Nomar Garciaparra is well known for his many quirks and OCD antics at the plate, and this video of the Batting Stance Guy takes aim at Nomar with Nomar watching from the dugout. Fortunately Nomar has a good sense of humor about it.
Unfortunately Nomar tore his ACL while laughing and will be out for the forseeable future.
Tanyon Sturtze, who previously was abused by Joe Torre’s bullpen mismanaging in New York was informed by his manager Wednesday afternoon that he was being designated for assignment. As he sat by his then-former locker, packing his things and saying goodbye to teammates, Torre came back up to Sturtze a few minutes later and informed him that they were NOT releasing him at that moment. When reporters asked Torre for Sturtze’s reaction, Torre responded saying, “He’s not OK.” Gee, you think?We’ve seen Torre be completely inept at the handling of a modern bullpen, (I’m still convinced that Scott Proctor must have nailed Torre’s wife or something for the sheer amount of abuse that Torre heaps on his arm) but usually he only is unable to manage them on the field, now it turns out he is inept in the locker room as well.
Sure, Sturtze is a scrub and has only appeared in 3 games this season for the Dodgers, but he is also a 12 year veteran and no one deserves to be treated like that. Torre’s justification? “He knew [when he was called up two weeks ago] it was on a temporary basis.” In the meantime, Cory Wade, for whom Sturtze’s roster spot was to be used is still unready to come off the DL and so Sturtze, for the moment, remains a Dodger. I’d say when Sturtze eventually does get released that anything less than the complete trashing and possibly setting on fire of Torre’s office is a missed opportunity.
As soon as Manny joined the Dodgers, manager Joe Torre mentioned to him that he wanted Manny to cut his dreads to conform to Joe’s antiquated ideas of how players should look. Now, I’m not going to go into whether or not Torre should be concerning himself as the look of his players rather than their production on the field–he shouldn’t be, get over it Joe, these are adults and it isn’t 1950, people aren’t wearing derby hats in the stands, let the players look they way they want–so Manny, the consummate teammate and order follower finally listened to Torre and cut his dreads. He had them cut all of an inch at most. What an asshole! I mean, I love it, because why not tweak Joe Torre, but still, that is one of the most petulant things Manny has done, is he going to start flicking Joe’s ears on the bus next? Start kicking Joe’s seat on the team plane? This is just such a ridiculously childish thing for Manny to do, that I’m almost in shock. I get that Manny has no idea what is going on in the world, hell, he’s probably borderline autistic, but Scott Boras should know better and tell Manny that this is NOT the way to go about getting that insane contract that he wants to get.
While I don’t think he’s getting 100 million from anyone, it is possible he could get like 60 million or so from someone, but if he keeps doing little shit like this, essentially just to piss off his manager and employer than he might find his options even more limited.
Generally when you go out and pitch a no-hitter, you can chalk that game up in the win column. For the erstwhile California Angels, that was not the case Saturday night. Jered Weaver pitched 6 innings of no-hit ball but was lifted in the 7th for a pinch hitter. Unfortunately, thanks to two back-to-back errors in the fifth (the first of which was somewhat questionably), Matt Kemp had scored on a sacrifice fly, making the score 1-0 in the favor of the Dodgers.
Thanks to the asinine NL lack of a DH, the Angels were forced in a one-run game to remove Weaver in order to try and generate some offense. If only his team had a player that they could have hit for Weaver and leave him in the lineup, someone whose sole job it was to hit, thus enabling the pitcher to concentrate on just his pitching. Sigh. Continue reading ‘A Wild and Crazy Night at Dodger Stadium’
You’ve seen it at every Marlins home game. Same with the Pazuzu Rays or most Dodgers games. Nationals games definitely have the same issue; empty seats all over the stadium. There is nothing more pathetic than watching a game and seeing whole sections with no one in them, and no section is worse with constantly empty seats than the area behind home plate. Now, bad teams–although the Rays are on the upswing and the Dodgers should be good but their fans are generally some of the lamest possible–are always going to have trouble selling seats, I get that, but it would seem to me that there would be some inherent advantages in making it seem like more people are at the game.
