Pitchers and catchers begin reporting in one week! And yesterday: "In an annual rite of spring (training) in wintry New England, the equipment truck carrying the Boston Red Sox's spring training gear the 1,480 miles from Fenway Park to Fort Myers, Florida, departs Wednesday afternoon." I am so ready.
And they need to get the snowboarders off the field in Fenway and start getting it ready for the season.
I'm gonna be honest, I'm a big baseball fan but I don't give a shit about spring training. So we're gonna get a bunch of scrimmages and preseason games 2 months before a 7.5 month season. Its just excessive. If Spring Training was late-March through April and the season still ended in October, then maybe I would be a bit more enthused. Ive been to Cubs Spring Training in Arizona. Its cool, its just like everything about baseball, too damn long.
My favorite thing about Spring training is the last 3 innings of every game, when the "who the fuck is that?" folks make their appearances. I could care less about the stars and major names during Spring training - you know they will play once April hits, and they're basically just warming up and trying not to get hurt. The real excitement is seeing some old vet trying to hang on or mount a comeback, or a young kid who may one day crack the starting lineup.
Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia 1st to draw lifetime drug ban http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb...ug-ban/ar-BBprDiZ?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
All decisions like this have a risk / reward factor. I hear people all the time say things like "why would he do that? That's so dumb." And, typically the answer is that the potential financial reward is worth the risk of getting caught. In his case? That's just really, really dumb. All he had to do was DO NOTHING, and he'd have gotten $5 million dollars. Nothing. He could've sucked ass, or taken forever to come off the disabled list and still gotten paid. What possible upside was there to taking steroids? What a moron. He deserves the lifetime ban.
Excited for this season, but Rogers were fucking retards for losing Alwx Anthopolis, he was the best executive the last two years and now the Dodgers have him. Toronto ALWAYS shits the bed when things get good. They resigned Donaldson but need to crack the whip to resign Joey Bats and EE because they hit free agency. So much clusterfuckery. Rumours of Tulo and Pillar being traded, getting rid of a great lead-off hitter in Revere....WTFJays. Spring training is meh. Although I agree it's cool to watch the scrubs play, imagine what a thrill it is for them anyway to bat and field for an MLB team. Can never take that away.
Spring Training also allows SportsCenter and Mike & Mike to fill time with something other than fucking NBA.
And the first cool story out of Spring Training: Schwarber Saves the Day After Smashing Windshield With Home Run http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loca...Day-After-Smashing-Windshield--369308571.html I really like this kid.
I'm biased as a Cubs fan, but part of the fun about this team is that they are really likeable and good with fans. Far cry from Cubs teams with Soriano who I couldn't stand.
That's great. I think he got called up in June last year for about a week, then came back in July to stay. That first game back in July was against the Braves at Turner field. My seats are down the 3rd base line, one section past the dugout, so a lot of these seats are comp tickets for visiting players' friends and family. There was an older couple sitting next to me that went to IU (where he went), and they were constantly hollering KY-ULL, KY-ULL when he was out there warming up before the game. I was thinking, you dummies, it's not like he's coming over here. He totally came over and talked to them, and some of the kids there. He was very genuine. After he left, the couple told me they knew his family, and he was just a real good dude. Glad to see he's showing it. New topic: This morning, Mike & Mike were discussing some things to make MLB better, where the ideas were centered around improving pace of play. (Not length of game, but pace of play.) They talked about several things I've heard thrown around before, like enforcing (and displaying) the pitch clock. But, one idea that Greeny was really hammering on was eliminating the intentional walk. I like the idea of different strategies too much, and generally like all the traditional rules (and hate the DH), to get rid of it. But, I understand his point that he wanted to see the best hitter factor into the game more, instead of the guy behind him. Golic pointed out, that then you'd just have the pitcher throw four lousy pitches on purpose. (I mean, he could just gently roll it underhand, and that would take even longer.) But, I liked Golic's idea, but with a tweak: eliminate the intentional walk of the kind where the catcher stands up with his arm out. And, at any point in the game, if a pitcher throws 4 consecutive balls when there are 0 strikes, the batter gets TWO bases. There would be times when managers would still call for the intentional unintentional walk, if the bases are empty with two outs, sure. But, now the guy's in scoring position. And, the pitcher might try to sneak a strike in there to avoid the four in a row, which would add some excitement. And, when first base is NOT open, and it otherwise wouldn't even be an intentional walk situation, now the pitcher has pressure to not throw four straight balls. Thoughts? I think baseball has to be open to new ideas. The argument was made, well attendance is up, MLB is making huge money, it doesn't need fixing. The NFL couldn't be bigger right now, and they tweaked the extra point this year. It ended up being HUGE in the AFC championship game. MLB could learn something there. Another change I'd like to see? Use the double orange & white first base that some little leagues use. Why are they not already doing this? If you haven't seen it, the base is regular width but twice as long. The white part is where first base is now, the orange part is in foul territory. So, that little lane that runners have to stay in, would line up for the runner, and they wouldn't have to magically jump left a half step at the bag. And, having the first baseman's foot (or pitcher covering) get tangled up in the runner stepping on the bag would be much less likely. And, other collisions there would drop. Once the runner is there, only the white part is "the base" for pickoffs and such - the orange area is only safe for ground ball force plays with the runner leaving from home plate.
