- Adding to his resume, Jimmy Rollins will be appearing as a cartoon character on the Cleveland show this fall. The list of Phillies players appearing on television is getting pretty lengthy. With the Philly Phanatic appearing on the Simpsons, Ryan Howard on Entourage, and Chase Utley & Howard on It's Always Sunny, I have to ask myself who could be next? Shane Victorino on Hawaii Five-0 perhaps... though I'm not sure that show even survived it's first season. Hunter Pence as crazed serial killer on Dexter? Chooch on a Telemundo soap opera?
- A bit of a sad story about former Cubs great and current Lehigh Valley Iron Pig manager Ryne Sandberg. Drafted by the Phillies and traded after just a few major league at bats as a throw in piece to get Ivan DeJesus, Sandberg has come full circle in his major league career as the manager of the Phils AAA affiliate. His being overlooked for the Cubs big league job last winter was a major mistake and the thought of many baseball people seems to be that it has soured him on the organization altogether. Charlie Manuel is signed on as the Phillies manager for two more years after this one. Sandberg has been doing a solid job with the Iron Pigs this year and is looking to lead the team on a playoff run. My thought is that the Phillies pursuit of him in the offseason could somehow be as the grooming as a replacement for Charlie Manuel after 2013. This would assume that Charlie hangs up the spikes after his contract is up (he'll be almost 70 afterall), and also assumes that Sandberg is willing to wait in the weeds for 2 more years with the Phillies. But it sure would be awesome to see Sandberg back in red pinstripes and it would make for a much more upbeat story.
- I'll always maintain that the greatest thing about baseball is its unpredictability. So be sure to check out You Can't Predict Baseball for daily roundups of baseball tidbits that will make you shake your head. For instance, "The Tigers lead the AL Central, with a -14 run differential. —– The Padres are in last place in the tragic NL West. They have a -4 run differential."
- I drove by the Kansas City Royals Stadium last week and was surprised to see that the All-Star game will be held there in 2012. It's a decent looking place that has apparently gone under a huge renovation so I'll probably stop by there on one of my next trips. The Royals are a pretty nice young team, though so anything that can drum up interest for them is probably good for baseball. Mix in a little fanfare with a roster that has Billy Butler, Jeff Francouer, Alex Gordon, Melky Cabrera, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Joakim Soria, Danny Duffy, and Aaron Crow all 27 years or younger and you mgiht just have a foundation for something big. They've retooled themselves with great drafts much in the way that the Rays did about 5 years ago. Speaking of All-Star games, keep an eye out for an upcoming post on All-Star game jerseys!
- 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.
