Tag: MLB

Categories
New York Mets

Fat guy tumbles down stairs at Shea, crushes lady


Anybody who has ever been to a baseball game knows that fans are required to be active and aware at all times. You never know when a foul ball or even a bat could come flying into the stands. And you might want to even keep an eye on those crafty vendors who will try to sell you last week’s unsold hot dogs. But, the last thing any dedicated fan could possibly be prepared for would be a 300-pound monster of a man to come tumbling down the bleachers and blindside you while you enjoyed an ice cold brewski. Well, now you’ve been warned because that is exactly what happened to Ellen Massey during the Mets home opener on Monday.

I only know he came flying,” Massey, 58, said Wednesday from her bed in Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. “I was literally not able to breathe for about half-a-minute or so. The first thing I was aware of was not being able to breathe, and then when I was able to breathe I was aware of the pain in my lower back.

Luckily, Massey is a lawyer, so she’ll probably sue his fat ass if she ever finds him. The human cannonball got up and left the scene quicker than Michael Waltrip after he wrapped his ride around a telephone pole.

Massey is scheduled to have surgery on her back as a result of the incident and admits that she would have never expected anything like this to happen at her beloved Shea Stadium.

I have to say that in going to a baseball park, the only fear that has ever entered my mind is that I’d get hit by a hard ball,” she said.

“I didn’t expect a 300-pound human missile to hit me in the back. That doesn’t come up on my list of fears.

We’re wondering if it could have been this guy as he was taking a day off from his training to enjoy America’s pastime.

Links:

[NewsDay.com]: 300-pound man crushes fan at Shea

Categories
Boston Red Sox

Next thing you know, Budweiser will sponsor the basepads


Budweiser is launching their new Red Sox bottles today for the Boston home opener with the Red Sox logo is prominently displayed on new aluminum bottles of Budweiser and Bud Light. About 75,000 to 100,000 cases of the bottles are expected to be sold.

Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Bud, is the official beer of Major League Baseball so they get to do almost anything they want even though MLB has strict standards for alcohol advertising. For example, players are not allowed to do sponsorship deals with beer companies. If the players association was smart, they’d look into repealing this rule as Dice-K already has a beer commercial for Asahi and it features the Red Sox logo in the ad.

Sam Kennedy, SVP of Sales and Marketing for the Red Sox, said that the promotion didn’t cross any lines: “What would be unacceptable would be any targeted advertising that is in an environment where there is a larger percentage of kids [than adults].” Sure. The Red Sox can do whatever they want to make money but let’s not pretend that beer advertisement isn’t also targeted towards teenagers. This isn’t nearly as bad as alcohol ads on Nascar vehicles but let’s just own up and call it a cash grab, ok?

Links:
[Boston Herald]: Bud’s latest pitch: Brewed for buffs

Categories
MLB General

2007 MLB Payrolls


[ 2008 Payrolls are here ]

Another year, another summer of Yankees vs Red Sox in the accounting ledger. Once again, these two teams top Major League Baseball payroll rankings. The Yankees actually dropped a few million in payroll while the Red Sox added a staggering $23M to catch up to the Bronx Bombers. ($195.2 vs $143.5) For perspective, the entire Devil Rays payroll is only $24M this year. Next time any Red Sox fans start talking about the Yankees being the Evil Empire, tell them Boston is just Evil Empire North.

Outside of the Red Sox, the Orioles added the most in payroll this year with an additional $22.5M. Their $95M 2007 payroll puts the Orioles at #10 on the list. Total payroll for baseball is $2.5B with the top 10 teams accounting for nearly half of that number. The Nationals are expected to be the worst team in the majors this year and they trimmed a cool $23M off their payroll from 2006. They still are above the Devil Rays and Marlins though, the perennial K-marts of MLB.

The entire 2007 MLB payrolls after the jump.

Continue reading “2007 MLB Payrolls”

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Why isn’t there more coverage of Dice-K?


1. Dice-K’s Debut: In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past day, you would have likely heard how Daisuke Matsuzaka dominated in his debut. On a slow day for baseball, his dominant performance of the hopeless Royals was easily the most important occurrence. Dice-K struck out seven different Royals for a total of 10 K’s, just giving up a solo homerun to David DeJesus in the Red Sox’s 4-1 win. Jonathan Papelbon appeared in his first game of the year and was perfect for the save. The Royals wasted a good pitching performance of their own by Zack Greinke, who had one earned run and will be a breakout performer this season.

