Stephen Strasburg finally made his Major League debut in spring training yesterday and he was everything that the Nationals could have hoped he would be in two innings. After receiving 15 M$ before ever throwing a pitch, you’d certainly hope he was amazing, but will he make the starting rotation?
His first two innings had two strikeouts, two hits, and no earned runs, making him somewhat of an oddity on a Nationals pitching staff that averages an over 10.00 ERA so far in spring training. Strasburg’s fastball was in the 96-98 MPH range over the 27 pitches he threw, with a few changeups around 91 and a wicked 81 MPH breaking ball. The man seems like he can pitch so far, but we’ll have to see how he does over the rest of spring training.
The question of whether or not he will make the opening day roster is not so cut and dry as whether or not he succeeds during spring training. There’s also the question of whether or not he needs more minor league experience to keep from burning out and the more important question of his contract. The way that baseball works is that once a player enters a full MLB level roster, his service clock toward free agency begins. Will the Nats try and wait him out so that they can have guaranteed control over him for longer? Can they afford to do that with the way they played last season? Who would come and fill the seats if they knew that Strasburg was being greedily held in AAA to save money?
In any case, the man’s only thrown 27 major league pitches, but I find myself buying into the hype. I’m pumped for this season. Hopefully I won’t have to watch such painfully bad baseball this year.
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I don’t have any kids. This is actually a great thing for a guy in my position (24, single) and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The only time that I ever wish I did is when baseball season rolls around each year. I don’t know why, but there’s something about the game that makes me want to bring youngsters to the ballpark to take in the beauty of the sport.
It’s not like going to my first baseball game was a religious experience to me or anything, but I can remember the first time I took in a game at Joe Robbie Stadium (as it was named then) back in 1993, wide-eyed and seven years old. The Marlins were a new team in the MLB, I was playing my second or third year of baseball, and it was glorious. Joe Robbie’s seats were (and still are) orange, the sun was bright and hot, and I forever fell in love with a team dressed in teal. Throughout the years I remember going back to the stadium a few times with my dad, uncle, and even my little league baseball team, but I haven’t been to see the Marlins at home since 1998.
The team no longer wears teal, the stadium has changed names more times than any reasonable stadium should, and my family doesn’t even live in Miami anymore. Eric, David, and I are all in our twenties. Neither Dave, Eric, nor my parents care about baseball at all, but there is hope. My parents adopted three children and I’m sure that Eric will produce a child any day now. The next generation is coming and I have a chance to bring the American past-time to them.
There was a longstanding rule in my household that us children had to play a sport to keep busy and physically fit throughout the year. Like good Cuban boys, Eric, David, and I all started out playing baseball, but I’m the only one who really stuck with it. The new kids are getting to that age where it makes sense to start them up with some sports, but I’m wondering if they’ll end up trying their hand at the great game. More than that, I wonder what I can do to encourage it.
Given their age, it would be suicidal to try and take them to a Rays game, especially as a unit. The three of them wouldn’t be able to sit through one at-bat, much less an entire inning. The best thing to do, I think, would be to try and play catch with them instead or perhaps watch some baseball on the television with them. Chances are they’ll get bored partway through the game, but the seed will be planted. I already know they like playing catch and, honestly, what kid could resist trying to beat a ball with a club anyway, so it should be pretty easy, provided my parents start to enroll them in baseball teams, to build up a love for the game.
Of course, if I fail at it with this batch of kids, I’ve always got those future nephews or nieces to try on or, god forbid for many years to come, my own children.
The Olympic ice hockey gold medal match was a while ago (on Sunday) and it was a super-exciting game, even with its disappointing ending.
Despite owning the first seed coming into the competition, Canada was the clear favorite for the match thanks to its greater star power and skill and the added motivation of bringing home the gold on their own turf. Team USA put up a valiant effort with their squad, but just couldn’t get it done.
Canada put themselves up by one in the first period, establishing their game early when both teams were still playing extra strong, but surprisingly only added one more in the second when they had clear domination over the ice. The US squad was able to add one to their score, but were still trailing going into the third. Canada continued their domination in the third, letting up only every so often for the US squad to attack, but Team USA was unable to notch their second goal until they only had 24 seconds left thanks to an extra man on the ice.
