This Is An Interesting Group Picture

Baseballerinas

(Bits&Pieces.us)

And It's Going To Continue For A While

MLB attendance for the 2018 season thus far has been well below the Mendoza line. Boasting just 27,328 per game, attendance is down 6.6% from this date last year and 8.6% overall. You don’t have to be a sabermetrics savant to know that this is the baseball equivalent of an 11.50 ERA.

(BroBible.com)

This Is An Annual Spring Tradition

(Facebook.com)

I See What's Going On There

(Bits&Pieces.us)

I Believe In The Jinx

(BroBible.com)

How Amazing Is An MLB Hitter's Eye Sight?

(CavemanCircus.com)

I Ask, Does Anyone Still Care?

Now in its fourth season, there's no end in sight for the Dodgers' TV blackout

There is no end in sight to the dispute between DirecTV and Charter Communications, which inherited the mess when it bought Time Warner Cable. (Charter sells cable service under the Spectrum brand name.)

This is the fourth season of the Dodgers’ television blackout. The team has won the National League West in each of the previous three seasons. Meanwhile the team-owned SportsNet LA channel that carries the games has been unavailable in millions of homes in Southern California that don’t have Spectrum.

How many fans switched to Spectrum in April and May after the 10-game KTLA package?

Charter won’t say.

Charter is pitching Spectrum as the only place to see the Dodgers — “No Spectrum? No Dodgers!” — in its advertising. Are there a lot of Dodgers fans that have not switched?

Yes. The KTLA broadcasts were seen in an average of 105,000 DirecTV households and another 20,000 AT&T U-Verse households — in sum, half again as many households as see an average SportsNet LA broadcast. (AT&T is the parent company of DirecTV.)

Until DirecTV loses a critical mass of subscribers because it does not air the Dodgers, industry analysts say, there is little incentive for the company to pay Charter for the right to carry SportsNet LA.

So none of those Dodgers fans have complained to DirecTV about missing their team on TV?

Sure they have. They might even threaten to switch to Spectrum. But, whether the fans do not actually want to deal with the hassle of changing providers, or whether DirecTV persuades them to stay by giving them free NFL Sunday Ticket or other goodies, the bottom line is that too few have switched to affect DirecTV’s bottom line.

How did the Dodgers get into this mess?

Time Warner Cable agreed to pay the Dodgers a record $8.35 billion over 25 years in exchange for the exclusive right to sell SportsNet LA to other cable and satellite providers. But no carrier besides TWC and Charter agreed to carry SportsNet LA, with DirecTV the most prominent outlet to just say no.

Are the fans stuck with this contract for the next 21 years? Are the Dodgers exploring how they can modify the deal, or walk away from it in search of a deal that would end the blackout?

The Dodgers say it’s premature to conclude this deal doesn’t work if DirecTV won’t negotiate in what the team considers good faith.

(LATimes.com)

It Was Good To Be Derek Jeter

In honor of Jeter’s number retirement 

(CavemanCircus.com)

You Can't Make Stuff Like This Up

Tim Tebow Hit A Home Run In His First Minor League At-Bat Against Pitcher Picked No. 666 In The Draft 

Here’s more proof that Tim Tebow is the second coming of Jesus Christ.

[April 6], Tebow hit his first home run while making his first appearance at bat for the Columbia Fireflies against pitcher Domenic Mazza.

Coincidentally Mazza was the 666th pick in the 2015 MLB draft. 

(BroBible.com)

A Thought To Ponder

(BroBible.com)

I Shall Now Be Called, Batman

(CavemanCircus.com)

The Evolution Of The Baseball

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That's A Damn Good Question

Which 16-year dynasty reigns supreme: Patriots or Yankees?

The New England Patriots have defied nearly everything about the NFL, especially its insistence that championship-level teams get dragged back to the pack sooner rather than later. For 16 years they have outperformed and outsmarted a system built around parity and equal opportunity, inspiring fans to search for a modern equivalent in a different sport.

When it comes to all things New England, New York is the first and last place to look for a rival. And in this case, the 1996-2011 New York Yankees belong in the conversation with the 2001-2016 Patriots.

