It promises to be a fascinating week in MLB, with five of the division leaders facing their second-placed rivals. Cleveland are the exception, but they have to play the Twins who would make the AL Central a true three-way battle with a series sweep.
The laws of the universe dictate that some people will have a good week, and some will have a bad one. Here’s a review of this week’s winners and losers.
The good news first – Wednesday was a big day for Dave Trembley. After twenty years in the Minor Leagues, he finally became a Big League manager on a full-time basis. The Orioles announced that the “interim†part of his title could be thrown away as Trembley received a contract to manage the Orioles for the 2008 season, with an option for 2009. You will remember that Joe Giradi was initially offered the job virtually days after previous manager Sam Perlozzo was shown the door at the end of June. Giradi turned it down and maybe that will be a blessing in disguise for the Orioles. It has certainly been a big break for Trembley, but few would deny him his chance. He made a favourable impression during his two-month period as interim manager and he has certainly earned his shot.
There’s a great little video clip on MLB.com at the moment about a Little League based in Horsham, Sussex. It’s heartening to see a group of British youngsters enjoying themselves playing baseball. The founder of the league, Rob Burnie, was probably right when he said that when it comes to the most popular sports over here, baseball isn’t even in the top ten. You’ve got to start somewhere though.
I stumbled across the clip by accident and it’s well worth watching. There doesn’t appear to be an easy way to directly link it though. If you click on “Multimedia guide” under the “Audio and Video” heading, you will find the link (“Little Britainâ€) near the bottom of the page.
There’s an article on MLB.com today all about MLB.TV, marking the five-year anniversary of the introduction of the service.
It’s a week of quality rather than quantity for British baseball fans. Here’s your guide to the games you can watch/listen to via MLB.com live during the evening this week. All times listed as BST.
The division races are really starting to heat up. It’s tight at the top of the AL Central and West divisions , and the Yankees are making a run at the East. In the Senior circuit, both the Mets and the D-Backs have opened up what could be decisive gaps, while the Cubs have finally overtaken the Brewers. There’s lots to look forward to over the rest of the season, but there’s also been a lot to look back on from the past week.
Those of you lucky enough to be paying out for Sky Sports and Setanta have a whole host of uninspiring football matches to watch during the evening this week (Peterborough versus Southampton is on that moment, for example!). Those of you with an MLB.TV subscription can watch some great baseball games instead. All times are in BST.
On the weekend that the 2007-08 football season has begun, it’s comforting to know that we’ve still got the best part of three more months of baseball to serve as a distraction. Not that I’m anti-football, far from it, but a combination of the relentlessly over-hyped Premiership and the likelihood that it will be another season of disappointment for Norwich (although like all fans, I’m naively optimistic) makes me glad to have America’s national past time to drift away to. As always, there’s been plenty to capture the imagination in MLB this past week.
Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. Home run number 756 has cracked off the bat, flown into the seats and landed in a New Yorker’s bank account.
There’s an article on the BBC website today about Barry Bonds’ home run record chase, although this one’s not categorised under the Sports heading. No, the story is logged in the Business section as it is about the potential value of the 756th baseball that Bonds puts into the seats. The most interesting point they make is the difference in value between Mark McGwire’s single season record-breaking ball ($3m) and Bonds’ ($450,000). Perhaps that’s a reflection on the popularity of the two players at the time or maybe Bonds’ shot meant less because there was a comparatively short amount of time between the two? One thing I do know: there’s going to be a vicious scrap for the ball when it lands. Let’s hope no one gets hurt. The story can be found here.