Baseball Toaster Bronx Banter
Help
Fungoes
2007-04-06 10:01
by Cliff Corcoran

Sports Illustrated.com has started a new baseball blog on their site called Fungoes, which will rotate through seven writers and all six divisions over the course of each week of the 2007 baseball season. Among those seven writers are our founder Alex Belth, who will cover the AL East, fellow Toaster Jon Weiseman, who will cover the NL West, and myself as the seventh man tackling a random baseball topic of my choosing every Friday under the "Wild Card" header.

Alex's posts will appear every Monday. Check out his first post from this past Monday, in which Alex muses about Opening Day from an AL East perspective. My first post is up today and takes a look at the historical significance of the Arizona Diamondback's new uniforms (with apologies to Paul Lukas). Mr. Weisman's first effort, meanwhile, focused on the underrated Colorado Rockies (with apologies to Mark T.R. Donohue, I'm sure).

I hope you'll all join us over there in addition to your regularly scheduled programming here on Baseball Toaster. And don't be shy about dropping some comments over at SI, either.

Comments
2007-04-06 10:49:10
1.   seamus
you boys have gone big time alright! Nice work!
2007-04-06 11:18:52
2.   Sliced Bread
Oh man, more compulsory reading, just what I needed... Monday and Friday... got it.

Yo, kidding. Great to see you and Alex extending your reach.

Will you provide a link to Fungoes on the Banter blog roll? Can't seem to find a link from the SI.com site?. Is there one?

The uniform piece is a blast, Cliff. That Pirates tank top is fuggin hideous.

The topic of ugly uniforms always reminds me of that scene from Cheech and Chong (goes something like this):

---------------------------------------

-Hey, man, I can't wear this stuff, man.

-This is terrible, man.

-Look, it don't even fit.

-No, baby, you clean as Skeeter's peter. You just don't understand the new style.

-It's too short, man.

-We'll just make a few minor adjustments, homes.

- Hold it, man. I can't wear this.

-Hey, these uniforms are lame, man.

-What you mean lame, sucker?

-Seriously, man, these look like waiter uniforms.

-You don't like them, man?
- No.

-He's right, man. These are lame.

-This is the new cut. Y'all be bad.

-If we're going to wear uniforms, man, let's everybody wear something different.

- Yeah, that's it. Everybody wears
something different but the same, you know?

2007-04-06 11:39:10
3.   Cliff Corcoran
2 Sliced, the direct link is the one attached to the word Fungoes in the post above. I've put it in our Suggested Reading section for future use.
2007-04-06 11:40:59
4.   Cliff Corcoran
Incidentally, I've also tidied up the minor leaguers on the side bar. They're all with the right club now and extraneous mLers from 2006 have been removed. Hopefully I'll get an occasion to add some new names to the list in the next week or so.
2007-04-06 11:49:41
5.   ny2ca2dc
This is really all so exciting; pretty soon Alex & Cliff & their many pals will displace the fools at ESPN. When you guys are up hosting Baseball Tonight (or your own shows on the MLB channel in 2009), just remember the blog days!

Bloggers like you two (though you two most of all) have really helped bring me back to baseball as a huge fan - thanks so much, and it just keeps getting better!

2007-04-06 11:54:19
6.   Sliced Bread
3 I found Fungoes via your link above (attatched to the word), but can't find a link to Fungoes when I'm at SI.com.
Anyhow, thanks for adding to Suggested Reading. I keep going back to your 2007 Campers post there.
2007-04-06 12:19:05
7.   standuptriple
3 While you've got the hood up, do you mind updating the RLYW link too?
Keep those keyboards crankin.
2007-04-06 12:28:16
8.   rbj
Yeesh Louise.

My local cable company (buckeye cablesystem) isn't carrying EI! Just called them up and the girl who answered the phone said they don't have the rights -- she didn't seem to know of the deal between MLB & the cable companies. So I told her that if they didn't get it, I was going to go with DirecTv. Then she said that DirecTv didn't have a deal with EI either!! I'm not sure what planet she is living on.

So I'm ditching cable & getting DirecTv after all. And they are coming out on Sunday (yup, Easter Sunday) afternoon. Heck, I could have had it Sunday morning, but I wanted to sleep in. Oy.

2007-04-06 12:42:32
9.   baileywalk
Great job on the "SI" post, Cliff.

Does it break the record for most links in a blog post?

2007-04-06 12:47:21
10.   Alex Belth
Yo #5, that's a huge compliment. You just made my day. Thanks, a lot. Cliff and I love doing this and we hope our enthusiasm is contageous. It's always nice to hear that it comes across that way.
2007-04-06 13:03:35
11.   C2Coke
10 Your enthusiasm is indeed contageous. My needing the fix daily by reading Banter and suggested readings is a definite prove of that. I credit the Banter for making me someone who can now proudly show that enthusiasm.

8 She surely doesn't live on the Yankees Planet.

2007-04-06 13:29:39
12.   OldYanksFan
4:20 Update:
Texas: 2-3-0 vs. Red Sox 0-3-1
Wakefield was good, but the Sox offense was bad.
2007-04-06 13:49:46
13.   Aviezer
More on the sox who just got shut out by the rangers 2-0.

Robinson Tejada is really good when hitting his spots.

The sox just couldn't drive the fastball today and popped up alot.

If and D doesn't shift on Ortiz they are making a big mistake.

Strangely, Tejada lived off the fastball UP in the zone.

Wakefield was very lucky and Blalock just missed 2 homers to right by inches.

Okajima showed alot of effort in his delivery.

Kyle Snider had a great curve and it made me wonder about using Rasner in the pen after Wang comes back in place of Mike Myers. Rasner is pretty much Snider with a little more control and a much better change.

The Rangers are better off with Otsuka closing then Gagne.

You can run in Mirabelli really easily.

Crisp is a very bad defender and Lowell (yesterday excepted) is very good.

Lugo looks like a upgrade on D but a downgrade on offence (yes he looked tha bad).

Small sample size applies to all that but it made me wonder about throwing the fastball to the sox. Ortiz especially was having alot of trouble catching up to 92mph fastballs.

2007-04-06 14:28:08
14.   Chyll Will
10 Having you and Cliff write over there too automatically gives them an upgrade in class, style and credibility, not to mention knowledge. I'm very happy you both are getting the kind of respect and reach you deserve. Keep it up and you'll bumrush E$@%! sooner than you think (bundling the torches and pitchforks as I write)... very good news to come back to!
2007-04-06 14:48:23
15.   Max Nomad
Lugo an upgrade over Alex Gonzalez on defense? And lower on defense? No way that's true. AG is one of the best SS in the league, but can't hit for beans. And Lugo scores runs, hits for AVG and steals bases. I dunno how good he is defensively, but he can't be better than AG.

And I wouldn't start throwin' up fastballs to Ortiz just yet. He (like Manny) is a notoriously slow starter. Might have something to do with his weight issues...

2007-04-06 14:49:07
16.   Max Nomad
Sorry, I meant lower on offense.
2007-04-06 15:08:59
17.   jkay
Alex, you should get a big raise and Dr. Z's office.

Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.