Tag Archives: baseball

2014 SEASON PREVIEW (PART 8): Everything you wanted to know about the opening series in Australia but didn’t ask

Posted on by
Reply

So, it won’t be long before the 2014 MLB Regular Season starts… in Australia. Yes, this year, it starts in Sydney, Australia. You may or may not have questions about this, but I don’t particularly care what you think, so for our latest preview, we look at these two games that will start off the season.

Okay, first thing’s first, give me the basic details of this thing again?

The LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks are going to play a two-game series at Sydney’s Sydney Cricket Grounds. These are regular season games that count in the standings.

Okay, so when are they taking place?

Game one takes place around 4 AM Eastern (1 AM Pacific) on March 22nd, with the second game taking place later that date at around 10 PM Eastern (7 PM Pacific). The reason for that is due to the international date line- locally the first game takes place a bit past 7 PM on the 22nd and a bit past 1 PM on the 23rd. Fun fact: Due to these games being in the Southern Hemisphere, the MLB season will, for the first time, START in Fall, as opposed to merely ending in it.

In addition, both the Dodgers and Diamondbacks will have exhibitions against the Australian National Team on the 20th (Dodgers) and 21st (Diamondbacks).

Who’s the home team here?

The Diamondbacks will be the “home” team.

Is it on TV here in America?

Yup. They’ll be on MLB Network, with Matt Vasgersian and Tom Smoltz calling it, with Ian Chappell providing further commentary.

The games will also be on the local TV broadcasts in Arizona and LA. The games about the Australian National Team should be available online, for example on MLB.TV.

Who’s Ian Chappell?

One of the greatest Australian cricketers of all time and a major fixture of Australian TV coverage of Cricket, Chappell has a baseball pedigree, and his son had a brief stint in the minors. Presumably he will be there to provide some local flavor, such as information on the Sydney Cricket Ground, some Australian traditions, etc.

Speaking of which where is this being played, again?

The Sydney Cricket Ground, established in 1848 (although renovated and/or rebuilt several times since then), is one of the world’s most storied cricket venues. It has also been used for both rugby union and league, the Commonwealth Games (at the time called the “British Empire Games”), Australian Rules Football, soccer, concerts, and, yes, at one point baseball- the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants played there during their 1914 world tour.

For baseball, the fences have been set up as 328 down the lines, 370 in the gaps and 400 to straightaway center. Here’s how they changed it from cricket to baseball:

So, who’s pitching?

Game 1: Clayton Kershaw vs. Wade Miley (filling in for Patrick Corbin, who is hurt)

Game 2: Hyun-Jin Ryu vs. Trevor Cahill

Where’s Zack Greinke?

Partially not there because an injury screwed up his throwing schedule, partially not there because his rather… unfiltered… thoughts about how he felt about starting the season in Australia. Carl Crawford and Matt Kemp also didn’t make the trip due to injury.

Are there even any Australians on these teams?

Sort of. Ryan Rowland-Smith. AKA “Hyphen”, is fighting for a spot in the Diamondbacks bullpen. He definitely will be playing in the exhibition games- in fact, the Diamondbacks have given him permission to pitch for Team Australia against the Dodgers.

Can you give me a brief history of baseball in Australia?

From my 2013 WBC preview:

The first baseball in Australia was played by American expats and their friends in the 1850s, but it wasn’t until the 1870s that the first organized teams were formed. The sport received more attention during the World Tours of barnstorming MLB players in the 19th and early 20th century and by the time American servicemen arrived in Australia during WWII there was a small but devoted amateur culture of baseball, one that has survived to this day. However, baseball has not yet been able to get permanently get past that amateur status, with two professional leagues (the Australian Baseball league of 1989-99 and the International Baseball League of Australia of 1999-2002) failing and a complete lack of professional baseball until the new Australian Baseball League was formed with MLB help a few years ago.

What will the crowds be like? I mean, you just said that professional leagues have struggled to survive and that it’s amateur baseball is simply “small but devoted”.

Well, they’ve sold out (or come very close to selling out) both games. It’s also likely, if reports are anything to go on, that they are going to be Diamondbacks fans.

Is this going to be one-off, or a regular thing?

