Last night at the Dbacks/Phillies game I was reminded of some of the stupid scoring rules that exist in the sport I spend too much time watching.  The situation went like this:

Man on first, top half of the inning, no outs, Jon Garland is pitching.  Garland makes a pickoff throw to first but tosses it like a little bitch and the ball skips away with the baserunner moving all the way around to third.  An error is charged to Garland and the runner eventually scores.  The run that scores however, is not charged as earned because of the error EVEN THOUGH GARLAND WAS THE ONE WHO COMMITTED THE ERROR.

Let me get this straight: you’re more than willing to give a pitcher credit for a team stat like a win or a loss but when he is directly responsible for fucking over his team he isn’t even charged with a run?

God, the old people who decided how to score this sport are so fucking stupid.

So this weekend I had the pleasure of making my first trip to the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field and I gotta say, I was thoroughly impressed with the park.  It’s a great park in the middle of a great neighborhood with a ton of stuff to do.  What else can you ask for in a ballpark, right?  But since it’s one of the last, old ballparks remaining it often gets compared to the other great remaining ballpark, Fenway.  And while I agree that Wrigley is a great park to catch a game, it doesn’t hold a candle to that beautiful baseball sanctuary in Boston.

First off, let me say a few nice things about Wrigley.  For starters, it’s a beautiful view.  We were on the third base line looking East at Lake Michigan with the wind blowing in.  The place was packed and yet it still felt comfortable during the game (more on that later).  There seemed to be more arm room than at Fenway (then again I wasn’t sitting next to two other big dudes like myself).  I didn’t feel squished and I didn’t feel like I was interfering if I had to get up to get a beer.  I enjoyed the game immensely.  I went with family and friends including my sister’s boyfriend who was in from London and had never even watched a baseball game before.  I had fun explaining baseball to him as pointed out how it differed from Cricket.  The people around us kept looking at us funny because they couldn’t believe there was a human being who had never seen a baseball game before.  I’m not kidding I went through the basics of outs and runs to slightly more complicated stuff like sac flys.  It was funny to hear myself describe the game the same way I would to a child.

And that’s the extent to which Wrigley is better than Fenway.  Since Wrigley is bigger there’s more walking to your seats which wouldn’t be bad if there wasn’t only one entrance and exit.  Seriously, if you’re going to put 40,000+ people into a single stadium it might be smarter/safer to have a couple of spots where people can get out of the building.  Leaving the park would cause anyone to go crazy as they trudged down the ramps and out of the park at 1/2 a mile per hour, especially because the Cubs won that day and they kept playing that ridiculously stupid Go Cubs Go song.  I’m not kidding, there are AAA teams in the Deep South with better victory songs than the Cubs.  Here, if you haven’t heard it, take a listen and then feel free to curse me in the comments for getting that song stuck in your head. Read the rest of this entry »

Good afternoon, friends of baseball.  I’m on my way out again for another day of afternoon baseball.  This time I’ll be heading out to Tempe Diablo Stadium to watch the Angels play the Indians.  Yesterday’s game was a blast as I got to talk baseball with a bunch of fans who aren’t pulling for the same teams as me.  That’s my favorite part about going to different parks and sitting with different fans: hearing what they have to say and think about various clubs around the league.

In the stands yesterday I sat in front of two guys from LA, one Dodger fan and one Angels fan.  The Dodger fan was either drunk or the biggest homer I’ve ever met because he’s convinced LA is going to win the NL West by 10 games despite the fact their starting pitching is at best the third best in the division behind Arizona and San Francisco.  While I agree they have the best offense in the NL West, their pitching staff isn’t going to prevent enough runs to make a 10 game victory even remotely plausible.  But I’ll save that analysis for the Dodgers preview that will come out at a later date.

But the issue here is ballpark ettiquette.  When I go to the park I like to talk to people.  I like to argue back and forth.  I like to bust people’s balls about their team and I expect them to make fun of any team I rooting for to.  The ballpark is not  a place for pansy ass feelings and it is definitely not a place for people to act like a bunch of whiny bitches if someone says something slightly insulting about your team.  This is a game.  A fucking game where people are supposed to laugh and have fun.  Sure some people cross the line and it can get out of hand.  But getting upset because someone says the Angels are only going to win 92 games this year is not such an example. Read the rest of this entry »

Roman has his picture taken with Stomper, the A's mascot.

