Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
Someone has a pretty slick YouTube channel called Baseball in Slow-Motion. Appropriately enough, itās populated with high quality slow motion videos of Major League baseball players in action.
Hereās an example showing Buster Poseyās hitting mechanics:
ESPN announced their broadcast teams for the 2011 season today.
They are:
Wednesday Night Baseball
Dave OāBrien (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)
After taking care of their publishing needs in-house for over 100 years, the Cubs will now be outsourcing these needs to a Cincinnati firm, EMI Network.
So says Bleed Cubbie Blue:
Now, the Cubs are outsourcing their publications to EMI Network, a Cincinnati-based company that does publications for a number of other pro sports teams and various clients including Elmhurst College, Eastern Illinois University, PNC Bank, various large law firms and US News & World Report.
Under this new arrangement, EMI Network will operate and manage all aspects of the Cubsā Publications & Creative Services Department, including publication of Vine Line magazine as well as photography, video and graphic services.
For a cynical guy, I can be pretty idealistic too. So for some reason this really bothers. I guess I need to let it roll over me. But maybe I canāt let go of the fact that the Cubs Vineline or the programs that us Cubs fans will buy at the Wrigley Field will be designed and published in the same city whose team has a former Cub manager.
This postseason, the baseball blogosphere (guh, I wince when I use that word but it fits here) has had a fascination with presenting data in a visual fashion. It seems to be a trend to almost move away from traditional numbers tables and go to more eye-pleasing visual presentations. The Hardball Times has a whole series of them during the 2010 postseason (a good example is their Paintomatic series).
But THT isnāt the only ones to incorporate this new brand of āvisual baseball dataā. You can find examples of this at The Biz of Baseball and even Baseball Referenceās blog.
Baseball history buffs should check out the Library of Congressā archives of Spalding Base Ball Guides. These archives range from 1889 to 1939 and contain a wealth of historical information on National and American League base ball when the game we loved was spelled with two words) as well as some minor league info too.
Be forewarned, the pages of Spaldingās are scanned images and therefore not searchable or indexed. If you want to find something youāll have look for it, But I guarantee if youāre a fan of old time base ball, the search itself will be worth it. Youāll run across some neat news tidbits and photos along the way.
Thanks to Cluke for passing this along! He wrote:
I was just geeky enough as a 14 year old and then later to spend many hours looking up old microfilm of newspapers and getting into the sports section (and other stuff) for hours at a time.If it’s old baseball stats- I never tire of it. The digital age is great for browsing from home but there’s nothing like the old micro film of the Trib and the times to follow along with past seasons of the Sox.
-There is some baseball happening in the south that doesnāt involve the Rangers. The Arizona Fall League season has started.
-Speaking of the Rangers, thereās no doubt they got the most bang for their buck in 2010.
-I guess we arenāt ready to forget the Cubsā collapse in the 2003 postseasonā¦ but our remembrance might be delayed. Steve Bartman: Catching Hell, the documentary on the unfortunate affair, will be postponed till next year. Could they possibly wait till after the Cubs win a World Series (that way, we might not see it)?
-No surprise here: The columnists at the Sun-Times and Tribune respectively have differing opinions on Mike Quadeās hiring. Post-Trib (owned by ST) column headline: āSandberg got Sandbaggedā. The Trib column claims that Quade is a āgood fitā.
Old habits die hard.
-Finally, some Chicago tattoo artists apparently arenāt Sox fans.
On the same day, Jose Bautista hit his 50th homer of the season and Ichiro Suzuki got his 200th hit of the season for the tenth consecutive season.
Iāll give you one guess which story got the most news coverage. Yeah, Bautista.
Ichiroās milestone is a significant one. No other player has accomplished such a feat. Not Cobb, not Hornsby nor Lajoie. Pete Rose is the only to have ten (non-consecutive) seasons with 200 hits.
Itās a shared opinion among many of my baseball friends that if he chose to, Ichiro could hit 30 homers a season. Maybe more. He just chooses to play his brand of baseball. The one that earns him a .331 career batting average, best among active players.
I have to admit, Iām 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. āThatās the worst thing that could happen to himā.
Now our outfielder has been doing great since his first day but our color guyās point is well taken. Thereās 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, heās still a 21 year old rookie with two Major League starts to his name. Heāll have some developing and growing to do even at this level. Letās 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 letās not set the expectations so high that we turn him into a Mark Prior.
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com has a rather interesting article regarding Stephen Strasburg and former MLB first round picks. His point is simpleā¦ weāve gotten some real goodies with the #1 pick (Griffey, Arod, Chipper, Mauer) but at the same time, there have been some duds, too.
Crasnick trots out some examples to make his point. Players like Brien Taylor (who never even made to the majors), Matt Anderson, Paul Wilson to name just a few. When I take a cursory look at Baseball Referenceās list of first round picks, I come away with the opinion that position players seem to have better luck than pitchers. Hence the concern about Strasburg.
Donāt get me wrongā¦ this isnāt an indictment by me on Stephen Strasburgās talent or the possibility he may develop into a first-rate pitcher. Rather itās a concern that the media, baseball pundits and fans may expect too much too soon from someone who has yet to pitch in a regular season baseball game.
This pre-season, the media and other baseball are falling over themselves trying to cover this guy. I get the feeling theyāre also falling in love with him too (sometimes in the weirdest way). The day of his first start in spring training, everyone was all abuzz (and a-twitter) about it. I pretty much got an over-excited pitch-by-pitch account of his appearance. If he scratched his nose, I heard about it.
Now that itās been decided that Strasburg will make his debut later this year (some have said ādelayā), Iām sure the media will no doubt keep an eye on his minor league development.
I really would like to see this guy succeed. So letās give the guy some room and maybe not so much pressure. Iād hate to have another Mark Prior on our hands.
On Wednesday, Fox Sports and DirecTV in cooperation with Major League Baseball did a dress rehearsal of sorts of shooting a baseball game in 3D. It took place in Angels Stadium and they used college players to help in their effort to create a baseball game atmosphere.
The reason for the practice run? Fox Sports plans to use this 3D technology at this yearās All-Star Game.
Letās get this out of the way. Only DirecTV subscribers will be able to view the Game in 3D. Should every work as planned though, it will be a coup for DirecTV since many might subscribe just to see the 3D experience.
With all the disclaimers, it still is quite a feat,
As part of July’s coverage, Fox will deploy two sets of announcers, one for the conventional 2D broadcast that most viewers will see and one for DirecTV’s 3D coverage. I asked Goren if the announcers doing 3D will require special training in the new technology. "It’s an interesting question," he says. During game action the announcers focus is on the field of play. But during replays, "do the announcers put on 3D glasses to look at the 3D monitors? Right now we don’t have an answer for that."
During the Consumer Electronics Show back in January, the big buzzword was ā3Dā. Every provider, manufacturer, and supplier that could conceivably get away with it, would incorporate ā3Dā into their selling points. Itās clear the 3D is the up and coming technology.
Yet, Iām still trying to get a handle on it. Not intellectually so much but is viewing a baseball in 3D something that really appeals to me. Now these words will most likely come back to bite me in the future. In a couple years, everything we view will be in three dimensions (ādude, you still watch that flat thing?ā). But right now, the baseball traditionalist wants to watch a game like I always have (especially without Tim McCarver).
But as someone who is in the technology field, I admit I am curious. Will it be gimmicky like Fox Sportsā Diamond Cam or provide a genuinely pleasurable viewing experience? I guess weāll see.