The Baseball Chick

Boston’s Daniel Nava hit the first pitch he saw as a big leaguer for a grand slam, leading the Red Sox to their second straight rout of the Phillies with a final score of 10-2 on Saturday.  Nava connected on a fastball from pitcher Joe Blanton in the second inning, after earlier being called up from Triple-A Pawtucket.

In a precious little side note, his folks were in the stands operating a video camera.  “It’s funny. They really hadn’t seen me play in the last two years,” Nava said. “They were in Indianapolis to watch me play on Friday and I told them I might be playing up here.”

Only four players in MLB history have hit grand slams in their first career at-bat.

According to Nava: “I wanted to treat it like I normally do.  I just said, `How are you guys doing (to umpire Bill Hohn and catcher Brian Schneider)?’ They didn’t say anything.”  As he rounded second base, it began to hit him, what he’d accomplished. Nava “started to scream. I was pumped.”

Nava got an enthusiastic greeting in the dugout, with veteran Kevin Youkilis and others pounding him on the batting helmet and pushing him to take a curtain call, which he subsequently did.

This is probably the first and last time this kid will be on my site, but I thought it was a nice enough story.  It almost warmed my cold, dead heart.

Crack open an icy cold Budweiser Cardinals Nation, because Chris Duncan is no longer a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.  The wackiest part is…they actually got a real life baseball player for him.  Not a good one or anything (Julio Lugo), but a living, breathing human.  I would have traded him for a six pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

“… he hasn’t scored a hit in nine straight games and is now batting just .227/.329/.358 with five dingers and 32 RBI in 260 at-bats. He has also struck out 67 times this year and brings absolutely nothing to the table defensively.” (RotoWorld)

When asked about the trade, Chris Duncan was quoted as saying, “Fire…BAD!”