Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
Eric SanInocencio contacted me to plug his baseball talk show, Baseball Digest Daily. I took a listen and it’s a good one.
When it comes to guests, BDD gets some pretty top draws. The show I listened to billed as the "Playoff Roundtable", featured ESPN’s Buster Olney as well as Chicago Tribune’s Mark Gonzalez and Adam Rubin from the NY Daily News.
This show (dated 9/27) is an apt show to start with as they preview the postseason. Give it a listen.
At Bleed Cubbie Blue, a fan posted a photo of the statue at the Daley Plaza.
It seems it has joined the Cubs in the midst of today’s Cubs Playoff Rally in downtown Chicago.
Dave Pinto does a good job of breaking down the Cubs and Dodgers statistically on Baseball Musings. Not too many surprises here:
Cubs come out on top offensively in pretty much every category. They were tops in the league in runs/game, OBA (Dusty who?), slugging and batting.
On the pitching side of things, it’s a little more competitive. Dem Bums’ ERA of 3.68 was tops in the NL in ERA though the Cubs weren’t too far behind with a 3.87 ERA which was good for 3rd in the league. Though the Cubs best the Dodgers (and the rest of the league) in K/9 IP, they don’t do as well in BB/9 IP in comparison.
The Cubs won the season series record but Pinto points out that the games and stats were close. Runs, homeruns and walks, were all pretty statistically even.
The White Sox needed to play the last game of the regular season Monday to determine whether a one game playoff was needed against Minnesota. Meanwhile the Twinkies were in their clubhouse watching the game on TV, waiting to pop their champagne cork. But instead of toasting themselves they needed to hop on an Chicago bound airplane for a Tuesday night do or die ballgame.
First there was a game to be played on Monday between the Tigers & the White Sox, we were all there to watch the afternoon game. The rain was falling down as Rob & I drove to the Cell, stopping along the way at Hero’s for a delicious sub sandwich. We brought them to the ballpark, even sharing our booty with Tade & Caramel Corn Mike. Steve, Al, & Anthony go there about 4:00 PM, first pitch was postponed from 1:05 PM. There was also a baseball geek named Joe from Michigan hanging with us, he was a great guy, even pulled for Chicago.
Although Joe was hoping Gary Sheffield would hit his 500th homer, so maybe he’d retire. Joe thinks the Tigers are going to be down for some time, stating some of their moves were racially motivated, like being in love with Nate Robertson (he sucks) & Brandon Inge (he’s at the Mendoza line).
Former Sox starter Freddy Garcia was matched up against Gavin Floyd. Although Gracia was only hitting 88 MPH on the radar gun, he was keeping our hitters in check. Halfway through this tight game, Freddy grabbed his shoulder and was done. The faithful at the Cell gave Freddy a standing ovation, it was kind of surreal watching yesterday’s hero walking off into the sunset, wearing enemy colors.
Jim Leyland tried everything, even bringing on a starter, Galarraga into the contest, but that backfired as he threw two wild pitches, and walking the only batter he faced. Rookie Alexei broke the game open with his 4th grand slam of the season.
So there will be baseball Tuesday as the Twins come to town. After the game Rob & I stood in line and bought 15 tickets for the next game, EVERYBODY will be there! After Chicago defeats Minnesota it’s on to Tampa Bay to take on the Rays. I still haven’t ruled out a trip to the sunshine state to watch my boys in action. The White Sox played the Indians on Sunday, the Tigers on Monday, will play the Twins on Tuesday, and if they win, the Rays on Wednesday. This might be the first time in MLB history that a team played four different teams in four consecutive days.
Mark Buehrle & the Chicago White Sox rose up to take the finale of a three game series with the Indians, which means there will be baseball Monday. The season for the underachieving Detroit Tigers is not over. They will be coming to Chicago to play game #162, if the Sox win then the Sox will host the Twinkies on Tuesday to determine the AL Central Division Champions.
Cleveland started an inexperienced rookie rather than this year’s AL Cy Young Award winner, Cliff Lee. Lee had a stiff neck, so the kid got his shot, with his family sitting right in front of us. He didn’t pitch poorly, maybe didn’t deserve a loss, but got one none the less. The runs off the kid were a solo Paulie Konerko rip just inside the leftfield foul pole, a bases loaded error on doubleplay ball, and a sac fly, not bad at all.
Rob, Al & his son Anthony, Steve, Dick & Bea, Debbie & George, Adele & Mary, me, and Caramel Corn Mike were all in the house. Tomorrow we’ll do it again. LET’S GO WHITE SOX!
The Chicago White Sox have a losing streak going at the worst time ever! Losing three straight at the Metrodome was bad enough, but then we came back to Chicago, without a lead, trailing the Twinkies. And we lost against the Indians, this is the same Tribe that threw in the towel by dumping C.C. Sabathia to the Brewers. So now the losing streak had reached four, but Minnesota also lost, to the lowly Royals. Kansas City’s 20 games below .500, but has played ten games above .500 in September. Even though the Twins were losing to KC, I didn’t feel comfortable watching the White Sox games on my laptop, something wasn’t sitting well, maybe it was a cheese overload. Rather than hopping on my pontoon boat in Waupaca and cruising around the beautiful Chain O’ Lakes on a sunny Saturday, I felt compelled to drive four hours to Chicago, get on the Blue Line, take a shuttle bus, to the Red Line, over to the Cell. My team needed me!
