Category Archives: Indy and Amateur

Uganda, the LLWS, and a milestone for African baseball

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If there is one continent out there that can truly be said to be untouched by baseball, it is likely Africa. Baseball is, of course, popular in North America, Asia, and parts of South America. There are small professional leagues in Europe (mainly the Netherlands and Italy) and Australia. But Africa, birthplace of humanity, is in some ways the final frontier of baseball. Only South Africa has any sort of baseball tradition, playing in the first two World Baseball Classics and producing several minor leaguers over the years, most notably Gift Ngoepe, the first black South African to play professionally, who was featured in a Sports Illustrated article a few years ago. South Africa, however, is one of the most advanced nations in Africa, and has, since the end of Apartheid, been more-or-less a country that has avoided much of the strife and war that has plagued several African countries.

The same cannot be said for Uganda, which makes the accomplishment of the Ugandan Little League team all the more special.

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Great Baseball Lies: “Keep your eye on the ball!”

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Baseball is full of lies. One of them is pounded into every Little Leaguer in America: you need to keep your eye on the ball from as soon as it leaves the pitcher’s hand until you are ready to swing the bat.

I was told it. You were told it. Everybody was told it. It also doesn’t help whatsoever. Mainly because, if the ball is going any faster than a beer league softball, you aren’t going to be able to see it for any long span of time, and certainly not all the way to the plate. The ball is just going too fast. This has been known for over half of a century.

So what, exactly, do baseball players who are successful actually do? Well, they basically guess and anticipate where the ball is going based on those split-seconds they have to see the ball. This is why a good change-up so fools a hitter if they’ve been getting lots of fastballs: they are expecting a 90+ MPH pitch, so time their swing based on that assumption.
So, remember kids: don’t keep your eye on the ball. Instead, take a quick glance and then guess where it’s going. I mean, I always kept my eye on the ball, and look at me: I washed out of baseball by the age of 11.

The Cape Cod League: Pure Concentrated Americana

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Over the last week, I’ve been vacationing in Massachusetts. And, of course, I made sure to see all of the sites: the USS Constitution, Quincy Market, the Old North Church, the JFK Library and Museum, and, of course, Fenway Park. I even went to a restaurant that is a replica of the bar on Cheers. I’ll write about all of that later, but first, I must tell you about a few innings in what might be the purest baseball this side of an old neighborhood pick-up game: The Cape Cod League.

(JUMP- note that this post is image intensive)

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Stony Brook: The North will rise again

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Stony Brook made it to the College World Series yesterday, defeating perennial power LSU, on LSU’s home turf, and in near-dominating fashion too. The super-regional series went to the full three games, but Stony Brook easily could have swept, having blown leads several times in game 1 before LSU won it.

This is, even in the relatively-niche college sport of baseball, a big deal. The Seawolves (previously best known for having been the college team of Joe Nathan) were a number 4 seed in regionals, and, as ESPN constantly pointed out, that makes them the equivalent of a number 13 or lower/higher (it’s hard to keep your directions straight with seeds sometimes) making it to the Elite Eight during March Madness. In 2008, Fresno State became the first and only regional 4-seed to win the entire tournament, but Fresno, unlike Stony Brook, had been to the CWS before, and had in fact ended up coming in second on three previous occasions. Stony Brook… hasn’t. In fact, they hadn’t even made it to the Super Regionals before this year.

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Some interesting names from the MLB draft… and why it might not matter

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The draft is over, so, of course, there are some stories here and there about some of the ballplayers who were drafted. Mainly, those stories about those who are the offspring or other relatives of former big leaguers.

This is all well and good, and it is always great to hear about how baseball continues to be passed from one generation to the next, but, well, the fact is is that these draftees are unlikely to make it to the majors (especially if drafted in the later rounds) and, in many cases, aren’t even going to sign with the teams that drafted them and instead head to college.

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The Not-An-Expert Q&A preview of the MLB Draft

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Tomorrow, the MLB draft begins. As I mentioned before, College Baseball is sort of the odd man out in college sports. And, as I referred to in that post, a lot of high schoolers get drafted in the MLB draft. So, with that in mind, in most years you need a scorecard to know who the people being drafted are. So, with that in mind, I’ve done some research to get you up to speed on the draft, and who will probably get drafted, check it out underneath the jump:

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Why nobody pays attention to College Baseball, outside of the CWS

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In basketball, the NCAA tournament is in many ways a far bigger event than even the NBA Finals as the marquee event for the sport.

In football, the passions in some regions for college teams are larger than that of any NFL team. Okay, with the possible exception of Green Bay. Maybe.

Baseball, however, has it’s amateur competitions mostly forgotten. Yes, the draft is shown on MLB Network (at least the first round or two), and it isn’t too hard to find a college game on TV if you know where to look… but it is a afterthought unless it’s draft day (and even then, there usually are just as many high schoolers who are getting drafted) or the College World Series.

There are several reasons for this:

  • As I mentioned, lots of players are drafted out of high school, so the level of competition in NCAA isn’t quite what it is in football or basketball.
  • With the exception of the best of the best, it’ll be several years before you see a top college player in the big leagues, since they will go to the minors for seasoning. This ends any type of “hype” that can be built up around future pros, and why the MLB draft is so little followed beyond seamheads.
  • Aluminum bats. They may have been changed over the past decade or so to act more like baseball bats and not like trampolining home run machines, but there is still the PING! that, while tolerable when heard in Little League, seems to be grating when you see grown men swinging them around.
  • Lack of regional parity. If it seems like the BCS division of football is dominated by southern and western colleges, it’s even worse in baseball. After all, they can practice all year round, and don’t have to worry about the weather. A look at the winners of the College World Series over the years shows it. There hasn’t been a CWS winning team from above the old Mason-Dixon line (39 degrees and 43 minutes N) since Oregon State went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007. Before then, though, there hadn’t been one since (The) Ohio State University won it in 1966. Heck, there hadn’t even been a northern team that came in second place since Eastern Michigan lost to Arizona in 1976.
  • Baseball, unlike basketball and football, became a professional sport fairly early on, meaning the long traditions found in college hoops and gridiron aren’t as common in baseball, since they didn’t have time to form before the rise of the pros. The only big tradition it has that is known nationally is the fact that the College World Series is in Omaha, and ALWAYS in Omaha.

So what can be done? Well, MLB is apparently discussing helping fund scholarships and a transition to wooden bats in NCAA, which could be helpful. However, I think College Baseball will remain what it is: fun to watch come the College World Series, but generally ignored outside of that.

One giant leap for outfielder kind

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Did you see this catch? You probably have, it’s been all over the internet.

Amazing, right? It’s so awesome that, if you were to pitch it to Hollywood, they’d laugh you out of the room. Not even a screwball comedy would dare put such a play to film. And yet, there it is: a player named Derrick Salberg leaping over the fence and catching what would have been the tying run of the game. Yes, he’s a JuCo player, and yes, the fence is only four feet tall, but that doesn’t make the play any less amazing. In fact, it might make it more so. It also has quite the story behind it as well: it would have been the final game in his coach’s career had Derrick’s team lost.

I have nothing I can truly add to this, but it is such a great catch I felt as if I had to put something up about it.

A little thing about Sexism, Racism, Anti-Semitism and Bigotry in general

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A few days ago, there was a news story that Our Lady of Sorrows, an Arizona high school run by a breakaway sect of the Catholic Church, had forfeited a game against Mesa Prep due to the fact that Mesa’s second baseman is female, citing religious beliefs. This is, of course, something that goes against every bone in my and most Americans’ bodies. It also is shameful in how it echoes past prejudices held in sports. Continue reading to see what I mean:

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