30 Teams

15 Games

Opening Day:

https://youtu.be/GfeGAct-wN4

After a long, dreary Winter, Baseball begins.

I’ll be watching the Blue Jays attend the Boogie Down in the Bronx. On the bump, Cole for the Bombers versus former Dodger Hyun Jin Ryu for the Jays. About 4000 fans will be in the stands. A sliver of normalcy after a weird, fanless, shortened 2020 season.

I will be looking for a Dodgers game...cannot cheer for the Jays.

Can’t cheer for the Jays? They’re a young, fun team. And Montoyo is the man!

Of course you get Kershaw today at Coors Field. 2pm on ESPN. Dodgers are built to repeat, no doubt about it. Another great year to watch the boys in LA.

Been a fan of the Dodgers since they were in Brooklyn...and...well...it's Toronto..and I'm in Alberta...hehe

Human Wrote:
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> I’ll be watching the Blue Jays attend the Boogie Down in the Bronx.

Growing up in L.A. in the 1960's, of course I was a Dodgers fan. In my professional career I was fortunate to meet many of the players I idolized as a kid. Koufax, Drysdale, Sutton. Wills, Parker, Roseboro, etc. A dream come true.

The Dodgers are my "fall back" team now as for the past 20 years I have been pulling for the Rays. I am not a "Yankee Hater", I give them mad respect. However, I root for my friends and thus today will be pulling for the Blue Jays and my buddy Charlie Montoyo. But not when they play the Rays!!

Love these kinds of stories, especially of the storied, like Koufax etc.

As a long time Tiger fan, I was a long time Yankee hater. Pulled for the Dodgers in those late 70s World Series. Loved Dusty; hate Reggie. But, late-n-life fraud that I am, I’ve been watching the Yankees for the past four years.

Rays are a fascinating Club. Mad respect for the whole organization. Last year, on 40 or so million, wow. Pity Snell is gone, though. And he along with the rest of the Padres are gonna bedevil the hell out of the Dodgers this year. Great rivalry to watch.

Alright. Here we go. Cheers!

What about the Mariners?

another 'rebuilding year'?


ah, but the sunny summer days, choice of brews, and taking the train to & from the stadium, those make it worthwhile!!

buying tickets from scalpers? That's an art I'm telling you!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2021 12:58PM by GNPE.

Ha!

When I lived in Seattle, in the days of the old Kingdome, at the beginning of the Griffey jr. era, not a scalper in sight, even then.

Fond memories. We’d walk down from Capitol Hill for an afternoon game early enough to look around Elliott Bay books for a while. It use to be down there in Pioneer Square.

Enjoy the Season!

Safeco Field looks like a nice ballpark. We hope to get there as soon as everything gets back to normal.

Human Wrote:
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> Safeco Field was re-named to T-Mobile a few months ago, but the main features remain or so I've been told.

I love the seating arrangements but I need back support so either a stadium seat in the bleachers or higher prices for me; Nose Bleed, anyone? Will opening day be sold-out?

Another Mariner baseball season.

Another rebuilding season.

Any good prospects traded to avoid big salaries.

Another 'Wait until next year' season.

Maybe not

Lots of good baseball this year from the Mariners, and so close! AL Wild Card was a nail-biter right to 162 for four teams.

Kyle Seager received a nice send-off. (Still unclear if the Mariners will pay him 20mil for another season or give him two to walk away.)

Now it’s Kraken time in Seattle…(bring back the SuperSonics!)

I don't know if it was sold out, but, like I say, I couldn't find tickets for under hundreds of dollars... and I don't pay HUNDREDS of dollars for a ticket (to a ball game).

On the radio a few minutes ago was a show on the subject of baseball.

The person said we don't need to change the game, but how it is played: by making the fields bigger, making it further to hit a homerun and the outfielders play deeper, allowing more balls to drop in (rather than be caught as an out). And more individuals succeed on hits...

There was something about how to get more people to attend.

MAKE IT POSSIBLE: by having reasonably priced tickets, cheaper beer (like $3-$5), and resurrect Harry Carey, Billy Martin, Tonmmy Lasorda, Sparky Anderson, Pete Rose, George Brett...

When I see empty ballparks in July and August, like in Cincinnati or wherever (even Yankee stadium was eerily emptier this season), I think along the same lines as you’re thinking: why can’t these billionaire owners just open up the parks for five bucks a seat and make some money on concessions, apparel and memorabilia?

I was around in those days. Before Cellphones-
Ahh, summer in the Emerald City (in the 90s).
Elliot Bay bookstore... what a place!
A Mariners game, downtown Seattle.
Those were the days, and nights.

they won their first series (2 to 1 of 3 games?)!!!

they're off to a good start, time will tell...

Well GNPE, are you still excited about the Mariners?

Not that I care. I'm done with professional sports.

Following in the NBA's footsteps, MLB has increased its connections with China. They're developing 100 professional baseball teams in 20 cities. Maybe the Chinese can sew hardballs cheaper than Haitians.

How cheap can they sew Hatians?

Actually, MLB should probably look to Japan for its balls…

Human Wrote:
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> Actually, MLB should probably look to Japan for
> its balls…


Did they hit them over there?

We used to be able to forget our differences, join together, and cheer. Not anymore. "Normalcy" may ring, but it's a new, sickening normal.

Yeah...politics in sports is driving me further away. Funny, since my experience with pro athletes was that they were not the brightest bulbs in the tanning bed. My opinion hasn't changed. I guess there are people out there though who, for some reason, are influenced by them.

