
It's official. I've been published in an ESPN.com baseball blog. Jayson Stark's to be exact. Now forget about the fact that it's not my blog, or that it's unsolicited information that I e-mailed to ESPN because I was bored and I'm a loser, or that it was drastically edited (meaning only half of what I submitted got on there, with approximately none of the words I actually used). Just remember. I'm on an ESPN blog, you're not (unless you are, in which case we should hang out). ESPN blogs are part of the insider package thing, which means they charge you to read it. Now why do that when you can read my brilliant prose here for free?
Here's what it says for those of you who aren't insiders and hence are less cool than me and probably don't get published in multinational blogs by billionaire broadcasting companies:
"And now, here are your favorite box-score lines from the weekend, as submitted by our trusty readers:
2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Speaking of dark-horse Cy Young candidates, loyal reader "Matt in New Jersey" submitted that line, by
Jonathan Papelbon, March 3 vs. the Phillies. The strikeout victims included Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand. "
Now, what Stark left off (probably to avoid having ESPN fire him and pay me half as much to do his job) is
Joel Pineiro's line from that same game:
1.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR
You needn't reach for a calculator, I'll save you the trouble. That's a 15.43 ERA. Keep in mind, this is the guy the Sox are eyeing to close games this season because the aforementioned Papelbon has health issues that leave him better suited for the rotation.
So here's how the joke can go this Spring:
What do Jonathan Papelbon and Joel Pineiro have in common?
Neither of them can save games for the Red Sox.
[insert rim-shot here]