Archive for December, 2009
Giants Hoping for 2010 Playoffs
The San Francisco Giants finished the 2009 season only four games out of the wild card spot with a record of 88-74, good enough for third place in the tough National League West. They had a sixteen win improvement in 2009, and think they can make it to the post-season in 2010.
In order to do that, they’ll need to add a couple of “booming” baseball bats to their lineup. They have a heavy-hitting, 22 year old catcher named Buster Posey just about to come up from AAA ball, but they really need a seasoned veteran to fill that spot now. With the fifth worst run production in the majors at 4.06 per game, one “hot bat” might just propel them into the playoffs…
2010 Move-up Year for Padres
The San Diego Padres finished the 2009 season in 4th place in the National League West with a record of 75-87. Not too great of a year, true but during the last ten weeks of the season, they went 37-25. That could be a fluke, or a sign of things to come. Being out of contention with not much pressure on them to win possibly helped their cause.
Looking to the future, the Padres have a solid third baseman in Kevin Kouzmanoff who not only has a hot bat, but is awfully good with his baseball glove. In 1,187 innings, he only made three errors! It doesn’t take too many players of that caliber to build a team than can contend for quite a few years into the future.
2010 Could be Pivotal for Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals added veteran players to their roster during the ’09 season, and finished first in the National League Central with a record of 91-71, only to go three and out to the Dodgers in the playoffs. Could the “ageing” team have run out of gas at the end of the year? With the solid fan base that they have, (six seasons in a row with attendance over 3-million) they’ll quickly want to add some youth to keep the fans coming.
No doubt the Cardinals are a good team and will want to lock up MVP Albert Pujols well beyond the 2011 season, but they could lose Matt Holliday and his productive baseball bat because of money issues. If that happens, other teams could pitch around Pujols-thus weakening his bat. They need solid, younger “protection” in the lineup to go with what they already have; a delicate balancing act for sure…
2010 Pirates Won’t be Contenders
The Pittsburgh Pirates have been going through a rough spell for the past 17-years. That’s how long they’ve sported a losing record, the longest in major sports in North America- and still counting. In 2009, the struggling Pirates finished in last place in the NL Central with a record of 62-99; second worst in baseball.
Pittsburgh did pick up a good player in Akinori Iwamura from the Tampa Bay Rays and are attempting to put a young-winning team together, but it looks like that still may be two or three years away. They do have some money for other trades, (a hot baseball bat or two would be nice) but they really need to develop a good core group of players to build on. If that doesn’t happen soon, newly acquired Iwamura can teach general manager Neal Huntington the meaning of the word “sayonara…”
A Baseball Shutout to Remember
The year was 1975; the date was September 16th; the place was Wrigley Field; and the “attackers” were the Pittsburgh Pirates-a savage bunch to say the least. They showed no mercy as they pounded pitcher Rick Reuschel, and the rest of the sorry group known as the Chicago Cubs. The witnesses (fans) were hardly settled in their seats when the brutal attack began. Reuschel was pummeled for eight runs and sent to the showers in only 1/3 of an inning.
Things got worse from there as the Pirates used baseball bats as their weapons of choice. Every single Pirate in the starting lineup got at least one hit and scored at least one run. When the smoke had cleared, the battered Cubs surrendered 22 runs on 24 hits while only managing 3-hits and no runs. Their feeble attack hardly made a dent in the Pirates armor. A day that will live in Cubs baseball infamy…
Softball at a Church Picnic
Several years ago, after becoming members at a local church near our home, we attended a church picnic. Soon after eating hotdogs, hamburgers and potato salad, we started up a softball game. We had men, women, boys and girls all playing along with our pastor as pitcher. Being new to the church, nobody really knew too much about us. I had played quite a bit of baseball when I was younger, and although I am “short” (only 5’4” tall) I was in pretty good shape for my 32-years.
The church had a pretty good “stash” of softball gloves, so I was able to use one of those. When it was my turn to come up to bat, the people playing in the outfield “moved in.” I just kind of smiled as the pastor lobbed the softball. I took a swing and BAM; hit the ball about 50 feet past the center fielder for a homerun! The pastor just looked at me and said; “where is it written that the little guy hits the ball the farthest?!” Sometimes, size doesn’t matter…
A Baseball Glove for Christmas
One year when I was a kid, I received a new youth baseball glove for Christmas. I still remember how good the leather smelled and how much fun I had breaking it in. The only bad part was the wait for the weather to get warm enough to actually play with it. The three-month wait seemed like almost “forever.”
There was another Gift that took a long-long time to come. It was foretold by Isaiah the Prophet in the Bible in Isaiah 9:6 and goes like this:
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Pease.” God sent His Son on the very first Christmas as a gift to all of us. Merry Christmas to all, and happy birthday Jesus…
Christmas Eve and Spring Training
For most kids, not much beats the excitement of the anticipation of Christmas Eve. For those of us who are baseball fans, young and old alike, we are also looking forward to spring training just six weeks in the future. Six cold, gray, snowy, ice crusted weeks, unless you happen to live in the “sunbelt” like we do.
After growing up in the Chicago area, where you didn’t go outside to play with your new gifts unless you got a sled, skis, or ice-skates, living in Florida is a whole different ballgame. Usually on Christmas afternoon, you will hear and see kids out playing with their new bicycles, roller blades, dolls, or playing catch with a new baseball glove. You also might smell a hamburger on a hot grill and see people going to the beach. Although the sky is blue and the grass is green, there might be a “chill” in the air with a high temperature only in the 60’s or lower 70’s. But, spring training is only six-weeks away…
Playing “500″ With the Gang
When we were kids on a warm summer day, and wanted to play baseball, but could only muster five or six kids, we would start a game of “500.” We would choose one kid to bat, and all the rest of us would go into the field with out baseball gloves. The batter would toss the ball into the air then smack it with the bat.
The rules were; if you caught a ground ball with three or more bounces on it, you would get 25-points. A grounder with only two bounces was worth 50-points. A one bounce ground ball was 75-points, and a fly ball was 100-points. Now if you missed any one of those, you had to deduct that amount of points from your score. The first kid to reach 500-points would get to go in and bat. This game taught a lot of us kids to be better fielders because all the other kids would be pushing and shoving you when you were trying to catch a ball. In a way, that kind of prepared us for life in the adult business world…
Playing Catch by Myself
When I was about nine or ten years old growing up in the Chicago area, I was already in love with baseball. My friends from the neighborhood and I would play catch, or if we had enough kids, start up a baseball game. Sometimes, I couldn’t find anybody to play with, but I wouldn’t let that stop me.
We lived in a brick duplex with a long, two-step high cement porch with the brick wall behind it. (The windows were off to the side, so no problem there.) I had found a two-inch in diameter, black rubber super ball, which would bounce back like crazy when you threw it at the wall! If you hit the edge of the step, the ball would shoot back like somebody hit it with a baseball bat. I had markers set up for what was a single, double, triple, and home run. Then, all I had to do was to pick whatever team would be playing the Cubs. In my game, the Cubs would almost always win. (As anyone can plainly see, I was somewhat delusional in my youth.) At any rate, I was having fun “playing baseball”…