Posts belonging to Category Major League Baseball

Even though none of these videos are actually commercials, they are just as entertaining thanks to the hilarious antics and personality of San Francisco Giants’ closer, Brian Wilson.  If you know nothing about the flame-throwing right-hander, there is a lot to take in.  Wilson dresses like a rock star, acts like a rock star, is continually sarcastic, is a self-proclaimed genius, has the best mohawk in baseball, and is rarely serious.  Just like when he takes the mound, Wilson wants to be the center of attention at all times: he is incredibly entertaining with his electric fastball, devastating slider and post game celebration.  Additionally, it’s quite possible that he was put on this planet for the sake of providing the most comical sound bites.

On Wednesday, Major League Baseball fined Wilson $1,000 for wearing the loud, orange cleats that he first displayed in the All-Star Game.  They stated that his cleats could only be 50% orange, as opposed to the 100% that he was currently sporting.  How did he respond?  Wilson simply used a sharpie to fill in some of the areas of his spikes to make them more presentable.  Even though some of these videos are rather lengthy(some checking in at around 10 minutes), they are worth every second.  Here is a combination of his self-shot videos on YouTube that have been dubbed “Life of Brian”, and his interviews with Chris Rose on The Cheap Seats:

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Congratulations to 2010 Major League Baseball, Hall of Fame inductee Andre “The Hawk” Dawson.

July 20, 1987

Few people would argue that former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling was a gamer. The guy’s fierce and sometimes angry competitiveness was well documented throughout his career; for many the most indelible memory of Schilling will always be his “bloody sock” performance in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS. But what many people don’t know is that Schilling is also a major gamer of another type. The live-in-your-mother’s-basement-playing-video-games-and-get-no-ass-type, to be exact. That’s right, the pitcher who struck fear into the hearts of batters everywhere is a self-admitted video gaming freak. Being the computer-smashing competitor that he is, it’s hard to imagine how Schilling treats his controllers after a bad outing. But he’s such a competitor that he actually founded his own video game production company, 38 Studios. He then went all New York Yankees on it and hired the biggest names in the fantasy gaming world to build his little dream project, including New York Times Bestselling sci-fi author R.A. Salvatore, legendary comic book artist and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, and some guy name Ken Rolston that apparently is a big deal in that realm. Schilling and his big three were at the annual Mecca for nerds, geeks, gamers, and dorks worldwide, -San Diego Comic-Con- last week to promote the game, which is due for release this fall. Listen here as Schilling discusses the designers, the game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and why the only diva contract stipulation late in his career was that all hotel rooms required high speed internet.

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Will Ryne Sandberg be the Chicago Cubs manager in 2011? Here is the Hall of Fame second baseman, on the cover of Sports Illustrated, from March 16, 1992.

Fantasy sports provide average fans a way to feel connected with their favorite pastimes in an above average way.  Previously relegated to rooting on our home teams and beloved players in voiceless anonymity, we now have the pleasure of “owning” our own teams and “managing” them the way we see fit.  While fans in some cities (Houston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, etc.) may seem doomed by poor front office management to remain perpetually pessimistic about their World Series chances, this frustration may be at least partially alleviated by one’s own participation in the fantasy baseball world.  No longer do fans sit back passively and observe the games as they are played, they are now active participants making decisions that determine whether their team wins or loses.  Obviously, such a scenario is bound to be obsessed over and today’s fixation on the supposedly pretend fantasy game now blurs the boundaries of reality.

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