I am a big loser. I read about every sports blog out there. But the people over at joesportsfan.com have topped everyone with their new feature "mediaspace". Pages range from T.O to the Crime Dog Fred McGriff. The link below is my favorite…

http://joesportsfan.com/mediaspace/?id=4

Pirates VS Dodgers – TAKE 2. Last night was not the best performance by the bucs as they gave up ten runs in all. Tony Armas Jr. was pulled in the middle of the third before he started throwing under hand pitches and gave way to John Wasdin. Tony Jr’s ERA rose to a solid 18.90 on this young season. Anyways….that is in the past, lets play ball!!

Game Note: Third Baseman Jose Bautista is riding an 8 game hitting streak. No live blogging either. It didn’t go to well yesterday for my buccos.

Lets Go Bucs!

It’s Live blog time kids. First pitch 10:40. Lets go Bucs!

1st Inning

No Chris Duffy in the lineup tonight. Nady starts in Center and Eldred in Right. Freddy starts things off looking like a goof and striking out for the 4th time in a row, Jack lines a shot to center for a base hit, Bay strikes out just like when my buddy tries asking out chicks with his zipper open, WP allows Jack to move to 2nd, Nady lines one to left-Jack scores from 2nd, 1-0 Buccos!  LaRoche walks, Eldred K’s. Dodgers coming to bat… Armas walks Furcal. Awesome. Freddy Sanchez mis-plays what would be a double play ball, Furcal to 3rd, Pierre on 1st. Pierre steals 2nd of course. NO-MAAR plays with his batting gloves and singles to right, Furcal and Pierre both score, 2-1 Dodgers. Awesome. Kent flies out to both Sanchez and LaRoche, LaRoche caught it though. Luis Gonzalez(who still plays Major League Baseball apparently), pops-up to Paulino.  Force out at 2nd ends the inning. After one inning of play and terrible writing – Dodgers-2 Pirates-1

2nd Inning

Paulino starts things off with a K while Bautista knocks the **** out of the ball (insert sarcasm) and flies out to Kent. 2 outs in less than 2 minutes. WHAT! Pitcher Tony Armas JR, hits one down the first base line and the ball takes a weird bounce in the outfield. Any other major league baseball player would be standing on 2nd. Arams is content with first base. Sanchez flies out to Snoop Dogg in center, I mean Juan Pierre. Dodgers coming to bat …… Andre Ethier (coolest name in MLB) grounds softly to second, one out. Wilson Betemit basically bunts to short. 2 outs. Wolf flies to Bay. 1-2-3 inning. End of two innings of play Bucs have one, Dodgers have dos. (2-1)

3rd Inning

Jack Wilson starts the 3rd with a line drive out to left. One dead. Jason Bay the Pirates All Star and power hitter BUNTS, yes Bunts for a base hit!! Xavier Nady goes down swinging, two out. Adam LaRoche strikes out for the 108th time on this young season. True story, well…  not really.  Dodgers are coming to bat….. Furcal fouls out. one out. Juan Pierre drills one at Adam LaRoche who misplays the ball allowing the speedy Pierre to reach first safely. After numerous pick off attempts. Pierre steals second with ease. Mr. Mia Hamm (nomar) walks. Jeff Freaking Kent drives in Pierre, Nomar to second. 3-1 Dodgers. Luis Gonzalez drives one to left-center, Nomar scores, Kent to 3rd 4-1 blue team. This begs the question why does T.Armas Jr still have a job?  Apparently Armas HATES Russell Martin and drills in square in the face with a fastball…second look, it actually hits him in the chest. Never-the-less….bases juiced.  Ethier comes 5 feet shy of hitting a Grand Slammy, Bay snags the fly ball, Kent tags, 5-1 Dodgers. Wilson Betemit singles to right, Gonzalez scores on Brad Eldreds lolly pop 17 bounce throw. 6 to freaking 1. Seriously STOP!  Pitcher Randy Wolf lines one to right. Martin and Betemit both score. 8 to 1. Armas OUT..thank god!  Pitcher John Wasdin enters….Wasdin throws 3 pitches and gets Furcal to ground out to LaRoche. End of the 3RD…finally. Dodgers- 8 Bucs – 1

4th Inning

Eldred pops up to second. One out. Paulino singles softly to second. Bautista goes down swinging. 2 dead. Bucs let Wasdin bat and he knocks one to right, looks like its gunna drop in but, Ethier is there to make a fine catch….Dodgers coming to bat….Pierre hits one in the hole, diving stop by Freddy but Pierre reaches safely. Mr. Mia Hamm (nomar) grounds one to 2nd, Pierre was running, Nomar out at 1st, Pierre reaches 2nd safely. One out.  Kent gets a base hit to center however Pierre stops at 3rd. Gonzalez up the middle 6-4-3 double play. End of the 4th, still 8 – 1 Dodgers.

