The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Hello there, fellow baseball fans!  What's happenin'?  Well I'll tell you what's happening - Chris Heston, a 27-year-old rookie pitcher making just his 13th start for the San Francisco Giants, threw a no-hitter last night against the New York Mets at Citi Field.  I tuned in during the ninth innings with two outs, so I was able to enjoy the thrill of the no-hitter without the stress of sitting through a whole game wondering if the no-hitter was going to be broken.  Watching a no-hitter never gets old, and what made it interesting is that Heston actually hit three batters during the game!  Another interesting fact is that the Giants' catcher, Buster Posey, has now caught three no-hitters, which puts him in second place after the Red Sox's Jason Varitek, who caught four in his career.  You know me - I have to take a story and turn it so that the catcher looks good! (And if you read this blog regularly, you already knew that Iván Rodriguez caught 2 no-hitters in his career)

That was the "good."  The "bad" is that the Washington Nationals have lost 9 of their last 11 games.  They're still only half a game out of first place (because no one else in the NL East seems to want to win), but they're playing some terrible baseball.  Bryce Harper and Yunel Escobar seem to be the only ones hitting, 2 of their starting pitchers (Stephen Strasburg and Doug Fister) are on the Disabled List, and their bullpen just plain old sucks (except for their closer, Drew Storen, who hasn't seen much action lately).  It's very disappointing, though the season isn't even half over yet, and us "glass-half-full" people are trying to stay positive.  Luckily the Nationals don't play against the Mets until July, so they have some time to get their stuff together.

And now for the "ugly."  Staying with the Nationals for a minute... Shortstop Ian Desmond has committed FOURTEEN errors this season.  Who DOES that?  Do you think I would still have my job if I made 14 errors in 9 weeks?  And Desmond makes WAY more money than I do!  The thing is, they keep putting him in the lineup every day, and I think he just needs to sit out a game or two - a "mental health day" of sorts.  They have several guys (Escobar, Espinosa, Rendón) who can play shortstop while Desmond clears his head - and they probably wouldn't commit any errors!  It is so frustrating, because he's missing some pretty basic little-league-type plays; maybe he needs to get his eyes checked?  Seriously - how often do baseball players get eye exams?  I hope that's part of a routine physical at the beginning of each season; in Desmond's case, I would send him to an eye doctor right away.

Now in order to not end this blog post on a negative note, let me also mention that the Angels' Albert Pujols tied Mickey Mantle for 16th on the all-time home runs list with number 536.  That's pretty cool - anyone who has the potential to cleanly pass Barry Bonds on the list is a cool dude in my book.  Also hitting a home run on the same day was the Houston Astros' Carlos Correa.  This was his first homer (a long way from Pujol's 536) - but any time a kid makes his Major League debut and hit his first homer in the same week, that's pretty special.  And Correa is Puerto Rican (not a catcher), so there's that coolness factor as well.

So there you have it - highlights (and lowlights) from this week's baseball action so far.  See how I write more often when there's actually stuff about which to write?  Let's hope the next few weeks bring more excitement - I need to have things to write about once school is out and I'm done with work for the summer!

Orange With Envy

As you probably know by now, the Washington Nationals were eliminated in the first round of this year's baseball playoffs.  Yes, just like in 2012, the team that led the National League in wins was defeated by the Wild Card team, in this case the San Francisco Giants.  All the talk of a "Beltway World Series" between the Nationals and Orioles quickly faded away and is now a distant memory.


So what happened?  Well the games weren't really that exciting.  In game 1, which my husband and 10-year-old son attended, Bryce Harper and Asdrubal Cabrera hit home runs, but they were the only runs scored by the Nationals in the 3-2 loss.  Don't get me wrong - we had a great time at the game.  My main purpose in going was to create some unforgettable memories for my baseball-loving son, and I'm pretty sure we achieved that.  He got his curly "W" pretzel, we bought a post-season program, and we were given free rally towels, which we can bring to future games (those rally towels, I might add, are very hard to spin.  I mean, I can do the "Macarena," I can jump a mean double-dutch jump rope, but for the life of me I could not spin that thing without wrapping it around my hand or swatting my husband with it across his face).  My son enjoyed the pre-game military fly-over and was able to experience one of the hardest-hit home runs at Nationals Park.  For us, it was a good day.


