Keep It Clean!
While I was watching the game between the Red Sox and the Angels the other day, I noticed something new. It is probably a new trend and I am not too sure why, but I noticed that a lot of players are adopting this new fashion «faux pas». You probably wonder what I am talking about. I’m talking about those dirty batting helmets. What’s the deal with the dirty helmet? To answer my question, I decided to do a little search in Google to understand the reasoning behind these sudden changes to the helmets.
I found many theories to explain the dirty helmets. One of them is the combination of dirt and pine tar. The idea is that you would cover your batting gloves or your hands before each at bat of pine tar to get a better grip on your baseball bat. Is this not illegal?
If I look at the MLB rule book it states the following:
Rule 6.60(d) states that a batter is out for illegal action when he uses or attempts to use a bat that, in the umpire’s judgment, has been altered or tampered with in such a way to improve the distance factor or cause an unusual reaction on the baseball. This include bats that are filled, flat-surfaced, nailed, hollowed, grooved or covered with a substance such as paraffin, wax, etc.
Based on that rule, I thought that we could rule out pine tar, but then I found this rule:
Rule 1.10(c) states that the bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from its end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance, which extends past the 18 inch limitation, shall cause the bat to be removed from the game.
Well, I must that I am surprised. I can understand the use of gloves while you are at bat as you don’t want to get blisters on your hands, but allowing pine tar? I think this should not be allowed.
Let’s just take for example a pitcher that applies some pine tar on his hands just before an at bat. Will he take the time to clean his hands before he goes on the mound? I seriously doubt it. If it can improve the batting grip with this, just imagine the improvement it makes on a ball. Anyways, you can agree or disagree with me. I think it’s plain cheating.
I was still not sold on this first theory, so I did a little bit more research on the web and I came across this article,* Nixon: It’s dirty pool*, which is in the Boston Globe. It basically confirms this theory.
Now, why is the league or the teams allowing this? I understand the purpose behind it. It’s much easier to apply pine tar on your hands during an at bat, but are they not showing a form of disrespect to the uniform or their teams by doing this? I know that times are changing and people are more open to new ideas, but they are destroying and tempering with the image and the brand of their company. Am I over reacting on this?
If I was the team manager or even the league commissioner, I would fine these players and I would not allow them on the field with tempered uniforms. Today it’s the helmets, but what’s going to be the next fashion «faux pas»? Applying random holes all over their uniforms? I really think they should stop this new trend before it deteriorate.
This was my two cents for the day! Enjoy!
My First Baseball Game of 2009
I want to start by saying thank you to all of you who posted comments yesterday. I am open to your suggestions and for those of you who are suggesting a team, well you have to convince me and explain to me why your team is better than any other teams and why your fans or the greatest.
After my first blog entry yesterday, it was time for me to pick my first baseball game. Yes, you heard right. I will watch an entire broadcast baseball game. Let me just say that it’s probably a good thing that my friends don’t know about this blog because they would probably laugh at me right now. I would get questions or comments like these ones:
“Why do you want to do that?”
“There is a hockey game on tonight. The Sens are playing the Leafs. Would you not ratter watch the hockey game?”
“Ha, Ha… Karl likes baseball!”
Yes, I like baseball. What they don’t know is that I decided to go ahead and invest my own money on that MLB TV Premium service. With this service, I think I will get the best of both worlds. I can still watch the hockey games tonight with some friends and for the next day, I can watch a baseball game in the morning.
I actually tried the service for the first time yesterday afternoon while I was writing my first blog entry. Hence the typing mistakes. I must say, the MLB TV Premium service is not too shabby. The feed is much better than I originally suspected. The highlight notification that shows up while you are watching a game is pretty cool. You can also watch not one, not two, not three, but four baseball games simultaneously. Since I’m a still a beginner, I will stick with one game at the time.
The only issue I currently have with this service is the way they lay out their Media Center. It’s not user friendly at all. It’s not easy to watch a completed game or highlights of a completed game. It would be much easier if you could do a search for a specific team and/or series, but I am sure they will come up with a better interface in the future. Anyways, I hope so…
One last thing about the MLB TV Premium service and I will move on with the baseball game that I picked for today. Through the promotion, they talked about condensed version of a completed baseball game. So far, I didn’t see any condensed version of any games. The option is there, but there is no game available. Again, I’m hoping to see this option activated in the near future.
Finally, it is a good service if you are a baseball fanatic. I actually prefer this service to the MLB Extra Innings which is available on cable and/or satellite. The video quality is not at par to the normal TV feed, but it’s watchable. Anyhow, enough about those services and let’s get back to my first baseball game of the year.
