The Phillies newest former second baseman who returned to the team as a third baseman spent his last four years under the tutelage of legendary baseball manager Jim Leyland.  During that time, the two obviously built up quite the rapport with each other, and now that Placido has returned to Philly, Jim figured he’d tell the press how appreciative he was.

Only problem is, it didn’t sound like much of a compliment (via Dave Murphy, 3rd item):

“I think he’ll be a really outstanding player no matter where he plays or where he goes,” Leyland said. “I like to use the expression, ‘He’s like an old shoe.’ Every once in a while, you might want to get a new, shiny one, but that one is still comfortable. That’s how I describe guys like him. Real comfortable.”

As a fan of new shoes (or as us cool kids call them, “kicks”), I really don’t see who would openly choose to wear a dirty old shoe if they have the means to buy a pair new, shiny ones.  Actually, I still have this old pair of all-white Saucony Jazz sneaks that, for some reason, were discontinued like 10 years ago, but the only time I’d wear those would be so I don’t fuck up one of my nice pairs.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I don’t like Jim Leyland’s analogies.

Phillies Notebook | Daily News

If you are such a lame-o that you don’t know who Shepard Fairey is, there’s a pretty good chance (like, 100%) that you’ve seen his work all over the place.  Shepard is the man responsible for the now-iconic Obama ‘HOPE’ image that was probably your computer wallpaper for the six months leading up to the presidential election.  But waaay before that, Mr. Fairey was the originator of the ‘Andre The Giant has a posse’ sticker campaign that eventually led to an OBEY brand that sells everything from clothing to skateboards to prints.

Then last year, the Birdland fellas and I “borrowed” the Andre The Giant has a posse idea and made some fancy tees and sweatshirts with Charlie Manuel’s likeness instead of Mr. The Giant’s.  And since I’ve heard Fairey has a bit of a reputation for taking legal action against those who “borrow” his work, I kinda hoped he’d never find out about the Cholly shirts.  But then I received an e-mail yesterday from a Phillies fan (and The Fightins reader) named Jeremy who not only works for Shepard, but purchased the Cholly shirt, wore it to work, and sent along a picture of him wearing it while standing next to him.

I guess that means he’s a supporter!

Here’s the e-mail with the accompanying pic:

Whats happening fellas,

I wanted to send this along, thought you might enjoy. The man that started the “Andre the Giant has a posse” (OBEY) campaign, my boss, Shepard Fairey, got a kick out of the uncle cholly shirt. I am a big phils fan, and live and work in LA very close to Dodger Stadium, and always am showing my colors.

-Jeremy

and the photo:

Thanks, Jeremy, that was pretty fucking cool.

Well, lookey here!  The Phillies have signed another player (via The Zo Zone):

The Phillies have found the last player for their bench.

Word spread late tonight at the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis that the Phillies had signed free agent outfielder Ross Gload. A baseball source said it was a two-year contract.

HOWEVER, if you’re an avid reader of The Fightins, you obviously knew this already. A commenter named ‘JA Happs Privates’ — someone who is surely “in the know” — left this nugget in a Cole Hamels/Modern Warfare 2 post back on November 18th:

Phillies sign Ross Gload.

WHOOOOA!  Mind.  Blown.

Sure it was nondescript and borderline creepy, but I’ll be damned if JA Happs Privates doesn’t have the finest baseball insider information in the area.

Phillies Sign Gload | The Zo Zone

I’m gonna come clean here, I’ve never heard of Montana Tractors before.

But then again, I’m not the outdoors-y type who goes elk hunting as a hobby and mows down opposing batters for a living like I had a friggin’ MRFM84 attachment for an arm.  Cliff Lee is.  And if he thinks that the Montana Tractor is worthy of his endorsement, then there’s only two conclusions you can draw from this:  1.)  Montana Tractors are the finest quality tractor that money can buy, and 2.)  John Deere is a pussy.

Besides — check out the deal they’re running on that Clifton ad. Now I’m no math major, but zero down, zero payments, and zero interest sounds to me like you’ve got a free tractor coming your way.

GETCHER FREE TRACTORS!

Good morning, folkers.  Meech here.  Just wanted to remind everyone out there surfing the intranet today to head on over to the ballgirl ballot form on Phillies.com and cast your vote for ballgirl hopeful Amandah. 

Like so:

And if you don’t have shit to do today, just keep repeating Step 1 over and over again.

Do it for Amandah, do it for the sanctity of the Phillies ballgirls, but most importantly — do it for me.  You see, it would be awfully embarrassing and reflect poorly upon this here site if I put forth all this effort to endorse a qualified ballgirl candidate and she wound up losing.  So please, don’t let that happen. 

I’m not kidding, vote or DIE.

Polls close at 5pm sharp.

Here’s the scoop, kiddies — Placido Polanco is BACK (via Todd Zolecki and his Zo Zone):

A baseball source said this morning the Phillies are close to signing Placido Polanco to a three-year, $18 million contract. The contract also includes a mutual option for 2013.

The deal is pending a physical.

So it’s safe to assume that Polanco will take over the third baseman duties that were handled so nicely by Pedro Feliz since 2008. He is also likely to bump All-Star/Gold Glove/Newlywed Shane Victorino from the second spot in the lineup. Granted, Placido is an absolute perfect #2 hitter in any lineup (especially this one), but I don’t think Shane will be too pleased with that decision.

Polanco Close to Three-Year Deal | The Zo Zone

Hey dudes, your boy Jimmy Rollins was out in Hawaii after Shane Victorino’s wedding and he was all out in the ocean riding some killer waves and such. Like, check out the .gif and tell me he doesn’t totally wipe out:

In order to escape from the nonsensical ramblings of Jon Gosselin, you must get off of dry land.

