Indians skidding again; more thoughts on more stuff

Sometimes it's darn near impossible to keep a regular sports blog AND a regular life. But I'm back.

• Mitch Talbot was not yet three years old when Jamie Moyer made his major league debut in 1986, but Moyer has hung around long enough to pitch against Talbot last night, and it was quite a pitcher's duel. Moyer's Phillies scored two off Talbot in the bottom of the first, then the Indians came back with one in the top of the second, and there was no more scoring after that. Talbot, who's having a fine rookie season, was the hard-luck loser in this one. He went seven innings, giving up four hits and three walks, and striking out four, in the Tribe's third straight loss.

• The one run scored off Moyer came courtesy of a Russell Branyan home run, which was the 505th Moyer has given up in his lengthy career. That ties him with Phillies great Robin Roberts for the most home runs given up in a career, and Moyer will no doubt hold that record by himself in about four days, or possibly nine. Two weeks, tops. This falls under the category of dubious records you can't get without being pretty good for a long time, because nobody's going to keep throwing you out there if you suck. It's like holding the record for striking out (which belongs to Reggie Jackson, Hall of Famer), being caught stealing (Rickey Henderson, Hall of Famer) or grounding into double plays (Cal Ripken, Hall of Famer). More important than the home run total is that it was Moyer's 266th career win.

• The home run was Branyan's 10th of the year, in just 48 games, after he started the season on the disabled list. He's only pinch-hit in a lot of those games, too. He's only had 156 at-bats. So in a 600-at-bat season, he'd be on pace to hit 39. He and Shin-Soo Choo (who has eight dingers) are the only hitters providing any power for this team all year, though Carlos Santana has shown some promise in the two weeks since his call-up.

• The U.S. soccer team's game against the Algerians starts in about an hour and a half, and if the Americans win, we're into the round of 16. As I covered in my last post, there's a possibility of moving on with a tie, but I don't think anybody wants to see what happens in that case. This team is definitely one of the 16 best at the World Cup, but they have to prove it on the pitch. France was supposed to be one of the best too, but they've been eliminated. It can happen.

• From the department of "Are you bleeping kidding me?" comes a story of a fishing tournament in North Carolina. At the 52nd annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament, anglers on a boat called the Citation bagged an 883-pound marlin, which not only would have won the event (the next-largest marlin was 528 pounds) and set a new record for biggest marlin caught in the tourney (previously 831), but would have brought in a nearly $1 million purse for the boat's owners and crew. But it was discovered that one of the boat's mates, 22-year-old Peter Martin Wann of Alexandria, Virginia, did not have a North Carolina fishing license, which he could have bought for $15, and the boat was disqualified, the catch erased from the records. They lost out on a high-six-figure purse because one of the crew members forgot to get his fishing license. Can you bleeping believe that bleep? Bleep, man! ... I first heard about this story on WTAM this morning, and Bill Wills was saying how that guy probably lost a bunch of friends over this. But I'm sure he feels awful about it, and at some point, whoever heads up the crew has to make sure all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed. Yes, it's his fault, but it's not all his fault.