Well, baseball has becoming increasingly driven in expanding the game’s reach internationally, and just having the WBC and the occasional opener in Japan isn’t going to be enough. Already there is some talk that MLB could return to Australia in 2018 if this series is a success, and there have also been rumblings about games in the Netherlands. And, just this year, there have been exhibition games in Panama City and, later in the spring, a return to Montreal. So, yeah, this is going to be a regular thing. Maybe it won’t be in Sydney, maybe it won’t even be a return to Tokyo, Mexico or Puerto Rico (although all of those are certainly possible), but there will be more openers overseas in the future.

Like where?

Besides obvious suspects like Korea, Taiwan or the Dominican Republic (none of which, amazingly, have ever hosted an official MLB game), I wouldn’t be surprised if you see rumblings about maybe doing series in other countries that play cricket, since it’s a lot easier to turn a cricket ground into a baseball field than, say, a soccer pitch. So, don’t be surprised if we end up seeing games in New Zealand (where baseball is the fastest-growing team sport) and the United Kingdom (although the weather there could be a problem) in the not-that-distant future.

Can I see the picture of Vin Scully holding the Koala Bear?

Okay.

Next time: More baseball previewing!

The 2014 MLB Season Preview (Part 1): In Which We Set Our Scene

Posted on by
Reply

Last time we saw Major League Baseball- not counting Spring Training- the Red Sox had won the World Series.

And now, we begin again. When the Dodgers and Diamondbacks kick off the season in Australia, baseball, as it always has, will be both radically different but also the same.

Different, in that, for the first time ever, there will be expanded replay, with Football-style challenges added. Players like Robinson Cano will be in new places, while others, like Joe Mauer, will be at new positions. Mariano Rivera has retired. Also, Bryce Harper has been spending time at the gym.

But, it’ll still be the same. It’s still nine innings. It’s still three strikes and you are out. And the Cubs still haven’t won the World Series since the the Ottoman Empire was still around.

In the coming days, as spring training continues and the openers near, the Baseball Continuum will be looking at the 2014 in nearly every way I can think of: the serious, the insane, the funny and the insightful.

Buckle up.

TwitchplaysPokemon, Fan Managing, and the wisdom (?) of the crowd

Posted on by
1

Over the past few days-okay, almost a week now- I have been (stupidly) riveted to the tale of “TwitchPlaysPokemon”. It is a social-experiment/massive-game in which tens of thousands and sometimes over a hundred of thousands all trying to control the main character of Pokemon Red. In theory, you would think this would mean good things: thousands of players, most of them having beaten the game at least once, joining forces to send commands to Red, the game’s player character.

In practice, however, it’s a mess. You see, usually it isn’t a democracy, it’s an anarchic mess of random button pushes, with the game more-or-less randomly selecting what ones it’s listening too. So while having the majority of people saying that the character should go right makes it more likely that he’ll go right, sometimes all it takes is one jerk or confused person pressing down to make Red jump off a ledge and forcing you to walk all the way back and start again. Even the “democracy” mode than occasionally kicks in is screwed up, since lag between you and the server means you are at times voting not for what to do but rather what to do next.

As a result, what an average player might be able to finish rather quickly has taken, at last count, at least 12 days…. playing every single second.

So what does this have to do with baseball? Well, as amazing as it sounds, stuff like this has been tried in baseball. With… mixed results.

The first, and most famous, example of the fans doing the manager’s job was “Grandstand Manager’s Day”, held on August 24, 1951 by Bill Veeck and his hapless St. Louis Browns. The Browns won, defeating the Philadelphia Athletics 5-3. At various points in the game, a question was flashed to the fans, who could then determine (through the use of signs) what they should do: should the infield play in double-play depth, should a runner go, etc.

The rest of the American League was less than happy with the stunt, which probably explains why we’ve never seen it again on the major league level.

So, fast-forward to August of 2004. The Brockton Rox, then of the indy Canadian-American League and with Mike Veeck (Bill’s son, perhaps best known for his role in Disco-Demolition Night) as a consultant, recreated the stunt. It was less successful, as the Rox lost 8-2.

