There was quite the stink raised this weekend when newly minted Hall of Famer - and notorious sourpuss - Jim Rice made some comments to a group of Little Leaguers that appeared to lump Derek Jeter in with the likes of Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez as those that "are setting a bad example for the young guys." Rice would later go on to say that he was "misquoted" and that it was blown out of proportion because of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. I'm not sure I agree with him. Here's what he said:

“You see a Manny Ramirez, you see an A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez), you see (Derek) Jeter ... Guys that I played against and with, these guys you’re talking about cannot compare,” Rice said to Little Leaguers gathered in the cafeteria.

"We didn’t have the baggy uniforms. We didn’t have the dreadlocks,” Rice said. “It was a clean game, and now they’re setting a bad example for the young guys.”

Sounds to me like a classic case of "everything was better in *my* day". It shouldn't come as a surprise, though, considering that Rice has always been known as a grump and that he did spend the last 15 years waiting around for the Hall to call. I can't imagine his demeanor got any better during that time.

Of course, Rice was conveniently forgetting many things about the era that he played in, from the Oscar Gamble afro to the "money grubbing" complaints that the owners (and fans) threw on the stars of the day as they entered the free agency era to the surliness of players like Reggie Jackson and Rice himself and, finally, to the cocaine and drug issues that were so prevalent - and damaging - in the '80s. It wasn't exactly the cleanest era to be a player in.

This is far from new, though. There's hardly a time when the disciples of one generation (the fans, the writers, the players) aren't complaining about the current generation. I actually discussed a great example of this in May, when Sean Forman linked to an article he found in a 1950 issue of Baseball Digest called "Baseball's New Elite." In that article, the author complains about this "new era of ballplayer" who cares too much about getting a cigarette endorsement and not enough about the game on the field. In the meantime, he indicts (by association) such paragons as Stan Musial, Warren Spahn, and Duke Snider. It's a good reminder as to why we shouldn't listen to these old curmudgeons when they break out the "In my day...!"-routine and a good excuse to take another walk through the Wezen-Ball archives. Enjoy.

Yesterday afternoon, Philadelphia second-baseman Eric Bruntlett was in the right place at the right time when Jeff Francouer smoked a line drive up the middle. Bruntlett, who was busy rushing to cover second-base from the hit-and-running baserunners, was half a step away from the bag when he pulled the ball out of the air for the first out. In less than two seconds, he was stepping on the bag for the second out and turning around to tag Daniel Murphy out for the game-ending third out.

In those two seconds, Bruntlett became the 15th player in major league history to turn an unassisted triple play. It was the third year in a row that an unassisted triple play was turned, with Bruntlett joining Asdrubal Cabrera and Troy Tulowitzki in the club.

What's more, the triple play also marked the 2009 season as only the third time in history that the four "banner feats" of baseball were all achieved in the same year. With Jonathan Sanchez's no-hitter, Mark Buehrle's perfect game, and the seven cycles that we have already seen, the unassisted triple play was all that was missing, and Bruntlett made short work of that.

The last time it happened was in 1994, when Kenny Rogers pitched a perfect game, Kent Mercker and Scott Erickson threw no-hitters, John Valentin turned the triple play and Scott Cooper hit for the cycle. The only other season to see all four feats was 1968, when four pitchers threw no-hitters to go along with Catfish Hunter's perfect game.

(please click "read more" to continue reading)

With the move over to the new digs here at the Bloguin network, I thought it might be a good idea to dive into the archives everyday for the next week or so to highlight some past work that any new readers might not have had a chance to read.

For the first walk through the archives, I thought I'd tie things back to this morning's post. In the morning post, I used the Multi-Team or Multi-Franchise tool from Baseball Reference to look at players who had played for both ends of a rivalry. Well, Baseball Reference is a fantastic tool that everyone should (and almost certainly does) use; I can't recommend it highly enough.

Back in February, I put my money where my mouth was and sponsored a bunch of BR pages. It's worth looking at again, so we can all fully appreciate Baseball Reference.

