Major League Baseball ToDay

What began two years ago as a bold statement has grown into a baseball tradition.

Bidding is under way for seven signed pink Louisville Sluggers. Three pink bats bear the autographs of Yankees stars Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. This bat could become a part of your New York Yankees merchandise.

The other four are each signed by Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo and Sam Champion.

“It’s about bringing awareness to breast cancer and raising money for research so we can stop cancer and save lives,” said John A. Hillerich IV.

Last year there was a huge increase in the number of players who swung pink bats for at least part of their games. Expect even more this time. The breast-cancer-awareness theme will be carried throughout the Mother’s Day games, including pink-ribbon logos on bases, uniform patches, pink wristbands, commemorative home plates, pink merchandise and pink dugout lineup cards.

“We expected that this would be something that would draw a lot of interest,” Hillerich said two years ago, at the inception, “but it has far exceeded our expectations. It is wild around here. People are calling, wanting to buy a pink bat. It’s crazy. The good thing is that it’s drawing attention to the cause.”

What’s wrong with Chico from the Nationals?

Chico had his third consecutive subpar outing in the Nationals’ 7-0 loss to the Cubs on Saturday. He lasted four innings and gave up five runs on eight hits, falling to 0-5. In his last three games, Chico has allowed 16 runs in 13 innings.

Chico didn’t execute his pitches in the first two innings. In the top of the first inning, which lasted 18 minutes, the Cubs scored three runs. Mark DeRosa highlighted the scoring with a two-run single. The next inning was just as bad, as Chico gave up a two-run double to Derrek Lee.

Chico, who never established his fastball in the game, agreed with St. Claire’s assessment that he is pressing on the mound.

“I think I’m trying to do too much. I just have to settle down and let everything happen,” Chico said. “I’m trying to get out of the rut that I’m in.”

Chico hesitantly said that he is not worried about his job.

Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano (Big Z) was on the opposite side of the spectrum. Zambrano held the Nationals to five hits, while striking out five batters. The only time the Nationals made any serious threat was in the first and seventh innings. In the first, Washington had runners on first and third with two outs, but Lastings Milledge struck out to end the inning.

In the seventh, they had runners on second and third with two outs, but Zimmerman struck out swinging.

“He comes right after you,” catcher Johnny Estrada said. “He pounds the strike zone. He believes in his fastball. It’s overpowering. It’s good enough to get you out. He doesn’t go out there throwing meatballs. He locates from both sides of the plate. He rarely pitches in patterns.”

Nationals fans don’t want any more losing lopsided performances from their starting pitcher. They were ready to celebrate in their new ballpark with their Washington Nationals merchandise but it doesn’t look like they will be doing much of anything but watching in disbelief.

Even with some early-season injuries, lineup changes and inconsistent hitting, the Astros’ defense has never wavered.

Their play in the field has been outstanding.

So far this year, the Astros have committed only three errors. This is the fewest in the National League.

“I think they’ve made all the plays they’ve had to make,” manager Cecil Cooper said. A lot of the Astros extraordinary defense goes back to Spring Training. They were making the defensive stops then and now that they are doing it in the regular season is no surprise to anyone. Fundamentals are what every coach and manager emphasize. He also said, “Those are some of the first things we talked about — making sure the plays that we have to make, that we make them.”

The Astros made those plays in Spring Training, and the countless hours of practice they put in have carried over to the regular season.

They are a team to be reckoned with. If the game is close, the Astros will probably win.

The Astros fans do appreciate the fact that their team is the best defensive team in the National League. Even though the Astros haven’t been attending games like they did last year, the many thousands that come to the games wear their Houston Astros merchandise as they cheer their team on.

The Pirates knew what it is like to lose consecutive games. They now know what it is like to lose consecutive extra-inning games.

They just want to find a way to get timely hitting so they can come from behind in games and get a win.

They have played 4 extra-inning games so far and that can be very tiresome for any team. Pittsburgh played a 12 game versus the Cubs and lost it. On Wednesday, they played 15 innings and lost by a bigger margin.

The truth is they have to start winning extra-inning games. The momentum from one extra inning game is taken into the next one. If you lost, then you will probably lose the next extra-inning game.

Just add this one, a 6-4 defeat at the hands of the Cubs at PNC Park, to the list of deflating defeats the Pirates have had only a week into the season.

It had to be heartbreaking by the way it happened. From the first seven innings, people thought the Pirates had no chance of winning. Jason Bay gave up a ninth inning homer, which sent that game into extra innings.

That was likely true for many of the 9,735 fans in the stands who were watching Cubs starter Ryan Dempster post zeros on the scoreboard with seemingly little effort.

The small crowd that was brave enough to even show up at PNC Park had their Pittsburgh Pirates merchandise. But down to their last at-bat in both the ninth and 14th innings, the Pirates rode the momentum of their slumping heart-of-the-order hitters to pump a few extra breaths into the offense.

The Cubs beat the Pirates (not in extra innings) in the third game and swept them.

There are 162 games in the regular season and each one is of the utmost importance. Some seem to think that games in the later part of the season count more than the earlier games.

Well, the last time I checked, each game counts as either 1 win or 1 loss. The games at the end mean just as much as the ones at the beginning of the season. If a team wins their games in the beginning, then there is less stress to win them in the end.

Some teams continue to support their team no matter how their season goes. Teams like the Toronto Blue Jays see a good attendance despite never have won a World Series. They also support their team by wearing Toronto Blue Jays merchandise.

It really doesn’t matter how many games you win because in the end all that really matters is if you won the World Series or not. Often times a superb team gets knocked out of the playoffs and the underdog wins.

To be honest, teams have to do just enough to get by in the regular season but they have to bring their best stuff come playoff time.  

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 2^nd 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.