By Blaidd Drwg
Jim Caple of ESPN.com recently wrote a piece, which, among other things had a list of reasons why baseball is better than football. Here are some of the better points:
2. The world’s game: This week the Mariners called up Alex Liddi, the first major leaguer born and raised in Italy. He wasn’t their first European this season, either — that distinction went to Greg Halman, who grew up in the other Haarlem, in the Netherlands. So contrary to what the International Olympic Committee may think, baseball’s popularity is growing around the world. In fact, there currently are major leaguers who grew up playing baseball on five continents — North and South America, Australia, Asia and Europe — plus, there are minor leaguers from Africa. And of course, Manny Ramirez was from another planet.
Meanwhile, the NFL closed its European league four years ago. But at least fans across the Atlantic no longer have to worry about the owners blacking out non-sellout games on Radio Free Europe.
True on so many fronts, especially the comment about Manny Ramirez.
5. Fan relations: It never ceases to amaze me how shabbily the NFL treats its fans. Can’t afford a ticket? You’d better hope the rest of your city can, or the league will black out television coverage of a game played in the stadium you helped fund with your tax money. Have enough money for a season ticket? Well, before the team will sell you one, you’ll also probably have to buy equally priced tickets to meaningless exhibition games (and don’t get me started on personal seat licenses). Imagine if baseball teams required their season-ticket holders to buy tickets to every Cactus and Grapefruit League game as well. NFL fans should consider themselves lucky the league doesn’t require they attend two-a-days.
It is amazing that you have to pay full price as part of your season ticket package for 2 meaningless exhibition games which you may get to see your team’s starters for one quarter in each game, unless you were lucky enough to get to see the 4th preseason game this year in which most of the teams didn’t even play their starters. Then again, I will argue that I had to pay full price for my 6 meaningless September Mariners games as part of my season ticket package just to see the AAA Rainiers lineup they are currently running out there every day.
A few other fine snippets from the article:
BASEBALL CARD OF THE WEEK
Here’s the amazing thing about this card (1979 Topps No. 595): Even though Phil Niekro looks like Jamie Moyer’s crazy grandfather, what with the long gray-and-white hair as well as the warm-up jacket buttoned up to his neck, he was still in his 30s when it was released. He pitched for another eight years!
It never occurred to me, but he is right. Niekro did look like he was about 60 at that point. On the flip side, he looks pretty much the same now as he did back in 1979.
Jim has a box score of the week which I easily got as the Mike Scott no-hitter which clinched the NL West for the Astros in 1986. What I had forgotten was that this from the box score:
Rick Lancellotti PH
You are probably saying, “Who the hell is Rick Lancellotti?” Well, I will tell you. He was a terrible OF for the Padres, Giants and Red Sox who had the distinction of appearing in the majors in 3 different seasons each 4 years apart (1982, 1986 and 1990) and was out of baseball in the US between 1986 and 1990.
His career transactions look like this:
June 7, 1977: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 11th round of the 1977 amateur draft.
August 5, 1980: Traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates with Luis Salazar to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later and Kurt Bevacqua. The San Diego Padres sent Mark Lee (August 12, 1980) to the Pittsburgh Pirates to complete the trade.
October 7, 1982: Purchased by the Montreal Expos from the San Diego Padres.
May 30, 1983: Released by the Montreal Expos.
June 10, 1983: Signed as a Free Agent with the Texas Rangers.
July 26, 1983: Released by the Texas Rangers.
August 2, 1983: Signed as a Free Agent with the San Diego Padres.
March 31, 1985: Traded by the San Diego Padres to the New York Mets for Rusty Tillman.
July 31, 1985: Purchased by the San Francisco Giants from the New York Mets.
October 15, 1985: Granted Free Agency.
February 7, 1986: Signed as a Free Agent with the San Francisco Giants.
November 10, 1986: Released by the San Francisco Giants.
May 17, 1989: Signed as a Free Agent with the Boston Red Sox.
October 15, 1990: Granted Free Agency.
The guy had been around with a few teams, not counting stints in Japan, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Venezuela and the Senior Professional Baseball Association.
I Mean No Disrespect But … If we absolutely must demonstrate proper, dignified respect for our nation by playing a patriotic song before “Cotton Eyed Joe” (Yankees and Rangers), “Louie Louie” (Mariners), “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” (Orioles) and “Build Me Up Buttercup” (Angels), then why not occasionally mix in a more pleasing tune than Kate Smith bellowing “God Bless America” again? There is no song that makes you feel better about being an American than Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful.” There is no more empowering and inclusive song than “This Land is Your Land.” And it would be nice to hear them. …
I still don’t understand the need to play God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch. It really slows the game down and honestly, I hate the song. It was a nice thing to do for the remaining games in 2001 and was probably fine for the first couple of years in NY, but there is no reason why it couldn’t be done before the National Anthem. Either of the two songs he mentioned would be better choices anyway – besides when it comes to American icons, I would say Ray Charles and Woody Guthrie are more well-known than Kate Smith. Besides, how many people even knew who Kate Smith was before 2001?
FlatbreadGarden 