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It’s been a bad couple of days for Major League Baseball umpires.

Tuesday night Bob Davidson ejected Tampa Rays outfielder Carl Crawford for arguing a strike call. Crawford deserved to be ejected. Arguing balls and strikes makes that almost automatic these days.

But the troubling thing was how as soon as Crawford turned around to question the call, Davidson got right up in the batter’s face and escalated the issue. The two went face-to-face for awhile before manager Joe Maddon could get between them – and in doing so, it looked to me like Maddon grabbed or bumped Davidson as part of the argument. Read the rest of this entry »

The owners of the movie set-turned-tourist stop where Kevin Costner uttered the phrase “If you build it, he will come” in the 1989 hit “Field of Dreams” are now saying “Pony up and you can have it.”

Okay, that’s a made up line. But less than a year after Brushbackpitch.com finished up an eight day road trip by stopping at the Field of Dreams, Don and Becky Lansing have put the property up for sale.

The Lansings love the land, according to the Wall Street Journal. It has been in the Lansing family for more than a century.

But they’ve maintained it themselves since Universal Studio built it. And, having seen it up close, it’s easy to see that it could become a maintenance issue.

In addition to the baseball diamond, a two-bedroom house, six outbuildings, and a 193-acre parcel of land are on sale. The Wall Street Journal says a price hasn’t been listed, but the Associated Press says $5.4 million is the price tag.

Not a bad payback for letting a movie company take over your house for a few months for filming.

I can’t remember if either of us ever posted our thoughts on the Dyersville, Iowa tourist stop. But it was definitely worth driving way the hell into the middle of nowhere.

Families played catch on the field and wandered in and out of the same cornfield the players walked through in the movie. They sat on the same bleachers and looked for the “Ray Loves Annie” carving.

And then they wandered into the gift shop that, I’m sure, has provided the Lansings with a pretty decent living the last two decades.

I don’t know who will end up buying Field of Dreams. It’s certainly out of the price range of the owners of Brushbackpitch.com. But I hope it’s someone interested in maintaining it as it is right now.

It’d be a shame to see it fall into the hands of someone less interested in maintaining as it is. If you get a chance, especially before the Lansings sell, I’d recommend checking it out.

It’s worth the trip.

The last time Dallas Braden made news here at Brushbackpitch.com I was making fun of him for the degree of venom he spewed toward Alex Rodriguez for crossing “his” pitchers mound after a foul ball.

I still think that got a bit ridiculous, as rumors of threats of a fistfight were coming out two weeks after the incident.

But Braden certainly put an exclamation point on his resume Sunday by throwing just the 19th perfect game in Major League Baseball history.

SportsIllustrated.com called him one of the least accomplished pitchers to accomplish the feat. Whatever. Now in a matter of three weeks he’s proven that he has guts and that, buried somewhere amidst his mediocre career numbers, he’s also got some game.

The feat was made more touching by the bear hug he shared with his grandmother after the game. He tossed his gem on Mother’s Day and his mother died when he was in high school from skin cancer. Interviewed on the radio – apologies to the network, I think it was ESPN, but I’m not 100 percent certain – Braden acknowledged that the script moved him to tears.

Braden may not be headed to Cooperstown for a Hall of Fame enshrinement when his career ends. He might not win 300 games or win a Cy Young Award.

But he’s got his perfect game and, even if by nothing more than by accident and happenstance, he’s become one of the characters that is making the 2010 Major League Baseball season more interesting and memorable.

Congratulations.

The Philadelphia Phillies will only apprehend fans who run onto the field rather than tasing them unless additional force is deemed necessary, according to CBSSports.com.

The policy change was announced after Philadelphia Police tased a 17-year-old moron who ran onto the field at Citizens Bank Park Monday.

I felt no sympathy for Steven Consalvi when he made his jaunt onto the field. I feel even less sympathy for Thomas Betz, a copycat idiot who ran onto the field at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some figures transcend the sports they play, coach or broadcast.

Ernie Harwell was one of those figures.

The 92-year-old long-time Detroit Tigers announcer died Tuesday after battling bile duct cancer for several months.

I didn’t get the chance to listen to Harwell much. But I’ve read a lot about him and heard from friends who follow the Tigers that he was as good an announcer – and as good a person – as the media accounts make him out to be.

He won the Ford Frick Award for broadcasting in 1981. He won the hearts of baseball fans for nearly seven decades, culminating in a farewell night at Comerica Park last season.

He made the game about the players and the fans and he appeared to be as grateful to them for listening as they appeared to be for his broadcasting.

“Thank you for sneaking your transistor under the pillow as you grew up loving the Tigers,” he signed off saying in 2002, according to the New York Times.

Harry Carey. Herb Carneal. Harry Kalas. Now Harwell. These are the voices I grew up hearing about, listening to and watching. They were less flashy than most of the broadcasters replacing them these days.

And the game is not better for it.

Whenever I see some drunken idiot fan jump over a fence to run on the field it always bugs me when fans cheer the drunken idiot on.

I secretly – or not so secretly – wish for security guards to pummel the miscreants for being stupid, drunken idiots.