But two years later, a team went even farther. You see, in the second half of 2006, the independent Schaumburg Flyers let the internet dictate parts of their team for a web-based reality show. While the show, “Fan Club: Reality Baseball”, has long disappeared from the web, a Los Angeles Times article from that glorious era and a USA TODAY article from the same time gives us a view of the madness that ensued:

  • The team, which had won their division the first half of the split-season, was in last for the second half.
  • One lineup dictated to the manager had the usual 9-hole hitter leading off, a slow catcher batting second, and the clean-up man hitting sixth.
  • Another lineup- the second one ever handed in- had the team’s best hitter riding the bench, the center-fielder at first, and the backup catcher at third base.
  • The longest losing streak in the team’s history happened.

Ouch.

Of course, there are several key differences between a video game and baseball. And there is the biggest one: You can’t control real people. You can’t tell a baserunner to slide a certain way, for example. And even if you can…. they might not listen.

Still, it’s an interesting thought, and, especially considering the rise of Twitter, it is likely only a matter of time until somebody, presumably in the Indy leagues, tries it again. After all, you can’t keep a crazy idea down.

Bizarre Baseball Culture: Stuart Taylor time-travels to the days of the Knickerbockers (only not really)

Posted on by
28

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.

Man, I wish I had a time machine to take back all those claims that this was going to be coming out”tomorrow”. Yes, I did just turn my own hectic scheduling errors into a lead-in joke. Deal with it.

Anyway, Time travel. One of the great tropes of Science Fiction. Is it any surprise that Bizarre Baseball Culture also now features time travel?

Yes, it’s time for a tale featuring a dude named Stuart Taylor, who, along with his companions Laura and Doctor Hayward, travels back to the age of the Knickerbockers baseball team (sort of).

The story from Jumbo Comics #135 (May 1950) can be found here, starting on page 29. Go below the jump for the rest of this article.

Continue reading →

The All “Share-My-Birthday” Team

Posted on by
1

Today is my birthday. So, in honor of that, here is the all “Share-My-Birthday” team:

Starting Pitcher: Earl Whitehill, Burt Hooton, Juan Pizarro (can also relieve), Scott Feldman

Relief Pitcher: Dan Quisenberry, Dave Borkowski, Brad Hennessey, Seth McClung, Cy Moore

C: Eliezer Alfonzo, Humberto Cota

1B: Uhhh… Charlie Reipschlager?

2B: Tom Daly, Damaso Garcia

SS: One of the other infielders doing utility-work

3B: Carney Lansford

Outfielders: Al Smith (can also play 3B), Benny Ayala, Charlie Jamieson, Endy Chavez

Manager: Pat Moran

It’s… not the most impressive. It’s hurt by the fact that Babe Ruth found out that he was born on February 6 (he had grown up believing it was February 7 until he finally saw his birth certificate).

Ralph Kiner: A Great Player For Some Horrible Teams

Posted on by
Reply

Ralph Kiner, who passed away today, was a great player who played for some really bad teams. In his ten seasons, only twice was his team above .500. He never played in the postseason, and only once did he come close- when the 1955 Indians finished three games back of the Yankees in what was Kiner’s final year. He didn’t make the Hall of Fame until his final year of eligibility, and during his time with the Pirates, Branch Rickey held a grudge against him, scapegoating him for the team’s failures in an effort to make it possible to trade him for prospects*.

For those reasons, perhaps it isn’t surprising that when his death was announced, his obituary in the New York Times spent just as much time on his stint as the voice of the Mets as it did on his playing days, which were, admittedly, short.

And this is a shame, as in his ten seasons, nobody else hit more HRs than Kiner, and, what’s more, no World Series-era player with no postseason experience, not even Ernie Banks, had a better OPS for their career than Kiner.

So as you hear people on TV, in print and online talk about his radio days, just remember that he was truly one of the great players of his time.

*Interestingly, when he was finally traded, the Pirates didn’t get any good players back.

