March, 2010 | The Baseball Zealot

The Schillings and Asperger’s Syndrome

Shonda Schilling, the wife of former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling, has come out with a book. And unlike most books penned by former athletes or their wives, this one has peaked my interest. It’s called The Best Kind of Different: Our Family’s Journey’s with Asperger’s Syndrome.

One of the Shillings’ sons has Asperger’s Syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism. The book is written mostly by Shonda with help from Curt (he also wrote the foreword). There’s a lot I could tell you personally about AS but if you’re interested, read the book. I had the chance to listen to an interview with both Schillings on March 26th’s episode of ESPN’s Baseball Today where they spoke about their challenges and joys of raising an AS kid.

The Baseball Today interview did around to baseball, by the way. Curt Schilling does NOT miss baseball though he did take part in a fantasy league for the first time (he says he won the league “against some media types”.

Bet that made him feel good.

Seamheads contest

Over at Seamheads.com, they’re holding a fun contest. Guess the old-timey baseball players whose photos make up their website’s banner.

I can tell you now that one of them is a gimme and few more I know right off the bat. Others have me befuddled, though.

Go ahead and give it a try. The winner gets a free Seamheads t-shirt or mousepad.

LASIK surgery and seeing the ball

Jeff Sullivan from Lookout Landing did an admittedly unscientific but still somewhat interesting study on Lasik eye surgery on ballplayers and how it affected their hitting.

His post has some significant stats. Again, not scientific but his results??

Based on our very limited sample, it seems that LASIK eye surgery can indeed help hitters perform at a higher level. Which we’d expect, given that a good hitter has to be able to, you know, see.

Hmm… very eye opening.

I’ll admit it… I miss Cosell

Yesterday would have been Howard Cosell’s 92nd birthday. For you young ‘uns, here’s a clip of him broadcasting in Earl Weaver’s last game as a manager:

Yes, Cosell was outspoken, egoistic, and even controversial but even as a younger baseball fan I liked him. I liked his voice and I liked his over-confident, outlandish style.

There’s no doubt there are many of you out there who disliked him as a broadcaster. And quite honestly, in this day of cookie-cutter sports analysts and broadcasters, Cosell probably wouldn’t have a job.

Here’s to you Howard… hope you’re enjoying your birthday wherever you ended up.

Diamond Jim is back

Centerfielder Jim Edmonds is making a comeback. After an ill-fated 2009 when his wife died of a cocaine overdose and he spent most of the rest of it recuperating from that, Edmonds is back in baseball.

The Milwaukee Brewers are taking a flier on Edmonds hoping he can help the team. A good move in my opinion if only because they’re getting him on the cheap.

The Gold Glove centre-fielder, making a comeback after taking the 2009 season off, had his minor league contract purchased Thursday, giving the 39-year-old a spot on the 40-man roster.

The move put US$850,000 in Edmonds’ pocket, with the ability to make up to $1.75 million in bonuses.

Umpire Fantasy League

Here’s the most unique idea for a fantasy league I’ve heard in a while. One based on MLB umpire ejections.

Billed as the MLB Umpire Ejection Fantasy League, this site documents all ejections by umpires in the majors and allows members to draft umps as you would a fantasy baseball team. But as the name suggests, the stats are based on how many ejections the umpires are part of.

Even if you aren’t a member, the blog is well worth the read if only for the useful/trivial? documentation of all the ejections that occur in baseball.

Twins hang on to Mauer for $184 mil

Mike Bauman, columnist for MLB.com, explains why the $184 million deal that keeps Joe Mauer in Minnesota for the next eight years, is good for baseball.

This is where the encouragement occurs for the rest of the non-Yankees in the baseball universe. Instead of Mauer moving to the Bronx to take over for Jorge Posada, for instance, he will simply remain in the upper Midwest as a member of the Minnesota Twins. What a nice, clean, refreshing story line.

and further…

There should be encouragement in this example for other franchises of less than gargantuan size, with star players coming into their own free agency. The best players can be retained by someone other than the biggest franchises.

The figure of $184 seems like a high number but for the number of years and the quality of the product, some feel that the Twins got a pretty good deal. I’ve even heard the word “bargain” bandied about.

