InsideCoroner

I'll tell you who wishes he had stayed in bed today, though -- Conger. He pinch-hits with the bases loaded with the Rays down by a run in the top of the 8th and strikes out on an O'Day slider so far inside that Wieters had to lunge just to catch it. Then gets behind the plate in the bottom of the inning where Trumbo fouls a fastball right back into his mask, shaking him up, then has a subsequent pitch that inning skip away from him, allowing Machado to score from 3rd while he flings the ball over the head of the hapless pitcher, who was late to cover the plate. Oof.

But really, if someone on the street threw a 75-mph curveball at me that broke away from my head and missed me by 3 feet, passing me by between my knees and waist as a perfect strike, I still might take a bat to him. I'd also do the same if someone walking by me put a slap tag on me with a comically oversized leather glove. But I get your point.

I watched through 7 innings on mlb.tv and by then it was three in the morning over here, but I felt pretty good going to bed with a 3-2 lead. I got up this morning and resumed it from the top of the 8th, and watched in abject horror as they handed it away and looked set to make it 6 straight. Oh, thank you AJ, CD and Lough for righting things, making the sun shine just a little brighter and putting a little extra spring in my step for the rest of the day.

I taught myself how to switch-hit as a kid because of Eddie. Happy birthday, Mr. Murray.

That's the one. Some had two angles (one to return the ball your way, and a lower section angled upwards to help you practice fly balls and pop-ups). But I remember the strike zone box shown in thread in the middle. Those little silver stakes were incredible ineffective at keeping it firmly anchored once you threw with any strength at all, especially if you were using a real baseball. The worst part was when you had it set up in the middle of the yard and would miss it completely, since you'd have to then go track down and fetch the ball you just threw as hard as you could.