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Posts tagged with baseball

Keyser Soze Dressed in White

I don’t usually read Bill Simmons, but Angry Tiger just emailed me this awesome exchange from his recent mailbag column.

Aaron from Toronto asks Bill Simmons:

I know the Blue Jays don’t make much noise on ESPN unless Keyser Soze is dressed in white and allegedly feeding them signs from 420 feet away, but tell me you saw Brett Lawrie’s grand slam celebration? It’s impossible not to love this guy right now. He’s hitting the lights out, he plays like it always means something and you can see all the Jays loving his reaction/laughing at him/awkwardly scared that he might hurt them. You’ve gotta love that reaction from a rookie as a sports fan. Despite being the Boston homer you are, you’ve also got to be worried about the Jays in the AL East over the next few years — a bona fide slugger, young quality starters, a young and developing core, a good farm system and a GM that can talk teams into selling him their shirts for 50 cents on the dollar and they ask him if he wants their underwear for free. Are you worried? Slightly Nervous? Scared Shitless?

Simmons Responds:

You guys are in our division?

Exactly.


Texas Rangers Take Aim at Wave

Right on.


Go Fly a Kite

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Nyjer Morgan is batting 324/353/464 and is awesome.

More professional athletes like this please.

Via Mets Fan #’s 1 and 2.


Happy Birthday, Kid '66


“  The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again.” — Field of Dreams

BBQ, Baseball, and the Bill of Rights

Greg Knauss defends the Fourth of July (as if it needed defending) over at American McCarver:

You can get by on the Fourth without baseball. You can get by on Election Day without voting. It doesn’t mean you should, and it doesn’t mean that you’ll be better off for it. Part of what it is to be truly American is to truly participate.

For the record:

  1. Fourth of July
  2. Thanksgiving
  3. Passover

“  I’ve got almost 370 bombs. I don’t want to make a big deal because I flipped the bat after one of them.” — David Ortiz, full of beautiful fury and righteous anger while in the midst of one of the best seasons of his career

“  But the resistance to change is often both emotional and powerful.” — Rob Neyer on Major League Baseball and the possible scenarios under consideration for league realignment

Realignment

Baseball is considering reshaping itself into two 15 team leagues which would require an interleague series at all times. I’m no fan of interleague play.

Personally, I’d much prefer two leagues and no divisions with the top 4 teams in each division going to the playoffs. And no interleague play. But interleague play seems like it is here to stay.

Another way to balance the leagues would be expansion.

Within the next 5-10 years if not already, Indianapolis, Portland, the Virginia Beach area, Nashville, and the Triangle will all be better markets for baseball than Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and Kansas City.

The current owners would get a sizable ($15-25m?) one time payout with very little downside. Unlike moving teams, creating new ones doesn’t generate animosity among fans; it only makes new ones.

Link via Mets Fan #1. See also Rob Neyer: who says MLB Realignment? Bring It On.


“  So, let’s just agree that yes the clutch skill exists. But let’s also agree that locating this skill is so difficult, by the time you find it, it’s almost useless. And even if you find it in time, it has barely any effect on your decision-making.” — Tangotiger