cabiness42

I sat in the outfield of a game that had 12 home runs and didn't even get close to one of them.

"Chris Berman makes the home run derby so much more enjoyable," said nobody, ever.

Matt Harvey (Mets) and Max Scherzer (Tigers) names starters for Tuesday's game.

A head football coach has far, far more impact on the outcome of his team than a baseball manager. It's not even in the same ballpark for comparison.

I've always thought of Samardzija as one hell of a wide receiver.

OK, if that's the rule then I get credit for the Podsednik walkoff HR in Game 2 of the 2005 WS and the Dye game winning RBI single in Game 4.

It was more than just being black--he was a certain age and dressed a certain way. I don't think Zimmerman was taking the same actions against a 45-year old black man wearing a collared shirt.

I guess that's the key question. To what extent did Zimmerman's actions seem like an "attack" to Martin, even though there had not yet been any physical contact. I can certainly understand how a kid who is in a strange neighborhood could feel threatened by Zimmerman's actions and how he could feel that striking the first blow was his best chance at survival.

In the actual course of managing baseball games, managers have little impact on the outcome of most games. Managerial decisions may make an impact of at most 3-4 games in the standings over the course of a season. The biggest impact a manager has is whether or not players want to play for him. As a game tactician, Ozzie was pretty poor (outside of bullpen management, where I thought he was pretty good) but you could argue that good players took below-market money to play for him so he was effective from that standpoint, except that he abused his status until things got so bad that he had to go. I don't know what kind of impact Robin is having on the players, but I do read about players like Rios and Peavy stating a preference to remain with a team that is destined to win about 70 games rather than get traded to a contender so that says something about the organization if not Robin. I worry that letting Robin go after two seasons sends the message of instability in the organization and scares away whatever potential free agents the Sox might have their eyes on.

No, I don't think Zimmerman wanted to start a fight, but I think his actions could easily have been interpreted by Martin as looking to start a fight, which is why he should never have gotten out of his car in the first place. Here's a key piece of the transcript of Zimmerman's call to the police: Martin saw Zimmerman, looked right at him, checked him out, and then ran away from him. At that point, if Martin was planning on breaking into a house, he's abandoned that plan and left. Zimmerman has succeeded in preventing the crime. There was no benefit to anybody by Zimmerman getting out of the car and following/chasing Martin. And it's not unreasonable at that point for Martin to assume that Zimmerman is after him and that he needs to do something.

Fitting the specific profile of people who have been committing crimes in a specific area is a valid reason to call the police. Calling the police about every black kid you see is not OK. Following him closely enough that he apparently thought he was in danger is also not OK.

I don't think Zimmerman was a dirty racist. I think he was a guy who was very frustrated over the rash of crime in his neighborhood and was trying to improve the situation. However, I stand by my belief that if you are not a police officer, you don't follow/chase somebody unless you actually see them committing a crime. It doesn't matter that Zimmerman never intended to actually confront him. It is realistic to expect that if somebody is following/chasing you that you might initiate a confrontation out of fear. This is exactly why you don't do that. A 17 year old male who hadn't actually committed a crime ended up dead because Zimmerman went a little bit too far in trying to prevent crime. It clearly doesn't rise to the level of murder, and probably not probably not even manslaughter, but there has to be some level of accountability here.

I have no problem with the fact that Zimmerman had a gun. I also have no problem with the fact that he profiled Martin and called the police as a result. It was very unfortunate for Martin that he was walking through a neighborhood where there had been several crimes committed by people fitting his description. I do have a problem with Zimmerman getting out of his vehicle and following/looking for the kid after being told not to by the police operator. Crime prevention by citizens should never be about engaging someone unless you are actually witnessing the person in the act of a crime. I guess it's an extension of the court system in that it's better to let a few people get away with crimes rather than convict (or in this case, kill) one innocent one. I don't know how you write a law that draws that line. I'm glad that's not my job.

I believe that if Cooper had wanted to be a manager, he would be the manager of the Sox right now instead of Robin. That's not to say that his ambitions can't change, but I agree that he seems likely to remain a pitching coach.

I agree 100% with that quote above. I don't see any way that there was enough evidence to warrant a murder conviction, and probably not enough evidence to bring murder charges in the first place. I also fully believe that Zimmerman made some very poor decisions and those poor decisions lead to Martin's death. I'm not enough of a Florida legal expert to determine which is the case, but either (a) the state screwed up in not pursuing the appropriate charges for this case or (b) Florida law is so poor that Zimmerman couldn't be legally held accountable.

A friend of mine linked to this story on his FB page and noted the part about the odds being 1 trillion to one to catch four foul balls in one game. I commented, "So the same odds as any fan catching one foul ball in a World Series game at Wrigley?"

The harm in some random guy getting all jacked is that he ends up killing you over something trivial because of 'roid rage.

Seeing you mention Brazil makes me want to ask if anybody thinks there's a real chance that Brazil won't be able to host and this thing will get thrown at the US at the last minute?

I'm sorry, but father-in-law's wedding rehearsal >>>>>> Friday night softball. And honestly, if you both work traditional M-F schedules, I can't believe there haven't been other things in the relationship that shouldn't have taken precedence over Friday night softball.

He was my favorite character on that show. Very sad.

Yes, FOX has an exclusive window in the evening slot and they paid big money to not have any competition for their game, so enjoy the Cubs.

With the lineup that was out there tonight, I'm not pinning anything on Veal no matter what happens.

I hope Santiago isn't expecting more run support. He needs to plan on winning with one.

Not guilty on both counts.

I actually think I'm glad I can't watch this game. Philly commits consecutive errors to put the leadoff batter on 3B, and the Sox 4-5-6 hitters can't get him in.