Yes, it’s another afternoon pseudo-liveblog for all you poor bastards stuck at work.  Today I’m heading out to Phoenix Muni to watch the Angels and A’s play some afternoon baseball with my boss the Angels fan.  Before the playoffs started last year he and I got into a huge argument about who was the better team: Anaheim or Boston.  He was arguing that it was the Angels because they had a better record.  His argument went something like this:

Boss: The Angels won a 100 games this year.  Did the Red Sox?
Hef: They won 95 games.
Boss: Well there you go.
Hef: Wait, you’re basing this solely on record?
Boss: There you go.
Hef: You don’t really believe–
Boss: There you go.
Hef: Stop saying, “there you go.”
Boss: After 162 games, you know who’s good and who’s bad.  The Angels have a better record.
Hef: Yes, the Angels won 5 more games than the Sox over 162 games.  They also play in the weakest division in the AL.
Boss: It doesn’t matter.  100 wins is 100 wins.
Hef: Okay.  Let’s say my softball team played a little league team 30 times and beat them every time by an average of 100 runs.  Are we better than another softball team that played people their own age?
Boss: What does that have to do with anything?
Hef: The Angels played 60 games against the Rangers, A’s, and Mariners.  The Sox played 80 games against the Yankees, Rays, Blue Jays and Orioles.  Who had the tougher road?  The fact that the Angels only won 5 more games than the Red Sox speaks to how much better the Red Sox are.
Boss: That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

Email sent to boss after Red Sox beat the Angels 3-1 in ALDS: Read the rest of this entry »

This isn’t really newsworthy, I just felt like laughing at all you homos that are stuck at work today (or worse yet, snowed in by a crazy ass blizzard on the East Coast).  At any rate, while you bags of crap are typing and talking to Carol in HR I’ll be sitting in the sun watching baseball with my kid.  It’s okay, take a minute to gnash your teeth and crack your knuckles in anger and frustration.  I’ll wait.

[whistles]

On a somewhat related note, I was going through my pockets yesterday and I came across my ticket stub for the Brewers/Angels Spring Training game I went to this weekend.  I gave it a once over and realized something amazing: although I used it to get into the game (and bought it at the ticket window moments before entering the ballpark), it wasn’t for the Brewers/Angels game.  It was for the Brewers/Cubs game on March 16th.  It had the wrong game, time, and date printed on the ticket.  The ticket taker didn’t bat an eye when I handed it to her and I didn’t notice until yesterday.

So now I have a ticket stub for a game that doesn’t play for two weeks.  I checked my schedule and I’m free around 2 o’clock  and I’ll be right near Maryvale Stadium.  The beauty of it is I promised my wife I wouldn’t buy any more Spring Training tickets because the economy is in the shitter and we should be tightening our belts and blah blah blah.

But now?  I’m golden.  I can tell the gate people I had to run out to my car for something and walk right in to catch a few innings of baseball for free.  We all know that god is a myth but this is a nice little present from some sort of being that knows that I deserve free stuff.

So have a nice afternoon everybody.  I’ll try to get you a souvenir from Randy Johnson (oh yeah, forgot to mention he’s starting today).

This was my view of Braylon Edwards’ touchdown where Aaron Ross got as toasted as humanly possible on a 10 yard pass.  If you look in the lower left hand corner on the field, you can see him on the ground…collecting his thoughts.  But that’s all I’m going to say about the Giants, because, frankly, that’s all we heard about and I’m sick of talking about them.

The Browns won this game despite getting in their way the entire time.  The penalties…inexcusable, and totally Romeo Crennel’s fault.  Stop avoiding polar bears and fishing for cod you fucking walrus and fucking coach.  But it didn’t matter…not with the way the Browns’ OL was playing. Read the rest of this entry »