All posts filed under: Baseball

No Obama First Pitch for the Nats

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It appears that George, Tom, Abe, and Teddy will be the only presidents to appear at Nationals Park tomorrow for opening day. The current resident of the White House, President Obama, has turned down an invitation from the Washington Nationals to throw out the first pitch for the home opener tomorrow against the Philadelphia Phillies. Perhaps Obama has watched the Nats lose their first two series of the season, to begin a rousing 0-6 – MLB’s only team still without a win.   Or perhaps he has enough problems to deal with without having to take time out to watch a team that’s still not ready for prime time. Let’s hope a change in scenery and coming home will help the Nats get that elusive first win.  And we can dream about the time that Washington has a baseball team that even a basketball-loving president would want to see. More to come… DJB

Opening Day

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A few observations from around the big leagues on Opening Day: Those young Nats pitchers may be in need of a bit of seasoning.  Maybe those Baseball Prospectus writers were right.  Still we have 161 games to go! Nonetheless, it was good to see Adam Dunn hit his first Nats dinger during game 1. O’s rout the Yankees.  Way to go O’s! What did C.C. Sabathia do all winter?  Eat all the money given to him by the Yankees? New look Braves looked pretty good against the Phillies. More to come… DJB

A Night of Baseball Geekdom

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Tonight I put everything on the back burner and wallowed in a night of baseball geekdom.  Yes, it was the annual pre-season visit to Politics & Prose bookstore by the editors of Baseball Prospectus.  And it was a night of VORP (Value Over Replacement Player), BQS (Blown Quality Starts), BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) and other incomprehensible acronyms and statistics.  It was also a night for a long soliloquy by co-editor Steven Goldman on why the Yankees will be facing a huge decision in 2010 on Derek Jeter, when they predict his bad glove, age, slumping hitting, and a chase for 3,000 hits will all come together the year his contract expires.  As they note, …famous-player milestones sell tickets and merchandise, but as veterans of the Astros’ “Biggioquest ’07” can tell you, subjugating team goals to the greater glory of a fading star isn’t conducive to winning.  By 2010, Jeter’s glove won’t play in the infield and his bat won’t play anywhere else.  His 3,000th hit will have zero benefit to the winning effort. As …

New National Dunn Looking Good at the World Baseball Classic

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It is exciting to hear that new Washington National Adam Dunn has had a great start at the World Baseball Classic.  Dunn had a home run in each of the first two victories, but it was his enthusiasm that led Ted Lilly, the starting pitcher for Team USA, to say, “Adam Dunn is a lot of fun,” Lilly said…. “He’s got a lot of energy and he keeps things light. It hasn’t taken him long to kind of warm everybody up.” Dunn has homered in both United States victories here. One home run was a line drive to left-center field, and one was a towering blast pulled to right. The United States manager, Davey Johnson, compared his power to that of Willie McCovey, a Hall of Famer. “I’ve seen a lot of big guys that swing the bat hard,” Johnson said. “But he has a really good eye for a big, strong guy.” A new National compared to Stretch McCovey, one of my heroes as a young boy.  Come on opening day! Read the entire story at the …

Pitchers and Catchers Report in 14 Days

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On the weekend of the Super Hype Bowl, the Washington Nationals web site notes that we’re 14 Days and 13 Hours (as of this posting) until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  To celebrate, let’s check out question #1413 from Obsessed With Baseball. Which one of these Hall of Fame pitchers did NOT reach 300 career wins? A.  Mickey Welch  B.  Early Wynn  C. Robin Roberts  D. Kid Nichols And the answer is….C.  Robin Roberts Spring is around the corner. More to come… DJB

Baseball, Blues, and Bluegrass – Do Christmas Gifts Get Any Better?