The second game was a disappointing one.  The Nationals were leading 1-0 in the top of the ninth inning with two outs, and Jordan Zimmermann (who had pitched the entire game) was removed after walking his first batter.  That is the move - not the wild pitch in game 4 - that cost the Nationals the game, the series, and a lot of sleep (you see, that game ended up going 18 innings, ending in a 2-1 loss).


Game 3 was a little better, since the Nationals won it 4-1 in San Francisco.  But they lost the next game (and the series) again by a score of 3-2.  So in four games, the Nats were only able to muster 11 runs.  The pitching was fine - all four starters pitched respectably - but no one was hitting.  I shouldn't say no one - Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendón's bats were somewhat hot - but leadoff hitter Denard Span, who ended the regular season with a team-record 184 hits, failed to get on base much during the playoffs.  Adam LaRoche and Jayson Werth, the heart of the Nationals' batting order, went 2 for 35.  2 for 35!  I don't have an explanation for their lack of offense - they just plain did not hit.


So what does it feel like when your team is eliminated so early after showing so much promise during the regular season and after being picked by many to win the World Series?  Well it just sucks - plain and simple.  You spend six months following these guys - 162 games day in and day out.  You memorize their statistics and batting stances.  You start calling them by their first names or nicknames as if they're your buddies or neighbors (in my case, my younger brothers).  You get totally consumed in all things Nationals, wearing your red "W" lanyard at work and helping your son pick between his Werth jersey or his Harper one.  And then all of a sudden the last out of the last game is made, and it's all over.  Just like that.  Change out your lanyard, put the jerseys away, and forget about bidding for a Jayson Werth garden gnome on eBay.


What makes it more frustrating is that baseball is not over.  There are still plenty of games to be played this postseason, with 4 teams still vying to make it to the World Series.  The Orioles and Royals are playing in the ALCS, and the Giants and Cardinals (again!) are at it in the NLCS.  But the Nationals - their players, managers, massage therapists and athletic trainers - are all back home licking their wounds.  They were not the underdogs, like the Royals - they were the top contenders and they lost.  This fan, at least, is disappointed and feels let down. :-(  I did watch game 1 of the ALCS (and will continue to watch until the last out of the last game of the World Series), but it just wasn't the same.  I was watching as a casual fan, rooting for the hometown Orioles but not disappointed when the Royals (whose players are cuter) scored some runs of their own.  Oriole Park at Camden Yards, only an hour away, was packed with fans - some of whom I knew - in their orange sweatshirts waving their orange rally towels, smiling and cheering and rooting for their birds while I sat on my couch wanting to get excited but just not able to.


But hey, wait a minute!  This is actually way less stressful!  I have nothing invested in any of these teams; I don't own any jerseys or t-shirts for any of these clubs and I don't have to wait for a commercial to go use the bathroom!  I can go to bed at a decent time before a game is over if I want to!  I can root for Yadier Molina and Buster Posey at the same time!  I can make fun of the color commentators instead of getting upset at how little they actually know about the Nationals!  I can like both Markakis and Moustakas and any other player with a Greek last name who happens to come along!  I can side with the umpires during a play challenge and laugh at the fans who get upset when a call in their team's favor is overturned!  Hey, I can enjoy these last 2 weeks of baseball - and guess what?  I WILL!

"National Disaster" a Bit Harsh

In the 12 years in which I’ve lived in Frederick, I have enjoyed reading the commentary of Hal Grau, who has a “Coach’s Corner” column in Sunday editions of our local fishwrap, The Frederick NewsPost.  Mr. Grau, who is touted as a legend in area high school sports because he coached different sports for 36 years, writes about very timely and interesting topics for us sports fans, ranging from local athletics to professional teams.  I usually like Mr. Grau’s columns, because he always gives good advice from a coach’s perspective, and he and I usually share the same opinions about many sports-related topics.

This Sunday’s “Coach’s Corner” headline, however, caught my eye in a negative way ("Pretty much a National disaster).  Referring to the Washington Nationals as a “National Disaster” was definitely a bit harsh.  Yes, the Nationals have not lived up to the hype and “World Series or bust!” attitude they brought onto themselves during Spring Training, and yes, they’re still 8 games out of the final Wild Card slot, and no, they probably won’t make it to the playoffs this year… but calling them a “disaster” was a little much.  I know Mr. Grau was probably going for some sort of play-on-words catchy headline, but “National Disappointment” or “National Deficit” would have been a little nicer.

