Baseball

With All-Star rosters set to be announced this weekend, I’m hoping that fans made good decisions in for whom to cast their final ballots.  While voting began not long after spring training ended, the true All-Stars have revealed themselves over the entire first half of the season.

Continue reading "Who's on first at the Midsummer Classic?"

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 ..."

* Gibson is one of the most prominent former members of the Negro Leagues, and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

** To be fair, Figgins has never made an All-Star team but has been in the top 25 in MVP voting three times in his six full seasons in the majors.

Continue reading "My beef with Bill James"

  

Last night, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 to win the World Series in five games (4-1).  This is the second World Championship for the Phils…they previously won in 1980…28 years ago.  This will be remembered as one of the weirdest finishes in a Series with an unprecedented suspension of a game due to inclement weather.  The game was concluded 48 hours later…in hindsight…it was worth the wait! 

Continue reading "Finally"

NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers, it got me thinking whether Philadelphia is a Football town or a Baseball town?  On Thursday evening on Fox, the Phillies will host the L.A. Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS.  I’m not a big fan of baseball, but I do like the Phillies (Mets, and Yankees as well).  I watch about a handful of games a year including the playoffs.  I was never really into baseball…I just don’t get the fascination?  I find it slow, dull, and extremely boring…unless you’re at the ballpark…then it’s a whole different story!  When you’re actually at the game, it’s exciting and much more “family friendly” than football. 

Continue reading "Philly Is Still A Football Town"

Go Dodgers!

Did anyone see the celebration at Dodger stadium last night?  Were they selling tickets or what?  It looked like fun.

They may not be the best team in the league but they seem to be peaking at the right time.  There seems to be a real good vibe with this team.  I'm hopeful that they can have a long run into the playoffs.

Continue reading "Dodgers win the NL West"

Jeff Christensen believes the quarterback position is broken. 

And he’s just the guy to fix it. 

“Kids today,” says the founder of Throw It Deep Passing Academy, “and when I say kids I mean 19, 20, 21 years old. They think because they throw a pretty spiral they’ve done something. It’s mind-boggling.” 

Continue reading "THINK FIRST, THEN THROW IT DEEP"

So I have noticed that my 2 year old son is thinning out and losing that baby fat. It makes we wonder when Andruw Jones will shed his?

Ned Colletti, Joe Torre, and the rest of the Dodger spokes-holes are saying that his terrible performance so far is not about his weight. How could it not be? He is out of shape. Which last time I checked, was fairly detrimental to the performance of a professional athlete.

Continue reading "Dodgers' Jones needs to trim the fat."

Somebody answer these two mind-boggling questions for me.  How does Julio Lugo get 36 million dollars over four years from the Boston Red Sox?  And why was Theo always drooling over him?  If he continues to get paid for the current brutal baseball clinic he’s been putting on, then that drool is going to turn into spit. 

Continue reading "Lugo: One Shortstop Who Has Been Here Way Too Long"

If your going to wait nearly 5 months for opening day, and have to get up at 6am to watch Dice K turn into Nuke LaLoosh, you better win the game. Well, thanks to the Manny/Moss combo, the Boston Red sox eked out a 6-5 win over the Oakland Athletics. 

Continue reading "Breakfast With The Bo Sox"

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"

I'm not one to get carried away with facts and figures. But believe it or not, Manny arrived at camp on time (fact) and he showed up looking to be in great shape (figure). I love Manny Ramirez for many reasons, aside from that dreadlock tangled mane thing that he somehow stuffs under his hat.  But other than that, there's nothing else about Manny Ramirez that bothers me or ever has.

Continue reading "Manny May Be Out in Left Field...But ..."

Like the rest of Red Sox Nation, I really like what I saw in Jacoby Ellsbury's play last season and think he's the one to roam Fenway's center stage in 2008. But was it enough to turn Coco Crisp into Coco Crust?  I'm not sure about that yet.  Jacoby's a speedster with pretty good defensive skills, a so so arm, and an exciting bat, but did we see enough to anoint him to your everyday center fielder?

Continue reading "Coco vs Ellsbury: The Center Fielders of Attention"

If there's one thing I know about Curt Schilling, it's the fact that he's consistent.  No, I'm not talking about the fact that he's won at least 15 games 8 times in his career. Or the fact that he's walked 50 or fewer batters in 19 of his 21 seasons.  What I'm talking about is the fact that since he's been a member of the Red Sox, he's rolled into spring training with more than a few extra Schillings...and we're not talking about British pounds here!

Continue reading "Spring Training is Spring Gaining for Schilling"

Last week the Cleveland Indians announced that Jacobs Field, their home since 1994, will be renamed Progressive Field.  Does anyone else find it annoying that over the last few years, more than half a dozen ballparks have been renamed disgustingly commercialized names?  While the rotoworld.com writers point out the irony in the fact that the team playing in Progressive Field has a Native American nickname, I can’t get over the ridiculousness of the never-ending changes of the names of baseball parks.  I know it’s about money, but it takes away from the game.  If a name is good enough for the stadium’s first name, it should never need to be replaced (except in the case of Enron Field).

Continue reading "What’s in a name, anyway?"

Roger Clemens continues to profess his innocence that he has never used steroids. He has been on 60 minutes and now has had a press conference and released a tape with his former trainer to prove what he has said. Now I'm really torn on this one for a number of different reasons. I've always been a big fan of Roger Clemens but it seems there could be a lot of evidence that he has used them. The worse part about this whole story is no matter what Roger Clemens does he is always and forever going to be associated with steroids even if he is not guilty of it. It seems as a society we all rush to judge someone before we know the whole story. Even if Clemens is found to have never used them their still will be the cloud over his head. How much will it effect his hall-of-fame election is another story. He may not get in for awhile.

Continue reading "Can We Really Trust What Roger Clemens Is Saying?"

Well this should not come as much of a surprise that Jose Canseco has signed a deal to finish his new book on steroids in baseball and according to him and his agent many more names will be dropped in his book that was left off the Mitchell report. Now I'm not one to say Jose always speaks the truth, but so far everything he has said has been right on. Now according to him A-Rod and Ivan Rodriguez were left off that list and should be included plus a few others which of course will be mention in his book.

Continue reading "Juiced 2 The Sequel!"

While attending college at the University of Tampa, I noticed the awesome fact that the area is rich in professional sports! The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are relatively close to each other and easily accessible. The closest NBA was the Orlando Magic, but I got to catch a pre-season game at the Ice Palace one year. I felt really spoiled since I grew up in a place where everything was much more spread out and harder to get tickets for. To make things even better – there was plenty of golf and tennis around. I only wish the USF Bulls were as good as they are now when I was there. I didn’t complain though, I was able to go to the games free since my school didn’t have football. (They did at one time; John Matuszak is a U Tampa alum!)

Continue reading "Something's wrong with Tropicana Field?"