A fun story about MLB: The Show

I have a stack of games sitting next to me at the computer. Almost without exception, none of them are current in the sense that they were released at any time recently, or are hot topics around the gaming sphere. However, over the next several months, I will probably spend most or all of my my gaming time with games out of this stack.

Last weekend, I unwrapped MLB 09: The Show and started a new “Road To The Show” (RTTS) player – an lefty-hitting, right-handed outfielder named Mike Mills. He’s named after Mike Mills of R.E.M., although he looks nothing like Mills in reality: the game doesn’t allow for medium-long, curly blonde hair and dorky-cool glasses, so he’s just a white guy with short hair and a mustache – he actually looks kind of like Wally Backman, which I’m fine with.

This game is just under two years old; however, I’m not spending any more money on baseball games for a long time. I bought the game the day it came out, and I’d like to get some value out of it since I’ve been remiss in not playing it until now. Fortunately, I’m enjoying it, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

* * * * *

I like RTTS mode because it allows you to create a player and level him like you would in an RPG. You start off as a rookie in Class AA-ball after your first spring training, and work your way up through the system, training and honing your skills as you go.

Anyway, I’m trying to create a player who can hit for average, has some power, can play adequate defense, and can steal bases like a madman. I love the stolen base; I was never a fast sprinter, and was never really that good at baseball, so I rarely had the chance to steal bases when I played – but, to me, it is one of the more exciting plays in baseball. In The Show, I like reading the pitcher, timing his delivery, playing around with different approaches to taking leads off the base, and so on.

There’s a weird problem that RTTS has in this regard: when you start off, you basically have to level everything, including your raw speed. This is not true to real life at all – usually, a player working through the minor leagues has the raw speed already, and works on refining his base-stealing skills and other fundamentals. Power may be a raw “stat” that can be increased over time in real life, but speed is either there or it isn’t at that point. This is not the case in the video game, so right now I run painfully slowly on the bases as well as in the field.

I’ve done my best to remedy this, ensuring that I put points into my speed-related skills at a slightly higher rate than other skills. However, at this point I’m almost a month into my first season at Class AA, and I’m still pretty slow.

I did steal my first base last night. I got on base against a right-handed pitcher who had a knuckleball as one of the five pitches in his repertoire, but in my at-bat against him he seemed to lean pretty heavily on it. I singled, and then watched as his first pitch to the next batter took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get to the plate. I also noted that his delivery was painfully deliberate. So… I decided that I was going on the next pitch, whether it was a knuckleball or not, because of that slow delivery.

Just before the next pitch, one of the announcers said something like, “The guy at first is no threat to run, so he can really concentrate on getting the batter out.”

“Uh, yeah, right” was my thought, and as the pitcher committed to home plate, I took off. I easily beat the throw from the catcher, and stood proudly on second with my super-slow player’s first SB of 09: The Show. It was a fun game – for some reason, the knuckleballer was on the mound for six innings, and I had three hits, two RBIs and a stolen base against him.

As I play more games, do more training, “get faster,” and get on base more, I’ll start to develop a reputation for being dangerous on the base paths. That’s where the real fun begins – I’ll start stretching my leads, drawing more throws, attempting to steal third, and so on. Right now, I’m basically stuck on my base unless the pitcher has a slow delivery and a nothing harder than a weak fastball.

* * * * *

A funny thing happened last night.

In my first three weeks, I was a backup outfielder. This meant that I was starting every other game, and coming off the bench to pinch hit on the off days. As in the real game, this can be a tough assignment. It’s tough to get on base very often when you’re coming off the bench cold, even in a video game.

In spite of the erratic schedule, after three weeks I was hitting .375, so the manager was basically forced to play me every day. However, on the day before I was made a permanent starter, I was brought in off the bench… as a pitcher.

Yeah, I know, bizarre. But it gets better.

I haven’t played a baseball video game in a couple of years, and when I started this one, I went straight to RTTS, so I didn’t play any full-team games – this means that I didn’t get any experience with the pitching mechanics.

Oh well, I figured. We’ll see what happens.

It was the bottom of the fifth inning, and the leadoff batter, a righty, stepped into the box. The catcher called for a fastball, which I was grateful for. I reached back and whipped a fastball in there, hitting the low outside corner for a strike. Then…

I was pulled. Immediately.

The game was over, since in RTTS you only play the plays that involve you. I didn’t get to see how fast my pitch was, and I didn’t get credit for the batter, or for pitching part of an inning, or anything. However, amazingly, I got credit for the victory!

