HumpLinks: The Streak is Dead! Long Live The Streak!!

One is the loneliest number.

But it sure as hell is better than when it is a pair of one's, as in eleven, representing a losing streak.

One win. Even if it came as a result of our own pitching staff in a battle with our own offense for supremacy, with our offense having to keep battling back from the gifts the pitchers granted to Seattle. It's still a victory.

I'm a busy dude tonight. Take yourself a Victory Lap Link Fest:

Everywhere In Baseball - Shotgun Style

Mainstream: CBS Sports is now posting up articles that, literally, review 24 months of Halos Heaven............

Shenanigans: Coco Crisp is calling bull-puckey on how is being used, knowing that by holding him off the field the Oakland A;s have a good chance to prevent Crisp from qualifying for a $13 million vesting bonus. Crisp has now been in 94 games this season, and needs to reach 130 before the season is over. Oakland has 42 games left, and Crisp needs to appear in 36 of them. It should be pointed out that 130 games is the general neighborhood of how many appearances Crisp makes with Oakland even when healthy, so coming up just short wouldn't be too unusual.........

Street Closure: Huston Street is not making very good progress with his rehab, delaying his return. Anybody miss him?............

Never Say Die: Anthony Rizzo shows some level of commitment here:

Ugh: Chase Utley, now with the Dodgers, makes his return to Philadelphia. And he does so triumphantly, totally kicking the Phillies' asses. And Philly fans go crazy in celebration of getting their asses kicked by Chase Utley...........

Flipping Out: We've seen good bat flips, and we've seen bad bat flips. But we rarely see bat flips of such abject fail...........

Big Poopie: David Ortiz is having a farewell season like no hitter ever. And nobody wants to find anything odd about this...........

Admiral Sails Away: The Erick Aybar experience has been cancelled in Atlanta, as the Braves have traded him to the Tigers. So Aybar was sent away from a team that is currently winning only 42% of their games, and over to a team that is winning only 37%, and now sent from the 37% winning team to a team winning 53% and just 3 1/2 games out of the playoffs at the moment. That, my friends, is called "failing up"...........

Name Dropping: If you want to grow up and become a Big League Ballplayer, you should change your name to Johnson. Or Williams............

Sports Biz: So now that ESPN is in bed with BAM Tech, the challenge is to find live content that does not conflict with existing services provided via current cable carrier partners. I'm thinking that we see a big comeback of billiards. Also, I missed this before, but Disney now has the right to purchase another 33% of BAM in 4 years. That means that Disney/ESPN, with a controlling interest, could simply takeover the technology that has become the pipeline to future cord-cutting sports streams. In simple terms, ESPN could choke off your cord-cutting nirvana...........

Uncle Bud: Shit like this is why I don't really get too excited about the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's only a matter of months before we have to endure the ever-clueless Bud Selig getting named to the Hall. that thought just makes me puke. The reasons are legion, but who has the worst one for why Selig should NOT being enshrined???..........

Numbers Game: What's your favorite jersey number?..........

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(Yesterday was career pitcher WAR all time Top 50. The red spikes are those pitchers who saw at least some of thier service time in Anaheim. #11 is Bert Blyleven, #20 is Nolan Ryan, #30 is Don Sutton, #40 is Luis Tiant, and #48 is Tommy John. Today, moving on...)

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