Going Yard is the words used by High School players around the country to describe hitting a home run with the Bat of the century. The Easton Stealth Baseball Bat is the bat of choice for most High School and College players from around the country. I remember my son hitting 5 out at practice one day. He hit one that hit the 2nd base on the next field that was located behind the Right field fence.
One thing that Atlanta area residents look forward to every year is when baseball season comes. The reason is because the Falcons in football are having major troubles with ex QB Michael Vick, the Hawks are barely hanging to a playoff spot and everyone is writing them off to lose to the Boston Celtics, and the Thrashers are somewhere near the bottom in hockey.
So it is obvious why they are ready for the Braves to play. The Braves have won their division 14 times, starting in the early ’90s. Well, to be truthful Atlanta has always felt passionate about their team. In the past two years since not winning their division, their fans still attended and wore their Atlanta Braves merchandise.
Most Atlanta residents are crazy about baseball because the Braves are reliable when it comes down to wins. They are not a losing squad like other Atlanta teams. The Braves have men who want to win every game they play and you can tell by how they play. The Braves organizations put together a winning combination of starters and closers from year to year.
Well the MLB season will officially start off on Tuesday morning (American time) in Japan as the Boston Red Sox take on the Oakland Athletics. Why Japan? MLB is trying to expand baseball beyond America, just like the NFL is playing one regular season game every year in Europe.
If you want to watch the Red Sox take on the Athletics Tuesday, then you will have to be up at 6 or 7 AM central time to see it. The game will actually be taking place at night in Japan but because of the time difference, it will be morning here as the two cities try to start off their season off with a win.
Boston hopes to use the momentum from their World Series sweep against the Colorado Rockies last October. The Oakland A’s hope to ruin their season opener.
To be honest, Boston is filled with fake fans because back about six years ago when the Red Sox wasn’t winning much, they couldn’t get enough people to come to the games in which their stadium holds just over 30,000 people. Now look at them now. They are arrogant and cocky because they have won two championships in the past four years. Most people would agree that Boston does a good job at traveling and Oakland does not. It will feel like Boston is playing a home game in their home stadium.
Being a true fan isn’t easy because it’s always easy to desert a team when they are playing embarrassing ball but you’ll feel much better if you tough it out through the thick and the thin.
Oakland is expected to be a strong contender in their division because of their pitching. Even though the game in Japan is expected to be primarily Red Sox Nation fans, Oakland will have at least a few hundred fans (maybe a few thousand) but that’s it. You will have to look extremely hard to see the Oakland Athletics merchandise or the Oakland A’s merchandise that is in Japan.
The St. Louis Cardinals didn’t waste anytime before putting Kyle Lohse to work. They wanted to see how good he was prior to signing him. He arrived at Jupiter and met with the team. He took a physical, threw some pitches during his session in the bullpen, and officially signed a one year contract with his new team.
There should be worry in the Cardinals clubhouse because this is Lohse’s fourth team that he is joining within the past two years. That is not good news. If a player is bounced around like a hot potato, then many can understand why the Cardinals chose to see him throw first before he signed on the dotted line.
It does sound a little bit strange because most managers and owners already know how good or bad a player is before they attempt to go after him but still in this world of sports there are not many guarantees.
One guarantee is that the Cardinals fans will show up in full force as they try to reclaim the division this year. The faithful Cardinals fans try to wear their St Louis Cardinals merchandise to games as try to cheer their team on to victory whether at home or on the road. Even though the Cardinals are not known for having a good road crowd, the few that are truly faithful make the long trip to some of America’s other ballparks.
What is baseball going to do about the alleged cheating scandals in baseball? Well, the heads of baseball including Bud Selig have to push for tougher punishments for violators.
It almost seems as if the punishment does not fit the crime. If the league really wants to drastically cut down on the number of steroid and HGH offenders, then they should increase the penalty. Currently there is a 50 game penalty for the first offense and a 100 game penalty for the second offense. The third offense is a lifetime ban.
To many people that is like seeing signs and ignoring them and hoping that things will get better. The league should send a stronger message that using steroids, HGH, and other illegal substances are not only cheating because they cause an unfair playing advantage and also they cause a serious health threat.
The penalty should be a one hundred game punishment and emphasize that the next time it were to occur that serious measures have to be taken and lifetime ban has to happen no later than the second offense.
It is a good thing that New York has two MLB franchises because it sorts of deflects a little attention from the Big Apple’s team of the Yankees. Well, with the recent acquisition of the ex-Twins pitcher, Johan Santana, that is reason enough to keep the Big Apple in the news. If the Yankees fans abandon their historied franchise because of true scandals, then the New York baseball faithful have to look at the New York Mets instead, since they were embarrassingly eliminated contention in the last few weeks of the prior season.
Mets players will make sure that kind of collapse doesn’t happen again. Either way, it is predicted for the Mets to sell out this year and also a new barrage of New York Mets merchandise is expected to be out just in time for the regular season.
Pete Rose was a great baseball player. After being accused of gambling, while he was a manager for the Cincinnati Reds and having a long and exhausting investigation. Pete Rose was banned from by style, because of this meaning he has never been allowed to be in the baseball Hall of Fame. There’s really mixed emotions about disbanding and about the fact that Pete Rose cannot be in the Hall of Fame. It is very sad that the leading hitter of all time is being left out of our Hall of Fame. It is like the Hall of Fame is not inclusive of everything for every body that should be in. Rose is very differently a great baseball player, and if not for the fact that he had bet on baseball. He would most actually be deserving of being in our Hall of Fame. But the fact remains that Pete Rose did that on by style, and then he lied about it. He told his fans. He told the press. He told everyone that he did not bet on baseball, which he later came back and said it was a lie. So even though he was a great baseball player fact remains that his integrity and his lack of honesty is the very thing that is keeping him out of the Hall.