There's an old baseball canard to the effect that every time you go to a ball game, "You may see something that you've never seen before." Well last night the 3384 faithful who turned out for the Vancouver/Eugene tilt at historic Civic stadium sure got their money's worth, because they actually got to see two things (maybe three) they'd never seen before.  However, I suspect that the last of these events passed unnoticed by nearly all in attendance.

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It was 100 degrees at first pitch-- at 7pm in the evening-- but the on-field action promised to be much hotter as Vancouver's Scott "I'm the man" Deal (5-0 with a 0.92 WHIP and a 1.64 ERA) matched up with Eugene's Aaron "Strike throwing machine" Breit (11.16 K/9).  Deal, perhaps bolstered by a large contingent of friends and family who'd made the four hour trip down from Tacoma to watch him pitch, held up his end of the pitchers duel, but Eugene was ultimately done in by a couple of defensive miscues and lost to the visitors 5-0.

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I'm not questioning Chavez's desire by any means-- I think the guy is playing through a tremendous amount of pain right now, but:

-- He seems very upright and stiff at the plate and is mired in a pretty bad hitting slump right now

-- Late last night he missed a ball in the hole that I thought a healthy Eric Chavez would have gotten to

-- He runs like his leg could fall off at any moment, and I wonder if the collision at the plate last night was at least partly due to the fact that he's not comfortable enough to slide

So I think Eric needs some time off to heal up.  If he sits through the All Star break, that's basically three weeks of healing time.  I'd rather send Eric to the DL right now and have him healthy (or healthier) in Aug/Sep (and hopefully October).

Yeah, the offense doesn't look to good with Frank Thomas and Bradley out and Crosby still nursing the bruised hand.  But Chavez isn't contributing a lot now (except his presence in the lineup, which I don't completely discount) and I worry about a catastrophic injury that would cause him to miss the rest of the season.

Well, it's another slow news day during the off season, so I thought I'd propose the topic of baseball vacations.

Currently my wife and I are planning a two-week vacation this summer that revolves around seeing a game in all of the home ballparks in the Northwest League (short-season single A-- there are only 8 teams, so two weeks is manageable).  We've also done other baseball-related vacations like Spring Training.

Does anybody else on the blog do these kinds of baseball-related trips?  Any favorite memories?  Any "dream trips" that you'd like to take but haven't gotten around to?

I'd love to do all 30 MLB ballparks, though I doubt I'd ever get enough consecutive time off to do it in one shot (I'm working my way through them slowly).  I have a fantasy about taking the whole season off and trying to attend all 162 A's games, but I fear that's a pipe dream.  I'm personally ambivalent about Cooperstown, but suppose I'll end up there eventually.  What about you all?

The gameday thread on the McCovey Chronicles site for the 6/26 blowout game is borderline hilarious-- in a "gallows humor" sort of way.  Makes me feel bad for the Giants fans on that site.  No trolling on them folks... please!  They've had a rough enough day as it is.

http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/story/2005/6/26/144511/678

From http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/26/SPGM9DDRRV1.DTL

Briefly: Center fielder Mark Kotsay said no official proposals have been exchanged with the A's on a two-year contract extension; the talks have been "hypothetical,'' he said. National reports that Kotsay is looking for $8-$9 million per season are too high, according to Kotsay, who is making $7 million this year and has a player option for $7 million next year. He's believed to be seeking roughly similar numbers.

$7mil for two years?  Heck yeah Billy!  Sign him up!