Scott Pioli/Nick Caserio vs. Brian Cashman

This is a tough one to call, given Belichick's final say in personnel. Both sides have had their hits and misses, though high-schoolers' eligibility makes pre-draft evaluations in baseball tougher. Pioli didn't succeed while running his own program in Kansas City but has bounced back to help another former Patriots staffer, Thomas Dimitroff, put the Falcons in the Super Bowl. (Caserio has yet to go out on his own.) Cashman gets credit for four of the Yanks' five titles (he was Bob Watson's assistant for this first one), for weathering Boss Steinbrenner's storms, for flying solo in New York for such a long time and for transitioning to a promising Yankees youth movement without suffering a losing season along the way. He has had significant financial advantages over his football counterparts and, for the most part, he has taken advantage of them. Edge: Yankees

Kraft vs. George/Hal

Kraft made it to seven of his eight Super Bowls in the designated 16-year period, and the Steinbrenners made it to seven of their 11 World Series in theirs. George Steinbrenner is best-known as a founding father of free agency, even as an impetuous owner who twice got himself banned from baseball, once for life (though he was later reinstated). Whereas Torre had to manage Steinbrenner's personality in the post-suspension phase of George's reign, Kraft has been the one to soften Belichick's rough edges, accept his quirks and give him the requisite space to lead as he sees fit. Kraft saved the Patriots from moving to St. Louis in the 1990s and then found his sweet spot as an owner after feuding unnecessarily with former coach Bill Parcells. Steinbrenner could be an obstacle between the Yanks and winning. But for the Patriots, two years ago, when Kraft marched into New England's first Super Bowl news conference and set a defiant and helpful Deflategate tone for the week, Kraft removed an obstacle between the Patriots and ring No. 4. Edge: Patriots
 
(ESPN.com)

This Was A Cool Moment

f. Visual of the day, and maybe of the season: Eagles tight end Zach Ertz making a diving touchdown catch against Dallas at Lincoln Financial Field, getting up and celebrating with his teammates. He gives the ball to Carson Wentz, who finds American League MVP and Eagles season-ticket holder Mike Trout in the end zone seats and hands Trout the ball.

(MMQB.SI.com)

And You Wonder Why Soccer Is The #1 Sport Worldwide

(CavemanCircus.com)

You Won't Believe Who This Is

Macho Man Randy Savage’s baseball card from when he was on the Reds…”Improved his swing by dropping his elbow” 

(CavemanCircus.com)

1st Pitches, Good & Bad, Illustrated

(CavemanCircus.com)

A Tribute To The Man With The Voice

The Man. The Voice. The Stories. 

Vin Scully has been broadcasting Dodgers games for 67 seasons. As he signs off this year, Jon Miller, Bud Selig, Bob Costas and 20 other colleagues and friends reflect on why a career like Scully's won't happen again.

He has been as much a presence over these last 67 years as the afternoon sunshine and the sparkling stars that hover above the broadcast booths where he has spun his magical tales. So how are we supposed to comprehend life after Vin, life after baseball's most iconic voice exits the booth for the last time on the first Sunday in October?

(ESPN.com)

Why I Read MMQB Religiously #2

h. One other football connection to that Aaron home run. Al Downing of the Dodgers threw the pitch. In New Jersey American Legion baseball more than a half-century ago, in a game in Trenton, Downing gave up two home runs to a northern New Jersey baseball prospect … Bill Parcells.

(MMQB.SI.com)

Why I Read MMQB Religiously #1

“I’m not blowing smoke … Everybody we touch gets better.” —Tom House, the off-season quarterback tutor and mechanics coach for 13 projected NFL starting quarterbacks this year, to Albert Breer of The MMQB, in a video story we’ll post this week on this site. I’ve seen it, and it’s a really good, insightful look at the Brees/Brady-whisperer in SoCal. Football quiz of the week: House pitched for eight big-league seasons in the ’70s as a reliever. He was 29-23 in a nondescript career for Atlanta, Seattle and Boston. But he is most famous for a catch he made in 1974. What, far and away, is Tom House most famous for? (Answer below in No. 10 of 10 Things I Think.)

g. Answer to Tom House quiz. (See Quote of the Week II.) On April 8, 1974, House was in the Atlanta bullpen when teammate Hank Aaron came to the plate against the Dodgers. At that moment, Aaron and Babe Ruth were tied for the all-time home-run lead, with 714 homers. Aaron hit a home run over the left-centerfield fence—and the ball fell right into the glove of House. Yes, Tom House, a relief pitcher, caught one of the most famous home runs (maybe the most famous home run) of all time.

(MMQB.SI.com)