Don’t get me wrong – as an avid Nationals fan I am definitely not happy with the inconsistency and lack of cohesiveness within the team, but the word “disaster” is usually used when everything has gone terribly wrong, like when a tornado wipes out an entire town or a space shuttle blows up or your teenage daughter’s bedroom looks like a war zone and you can’t find the floor.  Despite the Nationals’ sub-.500 record, they do have some positives going for them, like the much-improved bat  of Jayson Werth, the good pitching from rookies like Ross Ohlendorf and Taylor Jordan, and the smooth transition that Anthony Rendón has made by moving from third base to second.  (Look at me – I was one of the first to complain about how the Nats were playing such lackluster baseball, yet when someone agrees with me, I get all defensive, like if someone said that my kid did something wrong or that my mother’s potato salad recipe wasn’t the best.  I’m not contradicting myself; I’m just trying to lick my wounds and justify why the Nationals’ season hasn’t been a total “disaster.”)

First of all, Mr. Grau, “From the penthouse to the outhouse?”  Really?  Talk about harsh!  Have you seen how the 2012 World-Champion San Francisco Giants are doing?  They’re in last place in their division and have a worse record than the Nationals (who are in second place in the NL East).  And how about the Toronto Blue Jays?  With all their off-season acquisitions (including José Reyes and 2012 Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey), everyone had them winning the World Series.  Where are they now?  Dead last in the AL East.  I know you mentioned them in your column, but you failed to mention how worse-than-the-Nats these teams currently are. 

Then there’s your criticism of 2012 Rookie of the Year Bryce Harper, who failed to run out a pop-up recently.  The usually all-out, all-the-time Harper makes one lackadaisical move and all of a sudden he’s frustrated.  Well we’re all frustrated – the players, the coaching staff, and the fans – but Harper will continue to give it his all and play like every game is his last one (and I’m old enough to be his mother, so don’t be surprised if I get all “mama bear” on you if you try to say bad things about him again!).  He must feel some frustration after being on the Disabled List for a month in only his second season in the Majors.  Stephen Strasburg must be frustrated knowing he has one of the lowest ERAs in the National League yet has a losing record because of the lack of run support.  Franchise player Ryan Zimmerman must be frustrated knowing that he no longer has Gold Glove talent at third base and his bat has been pretty silent.  But these guys are still managing to stay afloat despite having an old has-been for a manager and despite the Braves having won 14 games in a row (including a sweep of the Nats). 

You do mention that you will be a better person in sports and in life if you are always well-prepared and always give it your best, but these guys play 162 games a year (WAY more than any high school season); they’re bound to have a game or two in which they just don’t feel like playing their best.  Yes, they do get paid millions of dollars to play a kids’ game, but they’re not paid to be perfect (because no one is), and if they make a mistake or two during a game (not outside of the game, like using PEDs - that's a whole other topic!), it’s fine.  I mean, if I were a coach, I would expect nothing but the best from my athletes, and I would get mad if they didn't give it their all.  But regardless of how good they were or how hard they tried, they're more than likely not going to win every game nor will they win the state championship each year - that's just a reality.  I know I've said before that if I were Commissioner of baseball, I would fine players for every error they made.  But just because I'm a hard-ass doesn't mean that I don't realize that errors do happen and expecting perfection is unrealistic.  The Nationals have not had any Billy Buckner moments this year – their botched plays and decline in pitching quality are not the end of the world.  And they are definitely not worth referring to their season as a “disaster.”

Show me the Money!

The main reason that I chose to get my Master's degree in Sport Management was so I could become a baseball agent.  Jerry Maguire was going to have nothin' on me - I was going to be scouting and signing players, going to all kinds of baseball games for free, and meeting all sorts of famous people while traveling all over the country.  Life ended up taking me in a different direction, and I'm actually glad that my sports-agent dreams did not come to fruition.  The money-side of baseball is very complex, and baseball players make way more money than they need to while sometimes being treated like cattle.

While current events in baseball's off-season are headlined by player trades and team acquisitions, record-breaking contract signings have been the talk of the "Hot Stove Season" (Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder come to mind, with Fielder just committing yesterday to a 9-year, $214-million deal with the Detroit Tigers, where his father, Cecil Fielder played back in the 80s).  But did you know that baseball executives also have to renew their contracts during the off-season?  Major League Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, was not spared the joy of signing a new contract recently, with a hefty new pay raise attached to it.