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In the midst of a strong recession, everyone expected downsizing in holiday gift giving.  But the generosity of family and friends showed me that downsizing can still result in gifts that touch the heart. My colleague Dolores shares my passion for baseball, so her gift of Obsessed with Baseball was perfect.   This is Jeopardy for the baseball set…2500 questions that the electronic widget embedded in the book asks you to answer.  For instance – to take a random example – Question 54:  Who led the majors in RBIs in 2006?  A.  David Ortiz, B. Albert Pujols,  C. Ryan Howard, or D. Lance Berkman.  If you typed in “C” for Ryan Howard, the widget tells you “correct” and you are 1 for 1 or 100% correct.  It is easy to spend all day answering questions about Heavy Hitters, Hall of Fame, The Playoffs, and more. Want to try another one?  Question 1505:  Name the future big-league manager who hit 30 or more home runs 11 times in his 21 season playing career.  A.  Gil Hodges, B. Frank Robinson, C. …

Hot Stove League (Continued)

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In an earlier post I got it half right.  Despite a good effort by the Nationals and their owners the Lerners, the big free agent catch Mark Teixeira got away…but to the Evil Empire (a.k.a. New York Yankees) instead of the Boston Red Sox.  With that signing, the Yankees now have the four highest paid players IN BASEBALL HISTORY on their team at one time.  What recession?  Jeez… But I’m going to take the positive view about this from the Nats perspective.   At least they finally decided to play in the big leagues of free agency, and they went after the right player this time as well.  I think in my heart of hearts I knew the Nats were on the margins in the Teixeira chase even with their strong offers.  But they can’t stop here.  A career 48-59 pitcher with a 5.05 ERA for the Orioles can’t be the big news out of the Hot Stove League for our Nationals.  Fans deserve more than a Triple-A team playing in a major league ballpark.  That’s my Christmas wish …

Hot Stove League

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It is 30 degrees outside, we’re approaching winter solstice, so naturally a young man’s thoughts turn to…baseball! Yesterday at work I used the term Hot Stove League in a memo to some colleagues, referring to rumors about projects that were heating up.  A friend who loves baseball said she wasn’t familiar with the term, so as is usual I sent her the link from Wikipedia.  According to that source of all knowledge: The Hot Stove League is a baseball-related term, referring to the off-season. Therefore, it is not actually a “league”, but the term instead calls up images of baseball fans, anxious for the start of the new season, gathering around a hot stove during the cold winter months discussing their favorite baseball teams. The term has also come to refer to the wave of off-season player transactions (trades, re-signings, free agency, etc.) that occur between seasons, especially during the winter meetings.  Since most free agent signings and trades occur during the off-season, this time of significant player transactions (including rumors and speculation about possible trades), is …

Farewell to a Great Pitcher

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I just learned that Greg Maddux – perhaps the smartest pitcher ever in Major League Baseball – has decided to retire at age 42.  As a long-time Atlanta Braves fan, I followed his career closely.  Those four Cy Young awards in a row? Amazing.  Those 355 career wins (more than any living player)?  Just as mind numbing in this age of the specialist.  Finishing number 10 on the all-time strikeout list?  Now that’s a stat that really does shock me, because I never think of Maddux as a strikeout pitcher.  But I do think of him as just the smartest guy on the field at all times. ESPN’s web site has a great column on Maddux written by Gene Wojciechowski.  He includes a wonderful story about Maddux’s smarts: In 1996, just before Maddux and the Atlanta Braves faced the New York Yankees in the World Series, pitching coach Leo Mazzone met with his starters and relievers and read them the detailed scouting reports. Maddux raised his hand after Mazzone read the report on Yankees slugger Bernie Williams. “That …

Do I love baseball quotes? You betcha!

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The Philadelphia Phillies win the 2008 World Series in one of the strangest ways imaginable – closing out a game that began in the bottom of the 6th after a 46 hour rain-delay – and the morning papers are full of the great quotes and writing that make baseball such a delight.  Can you imagine getting an intelligible quote out of a football coach after the Super Bowl?  Of course not.  But even the lowliest man on the World Series roster can provide some wonderful, thought-provoking line that brings a smile. Here are a few gems I picked up from today’s Washington Post and New York Times. The Phillies and Rays turned a mess into a mini-masterpiece, transforming a suspended game into a tense, 79-minute suspension of disbelief. Tom Boswell, Washington Post A game that began with a deluge has washed away an epic drought. The Philadelphia Phillies have won the World Series.  Tyler Kepner, New York Times Rays Manager Joe Maddon said he considered using phenom lefty David Price from the start Wednesday night, …