Sunday, May 29, 2016

SO THAT'S WHERE THAT BLOG IS

I've been away so long that I forgot the address of the blog site. Well, I found it, I'm back and as cranky as ever.

Tell your statistics to shut up.
I like stats - a lot - but I hate false statistics. Some of the new defensive ones make no sense to me, especially the one that determines "runs saved." I don't get it. Supposedly, fielders get credit for making plays other fielders can't. Is a shortstop great at going to his left or did the tendency statistics move him into position to make that play?
Here's a big one: A lefty hitter has a tendency to pull the ball to the right side consistently. All of a sudden he begins to ground out to the third baseman regularly. Do we change the tendencies? Pitch him differently? Actually, the defensive shift puts the third baseman in short right field. Do they write that down on the score card? Develop a sign to put next to the putout that the fielder was out of his normal position? Have a beer and burn your score card?

When should a pitcher get ejected for throwing at a hitter?
When the hitters stop doing elaborate bat flips and poses after hitting a homer. (Bautista got what he deserved) However, retaliatory measures should happen reasonably quickly after the event. If you have ever played ball, you know a pitch thrown behind you is scary as hell - and it doesn't hurt. Why throw a pitcher out for that? Point taken and no injuries.

Is there no end to this?
Art Briles, the very successful football coach at Baylor Univ. has been suspended in response to his improper handling of sexual assault allegations against students.The president, Ken Starr, was also "punished" by demoting him to chancellor. And Starr is a law professor at the University. Somehow I doubt he was teaching the ethics course.
The actual problem was that they didn't handle anything.  They did their best to bury everything. I don't wish this on anyone, but what if it was one of their daughters that was assaulted? Would they still bury everything?  Apparently, Briles also recruited players that had been dismissed from other schools for similar allegations. What's really sad is that at some point, some other university will hire him.
It's one thing to cheat by helping students with their classes or submit false high school transcripts, but sexual assaults should be jumped on with both feet - wearing football cleats.

I thought they were on my side - for a while.
Have you noticed that some players wear solid color socks right up to the knee, while some wear their pants over their shoes?  You won't see any kind of uniform freedom in the NFL. Those uniforms must be absolutely, exactly the same for all the players. But not in baseball. Some wear striped socks , a few even wear the stirrup socks. No consistency even for teammates. Of course, I prefer the stirrup socks but then I live a little to the right of John Birch.
I was happy when I heard that MLB had signed a deal with a uniform supplier to be the official sock supplier for MLB. Hooray, consistency. Then I read that players could still wear anything they wanted, just so StanceBaseball, the official supplier,  provided them. So the only consistency here was that MLB found a way to make money when dealing with a problem. No solution, just profit. I should have known.

Is there a message here?
I received a gift for my birthday from one of my friends in the newspaper industry, Dwight Perry. He, like me, is big fan of sports, baseball in particular. We both see the humor is sport, Dwight more than most, and he keeps me laughing all the time. Being that he's from Seattle, there must be a story behind this shirt.
By the way, the reason for the glove is that Annie-O made meatballs and I'm trying to use them up.

***THEY SAID IT***
"The Savanna (Ga.) Bananas minor-league baseball team adopted a puppy found in their ballpark parking lot. If it’s a wiener dog, how about calling it Frank Banana?"  -- Dwight Perry [You knew I had to put this in - CP]

"Virginia McLaurin, 107, went to her first MLB game this week at Nationals Park. 107. Wow. To put this in perspective, Ms. McLaurin was born only two years after the Cubs won their last World Series."  -- Janice Hough
"The Houston Astros’ George Springer hit a foul ball into a concession stand deep fryer. A confused fan who later ate the ball said that, with a little mustard, it was no worse than other concession fare."  -- Brad Dickson
"A photo surfaced of an emaciated-looking Johnny Manziel at a Las Vegas pool party. Manziel’s muscles are so deflated, the NFL is questioning Tom Brady."  -- Alex Kaseberg
"Coach’s name noted at the recent Ontario high-school basketball championships: Gus Gymnopoulos. Some guys are just born to teach gym."  -- RJ Currie
"The NFL is moving the Pro Bowl from Honolulu to Orlando, Fla. What a perfect destination for a Mickey Mouse event!"  -- Greg Cote
"The Washington Capitals let 101-year-old fan Gert Friedman ride on their ice-resurfacing machine between periods at a recent game. Fans knew something was up because the Zamboni’s left blinker was going nonstop."  -- Dwight Perry
"The Cleveland Cavaliers were nearly barred from entering Canada to go play the Raptors. I can picture Cleveland sports fans one day going, “Then there was the year we lost a championship due to Customs.”  -- Brad Dickson
"Jackie Bradley Jr. went 0-4 last night, snapping his hit streak at 29 games. So he was only a little over a month away from potentially catching Dimaggio."  -- Janice Hough
"A man has stood outside Gillette Stadium every day for a month hoping for The New England Patriots to give him a tryout. Finally, Bill Belichick stuck his head out the door and said, “Go home Terrell Owens!"  -- TC Chong
"Don’t get in a fight with somebody who’s ugly. They got nothing to lose."  -- Charles Barkley
"Reuters reports an alligator bit off the arm of a Florida man who tried swimming across a lake to avoid arrest. Police said he was unarmed."  -- RJ Currie  [I've got to stop encouraging puns - CP]
"ESPN’s long-winded Chris Berman will quit his weekly NFL gigs at the end of the 2016 season, the Big Lead reported. That clicking sound you hear is mute buttons coast to coast getting a 21-thumb salute."  -- Dwight Perry

"Blue By won a feature at Horsemen’s Park after losing a race last month at Fonner Park after running into a goose. Signs you’re not cut out to be a gambler: You bet on the horse that rammed a goose."  -- Brad Dickson

CP-
 






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