Meet the A's New Righty, er, Lefty

May was a crazy month in our house.  3 of the 4 people who live here had birthdays within 9 days of each other, life revolved around track meets and baseball games (until my son broke his foot, putting an early end to his season), and a trip to Nationals Park on Mother's Day was thrown in there as well.  I've also been busy with a new writing project, but just like those ants that invade your kitchen every spring, I always keep coming back.  This blog is very dear to me, and I am never going away (sorry, folks, you just can't get rid of Mudville Mom!).

It's been an interesting baseball season so far - Bryce Harper is living up to his hype and leading the Majors with 18 home runs (along with Nelson Cruz and Giancarlo Stanton); the Orioles' Matt Wieters came back after a one-year recovery from Tommy John surgery (it's not just pitchers who get that done!); and Alex Rodriguez passed Barry Bonds in the all-time RBI list.  As much as I dislike A-Rod (and you should all know that by now!), I hope he realizes that he can be just as good a player without performance-enhancing drugs.  Same for Nelson Cruz - without the PEDs he's still hitting home runs, so let that be a lesson to you all:  You can be pretty good without PEDs.

OK, so what about this pitcher that the Oakland A's just called up from the minors?  Well, Pat Venditte is a switch-pitcher, something that Major League Baseball hasn't seen in 20 years.  In his first big-league game, he entered the game in the eighth inning against the Boston Red Sox.  He started throwing warm-up pitches with his right hand, then he switched to his left to face a lefty batter who grounded out.  Then Venditte pitched right-handed to the next two batters, one who got a single (Hanley Ramirez) and the other who hit into a double play (Mike Napoli).

Because switch-pitching is such an oddity, the "Venditte Rule" had to be implemented (hopefully the guy will be known for more than just a rule with his name on it - kind of like poor Tommy John, who had a decent pitching career but is mostly known for his surgery.  And don't even mention Lou Gehrig, one of the greatest Yankees ever who had to have ALS named after him after he died from it way before people started foolishly pouring buckets of ice water on themselves for charity).  Anyway, the "Venditte Rule" states that before each at-bat, the pitcher tells the umpire, batter, and baserunners what hand he will throw with for that batter.  If the player at the plate switch hits, he is free to hit from either side.  The pitcher cannot throw with the other arm in the same at-bat.

So we'll have to see how good Venditte ends up being and if he tends to favor one arm over the other.  One positive note is that if he injures one arm, he still has the other one that he can use (Remember Jim Abbott, the one-handed pitcher back in the 90s who went from college ball straight to the Majors after pitching in the 1988 olympics?  It can be done!).  Let's keep an eye on Pat Venditte and see how he does - I definitely find this guy interesting.

In other baseball news, the All-Star voting is well under way.  I plan to submit my ballot as soon as school is over, when I can sit down and analyze all the players without any work-related interruptions.  I usually vote earlier in the season, and then someone I voted for ends up in a slump or with an injury, so I'm going to wait a little this year.  I know that the Giants' Buster Posey and the Cardinals' Yadier Molina are in a dead heat for the starting catcher position, and I'm not sure if I'll go strictly Puerto Rican on that one or if I will give my sentimental vote to cutie-patootie Posey.  I also have to decide if I should vote for Bryce Harper because he's having a great season, or give my vote to Nick Markakis of the Braves, because he's not an ass like Harper is (and my step-daughter took care of Markakis's dog when she worked in an animal emergency room).  Luckily we get three votes for the outfield, so I may vote for both.

So until I cast my vote in a couple of weeks, enjoy the nice weather (it finally stopped raining here in the mid-Atlantic), catch some games on TV or in person, and feel free to go to www.mlb.com and cast your own vote for this year's All-Stars.   Maybe next year we'll see Pat Venditte on the All-Star team.

It's Almost Time!!!

First and foremost, I just want to say how much I enjoy writing my own blog.  Nobody edits what I write, so my opinions (not that I ever have any!) are unfiltered and honest.  I say this because I am the Washington Nationals' blogger for a local publication, and they're often editing my comments.  I had considered applying to become a regular contributor to the print edition of this publication, but I don't think they are looking for someone as opinionated and frank as myself.  Their loss.