Yes… totally bizarre. So here is my career line as a pitcher: 1-0, 0.00 ERA (which is actually mathematically undefined), 0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 K, 0 BB, 0 Batters Faced.

It must have been a glitch.

The next day I was promoted, and I’ve been starting every day in my proper lineup position, roaming left field and batting third.

* * * * *

I read recently that the upcoming version, MLB 11, will feature a completely revamped RTTS experience that is more natural and realistic, which sounds awesome. It would be nice to be able to make a player that had good speed and fielding skills, and decent contact skills, to start with, so that I could have some tools to work with instead of starting out sucking at everything. Perhaps at some point down the road I will get a chance to try it out… but for now, I’m busy playing a game that most other baseball gamers were playing two springs ago.

Alomar, Blyleven elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

The Baseball Hall of Fame announced its 2011 election results today, and, as expected, Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were elected.

Alomar, who fell eight votes short in 2010, received an overwhelmingly definitive 90.0% of the vote in this, his second year on the ballot. Blyleven, who was merely five votes short last year, needed 436 votes this year, but received 463 for 79.7%. This was Blyleven’s 14th year on the ballot.

Here’s how other players of note fared (note: all statistics taken from Baseball-Reference.com).

• Barry Larkin: 62.1% this year (his 2nd), up from 51.6% last year
• Jack Morris: 53.5% this year (his 12th), up from 52.3%
• Lee Smith: 45.3% this year (his 9th), down from 47.3%
• Jeff Bagwell: 41.7% this year (his first)
• Tim Raines: 37.5% this year (his 2nd), up from 30.4%
• Edgar Martinez: 32.9% this year (his 2nd), down from 36.2%
• Alan Trammell: 24.3% this year (his 10th), up from 22.4%
• Larry Walker: 20.3% this year (his first)
• Mark McGwire: 19.8% this year (his 5th), down from 23.7%
• Fred McGriff: 17.9% this year (his 2nd), down from 21.5%
• Dave Parker: 15.3% in this, his final year
• Don Mattingly: 13.6% this year (his 11th), down from 16.1%
• Dale Murphy: 12.6% this year (his 13th), up from 11.7%
• Rafael Palmiero: 11.0% this year (his first)
• Juan Gonzalez: 5.2% this year (his first)

* * * * *

Barry Larkin looks to be in a good position to be elected at some point in the next few years, as he received a strong increase in voting percentage this year. Additionally, Jeff Bagwell made a strong initial showing, although it will be interesting to see how his future ballots play out, given media and fan suspicion about steroid use. And Tim Raines had a solid showing, although it’s too early to tell whether he will continue to trend upward.

Jack Morris (who has received some of the most attention over the years as a borderline case), Lee Smith, Edgar Martinez, and Alan Trammell all seem to be stagnating, while Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy will likely be following Dave Parker off the ballot as their candidacies come to a close over the next few years.

* * * * *

Mark McGwire actually received less total votes this year (115 to last year’s 128), even though there were 42 more voters this year (581 to last year’s 539). This indicates that his candidacy is not only stagnating, but is suffering as a result of his steroid confession and apology. This was potentially a pivotal year for McGwire, but it looks like his prospects for election are weaker than they have ever been. Whether that’s right or wrong, that’s the way that the vote seems to be leaning.

In related news, Rafael Palmiero, whose good name and excellent statistical career was destroyed when he tested positive for steroids in the summer of 2005, did finish with 11% of the votes, so he survives until at least next year.

* * * * *

Next year’s class of newcomers does not include very many high-profile players. Of the new names, only Bernie Williams strikes me as a lock to receive enough votes to remain on the ballot in 2012. This could bode well for Larkin, who could be elected in a weak year, as well as others looking to increase their vote totals. However, for those who do not get elected in 2012, the following years bring the potential for a lot of competition:

• In 2013, we will see Mike Piazza, Curt Shilling, and Craig Biggio, as well as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa.
• 2014 is looking even stronger, with Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, Jeff Kent, and Mike Mussina, along with Luis Gonzalez and Moises Alou, slated to be eligible.
• Finally, 2015 brings Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and John Smoltz, along with Gary Sheffield and Nomar Garciaparra, to the ballot.

It’s possible that some of those in the middle, such as Smith, Raines, Martinez, Trammell, and Walker, could be lost in the shuffle in those years.

