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A friend and former colleague, best known these days by his blogroll name of Randball, must be on a baseball trip to Milwaukee. He has tweeted tonight that Milwaukee Brewers fans view games at Miller Park as nothing more than an opportunity to buy $7 beers. Mr. Randball also calls Brewers fans the “worst fans ever.”
I would argue that Philadelphia Phillies fans, who in just recent weeks have had a fan intentionally vomit on an 11-year-old, had a fan tasered for running onto the field and then the next night had another moron run onto the field in copycat fashion, have to at least be in the mix for worst fans (though Philadelphia fans certainly are more knowledgeable than most).
I don’t know who the best fans or the worst fans are in baseball. Do you have any thoughts? If so, I’d like to hear them.
I had the opportunity to go to the Twins game against the Kansas City Royals last night, and even had the chance to sit in some of the “Pretty People” seats with access to some special areas within the park.
More on my thoughts on Target Field later.
One thing that really caught my attention was when the Twins distributed All-Star ballots for voting mid-game.
I always enjoy looking at the ballots to see what ridiculous mistakes they’ve made as far as including players who have been benched, are at different positions, and other things that MLB should be able to fix on the fly with their printing vendors, given their clout.
But I got last night’s ballot, and was shocked to find out that the Twins had taken the liberty of punching out the holes for all of the Twins players on the ballot for me.
My wife initially thought that maybe we had gotten a recycled ballot–one someone had punched, not submitted, and an usher might have grabbed and put back in the box–but looking around, everyone’s ballots were punched.
Now I’m a home town fan, and I would definitely vote for Joe Mauer, and probably Justin Morneau (even though Miguel Cabrera probably deserves the start), and maybe even Delmon Young just to irritate the locals that don’t like him.
But no way on earth would I ever vote for Nick Punto to play 3rd base in an All-Star game. I’m not sure I would even vote for him to be the 3rd string hot dog vendor for the outfield upper deck sections at an All-Star game.
In fact, I’d rather vote for someone like Evan Longoria, just to make sure that Alex Rodriguez doesn’t get the starting nod.
I know the Twins have been pushing hard on All-Star voting–emails, radio commercials, in stadium stuff–but is pre-filling out ballots ethical? Do other teams do this?
[NOTE: I did find some non-pre-punched ballots at a booth later in the game--so not all ballots are given out this way. And I don't think the ballot I got at a game a couple weeks back were either.]
If this is common around all stadiums, it’s just further confirmation that MLB needs to kill off fan voting having anything to do with All-Star game rosters–especially if they’re going to continue with the asinine idea that the winner of the All-Star game gets home field advantage in the World Series.
Curious to hear your thoughts on this in the comments…
Oh, and by the way, Punto is currently 5th in voting for 3rd base. Orlando Hudson is 4th at 2B, JJ Hardy is 3rd at SS, Jason Kubel 5th at DH, and Denard Span and Michael Cuddyer are both in the top 15–meaning the only Twin on the ballot not showing up in the results is Delmon Young…
Florida Marlins outfielder Mike Stanton had three hits (though one came on a questionable call in the ninth inning where it looked like he forced the runner in front of him) and scored two runs in his Major League debut. He definitely looked like he belonged, watching footage on MLB Network.
But the rookie who stole the show on Tuesday was the highly acclaimed franchise savior for the Washington Nationals, Stephen Strasburg.
The phenom, who entered professional baseball under controversial circumstances when his agent, Scott Boras, threatened to hold him out unless he got $50 million to sign, was every bit the stud he was advertised to be. He tossed seven innings, striking out 14 and walking none in getting his first MLB win. Continue reading
Coming into the 2010 season, there had been a total of 18 perfect games thrown in Major League Baseball history. That’s not just the modern history, either–we’re talking back to the days of Lee Richmond pitching for the Worcester Rubylegs back in 1880–a total of 18 games, out of probably some 350,000+ games played (no idea if that number is right, but my quick guesstimation put it at about 300,000).
The Major Leagues once went a stretch of 34 years (from 1922 to 1956) without seeing a perfect game, and as recently as the 1970′s, went an entire decade without seeing one.
During the 1990′s, there was an all-time high of four perfect games, including just the second time that there were perfect games pitched in back to back years (David Wells in 1998, David Cone in 1999; prior to that, Jim Bunning in 1964 and Sandy Koufax in 1965 were the only two to throw perfect games in back to back seasons).
So far in 2010, there have been two official, and one (as of yet) unofficial perfect game thrown. In fact, these three games happened in less than a month (Dallas Braden on May 9, 2010; Roy Halladay on May 29, 2010; Armando Galarraga on June 2, 2010).
For those of you keeping track at home, the 1990′s had a record four perfect games, while the…2010′s(?) has essentially three perfect games less than three full months into the first season of the decade (and let’s not start with the whole “the decade doesn’t start until next year crap–I’m going by the first three digits of the year).
Add Mark Buehrle’s perfect game from July of 2009, and that’s four in less than a full year.
So what’s causing the rash of perfect games? Is it a fluke? Is it the watering down of talent due to expansion finally catching up to hitters, as it seemed to with pitchers? Are pitchers just getting better? Are performance enhancing drugs–and/or the testing/banning of them–somehow coming into play? Is MLB finally making up for juicing balls after the strike shortened season in an attempt to lure fans back to the ballpark?
I really don’t have any idea what’s behind it–so I thought I’d put it out there to see if anyone has any other thoughts on what might be leading to this, whether or not the trend will continue, and if so if that means that the exclusivity of such a game will start to wane as more pitchers are able to throw them?
You’ve likely all seen it by now. Jim Joyce missed an out at first base that cost Armando Galarraga and the Detroit Tigers a perfect game Wednesday night.
It was a terrible call. Horrible. The fans were cheated. Galarraga should have had the third perfect game in Major League Baseball in less than a month. But come on now. Joyce, by most accounts is a pretty good umpire. He did not miss the call on purpose. He is not Satan. And he immediately owned up to the mistake after the game. Let’s give him credit for that.
The Twittersphere is abuzz with reports that Joyce is distraught about the blown call. [Update: Joyce admitted to the botched call after the game and clearly felt like crap about it.]
This is being blown a bit out of proportion. Even Galarraga sounded resigned and accepting of his fate more than upset. He acknowledged that he spoke with the Joyce after the game. “He feels bad,” Galarraga says in a conversation with ESPN broadcasters Rick Sutcliffe and
He adds that Joyce “kind of” apologized to him. Sutcliffe gave props to Galarraga for how he handled the call, keeping his composure, not getting into an argument with the umpire and immediately retiring the next and final batter of the game.
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.
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 Autographed Perfect Game Ticket - ONCE IN A LIFETIME PURCHASE
US $123.50 (3 Bids)
End Date: Wednesday Feb-08-2012 14:11:47 PST
Add to watch list
Roy Halladay Autographed Perfect Game Ticket - ONCE IN A LIFETIME PURCHASE
US $123.50 (3 Bids)
End Date: Wednesday Feb-08-2012 14:14:42 PST
Add to watch list
Roy Halladay signed REAL MLB Batting practice Hat w/COA and PERFECT GAME TICKET
US $99.99
End Date: Thursday Feb-09-2012 10:23:42 PST
Add to watch list
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. Continue reading
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.
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.
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