Youth Baseball Parks Blog

pa href=”http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-bbnotes1030,0,5736180.story?track=rss”The Brewers hired Ken Macha as manager today/a:/p

blockquoteThe 58-year-old Macha, who managed Oakland to a pair of American League West titles, agreed to a two-year contract. He replaces Sveum, who became interim manager when Ned Yost was fired with 12 games left in the regular season.

p”It means a tremendous amount to me,” Macha said. “The players are the guys that go out there and win or lose the games for you, and I think the job of a manager and a coach is to get these players as prepared as you possibly can.”/blockquote/p

pMacha is famous for being fired and rehired by the Athletics between the 2005 and 2006 seasons. a href=”http://www.brewcrewball.com/2008/10/30/650107/brewers-to-name-macha-mana”Jeff Sackman at Brew Crew Ball is happy/a:/p

blockquotef the three finalists, Macha is by far my favorite. We may have been able to do better, but if we’re choosing only from experienced big-league managers with recent success, there aren’t many guys I’d rather have./blockquote

pKen inherits a good group of hitters, but with both Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia possibly leaving, he’ll need to depend on young pitchers developing quickly to keep the team in contention.br /
/p

br /a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F030014.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-31%2000%3A11%3A34amp;itemTitle=Macha%2C%20Macha%2C%20Man%28ager%29″img border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F030014.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-31%2000%3A11%3A34amp;itemTitle=Macha%2C%20Macha%2C%20Man%28ager%29″ //adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=0pjKM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=0pjKM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=soIDM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=soIDM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=UWWUm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=UWWUm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=ogkhM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=ogkhM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=54c4m”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=54c4m” border=”0″/img/a
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Source:Macha, Macha, Man(ager)

pDavid Price comes on to pitch the bottom of the eighth for the Rays. Can he keep the Phillies off the board?/p

pbUpdate/b: Rollins flies out to left./p

pbUpdate/b: Werth strikes out looking./p

pbUpdate/b: Price walks Utley on a 3-2 count./p

pbUpdate/b: Utley steals second, and the count on Howard is now 3-1./p

pbUpdate/b: Howard strikes out swinging. The Rays hope now rests on Brad Lidge blowing his first save of the season./p

br /a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F030004.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-30%2002%3A36%3A25amp;itemTitle=Will%20Price%20be%20Right%3F”img border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F030004.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-30%2002%3A36%3A25amp;itemTitle=Will%20Price%20be%20Right%3F” //adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=byFUM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=byFUM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=l9zLM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=l9zLM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=a7ADm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=a7ADm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=k082M”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=k082M” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=IU6lm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=IU6lm” border=”0″/img/a
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Source:Will Price be Right?

pCharlie Manuel does the same thing, letting Romero bat so he can pitch the next inning. Crawford lines a single up the middle on a 3-2 pitch. Upton, however, hits the first pitch for a GDP and there are two out in the inning./p

pbUpdate/b: Pena flies out to left, and the Phillies are three outs away from winning the World Series!/p

br /a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F030003.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-30%2002%3A28%3A43amp;itemTitle=Crawford%20Liner”img border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F030003.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-30%2002%3A28%3A43amp;itemTitle=Crawford%20Liner” //adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=m8iRM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=m8iRM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=N3k1M”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=N3k1M” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=TnDwm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=TnDwm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=DoFPM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=DoFPM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=wDNRm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=wDNRm” border=”0″/img/a
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Source:Crawford Liner

The drama surrounding Ken Griffey Jr.'s #600 ball continues!
Meanwhile, I quietly cherish my special baseball: an official game ball from the 1992 World Series!
 
Unfortunately, I have no information about the history of this ball, but I assume it was a foul ball and not a home run. I have no idea which team hit [...]

Source:I don't have Griffey's ball, but I do have this

pa href=”http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/la-sp-seriesfyi29-2008oct29,0,59934.story”You have to love the relationship between Fox and MLB/a./p

blockquoteCommissioner Bud Selig calls himself a traditionalist. He would love to play one World Series game during the afternoon, he says, but television says no./blockquote

pOf, course, that’s not what Fox paid for. If Selig wants a day game, he should write that into the next TV deal, and accept the best bid for that package. I don’t blame Fox at all for not moving games. They paid for night games, they should get night games./p

pEd Goren, however, doesn’t set the right tone with this:/p

blockquoteWith sports broadcasts increasingly concentrated on cable television, Goren said fans should appreciate the World Series on Fox, whatever the hour.