Based on what these future ballots look like, I’m going to go out on a limb* and predict that, unless he sees a surprisingly strong showing next year, Jack Morris will never be elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA.

*I usually hate predicting things.

* * * * *
In closing, I’d like to express my congratulations to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven. One thing to remember is that everyone who plays baseball at a big league level is a great player – even those who received zero votes on this year’s ballots were among the top percentage of players in the world. To be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame is never anything less than an extraordinary accomplishment, and these two players are definitely deserving of the honor.

Heyman’s resolution wish list for 2011: not my cup of tea

I need a new source for sports news.

I’ve gotten the majority of my sports news from the Sports Illustrated website for several years. However, I’ve been dissatisfied with several of their writers for a while now, and I’m thinking of changing my go-to source.

Sports Illustrated does have a couple of my favorite writers, Joe Posnanski (multiple sports) and Peter King (football), and I will of course continue to follow them. And there are some that I don’t mind, like Tim Marchman, Joe Lemire, Don Banks, etc. But there are others that get on my nerves, and among them, Paul Heyman is really getting on my nerves.

The article that is pushing me over the top (mind you, this is not the first one that has irked me) is from Monday, January 3. Entitled New Year’s Resolutions for 50 of the biggest names in baseball, it’s an article that lists some mundane wishes for 2011. Some examples from Heyman’s list (and I paraphrase):

“Albert Pujols, please take less money to re-sign with the Cardinals…”

“Bill Dewitt, please spend more money to re-sign Albert Pujols…”

“Miguel Cabrera/Josh Hamilton, please don’t get drunk/use drugs anymore, so you can continue to have great seasons…”

And so on. I know, good stuff, right? Just about Facebook quality.

Anyway, I was browsing this list, and I came across these gems (quoted directly from the article):

12. Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. We will continue to understand that money isn’t everything, and frankly, enough is enough.

17. Bert Blyleven. I will consider myself fortunate when I am voted into the Hall of Fame, and understand that while I had a great career, I am not Tom Seaver or Steve Carlton but rather Don Sutton and Phil Niekro, near-great pitchers who were borderline candidates who gained enshrinement. I will also thank the small coterie of Internet zealots who kept calling attention to the value of strikeouts, shutouts, complete games, longevity and durability and helped me rise from 14 percent of the votes in my second year of eligibility to more than 75 percent and act gracefully upon hearing the expected good news.

The reason that these two, in particular, grate on me is that Heyman seems to assume that these are resolutions that need to be made; that the players mentioned are probably in danger of not acceding to his wishes; and that, if they already have been made, they need to be reinforced.

I actually wonder if Heyman has some sort of troll complex, where he’s baiting people like me to be upset by his tone… but I don’t think that’s the case. I think that he’s just one of those sportswriters that totally rub me the wrong way – the ones that give you their opinions as if they themselves are without fault, and have no tolerance for anything less than what fits their holier-than-thou viewpoints.

Here’s my take on these three players:

• In the case of Cliff Lee, he took plenty of money to come to the Phillies, did what was best for himself and his family, and came to what he felt was the most comfortable situation, in taking a five-year, $120 million contract instead of accepting something like $28 million more to jump to the Yankees. I think that he’s happy with his decision.
• In the Roy Halladay’s case, he accepted a trade to Philadelphia before last season, and signed a three-year, $60 million contract extension as part of the deal. In everything that I have seen of him thus far as a Phillie, I’ve gotten only two indicators of his feelings about the situation: he’s truly thrilled to be playing for a competitive club, and he’s always working his tail off in order to keep his edge and give his best possible effort every fifth day.
• As for Bert Blyleven, it’s well-known that Heyman does not feel that he is Hall of Fame material, and did not vote for him again this year. However, I don’t really think that Blyleven needs to be prompted to be thankful: upon learning the results of last year’s election (he missed being inducted by five votes), he admitted that he was “a little disappointed,” but also added that he was “very, very happy for Andre Dawson,” and expressed surprise that Roberto Alomar had fallen just short as well. He was gracious, and has waited a long time – I’m sure that, if he’s elected, he will experience a multitude of feelings, including relief and overwhelming thankfulness. Heyman’s “resolution” rings of sarcasm, as well as acute bitterness about what he seems to view as the inevitable lost cause that his anti-campaign will become if Blyleven actually does receive enough votes this year or next.