Here is the latest stupid -

https://www.yahoo.com/news/moving-mlb-star-game-denver-161509658.html

Do professional athletes cede their rights to free speech? Do sports businesses lose their right to do what benefits their bottom lines?

I hate to see sports politicized, but I have some sympathy for the possibility of a boycott of the Chinese Olympics due to the country's genocide in Xinjiang. By the same token, I'm not sure why African-American athletes and their colleagues must give their imprimatur to laws aimed at denying them and those like them the right to vote.

In political matters, inaction speaks as loudly as action.

Yeah, and if tickets (digital only; no souvenir/ proof; NO REAL TICKETS, sold IN-PERSON, at a fair price; every ticket website said there were tickets available... for $xxx.xx/ $x,xxx.xx) weren't hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars (average $650-$800+ for 2 tickets), I was considering opening day!

I have a rule: NEVER pay more for a ticket than the players themselves could afford.

° PLAY BALL °

The days of baseball games being a casual family outing are dead and gone. Now parents have to plan--and budget--a major league game like their summer vacation. Understandably, a lot of major-league tickets go through corporate sales.

A triple-A franchise is relocating in my newly adopted city. I will look into that, though. Otherwise, politics + costs + scandals = "I'm done with MLB." I'm delighted to report my hometown team is off to a pathetic start.

On a minor, but related point: I was talking with a money man for a major league team, and remarked, "I heard that a serving of beer from a commercial keg costs about a nickel. I wonder if that's true." He took out of his phone, and did some informal arithmetic. He answered, "I figure that with the cost of the beer, labor, taxes, labor, and the souvenir cup, it costs us about 50 cents for the 16-ounce serving."

As of five years ago, they charge $9 (domestic) to $12 (craft) per serving.

That's why they say BYOB

I couldn't figure if it meant BEER or BASEBALL...

So I brought them both, lol

I'm On It or I'm In It - to lose it or to win it!

(Sometimes it's hard to tell) lol

Thanks caffiend

Watched a bit of baseball on my recent trip with a friend who is an avid Cardinals fan. I couldn't quite get what he meant when he said it was more exciting than my preferred game of football (world football,that is) A game that moves at the speed of ketchup compared with 90 minute free flowing football is more exciting? I have determined he means more gratification when action breaks out. I think it must be the spitting he was talking about.

Watching the Canadian women win the Gold medal for Football at this year’s Olympics was extremely exciting and gratifying.

The look on Bill Murray’s face after Rizzo receives the ball on 1st for the last out in the 2016 World Series is something else, something more than excitement and gratification.


But to your point, yes, sheer boredom is part & parcel with the game. 162 is no joke, for players and fans alike. Spitting is about all one can do. But this boredom is what gives that special baseball piquancy when something does happen. And when your friend’s Cards go 17 in a row, right when they needed to, well…

Think of Ode to Joy, pretty darn good when isolated; but it is larger, grander and far more resonant when listened to as part & parcel with the “boring” bits that lead up to it.

(Many baseball people don’t understand this. They’re desperate to come up with ways to make baseball move at a faster pace, to become more exciting. This is folly. The essence of baseball is pastoral, and must be preserved.)

"But this boredom is what gives that special baseball piquancy when something does happen. And when your friend’s Cards go 17 in a row, right when they needed to, well…"

"Think of Ode to Joy, pretty darn good when isolated; but it is larger, grander and far more resonant when listened to as part & parcel with the “boring” bits that lead up to it."

COMMENT: I love this observation and analogy! Although I do not have the required patience to watch ANY sporting event from beginning to end, I *do* love the 5 minute TV highlights when it is all over! Or, at the end when its close, and something might happen at any moment, but, thank God, the end is in sight. No doubt I am missing something besides a beer and a hotdog.

As for Beethoven's 9th, unfortunately I go straight to the last movement, and like you say; Oh how wondrous it is. I suppose it is even better when you suffer through from the beginning of the first movement and finally get this awesome reward; kind of life, 'So, this is what all this is about!' I will have to try it some time. :)

While we are on the subject of music, I like music where there is something new and exciting happening all the time: For example:

1) Miles Davis (Fusion period)
2) Weather Report
3) Glenn Gould's Bach
4) Fela Kuti (Afrobeat)

Your thoughts? . . . . Please.

Hey man, long time no see! Just about to shut the device down and get on with it, glad I saw this first. Trust all is well?

Your Giants might win the whole thing this year! Keep your eyes peeled, it’s October.

Quick to noughts on music: Jazz jazz and more jazz for us during the Winter. Fireplace, Malbec and jazz is how we get through. I throw in a Symphony now and then (often Sibelius) And I think of you whenever I play Gould’s Goldberg Variations.

I’m up against it. Send me an email!

Cheers, bud.

Go Giants

Pastoral? Kind of like cricket but without the break for tea.

The Twins will need to hire people to shovel out the seats at the rate spring is coming here. Might have to dress for an outdoor hockey game.

Normalcy. Is this some kind of trick?

I'm thinking that too.
There doesn't seem to be anything significant added to warrant resurrecting so many old threads.

A great read that combines baseball with Civil War asction is Play for a Kingdom by Thomas Dyja.

It's time to play baseball, almost.

Bigger bags this year. I forgot what else-
It's still a ways away, so now we say...

What else is new?

Anyone throwing knuckleballs this year?