Mark_Concannon's Blog

*****BUSY BULLPEN-In their 4-2 victory Friday night at Philadelphia, the Mets used 7 pitchers.

*****PANIC BUTTON-After the Mets lost two of three to the Brewers last weekend, the New York Daily news ran a story comparing the series to the Mets late season collapse in 2007

*****NO LOVE LOST-And the Daily News had no sympathy for Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who was benched after an .070 start, calling him "Big Floppy."

*****TRY SOMETHING NEW-Former Brewer Geoff Jenkins batted in the leadoff spot for the Phillies last Sunday, the first time he hit in the #1 slot after playing over 1200 major league games. He was 2 for 6 and scored a run.

*****TOO MUCH BUZZ?-The Cubs are concerned that ace pitcher Carlos Zambrano is ingesting too much caffeine. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said Zambrano is "off a lot of caffeine, but hasn't kicked the habit completely." Zambrano admits to drinking coffee and energy drinks "under the table."

*****WITH A NAME LIKE THAT-The Lehigh Valley IronPigs opened their Triple A International League season by going 0-11. The Pigs are a sloppy 2-13 as of this writing and still haven't won a road game.

*****OK IN KC-Kane County, a suburban Chicago team in the Class A Midwest League, stormed out of the gate, winning its first ten games this season

*****WASN'T HE THE FONZ'S NEPHEW?- Baseball's Buffalo Bisons just recalled pitcher Bubbie Buzachero from Double-A Akron

*****SLUGFEST-The Lemoyne College baseball team from upstate New York, scored 49 runs in two games last week, sweeping a doubleheader from St. Peter's.

*****THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING?-How bad is the marketing of the LPGA which has the hottest athlete in pro sports(Lorena Ochoa, who has won 4 straight tournaments) and is still barely a blip on the sports radar

*****BYE WEEK-There is no PGA tour event the week of September 8th, a rare opening on the men's golf calendar. The Ryder Cup happens the following week in Louisville.

*****WHY DON'T YOU STAY AWHILE?-The New England Patriots have back to back west coast road games on two diffferent occasions next season. Pats coach Bill Belichick is considering keeping his team on the left coast for two straight weeks during those stretches rather than flying back to New England between games

*****TRAVELING MAN-Linton Johnson, signed by the Phoenix Suns for the playoffs, had signed two 10-day deals with the Suns and a third with Toronto this season. And Johnson is always ready for action. "I had my bags already packed," Johnson said. "After being on these 10-days, I have a 10-day travel kit now. It's ready to go."

*****ON THE RUN-The 111th Boston Marathon will be run later this morning. John J. McDermott won the first Boston Marathon in 1897 in a time of 2 hours, 55 minutes, 10 seconds. Human-race-kind has shaved nearly an hour off that time. The current course record is just over 2 hours and 7 minutes.

Gotta run for now, but we're back with more musings next Monday, April 28th.