Idiots Write About Sports

Curious happenings in Oakland tonight: the A’s starting pitcher, Rich Harden, left the game with two on and two out in the eighth, and the reliever, Ricardo Rincon, did not immediately walk the next four Yankee batters to tie the score. In fact, he struck out Tony Clark. Then, Jim Mecir came out in the ninth inning and retired all three batters he faced.

Suddenly, the A’s were walking off the field, still up 7-4. I guess the game was called or rained out or postponed or something because I can’t think of any other reason why Oakland would be leading a ball game after nine innings. I think there’s a term for such an occurrence — a win or something — but I’ll have to check my rule book. After all, as an Oakland fan, it’s not like this has been a familiar situation for me in recent weeks.

Hack Alert:

Caple has written about the 10 Easiest Things To Do In Sports as a wrap-up for the Degree of Difficulty project-- a very thought provoking series of articles. Shows just what Page 2 can do when it puts its mind to it.

So of course Caple has to go and ruin it with said wrap-up. Plus, he made a 'Wells is fat' joke, along the lines that it's debatable whether he specifically is an athlete:

"We hope you gained a new appreciation for just how good and how athletic the players we cheer really are.
Even David Wells. Hey, he shut out the Braves for seven innings Wednesday night."