Spring training may be a laid-back affair for the most part, but there are always a few battles for roster positions that bring a bit of tension to the proceedings.
Keeping your options open
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Monthly Archives: March 2007
How to make a bad impression at your new workplace
The drugs issue will not go away, kept in the spotlight by Bonds’ chase for 755 and the odd new “shock” story. The recent New York State investigation into steroids has caught a few baseball players in its web, not least Gary Matthews Jr. ESPN today makes reference to a New York Times story that reveals how the Angels are frustrated because Matthews is keeping quiet. The story quotes Angels spokesman Tim Mead as saying “We want as much information as Gary can provide, but he can’t or won’t tell us anything,”.
Matsuzaka pitched, apparently!
Matsuzaka-mania is off and running after he made his first unofficial pitching appearance last night. I thought I would point this out in case you hadn’t heard already.
The headline on MLB.com worries me a little, boldly stating that “Matsuzaka dominates BC in Sox debut”.  It bothers me because the BC they refer to are Boston College. I’m sure this Boston College team contained a number of good young athletes and I don’t mean any disrespect, but wouldn’t any reasonable person expect Matsuzaka to dominate them? Why is that the big story they are going with surrounding his first appearance?
I’m excited like everyone else at the prospect of seeing Matsuzaka pitch in the Majors. I don’t support the Red Sox but I would love to see him have a great rookie season (except for his starts against the A’s of course).  By all accounts he’s a big talent and it’s a neat story for the Media to write about this Japanese star coming over to take on America, but give him a break.
The way some people are building him up, he’s going to have to get fifteen strikeouts (or more) and a win every time he pitches to avoid being a disappointment. That’s completely unfair on the guy. By all means get excited about him, but give him the chance to be great rather than burden him with the expectation of being super-human.
Maybe I’m being overly sensitive. It’s standard British practice to build people up just so you can knock them back down again. Hopefully that’s not the case with the treatment of Matsuzaka and it’s just people getting wrapped-up in the story.
One Year Anniversary
A year ago today I published my first post on this blog. Often when you read an anniversary post/article it will contain a list of great achievements: vast hit counts and countless examples of their writings being lauded by the great and good.
Not so here!!!
Like every other man and his dog (and the most popular Norfolk blogger is a dog, that’s kind of how our fine county is!), I thought it would be fun to carve out my own space on the Internet. A humble, modest little place where I could write about baseball. Nothing more, nothing less. I certainly didn’t start this venture with grand ideas of large hit counts or propelling myself to “baseball guru†status.
A single hit means one person, somewhere in the world, has taken the time to read what I have written (unless they’ve stumbled here by accident and immediately left – which isn’t unlikely, to be fair). That’s more than enough of a reward for me.
The writing alone is very enjoyable. I’ve always been the writing sort and I had been itching to write about baseball for a while. The sheer devotion of baseball fans to the sport and the outstanding level of baseball writing was both stimulating and a bit intimidating. I was well aware that baseball is a vast ocean and it was only back in 1998 that I first started getting my feet wet, but last winter I felt that it was time to throw away the rubber ring!
I’m not an authority on the sport and I don’t claim to be, but heading into my tenth season I feel confident to state an opinion on most matters and not feel out of my depth (that’s not a cue to test me, please note!). There’s still plenty to learn, yet the beauty of baseball is that even an eighty year veteran could probably say the same thing. And my Britishness has been declared loud and clear, so any clangers can merrily be put down to naivety rather than stupidity. Please feel free to correct me if and when needed!
The Grand Idea
The concept behind this blog, as suggested by the name, is simply to write about baseball from a British perspective.
Being a baseball fan in Blighty can be a bit of a solitary existence, but there is a decent community of like-minded souls thanks in great part to Five’s peerless baseball coverage. This is complimented by a British baseball internet presence for us converts to the sport, lead by the Baseballfan.co.uk website and forum, and the Fantasy Baseball UK website among others. I would like to think this blog could form an additional part of it.
Most British baseball fans have to put up with a fair amount of grief for their love of the sport and I’m sure many have tried to convince friends and family to give it a look before judging it; knowing that if they do they will probably become hooked as well. As mentioned above, baseball can be a bit intimidating to the newcomer so another motivation behind this blog is to make baseball more accessible to British sports fans by discussing it in terms they are familiar with and by explaining things through comparing/relating them to British sporting equivalents.
As an offshoot, the blog (or, more realistically, the occasional post) may provide an entertaining alternative viewpoint for Americans and other baseball fans around the world.
That’s the general idea anyway!
Thanks to every one who has taken a look at this blog during its first year. There’s been a noticeable increase in visitors over the last couple of months (partly due to my increased posting rate I guess!) and I’m delighted to see a few people posting comments as well.
Here’s to year two and beyond.
More North American sport coming our way
When it comes to North American sports, I’m pretty much a straight ahead baseball fan. I don’t mind watching some NFL action occasionally and I’ve been known to catch a NHL game on Five every once in a while, but baseball is the only sport from across the pond that really captures my imagination.
For those of you who do like other North American sports, there is plenty to be excited about in 2007 though. The NFL announced in the week leading up to the Superbowl that Wembley would host a regular season game between the Dolphins and the Giants later this year. That promises to be an amazing event (as Zara Phillips would say).
If that wasn’t enough, the NHL has confirmed today that their 2007-08 season will kick-off in “merry old England”. The Anaheim Ducks will face the L.A. Kings in two regular season games at the O2 Arena, formerly known as the Millennium Dome. This has been brought about by the owners of the O2 Arena who happen to be the parent company of the Kings. It’s exciting news that, like the NFL, the NHL are not just staging an exhibition match over here but are actually giving British fans a taste of the real competitive action.
As I quickly scoured for British reaction to this news, I came across a report on the BBC website that also casually mentions that the O2 Arena will be staging a pre-season NBA game between the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves. I missed the initial announcement of this news, largely because I’ve never been much of a basketball fan. It just seems too easy to score points to me, something I struggle with having been brought up on 0-0 football matches and five day Cricket Tests that end in a draw. Still, I know there are lots of people who enjoy playing basketball over here so they will be happy.
All of this is fantastic news for British fans of North American sports, but it does make me wish even more that MLB could play a game or two over here. The trouble is, baseball is a more difficult sport to stage. You can mark out an NFL pitch on a decent sized football/rugby pitch, and many arenas can be converted to stage ice hockey and/or basketball games, but a baseball diamond and outfield is a bit more specialist. The timing would be difficult as well. I don’t see the groundskeeper at the Oval being too keen on some Yanks digging up his pristine turf in March!
There may also be a few political obstacles in staging a baseball game in London as it would bring the International Olympics Committee’s decision to scrap baseball from the 2012 Olympics back under the microscope again. That wouldn’t be a bad thing in my view of course (and MLB’s no doubt) but London needs to keep the IOC on-side in their attempts to make sure the Olympics is not a complete financial disaster (“we should have let the bloody French win the bid” is my Dad’s opinion every time another billion gets added on to the projected bill!).
I hope the NFL, NHL and NBA games are all a big success as that will only increase the possibility of a Major League Baseball game being played here one day. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that the fact that these events are taking place in the two biggest examples of our “waste of money” uselessness isn’t a bad omen!