May 6, 2005 [LINK]

Strange day at the parks

It would appear that the L.A. Dodgers had a lot to get off their chest after losing two of three games while hosting the Nationals earlier this week. In the first inning against Cincinnati today, they scored ten runs! The Reds came back with six runs in the last two innings, but that was not even half of what they needed. Mark Prior pitched an almost flawless eight innings, and Derrek Lee hit a two run homer in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead, but relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins made a throwing error in the top of the ninth, so the Cubs lost to the Phillies, 3-2. Ouch! Seemingly from out of nowhere, the Milwaukee Brewers had a seven-game winning streak going, but the Mets stopped them tonight, 7-4. Mike Piazza hit two home runs. The Yankees came back to tie the game 3-3 against the visiting A's, but Oakland scored three in the top of the tenth, as the Yanks dropped their [fourth] straight game. When will this nightmare end? Nats 1B Brad Wilkerson got tonight's game with the Giants at SBC Park started off on a good foot with a single, but Jamey Carroll then grounded into a double play.

Stadium page upgrades

I've begun the process of upgrading all the stadium pages, a task that should be done by tomorrow. The most immediate change you will notice is aesthetic, with more even layout of the diagrams and a separate shaded background for the main text section, for easier reading. Near the top right of each page you will see a ball (). Be careful when you move the mouse close to it! Clicking on it will take you to the Baseball site map page. If you roll across without clicking, however, the page will automatically scroll down to the Photos section (if there are any on that page), where you will see one photo and one or more green caption boxes on the left. Clicking on those links will let you see any of the photos. That way, the page loads more quickly for those who have seen the photos before and just want to check information. Some pages also have one or more extra-wide panorama photos below that, with similar green caption boxes if there are more than one. Further toward the bottom there is a Fan comments section with a link to a comments form that is not yet functional. The comments form is meant for those who have actually been to the stadiums in question, and have special experiences that other folks would enjoy hearing about. Any questions or errors that need to be brought to my attention should be sent via e-mail, as before.

The Baseball in D.C. page now has a list of the nine investors who have put down a $100,000 deposit to qualify as bidders for the Washington Nationals franchise. Some think the sales price could reach $400,000 or more, but that depends in part on how this insane war over broadcasting rights with the Orioles is resolved.