Category Archives: Non-Baseball

The Second Episode of 2012’s “The Franchise” saw Ozzie Guillen say the F-Word about 18 times, and other observations

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The second episode of this season of The Franchise wasn’t as long or as good as the first, but it still entertained while providing a unique look at the Miami Marlins, focusing primarily on Giancarlo Stanton’s surgery, Logan Morrison’s trip back to his hometown of Kansas City, and the unexpected rise of Justin Ruggiano, but still getting in some good Ozzie Guillen sounds before the end, as he chewed out the team immediately following the All-Star Break. Thoughts and the “Ozzie Guillen ‘Carlin Words’ Counter” after the jump:

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“Moneyball” is a book that has shaped America. No, seriously.

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The Library of Congress recently released a list of 88 Books that Shaped America, which are part of a current exhibit at the Library. It’s a pretty good list of books (which had to either be written by an American or by somebody who became an American), and it’s hard to argue with most of them. However, it’s missing something big: sports. America is the most diverse and sports-loving country on Earth. Most countries focus on only one sport (usually soccer), but America has many sports, and it affects our language and culture. We ask for ballpark figures and play Monday morning quarterback. Something that is a certainty is a slam dunk. It’s one of the last few universal experiences: at a sporting event, nobody cares (or at least 99.9% of people don’t care) what party you vote for or what you do for a living.

That the LoC would so ignore this aspect of American life is disappointing, especially because there are plenty of good sports books out there that have shaped America. Jim Bouton’s Ball Four was one of the first books to openly tell things like they were and show the public’s heroes with all of their flaws. Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights highlighted the importance of football in small-town Texas, and later was made into a movie and TV series. Juiced was hardly a triumph of literary genius, but it can’t be denied that Canseco shaped not only baseball but America, leading to the government hearings and efforts by all sports (although people only cared about what baseball did) in trying to fight it.

However, if I could add in one sports book to the Library of Congress list, it would be Michael Lewis’ Moneyball.

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Review and observations of the first episode of the 2012 edition of the Franchise (and the debut of the “Ozzie Guillen ‘Carlin Word’ Counter”)

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The first real episode of The Franchise aired on Wednesday night (a preview episode aired earlier in the year, and this episode recycled some of the material from that). While last year they dealt with the relatively-boring San Francisco Giants, this season, Showtime and MLB Productions are following the Miami Marlins, a far more hectic and colorful club. This episode- which covers roughly the first half of the season- features a bit on the team’s off-season makeover, the opening of the new stadium, Ozzie’s infamous comments about Fidel Castro, and the setting-up of certain players and storylines that will probably be followed throughout the season. It’s a good show, perhaps only failing in not sticking with the Castro incident longer (it was covered far more in the preview episode, if I remember), but make sure no young children are around while watching.

More after the jump (and SPOILERS), including the first installment of the Ozzie Guillen “Carlin Word” Counter:

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Sunday Links and a preview of the next week

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Some links that caught my eye and a preview of what will be on the Baseball Continuum in the week ahead.

On Friday, Miguel Gonzalez of the Orioles defeated the Angels for the first win of his MLB career. He did it while wearing a glove bearing name of his old friend and teammate, the late Nick Adenhart.

The bad news is that Giancarlo Stanton is out of the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby due to knee surgery, but the good news is that Bryce Harper will be the one replacing him in the game…

…and Andrew McCutchen, possibly the most underrated player in baseball, will be replacing him in the Derby. He’s no Stanton, but he can still drill the ball.

The United States National College Team and Cuba’s National Team have renewed a series that had been dormant since the 1990s.

The All-Star Game has been held in Kansas City twice before: 1960 and 1973.

Coming this week on the Baseball Continuum:

  • Projections for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic
  • An argument that Moneyball is a book that has shaped modern America
  • Thoughts on the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game
  • The first episode of this season of The Franchise airs (including the debut of the Continuum’s Ozzie Guillen swear-word scorecard)
  • A review of The Amazing Spider-Man
  • And who knows what else?

Mini-Bizarre Baseball Culture- Tony Stark: Baseball Fan

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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. This is a smaller installment of that.

In the trade paperback entitled The Five Nightmares (by Matt Fraction), Tony Stark AKA Iron Man has traveled to the Congo to investigate a genocidal supervillain organization that may have replicated his technology.

He also is tracking a few other things. Y’know, R&D meetings, messed up satellites….

… and Josh Beckett throwing a no-hitter.

Iron Man = Baseball Fan.

(The use of this low-quality photo of a very small portion of a larger storyline qualifies as Fair Use under US copyright law.)

Want more Bizarre Baseball Culture? Check out after the jump.

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An act of unnecessary baseball research: Miguel Tejada and Aaron Sorkin

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During the pilot episode of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom (a good show, if a little soapboxy), newsman Will McAvoy is reminiscing with his old flame/new executive producer MacKenzie McHale and remembers that he once went to an Orioles game with her father, which ended with Miguel Tejada hitting a double to win the game 4-3, driving home runners who were on first and third.

