Baseball Journal 11-2-13

I apologize for that last baseball post.  I had just meant to jot down a few notes and write it out later.  Then I heard Cowherd’s “interview” with John Lester and was suddenly motivated to express myself.  I mean, really, talking to a World Series winner a day later and asking if his teammate is doing steroids.  This would be like right after the last Superbowl, asking Joe Flacco about Ray Lewis’ old murder charge.  No, most of the media forgot all about that story.  Before and after the World Series, I kept noticing little hit pieces on baseball being put out for no apparent reason.  The sports media sucks.

On that subject, on to Buck and McCarver.  No successor has been picked for McCarver that I know of.  I wasn’t kidding about getting rid of Joe Buck as well.  His constant histrionic dramatic inflections would be better placed in his NFL gig.  The play-by-play guy should be meat and potatoes, just calling the game, tossing out a few relevant stats, and tee’ing up topics for the color man.  They should not be trying to be the center of attention.  The color commentator should be telling stories, highlighting strategies, and adding depth and explanation to the stats, not just constantly criticizing the players and the coaches.  I suppose it’s too much to ask.

Forgive me a little more.  I have a few random notes that I made during the season that I’d like to empty out.

How hard could playing right field in Yankee Stadium be?  All you do is stand there and watch balls clear the fence.  Well, you do have to listen to those "bleacher creatures."

My favorite quote this season came from http://www.halosheaven.com/ It made me giggle insensibly. 

“The Texas Rangers beat a triple-A baseball tam in Anaheim tonight, giving their bandwagon fans undeserved confidence in their cheating-scarred baseball team. When they face actual major league opponents after Wednesday night their gaggle of pimply jocks will go back to the gutless hackathon wimps that have defined Texas baseball this season.”

During a Fox broadcast of a Dodger game, they discussed AJ Ellis’ name.  I don’t remember the game really, so it was either a really bad game, or the announcer was just desperate to work in their research.  AJ’s grandmother had emigrated from a Slavic country and had a typical Slavic last name with a bunch of extra consonants.  After a couple of frustrating tries at spelling it, the Ellis Island interviewer announced that her name was now, “Ellis.”

Let’s get rid of the DH.  Just add an extra player to the roster.  Nobody wants to be a DH. Little Leaguers may love “Big Pappi,” but none of them want to be a DH.  Organizations don’t bring up minor leaguers to be DH’s.  Major Leaguers will only accept being a DH if they can’t play the field anymore. 

Let’s put in an electronic strikezone right now.  There’s no downside to it.  There could probably be electronic foul lines and fences too.  Let’s make the batter stay in Batter’s Box for the entire at bat, and let’s force the pitcher to deliver the ball to the plate quicker.  Limit visits to the mound to one per batter, including catchers and coaches. 

Eliminate throws to bases by pitchers (call it the CJ Wilson Rule).  Runners may only take a 10' lead off of their base (marked on the field), and may not leave until the pitcher begins his windup.  The runner is not allowed a running start.  The set position requirement may be removed for the pitcher (in other words, the Balk). 

MLB Fan Poll, the pre-pre-game before the Fox Game of the Week, is typically not appointment viewing.  At some point, they’ll put This Week in Baseball back on the air (though probably not before trying a MLB Fan Cave show, which wouldn’t be a bad idea). In the meantime, we get this low-production cost filler show.  I usually don’t bother watching it, but I was kicking myself for missing it one week.  I only caught the end of it, but that was all I needed to see.

The poll was, “What was your favorite baseball team growing up?”  The results of that poll were a hanging curveball right in the wheelhouse of my own theory about national, daily team broadcasts.  Yes, the Atlanta Braves were the players and fans’ favorite.   They all cited that it was because they were a really good team THAT WAS ON TV ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, EVERYDAY.  Now, MLB, make sure you don’t learn any lessons.  You keep right on regionalizing the sport and lamenting the playoffs being marginalized because of it.