The "youth movement" continues in Los Angeles, as Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez continue their countrywide trip to reunite the championship hopeful 1997 Cleveland Indians on the championship hopeful 2009 Dodgers. If you've missed where they've been so far, check out the numbered links below. If you haven't, and you are still somehow entertained by caps lock and typos, continue after the jump to read part seven of our epic special event.
What would you say if I told you that Oil Can Boyd had a barnstorming team that travelled around playing minor-league teams? Or that former Expo stalwarts Delino Deshields and Marquis Grissom (I know their best days came elsewhere, I just like remembering that the Expos existed every once in a while) were playing on said team? If you're anything like me, you probably think that it's the coolest thing ever. But then, what if I told you that the one and only Derek Bell, he of Operation Shutdown fame, he of the crack cocaine arrest last year, was also playing for the team? You would think I was a liar. You would be wrong. Check this out: According to his Wikipedia page, Derek Bell offered his famous "Operation Shutdown" ultimatum to the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 18th, 2002 after the Pirates informed him that his .173 average in 2001 coupled with his poor play that spring was likely to cost him his job. Bell left the team on March 29th and sailed away on his houseboat. If May 18th is the first game for Oil Can's All-Stars (believe it or not, it's hard to gather information on them), that will mean Operation Shutdown lasted five years, one month, and 19 days. Honestly? I can't believe someone wanted him this soon.The New Haven County Cutters will face Oil Can Boyd's Traveling All-Stars, a modern-day barnstorming team featuring the former Boston Red Sox pitcher, in a preseason exhibition doubleheader at Historic Yale Field on Friday, May 18, starting at 5:30 p.m.
Boyd, along with 19 former major league and minor league players, including Marquis Grissom, Delino Deshields and Derek Bell, are expected to play in the games against the Cutters.
As mjd said about the women's college basketball tournament getting more TV time than the men's tournament, this is "one of the things in the world that truly makes no sense." Ryan Klesko, who last was relevant in baseball discussions pretty much when Otis Nixon was, is the star of the "Ryan Klesko's Adventures" on The Outdoors Channel. Don't ask me how the heck Klesko gets a TV show, but the Contra Costa Times has information about what to expect on the show:He has hunted turkey in Sonoma County, whitetail deer in Ohio, pheasant in Southern California, mountain sheep in Spain and elk in Oregon. He mixed in some bass fishing in Georgia, deep-sea fishing off the California coast, salmon fishing on the Russian River and abalone diving in Bodega Bay.That's type of stuff is cool and all, but the best part is Klesko says he used to spend time in the outdoors with his former Braves teammates:
"We'd go fishing, hunting or skeet shooting on off-days," said Klesko, who was often joined by Deion Sanders or Marquis Grissom.Wow, what I would give to have been part of that hunting group! Are you kidding me? Ryan Klesko, Deion Sanders, and Marquis Grissom?!?! Surely you can't be serious.
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