Category Archives: Indy and Amateur

Picture of the Day: Derek Jeter Scouting Report

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By way of Reddit and Twitter, here’s how the Colorado Rockies scouted Derek Jeter of Kalamazoo, Michigan back in 1992:

Let’s see here… this Rockies scout figured he had below-average hitting potential, but good speed, fielding, arm strength and especially “make-up” (INTANGIBLES!) . He noted that Jeter physically resembled Gary Green, then in the Reds organization, and declared that, despite his flaws, he was athletic enough to adapt and improve. He finished by noting that Jeter was a future All-Star and would almost certainly sign out of High School (although he had signed with the University of Michigan as a “security blanket).

Of course, Jeter was gone long before the Rockies’ first pick that year (they had the 27th pick, a result of being a expansion team that was not to start playing until 1993). Still, an interesting look at the early days of one of the game’s great players.

Random Thought: Have more MLB-Service Academy games

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Sorry that the remaining predictions aren’t up yet- it will be tomorrow during my preview spectacular. Instead, a random thought:

As I mentioned earlier today, the Yankees were playing Army at West Point.I watched some of the game, and it was, far as I could tell, pure class, with the respect between the two teams evident throughout.

So, what I’m wondering is: why can’t this be something done regularly? There are three service academies in Division I, would it not be a good idea to have MLB games at those academies every spring so long as the schedule of the academy team and MLB team allowed? Couldn’t the Orioles play Navy at Annapolis, or the Rockies play Air Force in chilly Colorado Springs? Or maybe have the Nationals rotate with the Orioles at Annapolis? Or maybe have the Mets go to West Point?

Actually, scratch that last one. The men and women of our armed services deserve better than the Mets these days.

Just a random thought.

Picture of the day: West Point, 1914

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Today, the New York Yankees are playing a game in West Point against the Military Academy team. Almost 100 years ago, Army’s baseball team looked like this (from the Library of Congress Flickr Feed). Check it out and then go below the photo for some info on some of the players in this picture.

In this photo, by the way, are some notables:

The the far left (our left) of the second row, crouching, is Frank Milburn, who would later be a general during WWII and Korea.

Two over from Milburn, third from the left, is Omar Bradley, probably the most notable on the team. Bradley was one of the top Allied generals of WWII in Europe, and second only to Eisenhower in the American chain of command there. Later, as the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bradley was elevated to a 5-star General, the last in American history.

In the very front, looking down, could be Robert Neyland, who would serve in France during WWI and an aide for West Point superintendant Douglas MacArthur but would later become a 4-time National Champion football coach at Tennessee.

Although I’m not sure where he is, Paul A. Hodgson- Dwight Eisenhower’s college roommate and a lifelong friend of his- was also on the team. Eisenhower wasn’t, and considered his failure at making the team one of his biggest disappointments in life.

Florida Gulf Coast University Basketball vs. Fresno State Baseball: What’s the bigger Cinderella?

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Florida Gulf Coast University is the darling of the NCAA basketball tournament, becoming the first 15-seed to advance to the Sweet 16. It is already being called one of the greatest Cinderella stories in college history. But I had to wonder: how does it compare to perhaps the greatest Cinderella story in baseball, the 2008 Fresno State baseball team?

If you aren’t familiar with it, I can’t blame you, as I’ve mentioned before, not many people pay attention to college baseball, especially outside of the College World Series. So I’ll refresh your memory: in 2008, the Fresno State Bulldogs, who only was able to qualify for the baseball tournament thanks to winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament. They were placed into their initial pool as a 4-seed (early rounds of NCAA baseball tournament are double-elimination pools), the equivalent of being a 13 seed or lower in March Madness.

But, a funny thing happened, not only did they advance through their regional and then super-regional pool, but they ended up winning the College World Series, defeating Georgia. They became the lowest seed ever to win a NCAA championship.

So, is FGCU more impressive than that?

Well, no. Mainly, this is because FGCU hasn’t won the tournament, and it probably won’t. However, should they continue on, that answer could change. The reason for this is because of the differences between baseball and basketball.

You see, unlike baseball, basketball doesn’t have any real “equalizer” position. While having a dominant player like a Lebron James or Kevin Durant definitely can help, there is no pitcher who can shut down the opposing offense or hockey goalie who can stand on his head. That means that, usually, the entire team more or less has to play above expectations if they intend to pull off an upset, or have their opponent have a bad day on the same day they have a few players have a good day. So to pull an upset in basketball is far more impressive and rare than an upset in baseball.

However, as I said, FGCU still has a long way to go. Fresno State, after all, won the whole thing- and that means that the Gulf Coast players will have to win four more games if they aim to take the overall crown of the greatest Cinderella in college sports history.

Bizarre Baseball Culture: Dash Dartwell’s PED use for justice

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In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.

