Twitterfied

As some of you may have noticed, I finally broke down and joined Twitter this week.  (Yeah, I know.  I'm only about five years late on that trend.)  For those who are interested, you can follow me @thrumy4eyes.  Even though I have only been a part of the Twitterverse for a few days, I have already gleaned several interesting facts.  Here's a sample of what I have discovered thus far:

*From Richard Justice (@richardjustice), columnist for MLB.com: The Tampa Bay Rays have not started a pitcher over the age of 30 since June 25, 2006 (Mark Hendrickson).  That covers a span of 1,033 games.  Seriously?  Can you imagine?  With the success the Rays have had over the past five seasons, you would have thought that they would have taken a chance on a wily veteran at some point along the way.

*From Jim Powell (@Jim_Powell), Atlanta Braves radio announcer: Craig Kimbrel is on pace to finish the season with four times as many strikeouts as hits allowed.  That has never been done before from anyone who has pitched 50+ innings.  Wow!  That is an unbelievable statistic.  In 51.1 innings pitched, he has struck out 94 batters and has allowed only 22 hits.  And anyone who saw him pitch against the Rockies the past couple of days has to believe that the odds will be ever in his favor.

*From Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN), ESPN college football writer: Purdue University will wear helmet stickers this season with a picture of Neil Armstrong in his spacesuit holding a Purdue flag.  Armstrong graduated from Purdue in 1955 with a degree in aeronautical engineering.  Kudos to the Boilermakers.  Armstrong was a true American hero and deserves such recognition from his alma mater.

*From Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN), ESPN baseball guru: The defensive player of the month for August in MLB is none other than Paul Janish.  Many of you are probably saying, "Who?"  Currently, he is the starting shortstop for the Atlanta Braves, who were desperate for help at that position after two injuries and an error prone rookie.  Atlanta traded a minor league pitcher to the Cincinnati Reds in mid-July to get Janish, who is not much of a stick guy but can flash some leather.  Ironically, Janish beat out teammate Michael Bourn and became the second Brave to win the award this season (the other being rookie Andrelton Simmons, the man whom Janish replaced).

Buster Olney also provided me with this interesting tidbit about the Baltimore Orioles starting rotation.  Through first 135 games this season, the Orioles only had one starting pitcher make over 20 starts this season.  That one is rookie Wei-Yin Chen who has made 27 starts.  Not until Wednesday night when Tommy Hunter started for the O's did another reach the 20 start mark.

*From Rich Brooks (@UKcoachbrooks), former University of Kentucky football coach: According to his tweets, the retired lifestyle seems to fit Coach Brooks.  It seems he golfs almost daily and isn't too bad (most of the scores he reports are in the mid 80s).  And the other day he went on a fishing trip to Hart Mountain Antelope Reserve and caught several fish, saw several antelope, and even a badger.  Hope I get to do things like that in my golden years.

*From Kris Medlen (@KrisMedlen54), pitcher for the Atlanta Braves:  He is really excited to be having a son.  Upon being named the National League pitcher of the month for August, Medlen had to take to Twitter.  But not just because he was excited about winning the award.  Apparently, he just found out that day that his unborn child had a "wiener" which he was very stoked about.  What a day!  This has been by far the most hilarious tweet I have read.

*From Athlon Sports (@Athlon Sports): MLB is approaching 500,000 all-time errors.  That is a large number, and one I actually would have thought they had already passed.  After sitting down and doing some math, that number seems right, though.  Going into Friday, there have been 499, 845 errors in major league history.  They even offer a list of ten guys they think could make that historic error.  Naturally, six of them are shortstops.  From the ones on the list, my money is on Ian Desmond.

*From the Atlanta Braves (@Braves): Atlanta's back-to-back 1-0 victories over the Rockies on Wednesday and Thursday marked the first time in franchise history they had won games of that score with both runs being unearned.  What made the run on Thursday afternoon even more unbelievable was the way it was scored.  Rockies pitcher, Jhoulys Chacin, looked away a split second early and missed the return throw form the catcher allowing the fleet-footed (wink, wink) Juan Francisco to score.  What a tough way to lose.

*From Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN), the other ESPN baseball guru: The Tampa Bay Rays have used 126 different starting lineups this season, by far the most in the majors.  Matt Joyce, outfielder for the Rays, is the only player ever to hit ninth on opening day and bat cleanup the next.  He has batted in eight different spots this season.  This is a testament to the depth that the Rays have, but injuries have also played a  contributing role.  Also, Tampa manager Joe Maddon is never afraid to roll the dice and see what happens.

*From Peter Gammons (@pgammo), the Babe Ruth of baseball gurus: Prince Fielder has only missed four games in the past five seasons.  There is not much else to say about that other than for a hefty lad, the big boy sure is durable.

So, now that I'm officially a Twit (that is what you call someone on Twitter, right?), I look forward to sharing more of these thoughts from around the world of sports.