The MVPs of the weekend were, in order: Drew Hutchison, Paul Goldschmidt, and Alex Gordon.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
MVPs of the Weekend (May 16, 17 and 18, 2014)
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Bizarre Baseball Culture: Green Arrow and Elongated Man in a tale with Baseball
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.
Earlier this week, the season finale of the second year of Arrow aired. And, to belatedly honor that, here’s a look at the time that Green Arrow and the Elongated Man fought a guy dressed as a calculator during the World Series.
Yes, really.
JUMP for the rest:
MVPs of the past two days (May 13th and 14th): David Price and Masahiro Tanaka
The MVPs of the past two days were David Price and Masahiro Tanaka… sorry about the lack of explanation, but I’ve been very busy the last few days. I’ll be making up for this, however. Oh yeah….
Standings after the jump:
MVPs of the Weekend (May 10th and 11th)
Oh, crud, I missed the whole weekend! Argh!
Anyway…
Saturday, the MVP was Corey Dickerson of the Rockies. He went 4-5 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs.
Yesterday, Sunday, the MVP was Daniel Murphy of the Mets. 3-4 with a HR, 2 RBIs and 2 walks.
Standings after the jump:
MVPs of the past two days (May 7 and May 8): Adam Jones and…
The day before yesterday (May 7), Adam Jones went 2-4… but those two hits were HRs in the victory against the Rays.
Yesterday (May 8), meanwhile, had an MVP in Yesterday in Hisashi Iwakuma, who threw 8 shutout innings, giving up only 4 hits as the Mariners edged out the Royals, 1-0.
Standings after jump:
Giancarlo Stanton: 4
Jon Lester: 2
Dee Gordon: 1
Seth Smith: 1
Mark Buehrle: 1
Yu Darvish: 1
Ryan Braun: 1
Justin Upton: 1
Kyle Lohse: 1
Dan Uggla: 1
Johnny Cueto: 1
Ryan Howard: 1
Cliff Lee: 1
John Lackey: 1
Corey Kluber: 1
Tanner Roark: 1
Jesse Chavez: 1
Juan Uribe: 1
Miguel Cabrera: 1
Hisashi Iwakuma: 1
Adam Jones: 1
MVP of Yesterday (May 5, 2014): Troy Tulowitzki
Troy Tulowitzki is having a helluva of a year so far. And last night was no exception, as he went 2-3 with 2 HRs, 4 RBIs and 2 BB.
It’s Tulo’s 3rd MVP of Yesterday for the year, as he’s in hot pursuit of Giancarlo Stanton!
Standings, as always, after the jump:
Bizarre Baseball Culture: Spider-Man, Uncle Ben, and the Mets
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.
(Note: This article may have spoilers to Amazing Spider-Man 2, since I reference a major storyline that I’m going to guess shows up in the movie. It’s in the second-to-final paragraph before the jump, if you want to know what to skip to avoid the spoiler.)
As the sequel to the reboot of Spider-Man comes out, entitled The Amazing Spider-Man 2, now is as good as any to do a Bizarre Baseball Culture on a comic entirely about Spider-Man and his baseball fandom. Now, ole’ Web-Head is no stranger to Bizarre Baseball Culture, having shown up in the past on at least three occasions (most recently fighting Doctor Doom alongside Billy the Marlin), but those were promotional comics that happened to feature Spider-Man. This time, we are looking at an honest-to-goodness Spider-Man comic: Peter Parker Spider-Man (Volume 2) #33. This issue from 2001 is about Peter Parker’s relation with his late Uncle Ben, and how baseball was a bond between them.
Now, before we begin, I’d like to write a bit about Spider-Man in general. What made the Marvel characters different when they first started appearing in the 1960s was that they were, in general, more relatable and flawed than the DC counterparts and the Marvel superheroes that had been created in the 30s and 40s. The Fantastic Four was often bickering with each other (like an family does), the X-Men were shunned by most of society (Stan Lee has said that being a mutant is basically meant to be a stand-in for being a minority), the Hulk was shunned by basically all of society… and Spider-Man, for lack of a better term, was a loser.
Okay, maybe not a loser, but definitely the closest thing there had been up to that point: an unpopular kid with no parents, only one family member of any sort (Aunt May) and little money. To make matters worse, when supervillains weren’t coming after him, the press and/or the police were. If things could go wrong for Peter Parker, they probably have. Parents? Dead. Uncle? Dead. Aunt? Perpetually sick. First true love (Gwen Stacy)? Murdered (and, amazingly, never came back to life). Second true love (Mary Jane)? Marriage magically annulled in a story far too stupid to talk about. Heck, while I haven’t read it, apparently most recently poor Peter Parker saw his body body-snatched by Doctor Ocopus while he was forced to die in “Doc Ock’s” cancer-ridden body (don’t worry, he got better). But all of this pales in comparison to the greatest, most horrible fate to ever fall upon Spider-Man:
Being a fan of the New York Mets.
(JUMP)
MVP of Yesterday (and the Day Before That) for April 30 and May 1 are Jesse Chavez and Juan Uribe
Okay, so, I made a boo-boo yesterday and forgot to post who the MVP of Yesterday for April 30 was. So, today is a twofer.
For April 30th, it’s Jesse Chavez of the Athletics. He only gave up one hit in 7 IP, striking out eight.
For yesterday, May 1, it’s Juan Uribe. He went 4-5 in the first game of the Dodgers’ double-header against the Twins, and then 1-3 with 3 walks in the second game. Getting on base that much is impressive, and good enough for MVP of Yesterday.
Standings after the jump:
Bizarre Baseball Culture: Captain America saves a HS ballplayer from Drugs!
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.
Previously, we covered a Golden Age adventure featuring Captain America, but now it’s time to look at one that takes place in post WWII. This time, we take a look a comic book in which Captain America must protect a high school baseball player from the great threat of… DRUGS!
Yes, drugs. And I don’t mean the performance-enhancing kind, I’m talking cocaine and other fun stuff like that. And, before you ask, yes, this was a comic made specifically to give an anti-drug message, specially in cooperation with the FBI and New York State Life Underwriters. It’s right on the cover:
So, anyway, go below the jump for a look at the 1990 Anti-Drug comic, “High Heat”.
(Get it? High Heat? Because of drugs and because it’s about a baseball player? Oh, nevermind.)
So, where exactly was this picture taken? AKA: Where the heck would they play baseball in Dubai?
You may have seen this picture online a few days ago (click to enlarge):
As you can see, it’s a baseball game being played outside of Dubai, with the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa (formerly known as the Burj Dubai) rising in the distance.
Of course, the United Arab Emirates isn’t exactly a baseball hot bed. So I was wondering where this picture was taken. So I did some research… and found it!
At Al Quoz Pond Park south of Dubai’s downtown is the site of the Dubai Little League. To be more specific, the picture of the game with the Burj in the distance was taken at the large, adult-sized north field. As you can see below, this Little League facility is definitely close enough and in the right direction relative to Dubai’s downtown where the view in the top picture is what batters would see:
So, there you have it: Not only are there baseball fields in Dubai, but at least one of them has a killer view.
The Baseball Continuum 