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Chicks dig the longball!!! And so do the fans. The home run rate is up and so are the number of runs scored. The theories continue to mount. Some think there might be a tighter strike zone, more pitchers may have been on steroids than hitters, batters fine tuning their swings during the WBC, or nicer weather might be accounting for more balls sailing over the wall. Some may say I’m into conspiracies, but it seems obvious to me that with the crackdown on steroids MLB put out juiced balls to keep the fans coming to the ole ballpark. It would be so simple for somebody out there to test this theory by checking balls of the past with balls of the present.

Today is our one-year anniversary!  On 6:36pm April 14, 2005, I posted my very first posted my first entry.

That seems such a long time ago.  Since then, the Zealot has taken on a couple authors who also regularly post.  Thanks to them for their help and encouragement!

I started The Baseball Zealot as an all-encompassing baseball blog to touch on all aspects of baseball.  That said, we have certain “focus points” which I feel are unique to the Zealot:

University of Illinois baseball:  Living in Urbana, IL and working for the University of Illinois, I have become a fan of the Illini baseball team and enjoy writing about them.

Linescore of the Day:  The LSOTD is a fun feature we do at TBZ during the baseball season.  Each day, we choose the best, worst or most unusual linescore from the previous day’s box scores.  It’s one of my favorite parts of doing the Zealot because of my inherent love of the box score. 

Rookie Watch:  The Rookie Watch is something we started halfway through the ’05 season.  When a new player comes up, one of us does a writeup and evaluates him.

Podcast Directory and Reviews:  Since I started listening to baseball podcasts on my iPod, I decided to occasionally do reviews of the ones I listen to.  I have a Podcast Roll on the left side of the web site if you’re interested in them.  Even if you don’t have an iPod, check these ‘casts out.

Of course, we cover the gamut of MLB.  We tend to focus on news of the Cubs and White Sox but any big news is game for the Zealot.

Thanks to everyone who has visited the site in the past year.  I sincerely appreciate it and I hope you’ll keep coming back. 

Tom (aka The Baseball Zealot)

 

Happy 1st Birthday to theBaseballZealot.com!!! Happy 40th Birthday to Greg Maddux!!! Happy 50th Birthday to me!!! There are quite a few baseball players, past & present, born on April 14th. Including All Time hits leader Pete Rose and Greg Maddux who picked up his 320th win just two days ago. Wanna give a Baseball Happy Birthday shout out to Bobby Sprowl (born on my day), Brad Ausmus, Gregg Zaun, Kyle Farnsworth, David Justice (what was he thinking divorcing Halle Berry?), Greg Myers, Steve Avery, Roberto Mejia, Jesse Levis, Carlos Perez, Chris Welsh, Mike Trombley, Brad Pennington, Joe Lahoud, Mark Bomback, Frank Bertaina, Marty Keough, and Don Mueller.

Went to the Bleachers again today, beautiful day, 80 degrees, sunny, South wind, Cubs lose, Sox win! Doesn’t get much better than that! Neglected to mention the other day the new & improved Bud Light Bleachers are wheelchair accessible, there’s a nice little area in CF for fans in wheelchairs and there’s an elevator up to that level, plus don’t forget the accessible bathroom.

Adam Dunn launched a 1st inning shot to left, Felipe Lopez knocked a three run blast in the 3rd, and Austin Kearns ripped a three run bomb in the 8th. Cincinnati did score one run without the benefit of a long ball when Carlos Zambrano balked home Eric Milton after the Reds pitcher tripled in the 5th. Cleanup hitter Matt Murton drove in two out of three Cub runs with a solo drive and an RBI single, the other run scored on a (SURPRISE) error when Adam Dunn bobbled a ball in LF. 8-3 Redlegs.

Ronnie Woo Woo was sitting in the row in front of me in the RF Bleachers, sitting between two cute Bleacher Bums. That guy gets around, last time I saw him was in Arizona when I had him give a shout out to KevinS (DonS’ brother) over my cell. I finally told Ronnie back then that I was out of minutes, to which he replied into my cell, “Outta minutes Woo! Cubs Woo! Outta minutes Woo!” I noticed something kinda cool, Buck O’Neil autographed Ronnie Woo Woo’s Cubs uniform.

Before the game Greg Maddux was shagging balls with his son, his son is a chip off the old block when it comes to fielding, plus the youngster’s got an arm! It was great to be out at the ole ballyard the day after Maddux won his 320th game and the day before his 40th birthday. Tomorrow is also my birthday, I turn the BIG 5-0! More on birthdays tomorrow!

Greg Maddux & Derrick Lee also received their Golden Glove Awards before the game. From the looks of things nobody on the Reds is gonna win one of those for quite some time, lotta butchers out there for Cincinnati. It was Maddux’ 15th in the last 16 years, Mike Hampton won it in 2003. And it was Lee’s 2nd in the last three years.

4/11/06 Saw it was gonna be in the seventies with a South wind blowing 20-30 miles, which means out at Wrigley, which means lotsa home runs, which means I had to be there. Got to Wrigleyville at 9:30 AM, picked up my ticket at Will Call, and proceeded to the Salt & Pepper Diner South of the ballpark on Clark Street. Ate a delicious Greek Salad and a MUST HAVE chocolate malt. My waitress even put in extra malt, YUM! Then got in line to go into the Bleachers at 10:30 AM. Got to talkin to the people ahead of me in line and it turns out the lady in front of me’s father won the largest Lotto jackpot in Ohio history $255 million. So he calls her cell, he just got 8th row season tickets on the 50 yard line for Ohio State football games. He also bought himself a place in Arizona, his kids new homes, Suns season basketball tickets, D*Backs season tickets, and a new Porsche. It must be nice, I was even inspired to buy Lotto tix after the game, after eating a very tasty veggie Sloppy Joe at the Chicago Diner on Halsted & Roscoe. But enough about the other stuff lemme tell you about the game and the Bleachers.