Put simply, what this does is lock up one of the best players in baseball who was lucky enough (from the Twins’ perspective) to develop within their system. The Twins are saying goodbye to the Humpdome and hello to Target Field which in the long run will probably help pay for Mr Mauer.

Back to Mike Bauman’s point, though. Is this good for baseball? I guess it doesn’t matter since well, it’s already happened right? But part of me understands Bauman’s point. It’s nice to see the small guys hold on to the big players once in a while.

NOT the Reason I use Twitter

Fox Sports, DirecTV practice with 3D in anticipation of All-Star Game

On Wednesday, Fox Sports and DirecTV in cooperation with Major League Baseball did a dress rehearsal of sorts of shooting a baseball game in 3D. It took place in Angels Stadium and they used college players to help in their effort to create a baseball game atmosphere.

The reason for the practice run? Fox Sports plans to use this 3D technology at this year’s All-Star Game.

Let’s get this out of the way. Only DirecTV subscribers will be able to view the Game in 3D. Should every work as planned though, it will be a coup for DirecTV since many might subscribe just to see the 3D experience.

With all the disclaimers, it still is quite a feat,

As part of July’s coverage, Fox will deploy two sets of announcers, one for the conventional 2D broadcast that most viewers will see and one for DirecTV’s 3D coverage. I asked Goren if the announcers doing 3D will require special training in the new technology. "It’s an interesting question," he says. During game action the announcers focus is on the field of play. But during replays, "do the announcers put on 3D glasses to look at the 3D monitors? Right now we don’t have an answer for that."

During the Consumer Electronics Show back in January, the big buzzword was “3D”. Every provider, manufacturer, and supplier that could conceivably get away with it, would incorporate “3D” into their selling points. It’s clear the 3D is the up and coming technology.

Yet, I’m still trying to get a handle on it. Not intellectually so much but is viewing a baseball in 3D something that really appeals to me. Now these words will most likely come back to bite me in the future. In a couple years, everything we view will be in three dimensions (“dude, you still watch that flat thing?”). But right now, the baseball traditionalist wants to watch a game like I always have (especially without Tim McCarver).

But as someone who is in the technology field, I admit I am curious. Will it be gimmicky like Fox Sports’ Diamond Cam or provide a genuinely pleasurable viewing experience? I guess we’ll see.

MLB panel to announce proposed changes April 4

A panel has been taking a hard look at the current way the game of Major League Baseball is being played. And before you know it, April 4 to be exact, there will be an announcement if there will be any proposed changes. If I know the MLB, there will be some. They can’t leave well enough alone.

Bud Selig is at the forefront of this effort.

Here’s a quick look at some of the big issues the panel hopes to address:

Eliminating the All-Star-World Series home advantage
Adding instant replay for balls hit down the foul lines
Changing the playoff schedule
A variety of “pace of game” issues

The pace of game issue has been a thorn in MLB’s side for a while. Jonathan Papelbon was fined $5000 last year for taking too long on the mound. Now it’s come to light that three teams, the Yankees, Dodgers and the Red Sox have been particularly named by this panel as violating the pace of game. According to Stats LLC, all three teams average over three hours.

As for the playoff schedule, I know many fans that would back the panel on a change on this one. The early proposed change is to eliminate current days of rest to shorten the overall postseason.

There are a few other issues being discussed. Those include changes to the amateur draft and realignment to “better group teams of similar economic situations”. I’m not sure exactly what that means and I’m not sure I want to know.

Now most of these rule or policy changes should they see the light of day, won’t take effect right away. We wouldn’t see the changes to the postseason, for example, till the 2011 season. As for the game play changes, they might take effect sooner. Changes to hasten the pace of baseball games, for example, would probably take effect ASAP. MLB feels they are under the gun by fans to speed the games up.

And if you’re interested in how *I* feel about the above proposed changes:

Yes, let’s just pretend it never happened. Despite how it was trumped up by MLB and media, the home advantage rule had limited effectiveness.
No, though I’m not surprised it’s being proposed. Proponents of the original instant replay rule claimed over and over that “it will only be used for home run calls”. I knew it would be a slippery slope.
Yes. The postseason schedule takes too long and the cynic in me wonders if it’s to prolong how long money can be made from it.
It depends. I don’t like long games either but I also don’t like changing how players play the game. I wonder what MLB would have done about Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky, had he played in these times.

Your thoughts?