Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
ESPN announced their broadcast teams for the 2011 season today.
They are:
Wednesday Night Baseball
Dave O’Brien (PBP) and Nomar Garciaparra
Monday Night Baseball
Sean McDonough (PBP), Aaron Boone and Rick Sutcliffe
Sunday Night Baseball
Dan Schulman (PBP), Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine (Jon Sciambi (PBP) Chris Singleton on ESPN Radio)
Are we seeing a retro trend in uniforms? The Oakland A’s have announced they are “going with the gold” similar with the Finley-style unis. Team GM Billy Beane refers to them as “canary yellow”. These uniforms will serve as the alternate to the white home uniforms (hint: they’re beta-testing them).
Yeah, it’s another move to move more merchandise to the baby boomers but I like the style. Next up, Houston’s bright orange with the star on the chest???
I’ve just been perusing Grant Smith’s paintings on his website (http://grant9smith.com). As the saying goes, I don’t know art but I know what I like. And I like these. It helps that a good portion of Smith’s work is devoted to baseball (see his Fine Prints section for a good representation of his work).
Again, I’m no art critic but even I can appreciate the way that Smith uses symbolism in his paintings. See his Rube Foster work entitled “We Can Dream” for an example of this. Smith uses a bit of dark humor in the selection of his titles. You’ll see what I mean.
Why the ‘9’ in his domain name? Smith addresses this on his ‘about’ page:
I made reference to the number 9 originally because of Ted Williams. As I grew older I sensed added meaning in the number, seeing it as the highest number before additional digits are added.
I went to tonight’s ‘Fireside Chat’ put on by the University of Illinois Latino/Latina Studies program. The topic was Pioneering Latinos: Building a Legacy on and Beyond the Playing Field. Hosted by U of I professor Adrian Burgos, the panelists on the stage were impressive.
Orestes ‘Minnie’ Minoso, who played for the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians during the integration of baseball, headlined the event. At age 86, he’s still pretty vivacious. Minoso (left), a Cuban national and was the first black to play baseball in town of Chicago (He received an award presented by Dr Burgos on behalf of the U of I Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Planning Committee marking the 60th anniversary of that event), told a lot of stories from his days with the White Sox. A overriding theme throughout the night with Mr Minoso was ‘respect the game’.
Another panelist came from a slightly different perspective. Fernando Perez is a current baseball player drafted by the Tampa Rays and was recently traded to the Chicago Cubs. Perez (right) is no dumb jock. He graduated 
from Columbia in American Studies and Creative Writing. Not only that, he’s apparently put some of that learnin’ to good use. He’s published a couple essays in the past few years and written for a blog for the New York Times (here’s an example of his work from 2009). I found Perez quite thoughtful and well-reasoned especially considering his youth. Seeing that he’s been traded to the Cubs, now I just hope he can hit.
Finally, Bernardo Ruiz is the director of the film ‘Roberto Clemente’. I must admit I have not seen ‘Clemente’ yet but now I want to. Ruiz (left) said that he made the movie because there was not a film out that adequately addressed Clemente and his life. He wanted to tell his story. He encouraged people to not stop there as there other stories around Latino baseball that still need to be told.
It was nice to see former Negro League pitcher and Champaign native Ernie Westfield in the audience. It was even better when Dr Burgos introduced him 
and had him read a poem before the panel discussion. Westfield (right) is a hidden treasure in Champaign-Urbana. No, I’m not a big poetry fan but I could listen to Westfield’s poems any day.
Thanks to the Department of Latina/Latino Studies and Dr Burgos for putting on the Pioneering Latinos event. I know Burgos is a great fan of Mr Minoso (and he said so at the event). This must have been a fulfilling project for him.
More photos of the event here.
Another local note: A collaboration billed as “Pioneering Latinos: Building a Legacy on and Beyond the Playing Field is coming up soon here at the University of Illinois. It’s generating some real interest among baseball fans and Latino activists alike.