In all three of these cases, as well as for several of the others listed, his suggestions make assumptions that seem to indicate that the worst may happen if he doesn’t make them. It’s kind of ridiculous, in my view, to publish a tidbit telling Bert Blyleven to consider himself lucky to be elected, and to act gracefully about it! Baseball players and other athletes, while acknowledging their hard work, are often thankful to have been given the talents and opportunities that they’ve gotten, and Blyleven, while having personal pride, is certainly not the type of person who carries himself like a prima donna. He worked hard during his career, and has been patient through the long, stressful trial that has been his Hall of Fame election journey.

No, I don’t think that Blyleven, Halladay, or Lee are the issues. I think that the issue is that, however connected Paul Heyman is with MLB people, he is disconnected from people. I also think that he has an inherently negative view of people, and there are times when  he expresses that worldview to the detriment of his quality of work.

* * * * *

If anyone has suggestions for a good, thorough, online source for sports news, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments. I have yet to find one that I enjoy as much as I used to like MLB.com before they made their news page virtually un-browse-able.

As the 2011 Baseball Hall of Fame announcement nears, thoughts on my hypothetical ballot, Mark McGwire, and Jeff Bagwell

The votes are in, and on Wednesday, January 5, 2011, the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its 2011 inductees. The ballot, containing 14 returning players and 19 who are in their first year of eligibility, can be viewed here. Players are required to have served ten years in Major League Baseball in order to be eligible, and appear on the ballot five years after their final big league game.

As always, there is plenty of speculation about this year’s ballot. Will Bert Blyleven finally be elected after years of gradual vote total increases? Will Roberto Alomar get the required 75% of the votes after missing by just a handful in 2010? Will Tim Raines, Barry Larkin, Alan Trammell, Don Mattingly, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, and others see increases that indicate future potential electability, if not this year?

How many votes will Rafael Palmiero, who debuts on the ballot, receive (after having a consistently-good-but-never-great career, punctuated by his sworn statement before Congress in 2005 that he had never used steroids, followed by his positive steroid test a few months later)?

(I know, that was a bad sentence…)

And so on. Each year, there is a lot to talk about. Honestly, I’m just glad that Jim Rice and Andre Dawson were finally elected in the past two years, because I grew tired of hearing the arguments on either side. I liked Dawson for the HoF, although I considered him a borderline case, and thought that Rice was overrated, although I’m happy for him. It’s nice to move on, though.

Mark McGwire’s post-confession situation

This is the first year that the Baseball Writers Association of America voted since Mark McGwire tearfully confessed to, and apologized for, using steroids during his career on January 11th, 2010. In his four previous years of eligibility, he has received 23.5%, 23.6%, 21.9%, and 23.7% of the vote, all less than a third of the votes necessary for election. He has a long road to climb.

I’m curious to see if those vote totals rise significantly (7-15%) this year. Perhaps they will, but I think that there’s almost as strong a likelihood that they may be flat, or may even fall.

In my opinion, his case for the Hall of Fame has been strengthened by his controversial confession and apology.

Shortly after his televised interview with Bob Costas on MLB Network, I wrote two opinion pieces (first, second) on the subject, and those pieces came from a passionate place. McGwire’s apology, which I watched live in its entirety, affected me deeply. Watching someone humble himself so brutally on national television, when accepted in the spirit of humanity, is a profound experience. I was greatly affected by it, and felt that, even though it was far from satisfactory to the general media punditry, it was a valid confession and apology.

His confession affected me to such an extent that I was inspired to call my father a few days later and make a confession of my own. Doing so was an experience that freed me of a heavy burden that I had been carrying for years, and it opened the doors for a closeness and openness between us that the two of us had never experienced together before.

Confession doesn’t undo the wrong, but it can be cathartic, as well as a growth experience and a strong building block for relationships.

At any rate, in my opinion, Mark McGwire’s Hall of Fame candidacy was strengthened with that confession. That is an opinion that is not shared by most of my friends, some of whom were snickering about it at work during week following his interview, or by much of the media. This last point is what makes me wonder if his Hall of Fame chances may have actually been hurt by his confession.

Immediately after his confession, and again as the Hall of Fame discussion began this fall, there was, collectively, a particularly nasty reaction to, and discussion of, it. Virtually the entire talking-head crews of ESPN and MLB Network, along with SI.com’s Tom Verducci and many other columnists in newspapers, magazines, and on the internet, felt that McGwire’s assertion that he took steroids in order to help heal and prevent the debilitating injuries that were derailing his career, and not to hit more homers, was false. They also blasted his statement that he felt that steroids did not affect his performance directly, and that, had he been healthy and steroid-free, he believed that he would have still performed at a comparable level. The general consensus was that these two points of contention invalidated his confession, and the general reception was harsh.

