Joe Dimaggio’s 56-game hitting streak.  Orel Hershiser’s 59-straight scoreless innings streak.  Cy Young’s 511 wins.  There are many records in baseball that are widely accepted as ones that could never possibly be broken.  Of course, they can “never be broken” until they are—they also said that no one could beat Hank Aaron’s home run record, or Roger Maris’s single-season record, or the season hits record, but those fell.  There have been some records set over the last few years that should join this group of unbreakables, and here they are in particular order.

7. Anthony Young losses

Poor Anthony Young lost 27 straight decisions even though his career ERA was a not-bad 3.89.  Actually, another great loss record is the 1988 Orioles losing 21 games in a row to start the season, but I just thought of it and don’t really want to bump any of these other records off of the list.

6. Twin triple plays

On July 17, 1990, the Twins turned two triple plays in the same game against the Red Sox and still lost, 1-0.  This led to the immortal words of M.C. Hammer on SportsCenter’s plays of the year, “Twins, two times, triple play, one game, I can’t touch that.” 

Exactly. 

Through the course of any job - certainly blogging - sometimes you reach a threshold where you can chose to put in a little extra effort to produce desirable results...or just keep doing the same old shit.

Fortunately, we reached that threshold last night...and decided that the proverbial "extra mile" line was drawn at mascots falling on their ass.  Great stuff.

As most of you have seen by now, Mr. Redlegs took quite a tumble during Wednesday's day game in Cincinnati.  Well, mascots don't quit that easily.  No no.

They're intense, furry, and most of all, persistent.

Mr. Redlegs is back.  The remix. Hit it.



[Song Credit: "Don't Lose Your Head" by Queen]

I don't know if I feel bad for the 49ers or not.  On the one hand, they've been horrible and largely irrelevant a majority of this decade.  On the other hand, the addition of Mike Martz has made them mildly entertaining - even before training camp begins. 

As he's done so well in his NFL coaching career, Martz unleashed high praise for his new offense earlier this week. 

May 2008

"There's different personnel here than what I'm accustomed to. The tight end (Vernon Davis) is a terrific athlete, and we've got a whole stable of really good runners. It will be different than perhaps what you've seen us do in the past, but we've got some guys that can really help us win."
 
"The progress that we've had through the offseason so far has been remarkable.  We've got a whole lot out there for them to learn right now. We're really good on defense right now, so to be able to match up with them and know where to go and how to catch it, I'm excited."

Those quotes sound really familiar.  Hey, let's revisit his "track record".

---

Just before Pre-season action started for the Lions last year, Martz was more than willing to back up 10 win predictions through heaping praise.  Five months after these quotes, he would be fired. 

I’m about 95% sure that someone’s already written something on this topic, but it doesn’t change the fact that it needs to be done.

Normally, if I have any fear that someone has already beaten a subject to death, I’d look to avoid it and fill the space with another column about Teen Wolf or just post a picture of Dennis Eckersley.

But I went to the Cardinals game on a chilly Tuesday night versus the Pirates and what I saw called me into action. Even if another columnist at some point has written about the rules for wearing a baseball jersey, I haven’t read it and after Tuesday’s demonstration, it looks like the city of St. Louis needs some serious tutoring.

As I stood in front of the “home plate” entrance at Busch III before the Cards-Pirates game, I watched as “the best fans in baseball” proceeded to violate every rule for sporting a jersey that I thought was understood in the baseball world. Is it possible that some people don’t understand the basic guidelines or was it just the abnormally cold weather that sent people into wardrobe malfunction?

Whatever the case, action was needed. In case you are looking to purchase a Cardinals jersey or any other team for that matter, it’s time to throw out a set of guidelines to follow.

1.) The Powder Blue Rule – This was the one topic that kicked off this whole internal conversation. A few days back on The Daily Redbird, I posted a story relayed from a friend about a reckless fan who purchased a powder blue Cardinals jersey, worn in the early 80’s, and stitched Vince Coleman’s name on the back.

As was described in the rant, a major rule of jersey wearing is that you can’t be irresponsible in the marriage between player and jersey. Coleman never wore a powder blue uniform. The Cardinals had moved onto the gray road jersey by the time Vince was brought up to terrorize the National League. It was the fashion equivalent of buying a Pontiac Sunfire and then putting a big “Grand Am” sticker on the back window. It doesn’t make any sense.

If you’re going to make an investment on a throwback jersey, at least make sure the jersey actually existed at one time. You owe that much to yourself and your wallet. 

Monday night, Diamondbacks rookie Max Scherzer made his debut start, giving up five runs (two earned) in four innings.    In the hoopla leading up to the start, Jason Major included Scherzer in a Top 7 list, and MLB.com revealed the most unusual of superstitions Scherzer developed while in college at the University of Missouri:    

His parents met at the University of Missouri and he played for Missouri, where he was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Year in 2005. And while there, he reeled off a five-game scoreless tear, wearing his underwear backwards, a mistake he made suiting up for what turned out to be the initial win of that streak.

"I realized the first game that I had my shorts on backwards and I didn't give up any runs," he said. "So I wore them that way for another four starts and didn't give up any runs. After that last game one of my teammates noticed I had them on backwards. He saw what I was doing and said something. Sure enough, the next outing I gave up a run in the first. So I figure I can't tell anybody what I'm doing."

As Kevin Nealon used to occasionally say on Weekend Update, "good to know." 

Also good to know?  The mainstream outlets tend to think with the same brain.  Screenshots, back me up on this one: