Only a few weeks remain in Major League Baseball’s regular season and there’s no reason for fans not to be thrilled; we’ve got fantastic finishes shaping up all around the league. In the National League West, the collapsing San Diego Padres, steady San Francisco Giants, and surging Colorado Rockies are battling for the division crown as well as the NL wildcard. Every win is now crucial for each of these teams, and all those seemingly worthless games from back in the spring have suddenly become relevant.

Entering the last week of August, things in the NL West looked to be settling down. The Padres, who’d been leading the division most of the year, were 27 games over .500 and had their biggest advantage of the season over their upstate rival Giants, at 7.5 games. The Rockies were less than 10 games over .500 and more than 10 games behind San Diego, looking like they were going to coast to a mediocre finish. Then as Labor Day approached upheaval began and we were all reminded why a 162 game schedule is a beautiful thing.

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On Wednesday, left-handed power hitters Adam LaRoche and Brad Hawpe cleared waivers and it appears that they will be traded in the coming days.  Although neither the Arizona Diamondbacks nor Colorado Rockies seem close to a deal involving either player, there are several organizations that will undoubtedly express interest.

The fact that LaRoche was placed on waivers should come as no surprise as the Diamondbacks openly expressed his availability, as well as anybody not named Reynolds or Upton, during July’s trading frenzy.  Prior to the 2010 season, the Diamondbacks signed LaRoche to one year, $4.5 million contract that has a $7.5 million mutual option for 2011, and would increase to a $9.5 mutual option if he is traded.  The Diamondbacks also have the ability to buy out LaRoche’s contract for $1.5 million.

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Former Major Leaguer Bobby Thomson passed away Monday at the age of 86, but his 1951 “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” will undoubtedly live on as long as the game of baseball is played. Thomson’s walk-off homerun, which sent the New York Giants to the World Series over their bitter cross-town rival Brooklyn Dodgers, capped an improbable comeback that saw the Giants 13 ½ games back of the Dodgers on August 11 and going 37-7 down the stretch to force the three game playoff. This playoff was eventually, and so famously, decided by Thomson’s left-field wall-scraper that barely escaped the confines of the Polo Grounds.

Thomson’s homerun, labeled the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” because of the large number of American troops listening to the game from Korea on Armed Forces radio broadcast, has been etched into national lore for reasons much bigger than the smash itself. Thanks to the exuberant commentary of radio broadcaster Russ Hodges alone, as a young sports fan growing up I was captivated by the play even with zero understanding of its context or importance, other than the obvious fact that the Giants had made the World Series. This happened half a century before I ever saw it and I didn’t know any of the incredible back story, but even still I could certainly have told you about the time “THE GIANTS WON THE PENNANT!”

Continue Reading ‘Saying Goodbye to Bobby Thomson…’ >>

A few months ago, someone I barely knew asked me what I want to do before I die.  As common a question as that may be, it was one I’d never been asked before.  So naturally, as I often do in situations where I don’t know what to say, I blurted out the first answer that popped into my head.

“I want to visit all thirty major league ballparks.”

My questioner was impressed and satisfied with my answer, and as I thought more about it, I decided I was too.  After all, as any of my friends (or any of my family members, co-workers or ex-girlfriends) can tell you, I am a die-hard fan of not just the Colorado Rockies, but the game of baseball itself.  And reflecting on the question later that night, I couldn’t come up with a single good reason why I should not visit all thirty major league ballparks before my time here comes to an end.

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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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