Lunch Time Link Dump

• From the Platoon Advantage, I've gained a new perspective on the "mallparks" that are modern day baseball stadiums. Sure, the Build-A-Bear Workshops and EA Sports Video Game booths may be a distraction from what you just spent $30+ to see, but with a child's attention span what it is, easing him into the game might just be the best approach. I know I couldn't sit still for 3 hours when I was a kid and there are times even today where I just want to walk around and people watch a bit. Old parks have charm and history, but little else to occupy your time if you're a child. Thinking of "mallparks" as an investment in the future of baseball fans is actually kind of brilliant... Not that this means I'm having a kid any time soon.   

• The more I read and write about baseball, the more I want to learn. So while doing a little digging into some local baseball history, I stumbled across a monumental bit of baseball history that is practically in my own back yard. Hinchliffe Stadium was one of the first Negro League stadiums and one of only three that still stand today. It was used by the Patterson school district until 1997 and it currently sits high on the list of America's most endangered historic sites, but there appears to be a plan in place to renovate the site. It's a graffiti covered, overgrown mess right now, but I'm definitely adding a visit to this site to my list of lazy Sunday projects.

• Who is the most hated player in your team's history? An interesting question if you're a Phillies fan. JD Drew gets votes for refusing to sign with the Phillies. Scott Rolen gets votes for basically whining his way out of town. Adam Eaton gets votes for crapping the bed for 3 years and somehow still getting a World Series ring. Ivan DeJesus cost us Ryne Sandberg. Danny Tartabull cost $2M and never got a single hit. Von Hayes never lived up to the 5-4-1 hype. Mitch Williams choked in the World Series. Billy Wagner and Curt Schilling thought they were too good for this town. Freddy Garcia earned $10M for one single win. Rod Barajas and Wes Helms couldn't hit worth a lick in red pinstripes, but come back to haunt us year after year... man, this list is getting long. Who would you choose? 

• Someone with the Yankees "accidentally" forwarded private info of all their season ticket holders to about 2,000 contacts. The list of info has popped up all over the internet in the past few days. Apparently, should some less than honest individual come across this list and decide to log into an account that isn't theirs, they could easily steal tickets by forwarding them to a different email address. Fortunately, Yankees fans are all upstanding citizens... right?

• Apparently attendance numbers are at record lows for most MLB stadiums so far this year. The Yankees set a new low water mark in three consecutive days and teams in the midwest have been drawing crowds of under 10,000 regularly. No issues in Philadelphia where I'm still crammed in like a sardine in my outfield seats. But some would argue that baseball is as healthy as ever right now. How? Cable TV revenue. Blackout restrictions are a bit difficult to explain, but the general idea is that the MLB Extra Innings package does not air games when a cable network in that area considers the team to be local to the area and has rights to the game themselves. Which basically means MLB Network gives way to PHL17 in South Jersey and the Phillies can instead cash in on cable revenue. For teams like the Houston Astros who might have down attendance, they cash in on most of the state of Texas getting their games as part of the cable package. Even worse are teams like Boston who have a controlling stake in their own cable network. NESN charges somewhere in the $3 range for each cable bill in the New England area that carries their channel. So every cable subscriber in the New England area pays about $30/year to an arm of the Red Sox... so who says baseball is failing?

• Tickets go on sale on May 9th for the Phillies ALS Phestival. I've gone a few times in the past, and while prices went up and options went down for this year, $25 for a handful of autographs and a meet and greet with some players is a pretty good deal. I'd recommend ordering at 9am on the dot, because this thing typically sells out in like 10 minutes. Maybe Cole Hamels will be less of a D-bag this year.

• I grabbed this book on Half.com the other day called "The Baseball Fan's Bucket List." It's exactly what it sounds like and while a lot of the items are a little obvious (visit Fenway), or far fetched (throw out a first pitch), there are definitely a few items I would really like to do. Attend a Little League and College World Series is among them. I'm going to work on compiling a list of 100 items for my own baseball bucket list (some of which I've already completed) and hopefully have something up in the next week or two.