[Via Deadspin / via Deuce of Davenport]
X-Treme Baseball! Seriously, it’s like Calvinball without the whimsy or imaginary tiger and paper hats. Their website’s as much of a wretched abomination as their concept of sport, and oh, that poor guy holding the makeshift back/side-stop. Just watch the video:
If you want to make baseball more XTREME, just fill the stands with gigantic people like we do in Queens. Fans in armor sounds pretty XTREME to me.
Don Orsillo can’t contain his laughter.
Manny pets Tavarez
Uploaded by bjs1234
EDIT: No Longer YouTube because MLB thinks they’re losing money… When I clearly sees TwinsBaseball.com and other ads showing. Also, I’m sad I missed this when it happened, and maybe I’ll watch tonights game hoping for more Don & Remy hyjinks. (Remember the pizza?). Update 5/22: Had to switch video sources again. The MLB Crackdown Team has extended their reach. I promise to use MLB.com or NESN.com hosted embedded video as soon as they have this clip available.
Update: I learned from Sox & Dawgs that Gordon Edes from the Boston Globe reported on why Manny was petting Julian. According to Edes, Julian was upset with Manny for not paying attention to the game. From what Julian said, when Julian is mad at Manny, Manny pets him to calm him down.
“The Yanks got Clemens today,” my friend Dan mentioned casually as he took a sip of his Pabst Blue Ribbon.
I was watching a replay of a Ryan Howard at bat that was being shown on a TV over my right shoulder. My head jerked back around, and I stared mouth agape at Dan for a moment.
“Dan, if you’re lying to me, I’m going to be very upset with you.”
“No, seriously, they announced it today. During the game.”
It was 10 p.m. on a Sunday night at Bukowski’s Tavern that I learned that Roger Clemens is once again a Yankee. With the news little more than half a day old, it is far too early to consider this one of my “Where Were You When” moments. Ask me again in October and I’ll let you know how significant Dan’s utterance was to my sports fandom. But there’s a lot of time between now and then, and I need to get something on paper while this story is still fresh.
So let’s tackle the Why, the Who Cares, and the So What of these tidings. Read More
Two crucial posts from elsewhere in Internovia:
1. From Fire Joe Morgan, the blog that wants ESPN to fire, well, inept baseball commentator Joe Morgan:
[sez Morgan] “but that’s how people compare statistics. My point is you can’t compare things with statistics.”
Think about that, people. “You can’t compare things with statistics.”
Exactly what, one might be tempted to ask, as one’s hands were shaking so badly one would think one had just survived an assassination attempt, might one use to compare things? Metaphor? How about the infallible human memory? Or perhaps poesy?
Much have I traveled, in realms of gold
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen
Round many Western Islands have I been,
And I have observed some stuff about some shortstops
Bill Hall did not have a monster year
Derek Jeter has a calmer set of eyes
David Eckstein is super clutch
Please don’t show me statistics that disprove my observations
2. Via Mahalanobis (which I typically don’t even read for sports), the following:
Watching the NFL (ie, real football for non-Americans) draft last weekend, they would often mention some prospect “has a good bubble”. I didn’t know exactly what they were talking about, but got confirmation on the radio today. It means they have a good–big–butt. As the gluteus maximus, or buttock muscle, is the largest muscle in the human body, it is useful signal of overall musculature.
The Red Sox cable network (NESN) is making a new show (no, not a Cold Pizza spinoff — Warm Beer) called Sox Appeal. It is a reality show slightly based on the core demographic of your channel… it worked for MTV. (Does MTV show any music? I haven’t watched MTV since 2000.) It’s a televised version of speed dating. From the website:
Each episode a single fan (man or woman) is sent on three blind dates over the course of one Red Sox game. Everybody involved better bring their “A” game because each date only lasts two innings. During the seventh inning stretch, our single fan chooses the date he/she wants to continue dating. (And maybe, just MAYBE, they get to experience something at Fenway that most fans would kill for.)
Will our hero win and his choice join him for the rest of the game? Or will he suffer the agony of defeat. Alone. In his single seat.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I would be willing to kill to date someone a second time, but I guess there are some rabid redsox fans. Also, why in the first paragraph did they say “he/she” but in the second paragraph go with his, him, and he? Read More
Short one today, but I want some feedback: why doesn’t Boston build a new ballpark for the Red Sox?
First, some economics: let’s say an average Red Sox seat retails for $501. In practice, most of those tickets are scooped up by scalpers, who resell them for $100 and up. If I’m Theo Epstein, then every penny between the original $50 price and the final $100 price is a penny that I could have captured. This steams my britches.
Should I raise ticket prices across the board? Not necessarily. Baseball tickets are a luxury good, so they tend to have a higher demand elasticity. This means that people are more sensitive to changes in price than with other goods. Cigarettes and gasoline have very inelastic demand, by way of contrast: you can raise the price by 10 or 25 or 50 cents and people won’t buy less of it2. But no one needs loge seats. And a ticket that might have looked perfect at $40 might suddenly seem too expensive at $50. Yes, it’s only another $10, but people are weird.
Further, the Red Sox have been raising ticket prices pretty regularly for years and the problem remains. Scalpers buy up as many tickets as possible, resell them for half again as much, and pocket the difference. It seems pretty clear that the issue with the Red Sox is fundamental: demand outstrips supply.
Fenway Park is the oldest baseball stadium still in operation. It seats 38,805 and is pretty rickety. While other stadiums have fewer available seats (PNC Park in Pittsburgh, for instance), there’s no franchise in baseball with greater demand and fewer seats. Given their tremendous history – to say nothing of their 2004 championship – the Sox can bet on drawing capacity crowds every time.
I would wager that the Red Sox can draw in more fans a season than the struggling Orioles3 (48,800 in Camden Yards) and at least as many as their rivals, the Yankees (56,500 in Yankee Stadium). By this logic, Fenway Park is at least 10,000 seats too small.
So what should happen? Should the Red Sox build a new baseball stadium, raise prices to a level where scalpers won’t be able to make a profitable resale, and start counting their future revenue?
Well, maybe not.
Read More
I have no unifying story today so I am just going to toss a bunch of links and info with fun sights and sounds at you.
Let’s start with Sound. Have you ever wondered how exactly to say “EA Sports. It’s in the game.”? Well Andrew Anthony, the guy behind the words, is willing to teach you.
Next stop on the multimedia parade is Light, Read More
My original plan for the day involved a stirring commentary on the Boston Marathon, and how it reflects the wonderful sports culture of my beloved city. I had the framework in place and was starting to organize my thoughts and observations. I was all ready to start. And then all of my planning went into the trash can, courtesy of the starting rotation of the New York Yankees.
Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano found their way on to the Disabled List this week, joining fellow hurlers Chien-Ming Wang and Jeff Karstens, who have been riding the medicated pine since opening day. Three of the five projected starters and the projected long man are now out of action, with the Yankees sitting at 5-6. With the season at just two weeks old, it’s a bit early to start lamenting a lost campaign, but this is the kind of devastatingly bad luck that can doom a club.