Interesting Baseball Fact Day

With the baseball season just starting and all of the teams now having a home opener under their belt, lots of interesting baseball history facts come out of the wood works.  Thought I would share a few.


-Caught a little of the Dodger game yesterday and Dodger Stadium turned 50.  Some of the original team was on the field for the opening ceremonies.  Pretty cool.


-Today the Yankee pinstripes turn 100.  Reading an article about back when they were the Hilltoppers and playing at Polo grounds.  Ray Caldwell threw out the first pitch, claimed to be one of the best ever in the game. The next time I go to New York I would love to visit whats left of the craziest ballpark every.  If you like baseball, you need to read about Polo Grounds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo_Grounds


-Red Sox and Fenway are born today also.


-40th season of the DH.  A rule I love and hate.  I wish they would just choose one, either way I don't care.  Honestly I have equal pros and cons to both sides but maybe one day.  *Cross fingers*


-1912 Top hitter in baseball was Ty Cobb.  .409 BA.  Sick.


Speaking of Cobb interesting little story here:


1912:  To protest the indefinite suspension of teammate Ty Cobb for attacking a heckling fan, his Detroit Tiger teammates refused to play their next game. Rather than forfeit, the club cobbled together a makeshift lineup that included some fans. It lost 24-2 and Cobb was promptly reinstated.

HA!

One last fact, thanks to Jamey Newberg and his awesome email thing he has going.  (I would love to be able to do what he does for the brewers but I just need a media pass.....)

The Rangers pitchers minus the one "bug" inning by Darvish have a combined ERA of 1.25, 2.2 realistically.  Only the Pirates are better with a 1.5 (WTF?!?!?)  The Crew is second to last with 5.4 and last is the Red Sox with a terrible 6.95.  Granted they did open against the powerhouse of the Tigers.

I love stats.  And only a week in, you get some pretty weird numbers but hey, numbers don't lie!

Great games tonight with most teams completing the cycle of their starters.  Jack Johnson vs Halladay, Dumpster vs Yogo, Weaver vs Pavano, Cueto vs Garcia to name a few.

Great win for the Crew and Strangers last night.  The Rangers with a 1-0 quiet game with some sick pitching by Feliz and the Crew kicking ass again in the cold and windy city of Wrigleyville.  And shout out to K-Rods first save as a Brewer!

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet

Stupid commercial has been stuck in my head all weekend...

Great night of baseball last night.

Brewer game:  Best game of baseball played by the brewers this year.  We won the game fair and square.  Lots of small ball, good pitching and key hitting.  Every starter but Lucroy had a hit (minus Marcum).

I never thought I would say this but Francisco has pitched much better than Axford this year.  But I do believe Axford has no converted 50 saves in a row, continuing from last year, leading the MLB.  Another interesting fact the terrible ESPN commentators showed last night, Marcum has the best road ERA in the MLB last year at 2.18ish.  Also how the Brewers only had 6 starting pitchers all year (Estrada I do believe was the 6th when Grienke went out with his basketball injury).  Probably one of the largest factor on why the Brewers made it to the NL champ series, STAYING HEALTHY!

MIL 7 - CUBS 5

Ranger Game:  Completely different game.  Had the Brewer game on the main TV and started with the Ranger game on my phone, later switching to my PC but didn't see much of Yu's first inning but when you have 40 plus pitches to get 3 outs....its usually never good!  But of course the Ranger extreme power came to life and won and saved the game.  This team is strong, maybe even better than last year without CJ.  Don't get me wrong CJ is damn good, and last night has a solid line in his debut with the Angels but the addition of Yu, a contract year for Hammy and a few other major potential free agents, this year could be huge for the Strangers.  Some can argue that some of the Rangers ability to put of large numbers is because of their more than hitter friendly park, but I really believe a lot of it has to do with the line up, but when the wind is blowing in from right at the ballpark next to Jerry world, balls fly and fly far.

I woke up to a text and a ESPN alert on Kinslers extension.  5 years 75 million for a 2B is solid.  Last night he has a laser to left, almost identical to Cruz's rocket after the terrible terrible call at the plate to Hammy.  Not only did he beat the tag, he never tagged him!

Kinslers #'s
7 years in the Majors
32 HR last year
Career #'s

BA	OBP	SLG	OPS

.276

.356

.471

.827

I think Kinsler made out on this deal a little but I hope it pays off for the Rangers.  Rickie Weeks has comparable numbers to Kinsler and is in the middle of a 4 year 39 million deal but also Weeks has a nasty injury bug his first few years of major league ball.  If Weeks can stay healthy it will be interesting to see what the Crew offers him and how comparable it is to Kins.

And last thought, how awesome is it too have Yu's first game with the most famous, and in my mind one of the best baseball players ever, Ichiro together in the same game.  And Ichiro has Darvish's # all game, I think he went 3-4 against him.

TEX 11 - SEA 5

FYR

I have been allowed to post a Texas Ranger's blog on here, and I am going to give it the college effort.  So mostly I expect this will be a way I can complain about other team's fans, keep track of how many games I've been to this year (2 so far, not including tonight), and probably a miserable failure at trying to be slightly funny.

So far I am very happy with this team.  I am getting a feeling like it's a now or never year, which of course it always is.  But JD will pull some trades and signings out to ensure the safety of this team for the next few years in time.  But that's months away.

Last nights game was pretty great.  We got tickets through the organization, which is becoming increasingly rare, due to how cheap tickets are on stubhub.  There was a couple kids who were apparently  White Sox fans behind us wearing Cardinals caps that were a little obnoxious, but not too bad.  Josh came out to play, and showed it with both his bat and glove.  I believe this is only going to drive up his asking price, which Magic Johnson will only be too happy to sign him for.  Anything longer than 3 years is too long for a player who goes as hard as he does and is as fragile as he is.  It seems like its crunch time to get Leonys Martin up and ready to take over as the franchise's center fielder, at least for the next couple years.  The only thing with that is that I've been hearing he's having problems with some of the more elementary aspects of the game (base running and such).  That will come with time, but just how much is needed is the question.  There has been grumblings about trades, but it seems like people are just throwing out names like Adam Jones and Justin Morneau.

At any rate, I will post more on this subject as things develop.  It's time for me to head out to the temple and catch Yu's first game (not literally...not trying to step on Nap's toes, alright that was really dumb).  Can't wait.



FYR

Opening Weekend!

Friday:

Noonish, finally back at slims, a quick beer or two and a massive smile on my face.  Hop on the slimo, destination Braves 2.  There I encounter some more beer and 75 yards away stares the big green monster left outfield wall of Miller Park.  As time ticks closer to first pitch, I can't control my excitement and head in to the game before the other 5 guys in our group.  MVP, MVP, MVP  Lineups announced, players hit the field and a 6 year old saying words Ive been waiting for months to hear....PLAY BALL.

Quick start for the NL Champs, 2 quick runs, the crowd was in the game, and then the world series champs flexed their Pujolsless muscles.  As the game moves on, so does yogos ERA.  At one point I am sure I saw 32.25.  

Stayed to the bitter end, even after 7 scoreless innings by the Crew with a little razzle dazzle at the end.  Day one, in the books, thank god there are 161 to go.   

MIL 5 - STL 11

*Opening Day Seats*

Saturday

Perfect weather, nice small tailgate before the game and in to the game for the first time in our 10 game pack seats.  Much better game today, bats were on and Grienke was on his game.  Hart put on a nice show and T-Plush starting the game.  Fast game and pretty clean.  Only disappointment was both Gonzales and Ramirez were still hit less after 2 games. 

MIL 6 - STL 0

***Saturday 10 pack Seats***

Sunday:

Free tickets, sec 224 Row 2....nice way to finish the opening weekend sweep.  S-L-O-W game, Wolf had no control over his pitches, bats were ice cold and our defense was all but extinct.  Lynn had a great showing, great start for a former reliever.  Highlight of the game was between Harts monster HR and Aoki's first ML hit.  I like Lil Irchiro, he will be key once Hart hits is cold spell in a month or two.  But dont get me wrong, I love hart when he is hot.

MIL 3 - STL 9

***Sundays Seats***


Weekend wrapup

Pros:

Um Opening weekend, duh

Great to be back home, away from home away from home.

Hart, Grienke and Weeks 

Lots of Beer

Cons:

1-2, would have really liked to take the series.

Ugly defense all series

Ramirez, Gonzales, Yogo and Weeks (5ks)

Brewers Run Against was the second worst in baseball so far (Tigers have the least)

With being at the games all weekend, and all of the middle of the afternoon games, I didnt get to watch many of the other games.  I caught myself constantly checking the score of the DET-BOS series.  First great series to being with, all 3 games were very close and exciting and Prince stat watching.  Why I care how Fielder does, I'm not sure.  Maybe its because I don't have a lot of faith in Gamel even though he has a decent weekend.  The Rangers looked great Sunday night, what a blast by Hamilton.  

Brewers at Cubs tonight on ESPN and Darvish starting for the Rangers tonight.  Should be a good night for baseball!!!!

159 games left