Korea made sure that the 2008 Olympic Baseball tournament got off to a memorable start, defeating the United States 8-7 in a thrilling contest, while there were also opening day wins for Cuba, Chinese Taipei and Canada.
Just a quick one… With Tim Wakefield, the scheduled starter for the Red Sox, going on the 15-day disabled list, fellow knuckleball pitcher Charlie Zink is making his first Major League appearance after being promoted from Triple-A Pawtucket. The Red Sox, who are taking on the Rangers, were kind enough to put on 10 runs for Zink in the 1st inning (including six off the bat of David Ortiz from two 3-run homers). I just wish that all knuckleballers were welcomed to the big leagues in this way.
As I write this, I am following David Ortiz’s third at-bat (on Gameday). As in his first two, JD Drew and Dustin Pedroia are on base. He couldn’t possibly make it three 3-run homers could he? Alas no. He’s just grounded out to second.
Of course, if the Rangers come back to win this one while I’m sleeping, I guess I’ll need to change the title of this post.
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BOS 10 0 2 0 2 0 1 4 X 19 17 2
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The 2008 Baseball Olympic tournament is about to begin. At 03.30 BST, Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands will take to the Wukesong Baseball field for the first of thirty-two games to be staged over the next week and a half. It is a crucial period for the sport’s international future, following the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to remove baseball (and softball) from the Olympics after this year’s event. Baseball fans want to see the sport back in the Olympics for the 2016 Games (four years too late for us Brits, mind you) and a high-quality event this year certainly won’t hurt the chances of this becoming reality. Continue reading
There are nine early games to enjoy live during the British evening this working week. What’s more, they include starts by Pedro Martinez and Roy Halladay. All times are listed in BST.
Monday 11 August – A couple of early games from the National League to start the week off on a good note. First off at 18.10 it’s the Pirates against the Mets with Zach Duke and Pedro Martinez listed as the probable starters. Just under an hour later (19.05), the Nationals begin their game in Milwaukee against the Brewers. Garrett Mock should make his third Major League start for the Nats, hoping to earn his first Major League win. For the Brew Crew, Dave Bush looks for career win number 41.
Tuesday 12 August – No early games today, but plenty of good match-ups later on. Rich Harden starts for the Cubs against the Braves at midnight, while five minutes later Jeff Karstens tries to make it three quality starts in a row for the Pirates as they face Edinson Volquez and the Reds. Johan Santana will try to make short work of the Nationals from 00.10. There’s a great pitching match-up in prospect from Minute Maid Park at 01.05 as Tim Lincecum and Roy Oswalt square-off, and Cole Hamels versus Clayton Kershaw (03.10) should be worth watching as well.
Wednesday 13 August – There’s one early game today and it’s being played at the Metrodome. The Yankees are in Minnesota and their game against the Twins is set to start at 18.10. Ian Kennedy was originally scheduled to pitch in this game, but following his demotion back down to Triple-A yesterday the plan will have to be revised. Darrell Rasner looks the most likely choice to make the start in Kennedy’s place. Kevin Slowey should be on the mound for the Twins.
Thursday 14 August – Six early games to enjoy today. We start at 18.05 in Detroit as the Blue Jays face the Tigers, with Roy Halladay scheduled to start for Toronto. One hour later and two more games begin: the Royals against the White Sox, and the Giants versus the Astros. At 20.05, it’s a clash from the NL Central as the D-Backs take on the Rockies. Doug Davis and Aaron Cook are the probable pitchers for that one. The final two early games are both set for a 20.35 start. Greg Maddux is looking for his fourth win in a row as the Padres face the Brewers at PETCO Park, while James Shields looks to improve his record to 11-7 as the Rays take on a slumping Oakland team.
Friday 15 August – No early games to end the working week.
The Wednesday night game on Five begins at 01.35, while NASN’s MLB schedule for the week can be found here.Â
For the second week in a row, the St Louis Cardinals get an outing on Five. After losing 5-4 to the Phillies last Sunday, the Cards will be hoping for a more favourable result against their NL Central rivals tonight. Five’s coverage begins at 00.35, allowing Jonny and Josh half an hour to discuss the latest MLB news and to preview the game before first pitch at 01.05.Â
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
At the end of my previous post, I raised the possibility that the ‘Freeview’ games might be available on the BBC website. If you go to the BBC Sport page you will see that there are six different video options at any one time. So it looks fairly certain that those three games (one baseball, two softball) will be available at the same time as they are being broadcast on Freeview. Note though that BBC videos are restricted to access by British residents only.
BaseballSoftballUK has helpfully put together some details about the (almost non-existent) coverage on British TV of baseball and softball from the Olympic Games. I’ve been able to uncover a few more details on the BBC website and have listed the full schedule below. Of course, all of this is subject to change based on the whims of the TV schedulers.Â
As stated by BSUK, none of the games are being shown on terrestrial TV. You will need to be able to access additional digital content via the red button through a Freeview box or Sky/Cable to catch any Olympic baseball or softball.  It doesn’t look like any baseball or softball will be shown on Eurosport. Continue reading
Just in case you were unaware of the fact, Josh Chetwynd’s book on the history of baseball in Europe has recently been published. Known to all British baseball fans as the co-host on Five’s tremendous MLB coverage, Josh’s first book focusing on the history of baseball in Britain is essential reading (as noted in my review).  If the amount of research, level of insight and quality of writing seen in British Baseball and the West Ham Club is matched in Baseball in Europe (and I’m sure it will be), then you will want to own a copy.Â
Baseball treasures its past, indeed no sport honours its former players and great moments with such genuine reverence. It’s natural that you should want to delve into the history of the game played in the States; with figures like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb and many more commanding your attention. However, what struck me more than anything while reading Josh’s first book was that there was also a vast amount to learn about the history of baseball on these shores and the neighbouring countries.Â
Call it ignorance if you like, but I just wasn’t aware of quite how much there was to find out about the sport in this country. That’s precisely because it hasn’t been written about to any great extent and Josh has filled this gap brilliantly. Through the efforts of sites like Mister-Baseball.com, I’ve already learned about how much baseball is played throughout Europe, something few Brits realize when thinking of “that American version of rounders”. Finding out more about how the sport was able to grow in places like the Netherlands and Italy should be fascinating.
Admittedly the book is not cheap, but it will be worth the money even if it requires a bit of saving-up for. It’s gone on to my ‘to buy’ list and, as always, I will publish a review on here when I’ve read it.Â
(Triumph Books, 2007) 227 pages.
Not long after you’ve began your fascination with baseball, a decision has to be made on which MLB team you should support. Once chosen, you then find yourself wanting to learn about the history of the team that you now call your own. If you’ve fallen for a team like the Yankees or the Red Sox, you are spoilt for choice when it comes to great books about them. If a small or medium market team has won you over, it may be a little more difficult to find a good overview of their history. As an Oakland fan, I was therefore interested to find A’s Essential when browsing on Amazon recently. Continue reading