2. Piazza comes through: Oakland lost Frank Thomas in the offseason but was able to fill their DH role with Mike Piazza. It seemed like a good idea for the team and the former catcher, and it paid off last night. With the Angels-A’s game tied 3-3 in the ninth, Piazza hit a solo, game-winning shot off All-Star closer Francisco Rodriguez. The homer was Piazza’s first of the season and gave the Angels their first loss of the year. His 3-5 performance lifted his broke him out of a 1-12 slump to start the season.

3. Six times the payroll, still a loss: The New York Yankees’ $185 million payroll dwarfs the $24 million of the Devil Rays. Still, the D-Rays managed to expose the Yanks’ biggest weakness–the bullpen. The registered six hits and three runs off Yankees relievers including the game-winner in the eighth off a wild pitch. Veteran reliever Al Reyes provided the save for Tampa, who is looking for any productivity out of their closer position.

Player of the Day: Mike Piazza, A’s: 3-5 with the game-winning HR to beat the Angels 4-3.

Walk Off: Though Dice-K’s debut was impressive, don’t get too excited about him yet. His first major league start came against the Royals, who have one of the worst lineups in baseball. Also, none of them had ever played against him before, which obviously made it harder to adjust to Matsuzaka’s unique array of pitches. I think he’ll be a solid pitcher, just not a Cy Young-worthy one.

Categories
Chicago Cubs

What would Harry Caray think?


For those of you who are fortunate enough (or possibly cursed) to watch the Cubbies play ball every year at Wrigley Field, buying beer just got a whole lot easier thanks to a new website that allows you to learn more about the lucky vendors who get to watch you get drunk and stuff your face with hot dogs.

BeerVendors.com has the pics and bios of all the beer dispensing men and women who call Wrigley home for a few hours each week. Just imagine it, no more embarrassing moments spent screaming, “Hey! Beer dude, over here,” in vain. Now, you can simply yell for your favorite vendor by their nickname to get their undivided attention.

For example, the next time 37 year veteran Don Gerstein is working your section just holler out, “Yo, Slappy! Two Buds.” Now doesn’t that sound like a much more pleasurable game atmosphere?

Links:

[MySA.com]: Click and Scroll: Guys, girls who make the confines a little friendlier

Categories
Cincinnati Reds

Cincinnati mayor has Rick Vaughn syndrome

This wasn’t the first time this has ever happened, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it is always funny to see someone throw like a little girl.

The Reds brought Mayor Mark Mallory to the field on opening to do to toss out the ceremonial opening pitch of the season but nobody realized that the mayor had a wet noodle for an arm. Eric Davis had to walk nearly to the dugout to retrieve the ball.

This morning, Mallory referenced the pitch during an interview with a local TV station by saying, “There’s no excuse. It was a terrible throw, a terrible throw.”

Unlike most politicians, at least Mallory can take credit for his shortcomings.

Links:

[Cincinnati.com]: Strong Mayor, Weak Arm

Categories
MLB General

Hope Springs Eternal aka Opening Day

Ahhhh opening day, when even Cubs and Royals fans have hope for the upcoming season.  Well, in the case of the Royals, it might be delusion.  Then again, nobody thought the Tigers had much of a shot last year either.  

The Mets officially kicked it out yesterday by beating the Cards but today is the real opening day for the rest of baseball.  Here is a rundown of the 2007 MLB Predictions and Previews from major sports sites and around the blogosphere:

ESPN: 2007 Predicted Standings / Expert Picks

Fox Sports: MLB Predictions for 2007 / Team Previews

CBS Sportsline:  Expert Picks

TSN: 2007 MLB Preview

WBRS Sports:
And Finally the Long Awaited, Unsanctioned WBRS Baseball Preview

Vigilante Sports: Major League Baseball 2007 Preview and Predictions

phsports: 2007 MLB Preview: Part III of III [Predictions]

Thunder Matt’s Saloon: Baseball Preview

The House That Dewey Built: We Predictiate the 2007 Season! And Opening Day thoughts

And if that’s still not enough for you, here are more previews than you can shake a stick at.

