Hit By a Pitch

Here is a friendly note for Rockies fans and Rockies announcers: Scott Podsednik’s last name is pronounced puh-SED-nik. In the alternative, do it like they did in this episode of The Dugout: “Poe said Nick.” The important thing is that you don’t pronounce the first “d” in Podsednik. Pretend it’s not even there.

I’m going to try to be better about updating this site, I promise. The Rockies at-bat music post is still really popular, so I plan to post an updated 2008 version after Wednesday’s game. I’ll also (hopefully) tell you about why I’m completely in favor of trading Carmelo Anthony.

Since I quit taking Adderall, I haven’t been much good at sitting down to write a post. On the plus side, I’m a much nicer person in real life. So there’s that. This is a lame attempt to get back into it.

One of the best things about being a sports fan is the sheer delusion. As a (kind of crazy, I’ll admit it) sports fan, one of my favorite things to believe even though I know it isn’t true is that I can somehow affect the game. Don’t you do that? If you wear your “lucky” jersey that you haven’t washed even though some asshole spilled beer on it that one time at Blake Street, your team will win. If you mercilessly heckle Barry Bonds until you almost get thrown out of Coors Field, which happens to you more often than it happens to most people, your team will win. If you make sure your hands aren’t touching each other when the enemy team attempts a free throw, they will miss. If you make sure your hands are elaborately linked together when your team attempts a free throw, they will make it. (That’s weird, but I honestly believed it for a while.)

You don’t want to admit any of these things to anyone, because, yeah, it makes you look a little crazy. But I’m totally okay with that.

My latest “I can affect the game” project is Manny Corpas. Here’s what I know about Manny Corpas — he’s really young. I saw him pitch his first-ever game for the Rockies. This was back in the day, when Jose Mesa was still here, and from what I understand, Jose Mesa was instrumental in shaping these young guys in the bullpen. But Jose Mesa’s not here any more. I don’t even know where he is — probably at home with Mirla and the kids in the Dominican Republic, because he sure as hell isn’t playing for anyone in MLB and that, my friends, is a travesty. But Manny came on like gangbusters, eventually taking over the closer position from a wonky and “injured” emo kid, Brian Fuentes. (Have you listened to his intro. music? Eesh.)

But Manny has had his struggles. Last year, I figured that what Manny needs is confidence. Of course, that doesn’t prove that I’m some kind of psychological mastermind or anything. You have a young kid doing something awesome and kicking ass, and it’s a matter of logic that when something goes wrong, which it is prone to do, his confidence will suffer. So last year I decided that to help build Manny’s confidence, I’d hang around the bullpen and yell at him.

If you’ve been to Coors Field, you know that it’s not hard to wander over and get a good view of the bullpens. From the first level, it’s like you’re Juliet looking down from your balcony to a handful of surly Romeos, complete with sunflower seeds and mitts waiting to get into the action. Last year, I started going over there and yelling “Manny Corpas!” from time to time. When he heard me, he’d turn and kind of do this sort of half-wave thing, with his hand by his head, something between a wave and a salute. Totally charming. Manny is awesome. If you’ve ever watched him in the bullpen, you see how it works. For a while, he sits there and tries to look nonchalant. But eventually, you catch him looking up and scanning the crowd. I’m convinced that he does this because, like any young guy, he wants someone to notice him. So I decided that I would notice him like it was my job.

Manny has been struggling this year, so much so that it looks like the closer job is back in the grasp of southpaw Brian Fuentes. So when I was at the game this Wednesday, I realized that it was time for me to fix Manny Corpas. Because I can affect the game. And I know what Manny Corpas needs.

So I wandered over to the bullpen. Manny was sitting there, and it looked like he had sunflower seeds, an energy drink, and chewing tobacco. (I tried to deny that the tobacco was his, but it was right next to him on the bench and it probably was.) When he looked like he was listening, I yelled “Manny!!!” and waved. This time he waved back, like he wasn’t even trying to be subtle. That was cool. Ryan Speier was getting warmed up and I kind of like him and his quasi-sidearm style that looks like he’s pushing, rather than throwing, the ball, but I never yelled at Ryan Speier. That’s because I was there only for Manny Corpas.

