Excellent infield on today's Birthday Team, as long as you ignore the shortstop.

Funny that Meluskey and Dietz should share a birthday...apart from Meluskey's chronic injury issues, they were pretty much exactly the same ballplayer: "Catchers" who weren't really catchers, who drew a ton of walks and could absolutely mash.

Also of note: Today's the second day in a row that the MLB-playing older brother of an inner-circle Hall of Famer has a birthday. Yesterday was Honus Wagner's big brother, today is George Brett's big brother.

C: Mitch Meluskey
1B: Dick Dietz
2B: Ryne Sandberg
3B/Manager: Heinie Groh
SS: Brent Lillibridge
LF: Max Marshall
CF: Tony Scott
RF: Jody Gerut

SP: George Uhle
SP: Harvey Haddix
SP: Ken Brett
SP: Chris Holt!
SP: Bill Champion
RP: Roger Mason

Owner: Steve O'Neill
Greatest Afghan-born player in MLB history: Jeff Bronkey

In the Pittsburgh Press "baseball notes" column 100 years ago:

The best of them get it in the neck. Witness the fate of Hendrix yesterday...Pittsburg never could hit any more than a canary bird can sing or an African can eat chicken..."The next time we are robbed of a decision at a critical time," declares Griffith, "I shall take my team off the field and suffer the consequences." The last four words of his statement are probably correct.

"Get it in the neck"? I had no idea Sam Hutcheson had an ancestor who wrote for the Pittsburgh Press.

Also, every time I think I've come to terms with the overt racism in the newspapers of 1912, I read things like "any more than a canary bird can sing or an African can eat chicken" and cringe.

Across town in the Gazette Times:

Stengel is a new one on us. Funny thing how an unheard of youngster should break in and do more than any other one man to spike the Pirates' great winning streak. Careful inquiry was made after Stengel had made his fourth hit as to who he was, whence he came, etc. He hails from the Montgomery (Ala.) club in the Southern League...On his first four appearances he hit safely. When he came to bat the fifth time press box habitues pulled hard for that fifth hit.

Stengel walked in his fifth plate appearance.

Jeff Francis starts for the Rox tonight. If he happens to go five innings, he'll be the first Colorado pitcher over the 100 IP mark this year.

C'mon, 4 inning start and a season-ending blister.

Does anyone know what the current record for fewest IP by a team leader in that category is? I assume the Rockies are going to break it.

Just for fun, here's what happened to the Rox' season-opening starting rotation:

Jeremy Guthrie: Sucked, got hurt when he fell off his bike, sucked some more, got traded for a pitcher who had already been DFA'd. 90.2 IP.
Jamie Moyer: Pitched like a 49-year-old, released. 53.2 IP.
Juan Nicasio: Took a hard grounder off the kneecap on June 2; out for the year. 58.0 IP.
Jhoulys Chacin: Was terrible early; sent to the minors after five starts, where he was diagnosed with some kind of pulled chest muscle and went on the DL. Came back to the rotation in late August, and has been great since then, with a 2.37 ERA in six starts. 55.0 IP.
Drew Pomeranz: Sent to the minors after just five starts, even though his ERA was a team-leading 4.70 at the time. Has been back in the rotation since the first of July. 83.2 IP.

If Francis gets a blister, Alex White will probably still make it. 92 2/3 innings to go, with probably 3 starts left.

Or not. Looks like White is going to the bullpen at least for one start as Jorge De La Rosa makes his first start of the year after TJ.

White and Francis have both made 20 starts while not yet reaching 100 innings. Drew Pomeranz has made 19 starts but has just 83.2 IP on the year. Francis will likely exceed 100 innings, and White still has a shot at it, but I gotta think Pomeranz will be the first pitcher in history to start 20 or more games yet pitch fewer than 100 innings.

Nope -- according to PI it has happened 5 times. Pascual Perez takes the cake with his 1985 season, where he started 22 games and threw 95 1/3 innings. He was, as you might imagine, pretty execrable, posting a 6.14 ERA and 1-13 record.

Horacio Ramirez was the last one to accomplish the feat, throwing 20 starts and 98 innings for the 2007 Mariners. He actually posted an 8-7 record despite a 7.16 ERA.

Jeff Francis starts for the Rox tonight. If he happens to go five innings, he'll be the first Colorado pitcher over the 100 IP mark this year.

The all-time record fewest innings pitched by the team's top workhorse in a full-season? This team

Those 1997 A's had at least three guys who threw more innings than anyone on the Rockies will.

Load of postponements tonight gonna add a little wrinkle to the races.

Game of the day (yesterday): White Sox 5, Tigers 4. This is partly, but not entirely, due to the fact that only seven games were played yesterday.

