Sad Day for a Good Guy Ball Player

Guys, Just wanted to post this and ask for your prayers. This is an article in todays Ashland, KY Paper:

Couple’s life together was just beginning

Brandon Webb’s college roommate, new bride killed

By MARK MAYNARD
The Independent

A former Kentucky baseball player who was an ex-roommate of major leaguer Brandon Webb was among the 49 killed when a commuter jet crashed during takeoff Sunday morning at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington.

Jon Hooker and his new wife, Scarlett Parsley, were on the flight heading to Atlanta to connect for a honeymoon trip to California. They were married before 300 friends and family members Saturday night, according to former Kentucky baseball coach Keith Madison, who was in attendance.

The bride-to-be had arrived in a horse-drawn carriage for a fairy-tale wedding to Hooker at Lexington’s Headley-Whitley Museum.

“It’s so tragic because he was so happy last night,” Madison said. “It’s just an incredible turn of events. It’s really painful.”

Webb’s parents, Philip and Dreama Webb of Ashland, also attended the wedding. Brandon Webb learned of the tragedy prior to Arizona’s game with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Phoenix on Sunday.

“You never expect anything like this,” Philip Webb said. “He and Brandon were best friends. They roomed together (in a dorm) and had an apartment together in college. Their last year, they had an apartment and I had to go down and clean it after Brandon got drafted and Jon signed a free-agent deal. They had two dogs in the apartment so you can imagine what it was like.”

When Brandon was in the minor leagues, he spent some time with Hooker in the London area during the offseason. Hooker had lost his father at an early age in a car wreck, Philip Webb said.

The news came to Brandon on Sunday through Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin, who called him into the office and told him what happened. “He told Brandon he didn’t want him hearing it any other way,” Philip Webb said.

When asked how Brandon took it, his father hesitated for a second and then said “Not good.”

Webb is scheduled to pitch tonight against San Diego but his father wasn’t sure what his son was going to do.

“I’m not sure if Brandon knows what he’s going to do,” Philip Webb said.

The wedding on Saturday night was spectacular, Philip Webb said.

“For some reason, last night one of the songs that they played was ‘It is Well With My Soul.’ It was kind of strange at the time because you don’t hear that much at weddings. But, like Dreama said, it was like a testimony right there.”

The 27-year-old Hooker pitched at Kentucky from 1998 to 2001, posting a 5-5 career record with a 3.23 earned run average. He signed a free-agent contract with the Chicago White Sox in 2001 and played professionally for Independent League teams in Fargo, N.D., and Joliet, Ill., before going back to his hometown of London.

Hooker played for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks from 2002 to June 2004 when he was traded to the Joilet JackHammers. He was a member of the RedHawks’ league championship team in 2003.

RedHawks general manager Josh Buckholz called Sunday a “sad day for Fargo.”

“Jon was a class guy and a great guy to have in Fargo,” he said. “He touched a lot of people’s lives. He was a fantastic teammate, he was a wonderful representative of our ballclub.”

Buckholz said nine members of the RedHawks roster, coaching staff and clubhouse staff were around when Hooker was with the team.

“There are a lot of people who knew him and loved him, and are dealing with this today,” Buckholz said.

There was a moment of silence prior to Sunday’s RedHawks game.

While at Kentucky, Hooker played not only with Webb but also Joe Blanton of the Oakland Athletics.

Hooker was working as a parole counselor and social worker while Parsley was in graduate school at Kentucky after graduating from Centre College, where she was also a cheerleader.

Philip Webb said Brandon has lost a dear friend. He said he gets choked up thinking about it.

“WSAZ was showing some clips of Jon at Kentucky and on one of those Brandon was giving him a high-five,” Philip Webb said. “Whenever you saw one, you saw the other at the school.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this report.

RETROSHEET

For purists, historians and stat-junkie extraordinaires, I just ran into Retrosheet via Blog of Danny. I was amazed by the amount of stats like box scores dating back to the 1871. Will and Andy, your New York Gothams (pre-Giants) didn't do so hot their expansion year, 1883, finishing 6th and 16 games behind division leader, Boston Beaneaters. :-)

Randall, The Red Birds, as most of us know, started as the St. Louis Browns in 1882. They fared even worse than Will/Andy's Gothams that year, finishing 18 games behind the Reds.

Donnie, your Bronx Bombers began in 1901, but were then the Baltimore Orioles. Go figure. Their first season, they were in the cellar, trailing the Reds by 32.5 games and behind Randall's Browns.