I decided right then that he was my new all-time favorite relief pitcher. If you know anything about me, you know that I’m ridiculously, to the point of being dysfunctional, loyal to my all-time favorite relief pitchers. And the good thing about Manny Corpas is that he worked with Jose Mesa, if only briefly. So there’s that.

So at Coors Field, I’ll always go over to the bullpen, but I’ll only cheer for Manny Corpas. You can’t cheer for everyone in there, or else it isn’t special. I cheered for Manny on Wednesday, but after Speier pitched, they brought Brian Fuentes into the bullpen. As soon as he showed up, Manny threw his cup full of sunflower seeds on the ground and left. I think he was pissed. I wonder if those guys hate each other, or tolerate each other through a series of sideways glances and subtle clubhouse barbs.

Brian Fuentes almost gave me a heart attack that game, but he pulled it together and the Rockies won their first game in like 100 years. I made fun of his intro. music for a good 15 minutes. Cheer up, emo kid.

I’ve been neglecting this site, mainly because I’m bored of sports (or at least bored of talking about sports — I still watch). I’ve started yet another blog and haven’t had much to say here lately. With Jose Mesa remaining unsigned, my future as a sports blogger is questionable (not really, but you know).

I still have three of four teams in the final four (damn you, Pitt). So that’s good. We’re going to our first Rockies game of the year on Saturday, and I’ve managed to avoid punching Carmelo Anthony and Brandon Marshall (Jay Cutler, I’ve got your back, yo) in the face, even though I want to most of the time.

Right now, the burning question on my mind is whether having three baseball teams would be whorey of me. I mean, I have the White Sox, the team that made me love baseball, even though they suck ass and I don’t live there and sometimes it seems like the magic is gone. I have the Rockies, and they’re exciting and still make an effort to woo a girl from time to time, but the whole Christian thing still bothers me when I think about it too much. I have to admit that I also have my eye on the Angels. They’re sexy, and my boyfriend Jon Garland was stellar in his debut with the team yesterday. Can I follow my boyfriend to a new team, or is a three-way battle for my fandom just too much?

I don’t know. How do you stay loyal to your hometown team when you don’t live there anymore and the team sucks? Shouldn’t they at least make an effort, or do they expect me to be loyal even though they’ve been dismal? What I do know is that I’m already sick of Yankees and Red Sox fans. And Cubs fans can Fukudome.

I finalized my brackets approximately 15 minutes ago. Here they are in PDF form because I’m lazy but want to get them up now: 2008 brackets.

•Julius Hodge is the D-League Performer of the Week for the week of March 17. According to the D-League’s website:

In four games for Albuquerque this week, Hodge averaged 25.3 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists. He set season-highs in points and rebounds on Tuesday with 34 points and 12 boards in a win over Austin, the first in four straight victories this week for Albuquerque.

You can read the full story here. I’m so glad he’s doing well, and I hope we see him back in the NBA soon.

•In other news, did we know that former Iowa Hawkeye Adam Haluska is in the D-League? He was acquired by the Iowa Energy on March 11. And holy crap! The Iowa Energy has Jeff Horner Bobblehead Night tomorrow. I swear I am not making that up — check it out here (hurry, it probably won’t be up much longer). That is AWESOME. How do I get a Jeff Horner bobblehead if I can’t make it to the game?

•Jeff Passan of Yahoo! sports wrote a nice article about Bobby Jenks — read “No more high Jenks” here. High Jenks. Hee. More people should know about Big Bad Bobby Jenks. Oh and also, his intro song is “Boom” by POD.

•I’m very worried that we’ll never hear from Jose Mesa again. What if nobody picks him up this year? I’ll cry.

Michigan women’s hoops coach Kevin Borseth thinks his team’s rebounding is offensive. He busts his tail end getting these girls ready to play, and for what?! I guess this shows that there’s some good stuff  happening on the Big Ten Network.