The problem with this is the fact that hardly any players swing at the first pitch the first time up against a reliever, and I don't think anyone wants to see the great hitters lunging after borderline low-and-outside pitches. If you want to speed up the game, just let the teams award a walk without going through the motions of 4 balls. Another unintended consequence of your 4 consecutive balls rule is that a hit-by-pitch would only count as one ball, right?.
Nah. That takes away the possibility of a wild pitch. (Not to mention once Willie Mays was getting an IBB and the pitcher got it a bit close to the plate. Too close. Over the wall it went.) Then there was the '72 World Series...the A's catcher Gene Tenace held out his arm for an IBB on a 3-2 count to Johnny Bench. Then squatted behind the plate as the great Johnny Bench relaxed and took a fastball right down the middle for strike 3. Also, it's pretty difficult to throw strikes after you just tossed four intentional wide one at half effort. It really fucks with your rhythm and motion. Quite honestly, I think they've sped up the pace of the game just fine. If they want to speed it up more, cut down on the 7th inning stretch and 15 seconds on the warm up/commercials between every half inning.
Yes. But, I was thinking 4 in a row to the same batter, not just 4 in a row period. So, you mean, that's how they could put a guy on, and only get one base, is by hitting him? I would be fine to make a HBP two bases, if there's no one on base, say. Also, I didn't say this very well, but that was two different discussions they were having: one was about the pace of play, and the "automatic" walk has been discussed before, and I don't really like it: the other discussion, and where the 4-in-a-row came up, was just about improving the game, with additional interest. So, adding the 4-in-a-row was just something I thought would make the game more interesting, not as a way to speed things up. Cal Ripken is participating in a lot of things to help generate more interest for kids playing baseball. So, there are all sorts of suggestions that little leagues may start trying: each inning starts with a runner of first base, each has to attempt to steal at least once per inning, and things like that.
A problem with the 2 base IBB or HBP is it could actually slow the pace of the game. You've pretty much just taken the possibility of a double play out of the equation thus increasing the likelyhood of not just 1 more batter but 2 or more.
If you want to speed up the game, just allow 1 minute to change sides after the third out instead of two minutes, (and three minutes in playoff games). That right there will shave 18 minutes off the game. In the years before televised baseball they were able to change sides in about 30 seconds. It just does not take that much time for a pitcher to throw his eight warm up pitches. Of course Television will hate having half their commercial time removed.
Damn. OAKLAND -- Tony Phillips, who played nine seasons with the Oakland A's and five with the Detroit Tigers as part of an 18-year career, died Wednesday in Arizona. He was 56 years old. Phillips died of an apparent heart attack, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/164936226/tony-phillips-dies
Great, another contemporary dead. I saw Tony play during those nine seasons with the A's. He was a very solid ballplayer
This is true. However, the regional and team sports networks and contracts with ESPN / FOX and the At Bat app are what's making it so profitable. They won't do that. Plus, most of the polling and feedback negativity is not about the length of the game, in general, but the pace. You can watch a compelling 3 hour game and there aren't many complaints, or a boring 2 1/2 hour game that is awful. So, cutting out that 18 minutes doesn't make it any more exciting. Plus, people (me) like that 2 minutes to run up and grab a dog or pee at the games, so it also impacts concession sales, not just commercial sales.