The Baseball Zealot

3 Baseball Turning Points in the Queen City

crosley

It was 98 degrees, with HIGH humidity when we entered the park. The turning point in game one came when Jose Contreras, using a slide step to avoid a stolen base, served up a two run meatball to Brandon Phillips. On a 1-1 pitch Ozzie Guillen called apitchout, but guessed wrong. I just said, I’d double up on another pitchout, instead the two run bomb turned a one run lead into a one run deficit, with Chicago’s anemic bats made look insurmountable, two hits through 8 innings, two 9th inning hits cut the deficit, which had risen to two, once again to one, which was where it ended.

Just killed time on Saturday, before long it was time to head over to the Great American Ballpark for a sellout at the first Civil Rights Game which counted, on hand were celebrities Muhammad Ali, Bill Cosby, Frank Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Hank Aaron, and former President Bill Clinton. The first 20,000 fans received a very nice Frank Robinson replica jersey, I gave mine to very nice couple, who’d missed out on getting one.

Almost before I’d settled into my seat Clayton Richard & the Sox were trailing 5-0 to the Reds & their best pitcher Johnny Cueto. The turning point in this game came when Gordon Beckham turned a fastball around for a three run bomb, and turned a blowout into a ballgame, in which the White Sox hit four homers, and won going away. A Red fan had thrown Beckham’s first home run ball back on the field, but remarkably Gordon didn’t want it.

In the morning I packed, ate breakfast, checked my e-mail, and was checking out the Reds Hall of Fame, outside the Great American Ballpark. Several players from the Negro Leagues were on hand, signing autographs, and they had a movie about old Crosley Field, which makes you wonder why they didn’t make GABP a replica of Crosley, GABP isn’t very impressive.

The turning point in the series finale came after Mark Buehrle pitched 7 innings of shutout ball and handed a 3-0 lead over to Scott Linebrink. There was one run in, runners on first & second, one out (a well hit ball to RF), in a now 3-1 ballgame, when the batter lined one to SS on which Jerry Hairston, Jr. was doubled off 2nd to end the inning. Every youngster knows to let the liners go through, especially when trailing by two with less than two out, maybe they should tell JH2. The Sox scored in the top of the 9th to make it 4-1, and Bobby Jenks was brought on in the bottom of the 9th to protect the victory. Gordon Beckham looked like Brooks Robinson at 3B and had a double, single, & walk in four plate appearances on Sunday, after hitting his first longball the night before. But really the sparkplug for the team has been their new/old guy, leadoff man Scott Podsednik, who’s batting .320, and stealing bases.

Sammy Sosa, Steroids, and Anonymity

What is the biggest issue here? The fact that Sosa may have used PEDs? Or that the results from a federally administrated (and confidential) test which were contractually promised to remain anonymous were made public?

From Circling the Bases:

The greater wrong in my mind is the fact of the leaks themselves. I’m a lawyer by trade, and it shocks me that fellow officers of the court are divulging this sort of information to the media. This is evidence that was seized in an ongoing criminal case that is subject to court order putatively preventing its release. The act of leaking this stuff is, at the very least, a violation of that court order and a violation of legal ethics. Depending on the exact language of the order, it could be a criminal act. I don’t know about you, but that causes me far more concern than whether Sammy Sosa took steroids six years ago.

I know, I know, now that the truth is known, no one cares. No one is going to cry a river for poor Sammy Sosa. I don’t have any sympathy for him myself. But the issue of anonymity during these tests are crucial. I still think it’s a slippery slope we’re sliding down.

These “anonymous” tests are going to mean jack squat after a while and its use as a tool will lose its effectiveness.

Singing at sports events

I enjoyed Chicago Tribune’s Steve Johnson’ somewhat tongue-in-cheek piece on those singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at Cub games and what they could do to present a more melodious experience. Johnson humorously lambasted Denise Richards whose performance left something to be desired:

The syllables — we won’t call them "notes" — lurched out of the stadium, stopping old ladies and scaring small children. An ambulance siren was shocked into silence at hearing a noise more annoying than itself.

A passing legislator vowed to restore full funding to public-school music education.

But after reading the article, I was reminded of a similar subject that troubles me when I attend local sporting events.

Other fans don’t like it when I sing the words to the Star Spangled Banner before a game.

Ok, some of my friends who know me well might be a bit surprised but unlike most fans, I DO find it important to sing our national anthem for my personal reasons.

I know I don’t sing well so I don’t sing especially loud. But judging by the looks of the fans sitting ahead of me at a women’s basketball game earlier this year, you would have thought I was invading their personal space. Other times, I just get weird looks.

Maybe it’s a Midwestern thing. Or a small town thing. Sometimes I get lucky and I’m sitting next to an grizzled old veteran who has no problem belting out the song that represents our country in his raspy voice. I just try to keep up.

To me, the Star Spangled Banner should not be a song that is performed for the crowd, it should be sung and the meaning should be savored.

So the next time you attend a ballgame, consider singing the National Anthem and I won’t feel alone.

Wrigley fuss

Lots of hatin’ on Wrigley Field (and its fans) going on lately…

Why Your Stadium Sucks: Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field Bleacher fans are a bunch of slobs

[Oh, and I can’t leave this one out]

Wrigley Field makes Ozzie Guillen puke

Ozzie does have a flair for the dramatic.

This weekend, I’m going to see the Cubs first hand for the first time this year so I guess I’ll judge for myself.

Andre Dawson: Best free agent money could buy?

Askmen.com presents their top ten list of All-time Baseball Free-Agent Bargains.

I’m glad to see their memory is intact and they remember Andre Dawson at #3. In the collusion market after the 1986 season, Dawson was picked up by the Cubs for $500,000 (plus incentives which eventually came out to around $700,000). Even back then, that was a pitiful amount.