Jose Quintana worked a perfect first; Doug Fister walked Chicago's Kevin Youkilis but removed him from the bases on a double play. Quintana then gave up a double to Prince Fielder and hit Delmon Young with a pitch before escaping from the inning, largely thanks to a double play of his own. After Fister set the Sox down in order in the second, Detroit opened the scoring in the third. Avisail Garcia, Gerald Laird, and Austin Jackson started the inning with singles, producing one run. Omar Infante bunted the remaining runners to second and third, Miguel Cabrera was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Fielder struck out. Young then came through with a two-run single, extending the lead to three; the Tigers would go on to reload the bases on a wild pitch and an intentional walk before stranding all three runners.

Dayan Viciedo and Alexei Ramirez opened the bottom of the third with singles; after Gordon Beckham popped out, Dewayne Wise singled as well to fill the bags with White Sox. But Kevin Youkilis and Adam dunn both struck out, leaving the runners in place. Fortunately for the Sox, they got another chance with one out in the fourth when Alexis Rios and AJ Pierzynski singled and Viciedo walked. Ramirez lined out, but Beckham was hit by a pitch, forcing in one run, and Wise followed with a two-run single to tie the game.

Miguel Cabrera led off the fourth with a double, and took third on Fielder's single, which also chased Quintana from the mound. Nate Jones took over the pitching duties and allowed an RBI hit to Young, putting the Tigers ahead once more, before ending the inning on a double play and a groundout. In the bottom of the inning, Fister was also pulled after giving up a pair of hits, in this case a single by Dunn and a Paul Konerko double. Rios walked to load the bases, Pierzynski lined out, and Viciedo grounded into a prospective double play to short, but Rios executed a wildly effective takeout slide at second, forcing a throwing error by Infante that brought two runs home and gave Chicago its first lead.

And that was more or less it. Oh, the Sox staged a few more threats - two on with one out in the sixth, bases loaded with one out in the eighth. But they didn't extend their lead. Meanwhile, the Tigers were going down in order in each of the last four innings. That doesn't necessarily make thrilling viewing for an uninterested party - but I imagine White Sox fans enjoyed it.

Game of the day (last year): Marlins 4, Nationals 1 (13). The classic pitcher's duel: Stephen Strasburg vs. Chris Volstad.

Strasburg was perfect in the first; Volstad technically wasn't, but still worked a 1-2-3 inning thanks to Ian Desmond getting thrown out trying to stretch his single. Both pitchers allowed two hits in the second, with Volstad eventually loading the bases on an intentional walk, but neither allowed a run. In the third, Volstad himself led off with a double, moved to third on a sac bunt, and scored on a sac fly; the Marlin started maintained his self-made lead until the fifth, when Wilson Ramos led off with a game-tying home run.

Strasburg was pulled after the top of the sixth. In the bottom of that inning, Volstad worked around a ground-rule double by Mike Morse. Henry Rodriguez and Volstad traded spotless sevenths. Todd Coffey allowed only a two-out single in the top of the eighth, and Edward Mujica didn't even permit that much in the bottom of the inning. Drew Storen and Mujica exchanged perfect ninths as well, sending the game to extras.

Gaby Sanchez started the extra session with a single off of Sean Burnett; a pair of groundouts moved him to third, and another groundout left him there. After a perfect bottom of the inning by Steve Cishek, the teams exchanged ROEs in the eleventh, with Emilio Bonifacio reaching first with one out in the top half before Colin Balester stranded him, and Ian Desmond advancing to second on Cishek's misfire. Roger Bernadina's bunt moved him to third, Ryan Zimmerman was intentionally walked, and Morse hit into a double play to end the threat.

Balester and Clay Hensley set their respective opponents down in order in the twelfth. In the thirteenth, John Buck started Balester's third inning of work with a single. One out later, Donnie Murphy hit his 14th career homer (and first of the year), putting Florida in front. After the second out, the Marlins tacked on an insurance run with an Omar Infante single and a the-once-and-future Giancarlo Stanton double, the-once-and-no-longer Leo Nunez pitched a perfect bottom of the inning to secure the victory.

So that's two games with absurdly great bullpen work from the winning team. Florida's relief corps in this one: 6 innings, 6 K's, one walk (intentional), and no hits allowed. When the game is tied at the point when the 'pen comes in, and they do that, it's going to be very difficult to lose.

Game Notes
TIGERS PITCHER MAX SCHERZER LEFT THE GAME AFTER TWO INNINGS WITH RIGHT SHOULDER FATIGUE.
ATHLETICS CENTERFIELDER COCO CRISP LEFT THE GAME IN THE TOP OF THE FOURTH INNING DUE TO CONJUNCTIVITIS.

Crisp developed pinkeye during the game? WTF is he doing out there?

Francis pitched 5 innings, so the Rockies have their 1st 100 inning guy. But if Dag is right in #9, and I assume he is since he does this sort of thing all the time, the Rockies are going to break that record.