MERCY! You can put a big 73 on the board for Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, as it is his birthday today. It is his face that you would see if you looked up "homer sports announcer" in the dictionary.

In the end, it is not surprising. It is also not unjustified. The Arizona Diamondbacks have fired Kevin Towers as their general manager. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic broke the news in the wee hours this morning. The team is expected to make a formal announcement later this morning. There is no news if manager Kirk Gibson still has a job.

Towers was hired at the end of the 2010 season, and in 2011 the team was fantastic. Winners of 94 games before losing to the Brewers in the NLDS. But the team dipped to .500 in 2012 and repeated with an 81-81 record last year. This year was far worse. As of this writing the Dbacks would have to win every single one of their remaining 23 games in order to finish .500. Obviously not happening.

Many of Towers’ moves can be blamed for the Dbacks’ backslide. He traded away Justin Upton to the Atlanta Braves for a package of Martin Prado — who is now gone, after Towers locked him up to a long-term deal — and Randall Delgado who has been a disappointment. He traded away pitchers Ian Kennedy, Trevor Bauer, Jarrod Parker and Tyler Skaggs, all of whom have had success away from Arizona. He signed Brandon McCarthy, who was subsequently ordered not to throw his most effective pitch, only to trade him away to the Yankees where he has been successful since being allowed to throw it again. None of the players Towers got back in those trades have flourished in the desert.

Beyond the trades, Towers has brought considerable criticism to the organization in the last two years following public statements about how he wanted players with a certain type of attitude — gritty and hard-nosed — and how he wanted his pitchers to intentionally throw at opposing hitters in order to show that the Dbacks were not themselves easy targets. The former idea was mocked because, in almost all cases, the “gritty, gamer” label is applied to players as a descriptor after they win as opposed to quality that baseball executives seek out over and above, say, baseball talent. Towers claims the plunking thing was misconstrued by the media, but it’s hard to buy that after seeing Dbacks pitchers throw at batters this year under the orders and to the praise of Dbacks manager Kirk Gibson.

Ultimately, though, a GM can survive anything as long as he gets results. Towers has not gotten results in Arizona, and now he’s gone.

Please call it St Pete.  i lived in Tampa for 2 years and loved going to devil ray games, but felt like I was driving across state to get to the stadium.

How do you know that your parents are super sports fans? When they give you a name like this. Camden Yards. Named by his baseball-loving parents, Camden is fortunately an Orioles-supporting young ballplayer. Can you just imagine how difficult his life would be if he was a Yankees fan?

Yards does have some company out there. After all, there's a high school ballplayer whose name is Fenway Parks. Perhaps the two should start some kind of club.

Distance will keep one away from the ballyard.  So will the yards location otherwise.  I know that I myself will not be going to night games in Oakland.  I'm a big guy, but even I get nervous walking the short distance from the train to the yard.  When the city you live in is more "penthouse", it's kind of hard to get excited about going to a huge outhouse.

This is getting beyond absurd.

SEATTLE -- Between the food and the beer -- and the parking and the merchandise, it can cost a pretty-penny going to any Seahawks game. But we found that the Seahawks' season opener against the Green Bay Packers is costing fans even more than usual.

We started with tracking parking a couple of blocks away from CenturyLink Field. One lot we spied was charging $60, which is the highest it had ever been at that lot, until the attendant said to take a look around the corner, where a lot was advertising $80.

And wouldn't you know, by noon the lot was full. And those people probably got a good deal as one lot nearby went to $120 in the afternoon.

Next, we checked-out the food -- A dollar for water, $3 for corn on the cob, $7s for tacos, and just a simple hot dog was $4.

It's all a dream come true for vendors like L.T.

"I'm trying to make $2,000," he said. "At least $2,000. That's good for one day."

Tickets on the street are going for about $300. Figure $80 as average for parking; food for the day at $50, beer, another $50?

That's almost $500 right there.

And then there's the merchandise: shirts, hats and jerseys, you name it.

"Total came to $150 with my season ticket holder discount," one person said.

But nobody we asked seemed to care one bit how they spent.

"No, I don't care today, it's the season opener - go Hawks!"

"Welcome to Oakland..........."

And, of course, it is even worse there for Raiders games.  9,999 people lining up to sell you something, anything, on your walk from the parking lot to the stadium.

Um,......no thank you......

Following up on the story from yesterday, about the guy who ended up watching a Rays game via Skype & computer.

On Wednesday night, a storm knocked out some of the power in Tropicana Field during the third inning of a game between the Rays and Blue Jays. One enterprising fan decided to whip out his laptop and video chat with his nephew in Venezuela.

Once the game picked back up, the fan with the laptop caught the attention of the broadcast, briefly giving us the delightful image of what appeared to be a man watching a game live via Facebook:

Luckily, Jairo — the Venezuelan Rays (and Tigres de Aragua) fan in the chat — saw himself on the internet and reached out to us. We reached right back to get to the bottom of this curious moment of baseball television. Our questions and his responses (translated from Spanish) are below.

★★★

Are you originally from Venezuela? How did you become a Rays fan?