Events will span a couple days… January 19-20 and will include a movie showing of Roberto Clemente, a lunchtime speaker plus a nightly “fireside chat” with former Sox player Minnie Minoso
It will feature some other big names, too. Besides Minoso, 2008 Rays’ Minor League Player of the Year Fernando Perez is speaking Perez is now with the Cubs’ organization. Bernardo Ruiz who directed the film, Roberto Clemente will also speak.
For more information, browse to the University of Illinois Latina/Latino Studies web site where they have more details.
Zealot friend and U of I professor, Adrian Burgos will be facilitating the event and was key in putting this all together.
All events are free to the public.
Registration for the Second annual Kiwanis Sports Trivia Championship is coming to a close. The date of the contest is January 30th but if you want to enter, you’ll need to register by January 15th. Do it now! You can register at Kiwanis’ web site they have set up for the event.
The Sports Trivia Contest will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign, Illinois. Event organizer Steve Zahos is mum on the types of questions being asked other than to say that there are a few new categories. Indeed, he is right. Here is the list:
Alas, I don’t remember What’s the Number, Super Bowls or NCAA Men’s Basketball from last year.
Team Zealot will once again make an appearance this year. The good news is that we can’t do much worse than last year. There’s Room for Improvement! That’s our slogan and we’re sticking with it.
I’ve said it before. And even before that. Bert Blyleven belongs in the Hall of Fame. Now I’ll shut up about it. Maybe.
No longer will he be the leader among non-eligible onlookers in strikeouts. He’ll be looking from within. Or third in wins. He’ll have his plaque up in the hallowed hall.
Glad to see him get his due.
One player who didn’t get much consideration was Kevin Brown. He got 12 votes. That amounts to just 2 percent of the vote which means he won’t remain on the ballot next year. I’m no KB fanboy but I would have thought his career would have garnered more than a passing “C’ya”.
211-144 over 19 seasons with great 3.28 ERA (considering the era he pitched). He pitched in six All-Star games. Let’s not forget he won five postseason games and won the Cy Young award.
Again, not a huge Kevin Brown fan but I expected to see him on the ballot for a while.
With help from my buddy Brando, I did an APBA baseball replay of the 1984 NLCS last night. Results aside (ok, the Cubs won. Yay. As a Cub fan, I feel vindicated), a question arose.
On San Diego thirdbaseman Graig Nettles’ APBA card, it show his nickname as “Puff”. Neither Brando or I knew why or how Nettles how he got this nickname. “Puff” seemed to me such a feminine name for such a hard-nosed player like Nettles.
So I looked it up. According to Baseball Reference’s Bullpen:
Graig Nettles was given the nickname of Puff by his teammates. "Puff" referred to the way Graig disappeared after playing a practical joke or starting trouble.
Another interesting aside… Nettles, who played the bulk of his career with the Yankees before being traded to San Diego (for Dennis Rasmussen), was a San Diego native and attended San Diego State University. Perhaps he wanted to get closer to home.
Speaking of Canadian baseball players, former Cub pitcher Ferguson Jenkins can add one more to his list of accomplishments.
Fergie’s face will adorn a postage stamp. This will be part of an effort to commemorate Black History Month this upcoming February. Along with his portrait, there will be a backdrop of Jenkins throwing off the mound in a Cubs uniform. Jenkins was in Ottawa on Monday to help Canada Post to celebrate the event (and apparently his birthday as well).
Ferguson Jenkins is the only Canadian-born player in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Today, Joey Votto received the 2010 Lou Marsh Award which honors Canada’s top athlete.
Others in the running for the award were: Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Scott Virtue and Tesse Moir, Georges St-Pierre, Alexandre Bilodeau, Christine Nesbitt and Joannie Rochette.
Just to provide some perspective, some of Votto’s countrymen in the MLB include Jason Bay, Jason Morneau, Ryan Dempster and Jesse Crain.
For those interested (I was so I looked him up), Lou Marsh was an Ontario-born athlete of a renaissance nature. In the early 20th century, he was a sprinter, played rugby, sailed, among other sports. He followed up his athletic career by becoming one of Canada’s premiere boxing and hockey referees.
