Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
With the Cubs LF Soriano out now, maybe it would be a good time to get Jake Fox some playing time. Heâs quite capable of playing left field.
Circling the Bases thinks so and I agree. Unfortunately, so far the Cubs have not taken that strategy. He hasnât started since Sept 3 the last time Soriano played a game.
Much is being made now about over-zealous homerun celebrations and the reactions they get from the opponents. I first came across this article on mlb.com about the Giants getting âirkedâ about a couple of homeruns in which teams exhibited in the Giantsâ opinion, âunprofessionalâ behavior.
One was the actions of Milwaukeeâs Prince Fielder, the other of Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres. Giants starter Brad Penny, who gave up the four-bagger, thought Gonzalez lingered a bit too long, admiring his work before making the trot.
I saw the video of the Gonzalez homer and honestly, I didnât notice it.
Now, USA Today has picked up on the story. And they have a pretty damning photo of Fielderâs antics to go along with it, too The story is compelling with good examples etc etc..
But it makes me wonder if this story has taken a life of its own. Does it merit this much attention?
Two thoughts that popped into my head regarding this rather unimportant issue (in the grand scheme of things):
One, mlb.com covered this a few days ago. The same news source that recoils at anything controversial. Normally, the cynic in me would surmise that MLB is just trying to perhaps generate controversy/interest/rivalry in the midst of a postseason hunt but the teams involved are not near the top of their division.
Two, god forbid should this story take off to the point that MLB feel that they need to âdo something about itâ. Professional baseball has enough regulations already and a lot of them range from unnecessary to a hindrance.
Some of you watch more baseball games from different markets than I. Is this really a problem? And why is MLB so worried about it?
I talked on the phone with a friend today. In a nutshell, he is a Cubs fan who lives in Chicago proper. After going round and round about the Cubs woes, I mentioned Iâve been going to see the Illini baseball team practice a couple times this week.
âWow, you go and watch and watch them PRACTICE?â
He seemed a bit incredulous.
And yeah, from his point of view, it does seem a little hard to believe. Living in Chicago, a few hundred feet from the Red line and boom! youâre at Wrigley Field.
But Iâm not in Chicago (or for that matter, St Louis) and havenât been all summer. I need my dose of real live baseball even if itâs a loosely played split squad practice game with the coaches hitting fungoes to the infielders in between pitches.
The fact that Illinois Field is one block away from my workplace doesnât hurt either.
Meanwhile, the way I hear it from my friend, you canât give away Cubs or Sox tickets these days. From his perspective, fans arenât interested in either team this late in the season especially considering how theyâre doing. Now thatâs harsh.
Iâm hoping the situation isnât near as bad as my friend is portraying it. Baseball is baseball whether itâs college kids taking fungoes or two teams on the downswing.
This tattoo belongs to an employee at my favorite coffee shop. Itâs something else.
I was drawn to it initially when his shirt sleeve was down and all I saw were the baseball cleats and the stirrups. Knowing that he was a devout Yankees fan, I knew it had to be baseball related and I asked if I could see it.
Wow, imagine my surprise when he pulled up his sleeve and I saw the pretty woman barely dressed in a vintage-style baseball uniform.  Iâm not a tattoo person myself but I have to admit this was a conversation-starter.
He says it incorporated two of things he loved most in the world⊠baseball and women.
Sorry for the censorship box covering the good part. I didnât want to offend. Here is the NSFW version (it is only a tattoo after all).
I got a chance to see the University of Illinois baseball squad take full team practice today. This was the first full team practice of the fall.
You can see the update and some photos I took over at the Illinois Baseball Report.
Woo hoo! Former Illini shortstop and friend of the Zealot, Shawn Roof has hit his first pro homerun. Itâs worth mentioning because the versatile infielder never hit one during his days as an Illini either.
Donât expect another one soon because the Roof waited till the last game of the Erie Seawolvesâ regular season for his first dramatic first.
Congrats, Shawn!
Jonathan Papelbon has been slapped with another fine related to MLBâs âpacing violationâ. This rule which MLB has asked to be more vigorously enforced, limits the time that a pitcher takes to throw the ball.
Iâm not a fan of the rule necessarily but I understand why it is in place. Papelbon is certainly familiar with the rule. This incident is the seventh time heâs been hit with this violation. This time he got a $5000 fine to bring his total to $10,000 for fines accrued for this practice.
Some baseball fans (who regard any infraction of the rules baseball as a personal affront) feel Papelbon is doing this because in the words of a commenter in one forum, âthe rules are meant for someone elseâ or that it âshows the type of character he possessesâ.
Sheesh.
