The Chris Moeller Archives

Diamond visions

-- Barry Bonds is set to pass Babe Ruth any day now on the all-time home run list. When he also collects three wins on the mound during a single World Series, it will be worth our breath to compare the two players, or anyone else to Ruth, for that matter.

-- Even as Americans are purportedly ambivalent about Bonds and his home run chase, they still seem ten times as interested in that as they are in the NBA Playoffs. Maybe it's just my circle.

-- The Associated Press is reporting that the two authors of the Bonds steroid probe "Game of Shadows" could wind up spending more time in prison than the BALCO steroid lab operators. Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada have been subpoenaed to testify as to who leaked to them the secret grand jury testimonies of Bonds, Jason Giambi, and others.

-- As I documented thoroughly last spring, the majority of Cubs games have left Des Moines' cable system due to the team's new contract in 2005 with the Comcast cable company, a move for which you can probably tell that I blame the team and not our local provider, Mediacom. I'm grateful for the 120-some Cardinals games in return-- don't get me wrong, but it's beyond me why the Tribune Co. in Chicago would betray the very television arrangement with its own property (WGN-TV) that made the team the cash cow it is today. I won't be truly pissed unless Bonds hits #714 or #715 tomorrow night in San Francisco off Carlos Zambrano.

-- Four thousand of eleven thousand seats still remain for Friday night's Iowa Cubs' game in which Kerry Wood makes his annual rehab start in Des Moines. I think the excitement of Wood's visits is finally starting to wear off.

-- When will Ken Griffey, Jr. return from the disabled list so the Reds can start tailing off?

-- I really couldn't care less about what "sits well" with Cory Lidle, or what he thinks is "selfish." He was a scab during the players' strike in 1995.

-- The Kansas City Royals continue to dig deeper lows in the Show-Me shadow of St. Louis and the Cardinals' 96-wins-per-season millenium. Michael Rosenberg chronicles.

-- The most important statistic in the Great Pujols' game is runs scored. He leads the majors in home runs and RBIs (adding to them with a game-winning three run bomb tonight in the eighth,) but scoring runs are what fuels his team-first approach. He has crossed the platter 33 times already this year, and 662 times in 5 years and 5 weeks of ML service, leading the National League three years in a row. The career record is Rickey Henderson's 2,295.

posted by CM @ 8:17 PM