Steroids and other performance-enhancers are, to sports, a plague. They provide some players an unfair advantage, threaten the integrity of records, and could also endanger the long-term health of the user. The great struggle of 21st century sports has, in many ways, been the struggle against PEDs.

But, as today’s installment of Bizarre Baseball Culture shows, the the view that PEDs are bad goes against human nature and human fantasy. The human experience, the human dream, has always been about becoming better. It is one reason why, for example, that larger-than-life heroes have been popular since ancient times.

So it is perhaps not surprising that fictional superhumans (who by their nature are better than human) have often gone hand-in-hand with PEDs (which by their very nature make the user better than the average human). Steve Rogers, for example, became Captain America after being given a Super-Soldier Serum by the American government. Bane, the villain who once broke Batman’s back and appeared in less-steroidy form in The Dark Knight Rises, got his great strength from a drug known simply as “Venom”. Even Popeye, with his spinach, could be said to be using some type of performance enhancers.

But few stories actually have an athlete using a PED… but I have found at least one, featuring the obscure hero Dash Dartwell (sometimes called “The Human Meteor”), a college athlete who has gotten “Metabo-tablets” from a biochemistry professor that make him superhuman until the pill’s effect wears off.

Amazing Man Comics #22, the issue from May 1941 which contains this story (it starts on page 41), can be found here. Go below the jump for the rest of this installment of Bizarre Baseball Culture.

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Picture of the day: Remember the Maine

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Much of baseball’s spread in the Caribbean was at least partially because of the United States’ increased presence in the region after the Spanish-American War. And that war, at least officially, was started because of the destruction of the USS Maine. While it was later found that it was unlikely that the Maine had been destroyed due to sabotage, the destruction of the ship started a rallying cry amongst the American populace that helped lead to the war.

But, before that, the Maine was the defending champion of the Navy when it came to baseball. Here’s a photo from the Library of Congress Flickr stream of that final team- most of the players died in the ship’s destruction. Notice how it was an integrated team.

Random Video of the Undetermined Amount of Time: Snowball Fight!

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From Big League Stew comes this video of Dayton and Gardner-Webb having a snowball fight during a weather delay:

Cheat Sheet: (Almost) All of the Most Recent Champions (as of Nov. 29, 2012)

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(Note: Not included are leagues still in session)

So, who’s the defending champion in the….

The Top Leagues:

…MLB? San Francisco Giants

…NPB? Yomiuri Giants

…KBO? Samsung Lions

…CPBL? Lamigo Monkeys

…Mexican League? Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz

The Affiliated Minors:

…International League? Pawtucket Red Sox

…Pacific Coast League? Reno Aces

…Eastern League? Akron Aeros

…Southern League? Mobile BayBears

…Texas League? San Antonio Missions

…California League? Lancaster JetHawks

…Carolina League? Lynchburg Hillcats

…Florida State League? Lakeland Flying Tigers

…Midwest League? Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

…South Atlantic League? Asheville Tourists

…NY-Penn League? Hudson Valley Renegades

…Northwest League? Vancouver Canadians

…Appalachian League? Elizabethton Twins

…Pioneer League? Missoula Osprey

…Gulf Coast League? Gulf Coast Pirates

…Arizona League? Arizona Rangers

…Dominican Summer League? DSL Pirates Team 1

…Venezuelan Summer League? VSL Pirates

(Want more? Go below the jump!)

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The Strangest Stadiums: Weird Parks Themselves

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One of the reasons why baseball is different is because of how the playing field’s dimensions are different in essentially every ballpark. However, this can also lead to some weird stadiums. I mean, we’re talking utterly bizarre, stadiums or fields that almost certainly didn’t have baseball in mind when they were created, or parks that are extremely different from the usual image we have in our minds of what a baseball stadium should look like. And, of course, there are also ballparks that have really weird stories behind them (those will come later).

Take a look (after the jump, of course):

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Great Baseball Lies: Roger Clemens is NOT pitching in the Minor Leagues this Saturday

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As you all likely know, the Rocket is back. Roger Clemens, last seen escaping government perjury charges, will be lacing them up for a start with the Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters. However, you see some news articles saying this means he is going to have a “Minor League” start.

This, in a way, is true, as it is in a league that isn’t a Major League. However, it isn’t really true, because the Atlantic League is not a Minor League (the Minor Leagues are all under the umbrella of the organization Minor League Baseball), it is an independent league. Let me explain:

Way back when, every minor league was an independent league. Teams weren’t tied up with affiliations, as there were no farm systems. Instead, they signed their own players and, if those players were good, they’d sell those players to a big club for a profit. For example, Babe Ruth was a member of the International League’s Baltimore Orioles, and was sold to the Boston Red Sox. Occasionally a team might have a deal with a big league team that they’d give them the first crack at signing a minor league star, but it was more of a case of the owners or managers being buddies, not anything official.

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