I write a weekly gossip column on another website.

 

This week I made a feature on baseball (yes, the Marlins are a big part of it).

Link: http://www.whatchamissin.com/gossip/

 

 

Mir's Celebrity Gossip

Week of March 8, 2004

 

Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes in Major League Baseball? Find out all about it right here!

 

 

 

Tommy Lasorda spotted looking for new talent!

 

I was recently at a college baseball game where I got the chance to meet Los Angeles manager, Tommy Lasorda. Florida International University was playing against Boston College that day. BC?s starting pitcher was supposedly their best and a lot of scouts came out to check him out. I wonder if that?s what Tommy was there for.

 

The Champs

 

There was an article that recently came out in the Miami Herald that asks a certain Florida Marlins player, ?What one thing can you tell us about the 2003 team that nobody knows?? Here?s what the guys have to say!

 

 

? Mike Redmond: ``Ballplayers do some strange superstitious things. I did them naked. I had to break a losing streak, so I did it by taking batting practice in the cage wearing nothing but spikes and batting gloves. [Hitting coach] Bill Robinson was soft-tossing, laughing hysterically. Naked flips, we called them. And we won. So I had to keep doing it, of course. We ran off six straight, so I had to do it six times. Once, at home, I had to walk down to the cages that way, and we had to put sheets and tape on the windows so fans couldn't see what it took to be a champion.''

 

? Brian Banks: ``Do you know how heavily medicated Mike [Lowell] was by the end of the season? We were all limping to the finish line with pill bottles open, but Mike couldn't make any routine throws because of his elbow at the end. Game 5 and 6 of the World Series, he couldn't even take warm-ups. He played way in on all the Yankees, playing everyone to bunt, because he couldn't make the throw to first because of the pain. You have to wonder if the Yankees would have bunted more if they had known that.''

 

? Mike Lowell: 'I hate to give that [steve] Bartman guy any more attention, but do people know what we were chanting in our dugout after that ball wasn't caught? Redman started saying, `Let's make that guy famous! Let's make him famous!' And we did.''

 

? Dontrelle Willis: 'Game 1 of the World Series. I have to come in and get Jason Giambi out. If I give up a hit to one of the best power hitters ever, we're trailing. I get to the mound for the first time in a World Series, real nervous, in Yankee Stadium, and I'm expecting Jack [McKeon] to help me out with some speech or some advice or something. Keep the ball down. Don't let him get his arms extended. Something. Give me some of that 50 years of baseball experience. But he just shrugged, handed me the ball, slapped me on the butt and said, `Go get him.' It's hilarious now, but I felt pretty alone at the time.''

 

? Miguel Cabrera: ``That we were never afraid. Everybody thinks I should have been afraid when Roger Clemens threw that pitch near my head [Cabrera got up, stared at Clemens and hit an opposite-field home run later in the at-bat], but I only fear death, nothing else. You can't do anything in fear. You have to be tranquil and believe. I faced [Kerry] Wood, [Andy] Pettitte. What's to be afraid of? Just because I'm young doesn't mean I'm afraid. He has the ball. But I have a bat.''

 

 

 

? Brad Penny: ``We have to vote for playoff shares after the World Series -- it's like $303,000 per share. We can also vote 75 percent shares, 50 percent shares, quarter shares. And one guy gets up and votes a share for the baby-sitter. They already get paid to baby-sit. And I don't have any kids. No way, no chance, no share. That got shot down real quick.''

 

? Josh Beckett: ``How hard we all were on each other. It was nothing but insults all the time. We all have the same kind of ego, so we could handle it, but I went home after the season and was the same with my friends and they'd get their feelings all hurt. Had to dial down the volume when I got home.''

 

? Chad Fox: ``You mean aside from all the female flesh we got flashed in the bullpen?''

 

? Lenny Harris: ``Pudge's shoes were lucky. I'm serious. I asked him for a pair because I had to get rid of my bad-luck shoes. He still doesn't know why I asked, but I took those shoes, wore them and still have them here in my locker. Turned out all right, didn't it?''

 

? Jeff Conine: ``During the playoffs, one of the pitchers was tipping his pitches. He could have been yelling to me what he was about to throw, it was so obvious to me. I told everyone on our team, but what is obvious to one person isn't so obvious to another. I can't tell you the pitcher because we may face him again, but I can tell you we won that game, and I did very well.''

 

? Mike Mordecai: ``How much pain guys were in by the end. We were held together by tape and Band-Aids. A lot of guys were playing with stress fractures. Luis Castillo, there were games it was hard to watch him across the clubhouse. I always thought he wasn't going to play, but he always played.''

 

(Credit: Miami Herald)

 

 

By the way, the picture of us and Tommy is in my profile.

Wow... Awesome!

 

The story of Mike Redmond is hilarious. I can't picture him naked in batting practice... There is so much wrong with that!

 

And of course, there is no one like Jack... Willis: "Give me some of that 50 years of baseball experience. But he just shrugged, handed me the ball, slapped me on the butt and said, `Go get him.'" :lol

 

:mischief2 I have to get me the brand of Pudge's lucky shoes...

:mischief2 I have to get me the brand of Pudge's lucky shoes...

You and me both, girly. Let's leave the men at home watching some baseball and let's go shopping. :thumbup

:mischief2 I have to get me the brand of Pudge's lucky shoes...

You and me both, girly. Let's leave the men at home watching some baseball and let's go shopping. :thumbup :thumbup Deal!

Jeff Conine: ``During the playoffs, one of the pitchers was tipping his pitches. He could have been yelling to me what he was about to throw, it was so obvious to me. I told everyone on our team, but what is obvious to one person isn't so obvious to another. I can't tell you the pitcher because we may face him again, but I can tell you we won that game, and I did very well.''

 

Conine is the Man, true pro.

 

 

 

Mike Mordecai: ``How much pain guys were in by the end. We were held together by tape and Band-Aids. A lot of guys were playing with stress fractures. Luis Castillo, there were games it was hard to watch him across the clubhouse. I always thought he wasn't going to play, but he always played.''

 

Castillo has such heart!! I really hope he has recovered from his injury and gets his speed back this year!!

I am really impressed by the fact that Lowell played that well when he was under so much pain... It makes you appreciate him and love him more... What a guy. Same for Loui. Poor babies, we owe them big time!

Yep. Mikey is pretty amazing.

:thumbup Yep.

Cool article, and meeting Tommy was fun.