Blog post

April 30, 2006 [LINK]

Kauffman Stadium

New visitor David Schwartz alerted me to the fact that the directional compasses on the Kauffman Stadium diagrams were wrong, so I fixed them. Center field is toward the northeast, not due north. (The confusion arose because Interstate 70 is not straight east-west in the area where the stadium is located.) While I was at it, I also corrected the dugouts and updated the text on that page. Note that the links at the bottom of that page refer to pages that are not yet "ready for prime time."

Day of slaughter

Some pretty big scores were racked up yesterday: the Tigers beat the Twins, 18-1; the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 17-6; and the Brewers beat the Cubs, 16-2. The Tigers just finished their best opening month since 1984, and are now only one game behind the White Sox. After the disappointments of recent years, it's about time!

It was a different story for the Nationals, however: They let slip a razor-close pitchers' duel when Albert Pujols hit a solo shot that gave the Cardinals a one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth, and that was all they needed. Livan Hernandez finally started living up to the high standards he established last year, allowing only three hits over seven innings, but the Nats left 11 men on base, wasting their nine hits. This afternoon they were ahead after four innings, but Zach Day (in his first game as a Nat after being let go last year) and the bullpen collapsed, as the Cards won 9-2. Well, at least the Nationals avoiding being swept in that four-game series in St. Louis.

Groundbreaking?

D.C. officials announced that the ceremonial groundbreaking on the new stadium will take place this Thursday, May 4, presumably with the designated new owners of the Washington Nationals present. Friday's Washington Post reported that Bud Selig is still anguishing over the decision, which seems pretty far-fetched to me. MLB owners are expected to approve the sale of the franchise when they meet in New York on May 17-18.