I am from Venezuela ... I like the Rays because Victor Zambrano, who's Venezuelan, played for them in 2001. I enjoy watching Evan Longoria play, he's a great player.

Whose idea was it for you to video chat with your uncle during the game?

It was my idea. I asked him to show me Tropicana Field, since I don't have a visa to come to the US, and it's hard for me to imagine an MLB stadium — and I like baseball.

What was the purpose of the chat? Did you get to watch any of the game or just look around the stadium? Does your uncle often chat with you from games?

The chat was to show me a little of the structure of the stadium and the field, and to make me feel like I was in the stands at a Major League game. I'd just seen the stadium from the outside. I love baseball, it's a Venezuelan passion. I wasn't able to see any of the plays because the image wasn't very good.

It was the first time that my uncle had chatted with me from a stadium, we'd never done it before. It was something that happened while the game was delayed.

You appear to have a lot of autographed baseballs! Whose signatures do you have?

Yes, I have a lot of autographed balls. I'm a fan of Miguel Cabrera and Derek Jeter. Jose Abreu, Bob Feller, Barry Bonds, Dave Concepcion, Frank Thomas, Avisail Garcia, Sam Fuld, Martin Prado, Omar Vizquel, Ozzie Guillen, Mark Teixeira, Felix Hernandez, Pablo Sandoval. I have a lot of autographs, we love baseball.

When did you realize your image had made it to TV and the internet?

I realized when I saw it on Twitter. I never thought this would happen -- no bad intentions or broadcast violation, my uncle just wanted to show me an MLB stadium.

PS. I don't have an Evan Longoria autograph.

★★★

1. Video-chatting your far-off nephew is an excellent way to kill time during a delay.

2. We're glad Jairo got to glimpse the inside of an MLB stadium, but we hope he can someday come to the U.S. and do better than a storm-battered Tropicana Field via video chat.

3. Let's get this man his Evan Longoria autograph, eh?

Thanks so much to Jairo for talking to us and demystifying one of the funnier parts of Wednesday night.

Happy Friday y'all.

Wow.

A day after the disappointing Texas Rangers were the first MLB team officially eliminated from postseason play, manager Ron Washington announced his resignation after eight seasons.

Washington says, however, his decision isn't because of the Rangers' poor 53-87 performance this season, but rather because of a personal matter. The Rangers issued a statement on Washington's behalf:

“Today, I have submitted my resignation from the job I love — managing the Rangers – in order to devote my full attention to addressing an off-the-field personal matter. As painful as it is, stepping away from the game is what’s best for me and my family.

“This is in no way related to the disappointing performance of the team this season. We were already discussing 2015 and looking forward to getting the Rangers back to postseason contention.

“I deeply regret that I’ve let down the Rangers organization and our great fans. Over the past eight seasons, it’s been a privilege to be part of some of the best years in club history and I will always be grateful for the opportunities I’ve had here, and for the great management, players, and coaches who have made our time here a success. Thank you for respecting my privacy.”

Washington took the Rangers to the World Series twice — in 2010 and 2011, but lost both. Over his time in Texas, Washington accumulated a 664-611 record. He was beloved by players and didn't seem to be on the hot seat with management.

Despite the Rangers' struggles this season, it was hard to pin much of it on Washington. The team has been devastated by injuries, with its players spending more time on the disabled list than any other in baseball. Starting pitchers Derek Holland, Martin Perez, Matt Harrison all missed significant time. Prince Fielder missed most of the season and Jurickson Profar didn't play at all.

It doesn't sound like we'll hear the whole story here, as Washington is requesting his privacy and is respected enough around baseball to get it. But when many people hear "personal issues" associated with Washington, they're likely to think back to his failed cocaine test in 2009.

This makes the second manager change this season in MLB. Bo Porter was fired Monday. Those two moves leave Lloyd McClendon as the only African-American manager in baseball.

Tim Bogar, the Rangers' bench coach, will be the team's interim manager for the rest of the season. He's never managed in the big leagues, but managed several seasons in the minors.

White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko has been winding down his 18-year career in a part-time role, but now it may come to a premature end.

Scott Merkin of MLB.com reports that Konerko has a fracture in the sesamoid bone in his left hand and will be sidelined for at least one week. White Sox manager Robin Ventura is said to be “very hopeful” that Konerko can return to play again before the season is over, but at age 38 and with less than a month remaining it’s obviously no sure thing.

Konerko has struggled in his farewell season, hitting just .220 with five homers and a .616 OPS in 74 games and he had similarly poor production as a full-time player in 2013. Prior to that, however, Konerko topped an .800 OPS in 12 of 14 seasons while making six All-Star teams and smacking 30 or more homers seven times.

I consider my self very fortunte to have gone to all the concerts I ever needed to in the 1980's & 1990's.  At least they were much more relitively cheaper then.  I'm sure I paid not more than $ 20.00 to see Petty, on the Damn the Torepedoes tour

750:1


how many Zs should I put Filo down for?

Maybe they should be more concerned with addressing why they suck instead of being pissed off by someone else showing them up?

It's a thought, and a darned logical one at that.....