The Bleachers were totally full while there were plenty of other seats to be had throughout the ballyard. Cincinnati’s batters were really nailing balls and they were flying over the wall. Everytime one of the Reds shagging balls in the outfield would snare one, the Bud Light Bleacher Bums would scream they wanted the ball, everytime the Reds players didn’t throw the ball into the stands they were called names & told they sucked! “You Suck!”, became a rallying cry for fans all over the Bleachers, but it was a special mantra for one fan in particular in the CF Bleachers, from the start of the game till the last out he yelled, “Griffey, You Suck!”, at least ten times per inning for nine innings. I was wishing Griffey would get a shot at pummeling this idiot once for each time he yelled this at him. The Cubs spent all this money on improving the Bleachers and then allow this type of behavior to persist, ridiculous! The new & improved Bleachers are very nice and you wouldn’t know they were even changed. There is a bar on the halfway up level, an elevator, a flat area in CF (possibly for wheelchairs), and a bathroom for wheelchairs on the upper level. I once peed in the Bleachers under my poncho on a rainy day rather than risk walking down & up the rain soaked & slippery ramp, so the elevator is a good idea.

Griffey Junior launched a shot in the first, Adam Dunn blasted a monster in the 2nd, Bronson Arroyo (the pitcher) hit a bomb onto the street beyond LF in the 3rd, in the 4th Dunn cracked another, nothing in the 5th, and then Edwin Encarnacion hit a Grand Slam & Austin Kearns added a solo blast in the 6th to make it 9-0. I couldn’t resist yelling, “Let’s Go Cubbies!”, I was really enjoying myself and half thought security might ask me to leave. God Bless Michael Barrett broke the ice for the Cubbies with a meaningless home run and the Cubs scored once more to make the final 9-2 Reds.

4/9/06 Don’t remember seeing this before, but Cardinal relievers Ricardo Rincon & Jason Isringhausen issued three straight walks on 12 straight balls in the eighth inning against the Cubbies in last Sunday night’s ESPN game. Then Izzy threw one over the dish and Michael Barrett hit one over the leftfield wall, turning a defeat into a victory. It was weird to see Isringhausen being brought on to protect(?) a one run Card lead in the 8th inning, neither he nor Rincon even came close to throwing a strike on any of those bases on balls. Cubs win 8-4!

Went to Wrigley for Opening Day to see the Cubbies & Greg Maddux defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1. Derrick Lee hit one over the leftfield wall in the very first inning to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. That shot was hit into the teeth of a gale wind coming out of the north. The Cubs never trailed as they built up a 5-0 lead before Jim Edmonds launched a ball out to rightfield in the 7th that found the Bud Light Bleachers, Maddux gave way to a much improved bullpen after walking the next batter. Matt Murton caught a ball blown back from being a homer, fired on one hop from left, and caught Juan Encarnacion who had strayed too far off firstbase. There were over 40,000 fans freezing out there at the Friendly Confines today.

One of the magical things about baseball is it’s connection to the past. History is such an integral part of the game. Yesterday Ken Griffey, Jr. reached out and touched a couple of legends with one swing of the bat. Jimmy Rollins stepped closer to immortality when he doubled in yesterday’s game keeping his streak going.

Ken Griffey, Jr.
April 5, 2006 Ken Griffey, Jr. passed Mickey Mantle in homers & Joe DiMaggio in RBIs (RBIs were not recorded as an official stat until 1920) in the history of the baseball. The home run was Griffey’s 537th of his career moving him soley into 12th place all time. Ken’s solo shot yesterday against the Cubs also moved him into 31st place all time with 1,538 career RBIs.

Jimmy Rollins
Jimmy Rollins continued his hitting streak on 4/5 when he doubled in his first at bat of the game for the Phillies against the Cardinals. 38 is the special number of games in a row Rollins has gotten at least one hit in, moving him ahead of Tommy Holmes who had a 37 game streak in 1945. Next up on the list is Paul Molitor who hit safely in 39 straight games in 1987. Of course Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak is the longest.

We’ve all heard the term, “Can o’ corn” referring to a high fly ball easily handled by an outfielder. Now I’m gonna ask you, where the term comes from? So as not to spoil it for others, e-mail your answer with Can O’ Corn in the subject to malltedd@yahoo.com

Went to the Cell yesterday to get a replica World Series Trophy and see the White Sox take the rubber match of their opening series, I got neither. 20,000 trophies were given out and even though we got in line when the gates opened by the time we walked into the ballpark they were all gone. I know I shouldn’t have stopped at Grandstand on 35th to pickup a Mark Buehrle tee shirt.

Jose Contreras was a little wild in the first inning and the Indians took a 2-0 lead. Even though the thermometer read in the 50s it was cold out there, which might have explained Jose’s lack of control. The Good Guys came back to take a 3-2 lead, before Boone Logan was greated by Travis Hafner with a game tying bomb off the kid from rookie ball, welcome to the Show! The Sox went on to lose 4-3 in extras.