Baseball!!!

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by brownjenkins
i think this may be becoming less and less true since the yankees spend so much more than most other teams (which the red sox do too, to a smaller extent)... when you start to approach spending five times what other teams spend (or even twice as much) you don't even have to spend all that money wisely

yeah Im waiting for the day when steinbrenner realizes hey... why dont I just hire EVERY baseball player in the majors! Bingo: guaranteed championship every year.

[gdl96]

The Mets spend a lot of money too, but look at them.

I think its safe to say the Yankees now have one of the best batting lineups in the league. If the Yankee's could have gotten a few more hits during the World Series last year, things might have been different.

But pitching is still vital, and its the biggest uncertainty for the Yankees this season. Their rotation should be pretty good, but their bullpen worries me.

Btw, I'm going to the first Yankees vs Red Sox game at Yankees Stadium this season.

[brownjenkins]

Originally posted by gdl96
Btw, I'm going to the first Yankees vs Red Sox game at Yankees Stadium this season.

very nice... i went to a sox/yankees game at fenway two years back... always a blast

[Janny]

Baseball, eh? Isn't that rounders for those who are too scared of English female PE teachers? And how come you Americans with the World Series every bloody year?

[Grey_Wolf]

What is particularly base about this ball. Is this league a place of particularly low morals?

[Tuor of Gondolin]

originally posted by Janny
Baseball, eh? Isn't that rounders for those who are too scared of English female PE teachers? And how come you Americans win the World Series every bloody year?
______________________________
Isn't baseball basically organized, speeded-up, and rationalized cricket? Only really interesting cricket game I saw was when Doctor Who replaced The Master in a game in "Black Orchid."
Is rounders cricket?

[Janny]

Is rounders cricket?

Way to offend the Aussies and New Zealanders! We in England of course don't play cricket in its recognised form (i.e. we play it very poorly).
Rounders is the sport which baseball developed from; the ball must go forward of the batsman, but not only between first and third and fourth base isn't also where you start out. Cricket is completely different. The ball goes in all directions around the ground. I wouldn't say baseball is rationalised cricket... just because cricketers wear funny clothes. Anyway, it's a sport based around set-pieces, just like rounders or baseball. And Gridiron Football in fact.

[GrayMouser]

"Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended."
-- George Bernard Shaw

[Janny]

Oh that too. Slipped my mind. Standard duration of baseball game < 24 hrs.

Plus why is 'socks' spelt 'sox'?

[Tuor of Gondolin]

Originally posted by Janny
Plus why is 'socks' spelt 'sox'?
____________________________
Plus I heard two guys on the ESPN radio sports talk station seriously debating whether the team should be referred to as the Red "Sok" or the Red "Soks." They seemed to finally conclude it should be Red "Sok." Aaaaagh!

[Janny]

I'm from England. I'm clueless. Does Sox actually refer to footwear?

[Beruthiel's cat]

There are three teams in Major League Baseball here in the States that have names derived from the footwear they wore with their uniforms at the turn of the last century:

The Boston Red Stockings (now referred to as "Sox" or an abreviation of "Socks")

The Chigaco White Stockings (see above notation)

And the Cincinati Red Legs (now referred to in abreviated fashion as the "Cincinati Reds").

There are, of course, a host of animal names (Tigers, Cubs, Marlins) strange anomalies (Yankess, Mets -- short for Metropolitans, Dodgers) and controversial mascots (Braves, Indians).

If you have any other questions, I'll get in touch with my brother, the walking, talking baseball stats book.

[Tuor of Gondolin]

I wonder if in the U. K. they've heard of the Curse of the Bambino?" Here's one description:
http://www.bambinoscurse.com/whatis/

Of course, since the Philadelphia Phillies have won just one World Series in well over a century, and, I believe, have lost more games then any other major league team, it's hard to be too sympathetic for New England baseball fans.

Although the Philadelphia Athletics won some W.S. with the legendary Connie Mack before leaving for Kansas City and then Oakland.

[Insidious Rex]

Well this is amusing and topical if nothing else regarding the infomous Steve Bartman muffed ball:

Grant DePorter, who helped buy the ball at a December auction for $113,824 on behalf of Harry Caray's Restaurant Group, has lined up three hours of music, comedy and celebrity appearances leading up to the climactic event -- everything short of Steve Bartman, the hapless fan who deflected the ball during Game 6 of the NL championship series.

