Category Archives: Baseball

The grand World Baseball Classic Question and Answer (Part 1: The Basics)

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The World Baseball Classic, and people’s coverage of it, is often filled with innuendo, missed information or taking hearsay as fact. It’s happened to me, it’s happened to the actual media, and it’s happened even to Major League Baseball itself.

It’s not hard to see why. It’s still a relatively new event, after all, not a yearly decades-old baseball mainstay like the All-Star Game, or like other events like the Olympics, which have been going on for over a century. In addition, it isn’t as centralized, and information is often crossing linguistic and national borders. So something about a roster change in one country might not reach the rest until later, or a claim by a player in one language might lose it’s nuance when translated into English.

So, anyway, to clear things up, go after the jump for part 1 of a Q&A on the WBC.

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Worry: Will U of Miami grads simply be assumed to be guilty?

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One thing that noticed- and worries me- in the recent wave of PED news is that many of the players have a big connection: The University of Miami.

Ryan Braun played for the University of Miami.

Yasmani Grandal played for the University of Miami.

Danny Valencia played for the University of Miami.

Cesar Carrillo, a minor leaguer who has been connected to BioGenesis, went to the University of Miami.

Alex Rodriguez has been a major financial donor to the University of Miami baseball program- their park even bears his name.

Jimmy Goins, named in the Biogenesis reports, is the strength and conditioning coach for the University of Miami.

I’m hardly the first to notice this, look at what Tim Brown and Jeff Passan wrote at Yahoo!:

The early portion of MLB’s investigation has focused on the web of connections to the University of Miami, where Braun attended college. Carrillo, a pitcher in the Detroit Tigers organization, was Braun’s road roommate for three years. Jimmy Goins, a strength-and-conditioning coach at the school and alleged client of Bosch’s, worked with Braun during his three years at Miami. Goins has denied a connection to Bosch.

And this leads to my concern: Will others consider former Hurricanes players to be guilty until proven innocent? Will a new star who comes to the majors, having played at “The U”, have whispers behind their back?

Because that would not be healthy for the sport. There still needs to be evidence, one cannot just assume that because player X went to college Y he must be on PEDs. And we must never forget that.

Picture of the day: Connie Mack didn’t need a uniform

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Another picture from the Library of Congress Flickr stream. This time, it’s of Connie Mack, who didn’t wear a uniform during his long managerial career, instead famously opting for a fancy suit. Can you imagine if Joe Girardi or Charlie Manuel did this?

Famous for something else: Kurt Russell

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Kurt Russell is an actor who has starred in films like Miracle, Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China, but in his youth, he played minor league baseball:

Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
1971 20 Bend NORW A- CAL 51 212 179 30 51 11 0 1 14 2 3 29 33 .285 .385 .363 .748 65 0 4 0
1972 21 Walla Walla NORW A- 29 91 77 12 25 4 0 0 14 1 1 8 7 .325 .389 .377 .766 29 2 1 3
1973 22 2 Teams 2 Lgs A–AA CAL 29 99 4 28 3 1 1 4 1 2 1 1 .283 .364 36 0 0 0
1973 22 Portland NORW A- 23 83 19 0 1 0 .229 .253 21
1973 22 El Paso TL AA CAL 6 17 16 4 9 3 0 1 4 1 2 1 1 .563 .588 .938 1.526 15 0 0 0
1977 26 Portland NORW A- 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0
4 Seasons 110 404 356 46 104 18 1 2 32 4 6 38 41 .292 .361 .365 .726 130 2 5 3
A- (4 seasons) A- 104 387 340 42 95 15 1 1 28 3 4 37 40 .279 .351 .338 .689 115 2 5 3
AA (1 season) AA 6 17 16 4 9 3 0 1 4 1 2 1 1 .563 .588 .938 1.526 15 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/5/2013.

What’s interesting about Russell’s baseball career is that it happened DURING his acting career. He had been on TV, and had starred in Disney movies like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, which came out in 1969. As you can see, he actually did pretty well, but a rotator cuff injury derailed him.

But that isn’t all. His father, actor Bing Russell, owned a minor league baseball team, and his nephew, Matt Franco, played in the big leagues for the Cubs, Mets and Braves.

Humor: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ALEX RODRIGUEZ?

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The Yankees have seemingly sent Alex Rodriguez into hiding, to keep him away from reporters and paparazzi.

Not going to stop me.
I know EXACTLY where Alex Rodriguez is. He’s somewhere here:

Yes, Alex Rodriguez is somewhere on Planet Earth. Oh, sure, it is not impossible, given his great wealth, that he has fled to Mars, Alpha Centauri or Altair IV, but there is no evidence he has done so, as we would have been able to see his Warp Signature, or something (any Star Trek fans out there, feel free to correct me).

So, where on Earth is Alex Rodriguez? Has he donned a red hat and coat? Or is he going the red-and-white shirt route?

Nobody knows.

That said, let’s face it, this is Alex Rodriguez. He lives in Florida (especially Miami) but reportedly has houses or apartments in the New York Metropolitan Area and near Los Angeles. So, uh… start there.

So, yeah, not specific, but there you go.

One week until pitchers and catchers!

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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!

Picture of the day: Medicine Ball

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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?

Could a MLB team be heading to Korea in 2014? Or the Netherlands? Or both?

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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.

Famous for something else: John Lynch

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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 W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB
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
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/31/2013.

Famous For Something Else: John Elway

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Unlike some other failed two-sport athletes, John Elway’s stats in the minors were actually pretty good. That said, I’d say he probably made a good decision focusing on the NFL.

Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
1982 22 Oneonta NYPL A- NYY 42 185 151 26 48 6 2 4 25 13 3 28 25 .318 .432 .464 .896 70 4 0 2 0
1 Season 42 185 151 26 48 6 2 4 25 13 3 28 25 .318 .432 .464 .896 70 4 0 2 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/31/2013.