I’ve found the perfect baby shower present. I’m trying to decide if pairing it with this would be too obnoxious. Just need to be careful and make sure the baby doesn’t grow up to be a construction worker.

I want to watch the Phillies game, but don’t want to spend $200+ on DirectTV’s MLB package or $120 on MLB.tv’s package. So, it’s MLB.com’s radio player instead. Not quite the same as being able to watch any game, any time at my desk.

Especially since he is now backing the Red Sox!

Another World Series appearance for the Sox… Boston is living the high life right now in sports. I’d be happier if they were facing the Phillies, but I’ll take what I can get.

I feel obligated to point out that the Red Sox look to be smarter than the Yankees front office at this point. Over the past 5 years or so (the Theo Epstein era), the Red Sox have managed to spend much smarter than the Yankees. Looking back at the different teams, Boston put their money on mid-reputation players with upside and focused their big money on pitching. The Yankees, on the other hand, have paid for a LOT of expensive bats and thrown together pitching almost haphazardly. Injuries have been a big part of the picture, too, but it’s hard to say that Brian Cashman (and Steinbrenner, however much he participates in personnel decisions ) have really shown good baseball sense since their last World Series championship in 2000.

And really, if not for Grady Little, the Yankees probably don’t make the Series in 2003, either. It’s a pretty amazing run the Yankees have had, but this year they lost the division, lost in the first round, and lost their best hope for future success, Joe Torre. I thought maybe it was time for him to move on, but looking back, he’s clearly not the problem. They don’t have the arms to compete. Torre is just a convenient fall guy…

ESPN’s piece on Phil Rizzuto’s career. The Yankees still suck, but Scooter was a class act by all accounts. Sad to see a baseball legend pass away.

At $18M per, he’s way overpriced. I like Barry Zito, but here are his stats for 2003-2006:

YEAR    G    IP     W   L   ERA   K/9
2003    35  231.2   14  12  3.30  5.67
2004    34  213.0   11  11  4.48  6.89
2005    35  228.1   14  13  3.86  6.74
2006    34  221.0   16  10  3.83  6.15

Yes, he has good numbers, but those numbers make him about 20th or so for K/9 and 10th for ERA. He’s a decent top tier pitcher, but this contract makes him the owner of the largest contract for a pitcher, ever. If he’s worth this, and he basically has had some awful postseason games, I don’t know what this does for Johan Santana and the hot youngsters when they come up to their free agent years. Alex Rodriguez may get a big weight taken off his shoulders soon, I think…

Did you know Bill Buckner was wearing a Cubs batting glove under his mitt? Apparently, neither did anyone else. Nice find, Sean.

mighty A-Rod has struck out.

Go Tigers!

I finally saw a Phillies game in their new park on Saturday. Not only that, but it was a big game. The Phillies were playing the Reds who happen to be the team holding on to the NL Wild Card. The Phillies were only two games back, so winning Saturday and Sunday would’ve brought them to a tie for the Wild Card. Unfortunately, the Phils lost after Tom Gordon gave up three runs late and a 9th inning rally fizzled with Howard at the plate.

The park is beautiful and our seats were pretty good. Here’s the view from our seats in left (click the picture for a larger version):

The park has good food, though we didn’t sample any of it. My favorite was the Peace A Pizza located in center:

Another first that night, Heidi actually scored (most of) the ballgame:

I was surprised when she asked for the scorecard, but she did a good job. Although, she seemed really fixated on knowing all the players’ first names.

I love sports. Black, white, Asian or whatever, all of us can be fans and all of us can root for our team. Sports goes beyond language and beyond culture. Only through sport could I understand how a Ghanian, a Frenchman, and an Brazilian all feel. Victory, defeat, frustration at those pesky officials, sport is universal.

This week’s P.O.V. showed how sport can also allow you to explore culture and uniqueness. Kokoyakyu shows the intense world of high school baseball in Japan, where over 4200 teams vie for 49 spots at Koshien. Through baseball, we see the traditions of an entire culture as we follow two teams, a public high school and a vaunted private academy as they try to get to Koshien.

P.O.V. usually only airs shortened versions of documentaries and this is one that I’m looking forward to watching all of. I wish American baseball games were like this. It resembles a raucous high school football game more than anything else.

You can watch the trailer at the link to the movie above. PBS has a ton of great resources and extras at the P.O.V. site for Kokoyakyu, and, as always, Wikipedia is a great place to start.

I knew this was possible, but I've never, ever seen it. Until now, that is:

That's a legit play. And, it was the game winning run. Amazing.

One thing I try to do whenever I travel is visit a baseball game in town if the city has an MLB team. I don’t have time on all of my trips, but if I do I try to make it over. While in Seattle, I did make a Mariners game, my first at Safeco field. While there, I tried to come up with the list of all the parks I’ve been to. Here it is:

Retired stadiums:

• Veterans Stadium - Philadelphia
• Fulton County Stadium - Atlanta

Been in, but didn’t see a game:

• Skydome - Toronto (may have seen a game, can’t remember)
• Olympic Stadium - Montreal

Current Stadiums:

• Camden Yards - Baltimore
• Fenway Park - Boston
• SBC Park - San Francisco
• Edison Field - Anaheim
• Yankee Stadium - New York
• Safeco Field - Seattle

That’s my list. I hope to add the new Phillies stadium very soon.

Feel free to post your list in the comments or leave a trackback if you blog it.