Instant replay is on its way
Thursday was a momentous day in the history of Major League Baseball. After years of saying it would never happen, baseball, the most traditional of all North American sports, finally agreed to the use of instant replays to help officiate games. It was a day that somehow seemed inevitable, even though baseball has generally resisted radical change in the past. Continue reading
Money talks
CC Sabathia’s stunning form since joining the Brewers has had many people speculating on how much money one team will have to spend to secure his services as a free agent over the upcoming offseason. While the figures pale in comparison to the bounty coming CC’s way, several teams have been dipping into their pockets this week and parting with substantial sums for potential stars of the future. Continue reading
The Pirates’ near-perfect new pitcher
Of all the players who were traded in recent weeks, a cast including CC Sabathia, Rich Harden, Mark Teixeira, Ken Griffey Jr and Manny Ramirez, you wouldn’t have expected a pitcher acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates to be stealing the headlines. Jeff Karstens is making Pirates GM Neal Huntington look pretty clever at the moment. Continue reading
Watch out for the brooms
With a 162 game regular season, teams quickly learn not to dwell on individual results. A poor performance can be put right the following day, so long as the bad memories are banished before the next game starts. Similarly, a team that revels in a win for too long can be undone by their own complacency. ‘Keep an even keel’ is the motto Major Leaguers live by.Â
Sweeps, however, aren’t quite so easy to forget; particularly four-game sweeps involving the top two teams in a division race. There’s no doubt that when waking up this past Friday, you would have preferred to have been a Cub rather than a Brewer. Continue reading
Will I stay or will I go? Don’t ask me!
Rumours are swirling, e-mails are pinging into Inboxes and the phone lines are jammed. The thirty Major League GM’s are weighing up their options with the trading deadline, 21.00 BST this coming Thursday (31st), looming large. Fans are looking on helplessly hoping that the GM of their favoured team makes a splash. Many of the players involved are looking on helplessly as well. Continue reading
All Star Rules (not) OK
As yet another extra inning came to an end, bleary-eyed British fans watching this week’s All Star game would have been forgiven for wanting the pulsating contest to draw to a close. When Michael Young’s sacrifice fly finally won the game for the American League after five hours and forty minutes, closing in on seven in the morning UK time, plenty of Major League managers and general managers would have been sighing with relief as well.  Continue reading
Are you feeling lucky?
Professional sportsmen are generally terrible at watching the game they play. Position players in baseball are used to taking the field virtually every day once the season begins, so coping with the frustration of kicking their heels on the sidelines can’t be easy. As such, this past week must have been a nightmare for Johnny Damon. Continue reading
Bernadina in the Big Leagues
Last Sunday was another memorable day in the history of Dutch baseball. Roger Bernadina made his Major League debut for the Washington Nationals, becoming just the sixth player to make his way from the Netherlands Hoofdklasse to the pinnacle of the sport. The feat was celebrated by his countrymen, such as baseball writer Pim van Nes, but the rest of Europe can also take heart from this achievement, including the Great Britain national team. Continue reading
All good things must come to an end
The Twins’ ten-game winning streak came to an end last night as Manny Parra and the Brewers defeated them 5-1. While logic tells you that the run was always going to be halted at some stage, the confidence that developed in the Minnesota clubhouse must have made them think otherwise.Â
Winning is contagious. It’s an old sporting cliché, but like most sporting clichés it contains a large element of truth. All sportsmen need to be confident to play at their best and in baseball, more than most sports, the strong performances of one or two players can lift the games of everyone else around them.   Continue reading
A change is as good as a win?
It’s not been a good week to be a Major League manager. The Mets, Mariners and Blue Jays have all been wielding the axe, leaving the remaining twenty-seven managers looking over their shoulders and wondering ‘who’s next’? Continue reading