I've been trying to get my head around this whole Brett Favre thing the last few days. Forgetting about the whole "retired-not retired-retired again-not retired again" thing, it's still a remarkably odd story: Favre, beloved to the point of worship in Green Bay, spurns his entire legacy to play one (or two) more season with the Packers' most bitter rival, their divisional foe, the Minnesota Vikings.

This isn't Orel Hershiser playing out the string of his career on teams like the Indians, Mets, andGiants. And this isn't Johnny Damon moving to the Yankees after a few (celebrated) years in Boston. True, those two were both fan favorites and even playoff heroes, helping lead the Dodgers and Red Sox to World Series victories, but neither are even close to the level that Brett Favre achieved in America's Dairyland.

In fact, the only analogue that I can think of that seems at all reasonable is a hypothetical one: the baseball equivalent of Brett Favre playing for the Vikings would be Cal Ripken leaving the Orioles after a falling out and then playing for the Yankees. The analogy is a little weak in that the Orioles-Yankees "rivalry" is laughable when compared to the Vikings-Packers (or any other major rivalry). Other than that, though, it works great. Favre and Ripken were both clean-cut, hard-working, "go out there and play everyday"-type guys who were the clear leaders on their teams and who penetrated the national consciousness like few others. "Golden boys", some might say (*ahem*Jose Canseco*ahem*). Favre may not have been a hometown boy who came up through the team's system like Ripken, but he was adopted as such pretty early on in his career. And, as good as they each were in their primes, they were both overrated as they aged, getting a little too much credit for their past successes when they were clearly beyond that talent-level (and I say that as someone who collected - and still owns - over 200 different Cal Ripken baseball cards as a child).

Let's imagine, then, the relationship between Ripken and the Orioles souring so much that he would leave the team to play for the Yankees: the strangeness of Cal in pinstripes, the animosity that O's fans might feel for him, the awkwardness that would follow him the first time the Yankees visited Baltimore... all of that is what is currently happening over in the NFL, and it's just ridiculous. I still don't know what Favre is thinking, and I live here in Milwaukee!

Anyhow, after all of that, I thought it might be interesting to see what the biggest names are to have ever moved to their rival team. Again, I'm not looking for the likes of Orel Hershiser or Johnny Damon on this list. Players like that, while strange to see in a different uniform, don't quite reach the levels that I'm thinking of. Using the Multi-Franchise or Multi-Team tool over at Baseball Reference, I looked at every player who played for both teams in some of MLB's greatest rivalries, searching for "big name players" who ended up playing for their main rival after achieving immortality with their first club. While the Cubs/Cardinals and Red Sox/Yankees had a few interesting candidates, the two best examples, by far, were found in the West Coast rivalry:

Welcome to the newly redesigned Wezen-Ball.com!

I've followed my friend Jason from It's About the Money, Stupid! over to the Bloguin network, and I couldn't be more excited. Besides these fancy new digs (seriously, don't you just love that banner?), which even include a forum, I get to join a great network of sports and entertainment bloggers. You can find a link to the growing number of Bloguin blogs over there on the left. I seriously suggest you check them out when you have a chance.

As for me, well, it's going to be more of the same. For those of you who were with me at the old location, you know what the site is about, and it's not going to change at all. You can expect the same posts, the same topics, and the same general attitude. I was even able to import all of the posts from the other location (you can find them above in the Archives) and you shouldn't have to change your RSS feeds, either.

If you're new to the blog, though, I suppose a little introduction is in order. You can read more of the particulars over to the right in the "About Me" section (including the "reason" for the name of the blog), but for now here are a few things that you're going to find at Wezen-Ball.com:

There's been a lot of talk recently about Joe Mauer, including talk about his MVP case and his chances of finishing the season with a .400 batting average. In both cases, Pos and his Mauer Pauer series are leading proponents.