Famous For Something Else: Russell Wilson

Posted on by
1

As amazing as it seems, I have never had Russell Wilson of the Seahawks as a “Famous For Something Else” entry. Oh, I had a post in which I put up his minor league numbers, but it wasn’t a “Famous for Something Else”. So, without further ado, Russell Wilson’s minor league statistics:

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
2010 21 Tri-City NORW A- COL 32 143 122 18 28 4 4 2 11 4 6 16 36 .230 .336 .377 .713 46 4 4 0 1 0
2011 22 Asheville SALL A COL 61 236 193 40 44 5 4 3 15 15 2 35 82 .228 .366 .342 .708 66 2 7 1 0 0
2 Seasons 93 379 315 58 72 9 8 5 26 19 8 51 118 .229 .354 .356 .710 112 6 11 1 1 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/13/2013.

It should be noted that Wilson has not officially retired from baseball. Oh, sure, he probably won’t ever play again (although he has said he might be interested in hanging out with the Rangers next Spring Training to take BP, after they had picked him up in the Rule 5 draft as a publicity stunt), but he still appears on a Major League organization’s depth chart, if only as a “just-in-case” possibility.

Of course, even if he did want to be a two-sport athlete, it’s highly unlikely that he’d be able to pull it off, and not just because of his career .229 BA. The fact is, it’s more-or-less impossible to imagine an NFL quarterback also playing another sport, given both his importance to his team and how involved the QB is to football’s strategies and tactics. Bo Jackson was a running back- important, but not the type of person who needs to know every play in the book. Same goes for Deion Sanders (who, admittedly, always had the NFL as his higher priority except for when his MLB team was in the playoffs), who while an important part of every defense he was in, was hardly as indispensable as a quarterback is to a NFL team.

The only way I could maybe see it happen would be if the QB was a starting pitcher who only worked early in the week. But even that is a bit of a stretch.

Alex Rodriguez is not a popular guy

Posted on by
Reply

So, we all know Alex Rodriguez isn’t very popular in the MLB office, but how unpopular he was amongst his fellow players hasn’t been very clear until now. Oh, there had been “sources” about how disgusted they were, and some players have outright talked about their feelings on A-Rod. But now, Jeff Passan and Tim Brown have written an article over at YAHOO! in which they reveal that other players are so sick of Rodriguez that they would have him kicked out of the union completely.

This is unprecedented. While he can’t be kicked out of the union due to legal matters, this is, to the best of my knowledge, the first time something like this has actually been bandied about at all. Even the replacement players like Kevin Millar, Shane Spencer and Brendan Donnelly were merely cut out from the MLBPA’s marketing deals (making them, for example, not available in video games), not kicked out of the union.

Of course, this won’t end with Rodriguez getting kicked out of the union, and he’s not being cut from any marketing deals either, but it does show something: while the union itself may have said it wasn’t happy with suspension of Rodriguez, the union members seem to wish the union could just leave him out to dry.

$30.7 Million Dollars a year….

Posted on by
Reply

For $30.7 million dollars, you make enough money (before tax) each year to….

  • Stockpile 1697 pounds of gold a year
  • Stockpile over 52 tons of silver (short tons)
  • Make a little over three times the annual nominal GDP of the island country of Niue.
  • Finance 7.719 Gone With The Winds a year (note: not adjusted for inflation)
  • Finance 2.791 Star Wars: A New Hopes a year (again, not adjusted for inflation)
  • Actually, it would be enough to finance at least one equivalent production of any single movie ever made before 1963 before inflation. (Cleopatra was the first film that you couldn’t finance at least once with $30.7 million dollars)
  • (Also, while we’re at it, can I just say as an aside it’s amazing that the first Star Wars only cost $11 million dollars or so in the 1970s?)
  • Pay Babe Ruth‘s entire career salary (ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION) nearly twice.
  • Pay the total opening-day salary of the 2013 Houston Astros with over six-million dollars left over to spare.
  • Make about 76.75 times the average salary of the President of the United States (probably much more, given that they usually donate it to charity).
  • Be able to afford to pay one year of the contract of Clayton Kershaw under his new deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In short: Clayton Kershaw now is making a bunch of dough.

Greg Maddux as a Minor Leaguer… VIDEOS

Posted on by
Reply

Thanks Youtube! While looking up “Greg Maddux“, I found video of him as a 19-year-old in 1985 with the Peoria Chiefs. THREE VIDEOS OF IT, to be exact.

So, while I haven’t watched these yet, here are all three, for your viewing pleasure:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: