Week in Review

Sammy Sosa hits his 600th homerun
Sammy Sosa became the 5th man in Major League baseball history to hit 600 homeruns. I have to say, I thought it to be a pretty neat moment with all the stuff Sammy has been through in the past few years. It has not been a fast and furious road to 600. You had the steroids accusations, true or not. The cork. The run in Baltimore when he looked finished as a ballplayer. Overall, I have to say Diamond Hoggers is happy for Sosa.

Check out that Dan Haren, you know; the boy who pitches for the A’s
Dan Haren got some love from us this week; as he prepared for his start against our Cincinnati Reds. The Reds bullpen wasted some big homeruns by Josh Hamilton (10th of his career) and Adam Dunn in losing the game. Haren didn’t pick up the victory, but crawled off the mat to keep his team in the ballgame. Dunn also hit 2 homeruns on Father’s Day, but that effort was also wasted as the Reds pitching staff got schlacked 11-4 by the Texas Rangers.

Homer Bailey has the finest outing of his career
Homer Bailey went 7 innings against the Oakland A’s on the road, allowing just 2 hits and 1 earned run. Bailey improved to 2-0 on his young career and the win served as the Reds only victory against the A’s in the past 9 games (dating back to 2002). The guy is 21 years of age, not that this success can be expected to be continued but certainly he has given a struggling Reds team some hope.

Walk-off hits are the theme
Chone Figgins walked off the Astros with a triple; the hit being his 6th of the ballgame in a 10-9 victory. The night afterwards Chris Young hit a walk off homerun for the Arizona Diamondbacks to get past the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Is it uncommon to see walkoff hits in back to back nights? Not at all. Why do we give mention to these events then? Well, we can’t talk about the Indians, Reds, and Yankees all the time can we? No, we can’t.

Streaks were snapped
My personal shot at $100,000 was snapped after 14 games as Albert Pujols went hitless against Odalis Perez and the Kansas City Royals. Before that game, I thought I was in the clear, as Pujols was 11 for 16 lifetime agains the Royals fallen lefthander. In the same night, Casey Blake’s 26-game hitting streak was snapped for the Cleveland Indians. I might hit in 14 straight again on MLB.com’s Beat the Streak, but I’m pretty sure that will be Casey Blake’s one realistic shot at catching Joe Dimaggio.

See the door, Sam Perlozzo
In an interesting but unsurprising turn of events, Baltimore Orioles manager Sammy Perlozzo was fired as the manager of the Baltimore Orioles. Just days later, Joe Girardi turned down the job offer to take over for Mr. Perlozzo. Suddenly, that position seems like a job no one wants. That said, I’m throwing my name into the hat. I would like to be considered as a candidate to turn that moribund franchise around. I think I could do it, well maybe. That isn’t a strong ship for someone to take over, but the Orioles are bound to be good sometime again in our lifetime.

You can be a Diamond Hoggers gumshoe reporter!
That’s right ladies and gents, we’re looking for a few good men that can be counted upon to report for us, since you know we can’t be more than one place at once. We want you to hunt down Barry Bonds during his pursuit of 757, we want you to tell us about the Homerun Derby and All-Star Game. We want someone who can cover some playoff baseball and file dispatches for us. We want you! (as long as you promise you will really be present at the events and take pictures!!). If you can do this, please email to [email protected].