My inclination is to think that there is a possibility that, if some voters had been leaning toward voting for McGwire, or have voted for him in the past, they may not do so now and in the future because they have either reacted negatively to those points in the confession, been swayed by those who have, or have simply been turned off by his admission of steroid use. This could have the effect of negating the votes of those who have changed their minds and voted for him this year for the first time, creating a situation where his vote totals could remain stagnant or even drop.

Now, if this turns out to be the case, I’m sure that if he had the chance to second guess himself, McGwire would certainly confess and apologize again, knowing that he was cementing his “steroid user” place in history. The Hall of Fame is of far less value than the personal freedom that he will experience for the rest of his life, since he does not have to keep his secret from his father, his wife, his friends, and the world. He has brought himself a great measure of peace, and for that I am grateful, as I’m sure he is.

Bryant Gumbel gets on his high horse and loses my respect

Notable among those who reacted harshly to McGwire’s confession was Bryant Gumbel of HBO’s Real Sports. Shortly after the confession, Gumbel read an “open letter” at the close of one of his shows in January 2010, in which he not only completely dismissed McGwire’s remorse with a colorful assortment of disrespectful comments, but implored the other “usual suspects” (Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmiero, Sammy Sosa) to take McGwire’s apology as an example of what not to do “when you decide to confess” (I’m paraphrasing Gumbel there).

In addition, he also named Jeff Bagwell, Nomar Garciaparra, and *Ivan Rodriguez, strong hitters who suffered injuries in their early thirties that curtailed their production or ended their careers, as obvious steroid users. This was rather big news at the time, as he was the first major commentator to blatantly slap the PED-user tag on Bagwell and Garciaparra.

*I’m not sure why he lumped Pudge in with the list of power hitters, because during the eight year stretch from 1997 to 2004 (his prime production years, ages 25-33), he only averaged 22.75 home runs per year, which is relatively pedestrian amount compared to the prodigious numbers that players were putting up at the time. He hit a lot of doubles and had well above a .300 batting average during that period, but while he was definitely a valuable hitter, his power numbers were relatively unremarkable. Rodriguez was named in Jose Canseco’s controversial book Juiced, so I’m not claiming that he was definitely not a steroid user. However, the quality of journalism displayed by Gumbel in this case, as with the rest of the “open letter,” is pretty poor.

Jeff Bagwell’s prospects in his debut on the ballot

This is the first year that Jeff Bagwell is eligible for the Hall of Fame. He had a remarkable and consistent career with the Houston Astros, hitting .297/.408/.540 with 449 homers and 1529 RBIs over 14 full seasons and part of 2005. He was one of the most fearsome hitters in the major leagues throughout his career, taking a wide batting stance, waving his bat menacingly while awaiting pitches, and hitting baseballs very hard.

Recently, accusations of steroid use by Bagwell have been ramping up considerably, most likely because of his initial appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot. Unfortunately, he has had to face questions about steroid use, and has repeatedly denied using them. Many have noted his precipitous drop-off in production in 2004-05, which was largely due to a degenerative arthritic condition in his right shoulder that had been affecting him since 2001. As Major League Baseball started testing players in earnest for PEDs in 2003, many have observed that several high-flying big league stars saw sharp drops in their numbers since then. Unfortunately for Bagwell, assuming that he’s innocent of the accusations, his ailing shoulder made him unable to play baseball relatively shortly after the testing began, which of course feeds the rumor mill to this day.

The Astros are notable for having several players in the spotlight concerning steroids. Lance Berkman has been vocally opposed to their use and in-favor of testing, while Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite, respectively, are presumed to have used/were guilty of using PEDs. Ken Caminiti, one of the most productive players in the 1990s, told Sports Illustrated that he had struggled with cocaine use throughout and after his career, and also admitted that he used steroids in 1996 and for several years afterward. Caminiti died in 2004 of acute intoxication due to the combined effects of cocaine and opiates, and also suffered from coronary artery disease and an enlarged heart, according to Wikipedia.

One of the great tragedies that has resulted from the steroid issue at large is that there are players who certainly did it “the right way,” but are still constantly subject to unpleasant scrutiny about the use of steroids. At this time, we have to presume that those who have not been found to have used PEDs, or have not confessed to having done so, are innocent. For now, Jeff Bagwell falls into the Ken Griffey Jr./Frank Thomas/Jim Thome/Albert Pujols/Larry Walker/etc. category of players who have not been connected with steroids.