What hasn't been mentioned as often, though, is the possibility of Albert Pujols winning the Triple Crown this year. Granted, he's currently close behind Prince Fielder in the RBI category (105 to 107) and (fairly) significantly behind Hanley Ramirez in batting average (.325 to .356). But, with seven weeks left in the season, there's still plenty of time for those leaderboards to change.

Bill, over at The Daily Something, and David, from Baseball Musings, both took a look at the math to see what the real odds are. It's no surprise to learn that it isn't all that likely to happen because, let's face it, it never is. It might surprise you, though, to learn just how likely it really is. These are much better odds than most people ever have in mid-August. Bill and David did great work, and you really should give them a read to see what they determined.

So, with neither Pujols' shot at the Triple Crown nor Mauer's shot at .400 being laughably absurd, the question becomes, how fantastic would it be if both feats were achieved in the same season? When that question was brought up in the comments over at The Daily Something, I just about got chills.

With neither feat having been accomplished in over 40 years (with it being nearly 70 years for the .400 club), this would be one of the greatest seasons ever. In fact, if that were to happen, it'd battle with the 1941 season as the two greatest offensive seasons in baseball history. DiMaggio & Williams could even realistically be replaced with Mauer & Pujols. It would be remarkable. And then, when you consider that it'd be two Midwest teams making that kind of history, it'd be taken to a whole other level.

Now, clearly this is a pipe dream and it's nothing that we should realistically be entertaining until September 30. But the fact that we can even conceive of the chance in mid-August without laughing it away immediately is something to get excited about. I know what I'm rooting for the rest of the season.

I know I've said this a few too many times recently, but it's looking like the next few days might be a little slow. This time, though, it's for some internal reasons. I have some exciting new blog stuff that I'm in the middle of working on, and I hope to have it done by the end of the week.

Knowing me, I'll probably end up writing a nice long piece anyway, but don't count on it. Hopefully, as things get closer to being finished, I'll be comfortable sharing the big news. Until then, I'll keep plugging away.

You can certainly follow me on Twitter, if you're looking for some random comments from me throughout the day, or maybe take a look at the new Facebook fan page I created. I like it better than the older, Networked Blogs one. I hope to see you there, and I'll be sure to let you know what's going on as things get closer to being done.

Earlier this week, my terrific girlfriend introduced me to what has to be the best team name in professional baseball. Playing in the Stedler Division of the New York-Penn League and located in Burlington, Vermont, the Short-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals are known as the Vermont Lake Monsters. Originally the Vermont Expos, the team had to change its name after the big league club's move to DC. After a contest, they settled on the Lake Monsters, named after their longtime mascot Champ, the Lake Champlain lake monster, itself named after a local Loch Ness-style superstition. Whatever the etymology, it's a fantastic name. I love the idea of going to a Lake Monsters game three nights a week.

It's the type of thing that you can only get away with in the minors and independent leagues. With only thirty big league franchises that have to serve millions of fans, the names are far from daring. Plus, with generations of fans having grown up with the one ballclub, there isn't really any room for name changes. In the minors, though, that's just not the case. Teams are sold, affiliates are changed, and owners are constantly looking for ways to excite their fan base. It's the perfect storm for creative team names and mascots.

With that in mind, I thought it'd be fun to take a look at the various minor leagues (and only the minor leagues - there are just too many independent leagues to try to weed through) and see what the most creative club names were. Clubs like the Pawtucket Red Sox or Helena Brewers, then, won't be included here, and even names like the Columbus Clippers and Portland Beavers are a little too pedestrian to make the list. I'm looking for the really unique names because, after all, that's just one of the charms of the minor leagues.