5th Inning

Bucs start the 5th with something we saw a lot of last year, but not so much in 07….a Freddy Sanchez base hit. Jumpin Jack pops up to Kent. One out.  Bay swings at the first pitch and promptly fouls out to Nomar at first. 2 dead.  Nady flies out to left. No runs on one hit, one man left on base.  Dodgers on their way to the plate….Russell Martin grounds to Freddy. One out in the 5th. Andre 3000 hits his 2nd home run of the year to straight away left. 9 to 1 Dodgers. (At this point in time I seriously am considering to end my "live blogging" career). Looks like back to back jacks but, Big Country Brad Eldred runs one down on the warning track. 2 outs. This game can be summed up in the following sentence: Pitcher Randy Wolf just knocked his second double of the game.  Furcal lines out to Freddy to end the bleeding…for now. Headed to the 6th.. 9 to 1 home team.

6th Inning

LaRoche strikes out AGAIN. Wow. OK seriously, its not funny anymore. One out.  Eldred strikes out. Woopidie DOOOOOO. Two outs folks.  Ronny Paulino looks like an idiot as Randy Wolf strikes out the side. Ten K’s in all. Dodgers coming up to score more runs…The Amazing Jonathan Wasdin is still pitching and walks Pierre to lead off the bottom of the 6th. (Pierre just won the FSN Pittsburgh Honor Roll Award..whatever the **** that means…apparently he got good grades in math class ). Nomar grounds to third, no chance at a double play, out at first. One out. Olmedo Saenz pinch hits for Kent. Saenz walks. Sidenote: If Fernando Valenzuela and Rose O’Donnell had a child together, it would be Olmedo Saenz. Luis Gonzalez gets a base hit off the glove of LaRoche, Pierre scores, Fernando’s child to third. 10 to 1. ALERT THE PRESS—-Pirates Pitcher John Wasdin strikes out Russell Martin. First K for a Pirate pitcher in this ball game. 2 outs by the way.  Bay makes a running catch for out number 3. Headed to the 7th, 10 to 1, Dodger blue.

7th Inning

Dodgers made a couple of changes. I’m not gunna lie, I wasn’t really paying attention. New pitcher is some guy named Billingsley. Bautista really doesn’t care anymore and grounds out to third. Don Kelly to pinch hit for Wasdin. Kelly grounds out to first. Two outs. One of those dudes who came into play for the Dodgers was, Brady Clark. Clark just made a diving catch to rob Freddy Sanchez of extra bases. (Not that it would have made a difference though)…..Dodgers turn to bat in the 7th ……… Damaso Marte comes in to pitch for the Bucs. Don Kelly remains in the game at second. Marte strikes out Betemit, one out. Brady Clark beats Marte to the bag on a ball hit to LaRoche. Martinez flies out to center fielder Xavier Nady, 2 gone. Pierre grounds to short, Jack flips to Freddy for a force out at second. Still 10 to 1. Headed to the 8th…

8th Inning

Jack Wilson starts the inning with a walk. Bay shows some life and drills one to the gap. Wilson moves to third but, Bay fails to reach second and stays at first. Nady bounces into a double play, Wilson scores. Woo hoo. 10-2. I’m not going to elaborate but, Adam LaRoche struck out AGAIN. 0-3 with three K’s. Dodgers coming to bat…….(end this nightmare please) Changes: new pitcher Jonah Bayliss, Duffy in center, Nady moves to right, Bay out, McLouth in left and Eldred to first. Valdez flies out to Nady in right, one out. Who is Valdez? The Coffee guy?  Bad joke, I know. OK back to baseball, Saenz pops up to Eldred in foul territory. Ground ball to Eldred to end the inning. 10 to 2 headed to the 9th.

