Monthly Archives: October 2008

Why I love fantasy baseball – and why you should too!

1 Reply
If you enjoy playing fantasy sports, you may find yourself labelled a bit of a nerd, and there may be an element of truth in that.
 
But if you are prepared to embrace your inner fantasy nerd, playing fantasy baseball can be a lot of fun.
 
I love fantasy baseball because it is a good reason to get fans learning more about the game.
 
OK, so it’s hard to find a league which includes defense, situational groundouts and all the other things which don’t show up in the box score, but playing fantasy sports certainly helps expand your knowledge of MLB as a whole.
 
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut following your team of choice, and maybe you’ll see a number of big-name teams on TV. But there are plenty of other great players out there who you don’t get to see. Fantasy baseball can help you find and appreciate these players.  Continue reading →

The Phillies win the World Series

Leave a reply

The 46,000 fans who turned up at Citizens Bank Park last night only got to witness three innings of baseball, but they will have been the best three innings imaginable for Philly fans.  The home team prevailed 2-1 on the night to win the historic ‘three day’ game 4-3 and to secure just the second World Series in the franchise’s history.  Continue reading →

Game Five continues tonight

2 Replies

After a forty-six hour rain delay, we are finally going to see the completion of game five of this year’s World Series.

The wait must have felt like an eternity for the two teams.  The Phillies could be World Series champions after just three more innings, while the Rays have one-third of a game (unless we go to extras, which wouldn’t be a surprise) to save their season and to take the series back to Florida.  If they can manage it, there will be no travel day and game six will take place on Thursday (the early hours of Friday morning in the U.K.).  Continue reading →

Support Herts Baseball Club

5 Replies

As you can see from their great website, Herts Baseball Club are one of the leading lights within British baseball.  So much so that they have outgrown their current facilities and have therefore put together some terrific plans to turn their home, Grovehill Park, into “one of the best baseball complexes in the country”. 

What should hit you most about those plans are the proposed little league facilities.  Providing facilities for children to enjoy baseball has got to be a priority of anyone who wants to see baseball grow as a sport within Britain.  It’s hard to overstate just how inspiring good facilities can be, even for adults who have played for years.

We all know that baseball is a long way down the sporting pecking order in Britain and local councils are often reluctant to support the efforts of budding baseball clubs.  In Herts’ case, it appears as though their local council has been very encouraging so far, but you can never have enough support when it comes to planning applications.

So please take a look at Herts’ plans and consider joining BaseballGB in lending your support by signing the petition.

Phillies blast past the Rays in Game four

2 Replies

The Phillies are now one win away from their second World Series championship after thumping the Rays 10-2 in game four.  It was a scoreline that accurately reflected their dominance and they will head into game five full of confidence that they can wrap up the series at home.  If the Rays are to stop them, they will need to greatly improve their level of performance.  Although the first three games of the series were close affairs, this one was anything but.  Continue reading →

European Professional League news

9 Replies

Plans for a European Professional League are gathering pace, with the Confederation of European Baseball’s (CEB) latest newsletter providing a few more details on the proposed competition.  There are still many questions left unanswered at this early stage, not least the suggestion that the main league may be complemented by other interleague games, but the news does at least sustain the optimism that the plans will come to fruition.  Continue reading →

Game three thriller

2 Replies

The switch back to GMT has never been more welcome than it was this morning to British baseball fans.  An hour and a half rain delay meant that the first pitch of game three of the World Series wasn’t delivered until just gone three in the morning BST, but by then the clocks had been turned back an hour.  Although it was still 5.47 in the morning by the time the game had finished, fans could head back to bed knowing that they had witnessed a classic game as a walk-off infield single gave the Phillies a 5-4 win and a 2-1 series lead.  Continue reading →

Make sure you don’t miss the unmissable

Leave a reply

After a rest day, the World Series is scheduled to get going again tonight with game three from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.  Forty-five year old Jamie Moyer will try to prove wrong all the people who have pegged him as an accident waiting to happen for the Phillies.  The veteran will certainly welcome some support from his offense, which has struggled desperately with runners in scoring position during the first two games.  The Rays’ starter, Matt Garza, has to believe that the Phillies won’t be so generous tonight and his focus will be on limiting the amount of runners they are able to get on base in the first place.

It promises to be another close game as the next instalment of an unmissable series, even if the U.S. TV ratings don’t appear to be reflecting this.  Consequently, it’s worth noting that tonight’s contest might be affected by bad weather and that the rest of the series will definitely be affected by a change in the time difference between Britain and the States.  Continue reading →

5:45 to Folkestone: Longest games and World War I ball

4 Replies

Cobb (128x128)It’s less than a week since the launch of Project Cobb, and already the lists of collaborators and their research projects have begun to grow. This growth has resulted from investigation of several existing leads, as well as an email in the Baseball on Five mailbox that was kindly passed on by Jonny and Josh. Here’s a look at some projects being carried out by the four new collaborators. The Project Cobb webpage has details of how you can help, should you have information. Continue reading →