Friday Random 10: Anniversary Edition

Pax Arcana
It’s as gloomy and shitty as ever outside today, but thanks to the Joy of Sox my spirits are buoyed. That’s because today is the five year anniversary of one of the greatest games in baseball history — the July 24, 2004 brawlfest between the Red Sox and Yankees that featured not only loathsome [...]

Jim Bunning is still a Phillie

Pax Arcana
By now you’re probably familiar with my opinion of the Philadelphia Phillies. By which I mean the entire organization and its fanbase is a fetid pool of douche limned by a thick ring of fuckfacery.
But did you know that this is not a new development? It’s true! While today’s Phillies team features smirky fratboy [...]

Daydream believer

Pax Arcana
First, an apology. The competent and forward-thinking Mrs. Pax Arcana and I have been tied up of late with real estate shenanigans (previously discussed here). Basically we’re in those terrifying middle stages of purchasing our first home, wherein terms like P&S, quitclaim, covenant, and easement suddenly burst forth from the underworld and coat you [...]

Carl Crawford is a winnar

Pax Arcana
Carl Crawford, who plays outfield for the Tampa Bay Heathen Sea Frisbees Rays, is on pace to steal 108 bases this year. While that number would fall short of Rickey Henderson’s single-season record (130), Crawford could make a different kind of history — stealing more than 100 bases without being caught.
Seriously — the dude [...]

Stay classy, Philadelphia

Pax Arcana
As if you needed more evidence that Philadelphia sports fans are a half-step down the evolutionary ladder from animals that literally eat their own feces, here’s what happens when you show up for a Mets-Phillies game in the wrong colors:

According to The 700 Level (a great blog despite its unfortunate allegiances), the Mets fan [...]

It wasn’t Jorge’s fault

Pax Arcana
Last night Jacoby Ellsbury stole home plate, sold it on eBay, and used the profits to buy a t-shirt outside Fenway that says HAAHA YANKEES YOU SUCK BALLS FUCK YOU.

Needless to say, stealing home is a pretty sweet play.
Except when you’re watching the game on ESPN, and you’re forced to listen to Joe Morgan [...]

Mackenzie Brown will save the Mets

Pax Arcana
The sports blogs are all aflutter today with the story of Mackenzie Brown, a 12-year-old girl who pitched a perfect game in a Bayonne, New Jersey Little League game. Brown struck out 12 hitters in her 6 innings of work, including the last 6 batters she faced:
Mackenzie, who says she plays baseball because she [...]

Tall people got no reason to catch

Pax Arcana
For the first eight years of my organized baseball career — from the minor Little Leagues through sophomore year of high school — I was a catcher. And I loved it. And I was good at it.
But I wasn’t better than Sonny Nictakis, who was a year older than me and would eventually go [...]

Now that’s the way to do it

Pax Arcana
The death of Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart — and his friends Courtney Stewart and Henry Pearson (this is a must-read if you haven’t seen it) — was both a tragedy and a senseless crime. It was also another reminder of our own mortality — that even professional athletes aren’t immune from death.
USA Today ran [...]

Let us now commence with the hype

Pax Arcana
Last year the New York Mets appeared to lose every single game in which they entered the 8th or 9th inning with a lead (they were actually fine until Billy Wagner got hurt — then they were terrible). So in the offseason the Mets replaced their wretched bullpen with a handful of proven — [...]