OK,  now that I got that off my chest, let's talk some baseball!  Opening Day is just a breath away, and for those of us not following NCAA basketball (though I do have 8 teams left in my Sweet 16 bracket!), next Sunday and Monday is our version of "March Madness."  The rosters have been cut, the starting pitchers have been named, and fans in cold-weather cities are praying for warm weather next week.  Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith even spearheaded a campaign to make Opening Day a national holiday, claiming that too many people call in sick to work on that day.  Smith was able to get the required number of signatures required for his idea to be taken seriously, so we'll see where that goes.  I don't think it's necessary to call it a national holiday, because only 15 of the 30 teams will be hosting a game for the first series, so what happens when the other 15 teams host their own Opening Day after that - do we need a second national holiday?  My Nationals, for example, open the season in New York next Monday (March 31) but don't open at home until April 4.  I wouldn't call out sick on the 31st since I can watch the game from my work computer (shhh!) but would call in sick on the 4th (if I had tickets, which I don't).  It's a silly proposal from Ozzie.

So what do we have to look forward to this season?  First of all, the Yankees are no longer the team with the highest payroll in the Majors, which is quite refreshing.  That honor now goes to the Dodgers, so we'll see where they end up at the end of the season.  I'd pick the Dodgers over the Yankees any day, so I'm OK with them making a lot of money.  Let's just hope Yasiel Puig can develop a personality this year.

Also interesting to note is the expanded use of instant replay in the Majors.  A manager is allowed to formally challenge an umpire's call in certain cases (hone runs and stolen bases, not balls and strikes), and after the sixth inning, umpires on the field can ask for a second opinion if they themselves are in doubt of a call.  Who do they turn to for a second opinion?  The people in the Major League Baseball Replay Center, a high-tech facility with at least one umpire, one trained technician, and 37 high-definition monitors that will show every angle of every game.  When a manager challenges a call, umpires will appeal to the umpire working at the headquarters, and with the technician's assistance, will examine video of the play from different angles.  The review umpire will communicate his assessment to the on-site umpire and send the video to the home ballpark for broadcast on the scoreboard along with the text message description of the play.

How long will this take?  Less than 2 minutes, experts seem to think.  Now, I was opposed to this idea at first , thinking it would take away from the accuracy of umpires and the charm of the game, but after having seen it used twice in Spring Training games, I'm OK with it (it helps that both times it was the Nationals' manager, Matt Williams, challenging a call and both times he was right).  The first time I saw it, Bryce Harper was called out trying to steal second, when it was pretty clear (even to me, the blind one) that he was safe.  After Williams's challenge, the umpires reviewed the video taken by the Mets' camera people and determined their call was erroneous.  This took 1 minute and 47 seconds.  The second time, Denard Span caught a shoestring catch in center field and the runner was called safe.  Further review showed that Span not only caught the ball, but he held on to it after rolling on the ground a couple of times.  This one took exactly 2 minutes, but both instances were reviewed with the video from the local camera people.  Beginning Sunday, the videos will come from that fancy place in New York, and it should make the process a little more smooth (we hope).

Another thing that doesn't bother me about this expanded replay thing is the fact that managers probably won't be challenging calls during every game.  According to MLB.com, there were only 377 out of some 50,000 calls that merited review, which comes out to about 1 every 6.4 games (check that out - I did that math all by myself!).  Only 27 times did questionable calls happen twice in a game, which gives umpires an extremely high level of proficiency.

So as long as umpires keep doing their job as well as they've done it lately, managers shouldn't be challenging calls too much and baseball games shouldn't (hopefully) drag on much longer than they already do.  It's one of those things us baseball purists are just going to have to embrace, like the cotton-poly uniform, the use of batting gloves, and the high price of ballpark concessions.  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em and buy the overpriced beer.

Sunday night will bring us the first game of the season with the San Diego Padres hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers, who technically started their season in Australia last week, where they played 2 games against the Arizona Diamondbacks and won them both.  Most other teams begin on Monday, with games including the Mets hosting the Nationals and the World Champion Red Sox visiting the surprisingly-good-during-spring-training Baltimore Orioles.  My husband and I will be at Nationals Park the following weekend for the series against the Atlanta Braves, officially kicking off our 5-game season.  While we may not visit as many different ballparks as we did last year, we are ready to root for the much-improved Nationals and hope you are ready to root for your favorite team.  It's almost time, people; let's play some ball!