worley, who himself recently got called up to the show, directly from AA. Reading centerfielder, Tyson Gillies, who came over as part of the Cliff Lee trade, decided to add his insight.
*Sign up for FEB updates to get all Fire Eric Bruntlett posts compiled into one daily e-mail! *Follow us on Twitter! Also, follow Steve, Tommy, and Max individually! * Become a fan of us on Facebook!I figure the Phils could use a bit of luck today, and we have a decent track record with live-blogging wins here. So why not go for our first live blog of the year? Starts at 2:00. And yes, The700Level posted theirs literally as I was writing this.
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Ed.’s Note: Steve may be a week late with analysis of the Cliff Lee trade, but the Yanks were a prospect or two short!
Well, well, well… it looks like Cliff Lee isn’t a Yankee after all! The Texas Rangers swooped in after talks broke down between the Mariners and Yankees and offered up top prospect Justin Smoak. The Rangers offered such a good package that the Mariners even threw in some money to offset the cost for the bankrupt Rangers. This is great news as no one outside of New York wanted to see Cliff Lee in blue pinstripes. And who do you have to thank for this? Why me, of course! Read more…
We here at Fire Eric Bruntlett usually prefer beards. They are, after all, the facial hair of choice of the one and only Eric Bruntlett. But we could never turn down a kick-ass fu manchu!
I was watching Friday night’s Phillies-Reds game. (On delay, I’ll admit. It was 3-0 before I even noticed that it was gametime.) I noticed something awfully familiar on the Reds: a terrible back-up catcher with one redeeming quality, an epic mustache. That catcher, Corky Miller, started Friday night after Ramon Hernandez was placed on the DL. Miller made me reminisce of our own terrible mustachioed back-up, Sal Fasano, who spent the first half of 2006 in Philly. Specifically, it got me wondering whether or not they were separated at birth or something. Decide for yourself:
Left: Sal Fasano's team photo from his short Phillies stint. Right: Corky Miller after a 2nd inning leadoff single during the Friday, July 9 Reds-Phillies game.
Sal Fasano photo via Phinally Philly.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, Corky is, in fact, his real first name.
*Sign up for FEB updates to get all Fire Eric Bruntlett posts compiled into one daily e-mail! *Follow us on Twitter! Also, follow Steve, Tommy, and Max individually! * Become a fan of us on Facebook!Because I’m sick of trade rumor bullshit for one day, I’d much rather deal with affair bullshit!
You may remember back in December when rumors of an affair between Jeff Carter and the wife of Scott Hartnell spread through the Internet like wildfire. A Philadelphia sports website, The Philly Four – technically a blog, although it was more of a traditional online media site, rarely linking to other sites and featured game recaps, predominantly. The garden-variety stuff you would find in your local “newspaper,” if such a thing existed anymore – reported on this rumor, which allegedly came from a “‘credible source’ who ‘works close to the players,’” said the creator of the site, Jerry Brennan, a Temple University senior at the time. The rumor made its way all throughout the Internet, hitting Deadspin in its path, along with several other popular sports sites, both mainstream and not. Keep in mind that this was all taking place around the third week of December. Exactly one week after Deadspin had picked up on it, Sam Carchidi, Flyers beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, had finally traced the rumor back to its original source, Brennan. Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy then analyzed the media’s reporting of the rumor, despite the original post having been deleted. It appears the site as a whole has been taken down since then, as well.
Sure, because the rumors were mean and libelous and no one has ever gotten away with citing one source they believed to be credible. It’s called journalistic integrity, and as much as I’d like to tell myself Brennan wasn’t studying journalism at Temple, I find it hard to believe. (The website, itself, was made as part of a “school project.”) Consequently, he got ran off the Internet, and I’m hoping he learned his lesson, since it appears he didn’t learn much in journalism class. Now, how does this have anything to do with the Phillies? Well… Read more…
*Sign up for FEB updates to get all Fire Eric Bruntlett posts compiled into one daily e-mail! *Follow us on Twitter! Also, follow Steve, Tommy, and Max individually! * Become a fan of us on Facebook!News has spread throughout the interwebs that beloved Philadelphia Phillies playoff hero, kung fu master, and current Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Cliff Lee is on his way to the New York Yankees for Jesus (Montero). Oh dear god don’t let this happen! I want to continue rooting for Clifton Phifer Lee in his post-Phillies career and I simply can’t do that if he’s wearing NY on his hat. I now appeal to the other rumored contenders for Lee that aren’t the Mets to step up their game.
Minnesota Twins
Remember last year when you competed and did pretty well against the Yankees in the playoffs but still couldn’t pull it out? That sucked didn’t it? You know who’s really good against the Yankees in the playoffs? Cliff Lee! The man was a certified badass in the 2009 World Series and kicked some Yankee ass. You guys need that. You’ve got a good team in a great new ballpark, why not make that a great team in a great ballpark! You’ve also got the best catcher in baseball in Joe Mauer, don’t you want one of the best pitchers in baseball throwing to him? Get it done Twins.
Read more…
Baseball’s All-Star break is fast approaching, which means only one thing: random people get to think that they have power over who is and isn’t worthy, without the requirement of actually knowing anything. That explains how Kosuke Fukudome was a starter in 2008, but that’s a rant for another day. This post only includes my votes, with my explanations to come later, due to a collision of deadlines, my vacation last week (I’ll try to get to that, hopefully, over the weekend sometime) and my not realizing how terrible I am at planning things like giant projects to determine All-Star ballots. Anyways, take this ballot with a grain of salt – I wanted to make sure I get my opinion counted in the BBA’s vote.
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