My opinions and votes

If I had a Hall of Fame ballot, I would vote for Mark McGwire and Jeff Bagwell this year.

I would not have voted for McGwire at this time last year, because everything about him seemed clouded. However, in spite of his transgression, he was largely a positive force within the game. While steroids likely contributed to his immense strength, he worked very hard to become a student of hitting, something which is forgotten and/or poo-pooed by the experts. I don’t think that he will get in, at least for a long time, but it is my hope that humanity will shine in this situation, and his confession and the man himself will start to get some of the respect that they deserve.

I don’t think that Bagwell will get in this year either, but I think that he is someone who certainly deserves to, and should remain a strong candidate for years to come unless he is proven to have taken banned PEDs.

As for the rest of the field, I would vote for Alomar, Blyleven, Larkin, Mattingly, Raines, Trammell, Dale Murphy, and Larry Walker.

There are strong arguments against Mattingly, but he was one of my favorite players in the late eighties and early nineties, and I think that it’s unfortunate that injuries set him back in the second half of his career. He will probably never get in as a player, but I would still vote for him.

Trammell is very underrated. Unfortunately, he also may never be voted in by the BBWAA, which is a shame. Murphy was a great player, as well as a teammate, that every team would have loved to have, and would likely have been even more productive, for a multitude of reasons, if the Braves hadn’t generally stunk for the majority of his career.

I’d vote for Walker, even though he played the bulk of his career in the heyday of the Coors Field hitting factory. I am not sure that he’s a Hall of Famer; I think that his candidacy needs some more analysis, discussion, and time, and he definitely won’t get in this year, so I would vote for him in hopes that he would get more than 5% of the vote and remain on the ballot next year.

Blyleven, Alomar, Larkin, and Raines are all Hall of Famers in my book. It is my hope and belief that they will all be elected sooner than later, although time is running out for Blyleven.

Closing

Thanks for reading, if you’ve made it this far!

It will be interesting to see the ballot results on January 5th. I’m sure that there will be some surprises, a couple of injustices… and hopefully, someone will be elected!

And with that, the Hot Stove League begins

At least, it begins for Philadelphia Phillies fans.

Last night, my Phils lost to the San Francisco Giants in Game Six of the NLCS. With that, both of the teams that I call myself a fan of (the other is the St. Louis Cardinals) are finished for the season.

I was watching a little bit of MLB Tonight on the MLB Network before the game, and they aired a commercial for Hot Stove, their offseason program that covers everything from the year-end awards and highlights to free agency, from offseason trades and coaching changes to the approach of Spring Training. The commercial announced that the program would premier on November 8, 2010, and it caused me to chuckle. That’s still two weeks away; however, it’s only two weeks away.

Sometimes I think that I like the offseason more than the season.

During the season, there is plenty of action, from the games themselves to news and insights about developments both on and off the field. Fans and media get excited at the beginning of the season, during winning and losing streaks, when great feats are accomplished, at the Trading Deadline, and during the pennant races and playoffs. For fans who love baseball, nothing beats the games themselves.

However, each year I find that I don’t watch more than one or two dozen games – but it wasn’t always that way.

As a kid, I used to rush home from school in the spring and fall (whenever I didn’t have Track & Field practice) in order to watch baseball on TV. School let out at 2:20 pm, and if I got home quickly, I would be just in time to catch the top of the first inning of the Chicago Cubs game, which usually started at 1:35 pm central time. During that time, I came to be a fan of great players like Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Mark Grace, and a young Greg Maddux.

Cubs games were always an experience back then, from Wrigley Field and its eternal day-game-only traditions to their one-of-a-kind announcer, Harry Carey. The Cubs went from terrible to pretty good on my watch, and I enjoyed watching them play. Dawson, “The Hawk,” was my hero. At the time, I was definitely a Cubs fan.

* * * * *

Fast forward to now. The season still provides me with thrills now and then. However, as Andrew pointed out in a recent article entitled Making Major League Baseball relevant again, there are several things that can cause fans to lose interest, and several ways that the game could be improved in order to make it more exciting, more often.

I still enjoy the game. I am fascinated by its nuances, rules, dimensions. There are varieties of both ways to play and ways to win. As with any sport, there is strategy and execution. There are numbers, but the game is played for a reason. There are games within the games: pitcher versus batter, manager versus manager, runner versus fielder-who-has-the-ball.