9th Inning

Eldred knocks the **** out of the ball, not really. Straight back to the pitcher, one out. Paulino strikes out again (1 for 10 with 8 strike outs in his last ten at-bats). Bautista decides to prolong the inevitable and hits a double into the gap.  Don Kelly pops up to left fielder to Clark to end the ballgame. That’s your ballgame folks…..Final Score 10 to 2. 

All in all…. I couldn’t have pictured this attempt at a live blog to go much worse. Lets get em tomorrow buccos!! Ian Snell VS Brad Penny. Great matchup. That’s all….good day sir. 

I’ve always wanted to do a "live-blog". Tonight I get my chance. I will be at work (which means watching baseball at work) tonight while the Bucs take on the LA Dodgers (10:40 est). I am gunna attempt a live blog. If you like train wrecks, please…come join me.

Pittsburgh Pirates VS. LA Dodgers 10:40 Est

Tony Arams JR (0-1) 13.50 era  VS. Randy Wolf (2-1) 4.00 era

The Inspiration behind this spectacular MLBlog lies within this video clip. Proceed….

Although the video does not represent our Pittsburgh Pirates. I believe we can relate to the words. I would also like to mention that we consider "Major League" THE greatest sports movie of all time. Yes, Bull Durham and The Natural must bow down before Rick Vaughn, Willie Mayes Hayes, and Pedro Ceranno.

Best line of the movie: When asked if Lou Brown would like to coach the Indians this year — "I dunnnnno, I got a guy on the other line about some white walls, I’ll get back to ya later"

Hi. We are the Pittsburgh Pirates. We currently play major league baseball at PNC Park in the city of Pittsburgh. Many of you casual baseball fans may not have heard of us, mainly due to our recent lack of winning baseball games. Let me give you some current background information on who we are and what we are all about….

-Currently we are 6-8 on the young 2007 baseball season.

-Trying to avoid our 15th consecutive losing season, which would be the longest losing streak in all of professional sports. Awesome.

-Our 5 man pitching rotation has an average age of 24 years old. (2ND youngest behind the Florida Marlins)

-We violently shoot hot dogs and t-shirts at the fans between innings of Home baseball games.

-Our diamond (PNC Park) was voted "The #1 stadium in all of Major Leagues Baseball" by ESPN in 2004. Sadly the team ranked #27 out of 30. ‘

- We are not the biggest fan’s of "Free-Agency" due to our lack of success in acquisitions. (see: Derek Bell, Raul Mondesi, Jeromy Burnitz, Pat Meares, Joe Randa, Matt Lawton, Benito Santiago, Chris Stynes, Pokey Reese, Matt Stairs, Jeff Reboulet, etc..) Quite the list huh?

-Current Lineup: 1. Chris Duffy-cf  2.Jack Wilson-ss  3.Freddy Sanchez-2b 4.Adam LaRoche-1b   5.Jason Bay-lf  6.Xavier Nady-rf  7.Ronny Paulino-c  8.Jose Bautista-3b   9. Pitcher.

Who and What we are banking on this year….

1. Second Baseman Freddy Sanchez won the NL Batting Title in 2006 with an average of .344.  Sanchez was a reserve infielder at the start of last season sitting behind Joe Randa (see above). Sanchez can play all infield positions (except 1st) and will be expected to get on base for LaRoche and Bay to drive in.

2. First baseman Adam LaRoche was acquired from the Atlanta Braves for Closer Mike Gonzalez.  GM David Littlefield has wanted a left handed power hitting first baseman like LaRoche, since PNC Park opened up in 2001. LaRoche will be looked at to hit 30 plus home runs over the short right field porch at PNC. If he doesn’t, well, he will clearly be strung up in Market Square for people to hurl rocks, insults, spitballs and pierogies at him.

3. Pitching. Pitching. Pitching. Our young staff of Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny, Paul Mahlom are not only as old as myself (which makes me realize at this moment, that my boyhood dream of playing baseball will probably not come true. Looks like in order to reach my back-up dreams I’m gunna have to join the fire department or look to see if the Ninja Turtles are hiring.) they are all supposed to have the potential to anchor this staff for years to come.

As for this MLBlog, much like the 2007 Pirates…..we are shooting for .500. Mediocracy will do just fine. Lets Go Bucs!