I did not watch or listen to a baseball game last year. Well that’s not true. I attended a single game in Toronto. The game featured the Blue Jays versus the Yankees. Apparently this year, the Red Sox are supposed to be the team to beat. The same is also true for the Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers and the Mets. Is there any truth to what I am saying?
Anyway, I look at the schedule to find my first broadcast game of the season. I decided to start the season with a matchup between Red Sox and Angels. It seems like a good matchup on paper. Again, this is based on my current baseball knowledge. I also took a quick glance to the standings before the start of the game and to my amazement the Red Sox are 1-3? What did I miss? I thought that the Red Sox was the team to beat this year. Yes, I know… back to the game.
I must say that for my first game this year, it was pretty darn good. The Angels started a rally in the bottom of the 9th inning and I was on the edge of my seat until the end of the game. I will explain why. Boston was winning 5-3 and Jonathan Papelbon was pitching to get his second save of the season. He ended up throwing a total of 37 pitches in that single inning. He gave a Home Run to Torii Hunter, a double to Kendry Morales, and walks to Mike Napoli and Chone Figgins. Needless to say that with three guys on bases and two outs in the inning, his only option was to put Howard Kendrick out for the win. He finally did it after 8 pitches, but this was a steal. The Angels should have won that game.
My player of the game for Boston is Jason Bay. He did a questionable catch in the bottom of the 4th on Terii Hunter. When I look at the replay, it seems like the ball left his glove, touch the wall and somehow came back into his glove. It was just weird play. The second base umpire, Marvin Hudson, ruled a fly out on this play. At bat, Jason Bay was excellent. He got his first two home runs of the year with 3 RBIs and a walk.
My player of the game for the Angels is Mike Napoli. He also got his first two home runs of the year with 2 RBIs, one double and a walk.
My notable mention of the game goes to Joe Saunders, the starting pitcher for the Angels. Even though he lost the game, I think he pitched really well today. He was in control of his pitches all game long. He also made a nifty little play in the top of the first inning on Jacoby Ellsbury. Earlier, Jacoby was successful in stealing the first base. As he later tried to steal the 3rd base, Joe caught him during his throwing motion to the plate and started running toward him. If you get the chance to watch the replay, I think Joe took really good decisions on this play.
In closing, I really enjoyed this game and it gave me lots of ideas for future blog entries. Hope you enjoyed reading this entry.
On I side note, I need to know which game or series I should be following this week. I will be watching the first game into the new Yankees Stadium for sure, but if you feel there is other good matchup that I should follow, please let me know.
Lets Start This New Adventure
To start, my name is Karl. I am 30 years old and I am from Ottawa. I was a Montréal Expos fan until their departure to Washington in 2005. To this day, I still think that the Montréal Expos would have been a contender into the 1994 World Series. Yes I know. It’s time to move on.
Lets start with a short story about me. I have been a baseball fan since I was a little boy. I watched every Expos games that were available on TV. I also got to see a few live games in Montréal. I say a few because from Ottawa it takes about two hours to get to Montréal. This is if you are not caught in traffic.
The greatest baseball game I saw was against the Atlanta Braves back on September 27, 1996. The Expos needed to win the 3 games in this series against the Atlanta Braves to make a playoff birth.
We (me and some friends) have decided to go see the first game of this series after school. We got there maybe 30 min before the opening pitch. The place was packed with 40,000+ spectators. Loudest baseball crowd I have heard in my life. I still remember the starting pitchers for that game. They were John Smoltz (Braves) and Jeff Fessaro (Expos). Without going into the details of the games, the Expos ended up losing 6-4 and our playoffs dreams went away.
Even though we lost that game, the experience, the emotion and the passion that I felt as a baseball fan are something that every sports fans want to experience during their life. I felt excitement, happiness, nervousness, deception throughout this single regular season game. I can only imagine the feelings that one can experience during a Championship game.
What I really want to say is that I am missing baseball. Yes, I know, some of you will say: “You prefer hockey to baseball anyways.” Well this is not true. Don’t get me wrong, I like hockey, and hockey was great for me, but I am truly missing baseball. I am not only saying this because my Ottawa Senators are out of the playoffs. They are taking a small break before killing the competition next year.
Anyhow, this is why I am starting my journey in becoming a baseball fan. I want to be able to cheer for a team and voice my displeasure towards a player. I want to be a baseball fan again.
What will be my approach to attain my goal? Well I try a simple approach. I will be watching many baseball games and I will provide my feedback throughout the year in hopes of cheering for a single team by the end of this baseball season.
Are you ready… Lets do this!
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