p”The viewers have a wonderful bargain,” he said. “Turn on the TV — for free — watch some commercials and enjoy yourself.”/blockquote/p

pI sure bosses who go around waking up their sleeping workers really appreciate that. :-)/p

br /a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F029995.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-29%2021%3A09%3A38amp;itemTitle=Day%20Games”img border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F029995.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-29%2021%3A09%3A38amp;itemTitle=Day%20Games” //adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=4NEgM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=4NEgM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=XF8MM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=XF8MM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=cF2Pm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=cF2Pm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=c8HvM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=c8HvM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=qPhem”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=qPhem” border=”0″/img/a
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Source:Day Games

pCole Hamels takes home the award for the World Series Most Valuable Player. Cole probably deserves it for the entire playoffs. Only a Baldelli home run prevented him from going 5-0. He thanks the fans for coming out in the rain and supporting him, helping through that game. That will endear him to the Philadelphia fans for a long time. Nice job by Cole, and a great post season./p

br /a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F030007.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-30%2003%3A15%3A40amp;itemTitle=Hamels%20MVP”img border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F030007.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-30%2003%3A15%3A40amp;itemTitle=Hamels%20MVP” //adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=l8IuM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=l8IuM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=M4cIM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=M4cIM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=wTIam”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=wTIam” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=ev0vM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=ev0vM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=xMCIm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=xMCIm” border=”0″/img/a
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Source:Hamels MVP

pDavid S. Cohen at The Good Phight a href=”http://www.thegoodphight.com/2008/10/28/648057/the-people-who-run-citizen”is rightly critical of the people running the ballpark Monday night/a:/p

blockquoteWith all the modern technology at the stadium, couldn’t someone have explained to the fans who sat through the rain delay what the situation was? What the possibilities were? What the forecast was? How long they were thinking of waiting? No announcements were made, and fans were left playing whisper-down-the-lane and guessing what to do in the horrible weather and how long we were going to be left there.

pAnd we were left there for about an hour with absolutely no entertainment. The jumbotron (or whatever they call it these days) featured a spinning Phillies World Series emblem the entire time. No season flashbacks. No 1980 video. No weather radar. Hell, I’m sure everyone there would have loved watching an episode of Two and a Half Men (ok, maybe not). Anything to take our minds off the fact that we were cold, wet, and potentially being screwed out of our first World Series championship in 28 years./blockquote/p

pYes, an extended announcement, or even a message on the scoreboard would have helped. I received an email this morning from another person complaining about how poorly the fans were treated last night./p

br /a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F029977.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-28%2016%3A14%3A24amp;itemTitle=Leaving%20the%20Fans%20in%20the%20Rain”img border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F029977.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-28%2016%3A14%3A24amp;itemTitle=Leaving%20the%20Fans%20in%20the%20Rain” //adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=IQ9dM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=IQ9dM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=rL4VM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=rL4VM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=18vBm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=18vBm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=drE1M”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=drE1M” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=6ZyBm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=6ZyBm” border=”0″/img/a
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Source:Leaving the Fans in the Rain

pJust in case you thought the pitch calling by the umpire was bad in game 5, a href=”http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/10/28/648274/mlb-needs-robots-to-call-s”Beyond the Boxscore offeres proof/a. I for one, welcome our new robot umpires./p

pIt strikes me that there should be some electronic way to determine if the ball crossed the plate. Either a transponder or a local GPS system. It would then be up to the umpire to call the ball high or low. That’s the tough call, because every batter has a different strike zone based on height and stance. Take away one dimension from the umpire, and you make their job a bit easier./p

br /a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F029980.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-28%2016%3A59%3A31amp;itemTitle=Balls%20in%20the%20Strike%20Zone”img border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F029980.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-28%2016%3A59%3A31amp;itemTitle=Balls%20in%20the%20Strike%20Zone” //adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=8plzM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=8plzM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=hvO0M”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=hvO0M” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=HvlWm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=HvlWm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=R7YbM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=R7YbM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=0ARpm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=0ARpm” border=”0″/img/a
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Source:Balls in the Strike Zone

pa href=”http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3669856campaign=rsssource=MLBHeadlines”Two Oakland Athletics players underwent surgery last Friday/a, Daric Barton and Greg Smith./p

br /a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F029988.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-29%2003%3A48%3A44amp;itemTitle=A%27s%20Under%20the%20Knife”img border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?feedUrl=http%3A//www.baseballmusings.com/index.rdfamp;itemLink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baseballmusings.com%2Farchives%2F029988.phpamp;itemDate=2008-10-29%2003%3A48%3A44amp;itemTitle=A%27s%20Under%20the%20Knife” //adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=9cI5M”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=9cI5M” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=oSzAM”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=oSzAM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=gYXRm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=gYXRm” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=B9m9M”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=B9m9M” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?a=8JJVm”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/baseballmusings/Lvrp?i=8JJVm” border=”0″/img/a
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Source:A's Under the Knife

Anyone who's listened to baseball for any length of time has surely heard the term, "five tool player." The general consensus these days is that the title is bestowed all too frequently—diluting its meaning—and that so-called five tool players are overvalued.
What exactly is a five tool player?
A player who excels at the following is considered [...]

Source:Who are 2008's five tool players?