So I felt little sympathy for the 17-year-old Philadelphia Phillies fan who was tasered from about 15 feet by Philadelphia Police at Citizens Bank Park.

Apparently the Philadelphia Inquirer called the kid’s Dad, who had apparently told the kid jumping onto the field was a bad idea when he, get this, called his Dad to ask for permission to do it (According to media reports, the kid’s Dad says his son wasn’t drunk or on drugs).

Unfortunately the kid wasn’t quite smart enough yet to listen to his Dad.

Hopefully it doesn’t take more than one incident like this to convince him – and other fans – to think twice before attempting these idiotic stunts again.

One of baseball’s most interesting characters is having issues with his heart.

Milwaukee Brewers announcer Bob Uecker will have his aortic valve replaced Friday.

The 75-year-old one-time Major League catcher wasn’t much of a hitter during his days in the big leagues. He compiled just a .200 batting average and 14 home runs during his six year career.

But he won the Ford C. Frick award as an an announcer for the Brewers, a position he has held since 1971.

He was also funny as hell in Major League and, well, I watched a few episodes of Mr. Belvedere as well. He’s made a living off of his humor, particularly making fun of his own playing career. “If they ever turn this place around I’ll be in the front row,” he exclaimed during one of his many funny beer commercials.

Uecker is reportedly expected to miss roughly three months while recovering.

Best of luck Mr. Uecker. The movies, the commercials, the television shows … the game wouldn’t be the same without you.

Alex Rodriguez went from first base to third on a foul ball. On his way back to first he crossed over the pitcher’s mound. A few minutes later Dallas Braden gave him hell.

You know.

THE Dallas Braden?

What, you’ve never heard of him?

Dallas Braden has played part or all of four seasons in the Major Leagues for Oakland. He’s got some skills … and apparently some balls … for standing up to A-Rod. But he also has an all-time career record of 16-21 with an ERA of 4.55.

He’s getting better. He’s 2-0 this year with an ERA under 3.00.

But let’s take a breath here. It’s good to see the Athletics showing some fighting spirit. On the other hand, he’s cussing out Alex Rodriguez, who has just a bit more baseball-cred than the 26-year-old A’s hurler.

“I’d never quite heard that,” Rodriguez told the media afterward. “Especially from a guy who has a handful of wins in his career.”

Zing.

I’m no fan of A-Rod. I think he’s a self-absorbed jackass. But when it comes to all of baseball’s unwritten rules this one has to be one of the most obscure. I wouldn’t doubt that Rodriguez hadn’t heard of it. Not that I’m the end all, but I certainly hadn’t heard of it either.

Furthermore, one would guess that in showing up A-Rod he’s probably going to do nothing more than make sure the Yankee third baseman is even more in the zone than normal the next time they meet.

I guess at the end of the day I respect that Braden has some moxie. But I’m not sure that moxie was mixed with the best of judgment, at least in this particular case.

Roy Halladay pitched a five-hit shutout for the Philadelphia Phillies tonight and for the Atlanta Braves it almost wasn’t a fair game.

Halladay was on all night long, there was no question about that. He was really only challenged, according to the ESPN announcers, in one inning when the Braves had the bases loaded.

What impressed me even more was how the Phillies played around him in their 2-0 win.

I didn’t watch the whole game. But in the couple innings I did, second baseman Chase Utley made a fantastic diving stop of a hard ground ball. Had it squirted into centerfield the Braves would have scored at least two runs.

In the ninth inning, a slimmed down Ryan Howard dove to his right and snared another shot that appeared to be a base hit. He then flung the ball to Halladay covering first for yet another gem.

Earlier in the game Troy Glaus hit a deep fly to center that Shane Victorino timed, leaped for and caught with his glove over the fence, saving Halladay yet again.

The Phillies, the closest thing Major League Baseball has to a dynasty at the moment, and Halladay, probably the league’s best pitcher, appear to be made for each other at the moment. The pitcher is clearly motivated to take his game up another notch to make his first run into the playoffs.

And Philadelphia isn’t going to have to score many runs for him to win a heckuva lot of games if the team keeps playing defense for him like they did tonight.

So far he’s 4-0 with ERA and WHIP both below 0.90. He won’t be able to keep that up, but expect 22 or 23 wins for Halladay and something in the high 90s if not more for the Phightin’ Phills. It’s early and a lot could change, but I think that’s the best team I’ve seen so far in 2010.

One of the things I love about the first week of the baseball season is that DirecTV provides its MLB Extra Innings package on a trial basis. So, while I was trying to keep up with the day job at the same time there was plenty of channel surfing going on this afternoon.

I watched parts of probably three-quarters of the games. How much time I spent was largely determined by players I have on various fantasy baseball teams. One guy I wish I had on more is Atlanta rookie Jason Heyward.

Heyward has been most experts’ Spring Training Golden Child, both for his athletic skills and his solid personality. I’ve never met the man so I can’t speak to his attitude. But I watched his first at-bat against Chicago today. The 20-year-old rookie shook off any nerves he might have been feeling and took a couple pitches. He then ROCKED a pitch several rows deep into right-centerfield for a no-doubt homerun in his first Major League at-bat.

Read the rest of this entry »