Chat room "info"

Ok - so I decided a great way to pick up more info and to speed the learning process was to sit in on a chat room discussion. Yahoo has an MLB room that always seems to have a lot of people on it, so I figured I would give it a go. I spent several hours listening in, the room has both regular chat and voice chat.

Drum roll please... here is what I learned:

• A girl named Melissa (I believe that was the name) used to invited 4-5 guys for a chat and strip on her webcam.
• If you strip on a webcam someone will take a screen shot.
• Said screen shot will then be posted as a link on the chat room at a later date.
• Said screen shot will then be discussed ad nausium and rated in not so complimentary ways.
• Despite having to enter the character recognition password, 1/10 of the people in the room at any time only seemed to be able to type, "Are there any men in here who would like to see me take off my shirt?" I think over the course of the experiment I blocked 20-30 of them. (Are those bots?)
• The main purpose of the chat room is to listen to someone make crank phone calls and give him suggestions as to who to call and provide their numbers. It is also a game to see if you can trick him into crank calling the police station.
• You need to be at a minimum tipsy to participate and it is sooo much better if you are plastered.
• When someone dares to ask a baseball question, the only acceptable response is, "I dunno, I only follow football." There is, however, one exception to the rule. When asked who will start for the Red Sox in game 1, about 8 people in the room will quickly reply with the same answer.
• If you have several hours to waste... find a chat room!

In all seriousness, I might have picked a bad time (it was from 10pm - 2am), but I was on for about four hours and literally saw only a momentary glimmer of baseball discussion. I will try it again sometime. So if anyone has a good recommendation on where to go, I would love to hear it!

drum roll please...

With a week to go before the trade deadline, rumors abound about what moves, if any, the Twins will make. Personally, the way I see it, we are in a fantastic spot to be in this year. Our talent is still raw and undisciplined, but it is showing improvement. We have an abundance of players who are batting ok and have speed and flexibility. Once players return, I think there will actually be some difficult decisions to be made as to who to send down or platoon. I see one weak area and agree with those who are pitching (pun intended) for any deals to center around 8th inning pitching. Blyleven made a comment today about LaTroy as a possibility. Now how fun would that be to have him return? But I think that the current team has a chemistry and I know that they have been reluctant to mess too much with a chemistry that is working. It is going to be a fun week of speculation!

Whoa - where did Punto come from?

Gotta admit, I never completely jumped on the negativity bandwagon when it came to Punto when he faced the most derision. This is a game of hot and cold, and sure he was luke-warm to cold a lot at the end of last season, but I never thought he was done for like lots of my friends. But I never expected to see him play like he has lately. Seems like when he gets played he makes at least one really nice play, and sometimes comes up with a huge surprise. For example that little barely above ground shove pass to Cassilla the other day that continues to be replayed over and over. (Moment of negativity - had Cassilla missed the catch or not been able to keep his foot on the bag stretching out that far, or had it been someone else who was involved in that play, would the press have been so hot?) Personally, while he will never be one of my favs, I like the guy, think he can do some good, and with the competition he is facing for positions think he is stepping up his game. We can overlook the daily errors in judgement by Go-Go, why not give Punto a break and see what the guy can do?

Update: 7:40pm 7/5
Case in point - Punto just made a fantastic catch in the 5th robbing Carroll of a nice hit. WTG Punto!!!

Sticky Situations

Ok - a few weeks ago after watching a game where three bats went flying into the dugouts, and seeing Go-Go kissing and talking to what appeared to be a pure white virgin bat I started wondering what was the scoop about pine tar. Out of curiosity I googled it and found more than I expected. I assumed that there wouldn't be much about it. I was more curious on why some batters seem to have bats black with the stuff and matching helmets, while others don't. What are the pros and cons? How much do they "need" and are the results consistent. Instead I found debates on which pitchers are using it illegally, and a story of George Brett and a controversial home run.

The Pine Tar Incident - The rule is that batters can use tar but it can only go up 18" from the tip of the handle. Back in 1983 George Brett hit a winning home run against the Yankees, that had the Yankees question the amount of tar on his bat, that it went too far up the bat. It was a little known rule and the officials were unsure how to handle the infraction. The run was deemed an out. The ruling was appealed and over turned with the game finishing at a later date and the score holding. It is an interesting story to read.


The other side of the debate is about pitchers, who are obviously not allowed to use it. One blogger said to look at Nathan's hat. I will out of curiosity now, but I would assume that any official at the stadium would be able to also see it and that we would have heard more about it. My question is how do they handle that in the NL? Does a pitcher have to wash his hands following an at bat to be sure no tar remains on his hands?

I was hoping to find out what players expect to get out of the tar, since even the well tarred bats go flying into the dug outs every once in a while. I didn't get the answers I was looking for, but it is an interesting read anyway...