Using the list of minor leagues over at Wikipedia, I went through each of the leagues and chose the ones that seemed most interesting. Here, then, are the most creative club names in each of the affiliated minor leagues:

Triple-A
International League: Toledo Mud Hens [old, but still classic] & Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Pacific Coast League: Round Rock Express [nice homage to owner Nolan Ryan] & Reno Aces [one of the better dual-meaning names I came across]; special "crappy name honor" to the Albuquerque Isotopes & Las Vegas 51's

Double-A
Eastern League: Connecticut Defenders [not a lot to choose from here, but it's still a pretty good name]
Southern League: [quite a few good names here] Montgomery Biscuits, Tennessee Smokies, andChattanooga Lookouts; special note to the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx and their stadium,Pringles Park
Texas League: Northwest Arkansas Naturals [named after noth the "Natural State" and the Robert Redford film] & San Antonio Missions

High-A
California League: Lancaster JetHawks [the city is home to Edwards Air Force base] & the Visalia Rawhide; special "crappy name honor" to the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernadino [I guess it's a Southern California thing]
Florida State League: Jupiter Hammerheads & Brevard County Manatees
Carolina League: Myrtle Beach Pelicans & Frederick Keys

Low-A
South Atlantic League ("Sally League"): Savannah Sand Gnats, Bowling Green Hot Rods, & Hickory Crawdads
Midwest League: Lansing Lugnuts & Fort Wayne TinCaps [apparently named after Johnny Appleseed, who's buried in town]

Short-A
New York-Penn League: Vermont Lake Monsters, State College Spikes, & Auburn Doubledays
Northwest League: Salem-Keizer Volcanoes & Tri-City Dust Devils

Advanced Rookie
Pioneer League: Casper Ghosts & Ogden Raptors [not too original, but I love that their mascot is a freakin' dinosaur]

There are three more minor leagues, but every team in them is named after their affiliate, like the Bristol White Sox or Bluefield Orioles: the Appalachian League (Advanced Rookie), the Gulf Coast League (Rookie), and the Arizona League (Rookie).

Besides the Lake Monsters, my favorite of these teams are probably the Lansing Lugnuts, Montgomery Biscuits, and the Jupiter Hammerheads, each fantastically unique team names (check out that cap!). The Volcanoes, Ghosts, and Sand Gnats are all pretty great names too. It's no surprise, really, that they are all in the lower-level leagues, as that's where the financial needs of a team are most apparent. They're like independent leagues in that respect.

Whatever the reasons, though, it's easy to agree that there are some fantastically creative and fun team names and mascots in the minor leagues. It makes me wish that I had more opportunities to travel around the minors and go see the different teams and their stadiums. A summer of that, seeing games from triple-A to low-A, would be a blast (imagine the collection of hats and t-shirts you could get!). Until then, though, it's nice to know that there are so many fun and unique teams around the leagues.

For fans of the Brewers like me, yesterday was a pretty shocking day. In the span of about ten minutes, the front office announced the firing of rookie pitching coach Bill Castro, the demotion of All-Star shortstop and fan favorite J.J. Hardy, and the release of senior Brewer Bill Hall. David Pinto called it the "Massacre in Milwaukee". Needless to say, everyone was buzzing (you should've seen all the tweets flying over on Twitter).

Reading through the news stories, a few things popped out: Bill Hall's reluctant acceptance, J.J. Hardy's seeming excitement to get "three day's off", and the sad tale of Bill Castro. From Brewers Beat:

"The GM did address Castro's dismissal in a statement.

"We appreciate and admire the dedication and tireless work ethic put forth by Bill Castro over the last 18 seasons," Melvin said. "A move like this is never easy to make, especially given Bill's longevity with the organization and considering how hard he worked to reach this position."

Castro pitched in the Brewers organization from 1970-80, then returned to the club as a Minor League coach from 1988-91 before taking a job on the big league staff. He was the bullpen coach for six different managers from 1992-2008 before realizing a long-time goal and being named pitching coach on Nov. 7, 2008. "

It's just another reminder that these business transactions - and the game we watch seven days a week with joy - involve a lot more of the human element than we tend to remember. Castro worked as a coach/instructor for the club for over twenty years before finally getting a chance at his dream job and now that same organization has summarily dismissed him after less than a year on the job. To make it worse, there's a good case to be made that, with the injuries the staff received and the lack of depth it had in the first place, Castro wasn't really at fault here. He did take it well, though, saying all the right things:

"This is a business, and I was the face of the pitching staff so I was the one to go. That's how it works in baseball."