Make sure you watch the “rate the rant” commentary at the end. There’s a good shout out to Dan Hawkins in there.

Javon Walker agreed to a six-year, $55 million deal ($16 million guaranteed) with the Oakland Raiders.

Javon is one of those athletes who just had a shitty time of it here in Denver. I hope this move is good for his career, and wish him the best with his new team.

In Bears news, the team reacquired wide receiver Marty Booker. They’ve lost Mushin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian, so they still need to do more to shore up their WR core. The team is declining to offer a deal to Brendon Ayanbadejo, who wants to make more $$$ than the Bears want to pay.

Julius Hodge signed with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds on February 28. His player page is: here. In his first game with the Thunderbirds on March 2, he played 38:29 and had 19 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 turnovers (oops!).

Congratulations, Julius, and welcome back!

As mentioned in my Lithuanian NBA players post, there currently are three Lithuanians in the NBA: Kleiza, Ilgauskas, and Songaila. Here are some Lithuanian players who were recently with the NBA:

-Martynas Andriuškevičius suffered a severe head injury after being attacked by a Dakota Wizards (NBA D-League) teammate in December 2006. He was with the Bulls until sometime in 2007, and now plays for Alicante Costa Blanca in Spain.

Here’s the Chicago Sun Times story about the attack (reproduced here because the original is not available from the Sun Times‘ website):

Storey punch leads to serious injury
By Roman Modrwoski
For Chicago Sun Times
Martynas Andriuskevicius, whom the Bulls recently assigned to the National Basketball Development League’s Dakota Wizards, is lucky to be alive today after being punched by Awvee Storey, a Proviso West product and Wizards teammate.
The altercation took place during practice Thursday. The 7-2, 240-pound Andriuskevicius, 20, spent Thursday night in intensive care in Bismarck, N.D.

”He has a skull fracture, severe concussion and a two-centimeter hematoma on the left side of his brain,” Andriuskevicius’ agent Herb Rudoy said. ”They’ve been monitoring him because they’re concerned about seizures.

”From what I’m told, when he got hit unexpectedly, he went out cold instantly and fell right back on his head.”

The 6-6, 225-pound Storey has been suspended indefinitely while the NBA and NBDL investigate.

There’s also been a police report written, according to Det. Dean Clarkson. But Clarkson said Andriuskevicius does not want to press charges, making an arrest unlikely. Clarkson said the investigation is pending.

”Awvee’s a terrific kid,” said his Chicago-based agent Mark Bartelstein. ”They had an altercation in practice, and it’s really unfortunate.

”I know Awvee feels terrible about it. It wasn’t a situation where he just attacked the kid.”

One source said Storey said something to Andriuskevicius, who went over to Storey and got punched.

”He’s lucky he’s not dead,” Rudoy said. ”But I think he’ll be fine.

”He won’t be playing basketball for a long time. They have to be very concerned about his skull fracture healing.”

Rudoy expects Andriuskevicius to be released from the hospital in the next few days and return to Chicago for further examination.

Bulls general manager John Paxson called Andriuskevicius on Friday morning, and Bulls doctors are monitoring the situation.

Storey and Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas were arrested over Memorial Day weekend in Miami Beach for refusing to obey police. The charges later were dropped.-Sarunas Jasikevicius was waived by the Golden State Warriors in September 2007 and is now with the Panathinaikos Basketball Club in Athens, Greece.

-Šarūnas Jasikevičius was signed by the Indiana Pacers in July 2005. He was traded to the Golden State Warriors on January 17, 2007 and was was waived by the team on September 20, 2007. He currently plays for Panathinaikos BC in Greece.

-Robertas Javtokas was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 2001. He was in a serious motorcycle accident in May 2002, but returned to basketball in 2003. He currently plays for MBC Dynamo Moscow.

-Arvydas Macijauskas played in 19 games for the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets in 2005-06. He’s currently with Olympiacos BC of Greece, a team commonly referred to as the “Chicago Bulls of Europe.”

