Let me get this straight...

Let me get this straight. The Arizona Diamondbacks are on schedule to lose 100 games this season. Defensively, outs are hard to come by and on the offensive side of things, well finding a player capable of putting together a timely hit just doesn't seem to be in the cards. So what do the Diamondbacks' powers to be do? They shuffle the cards and deal their star pitcher Dan Haren to the Angels. Now Haren, who had pitched 141 innings for the D'backs and for most of the season has led the National League in strikeouts, is probably a happy camper as he joins a team with playoff aspirations. Gone is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He left the D'backs after posting 141 strikeouts. That's one K per every inning pitched. That alone takes a lot of pressure off the position players. Well, now the pressure is really on the Diamondbacks' defense. There is a lot of games left and I doubt the entire D'backs' pitching staff can accumulate 141 strikeouts by September. I hate to get down on the Diamondbacks, but who's making these crazy decisions? As for Haren, he pitched 4 2/3 innings last night with the Angels and struck out eight. He left the game after being hit by a line drive off the bat of Boston's Kevin Youkilis. The Angel didn't give Haren any support offensively. Sound familiar. He allowed no earned runs and the Angels lost the game,6-3. Let's hope things get better for the Diamondbacks in 2011.

Trigger finger is next on my list!

I've been 65 for three weeks now and wouldn't you know it, I've come up with another medical problem.

This time I've got what is known as trigger finger. Now that's a new one, even for me. I have it so bad it is keeping me awake at night. I can't put a finger on how to get rid of it. I've had arthritis in my left thumb for a year or two and to tell you the truth there has been times when it has been painful to get my hand in my baseball mitt and over the last year or so I've taken some line shots at third base that well, I'll put it mildly, it feels like being stung by a couple of Scorpions.

Now that I'm on Medicare, I guess I can expect more of these annoyances. But a trigger finger. My goodness. Fifty five years ago, I figured a trigger finger was an ailment Roy Rogers' horse would have to deal with. At the rate I'm going, I might just have to get a handicap sticker for my glove.

On second thought, that is a great idea. I know for a fact that many of my buddies on my over-60 baseball team have their own ailments to deal with. Maybe it is time for a new rule for senior baseball. If you have a handicap sticker on your ball glove and you boot a grounder, you don't get charged with an error.

Well, that's not going to happen, so maybe it is time for a Cortisone shot. I hope to be back on the field soon.

It's the heat...

Hello everyone. I hope to get back to writing soon. I think I'll blame my lack of entries for the month of July on the Arizona heat.

Day after day of 100-plus and a very quiet monsoon season is a deadly combination. My mind is mush, although I did realize that this past weekend marked an anniversary of sorts.

Bookemdanosports is a year old. On July 19th in a hotel room in Greer, Arizona, Bookemdanosports was born. I'm edging closer to the 300 mark in little clips into my daily life. It has been fun talking sports and at times running into some old-time athletes from the past and posting their endeavors.

And besides, the summer is nearing the halfway mark. My goodness, we're just five weeks away from college football. And it is just three months away from the Men's Senior baseball World Series (MSBL) in Phoenix. Do I have what it takes to tangle in the 60-and-over and the 65-and-over divisions again this year?

I hope so. It'll be nice to see the guys again. Maybe we can bring home a championship this time around. As for July, there hasn't been to much to holler about. The British Open was a dud. Not too many Americans on the leaderboard in that one, although I did follow Big John Daly for a while. Not to bad for Big John. He was 1-over-par after his four rounds. That's scratch golf at St. Andrews. Heck I can't card a 1-over-par at El Dorado's executive course over on Speedway.

As for soccer, the USA bowed out early, but I did become a fan of world soccer and watched with interest all the way through to the finals. Back home, I have a hard time watching my D'backs. I do like having Kirk Gibson at the controls. But right now, you could have Hoot Gibson, Bob Gibson, Kirk, or a dozen Gibsons' in the Diamondbacks' dugout and it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

I hope they can win at least another 30 games. If not, they are on their way to the worst record in baseball. Oh well, let's pray for a Diamondbacks' winning streak and some rain at my house in Tucson!

Diamondbacks' 47th loss a crushing defeat...

The Arizona Diamondbacks threw another one away tonight in St. Louis.

Another walk-off loss. Another start by Dan Haren wasted.

Two throwing errors in the bottom of the ninth. Three unearned runs cross the plate as Haren watches from the dugout. The result: A 6-5 loss to the Cardinals, the Diamondbacks' 47th loss of the year. They have won only 30. The Diamondbacks are in a tailspin.

Tonight's loss will linger for a while and I doubt the D'backs collectively will be able to shake away the cobwebs before they take the field tomorrow night in St. Louis. How can A.J. Hinch get through all those postgame press conferences? Somehow, he seems to keep his cool. Hats off to him for that.

And hats off to Haren (7-6) as well. He deserved a better fate tonight.