James, I'm ashamed to admit that our beloved Blue was called the "Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers" back in 1884. Our first year we ended up, uh, um.....oh look at the time! Wow, I gotta get going....

9th place, 33.5 games back.

We all had very humble beginnings in this grand pastime that has transcended multiple generations. And the rest is history!

What's Wrong With *This* Picture??

You'd think the Little League would impose some sort of size rule after this mammoth of a 13 year old got in......

In the words of Harry Caray...."Holy Cow!!!!"

# 725

I agree - it's a troubling photo.

Once again, Will and I were there, sitting in the stands of AT&T Park, watching the Giants' Noah Lowry pitch a 2 hit complete game shutout, leading the Giants to a 5-0 win over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.

Of course, we also saw Bonds' career home run # 725 - I had witnessed # 722 and both Will and I witnessed # 723.

I arrived at the game just as the opening pitches of the game were thrown. As soon as I sat down, Will said, "You should've come here earlier. We could've gone down to the fence and said hi to Brandon Webb for Donny."

A missed opportunity. But Webb will be pitching Tuesday night against Matt Cain - should be an excellent game.

And on a side note - anyone catch the in-dugout tunnel brawl in Toronto between pitcher Ted Lilly and manager Josh Gibbons? Seems like the manager might be the problem in that town...

Hell Froze Over Today

Well, it's official, Hell has frozen over! I didn't think it would ever in a million years happen but it did thanks to Mr. Steinbrenner. This morning they broke ground in the Bronx on the new Yankee Stadium. I'm a bit upset as you can tell because they will eventually knock down the "House that Ruth" built to provide parking for the new, state of the art stadium. In my mind, it is the equivalent of knocking over the birthplace of George Washington to build a bigger house next door that glorifies his life.

It's a sad day for die-hard Yankee fans. It's a happy day for all the rest of you.

Comiskey II

Tonight I was at U.S. Cellular Field - formerly the "new" Comiskey Park - in the southside of Chicago. I picked up a ticket from our firm's payroll manager, whose brother is a Chicago police officer, with the police officer's association selling tickets as part of a fundraiser. We sat in the LF bleachers, watching the defending world champ White Sox take on the hapless Kansas City Royals.

Of course, the Royals were far from hapless this evening - they hung on to win 4-2, with the Chisox playing a sloppy defensive game that included a dropped fly ball to Jermaine Dye early the in game which allowed the inning to continue and the Royals to score a run. AJ Pierzynski, beloved by the southside, bemoaned by Giants fans, did what I saw him do waaaaay too many times in a Giant uniform...grounded into a double play.

However, I must say that the experience of attending a game at this ballpark is quite nice...I was surprised to see how wide the concourse was on the main level, as compared to AT&T Park in San Francisco, which has relatively wide concourses (compared to Candlestick), but is a much more intimate park that is squeezed onto a 13 acre site. I was awed at the size of this ballpark, which is much taller than AT&T Park, mainly due to the double-decker luxury suite level.

Awhile back, when Will had a Categories question about items from other sports that would make baseball more appealing (tongue in cheek of course), a couple of respondents suggested cheerleaders. The White Sox come closest, as they had young women, in very short shorts and Sox tee shirts, prance around the field throwing T-shirts into the crowd and dancing atop the dugouts (along with a couple of male "cheerleaders" - not unlike those you find in college squads, only without the gymnastics).



Food was good - I had a grilled hot dog with grilled onions and a diet soda, which only set me back $7.75. While my newfound Chicago friends thought that pricey, I found it to be a tremendous bargain compared to San Francisco, whereupon the same combo (with kraut added in addition to onions) will set you back nearly $12.

All in all - a good evening at the ballpark. While it's not a particularly intimate ballpark, it is a pleasant place to watch a game.

And for someone like me, it isn't often that I can say I'm watching the defending world champs. Sure am not going to say that about my Giants anytime soon...

Friday Baseball Category

Here is a nice simple one...

Name three baseball player nicknames you would never want to be called?

Get to it... Moonman!

Baseball V. The "X" Games.

Bill Gnade has an interesting essay up on the above topic. It's worth the read.

Cheers.

R. Sherman

Will the Real Dodgers Please Stand Up?

Following up on this post, the Dodgers have now won 10 in a row after losing 13 out of 14, hence, the title of this blog. This ties them for the Wild Card race with the Reds. Jeff Kent returned to the lineup and hit a two run jack and an RBI double last night. Nomahhhh returns from the DL tomorrow so the offense will be intact. And Maddux is coming off a 6 inning no-no.

Can these guys really win the west? Borrowing a line from ESPN's baseball tonite show, and you're the analyst, do you buy or sell?

OK, I'm Shocked!!

I know you guys are not very fond of the Yankees.....but, I must share Saturday night with you. My family and I went to Columbus,OH for back-to-school shopping and just to goof off. Since I have been a life long Yankee fanatic, I used this trip as a chance to finally see the Columbus Clippers play. The Clippers are the AAA Yankees and their past rosters are a who's who among the home grown Yankee talent.

With visions of Mattingly, Jeter, Williams, Posada, Soriano, and others dancing in my head, we headed to the park at 4:00 Saturday. It was hat day so we made sure to get there early and yes we got hats. Also, for some reason they had an autograph session going on with George Foster, Ken Griffey Sr, Bert Campineris, and Fergie Jenkins. I wanted to get them to sign a ball and ask Fergie about pitching on acid but the line was too long, and I'm a Yankee fan......

But, here is the big kicker: the stadium where the baby Yankees play sucks! I know it is old and nostalgic, but the field looks like a nice high school field and the bathroom and the area around it stunk of stale pee. I was shocked by how crappy the old stadium really is! I've been to Single A fields that are much nicer. I guess Steinbrenner spends so much on buying good players that he can't improve the field where his guys come up.

That's the bad but the good was that atmosphere. Friendly fans that love their team was the norm and the place was maybe 1/3 full. The neat thing about the field was that the fences are the same measurments as in Yankee stadium with the short porch in right. It was fun though. It's always a good time at the ball park.

A GIFT FROM THE HEART

With the recent love and attention given to Dodger blue the last few postings, I wanted to give back the love to my baseball brotherhood. Especially my Giants comrades.

A gift for Will and Andy.

If it doesn't load, try this link.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. ..." :-)

The Dodgers will take it all now!

Gregg Maddux is a Dodger......it's all over but the shoutin' in the NL West!

Where are the Trade Rumors?

Is it me, or does it seem that the trade rumors out there, leading to Monday's deadline, are just really pathetic this year? Aside from Soriano maybe going to the White Sox (as a pit stop on the way back to the Bronx in the fall), and Abreu going somewhere (maybe), it seems that there's a dearth of good juicy rumors.

Sean Casey? Yawn.

Salomon Torres (or any other Pirate reliever)? Big, unstifled yawn.

So...let's start our own - whether they make sense or not. Let's have our fantasy July 31 non-waiver trade deadline trades. Be ridiculous. Be serious. Have fun. It's Friday.

From ESPN

Check this out from Jim Caple's column.

BOX SCORE OF THE WEEK

It was a long day at the park for Brooklyn Cyclones left fielder Dustin Martin last Thursday. How long? Try six hours and 40 minutes. Or 26 innings, the longest game in the history of the New York-Penn League.

Brooklyn scored in the first inning against the Oneonta Tigers, then was held scoreless the rest of the way. Oneonta tied the game in the fourth, and then the two teams traded zeroes the next 23 innings before Tigers center fielder Deik Scram broke out of an 0-for-11 day with a two-run single in the top of the 26th inning off converted outfielder Mark Wright. The Tigers went on to win 6-1 while Brooklyn's Martin went down with this box score line from hell:

11 AB, 1 R, 0 H, 0 RBI

His 0-for-11 day dropped his average from .278 to .241.

Dessens BACK to LA

Yawn. Yep...Dessens will be the difference maker in the NL West.

Where's The Love?

I've yet to see a shout out for my Cardinals from you Bay Area guys, after we swept the Dodgers.

What gives?

Cheers.

R. Sherman

Mike "Schadenfreude" Piazza

Schadenfreude is a German word that basically means taking pleasure in other's pain. Somehow, I just think it seems to invoke my most wonderful feelings of my least favorite player, Mike Piazza. I know, as a Christian, I have a long way to go in the forgiveness department, but let me at least wallow in his misery for a little while.

Last night, Andy talked me into going to the game with him. It was a glorious night for baseball and, indeed, as we approached the park there was a sizzle in the air. We got to our seats just minutes before the first pitch and sat under the cool awning on a 70 degree night to watch division leading baseball.

The Padres were in town, and as a team, I have nothing against them. Even if they win the division every couple of years, even if they have Trevor Hoffman, even if Tony Gwynn (who was the best pure hitter I've ever seen) used to light us up all the time, hating the Padres would be like hating the Taco Bell dog. You might hate him on the surface, but secretly in your heart of hearts you chuckle everytime you hear, "Yo Quiero Taco Bell?"

