Interesting Baseball News Items That Do Not Warrant Their Own Thread

[Big_E]

Vlad Guerrero became the all-time hits leader last night among players from the Dominican Republic. In the same game, Robert Andino became the first O to hit an inside-the-park HR at Camden Yards. His Dad was there, seeing his first MLB game and he was calling everybody he knew on his cell phone.

Congrats to Vlad! Pujols will probably break that record, but still impressive!

[35Knucklecurve]

I've said it before, I get a kick out of Francona:

http://www.bostonherald.com/track/in...ome&position=6

Red Sox [team stats] pitcher Josh Beckett [stats], who took the mound at Camden Yards against the Orioles last night, better hope that his rocket scientist wife, Holly, delivers their first baby before the playoffs start.

Because, according to Sox skipper Terry Francona, he was ready to go out and buy a cork to keep Baby Girl Beckett at bay before the last weekend’s end-of-season three-game series with the Yankees!

“I’d go get one of those big corks you get in a champagne bottle,” Tito told WEEI’s Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley the other day. “(I’d) say, ‘Hey, let’s go. Clutch up a little bit here! We have a big game.”

Mrs. Beckett was due on Sept. 23, according to Francona, and as of last night, she was still awaiting the stork. But it is her first, so it’s all a waiting game ...

Francona, poking fun at the Sox’ streak of bad luck, said, “The way things are going now, if that baby starts coming out, someone is going to slip on her water and get hurt.”

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Photo by Courtesy
Parents-to-be Josh and Holly Beckett.

[4bronxbombers]

Teams seek solutions to declining attendance:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...endance_042511

[Ram Man]

Teams seek solutions to declining attendance:

Not exactly late breaking news.

[Mr. Mxylsplk]

Teams seek solutions to declining attendance:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...endance_042511

Of course, that article is quite out of date. While attendance is obviously down from a few years ago, it's gone up, albeit quite slightly, this year.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/le...tendance.shtml

[BRNXBMRS]

This is amazing!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v...5jdE&vq=medium

Got it from http://waswatching.com/

[effdamets]

This is amazing!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v...5jdE&vq=medium

Got it from http://waswatching.com/

There is no way that's real....
A human couldn't THROW the ball and hit the net perfectly that many times in a row.

[35Knucklecurve]

There is no way that's real....
A human couldn't THROW the ball and hit the net perfectly that many times in a row.

I keep watching it and it looks like the real deal to me, even though it is pretty difficult to imagine. I give the guy points just for coming up with the idea.

[effdamets]

I keep watching it and it looks like the real deal to me, even though it is pretty difficult to imagine. I give the guy points just for coming up with the idea.

Kudos for the idea...
But even if the guys hits the ball exactly right, the odds of the ball bouncing PERFECTLY off 4 nets like that is so improbable...
I mean - the Sox have less chance of missing the playoffs....

Oh wait.....

[BRNXBMRS]

There is no way that's real....
A human couldn't THROW the ball and hit the net perfectly that many times in a row.

Or some people have way too much time on their hands.

[Ram Man]

If it hasn't already been made clear enough, it is becoming more obvious by the day that the Rays do not have a long term future in their current location and with their current stadium.

"I am frustrated this year," Sternberg said of losing to the Rangers for the second consecutive year. "We've replicated last year [on the field] and our attendance numbers were down 15 percent and our ratings were down. The rubber has got to meet the road at some point here. When you go through the season, you control your own destiny, if you win out. We're getting to the point where we don't control our own destiny. This is untenable as a model going forward."

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011...tampa-bay-rays

[Saxmania]

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?o...ials&Itemid=39

Well, as mentioned above, MLB attendance increased this year, led by two of those small markets we're always being told have no chance to compete: Cleveland and Pittsburgh. And that's despite the most rainouts in 14 years, a major ownership dispute at LA, and ongoing problems in big markets like Chicago and Houston. And, of course, a moribund economy.

400,000 more people attended MLB ballgames in 2011. No new ballparks were opened, either, so it's a like-for-like comparison with 2010.

Meanwhile, the NFL attendance is actually down. Oh noes! Baseball must be in crisis!

Be seeing you,

Saxmania

[kan_t]

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/article1195248.ece

This may be the first time I feel bad for a owner. The Pirates got more than 30K people in a game by just playing .500 baseball. The Rays couldn't get 30K people in an elimination playoff game.

[Yankees13]

If it hasn't already been made clear enough, it is becoming more obvious by the day that the Rays do not have a long term future in their current location and with their current stadium.




http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011...tampa-bay-rays

It's a shame, they're a great organization, at least on the baseball side of things. While a new stadium and a better location might help I just think non-NFL pro sports in Florida will always struggle. The star-studded Miami Heat couldn't even sell out playoff games and had their arena taken over by Mavs fans in the finals.