-Arvydas Sabonis left the NBA in 2003 and was with Basketball Club Žalgiris in Kaunas until he retired in 2005. He currently is president/principal owner of the team.

-Renaldas Seibutis was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in 2007. He signed a three-year contract with Olympiacos BC on July 5, 2007.

-Eurelijus Žukauskas was drafted by Seattle in 1995 and immediately traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. After being injured in October 2005, he was released in January 2006. He currently plays for Sabonis’s Basketball Club Žalgiris in Kaunas, where he’s the team captain.

Hi. I’m not quite ready to start thinking about baseball yet. I probably should be at least a little excited, because my teams played each other today, but eh, it doesn’t count and I’m very busy being mad at the Nuggets (shhhh, don’t tell them I’m watching their game right now).

However, I have a suggestion for Jerry Owens and I want to put it out there right away, so maybe he can find out about it because it’s the best idea anybody has ever had (shhhh, don’t tell anybody I’ve been drinking and totally overestimate the awesomeness of my stupid ideas). Last week, I read about how Jerry Owens is talking some shit about how many bases he’s going to steal this season (the article is here). He plans to rack up 65 stolen bases, putting him ahead of the awesomely speedy Scott Podsednik (I hope we see him in a Rockies uniform this year because having one of my 2005 World Series White Sox players here in Denver is my #2 ultimate dream, ultimate dream #1 being Jon Garland showing up at my house to declare his undying love for me) who stole 59 in 2004-05.

I know — I’m biased because Jerry Owens is a cutie and I just kinda like him. But don’t let that distract you from his awesome attitude. Seriously. Here’s a quote from the article:

My mom always told me to set the goal high and as soon as you get it, set another one. Every year I’ve improved my stolen base total. I had 56 last year combined [with the Sox and Triple-A Charlotte], and this year it’s 65.

How awesome is that? He mentions mom and kicking ass at the same time. I wish he could come play for the Nuggets.

But anyway, if there’s one thing I know well, it’s the at-bat music of Colorado Rockies players. That’s not exactly helpful here, but hey, I’ve tried to learn about at-bat music for the White Sox, although it’s not really that easy when you’re not there to go to White Sox games. Believe it or not, there’s some inaccurate information about baseball entrance music on the internet, so I don’t always trust what I find out there.

Anyway, according to the internet, Jerry Owens had some Dr. Dre music last year. That’s great and I love Dre as much as the next person, but Jerry Owens needs to rethink his musical selection. Here’s the thing. Jerry Owens needs to use the song “Watch My Feet” by Dude N Nem as his at-bat music. Seriously. These guys are from the South Side of Chicago. The song is the best thing I’ve heard in at least a year. For real. Dude (or is that Nem?) even wears a Sox hat in the video. Check it out.

I’m right, aren’t I? And holy crap that makes me miss Chicago. Jerry Owens, I hope you find this. The universe intended this song for you.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about baseball today. I have to go back to not watching the second half of the Nuggets game.

Julius Hodge left the Adelaide 36ers of Australia and returned to the United States yesterday. According to the 36ers website, Hodge plans to participate in the NBA D-League’s draft. As far as I know, the D-League draft is in November, so this seems like odd timing. In any event, I hope this goes well for him — good luck, Julius!

Also, I’m adding a new guy to the “players we like” roster — Brent Petway of the Idaho Stampede. He seemed like an interesting guy when I saw him at the Stampede/14ers game back in November, like maybe he’d want to hang out with the absent Jamaal Tatum and play jokes on their teammates. How cute is his blog entry (read it here) about the D-League dunk contest, which he won? You can view his profile and access all of his blog posts here.

Dear Denver Nuggets,

We’ve been together for a while now, and as with any relationship, we have our ups and downs. The good times have been amazing, and when you brought me Allen Iverson for my birthday, I thought my love for you would last forever.