Every year around this time, a couple dozen softball-playing, Phillies-loving females who have already gone through tryouts and a round of cuts vie for a spot on the on the highly contested roster that makes up the Philadelphia Phillies ballgirls. Normally, the public has nothing to do with who does or doesn’t make the squad, but this year, the Phillies are allowing the us, the fans, to vote between five qualified young ladies for the final roster spot. And because we here at The Fightins follow our beloved ballgirls so closely, I felt it was my duty as a blog proprietor to throw my support behind one of these potential candidates and ensure that she makes the team.

Thankfully, Phillies.com threw up some tryout videos, along with the pictures of said women, to help make it easier to reach a final decision. So last night, I moseyed on over to the ballot page with the hopes that one of these ladies would stand out amongst the pack and leave us with a clear-cut favorite to endorse.

After a painstakingly long process, I have finally made my decision.

And the female that I feel would best represent the Phillies as a 2010 ballgirl IS…

Amandah:

Nice, right?

Well fellas (and ladies), not only is Amandah easy on the eyes, but she’s also highly qualified for the position. (Check out her tryout video HERE)  She’s an avid Phillies fan (a prerequisite for the job, I imagine), she’s a dedicated runner, and serves as an ambassador or something for the Nike+ Human Race campaign that motivates people to run (which is a skill needed when you are running a reliever’s jacket from the bullpen to the dugout), she’s currently working on her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education at Temple University (Amandah lubs the kids!), she’s heavily involved in something called PhilaPets (she’ll get along great with Jen Utley!), and did I mention she’s quite attractive?

Truth be told, Amandah was the first contestant on the Phillies little vote page and between my admiration for the girl and sheer laziness to look at the other possible ballgirls, I made my decision about 10 seconds into her video.  But seriously, how much more qualified could those other broads be compared to Amandah?  I doubt it’s even possible.

So do yourself a favor and go to the Ballgirl Balloting page on Phillies.com IMMEDIATELY and cast your vote for our little hometown girl Amandah to become the final roster spot getter on the 2010 Phillies ballgirls team.  And who knows?  Perhaps Amandah will be so gracious of our work that she could even give The Fightins some exclusive insight into life as a ballgirl as the season goes on.

Vote early. Vote often. Polls close next Monday, December 7th.

After the jump, and as a reward for casting your vote for her, there are a couple more pics of Amandah from her Nike marathon gig.  And remember — it’s not stalking if you seek out various photos of attractive women that you don’t know as long as you are writing an article about them.  Us journalists call that “research”.

Thank you.

Read more »

For those who may not know, Larry Shenk (a/k/a “The Baron”) has been in the front office of the Phillies for over 45 years. Most of that time was spent as a PR director, but after “retiring” about a year ago, Larry stuck around to serve as the VP of Alumni Relations and professional MLBlogger over at Phillies Insider.  Nowadays, part of the job in being a blogger is having a corresponding Twitter account where you can alert your followers of new posts and whatever else may be on your mind.  And Mr. Shenk is no slacker, so you know he has his own account, @Barons63.

Well, here are Larry’s updates from Saturday.  They have since been deleted:

Say what you want about the way he went about it, but that was awfully thoughtful of Mr. Shenk to let everyone know where to go to get laid.

Of course, unless he lost his cot damn mind, these were probably the work of some evil computer hacker.  And as a hot shot blogger with a Twitter account of my own, I can sympathize.  Just last week, some guerrilla marketing hacker for the Disney movie “Old Dogs” starring Robin Williams and John Travolta hacked into *my* account and started tweeting non-stop about how great the movie was.  I don’t know how Larry handled being violated like that, but I for one was appalled!

But just in case that was you, Larry, my answers are yes and fried.

Around 150 people showed up in Fredericton, New Brunswick in Canada yesterday to proclaim Saturday, November 28th, “Matt Stairs Day”. The ceremony also featured the unveiling of a street sign that reads “Matt Stairs Way” (or “Matt Stairs Voie” if you speak Canadian) which will be prominently displayed on a street that intersects Royals Field in Fredericton — the place he began his professional baseball career.

From the sound of it, Royals Field is pretty special to Matt (via CBC News):

“Royals Field…that’s one of the most special ones I’ve ever been in [Ed Note: told you],” said Stairs, one of Canada’s most successful power hitters, with a 16-season career in the major leagues and 259 home runs.

“One, it’s in my hometown. Two, it’s where I was scouted, where I was signed.

“It’s a home inside of a home city. And now, just to have a street named around it is a great honour [sic],” said Stairs.”

The humble Stairs also admits that all of these love fests probably wouldn’t be going on if he never won a World Series with the Phillies in 2008 (via The Daily Gleaner):

“The signs that go on Royals Field … the street signs … you work your whole career to win a World Series. You win a World Series and all of a sudden this happens to you.

“The World Series is second, that’s for sure. To have my name … a street that’s named after me … it’s probably the best honour [sic] that’s ever happened to me.

“I’m a Frederictonian. I absolutely love this city.”

I’m sure Matt doesn’t actually enjoy Frederickstown or whatever the hell the name of that city is more than Philly, but I understand that you gotta butter those folks up when you’re there in-person.  I’m also sure that upwards of 100 people out of the 150 that showed up made some kind of corny joke about taking Matt Stairs Way to heaven.  And really, how could you love people like that?

City unveils street sign for Matt Stairs Way | The Daily Gleaner
Fredericton honours [sic] hometown sports hero | CBC News
Special step for Stairs | Philly.com

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