I was told once, when in trouble, YELL, FIRE!, not HELP! My team was yelling, FIRE!, loud & clear. Despite the fact there might have been a huge piece of steak in the White Sox throat, the Heimlich was needed. I was coming to town, to save the day, on to the Playoffs! After watching Javier Vazquez try not giving in to Indian batters, it didn’t start out that way, as he struckout the first two hitters on three pitches, before surrendering a solo home run to (Ahhh) Choo, but then in the 5th the Old Javy showed up. This was the same Vazquez with a record below .500, with great stuff, but no faith in his great stuff. The Tribe posted six runs in the 5th to take a 7-1 lead.
My team didn’t just need me there, they needed a bailout! If the Government can swoop in with a 700 billion bailout for the banks & the insurance companies, couldn’t they really come in here and stop this losing streak? I’ve often said, if you wanna screwup, do it on your own. If you REALLY wanna screwup, get the government involved. Maybe this losing streak is too big for the government to do anything here. But I must say, the government enabled the financial giants to make their boo-boos, and now are bailing them out, with our money.
I do recognize my team on the Southside of Chicago has gotten itself into this mess, and now must get itself out! Today might be the last game of the season for the Good Guys. There are many reasons we might not make it to the Playoffs. It’s not the umpires, injuries, or any other available excuses. Here are some downfalls of the team; 1) an overworked bullpen, 2) dealing a relief pitcher, when the setup man went down, for a HOF outfielder with nothing left in the tank, 3) falling in love with a minorleague outfielder who’s come through a few times throughout the year, while a gold glove caliber outfielder rots on the pines, 4) Vazquez has no balls, 5) two young starters who’ve never gone as many innings as they have, 6) allowing Detroit to sign a former member of our championship rotation, he’s even a shirt tail relative of Ozzie, & going to a four man rotation, but the #1 reason for the team’s failure IMHO is reason #7, 7) not being able to play fundamental baseball, can’t bunt, never move runners along, and cannot win without the longball, this strategy is working less since losing Quentin & Crede. All this said & done, Chicago still has a magic number of three. I know the Twinkies have a magic number of two. But the White Sox still have their destiny in their hands, win three straight games, and they’re in! Of course, first we’ve got to stop our losing streak, which has now reached five. BTW, KC rose up again to beat the Twinkies again in the Metrodome.
I’ll go out there again today, with Rob T & his family, maybe we can turn it around. It didn’t workout so well last night, with Al & his sons and Steve in the house. Honestly though, even if we make the playoffs, how far will we get? I know, just get in, but seriously, I’m not buying it.
I was chatting with former Bulls superstar Norm Van Lier on the Red Line on the way to the Cell. He had free tickets he needed to pickup, but none of his buddies showed up to join him. I guess it wasn’t exciting enough to watch a fledgling team struggle for their playoff lives, not nearly as exciting as Norm’s previous night out, listening to & partying with the Eagles. Van Lier did tell me how he was recruited out of Pittsburgh by the University of Alabama to play QB, and how the coach said, way back in ’65, “I didn’t know you were a Negro”. Needless to say, Stormin Norman decided to pass on the Bama QB experience.
Things are so bad in the Seattle clubhouse there’s talk of player anger toward Ichiro.
…former manager John McLaren and his staff were forced to act this season after a player was overheard talking about Ichiro and wanting to "knock him out."
Apparently, some players had an issue with Ichiro’s "selfish" style of play.
Big Papi is selling his bed for charity.
The bid just reached the reserve at $10,000.
Sometimes MLB Advanced Media gets it. Sometimes they understand what is in their best interests.
This is one of those times.
Baseball fan Russ Gooberman created a mash-up video of Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton featuring his longest homerun from the All-Star Game Home Run Derby. He set it to some music and uploaded it to YouTube.
Gooberman says the very next day, MLB Advanced Media sent a trademark claim to YouTube and the video was taken down. YouTube sent him a notice that read:
"This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by MLB Advanced Media claiming that this material is infringing:"
Through YouTube, Gooberman responded to MLB Advanced Media. His counter-notification was very well written in my opinion. It says in part (you can read the whole bit at lessig.com):
"Under established Fair Use principles, if a work is considered transformative, it does not represent an infringement. This video in particular, is extremely transformative. First of all, it takes less than a minute of footage out of an over three hour exhibition. Secondly, the footage is edited differently than the original telecast. Thirdly, the entire soundtrack has been removed and replaced. Fourthly, the footage itself has been altered, added to, subtracted from, and has had the meaning changed altogether.
…
This piece is fully non-commercial. The website behind the creation of this piece takes in zero revenue, and is a free entertainment service. Non-commercial use is another standard by which copyrighted material is allowable for re-use.
Again, this is only a small part of what Gooberman wrote and his whole piece is quite eloquent. Kudos to him for taking the time and effort to make his case.
As I said, this story does have a happy ending. In response to his notice and perhaps a second look at the video, not only did MLB Advanced Media rescind their takedown notice, they featured Gooberman’s mashup video on the official MLB Entertainment Blog.
Is MLB starting to see the light about intellectual property? Are they beginning to realize that posting one minute videos or photographs of MLB baseball does not hurt their bottom line but indeed increases fan interest in the game?
Probably not. But it’s a good step in the right direction and I heartily applaud MLBAM for seeing the light in this one case.
There may be hope yet.
Here’s the video in question. If you are Josh Hamilton fan, you’ll love it.
Never trust anyone in a green suit.
Apparently, there was a bomb scare on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park forcing an evacuation of fans before the game.
The culprit? Foil-wrapped hot dogs duct taped together left by the Phillie Phanatic and his crew. The ballpark dogs were part of a tv commercial featuring the Phillie mascot. The leftovers were left outside the ballpark and somehow looked like an exploding device to somebody therefore causing the ensuing panic. The bomb squad was called in and yes, the hot dogs were indeed blown up.