The game was lost in the first OT when netminder Ryan Miller batted away a shot to the boards that was recovered by the Canadian offense and passed out to a strangely open Sidney Crosby who launched the puck between Miller’s legs.
Like the title says, it was the greatest hockey game I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t without some very painful moments. The US team was definitely not as polished as the Canadians. All of our goals were a result of Roberto Luongo having an off night. He just couldn’t get his glove closed to reign in some of the rebounds and we made him pay for it. Canadian goals almost all came from sloppy US play. From Miller not properly clearing the puck in OT to the second period goal that resulted from a turnover in the corner, Team USA was just not as fundamentally sound as Canada. Worse still was our power play unit, which could barely hold the puck in Canadian territory and got maybe 4 shots on goal over three power plays.
Miller’s goaltending was fantastic as was our penalty kill, which successfully defended two (was it three? can’t remember) Canadian power plays. The offense wasn’t terrible, but they just couldn’t match the Canadian defenders.
It was a great game and it’s really got me pumped for the rest of the NHL season. Now I’m really hoping that it comes down to the Penguins and Capitals again at some point this year so that I can watch Crosby’s team get destroyed and lose their chance at the Stanley Cup.
EDIT: Totally forgot to mention! Spring Training MLB games start today! They’ve been going on in the NPB for a while now! Baseball is ALMOST BACK!
Would it be appropriate for me to take credit for US Olympic dominance in these games thanks to my little pep talk last week? As I write this post, the US is ahead in medal count with 26 over Germany’s 23 and tied for most golds (with Germany) with 7. All we’ve got to do is hold steady and we’ve got this Olympics in the bag.
Men’s Ice Hockey made some major strides in the pool play rounds by going undefeated and even beating Team Canada earning themselves the first seed in the playoff tournament. Their first game will be against a Swiss squad they already beat pretty soundly, which means we’re more or less set for the round and to at least compete for the bronze medal. Poor Canada, who plays their first game tonight, has to beat Germany and then Russia to even have a chance at the bronze. They’ve got quite the uphill climb. I almost hope they do get to the finals to play one last time against the USA only to be crushed underneath our skates for the gold on their home turf. A guy can dream, right?
USA! USA! USA!
The 2010 Winter Olympics are upon us, which means almost nothing to a great portion of the US population, but gets me all riled up about Team USA and Olympic gold. I’m not super big on the vast majority of the sports that are part of either Olympic games, but I am pumped for ice hockey and seeing the US win, so I’m excited anyway.
We kicked off our 2010 Olympic ice hockey campaign this afternoon with a 3-1 victory over Switzerland in what seems like a fairly easy win. Our next opponent is Norway on the 18th followed by Canada on the 21st. I have no idea how good Norway is, but I know we’ve got to look out for Canada. A loss here doesn’t mean too much (unless we lose twice), but Canada will definitely be there to dog us once pool play ends.
In other Olympic news, Canada finally went and earned themselves a gold medal in a self-hosted Olympic games, which is kind of a bummer. I’m a fan of any losing streak and I was seriously pulling for the streak to continue.
Sorry I don’t have all that much to say about the Olympics, but I haven’t seen all that much. I know that we got rocked by Team China in pairs figure skating (and that annoyed me to no end), but I haven’t been keeping tabs too well since then. As of right now we’re not even first in medal count (Germany is ahead with France trailing by one), but I know we’ll turn things around and get ourselves back on top.
Trust me, it was more exciting than the score lets on.
Well I really didn’t care one way or the other, but the New Orleans Saints managed to come back from a 10 point deficit in the second half and put this Super Bowl away. It’s insane to see Peyton Manning play a game that’s short of perfect in any way, but his second half just didn’t stand up to the Saints offense.
I didn’t have much invested in the game, but my friend Kim is originally from New Orleans and she was in the state for a wedding rooting for them, so I had to join her in rooting for (luckily) the winning team. Of course, I missed out on being able to talk about the game with the guys around the cooler thanks to this ridiculous snow, but that’s a story for another day.
