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Bill Chuck is an accomplished communications consultant, author, and baseball nut. He is the creator of Billy-Ball.com (www.Billy-Ball.com) and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales.

”He has made a slight change to his daily newsletter for the 2009 Major League Baseball season, publishing a daily "nine things you need to know in order to talk baseball today."

Bill is a good friend of Eye on Sports Media, so we will be reprinting his "Nine to Know" as a semi-regular piece on the site. They are also published in original form by Bill on his Billy-Ball site.

And if you work in sports media (or any other field) and need a top notch communications consultant, Bill is "one to Know" and contact (see his contact information at the bottom of this post).

Nine to Know

May 6, 2009 - Here are nine things you need to know in order to talk baseball today.

1. The streak is 12

Jeff Weaver and the Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks 3-1 enabling the Dodgers to tie the major league record for most consecutive wins at home to start a season. The 12-0 at home Dodgers are now a major league best 20-8 overall.

Talk about: What a difference a year makes. Last year on this date the Dodgers had won 11 games at home but had five losses to go with those wins and a 19-14 record. They won their 12th game at home on May 19, 2008 making them 12-9 at home and 23-21 overall.

2. The streak is 17

– The Brewers defeated the Pirates, 8-5. That’s 17 straight for Milwaukee over Pittsburgh, the most wins by one team over another since the Orioles took 23 straight from the Royals from 1969-70.

Talk about: here’s the irony, even with their hot streak against this perennial sub .500 team, the Brewers are only 78-73 since 2000 against the Buccos and with a 27-43 record in PNC Park they have the most losses there of any NL team.


3. The streak is five

The Red Sox defeated the Yankees, 7-3. The BoSox are 5-0 vs. New York this season, just the third time they've won at least the first five meetings of a season vs. the Yanks.

Talk about: The Yankees lead the Red Sox in head-to-head meetings since 2000, 88-79 but the last time the teams finished a season with more than a three game differential between the clubs was in 2001 when the Yanks won the season series, 13-5.

4. Four for Four

The Royals and Rangers have each won four straight while the White Sox and the Braves have each lost four in a row

Talk about: John Buck’s 11th inning walkoff single led the Royals to an 8-7 win over the ChiSox. Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s 10th inning grand slam was the key hit in the Rangers 7-2 win over Seattle. The Mets completed a two-game sweep of the Braves in Atlanta, 4-3.

5. The Phils move into first

– With the Marlins loss to the Reds and the Phils 10-7 victors over the Cards, the NL East has a new leader for the first time this season. Shane Victorino was 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBI and Jayson Werth had a three-run shot and four RBI

Talk about: Albert Pujols hit his 10th homer of the season in the 9th off of Brad Lidge who has allowed four homers in 10.2 innings. Lidge gave up two dingers last year after allowing 9 in 2007 and 10 in 2006.

6. Six for the Reds

The Reds picked up their sixth shutout of the season and the Reds’ Mike Phillips drove home six in Cincy’s 7-0 win over the Marlins.

Talk about: The Reds are 10-5 on the road this season and completed a 3-2 road trip, during which their staff had an ERA of 1.68.

7. Seven for the Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays scored seven times in the 7th inning to top the Indians, 10-6. Adam Lind hit a three-run home run and Scott Rolen hit a one-runner for the Jays.

Talk about: The Indians bullpen has been successful only six times in 13 save opportunities and has a 6.49 ERA.

8. Suspended animation

The Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals game was stopped with one out in the bottom of the 11th either because it was raining so hard or the umps couldn’t stand to watch the action any further. The game included 13 walks, three errors, 18 runners left on base and assorted other miscues.

Astros pitcher Chris Sampson faced seven batters and walked four forcing in three runs. In that inning the Nationals scored six runs on two hits, five walks, one HBP, one error and a partridge in a pear tree.

Talk about: All the stats for the game count and the game will be made up in progress in Houston on July 9, although the Nats will be the home team. Ryan Zimmerman extended his hitting streak to 23 games. "That's one more than 22," the Washington third baseman said.

9. UNABASHED SELF PROMOTION:

After all if I don’t do it, who will?

My full Cinco De Mayo special was published right here: http://www.dugoutcentral.com/blog/?p=2464

I’ll be on the Happy Hour with J.P. Peterson, 1010 CBS Sports Radio Tampa Bay today just after 4:00 PM

Check my Tweet for #10 – http://twitter.com/BillyBall

Bill Chuck is the creator of Billy-Ball.com (www.Billy-Ball.com) and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales,” with a Foreword by Jon Miller, published by ACTA Sports, and available worldwide.

Bill is available for radio appearances, and writing for print or the web: Bill@billy-ball.com