Today, though, I’m not so sure. I don’t even have anything to say to you right now. You’ve been letting yourself go. Look at yourself, and look at the Utah Jazz, and tell me why they’re three games ahead of you in the division. That doesn’t even make sense. You looked HOT that night against the Celtics. Then you play down to teams like the Bulls and the Bucks, like you think you’re all that, when in reality you’re the guy who looks kind of hot but then does something really stupid, and I realize that I deserve better.

I’m not trying to harp on your weaknesses or leave you when you’re down, but let’s be honest. You need to figure out who’s going to lead this team. You need to get your free-throw percentage out of the crapper and find some defense. You need some time to get your shit together. You have to work on yourself before you can be in a relationship with any self-respecting fan.

I think maybe I should see other teams. We can do this on a trial basis — you know how Andrei Kirilenko has a sex allowance? I’d like to have a team allowance. For one week per year, I can cheer for another team. This is only reasonable — you have to understand the temptation I’m faced with every day, watching NBA highlights on ESPN and seeing all these teams that actually have a chance of getting past the first round in the playoffs this year.

I hope you’ll use this time to figure out how to fix everything that hasn’t been working for you lately. I’m not saying that we should break up — I just need some space. Maybe I’ll spend some time with Pistons. They’re kind of hot, you know, but you probably don’t want to talk about that. No problem. See you in a week.

Love,
HBP

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Nuggets might be trading Von Wafer for Taurean Green. I haven’t seen this anywhere else, but I’ll see if I can find anything.

Update: According to Kings Blog at the Sacramento Bee, there is no Ron Artest deal.

Update: Damian Wilkins to Denver and Eduardo Najera to Seattle? This is not confirmed. Delonte West was rumored to be coming to Denver, but now it looks like he’s going to Cleveland.

Update: The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that the Wafer/Green deal is close to being official. You heard it here first (unless you’re reading the Philly paper).

Update: Fan 950 confirms Wafer/Green deal. By all accounts, it’s a fascinating deal of players who don’t play. There’s been no more word on a Najera deal.

Update: As far as I can tell, there’s no Najera/Wilkins deal. The Seattle Times latest Sonics trade update mentions a three-way Sonics/Cavs/Bulls deal, but nothing about Najera or Wilkins.

Nothing yet.

Names in the mix right now include Artest, Zach Randolph, Jason Williams, Ricky Davis, and  Delonte West.

Eight minutes to go.

So far this morning, no news is good news on the Nuggets trade front. The Artest deal still seems hung up on Kleiza. The Nugs are shopping Nene (Miami and New Jersey are interested), but with his health status and return date up in the air, it’s hard to say how appealing he is right now. I love Nene, but I could live with trading him for someone much cheaper, especially now that Kenyon Martin is playing the best he’s played for the Nugs.

I didn’t hear about it until this morning, but apparently Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson spent the weekend lobbying for a deal that would bring Artest to the Nuggets. The coaches, as far as I can tell, are opposed to the Artest deal if it means giving up Kleiza. The front office is split on the issue.

I think the opinion of the coaching staff should have more weight than the opinion of the players. I also think that George Karl showed a new and effective strategy for upping the defensive intensity of this team before the Celtics win — announcing which Nuggets stars were in charge of guarding which Celtics stars. That’s good, insightful coaching right there, and more of that will help this team in a way Ron Artest (and the loss of Kleiza) can’t.

To be real honest with you (uh oh, I’m picking up a Scott Hastings-ism right there — have you noticed that he says that all the time?), Melo and AI need to STFU about trades and who they want to see on this team. Take that energy and focus it on being the leaders of this team, hyping up the other guys, working on your free throws, and playing some freaking defense. Otherwise, we might just have to wait a few years until Kleiza takes over — because he’s the one who seems to have the real drive, dedication, and passion to lead a team in a way that nobody is leading the Nuggets right now.

As the trade deadline approaches (three hours left) I’ll update as soon as I hear anything. Until then, I’ll do all I can to send “Kleiza yes! Artest no!” vibes to the Pepsi Center.