...

"I always wanted to be a big league pitching coach, and it was especially special that it happened for me in Milwaukee," he said. "This is the only organization that I've known, basically. Everything I have done in baseball is thanks to the Brewers. But they had a make a change, and I was the guy."

No matter what he says, though, it's hard not to think about how he and his family must feel after yesterday's news. It's a shame it takes these kinds of stories to remind us of that. Craig, over at ShysterBall, was thinking about the same thing the other day, only his was sparked by the trade that sent David Weathers from Cincinnati to Milwaukee. I guess we all need reminding of it every now and then.With that in mind, then, here are a couple of quick positive stories that I think about everytime I see these guys play. I promise to stay away from the schmaltz. I hope I do them justice. (And, yes, they are about Brewers players... that's who I watch every night, though. What do you expect from me?)

It seems like I've spent an inordinate amount of time this year writing about Atlanta's "Big Three" - Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. When Maddux announced his retirement over the winter, I did one of my first "Through the Years" pieces on his career, chronicling his rise from a young Cub to the "best pitcher in baseball" after winning four consecutive Cy Young Awards. Then, when the Braves unceremoniously dropped Tom Glavine from their plans by not tendering him a major league contract back in June, I spent some time reminding everyone that "sometimes the end is unexpected" by looking at the final games of some of the greatest Hall of Famers of the last 25 years (Morgan, Seaver, Reggie, Rickey...). I even went back to Glavine's (and Smoltz's) first career start a few weeks later when discussing great (and not-so-great) pitching debuts.

And now that John Smoltz has been even more unceremoniously dropped by the Red Sox, I'm doing it all again. It's not like I'm out of line here, though. When the best trio of pitchers of the last 30 years all end their careers in the same season (potentially, at least), it should definitely be celebrated. After all, in eight straight years (six of which were together on the same staff), these three earned seven Cy Young Awards. It was a remarkable run and, fifteen years later, we should remember them for it.

With that in mind, I thought it might be a good idea to bring back the "Through the Years" feature, but with a little tweak. In this case, because we're interested in the group as a whole, I thought it'd be best to focus on the state of Atlanta's rotation as Glavine and Smoltz and finally Maddux joined the club, and beyond. In 1989, for example, when Smoltz and Glavine were both officially part of the rotation, what was everyone saying about the Braves' pitching staff? Was there a lot of hope for these young studs? And what about in 1993, when Maddux finally joined? Were we able to immediately recognize just how historically great that staff would be? How long, then, did it take for the Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz combination to become what it did?

The story begins on June 4, 1984, when the Chicago Cubs drafted Greg Maddux with the third pick of the 2nd round. Sixteen picks later, the Atlanta Braves drafted Tom Glavine. It was the first - and far from last - time these two would be linked together. One year later, on June 3, 1985, the Detroit Tigers drafted John Smoltz in the 22nd round.

In August of 1987, the Tigers traded Smoltz in a one-for-one, prospect-for-impending-free-agent deal for Doyle Alexander. That same night, the Braves called up young Tom Glavine from the AAA Richmond Braves. From the Richmond Times the next day:

"Atlanta General Manager Bobby Cox made it quite clear this was no token call-up.

...

Atlanta decided to call up Glavine before last night's trade in which the A-Braves dealt veteran right-hander Doyle Alexander to Detroit for minor league pitcher John Smoltz, a 20-year-old right-hander who had a 4-10 record with a 5.68 ERA with the Tigers' Class AA Glens Falls, N.Y., farm.

Smoltz had a 7-6 record with a 3.56 ERA at Lakeland, the Tigers' farm in the Class A Florida State League, last year. According to Baseball America, he was the fifth best major league prospect in the league."