One Wild and Crazy Guy

Scott Olsen's career with the Marlins has been unfolding like a season of Real World Miami. Like Trishelle, every time you think he's finally got it together, he falls off the wagon...hard. Olsen has been solid on the mound (21-18), but because of his antics, Olsen's days with the Marlins has to be numbered.



2006- Olsen engaged in fisticuffs with former teammate, and now friend, Randy Messenger which resulted in a black eye for Olsen. Later in the same season he got in seperate dug out arguments with star third baseman Miguel Cabrera and Manager Joe Girardi.

2007- In his second full season with the club Olsen has decided to bring his "A" game. On the mound the young lefty is 8-7 with a 4.99 ERA (way to high for a national league starter), off the mound he has three separate incidents. This past June Olsen was fined a unspecified amount for flipping the bird to the great fans of Milwaukee. His Friday start marked his return from a two game suspension for fighting with teammate Sergio Mitre, who dared to give Olsen some encouraging words after Olsen's start.

After earning the victory in the Marlins 10-2 victory over the Reds on Friday, Olsen was pulled over at 3:40 am, or should I say police attempted to pull him over. Olsen ignored the police ran a stop sign, drove to his house, parked his car and sat on a plastic lawn chair. F.Y.I it's pretty classy to have lawn furniture in your front yard. Olsen, who I hope was wearing a wife beater, then set the scene for a classic episode of Cops.

As police wait for back up outside his home, Olsen waits in his plastic thrown, when police arrives chaos ensues. Apparently Olsen did not want to be arrested so he kicked on of the arresting officers, who subsequently zapped him with a stun gun(what I would give to see this). Finally, Olsen failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer. Olsen was released Saturday afternoon on 11,000 bond.

The Marlins need to send Olsen a message and send him to down to the minors the rest of the season. Cutting or trading him is to drastic at this point, this gives Olsen a opportunity to settle down focus on his life and get back to pitching.

Tyler Norrick Interview

Palm Beach Cardinals starting pitcher Tyler Norrick is having the best season in his young semi-pro career. Norrick was the winning pitcher in the High Class A All-Star Game and he is 8-7 with a 3.41 ERA in 20 starts for the Cards'. I sat down with the lefty to find out how he feels about the year so far, and the greatest sports movie of all time.



How do you feel about your season?
So far, it’s going well for us, we are a few games out right now, and we played well in the first half. We suffered a lot of injuries but we are still winning games, so far were doing O.K.

Describe your experience with All-Star Game.
It was a big honor just to be named to the team. The players that were there, a few years from now, you are going to see a lot of big leaguer’s out of that group. It was an honor and participating was a big deal for me.

Do you have any pre-game rituals or superstitions before a start?
I don’t have one thing I do before every single start; I just try to find a program or routine that works for me and try to do the same thing. But I don’t wear the same clothes or eat the same food; I just try to get a good meal in before the game. I like to get to the ballpark a couple hours before my start, and get mentally prepared the best I can.

Who was your player growing up?
Randy Johnson was my favorite player growing up, he was a big left hander, and I’m left handed. I won’t say he motivated me to get better, but that would be the guy I idolized growing up.

Who Favorite team growing up?
I grew up a half hour outside of St. Louis, so I was a Cardinals fan, that’s a given.

Favorite Cardinal
Ozzie Smith, he’s not a pitcher, but he’s probably a favorite Cardinal for most Cardinal fans. Just watching him everyday as a kid, the plays he made, he was spectacular. He had something about him that drew fans to him

Best sports movie of all time?
Major League, it covers the game here and there, it doesn’t stray to far from the truth. The comedy in the movie is second to none.

What’s your goal in baseball?
I’m just trying to make the major leagues

Farwell to the Past, and a Preview of the Future

First, I guess I need to say goodbye: I'm graduating and will no longer be blogging for the UP. Since I know all of you read my blog religiously, make sure to check out my website www.theedgeofsports.com and you can continue to enjoy my mad blogging skills. We also have blogs on FAU sports, sports gossip and South Florida sports.

If you want to watch a truly great all-star game, make sure to be at a television at 4 p.m. and watch ESPN Duex's coverage of the Minor League All Star game (a.k.a) "The Futures Game."

Basically the game is the equivelent of a live action draft; the game is a "where are they now" for players selected in the past two or three MLB drafts. As always, South Florida is represented well in this game, between the Marlins farm system and home grown talent there are plenty of reasons to watch.

Marlins 3B Chris Coghlan (6-1, 190, Bats: L Throws: R)is dominating for the Marlins Low Class A affilate, the Greensbrough Grasshoppers. Coghlan is hitting .325 with 10 home runs and 64 runs batted in, even more impressive Coghlan is on pace for 180 hits and 90 walks.

Rick Vanden Hurk (6'5, 195, Right) won 2 games with the Fish before being sent back down to minors. While in the Marlins farm system Vanden Hurk has played for their clubs Double A and Triple A affilates. Currently Vanden Hurk is 2-2 with a 3.59 ERA, pitching for Double A affilate, the Carolina Mudcats.



Miami native Adrian Cardenas (6', 185 Bats: L Throws: R) was Baseball America's High School Player of the Year (Monsignor Edward Pace H.S.)in 2006. Currently Cardinas plays for the Phillies Low Class A affilate the Lake Wood Blue Claws, he's hitting .307 with 49 RBI's and 15 stolen bases.


Palm Beach Cardinals Update: On July 3rd former CY Young winner Chris Carpenter started for the PB Cards'. Carpenter stuck out two batters in his 1.1 innings pithched giving up five runs on five hits for an ERA of 20.25.







Random Recommendation

Flight of the Conchords

If you have "on demand" or Tivo, make a point to mark this show at watch it. I promise the show is worth your time

Happy 4th of July

After a brief drinking filled vacation, I'll be back Tommorow.

Until then.....Enjoy the 4th of July.