Event of the Day: the premiere of the Event of the Week

There were a couple of fun ejections in MLB yesterday. One was in the Cardinals/Pirates game, when Pirates reliever Matt Capps plunked Pujols in the first at bat after Skip Schumaker hit a two-run HR off of Capps. Here's the ejection. The ump was really quick to toss Capps, which seemed kind of weird since there wasn't any bad blood in the series – that I saw. The ump hadn't given a warning during that game. One of the Pittsburgh commentators said, "Well, you can't hit a superstar – apparently."

I wonder if there is a legitimate superstar effect in these situations. Pujols may be the most transparent case: he already has 36 intentional walks through only 111 games. I think any time he gets hit, an umpire has to wonder if that's just another way to avoid a Pujols AB.

I also love Tony La Russa's comments about it, from the MLB.com recap:

"I think he [the umpire] had it exactly right. I think it was an intentional hit and there is no doubt in my mind it came from the bench, and I really believe it didn't come from the manager. Don't ask me to expound on that."

I don't know that I've ever read a single quote that was so blunt, yet so cryptic. I probably should have saved that for Wednesday's Quote of the Week.

The other really strange ejection was when Shane Victorino got thrown out for arguing balls and strikes. Pretty much everybody gets rung for arguing balls and strikes, so that's not a strange thing, but Victorino was doing it from center field. Tim Kurkjian is fond of saying that he sees something different every time he goes to a baseball game. This was a little bit different.

50 Cent was in last week's episode of Entourage so he could make fun of Turtle, and 50's already lined up another cameo that is relevant to my interests. Evidently, the forthcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is stocking its multiplayer mode with celebrity voice cameos, and 50 has been confirmed. Here are some cameos I'd like to see in the game: Woody Allen as the voice of characters near death, Quentin Tarantino as a squad leader, Larry David as a guy who's out of ammo, and Gilbert Gottfried as the best player in each game. Those voices may not bring the same sort of grit as a 50 Cent or Keifer Sutherland and Gary Oldman (who were in Call of Duty: World at War), but they should could play their parts – and be hilarious.

Event of the Week:

I probably couldn't have picked a better week to start the Event of the Week feature since the 5^th Annual Pig Pickin' is only 5+ days away. If this feature were, instead, the Event of the Year, the Pig Pickin' would probably win. As a lead up to this weekend's festivities, this happened: