The Baseball Zealot | The Baseball Zealot

Voles show the cranks a grand time

The first ace is put up on the scoreboard. The Voles are ahead!

On Saturday, the family and i went to see the Vermilion Voles take on the Deep River Grinders in some vintage base ball action.

Voles’ captain Jim Knoblauch who also took on the role of the arbiter

Seems to me that Voles’ captain Jim Knoblauch has been cracking the whip during practice because the Voles looked very sharp. They won Saturday’s game 9-1. They tossed the horsehide with ease in the field, making some really impressive plays.

Hurler Shawn Lee tossing his nasty stuff

Pitching for the Voles was Baseball Zealot bud, Shawn Lee. Known as “the General” (that’s funny to me given Shawn’s easy-going nature), he took advantage of the good defense and kept the Grinders to one ace, a four-bagger that got lost in the weeds.

A Deep River Grinder striker rounding third as Voles fielders look for the ball in the weeds

No doubt, Shawn cursed me after that one since I probably jinxed him. Just the half-inning before, he and i were talking and I asked if any homeruns were ever hit. Not often, he said, “they would have to get lost in the weeds”

But that would be the only ace the Voles would give up and they would win handily 9-1. Shawn even contributed three hits to the cause.

The Deep River Grinders who hail from Hobart, Indiana are frequent competitors of the Voles and I’m sure there is a friendly rivalry between the two teams. That said, the important thing from the cranks’ (fans’) perspective was that a good game was played by both teams and a good time was had.

I have a few more photos from Saturday’s game between the Vermilion Voles and the Deep River Grinders on the Photo Gallery (not as many as I’d like though as my camera card became corrupt and some photos I took didn’t come out).

Great job by the Voles and good luck next time Grinders! For the Voles’ future schedule, see their website.

What’s the Buzz? Vuvuzelas!

I promised myself that the word ‘vuvuzela’ would not be written on this blog anywhere. Sounds too much like the private regions of a woman. But the irony of this is too much to pass up.

First, the Yankees have decided to ban the razzy sounding horn popularized and yet hated at the World Cup from Yankee Stadium. Rumor has it that one fan had one grabbed from him by security as he entered the Yankee-Philly game.

Yet at the same time, the Florida Marlins will be giving away 15,000 similar horns, considered obnoxious by many, as part of a promotion Saturday night. This may backfire on the Marlins.

These horns won’t be exactly the same as the vuvuzelas we’ve been seeing (and most likely hearing) at the World Cup.

From the Palm Beach Post:

The horns to be given away before Florida’s game against Tampa Bay are similar to but not the same as the soccer horns, said Sean Flynn, the Marlins’ vice president for marketing.

"They’re not as buzzing as vuvuzelas, but they’re loud,’ he said.

I’m sure as usual, Major League Baseball will have to come down with an edict, making a policy in horrendous detail, what is allowed and not allowed in MLB parks resulting in more security issues at parks.

What a difference age and well… other factors can have

Take a look at this photo.

Yes, that is really Barry Bonds. Photo circa 1987 and part of Sports Illustrated’s Andy Gray’s vault of photos.

Joyce voted best ump by players

Umpire Jim Joyce’s fateful call that blew Armando Galarraga’s perfect game on June 2 has most likely landed him on most top ten lists of Worst Calls by a sporting official. However, that didn’t stop the players from voting him as baseball’s best umpire.

I’m a skeptical guy by nature, never accepting anything at face value. Knowing this vote took place after the perfecto debacle, I have to think that one of these statements is true:

The players decided to band together and show true support for a good umpire who is going through a hard time because of a very bad call he made.
A majority of players do really believe that Jim Joyce is the truly the best umpire out there regardless of the mistake he made.

I’m not in favor of skewing results of polls, surveys and such to push an agenda even if it seems a noble one but such as it is. The truth is, Joyce has been around since 1987 and is considered one of the best. He’s officiated one All-Star game, six Division Series, three League Championship Series and two World Series. In short, he’s a seasoned veteran.

Consistent with their support of Joyce, an overwhelming 86% felt that the play at first base during Galarraga’s perfect game should NOT be overturned.

Really? I mean I can see the argument for either side but 86%!?

Other Results

The survey that the players took (100 players participated confidentially) had some other interesting results. The worst umps? CB Bucknor and Joe West. West’s bad grade may be because he was also rated as having the “quickest hook”.

Overall, the players weren’t so hot on the idea of instant replay. On fair vs foul calls, only 36% were in favor. When asked about replay for baserunning plays, it went down to 22%.