I asked Andy if he thought this might be the night that we saw the return to form of Noah Lowry, who blazed a second half trail through the National League last year. Well, he went 8 1/3 innings and gave up nothing until his pitch count wandered over 115 pitches. He was dominant until then. He had help though as several Giants made some great defensive plays behind him. But none of the Padres hits were cheap hits, even if they failed to produce any runs.

In the second inning, with a runner hanging around on the basepaths, young rookie phenom Matt Santos (okay, his last name is Santos, but last night when I said to Andy, where have I heard that name before, it was a fictional character, Andy gave me a blank stare... and now, all I can think about is the wonderful Matt Santos character who won the Presidency on The West Wing... so that's what I'm calling him), playing in only his second game, came to the plate. Andy looked at me and said, "I think its time for Santos to hit his first homerun." And just like that, Santos crushed one to deep center field for his first homerun. And everyone looked at Andy with new respect and awe. But not me... I knew Andy was baseball psychic. It was 2-0.

A couple of innings later, Santos walked, moved to second on a perfectly executed bunt by Pitcher Noah Lowry, and then was driven home by a Randy Wynn double down the line. Wynn wasted no time in stealing third. And then, with Omar Vizquel providing the bat work, scored on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze that Padres catcher, Mike Piazza couldn't touch. Vizquel eventually came around to score and it was 5-0.

But the play of the game, the absolute darling of the moment, the quintessential best play ever, occurred in the 8th. Alou led off with a base hit. And that brought Barry Bonds to the plate. As he walked up, I was thinking to myself, he's going to hit one out of here. He's going to hit 722 and I'm going to see it. The first pitch was a ball. The second one Bonds unloaded on - straight up. It skyed into the air. Piazza ripped off his mask. Bonds threw his bat down in disgust and started walked back to the dugout. But then, my favorite player in the whole wide world - who played for the hated Dodgers all those years, and then the Mets, and now with the Padres - whose father tried to steal my Giants and move them to Tampa Bay - this great wonderful player, DROPPED THE FOUL BALL! If Schadenfreude was a drug, I could have retired a kingpin at that moment. Two pitches later, Bonds found the cheap seats! 722! The relief pitcher who had just come into the game, was so rattled that two pitches later, Durham crushed one to right. And a couple pitches after that, Feliz found center. And then, they decided to give the reliever some time to beat the press out of the locker room. It was 9-0 and the Giants still didn't have an out in the inning. And all because Piazza couldn't catch a routine foul ball! Ah... I love this game.

Okay, okay, I can put the relish away with the mustard, this was only one game of the entire season. The Giants still trail the Padres by a game and a half and have never shown much inclination to run away with the division. But for one glorious moment I got to see the player I hate the most drop a routine foul ball which created back to back to back homeruns.

And that is why I love the game of Baseball.

Give up already!

Rant Mode On!

Does anyone still believe that going after Barry Bonds is not politically motivated? I mean the Federal Government has done everything in its power to prove that he's guilty except say that he has weapons of mass destruction and send in the marines! Yet, after millions of dollars spent on this grand jury investigation, they still don't have enough information to indict him? Give up already! What good is this investigation going to do? Even if you catch the guy? Even if you prove it? What will the ramifications be? This thing will just stretch on and on forever.

I used to think that Stars got special treatment before the law - that they could get out of jams the rest of us couldn't. But I'm starting to think that the law might be prejudiced the other way. If any one of us had used steroids, would the government be spending this much money to prove that we did it? And are the witnesses against Bonds the shadiest, most suspect group of witnesses since Michael Jackson's trial, or what?

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it smells like its coming out of some prosecutor's asstericks!

Rant Mode Off!

I read a great article in the Chronicle today about the top guys under 25 in any position. Said some pretty nice things about Ryan Howard. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this kid.

Goin' to the Chapel...

Over at my site I put up a post about Fellowship Day with the SF Giants this Saturday. As I was inspired by the testimonies of these players, I found the Baseball Chapel website. Good stuff here, all. Check it out!

A Proposal to the Group

Since we are all ridiculously wrapped up in baseball I feel the next step is to start up a fantasy league amongst the group next year. It would keep us even more into the game and add to the rivalry's. Any thoughts???

If everyone agrees, I will start doing the legwork and start setting it up for us.

PS- Andy, Marcel and Will's teams must only be composed of west coast ball players....hehe....just kidding. It would be a blast i'm sure!