As we near pitchers and catchers, we now have a countdown to 8:00 AM of February 11 over on the side of the page. The 8:00 AM time is just some random time, since just putting it at midnight wouldn’t be be quite true.
So, yeah, we are in the home stretch, everyone!
That’s my prediction, anyway.
The Continuum kicks back into high gear on Monday, with more WBC stuff, more “Bizarre Baseball Culture” and various other stuff. Apologies for how the last few days have not been to the usual standards, but sometimes, you need to rest up and conserve energy, to prepare for big things.
Those big things are coming. Oh, yes, they are coming.
Just a reminder, by the way, that Joe Connor’s WBC guide is still for sale to anybody with either a credit card or a Paypal account.
Today’s picture is a random little thing from Library of Congress Flickr stream of a medicine ball being sent to Reds manager Joe Tinker, circa 1913.
Weird, huh?
According to an article linked to from MyKBO, there are some talks in the works by the KIA Tigers to try to get an MLB team to travel to Korea to play them in an exhibition game to open the Tigers’ new stadium.
Now, no team is mentioned, although it’s said that it’s likely to be a team popular in Korea. Of course, who knows if it will happen due to logistics and other issues.
What will probably happen- at least some time in the next few years (possibly as early as next year) there will be games in the Netherlands. These games, which will be the first in Europe, will likely involve AL or NL East teams, will be played at a new stadium being built in Hoofddorp that will be able to be expanded temporarily to a 30,000 seat stadium.
It’ll be interesting to see how all of this turns out, especially given the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
John Lynch made 9 Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl during his career as a strong safety in the NFL, and he now does some broadcasting on FOX. But he does hold a unique spot in baseball history as well: He threw the first pitch in the history of the Florida (now Miami) Marlins.
Well, sort of. You see, in order to let expansion teams get a farm system up and running, it’s not uncommon for them to have farm teams that play even before the parent club does. They also are able to draft players as well.
The Marlins’ first farm team was the 1992 Erie Sailors (remember, the Marlins started play in 1993). And the pitcher who threw out the first pitch for the Sailors in 1992 was… John Lynch. YouTube has video of the event here.
Like most individuals in “Famous for Something Else”, Lynch’s career was short on the diamond, and he probably made a good choice by going into football (although he did do pretty well in his short career).
| Year | Age | Tm | Lg | Lev | Aff | W | L | G | GS | GF | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | BK | WP | BF | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 20 | Erie | NYPL | A- | 0 | 3 | .000 | 2.15 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29.1 | 24 | 15 | 7 | 1 | 17 | 0 | 16 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 128 | 1.398 | 7.4 | 0.3 | 5.2 | 4.9 | 0.94 | |
| 1993 | 21 | Kane County | MIDW | A | FLA | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 3.00 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.0 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 1.778 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 12.0 | 3.0 | 0.25 |
| 2 Seasons | 1 | 3 | .250 | 2.35 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38.1 | 28 | 19 | 10 | 2 | 29 | 0 | 19 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 171 | 1.487 | 6.6 | 0.5 | 6.8 | 4.5 | 0.66 | |||||
The Baseball Continuum 