Categories
MLB General

Baseball gets juiced


If America’s pastime just isn’t cutting it for you anymore, you should take a look at the latest craze destined to flop all across the nation. And if you thought that the XFL was whack, just wait til you get a load of the NXBL or National Extreme Baseball League.

From what we can tell, it’s basically like having both sides playing at the same time. There are two diamonds, two batters boxes, two pitching mounds and both teams have their traditional fielding positions out on the grass. Pitchers alternate pitches and the fielders only field when their pitcher has thrown to the opposing batter.

This “revolutionary” sport was created in 2006 but the league’s official inaugural season will be in 2008 and we’re sure that the American public is eagerly anticipating the first pitch. And in case you were wondering about the legitimacy of the league, here’s the NXBL’s mission statement.

To serve the public with passion as a quality example of excellence on the field, in the office, and within the community by consistently exceeding our customers’ expectations by demonstrating the highest character, appreciation and respect for our game, customers, teammates and partners as an economical and visionary organization providing a totally unique entertainment experience.

Hey, at least they are pretending that this is an actual sport.

Links:

[N-XBL.com]: National Extreme Baseball League

Categories
MLB General

Selig slithers, sarcastic Stern supports


Bud Selig just doesn’t get it. Or he gets it but thinks we’re so stupid that we’ll just accept whatever he says. At a panel discussion sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Selig defended the DirecTV deal.


I agonized over” the decision to go with DirecTV, Selig said. “Obviously our objective is to get our product in front of as many people as possible. … But the number of people who can’t get DirecTV is very, very small.

Yes, only about 5,000 current subscribers will not have access to DirecTV, but of the 230,000 cable customers, how many will want to toss out their entire setup which might include cable specific DVR equipment and install a dish on their roofs just to follow their favorite team?

Now we firmly believe in capitalism and free enterprise but let’s call a spade a spade. This is a move driven solely by dollars and cents. The fact that Bud Selig is trying to sell it like he “agonized” over whether to take the money and run is a slap in the face to all smart consumers. We would respect Bud more if he just said, “DirecTV offered us a deal we couldn’t refuse. We hope the great fans will switch to DirecTV but for those who cannot do so, we still have MLBTV on the internet.”

At the same panel, NBA commish David Stern said that having Congress look into the deal between MLB and DirecTV was ridiculous.

As a taxpayer, I think the most important thing the Senate should be doing is holding hearings on Bud’s DirecTV package. I don’t care about health care or … the war in Iraq.

We have to agree with David Stern (aka The Biggest Badass Commish in History) here. It’s not as much of a time waster as renaming french fries to “freedom fries” but they really should have more things to do. How is it that Stern can step into a PR fiasco for Bud Selig and sound smart?

Links:
[AZ Central]: Selig defends DirecTV deal, gets support from NBA’s Stern

Categories
St. Louis Cardinals

McGwire’s statue is collecting dust

Back in 1998, Mark McGwire was on top of the world. His newly discovered rippling muscles were smashing balls out of every park in the nation and by the end of the season he had surpassed Roger Maris’ single season record that had stood for nearly 40 years. It was obvious what was going on then but nobody wanted to taint the historic chase for glory.

Now, the Cardinals are left holding the pieces from a steroid scandal that has put McGwire’s legacy in jeopardy. Actually, the Cardinals are left holding a bronze, three-quarters life-sized statue of Big Mac following through on one of those 500 footers. Currently the statue is being held from public view in a Missouri warehouse.

There is room for the statue outside Busch Stadium where other franchise greats now reside but Cardinals president Mark Lamping says that McGwire’s statue can’t join the others until he gets elected into the hall of fame.

It really isn’t something we need to even worry about at this point because his number is not retired,” Lamping said. “If you look at the past and use that as your guide, retiring a jersey would be the guide.

Well, if that’s the criteria then you might as well start melting that bad boy down and make some company Christmas gifts with it because McGwire pretty much locked himself out of the Hall after he made a fool of himself in front of the House Government Reform Committee.

But, hey, “We’re not here to talk about the past…”

Links:

[STLToday.com]: McGwire sculpture remains under wraps