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Ten Golden Gloves, seven Silver Sluggers and one in-game nap is enough for Ken Griffey Jr. The all-time great Seattle Mariner probably stayed on a season too long. But he’s a clear Hall of Famer and Wednesday he decided that his career had gone on long enough.

Griffey had been brought back to Seattle last year as a veteran presence and stuck around for one final season this year as the Mariners made several aggressive moves in the offseason aimed at contending for a championship. But the Mariners got out of the gates slowly and one report indicated that he was going to retire or be released sometime last month.

He finishes 2010 with a .184 batting average and no homeruns. But he finishes his 22 year career with 630 homers and a .284 average to go along with the above-mentioned accolades. Throughout the 1990s he was regarded as one of the best – if not the best – players in the game, though his stats would undoubtedly have been even better if he had not spent most of 2002-2004 on the disabled list.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Florida Marlins got beat by Roy Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night. Not just beat, either–Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in Major League Baseball history, and the second already this season.

Of course, since the game was in Florida, there were only just over 25,000 fans in attendance for the game–about 8,000 more than for an average Marlins home game.

So what to do with the other 13,000+ tickets that weren’t sold (and probably were never even printed)?

Well, if you’re the money grubbing Marlins, there’s only one logical solution–sell them. At face value.

That’s right, for between (based on published ticket prices) $12 and $300+, you to can claim that you were there to witness history.

Or turn around and try to resell the ticket on eBay–try to get a Halladay autograph, package it with a Halladay trading card, make a nice little plaque, and turn yourself a nice little profit.

  

    

    

      Roy Halladay perfect game mint season ticket 5/29/10

      US $32.99  (4 Bids)

      
 End Date: Sunday Sep-05-2010 5:49:15 PDT


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      Phillies * ROY HALLADAY * Perfect Game * Full Ticket

      US $23.99  (0 Bid)

      
 End Date: Sunday Sep-05-2010 8:03:05 PDT


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      (1)ROY HALLADAY PERFECT GAME TICKET STUB 5/29/10 *RARE*

      US $9.99  (0 Bid)

      
 End Date: Wednesday Sep-08-2010 10:29:45 PDT


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As an occasional collector of sports memorabilia, this seems…just dirty to me. As a fan, had I attended the game, I could see keeping that ticket stub, and making some sort of collectible. And I could see a truly passionate fan (of Halladay or the Phillies) buying some sort of memento. But in either case, having a ticket that was actually used would mean 100x more than having something printed after the fact.

What’s next, just print up an extra 50,000 tickets with May 29, 2010 on them, and sell them in the fan shop?  Maybe Commemorative Replica Tickets?

It would be slightly more palatable if the Marlins printed something extra on the ticket, indicating it was not used on game day–but the story makes no indication of that, and I doubt it would happen.

Which means, once again, the Marlins have found a way to sully MLB tradition, and the way the game should be conducted, in my eyes.

[Note: It's possible this is a regular thing with many teams in MLB, and I've just not heard of it before--if that's the case, just add it to the list of reasons for why I don't think MLB will ever reclaim the #1 spot in my heart for sports, even if the NFL does manage to screw things up by having a lockout/strike in the coming year.]

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.

When I saw the headline “MLB adopts four recommended rule changes to All-Star game” I had some hope that the league had finally decided to scrap its ridiculous method for selecting home field advantage in the World Series.

But alas, no matter how correct I am, not all of my ideas catch on.

I guess one of the rules the league did change makes some sense. The designated hitter will be used regardless of whether the game is being hosted in an American League or National League city. I like the strategy of National League ball but I am no more likely to tune in to watch the All-Star game because I want to see Roy Halladay or Tim Lincecum hit. Read the rest of this entry »

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.