Today is the 20th Anniversary of The Sandlot. Two things:
A) This makes me feel old (I must have watched that movie on VHS 200 times as a kid).
B) If you haven’t seen this movie, well… you’re killing me, Smalls!
Below the jump you can find the current standings of some prominent leagues outside of the USA:
The MVP of Yesterday was Justin Upton, who went 3-5 with 2 homers (including the game-winner) in the Atlanta win over Chicago- during which his brother B.J. homered earlier in the 9th inning to tie the game.
And, really, that sounds like a good way for siblings to spend the weekend, right?
Honorable Mentions: Wilson Ramos, Clayton Kershaw
MVP standings after the jump.
The MVP of Yesterday- and a good leader for MVP of the whole first week of play- is Chris Davis of the Orioles, who’s 8th inning grand slam put the O’s ahead for good against the Minnesota Twins. His 4th HR of the season (one in each game, becoming only the fourth player in history to have a home run in the first four games of the season), it also provided four of five RBIs on the day, bringing his season total to 16- the highest number of RBIs this early in the season since the stat became official in 1920. He is the first player to hit a homer and drive in at least three runs in four straight games – at any point in the season – since Bill Dickey in 1937 (source).
So, while perhaps they may have been players who hit more HRs yesterday, or who pitche extremely d well, it’s hard to to argue with Chris Davis.
Honorable Mentions: Prince Fielder, Todd Frazier, Zach Cozart, Barry Zito, Zack Greinke
Go below the jump for the MVP Standings:
WordPress provides me with a list of search results that bring people to the Continuum, but, well, sometimes they can be very strange. Here are some of the weirdest search results that have brought people to this blog, as well as what I think they ended up finding by searching for them- all of these are put down exactly as they appear in WordPress’ list of search results:
So, have you ever come here with a strange search request?
Results and news from leagues around the world yesterday:
NPB (Japan) scores from April 5:
Hanshin Tigers 7, Hiroshima Carp 6 (in 12)
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 17, Chiba Lotte Marines 5
Yokohama Bay Stars 2, Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1
Orix Buffaloes 4, Seibu Lions 1
Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 6, Nippon Ham Fighters 1
Yomiuri Giants 7, Chunichi Dragons 2
KBO (Korea) scores from April 4 (via MyKBO):
Kia 12, Hanwha 4
Nexen 4, LG 3
Lotte 5, NC 1
SK 7, Doosan 5
Other bits of news:
Manny Ramirez mania is sweeping Taiwan, with attendance skyrocketing in games where he’s playing. The large amounts of interest, both because of Ramirez and Taiwan’s performance in the WBC, has led to speculation that the CPBL will be expanding.
Jeff Passan writes of the differences between America and Japanese views on pitch counts.
This is only tangentially related, but former big leaguer Luke Hughes has signed on to play with the Subiaco Lions of the Western Australian Football League, presumably bringing his baseball career to an end.
Cliff Lee had 8 IP, 2 hits allowed and 8 strikeouts against the heavy-hitting Braves offense yesterday- a good way to notch up the first win of Philadelphia’s season.
Honorable Mentions: Chris Davis, Andy Pettitte
MVP Standings (after jump):
Well, you saw the Continuum Global News earlier today, but here’s a last bit: Manny Ramirez has hit his first HR in Taiwan, and it was also the 7000th total HR in the CPBL’s history. Here’s video:
The latest in International Baseball News:
In Japan’s “Spring Koshien”, Urawa Gakuin won the tournament. The “Spring Koshien”, unlike the “Summer Koshien”, is a invitational tournament and isn’t as prestigious, but is still shown on television and is a source of pride to the participants.
It’s still very early in the NPB season, but here’s how the standings there look right now:
In Korea, the standings so far look like this (taken from MyKBO):
I cannot find CPBL standings as of right now- if you know where I can find them, let me know.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Leon Boyd of the Dutch National Team (one of the very few “passport players” on the Kingdom of the Netherlands- his mother is Dutch) has signed with Correndon Kinheim.
And that will be it for today, but come back tomorrow for more Continuum Global News.
In the days and weeks ahead, this feature will be more fleshed-out and substantial, so please be patient as I work to make this one of the spots to go to for international baseball news.
A bit of an “out there” pick today, but Cliff Pennington of the Diamondbacks was a key player in Arizona’s win over St. Louis yesterday, going 3-6 with 2 BB, a run scored and the game-winning walk-off single in the sixteenth .
Honorable mentions: Matt Joyce, Gio Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Jed Lowrie
Go below jump for the “MVP Standings”:
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