The MLB 2011 season thread

[|iR|Focalor]

I used to be kinda-sorta into baseball back in the 90's, but since it looks like there's an excellent chance we won't have a NFL 2011 season, I've been getting back into watching baseball lately. Yeah, it's not as exciting as football, but it's better than nothing. And I just can't really get into hockey, especially since my home team is the god damn Atlanta Thrashers who've really only had one good season in their entire history, and even that one was pretty anti-climactic.

I did manage to catch yesterdays game of Atlanta at Pittsburgh, which was actually a really good one. Score was 2 to 2 going into the bottom of the 9th inning, Pirates had one out and 2 men on 1st and 2nd. Atlanta decided to walk a third to load up all the bases and hopefully force 2 outs with a double play. Just BARELY made the double play to save the tie and send it into extra innings. Braves finally won it in the 11th with a 2 run homer.

Seems like an awful lot of these baseball players these days are fucking HUGE, every bit as big as NFL players. Games seemed like there was a lot more action back in the 80's and 90's. Not many plain old double and triple base hits anymore. They either pop a fly ball to an awaiting outfielder for an easy out or they smash it out of the park for a homerun.

[Krlll Mule]

Amazing athletes playing a grand game, but the last time they went on strike in the 90's (right before the world series?) I went on strike. I do not listen to, watch, read about, or care about scores/stats from any of their games since that time. Bye MLB for good. Supposedly, I was one of about 10% of fans who left and never came back. Don't do it NFL.....please don't do what baseball did.  You can all make money and give us plebes a needed diversion from the rat race of life. More on topic...MLB, Atlanta Braves....."frankly, I don't give a damn".

[|iR|Focalor]

Yeah, I feel ya on that. But like I said, there's nothing else to watch on TV since there's no football right now. I'll still watch college football on Saturdays even if the NFL does remained locked out come football season. That really really sucks too, there's a lot of the college players that I'd like to watch and see what they do this coming year. Tim Tebow might start at QB this year. Colt McCoy might get the QB job too. Mark Ingram coming into the NFL now, Cam Newton, Julio Jones, and a bunch of other promising players I could mention. Anyway, this ain't the NFL thread and I've already talked more about FOOTBALL than baseball, don't wanna get too far off topic.

I've been watching a little bit of the college baseball tournaments. I put 50 on Georgia Tech against NC State last night in the ACC tournament pool just out of boredom. Did a little research on them and found that they had beaten NC State in all the regular season meetings, so I felt pretty confident making that wager. Game was LOOOOOONG. Went 15 innings. Kinda weird that they use metal bats though. I'm not really sure what the difference is, but I'd think metal bats would be lighter, faster swinging, and easier to hit homers with.

Another reason why I find it easy to allow myself to watch baseball again for my summer sports fix... they play games just about every single day. Always a game on. Gotta love that.

[Sgt. Dick]

but I'd think metal bats would be lighter, faster swinging, and easier to hit homers with.

You nailed it on the metal bats, that why they are not allowed in MLB.

I used to watch a lot of MLB when I was a kid.  Atlanta was my team and still is even though I don't follow baseball near as much anymore.  Once the Florida Marlins became a major league team, Atlanta games were not shown in Florida anymore    I guess they thought by making it difficult to follow Atlanta, people would start to support the Florida team.  Never happened for me, it just pissed me off.

I have been watching some of the college softball.  Every team has some big brute women, but some of the women look good.   

[Krlll Mule]

I do enjoy college baseball.  Crazy stuff can happen in a college game like 5 run come-from-behind 9th innings, silly errors, etc. The SEC always seems to have a team or two in the CWS and that keeps me interested.  No more hijack posts from me.....

[[2c.Nebulous]]

Baltimore Orioles. Not interesting.

[|iR|Focalor]

Well it's the middle of the season. Still shitloads of ball to play. Nobody's really pulling away at this point. On a weird note, the Cleveland Indians are actually doing decent for once. I think they're leading their division for once in a LOOOOONG time. I think the last time that happened... Charlie Sheen was pitching for them.

[Sgt. Dick]

I think the last time that happened... Charlie Sheen was pitching for them.

 

[|iR|Focalor]

I'm serious man. Major League and Major League 2 came out in the late 80's/early 90's. Pretty sure they weren't anywhere near winning a pennant in those years or any years since. I think you have to go back to the 1920's to find the last time they were able to compete for anything.

edit: I take that back. They won a world series in 1948, and apparently they won the AL pennant in 95 and 97.

