Manny's 500th Homer And Other Stories

• Manny Ramirez hits his 500th career homer:

    Around the New York City high school fields and sandlots of the late 80s, it was impossible not to hear about the exploits of Manny Ramirez----The Joy Of Being Manny 7/1/2006; everyone knew that he was going to get drafted and drafted highly, but if anyone now says that they expected him to be a baseball immortal and hit 500 homers in the big leagues (in addition to becoming a head-shake inspiring legend for his bizarre, but mostly innocent, quirks), they're either the reincarnation of Nostradamus or are lying through their teeth. Even making the big leagues is such an unlikely occurrence, not to mention staying there and becoming a star. It takes an innumerable number of factors for everything to fall into place in such a way, which makes Manny's accomplishment all the more impressive.

• Mariners 5-Tigers 0:

    All of the game reports are saying "Johjima Steals Home" as if Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima tried a Rod Carew-style straight steal of home plate. It's only when seeing the highlights that we realize that it was a squeeze play that was botched because Justin Verlander's pitch bounced three feet in front of home plate, caromed off of Pudge Rodriguez's chest protector and bounced far enough away to allow Johjima to get his hand on the plate before being tagged. Technically, it was a steal of home, but not in the way the reports imply.

• Michael Kay----Broadcaster, Radio Talk Show Host, Former Sportswriter...Ballpark Financier/Critic/Architect/Engineer?

    During the Yankees-Twins game last night, Michael Kay went off several times on the Twins "decision" not to have a roof on their new ballpark. His argument being that the number of bad weather days in Minnesota necessitate a roof (based on the anecdotal evidence that it was hailing outside the Metrodome at the time of his rant). He mentioned that it would cost more money for a roof, but he either didn't want to mention the amount of money it would have cost or didn't know how much it would have cost. Some quick research via Wikipedia (take with grain of salt please) states that a roof would've added $100 million to the cost of the stadium.
    For an excellently run organization that was on the verge of contraction five years ago, it was a monumental effort for the Twins even get the financing and approval for the new ballpark to begin with, so they were supposed to hold out and risk losing the team entirely for a roof? How many games are really going to be delayed by poor weather anyway? Probably a few early in the season, but how much worse could it be than in Miami where the Marlins play and they seem to get their games in with a minimum of fuss? Another case of Michael Kay, preeminent buffoon, going off about a subject in which he's done no research or doesn't care what the numbers are because in the end it's his faulty conclusion that really matters regardless of the facts.