However, either McAvoy’s memory isn’t as sharp as he’d like to believe, or the universe of The Newsroom isn’t just different because there is a fictional news network around… because no such thing ever happened. From 2004 (when Tejada joined the Orioles) to 2007 (it’s said the two of them haven’t seen each other in three years, so presumably that’s the latest such a game could have happened), Tejada didn’t hit any walk-off doubles for the Orioles.

However, just for the sake of argument, here are some possibilities of what he actually was talking about:

The only time that Miguel Tejada ever had a walk-off double with men on first and third was when he was with the Athletics. Given the fact that McAvoy so clearly remembers it being an Orioles game, and the fact that all of these characters appear to be based on the East Coast, he probably didn’t mean that.

He hit a walk-off home run against the Tigers in 2004, but the men were on 1st and 2nd, it ended the game by the score of 7-5, and, let’s face it, it’s hard to believe somebody would think it was a double.

Personally, I think it was likely this game from August 2006. The Orioles, like in the game remembered by McAvoy, won by one. Two men were on when he had the hit (a single). It’s entirely possible that, in the madness that so often follows a walk-off hit, that McAvoy would think that Tejada had gone to second. As for all of the other inconsistencies in McAvoy’s memories, well, he mentions that he and Mackenzie’s father had been drinking a lot that day, so, well, there you go.

So, there you go, the answer to a baseball question nobody asked.

Other baseball movies that need to happen

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After Moneyball drew widespread acclaim and pretty good box office, baseball movies seem to be having a renaissance.A movie on Jackie Robinson is in the works (with Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey and Chadwick Boseman starring as Jackie). Disney is working on a movie about the two Indian pitchers that the Pirates signed after they came over to the states after winning a reality TV show. Ben Affleck is trying to make a movie on the infamous Mike Kekich/Fritz Peterson “wife swap” (Kekich isn’t happy). And now his brother, Casey, is apparently trying to make a movie about Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton’s tale, of course, is perfect for a movie, as it could draw so many different types of people in. Every baseball fan would go to it just because it’s a baseball movie, everybody loves an underdog story, the struggles with substance abuse would play well with critics if done right and Hamilton’s faith would bring in church groups. Of course, there’s the slight problem that the story isn’t done yet: how do you end it? With him winning America’s hearts (but not the trophy) in that Yankee Stadium home run derby? With the 4-home run game? Had that home run of his in Game 6 last season won it for the Rangers, that would have been perfect, but then the Cardinals made their comeback.

But anyway, I’m getting off-topic. The thing with baseball is that there are so many stories that would make great movies. Here are some that should be considered (after the jump):

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Random Video of the Undetermined Amount of Time: Game 6 of the 1986 World Series… in RBI Baseball

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RBI Baseball was one of the great baseball video games of all time. A few years back, somebody used the game to recreate the final inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, complete with Vin Scully commentary.

What Franchise has the best Championship Percentage?

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The New York Yankees, are of course, the most successful sports franchise in North America (if not the world) by number of titles: 27. And it’s entirely possible that they could have gotten another one in 1994 had the strike not intervened (of course the same could be said for the Montreal Expos and several other teams). But here’s something that’s always bugged me: The Yankees and most other baseball teams have a big headstart against everyone else. So with the NHL and NBA now done with their postseasons, it’s time to take a look at what team has the best “Championship Percentage”. In other words, what teams have the most championships per year in existence where a championship was possible. Read on for more:

First, some guidelines:

  • Only “Big 4” teams are counted in this. That means foreign teams (Japanese baseball, European soccer, etc.) and minor league teams aren’t counted, nor are teams from the MLS, WNBA, NLL, Arena Football League, etc.
  • Championships will only count in years where the championship as we know it existed. That means that only modern-day World Series count for MLB, only Super Bowls count for NFL, only the Finals count for the NBA and only Stanley Cups from 1927 onward (when it became an NHL-only affair) count for the NHL. Years in which a championship was cancelled don’t count.
  • Years in a league that didn’t have a game in the championship (Pre-Super Bowl AFL, the ABA, the WHA…) don’t count.
  • This is for franchises, not teams. So, for example, the Lakers have the titles from their time in Minneapolis. The only exceptions to this are in those cases where the league has said specifically that they are separate franchises. For example, the Baltimore Ravens are treated by the NFL as if they were a expansion franchise, and the Cleveland Browns are treated as if they never left Cleveland and that they just sort of took a break for a few years in the nineties. Of course, you will not be seeing the Browns at all from this point on, anyway.
  • Teams that haven’t won at all won’t be counted.

More after the jump:

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Jeff Kent on Survivor… and other retired ballplayers who should do “reality” TV

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Jeff Kent is one of the greatest hitting second-basemen of all time (he leads the position in career homers), and a likely future Hall of Famer. He also infamously fought Barry Bonds in the dugout once.  He is also, according to some sources, going to be on the next season of Survivor. It is not without precedent: he previously took part in Superstars, and Survivor had Jimmy Johnson in 2010.

This leads to the humorous question of what other retired ballplayers should partake in reality TV. Hey, not every post can be about injuries, prospects, the World Baseball Classic or stupid comic books from the 1940s.

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