Baseball

I am now a fan of the World Baseball Classic. I just finished watching Team USA beat Team Canada. The game was better than I expected. It seems a bit more personal this time around for Team USA. I was impressed by the emotion and desire to win that players showed.  I was impressed with how the players felt the need to represent not only this country, but this countrys past time.  Then it donned on me. For the last few weeks I have heard players "think, debate, ponder" whether or not they would play in the Classic. The reason for not playing? Most say its fear of getting injured. So I did some researched. What I found is professional baseball players have found several ways to hurt themselves while their not on the diamond. Here are a few of my favorites.

Continue reading "Attention MLB Players - Don't worry ..."

To compete, a baseball team needs pitching and defense. An old adage maybe, but it exists for a reason. A team that continuously gives up runs ends up yanking their starters early in games and taxes their bullpen, lessening their effectiveness over time and thereby compounding the problem over the season. Ironically, trying to keep games close hurts the team in the long run. But with one of the best fielding percentages and team ERA’s in the league, the Toronto Blue Jays are competing.

Continue reading "Why the Jays won't compete: the importance ..."

Just picture it: it’s the top of the ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays are holding a slim 2-1 lead over the New York Yankees. Up to bat is Derek Jeter with Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez on deck. Cito Gaston, in order to shut the door on the game and the series gets on the phone and brings in the big gun, Pedro Luis Lazo, winner of two Olympic Gold medals with Cuba and current closer of the Blue Jays. And even if he gives up a run its okay, because leading off the bottom of the ninth for the Jays is Alexei Bell, who hit 30 HR with 100 RBI with Santiago del Cuba last year.

Continue reading "Part Time Jays: How to add a little ..."

I call it "Baseball Heroin," as it's all too easy to sit for hours flipping between games, immobile, helpless to the draw of constant, and constantly changing, baseball.

This year has the added bonus of being able to watch either the home or away feed for a game, so I can tailor my watching to the team I like, or switch between the two to get a different perspective on a game. This somewhat ameliorates some of the problems DirecTV has been having this year with feeds--I'm one of the many, many people who woke up at 3AM on Opening Day in Japan . . . only to find that DirecTV's satellite problems were blacking out the broadcast. A handful of games later on in the season experienced this same problem, but these problems have been by and large small ones.

Continue reading "Saturday: The Black Hole of Baseball"

Bring back day games for the World Series. Baseball's being lost to other sports, in part because kids don't watch the games (live or in person) the way they could when the games were in the daytime. Sure, ratings are higher at night, but how much does this affect ad revenue, really? And even if it does, sometimes you've gotta sacrifice the present for the future, instead of the other way around.

Continue reading "How I'd Change Baseball"

In Major League Baseball, 9 teams have not made the playoffs since 1998. The Royals have not made the playoffs since 1985; the Nationals/Expos have not made the playoffs since 1981. How can fans of these two teams have any hope?

Continue reading "Where's the Parity"

Here is where I will write/blog about all things baseball, MLB and sports and keep a running commentary on anything else I feel like!  Probably not for the faint of heart though, cause I will say some things you won't agree with!

Continue reading "Welcome to the mind of "The Dude""