Not long after the Phillies won their 2nd ever World Series title last Wednesday, following Jamie Moyer’s excavation of the pitcher’s mound from the infield dirt; the spot that was once occupied by the rubber turned into a receptacle of sorts for the celebratory empties:

Beautiful.

Photo by Flickr member jpe118

Randy Marsh, the 1B umpire for Sunday’s Phillies/Pirates rain-delayed matinée, learned one of life’s valuable lessons the hard way — DO NOT IMPEDE THE PROGRESS OF JAMIE MOYER.

In the bottom of the 3rd inning with nobody out and Carlos Ruiz on first (!!!!) trailing 1-0, Jamie Moyer stepped in the box to lay down a bunt and advance the runner. He got down a good one — about 10 feet down the first base line — causing the Pirates battery of Jason Davis and Ryan Doumit to collide, and Davis’ throw sailed wide of the bag at first. So Moyer, highly energetic for a 45-year old, took off for second. The only problem was Randy Marsh was in the way. But instead of running around the umpire, or possibly stopping to avoid him, Jamie gave Marsh a little two-handed, “Get the eff outta my way!”-shove barreling the old man to the dirt.

Moyer ended up on third base after the bizarre sequence and scored on a Jimmy Rollins sac fly to shallow center two pitches later. After crossing home plate, Moyer did a bee-line for the dugout to receive some oxygen and congratulations from his teammates.

Here’s the footage:

…a steak and potato dish by a smiling Chase Utley at a Jamie Moyer charity event!

Phillies players serve foor for charity | Phillies.com
Celebrity Waiters Photo Gallery | Phillies.com

As you may have heard, Jimmy Rollins held his 3rd annual BaseBowl charity event last Thursday at Lucky Strike lanes in Center City.  His yearly bowl-a-thon allows fans to sort-of interact with the Phillies and bid on various memorbilia with the proceeds going to the Arthritis Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania.  An incredibly nice gesture from Young James.

HOWEVER, each participant is also given their very own bowling shirt, complete with a Rollins-decided nickname.  Most of these choices were questionable to say the least.  For example, Ryan Howard (pictured) was given the moniker ‘UPS’; not for his fondness of delivering runners home, but rather because they’ve been calling him Big Brown in the clubhouse.  Call me crazy, but I’m going to assume if Bill Conlin happened to call him that on DNL, he’d be suspended for life.

Other not-so-clever nicknames include Chase ‘The Model’ Utley, Jamie ‘Dyno’ Moyer, So ‘Asian Magic’ Taguchi (which mightaswell have been ‘Waiver Wire’) and the grammatically incorrect JC ‘Lo Roca’ Romero.  Poor Kyle Kendrick is so bland, his shirt was left blank.

After the jump, watch the explanation for the nicknames in video form…

Read more »

James Abernathy DeForest Moyer was born in 1875, on the 30th anniversary of baseball’s documented invention by Alexander Cartwright. A precocious child, Moyer was often told to “knock that off” and “put that down.”

At the age of 10, “Young Master Jamie” (as Moyer was referred to at the time) became entranced by the pastoral sport being played with gusto by strapping young American men on the fields of Central Park. However, his parents highly disapproved of him watching or participating in what was considered an “uncouth” athletic pursuit, which was known equally as much for its physical excitement as it was for the players’ constant and creative use of phrases involving cocks and the act of sucking them.

Undeterred, Moyer would sneak out behind the livery stable each night, where he had constructed a crude pitcher’s mound out of empty oat sacks, and practice throwing cutters, changeups and fastballs exactly the way he’d seen them thrown in games. Soon he developed a formidable repertoire of pitches and ran away from home at the tender age of 35 to follow his dream of becoming a major-league pitcher.

Moyer’s first mentor in the big leagues was none other than the legendary “Cy” Young, who offered his protégé this piece of advice: “Kid, if you want to win games in this league, you have to get into the batter’s head. Make him think you’re gonna throw a strike, and then don’t throw anything at all. Just stand there. It’ll confuse and enrage him. Also, whenever possible, hit Ty Cobb in the ass.”

After several decades toiling in futility, throwing for 5 cents a pitch on the barnstorming circuit, Moyer made a courageous decision. With the help of his manager, Franklin “Shifty” Boras, he broke baseball’s color barrier in 1946, becoming the first Caucasian to play for a Negro League Team. The reaction to this historic feat among white Americans was mostly negative, while black Americans were flat-out pissed.

Read more »

The man is infallible.

When he’s not terrorizing NL pitching or sculpting that Top 25 physique of his, you can find Chase Utley conducting benefits with his wife Jennifer for the Pennsylvania SPCA. Such was the case yesterday, when the NL home run leader got a rare night off.

And if Chase doesn’t rest, neither do his teammates.

A number of Phillies, including Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Greg Dobbs and Brett Myers joined Chase for his first ever “Utley All-Star Animals Casino Night” benefit held at a club in downtown Philadelphia.

See for yourself. That is, if RedLasso doesn’t crap out on you (casino pun!):

(Watch the video after the jump, RedLasso slows the homepage down) Read more »

• How do you spell retard? on What does the Bond girl have in common with Antonio Alfonseca?
• FreddiePickles on What does the Bond girl have in common with Antonio Alfonseca?
• Whittle on What does the Bond girl have in common with Antonio Alfonseca?
• AJ on Ghea City Wagers
• Sean on Meet Rich Campbell