Herb's record stays intact thanks to Nationals' defense

In 1955 a hard-throwing, 22 year old rookie lefthander started his major league career striking out 50 batters in his first five starts, a record that still stands tonight thanks to the sub par defense by the Washington Nationals.

 Fifty five years ago, it was Herb Score who was the hurler that posted the feat for the Cleveland Indians. Score struck out 245 in 1955 enroute to a 16-10 record. Fast forward to Turner Field in Atlanta tonight and you have a young righthander by the name of Stephen Strasburg, a rookie out of San Diego State who many say should already be penciled in on the National League All Star roster.

He's that good. Unfortunately, his team is not. The young man was cruisin' again tonight. He had struck out seven and was within two of Score's record when trouble struck in the seventh inning.

A muffed ground ball at shortstop led to an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh and opened the flood gates as the Braves went on to a 5-0 win. Strasburg dropped to 2-2. His 48 strike outs are in the books, but the Nationals fumbled another one away and dropped to 33-44 on the season.

I get the feeling Strasburg, if given the chance, could lead the National League to a win at the All Star Game next month, but his team will see to it that he won't be there. The Nationals just may have the best pitcher in baseball this season. Unfortunately, Washington is stuck in the NL Eastern Division cellar for the remainder of the year.

As for the 1955 Cleveland Indians, well they went 93-61 that season and besides having Mr. Score, they also had Early Wynn, Bob Lemon and Bob Feller.

Wow! What a pitching staff that was!

In the year 2010...

I'm 96 hours away, give or take an hour one way or the other, from hitting the age of 65. It's been a long haul. Fifty years ago, my attitude was that the year 2010 was so far out there, well it was just too far, off the map so to speak. Unattainable.

I was in my 30s, say somewhere in the mid 1970s, before I even sat down long enough to contemplate what I would look like, feel like and, in my case, even act like the day I'd be forced to show up at the MVD for an eye test and begin the customary state of Arizona five-year renewal plan on my drivers' license.

Now, every fifth year, I'll have to haul myself down to the MVD and get the okay to get behind the wheel. I'll be forced to get my photo updated and I'm sure I'll notice another wrinkle or two, before I safely tuck away the newly laminated license into my billfold.

Sixty-five! I'm here. A member of AARP. An owner of a medicare card. A member of something called the "Silver Sneaker Program" -- which allows me to attend my fitness facility for free. A silver sneaker...my goodness, wasn't it just the other day, say the summer of 1956, when I slipped on a pair of tennis shoes, grabbed my baseball glove and bat, and headed off to the park to play ball? My hair was black and wavy. I weighed all of 85 pounds. I had dimples. I had no worries, except one and that being: Will my buddies be there at the park and will we have enough for a game, or at least workups?

Not a care in the world. My future ahead of me. My dreams intact. A sure major leaguer by 1970. An all-star by 1975. A world series hero in 1978. A hall-of-famer and my portrait on the walls of Cooperstown by 1995. Oh, the dreams of a young boy who loved baseball. And now, decades later, the father of two and six grandchildren,

I find myself on the way to the ball park once again. My buddies are waiting. Sure enough, there will be a game. I can count on my buddies being there. We are called the TOTS. The Tucson Old Timers, the oldest baseball team in the country, ranging in age from 60 to 90, suit up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Udall Park and play for the love of the game.

 Most of us are on Medicare. Most of us are without those wavy locks that decades ago would extend beyond our batting helmets. We all have a couple of things in common: We all remember our dreams of long ago...our dreams of playing in the majors, getting that big hit at Yankee Stadium or making the game-ending, diving catch at Fenway Park. Not one of us made it to Cooperstown, although some of us have visited the place where our baseball heroes of the past are enshrined.

Somewhere a long the way our childhood dreams turned into reality. We raised families, built homes. Some of us became doctors, lawyers, professors and writers. Priorities changed, but our love for the game of baseball has never wavered.

And now we can sit back and watch our grandchildren take the field...and we know full well what is going through their head as they round first, looking to turn a single into a double with their curly locks protruding from underneath their helmets. It's 2010 and nothing has really changed.

Daly Watch...

John Daly is getting some "home cooking" this week.

Big John is back in Arkansas and competing on the Nationwide Tour in Ft. Smith. He is just four shots off the pace after posting three sub-70 rounds of 66-68-69 for a very respectable 203. John Broadaway leads the way into today's final round at the Hardscrabble Country Club with his 3-day total of 199. Go get 'em Big John. Daly has won $81,254.00 on his comeback trail this year, his best accumulation of the green stuff on the PGA tour since 2007. John had made eights cuts on the PGA tour this season. He's competed in 11 events.

Daly Update: Daly cards a 69 on final day in Ft. Smith and finishes in a tie for 22nd -- eight strokes back of the winner. On a positive note, Daly carded four, sub-70 rounds and added his support for the Nationwide Tour stop at Hardscrabble.