Posts belonging to Category Baseball Philosophy

Since its inclusion in 1985, I have always felt that the home run derby was, without a doubt, the highlight of the All-Star break.  There was nothing more exciting than watching the most prolific home run hitters put on an unparalleled display of power, as a way of giving back to the major league baseball fan base.  Baseball’s best power hitters seemed honored to be selected for the derby, and it was clear that they were whole-heartedly competing.

However, that was then.

Now, the home run derby is an embarrassing, lesser version of what it once was, featuring out-dated commentators and shitty, intolerable music that can be heard three states over.  It has become an overly publicized, commercial event that fails to recognize and compliment the most impressive players in baseball.  What happened to the days where guys like Ken Griffey, Jr., Frank Thomas, Juan Gonzalez and Jim Thome battled each other, round by round, while creating an electrifying environment within the given park?  I’d prefer a derby featuring juicers like McGwire and Sosa than the anticlimactic atmosphere that I had to sit through last night.  I thought that baseball’s all-star game and home run derby actually reflected the best players in baseball?  It seems as though the derby has now become an event much like the Pro-Bowl, where the players would rather protect their bodies and swings than participate in an elite event that was once a highlight of the MLB season.  It’s a running joke.

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Watching the World Cup has been a real treat for me this year because I have been blessed enough to take in matches the way God righteously intended when he gave us television: on a 50-something inch flatscreen in 1080p High-Definition picture. Being a broke college student most of the last half-decade, HDTV was nothing more to me than something I drooled over when strolling stoned through Best Buy on my way to play their free PS3. But now that I have finally graduated, things are looking up: I’ve moved back in with Mom and Dad, whose hard work has provided us all the opportunity to sit around on the couch and watch in vivid detail every individual drop of sweat dripping down each little vuvuzela-blowing African child’s chin, and now that I don’t have school or a job I’ve had nothing stopping me from catching those morning and daytime matchups working stiffs despise and getting so stoned I sometimes believe I am actually in a room filled with Madonna and Sandra Bullock’s vuvuzela-blowing children. Soccer is now finally living up to its billing as the beautiful game, all thanks to High Definition television.

Continue Reading “High Definition a Huge Disaster?”

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a die-hard fan of the Colorado Rockies. And at times, being a fan of a team in the NL West is tough.  After all, I live in DC, so most Rockies home games don’t start until around 9PM.  And when they’re on the road, sometimes I won’t see the first pitch until as late as 10:15PM, which means the game ends well after midnight.  More often than I would care to remember, I have walked into work the morning after a Rockies-Giants thriller at AT&T Park muttering, “These West Coast road trips are killing me.”  Add this to the fact that the NL West receives almost no national media attention, coupled with the fact that my Rockies have never taken home a division title in the franchise’s seventeen-year history, and one can see why I might wish my team played in the weaker, more time-zone friendly NL Central.

But I don’t.  And there are three very good reasons every year why I’m glad my team plays in baseball’s forgotten division. Those reasons are named Jon Miller, Dick Enberg and Vin Scully.

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Yesterday morning the United States netted the most important goal in American history in the 91^st minute against an Algerian team that was supposed to suck.  Despite how bad they were supposed to be, they certainly challenged the Americans to their absolute limit.  This World Cup has seen the French and Italians both eliminated before the round of 16 as well as the Redcoats desperately needing a goal against Slovenia to make it out of group play.  The World Cup, because of the time zone it is being played in, has been televised in it’s entirety here in the States.  For maybe the first time in my life, I get the feeling people over here genuinely care.  I’m not even sure that it’s completely because the States have such a compelling team this year.  I think America may finally be giving soccer the chance it deserves.

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Strasburg will make his 3rd major league start tonight vs. the White Sox

Grips seams tight in glove

Lets loose a blazing fastball

Circle K – sit down