The ball will be sent into oblivion by Michael Lantieri, an Oscar winner who wrecks things for a living and has worked on such movies as Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. Lantieri, a Cubs die-hard himself, would not reveal his exact demolition plans but admitted he has been blowing up a dozen balls a day in his California lab in preparation.

"That ball's gotta go," said DePorter, managing partner of the restaurant group, which organized the event as part of its annual tribute to Caray, the beloved Cubs broadcaster who died six years ago Thursday. "It's like the ring from The Lord of the Rings and we're kind of like Frodo, trying to get it over with."

[Janny]

No I hadn't heard of the curse, but it's interesting... we don't get that kinda curse in the UK... shame really.
The only baseball thing that was on the news in the UK in the last age is that guy in the crowd that caught the ball that was a famous home run total hit by that guy (names are hazey ) and then sold and someone claimed it wasn't real... then I lost track because only me caring wasn't enough people to put it on the news.

BTW I've only heard of Babe Ruth through Seinfeld (something else we could only indulge in at 5 past midnight on week-days, before it was cancelled cuz no-one watched it... WELL DONE BBC ). Anyway, George worn Babe Ruth's uniform and spilt food down it in a bid to get fired... ahh Georgy boy!

[Believe it or not George isn't at home, please leave your message at the beep! I jst be out or I'd pick up the phone, where could I be?]

[Beruthiel's cat]

Originally posted by Insidious Rex
Well this is amusing and topical if nothing else regarding the infomous Steve Bartman muffed ball:

"That ball's gotta go," said DePorter, managing partner of the restaurant group, which organized the event as part of its annual tribute to Caray, the beloved Cubs broadcaster who died six years ago Thursday. "It's like the ring from The Lord of the Rings and we're kind of like Frodo, trying to get it over with."

---------------------------------------------------------

I always thought that being a baseball fan would keep me somewhat distanced from being a complete geek. Now I discover that baseball fans are Tolkien geeks. too.! Who'd-a-thunk-it??

Oh well, I'm proud to be a Tolkien/baseball geek!

[GrayMouser]

Originally posted by Tuor of Gondolin
Originally posted by Janny
Plus why is 'socks' spelt 'sox'?
____________________________
Plus I heard two guys on the ESPN radio sports talk station seriously debating whether the team should be referred to as the Red "Sok" or the Red "Soks." They seemed to finally conclude it should be Red "Sok." Aaaaagh!

The names of sports teams, on the other hand, are treated as plurals, regardless of the form of that name. We would write that "The Yankees have signed a new third baseman" and "The Yankees are a great organization" (even if we're Red Sox fans) and that "For two years in a row, the Utah Jazz have attempted to draft a big man." When we refer to a team by the city in which it resides, however, we use the singular, as in "Dallas has attempted to secure the services of two assistant coaches that Green Bay hopes to keep." (This is decidedly not a British practice. In England, the city names by which British newspapers refer to soccer teams, for example, are used as plurals — a practice that seems odd and inconsistent to American ears: "A minute's silence will precede the game at Le Stadium today, when Toulouse play Munster, and tomorrow at Lansdowne Road, when Leinster attempt to reach their first European final by beating Perpignan" [report in the online London Times].)

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/plurals.htm

Though linguist Steven Pinker points out that the plural of "a Toronto Maple Leaf" is "the Toronto Maple Leafs" (not "Maple Leaves")

But, "a Minnesota Timberwolves player", not "a Minnesota Timberwolf"

[Valandil]

Originally posted by Beruthiel's cat
"That ball's gotta go," said DePorter, managing partner of the restaurant group, which organized the event as part of its annual tribute to Caray, the beloved Cubs broadcaster who died six years ago Thursday. "It's like the ring from The Lord of the Rings and we're kind of like Frodo, trying to get it over with."

Silly Cubs fans!! Oh... that's ME!!

[crickhollow]

Originally posted by Janny
The only baseball thing that was on the news in the UK in the last age is that guy in the crowd that caught the ball that was a famous home run total hit by that guy (names are hazey ) and then sold and someone claimed it wasn't real...

Then you guys missed out on my favorite baseball moment: Spring training a few years back when a clueless pigeon happened to fly right in the path of a Randy Johnson 106-mile-an-hour fast ball...POOF!

[Beruthiel's cat]

Originally posted by crickhollow
Then you guys missed out on my favorite baseball moment: Spring training a few years back when a clueless pigeon happened to fly right in the path of a Randy Johnson 106-mile-an-hour fast ball...POOF!

And don't forget Reggie Jackson and the seagull. That one goes waaaaay back!