[Mr Coffee]

Eh, I hear what he's saying, but he bought the team thinking they would buy him a stadium. Now he seems to be whining that they won't. I don't think you're going to see too many cities paying for stadiums for a while.

[pleasepassthesoup]

Move 'em to Montreal. Just for fun.

EDIT: on a side note, I don't understand why they had the two Canadian teams in separate leagues. It seems like creating an intradivisional rivalry between the two of them would have helped generate interest up north.

[Yankeesfan924]

It's a shame, they're a great organization, at least on the baseball side of things. While a new stadium and a better location might help I just think non-NFL pro sports in Florida will always struggle. The star-studded Miami Heat couldn't even sell out playoff games and had their arena taken over by Mavs fans in the finals.

Non-football. College football is the state sport. Honestly, what the Marlins should have done was build their new stadium a county or two north, where a) there's a more suburban culture, and b) more baseball-loving Northern transplants. Instead, they built the stadium on the old Orange Bowl site, which is in the heart of Miami and much less accessible to people to the north (where I used to live. Pro Player/Joe Robbie/Dolphins/Landshark/Sun Life Stadium was actually really easy to get to. It's right off the highway).

So it wouldn't surprise me to see a big boom in Marlin attendance for a year or two, then a drop off to below current levels.

[effdamets]

Non-football. College football is the state sport. Honestly, what the Marlins should have done was build their new stadium a county or two north, where a) there's a more suburban culture, and b) more baseball-loving Northern transplants. Instead, they built the stadium on the old Orange Bowl site, which is in the heart of Miami and much less accessible to people to the north (where I used to live. Pro Player/Joe Robbie/Dolphins/Landshark/Sun Life Stadium was actually really easy to get to. It's right off the highway).

So it wouldn't surprise me to see a big boom in Marlin attendance for a year or two, then a drop off to below current levels.

I've been to Miami to see Marlins' games...
There is just no way to get there without renting a car and driving!
The location is awful... The public transportation is even worse.
It should help to where they built the new place, but unless they have a plan to get fans there without having to drive, forget it - it'll fail just like Pro Player.

Pro baseball in South Florida - or any Florida - just isn't a good idea. Who wants to spend their 100 degree nights sitting a stadium, sweating your behind off with a great possibility of a thunder shower everyday? Stupid.

Move the Marlins to Boston as a second team and the Rays to St. Louis.... Both cities can support a second team.

[Ram Man]

Who wants to spend their 100 degree nights sitting a stadium, sweating your behind off with a great possibility of a thunder shower everyday?

Well the thunder shower part has been removed from the Marlins' stadium equation with the retractable roof. Yankee Stadium, on the other hand ....

[Yankeesfan924]

I've been to Miami to see Marlins' games...
There is just no way to get there without renting a car and driving!
The location is awful... The public transportation is even worse.
It should help to where they built the new place, but unless they have a plan to get fans there without having to drive, forget it - it'll fail just like Pro Player.

Pro baseball in South Florida - or any Florida - just isn't a good idea. Who wants to spend their 100 degree nights sitting a stadium, sweating your behind off with a great possibility of a thunder shower everyday? Stupid.

Move the Marlins to Boston as a second team and the Rays to St. Louis.... Both cities can support a second team.

Well SoFlo isn't a metropolis like New York. Almost everyone (at least where I live, an hour north of Miami) has a car. But like I said, the new stadium is in the middle of Miami, so getting to it from the north (a population base of ~2 million) will be more difficult.

[Yankee Tripper]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011...r-fox-tv-booth

McCarver out "minor heart procedure" - get well soon.

Francona in the ALCS booth. Should be interesting if it is NYY.

[BroadwayBomber55]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011...r-fox-tv-booth

McCarver out "minor heart procedure" - get well soon.

Francona in the ALCS booth. Should be interesting if it is NYY.

Get well soon Mr. Tim McCarver.

[Rice14]

Funny that three of the divisional series are going to a 5th game. The divisional series have hardly done that before in the past, they're usually done in three or four.

[pleasepassthesoup]

Funny that three of the divisional series are going to a 5th game. The divisional series have hardly done that before in the past, they're usually done in three or four.

And the other series went 4. There's only one possible LDS game that won't be played this year.

[TheInfallibleOne]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011...r-fox-tv-booth

McCarver out "minor heart procedure" - get well soon.

Francona in the ALCS booth. Should be interesting if it is NYY.

Francona seemed like the only one in Boston who really wanted to see playoff action after September 1st anyway. Glad he got his wish.