We’re at less than a month before baseball spring training starts in both leagues. I can barely contain my excitement, but, until then, I’ve been following the Capitals who are on a huge win streak somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 games or so. It’s great because I’ve got coworkers who are penguins fans and I get to tease them every time the Caps win and the Pens lose. I’ll even get to joke about the Pens losing to the Caps, assuming I’m ever able to get back into work after all this snow…
This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen, yet I can’t stop watching. Wow…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably already know that the teams in the Super Bowl this year are the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. If you’re me, you probably already don’t care one bit about this. They’re teams I have no allegiance to and no interest in. The only minor reason why I might root for the Saints is because I have a friend who’s originally from Louisiana. Otherwise, don’t care.
In more awesome news, the Capitals are keeping the streak alive. If I’m not mistaken, the team is at 11 straight wins, which is just fantastic for a team that was near the bottom of the league in skill just a few years ago. The big test will come on 7 Feb. On that night the Capitals will go up against the Penguins who no doubt will be looking to knock them off of their perch. For my sake, please don’t lose Washington. I have a rep to protect at work and I’ve been riding high mocking my Penguin fan co-workers. A loss would only set me back.
After being slammed by the players and owners year after year, the Marlins have finally started to buckle and spend a lot more for their personnel. You can partially thank the finalization of the stadium deal for this renewed vigor, of course, but the benefit is the same no matter what the source of this change is: actual spending on player talent.
That’s why, for the first time in years, the Marlins have actually entered a season looking to capitalize on the previous year’s success with a squad that mirrors the year before. Josh Johnson, one of the ace pitchers of the NL, has been offered a 4-year contract worth $39 million and Dan Uggla will not be traded at this point in the year either. It’s looking like the core producers will still be around.
On the cheaper side of the fence, the rookie-of-the-year performance by Chris Coghlan last season will hopefully begin to motivate the other up-and-coming stars, Cameron Maybin, Gaby Sanchez, and Logan Morrison, to get their act together and begin to produce at a professional level. It’s not great to have a team that’s 100% young, but the Marlins need to bring at least two of them up to cover holes at first and in the outfield. Good luck to you, rookies.
Other than that, it’ll just be a question of whether or not the Marlins rotation will produce consistent wins. Headed by Johnson, hopefully it will.
Just got home from the Capitals vs. Red Wings game down at the Verizon Center. It was my first time down there, so here are some impressions:
-I really hate DC’s Chinatown. It’s the most Americanized Chinatown I’ve ever seen and it’s an absolutely terrible venue for ice hockey/basketball. There’s just no character to it. It’s too corporate! -The Verizon Center is pretty mediocre. Not a lot of character because it’s shared between the Caps and Wizards, but it filled up nicely. -The Caps came out in the first period looking pretty sluggish, but they picked it up a bit in the second and third to come back from deficits and eventually pull ahead. -No beer once the third period starts?! Really?! -I miss Cornell ice hockey…
In keeping with the musical theme of the week, I’d also like to say a few words about music at sporting events. Your mileage may vary, but I’m putting all my support behind ice hockey as the best sport for music. Baseball keeps it way safe with classic tunes that are family friendly, basketball plays hip hop, R&B, and rap, and football, well I don’t really know what they play, but I bet it’s a mix between baseball and basketball. Ice hockey wins because they get to play a lot of alternative and classic rock. Great stuff.
Sorry for the brief update, but that’s what I’ve got today! It’s not baseball season, so be glad I’ve got anything to say about sports.
EDIT: Proofing errors corrected.
Can you figure out which picture was taken was before he started taking steroids?
To absolutely nobody’s surprise, Mark McGwire admitted on Monday that he used steroids back when he played in the ’90s. Regular readers of this blog already know how I feel about the Steroid Era in baseball, so I won’t bore you with my indignation and anger, but it’s a real shame that we’re seeing yet another big player admit to cheating the system.
I’m going to keep this brief: the Hall of Fame voters need to think and decide to do one of two things.
1. Not elect anyone from the steroid era (or, if they want to be softer, anyone who has steroid suspicions, but that’s hazier)
2. Take a firm, formal stance on how they feel about actively cheating the system and adopt an asterisk policy for confirmed users to mark that their records are not all natural.
Those are the two best ideas I’ve got on the matter.
