2 days later, still on the same ballgame

Yes, I didn't get to finish the August 6th Cubs game on Thursday night, so I'm watching the last 40% of it this afternoon.

MLB.com has the interesting tale of how an 18-year-old Tom Glavine was drafted by the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Kings in the same year. Glavine apparently was a more natural baseball talent, but was more polished as a hockey player. His position was as a centre, and LA would have liked him to have been their next 2nd-line centre. Instead, they waited five rounds (102 picks) to choose.... holy shit! ... Luc Robitaille! Talk about your "what would have been" scenarios. The article acknowledges that Glavine wasn't likely to duplicate Robitaille's 666 career goals, but that there was a potential to make something of himself if only he could deal with being a centre of his size. Glavine was only 180 pounds and 6 feet when he entered the draft...today Robitaille is 6'1" and 207 lbs (about the same as Shawn Horcoff), meaning Glavine either needed to bulk up to learn to be another Gretzky (in Glavine's words... a better example would have been Todd Marchant at 5'10" and 180 lbs). Neat, huh? Of course, both men were long ago over-looked in favour of 1984's most famous draft pick. Other 1984ers include Shayne Corson, Kirk Muller (the #2 pick), Brett Hull, and Gary Suter. Winnipeg chose Chris Mills just before Glavine, and the Isles picked Doug Wieck...neither of whom went onto play a single NHL game either. Neither Mike Roth (the Isles again) nor Toronto's choice of Dan Turner played either.. those were Luc's bookends. Funny how things work, eh?

Johnny Damon sure looks ugly with no facial hair.

The Mariners are going slow with Felix Hernandez, which is odd from a marketing perspective: when I attended the Mariners-KC game last year Hernandez was the most popular Mariner on staff.

Finally, Curt Schilling is optimistic about the new season. I'm not: I had him in my pool last year and he was a disappointment (except for his 9 saves). I think history will show he should have retired after the bloody sock incident. But who knows, eh?