When I heard that Mr. Selig signed a new contract, first I was disappointed (it should come as no surprise to my blog readers that I am not a fan of Mr. Selig).  Then when I found out how much money he was and will be making, I almost fell over in disbelief.  Each baseball team had been paying Bud $600,000, which multiplied by 30 teams means that he was making $18 million a year!  Who knew?  I thought maybe he made a million or so, but eighteen???  Well now that he has a new contract, that 18 million has gone up, and now Mr. Selig will be making $22 million a year!  That is just unheard of!  The only good thing about that is that maybe now he can buy himself a personality!

There have only been nine Commissioners in Major League Baseball so far (though it seems like Bud has had the job forever!), and I guess they've all been paid a hefty salary (Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, MLB's first Commissioner, was paid $42,500 back in the 1920s).  But you just don't typically think of these guys making a lot of money - they don't wear a uniform, they don't appear on cereal boxes, and they don't hit home runs.  But they do help keep the game of baseball going, and they have implemented policies and procedures that have preserved the integrity of the game (like Selig's harsh ban on performance-enhancing drugs - you get caught with some of those in your system and you're out for 50 games).  Don't get me wrong; Commissioners have come up with some pretty dumb ideas too, like inter-league play and the lifetime ban of Pete Rose (he shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame, but he would make a pretty good hitting coach!).  But overall, Commissioners have brought us baseball fans a lot of pretty good things, like the Wild Card playoffs, the home-field advantage for the World Series to the League that wins the All-Star Game, and the realignment that brought the Atlanta Braves back to the National League East.  Of course, I could do a way better job than Mr. Selig for way less money, but I don't think the opportunity will ever come up.

Oh, and speaking of money and contracts, did you see that pitcher Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants agreed to a two-year, $40.5 million deal?  Perhaps Tim can now afford to cut his hair!

"Play Ball!"

Today is February 28, and the Washington Nationals will be visiting the New York Mets at their Port St. Lucie facility for the first baseball game of Spring Training.  It has been four months since the San Francisco Giants won the World Series, and this avid baseball fan has been starving for some good old ball to watch on TV.  We also recently bought our tickets for our first visit to Nationals Park this year - a Sunday afternoon game against the Atlanta Braves in April.  Why do I love baseball so much?  It is an easy game to follow - you throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball.  The fact that it's much slower than, say, football or basketball allows you to see the emotion on the players' faces; you can see when they're deep in thought, when they're upset over an error, when they're pleased with a good at-bat.  You anticipate every pitch, and you react to every swing of the bat, as well as to every missed opportunity.  You celebrate with the winners, and sometimes feel bad for the losers.  Baseball is a microcosm of life; you work hard, you try to get along with your coworkers so you can work together toward a common goal, you do your best, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and in the end, you hope that you left a lasting impression and are remembered for your dedication and for the quality of your work (unless you're Barry Bonds or Pete Rose, but I won't go there on my first blog!).

So...why blog about baseball?  Because my kids get tired of me talking about it, and as supportive as my wonderful husband is, I don't want to bore him with my constant baseball-related observations and useless statistics ALL the time!  I have to share my latest instance of baseball nerdiness with you; it happened yesterday.  So a good friend is talking to my husband and me after church, and he tells us that his son's baseball jersey number is #32.  "Can you guess why he picked that number?", asks my friend.  Knowing that his son is a big Derek Jeter fan, I immediately answer "Well, the 3 is for Babe Ruth, and the 2 is for Derek Jeter."  He looks at me in a stunned silence.  I had to follow it with an eye-roll and a "DUH!", just to prove that I am truly a baseball nerd.  His son, too, was impressed.

It's moments like yesterday's Babe-Jeter reference that make me proud of not only being a big baseball fan, but being a FEMALE baseball fan.  Yes, I check out the players' physiques and make a note of who looks best in baseball pants.  But I also know that Nolan Ryan pitched seven no-hitters, I know that the Designated Hitter was adpoted into the American League in 1973, and I can explain the Sherman Antitrust Act and how it relates to baseball.  I can rattle off the starting lineup of the 1988 New York Mets, and I can do so while wearing stillettos and helping my kids with their homework.  I love being a wife, a mom, and a baseball fan.