[Sgt. Dick]

I was going to look that up, because I remember them being pretty good for a couple of years when they had players like Albert Belle, and one if not both of the Alomar brothers.  Probably some other good players but I would have to look that info up.

[|iR|Focalor]

but I'd think metal bats would be lighter, faster swinging, and easier to hit homers with.

You nailed it on the metal bats, that why they are not allowed in MLB.

I used to watch a lot of MLB when I was a kid.  Atlanta was my team and still is even though I don't follow baseball near as much anymore.  Once the Florida Marlins became a major league team, Atlanta games were not shown in Florida anymore    I guess they thought by making it difficult to follow Atlanta, people would start to support the Florida team.  Never happened for me, it just pissed me off.

I have been watching some of the college softball.  Every team has some big brute women, but some of the women look good.   

I think you should be able to catch a few Braves games middle of next week. They're up in New York for a 3 game series against the Mets starting tonight, then starting Tuesday they have a 3 game series at Florida, all of em starting around 7pm. I dunno if you get SportsSouth where you live, but that'd probably be the channel. The way the Braves have been batting lately, I'd say Florida has a pretty good chance to win all 3. We just got done with a 3 game series against San Diego Padres and just barely won the last one out of the 3 by a tiny cunt hair.

[Sgt. Dick]

Yea, since they are playing Florida they will be on TV. 

They are doing decent so far 31-26, but with the Phillies so stacked they are probably playing for the wildcard.
Florida is ahead of them in the standings so this series is very important.  If they can step it up the next few games they can move into second and more importantly first in the wildcard standings.

[|iR|Focalor]

First of all, I'm a little liquored up right now for the first time in a while. I went out to the local pub tonight and knocked back my fair share of screwdrivers in celebration of Chipper Jones's's home run tonight. He's one of the only OG Braves still on the team or even still in MLB from the old days, so it's kinda a big thing to see his grey old ass hit a homer, much less one as HUGELY impressive as the one hit tonight in the Mets stadium. According to the announcers covering the game via SportsSouth Atlanta, no one in Mets stadium has EVER seen a homer hit that far out before. Like I said, I don't think ANYONE from the old days when I used to watch the Braves is still playing, so it's great to see a veteran like him still knocking em out of the field. Something I probably won't see again for the rest of the year, so please allow me this one night to wallow in his glorious achievement.

I dunno what the Marlins are all about yet, but it'll definitely be interesting to find out. As far as I can tell, Atlanta is pretty middle of the road with all the injuries they've sustained in the early part of the season. Hell, just tonight our new and VERY promising center fielder (Jordan Shaefer) fresh out the AAA league a mere 2 or 3 weeks managed to nail himself in the face with a bunted ball. Shit glanced off the top of the bat and nailed him almost in the eye. Last I heard on the TV, they were carting him to the hospital for X-rays. Hopefully he'll be fine. At this point with everyone on the Braves roster with injuries, he was one of the only ones really playing well. He was getting hits for bases and making great plays at his centerfield position. which was a little helpful considering our shortstop Alex Gonzalez has been playing like a fucking incompetent moron lately. But luckily the Braves had a decent night at the plate tonight and pulled out some late inning homers against New York. First 2 games of June are W's, a good way to start off the month. I didn't expect tonight to be a W at all, especially after Jordan Shaefer being hit in the face. Hopefully they can continue to get lucky against the Mets, the rest of this month looks like a bitch.

[Sgt. Dick]

Please allow me this one night to wallow in his glorious achievement.

 

[|iR|Focalor]

Hey, Sgt Dickiedoo, do me a BIG favor please. When the Braves come down to Florida this Tuesday, please tell your pitchers to aim their fastest 4 seam fastballs right at Braves SS Alex Gonzalez's head. Maybe if he's out with a serious injury long enough, we can start actually winning some fucking games. They had it scoreless until the bottom of the 7th when Gonzalez picked up a grounder rolling past the left side of 2nd base and missed tossing it from his glove to his throwing hand, allowing the batter to make it to 1st. I was saying to myself all game long up until that point, "Okay. WHEN will Gonzalez fuck something up that will lead to us losing this game?" And sure enough, THAT boneheaded fucked up fielding was the match that lit the fire. Next guy up, Jurrjens grazed him with a pitch and automatically walked him. Another guy knocks one to the right outfield corner and brought one run in. Then they switch to a relief pitcher and he allows 4 more runs to come home. After that inning, shit went back to same old same old, no hits or runs from anyone. Braves lose 5 to 0. 

So PLEASE... tell em to ping one off his temple. Hell, kill him with it if you want. I won't feel guilty. I'll sleep like a baby.