Papelbon is, in my opinion, simply pitching the best he can in the way that he can. If getting fined a measly (in relative terms) $1,000-$5,000 a shot for a couple times a year in order for him to put up the numbers that he does, heâll do it.
Should he find a way to hurry his delivery? Probably, unless he doesnât mind that fine to continue to rise.
At this time, Pap has 34 saves in 37 opportunities with a 1.84 ERA. Iâm sure Red Sox fans arenât complaining about the extra time.
On this day in 1887, Tilly Walker was born. Unless youâre a devoted baseball historian, Walker is pretty much an unknown as baseball players go.
Coming to the bigs in 1911, he was a journeyman outfielder playing for the Senators, Browns and Red Sox before finding a more permanent home with the Philadelphia Athletics where he played for six years between the years of 1918-1923. He was a solid hitter for his era, ranking up there among the leaders in extra-base hits, slugging and yes, even homeruns.
His homerun numbers during his career werenât Ruthian by any means. He ranked 3rd in the American League in 1914 with a grand total of six. As time went by, his total grew getting up into the double-digits even reaching as high as 37 in 1922.
But Tilly Walker has one major distinction, perhaps fodder for a trivia question. In 1918 while playing for the Philadelphia Athletics, he tied Babe Ruth for the AL lead in homeruns with 11. He was the last person to lead the league in that category before the Babe Ruth era. Ruth then continued his dominance of baseball by leading the AL in homers 10 of the next 12 seasons (the exceptions? In 1922 when Ken Williams had his career year for the Browns and 1925 when Ruth had his famous âBellyache Heard âRound the Worldâ aka gonorrhea).
If you look over Walkerâs stats, youâll note that those 11 homeruns he hit in 1918 is only time he ever led his league in any category.
Walker ended his career with 118 career homeruns which probably doesnât seem like a lot. But considering that the career leader at the time of his retirement had 238 and that was Babe Ruth, he probably ranked pretty high.
Tilly Walker has obviously passed on (in 1959) in his home state of Tennessee. But he does have a place in baseball history. Happy Birthday, Tilly Walker!
The most excellent baseball blog Hardball Cooperative just posted their Top List of Baseball Flicks. I had a hand in contributing in the article so definitely check it out.
In their poll of contributors, Bull Durham eked out Field of Dreams for best baseball movie. For my part, I chose Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns as my fave and did a short review of it.
And whatâs a best baseball movie list without a list of
âbadâ baseball movies? HC didnât drop the ball and presents us with their panelsâ list of âworstâ baseball movies. ClichĂ©s, stereotypes and over-used plots are the norm here. My choice? Major League: Back to the Minors (aka Major League 3). I have to admit the âbadâ movie list is an entertaining read. Check out the article (including my review of ML:BTTM).
Thanks to James Bailey of Hardball Cooperative for affording me the opportunity to participate in the project. It was fun.
Last week was the 70th anniversary of the first televised professional baseball game in major league history. On August 26th, 1939, it was a doubleheader that took place in Brooklyn between the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds (the very first televised baseball game was a game between Princeton and Columbia held at Bakers Field)..
There was nothing particularly outstanding about the games themselves though the Reds did manage a 5 run inning in the first game to make a comeback making the final score 5-2. Dem Bums made it a split by scoring a quick six runs in the first three innings and never looked back winning the second game 6-1.
While the implications of televising this game most definitely had far-reaching effects, Iâm sure those at the time may have had their doubts. There were only about 400 television sets in the New York that could take advantage of this this new technology. The quality of the picture was very grainy and snowy.
But the picture quality eventually improved over years, taking away the mystique of the commentaries from the radio broadcasters and showing EXACTLY what was happening on the ball field. And with the continued development of televised baseball broadcasting, Major League Baseball owners saw with delight the revenue streams that could be exploited with it. Soon after with sports media networks such as ESPN, came to the same conclusion.
Fast forward through 70 years of development, both from a technological and business sense and in the last 10 years, we see Major League Baseball going through a new revolution in content delivery. We now have High-Definition television taking the picture quality to a higher level.
But we also see MLB content delivery taking a different turn away from conventional television. We no longer need to switch on the remote to follow your favorite team. In 2000, MLB created a new branch, the Major League Baseball Advanced Media, to meet this need. Generally speaking, the MLBAM is charged with content delivery of baseball on the internet as well as any interactive media. Because of MLBAM, fans can view baseball games on streaming video over our computer and recently, even our smartphones.
Orville and Wilbur Wright probably never envisioned NASA when they were successful in their first flight at Kitty Hawk. Nor did those responsible for televising the very first game 70 years ago envision the state of baseball viewing today.