There is probably no single shot used in a baseball game more than that of the center field camera focusing in on the plate, it’s probably used 200+ times per game. Wouldn’t there be some inherent value for the teams to at least pad their broadcast a little by making it SEEM like there are more people actually at the game?
I understand that for baseball teams the money generated by the seats behind home plate and around the dugouts can be enormous, but here’s something I don’t understand. If there is no one in those seats by the end of the first couple of innings why not have staff move around the stadium and offer those seats to the other fans that are spread out across the stadium. The premium seats are either sold and no one showed up or remain unsold and would be otherwise empty, so why not fill them up? Sure, some fans will be more than happy to stay in the upper decks or whateves, but most will jump at the opportunity to get closer to the action. For many fans, it would probably be the closest they’ve ever sat to the game and would be a forever memorable occasion.
What good does it do to keep those seats empty the entire game? The team wouldn’t be losing money because those seats are going to remain unsold or unused regardless and the fans that would be offered the seats would have already paid for their initial tickets. Furthermore, the amount of positive PR this would acquire could only serve to help the team that did this. If I knew that every time I went to a game that there was a chance I could be upgraded for free to a premium seat why wouldn’t I try and go as much as possible and take advantage of such an opportunity?
Now some of these seats include drink and food service, I could see that this might cause a financial loss for the team, so, solution, make server service unavailable for those who are upgraded and didn’t actually pay for the premium amenities. The game alone from that close would be special enough and I can’t imagine fans wouldn’t be cooperative or understanding.
Not only will some goodwill be earned with the fans who are supportive enough to keep coming to otherwise empty stadiums but it will spread out exponentially. As fans tune into the games or see recaps they will see that shot of home plate again and again, if they see lots of people in the seats the assumption would be that the team is more popular and might entice those important casual fans to make a few more trips to the stadium. Again, if those same fans knew there was a decent chance they would get a chance to sit in such incredible seats they would be even more likely to return several times.
In addition, the national media, ESPN, et al would eat this story up. Big rich company gives back to the little guy? Sounds to me like some really great PR for whatever team decides to employ such a strategy (or employs the brilliant guy who thought up said strategy…)
For once, common sense wins out over cash! Joe Torre has announced that Andre Ethier and not Juan Pierre will be the starting left fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Considering that Pierre has some $30-odd million dollars remaining on his contract, (and 3 years, what were you thinking Ned Colletti?) this decision was not as obvious as the numbers seem to dictate.
Understandably, Pierre is pissed. He spent spring training bitching that he wasn’t getting enough at-bats. He ended spring training with the second most ABs on the team. Oh, and a robust .188 batting average. He still managed 6 stolen bases, but frankly, since that is the only value that Pierre brings to a team, that is no reason to start or play him regularly. Ethier in comparison is hitting .377 this spring, plays better defense and doesn’t have a lollipop arm. Also, Juan Pierre’s career never was the same after he shaved off the mustache. I think it was the source of his strength.
Joey Gathright has long tantalized fantasy baseball owners with his incredible speed. Unfortunately, he is not allowed to steal first base and his hitting ability is not stellar. Now with the Kansas City Royals, Gathright the other day managed an interesting way to get on base.
This is not the most impressive leap I’ve seen from Gathright, who in the video after the jump jumps over a car, but still, to do that, while trying to run down the line and so suddenly is pretty goddamn impressive. I can usually touch the bottom of a basketball backboard, so,we’re basically the same…
The Slanch Report has started an online petition asking the MLB Network to air the Dock Ellis no-hitter he threw on June 12, 1970 against the San Diego Padres. The moment was a seminal piece of baseball history and is certainly worthy of being rerun.
Please join us in this cause and sign the petition below so we can all share in this special and fantastic moment of baseball history. THANKS!
SIGN THE PETITION HERE! AND PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND PASS THIS ALONG!
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