Part one can be found here. Part two can be found here. Go below the jump for even more…
2013 MLB Preview part 4: 162 Things Guaranteed to Happen in the 2013 MLB Season (Part 3)
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2013 MLB Preview part 3: 162 Things Guaranteed to Happen in the 2013 MLB Season (Part 2)
Did you read the first part of the 162 things yesterday? If not, you should. Go below the jump for today’s things:
2013 MLB Preview part 2: 162 Things Guaranteed to Happen in the 2013 MLB Season (Part 1)
What’s going to happen in this, the 2013 Major League Baseball Season? Well, I have 162 ideas- ranging from the serious to the sarcastic. At the end of the year, I’ll look at what my record was. Hopefully I will do better than the Astros.
This is a big and long post, so it can be found UNDER THE JUMP.
Florida Gulf Coast University Basketball vs. Fresno State Baseball: What’s the bigger Cinderella?
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
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.
2013 MLB Preview, Part 1: First Things That Pop Into My Mind
Okay, time to play a bit of a game with myself: For every team in Major League Baseball, I type out the first (printable) thought I have on them. Sometimes they will actually have to do with the coming season, other times they will just be random observations or the name of their best player. This is acting as part 1 of a series of unknown length that will constitute my preview of the 2013 season.
So, here we go:
Arizona Diamondbacks: Kirk Gibson likes guys who are gritty.
Atlanta Braves: No Chipper but 2 Uptons.
Baltimore Orioles: There’s no way they can do it again, right?
Chicago Cubs: Will trade Alfonso Soriano sometime.
Chicago White Sox: Won’t be better than the Tigers.
Cincinnati Reds: Could win the division again.
Cleveland Indians: Terry Francona.
Colorado Rockies: Carlos Gonzalez. Todd Helton is still playing.
Detroit Tigers: World Series favorite.
Houston Astros: Welcome the American League, enjoy last place.
Kansas City Royals: Better but not going to be nearly good enough.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California: Great lineup, suspect pitching after Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson.
Los Angeles Dodgers: Magic, Money, and Matt Kemp.
Miami Marlins: Pity poor Giancarlo Stanton.
Milwaukee Brewers: Major League Baseball is coming for Ryan Braun.
Minnesota Twins: Rebuilding in progress.
New York Mets: David Wright.
New York Yankees: Robinson Cano and some old guys. Also: Mariano Rivera‘s last stand.
Oakland Athletics: The beard of Josh Reddick.
Philadelphia Phillies: Is Roy Halladay over the hill?
Pittsburgh Pirates: Andrew McCutchen.
San Diego Padres: Chase Headley.
San Francisco Giants: The defending champs.
Seattle Mariners: Felix Hernandez.
St. Louis Cardinals: Albert who?
Texas Rangers: Not what they have been.
Toronto Blue Jays: I need to get a passport so I can go watch them play.
Washington Nationals: The other World Series favorite.
Come back in the coming days for more thoughts and previews of the 2013 MLB season.
The time where the 76ers drafted two future MLB Players
Just in time for March Madness, here’s a weird connection between hoops and Major League Baseball.
To be more specific, one year (1996), the Philadelphia 76ers drafted two college basketball stars who eventually made the rosters of Major League Baseball teams:
In case you can’t see it, that is Mark Hendrickson and Ryan Minor being drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers, drafted one right after the other. Minor- who’s main claim to fame was starting at third the day that Cal Ripken‘s streak ended- went straight to baseball, but Hendrickson- who has been pitching in camp for the Orioles this spring- had a brief NBA career (go below the jump for the stats):
The Dominican moves to the top spot in the Post-WBC Baseball Continuum Rankings
With the WBC over, the Baseball Continuum Rankings have been updated. The rankings take into account both individual games as well as the overall 1-16 rankings that the WBC participants ended up being ranked into at the end.
And the biggest jump in the Rankings after the WBC came in the case of the Dominican Republic. Their eight wins and #1 finish added 90.89 points to their total, rocketing them up to 269.89 total points, putting them in first for in the Baseball Continuum Rankings, ahead of the USA (231.079, having lost about 3 points in the Classic).
The team that suffered the most from the Classic was Australia. Their 0-3 record and last-place finish (based on tie breakers) caused them to lose 98.5 points, sending them tumbling to -28.5 points.
So, go below the jump for the latest Baseball Continuum Rankings, as of March 20, 2013:
And now, some thoughts and suggestions on the World Baseball Classic
The Dominican Republic can lay claim to being the champions of the 2013 World Baseball Classic, going undefeated in the tournament and shutting out Puerto Rico in the final game, 3-0. Robinson Cano was rightfully named tourney MVP, although one could also have made a case for Fernando Rodney, who saved seven games during the tournament.
While it was far from a perfect tournament, it had some great moments. There were the honkbal Dutch, proving that 2009 was far from a fluke by making it to the semi-finals, defeating the mighty Cubans twice on the way. There was Italy’s similarly amazing run. There were the great fans, who even in the less-attended games made the crowd seem several times bigger. And it had high drama, with Davids facing Goliaths, the old facing the young, and, in some cases, entire nations sitting on the edge of their seats.
And, yes, all of my reasons while the WBC is going to be sticking around are still valid.
Still, the WBC does definitely have room for improvement, so go below the jump for some of my suggestions:
When were record chases first noticed?: Cal Ripken’s Consecutive Game Streak
I’ve been looking through the old SI Vault, curious as to when various record chases were first noticed by Sports Illustrated. So, in this new feature, I look at when the first reference to Cal Ripken‘s pursuit of Lou Gehrig‘s consecutive game streak began.
Ripken’s Consecutive Games Streak
For example, take Cal Ripken and his pursuit of Lou Gehrig’s record. It was first hinted at in 1989, when the fact he was third overall in consecutive games played was referenced in a Peter Gammons article. The next year, in the June 18 issue, there was a whole article about his streak, including how many already were having doubts about whether it was helping or hurting the Orioles. By 1992, Gehrig’s record was clearly in danger, which, along with the fact that Bob Beamon’s long-jump record had been broken, led to an SI article listing 10 records that were never going to be broken.
Of note is that, from that list, one of those supposedly unbreakable records (Roger Maris‘ 61 HRs) has been broken (albeit with the alleged aid of PEDs), another (the Lakers’ 33 straight wins) is currently under assault, and a third (Jack Nicklaus’ majors) could conceivably be broken.
The Baseball Continuum 
