Irene....Makes Her Presence Felt

Hurricane Irene.....is making her presence  felt....

Even if it means empty seats in South Beach.

Yesterdays' game between the Florida Marlins and the Cincinnati Reds drew....

347 fans!

From the blog,  "Big League Stew":

347 fans! Hurricane Irene wipes out Marlins attendance

By 'Duk

What would happen if they staged a Major League Baseball game and no one came?
The Florida Marlins and Cincinnati Reds almost found out on Wednesday afternoon.

According to @790Justin, there was an unofficial headcount of 347 fans in the stands for the first pitch of Wednesday's doubleheader at Sun Life Stadium. Justin Cohen counted five sections with three or fewer people in it and three completely empty sections. The Marlins haven't announced the official attendance, but it likely won't challenge the record of the smallest crowd in modern history (believed to be 653 during a Oakland Athletics game in 1979).

That's because the Marlins will count all of the tickets that were sold, not just the number of fans that moved through the turnstiles. Back in 2007, someone counted 375 fans in the stands for the first pitch of an afternoon Marlins game in mid-September and the "official" attendance announced by the team was still 10,121.

UPDATE: The Marlins must see dead people. They announced the doubleheader's official attendance as 22,505 fans.

"Base-Brawl" 2010

Let's set this up.    Washington Nationals player Nyjer Morgan gets hit by a pitch from the Florida Marlins.

It's in the 4th inning with Florida leading 14-3.   Morgan promptly steals 2nd and 3rd base....without a throw.

Next time up ......the Florida pitcher throws ......at Morgan....the pitch goes...behind Morgan....and then.....the shit hits the fan.

The stupid baseball......."unwritten rules" come into play.    Supposedly.....if your team is down by 11 runs........you should not try to win......don't play hard....don't try and steal a base.

Florida was upset that Morgan continued to play hard.......and tried to send him a message.

We applaud Morgan......for playing the game......with no regard to baseball's stupid....."unwritten rules".

He did get a good lick in.......before he himself....got pummeled.

Watch:

Aging.......At the Wrong Time

 If Billy Wagner.....was 28.....we would not be having this discussion.   But....Mr. Wagner is.....38.   His big league career?  15 years.....5 teams......over 400 saves.   Anything left?   In that ...left arm?


One can only wonder.   That "fast ball" ....which used to be clocked at 98 to 99 mph......is at about 91 to 92 these days.


Hey......we all get old.   It's inevitable.   Still....it hurts.    

We're in a pennant race!   You can't get ....old....now!

Billy Wagner: Wagner blows second straight save‎  

"I don't think you can ever brush those games off," ... "It's tough to swallow when you know you had this game and it slips away.

Billy Wagner

MARLINS 7, BRAVES 6

Florida Marlins' Donnie Murphy works walk-off magic, again

For the second time this week, Donnie Murphy knocked in the winning run in the ninth inning to lift the surging Marlins to victory.