The rest, as they say, is history. Dawson had his famous 49-homer, 137 rbi season for the last place Cubs. Both figures led the NL that year and were enough to garner him the NL MVP.

Fortunately, the Cubs saw value in their new outfielder and gave him a raise. They signed him at $1.85 million the next year.

Dawson played six 20+ HR years for Chicago.

Game Winning Bird

I was watching the highlights the other night on the MLB Network, especially close when the Indians were shown, as I have two Indians on my fantasy baseball team, Shin Soo Choo & Mark DeRosa. Well as luck would have it, both players were involved in a bizarre play, which resulted in a game winning hit, an RBI for Choo & a run scored for DeRosa. Choo lined a single to centerfield, with DeRosa on 2nd, but as the ball skipped toward the Royals centerfielder, who was lining up for a throw home, which would have resulted in a bang-bang play at the plate, the grounder hit a bird. The centerfielder throws his hands up, as if to signify interference, as the bird picks himself up, and flies off. The seagull must’ve been rooting him for the Indians, as well as my fantasy team. That’s taking one for the team. Would I be stretching it too far to say, he winged it, rather than a dying quail, this was a bird down. They are now using firecrackers between innings in Cleveland to keep the birds off the field.

Veggie Food Home Runs

veggie-cheesesteaks I’m a baseball fan, but sometimes being a vegetarian at the ole ballpark leaves me hungry, a pretzel with mustard doesn’t always satisfy me. US Cellular Field is a pretty good place to get something to eat as a veggie, veggie dogs, garden burgers, Mexican options, cheese pizza, corn off the cob (with butter, mayo, salt, chili powder, lime) – didn’t say it was healthy.

A recent AP article quotes PETA as saying, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats once again top the minor leagues with the best veggie fare, featuring veggie burgers & dogs, wraps, and various salads. But it’s the portobello mushroom salad and grilled vegetable sandwiches are the home runs at the Minor League ballpark in Manchester, N.H.

According to PETA, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia tops MLB’s list for the third year in a row. Phillies fans can snack on Southwestern black-bean burgers, mock crab cake salad, veggie hot dogs and even meatless Philly cheesesteaks.

YUMMY, Take me out to the ballpark, buy me some veggie food there…

just how good could Albert be?

Offensively, Albert Pujols pretty much single-handedly won the game for the Cardinals today against the Indians. They had some good pitching from Brad Thompson and their committee of relievers they trotted out there who kept Cleveland to just one run.

But Pujols went 3 for 4 with a double and two homeruns. That gives him 22 for the year. If you take the trouble to pro-rate that out for 2009, he would have somewhere around 57 homeruns at this pace. That would eclipse his current career record by eight.

I was playing APBA baseball against my buddy Mike, who is a Cardinal fan while watching today’s game. We talked a bit about Pujols’ future and even hypothetically wondered to ourselves, “still in his 20s, would Albert get in the Hall if he retired today?”

Putting aside the 10 year requirement, you really could have a case. With 341 homers, 1304 rbis, 997 runs and a .334 batting average, those numbers put him up there. His rbi numbers are already above the average HOFer though admittedly Evers, Maranville and company do adjust the curve a bit.

But Pujols won’t retire and at age 29, he does have the potential to break some serious records.

Food for thought.

Disclaimer: don’t get the wrong idea… the author is a Cub fan

Ibanez a bit testy over steroid allegation

What can Raul Ibanez do to prove he’s clean of steroids? Whatever it is, he’ll do it.

Responding to a posting on midwestsportsfans.com and the comments that ensued that implicated him of using PEDs, Ibanez is willing to go above and beyond to prove he’s innocent.

"You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool — anything you can test," Ibanez said, according to the report. "I’ll give you back every dime I’ve ever made" if the test is positive, he added.

But he also wants to hold people accountable for their statements:

"I’ll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff," he said, according to the Inquirer. "Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother’s basement. It demeans everything you’ve done with one stroke of the pen.

“Mother’s basement”… ouch!

For what it’s worth, the article on midwestsportsfans.com makes a bold assertion but is well thought out, not leaning toward the sensationalistic and backed up by stats. Plus it looks at all sides of the issues. The comments, of course are not. But that is the nature of discourse.

But I’m not taking sides here… I don’t want Raul showing at on my door with a vial of urine or anything.

MLB Draft: Illini get the call

Altobelli: Ready for the Rocks

It was a good day for the Illini in today’s MLB draft. Three were drafted. Brandon Wikoff (5th round, Houston), Seth Schwindenhammer (5th round, Red Sox) and Dom Altobelli (16th round, Colorado) will soon be playing baseball and getting paid to do it.

Altobelli was a senior. Wikoff was a junior but any Illini fan paying attention knew he was on his way up. Schwindenhammer was a 2008 recruit and never played for Coach Hartleb’s team.

I did a write up on Altobelli and of Wikoff over at Illinois Baseball Report including some of my favorite photos of each.

Congrats to all three!!

Followup: I read on the Trib that if Schwindenhammer ever makes it to the bigs, his 15-letter last name will be the longest in major league history. I wonder who he would beat. I thought of the pitcher VanLandingham but that’s only 13 letters.

Update: On the final day of the draft, Matt Milroy, another University of Illinois recruit, this one a pitcher, got drafted. Milroy was picked in the 35th round by the Boston Red Sox.

But don’t let me forget Joe Bonadonna. My daughter’s favorite Illini player (maybe it was the way he hustled on the field or maybe it was awesome name), Bonadonna was chosen in the 43rd round by the Texas Rangers. I did a similar write up on him on Illinois Baseball Report with some cool photos (Joe was a great photo subject!).

Congrats again!