At times, the game seems more predictable than ever, due to the wealth of tools  for analyzing players’ and teams’ past performances. On the other hand, they are as unpredictable as ever, as each year we see surprise teams and players performing way beyond expectation while powerhouses stumble and fall.

It’s a beautiful thing. The game is alive.

Perhaps I don’t feel compelled to watch as much baseball simply because I am older, and don’t have the zeal, time or patience to sit and watch even half of my team’s home games. I’m not sure. However, I get my fill of baseball in the 21st century pretty easily nowadays.

* * * * *

The offseason, however, is a whole different game. During the winter, fans don’t see players doing anything related to baseball. We’re not there to see someone jogging, lifting weights, or playing Winter League Baseball in the Caribbean. Players rest, rebuild, live their lives, and/or play the game on different fields.

The game that is played during the offseason is, in some ways, equally as fascinating to me. Here, the numbers and speculation reign.The news is all “Sally’s going with Jimmy, but Suzy’s breaking up with Billy. However, Billy has a secret admirer in Maggie, the cute girl down the street. We’ll have more when we come back from these messages, right here on [insert sports show here]“

What interests me the most are definitely the personnel moves. Each winter, I spend more time than I should following the “who’s going where” proceedings. When someone on MLB.com or SI.com writes about a player or team, I start following the stat analysis, thinking about what I would do, etc. I get annoyed at players who expect X amount of money, or annoyed that teams won’t sign Player Jones but will sign Player Smith, even though Player Jones would be a good fit and Player Smith isn’t worth the money in my book.

It’s all good fun.

It all comes together in Spring Training. For players, the end goal is to get to the playoffs, to get to the World Series, to win the World Series. But for me, the most exciting part of the year is Spring Training. Spring is a time of hope, and Spring Training is the time when we begin to see teams take shape. It’s when we begin to see the surprises happen.

The Hot Stove League sets the wheels in motion. I’m looking forward to it!

From the feed reader: recent posts of interest

A few articles I’d like to share…

• Alex Skolnick, lead guitarist for thrash band Testament and his own jazz group, Alex Skolnick Trio, posted about The Shred Epidemic late last month at Guitarplayer.com. As a talented guitarist who brings a lot of melody and musicality to his leads, his take on the issue is compelling.
• Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic writes a blog for Seattle Weekly, and a few weeks ago he wrote an article about Analog vs. Digital as a recording medium. I know a lot about music, but he gave an interesting inside perspective on analog tape and the challenges it presents during the remastering process.
• On a different front, Krist wrote recently about Wyclef Jean’s bid to become the new president of Haiti, relating his own short experiences as a candidate for Lt. Governor of Washington in 2004.
• Joe Posnanski wrote recently about the Heart and Hustle Award, which Derek Jeter has inexplicably never won.
• The new issue of Spin magazine has an article by David Peisner about this year’s Soundgarden reunion. Part of the article, containing bits of interviews with each of the four members, is available at Spin.com.
• Icedragon at Druid Main recently posted a series of articles about druid macros, and I found them to be a very helpful resource. They are Macros Revisited, /Cast [Advanced] Macros, and C-c-c-combo Breaker! Dual Macros.

 

From the blogroll: recent posts of interest

I wanted to share a few items that I’ve found interesting lately.

• Joe Posnanski of SI.com has a writing style that doesn’t necessarily follow the unfortunate mainstream model of sensationalized, disjointed, and clipped-sentence reporting. His anecdotal pieces have a great storytelling quality to them. Monday’s article is Rafer Johnson and the Power of 10, a look at Johnson’s 1960 Olympic decathlon victory over C.K. Yang. It’s filled with interesting stories about Johnson, one of the great unsung heroes in U.S. athletics history. Check out his other posts as well.
• Kalon at ThinkTank has a couple of articles about feral druid talents in Cataclysm. His most recent one (here) continues the trend his posts have had recently of giving me mixed emotions about how feral talents are going to look when the expansion drops. While I’m not as concerned about feral DPS out of the box, since raiding is not on my radar right now, he has voiced plenty of concerns about the lack of differences between the two feral specs (here is a previous article that goes into greater detail) that have me wondering how feral is going to play at launch. I guess that my biggest concern is that, while I see a lot of excitement about some of the changes to other classes, the excitement level from ferals who are in the beta seems to be lukewarm at best…
• Saniel at Primal Precision wrote last week about Understanding Burnout. While he’s more of a WoW veteran than I, it still struck a chord with me!
• The Noisy Rogue started a new priest and plans on… imagine this… leveling and running instances without using the dungeon finder, forcing himself to “make friends” with people in order to achieve goals.
• Pastor and author Brian McLaren wrote an interesting opinion piece for CNN regarding Anne Rice’s announcement that, while her “faith in Christ is central” to her life, she is quitting Christianity. Check the post for her reasoning, as well as McLaren’s reasons for both supporting her and for not following in her footsteps. I found it to be a well-written, sympathetic and logical bit of writing.

