With the likes of Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGown, Jesse Litsch and Ricky Romero all currently rotting healing on the disabled list, the Jays have turned to Brian Burres to start tonight’s game against the Pale Hose.
Burres, in a little over two seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, posted some less-than-inspiring numbers, going 5-13, with a 5.88 ERA and a WHIP of 1.655. So far this season, with three appearances (hello small sample size!) under his belt with the Las Vegas 51s, Burres’s numbers are comparable, going 0-2, with a 6.97 ERA and 1.287 WHIP.
I’ll guess that the WHIP is down because of facing minor league hitters while the ERA is up because the Pacific Coast League is notorious for being a hitters’ league. As for the wins and losses, I hope we all know by know that they’re no good way of measuring a pitcher.
So what can we expect from tonight’s game? Unless Burres has turned things around or Cito’s magic fixes him up, I think we can expect a fair amount of offence from the ChiSox. But if the Jays swing the bats and Alexei Ramirez plays shortstop like they did in last night’s 14-0 win, it shouldn’t matter how bad the Burres is.
As if you needed another reason to go to Vegas
If you’re trying to convince yourself that the Jays’ farm team and the strip and the all-you-can-eat buffets and the Elvis impersonators and trying to recreate the life of Hunter S. Thompson aren’t good enough reasons to go to Las Vegas, maybe $1 beer night is the incentive you need. It sure beats a dry game or a wet game where cans of Bud cost $10.
The Edge is good for something other than playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers every second song
This is apparently a picture of Haddix during one of his 12 perfect innings. Click the pic for the New York Times game story.
I know this band has been around for a while already, but my tendency to listen to sports radio and crazy conspiracy theories means I’m not always up to date on the most recent musical happenings.
I guess there’s a band out there called The Baseball Project. And they write songs about baseball. And they’re pretty good. And if the Edge hadn’t randomly played one of their songs the other day, I wouldn’t know about Harvey Haddix.
Haddix will always be remembered for taking a perfect game into the 13th inning of a game against the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959. Haddix retired 36 consecutive batters in 12 innings, but his Pittsburgh teammates didn’t score, as Braves pitcher Lew Burdette was also pitching a shutout.
After a fielding error by Don Hoak ended the perfect game in the bottom of the 13th, the runner was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, which was followed by an intentional walk to Hank Aaron. Joe Adcock then hit a home run, ending the no hitter and the game. However, in the confusion, Aaron left the basepaths and was passed by Adcock for the second out. Eventually the hit was changed from a home run to a double by a ruling from National League president Warren Giles; instead of three runs on a home run, only the first Braves run counted. But the game ended there, with the Pirates and Haddix losing 1–0.
Haddix’s 12 and 2/3-inning, one-hit complete game, against the team that had just represented the NL in the previous two World Series, is considered by many to be the best pitching performance in major league history.
After the game, Haddix received many letters of congratulations and support, as well as one from a fraternity which read, in its entirety, “Dear Harv, tough shit.” “It made me mad,” recounted Haddix, “until I realized they were right. That’s exactly what it was.”[1][2][3]
In 1993, Milwaukee’s Bob Buhl revealed that the Braves pitchers had been stealing the signs from Pittsburgh catcher Smoky Burgess, who was exposing his hand signals due to a high crouch. From their bullpen, Braves pitchers repeatedly repositioned a towel on the bullpen fence to signal for a fastball or a breaking ball, the only two pitches Haddix used in the game. Despite this assistance, the usually solid Milwaukee offense managed just the one hit.[4]
I may suck at internet searches, but this is all I could turn up in terms of the Harvey Haddix song (in an embeddable form anyway. Check their myspace page for the real song). It’s one of the members performing it live. Enjoy.
Infield fly 