Lift the hype on Strasburg

I have to admit, I’m impressed that Mr Strasburg has been able to live up to the hype after two starts. Sooner or later, he has to come down to earth, I would think.

Our freshman outfielder at the University of Illinois hit three homeruns in his first college game against the #1 team in the nation last year. A lot was made of it nationally obviously and his name was put on the map. But one thing I remember was what our color guy (and former Illini player) said. “That’s the worst thing that could happen to him”.

Now our outfielder has been doing great since his first day but our color guy’s point is well taken. There’s a lot to be said for our sports media setting expectations and then having a player live up to them. There are Stephen Strasburg player trackers out there and every game he pitches is being live-blogged by practically everyone. What would the baseball community do if he pitched one game like a regular human being?

Despite all the hype, he’s still a 21 year old rookie with two Major League starts to his name. He’ll have some developing and growing to do even at this level. Let’s let Strasburg develop naturally and preferably with as little pressure as possible (considering he was sleeping two hours before his second start, he seems to be doing a good job of not letting it get to him).

Strasburg could turn into another Bob Feller but let’s not set the expectations so high that we turn him into a Mark Prior.

Vermilion Voles vintage base ball has two home games this weekend

This weekend, the Vermilion Voles play their first two home game of 2010 at Kennekuk County Park. The Voles are the local vintage base ball team, playing by the rules of 1858.

Saturday’s game is against their rivals Deep River Grinders. On Sunday, they play the St Louis Unions. Their schedule doesn’t specify but ~~I believe the games start at 1pm or so~~ the games start at 2pm.

Check out the Vermilion Voles website for directions and other info. PS… they’re on Facebook too.

If you want to get a sense of what a vintage base ball game is all about, I did a pretty good write-up when I went to the Uncle Joe Cannon’s Jamboree Tournament in 2008 complete with photos.

So if you are in the East Central Illinois area, stop by for some good ol’ fashioned base ball fun.

[Update] I saw Voles captain Jim Knoblauch (pictured above) in the local paper today. They had him list his ten favorite baseball players. My favorite was Chuck Knoblauch “because his name looked so cool in the box score”.

To be honest, it took two seconds for that to sink in. I guess only because Jim pronounces the ‘K”.

[Update] On Sunday, it’s a doublehheader. Twice the fun!

2009 last time we saw a pitcher with 100 career CG (ever?)

It’s nothing new even to the casual fan that complete games have taken a drastic dip in the last 15-20 years. But it just occurred to me that statistically, 2009 was a landmark year. With the retirement of Randy Johnson at the end of the year, we no longer will have an active pitcher who has at least 100 career complete games.

Johnson retired at the end of 2009 with 100 complete games on the nose. With his departure, Roy Halladay became the heir of the CG active leader throne. Even at that, Halladay has a ways to go. At this point in the season, Roy has 54 complete games in 13 seasons. If you look to the second man on that list, it’s Livan Hernandez with 48.

Certainly, by the end of 2010, we will end up with a active career leader in complete games under 100 games for the first time in major league history.

If you want a good visual on the decline of complete games through baseball history, Baseball Reference’s Progressive Leaders page might be of help.

Blue Wine?

Seems former Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda has gotten into the wine business. Witness his Lasorda Wine web site.

His most recent wine garnered the Living Legend Award from the Senior Resource Association which he received in Vero Beach.

“Every bottle comes from Italy. Nobody can make wine better than the Italians.”

Touch home plate before getting into a fight, dude

Here’s a hint… talk smack AFTER you round the bases.

The word is, he actually did get around to home plate. Here’s the write-up from Huff Po.

Skip the first inning, Randy Wells

Can we just have a “reverse reliever” in those games that Cubs’ starter Randy Wells pitches? A pitcher to start the game and get through that first inning? Seems that Wells is having trouble with that recently. Today, he got rocked for five runs by the Chicago White Sox with two of them coming in the first frame.

For the season, Wells has a 10.64 ERA in he first inning. After the third inning, it dips below 4.50.

Split	G	IP	ERA
1st inning	12	11.0	10.64
Innings 1-3	12	32.0	5.34
Innings 4-6	10	28.1	4.45
Innings 7-9	6	6.1	4.26

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2010.

Soriano did get his tenth homer of the year and his 300th of his career. He passes Tim Salmon on the all-time list and joins Chuck Klein and teammate Derrek Lee (who hit his 300th on Wednesday) for #125 on the list.

The Sox won 10-5.