My first Barnstormers game

On Tuesday evening, I attended my first Lancaster Barnstormers game at Clipper Magazine Stadium. The Barnstormers play in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, an independent minor league that aims to provide competitive, professional baseball at somewhere between the Class AA and AAA levels. The team has been in existence since 2005, although the league began in 1998. A couple of key characteristics of the league include the following (from the league website):

• “Players can be assured of field conditions that meet or exceed Triple AAA classification facilities.”
• “Communities must demonstrate marked size sufficient to support a minimum ballpark size of 5,000 to 7,500 seats.”

I think it’s awesome that we have a baseball team, and that it’s right in the city, with walking distance of where I live.

Clipper Magazine Stadium Lancaster, PA

One point of interest: The right field wall is listed as exactly 300′ from home plate at the foul line. I know that there are major league stadiums with short outfield dimensions at the lines; Boston’s Fenway Park, at 302′ in right and 310′ in left, comes to mind. However, due to the layout of the block on which the stadium is built, the right field wall doesn’t angle back in an arc in order to compensate.

As you can see in the diagram to the left, the wall runs directly parallel to the line between first and second base. As such, the playing area is significantly smaller in right and right-center field than on the left side of the outfield.

In addition, the walls in both right and left field are around 12′-15′ high.

This became a point of interest to me because, during the course of the game, three Barnstormers hit line drives that hit the right field wall, but resulted in only singles instead of the doubles they would normally be in other ballparks. On one occasion, the batter sort of loafed into first base on a drive that would have normally resulted in a double, although that was rendered unimportant when the next batter deposited the ball over the fence for a two-run homer. However, on the other two drives, the runners rounded first, only to turn back because the ball had been fielded cleanly off of the perfectly square wall and thrown to the cut-off man very quickly.

I asked a friend of mine who regularly attends Barnstormers games if this is a common occurrence, and he said that it is, probably because of the outfield dimensions. It was the most peculiar aspect of the game for me, but seeing the stadium diagram today cleared things up for me.

Overall, it was a beautiful night for baseball. I had a lot of fun, and I’ll definitely be going back again.

By the way, the Barnstormers actually played a good game (they entered with a 14-25 record), winning 12-4 over the powerhouse Somerset Patriots behind some nice hitting throughout the lineup, errorless defense, and solid pitching from newly acquired starter Eric Junge.

Posnanski calls La Russa’s overmanaging performance “his Mona Lisa”

Joe Posnanski waxed somewhat poetically in his SI.com column today about Tony La Russa’s performance as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals during Saturday night’s 20-inning 2-1 loss to the Mets. It’s a loving, in-depth tribute to a man who has made overmanaging its own art form.

For baseball fans who, like me, are fascinated with the decisions that MLB managers make in their attempts to win games, it’s an interesting read.

30 Clubs In 30 Days: St. Louis Cardinals

Last Saturday night, MLB Network premiered the St. Louis Cardinals episode of 30 Clubs In 30 Days, a series that looks into each MLB team’s players, coaches, prospects, and projections for the year.

I just wanted to mention that I was very pleased with the show, not only because it gave a nice overview of the club, but because, while Mark McGwire was featured in a few segments discussing his experiences with the players as their new hitting coach, he was not asked about “the steroid confession,” nor was it ever mentioned during the entire episode.

McGwire seems to be having a positive impact on the team, and it’s heartening to see how the Cardinal players are taking to him. The lack of mention of the steroid issue, even in a show that will turn out to be an insignificant part of the season as a whole, gives me hope that perhaps most baseball people will take the attitude that “He made his confession and apology, now let’s get on with baseball and the rest of our lives.” It remains to be seen how much the press belabors the issue as the season goes on; I’m cautiously optimistic. Very cautiously optimistic.