Farewell, Kerry Wood.
Paige, who plays second base at Mesa Prep, had to sit out two previous games against Our Lady of Sorrows out of respect for its beliefs. But having her miss the championship was not an option for Mesa Prep.
So rather than face a girl baseball player, due to their ‘beliefs’ this school forfeits the title game of their stupid charter school baseball association. The fact they even have a separate league is a joke to begin with, but then you have this silliness. I feel bad for the kid, I doubt it was a decision made by the team itself by rather by adults.
In their two previous games, you read correct…she sat those games out in deference to the other team.
(via heysportsblog)
Rockies lost to the New York Mets on Saturday night.
What were Maple Leafs fans chanting during Toronto’s 11th straight home loss Thursday night?
At the end of the practice, the two teams decide to play one inning, mixed lineups. Gingo Solomon, a pitcher from Jinja who sneaked away from his father to make the trip, strikes out two of his three batters, one on a nasty changeup that catches the low, outside corner. Colby Ring, a left-hander, works out of a small jam in his inning when Gingo grounds out to second.
“They are very good, the Canadians,” Gingo says. “But I think that we shall beat them.”
He may very well be right. Man, they can play.
Finally.
Uganda v. Canada, Finally. (via ESPN)
The heartbreaking story of the Rev. John Foundation team that became the first African team to qualify for the Little League World Series by beating perennial favorite Saudi Arabia in the Middle East/Africa regional in Kutno, Poland, this past summer, only to be told that too many of their players did not have the documentation to warrant visas. (Saudi Arabia went in the Ugandans’ place, losing to Langley 6-5 in the first game of the International bracket.) They later organized this exchange between the would-be contenders in Uganda late last summer.
(via heysportsblog)
OK, you know about 1936. And you might know about 1937 — that year Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker and Cy Young were voted in by the writers. In 1938, Pete Alexander — known officially as Grover Cleveland Alexander — was voted in. In 1939 (the year the Hall of Fame officially opened), three more players — George Sisler, Eddie Collins and Wee Willie Keeler — were voted into the Hall of Fame by the writers. At the end of that year, the writers decided to have a special vote to put in Lou Gehrig immediately, something they would do again later for Roberto Clemente.
What you might not know (I didn’t) is at that point — during that 1939 meeting — the writers just stopped.
Stopped? Well, yes. Technically speaking, they STOPPED THEMSELVES. In December 1939 the writers decided that they would have an election every THREE YEARS instead of every year. I’m not entirely sure why they did this, but I have a pretty good guess. I think it comes from a phenomenon that I sometimes call “Parking Lot Power Trip.”
You may have noticed this, too: Often, it seems to me, people will lose their minds when they are given a little area to protect. You will see it best, perhaps, in the parking lots of sporting events, especially the biggest ones. Every single year at events like the Indianapolis 500 or the Super Bowl or the World Series (but also at particularly busy high school football game) you see people in orange vests running around the parking lots — people who, just the day before, were as friendly and generous as anyone else — only they have suddenly and temporarily turned into mini-tyrants. Hey, watch it buddy. You can’t go there. You’ve got to turn around. I don’t care who you know. You are not allowed in here. That’s not my problem. Your parking pass isn’t being displayed properly. You are not welcome here. And so on. They say power corrupts — well, I suspect that even a tiny jolt of power can do it.
Longoria’s walk-off home run instantly is one of the most famous regular season home runs in baseball history, right up there in the company of Hank Aaron’s pennant-clinching homer for Milwaukee in 1957 or — this is not as heretical as you might think — Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round The World in 1951. It lacks only the New York amplification of Thomson’s homer. It makes Longoria, already one of the game’s great players, a transcendent cultural player.
There is Dan Johnson, whose unknown baseball life suddenly is forever preserved in baseball lore. There is Robert Andino, who forever is an enemy of the state in Red Sox Nation. There is Joe Maddon, the wild-haired bespectacled nutty professor of a manager who just pulled off the greatest September comeback in history on a shoestring budget, baling wire, duct tape and a sense of humor and perspective not even possible anymore in Boston with the expectations on the high-rolling Red Sox.
I thought this last night. Teams need these moments that establish their lore. For the Rays, a team that have been to the World Series but play in an old stadium in a market where they are largely forgotten, this was the kind of moment that solidifies a franchise’s history and establishes them into baseball history forever.
I was happy to witness it.
First the Marlins, now the Jays? Uni Watch has confirmed that the Blue Jays are taking it back to the old school (sort of) with a new logo for the 2012 season. Can’t wait to see the uni’s.
my transformation from Twins fandom to Blue Jays fandom gets even closer to completion
Funny, I was a Twins fan before I was a Jays fan. But happy that we’re finally going back to the old 1979-1994 logo. It’s overdue!
Calvin Marshall (2009)
Calvin Marshall is in his third year of junior college. He loves baseball and dreams of being sought after by little kids for autographs and lessons on baseball prowess. It’s not for a lack of trying. It’s just that, despite his trying he’s just not that good. Except, he’s too delusional to know that.
He also hosts the school’s sports broadcast and works in the athletic department doing stats for games. He’s well-known and well liked, if dimwitted. He comes into contact with the best player on the volleyball team, a girl who spurned major college offers because she needed to stay close to home. Once Calvin gets the sight of her, he can’t let go.
Steven Zahn is hilarious as Calvin’s baseball coach and this is a well-acted character driven story about coming of age with lots of faces you won’t recognize. It’s a bit plodding at times and it’s not all happy, but on the whole an enjoyable low-budget flick.
